Fears that Libya is heading toward deepening chaos hit stocks on February 21 and pushed oil prices sharply higher. With reports suggesting that over 300 people have been killed in clashes across the country, which have spread to the capital Tripoli, investors are getting increasingly worried about the escalating violence in one of Africa’s biggest oil producers. Those concerns were heightened by a statement from Seif Al-Islam Qaddafi, the son of Libya’s longtime leader Moammar Qad...

Egypt’s top prosecutor on February 21 requested the freezing of the foreign assets of ousted president Hosni Mubarak and his family. Security officials said the prosecutor general asked the Foreign Ministry to contact countries around the world so they can freeze his assets abroad. The president’s domestic assets were frozen soon after he stepped down, they added. The freeze applies to Mubarak, his wife, his two sons and two daughters-in-law, said the officials. The announcement c...

Officials say the Philippine government, one of the world’s biggest labour exporters, has indefinitely deferred the deployment of workers to restive Libya, Bahrain and Yemen. Philippine Overseas Employment Administration chief Carlos Cao on February 22 said that officials also decided in an emergency meeting to prepare for a possible evacuation of Filipino workers, especially in violence-prone regions of Libya like Benghazi city, if the unrest there worsens. Foreign affairs department s...