Obama arrives in Kenya for African visit
US President Barack Obama has arrived in Kenya for his first presidential visit to his father's homeland, aiming to boost trade and security ties.
Obama's Air Force One plane landed in the evening in theKenyan capital, where he will co-host a conference on boosting entrepreneurs in Africa before travelling on to Ethiopia.
After being greeted by President Uhuru Kenyatta and other top Kenyan officials, Mr Obama was whisked through the capital.
On this trip as president, he is not expected to travel to the village most closely associated with the family name and where his father is buried
Renua leader calls for corporate criminal court
Renua leader Lucinda Creighton has said a special corporate criminal court needs to be established to deal with complex white collar criminal proceedings.
Ms Creighton said legislation also needs to be introduced which imposes criminal liability on senior management for reckless lending.
The party today launched a ten point plan to tackle white collar crime, which also proposes curbing the concept of limited liability and also recommends that whistleblowers should receive a financial incentive if their information results in the seizing of major proceeds of crime.
Her party colleague Billy Timmons said there would be safeguards in place to deal with vexatious complaints.
Burundian president wins controversial third term
Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza has won a predicted but controversial third consecutive term in office, according to official election results.
Mr Nkurunziza won 69.41% of the vote in Tuesday's vote, handing him an immediate first-round victory, the election commission said.
He won 16 out of 18 provinces, with the other two taken by his closet rival Agathon Rwasa - who won a total 18.99 percent% - even though he had denounced the polls as illegitimate.
Mr Nkurunziza's candidacy was condemned as unconstitutional by the opposition and provoked months of protests and an attempted coup in the central African nation.
Although eight candidates were on the ballot paper for the presidential polls, most withdrew from the race, with the closure of most independent media preventing them from campaigning.
Nigeria celebrates polio free year
Nigeria has marked its first year without a single case of polio.
It means the country could come off the list of countries where polio is endemic, once the World Health Organisation can confirm that the last few samples taken from people in previously affected areas are free of the virus.
The hope is that next month the entire African continent will have gone a full year without a polio infection, with the last case recorded in Somalia on 11 August 2014.
This achievement increases pressure on Pakistan, where most of the few polio cases in the world remain, to follow suit.
Four-way talks urge implementation of Ukrainian ceasefire
The leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine have held talks over the conflict in east Ukraine.
All sides are said to have agreed on the importance of respecting pledges undertaken in Minsk in February.
These included "the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of contact, the complete implementation of the ceasefire and access to the OSCE's special observer mission".
The phone conversation between French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko came a week after similar four-way talks.
Thai general among 72 indicted over human trafficking
Thailand has said it would indict 72 people including a senior army officer over human trafficking after the grim trade in migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh rocked the southeast Asian region.
The move comes after a major people-smuggling trade unravelled in May when thousands of migrants were abandoned at sea and in jungle camps by traffickers following a Thai crackdown, a crisis that eventually forced a Southeast Asia-wide response.
The Office of the Attorney General of Thailand yesterday issued an order to indict 72 people charged on 16 counts mostly over human trafficking, OAG spokesman Wanchai Roujanavong said at a press conference in Bangkok.
The charges include human trafficking, involvement in international crimes, taking and bringing illegal migrants and malfeasance.
