© LUÍSA NHANTUMBO/LUSA
Middle Eastern operators Zain Group and Ooredoo Group officially launched a joint venture tower platform after closing the first phase of the transaction by combining portfolios in their home markets.
The operators stated they have brought together the assets of Zain Kuwait and Ooredoo Qatar, comprising 4,000 towers in total.
They each own a 50% stake in the platform.
Announced in 2023, the tower company was pitched as the largest of its kind in the MENA region, with a combined value of $2.2 billion.
At the time, the companies and UAE-based TASC Towers stated the entity would comprise nearly 30,000 towers in Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Tunisia, Iraq and Algeria.
In the latest statement, the companies highlighted how the transaction is expected to create significant value through greater scale, capital efficiencies and a dedicated operating model focused on passive telecoms infrastructure.
Additional towers are expected “to be integrated progressively into the platform”, subject to closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
They further pointed to opportunities for operators to access infrastructure in a more capital-efficient manner while supporting the region’s digital infrastructure.
Zain CEO Bader Al-Kharafi said the first closing of the tower platform “reflects our shared strategy of creating focused, scalable and sustainable platforms”.
Ooredoo counterpart Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo added it is “now executing across every digital infrastructure segment identified in our strategy as we continue building a leading regional portfolio”.
The post Zain, Ooredoo close first phase of tower venture appeared first on Mobile World Live.
Una fotografía de pasaporte está hecha para identificar a una persona, no para contar quién es. Diminuta y sobre un fondo blanco, verifica y aspira a eliminar cualquier ambigüedad. Sin embargo, es precisamente de esa paradoja, la distancia entre lo que muestra una imagen y lo que puede llegar a narrar, de donde parte Passports, el último libro de Keisha Scarville, (Nueva York, 1975) en el que el retrato de su padre, tomado a los dieciséis años, da pie a una exploración que desborda los límites de la fotografía original.
© KEISHA SCARVILLE (EL PAÍS)
© KEISHA SCARVILLE
© KEISHA SCARVILLE
© KEISHA SCARVILLE
© KEISHA SCARVILLE
© Keisha Scarville
© KEISHA SCARVILLE
The alert followed confirmation by Nigeria’s government on Tuesday of the country’s first case, a woman who arrived in the capital Abuja on an international flight from Uganda, who remains isolated under medical care while authorities work to contain any possible transmission.
Nigeria has become the fourth nation on the continent to report confirmed infections, joining the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya.
RELATED: Nigeria Confirms First Ebola Case as Outbreak Spreads in Africa
Jean Kaseya, director general of Africa CDC, described the gravity of the moment in direct terms. “We cannot allow this outbreak to spread to more countries or continue for another year,” he said, stressing that the virus has now achieved the widest geographic reach in the history of the disease.
"This Ebola outbreak is no longer one country's fight."
— Africa CDC (@AfricaCDC) October 21, 2026
Africa CDC Director General H.E. @Dr_JeanKaseya calls on every @_AfricanUnion Member State to detect early, trace every contact and protect health workers. On the 28th of October, he will be convening Africa's ministers of… https://t.co/7esmXLjk1N
The current episode stands as the second deadliest Ebola outbreak ever recorded worldwide, with more than 4,600 deaths across the region. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone, the toll has surpassed 4,205, a figure that underscores how deeply the epidemic has taken root there even as it extends into new territory.
Kaseya framed the response as inseparable from global security. “Every day of delay costs lives. Africa’s health security is global health security. Stopping Ebola in Africa today means protecting the world,” he said, adding that Nigeria has the agency’s total solidarity and that the outbreak must be defeated together.
Africa CDC had already anticipated the crisis. In May 2026 the specialized agency of the African Union declared a public health emergency of continental security, a warning that positioned the region’s institutions ahead of the current escalation. The agency has since begun mobilizing assistance toward Nigerian territory while reinforcing response operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya and Uganda.
Kaseya directed his appeal beyond the continent, telling the international community what the response requires. “We need immediate and flexible funding, medical supplies, diagnostic tests, trained response personnel and stronger community surveillance,” he said.
