The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor has said he is hopeful that a Congolese warlord will be arrested within weeks.

Bosco Ntaganda is wanted on charges of committing crimes against humanity.

Liberian ex-president Charles Taylor is expected to address the international court that found him guilty of aiding and abetting war crimes.

It is his last chance to speak at The Hague tribunal before he is sentenced later this month.

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor has said he is seeking arrest warrants for two rebel leaders in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

There is already a warrant out for renegade soldier, Bosco Ntaganda, but prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he wanted to add more charges to it.

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor has said he is seeking arrest warrants for two rebel leaders in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

There is already a warrant out for renegade soldier, Bosco Ntaganda, but prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he wanted to add more charges to it.

EU naval forces have conducted their first raid on pirate bases on the Somali mainland, saying they have destroyed several boats.

The EU forces were transported by helicopter to the pirate bases near the port of Haradhere.

MTN, Glo Mobile, Airtel and Etisalat have been fined a total of over US$7.4million in Nigeria for poor quality of service in the months of April and May, 2012.

The charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has called on the Nigerian government to do more to deal with a deadly outbreak of lead poisoning.

In 2009 it became clear that hundreds of children in the northern state of Zamfara had died from exposure to lead.

Polls have opened in Algeria for parliamentary elections which the authorities have billed as more free and transparent than ever before.

Last year's revolts in the region left the country largely untouched, but it is now under pressure to reform and renew its ageing establishment.

The West African state of Niger is the worst place in the world to be a mother, according to Save the Children.

The ranking comes in the charity's annual index which compares conditions for mothers in 165 countries.

Sudan has promised to cease hostilities with South Sudan and comply with a UN Security Council resolution.

However the foreign ministry also said that Khartoum reserved the right to respond to "aggression" from the South.

An attack on a cattle market by gunmen in north-eastern Nigeria has left several people dead, police have said.

There are conflicting reports on the number of casualties after the market in Potiskum, Yobe state, was set on fire.

The owner of a private Tunisian TV station has been fined for showing a controversial animated film.

The award-winning French-American film, Persepolis, has been denounced as blasphemous by radical Muslims.

Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga has warned that the emergence of ethnically-based political groups could spell doom in elections due next year.

Mr Odinga joined a coalition government with his rival President Mwai Kibaki to help end violence after the 2007 poll when more than 1,200 people died.

An imprisoned Ethiopian journalist and blogger has been given a prestigious freedom of expression award.

Eskinder Nega was awarded the Pen America's "Freedom to Write" annual prize for publishing articles critical of Ethiopia's human rights record.

The African Union (AU) is calling on Sudan and South Sudan to abide by a plan that will see both parties pull forces out of a disputed border area.

A senior AU official called for hostilities to cease in areas bordering lucrative oil fields.

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir says Sudan has "declared war" on his country, following weeks of fighting along their common border.

Mr Kiir was speaking in China, which is a major buyer of oil from both countries but has long been an ally of Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir.

Sudan and South Sudan have accused each other of opening up a new front along their disputed border, raising fears of all-out war.

The clashes broke out north of Aweil in South Sudan, about 100 miles (160km) west of the Heglig oil field, scene of most recent fighting.

Two high-profile politicians have been arrested in Cameroon in connection with the allegedly fraudulent purchase of a presidential plane.

Marafa Hamidou Yaya used to be the interior minister and Chief Ephraim Inoni is a former prime minister.

The International Criminal Court could soon drop its demand that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi be transfered to the Hague for trial, officials have told the BBC.

They say the most prominent son of the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi could instead be tried inside Libya but under the supervision of the ICC.

Military forces that staged last week's coup in Guinea-Bissau are to set up a transitional body with some opposition parties to run the West African state.

The move comes as the regional organisation Ecowas arrives to try to persuade the junta to hand back power.