Khartoum, Sudan | AFP |  Africa’s economic growth is expected to dip this year before rebounding in 2017 to remain the world’s second fastest growing region after east Asia, the African Development Bank said Thursday. Africa’s growth in Gross Domestic Product is expected to fall to 1.9 percent this year …

United Nations, United States | AFP |  A UN panel of experts has found evidence of “well-established networks” of arms suppliers in Eastern Europe and the Middle East that are fueling the war in South Sudan. In a confidential report to the Security Council obtained by AFP on Thursday, the …

Paris, France | AFP | Europe’s second attempt to reach Mars’ surface appeared in peril Thursday as initial analysis suggested the latest lander may have plummeted to its demise. While holding out faint hope, ground controllers said it seemed the paddling pool-sized lander’s parachute may have been discarded too early, …

Quito, Ecuador | AFP | For Ecuador, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has become the worst kind of guest: he makes messes he doesn’t clean up, he spills secrets, he meddles, and there’s no telling when he will leave. Four years after Assange sought refuge in the Ecuadoran embassy in London, …

Beijing, China | AFP | Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte declared his “separation” from longstanding ally the United States, in Beijing on Thursday, as he rebalances his country’s diplomacy towards China. Duterte is in China for a four-day trip seen as confirming his tilt away from Washington and towards Beijing’s sphere …

Washington, United States | AFP | How should parents and teachers talk — or not — to children about the 2016 White House race, in an X-rated election season dominated by brutal insults, sex scandal and sleaze? It’s a minefield for educators as Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton …

Kampala High Court Judge Yasin Nyanzi has granted bail to Nakawa Municipality MP Michael Kabaziguruka who faces treachery charges before the General Court Martial. Justice Nyanzi ordered Kabaziguruka to pay sh5 million in cash on top of signing a court bond of sh10m before he regained his freedom. The judge …

The Bank of Uganda has with effect from today taken over management of Crane Bank Limited. According to a statement, the action has been taken upon the determination by the Bank of Uganda that Crane Bank Limited is significantly under-capitalised. BOU has appointed a statutory manager, Edward Katimbo Mugwanya,  to …

Aweil, South Sudan | AFP | A serious food crisis in the north of South Sudan is reaching critical levels, as a biting drought across much of east Africa serves up even more woes for the troubled country. In Northern Bahr Al Gazal it is not the incessant cycles of …

Baghdad, Iraq | AFP |  A wide array of Iraqi and international forces are involved in the fight to retake Mosul from the Islamic State jihadist group, which overran the country’s second city in 2014. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the launch of the much-awaited operation on Monday and anti-IS …