Newscast - Africa

Nigerian Force Headquarters says Nigerians are to report police personnel who demand permits for tinted glasses at checkpoints in any part of the country.
The acting Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, stated that it would be out of bounds for any policeman to demand customs papers or other documents not relevant to their duties.
He explained that while there was no need to demand permits for tinted glasses, they could stop such cars only for the purpose of a search.
He says no policeman should demand customs papers except they are on a joint operation, but not just on mere routine checks.

The Bank of England has raised its key interest rate for the third time since December last year as it pushes ahead faster than other central banks in tackling a global wave of inflation caused by soaring energy prices.
The bank boosted its key rate to 0.75 per cent after Russia’s all-out war in Ukraine pushed oil prices to a 13-year high earlier this month.
The European Central Bank left its rates unchanged last week but announced an early exit from its economic stimulus efforts in a bid to combat record inflation in the 19 countries that use the euro.
The Bank of England says the war in Ukraine is likely to accentuate both the peak in inflation and the adverse impact on activity by intensifying the squeeze on household incomes.

Amazon says it closed the $8.5 billion acquisition of film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after regulators declined to challenge the deal, cementing the company’s biggest takeover in five years.
The company in a statement says the closing marks the latest deal by a U.S. technology giant to win approval despite criticism that the companies have been able to gobble up smaller firms with little pushback from competition enforcers.
European Union regulators signed off on the MGM deal after finding it posed no competition problems.
The takeover is Amazon’s biggest acquisition since it agreed to buy Whole Foods in 2017 for $13.7 billion. In 2020 and 2021, alone, Amazon spent a combined $24 billion on video and music for its streaming services.

The United Nations Security Council has adopted a resolution to secure a formal presence in Afghanistan, whose Taliban government remains unrecognised by the international community.
The resolution, without using the word “Taliban”, spells out a new one-year mandate for the UN political mission in Afghanistan, calling it “crucial” to peace. The vote was 14 in favour, with one abstention, by Russia.
The resolution includes several strands of cooperation, on the humanitarian, political and human rights fronts, including those of women, children and journalists.
All members of the Security Council agree that Afghanistan needs the UN’s help to avoid an economic collapse and a humanitarian catastrophe.

Russia’s central bank says it had given major lender Sberbank a licence to issue and exchange digital financial assets, a move that may open new opportunities for the bank as it seeks to blunt the effect of Western sanctions.
Sberbank was listed on the central bank’s register, along with financial ecosystem Lighthouse, giving the two companies the ability to issue digital assets and exchange them on their platforms.
Sberbank says it would use blockchain technology that guarantees the safety of digital transactions and would allow companies to issue their own digital assets, buy those issued within Sberbank’s system and make other transactions.

Mali's military rulers are to take two French broadcasters, RFI radio and France 24 television, off-air in the country, after accusing them of reporting false allegations.
Mali says it was taking the action because both channels had reported on allegations that Malian soldiers had killed numerous civilians in recent months.
Mali government spokesman Col Abdoulaye Maïga says that these false allegations were made in reports on 14 and 15 March, in which RFI gave the floor to alleged victims of abuses allegedly committed by the Malian army and the Russian mercenary group Wagner.
France Médias Monde says it deplores this decision and reiterates its attachment to freedom of information and to the professional and neutrality of its journalists.

The US ambassador to the United Nations says that African states cannot remain neutral on the war in Ukraine.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield noted that in the General Assembly vote two weeks ago to deplore the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 17 African countries - half of the world total - abstained and another eight did not vote at all.
The ambassador says there can be no neutral ground, and that this crisis was not simply a Cold War competition between the West and Russia.
Ms Thomas-Greenfield says the US was helping to find alternative sources of commodities that countries import from Russia.

The Ethiopian government has denied claims that it is blocking aid from reaching the Tigray region where there has been a conflict for more than a year.
The World Health Organization, Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus had called on the government to end the blockade that has hampered humanitarian supplies delivery to Tigray.
Ethiopia's Communication Minister Legesse Tulu however says the WHO should blame the Tigray People's Liberation Front for the blockade and not the government.
He says the rebels had deliberately blocked access.

Chairman Heirs Holdings, Mr Tony Elumelu, bemoaned the fact that Nigeria was losing over 95 per cent of its oil production to thieves.
Elumelu noted that apart from the economy, Nigerians are now afraid as a result of the bad security situation.
Elumelu urged Nigerians to be vocal about the way they are governed and hold their leaders more accountable.
Elumelu pointed out that while oil-producing countries were happy that prices had been rising and their foreign reserves continue to grow, Nigeria is in a state of gloom.
He decried the worsening state of insecurity, public infrastructure and rising inflation in Nigeria.

The US government has dismissed as fake the reports that the detained Nigerian influencer Ramon Abbas, known as Hushpuppi, executed a $400,000 internet fraud from prison.
A document emerged on social media claiming that the FBI filed new evidence against Hushpuppi for defrauding Americans using prison internet facilities.
An official of the US Department of Justice however told the BBC that the US Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, which filed the case against Hushpuppi, has not filed any such document.
The Official says the document appears to have been fabricated and the FBI confirm it is a fake.