NAIROBI, March 9 (Xinhua) -- At least 13 people have been killed by raging floods and more than 10,000 others affected, the Kenya Red Cross Society said on Tuesday.

The Red Cross Communications Manager Titus Mung'ou said at least nine people had died as a result of floods and landslides while four others had been killed by lightning.

"At least 10,117 people have been affected by floods, landslides and heavy rains across the country in March," Mung'ou said in a statement on Tuesday.

He said those affected included 2,100 in Mandera, 600 in Samburu and Isiolo, 1,200 in Garbatula, 2,000 in Tinderet, 3,600 in Lokori, 420 in Marsabit and 197 in Moyale.

In Isiolo, the local Kenya Red Cross branch had started distribution of non-food items to 120 households in Garfasa area in Garbatula, said Mung'ou.

KRCS staff and volunteers worked jointly with the locals, Kenya police, Kenya Wildlife Service, British Army and Provincial Administration teams in evacuation of affected to safety.

Mung'ou said property of unknown value had been destroyed Samburu, Isiolo, Nakuru and other parts affected by floods

LAGOS, March 9 (Xinhua) - Nigerian Acting President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday appointed Aliyu Gusau as a new security adviser.

Retired Lt.-Gen.Gusau took the position from Sarki Mukhtar. The new national security adviser held the same position for former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Ima Niboro, spokesman for the acting president, said in a statement that Jonathan thanked Mukhtar for his services to the nation and wished him well in his future endeavors.

No reason for the move was given in the statement.

The decision was made after a marathon meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) presided over by the acting president, the statement added.

The crisis in Jos, central Nigeria, took the center stage at the meeting, according to the statement. The meeting was attended by top government officials and security chiefs, including the sacked national security adviser.

On Sunday morning, Islamist pastoralists wielding machetes attacked the town of Jos, a Christian village in Nigeria's Plateau State. At least 500 people were killed, mostly women and children, according to the state police spokesman.

The development came after more than 300 people died during the crisis that erupted on January 17 in Jos in Plateau State, when some youths attacked worshippers at St. Michael's Anglican Church in Nasawara Gwom.

The National Assembly by a unanimous resolution on Feb. 9 empowered Jonathan as acting president after a prolonged power vacuum created by President Umaru Yar'Adua's emergency medical trip to Saudi Arabia in November.

The president was brought back to the country in the early hours of Feb. 24.

LAGOS, March 09 (AFP) -- Nigerian troops were patrolling villages near the northern city of Jos Tuesday after the massacre of more than 500 Christians there that sparked international shock and outrage.

But survivors of the latest wave of inter-ethnic violence, in which women and children were hacked to death or burned alive in their homes, denounced the authorities for having failed to intervene in time.

Relatives of the dead meanwhile attended funerals Monday for the victims of the three-hour orgy of violence in three Christian villages close to the northern city of Jos.

Witnesses have blamed the massacre on members of the mainly Muslim Fulani ethnic group, and according to media reports Muslims villagers were warned two days before attack via text messages to their phones.

The security forces said they had detained 95 suspects in the violence.

"We have over 500 killed in three villages and the survivors are busy burying their dead," said state information commissioner Gregory Yenlong.

"People were attacked with axes, daggers and cutlasses -- many of them children, the aged and pregnant women."

Around 200 people were being treated in hospital, said the information ministry.

Much of the violence was centred around the village of Dogo Nahawa, where gangs set fire to straw-thatched mud huts as they went on their rampage.

The explosion of violence was just the latest between rival ethnic and religious groups.

In January, 326 people died in clashes in and around Jos, according to police although rights activists put the overall toll at more than 550.

"The attack is yet another jihad and provocation," the Plateau State Christian Elders Consultative Forum (PSCEF) said.

It had taken the army two hours to react from the time a distress call was put through and "the attackers had finished their job and left", they added.

Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has already sacked his chief security advisor.

