Today's World News covering, Africa, Europe, Middle East

Donald Trump is set to launch an investigation into China's trade practices, a move which could lead to the US imposing sanctions.

Twenty people have been killed and a number wounded in a terror attack in the centre of the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, the government says.

The presidents of Nigeria, Angola, Zimbabwe, Benin and Algeria all have something in common - an apparent lack of faith in the health systems at home.

Britain will not stay in the European Union by the "backdoor" and will completely leave the single market and customs union after Brexit in 2019, Philip Hammond and Liam Fox have declared.

After a summer of bitter Cabinet infighting, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Dr Fox, the International Trade Secretary, appear to bury the hatchet with a joint pledge that there will be a fixed transition period after leaving the EU.

In an article written for the Telegraph, the ministers - representing the Remain and Leave wings of the Tory party -  say this will be "time limited" and designed to avoid a "cliff edge" that could damage British business.

Although they do not say how long this period will last, it will not represent an attempt to stay in the EU indefinitely, they say.

Source:telegraph.co.uk

An Oxford University employee who spent more than a week as a fugitive has appeared in court in the US accused of murdering a hairdresser whose body was found with more than 40 stab wounds.

Andrew Warren, who worked as a senior treasury assistant at Somerville College, appeared before a judge in San Francisco where he confirmed his identity. The 56-year-old handed himself in to police in California last week.

He and another defendant, Wyndham Lathem, 42, a US academic, are suspected of murdering 26-year-old Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau on 27 July in Chicago.

Warren declined to fight his extradition to Chicago to face the murder charge and said he would accept a public lawyer on the basis that he could not afford his own. The judge, Edward Torpoco, denied him bail and confirmed he would be held in custody.

After the hearing, Warren’s lawyer, Ariel Boyce-Smith, said: “Mr Warren is agreeable to being transported to Chicago. He wants the process to be started. I just want to remind everyone that he is presumed innocent and his agreement to go there to start the process is where we are now.”

Lathem plans to plead not guilty, according to his lawyer, Kenneth Wine, who described him as a “gentle soul”.

Chicago police said Cornell-Duranleau sustained more than 40 stab wounds to his upper body in a “very intense” attack at a high-rise apartment belonging to Lathem.

Authorities reported that the victim had been dead for at least 12 hours by the time he was found.

Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Chicago force, said detectives were examining the personal relationship between Lathem and Cornell-Duranleau. “We’ve been looking a great deal, not only at the relationship between Mr Lathem and the victim, but also the connection between all three,” he said.
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The two suspects were subjects of a nationwide manhunt and handed themselves in separately to authorities last week in California, more than 2,000 miles from the scene of the crime.

Warren, a resident of Faringdon, Oxfordshire, has been suspended from his job by Somerville College. Lathem, a microbiologist, was fired from his job at Northwestern University on 4 August.

During the pair’s time as fugitives, friends of Warren encouraged him to hand himself in and said he had not told anyone of his plans to visit the US.

Janice King, who said she had been a close friend of Warren’s for almost two decades, said: “This has come as a complete shock to us. He didn’t tell anybody about going to America. The first thing I knew was his sister rang me to ask whether I knew where Andy had gone.”

Warren’s family reported him missing to Thames Valley police on 25 July. He is understood to have left the UK the day before.

Source:theguardian.com

President Trump and North Korean leader King Jung Un have been trading threats, but one Redditor has tried to lighten the mood a bit by imagining what the two men would look like if they traded hair. 

At least 20 people have been killed and a dozen others injured in a collision involving two passenger trains in Alexandria, Egypt.

US Defence Secretary James Mattis has said America still hopes to solve the North Korea crisis using diplomacy.

President Donald Trump resumed his public feud with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Thursday over his party's failure to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, a sign of the fraught relationship between two branches of government that are both controlled by Republicans.

Sen. Ron Johnson on Thursday walked back controversial remarks he made about Sen. John McCain earlier in the week when he suggested the Arizona Republican's dissenting vote on health care might have been influenced by his recent brain cancer surgery.

Kenya's electoral commission has rejected opposition claims its IT system was hacked in order to manipulate Tuesday's election results.

Chief electoral officer, Ezra Chiloba, speaking in response to presidential candidate Raila Odinga’s rejection of the provisional results, said the systems were not compromised at any point.

The opposition's claim led to sporadic outbreaks of violence. The government has however denied that anyone died in clashes on Wednesday between security forces and Mr Odinga's supporters in the capital, Nairobi, and the western town of Kisumu, an opposition stronghold.

Earlier reports also indicated that two protesters had been shot dead in Nairobi after police were attacked with machetes while two men had been killed by officers in Kisumu when a gang attacked a vote tallying station.

Many fear a repeat of the violence after the disputed election 10 years ago when more than 1,100 Kenyans died and 600,000 were displaced.

                                          

                                     

Raw polling data published on the website of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) says that with almost 97% of results in, Mr Kenyatta - who is seeking a second term - is leading with about 54.3%, to Mr Odinga's 44.8% share of the vote.

However, it has been stressed by the IEBC that these results are preliminary, and have yet to be certified officially.

The commission has not said when it will publish the final results. Legally, it has to announce the results within seven days of polling stations closing.

Read also: Kenyan opposition leader claims election systems were hacked

www.primenewsghana.com/ Ghana News

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says there is no imminent threat from North Korea, despite Pyongyang saying it was considering strikes on the US Pacific territory of Guam.