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Macron welcomes Nigerian president in first state visit since 2000

Macron welcomes Nigerian president in first state visit since 2000
France’s President Emmanuel Macron and his Nigerian counterpart Bola Tinubu. (Reuters)
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Updated 28 November 2024

Macron welcomes Nigerian president in first state visit since 2000

Macron welcomes Nigerian president in first state visit since 2000
  • Trip will focus on economic partnerships between France and Africa’s most populous country

PARIS: Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Thursday began a two-day visit to France, with both sides seeking increased economic cooperation and Paris looking to boost ties in English-speaking Africa following a series of setbacks with former allies on the continent.

French President Emmanuel Macron greeted his counterpart at the historic Invalides memorial complex, with the first official state visit by a Nigerian leader in more than two
decades.
The two national anthems rang out in the courtyard of one of Paris’ landmarks, kicking off a visit focused on encouraging economic partnerships between France and Africa’s most populous country.
Macron has sought a “renewal” between Paris and Africa since his 2017 election and after military coups and changing attitudes lessened France’s influence on the continent.
The trip is “an opportunity to deepen the already dynamic relationship between France and Nigeria,” Macron’s office said.
The west African country is the continent’s leading oil producer and has a robust film industry, dubbed “Nollywood.”
But challenges posed by insecurity and corruption have left 129 million Nigerians — more than half the country’s population — living
below the poverty line.
For Nigeria, which has been battling soaring inflation and food prices, the visit represents an opportunity to tap economic investment.
Nigeria was looking to build ties in “agriculture, security, education, health, youth engagement, innovation and energy transition,” Tinubu’s office said in a statement. He and Macron will also address “shared values concerning finance, solid minerals, trade and investment, and communication,” it added.


Bolivia votes in runoff election, marking pro-market shift and US embrace

Bolivia votes in runoff election, marking pro-market shift and US embrace
Updated 11 sec ago

Bolivia votes in runoff election, marking pro-market shift and US embrace

Bolivia votes in runoff election, marking pro-market shift and US embrace
  • The race pits centrist Senator Rodrigo Paz against conservative former president Jorge Quiroga
  • Runoff between two pro-market candidates from privileged backgrounds signals an epochal shift for Bolivia
LA PAZ: Bolivians vote in a presidential runoff on Sunday that marks a decisive rejection of the socialist government and a likely foreign policy shift closer to the United States after decades of frosty relations. The race pits centrist Senator Rodrigo Paz against conservative former president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga. Both candidates have pledged to strengthen diplomatic ties with Washington – strained since 2009 – and seek US-backed financial support to stabilize Bolivia’s fragile economy. The runoff between two pro-market candidates from privileged backgrounds signals an epochal shift for Bolivia, following two decades of dominance by the leftist Movement to Socialism party, founded by Evo Morales and once backed by the country’s Indigenous majority.
For some voters the finalists echo the conservative governments of the 1990s, which championed privatization and close relations with the United States. Morales, who took power in 2006 and was Bolivia’s first Indigenous leader, pursued alliances with Cuba, Venezuela and Russia, and nationalized the oil and gas industry.
“This election marks a political turning point,” said Glaeldys Gonzalez Calanche, analyst for the Southern Andes at International Crisis Group. Regardless of the outcome, “Bolivia is heading in a new direction,” she said.
Quiroga has promised “radical change,” including deep cuts to public spending and closing or privatizing loss-making state-owned companies. Paz favors a more gradual approach, maintaining social programs for the poor while promoting private-sector growth. Opinion polls show Quiroga with a narrow lead. A September Ipsos survey gave him 47 percent support to Paz’s 39 percent, though Paz outperformed expectations in the August first round.
Voting stations open at 8 a.m. local time (1200 GMT) and close at 4 p.m., with initial results expected after 9 p.m. The winner will take office on November 8.
Voters want economic change
Paz in late September announced plans for an economic cooperation deal worth $1.5 billion with US officials to ensure fuel supplies, while Quiroga is pushing for a $12 billion international bailout backed by multilateral lenders.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week that both presidential candidates “want stronger, better relations with the United States,” after decades of anti-American leadership. “This election is a transformative opportunity,” he said on Wednesday. Some Bolivians have voiced fears of austerity measures such as those seen in neighboring Argentina under President Javier Milei, though Paz has rejected drastic spending cuts and Quiroga insists his policies will benefit ordinary Bolivians. Support for the Movement to Socialism all but collapsed in the election’s first round.
Inflation has surged to 23 percent since the start of the year, while fuel and dollar shortages have crippled consumer demand. Natural gas exports – once Bolivia’s economic engine – have plummeted, straining the boliviano currency and limiting fuel imports.
In La Paz’s commercial district, appliance stores are shuttered and shops empty of customers. “There are months with zero sales,” said Mercedes Quisbert, head of the local Importers’ Association. Up until this year, shopkeepers and street-sellers had been just about managing to weather the crisis, she said – but not anymore.
Bolivia has one of Latin America’s highest rates of informal employment, with around 84 percent of the population working outside the formal labor market, according to official data. Millions rely on buying and selling goods to make a living.
“We’re basically surviving,” said Marcela Martinez, 52, as she compared prices at a market in La Paz. She was planning to vote for Paz on Sunday. “We need new people to come in.”

