A bull elephant with a septic shoulder wound limped right up to a safari lodge on Lake Kariba and stayed there until a wildlife vet was able to dart and treat him. Was he asking for help? Staff at Bumi Hills Safari Lodge can't be 100% sure although it does look very much like it. The story of Ben the elephant - who did not succumb to what was probably a poacher's bullet - is a tiny ray of hope amid a gloomy catalogue of ivory poachings in Zimbabwe in recent months. Nick Milne, the trust manager at the Bumi Hills Foundation, told News24 that the bull elephant, estimated to be at least 30 years old, made his way up a steep ridge to the lodge's staff houses on Saturday morning. He was limping, had two bullet holes in his ear and a septic wound on his left side. Worried staff "Logic would suggest that if an animal has an injury that considerably hampers its mobility, it would not attempt the climb and would rather stay on the level ground near water," Milne sai

Egypt's official news agency said a Cairo Criminal Court has convicted and sentenced former Information Minister Safwat el-Sharif and two of his sons for corruption to between five and 10 years in prison. The MENA news agency reported on Saturday that el-Sharif and his son Ihab were each sentenced to five years. El-Sharif's second son, Ashraf, was sentenced to 10 years in absentia. The court fined all three a total of 209 million Egyptian pounds, about $24m. The court said el-Sharif had abused his power and together with his sons illegally amassed huge amounts of money, along with real estate. El-Sharif served as information minister and later as speaker of the parliament's upper chamber, or Shura Council. He was close to deposed autocratic President Hosni Mubarak.

At least four UN peacekeepers in Mali were killed in an attack by suspected militants on Sunday, military and police sources said. "We lost at least four men Sunday in the [central] Mopti region," a UN military source told AFP. Police confirmed a "terrorist attack" following a mine explosion.

Hundreds of people gathered on Thursday in Cairo for a candlelight vigil for the 66 people killed last week when an EgyptAir plane crashed into the Mediterranean in mysterious circumstances. EgyptAir MS804 from Paris to Cairo disappeared from radar screens between the Greek island of Crete and the north coast of Egypt on May 19. Investigators are still searching for the Airbus A320's two black boxes on the seabed as they seek answers as to why the aircraft went down. Clutching bouquets of flowers, candles and the Egyptian flag, around 500 mourners assembled at the Cairo Opera House and observed a minute's silence in honour of the victims. "We are here to pay respect to the souls of our victims and wish their families peace," said Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy. A large panel bearing the names of the 66 victims was displayed at the memorial ceremony, which was also attended by cabin crew in EgyptAir uniforms. "This is a message to the world that Egypt

Malawi has banned foreign witch-doctors from plying their trade in the southern African nation in a bid to curb a rising wave of abductions, attacks and killings of albinos. So far 18 albinos have been gruesomely murdered in Malawi in the past three years, according to authorities. The 18 th  victim was 38 year-old Fletcher Masina who was murdered in his garden in central Malawi’s district of Ntcheu on Tuesday. In a statement, Malawi President Peter Mutharika’s chief political adviser Dr Hetherwick Ntaba said that only herbalists who adhered to a code of practice would be allowed to operate in Malawi. "Foreign witch-doctors should immediately stop plying their trade in Malawi. We have just learnt that some witch-doctors who were banned in Tanzania and others from Mozambique fled to Malawi and are fuelling attacks on people with albinism. They must be deported,” said Ntaba.  He accused the foreign witch-doctors of fuelling killings by lying to superstitious Malawians that albi

Dozens of migrants were missing on  Friday after an overloaded fishing boat sank off the coast of Libya, the third major tragedy in the Mediterranean in as many days, Italian rescuers said. Italian coastguards sent in rescue ships after a call for help that spoke of 350 people in the water, while the Italian navy said it had saved 130 people and was searching for others. The coastguard, which co-ordinates rescue operations in the area, was not able to give further information immediately. This is the third major accident involving migrants this week, with authorities estimating that more than 10 000 migrants have been rescued near the Libyan coast. Emergency services also said they had received distress signals from more than 15 vessels on Friday.

 A French naval ship specialised in underwater searches will help search for the black box flight recorders of the EgyptAir flight that crashed in the Mediterranean last week, killing all 66 aboard. The French air accident investigation agency, the BEA, said in a statement the Laplace ship left on Thursday from Corsica for the zone of the crash, with two BEA investigators aboard. The Laplace is equipped with three detectors made by the Alseamar company designed to detect and localise signals from the flight recorders, believed about 3 000m underwater. France may also send an unmanned submarine and deep-sea retrieval equipment. The BEA is involved in the search because the crashed plane was an Airbus, manufactured in France. The cause of the crash, on a Paris-Cairo flight, is unclear.

