Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Doctor RJ, Magnifico and annetteboardman. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) wader, planter, JML9999, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time.
We focus this week on Africa, beginning with this from The Times of Swaziland:
MBABANE – A sound of a crying two-year-old baby led to the discovery of a woman who died while allegedly terminating a pregnancy inside her house.
The incident happened at Makhekhe in Mpuluzi, an area situated under Mhlambanyatsi Constituency. The shocking discovery was made at around 10am yesterday.
Information gathered from concerned residents of the area was to the effect that upon inspection of the corpse inside the house, *Nomsa’s family and the neighbours discovered some abortion pills.
They also managed to get hold of her cellphone.
And an opinion piece from The Zimbabwe Independent:
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa returns home from China tomorrow without the US$1,5 billion liquidity rescue package, which government desperately needs, although he managed to secure funding for infrastructural projects and elevated relations between the two countries to a higher strategic level, the Zimbabwe Independent has learnt.
By Owen Gagare /Hazel Ndebele
Sources close to the Chinese embassy said during his visit, Mnangagwa clearly learnt that China is not the proverbial Santa Claus and that everything which Zimbabwe gets must be on the basis of commercial arrangement and sustained strategic engagement for mutual benefit.
However, Mnangagwa’s bag was not completely empty when he left as he received the usual gifts given to visiting African heads of state by China. Although it is not clear how much he got, China usually gives out a token of between US$20-30 million to visiting African leaders, which they are free to use at their discretion.
This comes from The Times of Zambia:
By Stephanie Kunda
FORGED marriage certificates are flooding the civil service because officers want to elude transfers to rural areas, the (ZCTU) has revealed.
The labour movement also observed that some genuine couples were being separated through transfers which caused risky behaviour and could increase cases of HIV/AIDS prevalence.
ZCTU vice president Manson Mtambo has appealed to the Government to quickly set up committees for the sole purpose of verifying such dubious acts to ensure people are posted to areas that need their services.
And from the BBC, a story that showed up in several places in several forms:
A European tour operator has denied that its clients were kidnapped and then rescued in Cameroon's south-western region.
African Adventures said a group of seven Swiss and five Italian nationals were briefly stopped by armed men at a checkpoint, but were allowed to leave.
The government said on Wednesday that its special forces had freed them after a fight with "secessionist terrorists".
From Mongabay:
- Satellite data indicate the rubber plantation, operated by China-owned Sud Cameroun Hévéa (Sudcam), is now less than one kilometer away from intact primary forest habitat. Development is ongoing amidst concerns about threats to endangered species within and outside the park, as well as alleged violations of community land rights and political affiliations with the Cameroonian government.
- The expansion of this rubber plantation is “by far the most devastating new clearing of forest for industrial agriculture in the Congo Basin,” according to Greenpeace.
- Rubber expansion also stands to affect the 9,500 people who live in villages on the reserve’s periphery. According to Greenpeace Africa, Sudcam did not obtain Free and Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) from these communities before acquiring the land and residents have claimed that subsistence farmland has been taken away with little or no compensation.
- Members of the conservation community say that in order for rubber development to happen sustainably in Cameroon, companies need to collaborate with conservation NGOs to create robust buffers around wetlands and streams, develop wildlife corridors, establish areas to filter the runoff of toxins and sediment, and create bushmeat alternatives. They also recommend regulatory actions be taken in the U.S. and EU, which are major buyers of rubber.
An industrial rubber plantation is currently developing land right on the edge of Cameroon’s Dja Faunal Reserve. And it’s getting closer, according to an analysis of satellite data released by Global Forest Watch. The data indicate the plantation, operated by China-owned Sud Cameroun Hévéa (Sudcam), is now less than 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) away from intact primary forest habitat. Development is ongoing amid concerns about threats to endangered species within and outside the park, as well as alleged violations of community land rights and political affiliations with the Cameroonian government.
From Africa News:
Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo defended his government’s approval of expanded military cooperation with the United States on Thursday, saying that it would enhance peace efforts in West Africa.
He said the deal, which was approved by parliament last month and allows for the deployment of U.S troops and their military equipment in Ghana, was in line with previous international pacts and did not constitute an offer to Washington to establish a military base.
From The Los Angeles Times:
At 67, Rose Knuckles Bull has had enough. The onetime government administrator and Liberian refugee says she put in her time working, paid her taxes and now just wants to go home. Bit by bit, she is packing her things and saving up for a container to ship everything back to Careysburg.
That’s not an option for Prince. The 52-year-old has a teenage daughter in school here and nothing to return to in Unification Town.
As for 50-year-old Alexander Morris? The clergyman from Monrovia is leaving his fate to God.
Across America, time is running out for thousands of Liberians who came here in the face of a grinding civil war, staggering poverty and disease. Some have already lost their legal status to be here. For others, their protected status will expire in less than a year.
From The Christian Science Monitor:
And in Berlin, young tech entrepreneurs gather to listen to their peers talk about their worst business mistakes, while former mining town Houtong, Taiwan is now the country’s second-largest tourist attraction because of stray cats.
