Pretoria — All eyes will be on President Jacob Zuma as he chairs his second Cabinet Lekgotla at the Presidential Guesthouse in Pretoria this morning.

The three-day indaba brings together the 34 members of Cabinet, top government officials, provincial premiers and government advisors to evaluate government's mandate and priorities.

It is likely that the lekgotla will touch on the drop in the matric pass rate, the National Health Insurance and preparations for the FIFA World Cup to be held in South Africa in June, among other issues.

The meeting could also deliberate on the implementation of the mandate of the newly created government departments. Last week, President Zuma stressed the need for the new departments to get the ball rolling.

Government Spokesperson Themba Maseko is expected to brief the media ahead of the meeting.

Kigali — The investment arm of the Libyan government, Libya African Investments Portfolio (LAP), is keen on investing large sums of money in other sectors of the Rwandan economy.

The Chief Executive Officer of Rwanda Development Board, John Gara, revealed that the Libyans have hopes of exploring opportunities in mining, agriculture, real estate and tourism.

LAP has already invested in telecommunications and hospitality with the acquisition of controlling stakes in Rwandatel SA and Laico Umubano Hotel respectively.
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"The amount of their investments may increase because they are still identifying more opportunities in the country," Gara said.

The LAP delegation arrived in country on Monday to monitor and evaluate the performance of their existing investments and identify other possible ventures.

Khaled A. Kagigi, The Vice Chairman and CEO of LAP who headed the delegation, revealed that the investment group is set to construct 400 housing units in Kagarama, Kicukiro District.

"Construction will begin soon and it will be joint work between Rwandatel and LAP Constructions which is the construction arm under the Libyan Portfolio."

Kagigi also explained that the Portfolio decided to invest in the housing sector because it is one of the "promising sectors in Rwanda's economy."

During their three day visit, the delegation also met with Prime Minister Bernard Makuza and the ministers of Finance and Foreign Affairs, and the managements of Rwandatel and Laico Umubano Hotel.

Harare — Zimbabwe faces another poor agricultural season if significant rains do not fall over the next few days, farmers said yesterday.

Over the past few weeks, the condition of the staple maize crop across the country has deteriorated without signs of the current dry spell ending any time soon.

Farmers have also expressed uncertainty over how their banks will treat them after they accessed inputs under Government's loan facility, but can now not pay these back.
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Such provinces as Midlands, Matabeleland North and South, Manicaland, and parts of Mashonaland East and Central, and Masvingo have have been experiencing long dry spells with some areas having last received rains before Christmas.

Yesterday, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said the situation "was not rosy" due to the dry spell and the fact that farmers had experienced problems in accessing inputs at the start of the season.

"This year farmers planted one million hectares (of maize) compared to around 900 000 the last time.

"We are looking at how we can save this hectarage. In the northern parts of the country moisture will continue, but it's unfortunate that we cannot say the same about the southern parts of the country.

"A1 and A2 farmers had done very well and indeed the standards were very high. The provinces that are of major concern are our southern provinces . . . (including) strangely some parts of Mashonaland Central."

He said erratic electricity supplies had compounded the situation adding that fertilizer producers had faced challenges owing to energy and water shortages.

In an earlier interview on Monday, he warned farmers against applying top dressing fertilizer during the current dry spell as this would further damage the maize crop.

In a normal season, most farmers would now be applying top dressing.

He urged farmers to be patient and to work closely with extension officers.

"As we approach another week of the dry spell, farmers are urged to wait a little bit before applying top dressing. The ministry is therefore urging farmers to work closely with their extension officers who will provide guidance to them on what to do and when.

"Some crops might get worse if they are top dressed so farmers, especially commercial farmers should be cautious and be patient because it is better to delay applying fertilizer than to kill their crops."

He said farmers should avoid unnecessary further cultivation of crops as this exposed soil to moisture loss.

The minister said they were preparing the first crop assessment covering all the country's regions.

