New Delhi, India | AFP | More than one billion Indians went into lockdown Wednesday, leaving a third of the planet now under orders to stay at home, as the United States vowed to spend $2 trillion to counter the economic harm of the coronavirus. Europe remains at the heart …
Read More »Deadly riots as Trump talks trade, choppers in India
New Delhi, India | AFP | India rolled out the red carpet on Tuesday for US President Donald Trump on the second day of a visit high on spectacular optics, but deadly unrest exposed religious tensions that his host is accused of stoking. The violence in New Delhi on Monday just …
Read More »Tycoon and a tea-seller’s son: Trump, Modi forge bonhomie
New Delhi, India | AFP | They hail from vastly different backgrounds — Donald Trump is the son of a property tycoon while Narendra Modi is a descendant of a poor tea-seller. Yet the two teetotallers, loved by right-wing nationalists in their home countries, share striking similarities that have seen …
Read More »India’s new hangman, father of 7, ready to execute rapists
No qualms for India’s hangman before first job of executing rapists Meerut, India | AFP | Pawan Kumar feels zero sympathy for the four men he is due to hang next month for a 2012 gang rape and murder that appalled India. “The people who are going to die are …
Read More »Parliament scuppers plans to build Gandhi Centre in Entebbe, insists on Jinja
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Parliament Wednesday passed a motion moved by Igara West MP Raphael Magyezi to have both the Mahatma Gandhi Conference Centre and Mahatma Gandhi Heritage Centre built at the River Nile in Jinja. He moved the motion after Members of Parliament questioned a decision by the …
Read More »Narendra Modi declares India free finally of open defecation
Modi hails toilet ‘milestone’ as India marks Gandhi’s 150th Ahmedabad, India | AFP | Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday declared the country of 1.3 billion people free of open defecation, and turned his sights towards eradicating single-use plastic next. Modi — whose claim has been challenged by experts …
Read More »New cars, tattoos: the lifestyles of India’s kabbadi millionaires
New Delhi, India | AFP | Siddharth Desai grew up in humble surroundings but now he’s living the life of a millionaire sportsman, driving a souped-up jeep and taking selfies with fans — and it’s all thanks to kabaddi. The ancient game has undergone a glitzy makeover through the …
Read More »Blame game as wheels come off India’s auto sector
New Delhi, India | AFP | When India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman claimed that a preference by millennials for ride-hailing apps was contributing to a painful slump in car sales, it sparked an online backlash from furious youngsters. They started a campaign using ironic hashtags such as #BoycottMillennials and #SayItLikeNirmalaTai …
Read More »Behind Russia’s growing influence in Africa
Why the new development could be bad news for the US, Europe and India Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA | As Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, hosts more than 50 African presidents for the first-ever Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi on Oct. 24, top on the agenda will be how to sustain …
Read More »Africa’s trade numbers on the rise
Afreximbank says China and India have consolidated their positions as the continent’s single largest trading partners Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA | Africa’s output grew by 3.4 per cent between 2017 and 2018 despite the slowdown in global growth during that period, according to the African Export-Import Bank’s latest report. The …
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