WARLORD CHARLES TAYLOR: OBASANJO 'DUPED ME'

BRUTAL RAPE OF WOMEN AND KILLING OF INNOCENT CIVILIANS UNER THE PRESIDENCY OF CAPT. MOUSSA DADIS CAMARA

On September 28, 2009, in Conakry, capital of Guinea, an opposition rally against Guinean President Moussa Dadis's intention to run for elections as a civilian President after having earlier announced not to do so, was met with brutal force by Camara's soldiers, who proceeded to kill over 157 people, including women and children, as well as brutally raped many women.

GIANT CRACK IN AFRICA WILL CREATE A NEW OCEAN

A 35-mile rift in the desert of Ethiopia will likely become a new ocean eventually, researchers now confirm.

The crack, 20 feet wide in spots, opened in 2005 and some geologists believed then that it would spawn a new ocean. But that view was controversial, and the rift had not been well studied.  (READ MORE)

GLACIERS AT MT. KILIMANJARO DISAPPEARING

(CNN) -- The ice and snow that cap majestic Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania are vanishing before our eyes.
If current conditions persist, climate change experts say, Kilimanjaro's world-renowned glaciers, which have covered Africa's highest peak for centuries, will be gone within the next two decades. (READ MORE)

A NEW SWAGGER AT NIGERIA'S UN MISSION

There is a new swagger at the Nigeria House on 44th Street and Second Avenue, the edifice that houses the Permanent Mission of Nigeria to the United Nations, representing Nigeria which recently won a non-permanent seat to the UN's highest body, the Security Council.  It is a swagger of confidence, it is a Rambo-like swagger...  (READ MORE)

BIG BUSINESS OF KIDNAPPING IN NIGERIA

In the latest booming business in Nigeria of kidnapping, after the fading '419' scams that terrorized the world, the father of the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)  and the governorship candidate in the State of Anambra for the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, has been kidnapped with the kidnappers demanding the sum of N500,000,000 Naira (Nigerian currency) or an equivalent $3.4 million in American dollars. (READ MORE)

MICHAEL JACKSON's "THIS IS IT" TOPS THE CHARTS WITH $101 MILLION WORLDWIDE

LOS ANGELES – "Michael Jackson's This Is It" pulled in $101 million worldwide in its first five days, and distributor Sony is extending the farewell performance film beyond its planned two-week run. (READ MORE)

GHANAIAN CARDINAL TO HEAD VATICAN PEACE OFFICE

The pope has appointed Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana to head the Vatican's justice and peace office, a high-profile post that cements his reputation as a possible future papal candidate.  (READ MORE)

OBAMA FIRST OFFICIAL FAMILY WHITE HOUSE PORTRAIT

africansuntimes.com/cms/modules/content/index.php  

NIGERIA IN BIG SCAMSTER CRACKDOWN

Nigeria's anti-corruption agency says it has shut down some 800 fraudster e-mailers and arrested those behind 18 high-profile "cyber crime syndicates".  (READ MORE)

WOMAN CHARGED WITH ENSLAVING AFRICAN GIRLS CONVICTED IN NEW JERSEY

NEWARK, N.J. — A woman accused of forcing girls from Africa to work in New Jersey hair braiding salons for no pay was convicted Wednesday of human trafficking and visa fraud in a case her lawyer says highlighted African cultural norms that failed to translate in America. (READ MORE)

WHAT'S BEHIND PRESIDENT ABDOULAYE WADE'S CONSTANT CHANGE OF HIS MINISTERS?

But since then, President Wade would seem to be playing political musical chairs with members of his cabinet.  In fact, in the last six months, the President has changed his government four times.  The question is, what is behind the constant change of ministers by President Wade: Is it due to the optimal non-performance of the duties by these ministers, or is it an attempt to hide and moot some impending scandals?  Our contributor, Abdoulaye Boye reports: (READ MORE)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA IS WINNER NOBEL PEACE PRIZE 2009

President Barack Obama today received the Nobel Peace Prize, barely nine months into his presidency, an unprecedented accomplishment.  Only two other sitting American presidents have been so honored with Nobel Peace Prize while in office, including Theodore Roosevelt, the first American to win a Nobel in any category in 1905. His Peace Prize was for his work in helping broker the end of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.  The other was President Woodrow Wilson who won in 1919 for the part he played in the founding of the League of Nations, a precursor to the current United Nations. (READ MORE)

