Africa News

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council extended the stay of peacekeepers in Sudan's western Darfur region by another year on Friday, telling the force to focus primarily on protecting civilians and aid deliveries. Full Story »

MONROVIA, Liberia - Liberia's government, still recovering from a 14-year civil war and previous decades of poverty and illiteracy, said Friday it will now require all children to get birth certificates, a document most of them lack. Full Story »

ABUJA (AFP) - Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday lauded international efforts to achieve lasting peace and political stability in crisis-wracked Guinea-Bissau, his office said. Full Story »

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The UN Security Council on Friday extended by a year the mandate of a joint UN-African Union force in strife-torn Darfur, stressing the need to protect civilians and ensure safe humanitarian access. Full Story »

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Almost 90,000 people have fled fighting in eastern Congo in the past month, aid agencies said, underscoring a worsening security situation despite the official end of Congo's 1998-2003 war. Full Story »

KHARTOUM (AFP) - Senior MPs from north and south Sudan are heading for Canada this weekend to learn from Quebec's independence referendums, officials said Friday, as the African state prepares to vote on southern secession. Full Story »

KAMPALA, Uganda - A Ugandan court has charged three men with terrorism and murder related to July 11 twin blasts that killed 76 people in the capital. Full Story »

NAIROBI, Kenya - A draft constitution that Kenya votes on next week guarantees women the same rights as men — unless a judge in a Muslim family court decrees otherwise. Full Story »

JUBA, Sudan (AFP) - Thousands of southern Sudanese gathered at the grave of their first president John Garang on Friday in memory of those killed in a 22-year war with the north, six months before an independence vote. Full Story »

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - The government of Zimbabwe has failed to build houses and provide jobs to victims of mass evictions five years ago that left thousands homeless and unemployed, a human rights group said Friday. Full Story »

BANGUI (AFP) - Presidential and parliamentary elections will take place in the Central African Republic next January 23, President Francois Bozize decreed on Friday. Full Story »

BANGUI, Central African Republic - The president of the Central African Republic has issued a decree delaying the country's elections again, to Jan. 23. Full Story »

JOHANNESBURG - A South African court on Friday ordered four white former students to pay fines of nearly $3,000 each for a video they made that humiliated black university employees and drew global attention to entrenched racism on the campus. Full Story »

RABAT (AFP) - King Mohammed VI of Morocco on Thursday granted pardons or reduced sentences to nearly 1,000 people to mark his 11 years on the throne, the justice ministry said. Full Story »

KHARTOUM (AFP) - A Russian helicopter pilot who went missing in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region was returned to his UN peacekeepers' base on Thursday, as Moscow said he had been taken prisoner and freed. Full Story »

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Three people were killed Wednesday during a gun battle between supporters of rival rebel groups in a camp for displaced people in west Darfur, a UN spokesman said Thursday. Full Story »

KHARTOUM (AFP) - A referendum in south Sudan on possible independence cannot he held as planned in January unless the border between north and south is demarcated in advance, a senior official of Sudan's ruling party said on Thursday. Full Story »

JOHANNESBURG - South Africa's president says six of the country's traditional monarchies are being abolished. Full Story »