By Pascal Fletcher

(Reuters) – South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, who spent much of his life as a rebel commander fighting in one of Africa’s longest and deadliest civil wars, says it will take another lifetime to make his newborn country prosperous, secure and self-sufficient.

For now it is locked in fighting with its arch foe Sudan, the worst violence since South Sudan became independent under a 2005 peace agreement with Khartoum.

By Pascal Fletcher

(Reuters) – Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir likes to wave a stick when he speaks in public, and he does not speak softly.

Whether rallying his armed forces against internal rebels and the army of newly-independent South Sudan, or defying a war crimes arrest warrant from The Hague, the leader of mostly Muslim Sudan projects a career soldier’s voice of command.

By Pascal Fletcher

(Reuters) – South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, who spent much of his life as a rebel commander fighting in one of Africa’s longest and deadliest civil wars, says it will take another lifetime to make his newborn country prosperous, secure and self-sufficient.

For now it is locked in fighting with its arch foe Sudan, the worst violence since South Sudan became independent under a 2005 peace agreement with Khartoum.

By Pascal Fletcher

(Reuters) – Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir likes to wave a stick when he speaks in public, and he does not speak softly.

Whether rallying his armed forces against internal rebels and the army of newly-independent South Sudan, or defying a war crimes arrest warrant from The Hague, the leader of mostly Muslim Sudan projects a career soldier’s voice of command.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Malian scholars, librarians and ordinary citizens in the rebel-occupied city of Timbuktu are hiding away priceless ancient manuscripts to prevent them from being damaged or looted, a South African academic in contact with them said.

Cape Town University’s Professor Shamil Jeppie said he was in daily contact with curators and private owners safeguarding tens of thousands of historic texts in Timbuktu, the fabled desert trading town and seat of Islamic learning overrun by Tuareg-led rebels on April 1.

April 4 (Reuters) – When turban-swathed Tuareg rebels swept
into Timbuktu on Sunday to plant the flag of their northern Mali
homeland, they found very few tourists in the bars, hotels,
museums, mosques and libraries of the fabled and ancient Saharan
trading town.

Local guides say numbers of foreign visitors had already
fallen off after a Dutchman, a South African and a Swede were
seized by gunmen in the historic Malian city in November. A
German citizen was killed in the abduction claimed by al Qaeda.

By Pascal Fletcher

(Reuters) – Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure, whom renegade army officers said they toppled in an overnight coup, had gained the nickname of “Soldier of Democracy” in his West African state and was preparing to cede power after elections later this month.

But he is no stranger to coups or mutinies.

Toure, 63, a former paratrooper popularly known by his initials “ATT”, had himself seized power through arms in 1991, overthrowing military ruler Moussa Traore after the latter’s security forces killed more than 100 pro-democracy demonstrators.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Greg Smith was a principled and competitive student, the kind of person whose strong sense of right and wrong probably pushed him to resign from Goldman Sachs in a scathing letter to an international newspaper, his former teacher and coach said.

A quiet, unassuming child, the South African first attended the private Jewish King David’s High School in suburban Johannesburg before winning a scholarship to Stanford University in the United States.

JOHANNESBURG, March 15 (Reuters) – Greg Smith was a
principled and competitive student, the kind of person whose
strong sense of right and wrong probably pushed him to resign
from Goldman Sachs in a scathing letter to an international
newspaper, his former teacher and coach said.

A quiet, unassuming child, the South African first attended
the private Jewish King David’s High School in suburban
Johannesburg before winning a scholarship to Stanford University
in the United States.

DAKAR (Reuters) – Asked what might happen if Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade is declared winner of the West African country’s elections, student Nando da Silva mouths the sound of an explosion: “Boom!”

Casting his first round ballot last month in Grand Yoff, a dusty Dakar suburb which is a labyrinth of sandy streets and crowded homes, da Silva is one of many young Senegalese who want to see an end to the octogenarian president’s 12-year rule.