French cities calm overnight after curfews imposed to quell violence, PM says

PARIS, France 

Targeted curfews across France contributed to a quiet night following a weekend of riots and looting across the country, the Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has said.

Curfews were introduced across parts of central Paris, including Place de la République, where protesters had gathered over the weekend, and the Les Halles shopping area.

Other measures restricting the movement of young people and gatherings were introduced in cities such as Marseille, Bordeaux, Nice and Lyon in the south, as well as Lille and other towns in the north.

Lecornu thanked police officers and gendarmes for enforcing the measures, adding that further curfews on Tuesday night would be decided depending on where they are necessary.

Writing in a post on X, he said decisions would be made "on the ground" by French regions and local mayors.

Earlier Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez admitted police had "lost control" in some cities.

He had been strongly criticised by opposition politicians over the preparedness for the disorder, leading him to offer his resignation on Monday, which was rejected by President Emmanuel Macron.

More than 2,500 people have been arrested since the disorder broke out, officials said. One demonstrator's hand was blown off by a police crowd-control grenade, according to the our reporter. About 1,000 police officers were injured.

Protests first began last month with students demanding better school conditions but they have escalated to take in a broader range of concerns with numbers at demonstrations bolstered by trade unions and various protest groups.

Exiled critic of Rwandan president found beheaded in Uganda

KAMPALA, Uganda 

An exiled vocal critic of the Rwandan government has been found decapitated near Kampala, south-central Uganda, according to a police spokesperson, in a case which remains under investigation.

Ugandan police said on Monday they were investigating the “murder of a male adult (around 50), whose head was cut off, and up to now, the head has not yet been recovered”, spokesperson Kituuma Rusoke told reporters, adding that the body had been identified by relatives as Robert Kabera.

The body was found in Luwala, a village near Kampala, and the killing likely took place late on October 16 or early on October 17, police added.

Robert Kabera, a former sergeant who fled Rwanda several years ago, was living in Uganda. The former soldier was not critical of the government during his time with the military, but grew increasingly opposed to Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

Kabera had a YouTube channel, “Major Robert TV”, with 144,000 subscribers. He featured a song praising opposition figure Victoire Ingabire, a rare voice of dissent in Rwanda who had been repeatedly imprisoned.

In Uganda, “Robert had no issues with anyone”, his brother, Victor Agaba, told the our reporter.

“Our problem comes from home… The army created a criminal case against him. It was a witch-hunt,” he said.

Kabera was declared a fugitive after leaving Rwanda and accused of corrupting a minor, charges he denied.

Rwandan authorities have been accused of assassinating opponents of President Kagame, who has governed the country since coming to power in 2000.

The Rwandan president took the reins in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people were killed, primarily from the minority Tutsi community.

Kabera is not the first opposition figure in exile to be assassinated.

In 2021, a former lieutenant in the Rwandan army, Revocat Karemangingo, was shot dead in Mozambique, where he was suspected of secretly supporting an opposition force.

Outspoken opponent Seif Bamporiki was shot dead in South Africa the same year, while a former Rwandan intelligence chief turned critic, Patrick Karegeya, was strangled in his South African hotel room in 2014.

Former general Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, who co-founded the Rwanda National Congress (RNC) opposition party with Karegeya and lives in exile, has survived several assassination attempts.

Kenyan court finds cult leader responsible of 191 starvation deaths

By Our Correspondent, MOMBASA Kenya 

A self-proclaimed Kenyan preacher and his associates were on Monday found guilty of murdering 191 people, mostly children, in an infamous starvation cult.

Hundreds of bodies have been discovered since 2023 at the cult base inland from the Kenyan beach resort of Malindi, in what became known as the "Shakahola Forest Massacre".

Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Mackenzie was alleged to have incited his acolytes to starve to death in order to "meet Jesus".

He was impassive in the Mombasa courtroom as he and 28 others were found guilty of murder.

"I am satisfied that the prosecution has proved the case against all the 29 accused persons for the murder of 190 children and one adult," the judge said.

In the three years since the grisly discovery, more bodies of children, women and men have been unearthed, bringing the total to well over 400.

Mackenzie has also denied charges of manslaughter and terrorism in separate cases.

Relatives of the victims were in court, many making their way to Mombasa from rural communities along the coast.

Francis Wanje, 62, lost eight family members, including his daughter and two grandchildren, in Shakahola.

"This day, to me, is a very, very important day," he told our correspondent before the session started.

"We are expecting a ruling that will be a lesson to the whole public, so that such kinds of things will not happen again," he said, expressing anger over the initial government inaction.

There have been calls in Kenya for tougher regulations on religious organisations after it emerged that Mackenzie had been arrested twice in the past but released.

The mass-grave site at the cult compound run by Kenyan self-proclaimed preacher Paul Mackenzie

The prosecution said Mackenzie "initiated and directed" extreme fasting at his 800-acre (325 hectare) ranch in Shakahola Forest, claiming there was a "structured hierarchy of death" which said children should die first, followed by teenagers, women, and then men.

