Burkina army declines to join transition talks

Ouagadougou - Burkina Faso's army declined to join talks with the opposition and civilian groups on a transition government Saturday, while ousted leader Blaise Compaore blamed the military and his political opponents of jointly plotting his overthrow.

Representatives of political parties and civil society groups met in the capital Ouagadougou to hammer out a handover plan, after Compaore fled following a mass uprising against his bid to revise the constitution and extend his 27-year rule.

The army's power grab in the landlocked west African country has attracted international condemnation and threats of sanctions from the African Union unless it hands over power within two weeks.

US Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Bisa Williams reiterated calls for a democratic transition after talks Saturday with the army-named leader Lieutenant-Colonel Isaac Zida in the capital Ouagadougou.

Kidnapped Ukrainian doctors freed in Libya

Kiev - Two Ukrainian doctors kidnapped in Libya have been freed," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said on Saturday.

"After huge efforts, the two Ukrainian doctors kidnapped in September in Libya have been freed. They are in a safe place," Klimkin said on his Twitter account.

A foreign ministry spokesperson said he had no more information.

In late September, Libyan authorities said that a Ukrainian doctor and his wife had been kidnapped in the eastern city of Benghazi, a stronghold of Islamist militias.

Ebola fight starting to pay off – WHO

Freetown - The deadliest Ebola outbreak ever is finally slowing in Liberia, the worst-hit country, but still wreaking havoc in two neighbouring west African states amid warnings of thousands of unreported deaths.

As the initially lacklustre global response to the crisis centred in Liberia and adjoining Sierra Leone and Guinea gathered some pace following repeated and impassioned appeals from top UN officials and world leaders, the good news from Liberia was tempered by warnings that the global toll is likely vastly underestimated.

The outbreak is officially thought to have claimed 4 960 lives and infected 13 042 people, according to the latest data issued by the World Health Organisation. But that could be the tip of the iceberg, an official at the UN health agency said.

Ebola epidemic leads to US protective gear backlog

New York - A surge of orders for gear to protect against Ebola is leading to backlogs through January for some US customers, as demand expands beyond hospitals to fire-fighters and others, manufacturers and healthcare workers said.

Requests for bodily fluid-resistant gowns, shoe covers and face shields have jumped since the first case of the virus was diagnosed in the United States in late September and as Ebola has ravaged three West African countries.

The shortage has forced fire-fighters to improvise when responding to a potential Ebola patient by using existing, standard gear, putting them further at risk, officials said.

600 US troops exposed to chemical agents - officials

Washington - More than 600 US troops since 2003 reported that they were exposed to chemical agents in Iraq, officials said on Thursday, a much higher number than the Pentagon stated previously.

The revelation was first reported by the New York Times, which has revealed in a series of articles this month that American troops handled an arsenal of deteriorating chemical agents and were sometimes told to stay silent about what they encountered.

The Pentagon failed to recognise the scale of the reported cases of exposure to chemical agents or to offer proper tracking and treatment to those troops who may have been injured, the Times wrote, citing defence officials.