New round of peace talks between Ethiopia, Tigray envoys
A new round of talks has begun between Ethiopiaโs government and Tigray representatives to work out military and other details of last weekโs signing of a โpermanentโ cessation of hostilities in a conflict thought to have killed hundreds of thousands of people.
Kenyaโs new president promises ambitious climate plan
Kenyaโs newly elected president William Ruto said that climate change will be key to the governmentโs agenda and made an ambitious pledge to ramp up clean energy and phase out fossil fuels for electricity by 2030 during his inauguration speech Tuesday.
Ethiopia calls WHO chief's comments on Tigray "unethical"
Ethiopiaโs government is criticizing as โunethicalโ the statement by the World Health Organizationโs director-general that the crisis in the countryโs Tigray region is โthe worst disaster on Earthโ and his assertion that the lack of global attention is due to Tigrayansโ โcolor of the skin.โ.
Kenyan lawyer goes on ICC trial in witness tampering case
A Kenyan lawyer has gone on trial at the International Criminal Court charged with bribing and threatening prosecution witnesses so that they would withdraw their statements in a case that ultimately collapsed amid widespread witness interference.
UN chief: World worse now due to COVID, climate, conflict
As he starts his second term as U.N. secretary-general, Antonio Guterres says the world is worse in many ways than it was five years ago because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis and geopolitical tensions that have sparked conflicts everywhere.
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Leaked records open a โPandoraโ box of financial secrets
Hundreds of world leaders, powerful politicians, billionaires, celebrities, religious leaders and drug dealers have been hiding their investments in mansions, exclusive beachfront property, yachts and other assets for the past quarter-century.
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Kenya tightens restrictions amid a spike of COVID-19 deaths
A nurse, left, prepares a shot of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India and provided through the global COVAX initiative, from a portable cold storage box, center, in Machakos, Kenya, Wednesday, March 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)NAIROBI โ With Kenya's COVID-19 cases and deaths surging, President Uhuru Kenyatta has announced tightened restrictions in five of the most affected counties. โA third wave of COVID-19 is at hand in Kenya," said Kenyatta in a nationally televised address. The country's rate of deaths has quadrupled, with the 7-day rolling average of daily deaths surging from 0.01 deaths per 100,000 people on March 11 to 0.04 deaths per 100,000 people on March 25. โI am personally convinced that the cost of not acting now will be far greater," he said Friday as he and his wife received the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at State House, his official residence in Nairobi.
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Five die in stampede to view body of Tanzania's Magufuli
Tanzania's new President Samia Suluhu Hassan, center, arrives to pay her respects as the body of former president John Magufuli lies in state at Uhuru stadium in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Saturday, March 20, 2021. Ten of thousands of Tanzanians came out to view Magufuli's body at Uhuru Stadium in the country's largest city, Dar es Salaam, over the weekend. Suzan Mtua, 30, died with four school-age children from the same family when there was a stampede of people wanting to view the body Sunday, Heri Mtua, a family spokesman, said. โThe children had demanded they also attend the funeral of President Magufuli,โ he said. President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who was Magufuli's vice president and succeeded him, was joined by nine African heads of state on Monday for Magufuli's state funeral.
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Death of Tanzania's Magufuli draws sorrow but ire from some
A man reads a copy of the Daily Nation morning newspaper reporting the death of neighboring Tanzania's President John Magufuli on a street in Nairobi, Kenya Thursday, March 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)NAKURU โ News of the death of Tanzania's President John Magufuli drew mixed reactions; sorrow from many but bitterness from a critic who said he suffered during the president's rule which he said shrank the country's democratic space. As tributes come in from other African heads of state, Tanzania's opposition leader has been outspoken in his criticism of Magufuli. โIt's poetic justice," opposition leader Tundu Lissu said Thursday of Magufuli's death, alleging that he succumbed to COVID-19. Many Tanzanians, however, mourned Magufuli's death and praised his rule.
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Kenyans fear they're on their own as COVID-19 surges again
Other doctors say they cannot afford the treatment they administer to COVID-19 patients, yet many work while dangerously exposed without protection. Some health care workers organize fund drives for colleagues to pay medical bills. And yet last week, Kagwe said the government's health insurer will not assist Kenyans in paying for their admission and treatment and treatment for COVID-19. And he told lawmakers investigating claims that private insurance companies weren't covering the cost of COVID-19 treatment that such coverage wasn't feasible. Ten doctors and 20 other health care workers have died of COVID-19 so far, he said, and their colleagues had raised some $20 million for their bills in intensive care.
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UN failures on coronavirus underscore the need for reforms
The coronavirus that has claimed nearly 1 million lives has underscored the failure of the United Nations to bring countries together to defeat it. We are in fact talking about ourselves, because the U.N. is its member states. Born out of the ashes of World War II with 50 members, the United Nations has since expanded dramatically. โWe are in fact talking about ourselves, because the U.N. is its member states. Argentinaโs President Alberto Fernandez said the U.N. not only needs Security Council reform but new energy to live up to its mandate.
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Leaders to UN: If virus doesn't kill us, climate change will
In a year of cataclysm, some world leaders at September 2020's annual United Nations meeting are taking the long view, warning: If COVID-19 doesn't kill us, climate change will. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)JOHANNESBURG โ In a year of cataclysm, some world leaders at this weekโs annual United Nations meeting are taking the long view, warning: If COVID-19 doesn't kill us, climate change will. Meanwhile, the U.N. global climate summit has been postponed to late 2021. That hasnโt stopped countries, from slowly sinking island nations to parched African ones, from speaking out. World powers cannot shirk their financial commitments to fighting climate change during the pandemic, Remengesau said, even as economies are battered.
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The Latest: Venezuela's Guaidรณ urges nations to decry Maduro
Member state flags fly outside the United Nations headquarters during the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)TANZANIA โ The Latest from the U.N. General Assembly (all times EDT):8:10 p.m. But U.S.-backed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidรณ still put out his own online message during this yearโs gathering of world leaders. Guaidรณ is recognized by nearly 60 nations as Venezuelaโs president and has been in a nearly two-year standoff with Maduro. This week at the U.N. gathering of world leaders, African nations again have made it clear itโs time that changed.
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Oil companies accused of wanting to dump plastics in Africa
Plastic waste meant for recycling has piled up in dumps in Kenyan cities. Meanwhile, oil companies are under pressure as more countries, notably Kenya, aim to shift away from fossil fuels for their energy needs. They want Kenya to reverse its strict limits on plastics, including 2017 plastic bag ban! Its a NO! tweeted James Wakibia, who pushed hard for Kenya's plastic bag ban. The American Chemistry Council said it did not know whether the Office of the United States Trade Representative had taken its recommendations into consideration.
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US-China spats rattle world, prompting calls for unity
France has avoided echoing Trumps criticism of Beijings handling of the coronavirus, but legislators applauded Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian last week when he condemned abuses of minority Uighurs in Chinas northwest. That rancor has spread to include Hong Kong, Chinese Muslims, spying accusations and control of the South China Sea. Trump complains about the cost of stationing 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea to protect against North Korean threats. The U.S.-Chinese row has thrown a question to South Korea" about which side to choose, the newspaper Dong-A Ilbo said in an editorial Monday. We are making clear: Beijings claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a July 13 statement.
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Virus cases up sharply in Africa, India as inequality stings
Covid-19 patients are being treated at the Tshwane District Hospital in Pretoria, South Africa, Friday July 10, 2020. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize this week said South Africa could run out of available hospital beds within the month. Inequality concerns are growing as health workers seek better protection while some among the rich are hoarding equipment at home. South Africa now has more than 250,000 confirmed cases, including more than 3,800 deaths. More than 8,000 health workers across Africa have been infected, half of them in South Africa.

Kenya launches second phase of billion-dollar Chinese railway project
Two years after the completion of the first phase of the Standard Gauge Railway project, Kenya's largest infrastructure project since independence, President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday launched its second phase. NAIROBI, Kenya - Two years after the completion of the first phase of the Standard Gauge Railway project (SGR), Kenya's largest infrastructure project since independence, President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday launched its second phase. According to Kanze Dena, spokeswoman for the President's office, SGR's second phase has four terminals and its trains will operate three times a day. The development of Kenya's rail service has been part of China's One Belt, One Road initiative, a billion-dollar infrastructure project throughout Asia, Europe and Africa. Phase one and two are not the end of the line for the railway project.

Kenya launches largest wind power plant in Africa
In this file photo taken in 2016 wind turbines of the Lake Turkana Wind Power project (LTWP) are seen in Loiyangalani district, Marsabit County, northern Kenya. (CNN) - Kenya has launched Africa's largest wind power farm in a bid to boost electricity generating capacity and to meet the country's ambitious goal of 100% green energy by 2020. State-owned power company KenGen produces approximately 80% of electricity consumed in Kenya, and of that, 65% comes from hydro-power sources, which it sells to Kenya Power, the country's main electricity transmission company,Kenya's LTWP is not the only existing wind power project on the continent. Africa has fully operational wind farms in Morocco, Ethiopia, and South Africa providing sustainable energy. In South Africa, wind energy is already boosting electricity.

Kenya telecoms giant Bob Collymore dies of cancer at 61
(CNN) - Bob Collymore, chief executive officer of Safaricom, Kenya's largest mobile service provider, died of cancer on Monday, the company announced on Monday. Collymore began receiving treatment for leukemia in 2017, but his condition worsened in recent weeks, Safaricom Chairman Nicholas Nganga, said in a statement. "He has been undergoing treatment for his condition since then in different hospitals and most recently at Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi. In recent weeks, his condition worsened, and he succumbed to the cancer at his home in the early hours of Monday," the company said. "It is with deep sadness that I have this morning received news of the death of Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore after years of battling cancer.