2010-04-03
MENEIET SAMANNOUD, Egypt (Reuters) - Former UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei issued a public call for change in Egypt on Friday in defiance of an emergency law banning gatherings critical of the authorities.

Plain-clothes security officials stood by as ElBaradei, who has said he may run for president in an election due next year, urged around 700 people in a village in northeastern Eygpt to add their names to a petition calling for reform.

"The state may be a centralised power but the people are stronger," he told the crowd, part of which had come with him from the nearby provincial capital Mansoura in the Nile Delta.

The petition seeks constitutional change to make it easier for independents like ElBaradei to run for president after decades of autocratic rule under President Hosni Mubarak.

It also aims to revoke an Emergency Law that allows detention without charge and bans anti-government political activity like ElBaradei's outdoor public speech and earlier visit to Mansoura, where up to 1,500 supporters greeted him.

"Once we gather as many names as possible we will put it forward and bring about real change," ElBaradei said.

Egyptian police often break up gatherings exceeding five people but Friday's events went ahead without interruption.

"We received instructions from the interior ministry to allow the rally and gathering to go smoothly," said a security officer present at the speech who declined to be named.

Officials calculated that ElBaradei was unlikely to stage another such address so it was best not to interfere, he added.

Political analysts say the chances of securing constitutional change by next year are remote in the most populous Arab country, where Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party dominates political life.

NO ORDINARY OPPONENT

ElBaradei returned to Egypt in February after 12 years as head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), energising the country's political scene.

Analysts said the government was clearly aware the 67-year-old was no ordinary political opponent.

"The regime is clever this time because it knows that with ElBaradei the rules of the game are different," Yahya Al Gamal, legal expert and professor of law professor, told Reuters.

"International public opinion is following ElBaradei's every move so the Egyptian government is being smart and behaving in an intelligent way," Al Gamal added.

Some of the people in the crowd at Friday's rally, which included engineers, housewives, doctors and taxi drivers, expressed fear of a state crackdown, even as ElBaradei said his aim was to bring as many people as possible to the streets.

"We seek peaceful reform by rallying large numbers of supporters for change. We seek constitutional amendments and free and fair elections. The Egyptian citizen has the right to choose his president," ElBaradei said.

Mubarak, 81, who returned from Germany on March 27 after gallbladder surgery, has not said whether he plans to run for a sixth six-year term in the election. If he does not, many Egyptians believe he will try to hand power to his son Gamal. Both father and son deny such plans.

Egypt experimented with its first multi-candidate presidential election in 2005, touted it as a process of democratisation. Critics said it was a sham.

Up to 1,500 supporters greeted ElBaradei earlier on Friday as he emerged from al Nour mosque in Mansoura on his first public appearance outside Cairo since his return to Egypt.

Some sang the national anthem, others chanted: "ElBaradei, say it strongly, Egypt wants democracy" and "Mansoura is with you".

The former U.N. official said it was a significant day.

"What we saw today is the writing on the wall: the average Egyptian is out on the street calling for change, and this destroys the myth that this movement is by the elite or is just a virtual one on the Internet," ElBaradei told Reuters.

PRESS TV

An Egyptian publisher has been arrested and copies of books supporting former International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei have been confiscated.

Egyptian police arrested Ahmed Mahanna, who runs the Dawin publishing house, after raiding his house on Saturday but have not charged him yet, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) said in a statement.

ANHRI Director Gamal Eid told AFP that Mahanna was being held in a state security prison. "He had published a book on ElBaradei more than a week ago," Eid said.

After he retired from the post of IAEA director last year, ElBaradei decided to challenge President Hosni Mubarak, 81, in next year's presidential election.

ElBaradei has said he would run for president if Egypt's Constitution were amended, a condition ruled out by Mubarak, who has ruled with an iron fist since 1981.

PRESS TV

South Africa's President Jacob Zuma has called for calm following the killing of far-right leader Eugene Terre'Blanche.

"The President appeals for calm following this terrible deed and asks South Africans not to allow agent provocateurs to take advantage of this situation by inciting or fueling racial hatred," Zuma's office said in a statement.

The 69-year-old ultra-right leader of Afrikaans Resistance Movement, who campaigned for a separate white homeland, was reportedly murdered at his farm on Saturday by two of his own employees over purported wage disputes.

Police found Terre'Blanche's bruised body with a machete placed on his corpse and a stick nearby. They have also arrested the two farm workers.

