AFRICA

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia | AFP | Saudi Arabia allowed women to enter a football stadium for the first time to watch a match Friday, as the ultra-conservative kingdom eases strict decades-old rules separating the sexes. The new measure comes after Riyadh, long known for imposing harsh restrictions on women, announced …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Africans reacted angrily Friday after US President Donald Trump reportedly referred to their nations as “shithole countries”, with many lashing the US president for racism and ignorance. The 55-nation African Union condemned the remarks while the southern African state of Botswana hauled in the US …

Paris, France | AFP | Three French soldiers deployed in a counter-terrorism force in Mali’s restive northeast were injured, one seriously, in a suicide bomb attack, France’s army said Friday. The convoy was attacked while travelling between the Menaka and Indelimane regions on Thursday, the fifth anniversary of the launch …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Supported by throngs of worshippers and with western ambassadors in attendance, Catholic leaders in DR Congo hammered home a message of anger toward President Joseph Kabila on Friday at a mass to mourn victims of a crackdown. Police fired a couple of warning shots …

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | The African Union said Friday that President Donald Trump’s reported description of African nations as “shithole countries” broke with “accepted behaviour” and was “extremely upsetting.” Ebba Kalondo, spokeswoman for AU Chairperson Moussa Faki, told AFP that Trump’s statement “truly flies in the face of …

  Gaborone, Botswana | AFP | Botswana’s government on Friday summoned the US ambassador to complain about remarks reportedly made by President Donald Trump describing African nations as “shithole countries”. The alleged comments, first reported by The Washington Post, were apparently made during a meeting at the White House about …

Rabat, Morocco | AFP | Five facts about the African Nations Championship (CHAN), which begins in Morocco Saturday: — A total of 242 goals have been scored during the previous four tournaments in the Ivory Coast, Sudan, South Africa and Rwanda at an average of 2.16 per match. — Tunisia …

Bamako, Mali | AFP | Flags flew at half-mast in Mali on Thursday as the government announced 48 of its citizens drowned in the Mediterranean on a single day over the weekend, all trying to reach Europe. The west African nation accounted for the fifth largest contingent of arrivals to …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | A human-rights lawyer representing English-speaking Cameroonian separatists said Thursday the group had been arrested by Nigeria’s secret service and were being held “illegally”, calling on the government to probe their disappearance. Femi Falana said Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, the president of the anglophone separatist movement in …

Gabon president defends constitutional change after parliament gives okay Libreville, Gabon | AFP |  Gabonese President Ali Bongo on Wednesday defended a plan to change the constitution after the fiercely-contested draft cleared a key hurdle. Parliament on Wednesday approved a raft of changes that the opposition has slammed as a …