THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Defence lawyers challenged the legality of the war crimes case against Congolese warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba on Tuesday, arguing he was denied due process by being brought before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Bemba, a wealthy scion of a business empire and an opposition leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was brought to The Hague in 2008 to face charges of leading Congolese rebels into a campaign of rape and torture in the neighbouring Central African Republic in 2002-03.

Bemba is the highest-profile suspect brought before the ICC, the world's first permanent court established to try war crimes.

Bemba's lawyer argued that he was being tried at the ICC and not in Africa in order to keep him away from the region, and was denied due process. Arrested in Belgium in 2008, Bemba is being held at a detention centre in The Hague.

"We have irrefutable proof of the interference of politics in this case, particularly in sending Bemba to the ICC," defence counsel Nkwebe Liriss told the court.

Initially due to start on Tuesday, the trial was delayed to hear the defence's challenge of admissibility. Pending a ruling by judges on the challenge, the trial is due to start on July 5.

The ICC's prosecutor has charged Bemba with two counts of crimes against humanity and three counts of war crimes for leading troops into the Central African Republic at the invitation of that country's president at the time, Ange-Felix Patasse, to put down coup attempts.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A landmine killed one person and wounded four on Tuesday in a rare attack on a mosque in an insurgent stronghold of the Somali capital, witnesses said.

They said the mine exploded as worshippers were going to the Abu Hureyra mosque in Bakara Market, an area used as a base by rebels fighting the government and African Union (AU) troops.

"We hear about explosions at mosques in Iraq, so this is an amazing thing to happen in Somalia," witness Abdallahi said.

It was not clear who was responsible for the attack in an area dominated by members of the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab rebel group and another insurgent militia called Hizbul Islam.

In another part of Mogadishu, a suicide bomber in a truck laden with explosives targeted a new AU base set up last week in the Shangani area north of the presidential palace, witnesses said.

Major Barigye Ba-hoku, spokesman for the AU force made up of soldiers from Uganda and Burundi, said the vehicle was blown up before it could ram into the new base.

"We have foiled the attempt, we have destroyed the would-be suicide car bomb. Two of our soldiers who destroyed the car sustained minor injuries," he told Reuters.

Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement and said it had killed some troops.

Insurgents have been fighting the Western-backed government in the Horn of Africa nation since the start of 2007. The rebel groups now control much of southern and central Somalia while the government is hemmed into a few blocks of the capital.

TUNIS (Reuters) - A Tunisian journalist whose six-month jail sentence for assault was condemned by international rights groups said after his release on Tuesday he was unbowed and would write a book about his experiences.

Taoufik Ben Brik was found guilty of attacking a woman motorist during an argument in the street. He and his supporters said the charges were concocted to punish him for his criticism of Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

"I will stay true to my courage," Ben Brik told Reuters in a telephone interview soon after he was released on completion of his sentence. "In the coming days I will start writing a book about this miserable story."

Ben Brik's case focused international scrutiny on human rights in Tunisia, a mainly Muslim country in North Africa that has been dominated by 73-year-old Ben Ali since he came to power 23 years ago.

Tunisian authorities deny any political motive behind Ben Brik's prosecution. Officials said assault on a woman was a serious offence and no one should be above the law.

The journalist said his experience in prison, where his relatives said he became dangerously ill, would leave a permanent mark on him.

"The damage has been done, and this damage will always cause me fear," he said from his home in the Tunisian capital. "Even though I am free, I never feel safe here."

Ben Brik said he would be soon be travelling to Paris, though he denied he would be leaving Tunisia permanently. He said France was "the only country that defended me", referring to the French government's criticism of his jail term.

Tunisia is particularly sensitive to European criticism because it is preparing to apply to the European Union for "advanced status," which could give it preferential trade terms.

Tunisia's economy is one of the most open in the region and it depends on tourists, including many from the EU, and growing investments from European firms.

Freedom of speech campaign group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in a statement it was relieved Ben Brik had been released and was back with his family.

"However, we repeat that these six months of detention were six months too long, since it is clear that Taoufik was the victim of a case that was made up from start to finish," RSF Secretary-General Jean-Francois Julliard said in the statement.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt is to hold a partial legislative vote in June, a first step in a round of elections that will test whether the political establishment will grant opposition groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood more say.

President Hosni Mubarak, who has not said whether he will stand for a sixth term next year, has issued a decree calling elections for 88 members of the Shura Council, essentially an upper house of parliament, said Fathi Ragab, deputy head of the council's constitutional and legislative committee.

The Shura Council reviews laws before handing them to the lower People's Assembly for a final vote.

Nominations for candidates will be accepted from May 5, and the vote will take place on June 1, Ragab said.

Mubarak has the right to appoint 88 members of the council and the remainder are elected, in two blocks of 88 serving overlapping terms.

