Nairobi/Goma (Congo) - UN children's fund UNICEF sees life and health of children in Congo's Nord-Kivu region increasingly threatened by enduring fighting.

"This fighting is again having a brutal impact on the children and women of the Kivus," said Julien Harneis who heads the UNICEF operation in eastern Congo.

"Many children are split up from their families as they flee; in refugee camps they are even more vulnerable to malaria, measles, cholera and malnutrition," he added.

Last week's fighting had put all they had so far achieved in their battle against hunger and malnutrition at risk, Harneis said.

Nairobi - An independent commission led by South African judge Johann Kriegler on Wednesday handed over its final report on the 2007 Kenyan elections that ended in bloodshed after allegations of vote rigging.

President Mwai Kibaki received the report and promised to act on its findings.

More than 1,500 people died in clashes between rival tribes affiliated to the political parties and hundreds of thousands were forced to flee their homes during the violence, which came after opposition leader Raila Odinga accused Kibaki's party of rigging the presidential elections.

Nairobi/Kigali - Rwanda's ruling party the Rwanda Patriotic Front (FPR) has won a majority in parliamentary elections, preliminary results have revealed.

The FPR won 42 out of 53 seats up for grabs in Monday's direct vote, the electoral commission said.

The Social Democratic Party won seven seats and the Liberal Party four.

Overseas votes have still to be counted before the result can be finalized.

The commission said final results are not expected until September 25.

Some 24 female members of parliament were voted in by provincial and city councils on Tuesday, although results are not yet available. Youth and disabled representatives are due to be elected Wednesday and Thursday.

Nairobi/Abuja - A Nigerian militant group claimed Wednesday it had destroyed a Shell oil-flow station in the oil-rich Niger Delta as a wave of attacks against oil installations entered its fourth day.

Jomo Gbomo, a spokesman for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), said it had destroyed Shell's Orubiri flow station in Rivers State in a joint attack with the Niger Delta Volunteer Force (NDVF).

Gbomo said that all of the soldiers guarding the facility were killed.

Nairobi/Abuja - A British citizen has been kidnapped in Nigeria's restive Niger Delta province as a militant group said it would release two South Africans kidnapped among a group of 27 others.

A spokesman for the Nigerian military in the Niger Delta Lieutenant-Colonel Musa Sagir said that the unidentified Briton was kidnapped late on Monday evening, but gave out no further details.

The news came as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Nigeria's most prominent militant group, said it would release two South Africans captured along with 22 Nigerians, two Britons and another foreigner.

Nairobi/Kinshasa  - Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo are to launch a probe after 13 people died during a stampede at a football stadium prompted by allegations of witchcraft, reports said Tuesday.

Eyewitnesses told the BBC that those who died were trapped at the exit of the stadium in Butembo, eastern Congo after fans fled a volley of tear gas fired by police.

The trouble started when the goalkeeper of the Nyuki team threw something into the net of opposing team Socozaki at half-time.