Egyptian border police officers read a newspaper Monday that reported on the abduction of their colleagues on Thursday at the closed Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. One soldier and six officers were being held captive.

Can Mali, or any country, survive if militants ban all music?

Lisa Lovatt-Smith is the chief executive of OrphanAid Africa, based in Ghana.

Egyptian police officers blocked the Rafah crossing into the Gaza Strip on Friday to protest the kidnapping of seven of their colleagues by Islamist gunmen, witnesses said.

One shot confers lifetime protection and the “booster shot” given at 10 years is no longer necessary, the World Health Organization said.

Military officials said attacks were launched against the Boko Haram Islamist group in border areas in a forest south of the city of Maiduguri.

A Malian soldier in Gao last month. Islamist militants have fled the town, but some remain in the region’s villages.

Nelson Mandela’s family objected to images of President Jacob Zuma seated with him in April.

Members of Nigeria’s Joint Military Task Force patrolled the restive town of Maiduguri in hard-hit Borno State last month.

At least 31 people were killed Wednesday when gunmen attacked an army base in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the military said, underlining the challenge facing a new United Nations intervention force in the territory.

Three Egyptian men arrested last week and accused of plotting terrorist acts in Egypt sought to carry out suicide attacks against the United States and French Embassies, the state news media said Wednesday.

William Ruto promised the International Criminal Court on Tuesday that he and President Uhuru Kenyatta would cooperate, despite calling the charges against them the result of a “conspiracy of lies.”

Admitting that Islamist extremists now control some of his nation’s villages and towns, President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency on Tuesday across Nigeria’s troubled northeast.

Workers at the world’s No. 3 platinum producer, Lonmin, began a wildcat strike on Tuesday, prompting fears of a return to the violence that rocked the industry last year.

President Obama commented on Benghazi and the I.R.S. at a news conference with Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain.

The suspect was the bookkeeper for a group that hijacked the German tanker the Marida Marguerite and its crew three years ago, the authorities said.

A car explosion on a busy street in Benghazi stirred new anger at the failure of the transitional government to fill the security vacuum left by the ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.

Egyptian activist Ahmed Maher was arrested on accusations of inciting protests in front of the Interior Ministry in March and was transferred to a high-security prison.

Bombs exploded outside two police stations in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi on Friday, and Britain temporarily cut staff at its embassy in Tripoli because of security fears.

Eritrea’s government has jailed about 10,000 dissidents without charge or trial over the years, Amnesty International reported Thursday.