Benin staged local elections minus key opposition parties on Sunday with authorities pushing ahead despite the coronavirus threat and calls for a delay. The West African nation of 11 million this week lifted a raft of restrictions aimed at halting the spread of the virus. COVID-19 has caused 339 confirmed infections and two deaths in the […]

UK on Sunday reported 170 more coronavirus deaths — its lowest number since late March, when lockdown restrictions were introduced, although the figures from Northern Ireland were not included. Prime Minister Boris Johnson meanwhile acknowledged public frustration with the restrictions imposed to fight the virus. The coronavirus deaths take the UK government’s official rolling tally […]

A Somali governor and three bodyguards were killed in a suicide attack claimed by the Al-Shabaab jihadist group in the regional capital of Galkayo on Sunday, a security official said. The Al-Shabaab attacker rammed a scooter taxi into a car carrying Ahmed Muse Nur, the Somali’s governor of the north-central Mudug province, and his security […]

Israel’s army on Sunday shot and wounded someone who illegally entered the country across the closely-guarded Lebanon’s border, the military said. “A short while ago… troops spotted a suspect who crossed the Blue Line from Lebanon into Israeli territory,” it said in a statement, referring to the UN-demarcated borderline. “The suspect was injured from (army) […]

China’s ambassador to Israel, Du Wei, was found dead at his residence on the outskirts of Tel Aviv on Sunday, police said. The 57-year-old envoy, who had arrived in Israel in mid-February, was found dead in his home in Herzliya, north of the city, spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP, adding that police were investigating. Du’s […]