Diary

ANKARA (AA) - Here are the main topics Anadolu Agency's English Desk plans to cover on Friday, Oct. 8, 2021 (coverage may change depending on developing/breaking stories):

TURKEY

ANKARA - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to attend the 12th Transportation and Communication Week at Ataturk Airport.

ANKARA - Turkey-Iran political consultations to be held.

ANKARA - Following COVID-19 normalization process in Turkey, virus variants, worldwide pandemic situation.

ITALY

ROME - Turkey’s Parliament Speaker Mustafa Sentop to visit International Policy Research Center, also to hold news conference.

UKRAINE

LVIV - Following Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu's visit to Ukraine.

IRAQ

BAGHDAD/ ERBIL/KIRKUK - As part of “special voting day” in Iraq, security forces, internal asylum seekers, prisoners to vote for early general election.

AFGHANISTAN

KABUL - Monitoring situation in Afghanistan after Taliban's formation of interim government.

ECONOMY

WASHINGTON - US Labor Department to announce nonfarm payrolls for September.

SPORTS

ISTANBUL - Turkish national football team to face Norway in 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying group match.

ISTANBUL - Turkish Grand Prix of Formula 1 World Championship to be held in Istanbul, drivers to take to track during training laps at Intercity Istanbul Park.

SPECIAL REPORT

Statehood of Uganda established on Oct. 9, 1962

By Hamza Kyeyune

KAMPALA, Uganda (AA) - Uganda was ruled by the British beginning in the late 1800s, and it gained independence from Britain on October 9, 1962. Before independence, Uganda used to be ruled from London, British governors were appointed by the Queen’s government, but after 1962, it saw self- government based in Kampala and by Ugandans. This was attained through struggle, toil, sweat and disagreements with the imperial protestors, often ending in imprisonment and deportation.

SPECIAL REPORT

Islamic courts get popularity among Ugandan Muslims

By Godfrey Olukya

KAMPALA, Uganda (AA) - Safina Namukose, a 30-year-old mother of three, was happy to have won a legal struggle against her husband, who had stopped paying maintenance and abandoned the family after marrying a woman from a neighboring village.

SPECIAL REPORT

Climate change endangers Tanzania’s largest flamingo colony

By Kizito Makoye

ARUSHA, Tanzania (AA) - Environmental campaigners in Tanzania’s northern Arusha region have sounded alarm on the dwindling population of lesser flamingos on Lake Natron ostensibly due to the changing weather patterns and increasing human activities that affect the world’s largest colony of migratory birds.

SPECIAL REPORT

The lost art of letter writing in digital age

By Kizito Makoye

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (AA) - As a young student at Milambo Secondary School in Tanzania’s western Tabora region in early 1990s, Godfrey Mhina did not have a smartphone with which to vent off his frustrations. Instead, he relied on well-crafted letters from his mother to read and forget his problems.