A Spanish aid worker freed by Islamist militants in Mali was flying home Wednesday while an Italian woman was still in Al Qaeda's clutches after earlier reports of her release, sources said. "It is only the Spanish hostage who was released. There was a small confusion, the Italian was not released," a diplomatic source said in Bamako after earlier ...

A Spanish aid worker and an Italian woman held hostage by Islamist militants in Mali were freed Wednesday and were due to arrive in neighbouring Burkina Faso, a diplomatic source told AFP. "I can tell you that the two hostages are free. A Spanish authority is waiting for them in Ouagadougou," the Burkina Faso capital, added the source, speaking on ...

OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - Health officials in the west African country of Burkina Faso are worried about an increase in deaths from meningitis which has killed 246 people so far this year, up from 203 in the same period last year. Meningitis, a disease that inflames the lining of the brain and can be transmitted by mosquitoes, tends to strike countries in ...

A meningitis epidemic has killed 246 people in Burkina Faso since the start of the year, the health ministry announced Thursday. "From the beginning of the year 2010 to February 21, we have a total of 1,596 suspected cases of meningitis, with 246 deaths reported in all health districts" of the country, the ministry's director of the campaign ...