Niamey, Niger | AFP | More than five million children were vaccinated against polio in Niger last month, the UN said Tuesday, adding that the number was higher than the target. The drive was broadened to include children in refugee camps whose parents had fled the Boko Haram insurgency in …

  Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Popular Tanzanian musician Diamond Platinumz has been arrested for publishing “indecent” photographs on social media, the information minister told parliament on Tuesday. Since Monday images have circulated on social networks showing the 28-year-old singer, shirtless and in bed with a female companion. “Among our …

Kano, Nigeria | AFP | Nigeria is facing calls to establish how many of the missing Chibok schoolgirls are still alive, after claims that nearly 100 of them may have lost their lives in captivity. Parents of the missing girls and supporters gathered in the small town in remote northeast …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | More taxes imposed on tobacco products could reduce smoking in Uganda. That is the suggestion presented in the latest study by the Kampala-based think tank, the Economic Policy Research Centre-EPRC. The study led by Dr Ibrahim Kasirye, a Principal Research Fellow at the Economic Policy …

  Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The government has not provided funding for a referendum on the extension of the presidential term of office from the current five to seven years. At least 263 billion Shillings is required by the Electoral Commission to conduct the referendum in the financial year …

Kampala, Uganda | AGNES E NANTABA | Karitas Karisimbi insists on being referred to as `Nalongo’ – for having had twins eight years ago. Three months ago, Karitas returned to TV screens; specifically NBS TV, after a break. She says it’s partly because her twins are now grown and also because …

2364, United Kingdom | AFP | Britain’s hosting of this week’s Commonwealth summit was overshadowed Monday by a scandal involving longtime Caribbean immigrants threatened with deportation, distracting from an agenda of increased trade London hoped to promote ahead of Brexit. After initially turning them down, Prime Minister Theresa May is …

Seattle, US | THE INDEPENEDENT | More than twenty Ugandan Coffee Roasters will join coffee professionals from around the world for the Specialty Coffee Association’s annual Specialty Coffee Expo this week. The five-day expo opening this Thursday in Seattle, Washington, will be used to tap into the unexploited American coffee …

How declining global labour costs and increasing robotics are conspiring against manufacturing there COMMENT | OTAVIANO CANUTO | In emerging markets, manufacturing has historically been a source of productivity, growth, and jobs. Since the 1950s, industrialisation has kept economies in Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe on a steady glide toward …

Effective systems can address today’s four major global health challenges COMMENT | ASAF BITTON | We have four major global challenges in health care. And I think the unsung hero of the health-care system – primary health care – can help us solve them all. The first challenge is the rise …