"All members who have served a six-year term will be replaced ... (Those candidates) must run again or be appointed to a second term," Ragab said.

Most members of the council are affiliated with Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party or independents.

The Muslim Brotherhood, the non-violent Islamist group that has long been the biggest opposition threat to Mubarak's government, is seeking seats in the council after its members were blocked from running in the last Shura election in 2008.

"Some candidates were even unable to file their applications to run," said Hussein Ibrahim, a member of the People's Assembly affiliated with the Brotherhood.

"This time, we are seeking to gain 17 seats," he said.

Candidates from the Brotherhood will be forced to run as independents, as they do in the lower house, because the group is officially banned.

Egyptians are due to elect a new People's Assembly late this year and to vote in presidential polls in 2011, a possible turning point for the Arab world's most populous nation as it struggles to lift economic growth and modernise.

How the Brotherhood fares in the Shura vote will be a further indication of what to expect in the People's Assembly. Politicians linked to the group now control a fifth of seats there, by far the biggest opposition bloc.

"The possibility of the Brotherhood winning or losing (in the Shura race) is highly dependent on the security forces and ... how they confront them," said Nabil Abdel Fatah, from the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.

Over the last few months security forces have detained dozens of members of the Brotherhood, which says it wants to set up a democratic Islamic state by peaceful means.

CAIRO (Reuters) - In arid Egypt, officials have long angered fellow Nile Basin countries by clinging to colonial-era water treaties giving it rights to the lion's share of water flowing down the world's longest river.

But upstream nations desperate for development are hoping to break with the past, threatening to shut regional heavyweight Egypt out of a new pact and potentially deepening an already bitter struggle for water resources across this parched region.

"This is a crisis in Egypt's relations with Nile Basin countries," said Gamal Soltan, head of the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.

The feud could also upset the balance between poor upstream nations and Egypt, the Arab world's most populous nation, where climate change threatens a fragile farm sector and population growth may outstrip water resources as early as 2017.

The latest chapter in the long-running feud over waters from the Nile, worshipped as a deity in ancient Egypt, came when upstream countries declared after a water meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh this month that they would launch separate talks since Egypt and Sudan refused to revise water pacts dating to 1929.

"Egypt's historic rights to Nile waters are a matter of life and death. We will not compromise them," Moufid Shehab, minister of legal and assembly affairs, told parliament after the talks.

The 1929 deal, brokered on one side by British colonial powers in Africa, gives Egypt 55.5 billion cubic metres a year, the biggest share of a flow of some 84 billion cubic meters.

It also gives Cairo the power to veto dams and other water projects in upstream countries that include six of the world's poorest nations.

"We will not sign on to any agreement that does not clearly state and acknowledge our historical rights," Egyptian Water Minister Mohamed Nasreddin Allam said after the meeting.

But analysts say Egypt, eager to style itself as a leader of both Arab and African nations to enhance its global clout, must improve ties with upstream countries that in the future may take on greater economic and commercial importance.

"Egypt has tried in the past to complicate the issue ... They are dragging their heels," Shimeles Kemal, spokesman for the government of Ethiopia, source of the Blue Nile.

Egypt and Sudan "are pushing for a position that would negate everything we've achieved in years of talks and negotiations", said Isaac Musumba, Uganda's state minister for regional cooperation.

Upstream states have invited Egypt and Sudan to take part in the new deal -- whose legal standing would be uncertain -- but on their terms. "We hope to convince them," said Christopher Chiza, Tanzania's deputy minister of water and irrigation.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Talk of such a deal triggers alarm in Egypt, where Nile waters feed a farm sector accounting for a third of all jobs. Egypt, unlike upstream nations, cannot rely on rain and gets 87 percent of its water needs from the Nile.

Climate change and rising sea levels could also swallow much of the slim, fertile Nile Delta in Egypt, already the world's largest wheat importer, and cost it $35 billion this century, the United Nations has estimated.

Large-scale projects reclaiming arid land or building dams in upstream nations could further strain water use in Egypt, while increased upstream farming could bring more pollution.

But even if upstream countries ink the new deal, which could take place as early as May 14, they may not have the financial muscle in the near term to build dams and other projects that would allow them to siphon more water from the Nile.

"Practically, even if those countries sign a framework agreement without Egypt, its effects won't be lasting ... how are (upstream countries) going to stop the flow of water?" said Safwat Abdel-Dayem, secretary general of the Arab Water Council.

"It's premature to say they will build dams so we will lose water and (Egyptian) agriculture will be slashed," he said.

Globals donors and banks could be unlikely, for one, to provide the finance needed to build upstream water projects for fear of getting tangled in a regional diplomatic spat.

