Botswana

Botswana welcomed a crew making a film of a popular series of detective novels set in the southern African country, with officials saying the movie would generate good publicity for Africa. The film based on the "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series by Alexander McCall Smith is expected to be released by Christmas, and has the backing of Botswana's government.

In a landmark decision, the Botswana High Court ruled Wednesday that the nation's government had acted illegally when it forcibly evicted the last tribal Bushmen from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The last 2,000 Bushmen living in the reserve were forced out in 1997 and 2002, but the court's decision focused on the latter eviction of about 1,000 people.

Botswana's ruling party claimed victory Saturday in the country's general election, extending President Ian Khama's rule over the world's largest diamond producer for another five years. Khama's Botswana Democratic Party, in power since independence from Britain in 1966, said it had secured a majority of the parliamentary constituencies. Botswana's state radio announced a victory, but the count was incomplete. A spokesman for Botswana's Independent Electoral Commission, Oscar Maroba, said counting in 31 of the 57 constituencies had been completed, with the BDP winning 25 and the main opposition party Botswana National Front and its splinter party Botswana Congress Party capturing three constituencies each.

HBO has picked up a television series based on Alexander McCall Smith's book "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" and its popular sequels, which relate the adventures of Precious Ramotswe, a no-nonsense investigator who runs a detective agency in Botswana. A two-hour pilot, starring Jill Scott ("Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?"), was recently filmed on location in Botswana, directed by Anthony Minghella, who co-wrote the script with Richard Curtis. HBO, in partnership with the Weinstein Co. and the BBC, ordered 13 additional one-hour episodes of the series, which will begin filming this summer.

When Dahame Belese left the land of his ancestors, his parents felt as if he had fallen off the edge of the universe. They had no idea of the world outside, never traveled by car or bicycle. They had not even climbed on a donkey's back. The day he went away, his father was so angry he wouldn't say goodbye and his mother cried herself to sleep.

Botswanans voted for National Assembly candidates, with the ruling Democratic Party favored to keep the lock on power it has had for 38 years. The party that gets the most seats will choose the president. The Democratic Party has not lost an election since independence from Britain in 1966 and was expected to give Festus Mogae his second term as president. Mogae's strongest rival was expected to be Otsweletse Moupo, a former public prosecutor and leader of the Botswana National Front.

President Festus Mogae was assured of another term as his ruling Botswana Democratic Party swamped the opposition, keeping its 38-year lock on power in the National Assembly, election officials said. With just four seats yet to be decided, the governing party had won at least 41 seats to just 12 for opposition parties in Saturday's vote, the Independent Election Commission said. The president is elected by the assembly.

A Botswana human rights organization has criticized the government for not passing legislation to protect people participating in HIV vaccine trials. Alice Mogwe, director of the Botswana Center for Human Rights, said there was little legal protection for trial participants, and the board set up to ensure safe, humane trials had no legal standing. Experimental vaccine trials by the Botswana Harvard AIDS Partnership for HIV Research and Education began this year after successful tests on animals.

Draped in a ceremonial leopard skin, a former bank manager was installed as the first female paramount chief in Botswana. Mosadi Seboko took over as the highest-ranking chief of the Balete people in a celebration attended by thousands, including some of the country's top political figures, in the rural village of Ramotswa, about 20 miles south of the capital, Gaborone. She is one of eight such chiefs in the country. Her father and brother preceded her in office.