HAWASSA, Ethiopia (Reuters) - Government forces displayed the severed heads of Yerusalem Kawiso's relatives in the market after the two men fought to carve out a state for Ethiopia's Sidama people. Forty years later, the Ethiopian mother rose before dawn on Wednesday to vote for the referendum her family dreamed of.

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian ex-attorney general Mohammed Adoke has been arrested in Dubai, his lawyer told Reuters on Wednesday, after a warrant was issued earlier this year as part of one of the oil industry's biggest corruption scandals.

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algeria's army has arrested eight people planning to join Islamist militants in the neighboring Sahel region, the defence ministry said on Wednesday.

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - A Tanzanian court on Wednesday postponed the hearing for the eighth time of a prominent Tanzanian journalist arrested in July in a case his lawyers and rights group say is politically motivated.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean police on Wednesday used batons, tear gas and water cannon to beat up and disperse supporters of the main opposition party who had gathered outside its building in the capital to listen to a speech by their leader.

HAWASSA, Ethiopia (Reuters) - Polls opened on Wednesday for Ethiopia's Sidama people to vote on self-determination in a referendum closely watched by other ethnic groups also seeking more autonomy since reforms by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed shook up the national power balance.