SENEGAL

Bollore plans to invest 18 billion CFA francs in Abidjan port by 2013 to make it the region's key sea hub, the French logistics and transport group's Africa chief said.

Senegalese superstar Youssou N'Dour has stepped up his drive to hold politicians in his West African country to account ahead of February elections that could fuel resentment against President Abdoulaye Wade's 11-year rule.

Tales of intimidation, racial violence and even murder are multiplying for the hundreds of thousands of black Africans who came to Libya to find work.

Before the revolt started, there were an estimated 2.5-million migrant workers in Libya, perhaps the majority from black Africa. Many remain trapped in the country with no way to get home.

Mosquitoes can quickly develop resistance to insecticide-treated nets, a study from Senegal shows, raising fears that a leading method of preventing the disease may be less effective than previously thought.

Mosquitoes quickly develop resistance to insecticide-treated nets, raising alarm that the method of malaria prevention is not effective, a study from Senegal found. Researchers who studied malaria infections there found that Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes, the species responsible for malaria in Africa, are growing resistant to a common type of insecticide.

Despite decades of efforts to beat it with insecticides, indoor spraying, bed nets and combination drugs, malaria still kills nearly 800,000 people each year, most of them babies and young children in sub-Saharan Africa.

France Telecom's Orange mobile unit is teaming up with Google to offer SMS-based chat in Africa, Orange said in a statement on Wednesday, targeting the fast growth of wireless services on a continent where computers remain scarce.

Rising labor costs will push over 80 million Chinese jobs in light manufacturing abroad over the next three to five years, with African nations well placed to lure many of them their way, the World Bank said.

The sub-Saharan nation claims that the African Spring has started.

Viadeo, the world's second-biggest online networking site for professionals behind LinkedIn, plans to double its users in Africa within a year, its chief operating officer for the continent said on Tuesday.

Unlike immigrants from Europe and Asia, most Africans in the New World have little or no detailed accounts of their ancestors’ lives and histories.

Senegalese telecom operator Sonatel saw 2010 net profits slip as tougher competition nibbled at its margins and it was hit by a temporary tax surcharge on incoming traffic, the group said.

Chelsea look to rebound from lackluster performances

Ivory Coast presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara announced on Wednesday the closure of Ivorian branches of West Africa's central bank, saying incumbent Laurent Gbagbo had sought to seize its offices.

Bloody post-election deadlock in Ivory Coast washed into the halls of West Africa's central bank on Friday, where rival presidents see control of state funds as a key to victory in a battle that has cost hundreds of lives.

Three telecoms firms have subscribed to a new undersea cable linking Nigeria and West Africa to Europe, paving the way for a transformation in internet access in Africa's fastest-growing telecoms market.

An eagerly-awaited submarine cable linking West Africa to Europe has gone live, paving the way for cheaper and more reliable internet access in one of the world's fastest-growing telecoms markets, its operators said on Friday.

G8 wealthy countries said on Saturday that the global economic crisis threatened to undermine 2015 global targets for reducing extreme poverty worldwide, but avoided bold new aid promises.

The WHO's emergency committee decided on Tuesday that it was premature to declare the pandemic, which was declared in June and was the first in more than 40 years, was past its worst.

The United States was sending more troops on Monday to help protect a huge relief operation in Haiti from marauding looters as tens of thousands of earthquake survivors waited desperately for promised food and medical care.