Rome, Italy | AFP |  Pope Francis denounced the deceptiveness of “the culture of appearance” in a ceremony marking Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, the 40-day period before Easter when Catholics traditionally fast. “Earthly realities fade away like dust in the wind,” said the pope at the Basilica …

  COMMENT | SAMUEL KARIUKI | The last 20 years of real estate boom in East Africa has changed our building landscape and inventory, as it quite rightly should have done. Our starting point was a region that was short of every kind of building, from housing, to shops, through …

    Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Leading experts in Uganda’s tourism and hospitality sector are set to discuss creative approaches companies can harness to grow their businesses, at the third edition of Innovation Series Thursday, 7th March 2019 at Golf Course Hotel in Kampala. Eight speakers from different …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Africa Now Summit 2019 slated for March 12th and 13th at the Commonwealth Hotel in Munyonyo comes at a time when there are socioeconomic changes both within Africa and globally. Africa Strategic Leadership Centre (ASLC), organizers of the much anticipated summit are taking …

  Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Total Uganda on March 01 awarded Shs 150million to the top three winners of the Startupper of the Year by Total Challenge, as seed capital to kick-start and fund their business ideas. The winners include Arnold Mugaga, whose innovative idea is to address …

Rwanda, Uganda in diplomatic war of words over rebel ‘support’ Kigali, Rwanda | AFP |  Rwanda accused its much larger neighbour Uganda on Tuesday of supporting rebels opposed to the government in Kigali, a claim firmly rebutted by Kampala. Rwandan Foreign Minister Richard Sezibera told journalists that Kigali had information …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sam Kutesa has said Uganda has no reason to host elements hostile to Kigali or arrest and torture their citizens as alleged. In the first official statement since last week’s close the border at Katuna to trucks, Kutesa dismissed as …

Kigali, Rwanda | THE INDEPENDENT | Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Richard Sezibera has said the rise in tension at the border is the climax of two years of fruitless discussions with Uganda over issues that concern Kigali. “Rwandans have been illegally incarcerated, tortured for reasons we don’t understand. We’ve people who …

‘London patient’: second case ever of HIV remission Paris, France | AFP |  A second person is in sustained remission from HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS, after ceasing treatment and is likely cured, researchers were set to announce at a medical conference Tuesday. Ten years after the first confirmed …

Juba, South Sudan | AFP |  The leaders of Ethiopia and Eritrea met South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Monday seeking to breathe new life into a flagging peace agreement signed six months ago between his government and rebels. South Sudan’s influential Catholic Church last month warned that the deal agreed …