Prince Ofori-Atta

By Carolyn Cohn and Helen Nyambura-Mwaura in London and Johannesburg A growing middle class in sub-Saharan Africa is enticing European and South African insurers to buy local firms focusing mainly on life insurance and pensions, in the face of mature markets and strong competition at home.

For climate activists, all roads lead to Paris in December 2015, where the UN Climate. Change Conference will bring together UN member states to sign a legally binding treaty to reduce global carbon emissions. The aim is to limit the warming of the planet to two degrees centigrade above the pre-industrial level. To meet that target, emissions from the additional burning of fossil fuels would have to be restricted to 1trn tonnes of carbon dioxide.

The game of thrones and succession planning in Africa was jolted by the spectacle on 31 October of Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaoré fleeing the mass street demonstrations in Ouagadougou on a French helicopter for exile in neighbouring Côte d'Ivoire.