Ever since he stepped on to the national political stage, Barack Obama has been accused of being an elusive figure. But when it comes to sports, basketball especially, no one can doubt his conviction or what he stands for. The man just loves hoops.
In the midst of the horrific massacre in Paris, that has left at least 120 people dead and scores injured, a fire broke out late evening on Friday (Nov. 13) in a refugee camp in Calais, the northeastern French town, injuring a number of immigrants staying there.
Kenya, one of the world’s leading nations in track and field, has authorized the creation of an anti-doping agency with immediate effect, the BBC reports.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) today (Nov. 13) provisionally revoked Russia’s membership from the organization after a report released earlier this week by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) documented wide ranging and institutionalized doping by the country’s athletes.
Over the last five years, Africa has seen the highest rate of population growth at about 2.5% annually and by 2050 a quarter of the world’s population will be on the continent.
There is a new player in Kenya’s mobile space. Helios Investment Partners, a London-based private equity firm which focuses on African investments, has bought out Orange’s 70% stake in the Kenyan mobile operator Telkom.
It is no secret that Kenyan athletes are some of the best runners on the planet. At this year’s World Athletics Championships, Kenya topped the leaderboard with 16 medals in track and field events. Meanwhile, at the recently held New York City marathon, both the men’s and women’s races were won by Kenyans.
Nigeria are world champions. Again.
A threat “to kill all muslims” at Virginia Tech University has raised fears that an attack directed against the campus Muslim community may be imminent.
It is a simple image. A young woman is seemingly trying to chat to a boy. The boy’s face registers a puzzled look and he recoils slightly from the woman. His reaction is kind of funny. And when the photo got posted on Reddit three years ago, it immediately went viral, inspiring countless memes.
A Russian-made Antonov cargo plane, that had also been carrying some passengers, crashed and killed a at least 41 people in Juba, South Sudan, shortly after taking off on Wednesday (Nov. 4) from the capital’s airport, Reuters reports.
In the midst of negotiations over the payment of a record $5.2 billion fine to the Nigerian government, MTN has managed to get its operational license for Nigeria renewed and extended for an additional five years.
For years, Russia has struggled against accusations of racism in football. As the country gets ready to host the 2018 World Cup, it is working hard to dispel that image: The Russian Football Federation (RFS) has announced new “antiracism inspectors” to stop prejudice in the stands, the New York Times reports.
A week after the electoral commission annulled its presidential and parliamentary results, it looks like Zanzibar will have a rerun of the polls soon.
It has been two weeks from hell for MTN, Africa’s largest mobile phone company.
This post has been updated.
The police have found two home-made explosive devices in Zanzibar over the last two days, adding to tensions in the semi-autonomous archipelago after officials annulled its elections, citing widespread fraud. Three suspects have reportedly been arrested.
Talk of the commodities slump hitting Africa is rampant right now, with the IMF having recently cut projections for the continent’s economic growth this year to 3.75%, down from an earlier forecast of 4.5%. Declining demand for the continent’s resources, from China especially, is also having an impact on the region’s currencies.
John Pombe Magufuli has been declared the winner of Tanzania’s Oct. 25 presidential election, overcoming a strong challenge from former prime minister Edward Lowassa of the opposition Chadema party and helping his own party, the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), secure a two-thirds majority in parliament.
If you live by commodities, you will die by commodities. In Africa, this aphorism is becoming true in a devastating fashion. The continent’s economies rode the global demand for commodities in the early part of this century to create some of the fastest economic growth in the world. In fact, in the first 10 years of this century, six of the 10 fastest growing economies came from Africa.
Tanzania’s ruling party seems on track to retain power after a close-run election last weekend. But things aren’t so clear in Zanzibar, the semi-autonomous archipelago off the country’s coast, where the electoral commission is “annulling” the vote after reports of “cheating” and “double-voting” in some polling stations, the BBC is reporting. ”This election was unfair and did not adhere to the law and electoral process,” Jecha Salim Jecha, the chairman of the commission, reportedly said in a statement.
In Africa, there are a little under 5,000 cars for every 100,000 people. In Europe, the number is about 48,000. Yet, the number of deaths as a result of road accidents in Africa is almost three times higher than in Europe, data from the World Health Organization (WHO) show.
It has been a barn-burner of an election campaign in Tanzania. We’ve seen high profile cross-party defections, dueling op-eds in the foreign press, mudslinging on Whatsapp, push-ups on the campaign trail, and much more. It has been the most vibrant campaign season since the onset of multiparty democracy in 1995. All this comes to an end on Sunday (Oct. 25), as voters will elect new leaders to govern the country for the next five years.
Once the leader of the global smartphone market, Blackberry has seen its fortunes fall in remarkable fashion.
