Black boxes from the Air Algerie plane that crashed last week in northern Mali will be transferred to France for analysis, according to French officials.

French officials have dispatched a military unit to secure the site in restive northern Mali where an Air Algerie plane crashed with the loss of 116 people.

There are fears today that scattered separatist violence may hamper an eventual investigation into what is the third major international aviation disaster in a week.

The wreckage of the Air Algerie plane that went missing has been found about 31 miles from the border of Burkina Faso near the village of Boulikessi in Mali, a presidential aide said.

An army general in Burkina Faso who is involved in the search for the missing Air Algerie flight carrying 116 people, claims that a witness saw a plane coming down in Mali.

The Air Algerie flight that went missing over Mali has “probably crashed”, France’s foreign minister said.

An Algerian aviation official says the passenger plane missing over Northern Mali has crashed.

An Air Algerie flight from Burkina Faso to Algiers in northern Africa has disappeared from radar, the official Algerian news agency confirmed.

LIBYAN transitional government forces said yesterday they had captured the university and a conference center in Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte, but were holding off an assault on the main square to let civilians escape.

Revolutionary fighters are shelling Muammar Gaddafi’s home town of Sirte ahead of a renewed push on the city, one of the last bastions of support for the fugitive leader.

Libyan revolutionary forces fired rockets into the western half of Muammar Gaddafi's home town today as hundreds of residents streamed out of the city to flee the fighting.

At least 11 people have been killed in Burkina Faso after a truck collided with two buses, state television said.

A mutiny by soldiers that started in Burkina Faso’s capital last week has spread across the country.

African diplomats descended on Burkina Faso to ensure a deal is sealed calling for Guinea’s injured leader to step down and for his country to hold democratic elections within six months.

A collision between a passenger bus and a truck killed more than 30 people today in the West African nation of Burkina Faso, the state radio reported.

Zimbabwe’s foreign minister says President Robert Mugabe is ready to form a unity government with opposition party members.