GENEINA, Sudan, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Arab League (AL) Secretary General Amr Moussa on Saturday vowed to actively contribute to development and rehabilitation of Sudan's western region of Darfur.

Moussa made the remarks when addressing a huge gathering in West Darfur State on the occasion of inauguration of a number of AL-funded development projects in the region.

"These efforts indicate AL's will to assist the Darfur people in the development and rehabilitation process," said Moussa.

"We promise to provide further development and service projects to the Darfur people together with assistant materials," he added.

Senior Sudanese presidential assistant and chairman of the Transitional Darfur Regional Authority (TDRA) Minni Arko Minawi, who also addressed the gathering, underscored AL's important role in improving the humanitarian conditions in Darfur.

"The Darfur people are awaiting much from the AL and their brothers in the Arab states to help them restore stability," said Minawi.

He reiterated TDRA's commitment to cooperating with the AL and called on the Darfur people to unite and work together to resolve their internal political issues.

West Darfur State's Governor, Abu Al-Gasim Imam, on his part, said that the visit of the AL delegation illustrated its keenness to rehabilitate what has been destroyed by war in the region.

The AL has funded establishment of a number of development projects in the three Darfur states (North, South and West Darfur States) including three model villages comprising of 27 service centers.

MOGADISHU, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Somali government on Saturday announced three days of mourning for the death of the Minister for Youth and Sport, who died on Friday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from injuries sustained during the Dec. 3 suicide bombing in Mogadishu.

Dozens of other people including three ministers, students, parents and teachers of a local university also died while many more were wounded after a suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt at a graduation ceremony last December.

"On behalf of the Somali government, and all of Somalia, I would like to express our deepest sympathies to Saleeban Olaad Roble's family, friends and colleagues," said Dahir Gele, Minister of Information in a statement.

Roble, who sustained severe injuries, was among dozens who were taken to hospitals in Nairobi, Kenya and then later to Saudi Arabian capital of Riyad where the minister has since been receiving treatment.

Gelle described the diseased minister as "a fine man and an excellent minister", who dedicated his life to working towards peace and reconciliation in Somalia.

"We will miss him and we will remember him," the Information Minister added.

The attack, the deadliest for the Somali government, was not claimed by the radical Islamist movement of Al Shabaab which has previously taken responsibility for a number of suicide attacks that targeted government officials and security forces as well as the African Union peacekeeping forces based in Mogadishu.

"As we mourn the loss of yet another brave and dedicated Somali Minister, and as we begin the second year of a new government, let us all strive together to rid our beautiful country of the senseless brutality of these extremists, and work together for stable, peaceful and prosperous Somalia," said the statement.

Al Shabaab, the largest and strongest of the two insurgent groups, controls most of south and center of Somalia and large swathes of the capital Mogadishu. The radical group and its ally Hezbul Islam have recently been gearing for a major face off with Somali government and AU peacekeeping forces.

ABIDJAN, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Cote d'Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo on Friday dissolved the government and the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) in the culmination of tensions over the alleged voter list fraud, a setback on the electoral process approaching the planned polls.

"The government is dissolved," Gbagbo announced in a speech on national television, citing the provisions of Article 48 of the Constitution.

This article provides that in a case "where there is a serious and immediate threat to national institutions, the independence of the nation, integrity of territorial boundaries or the country's execution of international commitments, the Republic's president should take exceptional measures."

Gbagbo declared that this decision was meant to "take away all obstacles from the peaceful process and allow Cote d'lvoire to hold proper elections in total confidence," and he also admitted that "the electoral process has broken down."

"I direct that Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, in performance of his functions, should propose to me a new government as from Monday February 15, 2010," the president said.

Gbagbo noted that "Cote d'lvoire deserved a government that will help her to completely get out of the crisis, give services to all Ivorians and not one which will be serving political parties."

"The mission of that government will be to take all necessary measures to ensure that Cote d'lvoire is completely out of the crisis," he pledged.

Under the newly announced presidential decree, the prime minister will also have to propose "within the next seven days a format of the new and credible electoral commission which will organize free and fair elections."

