Spartan Echo

    JOHANNESBURG (AP) — One Pistorius brother is free of charges — acquitted Tuesday of culpable homicide in the death of a woman in a road accident. The famous younger brother, Olympian double-amputee Oscar Pistorius, still must face his day in court for shooting and killing his girlfriend. Carl Pistorius cried tears of relief [...]

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Central African Republic’s coup leader solidified his hold on the government Monday, April 1, after announcing that he will serve as both president and defense minister, while other top posts are going to his fellow rebels. Michel Djotodia, who led the thousands of rebel fighters who overthrew longtime President Francois Bozize [...]

  COTONOU, Benin (AP) — Ousted Central African Republic President Francois Bozize is requesting exile in the tiny West African nation of Benin days after rebels invaded and overthrew his government of a decade, officials said. Bozize has made a request to reside in Benin, the country’s Foreign Affairs Minister Nassirou Arifari Bako confirmed late [...]

  JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Nelson Mandela is making “steady progress” while being treated for a recurring lung infection and he had a full breakfast on Friday, March 29, South African authorities said. The office of President Jacob Zuma released a statement in which it said the former president and anti-apartheid leader was in good spirits after [...]

  LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Nigerian author Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani was just 10 years old when she first read Chinua Achebe’s groundbreaking novel “Things Fall Apart.” She devoured the rich use of Igbo proverbs in his book, which forever changed Africa’s portrayal in literature. That inspiration carried over into the creation of a pivotal character [...]

  THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Rwandan-born warlord Bosco Ntaganda was taken into custody by the International Criminal Court on Friday, March 22, after giving himself up in the African country earlier this week and was being flown to The Hague to stand trial on charges of overseeing atrocities in eastern Congo a decade ago. The [...]

  PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Testimony in the high-profile case of former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier resumed Thursday, with another alleged victim describing abuses she says were committed under his rule. Dr. Nicole Magloire told an appellate court about the broad influence wielded by the former leader known as “Baby Doc,” and the alleged violations [...]

  HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe police arrested the country’s most prominent rights lawyer and four senior officials with the prime minister’s party on Sunday, March 17, a day after the nation voted in a referendum on a new constitution that calls for more protection against human rights violations. Rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa is being charged [...]

  CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian vigilantes beat two men accused of stealing a motorized rickshaw on Sunday, March 17, and then hung them by their feet while some in a watching crowd chanted “kill them!” Both men died, security officials said. The killings come a week after the attorney general’s office encouraged civilians to arrest lawbreakers [...]

  THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A defense lawyer for President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya told judges at the International Criminal Court on Monday, March 18,  that prosecutors should drop their case charging him with orchestrating post-election violence in Kenya in 2007 and 2008 for lack of evidence. The legal battle in The Hague came [...]

  JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Forensic scientists on Tuesday, March 12, exhumed two bodies believed to belong to young activists last seen 24 years ago at the home of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela as police said they have opened a new murder investigation. The case reopens a dark chapter in the life of the then-wife of Nelson Mandela. Many [...]