» Gunshots heard in violence-wracked Nigerian town
Automatic weapons fire punctuated by screams erupted after dark Tuesday in a Nigerian city located near villages where massacres just two days ago left more than 200 people dead.

» Hundreds slaughtered in Nigeria religious violence
The killers showed no mercy: They didn't spare women and children, or even a 4-day-old baby, from their machetes. On Monday, Nigerian women wailed in the streets as a dump truck carried dozens of bodies past burned-out homes toward a mass grave.

» Nelson Mandela marks 20 years of freedom
DRAKENSTEIN, South Africa — South Africans are celebrating how far they have come since Nelson Mandela took his first steps to freedom 20 years ago.

» Gandhi's ashes scattered off South Africa coast
Six decades after his death, some of Mohandas K. Gandhi's ashes have been scattered off the coast of South Africa, where he was confronted by racial discrimination and developed some of his philosophies of peaceful resistance.

» Group: More than 200 dead in Nigeria violence
JOS, Nigeria – Charred bodies with scorched hands reaching skyward lay in the streets and a mosque with blackened minarets smoldered Wednesday after several days of fighting between Christians and Muslims killed more than 200 people.

» UN stops food aid to 1 million in southern Somalia
GENEVA – The U.N. food agency is stopping aid distribution to about 1 million people in southern Somalia because of attacks against staff and demands by armed groups that aid groups remove women from their teams, the agency said Tuesday.

» Yemen investigates Nigerian's al-Qaida contacts
Officials in Yemen were investigating Tuesday whether the Nigerian suspected in the attempted Christmas Day attack on a US airliner spent time with al-Qaida militants in the country in the months leading up to the botched bombing.

» Insurgents fire mortars on Somali police, 13 dead
MOGADISHU, Somalia – Islamic militants fired mortars into Mogadishu's police compound as the force was celebrating its 66th anniversary Sunday, sparking a battle that killed at least 12 civilians and a police officer, officials said.

» Report: UN-backed Congo troops killing civilians
JOHANNESBURG – A U.N.-backed Congolese military operation to oust rebels from eastern Congo has caused more civilian casualties than damage to rebels, with more than 1,400 people deliberately killed over a nine-month period, human rights groups said Monday.

» Kenyan police arrest man with 100,000 bullets
NAIROBI, Kenya – Kenyan police on Tuesday said they arrested a suspected weapons smuggler with up to 100,000 bullets and an assortment of guns, a huge cache in a country with stringent gun laws.