Former Ghana captain Stephen Appiah signs to play for Persepolis in Iran.

Mali's canoe owners suffer as tourists stay away from rebel north

Rebels in Sudan's South Kordofan state say they have shot down a government military aircraft after it had bombed rebel targets.

China is expected to increase its financial influence globally as it moves towards becoming the world's biggest economy.

A man in South Africa is arrested after he was found by police to be carrying the suspected genitals of his missing nephew in his wallet.

Two Chinese workers are killed by unknown gunmen in the north-east of Nigeria - an area beset by insecurity because of an Islamist insurgency.

Climate change could lead to the extinction of wild Arabica coffee before the end of the century, a study suggests.

South Africa will take on hosts Equatorial Guinea in the final of the African Women's Championship on Sunday.

Former UK minister Andrew Mitchell is to be questioned by MPs about why he sanctioned a £16m aid package to Rwanda on his last day as international development secretary.

The Zimbabwe Football Association sets up a high-profile committee to deal the appeals over match-fixing bans.

A radical French Muslim suspected of having links to Islamist militants in northern Mali is arrested in the West African country, officials say.

A woman dies and 19 others injured after scaffolding collapses at a Linkin Park concert in Cape Town.

Rescue efforts continue to find survivors trapped in a department store that collapsed in Ghana's capital, Accra, on Wednesday, as the death toll rises to five.