Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Eight prominent columnists working for Kenya’s biggest media group quit Tuesday over what they said was increased meddling by government and a loss of media freedom at its outlets. The columnists include George Kegoro, executive director of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission; Lynne Muthoni Wanyeki, …

Alexandra, South Africa | AFP | Self-testing kits and vending machines distributing prescription drugs are two ways that HIV treatment is being automated to reduce stigma in South Africa, home of the world’s biggest HIV epidemic. With 7.1 million people living with HIV in the country, removing human intervention is …

Paris, France | AFP | Feeling lonely contributes less to the risk of cardiovascular disease than recent research suggests, scientists said Tuesday, but social isolation really does up the odds of dying after a heart attack or stroke. The alleged link between loneliness and heart disease essentially disappears once other …

Paris, France | AFP | Some 300 million people worldwide are living with the deadly hepatitis B virus (HBV), but only one in 20 received adequate treatment, researchers reported Tuesday. For expectant mothers carrying the virus — which can be transmitted to their children — that percentage drops to one …

Makurdi, Nigeria | AFP | Five people have been killed in fresh clashes between farmers and nomadic herders in Benue state in central Nigeria, the epicentre of a wave of deadly violence this year over grazing land, police said Monday. “Just yesterday we had a case where two persons were …

Tshikapa, DR Congo | AFP | Of the many headaches facing the UN mission in DR Congo as its mandate comes up for renewal, few are greater than the ethnic bloodshed and brewing humanitarian crisis in the Kasai region. The sprawling diamond-rich region exploded into violence in September 2016 after …

Luanda, Angola | AFP | The son of Angola’s former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos has been charged with fraud linked to a $500 million transfer executed when he ran the country’s sovereign wealth fund, prosecutors said Monday. Jose Filomeno dos Santos is accused of “fraud, misappropriation of funds, money …

Freetown, Sierra Leone | Sierra Leone’s High Court on Monday lifted an order that had halted the country’s presidential runoff, although the electoral commission has requested a brief postponement after losing valuable time to prepare the vote. The High Court removed an injunction it imposed on Saturday to halt preparations …

Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP | Israeli police arrived at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence on Monday morning to interrogate him over one of several graft cases that threaten to topple him, Israeli media said. Multiple Israeli media reports said the longtime premier was to be questioned over a case …

Moscow, Russia | AFP | A total of 64 people some of them children perished in a fire that ravaged a busy shopping mall in an industrial city in Siberia, as rescue teams Monday struggled through piles of charred rubble to recover bodies. Russian television showed images of thick black …