Kidnappers on Wednesday released three Egyptian policemen and four soldiers seized in the Sinai, the army said, leading to the reopening of a Gaza border crossing that police closed to protest the abductions. "The seven security personnel have been released by their kidnappers in Sinai," military spokesman Ahmed Aly said in a statement carried by Egypt's official MENA news agency. The conscripts, seized at ...

President Robert Mugabe is expected to sign the Constitutional Amendment (No. 20) Bill into law on Wednesday at a function to be attended by leaders of the other political parties involved in Zimbabwe's coalition government, according to the state-run Herald daily.Quoting presidential spokesperson George Charamba, the paper said the signing ceremony was scheduled for State House in Harare. “Once the signing ...

The Cameroonian government will very soon get rid of 7,000 tons of contaminated rice imported from Burma by a local operator, APA learnt on Tuesday from the Ministry of Agriculture. The cargo had been seized early February at the Douala harbour, the country's economic capital. Analyses conducted by three different laboratories have revealed the presence of large quantities of sodium chloride, a strong ...

A shipment of 259 elephant tusks smuggled out of Africa has been seized in the United Arab Emirates, the International Wildlife Fund for Animal Welfare said. The tusks were discovered Tuesday at a Dubai port in a container shipped from Mombasa, Kenya labelled as wooden furniture. Demand for ivory in east Asia has prompted a surge in poaching in recent years, threatening the existence of animal populations. ...

Egyptian troops and policemen began sweeps of north Sinai on Tuesday ahead of a possible showdown with heavily armed gunmen who abducted seven security personnel, officials said. A senior interior ministry official told AFP a "campaign has been going on for half an hour", while a policeman taking part in the operation told AFP that security forces traded fire with gunmen in a village in the restive ...

Negligence is to blame for some of the 27 deaths of young males who died while undergoing ritual circumcision, a local traditional leader said Tuesday. The death toll during the procedures -- part of traditional rites of passage into manhood -- on Friday climbed to 27, police said. South African police last week said they had launched a series of murder inquiries into the matter and President Jacob Zuma has ...

Nigeria said Tuesday it would release several suspects held for "terrorist activities," including all women in custody, in what it called a peace gesture to the Islamists it is battling in the north. The announcement came as Nigeria pressed ahead with a nearly week-old offensive against Islamist insurgents in the northeast of Africa's most populous nation, while the Red Cross said at least 2,400 people had ...

A delegation from the Tobacco Control Commission of Malawi began a week-long visit to Zimbabwe on Tuesday with a tour of the auction floors in Harare.The delegation, led by TCCM chief executive Bruce Munthali, visited the main tobacco auction in Harare as part of a familiarisation tour during which they hope learn the operations of Zimbabwe's tobacco industry. The visit follows a recent trip by the country's ...

A fresh bout of fighting between army and rebel forces in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has left 19 dead, the government said Tuesday, on the eve of a visit by UN chief Ban Ki-moon. Mortar fire rang out for a second day north of the regional hub Goma after the first clashes in six months between the M23 rebellion that briefly seized the city in November and government troops broke out on Monday. ...

The former Prime Minister of Mali, Modibo Sidibe was on Tuesday received in Abidjan by the Ivorian leader who is also the current Chairman of the West African regional grouping ECOWAS.The two men made a review of the situation in the sub-region, focusing in particular on the crisis in Mali for which the international community has been mobilized. Modibo Sidibe, a former prime minister of deposed president ...