Military leaders claim to have dissolved the government of Madagascar while citizens vote in a referendum on a draft constitution that would allow the current president to stay in power until next year.
From wiki extract:
Most archaeologists believe Madagascar was first inhabited sometime 300 BC–500 AD, by Austronesian peoples arriving on outrigger canoes from Borneo and Sulawesi in the Indonesian archipelago. Soon afterwards, Bantu migrants crossed the Mozambique Channel and the population of the island began to mix. Later Arab and East African migrants were added to the mix. Madagascar was ruled by the local Merina kingdom in the 19th century and was part of the French colonial empire from 1890 to 1960, when the current Republic of Madagascar became independent.
The main religions are (Approximately 50% practice) Malagasy mythology and Christianity (today about 45% of the Malagasy are Christian, divided almost evenly between Catholics and Protestants)but there also minorities of other religions, most significantly Islam (constitutes 10 to 15 percent of the population).
