Islamist militants staged brazen twin car bomb attacks on an army base and a French-run uranium mine in Niger on Thursday, killing at least 19 people and taking several trainee army officers hostage in the impoverished West African nation, the government said.

Official assurances about the improving health of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, hospitalized in France in April, have failed to convince many Algerians, as analysts warn that hiding such details is harder than it was.

In his first comments to the media by since he was detained more than two years ago, Egypt's former President Hosni Mubarak said he is dismayed at the country's state of affairs and particularly the plight of the poor.

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was back in court on Saturday for a retrial on charges of complicity in the murder of protesters, reopening a case that has shown the difficulty of transitional justice in post-revolutionary Egypt.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi increased the influence of his Muslim Brotherhood over government in a cabinet reshuffle that replaced two ministers involved in crucial talks with the IMF over a US$4.8 billion loan.

In forested hills in eastern Congo, rebels are honing their ambush skills to prepare to face a new United Nations force which has a mandate to go on the offensive.

Islamist-ruled Egypt is open to visitors who drink alcohol and wear bikinis as it sets out to boost numbers by at least a fifth this year, the tourism minister said on Sunday.

Gunmen shot a man dead who was selling alcohol in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Sunday in an attack security officials said was likely carried out by Islamist militants.

Seven people were killed Sunday morning when a suicide bomber attempted to ram a car laden with explosives into a military convoy escorting a four-member Qatari delegation.

The search for about 100 workers believed to have died inside a collapsed gold mine in Sudan's Darfur region has ended after nine rescuers also became trapped, a colleague of the miners said on Saturday.