Zimbabwe to legalise growing of industrial hemp

HARARE, Aug 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Zimbabwe will change its laws to allow farmers to grow industrial hemp for export, cabinet ministers said, adding that the government saw the plant as a future substitute for tobacco, the country’s biggest export earning crop. Industrial hemp is a strain of a cannabis species…

Brazil: Supreme Court denies extradition of Turkey’s Erdogan opponent

BRASILIA, Aug 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazil’s Supreme Court rejected a request for the extradition of an opponent of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan saying there was no guarantee he would get a fair trial in Turkey. Ali Sipahi, a businessman and owner of restaurants in Sao Paulo, is a member of…

Thousands protest against Honduran president after drug link surfaces

Honduras’ President Juan Orlando Hernandez TEGUCIGALPA, Aug 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Thousands of protesters took to the streets of the capital on Tuesday to urge Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez to step down, just days after he was forced to deny taking money from drug gangs to secure his election in…

UN launches new Zimbabwe appeal as millions face food crisis

HARARE, Aug 7 (NNN-NEW VISION) — The UN food agency launched a $331-million appeal for aid donations to feed millions of people in crisis-hit Zimbabwe, which is reeling from a drought and the high cost of food.  Around five million people, or a third of the 16 million Zimbabweans, are…

Kenya, Jamaica commit to deepen trade, people-to-people ties

KINGSTON, Aug 7 (NNN-KBC) — Kenya and Jamaica have pledged to deepen bilateral and people-to-people ties for the benefit of the two countries. The commitment came as President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is in Jamaica for a historic state visit, held bilateral talks with his host Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness…

Kenya launches “Ivory Trade is a Rip Off” campaign

NAIROBI, Aug 7 (NNN-KBC) — In a fresh effort to raise awareness and curb the illegal trade in ivory, Kenya has launched a new wildlife conservation campaign dubbed “Ivory Trade is a Rip Off”. The campaign calls for the listing of the African Elephant in Appendix I of the Convention…

Kenya: Arrests made following the abduction of Cuban doctors

NAIROBI, Aug 7 (NNN-KBC) — Kenya’s Inspector-General of Police Hillary Mutyambai says that arrests have been made following the abduction of two Cuban doctors stationed in Mandera by suspected Al-Shabaab militia in April this year.  Mutyambai says police are still pursuing crucial leads on the whereabouts of the abducted doctors despite…

UN says 1,800 dead as malaria ‘epidemic’ rages in Burundi

NAIROBI, Aug 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Malaria has killed more than 1,800 people in Burundi this year, the UN’s humanitarian agency says, a death toll rivalling a deadly Ebola outbreak in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. In its latest situation report, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs…

Cuba to defend itself in US court over ExxonMobil lawsuit

HAVANA, Aug 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Cuba said it will defend itself in US court against oil giant ExxonMobil, which has accused two companies on the island nation of “unlawful trafficking” of its assets after Fidel Castro’s 1959 communist revolution. The US giant filed a suit in May in a Washington…

Russia: Siberian wildfires started on purpose by illegal loggers – prosecutors

MOSCOW, Aug 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russian prosecutors said that some of the vast Siberian wildfires that environmentalists have dubbed a climate emergency were started on purpose by arsonists trying to conceal illegal logging activity. President Vladimir Putin called in the army last week to help firefighters battle fires raging in…