The Anti-Homosexuality Bill is reintroduced to Uganda's parliament - without the death penalty but still calling for life in prison for some offences.

A man in military uniform blows himself up outside a Nigerian army barracks in the city of Kaduna, which is also rocked by other blasts, officials say.

A group of Chinese workers kidnapped by rebels in Sudan last month has been freed and flown to Kenya, officials from both countries say.

Former Liberian rebel leader George Boley should be deported from the US over his role in the civil war of the 1990s, a judge rules.

The UK could face a growing threat from "lone wolf" terrorists returning from fighting overseas in the next few years, a think-tank warns.

Zimbabwe FA former head Henrietta Rushwaya will stand trial this month on alleged corruption charges.

Medical charity Doctors of the World pulls out of northern Mali following a recent outbreak of fighting by Tuareg rebels - some of whom used to fight for Col Gaddafi in Libya.

Somalia starts a major operation to remove tens of thousands of people who have been squatting in government buildings in the capital.

Egypt says it is to try 43 people - including Americans and other foreigners - over the alleged illegal funding of non-governmental organisations.

Suspected militants say they have attacked an oil pipeline in Nigeria, in what would be the first such attack since 2010.

GULU, 7 February 2012 (IRIN) - Once a fortnight, Moses Sserwada travels from the capital, Kampala, to northern Uganda to pick up a truckload of charcoal destined for the popular Owino market in the city.

HARGEISA, 7 February 2012 (IRIN) - More than two decades after it unilaterally asserted its independence from the rest of Somalia, Somaliland plans to lobby hard at a major conference in London in February for something it has sorely lacked since its inception: international recognition of its sovereignty.

NYATIKE, 7 February 2012 (IRIN) - Inside a smoky makeshift kiosk, Julie*, 16, can hardly cope with the demand from her clients for a cup of tea and a snack - the men are parched from their work as gold miners in the western Kenyan district of Nyatike.

BAMAKO/DAKAR, 6 February 2012 (IRIN) - Some 12,000 Malians have fled fighting in the towns of Ménaka and Anderamboucane in northern Mali and reached already food-insecure villages around Tillabéri in western Niger, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Niger's capital, Niamey.

DAKAR, 6 February 2012 (IRIN) - This year donors are stepping up more quickly to meet Sahel's humanitarian needs compared to 2010, when they were slow to respond. However, they are still at fault for taking a quick-fix approach rather than addressing long-term disaster prevention and resilience needs, say aid groups.

JOHANNESBURG, 3 February 2012 (IRIN) - The belief that the end is nigh for Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) - a small but ruthless transnational armed group operating in four African states - underestimates its resilience and overestimates the unity and capability of the forces ranged against it, say analysts.

ISIOLO, 3 February 2012 (IRIN) - Politically motivated violence in the northern Kenyan town of Moyale, which has left dozens dead and tens of thousands displaced in recent weeks, shows little sign of abating and there are fears that the clashes could continue until elections are held for new local government positions.

LAGOS, 3 February 2012 (IRIN) - A month after an angry public launched protests across Nigeria over skyrocketing fuel prices due to the removal of a government subsidy, a measure of calm has returned and people seem to have settled into accepting a compromise.

HARARE, 3 February 2012 (IRIN) - With global funding for HIV/AIDS on the decline, Zimbabwe's innovative AIDS levy - a 3 percent tax on income - has become a promising source of funding for the country, with a dramatic increase in revenue collected in the past two years.

KORHOGO, 2 February 2012 (IRIN) - Eleven people have died from meningitis out of 40 reported cases in four departments across Côte d'Ivoire as of 31 January, leaving people scrambling to access the vaccine for their families.

[UNHCR] UNHCR has deployed emergency teams to countries surrounding Mali to help meet the needs of some 20,000 people who have been forced to flee fighting in northern Mali. Most of the displaced are in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania.

