HGE NEWS

A Japanese court on Thursday sentenced a 50-year-old woman to two years and six months in prison for killing a pregnant woman in a car accident and leaving her then-unborn daughter with a severe disability in May last year. The Nagoya District Court’s Ichinomiya branch handed down the ruling on Naoko Chigono, charged for fatally striking Sayaka Togitani, then 31, while driving a car in Ichinomiya, Aichi Prefecture, on May 21, 2025. Togitani, who had been due to give birth one

"No matter what your job title is, serve the people diligently, consider the interests of the people with all your heart, maintain close ties with the people, and always stay approachable to the people." These were the heartfelt words that Xi Zhongxun shared with his son, Xi Jinping. His advice would later become a guiding principle throughout the Chinese president's political career. A highly respected leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Xi Zhongxun devoted his lif

African and Caribbean leaders in Ghana on Friday urged former slave-trading nations to issue apologies and reparations over the trafficking of enslaved Africans after a landmark United Nations resolution in March declaring it “the gravest crime against humanity.” The 'Next Steps' conference in the Ghanaian capital of Accra issued a declaration calling on countries involved in the Atlantic slave trade to “offer full, formal and unconditional apologies as a foundational step to

Fitch Ratings raised South Africa's credit rating on Friday, citing stronger fiscal discipline and lower-than-expected debt, marking its first upgrade of the country in more than two decades. The agency lifted the rating one notch to 'BB' from 'BB-', keeping it below investment grade. "The upgrade primarily reflects South Africa's record of prudent fiscal management and progress on fiscal consolidation, despite weak economic growth and domestic and external shocks," the ratin

Traders are facing big losses after Uganda closed its border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo over Ebola contagion fears. Leah Masika was on the verge of tears as she thought of her valuable consignment of plantain stuck in a long convoy of trucks on both sides of the Uganda-Congo border on Thursday. Her cargo, destined for Uganda, was starting to leak water, and would go bad within hours if there was no movement. The Ugandan trader was awaiting clearance from author

Counting is underway in Guinea after Sunday’s legislative and municipal elections. The vote marks a new step towards the return of democratic rule after the 2021 coup that brought President Mamadi Doumbouya to power. Seven million voters were eligible to elect 147 members of parliament. But turnout was reportedly low in the capital Conakry and the central city of Labe. Most candidates were drawn from the presidential camp after the government dissolved the main opposition par

US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has confirmed that her team is investigating more than 40 US-funded pathogen laboratories in Ukraine. Here’s what you need to know about the story that was written off as “Kremlin propaganda” in 2022. In a statement to the New York Post on Tuesday, Gabbard said that her department had identified more than 120 biological laboratories in 30 countries that had been funded by the US taxpayer for decades. More than a third of thes

Passengers evacuated from the hantavirus‑stricken cruise ship MV Hondius began flying home on military and government aircraft after the vessel anchored in Tenerife, with one American testing positive and a French traveler developing symptoms during their separate repatriation flights on Sunday. Evacuations under tight biosecurity after ship docks in Tenerife Seventeen Americans were flown out, and U.S. officials confirmed that one tested positive for hantavirus despite showi

A passenger aboard the MV Hondius has made an emotional appeal from the quarantined cruise ship, as it remains anchored off Cape Verde following a deadly suspected hantavirus outbreak. Jake Rosmarin, speaking from onboard, described the fear and uncertainty facing those still confined to the vessel. “What’s happening right now is very real for all of us here. We’re not just a story, we’re not headlines, we are people — people with families, with lives, with people waiting for

Djibouti began counting votes Friday in a presidential election expected to hand a sixth term to 78-year-old Ismail Omar Guelleh, who faces just one little-known opponent in the small but highly strategic Horn of Africa nation. Guelleh has ruled the east African country of about one million people for 27 years with an iron grip, leveraging its key location to turn it into an international military and maritime hub. Its mere 23,000 square kilometres (8,900 square miles) host m