Analysts say a new treaty could nonetheless boost investments in African nations' land reclamation projects, and help attract foreign investment in upstream farmland.

"It would seem that a new deal, provided it covers an extended period and is enforceable, could be good for potential investors," said Aziza Akhmouch, an analyst with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

"It would reduce current uncertainty about the future availability of water."

SOFT POWER

The conflict threatens to further dilute the sway of Egypt, perched at the nexus of Arab and African worlds, in the region.

"Egypt has lost a great deal of its influence in Africa, and has run (through) a lot of its cards," said Sharif ElMusa, a water politics expert at the American University in Cairo.

Egypt should not seek to stick to historic water treaties, it should focus on bilateral talks with each country or take its case to an international arbitrator, Soltan said.

"We need more holistic policies including other policy areas branching into economic, cultural, and political ties," echoed Osama Ghazali Harb, head of a liberal opposition party.

The government may be taking heed. It has pledged doubling funds for development projects with upstream nations.

It is also trying to enforce better management at home. Egypt has cut back on water-intensive crops like rice, a key export, but could see a 47 percent drop in maize output.

Experts say Egypt is not moving fast enough to cut its dependence on the Nile or shift the diplomatic focus from divvying up water to how to better use it across borders.

"If you can create larger benefits from the water, there are often opportunities to create a positive sum game," said Mark Giordano of the International Water Management Institute.

LIBREVILLE (Reuters) - Six months into his administration, Gabon's President Ali Bongo is struggling at home to implement his reformist agenda, while presenting an investor-friendly international face.

Bongo won an election last year on a pledge to turn Gabon into an emerging economy, replacing his late father who ruled the central African country for four decades. Opponents said the vote was unfair and accused Bongo and the ruling PDG party of imposing a dynasty.

Bongo has made reforming government and lessening the country's dependence on oil his priorities. For years the country of just over a million people has laboured under a bloated bureaucracy and government run on a system of patronage, giving ministers and officials little incentive to work.

Gabonese people say they have become used to government that does not govern, but Bongo's team wants to change this.

"The real problem is ... fighting the old system. The objective is to say, 'here is a new system to induce people to execute measures'," said an adviser to the president.

Part of that system will be a performance review, due to take place within the next month, when Bongo will ask ministers to show their achievements. A short-lived strike earlier in April by oil workers brought output almost to a standstill, and has focused attention on the oil ministry.

"The oil strike means it's more pressure on the ministry of hydrocarbons," the adviser said.

REFORMS HELD UP

Bongo -- or 'Ali', as most Gabonese refer to him -- is a reformer who has trimmed the number of ministries and is streamlining the civil service. Still, analysts say he is having a tough time dragging inefficient government bodies with him and needs outside assistance to make his ideas work.

"There are lots of good ideas and reforms announced, but there is not enough technical capacity, there is not a culture of implementation," said one Western diplomat.

The opposition, which squandered a chance to really test loyalty to the PDG in the 2009 election when it fielded around 20 candidates and splintered support, is beginning to coalesce.

A new party, the National Union, brings together five of the presidential hopefuls, but heavyweight Pierre Mamboundou and his UPG party are outside it, and in the run-up to by-elections for around a dozen seats in June, it is not gaining critical mass.

"Ali Bongo wants to reign without sharing," said Joseph Nambo, a member of the National Union, who argued that Bongo won the election illegitimately, and thus has no mandate to govern.

"Almost seven months after he took power, Gabon has made a great leap backwards in all aspects," Nambo said.

Still, an opposition based on challenging the 2009 election fails to engage the public. Trouble flared only very briefly after the election result was announced, and passions are unlikely to be stirred by the same protests almost a year later.

Most Gabonese, when asked if they have complaints about Bongo's administration, say they disagree with a law that compels the tin-topped roadside bars, as popular in Libreville as they are all over Africa, to close at 10 p.m.

"This is not a polarised country, politics is not a matter of life and death," the diplomat said. "June is an opportunity for the opposition to make its case to the public, but it's already late April and we've seen nothing in the way of a campaign."

"YES, YES, YES"

Neither foreign delegations nor people close to Bongo see the June vote as a particularly tough test for the president, who continues to push a pro-investment policy that encourages diversification from oil, the country's economic mainstay.

"Any operator who can bring something to the country will be allowed to invest, it's an open door policy," the presidential adviser said."

Still, potential investors say the sluggish pace of work in the torpid tropical capital, and the bureaucratic entanglements it involves, make doing business a headache.

"It's so slow," said a visiting foreign executive in the agriculture sector. "People say 'yes, yes, yes' then you go away and nothing happens."

Bongo's team argues the reforms they say the country needs are a long-term project.

"If it were that easy, it would have been done before. He's only been president for six months," said the presidential adviser. "It takes time, it can take more than a mandate."

