Month: July 2022

LONDON -- Nominations in the race to replace British Prime Minister Boris Johnson closed on Tuesday, with eight Conservative lawmakers securing enough support from their colleagues to make the first ballot. Former Health Secretary Sajid Javid, whose resignation last week helped bring Johnson down, was a surprise casualty, failing to make the cut. Candidates needed backing from at least 20 fellow legislators to be on the ballot for run-off votes, which will start Wednesday. The successful contenders include former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt and backbench lawmaker Tom Tugendhat. Also on the ballot are Treasury chief Nadhim Zahawi, ex-Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch, former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Attorney General S...

PANAMA CITY -- Frustrated Panamanians have taken to the streets in protest for more than a week, building upon anger over fuel prices that have nearly doubled to show their general dissatisfaction with the government. The protests grew Tuesday despite Presient Laurentino Cortizo’s promise a day earlier to extend a freeze on gasoline prices to all Panamanians rather than just the public transport system. Thousands marched in the capital and cities across Panama, while roadblocks brought traffic to a standstill on the Pan-American Highway. Cortizo said Monday that he understood citizens’ dissatisfaction, and he blamed the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for the rise in prices. Protesters maintained the pressure Tuesday. “The cup of tolerance and patience that the Pana...

KYIV, Ukraine -- The Ukrainian military on Tuesday reported destroying a Russian ammunition depot in southern Ukraine, resulting in a massive explosion captured on social media, while rescuers said the death toll from a weekend Russian strike in the country's east grew to 45. An overnight rocket strike targeted the depot in Russian-held Nova Kakhovka, the Ukrainian military's southern command said. Nova Kakhovka is about 55 kilometers (35 miles) east of the Black Sea port city of Kherson, which is also occupied by Russian forces. The precision of the strike suggested Ukrainian forces used U.S.-supplied multiple-launch High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS. Ukraine indicated in recent days that it might launch a counteroffensive to reclaim territory in the south as Russia bomb...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Dozens of people have died in four days of gang battles in a violent neighborhood of Haiti's capital, the latest eruption of bloodshed in a wave of increasing violence sweeping the country, local officials said Tuesday. Jean Hislain Frederick, deputy mayor in Cite Soleil district of Port-au-Prince, said that the fighting erupted Friday in a clash between members of two rival gangs and that at least 50 people had died and more than 50 were wounded. The violence began just a day after the first anniversary of the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Since Moïse was killed, violence has soared in Haiti as gangs battle over territory, and the government has struggled to crack down. The aid group Doctors Without Borders said that thousands of people were trapped...

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- The president of Sri Lanka fled the country early Wednesday, days after protesters stormed his home and office and the official residence of his prime minister amid a three-month economic crisis that triggered severe shortages of food and fuel. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, his wife and two bodyguards left aboard a Sri Lankan Air Force plane bound for the city of Male, the capital of the Maldives, according to an immigration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. Rajapaksa had agreed to step down under pressure. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he would leave once a new government was in place. Lawmakers agreed to elect a new president next week but struggled Tuesday to decide on the makeup of a new gov...

Tunisia has seen a marked shift in attitudes towards women political leaders since Najla Bouden became the first female prime minister in the Arab world. However, this doesn't mean that life has dramatically improved for Tunisia's women, writes BBC News Arabic's Jessie Williams. Bochra Belhaj Hmida has spent her whole life fighting for both gender equality and democracy in Tunisia - "one of which cannot be achieved without the other," she says. After the revolution in 2011 - which saw her take part in the mass demonstrations that led to autocrat President Ben Ali being ousted - Tunisia passed a gender parity law. It requires political parties to have an equal number of men and women on their list of candidates to serve in parliament after elections. It ...