Morocco's Attijariwafa Bank wins African Bank of the year award The Attijariwafa Bank group won the African Bank of the year award at the “African Banker Awards”, on the sidelines of the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), held over the weekend in Washington. The prize was awarded to Attijariwafa Bank by the African Banker Magazine in recognition of performances made by the group, based on a remarkable growth in its net banking income (6.9 billion dirhams +16.2%), its own funds (25.7 billion dirhams +13.9%) and its balance sheet total (297.7 billion dirhams +10.5%). Bomb in Algeria kills 5 Five people were killed Tuesday when a remote control bomb exploded on a construction site in Algeria, a security official in the North African nation said. The bomb appeared to target public works officials who were inspecting the construction site of new homes in Tlidjen, near the country's eastern border with Tunisia, the security official said. Those killed were three local public works officials and two entrepreneurs. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Most attacks in Algeria are claimed by al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa, a local Islamic insurgency movement that joined Osama bin Laden's terrorist network in 2006. Tunisia- Saudi Arabia sign MOU in religious affairs Tunisia and Saudi Arabia signed, on Monday in Tunis, the executive program of a Memorandum of Understanding in religious affairs. The program provides for the exchange of expertise, experience and information on printing of the Holy Book and restoration of mosques, as well as teaching and memorizing of the Holy Koran. BP Expected To Start Libya Drilling In November-Ghanem BP PLC (BP) expects its deepwater drilling activities in Libya to begin by November, after initially planning to begin operation in October, Libya's top oil official told Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of the Oil & Money Conference in London. Shokri Ghanem, chairman of Libya's National Oil Corp., said the drilling activities were delayed as BP is now taking extra care in planning operations following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Ghanem told Dow Jones Newswires in August he expected BP to start drilling in Libya's Gulf of Sirte by October at the latest. Sudan Abyei shooting a ‘pretext for war' Shooting overnight by northern Sudan soldiers was an attempt to start clashes in the oil-rich region of Abyei, southern former rebels say. SPLM spokesman Kuol Deim Kuol said four soldiers went into Abyei town's market and fired at random, wounding a trader. BM
