2010-04-23
NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger's military-led transitional government should hand over power to civilians within a year, a coalition of the West African nation's political representatives said on Friday.

"The general agreement over the course of our debate was 12 months," Morou Amadou, president of the 131-member national advisory council set up by the government, said on state radio. "The report will be sent to (the transitional government)."

Niger's military toppled the regime of President Mamadou Tandja in a dramatic attack on the presidential palace on February 18, later promising to clean up politics in the uranium-producing nation before scheduling an election.

The international community is eager to see a return to democratic rule in the country, which has drawn billions of dollars worth in oil and mining investment and where al Qaeda cells operate.

But Western powers have been reluctant to forcefully condemn the overthrow of Tandja, who in 2009 orchestrated a constitutional rejig that extended his time in office and broadened his powers.

Junta chief Major Salou Djibo appointed a transitional government in March and a spokesman said no members of the transitional team will be allowed to run in elections, for which no date has yet been set.

Djibo Hamani, a member of the national advisory council, told reporters on Friday that preparations for elections could potentially begin in October.

Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world and facing a severe food shortage this year.

But it has drawn investment from companies like Areva and China National Petroleum Corp, and there has been no sign the projects have been set back by the military coup.

2010-04-23
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Last year's global slump will condemn 53 million more people to extreme poverty and contribute to 1.2 million child deaths in the next five years, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) said.

Despite these setbacks, the joint report released on Friday said the overall number of people living on less than $1.25 a day, the definition of "extreme poverty", would fall to 920 million by 2015 compared to 1.8 billion in 1990.

This puts emerging nations broadly on track to achieve a United Nations "Millennium Development Goal" of halving 1990 rates of extreme poverty by 2015.

However, the 2008-09 financial and economic turmoil and the food price crisis that preceded it in early 2008 mean the prognosis is not so good for a similar drive to cut global rates of hunger and malnutrition.

More than a billion people, or one in six people on the planet, are still struggling to meet basic food needs, leading to increased instances of disease -- and ultimately death -- in young children and pregnant women, the report said.

World Bank projections cited in the report said 1.2 million children were likely to die between 2009 and 2015 as a result of the two crises.

However, the two institutions concluded the fallout would have been more serious had developing country governments not followed sound macro-economic policies before the crisis, giving themselves room to maintain social safety nets in hard times.

"The financial crisis was a severe external shock that hit poor countries hard. Its effects could have been far worse were it not for better policies and institutions in developing countries over the past 15 years," IMF Deputy Managing Director Murilo Portugal said in a statement.

"The crisis in the developing world has a potentially serious impact in everyday life since the margin of safety for so many people is so slim in even the best of times."

The extra millions condemned to hardship come despite a strong recovery forecast in the developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The IMF is forecasting growth of 6.3 percent for emerging and developing economies this year and 6.5 percent for next, with much of the impetus coming from Chinese expansion of around 10 percent, and strong performances by India, Brazil and Indonesia.

Sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest region, is likely to expand 4.7 percent in 2010 and 5.9 percent the year after, putting it back on the growth trajectory it enjoyed in the years leading up to the crisis.

Despite its post-millennial spurt, Africa has still lagged behind Asia in cutting poverty, with extreme hardship rates falling only to 51 percent in 2005 from 58 percent in 1990, the report said.

2010-04-23
KAMPALA (Reuters) - Eighty people in southwest Uganda have died after consuming alcohol laced with methanol, a health officer said on Friday.

Some people in the east African country often consume cheap, home-made liquor, which is sometimes laced with chemicals for potency, which usually causes death.

Patrick Tusiime, a health officer in Kabale district near the border with Rwanda, told Reuters the deaths started three weeks ago but authorities took days to establish the cause because families failed to disclose that victims fell ill after consuming alcohol.

"Our response was hampered initially because...family members refused to tell us that these people had consumed methanol-laced alcohol," he said.

Local brewers had mixed large amounts of methanol in Waragi, a gin extracted from bananas, he said.

Ugandans often complain that their health care system is ineffective, with frequent drug shortages and inadequate and poorly-paid health workers. Patients walk miles in some regions to reach the nearest health facility.

