• Liberia president moves to clean up central bank

Liberian President George Weah on Wednesday shook up the leadership of the Central Bank of Liberia in a bid to restore confidence in an institution dogged by scandal.

Weah announced on national radio that the CBL's executive governor, Nathaniel Patray, would retire within the next three months and his deputy for economic policy, Mounir Siaplay, resigned.

Patray was appointed in July 2018, only for rumours to swirl three months later that $102 million of new currency meant for the country's reserves had disappeared shortly after arrival from abroad.

• S.Africa slashes cabinet size, half of it women

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday cut the number of cabinet ministers from 36 to 28, in a move he said would tackle the country's "bloated" government and improve efficiency.

Half the new ministers are women, making South Africa one of the world's few gender-balanced governments.

• Guinea govt backs Alpha Conde's third term: PM

Guinea's government backs drafting a new constitution, the country's prime minister said on Wednesday, as debate over a constitutional reform to allow President Alpha Conde a third term sparks unrest.

Conde, 81, became Guinea's first freely-elected president in 2010 and was re-elected five years later. But he has questioned two-term limits and cracked down on protests against him seeking another term.

Prime Minister Kassory Fofana said he had asked each minister where they stood on a new constitution. "The answer was unanimous," he said at a press conference.

• Algeria to probe activist's prison death

Algeria is to investigate the death in custody of a prominent human rights activist, the country's justice ministry said, after outrage greeted news of Kamel Eddine Fekhar's death.

The advocate for the minority Mozabite community had been on a a hunger strike since his arrest in March. His lawyers blamed the government for the doctor's death.

The Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday it had "instructed" an in-depth investigation into the circumstances of the death.
In 2016, a British-Algerian journalist died in unclear circumstances while serving a two-year jail term for "offending" Algeria's president

• Boeing CEO: 737 MAX compensation could include cash, services

Boeing will tailor its compensation to airlines for the 737 MAX grounding around customer preferenceand they could be paid back in services instead of cash.

Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg said at a New York investor conference the grounding of the planes would not hit the company financially but would require "individual attention customer by customer."
Compensation could include tweaking plane delivery schedules, or offering additional training or services, as well as cash in some cases, he said.

The global aviation association IATA expects Boeing's troubled 737 MAX 8 plane to remain grounded for up to three more months.

• Egypt prosecutors order Jazeera reporter to stay in jail

Egyptian prosecutors ordered a journalist working for Qatar's Al Jazeera to remain in detention pending further investigation, despite a court order to release him.

Mahmoud Hussein was arrested in December 2016 on accusations of incitement and spreading false news.

Last week, an Egyptian court ordered his release after nearly two and a half years of detention.

A source said he is remanded in jail for 15 days pending investigations.

Qatari based Al Jazeera is seen by Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's government as sympathetic to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood of Mohamed Morsi who had Doha's backing

• Egypt jihadist returned from Libya to face terror charges

A high-profile Egyptian jihadist who was transferred to Cairo from Libya will face a military tribunal over his alleged involvement in terror attacks.

Egyptian government media broadcast footage of Hisham el-Ashmawy being escorted off a military aircraft early Wednesday morning.

Ashmawy was captured by the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) in October 2018 in the eastern city of Derna.

His return follows a meeting between LNA commander Khalifa Haftar and the head of Egypt's intelligence services in Benghazi.

• Madagascar, France, in talks over disputed islands
  

France and Madagascar will resume discussions over the Scattered Islands that the two countries have wrangled over since 1973.
The two countries' presidents Andry Rajoelina and Emmanuel Macron have said they will set up a joint commission to resolve the dispute by June 2020.
That date corresponds with the 60th anniversary of Madagascar's independence from France.

• Semenya to appeal IAAF gender rule at top Swiss court
  

Double Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya has lodged an appeal to Switzerland's Federal Supreme Court after losing her case against controversial IAAF rules forcing her to lower her testosterone levels.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport earlier this month rejected the South African's challenge against measures imposed by the IAAF that compel "hyperandrogenic" athletes to lower their testosterone levels if they wish to compete as women.

Semenya said in a statement on Wednesday her appeal would be premised on "fundamental human rights."

• Senegal gives suspended term to man who urged women be killed
  

A Senegalese court on Wednesday handed a six-month suspended jail term to a man who had urged the public on Facebook to "kill lots" of women after a murder case that shook the West African country.

Ousmane Mbengue had written that by reducing its number of women, Senegal could "one day hope to become a developed country," a statement that his lawyers said was a joke.

He later apologised for the post. He was arrested for his comments last week, which he posted three days after a girl in Tambacounda, eastern Senegal, was murdered following an attempted rape.

Prosecutors had sought a two-year jail term, six months of which should be suspended.

• WHO decries Big Tobacco bid to promote smoking on World No Tobacco Day
  

The World Health Organization on Wednesday condemned efforts by the world's biggest cigarette vendor to rebrand a day dedicated to raising awareness about the dangers of tobacco use.

Ahead of World No Tobacco Day on Friday, the UN health agency voiced concern at attempts by Philip Morris International (PMI) to promote this week new vaping and heated tobacco products as part of the solution to the world's smoking epidemic.

WHO urged countries to step up the fight against smoking that causes some eight million deaths annually.

• Life with MS disease seen through a computer
  

The Spanish Association for Multiple Sclerosis has made a special kind of computer that recreates the symptoms of multiple sclerosis via equivalent IT glitches.

The neurodegenerative disease which affects more than two million people worldwide can cause slower speech, difficulty in thinking, spasms, and other symptoms.

The computer meant to raise awareness on the incurable disease can suddenly show a cursor falling down the screen, a sign of fatigue.

A screen going completely dark would be a sign of sight loss.

The association intends to take the computer to schools and hospitals and auction it in the hope of raising more funds for the awareness.