YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Cameroon opposition leaders accused President Paul Biya on Monday of preparing to steal the 2011 election in the central African state by seizing control of vote preparations from a specially created independent body.

Cameroon has been under pressure from Western donors and domestic critics to make its government more transparent, and a bill passed last week adds to a string of setbacks for democracy on a continent notorious for flawed or disputed votes.

"Paul Biya doesn't want change. He wants to die in power," Elizabeth Tamanjong, head of the main opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF), said of Biya, 77 in power since 1982.

"And the only way for this to happen (...) is by ensuring that there cannot be free, fair and transparent elections."

The ruling party-dominated parliament passed a bill on Friday giving the government oversight of poll preparations through the Ministry of Territorial Administration -- a task previously carried out by the independent electoral body ELECAM.

"This means that ELECAM is only a shadow organisation, no more an independent electoral authority," said Ben Muna, head of the opposition Alliance of Progressive Forces.

Biya, who set up ELECAM four years ago under pressure from Western donor nations threatening to cut aid, is expected to sign the bill into law within two weeks.

Analysts have said the risk of unrest in the oil-producing economy, the biggest in the region, could create problems for the government's policy agenda as discontent grows over persistent poverty and unemployment.

Once the bill is signed, MINAT will have the authority to appoint representatives to various commissions overseeing the full range of electoral preparations.

"This law is the worst law we've ever had because it brings back the administration and members of the judiciary into the electoral process in full force," said Afany Ngeh, executive president of the Foundation for Human Rights and Development.

"These are two very corrupt groups in this country that have paralysed elections in the past," he said.

Biya's Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) introduced multi-party politics in 1991. But Biya and the CPDM have won every election since then and a constitutional ammendment in 2008 jetisoned presidential term limits.

Other setbacks to democracy in the region include a coup in Niger and violent protests over election delays in Ivory Coast.

"The bill is indicative of the bad faith of the government and shows the regime's determination to have total control over election matters in the country," said Mathias Eric Owona Nguini, a professor at Yaounde II University.

"The government ... wants to discourage the electorate and create an environment that favours voter apathy so that the ruling party will have its own way," he added.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's president warned former southern rebels on Monday that if they refused to take part in April's elections, a southern referendum on secession would not happen, according to comments broadcast on Al Jazeera.

"If the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) refuses to hold elections then we will refuse to hold the referendum," he said during a campaign speech in Khartoum.

April's first multi-party elections in 24 years and the January 2011 southern referendum on independence are key elements of a 2005 peace deal between the SPLM and Bashir's National Congress Party (NCP).

But the opposition, including the SPLM, says the elections cannot be free and fair. Bashir's warning is a clear message to the SPLM to distance itself from the opposition, some of whom have threatened to boycott April's vote.

"We will not accept a delay to the elections not even for one day," Bashir said. Last week he threatened to expel international observers who asked for any delay to the presidential and legislative polls due to start on April 11.

The only international long-term observer mission, the Carter Center, had said a short delay may be necessary because of logistical problems including hundreds of thousands of missing names from the electoral register.

The opposition want the polls delayed until November. They cite a continued conflict in Darfur and unresolved complaints of electoral irregularities.

The north-south civil war that began in 1983 claimed an estimated 2 million lives and destabilized much of east Africa. Most analysts believe the south will vote for independence in 2011.

In a further sign of the deterioration in relations between the northern and southern authorities, who formed a coalition government in 2005, a rare meeting of the presidency scheduled for Tuesday in Khartoum was abruptly cancelled.

"There was no agreement on the agenda to be raised to the presidency," Abdallah Masar, an advisor to Bashir, told Reuters late on Monday.

"There are differences over the elections -- the NCP says the elections must happen on time," he added.

When relations between the north-south partners hit a wall, the presidency usually meets and resolves the differences. The decision to cancel the meeting indicates how far apart their positions are less than two weeks ahead of the polls.

CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) - Oil producers and consumers gathered at the International Energy Forum this week plan to call for greater oil market stability and transparency as prices hold near levels OPEC members laud as "perfect" for both groups.

The ministers spoke ahead of the biannual International Energy Forum, which gathers officials from oil producer and consuming nations as well as energy companies.

When the group last met in 2008, crude prices were surging to record highs near $150 a barrel, causing added pain to developed economies already under pressure from the recession. The price surge caused demand to tumble, sending prices to below $33 a barrel this year and hitting the budgets of consumer nations.

Now both sides appear to be unified in calling for steps to promote market stability as global economies struggle to emerge from the worst economic downturn since World War II.

Nobuo Tanaka, the head of the International Energy Agency which represents consumer nations, said that OPEC, the IEA and the International Energy Forum have developed a plan to address oil market volatility.

"More transparency in the market certainly would help," said in an interview with Reuters.

"We're convinced, both producing nations and consuming nations, that we need price stability. That's one of the crucial points," Mexican Energy Minister Georgina Kessel told Reuters, adding the IEF would produce a statement at the end of the meeting, which starts on Tuesday and ends on Wednesday.

Still, Qatar's oil minister said getting an agreement amongst all the players would be tough.

"I think they have a very, very good challenge," Abdullah al-Attiyah told reporters.

PERFECT OIL PRICE?

OPEC Secretary General Abdullah al-Badri said an oil price between $70-80 a barrel, where oil has held for much of 2010, was good for producers and consumers -- high enough to promote investment in new projects but not so high that it clipped demand from large developed economies.

Ali al-Naimi, oil minister for top exporter Saudi Arabia, called current prices "perfect".

"(Oil prices at) $70 to $80, that's the most appropriate price," Naimi said, welcoming any effort to curb speculation, which has been blamed by some for the run up of oil prices to record highs in 2008.

U.S. efforts to implement position limits in oil futures markets was helping to curb speculation, Badri said.

2010-03-29
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Pirates seized a ship with 24 crew members off the port of Aden on Monday and Mogadishu traders said seven additional vessels headed for the Somali capital had been hijacked over the past two days.

The Kenyan-based Ecoterra maritime monitoring agency said pirates had taken control of a roll-on, roll-off ship called the MV Iceberg 1 on Monday.

"The owners reported to NATO that pirates boarded the ro-ro vessel MV Iceberg 1 today just 10 miles outside Aden Port in the Gulf of Aden," Ecoterra said. "The vessel with her 24 member crew is now commandeered towards the Somali coast."

Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya-based East Africa Seafarers Assistance Programme told Reuters the Panama-flagged ship's crew had citizens of Ghana, Pakistan, India, Sudan and Yemen, and it was seized while en route to the United Arab Emirates.

A spokesman for Mogadishu traders told reporters that another seven boats had been seized as they headed for the Somali capital's seaport. Until now ships bound for Mogadishu have been largely spared by pirates, whose attacks have become bolder and more frequent.

The seven ships cited by the traders did not include a Seychelles fishing vessel and an Iranian boat that were also taken in the waters off east Africa but later freed, according to the Seychelles coast guard.

"Pirates hijacked seven boats in the Indian Ocean in the last 48 hours," the spokesman, Mohamed Omar, said.

"The boats were carrying commercial goods to Mogadishu. Our counterparts overseas do not want their boats hired by Somali traders any more. Piracy is now be very risky to our business."

Sea gangs have acquired millions of dollars in ransoms and defied a flotilla of foreign warships that are trying to monitor the region's busy sea lanes.

They have plagued the busy shipping lanes off Somalia for years. As well as holding some ships for ransom, pirates also hijack vessels to use as 'motherships' which ferry the gunmen and their speedboats far out to sea.

The Seychelles president's office said the fishing vessel, called the Galate, was captured 90 miles off the coast of the archipelago's main island before later being freed. All six crew members were safe.

Seychelles said its coast guard had also rescued 21 crew from the Iranian boat in the same operation.

