Saudi Arabia has stopped issuing visas to Ugandan Muslims hoping to make the pilgrimage to Mecca because of fear that they will spread the often deadly Ebola virus, the Ugandan Health Ministry confirmed January 19.

An outbreak of Ebola, which was identified in the northern Ugandan town of Gulu last September, has so far killed 174 people.

The next pilgrimage to Mecca, an annual event that attracts more than a million Muslims, is scheduled for February.

Francis Omaswa, director general of medical services in Uganda, told AFP that the ban was not justified.

"This is not called for. It is not necessary at all. We are going to issue some documents to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to reassure them that there is no need to stop pilgrims traveling," Omaswa said.

According to the World Health Organization there is no need to apply travel restrictions to Ugandan nationals.

Only two new cases of Ebola have been recorded this year. Muslims account for 10 percent of the Ugandan population. TURKISH COPS SEIZE A PICASSO

Ankara – Police in southeastern Turkey have seized a painting thought to be by Pablo Picasso, which would be the sixth work by the artist retrieved by authorities since June, the Anatolia news agency reported January 22.

The report said that the painting, a canvas with geometric patterns dated 1931, was confiscated in the city of Sirnak close to Turkey's border with Syria and Iraq.

Police detained four suspects in the operation, the agency said. Police said they believed the painting was stolen from the palace of Kuwait's emir and smuggled into Turkey from northern Iraq, the route taken by the five other Picasso paintings previously seized by Turkish authorities.

The first two art works were recovered in the western city of Izmir in June, the third was confiscated in Sanliurfa in the southeast two months later, and the fourth in Mardin in the same region in September.

The fifth was retrieved in November in the southeastern town of Nusaybin, close to the border with Syria.

Several experts have questioned the authenticity of the paintings, while officials have been unable to explain the recent appearance of stolen Picasso works in Turkey.

No country or person has so far claimed ownership of the paintings. TEHRAN'S REVOLUTIONARY COURT HIT BY MISSILE

Tehran – Explosions that rocked Tehran on January 21 were caused by two rocket-propelled grenades that damaged the nation's top revolutionary court, the state IRNA news agency said.

It cited judicial officials saying the devices ripped through a wall of the court and hit a waiting room. Because the court was closed at the time, there were no casualties, the officials said.

In a faxed statement received by AFP in Nicosia, Iran's main armed opposition group, the People's Mujahadeen, said that the attack was "carried out in response to the recent wave of executions in Tehran and the brutal sentences passed on young people by the mullahs' criminal judiciary, which have aroused the wrath and hatred of the Iranian people against the ruling religious dictatorship."

It is the third attack on government offices claimed by the Baghdad-based Mujahadeen in recent weeks. 29 DIE IN MOROCCO BUS ACCIDENT

Rabat – Twenty-nine people were killed and 27 were seriously injured January 22 when a passenger bus overturned in southern Morocco, the official news agency MAP said.

The bus rolled over in the Haouz province, some 15 kilometers (10 miles) from Tahannaout on a road between the cities of Marrakesh and Asni.

There was no immediate word on what caused the accident.

Morocco's King Muhammad VI immediately sent condolences to the families of victims, and gave instructions for the injured to be brought to military hospitals in Marrakesh and Rabat, the agency said.

The accident was the deadliest in southern Morocco since last July when 19 people were killed near Kalaat Sraghna when their bus smashed into a truck carrying merchandise. ALGERIAN VOLCANO AWAKENS

Algiers – Villagers in northeastern Algeria reported rocks and smoke spewing from craters in an area rocked by an earthquake two months ago, the official Algerian news agency APS said January 18.

Local officials told APS the previously inactive craters erupted for more than four hours late January 17 in Ras Aichet, near Djellal in the Khenchela region, 500 kilometers (300 miles) southeast of Algiers.

APS quoted the mayor of Djellal as saying the eruptions could signal dangerous seismic activity and asked for "a team of specialists to be sent urgently" to the area.

Four people were killed and dozens injured when an earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale hit the region of Beni Ourtilane, 300 kilometers (200 miles) east of Algiers, on November 10.

At the time, residents reported spotting flames and smoke coming from a mountain in the area.