This decision came in the wake of a dispute over the electoral commission. The presidential camp had condemned the fraud within CEI, demanding the resignation of its president Robert Beugre Mambe. With the backing from the opposition, Mambe had stood against the pressure, vowing not to step down.

The decision also came only a day after talks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, between the representatives of the presidential camp and the opposition with President Blaise Compaore, who is the facilitator in the inter-Ivorian dialogue. On Thursday, Mambe reiterated his determination not to resign at a meeting with Compaore.

The presidential election, which has been postponed several times, was supposed to be held between late February and early March. But for weeks, the electoral process has been threatened by violence amid the standoff.

The decision taken by courts to take some people of the electoral list has resulted into bloody confrontations and destruction in several towns.

The ex-rebel movement, the New Forces (FN), indicated on Tuesday that "Rwanda like scenes are likely to repeat in Cote d'lvoire," warning of the specter of civil war, which ended just several years ago.

On Wednesday, the government decided to suspend "until further notice" the judicial process to resolve the issue in a bid to prevent the trouble from further deteriorating.

Analysts say that Gbagbo's decision to dissolve the government and CEI came out of the need to calm down the situation, as the CEI chief and the Interior Ministry were taking the center stage in the crisis. It was at the order of the Interior Ministry, the judiciary system launched the probe into the controversial cases and made the ruling against Mambe.

While the presidential camp accused Mambe of wrongly putting suspected names on the voter list in favor of the FN, the opposition charged the ruling party with a "delay tactic" to abort another election. Observers are closely monitoring the situation after the dissolution of both CEI and the government.

Cote d'Ivoire plunged into a civil war after an attempted coup in 2002. The West African country remains divided since the end of the war a year later. In 2007, the government which controls the south signed a peace accord with the FN, whose leader Soro was then named the prime minister. But differences have never disappeared over an election to end the crisis. As a result, the polls have been repeatedly postponed since 2005, when Gbagbo's tenure expired.

The UN peacekeeping mission has made a strong call for both sides to hold the long-awaited elections in the first half of the year if not between late February and early March.

NAKASEKE, Uganda, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) will start the training of 2,000 Somali troops in Uganda in May, a senior French army official said here on Friday.

Brigadier General Thierry Caspar-Fille-Lambie, the commanding officer of the French Forces based in Djibouti said the Somali troops will be trained with the necessary military skills to help pacify and stabilize the volatile country.

The Somali troops will be trained for six months in Bihanga in western Uganda.

"As France was one of the countries stressing the need for the involvement of EU in training Somalia forces, around 30 French trainers shall be part of that mission," said Lambie at the closing ceremony of four-week French operational training of 1,700Ugandan troops to be deployed in the lawless country in May for peacekeeping mission.

During the course, a 1,700-men battalion of Uganda People's Defense Force (UPDF) to be deployed in Somalia underwent training in peacekeeping operations while 120 non-commissioned officers trained in commanding the force.

"The EU troops shall work in close collaboration with UPDF to train the Somali troops," said Rene Forceville, the French Ambassador to Uganda.

Lt. Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala, the commander of Uganda Land Forces said the best way to help pacify the Horn of Africa country is by training and equipping their troops.

"We together with EU troops shall train them with the necessary skills to manage their own security," said Wamala.

The EU earlier this month agreed to set up a military mission in Uganda aimed at training up to 2,000 Somali troops, which will complement other training missions and bring the total number of better- trained Somali soldiers to 6,000.

The mission led by Spain will closely coordinate with the African Union, the U.S. and the United Nations as well as with Somalia's transitional government.

Uganda and Burundi are currently the only countries contributing some 4,300 troops to the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Somalia.

Somalia has been plagued by civil strife since the overthrow of military strongman Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

ABIDJAN, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- The president of Cote d'Ivoire Laurent Gbagbo declared in a statement that he is dissolving the government and election commission Friday.

"The government is dissolved," Gbagbo said on national television.

Cote d'Ivoire's electoral process is going through turmoil due to the political-judicial battle over voter registration contentions linked to the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI).

The suspected fraud on the voter list has caused commotion within the body charged with the duty to organize elections to end years of instability in the West African country.

Cote d'Ivoire's government Thursday decided to suspend "to a later date" the judicial process over the vote list dispute, which many fear would jeopardize the planned presidential elections set for late February and early March.

