Reuters Africa Highlights 1500 GMT July 31

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council was set to authorize up to 26,000 troops and police for Sudan's Darfur region in an effort to quell violence in the vast arid region.

Britain and France, sponsors of the resolution, formally introduced their draft resolution late on Monday to the 15 council members, stripping the text of harsh language. A vote was expected Tuesday afternoon on a combined or "hybrid" United Nations-African Union force.

MAPUTO/HARARE - Prices in Zimbabwe could be 1,000 times higher at the end of this year than they were at the beginning, the IMF predicted.

Once the breadbasket of southern Africa, Zimbabwe's economy is crippled by acute food, fuel and foreign currency shortages.

LAGOS - Nigeria's new government and militant groups in the oil-producing Niger Delta are moving towards talks that could restore lost output from the world's eighth-largest oil exporter.

An 18-month campaign of guerrilla attacks on Western oil facilities has prompted thousands of foreigners to leave Africa's top producer, reduced output by a fifth and helped oil prices rise to record highs.

ABUJA - Seven gunmen abducted a Pakistani construction manager in southern Nigeria and demanded a ransom, a local rights activist said citing sources at the man's company and witnesses.

The attack takes to at least 12 the number of foreigners being held hostage by armed groups in the oil-producing Niger Delta, where crime and militancy have surged since early 2006.

NIAMEY - More than one in seven children under 3 years old in Niger are suffering from acute malnutrition as the annual lean season begins, despite massive aid since a 2005 food crisis, the U.N. Children's Fund said.

Drought and disastrous harvests left an estimated 3.6 million people short of food two years ago in the landlocked, arid country on the southern side of the Sahara. Shocking images of malnourished children helped prompt a global aid appeal.

RABAT - Libya adopted a United Nations nuclear terrorism convention obliging governments to hunt down and punish those who unlawfully possess atomic devices, official news agency JANA said.

Libya's General People's Committee agreed to the convention designed to eliminate unlawful possession of nuclear devices and materials by non-state actors.

KHARTOUM - Eleven prominent international activists have sent an open letter to Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir requesting the release of Darfur rebel Suleiman Jamous, who some see as critical to Darfur peace efforts.

Jamous, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) humanitarian coordinator, has been virtually imprisoned for 13 months and is in urgent need of medical attention.

LUANDA - Angola's president says illegal immigration has grown to alarming levels in the southern African country.

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For Subscribers

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAbdul El-Sayed tries to woo MAHA voters as Democrats seek inroads with RFK’s supporters

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKratom-like substances are popping up in a typically benign supplement

FOR SUBSCRIBERSGOP super PAC increases its spending for Sen. Jon Husted in tough Ohio race

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRecords reveal tumultuous marriage between slain New York Times executive and wife

FOR SUBSCRIBERSFrom clean energy warrior to ‘wall of shame,’ James Talarico reverses on a fossil fuel money pledge

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCongressional staff planned official trip with luxury stops in Italy and France weeks before election

FOR SUBSCRIBERSA harrowing ordeal aboard an Israel-bound plane

FOR SUBSCRIBERSOpenAI CEO Sam Altman to skip congressional hearing on rogue AI agents

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKey DOJ lawyers departed Trump ‘grand conspiracy’ probe amid pressure to produce, source says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump’s new AI chatbot often links to a site launched under Clinton 26 years ago

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAt MAHA summit, industry CEOs the movement once vilified take the stage

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThis Paralympian has two goals: Win medals and give away $500,000 to her teammates

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCornell rape allegation spotlights stringent New York state laws that have long drawn criticism

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThe debate over AI’s future rages on both coasts

FOR SUBSCRIBERSDecades-old march dispute reignites in Northern Ireland, threatening political crisis

Jose Eduardo dos Santos expressed his concerns after talks with his Congolese counterpart Joseph Kabila.

NAIROBI - Kenyan police fired tear gas to scatter demonstrators protesting against plans by members of parliament to award themselves big pay rises as a "severance package" before December elections.

Dozens of protesters rallied by a grassroots group, the Civil Society Task Force on Grand Corruption, tried to reach parliament, blowing whistles and waving placards denouncing the move to grant legislators another 1.4 billion shillings ($20.7 million).

MOGADISHU - Islamist rebels attacked Somali and Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu with rockets and gunfire, killing at least four people in the heaviest fighting for days.

The attack -- which one Islamist fighter said involved dozens of "mujahideen" -- was the latest in an insurgency waged by remnants of a hardline Islamic Courts movement ousted earlier this year by government forces and their Ethiopian allies.

GENEVA - Young children among tens of thousands of refugees who fled civil war in the Central African Republic are suffering "alarming" malnutrition and need immediate aid, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said.

The Geneva-based international aid agency said "insufficient protection and assistance" for more than 26,000 refugees in 59 sites along Cameroon's eastern border "has led to a serious deterioration in their medical and nutritional situation."

BUJUMBURA - Diplomats urged Burundi's last rebel group to rejoin a joint ceasefire monitoring team they quit a week ago, a move that stirred fears of renewed conflict in the tiny central African nation.

Senior members of the Hutu Forces for National Liberation (FNL) have disappeared from the capital Bujumbura and many Burundians believe they may have returned to the bush.

ADDIS ABABA - A U.N. elections consultant told an Ethiopian treason trial two anti-poverty activists charged with trying to overthrow the government had been acting within the law.

Daniel Bekele, 40, and Netsanet Demissie, 29, are the last defendants out of 131 originally charged in the proceedings that followed post-election violence in 2005 which a parliamentary inquiry said killed 199 civilians and police, and resulted in 30,000 arrests.