AFRICAN

A delegation of six African leaders set to hold talks with Kyiv and Moscow aim to “initiate a peace process” but also broach the thorny issue of how a heavily-sanctioned Russia can be paid for the fertilizer exports Africa desperately needs, a key mediator in the talks said.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has offered support to African countries to get a permanent seat in the U.

As an ambassador for rats, it’s never easy to win over the public.

Amid a changing, modernizing world with climate change threatening his home, Senegalese singer-songwriter and activist Baaba Maal is releasing his first album in seven years.

Several prospects from the NBA Academy in Africa are playing in the new season of the Basketball Africa League.

In many Western countries, conventional radio has been overtaken by streaming, podcasts and on-demand content accessed via smartphones and computers.

African countries saddled with debt and ravaged by losses and damages from weather events like cyclones, drought and extreme temperatures have agreed to consider swapping debt to invest in climate action in a meeting of finance ministers in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has reaffirmed that Moscow has agreed to extend a deal allowing the exports of Ukrainian grain to global markets only for 60 days and could drop it altogether if its conditions aren’t met.

Tunisia’s government is seeking to allay growing international concerns about a surge of discrimination against people from sub-Saharan Africa.

The Russian government has donated 20,000 tons of fertilizer to Malawi as part of its efforts to garner diplomatic support from various African nations.

An Arizona aquarium is celebrating the hatching of three African penguin chicks.

Russia's foreign minister has met with Sudan’s military rulers as the nations seek to deepen economic and political ties.

An academy in Detroit is celebrating Black History Month by showing students the culture and cuisine of several African countries.

Africa’s public health agency says countries with deadly cholera outbreaks on the continent have no “immediate access” to vaccines amid a global supply shortage.

It all started with one week in 1926, when one organization chose the second week of February to promote the achievements by Black Americans and other people of African descent.

Climate activists in Africa are expressing anger toward the United Nations climate agency, accusing it of allowing corporations and individuals with dubious climate credentials to greenwash their polluting activities by participating in its annual climate conference.

The four-day event celebrating African musicians across the continent culminated Sunday evening in a stadium on the outskirts of Senegalese capital Dakar.

China’s new foreign minister has sidestepped a new call by the African Union for permanent representation on the United Nations Security Council during his visit to Ethiopia.

Vice President Kamala Harris has opened the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington by spotlighting Africa’s youthful population.

Morocco became the first Arab nation and only the fourth African nation to advance to the World Cup quarterfinals by beating Spain 3-0 in a penalty shootout.

African nations want to increase how much money they receive from schemes that offset greenhouse gas emissions and are looking for ways to address the issue at U.N. climate talks currently underway in Egypt.

Scientists say an invasive mosquito species was likely responsible for a large outbreak of malaria in Ethiopia earlier this year.

Zimbabwe says it's on the brink of its biggest wheat harvest in history, thanks in large part to efforts to overcome food supply problems caused by the war in Ukraine.

Africa must plan to respond effectively to disease outbreaks without outside help, a top public health official said Wednesday, warning that the continent of 1.3 billion people is “on its own” during pandemics.

The former Irish President has called on African nations to pile on the pressure on rich, heavily-polluting countries to fulfill their climate pledges to the continent during a visit to Uganda.

Rich countries said they will spend about $25 billion by 2025 to boost Africa’s efforts to adapt to climate change as the continent continues to struggle with drought, cyclones and extreme heat, according to officials at a summit in Rotterdam in the Netherlands on Monday.

Marine Gen. Michael Langley took over as the top U.S. commander for Africa Tuesday, heading U.S. military operations on a continent with some of the most active and dangerous insurgent groups and a relatively small Pentagon footprint.

Africa’s public health agency says it doesn’t know how many of the continent’s reported monkeypox cases this year are in men who have sex with men.

Russia’s foreign minister said his country supports reforming the U.N. Security Council to give a more powerful role to developing nations, including African countries.

French President Emmanuel Macron is traveling to Cameroon, Benin and Guinea-Bissau.

The World Health Organization is convening its emergency committee to consider for the second time within weeks whether the expanding outbreak of monkeypox should be declared a global crisis.