John Onaiyekan, the archbishop of the capital Abuja, told Vatican Radio that the violence was rooted not in religion but in social, economic and tribal differences.

"It is a classic conflict between pastoralists and farmers, except that all the Fulani are Muslims and all the Berom are Christians," he said.

Fulani are mainly nomadic cattle rearers while Beroms are traditionally farmers.

Locals said Sunday's attacks were the result of a feud which had been first ignited by a theft of cattle and then fuelled by deadly reprisals.

Rights activists also said the slaughter appeared to be revenge for the January attacks, in which mainly Muslims were killed.

The Vatican led a wave of outrage with spokesman Federico Lombardi expressing the Roman Catholic Church's "sadness" at the "horrible acts of violence".

UN chief Ban Ki-moon told reporters he was "deeply concerned", but added: "I appeal to all concerned to exercise maximum restraint.

"Nigeria's political and religious leaders should work together to address the underlying causes and to achieve a permanent solution to the crisis in Jos."

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged "all parties to exercise restraint."

She added: "The Nigerian government should ensure that the perpetrators of acts of violence are brought to justice under the rule of law and that human rights are respected as order is restored."

Survivors said the attackers were able to separate the Fulanis from members of the rival Berom group by chanting 'nagge,' the Fulani word for cattle. Those who failed to respond in the same language were hacked to death.

Witnesses said armed gangs had scared people out of their homes by firing into the air but most of the killings were the result of machete attacks.

"We were caught unawares... and as we tried to escape, the Fulani who were already waiting slaughtered many of us," said Dayop Gyang, of Dogo Nahawa.

Gbong Gwon Jos, a Muslim resident of Dogo Nahawa, told The Nation daily he received advanced warnings of the attacks.

"I got a text message about movement of the people."

Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that some of the attackers were former residents of the villages who had fled previous inter-community conflicts.

"I recognized a few of [the attackers'] voices," one witness told them.

Another witness told the group many of the attackers had their heads wrapped in cloth to make it hard to identify them, and that some had cried "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great).

Amid continuing tension Monday, Christian youths set upon a Muslim journalist covering one of the mass burials near Jos, an AFP reporter said. Police had to pull him to safety and he needed treatment for a broken nose.

LAGOS, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The police have arrested 93 suspects following the Sunday violence killing in Jos, the capital of northern Nigeria's Plateau State, according to an official.

Mohamed Lerama, state police spokesman, said in a statement reaching here that several weapons have been recovered after Sunday's violence, where at least 500 were killed in a communal violence.

"The Police arrested 93 person and they are in two categories," the statement said.

"The police arrested 19 Fulani's with sophisticated weapons in Anjuri village in Jos east Local Government Area," it added.

According to the statement, the 19 Fulanis' said they were on a revenge mission with the weapons.

"We also arrested 74 people from Mangu area of the state, with different weapons," the police said.

Weapons recovered includes, four double barrel guns, two locally made double barrel, five AK 47, 5 mm ammunition, 34 live cartridge and many local made charms, the statement said.

According to the statement, troops had been seen in Nigeria's northern city of Jos after the communal violence.

The latest military move came after a Nigerian government official confirmed on Monday that at least 500 had been killed in a communal clash in Jos, which followed the crisis on Jan. 17 in the same region when some youths attacked worshippers at St. Michael's Anglican Church in Nasawara Gwom.

Meanwhile, the country's newly appointed Acting President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday said all the security services in northern Plateau State and neighboring states should be on red alert so as to stem any cross border dimensions to this latest conflict.

LOME, March 8 (Xinhua) -- One of the seven candidates in Togo's presidential election has acknowledged the victory of incumbent Faure Gnassingbe after Thursday's vote.

Nicolas Lawson, the candidate for the Party of Renewal and Redemption (PRR), told a press conference here on Monday that he "is forced to acknowledge the victory" of outgoing President Faure Gnassingbe, who was re-elected with 60.94 percent of the votes cast.

