SUDAN

Sudanese security forces briefly held prominent opposition figure Mariam al-Mahdi and other women on Thursday, witnesses said, the latest detentions in a crackdown on anti-government protests.

Libya has handed out more than $2 billion in loans to dozens of governments across the globe, according to an internal document that shows the oil exporter's diplomatic ambitions and its struggles to recover its debts.

A minister in the government of South Sudan was shot dead inside his ministry on Wednesday, days after referendum results confirmed the region will become Africa's newest independent state, officials said.

Resource-rich African governments risk unrest if they hold back the benefits of soaring global commodity prices from their own people, delegates to a major mining conference were told on Wednesday.

South Sudan voted overwhelmingly to declare independence in final results of a referendum announced on Monday, opening the door to Africa's newest state and a fresh period of uncertainty for the fractured region.

Even as results of a landmark vote show the people of Southern Sudan have decided to form a new nation and international leaders congratulate them, recent reported violent incidents in the North and South indicate that peace in the embattled nation is fragile.

A mutiny by Sudanese troops refusing to leave the south ahead of its expected independence has spread through towns in an oil-producing state, with at least 50 people killed in the past four days, officials said.

South Sudanese leaders said on Sunday they were considering building a new capital after their expected independence as the current hub Juba lacked infrastructure and space for new business.

As popular protests are bring down governments or seriously compromising rulers in the Middle East, one person looking at the turn of events uneasily is the Saudi Arabian King Abdullah.

Sudan's north will continue to use the Sudanese pound after the oil-producing south secedes on July 9, a central bank official said on Thursday, dousing reports that Khartoum may adopt a new currency.

South Sudan almost unanimously voted to declare independence from the north in a referendum, officials said on Sunday, sparking mass celebrations in the southern capital Juba.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak overhauled his government on Monday to try to defuse a popular uprising against his 30-year rule but angry protesters rejected the changes and said he must surrender power.

The Egyptian government should be responsive to its people's aspirations, the White House has said in measured but unusually strong comments about the raging anti-government protests in Egypt which forced the reported fleeing of the president’s son to Britain.

Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Tuesday pledged support for a new southern state in his first public address since the south of the country voted overwhelmingly to split from the north.

George Clooney, who has been drawing attention to the humanitarian crisis in Sudan since 2005, contracted Malaria while visiting the country earlier this month, according to a published report.

South Sudan appealed for investors to plough $140 million into its war-hit wildlife parks, seeking to kick-start a tourism industry and wean itself off oil months ahead of its expected independence.

The United States is awaiting official results of Sudan's referendum on whether to split the country into two, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday.

International observers gave south Sudan's independence referendum their seal of approval on Monday and said a vote for secession was now virtually certain in their first official judgment on the poll.

The Ugandan shilling strengthened marginally on Friday, supported by central bank intervention after it hit a record low against the dollar, but traders said the currency's reprieve could be short-lived.

China dumped plans to import several million tonnes of expensive corn and South Korea unveiled cuts in import tariffs on some products, underscoring the dilemma over how to tackle rising food prices.

South Sudan's independence vote cleared two major hurdles on Wednesday after former U.S. president Jimmy Carter gave the poll his endorsement and organisers said huge turnouts meant the result would be binding.