20120409
AFP
A car bomb blast outside a church in northern Nigeria on Easter Sunday killed at least 20 people and put the country on alert over fears of further attacks, rescue officials and residents said.

20120409
AP
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — A car bomb killed at least five people Sunday in a central Nigerian city that has seen hundreds die in religious and ethnic violence in recent years, amid warnings by diplomats of possible terrorist attacks during the Easter holiday, officials said.

20120409
AFP
Chimwemwe Chinkango wanted to spend Easter Sunday with his children, but instead sold doughnuts on a sidewalk, hoping Malawi's new president would heal the economy so one day he could take a day off.

20120409
AFP
Malawi's new President Joyce Banda won praise on Sunday for keeping a young democracy on track, but southern Africa's first woman leader must now put the brakes on an economic and diplomatic nosedive.

20120409
AFP
A large bomb exploded near a church in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna as Easter Sunday services were being held, killing at least two people, residents and police said.

20120407
AP
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Mali's embattled coup leader said late Friday the National Assembly president will become the next head of state, an announcement made only hours after separatist Tuareg rebels declared their independence and as the nation grappled with harsh financial sanctions from its neighbors.

20120407
AFP
A summit between the presidents of Sudan and South Sudan will go ahead despite its postponement after border clashes between the neighbours, African Union mediator Thabo Mbeki said in Khartoum on Friday.

20120407
AFP
South Africa's firebrand youth leader Julius Malema defied his suspension from the ruling African National Congress, addressing a Good Friday church service despite his latest gag order.

20120407
AFP
Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika has died after a heart attack, political and hospital sources said Friday, sparking a backroom power struggle between his party and the country's vice president.

20120407
AFP
Former Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, said Friday he had not followed other ex-rebels who deserted from the army in recent days.

20120407
AFP
As guns blazed on the border between Sudan and South Sudan in recent days, the air waves and newspapers of both countries fired salvos of their own in an intense propaganda war.

20120407
AFP
Guinea-Bissau's electoral commission announced Friday the start of election campaigning for April 22 run-off polls had been postponed to examine an appeal by the opposition.

20120407
AP
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Mali's Tuareg rebels, who have seized control of the country's distant north in the chaotic aftermath of a military coup in the capital, declared independence Friday of their Azawad nation.

20120407
AP
BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) — Malawi's Bingu wa Mutharika has been hailed as an economic hero and decried as an autocrat since taking office eight years ago, along the way clashing with his own political mentors and foreign donors.

20120407
AFP
Zimbabwe will not nationalise foreign mining companies that have yet to comply with a law requiring them to cede a 51 percent stake to locals, the economic planning minister said Friday.

20120407
AFP
Joyce Banda, who rose to prominence in Malawi as a relentless advocate for women's rights, now appears set to become only the second female African head of state in modern times.

20120407
AP
BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) — Malawi's president is being treated in South Africa for an undisclosed ailment, state media reported Friday, as citizens in the southern African nation awaited word on their leader's condition and their political future.

20120407
AP
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — After years of delays, Nigeria's president signed into law the country's first Freedom of Information bill last year, supposedly cutting away old colonial-era secrecy laws and allowing the public access to government documents in this democracy for the first time.

20120407
AFP
Somalia's prime minister told AFP Friday that the Shebab militia is on its last legs despite a suicide bomb attack this week at Mogadishu's national theatre which he says was an attempt to assassinate him.

20120407
AFP
Nigerian authorities have recovered a cache of arms, including explosives and rocket launchers, in two separate raids in the restive northern city of Gombe and arrested six suspects, a senior official said.