Africa News

ABUJA (AFP) - Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua is due to travel to Saudi Arabia late Monday for a medical check-up, his office said.

DUBLIN (AFP) - World champions South Africa on Monday put off naming the team to play Six Nations Grand Slam holders Ireland this Saturday in Dublin because of an injury crisis which forced them to cancel training.

BRASILIA (AFP) - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday began a controversial visit to Brazil, the key leg of a tour to sympathetic Latin American and African countries he sees backing Tehran's vision of "a new world order."

THE HAGUE (AFP) - Lawyers for two Congolese militiamen accused of seeking to wipe out a village blocking a strategic route in an ethnic war, on Monday welcomed start of their trial in The Hague this week as a step towards "the truth".

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A Somali businessman says a ship hijacked by pirates off East Africa two weeks ago has been released.

ASABA, Nigeria (AFP) - A judge failed to turn up to preside over a high-profile Nigerian corruption trial on Monday, causing the second postponement in the case in a month.

KHARTOUM (AFP) - Sudan's National Electoral Commission said on Sunday it is giving people another week to register to vote in the country's first elections in 24 years, scheduled for April.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan on Sunday announced a six-day delay to long-awaited elections to make up for hold-ups in registering millions of voters in the oil-producing country.

ALGIERS (AFP) - An Algiers court on Sunday cleared two men held at Guantanamo Bay for seven years, according to a legal source.

BANJUL (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Gambia on Sunday for a 24-hour working visit aimed at fostering relations between the Islamic republic and the West African nation.

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Two men who had been held for seven years in the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay on suspicion of belonging to an extremist group were acquitted in an Algerian court on Sunday, state media reported.

CENTURION, South Africa (AFP) - Paul Collingwood, making a record 171st one-day appearance for England, hit a century, took two wickets and held a superb catch as England gained a comfortable seven-wicket win over South Africa in the second one-international at SuperSport Park on Sunday.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Israel's president said on Sunday expanding Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank was a "marginal" issue blocking resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians.

ALGIERS, Algeria - An Algerian court on Sunday acquitted two former detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who were returned home to face charges of links to terrorism, their defense lawyer said.

MONROVIA, Liberia - Hundreds of people jammed into a Monrovia church to mourn a Liberian United Nations worker killed in an October attack by Taliban gunmen in Afghanistan's capital.

UDINE, Italy (AFP) - South Africa coach Peter de Villiers and captain John Smit agreed that the world champions were back on track following their 32-10 win over Italy here.

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - South Africa plans to create special courts dedicated to handling crimes committed during the World Cup, aiming to speed up the judicial process, especially for cases involving foreigners.

MADRID (AFP) - Western Sahara activist Aminatou Haidar has declined an offer by Madrid to grant her refugee status following her expulsion from the territory by Morocco, a representative said Saturday.

CAIRO (AFP) - President Hosni Mubarak vowed on Saturday that Egypt will be firm in dealing with attacks on its nationals, amid hot tempers and a diplomatic spat with Algeria over a World Cup football showdown.

KIGALI (Reuters) - Survivor groups from Rwanda's 1994 genocide say they may stop sending witnesses to the U.N. tribunal in Tanzania, in protest at the court's recent acquittals of two genocide suspects.

CAIRO (AFP) - Protesters injured dozens of police near the Algerian embassy in Egypt's capital on Friday, fanning the flames of a diplomatic spat that erupted after Algeria won a football World Cup qualifier.

ABUJA (AFP) - The European Commission has signed a 677 million euro (one billion dollar) deal to help Nigeria tackle challenges in its restive oil-producing region, promoting peace, good governance and trade, the EU said Friday.

LUANDA (AFP) - World Cup qualifiers Ghana and Ivory Coast will clash in the first round of the African Nations Cup after the draw here Friday placed them in Group B with Burkina Faso and Togo.

GENEVA (AFP) - Swiss authorities said Friday that they had ordered some 350 million dollars of assets to be seized from the son of the late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha for graft.

GOMA, Congo - Conservationists say Congolese schoolchildren will soon be able to take a closer look at baby mountain gorillas.

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - A senior United States official voiced concerns on Friday about the restrictions on opposition parties and human rights abuses in Ethiopia ahead of elections next year.

CAIRO (AFP) - Egyptian police shot and killed a Bedouin in north Sinai on Friday after the arrest of fellow tribesmen prompted clashes, a security official told AFP.

Johannesburg, South Africa - In South Africa, New Moon opening night doesn't hit until Nov. 27, a week after its appearance in the United States. But Dhalyn, an American 8th-grader attending a private school in Johannesburg, says she will simply re-read the book while she waits, and maybe watch some of the trailers available on the Internet.

CAIRO (AFP) - Egypt, whose state-owned media staked so much on qualifying for the World Cup finals for the first time in two decades, vented its anguish in an escalating diplomatic row with its Algerian vanquishers.