NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somalia's Islamist group al Shabaab on Sunday attacked a military base in Lamu county in Kenya that is used by both U.S. and Kenyan forces, a source and al Shabaab said.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya said on Saturday it had started aerial spraying in three counties in the country's north to try to head off a locust invasion which has already caused extensive damage to farmland in neighbouring Somalia and Ethiopia.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somalia's Islamist group al Shabaab on Sunday attacked a military base in Lamu county in Kenya that is used by both U.S. and Kenyan forces, a source and al Shabaab said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The son of Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric was there to welcome the funeral procession for Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf, state TV said on Saturday.

DAKAR (Reuters) - Fourteen people were killed and 19 wounded when a bus carrying students ran over an improvised explosive device on Saturday in northern Burkina Faso, the government said.

CAIRO (Reuters) - The head of Egypt's tax authority, Abdul Azim Hussein, has been arrested on charges of receiving bribes, the public prosecutors' office said on Saturday.

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Plucking the opening bars of her song "Tere Mbi" on a guitar in a dingy studio in central Kinshasa, Congolese singer Celine Banza is blinded by a spotlight propped up by a brick and a piece of folded cardboard.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Violence in Sudan's West Darfur region over the past week has left at least 65 people dead and more than 50 injured, as well as displacing thousands, an international peacekeeping mission said on Friday.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somalia's Western-backed government forces beat and detained a record number of journalists last year, the journalists' syndicate told Reuters on Friday, prompting suggestions the government is suppressing scrutiny of its security record ahead of elections due this year.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Foreign Ministry said on Friday it was following developments in Iraq with great concern and appealed against any further escalation.

Jan 3 (Reuters) - Ghana's Football Association (GFA) has sacked the coaches of all their men's and women's national teams, the country's governing body has said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United States embassy in Baghdad urged on Friday all citizens to depart Iraq immediately, hours after the U.S. killed Iranian Quds Force leader Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in an air strike.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Flights were suspended until further notice at the only functioning airport in Libya's capital Tripoli on Friday due to rockets falling nearby, an airport official said.

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algeria appointed a new government on Thursday, as the country faces its biggest political crisis in decades and a raft of economic problems caused by falling energy revenues.

ANKARA (Reuters) - A South African photojournalist kidnapped in Syria by Islamic State three years ago returned home on Thursday with the help of Turkey's intelligence agency, a security source in Ankara said.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A military transport plane crashed on Thursday after taking off from an airport in Sudan's West Darfur, killing 18 people on board, according to the military.

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algeria released a prominent opposition activist on Thursday after freeing dozens of other people in recent days who were jailed during 10 months of mass protests.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt strongly condemned on Thursday a vote by Turkey's parliament vote to allow a troop deployment to Libya, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

JOHANNESBURG, Jan 2 (Reuters) - MTN Group has agreed to sell its towers businesses in Ghana and Uganda as Africa's biggest mobile phone operator refocuses on high-growth markets on the continent and in the Middle East.

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's designated prime minister Habib Jemli said on Thursday that Abderrahmen Khachtali would be the finance minister and Khaled Shili the foreign minister in a government he has proposed to the president.