AFRICA

Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP | Somalia’s prime minister, Hassan Ali Khaire, fired three key ministers on Thursday after weeks of political conflict with opposition and clan leaders. Foreign Minister Yusuf Garad Omar, Trade Mminister Khadra Ahmed Duale and Interior Minister Abdi Farah Said all lost their jobs. No reason was …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | At least 12 people were killed and 180 injured in South Africa on Thursday when a passenger train collided with a truck and burst into flames, an official said, as rescuers searched for survivors. Images showed a fire engulfing several passenger carriages that were …

Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP |  Israel plans to force tens of thousands of African migrants to leave over the next three months by threatening to arrest those who stay, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday. Under the plan, some 38,000 migrants who entered Israel illegally, mainly Eritreans and Sudanese, will …

  Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP |  Ethiopia’s leader promised Wednesday to release “politicians” from jail and shut down a detention centre where human rights groups allege torture is routine. Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn made the undertaking in comments to reporters in the capital Addis Ababa, although he did not …

Lusaka, Zambia | THE INDEPENDENT | Zambia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Harry Kalaba has resigned, stating on facebook that he took the decision because of massive corruption in government and rising unemployment in the country. In a Facebook post, Kalaba said he has dumped his cabinet post. “There comes a time in a …

Washington, United States | AFP |  US forces in Somalia have conducted a strike against a bomb-laden vehicle that was going to be used against civilians in Mogadishu, the US military’s Africa Command said Wednesday. The strike against Al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab militants occurred early January 2 about 50 kilometers (30 miles) …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | Two climbers were killed abseiling on Cape Town’s Table Mountain on New Year’s Day, with hundreds of tourists stranded on the summit for hours during the rescue effort, South African officials said Tuesday. The victims were one Japanese man, whose wife survived, and a …

Cairo, Egypt | AFP | A gunman killed two Copts celebrating the New Year in an Egyptian alcohol shop early on Monday, judicial and security sources said, the latest deadly violence against the Christian minority. The shooting came just three days after a gunman, identified as a wanted jihadist, killed nine …

Bamako, Mali | AFP | Mali will adopt a law on “national consensus” that may amnesty rebels who took part in a revolt in 2012, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said in a New Year’s speech. Keita, in a nationwide message late Sunday, said the law would draw on a so-called …

United Nations, United States | AFP | UN chief Antonio Guterres has urged Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila to abide by an agreement to leave power, after at least eight people died in protests against his rule. Kabila, in power since 2001, signed a deal with opposition groups …