Africa News Archives

Elizabeth Kennedy, The Associated Press's bureau chief for East Africa until last month, has been named the news cooperative's chief of bureau in Beirut.

Simon Mann, a British mercenary jailed for plotting against the government of Equatorial Guinea, has said South Africa tacitly supported a failed 2004 coup in the oil-rich African nation.

South African President Jacob Zuma has vowed to strengthen the fight against AIDS in the world's worst affected country, a marked departure from the policies of his predecessor Thabo Mbeki who led a much-criticised policy of denial of the AIDS and HIV epidemic.

In this photo released by the Spanish defence ministry Wednesday Nov. 18, 2009, the Spanish trawler Alakrana is seen at centre, escorted by two Spanish frigates in a photo taken Tuesday Nov.

Eds: APNewsNow. For global distribution. CONAKRY, Guinea The wife of Mouctar Diallo, a former employee of the U.S. Embassy, says her husband was arrested by Guinea's ruling junta.

A police official says three Spanish aid workers have been kidnapped in the desert nation of Mauritania.

The recruits gather in scorching desert hideouts in Somalia, use portraits of President Barack Obama for target practice, learn how to make and detonate bombs, and vow allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

Zimbabwe's prime minister said Sunday he is thankful for South African efforts to help rescue his coalition government, and he said South Africa's president is expected to visit the troubled neighbouring country next week.

RWANDA has been officially admitted into the Commonwealth, following a decision taken at the organisation's summit, a Rwandan government spokesman in Kigali said on Sunday.

Sunday, 29 November 2009, 2:44 pm Press Release: United Nations New York, Nov 27 2009 8:10PM Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the shooting attack on a United Nations helicopter on Thursday in Dongo in western Democratic Republic of the Congo that left three peacekeepers, a civilian pilot and one member of the Congolese national police ...

In Namibia, voting continued on the second and last day of the country's presidential and parliamentary elections.

The mistaken belief that albino body parts have magical powers has driven thousands of Africa's albinos into hiding, fearful of losing their lives and limbs to unscrupulous dealers who can make up to $75,000 selling a complete dismembered set.

The boat sank in bad weather and had been transporting logs on Lake Mai Ndombe in Congo's Bandundu province.

Three Americans on the seven-member crew died and a fourth American was injured, U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Buangan told The Associated Press .

Former hostages Amanda Lindhout, left, of Sylvan Lake, and Nigel Brennan, of Australia, arrive in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Wednesday.

Next year's soccer world cup is safe in the hands of South Africa's law enforcement agencies, national police commissioner Bheki Cele said.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation has been forced into an embarrassing climbdown over its allegations of a bogus endorsement after it emerged that the words in the foreward to a book by the president of Congo-Brazzaville were, in fact, penned by the anti-apartheid leader.

In this Friday, July 25, 2008 file photo, Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema is seen through reflections in a car window, following the end of the Portuguese Speaking Countries Community summit in Lisbon, Portugal.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown held out the prospect on Friday that Zimbabwe could be re-admitted to the Commonwealth in 2011 if it pushes ahead with reforms.

SOUTH African legal consultants have said if the government of South Africa proceeds to conclude the proposed Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement with the government of Zimbabwe thereby immunising Zimbabwe from its international law liabilities it would be going against South African law.

France's Foreign Ministry says investigators have identified the bodies of 62 passengers among 152 who died when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed into the Indian Ocean in June.

Thursday, November 26, 2009 at 4:32 a.m. CONAKRY, Guinea - A United Nations human rights official says a three-member U.N. commission has arrived in this West African nation to investigate the September massacre in which troops fatally shot pro-democracy demonstrators and raped women in broad daylight.

Namibia's longtime ruling party is expected to return to power in Friday elections but its hold on this desert nation may weaken with the emergence of a new opposition party.

A journalist known for his critical stance toward Tunisia's government was sentenced to six months in prison Thursday for what his lawyer called a trumped-up assault charge.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has asked judges to allow him to launch a formal investigation into post-election in Kenya.

South Africa's President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday appointed a new team to monitor Zimbabwe's troubled unity government accord, ending former president Thabo Mbeki's mediation role, his office said.

