
-
Deadly monsoon rains lash Pakistan, killing dozens
-
Frank urges 'real' Spurs fans to back Tel after racist abuse
-
Japan's emperor expresses 'deep remorse' 80 years after WWII
-
Chelsea boss Maresca eager to sign new defender as Colwill cover
-
Liverpool target Isak controls his Newcastle future: Howe
-
New-look Liverpool kick off Premier League season after spending spree
-
Football and falls as first humanoid robot games launch in China
-
'Like hell': Indoor heat overwhelms Saudi Arabia's cooks, bakers
-
On VJ day, king pays tribute to UK veterans, warns of war's 'true cost'
-
Stocks mostly higher before US-Russia summit
-
Bayern's Bundesliga crown up for grabs after rocky summer
-
Arsenal face revamped Man Utd as new-look Liverpool open Premier League season
-
South Korea president vows to build 'military trust' with North
-
'Never again': Indigenous Bolivians sour on socialism
-
Indonesia's president touts economy, social welfare drive
-
World plastic pollution treaty talks collapse with no deal
-
Facing US tariffs, India's Modi vows self-reliance
-
Trump to meet Putin in high-stakes Alaska summit
-
Indian rescuers scour debris after 60 killed in flood
-
Ivory Coast village reburies relatives as rising sea engulfs cemetery
-
Stressed UK teens seek influencers' help for exams success
-
National Guard deploys 800 personnel for DC mission, says Pentagon
-
Japan emperor expresses 'deep remorse' 80 years after WWII
-
With waters at 32C, Mediterranean tropicalisation shifts into high gear
-
Historic Swedish church being moved as giant mine casts growing shadow
-
Malawi's restless youth challenged to vote in September polls
-
Indonesian roof tilers flex muscles to keep local industry alive
-
World's first humanoid robot games begin in China
-
Scott Barrett returns to lead All Blacks against Argentina
-
Five things to know about Nigeria's oil sector
-
New compromise but still no deal at plastic pollution talks
-
France's Cernousek seizes lead at LPGA Portland Classic
-
Putin-Trump summit: What each side wants
-
Desperate Myanmar villagers scavenge for food as hunger bites
-
Qualifier Atmane stuns Rune to set up Sinner semi-final in Cincinnati
-
Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai's security trial delayed over health concerns
-
Asia stocks mixed before US-Russia summit
-
Putin hails North Korean troops as 'heroic' in letter to Kim
-
Fleeing the heat, tourists explore Rome at night, underground
-
Online cockfighting thrives in Philippines despite ban and murders
-
Keeping cool with colours -- Vienna museum paints asphalt to fight heat
-
Raising the bar: Nepal's emerging cocktail culture
-
El Salvador plans 600 mass trials for suspected gang members
-
Trump's tariffs drown Brazil's fish industry
-
Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai's collusion trial resumes after delay
-
Britain's Princess Anne turns 75 with typically minimal fuss
-
Japan posts modest growth despite US tariffs
-
Rugby Championship kicks off amid uncertain future
-
Israeli far-right minister backs contentious West Bank settlement plan
-
Hot putter carries MacIntyre to three-shot lead at BMW Championship

Junta chief frontrunner as Gabon holds first election since 2023 coup
Gabonese voters began casting ballots on Saturday in a presidential election with eight candidates that is widely expected to make junta chief Brice Oligui Nguema the oil-rich central African country's first elected leader since his 2023 coup.
Oligui, the general who led the August 30, 2023, putsch that ended 55 years of iron-fisted dynastic rule by the Bongo family, who were accused of looting Gabon's wealth, has been leading in opinion polls.
Snaking queues were seen outside polling stations in Libreville, the seaside capital.
Aurele Ossantanga Mouila, 30, voted for the first time ever after finishing his shift as a croupier in a casino.
"I did not have confidence in the earlier regime," he said.
Oligui took the role of transitional president while overseeing the formation of a government that includes civilians, tasked with drawing up a new constitution.
The country of 2.3 million people is casting ballots at a time of high unemployment, regular power and water shortages, a lack of infrastructure and heavy government debt.
Despite successive plans, only 2,000 of the 10,000 kilometres (6,213 miles) of roads in the country are "usable", according to official data. Derailments are frequent on the sole rail link and youth unemployment exceeds 60 percent in rural areas.
Oligui ditched his military uniform as he campaigned for a seven-year term against seven rivals, including Alain-Claude Bilie By Nze, who served as prime minister under Ali Bongo before the coup.
- 'The special candidate' -
Around 920,000 voters are eligible to cast their ballots from 7:00 am (0600 GMT), with the polling stations closing at 6:00 pm and final results expected on Monday.
Oligui has predicted a "historic victory" in the election.
"The builder is here, the special candidate, the one you called," Oligui said Thursday among the music and dancing at his closing rally in the capital Libreville.
But critics accuse Oligui, who had promised to hand power back to civilians, of failing to move on from the years of plunder of the country's vast mineral wealth under the Bongos, whom he served for years.
Oligui's image has been plastered all over the capital Libreville alongside his campaign slogan "C'BON" -- a play on the French words for "It's good" and the junta chief's initials -- while those of his rivals are nowhere to be seen.
Bilie By Nze, his main opponent, has cast himself as the candidate for a "complete rupture".
He has accused Oligui, who led the Republican Guard in the Bongo years, of representing a continuity of the old system.
Oligui served as patriarch Omar Bongo's former aide-de-camp before becoming chief of the presidential guard under his son Ali Bongo.
- 'Transparent ballot' -
Whoever wins will have to meet the high hopes of a country where one in three people lives below the poverty line despite its vast resource wealth, according to the World Bank.
Gabon's debt rose to 73.3 percent of GDP last year and is projected to reach 80 percent this year.
Analyst Neyer Kenga likewise pointed to "the return to constitutional order" as one of the key campaign issues, in the hope the vote puts an end to the country's strife.
In the past weeks, the interior ministry has been at pains to insist Saturday's vote will be "a transparent ballot and an election accessible" to all.
"Today all Gabonese are firmly in favour of a democratic game that is played within the rules," said Neyer Kenga.
Following years marked by a post-vote crisis in 2009 and 2016's bloodily repressed protests -- not to mention the August 2023 coup -- "the people's response at the ballot box is never known in advance", she added.
H.Jarrar--SF-PST