LONDON, July 20 (Reuters) - British businessman Arron Banks has denied an allegation made by a former business partner that he approached Russians about investing in his diamond mines, and that the money raised went instead to his campaign to leave the European Union.

ADDIS ABABA, July 20 (Reuters) - A "hard currency amnesty" and reform-driven confidence in Ethiopia's economy, both at home and abroad, have helped close a once yawning gap between the official and black market exchange rates for its birr currency.

NEW YORK, July 19 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A group of investors in U.S. conglomerate General Electric (GE) has publicly opposed its plans to buy a stake in a Kenyan coal-fired plant, claiming the project would damage the environment and undermine efforts to fight global warming.

VALENCE, France, July 20 (Reuters) - Tour de France leader Geraint Thomas said being booed by the crowd did not affect him after he enjoyed a mainly comfortable 13th stage on Friday.

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria has made arrangements for 152 of its citizens who were stranded in Russia following the end of the soccer World Cup to be flown home, a foreign affairs spokesman said on Friday.

ADDIS ABABA, July 20 (Reuters) - A "hard currency amnesty" and reform-driven confidence in Ethiopia's economy, both at home and abroad, have helped close a once yawning gap between the official and black market exchange rates for its birr currency.

LONDON, July 20 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The front line in the battle for transgender equality in the United States has moved to Ohio, where campaigners are leading a push for change, after Puerto Rico allowed people to alter their gender on birth certificates.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's July 30 presidential election will provide no clear winner, with 40 percent of voters choosing President Emmerson Mnangagwa and 37 percent his opponent, Nelson Chamisa, according to an Afrobarometer poll released on Friday.

HARARE, July 20 (Reuters) - A former minister who served under Zimbabwe's ex president Robert Mugabe was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to four years in jail on Friday, his lawyer said, the first conviction of a Mugabe-era official since he stepped down.