International donors pledged much more than expected to help Mali avoid the mistakes which allowed Islamist rebels to seize vast swathes of the troubled country.

05/13/2013 14:11 GMT

JEDDAH (Arabie saoudite), 13 mai 2013 (AFP) - L'Organisation de la coopération islamique (OCI) a appelé lundi ses Etats membres à contribuer "généreusement" à la conférence des donateurs sur le Mali, prévue mercredi à Bruxelles, pour aider à "la restauration d'une paix durable" dans ce pays.

05/02/2013 09:55 GMT

Par Laudes Martial Mbon

BRAZZAVILLE, 02 mai 2013 (AFP) - Des ministres des Affaires étrangères d'Afrique centrale se réunissaient jeudi à Brazzaville pour évoquer la crise en Centrafrique, où l'instabilité demeure depuis la prise de pouvoir par la coalition Séléka il y a un peu plus d'un mois.

Le président congolais Denis Sassou Nguesso - médiateur de la crise - présidera cette première réunion régionale de suivi, qui se déroulera dans l'enceinte du ministère des Affaires étrangères, selon la télévision nationale.

04/25/2013 02:49 GMT

by Simon Martin

KABUL, April 25, 2013 (AFP) - In a dusty city of grey concrete blast walls where there's not always much to smile about, the organisers of a children's circus try to provide a splash of colour and some moments of joy.

The Kabul-based Mobile Mini-Circus for Children (MMCC) was founded in Afghanistan in 2002, months after the fall of the hardline Taliban Islamic regime which banned music and dance.

Fewer than one million children -- and no girls -- attended school nationwide at the time.

04/05/2013 02:34 GMT

by Ian Timberlake

KHARTOUM, April 05, 2013 (AFP) - After a decade of conflict it is time for Sudan's Darfur to begin rebuilding, UN experts said ahead of an international conference to woo support for a development strategy worth billions of dollars.

About 400 delegates including representatives of aid agencies and governments from around the world will gather at a five-star resort in Doha on Sunday and Monday to endorse the strategy.

03/14/2013 04:27 GMT

by Mohamad Ali Harissi

BAGHDAD, March 14, 2013 (AFP) - Yasmine wants a future free of violence and fear, but like many young Iraqis, 10 years of bloodshed have made her doubt she can find such a future in her home country and she now wants to leave.

The 25-year-old is one of a generation of Iraqis who grew up during the battles and brutal sectarian killings that followed the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

03/04/2013 08:51 GMT

by Toshifumi Kitamura

Kesennuma, Japan, March 4, 2013 (AFP) - The piles of rubble left behind by the receding tsunami have largely gone, but two years after nature visited its fury, some stretches of Japan's battered northeast remain little more than ravaged wastelands.

Where once stood mountains of detritus, the splintered remains of wooden homes and shattered lives, occasional new buildings have crept up and some houses have been repaired.

02/18/2013 23:18 GMT

MOPTI, Mali, Feb 18, 2013 (AFP) - Paris has officially resumed development aid to Mali after suspending it in the wake of a March 2012 coup that triggered a rebellion in the north and French military intervention, France's development minister said Monday.

"We stopped aid for development for months following the coup and now, today, we are renewing (that aid)," Pascal Canfin said during a visit to a hospital in Mopti, central Mali, built using funds from France and Belgium.

02/07/2013 09:57 GMT

YANGON, Feb 7, 2013 (AFP) - Myanmar's leader has set up a committee to review political prisoner cases "to grant them liberty", state media said Thursday, in a rare direct acknowledgement of dissidents in the nation's jails.

The regime, which long denied their existence, has freed hundreds of political detainees since President Thein Sein took power in March 2011, and announced a review of all "politically concerned" cases in November last year.