ABUJA (Reuters) - An obscure Nigerian youth group said on Sunday it will carry on campaigning to elect Acting President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2011 national polls despite his request that it stop.

The race to be leader of Africa's most populous nation is wide open since ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua is unlikely to seek re-election. Elections are due by April next year.

The Northern Youth Movement for Positive Change began posting political posters, saying "Goodluck is the Positive Hope for Nigeria", throughout the capital Abuja on Friday.

Jonathan, who has not ruled out running in 2011, denied any connection to the youth group's campaign and urged them to stop.

"The acting president has not authorised any group to produce or paste campaign posters for him," said spokesman Ima Niboro on Sunday.

"He warns those behind the circulation of these posters to desist from the act because it is capable of causing distractions."

The youth group, which confirmed having no connection to Jonathan, said it believed the acting president has already proven to be a good leader since assuming executive powers in Yar'Adua's absence two months ago.

"We believe (Jonathan) can deliver. There are no fuel queues and light and electricity are normal," Dogara Bassa, the group's secretary, told Reuters.

CONTINUE TO CAMPAIGN

Despite the acting president's request to stop its campaign, the group plans to put up political posters in Kano, Bauchi and other major northern Nigerian cities.

Bassa said it receives funding from the group's members, which he claimed number hundreds of thousands. This could not be independently verified.

Former military leader Ibrahim Babangida, who ruled Nigeria from 1985-1993 and is known locally as "IBB", is so far the only major politician to announce his intention to run for president as the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) candidate.

His campaign posters, saying "IBB, We Believe", can also be seen throughout Abuja.

The PDP, which has won every presidential election since Nigeria's return to democracy just over a decade ago, has not yet chosen its presidential candidate.

The party's presidential campaign headquarters in Abuja still prominently displays a political billboard from Yar'Adua's successful run in 2007.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Clashes between south Sudan's army and Darfuri Arab tribes killed 58 people, raising tension along the border with the north of the country as results of the first open elections in 24 years are released, officials said on Sunday.

Sudan's oil-producing south was allowed to keep a separate army and form a semi-autonomous government in a 2005 peace deal ending more than two decades of civil war with the north.

Southerners will vote in a referendum on January 9, 2011 on independence.

"There was movement from the Rizeigat (tribe) and from the SPLA (the southern Sudan People's Liberation Army). I can't tell you who attacked who first but they clashed," Rizeigat Arab tribal leader Mohamed Eissa Aliu told Reuters from South Darfur.

"It happened on Friday and those killed from the Rizeigat were 58 and 85 injured," he said, adding the attack was in Balballa, South Darfur, which borders Western Bahr al-Ghazal in the south.

The SPLA said they were attacked by the northern army (SAF) in Raja, a remote part of Western Bahr al-Ghazal state, near where at least 5 officials from the dominant northern National Congress Party (NCP) and four others were killed by an SPLA soldier during five days of voting which began on April 11.

"Our company came under attack from the SAF forces yesterday afternoon," SPLA spokesman Malaak Ayuen said late on Saturday. "The SAF was using four land cruisers with mounted machine guns." He could not give further details.

A SAF spokesman denied any involvement but confirmed the SPLA attack on the Rizeigat in Darfur, calling it "a clear violation of the (peace deal)."

The north-south border there is one of many disputed areas yet to be demarcated.

On Sunday, the SPLA said it had been attacked for a second time in Raja and had been forced to retreat.

"They reinforced themselves and launched another attack and occupied the place," Ayuen said on Sunday.

Of the around 100 SPLA troops in the area, 47 had reported back with the others likely still in the bush, he said.

Results of the elections, marred by boycotts in the north and opposition accusations of fraud, are slowly being announced after days of delays.

The NCP and the ex-southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) are expected to form a coalition government as both parties look set to maintain their respective dominance in the north and the south.

The international community is concerned that only 8 months before the 2011 plebiscite on independence, issues like the demarcation of the border, grazing rights of nomadic tribes and citizenship have not been agreed.

The north-south civil war, Africa's longest, has raged on and off since 1955. It claimed 2 million lives mostly through hunger and disease and destabilised much of east Africa.

The south, which follows mostly Christianity or traditional religions, fought the mainly Muslim north over issues including oil, ethnicity and ideology.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The World Bank's private-sector lender expects to invest $16 billion this fiscal year in emerging countries to spur economic growth amid a tepid global recovery that has pushed millions of people into poverty, its chief executive officer said on Saturday.

"I think we would do $16 billion including financing mobilized from other parties," Lars Thunell, chief executive officer and executive vice president of the International Finance Corp (IFC) said on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund's spring meetings.

This is an increase of $1.5 billion from 2009 after an additional 64 million people worldwide fell below the poverty line due to the global economic crisis.

