Tag Archives: politics

Moscow, Russia | AFP | Russia’s internet watchdog on Tuesday warned Facebook it would be banned in 2018 unless it complies with a law on storing local users’ data. “The law is compulsory for all,” the head of Roskomnadzor telecoms watchdog Alexander Zharov told journalists in Moscow, quoted by Interfax news …

Vienna, Austria | AFP | For Europe’s nationalist parties, winning votes is the easy bit. The real challenge lies in keeping internal strife at bay. Just ask the Alternative for Germany (AfD) or the French National Front. On Monday, a day after becoming Germany’s third-largest force in parliament, AfD co-chief Frauke …

Washington, United States | AFP | US rights groups on Monday pledged to keep fighting the new, open-ended version of President Donald Trump’s controversial travel restrictions, insisting they remain a disguised Muslim ban. Despite the removal of Sudan from the block on travelers from six mainly-Muslim countries, and the addition of …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  Kenyan police on Tuesday used tear gas to disperse opposition protesters outside the headquarters of the election commission a month before a scheduled re-run of the annulled presidential poll. Opposition leader Raila Odinga is insisting on widespread reforms of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission …

Luanda, Angola | AFP |  Jose Eduardo dos Santos’s 38-year reign over Angola finally came to an end Tuesday when his hand-picked successor Joao Lourenco was inaugurated as president at a ceremony in Luanda. Lourenco read an oath in which he vowed “on my honour to devote myself” to the …

Washington, United States | AFP | US President Donald Trump denied stoking racial tensions Monday, insisting his charged comments that prompted a wave of symbolic protests by NFL players were about patriotism not race. After a volley of verbal attacks on black athletes led players across the country to kneel during …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwean activist pastor Evan Mawarire pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges of trying to overthrow President Robert Mugabe’s government, a day after he was detained over an offending post on social media. Mawarire responded “not guilty” when the two charges of subverting a constitutional government …

Luanda, Angola | AFP | Angola’s incoming president Joao Lourenco faces a slew of challenges that include dwindling oil prices, rampant poverty, soaring unemployment and the long shadow cast by his predecessor and his family. These are the key tasks that will confront him on his first day in the job …

Luanda, Angola | AFP |  Critics of outgoing Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos accuse him of stripping his country of much of its vast oil wealth to enrich himself and his family. Dos Santos, who will step down on Tuesday after 38 years of iron-fisted rule, has appointed several …

Luanda, Angola | AFP |  Angola’s new president, Joao Lourenco who will be sworn in Tuesday, is a former general who spent several years in the political wilderness after angling for the top job in the 1990s. Since then, Lourenco, 63, convinced key regime players he was the right man …