The United Nations is to open the most important UN meeting on South-South cooperation in decades as countries from the South assume leading roles in decisions on hot global issues ranging from economic recovery to food security and climate change, the world body announced Tuesday.

Zimbabwe's infant mortality rate has risen by 20 percent over the past two decades as children under five succumb to the HIV/AIDS pandemic and pneumonia, a joint government and United Nations survey showed on Tuesday.

Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout, freed after 15 months of captivity in war-torn Somalia, says she was kept isolated in a dark room, beaten and tortured, so she dreamed of walking through Vancouver's Stanley Park to stay sane and not lose hope.

Security force costing $1bn a year has not defeated Rwandan Hutu rebels or halted plunder of lucrative minerals, experts find Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda soldiers in Lushebere, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Gaddafi 'to mediate' football row Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi has agreed to mediate between Algeria and Egypt in an increasingly heated row over football, state media says.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has approved the South African Broadcasting Corporation's application for a government guaranteed bailout of R1.4 billion.

Cope president Mosiuoa Lekota has described calls for former president Thabo Mbeki and those who served under him to be charged with genocide as an irresponsible and dangerous distortion of the history of the country, the SABC reported.

It's the talk show talked about around the world. Oprah Winfrey's announcement last week that she will end her daytime TV program after its 25th season in 2011 made headlines from London to Johannesburg.

The country's three main political parties have finally begun discussing crucial outstanding issues in the Global Political Agreement to try to end the long running dispute between Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai.

Former leader of the National Integrationist Front, Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, puts on his headset at the start of his trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, Nov.

University of Alberta graduate student Jennifer Heys wants to make her message clear: there needs to be more education in Ugandan communities about contraception.

The bullet hit mother and son as they walked through Somalia's capital. She felt a sharp pain in her palm.

Israel and Hamas are close to a deal to swap 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for an Israeli soldier held for more than three years by the Islamic militant group, a Palestinian familiar with the talks said Monday.

JOHANNESBURG, 21 November 2009 - South Africans are dying younger and in greater numbers, and HIV/AIDS is to blame, according to a report released this week by the South African Institute of Race Relations.

In this photo taken on Nov. 17, 2009, Jenni Williams, left, and Magodonga Mahlangu, right, pose for a photo at the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Right in Washington.

Gwynne Dyer Eagle-eyed Columnist analyses global issues It was ostensibly about obscenity, but it was really about corruption and censorship - and in the end, justice prevailed.

When Henry Spelman found out he'd won a Rhodes Scholarship, his first call was to his girlfriend.

The Young Communist League of South Africa wants to talk to the ANC Youth League about its president Julius Malema's insults against South African Communist Party general secretary Jeremy Cronin.

A gun was placed to his head and he was threatened with death by an adviser to Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, mercenary Nick du Toit has told Rapport.

Hundreds of people jammed into a Monrovia church to mourn a Liberian United Nations worker killed in an October attack by Taliban gunmen in Afghanistan's capital.

By Xolani Mbanjwa and Bronwynne Jooste Staff Reporters Farmers in De Doorns have rejected allegations that they are paying Zimbabwean immigrants lower than the minimum wage and are therefore responsible for the xenophobic attacks that erupted in the region this week.

East African leaders are due to sign a common market treaty later on Friday. The presidents of Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi are expected to agree to the free movement of people and goods across the region.

By Cris Chinaka Harare - Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai left on Thursday for North Africa, where analysts said he would meet Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to maintain political pressure on President Robert Mugabe to honour their power-sharing accord.

More than 30,000 refugees from ethnic clashes in the Democratic Republic of Congo have crossed the border into the Republic of Congo, aid agencies said.

President Hosni Mubarak entered Egypt's bitter soccer row with Algeria on Saturday, vowing in a televised speech that attacks on Egyptians abroad will not be tolerated.

Chavez defends Carlos the Jackal, calls imprisoned Venezuelan 'revolutionary fighter' CARACAS, Venezuela - CARACAS, Venezuela a ' Hugo Chavez has defended the alleged terrorist mastermind Carlos the Jackal, saying the Venezuelan imprisoned in France was an important "revolutionary fighter" who supported the cause of the Palestinians.