In some areas, farmers are reportedly thinking of replanting while others had already done so as their first crops were now a complete write-off.

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers' Union acting president Mr Isaiah Marapira said replanting was not advisable as the season was too far advanced.

"The situation is bad countrywide. The season is already out in terms of planting and there could be a disaster if it does not rain this weekend," Mr Marapira said.

He, however, said farmers could plant sunflower and sugar beans.

Zimbabwe Farmers' Union director Mr Paul Zakariya said replanting depended on whether significant rains would fall during the remainder of the season.

Mashonaland West farmer Mr Claudio Musina said he was already counting his losses as he watched his crop wilt under the dry conditions.

"Unfortunately, some of us do not have irrigation facilities and we depend on rains. Hopefully, financial institutions will be lenient when dealing with those who applied for input loans," he said.

Those who are beneficiaries of the input loans said they were afraid of losing their property to financial institutions because they were not in a position to pay back their loans.

Some observers have pointed out that the farmers could have abetted the disaster by taking heed of the weather forecasts made last year and planned their activities accordingly.

In July 2009, experts predicted a dry season attributable to the El Nino weather phenomenon and advised farmers to invest in irrigation and short-season varieties.

The Meteorological Services Department forecast normal rains for Harare, much of Mashonaland East, Mashonaland West, Mashonaland Central, north-eastern parts of Midlands and most of Manicaland for the first three months of the rainy season.

Below normal to normal rains were forecast for Matabeleland North and South, Masvingo, the greater of the Midlands and the extreme southern parts of Manicaland and Mashonaland East.

For the period January to March normal rains were expected in Mashonaland provinces, north-eastern parts of Matabeleland North, most of Manicaland, northern parts of Masvingo and northern parts of Midlands.

The department predicted below normal to normal rains for most of Masvingo and Matabeleland North, the extreme southern parts of Manicaland, Matabeleland South and the southern parts of Midlands

Dry planting from mid-October was encouraged.

Zimbabwe has for several years experienced debilitating droughts leading to poor harvests and food shortages.

Zimbabweans consume about 1,8 million tonnes of maize a year.

Aso-Rock became jittery yesterday, with the resolve of the Senate to take a definite decision on the prolonged absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua from duty tomorrow.

The Upper House in a preliminary verdict however said its decision will neither be for President Yar'Adua or for Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan. It said it would be guided by the provisions of the constitution.
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At the end of yesterday's closed session, Senate tied its next action to the presentation of the Secretary of the Government of the Federation (SGF), Alhaji Mahmud Yayale Ahmed, who is expected to the brief the lawmakers tomorrow on the state of the health of the president.

Daily Champion gathered that Senate's resolution for the second time to wait for the outcome of the SGF briefing was another safe landing for the leadership and pro- Yar'Adua's senators who were apparently overwhelmed by the mood of many senators yesterday.

Senate President, David Mark was reportedly troubled by the alleged plot to turn the heat on him in the event he attempts to stand in the way of anti-Yar'Adua senators.

A reliable source at the closed door session told Daily Champion that it took spirited efforts by Mark and other principal officers of the Senate to convince the anti Yar'Adua lawmakers to sheath their sword.

The source said Senators pushing to invoke section 144 of the 1999 Constitution to make Jonathan acting President were only assuaged by the resolution to suspend action till tomorrow after the SGF must have briefed them on the true health condition of the President who has been outside Nigeria for over 57 days.

Earlier, Minority Leader, Maina Ma'ji Lawal had raised a point of order, drawing the attention of his colleagues to a newspaper publication in which he and some of other senators were listed as anti-Yar'Adua elements in the senate.

He told the Senate quoting orders15, 16, and 18(matter of privilege) that he does not belong to anti-Yar'Adua camp as reported nor has he attended any meeting to discuss the President's health.

"We do not know of any group in the Senate, we are one united and there is no sectional interest other national interest in the Senate," he said

Senator Abubakar Sodengi who was also mentioned in the publication said: "I don't belong to any group and no body has called me for any meeting."

