Newscast - Africa

Prison authorities say Jailed former South African President Jacob Zuma has undergone unspecified surgery and remains in hospital with more operations planned.
Zuma was sent to a hospital outside for observation on August 6, days before the start of a corruption trial he has thus far avoided.
Prison spokesman Singabakho Nxumalo says Mr Zuma underwent a surgical procedure on Saturday, 14 August 2021, with other procedures scheduled for the coming days.
Last week, a high court postponed his corruption trial to September 9 after his hospitalisation.

Zambian President Edgar Lungu has declared Thursday’s presidential and parliamentary election not free and fair after incidents of violence in three provinces.
Lungu says the Patriotic Front party that he leads was consulting on its next course of action.
President Lungu says the general election in three provinces, namely, Southern province, North Western province, and Western Province, were characterised by violence, rendering the whole exercise a nullity.
He said Patriotic Front polling agents were brutalised and chased from polling stations, a situation that left the ruling party’s votes unprotected in those three provinces.

Member countries of the Economic Community of West African States have set a January 2025 deadline for the adoption of cleaner fuels and vehicles in the region to reduce air pollution across the cities.
ECOWAS Director of Energy, Bayaornibe Dabire disclosed that the range of fuel specifications in the sub-region currently spans 50 Parts Per Million sulphur in some countries to 10, 000 ppm in others.
He says the need for harmonisation led to the issuance of the ECOWAS directive which covers exhaust gas and particulate emission limits for two-wheeled, light and heavy vehicles.
Dabire stressed that any improvement in fuel specifications without alignment with vehicle emission limits would not have the desired effect, emphasising that member states should prohibit the import of petrol and diesel which do not comply with the harmonised fuel specifications.

Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Mohamed Buba Marwa has commended the German government over ongoing efforts to boost the operational capability of the Agency with a world-class narcotic detection dog training facility.
He expressed appreciation for past supports to the NDLEA adding that the 2million euro dog training school being planned for the agency will further boost NDLEA’s operations.
The NDLEA chairman says drug trafficking is a complex and dynamic crime, which demands that the agency must always be a step ahead of drug cartels.
He urged the German government to consider donating more dogs to the agency to be able to cover more areas of responsibility.

The federal government will commence the second phase of vaccination of Nigerians against the COVID-19 virus in Abuja.
A statement by Yanda Muhammad for the Head of the Public Relations Unit of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency says the national flag-off of the second phase of COVID-19 vaccination is scheduled to hold on Monday at the Federal Medical Centre, Jabi, Abuja.
The Executive Director of NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib, says that the four million doses of Moderna vaccines donated by the United States Government and the 177,600 doses of Johnson and Johnson's vaccines received in the country last Thursday through the African Union and Afreximbank deal will be rolled out during the second phase of vaccination.

Mexico’s central bank raised borrowing costs for the second consecutive meeting Thursday, as stubbornly elevated and above-target consumer price increases have begun to contaminate inflation expectations.
Banco de Mexico boosted its key interest rate by a quarter-point to 4.5% after a surprise hike in June that did little to tame inflation, currently running at almost double the bank’s target.
Mexico’s economy is quickly rebounding so far in 2021 after shrinking 8.2% last year, the most in almost a century.
The recovery, with GDP seen growing 6.2% by economists surveyed by Citibanamex, is adding to inflationary pressures and helped lead the central bank to start tightening its monetary policy earlier than expected by most analysts.

The Turkish lira rallied to lead gains among emerging-market peers after Turkey’s central bank held its benchmark interest rate, defying President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s calls for a cut.
The currency rose as much as 1.2% after the Monetary Policy Committee held its one-week repo rate at 19% for a fifth month as forecast by all 20 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
The decision appeased traders who were concerned that the policymaker would succumb to political pressure and lower borrowing costs despite the deteriorating outlook for inflation. Consumer-price gains accelerated to 18.95% in July, virtually wiping out Turkey’s real policy rate.
The central bank says the benchmark rate will continue to be determined at a level above inflation to maintain a strong disinflationary effect until strong indicators point to a permanent fall in inflation and the medium-term 5% target is reached.

President Joe Biden called on U.S. lawmakers to enact legislation aimed at lowering drug prices, including allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices and imposing penalties on drugmakers that hike prices faster than inflation.
The President’s remarks laid out his vision to help reduce the costs for prescription medications as part of the Build Back Better agenda he is seeking to push through Congress as the nation continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biden lauded drugmakers for their life-saving work developing the COVID-19 vaccines.
Biden says U.S. prescription drug costs were higher than any other nation in the world by two to three times.

Jazz Pharmaceuticals PLC says its sleep disorder drug Xywav received U.S. regulatory approval for the expanded use in patients suffering from excessive daytime sleepiness despite a good night’s sleep.
Xywav is currently approved in the United States for the treatment of excessive daytime sleepiness and sudden loss of muscle tone in patients aged seven or older with a neurological disorder called narcolepsy.
Jazz shares rose as much as 1.1% to $146.66 in the afternoon session.
Jazz says that it plans to make Xywav available to idiopathic hypersomnia (IH) patients later this year.
Jazz has been attempting to expand its portfolio before the entry of cheaper generic competition for its top-selling drug Xyrem no later than 2023. In May, the drugmaker completed

The federal government has approved a total sum of N498.23 million for four power projects across the country.
Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, says the FEC meeting approved four power projects including the supply and installation of motorised portable hydraulic compressor for the Transmission Company of Nigeria in favour of Messrs Intern Equipment Nigeria Limited in the sum of US$502,950 plus N15,800,000.
He says the second approval was also received for the award of the contract for the supply and delivery of three sets of online partial discharge measurement and monitoring equipment for the TCN in favour of Messrs T and D Technology Limited in the sum of US$ 874,800 offshore plus N240,100,000 onshore with a delivery period of nine months.