Kenya's new deputy president to be sworn in

NAIROBI, Kenya

The softly spoken Kithure Kindiki is due to be sworn in as Kenya's new deputy president on Friday, after senators ousted Rigathi Gachagua in a dramatic series of impeachment votes a fortnight ago.

A legal attempt by Gachagua to delay the swearing-in ceremony failed on Thursday.

Kindiki, a 52-year-old former law professor, has been serving as President William Ruto’s interior minister for the last two years.

The president hopes that Kindiki's accession will put to an end a febrile chapter in Kenya's political history.

Kindiki was the face of the government in the aftermath of the police’s deadly crackdown on recent anti-tax protests.

In charge of the security services, he oversaw the response to the wave of protests that began in June.

More than 40 people died in clashes with the police and at least 300 others were wounded, but Kindiki lauded the officers for exercising "restraint" while enforcing law and order. He also denied any shoot-to-kill orders were issued.

His stance was met by public anger, with rights groups demanding justice for victims as well as individuals abducted under mysterious circumstances.

In his response to the demonstrations, Kindiki burnished his credentials as a supporter of the president and survived a cull of ministers.

This was not a surprise as he had long been a close ally of the president, having served as his lawyer more than a decade ago during a case before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Ruto, then an MP, had been accused of crimes against humanity over the violence that followed the 2007 election in which more than 1,200 people died.

The case was eventually dropped because of insufficient evidence, but prosecutors argued that witnesses had been intimidated.

Kindiki is, like Gachagua, from the Mount Kenya region and will be able to shore up the president’s support in that area in the wake of the impeachment.

Always smartly dressed with a neat close-cropped haircut, the father-of-two honed his deliberative style of speaking in the courts, but he also worked in academia.

With a master’s degree and a PhD from the University of Pretoria in South Africa, he has authored more than 30 publications - including books and articles in academic peer-reviewed journals, both locally and internationally.

He has vast experience in public policy, governance, public administration, law-making, constitutional affairs and giving legal advice at various levels.

He began his political career in March 2013 when he was elected senator for Tharaka-Nithi county and served as the Senate majority leader for five years.

Re-elected in 2017, he went on to serve as the chamber’s deputy speaker until 2020 when he was sacked in a purge of Ruto's allies.

When Ruto won the 2022 presidential election, he appointed Kindiki to his first cabinet.

Since then, he has represented the authorities during traumatic incidents.

Last year, hundreds of bodies of people who had starved to death were uncovered in a remote forest. It is alleged that self-styled pastor Paul Mackenzie had encouraged them to stop eating. Currently on trial, he denies the charges.

In the wake of the grim discovery of the bodies, Kindiki was on site and describing the incident as a "massacre".

Last month, he was at a school where 17 pupils had died after a dormitory fire. The minister promised "full accountability for all whose action or inaction contributed to this tremendous loss".

In 2022, there were some who thought Kindiki would be named as Ruto’s deputy, but Gachagua clinched the position as he brought with him considerable influence and wealth.

Ruto later said that he "missed the chance to be deputy president by a whisker".

Kindiki is likely to prove a more loyal deputy than Gachagua and will toe the line.

Hezbollah rocket strikes in Israel killed seven

TEL AVIV, Israel

Two separate Hezbollah rocket attacks have killed seven people in northern Israel, authorities say - the deadliest day of such strikes in months.

An Israeli farmer and four foreign agricultural workers were killed when rockets landed near Metula, a town on the border with Lebanon, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said.

Later, an Israeli woman and her adult son were killed in an olive grove near Kibbutz Afek, on the outskirts of the coastal city of Haifa.

Hezbollah said it had fired barrages of rockets towards the Krayot area north of Haifa and at Israeli forces south of the Lebanese town of Khiam, which is across the border from Metula.

The Israeli military identified two projectiles crossing from Lebanon and falling in an open area near Metula on Thursday morning.

The Israeli farmer who was killed was named by local media as Omer Weinstein, a 46-year-old father-of-four from nearby Kibbutz Dafna.

Thailand's Foreign Minister, Maris Sangiampongsa, said on Friday that four Thai nationals were killed from rocket fire.

A fifth Thai worker was injured, he added.

Videos posted online showed them being transferred by helicopter to the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa.

