African Countries

KAMPALA, Uganda - On Sunday mornings, worshipers arrive two hours early to wait in line for one of 200 seats in the Missionaries of the Poor chapel. By the time Mass begins at 8 a.m., they have been joined by 2,000 more parishioners who sit outside in the sun. Roman Catholic churches in Uganda are packed these days, the participants traditional-minded, their faith vibrant and strong. Across Africa, the church reinforces the staunchly conservative values of a population that often attends services several times a week, for hours on end. Catholic leaders also provide homes and food for poor and disadvantaged people whom the state doesn't help, including orphans, abandoned children, the homeless and the disabled.

KAMPALA, Uganda - On Sunday mornings, worshipers arrive two hours early to wait in line for one of 200 seats in the Missionaries of the Poor chapel. By the time Mass begins at 8 a.m., they have been joined by 2,000 more parishioners who sit outside in the sun. Roman Catholic churches in Uganda are packed these days, the participants traditional-minded, their faith vibrant and strong. Across Africa, the church reinforces the staunchly conservative values of a population that often attends services several times a week, for hours on end. Catholic leaders also provide homes and food for poor and disadvantaged people whom the state doesn't help, including orphans, abandoned children, the homeless and the disabled.

Pope John Paul II plans to visit six African countries in August, the Vatican disclosed Monday. The Pope will visit Kenya, Zaire, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Togo and Morocco. The trip is expected to begin in mid-August but exact dates have not been set.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - If top diplomats are right, the world's next inevitable war is in Mali, a West African country where Al Qaeda-linked militants have seized control of vast swaths of the Sahara desert. Western capitals are desperately trying to prevent Mali from becoming the next Somalia: an African country with a notoriously unstable government challenged by Islamic militants who may also pose a risk to the United States and its interests. Lending urgency to those calling for action, U.S. officials cited in news reports have implicated Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, one of the groups controlling northern Mali, in last month's attack on the U.S. mission in Libya that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

Tahseen rested his frail young frame on an ancient handcart in the wicked heat of the Shorja Market here one recent afternoon. He paused for a moment to explain why his parents forced him into a growing street army of children--one of the many living symbols of Iraq's looming economic disaster. Tahseen's father is a driver, his brother a soldier.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - It was a most unusual burglary. Thieves got in through the bathroom window and walked past the flat-screen TV, DVD player, expensive camera and a couple of brand-new cellphones. Instead, they took 20 external hard drives and some digital camera memory cards. It didn't make sense to Zanele Muholi, an art photographer and activist, the victim of the April theft. Unless … Something cold shifted inside her. Could this be another hate crime against lesbians?

As a boy in remote western Kenya, Fredros Okumu sat under the stars, smothered by the smoke of the family fire, until it was time to go to bed. Even now, when he returns home to his village, a 29-year-old man who left and achieved things, he still sits in the darkness, eyes stinging, nose running, enveloped in the choking smoke. Its smell clings to his hair and clothing, but at least it serves its purpose: keeping the mosquitoes at bay. Like almost everyone in the village of Uyoma, Okumu lost family and friends to mosquito-borne malaria when he was growing up. So the smoke of burning Kenyan bush herbs was his friend.

Labor leaders from 50 African countries began a weeklong meeting of the Organization of African Trade Unity here on Monday to discuss the problems of trade union movements in Africa and the plight of African workers.

Fashion designer Tanya Aab says she feels lucky: Few businesswomen from Swaziland can travel to the United States to learn how to build their companies and sell their brands overseas. For the last week, Aab has been walking through the Los Angeles garment district as part of a State Department program aimed at helping African countries build their economies and rely less on U.S. foreign aid. "You can really expose your brand," said Aab, 32, who runs a company called Arrum Lilly in her hometown of Mbabane.

The United States will absolve 10 African countries of about $305 million in debt, the U.S. Agency for International Development said Wednesday. The countries are Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria and Zaire. All 10 nations are pursuing approved economic reform programs.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - It was a most unusual burglary. Thieves got in through the bathroom window and walked past the flat-screen TV, DVD player, expensive camera and a couple of brand-new cellphones. Instead, they took 20 external hard drives and some digital camera memory cards. It didn't make sense to Zanele Muholi, an art photographer and activist, the victim of the April theft. Unless … Something cold shifted inside her. Could this be another hate crime against lesbians?

