WASHINGTON: Senator Jim DeMint, a Republican who emerged as a favorite of the Tea Party movement advocating small government and lower taxes, will retire in January to head the Heritage Foundation.
“It’s been an honour to serve the people of South Carolina in United States Senate for the past eight years, but now it’s time for me to pass the torch to someone else and take on a new role in the fight for America’s future,” DeMint, 61, said in a statement released yesterday.
The firebrand two-term conservative from South Carolina has been a staunch opponent of President Barack Obama, particularly on issues such as taxes and Obama’s landmark health care reform law.
1,000 Nigerians flee to Niger after attack
NIAMEY: More than 1,000 Nigerians have fled to neighbouring Niger after six people were killed in an attack on their village blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram, the United Nations said yesterday.
The 1,042 refugees crossed the northern border into the Niger region of Diffa after the November 30 attack, and have been taken in by families in two villages near the regional capital, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a bulletin.
ANC loses by-election on Zuma’s home turf
JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s ruling ANC has suffered an embarrassing electoral defeat, losing control of a ward in President Jacob Zuma’s home municipality, according to results released yesterday.
The Electoral Commission reported the Inkatha Freedom Party had defeated the ANC in Nkandla, in KwaZulu-Natal province. The municipality is the site of Jacob Zuma’s controversial homestead, which was upgraded using $28m of taxpayers’ money.
Swedish N-reactor stopped over safety
STOCKHOLM: A nuclear reactor in Sweden was stopped yesterday after the country’s nuclear industry watchdog said the operator had failed to comply with its safety requirements, safety officials said.
The Oskarshamn plant’s number two reactor was taken out of service after the operator was unable to show the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority that standard maintenance work had been performed on two diesel generators used for emergency power supply. Agencies
