CAIRO ? The Egyptian government's crackdown on suspected Islamists has come to this: a terrorism probe focused on a puppet. Abla Fahita ? a Muppet-style character who regularly appears on Egyptian television ? went on the air Wednesday night to deny allegations that her lines in a recent commercial were coded messages to the recently banned Muslim Brotherhood organization. quot;I am a comedic character,quot; Fahita, a gossipy widow, said in an interview with Egypt's CBC network. The investigation of the puppet is an extreme sign of a climate of fear and paranoia in Egypt that has intensified in recent weeks. Since a coup ousted President Mohammed Morsi in July, the military-backed...

LAGOS, Nigeria ? A Rwandan ex-general who has survived two assassination attempts says the man who was last seen with the ex-spymaster killed in a South African hotel was a Rwandan businessman who befriended the victim in a Rwandan jail. Police say former Col. Patrick Karegeya's body, apparently strangled, was found Wednesday in Sandton's Michelangelo Towers hotel along with a...

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia mdash; An African official who is working to organize peace talks between warring parties in South Sudan says that direct talks between the...

Mediators said it was now unclear...

CAIRO ? Egypt's Foreign Ministry on Saturday summoned the Qatari ambassador in Cairo to quot;rejectquot; Qatar's recent statement about Egypt's internal strife. The decision follows a statement by the Qatari Foreign Ministry a day earlier...

A romantic picnic on the beach in one of the world's most dangerous countries has ended in murder - Wellington woman Lynn Howie shot in the head execution-style next to her British boyfriend. Mother-of-two Howie, 47, was the victim of the cold-blooded shooting on a beach near the city of Sabratha, 65km west of Libya's capital, Tripoli. She had gone there to visit her new partner, who was working in Libya, and, according to a friend, was to have travelled on to London. New Zealand Government officials are scrambling to have gruesome images removed from the internet showing Howie and her companion lying face-down in pools of blood, their hands raised next to their heads. The bodies were found...

A calf has...

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia ? Peace talks between warring parties in South Sudan scheduled to be held in Ethiopia were delayed Saturday because the sides haven't yet agreed upon an agenda, an official said. Mahboub M. Maalim, the executive secretary of an East African bloc of states known as IGAD, confirmed the talks were delayed. Officials had...

AWERIAL, South Sudan ? Phillip Madol once studied in America as one of Sudan's quot;Lost Boysquot; who fled bloodshed and famine. This week he was again caught up in a war as he helped his family flee a town that rebels had overrun in South Sudan. Fighting broke out in the capital of South Sudan on Dec. 15 and quickly radiated across the world's newest country as two main ethnic groups began attacking each other. The central government is afraid that rebels loyal to ousted Vice President Riek Machar are preparing to march to the capital, Juba, from Bor, the capital of Jonglei state. The Pentagon said Marines evacuated about 20 Americans from the U.S. Embassy in Juba. The...

[Dalsan Radio]The local Somali forces and AMISOM...

[UN News]The security situation in South...

An surveillance drone belonging to the UN's MONUSCO peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo waits to take off during its official launching ceremony at the airport in the northeastern city of Goma, capital of strife-torn North Kivu province, on December 3, 2013. (Stringer/AFP/Getty Images) NAIROBI mdash; The United Nations has dispatched a record number of peacekeepers in Africa in recent years, deploying soldiers to trouble spots such as the Central African Republic and South Sudan. Yet the #8220;blue helmets#8221; and thousands of other soldiers sent by African regional groups have failed to prevent fresh spasms of violence. The peacekeeping forces have cost billions of...

South...

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia ? Peace talks between warring parties in South Sudan scheduled to be held in Ethiopia were delayed Saturday because the sides haven't yet agreed upon an agenda, officials said. Late Saturday, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom said the two sides agreed to begin talks Sunday. Two areas the talks will focus on include ending hostilities...

Heavy gunfire has been heared in South Sudan's capital, as mediators announced that direct meetings between the nation's warring sides had begun. Explosions from reported artillery shells and the rattle of automatic gunfire were heard on Saturday night in Juba's key government district, where most ministries, the presidential palace and the parliament are located, the AFP news agency...

[Sudan Tribune]Juba -The South...

[Sudan Tribune]Addis Ababa -East...

[Sudan Tribune]Addis Ababa -An...

[Sudan Tribune]Nairobi...

[Sudan Tribune]The UN is continuing...

New York, US (PANA) - Nigerian scholar, author and journalist Wale Adebanwi's book on the country's anti-graft war has been named among the 'Best Books of 2013 on Africa' by Foreign Affairs, the leading journal on US foreign policy and global affairs, PANA reported from here Saturday.
Culture

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria's head coach Stephen Keshi has said he did not include the national Under-17 team's star player Kelechi Iheanacho in his squad for the 2014 African Nations Championship (CHAN) because of the player's 'premature' move to English premiership club Manchester City.
Sports

Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) - A member of the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA) in Mauritania, Hamdy Ould Lehbous, has denounced the ?harassment and detention? of some rights activists from different associations in the country.
Society

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria has started evacuating about 2,000 of its citizens who are caught up in the crisis in the Central African Republic (CAR).
Society

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - A meeting of ministers in charge of water resources from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia was held here Saturday to discuss the recommendations of the
Politics

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria's home-based national football team Saturday beat its Ethiopian counterpart 2-1 in a friendly in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, preparatory to the 2014 African Nations Championship (CHAN) due to start 11 Jan. in South Africa.
Sports

Three Al Jazeera journalists, detained for nearly a week, are accused of joining a terrorist organisation.

Amid ongoing clashes between rebels and government forces, observers say ceasefire is needed to prevent civil war.

PM Maliki vows "terrorists" will be eliminated after Islamic State of Iraq and Levant takes over town in Anbar province.

La Constituante tunisienne a lancé vendredi la procédure dadoption de la Constitution pour lachever avant le 14 janvier, 3e anniversaire de la révolution qui déclencha le Printemps arabe, et doter le pays dinstitutions pérennes. Ouverte vendredi matin vers 10H30, la séance a été si chaotique quà 23H00 locales (22H00 GMT), la poursuite de lexamen du [&]