But Mark in his ruling however urged the Senate to ignore such publication, saying "Senate is a united family and we will remain united for the country."

Mark said Senate was not for Yar'Adua or Jonathan in this matter but will follow the path on constitutionality at all times.

He emphasised that the Senate would not be stampeded to do "what the constitution does not require us to do."

But Senate spokesman, Ayogu Eze at a news briefing after the session yesterday, said the decision of the Senate on the matter would be determined by the outcome of its meeting tomorrow with the SGF.

He said: "We hope that the SGF would answer all the questions that are agitating the minds of the senators when he comes on Thursday.

"SGF is the repository of these developments and should have first hand information on the health condition of the President and whatever Senate will do, will be after the briefing on Thursday."

Asked whether the impeachment will form part of the Senate's action, Eze said the Senate had respect for the constitution.

Eze had earlier told Daily Champion that the Senate lacked the constitutional powers to make Jonathan acting president

He said the Senate was more united adding that no meeting of senators took place in Kaduna at the weekend to discuss the health of the President. This was verified at the executive session.

Johannesburg — THE boom in China's investments in Africa over the past 17 years was driven more by simple profit motives than complex political and strategic considerations, an academic and government spokesma n said on Monday.

Zhong Jianhua, China's ambassador to SA, said during a debate at the Gordon Institute of Business Science in Johannesburg to mark the launch of the China Africa Network, that if business investments were made for political reasons, they would hardly be sustainable.
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He was answering a questioner who referred to the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China's investment in Standard Bank , expressing suspicions voiced by other commentators over several years that China's involvement in Africa could be more than merely commercial.

Last month the Centre for Chinese Studies at Stellenbosch University circulated an article warning that China's expanding interests in Africa threatened the environmental, economic and political stability of African society. Last year China became SA's biggest trading partner and in December it overtook Germany as the world's biggest exporter.

But Zhong said: "I wish I could give political instructions to business people. There may be some cases where people come here for political considerations but most business people come to SA, as in any part of the world, without political motivation. Otherwise it would not be sustainable."

Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande said China and Africa's cordial relations dated back to the 1950s and 1960s, when they grappled with imperialism and apartheid.

Through partnerships with countries like China, the continent could raise itself out of its current economic quagmire and address issues like poverty and underdevelopment, he said.

"It is important for us to manage this growth in trade and ensure minimal dislocation in our own economy," Nzimande said, referring to the priority of preserving jobs in SA. "It is only a logical next step that we expand academic exchanges that will explore alternative models for development, especially for developing countries."

The China Africa Network was launched this year with eight projects including research and training, director Martyn Davies said.

Johannesburg — AN INFLUX of up to 500 000 visitors during the Soccer World Cup is set to dramatically increase traffic on local telecom networks already experiencing "the wireless equivalent of gridlock", according to business advisory and audit firm Deloitte.

In a statement yesterday following the release of its report containing technology, media and telecommunication predictions for this year, Deloitte said the introduction of smartphones had had a profound impact on network demand, with nearly 600-million mobile broadband connections worldwide.
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Smartphone sales last year overtook those of portable PCs for the first time.

Danie Crowther, a partner at Deloitte, said that "perhaps the majority" of an estimated 500 000 World Cup visitors would be using smartphones while in SA, potentially adding to network congestion and further slowing broadband connections that already lag behind those in the US and Europe.

"We often have complaints about broadband speeds, and having such a large group of visitors will add to that," he said. "I hope our network providers are gearing up, otherwise they may have capacity issues."

Crowther called on network providers to substantially increase the number of mobile base stations in use, while stepping up capacity in stations near areas expected to see high network demand.

"But I'm not sure all these things are in place. If it hasn't been done yet, they're not giving themselves a lot of time," he said.

The Deloitte report predicted that the global telecommunications sector would focus heavily on reducing CO2 emissions this year, with a broad focus on cost control.