Fashion designer Tanya Aab says she feels lucky: Few businesswomen from Swaziland can travel to the United States to learn how to build their companies and sell their brands overseas. For the last week, Aab has been walking through the Los Angeles garment district as part of a State Department program aimed at helping African countries build their economies and rely less on U.S. foreign aid. "You can really expose your brand," said Aab, 32, who runs a company called Arrum Lilly in her hometown of Mbabane.

As a Culver City art gallery owner and marketing and advertising executive, Lisa Schultz wondered whether there was anything she could do about the plight of disabled men, women and children in Sierra Leone. Many had lost limbs during unspeakable atrocities during that African country's devastating civil war, and others suffered injuries or were born with birth defects. But all felt the stigma of being immobile in a country where the disabled are often kept behind closed doors. "Crutches," she remembers thinking.

As a boy in remote western Kenya, Fredros Okumu sat under the stars, smothered by the smoke of the family fire, until it was time to go to bed. Even now, when he returns home to his village, a 29-year-old man who left and achieved things, he still sits in the darkness, eyes stinging, nose running, enveloped in the choking smoke. Its smell clings to his hair and clothing, but at least it serves its purpose: keeping the mosquitoes at bay. Like almost everyone in the village of Uyoma, Okumu lost family and friends to mosquito-borne malaria when he was growing up. So the smoke of burning Kenyan bush herbs was his friend.

Reporting from Namib-Naukluft National Park, Namibia Griddle-hot deserts, time-forsaken ghost towns, prismatic canyons and endless ribbons of lonely highway: There's nothing quite like a road trip across the Southwest to get the gasoline pumping in an American's wanderlust-ful heart. But what's perfect for America's bottom-left corner works even better here in Africa's. Welcome to Namibia, on Africa's western coast between South Africa and Angola, where the deserts are hotter, the roads are emptier and America - at least when Brangelina aren't visiting - couldn't be farther away.

Researchers are gearing up for a clinical trial of what they hope will be the first inexpensive, oral drug to treat trypanosomiasis, commonly known as sleeping sickness. Current drugs used for the disease require sophisticated diagnosis and drug infusions that are not typically available in the African regions most affected by trypanosomiasis, and the drugs themselves are frequently lethal. The new experimental drug, called SCYX-7158, is a compound containing the element boron that was developed by a Palo Alto company.

Vice President George Bush urged food-producing nations to coordinate their aid to the millions of Africans threatened by starvation. In remarks prepared for a U.N. conference in Geneva today, Bush--who just completed a trip through three drought-stricken African countries--also pleaded with warring African nations to allow the free passage of food to the needy within their borders.

JOHANNESBURG — The World Health Organization aims to vaccinate 72 million African children younger than 5 this week, through door-to-door visits, in a new drive to eradicate polio . The disease had been all but eradicated in West Africa — except in Nigeria, which never managed to eliminate the disease because of opposition to vaccinating. The disease spread again from Nigeria to 24 African countries in recent years, with 58 cases in Liberia, Mali, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the last six months.

Measles isn’t on the radar screen of most Americans. Endemic transmission has not occurred in the United States since the late 1990s and in the entire Western Hemisphere since November 2002. You'd think that many health officials, especially in this country, would just relax. Not so. The disease kills an estimated 164,000 people worldwide a year. Though that number is a far cry from the 2.6 million global measles deaths in 1980 or even the 733,000 deaths in 2000, it’s still considered much too high.

The House voted Friday to require President Obama to swiftly report to Congress the rationale behind continued U.S. military engagement in Libya, launching a potential showdown over federal funding for the NATO-led operation. Amid mounting antiwar sentiment in Congress, the House voted 268 to 145 for the resolution, which also said that the administration failed to make its case for military action as required by the authority of the War Powers Act. By bringing the resolution up for a vote, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio)