Madagascar News

Johannesburg - A category four tropical storm, Cyclone Giovanna, is expected to make landfall on 14 February close to the Madagascan east coast town of Toamasina and thereafter head for the capital Antananarivo.

The potentially devastating winds, rain and storm tide of Tropical Cyclone Giovanna will be brought to bear on eastern Madagascar Monday.

Madagascar's ousted president was helped by South Africa to import crowd control weapons before he lost power, WikiLeaks has revealed.

As of 1500 GMT, Tropical Cyclone Giovanna was located approximately 290 miles northeast of La Reunion and is slowly tracking to the west-southwest at about 6 mph.

Madagascar's transitional president, Andry Rajoelina, is facing internal revolt in his inner circle as he battles to stave off implementation of the SADC elections roadmap and hold on to power on the troubled island.

"Of all the people on the earth, members of this Church should know more about Jesus Christ than anyone else," Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles told Latter-day Saints in Africa as he fulfilled an assignment to meet with members, missionaries, and leaders in Madagascar and Malawi.

Antananarivo - A campaign against the plague - the first of its kind - was launched on 2 February in two Malagasy detention centres with support from the International Committee of the Red Cross .

COUNTRY DESCRIPTION: Madagascar is a developing island nation off the east coast of Africa.

Southern African leaders have intervened to ease tensions in Madagascar, urging the main political players to speed up implementation of a roadmap intended to restore constitutional order in the country.

Former Madagascar First Lady Lalao Ravalomanana was banned from boarding an Airlink flight at Oliver Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg while planning to return home on Sunday.

When the African Union's election rules forced South Africa's Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to end her bid to become chairperson of the AU in Addis Ababa this week, local media claimed it was because South Africa's Africa policy was weak and directionless.

TALATA, 31 January 2012 - Ernest Rakotoarivony, 45, was teased by some members of the Talata community, a small town 30km north of Madagascar's capital Antananarivo, after breaking with traditional rice cultivation methods and employing a technique taught to him by a Jesuit priest.

Office space provider Regus has opened a business centre in Madagascar, bringing up to 95 the number of countries in which it operates.

Tropical cyclone, Funso presently in the Mozambique Channel has hit the south-western Madagascar forcing about 3,000 people in the district of Morombe to move out their residency zone.

Antananarivo - Exiled former Madagascar President Marc Ravalomanana could be pardoned, the island nation's Prime Minister said on return from crisis talks held in South Africa.

Madagascar's transitional leader Andry Rajoelina came under renewed pressure on Thursday to allow the return of the man he ousted from power three years ago, with an amnesty to keep him out of prison.

A rare outfit made from spider silk will go on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London on Wednesday.

The men stand around Madagascar's biggest weekly zebu market, some wrapped in blankets with locally woven trilby-style hats, some in basketball shorts and anoraks, leaning on sticks.

Mediation talks on the political crisis in Madagascar sponsored by regional body SADC should allow ousted president Marc Ravalomanana's return from exile by February 29, 2012, a close aide said Wednesday.

Malagasy citizens anxiously witnessed former President Marc Ravalomanana's attempt to return home after three years in exile, last Saturday.