KAMPALA, Uganda — Emmanuel Musale, 26, a former guard at the palace of Charles Wesley Mumbere, king of the cultural Rwenzururu kingdom in Uganda’s mountainous Ruwenzori region, vividly remembers the army’s deadly attack in November 2016. “We were about 100 royal guards inside the palace on November 26, 2016, when we witnessed huge deployments of the army and the police,” Musale told Zenger News. “We did not know what was taking place. But we knew there was tension between the army and the palace for some time. The night of November 26, 2016, was a long one. The following morning, bullets…
Author: zenger.news
BOUIRA, Algeria — The Algerian state has stepped up its crackdown on journalists and pro-democracy activists in recent weeks, despite warnings from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Radio.M journalist El Kadi Ihsane and political activist Karim Tabou were kidnapped near their respective homes in Algiers on June 10. “Tabou was beaten and then abducted by unknown persons,” Djafer Tabou, a member of the victim’s family, told Zenger News. Djafer suspects Karim’s kidnapers were Algerian security secret agents. The kidnappings came two days before the parliamentary elections, which opposition parties threatened to boycott. At the same time, President Abdelmajid…
GULU, Uganda — Over two years, from 2015 to 2017, Castro Odur, 68, lost three of his five children to Nodding syndrome. This mysterious ailment has plagued villages in rural northern Uganda since early 2000. “There is nothing worse than losing three children in a row to the same condition because you are unable to afford medical care for them,” Oduor, a farmer from Labworomor village, Labongo-Akwang sub-county, northern Uganda, told Zenger News. He said his children — a girl and two boys — contracted the disease in 2003. They were debilitated due to malnutrition-related complications. Nodding syndrome is a neurological condition whose…
KOLKATA, India — Milkha Singh, the sprinter who introduced India to ‘track and field’, passed away at the age of 91 due to Covid-related complications on June 18. He tested positive in May. His wife, Nirmal Milkha Singh, also succumbed to Covid-19 at the age of 85 on June 13. Thanks to his performances across the globe, Milkha dominated sprinting for more than 10 years, winning multiple laurels for India. There has been no one who matches Milkha’s achievements in the country in track and field. During the 1947 Partition, an orphaned Milkha traveled from Govindpura, a village in the Punjab…
BHOPAL, India — A couple in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh have hired four security guards and six watchdogs to protect what is perhaps their most prized possession: Two Miyazaki mango trees. According to the orchardists Sankalp Parihar and his wife Rani, a customer in Mumbai recently offered INR 21,000 ($283) for one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of the Japanese variety of the fruit. “Some people told me that the variety of mango sold at INR 270,000 ($3,641) per kilogram in the market last year,” said Parihar. “A customer from Mumbai has offered me INR 21,000 ($283).” When the…
A Greek photographer has amassed a large online following for his images of the country’s famous idyllic islands and ancient sites. Dionisis Kaminaris is a civil engineer from Kefalonia, the largest island in the Ionian Sea. It is “most known for its stunning beaches,” he said. “There isn’t a lot of tourism, but it has a good reputation for its organization and cleanliness.” His Instagram page has more than 70,000 followers. In early 2012, the platform was mainly a photography community, “a big school of artists from all over the world,” he said. Kefalonia, Greece (@diokaminaris/Zenger News)“I am passionate about…
KOLKATA, India — Amid severe vaccine crunch in India, hundreds of residents of a housing complex in Mumbai, India’s west coast, say they have fallen prey to a scam and got inoculated by fake vaccines. Hitesh Patel, a resident of the Hiranandani Estate Society in Mumbai’s Kandivali area, says he and his neighbors were finally at ease knowing arrangements were being made for a vaccination drive on May 30 after months of wait. “My 19-year-old got vaccinated that day,” Patel told Zenger News. “Each dose cost us INR 1,260 ($17). Most of us did not receive any bill for the payment.…
BRISBANE, Australia — Journalists will be protected from revealing confidential whistle-blower sources under laws being prepared in the north-eastern Australian state of Queensland. Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman has released a discussion paper on proposed media shield laws after the government pledged to bring in new regulations in August. Queensland and Tasmania are the only Australian states without specific media shield laws, although the Apple Isle has a broader shield law covering the general population. “A free, independent, and effective media is crucial for a strong democracy,” Fentiman said in a statement on June 18. “Journalists need to be protected when doing their jobs, and Queensland residents…
MELBOURNE, Australia — A decade after, a sacked South-eastern Australian bank worker in the state of Victoria admitted defrauding more than AU$ 1.4 million ($1.06 million) from his employer. He’s about to face justice. But the significant delay – caused by the Commonwealth Bank waiting more than eight years to report his fraud to police – may mean George Vrettakos escapes jail time. The Commonwealth Bank knew about his fraud in 2010 and sacked him before managing to claw back nearly half of what he stole, including selling his home. But charges weren’t laid until the media reported on his scam, and it…
HOBART, Australia — An “almost perfect storm” of poor safety practices and inadequate equipment was to blame for two miners’ deaths on Australia’s Island state of Tasmania’s west coast eight years ago, a coroner has ruled. Alistair Lucas and Craig Gleeson fell more than 20 meters down a shaft some 700 meters underground at Mount Lyell copper mine in Queenstown in December 2013. They were undertaking routine maintenance as part of a three-person team when heavy machinery fell and broke the temporary timber platform they were standing. Two colleagues abseiled to the bottom of the shaft where they found the body of Gleeson,…