A 12-year-old boy in Togo was killed on Monday by police who fired in warning to disperse a protest demanding the country's schools re-open as demonstrations over the closures spread across the country, a statement said. The west African nation's government had temporarily shut all primary and secondary schools following student protests last week that saw property destroyed. The rallies widened on Monday, with both protesters and members of the security forces hurt in clashes that broke out in several areas.

A 12-year-old boy in Togo was killed on Monday by a policeman who fired in warning to disperse a protest demanding the country's schools re-open, an official said. The west African nation's government had temporarily shut all primary and secondary schools following student protests last week that saw property destroyed, according to a government statement. "A pupil... was killed by a bullet when police fired warning shots" to stop students ransacking local government buildings in the northern town of Dapaong, Security Minister Colonel Damehane Yark told AFP.

Togo's government on Monday temporarily shut all primary and secondary schools following student protests last week that got out of hand, a government statement said. It said the protests caused "considerable damage to public and private property." There was no mention of when schools would re-open. Thousands of students took to the streets last week to demand that classes re-open after teachers and health workers staged a three-day strike to demand a 100 percent pay rise.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will travel to Niger for a two-day visit, his first to the world's fourth uranium producer, the government in Niamey said on Saturday. "The president of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will come for a two-day visit in our country beginning on Monday," according to a government statement read out on national television Saturday.