A Nigerian court on Friday sacked business tycoon Aliko Dangote, ranked by Forbes as one of the world's richest Africans, as head of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), an NSE spokesman said. The 53-year-old owner of the Dangote consortium was unanimously elected at the NSE's general meeting last August but his election was contested by some shareholders of the oil marketing firm African Petroleum (AP).

At least 23 soldiers arrested after the attempted assassination of Guinea's then junta chief Moussa Dadis Camara in December 2009 have been imprisoned in Conakry, a judicial source said Friday. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said the soldiers, detained Wednesday night "were all, or almost all, members of Moussa Dadis Camara's close guard.

Guinean lawyers have begun a week's strike in protest at political interference in the judiciary regarding people detained on suspicion of drug trafficking, one of the lawyers said Friday. "The lawyers have since Thursday boycotted courts and tribunals to protest at the meddling of the executive in judicial affairs and above all the politicisation of the affair of the detained suspected drugs traffickers," defence lawyer Salifou Beavogui told AFP.

South African anti-apartheid activist Fatima Meer, a close friend of former president Nelson Mandela and supporter of the late Steve Biko, died in hospital on Friday, a family friend said. She was 81. "She was admitted into hospital 10 days ago . . . She had a stroke and passed away this afternoon," Ashwin Desai, a family friend, told AFP.

An Egyptian-born magnate behind a recent sale of huge West African and Iraqi oil interests to China pledged 20 million Swiss francs to expand Geneva's art and history museum, authorities said Friday. Addax chief Jean Claude Gandur's donation (18. 6 million dollars, 13. 6 million euros) would double other private and public funding to revive a planned modern extension to the museum designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, officialis in the Geneva municipality said.

An Egyptian-born magnate behind the recent sale of huge West African and Iraqi oil interests to China has pledged 20 million Swiss francs to the art and history museum in Geneva, authorities said Friday. Addax chief Jean Claude Gandur's donation (18. 6 million dollars, 13. 6 million euros) would double other private and public funding to revive a planned modern extension to the museum designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, officials said.

Egyptian police on Friday arrested nearly 50 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood who were staging anti-Israel demonstrations, a security official said. They were rounded up after weekly prayers as they demonstrated against Israeli plans to build Jewish settlements in Arab east Jerusalem and place two West Bank shrines on a list of Israeli heritage sites.

Togo's opposition leader announced plans on Friday to stage a new protest march against the disputed re-election of President Faure Gnassingbe. "We shall show that we have the people behind us and that . . . we shall fight to free our country from a system that seeks to extinguish it and prevent it from blossoming," Jean-Pierre Fabre told AFP.

Lebanon's president will not attend an Arab League summit in Libya because of a dispute between both countries over the 1978 disappearance of a leading Shiite cleric, a top official said on Friday. "President Michel Sleiman will not take part in the summit in Libya based on a request by speaker of parliament Nabih Berri," the government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

The Security Council voted Friday to extend by two months the mandate of the UN peace mission in Chad and Central African Republic to allow for further talks on the future of the force which Ndjamena wants withdrawn. The 15-member body voted unanimously to extend the mandate of the force known MINURCAT, which expires Monday, until next May 15.