Ivory Coast Prime Minister Guillaume Soro says everything is in place for the nation’s long-delayed presidential election set for Sunday.

At a news conference Saturday in the commercial center of Abidjan, Mr. Soro said campaigning for the election ended Friday night and Saturday will be a day of reflection before Sunday’s vote.

The prime minister promised the election would be peaceful and transparent

An anti-corruption group says Africa is the most corrupt region in the world, with Somalia being the most corrupt country.

Transparency International released its annual report Tuesday surveying perceived corruption in 178 countries.

The 2010 list ranks six African nations among the 10 most corrupt countries. They are Somalia, Sudan, Chad, Burundi, Angola and Equatorial Guinea

All the political protagonists in Ivory Coast are on board for a presidential election finally scheduled to take place October 31st. The country has been divided since rebels took up arms in 2002. The election was initially scheduled for 2005 but was repeatedly pushed back over delays in implementing a peace deal between President Laurent Gbagbo and the northern-based rebels

The United States has renewed its travel warning for Ivory Coast because of what it says is the increased probability of demonstrations and unrest before and after the scheduled October 31 presidential election.

The warning calls the situation tense and unpredictable and says political demonstrations can turn violent.

It says security conditions in the north and west can deteriorate without warning. Foreign visitors are at high risk for muggings, robberies, burglary, and carjacking

Controversy is bubbling in Africa over who owns the rights to the waters of the Nile River. From the river’s source, our correspondent reports newly assertive upstream nations are challenging treaties that grant most of the Nile’s flow to consumer countries Egypt and Sudan.

Some say the source of the Blue Nile is on Mt. Ghish, in the north Ethiopian highlands, where many believe the waters have miraculous healing powers

Rwanda, Yemen and Syria have joined Burma, North Korea and Eritrea in the group of the world’s worst abusers of the media, according to Reporter’s Without Borders 2010 Press Freedom Index.

Reporters Without Borders says press freedom is getting worse in the 10 countries at the bottom of its index. It says it is becoming hard to tell which country has the most problems, because all are persecuting the media and blocking news and information to their citizens

The United States is renewing its travel warning for Nigeria, three weeks after twin car bombings in the capital killed 12 people.

The State Department is again warning Americans against all but essential travel to nine of Nigeria’s 36 states because of the risks of kidnapping, robbery and other armed attacks.

The warning says extremists and militants have kidnapped more than 111 foreigners since January, 2009. Six of those kidnap victims have been killed

The Sudanese government has objected to a proposal to move United Nations peacekeepers to the tense border between the north and south ahead of a referendum on independence for the south.

A senior Sudanese official said that the UN would need Khartoum’s approval to move troops to the region to avoid violence ahead of the January referendum that could see the break-up of Africa’s biggest nation

In southern Sudan preparations are underway for the referendum scheduled for January 9 that will decide whether that part of the country secedes from the north. Part of the preparations for the vote, and for a possible future state, include training a regional police force.

They sing songs of appreciation for coming through a long civil war to this moment when they will decide their future

In an attempt to strengthen Somalia’s fractious transitional government, President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed on Thursday appointed 48-year-old American-Somali Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed as the country’s new Prime Minister.

The president praised the experience of Mohamed, also known as Farmaajo, and expressed confidence in his ability take up the difficult post

Candidates in Ivory Coast’s long-delayed presidential election, scheduled for October 31, will officially begin campaigning Friday.

The U.N. envoy to the African nation, Y.J. Choi, appealed for peace ahead of the vote and expressed confidence the Ivorian people will not tolerate any act of violence disrupting the electoral process

A leading member of Rwanda’s opposition said police Thursday arrested the leader of the United Democratic Forces (UDF) party, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, after she was accused of having ties to a Hutu rebel group.

Rwanda’s government said that the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) Hutu rebel group had a role in the country’s 1994 genocide. The rebel group has also been accused of committing atrocities in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo

A former Nigerian militant leader will appear in a South African court Thursday to face charges related to this month’s bombing in Nigeria that killed at least 12 people.

Henry Okah, a former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, is accused of engaging in terrorist activity and conspiring to set off the twin car bombs in Abuja on Nigeria’s 50th Independence Day

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi says the possible break-up of Sudan could promote similar splits in other Arab and African countries.

Addressing a summit of Arab and African leaders Sunday, Mr. Gadhafi said the January referendum on independence for southern Sudan is a “dangerous” event.

He said that if southern Sudan decides to split from the north, separatist conflicts will spread through Africa like a disease