Africa News Headlines

Egypt's presidential election frontrunners were vying for deals with rival candidates Sunday in a bid to appease a polarised nation that will choose between an Islamist and a Mubarak-era minister in a June runoff.

Tens of thousands of Moroccans took to the streets of Casablanca on Sunday in the largest opposition protest since an Islamist-led government took office, reflecting mounting tensions over unemployment and other social woes.

Gunmen shot dead three card players in the northern Nigerian city of Kano, which has been rocked by deadly attacks blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram in recent months, police said Sunday.

Hardline Islamists, who have been running rampage in Tunisian towns, torching police stations and attacking bars, have sparked an outcry against the authorities for their lax attitude in stemming the violence.

Mali's embattled transitional government on Sunday rejected a rebel alliance's declaration of an Islamic state in the vast desert north, a move that has plunged the nation closer to breakup two months after a coup.

Lesotho looked set for its first coalition government after closely fought general elections this weekend, with early returns showing Sunday that no party would win a majority in a three-way race.

A Cairo criminal court on Sunday sentenced ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's former chief of staff to seven years in jail on corruption charges, a judicial source told AFP.

Campaign banners from an election that was violently interrupted still hang in the main thoroughfare of this steamy capital, a reminder that a stable government is far from the country's grasp.

Share prices on the Egypt Exchange declined almost 3.5 percent on Sunday, a day after the first results of a landmark presidential election.

South African George Coetzee was the best of the early starters as the final round of the PGA Championship got under way here at Wentworth on Sunday.

Ernie Els apologised on Sunday for his foul-mouthed criticism of the watering of the course here at Wentworth during the PGA Championship.

Rescuers have recovered the bodies of 10 illegal diamond miners who were killed in a disused mine tunnel earlier in the week in the Northern Cape province, officials said.

Police on Tanzania's archipelago of Zanzibar appealed for calm Sunday after violent clashes with protesters calling for the independence of the islands left several injured.

The two rebel groups that seized control of the northern half of Mali announced Saturday that they have agreed to fuse their movements and work together to create an independent Islamic state on the territory they occupy, a signatory to the agreement said.

The apparent winners of the first round of Egypt's landmark presidential vote reached out to rival candidates on Saturday ahead of a June run-off, as international monitors called the initial voting process "encouraging."

Former Guinea-Bissau armed forces chief Jose Zamora Induta has fled to a neighbouring country following the coup in his troubled country last month, officials said on Saturday.

Coastal Sharks played themselves back into contention for Super 15 southern hemisphere honours when they beat Western Stormers 25-20 at Kings Park Saturday.

Several thousand people protested across the poor west African country of Burkina Faso on Saturday to denounce a steep spike in the prices of basic food items and petrol.

Dozens of opposition lawmakers walked out of the first session of Algeria's new parliament Saturday, condemning alleged fraud in this month's elections.

Gunmen killed a Muslim cleric and a retired prison guard on Saturday in northeastern Nigeria, residents and a medic said, amid a wave of such killings blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram.

The prime minister of Mali's transition government arrived in Abidjan Saturday for talks with West African bloc head Alassane Ouattara, the president of Ivory Coast, on the Malian crisis.

Ernie Els launched a foul-mouthed rant at PGA Championship officials on Saturday as the South African fumed about the condition of the Wentworth course he helped re-design.

A Voice of America (VOA) reporter and a translator detained while covering a protest in the Ethiopian capital were released from jail on Saturday, VOA said.