Istanbul, Turkey | AFP | Aydin Sefa Akay is one of over 41,000 people arrested and awaiting trial in Turkey in the wake of the unsuccessful July 15 coup plot to unseat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But Akay is no ordinary prisoner. A former Turkish ambassador, he is a top …
Read More »First lady Melania and the political fashion police
New York, United States | AFP | She may be tall, slim and a former model, but incoming first lady Melania Trump faces a new kind of fashion police — designers refusing to dress her because of her husband’s politics. She has posed nude for GQ, modeled in Paris and …
Read More »Gambia’s president-elect to stay in ‘exile’ in Senegal until his inauguration
Dakar, Senegal | AFP | The inauguration of Gambia’s president-elect Adama Barrow will go ahead this week, his spokesman insisted Sunday, as he landed in neighbouring Senegal to wait out the final days of President Yahya Jammeh’s mandate. Jammeh has refused to cede power after disputing the result of a …
Read More »CIA chief warns Trump on pro-Russia remarks
CIA chief urges Trump to temper impulses amid Russia claims Washington, United States | AFP | Allegations of Russian interference in US politics cast a shadow over inaugural preparations on Sunday, with the CIA chief warning that President-elect Donald Trump must tamp down his shoot-from-the-hip style to protect national security. …
Read More »DRC opposition figure Lumbala arrives in Kinshasa
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | A DR Congo opposition leader accused of “high treason” returned to Kinshasa on Sunday two weeks after a key deal to end a political crisis in the vast African country. Roger Lumbala, head of the small opposition Rally of Congolese Democrats and Nationalists (RCD-N), …
Read More »Jammeh refuses to leave, Barrow flies out of country
Gambia’s Barrow to meet west African leaders in Mali Banjul, Gambia | AFP | President-elect Adama Barrow flew out of The Gambia late Friday to meet west African leaders attending a summit in Bamako with hopes of ending the country’s political crisis, Nigeria’s foreign minister said. “The ECOWAS team has …
Read More »US Congress approves first step for repealing Obamacare
Washington, United States | AFP | The US House of Representatives on Friday joined the Senate in passing a critical measure that marks the first major step toward repealing outgoing President Barack Obama’s landmark but controversial health care reforms. The House’s party-line vote of 227 to 198 approved a budget …
Read More »Besigye threatens to defy court over lengthy trial
Former FDC presidential candidate Kizza Besigye and his co-accused in case of inciting violence in Kabale in 2012, have threatened not to attend court again after their pleas for adjournment until December were rejected. Besigye is charged together with Eriasi Lukwago, Ingrid Turinawe, Mubarak Munyagwa, Roland Mugume and Imam Makumbi …
Read More »South African president says ANC ready for female leader
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South African President Jacob Zuma has said the ruling ANC party is ready for its first female leader, days after his former wife was named by the party’s influential women’s league as its choice to succeed him. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who has four children with …
Read More »VIDEO: Jammeh asks African leaders to let Gambians resolve impasse
Banjul, Gambia | AFP | Gambia’s president has warned the international community against interfering in the country’s political crisis, on the eve of talks with west African leaders who will urge him to step aside. On state-run television late Tuesday, Yahya Jammeh lashed out at “an unprecedented level of foreign …
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