Zambia holds requiem for late president Sata

Lusaka - Zambia on Monday held a final requiem service for president Michael Sata ahead of his burial on Tuesday, after a week of lying in state in the capital city.

Clerics from different faith groups led prayers in parliament, in a ceremony attended by diplomats and politicians, including the country's founding president Kenneth Kaunda and Sata's predecessor Rupiah Banda.

The public had until Sunday been streaming in to view the body of the 77-year-old leader who died on 28 October in a London hospital while undergoing treatment for an undisclosed illness.

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.