BEFORE I landed in Maputo, the images of Mozambique I’d been toying with were predictable.

Dublin has dropped 15 places in a list of the world’s most expensive cities to live in.

DUBLIN has plunged in the rankings of one of the most expensive places in the world to live.

DUBLIN is the 42nd most expensive city in the world to live in, according to a worldwide survey of 214 cities.

Dublin is the 42nd most expensive place in the world for foreign workers, according to the latest international cost-of-living survey.

Chelsea will know the extent of Michael Essien’s injury by Friday.

CHELSEA have confirmed Michael Essien is out of the African Nations Cup with a knee injury.

Angola and Algeria both advanced to the quarter-finals of the African Nations Cup thanks to a goalless draw in Luanda, with Mali crashing out despite picking up their first win of the competition.

Chelsea have yet to make any comment following Ghanaian claims that midfielder Michael Essien will be out for at least a month

TOGO’S Prime Minister Gilbert Huongbo has denied his country wants to re-enter the Africa Cup of Nations.

Dublin: Irish sportsground surfacing company SIS IRL has signed a new contract in Angola for €7.7 million to provide maintenance services and equipment to all of the African Championship training facilities, including three first division clubs, new synthetic pitches and upgrading of pitches in the capital Luanda.

AN Angolan advertising agency has given Homer Simpson and his family an African makeover.

AN Irish company has landed a €20 million contract to design and build pitches for the African Cup of Nations football tournament next year.

Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass today with an estimated one million Angolans and decried the “clouds of evil” over Africa that have spawned war, tribalism and ethnic rivalry that reduce poor people to slavery.

Tens of thousands of Angola’s Catholics lined the streets of the capital for a blessing from Pope Benedict XVI, who urged the country’s faithful to reach out and convert people who believed in witchcraft.

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he will return to his homeland – despite threats to his life – to take part in a presidential run-off against President Robert Mugabe that could defeat the long-time leader.

Rap superstar 50 Cent had his diamond-encrusted chain stolen by an overzealous fan during a recent concert in the African country of Angola.

A woman who lost part of her leg when she stepped on a booby trap bomb has won Angola’s Miss Landmine Survivor contest.

The star-studded concert in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales will be an “incredible” night of music, Prince William and Prince Harry said today.

Angolan authorities could be planning to forcibly evict thousands of squatters living in the capital Luanda in a Mugabe-style slum clearance over the Christmas holiday, aid agency Christian Aid has warned.

Ken Early reports from Luanda on Angolan attitudes to their World Cup foes and former colonial masters Portugal.

The death toll from a cholera outbreak in Angola has hit 1,109 and the disease has spread to another province, officials said today.

The UN health agency said today that a case of polio has been found in Angola, the first discovered in the country in four years.

British Airways ushered in a new era of expansion today with its first new long-haul service for nearly three years.

The death toll from an outbreak of the rare Marburg virus in Angola has climbed to 244, authorities said.

AS epidemiologist Sylvia Briand boots up to take samples from a prospective victim of the deadly Marburg virus in a cramped Angolan slum, family and neighbours stand by in fear, grief and fascination.

FEAR and ignorance are fuelling the world’s deadliest outbreak of Marburg fever in Angola, where locals are too suspicious of medics in “astronaut” suits to let them take away infected loved ones, aid workers said yesterday.

ANGOLA looked set to equal if not break the record of deaths from the Ebola-like Marburg virus with the number of deaths rising to 122, just one short of the most serious outbreak ever.

CURTIS FLEMING could be set for a return to the eircom League.

FRANCE’S foreign minister yesterday swung through Africa lobbying against a conflict in Iraq.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow for the first-ever UK-Angola air service.

A military plane crashed near Luena in southeastern Angola today killing 30 people, a Portuguese radio station reported.

Gunmen in Angola have killed 91 people after a landmine attack on a train carrying hundreds of refugees.

At least 16 refugees died and 56 have been injured in an ambush on a train in Angola.

Rescue crews are working through pouring rain and thick fog to recover the bodies of 16 people who died when their plane slammed into a mountain.