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 …
Read More »Angola swears in Lourenco, first new president for 38 years
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 …
Read More »Trump says NFL insults about patriotism, not race
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 …
Read More »Zimbabwe pastor Mawarire pleads not guilty to subversion
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 …
Read More »Daunting challenges facing Angola’s new president
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 …
Read More »Angola’s Dos Santos: a family business
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 …
Read More »LOURENCO: Angola’s political Lazarus
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 …
Read More »Japan’s Abe triggers snap election amid N.Korea crisis
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday called a snap election, seeking a fresh term at the helm of the world’s third-largest economy as tensions with nearby North Korea reach fever-pitch. Abe hopes to capitalise on a weak and fractured opposition to sweep back into power, …
Read More »China disrupts WhatsApp ahead of Communist meeting
Beijing, China | AFP | Chinese authorities appear to have severely disrupted the WhatsApp messaging app in the latest step to tighten censorship as they prepare for a major Communist Party congress next month. Users in China have reported widespread disruptions in recent days to the Facebook-owned service, which previously …
Read More »BBC editor gets bodyguard for Labour conference: report
Brighton, United Kingdom | AFP | The BBC’s political editor is attending the main opposition Labour Party’s annual conference with a bodyguard after being accused of bias for the governing Conservatives, The Times newspaper reported Monday. Laura Kuenssberg was seen at the conference in Brighton accompanied by a shaven-headed man identified …
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