Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Inter party Organisation for Dialogue (IPOD) summit scheduled for next week will go on without the main opposition party, Forum for Democratic Change (FDC). FDC officially communicated its withdrawal during the IPOD council meeting held at Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, Ntinda on Friday …

Bogota, Colombia | AFP | Former Colombian president Belisario Betancur, who steered his country through one of its most turbulent periods in the 1980s, died Friday aged 95, doctors announced. President Ivan Duque led tributes for the former conservative leader, who was president of the South American country from 1982 …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Parliament’s committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) has cited possibility of conflict of interest in the sale of Global Trust Bank to DFCU. The committee in Friday continued its investigation into a decision by Bank of Uganda (BoU) to sale the Bank …

San Francisco, United States | AFP | Facebook said Friday it would add $9 billion to its stock buyback program, which could scoop up shares pummeled over the past few months by privacy scandals and a slump on Wall Street. In a regulatory filing, the leading social network said it …

Vancouver, Canada | AFP | Chinese telecom giant Huawei’s chief financial officer faces US fraud charges related to sanctions-breaking business dealings with Iran, a Canadian court heard Friday, a week after she was detained on an American extradition request. Meng Wanzhou, 46, was arrested in Canada’s Pacific coast city of …

Milan, Italy | AFP | Mario Mandzukic scored the only goal as Juventus killed off Inter Milan’s challenge to move 11 points clear in Serie A on Friday. Luciano Spalletti’s third-placed Inter fall 14 points adrift of the leaders with the Derby d’Italia defeat a grave blow to their hopes …

Rome, Italy | AFP | Italy’s competition authority has fined Facebook 10 million euros ($11.3 million) for selling users’ data without informing them and “aggressively” discouraging users from trying to limit how the company shares their data. Facebook “misleadingly gets people to sign up… without informing them in an immediate …

Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP | Police questioned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife Sara on Friday, her lawyer said, with media saying it was over new suspicions of fraudulently misusing public funds. Public radio said that Sara Netanyahu arrived at the headquarters of the National Fraud Squad, near Tel Aviv, …

Washington, United States | AFP | Job creation slowed unexpectedly in the United States last month as the service sector added fewer workers, but the unemployment rate held steady at a 49-year low, the government reported Friday. The new numbers fell below recent trends and avoided another blow-out result, denying …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said Friday that a landmark minimum wage bill to bridge the country’s notorious inequality will become law from January 1 as he eyes elections due in 2019. The bill legislates that the lowest paid workers receive a minimum of …