Tanzania president undergoes surgery in US

Dar es Salaam - Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete has undergone successful prostate surgery at a US hospital, the presidency said on Monday.

"The procedure which took 90 minutes at dawn on Saturday at Johns Hopkins Hospital Baltimore, Maryland, was successful and doctors say the president is now doing well", a statement said.

Scores of children hurt after Nigeria school blast

Kano - An explosion ripped through a school in northeast Nigeria on Monday, as students gathered for morning assembly before classes began a teacher and a medic told AFP.

The blast happened at the government comprehensive senior science secondary school in Potiskum, Yobe state, as students waited to hear the principal's daily address.

"The students had gathered for the morning assembly when something exploded in their midst with a thunderous sound at exactly 07:50", said one teacher, who asked not to be identified.

"The explosion has affected many students but I can't say how many because we are now evacuating the victims to the hospital which is just 100m away", the teacher added, sobbing.

Nearly 50 boys killed in Nigeria school massacre

Kano - Boko Haram were suspected of killing nearly 50 pupils Monday in a suicide bombing in northeast Nigeria, in one of the worst attacks against schools teaching a so-called Western curriculum.

The explosion at the all-boys school in Potiskum is the latest in a series of atrocities against schoolchildren in the state of Yobe, and the second suicide attack in the town in eight days.

The massacre came just a day after the release of a new Boko Haram video in which the group's leader, Abubakar Shekau, again rejected Nigerian government claims of a ceasefire and peace talks.

Mosques, churches open in Ebola-hit Sierra Leone

Freetown - With Ebola rampaging through Sierra Leone, most ordinary outings are off limits -- for fear of contracting the virus that has killed more than 1 000 of their compatriots, people cannot go to school or the movies, a football game or a concert.

But they can go to the mosque or to a church.

On Sunday, several hundred people headed to the Freetown branch of the Winners Chapel megachurch, where a revivalist minister presided over services like a rock star.

Liberia punishes Ebola soldiers

Monrovia - Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has ordered four soldiers and their commanding officer to be punished for their actions during a protest over an Ebola quarantine in August, a government statement said.

One boy was shot dead and others were injured when soldiers and armed police deployed to quell a protest against a decision to quarantine in the West Point neighbourhood in the capital Monrovia following an attack on an Ebola holding centre.

The Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) initially denied responsibility for the violence, but an inquiry board was later set up to investigate the incident.