Tusiime said victims of the poisoned liquor became blind and suffered kidney and liver failure before dying.

"It's a terrible chemical and it also damages the brain."

Local authorities, he said, had banned the production and sale of Waragi and confiscated stock from traders, but residents were defying the ban and hiding the liquor under their beds.

"House-to-house searches have been conducted and all the alcohol found has been confiscated but people are stubborn and have found ingenious ways of hiding it," he said.

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Four Sahara desert states will on Wednesday open a joint command headquarters in the south of Algeria to coordinate efforts to counter a growing threat from al Qaeda, the Algerian Defence Ministry said.

Western countries say that unless the region's fractious governments join forces to fight the insurgents, al Qaeda could turn the Sahara desert into a safe haven along the lines of Yemen and Somalia and use it to launch large-scale attacks.

The announcement of the new base followed a ground-breaking meeting last month of senior officials from the region's neighbouring governments that was praised by the United States as a step towards collectively confronting al Qaeda.

The command headquarters will be in the town of Tamanrasset, in the Saharan desert about 2,000 km (1,250 miles) south of the Algerian capital, the ministry said in a statement.

"The Joint Military Staff Committee of Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger will be established on Wednesday in Tamanrasset to reinforce military and security cooperation among these countries," the statement said.

JOINT OPERATIONS

The ministry did not give details about what powers the joint headquarters would have. But a senior military source in Niger said Saharan states had decided to move towards running joint operations against al Qaeda.

"We have decided to strengthen our intelligence cooperation against all forms of insecurity and, therefore, plan to move towards joint military operations against terrorism, kidnappings and the trafficking of drugs and weapons," the source said.

Security experts say better regional cooperation is key to containing al Qaeda in the Sahara because insurgents often evade capture by slipping from one country into another.

Greater cooperation could also mean a larger role for Algeria, the region's biggest economic and military power -- a development Western diplomats say they are keen to see.

The insurgents last year killed a British man, Edwin Dyer, who was kidnapped on the border between Niger and Mali.

They also shot dead a U.S. aid worker in Mauritania's capital in June last year, and carried out a suicide bombing on the French embassy there in August that injured three people.

Two Spaniards are believed to be in insurgent hands after they disappeared in November last year from a humanitarian aid convoy in Mauritania. An Italian husband and wife also seized in Mauritania last year were last week freed in Mali.

One Algerian security analyst said the success of the command headquarters depended on whether regional governments could steer clear of the conflicts and rivalries that have in the past derailed attempts at cooperation.

"Joint cooperation needs to be efficient if it is to be successful against al Qaeda," Salima Tlemcani, security commentator with Algeria's El Watan newspaper, told Reuters.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Two parties in Sudan's underdeveloped east on Tuesday accused the president's party of using fraud and intimidation to secure election victories across their region, as the U.S. White House said the vote had been beset by "serious irregularities".

Sudan is holding its first open polls in 24 years as part of a peace deal that was supposed to bring the oil-producing nation back to democracy after decades of civil war.

Much of the opposition boycotted the proceedings before voting started citing irregularities, and observers have already said the elections did not meet international standards.

Officials are still counting in many areas, but the few results they have announced point to a big win for the National Congress Party (NCP), led by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

The United States had already said the elections were neither free nor fair, and redoubled its criticism on Tuesday.

"Political rights and freedoms were circumscribed throughout the electoral process, there were reports of intimidation and threats of violence in South Sudan, ongoing conflict in Darfur did not permit an environment conducive to acceptable elections, and inadequacies in technical preparations for the vote resulted in serious irregularities," the White House said in a statement.

East Sudan's Beja Congress party, formally allied with the NCP, told Reuters it had managed to win only one seat in a state assembly in Red Sea state, but none in the national parliament.

The East is crucial to Sudan's oil-driven economy as it contains the only commercial port and miles of pipeline.

"We caught them (the NCP) emptying ballot boxes and they expelled our monitors from the voting centres during voting and counting," said Abdullah Moussa, a senior Beja Congress official in Port Sudan.

"We won this one (state assembly seat) only because it is a small area -- one family and the young boys managed to guard many voting centres with small weapons at night," he said.