The children mostly died from starvation, but also from "asphyxia, neck compression and traumatic head injury", prosecutors said, based on post-mortems and police reports.

Mackenzie was arrested in April 2023, after a rights group tipped off authorities and some followers were rescued.

The subsequent police operation exposed hundreds of shallow mass graves, with a soaring death toll that required a pause in excavations as local morgues ran out of space.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said in 2024 that the death toll was 429. Some victims are still unidentified.

In January, Mackenzie was charged over a further 52 bodies found at a nearby village.

The self-styled pastor has a history of extremism and evaded law enforcement for years.

He established the Good News International Church in 2003, and set up branches in Nairobi and along Kenya's coast that attracted thousands of devotees, though he claimed it closed in 2019.

He was arrested in 2017 over charges of "radicalisation" but was acquitted. He was arrested again in 2019 in relation to two child deaths at Shakahola, but released on bail.

EAST AFRICA NEWSPAPERS 20/10/2026

 

Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama ignores calls to resign

By Kieran Burke, TIRANA Albania 

Student-led protests continued in Albania for a sixth day with continued demands for Prime Minister Edi Rama to resign.

Despite those calls, Rama is refusing to step down, saying the demonstrations were not a threat to government but rather a threat to Albania's ambition of accession to the European Union.

"I ​am not being challenged, the government is not being challenged, a government majority or a winning party in the elections is not being challenged but a path is being challenged, a mission is being challenged," Rama said in a live address on Facebook.

"Albanians need to think ​very clearly: Do they want this, do they want that, or do they want the EU?” Rama asked.

Rama ruled out resigning and said that the protests are the "work of an outside hand."

Earlier in the week Rama ruled out resigning, saying that governments were changed through elections.

Student-led demonstrations, spurred by discontent over alleged government corruption, unemployment and poor education standards, have rocked central Tirana and spread to other cities in the past week.

On Sunday, hundreds gathered outside the Education Ministry, chanting "Rama resign!" and threw rocks ​at riot police who responded with tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets.

The protests come at a difficult for Albania as it is among a group of Balkan states seeking to join the EU by 2030.

There have been calls for calm from Brussels amid the violent protests. The European Commission in Sunday condemned the use of ⁠violence ⁠in Tirana and othern cities.

The commission added that it welcomed the Albanian authorities' ​commitment that the right to protest will ​be protected.

"Developing nations need greater digital connectivity" - IMF

By Afolake Oyinloye,  BANGKOK, Thailand 

According to the International Monetary Fund's latest World Economic Outlook published Tuesday, global growth stands at 3.1 percent, while global inflation has spiked to 4.7 percent.

An AI boom is lifting technology-exporting economies, but developing and climate-vulnerable regions face a double hit from rising energy costs and climate disasters.

With over 60 percent of low-income nations in or near debt distress, leaders argue the path forward requires a clear two-part strategy: implementing fiscal consolidation to service high debt and protect social safety nets, while investing aggressively in digital connectivity to join the tech recovery.

At the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings in Bangkok, delegates outlined the stakes.

Wayne Henry is Chairman and Director General of the Planning Institute of Jamaica:

"We are in a challenging environment as we are here because of geopolitical matters that that affect oil energy prices and that would affect all countries transportation fuel. And so they are strong inflationary impulses. And then we have, you know the climate, continent, climate vulnerabilities because of the intensities of events in terms of climate hazards. And a number of our developing countries in particular, are challenged and where we are vulnerable. And so I'm from the Caribbean region, and certainly we are the second most vulnerable"

"The head, though some of the positives we are hearing is the sort of AI boom, that technology boom. And a lot of those countries that are producers of technology and AI itself and, and members, you know, particularly in the supply chain of AI, we have seen optics in terms of revisions upward in terms of stronger growth, but certainly a number of our developing economies, and certainly in some of our regions we are not among them. We need to catch up in terms of to do more to to infuse greater, you know, digital connectivity to benefit in a greater way of technological advances."

By pairing debt discipline with digital investment, developing economies can safeguard vulnerable citizens while securing a foothold in the future economy.

EAST AFRICA NEWSPAPERS 19/10/2026

 

Fires and clashes rock France amid massive nationwide protests

PARIS, France 

Protesters clashed with police in Paris and other French cities on Saturday as hundreds of thousands took to the streets to protest higher living costs and the declining conditions in schools and other public services. 

Several town halls were broken into – and in at least one instance set on fire – and many shops were vandalised and ransacked. 

One protester had his hand torn off by what appeared to be a crowd-control grenade used by police.

Police and protesters clashed violently in Paris and other French cities Saturday on the sidelines of nationwide marches against soaring inflation, with one demonstrator's hand blown off, multiple blazes set and looters breaking into dozens of stores to strip them bare.

The widespread unrest follows weeks of student protests and deepens political uncertainty in France as it readies for elections in six months' time to replace President Emmanuel Macron.

Macron and his government were criticised by many of the demonstrators, who numbered 500,000 across the country, according to the CGT union. Authorities did not immediately give their estimate of numbers.

