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AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE A live performance of an aria from an Italian opera isn’t a common sound in the bustling city of Lagos, Nigeria. So, when news spread of an appearance by professional soprano Omo Bello at the Musical Society of Nigeria School of Music, crowds flocked to see her. “I didn’t realize to what extent I was recognized in Nigeria,” the 33-year-old admitted after singing O mio babbino caro, from Giacomo Puccini’s 1918 opera Gianni Schicchi. “I’ve been away for over a decade, and I guess things have changed and I didn’t realize how much,” she said. “When I was…

DEFENCEWEB Piracy across the world dropped in 2017 as officials reported a total of 180 attacks against ships to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB). This is the lowest annual number of incidents since 1995, when 188 incidents were reported. In 2017, pirates boarded 136 vessels, and there were 22 attempted attacks, 16 vessels fired upon and six hijacked. In 15 incidents, pirates took 91 crew members hostage aboard their ships, and 75 were kidnapped and removed from their vessels in 13 other incidents. Three crew members were killed in 2017, and six were injured. “Although the number of attacks is…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Yetnebersh Nigussie’s first battle for disability rights was in law school, when she successfully pushed university administrators to provide Braille textbooks for blind students such as herself. Not long after, Yetnebersh, 35, left the legal profession to pursue a different type of advocacy as a full-time fighter for the rights and opportunities of Ethiopia’s millions of disabled people. In 2017, her life’s work was recognized with a Right Livelihood Award, often called the “Alternative Nobel Prize.” But her work is not yet complete. “There are still … millions of persons with disabilities who are living in a very…

VOICE OF AMERICA Somalia’s government has launched a digital counterextremism center that aims to dissuade young Somalis from supporting militant groups such as al-Shabaab and ISIS. The Somali Ministry of Information said the center will carry out campaigns on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and state-run media to get its message across. “The center plans to raise public awareness [with a] campaign on countering violent extremism, security and peace building, good governance, civic education, and implementing programs that can provide confidence to the people by discrediting terrorists’ narratives of violence and destruction,” said Information Minister Abdirahman Omar Osman. Osman, during the opening…

REUTERS By rewarding whistleblowers, boosting prosecutions and challenging beliefs in black magic, Nigeria is ramping up its crusade against human trafficking. The effort is backed by millions of pounds of British aid, anti-slavery and government officials said. Thousands of Nigerian women and girls are lured to Europe each year and make the treacherous sea crossing from Libya to Italy, where they are trafficked into sex work, the United Nations reported. The number of Nigerian women and girls arriving in Italy by boat surged to more than 11,000 in 2016 from 1,500 in 2014, with at least four in five forced…

REUTERS Up to 6,000 Africans who fought for ISIS in Iraq and Syria could return home, the African Union’s top security official warned, calling on countries to prepare for the threat. Smail Chergui, the AU’s commissioner for peace and security, said African nations need to work closely with each other and share intelligence to counter returning militants. “There are reports of 6,000 African fighters among the 30,000 foreign elements who joined this terrorist group in the Middle East,” Chergui told a meeting in Algiers, according to the Algeria Press Service. “The return of these elements to Africa poses a serious…

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Morocco launched its first observation satellite, which will be used for military activities, border and coastline surveillance, and monitoring desertification. The Mohammed VI-A satellite was launched from Kourou, French Guiana, on November 8, 2017. It will be piloted from an operating center near Morocco’s capital, Rabat. The launch service provider Arianespace says the satellite will be used for mapping, spatial planning, agricultural monitoring, natural disaster management and environmental development monitoring. Airbus Defense & Space and Thales Alenia Space built the satellite. A second launch was planned for 2018. The project cost has not been disclosed.

BBC NEWS AT BBC.CO.UK/NEWS Patrick Awuah left Ghana in the 1980s with “$50 in his pocket” after receiving a scholarship in the United States. But after a career with Microsoft, he returned to Ghana and has now won the Wise Prize, worth $500,000. The prize, awarded at the World Innovation Summit for Education in Qatar, recognized Awuah’s work as founder of Ashesi University College. The private, not-for-profit college was intended to help develop a new generation of leaders in Ghana and other African countries. Ashesi opened with 30 students in 2002 and is now teaching 800 students on a campus…

BBC NEWS AT BBC.CO.UK/NEWS A 709-carat diamond discovered by a Sierra Leonean pastor sold for $6.5 million at auction in December 2017. Called “the peace diamond,” it is the 14th-largest diamond ever found and the biggest found in Sierra Leone since 1972. The diamond was expected to sell for far more, but experts said the market was down at the time of the sale, and they also were concerned that it would not cut and polish into large, high-quality jewels. Emmanuel Momoh, a Christian pastor in the eastern Kono district, discovered the precious stone. He chose to hand it over to…

VOICE OF AMERICA A reality TV show that celebrates honest civil servants in corruption-plagued countries has grown to reach new audiences in Mali and Liberia. It aims to enlist the public’s help in fighting graft. Integrity Idol asks the public to nominate model civil servants and then vote for their favorite by text message after the finalists appear on national TV and radio. The show launched in Nepal in 2014 and has since spread to Liberia, Mali, Nigeria and Pakistan. In the finals in December 2017 in the West African nations of Liberia and Mali, a nursing instructor and a teacher…