MOGADISHU, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The Islamist radical group of Al Shabaab in Somalia on Saturday claimed responsibility after a senior Somali government official was killed by a roadside bomb explosion in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Ahmed Sheikh Mohamoud Qorleh, District Commissioner (DC) of Hamar Jajab district in Mogadishu, was killed after a remotely controlled bomb ribbed through his car, Banadir regional authority Abdi Kafi told Xinhua. The deputy DC for security was also injured in the blast which took place in the Somali government-controlled Afisyoni neighborhood, south of the capital Mogadishu.

Islamist Al Shabaab movement has previously targeted Somali government officials and security forces and have carried out similar high profile assassinations of senior Somali government officials.

The group, which controls much of south and center of the war ravaged east African country, wants to topple the internationally recognized Somali government which it considers as un-Islamic and a puppet of the West. Somali government security forces have cordoned off the area following the attack and began searches for the perpetrators of the attack.

Islamist rebels control large swathes of the restive coastal city while they covertly operate in the Somali government controlled side of the city where they have carried out attacks on the security forces and important government installations.
Somali government has been lately stating that it plans to wage a major offensive to stamp out Islamist insurgents from the capital.

The Islamist groups on the other hand have been parading newly trained fighters in Mogadishu and digging trenches along main streets in areas under their control in an attempt to stop the advance of Somali government forces backed of almost 5,000 African Union forces based in Mogadishu.

KINSHASA, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) hails the recent decision by the Rwandese Supreme Court to send a former Tutsi rebel leader in the central African country before a military court.

Laurent Nkunda, the leader of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), was arrested in January 2009 in Rwanda when fleeing a joint military crackdown by the two neighboring countries in the eastern part of DR Congo.

"The Congolese government respects the sovereign decision by a sovereign state and we shall continue to wait for a response from Rwanda on our request for the extradition of Laurent Nkunda to DR Congo, so that he can answer for the atrocities he committed in North and South Kivu," Congolese Communication Minister Lambert Mende Omalanga said on Friday.

"We were not yet at the stage to say whether there are charges or no against Nkunda because the hearing of his case has not yet begun," the minister said, adding they were in the process of discussing with the Rwandese justice minister to get his extradition.

Reports said the Rwandese Supreme Court found itself incompetent to rule on the request by Nkunda's lawyer Stephane Bourgon, a Canadian, to set him free and sent the issue to a military tribunal.
According to his lawyer, who was also pleased with this decision, there is no arrest warrant or charges against Nkunda.

In efforts to seek rapprochement, DR Congo and Rwanda launched a joint operation on Jan. 20, 2009 against the CNDP and the Rwandan Hutu rebels, resulting in the arrest of Nkunda two days later in Rwanda.

First placed under house arrest at Gisenyi, a Rwandese border town with DR Congo, the ex-general was later transferred to Kigali.

At that time, Rwandese President Paul Kagame told reporters that Nkunda had been detained at Gisenyi with a view of "facilitating relations between our two countries." "The Nkunda issue is purely a Congolese one. It is them who will eventually resolve it," he added.

MOGADISHU, March 27 (Xinhua) -- A senior somali government official was killed on Saturday in Mogadishu after unidentified assailants threw hand grenade into his vehicle, well-informed sources told Xinhua.

Somalia has been beset by close to two decades of civil conflict. The Somali defense minister escaped a car bomb attack this month in the government-controlled part of Mogadishu, which wounded five people

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said on Friday he would only implement terms of an agreement he signed in 2008 with rival Morgan Tsvangirai if the West removed sanctions on his allies.

Mugabe and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Tsvangirai, now prime minister, formed a coalition government last year but the fragile marriage has been rocked by disputes about how to share executive power.

South African President Jacob Zuma, who is mediating in Zimbabwe, held talks with the two rivals last week and said Mugabe's ZANU-PF and Tsvangirai's MDC had agreed a package of measures to rescue the unity government.

But on Friday Mugabe said there was no such package and his party would only make concessions if sanctions imposed on ZANU-PF members and a freeze on financial aid on Zimbabwe were scrapped by the West.