Police used tear gas and water cannon against masked protesters in Paris and other cities who were throwing projectiles and aiming fireworks. 

Several parked cars were torched in the capital, and more than 130 arrests made.

In the southern city of Saint-Etienne, a male protester had his hand blown off by a police crowd-control grenade, a police source told AFP. 

His maiming came after a 15-year-old lost his hand October 5 to a police stun grenade during another protest in the city of Lens.

In Lyon, protesters set ablaze a tourist office in the city centre, and smashed their way into town halls in the cities of Marseille and Lille, where they vandalised the premises before leaving.

Dozens of shops were looted, including many in Marseille, among them a Hermes boutique, an Apple store in Lille, several shops in Nice and at least one mobile phone outlet in Paris, AFP journalists saw.

A crowd of more than 300 protesters tried to move up Paris's Champs-Elysees, home to flagship luxury stores. As police firing tear gas blocked their way, they yelled "All cops are bastards".

The looting and confrontations with police were being carried out by masked youths on the sidelines of marches that were largely peaceful and which attracted people of all ages, including families with children.

Paris mayor Emmanuel Gregoire stressed that "the overwhelming majority of demonstrators" wanted to "march calmly", but "acts of vandalism" were tarnishing their protest.

In Paris, tens of thousands marched across the east and north of the city in one major march, some shouting "Everyone hates the police" and "Macron, resign".

Captain of flydubai plane describes blocking axe blows as co-pilot attacked

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates 

The captain of a flydubai flight who was attacked by a co-pilot who intended to crash the plane has described blocking axe blows to the head and screaming for ​help as he reached for a knob to open the cockpit door.

Crown Prince of Dubai meets Captain Smit Machchhar in UAE

Captain Smit ‌Machchhar has been hailed as a hero for his role in averting disaster on the flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv last month, helping to thwart what the UAE attorney general has said was an attempted suicide ​attack by the co-pilot who intended to crash the plane into Ben Gurion Airport.

Speaking ​in an interview with The National newspaper from a hospital bed in ⁠Abu Dhabi, his head and left arm bandaged, Machchhar said that when the first blow ​landed, he thought something had gone "horribly wrong the aircraft structure", before quickly realising he was being ​attacked and things had "taken a drastic turn".

"The next thought was I need to get help in here," he said in the interview published on Saturday.

"My immediate action was to free myself from the seat belts and ​I tried to just block the blows as much as I could," he said, pointing ​to his arm that was wounded as he defended himself. "The blows were coming on the head."

"Immediately my hand ‌went ⁠to the knob which opens the door and screaming for my colleagues, screaming his name."

"I believe that was the first time when I lost my consciousness."

The aircraft, flight FZ1073, was in Saudi airspace when the co-pilot attacked Machchhar with a crash axe, typically kept in the cockpit for ​emergency use.

The incident caused ​the airliner to ⁠plunge 16,000 feet (4,900 meters) in 30 seconds before the attacker was overwhelmed and two other pilots who were on board landed the aircraft safely ​in Saudi Arabia. The suspect, an Omani national, was transferred to ​the UAE, flydubai's ⁠home country.

The plan was inspired by the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US, UAE public prosecutors say, as a result of their criminal investigation launched on October 1.

Machchhar said he heard ⁠the cockpit ​door opening and screaming "between my colleague and the guy".

He ​said the scariest thing he felt was the aircraft nose "steeply going down."

"I was not very sure that I'll make it ​out alive from this. Did I give up? No."

Pope Leo XIV thanks faithful for prayers at first appearance since surgery

VATICAN CITY,  Italy 

Pope Leo XIV thanked thousands of faithful in St. Peter's Square on Sunday for their prayers while he was hospitalised for an operation to remove a malignant tumor, and said he plans to gradually return to his usual duties.

The crowd erupted in cheers when the pontiff showed himself in the window overlooking the square, where a week ago on the same occasion of the traditional Angelus blessing he revealed that a nodule had been located on his lung, and that it would be surgically removed.

’’Now that this delicate phase is behind me, I will gradually resume my activities, always with God’s help and your prayers," Leo said, his voice sounding strong four days after the lower lobe of his right lung was removed.

The pontiff said the experience of the last week “has made me feel especially close to those facing illness and infirmity.”

He told the faithful that he had ‘’truly felt your support,'' and expressed ‘’particular gratitude to the doctors, nurses and all the staff" at Gemelli Hospital, where he was treated.

The pope paused for a moment and waved to the crowd before retreating into his apartment in the Apostolic Palace.

The 71-year-old pontiff had the lower lobe of his right lung removed on Tuesday in the first major health event of his 17-month pontificate. The surgery confirmed he had adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer.

Leo's next major engagement is an ambitious November 6-17 trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, including a dozen flights and two helicopter rides to high altitudes.

Histological testing of the tumor and related lymph nodes was underway.

The results, along with details of the tumor’s molecular and genetic makeup, will help doctors determine whether the pope needs additional treatment.

Options include chemotherapy, a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy, or targeted oral therapy based on the tumor’s genetic characteristics.