AFRICA

Brazzaville, Congo | AFP | Voters went to the polls in legislative elections in the oil-rich Republic of Congo on Sunday, the first since a violence-marred presidential poll last year which returned Denis Sassou Nguesso to power. The first round of polling to elect National Assembly members as well as local …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | A strikingly toxic campaign ad was unleashed online in Kenya just weeks before national elections — a potentially explosive move in a country where politics and ethnicity are closely aligned. The 90-second video, shot in moody monochrome, presented a dystopia in which Raila Odinga, the leading …

Netanyahu, Rivlin hold rare joint greeting for Rwandan president in Jerusalem |Greer Fay Cashman| He didn’t do it when U.S. President Donald Trump met with President Reuven Rivlin in June; nor did he do it when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with President Rivlin in early July. But when …

Bunia, DR Congo | AFP |  A US journalist kidnapped last week by a militia group in DR Congo was found safe early Sunday, officials said, as another source said five people had been killed in clashes. Lisa Dupuy and 11 wardens working for the Okapi Wildlife Reserve (RFO) — …

Brazzaville, Congo | AFP | Congo voters go to the polls Sunday in legislative elections in the oil-rich African country, the first since violence-marred presidential polls last year which returned Denis Sassou Nguesso to power. While no fresh violence is expected opposition parties have cried foul, as over 2 million …

THIS WEEK: Kenyatta warns rivals on use of courts to delay elections As Aug.08 when Kenya goes to the polls fast approaches, presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta who is vying for a second term of office has expressed reservations on the judiciary. Speaking during a rally in western Kenya, Kenyatta who …

Bunia, DR Congo | AFP |  Eleven park wardens and a US journalist in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo are missing amid signs they were kidnapped by a local militia, sources said Saturday. “Eleven guards and an American journalist working for the Okapi Wildlife Reserve (RFO) were abducted on Friday …

Gaborone, Botswana | AFP | China piled pressure on Botswana on Saturday over a scheduled visit to the southern African country by the Dalai Lama, who it considers a dissident separatist threat. Botswana’s President Ian Khama announced on Wednesday he would meet the Tibetan spiritual leader during his visit to the …

Canchungo, Guinea-Bissau | AFP | The school year is ending in the west African nation of Guinea-Bissau, but some pupils will hardly notice the difference. Long-running pay disputes have kept teachers out of the classrooms for long stretches of the last four decades in this former Portuguese colony, where a …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | Two white South African farmers accused of pushing a black labourer into a coffin and threatening to burn him alive were granted bail on Friday. The assault was captured on video apparently filmed on a mobile phone by one of the alleged assailants, causing …