The first High Commissioner of Kenya to Seychelles pledges to continue building on the robust relationship between the two countries. Isaac Njenga Gatitu presented his credentials to President Wavel Ramkalawan on Tuesday. "We hope to be able to give impetus to these relations that are in existence, we hope to bring more impact to our governments and our people as we build our economies, as we build our cultural and social ties," he told reporters. Kenya and Seychelles have a long shared history as both countries are members of the Commonwealth and the African Union. "We have commonal ..read more

The 2024 Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA ) Games for Zone 7 have officially begun in Seychelles and athletes will compete in four disciplines. The Games will take place from May 6 to 11 and are open to athletes under 18. In the opening ceremony at Berjaya Beau Vallon Bay Resort on Monday, the young athletes were urged to not only do their best but also enjoy the experience. The vice president of the Seychelles Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (SOCGA), Michel Bau, officially declared the games open and expressed his joy that all these nations have been brou ..read more

French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen pressed Xi Jinping at a summit in Paris on Monday to use Beijing's influence to halt the Russian war against Ukraine, also telling the Chinese leader to accept fair global trade rules. Xi's two-day state visit to France is his first visit to Europe since 2019 on a trip that will also see him hold talks in Serbia and Hungary. He has said he wants to find peace in Ukraine even if analysts do not expect any major breakthrough. Opening an initial trilateral meeting attended by von der Leyen, Macron said coordination ..read more

Tourism Seychelles, the marketing branch of the tourism department, is participating in the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) from May 6 to 9 at the Dubai World Trade Centre in the UAE with the aim of strengthening its position in the Middle East. Renowned as a premier travel event, the Arabian Travel Market draws in over 28,000 influential buyers and travel trade visitors, standing as a cornerstone of the global travel industry for over three decades. In a press communique on Monday, Tourism Seychelles said that the island nation's delegation is headed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs ..read more

The Islands Development Company (IDC), a state-owned company, is calling on local authorities to regulate recreational fishery urgently amid concerns being expressed by fishermen on stock depletion. The IDC, which manages the outer islands of Seychelles and also the inner island of Silhouette, has over the years put guidelines in place for recreational fishing in the outer islands.   According to Seychelles' Fisheries Act, recreational fishing refers to any fishing activity undertaken by a vessel under 10 metres in length for recreational rather than commercial purposes, like tr ..read more

Pop idol Madonna gave it all in Rio de Janeiro as she looked back on her four-decade career in a historic show before throngs of joyful fans jammed onto Brazil's famed Copacabana beach on Saturday night. The 65-year-old singer walked down an elevated bridge from the Copacabana Palace hotel shortly after 10:30 pm (0130 GMT Sunday) to a massive stage for one of the most important shows of her career. Dressed all in black, Madonna broke into her hit "Nothing Really Matters" at the start of a burst of brute energy. "Rio, here we are in the most beautiful place in the world," she said at the start ..read more

A first-ever lagoon-wide drone survey of the waters around the Aldabra Atoll in Seychelles using drones to capture images of dugongs, including juveniles, has started. The ongoing project is being implemented by the Seychelles Islands Foundation (SIF), which manages the atoll, in order to monitor the dugong population and provide data to better inform SIF's decisions on the species' conservation. Dugongs - sometimes called sea cows - are shy and gentle creatures that survive solely on a diet of seagrass. Early settlers on the islands and sailors hunted and slaughtered them for their meat and o ..read more

The death toll from floods and mudslides triggered by torrential storms in southern Brazil has climbed to 56 people, with 74 injured and another 67 missing, the country's civil defense agency said Saturday. Fast-rising water levels in the state of Rio Grande do Sul were straining dams and threatening the metropolis of Porto Alegre, one of the largest cities in southern Brazil. Authorities there were scrambling to evacuate some neighborhoods that had been submerged -- in some cases using helicopters to rescue people stranded on roofs. And heavy rains of "very high severity" are expected to ..read more

The road to the 2025 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Seychelles has officially begun with the launch of the event one year-ahead, which took place on Friday. The 2025 tournament will take place between May 1 to May 11, with 16 nations set to compete, including the hosts, Seychelles, who will be participating in a first ever global football tournament. The event to launch the World Cup took place at the Kempinski Resort in the south of the main island of Mahe, where guests included the President of Seychelles, Wavel Ramkalawan, who is also the patron for of the Seychelles Football Federation (SF ..read more

The United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has confirmed that uncharacteristically high ocean temperatures have triggered the fourth global mass coral bleaching event and Seychelles is already being affected. Nirmal Shah, chief executive of Nature Seychelles, a non-profit organisation, said this event poses a significant threat to the ocean's ecosystem and the millions of individuals who rely on reefs for sustenance, employment, and coastal security. "The elevated ocean temperatures represent the result of the growing emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gas ..read more