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Three disease alerts at once: chikungunya past 200, leptospirosis kills four this year

Over 200 Mauritians have now tested positive for chikungunya, with fresh clusters confirmed in Vacoas, Glen Park, Phoenix, Tamarin, La Preneuse and Le Morne. The virus keeps spreading. Acting Director of Health Services Dr Fazil Khodabocus has called for heightened public vigilance as the outbreak widens beyond the central plateau.

Two new leptospirosis cases arrived Monday: a gardener from Trèfles and a resident of Mont-Ida, both in their sixties, now hospitalised in stable condition. The disease has claimed four lives this year from a total of 18 recorded cases since January.

Mpox has not eased either. The two patients who tested positive remains under hospital care while two others are in self-isolation, with contact tracing continuing, the Ministry of Health says.

Dr Abu Kasenally, surgeon and minister, dies at 84

"A man of great intelligence and profoundly human" is how Minister of Transport Osman Mahomed remembers Dr Abu Kasenally, who died Monday morning after a long illness. He was 84.

A distinguished surgeon by training, Kasenally served as director of both Jeetoo Hospital and Victoria Hospital before entering politics. He was elected to parliament in 2005 and re-elected in 2010, serving as minister of Public Services and Housing and Land until the government's defeat in 2014. Tassarajen Pillay Chedumbrum, president of the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA), called his passing a loss for the country.

His was a career that crossed both operating theatres and cabinet rooms. Mauritius doesn't produce many of those.

Beaten unconscious at school: the education minister draws the line on student violence

What happens when a student sends another to a private clinic with facial injuries, a broken tooth and a damaged ear? Starting this week: expulsion.

The incident occurred at a State college in Hautes Plaines-Wilhems last Friday. A 14-year-old was beaten by a classmate until he lost consciousness, he was treated at a private clinic at his parents' request and has since recovered.

Minister of Education Mahend Gungapersad confirmed the offending student faces expulsion, with the duration being decided. On Wednesday he meets Attorney General Gavin Glover and the minister for family welfare to design a broader intervention plan, with psychological support mandatory for victim, aggressor and fellow classmates.

Bringing in the Attorney General for a school incident sends a louder signal than any assembly speech.

Mauritius returns from Washington with goodwill but no guarantees

No concrete deal, but the Mauritius delegation says it has laid the groundwork for a broader bilateral trade agreement with the United States. Minister Aadil Ameer Meea led talks with American officials and met ambassador Jamieson Greer, who the delegation says listened carefully. With AGOA, the African Growth and Opportunity Act that underpins Mauritius' preferential US market access, expiring at year's end, the pressure to secure something permanent is real.

PM Ramgoolam calls in international bodies to close the gaps in Mauritius' democracy

PM Navin Ramgoolam says government will seek guidance from international organisations to address gaps in democratic practice and freedom of expression. The reform process will lean on outside expertise to ensure constitutional changes are legally sound and internationally recognised.

🗞️ SHORTS

MMM loses 28 members in Constituency 4 – Twenty-eight MMM members from Constituency 4 have resigned with immediate effect, following Paul Berenger's exit from the party earlier this month.

Mauritius ranks second in Africa for prosperity – Mauritius is Africa's second most prosperous country in the HelloSafe Prosperity Index 2026, trailing only the Seychelles on GDP, income and quality of life.

Chagossians write to King Charles over the deal – A group of Chagossians in the UK has written to King Charles III to formally oppose the sovereignty deal with Mauritius.

Don't ignore that traffic fine – Traffic fines and demerit points are now doubled if you don't pay within 28 days, under a December law change.

Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior docks in Port Louis – Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior is in port for four days, pressing Mauritius on its Indian Ocean leadership role.

Rs 3.51 billion – worth of drugs two Mauritians allegedly tried to import via the Indian Ocean. Police have filed three separate charges under the Dangerous Drugs Act, each count tied to a different controlled substance.

23 – children abducted from an unregistered orphanage in Kogi State, central Nigeria by armed gunmen on Monday. Eight are still missing after a partial rescue operation.

$16.4 billion – what Shell agreed to pay for Canada's ARC Resources this week, one of the energy sector's biggest acquisitions in years. Shell is targeting the Montney shale basin to boost its long-term production and reserves.

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Mali's junta leader goes silent as the country's crisis deepens

General Assimi Goïta, Mali's junta leader, has gone dark since the weekend attacks that killed Defence Minister Sadio Camara and left key northern towns in rebel and jihadist hands. His silence at this moment is conspicuous.

Kidal and other locations remain contested after the coordinated strikes that wounded at least 16 people across Bamako and beyond. Relative calm has returned to parts of Mali, but with no word from the general, the junta's grip looks increasingly uncertain.

Coups in the Sahel often begin not with noise but with absence.

Tanzania's opposition rejects the official count of election deaths

518 people killed: that is what Tanzania's government commission says happened during last October's protests. The opposition and religious groups say the real toll is far higher, and they have now formally rejected the report, deepening a political standoff that has run since the vote.

When the casualty count is contested, the conflict usually is not really over.

Conakry marks 72 hours of literature with its 18th book festival

Guinea's capital Conakry has opened the 18th edition of its '72 Hours of the Book' festival, a gathering of writers, students and cultural enthusiasts that has grown into one of West Africa's most distinctive annual literary events.

Iran offers to reopen Hormuz without a nuclear deal, but Trump is likely to say no

Oil climbed past $107 a barrel on Monday after peace talks in Pakistan collapsed at the weekend without result. Iran has now put a fresh proposal on the table: it will reopen the Strait of Hormuz without a nuclear agreement, if the United States lifts its blockade on Iranian ports.

The offer, conveyed via Pakistan, sidesteps the issue Trump says is non-negotiable: Iran's nuclear programme. Trump told Fox News he holds all the cards and Iran can come to him. The Strait has been effectively closed for three months now, pushing up global fertiliser, food and fuel costs far beyond the Gulf.

Mauritius container costs are up 20% since the closure began. Every week this drags on, those numbers get harder to unwind.

Israeli strikes kill 14 in Lebanon despite an active ceasefire

Fourteen people died in Lebanon on Monday despite a live ceasefire agreement. Israel expanded operations into the Bekaa Valley and issued evacuation orders for seven towns, the most significant escalation since the ceasefire was extended three weeks ago.

Ten years for stealing TSMC's secrets: Taiwan's message to the chip world

A Taiwanese court sentenced a former employee of Tokyo Electron, a Japanese semiconductor equipment firm, to 10 years in prison for stealing proprietary data and trade secrets from TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and the world's dominant chip producer. TSMC supplies chips to Apple, Nvidia and virtually every major tech firm. Making corporate espionage this expensive is a message courts rarely get to send so clearly.

State secrets have intelligence agencies. Trade secrets, apparently, now have ten-year sentences.

Roundup in the dock: the US Supreme Court is weighing whether Bayer should have warned you

The US Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a case that could force Bayer to compensate thousands of people who developed cancer after using Roundup, its bestselling weedkiller. The question: did Bayer fail to warn users that glyphosate, the active ingredient, carries a cancer risk?

Glyphosate is one of the world's most used herbicides, present in farms and gardens globally, including in Mauritius. A ruling against Bayer would set a global benchmark on product liability.