Libreville, Gabon | AFP | Gabon’s President Ali Bongo on Monday addressed his compatriots for the first time since suffering a stroke on October 24, in a New Year’s message recorded in Morocco and distributed via social and traditional media. “It is true that I have been through a difficult …

Washington, United States | AFP | Former US president Jimmy Carter warned Monday of the risks of sliding into a Cold War with China and called on the powers to find common cause on African development. Marking the 40th anniversary of his January 1979 normalization of relations with Chinese leader …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | Arsenal manager Unai Emery was fined £8,000 ($10,000) on Monday for kicking a water bottle into the crowd during his side’s Boxing Day draw at Brighton after admitting to a Football Association charge. “Unai Emery has been fined £8,000 after he admitted an FA …

N’Djamena, Chad | AFP | Chad’s President Idriss Deby said Monday that repeatedly postponed legislative and local elections in the central African state will be held in the first half of 2019. It will be the poor, oil-rich state’s first legislative elections since 2011. The vote had originally been scheduled …

Doha, Qatar | AFP | World Cup 2022 host Qatar is to introduce a 100 percent tax on alcohol from January 1, a government official confirmed on Monday. The “sin” tax is being introduced just weeks after the conservative Muslim Gulf state announced in its annual budget statement that it …

Manchester, United Kingdom | AFP | After scoring 12 goals in three games under caretaker manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Manchester United could add another weapon to their attacking arsenal at Newcastle on Wednesday, with Alexis Sanchez set to return from injury. The Chilean has been sidelined by a hamstring injury …

Brasília, Brazil | AFP | Brazil entered a new chapter in its history on Tuesday, embracing a far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, whose determination to break with decades of centrist rule has raised both hopes and fears. The former paratrooper and longtime lawmaker was starting his four-year mandate on January 1 …

Race between Rav4, Subaru Forester, Kluger, Harrier Kampala, Uganda | MOTORING GURU | When The Independent’s motoring guru did a column in December 2017 predicting the popular car of 2018, the focus was on the evergreen compact SUV; the Toyota RAV4. Buried deep in that review was mention of an emerging …

Kampala, Uganda | AGENCIES | The organizers of the 2019 European Car of the Year (ECOTY) have announced the seven finalists of this year’s competition that will fight for the ECOTY crown. The seven finalists in alphabetic order are; Alpine A110, Citroen C5 Aircross, Ford Focus, Jaguar I-Pace, Kia Ceed, Mercedes-Benz …

Tampa, United States | AFP | NASA rang in the New Year on Tuesday with a historic flyby of the farthest, and quite possibly the oldest, cosmic body ever explored by humankind — a tiny, distant world called Ultima Thule — in the hopes of learning more about how planets …