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Ratings agency Standard & Poor's has pushed Egypt's sovereign credit ratings deeper into junk status, citing "continued pressure" on foreign reserves.

More than 110 million Chinese-made condoms are seized in Ghana after laboratory tests revealed they had holes and burst easily.

Africa's wealthiest man, Aliko Dangote, says he aims to invest up to $8bn in a major new oil refinery that would double Nigeria's current oil output.

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been ordered back to prison from military hospital. Mr Mubarak's retrial will open on 11 May, a Cairo appeals court says.

Sub-Saharan Africa's economic growth is set to outpace the global average over the next three years, according to the World Bank. Higher commodities, increasing investment and a general pick-up in the world economy should all boost the continent's growth to more than 5%.

French forces launch one of their biggest offensives against militants in northern Mali before the start of their troop withdrawal later this month.

Leaders of the five BRICS nations fueling global economic growth plan the creation of a development bank in a direct challenge to the World Bank that they accuse of Western bias.

Donors need to pour aid into Mali over the next six months to rebuild its strife-hit north and stop defeated militants taking advantage of the chaos to return, France's development minister said on Tuesday.

Zimbabweans have approved a new constitution that curbs the powers of the president and puts the turbulent southern African country a step closer to holding full elections in the next few months, the election commission said on Tuesday.

A South African cardinal on Monday apologized for offending victims of child abuse when he described pedophilia as an illness and not a crime in a media interview. Victims' rights groups and others said the comments by Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, the Catholic Archbishop of Durban, comments were insensitive, especially given perceptions the Catholic Church has not done enough to root out abuse.