NEWSBRIEFS

Photo: Unlike 26 African teenage girls, de Awa – with her 1 and 4-year-old children, and her 14-year-old niece – had luck after a rescue ship carried them from waters near Libya across the Mediterranean to Italy. Credit: Louis Leeson/Save the Children

Rescue Operation in Mediterranean Fails to Save African Teenage Girls

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | ROME (IDN) – Shivering immigrants pulled from icy Mediterranean waters huddled under aid workers' blankets hardly move the hearts of wealthy nationals in developed countries these days.

But the story of 26 young African women whose bodies were recovered near a smuggler’s boatload of migrants caused some heads to turn and tears to fall.

Their bodies were plucked from the sea on November 5 in one of four separate rescue operations that brought 400 people to the Italian port town of Salerno.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 07 November 2017

Photo: Oxfam International Executive Director Winnie Byanyima. Photo by: Stephen Jaffe / IMF / CC BY-NC-ND

Charities Facing Closer Scrutiny over Sex Harassment and Graft Claims

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Two well-known charities are responding to serious claims of misappropriation of money and sexual harassment during their work in Africa.

In one investigation by the Associated Press, the Red Cross was cited for faulty oversight of workers who may have stolen millions of dollars meant to combat the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

The deadly Ebola virus that spread throughout West Africa from 2014 to 2016 killed more than 11,000 people and drew numerous aid workers and medical professionals to the continent. Some of those responders, according to a Red Cross internal investigation covered by AP, fraudulently used funds earmarked for aid. Total losses due to fraud topped $6 million, AP claimed.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 07 November 2017

Afrobeat Legend Fela's Parents' Home to Become a Museum

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | LAGOS (IDN) - A government-led plan to restore the home of the parents of Afro music legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and turn it into a museum has cheered and excited Fela’s many fans and followers.

The colonial era one-story building was built by the late Israel Ransome-Kuti, Fela’s father, and his wife, Funmilayo, over a century ago.

Mr. and Mrs. Ransome-Kuti made their names as educationists and unionists long before one of their sons, Fela, became known across the world as an iconoclastic musician and social crusader.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 31 October 2017

Photo: Fan, Virginia Coal Mine Ventillation. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Indoor Air Pollution Weighs Heavily on Developing Countries

By J W Jackie

RENO, Nevada, United States (IDN) – While there has been much focus on the consequences of pollution caused by vehicles and manufacturing, the effects of indoor air pollution have been neglected. Households are full of harmful chemicals including cleaning products, beauty products and gas stoves.

As these chemicals become trapped in enclosed spaces, the resultant air quality can be up to ten times worse inside than it is outside. Developing countries suffer low quality air more than wealthier nations, which is why tackling air pollution and poverty go hand in hand.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 23 October 2017

Photo: The late former South African President Nelson Mandela and President Robert Mugabe. Credit: The Herald

Mugabe Faults Late Mandela for Leaving South Africa to the Whites

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK | HARARE (IDN) - Thanks to the former South African leader, “Everything (today) is in the whites’ hands.” That was the harsh judgment of the legacy of President Nelson Mandela heard early September 2017 at a rally in Zimbabwe. It provoked a media whirlwind that rocked southern Africa.

"The most important thing for (Mandela) was his release from prison and nothing else," Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe was widely reported to say. "He cherished that freedom more than anything else and forgot why he was put in jail." Mugabe made his remarks in Shona at a ruling party rally in the central town of Gweru. NewZimbabwe.com translated these remarks.

: Global Information Network; NEWSBRIEFS; 26 September 2017

Photo: Eugen Fischer, an infamous German eugenicist who studied “racial mixing” in colonial Namibia, and whose theories inspired Adolf Hitler, and later eugenics researchers at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University. Credit: africasacountry.com

Skeletal Remains of Hereros Give a New Twist to Genocide Case

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – The New York-based American Museum of Natural History is believed to be holding skeletal remains collected by a German racialist scientist who studied the Herero and Namaqua peoples of Namibia.

The find was announced earlier in September 2017 and will be included in a federal class action suit filed on behalf of the Hereros and Nama people by the New York attorney Kenneth McCallion.

The remains were originally gathered for use in experiments. According to representatives of the Namibian groups, skulls and skeletons dating to the German occupation of southwest Africa in the decades before World War 1 still remain in a museum archive. The museum has declined to comment.

: Global Information Network; NEWSBRIEFS; 26 September 2017

Photo (left to right): Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the sidelines of the US-Islamic World summit in Riyadh in May 2017. Credit: Axar.az

U.S. State Secretary Lauds Kazakh Decision to Renounce Nukes

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – "The Republic of Kazakhstan is a particularly illustrative example of the wisdom of relinquishing nuclear weapons," according to Rex W. Tillerson, the U.S. Secretary of State. He was addressing the United Nations Security Council Session on Nuclear Non-Proliferation on September 21, 2017.

"In partnership with the United States, and aided by the Cooperative Threat Reduction Act spearheaded by U.S. Senators Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar, Kazakhstan opted to remove from its territory former Soviet weapons and related nuclear technologies, and joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-weapons state," Tillerson added.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; NEWSBRIEFS; 22 September 2017

Photo: The skyline of Johannesburg's Central Business District as seen from the observatory of the Carlton Centre. CC BY-SA 3.0

The 25 Biggest Companies in Africa and Their Industries

By J W Jackie

RENO, Nevada, United States (IDN) – Business is booming across Africa and a number of companies have risen above the fray with 24 of them being worth over $1 billion. However, many of these companies are not famous outside of the continent, so what are the 25 biggest companies in Africa? They are:

: IDN-INPS Middle East & Africa Editor; NEWSBRIEFS; 16 September 2017

President Akufo-Addo at inauguration. Credit: myjoyonline

Corruption Returns with a Vengeance in Ghana

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK | ACCRA (IDN) – Waving a gold sword – a symbol of Ghana’s presidency – the new president came out swinging against years of debilitating corruption.

“We must restore integrity in public life,” President Nana Akufo-Addo thundered at his swearing in ceremony last January. “State coffers are not spoils for the party that wins an election, but resources for the country’s social and economic development.”

Nine months later, the unpleasant stench of corruption is swirling around the presidency after it was revealed that highly-overpriced garbage contracts to the tune of $74 million were okayed by government officials.

: Global Information Network; NEWSBRIEFS; 12 September 2017

Thousands March for Change in Togo and End to Dynasty Rule

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK | LOME (IDN) - In another strike against presidents who refuse to hand over power, the people of Togo filled the streets this month to protest 50 years of repressive rule by one family.

In an estimated crowd of 100,000 protesters, banners reading “Free Togo” and “Faure resign” could be seen. Police dispersed the protestors with tear gas and violence. In earlier protests in August, two people were killed and 13 injured when police fired on demonstrators. Taking the punishment a step further, the regime shut down the internet, making it almost impossible for opponents to use social media to organize.