Separately, the U.S. destroyer McFaul rescued 30 Africans stranded in the Gulf of Aden after their vessel developed engine problems, the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet said in a statement.

Last year 50,000 people, many from Somalia, took rickety smugglers' ships across the Gulf of Aden, seeking jobs in the Middle East or fleeing political turmoil at home.

"The 30 men, women and children onboard had been stranded with no food and very little water for nearly four days since departing the Somali coast," the Navy said.

2010-03-29
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - U.S. funded-broadcaster Voice of America said on Monday that Ethiopia may have blocked its website in a move which may lead to further U.S. criticism of its closest ally in the Horn of Africa.

Ethiopia holds national elections on May 23 and international press freedom advocacy groups say the government is intimidating and harassing journalists ahead of the vote. The government denies that.

"We have received reports that VOA's website is unavailable inside Ethiopia, and we are investigating the causes," VOA Director Danforth Austin said in a statement.

Government spokesmen were not immediately available to comment.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi this month accused VOA's radio service in Ethiopia's dominant Amharic language of broadcasting "destabilising propaganda" and said his government was testing its ability to jam it.

Meles compared VOA to Radio Mille Collines, whose broadcasts are blamed by many for sparking the 1994 Rwanda genocide. He said he would order the service jammed if testing succeeded.

Residents of the capital, Addis Ababa, told Reuters they had not been able to access the VOA website since early on Sunday.

Rights groups accuse Ethiopia of routine Internet censorship.

VOA says listeners in Ethiopia have been unable to hear its Amharic-language broadcasts for more than four weeks.

Meles' comments were sharply criticised from the U.S. State Department. Ethiopia -- reliant on foreign aid -- is the key U.S. ally in the Horn of Africa.

VOA launched satellite broadcasts into Ethiopia a few days after Meles' remarks and said it was exploring other methods of overcoming the jamming.

The broadcaster was set up during World War Two to counter anti-U.S. propaganda and operates in 45 languages.

Analysts expect the Meles government to win the election. The opposition says that is because the government scares people into voting for it. The government says the opposition is divided and trying to discredit the poll.

2010-03-29
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudans's opposition united on Monday to demand a review of procedures for next month's landmark election, saying it feared using a state printing company to print ballot papers would lead to fraud.

Last week it emerged the NEC had awarded the Sudanese Currency Printing Press a contract to print the ballot papers for April's presidential and governors' elections, the first multi-party votes in Sudan in 24 years.

On Monday the National Elections Commission told Reuters the same government company had also been contracted to print voter registration books, further outraging the opposition.

"The registration (printing) was done in Sudan ... by the same company and another (Sudanese) one called New Life - it was shared between the two companies," said NEC member al-Hadi Mohamed Ahmed, responsible for procurement.

The elections in Africa's largest country were promised under a 2005 deal that ended more than two decades of north-south civil war over ethnicity, ideology, oil and religion.

The opposition had already expressed concern about fraud in last year's registration, during which the commission said 16 million people registered to vote.

All 11 presidential candidates opposing National Congress Party (NCP) incumbent President Omar Hassan al-Bashir signed Monday's statement demanding the formation of an "independent group to audit the finances and administration of the NEC".

It said the awarding of the printing contracts to a government firm had given the NCP full control over the key registration process. "This is very serious and underlines that there is absolutely no transparency whatsoever," said opposition Umma Party spokeswoman Mariam al-Mahdi.

Mubarak al-Fadil, a presidential candidate opposing Bashir, said his supporters had seen the NCP still registering people, accusing it of adding to the register.

"This is very worrying indeed because this confirms that the registration was fiddled with," he said. "This explains how they (the NCP) were doing a parallel registration, and still are -- because they had direct access to the books."

The NCP criticised the opposition for doubting the integrity of a national institution like the Sudanese Currency Printing Press and accused them of trying to sabotage the polls.

"To use printing of (ballot) papers as a forgery element in elections you need to put them inside the ballot box ... (which) is being observed by ... the political parties and observers from international organisations," said senior NCP official Ibrahim Ghandour.

