'We are preserving a tradition': how Ghana's sensationalist film posters became collectible artHand-painted works are often wildly unfaithful to the movies they portray - reinterpretations that sometimes resulted in threats, insults and even physical attacks from viewers who felt dupedSitting on his porch in Teshie near Accra, Heavy J dipped a brush into red oil paint and dabbed it carefully on to his canvas - a flour sack - adding blood to a knife being wielded by a man. Higher on the canvas, he had started on an outline of a skull.Heavy J was creating a poster, but not as you might have expected for a horror film. Instead, it was for the animated fairytale The Little Mermaid. The man with the knife wasn't a killer but the film's kind-hearted prince, Eric. The skull was also unrelated to the story. "We add more to make people interested," said Heavy J, whose real name is Jeaurs Affutu. Continue reading...
Seven Americans quarantining at Kenya Ebola facility after US travel ban, says aid groupAid workers are first known people to quarantine at facility, which sparked huge opposition in Kenya Seven American aid workers who had been in Congo to fight the Ebola outbreak are quarantining at a new isolation facility in Kenya after the US government introduced travel restrictions, the head of a US charity employing them told Reuters.The aid workers are the first known people to quarantine at the facility, which has sparked huge opposition in Kenya and is at the heart of a legal case in which a court has ordered the work to be suspended. Construction continued, however, according to US officials and satellite imagery reviewed by Reuters. Continue reading...
UK aid cuts 'reduce bilateral support to some African countries by 90%'Critics say Foreign Office figures send 'global message about the role the country wants to play on international stage'Labour's foreign aid cuts mean reductions of as much as 90% in the bilateral support the UK will give to some African countries, Foreign Office figures show.The department's annual report includes a long-awaited breakdown of how the reduction in the aid budget will affect individual countries for the next three years. Continue reading...
Uganda calls for travel restrictions to be lifted after last Ebola patient dischargedCountry begins 42-day countdown to outbreak being declared officially over, as numbers continue to rise in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the CongoUganda has started lobbying countries to lift Ebola-related travel restrictions after discharging its last confirmed Ebola patient from hospital.The discharge of a Congolese national from the Mulago national referral hospital's isolation centre in Kampala on Thursday triggered the start of a 42-day countdown required by the World Health Organization before Uganda can officially be declared Ebola-free, provided no new infections are detected. Continue reading...
Moroccan intelligence insider reveals widespread use of Pegasus hacking softwareWhistleblower suggests internal security services deployed spyware from 2017 against key domestic and foreign targetsA former member of Morocco's domestic intelligence service has helped to provide an unprecedented insight into how the north African state used hacking software - including Pegasus spyware - to target journalists, human rights defenders, French politicians and Spanish cabinet ministers and police officers.Pegasus, which is manufactured by the Israel-based NSO Group, allows its operator to access everything on a target's mobile phone, including emails, text messages and photographs. It can also activate the phone's recorder and camera, turning it into a listening device. Continue reading...
Flash flood warnings strike north-east US amid wildfire smoke from CanadaPoor air quality from wildfires continues to plague New York City as several neighborhoods hit by thunderstormsSaturday is delivering a double dose of dangerous weather across the north-eastern US, with smoky skies from Canadian wildfires giving way to severe thunderstorms that have already triggered a flash flood warning as torrential rain pounds parts of the region.After a brief break on Friday, smoke from the wildfires moved back into New York City and surrounding communities on Saturday, sending air quality back into unhealthy levels. Continue reading...
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