By Nita Bhalla
NAIROBI, April 28 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) &#8211; Twitter Inc&#8217;s decision to open its first African office in Ghana, citing it as a champion of democracy, is &#8220;a slap in the face&#8221; for sexual minorities in the country who suffer abuse and persecution, LGBT+ rights campaigners said on Wednesday.
The social media giant announced earlier this month that the West African nation was selected because it was a supporter of free speech, online freedom and the Open Internet &#8211; values which Twitter said it also advocated for.
But LGBT+ rights groups criticised the move, accusing the company of disregarding the plight of LGBT+ people in Ghana, where persecution is widespread and gay sex is punishable with up to three years in jail.
&#8220;It clearly shows the LGBTQ struggle has been dismissed by this powerful company,&#8221; said Alex Kofi Donkor, director of LGBT+ Rights Ghana, which recently saw its community centre shut down by authorities after an anti-gay uproar.
&#8220;They have erased us and our struggle by not even taking into consideration the challenges and threats that we face in this country. It is a slap in the face of LGBTQ people.&#8221;
Twitter said a number of African organisations were members of its global Trust and Safety Council, and advise the company on issues of freedom of expression and democracy.
&#8220;Our mission is to serve the public conversation. We believe in the unmatched power of the individual&#8217;s voice and provide marginalised voices with a platform to be seen and heard,&#8221; Twitter said in a statement to the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
&#8220;Twitter has been a catalytic factor in the mobilisation of various social movements speaking truth to power, including the LGBTQ+ community.&#8221;
Ghana has not prosecuted anyone for same-sex relations in years, but LGBT+ people face frequent abuse and discrimination, including blackmail and attacks, human rights researchers say.
In February, Ghana&#8217;s newly opened first LGBT+ community centre was raided and shut down by authorities following strong opposition from politicians and church organisations.
The move also emboldened a group of lawmakers who want to criminalise the promotion of LGBT+ rights in the country with plans to present a private members bill before parliament.
Donkor said recent events had stirred up homophobic sentiment, with community members reporting increased attacks by the public as well as persecution by authorities.
This included the arrest of 14 LGBT+ people at a party in March who were accused by police of attending a &#8220;lesbian wedding&#8221;, he said.
International organisations, such as Amnesty International, Pan Africa ILGA and CIVICUS, and a host of global celebrities have voiced concern about the increasing intolerance towards Ghana&#8217;s sexual minorities.
In March, actor Idris Elba and model Naomi Campbell joined 65 other British celebrities, designers and politicians in calling for Ghana&#8217;s president to engage with the LGBT+ community.
British pop star Boy George also released a song expressing solidarity with LGBT+ Ghanaians and appealing to President Nana Akufo-Addo to respect their rights.
Twitter said the company&#8217;s Hateful Conduct policy explicitly banned abusive behaviour towards a person or group, adding that the company takes strong action against such users.
But Danny Bediako from local LGBT+ group Rightify Ghana said he did not agree with Twitter that Ghana was a champion of democracy.
&#8220;There is a lot of homophobic material from Ghana on Twitter, including death threats where people say they want to stone or burn us,&#8221; said Bediako. &#8220;This promotes anti-gay actions and makes us feel more unsafe.&#8221; (Reporting by Nita Bhalla @nitabhalla, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)
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Twitter’s new office in Ghana seen as a snub to LGBT+ people

