Gabon’s Bongo names new Prime Minister
Reuters, Libreville
Gabon’s President Ali Bongo, who has been out of the country for two months recovering from a stroke, named a new prime minister on Saturday in an apparent effort to shore up his political base days after a failed coup attempt.
The plotters of Monday’s coup attempt were arrested or killed within hours of seizing the national radio station, but the move reflected growing frustration with a government weakened by Bongo’s secretive medical leave in Morocco.
US says time for new govt in Venezuela
AP, Abu Dhabi
The United States ramped up its criticism of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro on Saturday with an explicit call for the formation of a new government in the country.
The State Department said in a statement that it stood behind the head of Venezuela’s opposition-run congress, Juan Guaido, who said on Friday he is prepared to step into the nation’s presidency temporarily to replace Maduro.
Clashes erupt in Hodeida despite truce
AFP, Hodeida
Clashes erupted between Huthi rebels and government forces in Yemen’s flashpoint port city of Hodeida on Saturday, dealing a new blow to a fragile truce, an AFP correspondent reported.Artillery and machine-gun exchanges rocked the southern part of Hodeida in early morning before tapering off later in day, the correspondent said.
The rebel-held port city, which is a lifeline for the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid, was for months the main front line in the Yemeni conflict after government forces supported by Saudi Arabia and its allies launched an offensive to capture it in June.
Pro-Kabila camp wins DRC
legislative poll
AFP, Kinshasa
Parties supporting outgoing Democratic Republic of Congo president Joseph Kabila won a majority in long-delayed legislative elections, according to an AFP tally of results released Saturday, as the opposition sought a recount of the disputed presidential poll.
Pro-Kabila parties had passed the 250-seat threshold required to secure a majority in the 500-seat national assembly, according to collated results from the Independent National Election Commission (CENI).
Chinese cities issue ‘orange’ smog alert
Reuters, Beijing:
Second-level, or “orange”, pollution alerts was issued in at least nine cities in China’s industrial heartland of Hebei, Shandong, Henan and Shanxi in response to a wave of smog expected to blanket the region, state radio reported on Friday. The alerts are expected to be in effect until January 14.
Industrial sites including steel mills, coke plants and aluminium smelters were ordered to curtail output by at least an average of 30 percent during the alerts.
