AP - President Robert Mugabe swore in two vice presidents Monday despite a deadlock in power-sharing talks with Zimbabwe's opposition movement, heightening tensions that are threatening to unravel the negotiations.

Reuters - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has sworn in two vice-presidents ahead of talks on forming a cabinet, a government official said on Monday, a move that could further endanger power-sharing negotiations.

AFP - Sudan's foreign ministry on Monday summoned the ambassadors of Kenya and Ethiopia over concerns their countries had shipped arms to the semi-autonomous South Sudan government, a ministry official said.

AFP - Africa has only one neurosurgeon for every 1.2 million people, a challenge topping the agenda at an international neurosurgery conference held in South Africa, organisers said Monday.

AFP - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe swore in two vice presidents Monday, a senior official said, casting doubt on a new mediation effort to save a power-sharing deal with the opposition.

AFP - A former member of a Rwandan militia group appeared in a Dutch court on Monday, accused of committing war crimes during the 1994 massacre of some 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus in his homeland.

AFP - Islamist insurgents attacked African Union peacekeepers in the Somali capital, triggering fierce clashes that killed a civilian and wounded five others, witnesses said on Monday.

AFP - The EU on Monday condemned Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's "unilateral decision" to form a new government and threatened fresh sanctions unless he respects a power-sharing deal.

AFP - Human Rights Watch urged Ethiopian lawmakers on Monday to reject legislation it says would slap major government restrictions on foreign aid groups and ban them from some activities.

AFP - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe swore in his two vice presidents Monday, a senior government official said, despite an ongoing dispute with the opposition over a power-sharing deal.

AFP - Guinea and Mozambique filled the final slots Sunday as six months of 2010 World Cup-African Nations Cup second round qualifying drama ended.

AFP - The African Union will become more involved in finding a durable peace in conflict-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, its chief Jean Ping said Sunday as he wrapped up a three-day visit here.

AFP - First ladies from seven west African countries gather here Monday for a conference on ways to end female circumcision, a widespread practise in the region despite efforts to end it.

AFP - Algeria announced it will spend 500 million euros (675 million dollars) on protecting towns from flooding as the death toll from floods this month rose to 43 on Sunday.

The Indonesian contingent will be based in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur and headquarters of the joint force, known as UNAMID, which has been lacking troops and police, as well as key assets, since it ...

The National Union of Metalworkers of SA begins its Eighth National Congress in Vanderbijlpark outside Johannesburg today.

There are many stories told of how Nelson Mandela saved the Springbok emblem from extinction, but the best is the tale of a meeting with Mluleki George, currently in divorce proceedings with the ANC but then a ...

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, locked in a standoff with the opposition in power-sharing talks, laid claim Saturday to all key ministries as he tries to retain his control of the struggling south African ...

A group of newly deployed African Union peacekeepers from Burundi patrolling the streets of Mogadishu yesterday MOGADISHU: More Burundian troops deployed in Mogadishu yesterday to bolster an African Union peace ...

A senior Fatah movement official on Saturday welcomed the acceptance by the Islamic movement Hamas of Egypt's plan for inter-Palestinian reconciliation that would end the current political rift.

Somali forces raided one of the many ships hijacked off the country's coast Sunday as a deadline loomed in a standoff aboard another, arms-laden vessel, officials said.

Troops in northern Somalia's semiautonomous Puntland region unsuccessfully tried to take back a ship that was taken over by pirates on Thursday, said Ali Abdi Aware, Puntland's foreign minister. He said two pirates were killed.

The vessel, which carrying cement, is believed to have Syrian and Somali crew on board.

'Our forces are chasing the ship and we hope to rescue it,' Aware said in a telephone interview from Puntland, a hotbed of piracy.

"I have come to meet with Congolese authorities to understand the situation on the ground before putting forward solutions," Ping told reporters on his arrival in the country on Friday.

ANC former chairman Mosiuoa Lekota urged South Africans to join the campaign to defend the constitution against attacks by new ruling party leaders.

Oct. 11: A Russian soldier stands guard in front of Neustrashimy missile frigate, one of the three Russian warships including a nuclear-powered missile cruiser, which have called on the Libyan port of Tripoli, ...

Graca Machel, a Mozambican human rights campaigner and the country's former first lady, appealed to schools Saturday to take more action to prevent children being kidnapped and sold into prostitution.

Machel, who is married to former South African President Nelson Mandela, said Mozambique was targeted by child traffickers because it did too little to protect the young.

'The vulnerability of many schools arises from the fact that they are not protected by walls or fences, and have no security guards. Anyone can enter,' she told The Associated Press.

ADDIS ABABA - The global financial crisis could hamper efforts to alleviate hunger in Africa, the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa said Friday.Parts of the continent have been hit by drought ...

They come from a failed state whose people are desperately poor. So how have Somali pirates managed to take control of large commercial ships and hold them for days, even weeks? A reader's curiosity about the ...

Libya will withdraw $7 billion of assets in Swiss banks, cut economic ties with Switzerland and stop supplying it with oil to protest against poor treatment of Libyan diplomats and businessmen, Libyan news ...

By Joe Bavier

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila named Budget Minister Adolphe Muzito as prime minister on Friday, according to a presidential decree read out on state television.

Muzito, 51, replaces his Unified Lumumbist Party (PALU) leader Antoine Gizenga, who retired last month ahead of his 83rd birthday on October 5.

Muzito has earned praise from diplomats and donors for his fiscal discipline in pushing through austere budgets for Congo following years of political turmoil and a devastating 1998-2003 war that left much of the country's infrastructure in ruins.