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  • S. African officials suspended over wedding scandal

    Five South African officials, including police and military commanders, have been suspended after a chartered plane carrying about 200 guests from India to a lavish family wedding was allowed to land at a South African Air Force base, the government said Friday. The scandal, in which the passengers allegedly bypassed customs procedures on their way to a gaudy entertainment complex, has angered many South Africans who see the episode as a case of cronyism linking big business and the highest levels of government in a country where corruption is a growing problem. The government sought to stem public outrage over the incident, launching an investigation into how the Airbus A330 was given permission to land Tuesday at the Waterkloof Air Force Base.(   05/04/2013 12:00 AM )

  • Report: SAfrica losing battle against corruption

    South Africa is fighting a losing battle against corruption which sucked up nearly $111 million in taxpayers' money last year, according to a new report that contradicts government statements that efforts to stamp out financial misconduct are going well. ''Corruption is rampant,'' the author of the report, financial forensics expert Peter Allwright, said Friday. ''It's out of control ... and the dedicated units that have been created to fight financial misconduct are in essence fighting a losing battle.'' South Africa is awash in scandals about misuse of government money and power -- in one of the latest, taxpayers forked out around 250 million rand (nearly $28 million) on upgrades to President Jacob Zuma's private residence in his home village, including three new houses, a sewerage treatment plant, and an underground bunker.(   05/04/2013 12:00 AM )

  • Thousands flee eastern Congo town amid violence

    GOMA, Congo (AP) -- Thousands of people have fled the town of Pinga in eastern Congo following renewed fighting between local armed groups, and nine members of Doctors Without Borders' Congolese staff have gone missing, the aid group said Friday. (   05/03/2013 4:39 PM )

  • Violent demonstrations in Guinea leave 4 dead

    CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) -- Victims' relatives and authorities in West African nation of Guinea say four people are dead following violent demonstrations against an upcoming legislative election. (   05/03/2013 4:25 PM )

  • SAfrica: officials suspended over wedding scandal

    JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- Five South African officials, including police and military commanders, have been suspended after a chartered plane carrying about 200 guests from India to a lavish family wedding was allowed to land at a South African air force base, the government said Friday. (   05/03/2013 3:47 PM )

  • Official: 11 Sudan traders killed in South Sudan

    JUBA, South Sudan (AP) -- At least 11 Sudanese traders were killed earlier this week by unknown gunmen as they crossed into South Sudanese territory, a military official said Friday, blaming the attack on militiamen who want to shatter the prevailing peace between the two Sudans. (   05/03/2013 2:00 PM )

  • Report: SAfrica losing battle against corruption

    JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- South Africa is fighting a losing battle against corruption which sucked up nearly 1 billion rand ($111 million) in taxpayers' money last year, according to a new report that contradicts government statements that efforts to stamp out financial misconduct are going well. (   05/03/2013 1:56 PM )

  • Audit: Contracts awarded in Liberia violate law

    MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) -- The Liberian government awarded about $8 billion in contracts to multinational companies without following its own laws, according to a draft of a new audit that reviewed dozens of deals. (   05/03/2013 1:00 PM )

  • PM's youth leader in jail for Mugabe slur

    HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- A lawyer for a youth leader in the Zimbabwe prime minister's party says he is in jail for referring to the nation's longtime ruler as "a limping donkey" at an election campaign rally. (   05/03/2013 11:56 AM )

  • 133k Somalia famine child deaths reported

    NAIROBI (AP) -- A decision by extremist Islamic militants to ban delivery of food aid and a ''normalization of crisis'' that numbed international donors to unfolding disaster made south-central Somalia the most dangerous place in the world to be a child in 2011. The first in-depth study of famine deaths in Somalia in 2011 was released Thursday, and it estimates that 133,000 children underage 5 years old died, with child death rates approaching 20 percent in some communities. That's 133,000 under-5 child deaths out of an estimated 6.5 million people in south-central Somalia. That compares with 65,000 under-5 deaths that occurred in all other industrial countries in the world combined during the same period, a population of 990 million, said Chris Hillbruner, a senior food security adviser at FEWS NET, a US-sponsored famine warning agency.(   05/03/2013 12:00 AM )

  • Kenya court: 2 Iranians guilty of terror plot

    NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Two Iranian nationals, whom officials accused of planning to attack Western targets inside Kenya, were found guilty Thursday by a Kenyan court of terror-related charges. Officials in Kenya say the two suspects may have been planning attacks on Israeli, American, British, or Saudi Arabian interests in Kenya. Magistrate Kaire Waweru Kiare said the prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt all counts against the two. Kiare said he will give sentences for the two on Monday. Iranian nationals Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammad and Sayed Mansour Mousavi were arrested in June 2012 and led officials to a 33-pound stash of the explosive RDX. Prosecutors said in their charge sheet that the two had explosives ''in circumstances that indicated they were armed with the intent to commit a felony, namely, acts intended to cause grievous harm.''(   05/03/2013 12:00 AM )

  • 'Off the charts': 133k Somalia famine child deaths

    NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- A decision by extremist Islamic militants to ban delivery of food aid and a "normalization of crisis" that numbed international donors to unfolding disaster made south-central Somalia the most dangerous place in the world to be a child in 2011. (   05/02/2013 5:51 PM )

  • 4 Chad officials accused of foiled coup attempt

    N'DJAMENA, Chad (AP) -- Four officials have been arrested in connection with a foiled attempt to overthrow the government in the Central African nation of Chad, the country's state prosecutor announced on Thursday. (   05/02/2013 2:24 PM )

  • AU could lift sanctions against Guinea-Bissau

    BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau (AP) -- The African Union says it could lift sanctions against Guinea-Bissau as the country's leader promises elections later this year. (   05/02/2013 1:25 PM )

  • Expert: Rhino population wiped out in Mozambique

    JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- Mozambique's rhinoceros population was wiped out more than a century ago by big game hunters. Reconstituted several years ago, the beasts again are on the brink of vanishing from the country by poachers seeking their horns for sale in Asia. (   05/02/2013 12:21 PM )