Kenya and Tanzania embroiled in a trade feud. Certainly not the first time...

State House Spokesman Manoah Esipisu told reporters in Nairobi that Tanzania was isolated deliberately because it had nothing to do with the issues on the agenda.

"Monday meeting was bilateral. As you know we had also invited oil companies but they did not take part in the meeting," he told journalists.

The two countries agreed to meet again in two weeks after Energy ministry officials from Nairobi and Kampala had finished assessing the viability of various pipeline routes.

Asked to comment on the status of relations between Kenya and Tanzania, Mr Esipisu said the relations were "good, never been better."

17 Activists jailed for Anti-Govt Rebellion

An Angolan court has sentenced 17 youth activists, including a prominent rapper, to between two and eight years in jail for rebelling against the government of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

The sentence was handed down on Monday at the end of a lengthy trial in the capital Luanda that the Angolan opposition has said proves the existence of ingrained political repression.

The activists were arrested in June and have always denied the charges against them.

Rapper Luaty Beirao, who went on hunger strike for over a month last year to protest his detention, was given a five-and-a-half year sentence for "rebellion against the president of the republic, criminal association and falsifying documents".