Four Kenyan NGOs and a local bishop are among more than 100 civil society organisations that are urging participants of the aid effectiveness conference here to reject foreign aid with imposed conditions.

Mr. Tesfai Gebreselassie, Minister of Energy and Mines, who is currently in Australia on a working visit, held discussion with mining companies and investors in the country on the available mining opportunities and prospects in Eritrea, especially in the mining sector.

I have been attending a most inappropriately termed meeting in Accra: 3rd High Level forum on aid effectiveness. It would have been more realistic to call it forum on aid inefectiveness.

An aircraft under contract to Air Serv International in the Democratic Republic of Congo, en route from Kisangani to Bukavu, failed to land and crashed about 15 kms away from Kavumu airport on 1 September 2008 at about 5:00 pm local time.

Lobbyists have teamed up to push for honouring of donor pledges as a forum aimed to make development aid more effective came to a close here on Friday.

The Government has struck at the heart of beneficiaries of cheap sugar imports after setting up a committee to monitor the flow of the commodity into the country from the Comesa region.

Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka's wife has accepted Sh400,000 monthly allowance from the Government - but will donate it to charity.

As the Accra high-level forum on aid effectiveness drew to a close on 4 September, aid agencies praised ministers from developed and developing 'partner' countries as they signed an agreement to make aid more effective.

The head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has urged countries to make good on the promises they made this week at a high-level conference in Ghana devoted to making international aid more effective.

The Federal Government yesterday identified lack of transparency and openness in administering aid and assistance as factors militating against derivation of benefits from about N384 billion disbursed in about one decade, for development projects.

Britain and the World Bank have launched an initiative to make delivery and management of aid more open and accountable.

Delegates from both developing and developed countries have adopted the Accra Agenda For Action (AAA) as a guide to improve the way aid is given and spent.

Angola's economy may be booming on the back of high oil prices and strong diamond exports, but six years after a peace deal ended the 27-year civil war, unemployment stands at around 65 percent.

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, World Bank Managing Director, said yesterday in Accra that the perpetual dependence on aid by African countries would not develop the continent, but only facilitate growth.

World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick today outlined steps to address the immediate risks of the global food crisis while also proposing reforms for the international aid system so it can have a greater impact on the lives of poor people.

In the Aid Effectiveness talks in Accra, Ghana, officials from various African governments are accusing donors of making it difficult for recipients to produce results.

Angelina Sidumo is one of the hundreds of traders that throng the busy train station in the Mozambican capital, Maputo, on most Wednesday afternoons to catch the once-weekly train south to Chicualacuala town in Gaza Province, an 18-hour journey covering nearly 500km.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki announced that their countries have a "strategic" relationship, before signing a framework cooperation agreement in Pretoria, which paves the way for future arrangements on technology transfer and concrete deals involving oil and food.

Governments from around the world and their implementing aid partners were expected on Thursday to conclude a three-day forum in Accra, Ghana intended to ensure that poor countries optimally benefit from donors aid.

World leaders have been told to gear up or miss international commitments and targets for effective aid by 2010.

Mr. Olav Kjorven, Director of the Bureau for Development Policy of the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP), on Wednesday called on donor nations and multilateral organizations to clean up their act and desist from the excessive demand for regular detailed reports on the application of aid from recipient countries as a requirement for subsequent aid.

Ghana and Switzerland on Wednesday signed two financing agreements totalling 13 million dollars to improve energy distribution andpromote good financialgovernance.

Ghana and The European Union on Wednesday signed a groundbreaking trade agreement that would stop imports of illegal timber into Europe from Ghana.

Kenya Investment Authority is working on a strategy to brand and promote Kenya as a business hub in the region.

A Local NGO, Intrahealth/Twubakane, has set aside US$6 million for capacity building for Mayors in 12 districts form three provinces for five years.