Watch 🇿🇼Zimbabwe👔 President 🐊Mnangagwa's Inauguration

Emmerson Mnangagwa has vowed to hold “democratic” elections next year as scheduled while being sworn in as Zimbabwe’s second president since independence in 1980. Mnangagwa took his oath of office in front of tens of thousands of jubilant Zimbabweans who he greeted with a raised fist at a stadium in Harare.

He also vowed to tackle corruption, reimburse the farmers whose land was seized under his predecessor, Robert Mugabe, and protect foreign investment in Zimbabwe. “We ask those who have punished us in the past to reconsider,” Mnangagwa said, in a possible reference to years of sanctions and international condemnation over rights abuses.

People sang and danced in the stands and raised banners reading “Dawn of a new era” and “No to retribution”, even as human rights activists began to report worrying details of attacks on close allies of the former first lady, Grace Mugabe, and their families. Mnangagwa himself has warned against “vengeful retribution”.

Mugabe did not attend Friday’s swearing-in, but party officials have said he will remain in Zimbabwe. Officials have promised he is safe and that his legacy as a war hero in the fight for independence from white minority rule will stand.

​🇺🇬Uganda's Red Pepper ✍Journalists Charged with Treason:Police​

Eight managers and editors of a daily newspaper arrested this week have been charged with treason, Ugandan police said on Thursday. Police raided the Red Pepper, Uganda's leading tabloid, late on Tuesday and detained the journalists, whom they accused of publishing a false story the previous day.

The story, citing unnamed sources, alleged that Rwanda believed Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was plotting to oust its leader, Paul Kagame. Besides treason, the journalists were charged with "offensive communication and publication of information prejudicial to national security", police spokesman Emilian Kayima told Reuters.

Rights groups and journalists have complained of escalating harassment and intimidation of independent media by security personnel in Uganda. "We believe that this is economic sabotage aimed at occasioning the media house financial loss since all its production have been stopped," the Human Rights Network for Journalists - Uganda (HRNJ-U), a local media rights group, said in a statement issued on Thursday.

📰 ​IJ3​: ​Japanese politician brings baby to assembly sparking debate

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A local Japanese politician has been criticised by lawmakers for trying to bring her baby to a council session. Yuka Ogata said she wanted to show how difficult it is for women to juggle careers and raise children. Kumamoto municipal assembly officials said she had violated assembly rules as visitors and observers are forbidden from the floor. After a lengthy discussion, Ms Ogata left the child with a friend and the session started 40 minutes late.

The council says it will discuss her case and ways to support lawmakers with young children. Speaker Yoshitomo Sawada told reporters: "We would like to work on a system where assembly members can participate in meetings with their children," Mainichi newspaper reports.

Wednesday's incident was the first time Ms Ogata had attended a municipal assembly plenary session since giving birth to her son seven months ago. She told reporters that she had asked the secretariat repeatedly to either allow her son to be with her during the assemblies or to provide a day-care facility. "I wanted the assembly to be a place where women who are raising children can also do a great job," she told Mainichi.  
 

​North Korea digs DMZ trench after recent defection

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North Korea appears to be fortifying its border in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) with the South, days after a soldier defected by running across. A US diplomat to South Korea has tweeted a picture showing workers digging a trench. The defector was shot multiple times by border guards from the North at the spot last week.

South Korea has handed out medals to its soldiers who helped rescue the wounded defector. Marc Knapper, chargé d'affaires at the US embassy in Seoul tweeted a picture of the scene after a visit to the DMZ. Another diplomat visiting the same spot told the Reuters news agency he had also seen several workers digging a trench.

​Germany coalition: Merkel and SPD to hold talks​

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her ex-coalition partners, the centre-left Social Democrats, are to hold talks in efforts to end a political impasse. Earlier, the SPD softened its stance and said it was open for discussions. Leader Martin Schulz, who has refused to renew a coalition with Mrs Merkel's conservatives, is under pressure from party allies to change his position.

Mrs Merkel failed to form a coalition government with the liberal Free Democrats and the Greens this week. German President Frank Walter Steinmeier, who is holding talks with party leaders in efforts to break the stalemate and avoid a snap election, said he would host the talks between Mrs Merkel and the SPD next week.

Mr Schulz, who met Mr Steinmeier on Thursday, said he would ask his party to vote on whether to take part in another coalition. The SPD was in government with Mrs Merkel between 2013 and 2017 and said it would not renew the deal following the 24 September election, when the party had its worst election result since 1949.

​Over 40,000 apply for teaching in Kaduna​

Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State on Thursday said that over 40,000 people have so far applied for teaching in public primary schools in the state. The governor made this statement, following the planned retrenchment of 21,780 primary school teachers alleged to have failed a competency test conducted by the state government.

The government has since announced vacancies for about 25,000 new teaching positions and called for the replacement of over 20,000 teachers who failed the test.

According to the statement, the governor informed the lawmakers that the state government had received 43, 806 applications from prospective teachers in public primary schools in the state. He explained that all shortlisted applicants would be subjected to oral and practical examinations, to be followed by interviews and final verification to ascertain the authenticity of their qualifications.