WORLD

Tanzanian President John Magufuli has sacked nearly 10,000 civil servants for having fake education certificates. He was responding to the release of a government report into fraudulent qualifications in the public sector. The education minister said that some had been using their relatives’ school certificates, while others did not appear on official records at all. President Magufuli has given those ...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says some British people have “illusions” about discussing the UK’s future ties with the EU at the same time as nailing down the UK’s Brexit terms. The future relationship can only be discussed once the exit issues – such as UK payments to the EU budget – are resolved, she told German MPs. On the sequence ...

The US is to tighten sanctions on North Korea and step up diplomatic moves aimed at pressuring the country to end its nuclear and missile programmes. President Donald Trump’s strategy was announced after a special briefing for all 100 US senators. Earlier, the top US commander in the Pacific defended the deployment of an advanced missile defence system in South ...

Abuja – Nigeria’s ex-president Goodluck Jonathan’s former doctor has been charged with six counts of money laundering, the country’s anti-corruption agency says. Fortunate Fiberesima, who worked as Jonathan’s personal physician in 2012, is accused of awarding contracts to companies in which he had a personal interest, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said. Fiberesima, former head of the State ...

Nairobi – A spokesperson for the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders says 25 000 people have been displaced by fighting in the South Sudan town of Kodok. The top United Nations official in South Sudan also warned of a government offensive on the town. Phillippe Carr said that the fighting had caused a reduction in humanitarian services and there was ...

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has missed his second cabinet meeting in a row, the Premium Times newspaper reports. It says that Information Minister Lai Mohammed told reporters that the president was absent because he wanted to rest. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo chaired the meeting instead. Mr Buhari returned to Nigeria last month after being in London on sick leave for ...

China has launched a new aircraft carrier, boosting its military presence amid rising tensions in the region. It is the country’s second aircraft carrier, after the Liaoning, and the first to be made domestically. State media said the unnamed ship was “transferred from dry dock into the water” in the north east port of Dalian. Previous reports said it would ...

A Ugandan activist, arrested for calling President Yoweri Museveni a “pair of buttocks”, has been remanded in custody until next month. Stella Nyanzi’s lawyer told a packed court room in the capital Kampala that his client had been denied access to her family and legal team. Ms Nyanzi, who has been charged with cyber-harassment, says she has done nothing wrong ...

Radio France Internationale (RFI) says its correspondent in Cameroon, Ahmed Abba, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by a military tribunal. He had been convicted of non-denunciation of terrorism and laundering of the proceeds of terrorist acts. Campaign groups say Mr Abba was simply reporting on the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) ...

French President François Hollande has used a ceremony to honour a police officer slain in Paris last week to call for unity in the “long and difficult fight against terrorism”. He awarded Xavier Jugelé, 37, the Legion of Honour, one of France’s highest honours. The two candidates to succeed Mr Hollande, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, both attended. They ...