Egypt’s anti-regime protests entered their third week Tuesday with thousands of demonstrators still camped out in Cairo’s main square demanding the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak.

The United States urged the Egyptian government Thursday to begin transition talks “immediately” and was reportedly pushing for President Hosni Mubarak to quit right away.

Fifty Egyptian human rights groups on Tuesday called on President Hosni Mubarak to step down to avoid bloodshed on the eighth day of anti-government protests that have left at least 125 people dead.

Egyptian protesters on Monday called for an indefinite general strike and said they planned a “million man march” on Tuesday to mark one week since the start of deadly anti-government protests.

Niger’s polling stations opened Monday at 8:00 am (0700 GMT), witnesses said, as voters were called on to elect a civilian president to end a military dictatorship in the impoverished African state.

Ivory Coast’s incumbent leader who refuses to cede power nearly two months after the presidential election is stepping up pressure on the United Nations.

The United Nations ordered more troops to Ivory Coast Wednesday after African leaders admitted they had failed to get strongman Lauren Gbabgo to hand power to his elected successor.

BERLIN – Ivory Coast’s Alassane Ouattara said on Friday that he would reject a power sharing deal with the country’s leader Laurent Gbagbo, in a German radio interview.

Ivory Coast’s political standoff has united its neighbours as never before in a crucial test of their crisis-solving abilities ahead of several more elections in Africa this year, experts say.

South Sudanese go to the polls on Sunday in a referendum that marks the culmination of decades of war and six years of peace, that could see the mostly Christian south break from historical domination by the Muslim north.