NEWS ANALYSIS

Parliament to probe communications regulator over its media cuts and bans Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | What, really, is the mandate of the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC)? On its face, UCC’s mandate appears clear; it is the country’s communications regulatory agency. It is supposed to promote and safeguard the interests …

Will new president Amuriat lead FDC forward or backwards to Besigye? Kampala, Uganda | IAN KATUSIIME | With the election of Engineer Patrick Oboi Amuriat as president of Uganda’s biggest opposition party,  the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) behind him, Grant Senabulya, a delegate from Nakaseke district who looks to be in his …

How American bribery case sucked in Museveni Kampala, Uganda | HAGGAI MATSIKO | Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa is likely to come under fire from Parliament following exposure of a deal in which he received a dodgy “donation” of US$500,000 (Approx. Shs1.8 billion) from a Chinese NGO cum think tank. The …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | By arresting Darfur’s powerful militia chief Musa Hilal, Khartoum has tightened its control over Sudan’s strife-torn region but analysts say it might open a new chapter of violence. Hilal, a former aide to President Omar al-Bashir, was arrested last week by Sudan’s counter-insurgency forces near …

THIS WEEK: Zimbabwe gets new president after 37 years Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | History was made in the South African country of Zimbabwe on Nov.24 when a new president – Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa was sworn in a ceremony held in the country’s capital of Harare. Zimbabwe had not seen …

Ankara, Turkey | AFP | President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said Turkey could never be “condemned by virtual courts” in the US after he was implicated in a scheme allegedly designed to subvert US sanctions on Iran during a trial in New York. Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab had …

Seoul, South Korea | AFP | North Korea Thursday released pictures of its latest missile launch, giving analysts a chance to test Pyongyang’s claim of a breakthrough that brings the whole of the US within range of a nuclear strike. Leader Kim Jong-Un declared the test of a Hwasong-15 intercontinental …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | Britain First is a fringe far-right group that was relatively little known in the country until US President Donald Trump retweeted three anti-Muslim videos posted by its deputy leader, Jayda Fransen. The group’s rallies typically attract just a few dozen supporters at a time and …

Tokyo, Japan | AFP | The stench of flesh rotting on a sultry day fills the air as cleaner Hidemitsu Ohshima steps into a tiny Tokyo apartment where a dead man lay decomposing for three weeks. The man, believed to be in his 50s, died alone in a city he shared …

Seoul, South Korea | AFP | North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un declared his country had achieved its long-cherished goal of full-fledged nuclear statehood after successfully testing a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile on Wednesday. The United States and its allies have always maintained they would never accept a nuclear North …