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A U.S. special-operations forces service member was killed and four others were wounded in Somalia Friday after they came under small-arms and mortar fire from suspected members of an al Qaeda affiliate, the Pentagon said. A local service member also died, defense officials said. Three of the wounded U.S. service members and the one local fighter who was wounded in the attack were medically evacuated, the Pentagon said. The fourth wounded U.S. service member was treated in country, the Pentagon said. The attack, at about 2:45 p.m. local time in Jubaland in southwest Somalia, happened during what was supposed to...

An Ebola virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo last month has led Roman Catholics to stop administering several sacraments temporarily in an attempt to keep the deadly disease from spreading. Catholics will not be baptized, confirmed, ordained or anointed until further notice in the country’s northwestern regions hardest hit by the outbreak, which has claimed at least 25 lives since May 8, when the outbreak was first confirmed. The new regulations cover the Archdiocese of Mbandaka-Bikoro, which spans about 59,000 miles. Some 650,000 of the region’s 1.2 million residents are Catholics, according to church statistics. Archbishop Fridolin Ambongo...

Gaining international recognition is the first step in securing global reparations for the descendants of African slaves. Venezuela is joining the Caribbean Community (Caricom) in the fight for global slavery reparations, discussing appropriate compensation for centuries of injustice. During a speech entitled 'Reparations of Resistance to Action,' Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza urged Latin America and colonizing countries to assume responsibility for past wrongs which affected Africans and their ancestors around the world. The Venezuelan government is working to guarantee that the social rights of residents of African descent are respected, and officials have opened the floor to dialogue for...

Ethiopia's governing coalition has announced it will fully accept and implement the peace deal that ended its border war with Eritrea. It says it will accept the outcome of a 2002 border commission ruling, which awarded disputed territories, including the town of Badme, to Eritrea. This will end a dispute with Eritrea that sparked Africa's deadliest border war in 1998. Tens of thousands of people were killed in two years of fighting. The two sides have remained on a war footing as Ethiopia had, until now, refused to accept the ruling of the border commission, which was set up as...

A boulder-sized asteroid designated 2018 LA was discovered Saturday morning, June 2, and was determined to be on a collision course with Earth, with impact just hours away. Because it was very faint, the asteroid was estimated to be only about 6 feet (2 meters) across, which is small enough that it was expected to safely disintegrate in Earth's atmosphere. Saturday's asteroid was first discovered by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey, located near Tucson and operated by the University of Arizona. Although there was not enough tracking data to make precise predictions ahead of time, a swath of possible locations...

A precious tool in my hand is the one I am able to wield to build and construct My Temple in each and every child I have given life to. So be the trowel of My hand laying the mortar of Unity my children for I AM building My Temple in others as I have built My temple in you . . . 1 Peter 2:1-10 2 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in...

In an effort to stop migrants from crossing the Mediterranean, Austria's chancellor has said EU border patrol guards should be sent to northern Africa. Sebastian Kurz has made cracking down on immigration a priority.Frontex border control agents should be allowed to operate in northern Africa in order to prevent further migration to Europe, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said in an interview with German newspaper Welt am Sonntag,published on Sunday. Kurz's comments appeared to foreshadow the Austrian government's plans for when it takes over the EU Presidency for six months starting in July. Read more: Follow the money: What are the...

Another person has died in Congo of a confirmed case of Ebola, bringing the number of fatalities from the latest outbreak to 12, the country’s health ministry said Sunday. The death happened in Iboko, a rural area in northwestern Equateur province, the health ministry said in a statement. There are also four new suspected cases in the province, the statement reported. Congo now has 35 confirmed Ebola cases. Health workers have identified people who have been in contact with the patients in the confirmed Ebola cases in three areas in Equateur province, Iboko, rural Bikoro and Mbandaka, the provincial capital...

FOX News reports the 86-year-old financier and manager of a global network of nonprofits will be forced by BSG Resources’ lawsuit to answer for manipulating the politics and economics of Guinea for his own benefit Despite Soros’ often contentious dealings and reputation as a pompous busybody, the filing in New York Federal Court has thus far largely escaped the spotlight. Soros, who controls a web of international nonprofits in addition to his vast financial empire, used his sway with the government of Guinea to freeze Israeli company BSG Resources out of the West African nation’s lucrative iron ore mining contracts,...

The faithful participate in a walk on Palm Sunday ahead of Easter. Fr Christophe Nouveau leading the faithful in a traditional Latin Mass in Kisenyi, Kampala. Every Sunday morning, a special congregation of Catholics meets at the Uganda Catholic Management and Training Institute at Rubaga Cathedral, Kampala to celebrate the Tridentine Mass (traditional Latin Mass). This Mass, comprised of mostly young people, started three years ago when a priest who could lead it became available. Fr Christophe Nouveau is one of a kind in the country. “I was first contacted by some parishioners of Rubaga in late 2004 when I...