The farm hands have allegedly admitted to arguments with Terre'Blanche over unpaid salaries.

Meanwhile, opposition parties have warned of the likelihood of an 'explosive situation' that the far-right leader's murder has created.

Terreblanche had served a three-year prison term in 2001 for assaulting a black security guard.

PRESS TV

Sudan's electoral commission says the country's general elections will go ahead as planned despite a boycott announced by a number of opposition parties.

"The electoral commission ensures that the elections will take place as envisioned, on April 11 to 13," Deputy Chairman of the National Elections Commission Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah said on Saturday.

The announcement comes in the face of threats of a boycott from opposition candidates who allege the vote is already rigged in favor of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's National Congress Party.

The opposition Umma Party has set several conditions for participating, demanding a four-week delay and the creation of a new body to supervise the electoral commission.

It also asked that the country's strict security laws be frozen for the elections and demanded fair access to state media as well as caps on campaign spending.

In a serious blow to main opposition parties, US envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration, said he was confident this month's election would be as free and fair as possible.

The National Elections Committee has “gone to great lengths to ensure that the people of Sudan will have access to polling places and that the procedures and processes will ensure transparency," he said.

This month's election is expected to be the first national multi-party poll in 24 years.

PRESS TV

Eight people have lost their lives in two bomb attacks which targeted Algerian security guards and soldiers in the north of the African nation.

The attacks happened near Bejaia, around 250 kilometers (160 miles) east of Algiers, the El-Watan daily reported.

The seven private security guards were killed late on Saturday when a bomb exploded as their van was driving past on a mountain road at Tifra, near Bejaia, according to the paper.

The other bomb explosion hit in the same area about an hour later, killing a soldier and wounding two others.

A search operation was immediately launched to find those involved in the attacks as security forces backed by two helicopters sealed off the area.

The security forces killed were in charge of the safety of foreign workers working at the site of a high-voltage transmission line.

Algerian authorities would not immediately confirm the attack, which would be the deadliest by anti-government forces in more than five months.

aljazeera

Eugene Terreblanche, the South African white far-right leader, who fought to preserve apartheid in the early 1990s, has been beaten and hacked to death at his farm.

Police said Terreblanche was attacked at his farm outside of Ventersdorp, on Saturday, allegedly in a dispute over unpaid wages, the Johannesburg Star newspaper has reported.

Two workers, a 21-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy, were arrested and charged with murder, the Star reported.

"He was hacked to death while he was taking a nap," one family friend, a member of Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB), told the Reuters news agency, requesting anonymity.

Local media quoted another party member as saying he was beaten with pipes and machetes.

"Terreblanche's body was found on the bed with facial and head injuries," the AFP news agency quoted a police spokesman as saying.

Appeal for calm

Jacob Zuma, South Africa's president, urged people to remain calm as opposition groups warned that the far-right leader's killing had created a potentially explosive situation.

"No one is allowed to take the law into his own hands," a statement from Zuma's office said.

"It is against this background that the murder of Terreblanche must be condemned, irrespective of how his killers think they may have been justified. They had no right to take his life."

The killing comes at a time of worries over increasing racial polarisation in South Africa, heightened by a row over the singing of a song by the head of the ruling ANC party's youth league with the lyrics "Kill the Boer".

Terreblanche always described himself as a Boer.

Terreblanche's Afrikaner Resistance Movement said it would avenge the killing, but urged its members not to act until after a meeting on May 1 to decide the way forward for the group.

"We will decide upon our actions to avenge Mr Terreblanche's death. We will take action and the specific action ... will be decided upon at our conference," Andre Visagie, the movement's secretary-general, was quoted as telling the AFP news agency.

Terreblanche, 69, had kept a low public profile since his release in 2004 from prison after serving three years of a five-year term for for attempted murder.

He had lived in relative obscurity despite the revival of his party two years ago and recent efforts to form a united front among white far-right groups.

Terreblanche founded the white supremacist Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) party in 1970, to oppose what he regarded as the liberal policies of the then-South African leader, John Vorster.

He wanted to create all-white states within South Africa in which blacks would only be allowed as guest workers.

He threatened to take the country by force if the white government capitulated to the African National Congress.

Fiery rhetoric

Ebrahim Fakir, an African analyst, told Al Jazeera that it is unlikely Terreblanche's political cause will "necessarily die with him".

