Top Stories From Africa

President Barack Obama will host some 120 African youth leaders from 40 African nations in Washington next week, part of a commemoration of 50 years of independence for 17 countries. The President’s Forum is intended “to deepen and broaden our understanding of the trajectories of African societies, and to reflect on how the next generation are building their communities’ and their nations’ futures – just as their predecessors did in the era of independence from colonial rule,” the White House said in a statement.

The World Bank has provided US63 million (Sixty Three Million United States Dollars) grant to the government of Liberia for the implementation of Employment and skills projects in the country.

At a church compound in Nairobi's Mathare slum, women and their children line up for food rations. Among them is Zipporah Mueni, an HIV-positive mother of five.

When Deputy House Speaker Tokpa Mulbah allegedly ordered the brutal flogging of police patrolman Lexington Beh late last month, darted into the sanctuary of his mansion with police in tow, got the spontaneous help of CDC officials and foot-soldiers to help him escape arrest, and claimed to be politically victimized by the Sirleaf Administration, it was all politics – Liberian style. And the day went to the swift. However melodramatic and revealing that police-deputy speaker encounter was, it did very little to shield and give the deputy speaker the carte blanche immunity he and his supporters assumed he has or should have. The deputy speaker came to that grim reality this week, when only the agility of his lawyers stood between him and an arrest order on criminal charges. The Analyst, reports.

The International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL) has directed the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to furnish it with information on Senator Ahmed Yerima's alleged marriage to a minor.

The African Diaspora Initiative (ADI) says Nigeria will recover a whopping $400 billion looted public funds if the Federal Government grants unconditional amnesty to present and former government officials willing to repatriate such funds from foreign countries.

Nigeria national U-20 women's team, the Falconets yesterday continued their impressive run in the FIFA organized football tournament by edging out hard fighting Colombians 1-0 to book a place in the finals to be decided this on Sunday.

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Atahiru Jega, yesterday warned that the absence of a new and credible voters register may scuttle the 2011 elections. He said within the next two weeks, the Federal Government will have to choose between providing the funds required to produce a new register and the risk of not having any elections next year.

An Islamist group, Hizbul Islam, has rejoined the struggle against the Transitional Federal Government and the African Union peacekeepers in Somalia (Amisom).

TRADE union leader Apollo Nyangasi was yesterday charged and remanded to Luzira Prison over the murder of his wife, Christine Dambio Nyangasi.

ORGANISERS of the northern political summit under the aegis of G20 (19 northern states and Abuja), yesterday, warned that the country risked a deeper crisis if the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, prevented Dr. Goodluck Jonathan from contesting the presidency in the 2011 elections on the grounds of zoning.

SA could become vulnerable to the type of terrorist bomb attacks that rocked Kampala, Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu warned yesterday.

Campaigns in Kenya for the referendum on a new constitution enter the final week, with President Mwai Kibaki leading a spirited effort for the adoption of the draft, while a number of influential politicians and church leaders are waging a concerted effort to defeat it.

Brigitte Rasamoelina and Yvette Sylla are women with two different approaches to politics in Madagascar. One formed a political party, while the other decided to legalise her organisation as an association. But both women are considering running in Madagascar's November elections.

NATIONAL Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Attahiru Jega, yesterday, said what the commission needed to compile a credible Voters Register was N84 billion and not N74 billion as he earlier said.

A special court set up at Shimo la Tewa Prison is set to speed up the trial of suspected pirates, ease the workload for jail staff and cut costs. The courtroom, which is also handling other criminal cases, began its operations almost a month ago.

ZANU PF has announced that Sabina Mugabe has died after a long illness. She was 76.

When is a tax haven not a tax haven? When Mauritius' Vice Prime Minister Ramakrishna Sithanen says so. 'We are a not a tax haven,' stated Sithanen, who is also the country's minister of finance. Ironically, Sithanen would go on to reveal that ring-fenced financial services (FS) - the legal and financial secrecy vehicles facilitating corporate mispricing and corruption marketed to foreign clients, especially India - accounts for 12.5 per cent of GDP.

When we talk of a 'food crisis', what are we referring to? Beyond cold and disembodied statistics, a Malian journalist has visited a few parts of Niger and reports on means of life, indeed, to surviving.[1]

General Assembly President Ali Treki today expressed deep sadness after learning that a boat overturned on a major river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), reportedly killing around 140 people.