Haaretz said Mr Weinstein and the foreign workers were in an agricultural field near the border fence at the time of the attack.

It cited a member of the local emergency response team as saying the Israeli military had permitted them to enter the area despite Metula being inside a closed military zone.

The military established the zone at the end of September, just before it launched a ground invasion of Lebanon with the aim of destroying Hezbollah weapons and infrastructure.

Thursday’s second rocket attack reportedly hit an agricultural area near Kibbutz Afek, which is about 65km (40 miles) south-west of Metula and 28km from the Lebanese border.

The military said a total of 55 projectiles were fired towards the Western Galilee region, where the kibbutz is located, as well as the Central Galilee and Upper Galilee in the early afternoon. Some of the projectiles were intercepted and others fell in open areas, it added.

According to Haaretz, 60-year-old Mina Hasson and her 30-year-old son, Karmi, were killed by a rocket that hit an olive grove where they were picking olives.

A 70-year-old man was also lightly injured by shrapnel and taken to Rambam hospital, according to the Magen David Adom ambulance service.

"We were called to the olive grove and saw a man in his 30s lying on the ground, unconscious,” MDA paramedics Mazor and Yishai Levy told the Jerusalem Post.

“We began resuscitation efforts while conducting further searches, during which we located another casualty, also in critical condition with multi-system injuries. We provided her with medical treatment and performed resuscitation, but unfortunately, we had to pronounce both of them dead," they said.

Meanwhile, the head of the Irish military said a UN peacekeeping base in southern Lebanon that houses Irish troops was hit by a rocket fired towards Israel on Wednesday night.

The rocket landed inside an unoccupied area of Camp Shamrock, which is 7km (4 miles) from the Israeli border, causing minimal damage on the ground and no casualties, Lt Gen Sean Clancy said.

Irish premier Simon Harris said: "Thankfully everyone is safe but it is completely unacceptable that this happened. Peacekeepers are protected under international law and the onus is on all sides to ensure that protection.”

The deadly rocket attacks in northern Israel came as two US special envoys met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem to discuss a possible ceasefire deal to end the war with Hezbollah.

Netanyahu told Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk that the main issue was what he called Israel's ability to “thwart any threat to its security from Lebanon in a way that will return our residents safely to their homes”, his office said in a statement.

Israel went on the offensive against Hezbollah - which it proscribes as a terrorist organisation - after almost a year of cross-border fighting sparked by the war in Gaza.

It said it wanted to ensure the safe return of tens of thousands of residents of northern Israeli border areas displaced by rocket attacks, which Hezbollah launched in support of Palestinians the day after its ally Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.

More than 2,800 people have been killed in Lebanon since then, including 2,200 in the past five weeks, and 1.2 million others displaced, according to Lebanese authorities.

Israeli authorities say more than 60 people have been killed by Hezbollah rocket, drone, and missile attacks in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights.

Botswana ruling party rejected after 58 years in power

GABORONE, Botswana

Voters in Botswana have rejected the country’s long-serving governing party in a result that marks a political earthquake in the diamond-rich southern African nation.

The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) – in power since independence in 1966 – had won only one parliamentary seat as of early Friday morning, preliminary election results show.

The Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), led by human rights lawyer Duma Boko, won 20 seats, according to the early tallies.

UDC looks set to form the government as it is projected to pass the 31-seat threshold for a majority in parliament.

As MPs elect the president in Botswana, Duma Boko is on course to become the next head of state once parliament meets for the first time.

Boko, who is running for the third time, has urged his supporters to "maintain vigilance and discipline".

Despite overseeing a dramatic change in Botswana, recent poor economic growth and high unemployment dented the BDP’s popularity.

He will replace Mokgweetsi Masisi – in office since 2018 – who led the BDP’s failed campaign.

The president ran on a message that his party could bring about “change”, but not enough voters were convinced the BDP could do what was needed for the country.

8 miners dead, 1 missing after a mine collapse in Zambia

COPPERBELT, Zambia

Eight miners died after being buried under mounds of earth that collapsed on them in an open-pit copper mine in Zambia on Wednesday, police said.

One miner was missing and another two survived, provincial police commissioner Peacewell Mweemba said. State media reported that six of the miners who died at the mine in Chingola, a city in Copperbelt Province, were from the same family.

