Guinea-Bissau votes in hope of ending long leadership deadlock
AFP, Bissau
Voters in Guinea-Bissau went to the polls Sunday to elect a new parliament in the hope of ending a protracted leadership deadlock in a country that has become renowned for drug trafficking and instability.
“I came to vote because I want the development of my country. I hope that the day passes off calmly,” said Victor Pereira, 42. The onetime Marxist ruling party PAIGC, which has run the poor West African country of some two million for most of the 45 years since winning independence from Portugal, is fielding candidates along with 20 opposition parties.
Iran’s President to visit Iraq
AP, Tehran
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is making his first official visit to Iraq this week as he faces mounting pressure from hard-liners at home in the wake of the unravelling of the nuclear deal under the Trump administration.
Rouhani’s trip – billed as “historic and noble” by his foreign minister – is meant to solidify ties between Shiite power Iran and Iraq’s Shiite led-government.
It’s also Iran’s response to President Donald Trump’s snap December trip to Iraq during which he said U.S. forces are in Iraq to watch Iran.
Death toll from Malawi flooding rises to 28
Reuters, Blantyre
The number of people killed in heavy rains and flooding in southern Malawi has risen to 28, an official said on Sunday, while the estimated number of people affected has roughly doubled.
Chipiliro Khamula, a spokesman for Malawi’s Department of Disaster Management in the Ministry of Homeland Security, said that 28 deaths had been recorded as of Saturday, as well as 124 injuries.
UN chief proposes cutting DR Congo force
AFP, United Nations
UN chief Antonio Guterres has proposed shrinking the large peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
After presidential elections in December that ended Joseph Kabila’s rule and improved security, the 16,000-strong mission known as MONUSCO now can be reconfigured, UN officials have said. Guterres suggested a reduction of about 2,000 people, in a report to the Security Council obtained by AFP Saturday.
Twelve dead in Colombia plane crash
AFP, Bogota
A plane crash in Colombia killed 12 people on Saturday, including a mayor and her family, aviation and emergency services said.
The Douglas DC-3 aircraft, an American-made twin-engine propeller plane that was first produced in the 1930s, crashed in the center-east of the country on a flight between the towns of San Jose del Guaviare and Villavicencio. A fire department official told AFP it then caught fire.
“Unfortunately… there were no survivors,” the Aeronautica Civil aviation authority said, adding that the wreckage was found close to Villavicencio.