The MDC wants its treasurer-general Roy Bennett sworn-in as deputy agriculture minister, appointment of five of its senior officials to positions of provincial governors and for Mugabe to sack the attorney general and central bank governor.

"It's nonsensical for anyone to expect us to move on these issues when we are burdened with sanctions, not only as persons but as a country, that the MDC has asked for," Mugabe told hundreds of party members attending a ZANU-PF central committee meeting in Harare on Friday.

"The sanctions must go, must go. If they don't go there will be no concession that we will make, none whatsoever," Mugabe said to cheers from the ZANU-PF members.

DAMPENING TALKS

His comments put a dampener on talks between ZANU-PF and MDC negotiators to deal with "outstanding matters". The talks, which began on Thursday and were continuing on Friday are expected to end on Monday.

The negotiators would then report to Zuma on March 31, after which Southern Africa Development Community troika chairman Mozambican President Armando Guebuza may call a meeting to discuss the deal.

Guebuza leads the SADC political organ that also involves Swaziland's King Mswati III and Zambian President Rupiah Banda

Mugabe said his allies, central bank governor Gideon Gono and attorney general Johannes Tomana, would not be sacked.

"They are not going at all. Tomana and Gono will remain with us," Mugabe said.

The 86-year-old argues the MDC should lobby its allies in the West to remove sanctions and stop what ZANU-PF calls "pirate radio stations".

The veteran leader is largely blamed for running down a once prosperous economy through policies such as the seizure of white-owned commercial farms to resettle blacks and lately plans to force foreign-owned firms to cede majority control to locals.

Mugabe accuses former colonial power Britain of mobilising its Western allies to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe as punishment for the land seizures.

On Friday he criticised British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for rebuffing a call by Zuma this month to end targeted sanctions on Mugabe and ZANU-PF.

"Mr Brown must know that there will be no movement if sanctions don't go. The movement must come from him and who is he anyway to talk about that situation," said Mugabe.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund said on Friday there was little room for maneuver in Ghana's 2010 budget as the government tries to rein in its fiscal deficit in the West African country.

In a statement at the end of talks with the government, IMF mission chief to Ghana, Peter Allum, said "good progress" was made to completing reviews of the country's $1.1 billion IMF program approved last year.

Ghana, a major cocoa and gold producer, was hard hit by the global economic downturn as world trade collapsed. It is about to become Africa's newest oil producer in 2011.

Allum said the IMF welcomed the authorities' revised deficit target for 2010 of 8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and its plans to further cut the deficit to 3-5 percent of GDP in 2011-12 as oil starts to flow.

Allum said under these projections, government debt would rise to 62 percent of GDP by the end of 2010 before falling in 2011-12 as the fiscal gap is reduced.

"There is little room for maneuver within these budget plans," Allum said. "Expenditure ceilings are tight, and the majority of Ghana's accumulated domestic expenditure arrears equivalent to 7 percent of GDP will be repaid only in 2011-2012," he added.

He said an early decision on the recommended electricity tariff adjustment before the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission was needed.

As Ghana moves toward becoming Africa's newest oil producer next year, Allum said the country's biggest challenge was managing expectations that oil profits would mean more fiscal space for new programs and projects.

"Given the need to repay expenditure arrears while also reducing the fiscal deficit, the initial scope for spending from oil revenues could be relatively modest," he said.

The IMF said further discussions to complete the first and second performance reviews of the IMF program were needed to obtain IMF board approval by the end of May.

The IMF maintained its outlook for 2010 growth in Ghana at 4 to 5 percent due to oil-sector investments. It said inflation would likely decline to single digits by end of this year from 14 percent in February.

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congo's President Joseph Kabila will lead a delegation to South Korea this weekend to discuss deals in infrastructure, health and mining, Korean and Congolese officials said on Friday.

The talks come as the Central African nation, shaken by years of corruption and violence, increasingly seeks to strengthen ties with Asian partners viewed as less critical than the West on human rights and governance issues.

