Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has died aged 85 after spending eight years in a coma following a stroke. He was a giant of Israel’s military and political scene, but courted controversy throughout his long career. The head of the Sheba Medical Centre near Tel Aviv said Mr Sharon had died on Saturday afternoon […]

Leading Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina has come out to say he is gay, making him one of the most high-profile Africans to do so. He made the disclosure in an article entitled: I am a homosexual, mum, coinciding with his 43rd birthday on 18 January. Homosexual acts are illegal in Kenya and many other African […]

France is to send 400 additional troops to the Central African Republic, raising its total deployment to 2,000.The French military has been working with 5,500 troops from African countries to end more than a year of deadly ethnic and sectarian violence. President Francois Hollande called on the United Nations to speed up the deployment of […]

One of the men who murdered soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, south-east London, has been ordered to spend the rest of his life in prison. Michael Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, drove into Fusilier Rigby with a car before hacking him to death in May last year. Adebolajo was given a whole-life term; Adebowale […]

A Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew was presumed to have crashed off the Vietnamese coast on Saturday, and European officials said two people on board were using false identities. There were no reports of bad weather and no sign of why the Boeing 777-200ER would have vanished from radar screens about […]

Sierra Leone’s ex-president and war-time leader Ahmad Tejan Kabbah has died at the age of 82 after a long illness. He died on Thursday afternoon at his home in the capital, Freetown, with his wife and close family members at his side, reports say. In a statement, Sierra Leone’s government said Mr Kabbah’s death was […]

The Ebola outbreak is putting food harvests in West Africa “at serious risk”, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization warns. It has raised a special alert for Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the three countries worst affected. Rice and maize production will be particularly affected during the coming harvest season, says the FAO. The […]

The first human trial of an experimental vaccine against Ebola suggests that it is safe and may help the immune system to combat the virus. Twenty volunteers were immunised in the United States. Scientists at the US National Institutes of Health described the results as “promising”. The research is published in the New England […]