"It may lose some of its momentum; It may of course lose some of the fiery rhetoric that [Terreblanche] was known for in arguing for Afrikaner rights.

"Whether it loses momentum or not is a moot point, quite simply because it never gathered large amounts of steam in the first place. It didn't have much social support even amongst Africaners.

"There is no doubt that Terreblanche's death will exacerbate racial tensions in the immediate area in which he lived.

"But you will have this kind of tête-à-tête going on with black South Africans feeling a sense of victory, of rising above oppression and sending perhaps a not so subtle message that after the accumulation of years of racism is something which will be met in an equally brutal way," he said.

After the white government conceded, the ANC overwhelmingly won 1994 elections and has won every election since with more than 60 per cent of votes.

But the AWB - whose flag resembles the Nazi Swastika - was revived in 2008.

The Afrikaners are descendants of the Boers, the first whites who arrived in South Africa 300 years ago and avoided assimilation with English-speaking settlers.

Their short-lived republics, in the Orange Free State, Transvaal and northern Natal, were broken up after the 1899-1902 Anglo-Boer War.

Terreblanche wanted to reconstitute them.

aljazeera

Eugene Terreblanche, the South African white supremacist leader, has been killed on his farm in the country's northwest.

The man whose very name spoke of the apartheid era - it translates as white earth - was one of the country's most polarising figures.

Police have confirmed they now have two young men in custody, both of whom were farm workers employed by Terreblanche.

They are suspected of bludgeoning him to death following an apparent dispute over wages.

Al Jazeera's Azhar Sukri reports.

aljazeera

At least 20 civilians have been killed and dozens more injured in clashes between Somali government troops and opposition forces in the capital Mogadishu.

The latest round of fighting began on Friday and follows a lull of about two weeks.

Yusuf Mohamed Siad, the Somali deputy defence minister, said on Saturday, that government forces had killed a number of rebel fighters, including "three of their commanders".

"Al-Shabab and their ally, Hisbul Islam, attacked our military positions. They gained nothing, but they suffered casualties," Siad said.

"We have killed many of them including three of their commanders. For our part we have received no casualties and you can see we [are] still manning our large part in which we have taken over the insurgents."

Children 'killed'

His comments come after witnesses and medical workers said overnight fighting in several parts of the capital left at least 11 people dead and another 62 injured, some of those wounded have since died from their injuries.

"We received around 62 civilians who were injured during Friday clashes and nine of them died at the hospital," Mohamed Ali, a doctor at Mogadishu's Madina hospital, said.

"Most of the victims are children who were seriously injured by mortar shrapnel."

Since taking control of much of Mogadishu after bloody clashes last year, the al-Shabab fighters have repeatedly carried out many attacks against foreign peacekeepers and the government troops, inflicting heavy casualties.

Civilians have borne the worst brunt of the relentless fighting, many of them caught in crossfire or killed by mortar shells fired in retaliation to attacks by the opposition who operate in residential areas.

Al-Shabab, who control 80 per cent of south and central Somalia, vowed to topple the internationally-backed government, which owes its survival to the African Union (AU)forces.

Somalia has been wracked by two decades of bloody violence sparked by the ouster of President Mohamed Siad Barre.

As a result, the horn of Africa nation has not had a stable government since 1991, and fighting between the rebels and government troops has escalated the humanitarian crisis in the famine-ravaged country.

ALALAM

Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir has again said his country's elections will be held as planned on April 11-13, rejecting opposition calls for a postponement.

“Ahead of us, the days are numbered,” Bashir told a campaign rally in Kassala, in eastern Sudan in a speech broadcast by Sudan's Blue Nile television channel. “There is no postponement, there is no delay and there is no cancellation.”

Bashir spoke a day after the opposition Umma Party said US Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration would try to persuade the Sudanese government to delay the vote.

The party threatened it would boycott the elections April 6 if voting isn't moved back by four weeks.

Sarah Nugdallah, head of Umma's political bureau, said yesterday Gration “will try to achieve this delay” and that Gration asked the party to participate in the elections.

Gration said on Saturday he was reassured by the National Elections Commission that the vote will be held on time and will be free and fair.

The vote for the presidency, parliament and state governorships will take place five years after a peace agreement ended a two-decade long war that killed as many as 2 million people between the north and the south, where Christianity and traditional religion dominate.

Islamist Popular Congress Party leader Hassan al-Turabi, who helped Bashir seize power in a 1989 coup, said April 1 that his party would participate in the election.

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement, which governs the semi-autonomous region of Southern Sudan, announced on March 31 it was withdrawing its presidential candidate from the vote and boycotting the polls in the western region of Darfur. It will contest the election in the rest of the country.

Southern Sudan is scheduled to vote in a referendum in January to decide whether to secede from the rest of Sudan.

ALALAM

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade announced his country was taking back military bases held by former colonial power France at midnight as the country marked 50 years of independence Sunday.

"I solemnly declare that from 00H00 (GMT) April 4 Senegal will take back all the (military) bases formerly held by France and intends to exert its sovereignty," Wade said in an address to the nation on public television.

"Regarding the time frame for the release of these bases, I have asked the prime minister and army chief of staff to begin talks with the French side."

Wade was speaking Saturday on the eve of celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of Senegal's independence from France, on April 4, 1960.

As Wade spoke, French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux was arriving to represent France at Sunday's ceremonies, which will include a military parade in which French soldiers will take part.

"This year will be different from the others," said Wade at the start of his speech.

Following independence, Senegal had agreed to let its former colonial masters France keep military bases there, he said.

In Paris, a French defence ministry spokesman said talks between the two countries were ongoing on the maintenance of French forces on Senegalese territory.

20100403
ALALAM

Sudan's opposition parties have given the authorities four days to implement key reforms and said they would then take part in elections pushed back to May, an Umma Party official said.

"Eight conditions must be met between now and April 6 for the Umma Party to take part" in presidential, legislative and regional elections slated for April 11-13, said the party's Sarah Nugdalla after a meeting in the capital's twin city of Omdurman.

She said other opposition groups agreed with these demands. On Thursday Umma and three other opposition parties said they would boycott the country's first multi-party elections in 24 years.

Among other things, Umma is demanding a freeze of "repressive security measures," equitable access to state media, public funds for political parties and a commitment to Darfuri representation in the presidency.

The opposition also wants the elections postponed to the first week in May.

"These demands are shared by the other opposition parties with a few variations," Nugdalla said. "It is not too late to save" the elections.

One such variation emerged later on Friday, with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) saying it was pulling out of the presidential vote only, not the parliamentary and regional polls.

Major opposition groups including Umma on Thursday announced a total boycott of the polls.

On Friday, Umma chief Sadek al-Mahdi met US envoy for Sudan Scott Gration, who is engaged in a round of talks aimed at saving the elections.

The opposition had so far demanded -- in vain -- that the elections be postponed until November, but Beshir and the electoral commission announced this week they would go ahead as planned on April 11.

20100403
ALALAM

Sudan's elections commission on Saturday said the nation's elections would go ahead on time despite opposition's calls for a four-week delay.

"The National Elections Commission (NEC) is working to have the elections on the dates we specified on April 11, 12, 13," deputy head of the NEC, Abdallah Ahmed Abdallah, told reporters after meeting US envoy Scott Gration.

"The NEC confirmed to Gration that it had completed all the necessary procedures to have the elections on the specified dates," he added.

Umma head Sadeq al-Mahdi listed eight demands including a four-week delay to be agreed to before April 6, or his party would boycott all parts of the presidential, legislative and gubernatorial votes.

The Umma party leader said on Friday Gration had told him he would try to achieve the four-week delay. He flew into Khartoum after the opposition boycott threats.

Washington acknowledges problems with the process, but wants the polls to happen on time, to allow work to begin on preparing for a southern referendum on secession in January 2011.

The State Department said Gration would continue to press for maximum participation in the polls.

On Saturday, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir told a campaign rally in the eastern town of Kassala there would be no delay.

20100403
ALALAM

Clashes between militants and government troops in the Somali capital Mogadishu have killed at least 20 civilians, witnesses and medical sources said.

Both sides exchanged artillery fire during the fighting, which broke out Friday in the south and the north of the city.

Twenty civilians including children were killed in the clashes, which ended in the evening, Ali Muse, head of Mogadishu ambulance services said.

"The ambulances also collected 26 others who were injured," he added.

"Seven of them died in northern Mogadishu while the other four died in Bakara," the city's biggest market, which is in the south.

"A mortar struck a house in Manbolyon neighbourhood killing six family members," Jumale said.

"It was (a) terrible incident and everybody was shocked."

In another significant development, members of the moderate Sufi Ahlusuna sect said they had fought alongside government troops.