According to a communiqué, the decision was taken after "consultations" between Prime Minister Guillaume Soro and President Laurent Gbagbo considering the "tense situation that has been created for some days now around the process of validating the provisional electoral list."

Protests broke out in various parts of the country following a decision by some supporters of Gbagbo to file legal cases with court for the removal of some people from the voter list.

The opposition called out their supporters to protest against the "false allegations." The protest marches resulted into riots causing serious injuries, destruction and fire to burn down public buildings.

The suspension of the judicial process is expected to pave the way for the preparation of the final electoral list ahead of the planned polls.

A total of 1.03 million people need to validate their registration on the provisional electoral list, which already has5.3 million lvorians.

MOGADISHU, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, leader of the radical Islamist group of Hezbul Islam in Somalia, on Friday stated his group's readiness for a possible major government offensive on rebels in Mogadishu.

Aweys was speaking at a rally by hundreds of his group's supporters on the outskirts of Mogadishu, where thousands of the capital's residents live in camps for the internally displaced people.

"We tell you (the Somali government) that we are ready for a fight and that we will defend our country, people and religion if you move to massacre our people," Aweys told jubilant supporters of his group who carried banners and placards with anti-government slogans.

There has recently been widespread speculation that the Somali government backed by nearly 5,000 African Union peacekeepers plans to carry out a major onslaught against Islamist rebels in Mogadishu.

The Islamist leader, wanted by the U.S. of links to terrorism, also strongly denounced Washington's policy towards Somalia saying it was "hostile" to the people of Somalia .

Aweys condemned the decision by the Djibouti government to send nearly 450 soldiers to be part of the UN authorized African Union peacekeeping Mission known as AMISOM.

So far Uganda and Burundi have contributed troops to the Mission which, during its deployment in 2007, was envisaged to have 8,000 peacekeepers from African states before it transformed into a UN blue helmet operation.

Hundreds of civilians have been fleeing the city for the past weeks for fear of the possible confrontation between Islamist fighters and Somali government forces backed by AU forces in Mogadishu.

Dozens of civilians have either been killed or wounded for the past three days after clashes between the warring sides in Mogadishu which was punctuated by exchanges of heavy shelling that mainly landed in the pockets of remaining residential areas in the largely deserted coastal capital.

ABIDJAN, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, the facilitator in Cote d'Ivoire crisis, on Thursday met with the main political actors in the capital Ouagadougou to help mediate a wayout from the voter list dispute, which has threatened the electoral calendar.

Only weeks ahead of the presidential elections set for late February and early March, the presidential camp declared the discovery of fraud in voter registration, saying some names had been wrongly put on the list in favor of the ex-rebel New Forces (FN).

The camp held the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) responsible for the finding, demanding the resignation of its chief.

On Thursday, officials of the opposition Assembly of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP) met with Compaore to inform him of "our side of the story, our understanding of the situation and we have informed him of the major obstacles that have bedevilled the electoral process."

The statement was made by Alphonse Djedje Mady, the head of the opposition delegation, who represented the RHDP and the Democratic Party of Cote d'lvoire (PDCI).

Mady reiterated the rejection of the demand by the presidential camp. "We are an opposition which until now does not understand the crime committed by Mambe and which still insists that he should not resign," he said.

The president of the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI), Robert Beugre Mambe, has denied any wrongdoing although the commission admitted certain technical problems. He vows not to step down under the pressure from supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo.

"This is because Mambe and CEI have not committed any justifiable fault that can be proven. And because of this, we shall not fall for the schemes which are meant to impede the process which is in progress," Mady pointed out.

Compaore "had not proposed anything as of now" but had asked them to "seat and listen," he added.

The president of the ruling Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), Pascal Affi N'Guessan, who headed the presidential camp's delegation, described the meeting as an occasion to familiarize the facilitator with their "opinion."

"We have affirmed to the facilitator that Mambe does not enjoy any confidence from the presidential camp and therefore he should be replaced so that the process can go ahead on stable background and in the interest of all actors and that after the removal of Mambe, we must balance CEI," N'Guessan declared.

