Africans optimistic despite corruption and economy woes – survey

Most people in three African countries have an optimistic outlook despite continuing anger at corruption and economic woes, a survey has found.
South Africans, Nigerians and Kenyans all say healthcare and education will be better for the next generation.
More than three-quarters also say that young people who want a good life should stay in their countries rather than emigrate, the Pew report found.
The research agency interviewed 3,330 respondents for the study.
Respondents reported high levels of political engagement, with majorities saying that ordinary citizens could influence their governments if they make the effort.
More than half said they had voted in the past year or at some point in the past – roughly the same level as in

President Buhari arrives Marrakech for COP-22

President Muhammadu Buhari has arrived Marrakech, Morocco, to participate in the ongoing 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), tagged, COP-22.
This information is contained in the President’s twitter handle.
President Buhari, who left the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on Monday, arrived the Marrakesh Menara Airport in Morocco, some hours later.
While in Marrakech, the President would participate in the official opening of the plenary of the conference on Nov. 15 where he would deliver his national statement during the High Level Segment of COP 22.
A statement earlier issued by the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, said President Buhari would be presenting Presidential address at the conference.
The address, according to the statement, is expected to highlight, among other key issues, Nigeria’s

Sierra Leone govt explains fuel price hike

Sierra Leone’s government is defending a price hike on petroleum products in the country. The government announced last week that it is ending the subsidy of petroleum products, raising the price of a gallon of gasoline, kerosene, diesel and fuel oil.
Under the new measures, pump price for a gallon of gasoline and diesel is up from about 67 cents to about $1.68. Fuel oil is up from about 56 cents to about 90 cents a gallon.
Abdulai Bayraytay, spokesman for Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma, says removing the fuel subsidy was necessary to address the loss of revenue caused by the Ebola crisis which affected the country’s tourism industry, and the plummeting price of iron ore.
Bayraytay said when the APC government came into power in 2007 its priority was improve the economy to attract direct foreign investment and in turn create employment.
“Thus, we embarked on massive infrastructural development across the country. That, of course created jobs and employment. Thus, the economy was booming. So, during that period, we didn’t feel it was necessary to

Russian minister Alexei Ulyukayev detained over ‘bribe’

Russia’s Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev has been detained in connection with an alleged bribe.
Russia’s main anti-corruption body, the Investigative Committee, said Ulyukayev received a payment of $2m.
His ministry had given a positive assessment that led to the oil giant Rosneft acquiring a 50% stake in another oil company, Bashneft. He is the highest-ranking Russian official to be detained since the 1991 coup attempt in what was then the USSR.
“This is about extortion of a bribe from Rosneft representatives accompanied by threats,” Svetlana Petrenko, a spokesperson for the Investigative Committee, told RIA Novosti news agency.

Lethal Cameroon liquor kills 14

Fourteen people have died in eastern Cameroon after consuming a locally brewed liquor, State broadcaster, the Cameroon Radio Television (CRTV), reported.
CRTV said the victims had consumed a drink known locally as odontol.
The residents of seven villages in the municipality of Mindoro, reportedly consumed the liquor after they returned from their farms.
The liver
The eastern Cameroon public health officer, Dr Robert Mathurin Bidjang, said two other people who took the drink were in ‘a critical condition’ at a local government hospital.

Attorneys in Trump University lawsuit argue over trial

Attorneys representing plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against Donald Trump’s now-defunct university on Monday denounced a request by the president-elect’s lawyers to delay the trial and excuse him from testifying in person.
In a motion filed in San Diego’s federal court, the attorneys said a request made at the weekend for the November 28 trial to be delayed until after the inauguration in January was no more than a tactic by the defense to postpone the case indefinitely.
“Each of defendants’ ‘modest’ requests to delay this trial has been just a prelude to another request,” attorney Jason Forge wrote in the motion.
He added that the plaintiffs in the six-year-old lawsuit, one of whom is nearly 75 years old, “cannot afford any further delays.”
“This trial, like so many Trump University student-victims’ credit card bills, is past due,” Forge wrote.

Hong Kong court upholds pro-independence MP bans

Protesters have come out in Hong Kong against what they call 'judicial interference' from Beijing.EPA

A Hong Kong court has disqualified two pro-independence members of parliament from taking office, ruling their oath of allegiance invalid.
Tuesday’s ruling was in step with Beijing, which last week intervened in the city’s legal system after street protests.
Beijing ruled that Hong Kong legislators must swear allegiance to Hong Kong as part of China, adding that

Mediterranean rescuers save 550 migrants at sea, recover five bodies

About 550 migrants, most of them from West Africa, were pulled to safety from boats in the Mediterranean on Monday in five operations during which rescuers also recovered five dead bodies, Italy’s coast guard said.
The bodies were in a rubber dinghy and one other person from the dinghy had drowned, according to aid group SOS Mediterranee, whose Aquarius vessel helped in the rescues off Libya’s coast.
“We recovered five bodies dead inside the rubber boat after the rescue, and one person drowned,” an SOS Mediterranee spokeswoman said, quoting two rescue workers who said they saw the person drowning. They were not able to recover the body.

With Trump meeting, Farage upsets UK establishment

After helping secure the shock vote for Brexit, UKIP leader Nigel Farage pulled off another coup by becoming the first British politician to meet Donald Trump, upsetting the establishment once again.
Long dismissed as a political outsider who had failed repeatedly to win a seat in the House of Commons, Farage stunned Britain and the world when he helped deliver the June vote to leave the European Union.
Five months later, Trump’s victory has again propelled the UK Independence Party (UKIP) interim leader into the limelight.
Farage had campaigned for Trump, believing the Republican billionaire — who many thought could never win — had tapped into similar anger over globalisation and ruling elites as the anti-EU campaign in Britain.
When Trump won last week, Farage returned to the United States and on Saturday met the future leader of the free world at his headquarters in New York.
A photo of the two men — Farage grinning broadly and Trump giving a thumbs up — was widely published