(By Omara Tonny)

Four Somalis have been sentenced to 42 months in jail for piracy and hijacking a fishing vessel by a Mombasa court, Daily Nation reported Thursday.

According to reports, the Somalis; Hassan Adan, Ali Abdi Fita, Abdi Liban and Dahir Afran were found guilty of attacking and hijacking a fishing vessel, the F/V Tahiri,between January 6 and 7, 2012 in the Indian Ocean while armed with an AK-47 and a grenade.

Chinese ambassador Wei Tianhong has said China will not withdraw embassy from Somalia after after a deadly terror attack hit Chinese embassy last week, wargeyska news quoted the official microblog of China’s national TV network.

The Chinese ambassador reportedly said that he and other staff members will overcome difficulties and adhere in Somalia to continue promoting bilateral relations.

On the afternoon of July 26, an attacker drove a car rigged with bombs into the gate of theJazeera Palace Hotel, where the suicide bombing took place, as it housed the embassy of China.

Facebook is set to test its drone later this year, an equipment which has a wingspan of a Boeing 737 – and will operate as high as 90,000 feet in the air, and can stay airborne for 90 days at a time, BBC reported Friday.

The drone is expected to bring internet connectivity to remote parts of the world, the social network has announced according to BBC. Facebook reportedly said the drones would be able to offer internet speeds of 10 gigabits a second.

A  Somali military official said Friday that at least 11 people were killed and five others injured after forces loyal to self-proclaimed Westland state supported by Ethiopian troops under African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM)engaged in a gun battle with Al-Shabab fighters in some parts of Hiraan region, Goobjoog News reported.

Uganda’s incumbent president is expected to pick nomination forms today to seek an  unprecedented fifth term in office. According to Uganda’s government owned new vision publication, Museveni has already paid shs20m for both party chairmanship and flag bearer.

In a new twist to solve the current crisis  affecting heavily indebted states in the Nigeria, some of Nigeria’s commercial banks heavily exposed to Nigeria’s near bankrupt states impounded the dividends from the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG). This move is intended to offset the loans granted to the states.

This revelation was made today by Governor Abdulazeez Yari of the northern Nigeria Zamfara state. He was explaining the current salary crisis in several states even with the release of the funds anticipated to give some assistance to the indebted states.

According to a new Quinnipiac University national poll released Thursday,  U.S. billionaire Donald Trump leads the GOP presidential candidate field by a significant margin, Xinhua reported.

According to reports, the poll shows that Trump is on top of the new Quinnipiac poll with 20 percent, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is next at 13 percent and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush follows at 10 percent.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said Wednesday that at least 86 people were killed, 56 injured and 517,029 others were affected by heavy rains and resulting flash floods in parts of Pakistan over the last two weeks, Xinhua reported on Thursday.

In a press release, the NDMA said that the torrential rains that have been lashing the country since July 15, swept away 20, 858 houses, inundated 801 villages and destroyed standing crops on 233,688 acres of land.

In the latest development regarding the search for Malaysian airline MH370 which disappeared  in March last year, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Thursday that the debris discovered on the beach of Reunion Island is "very likely" to be from a Boeing 777.

Xinhua reported on Thursday that "Initial reports suggest that the debris is very likely to be from a Boeing 777, but we need to verify whether it is from flight MH370," Najib said in a statement on his Facebook page. However, the Premier reportedly warned that it is too early to speculate at this stage.

The government of Uganda and public universities have signed an agreement to operationalize a new scholarship scheme, New Vision’s Innocent Anguyo reported on Wednesday.

Under the agreement, the Ugandan government will offer about 350 undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships under the “higher education science and technology (HEST)” project that is financed with a $105m (approximately 340b) loan from the African Development Bank (ADB).