BBC News with Marion Marshall
Hospitals in the northern Nigerian city of Kano are struggling to cope with scores of dead and wounded following a series of (bomb attacks) on Friday. An eyewitness said he thought there were more than 100 bodies at the mortuary of the main hospital. Mark Doyle is in Kano.
All day long, people have been streaming towards the mortuary of the main hospital in Kano to look for the bodies of loved ones so they can be taken for (burial). The majority of victims appeared to be civilians, but there were some uniformed police officers among the dead as well.
The series of explosions on Friday evening targeted police stations, a (passport office) and other government buildings. It was one of the deadliest blows the radical Islamist group Boko Haram has delivered against the Nigerian state. As dusk fell over Kano, armed police and army checkpoints were being set up across the city, and other (security measures) tightened up.
Islamist parties have secured an overwhelming victory in Egypt's first parliamentary elections since the (downfall) of President Mubarak a year ago. The final results showed that the Muslim Brotherhood had won over 40% of the seats. The hard-line Islamists, known as Salafists, came second. Jon Laine reports from Cairo.
More than 80 years after they were founded, the Islamists, or the Muslim Brotherhood, are on the verge of power in Egypt after a (sweeping victory) in parliamentary elections. They had been putting themselves forward as pragmatists by contrast with the more hard-line Islamists, known as Salafists, whom they beat into second place. Under Egypt's presidential system, it's still up to the army and the new president when one is elected to nominate the government, so the winners of this election don't automatically (take office).
Angry protesters in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi have forced their way into the headquarters of the transitional government after besieging the building for hours. Witnesses said the protesters used stones and iron bars to break into the offices. Earlier, they threw homemade Benghazi, which was at the heart of the rebel uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi, has seen (ongoing protests) for several weeks. The transitional government is accused of failing to provide transparency or justice.
Voting is taking place in South Carolina, the latest leg of the battle for the Republican candidacy in the US presidential election with opinion polls promising a surprisingly (tight contest). The front-runner until now, Mitt Romney appears to be neck and neck with Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker who's emerging as the latest champion of the party's conservative right wing. The chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, Chad Connelly, told the BBC that voters in his state were always (unpredictable).
"I've been saying, you know, since the beginning, this will be a real race. Don't try to box in South Carolina voters. They're going to surprise you. This is a typical primary for us, and as much as the national media or the narrative was, you know, this thing or that thing, you just can't tell it on the ground. South Carolina voters are fiercely independent. They want to make their own decisions."
World News from the BBC
