U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to travel to Africa next week on a seven-nation tour aimed at highlighting the Obama administration's commitment to the continent.
Posters of Barack Obama festooned the streets of the Ghana capital on Thursday ahead of the first visit to sub-Saharan Africa by the first black US president.
Obama will go from the Group of Eight summit in Italy on Friday to press his message that conflict-tainted Africa needs good governance and economic progress.
His aides said the president wants to stress the interconnection between Africa and the rest of the world in the 21st century.
Africans have been invited to send a text message to US President Barack Obama in advance of his visit to Ghana on Friday and Saturday.
Pope Benedict XVI was set Tuesday to leave for a weeklong trip to Africa, his first as pontiff to the world's poorest continent, with stops in Cameroon and Angola.
Benedict said Sunday he wanted to wrap his arms around the entire continent, with "its painful wounds, its enormous potential and hopes." He also intends to "confirm the faith of Catholics, encourage Christians in their ecumenical engagement and transmit to all the announcement of peace given to the Church by Christ resurrected," he said during his Sunday Angelus blessing.The African ICT industry has been "quite sheltered" from the global economic downturn, global consultancy firm Frost & Sullivan said on Tuesday.
Following almost a decade of political chaos in Zimbabwe, a glimmer of hope emerged on Wednesday as opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was finally sworn in as the country's Prime Minister.
Tsvangirai stood across from his long-time rival President Robert Mugabe as he took his oath, vowing to "well and truly serve Zimbabwe in the office of Prime Minister."
Standard Bank will be providing free financial advisory services to African health aid recipient countries, as part of a new engagement with the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Sub-Saharan Africa's economy expanded 5.4 percent in 2008, the first time in more than 45 years that growth exceeded 5 percent for five years in succession, and despite substantial deterioration in the external environment during the year.
According to the World Bank's Global Economic Prospects for 2009, GDP gains in the subcontinent have been broad-based and less volatile, even in oil-importing economies, as strong commodity export revenues and capital inflows underpinned domestic demand.The level of transparency in African countries has improved as a result of awareness and more pressure from governance watchdogs, a World Bank official said in Addis Ababa on Wednesday.
"Many African countries are acting on sustaining transparency and accountability and this speaks of progress across the continent," said Anand Rajaram, the World Bank's Manager for Public Sector Reform and Capacity for Africa.”
Between 1999 and 2006, 69 percent of the world's lower income countries receiving interest-free credit from the Bank improved in handling the public sector, according to the Bank.
South African leaders congratulated US president elect Barack Obama on
his victory on Wednesday, expressing hope that it would place Africa's
problems higher on the global agenda.
Obama became the world power's first black president as his Republican
rival John McCain conceded defeat in historic elections on Wednesday
morning.
President Kgalema Motlanthe sent "warm congratulations" to Obama. "Your election to this high office of the American people carries with it hope for millions of your country men and women as it is for millions of people particularly of African descent..."
The recent Global Location Trends study conducted by IBM reveals that multinational companies are increasingly widening their investment nets, with notable increases in Africa.
Africa
| SA needs a news revolutionAuthor: Lisa Roberts Monday, 08 March 2010 Read more... |
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