Barely weeks after the last crisis that virtually turned the once bubbling city of Jos into a ghost town, tension again enveloped the city yesterday, as security personnel took over almost every part of Jos.

This followed the arrest of 26 men suspected to be mercenaries on a mission in the city, by men of the Plateau State police Command.

Five policemen from the Maputo City Police Command have been arrested on charges of extortion and of supplying firearms to gangs of criminals, according to the Maputo director of the Criminal Investigation Police (PIC), Dias Balate.

A convoy of trucks loaded with Ethiopian soldiers, mattresses and other equipment left Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Friday, witnesses said.

Ethiopian soldiers have been propping up Somalia's Western-backed government for the past two years but say they will withdraw in the next few days -- potentially leaving a dangerous power vacuum in the Horn of Africa nation.

Ethiopian troops have led an operation to arrest the former mayor of Somalia's national capital, Radio Garowe reports.

Ex-Mayor Mohamed "Dheere" Omar was detained near KM4 junction, where African Union peacekeepers are stationed.

A few years ago 66-year-old grandmother Regina Fhiceka and her family of five ate vegetables only once a week. They would survive on maize and bread the rest of the time -- the cheapest food available in the poor township of Philippi, just 15 minutes from the affluent business district of Cape Town.

Three militants were shot dead and four others captured alive, yesterday, after a heavy exchange of gunfire between the Joint Task Force on the Niger-Delta and militants, who attempted to overrun an Agip flow station at Tebidaba, a creek community in Bayelsa State.

The violence in Darfur has intensified in recent months with attacks on humanitarian workers, peacekeepers and the growing number of displaced persons sheltering in makeshift camps, with inter-tribal clashes and fighting between the Government and armed militia adding to the mayhem, the head of United Nations peacekeeping told the Security Council today.

At least 12 people were killed in Lower Shabelle region, southern Somalia, after Ethiopian troops clashed with suspected insurgents, Radio Garowe reported Saturday.

The fighting erupted in Wanla Weyn, a district in Lower Shabelle where Ethiopian forces recently established a military checkpoint.

War-weary Somalis have little reason to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights on 10 December.

"I don't know what this day means," Faliz Ali, 33, a mother of two, said. "I am more worried about how I am going to take care of my children."

Hundreds of mourners arrived at the Coca Cola Dome in Northgate on Saturday to say their last goodbyes to Miriam Makeba, who died in Italy after a performance there last Sunday.

Khartoum: Thousands of villagers have been forced to flee their homes after more than a week of heavy clashes between Sudanese forces and rebels in North Darfur, aid sources said on Monday.

Entire villages have been abandoned after residents took shelter in surrounding mountains and open land, cut off from food aid and clinics, humanitarian officers said.

Somalia: The United Nations appealed on Monday for international help to protect U.N. food shipments in Somalia's pirate-infested waters, warning of shortages if no country came forward.

Somalia: Two kidnapped employees of the UN World Food Program have been released, a spokesman said Monday, but 11 aid workers remained in captivity following a series of attacks on the humanitarian community, which supports nearly half the population of this impoverished country.

Darfur: Darfur rebels claim government forces have launched more ground and air attacks on their positions and villages in North Darfur.

Two rebel groups say the attacks started on Saturday morning and that civilians are fleeing the area.

Somalia: A flurry of attacks by Somali pirates is wreaking havoc with maritime traffic in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean amid complicated negotiations over the release of two kidnapped French sailors.