According to official results from another Red Sea state constituency, the NCP candidate won almost 18,000 votes compared to just 839 for the eastern party.

The NCP has repeatedly denied taking part in any irregularities.

The Beja Congress signed a peace deal with Khartoum in 2006, ending a lingering insurgency in the east, and its leader became a presidential assistant. But it has complained that the government has continued to neglect the region since the accord.

The Beja, made famous by author Rudyard Kipling as the "Fuzzy Wuzzies" because of their distinctive hairstyles, are one of the largest tribes in the region.

Taher Ali, a candidate from the Democratic Congress for East Sudan, told Reuters he had travelled to Khartoum to complain about numerous irregularities.

"In one voting centre, the box with my votes had 600 ballot papers less than the other boxes and of those 485 were spoiled ... only 17 of the NCP's were spoiled," said Ali who was beaten to a seat in the national assembly by the NCP's current interior minister.

"Our people are furious -- they want to go out onto the streets," he said. "We are trying to calm them."

Bashir is the only sitting head of state wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur and had hoped a victory would legitimise his government in defiance of the arrest warrant. He denies the charges.

The National Elections Commission had delayed announcing the results, citing technical problems, but said it was back on track and hoped to have the final presidential results by the end of the week.

The United States said on Monday Sudan's elections were neither free nor fair but it would deal with the victors to try to settle internal disputes before a 2011 referendum that could bring independence to southern Sudan.

On Tuesday the White House said it was committed to helping ensure that the referendum was conducted fairly.

DAKAR (Reuters) - A vaccination campaign against polio in West Africa will be delayed in some countries because at least 15 million doses are trapped at airports in Germany and France by the ash cloud, a U.N. official said on Tuesday.

The delays have stoked concern that unsynchronised immunisations will allow the virus to spread within the region, Martin Dawes, the regional chief of communications for the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) in West and Central Africa said.

"If there are special flights or if the situation eases, we hope these vaccines could be treated as priority to transport," he told Reuters.

Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone and Togo have postponed by a couple of weeks their participation in the second phase of a campaign to immunise 85 million children under five in 19 countries in West and Central Africa, due to start on April 24.

"This is obviously causing difficulties," Dawes said. "These vaccines have to be kept cool and if this situation lasts longer, they would have to be sent back to manufacturers to ensure that they are preserved."

Ash from an Icelandic volcano has paralysed air traffic in much of northern Europe since late last week, although some restrictions were easing on Tuesday.

Experts say vaccination is the best method of fighting polio, a highly infectious disease caused by a virus that invades the nervous system. The disease, eradicated in most parts of the world, can lead to total paralysis in a matter of hours and is potentially fatal.

To stop the spread of the disease across West and Central Africa, the World Health Organisation, UNICEF and partners began immunising people in the region two or three times a year since 2008. The first phase of this year's scheme began in March.

The vaccination strategy has helped countries such as Benin, Ivory Coast, Central African Republic, Ghana, Togo and Niger contain the disease. The number of cases in Nigeria, which is the only endemic country in the region, dropped to two in 2010 from 48 in the same period last year, according to UNICEF.

However, the quality of the campaigns and their level of coverage have been a problem in Mali, Mauritania, Sierra Leone and Senegal, which has reported 15 cases of polio this year alone, UNICEF said.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's controversial policy of transferring majority control of foreign-owned firms to black Zimbabweans will begin in the key mining sector, a minister said on Tuesday.

Under regulations which took effect on March 1, the companies must submit plans to show how they will sell 51 percent of their shares to black Zimbabweans within five years.

The laws have divided the fragile unity government formed last year by Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who said they were issued without consulting the cabinet.

"I am happy to announce that government has unanimously decided that implementation of our indigenisation policy starts with the mining sector," Youth, Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere said after a cabinet meeting.

The world's two largest platinum miners, Anglo Platinum and Impala Platinum, have multi-million dollar investments in Zimbabwe, while Rio Tinto has gold and diamond interests.

Kasukuwere said the government had taken note of proposals by Zimbabwe's Chamber of Mines for lower thresholds of local ownership.

"Government will now engage the mining sector so as to come up with a consensus position," he told journalists. "Sectoral discussions will decide issues of timeframes (for compliance) as well as thresholds."