According to the FPI president, Mambe is "a threat to peace and to free and fair elections."

"Therefore we should change the CEI president, give CEI a neutral person who will serve both political sides and improve the representation of the different internal powers within CEI," he insisted.

The CEI president is accused of fraudulently registering 429, 000 people on the electoral list and is threatened to be arrested by the justice system. He was also in Ouagadougou to meet with Compaore.

"I will not resign. I was elected. A job was entrusted to me and I will do it in respect of all the laid down mechanisms," he told to reporters.

"We have already covered a considerable distance, we have achieved close to 95 percent of the journey. The work that was given to me must be achieved in desirable ways and in a manner in which all those who are concerned will appreciate the outcome of the quality of the work," he said.

The special representative of the facilitator in Cote d'lvoire, Boureima Badini, was convinced on his part that the "Faso president will make appropriate proposals which will lead to a peaceful resolution of the problem."

"After the consultations, he will be in a better position to make an appropriate ruling and he will take necessary measures to ensure that this is resolved in the quickest possible was," he pledged.

Having stalled after the surfacing of the controversy over the voter list, the electoral process is facing a real danger of derailment amid protests in several towns, where cases of violence have been reported.

Most of the protesters were reportedly supporters of the FN, who took to the streets against the decisions by courts to remove some people from the electoral list. Casualties, vandalism and burning of government buildings hit the headlines of the local newspapers, which said the affected towns include Divo in the central west, Man in the west, Katiola in the north and Vavoua in the central part.

Facing the surge of violent protests, the government recently decided to suspend "until further notice" the judicial process over the voter list dispute.

The West African country has yet to validate more than a million people in voter registration with 5.3 million people already put on the voter list, an ever greatest stride towards a planned vote in recent years.

Cote d'Ivoire has seen repeated postponements of the election since 2005, when Gbagbo's tenure expired. The country last put off the planned polls in November 2009. In anticipation of possible twists and turns in the process, the UN peacekeeping mission has expressed hope that the elections will take place in the first half of the year.

The country remains divided with the government controlling the south and the FN holding the north, despite a series of Compaore- brokered the peace accords. The crisis was triggered by an attempted coup against Gbagbo in 2002 and an ensuing civil war.

LAGOS, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian Senate says it has resolved to send a delegation to meet with the U.S. Congressmen to assist in removing the country from the terror list.

The Senate moves against the backdrop of an attempt by Nigerian Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up a Detroit-bound plane in December.

Nigeria has been listed among 14 countries by the United States with directives that passengers traveling from the country to the United States by air face extra security screening.

The U.S. decision came after Abdulmutallab, a 23-year old Nigerian, attempted to blow up a jetliner as it approached Detroit after a flight from Amsterdam but failed on Christmas Day.

The Nigerian Senate in Januray described as unacceptable the U. S. decision to list Nigeria as a terrorist nation.

But David Mark, Nigeria's Senate president, informed visiting U. S. Assistant Secretary of State on African Affairs Jonnie Carson about the planned visit in Abuja on Thursday.

Mark told Carson that the planned visit by the Senate committee on foreign affairs is to urged the government of the United States of America not to treat Nigeria as potential terrorist state.

According to him, the attempt by Abdulmutallab to bomb the plane was unfortunate.

The Senate leader asked the U. S. government to take a second look at the decision, noting that Nigeria should be seen as a friendly nation.

"Nigerians are not violent people and we do not support the action of Abdulmutallab. We abhor it and condemn it in its entirety," he told Carson.

He asked the visiting envoy to speak in defense of Nigeria, saying "all our actions and policies are opposed to terrorism."

Carson in his response admitted that Nigeria is a great country and ranks top among nations of the world.

He said Washington is proud to be associated with Nigeria, but did not comment on the listing of the country.

He expressed satisfaction that Nigeria is on course for democracy and constitutionality.

Abdulmutallab is accused of trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines Airbus as it made its descent to Detroit on Dec. 25, 2009 from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.

He is alleged to have boarded a plane at the Lagos Murtala Muhamed International Airport, and transferred onto a trans- Atlantic flight at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands.

KINSHASA, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Sudanese Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) Anthony Kon declared on Thursday in Kinshasa that there was no Sudanese soldier on the Congolese territory.