Three patients escaped from quarantine in the city of Mbandaka in north western Democratic Republic of Congo. Two of the three have been found dead, while a third patient has been found alive. Medecins Sans Frontieres' (MSF) mission in the city confirmed the incident as they work to treat cases of Ebola. The death toll of the outbreak has reached 27 as health chiefs crackdown on the virus. World Health Organisation bosses have previously warned spread in the city could mean a repeat of the 2014 outbreak – which killed over 11,000. … WHO have shipped more than 8,600 vaccines...

Four new cases have been confirmed as Ebola, said the health ministry in a statement released early Sunday. A total of 46 cases of hemorrhagic fever have been reported in the current outbreak, including 21 confirmed cases of Ebola, 21 probable and four suspected.

In all eight of the previous known Ebola outbreaks in Congo, the virus has been contained within remote jungle villages or relatively small towns, where isolated populations are less likely to spread the disease. But the Congo River is effectively the region’s highway system. Barges and boats travel from Kisangani in the east through major cities including Bumba, Mbandaka — and eventually Kinshasa, the capital of Congo and home to more than 11 million people, as well as Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo. “The Congo River connects three national capitals and multiple other large cities,” said Jeremy...

Kenya will fast-track laws to make wildlife poaching a capital offense as part of the country's bid to conserve flora and fauna, a senior government official said late Thursday. Najib Balala, the Minister for Tourism and Wildlife, said that once the laws are enacted, the offenders of the wildlife crimes will face the death penalty in accordance with the laws of the land. "We have in place the Wildlife Conservation Act that was enacted in 2013 and which fetches offenders a life sentence or a fine of 200,000 U.S. dollars. However, this has not been deterrence enough to curb poaching,...

A frightening flesh-eating disease is currently making its way across Australia, and puzzled scientists and officials aren’t sure how to stop this mysterious condition from wreaking havoc. Cases of an infection known as Buruli ulcer have spiked in recent years in the country, rising 150 percent from 74 cases in 2013 to 186 in 2016. It shows no signs of slowing down; last year saw a projected 286 cases. The infection causes unsightly skin ulcers that destroy the skin and the soft tissue around it. Complicating matters is the fact that scientists aren’t sure how it is spread or how...

The WHO said on Friday it hopes to deploy an experimental Ebola vaccine to tackle an outbreak... The Democratic Republic of Congo and U.N. agencies began deploying emergency teams of specialists over the weekend to try to prevent the spread of an Ebola epidemic suspected to have infected more than 30 people [including health care workers]... this epidemic’s proximity to the Congo River, a major transport route and lifeline both to Congo’s capital Kinshasa and to neighboring Congo Republic’s capital Brazzaville, makes it more likely the virus could break out into a wider area.

Jamie Fox (right) puts a ring on the the hand of Zanele Ndlovu, whose arm was ripped off while canoeing days before her wedding day. (Nkosizile Ndlovu) A woman whose arm was torn off by a crocodile wasn’t going to let a lost limb get in the way of her wedding -- and she managed to walk down the aisle just days after the gruesome attack. Zanele Ndlovu, a former national tennis player, got married to Jamie Fox on Sunday at Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, where she’s recovering from the crocodile attack, The Sun reported. ... The...

I will be discussing the alarming escalation of aircraft incidents currently in the news. While the United States copes with many threats in the world today, what I am about to report is by far a chilling development. China has actually fired military-grade lasers targeting U.S. aircraft flying near a U.S. military base in Africa. Sarah Sanders told reporters the following: “There will be near-term and long-term consequences.” This is not the only instance in which Beijing has targeted U.S. aircraft flying over the east African country of Djibouti. According to U.S. defense officials, the lasers were fired from the...

Carlos Carvalho, 47, was at the Glen Africa Country Lodge in South Africa shooting a series about a British family in a game lodge when he attempted to get a close-up shot of Gerald, the giraffe, Deadline reported. While Carvalho was trying to get his shot, Gerald head-butted the filmmaker and sent him 16 feet in the air. Carvalho suffered massive head injuries as a result. The filmmaker was airlifted to Johannesburg’s Milpark Hospital where he died. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Richard Booker, whose family owns the lodge, told The Telegraph that Gerald would not be put down. "Gerald will remain at the...

Chinese personnel at the country's first overseas military base in Djibouti have been using lasers to interfere with US military aircraft at a nearby American base, activity that has resulted in injuries to US pilots and prompted the US to launch a formal diplomatic protest with Beijing, two military officials told CNN. The US issued a notice to airmen "to exercise caution when flying in certain areas in Djibouti," which "was issued due to lasers being directed at US aircraft on a small number of separate occasions over the last few weeks," according to the notice obtained by CNN. "During...