COMPENSATION

The government was also aware of investor fears foreign firms would be forced to give up shares without payment.

"Some of the concerns raised relate to the interpretation of the word 'cede' in relation to shareholding, which was misconstrued to suggest compulsory takeover without compensation," Kasukuwere said.

"The indigenisation programme is based on fair transaction where full value is compensated for."

He said hundreds of foreign firms in Zimbabwe had submitted plans to sell majority stakes to local blacks, despite confusion over the law.

The minister, an ally of Mugabe, last month ordered firms to report details of ownership and plans to achieve majority local control. A spokesman for Tsvangirai said last week the regulations had been suspended, a statement quickly denied by both Mugabe and Kasukuwere.

Kasukuwere told the state-controlled Herald newspaper in a report earlier on Tuesday that foreign firms were complying.

"We have so far received more than 400 submissions from various companies and as government we are happy with such an overwhelming response," he said.

Units of British American Tobacco Plc, Unilever and Impala Platinum are among the companies that have submitted plans, the Herald said.

Firms that have not yet submitted plans will get a 30-day extension from the April 15 deadline, Kasukuwere told the paper, adding the government could terminate licences of companies that did not comply.

Mugabe's ZANU-PF government passed an indigenisation and economic empowerment law in 2007, before the formation of the unity government. Analysts have said the policy would discourage foreign investment and hurt efforts to fix a crippled economy.

TUNIS (Reuters) - The son-in-law of Tunisia's president said in an interview his election to parliament and growing portfolio of media assets were not signs that he held political ambitions.

The rapid rise to prominence of businessman Sakher Materi, who is married to the daughter of 73-year-old President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, has sparked speculation that he is being groomed to take on a senior role in government.

"The ambitions that some people are exaggerating, that is completely wrong," he told Reuters in a rare interview.

"My objective is to participate, together with the Tunisian people, in the prosperity of our country," said Materi, aged 30. "My loyalty to President Ben Ali and to his national project is without limit."

Materi also said he had business projects planned for launch in the first half of 2010 worth a total of $100 million, including the opening of Tunisia's first Islamic bank, and a new terminal for Mediterranean cruise liners.

Tunisia, a former French colony of about 10 million people, has been dominated by Ben Ali since he came to power 23 years ago. He was re-elected to a fifth term in office in October last year with just under 90 percent of the vote.

Tunisia has one of the most open economies in the region and attracts substantial investment from the European Union, something that is expected to accelerate after 2014, when the government has said it will make the currency fully convertible.

MEDIA EMPIRE?

Materi, whose business interests range from pharmaceuticals to real estate, took on a higher profile last year when he was elected to parliament and was named a member of the ruling party's central committee.

He became a player in the media with the purchase of Tunisia's biggest-circulation newspaper, Essabah, and the acquisition of the first Islamic radio station. He said he hoped soon to add a religious television station to promote tolerance.

"I am in the process of setting up a media network targeted at serving my country," he said. "If some see it as an empire then that's their affair. I am not someone who likes titles."

Materi said his Islamic bank will start operating by the end of the first half, initially with nine branches and capital of $30 million, which would rise to $80 million after two years.

He announced his plan to create the bank, to be called Zaitouna, last year but has not previously disclosed any details. Islamic banks are compliant with Sharia law, which forbids practices such as charging interest.

He said the new bank would offer "opportunities for alternative finance and investments ... which fit in with our Islamic religion".

Materi revealed for the first time that in June this year he would open a major tourist complex in La Goulette, a suburb of the Tunisian capital.

The project, costing a total of $50 million, would involve a tourist village and work to adapt the existing port so it can host cruise ships, he said.

"We expect to increase the number of cruise ship tourists to around 500,000 a year," Materi said.

He said the project will "without doubt significantly increase the revenue of the Tunisian tourism industry because of the high spending power of this group of rich tourists".

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Developing countries will this week demand a louder voice at the World Bank and the IMF, now that they are contributing more funds and it's a euro zone country, Greece, that is in need of a rescue plan.

The United States and Europe, which have long dominated the Washington-based international institutions, acknowledge the growing clout of the emerging market economies such as China and Brazil but are loathe to part with their power.

