Monrovia, Liberia | AFP | President Ellen Sirleaf’s vice president since 2005, Joseph Boakai has campaigned as a natural transition candidate after helping to ensure peace has prevailed in Liberia since back-to-back civil wars. Boakai will face former footballer George Weah in a runoff for the presidency on November 7, …
Read More »Bomb kills four Pakistani troops searching for kidnappers
Islamabad, Pakistan | AFP | A bomb Sunday killed four Pakistani soldiers as they searched for militants linked to the kidnapping of a US-Canadian family who were freed last week. The incident happened near the Kharlachi checkpoint in Kurram district in the restive tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. The family were being …
Read More »World leaders condemn Somalia bombing ‘in strongest terms’
Paris, France | AFP | World leaders from the United States, Britain and France on Sunday strongly condemned the weekend suicide bombing in Somalia, the worst attack in the country to date with at least 137 deaths. Saturday’s blast occurred at a junction in Hodan, a bustling commercial district of …
Read More »Somalia’s deadliest bombing ever
Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP | At least 276 people have been killed and 300 injured by a massive truck bomb that tore through a busy shopping district of Mogadishu, the government said Monday, making it the deadliest attack ever to hit conflict torn Somalia. Desperate residents of the capital searched …
Read More »George Weah: from football pitch to presidential palace?
Monrovia, Liberia | AFP | George Weah, 51, emerged from Liberia’s slums to become a superstar footballer in the 1990s, and has leveraged his status as a revered figure among young people in his second run for the presidency. Now Weah has a confirmed place in the runoff round against …
Read More »Mogadishu reels as truck bomb toll hits 137
Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP | The death toll from a massive weekend truck bomb in a busy shopping district of Mogadishu surged to at least 137, police said Sunday, warning it could rise further after one of the worst-ever attacks to hit war-torn Somalia. The figure was a huge jump …
Read More »India man-eating tiger dies after being electrocuted
New Delhi, India | AFP | A tiger which killed four villagers in central India has died after being electrocuted, an official said Sunday, ending a hunt by armed rangers for the beast. A court in Maharashtra state issued a shoot-to-kill order Friday against the two-year-old female tiger after its …
Read More »DR Congo authorities meet but still no election timetable
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo met on Saturday to address when the next presidential election will be held after the country’s electoral commission announced there will be no vote before early 2019. Beset by ethnic divisions, numerous political tensions and bloody fighting in …
Read More »Ethiopia parliament speaker says ‘disrespect’ made him quit
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | The speaker of Ethiopia’s lower house of parliament, who resigned last week, said Saturday that he quit because of “disrespect” of his ethnic group. Abadula Gemeda, a member of the Oromos, the country’s largest ethnic group, announced last Sunday that he was stepping down after …
Read More »Four die as French army-chartered plane crashes off I.Coast
Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP | Four Moldovan nationals were killed and three French soldiers hurt on Saturday when a transport plane chartered by France’s army crashed off Ivory Coast, authorities said. There was a storm over Abidjan early in the day, but it was unclear whether heavy weather had played …
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