The United Nations is considering where to establish courts to try the more that 1,000 suspected pirates currently being held in 20 countries across the globe. The U.N.’s top legal advisor, Patricia O’Brien, told the Security Council on Tuesday that Somalia, with the most number of pirates in detention, prefers to have the establishment of […]
US First Lady Visits Nelson Mandela in Africa
Posted June 21st, 2011 at 2:30 pm (UTC-5)
U.S. first lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday paid a previously unannounced visit to former South African president Nelson Mandela at the beginning of a tour of southern Africa. Mrs. Obama met with the 92-year-old anti-apartheid icon at his home in Johannesburg. The wife of U.S. President Barack Obama was accompanied by the couple’s two daughters, […]
Seven Killed in Northern Nigeria Attacks
Posted June 21st, 2011 at 1:40 pm (UTC-5)
Seven people in northern Nigeria have been killed in two attacks blamed on Boko Haram, a radical Islamist group. Witnesses say the dead include five police officers and two civilian bystanders. Several Boko Haram members launched an attack on a police station in the town of Kankara in Katsina state late Monday. The other attack […]
Roadside Bomb Kills 4 in Somalia
Posted June 21st, 2011 at 11:10 am (UTC-5)
Somali police say at least 4 civilians died in a roadside bombing in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Police suspect the bombing Tuesday was intended for African Union Peacekeepers who are protecting the fragile Somali government from Islamist militants. The insurgent group al-Shabab is trying to topple the United Nations-backed government and turn Somalia into a […]
UN: West African Drug Trafficking Is More Sophisticated
Posted June 21st, 2011 at 10:55 am (UTC-5)
A top United Nations official says drug traffickers are using a more sophisticated system to smuggle drugs from West Africa to Europe. Alexander Schmidt, the West African head of the U.N. Office on Drug Crime, says the amount of cocaine seized in western Africa has gone down, suggesting that smugglers are repositioning drug routes and […]
US First Lady Obama Tours Africa
Posted June 21st, 2011 at 10:20 am (UTC-5)
U.S. first lady Michelle Obama is in Johannesburg, South Africa where she met Tuesday with anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela. Mrs. Obama met with the 92-year-old former president at his home, after visiting the offices of the Mandela Foundation. While there, the Obama family viewed archival items such as Mr. Nelson’s prison desk and notebooks. The […]
First Lady Obama Begins Weeklong African Visit
Posted June 21st, 2011 at 5:50 am (UTC-5)
She will also meet with groups fighting AIDS. Mrs. Obama will speak to young women at a U.S.-sponsored forum focusing on social and economic initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa. She will close her trip with a two-day visit to Botswana. The Africa trip is Mrs. Obama’s second official overseas trip without her husband, following a visit […]
Gunmen Attack Nigerian Police Station and Bank
Posted June 21st, 2011 at 5:50 am (UTC-5)
Witnesses in Nigeria say gunmen attacked a police station in the northern part of the country late Monday, killing several police officers. The gunmen, suspected members of the radical Boko Haram Islamic group, also attacked a nearby bank in the town of Kankara in the far northern state of Katsina. Several days ago, Boko Haram […]
Agreement Reached on Sudan’s Abyei Region
Posted June 21st, 2011 at 12:20 am (UTC-5)
Negotiators for north and south Sudan have reached a landmark agreement on the future on the disputed oil-rich region of Abyei less than three weeks before the south is to gain its independence. The accord was signed Monday in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, following days of tough negotiations led by former South African president […]
Ageement Reached on Sudan’s Abyei Region
Posted June 20th, 2011 at 5:10 pm (UTC-5)
Negotiators for north and south Sudan have reached a landmark agreement on the future on the disputed oil-rich region of Abyei less than three weeks before the south becomes independent. Officials signed the deal Monday in Ethiopia after days of sometimes painful negotiations led by former South African President Thabo Mbeki. It calls for the […]
