NEWS ANALYSIS

Washington, United States | AFP | Fifteen years after the US invasion of Afghanistan, President Barack Obama and the American military have dug in for a long campaign that defies rigid timelines and easy barometers of victory. On October 7, 2001, in response to the 9/11 attacks, President George W. …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP |  Skilled workers are leaving sub-Saharan Africa in rapidly increasingly numbers, producing a “brain drain” that causes long-term social damage, the International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday. The IMF said that the number of sub-Saharan migrants living in developed countries could increase from about seven million …

Berlin, Germany | AFP |  Celebrating its 10th anniversary this week, anonymous whistleblowing platform WikiLeaks can look back on a decade that saw it turn classified documents into global headlines and inspire a host of copycat leaks. But with founder Julian Assange hiding in Ecuador’s London embassy to evade rape …

  Bogota, Colombia | AFP | Colombians say they are sick of their country’s 52-year civil war. So why did a thin majority of voters reject their biggest chance yet for peace? Forecasts ahead of Sunday’s surprise referendum result misjudged how divided Colombians are over how to settle the conflict …

Washington, United States | AFP | Donald Trump urged voters on Friday to check out the supposed “sex tape” of a former Miss Universe backing his rival Hillary Clinton, provoking the Democrat to label him “unhinged” in a surreal new turn to the White House race. In a pre-dawn tweet-storm …

Cairo, Egypt | AFP | Mourned internationally as a peacemaker, Israeli ex-president Shimon Peres’s death has met with official silence in most Arab countries, where public opinion vilified the Nobel laureate as a “war criminal”. Of the 21 Arab states, only two — Egypt and Jordan — have full diplomatic …

  Washington, United States | AFP | A new US law allows survivors of terror attacks and victims’ relatives to sue foreign governments, opening the way for Saudi Arabia to be targeted for its alleged role in the 9/11 attacks. The kingdom firmly denies it had anything to do with …

Luanda, Angola | AFP | Will he go, will he stay? Angola’s President Jose Eduardo dos Santos last week began his 38th year of largely unchallenged rule after promising to step down in 2018. “I have decided to leave political life in 2018,” the 74-year-old leader told party officials of …

Dakar, Senegal | AFP | When farmer Isaac Tondo fell on lean times in Liberia’s long rainy season, his brother in the capital sent 8,000 Liberian dollars (US$87) to his Lonestar mobile money account, ensuring his children’s school fees would still be paid. Across Africa more and more people — …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | As Sam Allardyce beat a shame-faced retreat from Wembley after being forced out as England manager, his place as a punchline in the national team’s ever-expanding hall of shame was already etched in stone. Allardyce had coveted the England post for decades and proudly …