"Our PRR party is forced to acknowledge this victory even if we have some misgivings," he declared, encouraging the president- elect "to transcend the rejoicing of his supporters and to tame the destabilizing opposition."

Lawson also called on Faure to "restore without any delay, the state authority and to return the country to order and discipline. "

He reiterated that the reports of this election were signed by presidents, vice-presidents and rapporteurs of the Local Independent Electoral Commissions (CELI) coming from the different groupings of the ruling Assembly of Togolese People (RPT), the Action Committee for Renewal (CAR) and the United Forces for Change (UFC).

To this effect, he recognized the victory of Faure "that was ratified and announced by the three cited parties."

Meanwhile, the PRR leader said he had observed that in Togo "nothing has changed and nothing is about to change."

On demonstrations to protest against the re-election of Faure, the PRR candidate warned that "it will be national suicide to continue finding excuses for discussions and making demands."

UFC candidate Jean-Pierre Fabre who got 33.94 percent of the votes, according to the provisional results, is contesting the 60. 92 percent attributed to Faure, vowing to form a parallel government very soon.

Six candidates including a woman were in the race against Faure who came to power in April 2005 and sought for his second term.

MOGADISHU, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The radical Islamist group of Al Shabaab in Somalia on Monday said it will not be weakened by moves by a number of governments to ban it from operating and seeking funds in their respective countries.

Britain this week said it plans to follow suit with the U.S., Canada and Australian in listing the hardline group as a terrorist entity and banning its operation within their respective countries.

"(The move) is part of the wider conflict between Muslims and Christians and it will not harm us but will only confirm to us that ours is the right path," Ali Mohamoud Rage, spokesman for the group told reporters in Mogadishu.

The Islamist movement which is waging a deadly insurgency against Somali government and African Union (AU) peacekeeping forces has recently declared its association with Al Qaeda.

The UK move to ban the movement comes as the Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed plans to go on an official state visit to Britain where he is expected to meet the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other senior officials.

The Islamist spokesman attributed the timing of the British plan to ban the organization as an attempt to pressure the Somali Diaspora in the UK who he said are opposed to the British support for the peacekeeping forces in Mogadishu which the group sees as an occupying force.

"It is meant to pressure Somali Diasporas to welcome the leader of the apostate government and that they will be branded as supporters of Al Shabaab if they did not," Rageh told reporters in Mogadishu.

Two British citizens are currently being held hostage by Somali pirates after they sea-jacked the elderly couple's yacht last October as it sailed across the Indian Ocean towards Tanzania. The pirates are demanding a ransom of seven million U.S. dollars for the release of the British hostages.

Al Shabaab, which says it has no links with the pirates, controls much of south and center of Somalia and have carried out a number of high profile attacks against Somali government officials and African Union peacekeeping forces.

The group has claimed responsibility for most of the suicide attacks in Somalia using car bombs and explosive vests as well as deadly roadside bombs and near daily attacks on Somali government forces and African Union peacekeepers based in Mogadishu.

NOUAKCHOTT, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Mauritania remains at the center of finding the solution to the kidnappings of five Europeans -- three Spanish humanitarian workers and an Italian couple, who were kidnapped in November and December in the African country by members of North African wing of Al-Qaeda (AQMI).

These hostages have become the bargaining instruments of AQMI, which managed to let go four terrorists detained in Mali recently in exchange for the release of a French hostage Pierre Camatte.

The group is now demanding the release of four more terrorists in a Nouakchott prison in exchange for the five Europeans.

AQMI threatened to execute the Italian hostages if Mauritania does not release their members before March 1.

This ultimatum has expired. Nouakchott remains firm on its position resisting any form of pressure.

On Thursday, Mauritanian Prime Minister Moulay Ould Mohamed Laghdhaf reiterated the refusal of his government to negotiate with the Al-Qaeda terrorist groups, saying the country would never accept a swap of prisoners and hostages in their possession, or make any gesture to show that they have bowed down to pressure from terrorist groups.