"There isn't any Sudanese troops within any locality in the eastern part of DR Congo or in the Orientale province which shares a common border with the Sudan," said the Sudanese diplomat accompanied by a senior Sudanese army officer at the end of a meeting with Congolese Foreign Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba.

"Our discussions with DR Congo's foreign minister have helped us to clear the air on the dark areas that were still existing between the two countries," Kon said, noting that the presence of a senior Sudanese military officer in Kinshasa was a sign of the excellent relations that exists between Khartoum and Kinshasa.

The diplomat pointed out that minor problems that might arise along the common border could be resolved by the local authorities in the two neighboring provinces in order to strengthen the cross- border cooperation and commercial exchanges.

"There's calm along the border between DR Congo and Sudan," noted the Sudanese ambassador, reiterating that Sudan and DR Congo enjoy good cooperative relations.

He reaffirmed the willingness of the two countries to work together to improve "future relations" which he wished to remain "fruitful and good."

DR Congo and Sudan launched a joint military operation on Dec. 14 2008 against the notorious Ugandan rebel LRA, destroying its main camp in Orientale province which borders Uganda and Sudan.

The military declared that they had wiped out 80 percent of the rebel group at the end of the crackdown in March.

OUAGADOUGOU, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Cote d'Ivoire's rival parties went to Burkina Faso on Thursday to meet mediator President Blaise Compaore on a solution to the voter list controversy.

The political climate in Cote d'Ivoire has deteriorated amid a spat over the alleged "fraud" of the president of the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI), Robert Beugre Mambe. The presidential camp has been calling for his resignation for fraudulently putting names to the electoral list in favor of the ex-rebel New Forces.

The presidential camp headed by Pascal Affi N'Guessan of the ruling Ivorian Popular Front did not make any comments after their meeting with Compaore.

The delegation of the Assembly of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace, the coalition of parties opposed to Cote d'Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo Gbagbo, led by its president Alphonse Djedje Mady declared that the allegations from the presidential camp were just excuses to block the electoral process which was in progress.

"It's important that Ivorians, especially the political actors, regain their consciousness in order to move toward ending the crisis, without being so defensive and seeking for excuses. We do not think that the resignation of Mambe will be a solution to the problem," Mady said.

The CEI president was the last to meet with the facilitator. Emerging from the meeting, he said was elected to perform a job entrusted in him and that he will do that in respect of all mechanisms that have been established.

"Come whatever may, I will not resign," Mambe reiterated while expressing optimism that a solution will be found to this problem.

"You understand that we have come from far away. Cote d'lvoire had a big identity problem. We have come at a point where more than 7,300,000 people have the clear prospects of getting an identity card," Mambe said.

He said hid body is in the process of solving 1,033,000 electoral disputes and that it has covered close to 95 percent of the operation.

LOME, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe decided on Thursday through a decree arrived at in the cabinet meeting that the planned presidential elections will be held on March 4 instead of Feb. 28, according to an official communique.

Under the decree, the election campaign period will run from Feb. 16 to March 2.

The communique said these decisions were taken after "consultations" between the Togolese head of state and the facilitator in the inter-Togolese dialogue, Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore.

The decisions could be justified by "the need to seek lasting consensus and maintaining a peaceful climate throughout the entire electoral process," the text added.

These changes come in the wake of a meeting in Burkina Faso on Feb. 9 between the presidential camp and the members of the opposition. The meeting called for an assessment of the electoral process after the electoral lists review operations.

According to the communique, a summary of actions of the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) showed that its activities were "in progress and in conformity to the electoral timetable" that was being followed until then.

The elections will mark the end of the first term of Gnassingbe who came to power after a hotly contested vote in April 2005 following the death of general Gnassingbe Eyadema, his father, on Feb. 5, 2005.

He will face six Togolese opposition candidates including a female candidate.

MONROVIA, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- The security sector in Guinea will undergo reform following presidential elections later this year, Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) commission Mohamed Ibn Chambas has said.

"A major agenda in Guinea once constitutional order is reestablished is the launch of a comprehensive Security Sector Reform (SSR)," Chambas said Thursday when he addressed the 53rd, national day of the establishment of the Liberian army, which is undergoing reform after years of civil war in Monrovia.

