Newscast - Africa

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has condemned the red listing of Nigeria by the UK government over the two cases of the omicron variant of COVID-19.
Mr Mohammed described the decision as unjust and discriminatory.
The minister has, however, called on the UK government to rescind their decision immediately.
He also discussed the way forward and the upscale of the current responses to the pandemic including ongoing mass vaccination, surveillance and screening at the various points of entry.

The news on Africa business radio.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has put the amount spent on subsidising petrol, between January and October 2021, at N1.03tn.
The NNPC says it would deduct its October 2021 value shortfall of N199bn from its November 2021 proceeds meant for sharing at the December 2021 Federation Accounts Allocation Committee meeting.
The oil firm referred to its subsidy spending as under-recovery, as it had repeatedly stated that it had no authorisation by the National Assembly to pay subsidy.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett urged world powers to take a hard line against Iran in negotiations aimed at reviving an international nuclear deal.
Israel has been watching with concern as world powers sit down with Iran in Vienna in hopes of restoring the tattered 2015 deal.
Continued Iranian advances in its atomic programme have further raised the stakes.
Bennett called on every country negotiating with Iran in Vienna to take a strong line and make it clear to Iran that they cannot enrich uranium and negotiate at the same time.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government rejected condemnation by Western nations over dozens of alleged summary killings of former security force personnel documented by rights groups since the Islamists returned to power.
The US, other Western nations, and allies said they were deeply concerned by allegations by Human Rights Watch and others that point to serious human rights abuses.
The State Department says alleged summary killings and enforced disappearances contradict an amnesty declared by the Taliban for former security force personnel after the Islamists defeated a Western-backed regime and retook control of the country in mid-August.
The Taliban’s Interior Ministry however rejected both the Western rebuke and rights groups’ allegations.

The Swiss unit of German group Lufthansa says Swiss International Air Lines has temporarily suspended flights to Hong Kong until December 11 due to tightened quarantine restrictions for crew members
A spokesperson says the move affects four flights from Zurich in all adding Hong Kong was the only destination involved.
It says the Swiss would closely monitor the situation with a view to resuming services.
Hong Kong, an international business and financial centre mandate 14-21 days of hotel quarantine for almost all arrivals, whether or not they are vaccinated.

The World Health Organisation says Omicron has been detected in 38 countries but there are no reported deaths so far from the new COVID-19 variant.
WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier says it is commendable that makers of COVID-19 vaccines are planning for the likelihood of needing to adjust their products to protect against the Omicron variant.
WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan urged people not to panic over the emergence of the Omicron coronavirus variant and said it was too early to say if COVID-19 vaccines would have to be modified to fight it.
Swaminathan says that the right response was to be prepared and cautious and not to panic in face of the new variant.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says sales of weapons and military services by the world’s 100 biggest arms companies reached a record $531bn in 2020, an increase of 1.3 per cent in real terms compared with the previous year,
The Swedish think tank says 2020 marked the sixth consecutive year of sales growth by the top 100 firms and came even as the global economy shrank. Overall sales were 17 per cent higher than in 2015 when it first included data on Chinese firms.
Firms in the United States continue to dominate the industry, with total sales of $285bn from 41 companies accounting for about 54 per cent of all arms sales among the 100 biggest companies.
SIPRI says the top five companies in the ranking since 2018 have all been based in the US.

Fana Broadcasting Corporation reports that Ethiopia's education ministry has announced a temporary closure of all secondary schools to allow students to help in harvesting crops for Ethiopians on the war front.
Education Minister Berhanu Nega says the schools would be closed for a week.
The government says more than 1.2 million students were out of school due to the ongoing conflict in the north.
The government announced a six-month state of emergency in November to contain a Tigrayan rebel advancement towards the capital, Addis Ababa.

South Africa's Stellenbosch University has adopted a new language policy that approves the use of three languages for teaching and communication at the institution - English, Xhosa and Afrikaans.
There had been controversy surrounding the use of Afrikaans at the university after the South African Human Rights Commission announced the launch of a probe into allegations some students had been stopped from speaking Afrikaans at welcome events and informal settings at Stellenbosch.
A spokesperson says the changes would be implemented in January.
Dr Leslie van Rooi says through the policy, the university recommits itself to multilingualism by using the three official languages of the Western Cape, namely Afrikaans, English and isiXhosa.
He added that the university through its policy would like to enhance access and success as well as the idea of social cohesion even further on campuses.

The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, has sacked the head of the state-owned mining company.
Albert Yuma, had been at the helm of Gecamines for more than a decade. Mr Yuma strongly denied allegations that he was involved in multi-million dollar corruption scandals.
He described himself as a patriotic reformer of the industry.
President Tshisekedi says cleaning up the mining sector is a key priority and he had been under international pressure to remove Mr Yuma.
Rights groups have long complained that the mining sector is riddled with corruption and human right abuses.