"There will be no negotiations with terrorist groups and there will be no exchange of any one with whoever was kidnapped," the premier declared.

Meanwhile, Laghdhaf pledged that Mauritania "is doing all within its powers to ensure that the hostages held on our country's territory can get back their freedom and that they are able to return to their country."

Mauritania, which vows to remain faithful to a common stand by regional countries in the fight against terrorism and not fall prey to the blackmail of terrorists, condemned Mali's release of four terrorists in exchange for Camatte.

In protest of the swap, Nouakchott recalled its ambassador from Bamako. "It's true that we responded in a diplomatic way to this act which we considered to be unfriendly, but for other things, nothing has changed," Laghdhaf explained.

Malian Foreign Minister Moctar Ouane, on his part, played down the differences between the two neighboring countries.

"The Malian government remains strongly attached to the secular and friendly relations and also good neighborliness in particular with the People's Republic of Algeria and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania," Ouane said in reference to the recall of ambassadors by both countries.

It's clear according to the observers that with good coordination between the sub-regional states and the support of Europeans, a better strategy in the fight against terrorism will be developed.

One of the goals is to cut off the logistical chain of terrorists who collude with the traffickers of drugs and arms, as in a recent case where some drug traffickers working together with terrorists were arrested.

For the moment, the crackdown is limited by the fact that the European governments are being held hostage by the public opinion of their citizens, who are calling for saving the lives of those in the hands of kidnappers.

They are haunted by the memory of the execution of a British hostage at the expiry of Al-Qaeda's ultimatum.

KAMPALA, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Over 500,000 people in mountainous areas and their surroundings in eastern and western Uganda are facing high risks of landslides and floods, an official warned here on Monday.

Musa Ecweru, Minister of State for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees told a pressing briefing that the most risky areas are those neighboring Mt. Rwenzori and mountainous areas in Kigezi in western Uganda and those neighboring Mt. Elgon in the eastern part of the country.

"The total population at risk of landslides and floods is estimated to be about 500,000 people," he said, warning that more people could be affected after latest meteorological reports indicating possible above normal rainfall for the current rainy season which ends in May.

Ecweru's warning comes just after a week a devastating landslide engulfing four villages on a hilly slope in Bududa district, killing 83 residents whose bodies have been retrieved from two villages and leaving about 350 more still missing and feared dead.

Out of the 500,000 affected people, over 300,000 have fled their homes in fear of landslides and floods in the eastern districts of Butaleja, Budaka and Tororo, he said.

He said government plans to resettle some of the population at very high risk to safer locations once the emergency operations of the Bududa incident ends.

NAIROBI, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday called on Africa to lay policy foundation for the continent's economic transformation, saying governance and climate change are major challenges facing the continent.

Speaking in Nairobi during a panel discussion, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Africa also faces the twin challenges of reviving strong growth and reinforcing resilience to the economic shocks that regularly batter the continent.

"The twin challenges for Africa are to revive strong growth and reinforce resilience to shocks," he said in a speech that set the scene for a panel discussion involving Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi.

Strauss-Kahn assessed the impact of the global economic and financial crisis on Africa. While noting that the crisis had struck Africa through many different channels, he said that "all across the continent, we can see signs of life, with rebounds in trade, export earnings, bank credit, and commercial activity."

The IMF chief who arrived in Kenya on Saturday will also visit South Africa and Zambia to reinforce the IMF's improved relations with the continent, talk with political and business leaders, and promote the continued transformation of Africa.

"After getting through the global economic crisis relatively well, Africa must now address longer term challenges to the continent's future, including governance issues and climate change, to be able to press ahead with the region's economic transformation," Strauss-Kahn said.

The IMF director said African countries were largely innocent victims of the global financial crisis. He said the war-ravaged continent will continue to face large, persistent and costly shocks, and these shocks will continue to cause great human suffering.

Without a secure standard of living, Strauss-Kahn said people might turn to unproductive or even violent activities, possibly leading to instability, a breakdown of democracy, or war -- all compounding the initial suffering.