Japan’s LDP, Ishin agree to form coalition government, Kyodo says

Japan’s LDP, Ishin agree to form coalition government, Kyodo says
Updated 19 October 2025

Japan’s LDP, Ishin agree to form coalition government, Kyodo says

Japan’s LDP, Ishin agree to form coalition government, Kyodo says
  • Sanae Takaichi’s path to succeed Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba had seemed all but certain
  • But then the long-ruling LDP’s junior partner, Komeito, quit their 26-year coalition

TOKYO: Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party and the Japan Innovation Party have broadly agreed to form a coalition government, setting the stage for the country’s first female prime minister, Kyodo news agency reported on Sunday.
Sanae Takaichi, leader of the conservative LDP, and Hirofumi Yoshimura, head of the smaller right-leaning group, known as Ishin, are set to sign an agreement on their alliance on Monday, Kyodo said.
Calls to the LDP and Ishin headquarters to seek comment went unanswered outside business hours.
Ishin’s co-head, Fumitake Fujita, raised expectations for a deal on Friday, saying the two parties had made “big progress” in coalition talks.
Ishin lawmakers will vote for Takaichi in an election to choose the prime minister in parliament on Tuesday, but the party does not plan to send ministers to Takaichi’s cabinet initially, the news agency said.
Takaichi’s path to succeed Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba had seemed all but certain after she won her party’s presidency early this month. But then the long-ruling LDP’s junior partner, Komeito, quit their 26-year coalition, setting off a flurry of negotiations with rival parties to select the next premier.
In an effort to get Ishin on board, the LDP offered to keep working toward banning donations from companies and other organizations and exempting food items from Japan’s sales tax, Kyodo said.
Ishin has proposed eliminating the tax on food items for two years.


Tropical storm kills family of five as hits Philippines

Tropical storm kills family of five as hits Philippines
Updated 19 October 2025

Tropical storm kills family of five as hits Philippines

Tropical storm kills family of five as hits Philippines
  • The family, including two children aged two and 11 years old, were crushed to death when a tree fell on their house
  • Fengshen hovered over Manila Bay late morning Sunday with gusts of up to 90 kilometers an hour

MANILA: Tropical Storm Fengshen killed a family of five Sunday as it plowed across the Philippines’ main island Luzon, police and disaster officials said.
The family, including two children aged two and 11 years old, were crushed to death when a tree fell on their house at daybreak, police official Sonny Ombajino said by telephone.
The incident occurred at a village near the town of Pitogo, about 153 kilometers (95 miles) southeast of Manila, as the storm raked across the southeastern section of Luzon overnight.
Fengshen hovered over Manila Bay late morning Sunday with gusts of up to 90 kilometers (56 miles) an hour and was poised to strike provinces north of the capital Manila, the state weather service said.
At least 47,000 people left their homes and headed to government-designated temporary shelters across southeast Luzon since Saturday, local disaster officials said, as the weather service warned of possible coastal flooding and landslides.
The Philippines is hit by around 20 storms and typhoons each year, routinely striking areas where millions of people live in poverty.
Scientists warn that storms are becoming more powerful as the planet warms due to human-driven climate change.
Fengshen comes as the country reels from a series of major earthquakes that killed at least 87 people over the past three weeks.


Afghanistan and Pakistan have agreed to an immediate ceasefire, Qatar says

Afghanistan and Pakistan have agreed to an immediate ceasefire, Qatar says
Updated 19 October 2025

Afghanistan and Pakistan have agreed to an immediate ceasefire, Qatar says

Afghanistan and Pakistan have agreed to an immediate ceasefire, Qatar says
  • The agreement was arrived at during a round of negotiations mediated by Qatar and Turkiye on Saturday, Qatar’s foreign ministry said in a statement
  • Clashes have killed dozens and wounded hundreds in the worst violence between the two neighbors since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021

ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan and Pakistan have agreed to an immediate ceasefire, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday. It follows more than a week of fighting that has killed dozens of people and injured hundreds.
The two sides agreed to establish mechanisms to consolidate lasting peace and stability, as well as holding follow-up talks in the coming days to ensure the ceasefire’s sustainability, the Qatari statement said.
Delegations from Afghanistan and Pakistan were in Doha for talks to resolve the deadliest crisis between them in several years. The talks were mediated by Qatar and Turkiye.
Both governments had sent their defense ministers to lead the talks, which Pakistan said would focus on “immediate measures to end cross-border terrorism emanating from Afghanistan and restore peace and stability along the border.”
Each country has said it was responding to aggression from the other. Afghanistan denies harboring militants who carry out attacks in border areas.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Ceasefire extended for duration of peace talks

• Kabul says Pakistan conducts airstrikes after truce extended

• Pakistan says strikes killed dozens of militants

Regional powers, including Ƶ and Qatar, have called for calm, as the violence threatened to further destabilize a region where groups including the Daesh group and Al-Qaeda are trying to resurface.
A 48-hour ceasefire intended to pause hostilities expired Friday evening. Hours later, Pakistan struck across the border.

Afghan relatives and mourners offer prayers during the funeral ceremony of victims, killed in aerial strikes by Pakistan, at the Urgun district of Paktika province on October 18, 2025. (AFP)

Pakistani security officials confirmed to The Associated Press Saturday that there were strikes on two districts in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktika province.
The targets were hideouts of the militant Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, according to the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. One said the operation was a direct response to the suicide bombing of a security forces compound in Mir Ali, in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province a day earlier.
The Pakistani Air Force raids killed dozens of armed fighters and there were no civilian deaths, they said.
But Afghan officials said the aerial assaults killed at least 10 civilians, including women, children and local cricketers. The attacks prompted the national cricket board to boycott an upcoming series in Pakistan.
On Saturday, several thousand people attended funeral prayers in Paktika. They sat in the open air as loudspeakers broadcast sermons and condemnation.

Pakistan Army's ceremonial guards lay a wreath during the funeral ceremony of a paramilitary personnel of the Frontier Corps (FC) who was killed during the Afghanistan-Pakistan border clashes, in Kohat on October 17, 2025. (AFP)

Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban government’s chief spokesman, in a statement, criticized the “repeated crimes of Pakistani forces and the violation of Afghanistan’s sovereignty.”
Such acts were deemed provocative and viewed as “deliberate attempts” to prolong the conflict, he added.
The two countries share a 2,611-kilometer (1,622-mile) border known as the Durand Line, but Afghanistan has never recognized it.
Pakistan is grappling with surging militancy, especially in areas bordering Afghanistan. It also accuses its nuclear-armed neighbor and rival India of backing armed groups, without providing any evidence.
Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir, urged Afghans to choose “mutual security over perpetual violence and progress over hard-line obscurantism.”
“The Taliban must rein in the proxies who have sanctuaries in Afghanistan,” he told an audience on Saturday at the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.


Nigeria denies officers arrested over coup plot

Nigeria denies officers arrested over coup plot
Updated 19 October 2025

Nigeria denies officers arrested over coup plot

Nigeria denies officers arrested over coup plot
  • “The Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) wishes to categorically state that the claims by the said publication are entirely false,” said a statement from Tukur Gusau, director of defense information, without specifying which outlet he meant

ABUJA: Nigerian authorities on Saturday denied that more than a dozen officers had been arrested over a coup plot, pushing back on local media reports.
The west African country has seen several military takeovers in its history and spent much of the 20th century under junta rule since its independence from Britain.
A fresh coup would turn back the clock on more than a quarter century of civilian rule.
“The Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) wishes to categorically state that the claims by the said publication are entirely false,” said a statement from Tukur Gusau, director of defense information, without specifying which outlet he meant.
But Sahara Reporters, an online publication, and Premium Times, based in the capital Abuja, both said Saturday that at least 16 officers were planning to overthrow President Bola Tinubu.
The military had announced earlier this month that 16 officers had been arrested over “issues of indiscipline.”
The two media outlets, citing defense sources, reported that the arrests were in fact linked to a coup plot.
The military is fighting a long-running insurgency against Boko Haram and Daesh West Africa Province in the northeast.
While the violence has waned since its peak a decade ago, attacks continue — including deadly assaults on military bases — seemingly with no end in sight.
Analysts have warned of a rise in jihadist violence this year, while troops have at times reported unpaid wages and poor conditions.
The military is stretched thin on other fronts as well, including fighting armed gangs known as “bandits” in the northwest and separatists in the southeast.
Earlier this month, the army announced that “a routine military exercise has resulted in the arrest of sixteen officers over issues of indiscipline and breach of service regulations.”
The statement added: “Investigations have revealed that their grievances stemmed largely from perceived career stagnation caused by repeated failure in promotion examinations, among other issues.”
In Saturday’s statement, Gusau said the investigation was “a routine internal process aimed at ensuring discipline and professionalism is maintained within the ranks.”