LISBON (Al-Jazeera) - Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said his country should take responsibility and apologies for its role in the transatlantic slave trade, the first time a Portuguese leader has suggested offering a national apology.From the 15th to the 19th century, 6 million Africans were kidnapped and forcibly transported across the Atlantic by Portuguese vessels and sold into slavery, primarily to work on plantations in Brazil.Rebelo de Sousa said that the country should go beyond just an apology, though he did not offer any specifics.

 

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STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A research rocket launched by Sweden Space Corp (SSC) from Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden malfunctioned and landed 15 km (9.32 miles) inside neighboring Norway.The rocket reached an altitude of 250 kilometers (155.34 miles) where experiments were carried out in zero gravity, the agency said in a statement.”It landed in the mountains at 1,000 meters altitude, and 10 kilometers from the closest settlement,” Philip Ohlsson, head of communications at SSC, told Reuters.

 

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CANBERRA (Al-Jazeera) -A group of Indigenous Australians has filed a human rights complaint against 20 large Australian pension funds for investing in two of Santos Ltd’s gas projects, putting pressure on the funds over their fossil fuel investment plans.Three traditional landowners alleged in the complaint, filed on Wednesday directly with the superannuation funds, that the funds had an “obligation to prevent adverse human rights impacts of companies in which they are invested”.Indigenous communities alleged the Barossa and Narrabri gas projects will threaten their culture, livelihood, and risk damage to the environment, including affecting the breeding patterns and nesting grounds of animals.

 

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ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — At least 29 people were abducted by gunmen in Nigeria’s federal capital territory, Abuja, a local government official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.The gunmen arrived after midnight on Tuesday and rounded up residents in Yewuti village, some who had been attending a local ceremony, said Daniel Ishaku, an aide to the chairman of the Kwali local council.“They took people from the playground and then went into the houses and took some people .... They entered the bush with the people they carried walking on foot,” said Ishaku. The local Daily Trust newspaper said children were among those kidnapped and some of the hostages managed to escape.