Jack Kim

Demonstrators blocked roads to a main port in northern Oman and looted a nearby supermarket on Monday, part of protests to demand more jobs and political reform that have spread to the sultanate's capital.

Irish opposition parties started coalition talks on Monday after a resounding election win gave them the mandate to renegotiate an EU-IMF rescue deal they fear will bankrupt the former Celtic Tiger economy.

Two people were killed in Yemen's southern city of Aden on Friday in protests against the 32-year rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, while loyalists and opponents held large rival rallies in the capital.

Tens of thousands of mainly Shi'ite Bahrainis gathered in Manama on Friday, declared as a day of mourning by the government, in one of the biggest anti-government protests since unrest erupted 10 days ago.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, mired in a prostitution scandal, faces a tax fraud trial on Monday, the first of four court cases that will bring his legal woes back into the spotlight over coming months.

Violent aftershocks hampered desperate efforts to find survivors in the quake-ruined New Zealand city of Christchurch on Saturday as the death toll climbed to 123 and was set to rise further.

The U.N. atomic watchdog has received new information regarding allegations that Iran may be seeking to develop a nuclear-armed missile, the agency said in a report voicing deepening concern about the issue.

Irish voters went to the polls on Friday to punish their government for bringing the former Celtic Tiger economy to its knees and leaving it a ward of the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

President Barack Obama consulted the leaders of Britain, France and Italy on Thursday on immediate steps to end the Libyan crisis, as Washington kept all options open, including sanctions and military action, to stem the bloodshed.

Government forces shot dead at least two protesters in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Friday, television stations reported, as a popular uprising against Muammar Gaddafi closed in on his main power base.

Muammar Gaddafi vowed defiantly on Friday to triumph over his enemies, vigorously urging supporters in Tripoli's Green Square to protect the Libyan nation and its petroleum interests.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday that an election promised by September would not be held if Hamas refused to allow voting in the Gaza Strip.

Iraqi authorities have arrested a high-ranking police official in connection with the purchase of a bomb detector that the British government says does not work, officials said on Thursday.

Fierce clashes between protesters and government loyalists left at least 40 wounded in Yemen on Thursday, the seventh day of demonstrations demanding an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 32-year rule.

The cancellation of plans by two Iranian naval vessels to pass through the strategic Suez Canal removed on Thursday a potential foreign policy headache for the new military rulers struggling to get Egypt back on its feet.

Satellite images show North Korea has likely completed a second long range missile launchpad, an expert said on Thursday, amid U.S. concerns that Pyongyang's ballistic missile programme is fast becoming a direct threat.

Unrest spread across the Middle East and North Africa on Thursday as Bahrain launched a swift military crackdown on anti-government protesters and clashes were reported in Libya and Yemen.

Ivory Coast's biggest bank, a unit of Societe Generale, suspended operations on Thursday, the latest in an exodus of foreign banks that is turning a political crisis into financial meltdown.

Several hundred cocoa growers chanting anti-European slogans marched on the EU offices in Ivory Coast on Thursday and burned a pile of cocoa sacks to protest against sanctions crippling the industry.

Zambia expects to produce more than 2.8 million tonnes of maize in the current 2010/2011 season, a slight increase from the 2.7 million tonnes reaped last year, the minister of agriculture said on Thursday.

Zambia's economy is expected to grow 6.5 percent this year and 6.6 percent next year on the back of a rally in copper prices and improvements in agriculture, a Reuters poll of 12 economists showed on Thursday.

Fewer than one in 10 of Kenya's urban dwellers can afford a mortgage, while rural incomes are too low for a mortgage market to develop, a central bank and World Bank study showed on Wednesday.

Strikes damaged Egypt's vital export industries on Thursday as manufacturers kept factories idle because a nationwide bank shutdown stopped them buying supplies and selling their goods, industry officials said.

French oil major Total will reduce production of its Angolan crude grade Dalia in April for planned maintenance, trade sources said on Thursday.

Nigeria's economy is expected to grow around 7 percent this year, down from 8.5 percent in 2010, with growth moderating gradually in subsequent years, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Thursday.

Kenya Airways plans to raise capital to pay for its expansion, the airline said on Thursday without saying how much it would raise or how.

Independent energy trader Gunvor Group Ltd has gained access to anthracite coal produced by South Africa's Leeuw Mining and Exploration and to export capacity at Richards Bay Coal Terminal, Leeuw said on Thursday.

The World Bank will consider loaning Kenya $400 million before the end of the fiscal year to upgrade informal settlements and road projects, the bank's head in Nairobi said on Thursday.

South Africa's nearly week-long truckers' strike over wages has caused some petrol stations to run dry and raised concerns that a prolonged walk-out could deal a blow to Africa's largest economy.