EU election observers said on Friday that Madagascar's presidential election this week had very minor irregularities after candidate Hery Rajaonarimampianina alleged the vote was mired by fraud. The irregularities were very minor and won't have any impact on the election's outcome, said the head of the European Union's monitoring mission Cri ...

Johannesburg, South Africa, 08 November, 2018 - Lusophone countries have identified a pipeline of more than US$5 billion in private sector and private-public partnership (PPP) projects to accelerate growth in their economies. The projects form part of a development finance compact between the Bank, the government of Portugal, and the six ...

Soaring birth rates in developing nations are fuelling a global baby boom while women in dozens of richer countries aren't producing enough children to maintain population levels there, according to figures released Friday. A global overview of birth, death and disease rates evaluating thousands of datasets on a country-by-country basis also fou ...

Partial results in Madagascar's presidential race showed former presidents Andry Rajoelina and Marc Ravalomanana neck and neck as election officials counted ballot papers on Thursday. Rajoelina won 43.5 percent of votes cast in Wednesday's vote, while Ravalomanana secured 42.44 percent, according to results from 147 polling stations out of 24,85 ...

Former Madagascan president Hery Rajaonarimampianina on Thursday alleged that many voting irregularities pointed to fraud in this week's election, heightening fears of protests and a disputed result. Early counting from a small number of polling stations put Rajaonarimampianina in a distant third place behind leading contenders Andry Rajoelina ...

Madagascar's former presidents Andry Rajoelina and Marc Ravalomanana were neck-and-neck in the country's presidential race according to partial results published by the electoral commission on Thursday. Rajoelina won 43.5 percent of votes cast in Wednesday's vote, while Ravalomanana secured 42.44 percent, according to results from 147 polling st ...

More than 400 buffaloes believed to have been chased by lions drowned in a river in northern Bostwana this week, the government said. The mass drowning occurred in Chobe River near the border with Namibia. Early investigations by authorities in both countries suggest that an exceptionally large buffalo herd was grazing in Namibia when they s ...

Guinean soldiers shot dead two men Wednesday night in a suburb of the capital city Conakry, where protesters and security forces clashed earlier in the day, sources told AFP. Mamadou Bela Balde, 30, was shot in the head when soldiers opened fire on him and three friends leaving a house in the district of Wanidara, his brother, who did not wish t ...

Election officials began counting votes in Madagascar after Wednesday's election for a new president in which three former heads of state were running as the Indian Ocean island sought to defuse a political crisis. Attempts by the most recent president, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, to change the island's electoral laws backfired, sparking nearly th ...

The Indian Ocean island of Madagascar is the leading global producer of vanilla and blessed with a bountiful biodiversity, yet it remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Here is some background as the country heads to the polls Wednesday in the first round of its presidential elections: Fourth largest island Stretching ...

Thirty-six candidates will do battle to win the presidency in Wednesday's polls. The three frontrunners are former presidents and here are their profiles: Ravalomanana: milkman-turned-millionaire Marc Ravalomanana, 68, was ejected from power in 2009 and is looking to get his revenge at the ballot box. A former milkman born to a ...

Madagascar votes on Wednesday for a new president in unprecedented polls in which the three front-runners are former heads of state facing-off amid efforts to defuse a political crisis. Attempts by the most recent president, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, to change the large Indian Ocean island's electoral laws backfired, sparking nearly three months ...

Rates of female genital mutilation among girls under 14 have fallen sharply in most regions of Africa over three decades, according to ground-breaking analysis cautiously welcomed by aid groups. The age-old ritual of cutting or removing the clitoris of young females has been decried by human and women's rights advocates and can lead to a host of ...

Ten new investors mdash;Burkina Faso, C ocirc;te d 39;Ivoire, Denmark, the European Commission, Germany, Japan, Laerdal Global Health, the Netherlands, Qatar and an anonymous donor mdash;have joined since the launch of the Global Financing Facility replenishment. They join existing funders the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation, Can ...

For years, Kenyans freely used and disposed of plastic bags. The bags were ubiquitous mdash;in the markets, in the gutters and in the guts out of 3 out of every 10 animals taken to slaughter. Nakuru, a town northwest of Nairobi, was a particular eyesore, with a poorly managed dump site that left bags strewn across the roads. It drove Nakuru resi ...

DR Congo's Katanga Mining said Tuesday it had temporarily suspended cobalt sales from its Kamoto mine after detecting the presence of radioactivity from uranium, making the cobalt unsafe for export. Katanga, which is owned by Swiss mining giant Glencore, said cobalt sales and exports from Kamoto would be halted until further notice. The pres ...

Niger is turning to drone technology to help protect a Saharan antelope and other endangered species in Africa's largest terrestrial park. The Termit and Tin Toumma reserve in the southeast of the West African desert state is at threat from poaching, deforestation, over-grazing and armed conflict. French conservation group Noe -- its name mea ...

Is France guilty of amnesia when it comes to the role of African troops who fought in World War I? The organisers of an exhibition on colonial fighters near Paris think so. A collection of photos has been shown since mid-October in the town hall of Bondy, a multiracial suburb of the French capital best known as the home of French football star ...

Grand firework displays, giant screens and chartered helicopters -- leading contenders in Madagascar's elections on Wednesday have been battling to outdo each other with extravagant campaigning in stark contrast to the deep poverty of voters. In the capital Antananarivo, former president Andry Rajoelina flies to his campaign headquarters, which ...

Allegations of vote-rigging have mired elections in both Zimbabwe and Cameroon, and risk overshadowing upcoming polls in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Vote fraud appears to have become a trend across the African continent, begging the question of whether democracy is really working for Africa. Although elections are not working particularly ...