EGYPT

Egypt must do more to meet protesters' demands for political change, the United States said on Wednesday in a sharp escalation of rhetoric with one of its most important allies in the Middle East.

The Obama administration is closely watching the economic fallout from Egypt's political crisis and believes progress toward democratic reforms would help stem economic instability, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.

U.S.-Egyptian scientist Ahmed Zewail once received a medal from President Hosni Mubarak. Now, he says, it's time for the Egyptian leader to heed the demonstrators clamouring for his departure.

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund are warning poor regions that have so far not been hit by rising food prices, like sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean, to get ready to face them.

The fate of Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak will be decided in a matter of hours and most probably he will step down, an Egyptian official told Reuters on Thursday.

A senior Egyptian army commander has reportedly told protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square on that Everything you want will be realized,” according to Al-Jazeera, suggesting that President Hosni Mubarak may soon be steeping down acceding to the protesters’ demands.

Mehdi Karroubi, an Iranian opposition leader, has been placed under house arrest, according to his own official website.

When competitors shut down payments to WikiLeaks after the controversial website released a slew of sensitive U.S. diplomatic cables, Sharif Alexandre refused to join the boycott. The Egyptian-born entrepreneur and founder of Xipwire - a Philadelphia-based mobile payments startup - stood opposed to PayPal and Amazon and let customers continue making donations via cellphones.

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.

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.

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.

Mustafa Fikri could not even be at his wife's hospital bedside when she gave birth to their first son. He was working and the last thing on the Cairo cab driver's mind was protesting against Hosni Mubarak's repressive rule. His preoccupation for the day was for the city's roads to stay open and protests to be peaceful, so people would venture out and need his services.

The ongoing anti-government Egypt protests now has a face in Wael Ghonim, the Egyptian-born Google marketing executive who first hit the headlines after he disappeared into police custody.

Google-owned YouTube is now facing a potential threat from Twitter media sharing site, TwitPic, as the startup on Tuesday announced the launch of video support.

Iran's opposition leaders have asked permission to stage a protest in Tehran next week to express solidarity with ongoing protests in Tunisia and Egypt.

Egyptian security and custom authorities have started screening all incoming and outgoing diplomatic pouches, as a precautionary measure to avoid entry of questionable objects, state news agency Middle East News Agency MENA reported on Monday.

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.

Egyptians staged one of their biggest protests yet Tuesday demanding President Hosni Mubarak step down now, their wrath undiminished by the vice president's announcement of a plan to transfer power.

High international commodities prices and a weakening shilling against the dollar are expected to cushion Kenyan listed agricultural stocks from inflationary pressures and the effects of a biting drought, analysts said.

Egypt's central bank said on Tuesday it intervened in the market to prop up the Egyptian pound, helping the local currency to rise against the dollar for the first time since political unrest gripped the country.

Gunshots were fired in the centre of the Tunisian capital on Tuesday, people in the area said, in a new blow to faltering efforts to restore security after the overthrow of the autocratic president.