Newscast - Africa

A former vice president Atiku Abubakar and a presidential aspirant of the All-Progressives Congress Ahmed Tinubu and ex-Anambra governor Peter Obi have expressed sadness over the attack on a church in Owo, Ondo State, and called on security agencies to get to the bottom of the matter.
They called on the state government and relevant security agencies to leave no stone unturned in apprehending the criminals and bringing them to justice.

The Ondo State Police Command has ordered an investigation into the attack on a Catholic church in Owo town, the headquarters of Owo Local Government Area of the state.
The spokesman of the command Odunlami Funmilayo, says the CP has ordered Forensic Investigation into the attack to ascertain the actual or remote cause of the attack and for immediate arrest of the assailants as all hands are on deck to forestall any similar attack in any part of the state.

United States President Joe Biden has called on lawmakers to pass legislation to curb gun violence in the country, a week after 19 children were shot dead by a gunman in their school.
Biden proposed several laws, including a ban on assault weapons, which was allowed to lapse under a Republican administration in 2004.
Other proposals included a limit on high capacity magazines, secure storage laws, red flag laws, universal background checks, and the removal of protection laws for gun manufacturers.

The US has accused Tunisian President Kais Saied of an alarming pattern of actions undermining Tunisia’s independent institutions after he fired dozens of judges.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price says US officials had communicated with their Tunisian counterparts on the importance of checks and balances in a democratic system.
He says the US government had called for an inclusive and transparent reform process with input from civil society and diverse political voices to strengthen the legitimacy of reform efforts in Tunisia.

Eurozone stock markets opened higher as investors await an output decision by major oil-producing nations.
The OPEC+ group of major oil producers, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, is expected to continue its policy of modestly increasing production after the EU agreed to ban most Russian crude.
Oil prices fell by almost two per cent on Thursday Financial Times report that Saudi Arabia was considering a plan to boost output as Russia struggles to meet targets owing to Ukraine war-linked sanctions.

US tech giant Amazon says that it will stop operating its Kindle e-book store in China next year, closing the chapter on a massive consumer market.
Amazon’s decision to pull the Kindle service comes about eight years after it first set up an official store for the e-book reader on Alibaba’s Tmall platform.
It says that customers can no longer buy new e-books, although those that have been purchased can still be downloaded until June 2024 and will remain readable afterwards.
It did not give a reason for ending the service but said its remaining China businesses would continue to innovate and invest.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will host the head of the African Union for talks focused on grain supplies and political cooperation amid Kremlin’s standoff with the West over Ukraine.
Washington and Brussels have imposed unprecedented sanctions against Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine, pushing Putin to seek new markets and strengthen ties with countries in Africa and Asia.
Cereal prices in Africa, the world’s poorest continent, have surged because of the slump in exports from Ukraine, sharpening the impact of conflict and climate change and sparking fears of social unrest.

The National Treasury has proposed an increase in debt ceiling from the current Sh9 trillion to Sh10 trillion in order to enable the Government to borrow more to finance the Sh3.33 trillion budget for the 2022/23 financial year.
Treasury CS Ukur Yattani has urged the Members of Parliament to amend the Public Finance Management Regulations, 2015, to increase the limit.
The National Treasury had proposed that the debt limit be expressed in absolute figures rather than a percentage of GDP arguing that it's consistent with the constitution on openness, accountability, and clear fiscal reporting.

Finance Minister, Mthuli Ncube has maintained that the Zim$ is in short supply and cannot be a factor among the causes leading to the rise in inflation.
Ncube refuted claims that the treasury is partly responsible for the creation of surplus money coming in the form of payments for infrastructure projects.
Mthuli added that what is driving the exchange rate is speculating behaviour from the monopolies that we have seen.

The Federal Government has directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to implement a deal on a gas pipeline to Europe through Morocco.
Petroleum Minister Timipre Sylva says the approval for a memorandum of understanding on the gas project with West African regional bloc ECOWAS was given after the Federal Executive Council meeting.
Sylva says this gas line will take gas to 15 West African countries and to Morocco and through Morocco, to Spain and to Europe.