Enhance collaboration with ZNFU, MFL, MCTI and other critical industry stakeholders for enhanced lobby and advocacy for the development of the dairy sector in Zambia; and

Kenya elected to UN Security Council

UNITED NATIONS - Kenya was elected to the UN Security Council for 2021-2022 on Tuesday, defeating Djibouti after first-round voting by the General Assembly failed to choose between the two candidates.

Kenya will replace South Africa in January. In recent years Africa has chosen a single candidate for the seat but continental ties have been strained. Kenya had the support of the African Union, though Djibouti had claimed it had priority under the principle of rotation as Kenya had sat on the Council more times. – AFP.

13 killed in landslide in Ivory Coast's main city

ABIDJAN - A landslide on the outskirts of Ivory Coast’s main city of Abidjan in the early hours of Thursday caused by heavy rains killed at least 13 people, the Defence Minister Hamed Bakayoko said.

The landslide occurred on the northern outskirts of Abidjan, where some neighbourhoods saw more than three times as much rain between June 12 and 15 than is usual, according to Ivory Coast’s weather service. – REUTERS.

US and China breach arms embargo

NEW YORK - A United Nations report obtained by the French news agency outlines undeclared military aid to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The culprits include the United States, China and South Africa among others.

The confidential report supplied to the UN Security Council says a large number of countries supplying weapons and training to the Congolese military have failed to notify the UN as required by a 2004 resolution. – BBC.

Al-Qaeda North Africa confirms chief is dead

PARIS - Al-Qaeda's North Africa wing has confirmed that its Algerian chief Abdelmalek Droukdel is dead, according to SITE, the US watchdog for extremist groups.

France said early this month that its forces killed Droukdel - once regarded as Algeria's enemy number one - in northern Mali near the Algerian border, where it says the group has bases it uses to carry out bombings and abductions of Westerners. – AFP.

Moz court jails police officers for murder of election observer

MAPUTO - A Mozambique court on Thursday convicted six officers from an elite police unit of murder in the killing of electoral observer and rights activist Anastácio Matavel days before last year’s presidential election.

Matavel was shot 10 times by a group of men armed with assault rifles in the southern province of Gaza during weeks of low-level violence in the country as supporters of the long-ruling Frelimo party clashed with those of the opposition Renamo before the vote won by the incumbent, Filipe Nyusi.

The Judicial Court of the Province of Gaza on Thursday handed the six policemen sentences of between three and 24 years for their involvement in the murder, while a seventh accused, a civilian, was acquitted.

The court also ordered the six to pay compensation of 1.5 million meticais ($22, 000) to Matavel’s family. – REUTERS.

POWER PLAY

…Kenya president refuses to rule out comeback as PM

NAIROBI - Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has refused to rule out the possibility that the position of Prime Minister may be created in an upcoming referendum as a way to see him retain power past the mandated two-term presidential limit.

In a streamed interview with Financial Times journalist Katrina Manson, Kenyatta refused to comment on "non-existent positions."

He however was categorical that he would not stay on as president beyond two terms, saying the constitution and the people of Kenya were very clear about that. "Kenyans are very clear about the two term limit since 2002, when it came into effect. No president has broken that. And I have no intention of being the first," Kenyatta LILONGWE - Hundreds of Malawian lawyers have taken to the streets of several cities to protest against interference with the judiciary, after President Peter Mutharika placed the country's chief justice on leave pending retirement as the country gears up for a hotly contested election rerun ordered by the court.

Donning black gowns and dark cream wigs, the lawyers on Wednesday were joined by law students and lecturers on the streets of the capital, Lilongwe, and the cities of Blantyre, Zomba and Mzuzu. WASHINGTON - The US Supreme Court has ruled against President Donald Trump's bid to end a programme that protects hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation.

The justices upheld lower court rulings which found his move to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood said.

The president said Kenya would hold a referendum soon to, according to him, "change parts of the constitution that would periodically need amendments, a fact that even its creators acknowledged."

He also addressed concerns about the free trade deal being negotiated between Kenya and the US, saying it would be a negotiation of equals despite the different economic and political power of the two countries.

A host of civil society organisations, who maintain that the trade deal will be a disaster for the Kenyan economy, tweeted their opposition under the hashtag #NoToKenyaUSFTA.

Kenyatta also had a message for those holding Black Lives

Mutharika's office issued a notice last Friday that sent Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda into early retirement, 18 months before he was due to leave and two weeks before the country returns to the polls on June 23.

The move, which prompted widespread condemnation, was reportedly halted by a High Court injunction following appeals by the Malawi Human Rights Defenders Coalition, the Association of Magistrates and the Malawi Law Society.

Nyirenda had led the Supreme Court decision Arrivals (Daca) programme was "unlawful." It protects "Dreamers" - undocumented youths brought to the US as children.

The Trump administration has sought to end the Obama-era policy since 2017.

The Supreme Court took up the case after lower courts ruled that the Trump administration did not adequately

Matter protests in the US and across the world: "All lives matter, but there should not be any targeted oppression of any group in society." –

Malawi lawyers protest chief justice's pre-vote forced retirement

BBC. which rejected Mutharika's bid to overturn a landmark ruling quashing his controversial re-election in May last year.

In the judgement last month, Nyirenda said "some of the grounds for appeal were not just fictious [fictitious] but purely unprofessional, disrespectful and distasteful."

The protesters carried banners and placards calling for the separation of powers, telling the executive "keep your hands off our judiciary." "Our courts should be able to deliver judgements freely explain why it was ending the programme, criticising the White House's "capricious" explanations.On Thursday, the justices voted 5-4 to uphold the lower courts' findings that the administration's order violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which says a government action cannot be "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of and independently without interference," said lawyer Bernadette Malunga, who led the march in Lilongwe.

The decision by Mutharika's administration sparked widespread criticism from lawyers' and judges' organisations in Malawi and abroad.

Main opposition leader Lazarus Chakwera said the president's action was "a tragic case of interference" and alleged that it could be a "way of capturing the judiciary in anticipation" of a poll loss next week.

Trump's bid to end Obama-era immigration policy ruled unlawful

– ALJAZEERA. discretion or otherwise not in accordance with law" or "unsupported by substantial evidence." The ruling, which does not prevent the Trump administration from continuing in its efforts to end the programme, affects an estimated 700, 000 young people who entered the US without documents as children. – AFP.