MAPUTO, April 28 (Reuters) &#8211; Mozambique&#8217;s government, which is facing a growing Islamist insurgency, will create a special unit in the attorney general&#8217;s office to investigate and prosecute cases of terrorism, the attorney general said on Wednesday.
The insurgency broke out in the country&#8217;s northeast in 2017 and the rebels have stepped up attacks in the past year.
Last month, they assaulted the coastal town of Palma, near natural gas projects worth $60 billion that are meant to transform Mozambique&#8217;s economy. Dozens of people were killed, the government says.
Presenting her annual report to parliament, Attorney General Beatriz Buchili said a new special unit would be dedicated to investigating and prosecuting complex crimes, including terrorism.
&#8220;One cannot face the crime of terrorism disassociated from other legal types of crime that are related to them, such as trafficking in weapons, drugs and people, illegal exploitation of mineral, forest and wildlife resources, money laundering and financing of terrorism, which are other facets of crimes associated with violent extremism,&#8221; she said.
Buchili spoke as foreign ministers from Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa and Mozambique prepared to meet on Thursday to discuss a report from a regional team that was sent to Mozambique to assess the security situation and identify immediate ways to help it deal with insurgent attacks.
(Reporting by Manuel Mucari, Editing by MacDonald Dzirutwe and Angus MacSwan)
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Mozambique to form special unit to prosecute terrorism cases – attorney general

* U.S. Treasury yields jump to two-week high
* Russia&#8217;s rouble gains 0.4% ahead of OFZ auction
* Most central European currencies soften against euro
By Shashank Nayar
April 28 (Reuters) &#8211; A jump in U.S. Treasury yields and a firmer dollar kept emerging market currencies in check and stymied developing market stocks on Wednesday as investors awaited a U.S. Federal Reserve meeting.
MSCI&#8217;s indexes of emerging currencies and stocks slipped 0.1% ahead of the Fed meeting. Markets are hoping for confirmation that policymakers have no appetite to tinker with support for the economy following a recent run of good U.S. data.
&#8220;We expect more of the same from Fed at the upcoming meeting, framing the story of no rate hike until 2024 and that Fed will be patient of inflation overshoots and be behind the curve in terms of tightening policy,&#8221; analysts at Maybank wrote in a note to clients.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden will also address Congress later in the day and is likely to underscore his administration&#8217;s plans for mass infrastructure and stimulus spending.
An improving U.S. economy and expectations for big fiscal spending are causing more investors to question the levels of quantitative easing through bond purchases and how much inflation policymakers would tolerate.
The benchmark U.S. Treasury yield climbed to a two-week high and the dollar index gained 0.2%, leaving limited breathing space for emerging currencies.
South Africa&#8217;s rand weakened 0.2% while the Turkish lira climbed 0.4% in a third day of gains, with local bankers crediting locals buying lira for advances in recent days.
Russia&#8217;s rouble strengthened 0.4% to trade below 75 to the dollar with steady crude oil futures providing support. The gains came ahead of an OFZ treasury bond auction, which will be keenly watched after U.S. imposed sanctions that will affect foreign buying of Russian debt.

Russia&#8217;s return to a neutral monetary policy with its latest increase in interest rates will not hamper economic recovery, Central Bank First Deputy Governor Ksenia Yudayeva said.
Yudayeva added that inflationary expectations in Russia are &#8220;very high&#8221; and keep rising, explaining the rationale behind the central bank&#8217;s decision to hike the benchmark rate to 5% last week.
Most central European currencies also dropped against the euro, with Hungary&#8217;s Forint, Polish zloty and the Czech crown falling between 0.5% and 0.2%.

For GRAPHIC on emerging market FX performance in 2021, see http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh For GRAPHIC on MSCI emerging index performance in 2021, see https://tmsnrt.rs/2OusNdX

For TOP NEWS across emerging markets
For CENTRAL EUROPE market report, see
For TURKISH market report, see
For RUSSIAN market report, see
(Reporting by Shashank Nayar in Bengaluru, editing by Karin Strohecker and Kim Coghill)
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EMERGING MARKETS-Rising dollar, yields keep lid on emerging stocks, currencies