April 5, 2018—Sierra Leone: Mariatu Sesay runs a cafe outside the country’s capital of Freetown. That’s her profession. But her passion is teaching prostitutes to cook and run a business so they can exit the sex trade. Ms. Sesay’s drive comes from her own experience, she told Voice of America. When she was 11, her parents were killed during Sierra Leone’s civil war, and she was forced into prostitution. When the war ended in 2002 she was able to return to school – a gift that she now tries to pass along to others. Sesay says she has helped more than 40 women leave the sex trade.
From The Global Times (China):
Sitting by a tent in the vast, sun-bleached Mauritanian desert, 71-year-old Elisabeth Godin smiles, unconcerned about her safety despite warnings from her friends and family.
For most of the last decade, the spectacular dunes, barren canyons and oases of the Adrar region have been a no-go zone for European nationals.
The danger of terrorist attacks and kidnappings is still real, reflected by Mauritania's decision to join four other countries in fighting jihadism in the Sahel.
But after France eased its assessment of the security risk for the Adrar, a tiny number of French visitors are now returning, stirring hopes for the blighted local economy.
From Al Jazeera:
Lawyer says Ola al-Qaradawi and husband Hosam Khalaf are 'being held hostage' amid Egypt-Qatar political rift.
Aayah Khalaf, 31, has not had any contact with her parents in more than nine months.
Her mother, Ola al-Qaradawi, 56, and her father, Hosam Khalaf, 58, were arrested in June 2017 by security officials while on holiday in northern Egypt.
They have been in detention ever since, even though neither has been officially charged with a crime.
And one not from Africa, beginning with this from CNN:
(CNN)Two guinea pigs and a cat belonging to former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, poisoned in a nerve agent attack in the UK last month, have died, British authorities have said.
The two guinea pigs were found dead in Skripal's house some time after the attack, apparently from dehydration, and a cat was put down after being discovered in a "distressed" state. Police sealed the house after Skripal and his daughter Yulia were discovered unconscious on a bench in Salisbury on March 4.
"When a vet was able to access the property, two guinea pigs had sadly died," the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said in a statement. "A cat was also found in a distressed state and a decision was taken by a veterinary surgeon to euthanise the animal to alleviate its suffering."
And now for news in the Arts, beginning with this from The Nation Online (Nigeria) :
Governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has said the state government is working with the Benin Monarch, Oba Ewuare II, to build a world-class Royal Museum, to hold stolen artefacts being recovered by the Benin Kingdom.
Obaseki disclosed this when he hosted Prof. Nicholas Thomas of Cambridge University and Prof. Mrs. Annie Coombes of the University of London, both experts in Benin History, to a dinner, at the Government House in Benin City, Edo State.
The governor said the state government plans to work with the monarch to build the museum in the Oba’s Palace in Benin City, and counter the arguments of art collectors, who are still in possession of stolen artefacts from the Benin Kingdom and have maintained that the safety of the artifacts is not guaranteed if they are returned to the ancient Kingdom.
From musicinafrica.net:
A group of Liberian artists has produced an album purely in indigenous languages.
Zero English features several well-regarded recording artists in Liberia, all of whom sing only in their dialects. The tracklist includes songs by CIC, ShadowMan & Peter G, Kanvee Adams, Mz Menneh, Tawah De Great and Tialae.
The project was supported by C Liberia Clearly, an online platform covering the entertainment scene. The platform is run by Berenice Mulubah who said the album was made in service of Liberian arts and culture.
“Music is the best tool to promote culture," she said. "I sponsored this album because of my love for my nation, my people, my culture and the generations behind me. I want my fellow Liberians to enjoy the sweet melodies in our native tongues and to share that melody with the rest of the world."
Mulubah's project follows a complaint about Liberia's neglect of its own culture from a former assistant minister of culture in January.
And from CNN:
By Munachim Amah and Meron Moges-Gerbi, CNN
Lagos, Nigeria (CNN)Quietly and meticulously 23-year-old Nigerian artist Ken Nwadiogbu smudges charcoal and draws with pencil.
He's creating a lifelike masterwork in his small studio in Yaba, a mainland suburb of Lagos.
The area is also known as "Yabacon Valley" because of the presence of numerous tech hubs, and is a bustling neighbourhood of dilapidated colonial-era architecture.
Nwadiogbu's studio is located on one of its quieter streets, away from the churn of
Lagos's 17 million plus people. He spends his days here, creating portraits from charcoal that are so real they could be mistaken for actual pictures -- and he's not the only one.
And from Artsy.net, a story near and dear to my heart:
In a move that has garnered local and national attention, the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point (UW–SP) proposed eliminating 13 humanities majors—including art, English, history, and philosophy—earlier this month. At the same time, the school announced plans to expand over a dozen programs in the sciences that have “clear career paths.” The change would mean cutting majors in art history and studio arts, as well as BFAs in 2-D disciplines (painting and photography) and 3-D disciplines (sculpture, ceramics, and glass). Only the BFA in graphic design would survive.
As chair of the Department of Art & Design at UW–SP, I am devastated at the thought of closing these degree options. I have had a 30-year career at this institution. This is by far the lowest moment in those 30 years. An art major may not be a “clear career path,” but it is a satisfying one, and future students should have the option to pursue it.