Brazil, Russia, India and China, the so-called BRIC club of big emerging economies, called for swift reforms in the global institutions when their leaders gathered in Brasilia last week ahead of key financial meetings in Washington.

That was like "a pressurizing device to make it obvious to the developed world that our global organizations are no longer representative of the world economy," said Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill, who coined the term BRIC in 2001.

Brazil and other developing countries have been calling for a 6.0 percent shift in voting power at the World Bank. That would bring the representation between developing and developed countries at the institution to parity.

"We can no longer accept a situation in which the majority of the world's people remain inadequately represented in such bodies," South African President Jacob Zuma said during a recent visit to Brazil.

A Brazilian government source conceded that Brazil was pessimistic about achieving an equal say for developed and developing economies at the World Bank.

Brazil would keep pushing for parity in the long term but that a smaller shift of a little over 3.0 percent and up to 4.0 percent would be acceptable for now, Rogerio Studart, who represents Brazil and other developing countries on the World Bank's board, told Reuters.

"We will try to push for as much as we can but we are aware that we are at the end of the negotiations," Studart said.

The shift would not achieve parity but would help rebalance a breakdown that now stands at roughly 40 percent for developing countries and 60 percent for developed nations.

"A profound change in the structure of the IMF is needed so that all countries can trust in it and know that it is objective," said Nestor Stancanelli, deputy secretary for international economic negotiations for Argentina.

CHANGING TIMES

When the financial crisis in 2008 pushed rich economies to the brink of a depression, the world turned to emerging powers like China to spend more to cushion the global economic slump.

Now that the BRICs are helping to drive global economic growth and to fill International Monetary Fund coffers, there is a growing consensus that the international institutions should reflect their new importance.

Brazil has committed to buy up to $10 billion of IMF bonds and China up to $50 billion.

But Europe and other rich countries are concerned about shifting voting power. Europe has long dominated the IMF and selects its head. Many in Europe see a dilution of voting power equal to losing sway over global economic issues.

Analysts argue that the longer emerging economic powers are denied a greater say in the institutions, the more likely it is these institutions will become irrelevant and ineffective.

"Increased income and growth in the developing world means increasing influence," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said last week said in a speech. "Today's discussion requires a big table to accommodate the key participants, and developing countries must have seats at it."

While emerging economies bounced back more quickly from the financial crisis, the Greece's debt problems and the risk that it may have to be bailed out by the IMF highlighted how fragile developed economies remain.

G20 ALTERNATIVE

As well as pushing for change at the IMF and World Bank, analysts say emerging economies should also help foster the G20 group of leading developed and developing economies.

"Perhaps the question is not so much how hard they should push for greater representation in international financial institutions but how they should try to strengthen the G20, increase its clout and make that clout sustainable," said Matias Spektor, who coordinates the center for international relations at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Rio de Janeiro.

Last year, G20 leaders agreed the group should take over from the G7 as the main forum for managing the world economy.

"Everyone's talking about the death of the G7 but it's very plausible to think that within the next five years, if the G20 fails to deliver, then to see a return to some more traditional ways of managing the global economy," Spektor said.

ABIA, Nigeria, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The police in southeast Nigeria's Abia State said on Wednesday that they are combing bushes in search of the two German nationals that were kidnapped in the oil rich region.

The two, both male, were kidnapped on Sunday as they were heading to their vehicle at the beach at Imo River of the state.

State police spokesman Ali Okechukwu told Xinhua on Wednesday that the state command is working hard to help the Germans regain their freedom.

"We have not received any report about their whereabouts, but our men are still searching the bush," he said.

According to Okechukwu, though the kidnapping was reportedly said to have taken place in Abia, the police is yet to receive any formal complain from any organization about the two Germans.

"We still don't know why they fail to report the cases to the police, but as a responsible security outfit, we are working hard to secure their release," he added.

Abduction is not uncommon in Nigeria. On April 14, gunmen in the oil-rich country released four foreign nationals abducted in Rivers State.

Over 300 foreigners have been seized in the Niger Delta since 2006. Almost all have been released unharmed after paying a ransom.

KHARTOUM, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Sudan's National Elections Commission (NEC) said on Tuesday that it could not define the date to make an official announcement on the final results of the general elections, which were held from April 11 to 15.

