Ethiopia

Stratex International Plc plans to start drilling for gold and silver in the second quarter of this year in northern Ethiopia, the London-listed gold exploration firm said on Monday.

The unrest roiling through the Middle East and North Africa has now spread to the tiny nation of Djibouti, where thousands of people have gathered on the streets to demand the immediate resignation of President Ismael Omar Guelleh.

South Sudan will consider building new pipelines if it finds fresh oil reserves after independence, an official said, a move that could anger Khartoum if the route avoids the north through which exports now flow.

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.

The man named as the new vice-president of Egypt and now likely successor to President Hosni Mubarak is a long-time trusted associate of Mubarak

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Saturday declared the appointment of top judicial figures by the country's president null and void because he had not been consulted.

The African Union said on Friday it would form a panel of heads of state to solve the leadership crisis in Ivory Coast which would come up with a legally binding settlement within one month.

Tanzania's top-grade coffee fetched an all-time high at this week's auction as the harvest of high-quality supply dwindled, traders said on Friday.

African economic growth is heading back to pre-crisis growth levels, propelled by strong demand for its resources and increased South-South investment, notably from China.

Canada's Africa Oil Corp said on Wednesday it had completed a farmout agreement for three east African exploration blocks to London-listed Tullow Oil Plc, which now holds a 50 percent stake in each of them.

Uganda President Yoweri Museveni is against the United Nations' recognition of Alassane Ouattara as winner of Ivory Coast's election and wants an African Union probe into the poll, his spokesman said on Tuesday.

Government troops have executed civilians and conducted ethnic cleansing in Ethiopia's Somali Region, a rebel group said on Friday.

Ethiopia's annual inflation rate jumped to 14.5 percent last month from 10.2 percent in November following an almost 17 percent devaluation of its currency last year.

Ethiopia has penalised retailers and suppliers in the capital who raised the prices of consumer goods such as bread by amounts higher than caps set in January, authorities said on Thursday.

In a ceremony held at the prestigious Ecole Fédérale Polytechnique de Lausanne in Switzerland on October 11, watch-brand Rolex awarded five young entrepreneurs, aged between 18 and 30 years, the first Rolex Awards for Enterprise: Young Laureates Programme.

A reignited civil war after the Southern Sudan referendum on independence could cost the International community and the country at least $100 billion, a think-thank report said. The January 9 vote is likely to go in the favor of the oil-rich South Sudan's demand of secession from the North. Tensions have been escalating in the region with reports of a fresh wave of attacks led by the government troops on South Sudan regions.