The president, who will spend three days in the country, will be accompanied by seven ministers, including those from infrastructure, minerals, energy, health and education, as well as the head of the country's business federation.

Among the deals at stake is the development of Democratic Republic of Congo's first deepwater port on the tiny coast, according to an official at South Korea's embassy in Kinshasa.

"We are deeply engaged in discussions over the port at Banana," said the embassy official. Congo only has a river port at Matadi, some 150 km from the western strip of coastline.

Estimates suggest building a deepwater port at Banana, which has been slated since the 1980s and would give access to container ships carrying imports and mineral exports, would cost $300-400 million.

"We've built things that people never thought possible before," said the embassy official, rejecting concerns that Banana offers too technically complex a prospect.

Kabila will visit South Korea's largest port city Busan, the official said.

No deal on the port is likely to be finalised during the visit, but bilateral accords will be signed on health and higher education in the central African nation.

"They want to invest in infrastructure and energy, and we can sell their cars here," said an official in Congo's ministry of foreign affairs, whose minister forms part of the delegation. "But we've not yet negotiated over mines."

LOOKING TO ASIA

The Congolese official said the government would not agree minerals-for-infrastructure along the lines of a controversial deal signed last year with China, however.

"It's not going to be like with the Chinese. We have to respect the agreement with the World Bank and IMF in order to reach completion point for debt relief. Even the Koreans know that," said the official.

China last year signed a deal worth an initial $9 billion to build infrastructure in exchange for some of Congo's vast copper reserves in the south of the country.

The deal was reduced to $6 billion and the debt component reduced after the IMF, which is trying to relieve the bulk of Congo's $11 billion debt by the end of June, intervened.

Congo has asked the world's largest peacekeeping force, comprising close to 22,000 U.N. troops, to leave the country in 2011, during which presidential elections are due to be held.

"It's clear that the president is getting fed up with the Western donors and looking to Asia," said a Western diplomat. "China is much less critical of government and on human rights, but South Korea is more attached to macroeconomic stability."

South Korea is keen to build a long-term relationship with Congo, promoting cultural exchange as well as private business deals to be discussed next week, the embassy official said.

"We really feel like we have something to offer to a country like Congo from our own experience, having been a much poorer country than Congo 50 years ago. And now we are chairman of this year's G20," the official added.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Former U.N. chief Kofi Annan warned Kenya on Friday that failure to push through political reforms aimed at healing deep ethnic rifts could undermine the recovery in east Africa's largest economy.

Annan led weeks of negotiations that ended political and ethnic clashes after a disputed presidential poll in December 2007, shattering Kenya's image as the region's most stable business hub.

"The economic recovery that has started to take place since the post election violence ... can only be sustained if genuine reforms continue to be implemented and there is cohesion in the government," Annan told reporters during a visit to Kenya.

Kenya's economy is expected to grow by about 4 percent this year, up from an estimated 2-2.5 percent last year. The post-election turmoil, drought and the global financial crisis cut growth from 7 percent in 2007 to 1.7 percent in 2008.

President Mwai Kibaki and his prime minister, Raila Odinga, arch rivals in the last poll, agreed to share power after 1,300 Kenyans died and 300,000 were uprooted during weeks of bloodletting in early 2008. Anan met both men during his visit.

Under the terms of the deal signed between Odinga and Kibaki in 2008, the country was supposed to institute legal, political, social and economic reforms to promote stability and peace.

The promised reforms include writing of a new constitution, changes in the courts and police force, as well as land reforms.

Annan noted progress with the constitution, a draft of which is being debated in parliament, and the formation of a new electoral body, but singled out judicial reforms as one area where the government can move faster.

FOCUS ON 2012 VOTE

But political analysts say bitter divisions between the main parties in power and rivalries within each side have slowed the pace of reform, with many politicians more concerned about the next presidential vote in 2012.

Annan said there had been a failure to address meaningfully the issue of impunity and corruption.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) was set to announce next week whether it will proceed with cases against a number of people suspected of involvement in the violence, thought to include government ministers and prominent businessmen, he said.

