ARMY SAYS BURKINA FASO POLICE KILL FORTY ISLAMIC FIGHTER AFTER AMBUSH.

The Police in Burkina Faso have killed forty Islamist fighters.

According to the army, the terrorists ambushed a police reconnaissance mission in Koulpelogo province in the north-east of the country.

Five police officers were also killed during the attack.

Armed groups have been active in the Sahel state and its neighbours Mali and Niger for years.

Some of the armed groups have sworn allegiance to the terrorist groups Islamic State and al-Qaeda.

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EGYPT ARRESTS JOURNALIST AFTER REPORT ON SMUGGLING CASE.

Egyptian authorities have arrested journalist Karim Asaad after his fact-checking service had published articles accusing officials of involvement in smuggling cash, weapons and gold to Zambia.

According to the publication, Asaad was apprehended at his home in Greater Cairo following questioning over coverage of the case.

A statement from independent website Matsada2sh, said Asaad’s arrest brings the number of journalists behind bars in the Arab world’s most populous nation to 24.

According to Egypt’s national press union, our colleague, journalist Karim Asaad was arrested after security forces dressed in civilian clothes stormed his home.

The union said they physically assaulted his wife, threatened their young child, raided the apartment, and then led him away, forcefully disappeared, to an undisclosed location.

The syndicate of Egyptian journalists has called on authorities to “free” Asaad and to “disclose his current location”.

There was no immediate comment from the authorities.

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ZIMBABWEANS PRAY FOR PEACE AS TENSE ELECTION LOOMS.

Zimbabweans prayed for peace ahead of a national election widely expected to be a tense affair amid a crackdown on dissent and fears of vote rigging.

Dozens of worshippers gathered for mass at a cream-coloured church facing a dusty street lined with market stalls in Harare’s oldest township of Mbare.

Apostolic Faith Mission pastor Edson Mukaro said they are praying for a peaceful environment.

He added that they were just encouraging people to be objective, peaceful, and to do everything in order.

Zimbabwe has a long history of disputed elections marred by violence, and some fear a repeat of 2018, when the army opened fire on opposition protesters, killing six people.

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GHANA’S PAA KWESI ASARE WINS 2023 BBC NEWS KOMLA DUMOR AWARD.

Ghanaian TV presenter and journalist Paa Kwesi Asare has won the 2023 BBC News Komla Dumor Award.

The 36-year-old is the eighth recipient of the award and the first to come from Ghana, like the late Komla Dumor.

Asare is currently the head of business news at Ghana’s private TV3 channel, where he has worked for seven years as one of its main news anchors.

The award was created to honour Dumor, a presenter for BBC World News, who died suddenly aged 41 in 2014.

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GUATEMALA TO ELECT NEW PRESIDENT IN RUN-OFF POLL.

Guatemala will elect a new president in a run-off election with outsider Bernardo Arévalo, a social democrat, seen as the favourite.

Ex-first lady and three-time presidential candidate Sandra Torres also wants the top job, but Arévalo was clearly ahead in the polls with his plan to fight corruption and the erosion of democracy in Central America’s most populous country.

Arévalo said after casting his ballot in the capital Guatemala City, said today we have to vote. We all have the right and the privilege to express our opinion to shape the future of the country.

Torres did not comment on the voting, the paper reported.

On the platform X, formerly Twitter, Torres, who would be the first woman to hold the office in Guatemala, wrote that she was “totally committed to the change in our country.”

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LEFTIST LEADS ECUADOR PRESIDENTIAL POLL COUNT AMID SPIKE IN VIOLENCE.

Left-winger Luisa Gonzalez is leading in Ecuador’s presidential election overshadowed by the assassination of one of the candidates.

With nearly 80% of the votes counted, electoral officials say she has 33%, while her closest rival Daniel Noboa, a businessman, is on 24%.

The top two candidates will now go into a run-off on 15 October.

Some 100,000 police and soldiers were deployed to protect Sunday’s first round of voting.

The snap election was called after President Guillermo Lasso – a conservative former banker – dissolved parliament to avoid impeachment.

Sunday’s voting was peaceful, much to the relief of Ecuadoreans fearful of the political violence that has taken hold of the country.

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PAKISTAN PRESIDENT DENIES APPROVING LAWS GIVING MILITARY MORE POWER.

Pakistan’s President Arif Alvi has denied approving two controversial bills which further enhance the military’s powers.

In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Sunday, he said he returned the bills unsigned but his staff “undermined my will”.

The two laws make it an offence to reveal the identities of military intelligence officers and also propose jail terms for defaming the army.

Alvi’s statement could call the legality of the two laws into question.

However, Pakistan’s interim law minister Ahmed Irfan Aslam told reporters that under the constitution, the president had the option of either giving assent to the bills, or referring them to parliament with “specific observations”.

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CHINA CUTS KEY INTEREST RATE AS RECOVERY FALTERS.

China’s central bank has cut one of its key interest rates for the second time in three months as the world’s second-largest economy struggles to bounce back from the pandemic.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) lowered its one-year loan prime rate to 3.45% from 3.55%.

The country’s post-Covid recovery has been hit by a property crisis, falling exports and weak consumer spending.

In contrast, other major economies have raised rates to tackle high inflation.

The PBOC last cut its one year rate – on which most of China’s household and business loans are based – in June.