Somalia's Interior Minister Abdi Shakur Sheikh Hassan was killed by his own teenage niece. The girl had visited his home several times in recent days, and thinking that she posed no threat, the guards did not carry out a security check. She then walked into the living room and set off a bomb. She was killed
instantly
. The minister died from his injuries as efforts were underway to fly him to hospital in Nairobi. The Islamist insurgent group al-Shabab said it had been behind the blast and said more attacks would follow.
The southern Sudanese army says the northern military has carried out air raids in south Sudan. The region is due to become independent in a month's time. Mary Harper reports.
A spokesman for the southern Sudanese army said three people had been killed in a series of air strikes in Unity state. He said Khartoum was trying to seize oil fields and that the southern army was strengthening its defensive positions. The United Nations says the violence has spread across the border from north Sudan, where fighting in the town of Kadugli has forced between 30,000 and 40,000 people to flee their homes. The recent flare-up in violence suggests difficult times ahead for what will be Africa's newest country of south Sudan.
Hospital doctors say the Libyan port city of Misrata has come under a renewed artillery barrage by troops loyal to the country's leader Muammar Gaddafi. At least 17 people are reported to have been killed and at least 60 wounded in the city, which is the principal rebel-held area in western Libya. Doctors said there had been no sign of Nato warplanes over the city. Misrata is surrounded on three sides by government forces.