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By  THE ASSOCIATED PRESS   In this Saturday, July 23, 2016 photo released by Xinhua News Agency, the Amphibious aircraft AG600 rolls off a production line in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province. The Xinhua News Agency China said China unveiled the world's largest amphibious aircraft that Beijing plans to use for marine missions and fighting forest fires on Saturday. It measures 37 meters (121 feet) in length with a wingspan of 39 meters (128 feet). (Xinhua/Liang Xu/Xinhua via AP) NO SALES. An official news agency says  China  has unveiled the world's largest amphibious aircraft that Beijing plans to use for marine missions and fighting forest fires. The Xinhua News Agency said the AG600 rolled off a production line in Zhuhai in southern China on Saturday. It measures 37 meters (121 feet) in length with a wingspan of 39 meters (128 feet). The report cites Chinese state aircraft maker, the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, as saying the plane is nea

Celia Wexler   Catholic feminist, journalist, former public interest lobbyist For some time now, I’ve been concerned that while Pope Francis was awfully good at improving the tone of the church, he hasn’t done much to actually change things. You know, by issuing Papal edicts. But on July 22, he did issue an “ apostolic constitution ,” a binding document with new rules. And to whom is the document addressed? Contemplative nuns! These are the sisters we generally don’t see. They live in cloistered monasteries, away from daily contact with the world, focused on work and prayer. (We call them monasteries, not convents, because that’s the accurate term when referring to the residences of either nuns or priests who lead contemplative lives.) You would think that the Pope would not have the time to worry about roughly 40,000 nuns whose main occupation is to pray for the rest of us. After all, there was the  mess at the Vatican bank , including continued questions

by  Kizito Makoye  |  @kizmakoye  | Thomson Reuters Foundation Sunday, 24 July 2016 05:01 GMT  be KIKWEMBE, Tanzania, July 24 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Tatu Mtulya looks older than her age. Her sun-parched skin and the repairs to her well-worn dress say it all. She is poor. The 49-year-old single mother lives in a grass-thatched house with her four children in a village next to a highway in Tanzania's northern Muheza district. She is among thousands of women from families deemed extremely poor who have been singled out to receive cash handouts as part of the government's efforts to lift its citizens out of poverty. Mtulya spent her grant of 355,000 Tanzanian shillings ($160) to set up a small cafeteria selling homemade dishes of rice, meat, chicken and the local staple ugali so that she could earn a regular income. "Through my business I get a good income to help me pay for what my children need," she told the Thomson Reuters Founda

Never mind foreign interlopers. African urbanites are scooping up more land   |  MOROGORO  |  My other car is a Porsche AFTER half an hour poking around Martin Shem’s farm, Paul Kavishe is impressed, even a little jealous. “He has done well,” says Mr Kavishe. “He’s a real farmer!” This is strange praise, not because Mr Shem’s dairy, maize and mango-growing operation on the outskirts of Morogoro is not admirable, but because both men have had university careers. For middle-class Tanzanians, though, a successful farmer trumps a successful academic. “Every Tanzanian is a farmer,” explains Ali Aboud, another professor who has moved into agriculture. He cultivates about 20 hectares of rice paddy; in the past three years a businessman from Dar es Salaam and another city-dweller have bought big farms near his fields. These men are part of a quiet, hard-to-track but momentous change in Africa, which has profound consequences for the continent’s most important industry.

The African Union wants to roll out the continental passport to millions of Africans. BY  CONOR GAFFEY   African leaders gather for the 27th African Union Summit in Kigali, Rwanda, July 17. The summit saw the launch of an Africa-wide passport aimed at promoting freedom of movement within the continent. CYRIL NDEGEYA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES The African Union (AU) has launched its continental Africa-wide passport, with the presidents of Chad and Rwanda being the first two recipients. The five-language diplomatic passport, which ensures holders  free movement throughout the continent , was unveiled at the opening of the 27th AU Summit in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, on Sunday. “I feel deeply and proudly a true son of Africa after receiving this passport,” said Déby. Dlamini-Zuma   said that   the body had been “overwhelmed” with requests for the passport since its launch was announced in January and that other heads of state would be issued with the document over the course of the

While is U.K. was busy separating from the European Union, Africa wants to become more unified with the introduction of an  all-Africa passport . The idea, first approved in 2014, will launch at the  27th AU Summit  in Rwanda this month. The electronic passport is proposed as an anecdote for dissolving border restrictions, thus building greater opportunities for trade within the continent, in hopes of boosting the overall economy. Anyone with a A.U. passport would be allowed to travel freely within the union’s  54 countrie s without a visa. Government officials and heads of state at the A.U. headquarters in Ethiopia, will be the first to use the all-Africa passport, which is expected to expand to all citizens in 2018. Despite the economic benefits, the passport could have an opposite effect given the threat of terrorism.  The Motherland continues to