Lusaka, Zambia - Partial results from Zambia's presidential by-election Friday showed opposition leader Michael Sata leading acting president Rupiah Banda with 
60 out of 150 constituencies counted.

Sata, who was defeated for president in 2001 and 2006, had 407,639 votes, against 317,558 for Banda, candidate of the ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy.

Nairobi - Kenya was on a heightened terror alert Friday after recent suicide bombings in neighbouring Somalia and the arrest Thursday in Nairobi of a man carrying what were believed to be detonators.

Five suicide bombs in the breakaway Somali regions of Somaliland and Puntland killed at least 26 people Wednesday.

Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua said the fact that the bombings took place as Somali leaders were meeting with regional heads of state in Kenya at the same time had raised fears in Kenya.

Kathmandu - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon sought a continued UN role in Nepal's peace process, at a meeting with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Friday, officials said.

Nepalese officials said the talks centred on the integration of former rebel combatants into the national army and a possible extension of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN).

Islamabad - More than a dozen people were killed in an airstrike carried out by a suspected US drone in Pakistan's tribal region along border with Afghanistan, security officials said.

"A US pilotless aircraft fired two guided missiles on the house of a person named Amanullah in Asori village of Mir Ali sub-district of North Waziristan," said a security official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Frankfurt - The Frankfurt Stock Exchanged altered its rules Friday to prevent its three main indexes ever being distorted again by a crisis like this week's short squeeze on Volkswagen.

Stock in the German carmaker tripled on Monday and Tuesday to 1,000 euros a share after luxury car company Porsche revealed it owned or had options on 74 per cent of the stock. In August the stock had hovered near 200 euros.

Johannesburg - South Africa was gearing up Friday for a radical shake-up in the country's political landscape as a split in the ruling African National Congress (ANC), the party of liberation from apartheid, came within days of fruition.

ANC members and former members who disagree with the direction the party is taking under current leader Jacob Zuma began arriving in Johannesburg Friday from across the country for a weekend convention that will lay the foundations for a new party.