Health minister Aaron Motsoaledi told hospital chief executives and managers on Thursday to shape up or they will be removed.

By Peta Thornycroft Independent Foreign Service More than 200 South African farmers whose land was seized in Zimbabwe are threatening legal action against the South African government for apparently excluding them from an investment protection treaty with Zimbabwe.

The wives of four South African men abducted on the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq, nearly three years ago have made an emotional plea for help to President Jacob Zuma.

Harare - Zimbabwe's lower house of parliament on Wednesday passed a bill to reform central bank operations that will reduce the powers of its governor, blamed by critics for the country's economic crisis.

Dissident journalist Taoufik Ben Brik has gone on trial before a Tunis court on aggression charges that the defence claims are trumped up.

Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai talks to journalists at Harare airport before leaving for a trip to Morocco and Libya Zimbabwean security forces have started withdrawing from the country's eastern diamond fields to meet Kimberley Process reforms over human rights abuses, the government said yesterday.

United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo personnel secure a Compagnie Africaine d'Aviation plane that crashed in Goma airport / Reuters A PLANE has landed on hardened lava after overshooting a runway in eastern Congo, injuring 20 people Passengers onboard the plane, which was flying from Kinshasa to Goma, warned the crew of heavy ...

In this Tuesday, May 19, 2009 file photo, Lebanese model, actress, and singer Haifa Wehbe arrives at the 62nd International film festival in Cannes, southern France.

A government-appointed panel this week unveiled a draft constitution that is part of wide-ranging efforts to avoid a repeat of political violence that saw more than 1,000 people killed after Kenya's December 2007 presidential elections.

The global recession is not dampening America's international drive to stop AIDS, the head of the campaign said Wednesday.

Cabinet has decided to set up a new anti-corruption inter-ministerial committee to deal effectively with all incidents of corruption in the public service, government spokesman Themba Maseko announced.

Airbus said Wednesday it agreed to sell six jetliners to newly created Senegal Airlines, giving the European plane maker bragging rights to more than $5 billion worth of orders at a subdued Dubai Airshow.

The Scottish Government is facing demands to release all records on the Lockerbie bomber, 90 days after he was freed from jail on compassionate grounds.

Jennifer Hudson is set to play Nelson Mandela's former wife Winnie in a forthcoming film.

Barack Obama said Wednesday that he met briefly with a half brother who lives in China and who recently wrote a semi-autobiographical novel about the abusive Kenyan father they share.

Tuesday November 17, 2009 11:13 a.m. FILE - In this undated photo released by the family of crew member Pablo Costas, Spanish trawler Alakrana is seen at sea in an unknown location.

South African and Israeli army instructors, hired by the ruling Guinea junta, are training pro-junta recruits in a camp in Forecariah, 100km south of Conakry, witnesses said yesterday.

About 1 000 foreign nationals have evacuated informal settlements at De Doorns in the Western Cape following a flare-up of xenophobia, police said on Tuesday.

Two Rwandan Hutu rebel leaders were arrested by Germany, charged with directing war crimes.

Mozambique's main opposition party says the ruling party stuffed ballot boxes and expelled opposition monitors from polling stations to help it win the country's Oct.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has defended land reforms blamed for plunging his people into starvation and lashed out at the West for imposing "inhuman sanctions." Addressing a U.N. food summit Tuesday, Mugabe said the policy under which thousands of white-owned commercial farms were seized in 2000 was a quest for "equity and justice." He blamed ...

The recruits assembled by moonlight at a watering hole. Hundreds of boys and young Kenyan men were herded onto trucks, which were covered with heavy canvas, and driven through the night.

An African took over as director of Greenpeace Monday, bringing experience honed as a teenage opponent of white rule in South Africa and a network of powerful contacts to the battle against global warming.

Protais Zigiranyirazo, former brother-in-law of assassinated Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, speak to reporters at the UN's international Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Monday, Nov.

A senior official in Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's party pleaded not guilty on Monday to terrorism charges in a trial that has raised tensions in the unity government formed early this year.

