Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda will spend US$1.2 million on marketing the country’s tourism potential, an addition to the US$ 1.5 million that was spent last year. The State Minister for Tourism, Godfrey Kiwanda, says government will hire there more public relations firms from China, Japan and Gulf states …

Paris, France | AFP | Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday dismissed the threat of new sanctions following an early election called for Sunday, which critics have denounced as a sham aimed at tightening his grip on power. “These are unacceptable threats toward any sovereign nation,” Maduro said in an …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | High Court Judge, Yasin Nyanzi has quashed a ten year sentence given to 23-year-old Peter Mayanja for trafficking in Catha-Edulis alias Miraa. Mayanja, a former clearing agent at Entebbe Airport, was picked up by Aviation police in 2016 and charged with Trafficking in psychiatric substance …

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | AFP | The Saudi Football Federation have banned referee Fahad al-Mirdasi for life over bribery and urged FIFA to remove him from the pool of referees for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Mirdasi was suspended after admitting offering to take a bribe to influence the …

Kampala, Uganda | AGNES E NANTABA | Isaac Kimaze Semakadde was in April named the most outstanding public interest litigation lawyer in Uganda by the Uganda Law Society. He describes public interest litigation as a special practice where an advocate sacrifices time, talent, resources, and energy that they could have rented …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | David Moyes has left West Ham following the end of his short-term contract, the Premier League club announced on Wednesday. The 55-year-old former Everton and Manchester United boss arrived at London Stadium in November, with the sole objective of ensuring the Hammers’ top-flight status, …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | Three months ago, Jacob Zuma was ousted as president of South Africa, in a humiliating end to his nine-year rule. But he and his supporters seem determined to not go quietly. Zuma reluctantly resigned from office after the ruling ANC party turned against him …

Accra, Ghana | AFP | A paramilitary unit controlled by former Gambian president Yahya Jammeh was accused Wednesday by rights groups of being behind the killings of more than 50 West African migrants in 2005. Human Rights Watch and TRIAL International said they interviewed 30 former Gambian officials, including 11 …

Economists are confident that Africa’s development model will be different from that of East Asia COMMENT | BRAHIMA COULIBALY | Recent projections indicate that several Sub-Saharan African countries will experience robust economic growth over the next five years. By 2023, around one-third of the region’s economies will have grown at an …

Kampala, Uganda | AGNES E NANTABA | Sydney Asubo is the Executive Director of Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA). He spoke to the Independent’s Agnes E Nantaba about the status of money laundering in Uganda and efforts to combat it. What encompasses your management style? My philosophy has essentially remained the same …