INTERNATIONAL

An office for Nigeria’s election commission has been burned down just six days before the country is due to vote in a general election. The fire in Plateau State has destroyed everything needed to vote, including ballot boxes and voting slips. A spokesperson called it a setback for the preparations for the election but is quoted in This Day as ...

Tens of thousands gathered in Madrid for a protest by right-wing parties opposed to a Spanish government plan to ease tension in the Catalonia region. The centre-right Popular Party (PP) and Ciudadanos (Citizens) say Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s plan to appoint an intermediary for talks with separatists amounts to treason. The separatists have rejected the offer – they want a ...

The Trump administration has refused to respond to a request from Congress to provide a report determining who killed the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Senators wrote in October demanding the murder be investigated and that the White House give more information. An administration official said the president was within his rights to decline to act. Khashoggi was killed after entering ...

The party that nominated a Thai princess to run for PM has said it will comply with the king’s wishes after he opposed the move. The Thai Raksa Chart party is allied to divisive former PM Thaksin Shinawatra. On Friday Thai King Vajiralongkorn denounced as inappropriate his sister Princess Ubolratana Mahidol’s unprecedented bid for political power. The candidacy would have ...

The world’s richest man, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, has accused the National Enquirer’s owner of trying to blackmail him over lewd pictures. Mr Bezos said the magazine’s parent company American Media Inc (AMI) wanted him to drop an investigation into how it obtained his private messages. Mr Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie, said last month they were getting divorced. Their ...

Theresa May will return to Brussels later to press EU leaders for legally binding changes to the Brexit deal. The PM will insist the UK will not be “trapped” in the backstop – the plan to avoid the return of Irish border checks should no UK-EU trade deal be in place. She will say the deal must change if it ...

US President Donald Trump has announced in his State of the Union speech that he will hold a second nuclear summit with North Korea’s leader this month. In an address to the nation with the theme “Choosing Greatness”, he vowed once again to build a border wall. While appealing for political unity, the Republican president also said “ridiculous partisan investigations” ...

Two Russians have been detained in Malaysia over a street act which involved swinging their baby by the legs and throwing it up into the air. The pair are being questioned over alleged abuse of the infant, police told news agency AFP. A video of one of their performances has gone viral over the past days, prompting the police to ...

A self-styled prophet who claimed to have found a herbal remedy for HIV and other illnesses has been found guilty of breaking the law, Zimbabwe’s NewsDay website reports. Walter Magaya, 35, now awaits sentencing later today for contravening the Medicines Control Act, the news site adds . In October, police raided Magaya’s offices to take away samples of the alleged ...

Ten people including a baby have died in a fire at an eight-storey building in south-western Paris, fire service officials say. More than 30 people – including six firefighters – were injured. One person is in a serious condition. Fifty people were evacuated by ladders from the blaze in the upmarket 16th disfranchisement. The Paris prosecutor says it may have ...