Thunell said consumer goods sectors in emerging countries with large and young populations is where he sees most of the investment going.

"It is not only in traditional sectors like extracting (commodities) or infrastructure, but on local consumption. You see it in China and Africa. What you call the base of the pyramid is a major business opportunity," Thunell told Reuters.

He pointed to sites in western China as one area where this is happening.

Thunell also said interest in countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Rwanda, marred by war, has risen as the political risk profile of these countries improve.

"You have much less conflicts and wars in Africa. You have a new generation of leaders such as the president of Rwanda that understand that the private sector is very important," Thunell said.

Earlier this month the IFC partnered with sovereign wealth funds and pension funds from Azerbaijan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and South Korea in an $800 million fund to invest in companies in Africa and elsewhere as part of the corporation's strategy to tap the growing investment opportunities in frontier markets.

JOS, Nigeria (Reuters) - The Nigerian military fired in the air to contain violence in the central city of Jos on Saturday, after the killing of a Muslim man triggered a rampage by an angry mob, an army spokesman and witnesses said.

Four others died in the unrest, underscoring continued tensions in the region at the crossroads between Nigeria's Muslim north and Christian south. Sectarian clashes have killed hundreds of people this year.

A mob began rioting after the body of a Muslim man, who had apparently been strangled, was dumped in a sack on a main street, according to the military taskforce (STF) set up to police Jos and the surrounding area after clashes in January.

"When the Muslims discovered the body, they took to the streets and barricaded roads, stabbing passers-by indiscriminately," STF spokesman Donald Oji said, adding that three of those attacked had later died in hospital.

A fifth body was later discovered by soldiers on the other side of the city, he said.

Fierce competition for control of fertile farmlands between Christian and animist indigenous groups and Muslim settlers from the north have repeatedly sparked violence in central Nigeria's "Middle Belt" over the past decade.

Security forces say they have the situation under control, maintaining a night curfew in Jos. But killings have continued, raising fears of a repeat of clashes between Muslim and Christian mobs which killed hundreds in January and March.

Sporadic violence killed at last nine people last week, seven of them discovered in shallow graves around 30 km (20 miles) south of Jos. Residents said they were killed after stopping at a roadblock set up by a local gang.

KHARTOUM, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Death toll from the continued clashes between Rizeigat tribe and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in South Darfur State in western Sudan rose to 58.

The clashes erupted on Friday and "are still ongoing," 58 people were killed and 87 others wounded, Mohamed Iyssa Elaio, chairman of Rizeigat tribe's Shura (consultation) council, told Xinhua.

"The casualties are expected to rise," he added.

The incidents took place at Bulbula area, some 200 km south of Matariq town in the South Darfur State.

Saturday's report said 17 civilians were killed and 11 others wounded during the clashes.

The SPLA is the military wing of the former rebel Sudan People' s Liberation Movement (SPLM), which became one of the ruling partners in Sudanese government following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005.

2010-04-25
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Clashes between south Sudan's army and Darfuri Arab tribes killed 58 people, raising tension along the border with the north of the country as results of the first open elections in 24 years are released, officials said on Sunday.

Sudan's oil-producing south was allowed to keep a separate army and form a semi-autonomous government in a 2005 peace deal ending more than two decades of civil war with the north.

Southerners will vote in a referendum on January 9, 2011 on independence.

"There was movement from the Rizeigat (tribe) and from the SPLA (the southern Sudan People's Liberation Army). I can't tell you who attacked who first but they clashed," Rizeigat Arab tribal leader Mohamed Eissa Aliu told Reuters from South Darfur.

"It happened on Friday and those killed from the Rizeigat were 58 and 85 injured," he said, adding the attack was in Balballa, South Darfur, which borders Western Bahr al-Ghazal in the south.

The SPLA said they were attacked by the northern army (SAF) in Raja, a remote part of Western Bahr al-Ghazal state, near where at least 5 officials from the dominant northern National Congress Party (NCP) and four others were killed by an SPLA soldier during five days of voting which began on April 11.

"Our company came under attack from the SAF forces yesterday afternoon," SPLA spokesman Malaak Ayuen said late on Saturday. "The SAF was using four land cruisers with mounted machine guns." He could not give further details.

A SAF spokesman denied any involvement but confirmed the SPLA attack on the Rizeigat in Darfur, calling it "a clear violation of the (peace deal)."

The north-south border there is one of many disputed areas yet to be demarcated.

On Sunday, the SPLA said it had been attacked for a second time in Raja and had been forced to retreat.

"They reinforced themselves and launched another attack and occupied the place," Ayuen said on Sunday.

Of the around 100 SPLA troops in the area, 47 had reported back with the others likely still in the bush, he said.

Results of the elections, marred by boycotts in the north and opposition accusations of fraud, are slowly being announced after days of delays.

