Africa

A new bill drafted to create a “hostile environment” for asylum seekers will include tough new powers to strip pubs, liquor stores and takeaways of their licenses and shut down firms that hire illegal immigrants in the UK.

Criminal gangs from Eritrea, Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam earn up to €4m each year ferrying vulnerable migrants across the Mediterranean who have fled their homelands and are desperate to carve out a new life in Britain.

The Serious Fraud Office has launched an investigation into allegations of corruption against British company Soma Oil and Gas Limited following a raid on its offices in London.

Chadian police said they will ramp up the enforcement of last month's ban on head-to-toe hijabs after a suicide bomber dressed as a woman killed 15 people at a market in the capital N'Djamena.

Thousands of British holidaymakers are to be airlifted out of Tunisia as tour operators implement emergency plans following warnings of an imminent terror attack. The move has sparked a diplomatic row between the two nations.

A gay Kenyan couple evicted from a flat for being homosexuals was told by the landlord that if they feel aggrieved, they should “wait for Obama.” The American president is due to pay an official visit to Kenya late in July.

Up to 120 US military personnel are operating out of two secret drone bases in Somalia, carrying out attacks on Al-Shabab militants and working with African Union peacekeepers, a new report has revealed.

In its heyday some 6,000 years ago, a lake called Mega-Chad was the largest body of fresh water on the planet, with an area of 360,000 square km. A few hundred years later it's reduced to Lake Chad at only 355 square km, and an air of faded grandeur left.

France’s leading administrative court says that border controls on the boundary with Italy are legal and do not violate the Schengen agreement. Rights groups had filed a complaint supporting hundreds of migrants who were looking to cross into France.