He said the NCP were going house to house registering supporters, not adding to the electoral register.

Voting is due to begin on April 11, although many parties have called for another delay in the poll, originally scheduled before July 2009.

The only long-term observer mission, the Carter Center, said earlier in March the electoral register was still not ready, with hundreds of thousands of names missing just weeks ahead of the polls.

2010-03-29
LILONGWE (Reuters) - Africa should defy the developed world and subsidise its farmers so it can be able to feed its people, Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika said on Monday.

Developing countries have called on nations in the developed world to open up agricultural markets by cutting tariffs and subsidies -- which they say discourage farmers from producing.

African countries argue their products would be much cheaper than developed nations' goods if trade-distorting subsidies were removed.

Wa Mutharika said food security should top the continent's agenda and investment in agricultural subsidies should be increased.

"For a long time … we were told poor African farmers in rural areas must compete through free market structures with highly advanced farmers in industrialised countries. Unfortunately, Africa accepted this falsehood. How wrong we have been and what a price we have paid," wa Mutharika said at the African Union's conference of ministers of finance, planning and economic development.

"Time has now come for Africa to stand up and take a decision to subsidise our poor farmers so that they can grow enough food beyond subsistence... A nation that depends on other nations to feed it cannot claim sovereignty," he told the senior government officials at the conference.

"At the last meeting of the African Union in February … we agreed that food insecurity disturbs peace and security in our continent. We therefore resolved that five years from now, Africa should be able to feed itself and that no child in Africa should die of hunger, malnutrition or starvation," he added.

Wa Mutharika also told delegates that stable political regimes and a sound macro-economic environment which included low interest rates, low inflation and stable currencies was crucial for economic growth that will lift the continent out of poverty.

"This is good governance. Fast and sustainable macro-economic growth results from good governance. Indeed, empirical evidence shows that no economy in the world can grow if it is poorly"

2010-03-29
DUBAI (Reuters) - Nigeria is offering to lease farmland to Gulf countries seeking food security and will allow investors to export all of their produce, the head of a private Nigerian agriculture consultancy firm said on Monday.

Gulf Arab countries reliant on food imports have intensified efforts over the last year to buy land in developing nations ranging from Pakistan to the Sudan and Ethiopia.

"Nigeria has the terrain to provide 100 percent of the Gulf's food needs," Enbong Jimie Idiong, chief executive of Global Corp Ltd, told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of an industry conference in Dubai.

Global Corp Ltd is working as a consultant to the Nigerian government on ways to develop the agriculture sector, Idiong said.

Nigeria has around 71.2 million hectares of farmland, of which less that 50 percent is being used, according to data from the firm.

"We need investment to fully utilize this land and we will allow the investors to export back 100 percent of the crop and this will create employment opportunities for people in Nigeria," said Idiong.

The land could be leased for up to 30 to 40 years at a cost of around $10,000 per hectare for that period, he said.

"Because of the large size of land we can offer investors as much as they want, and there is no particular kind of crop that can't be grown in Nigeria."

For years Nigeria relied on oil production to fuel its growth, and paid little attention diversification, said Idiong.

CURSE OF OIL

"The oil is a curse, and all of these large oil companies are causing a lot of pollution and I think for our generation this is a time we need to pay more attention to developing agriculture."

Asked what type of guarantees could be presented to investors, a common concern for Gulf nations when considering investments in Africa, Idiong said the government would back any deals.

"Before you step in to invest one penny you will have a sovereign guarantee from the government," he said.

Developing countries all over the world have been competing to attract foreign investors seeking food security to buy or lease land under attractive terms.

Last May, Pakistan offered investors 6 million acres of farmland to lease under long term agreements, but will require outsiders to share half of their crop with local growers.

So far Nigeria has not signed any deals with Gulf nations to lease farmland.

"Regrettably this has to do with the attitude of our officials who are not proactive, I don't understand why Saudi and the UAE have gone to places like Pakistan and Sudan where climate and political conditions are less stable," said Idiong. "We are just not marketing ourselves enough."