Officials are meeting in Kigali in Rwanda this week as part of the continent’s first-ever Africa Protected Areas Congress in a bid to expand the protection of land and marine wildlife, despite little funding and the low quality of many existing conservation areas in the region.

Malaysian authorities say they have seized a container of African elephant tusks, pangolin scales and other animal skulls and bones estimated to be worth around $18 million.

Get ready for music in the air, colorful art, fashion and fabulous food during Detroit’s largest celebration of African culture. The Wright’s African World Festival returns this weekend for the 39th year.

Better climate-related research and early warning systems are needed as extreme weather — from cyclones to drought — continues to inflict the African continent, said Sudanese billionaire and philanthropist Mo Ibrahim, who heads up his own foundation.

Health authorities in Europe, North America, Israel and Australia have identified more than 100 cases of monkeypox in recent days.

In a bid to protect coastal communities from climate change and encourage investment, African nations are increasingly turning to mangrove restoration projects, with Mozambique becoming the latest addition to the growing list of countries with large scale mangrove initiatives.

The Homeland Security Department says people from Cameroon will be temporarily shielded from deportation.

Renewable energy's potential across the African continent remains largely untapped, according to a new report by the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Nearly 60 years ago, a historic Black community founded as a home for people emancipated after the Civil War was demolished for a national park commemorating both the Battle of New Orleans and Civil War casualties.

Far from the icy battlefields of Ukraine, Russia President Vladimir Putin is busily advancing Russia's footholds and influence in Africa and the Middle East.

European Union leaders are using a short summit meeting to assess the chances of diplomacy to unlock the standoff over Ukraine and discuss sanctions in case Russian invades its neighbor.

Mozambique, Madagascar and Malawi are counting the deaths and damage by tropical storm Ana and more than a week of heavy rains across southern Africa.

The director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that at least 2.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines donated to the continent's countries have expired, citing short shelf lives as the major reason.

Researchers studying the wreckage of the last U.S. slave ship on the Alabama coast have made a surprising discovery.

Authorities in Nigeria have announced that the West African country will no longer accept COVID-19 vaccines with short shelf lives after it was unable to use 1 million doses before they expired.

South Africa’s regulatory authority has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as a booster shot, opening the way for third doses to be administered to battle the current surge driven by the omicron variant.

The director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says African governments might have to resort to COVID-19 vaccine mandates if their citizens don’t hurry to get the increasingly available doses.

South African doctors say the rapid increase in COVID-19 cases attributed to the new omicron variant is resulting in mostly mild symptoms.

Israel's prime minister says the country is “on the threshold of an emergency situation” after authorities detected its first case of a new coronavirus variant in a traveler who returned from Malawi.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has begun his first official visit to Africa with an appeal for the preservation of democracy in politically and ethnically fractured societies.

Moderna says it will make up to 110 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine available to African countries.

Here are this morning's top stories.

A New York man was sentenced to prison for trafficking exotic African cats -- some of which were the same breed as the ones that escaped from a home in Royal Oak last week, authorities said.

A Royal Woman was issued five tickets after four African caracal cats escaped from her home Wednesday.

Police said it was the third time the cats have escaped.

Here are this morning's top stories.

A large African caracal that escaped from its owner’s home in Royal Oak was located late Wednesday night near a garage on Altaneda Avenue.

Here are tonight's top stories.

The owner whose African caracal is currently on the loose in Royal Oak owns several of the cats, and they have escaped at least three times, police said.

A large African caracal has been spotted on the loose in Royal Oak, police said.

President Joe Biden is set to hold his first bilateral talks as president with an African leader on Thursday.

African health officials are optimistic that the world’s first malaria vaccine endorsed by the World Health Organization will “dramatically change” the way the continent of 1.3 billion people fights the disease.

The World Health Organization has endorsed the world’s first malaria vaccine and said it should be given to children across Africa in the hope that it will spur stalled efforts to curb the spread of the parasitic disease.

Zimbabwe is allowing bars to reopen for the first time in more than a year, but only fully vaccinated people will be allowed to take a swig from inside the premises.

Many employers in Zimbabwe are mandating COVID-19 vaccines for their staff, and the government has its own requirement that its 500,000 employees get the shots.

The Africa director of the World Health Organization says the continent was able to triple its COVID-19 vaccination rate over the past week, helped by growing numbers of donations of doses from developed countries.

