LOS ANGELES — With a deafening bang and a colorful display of fireworks, renowned Chinese artist Cai Guoqiang’s exhibition of gunpowder drawings, installations and explosion events kicked off outside the Geffen Contemporary in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday evening. On the towering exterior wall of an exhibition hall run by the Museum of

LILONGWE. — African leaders continue to send messages of condolence to the wa Mutharika family and the people of Malawi following the sudden death of President Bingu wa Mutharika last Thursday. President Mugabe is among the leaders who have mourned President wa Mutharika. South African president Jacob Zuma on Saturday sent a condolence message to the

LILONGWE. — A champion of women’s rights, Joyce Hilda Banda has become the first female head of state in southern Africa after taking over as Malawi’s president following the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika who died of a heart attack last Thursday. A mother of three, Banda who was Malawi’s vice president assumed the top job  on Saturday under the terms

BAMAKO — Armed Islamists occupied the Algerian consulate in Gao in north-eastern Mali, arresting diplomats and raising their black flag at the building, several witnesses told AFP yesterday. “I am currently in front of the Algerian consulate in district four in Gao. Armed Islamists have entered the

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s support rate made a new high of 77 percent in March, an Ibope poll released on Wednesday said.  The rate, a rise from the 72 percent in December, was the highest since Rousseff came into office in January 2011. By the outstanding performance, she

TRIPOLI — The International Criminal Court on Wednesday ordered Libya to immediately hand over for trial Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the late Libyan leader, but Libya’s new authorities said they still wanted to try him themselves. The court in The Hague ordered Tripoli to “comply with its obligations to

A Church that first opened its gates in 1827 will be closed for the first time on Easter Sunday following a series thefts. Parishioners at St Mary’s The Mount Church, in Walsall have taken the unprecedented measures after thieves stole a war memorial plaque for the Church’s gardens. That robbery was

The woman who kidnapped seven-year-old Ilya Yaropolov in the Siberian Perm region last week did so because she wanted a child with that name, police said on Wednesday. The woman took Yaropolov away from a kindergarten in the local town of Krasnokamsk, but left him at a bus stop in Perm five days later,

WASHINGTON — A group of former World Bank officials on Wednesday endorsed Africa’s candidate to lead the Bank, Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. In an open letter, 39 former managers and economists called on the bank’s executive board to make their decision on merit, when the board

PARIS. — Unseco Director-General Irina Bokova has voiced concern about the risk posed by fighting around the world heritage site of Timbuktu in northern Mali. “I call on both the Malian authorities and warring factions to respect the country’s heritage and its commitment as a signatory of the 1972 World

NAIROBI. — Wildlife officials say rhino poaching in Africa has reached crisis levels with nearly 1 000 animals killed in the last five years. Wildlife experts from across Africa said in a Tuesday statement they would lobby for harsher penalties and fines for people involved in illegal rhino horn trade. In a meeting