The News Today

Work on remodeling and designing Kololo Independence Ground to give it an international look ahead of March’s IAAF World Cross Country Championships has started. The Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) Engineering Brigade has been contracted by the Kampala 2017 Local organizing committee to make the improvements ahead of the March 26, 2017 …

Makerere University has released new dates for completion of the 2016/17 1st and 2nd semesters and set a date for the 67th graduation ceremony following last week’s decision to re-open the institution. According to a statement from the University Vice Chancellor Prof. John Ddumba-Ssentamu, all members of staff should resume work …

Sixth Uwezo survey finds learning outcomes consistently low More children are going to school today. This is one of those achievements that the government picks on to show how they have transformed the country from education being a privilege of a few to being accessible to all. But, every time …

Professors show why Museveni will win Cracks are developing in President Yoweri Museveni’s relations with the West, according to a group of academicians and civil society leaders in Kampala. They cite a growing forcefulness in criticism from the donors and Museveni’s equally forceful response to them. One such case is …

Attacks on security installations, poverty, transition politics mark 2016 2016 might easily go down as one of the most challenging years in recent times for President Yoweri Museveni. The year recorded the highest number of attacks on security installations in the west, north, and central and saw growing sympathy for …

Berlin, Germany | AFP | An unexploded British bomb from World War Two forced 54,000 people out of their homes in Germany on Christmas Day, the country’s biggest such evacuation since the end of hostilities. The huge operation on Sunday in the southern city of Augsburg took 11 hours, involved …

Twenty-two civilians killed in DR Congo bloodbath: official Goma, DR Congo | AFP |  At least 22 civilians were killed in a massacre in Democratic Republic of Congo’s restive North Kivu province over the weekend, an official said Sunday. The bloodshed occurred in Eringeti, a town 55 kilometres (35 miles) …

Vatican City, Holy See | AFP |  Pope Francis urged the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics to feel compassion for children, notably victims of war, migration and homelessness in his Christmas Eve mass but also those “not allowed to be born”. Addressing a 10,000-strong crowd late Saturday, the pontiff urged worshippers …

Bethlehem, Palestinian Territories | AFP | Pilgrims on Saturday thronged Bethlehem for Christmas Eve as Europeans worked up some holiday spirit despite tight security in the shadow of the Berlin market attack. Crowds of Palestinians and tourists flocked to Bethlehem’s Manger Square near the Church of the Nativity, ahead of …

United Nations, United States | AFP | The UN Security Council on Friday rejected a US-drafted resolution on imposing an arms embargo and sanctions on South Sudan amid divisions over how to pressure leaders to end the three-year war. The measure presented by the United States garnered only seven votes …