The West African nation of Benin Thursday held sacrifices and ceremonies for its annual celebration of voodoo, the traditional religion that spread to the Americas with the slave trade.

Benin is considered a voodoo heartland, particularly the city of Ouidah, which was a major slave trading port, and traditional beliefs often mix with Catholicism or other religions.

An American citizen has been kidnapped in the West African nation of Benin, a U.S. embassy spokeswoman said Saturday, but details of the incident were unclear.

"I can confirm an American got kidnapped in Benin last week," Melissa Ford, a spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy in neighboring Nigeria, told Agence France Presse, indicating she had no other details.

Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday signed off on an African roadmap for the Roman Catholic Church that calls for good governance and denounces abuses, while labeling AIDS a mainly ethical problem.

Benedict signed the apostolic exhortation called "The Pledge for Africa" during a visit to the West African nation of Benin, his second trip to the continent as pontiff.

The United States on Wednesday levied sanctions against an alleged Lebanese cocaine trafficking ring, with operations spanning Latin America, West Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

The group -- led by Ayman Joumaa and including at least nine other people and 19 entities -- was said to have laundered proceeds worth as much as $200 million per month.