AFRICA

Absa Bank plans to scale up its business by opening offices across the world, including in New York to help US companies expand into Africa. | MADDY WHITE | The US representative office is expected to be operational by the end of the year. It follows Absa opening a London office …

Mhondoro Ngezi , Zimbabwe | AFP | Miller Chizema walked through the forest near his home and came across a pile of freshly-cut logs — a sight that spurred the 82-year-old villager to dismay and anger. The logs were arranged in such a way that they were ready to be burnt …

Bamako, Mali | AFP |  The sign above the station entrance declares that this is the Dakar-Niger Railway: the start of a trek from the arid Sahel to the tropical Atlantic, 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) away. But for those hoping to buy a ticket for a legendary journey, disappointment awaits. Not …

What most annoys investors about them AFRICA | TOM JACKSON | African startups regularly decry the lack of funding available to them, and the long, difficult journey of persuading venture capitalists on the continent to invest. But what pet peeves do Africa-based VC firms have about tech entrepreneurs? Asked that …

Bissau, Guinea-Bissau | AFP |  Guinea-Bissau voted in a presidential election on Sunday which is hoped to solve a long-running leadership crisis in the coup-prone and impoverished West African country. The vote caps four years of political chaos as incumbent Jose Mario Vaz, 62 — who is running for re-election — …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The population explosion across Africa’s regional economic block has become a major danger to environmental conservation. Researchers in some of the blocks are observing new trends of environmental degradation and water pollution as humans search for survival in the environment. Dr. Divane Nzima, a …

Goma, DR Congo | AFP | At least 23 bodies were recovered on Sunday after a small plane believed to have been carrying 19 passengers and crew crashed on takeoff into a densely populated area of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo. An official at Goma airport, Richard Mangolopa, …

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania | AFP | Tanzania on Sunday held local government elections, viewed as a test case ahead of national polls next year, with the main opposition party boycotting the ballot citing violence and intimidation. The long-ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party of President John Magufuli is therefore …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  At least 12 people were killed in Kenya when their homes were swept away in a landslide during ferocious rainstorms, local government officials said Saturday. Their homes were hit overnight Friday amid torrential rains in Kenya’s West Pokot region, 350 kilometres (220 miles) northwest of …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP |  Zimbabwe’s Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who led the ousting of Robert Mugabe, returned home Saturday, four months after he was airlifted to China for medical care, state media reported. Chiwenga, 63, who is seen as a major power-broker in Zimbabwean politics, had been in and …