* WHO confirms first shipment of 1.1 mln doses to Cuba

* Nigeria, Kenya and S. Africa among dozen to get doses

* Virus continues to spread in West Africa

* Experts to examine WHO handling of pandemic April 12-14

GENEVA, March 19 (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday it had delivered the first doses of H1N1 vaccine to Cuba, and a dozen countries in Africa would receive millions of doses in coming weeks.

* Nigeria, Kenya and S. Africa among dozen set to get doses

* Virus continues to spread in West Africa

* Experts to examine WHO handling of pandemic April 12-14

GENEVA, March 19 (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday it would deliver millions of H1N1 vaccine doses to about a dozen countries in Africa in coming weeks.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, as well as Kenya and South Africa are among those slated to receive vaccine doses by May, WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Mining giant Rio Tinto Ltd. and China's Chinalco have signed a deal to develop an iron ore reserve in the West African country of Guinea.

The nonbinding joint venture agreement covers rail and port infrastructure as well as the Simandou mine itself, the Anglo-Australian miner said in a statement Friday.

The deal comes after Rio Tinto last year angered Chinalco by scrapping a $19.5 billion tie-up over Australian fears it would give a foreign company a strategic stake in one of the country's biggest industries.

Togo's main opposition party is rejecting results announced by the electoral commission that indicate the country's president has won re-election.

The opposition Union of Forces for Change Party is rejecting results that indicate President Faure Gnassingbe won more than 60 percent of Thursday's ballots, securing his re-election with more than 1.2 million votes.

Results announced late Saturday by Togo's electoral commission indicate opposition candidate Jean-Pierre Fabre received nearly 700,000 votes, or just over a third of the ballots. Former prime minister Yawovi Agboyibo finished third with less than three percent of the vote.

the military coup that deposed mamadou tandja, the president of niger, on thursday could be seen as yet another putsch in a remote west african country, save for two things contributing to a growing instability in the region - cocaine and al-qaeda

was formed, news reports said. reuters reported from niamey, the capital of the landlocked, uranium-producing country in west africa, that the city was calm friday following a military assault on the presidential palace where the government was meeting

college of medicine in houston. dr. hayes said archbishop tutu was selected because of his keen interest in medicine and because his parents come from the two largest bantu groups in south africa, the sotho-tswana and the nguni. bantu speakers

dakar, senegal (ap) - cocaine shipped to west africa by latin american drug cartels is now being traded for arms, the u.n.'s drug czar said monday - an exchange of contraband that is especially dangerous in a region now home to cells of an al-qaida

JOHANNESBURG - A bloody pirate attack off Benin's coast is raising concerns that Nigerian pirates — operating on the opposite side of Africa from Somali pirates — are extending their reach and shows that the waters off West Africa are almost equally dangerous, a maritime expert said.

Pirates attacked an oil tanker Tuesday, killing a Ukrainian sailor and wounding at least two crew members on the Liberian-flagged Cancale Star, said Benin's naval chief, Maxime Ahoyo. He said the tanker had 24 crew members, mostly Ukrainian and that some pirates were from neighboring Nigeria. They did not gain control of the ship, Ahoyo said.

Following the arrests, which took place on board the ship, Anatoly Serdyukov, the Russian defence minister, has given more details of events surrounding the mystery vessel and its diversion to west Africa by the hijackers.

"These people, after claiming that their boat was not working, boarded the Arctic Sea and using the threat of arms, demanded that the crew follow all of their orders without condition," he said.

Russian vessels were searching the Atlantic Ocean for the Arctic Sea

A missing ship with 15 Russian crew members on board has been spotted more than two weeks after it disappeared, unconfirmed reports say.

The Arctic Sea had last been sighted in the Bay of Biscay on 30 July.

A coastguard source told AFP news agency it had now been seen some 400 nautical miles from the Cape Verde islands, off West Africa.

Liberians see the United States as an old friend

US Secretary State Hillary Clinton has arrived in Liberia on the latest stage of her seven-nation African tour.

Despite rain, crowds lined the streets to welcome her to Monrovia where she is holding talks with President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and addressing MPs.

The BBC's West Africa correspondent, John James, says expectations are high as many Liberians consider the US as an old friend.

Associated Press Writer= BRUSSELS (AP) â?" The flight recorders from Air France Flight 447 could be scattered nearly anywhere across a vast undersea mountain range that lies as much as four miles below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.

In those remote, forbidding waters between Brazil and West Africa, variations in temperature and salinity can reduce visibility and obscure homing signals from the devices. And for salvage crews, time is short because the "black boxes" will only emit signals for a month.

BBC West Africa correspondent

Following the assassination of President Joao Bernardo Vieira and the murder of the head of the army, General Tagme Na Waie, it is not surprising that foreign ministers from the region are heading to Guinea-Bissau. Guinea-Bissau's army has called the shots since independence