Zimbabwe is opening COVID-19 vaccinations to those aged 14 and older and is only permitting fully vaccinated people to eat in restaurants, to encourage more people to get shots, as a devastating wave of the disease recedes.

The U.N. human rights chief is urging countries worldwide to do more to help end discrimination, violence and systemic racism against people of African descent and “make amends” to them — including through reparations.

On a visit to South Africa, French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed his country will provide millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses to help African countries speed up their inoculation drives.

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced the cancellation of Sudan’s $5 billion debt to France in an effort to support the country’s transitional leadership and help its crippled economy recovering.

The killing of President Idriss Deby Itno has left his son in charge of the central African nation of Chad.

The head of the U.N. refugee agency says he has urged Italy not to unnecessarily impede NGOs that operate migrant rescue ships in the central Mediterranean, as warmer weather is expected to bring the usual seasonal uptick in the departure of smugglers’ boats from Libya.

An AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is administered at the Ndirande Health Centre in Blantyre Malawi, Monday, March 29, 2021. Malawi is vaccinating health care workers, elderly and those with health conditions that put them at higher risk of severe COVID-19, using the AstraZeneca doses that arrived early in March. COVAX has largely relied on distributing the AstraZeneca vaccine, because it is cheaper and only requires ordinary refrigeration. Nkengasong said it is not yet known what impact the uncertainty might have for scheduling second doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in African countries. AdIf those 400 million people receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, it would represent more than half the continent's goal of 750 million, Nkengasong said.

A digital runway show by five Italian fashion designers of African origin opens Milan Fashion Week on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2020, one tangible result of a campaign launched last summer by the only Black Italian designer belonging to the Italian fashion chamber. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, file)MILAN – A digital runway show by five Italian fashion designers of African origin opens Milan Fashion Week on Wednesday, one tangible result of a campaign launched last summer by the only Black Italian designer belonging to the Milan fashion chamber. “When you want to do something, you can do them immediately,’’ said Jean, one of the founders of the Black Lives Matter in Italian Fashion campaign. The collaboration with the Italian fashion council will continue in September, when five new designers from Italy’s minority communities will be featured during fashion week. AdSteele said Black designers are also under-represented in the United States, despite the role that Black culture has had on inspiring fashion there.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – From Ann Arbor to Africa one local student raised enough money in two months to build a school more than 8,000 miles away. The student’s mission of building the school was made possible through a viral social media video he created. I was like we should try to build a school in a developing country,” said Simon Kim, a University of Michigan student. I’m like we’re going to build a school. Once the money was raised, a partnership formed with a non-profit called Build On, which has experience in Malawi.

(AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)BEIJING – Chinese state TV included dancers in blackface portraying Africans in a holiday gala for the second time in three years, prompting criticism online, as Asia welcomed the Year of the Ox with muted festivities amid travel curbs to contain renewed coronavirus outbreaks. The “African Song and Dance” performance Thursday came at start of the Spring Festival Gala, one of the world’s most-watched TV programs. It included Chinese dancers in African-style costumes and dark face makeup beating drums. But China Central Television has faced criticism over using blackface to depict African people in past New Year broadcasts. The Commerce Ministry said it found 48 million more people in Chinese cities planned to celebrate where they live instead of traveling.

That is what happened to me after Tati recommended I try the Senegalese food for the first time at Maty’s African cuisine. Maty’s African Cuisine was the only Senegalese restaurant in Metro Detroit at the time it opened. They wanted to own their own restaurant, and finally, after years of working at chain restaurants, Amady and Maty were able to open up Maty’s African Cuisine on Detroit’s north side. Right now Maty’s African cuisine is offering dine-in and takeout, you can place your order by calling (313) 472-5885. Maty’s African cuisine is located at 21611 Grand River Ave, Detroit, MI 48219.

(AP Photo/Jerome Delay)JOHANNESBURG – Shipping containers have become overflow mortuaries for the dead from COVID-19 in South Africa, while some other African nations are now looking to China for the next wave of vaccine doses. President Cyril Ramaphosa said more vaccine doses will arrive in the coming months from the global COVAX facility, the African Union's vaccine acquisition task team and direct purchases from manufacturers. AdNeighboring Zimbabwe will be among the first countries to receive China's COVID-19 vaccine, the country's ambassador said Tuesday, as the southern African country reels from a deadly resurgence of the coronavirus. A top Zimbabwean official recently said the government had budgeted $100 million to buy around 20 million doses. There are fears that the new, more infectious variant of the virus arrived when scores of thousands of Zimbabweans living in South Africa returned home for the holiday season.