Annan handed over a list of names to ICC prosecutors after Kenyan legislators stalled on setting up a local tribunal.

"Since that (ICC) is a process that has been initiated, most of us are paying attention to that," said Annan.

"It will be up to the government to decide when it introduces the bill for the local tribunal, if it will. The ball is still in their court," he said.

Annan voiced particular concern about reports of intimidation of witnesses and human rights defenders.

He urged parliament to pass swiftly a hotly debated constitutional bill that has come unstuck over the division of executive power.

"The longer the reforms take the more complicated it will get. The elections and the politics will begin to cast a long shadow," he said.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will return to Egypt on Saturday following gallbladder surgery in Germany this month, a government minister told Reuters late on Friday.

Mubarak is to arrive on Saturday afternoon to the resort town of Sharm El Sheikh, Information Minister Anas el-Feki said in a text message exchange. The president's return comes three weeks after doctors in Germany removed his gallbladder.

Mubarak's extended absence from the country for medical reasons hit the stock market and reminded Egyptians that the president, in power for almost three decades, has not named a successor.

While his son Gamal is widely touted as a contender, both father and son deny plans to install him.

Other names mooted include former nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who in his first public appearance since returning to Egypt last month was meet by supporters chanting "Your are our hope" at Friday prayers.

At a news conference two days before his surgery, Mubarak tartly dismissed any suggestion ElBaradei was a national hero.

State news agency MENA said Mubarak would be received by government ministers and leaders of the armed forces and police.

The early edition of Saturday's al-Gomhuria newspaper said the medical team treating Mubarak was scheduled to hold a news conference on Saturday to announce its final report and to discharge him.

But a hospital spokeswoman could not confirm Mubarak was leaving and had no information about any news conference. The hospital has a policy of patient confidentiality, she said.

The 81-year-old president had benign tissue removed during the operation conducted at Heidelberg University Hospital in Germany on March 6.

Mubarak has not said whether he plans to run for a sixth six-year term in a presidential election due in 2011.

Mubarak handed presidential powers to Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif just before the operation, and has not yet officially taken them back, although he was shown on television speaking on the telephone with foreign leaders and local officials while in hospital.

Egypt's stock market fell sharply in the days after the president's operation, before steadying when images of him sitting and chatting with doctors were broadcast on March 16.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Hundreds of worshippers greeted potential Egyptian presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei when he attended midday prayers at a Cairo mosque in his first public appearance since returning home to much fanfare in February.

Worshippers and bystanders rushed to accompany ElBaradei to the 800-year-old al-Hussein mosque in the capital's historic Islamic district for Friday prayers, with many chanting "Long live Egypt" and "You are our hope".

Prior to the mosque visit he had not made a public appearance, instead hosting opposition leaders and academics and giving media interviews at his house on Cairo's outskirts.

ElBaradei's return to Egypt after 12 years as head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has energised the country's calcified political scene, weakened by decades of autocratic rule under President Hosni Mubarak.

Around a thousand supporters met ElBaradei on his return to Egypt last month, but he left the airport without addressing the crowd, which had become unruly.

Mubarak, who is in Germany recovering from a March 6 surgery, has not said whether he plans to run for a sixth six-year term in a presidential election due in 2011. If he does not, many Egyptians believe he will try to hand power to his son Gamal. Both father and son deny such plans.

UNCERTAINTY

The president's prolonged absence from the country for medical reasons has focused attention on who might succeed him and whether they would continue the government's economic liberalisation programme.

Allies of Gamal Mubarak in the cabinet hold key economic portfolios.

Egypt's stock market fell sharply in the days after the president's operation, before steadying when images of him sitting and chatting with doctors were broadcast.

ElBaradei has said he would consider a presidential bid if certain demands are met, including constitutional changes to limit power, judicial supervision of the vote and equal media coverage of all candidates.

Political analysts say the chances of securing such changes by next year are remote, while any presidential bid faces a huge challenge in the most populous Arab country as rules make it almost impossible for anyone to succeed without the backing of Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party, which dominates parliament.

