SUDAN

South Sudan moved a step closer to independence on Wednesday after organisers of its secession referendum said the vote's turnout would pass the 60 percent threshold it needed to be binding.

A week-long referendum in Sudan that will determine if the country divides has seen a high voter turnout, even as reported clashes are said to have killed dozens of people along the country's north-south border in a region not participating in the referendum, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.

Hong Kong beat rivals Singapore and Australia to be rated the world’s freest economy for a straight seventeenth consecutive year, according to a ranking by US-based Heritage Foundation.

Hong Kong was rated the world's freest economy for a 17th straight year in a ranking by the U.S.-based Heritage Foundation, above rivals Singapore and Australia for the title.

The presidents of the United States and the United States’ oldest ally, France, met today in Washington, and offered condolences to each other for recent violent tragedies suffered by each nation.

Groups including the United Nations, Harvard University, Google Inc and an organization co-founded by actor George Clooney are launching a project using satellites to watch Sudan for war crimes before a vote that could split the African country in two.

China intends to boost its economic ties with Africa, which is already worth about $100 billion, according to a report by the government.

The President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir stashed away as much as $9-billion of his nation's in foreign bank accounts, according to US diplomatic cables leaked to WikiLeaks.

Norway's Nobel committee held its Peace Prize awards ceremony on Friday without the award's recipient, human rights activist Liu Xiaobo.

Burning tyres, rebel checkpoints, an angry mob and a placard that reads, Gbagbo thief... The West African state of Ivory Coast seems to be rapidly descending into a state of crisis. Acknowledged as the most expensive polls in Africa, the recent run-off was aimed at unifying the country which suffered bitter divisions and wrath of an armed uprising in 2002. But instead, they bared the discrepancy within the nation's population.

United States President Barack Obama has announced intent to take on the Uganda's most feared Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Responding to US legislation passed in May this year, Obama declared his four-point strategy which called for disarmament of Joseph Kony-led LRA fighters.

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.

Cheered by hundreds of thousands of jubilant Kenyans waving national flags, President Mwai Kibaki signed a new constitution on Friday that curbs his sweeping powers and strengthens civic rights.

Crimes committed by Rwanda's army and Congolese rebels in Congo during the 1990s could be classified as genocide, a leaked draft U.N. report says, a charge that will stir tensions between Kigali and the U.N.

The international community is pressuring the Juba and Khartoum governments to speed up preparation for a vote on South Sudan's future - a decision that will be dominated by the fate of coveted oil resources -- but an expert on the African country criticizes the lack of understanding about Sudan.

Although the Ugandan government can boost the security of its fledgling oil industry from future terrorist attacks that may scare away certain investors, Africa analysts doubt violence replicating the twin bombs that struck during the World Cup final is likely.

The United States is urging Syria to open up its markets to U.S. companies' computers and software, but fears over piracy and Internet access restrictions are holding back American technology companies from investing there.

U.S. prosecutors have accused ABN Amro, now largely part of Royal Bank of Scotland , of turning a blind eye to U.S. laws, using special procedures to bypass U.S. sanctions against Cuba, Iran and other countries.

U.S. officials said they were allowing U.S. technology companies to export chat and social media software to Iran, Sudan and Cuba, with the hope it will help their citizens communicate with the outside world.

Kuwaiti telecoms firm Zain, which is selling its African assets to India's Bharti Airtel, will concentrate on the Gulf and Middle East region and is open to new investments, its chief executive said on Tuesday.

Kuwaiti telecoms firm Zain said it would pocket around half of the proceeds from its planned $10.7 billion sale of African assets to Bharti Airtel and use the rest to pay off debt, sending its shares soaring.