The victims were not employees of the mining company but part of a group who had been searching for copper at the mine without permission, a common phenomenon in Zambia.

It's the latest in a series of tragedies involving informal miners in copper-rich Zambia. This month, 10 informal miners died in a collapse in Mumbwa in central Zambia. Nine men died at a quarry near the capital, Lusaka, in August when a huge pile of earth collapsed on them.

Last December, more than 30 informal miners died at another open-pit mine in Chingola when heavy rain caused landslides that buried them in tunnels they were working in.

Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema recently said the number of miners who had died in accidents was “unacceptable.”

Kenyan Court approves new Deputy President

NAIROBI, Kenya

A high court in Kenya Thursday, October 31 gave the green light for a new deputy president to take office despite a continuing court case challenging the impeachment of the previous deputy president.

The three-judge High Court in Nairobi set aside another court's order to suspend the swearing-in of nominee Kithure Kindiki, arguing that the suspension created a political vacuum.

Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua was impeached and removed from office by a vote of more than two-thirds of legislators on Oct. 17 on charges of corruption, inciting ethnic divisions and support for anti-government protests. President William Ruto nominated Kindiki, the current interior minister, for the deputy role the next day.

Gachagua’s impeachment had highlighted divisions within the ruling United Democratic Alliance, or UDA, and friction between Ruto and Gachagua, both UDA members. The former deputy president had been accused of insubordination when he opposed the government’s policy of forced evictions during heavy rains that caused flooding and deaths.

Gachagua is challenging the impeachment before the High Court in Nairobi, arguing that the charges were unsubstantiated and that the hearings were unfair.

The former vice president was rushed to hospital with chest pains during impeachment hearings in the Senate on Oct. 17, and his lawyers had asked for an adjournment of several days. However, the chamber rejected the delay when lawyers for the prosecution argued that Gachagua already had delivered his defense.

The Senate voted on the impeachment later that day, and Gachagua’s supporters have criticized the process as rushed and unfair. Gachagua has said he believes the impeachment was backed by Ruto.

Ruto, who came to office claiming to represent Kenya’s poorest citizens, has faced widespread criticism over his efforts to raise taxes to pay off foreign creditors. But the public opposition led him to shake up his Cabinet and back off from certain proposals.

EAST AFRICA NEWSPAPERS 01/11/2024

Kenya president flies to Burundi for COMESA summit

NAIROBI, Kenya

President of Kenya, William Ruto has travelled to Burundi on Thursday morning, October 31, to attend the 23rd Summit of COMESA Heads of State and Government in Bujumbura. 

In a statement by State House spokesperson Hussein Mohamed, this year's summit will celebrate the 30th anniversary of COMESA which marks a vital trading bloc for the continent. 

With a combined market of 640 million people and a GDP of Ksh.128 trillion, COMESA provides a substantial market for Kenya which currently holds a 12.4 per cent share of the regional market, second only to Egypt.

Between 2019 and 2023, Kenya's exports to COMESA grew by an 8.9 per cent margin, indicating the potential for regional trading partnerships. 

During the summit, President Ruto is expected to engage in bilateral trade talks as he enhances strategic partnerships with other heads of state. 

"He is also scheduled to meet with the Presidents of Egypt and Zambia, as well as the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, among others," the statement read in part. 

"The discussions with Egypt will focus on enhancing the Kenya-Egypt partnership, with a joint commitment to increase trade between the two nations."

"His bilateral meeting with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema will explore avenues to facilitate trade, including the formation of a Joint Trade Committee to address and resolve non-tariff barriers."

"Stop using security agencies to brutalize Tanzanians" - Tundu Lissu

By Our Correspondent, NAIROBI Kenya

Tanzanian opposition leader, Tundu Lissu, says the citizens of his country have the biggest task to end impunity and police brutality by electing the right leaders.

CHADEMA Vice Chairman Lissu said electing good leaders was the first step in addressing the persistent problem of human rights violations.

He spoke in Nairobi on Tuesday as Tanzania prepares for municipal elections in November amid kidnappings, torture and arbitrary arrests of opposition leaders and civil society activists.

The police were blamed for the incidents but denied responsibility.

