Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn resigned Thursday after long-running political turmoil, an unprecedented move in the vast East African country. The decision by Hailemariam, in power since 2012, comes after months of escalating anti-government protests and signs of growing splits within the country’s ruling …
Read More »Zuma’s five biggest career scandals
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South African President Jacob Zuma has resigned from office with immediate effect, ending a controversial and turbulent period in the country’s political history. Zuma, 75, has been in power since 2009 and faced numerous allegations of corruption. Here are five of his biggest scandals: …
Read More »President Ramaphosa to tackle corruption
Cape Town, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s new president, Cyril Ramaphosa, on Thursday used his first speech in office to vow to fight government corruption, in a direct reference to accusations levelled against his predecessor Jacob Zuma. “Issues to do with corruption, issues of how we can straighten …
Read More »Porn star ‘free’ to discuss ties with Trump
Washington, United States | AFP | An American porn star who claims to have had an affair with Donald Trump before he became president now feels free to tell her story, her manager said Wednesday. After Trump’s longtime personal lawyer admitted paying $130,000 to Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 …
Read More »Zanzibaris challenge union with Tanzania in regional court
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Separatist campaigners on the East African island of Zanzibar have appealed to a regional court to challenge the legality of its union with mainland Tanzania, they said Thursday. Rashid Salum Adiy, head of the Zanzibar Rights of Freedom and Autonomy (Zarfa) organisation, a group not …
Read More »Zuma, S.Africa’s unseated survivor
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | The normally calm and often jovial Jacob Zuma is a former herdboy who fought in the anti-apartheid struggle and clung on to the presidency for as long as he could, despite a string of scandals. Now aged 75, he survived by building a network …
Read More »COMMENT: Economic populism and political populism
Why one is almost always harmful, but the other can sometimes be justified in exceptional times COMMENT | DANI RODRIK | Populists in power have one thing in common: they regard limits on their power as undermining the will of the people. For many, this aversion to institutional constraints extends to …
Read More »MSF reveals sex abuse cases as Oxfam scandal widens
Paris, France | AFP | A scandal over sexual abuse in the foreign aid industry that began with Oxfam spread Wednesday, as French group Doctors Without Borders revealed it had fired 19 staff last year for harassment or abuse. The Paris-based group, known by its French acronym MSF, said it …
Read More »Trump pushes immigration plan as Senate mulls narrower path
Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump on Wednesday was on a collision course over immigration with US senators including some within his own party, as they struggled to reach a solution protecting 1.8 million immigrants from deportation. With senators racing against a self-imposed deadline to strike a …
Read More »Zuma’s reluctant exit ushers in new S.African president
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa readied to welcome wealthy former businessman Cyril Ramaphosa as its new president Thursday after scandal-tainted Jacob Zuma resigned under intense pressure from his own party. Zuma announced he had stepped down in a late-night television address in which he took some digs …
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