Hebron / AFP Israeli authorities overnight demolished the home of a Palestinian killed after fatally stabbing a Jewish settler in the West Bank city of Hebron, the Israeli army and Palestinian sources said on Thursday. Israel regularly demolishes Palestinian attackers’ homes in a bid to deter violence, but human rights activists say it amounts to collective punishment, forcing relatives to ...

Jerusalem / AFP Israel’s state-run electricity company was set on Thursday to reduce the power supply to a Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank over a debt of $450 million, an Israeli official said. The decision by the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) applies to Jericho and comes after the Palestinian Authority and the private Palestinian Jerusalem District Electricity Company ...

Kampala / AFP Ugandan judges dismissed on Thursday a legal challenge to President Yoweri Museveni’s fifth-term election victory last month, which sparked claims of foul play. “The Election Commission nominated Museveni lawfully in accordance with the Presidential Elections Act,” Chief Justice Bart Katureebe said as he read the ruling to a packed court in the capital Kampala. “We find no ...

Tehran / AFP Iran’s defence minister has said he is “certain” the UN Security Council will not take any action over its ballistic missile tests despite calls from Western powers. Britain, France, Germany and the United States wrote a joint letter on Monday calling for action over tests they said violated last year’s landmark nuclear deal between Iran and major ...

Mogadishu / AFP Somalia’s Shebab insurgents said they carried out a suicide attack at a hotel in the central town of Galkayo on Thursday in which six people died, including a senior local government official. “There was a blast, a suicide bomber blew himself up killing several people including a senior official,” said police officer Abdiweli Adan. Witnesses said there ...

Singapore/ Bloomberg China’s three biggest airlines reported soaring net profits in 2015 despite the country’s worst economic growth in a quarter of a century, as more Chinese travelled abroad. Cheaper jet fuel helped the bottom line, but losses from foreign exchange hurt as China’s yuan currency slid against the dollar, they said. “With the slowdown in world economic growth, and ...

Frankfurt / AFP German retail sales, a closely watched measure of household confidence, declined in February, as consumer morale in Europe’s top economy feels the heat from global economic risks, official data showed on Thursday. Retailers’ sales fell by 0.4 percent in February compared with January, the federal statistics office Destatis said in a statement. The previous month, retail sales ...

TOKYO / Reuters Japan plans a wave of new gas-fired power stations as the country’s electricity retail market opens up from April 1, allowing new entrants to compete for a market of 85 million customers with annual sales of about $70 billion. In the biggest shakeup in the industry’s history in Japan, regional utilities are losing their monopoly rights for ...

Frankfurt / AFP German retail giant Metro announced it will spin off its businesses into two separately listed units, sending its shares sharply higher. “The management board of Metro is preparing the creation of two independent and sector-focused companies through a demerger of the group,” Metro said in a statement. Metro shares were the strongest performer on the mid-cap MDAX ...

AFP Somalia’s bread basket has become a dust bowl as the life-giving waters of the mighty Shabelle river run dry amid intense drought in the war-torn country. River-fed farmlands have become parched playgrounds for children who kick footballs beneath a cloudless sky, as one sign among many of the failed rains that the United Nations warns has put more than ...