AFRICA

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP |  South Africa’s new carbon tax has provoked a storm of criticism from environmental campaigners who say it is too weak — and from industry that predicts it will cause mass job losses. The new tax, the first of its type in Africa, was cautiously …

Malabo, Equatorial Guinea | AFP |  Equatorial Guinea is awash in oil, although little of the wealth has trickled down to the poor. Yet one of the most glaring inequalities here is access to the internet. Other parts of the world are pushing ahead with plans for fast, free — …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudan’s key protest group is opposed to giving the military “absolute immunity” against prosecution for violence against demonstrators, a spokesman said, as the two sides held talks on a power sharing deal. “We refuse absolute immunity that the military rulers have asked for,” Ismail al-Taj, …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | Former South African president Jacob Zuma on Tuesday rebuffed all accusations of wrongdoing on his second day of testimony at an inquiry into corruption under his rule. Zuma said he and his family had received death threats after his first day at the judicial inquiry being held in Johannesburg. …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Paramilitary men beat and tortured to death a civilian in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region, a doctors committee linked to the country’s protest movement said Tuesday. The civilian died on Monday in El-Daen, in East Darfur state, after members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) clashed with …

Abomey-Calavi, Benin | AFP |  The display cases at the royal palaces in Benin’s sleepy southern town of Abomey are coated in dust and the exhibition halls plunged in darkness. But local tourism chief Gabin Djimasse hopes all this will change with the return of 26 artefacts from former colonial master …

  Economists say significant challenges remain, including poor road and rail links, excessive border bureaucracy and petty corruption | THE INDEPENDENT | On July. 07, African nations officially unveiled a landmark trade agreement at the African Union Summit in Niamey, Niger, with the long sought-after agreement hailed as a historic …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s former president Jacob Zuma on Monday dismissed multiple graft allegations against him, telling a judicial inquiry he was the victim of conspiracies, years of “character assassination” and plots to kill him. In an often rambling monologue, Zuma accused unnamed foreign intelligence agencies and …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Authorities in Democratic Republic of Congo have appealed for calm after an evangelical preacher fell ill with Ebola in the eastern city of Goma, the first recorded case of the disease in the urban hub in a nearly year-old epidemic. Goma, which has a population …

Soweto, South Africa | AFP |  After helping an elderly woman load her bags into a mini-bus taxi at a busy intersection in Soweto, a scrawny and strung-out young man is rewarded with a few coins for his efforts. High on nyaope, a street drug whose main ingredient is heroin, …