SOCHI/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia landed two nuclear-capable bombers in South Africa on a training mission on Wednesday, a flight apparently timed to coincide with President Vladimir Putin's opening of a flagship Russia-Africa summit designed to increase Russian influence.

ACCRA, Oct 23 (Reuters) - The United States has cancelled $190 million in grants to Ghana under the "Power Africa" initiative in response to the Ghanaian government's termination of a contract with a private utility provider, the U.S. embassy said.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The leader of South Africa's Democratic Alliance (DA) Mmusi Maimane resigned as the head of the main opposition party on Wednesday, citing difficulties making the traditionally white liberal party appeal to majority black voters.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and Niger have signed a deal for Moscow to supply 12 Mi-35 attack helicopters to Niger, a senior official at Russia's federal military-technical cooperation service said on Wednesday, the RIA news agency reported.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian Paralympian Marieke Vervoort died by euthanasia on Tuesday aged 40 after a battle with an incurable and degenerative spinal condition which she described after winning her medals as becoming harder and harder to bear.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Hundreds of supporters of an Ethiopian ethnic activist and media entrepreneur gathered outside his house on Wednesday, hours after it was surrounded by police following a warning by the prime minister against media owners "fomenting unrest".

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Two Ethiopian residents in the city of Adama told Reuters they heard the sound of gunshots amid protests there on Wednesday afternoon.

SEATTLE/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co on Tuesday ousted the top executive of its commercial airplanes division, Kevin McAllister, marking the first high-level departure since two fatal crashes of its 737 MAX jets.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will land two nuclear-capable strategic bombers in South Africa on Wednesday, Interfax news agency cited South Africa's military as saying.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Hundreds of supporters of an Ethiopian ethnic activist and media entrepreneur gathered outside his house on Wednesday, a day after it was surrounded by security forces following a warning by the prime minister against media owners "fomenting unrest".

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The head of Russia's state bank VTB Andrei Kostin and Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi discussed plans to restructure Maputo's debt, with the aim to conclude a deal by the year-end.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For a strange little lemur native to Madagascar that boasts one of the most unusual hands in the animal kingdom, a "high five" is more like a "trick six."

GABORONE (Reuters) - More than 100 elephants have died in Botswana in the past two months partly because of a suspected anthrax outbreak, the government said on Tuesday.

CONAKRY (Reuters) - Twelve opposition and civil society leaders in Guinea were convicted and sentenced to prison on Tuesday for organising protests against a possible change to the constitution that could let President Alpha Conde seek a third term.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt said on Tuesday it had accepted a U.S. invitation to a meeting of foreign ministers over a project for a giant hydropower dam on Ethiopia's Blue Nile that is causing an escalating spat between the two African countries.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sudan's top financial official said on Tuesday he believed it was "just a question of time" before his country was removed from the U.S. state-sponsored terrorism list.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Security forces in Burundi have killed at least 14 armed men who had intended to launch an attack in the northwestern province of Bubanza, police and residents said.

GABORONE (Reuters) - Botswana polls opened on Wednesday for a general election that is expected to provide the first genuine challenge to the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) in its five decades of dominance over southern Africa's wealthiest and most stable nation.