Washington, United States | AFP | New satellite imagery shows China has apparently installed “significant” defensive weapons on a series of artificial islands it built in the South China Sea, a US-based think tank said Wednesday. Beijing has created seven islets in the Spratly Islands in recent years, built up …

VIDEO: The Central Bank has once again eased the Central Borrowing Rate by one percentage point to 12 percent. According to Professor Emmanuel Mutebile, the Central Bank governor, the reduction is aimed at keeping the domestic economic growth momentum and inflation in check. Inflation has slightly picked up in the past …

VIDEO: The ruling National Resistance Movement is financially handicapped and therefore unable to mobilize grassroot structures ahead of the local council elections. The party’s electoral commission chief Dr. Tanga Odoi says they are still waiting for the central executive committee to come up with a budget, before they embark on …

Juba, South Sudan | AFP | President Salva Kiir called Wednesday for a “national dialogue” to end the three-year-long civil war in South Sudan. In a speech to parliament, Kiir, whose wrangling for power with his former deputy Riek Machar plunged the world’s newest nation into a brutal, destructive and …

Fans of Group D, which comprises Egypt, Ghana, Uganda and Mali, will have to travel by boat or plane to the centre of the country’s oil and timber industries. Libreville, Gabon | AFP | Gabon insists it is ready to host the African Cup of Nations despite concern about the …

Banjul, Gambia | AFP | The Gambia’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) chairman Alieu Momar Njie has told AFP that he had not yet been informed why he was locked out of his own premises. He further dismissed Jammeh’s legal challenge of the IEC’s election result as unworkable because of the …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari proposed Wednesday a multi-billion dollar jump in spending designed to lift the nation out of the “most challenging economic situation” in its history. He pitched his NGN 7.3 trillion budget ($23 billion) proposal for 2017 — a 20 percent boost over …

Washington, United States | AFP | Amazon announced Wednesday it was extending its on-demand video streaming service to more than 200 markets, stepping up its challenge to Netflix as a global television network. The US online giant said its Prime Video would be available in “more than 200 countries and …

Osaka, Japan | AFP | Japan’s Kashima Antlers shocked South American champions Atletico Nacional 3-0 on Wednesday to reach the Club World Cup final, aided by a controversial first-ever penalty awarded by video referee. Nacional’s players reacted furiously after Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai referred to the new technology in Osaka …

New York, United States | AFP | US President-elect Donald Trump sat down Wednesday with top tech executives — including several of his sharpest critics — to mend fences after a divisive election in which the majority of Silicon Valley backed Hillary Clinton. The afternoon summit at Trump Tower comes …