Africa

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France Launches Airstrikes in Mali

President Hollande says terrorists 'threaten us all'

(Newser) - France launched airstrikes today to help the government of Mali defeat al-Qaeda-linked militants who captured more ground this week, dramatically raising the stakes in the battle for this vast desert nation. French President Francois Hollande said the "terrorist groups, drug traffickers, and extremists" in northern Mali "show a...

Central African Republic Rebels: OK, We'll Talk

Halt advance on Bangui

(Newser) - Rebels in the poverty-stricken Central African Republic have been advancing on the capital for three weeks, but today they agreed to halt and begin peace talks, Reuters reports. They had come within striking distance of Bangui, causing the US to close its embassy in the country and evacuate its citizens...

Sudden Climate Change Forced Evolution: Scientists
Sudden Climate Change Forced Evolution: Scientists
in case you missed it
Dec 29, 2012 7:00 PM CST

Sudden Climate Change Forced Evolution: Scientists

Early humans saw woodland shift to grassland

(Newser) - Early humans evolved in fits and starts due to rapid environmental changes—not gradually as scientists used to think, according to a new study. Analyzing lake sediments in northern Tanzania, scientists from Penn State and Rutgers University concluded that climate change altered the landscape back and forth from grassland to...

African Nations Agree: Let's Invade Mali

Leaders aim to wrest northern Mali from Islamist control

(Newser) - West African nations yesterday agreed to send some 3,000 troops to help the country of Mali wrest back control of its northern half, which was seized by al-Qaeda-linked fighters more than six months ago, according to an official and a report on Nigerian state television. The decision came at...

Romney Adviser Backed Bans on Abortion, Gays in Africa

Jay Sekulow's ideology undermines Mitt's new centrism: Andy Kroll

(Newser) - Mitt Romney, man of the political center? At Mother Jones , Andy Kroll ridicules that notion by emphasizing Romney's ties with Jay Sekulow, a star of the Christian right who has advocated bans on homosexuality and abortion in Africa. His American Center for Law and Justice—called by Time a...

African Union Gets First Female Leader

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was South African minister

(Newser) - A female leader has taken up the top leadership position at the African Union for the first time. South Africa's Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma today took charge of the African Union, where she will be in charge of peace, security, politics, and economic affairs of the continent. Dlamini-Zuma was most recently...

2 Americans Win Economics Nobel for Strides in Matching

Winner of African governance prize: No one

(Newser) - Americans Alvin Roth and Peter Shapley have won the Nobel prize for economics on the strength of their work matching players in a wide range of markets, the Wall Street Journal reports. "For example, students have to be matched with schools, and donors of human organs with patients in...

Soldiers Shoot Mauritania's President 'by Mistake'

Islamists, however, had vowed revenge against him

(Newser) - Soldiers in Mauritania have shot and wounded the nation's president, but he assures people the incident was all a mistake, Reuters reports. The government flew President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz to France yesterday for medical treatment, where he issued a televised message: "I want to reassure everyone about...

African Gorillas' Habitat Quickly Disappearing

Continent-wide survey finds huge losses since 1990s

(Newser) - The first-ever continent-wide survey of gorillas in Africa finds that their habitats have been shrinking at a disturbingly fast clip since the 1990s, reports the BBC . Eastern gorillas, for example, have the distinction of being the largest living primate, but they've lost 52% of their habitat over that span....

US-Funded African Armies Slaughtering Elephants

Poaching is at its highest level in decades

(Newser) - Elephant poaching in Africa is at its highest level in decades, and American taxpayer dollars are helping to fund the frenzied slaughter, the New York Times finds. Soldiers from US-trained and funded armies in Uganda, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo have been implicated in poaching and ivory...

Man Gets Ebola... From Phone He Stole
 Man Gets Ebola ... 
 From Phone 
 He Stole 
in case you missed it
Sep 1, 2012 7:00 PM CDT

Man Gets Ebola ... From Phone He Stole

And it was worth just $24

(Newser) - A Ugandan thief got a serious lesson in why you shouldn't steal, particularly from people with deadly diseases. After breaking into a hospital isolation ward earlier this month and stealing a cell phone from an Ebola patient, the suspect came down with Ebola himself. The patient, who later died,...

Togo Women Vow Sex Strike to Oust President

Women will withhold sex for a full week, activists say

(Newser) - Women in the civil rights group "Let's Save Togo" said they will have a week-long sex strike to demand the resignation of President Faure Gnassingbe. The plan for women to withhold sex from their husbands for a week will start tomorrow, said Isabelle Ameganvi, leader of the group'...

Angola Kicks Out China 'Gangsters'

Kidnapping, extortion, human trafficking among alleged crimes

(Newser) - Chinese police today brought back 37 suspected Chinese gangsters from Angola, where they were arrested for alleged crimes against other Chinese such as kidnapping, armed robbery, extortion, human trafficking, and forced prostitution. Such crimes are a major concern for China, which has become Africa's main trading partner and a...

Gambian Executions Begin, Says Rights Group

9 put to death; dozens may follow: Amnesty

(Newser) - Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh alarmed human rights activists last week when he vowed to quickly execute all of the nation's prisoners on death row. Amnesty International is now worried that he's started making good on the threat, reports Voice of America . Nine inmates were killed late Thursday, the...

Ethiopian PM Dies During Treatment for Mystery Illness

Meles Zenawi had been receiving treatment for 2 months

(Newser) - Ethiopia's prime minister has died at an undisclosed location overseas while being treated for a mystery illness, reports Reuters . Meles Zenawi, 57, considered a stabilizing force in Africa, suddenly succumbed to an undisclosed infection in an overseas hospital where he was being treated over the last two months for...

China Sinking Big Bucks Into African News

Critics say propaganda, but Chinese call it good PR

(Newser) - China has long been investing big money into Africa, in construction, natural resources, housing, and other projects. Increasingly, though, China is also pouring money into news and media on the continent, bringing two Chinese television news channels, radio, and written articles by Xinhua, China's state-sponsored news service, to places...

Irate Zambian Miners Kill Chinese Manager

Coal miners riot over low wages

(Newser) - A fresh round of unrest has hit Chinese-operated mines in Zambia. Rioting coal miners killed a Chinese manager on Saturday by pushing a mine trolley at him as he tried to flee, reports the BBC . Another Chinese manager and several Zambians were injured during the incident at the mine, which...

Signs Found of Mysterious Neanderthal 'Sister Species'

Evidence lives on in the DNA of modern-day Africans: scientists

(Newser) - Newly discovered bits of "foreign DNA" in modern Africans indicate that a mysterious "sister species" may have walked the earth with Neanderthals and humans, according to scientists. The DNA doesn't resemble DNA from any modern-day humans, nor from Neanderthals, whose DNA sometimes shows up in modern-day Europeans....

Drug Resistance Threatens HIV Fight in Africa

Eastern areas see 29% increase in resistance per year

(Newser) - HIV is developing a growing resistance to drugs in sub-Saharan Africa, and that has researchers worried, the BBC reports. Scientists found a 29% increase in drug resistance per year in East Africa, while Southern Africa saw a 14% increase, they say (compared to zero change in resistance levels in the...

US Takes Drug War to Africa
 US Takes Drug War to Africa 
Jul 22, 2012 7:45 AM CDT

US Takes Drug War to Africa

Critics say United States just playing 'Whac-A-Mole,' risks blowback

(Newser) - Latin America has long been the United States' focus on the war on drugs. But increasingly that war is reaching Africa, too, as US forces are training counternarcotic squads in Ghana and are looking to start similar programs in Nigeria and Kenya, reports the New York Times . In addition, the...

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