Headline
Venezuelan President Moves Christmas To October Amid Post-election Turmoil
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1 year agoon
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Editor
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has declared that Christmas will come early this year, on October 1, as he seeks to impart some holiday cheer after a disputed presidential election the opposition claims he stole.
The 61-year-old is set for a third six-year term despite an outcry from the opposition and international community over the results of a July 28 election.
“In homage to you, in gratitude to you, I am going to decree that Christmas be brought forward to October 1,” Maduro said during a television appearance Monday.
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It is not the first time that Maduro has changed the date of Christmas since taking the reins of the Catholic-majority country from Hugo Chavez in 2013.
This time, the move appears to be a move to distract the populace from anger over the election the opposition claims it rightfully won.
The United States and several Latin American countries support the Venezuelan opposition’s claim to victory, while even Maduro-friendly Mexico, Colombia and Brazil have refused to recognize the official result without seeing detailed vote tallies.
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The elections agency has said it cannot publish the records as hackers had corrupted the data, though observers have said there was no evidence of that.
Prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant for opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia — who is in hiding — over his insistence that he won the polls.
“Nobody in this country is above the laws, the institutions, as this … coward Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, has tried to be,” said Maduro.
Protests after Maduro’s alleged victory was announced left 25 civilians and two soldiers dead, nearly 200 people and more than 2,400 jailed.
Headline
India Issues Health Alert After Spike In ‘brain-eating’ Amoeba Deaths
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5 hours agoon
September 18, 2025By
Editor
India has issued a health alert after infections and deaths caused by a rare water-borne “brain-eating” amoeba doubled compared to last year in the southern state of Kerala.
Numbers are still tiny but Altaf Ali, a doctor who is part of a government task force to arrest the spread, told AFP that officials were “conducting tests on a large scale across the state to detect and treat cases”.
Officials reported 19 deaths and 72 infections of the Naegleria fowleri amoeba this year, including nine deaths and 24 cases in September alone.
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Last year, the amoeba killed nine people out of 36 reported cases.
The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says it is often called a “brain-eating amoeba” because it can “infect the brain and destroy brain tissue”.
If the amoeba reaches the brain, it can cause an infection that kills over 95 per cent of those affected.
Infections are “very rare but nearly always fatal”, the CDC notes.
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The amoeba lives in warm lakes and rivers and is contracted by contaminated water entering the nose. It does not spread from person to person.
The World Health Organisation says that symptoms include headache, fever and vomiting, which rapidly progresses to “seizures, altered mental status, hallucinations, and coma”.
“It’s worrying that new cases this year have emerged from across the state, as opposed to specific pockets in the past,” Ali said.
Since 1962, nearly 500 cases have been reported worldwide, mostly in the United States, India, Pakistan, and Australia.
AFP
Headline
Gunmen On Motorbikes Kill 22 At Baptism Ceremony In Niger
Published
1 day agoon
September 17, 2025By
Editor
Gunmen on motorbikes shot dead 22 villagers in western Niger, most attending a baptism ceremony, local media and other sources said Tuesday.
The shootings happened on Monday in the Tillaberi region, near Burkina Faso and Mali, where jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group (IS) are active.
A resident of the area told AFP that 15 people were killed first at a baptism ceremony in Takoubatt village.
“The attackers then went to the outskirts of Takoubatt where they killed seven other people,” said the resident, who requested anonymity for security reasons.
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Local media outlet Elmaestro TV reported a “gruesome death toll of 22 innocent people cowardly killed without reason or justification”.
“Once again, the Tillaberi region has been struck by barbarism, plunging innocent families into mourning and despair,” Nigerien human rights campaigner Maikoul Zodi said on social media.
Niger’s military leaders, who came to power two years ago in a coup, have struggled to contain jihadist groups in Tillaberi, despite maintaining a large army presence there.
Around 20 soldiers were killed in the region last week.
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Human Rights Watch has urged Niger authorities to “do more to protect” civilians against deadly attacks.
The rights monitoring group estimates that the Islamic State group has “summarily executed” more than 127 villagers and Muslim worshippers in Tillaberi in five attacks since March.
Meanwhile, the NGO ACLED, which tracks conflict victims worldwide, says around 1,800 people have been killed in attacks in Niger since October 2024 — three-quarters of them in Tillaberi.
Niger and its neighbours, Burkina Faso and Mali, also ruled by military coup leaders who claim to pursue a sovereignist policy, have expelled the French and American armies that were fighting alongside them against jihadism.
AFP
Headline
Serbia Indicts Ex-minister, 12 Others Over Train Station Tragedy
Published
2 days agoon
September 16, 2025By
Editor
Serbian prosecutors filed an updated indictment on Tuesday against 13 people, including a former minister, over a fatal railway station roof collapse that has triggered a wave of anti-government protests.
The prosecution said all those indicted, among them former construction minister Goran Vesic, face charges of “serious crimes against public safety” over the tragedy that killed 16 people last November.
“The indictment proposes that the Higher Court in Novi Sad order custody for all the defendants,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
The roof collapse at the newly renovated station in Serbia’s second-largest city, Novi Sad, became a symbol of entrenched corruption and sparked almost daily protests.
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Protesters first demanded a transparent investigation, but their calls soon escalated into demands for early elections.
The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Sad initially filed an indictment at the end of December, but judges returned it in April, requesting more information.
The accused were released or placed under house arrest following the decision.
The prosecutor’s office said it had complied with the judge’s request and had now completed the supplementary investigation.
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The prosecutor specialising in organised crime and corruption in Belgrade is leading a separate, independent investigation into the tragedy.
That investigation is focused on 13 people, including Vesic and another former minister, Tomislav Momirovic, who headed the Construction Ministry before him.
In March, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) launched a third, separate investigation into the possible misuse of EU funds for the station’s reconstruction.
AFP
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