The public health agency of the African Union has moved quickly to convert the appeal into action. On Wednesday it invited the region’s health ministers to a virtual meeting scheduled for October 28, where they will debate the spread of the virus and coordinate next steps. The gathering arrives less than a week after Nigeria’s first confirmed case, a timeline that reflects the urgency Kaseya has attached to the response.
Nigeria’s entry into the outbreak carries particular weight. The country is the most populous on the continent, and its capital’s connection to an international flight from Uganda raises questions about how far the virus may have traveled before detection. For now, the patient remains the single confirmed case in the country. But the presence of the disease in Abuja, rather than in a border community, changes the calculus for responders who must now trace contacts across a dense urban network. The woman’s isolation is one line of defense; the contact tracing around her is another, and both depend on the resources Africa CDC is struggling to assemble.
The outbreak’s trajectory since May has followed the pattern Kaseya warned about. Declared an emergency when still confined to a smaller footprint, it has now breached four national borders and shows no sign of slowing. The October 28 meeting of health ministers will test whether that warning has finally translated into the funding and supplies that African institutions have been requesting for months.
The alert came during a joint press conference in which the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretary-General Celeste Saulo acknowledged that the phenomenon now sits “literally outside the scales of monitoring that we have used over the past four decades.”
Her assessment placed the coming months among the most severe climate events recorded since such tracking began.
RELATED: El Niño Extreme Weather: 34 Days of Record Rain Raise Global Alarm
Saulo and UN humanitarian coordinator Tom Fletcher issued an urgent call for the international community to prepare in advance for the consequences they expect.
Fletcher put the human cost in stark terms. The phenomenon “will shake Latin America, eastern and southern Africa, Asia and the Pacific with extreme heat, droughts and floods,” he warned, and could push food insecurity to affect as many as 50 million people worldwide.
The warning singled out regions already struggling with fragile agricultural systems and limited infrastructure, where a single failed harvest can tip entire communities into crisis.
El Niño is set to hit fragile communities hard.@UNOCHA and @WMO are sounding the alarm, appealing for immediate assistance to support communities already affected by what has been described as the strongest El Niño on record. https://t.co/LDrygGkPPw pic.twitter.com/H1XcVA3AR7
— UN News (@UN_News_Centre) October 21, 2026
The temperature projection of 3.8 degrees above the long-term average would place this El Niño beyond the upper bands of the monitoring framework built over forty years. Saulo noted that extreme weather events are already being recorded and will tend to multiply as the phenomenon gains intensity. She stressed, however, that the crisis “does not have to inevitably trigger a humanitarian disaster,” a message both officials repeated throughout their appearance.
To front-load the response, Fletcher announced the allocation of 50 million dollars from the UN emergency fund. The money will assist 11 of the most vulnerable countries as a priority, including Chad, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan. The list reflects the broad geographic reach of the expected impacts, spanning the Horn of Africa, the Sahel and Central America.
Both representatives insisted that a window of opportunity remains open. Extreme conditions “do not have to translate into humanitarian emergencies or fatalities” if precautions are taken in time, they argued, framing preparedness as the difference between a difficult season and a catastrophic one.
Saulo and Fletcher directed their appeal beyond governments. WMO and the humanitarian office urged development banks and international financial institutions to release funds in a coordinated manner before the worst damage occurs. The underlying premise is simple, El Niño cannot be stopped, but its worst human impacts can be mitigated and prevented.
Latin America appears prominently in the forecast. Central America has already been placed on maximum alert over drought conditions linked to the so-called Super El Niño, and the new warning extends that concern across the region. Africa faces the mirror problem in several zones, with eastern and southern areas bracing for a combination of heat, drought and flood depending on local geography.
WMO’s warnings marks a departure from the cautious phrasing typical of international agencies. Describing the phenomenon as off the scale is not a rhetorical flourish but a technical judgment, one intended to shake loose the funding and coordination that slow-moving bureaucracies often withhold until emergencies are already visible. For Saulo and Fletcher, the next three months represent the period when that response must be assembled, not the period when it can still be debated.
Reports emerge of similar withdrawals in UAE, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain amid concerns about a return to conflict with Iran after US midterm elections
The US state department has ordered some diplomats and the families of US government employees to leave Saudi Arabia, as the gulf kingdom faces a barrage of near-daily attacks, with at least three people killed at an airport and oilfield on Wednesday evening.