DAKAR, April 28 (Reuters) &#8211; Ireland&#8217;s government confirmed on Wednesday that an Irish citizen, wildlife NGO founder Rory Young, was killed by unidentified gunmen along with two Spanish journalists in an ambush in Burkina Faso this week.
The three foreigners and a member of the Burkinabe armed forces went missing on Monday after an attack on a convoy of security forces, forest rangers and expatriates, according to Burkina Faso&#8217;s government.
&#8220;Mr. Young was part of a group that on Monday morning was attacked by unknown assailants in the eastern part of Burkina Faso,&#8221; the Irish foreign ministry said in a statement.
The ministry has been in contact with his family and is liaising with authorities and partners on the ground, it said.
Young was the co-founder and president of Chengeta Wildlife, a charity that trains anti-poaching rangers in Africa. Born in Zambia, he dedicated his life to wildlife protection, the charity said.
He was leading a wildlife protection patrol in Burkina Faso&#8217;s Arly National Park when the team was attacked, Chengeta Wildlife said in a statement. The two journalists were documenting his efforts to protect wildlife, it said.
The journalists have been identified as David Beriain and Roberto Fraile by Spain&#8217;s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who said they were working on a documentary when they were killed.
Burkina Faso, like much of West Africa&#8217;s Sahel region, faces a deepening security crisis as groups with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State step up attacks on the army and civilians despite the presence of French and U.N. forces.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the ambush and Burkina Faso&#8217;s government said it had not identified the assailants, whom it described as &#8220;terrorists&#8221;. (Writing by Nellie Peyton; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
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Irish wildlife conservationist killed in Burkina Faso attack

LONDON, April 28 (Reuters) &#8211; Millions of Roger Federer fans around the world might be salivating at the prospect of owning some mementos of the Swiss great&#8217;s incredible career after he announced he is auctioning off a collection of personal items this summer.
The 20-times Grand Slam champion, regarded by many as the greatest player ever to wield a tennis racket, is putting various items under the hammer in two sales in June and July at Christie&#8217;s to raise money for his foundation.
A live auction taking place on June 23 will feature 20 lots, with each one reflecting one of Federer&#8217;s Grand Slam titles. Prices will range from 3,000 pounds to 70,000 pounds ($97,146.00).
Lots include the outfit and racket from Federer&#8217;s 2009 French Open final victory over Robin Soderling which completed his career Grand Slam, including the shoes still coated in red Roland Garros clay dust.
Fans and collectors will also be able to bid for the 2007 kit and racket he used during the second of his three Wimbledon finals against career-long rival Rafa Nadal, including shoes decorated with Swiss flags denoting his Wimbledon titles.
Federer&#8217;s elegant white RF-emblazoned cardigan, worn before facing Britain&#8217;s Andy Murray in the 2012 Wimbledon final, is also up for grabs, as are the shoes he wore when winning his third successive Wimbledon in 2005 against Andy Roddick.
&#8220;Every piece in these auctions represents a moment in my tennis career and enables me to share a part of my personal archive with my fans around the world,&#8221; Federer said.
&#8220;More importantly, the proceeds will support The Roger Federer Foundation to help us continue to deliver educational resources to children in Africa and Switzerland.&#8221;
A second online auction takes place in July featuring 300 lower-priced items such as the wristbands Federer wore during his 1,500th professional match at a tournament in Basel.
Christie&#8217;s low estimate values the entire collection at one million pounds, but hopes to reach 1.5 million pounds ($2.08 million).
Bertold Mueller, Managing Director, Christie&#8217;s Continental Europe, Middle East and Africa said: &#8220;It is a great privilege for Christie&#8217;s to offer this magnificent memorabilia of historic importance on behalf of Roger Federer, an active sporting legend.
&#8220;The sports memorabilia market has been booming for years, in particular for match-worn and signed pieces. The auctions will no doubt be a milestone in this ever-growing, worldwide phenomenon.&#8221; ($1 = 0.7206 pounds) (Writing by Martyn Herman)
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Tennis-Federer to auction off Grand Slam memorabilia

