Nairobi / AFP When Beatrice Athiambo pulls the plastic covering off her stall in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi in the morning, her first customers are already waiting. They want to buy the earth that she sells – to eat. In Africa, geophagia, the eating of clay or stones, is widespread, especially among pregnant women, though estimates vary widely …

  Butembo / AFP In DR Congo’s war-infested Great Lakes region, carpenter-turned-sculptor Sauveur Mulwana has left a trail of monumental statues over the past decade as part of his self-styled mission to revive local history and boost peace. The 42-year-old moved back home to Butembo, a teeming city of more than a million near the borders of Uganda, Rwanda and …

  Reuters Major Gulf stock markets were mixed in quiet trade on Wednesday although some second-tier Saudi petrochemical stocks rose sharply after oil prices climbed overnight. The main Saudi index traded higher for much of the day but closed 0.2 percent lower as Saudi Electricity, which had risen after last week’s state budget for 2017 promised to raise electricity tariffs, …