WASHINGTON - Libyan officials say the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three embassy staff were killed after a mob stormed the American consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi late Tuesday.
 
The deaths occurred when demonstrators angered over an amateur American-made film that insults Islam’s Prophet Muhammad shot at and set fire to the U.S. consulate […]

JOHANNESBURG - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in South Africa as part of her tour of the continent.  She met with former president Nelson Mandela at his home Monday before taking part in a high-level summit aimed at promoting U.S. investment and trade — which has been a key focus of the secretary’s […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama has announced a plan aimed at lifting 50 million Africans out of poverty in the next 10 years. Private companies from around the world have pledged more than $3 billion toward the effort.
With the leaders of several African countries watching, the president said Friday that governments, private industries and […]

BRUSSELS - European Union’s anti-piracy naval force has carried out its first air attacks against a pirate base on the Somali coast.
EU NAVFOR said in a statement Tuesday that initial reports show no Somalis were injured in what was described as the “focused, precise and proportionate” attack against “known pirate supplies” on the Somali shoreline. […]

WASHINGTON - African Union leaders opened a two-day summit in Addis Ababa Sunday with the election of a new chairman for the pan-African organization.
 
Benin’s President Thomas Yayi Boni was selected chairman for the next year, taking over from Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
 
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was among the first speakers in the new […]

WASHINGTON - A U.S. military operation has freed two aid workers – an American woman and a Danish man – who were kidnapped by gunmen three months ago in central Somalia.
 
In a statement Wednesday, President Barack Obama praised U.S. special operations forces who hours earlier freed Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen Thisted during a daring […]

WASHINGTON - A series of coordinated bombings in the northern Nigerian city of Kano has killed well over 100 people.  Many of the victims were police or soldiers.
One of the three hospitals where victims of Friday’s blasts were taken reported a death toll of at least 131 people, and other reports from the predominantly Muslim […]

CAIRO - Tribal violence in South Sudan’s Jonglei state recently reached alarming levels with thousands of armed young men involved in attacks on villages. The death toll has yet to be determined, but the United Nations says tens of thousands of people in Pibor County were forced to flee attackers.
In Pibor town, hundreds of displaced […]

WASHINGTON - Nigerians have begun a nationwide strike to protest sharp increases in the price of fuel and food after a government decision to end fuel subsidies.
 
Thousands of people gathered Monday in the commercial capital Lagos, where usually busy streets were empty aside from the demonstrators. They chanted and carried signs, including a call to […]

WASHINGTON - Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan went on television Saturday to promise that the government will share hardship with ordinary citizens, hit by rising fuel costs.
 
The president announced that foreign travel of government officials will be reduced to the barest minimum and that salaries, including his own, will be cut by 25 percent.
 
“On the part […]

DAKAR - Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency Saturday in parts of northern Nigeria affected by the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram.  The president also closed some borders as a temporary security measure.
After Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the Christmas Day bombings that left at least 40 people dead, President Jonathan put […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has arrived in Tripoli for talks with Libya’s interim government, making him the first American defense chief to visit the country.
Saturday’s brief trip comes one day after the United States lifted most of its economic sanctions against Libya in an effort to ease a financial crisis in the […]

ADDIS ABABA - Former U.S. president George W. Bush is urging Americans to do more during the current time of economic hardship to alleviate suffering in the developing world.  Mr. Bush’s comments came during his keynote address to an international conference on AIDS in Africa. 
 
The former U.S. president spoke to an audience of mostly African […]

MOGADISHU - Rebels from the Somali militant group al-Shabab have banned several international aid organizations and raided their offices in central and southern Somalia.
 
The al-Qaida-linked group on Monday ordered the World Health Organization, the U.N. Children’s Fund and the U.N.’s refugee agency to halt their operations along with several others in rebel-controlled areas.
 
The militants also […]

TRIPOLI - Libya’s transitional government is preparing for talks with the International Criminal Court about where to hold a trial for Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, the captured son of the late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo says he will travel to Libya in a week to discuss arrangements for the trial.
Libyan militiamen from […]

TRIPOLI - Libyan military officials say they have captured and detained Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, a fugitive son of former leader Moammar Gadhafi.
A military spokesman said Saturday forces caught Seif al-Islam and several of his aides near the southern town of Obari.  The town is near the border of Niger, which has already given asylum to […]

WASHINGTON - The White House says the United States has drones in Ethiopia and that the unmanned aircraft are there to conduct reconnaissance missions, not airstrikes.
 
Spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Friday that the operation is part of the U.S. government’s partnership with Ethiopia to promote stability in the Horn of Africa and combat terrorism.
 
U.S. […]

TRIPOLI - A human rights group reporting from the hometown of ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi says it has found the bodies of 53 people who appear to have been executed by fighters for the National Transitional Council during the bitter fighting for control of the city.
 
Humans Rights Watch said Monday it discovered the bodies […]

TRIPOLI - Libya’s transitional leaders on Sunday declared their eight-month revolution over, after the fall of the last strongholds of the former government and the death of former leader, Moammar Gadhafi. 
Jubilant Libyans poured into public squares like this one in Tripoli, chanting and waving the new Libyan flag.  They came to join, from a distance, […]

TRIPOLI - Colonel Moammar Gadhafi died Wednesday, ending his months-long fight against transitional fighters. To the end, he refused to step down, a stubbornness that reflects his 40-year dictatorship. He was the Arab world’s longest ruling leader and was just a 27-year-old army officer when he took power in 1969 after a military coup against […]

TRIPOLI - Senior Libyan provisional government officials say former leader Moammar Gadhafi has been killed by government troops who crushed remaining resistance by Gadhafi loyalists in his hometown of Sirte.
 
Several National Transitional Council officials in Tripoli say NTC forces shot and killed Gadhafi and took custody of his body Thursday, during a final assault on […]

TRIPOLI - Provisional government officials in Libya say former leader Moammar Gadhafi has died after being wounded as he tried to flee from the town of Sirte. The reports have not been independently confirmed.
Earlier Thursday, military leaders in the National Transitional Council said Mr. Gadhafi had been taken into custody. NTC officials said he was […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. troops have been deploying in central Africa to help the forces of Uganda and other nations fight the Lord’s Resistance Army [L.R.A.]. The deployment is the largest U.S. attempt yet to eradicate the group known for its ruthless campaign of killing, rape, and its use of child soldiers over the past two […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama has deployed 100 U.S. troops to Central Africa to help forces that are fighting the Lord’s Resistance Army group - known for its campaign of rape and killing in the region, and its use of child soldiers.
 
The president, in a letter to Congress, said he has authorized the deployment […]