Yaphet Kotto, 'Alien' and 'Live and Let Die' star, dead at 81

Kotto's wife, Tessie Sinahon, shared news of his death via Facebook.

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  • Quiz! Can you remember all these retro children’s TV shows?

    Do you remember these classic television shows from your childhood?

  • Prince Philip's body will be moved to his final resting place after the Queen dies

    Following his funeral, the Duke of Edinburgh will be privately interred in the Royal Vault of St George's Chapel - but this will not be his final resting place. When the Queen dies, Philip will be transferred to the gothic church's King George VI memorial chapel to lie alongside his wife of 73 years. The tiny chapel houses the remains of the Queen's father George VI, her mother the Queen Mother and sister Princess Margaret. The central feature of the pale stone annexe, which was added on to the north side of St George's behind the North Quire Aisle in 1969, is a black stone slab set into the floor. It is inscribed with "George VI" and "Elizabeth" in gold lettering and accompanied by their years of birth and death. On Saturday, the Queen and close members of her family will gather privately after the funeral as the duke's coffin is interred in the Royal Vault - a burial place set beneath St George's Chapel - for the time being.

  • Private firms 'profiteering' as they charge holidaymakers £300 a Covid test

    Private Covid testing firms have been accused of profiteering with charges that can add up to £1,000 to the cost of a family of four’s summer holiday. The firms are charging up to £300 for a single PCR test despite the chemical processing costing little more than £20, an investigation by The Telegraph has found. The cheapest companies on the official list of Government-approved firms are charging as little as £60 for providing PCR test results within a day. But the most expensive companies on the list are four times that price and five times if you want a 24-hour turnaround for results out of normal office hours at the weekend. It is the difference between adding £1,000 to a family of four’s summer holiday abroad and a potentially more affordable charge of £240. Every holidaymaker returning to the UK from May 17 will have to take a PCR test on or before the second day of arrival even when travelling back from a green list country – and people coming from amber or red list countries will have to take two tests, on days two and eight.

  • Jose Mourinho: Son Heung-min ‘very lucky his father is a better person than Ole’

    Jose Mourinho hit back at Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for claiming he would not feed his son if he had behaved like Son Heung-min did moments before Manchester United’s controversially disallowed first-half goal in their 3-1 win at Tottenham.

  • Iran says mysterious power cut at Natanz atomic facility is act of ‘nuclear terrorism’

    Natanz facility has been repeatedly targeted. Incident came just hours after national nuclear celebration

  • Mutant South African Covid strain can ‘break through’ Pfizer vaccine, study finds

    The South African variant of Covid-19 can “break through” the Pfizer jab, a study has found. Scientists working on a Tel Aviv University study examined 400 people who had tested positive for coronavirus at least 14 days after taking one or two doses of the jab - and 400 people who had tested positive but hadn’t been vaccinated. Scientists said their results suggested the South African variant is more resistant to vaccines.

  • UK university students struggle with stress as uncertainty grows over return date

    UK university students struggle with stress as uncertainty grows over return date. Failure to include campuses on Covid roadmap is leaving young people ‘in limbo’, say vice-chancellors

  • Bristling tensions with Prince Harry remain, but Royal family will wear the mask of unity at Duke’s funeral

    The subtle briefings were designed to give Prince Harry the softest possible landing on his arrival back in the UK ahead of his beloved grandfather’s funeral on Saturday. From sources suggesting he was “united in grief” with the rest of the Royal family following the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, to the couple’s unofficial spokesman Omid Scobie insisting – should anyone be in doubt – that “Harry was incredibly close to Philip”, the Sussex spin machine was in evidence as the displaced Prince prepared for his first transatlantic flight in 13 months. Members of the Royal family also sought to calm serves ahead of what is feared could be a difficult reunion for the House of Windsor, with a palace source suggesting that the Prince of Wales was particularly looking forward to seeing his youngest son. “It’s been more than a year,” they pointed out.