Attacks on “civilian airports and other critical infrastructure” by the Iranian-supported Houthis in Yemen were highlighted as the reason for the drawdown. State department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said: “The safety and security of department personnel and their families remain our highest priority.”
Continue reading...
© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
On the opening day of its National Smallholder Farmers’ Conference and 31st Annual General Meeting (AGM), held from September 29 to October 1, MVIWATA, Tanzania’s national network of smallholder farmers’ groups, set aside time during a program on land, seed, and markets to state solidarity with the peoples of Palestine and Cuba, with the ambassadors of both countries present in the hall.
“We, the members of MVIWATA, who have convened in Morogoro for our 31st Annual General Meeting, wish to give a brief statement in support of the people of Palestine and the Cuban people,” read Theodora Pius, MVIWATA’s head of program, opening the statement. The organization said it was “extremely angered by the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people” and “frustrated to see an open silence on war crimes that happen every day against the people of Palestine by the State of Israel and its allies.” It said its solidarity was with all of Palestine, “not only in the Gaza Strip.”
The statement then turned to Cuba, denouncing more than 60 years of US-imposed blockade, it said, imposed because Cubans exercised their freedom to choose their own political system, and went on to articulate what the blockade now means: “no electricity, no fuel, no medicines, no food.” Despite this, the statement said that the Cuban people have continued to send their expertise (doctors above all) to support life in other countries.
The Cuban Ambassador, Yordenis Despaigne Vera, thanked the smallholder farmers and described the current stage of the blockade as an energy war. United Nations agencies reinforce this characterization. By May, the Cuban people were living with daily blackouts of up to twenty hours, and more than 100,000 patients, including 11,000 children, were waiting for operations delayed by power cuts and shortages. Cuba’s own health ministry recorded infant mortality rising from 7.1 to 9.9 deaths per thousand live births between 2024 and 2025. The ambassador called the United States program “a silent genocide” and said Tanzania’s government and people had stood with Cuba throughout. A week earlier, at the UN General Assembly, Tanzania’s Vice-President had reaffirmed the country’s “unwavering solidarity with Cuba” against unilateral sanctions. Last October, the Assembly voted 165 to 7, with 12 abstentions, to demand an end to the blockade; Tanzania voted in favor.
The Palestinian ambassador, Salam Abu Sharar, addressed the room of farmers. Land, he said, is close to the hearts of the Palestinian people and of MVIWATA alike, and the question of Palestine “is not about religion; it is about land.” In a hall where the first working session opened with the words “land is life, land is not a commodity,” he spoke the delegates’ own language: the struggle of Tanzania’s peasants and the national liberation of Palestine are one struggle.
MVIWATA has been here before. Its AGM in Njombe in December 2023 condemned Israel’s genocide in Palestine. In July 2025, it hosted the youth of La Via Campesina in Morogoro, whose declaration ended with “Free Palestine!” Within days of that meeting’s close, Israeli forces bulldozed the seed multiplication unit of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, the Palestinian farmers’ organization in Hebron, destroying more than seventy local varieties. The same year, MVIWATA and the International Association for Popular Cooperation ran an Africa Bioinputs School in Tanzania, with participants from thirteen countries, including Palestine, learning how farmers make their own fertilizers and pest controls.
On the conference’s final day, the Tanzanian farmers resolved to build their own bank of indigenous seed. In Hebron and in Morogoro, the seed is where the struggle over who feeds whom begins. MVIWATA Chairperson Apollo Chamwela told the ambassadors that the organization stood ready to do for Cuba what it had tried to do for Palestine: collect food if mechanisms for transporting it can be arranged.
MVIWATA is a membership organization of smallholder farmers, founded in 1993 and organized across mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar. It was a meeting with a government minister as its guest of honor. Its statement on Palestine and Cuba came in the same breath as its demands for land, seed, and dignified prices for its members’ produce at home. For these farmers, sovereignty over food and sovereignty over territory are one question, whether the territory is a village in Kilosa or a hillside in Hebron.
The hall closed the statement with a call and response. “Long live Palestine! Long live!” “Viva Fidel! Viva!” “Viva the resistance of the people of Palestine! Viva!”