“If the government does not take action, we the people should take action and elect a government that will look after the interests of the people,” Mr Lissu said.

He said citizens must examine the reasons and factors behind kidnappings with a view to reforming Tanzania’s legal system to prevent such occurrences.

“Besides electing another government, we must ask what contributed to these heinous crimes of the government. What kind of environment has contributed to kidnappings and police brutality, because you can elect another government only to realize it’s worse than the last. If citizens have the right to life, crimes of this nature should be thoroughly investigated in accordance with our Constitution, laws and legal frameworks.”

“We should also interrogate the circumstances under which our security apparatus operates with a view to ending it.”

Mr. Lissu condemned the abductions and enforced disappearances of Tanzanians.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan also condemned the killings but asked foreign diplomats to steer clear of the issue as investigations continue.

Mr. Lissu was the victim of attacks by suspected security agents. In 2017, he survived an assassination attempt that left him hospitalized abroad for months, first in Kenya and later in Belgium. His attackers were never identified or arrested.

On Tuesday, Mr Lissu said the current abductions and disappearances of citizens were illegal and contravened universal human rights.

The reported cases could tarnish the reformist image of President Suluhu, who has been praised for easing the crackdown since succeeding John Magufuli, who died in office in 2021.

“We are not surprised that the Tanzanian government is yet to take action against the reported cases of kidnappings. People have been disappearing for a long time since 2015 during President Magufuli’s tenure,” Mr Lissu said.

“Government should ensure that its security apparatus is not used to brutalize its own citizens, whether in Tanzania, Kenya, the US or Russia. This is because our domestic laws do not allow kidnapping of citizens.”

Machano is the second senior opposition official to be kidnapped and tortured in the space of two months.

Ali Kibao, a member of Chadema’s secretariat, was abducted from a bus by gunmen early last month while traveling from Dar es Salaam to the coastal city of Tanga.

Chadema organized demonstrations against the killing of Kibao and the abductions and disappearances of individuals and opposition party officials in Dar es Salaam, but the police blocked them.

Mozambique Doctors claim police shot to kill protesters

MAPUTO, Mozambique

The Mozambican Order of Doctors claims that, during the strikes and protests called last week by the independent presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane to protest against “electoral fraud”, in most cases the police shot in order to kill the protesters.

According to Gilberto Manhiça, the head of the Order of Doctors, speaking on Tuesday to reporters in Maputo, during the demonstrations, 10 people died and 63 others were injured as a result of gunshots.

“In most of the shootings, especially those that resulted in death, the intention of the police was to shoot to kill. The figures indicate a significant increase in the number of victims of firearms injuries admitted to the health units”, he said.

For his turn, Napoleão Viola, head of the Mozambican Medical Association (AMM), the initial medical assessment points out that “there was a clear intention to take the lives of those citizens.”

“Looking at the places on the body where the injuries were inflicted, you can clearly get an idea of what the intention was, whether it was to immobilize or to take the life of the citizen and, unfortunately, in most of the 10 cases of death, there was most probably a clear intention to take the life of these citizens”, he said.

Viola believes that the true number of victims injured by gunshots is even higher.

He also called on the police to be more conscious in their actions, especially during demonstrations, and to take into account that ‘the greatest value is human life’.

“For the highest values of humanism, empathy and human dignity, we call on the Police to fulfill its republican duty to guarantee security, with a particular focus on the demonstrators, because human life comes first”, he said.

“Let the demonstrators use non-violent means to express their dissatisfaction”, he added.

The doctors also took the opportunity to condemn the murders of Mondlane’s lawyer, Elvino Dias, and of Paulo Guambe, an election agent for the opposition party Podemos.

At least 95 people die in devastating flash floods in Spain

By Alicia León, UTIEL Spain

Flash floods in Spain turned village streets into rivers, ruined homes, disrupted transportation and killed at least 95 people in the worst natural disaster to hit the European nation in recent memory.

Rainstorms that started Tuesday and continued Wednesday caused flooding across southern and eastern Spain, stretching from Malaga to Valencia. Muddy torrents tumbled vehicles down streets at high speeds while debris and household items swirled in the water. Police and rescue services used helicopters to lift people from their homes and rubber boats to reach drivers stranded atop cars.

