Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | Electric light railway tracks soar over Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, a rare example of mass transit infrastructure on a continent ruled by ramshackle, diesel-spewing buses. But despite government promises, the roads below are still clogged with traffic 14 months after the light rail system’s opening, …
Read More »ANALYSIS: After Park Yard evictions
Can Hamis Kiggundu deliver on his promise? Ham Shopping Grounds is a tiny concrete cream building, often called a mall, about half the size of standard football pitch with four floors and flat concrete roof-top right at the edge of Uganda’s oldest sports arena; the Nakivubo Memorial Stadium. The stadium …
Read More »COVER STORY: FDC faces break-up
Whatsapp war as Nandala quits Besigye camp against Muntu A feud in FDC which has been raging on the various Whatsapp groups of the party members shows the party could be headed for major fallout. In one of the most revealing exchanges, former party Secretary General Alice Alaso who is …
Read More »Republican plan to replace Obamacare: what’s new in it?
Washington, United States | AFP | Congress is currently debating long-awaited legislation endorsed by US President Donald Trump that replaces his predecessor’s health care reforms with what supporters hail as a more free-market, patient-centered system. How would it work? Trump insisted Friday it was time to “act now to save …
Read More »ANALYSIS: What is ‘multi-speed’ Europe Union?
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | The idea of a so-called multi-speed European Union is not new, and some might argue that it already describes the bloc in its current form. But as 27 EU leaders without Britain discuss their post-Brexit future, the concept has come to dominate debate on what …
Read More »ANALYSIS: Trump takes risk in targeting critical Republican
Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump took aim at a fellow Republican who opposes his healthcare reform plan Wednesday, in a bid to squash dissent that presents a major test to his presidential punch. After years of Republican efforts to rip up Barack Obama’s emblematic healthcare law, …
Read More »CIA says WikiLeaks disclosures help US adversaries
Washington, United States | AFP | The Central Intelligence Agency on Wednesday accused WikiLeaks of endangering Americans, helping US rivals and hampering Washington’s fight against terror threats by releasing what the anti-secrecy site claimed was a trove of CIA hacking tools. A CIA spokeswoman would not confirm the authenticity of the …
Read More »Decried as Muslim ban, will Trump decree pass legal muster?
Washington, United States | AFP | States’ attorneys general, civil liberties groups and others are already lining up to challenge President Donald Trump’s revised ban on refugees and travelers from six mainly Muslim countries. But can they succeed in overturning a measure that was deliberately crafted to remove the red flags …
Read More »President Trump’s new travel ban: key points
Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump’s administration issued a revised immigration ban Monday that temporarily freezes US visa issuance to anyone from six mostly-Muslim countries and halts for 120 days all refugee arrivals. Here are the key points: – What’s new in the revised order? – Iraq, …
Read More »Trump’s slurs – and praise – of Obama go back years
Washington, United States | AFP | US President Donald Trump’s love-hate attitude towards predecessor Barack Obama goes back a decade, a volatile mixture of admiration and scurrilous disrespect that helped launch the provocative billionaire’s own political career. Trump was a main purveyor of the “birther” conspiracy theory that the nation’s …
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