A former Algerian policeman who joined the country’s protest movement was sentenced on Thursday to two years in jail, a prisoners’ rights group said. Toufik Hassani was convicted of “threatening police agents” and “divulging professional secrets on Facebook”, according to the CNLD group. Hassani had decried police repression of a student march in the capital […]

Hundreds of Israelis protested in Tel Aviv late Thursday against a second nationwide lockdown, the first such move in the world to tackle a renewed spike in coronavirus cases. The country is to re-enter lockdown at 2:00pm on Friday (1100 GMT), hours before Jewish New Year, known as Rosh Hashana, and extend for three weeks […]

Foreign nationals in South Africa suffer “routine” harassment, violence and discrimination by locals and government authorities, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday. The group said xenophobia remained widespread in South Africa despite a government action plan rolled out in May 2019 to combat “intolerance”. Foreign workers are often victims of anti-immigrant sentiment in South […]

South Africa’s central bank on Thursday forecast the economy will shrink by 8.2 per cent in 2020, but some forecasts foresee a double-digit contraction due to a fallout from coronavirus pandemic. The bank revised downwards its outlook as the impact of the lockdown imposed in March, becomes clearer. “The bank now forecasts a GDP contraction […]

The Chinese Consulate in Lagos, Thursday, said China had made major strategic achievements in the battle against COVID-19, especially via international solidarity.