Emergency services in the eastern region of Valencia confirmed a death toll of 92 people on Wednesday. Another two casualties were reported in the neighboring Castilla La Mancha region, while southern Andalusia reported one death.

“Yesterday was the worst day of my life,” Ricardo Gabaldón, the mayor of Utiel, a town in Valencia, told national broadcaster RTVE on Wednesday. He said six residents perished and more are missing.

“We were trapped like rats. Cars and trash containers were flowing down the streets. The water was rising to 3 meters (9.8 feet),” he said.

AP correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports Spanish authorities announce at least 51 people have died in devastating flash floods.

“For those who are looking for their loved ones, all of Spain feels your pain,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a televised address.

Rescue personnel and more than 1,100 soldiers from Spain’s emergency response units were deployed to affected areas. Spain’s central government set up a crisis committee to coordinate rescue efforts.

Javier Berenguer, 63, escaped his bakery in Utiel when crushing water threatened to overwhelm him. He said it rose to 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) inside his business, and he fears his livelihood has been destroyed.

“I had to get out of a window as best I could because the water was already coming up to my shoulders. I took refuge on the first floor with the neighbors and I stayed there all night,” Berenguer told The Associated Press. “It has taken everything. I have to throw everything out of the bakery, the freezers, ovens, everything.”

María Carmen Martínez, another Utiel resident, witnessed a harrowing rescue.

“It was horrible, horrible. There was a man there clinging to a fence who was falling and calling people for help,” she said. “They couldn’t help him until the helicopters came and took him away.”

One Valencia town, Paiporta, suffered exceptional loss. Mayor Maribel Albalat told RTVE that over 30 people died in the town of some 25,000 people. Those included six residents of a senior residence. News media broadcast footage of seniors in chairs and wheelchairs at a Paiporta nursing home, some crying out in apparent terror as the water rose over their knees.

“We don’t know what happened, but in 10 minutes the village was overflowing with water,” Albalat said.

Spain’s national weather service said it rained more in eight hours in Valencia than it had in the preceding 20 months, calling the deluge “extraordinary.”

Located south of Barcelona on the Mediterranean coast, Valencia is a tourist destination known for its beaches, citrus orchards, and as the origin of the rice dish, paella. The region has gorges and small riverbeds that spend much of the year completely dry but quickly fill with water when it rains. Many of them pass through populated areas.

As the floods receded, thick layers of mud mixed with refuse made some streets unrecognizable.

“The neighborhood is destroyed, all the cars are on top of each other, it’s literally smashed up,” Christian Viena, a bar owner in the Valencian village of Barrio de la Torre, said by phone. “Everything is a total wreck, everything is ready to be thrown away. The mud is almost 30 centimeters (11 inches) deep.”

Outside Viena’s bar, people were venturing out to see what they could salvage. Cars were piled up and the streets were filled with clumps of water-logged branches.

Spain has experienced similar autumn storms in recent years. Nothing, however, compared to the devastation over the last two days, which recalls floods in Germany and Belgium in 2021 in which 230 people were killed.

The death toll will likely rise with other regions yet to report victims and search efforts continuing in hard-to-reach places.

“We are facing a very difficult situation,” minister of territory policies Ángel Víctor Torres said. “The fact that we can’t give a number of the missing persons indicates the magnitude of the tragedy.”

Spain is still recovering from a severe drought and has registered record high temperatures in recent years. Scientists say increased episodes of extreme weather are likely linked to climate change. The prolonged drought makes it more difficult for the land to absorb high volumes of water.

The storms also unleashed a rare tornado and a freak hailstorm that punched holes in car windows and greenhouses.

Paris court jails Rwandan ex-doctor a 27-year sentence for his role in the 1994 genocide

By  Sylvie Corbet, PARIS France

A Paris court on Wednesday sentenced a Rwandan former doctor to 27 years in prison for his role in the 1994 genocide in his home country.

Eugène Rwamucyo, 65, was found guilty of “complicity in genocide,” “complicity in crimes against humanity” and “conspiracy” to prepare the ground for those crimes.

He was acquitted of the charges of “genocide” and “crimes against humanity.”

Rwamucyo has denied any wrongdoing all along the four-week trial.