The NCP and the ex-southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) are expected to form a coalition government as both parties look set to maintain their respective dominance in the north and the south.

The international community is concerned that only 8 months before the 2011 plebiscite on independence, issues like the demarcation of the border, grazing rights of nomadic tribes and citizenship have not been agreed.

The north-south civil war, Africa's longest, has raged on and off since 1955. It claimed 2 million lives mostly through hunger and disease and destabilised much of east Africa.

The south, which follows mostly Christianity or traditional religions, fought the mainly Muslim north over issues including oil, ethnicity and ideology.

2010-04-25
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - A group of developing countries, among the world's fastest growing carbon emitters, said on Sunday a legally binding global agreement to limit climate change needed to be completed by 2011 at the latest.

Environment ministers of the so-called BASIC bloc -- Brazil, South Africa, India and China -- met in Cape Town to look at how to fast-track a globally binding agreement that would bind rich nations to cut emissions and reduce global warming.

"Ministers felt that a legally binding outcome should be concluded at Cancun, Mexico in 2010, or at the latest in South Africa by 2011," the ministers said in a joint statement, referring to U.N. climate talks.

The Kyoto Protocol, which the United States did not agree to, binds about 40 developed nations to cutting emissions by 2008-12. U.N. climate meetings have failed to reach a legally-binding agreement on what happens post 2012.

More than 100 countries have backed a non-binding accord, agreed in Copenhagen last year, to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, but did not spell out how this should be achieved. It included a goal of $100 billion in aid for developing nations from 2020.

The United States supports the Copenhagen Accord but many emerging economies do not want it to supplant the 1992 U.N. Climate Convention which more clearly spells out that rich nations have to take the lead in cutting emissions and combating climate change.

Industrialised nations have been unwilling to take on new commitments beyond 2012 unless major emerging nations, such as India and China, also sign up.

"The question of Cancun -- right now it looks as if we will have to come back to Cape Town in 2011. There is no breakthrough in sight ... we have a long way to go," Jairam Ramesh, India's Environment and Forestry Minister told reporters.

2010-04-25
MONROVIA (Reuters) - Liberia is considering trying perpetrators of the worst crimes committed during its 1989-2003 civil war, in which child soldiers were recruited, women raped and thousands killed, the justice minister said.

Justice Minister Christiana Tah told Reuters a committee had been set up to review a report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) late last year detailing evidence of atrocities and that it would advise on whether prosecutions should go ahead.

Africa's oldest independent republic is still recovering from the war that left it in ruins.

But unlike neighbouring Sierra Leone, which swiftly set up an international tribunal to try war criminals in its closely intertwined conflict, Liberia chose to rebuild first. The twin conflicts killed about a quarter of a million people.

Trials could upset a delicate power balance in a nation that has kept peace partly by co-opting former combatants.

Some former warlords named by the TRC report have seats in the Senate. Former Liberian president Charles Taylor is being tried for war crimes in The Hague, but only for alleged involvement in Sierra Leone's war.

"The president set up a committee that includes myself and the head of law reform, because we want accountability. This is not over," Tah said in a weekend interview. "We'll review the report and advise the government on the way forward."

But Tah said no decision had yet been made on the issue.

"For those who committed the most serious atrocities they are recommending prosecution. That's one of the questions we have to examine. We'll try to do that as quickly as possible."

The TRC was established in 2005 to investigate war crimes.

Its report caused a storm last year when it said President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf should be banned from public office for 30 years for backing Taylor's rebellion. The incumbent admits she provided Taylor with money but says she was misled.

TRC president Jerome Verdier told Reuters even if the move towards trials went ahead it would be a drawn out process.

"It would take the next ten years to put all the resources in place to do prosecutions," he said.

"But this is something we cannot escape from. We cannot claim to have ended the conflict in the absence of justice."

2010-04-25
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's President Jacob Zuma, who has faced criticism that his love life is undermining safe sex campaigns, revealed test results on Sunday showing he was HIV negative.

Zuma, who has three wives, has generated controversy by fathering a child out of wedlock and admitting to having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman.

Critics have accused Zuma of taking a cavalier attitude to safe sex that is damaging government health campaigns in a country with one of the world's highest rates of HIV/AIDS.

"After careful consideration, I have decided to share my test results with South Africans," Zuma said at the launch of HIV/AIDS campaign at Natalspruit Hospital, east of Johannesburg.

"My April results, like the three previous ones, registered a negative outcome for the HI virus," he said.

South Africa has one of the world's heaviest HIV rates and has been accused by activists of dragging its feet on the disease which kills an estimated 1,000 people there every day.

At least 5.7 million of South Africa's 50 million population are infected.

