Africa

Abuja: Nigerian prosecutors on Tuesday charged six people over a coup plot foiled by authorities last year, according to documents filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja. The government had initially denied the existence of the alleged coup, before announcing in January that the military would try several officers for planning a putsch. Read Also Nigeria charges six over 2025 coup plot: court documents Apple's Tim Cook to step down as CEO after 15-year run If successful, a coup would have brought an end to a quarter-century of democracy in Africa's most populous country. The six charged in federal court Tuesday, including a retired major general, were accused of conspiring "with one another to levy war against the State to overawe the President of the Federal Republic", according to prosecutors. It was unclear whether the charges filed in the Federal High Court would run alongside or in addition to the military prosecutions, which have yet to commence. The charges named retired major general Mohammed Ibrahim Gana, retired captain Erasmus Ochegobia Victor, Inspector Ahmed Ibrahim, Zekeri Umoru, Bukar Kashim Goni and Abdulkadir Sani. The six were also accused of knowing that Colonel Mohammed Alhassan Ma'aji "and others intended to commit treason" and did not alert authorities. It was unclear if that meant that prosecutors were naming Ma'aji as the coup leader. The six were also accused of conspiring "with one another to commit an act of terrorism" and of "indirectly" but "knowingly" rendering "support" to Ma'aji "and others to commit an act of terrorism". Since independence from Britain in 1960, Nigeria has witnessed a string of successful military coups until civilian rule was restored in 1999.

Asia

Moscow: Russia and North Korea held a ceremony Tuesday to mark the joining of the first road bridge connecting the countries, set to open for traffic this summer, Moscow said. Ties between the two heavily sanctioned countries have surged amid Russia's war on Ukraine, with Moscow and Pyongyang deepening economic, political, cultural and military links. South Korea warned last week that Chinese and Russian support was helping revive the North Korean economy, which has struggled for years under sweeping international sanctions, almost complete international isolation and huge military investment. Moscow's foreign ministry said the opening of the bridge would "become a truly landmark stage in Russian-Korean relations. Its significance goes far beyond a purely engineering task". The bridge, which crosses the Tumen river that marks the border between the two countries, will be able to handle up to 300 vehicles and 2,850 people a day, Russia's transport ministry said. Read Also Apple's Tim Cook to step down as CEO after 15-year run SpaceX successfully launches GPS satellite Indonesia passes long-awaited law to protect domestic workers Russia and North Korea inked a defence treaty in 2024 that calls for military support in the case of either country being attacked. Pyongyang that year sent thousands of troops to Russia to support its war on Ukraine. They were deployed to the western Kursk region to held fend off a months-long counter-offensive by Kyiv's troops. Several senior Russian officials have visited North Korea recently, including the interior minister, currently in the country. Russia's foreign ministry said the bridge would help "develop trade, economic and humanitarian exchanges" between Russia's Far East and North Korea. North Korea does not publish official data on the size of its economy. Its nominal gross domestic product was equivalent to about $30 billion in 2024, according to Seoul's official estimate -- a tiny fraction of the South Korean economy, one of the most developed in the world. North Korea has long faced shortages. A famine in the mid-1990s killed hundreds of thousands of people, and reports indicate that the Covid-19 pandemic also pushed many into extreme hunger.

Europe

Paris: Executive Director of the International Energy Agency(IEA) Fatih Birol warned on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, that the ongoing conflict between Iran, the United States, and Israel is leading to one of the most severe energy crises the world has ever witnessed. "This is indeed the biggest crisis in history,” Dr Fatih Birol said an interview. "The crisis is already huge, if you combine the effects of the petrol crisis and the gas crisis with Russia." He added that the war in the Middle East has disrupted shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, through which approximately one-fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas supplies pass, further increasing pressure on energy markets. He pointed out that this crisis also come on top of the effects of Russia’s war with Ukraine, which had already severed Russian gas supplies to Europe. Earlier this month, Birol stated that he believes the current situation in global energy markets is worse than the crises of 1973, 1979, and 2022 combined. In March, the IEA agreed to release a record 400 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves to counter rising oil prices caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran.