Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

News

Hard Numbers: Zuma sentenced to jail, EU asylum numbers fall, al-Shabab members executed, Swedish clock ticks

Hard Numbers: Zuma sentenced to jail, EU asylum numbers fall, al-Shabab members executed, Swedish clock ticks

Former South African President Jacob Zuma appears in court where he faces charges that include fraud, racketeering and money laundering in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, October 15, 2019.

Michele Spatari /Pool via REUTERS
Make us preferred on Google

15: Sometimes hard numbers are hard time. South Africa's top court has sentenced former president Jacob Zuma to 15 months for failing to appear at an inquiry into corruption that occurred during his time in office. Separately, Zuma is facing charges over graft involving a $5 billion arms deal from the 1990s, before he was president.


32: Annual asylum applications in the EU and several affiliated countries fell 32 percent last year to 485,000 claims, the lowest total since 2013. Officials say the decrease was due chiefly to pandemic-related travel restrictions rather than any softening of demand for safe haven in Europe.

21: The semi-autonomous state of Puntland in Somalia has executed 21 men who were convicted of being members of al-Shabab, a jihadist group that controls large swaths of Somalia and has wreaked havoc across East Africa. The men were killed by firing squad.

3: Rightwing Swedish opposition leader Ulf Kristersson has three days to try to cobble together a government after center-left PM Stefan Löfven resigned as a result of losing a no-confidence vote last week. If he fails, other parties can try, but after four failed attempts the country would go to snap elections.

More For You

A banner reading "Buy Canadian", in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's 25% tariffs on goods from Canada, is held aloft by a pair of hockey sticks in front of a house

A banner reading "Buy Canadian", in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's 25% tariffs on goods from Canada, is held aloft by a pair of hockey sticks in front of a house in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada March 5, 2025.

REUTERS/Ed White
US and Canada hold last-minute talks to avoid new tariffs Washington and Ottawa are down to the wire with talks to reach an agreement by 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, when President Donald Trump has threatened to impose 50% tariffs on over $20 billion of Canadian goods. The proposed tariffs would hit Canadian exports to the US — everything from hockey [...]
The DRC’s deadliest Ebola outbreak ever
Natalie Johnson
On Monday, public health officials said the virus had killed 2,325 people, exceeding the death toll of every previous Ebola outbreak in the country. For weeks, the outbreak has also spread faster than any earlier outbreak. And the full toll may be even higher: WHO officials recently said the outbreak had begun months before authorities declared it [...]
A staff member holds a dummy as staff and customers take shelter at a storage room, during an air raid exercise at a PX Mart supermarket as part of the civil defence drills in Taipei, Taiwan

A staff member holds a dummy as staff and customers take shelter at a storage room, during an air raid exercise at a PX Mart supermarket as part of the civil defence drills in Taipei, Taiwan. July 10, 2025.

REUTERS/Annabelle Chih
Over the weekend, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi marked his country’s Independence Day by announcing the creation of a “massive” volunteer civil defense force. Calling India’s existing civil defense capacity “outdated,” Modi said the country of 1.4 billion people must protect the new targets of modern warfare, including refineries, the [...]
A princess among men
Will Fitzpatrick
No, the change wasn’t a publicity stunt for the newly announced Princess Diaries 3. On Saturday, Liechtenstein’s hereditary prince announced that the tiny country of around 40,000 people would end male-only succession and adopt firstborn inheritance, opening the door for the first woman to lead the monarchy since the House of Liechtenstein was [...]