AFRICA

  Why attempts to provide too much too fast are the cause of corruption and institutionalised incompetence The Last Word | ANDREW M. MWENDA|  Last week I moderated a World Health Organisation panel on providing universal healthcare in Africa. These ambitions assume that poor countries have the ability to deliver the set …

Zimbabwe’s Mugabe in Singapore for medical check Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP |  Zimbabwe’s 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe is in Singapore for a “routine medical check-up”, state media reported Sunday. “President Mugabe on Friday left the country for Singapore for a routine medical check-up,” the Sunday Mail newspaper reported. The paper …

Hamburg, Germany | AFP | G20 nations launched an unprecedented initiative Saturday at the group’s summit in Germany to fight poverty in Africa, but critics called the plan half-hearted. Under German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s “Investment Compacts”, an initial seven African countries would pledge reforms and receive technical support in order to …

NETBALL WORLD YOUTH CUP, DAY 1: Botswana ?? 72 Malaysia 26 Gaborone, Botswana | THE INDEPENDENT |  Hosts Botswana capped an exciting opening day at the Netball World Youth Cup with an impressive 72-26 victory over Malaysia on Saturday. Day one also saw victories for favourites, defending champions New Zealand who overwhelmed North …

Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | Women from Sierra Leone can now pass on their nationality to their children, following the passage of what women’s rights groups said Friday was a landmark change in the law for gender equality. Until the new Citizenship Amendment Act was passed on Wednesday, Sierra Leonean …

Kenya’s interior minister dies in hospital: govt Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  Kenya’s government on Saturday announced the death of Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery at a hospital in the capital Nairobi. Nkaissery, 68, a retired army officer, had held the position of cabinet secretary for interior and coordination of national …

  Paris, France | AFP | Long-overdue presidential and legislative polls can only be held at the end of year in troubled Democratic Republic of Congo, the head of the national election commission said Friday. “It will not be possible before December,” Corneille Nangaa told reporters in Kinshasa. Elections are …

Banjul, Gambia | AFP | The head of a West African force maintaining security in The Gambia told AFP Friday that army officials loyal to veteran former leader Yahya Jammeh were plotting against the new government. West African troops were first sent to The Gambia in January to compel Jammeh to …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  A Kenyan court on Friday cancelled a contract to print presidential ballot papers for next month’s elections after the opposition claimed the winning company had links to President Uhuru Kenyatta. The election commission had awarded the $24 million contract to Dubai-based Al Ghurair. A panel …

Bata, Equatorial Guinea | AFP |  The leaders of the oil-rich African nations of Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Congo will sue Transparency International over a case in France involving allegedly ill-gotten properties worth hundreds of millions, President Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea has said. French human rights lawyer William Bourdon …