"Ali Farka Toure dies"

'Africa's bluesman' Ali Farka Toure dies
Ali Farka Touré, the Grammy Award-winning musician known as "Africa's bluesman," has died after a long undisclosed illness.

Africa's Expected Population Bulge Threatens Future Sustainability
While experts worry about a decline in much of the industrialized world's population, sub-Saharan Africa is among the few places where the population is expected to grow dramatically over the next 50 years. VOA's Catherine Maddux reports on what is being done to help ease the social and economic pressures of overpopulation in Africa.

World Population Growth to be Concentrated in Developing Nations
By 2050, world population is projected to reach nine billion people. That would constitute a 38 percent jump from today's population total of 6.5 billion, and more than five times the 1.6 billion people believed to have existed in 1900. Demographers foresee declining, more aged populations in many industrialized nations, and explosively-growing, ever-younger populations in much of the developing world. VOA's Michael Bowman reports from Washington, both trends are seen as problematic.

Indigenous People Fight for Their Rights
Land conflicts involving indigenous people have multiplied in Brazil over the last few months, generating greater tension and showing once again that the country's roughly 400,000 indigenous people still have a long way to go to win respect for their rights.

US government near to debt limit
US Treasury Secretary John Snow has told Congress to raise the government's credit limit in order to avoid having some of its operations shut down. The government needs Congressional authority to borrow and the total accumulated debt is now close to its limit of $8.2 trillion (£4.7 trillion).

Experts: Africa facing 'persistent famine'
Drought is striking Africa harder and more often, presenting new challenges to those providing emergency aid and those struggling to find long-term solutions for an impoverished continent.

Zimbabwe faces maize deficit of 1.3 million tonnes
Hard cash-strapped Zimbabwe is expected to face a maize deficit of more than 1.3 million tonnes this year and will have to import more than 70 percent of its annual intake of the staple crop during the 2005/06 marketing season.

Official: 300 African migrants drown a month
More than 1,000 Africans have died in the past four months while trying to sail in small boats from Mauritania to Spain's Canary Islands, a Mauritanian aid official said Tuesday.

A hero's rape trial reopens South Africa's gender rift
JOHANNESBURG -- In the courtroom, it was just one more rape trial in a country where a woman is said to be raped every 26 seconds. A young woman sobbed on the stand and described how an older, powerful family friend came into the room where she slept, held her arms above her head and forcibly had intercourse with her, ignoring her pleas to stop.

Hundreds of illegals reported drowned on way to Spain
A boat carrying about 40 African would- be immigrants was adrift in stormy weather Tuesday off Mauritania while experts said hundreds of migrants had drowned during attempts to reach Spain's Canary Islands over the past months.

SA to open embassy in Iraq
South Africa is to open an embassy in Iraq, President Thabo Mbeki revealed on Tuesday after meeting a delegation from that country.

Bolivia's Morales accuses US of blackmail
Bolivian President Evo Morales accused the United States of "blackmail, threats and intimidation" on Monday for withdrawing anti-terrorism funding from the poor South American country, the official news service ABI reported.