African press review 17 February 2016

Did you know that Oregano could save the world? Or that Italian tourists are boycotting Egypt this year? All that, and more, in today's African press review.

DR

According to The Egyptian Independent "bookings by Italian tourists planning a trip to Egypt next summer are down 90 percent from the 2015 season".

The daily believes the recent gruesome murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni could be one of the reason behind the drop.

"The discovery of Regeni’s dead, mutilated body on a Cairo highway earlier this month prompted Italy to summon Egypt’s ambassador and call for a thorough investigation" it explains.

Despite that, Italy is still one of the "top countries investing in the Egyptian tourism sector". According to a member of the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Authority, "between January and November 2015, Italy ranked fifth in terms of Italian tourism-related investment".

The Egyptian authorities plan to fight the drop in the number of Italian visitors with "increase marketing" says The Egypt Independent.

Regional paper The East African headlines on Burundi banning... motorcylces.

"The country has banned motorbikes from the centre of Bujumbura after a string of grenade attacks by insurgents on bikes" explains the paper. Here is what happened: on Monday, men on bikes "threw three grenades" killing a child and wounding 30 people.

"Motorbike taxis are a common form of transport in the city" explains the paper.

You'll remember that Burundi plunged into crisis last April, when President Pierre Nkurunziza ran for and won a controversial third term, sparking street protests, a failed coup and regular killings.

It appears that "grenade blasts have become commonplace" in the capital. It remains unclear, however, "who exactly carries out the attacks, which have increased in the past two weeks" wonders the daily.

Rebels and security forces "all blame each other for the killings".

Today's Mail and Guardian says the world could be saved by a herb. We're only talking about reducing climate change here and the herb in question is Oregano.

Here is the explanation: it all has to do with cows' farts -sorry there's no other way to put it-. As the Mail and Guardian explains, those "have long been recognised as a contributor to climate change" because the cows' digestion creates methane as a by-product".

Methane, of course, is a large component of greenhouse gas - and in "South Africa, agricultural methane emissions make up a third of all greenhouse gas emissions, with 11% of those coming from dairy cows".

Now researchers have apparently calculated that "oregano can have a big effect" in reducing the methane emission from livestock.

"Greek oregano [...] has a high content of essential oils, which reduces the methane produced by cows" explains the paper.

The Daily Nation headlines on an ogoing scandal rocking Kenya. The paper reports of the trial of Jospehine Kabura, a businesswoman who is currently accused of fraud.

It appears that Kabura is not the only one under fire right now. The Kileshwa Police station are being asked why they released and gave her escort after she had been arrested.

"Kabura claimed Banking Fraud Investigation Department Director Joseph Mugwanja summoned her in July 2015" explains the paper.

But then "the investigating officer took her home and picked her up the following morning" making it look like she had spent the night in jail.

"Police have been accused of secretly releasing suspects, especially those who can afford to bribe" explains The Daily Nation.