LOME, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The victory of outgoing President Faure Gnassingbe in presidential election was celebrated Sunday amid traditional dances at the headquarters of the ruling Assembly of Togolese People (RPT) in the capital Lome.

Hundreds of members and supporters of the party were gathering for the jubilation to hail the re-election of Faure, 43, who came to power in 2005.

According to the provisional results announced by the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI), the official organ to unveil the provisional results, Faure won the election with 60.92 percent of the votes cast.

His closest rival Jean-Pierre Fabre of the United Forces for Change (UFC) got 33.94 percent, despite his claim of win on Friday.

In front of the RPT headquarters, a crowd is dancing to the sound of drums and other traditional instruments to celebrate the publication of the results showing their candidate "genuinely" won the election.

"Faure has clearly won and we have emerged at the top," "a victory that cannot be contested," "Faure has won fairly this time round before the Togolese people and the international community," they repeated the words in their improvised songs of jubilation.

"You must guard your serenity and maintain the discipline which distinguishes our party," the RPT deputy secretary general, Bamenante Komikpime, told the cheering crowd gathering under the scorching sun.

He called on the supporters not to engage in any form of violence and to avoid anything that might lead them into violence, because the "re-elected presidential candidate" made non-violence the key word of his policy of Togo's reconstruction.

Bamenante also asked the supporters and party faithfuls to remain steadfast and work together with Faure in the next five years after the final results are declared by the Constitutional Court and the swearing-in ceremony is held.

Faure began to serve his first term after a hotly contested election in April 2005, following the death of his father Gen. Gnassingbe Eyadema on Feb. 5 2005, after ruling the West African country for 38 years.

LOME, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Jean Pierre Fabre, the candidate for Togo's biggest opposition United Forces for Change (UFC), said on Sunday he would soon name a prime minister despite the provisional results showed that he had lost in Thursday's presidential election.

According to the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI), which has the mandate to publish the results, the 58-year- old UFC chief scored only 33.94 percent of the vote, far behind outgoing President Faure Gnassingbe, who was re-elected with 60.92 percent.

In a statement by the UFC-led four-party coalition, the Republican Front for Change (FRAC), Fabre claimed himself the "president-elect," rejecting the provisional results unveiled by CENI.

He declared that the appointment of a prime minister is a "timely thing" that will help "to preserve social peace" in Togo.

Fabre made the statement while the opposition was staging protests on the streets against the provisional results, which he dismissed as "neither verified nor validated."

"This is obviously an electoral fraud," the statement said, accusing CENI of declaring results other than from the ballot boxes.

"Beginning today, the fight to take over power will be an everyday affair," said the statement signed by Kofi Yamgnane, the spokesperson of FRAC.

On Sunday, the security forces used tear gas to disperse supporters of the UFC. Sources close to the UFC and FRAC said 10 members of the opposition were arrested, including Adja Gerard, an advisor to the leader and candidate of the Organization to Build Togo in Unity and Solidarity (OBUTS), and those from the Citizens' Movement for Change (MCA).

Adja was arrested when he was found in possession of "materials that were calling for civil disobedience," a senior official of the presidential election security forces (FOSEP) explained.

FOSEP also confirmed that some members of MCA were apprehended when they were preparing to carry out acts of violence.

PARIS, march. 08 (Reuters) -- A French frigate operating off the coast of Somalia has captured 35 pirates in just 48 hours, the French Defence Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

It was the biggest such haul since European Union navies started patrolling the Gulf of Aden and western Indian Ocean in December 2008 in an effort to end a spate of hijackings in the busy shipping lanes.

The French frigate, the Nivose, seized four "mother ships" and six skiffs in various sweeps on pirates over the past two days, with a Spanish aerial patrol and two helicopters identifying and tracking down the pirates.

"Some warning shots were needed to dissuade the pirates from fleeing," the ministry statement said.

