Ivory Coast Prime Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan resigned along with his government Monday, a day after the end of a short-lived army mutiny that raised security fears in the world’s top cocoa producer. Although the resignation is standard procedure as it follows legislative elections in December, it comes at a time of mounting speculation that former rebel leader Guillaume Soro engineered Friday’s mutiny as he is angling for the prime ministerial post or the vice presidency. Ivorian state employees meanwhile began a five-day strike on Monday to protest against pension cuts ranging from 30 to 50 percent and a plan to raise the retirement age from 55 to 60. (AFP https://yhoo.it/2iWigLL)
Zika in Angola…Angolan health officials said Monday they had recorded the country’s first two cases of the Zika virus, a French tourist and a resident in the capital Luanda. The World Health Organization in November announced that the Zika virus no longer posed a global public health emergency after an outbreak centered on Brazil erupted in 2015. The French tourist left Angola after being diagnosed with Zika two months ago, said Eusebio Manuel, head of the department of hygiene, without further details. (AFP https://yhoo.it/2iW7EN6)
Fact of the day: Two Pakistani research groups have noted that the country saw a significant drop in militant violence last year, crediting the military for the decrease in attacks. (AP https://yhoo.it/2i9wKUt)
Top Stories
The U.N.’s agency for Palestinian refugees on Monday appealed for emergency funds to provide aid to nearly half a million Palestinians affected by the war in Syria. (AFP https://yhoo.it/2iW84Da)
Lawyers for the former Chad president Hissène Habré have launched an appeal against his conviction last year for war crimes and crimes against humanity. (Guardian http://bit.ly/2iVmbGD)
A U.N. expert focusing on human rights in Iran is warning about the health risk of prisoners who have been conducting prolonged hunger strikes to protest against their detention. (AP https://yhoo.it/2i6u0fA)
Addressing members of the Group of 77, incoming U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said development must be at the center of U.N.’s activities because it is a basic condition for peace and security while human rights can only be exercised in the context in which development takes place. (IPS http://bit.ly/2iWexOa)
Syrian President Bashar Assad said in remarks published Monday that he was prepared “to negotiate everything” at planned talks later this month in Kazakhstan, seeking to cast himself as a peacemaker after his forces’ recapture of Aleppo last month. (AP https://yhoo.it/2i9lYO5)
Drought in Kenya means the African country will have to generate more of its electricity using diesel due to a fall in hydroelectric power, with the energy ministry predicting a rise in prices between now and March. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2iVf4Ol)
Myanmar said on Monday it had sent out safety instructions to its workers in Malaysia after attackers hacked five of them to death with swords, weeks after it barred workers from going there, partly because of security fears. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2iW7Yew)
Across vast swaths of northern China’s countryside, residents go to great lengths to burn untreated coal in home stoves despite government efforts to ban the practice and introduce cleaner — but costlier — types of coal or electrical heating. (AP https://yhoo.it/2i6rVQF)
The clock has run out on the Venezuelan opposition’s effort to oust the ruling socialists in a recall vote. The opposition spent 2016 calling for a referendum against President Nicolas Maduro. Courts and electoral officials friendly to the administration blocked that campaign at every turn. (VOA http://bit.ly/2iWb96c)
Oxfam is launching an app, My Oxfam, that it says will make donating easy and rewarding. The app will also bring supporters closer to the charity’s projects, offer a new level of transparency around its work, and aims to help regain donors’ trust after a rocky couple of years for the charity sector. (Guardian http://bit.ly/2i6wTgi)
Opinion/Blogs
5 International Climate Stories to Watch in 2017 (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/2i6xYEU)
Some persecuted writers get a new life in the US. But exile isn’t easy. (PRI http://bit.ly/2i6bILx)
Reducing Corruption in the Use of Development Aid: The Payment by Results Model (Global Anticorruption Blog http://bit.ly/2i6ouJP)
Kasese Killings – ICC, Museveni in Showdown? (East African http://bit.ly/2jltO8a)
Will New the UN Supremo Give Priority to Africa’s Problems? (Citizen http://bit.ly/2iV8RC8)
‘We had nothing to give him’: the human cost of malnutrition in Maharashtra (Guardian http://bit.ly/2i6q2DP)
We gave Sri Lankan microenterprises wage subsidies to hire workers: 8 years after starting, here’s what happened (Development Impact http://bit.ly/2i9vgcN)
Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s embarrassing attempt to ingratiate himself to Donald Trump (Africa is a Country http://bit.ly/2i6BMGa)
The biggest funding trends from latest donor data (Devex http://bit.ly/2i9x4CD)
How I Give to Beggars (Aid Leap http://bit.ly/2iVnvtb)