"We can not define the date to announce the results because until now we have not received all the results of the elections" from the sub-commissions in the country's 25 states, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, vice chairman of the NEC, told Xinhua.

"The elections are complex, which need a longer time to work out the results," the official noted, adding that "before receiving the results from all the states, we can not specify the date."

Meanwhile, NEC member al-Hadi Mohamed Ahmed ruled out any relations between the delay in results announcement and the technical problems in the counting process.

"The process is progressing as planned, and the delay in results announcement does not mean there are technical problems in the counting process," he said.

He expected the ballots counting to complete on Wednesday in all Sudan's northern states.

He further refuted previous reports that the NEC has initially announced the election results in the Blue Nile State, where candidates of the National Congress Party (NCP), Farah Aqar, and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), Malik Aqar, are contesting.

"All what was reported in the daily newspapers on initial results in Blue Nile are not true. The ballot counting is still going on," he said.

The NEC on Tuesday announced the initial results of the elections in a number of Sudanese states, which reflected a clear lead of the ruling NCP.

The general elections, held from April 11 to 15 to select a new president of the republic, a new president of the southern Sudanese government, as well as members of the 450-seat national parliament and 24 governors out of 25 states, are the first multi- party elections in this African country for 24 years.

Sudan's National Elections Commission (NEC) was previously expected to announce the final results on April 20.

afrol News, 20 April - Two former Siemens managers have been found guilty by a Munich court, for breach of trust and bribery for the roles they played in a corruption scandal, partly in Nigeria, that rocked the German engineering group.

The funds were used to bribe government officials and business contacts to win contracts in amongst others, Nigeria and Russia.

The court today found Michael Kutschenreuter, former financial head of Siemens' telecoms unit and Hans-Werner Hartmann, the former head of accounting in the same telecoms unit, guilty and handed them suspended sentences as well as hefty fines.

The court gave Mr Kutschenreuter, a two years suspended sentence and a fine of euro 160,000, while Mr Hartmann was handed a one and a half year suspended sentence and fined to pay euro 40,000 to charity.

Siemens is said to have discovered that about euro 1.3 billion was made between 2000 and 2006 from its coffers in scanty deals.

The case is said to have been one in a series that are yet to come, involving some over 300 employees of the company in a scandal that is said to cost the company around euro 2.5 billion in fines, investigations and back taxes.

In 2008, Siemens had agreed to pay US$ 1.3 billion to end corruption probes in the United States and Germany.

afrol News, 20 April - A UN human rights expert on foreign debt today welcomed a landmark debt relief law in the UK which limits the ability of so-called "vulture funds" to sue the world's poorest countries in British courts for repayment of debts, saying they could have ramifications for a recent court verdict involving Liberia.

"This law marks the first occasion on which a country has banned profiteering by vulture funds," said Cephas Lumina, in his role as the UN's independent expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of states on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights.

"I commend the UK for taking a critical step to halt the profiteering of vulture funds at the expense of both the citizens of distressed debtor countries and the taxpayers of countries that have supported international debt relief efforts," Mr Lumina added in a statement released by his office in Geneva.

"Vulture funds" buy up either all or a portion of debt of a weakened country. The funds often target governments that have received international debt relief, and then sue to recover the full amount of the debt, diverting precious financial resources saved from debt cancellation.

"From a human rights perspective, the settlement of excessive vulture fund claims by poor countries with unsustainable debt levels has a direct negative effect on the capacity of governments of these countries to fulfil their human rights obligations," said Mr Lumina, further noting that "unconscionable profiteering" steals funds which could be better spent on health, water and sanitation, food, housing and education.

One of the first impacts of the British law could be to block a November 2009 ruling by London's High Court awarding US$ 20 million to two vulture funds that bought Liberia's debt at a fraction of the sum.

The case dates back to 1978. Liberia, which is recovering from a 14-year civil war, has said that it does not have the funds to pay back the debt.

At the time of the case, Liberia was taking part in the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) process, an internationally agreed debt relief measure designed to free up funds for poor countries to invest development issues.