Foreign investors have acquired some 15-20 million hectares of farmland in poorer countries since 2006, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute.

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's Senate began on Monday to screen Acting President Goodluck Jonathan's nominees for his new cabinet, whose rapid formation would ease political uncertainty in Africa's most populous nation.

Jonathan last week sent a list of 33 cabinet nominees to the Senate for approval. Senate President David Mark on Monday read out a further five names also submitted for screening, including respected former junior finance minister Remi Babalola.

The upper house of parliament is expected to vote on the nominees before an Easter recess starts on Thursday.

Jonathan sacked all government ministers in Africa's top energy producer two weeks ago in a bid to assert his authority a month after assuming executive powers in the absence of ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua, who remains too sick to govern.

Former Minister of State for Petroleum Odein Ajumogobia, tipped as a possible oil minister, and Olusegun Aganga, a London-based executive at Goldman Sachs seen as a contender for a finance ministry post, are among the nominees.

Monday's list included four more names from the outgoing cabinet -- among them former environment minister John Odeh and transport minister Ibrahim Bio -- bringing the total number of former ministers to 13.

Nigeria's cabinet is made up of more than 40 ministers, ministers of state and ministers in the presidency. Jonathan is expected to submit another batch of nominees for Senate approval to complete his new team soon.

2010-03-29
JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) - South Sudanese authorities arrested and beat seven members of the only party running a candidate against the region's president in April, a senior party member said on Monday.

South Sudan's semi-autonomous government's democratic credentials will be scrutinised in April's first multi-party presidential and legislative elections in 24 years especially as many believe southerners will vote to secede in a January 2011 referendum, creating Africa's newest nation state.

"They arrested nine people, including two journalists, and beat them up," said Charles Kisanga, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement for Democratic Change (SPLM-DC) Secretary General, adding that they were released after 90 minutes.

The SPLM-DC, headed by former foreign minister Lam Akol, split last year from the mainstream SPLM which dominates 80 percent of the southern government.

The SPLM accuses Akol of being a cover for former northern foes the National Congress Party and of having an armed militia, which Akol denies. Akol has expressed open support for NCP presidential candidate, incumbent Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

The elections and referendum are benchmarks of a 2005 north-south peace deal ending 22 years of civil war, which claimed two million lives and destabilized the region.

When Akol and his team flew into Wau, south Sudan, on Sunday they were kept on their plane for an hour as local security agents wanted to disarm Akol's bodyguards, Kisanga said.

"Then the security organs of the state aligned to the SPLM said they wanted to arrest us saying we came without prior information," Kisanga said.

The SPLM's deputy secretary general, Anne Itto, told journalists on Monday that she had not heard about the Wau arrests or any other arrests in the south during her trips with South Sudan President Salva Kiir's campaign team.

Most analysts say that Akol is unlikely to win but that he may pull some voters, tired of graft in the post-war government.

Agents from the SPLM-DC have been arrested before in several places in the south, including Western Bahr el Ghazal district where Sunday's arrests took place. In one case four party agents were jailed for several months.

Independent candidates Anglina Teny in Unity State and Joseph Bakosoro in Western Equatoria have also complained that their supporters have been arrested and stopped from travelling

2010-03-29
ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - Egyptian police killed an Eritrean migrant as he tried to enter Israel on Monday, bringing the total number of migrants killed at the Sinai border this year to 12, Egyptian security sources said.

Border guards shot the 26-year-old and injured two others after they refused to stop, the sources said.

Police also captured 11 other African migrants, including three Ethiopian women and a two-year-old child, in a separate incident on Monday.

The Sinai border is a major transit point for Africans -- mostly Eritreans -- seeking work or asylum in Israel.

Israel has put pressure on Egypt to stem the flow. The United Nations and London-based rights group Amnesty International have called on Egypt to check its border guards' use of excessive force against unarmed migrants.

