Senegal

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N'Dour Halts Music Career in Bid to Be Senegal Prez

Global musical celeb changing his tune, running in next month's race

(Newser) - Global music celeb Youssou N'Dour is ready for a promotion—heading the nation of Senegal. The man who said he never wanted to go into politics has changed his tune. N'Dour, 52, has suspended his music career to take up the "supreme patriotic duty" of running in...

Protester Sets Self on Fire in Senegal

It's the latest self-immolation in Africa

(Newser) - A man set himself on fire in front of the presidential palace in Senegal today in the latest self-immolation on the African continent. He's being treated at a hospital, and his motive isn't known. The mutiny in Tunisia that ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was touched...

Gay Men's Bodies Desecrated in Africa

Death no reprieve from violence for gay men in Senegal

(Newser) - To the long list of abuse meted out to suspected homosexuals in Africa, Senegal has added a new form of degradation: the desecration of their bodies. Madieye Diallo's body had only been in the ground for a few hours when the mob descended on the cemetery with shovels. They yanked...

Senegal's $30M Statue May Need to Add Clothes

Government considers covering female figure's legs

(Newser) - Senegal's government is considering taking action against one of its most prominent women for a hemline that's too high—by about 30 feet. Having spent $30 million on a giant statue of an African family meant to tower over the capital Dakar, President Abdoulaye is considering a costly revision because...

Freed Gay Activists Flee Senegal Lynch Mob

(Newser) - Gay AIDS activists in Senegal are fleeing a mob that vows to turn them into "fish food," GlobalPost reports. Arrested late last year, the nine activists were sentenced to 8-year terms for “indecent acts against nature," but an appeals court freed them early this...

Car Batteries Killing Off African Town

18 children die before cause found; cleanup efforts unsuccessful

(Newser) - A mystery illness that plagued a Senegalese town and sparked fears of AIDS, polio, and curses came down to an odd source: car batteries, the AP reports. After 18 deaths and pleas for an investigation, a World Health Organization probe blamed lead for poisoning the village, a center for battery...

Coup Leader Takes Over Mauritania

New law confers presidential powers to head of military junta

(Newser) - The military junta that overthrew Mauritania's government last week adopted a law today transferring the power of the presidency to the head of the junta. A statement by the junta blames the deteriorating condition of daily life in Mauritania, the president's stonewalling of various government institutions, and his firing of...

Scrabble Seduces Senegal
 Scrabble Seduces Senegal 

Scrabble Seduces Senegal

Nation that has come to dominate French competition hosts world championships

(Newser) - Despite the country’s 40% literacy rate, Senegal considers Scrabble as important as the national soccer team, and this week hosts the Francophone Scrabble World Championships. Senegalese dominated last year’s event, the BBC reports, and hope to repeat on home turf. “Nowhere else in the world can you...

Defiant African Leaders Reject EU Trade Deal

Relations between continents sour over human rights, Mugabe

(Newser) - European-African trade talks at a tense Lisbon summit collapsed in their final session yesterday. If a new agreement isn’t reached by year’s end, the European Union may levy higher tariffs on African exports, further exacerbating tensions between the continents. A new, controversial set of agreements would have dropped...

Floods Devastate Africa
Floods Devastate Africa

Floods Devastate Africa

Deluge triggers humanitarian crisis

(Newser) - Several of Africa's poorest countries have been devastated by a catastrophic deluge of rain, washing away lives, communities and crops. As many as 18 of the normally driest countries in the world, from Senegal, Mauritania, Mali and Burkina Faso in the west, to Kenya, Sudan and Ethiopia in the east,...

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