Their fighters had given "unforgettable lessons to the enemy who characterized to harm our society," Nur Sheik Ali, spokesman for the group said.

Although the group has previously fought the Shebab militia in the central Galgudud region, if confirmed, this would be the first time they had cooperated directly with government forces.

20100403
africanews

More than 854 billion dollars have been fraudulently transferred from the African continent in about 40 years. Nigeria, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and South Africa are leading the ranking of the five African countries that have made the most illegal financial transfers between 1970 and 2008.
Money1
According to a study realized by the International Global Financial Integrity (IPF) and published this week, more than 854 billion dollars have been fraudulently transferred from Africa. A sum of that is the public double investment allocated to development aid.

Developing countries annually lose the equivalent of one billion dollars due to this scourge. An amount that is twice as large as public investment allocated to development aid.

This capital flight is one of the major obstacles to African development. "A devastating phenomenon" which, in the opinion of the Director IPF, "will be the agenda of the G20 summit" scheduled for next June in Canada.

20100403
africanews

Kenyans edged closer to realising their dream for a new constitution, after the East African nation's parliament passed the harmonised draft constitution that had been presented by a Committee of Experts.
Kenya parliament
It took the intervention of the two principals, President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to whip their foot soldiers to pass the draft, after an acrimonious three-day debate that saw over 250 clauses of the 350-plus clauses facing amendments.

This therefore means that it is upon Kenyans to decide with their votes in an expected referendum whether they want the draft constitution or not. Most parliament erians gave up trying to make changes to the proposed chttp://www.africanews.com/site/insert_topic/764onstitution and approved it by acclamation at 9:05pm, after a protracted tussle that lasted the whole day.

President Kibaki, for the first time in Kenyan history, stood up during the heated debate to make a contribution as the member of parliament for Othaya. This is the first time that a sitting president has contributed in the parliamentary proceedings. "Let us pass it, let us make that step forward. I am sure later on, when we have another occasion to amend it, you will improve on it. As of now I am very grateful to you, let is pas it as it is."

Before the passing of the draft constitution, there had been a three day standoff amongst MPs, as some sought to ammend the document while the rest opposed. But on Wednesday, all withdrew their motions and passed it through acclamation.

Amongst the contentious issues that have raised a storm over the draft include the clause that seeks to state that life begins at birth, while moralists-led by the religious community- insist that life begins at conception.

The Catholic Church in kenya has threatened to rally its faithfuls and other Christians to oppose the draft.

Other issues concern include the setting up of the Kadhi courts, and devolution.

2010-04-03
DAKAR (Reuters) - Senegal prepared to inaugurate its giant "African Renaissance" monument on Saturday, brushing aside complaints that the personal project of President Abdoulaye Wade was a waste of money and un-Islamic.

One imam in the mainly Muslim West African state issued a fatwa on Friday condemning the statue of a man, woman and infant as idolatrous, a charge dismissed by Wade allies.

Slightly bigger than New York's Statue of Liberty, the $28 million copper monument perched on a hill overlooking the capital Dakar has been criticised as a waste of money in a country with crumbling infrastructure and welfare provision.

But its supporters argue that Africa, many of whose states are still struggling to find their feet a half a century after independence, needs symbols of hope for the future.

"Every architectural work sparks controversies -- look at the Eiffel Tower in Paris," pro-Wade senator Ahmed Bachir Kounta told Reuters of the 19th-century structure labelled by early critics as an expensive eyesore.

Wade, who at 83 has confirmed he will seek reelection in 2012, has invited around 30 African and other heads of state to the 1500 GMT ceremony, with veteran U.S. civil rights activist Jesse Jackson and U.S.-Senegalese rapper Akon also expected.

RISING COST OF LIVING

Many Dakar residents, struggling with increasingly frequent power cuts, disintegrating city roads and scarce formal employment, have mixed feelings about the monument.

"In 2010, Africa has to re-born," said 36-year-old Thierno Dienj, a supporter of Wade's rival socialists who was among the crowd at a small anti-government rally on Saturday.

"But this monument doesn't take into account the rising cost of living here," he said, repeating a common complaint over price hikes in basic foodstuffs and public transport.

The notion of an "African Renaissance" came to the fore in the 1990s amid optimism the continent was shaking off the effects of colonialism and Cold War-era meddling by superpowers.