Firms in SA were expected to see this as "an even bigger priority", due to concerns about electricity capacity problems and Eskom's expected 35% tariff increase.

"Going green is a hot topic in many industries, but the telecom sector can move particularly quickly," said Crowther.

He expected to see a drive to make network base stations more energy efficient, and to develop cellphone chargers that switch off once the phone's battery is charged.

Deloitte made a further series of predictions about the media, including the forecast that "the newspaper and magazine industry will continue to threaten to charge readers for online content, but that talk is unlikely to be matched by action".

The report said that online readers might sign up to proposed micro-payment schemes, "but only if the content is good enough and worth the effort. For some, acquiring an article for 30c online may not justify the time taken to enter credit card details."

Mark Casey, Deloitte's technology, media and telecommunication industry leader, said that South African media companies "haven't got the scale to create payment systems on their own.

"For the time being they will concentrate on cost management, and preventing the further cannibalisation of print subscribers by free online content."

Casey believes there is a market in SA for paid-for online news, "provided the purchase process is quick and easy".

Deloitte predicted a bright future for the net tablet, designed to fill the market gap between smartphones and netbooks.

20100119

Monrovia — Farmers are turning to urban gardens as a way to boost food security in Liberia's Montserrado County, where just one percent of residents grow their own produce today compared to 70 percent before the war.

Some 40 percent of Liberia's population lives in the capital, Monrovia - located in Montserrado - after years of fighting sparked rural communities to move to the city. Many new arrivals had no access to land and have crowded into slums.
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Over half of Monrovia's residents live on less than US$1 a day, according to the World Bank.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is targeting 5,000 urban residents of Montserrado, Bomi, Grand Bassa, Bong and Margibi counties, to encourage them to start market gardens or increase the amount of fruit and vegetables they grow on their farms. Participants had to have access to tools and some land.

The aim is to improve food security and nutritional status while boosting incomes, said project coordinator Albert Kpassawah.

Participants told IRIN they plant hot peppers, cabbage, calla, tomatoes, onions, beans and ground nuts.

Health and nutrition experts in Liberia say increasing fruit, vegetables and protein in people's diets is vital to reducing chronic malnutrition, which currently affects 45 percent of under-fives nationwide.

Joseph Rogers has a half-acre market garden in Johnsonville on the outskirts of Monrovia, which he plans to expand. "I am planting cabbage... I used to [grow vegetables] before the war, but [my crops] were damaged in the crisis. It affected my family."

When he lost his garden his family found it hard to eat, he said. Now he grows enough to sell part of his produce.

"Sometimes people come here to purchase huge quantities. I pay for the school fees with the money I earn," Rogers told IRIN.

Paul Tah, father of six, had never farmed before he got involved in the FAO project. "I got interested in this project because of the lack of jobs in this country," he told IRIN. He now makes $200 each season from selling peppers.

"My family is in fine health. This is my livelihood now. I don't have to depend on a government job to survive."

Limitations

FAO assists primarily by providing seeds and training in techniques such as conserving rainwater and composting. The organization does not provide fertilizer, insecticides or tools - a concern to some participants. "You cannot grow cabbage without insecticide. It doesn't work," Anthony Nackers told IRIN.

Vermin, insects and poor storage destroy 60 percent of Liberia's annual harvest, according to FAO.

And many of the most vulnerable city-dwellers - those with no access to land - cannot participate at all, FAO's Kpassawah pointed out.

But he said he hopes the project's benefits will spread beyond immediate participants, since all who take part are encouraged to pass on their training to relatives, neighbours and friends.

And there is ample scope to expand techniques learned from cities to rural areas, he pointed out. Just one-third of Liberia's 660,000 fertile hectares are being cultivated, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

20100119

Nairobi — MPs meeting in Naivasha on Tuesday voted to deny women equal rights to men in marriage.

Members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on the review process also refused to cushion the civil society and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights in the new constitution.

