The half-dozen strangers who descended on this remote West African village brought its hand-to-mouth farmers alarming news: their humble fields, tilled from one generation to the next, were now controlled by Libya

Dec.

Neil MacFarquhar

Stunned villagers are finding that governments have been leasing land, often for decades.

The half-dozen strangers who descended on this remote West African village brought its hand-to-mouth farmers alarming news: their humble fields, tilled from one generation to the next, were now controlled by Libya's leader, Col.

NEIL MACFARQUHAR
SOUMOUNI (MALI)

A World Bank study tallied farmland deals covering at least 110 million acres announced during the first 11 months of 2009 alone.
The half-dozen strangers who descended on this remote West African village brought its hand-tomouth farmers alarming news: their humble fields, tilled from one generation to the next, were now controlled by Libya's leader, Col.

Malaria is in retreat in many countries of sub-Saharan Africa after a huge effort in the last two years to get bed nets and indoor spraying into areas where the disease is endemic, but the gains are fragile, according to the World Health Organisation.

Malaria cases or hospital admissions and deaths have been cut by half in 11 African countries over the past decade, the WHO's world malaria repor

In the season of scams, list another one: the Central Bureau of Investigation has been asked to probe allegations of corruption and fraud in the