LAGOS, Oct 4, 2007 (AFP) - Police in Nigeria have arrested 12 Cameroonian asylum seekers in front of the US embassy in Abuja, a senior police officer said Thursday, according to state media.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Nwaoha Uzoma said the suspects would be prosecuted for criminal conspiracy, joint act, unlawful assembly, inciting disturbances and criminal trespass, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported.

GENEVA, Sept 28, 2007 (AFP) - Swiss authorities said Friday they had arrested three men for kidnapping a Cameroonian soothsayer who allegedly tricked them out of 500,000 euros (700,000 dollars) by claiming to replicate banknotes.

The three had seized the 37 year-old marabout in Geneva and badly mistreated him in a nuclear bunker in the western Swiss village of Denges for three days, Geneva investigating magistrate Alix Francotte Conus said.

He was found chained naked to the bunker door and was taken to hospital, police said.

YAOUNDE, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - A Moroccan diplomat has died after being attacked in the streets of the Cameroon capital, the Moroccan embassy said on Wednesday.

Khaled Barnossi, 42, who had been working in Cameroon for three years, was found unconscious on Monday near his home in the Bastos residential area of Yaounde.

'We do not know what happened. As he did every evening, after breaking the Ramadan fast at about 6:30 p.m., he went to a telephone box near his home to make a call to his family in Paris,' embassy official Mohamed Abarghaz said.

LAGOS, Sept 4, 2007 (AFP) - Nigeria will spend 950 million naira (7.3 million dollars/ 5.3 million euros) to resettle nationals living in the disputed Bakassi Peninsula ceded to Cameroon last year, the national news agency said Tuesday.

Nigeria formally handed over Bakassi to Cameroon in August 2006 in compliance with a ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and a UN-brokered deadline.

YAOUNDE, Aug 10, 2007 (AFP) - Cameroon's Supreme Court on Friday announced results from last month's legislative polls, handing long-serving ruler Paul Biya's party a crushing victory amid opposition claims of foul play.

Biya's Democratic Rally of the Cameroonian People (RDPC) swept 140 of the 180 seats in the National Assembly in the July 22 elections, compared to 149 in the previous parliament, according to final results announced by the court.

Its ally in the government, the National Union for Democracy and Progress, won four seats.

YAOUNDE, July 30, 2007 (AFP) - A total of 103 petitions have been filed to Cameroon's highest court to annul results of this month's legislative elections that handed President Paul Biya's governing party a landslide victory, a court official said Monday.

A number of the 45 parties figuring on the election lists on July 22 had filed petitions, but most of the appeals came from the main opposition parties, especially the Social Democratic Front (SDF), the supreme court official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

ABIDJAN, July 24, 2007 (AFP) - Three African countries plan to double natural rubber production by 2020 to benefit from an upturn in world markets, an official said Tuesday.

Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Ghana set the goal as they opened a two-day meeting in Abidjan on increasing revenues for small rubber farmers.

'We are aiming to become an important partner in the field worldwide by doubling our production between now and 2010,' said Fulgence Koffi, head of the Association of Natural Rubber Professionals in Ivory Coast.

YAOUNDE, July 24, 2007 (AFP) - Cameroon President Paul Biya`s governing party won a crushing victory in weekend polls as the opposition Tuesday cried foul, saying the west African nation had not staged fair elections in years.

Biya, who was appointed prime minister in 1975 and has been president since 1982, saw his Democratic Rally of the Cameroonian People (RDPC) grabbing 152 of the 180 seats in the National Assembly, against 149 in the outgoing parliament.

YAOUNDE, July 24, 2007 (AFP) - President Paul Biya`s party, the Democratic Rally of the Cameroonian People (RDPC), won a landslide victory in Sunday`s legislative and municipal elections, according to provisional results issued late Monday.

It grabbed at least 152 of the 180 seats in the National Assembly, compared with 149 in the outgoing parliament, the government`s minister for territorial administration, Marafa Hamidou Yaya, told the press.

YAOUNDE, July 24, 2007 (AFP) - President Paul Biya`s party, the Democratic Rally of the Cameroonian People (RDPC), won a landslide victory in Sunday`s legislative and municipal elections, according to provisional results issued late Monday.

It grabbed at least 152 of the 180 seats in the National Assembly, compared with 149 in the outgoing parliament, the government`s minister for territorial administration, Marafa Hamidou Yaya, told the press.