Oil prices advanced today, in line with rising global stock markets, as OPEC signalled that $75-80 a barrel was a satisfactory level for crude.

Durban-born reggae singer Ras Dumisani says an old microphone and technical glitches are to blame for his embarrassing rendition of South Africa's national anthem before the Test match against France in Toulouse.

KHARTOUM: Qatari-hosted talks between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebels due to begin on Monday in Doha have again been postponed, a mediator said on Sunday, amid a lingering split in rebel ranks.

The United Nations is quietly preparing an exit strategy for its troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the biggest U.N. peacekeeping mission in the world, diplomats and officials said.

The much anticipated ANC, Cosatu, SACP three-day alliance summit has started in Kempton Park east of Johannesburg.

South Africa's deputy police minister yesterday called on police to "shoot the bastards" as the country tries to bring its fearsome crime rates under control.

The former students at the centre of the Reitz race row will probably make a public apology before the end of this month, University of the Free State rector Jonathan Jansen said.

D.C. Police and Secret Service officers are investigating a stabbing that happened at the Republic of Togo's embassy on Massachusetts Avenue.

Caster Semenya, the South African teenage world champion runner who sparked allegations over her gender, has spoken of her difficulties coping with her newfound fame.

Ethnic-Somali rebels in the south-east of Ethiopia say they have launched an offensive against government forces and captured several towns.

Luanda - Thirty-two people were killed and 42 others were injured when a truck overturned in northern Angola, state radio reported on Thursday.

South African police do not have a licence to shoot to kill, President Jacob Zuma said yesterday, but vowed the government would press on with a tough crackdown on rampant crime ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

A baby bonobo has been born at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens, marking the fourth birth of the endangered apes in more than five years.

Spanish freelance photographer Jose Cendon poses during the presentation of his book Billete de Ida yesterday in Madrid.

Speaking in the National Assembly, he said the new agreed reduced mobile termination rates by Cell C, Vodacom, and MTN would be 89 cents in peak times and 77 cents off peak.

A passenger plane with a recent history of technical problems crashed into an airport VIP lounge in Rwanda's capital, killing one passenger, airline officials said Friday.

A predominately white South African trade union accused the government on Thursday of putting racial job quotas ahead of fighting crime.

It is unavoidable that innocent civilians will get shot in the crossfire between police and criminals, Deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula said on Thursday, as he defended plans to give officers greater licence to use lethal force.

A PASSENGER plane has inexplicably ploughed into a VIP lounge after a successful emergency landing, killing one person.

Floods and landslides after three days of torrential rains killed at least 20 people and left 10 missing in northern Tanzania's Kilimanjaro region, officials said.

Gunmen have killed a top Somali judge who had sentenced many pirates and human traffickers to long jail terms, the security minister for northern Somalia said Thursday.

A Tanzanian government official says a landslide has killed 11 children and nine adults near Mt.

The UN General Assembly has declared July 18 "Nelson Mandela International Day" to mark the South African anti-apartheid leader's contribution to peace.

Mozambique's President Armando Guebuza won a landslide re-election with 75% of the vote, election officials said on Wednesday.

Former president Thabo Mbeki came under fierce attack once again as Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi released shocking statistics on the devastation HIV/Aids has inflicted on the country's population.

Russian-born German man was found guilty Wednesday of murder and sentenced to life in prison for fatally stabbing a pregnant Egyptian woman in court, an attack that triggered outrage in the Muslim world.

Defense lawyers for a top prime minister's aide can raise torture allegations at his trial, a judge ruled Wednesday in a case that has shaken Zimbabwe's troubled coalition government.

Somali pirates said on Wednesday they had hijacked a fishing vessel and another ship in the Indian Ocean believed to be carrying oil.

South Africans will have a four months to hand in illegal firearms under an amnesty in 2010, the police ministry said today.

A New Jersey man alleged in a lawsuit today that U.S. officials were responsible for falsely imprisoning him for several months in Africa on suspicion of having ties to al-Qaida. Amir Meshal of Tinton Falls, Monmouth County, says that in December 2006 he fled Mogadishu, Somalia, where he had gone to study Islam, and was accused by U.S. officials ...

