DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzania's state carrier plans to double the size of its fleet to 14 aircraft by 2022 and is exploring new routes and code-sharing agreements with other airlines, a senior government official said on Saturday.

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When LGBT+ people took to the streets last year for the first ever Pride march in eSwatini, formerly known as Swaziland, some hardly believed they could celebrate the event in a country where stigma is rife and gay sex remains illegal.

NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Uganda has sought to reassure sexual minorities that they are safe, saying it has no plans to introduce the death penalty for gay sex after reports of rising homophobic attacks.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe's state security minister, Owen Ncube, over what it says is credible information of his involvement in "gross violations of human rights," U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Friday described Western sanctions as a "cancer" sapping the economy, and his supporters denounced the measures during marches held around the southern African country.

ABIDJAN/LONDON, Oct 25 (Reuters) - The Cocoa Coffee Council (CCC) has signed a block deal with food group Olam for the sale of 100,000 tonnes of cocoa export contracts for the 2020/21 season that includes a premium to support farmers, sources at CCC told Reuters on Friday.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Hackers have shut down the cyber network of Johannesburg City Council, targeting computers of local government employees in South Africa's economic hub, city officials said on Friday.

RABAT (Reuters) - Moroccan security services have broken up a suspected Islamic State cell, arresting six members near Casablanca and in the northern towns of Chefchaouen and Ouazzane, a police spokesman said on Friday.

LUSAKA (Reuters) - Japanese renewable energy company Univergy Solar is to invest more than $200 million in two solar power projects in Zambia that will add 200 megawatts (MW) to the country's national grid next year, the government said on Friday.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Prominent activist Jawar Mohammed does not rule out challenging his erstwhile ally, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, in next year's election, he told Reuters on Friday, after days of demonstrations by his supporters resulted in 16 deaths.

HARARE (Reuters) - Supporters of the Zimbabwe government marched in the capital on Friday denouncing Western sanctions that President Emmerson Mnangagwa says have sapped the economy, but his opponents stayed away, accusing him of trying to distract attention from his failings.

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Boeing, acting without adequate oversight from U.S. regulators, failed to grasp risks in the design of cockpit software on its 737 MAX airliner, sowing the seeds for a Lion Air crash that also involved errors by airline workers and crew, Indonesian investigators found.

GABORONE (Reuters) - The ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has won the general election after securing 29 national assembly seats, representing 51% of the vote, the chief justice announced on Friday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Central African Republic is considering hosting a Russian military base and would like Moscow to supply it with new weapons, RIA news agency cited the country's president as saying on Friday.

CONAKRY (Reuters) - Thousands took to the streets of Guinea on Thursday in the largest of a series of protests over a suspected effort by President Alpha Conde to seek a third term that have led to the jailing of a dozen opposition campaigners and politicians.

CONAKRY (Reuters) - Thousands took to the streets of Guinea on Thursday in the largest of a series of protests over a suspected effort by President Alpha Conde to seek a third term that have led to the jailing of a dozen opposition campaigners and politicians.

BENGHAZI/TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Strikes are keeping classrooms shut at the start of the school year in Libya as teachers seek better pay from a budget under strain from a massive public salary bill and renewed conflict.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Prominent Ethiopian activist Jawar Mohammed called for calm on Thursday amid protests that have killed 16 people and are challenging Nobel Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in his political heartland.

LONDON (Reuters) - The World Health Organization welcomed an "historic step" towards a polio-free world on Thursday as an expert panel certified that the second of three types of the crippling virus has been eradicated globally.

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - The former leader of South Africa's official opposition Democratic Alliance, Mmusi Maimane, gave up his seat in parliament on Thursday after quitting the national leadership and plunging the traditionally white liberal party into crisis.