Jonis Ghedi-Alasow is the Coordinator of the Pan Africanism Today Secretariat.
US photojournalist describes ‘protective shield’, vows to return to work in West Bank and criticises Netanyahu comments on incident
The Washington Post photojournalist who was attacked and seriously injured by Israeli settlers in the West Bank on Friday has described how she was saved with the help of local Palestinians.
Heidi Levine sustained four fractured vertebrae, two broken ribs and four puncture wounds when she was knocked to the ground and repeatedly beaten by a crowd of masked settlers while she and other journalists were covering the olive harvest in the Palestinian village of Abu Falah, north of Ramallah.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Quique Kierszenbaum/The Guardian
© Photograph: Quique Kierszenbaum/The Guardian
© Photograph: Quique Kierszenbaum/The Guardian
O Comité Central do MPLA, partido no poder em Angola, manteve esta quarta-feira, 21 de outubro, a decisão, depois de recurso, que declara nula a candidatura de Higino Carneiro à liderança desta organização política e decidiu instaurar-lhe um processo disciplinar.
O porta-voz do Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA), Esteves Hilário, leu o comunicado final da XI reunião ordinária do Comité Central, anunciando a decisão.
Segundo o secretário para a Informação do Bureau Político do MPLA, o Comité Central declarou nula a candidatura de Francisco Higino Lopes Carneiro Higino carneiro em conformidade com os estatutos e demais normativos vigentes no partido.
O órgão máximo do partido deliberou ainda instaurar um processo disciplinar contra o pré-candidato Higino Carneiro, “com fundamento na violação das normas de forma voluntária e consciente dos deveres éticos e morais impostos pelos estatutos e pelo código de ética partidária do MPLA”.
“Comunicar os factos à Procuradoria-Geral da República face à existência de fortes inícios da prática de crimes de falsificação de documentos pelo camarada Francisco Higino Lopes Carneiro”, referiu.
Na terça-feira, o Bureau Político do MPLA aprovou o parecer da Comissão de disciplina, Ética e Auditoria o partido sobre o recurso hierárquico apresentado pelo pré-candidato Higino Carneiro, tendo recomendado a sua submissão ao Comité Central.
Entretanto, a decisão hoje divulgada começou a ser partilhada nas redes sociais na noite de terça-feira.
Francisco Higino Lopes Carneiro membro do Comité Central e pré-candidato à liderança do MPLA submeteu uma reclamação na sequência do chumbo, a 21 de julho, da sua candidatura apresentada a 25 de junho passado, devido a “graves irregularidades”, nomeadamente assinaturas alegadamente falsificadas e a utilização indevida de documentos de identificação.
Na altura, o responsável da subcomissão de candidaturas do MPLA anunciou a anulação da candidatura de Higino Carneiro à presidência do partido, alegando foram detetadas assinaturas de “supostos militantes” não inscritos nos comités de ação do partido (CAP), cartões descontinuados com datas de emissão recentes, listas assinadas por uma única pessoa em nome de vários e bilhetes de identidade falsos.
Das 19.158 fichas de subscrição que o mandatário da candidatura declarou ter entregado, a subcomissão apurou que constavam apenas 14.493, das quais 2.561 válidas (17,6%), 9.659 não válidas (66,6%) e 2.273 falsas (15,6%).
O responsável da subcomissão, Job Capapinha, disse que os factos, “passíveis de responsabilização criminal”, seriam submetidos aos órgãos competentes do partido.
Na reclamação apresentada junto da Comissão Nacional Preparatória do congresso, Higino Carneiro argumentou que o prazo de validação das candidaturas ao IX congresso do partido, que se realiza entre 9 e 10 de dezembro deste ano, termina apenas a 25 de outubro.
Sobre a reunião hoje do Comité Central, da qual participou Higino Carneiro, membro deste órgão, fonte do MPLA disse à Lusa que o general teve duas intervenções em autodefesa, tendo alegadamente os membros se limitado a votar, uns por abstenção, a maioria a favor e um voto contra do próprio visado.