A 16-year-old girl was kidnapped with her 1-month-old baby by Boko Haram from her home in northern Cameroon 18 months ago, taken to Nigeria, married off to an extremist fighter and then trained to be a suicide bomber. Last week she succeeded in escaping when the Nigerian military launched a raid on a Boko Haram camp. She wandered through Sambisa Forest in northeastern Nigeria for several days until, tired, weak and hungry, she was found by members of a local defence group fighting the extremists, who handed her over to Cameroon's military, said Midjiyawa Bakary governor of the Far North region of Cameroon. "When the Nigerian army attacked the Boko Haram camp where we were, there was confusion everywhere and I escaped to the forest where I walked for a week and handed myself to the first people I saw," she said. The teenager is among thousands of people who have been kidnapped by the Nigeria-based Islamic extremists since they launched their insurgency nearly seven yea

Cairo – Egyptian authorities have deported a French journalist without explanation, their latest move in an ongoing crackdown on freedom of expression and the media. The reporter, Remy Pigaglio, who worked for several publications, including Catholic daily La Croix, was returning from a trip to France and prevented from entering Egypt. He has a residency work permit and press card, and was detained for 30 hours at the airport before being sent back to Paris early on Wednesday. French journalists in Egypt expressed their dismay at the deportation, saying in a note that it was a sign of "the growing repression by authorities of Egyptian and foreign media." Egypt was ranked 158 out of 180 countries in the 2015 Press Freedom Index, according to Reporters Without Borders, a freedom of expression advocacy group.

New Delhi – India has promised swift punishment after a student from Congo was fatally attacked in New Delhi. Wednesday's comment by the Foreign Ministry comes after several African missions demanded the government take steps to ensure the safety of Africans living in India. The victim in the attack, Masunda Kitada Oliver, was a graduate student who had lived in India for over six years, according to the Congolese Embassy in New Delhi. He had hailed an auto rickshaw on Friday night when three men insisted they had hired the vehicle. The men beat him up and hit him on the head with a stone, and he died later that night, police said. Two of the men suspected in the attack have been arrested, while police are searching for the third.

MTN Group shares fell after Nigeria suspended talks about a $3.9bn fine on the South African mobile-phone company while the country’s House of Representatives completes an investigation into the nature of the penalty. The stock declined as much as 2.9%, the most since May 12, and traded 1.5% lower at R126.50 as of 10:23 am in Johannesburg, valuing the company at R233bn. The shares have plunged almost 35% since the fine, originally set at $5.2bn was levied in October. “Any delays in finding a resolution for the MTN fine will play into trading and keep MTN’s share price suppressed,” Peter Takaendesa, an analyst at Mergence Investment Managers, said by phone from Cape Town on Monday. “The big event to watch this week will be MTN’s annual general meeting, where the market might also get additional clarity.” Nigeria’s decision to put talks on hold will frustrate Johannesburg-based MTN as it seeks to resolve a fine that was levied for missing a deadline to disconnect customers deemed unr

Sunday, May 22, 2016 Man sold everything to raise money for his wife's cancer surgery in France. They boarded EgyptAir flight MS804 EgyptAir flight MS804 with more than 66 people on board crashed during a flight from Paris to Cairo. Among the dead was a husband and wife who sold everything to pay for life saving cancer treatment and now leave behind their three young children as orphans. According to the Egyptian newspaper Marawy, 31-year-old Ahmed Ashery sold his family's flat and car to raise money so his wife Reham could undergo cancer surgery in France. The couple left their young son and two daughters with his mother and spent a month in Paris, where Mrs Ashery had surgery and seemed on the path to a full recovery. They boarded Flight 804 on Wednesday night excited to be reunited with their small children but the plane never made it back to Cairo. "Ahmed sold everything to save his wife and ease her grief," said Mohamed al-Shenawi, a fa

The memorial service of 26-year-old air hostess Yara Hani Tawfik who died on the EgyptAir MS804 flight was held yesterday, May 21 at St. Mary and St Athanasius Church in Cairo. The victim's elderly grandmother Anna Yara collapsed at the service and concerned friends and relatives rushed to her aid. One held the grandmother face as she was overcome with grief. Nahla Wagih, a friend of Miss Tawfik, said: "It is so sad to see the family in this state. There are no words to describe her loss. Yara was the perfect daughter and grand-daughter. The family must be broken. I don’t know what words of comfort to say to them" Mrs Wagih, who worked with Miss Tawfik as a flight attendant on Egypt Air, was one of hundreds of relatives, friends and colleagues who attended the memorial, to which MailOnline was invited. A large picture of Miss Tawfik was put up in the church between cross of flowers during the 40-minute service. Afterwards, members of her family stood