The President of Malawi Bakili Muluzi has said he is disappointed by the slow international response to the devastating floods that hit the country last month.

Zimbabwe plans to pull out 5,000 troops from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the "immediate future" - halving its military presence in the mineral-rich country - in a move a defence spokesman on Thursday described as a vote of confidence in the peace process.

The Senegalese President, Abdoulaye Wade, has said the former President of Chad, Hissene Habre, must leave the country. "We have given him 30 days to leave Senegal," President Wade told Sud FM radio in Dakar, the Senegalese capital. But he said Senegal had not been given sufficient evidence by the Chadian Government for the courts to prosecute Mr Habre for alleged crimes against humanity.

UN special report on children and armed conflict.

Thousands of children, some as young as 10, are serving with armed groups in the Middle East and North Africa, an international conference on the plight of child soldiers has been told.

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