In this lonely corner of the world, the first sign of distress is the luggage. When one of the few international flights that are still operating here touched down one recent afternoon, the returning passengers emerged from baggage claim as if from a big shopping trip.

Brandon Huntley's lawyers have slammed a Canadian government bid to overturn his crime refugee status as driven by pressure from South Africa and "based on misguided politically correct notions", the Star reported on Tuesday.

The BBC has raised the issue of the growing crime of sex-abuse of children in Zimbabwe.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao discussed bilateral ties and cooperation with several African leaders on the sidelines of the fourth ministerial meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, which opened on Sunday at the Egyptian tourist resort.

Somali pirates have seized a United Arab Emirates-flagged cargo ship loaded with weapons bound for the anarchic Horn of Africa nation in contravention of a UN arms embargo, maritime experts said on Monday.

Two Swiss businessmen detained by Libya over a spat involving leader Moammar Gadhafi's son have been handed over to their embassy in Tripoli, Switzerland's Foreign Ministry said Monday.

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor ended 13 weeks on the witness stand Monday by rejecting allegations that he commanded and controlled rebels who murdered and mutilated thousands of civilians during Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war.

By Mohamed Ahmed Mogadishu - Somalia's government expects a settlement in about three weeks with pirates holding hostage 36 crew of a Spanish fishing vessel, a source close to the Somalian prime minister said on Sunday.

Sudan's political parties accused each other of widespread fraud and intimidation as voters began to register for the oil-producing state's first multi-party elections in 24 years due in April 2010.

Security forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo have arrested about 100 armed men blamed for killing dozens of policemen in an attack in the country's isolated north last month, the government said today.

London, Nov 8 : Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher's son became a spy for South Africa in a bid to avoid being prosecuted for his alleged involvement in a failed coup in Equatorial Guinea, a newspaper reported Sunday.

ZIMBABWE Prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai has appealed to President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party to treat him as equal partner in the power sharing government.

CHINA'S premier on Sunday pledged US$10 billion in concessional loans to African nations over the next three years and said Beijing would cancel the government debts of some of the poorest of those countries, as the Asian powerhouse looked to deflect criticism that its investments in the continent were motivated purely by greed.

The medical charity was vaccinating thousands of children against measles on October 17 at seven sites in the rebel-held Masisi district in eastern DR Congo when the national army launched attacks Nov 6, 2009 7:59 PM By Sapa-AFP Doctors Without Borders today said it was "used as bait" by the Democratic Republic of Congo's army in attacks on rebels ...

The African Union has implemented sanctions on Guinea's military rulers, AU Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra said Saturday.

The Old Etonian and ex-SAS soldier was pardoned from his 34-year sentence for his part in a bungled coup in Equatorial Guinea and returned to Britain on Wednesday.

An international body charged with stopping the illicit trade in diamonds that fuel conflict has decided not to suspend Zimbabwe, officials said Friday, though its investigators had concluded that Zimbabwe's military had organized smuggling syndicates with the government's permission and used "extreme violence" against illegal miners.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has commended government's decision to cancel an order for military aircraft, his office said today.

China is offering to abolish import duties on some commodities from Africa and make sure Chinese exports to the continent are safe as part of a package to boost already thriving economic ties, China's commerce minister said in an article published Saturday.

Madagascar's rival political leaders have agreed to form a power-sharing government after months of wrangling.

The ICC is pushing to bring to justice those responsible for the post-election violence in Kenya.

There was no word on Friday on the return to South Africa of four mercenaries pardoned this week by the government of Equitorial Guinea.

Africa's efforts to meet the global anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals by their 2015 deadline are threatened by the impact of the global financial crisis on the continent's economies, said Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro.

Zimbabwe's transport ministry says one of the national airline's planes collided with five wild pigs on the runway in the capital during takeoff.

The International Criminal Court says the war crimes trial of former Congo Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba will begin in April.

South Africaa TMs athletics body Thursday apologized to 800-metre champion Caster Semenya, her parents and the nation about its role in the handling of the athletea TMs gender row.

