A young Tunisian women's rights activist, who was arrested at the weekend while protesting against hardline Islamists, has been charged with possessing pepper spray, her lawyer said on Thursday. The 18-year-old, known by the pseudonym Amina Tyler, who sparked controversy in March by posting topless pictures of herself online, has been summoned to appear in court next Thursday, lawyer Mokhtar Janene said. The ...

The jihadist group led by Algerian Mokhtar Belmokhtar that claimed twin suicide car bombings in Niger that killed at least 20 people threatened on Friday to launch further attacks in the country. "We will launch further operations" in Niger, the group said in a statement posted on Islamist Internet forums that also threatened France and countries involved militarily in battling Islamist extremists in Mali. ...

Malawi's Minister of Finance, Ken Lipenga, will present his 2013/14 budget statement to Parliament on Friday afternoon in the capital Lilongwe.The budget's content is meant to continue with measures that will heal and recover the country's economy, Lipenga told reporters on Thursday. "This year's budget is aiming at healing the economy through various ways which government has put in place," he said. The ...

Kenya made a new plea to the UN Security Council on Thursday to "terminate" International Criminal Court charges against President Uhuru Kenyatta and other leaders over political unrest in 2008. But western nations on the 15-member council told Kenyan diplomats at a private meeting that Kenyatta, Deputy President William Ruto and one of their followers must face the court, diplomats said. "We have asked that ...

Islamist militants staged twin suicide car bombings on an army base and a French-run uranium mine in Niger on Thursday, killing at least 20 people in retaliation for the country's military involvement in neighbouring Mali. Niger's Defence Minister Mahamadou Karidjo said the last Islamist was neutralised at the army base and denied early reports that a suicide attacker had held young army recruits hostage. ...

UN chief Ban Ki-moon pledged Thursday that UN troops will be in place within "one or two months" to battle armed rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo's volatile east, as he toured the flashpoint city of Goma. Ban's visit came after three days of sometimes deadly fighting between rebels and government forces that ended a precarious calm spell in the mineral-rich east of the country, an area gripped by ...

The South African Reserve Bank held interest rates unchanged Thursday in the face of high inflation, while warning of major risks to already mediocre growth. A downbeat Reserve Bank governor Gill Marcus said the main interest rate would stay at five percent, despite the bank cutting growth forecasts for the year. The bank's rate-setting committee, she said, "is increasingly concerned about the deteriorating ...

The United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, Wednesday evening called for a peaceful resolution of the crisis situation punctuated by fighting between Congolese armed forces and the March 23 rebel movement of (M23) in the east of the DR Congo. Mr. Ban told a news conference that “this kind of situation was unacceptable.” He also indicated that he had previously informed Congolese leader Joseph Kabila ...

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has departed Liberia for inter-governmental engagements in Ethiopia and Japan, and a philanthropy event sponsored by Forbes Magazine, in the United States.According to an Executive Mansion statement on Thursday, while on the first leg of her tour, President Sirleaf will attend the 21st summit of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and participate in the commemoration ...

Nigeria's Controller-General of Prisons, Mr Zakari Ibrahim, on Thursday disclosed that some 400 Nigerians serving prison terms in Thailand, for various offences have been transferred to the country.Ibrahim to journalists in Abuja that the prisoners were transferred through a working treaty between Nigeria and Thailand between 2004 and 2013. He said 20 Nigerian prisoners were moved from prisons in Thailand to ...