MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A car bomb went off in the Somali capital on Monday, wounding three people, a Reuters witness said.

ACCRA, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Ghana is embracing the Christian faith with a fervour that is increasingly shaping its national identity.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Islamic State claimed responsibility on Monday for a foiled bomb attack on an Algerian police station one day earlier, the group's AMAQ news agency reported.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A loud explosion went off in the Somali capital on Monday, and its cause was not immediately known, a Reuters witness said.

ABIDJAN, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Good rains in the last week in most of Ivory Coast's main cocoa growing regions are a positive sign for the development of the mid-crop but hot weather could hurt it, farmers said on Monday.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa has lifted water restrictions in its most populous province which houses the capital and the economic hub after dam levels improved following days of heavy rainfall, the water department said on Monday.

BANJUL (Reuters) - Gambia's new government has endorsed the "one China" policy and said it would not establish any official relations or contacts with Taiwan, continuing a policy adopted in March 2016 by the government of former leader Yahya Jammeh.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's Hawks elite police unit said on Monday it is not investigating Deputy Minister Mcebisi Jonas, but only making enquiries at this stage over claims that he was part of a probe into allegations of corruption at state-owned South African Airways (SAA).

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - About 100 people ransacked shops in Johannesburg overnight, police said on Monday, in the latest of a wave of looting incidents in South African cities.

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Cold weather, rains and resilient genetically-modified crops (GMO) have limited the damage caused by an armyworm outbreak in South Africa, the head of Grain SA Jannie de Villiers said on Monday.

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy has expelled two Tunisians, one of whom may have had contact with a man who killed 12 people in Berlin when he ploughed a truck through a busy Christmas market, the Italian interior ministry said.

ROME (Reuters) - Pope Francis said on Sunday he wants to make a trip to South Sudan together with the head of the Anglican Church to bring attention to the suffering of people stricken by civil war and famine.

KADUNA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Two German archaeologists who were kidnapped in central Nigeria have been freed, a police official said on Sunday.

THONYOR, South Sudan (Reuters) - Like thousands of other South Sudanese families caught up in famine, Sara Dit and her 10 children are hiding from marauding gunmen in the swamps and islands of the river Nile.

DAKAR (Reuters) - A U.N. operation with an attack helicopter dispersed heavily armed militiamen in the remote Central African Republic town of Bambari town on Sunday, the peacekeeping mission said in a statement.

ALGIERS (Reuters) - A militant bomber attacked a police station in the eastern Algerian city of Constantine on Sunday but was shot before he could enter the building, state news agency and local media reported.

NAIROBI, Feb 27 (Reuters) - The following company announcements, scheduled economic indicators, debt and currency market moves and political events may affect African markets on Monday. - - - - - GLOBAL MARKETS Asian stocks erased early losses but stayed below 19-month highs on Monday as a renewed drop in sovereign bond yields on political concerns prompted some investors to move to the sidelines after a recent rally. WORLD OIL PRICES China's crude oil p