The World Bank reported in 2008 that 54 lawsuits had been instituted by commercial creditors against 12 HIPCs over the past decade.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for greater investment reform and international cooperation to ensure that vulnerable countries are not burdened by "onerous conditions or burdensome external debt."

In March this year, he also said investment reforms and international cooperation are among the ingredients necessary to procure the finances needed to push ahead with development in poorer countries.

"As we meet, the world economy shows signs of recovery, yet growth remains fragile," Mr Ban said at a recent UN conference. "Job losses persist. Human costs are high in all regions." He also underscored the need to ensure that vulnerable countries not be burdened by "onerous conditions or burdensome external debt."

afrol News, 20 April - Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger are creating a joint special military command to fight terrorism across their vast desert territories. The remarkable deal especially targets al Qaeda activities in the Sahara, including in Libya, Burkina Faso and Chad.

The little publicised deal was already outlined at a meeting of the four Saharan nation's military commanders in Tamanrasset in August 2009. Tamanrasset is the Sahara desert's major town of 90,000 inhabitants in southern Algeria, located on the major trans-Saharan trade route but an unsafe destination in the 1990s and early 2000s due to terrorism and banditry.

Today it was announced in Algiers that a new military summit had taken place in Tamanrasset, including representatives from Libya, Burkina Faso and Chad. The original four-nation security deal was widened to partly include troops from these three newcomers.

According to Algerian government sources, the joint anti-terrorism force will be set up already next week and headquartered in Tamanrasset. Formally named the "Joint operational military committee," the joint command will include officers from all the seven Saharan-Sahelian countries.

It is confirmed that the aim of the joint command will be to fight terrorism in the vast region. It is in particular a group claiming to be attached to al Qaeda that is causing concern in the Sahara desert, standing behind several hostage-taking operations and attacks on isolated military posts.

The sparse but existing terrorism activity in the region is seriously halting the economic development in this remote region. Trade, transport and tourism are still below their peak in the 1980s due to insecurity.

Authorities are however providing very limited information about the organisation and size of the joint anti-terrorism operation. It is not known whether there will be a specific joint troop force under its command, whether troops will be able to cross borders and how the political control of the new entity will function.

No budgets or other figures for the joint command. It also remains unsure whether Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger are to lead the command, with Libya, Burkina Faso and Chad joining as observers, or whether the seven countries are full and equal members.

The Tamanrasset deal can nevertheless be seen as a major diplomatic victory for Algeria in the region, given the Algerian-Moroccan rivalry for influence in Niger, Mali and Mauritania. It comes after Algerian relations with its southern neighbours had somewhat soured and Morocco was achieving quickly improving relations with the new regimes in Niger and Mauritania.

The Algerian-Moroccan rivalry is strongly related with the Western Sahara conflict, where Morocco is seeking recognition of its occupation of the territory while Algeria backs and houses the exiled Western Sahara government.

The rivalry has strongly complicated regional cooperation on hot issues such as economic union and a response to terrorism. A Maghreb union never left the sketching desk and Morocco refused to join the African Union over Western Sahara's membership. Also yesterday's Tamanrasset deal excluded Morocco.

afrol News,

Uganda is leaving no stone un-turned in forging partnerships for its newly found oil riches. Iran is invited to become a major partner.

This week the Ugandan leadership is expected to seek fresher investment partnerships in Iran, when President Yoweri Museveni hosts Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Ugandan Foreign Affairs officials have confirmed that the Iranian leader will arrive in Kampala on Friday on a two-day state visit, during which he will hold bilateral talks with President Museveni on Iran's interest to invest in the country's oil sector.

The visit by Mr Ahmadinejad follows last year's trip by the Ugandan President to Iran, where the two leaders agreed on launching talks to help Uganda build an oil refinery.

Amongst some of the immediate partnerships was on training of Ugandans on the oil sector in Iran.

Iranians would also be invited to join the construction of a planned oil refinery in Uganda. This comes shortly after China had promised President Museveni to build a refinery.

Uganda has recently discovered huge oil and gas deposits inland, bringing a new promise to the country’s economic health and wealth. The opposition and civil society groups however have complained about an increasing lack of transparency in the Ugandan government's oil dealings.

press tv

Turkey plans to hold an international conference on the political situation in Somalia in which measures to fight piracy off the coast of the African country will be discussed.

