South African authorities say at least 39 people have died in flooding and thunderstorms in the eastern part of the country.

President Barack Obama is quietly but strategically stepping up his outreach to Africa, using this year to increase his engagement with a continent that is personally meaningful to him and important to U.S. interests.

The pipelines run through the north. Most of the oil is in the south. That may explain why Akuoc Ten Diing and five other Southern Sudanese officials were treated to a 10-day, all-expense paid tour of China's domestic oil industry this fall.

Nigeria's president says he is launching a book chronicling his Facebook interactions with his Facebook friends to encourage reading as Africa's most populous country heads into an election year.

Supporters of one of her competitors in Haiti's presidential election set barricades on fire and threw rubble at cars when initial results put him third. The No. 2 finisher urged his partisans to mobilize and his staff warned they could start a war.

For a few hours, Sydney swapped opera for Oprah.

Drug maker Pfizer Inc. hired investigators to uncover "corruption links" to Nigeria's embattled former attorney general in an attempt to stop federal cases over a 1996 drug study, according to a U.S. embassy cable released Friday by WikiLeaks.

A popular singer vowed to legally challenge election results that narrowly ousted him from Haiti's presidential race after his supporters barricaded streets and set fires in violence that threatened the fragile stability that followed a devastating Jan. 12 earthquake.

Furious supporters of an apparently eliminated candidate set fires and manned barricades in the streets of Haiti's capital Wednesday after officials announced that government protege Jude Celestin and former first lady Mirlande Manigat would advance to a runoff in presidential elections.

Efforts are under way to clean up an oil spill in the harbor of Jamaica's capital.