Category: THE WORLD

NEW YORK | LONDON (INPS | GIN) – The Sudanese-Born Nima Elbagir scooped a distinguished media prize from the Royal Television Society (RTS) February 18 for her work highlighting the human rights plight of children and young people in Africa and beyond.

RTS wrote for the award ceremony last week: “The work of the Specialist Journalist of the Year took this journalist (Nima Elbagir) to some of the darkest and most difficult places to report on in the past twelve months. The judges thought the winner demonstrated great determination and bravery as well as deep humanity. She highlighted the plight of young people moving between continents and had the language skills to follow their journey in a way that no-one else could achieve.”

NEW YORK – We may all speak English on the internet but there are hundreds of thousands of languages spoken worldwide and a UN agency wants to protect them.

“Languages are who we are,” said UNESCO director general Irina Bokova in her message on the occasion of International Mother Language Day. “By protecting them, we protect ourselves.”

The international day has been observed every year throughout the world on February 21 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingual education. In most parts of the world, students leave school proficient in more than once language. But in the U.S., this is rarely the case.

NEW YORK | KAMPALA – A crowded field of candidates squared off with President Yoweri Museveni at a rare debate this week, just days before national polls slated to take place on February 18.

The debate was held at the glamorous five-star Kampala Serena Hotel Victoria Hall in the capital Kampala. It confirmed various opinion poll projections: that the upcoming contest is a two-horse race between President Museveni and Dr Kizza Besigye.

NEW YORK | ABUJA – Critics who examined Nigeria’s budget for 2016 are shaking their heads in disbelief at the sight of excess and waste so familiar from previous regimes.

A 37.8 million naira item appears over 369 times, and money for the presidential clinic exceeds that for all 17 of the country’s teaching hospitals combined, according to Oluseun Onigbinde, partner and co-founder of BudgIT, a Nigerian group that campaigns for transparency in public spending.

In some instances, BudgIT found, the same purchase of vehicles, computers and furniture are replicated 24 times, totalling 46.5 billion naira ($234 million), 795 million naira is set aside to update the website of one ministry, while no purpose is assigned to a 10 billion naira provision in the education ministry’s spending plan. A report on the budget appeared in Bloomberg News.

NEW YORK | NAIROBI – Kenya’s tea planters are in for a much-needed lift with or without caffeine as trade with one the world’s 10 biggest tea-consuming nations comes on line.

East African tea exports to Iran are expected to jump more than fivefold by 2019 as trade with the Persian Gulf nation normalizes after western sanctions are lifted, a regional tea traders’ association said.

NEW YORK | ADDIS ABABA – Surely, Ethiopia would rather be known for something other than the cyclical hunger-producing droughts spurred in part by regular episodes of El Nino.

Ethiopia is the world’s fastest growing economy. Ethiopia has been doing very well over the last about 15 years. Millions of people have been lifted out of poverty as the economy has been growing faster than anywhere else in the world.

Some in the international community may not even remember 1984, when a drought compounded by political unrest developed into a famine that killed more than a million people.

NEW YORK | KAMPALA – The unspoiled Zika forest, located on the edge of Lake Victoria, home to birds, leopards, rabbits, pythons and other wildlife, is suddenly abuzz with curious western journalists and others eager to visit the birthplace of the mosquito which has been linked to an alarming condition among new-borns in Brazil.

“People have been calling me and saying, ‘What are you going to do with that mosquito? What are you still doing there?’” recounted a bewildered Gerald Mukisa, the caretaker and tour guide at the forest. “I tell them that I have lived here for seven years and nothing has ever happened to me.”

NEW YORK | PRETORIA – An ill wind of layoffs, company closings and unpopular labour reforms are taking a toll on South Africa’s once powerful trade union movement.

Membership in the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has slumped from a peak of 2.19 million four years ago to 1.8 million, following the expulsion of its largest affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa.

NEW YORK | PRETORIA – A protracted battle over pricey upgrades to the country estate of President Jacob Zuma – charged to the national treasury – appears close to settlement.

In an about-face, President Zuma has agreed to pay back state money for some of the upgrades. The President was scheduled to appear in the week beginning February 9 before South Africa’s Constitutional Court on the issue.