UNITED NATIONS, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Liberia's national existence is "seriously threatened" by the deadly Ebola virus that is "spreading like wild fire and devouring everything in its path," the country's national defense minister told the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somali authorities said on Tuesday they would investigate charges that women and girls in the capital Mogadishu had been raped by African peacekeepers, a principal source of security in the war-torn country.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan authorities have detained two German nationals who they accuse of being members of the Somali Islamist group al Shabaab, which has been blamed for a series of attacks on Kenyan soil, police said Tuesday.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Pro-government Libyan forces, already reeling from the fall of the capital, are fighting to prevent Islamist militants from seizing the eastern city of Benghazi and splitting the North African country into three warring parts.

BAMAKO, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Canada's Robex Resources expects to pour the first bar of gold from its Nampala mine in southern Mali by the end of this year, the company's country manager said on Tuesday.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The death toll from the worst Ebola outbreak in history has risen to at least 2,296 out of 4,293 cases in five West African countries, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Human Rights Watch accused Israel on Tuesday of coercing thousands of Sudanese and Eritrean migrants to leave since last year in a report that documented alleged cases of abuse against some of those who returned home.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali Islamist militants have threatened attacks in east Africa and the United States, warning President Barack Obama he would hear "shocking news" as punishment for a U.S. missile strike that killed the rebel group's leader last week.

ABIDJAN, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Abundant late mid-crop cocoa supplies and weak competition among buyers has driven farmer prices in top grower Ivory Coast below the government's guaranteed price, growers said on Tuesday.

GOMBE Nigeria (Reuters) - First comes the killing, then the preaching.

DAKAR (Reuters) - In a dusty street of the Senegalese capital Dakar, a hand emerges from behind the door of a run-down house to grab a bundle of baguettes from an aid worker as police officers watch.

CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian court sentenced a leader of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and an Islamist cleric to 20 years in prison on Tuesday for attempting to kill two policemen, part of a government crackdown that has severely weakened the group.

BENGHAZI Libya (Reuters) - A U.N. special envoy visited Libya's elected parliament in the eastern town of Tobruk on Monday in a show of support against a rival assembly set up by armed groups that seized the capital Tripoli last month.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon will send a 25-bed field hospital to Liberia to help provide medical care for health workers trying to contain the fast spreading Ebola virus that has killed 2,100 people in West Africa.

GENEVA/FREETOWN (Reuters) - Liberia, the country worst hit by West Africa's Ebola epidemic, should see thousands of new cases in coming weeks as the virus spreads exponentially, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday.

(Reuters) - A fourth Ebola patient will be flown to the United States by air ambulance from West Africa to receive treatment for the deadly disease, hospital officials in Atlanta said on Monday.

AUSTIN Texas (Reuters) - A U.S. air marshal was undergoing tests in a hospital in Houston after being assaulted in Lagos, Nigeria with a syringe containing an unknown substance, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Monday.

NAIROBI, Sept 9 (Reuters) - The following company announcements, scheduled economic indicators, debt and currency market moves and political events may affect African markets on Tuesday. - - - - - EVENTS: * SOUTH AFRICA - The furniture maker and retailer Steinhoff expected to issue results and has already flagged as much as a one-third rise in full-year profit. * SOUTH AFRICA - South Africa's second-biggest lender by value FirstRand Bank to issue results. The bank ha

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