Nairobi- Somali gunmen on Thursday shot and killed an aid worker with the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the second in three days, as he distributed aid near Mogadishu, the agency said.

"Unknown gunmen shot and killed him during a food distribution at Daynile, 10 kilometres north-west of Mogadishu," Nairobi-based WFP spokesman Peter Smerdon told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"They then put his body in a WFP vehicle and drove off, shortly before pushing his body from vehicle and driving away," he added.

Nairobi/Dakar - Nine gay men have received heavy jail sentences in Senegal for engaging in acts "against the order of nature," reports said Thursday.

Homosexual activity is illegal in the mainly Muslim West African nation and is punishable by up to five years in prison.

However, the judge handed down eight years to each man after ruling they were members of a criminal organization, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) said.

One of those sentenced was Diadji Diouf, a prominent figure who heads an organization that provides HIV prevention services to gay men.

Nairobi - Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga's party was Monday holding crisis talks after President Mwai Kibaki signed into law a media bill opposed by Odinga.

Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) fears that Kibaki is increasingly going his own way and ignoring the premier, who was appointed this year as part of a power-sharing deal that ended Kenya's bloody post-election violence.

Around 1,500 died and hundreds of thousands fled after Odinga accused Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) of stealing last December's presidential elections.

Nairobi/Accra  - Ghanaians in a remote farming region were set Friday to decide who will be the West African nation's next president despite attempts by the ruling party to have the vote postponed.

The constituency of Tain, which has just over 50,000 registered voters, could not complete its vote in Sunday's presidential run-off election after problems distributing the ballots.

John Atta Mills of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) holds a 23,055-vote lead over Nana Akufo-Addo of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), meaning that the constituency has the power to decide who wins.

Atta Mills won Tain in the inconclusive first round in early December with 16,211 votes to 14,935 for Akufo-Addo.

Nairobi/Accra - Thousands of supporters of Ghana's opposition candidate John Atta Mills gathered outside the offices of the electoral commission Tuesday as the body prepared to announce the results of the presidential run-off election.

Partial results from the electoral commission put Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on 52.17 per cent of the vote versus 47.9 per cent for Nana Akufo-Addo of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) with 200 out of 230 constituencies counted.

Local media have projected a win for Atta Mills, who has already claimed victory. The NPP said that Atta Mills was claiming victory prematurely.

Nairobi/Johannesburg  - You know it has been a bad year when the only news to cheer is the election of a president in another country.

Unfortunately for many nations in Africa this has been the case this year, with the election of Barack Obama bringing small comfort to countries struggling with conflict and political instability.

While Obama's election may turn out to bring little in the way of concrete benefit to the continent, many Africans felt their self-respect was boosted by the victory of a man whose roots lie in Kenya.