Clauses referring to religious groups under this chapter, which they described as bulky, were also struck out.
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The MPs, on the second day of their meeting, were debating the chapter on the Bill of Rights which they were unable to conclude on Monday. They agreed to eliminate from the draft constitution a clause that was likely to pave the way for gay marriages.

The 26-member team, which is navigating through the draft constitution, felt the chapter was too detailed with some of the lawmakers describing some of the provisions as redundant and inherently activist.

"We overwhelmingly feel that the CoE was overly influenced by NGOs in drafting the chapter. It is not logical to have issues such as rights to water, housing and food," said a member who sought anonymity.

Among other proposals, the chapter proposes that every person has a right to social security, health, founding a family, housing, food, clean water, safe environment, access to quality goods and services, and efficient administrative action.

On Tuesday, MPs who debated the chapter for more than five hours, voted to delete sub-clause 42(4) which sought to guarantee women and men equal rights at the onset, during and at the dissolution of a marriage.

The decision was reached in spite of protests from women members of the PSC. The committee comprises five women members and 21 men.

Same sex

The clause states: "Parties to a marriage are entitled to equal rights at the time of the marriage, during the marriage and at the dissolution of the marriage."

They rejected another sub-clause which sought to guarantee every adult the right to start a marriage. Members argued the clause was a loophole that could be exploited by proponents of same sex marriages.

Sub-clause 42 (3) says: "Every adult has the right to found a family." It is ironical that this open-ended sub-clause comes after one that outlaws gay marriages.

Other losers on day two of the six-day retreat were civil society organisations, religious groups and the KNCHR. The MPs are said to have decided that all references to the civil society should be removed and that a provision anchoring the KNCHR in the constitution be removed.

"There was consensus that there was no need to have the commission in the constitution since it was already established under an Act of Parliament," one of PSC members said.

They also decided that any reference to the civil society should be deleted from the chapter and in any other reference to its role in the running of government.

Outlaw abortion

The PSC also declined to insert a clause indicating at what stage life begins. Religious groups have been asking that the new constitution stipulates that life starts at conception to outlaw abortion.

The PSC is said to have decided that all rights deemed as unenforceable should not be in the constitution.

Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs minister Mutula Kilonzo asked for patience from the public. He said the issues being discussed were pertinent and told the media to "accept the committee's pace."

"We cannot rush these things... we have to ensure we deliver a good document," Mr Kilonzo said.

According to the programme, the committee should have cleared the first seven chapters on Monday, but it only managed the first four chapters.

The committee is thus one day behind schedule, with much of the time yesterday being spent on the chapter on the Bill of Rights.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A Sudanese court sentenced two men to death on Tuesday for their part in a surprise attack on Khartoum by rebels from western Darfur region in May 2008.

The sentence brought to 105 the number of people who have been handed down death sentences for joining the unprecedented raid on the Sudanese capital. No executions have so far been reported.

Fighters from Darfur's insurgent Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) drove hundreds of kilometres (miles) across desert and scrubland to a few kilometres from the presidential palace before they were stopped by government troops.

Sudan says more than 200 people, many of them civilians, were killed in the raid.

Stalled peace talks between JEM and the government are due to restart in a few days in Doha. No one was immediately available to comment from JEM.

Five men were cleared of all charges and released. Two other men were convicted of helping a JEM leader escape from Khartoum after the raid. One was jailed for three years, and the judge ordered the other to be released as he was aged over 70.

The United Nations says 300,000 people have died in Darfur since ethnic and politically driven conflict there flared in 2003.

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to face charges of orchestrating war crimes in Darfur. Bashir's ruling party rejects any cooperation with the ICC, and the government puts the Darfur death count at 10,000.

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline Plc hopes to seek approval by 2012 for its experimental malaria vaccine and said on Wednesday it would seek only a small profit and ensure it is widely available in hard-hit countries.

Chief Executive Andrew Witty also said the company would give away access to a stock of 13,500 potential malaria treatments for others to test and develop further if they show promise against the disease.

