Washington, United States | AFP | As many as 500 million guests Marriott International hotels may have been victims of a hack of the chain’s reservation database, the company announced Friday. Marriott said it was alerted on September 8 that there had been an attempt to hack their reservation database …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP |  Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Friday laid the foundation stone for huge new parliament to be built with Chinese funds outside the capital Harare. The imposing circular complex will be built over 32 months by the Shanghai Construction group at Mount Hampden, 18 kilometres (11 …

Buenos Aires, Argentina | AFP | US President Donald Trump’s G20 summit got off to a rocky start Friday with explosive new allegations of improper links to Russia overshadowing what he had hoped would be a triumphant burst of trade diplomacy. Trump scored a victory when he and the leaders …

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | AFP | President-elect Jair Bolsonaro named Admiral Bento Costa Lima Leite his minister of mines and energy Friday, continuing his militarization of Brazil’s incoming government. Seven of ex-army captain Bolsonaro’s 20 ministers announced so far are from the armed forces. “I’m not appointing military people …

Accra, Ghana | AFP | Cameroon was on Friday stripped of hosting the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations due to delays in preparing for the continental showpiece, organisers the Confederation of African Football announced. “Today we took the decision to withdraw the 2019 CAN from Cameroon,” CAF president Ahmad Ahmad told …

Buenos Aires, Argentina | AFP | World leaders including a beaming Vladimir Putin welcomed Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Friday at the G20 summit, showing he was no pariah less than two months after the murder of a dissident journalist by a Saudi hit team. In an …

Soweto, South Africa | AFP |  US television celebrity Oprah Winfrey on Thursday paid emotional tribute to Nelson Mandela as she prepared to host a star-studded concert in Johannesburg to cap celebrations marking 100 years since his birth. Winfrey will co-host the Global Citizen festival on Sunday, where artists including …

Port Louis, Mauritius | AFP | Jamaican reggae, the music of the oppressed which Bob Marley catapulted onto the global stage, won a coveted spot on the United Nations’ list of global cultural treasures Thursday. UNESCO, the world body’s cultural and scientific agency, added reggae to its collection of “intangible …

Rabat, Morocco | AFP | Gabon’s President Ali Bongo arrived in Morocco on Thursday to convalesce after a month’s treatment at a Saudi hospital for an illness that has not been officially revealed. The 59-year-old leader of the oil-rich West African state had been in hospital in Saudi Arabia since …

Cairo, Egypt | AFP | The Confederation of African Football (CAF) will discuss Friday in Accra the staging of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations following reports that host nation Cameroon’s preparations were in difficulties. The executive committee meets in the Ghanaian capital Accra on the sidelines of the Africa …