2010-04-25
ABUJA (Reuters) - An obscure Nigerian youth group said on Sunday it will carry on campaigning to elect Acting President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2011 national polls despite his request that it stop.

The race to be leader of Africa's most populous nation is wide open since ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua is unlikely to seek re-election. Elections are due by April next year.

The Northern Youth Movement for Positive Change began posting political posters, saying "Goodluck is the Positive Hope for Nigeria", throughout the capital Abuja on Friday.

Jonathan, who has not ruled out running in 2011, denied any connection to the youth group's campaign and urged them to stop.

"The acting president has not authorised any group to produce or paste campaign posters for him," said spokesman Ima Niboro on Sunday.

"He warns those behind the circulation of these posters to desist from the act because it is capable of causing distractions."

The youth group, which confirmed having no connection to Jonathan, said it believed the acting president has already proven to be a good leader since assuming executive powers in Yar'Adua's absence two months ago.

"We believe (Jonathan) can deliver. There are no fuel queues and light and electricity are normal," Dogara Bassa, the group's secretary, told Reuters.

CONTINUE TO CAMPAIGN

Despite the acting president's request to stop its campaign, the group plans to put up political posters in Kano, Bauchi and other major northern Nigerian cities.

Bassa said it receives funding from the group's members, which he claimed number hundreds of thousands. This could not be independently verified.

Former military leader Ibrahim Babangida, who ruled Nigeria from 1985-1993 and is known locally as "IBB", is so far the only major politician to announce his intention to run for president as the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) candidate.

His campaign posters, saying "IBB, We Believe", can also be seen throughout Abuja.

The PDP, which has won every presidential election since Nigeria's return to democracy just over a decade ago, has not yet chosen its presidential candidate.

The party's presidential campaign headquarters in Abuja still prominently displays a political billboard from Yar'Adua's successful run in 2007.

2010-04-25
BERLIN (Reuters) - European heavyweights Germany and France vowed on Sunday to take a hard line with Greece in exchange for financial support as doubts emerged over whether a 45 billion euro aid package was sufficient to prevent a default.

Greece bowed to intense pressure from financial markets on Friday, requesting funds from the European Union and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in what would be the first bailout of a member of the 11-year-old single currency bloc.

The debt-saddled country has announced billions of euros in austerity measures, including tax hikes and public sector wage cuts, but must now agree additional steps to satisfy the EU and IMF, and ensure the aid flows.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble warned Greece that a tough restructuring of its economy was "unavoidable and an absolute prerequisite" if Berlin and the EU were to approve the aid Greece has requested.

"The fact that neither the EU nor the German government have taken a decision (on providing aid) means the response can be positive as well as negative," Schaeuble told the Sunday edition of German daily Bild.

"This depends entirely on whether Greece continues in the coming years with the strict savings course it has launched. I have made this clear to the Greek finance minister."

Schaeuble's French counterpart Christine Lagarde promised to hold Greece accountable for "unsuitable economic policies" that pushed its 2009 budget deficit to 13.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and its debt to 115 percent of economic output.

She described the aid package as a "cocktail of indulgence and great strictness", telling the Journal du Dimanche weekly that Greece's partners would closely monitor its progress in restoring order to its creaking finances.

"We will (release the aid) according to their needs and in the case of default on repayment, we will immediately put the foot on the brake," Lagarde said.

Germany and France are due to provide about half of the 30 billion euros in aid the EU has tentatively pledged for Greece. The IMF is expected to put up the remaining 15 billion.

DOUBTS ON AID PACKAGE

Only days after Greece requested the aid, however, doubts were emerging over whether the package was large enough to calm market fears of a debt default.

Those fears have pushed the yield on Greek 10-year bonds above 8.7 percent, a whopping 567 basis points over the rates on benchmark German Bunds.

This has made it prohibitively expensive for Athens to service its mountain of debt. Greece's formal request for aid on Friday did little to ease market pressures.

Speaking to reporters in Washington at the weekend, Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty acknowledged that some European and G20 countries believed the aid was inadequate.

"There is concern about making sure that the package is enough so that it's a one-time event," he said.

There are also worries about public opposition to further austerity steps in Greece. Greek riot police fired teargas at protesters who held an impromptu march through central Athens on Friday to protest austerity.

A poll released on Saturday showed that roughly two-thirds of Greeks believe Prime Minister George Papandreou's socialist government was either too slow to react or handled the economy poorly as the country's fiscal crisis deepened.

Centre-left newspaper Eleftherotypia said the "spectre of Hungary" was haunting Papandreou's government. Voters in Hungary booted out the socialist government this month after it tried to push through painful IMF-ordered budget cuts.

Kathimerini, a centre-right newspaper, said Greece was entering a tough and unpredictable period.

"It may turn out for the better, or it may turn us into what the Anglo-Saxons call 'a failed state'," it said in an editorial.

