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Hunting the shipwrecks of the slave trade
Off the western tip of mainland Africa lie some of the most important vestiges of the transatlantic slave trade – the wreckage of ships that sank, as they were carrying thousands of African men, women and children to the Americas.
Now a team of scientists is trying to use the wrecks to learn more about this terrible period in human history.
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Mohamed Salah texted me over goal-scoring worries, says Didier Drogba
Chelsea and Ivory Coast legend Didier Drogba says BBC African Footballer of the Year Mohamed Salah sought advice from his former teammate, worried about not scoring enough goals.
Drogba told the Liverpool and Egypt star that he just needed time and confidence for the goals to come.
Interview: Ata Ahli Ahebla
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Joe Biden comforts John McCain’s daughter over cancer
Image copyright Reuters Former US Vice-President Joe Biden has offered comfort and advice to Meghan McCain over the health of her father, US Republican Senator John McCain, during a TV talk show.
Mr Biden’s son died of the same type of brain cancer afflicting Mr McCain.
A tearful Ms McCain, who co-hosts ABC’s programme The View, asked Mr Biden for his advice on how to deal with the disease.
Mr McCain was diagnosed in the summer with glioblastoma.
It is an aggressive type of brain cancer.
“Your son Beau had the same cancer that my father was diagnosed with six months ago,” Ms McCain said.
“I think about Beau almost every day and I was told that it doesn’t get easier but that you cultivate the tools to work with this and live with this.
“I know you and your family have been through tragedy I couldn’t conceive of.”
Mr Biden said there was hope and that breakthroughs in the treatment of the disease were happening all the time.
He said Mr McCain was one of his best friends, and that “if anybody can make it, your dad [can]”.
“Her dad goes after me, hammer and tong. We’re like two brothers who were somehow raised by different fathers or something, because of our points of view.”
But he added: “I know if I picked up the phone tonight and called John McCain, he’d get on a plane and come, and I would for him, too.”
He said the key was to “maintain hope”.
The show of support elicited a number of reactions on Twitter, including people saluting the cross-partisan aspect of the encounter.
Mr Biden published a memoir last month about his son, who died of the disease in 2015.
Mr McCain’s tumour was discovered during a surgery to remove a blood clot from above his left eye in July.
A Vietnam veteran, Mr McCain, 81, spent more than five years as a prisoner of war.
The six-term senator and 2008 Republican presidential candidate underwent surgery at a clinic in Phoenix, in the state of Arizona in July.
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Putin: Trump opponents harm US with ‘invented’ Russia scandal
Image copyright Reuters Russia’s president has accused opponents of his US counterpart Donald Trump of harming the US by “inventing stories” about contacts with Russia.
At his annual news conference, Vladimir Putin said contacts between the Trump team and Russian officials before last year’s election were normal.
He said the US opposition was not treating those who elected Mr Trump with respect.
The Trump campaign is being investigated for collusion with Russia.
US intelligence agencies have concluded that Moscow tried to sway the presidential election in favour of Mr Trump, but Mr Putin denies the allegations.
“It’s all invented by those in opposition to Trump to make his work seem illegitimate,” Mr Putin said, when asked about the investigation.
He added that Mr Trump was responsible for some “quite serious achievements” but had not been in a position to improve relations with Russia.
He expressed hope that this would happen, adding that globally “there are many things we can do more effectively”.
Call for calm
The Russian president cited North Korea as one possible area of co-operation.
But he said some past actions by the US had provoked North Korea into violating agreements, and all sides needed to calm down.
North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons technology has led to heavy US-led sanctions against the regime.
Earlier Mr Putin addressed the presidential elections, due to be held next year. He has said he will stand for a fourth term.
Asked why he had not faced any effective opponent for the presidency, he said the opposition had to come up with specific proposals to improve people’s lives and had so far not done so.
“It’s not up to me to nurture competitors,” he said. “But… I’ve been thinking that our political environment must be competitive just like the economic environment.
“I hope this will happen, and the sooner the better.”
Mr Putin did not mention opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is banned from standing in the elections because of a criminal conviction.
Mr Putin is known for his marathon performances at his news conferences, where he frequently uses hard-hitting, colourful language.
