Africa News

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Sudan's failure to approve some non-African units of a U.N.-African peacekeeping force for Darfur is delaying preparations for its January 1 deployment, a U.N. official warned on Thursday.

UNITED NATIONS - Sudan has still not agreed to non-African troops or unrestricted night flights for the new 26,000-strong peacekeeping force for Darfur that is expected to take over on Jan. 1, a senior U.N. official said Thursday.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Legendary film director Steven Spielberg has appealed to Chinese President Hu Jintao for a second time to use China's influence over Sudan to end the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The US envoy to the UN on Thursday threatened Sudan with additional sanctions if it continued to drag its feet on allowing the deployment of 26,000 UN-African Union peacekeepers in Darfur.

LONDON (AFP) - Zimbabwean police are still beating and torturing human rights activists and opponents of the government despite mediation efforts launched by fellow African nations, Amnesty International said Friday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate gave a green light to a grass-roots effort urging investors to withdraw their funds from companies doing business in Sudan because of violence in its Darfur region.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Five U.N. staff were still missing after a bombing in Algeria in which 11 other U.N. employees died, the world body said on Thursday.

ALGIERS (AFP) - The death toll from twin car bomb attacks in Algeria rose to at least 34 Thursday, including 11 UN staff, officials said, after more bodies were recovered from the ruins of the UN offices.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday offered warm praise for new Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua's commitment to democracy after past complaints about flaws in his election in April.

ALGIERS, Algeria - Two convicted terrorists who had been freed in an amnesty carried out the suicide bombings at U.N. and government buildings that killed 37 people, an Algerian security official said Thursday.

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe's veteran President Robert Mugabe was given the green light to seek a sixth term of office by his ZANU-PF party Friday as they rubber-stamped him as their candidate at next year's elections.

HARARE, Zimbabwe - President Robert Mugabe's party nominated him as its candidate for president in voting next year, demonstrating the 83-year-old veteran's hold over the main party despite Zimbabwe's economic collapse.

ROME (Reuters) - Actors George Clooney and Don Cheadle said world leaders must not be allowed to ignore the war in Darfur, as they received an award by Nobel peace laureates for their efforts to help civilians caught up in the conflict.

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF endorsed veteran leader Robert Mugabe as its candidate in next year's presidential polls at a congress in the capital Harare, the party's chairman said Thursday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President George W. Bush Thursday telephoned his Algerian counterpart Abdelaziz Bouteflika to express his condolences and offer support after deadly attacks in the north African country, the White House announced.

PARIS (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi condemned terrorism at the request of President Nicolas Sarkozy, but his comments failed to quell widespread controversy on Thursday over his lengthy stay in France.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mary Yates is deputy to the commander of the U.S. military's new Africa Command. But she has no stars on her shoulder and does not wear a uniform.

WASHINGTON - State and local governments and other institutions could divest Sudan related investments under legislation passed by the Senate late Wednesday despite administration opposition.

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. chief vowed Wednesday to keep United Nations staff in Algeria, saying the bombing of its offices in the north African nation will not deter the world body from helping people in need.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the Congolese government on Wednesday to protect civilians endangered by an offensive against Tutsi rebels and he urged the rebels to lay down their arms.

ABUJA (AFP) - The former governor of Nigeria's oil rich Delta state, James Ibori, was arrested Wednesday on corruption and money-laundering charges, an official with the national anti-graft agency said.

MADRID, Spain - Algeria has seen more than its fair share of Islamist attacks, but Tuesday's carnage was different. Never before has such a prominent international site — U.N. offices — been struck with such deadly ferocity in the North African nation.

ABUJA, Nigeria - Nigeria's financial crimes agency on Wednesday arrested a former state governor in the country's oil-rich Niger Delta on allegations of corruption and money laundering, law enforcement officials said.

KIGALI (AFP) - Rwandan officials are interfering in the trial of the country's 1994 genocide suspects and even intimidating witnesses, the country's main genocide survivors' group said Wednesday.

MAYANGE, Rwanda - The late afternoon sun gleams off the tin roofs of this small farming village, as neighbors Xavier Nemeye and Cecile Mukagasana watch their children play tag around the banana trees.

ALGIERS, Algeria - Emergency workers searched for bodies and survivors Wednesday after twin truck bombings by an affiliate of al-Qaida targeted U.N. offices and a government building in Algiers, killing at least 31 people.

DAKAR (AFP) - Rwandan President Paul Kagame was handed this year's Africa Gender Award Wednesday for promoting gender equality in his country, which has the world's highest female representation in parliament.

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday opened a meeting of his ruling ZANU-PF party's central committee, paying tribute to loyalists who are backing his bid for a sixth term in office.

KHARTOUM (AFP) - North and south Sudanese leaders said on Wednesday they had resolved almost all their differences and that the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement would soon rejoin the unity cabinet.