By Ian Ransom
MELBOURNE, April 28 (Reuters) &#8211; Javelin world champion Kelsey-Lee Barber is shutting out the COVID-19 &#8220;noise&#8221; in the lead up to the Olympics, but the Australian hopes desperately to hear the rumble of fans when she gets set to launch in Tokyo.
As a big-stage performer, Barber said she missed the rush of crowds through the pandemic-hit 2020, and would draw energy from fans at National Stadium during the Games.
&#8220;This is going to be a big factor for the Olympics this year. I’m sure I’m not the only one that feels this way,&#8221; the South Africa-born 29-year-old told Reuters in an interview. &#8220;I do use the crowd, I love the crowd and I love to perform. It’s just going to be different this year.&#8221;
Foreign fans will not be allowed at the Games this year. And authorities recently banned crowds at sporting events in Tokyo and other cities as part of a state of emergency that will last until May 11 to combat a spike in COVID-19 infections.
Organisers might decide it&#8217;s not worth the risk to have any fans at all at Olympics, which run from July 23 to Aug. 8.
&#8220;There are ways you can practise for that and to channel energy in a different way,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I might have to tap into the (energy of the) actual competition, the girls around me and the numbers, and play that game a bit more than normally, if that’s what will fire me up.&#8221;
Barber, who stayed in Australia last year because of the pandemic, has struggled to get back into the swing of things this year, throwing well below her career-best of 67.70 metres in 2019, when she was world champion.
However, in front of a proper crowd at Australia&#8217;s recent national athletics championships, she threw above 60m for the first time since 2019.
Her best of 61.09m at Sydney&#8217;s Olympic Park was second to Commonwealth Games champion Kathryn Mitchell (63.34m), but it was enough for local media to declare Barber had rediscovered her &#8220;mojo&#8221;.
&#8220;I’d love to say, like the headlines, that &#8216;I am back&#8217;. But I feel like I’m not quite there 100% yet,&#8221; Barber said. &#8220;I did feel more like myself on the runway than I have in the past couple of months.&#8221;
Her coach, Mike Barber, is also her husband. The Canberra-based couple are always careful about separating sport from home life, even with the Olympics looming.
&#8220;This year has been tough. When things are going great and Kelsey’s throwing well, it’s really easy to balance both,&#8221; Mike Barber told Reuters. &#8220;It’s been a different challenge this year with Kelsey struggling with her form a little bit and struggling with her confidence.
&#8220;But it’s like anything in life, you find ways to manage the emotional side of it.&#8221;
Managing the emotions for Kelsey-Lee Barber has meant staying focused on Tokyo, even as health experts call for the already-postponed Games to be put off again.
Barber would like to get to Europe to compete before the Games but concedes they may settle for training in Australia&#8217;s tropical north to prepare for Japan&#8217;s summer heat.
If at all possible, the Olympics must go on, Barber said.
&#8220;It’s something that can bring nations around the world together and that’s what we need at the moment,&#8221; she said.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Gerry Doyle)
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Olympics-World champion Barber hoping javelin will sing through chorus of cheers

JOHANNESBURG, April 28 (Reuters) &#8211; South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will on Wednesday give testimony at an inquiry into corruption under his predecessor Jacob Zuma where he is expected to reveal what he witnessed as Zuma&#8217;s deputy and explain why he did not act.
Ramaphosa was deputy president from 2014 until 2018, when his allies in the governing African National Congress (ANC) party engineered Zuma&#8217;s ouster.
He has repeatedly pledged to crack down on graft since taking over as head of state.
A short statement from the presidency last month said Ramaphosa would appear before the &#8220;state capture&#8221; inquiry in his capacity as president and former deputy president of the country and the ANC.
Ramaphosa is expected to give evidence from around 10 a.m. local time (0800 GMT).
The inquiry was set up during Zuma&#8217;s final weeks in office.
The allegations against Zuma include that he allowed businessmen close to him &#8211; brothers Atul, Ajay and Rajesh Gupta &#8211; to influence policy and win lucrative government contracts during his nine years in power.
Zuma and the Guptas deny wrongdoing.
Zuma appeared briefly before the inquiry in 2019 but defied a summons and court order to give evidence earlier this year. The inquiry&#8217;s lawyers are seeking his imprisonment as a result.
The testimony by Ramaphosa is a rare care of a sitting South African president testifying at a judicial inquiry into wrongdoing.
(Reporting by Alexander Winning; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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South Africa’s Ramaphosa to testify at inquiry into Zuma-era corruption