Glaxo will likely derive a "small 5 percent return" on the vaccine, Witty said, enough to help encourage other drugmakers to continue their own research against diseases that remain big killers in least developed countries.

"(Its) sales in dollars will be a very small number," he told reporters ahead of a planned speech on Wednesday to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

"We must ... ensure that we do not do anything which would discourage other companies from entering into this field," he said, adding that Glaxo's return would be reinvested into research on medicines for diseases in poor countries.

"If we set a precedent of not-for-profit (pricing), we could discourage others from doing research into malaria or other neglected tropical diseases."

The Mosquirix vaccine is expected to complete late-stage trials in 2011 involving 16,000 people. If proven effective, and approved by regulators, it would be the first to protect against infection with mosquito-borne parasites that cause malaria.

"If it lives up to its promise, I think it's incredible," Witty said. He said it could be a major weapon in the battle against the disease, which kills more than 1 million people a year worldwide, most of them children in Africa and Asia.

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's central bank on Tuesday limited the tenure for chief executive officers at domestic financial institutions to a maximum of 10 years to prevent a repeat of last year's multi-billion dollar bank bailout.

The regulator said it would give affected banks up to July 31 to find successors to their current CEOs. It would not specify which banks would be impacted by the regulation.

"The Central Bank of Nigeria ... has issued the following guidelines to address some corporate governance issues in the deposit money banks," it said.

To avoid conflicts of interest, the regulator also prohibited top central bank officials from seeking jobs with private financial institutions for at least three years.

Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi has made banking reforms one of his top priorities and has imposed a series of bold measures welcomed by foreign investors.

Nigeria's central bank has injected about 600 billion naira into the banking system since mid-August and sacked senior executives after its auditors found lax governance at nine institutions had left them dangerously undercapitalised.

It injected 400 billion naira into Afribank, Finbank, Intercontinental Bank, Oceanic Bank and Union Bank on August 14 and sacked their top management after the first round of the audit.

Two months later it said it was providing 200 billion naira to four more banks -- Bank PHB, Equitorial Trust Bank, Spring Bank and Wema Bank -- also judged to be facing a grave liquidity crisis.

BOSSASO, Somalia (Reuters) - A gunman has shot dead a local politician in the northern Somalia's Puntland, the latest political to rock the semi-autonomous region.

Witness Nor Abdulle said legislator Mohamed Abdi Daqare was attacked in a street in the port of Bossaso on Tuesday night.

"An armed man shot the M.P. in the head. Armed police sealed off the area and arrested the shooter," Abdulle told Reuters.

A relative of the politician separately said Daqare had later died in hospital from head wounds.

Puntland has been relatively stable compared with the rest of the chaotic Horn of Africa nation. But insecurity has increased in recent months in the region, which is also a base for pirates who threaten shipping off the Somali coast.

Experts say the area is also home to organised criminals, including currency counterfeiters and human traffickers.

In early January another legislator was shot dead, while in separate incidents in November, a legislator and a judge who had jailed pirates and hardline rebels were also assassinated.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's retail sales fell by 6.6 percent year-on-year in November at constant prices, compared with a revised 6.1 percent decline in October, Statistics South Africa said on Wednesday.

Stats S.A. said retail sales decreased by 5.9 percent in the three months to November, compared with the same period a year ago, also at constant prices.

Economists polled by Reuters forecast a 5.0 percent year-on-year fall in retail sales for November.

JOS, Nigeria (Reuters) - Clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs subsided on Wednesday in Nigeria's central city of Jos, but sporadic gunfire could be heard in neighbouring communities as fighting spread to other parts of Plateau state.

Hundreds of soldiers and police were stationed throughout the state's capital city to enforce a 24-hour curfew, which has left many streets deserted and businesses closed.

At least 151 residents have been killed in four days of clashes, a senior mosque official said, with more bodies expected to arrive later on Wednesday at the city's main mosque.