Egypt experimented with its first multi-candidate presidential election in 2005 that it touted as a process of democratisation, but which critics panned as a sham.

KAMPALA (Reuters) - At least one person was killed and more than 100 others injured in Uganda when a crowd rushed to glimpse the Bugandan king as he visited royal tombs destroyed in a fire, police and witnesses said on Friday.

The king, Ronald Mutembi, was attending a ceremony to lament the destruction last week of a historic royal mausoleum in the capital. The blaze, whose cause is unknown, was followed by violence, heightening tension between the government and the powerful Bugandan kingdom.

A police source told Reuters that one person was killed in the crush while 140 were injured, 16 of them seriously.

A local news cameraman at the scene said two people were killed and the injured were taken to hospital.

Uganda has four traditional kingdoms with clearly defined boundaries and leaders who are revered by their subjects. The Buganda kingdom covers 9,000 square miles (23,300 sq km) of central Uganda.

SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) - The Swiss businessman whose detention in Libya unleashed a diplomatic row that dragged in most European countries will be released from prison very soon, a Libyan official said on Friday.

Predictions of an imminent release for the businessman, Max Goeldi, coincided with Swiss media reports that Spain, holder of the European Union presidency, was sending its foreign minister to Libya to try to broker a solution to the row.

Tripoli stopped issuing visas to most European nations in retaliation for Switzerland barring entry to nearly 200 high-ranking Libyans in an effort to press the North African country into freeing Goeldi.

"Goeldi will be released very soon," a senior Libyan official, who did not want to be identified, told Reuters. He did not give any more details.

Goeldi has been barred from leaving Libya since July 2008, when police in Geneva arrested a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on charges -- which were later dropped -- of mistreating two domestic employees.

The Swiss man is serving a four-month sentence after a Libyan court found him guilty of violating immigration rules.

The visa row has unsettled European countries with substantial business ties to oil exporter Libya, especially its near-neighbours Italy and Malta.

There were signs that the dispute could be easing on Friday after Swiss television said visa restrictions on some Libyan citizens had been lifted. Switzerland's Foreign Ministry declined to comment.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero said after talks in Brussels that a resolution was closer and he urged Libya to end its travel curbs on Europeans.

Swiss media reported that Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos was travelling to Libya on Saturday. The Spanish Foreign Ministry could not immediately be reached to confirm the reports.

It was likely Moratinos would go to the city of Sirte, where Gaddafi is hosting a summit on the Arab League.

2010-03-26

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian state security prevented activists from holding a symbolic "trial" of Egypt's ruling party on Thursday, using force to disperse those who tried to resist, activists said.

Security men in civilian clothes beat some of the activists who gathered to hold the event at a lawyers' club south of Cairo.

The symbolic trial of Egypt's National Democratic Party (NDP) was aimed at highlighting state oppression before a parliamentary election later this year, the activists said.

"Such trials aim to expose the failed policies of the National Party, which we consider to be the cause of economic corruption, social disruption and the delay in Egyptian political life," lawyer Muntasar al Zayaat, who coordinated the event, told Reuters.

A state security source said the activists did not have a permit to gather. The Interior Ministry had no immediate comment on the incident.

Government officials say elections in Egypt are fair but rights groups cite widespread violations whenever Egyptians go to the polls.

President Hosni Mubarak, 81 and who has been in power for almost three decades, has not said if he will run for a sixth six-year term in the 2011 presidential election.

Many Egyptians believe that, if he does not, he will try to hand power to his politician son. Both Mubaraks deny any such plan.

A report on corruption in Egypt releasted last week by Transparency International, a Berlin-based group, said Egypt's efforts to combat the abuse of power were blighted by political interference, weak enforcement of laws and a lack of access to public information.

The activists said that when they arrived at the meeting hall, it was deserted and flooded with water. When they tried to hold the trial on the sidewalk outside, security men cordoned off the area.

"Some of those who tried to resist security were beat up," said former judge Mahmoud Khudairi.

Khudhairi resigned last year in protest against government interference in judicial and political matters.