U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay has asked Cairo to urgently launch an inquiry into what she said could be a "shoot-to-kill policy" by some Egyptian security forces. Egypt rejected Pillay's comments.

Egypt's security forces say they fire at migrants only if repeated orders to stop are disregarded.

2010-03-29
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Pirates seized a roll-on roll-off ship named MV Iceberg 1 with 24 crew members off the port of Aden on Monday, a maritime monitoring agency said.

It was the third ship reported to have been seized by pirates in the waters off east Africa since Saturday.

"The owners reported to NATO that pirates boarded the ro-ro vessel MV Iceberg 1 today just 10 miles outside Aden Port in the Gulf of Aden," said the Kenyan-based Ecoterra.

"The vessel with her 24 member crew is now commandeered towards the Somali coast." Ecoterra gave no more information on the hijacked vessel.

Somali buccaneers are highly active off the coast of Somalia, increasing the range of their attacks, acquiring millions of dollars in ransoms and defying a flotilla of foreign warships that is trying to monitor the region's sea lanes.

Somali pirates also seized a Seychelles fishing boat and its six crew 60 miles off the coast of the archipelago's main island, a pirate source and the boat owner's sister said.

"We've been informed by the (Seychelles) authorities ... that Somalis have captured the boat. When they were captured they were about 60 miles off the island of Mahe," said Kerry Mathieu, sister of the owner of the fishing boat Galate.

"We had six crew on board, all Seychellois. We've had no contact with the crew since they were hijacked," she told Reuters.

The Seychelles coastguard's acting chief, Major George Adeline, said it had a vessel monitoring the hijacked boat, now 200 miles off the archipelago's capital Mahe.

A pirate source said two ships were hijacked at the weekend.

"We hijacked two boats on Saturday night and Sunday in the Indian Ocean," pirate Hussein told Reuters. "One is an Iranian tourist boat with 21 crew, and the other is a Seychelles boat with six crew."

There was no independent confirmation that the Iranian boat had been seized.

Sea gangs have plagued the busy shipping lanes off Somalia for years. As well as holding some ships for ransom, pirates also hijack vessels to use as 'motherships' which ferry the gunmen and their speedboats far out to sea.

2010-03-29
NAIROBI (Reuters) - One of Africa's most brutal rebel groups, Uganda's Lords Resistance Army (LRA), said on Monday a report that its members killed hundreds of villagers in the Democratic Republic of Congo late last year was fabricated.

In a report, the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said 321 people were massacred in a killing spree that took place in villages in DRC's remote northeast in December. The report was backed by the United Nations.

"These claims of massacres coming almost four months late are yet another fabrication by NGOs, which are advocating war," Justine Labeja, LRA's Nairobi-based spokesman, told Reuters.

The LRA fought a two-decade insurgency in northern Uganda before crossing into Congo in 2005. A Ugandan-led multinational force attacked its jungle bases in late 2008, and the rebels splintered into groups.

Most of the fighters crossed into Sudan and Central African Republic, where they have carried out waves of attacks, but experts think one group remains based in Congo.

"Yes, we are in Congo but we have no problem with the Congolese people or its government and we continue to call for a ceasefire to end this war," said Labeja.

Colonel Michael Anywar, an LRA official in the Kenyan capital, accused the United Nations of making the rebel group a a scapegoat and an excuse to stay in the mineral-rich nation.

"The U.N. are being kicked out of Congo against their will but they now want to use us as an excuse to stay there," he said.

The cult-like group, which is led by Joseph Kony and is accused of turning boys into child soldiers and girls into sex slaves, says it wants to rule Uganda according to the Bible's Ten Commandments.

At the height of Kony's war, thousands were killed and 2 million Ugandans were forced to seek safety in camps that dotted northern Uganda and southern Sudan for close to two decades.

2010-03-29
NIAMEY (Reuters) - Police in Niger have arrested three former ministers suspected of plotting against the ruling military junta in the uranium-exporting country, interior minister Cisse Ousmane said on Monday.