By Sangmi Cha
SEOUL, April 28 (Reuters) &#8211; South Korea said on Wednesday it will offer some exemptions to mandatory quarantine measures for people who have been fully inoculated against COVID-19, in an effort to encourage more vaccinations.
South Korea has so far vaccinated 4% of its 52 million strong population, but has set an ambitious target of giving shots to 70% of its people by September and reaching herd immunity by November.
From May 5, residents who have had both coronavirus vaccine shots will not have to undergo the mandatory two-week quarantine for people who have been in contact with a confirmed patient or have returned from overseas travel, ​Yoon Tae-ho, a senior health ministry official, told a briefing.
The exemption will only apply for those with a negative COVID-19 test and who show no related symptoms.
It will not apply to residents arriving from nations such as South Africa and Brazil where coronavirus variants are prevalent and to people who are vaccinated in foreign countries.
South Korea has procured a total 192 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, enough to administer close to twice its population, including those from Pfizer, AstraZeneca Plc , Moderna Inc, Johnson &amp; Johnson and Novavax.
It has inoculated around 2.68 million people so far with AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccines and aims to vaccinate 12 million people by June, although there has been growing vaccine hesitancy due to concerns over reports of blood clotting disorders.
South Korea reported 775 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 120,673, with 1,821 deaths. (Reporting by Sangmi Cha; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Richard Pullin)
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S.Korea to lift mandatory quarantine for residents fully vaccinated against COVID-19

April 28 (Reuters) &#8211; Major League Soccer (MLS) outfit Toronto FC held a training session near Orlando, Florida, this week that was closed to the public &#8211; but nobody informed a huge alligator that invaded the pitch at the ChampionsGate Resort.
In a video https://twitter.com/TorontoFC/status/1386840412711686150 the club posted on Twitter, several Toronto players are seen running toward the alligator to get a better view before a resort staffer in a golf cart chases the animal away.
&#8220;All I can tell you is this, there was a massive alligator,&#8221; Toronto coach Chris Armas told The Canadian Press on Monday. &#8220;My players are running towards the gator as I went the other way.
&#8220;Listen, we talk about (being) fearless and aggressive around here, but I thought we wouldn&#8217;t think about that at that moment.&#8221;
Toronto, which has relocated to Florida for the MLS regular season because of travel restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, later joked about the incident.
&#8220;Toronto FC have agreed to terms with Ale Gator on a short-term loan,&#8221; the club tweeted. &#8220;The deal was completed using our newly-acquired GAM (Gator Acquisition Money).
Last week, American golfer Wyndham Clark earned bragging rights after risking a possible alligator encounter to secure a shot at the Zurich Classic in New Orleans.
Playing alongside South Africa&#8217;s Erik van Rooyen in the two-man team event, the 27-year-old removed his shoes and pulled up his trousers on the par-four 16 to salvage his ball from the bank of a lake where TV pundits confirmed two alligators had been spotted during the third round. (Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
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Soccer-Gator crashes Toronto FC training session in Florida

WASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) &#8211; U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai discussed increasing COVID-19 vaccine production in a virtual meeting on Tuesday with an executive with drugmaker Novavax, Tai&#8217;s office said in a statement.
Tai and Novavax Executive Vice President John Trizzino also discussed a proposal before the World Trade Organization to waive certain intellectual property rights in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the USTR statement said.
&#8220;Ambassador Tai sought Mr. Trizzino’s views on steps Novavax is taking to quickly increase equitable production and distribution of vaccines in the United States and around the world,&#8221; the statement said.
Novavax&#8217;s COVID-19 vaccine is not currently authorized for use in the United States.
WTO members are due to discuss a proposal by India and South Africa to waive certain provisions of the WTO&#8217;s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights on April 30, but the United States and a few other big countries have blocked such a move.
Democratic lawmakers, civil society groups, and 60 former heads of state and 100 Nobel Prize winners have urged President Joe Biden to back the waiver.
Shares of Novavax surged 16% in extended trading on Tuesday after Biden said the United States was planning to share COVID-19 vaccines with countries in need of aid.
The company is expected to report data from its ongoing large, late-stage study in the United States and Mexico during the second quarter of this year.
Tai held virtual meetings on Monday with vaccine makers Pfizer and AstraZeneca.



