IBT Staff Reporter

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.

Egyptians counted the economic cost of more than two weeks of turmoil on Wednesday as protesters on Cairo's Tahrir Square looked ahead to their next big push to oust President Hosni Mubarak later in the week.

Namibian diamond production jumped 57 percent in 2010, while uranium production declined marginally, data showed on Wednesday.

Zimbabwe has drastically increased exploration fees for diamonds and coal, in an effort to discourage companies from speculating on mining claims, state media reported on Wednesday.

Stocks slipped on Wednesday as a five-month rally that pushed the market to a new 2 1/2-year high started to shows signs of fatigue.

Zambia expects its power generation capacity to rise to over 3,000 megawatts by 2016 and plans to export the surplus electricity to its neighbours, the chairman of state power firm Zesco told Reuters on Wednesday.

Mauritius luxury hotel group Naiade Resorts said second-quarter profit rose eight fold due to a rise in occupancy, and predicted further gains from tourists avoiding political upheavals in North Africa.

South Africa's rand crept higher against the dollar on Wednesday, partly aided by a firmer price for gold, but remains one of the worst emerging market performers so far this year, as the central bank continues to accumulate foreign reserves.

Ghana's inflation rate jumped to 9.08 percent in January, the first increase in 19 months and due partly to a 30 percent rise in petrol prices, but analysts still expect the central bank to keep interest rates on hold next week.

Namibia's Nampower plans to solicit bids as early as April for the $1 billion power plant that forms part of its Kudu gas-to-power project, the power utility's managing director told Reuters on Wednesday.

India plans to award an $11 billion fighter jet contract by the end of March 2012, its defense minister said, as manufacturers at India's airshow vied to boost their share of a fast-growing military hardware market.

South African President Jacob Zuma will use a major policy speech on Thursday to lay out his plans to create jobs in the regional economic power where unemployment has lingered at about 25 percent for years.

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.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday suggested U.S. economic conditions are still too weak for the central bank to pull back on its vast monetary stimulus, despite a welcome drop in the jobless rate.

U.S. stocks edged lower on Wednesday as investors pulled back following a five-month rally that pushed the market to 2-1/2-year highs.

JPMorgan Chase & Co accused the trustee seeking $6.4 billion for victims of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme of doing an end run around the law in pursuing his case, and said it has a right to a jury trial.

Germany's Deutsche Boerse is in advanced talks to buy NYSE Euronext to create the world's largest trading powerhouse, marking the second major transatlantic deal in 24 hours in a massive shake-up of an industry under pressure from upstart rivals.

Fujitsu Ltd and Oracle Corp plan to jointly develop next-generation Unix servers and expand their decades-old partnership to include a new distribution agreement, the companies said on Wednesday, as they battle to keep up with market leader IBM.

Five Hollywood studios are suing a website that streams movies, accusing it of copyright infringement on a massive scale.

The London Stock Exchange agreed to buy Canada's stock market operator TMX, while Germany's Deutsche Boerse was in talks to buy NYSE Euronext, signaling that exchanges globally are looking to consolidate.

Coca-Cola Co reported higher-than-expected quarterly sales as it gained market share and saw growth in each of its major markets for the first time in at least five years.

U.S. stocks were set to fall at the open on Wednesday as investors took a rise in U.S. interest rates as a cue to take profits a day after the market closed at fresh 2-1/2 year highs.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday that the bipartisan cooperation that sparked the tax deal at the end of last year was an important contributor to business confidence.

The World Car Awards' jury announced the Top 10 finalists for World Performance Car of the Year in preparation for the 2011 World Car Awards winners’ press conference. See a slideshow of these sexy sports cars here.

Defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit aided by lower pension expenses.

China, Japan and South Korea are dominating growth in international patent filings in a dramatic demonstration of the shift of scientific and economic power to northeast Asia, figures released on Wednesday showed.

Nokia has ditched plans for a new smartphone and compared the company's plight to an oil platform on fire just days ahead of a key strategy presentation, according to industry sources.

France's second-biggest mobile operator SFR said on Wednesday its parent Vivendi was in contact with Vodafone regarding the acquisition of the British operator's 44 percent stake in SFR.

By adding a laser and an ion funnel to the mass spectrometer, researchers may be better equipped to finding life on Mars.