The heaviest rainfall in 90 years in the African state of Burkina Faso has triggered heavy flooding and forced thousands of people to flee their homes, the government said Wednesday.

"We have been able to find shelter for about 110,000 people but there are others who have taken refuge with their neighbors," Prime Minister Tertius Zongo told reporters after an emergency cabinet meeting.

Oil in the Bangtar area under Samdrupjongkhar dzongkhag, copper, gold and silver in the black mountain area of central Bhutan and tungsten in Sarpang are the potential minerals an American businessman J Matthew Fifield has offered to prospect for and, if found viable, then extract them.

Least developed countries (LDCs), the worst victims of global warming, are far from raising effective voice thus failing to reap expected success from the ongoing negotiations of climate change due to fragile diplomacy, experts opined.

Aug. 27: Tata Steel is planning to acquire iron ore and coal mines in Africa, Brazil and Canada, which could contribute 50 per cent captive raw material by 2015.

African zoologists are in Colombia to advise local authorities on what to do with dozens of hippos roaming around the abandoned zoo of late drug lord Pablo Escobar in the north of the country.

Colombia was shocked last month at news that one of the giant beasts, who had escaped from Escobar's Hacienda Napoles, had been hunted down and shot on order of the government.