Daily News Channel
Nigeria’s military has claimed it raided the compound of a fundamentalist Islamic sect and killed one of its top leaders, as the battle intensified between government troops and Islamist forces in the country’s north Thursday. At least 400 rebels, civilians and troops have died since the fighting began Sunday, triggered by the arrest of some members of the sect, known as Boko Haram.
At least 40 people were killed as Islamic militants battled Nigerian government police and troops Sunday and Monday in the north-central part of the nation, officials said. Police and troops were dispatched to the militants’ hideouts after militants began attacks on government establishments early Sunday, said Mohamed Maigari, spokesman for Nigeria’s Bauchi state
For weeks, it had been impossible to ignore the quiet revolution coming to East Africa. Across Nairobi, work crews could be seen unspooling thousands of meters of black cable into freshly dug trenches along the city’s roads. The flurry of work was all done in anticipation of what was heralded as the dawn of a new era: At long last, East Africa would be connected to an undersea fiber-optic Internet cable, and with it, to the planet’s cheap, high-speed information superhighway.
Billionaire Bill Gates has urged industrialized nations to honor aid pledges to developing nations despite the recession. ONE, the advocacy group backed by Gates and rock musicians Bob Geldof Bono released a report Thursday attacking several Group of Eight nations for meeting financial aid goals, set in 2005, to countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The report said that Italy, host to the next G8 summit, has “performed especially poorly” in its share of aid spending and that France has fallen behind on its commitment.
He landed in Cameroon, the first stop on a trip that will also take him to Angola. Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit harder by AIDS and HIV than any other region of the world, according to the United Nations and World Health Organization. There has been fierce debate between those who advocate the use of condoms to help stop the spread of the epidemic and those who oppose it
Pope Benedict XVI refused Wednesday to soften the Vatican’s ban on condom use as he arrived in Africa for his first visit to the continent as pope. He landed in Cameroon, the first stop on a trip that will also take him to Angola