20120418
AP
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Soldiers arrested the head of one of Mali's biggest political parties Tuesday, hours after a former prime minister was detained by military personnel, officials said, deepening questions about whether the military is in control of the nation despite a handover of power to a civilian leader.

20120418
AFP
South Sudanese students who rejoiced at their country's armed occupation of Sudan's main oilfield have been expelled from a police college in Khartoum, the interior minister said on Tuesday.

20120418
AP
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — An aide says a former Malian prime minister has been re-arrested by military personnel just days after being released from custody.

20120418
AFP
A suicide bomber killed a soldier in the southern Somali town of Baidoa on Tuesday, when he detonated an explosive vest as he tried to enter a government security building, officials said.

20120418
AP
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — An Islamist group that is competing with Tuareg nationalists for control of northern Mali is stepping up efforts to provide law and order as it tries to gain recruits and the support of local residents.

20120417
AFP
Libyan leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil expressed confidence Monday that Algeria would not shelter anyone who poses a threat to his country, in a reference to Moamer Kadhafi's family members who were granted asylum by Algiers.

20120417
AFP
Five candidates competing in Guinea Bissau's aborted presidential election united Monday to condemn last week's coup as East Timor's Jose Ramos-Horta, a Nobel peace laureate from another Portuguese ex-colony, agreed to act as a mediator.

20120417
AFP
Kenyan priest John Webootsa has been awarded a French-German human rights prize for his work in one of the most overcrowded slums in the East African country, organisers of the prize said Monday.

20120417
AFP
Sudan's parliament voted unanimously on Monday to brand the government of South Sudan an enemy, after southern troops invaded the north's main oilfield.

20120417
AFP
Police were called to a London court on Monday where a former Nigerian state governor, James Ibori, was due to be sentenced over a fraud involving $250 million of state funds.

20120417
AFP
Malawian President Joyce Banda led thousands of mourners Monday at the parliament building to view the body of the late leader Bingu wa Mutharika, who died earlier this month.

20120417
AFP
Spain's King Juan Carlos faced fire Monday for a hunting trip in Botswana during which the monarch, patron of a wildlife charity, broke his hip and ended up in hospital.

20120417
AFP
Switzerland on Monday said a female national has been kidnapped in Mali's Timbuktu, the fabled city seized by Islamists following after a coup in the west African nation.

20120417
AFP
The Nigerian candidate to head the World Bank said on Monday that the appointment was not being decided on merit and that the US nominee would win, but added that she had helped bring change to the process.

20120417
AFP
Guinea-Bissau's new junta has accepted an offer from East Timor's outgoing President Jose Ramos-Horta to act as a mediator following a coup, an advisor said on Monday.

20120417
AP
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Clashes have spread along the border of Sudan and South Sudan, officials said Monday, with Sudanese officials claiming to have seized an area sympathetic to South Sudan.

20120417
AFP
Spain's King Juan Carlos faced fire Monday for a hunting trip in Botswana during which the monarch, patron of a wildlife charity, broke his hip and ended up in hospital.

20120417
AFP
At least 21 people were killed Monday when a speeding bus overturned in southern Zimbabwe, state radio reported.

20120417
AFP
A leader of the Tuareg rebel group that has declared an independent state in northern Mali said Monday that a first official meeting between the rebels and Malian authorities had gone well.

20120417
AFP
The President of South Sudan -- whose country has been locked in fierce border clashes with Sudan -- will visit China later this month, the host country has announced..