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For decades Burkina Faso had avoided the messy coups, civil wars, and terrorist insurgencies that besieged many of its West African neighbors. At the same time, former President Blaise Compaoré -- who resigned last Friday after 27 years in power -- quietly positioned the country as a key mediator of regional conflicts and, more recently, as a US and European counterterrorism partner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On April 19, 1967, a 24-year-old South African geologist named Manfred Marx stepped out of a pit in a dusty stretch of central Botswana clutching a rock that would irreversibly alter the country's future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the presidential helicopter touched down in a cloud of dust near this sun-baked village in central Botswana for a campaign rallyWednesday, the man who stepped out from the pilot's seat was none other than the president himself, Ian Khama. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Standing outside a small African grocery store in this quiet Athens suburb, chiseled arms folded over a barrel chest, Daniel Ikechukwu hardly looks like the kind of man who is easily pushed around. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is Africa a rising giant -- or falling into crisis? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The heavy mixture of tragedy and farce surrounding Boko Haram extremists and their bloody behavior in northeast Nigeria continued this week, starting with a photo out of Cameroon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After spending Thursday ruling out a murder verdict, South African Judge Thokozile Masipa today found famed Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius guilty of culpable homicide -- the equivalent of manslaughter -- in the killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day, 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For 42 days over the past six months, South African Olympian Oscar Pistorius has squeezed past crowds of cameramen, sign-toting activists, and gawking onlookers outside his drab Pretoria courtroom to take his seat in front of Judge Thokozile Masipa, who will hand down his murder trial verdict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ground shudders and heaves, then slowly rips apart, pulling whatever is nearby -- houses, trees, cars, factories -- into a newly-formed, gaping hole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Janine Morna arrived in northern Nigeria in March to study child abductions by local militias, few outside the region had any idea of the scope of the problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For more than a week since two American patients responded well to an experimental Ebola medicine, one question has echoed around the world: Should more of the sick have access to such treatments? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On October 7, 2000, Dr. Matthew Lukwiya was sitting in his house in Kampala when his phone rang. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the prosecution and defense presented closing arguments in the trial of South African track star Oscar Pistorius this week, one fact stood beyond dispute: Early on the morning of Feb. 14, 2013, the Olympian fired a series of shots through the locked door of his bathroom, killing his girlfriend, the model Reeva Steenkamp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every year, hundreds of boats leave Somali ports bound for the Gulf states, packed full of contraband goods whose profits line the coffers of the Somalia-based extremist group Al Shabab. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is Oscar Pistorius a super-star member of a privileged elite in South Africa that never leaves its protected bubble? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Six months after Robert Mugabe coasted to victory in Zimbabwe's hotly disputed July presidential election, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai used a holiday reference to describe the policies of his rival: Grinch-like. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reporting contributed by Christa Case Bryant in Jerusalem, Scott Peterson in Tehran, Iran, Peter Ford in Beijing, and Jonathan Gilbert in Buenos Aires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In August 1995, just a year after South Africa's first fully democratic election, President Nelson Mandela made an unusual social call. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On Aug. 16, 2012, South African police opened fire on a crowd of striking miners at the Lonmin Platinum mine near the town of Marikana, killing 34 and injuring 78 more - the worst single incident of police violence in the country since apartheid security forces massacred 69 protesters near Johannesburg in March 1960. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For nearly two decades, the face of alleged Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger was splashed across billboards and posters across the country, a larger-than-life character second only to Osama bin Laden on the FBI's Most Wanted List. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lawyers for alleged former Boston mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger made little attempt to suggest their client was not a lifelong criminal as they delivered their closing arguments Monday afternoon in Mr. Bulger's two-month murder and racketeering trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zimbabwe strong man Robert Mugabe voted today in elections that the long-time ruler called "free and fair," and that could displace him after 33 years of rule often described as brutal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freeman Chari carries the weight of Zimbabwe's history - in his name. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vigil in South Africa for Nelson Mandela during his hospital stay took a turn Thursday as the nation rallied to celebrate his 95th birthday. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hooded Taliban gunman stepped onto the bus full of schoolgirls in northwest Pakistan and barked a single question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When founding members and banjo players Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens, and Sule Greg Wilson formed the Carolina Chocolate Drops in 2005, their mission was to help revive African-American folk music traditions that lay at the core of modern pop and bluegrass music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Republican Gabriel Gomez stepped onstage at Boston's Seaport Hotel to concede the US Senate race in Massachusetts to Democrat Edward Markey Tuesday night, he compared the campaign he had just waged with his former career as a Navy SEAL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For nearly two months, the story of Scott Brown has lurked over the Massachusetts Senate race. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the two candidates for John Kerry's former Senate seat in Massachusetts blaze through their final full day of campaigning Monday, a single question hangs over the pre-election barnstorming: When the polls open Tuesday morning, who will show up? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the fiercely competitive 2012 Senate race in Massachusetts, the two candidates made an unusual promise: neither would allow outside groups to fund attack ads on their behalf. If either Democrat Elizabeth Warren or Republican Scott Brown broke this so-called "People's Pledge," they agreed they would pay half the cost of the ad in question to a charity of their opponent's choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Working full-time on the set of the Fox Searchlight film "Black Swan" in 2010, Eric Glatt slogged through a long list of menial tasks. He made coffee and photocopied scripts, wrote invoices, organized file cabinets, and ran errands for the films producers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a week remaining until the June 25 special election for John Kerry's former US Senate seat in Massachusetts, the two candidates met Tuesday night in a debate that set the tone for the final days of the campaign: energetic, divisive, and at times downright petty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first month of the general election campaign for John Kerry's former Senate seat in Massachusetts, Republican Gabriel Gomez developed a stable of reliable talking points as he crisscrossed the state in his trademark green bomber jacket. He was a Washington outsider, a nonpartisan reformer, and a former Navy SEAL with a personal commitment to America's national security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the two candidates for John Kerry's former Senate seat in Massachusetts blazed across nearly a dozen subjects in their second debate Tuesday night, a single question seemed to hover just outside the frame: What style of senator would each man be? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When President Obama took the stage Wednesday at a Boston rally for Democratic Senate hopeful Edward Markey, he touted the state's storied legacy of powerhouse senators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the two candidates running for John Kerry's open Senate seat in Massachusetts spent much of their first debate Wednesday night extolling the virtues of bipartisan compromise, the two found little common ground themselves in either substance or style. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the candidates in the special election to fill John Kerry's Senate seat in Massachusetts go head-to-head in their first televised debate Wednesday night, both will be looking to keep the reputations they've developed in their early weeks on the campaign trail from fossilizing in voters' minds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The blocky sonar image of the Pacific Ocean floor isn't much to look at, just a mosaic of yellow and black pixels streaked with white. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If Facebook were a city, these would be its seedy back alleys - user-generated groups filled with jokes about rape and domestic violence, captioned over gruesome images of assaulted women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Propelled into motion by the rippling aftershocks of colonialism, Africans have spent much of the last half-century writing history with their feet. And as they have scattered around the globe, their literature too has reflected this push and pull, giving rise to a rich tradition of stories, novels, and memoirs that leap across continents and cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first thing Gabriel Gomez likes to tell crowds on the campaign trail is where he's going - the United States Senate. The second is where he's coming from. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper has called off the execution of one of the state's three death row inmates, churning new debate over the wrenching issue of capital punishment as the state prepares for the trial next year of accused Aurora movie theater shooter James Holmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At a campaign rally for Republican Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez Monday morning, Sen. John McCain didn't mince his words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On its surface, the recommendation seems simple: reduce the legal limit for blood-alcohol content (BAC), and drunken-driving fatalities will fall, too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]