The arrests were the latest sign that the junta is tightening its grip after last month ousting President Mamadou Tandja, who had defied international and domestic criticism to push through constitutional changes extending his own term in power.

"They have been questioned about subversive activities against the authorities," Ousmane told reporters, without giving details of those activities.

Since taking over in a coup that was largely well-received in the west African country, the so-called Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy (CSRD) junta has appointed a transitional government and promised elections, although without naming a date.

A police source said the ministers were arrested late on Sunday. "There were a dozen people, among them former finance minister Lamine Zeine and former justice minister Garba Lompo, who we have questioned and detained since Sunday evening," said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"We are investigating schemes intended to harm public order," he said. Former minister of public works Lamido Oumarou was also arrested, the source said, without elaborating on what the suspects were thought to be plotting.

Foreign observers have urged elections be held as soon as possible, while investors are on the watch for signs that the junta might review deals struck under the deposed president.

On Sunday, Ousmane had promised a crackdown on activities deemed to endanger public order. "Every act, every opinion which disturbs peace and public order will henceforth be punished according to the law," he said on state television.

Junta leader Major Salou Djibo, like other soldiers who have seized power in the region, has promised to clean up the corruption he said characterised the former regime.

Earlier this month, civil rights groups said the junta should review and possibly renegotiate dozens of resource exploitation contracts .

Firms including French nuclear group Areva, Toronto-listed Cameco and China National Petroleum Corporation are active in Niger's resources industry.

2010-03-29

FREETOWN (Reuters) - Sierra Leonean medical workers began returning to their jobs on Monday after the government promised them a sixfold pay rise to end a two-week strike that paralysed the West African nation's health services.

A Reuters witness saw doctors arriving at a hospital in the capital Freetown on Monday, following the government's decision late on Sunday to award the pay rise.

"Salaries for doctors before were $100, now the government has assured us ... doctors will earn $600 monthly," said spokesman for the strikers Frederick Coker.

President Ernest Bai Koroma had said he would sack up to 200 doctors and senior nurses if they did not return to work on Monday.

"The government has reached an agreement with the health workers whereby the workers have agreed to resume work today (Monday)," said a statement broadcast on state television, without giving details of how the pay rises would be financed.

Sierra Leone is struggling to recover from a 1991-2002 war and often lacks basic health services.

Koroma has made healthcare a policy priority and in April promised to introduce free care for pregnant women and children under 5 years old, to mark Sierra Leone's 49th anniversary of independence from Britain.

Last year rights group Amnesty International said one in eight women risk death during pregnancy or childbirth, giving the nation one of the highest maternal death rates in the world.

The scale of the promised pay rises raised questions about the government's ability to afford them, and whether other public sector workers would be encouraged to strike in order to secure similar benefits.

2010-03-29

SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has suggested that Nigeria be broken up into several states along ethnic lines like the former Yugoslavia, in comments likely to worsen a diplomatic spat with Africa's most populous nation.

Nigeria recalled its ambassador from Tripoli earlier this month when Gaddafi proposed that Nigeria split into two countries formed from the Muslim north and mainly Christian south.

His comment followed violent clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs that killed hundreds of people around the central Nigerian city of Jos and prompted Nigeria's government to question whether Libya might be sponsoring the violence.

Nigeria said Gaddafi's comments were insensitive and irresponsible and "diminished his status and credibility".

Responding to the Nigerian government, Gaddafi repeated the idea of dismantling the country, but this time suggested not two but several independent states for its multiple ethnic groups.

"The partition into Christian and Muslim states will not resolve Nigeria's problems because there are other peoples claiming independence despite the religion issue," official news agency JANA cited Gaddafi as saying.

He compared Nigeria to the former Yugoslavia, which collapsed after the end of the Soviet Union and split into several independent states, sparking conflicts in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and then Kosovo.

"Nigeria ... resembles the Yugoslav union which included several peoples, like Nigeria, and then these people gained independence and the Yugoslav union was ended in peace," said Gaddafi. "The model that fits Nigeria is the Yugoslav one."

