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Posted at 10:07 Two police posts in Burkina Faso were attacked by jihadists on Monday night, officials said, just months after 12 soldiers were killed by militants in a raid near the Mali border, AFP news agency reports.  It was unclear whether there had been any casualties from the latest attack, which took place in Soum province in the country's north, security minister Simon Compaore told AFP.   The incident comes as the capital, Ouagadougou, is on high security alert, as it hosts the 25th edition of   Fespaco  , Africa's biggest film festival, which takes place every two years.

The UN has warned that large numbers of children are still risking their lives to make the dangerous journey from Libya to Italy.   Girls such as nine-year-old Kamis, who set off with her mother from their home in Nigeria.  After a desert crossing in which a man died, followed by a dramatic rescue at sea, they found themselves held at a detention centre in the Libyan town of Sabratha. They used to beat us every day. There was no water there either. That place was very sad. There's nothing there." Kamis Unicef says almost 26,000 children - most of them unaccompanied - crossed the Mediterranean last year. Many children suffer from violence and sexual abuse at the hands of smugglers and traffickers, it says. But they rarely report their abuse, for fear of arrest and deportation. The agency also says there is a lack of food, water and medical care in Libya's detention centres. The plight of children, many of them unaccompanied by parents, has becom...

More than two weeks ago -- and less than 30 minutes after a federal appeals court refused to reinstate his travel ban -- President Donald Trump signaled he was poised to act quickly. "SEE YOU IN COURT," he tweeted in all caps. But that go-fast approach seems to have been eclipsed by lawyers at top levels of government going back to the drawing board and taking a very close and cautious look at the legal issues involved. One reason for the slowdown is the strong admonition from the three appellate court judges who castigated the government for failing to provide the court with any national security information justifying the ban -- even under seal. In a blunt footnote, the judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said that while the government "identified the seven countries in the executive order as countries of concern in 2015 and 2016, it had not "offered any evidence or even an explanation" for how the national security concerns justified an...

President Donald Trump's first budget proposal will look to increase defense and security spending by $54 billion and cut roughly the same amount from non-defense programs, the White House said Monday. The budget blueprint, which was sent to government agencies Monday, would increase defense spending to $603 billion and decrease non-defense discretionary spending to $462 billion, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said. Two sources spoke to a press agent on  Monday that the cuts are expected to slash as much as a quarter of the Environmental Protection Agency's budget, a cut that one former EPA official said would be "devastating" and a current employee at the agency said would weaken the agency to the point where it can only do its most basic functions. "This budget will be a public safety and national security budget," Trump said at a bipartisan gathering of US governors at the White House Monday, vowing substantial increases...

Updated 0720 GMT (1520 HKT) February 28, 2017 Trump ramps up pledge to undo Obamacare 02:48 Donald Trump needs to make a sale. The businessman-turned President has his best chance to ignite momentum behind his agenda Tuesday night when he strides into the House chamber amid the pageantry of his first address to a Joint Session of Congress. Trump will step up to the speaker's rostrum after a tumultuous five weeks in office, in which he has started making good on his election promises but also whipped up controversy and disruption with his quintessential political style. So far there is little sign that the new President's legislative agenda, which includes repealing and replacing Obamacare, a big tax overhaul, and a trillion-dollar infrastructure program, is anywhere near coming to fruition. That could quickly turn out to be a problem for the President because there is only so ...

President Donald Trump said he believes former President Barack Obama has been behind the leaks within his administration and the sizable, angry town hall crowds Republicans have faced across the country. Trump was asked in an interview on Fox News' "Fox and Friends" if he believed Obama was responsible for the town hall protests against Republicans this month. "It turns out his organization seems to do a lot of these organizing to some of the protests that these Republicans are seeing around the country against you. Do you believe President Obama is behind it and if he is, is that a violation of the so-called unsaid presidents' code?" Trump was asked. "No, I think he is behind it. I also think it is politics, that's the way it is," Trump replied. Trump then discussed the leaks that have disrupted his first month in office. "You never know what's exactly happening behind the scenes. You know, you're probably right or possibl...

President Trump: Seven ways the world could change     76 comments Share Image copyright AFP With Donald Trump in the White House, America's relationship with the rest of the world is on the verge of changing in some important ways. Here are seven of them. Nato faces a shake-up Image copyright EPA Image caption Nato defence ministers meet - could the US flag disappear next time? Mr Trump has been hugely critical of Nato (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization), a cornerstone of American foreign policy for more than 60 years. He has attacked the organisation as obsolete and characterised its members as ungrateful allies who benefit from US largesse. In one sense, Mr Trump's rhetoric simply gives voice to longstanding US concerns about most Nato members not meeting their goal of spending at least 2% of GDP on defence, while US defence spending is the largest in the world. More recently, US Defence Secretary James Mattis travelled to Nato headquar...