🇲🇺 Mauritius keeps its duty-free line to America as AGOA is renewed to 2028

Mauritius keeps its duty-free line to America as AGOA is renewed to 2028

The US House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to keep Mauritius inside AGOA until December 2028, the trade law that lets a group of African countries sell into the American market without paying tariffs. Industry Minister Aadil Ameer Meea says the island also picks up no new duties on its exports to the United States, still one of its largest markets abroad.

The relief is loudest on the factory floor. Textiles and clothing leans hardest on the deal, and orders had already begun to slide. Lilowtee Rajmun-Jooseery, who runs the Mauritius Export Association, called the two-year extension a breath of air and said it should steady nerves.

Foreign Minister Ritesh Ramful welcomed the vote by a wide margin as good news for jobs. Ameer Meea was more guarded. Two years is a window, not a settlement, and the American process is not fully closed. The prize he keeps naming is a bilateral trade deal with Washington, one that would not put the whole industry back on the clock in 2028.

Two years buys the factories time, not certainty; the bilateral deal is the thing to watch.

Opposition demands Bachoo resign over who performed his surgery

The MSM, the main opposition, wants Health Minister Anil Bachoo to resign. It accuses him of having "openly lied to the public" about an operation at the public Jeetoo hospital.

Bachoo had said a state surgeon did the work and his private doctor only looked on. At Tuesday's parliamentary question, PM Ramgoolam said the private doctor actually performed it. That contradicts the minister.

PM Ramgoolam still refused to sack Bachoo or open an inquiry, he insists a private doctor in a public theatre breaks no law. Bachoo's reply was a shrug in Creole: in their day, how many did the same?

FCC arrests a suspect over a leak from its own case files

The Financial Crimes Commission (FCC), the island's financial crime agency, arrested Steeven Mootoocurpen on Wednesday over an alleged leak from cases it is handling.

Investigators say they hold damning material, including intercepted messages. He stayed silent and will remain in custody until a court appearance on Thursday.

A provisional charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice is expected. Investigators also questioned a lawyer and released her, but told her to stay reachable.

Taxi operators demand a hearing as the Uber case nears court

Taxi operators want a meeting with the Transport Minister and are threatening action if they do not get one. Their grievance is the ride-hailing apps eating into their trade. The pressure builds just before the Uber case, due in the Supreme Court on 11 September, which could set how these platforms operate here.

Fuel pellets wash ashore at Pointe-d'Esny with the lagoon still clear

Scattered tarballs and patches of fuel turned up on Pointe-d'Esny beach on Wednesday, but the Environment Ministry says no slick reached the lagoon. The residue traces to ships flushing oily bilge or ballast on the offshore lane, where waves harden it into pellets. The Special Mobile Force is collecting it. This stretch has seen the same before.

After Wakashio, any oil on that coast reads as a scare; this one is grubby housekeeping, not a spill.

Shorts

Parcel scam costs a dentist Rs 360,500 – A dentist handed over Rs 360,500 chasing a fake "gift" parcel supposedly posted from Liverpool.

Suspect held in Rs 5.4m car sales fraud – Police up north arrested Appanah Appadoo over car sale scams worth about Rs 5.4 million.

Prayag strikes gold in the 800m freestyle – Swimmer Prayag touched first over 800m freestyle to open the meet with a gold.

Wetlands Bill tabling put on hold – Parliament has shelved the Wetlands Bill's tabling, and Joanna Berenger is asking why the government pulled back.

Government moves to cool Sable-Noir tensions – The government is trying to calm friction over foreign workers at Sable-Noir before it grows.

Rs 649.7 billion

spans the pipeline tracked by the EDB, the state investment agency, with 512 projects live and 26 already behind schedule, officials say.

6,000 cases

and more than 3,000 deaths now mark Congo's Ebola outbreak, the worst on record and still spreading, health officials report.

34 arrests

followed a deadly shooting at a Dutch village that killed one man and wounded two police officers, prosecutors say.

Madagascar sentences a former Senate chief to 10 years

Ten years of hard labour is the sentence a Madagascar court handed Richard Ravalomanana, the island's former Senate president, over his role in last year's deadly crackdown on youth protests.

The court convicted him of complicity in murder. The ruling lands as our neighbour still argues over who answers for the dead.

Activists say Kenya left Uganda's Besigye to languish in jail

Ugandan and Kenyan activists blame Nairobi for the worsening health of jailed opposition figure Kizza Besigye, who faces treason charges.

South African court takes up a major drug lab case

Suspects from Mexico, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa appeared before a court over a drug lab worth millions and a stash of illegal metals.

Google keeps its ad empire despite losing an antitrust case

A US judge ruled that Google runs illegal monopolies in advertising technology, the plumbing that places ads across the web. But he stopped short of breaking the company up.

Instead Google must open parts of its system to rivals and stop squeezing the rates publishers earn. For a business built on ad money, that remedy stings more than the label.

Uber cuts 3,300 jobs to brace for the robotaxi era

Uber is letting go 3,300 workers, a tenth of its staff, in a reshuffle it says will simplify the company as driverless rivals close in.

Germany probes a station blast and grid hits as sabotage

German police are investigating an Augsburg station blast and damage to power lines as possible sabotage by foreign state or extremists, leaving two hurt.

The Rodrigues lime finally earns its protected label

How do you guard a lime? You give it papers. After a 12-year wait, the small green Rodrigues lime has won a Protected Geographical Indication, the same kind of label that shields Champagne or Parmesan, tying a name to the place it grows.

It is the island's first such badge, and for Rodriguan growers it means owning what they make. A lime, it turns out, can carry a passport.

🙏 Merci, à demain! 👋

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