Madrid - Two would-be immigrants coming from Africa died while attempting to reach Spain's Canary Islands, while nine were in serious condition, local officials said Monday.

The victims were among a total of 123 migrants on board a boat which landed on El Hierro island on Monday.

One of them was dead on arrival, while the other passed away after landing. One of the victims was believed to be a minor. Others among the immigrants were treated for symptoms including dehydration and hypothermia.

The same morning, about 200 Africans tried to storm the frontier of the Spanish enclave of Melilla on the Moroccan coast, local officials said.

Berlin - Amnesty International appealed Monday to Germany and other European nations to provide homes to 50 detainees from the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay.

Abuja - German President Horst Koehler said Monday that Africa should have a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council

Continuing his six-day visit to Nigeria, Koehler said that in efforts to reform the body, there must be a "fair representation of Africa," although he did not specify which country should be considered to hold the seat.

The German president also said that a fair representation for all the world's regions should be assured as well in other international organizations such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Koehler himself had previously headed the IMF.

Koehler said this issue should be taken up in the debate concerning the causes of the international financial crisis.

Zurich - FIFA president Joseph Blatter called Monday for professional referees as a measure to protect football from the threat of match-fixing.

Blatter told a congress of football's world governing body in Zurich on sport betting that there appeared to "no limits" on what people were prepared to bet.

In reference to a recent match-fixing scandal in Germany which led to the jailing of a former referee, Blatter said there were still no professional referees in the Bundesliga.

"Nobody can say that the money is not there. We have to protect those who could be or already are the targets of such methods," he said.

Monte Carlo - Jamaican supersprinter Usain Bolt and Russian pole vault queen Yelena Isinbayeva are among the six finalists for the World Athlete of the Year award.

The governing body IAAF said in a statement on Monday that the Bolt, who won 100m, 200m and 4x100m gold at the Beijing Olympics in world record times, double long-distance gold medallist Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia and 110m hurdles Olympic champion Dayron Robles of Cuba were the final three men.

Isinbayeva won pole vault gold with a world record. She is joined by 5,000m and 10,000m Olympic champion Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia and Kenyan 800m sensation Pamela Jelimo, who also ran to gold in Beijing in August, in the women's list.

Copenhagen - Danish Prince Joachim and his French-born wife, Princess Marie, are expecting their first child, the palace said Monday.