AFP - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday called Sudanese leaders in a bid to defuse what she called the "ticking time bomb" of an inevitable secession of the country?s restive and oil-rich south.

AFP - Suspected members of an Islamist sect have freed hundreds of inmates in an attack on a prison in northern Nigeria that led to a fierce gun battle with authorities, officials said Wednesday.

AFP - At least 11 people including civilians died on Wednesday in fighting between African Union troops backing the Somali government and Islamist rebels, officials and witnesses said.

AFP - US President Barack Obama will attend a meeting on Sudan at the UN headquarters on September 24 to show the importance the United States places in a looming referendum on independence for southern Sudan, US ambassador Susan Rice said Wednesday.

AFP - Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has appointed new military, intelligence and police chiefs, his office said on Wednesday, ahead of January elections in the oil-rich country.

AP - A radical Muslim sect used assault rifles to launch a coordinated sunset raid on a prison in northern Nigeria, freeing more than 100 followers and raising new fears about violence in the oil-rich nation just months before elections.

AFP - The UN Children's Fund on Wednesday launched a scheme to provide 13 million textbooks to Zimbabwe's students, in a 50-million-dollar effort to revive the struggling school system.

AFP - Nine Portuguese tourists were killed and 14 injured when their tour bus plunged into a ravine in northern Morocco on Wednesday, the interior ministry said.

AFP - A guard at a prison in northern Nigeria attacked by suspected members of an Islamist sect said Wednesday that nearly all inmates had been freed and an unknown number of people were shot.

AP - The United Nations reported Tuesday that more than 500 systematic rapes were committed by armed combatants in eastern Congo since late July — more than double the number previously reported — and accepted partial responsibility for not protecting citizens.

Reuters - The death toll from weekend clashes at a refugee camp in Sudan's violence-torn Darfur region has risen to nine, the United Nations said on Tuesday.