2010-03-26

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The head of U.N. peacekeeping said on Thursday he wants a full investigation of an ambush of U.N.-African Union peacekeepers in Sudan's conflict-racked western Darfur region.

A peacekeeping patrol was ambushed earlier this month in the mountainous Jabel Marra area, which the Darfur rebel Sudan Liberation Movement loyal to Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur says it controls. The group has denied any involvement in the attack, though the Sudanese army says rebels were responsible.

The head of U.N. peacekeeping, Alain Le Roy, told reporters he wanted to know who was responsible for the ambush of 63 peacekeepers. He added that the mission in Darfur, known as UNAMID, had the right to go anywhere in the region.

"We will continue to go into Jabel Marra," Le Roy said, calling the ambush "a very grave and serious incident."

"I need of course a full investigation," he said, adding that if he found UNAMID peacekeepers guilty of poor planning or other mistakes disciplinary action would be taken.

Sudan's army has questioned how UNAMID lost its vehicles, weapons, money and communications equipment in the ambush without a fight. Le Roy said he wants to know if UNAMID failed to take a stand against the attackers when it should have.

"When you are attacked, the rules of engagement are very clear: you have the right to use your weapons in ... self defense," Le Roy said.

"If it's the case that they (UNAMID) have not reacted, or if the mission was badly planned, then there will be ... sanctions because that is of course unacceptable for the credibility of U.N. peacekeeping," he said.

Reports from Sudan did not indicate any casualties.

'CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT'

Last month, Khartoum signed a ceasefire agreement with the most militarily powerful of Darfur's divided rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement, and another group this month. But violence continues and some rebels have criticized the idea of signing peace deals with Khartoum.

The United Nations estimates that as many as 300,000 people have died in Darfur's humanitarian crisis, sparked by a brutal counter-insurgency campaign in 2003 to quell rebels demanding more of a share in wealth and power.

More than 2 million were driven from their homes and the International Criminal Court last year issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes in Darfur.

Senior U.N. peacekeeping official Susana Malcorra also responded to an internal audit that said U.N. missions in several world troublespots had neglected proper security procedures and financial controls, exposing the world body to unnecessary risks.

The report by the U.N. watchdog the Office of Internal Oversight Services, covering 2009, found fault with operations in a series of countries but focused especially on Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq. It also touched on sexual impropriety by U.N. officials abroad.

2010-03-26


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States hopes next month's presidential election in Sudan will set the stage for a "civil divorce, not a civil war" over moves by the oil-rich south to secede, the Obama administration's special envoy said on Thursday.

Scott Gration acknowledged problems with preparations for the April vote. But he said it should still occur on time so democratic structures are put in place to deal with the looming issue of the status of southern Sudan, which will be decided by a referendum next January.

He said the United States was prepared for any eventual secession vote and was working to resolve contentious issues in hopes of avoiding a reprise of the two-decade civil war that ended five years ago.

"I don't see that the north has to reinvade the south and start the war again," Gration said. "If we can resolve these issues, I think there is a fairly good chance that ... the south can have a civil divorce, not a civil war."

Sudan's north-south civil war claimed 2 million lives and drove more than 4 million from their homes, destabilizing much of East Africa. It was fought over issues of ethnicity, ideology, religion and oil, all of which still fester.

Gration said next month's elections, even if flawed, would mark a step toward establishing a democratic framework of voter rolls, electoral authorities and monitors that will underpin political decision-making.

"It is important that the election takes place on time, and is done in a way that the people themselves see as credible," Gration told Reuters in an interview.

"What we are trying to do is get as much done as we can now and then make adjustments that we need to."

Accusations of fraud have mounted before the vote, Sudan's first multiparty election in more than two decades, and many opposition parties have called for a delay, saying more democratic reforms are needed.

The only long-term international observer mission in Sudan, the Carter Center, has said the election remains "at risk on multiple fronts" and urged Sudan to lift harsh restrictions on rallies and end fighting in Darfur before the ballot.

Gration, named U.S. special envoy for Sudan last year, has sought to ease tensions that threaten the fragile 2005 peace deal between Khartoum and the semi-autonomous south.