Three decades after the genocide, several witnesses traveled to Paris for the four-week trial and gave graphic descriptions of the killings in the Butare region where Rwamucyo was at the time.

This is the seventh trial related to the genocide in April 1994 that has come to court in Paris in the past decade. The massacres saw more than 800,000 of Rwanda’s minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus who tried to protect them killed by gangs of Hutu extremists, backed by the army and police.

Angélique Uwamahoro, who was 13 at the time, said she came to court to “seek justice for my people, who died for who they were.”

She said she saw Rwamucyo, who was her mother’s doctor, at the scene of a massacre in a convent where she and her family had found refuge. The dead included some of her family members.

After she managed to escape, Uwamahoro said she saw Rwamucyo again at a road block in the town of Butare and heard him encouraging militiamen to kill Tutsi people. “He wanted to incite them to kill us so we don’t get out alive,” she said.

Other witnesses described mass graves and people burying bodies, including groups of prisoners who had been asked to do the job. Some said wounded people were buried alive.

Rwamucyo was accused of spreading anti-Tutsi propaganda and supervising operations to bury victims in mass graves, according to the prosecution.

The former doctor said his role in the mass burials was motivated only by “hygiene-related” considerations and denied survivors were buried alive.

Rwamucyo was arrested in a suburb north of Paris in 2010. He was working as a doctor in a hospital in northern France at the time.

French police officers arrested him as he was attending the funeral of Jean Bosco Baravagwiza, considered one of the masterminds of the genocide. Baravagwiza had been convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 2003.

In December last year another doctor, Sosthene Munyemana, was found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and helping prepare a genocide and sentenced to 24 years in prison. He has appealed.

Man United hit five; Arsenal, Liverpool into quarters

MANCHESTER CITY, England

Ruud van Nistelrooy enjoyed a winning start to his caretaker spell in charge of Manchester United to reach the League Cup quarterfinals on Wednesday as Leicester were beaten 5-2 at Old Trafford.

Arsenal and Liverpool were among the other sides to book their place in the last eight, but Chelsea were beaten 2-0 at Newcastle.

A United legend as a player, Van Nistelrooy was thrust into the role of interim manager after the Red Devils sacked Erik ten Hag on Monday following a dreadful start to the season.

Sporting Lisbon boss Ruben Amorim is the man the English giants have targeted to take over but are still in negotiations with the Portuguese champions to agree compensation for the 39-year-old.

According to reports in Portugal, Amorim will remain at Sporting for the next three matches before completing his move during the November international break.

Van Nistelrooy said before the game that United "can be unstoppable" when "players, staff and supporters pull together" and they cut loose by scoring four times in a thrilling first 45 minutes.

Casemiro's stunning effort into the top corner opened the scoring before Alejandro Garnacho swept home Diogo Dalot's cross to please a jubilant Van Nistelrooy on the touchline.

Bilal El Khannoussi quickly pulled a goal back for the much-changed Foxes.

Bruno Fernandes's deflected free-kick restored United's two-goal cushion before Casemiro slammed home his third goal in two games.

Conor Coady grabbed another consolation for Leicester but United were not to be denied just a second win in nine games.

Fernandes rounded off the scoring when he pounced on a short back-pass to round Danny Ward and fire home.

Cody Gakpo was the match-winner for Liverpool in a 3-2 win at Brighton to continue Arne Slot's excellent start to life with the Reds.

Gakpo has not scored in the Premier League or Champions League this season but now has four goals in two League Cup games.

The Dutch international was ruthless with two powerful finishes cutting inside onto his right foot from the left wing.

Luis Diaz was also on target for Liverpool, while Simon Adingra and Tariq Lamptey struck late on for Brighton.

Teenager Ethan Nwaneri caught the eye with a sensational strike as Arsenal eased to a 3-0 win at Championship side Preston.

Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz got the other goals for the Gunners.

Newcastle gained revenge for their Premier League defeat at Chelsea at the weekend to ease the pressure on manager Eddie Howe.

The Saudi-backed Magpies are winless in five in the league, but are desperate to end a 55-year wait to win a major trophy.

Alexander Isak's strike and an Axel Disasi own goal inside three first-half minutes proved decisive at St. James' Park.

