Jack Kim

Intense rains have disrupted operations at Kenya's only port, delaying the delivery of grain, sugar and coal, while a queue of vessels waiting to offload cargo is building up, its operator said on Monday.

Nigeria's new car imports jumped 40 percent in the first nine months of 2011 compared to the same period last year, although sales were expected to slow given rising interest rates and local currency weaknesses, import dealers said on Monday.

Guinness Ghana plans to boost its pretax profit in the 2011/2012 financial year by 30 pct on the back of a recovery in the West African nation's beer market, the company's finance director said on Monday.

Massmart Holdings, the South African retailer majority owned by Wal-Mart Stores, said on Monday first-quarter sales rose nearly 15 percent, and forecast a solid year ahead.

The South African operations of global miner Xstrata were disrupted on Monday after hundreds of workers joined a walk-out in protest over an employee share ownership programme, the company said.

Tanzania's food and energy costs pushed the inflation rate to 16.8 percent year-on-year in September from 14.1 percent in the previous month, and analysts expected consumer prices to continue accelerating at least until the turn of the year.

Ugandan police said on Monday they have arrested 12 opposition activists for planning violent anti-government demonstrations, a move opposition leaders denounced as harassment.

The Supreme Court said on Monday it would decide whether companies can be liable in this country for international human rights law violations, a case involving allegations that Royal Dutch Shell Plc helped Nigeria violently suppress oil exploration protests in the 1990s.

Nigeria's trade unions have warned President Goodluck Jonathan there could be civil unrest if the go-ahead is given to remove the fuel subsidy the government says will cost 1.2 trillion naira this year.

Libyan interim government forces said on Monday they had raised the country's new flag over Bani Walid, but it was not clear if they had captured the whole town, one of the last bastions of pro-Muammar Gaddafi loyalists.

Al Qaeda linked al Shabaab militants rushed reinforcements to Somalia's southern border with Kenya on Monday in response to a Kenyan cross-border offensive and theatened to take the flames of war across.

Zimbabwe's local ownership rules for foreign mining companies are too stringent, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on Monday.

Kenya's tax revenues for first quarter of fiscal 2011/12 (July-June) year rose 15 percent to 161 billion shillings compared with the same period a year ago, lifted by a jump in trade and domestic taxes, and was seen higher in he second quarter, its revenue body said.

Kenya Airways shareholders approved on Friday its plan for a rights issue to raise an unspecified amount of money to fund route and fleet expansion.

South African stocks rose more than 1 percent on Friday, capping their best weekly performance in six weeks, as shares of Kumba Iron Ore and other resource firms gained after data from China boosted hopes of greater demand from the country.

South Africa's rand edged higher against the dollar on Friday and was on track for a weekly advance of more than 1.6 percent, with the market trusting the authorities will more likely act to support the currency, than let it depreciate.

South Africa is looking at establishing its own metals exchange as part of a wider government plan to extract more value from the country's huge mineral wealth, much of which is exported as ore rather than being refined and processed locally.

A successful outcome for the next global climate change conference in Durban would be to get everything in place for a legally binding successor to the Kyoto Protocol in less than five years, the European Union's chief climate negotiator said.

The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Friday it had suspended non-critical operations at Kenya's Dadaab refugee camp as security forces scoured the region for two Spanish aid workers kidnapped from there a day earlier.

Zambia's new President Michael Sata announced plans to overhaul the constitution on Friday, the latest step in his top-to-bottom review of the way Africa's top copper producer is run.

The United States and its EU and NATO allies see a need for urgent action to prevent shoulder-fired missiles in Libya falling into the hands of militant groups, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.

Up to 7,000 prisoners are held in dozens of makeshift detention centres in Libya more than two months after rebel forces toppled Muammar Gaddafi, amid serious allegations and some evidence of torture, the United Nations said on Friday.

Gunfights broke out in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Friday between dozens of supporters of deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi and forces of the new government.

Impala Platinum said on Thursday it has agreed to turn over a 10 percent stake in its Zimbabwe units to locals after facing pressure from the government to give up equity or lose out in the state with the world's second largest platinum reserves.

Libya imported $1.6 billion worth of fuel during the six months of revolution, including from Qatar and Turkey, and has yet to repay $890 million, the interim oil and finance minister said on Thursday.

Ivory Coast's government has ended consultations with cocoa exporters and farmers on planned reforms to the sector that will guarantee its hundreds of thousands of smallholders a minimum selling price, officials said on Thursday.

South Africa's rand turned weaker against the dollar in late Johannesburg trade, giving back earlier slight gains as fears of trade wars between China and the United States rattled investors already jumpy over European debt woes.

Resources firms such as Exxaro led South African stocks lower on Thursday as miners took a knock after weak data from China and disappointing earnings from the United States.

Egypt's central bank said it kept its benchmark interest rates on hold after a monetary policy meeting on Thursday, as headline inflation eases and political uncertainty delays an economic recovery.