"The fighting has stopped in Jos, but we can hear gunshots in other communities in the outskirts of the city. We are expecting more corpses to be brought in from surrounding communities later today," said Muhammad Tanko Shittu, a senior mosque official organising mass burials.

The official police figures were significantly lower with 20 people dead, 40 injured and 168 arrested since Sunday.

Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, in his first use of executive power, ordered troops to Jos on Tuesday to restore calm and prevent a repetition of clashes in November 2008, when hundreds of residents were killed in the country's worst sectarian fighting in years.

It was not clear whether President Umaru Yar'Adua, who has been in hospital in Saudi Arabia for nearly two months, had been briefed on the situation.

This week's violence erupted after an argument between Muslim and Christian neighbours over the rebuilding of homes destroyed in the 2008 clashes.

20100119

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday granted an appeal by prosecutors and set aside a ruling that invalidated the death sentence of black political activist Mumia Abu-Jamal for the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer.

His case has become a prominent cause for many death penalty opponents.

In a brief order, the Supreme Court sent the case back to a U.S. appeals court based in Philadelphia for further consideration in view of the high court's recent decision in an Ohio case that had raised similar issues.

The Supreme Court in the Ohio case unanimously reinstated the death sentence of a neo-Nazi convicted of murdering three men. The court's action, which was not a ruling on the merits of the case, could lead to Abu-Jamal's death sentence being reinstated, too.

The appeals court had ruled that Abu-Jamal, 55, deserved a new sentencing hearing because of flawed jury instructions.

Abu-Jamal, a former member of the Black Panthers militant group, was convicted and sentenced to death in 1982 for murdering white Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in an early morning confrontation on December 9, 1981.

The officer was shot after stopping Abu-Jamal's brother for driving the wrong way down a Philadelphia street. Abu-Jamal, a former radio reporter who was arrested at the scene, has maintained his innocence.

Abu-Jamal's jailhouse writings about the justice system have drawn the attention of many people around the world. His case attracted the support of many death penalty opponents, foreign political leaders and Hollywood celebrities.

20100119

LONDON (Reuters) - Circumcising newborn boys to stop them becoming infected with the AIDS virus in later life is more cost-effective than circumcising adult men, Rwandan health experts said on Tuesday.

A study by Agnes Binagwaho and colleagues at Rwanda's health ministry found that the operation, which has been shown to cut dramatically the virus' transmission from women to men, is quicker, simpler and more cost-effective in newborns.

The findings suggest "Rwanda should be simultaneously scaling up circumcision across a broad range of age groups, with high priority to the very young," Binagwaho wrote in the study in the Public Library of Science (PLoS) Medicine journal.

The researchers analysed the balance between the costs of medical intervention and its overall benefits. They found each newborn male circumcision would cost $15, while each adolescent or adult operation would cost $59.

They also found that circumcising male babies would ultimately save more money than it costs, because the operation would prevent HIV infections that are expensive to treat and lead to AIDS, which kills.

AIDS is caused by the incurable human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which is transmitted mostly through sex.

The disease has killed around 25 million people since it was identified in the early 1980s and an estimated 33 million people around the world are infected, most of them in Africa.

The penis foreskin, which is removed during circumcision, is rich in cells that are particularly easily infected.

20100119

OUAGADOUGOU/CONAKRY (Reuters) - Guinea's military junta has named veteran opposition politician Jean-Marie Dore as prime minister of a transition government charged with restoring civilian rule, a source close to the junta said on Tuesday.

Dore, head of the Union for the Progress of Guinea, will head a government with the task of leading the west African country towards its first democratic elections since Moussa Dadis Camara took power in a coup in December 2008.

Like Camara -- still convalescing outside the country after a December 3 assassination bid -- Dore is from one of the minority ethnic groups of Guinea's Forestiere region. His naming is hoped to persuade Camara supporters to back the transition process.

