AFRICA

Monrovia, Liberia | AFP |  Liberia’s elections board on Friday officially certified former international football star George Weah as the winner of the nation’s presidential election, following a tally of all results. In the West African country’s first democratic transfer of power after two devastating civil wars, Weah beat Vice …

Cairo, Egypt | AFP | A gunman opened fire on a church south of Cairo on Friday, killing at least nine people in the latest apparent jihadist attack on Egypt’s Christian minority. The attacker targeted the Saint Mina Coptic church in the district of Helwan, just south of Cairo. Health …

Kampala, Uganda | AFP |  Uganda has charged 45 Rwandans with terrorism following their arrest at the border with Tanzania earlier this month, a police spokesman said Friday. “We arrested 43 Rwandan suspects at the border with Tanzania on December 11. On further investigations two other suspects were arrested,” police …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s top court on Friday ruled that parliament had failed to hold President Jacob Zuma accountable for using public money for private home upgrades, a move that could lead to impeachment proceedings. Opposition parties had gone to the Constitutional Court to argue that …

ANALYSIS: Troubled South African leader Zuma heads towards exit Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s jovial leader Jacob Zuma is a former herdboy who fought in the anti-apartheid struggle and has held onto the presidency despite a plethora of scandals. Now aged 75, he has survived by building …

Maputo, Mozambique | AFP | Mozambique has announced a security crackdown that will target Tanzanians accused of “terrorism” after a spate of attacks in the country’s north blamed by authorities on jihadists. In October armed men laid siege to three police stations in Mocimboa de Praia, close to the Tanzanian border, …

Monrovia, Liberia | AFP | Ex-football superstar George Weah was announced the winner on Thursday of Liberia’s presidential run-off, beating Vice President Joseph Boakai in the first democratic transfer of power in decades following two devastating civil wars. Weah is set to replace incumbent Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who took over …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP |  Zimbabwe’s ousted president Robert Mugabe will get a residence, a car fleet and private air travel as part of a new government-funded retirement package for former leaders, state media reported Thursday. Mugabe will also be entitled to at least 20 staffers including six personal security …

Rome, Italy | AFP | Italy will be sending 470 soldiers to Niger to help the west African nation stem the flow of Europe-bound migrants, Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Thursday. Agadez, the main city in central Niger, has become a revolving door for economic migrants seeking to reach Europe via …

Accra, Ghana | AFP | Joseph Awuah-Darko sits on a stool at one of the world’s largest electronic waste dumps, watching polystyrene and insulation cables burn on the blackened ground. “It’s survival and dystopia,” says the 21-year-old British-born Ghanaian, surveying the stretch of wasteland around him as dense plumes of …