(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
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Top U.S. trade negotiator discusses vaccine ramp-up with Novavax exec -USTR

GABORONE, April 27 (Reuters) &#8211; Botswana&#8217;s president will miss a Southern African regional meeting he had been due to chair on Thursday to discuss recent attacks on Mozambique after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19, prompting him to self-quarantine, his office said on Tuesday.
Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique will be attending a summit of a division of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), where they will receive a report on how they can help Mozambique&#8217;s Cabo Delgado province following Islamic State-linked attacks there.
Botswana is the current chair of that division, which is tasked with promoting peace and security in the region.
Vice President Slumber Tsogwane will lead Botswana&#8217;s delegation to the summit, the president&#8217;s press secretary, Batlhalefi Leagajang, said in a statement.
Leagajang said President Mokgweetsi Masisi self-quarantined was &#8220;out of (an) abundance of caution.&#8221;
Botswana has had more than 45,850 cases of the coronavirus and more than 690 deaths since the pandemic began, according to a Reuters tally. (Reporting by Brian Benza Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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Botswana president in self-quarantine, to miss meeting on Mozambique attacks

By Camillus Eboh
ABUJA, April 27 (Reuters) &#8211; Nigeria&#8217;s parliament called on the presidency, armed forces and police to address the country&#8217;s mounting security crisis on Tuesday, with the lower house urging President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency.
The resolutions come as a wave of violence and lawlessness sweeps across Africa&#8217;s largest economy. Security forces, including the military deployed across most of Nigeria&#8217;s states, have shown little ability to stem the tide.
&#8220;The president should immediately declare a state of emergency on security so as to fast track all measures to ensure the restoration of peace in the country,&#8221; said a resolution passed by the lower house.
In the northwest, gunmen have kidnapped more than 700 schoolchildren since December, as militants pillage communities in the region.
In the northeast, the armed forces are still struggling in a 12-year war with Boko Haram and Islamic State&#8217;s West Africa branch. On Sunday, more than 30 soldiers died in an attack, soldiers and a resident said.
&#8220;The nation is on fire,&#8221; said Smart Adeyemi, a senator in Buhari&#8217;s ruling party. &#8220;The president must rise to the occasion and bring in people to save this country or else we will be consumed. We cannot keep quiet any longer.&#8221;
The senate upper house called for &#8220;massive recruitment&#8221; for the military and police and procurement of new equipment for security forces.
Meanwhile, the senate also resolved for its leadership to meet Buhari to discuss the insecurity, and invite Nigeria&#8217;s army chief and other commanders and intelligence chiefs to speak on the matter.
The military did not immediately respond to calls and messages seeking comment. A presidency spokesman declined to comment.
Earlier on Tuesday, Rivers state, in Nigeria&#8217;s oil-producing heartland, said it will ban people crossing its borders at night due to insecurity.
(Reporting by Camillus Eboh; Writing by Paul Carsten; Editing by Alison Williams)
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“Nation is on fire”: Nigerian lawmakers demand action on security crisis