  • Notion a ‘woman’s place’ is in the home is back in an ‘aggressive way’, director of UN Women warns

    Exclusive: ‘Women go to places where they used to sell but are now going to beg,’ says Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

  • Liberia takes the lead to introduce the typhoid vaccine for children

    In an effort to counter typhoid, a disease said to be endemic in Liberia with more than 7,400 cases annually, the government has introduced a vaccine for the first time this month in its regular child inoculations, according to Adolphus Clarke, the country’s Program Manager for National Immunization at the Ministry of Health. "Typhoid has become a disease of concern. If you go to a hospital you are either diagnosed with typhoid or malaria,” says Clarke, adding that this new vaccination campaign is targeting more than one million children between nine months and 14 years old. He tells RFI statistics show that the majority of the country’s typhoid cases are among children under 15 years of age.Typhoid is a bacterial infection that can spread throughout the body and be fatal if not treated promptly.Once the ministry of health hits its target 1.9 million children, they will be going throughout the country to ensure that the rest of the age group is covered by the vaccine.“There will be a mop-up exercise that will last for three to four days to ensure that we are able to capture and cover everyone that we are targeting in Liberia,” he says. According to Clarke, preliminary data shows that a little more than 557,890 children under 14 years of age have been vaccinated since the launch of the vaccine campaign on 6 April.Resistance from community members Some parents, however, do not feel the need to have their children vaccinated, like Teresa Wilson, 35, a resident of central Monrovia, one of a few skeptical parents. “I cannot allow my children to take the vaccine because I don’t have enough information. Yesterday we heard the government giving people Covid-19 vaccine, then today we are hearing about typhoid vaccines,” she says. She fears that the government could be administering the Covid-19 vaccine under the disguise of typhoid vaccine but Clarke disagrees. Brendalyn Saah, a 26-year old nurse is assigned in West Point, Liberia’s biggest slum, to administer the typhoid vaccine. She attributes the low turnout during the first two days of the vaccination exercise to lack of appropriate awareness among Liberians. “We experienced lots of resistance initially but as of now, parents are allowing their children to be vaccinated,” she told RFI during an interview. Safe vaccineVaccine program manager Clarke has appealed to parents to take the time to understand what the vaccine is and ensure their children are vaccinated to avoid contracting the disease. At the same time, Clarke says negotiations are underway to bring in the typhoid vaccine for adults, too. Survivors of Liberia's civil war massacre react to news of US trial Hopes traditional leaders in Liberia will help stamp out FGM “Once we submit the application and get approval, we will notify the general public and the vaccine will be available,” Clarke says. According to Dr. Kathleen Neuzil, the Director of the Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in the US, the vaccine is safe and has no major negative side effects. “The main side effect is a sore arm-- a child may have some arm pain, but it is usually done within a day or two,” says Neuzil, who is also director of the Typhoid Vaccine Acceleration Consortium. “It’s very rare for this vaccine to even cause fever, so it’s a well-tolerated vaccine,” she said via zoom interview with RFI. Neuzil commends Liberia for prioritizing children’s health for the typhoid vaccine. “It really shows a lot of leadership to put children’s health first by being the first in Africa to introduce this vaccine into routine immunization and it is a great lesson for other countries,” she says. Now that Liberia has paved the way, it’s about time that other African countries emulate the good example of Liberia to fight typhoid out of Africa, she adds.

  • French government disgusted by attack on Muslim centre

    The French government on Sunday condemned the defacing of an Islamic cultural centre in western France with Islamaphobic slogans, and said an attack on Muslims was an attack on the Republic. The tags, daubed on the side a building used as a prayer room in the city of Rennes, were found shortly before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins in France on Tuesday. Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin said it was a disgusting attack against the fundamental freedom to believe in a religion and that Muslims deserved the same protection as any other religious group in France.

  • 12ft alligator caught in South Carolina had five dog tags inside that were almost 25-years-old

    The 445lb alligator was trapped by a hunter from Ravenel, outside Charleston, and had five dog tags inside

  • Cambridge children 'unlikely to be present' at Prince Philip's funeral

    The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's three children are not expected to be among the 30 mourners who attend the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral, The Daily Telegraph understands. The Cambridges have been careful to protect Prince George, seven, Princess Charlotte, five, and Prince Louis, two, from the public gaze, and made clear from the outset that they would shield them from the pressures of royal life while they were young. While the ceremony on Saturday will be very much a family occasion, the children are understood to be considered too young to join the procession that will follow the Duke's coffin on foot within the grounds of Windsor Castle. Their attendance would also take three coveted spots for older relatives who have known the Duke for most of their lives. A Buckingham Palace spokesman has confirmed that the Duke's children and grandchildren would all attend alongside Her Majesty. With spouses, if all attend, they would number 20 in total. The remaining ten are thought likely to comprise the Queen's cousins, including Princess Alexandra, 84, who remains a working royal, although she has not undertaken an official engagement since last July.

