Morocco: Competition for shoppers is toughening
Africa Report News North Africa By Christophe Le Bec and Gemma Ware Developers in Morocco are opening up large malls to tap into the spending habits of Africa's wealthier shoppers. MOROCCO MALL/PHOTO/HASSAN OUAZZANI FOR JA Hoping to prove that money can be made on...
Clashes in Bahrain, king warns against disunity
By Andrew Hammond MANAMA (Reuters) - Bahraini riot police waged pitched battles with petrol-bomb throwing youths on Sunday as violence escalated before the February 14 anniversary of an uprising last year, while King Hamad suggested protesters calling for his...
Nexans Pauses for Integration After $275 Million AmerCable Deal
Nexans SA (NEX), the cable and wire maker that agreed today to buy AmerCable Holdings Inc., will probably take a breather to integrate acquisitions rather than make more purchases this year, the French company’s chief executive said. Nexans plans to complete the $275...
France Telecom to Buy Sawiris Out of Mobinil
France Telecom SA (FTE) may spend about $2 billion to buy most of billionaire Naguib Sawiris’s stake in their Egyptian wireless venture and delist Egypt’s biggest phone operator by revenue. France’s largest telecommunications company reached a preliminary agreement...
Mali sets April deadline to quell rebellion
* International calls mount for ceasefire * Malian president under fire at home BAMAKO Feb 11 (Reuters) - Mali is determined to quell a heavily armed Tuareg rebellion in its north before an election scheduled for April, the defence minister said on Saturday. Dozens...
Mali bombs rebels, France wants ceasefire, talks
* Mali's airforce attacks rebels in north - official * France says talks, not force, will resolve conflict * Mauritania urges action, U.S. delays military training BAMAKO, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Malian helicopter gunships bombed rebel positions near the key northern town...
Morocco may tap international bond market in 2012
RABAT Feb 13 (Reuters) - There is no pressure for Morocco to tap the international bond market in 2012 but it may decide to, the country's finance minister said after its current account deficit surged last year to its highest since the 1980s. Asked if the widening...
Morocco 2011 c/a deficit highest since 1980s
RABAT Feb 13 (Reuters) - Morocco posted a current account deficit equivalent to 6.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2011, its biggest shortfall since the 1980s, Finance Minister Nizar Baraka said on Monday, due to high prices of grain and oil imports. "The level...
Burkina Faso fines telco firms over service faults
OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - Burkina Faso has fined its three mobile telephony operators a total of 3 billion CFA francs ($6 million) for what it said was a failure to fulfill service commitments. The fines apply to Maroc Telecom unit Telmob (1.09 billion CFA), Bharti's...
Remittances By Moroccan Expatriates Up 7.6%
Rabat - The transfers by Moroccan living abroad rose 7.6% to 58.5 billion dirhams in 2011, said Morocco's foreign exchange regulator, Office des Changes. Receipts from these transfers grew over 4.1 billion dirhams over the past year, provisional data from the Office...