Africa News

ABUJA, Nigeria (AFP) - Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, chairman of regional bloc ECOWAS, will attend neighbouring Benin's 50th independence anniversary on Sunday in Porto Novo, an official statement said. Full Story »

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Medecins San Frontieres (MSF) has suspended medical care in a violent part of Sudan's war-torn south after three separate attacks on its staff, the aid group said in a statement on Saturday. Full Story »

JOHANNESBURG - Chilean-American author and human rights activist Ariel Dorfman said Saturday that former enemies in both post-apartheid South Africa and in Chile after dictatorship must show remorse for past wrongs if peace and reconciliation is to be achieved within their nations. Full Story »

NOTTINGHAM, England (AFP) - Matt Prior's unbeaten century left England well placed for victory inside four days in the first Test against Pakistan at Trent Bridge here on Saturday. Full Story »

JUBA, Sudan (AFP) - Violence in south Sudan has forced the aid agency Doctors Without Borders (MSF) to suspend its work in the Gumuruk area of troubled Jonglei state, the organisation said on Saturday. Full Story »

KHARTOUM (AFP) - Senior MPs from north and south Sudan are heading for Canada this weekend to learn from Quebec's independence referendums, officials said Friday, as the African state prepares to vote on southern secession. Full Story »

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council extended the stay of peacekeepers in Sudan's western Darfur region by another year on Friday, telling the force to focus primarily on protecting civilians and aid deliveries. Full Story »

MONROVIA, Liberia - Liberia's government, still recovering from a 14-year civil war and previous decades of poverty and illiteracy, said Friday it will now require all children to get birth certificates, a document most of them lack. Full Story »

ABUJA (AFP) - Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday lauded international efforts to achieve lasting peace and political stability in crisis-wracked Guinea-Bissau, his office said. Full Story »

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The UN Security Council on Friday extended by a year the mandate of a joint UN-African Union force in strife-torn Darfur, stressing the need to protect civilians and ensure safe humanitarian access. Full Story »

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Almost 90,000 people have fled fighting in eastern Congo in the past month, aid agencies said, underscoring a worsening security situation despite the official end of Congo's 1998-2003 war. Full Story »

JUBA, Sudan (AFP) - Thousands of southern Sudanese gathered at the grave of their first president John Garang on Friday in memory of those killed in a 22-year war with the north, six months before an independence vote. Full Story »

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - The government of Zimbabwe has failed to build houses and provide jobs to victims of mass evictions five years ago that left thousands homeless and unemployed, a human rights group said Friday. Full Story »

BANGUI (AFP) - Presidential and parliamentary elections will take place in the Central African Republic next January 23, President Francois Bozize decreed on Friday. Full Story »

BANGUI, Central African Republic - The president of the Central African Republic has issued a decree delaying the country's elections again, to Jan. 23. Full Story »

JOHANNESBURG - A South African court on Friday ordered four white former students to pay fines of nearly $3,000 each for a video they made that humiliated black university employees and drew global attention to entrenched racism on the campus. Full Story »

RABAT (AFP) - King Mohammed VI of Morocco on Thursday granted pardons or reduced sentences to nearly 1,000 people to mark his 11 years on the throne, the justice ministry said. Full Story »

KHARTOUM (AFP) - A Russian helicopter pilot who went missing in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region was returned to his UN peacekeepers' base on Thursday, as Moscow said he had been taken prisoner and freed. Full Story »