SOUTH SUDAN: The revitalisation process can restore the tainted credibility of key players if they avoid previous mistakes. COMMENT | Duop Chak Wuol | Countries are created in line with international treaties and norms, and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is the deciding factor for any organised society …
Read More »Boy or girl? It’s in the father’s genes
HEALTH | AGENCIES | A study of hundreds of years of family trees suggests a man’s genes play a role in him having sons or daughters. Men inherit a tendency to have more sons or more daughters from their parents. This means that a man with many brothers is …
Read More »Electric car for Africa?
Something needs to happen on the appropriate infrastructure front TECHNOLOGY | AGENCIES | With a few exceptions, most electric (EV) cars are delicate, expensive creatures designed for paved streets and well-heeled early adopters. And that makes them ill-suited to rural Africa, where many roads are not paved. That’s …
Read More »Internet-based testing for STIs doubles uptake
First UK study to compare effect of access to internet-based STI testing against face-to-face appointments TECHNOLOGY-HEALTH | AGENCIES | Providing Internet-based testing for Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) could increase the number of people being tested for syphilis, HIV, chlamydia and gonorrhoea, including among high-risk groups, according to a new …
Read More »KENYA: Pushing for nuclear power
Why Kenya’s move rests on false or fanciful premises NEWS ANALYSIS | BRENDON J CANNON | Kenya wants to go nuclear. Since 2012, Nairobi has been talking the talk and walking the walk. It has engaged the International Atomic Energy Agency and signed multilateral letters of intent in pursuit of …
Read More »When hip-hop is political force
FEATURE | Alice Aterianus-Owanga | In Gabon as in other African states, rap has become instrumental in constructing political identity. On August 17, Gabon celebrated 57 years of independence with a massive free concert in the capital, Libreville. The aim: to promote national unity in a festive fashion. An impressive …
Read More »EAST AFRICAN BLACKOUT: Uganda disconnected from Kenyan grid
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited (UEGCL) has confirmed that the cause of the power outage that has left several areas in East Africa in a blackout, was in Kenya. Corporate Affairs Manager UEGCL Simon Kasyate told Uganda’s Daily Monitor that they had established the cause …
Read More »Nkoyoyo rests at Namugongo Martrys Shrine
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Former Archbishop of Church of Uganda Dr. Livingstone Mpalanyi Nkoyoyo has been laid to rest by thousands at the Anglican shrine of the Uganda Martyrs at Namugongo. As was his wish, Nkoyoyo was buried in as simple a grave as possible, at a site that he …
Read More »COMMENT: Inequality in the 21st century
INEQUALITY: Unless it is confronted, social cohesion and democracy itself will come under growing threat COMMENT | Kaushik Basu | At the end of a low and dishonest year, reminiscent of the “low, dishonest decade” about which W.H. Auden wrote in his poem “September 1, 1939,” the world’s “clever hopes” are …
Read More »TECH: World’s smallest mobile phone is smaller than a USB drive
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | In an age when phablets and big screen smartphones are more popular than ever, one manufacturer is swimming against the tide by trying to make its mobile phones as tiny as possible. Their latest achievement, a phone that’s smaller than the average human thumb …
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