Malawi threatened on Thursday to arrest protesting villagers blocking construction of Madonna's multi-million dollar girls academy, a new controversy for the singer in the African country where she has adopted two children.

Somali courtship was different in Hassan Aden's day. When he was a teenager, you gave the girl's parents 11 camels and an AK-47 assault rifle as bride price and then waited respectfully.

Caption: The clashes left some 1,300 people dead and forced 300,000 from their homes.

Investigators for the world's diamond control body say Zimbabwe should be suspended because its security forces are raping women, killing illegal miners and smuggling gems out of a diamond field in the troubled country's east.

Southern African leaders must pressure Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's party to end human rights abuses when they meet to discuss the current impasse in the country's unity government, a rights body said on Wednesday.

Nov 4 - A wealthy British mercenary has arrived back home after being pardoned in Equatorial Guinea for trying to overthrow the President of the oil-rich African nation.

The Swiss government on Wednesday suspended a deal to repair its damaged relations with Libya until two Swiss citizens held in the Arab country are allowed to return home.

The Kimberley Process, which is an initiative intended to stem the flow of conflict diamonds, may decide to suspend Zimbabwe from its ranks.

Dancers clad in animal skins opened a royal ceremony Tuesday, a nod to tradition for the forward-thinking kings, queens and chiefs who jetted in to Johannesburg from across Africa to launch an institute they hope will expand their roles on the continent The two dozen leaders from Morocco to Swaziland describe their new Institute of African Royalty ...

President Barack Obama's half brother has broken his media silence to discuss his new novel - the semi-autobiographical story of an abusive parent patterned on their late father, the mostly absent figure Obama wrote about in his own memoir.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ,right, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu react during a press conference in Jerusalem.

An elephant grazes at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro in the Amboseli national park, southern Kenya.

A British man sentenced to 34 years in jail for his part in a failed coup in Equatorial Guinea has been granted a presidential pardon and is expected to leave the West African country within 24 hours.

A mother watched with dread as a nurse inserted a tube in her baby's head. Blood streamed into the anemic 4-month-old who already has malaria, the mosquito-borne disease that kills a million African children every year.

The family of former British soldier Simon Mann have spoken of their delight after he was granted a full pardon for his part in a failed coup plot in Equatorial Guinea.

The United Nations has suspended assistance to a Congolese army brigade battling rebels amid allegations that its troops killed 62 civilians, including women and children, between May and September.

A spokesman for Zimbabwe's prime minister says the country's neighbors will hold a summit this week to try to break an impasse that threatens the southern African nation's unity government.

Critics have long-accused Kenya's top legal official of being implicit in the widespread impunity granted to Kenya's political elite.

Gunmen have killed the Liberian official charged with tackling corruption in public contracts.

Secretary of state travels and talks tough about combating terrorism. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton prepared Monday to consult with Arab foreign ministers on Obama administration efforts to get Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace negotiations, two days after she raised Arab ire by praising Israel's offer to limit - but not ...

A delegation of Westminster politicians will hold more talks in Libya today over compensation for victims of IRA violence.

In a culmination of his party's major shift on AIDS, a disease that has led to plunging life expectancies here, President Jacob Zuma last week definitively rejected his predecessor's denial of the viral cause of AIDS and of the critical role of antiretroviral drugs in treating it.

Calls for an international ban on Zimbabwe's diamond sales are likely to dominate this week's meeting of the global body set up to prevent trade in "blood diamonds". Namibia has opposed suspending Zimbabwe Civil-society groups that participate in the Kimberley Process are demanding the suspension of Zimbabwe's international diamond trade, citing ...

When 64-year-old Jimale Irobe was a young man, he guided his herds of cows and camels through knee-high grass.

KHARTOUM, Sudan - The leader of southern Sudan called on his people to vote to secede from the country if they do not want to end up as second class citizens, as voter registration began Sunday for elections across the country.

The African continent is still being sidelined by international financial institutions, President Jacob Zuma said on Friday.

Kenya is launching a nationwide survey to determine the number of gay men in the country in their latest effort to combat the spread of HIV.