That agreement called for both the elections and the referendum on secession for southern Sudan, which many analysts say could trigger new conflict.

SECESSION IN THE CARDS?

Gration said Washington was already factoring in projections the south will secede.

"Looking at the realities on the ground, it is highly likely that the south will chose independence," Gration said.

He added Washington was "looking at all options" on how it might support a future independent South Sudan, but was focused for now on trying to ensure a peaceful transition.

Gration said the issues being addressed included the question of citizenship, border demarcation and how to apportion profits from Sudan's oil wealth, much of which is pumped in the south but shipped out through the north.

"It is a win-win situation that we are trying to get," Gration said.

He added that would be hard to achieve unless the Khartoum government was willing to discuss better deals for the south as well as for Darfur and other restive parts of the country -- something he said was starting to happen.

"While the progress is slow, we are making it," he said.

2010-03-27

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Pirates attacked a Turkish cargo ship off the coast of Nigeria, injuring three crew members, Turkey's state-run news agency Anatolian reported on Friday.

Eight to 10 pirates with automatic weapons boarded the Ozay 5 late on Thursday. They robbed the crew of money and cellphones but fled after the ship began making distress calls.

The ship's cargo was not damaged in the attack.

Two of the injured crew were Turkish and one was Nigerian, Anatolian quoted the Turkish Maritime Undersecretariat as saying.

Marauding sea gangs have attacked many ships off the east coast of Africa in recent years, winning ransoms of millions of dollars. Piracy is much less frequent in West African waters.

GENEVA (Reuters) - World trade will grow by nearly 10 percent this year, rebounding strongly from the economic crisis and shrugging off halting progress in the eight-year-old Doha round, World Trade Organization figures showed on Friday.

The WTO said the volume of merchandise trade would expand by 9.5 percent after dropping 12.2 percent in 2009, the biggest contraction in more than 70 years.

The forecast growth this year comprises 7.5 percent for developed countries and 11 percent for developing countries, it said in a statement.

The outlook came as WTO's 153 members decided to push on with negotiations in the Doha round, launched in late 2001 to free up global commerce and help poor countries prosper through more trade, but tacitly dropped a 2010 deadline for a deal and set no new timetable.

"Although we have made some progress since 2008, there is no denying the fact that we are not where we wanted to be by now," WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy told a meeting of the WTO's Trade Negotiations Committee.

Lamy told a news conference that no members had called for a suspension of the Doha round.

And he said the revival in world trade this year in the face of continuing protectionist pressures showed the value 2010-03-26


of the global trading system, which the Doha talks were intended to bring up to date.

The committee meeting caps a week of intensive talks joined by senior officials from national capitals, which many members had hoped would be an opportunity to clinch an outline Doha deal when it was called at a WTO ministerial conference in December.

Several senior trade diplomats said there was a danger that continuing the negotiations without a deadline could amount to a suspension of the talks by stealth.

Others said that dropping fixed dates and calls for ministerial meetings injected some realism into the talks, which were likely to take two or more years to complete.

Lamy declined to comment on the 2010 deadline, saying it was a matter for the G20 leaders who had set it.

Where the gaps in positions are clear -- as with farm subsidies -- Lamy said the talks must focus on preparing options for ministers to take the political decisions to close them.

But where there is no agreement on the size of the gaps -- for instance in opening up trade in manufactured goods -- negotiators need to do more technical work to get the issues to a stage where they can propose political options, he said.

In value terms, trade contracted by 23 percent to $12.5 trillion in 2009 from $16.1 trillion in 2008, the WTO said.

Trade in services, for which there was no 2010 forecast, contracted by 13 percent in 2009 to $3.3 trillion, it said.

2010-03-26

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia's most populous ethnic group is being targeted in a government crackdown ahead of the country's first national election since a disputed 2005 poll, an opposition party said on Friday.

The Horn of Africa country's last election results were challenged by the opposition and international observers. About 200 protesters were killed by security forces in street riots and the main opposition leaders imprisoned. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said they were trying to oust him.

