World

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Hopes of the first World Cup in Africa producing the continent’s first winner seem increasingly far-fetched. By the end of the week, Ghana may be Africa’s sole survivor in the competition, with the five others facing tough — or impossible — routes out of the group phase. Their disappointing showing is underlined […]

From the Washington Post: JOHANNESBURG — It has been an inauspicious start for the six African nations competing in the 2010 World Cup, who have produced one victory, two draws and five losses among them.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup may have placed South Africa in the international headlines for all the right reasons, but a series of domestic events have the African nation at the forefront of a debate that goes well beyond the football field.

JOHANNESBURG — A somber and frail Nelson Mandela attended the funeral Thursday for his 13-year-old great-granddaughter, whose death in a car crash last week following the World Cup’s opening concert marked a tragic start to the tournament.

From the NY Times: BODO, Nigeria — Big oil spills are no longer news in this vast, tropical land. The Niger Delta, where the wealth underground is out of all proportion with the poverty on the surface, has endured the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every year for 50 years by some estimates. The […]

From HuffPost.com: Gunmen believed to be from a radical Islamic group in northeast Mogadishu, Somalia, shot two people dead during an impromptu raid on a house where people were watching a World Cup match Saturday night, Reuters reports.