
ISRAEL and Hamas have agreed a ceasefire deal for the Gaza Strip, mediators announced today, raising hopes that Israel will halt its killing spree in the Palestinian territory after 15 months of death and destruction.
The deal, coming after weeks of painstaking negotiations in the Qatari capital Doha, promises the release of dozens of hostages held by Hamas in phases, the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails and the return of hundreds of thousands of displaced people to what remains of their homes.
It also would flood badly needed humanitarian aid into the devastated coastal enclave.

ROGER McKENZIE expounds on the motivation that drove him to write a book that anticipates a dawn of a new, fully liberated Africa – the land of his ancestors

While much attention is focused on Israel’s aggression, we cannot ignore the conflicts in Africa, stoked by Western imperialism and greed for natural resources, if we’re to understand the full picture of geopolitics today, argues ROGER McKENZIE