Got an short article from Björn Pazen about the first matches of the African Championship, that is qualification for Sweden 2011 as well. Here you are:

No surprises at the start of the African Nations Championship
 
The 19th African Nations Handball Championship has started in Egypt on Thursday. Men and women teams play in Cairo and Suez for the medals and the qualification for the upcoming World Championships 2011 in Sweden (Men) and Brazil (women).
On match day 1 all the favourites set first signs towards the concurrence. In the women’s tournament all four nations, which had represented Africa at the WWCH in China 2009, won their opening matches. Congo beat Democratic Republic of Congo 37:21, Ivory Coast won 22:19 against Algeria, Tunisia beat Cameroon 25:19 and the top favourite Angola didn’t have any problems with host Egypt (32:21).
Egypt and Tunisia are the top teams in the men’s concurrence – and both started well in the African Nations Championship: Egypt beat Gabun 27:21, and Tunisia won 43:24 against Lybia. The other results of match day 1: Angola – Cameroon 25:21, Algeria – Ivory Coast 29:11, Democratic Republic of Congo – Nigeria 27:27, Congo – Morocco 24:27.
The men’s tournament is played with three groups of four teams in the Preliminary Round, the women’s tournament with two groups of four teams. After the first stage, which will be played until Saturday, the quarterfinals will follow for the women, the men have Main Round groups before the semifinals. The finals will be played on February 20th in Cairo.
 
Asian Championships: Main Round starts on Saturday
 
On Saturday, Sunday and Monday the Main Round of the 14th Asian Men’s Championship will be played in Beirut, Lebanon. In group A Korea, Lebanon, Syria and Bahrain will meet, in group B Japan, Qatar, Iran and Saudi-Arabia play for the semifinals. On Sunday and Monday China, UAE, Jordan and Iraq will start their placement round for the ranks 9 – 12. The semifinals and placement matches 5 – 8 will be played on Wednesday.