O Ministério da Educação moçambicano comprometeu-se esta quarta-feira, 21 de outubro, a retomar em breve o pagamento das horas extraordinárias em atraso de 2023 a cerca de 29.466 professores, prevendo liquidar a dívida em três prestações até dezembro.
Num comunicado divulgado após um encontro entre o ministro da Educação e Cultura, Edson Macuácua, e a Organização Nacional dos Professores (ONP), o governante transmitiu à classe o compromisso de retomar o pagamento brevemente das horas extraordinárias de 2023, em três prestações de um terço da dívida, mediante disponibilidade financeira até dezembro de 2026.
“A medida abrange 29.466 professores com pagamentos pendentes, dos quais 24.933 receberam valores parciais e 4.533 ainda não receberam qualquer pagamento. Outros 15.866 professores já receberam integralmente os valores correspondentes a 2023”, refere o documento.
O Ministério salvaguarda que os pagamentos dependerão da disponibilidade financeira do Estado, mas o executivo mantém o compromisso de regularizar gradualmente os montantes em atraso.
O comunicado refere ainda que outros 15.866 professores já receberam integralmente os valores correspondentes às horas extraordinárias realizadas em 2023.
Relativamente às horas extraordinárias acumuladas entre 2024 e 2026, Edson Macuácua afirmou que prossegue o processo de validação e apuramento da dívida, em coordenação com o Ministério das Finanças, para posterior definição de um plano de pagamento.
O ministro anunciou igualmente a regularização de 7.076 funcionários abrangidos por atos administrativos de 2021 interrompidos com a introdução da Tabela Salarial Única (TSU), incluindo 5.092 professores.
Os pagamentos destes processos deverão começar em novembro, refere-se.
No domínio da carreira profissional, o executivo pretende dar prioridade às progressões dos níveis salariais mais baixos, tendo identificado 82.952 professores dos níveis 06 a 11 que reúnem os requisitos para progressão, processo igualmente condicionado à disponibilidade orçamental.
O documento refere que durante o encontro o ministro abordou ainda reivindicações ligadas às condições de trabalho dos docentes, assegurando a continuidade das negociações sobre a reposição do subsídio de localização, interrompido nos últimos anos.
O governante defendeu igualmente a identificação das zonas mais críticas para a colocação de professores, a criação de mecanismos de rotatividade e a mobilização de parceiros para melhorar as condições de habitação dos docentes e as infraestruturas escolares.
“Queremos falar com clareza e responsabilidade, sem criar expectativas que não possamos cumprir”, afirmou.
A visita à ONP foi a primeira atividade pública de Edson Macuácua após assumir, em 14 de outubro, a pasta da Educação e Cultura, tendo o ministro defendido a necessidade de reforçar o diálogo com a classe docente na procura de soluções para os principais problemas do setor.
Macuácua foi nomeado ministro em substituição de Samaria Tovela, exonerada no mesmo dia por Chapo. O governante ocupava anteriormente o cargo de secretário de Estado da Ciência e Ensino Superior, agora atribuído a Isaú Joaquim Menezes, também hoje empossado.
A exoneração de Tovela ocorreu no dia em que a então ministra criticou o endividamento dos professores e defendeu uma melhor gestão dos respetivos rendimentos. Durante o II Conselho Coordenador do Ministério da Educação e Cultura, afirmou que alguns docentes ficam com apenas 200 meticais (2,8 euros) mensais após os descontos salariais.
A Nigéria registrou nesta terça-feira (21) seu primeiro caso de Ebola em mais de uma década, tornando-se o quarto país africano, e o mais populoso até o momento, a ser atingido por um surto que possui a propagação mais rápida já documentada, segundo autoridades de saúde.
A cepa do vírus Ebola responsável por este surto mata cerca de metade dos infectados e não possui tratamento ou vacina aprovados.
Desde a confirmação dos primeiros casos na República Democrática do Congo, em maio, a doença já vitimou 4.646 pessoas.
Autoridades de saúde temem que a desinformação e a falta de recursos financeiros possam impulsionar uma propagação ainda maior, tanto dentro da região quanto além de suas fronteiras.
“O Ebola agora afeta três regiões da África. A situação exige uma ação urgente e liderança política no mais alto nível”, afirmou Jean Kaseya, diretor-geral dos Centros Africanos de Controle e Prevenção de Doenças, na rede social X, nesta quarta-feira (21).
