EMBATTLED SOUTH AFRICA’S PARLIAMENT SPEAKER SURRENDERS TO POLICE

The Speaker of South Africa’s Parliament, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has turned herself in to the police amid an ongoing corruption investigation against her.

Mapisa-Nqakula handed herself over to the Pretoria Central Police on Friday morning and is expected to appear in court later in the day.

She is accused of soliciting bribes in return for awarding contracts when she served as defence minister.

On Thursday, she announced that she was taking special leave from her role due to the “seriousness of the allegations,” a statement shared by parliament

Earlier this week, Mapisa-Nqakula’s Johannesburg home was raided by an elite police unit, who conducted a five-hour search.

She maintains innocence and says she is co-operating with the investigators.

ALGERIAN PRESIDENT ANNOUNCES EARLY PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

Algeria’s President, Abdelmadjid Tebboune has brought forward the presidential election date by three months.

The presidency announced that Tebboune has scheduled the poll for 7th September.

The election was previously expected to be held in December.

The presidency did not provide an explanation for holding the election earlier.

Tebboune, 78, is yet to announce whether he will be running in the election.

His term is due to expire in December.

He won 58% of the vote to secure his first term in December 2019.

ETHIOPIA TO RESUME REPATRIATING CITIZENS FROM SAUDI ARABIA.

Ethiopia is set to begin the third phase of repatriating seventy thousand of its citizens from Saudi Arabia.

Ethiopia’s foreign ministry says the citizens are in a difficult situation in the Gulf country.

The repatriations will begin in two weeks.

Saudi Arabia had asked foreign workers residing in the country without legal rights to leave or face jail time.

The country hosts an estimated seven hundred and fifty thousand Ethiopians, more than half of whom are in the country illegally.

This is according to the United Nations migration agency IOM.

They include workers, job seekers and refugees fleeing conflict in the Horn of Africa nation.

UGANDA’S PRESIDENT NAMES SON AS ARMY CHIEF IN MAJOR RESHUFFLE.

Uganda’s President, Yoweri Museveni has appointed his son General Muhoozi Kainerugaba as the country’s army commander, a move that is likely to fuel speculation that the president is grooming his eldest child to succeed him.

Kainerugaba has been serving as a senior presidential adviser in charge of special operations after his father removed him as commander of the army’s land forces in 2022.

He was promoted to his new post late on Thursday, in a cabinet reshuffle that saw five ministers sacked.

He takes over from General Wilson Mbadi who has been named as trade minister.

Two of Kainerugaba’s closest advisors were named ministers in the new changes announced by President Museveni.

Embattled Karamoja Affairs Minister Mary Goretti Kitutu, who is facing corruption charges involving the theft of thousands of metal roofing sheets, was dropped from her post.

Lieutenant General Samuel Okiding was named as the deputy army chief in the new appointments.

He replaced General Peter Elwelu, whom Museveni named as one of his senior advisers.

RUSSIAN MISSILE STRIKES DAMAGE POWER SUPPLY IN UKRAINE’S KHARKIV.

About fifteen blasts have been heard in Ukraine’s Kharkiv on Friday morning, and Russian missile strikes appeared to be targeting the city’s power supply, causing partial blackouts.

Mayor Ihor Terekhov did not report any casualties.

He said some of the city’s water pumps had stopped because of the attacks.

In central Ukraine, Kryvyi Rih mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said blasts were heard in the city, but provided no details.

In another central Ukrainian city, Vinnytsia, a critical infrastructure object has been damaged, according to mayor Serhiy Borzov.

The administration of the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia also reported eight missile strikes and said some locals had been wounded.

According to Ukrainian officials, several Russian missiles were still moving towards targets in Ukraine.

UNITED STATES PUTS PRESSURE ON ISRAEL WITH GAZA CEASEFIRE RESOLUTION AS QATAR TALKS CONTINUE.

Israel’s spy chief is due to travel to Qatar on Friday for ceasefire negotiations while the U.S. planned to put a resolution calling for an immediate truce in Gaza to a vote of the United Nations Security Council, intensifying pressure on its ally.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Cairo he believed talks mediated by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt could still reach a ceasefire deal between the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel.

Negotiations in Qatar centred on a truce of around six weeks that would allow the release of 40 Israeli hostages in return for hundreds of Palestinians detained in Israeli jails, paving the way for more aid to enter an enclave where famine looms due to extreme food shortages.

The main sticking point has been that Hamas says it will release hostages only as part of a deal that would end the war, while Israel says it will discuss only a temporary pause.

A Palestinian official with knowledge of the mediation efforts, who declined to be identified, told Reuters that Hamas had demonstrated flexibility.

Israel continues to stall because it doesn’t want to commit to ending the war on Gaza.

ATTACKS, SHOOTINGS IN HAITI KILL GANG LEADER.

Attacks, including a shooting that left a gang leader dead, flared in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, as political groups appeared nearer to finalising a transition council to take over from an absent government.

A police operation killed the head of the Delmas 95 gang, Ernst Julme, known as Ti Greg, a day after another gang leader was killed in an apparent resurgence of vigilante justice, police and sources confirmed.

The death of Julme, a member of gang leader Jimmy Barbeque Cherizier’s Viv Ansanm alliance, marks a setback for gangs’ moves to take over more of the city.

Julme had recently escaped from Haiti’s largest prison in a mass jailbreak.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed reports that political groups had selected all members of a transitional council that would take over presidential powers ahead of future elections.

The council, intended to bring together Haiti’s fractured political class, is tasked with appointing a replacement to Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who announced his resignation on 11th March as gang violence prevented his return to the country.

The Secretary-General welcomes reports that Haitian stakeholders have all nominated representatives to the Transitional Presidential Council.

Deputy spokesperson, Farhan Haq said this at a media briefing.

INDIA OPPOSITION MEMBERS DETAINED AFTER ARREST OF DELHI LEADER KEJRIWAL.

Dozens of members of the opposition Aam Aadmi Party, AAP, have been detained by police in New Delhi on Friday as they gathered in protest against the arrest of their leader for graft, weeks before India holds general elections.

India’s financial crime agency arrested Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of the national capital territory of Delhi in connection with graft allegations relating to the city’s liquor policy.

Kejriwal’s arrest, less than a month before India begins voting on 19th April, is a setback for AAP and the larger opposition alliance of which he is a key leader.

All the main leaders of his decade-old party are in jail in connection with the liquor case.

AAP members, including some ministers in the Delhi city government, were stopped by police and taken away in buses as they shouted slogans and sought to march towards the city court where Kejriwal is expected to be produced, TV visuals showed.

Kejriwal’s lawyers have also petitioned the Supreme Court against his arrest and the case is expected to be heard later on Friday.

The Enforcement Directorate is investigating allegations that a liquor policy implemented by the Delhi government in 2022, which ended its control over sale of liquor, gave undue advantages to private retailers.

The policy was subsequently withdrawn and the AAP government has said no evidence of wrongdoing has emerged in the investigation.