06/19/2013 10:00 GMT

KANO, June 19, 2013 (AFP) - An armed gang has raided a northern Nigerian village and killed 48 people in an apparent reprisal attack targeting a local vigilante group, a state official said Wednesday.

"There was an attack by armed bandits early Tuesday on Kizara village where 48 residents were killed in apparent targeted killings by cattle rustlers that have been terrorising the state for some time now," said Ibrahim Birnin-Magaji, commissioner for information in Zamfara state, where the village is located.

06/19/2013 09:35 GMT

MOGADISHU, June 19, 2013 (AFP) - Somalia's Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents said Wednesday they had attacked and shot their way into a key United Nations compound in the capital Mogadishu, the first major attack in recent years targeting the UN.

"Our commandos have attacked the UN compound... we set off an explosion and have entered the compound, where we are fighting with the infidel forces," a senior Shebab official told AFP.

The Marshall Islands government has denied there's drought-related social unrest in its northern atolls.

The Marshall Islands government has denied there's drought-related social unrest in its northern atolls.

Some of the islands haven't had significant rain for a year and are relying on donated portable desalination units for drinking water.

Earlier this month, the National Water Advisor to the Marshall Islands government, Tom Vance, described the situation in the islands of Enewetak and Utrik as "dire" and said there was a lot of social tension.

19 Jun 2013 - Story by Helvy Shaanika

OPUWO - The Kunene Directorate of Health says 50 people, mainly children, had to be hospitalised due to malnutrition at the district hospitals of Outjo, Opuwo and Khorixas.

Nick Loomis June 18, 2013

DIOURBEL, SENEGAL — Humanitarian agencies in Africa's Sahel region are struggling to deal with a cycle of chronic food crisis. Some are moving away from traditional food aid in favor of "cash for work" programs that pay villagers to work on community improvement projects. The U.S. government is considering shifting as much as 45 percent of its $1.4 billion of traditional food aid in this direction. One such program, funded by the USAID Food for Peace Initiative, has been underway for the past seven months.

‎06/19/2013 07:02 GMT

SANAA, June 19, 2013 (AFP) - A suicide attack on Wednesday rocked a local market in Yemen's Shiite city of Saada killing two civilians, a Zaidi Ansarullah rebel told AFP.

The attacker detonated a bomb-laden motorbike in the market, said the rebel, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The blast left another 11 people critically wounded, he added.

jj-lyn/bpz

© 1994-2013 Agence France-Presse

06/19/2013 02:52 GMT

MAIDUGURI, June 19, 2013 (AFP) - Suspected Islamists shot dead nine students as they sat an exam in an attack on a private school in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, local people said Tuesday.

The attack, in a region that is a stronghold of the Islamist rebel group Boko Haram, happened on Monday in the Jajeri suburb of the city, they said.

Mohammed Saleh, a relative of one of the deceased students, said school officials had told him that the attack happened soon after the end-of-year exam had started.

06/19/2013 04:22 GMT

by Omar Ibrahim

TRIPOLI, June 19, 2013 (AFP) - Forced by Syria's war to sit her secondary school diploma exam in northern Lebanon, Riham Othman, 19, bursts into tears, fearing the Lebanese authorities will never recognise the test results.

Worse still, she dreads her dream of becoming a journalist may also never come true.

Her eyes fixed on the desk, Othman's anxiety is written all over her face.

"I know that when I finish my tests, no university will accept me," says Othman, who lost a year of schooling to Syria's war.

Submitted by Lucille L. Sering On Tue, 06/18/2013 - 20:55