DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has asked the United States to remove Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, Saudi state TV said on Wednesday, citing Minister of State for African Affairs Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz Qattan.

BLANTYRE (Reuters) - A prominent Malawi banker has been arrested in connection with a suspected attempt to bribe a panel of five judges presiding over the country's presidential election vote-rigging case, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) said on Wednesday.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Conservationists in Sudan are trying to save four lions they say have been underfed and neglected in a wildlife park in the capital Khartoum, after one lion died earlier this week.

LISBON (Reuters) - Angola's billionaire former first daughter, Isabel dos Santos, has decided to sell her stake in Portuguese bank Eurobic, the small lender said on Wednesday.

JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has appointed a former deputy governor at the central bank as its new governor, a government official said.  

BISSAU (Reuters) - Guinea-Bissau's national electoral commission confirmed former Prime Minister Umaro Cissoko Embalo as winner of the presidential ballot on Wednesday, after the Supreme Court threw the result into doubt last week.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Power cuts by state utility Eskom cost the South African economy up to 120 billion rand ($8.3 billion) last year and will probably persist for the next two to three years, research by the country's national science council showed.

KIU, Kenya (Reuters) - The soporific buzz of bees fills the abandoned train station at Kiu, a two-hour drive from Kenya's capital Nairobi. Rusting rail sleepers lay on the grass outside; a slender snake slithers away after footsteps disturb his sunbaked snooze.

OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - Thirty-six civilians were killed in Burkina Faso on Monday in what the government called a terrorist attack on a market in Sanmatenga province.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration is planning to add seven countries - Belarus, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania - to its controversial travel ban list, according to media reports on Tuesday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Angola is seeking other countries' help to recover state funds lost because of corruption, Minister of State for Economic Coordination Manuel Jose Nunes Junior said on Tuesday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara said on Tuesday a planned revision of the constitution would not include an age limit for presidential candidates, seeking to dispel fears that his main rivals would be unable to contest an October election.

(Reuters) - Twenty-one lions and tigers rescued from Guatemala arrived at a wildlife sanctuary in South Africa on Tuesday after an animal conservation and protection group said they endured years of severe confinement and maltreatment.

WINDHOEK (Reuters) - Namibian state-owned meat processing and marketing firm Meatco is in talks with neighbour Botswana to import cattle, as severe drought decimates local herds and threatens beef export deals with China and European countries.

YAOUNDE (Reuters) - The trial of seven Cameroonian soldiers accused of participating in the killing of two women and two children has begun behind closed doors, two judicial sources said on Tuesday, after a video of the incident sparked an international outcry.

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's financial crimes watchdog charged a former attorney general suspected of taking bribes to facilitate a $1.3 billion oil block sale, the agency said on Tuesday, in the latest twist in one of the industry's biggest alleged corruption scandals.

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's new designated prime minister Elyes Fakhfakh said he would form a smaller cabinet than in previous governments and combat poverty and marginalisation of poorer regions.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Nine people injured in a bomb attack on Saturday in Somalia, including three Turkish nationals, were being flown to Turkey on Tuesday for medical treatment, Turkey's ambassador to Mogadishu said.

LISBON (Reuters) - Portuguese authorities said on Monday they had started investigating media reports concerning Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos, while a small bank said it had decided to put an end to commercial relationships with entities she controls.

ABIDJAN, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Light showers in some of Ivory Coast's cocoa regions last week are likely to have boosted the April-to-September mid-crop, while heavier rain is needed elsewhere, farmers told Reuters on Monday.