World News

An official says 42 people including 27 students who were abducted two weeks ago from a school in northern Nigeria have been freed…

Ahmed Abdullah al-Harbi resurfaced weeks later in Saudi Arabia after telling other activists he’d revealed their names to Saudi authorities….

Militant attacks are on the rise in Pakistan amid a growing religiosity that has brought greater intolerance, prompting one expert to voice concern the country could be overwhelmed by religious extremism…

Cardiff University calls on education secretary to correct the record over claim Germaine Greer was banned The education secretary is using “completely misleading” and “dubious” research to justify introducing new legislation on free speech in universities, according to the head of Cardiff University.Gavin Williamson sparked anger in universities when he unveiled plans on 16 February to counter what he called “unacceptable silencing and censoring” on campuses. He plans legislation to allow speakers who are “no-platformed” to sue universities for compensation if they feel their rights have been infringed. Continue reading… …

Family-only service given honour in recognition of veteran who died at 100 after raising £38m for NHSA second world war-era plane will fly over Captain Sir Tom Moore’s funeral service in honour of the war veteran, who raised almost £39m for NHS charities during the first coronavirus lockdown.The C-47 Dakota, part of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, which operates from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, will perform the flypast.Moore, who died this month at the age of 100 after testing positive for coronavirus, will have his coffin carried by six soldiers from the Yorkshire Regiment. A firing party of 14 will each fire three rounds in unison, and a bugler will sound The Last Post at the end of the private service. Related: Captain Sir Tom Moore obituary Continue reading… …

More than 11,000 people were arrested during protests for jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Their stories are starting to emerge….

Psychiatrists, psychologists and pediatricians in Germany have voiced growing alarm that school closings and social distancing are magnifying the fear, disruption and stress of the coronavirus pandemic for the country’s 13.7 million children and teenagers…

Company contacts affected gas and electricity customers, telling them to change passwordsNpower has permanently withdrawn its mobile app after hackers used it to access its customers’ personal details, including the sort codes and the last four digits of their bank accounts.The hack, which cybersecurity experts said left the firm’s customers “wide open to fraud”, is understood to have taken place around the start of February. Continue reading… …

Study reveals unemployment among BAME people is double the rate for white peopleCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe coronavirus pandemic has held up a “mirror to the structural racism” in the UK’s labour market, the TUC has said, as a study reveals that jobless rates among black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) groups are now double the rate for white people.There are 1.74 million people out of work across the UK, the highest level in five years, and business shutdowns are disproportionately affecting women and ethnic minorities. Continue reading… …

Spanish officials recommend 864 cows that have been at sea for two months are no longer fit for transportMore than 850 cows that have spent months aboard a ship wandering across the Mediterranean are no longer fit for transport anymore and should be killed, according to a confidential report by Spanish government veterinarians.The cows have been kept in what an animal rights activist called “hellish” conditions on the Karim Allah, which docked in the south-eastern Spanish port of Cartagena on Thursday after struggling for two months to find a buyer for the cattle. Continue reading… …

Notorious gangster Arnel Joseph shot dead at police checkpoint after more than 400 inmates escape in country’s biggest breakout for 10 yearsMore than 400 inmates have escaped and 25 people have died in a prison breakout in Haiti, authorities say, making it the country’s largest and deadliest one in a decade. A prison director and a powerful gang leader were among those killed.The breakout at Croix-des-Bouquets prison on the outskirts of the capital Port-au-Prince on Thursday was believed to be an attempt to free gang leader Arnel Joseph, who had been Haiti’s most wanted fugitive until his 2019 arrest on charges including rape, kidnapping and murder. Continue reading… …

The prison’s director is among 25 people killed in the mass escape near the capital, Port-au-Prince. …

The replica of Picasso’s famed painting depicting the horrors of war had hung outside the Security Council chamber since 1985, on loan from the Rockefeller family. …

The Dissident explores what happened to the Saudi journalist and who might have ordered his murder. …

Ayesha and Irshad were breadwinners in a former Pakistani tribal area where militancy is rising again. …

James Le Mesurier fell to his death in Istanbul in 2019 with a sense that Syrian and Russian disinformation had destroyed his reputation. …

Several waves of Pokémania have swept the globe, keeping this lucrative franchise relevant for 25 years. …

A photo archive reveals John F Kennedy’s efforts to court African leaders in the post-colonial era. …

Could the cryptocurrency’s huge electricity consumption also sink it? …

With this last hurdle cleared, formal authorization of the one-dose vaccine is expected on Saturday and distribution within days. …

An elite unit assigned to protect Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is said to have carried out dozens of operations, including forcibly repatriating Saudis. …

A confidential U.S. government report found that people in Tigray are being driven from their homes in a war begun by Ethiopia, an American ally — posing President Biden’s first major test in Africa. …

A series of announcements has not only reversed the decline of Canada’s auto industry, but has also set it on the path to electrification. …

Princess Latifa Al Maktoum was previously described as “troubled” by the former Irish president. …

Local brewers in Mar del Plata, Argentina, spent months trying to make a unique brew by aging a dark ale 66 feet underwater. Then the barrels went missing, setting off a whodunit. …