Africa News

UNITED NATIONS - The beleaguered peacekeeping force in Sudan's violence-wracked Darfur region cannot be significantly strengthened this year because of increased dangers, the U.N. chief said Tuesday.

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - The UN human rights chief Tuesday urged South Africa to do more to stop xenophobic violence, as Amnesty International said officials had failed to help foreigners displaced by the attacks.

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday calling on all countries with a stake in maritime safety off Somalia to send naval ships and military aircraft to confront growing piracy there.

NOUAKCHOTT (AFP) - Police in military-ruled Mauritania clashed Tuesday with protesters supporting ousted president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, as the African Union urged the junta to reinstate the elected leader.

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The security situation in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region is deteriorating, and the UN-African Union force (UNAMID) struggling to maintain peace there is overstretched, UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned Tuesday.

NAIROBI, Kenya - The American author of a controversial book accusing Barack Obama of seething with "black rage" and of being unfit for the U.S. presidency was kicked out of Kenya on Tuesday.

JUBA, Khartoum (Reuters) - More than 35 young women wearing tight trousers have been arrested for "disturbing the peace" in south Sudan, police said on Tuesday.

HARARE (Reuters) - Talks on the formation of a power-sharing government in Zimbabwe failed on Tuesday to end a long stalemate over cabinet posts, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change said.

GENEVA (AFP) - The new United Nations human rights chief on Tuesday condemned the killing of a Somali family in her native South Africa and urged authorities to take stronger steps to stem xenophobic violence.

ALGIERS (AFP) - Thirty-four people are now known to have died and 89 to have been been injured in flash floods that struck southern Algeria last week, the prime minister said on Tuesday.

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - Mauritania's military junta met top African Union officials in Addis Ababa on Tuesday, a day after an AU deadline for reinstating the ousted president passed unheeded.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A mystery disease that has killed three people in South Africa and put medical authorities on high alert may be Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, a health official said on Tuesday.

DAKAR (AFP) - Liberia and Senegal have become the latest African countries to ban Chinese milk products following the tainted milk scandal that left tens of thousands of children ill in the Asian country.

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - South Africa's ruling party chief Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday that Zimbabwe's political parties should keep talking to resolve an impasse in forming a cabinet under a power-sharing deal.

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe's political rivals failed to reach an agreement on forming a unity government during their latest talks Tuesday, leaving a power-sharing accord in doubt, an opposition spokesman said.

BRUSSELS (AFP) - European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana expressed concern Tuesday about renewed violence in eastern DR Congo and about calls by a rebel leader to topple the country's government.

GENEVA - The U.N. refugee agency says at least 5,000 people have fled violence in northeastern Congo and sought shelter in neighboring Sudan over the last two weeks.

KHARTOUM (AFP) - A Nigerian UN peacekeeper was killed when up to 60 gunmen ambushed a patrol in Sudan's war-torn western region of Darfur, a UN spokesman said on Tuesday.

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Zambia along with the World Health Organisation have joined the hunt for a mystery illness that has killed four people in South Africa, Zambia's ambassador said on Tuesday.

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - Ethiopia's president announced Monday that a document providing a legal framework for the fight against terrorism would be submitted to parliament.

PHILADELPHIA - The ex-headmistress of Oprah Winfrey's school for girls in South Africa sued the talk show host for defamation, claiming Winfrey falsely suggested she tried to cover up abuse at the school.

CAIRO (AFP) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday pardoned an outspoken editor sentenced to two months in jail after his newspaper published rumours on Mubarak's health, state-run MENA news agency reported.

TRIPOLI, Libya - The United States has opened a trade office in Libya, the latest in a concerted push to normalize relations after three decades of confrontation and sanctions.

LONDON - Britain's foreign secretary says European Union sanctions against Zimbabwe will be maintained until a new power-sharing government is in place.

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - Around two thirds of African countries have improved in the field of governance over the past year, according to the latest index released Monday by a London-based foundation dedicated to the issue.

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Four people, two of them Zambians, have died in Johannesburg of a mystery flu-like illness, the health department spokesman said Monday.

LAGOS (AFP) - The French secretary of state for foreign trade Anne-Marie Idrac will make an official visit to Nigeria, France's biggest trade partner in sub-saharan Africa, on Tuesday and Wednesday.

CAPE TOWN (AFP) - The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt was docked Monday in Cape Town, on a visit to South Africa aimed at building ties to fight piracy and other maritime problems.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Governance has improved in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, a governance monitor said Monday.