Africa news stories on Newser

Red Cross: 16 Killed in Nigeria University Attack

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 12:41:43 CDT

Gunmen attacked church services on a university campus today in northern Nigeria, using small explosives to draw out and gun down panicking worshipers in an assault that killed at least 16 people, officials said. The attackers targeted an old section of Bayero University's campus where religious groups use a theater...

Africa Sitting On Tons of ... Water?

Kevin Spak — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 09:34:04 CDT

Believe it or not, Africa is lousy with water—it's just mostly underground. British scientists have produced a new map of the groundwater hidden in aquifers under the arid continent, and found that there's about 100 times more water down there than there is on the surface, the BBC reports....

Swede Minister Blasted for 'Racist Cake' Stunt

Mary Papenfuss — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:31:00 CDT

A Swedish culture minister is under attack for gleefully cutting into a cake made to look like a racist caricature of a black African woman. Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth defended the cake-cutting event, part of an art installation at Stockholm's modern art museum that was intended to highlight the issue of...

Farmers Fight Elephants With Chili Peppers

Mark Russell — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:55:05 CDT

With elephant populations finally on the rebound in eastern Africa, farmers are increasingly squaring off against the giant pachyderms, which can eat up to 660 pounds of food a day. Electric fences have been deemed too dangerous and expensive, so many farmers have started employing a much lower-tech solution to...

How Old Is That Giraffe? Check Its Spots

Dustin Lushing — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:24:50 CDT

You can tell how old a male giraffe is by looking at its spots, according to a new study. Researchers looked at 33 years of data on Thornicroft giraffes in Zambia and discovered that the level of darkness of the animal's brown blotches reveals its age, reports BBC Nature . "The...

Southern Africa Gets First Female Leader

John Johnson — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 11:44:36 CDT

A milestone for southern Africa today, by way of Malawi: Joyce Banda was sworn in as president to become the first female leader in the region, reports the BBC . Banda takes over from Bingu wa Mutharika, who died of a heart attack on Thursday but whose death was confirmed by...

Nobel Peace Prize Winner: Anti-Gay Law Is OK

Neal Colgrass — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 18:54:07 CDT

Nobel Peace Prize winner and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf says gay sex should remain illegal: "We like ourselves just the way we are," she told the Guardian . "We've got certain traditional values in our society that we would like to preserve." Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, visiting on...

Trump Sons Slammed for 'Desecrating' Elephant

Evann Gastaldo — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 09:53:12 CDT

Donald Trump's sons went on a hunting safari in Africa last year, and thought it would be a good idea to pose in photo after photo with the animals they killed. Said photos surfaced yesterday, and not surprisingly, animal rights groups are outraged, TMZ reports. One picture in particular shows...

4 Dead, 40 Hurt in Kenya Attack

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 18:09:08 CST

A grenade attack at one of the main bus stations in Kenya's capital killed at least four people and wounded 40 others today, officials said, in the latest bloodshed blamed on sympathizers of Somalia's al-Qaida-linked insurgency. Witnesses reported that people in a moving car hurled three grenades at the outdoor...