KHARTOUM (Reuters) - South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar said on Monday they hoped for a breakthrough in peace talks as they met in Khartoum, but there was no immediate indication that either side would make real concessions.

PARIS (Reuters) - Malian authorities must react strongly after at least 16 Fulani herders were killed in suspected ethnic clashes, France's foreign ministry said on Monday as its former colony gears up for elections.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Renowned South African photojournalist David Goldblatt, who documented the impact of apartheid on the lives ordinary people, died on Monday from cancer aged 87.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - A Kenyan magistrate's court on Monday charged the head of the state-run standards body, seven other officials and two businessmen with attempted murder for allowing the importation of substandard fertiliser containing mercury.

ABIDJAN, June 25 (Reuters) - Heavy rain and sunny spells last week was expected to boost prospects for Ivory Coast's main October-March cocoa crop, farmers said on Monday.

BAUCHI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigeria's president called for calm on Sunday after at least 86 people died in clashes between farmers and semi-nomadic herders over the weekend.

LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting is booming in soccer-mad Nigeria largely thanks to payment systems developed by homegrown technology firms that are starting to make online businesses more viable.

HARARE (Reuters) - One person died on Monday from injuries following an explosion that rocked Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa's Saturday campaign rally in the city of Bulawayo, state-owned radio said on its official Twitter account.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - The United States will send experts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to Ethiopia to investigate a bomb blast that took place during a rally on Saturday, state-affiliated media said on Monday.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - A delegation from Eritrea will arrive in Addis Ababa this week as Ethiopia's prime minister tries to resolve a conflict with the neighbouring nation, which used to be part of Ethiopia and waged a 30-year struggle for independence.

BAMAKO (Reuters) - At least 16 Fulani herders have been killed in suspected ethnic clashes in central Mali, the government and local sources said on Sunday, underscoring the chronic instability blighting the West African nation ahead of elections next month.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Thirty people have now been arrested, up from six from the day before, over alleged involvement in a grenade attack at a rally in the Ethiopian capital that killed two people and left more than 150 people wounded, police said on Sunday.

BAUCHI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigeria imposed a dusk to dawn curfew on Sunday in central Plateau state after least 70 people died in communal clashes between farmers and semi-nomadic herders over the weekend.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyan coastguards picked up 948 African migrants on inflatable boats in several operations and also recovered 10 bodies on Sunday, officials and a witness at a naval base said.