He said military intervention in the politics of post- independence Africa produced a chequered legacy of chronic instability characterized by coups and counter-coups, repression and bad governance.

This has created a hostile environment not conducive to investment and socio economic development, Chambas told his audience.

The ECOWAS diplomat, who was delivering the keynote address at the ceremony, said what has been achieved in Liberia in reforming a vibrant military is a shining example that other countries in the sub-region such as Guinea must follow.

"Liberia is gradually rising to join the comity of nations on an equal footing," he said.

"Liberia can richly share her rich experiences with her neighbors who have been bedeviled by the same debilitating challenges from which she is steadily emerging," he added.

Chambas said ECOWAS and the African Union have remained seized with the precarious situation in Guinea.

He stressed the need for the two bodies to double efforts to accompany the people of Guinea to speedily complete the political transition to normal order through the holding of credible presidential and legislative elections.

On the role of ECOWAS to contain conflict in the region, Chambas said a mechanism for conflict prevention management, resolution, peace-keeping and security is in place.

According to him, the regional body is currently well advanced in establishing the ECOWAS Standby Force made up of composite military, police and civilian units drawn from member states, trained and equipped for rapid deployment in case of violent conflict, natural disaster and international peace keeping operations.

Earlier, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf recounted on how Liberia has benefited from the assistance and intervention of regional peace keeping operations during the course of the country's civil war.

Now that it is building up a new army, it should do so with the aimed to form part of future peace keeping operations to assist other countries when they are confronted with conflict, the president said.

LOME, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Togolese presidential election scheduled for Feb. 28 has been postponed to March 4, a government decree said on Thursday.

President Faure Gnassingbe made the decision during a cabinet meeting with the aim of "permanently seeking consensus and maintaining a peaceful climate during the electoral process," according to the decree.

The election campaign will also be delayed to Feb. 16 from Feb. 13.

The postponement came after the talks between Gnassingbe and Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, a mediator of the inter-Togo dialogue since 2006, said the decree.

The upcoming vote marks the end of the first term of Gnassingbe who came into power after an election marred by violence in April 2005.

Gnassingbe, who is seeking reelection, will face six contenders from the opposition, including Brigitte Kafui Adjamagbo-Johnson, the first woman to run for the presidency in the West African country.

Gnassingbe is the son of Gen. Gnassingbe Eyadema, who died on Feb. 5, 2005 after being in power for 38 years.

LOME, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Togolese presidential election scheduled for Feb. 28 has been postponed to March 4, a government decree said on Thursday.

ARUSHA, Tanzania, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- The UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Thursday sentenced a former Rwanda top military officer Tharcisse Muvunyi for inciting the killings of ethnic Tutsis through his speech.

The presiding judge of the three-bench chamber Justice Dennis Byron said that the former soldier was guilty of the Tutsi killings at the Gikore Centre, Butare Prefecture in Southern Rwanda, where he gave an inflammatory speech in May 1994.

"In giving such a speech, the Chamber finds that there is no doubt that Muvunyi intended to incite the audience to commit acts of genocide," Byron stated in his eight-page summary of judgement.

"The Chamber unanimously finds Muvunyi guilty beyond reasonable doubt of committing direct and public incitement to commit genocide at the Gikore Centre in mid to late May 1994," said Judge Byron before a fully-packed court room, which also include the accused himself.

Muvunyi is the first retrial in the history of the 15-year old ICTR. In the first trial, the ex-officer of the Rwandan Armed Forces had been sentenced to 25 years in prison.

However, the ICTR Appeals Chamber overturned the lower court's judgment towards end of 2008, and ordered a new trial on one count only -- the speech at Gikore, which prosecution claims contained proverbs in Kinyarwanda inciting majority Hutus to kill ethnic Tutsis.

William Taylor, the lead counsel of the accused, said that he will appeal against the sentence as he was completely unsatisfied by the chamber's ruling. The Prosecution said it was contended with the ruling.

Since the establishment of the U.N Court in November 1994, eight persons have been acquitted and 41 convicted. Trials are underway for at least 16 accused.

