20110116
Independent (Lagos)

With just a week before the Jan. 23 presidential and legislative elections, the Central African Republic's government and the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) say they have got well prepared for the long expected polls.

20110115
Sudan Tribune

Addis Ababa — The Ethiopian government this week freed 402 leaders and members of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), country's most active rebel movement, which has been fighting for the right of the eastern Somali region to secede since 1984, Sudan Tribune has learnt.

20110117
SAPA

Johannesburg — A fireman has drowned and countless other people are missing after massive flooding around Gauteng on Monday.

20110117
africanews

The southern Sudan referendum counting process has started after voting ended. Election officials will keep declaring preliminary results until final results are officially announced on February 7th, 2011. External voting centres in Great Britain, Canada and the US have recently started counting, with reports saying that the majority of votes favour secession.

20110117
africanews

The Minister for Public Health and Sanitation in Kenya, Mrs. Beth Mugo, and the Minister for Science and Technology in South Africa, Mrs. Naledi Pandor, were jointly elected co-chairs of the Board of the African Network for Drugs and Diagnostics Innovation (ANDI), at the inaugural meeting, hosted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

20110117
africanews

Who has ever seen a chocolate bar in the West with the words manufactured or processed in Ghana yet Ghana produces so much chocolate, it is time Africa looked at this situation with mature eyes and with a heart towards the African people. A significant agricultural agreement between Africa and the West has not been reached though being discussed for around 60 years now.

20110117
africanews

Six hundred inmates of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital who have been cured of their mental illnesses are to face forced ejection from the hospital. The Chief Psychiatrist, Dr Akwasi Osei, said the 600 inmates had all been declared fully recovered and discharged from the hospital but they had refused to leave and make way for other patients.

20110117
reuters

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU-registered vessels have been barred from all new financial dealings with Ivory Coast's two main cocoa-exporting ports, EU sources said on Monday, as part of fresh sanctions imposed after November's contested election.

20110117
reuters

PARIS (Reuters) - French rights groups Sherpa and Transparency International France will file legal complaints against Tunisia's ousted president for corruption and misuse of public funds to ensure his assets in France are frozen, the groups said on Monday.

20110117
reuters

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's ministers of defence, the interior, finance and foreign affairs will keep their posts in the new government but opposition leaders including Najib Chebbi will also have posts, the prime minister said on Monday.

20110117
reuters

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Floods have killed or left missing at least 40 people in South Africa and wrecked thousands of homes in neighbouring Mozambique, officials said on Monday.

20110117
reuters

GENEVA (Reuters) - Developing countries and economies in transition together attracted more foreign investment than developed countries in 2010 for the first time, a United Nations study showed on Monday.

20110117
reuters

JEDDAH/DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has taken in Tunisia's fallen strong man, but the oil wealth of the kingdom and its neighbours should ensure the poverty-driven unrest which ousted Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali does not follow him to the Gulf.

20110117
reuters

JOS, Nigeria (Reuters) - Three people were killed in central Nigeria on Monday when soldiers opened fire to quell a fight between Christian and Muslim youths over voter registration for April elections, police and witnesses said.

20110117
reuters

PARIS (Reuters) - Moncef Marzouki, an exiled leader of a secular Tunisian opposition party, said on Monday he was reconsidering running for election after the departure of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, calling a newly formed government a "farce".

20110117
reuters

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - International observers gave south Sudan's independence referendum their seal of approval on Monday and said a vote for secession was now "virtually certain" in their first official judgment on the poll.

Tehran, Jan 17, IRNA – Foreign Ministry Caretaker Ali Akbar Salehi said Iran will soon lodge a complaint with the international bodies against the Zionist regime for assassinating the brilliant Iranian nuclear scientist Dr. Masoud Alimohammadi.

IRI's Ambassador to the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh said Iran will not negotiate the 20-percent uranium enrichment with the Vienna Group after producing it in the country.

20110117
xinhua

CAIRO, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian senior officials said Sunday that the riots in Tunisia would not occur in Egypt after political unrest ousted Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali two days ago.

20110117
xinhua

NIAMEY, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Mamadou Tandja, the Nigerien president deposed in a military coup in February 2010, was moved to a prison close to the capital Niamey on Sunday, two weeks before the planned presidential and legislative elections on Jan. 31, according to official sources.