TRIPOLI/BENGHAZI Libya (Reuters) - Several shells hit the terminal of Libya's main airport on Thursday as rival militias fought in Tripoli for a fifth day, and gunmen assassinated a female politician in the east.

NAIROBI, July 17 (Reuters) - Ghana's $1.5 billion Eurobond issue due later this month is expected to boost the flagging cedi, while Nigeria's naira is seen stuck in a range.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Several shells hit the terminal of Libya's main airport on Thursday, witnesses said, as fighting between rival militias for control of the airport continued for a fifth day.

TUNIS (Reuters) - At least 14 Tunisian soldiers were killed when gunmen with rocket-propelled grenades attacked two checkpoints in the remote Chaambi mountains, the deadliest militant strike on the north African country's armed forces.

DAKAR (Reuters) - A spokesman for the al-Mourabitoun armed Islamist group, formed by veteran jihadist Mokhtar Belmokhtar, claimed responsibility on Thursday for a suicide bombing this week that killed a French soldier in northern Mali.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Western consultants helping Egypt compile an economic reform plan say it needs at least $60 billion of investment to reach average GDP growth of 5 percent by 2018 and the same amount again to bolster its foreign reserves, senior officials said.

TUNIS (Reuters) - Gunmen attacked Tunisian military checkpoints near the Algerian border, killing as many as five soldiers in an area where the army has been conducting an operation to flush out Islamist militant fighters, the TAP state news agency and officials said on Wednesday.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Air controllers in western Libya have gone on strike to protest the shelling of Tripoli's main airport, halting flights in much of the oil-producing country, a government official said on Thursday.

BAMAKO Mali (Reuters) - France and Mali signed a new defence pact on Wednesday, an agreement that will let Paris maintain its prominent role in a former colony whose desert north was occupied by al Qaeda-linked rebels until they were defeated by French troops last year.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council warned on Wednesday it is ready to consider "appropriate measures" against warring parties in South Sudan if they do not stop the violence in the world's youngest nation and negotiate a transitional government.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A lawsuit brought by a Sudanese Muslim father against a Christian woman to formally establish her as his Muslim daughter was dropped on Wednesday, the lawyer handling the case said, a move that could allow her to depart for the United States.

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo has launched its first agricultural business park, the initial step in a plan to use its vast tracts of arable land to produce food, create jobs and wean the economy off its dependence on mining.

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday sought approval from parliament to borrow up to $1 billion abroad to help the armed forces tackle the security threat posed by the Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram.

(Adds date in headline) The following company announcements, scheduled economic indicators, debt and currency market moves and political events may affect African markets on Thursday. - - - - - EVENTS: KENYA-The central bank sells 91-day Treasury bills. GLOBAL MARKETS Asian equities gained on Thursday, lifted by another record-high close on Wall Street, while the euro probed recent lows against the dollar amid speculation the U.S. Federal Reserve is tilting toward tighter monetary p