The U.N Security Council has directed the Tribunal to complete all first instance trials by end of 2010 and Appeals by 2012.

The 100-day Rwandan genocide in 1994 was sparked off shortly after the late president Juvenal Habyarimana's plane was secretively shot down on April 6, 1994, which killed some 800,000 people, mainly minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

NAIROBI, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- African governments have been urged to exploit the immense opportunities in China to market their coffee products.

Barry Yuen, founder of the Coffee & Tea Academy of Hong Kong and chairman of the China & Speciality Coffee Association, said Africa should take advantage of the huge Chinese market, with a population of 1.3 billion people present.

Presenting a paper titled "Greater China Coffee Markets" to delegates at the seventh African Fine Coffee Conference & Exhibition at the Whitesands beach hotel, Mombasa Thursday, he said coffee marketers in Africa should seize the opportunity and market their products especially in Hong Kong, an international coffee trading center.

"But you should also ensure that you are conversant with the Chinese culture which will make business easy for you," he said at the conference organized by the Eastern Africa Fine Coffees Association.

Kenyan Agriculture Minister William Ruto said with more local consumption, the country, and Africa as a continent would ensure a ready market for their coffee.

Africa produces 10 percent of world coffee but only consumes three percent, the minister noted.

"The Kenya government will focus on coffee as a premium export product because Kenyan coffee is of a high quality and we will work with the private sector to reap the benefits of this premium product," said Ruto.

"It is encouraging to note that an estimated 80 percent of Kenya's coffee is considered to be specialty coffee. This has put Kenya on the world map as a leader in specialty coffee production. We are also seeking ways of encouraging East African countries to market their coffee product as a block," he added.

The conference brings together coffee roasters, marketers, buyers and farmers besides other stakeholders, from the continent and Asian countries. The coffee industry is an important foreign exchange earner in the region.

In particular, Kenya's coffee export earnings rose by an estimated 10 percent in the 2008/09 crop year on the back of stable prices in the world market. The country earned 10.7 billion shillings (about 143 millions U.S. dollars) during the period, up from 9.7 billion shillings during the previous crop year.

However, stakeholders in the sector believe there is room for growth of earnings if larger quantities of quality coffee are produced in the region and marketed more rapidly.

Since the government set on a campaign to liberalize the coffee sector, farmers have warmed up to the changes with a promise of higher returns, Coffee Board of Kenya managing director Louise Njeru said.

"Since the policy change in the sector we have seen confidence building up," she said, adding that in order to address quality -- an essential factor in the marketing of the product -- the board will set up a regional branding mechanisms in coffee growing areas.

Coffee farmers will take part in the conference on Feb. 13 in a key session that looks at the contribution of commercial farms and their role in value chain. Farmers will discuss the key to grow fine coffees in the session with a view to reaping more earnings from the world market though improvement of processes.

It is expected the country, currently producing slightly over 50,000 tonnes of coffee per year will reach production levels of over 100,000 metric tonnes. But to achieve this target, Njeru emphasized on the need to take an inclusive industry approach bringing together all the stakeholders.

Other areas of discussion during the three days' conference will include knock-on effects that the current world economic environment has had on the commodity and the trading windows in Africa.

The impact of climate change on coffee production and value addition of the commodity in Africa will also be discussed in the conference.

Judith Ganes Chase president and founder member of the J Ganes Consulting, a research company said that the opportunity for Africa to host the World Cup provides a window to market the continent's coffee.

World Cup viewers will see the continent show cased, the researcher said, with over 500,000 guest expected in the continent during the event that is starting in June this year.

"The event will bring a projected revenue of six billion U.S. dollars for South Africa and two billion dollars for tourism," Ganes said.

MOGADISHU, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- A Somali Member of Parliament feared kidnapped by Islamist rebels after he disappeared from his hotel room in Mogadishu, parliament sources said Thursday.

Salah Nuh Ismail, known as Salah Badbado, went missing from his hotel room in the government-controlled side of Mogadishu and calls to his mobile phone went unanswered, Mohamed Hussein Nur, a lawmaker confirmed to Xinhua.

"The last time we had contact with him was midnight on Wednesday before he went to bed and no one has heard of him since then and we fear he might be abducted by the anti-peace elements (Islamist rebels)," Nur said.

