SmallShop....Africa News

CNN.com Blogs : "CNN) - Good news for Nigeria. A wake-up call for South Africa. That’s my “take-home message” from the headlines emerging from a new Morgan Stanley report, which predicts Nigeria’s economy will overtake South Africa’s as Africa’s largest by 2025. High oil prices, the “decisive” election of President Goodluck Jonathan and buoyant consumer spending will all push Nigeria’s economy into the front in the next 15 years, says the Morgan Stanley survey."

The Associated Press: "MALABO, Equatorial Guinea (AP) — Foreign military intervention has caused massive suffering in Africa, the African Union's current chairman said Thursday in a message that is being seen as a jab at the NATO airstrikes in Libya. Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who is the president of Equatorial Guinea, also blamed outside 'agents' for sparking pro-democracy demonstrations in countries across Africa including his own."

Garowe Online - : "A senior police official in Somalia’s Puntland region has condemned Al Shabab terrorist group for ‘beheading’ two men, Radio Garowe reports. Col. Mohamed Said Jaqanaf, deputy police commissioner in Puntland, told the BBC Somali Service that Puntland police have identified one of the victims as Mahad Mohamud Faraqle. “We have also identified the second victim by clan…Mahad Mohamud Faraqle was detained by our police, questioned and released on 23 June 2011. We believe he was beheaded on 25 June 2011,” said Col. Jaqanaf."

Al Jazeera English : "Angry residents of the Senegalese capital have torched several government buildings including offices of the state electricity firm, Senelec, to protest against long power cuts, the AFP news agency has reported. A policeman said the protesters on Monday 'took everything with them, including the safe' and added, 'The whole of Dakar is burning.' Four offices of Senelec were ablaze and four company vehicles torched. Broken bottles and scattered debris littered the streets of the seaside city along with tyres burnt by the protesters. A tax office was also ransacked and burnt in a Dakar suburb. The public anger against mounting power cuts first erupted in the coastal town of Mbour, about 80km from Dakar, where police fired tear gas to disperse the demonstrators."

The Guardian : "A Zimbabwean court on Sunday freed a senior politician in the Movement for Democratic Change party who was arrested after allegedly calling President Robert Mugabe a liar. Jameson Timba, a minister of state in the office of the prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, had been detained on Friday under sweeping security laws. A special hearing of the Harare high court ordered Timba's release . Judge Joseph Musakwa ruled that the police had 'no justification' for the detention. Timba's lawyers said he had been denied food since Friday."

IOL.co.za : "It surely cannot be counted against Michelle Obama that some of the fine print was omitted from her recent tour of southern Africa. If she was criticised for failing to mention unemployment while empowering young women in the Western Cape, the rest of her upbeat campaign could surely withstand it. The world’s most famous woman, according to Forbes magazine, had a mission – to talk about youth leadership, education, health and wellness. She’d also come to talk about the US partnering with Africa."

IOL.co.za : "South Africa is one of the worst countries in the world as far as unemployment is concerned, eclipsed only by a few countries in the Middle East because they forbid women to work. Richard Pike, the chief executive of leading staffing group Adcorp Holdings, this past week attended a Business Leadership South Africa meeting with the National Planning Commission. He said that if one looked at the number of adults who potentially could work, only 41 out of every 100 were actually working."

mcwnews "At least 10 people have been killed after clashes broke out in northern Kenya over control of grazing land and water sources, as the worst drought in 15 years hits eastern Africa. Police and local leaders said that the fighting occured on Saturday on the border between Isiolo and Samburu districts, which has seen similar clashes in the past few years."

The final episode in the three-part Struggle Over the Nile series explores the impact of Egypt's geopolitical rivalry with Israel and Ethiopia on the Nile.

The News Tribune : "DAKAR, Senegal — Senegal's president agreed Thursday to cancel a proposed change to the constitution which would have paved the way for his son to take power, amid massive street protests that marked the biggest challenge to his 11-year rule and threatened to derail a country known as one of the most stable in the region. Anger boiled over Thursday morning as thousands of protesters attempted to rush the gates of parliament, where lawmakers were meeting to debate the law."

International Business Times : "Swazi dissident groups have suggested Mswati, who has at least a dozen wives and an estimated personal fortune of $200 million, is looking for a 10 billion rand loan from Pretoria. However, Deputy Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene told Reuters this was probably too high. 'I'm not sure where the 10 billion rand figure comes from and I don't foresee assistance amounting to that much,' he said. 'It is too early to put a figure to it until such time as the review and the assessment of Swaziland's problems are done.'"

The Atlantic : "China's growing investment and development in Sub-Saharan Africa, dubbed 'The Next Empire' by The Atlantic's Howard French for its historic potential to reshape the continent and grow Chinese influence, is looking especially imperial these days in Zimbabwe. The impoverished pariah state, isolated by President Robert Mugabe's violent suppression of dissent, has put more and more of its economy and natural resources under Chinese control. The Asian giant, in return for its investments -- both in Zimbabwean infrastructure and in Mugabe's personal accounts -- has won near-exclusive dominance of everything from mineral rights to labor standards, as well as the apparent acquiescence of local politicians and police. Zimbabwe is far from a Chinese colony. The country is politically and militarily sovereign, but as China's economic hold tightens, the African nation's independence is becoming harder to distinguish."

BBC News "Farah Ismael Elih made no apologies for what he had done, and explained how unlucky he had been to be caught on his first ever pirate trip. He appealed to all Somali pirates to increase their work He said he had decided to change jobs from fishing to piracy because foreign trawlers had plundered all the fish in Somali waters. He told me how, with the greatest of ease, he had bought a speedboat, an AK-47 rifle and a bazooka from a local market."

Al Jazeera English : "A Tunisian court on Monday sentenced ousted president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his wife, in absentia, to 35 years in jail each after finding them guilty of theft and unlawful possession of cash and jewellery. Reading out the verdict and sentence in the courtroom after just one day of deliberation, the judge also ruled Ben Ali and his wife would have to pay fines totalling $65.6 million. The judge said the verdict on other charges, relating to illegal possession of drugs and weapons, would be pronounced on June 30, according to the Reuters news agency. Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on January 14 in the face of a popular uprising against his 23-year rule and is being tried in absentia by a criminal court over scores of cases against him and his entourage. Akram Azoury, a Ben Ali lawyer who is based in Beirut, said earlier that his client 'strongly denies all charges they are trying to press as he never possessed the sums of money they claimed to have fou...

Somalia's drought is worsening and the tense security situation is hindering aid operations in the country. But al Shabab fighters, with links to Al-Qaeda, have reportedly been trying to bolster support by offering help to those in need as an alternative to western aid which they claim is a propaganda tool. While lack of food for the next few months is expected to be a major problem, after two decades of war Somalis are no stranger to adversity.

A new youth movement growing in Senegal is drawing inspiration and energy from a popular hip-hop group. VOA's Paul Ndiho has the story.