World: Africa

CARDIFF (AFP) - Kevin Pietersen warned his England team that he won't tolerate them sliding into a comfort zone after wrapping up the one-day series against South Africa.

KHARTOUM (AFP) - One person was killed and six wounded when residents of a Darfur refugee camp rioted after attacks on aid convoys forced a cutback in their rations, a UN official said on Wednesday.

CARDIFF (AFP) - England claimed the one-day series against South Africa 4-0 after only three overs of the fifth and final match were possible due to heavy rain here Wednesday.

DAKAR, Senegal - More than 1,000 soldiers have left a national park that has been on the front lines of fighting in eastern Congo in a move the park director said was intended to preserve an environment that is home to endangered gorillas, hippos and active volcanoes.

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Zimbabwe's power-sharing talks deadlocked over President Robert Mugabe's desire to retain control of the country's security forces, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said Wednesday.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Geneva's public prosecutor said on Wednesday he was dropping a criminal case against a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi after two North African domestic workers withdrew an assault complaint.

KHARTOUM (AFP) - UN-led peacekeepers have mounted permanent patrols inside a volatile camp for displaced people in Sudan's Darfur amid fears of another raid by government troops, the force said on Wednesday.

LAGOS (AFP) - The wreckage of a plane which went missing six months ago has been found together with the bodies of its three crew members, authorities in the southern Nigerian state of Cross River said Wednesday.

LAGOS (AFP) - Gunmen have kidnapped a three-year-old girl from her father's home in Nigeria's oil hub of Port Harcourt, the military said Wednesday.

BRUSSELS, Belgium - The world's largest steel maker ArcelorMittal SA said Wednesday it would jointly develop a manganese mine in South Africa in a deal worth $432.5 million.

LAGOS (AFP) - English Premiership outfit Everton striker Yakubu Aiyegbeni will captain Nigeria against South Africa in this weekend's 2010 World Cup and African Nations Cup qualifier in Port Elizabeth, officials disclosed on Wednesday.

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has left South Africa after inking a raft of energy agreements with Pretoria, a senior government spokesman said Wednesday.

KINSHASA, Congo - A humanitarian aid flight carrying 17 people crashed while trying to land during a storm in remote eastern Congo and all aboard were feared dead Tuesday, officials said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top U.S. diplomat Condoleezza Rice will make a landmark trip to Libya this week, the first by a U.S. secretary of state in more than half a century, the State Department announced on Tuesday.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - NATO member Italy agreed it would not be used as a base for any attack on Libya under a weekend deal to deepen ties between the two countries, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said.

KINSHASA (Reuters) - A humanitarian plane carrying 17 passengers and crew that went missing in Democratic Republic of Congo has crashed into a mountain and all aboard are feared dead, the flight contractor said on Tuesday.

LAGOS, Nigeria - A U.S. documentary filmmaker was arrested along with his translator and accused of spying after he filmed soldiers in Nigeria's troubled oil region, a military spokesman and media rights organization said Tuesday.

FREETOWN (AFP) - Sierra Leone's President Ernest Koroma signed-off legislation Tuesday to fight corruption in the west African nation, then fulfilled his obligations by handing over a declaration of his assets.

FREETOWN (AFP) - Sierra Leone said Tuesday it is "revising" its policy towards the 300-odd non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in the west African nation from mid-September.

ALGIERS (AFP) - Islamist militants carrying out attacks in Algeria should surrender immediately or be killed, Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said Tuesday.

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe is imposing strict new conditions on humanitarian agencies, despite lifting of a ban on their activities last week, a state-owned newspaper reported Tuesday.

LAGOS (AFP) - The Nigerian military detained an American journalist and his Nigerian interpreter in the country's troubled oil-rich south on suspicion of spying, a media watchdog said Tuesday.

KEBRI DEHAR, Ethiopia (AFP) - UN humanitarian chief John Holmes on Tuesday urged Ethiopia to grant aid groups access to conflict zones in the southern Ogaden region where the army is battling a rebel group.

PRETORIA (AFP) - South Africa and Venezuela signed a key energy deal Tuesday which South African President Thabo Mbeki and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez touted as a "strategic" cooperation.

LAGOS (AFP) - Nigeria skipper Nwankwo Kanu and Joseph Yobo have pulled out of this weekend's 2010 World Cup qualifier in South Africa due to injuries, officials have disclosed.

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Runaway fires driven by strong winds across South Africa at the weekend killed at least 20 people, including two children, media reported Monday.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Solomon Henderson inherited just three things from his birth parents, who left him at an Ethiopian orphanage when he was 1 year old: a picture of Jesus, a plastic crucifix and HIV.

LAGOS, Sept 1, 2008 (AFP) - Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, who has been hospitalised in Saudi Arabia, insisted in a newspaper interview on Monday that he was in good health and expects to be released shortly.

BENGHAZI, Libya (AFP) - Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi said his regime's long estrangement from the United States was finally over as he marked the 39th anniversary on Monday of his overthrow of the Western-backed monarchy.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - An Israeli abducted last week from his house in Nigeria's oil hub of Port Harcourt has been released by his kidnappers, his wife told Israeli public radio on Monday.