Leaders such as Wade and South Africa's Thabo Mbeki picked up the idea and used it to drive projects such as the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), an economic development programme with modest results so far.

20100403
aljazeera

Senegal has unveiled a multi-million dollar statue marking 50 years of independence, with 19 African heads of state attending the ceremony which sparked mass protest by opposition members.

The 50-metre sculpture of a man, a woman and an infant has been criticised for its cost and a Muslim leader has issued a fatwa against it, branding it "un-Islamic".

Abdoulaye Wade, the Senegalese president, was joined on Saturday by scores of dignitaries for the opening ceremony.

Notable dignitaries included Bingu wa Mutharika, the Malawian and African Union president, and Jean Ping, the head of the African Union Commission.

The presidents of Benin, Cape Verde, Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania and Zimbabwe were also among those present.

A delegation from North Korea - which built the statue - and a delegation of 100 African-Americans, including Reverend Jesse Jackson and Senegalese-American singer Akon, attended the ceremony.

Opposition protests

At the same time, thousands of demonstrators marched in the capital Dakar to demand Wade's resignation over the Soviet-style bronze monument.

Protesters included Ousmane Tanor Dieng, the head of the opposition Socialist Party, Macky Sall, a former prime minister, and Moustapha Niasse, a former foreign minister.

Ndeye Fatou Toure, the deputy opposition leader, said the statue was an "economic monster and a financial scandal in the context of the current crisis," in a country where half the population lives below the poverty line.

Riot police patrolled the streets as demonstrators held up banners attacking the government and the president.

"The people demand ethical governance and reject the gangster management of the Wade clan," one placard during the march read.

The $28 million statue has been criticised as a waste of money in a country where almost 20 per cent of the population is undernourished, while Muslims have criticised it for presenting the human form as an object of worship.

"We have issued a fatwa [religious ruling] urging Senegal's imams this Friday to read the holy Quran in the mosques simply to ask Allah to preserve us from the punishment this monument of shame risks bringing on Senegal," Imam Massamba Diop told followers at his central Dakar mosque.

The sculpture of a muscular man pulling a scantily clad woman has also been labelled as sexist and the female's "naked legs" caused a controversy with the architect offering to remodel the sculpture.

But opposition supporters object not just to the monument, located on a hill overlooking the Senegalese capital, but to plans by the president to profit from the tourism revenues it would generate.

Wade has said one-third of the revenues expected would could go to him, since according to him, he came up with the concept.

Taller than the Statue of Liberty if the base of the New York monument is not counted, the "African Renaissance" sculpture has also provoked anger over its style.

Foreign labour

The monument has been built by about 50 North Korean labourers, another source of discontent in a country where formal employment is scarce.

Ebrima Sillah, a journalist in Senegal, said a lot of Senegal artists are known around the world for their good architecture.
"But President Abdoulaye Wade has conceived this idea to make it one of the best monuments in the world and because the North Koreans are known to be some of the best experts in that he decided to go for them.

"President Abdoulaye Wade has said that this monument in the long run will bring in a lot of money because it will attract tourists to Dakar ... Local artists in Dakar and other parts of Senegal can come and exhibit their displays and show to the world that this is a place where art also lives."

In a seemingly never-ending stream of criticism, Wade has been forced to apologise to Senegal's Christian minority after likening the statue to Jesus Christ.

He had sought to deflect an imam's criticism of the statue on religious grounds by comparing it to the statues of Jesus found in churches.

Wade has been continuing to defend the monument, writing: "This African who emerges from the volcano, facing the West ... symbolises that Africa which freed itself from several centuries of imprisonment in the abyssal depths of ignorance, intolerance and racism, to retrieve its place on this land, which belongs to all races, in light, air and freedom."

Senegal's independence day is on Sunday and military parades have been planned with about 30 heads of state invited to attend.

2010-04-03
NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger's military junta has sacked 20 top officials working for state-owned companies, including those involved in representing the country's uranium and oil interests, according to the government.

The sacked officials, who were nominated by, and seen as backers of, ousted President Mamadou Tandja, were replaced by a mix of civilians and soldiers in a decision taken during a cabinet meeting late on Thursday.

The move follows a wave of arrests of over a dozen of Tandja's supporters, who were accused of plotting against the military junta. The 14 officials, including several former ministers, were freed on Friday, but will remain under surveillance, a government statement said.

Ahmed Mai Ousmane was named as the new managing director of SOPAMIN, the state-run firm that holds the state's interests in mining operations and is in charge of selling minerals.

