Lisbon, Portugal | AFP |  Angolan President Joao Lourenco on Thursday compared the fight against corruption in his country to “touching a wasps nest”, a day after his predecessor Jose Eduardo dos Santos refuted allegations he emptied the state’s finances. Dos Santos, who stepped down in September 2017 following 38 …

Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Nissan’s board sacked Carlos Ghosn as chairman on Thursday, a spectacular fall from grace for the once-revered boss whose arrest for financial misconduct has stunned the business world, as France and Japan insisted they want the Nissan-Renault alliance to survive the scandal. Ghosn, in jail …

Dubai, United Arab Emirates | AFP | Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman embarked Thursday on a regional tour starting with the United Arab Emirates, his first official trip abroad since critic Jamal Khashoggi’s murder tipped the kingdom into crisis. Prince Mohammed will visit a “number of brotherly” Arab states …

Mane signs new long-term deal with Liverpool London, United Kingdom | AFP |  Liverpool forward Sadio Mane has signed a new long-term contract with the Premier League giants, the club announced on Thursday. The 26-year-old joined Jurgen Klopp’s side from Southampton in June 2016, and has scored 40 goals for …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | President Yoweri Museveni has received a special message from President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi. The message was delivered to the President today at State House, Entebbe by Burundi Foreign Affairs Minister, Ezechiel Nibigira, who was accompanied by Burundi’s Ambassador to Uganda, Jean Bosco Barege, …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP |  South African President Cyril Ramaphosa unveiled a limited cabinet reshuffle Thursday ahead of elections in May when the ruling ANC party will seek to turn around its decline in popularity. In the most significant of three appointments, Siyabonga Cwele, 60, was moved from the …

  Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwe’s new finance minister Mthuli Ncube announced a five-percent cut to senior government officials’ salaries on Thursday in a bid to mend the shattered economy. Ncube’s budget also set out plans for the biometric registration of civil servants to weed out “ghost” workers who …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP |  Ugandan rebels on Thursday fired on a UN helicopter in an attack in the volatile east of DR Congo, though there were no victims, UN sources said. “One of our helicopters was fired on in Semuliki valley by rebels — we reacted in legitimate …

Behind ADF attacks: UPDF deploys at Uganda-DR Congo border Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The top stories in this week’s THE INDEPENDENT. COVER STORY Behind ADF attacks: UPDF deploys at Uganda-DR Congo border THE LAST WORD Role of trust in prosperity: Why many Ugandans are stuck in poverty and …

Gulu, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT |  Agriculture can provide jobs to Uganda’s unemployed youth if well harnessed, according to the twelfth Uganda Economic Update published this week by the World Bank. According to a World Bank statement, the report, “Developing Uganda’s Agri-Food System for Inclusive Economic Growth,” notes that the …