UN distributes food to West Africa flood victims

The World Food Program has launched emergency operations in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mauritania, distributing food rations to the victims of flooding across West Africa, the U.N. relief agency said Tuesday.

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Oceaneering International to provide equipment

Oceaneering International Inc. said Tuesday it has agreed to supply Esso Exploration Angola Ltd. equipment for a petroleum exploration operation off the coast of West Africa.

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Pa. man killed in robbery due to language barrier

A West African college student who was learning English was shot and killed during an attempted robbery in which he could not understand a gunman who confronted him in a southwest Philadelphia park, police and family members said.

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Arctic Sea crew, hijackers interrogated in Moscow

Russian authorities questioned crew members from the Arctic Sea cargo ship after the seamen and eight alleged pirates ship were returned to Moscow on Thursday, adding new details to the mystery of the ship's monthlong odyssey.

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UN says financial crisis boosts organized crime

The world financial crisis offers organized crime a unique opportunity to return to the global banking systems from which it had been barred by sanctions imposed after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, the U.N.'s top anti-crime official said Wednesday.

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Sinopec seeks capacity, reserves with Addax bid

Sinopec, with its $7.2 billion bid for Addax Petroleum, is seeking crucial production capacity and coveted reserves in West Africa and the Middle East to help balance its heavy reliance on crude oil processing.

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China's Sinopec makes $7.2B grab for Addax

China's Sinopec will acquire oil explorer Addax Petroleum for $7.2 billion, again flexing the country's economic clout in what would be the largest overseas takeover ever by a Chinese company.

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Drought in West Africa repeats and may get worse

West Africa is already living on the edge, and new research indicates that even worse droughts are possible than the one that devastated the region in the late 20th century.

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Careful! These statues could get you pregnant

Starting a family might be a little easier with a trip to Ripley's Believe It or Not museum in Myrtle Beach. The museum on Thursday opens a monthlong display of its fertility statues. The 5-foot tall wooden statues were acquired on the Ivory Coast of West Africa in 1993. The company says they were then placed in its corporate headquarters in Orlando, Fla., and within months, 13 women became pregnant.

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West African regional body suspends Guinea

West Africa's regional economic body has suspended Guinea's membership following a military coup in the country, officials said Saturday.

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Sierra Leone pirates attack Chinese vessel

Sierra Leone police say pirates attacked a Chinese fishing vessel in a rare attack off West Africa that ended with four suspects dead.

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Deforestation a key part of UN global treaty talks

Years ago, no one thought twice about felling the rainforest around this village in West Africa.

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Terror Tactics Described at Taylor Trial

Charles Taylor rewarded militia fighters who killed babies during West Africa's civil wars and called one woman's unborn child an "enemy" who must die, a former militia commander testified Wednesday.

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Skepticism Greets New US Africa Command

Just a few years ago, the U.S. military was rarely seen in the oil-rich waters of West Africa's Gulf of Guinea. This year, it plans to be there every day.

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Dozens of Africans Die After Days at Sea

Dozens of migrants trying to reach Europe spent three weeks at sea off West Africa's coast and threw nearly 50 bodies overboard after their vessel lost power and supplies dwindled, officials said Tuesday.

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Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is promising to push the country out of the top ten for fraudulent emails thanks to arrests and proactive action to scan all emails.

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Miracle fruits, or miracle berries, are for real. They contain Miraculin, a glycoprotein extracted from a shrub native to West Africa. What they do is fairly unbelievable, and unless you've tried them, you might still be a skeptic: miracle fruits make sour things sweet.

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After three months of rain West Africa has been devastated by flooding that displaced 600,000. The current season has been unusually rainy and the rain is expected to last through the end of the month.

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Ten per cent (around 55 million barrels) of Nigeria's oil is stolen and trafficked every year. In fact, it is estimated that oil production in Nigeria runs at only two thirds of capacity because of theft, vandalism and violence in the Niger Delta.

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Madonna is back in Malawi, seeking to adopt another child from the country – despite controversy over her adoption of a child there three years ago.

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Over the last decade or so Ghana and the entire West African sub-region has become a major hub for cocaine transport to Europe and America damaging their reputation and image as a credible and sincere member of the global community.

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From the UN official site: "CYNTHIA BASINET, singer and actress, said that the international community had a moral responsibility as steward of the Saharawi people, and that a shift in heart and not just policy was required..."

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The 2008 Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award has been won by Aminatou Haidar, one of the younger generation of leaders campaigning for an independent Western Sahara from within the territories occupied by Morocco rather than from exile in the Algerian refugee camps.

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Those who championed Nigeria's return to civil rule in 1999 as well as the founding fathers of democratic administration must be thoroughly ashamed of the pains and despair that have pervaded the land to this day.

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First ladies from seven west African countries gather here Monday for a conference on ways to end female circumcision, a widespread practice in the region despite efforts to end it.

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For the second time in three days, police in Mauritania have used clubs and tear gas to disperse demonstrators calling for the re-instatement of the country's president, who was deposed in a military coup d'etat.

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[Excerpt:] - OSOGBO, Nigeria - Bent double by age, the high-priestess of Nigeria's Yoruba spirit-world shuffles forward from under the trees, reaching out a white, blotchy hand in welcome.

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American scientists have discovered a new robin species in West Africa: the olive-backed forest robin.

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[Excerpt:] - Unimpeachable sources nestled within the corridors of state power in Banjul say fugitive Gambian Army Chief of Defense Staff, Colonel Ndure Cham, the alleged mastermind of the abortive March 21, 2006 coup in the West African State, has been granted refugee status in  …

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MIT researchers are investigating how a primitive fish uses its scaly exoskeleton to protect itself from the sharp teeth of its predators. The scientists' goal is to develop a better kind of armor for soldiers to similarly protect them from bullets, shrapnel, and bombs.

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The most high-profile armed group in the Niger Delta on Sunday declared a unilateral ceasefire starting "12 midnight on Tuesday, June 24, 2008".

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Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.

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This is an urgent, eloquent, and important plea from award-winning actress and humanitarian Emma Thompson.

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The endangered pygmy hippo has surprised conservationists and has been caught in photographic traps set up by a team from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) in Liberia.

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Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade has asked citizens with luxury homes to make them available to the state as it scrambles to accommodate thousands of delegates expected for an Islamic summit next month.

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"Faure Gnassingbé stepped down as interim president on Friday, following three weeks of intense pressure from Togo's neighbors to move the country back to constitutional rule. Mr. Gnassingbé is the 38-year-old son of Gnassingbé Eyadéma, who died on Feb. 5.

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According to the United Nations Office for West Africa, based in Senegal, Guinea-Bissau is about to become "the first African narco-state," run by drug cartels as a transit country for a large proportion of the drugs heading from South America to the EU.

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The next Klubb Mantra happening is set for Friday 21st December at Verkstedet Bar in Oslo, Norway. The sensational Mandingo Trio are ready with a new repertoire of live African music and rhythmic poetry.

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ABUJA, Nigeria - Nigeria won't host the U.S. military's new Africa-wide military command, taking Africa's most-populous nation and a top source of American oil imports out of contention.

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Thanks to habitat destruction, poaching and being made into bushmeat, medicines and pets, primates are now facing their first possible extinctions in more than a century, according to a recent report by the US-based environmental group Conservation International.

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