The record for a Putin news conference was set in 2008, at four hours 40 minutes.
This year’s, which is still going on, has also set a record, with 1,640 journalists said to be accredited for the event.
Vladimir Putin: From spy to president
- Born 7 October 1952 in Leningrad (now St Petersburg)
- Studies law and joins KGB after university
- Serves as a spy in communist East Germany – some ex-KGB comrades later get top state posts in Putin era
- 1990s – top aide to St Petersburg mayor Anatoly Sobchak, who had previously taught him law
- Enters Boris Yeltsin’s Kremlin in 1997, made chief of Federal Security Service (the FSB – main successor of the KGB), then prime minister
- New Year’s Eve, 1999 – Yeltsin quits and names him acting president
- Easily wins presidential election in March 2000
- Wins a second term in 2004
- Is barred from running for a third successive term by the Russian constitution, but instead becomes prime minister
- Wins a third presidential term in 2012
Putin still in fashion 15 years on
Vladimir Putin’s formative German years
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‘They sold me three times’
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Note: This story is auto-generated from ‘BBC News’ syndicated feed and has not been edited by Africa Prime News staff.
Militiamen jailed in DR Congo’s Kavumu for raping 40 children
Image copyright AFP A group of 11 militiamen in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been jailed for life for raping about 40 children, including at least one baby.
The girls they raped between 2013 and 2016 were aged between eight months and 12 years old.
The men’s alleged leader was a local MP called Frederic Batumike. He is one of those who was jailed.
Local campaigners hailed the verdict against the men as a sign that impunity for sexual violence was ending.
“It’s a strong signal to anyone who would contemplate this kind of offence,” lawyer for the victims Charles Cubaka Cicura told Reuters news agency.
The verdict for what was ruled to be a crime against humanity was heard in a packed courtroom in Kavumu, in South Kivu in the east of the country.
A military tribunal ruled that the men from the Djeshi ya Yesu (Army of Jesus) militia should be “sentenced to life in prison for the crime against humanity by rape and murder”.
The men were also convicted of murder, membership in a rebel movement and illegal weapons possession.
A total of 18 had been tried but two were sentenced to just one year in jail, while five were acquitted.
Many of the assaults happened at night. The men were alleged to believe that the blood of virgins would grant them supernatural protection.
Gynaecologist Denis Mukwege, who has developed expertise in the treatment of serious sexual injuries in the DR Congo where rape is used as a weapon of war, reported a wave of incidents to the authorities in 2015.
The people they raped have been allocated $5,000 each in compensation, with $15,000 going to the families of those who the militia murdered, advocacy groups said.
The Democratic Republic of Congo was labelled “the rape capital of the world” by Margot Wallstrom, the former UN special representative on sexual violence in conflict.
One UN official resigned out of frustration at the UN’s continued failure to halt the atrocities in Kavumu, according to a Guardian report in 2016.
In previous cases of mass rape in the DR Congo, victims have told reporters they feel ashamed by what happened, and are expected to keep it secret to avoid being abandoned by their husbands and families.
Following more than 20 years of conflict, much of eastern DR Congo is under the control of various militia groups.
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Somalia suicide bomber kills police at Mogadishu academy
Image copyright AFP A suicide bomber has killed at least 13 police officers during a parade at a training centre in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
At least 15 other people were reported to be wounded.
The bomber, disguised as a policeman, blew himself up at the General Kaahiye Police Academy.
The militant Islamist group al-Shabab has said it carried out the attack. The group regularly carries out bombings in Mogadishu and other towns.
Witnesses said the officers were crowded into an open square for their early morning parade when the bomber detonated his explosives.
“Some of the police were already in lines, and others were gathering, when the man in police uniform entered and blew himself up,” said Hussein Ali.
Al-Shabab spokesman Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters that it was behind the attack.
The group, which is allied to al-Qaeda, is battling the UN-backed government in Somalia. It has been driven out of Mogadishu and most of the main towns it once controlled but remains a threat.
In October, al-Shabab fighters stormed a hotel in the capital killing at least 20 people.
However, the group denied being behind a truck bomb attack in the city earlier in October that killed at least 358 people.
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