Crystal Palace backed up their first Premier League win of the season on Sunday by beating Aston Villa 2-1 thanks to goals from Eberechi Eze and Daichi Kamada.

EAST AFRICA NEWSPAPERS 31/10/2024

 

At least 47 people shot at political protests in Mozambique last week – NGO

MAPUTO, Mozambique

The electoral platform Decide, a Mozambican Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), said on Tuesday that at least 47 people were shot during demonstrations to contest the elections in Mozambique last week.

‘Around 47 cases of police shootings were also recorded, of which 46 were civilians and one a policeman in the provinces of Maputo, Manica, Tete, Cabo Delgado, Nampula, Zambézia and Niassa,’ according to a statement updating data on the demonstrations, published on the electoral platform’s Facebook page.

According to the NGO, between the 21st and 27th, the period during which the protests took place, at least 11 people died, including five in Nampula, in the north of Mozambique, three in Manica, in the centre, and another three in Maputo, in the south of the country.

The electoral platform Decide also counted 464 cases of illegal detentions during the demonstrations out of 1,105 requests for intervention in different cases received through the complaint line provided by the organisation.

‘Most [of the arrests] were reported to the Mozambican Bar Association, which immediately released just over 250 people accounted for so far in almost all of the country’s provinces,’ says the platform.

Since Monday, demonstrations have been taking place all over the country, most of them violent, in protest at the results of the 9 October elections. This follows the call for stoppages by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, who does not accept the results, which give victory to Daniel Chapo, supported by the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo).

In addition to Mondlane, the president of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo, currently the largest opposition party), Ossufo Momade, one of the four presidential candidates, said that he does not recognise the election results announced by the CNE and called for the vote to be annulled.

Presidential candidate Lutero Simango, supported by the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM), also rejected the results, considering that they were ‘forged in the secretariat’, and promised ‘political and legal action’ to restore the ‘will of the people’.

The Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), a Mozambican non-governmental organisation that monitors electoral processes, estimates that ten people died, dozens were injured, and around 500 were arrested in the context of the protests and clashes during the strike and demonstrations on Thursday and Friday.

US calls deadly Israeli air strike in northern Gaza 'horrifying'

GAZA, Palestine

At least 93 people are dead or missing after an Israeli air strike on the town of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry says, in an attack that the United States called "horrifying".

Rescuers said a five-storey residential building was hit, and videos on social media showed bodies covered in blankets on the floor.

The Israeli military said it was "aware of reports that civilians were harmed today [Tuesday] in the Beit Lahia area". It added that the details of the incident were being looked into.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been operating in northern Gaza during the past two weeks, particularly in the areas of Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun.

The director of the nearby Kamal Adwan hospital in Jabalia, Hussam Abu Safia, told the AFP news agency that children were being treated at the hospital, which is struggling to treat patients due to a lack of staff and medicines.

"There is nothing left in the Kamal Adwan Hospital except first aid materials after the army arrested our medical team and workers," Abu Safia said.

The IDF raided the hospital last week, saying it was being used by Hamas fighters.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the US was "deeply concerned by the loss of civilian life in this incident. This was a horrifying incident with a horrifying result".

He pointed to "reports of two dozen children killed" in the attack.

The "tragic cost to civilians" in the latest strike "is another reminder of why we need to see an end to this war", Miller said.

Israel says its operations in northern Gaza are designed to prevent Hamas from regrouping and accuses them of embedding among the civilian population, which Hamas denies.

In a statement on Tuesday, it said it killed 40 “terrorists” in Jabalia, and in central Gaza it said it “eliminated many terrorists" over the past 24 hours including some who "attempted to plant explosives near the troops".

The northern Gaza Strip faces a deepening humanitarian crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people living in desperate conditions.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Friday that "the Israeli military is subjecting an entire population to bombing, siege and risk of starvation".

He also said it was unacceptable that Palestinian armed groups were reportedly operating among civilians, including inside shelters for the displaced, and putting them in harm’s way.

On Monday, Israel's parliament voted through legislation to ban the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, from operating in the country, sparking warnings the delivery of aid to Gaza could be severely impacted.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group's unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed, and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 42,924 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its figures.

Israel is not allowing international journalists from media organisations, independent access to Gaza, making it hard to verify facts on the ground.