YENAGOA, Nigeria, April 27 (Reuters) &#8211; Nigeria&#8217;s Rivers state will ban people crossing its borders at night due to heightened insecurity, its governor said on Tuesday, as violence and lawlessness surge across the West African country.
Rivers lies in Nigeria&#8217;s oil-producing heartland, the Niger Delta, where past unrest has crippled crude production as militants destroyed and raided facilities, sending Africa&#8217;s largest economy into a tailspin.
The ban on people entering or leaving Rivers between 8:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. will take effect from April 28 until further notice, Governor Nyesom Wike said in a statement.
Wike cited the killings of police, customs and civil defence officers on Saturday and of army soldiers on Sunday to justify the curfew.
&#8220;The attackers and their sponsors are people who came from outside Rivers state, and as a government we are determined to do everything within our powers to prevent the recurrence of such senseless and murderous acts,&#8221; he said.
Insecurity has mounted across Nigeria. In the northwest, gunmen have kidnapped more than 700 school children since December, part of a broader breakdown of law and order that has seen militants looting and pillaging communities in the region.
In the northeast, the armed forces are still struggling in a 12-year war with Boko Haram and Islamic State&#8217;s West Africa branch. On Sunday, more than 30 soldiers died in one militant attack, soldiers and a resident said.
Earlier on Wednesday, the United States consulate in Lagos warned of increased crime in the city. (Reporting by Tife Owolabi in Yenagoa; Additional reporting by Libby George in Lagos; Writing by Paul Carsten; editing by Grant McCool)
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Nigeria’s Rivers state bans people entering, leaving at night

ABUJA, April 27 (Reuters) &#8211; The United States should consider moving its military headquarters overseeing Africa to the continent, from Germany, to better tackle growing armed violence in the region, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said on Tuesday.
Nigerian security forces face multiple security challenges including school kidnappings by armed gangs in its northwest and piracy in the Gulf of Guinea as well as the decade-long insurgency by Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which also carries out attacks in neighbouring Niger, Cameroon and Chad.
West Africa&#8217;s Sahel region is in the grip of a security crisis as groups with ties to al Qaeda and Islamic State attack military forces and civilians, despite help from French and United Nations forces.
Buhari, in a virtual meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, said U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), should be relocated to Africa itself.
&#8220;Considering the growing security challenges in West and Central Africa, Gulf of Guinea, Lake Chad region and the Sahel, weighing heavily on Africa, it underscores the need for the United States to consider re-locating AFRICOM headquarters&#8230; near the theatre of operation,&#8221; said Buhari, according a statement issued by the presidency.
He spoke a week after the death of the longtime president of Chad, Idriss Deby, in a battle against rebels.
Deby was an important Western ally in the fight against Islamist militants and under him Chadian soldiers formed a key component of a multinational force fighting Boko Haram and its offshoot, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
&#8220;The security challenges in Nigeria remain of great concern to us and impacted more negatively by existing complex negative pressures in the Sahel, Central and West Africa, as well as the Lake Chad Region,&#8221; said Buhari, a retired major general.
AFRICOM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Felix Onuah in Abuja Additional reporting and writing by Alexis Akwagyiram in Lagos Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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Nigeria urges U.S. to move Africa Command headquarters to continent