2010-04-25
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - World Bank member countries reached a preliminary agreement on a 3.13 percent shift in voting power to give emerging and developing nations greater influence in the global institution.

World Bank officials, who agreed to talk on condition of anonymity, said the shift would increase the votes of the developing world to 47.19 percent.

"There is a 99 percent chance this (deal) is closed," one World Bank source told Reuters.

The battle over influence at the aid-focused bank is part of efforts to reflect the growing clout of developing economies on the world stage and an important precursor to a similar move on the International Monetary Fund.

The agreement will be confirmed on Sunday when member countries convene at meetings on the World Bank's Development Committee. A final decision will be decided in a vote by member countries.

"Nothing is done until our shareholder countries meet tomorrow at the Development Committee," World Bank spokesman Carl Hanlon said.

Earlier, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn tipped journalists off to a possible World Bank agreement during a news conference, saying "they achieved their shift in quota ... but at least I won't talk on behalf of Mr. Zoellick."

The 3.13 percent shift would amount to a contribution by the parties getting the extra power of about $1.6 billion in resources for the poverty-fighting global institution.

The talks have been difficult because advanced economies, especially those in Europe, have been unwilling to give up some of their voting shares, and the United States is holding on to its veto power.

Smaller European countries have been concerned that even a small change in their voting power would mean a marked reduction in their influence.

Earlier this week, World Bank President Robert Zoellick urged the Bank's 186 member countries to set aside differences to reach an agreement by Sunday, the last day of the IMF and World Bank meetings.

2010-04-25
BUJUMBURA (Reuters) - Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza will run for another five-year term as leader after his ruling CNDD-FDD party picked him on Saturday as its candidate for the election later this year.

Thousands of party supporters jammed Bujumbura's streets in a carnival atmosphere as the former Hutu rebel group held a special session.

"I am very happy today as you have shown confidence in me. I promise to you that I will spare no efforts so that our nation can continue on the path of development," Nkurunziza said.

Burundi will hold district elections on May 21, a presidential election on June 28, a parliamentary poll on July 23 and a vote for senators on July 28. The electoral process will conclude with local elections in September.

The election will be the first democratic poll since 2005, when former rebel Nkurunziza was elected president after a long U.N.-backed peace process.

Former rebel leader Agathon Rwasa will be the Forces for National Liberation's (FNL) presidential candidate and Domitien Ndayizeye, president of a transitional government in 2003-2005, will run for the FRODEBU party.

Former journalist Alexis Sinduhije, considered by many as a credible threat for Nkurunziza, will vie on a Movement for Solidarity and Democracy ticket. Burundi will also have for the first time in its history two women presidential candidates.

Burundi, which has a population of 8 million and borders Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania, is emerging from more than a decade of civil war that killed 300,000 people.

The country is enjoying relative peace since the last Hutu guerrilla group, FNL, agreed to lay down weapons and join the government.

Many see the 2010 elections as a way of consolidating peace and Burundi's democratic achievements.

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ALL AFRICA

Three senior officials from the Mutambara led MDC, Renson Gasela, Lyson Mlambo and Ntombizodwa Gumbo were killed in a car accident along the Zvishavane-Gweru road on Saturday night. An MDC-M statement said their vehicle plunged into a stationary front-loader.

They were coming from a party meeting in Zvishavane and were on their way to Shurugwi for another meeting when the tragic accident occurred.

Gasela was a former MDC MP for Gweru Rural and the Party's Secretary for Lands and Deputy Secretary for Information and Publicity, Renson Gasela. He was also founder member of the original MDC and former general manager of the Grain Marketing Board.

Mlambo was the party's National Chairperson for the Disciplinary Committee and Midlands South Provincial Chairperson, while Gumbo was the Midlands South Women's Assembly Provincial Chairperson.

Edwin Mushoriwa, the Secretary for Information and Publicity said six other party members who included the Provincial Organising Secretary, Benias Chikweya, the Deputy Provincial Organising Secretary, Felix Pireyi, Provincial Youth Assembly Secretary, George Mukaro, and Mkoba District Executive Member, Ms Mhishi and the Driver, Lavender Mugavhu who were travelling in the same vehicle were injured and were ferried to United Bulawayo Hospital where they remain admitted. The Provincial Security Officer, Antonia Sibanda who was admitted at a hospital in Zvishavane has since been treated and discharged.

He said: "MDC wishes to convey its heartfelt condolences to the Gasela, Mlambo and Gumbo families over this tragic loss. The party has indeed lost dear friends and compatriots whose contribution and dedication to the fight for democracy has been beyond measure. We take solace in that the LORD has made his decision. We shall always cherish the times that we have shared with our departed compatriots though the void created by their untimely deaths will be difficult to fill."