Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s eastern Mpumalanga province has the most polluting cluster of coal-fired power stations in the world producing record levels of nitrogen dioxide, a report by environmental campaign group Greenpeace said Monday. Mpumalanga, which borders Mozambique, is the hub of South Africa’s coal industry …
Read More »Merkel on the spot after painful regional vote
Frankfurt am Main, Germany | AFP | German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces a bitter political reality on Monday after the parties in her fragile coalition suffered heavy losses in a key regional election and a junior partner made threats to quit. Sunday’s blow for Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) …
Read More »Group of Jewish leaders to Trump: you are part of the problem
Washington, United States | AFP | A group of Pittsburgh Jewish leaders wrote an open letter to President Donald Trump Sunday telling him he bears responsibility for a deadly shooting at a synagogue in the US city. A mostly elderly group of 11 people were gunned down in the bloody …
Read More »Libya’s south falls prey to foreign armed groups
Tripoli, Libya | AFP | Neglected by rival authorities in Tripoli and the country’s east, Libya’s southern desert has increasingly become a hideout for foreign rebel groups that stand accused of stoking growing insecurity. “Kidnapping, theft and banditry have multiplied” in the region, said Ali Akri Molia, commander of a …
Read More »Gabon president hospitalised ‘due to exhaustion’
Libreville, Gabon | AFP | Gabonese President Ali Bongo, hospitalised in Saudi Arabia since Wednesday, was taken into medical care after suffering a bout of exhaustion during a trip to Riyadh, his office said Sunday. The 59-year-old leader was in the Saudi capital for a flagship economic forum when he …
Read More »Liberia’s Weah announces free tuition for undergraduates
Monrovia, Liberia | AFP | Liberian President George Weah, who overcame childhood poverty to become one of the world’s top footballers, has abolished tuition fees for undergraduate students in the poor West African country’s state universities. Speaking Wednesday on the campus of the University of Liberia in the name of …
Read More »Twitter tops earnings estimates, lifting shares
Washington, United States | AFP | Twitter reported Thursday stronger-than-expected profits and revenues in the third quarter, igniting a strong rally in shares of the key social network. The San Francisco group delivered a $789 million profit, including one-time gains, compared to a net loss of $21 million in the …
Read More »New TB test could save hundreds of thousands of children: scientists
The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | Scientists on Thursday unveiled a revolutionary way of screening children for tuberculosis, which they say will prevent hundreds of thousands each year from contracting the world’s deadliest infectious disease. A multinational team based at the KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation in The Hague have developed a …
Read More »‘We’ve got the power!’ In DRC, rap moves to take on rumba
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | It is a conflict at once cultural, generational and political: rap music in DR Congo is staging a frontal assault on rumba, accusing its ageing stars of only singing of love and other banalities. DRC’s growing army of rappers say their urban lyrics reflect …
Read More »Bududa: Gov’t to release sh32 billion for relocation
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Cabinet has directed the Ministry of Finance to release 32.75 billion shillings to facilitate the relocation of 6,300 people at high risk of landslides in Bududa to Bulambuli district. At least 43 people were last week killed and over 800 displaced when mudslides swept Bukalasi, …
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