Ebola is now affecting three regions of Africa. The situation demands urgent action and political leadership at the highest level. I have invited African Ministers of Health to an extraordinary virtual meeting on 28 October to strengthen our collective response. Five months of intense efforts have shown the determination of our countries and health workers. We must now accelerate our actions, reinforce coordination and mobilise the full strength of our continent. Africa has the expertise, the institutions and the capacity to defeat this outbreak. We must act together, and we must act now. Our priority is to stop transmission and save lives. Read more: https://t.co/aO9dtJ9uBI —————- Ebola touche désormais trois régions d’Afrique. La situation exige une action urgente et un engagement politique au plus haut niveau. J’ai convié les ministres africains de la Santé à une réunion virtuelle extraordinaire le 28 octobre pour renforcer notre riposte collective. Cinq mois d’efforts intenses témoignent de la détermination de nos pays et de nos professionnels de santé. Nous devons aujourd’hui accélérer notre action, renforcer la coordination et mobiliser toutes les forces de notre continent. L’Afrique dispose de l’expertise, des institutions et des capacités nécessaires pour vaincre cette épidémie. Nous devons agir ensemble, et agir maintenant. Notre priorité est de stopper la transmission et de sauver des vies. Lire le communiqué : https://t.co/Yf1EhyOpMA
— Dr Jean Kaseya (@Dr_JeanKaseya) October 21, 2026
O caso na Nigéria envolve uma mulher ugandense que chegou a Abuja, a capital do país, vinda de Adis Abeba, no dia 5 de outubro, informou Odianosen Ehiakhamen, do Centro de Controle de Doenças da Nigéria, à emissora Arise TV, na terça-feira (20).
Dois dias após sua chegada, ela começou a se sentir mal e, em 11 de outubro, buscou atendimento em um hospital particular em Abuja apresentando sintomas semelhantes aos da malária.
Contudo, seu quadro clínico não apresentou melhora, relatou Ehiakhamen.
Ao tomarem conhecimento de que ela havia viajado recentemente para Uganda — um dos países afetados pelo surto atual —, as autoridades de saúde realizaram um teste para Ebola no dia 19 de outubro.
O resultado positivo foi confirmado na terça-feira. As autoridades identificaram 44 pessoas que tiveram contato com ela, a maioria profissionais de saúde.
Entre elas está o marido da paciente, um cidadão suíço que reside com ela em Abuja.
As autoridades também estão rastreando os passageiros que viajaram com ela, embora não acreditem que ela apresentasse sintomas durante o voo.
O ministro da Saúde, Muhammad Ali Pate, declarou à emissora pública NTA que a mulher encontra-se isolada e recebendo tratamento.
O Ministério da Saúde de Uganda informou que a mulher havia viajado para o Congo, onde mais de 9.500 casos de Ebola foram registrados em oito províncias.
Não ficou claro de imediato em quais locais do Congo ela esteve.
“O fato de ter passado por Uganda não significa que a infecção tenha ocorrido aqui”, afirmou o Ministério da Saúde de Uganda, acrescentando que o país não apresenta casos ativos de Ebola.
Uganda registrou 20 casos em maio e junho, a maioria importada do Congo, mas a Organização Mundial da Saúde declarou o país livre de Ebola em agosto.
No início deste mês, o Quênia relatou seu primeiro caso de Ebola, envolvendo um viajante que chegou do Congo passando por Uganda.
Desde então, o país registrou nove casos, todos relacionados ao mesmo paciente. levantando questões sobre a eficácia dos sistemas de triagem nas fronteiras, projetados para evitar a transmissão transfronteiriça.
A propagação do Ebola para o Quênia levantou questões sobre a eficácia dos sistemas de triagem nas fronteiras, projetados para evitar a transmissão entre países.
Pate, ministro da Saúde da Nigéria, afirmou que o país conseguiu conter o Ebola com sucesso em 2014, durante a epidemia na África Ocidental — o maior surto já registrado.
Ele ressaltou que a Nigéria dispõe dos sistemas necessários para responder a este novo caso.
Ebola na República Democrática do Congo é o mais mortal da história
Login