SOUTHERN AFRICA OUTPACES NORTH AFRICA IN GOVERNANCE PERFORMANCE

The 2009 Ibrahim Index of Governance is published today by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, an organisation committed to supporting great African leadership. The Ibrahim Index is Africa’s leading assessment of governance, established to inform and empower the continent’s citizens. (READ MORE)

UN RWANDAN GENOCIDE COURT NETS SECOND FUGITIVE IN TWO MONTHS

A former senior Rwandan military officer indicted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal for his role in the 1994 genocide in the tiny Central African country was handed over to the court today after being on the run for nearly nine years – the second fugitive to be delivered up in two months.(READ MORE)

KILLING OF NIGERIAN NEWS EDITOR DRAWS CONDEMNATION FROM TOP UN OFFICIAL

UNITED NATIONS, NY - 6 October 2009 – The head of the United Nations agency tasked with defending press freedom today condemned the recent killing of a Nigerian news editor, and called on authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.

AFRICAN SUN TIMES IS WINNER OF THE "BLACK NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR 2009 AWARD"

Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009 - The African Sun Times was on Friday, September 18, 2009, voted winner of the prestigious “Black Newspaper of the Year, 2009” and the award was presented to its Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Chika Onyeani, by Ms. DC Livers, president of the Historical Black Press Foundation, at a ceremony at the Adam Clayton Powell State Office Building in Harlem, New York under the banner of the Black Press All Stars Awards.  africansuntimes.com/cms/modules/content/index.php

REMARKS BY SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON AT THE CCA'S 7TH BIENNIAL U.S.-AFRICA BUSINESS SUMMIT

From our perspective, for too long, Africa has been viewed as a charity case instead of a dynamic continent capable of becoming a global economic engine of the 21st century. So it is time to change the narrative. It is time to understand that strengthened trade policies will enable African businesses to tap more effectively into existing markets and create new ones.  (READ MORE)

SENEGAL SIGNS $540 MILLION COMPACT WITH MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORPORATION

On Wednesday, September 16, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) signed a five-year, $540-million compact with Senegal. The agreement was signed at a meeting in Washington, D.C., between the U.S. secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton—who chairs the MCC—and the Senegalese president, Abdoulaye Wade. (click here)

A NEW MAJOR SCANDAL RACKS THE NIGERIAN EMBASSY IN WASHINGTON, DC

A new scandal has again erupted at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, DC, this time revolving around an Ambassador who has yet to even arrive at his post.  Professor Babatunde Adeniran was the presumptive Ambassador.  However, on Thursday, September 17, news broke that the United States government, through the State Department, had advised the Nigerian government that Prof. Adeniran was no longer acceptable as Nigeria's Ambassador to Washington, despite such earlier acceptance through an aide memoire that had been sent to the Nigerian government accepting the posting of Prof. Adeniran. (click here)

PRESIDENT OBAMA TO MEET WITH AFRICAN LEADERS

UNITED NATIONS, SEPT. 16 — President Barack Obama will host a lunch for leaders from sub-Saharan Africa during next week's ministerial meeting of the U.N. General Assembly to promote economic and social development, the U.S. ambassador announced Monday. (click here)

FORMER PRESIDENT CARTER SAYS VITRIOL AGAINST OBAMA IS DUE TO RACISM

Jimmy Carter has launched an alarm on racism in the United States, maintaining that there is more than political motives behind the wave of criticism of president Barack Obama. (click here)

SIERRA LEONE BOAT TRAGEDY KILLS MORE THAN 200 PEOPLE

The boat was carrying about 268-300 people, including women with suckling babies propped on their backs, including about 70 children between 8-16 years-old, who were returning home from vacation to resume school, after a two-month long holiday. (click here)

By Roland Bankole Marke

CLINTON'S AFRICA VISIT: APPLYING COSMETICS TO A DEEP WOUND
By Chika Onyeani

Posted August 21, 2009: Before I begin this analysis of U.S. Secretary of State, Senator Hillary Clinton's visit to Africa, I have to again chide the media for continually referring to the vast area of Africa containing the 43 countries that encompass the area below the Sahara as "sub-Saharan." I had stated as follows in my article, "Contemptuousness of a "Sub-Saharan Africa," " "Sub-Saharan Africa" is a pejorative term. It is an euphemism for contemptuousness ....CLICK HERE