(BBC News) South Africa's ruling African National Congress has fired the leadership of its youth league after it opposed Jacob Zuma's re-election last year.

LUSAKA (Reuters) - Former Zambian president Rupiah Banda appeared before an official investigation panel on Monday to answer allegations of corruption during his three years in charge of Africa's biggest copper producer.

ROME (Reuters) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe slipped into Italy on Monday for the inauguration of Pope Francis and officials went to some lengths to play down the technical infringement of a European Union travel ban on Africa's oldest leader.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis, giving his clearest indication yet that he wants a more austere Catholic Church, said on Saturday that it should be poor and remember that its mission is to serve the poor.

LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambia's parliament stripped former President Rupiah Banda of immunity from prosecution on Friday, clearing the way for investigators to arrest him for corruption-related offences.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabweans began voting on Saturday in a referendum expected to adopt a new constitution that would clip presidential powers and lead to an election that will decide whether Robert Mugabe extends his three-decade rule.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was elected pope on Wednesday to lead the Roman Catholic Church, a prelate announced to huge crowds gathered in St. Peter's Square.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - White smoke rose from the Vatican's Sistine Chapel on Wednesday signaling cardinals had elected a new pope to succeed Benedict and take charge of the troubled Roman Catholic Church.

At the same time the bells of St Peter's pealed.

The election, on the first full day of voting by the 115 cardinals, came more quickly than many had expected after no obvious front runner had emerged following the surprise abdication of Benedict last month.

The identity of the new pope will be announced to the world from the central balcony of St Peter's Basilica within an hour.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Black smoke rose from the Vatican's Sistine Chapel on Wednesday, signaling Roman Catholic cardinals had not agreed on a pope to succeed Benedict on their first full morning of voting in a secret conclave.

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - It could be a scene from any African mobile phone ad: flanked by two mohawked teenagers and shuffling stiffly to a pulsing hip-hop beat, an old man puts a phone to his ear and addresses a young lady with an awkward "What's up?"

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Cardinals begin the process of choosing a new pope in earnest on Wednesday, holding their first full day of voting for a leader to face a major crisis in the Roman Catholic Church.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Thick black smoke billowed from the Sistine Chapel's chimney on Tuesday, signaling an inconclusive first vote in the conclave to elect a new pope at a time of strife and scandal for the Roman Catholic Church.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Allies of Kenya's defeated presidential contender Raila Odinga filed a petition on Tuesday asking the High Court to compel the electoral commission and mobile operator Safaricom to release documents to bolster their claim the vote was stolen.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela will set up a formal inquiry into suspicions that the late President Hugo Chavez's cancer was the result of poisoning by his enemies abroad, the government said.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Red-robed cardinals retreated behind the heavy wooden doors of the Sistine Chapel on Tuesday at the start of a conclave that will elect a new pope to tackle the strife and scandal rocking the Roman Catholic Church.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez died on Tuesday after a two-year battle with cancer, ending 14 years of tumultuous rule that made the socialist leader a hero for the poor but a hate figure to his opponents.

Nairobi (Reuters) - Uhuru Kenyatta had an early edge as Kenya continued the count on Tuesday in a presidential election that brought out millions of voters despite pockets of violence that killed at least 15 people.

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - President Jacob Zuma launched an anti-rape campaign targeting South Africa's 10 million schoolchildren on Thursday, an attempt to tackle some of the world's highest levels of sexual violence in a country where many are inured to reports of such crimes.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict left the Vatican on Thursday after pledging unconditional obedience to whoever succeeds him to guide the Roman Catholic Church at one of the most crisis-ridden periods in its 2,000-year history.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African Olympic and Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius, charged with murdering his girlfriend, faces at least four random tests for drugs and alcohol in coming months to ensure he is complying with bail terms, an official said on Monday.