By Sonia Elks
LONDON, April 27 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) &#8211; Handing 5% of the money rich nations raise from carbon emissions charges to Sub-Saharan Africa would counter the impact of rising prices on the world&#8217;s poorest people, researchers said on Tuesday.
More and more wealthy countries are seeking to impose emissions charges on companies, but doing so risks pushing up the price of essential goods, which hits the poor hardest, said a study published in the journal Nature Communications.
The researchers said that risk could be mitigated by handing the proceeds to households in the form of &#8220;climate dividends&#8221; and donating 5% to the poorest countries.
&#8220;You can create this win-win situation where you can reduce emissions and at the same time achieve a reduction in poverty,&#8221; said lead author Bjoern Soergel, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).
&#8220;It&#8217;s so simple – there&#8217;s no need to do very elaborate targeting, but it&#8217;s really giving back to everyone,&#8221; he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview.
Many countries are turning to &#8220;pay to pollute&#8221; carbon pricing schemes that push industries to go green by increasing the cost of using dirty fuel.
But these also threaten to undermine efforts to eradicate extreme poverty &#8211; defined as living on less than $1.90 a day &#8211; as they push up the cost of food and other essentials, said the paper&#8217;s authors.
The study found introducing emissions charges in every country to limit global warming would by 2030 push 50 million people into extreme poverty, with Sub-Saharan Africa worst hit.
&#8220;If money is actually transferred to poor and vulnerable households and that&#8217;s done effectively then that really does support poverty alleviation and development,&#8221; said Jem Woods, an expert in sustainable development at Imperial College, London.
However, they would have to be &#8220;monitored and policed&#8221; strictly to ensure they were effective which could make them far more difficult to apply in practice, added Woods, who was not involved in the study.
The study&#8217;s calculations do not take into account the COVID-19 pandemic, which the World Bank has said will lead to a sharp rise in new poor.
Green groups have backed climate dividend schemes that return the proceeds to the people, saying they boost economies and help tackle poverty since low-income groups typically get back more than they pay in increased costs.
Switzerland and Canada have both adopted carbon tax policies that return some of the income collected to households.

(Reporting by Sonia Elks @soniaelks; Editing by Claire Cozens. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions &#8211; https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html
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‘Climate dividends’ can help cut emissions and poverty, researchers say

(Adds details on policy change, background)
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) &#8211; The Biden administration will ease travel restrictions allowing Chinese students to come to the United States for classes this fall and from other countries where most non-U.S. citizens are barred because of the coronavirus pandemic, government officials told Reuters.
The U.S. State Department is set to announce later on Tuesday it is expanding its national interest exemptions to cover students and academics around the world starting on Aug. 1 after it made the change in March for European students, officials said.
The United States has barred most non-U.S. citizens from the United States who have been in China, Brazil, South Africa, Iran and most of Europe within the prior two weeks. Now students from all those countries will be eligible to enter the United States in a few months&#8217; time.
The largest number of international students in the United States are from China. About 35% of international students in the United States in the 2019-20 school year were from China, according to the International Education Exchange (IEE), nearly twice as high as the second highest, India.
In the 2019-20 academic year 372,000 Chinese nationals attended universities and colleges in the United States, the IEE said in a November 2020 report.
In January 2020 then President Donald Trump first imposed the restrictions barring nearly all non-U.S. citizens who were in China from entering the United States.
U.S. colleges and universities have been urging the State Department to take the step before international students had to make enrollment decisions.
The American Council on Education had pressed the administration of President Joe Biden to act quickly, saying in a letter last month the administration could &#8220;deliver a welcoming message to current and prospective international students, which can help restore the U.S. as a destination of choice, as well as supporting an important economic activity as the U.S. economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.&#8221;
Another big issue has been the requirement that first-time student visa applicants have in-person interviews at U.S. embassies and consulates.
The group cited a study that the overall economic impact generated by international students had declined by $1.8 billion during the 2019-2020 academic year, from $40.5 billion in the prior year. (Reporting by David Shepardson Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Grant McCool)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions &#8211; https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html
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EXCLUSIVE-U.S. to ease COVID-19 travel restrictions for Chinese students -sources

WASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) &#8211; The Biden administration will ease travel restrictions allowing Chinese students to come to the United States for classes this fall and from other countries where most non-U.S. citizens remain barred from the United States, government officials told Reuters.
The U.S. State Department is set to announce later on Tuesday it is expanding its national interest exemptions to cover students and academics around the world starting Aug. 1 after it made the change in March for European students, officials said.
Because of COVID-19, the U.S. currently bars most non-U.S. citizens from the United States who have been in China, Brazil, South Africa, Iran and most of Europe within the prior two weeks. Now students from all those countries will be eligible to come to the United States this fall. The largest number of international students in the United States are from China. (Reporting by David Shepardson Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions &#8211; https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html
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EXCLUSIVE-U.S. to ease COVID-19 travel restrictions for Chinese students -sources

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