2 blasts at market in Nigeria's Maiduguri

Maiduguri - Two explosions ripped through a market in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri on Monday, witnesses said, nearly a week after two female suicide bombers attacked the same area, killing more than 45 people.

"A middle-aged woman approached the site where chicken sellers attend to customers but vigilantes who stood nearby insisted on checking the luggage she was carrying," said witness Ahmad Sanusi.

"The woman refused, arguing that what she held were her wares. While the argument ensued, some people gathered at the scene and that was when she detonated the explosive," he told AFP.

Ivory Coast army protests sow fears of return to unrest

Abidjan - Protests by disgruntled soldiers in Ivory Coast have exposed the government's failure to reform its mutiny-plagued armed forces and its rapid capitulation sets a dangerous precedent in a country with bright economic prospects.

Ivory Coast - French-speaking West Africa's largest economy - is emerging from a decade of crisis that ended in a brief civil war in 2011. Its rapid revival and vast potential have made it the new darling of frontier investors in Africa.

Lawyer: Mubarak could get early release

Cairo - Egypt's jailed ex-president Hosni Mubarak could be released early after having served two-thirds of a corruption sentence and seeing murder charges dropped, his lawyer said on Sunday.

An Egyptian court on Saturday dismissed the murder charge against Mubarak over the deaths of protesters during the country's 2011 uprising.

Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for three decades until being driven from office, was also acquitted of a corruption charge but was expected to stay in jail on a three-year sentence in a separate graft case.

Anti-balaka militia to become political party

Dakar - The 'anti-balaka' militia in Central African Republic, formed in response to abuses by mostly Muslim rebels who seized power last year, said it would lay down its weapons and become a political movement.

Representatives for the mostly Christian militia movement decided at a general assembly in the capital Bangui late on Saturday that their movement would be renamed the Centralafrican Party for Unity and Development (PCUD).

Zambia's splintered ruling party in dispute over new leader

Lusaka - A faction in Zambia's ruling Patriotic Front (PF) elected Defence Minister Edgar Lungu as the party's president on Sunday, in a disputed vote highlighting a bitter power struggle ahead of a January presidential election.

The ruling party has been embroiled in a factional feud since the party's president and Zambia's leader, Michael Sata, died in October in a London hospital.