APRNEWS - Thiam, a former boss of banking giant Credit Suisse, won very comfortably with 96.5 percent of the vote against 3.2 percent for his rival Jean-Marc Yace, the mayor of a commune in the economic hub Abidjan, according to the results announced late Friday.

"It is with great humility that I accept the responsibility that you have decided to entrust to me," Thiam said.

APRNEWS - West African leaders and European ministers are in Accra, the capital of Ghana, to discuss regional solutions to the insurgency that is spreading as foreign troops withdraw from Mali, where militants have seized large swaths of territory.

France, Denmark and Ivory Coast are among the countries that ended their military cooperation with Mali this year due to the ruling junta's cooperation with Russian mercenaries.

Ivorians voted on Saturday in presidential elections the main opposition parties have urged their supporters to boycott because President Alassane Ouattara is seeking a third term in office.

APRNEWS- A company helping to produce a new voter roll for Zimbabwe has accused the election commission of “impropriety” in its handling of tenders, potentially tarnishing the credibility of a poll meant to usher in a new era of transparency post-Mugabe.

FRANCE24 - Former international football star George Weah was sworn in as Liberia's new president on Monday, in the country's first transition between democratically-elected leaders since 1944.
Weah, 51, took over from Nobel laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who spent 12 years at the helm, steering the West African nation away from the trauma of a civil war.