The former governor of one of Nigeria’s richest oil-producing states was jailed for 13 years in the UK today after admitting fraud totalling nearly £50 million.

Floodwaters from the bloated Mississippi River and its tributaries spilled across farm fields, cut off churches, washed over roads and forced people from their homes in the poverty-stricken Delta region.

THE Mississippi River crested in Memphis at nearly 48 feet (14.6m), falling short of its all-time record but still soaking low-lying areas with enough water to require a massive clean-up. To the south, residents in the Mississippi Delta prepared for the worst.

The main militant group in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta has said it will launch new attacks, despite a recent military crackdown.

Militants said today that the Nigerian military botched a rescue mission aimed at liberating two British hostages held captive in Nigeria’s restive southern oil region.

Egypt’s first female marriage registrar has started work despite complaints by some conservative clerics that the move is against Islam.

NIGERIA’S main militant group declared a ceasefire in the southern oil region yesterday, ending the worst spate of militant attacks in years to hit Africa’s oil giant.

Nigeria’s main militant group claimed today that it killed at least 29 military personnel in three separate attacks across the restive southern oil region.

UN helicopters fanned out across Burma’s devastated Irrawaddy Delta for the first time today, ferrying critical supplies to villages which have been struggling to survive since the May 2-3 cyclone, an official said.

Three students were killed and dozens injured today when a fire broke out inside a university campus building in Egypt’s Nile Delta, police and hospital officials said.

A three-year-old boy who was kidnapped in Nigeria’s oil-rich south was released today, a day after he was seized by gunmen, an aide to the boy’s father said.

Gunmen smashed a window and grabbed a three-year-old from his father’s Mercedes four-wheel drive vehicle today, bringing to four the number of children kidnapped for ransom in Nigeria’s oil-rich south.

Gunmen have released two Nigerian senior managers seized last weekend in the country’s oil-rich south, colleagues at Royal Dutch Shell PLC said today.

Gunmen seized four more foreign workers amid a dramatic rise in violence that has rocked Nigeria’s southern petroleum-producing region, oil industry officials said today.

The musical tribute to Irish Rock 'n Blues legend Rory Gallagher is set to take place once again in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal this May.

About a dozen gunmen attacked a Total SA oil pumping station in Nigeria early today, killing three police guards and shutting down the facility, company officials said.

Angry villagers in Nigeria who took over three Shell oil platforms in the volatile Niger Delta have agreed to end their siege and allow operations to resume.

THE family of released hostage Brian Fogerty are expecting to welcome him back to his family home in Galway today.

A man who identified himself as an American kidnapped by militants in Nigeria’s oil-rich southern delta last month – one of three including Briton John Hudspith – today said he feared for his life because he had been separated from the two other hostages.

The leader of Nigerian militants who captured four foreign oil workers said today he would not talk with negotiators sent by the government and reiterated threats to launch new attacks on oil installations.

NIGERIAN kidnappers have said their American hostage is gravely ill and threatened to kill three other foreign oil workers held captive if he died.

Two people were killed as police fought with voters trying to break the police blockades of polling stations in opposition strongholds today, the final day of Egypt’s parliamentary elections.

Riot police fought with voters, firing tear gas and bullets that killed one person, as the state barred polling stations in opposition strongholds in the third and final round of Egypt's legislative elections.

Nigerian police and soldiers freed two kidnapped expatriate oil workers, one of whom is thought to be Irish, during a rescue operation in the country’s southern oil-rich delta today, a police spokesman said.

Nigeria’s president deployed tens of thousands of police and army troops on foot and in armoured cars today, appealing for calm on the eve of countrywide municipal elections already marred by assassinations and other attacks.

At least 105 villagers in rural Nigeria died when petrol gushing from a vandalised pipeline exploded as they tried to scavenge the fuel, Red Cross authorities and witnesses said today.

PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo surged ahead of his main challenger, Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday in partial returns from Nigeria’s presidential elections, which were marred

Militants vowed to prevent voting today in a broad swathe of Nigeria’s oil delta during elections that pose a test for civilian rule in Africa’s most populous nation.