According to Spanish Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Angel Losada, the international conference on Somalia is scheduled to be held in Istanbul in mid-May.

The Spanish foreign minister said on Tuesday that the conference would also be examining the effects of international assistance to the interim government of Somalia, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Losada also stated that the idea of an international conference on Somalia was first put forward last year by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Somalia has been beset by unrest since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

In addition, the Somali coast has been infested by piracy in recent years.

Attacks by heavily-armed Somali raiders in speedboats have prompted foreign navies to patrol the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean and to provide escorts for commercial vessels travelling in the area.

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Heavy shelling exchanges between rebels and Somali government troops have left at least five people dead in Mogadishu.

In addition, medics say seven people were injured in the fighting.

Somali government officials have confirmed the shelling but did not provide any details.

Civilians have suffered greatly as a result of the clashes between the warring sides fighting for control of Mogadishu.

Human Rights Watch has accused the West of turning a blind eye to abuses by government troops and African Union soldiers in Somalia.

HRW has also accused the United States of sending mortars to the Somali government, even though no party has used the weapons in accordance with international law of war.

War-battered Mogadishu has been the scene of deadly civil strife since the collapse of the country's central government in 1991.

During the 2006-2009 Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, thousands of civilians died and many others fled to neighboring Kenya.

press tv

Dozens of anti-government protesters have taken to the streets of the Egyptian capital Cairo to demand more political freedom.

The demonstrators slammed calls by politicians and officials loyal to President Hosni Mubarak to use force against anti-government protesters.

They also called for an end to emergency rule that allows indefinite detentions of people under the pretext of national security.

A lawmaker earlier questioned the Interior Ministry for being soft on the protesters. He said anti-government protesters should be shot.

Amnesty International has condemned the MP's outrageous remarks, saying that it was "a clear incitement to excessive force and potentially unlawful killing of protesters."

Mubarak has been the President of Egypt since 1981.

sabc

The Public Protector, Advocate Thuli Madonsela, is today expected to release the findings of her investigation into President Jacob Zuma's failure to disclose his financial interests. President Zuma failed to declare his financial interests in time as required by the law. The Democratic Alliance's (DA) Parliamentary leader Athol Trollip is looking forward to the report - which his party requested.

Trollip says that the way in which the Public Protector handles this issue will say a great deal about the independence of the institution. He says he hopes that Advocate Madonsela has investigated the matter openly, independently and without fear, favour or prejudice.

President Zuma was supposed to have declared his financial interest within 60 days after taking office, but that didn't happen. Trollip says that at this stage it is not clear whether Advocate Madonsela will release her findings to the public or to the party, but he says they will wait to see what will happen.

Madonsela, instigated the investigation after a written request from the DA.

Herald Reporter

RUSSIA has expressed interest in investing in Zimbabwe’s mining sector as it moves to enhance diplomatic ties.

Speaking to journalists after meeting Zanu-PF national chairman Cde Simon Khaya Moyo at the party’s headquarters in Harare yesterday, Russia’s Ambassador in Harare Professor Vladimir Shubin, who was accompanied by a delegation from his country, described Zimbabwe as a safe investment destination.

"We want to enhance economic relations between our two countries.

"I have come with officials from the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute for African Studies because we want to invest in Zimbabwe, particularly in the mining sector," said Ambassador Shubin.

He said the political and economic situation in Zimbabwe was different from what was portrayed by the Western media.

Ambassador Shubin said Zimbabwe has potential to revive its economy through agriculture.

Cde Khaya-Moyo said Zimbabwe and Russia enjoy good relations dating back to the liberation struggle.

He applauded Russia for defending Zimbabwe’s cause on land reform by blocking efforts by Britain and its allies to have the United Nations Security Council impose sanctions on Zimbabwe.

"Russia is our all-weather friend and has weathered a lot of storms on our behalf. Together with China, they have stood with us during these times and we are very grateful about that.

"We want to see closer ties between us in terms of trade.

"We want to see airlines flying between the two countries and the entire world should see that the relations between Zimbabwe and Russia remain extremely cordial," Cde Khaya-Moyo said.