Daily News on Issues Affecting Africa for June 18th

Continue reading for a summary of recent news stories relating to some of the most pressing issues on the continent. We draw on a wide range of respected news sources, both from Africa itself and around the world. The themes of today's In the News post are: attacks in Nigeria, Africa's potential for the future, updates on the attacks in Kenya, Israel's investment in Kenya, and President Paul Kagame tackles his critics.

Blast Hits Nigerian World Cup Viewing Center

Damaturu - The Police in Yobe on Wednesday said 14 people died in the bomb explosion that occurred in a football viewing centre on Tuesday night in Damaturu. The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mr Nansak Chegwam, also said 26 people, who sustained injury had been taken to different hospitals for treatment.

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Africa is not waiting for the west, says author

Dayo Olopade is a Nigerian-American journalist with experience in covering global politics, development and technology for publications that include The New Republic, Daily Beast, The New York Times and The Washington Post. In 2010 she moved to Nairobi and spent three years travelling across 17 countries to research her book, The Bright Continent: Breaking rules and making change in modern Africa. The book was published this year with the key goal of narrative correction concerning Africa and its potential. "As someone who had experience both in the United States and other wealthy western countries, and in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, I could really see where the narrative was missing the mark," she told How we made it in Africa.

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President says Kenyan politics not Islamists behind attacks

(Reuters) - Kenya's president shifted blame to domestic rivals on Tuesday for two attacks that killed 65 people on the coast and he dismissed claims of responsibility by Somali Islamist militants, which Nairobi usually fingers for such assaults. Somalia's al Shabaab militant group has said its gunmen carried out the attacks on the town of Mpeketoni on Sunday night and on a nearby village early on Tuesday morning.

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Israel keen to invest in Kenya, says deputy PM Avigdor Liberman

The Israel Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Liberman has said his country has confidence with Kenya as a key investment hub in the region. Mr Liberman said it is for this reason that he is leading a powerful delegation of Israel businessmen who will hold a business forum with their Kenyan counterparts from Thursday here in Nairobi. He said Israel wants to engage Kenya more in agricultural and irrigation activities and that the 50 Israel companies involved in the forum intend to invest in agriculture, irrigation, green house technology, communication, medicine and homeland security.

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Kagame Tackles Critics - When Is It Right to Kill?

President Paul Kagame of Rwanda became a favorite of international aid organizations and rich-country governments after focusing his efforts on post-genocide reconciliation and inclusive economic growth. Development experts say the results have been impressive. According to a May report by the World Health Organization, life expectancy has increased from 48 to 64 years since 1990 - three times the global average rise. The mortality rate for children under five has dropped from 182 per 100,000 children, to 55. Maternal mortality has been reduced by 75 per cent. Gapminder, which visually tracks development indicators and their consequences, illustrates the progress. But Kagame has, in recent years, come under harsh attack for what critics say are gross human rights abuses, including execution of his political enemies.

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