SOPAMIN holds a 33.35 percent share in Niger's largest project, the Imouraren uranium mine in northern Niger, which is being developed by French energy giant Areva and will start production in 2013.

Moussa Idrissa was named as the new managing director of SONIDEP, the state-run company that controls all imports of fuel into the land-locked West African nation.

SOPAMIN and SONIDEP's former heads were among the officials from Tandja's regime arrested by the junta over the last week, accused of plotting against it.

The arrests came as the authorities also instigated broader efforts to clean up politics and business in Niger. Investigations are being carried out into decisions and deals -made under Tandja's watch.

"Impunity will no longer be accepted. The results of these investigations will be transferred to the competent authorities and will be dealt with," Interior Minister Cisse Ousmane said.

The anti-graft drive has won plaudits in Niger as analysts say corruption has spiked as a flurry of mining deals were signed under Tandja. But diplomats are concerned that any such campaign could lead to delays in a return to civilian rule.

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aljazeera



Sudan's controversial elections will go ahead this month, the deputy head of the country's election commission has said.

The announcement came less than a day after one of Sudan's largest opposition parties said it would not take part in the polls unless the government agreed to a four-week delay to the vote.

"The National Elections Commission (NEC) is working to have the elections on the dates we specified on April 11, 12, 13," Abdallah Ahmed Abdallah of the NEC told reporters on Saturday.

The opposition Umma Party had said that unless the government met eight key demands, including a delay to the vote by April 6, it would boycott all parts of the presidential and legislative elections.

If it follows through on its threat, the party will join other major opposition groups who have withdrawn candidates from the presidential race in protest against the vote they say is "rigged" in favour of Omar al-Bashir, the incumbent president.

US support

The NEC's announcement came after Scott Gration, the US envoy to Sudan, held talks with election officials. On Friday, the Umma party said that Gration had agreed to seek a delay to the polls to ensure the widest possible participation.
But on Saturday Gration said that he supported the NEC's decision to go ahead with the polls.

"They [the NEC] have given me a lot of information that gives me confidence that the elections will start on time and that they will be as free and fair as possible," he said.

"This has been a difficult challenge but I believe they have stepped up and met the challenge."

Sudan's elections were thrown into crisis on Wednesday, when the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) withdrew its presidential candidate, Yasir Arman, from the race after the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) rejected calls for the vote to be delayed until November.

Other opposition parties joined the boycott the next day, but divisions opened up between them over whether to pull out of legislative polls as well.

Election concerns

Al-Bashir wants to win the elections to legitimise his rule, but analysts say the credibility of the process will be deeply undermined if major opposition parties stay away from the vote.

But Ibrahim Ghandour, a senior NCP official, said the opposition threats would not affect the poll's legitimacy.

"If you know beforehand that this is a lost contest, why waste your time and resources on a lost bet?" he said. "This does not affect the legitimacy of the contest."

International observers and rights groups have said that all signs point to a flawed electoral process.

"The international community and the government of Sudan tried to build the elections like a house without foundation, and it is no surprise that [it] is falling apart pretty badly at this point," John Norris, the executive director of the Enough Project at the Centre for American Progress, said.

Al-Bashir, who seized power in a coup in 1989, has threatened to expel foreign election observers demanding electoral reforms.

Last week, he said that he would cancel a referendum scheduled for next January on southern independence if the SPLM boycott the elections.

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PRESS TV

South African white separatist Eugene Terre'Blanche has been murdered.

The 69-year-old leader of the far-right Afrikaans Resistance Movement, who campaigned for a separate white homeland, was reportedly killed on Saturday on his farm in northwest South Africa after an argument with two workers over unpaid wages.

Terre'Blanche's body was found on a bed with facial and head injuries, AFP quoted police spokeswoman Adele Myburgh as saying.

"A 21-year-old man and 15-year-old boy were arrested and charged for his murder. The two told the police that the argument ensued because they were not paid for the work they did on the farm," she said.

Terre'Blanche's khaki-clad supporters, distinguished by the Afrikaans Resistance Movement's swastika-like symbol, fiercely opposed the talks that led to South Africa's democracy.

The group also resorted to bomb attacks ahead of the 1994 election, which put an end to years of white minority rule in the African nation.

Terre'Blanche served time in prison from 2001 to 2004 on charges of attacking a Black security guard.