Gaddafi was chairman of the African Union until recently and has adopted the title "King of African Kings", but the veteran Libyan leader has a mixed reputation on the continent.

Praised by some African leaders as a generous benefactor and champion of development, he stands accused by others of financing rebellions and fomenting instability, often to counter the interests of the United States and its allies.

NAIROBI, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Somali pirates have seized a United Arab Emirates (UAE)-owned cargo ship with 24 crew members aboard in the world's most dangerous waters of Somalia, a regional maritime official confirmed on Monday.

Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Program said the 4,500-ton Panamanian-flagged Iceberg 1, owned by Iceberg International Ltd, was carrying general mechanical equipment from Port of Aden to UAE.

"The Icerberg I crew is composed of Yemeni, Pinoy, Pakistani, Ghanaian, Indian and Sudanese," Mwangura told Xinhua by telephone from Mombasa.

He said the seizure took place about 10 nautical miles from the port of Aden.

Piracy has become rampant off the coast of Africa, especially in the waters near Somalia, which has been without an effective government since 1991.

Ransoms started out in the tens of thousands of dollars and have since climbed into the millions.

The Horn of Africa nation is at the entrance to the Gulf of Aden, which leads to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, one of the world's most important shipping channels.

The country has been plagued by factional fighting between warlords and hasn't had a functioning central administration since the 1991 ouster of former dictator Mohammed Siad Barre.

The Gulf of Aden, off the northern coast of Somalia, has the highest risk of piracy in the world. About 25,000 ships use the channel south of Yemen, between the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.

BRUSSELS, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Pirates hijacked a ship with 24 crew members off the Gulf of Aden and were heading to Somalia, the NATO Shipping Centre (NSC) said in a warning on Monday.

"Ten nm from Aden port, Gulf of Aden. Pirates boarded and hijacked a roro vessel. They took hostage 24 crew and are now sailing the vessel towards Somali coast," the warning said.

A further report is awaited and all ships are advised to be cautious, it added.

20100329
allafrica

Mdc-T has described President Robert Mugabe's claims that the three political parties in the unity agreement have not reached an agreement as a "gobsmacking political somersault" which will not be tolerated.

Mugabe told a Zanu PF central committee meeting on Friday that Zanu PF was still insisting that it would not compromise in the current talks over outstanding Global Political Agreement (GPA) issues until sanctions imposed by the West were removed.

His outbursts were at variance with comments by the mediator South African President Jacob Zuma that the parties had agreed to a package of measures during his intervention a fortnight ago.

The negotiators met on Thursday and Friday and are expected to round off the talks tomorrow. A report will be presented to Zuma before the Southern African Development Community considers a way forward.

MDC-T spokesperson, Nelson Chamisa said his party was shocked by Mugabe who said Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes Tomana were not going anywhere.

Mugabe also said there was no deal on the appointment of provincial governors and the status of MDC-T deputy agriculture minister-designate, Roy Bennett.

"We are shocked," said Chamisa. "We don't know the source of this. It's a Zanu PF political somersault and we don't know the motivation for this. It's revisionism."

He said an agreement had been reached that Gono and Tomana vacate their offices.

There was also an agreement on the re-appointment of provincial governors among other issues, he said.

"We are gobsmacked by the pronouncements from Zanu PF about the lack of progress in the talks when we were of the understanding and view that we are about to conclude all issues," said Chamisa.

He added, "If they are not politicking, it means we will be going back to President Jacob Zuma (South African President) for arbitration."

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Tunis — A partnership agreement was concluded on Saturday in Tunis between the National Sanitation Office (ONAS) and a Tunisian private company, "Ajroudi Investment" to set up an international sanitation company , dubbed "ONAS International".

The new company will provide administrative and technical assistance to various African and gulf sanitation companies.

The creation of this company is an attempt to strengthen partnership with the private sector especially in the sanitation sector. It also paves the way for Tunisian services to conquer new markets in the sector of sanitation and the fight against pollution.