Barka! Ga abubuwan da ya kamata ka sani
NIGERIA STRIKE: Nigeria's main labor unions have suspended a planned nationwide strike after reaching a deal with the government on the new national minimum wage.
HORN OF AFRICA DROUGHT: The United Nations has declared a famine in two areas of southern Somalia, amid the worst drought to hit the country in more than 50 years.
KENYA/US/REFUGEES: U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Scott Gration and USAID chief Rajiv Shah visited the overcrowded Dadaab refugee camps in north Kenya Wednesday where tens of thousands of Somalis have fled in recent months to escape drought in their own country. The two U.S. officials announced $28 million in aid to ease the crisis.
UN/SOMALIA/FAMINE: The United Nations has officially declared that a famine exists in two regions of Somalia. U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia Mark Bowden announced the declaration at a news conference in Nairobi.
ZIMBABWE: Revenues from Zimbabwe's controversial Marange diamond field have been tapped to fund pay increases for civil servants which materialized early this week, said sources including Mines Minister Obert Mpofu.
MALAWI: Malawi’s vice president, Joyce Banda, has rejected demands that she resign from some of her colleagues in the administration as well as senior officials of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
LIBYA: France says it is possible that Libya's crisis could be resolved through a plan that would allow embattled leader Moammar Gadhafi to remain in the country if he gives up power. Foreign Minister Alain Juppe made the comments to LCI television on Wednesday, after President Nicolas Sarkozy met with two members of Libya's opposition Transitional National Council, TNC, in Paris.
AIDS CONFERENCE: Scientists attending an international AIDS conference in Rome say striking advances have recently been made in prevention and now there is a need to push ahead towards a vaccine to combat this global pandemic.
WHO/BLOOD TEST: The World Health Organization is calling on governments to ban the use of blood tests for active tuberculosis. It says these tests are harmful and can lead to death. This is the first time the organization is publicly warning against a practice widely used in tuberculosis care.
PIRACY: A maritime watchdog says worldwide incidents of sea piracy rose this year as pirates, most of them based in Somalia, extended their reach to attack merchant ships from the Middle East and Asia and hold their crews for ransom. The International Maritime Bureau says there were 266 pirate attacks worldwide in the first half of this year, a 36 percent increase from last year.
