Newscast - Africa

Mali's military government has given the head of the UN peacekeeping mission's human rights division 48 hours to leave the country.
A government spokesman says Guillaume Ngefa-Atondoko Andali had committed subversive actions in his selection of witnesses to testify at UN Security Council briefings on Mali.
A Malian civil society activist who gave evidence at a UN meeting accused the government's Russian military partners of serious human rights violations.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is due in Mali on Monday for a visit aimed at boosting defence and security ties.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko is exploring ways of forging economic ties with Mozambique and Zimbabwe in the agricultural sector.
Lukashenko ended his three days long visit to Zimbabwe and flew out of the country through the resort town of Victoria Falls.
The Belarusian head of state explained that President Emmerson Mnangagwa is on good terms with the leadership of Mozambique and can assist in this matter.
He promised to discuss with the president of Mozambique ways to apply the experience of cooperation between Zimbabwe and Belarus with regard to Mozambique.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has asked his deputy, David Mabuza, to remain in his position until a transition is finalized.
Mr. Mabuza says that the president had accepted his resignation and that an announcement on his departure was coming.
He says he believed it was logical for him to give way to Paul Mashatile, who was elected in December as the ruling ANC party’s deputy president.
The presidency spokesman however says the president wanted Mr. Mabuza to remain until the transition process was finalized.

The Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, says the federal government is currently working to create fiscal incentives to encourage private sector investment in education.
The minister says the recent increase in attacks on educational institutions had made it imperative that the federal government prepares a holistic national plan, with inputs from states and key relevant sectors to create a safe learning environment in the country.
Ahmed pointed out that it was crucial to secure the education of the children as this remained vital for the economic progress and attainment of the much-needed social development indices in the country.

Telecommunication consumers under the aegis of the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers have dragged the Federal Government to court over its plan to implement a five percent excise duty on telecom services.
The National President, NATCOMS, Adeolu Ogunbanjo, says the suit is against the imposition and implementation of excise duty and the continued imposition and implementation of Value Added Tax on telecom services.
The suit is praying the court declare VAT on telecom services as unconstitutional and illegal, and declare the implementation of excise duty on telecoms as null and void.
The Minister of Finance Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, the tax will help boost the government’s revenue.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila says the lawmakers may reconvene if the hardship occasioned by the naira swap continues.
He says while the lawmakers are on break and are expected to resume after the general elections, the scarcity of the new naira notes and the attendant consequences may force the House of Representatives to reconvene.
Gbajabiamila says the House made several efforts to intervene in the naira swap crisis by inviting the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria Godwin Emefiele.

The Governor of the Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele insisted that the apex bank will not extend the deadline for swapping old naira notes with the newly redesigned ones.
He says that the CBN and other stakeholders are already looking to address areas where there are pressures.
He says they have had cases where some bank branches have some cash in their vaults and because there was no demand for them and asked central bank officials to move that money where there is pressure.

The firm behind the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT is trialing a subscription service in the US.
chatbot creator OpenAI says for $20 per month, subscribers will get access to the platform even at peak times when it can be hard to log in, and also priority access to new features. It plans to extend the trial more widely but initially, it will only be offered to those on a waiting list.
The firm says the free version will still be available.
OpenAI says it hoped the subscription would support free access. It currently costs the firm a small amount of money every time the chatbot is used.

British Gas has suspended the force-fitting of prepayment meters after a report said it imposed them on vulnerable customers.
The Times reported a company employed by British Gas had broken into homes to fit the meters, despite signs children and disabled people were living there.
Business Secretary Grant Shapps says he was horrified by the findings.
British Gas's owner Centrica says it would suspend the use of court warrants that allow forced installations.
Centrica says the suspension would last "until at least after winter" and that protecting vulnerable people was its priority.

The US central bank has raised interest rates again as it continues its fight to stabilize prices in the world's largest economy.
The Federal Reserve says it was raising its key rate by 0.25 percentage points.
That marks the smallest increase since last March, after a series of aggressive rate hikes last year.
Officials however warned that they did not think they were finished raising rates, despite signs that price increases in the US are slowing.
The bank's moves are closely watched around the world as the US drives a global shift after years of low-interest rates that followed the financial crisis.