Military chopper crashes in northeast Nigeria

Yola - Witnesses and police say a military helicopter crashed in an explosion of fire near a college hostel in northeast Nigeria, where troops are fighting an Islamic insurgency. They saw no survivors.

Four days earlier, the military reported a helicopter safely crash-landed in the area. Two months ago, Islamic extremists said they shot down a fighter jet and published video showing the beheading of a man friends identified as a Nigerian Air Force pilot.

Sudan warplanes bomb South Sudan border zones

Juba - Sudanese warplanes have bombed South Sudan, wounding six civilians in areas bordering war zone regions where Khartoum is trying to crush rebel fighters, reports said on Friday.

Claims of fresh bombing raids raises tensions between the former civil war foes, but also comes as Sudan's government holds peace talks with rebels.

South Sudan army spokesman Philip Aguer told the independent Radio Tamazuj that bombs were dropped on Wednesday in the Maban district of Upper Nile state, which hosts over 125 000 refugees who fled from fighting in neighbouring Sudan's Blue Nile state.

UN halves food aid to Kenya

Nairobi - Food rations vital for half a million refugees in Kenya will be slashed in half due to an aid shortfall, the United Nations said on Friday in an appeal to donors.

"Cutting rations is the last resort", UN World Food Programme (WFP) deputy chief for Kenya Paul Turnbull said, calling for $38m more in cash, including an immediate $15.5m to feed refugees until January.

Most of the refugees in impoverished camps in northern Kenya come from neighbouring war-torn South Sudan and Somalia.

Burkina Faso govt to have civilian leader

Ouagadougou - Opposition parties, army representatives and religious leaders in Burkina Faso have reached an agreement on forming a one-year transitional government headed by a civilian president, media reports said on Friday.

The deal reached late on Thursday comes two weeks after the ouster of president Blaise Compaore and foresees the election of a civilian president by an electoral college.

Military leader Isaac Zida said a political president might have "favoured his party or an allied party" when organising elections due in a year, the website lefaso.net reported.

Namibia to be Africa's first to e-vote

Windhoek - In a first for Africa, Namibians will cast their ballots electronically in this month's presidential and legislative polls, the election commission said on Friday.

Over 1 million voters, or just about half of the nation's 2.3 million people, are due to vote on 28 November.

"I think it's a big achievement for Namibia and the African continent at large," Nontemba Tjipueja, chair of the Electoral Commission of Namibia told AFP.