Plastic surgeon Daniel Suver receives the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine from Andrea Castelblanco during a vaccine clinic on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020, at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska. Anchorage is averaging about 60 new COVID-19 cases a day, said Dr. Janet Johnston, the epidemiologist for the Anchorage Health Department. More than 90 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine will be produced in Japan. Ad___SACRAMENTO -- California reported its second-highest number of COVID-19 deaths — while the rates of new coronavirus infections and hospitalizations continue to drop. ___ALBANY, N.Y. — New York may have undercounted COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents by thousands.

Tanzania's President John Magufuli openly expressed doubt about COVID-19 vaccines and accused people who were vaccinated outside the East African nation of bringing new infections into the country. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)NAIROBI – Tanzania’s president says God has eliminated COVID-19 in his country. But pandemic concerns have returned to the spotlight in Tanzania as the world focuses on the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines. “Vaccines are inappropriate.” He urged the health ministry not to rush into vaccinations without being satisfied about their safety. AdAfrican health officials were already worried about misinformation campaigns around COVID-19 vaccines as the first doses begin arriving on the continent of 1.3 billion people.

COMMERCE TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Michigan’s medical community came together to help a child in need. Christ Thiobino came to Michigan about 3 years ago and he was fitted with prosthetic legs at the University of Michigan. “He’s really been walking around mostly on his hands over the last several months, waiting on his new legs,” Webb said. Christ needs to re-learn how to walk with newly fitted legs. The Children’s Medical Mission Network of Ohio sponsored the mission effort.

NAIROBI – “It will be extremely terrible to see” rich countries receiving COVID-19 vaccines while African countries go without, especially as a new surge in cases begins on the continent of 1.3 billion people, Africa’s top public health official said Thursday. He has warned that the coronavirus could become endemic in Africa if vaccinations take too long. Africa's 54 countries now have a total of more than 2.3 million confirmed infections, including 100,000 in the past week. The U.S. has said the waiver would be a “broad and unprecedented step,” according to notes from an internal WTO meeting last month. “It’s like inviting someone to dinner and giving them a plate but then keeping all the food.”___Maria Cheng in London contributed.

MOSCOW – Russia has signed an agreement with Sudan to establish a navy base in the African nation for at least a quarter century, part of Moscow's efforts to expand its global reach. The deal published Tuesday on the official portal of government documents allows Russia to simultaneously keep up to four navy ships, including nuclear-powered ones, in Port Sudan on the Red Sea. The document states that the Russian navy base should “help strengthen peace and stability in the region” and isn’t directed against any third parties. In exchange for Sudan's permission to set up the base, Russia will provide Sudan with weapons and military equipment. After signing the agreement that allows Russia to keep up to 11 warships there, it has moved to modernize and expand the facility.

Tigray women who fled a conflict in the Ethiopia's Tigray region, wait to receive aid at Village 8, the transit centre near the Lugdi border crossing, eastern Sudan, Sunday, Nov. 22, 2020. Meanwhile, hundreds if not thousands of people have been killed, some 40,000 people have fled into Sudan and the U.N. says 2 million people in the sealed-off Tigray region urgently need help. I mean, our goal is a quick end to the conflict," Nagy told reporters late last week. In a rare intervention on an African issue, Trump told the State Department to suspend millions of dollars of aid to Ethiopia and asserted that Egypt would “blow up” the dam. But where Ethiopia will be by the time Biden takes office two months from now is unknown.

Getting a massage at Rejuvenation Station is fairly different than many massage spas in Metro Detroit. A cousin of hers gifted her a massage when she retired and Winfrey-Moore said “that massage changed her life". “I worked in every sector of massage therapy before opening up my spa and I wanted to incorporate all of it," said Winfrey-Moore. “I encourage all young entrepreneurs to go into their own massage businesses, it is extremely rewarding.”To see other inspiring local businesses and recommendations, go to our Vote 4 The Best page. Our Sponsor -- We’d like to thank Wallside Windows for their longtime sponsorship of Vote 4 the Best and their support of southeast Michigan’s local businesses.

