ADDIS ABABA, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) - Ethiopia exported 176,000 tons of coffee, earning 421 million dollars in the 2006/2007 fiscal year, a slight dip from the previous year, state-owned media said Sunday.

'Over 100 exporters and unions were involved to export the coffee to America, Italy, Germany and other European countries,' an agriculture ministry official told the official Ethiopian News Agency (ENA).

According to the Ethiopian Coffee Exporter's Association, 183,000 tons of coffee amounting to 427 million dollars were exported in 2005/2006.

ABIDJAN, Oct 13, 2007 (AFP) - Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo has called for a judicial inquiry into alleged embezzlement in the lucrative cocoa and coffee sectors, in a letter made public by the presidency Saturday.

An investigation was critical 'given the recurrent nature of embezzlement accusations' clouding the sector and to 'enlighten public opinion about these serious charges,' Gbagbo wrote to the country's prosecutor Raymond Tchimou in a letter dated October 11.

BRUSSELS, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - Colombian coffee became on Thursday the first non-European product to win special EU protection because of its geographic origin alongside Champagne, Roquefort cheese and Rioja wine.

The European Commission granted the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia a coveted Protected Geographical Indication at a ceremony at its Brussels headquarters.

'Today is an important day in the history of Colombian coffee,' said Luis Fernando Samper from the federation.

WASHINGTON, July 30, 2007 (AFP) - Drinking coffee and exercising may prevent skin cancer by killing off cells damaged by the sun's ultraviolet-B (UVB) radiation, said a study of hairless laboratory mice published Monday.

The coffee-exercise combination produced a 'dramatic' fourfold difference in apoptosis -- the programmed death of pre-cancerous cells -- between laboratory mice that did and did not follow the regime, said the researchers of New Jersey's Rutgers University.