Police in Lesotho are appealing for help to trace Prime Minister Thomas Thabane’s current wife who they want to question over the 2017 murder of his then-estranged wife.  Maesaiah Thabane has not been charged, but police want to speak to her about Lipolelo Thabane’s killing, a government spokesman told the BBC.

The prime minister has also failed to answer police questions, he added. The couple have not yet commented on a case that has caused much intrigue. Lipolelo Thabane was shot dead two days before Mr Thabane was sworn in as prime minister of the mountain kingdom.  The women were involved in a legal battle over who should be first lady.

The courts ruled in favour of Lipolelo Thabane, who was gunned down outside her home near the capital, Maseru. Mr Thabane described his estranged wife’s killing as “senseless” in his inaugural speech as prime minister in June 2017. He was accompanied to the ceremony by Maesaiah Thabane. A priest married the couple about two months later at a public ceremony at a stadium in the capital, Maseru. Mr Thabane and Lipolelo Thabane were involved in a bitter divorce battle at the time of her murder.(BBC)…[+]

Spike Lee has made history by becoming the first black filmmaker to preside over the Cannes film festival jury. The Malcolm X and Do the Right Thing director said he was “shocked, happy, surprised and proud”. Lee has premiered seven films at the festival, with his 2018 movie BlacKkKlansman receiving wide acclaim.

His appointment follows criticism of the Oscars nominations for ignoring actors and directors of colour. Nineteen of the 20 acting nominees this year are white – the highest number since the #OscarsSoWhite protests of 2015 and 2016, of which Lee was a vocal supporter. He refused to the attend 2016 Oscars ceremony, prompting some other filmmakers and actors to follow. Three years later, he won his first competitive Oscar for best adapted screenplay (BlacKkKlansman).(bbc)…[+]

Egyptian-American citizen Mustafa Kassem has died in Egypt after going on hunger strike in prison. The 54-year-old was a New York taxi driver, originally from Egypt, who was arrested on a home visit in 2013 on accusations of being a spy and taking part in anti-government protests.

Mr Kassem had always denied the charges against him. He stopped eating solids late last year and ceased drinking fluids four days ago. The top US diplomat for the Middle East, David Schenker, described Mr Kassem’s death as “needless, tragic and avoidable”.  Mr Kassem was arrested in August 2013 in Cairo by security officials who accused him of being a spy and taking part in protests against the government of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. He was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2018.(BBC)…[+]

A man has been rescued after surviving more than three weeks in the Alaskan wilderness with little food and shelter. State authorities rescued 30-year-old Tyson Steele after a fire destroyed his remote cabin.

He lived on canned foods that survived the blaze and made a basic tent out of debris in the sub-zero temperatures. Authorities only found Mr Steele after concerned family members asked them to check on him. He had written an SOS message in the snow by the remains of his house, and video released by Alaska State Troopers shows the moment of his rescue.

Police have released their interview with Mr Steele, in which he told the story of his survival and rescue. He bought the cabin – made from tarpaulins and planks – from a Vietnam war veteran. The hut was in the remote Susitna Valley, north-west of Anchorage, about 20 miles from the town of Skwentna.(BBC)…[+]

US President Donald Trump should take his complaint about being overlooked for the Nobel Peace Prize to the award organisers, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the 2019 winner, has said. Mr Abiy said he was not aware of the criteria used to select him.

He was credited for his move to make peace with neighbouring Eritrea. Mr Trump said last week that he had “saved a country” from a big war, a possible reference to his work on another dispute involving Ethiopia.

Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a bitter border war from 1998-2000, which killed tens of thousands of people. Although a ceasefire was signed in 2000, the neighbours technically remained at war until July 2018, when Mr Abiy and Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki signed a peace deal. (BBC)…[+]

Low tides have left canals in Venice almost dry, just two months after severe flooding left much of the Italian city under water. Boats have been seen almost beached as water levels dip drastically. The canals look more like mud trenches and getting around has become a problem for many in the city.

In November, Venice experienced its highest water levels in more than 50 years in what some said was a direct result of climate change. More than two thirds of the city was underwater then, with the mayor estimating damage at over a billion euros ($1.1bn; £850m). Landmarks like St Mark’s Square were flooded, while shops and businesses had to close. The latest low tide – while exceptional – is not quite as unprecedented. The tides here mean water levels can vary by around half a metre, or sometimes even more.(BBC)…[+]

Surveillance video from disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s first suspected suicide attempt was destroyed by accident, prosecutors say. US prosecutors say the jail mistakenly saved footage from the wrong cell.

Epstein, a convicted sex offender, first tried to kill himself in July last year, then hanged himself in jail in August while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. He had pleaded not guilty to abusing dozens of girls, some as young as 14.

Soon after Epstein’s death, in August, two of the CCTV cameras outside his cell had malfunctioned and were being examined by the FBI, US media reported. Epstein was found semi-conscious in his prison cell with injuries to his neck on 25 July. After this incident, he was placed on suicide watch.

Eventually, Epstein was moved to a different cell, where he died on 10 August. Two prison guards have since been accused of failing to check on him during this time and falsifying records to say that they had. There have been ongoing questions over the July recording, which was initially deemed missing and then was said to have been located by jail staff.(BBC)…[+]

The Islamic State (IS) group has welcomed the death of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, the head of the elite Quds Force. In a statement, it described the general’s demise as an act of divine intervention that benefitted jihadists. However, it made no mention at all of the US, which carried out the deadly drone strike against Soleimani in Baghdad on 3 January.

President Donald Trump’s decision to assassinate Gen Soleimani set off a chain of consequences – one of the first was on the unfinished war against jihadists. Almost immediately the US-led coalition fighting IS suspended operations in Iraq. The US and its allies announced that their main job was now defending themselves. From a military point of view, they probably had no choice.(bbc)…[+]

US President Donald Trump seems to think that he was overlooked for last year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Why, what did he say?

“I’m going to tell you about the Nobel Peace Prize, I’ll tell you about that. I made a deal, I saved a country, and I just heard that the head of that country is now getting the Nobel Peace Prize for saving the country. I said: ‘What, did I have something do with it?’ Yeah, but you know, that’s the way it is. As long as we know, that’s all that matters… I saved a big war, I’ve saved a couple of them.“(BBC)…[+]

A young man, who was in a coma for nearly four years in Germany after his work lunch was poisoned by a colleague, has died, German media report. The 26-year-old ingested lead acetate and mercury after it was sprinkled on his sandwiches, resulting in severe brain damage.

Two of his colleagues were also targeted and suffered kidney damage. A man, named only as Klaus O, was found guilty of attempted murder last year and sentenced to life in prison. On Thursday, state prosecutor Veit Walter said a new trial could be ordered by Germany’s Supreme Court now that one of the victims had lost his life, the Bild newspaper reported.

The death was confirmed by a court in the city of Bielefeld, about 350km (218 miles) west of the German capital, Berlin. The case came to light in 2018 after a colleague at a metal fittings company in the town of Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock, in north-western Germany, noticed a white powder on his lunch. (bbc)…[+]