Eight detained in Gabon anti-graft crackdown

LIBREVILLE, Nov 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Oil-rich Gabon has detained eightpeople for theft and money-laundering as the government intensifies acrackdown on corruption, the prosecutor for the capital Libreville said. The revived anti-graft drive has seen a string of top-level arrests in thecentral African country, as accusations that millions of euros havedisappeared…

Freak waves flood homes in Marshall Islands

MAJURO (Marshall Islands), Nov 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — More than 200 people have been forced to flee their homes, after they were inundated by freak waves in the Marshall Islands capital Majuro. Swells averaging five metres washed rocks and debris onto roads,temporarily cutting access to the international airport at the peak…

Family of five among seven killed in small plane crash in Canada

TORONTO, Nov 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Five Americans and two Canadianswere killed when a small airplane crashed in a wooded area on the north shore of Lake Ontario, Canada’s transport safety agency said Thursday. The US-registered single-engine Piper PA-32 plane departed Toronto’sButtonville Airport and was apparently headed to Quebec City when…

Sudan adopts law to dissolve Bashir party, ‘dismantle’ regime

KHARTOUM, Nov 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Sudan’s new authorities ordered that the party of ousted autocrat Omar al-Bashir be dissolved and hisregime “dismantled”, heeding the call of protesters whose campaign led to the leader’s overthrow. Bashir and his Islamist National Congress Party (NCP) had ruled thenortheast African country since 1989 before…

North Korea: Kim supervises latest weapons test

PYONGYANG, Nov 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) == North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un supervised Thursday’s test of what it called a “super-large multiple launch rocket system”, Pyongyang’s state media said Friday, hinting that it could be the last in that series. Pyongyang fired what South Korea described as “unidentified projectiles” on Thursday,…

Zimbabwe ‘slowly approaching man-made starvation’: UN expert

Drought conditions in Zimbabwe have meant that farmers have not been able to grow enough food HARARE, Nov 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A UN official has painted a bleak picture of the availability of food in Zimbabwe.“The people of Zimbabwe are slowly getting to a point of suffering a man-made starvation,”…

DR Congo: Armed men killed Ebola workers in restive region

Ebola health workers in Congo KINSHASA, Nov 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Three health workers fighting to curb the spread of the Ebola virus in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo have been killed and four others critically injured after an attack by armed groups in the restive Ituri…

US Pres Trump signs law backing Hong Kong protesters

A pro-democracy protester holds up a US flag during a gathering  WASHINGTON, Nov 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US President Donald Trump has signed into law a bill that supports pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.The Human Rights and Democracy Act mandates an annual review, to check if Hong Kong has enough autonomy…

Hungary charges captain over deadly boat collision on Danube

BUDAPEST, Nov 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Hungarian prosecutors charged a cruise ship captain over the deadly collision on the Danube River in Budapest earlier this year.The Ukrainian captain was at the helm of the Viking Sigyn cruise liner when it crashed into a sightseeing boat in May.Twenty-seven of the 35 people…

250,000 people affected by Djibouti flash floods – UN, govt

DJIBOUTI, Nov 29 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) — Flash flooding has hit the small but strategic East African nation of Djibouti, where the government and United Nations say the equivalent of two years’ rain fell in a single day.A joint statement says up to a quarter-million people have been affected in recent days…