Top Stories: South African authorities are investigating whether a chemical spill in the coastal city Durban was caused by a fire at a warehouse during violent unrest last week. South African former president Jacob Zuma, whose jailing earlier this month triggered some of the worst unrest of the post-apartheid era, appeared by video link in court on Monday to seek a further delay in his arms deal corruption trial.While the government has largely restored order in the streets, there are fears Zuma's latest court appearance could again trigger protests from his support base. Efforts to prosecute the ex-president for allegedly receiving kickbacks over a $2 billion dollars weapons deal in the late 1990s are seen as a test of South Africa's ability to hold powerful politicians to account. Ethiopia's health minister Lia Tadesse and U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia Geeta Pasi attended a ceremony at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport to greet the shipment's arrival that contained 453, 600 doses.In a speech, Tadesse said that the vaccines had come at an instrumental time when the delta variant is ripping around the world driving a new spike in cases.Tadesse said in total they expect to receive 1.2 million doses with the remaining vaccines expected in the coming weeks.Africa recorded a 43 percent jump in COVID-19 deaths last week, the World Health Organization said on Thursday. Ethiopia has nearly completed the filling of a huge dam on the Blue Nile river for a second year, according to a Monday report by state media . The move that has already angered Egypt.Addis Ababa says the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a $4 billion dollar hydropower project, is crucial to its economic development and to provide power. But it has caused concern over water shortages and safety in Egypt and Sudan, which also depend on the Nile's waters. A spokesman for Ethiopia’s Afar region says Forces from Ethiopia's northern Tigray region have mounted attacks in neighboring Afar region, marking an expansion of an eight-month-old conflict into a previously untouched area. Nigeria's broadcasting regulator has asked TV stations to curb their reporting of insecurity in the country by withholding details of incidents and victims, in what a leading civil society group described as a "sweeping gag order." Tokyo Olympics organisers on Sunday reported the first COVID-19 cases among competitors residing in the athletes' village, as its population swells ahead of the start of the pandemic-hit Games next week. With COVID-19 cases rising in the United States, some cities and counties are telling all residents to wear masks indoors, even if they are vaccinated, while the Biden administration points to the prevalence of misinformation about vaccinations, especially on social media, as one of the drivers keeping people from getting shots. Pressure is ratcheting up against Donald Trump and his closest circle. His company, the Trump Organization, is under a criminal investigation on suspicion of fraud and other illegal financial dealings. Yet the former president remains popular among Republicans and wields an outsized influence over the party.