The 358 prisoners who died when a Honduran prison burned down had been locked inside an overcrowded penitentiary where most inmates had never been charged or convicted, according to an internal Honduran government report. More than half of the 856 inmates of the Comayagua farm prison were either awaiting trial or being held as suspected [...]
More than 140 people have died in the northern Nigerian city of Kano after a series of attacks by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram. In a series of attacks on Friday, as residents were leaving mosques, five police buildings, two immigration offices and the local headquarters of the national intelligence services were targeted. “We [...]
UN climate talks stalled after a rebellion by developing states most at risk from global warming, forcing host South Africa to push the conference into extra time on Saturday in an effort to prevent the negotiations collapsing. Deliberations were due to resume around midday after haggling in the South African port city of Durban continued [...]
Declaring women’s rights vital for world peace, the Nobel Committee awarded its annual Peace Prize Friday to three indomitable female campaigners against war and oppression — a Yemeni and two Liberians, including that country’s president. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the first woman freely elected as a head of state in Africa, shared the award worth $1.5 million [...]
Wangari Maathai, the first African woman recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, died after a long struggle with cancer, the environmental organization she founded said Monday. She was 71. One of Kenya’s most recognizable women, Maathai won the Nobel in 2004 for combining environmentalism and social activism. She was the founder of the Green [...]
The death toll continues to climb as rescuers pull bodies from the ship’s wreckage off the coast of Tanzania in eastern Africa. At least 192 bodies have been recovered from the Indian Ocean and 606 passengers were safely rescued, according to a Tanzanian police spokesman. The ship capsized around 1 a.m. while many were [...]
Scores of Libyan army vehicles have crossed the desert frontier into Niger in what may be a dramatic, secretly negotiated bid by Muammar Gaddafi to seek refuge in a friendly African state, military sources from France and Niger told Reuters on Tuesday. A convoy of between 200 and 250 vehicles was given an escort [...]
At least 18 people were killed by a car bomb that ripped through the United Nations’ building in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Friday — a rare attack on an international institution in a country wracked by local conflicts. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the final casualty toll was likely to be high [...]
The US and Europe have dramatically increased the pressure on the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, with Barack Obama leading a demand by world leaders for him to surrender power. Obama declared the “sustained onslaught” of Assad’s regime against pro-democracy protesters had cost it all legitimacy. The US president was joined by David Cameron, French [...]
The UN has made its first aid delivery to drought victims in areas of Somalia controlled by al-Qaeda-linked militants since they lifted an aid ban. UN children organisation’s Rozanne Chorlton said al-Shabab had given UN workers unhindered access and hoped this would encourage other agencies. It comes as the UK pledged £52.25m ($84m) in [...]