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BBC NEWS AT BBC.CO.UK/NEWS A prize-winning scientist at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has used his winnings to promote particle physics in Africa. Professor Tejinder Virdee, who was born and raised in Kenya, was part of the team that played a key role in the discovery of the Higgs boson, a tiny element nicknamed the “God particle.” Virdee, a winner of the 2013 Fundamental Physics prize, used his money to bring science teachers from Africa to the CERN lab in Geneva, Switzerland. “I wanted to do something to promote science education in an international context, in ways that…

REUTERS Algeria has put the Army in charge of fighting drug trafficking, identified as the country’s top national security threat. “We are waging a war. It is a war against a new form of terrorism: drugs trafficking,” Daho Ould Kablia, then Algeria’s interior minister, told the APS state news agency in July 2013. Algeria is concerned about the link between extremism and rising drug trafficking, particularly in the Sahel region. Senior al-Qaida member Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on an Algerian gas plant in January 2013, provided security to drug traffickers in Algeria in the past…

DEFENCEWEB The Libyan Army has taken delivery of 200 high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles, commonly known as Humvees, for use in border patrol and security duties. The country continues to rebuild and strengthen the Armed Forces against the backdrop of growing insecurity and the proliferation of militias and transnational jihadist groups. The donation from the United States Army comes as the Libyan Army struggles to secure the country’s borders against arms dealers, terrorists and drug traffickers who took advantage of the security vacuum created by the fall of Moammar Gadhafi in October 2011. Libyan Army chiefs unveiled the armored cars in…

MAGHAREBIA.COM Mauritania and Niger signed a military cooperation agreement in Nouakchott in August 2013 that both sides hope will help combat terrorism in the Sahel. Nigerien Foreign Minister Mohamed Bazoum signed the accord after the first Mauritania-Niger Joint Commission session, Agence France-Presse reported. Bazoum also met Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz during the two-day conference. “Mauritania and Niger are two brother countries united by a strong fabric of historical, cultural, sociological, geographical and security relations,” Mauritanian Foreign Minister Hamadi Ould Baba Ould Hamadi said. “Our two countries indeed share a common destiny at three levels: subregional, regional and international.”…

MAGHAREBIA.COM Moroccan officers from the General Directorate for Territorial Surveillance arrested four members of a terrorist cell operating in Tiznit, Fez, Meknes and Taounat, the Interior Ministry announced in August 2013. One of the most prominent activists on jihadist websites reportedly organized the cell after being tasked with recruiting for al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). “The leader of this cell, who was able to recruit Moroccans … some of whom have links with fighters who operate under the banner of al-Qaida in Syria, strongly urged them to perpetrate acts of sabotage against state institutions, and was planning to carry…

BBC NEWS AT BBC.CO.UK/NEWS A huge water source has been discovered in the arid Turkana region of northern Kenya, which could supply the country for 70 years, the government says. The discovery of two aquifers brings hope to the drought-hit region, tweeted Environment Minister Judi Wakhungu. Satellites and radar detected them in the Turkana Basin and Lotikipi Basin. Test drilling confirmed there was water underground. Another aquifer recently was found in Namibia, Sub-Saharan Africa’s driest country. Turkana is one of the hottest, driest and poorest parts of Kenya. It was hit by a devastating drought in 2012. Many of the…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE A United States utility company is building the first solar power plant in electricity-starved Guinea-Bissau. In May 2013, Prime Minister Rui Duarte Barros laid the first stone of Suntrough Energy’s $30 million photovoltaic station on the outskirts of the West African nation’s capital. “This facility will help us to solve the energy issue and will also create 200 jobs,” Barros said at the ceremony. It was expected to take six months to complete, a Suntrough Energy official said. Power cuts are frequent in the capital Bissau due to the inability of its only power plant to meet demand.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Mahmud Zubairu scrutinizes the computer screen, watching the progress of health care workers as they fan out across Nigeria’s northern Kano state where polio is prevalent. The dozens of teams are going door to door to immunize every child under age 5 as part of an aggressive push to eradicate the debilitating disease. But this is a campaign with a difference: Zubairu, a doctor and coordinator of the vaccination project, can follow the workers remotely in real time, thanks to state-of-the-art technology. “It is now easy to monitor the immunization coverage of each vaccination team because the phone…

REUTERS Investors from Europe, Asia and the United States are not the only ones chasing growth opportunities in Africa these days. Africans themselves are waking up to the potential in their own back yard. The same trends that have lured foreign capital to the continent — rising wealth, sustained economic growth and a swelling young population — are attracting investors in countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Namibia. Between 2003 and 2011, intra-African investment into new foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in Africa grew at a 23 percent rate. Since 2007, that rate has increased to 32.5 percent,…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE The World Bank has approved a $340 million financing package for a crucial hydroelectric power plant in Africa’s Great Lakes region, a project long delayed by ethnic conflict. In August 2013, the World Bank board of executive directors signed off on the financing for the Regional Rusumo Falls Hydroelectric Project, which will provide 80 megawatts of power to people in Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania. The run-of-the-river hydropower plant was supposed to be finished years ago, but it has been delayed by fighting in the region. The bank said the financing will be divided evenly among the three countries,…