Massive African finance scandal may get even bigger

While the official threshold for a COVID wave has not yet been reached, South Africa is facing a surge of infections driven by omicron sub-variants.

The German public is divided on the issue of military support for Ukraine. Many fear the delivery of tanks and training of Ukrainian soldiers in Germany may drag the country into the war.

Cyril Ramaphosa was widely seen as the saving grace of South Africa's ruling ANC party when he became president in 2018. But his credibility with the working class and the poor is falling.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth will not carry out the opening of parliament on Tuesday as the 96-year-old monarch has had a recurrence of mobility issues, Buckingham Palace said on Monday (May 9), the latest event she will not attend because of her health.

The UK government has set out next year's agenda in a tradition-steeped ceremony in Parliament. Queen Elizabeth did not attend in the first time in 59 years.

After struggling through the early years of the pandemic to get enough Covid 19 vaccinations, Africa's first factory to produce the doses says it may have to stop because it hasn't had enough orders. A former Congolese policemen gets a death sentence for murdereing a rights activist in 2010. And sanctions on Mali have hit Senegalese neighbouring towns. Within one month of the embargo exports to Mali have fallen by close to a quarter.

The egg-sized white diamond was sold for $21.75 million at Christie's in Geneva. It was billed as the largest of its kind to go under the hammer.

After struggling through the early years of the pandemic to get enough Covid-19 vaccinations, Africa's first factory to produce the doses says it may have to stop because it hasn't had enough orders. Also, a former Congolese policemen gets a death sentence for murdering human rights activist Floribert Chebeya in 2010. And sanctions on Mali have hit neighbouring towns in Senegal. Within one month of the embargo, exports to Mali have fallen by close to a quarter.

Sweden's government has decided to reverse decades of security policy and formally join NATO. Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson announced the step. Finland's parliament votes on the same plan later.

Citing corruption and other issues among deputies, Guinea-Bissau's President Umaro Sissoco Embalo has dissolved the country's parliament with elections set for the end of the year.

Semakaleng Mathebula is South Africa's first Black hot air balloon pilot and one of few women participating in the niche sport, which traditionally has been the domain of the white and privilege.

March 17, 1992: This date will forever be remembered in South Africa as the day when whites voted to end the apartheid system that privileged them and oppressed others. The country has seen momentous change since then — but is still wracked by injustice and poverty.