Fresh fears of ethnic violence swept Kenya today after another tribal group became ensnared in the county's continuing political row.

UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband today issued a fresh call for political compromise to end the violence in Kenya as the Foreign Office continued to warn against non-essential travel.

Opposition leaders in Kenya have cancelled tomorrow’s planned nationwide election protests over fears they could re-ignite the violence that has cost almost 500 lives so far.

Kenya’s opposition leader called today for rallies across the country, raising the prospect of renewed bloodshed even as he indicated he was willing to negotiate a power-sharing agreement to resolve the explosive electoral crisis.

International pressure mounted on Kenya today to end the election-fuelled violence that has claimed more than 300 victims.

European and African leaders were seeking to open a new era of closer relations, but their summit closed today with squabbling over trade and human rights.

LEADERS of the African Union (AU) began mapping out plans to forge a closer federation of states at a summit in Ghana yesterday, acknowledging that the continent’s current system of governance had to improve.

Lasers lit the sky and an actor relived the emotional moment 50 years ago when independence leader Kwame Nkrumah declared Ghana “free forever” to kick off celebrations today in the first sub-Saharan African nation to break from Europe.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was to receive one of his native Ghana’s highest official commendations today, an award granted twice each decade that this year lauds Annan for his distinguished overseas service.

President George Bush is meeting with the leaders of several African nations later this month to celebrate elections held last year in each and hold them up as models of democratic progress on the troubled continent.

President John Kufuor accepted his re-election as leader of Ghana today, congratulating citizens in Africa’s first independent nation on the largely peaceful balloting and calling the nation a “beacon of democracy”.

PRESIDENT Charles Taylor, the former warlord blamed for nearly 14 years of bloodshed in Liberia and indicted for war crimes, finally surrendered power to his deputy yesterday.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for urgent deployment of an international force for Liberia, warning of a “humanitarian tragedy” in a war-ruined capital where fighting this week killed hundreds of trapped civilians.

U2 rocker Bono and US Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill began a four-nation tour of Africa today, examining the continent’s deep-seated problems.

Hundreds of Ghanaian youths returning from a funeral service for Muslim victims killed in Africa’s worst soccer disaster vented their anger by attacking a police station and destroying kiosks and street lights in a working class neighbourhood of the capital, Accra.