AFRICA

Antananarivo, Madagascar | AFP | Two former presidents of Madagascar look set to compete in a hotly-contested run-off election in December after partial results Thursday showed they were frontrunners in the first-round vote. With 80 percent of the ballots counted from last week’s vote, Andry Rajoelina was on 39.63 percent …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | A global rights watchdog on Thursday called on Angola to halt mass deportations after more than 400,000 migrants mainly from the Democratic Republic of Congo fled or were expelled from Angola in just weeks. Human Rights Watch (HRW) says migrants have been targeted in …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | A Nigerian professor accused of demanding sex from a student to boost her marks has been charged with corruption, one of the country’s main anti-graft bodies has announced. The woman came forward in April with a recording of the management and accounting lecturer demanding that …

Paris, France | AFP | The French government said Wednesday that it was “deeply concerned” over Sophie Petronin, a 73-year-old hostage in Mali, after a new video in which her kidnappers say her health has deteriorated. A seven-minute video of the charity worker released in June had already showed her …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | Libya is planning to extradite the brother of Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi to Britain by the end of the year, Libya’s UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj told the BBC in an interview on Wednesday. Britain last year submitted a request to extradite Hashem …

United Nations, United States | AFP | France, Russia and the United States were locked in negotiations Wednesday to overcome differences over peace efforts in the Central African Republic ahead of a deadline for renewing the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission there. The Security Council must vote on prolonging …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | Kenya and Ethiopia went on scoring sprees Wednesday as the African football qualifying competition for the 2020 Olympic Games in Japan kicked off. The Kenyans were two goals ahead of Mauritius within 13 minutes in Nairobi and finished 5-0 winners of a one-sided first …

United Nations, United States | AFP | UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is renewing his call for UN financing to shore up a regional force fighting an insurgency in the Sahel, despite opposition from the United States. Guterres said in a report to the Security Council seen by AFP on Wednesday …

Cape Town, South Africa | AFP | One day, when nature calls, your urine could be put to better use than to be flushed down the loo. Instead it could be a key ingredient in the construction of a greener office or new home. In one of the latest innovations …

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | African leaders are set to gather this weekend for a special summit aimed at pushing through long-debated reforms to their pan-continental body. The changes seek to streamline and empower the African Union — an ambitious call for an organisation often seen as toothless and …