He added that Somali government security forces are carrying out searches for the disappeared lawmaker.

The area where the lawmaker's hotel locates is heavily protected by government forces and is home to the government offices and hotels where government officials including lawmakers and ministers reside.

Islamist rebels abducted two French security advisers from their hotel rooms in the area last year. One of the French nationals managed to escape his captors while the other still remain captive for the radical Islamist group of Al Shabaab.

Islamist rebels, who run much of south and centre of Somalia, have for the past three years, been waging deadly insurgency against Somali government which control small parts of the restive capital, Mogadishu.

OUAGADOUGOU, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- The first round of the presidential elections in Burkina Faso has been scheduled for Nov. 21, 2010, the West African country's cabinet announced here on Thursday.

The voter registration in view of establishing the final electoral list should be done on March 1- 21 in conformity with the provisions of the electoral code, according to the announcement by the cabinet.

Political parties are already in the pre-campaign mood. President Blaise Compaore has organized a national youth forum bringing together about 2,500 supporters from the 13 regions of the country. During the forum, the youths appealed to the president to contest in the Nov. 21 elections.

Norbert Tiendrebeogo of the Front for Social Forces and Me Benewende Stanislas Sankara, the head of the opposition, have been singled out as potential candidates for the elections.

The Burkinabe opposition, which is divided, seems not ready to present a single candidate, although their supporters hope they will do so this time.

Observers predict that it will be a matter of formality for Compaore to win another term. They view the opposition as not being ready for the changes at the helm of the country.

ABIDJAN, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Cote d'Ivoire's government has decided to suspend "to a later date" the judicial process over the vote list dispute, which many fear would jeopardize the planned presidential elections set for late February and early March.

"The judicial process which is ongoing before court authorities has been suspended until further notice in the entire national territory beginning February 10, 2010," the government's secretary general Felix Tieoulou-Dyela announced in a communique on state television.

According to the communique, the decision was taken after "consultations" between Prime Minister Guillaume Soro and President Laurent Gbagbo considering the "tense situation that has been created for some days now around the process of validating the provisional electoral list."

Protests broke out in various parts of the country following a decision by some supporters of Gbagbo to file legal cases with court for the removal of some people from the voter list.

The opposition called out their supporters to protest against the "false allegations." The protest marches resulted into riots causing serious injuries, destruction and fire to burn down public buildings.

The suspension of the judicial process is expected to pave the way for the preparation of the final electoral list ahead of the planned polls.

A total of 1.03 milliom people need to validate their registration on the provisional electoral list, which already has 5.3 million lvorians.

On the same day, the opposition Democratic Party of Cote d'lvoire (PDCI) pleaded for the respect of the procedure of handling electoral contentions to allow the continuation of the electoral process.

"The procedure for resolving disputes over the electoral list should be done in conformity to the operation mode which requires that one brings proof to support his contesting," the party's secretary general Alphonse Djedje Mady declared at the end of a meeting with the United Nations secretary general special representative to Cote d'lvoire, Choi Young-jin.

"We are in agreement with the special representative that the procedure should be followed in order to remain focused on the most important things and to ensure that before the end of March, Ivorians could go into elections," he said.

"All those who want to contest against any name they find on the list should bring evidence as proof for their dispute," he added.

JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 11(Xinhua) -- South African film producer Anant Singh, who has made several films about former South African president Nelson Mandela, paid tribute to the icon on Thursday as the country celebrated the 20th anniversary of Mandela's release from prison.

Singh said he would distribute a feature length film on Mandela's life at the opening of the South African Parliament in Cape Town on Thursday.

The film, Viva Madiba: A Hero For All Seasons, will be handed out as a commemorative gift to people who attend the opening of Parliament.

"Today is a very special day for all South Africans, and probably more significant than the day of Madiba's release as it marks 20 years of his emancipation from incarceration," said Singh in a media statement.

"The most significant aspect of it is that he is with us today and is able to celebrate this day with the entire nation."

Singh said he was honored to have been able to communicate with Madiba (Mandela's clan name) while he was in prison and to have been chosen to produce films on the former president's life.