AFRICA

Gaborone, Botswana | AFP | China piled pressure on Botswana on Saturday over a scheduled visit to the southern African country by the Dalai Lama, who it considers a dissident separatist threat. Botswana’s President Ian Khama announced on Wednesday he would meet the Tibetan spiritual leader during his visit to the …

Canchungo, Guinea-Bissau | AFP | The school year is ending in the west African nation of Guinea-Bissau, but some pupils will hardly notice the difference. Long-running pay disputes have kept teachers out of the classrooms for long stretches of the last four decades in this former Portuguese colony, where a …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | Two white South African farmers accused of pushing a black labourer into a coffin and threatening to burn him alive were granted bail on Friday. The assault was captured on video apparently filmed on a mobile phone by one of the alleged assailants, causing …

Berlin, Germany | AFP | Berlin on Saturday said two women who were killed after being stabbed in an Egyptian beach resort were German nationals, confirming earlier reports. “We can now sadly confirm that two German tourists died in the attack at Hurghada,” a foreign ministry statement said. Friday’s attack …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  Burundi’s National Intelligence Service (SNR) has picked up a human rights activist and is holding him over an alleged breach of state security, a police source said Friday. Germain Rukuki, who has long worked for civil associations, was arrested by agents of the feared SNR …

Banjul, Gambia | AFP |  Gambian President Adama Barrow has set up a commission to probe the assets of former leader Yahya Jammeh, accused of stealing at least $50 million from the tiny west African state. In May, The Gambia’s justice minister announced that Jammeh had plundered the meagre state …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP |  A deputy police commander and the administrator of Kinshasa’s central market were killed Friday in an attack by unknown assailants that also freed prisoners, police and witnesses said. The assailants attacked the administrator’s office and the police station at the market allowing inmates being …

Low cost of production is crucial for private sector-led growth – President Museveni Kampala, Uganda| PPU | President Yoweri Museveni has stressed the need to lower the cost of production for the private sector led growth to yield positive results. The President made the observations Thursday at State House, Entebbe during a meeting …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudan said Thursday it would press on with efforts to achieve a full lifting of US sanctions against Khartoum, even as it hoped Washington would reverse its decision to extend a decades-old trade embargo. On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump prolonged a review period to …

Kamwenje, Kenya | AFP | Footsteps came first, then unfamiliar voices, the smell of cow dung and the kicking in of the front door. Suddenly awake, John Mbogo wrapped his 11-year-old daughter Tabitha in his arms and rolled under the bed. His wife, Anne, crawled next to them, eyes wide. Torchlight …