Newscast - Africa

President Muhammadu Buhari, in Seoul, invited top Korean business executives to increase their investments in Nigeria, while his regime would continue to make determined efforts to improve the enabling domestic environment for businesses to flourish.
The President noted that Nigeria remains committed to creating a stable and enabling business environment for foreign investors through the formulation of sound economic policies and improved governance, adding that the security forces have been working assiduously with local communities to ensure the security of lives and properties of Nigerians and foreign investors.
Mr. Yoon Suk-Yeol at the Presidential Palace on the sidelines of the First World Bio Summit, the President called for expansion from the long-term gas contract to other areas

Rishi Sunak will become the United Kingdom’s new prime minister after winning the ruling Conservative Party’s leadership contest, which was triggered by the resignation of Liz Truss last week.
Sunak’s win came days after Truss’s resignation after her disastrous tax cuts plans and policy U-turns plunged the markets into chaos. The unprecedented economic crisis drew a rare intervention from the Bank of England.
He says the whole list of tax cuts and ideas that frankly, according to Sunak and others, belongs to Disneyland because none of it was going to be really possible without crashing the economy more.

Western countries have accused Russia of plotting to use a threat of a dirty bomb laced with nuclear material as a pretext for escalation in Ukraine as Moscow evacuated civilians from a southern city in anticipation of a major battle.
With Ukrainian forces advancing into Russian-occupied Kherson province, top Russian officials phoned their Western counterparts on Sunday and Monday to tell them Moscow suspected Kyiv of planning to use a so-called dirty bomb.
The foreign ministers of France, the United Kingdom, and the United States said they had all rejected the allegations and reaffirmed their support for Ukraine against Russia.
British Chief of Defence Staff Tony Radakin again rejected Russia’s allegations in a call with Russian Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov.

Two Chinese nationals have been charged with paying thousands of dollars in cash and jewelry to obstruct a federal investigation into a major telecommunications company.
According to prosecutors, the two men attempted to recruit a US law enforcement official as an intelligence asset to help interfere with the probe.
The official, however, was working as a double agent for the FBI.
Eleven other Chinese citizens were also charged in two other spying cases.

The Sudanese military authorities have set up a committee to investigate recent violence in the southern Blue Nile state, where nearly 200 people were killed and thousands displaced.
The killings followed fighting between the Hausa and other local tribes, which escalated last week.
Military spokesperson Col Nabil Abdullah says the committee formed will investigate and evaluate the security situation.
The authorities have also set up a new military command for the Blue Nile state in an effort to contain the ethnic conflict.

Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission says a federal high court has ordered the final seizure of properties owned by former petroleum resources minister Diezani Alison-Madueke.
This is the latest court ruling related to corruption allegations against her - charges she denies.
Ms. Alison-Madueke served as Nigeria's petroleum minister between 2010 and 2015 and was a key figure in the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The assets being seized include houses and cars worth $3m.

Nigeria’s total external debt has risen from $10.32bn on June 30, 2015, to $40.06bn as of June 30, 2022.
A breakdown shows that in 2015, 36 states had $3.27bn external debt while the Federal Government had $7.05bn.
The debts included loans from multilateral sources such as the World Bank, the African Development bank, and the International Monetary Fund.
They also included bilateral loans from China, France, Japan, Germany, and India, as well as commercial sources including Eurobonds and Diaspora bonds.
The International Monetary Fund recently said that the long-term rate of the depreciation of the naira equated to a loss of 10.6 percent of its value annually since 1973.

The Federal Government has dismissed threats by foreign airlines to suspend operations in Nigeria over their inability to repatriate their blocked forex from the country.
The Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, says that Nigeria would fare better if foreign airlines boycott the country, as the government has developed the capacity to face the challenges.
Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, had called the roundtable over threats by Emirates Airline and British Airways to suspend their operations in Nigeria.
The Minister says Nigeria under President Buhari has shown the capacity and audacity to stand up in difficult moments to do the right thing to help the country.

The Islamic Development Bank has sanctioned $1.8bn to finance several key projects in the country.
The President of the Saudi-based bank, Dr. Mohamed Jasser, says the Islamic Development Bank has approved a total financing of $1.8bn for Nigeria.
This includes $971m in project financing and $288m provided by our private sector affiliate and $477m in trade operation by our trade arm, International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation, and $90m by other Islamic Development Bank Group funds and operations.
Jasser disclosed that the Islamic Development Bank’s portfolio in Nigeria stood at $1.2bn, noting that the bank had completed 35 percent of those projects and looked forward to strengthening the bilateral and regional initiatives with Nigeria.
He says the bank’s portfolio covered 15 states of the federation, commending the Federal Government for its economic diversification initiatives.

Indian authorities have fined Google 13bn rupees for using its Android platform to dominate the market.
The country's competition regulator has accused the tech giant of entering into one-sided agreements with smartphone makers to ensure the dominance of its apps.
The Competition Commission of India says that Google was abusing the licensing of its Android operating system for a range of smartphones, web searches, browsing, and video hosting services.
It says that Google was entering into forced agreements with players in the space to ensure that its bouquet of apps - such as Google Chrome, YouTube, Google Maps, and others - were used.