[IPS] Yaounde - Ahmadou Lamine has been forced to close his business selling fuel imported from Nigeria, known locally as "zoa-zoa", because of the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram.

[IRIN] Bamako/Dakar - Some 12,000 Malians have fled fighting in the towns of Ménaka and Anderamboucane in northern Mali and reached already food-insecure villages around Tillabéri in western Niger, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Niger's capital, Niamey.

[Leadership] Following a threat by the Boko Haram sect that Professor Wole Soyinka would be their next target for attack, the Nobel laureate has raised the alarm, urging security agencies to take action immediately or risk possible disintegration of the country should the sect carry out its threats.

[This Day] Kano State police command has confirmed that suspected members of the Boko Haram Islamic group on Monday evening launched a bomb and gun attack on Sharada Police station.

[allAfrica.com] Zambia coach Herve Renard is heaping praise, platitudes and the mantle of match favorites onto his opponents for Wednesday's Nations Cup semi-final, taking all the pressure off the southern African side and trying instead to impose it on Ghana's Black Stars.

[allAfrica.com] Tournament favourites Cote d'Ivoire and Mali go head-to-head for a place in the final of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations at the Stade d'Angondjé in Libreville on Wednesday.

[Unicef] Monrovia - President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf today officially launched the Children's Law of Liberia to protect children and their right to participate meaningfully in their development.

[Daily Trust] Maiduguri - Three people are feared killed in Maiduguri yesterday as a result of multiple blasts that rocked parts of the Gamboru Market and a nearby pharmaceutical store.

[The Moment] THE Joint Task Force (JTF) in the Niger-Delta has arrested eight ex-militants who allegedly bombed the Lawconfab Hotel, which served as their temporary home.

[IPS] Yaounde - Ahmadou Lamine has been forced to close his business selling fuel imported from Nigeria, known locally as "zoa-zoa", because of the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram.

[HRW] Thousands of children in northern Nigeria need immediate medical treatment and dozens of villages remain contaminated two years into the worst lead poisoning epidemic in modern history, Human Rights Watch said today while releasing a video on the issue. Four hundred children have died, according to official estimates, yet environmental cleanup efforts have not even begun in numerous affected villages.

[RNW Africa] Yaoundé - A young Cameroonian engineer has built the first fully touch screen medical tablet that could soon save many African lives. He first has to find the necessary funding to mass-produce the device.

[Vanguard] Yenagoa - Joint Task Force, JTF, in the Niger Delta, codenamed Operation Pulo Shield, has launched a manhunt for the alleged masterminds of weekend attack on the Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC, facility in the mangrove swamp of Brass in Bayelsa East senatorial district. Already, the names of the suspects, it was gathered, are with the security forces.

[Vanguard] Abuja - Presidency, yesterday, said there was no reason for Nigerians to embark on panic-buying of petrol as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, had adequate stock to serve the country for 33 days.

[This Day] Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has disclosed that while the Nigerian economy grew at the rate of seven per cent for the past five years, unemployment has actually doubled at same period.

[This Day] French oil major, Total has engaged ultra-deepwater drillship, Pacific Scirocco on a one-year drilling contract for Egina Deepwater field, located 150kilometres offshore Nigeria, at the rate of $470,000 per day.

[This Day] To identify genuine marketers from those who 'played games' with petrol subsidy, Ejiofor Alike writes that the House of Representatives' Ad-Hoc Committee investigating the management of the fund should adopt the recommendation of the Chief Executive Officer of Oando Plc, Mr. Wale Tinubu, that any player who claimed to have imported petrol into the country should be made to provide the bills of lading; certificates of discharge and letters of credit of the imported cargoes

[Daily Trust] "The idea of the absolute power of the markets that should not be constrained by any rule, by any political intervention, was a mad idea" .-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Toulon, September 2009

[Daily Trust] Accra - The Ghanaian authorities and representatives of Ghana Trade Union Congress (TUC) have agreed to a 20 per cent reduction in the pump price of petroleum products in the country.