They did not say where the men would be taken, though both Kenya and the Seychelles have been prosecuting pirates on behalf of Western nations patrolling the seas.

The coast off Somalia is one of the world's most dangerous places for shipping. The number of attacks worldwide jumped by 40 percent last year, with gunmen from the failed Horn of Africa state accounting for more than half the 406 reported incidents.

The pirate gangs and their backers within Somalia and abroad have made tens of millions of dollars in ransoms.

HARARE, march. 08 (Reuters) -- Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on Sunday Zimbabwe should invite international observers and a peacekeeping force to ensure that its next national election is free and fair.

Tsvangirai formed a coalition government with President Robert Mugabe a year ago to end a political and economic crisis, but analysts say mutual suspicion and strategic positioning are delaying democratic reforms meant to clear the way for a poll next year.

Addressing a party rally just outside Harare, Tsvangirai told supporters of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that Zimbabwe could guarantee that violence which has marred previous parliamentary and presidential elections is avoided by accepting observers and a peacekeeping force.

"Lets bring in foreign observers for the next elections... We can use the African Union and SADC (Southern African Development Community) forces for peacekeeping during the election period," he said.

There was no peacekeeping force in 2008. Mugabe allowed poll observers from SADC and the AU but refused those from Western countries, saying they were biased against his ZANU-PF party.

"We want a peacekeeping force so that we can have a free and fair election," he added.

Tsvangirai charges that Mugabe -- 86, and in power since Zimbabwe's independence from Britain in 1980 -- has remained in office by using violence and rigging elections, including a 2008 presidential run-off which the MDC boycotted over violence.

Under a global political agreement that brought together Mugabe's ZANU-PF and Tsvangirai's MDC party into a power-sharing government, Zimbabwe must free the media sector and write up a new constitution and hold elections in two years, but the whole process is running months behind schedule.

On Thursday, Mugabe said he would stand for re-election if his party nominated him, brushing off calls for him to make way for a younger successor after 30 years in power.

Tsvangirai told his supporters on Sunday that his MDC was fed up with Mugabe's party over "endless talks" on disputes in the unity government, including the sharing of executive power and the appointment of various senior state officials.

"We are sick and tired of endless talks. We shall take measures so that there will be no more dialogue for dialogue's sake," he said, without elaborating.

Despite his frustrations with ZANU-PF tactics, Tsvangirai has said there is no alternative to the current power-sharing deal, which Zimbabweans hope will eventually produce democratic reforms and lead to elections acceptable to all.

KHARTOUM, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Two peacekeepers of the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), who had been missing following an attack by unknown gunmen in Sudan's Darfur region Friday, returned to their base, the UNAMID announced in a statement on Sunday.

A UNAMID team at Kass, 85 km northwest of Nyala, capital of the South Darfur State, reported that the two peacekeepers had safely returned to the base with the assistance of local people, according to the statement.

The soldiers managed to contact the team in Kass on Sunday and told the team their location, and a search and rescue patrol was immediately dispatched to collect them.

The two peacekeepers were found suffering from dehydration but were in stable conditions after receiving appropriate medical treatment.

On Friday, a UNAMID assessment patrol was sent to Deribat, in the Jebel Marra region of South Darfur, to assess the security and humanitarian situation following unconfirmed reports of armed clashes in the area, to pave the way for the provision of humanitarian emergency relief.

The patrol was ambushed and its peacekeepers detained before being released the next day.

Two soldiers of the UNAMID Protection Force were able to escape during the ambush, trekking over long distances at night in the desert, before returning to their team site.

They encountered locals who helped them find their way to a place from where they could contact their comrades and command.

In its statement, the UNAMID expressed its thanks and gratitude to the local people for the assistance to its peacekeepers.

The UNAMID also reiterates its commitment to find a lasting solution to the Darfur conflict.

CAIRO, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is in stable condition after a cholecystectomy surgery in Germany, the office of Egypt's Information Minister said in a press release on Sunday.

