ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Production of cashew in Ivory Coast, one of the world's top producers, fell 17% to 634,641 tonnes in 2019 after as much as 200,000 tonnes was smuggled out of the country, the head of the state cotton and cashew council said on Friday.

BLANTYRE (Reuters) - Malawi's President Peter Mutharika and the country's electoral commission have formally filed an appeal against a court ruling that overturned Mutharika's narrow election victory last year.

ABIDJAN, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Production of cashew in Ivory Coast, one of the world's top producers, fell 17% to 634,641 tonnes in 2019 after as much as 200,000 tonnes was smuggled out of the country, the head of the state cotton and cashew council said on Friday.

LONDON/ZURICH (Reuters) - Tidjane Thiam is unlikely to quietly retire after his abrupt exit as chief executive of Credit Suisse, some of those who have worked with him predict.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday that his government did not agree with plans to cut some of struggling South African Airways' (SAA) domestic routes at the end of the month.

GENEVA (Reuters) - People are fleeing a surge of attacks in northern Mozambique where witnesses have described beheadings, mass kidnappings and villages burned to the ground, the United Nations said on Friday.

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Guiness World Records has named a South African restaurant as the official titleholder for 'Most Varieties of Milkshakes Commercially Available'.

GABORONE (Reuters) - Botswana will auction licences on Friday to hunt a total of 70 elephants in seven districts, the first such hunting to take place since President Mokgweetsi Masisi lifted a five-year ban on big game hunting last May.

KAJIADO, Kenya (Reuters) - Two life-size lions crafted from scrap metal guard the entrance to the studio of Kenyan metal sculptor Kioko Mwitiki. Nearby a leopard, with holes in its metal body to mimic spots, crouches next to a giant elephant sculpture.

KAMPALA (Reuters) - Ugandan rapper "Fresh Kid" has racked up hundreds of thousands of hits on YouTube, won a U.S. music award and emerged victorious from a tussle with the government – all before his eighth birthday.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations expects eastern Libyan tribal leaders to submit their list of conditions to reopen blocked oil terminals, United Nations envoy Ghassan Salame said on Thursday, pressing for a resumption of oil exports.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and Kenya on Thursday agreed to launch negotiations that could lead to the first U.S. bilateral trade deal with a sub-Saharan African country amid growing American concerns about China's investments across the continent.

HARARE (Reuters) - Two illegal Zimbabwean miners have died after the gold mine they were working in collapsed, while 20 others remained trapped underground, the state-owned Herald newspaper reported on Thursday.

LAGOS (Reuters) - When Nigerian chef Olasore Osidele became a vegan six years ago, people warned him that cutting out meat was questioning God's plan.

MASERU (Reuters) - The wife of Lesotho's prime minister was freed on bail overnight ahead of her trial for the murder of his previous wife, her lawyer said on Thursday, and police said they feared she could flee justice if allowed to travel abroad for medical reasons.

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 6 (Reuters) - South African Airways (SAA), which entered a form of bankruptcy protection in December, will scale back some of its domestic and international routes from the end of February, specialists appointed to try to rescue the airline said on Thursday.

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 6 (Reuters) - South African Airways (SAA), which entered a form of bankruptcy protection in December, will scale back some of its domestic and international routes from the end of February, specialists appointed to try to rescue the airline said on Thursday.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The deputy police commissioner (DCP) told Reuters police feared Lesotho prime minister's wife Maesaiah Thabane, accused of murder, could escape justice if allowed to travel to neighbouring South Africa for medical reasons.

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Lawyers for Ivory Coast's former president Laurent Gbagbo argued on Thursday that he should be released without conditions while awaiting the prosecution's appeal against his acquittal at the International Criminal Court.

BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) - Two brothers from a Belgian gold refinery have been found guilty by a court in Antwerp of money laundering and fraud and given 18-month suspended jail sentences, a court ruling showed.