In exchange, Trump notified Congress on Friday of his intent to remove Sudan from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. Previously, the Trump administration engineered diplomatic pacts between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain — the first since Jordan recognized Israel in the 1990s and Egypt in the 1970s. “This is one of the great days in the history of Sudan,” Trump said, adding that Israel and Sudan have been in a state of hostilities for decades, even if they had not been in direct conflict. “Today, Khartoum is saying yes to peace with Israel, yes to recognition of Israel and yes to normalization with Israel," Netanyahu said. "This is a new era, an era of true peace — peace that is proceeding and widening with additional Arab countries.

Diyabanza was fined 2,000 euros ($2,320) for trying to take a 19th-century African funeral pole from a Paris museum. He streamed the incident online in a protest against colonial-era injustice like the plundering of African art. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)PARIS – A Congolese activist was fined 2,000 euros ($2,320) on Wednesday for trying to take a 19th-century African funeral pole from a Paris museum in a protest against colonial-era injustice that he streamed online. In the Quai Branly protest, Diyabanza and other activists dislodged the funeral pole from its perch while he gave a livestreamed speech about plundered African art. The presiding judge insisted the trial should focus on the specific funeral pole incident and that his court wasn’t competent to judge France’s colonial era.

“Corruption and tax avoidance are rampant,” said former Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė, a panel co-chair. “Our weakness in tackling corruption and financial crime has been further exposed by ... COVID-19,” said former Niger prime minister Ibrahim Mayaki, a panel co-chair. “Resources to stop the spread, keep people alive and put food on tables are instead lost to corruption and abuse. ___4:55 p.m.China, the United States and Russia have traded allegations at the United Nations about who mishandled and politicized the coronavirus pandemic. Sarraj delivered his prerecorded remarks to the world body’s first-ever virtual General Assembly from Tripoli, where his U.N.-backed government is based.

In this Aug. 26, 2020, photo provided by Dean King, Spartacus his pet exotic African serval cat, stands up to look at a coffeemaker in his home in Merrimack, N.H. The 40-pound (18-kilogram) serval cat has been found safe and sound after escaping from his home on Wednesday, Sept. 9, and spending days in the New Hampshire wild. (Lisa King via AP)MERRIMACK, N.H. – A 40-pound (18-kilogram) African serval cat named Spartacus has been found safe and sound after escaping from his home and spending days in the New Hampshire wild. The family owns the cat legally and has a permit from the state’s department of fish and game, police said. Spartacus lives indoors, spending the days in an enclosure and roaming the family house at night.

(AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)DAKAR More than 80 African migrants have been rescued after being found in a remote stretch of the Sahara Desert where hundreds of others have died along the perilous journey in recent years, the International Organization for Migration said Tuesday. The 41 females from Nigeria, including twin 4-year-old girls, and 42 males from Nigeria, Togo, Mali and Ghana, were in distress, dehydrated and in need of medical assistance when they were found last week, the U.N. migration agency said. The migrants rescued last Thursday were found in an isolated place far from any form of life, he said. Since 2016, more than 1,870 migrants have been rescued through operations in Nigers desert, among them more than 400 this year alone, the U.N. agency said. It is impossible to know how many migrants have died attempting to cross the Sahara.

JOHANNESBURG Locusts are threatening another part of Africa, with up to 7 million people in the southern region facing further food insecurity, the United Nations said Friday. The outbreaks of African migratory locusts in Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe are not related to the huge outbreak of billions of desert locusts that has affected East Africa for months, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said. While far smaller, the southern outbreaks need quick attention to prevent a wider problem as farmers and others already struggle to recover from a serious drought last year and the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.N. agency said in a statement. Swarms of the voracious insects can eat enough food for 2,500 people in a day, according to a separate Food and Agriculture Organization document on the southern Africa outbreaks. Some of the worst-affected areas are very difficult to reach, FAO southern Africa coordinator Patrice Talla said.

