CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Standard Chartered wants to open its first branch in Mozambique next year, part of an aggressive expansion campaign that will help double revenues from its African business over the next five years, an official said on Thursday. "Africa is in our DNA and we think Mozambique is natural evolution in expanding our network here," V Shankar, the bank's head of Europe, Middle East, Africa and Americas operations, said. "I would be surprised and disappointed if we were not there by the end of 2014," he told Reuters on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum Africa meeting. ...

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Mozambique's rhinoceros population was wiped out more than a century ago by big game hunters. Reconstituted several years ago, the beasts again are on the brink of vanishing from the country by poachers seeking their horns for sale in Asia.

By Alain Iloniaina ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Madagascar's former president Didier Ratsiraka will contest national elections in July in a bid to become the Indian Ocean island state's leader for the third time, his supporters said on Saturday. Madagascar has been in crisis since Andry Rajoelina, now president, led an uprising that ousted former President Marc Ravalomanana from office in 2009, triggering turmoil that scared off investors and devastated the vital tourism sector. ...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has spent much of his first month as pope charming ordinary Catholics with his ordinary yet extraordinary papal ways and making clear he is very much the boss when it comes to decisions as small as the shoes he wears to where he rests his head at night.