"President Mubarak spent an uneventful night with uninterrupted sleep in the intensive care unit, his recovery continues to progress satisfactorily," according to the release obtained by Xinhua.

"He is clinically stable, with normal vital signs, and his condition is really good this morning. ... He remains under our utmost medical care in the forthcoming days as he continues to recover," the release said quoting a joint brief made by Dr. Marcus Buchler of Heidelberg University Hospital and Egyptian Health Minister Hatem El Gabaly in Germany.

Mubarak, 81, has undergone on Saturday a successful cholecystectomy surgery in Germany after he suffered acute gall bladder inflammation accompanied by gall stones.

LAGOS, March 8 (Xinhua) -- At least 500 were killed in a communal violence in Nigeria, said a government official on Monday.

The clash followed the crisis on Jan. 17 in the northern city of Jos in Plateau State, when some youths attacked worshippers at St. Michael's Anglican Church in Nasawara Gwom.

Police spokesman in Plateau State Muhammed Lerama has confirmed the latest incident and said the acting Commissioner of Police in the state, Ikechukwu Aduba, would address the press on the crisis on Monday.

Meanwhile, the country's newly appointed Acting President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday said all the security services in northern Plateau State and neighboring states should be on red alert so as to stem any cross border dimensions to this latest conflict.

Guinea, march. 07 (AFP) -- Guinea is to hold a presidential election on June 27 for the first time since a military coup in December 2008, according to an official decree published on Sunday.

The decree was signed by interim leader General Sekouba Konate.

"The transition president, interim president of the republic, sets the date of the first round of the presidential election for June 27," the decree said.

The main electoral commission proposed the date last month and said a second round should be held on July 18 if no candidate gets an absolute majority.

The commission also proposed that the campaign run from May 17 to June 26.

Military rule was imposed on the resource-rich west African nation within hours of the death of long-time ruler general Lansana Conte in 2008.

A crackdown by the army against a rally in September last year killed 156 protesters, with troops shooting, stabbing and raping opposition supporters.

Guinea's Junta Chief Moussa Dadis Camara, who led the coup, is being treated in Burkina Faso after a trusted lieutenant tried to kill him in December

kigali, march. 06 (AFP) -- Rwanda said Saturday it had arrested a suspected mastermind of recent grenade attacks in the capital which injured 16 people this week and killed two others last month.

Attorney General Martin Ngoga said Deo Mushayidi, a former member of the then rebel group Rwandan Patriotic Front that ended the 1994 genocide, was arrested in neighbouring Burundi.

"Deo Mushayidi, one of the main perpetrators of these acts, was arrested in Burundi and is currently in the hands if the police," Ngoga told the state-run Radio Rwanda.

Sixteen people were injured Thursday in two near-simultaneous grenade blasts in Kigali, less than a month after two others were killed in the capital city by multiple grenade explosions.

Ngoga said police had "sufficient evidence" against Mushayidi.

The government has also accused two former senior army officers now exiled in South Africa of being behind the attacks.

Mushayidi fled to Belgium in 2000 and joined several diaspora opposition groups and last year formed his own party. He has been travelling around the region in recent months.

Lomé, March. 07 (AFP) -- Security forces in Togo fired teargas on hundreds of protesters on Sunday as the opposition vowed to contest the results of an election won by the west African nation's President Faure Gnassingbe.

Jean-Pierre Fabre, the main defeated candidate in the poll who was at the protest, took shelter in the party headquarters of the Union of Forces for Change (UFC) along with other opposition leaders after armed riot police moved in.

There were between 200 and 300 opposition supporters at the protest.

The crackdown came as the UFC threatened a wave of protests against Gnassingbe, who first came to power amid violent clashes that left hundreds dead in 2005 and is the son of the country's former strongman leader.

Gnassingbe was returned to office in Thursday's election with 60.9 percent of votes cast, defeating his main rival Fabre who took 33.94 percent, according to official results announced on Saturday.

