By Nangayi Guyson – Kampala – (CPJ)–A Ugandan freelance journalist Paul Kiggundu was on Saturday evening beaten to death by Motorcycle taxi drivers , local journalists told CPJ. The drivers accused Kiggundu of working for the police, even though he had identified himself as a journalist, and attacked him while filming some of them demolishing a house of another driver, Frank Kagayi, who they accused of committing murder and robbery, a bystander told the Ugandan Human Rights Journalist Network Kiggundu received treatment at Kalisizo Government Hospital but later died of internal bleeding and was buried Sunday in a town outside... Continue Reading
By Mark Oloo in Nairobi – Commonwealth countries have launched a fresh petition to industrialised countries to provide resources to developing nations to fund climate change adaptation. Making the appeal, more than 900 members of parliament from the Commonwealth said developing countries were increasingly vulnerable to global warming. Speaking at the 56th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, participants said rich countries should cushion poor nations against climate change effects. Delegates, among them Kenya’s Environment Assistant Minister Margaret Kamar, said poor nations bore the heaviest brunt yet they were less responsible for global carbon emissions. The Nairobi Commonwealth meeting... Continue Reading
By Nangayi Guyson – The UK ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair’s commission for Africa said ” billions more dollars are needed to find solutions to poverty in Africa. The commission’s report has been published ahead of a global poverty summit in New York later this month. Africa, this report argues, has changed a great deal in five years. The Commission for Africa says the world’s poorest continent has made “extraordinary progress” since 2005. But poverty reduction has also become more challenging in many parts of Africa, it says. There has been what the commission calls “dramatic” economic growth and a surge... Continue Reading
By Nangayi Guyson – El Arish – The Egyptian government security sources on Sunday said it will re-open its border with the blockaded Gaza Strip at the end of the Islamic Eid holiday period. The Rafah crossing in the Sinai Peninsula will be open in both directions to Palestinians holding appropriate paperwork as of Monday. The government of Egypt closed the border last Friday for the three-day Eid al-Fitr holiday which it had opened in June for what was said at the time to be an “unlimited” period following the killing of nine Turkish activists aboard a Gaza-bound aid flotilla... Continue Reading
By Guyson Nanagayi – Cairo – Egypt’s barge carrying 244 tons of diesel fuel has sank into the Nile river spilling over 100 tons of diesel fuel while attempting to dock near Aswan, some 980km south of the capital Cairo, media and state sources reported on Sunday. Sources say the spill has covered at least one square kilometre of the river’s surface. At least 100 tons of diesel spilled into the Nile, the al-Masry al-Youm daily reported, though other sources said up to double that amount could have leaked into the waters. Civil defence and emergency forces were working to... Continue Reading