"They are cracking down on the Oromo ethnicity because we are such a large group, not only many in men, but the Oromia region contains a lot of resources," Bulcha Demeksa, leader of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) said.

Ethnic Oromos, who make up 27 million of the country's 80 million people, have not held power in modern Ethiopian history. Ethiopia has more than 80 ethnic groups.

The nine considered the most powerful by the government, including the Oromos, administer their own federal regions.

Meles comes from the Tigryan ethnic group, who make up only 6 percent of the population but dominate the political and military elite.

The OFC, part of eight-party coalition Medrek, said candidates were beaten and tortured to scare them into leaving the party. It said opposition civil servants in Oromia had been transferred to remote regions and refused time off to campaign.

"We in OFC appeal today to friendly countries and their envoys in Ethiopia, and to the people of Ethiopia at large, to support us," the party said in a statement.

The Ethiopian government says opposition candidates are not intimidated.

"This is a democracy," Bereket Simon, government head of information, told Reuters this week. "We are continuously widening political space."

Analysts say Medrek -- or the Forum -- is the main threat to the 19-year-old government of Meles, but his Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition is expected to easily win the May 23 poll.

The opposition says this is because they are harassed and jailed. The government says the opposition is trying to discredit a poll it has no chance of winning.

2010-03-26

PORT LOUIS (Reuters) - Mauritius is looking at the possibility of channelling donor cash into a fund that can be used to help shield businesses from fluctuations of the rupee currency, its industry minister said on Friday.

Textile exporters in the Indian Ocean island nation routinely complain that a strong rupee hurts the sector, threatening jobs and hard-currency earnings.

"The possibility of establishing a sovereign fund to channel foreign exchanged derived from donor funding with a view to stabilise currency fluctuations is being examined," Industry Minister Dharambeer Gokhool told Reuters.

The country's central bank introduced spot currency swaps in December last year to boost liquidity and to control the rose of the rupee against the dollar.

"Although our export sector has been hit by the global slowdown figures show that exports are growing," the minister said.

Export earnings reached 36.07 billion rupees in 2009 from 35.08 billion rupees in 2008 that is an increase of 2.8 percent, he added.

A senior source at the central confirmed that officials are considering starting the fund.

"The setting of a mini sovereign fund will help keeping out funds borrowed from abroad and not needed immediately. It may also be used to pooling together funds from National Pension Funds and other institutions," the source said.

"The IMF encourage Mauritius to set up such a Fund during its Article IV statement released in February"

2010-03-27

LOME (Reuters) - Togo's government outlawed on Friday further demonstrations against the results of a March 4 presidential election, which opposition leaders say was rigged to favour the incumbent.

The decree came a day ahead of a scheduled opposition rally in the seaside capital of Lome, escalating tensions in the West African state whose election had been widely seen as a test for regional democracy.

"In order to preserve peace and security, all demonstrations contesting the results of the March 4 presidential election are strictly prohibited on national territory," a press release issued by Togo's security ministry said.

Official results showed Togo's incumbent President Faure Gnassingbe won more than 60 percent of the vote and international observers said the poll appeared generally free and fair.

The election was seen as an opportunity for West African democracy after a series of recent regional setbacks including a military coup in Niger and violent protests against poll delays in Ivory Coast.

Togolese security forces killed some 500 people following the country's last presidential election in 2005, but a parliamentary vote two years later was peaceful and led to a resumption of international aid.

Demonstrations in Togo since the March 4 election have so far been mostly peaceful, though security forces used tear gas to disperse demonstrators earlier this week, injuring 30, according to the main opposition group UFC.

"We will maintain our rally in Lome scheduled for Saturday," a UFC official told Reuters on condition anonymity.

Togo is near the bottom of the United Nations human development index, and its economy relies heavily on production of phosphate, coffee, cocoa and cotton.

MOGADISHU, March 27 (Xinhua) -- A senior somali government official was killed on Saturday in Mogadishu after unidentified assailants threw hand grenade into his vehicle, well-informed sources told Xinhua.