2016 rocked by corruption scandals Panama City, Panama | AFP | From the Panama Papers to the impeachments of the presidents of Brazil and South Korea, 2016 was a year marked by corruption scandals, and by rising public outrage over graft. The question is, will that translate into a lasting …

Paris, France | AFP | Money flooded into sport in 2016 faster than ever before and flooded out in the shape of fatter salaries for the stars who have become multi-million business brands. Paul Pogba’s world record transfer to Manchester United set the tone for a year of big money …

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) …

Paris, France | AFP | AFP Sport looks back at a selection of ‘heroes’ and ‘zeros’ from 2016: THE Heroes Leicester City Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester City pulled off one of the greatest shocks in English football history by defying title odds of 5,000-1 to lift the Premier League trophy. Having …

VIDEO: A rise in pollution levels at Murchison bay in Luzira, Kampala is threatening the life of millions of Ugandans – with little hope that the situation is set to improve soon. The National Environment Management Authority blames the pollution on the destruction of the Nakivubo wetland, a natural filter of …

Ikitsuki, Japan | AFP | Japanese rice farmer Masatsugu Tanimoto doesn’t think of himself as a Christian, and you’d almost never find him in a church. But every so often, he and others meet to recite prayers drawn from another time and place. The group, dressed in sober kimonos and …

DR Congo crisis talks suspended, hopes for deal by year end Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Talks to end DR Congo’s dangerous political crisis were suspended on Saturday until after Christmas after a fruitless 48 hours of negotiations over President Joseph Kabila’s refusal to quit power. Kabila’s second and …

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 …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday claimed the military had routed Boko Haram in a key northeastern stronghold, a year after saying the Islamist militants had been “technically” defeated. A campaign lasting for months in the 1,300 square-kilometre (500 square-mile) forest in northeastern Borno state …