Kenyans are awaiting results in their country's presidential election, after millions cast their votes on Monday.

At least 48 hostages are now thought to have died in a four-day siege at an Algerian gas plant, as reports say that 25 bodies found at the complex on Sunday were all those of captives.

Three days of mourning have been declared in Ivory Coast following a New Year's Eve stampede that killed at least 61 people in Abidjan.

Nigerian troops clashed with militants from the Islamist group Boko Haram in the northeastern city of Maiduguri Tuesday, in an incident that left one soldier and 13 insurgents dead, the army said.

The Central African Republic's President Francois Bozize has appealed to the US and France to help block a rebel advance on the capital, Bangui.

At least 30 people have been killed in fresh clashes between rival farming communities in the Tana River district on the Kenyan coast, police say.

The Egyptian army has deployed tanks and armoured troop carriers outside the presidential palace in Cairo after clashes between supporters and opponents of President Mohammed Morsi.

The new pope of Egypt's Coptic Christian church has been formally enthroned in Cairo.

Fifty children aged four to six years old and the driver of the school bus they were on were killed when their vehicle was hit by a train in central Egypt on Saturday, officials said.

As Ghanaians are trying to come to terms with the collapse of a six-storey building in Accra, a train carrying liquid fuel has also crashed and burst into flames in central Burma, killing at least 25 people and injuring dozens.

Bishop Tawadros has been chosen as the new pope of Egypt's Coptic Christians, becoming leader of the largest Christian minority in the Middle East.

At least 25 people have died and 30 others were hurt in a fire at a wedding in eastern Saudi Arabia, officials say.

An early morning fire at a hospital in southern Taiwan has killed 12 patients and injured at least 60 more.

Doctors at the UK hospital where 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai is being treated after a Taliban gun attack say they are hopeful she can recover.

Turkish officials have accused a Syrian passenger plane of carrying "illegal cargo" between Moscow and Damascus.

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Rebels have carried out a suicide bomb attack overnight on an intelligence agency compound in a suburb of the Syrian capital, Damascus, reports say.

Nigerian troops have opened fire and burned buildings in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, reportedly killing 30 civilians.

The shootings came after a bomb blast targeting the army had injured two soldiers.

But army spokesman Lt Col Sagir Musa told the BBC that soldiers had not shot any civilians.

Maiduguri has been under siege from the militant Islamist group Boko Haram, which wants Sharia law in Nigeria.

On Sunday, the army said it killed 30 Boko Haram members in another north-eastern city, Damaturu.

Eyewitnesses in Maiduguri said soldiers began to indiscriminately open fire on residents and set fire to homes and businesses.

'Truck full of bodies'

An Associated Press reporter in the city reportedly counted 30 bodies and 50 buildings that had been set ablaze.

Unnamed nurses at the local Umaru Shehu were quoted by Reuters news agency as saying that 30 bodies in civilian clothes had been brought in, with a further five corpses in military uniforms.

"Initially, soldiers that came after the explosion harassed residents, whipping them," one person told AFP news agency.

"But later they went on a shooting spree and started setting homes and shops on fire."

Another resident said the soldiers "shot everybody in sight".

One Maiduguri resident told the BBC that a tipper truck full of bodies had been driven to the hospital.

"The bodies were dumped there like bags of cement," said the resident.

Another resident said: "When soldiers are killed, everyone is an enemy. You just have to pray you are as far as possible from the scene."

Similar reports of the security forces arresting and killing local residents following militant attacks have been made on numerous occasions during the past three years of Boko Haram violence.

The BBC's Will Ross, in Lagos, says that in the conflict between the army and Boko Haram, civilians have paid a heavy price.

Not trusted by either side, people complain that they are stuck in the middle between the bombs of Boko Haram and the bullets of the army, our correspondent says.

Col Musa confirmed earlier on Monday that two soldiers had been injured in a bomb blast targeting an army patrol vehicle in Maiduguri.

Attacks in central and northern Nigeria blamed on Boko Haram have killed some 1,400 people since 2010.

BBC

Arab leaders are gathering to discuss a UN-backed peace plan for Syria at the first major international summit to be hosted by Baghdad in decades.

The UN-Arab League plan would see a UN-monitored end to fighting, troops pulled out of opposition areas and access for humanitarian services.

A Tibetan protester has been treated for severe burns after setting himself on fire in a demonstration during the Chinese president's visit to India.

The unidentified male protester sprinted for 50m through New Delhi today engulfed in flames as hundreds demonstrated against China's rule over Tibet.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has told the BBC it would be a huge political mistake if debt-stricken Greece was allowed to leave the euro.

In an exclusive interview, she said Germany would do everything it could to keep the eurozone together.