ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria's parliament empowered Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to run Africa's most populous nation Tuesday in place of an ill and absent president, striving for a political end to a crisis that ground the government to a virtual halt and triggered the resumption of an insurgency in the vital oil sector.

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigerian Vice President Goodluck Jonathan says he has assumed power as acting president.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Protesters torched a police station in western Ivory Coast while claiming their names had been removed from voter rolls in advance of this year's presidential election.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The European Union Naval Force says Somali pirates have freed a Panama-flagged cargo ship and its crew of 26 after a ransom was paid.

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — An international news channel is showing chilling footage of men in uniforms shooting unarmed men after they purportedly were arrested during clashes last year with Muslim militants in northern Nigeria.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Protesters have torched a library in an impoverished area of South Africa in what began as a march to call for more jobs.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A South African official says 13 children are dead after a fire tore through an orphanage early Tuesday.

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — White businesspeople in Zimbabwe who don't cede control of their companies to black partners could face jail under a law going into effect next month.

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria's National Assembly empowers vice president to stand in for absent, ill president.