But Fabre accused the official electoral agency CENI of falsifying the results of the poll, seen as a test of democracy for Togo, which was ruled for four decades by Gnassingbe's father.

"I do not recognise the so-called victory of Faure Gnassingbe," he told hundreds of supporters at the headquarters of his party.

"I have never wanted to use violence, but if I am stolen from, I will not give up the fight," warned the opposition leader, an economist.

"We are going to stage protests, we are not going to take this lying down."

"I totally contest the figures," said Fabre, who claimed to have obtained between 55 and 60 percent of the vote.

Ayih Folly, a 23-year-old activist, said: "If they think it is all over, they are mistaken.... We shall mobilise ourselves and pour on the streets to show them this time round that our victory is dear to us."

A young opposition protester near UFC offices told AFP: "Even if we are only three, we shall fight till the end. It is either Faure (Gnassingbe) goes or death."

In the same area, a woman screamed: "I myself will protest, even with bare hands until we take power. Lome rejects the family of Gnassingbe, in power since 43 years."

In another part of town, a young Gnassingbe supporter -- in a black tee-shirt emblazoned with the president's picture -- warned his camp was ready to fight back.

"They accuse us each time that we stole their votes, threatening to pour on the streets," said Evariste Adoul. "We shall show them that we also can take to the streets."

As tensions mounted, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for "calm and restraint" and for any grievances to be dealt with through legal channels.

Gnassingbe is the 43-year-old son of former leader Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled with an iron fist for 38 years over the poor country of 6.5 million.

Bloody unrest broke out in the capital of 1.5 million people following his election in 2005, claiming between 400 and 500 lives, according to the UN.

Thursday's election passed off without major violence but observers from regional bloc ECOWAS reported problems with ballot papers and a dozen opposition activists have been arrested since Saturday.

Riot police have been deployed across the seaside capital, where the streets were deserted for fear of violence. Another protest was teargassed on Saturday.

Security forces arrested the two main leaders of a UFC-linked youth movement, Dupuy and special forces commander Colonel Yark Damehane said.

They also picked up another 10 people including two aides to a defeated fringe candidate in the election, Messan Agbeyome Kodjo of the OBUTS movement.

Dahemane told AFP Kodjo's aides were detained for "distributing tracts and leaflets calling for a general uprising."

Kodjo, a former prime minister, accused the authorities of intimidation.

"These were not tracts, it was a statement signed in my name. This is arbitrary, it is an act of intimidation," he told AFP.

Dupuy also accused activists of the ruling Rally for the Togolese People of "intimidating and hunting UFC activists" in the Bassar region in northern Togo

Voters in the West African state of Togo are going to polls on Thursday amid fresh efforts to prevent the 2005 post-election violence being repeated.

Togo's incumbent President Faure Gnassingbe, who is seeking a second term, will be challenged by six opposition candidates, with the economist, Jean-Pierre Fabre, 58, as the main rival.

The 43-year-old Gnassingbe came to power in a controversial election in 2005 to continue his father's 38 years of ruling. Dozens of civilians were killed in the violence following the allegedly rigged vote.

The voting will begin at 7:00 am and close at 5:00 pm with more than three million people going to polls.

Contrary to the previous electoral race, the campaigns for the polls were finished Tuesday midnight peacefully.

Some 15,000 opponents of Togo's existing government gathered in Lome's stadium late Tuesday calling for an end to the tyrannical regime.

The current president has urged voters to remain calm and to keep the peace on polling day and during the vote-counting period.

The United Nations spokesperson Martin Nesirky also urged all those involved in the elections to ensure that the vote is free and fair.

"The Secretary General calls on all political leaders and institutions and calls on all leaders and institutions to ensure that the election is credible and peaceful and reflects the will of the people of Togo," Nesirky said.

Some 40 international observers from the African Union, 130 from the European Union, 150 civilians and 146 soldiers from the Economic Community of West African States have been deployed to the African state to ensure that Thursday's vote goes smoothly.