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]]West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa (which coincides with common reckonings of the region) includes the following 16 countries:

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BBC News | Africa | World Edition

African Union in rift with court
Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:28:18 -0000
The African Union halts co-operation with the International Criminal Court over its war-crimes charges against Sudan's leader.
Kenya sets new tribunal deadline
Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:32:31 -0000
Kenya and the ICC agree a new deadline to set up a special tribunal to try the ringleaders of post-election violence.
Rai star jailed for abortion bid
Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:58:17 -0000
Algerian Rai music star Cheb Mami is jailed for five years in France for trying to force his former partner to have an abortion.
Month mourning for Comoros crash
Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:46:19 -0000
The Comoros will mourn the victims of this week's plane crash for 30 days, the president of Indian Ocean nation announces.
Sahara gas pipeline gets go-ahead
Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:47:07 -0000
Nigeria, Niger and Algeria agree to build a giant multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline across the Sahara desert.
Africa leaders edge towards unity
Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:42:22 -0000
The African Union reaches a compromise plan to give it greater powers in "common-interest" policies.

NYT > Africa

Yemenia Crash Stirs Calls for Stronger Watchdogs
By VICTORIA BURNETT Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:21:43 -0000
Bahia Bakari arrived in Paris on Thursday for an emotional reunion with her father, just as the French media raised new concerns about air safety.
Constant Fear and Mob Rule in South Africa Slum
By BARRY BEARAK Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:34:45 -0000
Crime in South Africa is often portrayed as an onslaught against the wealthy, but it is the poor who are conveniently accessible to criminals.
Stellenbosch Journal: A Whiff of Controversy and South African Wines
By BARRY BEARAK Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:27:57 -0000
After one critic’s comment associating a “burnt rubber” odor with South African reds, a scientific team has been working to locate the possible source.

L.A. Times - Africa

Iraq's Maliki declines U.S. offer on national reconciliation
Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700
The Iraqi prime minister tells visiting Vice President Joe Biden that Iraqis must overcome their political differences on their own and that U.S. involvement would not be welcome. Vice President Joe Biden's mission to promote national reconciliation in Iraq was rebuffed Friday by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, who told him that the issue was a domestic Iraqi affair and that U.S involvement wouldn't be welcome.
World Briefing
Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700
France: Comoros plane crash survivor, 14, is back home / Jordan: King Abdullah names eldest son crown prince / Bosnia-Herzegovina: Serb sentenced 14 years in 1992 massacre FRANCE
Nuclear watchdog IAEA elects Japanese diplomat as its leader
Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700
Japan's Yukiya Amano is the winner in a months-long competition against a South African to head the International Atomic Energy Agency. He is believed to agree with the U.S. stance on Iran. After a months-long deadlock and half a dozen inconclusive votes, the world's atomic energy watchdog on Thursday elected as its leader a Japanese diplomat described as colorless by foes and competent by allies.

UN News Centre - Africa

Progress in West Africa remains fragile, despite positive trends - UN report
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500
While West Africa has witnessed some positive trends recently, including the holding of peaceful elections, progress in the region remains fragile and faces a number of threats, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in a report published today.
Ban welcomes deal aimed at ending tensions between Ghana and the Gambia
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the agreement reached by the Gambia and Ghana to end tensions that emerged after the deaths and disappearances of Ghanaian nationals on Gambian territory in 2005.
UN tribunal finds former Rwandan investigator guilty of leaking information
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500
A former Rwandan investigator for the United Nations tribunal set up to deal with the mass killings that engulfed the small African nation in 1994 was found guilty today by the same court of leaking protected information.

The Economist: Middle East and Africa

Iran’s disputed presidential election: A hollow victory
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:54:22 -0000
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad keeps power but loses legitimacy, particularly among the middle classTHE case is closed. The landslide claimed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12th presidential election was real, says Iran’s government, and anyone who doesn’t like it can lump it or, indeed, risk going to jail. After weeks of unrest, the state has reasserted its power. Heavy policing has blunted public protests, while a more targeted campaign of arrests, intimidation and controls on communications has hamstrung attempts to organise and sustain opposition. But with accusations of foul play still being voiced, even within the religious establishment that supports the Islamic Republic, Iran’s hardliners will struggle to re-establish legitimacy.The Guardian Council, an appointed body dominated by clerics allied to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was in charge of investigating allegations of electoral fraud. Considering that it has a record of barring reformist candidates and that its chairman publicly endorsed the arch-conservative Mr Ahmadinejad before the ballot, the result was preordained: the council announced on June 29th that its researches, including a partial recount, had produced no sign of wrongdoing, so closing the last legal channel to contest the outcome. Pro-regime news outlets even suggested that the revised tally showed gains for Mr Ahmadinejad. The president declared not just a personal triumph but the defeat of an enemy plot to overthrow the regime. ...
Fighting AIDS in Sudan: Imams, tea ladies and condoms
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:54:20 -0000
A killer of another sort stalks one of Africa’s most conflict-riven countriesFOR six years, Najun Eldin Muhammad Ahmed has been living with HIV. But he is an unusual man. In the pious and conservative Muslim north of Sudan, he not only admits it, but campaigns actively to raise awareness of the virus. He has corralled 42 fellow sufferers in Port Sudan, on the Red Sea, to form one of the country’s most active AIDS-support groups. Mr Ahmed willingly concedes that his group represents only a tiny fraction of those infected with HIV, the AIDS-causing virus, in a city of almost half a million people.On top of Sudan’s myriad other problems, such as the bloody war in Darfur, the country also has a full-blown epidemic of HIV on its hands. Reliable figures on any subject are hard to come by in Sudan, let alone one as sensitive as this. Nonetheless, enough research has been done to confirm some of the worst fears about the spread of HIV in the country. The last big study in 2003 revealed a prevalence rate of 1.6%, but experts say that is probably now approaching 3%. The rate in neighbouring Egypt, by contrast, is just 0.1%; anything over 1% is counted by the World Health Organisation as an epidemic. ...
Royalist politics in Morocco: The king’s friend
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:54:20 -0000
A new leader emerges, but how credible will he be?A NEW political force is emerging in Moroccan politics. The Authenticity and Modernity Party, known by its French acronym, PAM, with a centrist non-ideological platform open to all comers, has been in existence for less than a year. Yet it already seems destined to win the general election in 2012. In its electoral debut in last month’s municipal poll, PAM won the ballot with 22% of the vote. Yet for all its success, the ascent towards the prime ministership of its founder, Fouad Ali El Himma (pictured), is the chronicle of a political elevation foretold. In 2007 Mr El Himma resigned from his job as deputy interior minister and announced his intention to run as an independent in the parliamentary election that year. Where a few saw a fall from royal grace— he was known to be a close political adviser to King Muhammad VI—others sensed the beginning of a reconfiguration of monarchist parties. ...

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