  • Israel appears to confirm it carried out cyberattack on Iran nuclear facility

    Israel appears to confirm it carried out cyberattack on Iran nuclear facility. Shutdown happened hours after Natanz reactor’s new centrifuges were started

  • Ashley Cain: Ex on The Beach star says ill daughter has returned home after giving him 'best eight months of my life'

    Reality TV star and former footballer Ashley Cain has said his young daughter has returned home after giving him "the best eight months of my life". Ms Vorajee earlier said the couple would be bringing Azaylia home to "give her the best possible time left that we can".

  • Man held on suspicion of arson and murder in Sidmouth, Devon after body of woman found

    Victim’s death is being treated as ‘unexplained’

  • Public ready to accept vaccine passports – and keep them after pandemic is over

    Exclusive: Almost a third think Boris Johnson is ending lockdown too soon

  • South Pacific tribe that worshipped Prince Philip as living god prepares to hold day of mourning

    The island tribe in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu that has for decades worshiped the Duke of Edinburgh as a deity will hold a day of mourning and feasting on Monday. Hundreds of people are expected to converge on the rainforest village of Yaohnanen on the island of Tanna to pay their respects to Prince Philip after he died on Friday at the age of 99. The village is the focus of a visionary movement in which Philip is viewed as a god, a pale-skinned mountain spirit who left Tanna decades ago to seek a rich and powerful woman to marry. The belief was reinforced during the colonial era when islanders saw the respect that was accorded to Prince Philip, whose portrait hung in government offices and who visited what was then an Anglo-French colony, the New Hebrides, in 1974. The prince was supposed to have returned to the island bringing wealth and wisdom but those hopes, which persisted for decades, have now been dashed. Islanders, who live in thatched huts and hunt wild pigs and flying foxes in the forest, have been left grief-stricken by the death of the prince, said Jean-Pascal Wahé of the Vanuatu Cultural Centre, a national museum of anthropology.

  • Despair fuels the flames of young loyalist anger in Northern Ireland

    Despair fuels the flames of young loyalist anger in Northern Ireland. Let down by politicians and police, cultural symbols belittled ... unionist teenagers feel marginalised and are taking action

  • Duchess of Cornwall's relative accuses wife of lying about her age when they married - denying him the chance of more children

    An aristocrat and relative of the Duchess of Cornwall has accused his wife of lying about her age in an ongoing divorce battle, which he claims denied him more children. Charles Villiers, 58, has been embroiled in a six-year divorce case that has so far played out in five different courts and before twelve judges. The couple, who share 25-year-old daughter Clarissa, married in 1994 and Charles has said he believed his wife to be 35 at the time. He has made various claims of dishonesty from his ex wife in court, the most serious of which was when he accused her of bigamy, which she vehemently denied. As part of the ongoing legal battle, he now claims to have unearthed new evidence on one of his wife's previous marriage certificates which would mean she was in fact 40 when they tied the knot, according to the Sunday Times. Mr Villiers told the newspaper: "Most of my friends were in their thirties at the time, with wives of similar age and additional children kept appearing for them. "I couldn't understand what the problem conceiving additional children was. Now I know. "I'm left in the situation that my wife might still try to claim millions of pounds off me, soley owing to the fact that we were married when, arguably, she married me under false pretences as I believed she was in her thirties, not in her forties in 1994, almost past child-bearing.” Mr Villiers went on to state that his wife did not wish to celebrate milestone birthdays, which he found "bizarre", before adding: "If it was a genuine error made in the creation of a marriage certificate document, not one word of explanation has ever been offered to me by Emma in 27 years." An electoral role registers Mrs Villiers as being born in 1958, which would make her current age 62, and 35 when they married.