CAIRO U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Sudan on Tuesday, the top U.S. official to visit the African country since last year's ouster of its autocratic leader, Omar al-Bashir. Pompeo's visit on Tuesday is meant to discuss the normalization of ties between Sudan and Israel and also show U.S. support for the country's fragile transition to democracy. Pompeo is also the first U.S. secretary of state to visit the African county since 2005, when Condoleezza Rice visited. Pompeo was also to discuss the removal of Sudan from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. Sudan is now on a fragile path to democracy after the popular uprising led the military to overthrow al-Bashir in April 2019.

Her friend Lea Tavares Mujinga was even younger the day her mother was forced to give her up: just a 2-year-old toddler. We have been destroyed, both morally and psychologically, Bitu Bingi told The Associated Press on Monday, the eve of the 60th anniversary of Congos independence on June 30, 1960. Excuses are not enough.Now in their 70s, Bitu Bingi and Tavares Mujinga want reparations. There, Tavares Mujinga was reunited with her older brother, who had been seized a few years earlier. Bitu Bingi recalls that food was scarce, and rare were the days when she could properly wash.We did not know how chicken tasted.

Today we took a trip back to when photographer Alex Atwell took us to a spot thats Uniquely Detroit. The museum is called Dabls Mbad African Bead Museum. We have one goal which was to expose the culture of African people to the people of Detroit, said owner Olayami Dabls. Some of the items in the museum are extremely rare. Watch the video above to see some of the unique beads at the gallery.

The Grade II-listed, brightly painted memorial to Scipio Africanus have been smashed and a message was scrawled in chalk on flagstones nearby. (Ben Birchall/PA via AP)LONDON British officials said Thursday the grave of an enslaved African man has been vandalised in an apparent retaliation attack after protesters in the city of Bristol toppled the statue of a prominent slave trader. Two headstones in memory of Scipio Africanus, who lived in Bristol in the 18th century, were smashed. This looks like a retaliation attack for the recent events involving the Colston statue, local official Mark Weston said. During his life, Scipio Africanus was a servant to Charles Howard, the 7th Earl of Suffolk.

GENEVA African nations have prepared a draft resolution at the U.N.s top human rights body that singles out the United States and would launch intense international scrutiny of systemic racism against people of African descent in the wake of recent high-profile killings of blacks by American police. The draft text, a copy of which has been obtained by The Associated Press, could become the centerpiece for an urgent debate hastily scheduled for Wednesday for the Geneva-based Human Rights Council. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the 47-member body two years ago, accusing it of an anti-Israel bias and of accepting members from some autocratic governments that are serial rights violators. On Monday, the council agreed unanimously to hold the urgent debate on racially inspired human rights violations, systemic racism, police brutality and the violence against peaceful protests in the wake of the George Floyd killing in the United States. ___Follow all AP coverage of stories about racial injustice and police brutality at https://apnews.com/GeorgeFloyd.

LEWISTON, ME A city in Maine that is home to thousands of African newcomers has elected a Somali American to its city council. Safiya Khalid (sah-FEE'-yah kah-LEED') soundly defeated a fellow Democrat on Tuesday for a seat on the Lewiston City Council. She says her victory is proof that "community organizers beat internet trolls." The 23-year-old Khalid was subject of social media criticism and threats, much of it originating outside Maine. Somalis fleeing war and famine began settling two decades ago in Maine's second-largest city.

Stripes help cows avoid pesky fly bites, a new study found. Black cows painted to look like zebras are significantly less likely to endure pesky horse fly bites nearly 50% less, according to a new study published in PLOS One. A team of Japanese researchers recruited six cows and gave them each black-and-white stripes, black stripes and no stripes. While unpainted cows and cows with black stripes endured upward of 110 bites in 30 minutes, the black-and-white cows suffered fewer than 60 in the same period, researchers found. Fly bites cost the cattle industry billionsWhen helpless cows are the victims of fly bites, it stings the humans who own them, too.

An African penguin is seen at the breeding area at Boulders Beach in Simon's Town, South Africa. But this one, about two particular penguins from the Maryland Zoo interning at New York- based publisher Penguin Random House is one of the best ones you'll hear. The African Penguins were brought over from the zoo in Baltimore and were nothing if not productive members of the publisher's book distribution center. The Maryland Zoo maintains the largest colony of African penguins in North America, the zoo's website says. Since 1967, more than 1,000 African penguins have hatched there.