The appointment was made after discussions between Camara and Sekouba Konate, the junta's second in command who assumed control of the world's biggest bauxite exporter after Camara was shot in the head by an ex-aide de camp.

"Jean Marie Dore has been named Prime Minister," the source said. "He has been chosen not just for his experience but also for his knowledge of Guinean politics," adding that Konate was due to return to Guinea on Tuesday from Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadogou, where he met a frail and slow-speaking Camara.

The talks in Ouagadougo, during which trade unionist Rabiatou Serah Diallo and General Toto Camara were named as deputy prime ministers, were mediated by Burkinabe President Blaise Compaore.

The international community and Guinean opposition parties have demanded elections since Camara's coup sparked a political crisis which some feared could destabilise a fragile region.

That crisis intensified when security forces killed over 150 people at a pro-democracy march in September, a massacre for which the United Nations said Camara was responsible.

20100119

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya charged a prominent Muslim activist with incitement to violence on Tuesday over riots last week that rocked the centre of the capital Nairobi.

Al-Amin Kimathi, chairman of Kenya's Muslim Human Rights Forum, is accused in connection with Friday's protest against attempts to deport Jamaican cleric Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal, which degenerated into hours of running street battles.

The state-funded but independent Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) said the government risked divisions based on religion, in a country already divided along tribal lines, through its handling of the matter.

"The government appears to advance the same strategy of profiling persons of communities to pave the way for blanket violation of the rights of members of such communities," said, Hassan Omar, KNHRC's vice chairman.

Kimathi, who was arrested on Monday at Nairobi's High Court, where seven other suspects were charged over the turmoil, was later freed by the court on a cash bail of 100,000 shillings and ordered to return on Friday.

Civil unrest in Kenya is particularly worrying following post-election violence in 2008 that killed some 1,300 people. Given the regional threat from Somali radicals seen as a proxy for al Qaeda, it is even more of concern for a nation that has in the past been hit by two al Qaeda-linked attacks.

Later on Monday, Kenya's foreign affairs minister said the government had secured a flight to Jamaica for Faisal, and that it expected him to leave in two days.

20100119

YAMBIO, Sudan (Reuters) - Sudan's president on Tuesday said he would support the country's oil-producing south if it chose independence in a looming referendum, in his closest acknowledgement of the possibility of separation.

The unusually conciliatory speech from President Omar Hassan al-Bashir came as Sudan marked the fifth anniversary of a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of north-south civil war and promised the referendum.

Southerners are widely expected to choose independence in the ballot, scheduled for January 2011, although analysts have up to now warned Bashir's northern supporters would resist any loss of control over southern oil fields.

Bashir told dignitaries gathered in the remote southern town of Yambio that his northern National Congress Party (NCP) still wanted to keep Sudan unified.

"But if the result of the referendum is separation ... the Khartoum government will be the first to recognise this decision. We will support the new-born government in the south," he said.

Security was tight as Bashir spoke in a newly-constructed stadium in Yambio, close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Analysts and activists have released a series of reports in recent weeks, warning Sudan's northern and southern armies were re-arming and the country could slide back to war in the run-up to the southern referendum.

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir, speaking at the same event, played down fears that the 2011 vote would lead to a confrontation with the north.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices rose above $78 on Tuesday on expectations that Chinese economic indicators to be published this week will signal strong demand growth from the world's second-largest oil consumer.

China's industrial output probably jumped by 20 percent in the year to December from November's figure of 19.2 percent, a Reuters survey showed. That would be the fastest pace since February 2006.

Front-month U.S. crude futures settled on Friday below the 50-day moving average for the first time in three weeks and bounced back, setting an important support level at $78, said Mark Pervan, senior commodities analysts at ANZ.

U.S. crude futures for February delivery climbed as much as 68 cents from Friday's close of $78 and were trading up 25 cents at $78.25 by 0318 GMT. They touched a three-week intraday low of $77.07 on Monday.

Oil prices are still nearly 46 percent off their July 2008 high of more than $147 a barrel.

NYMEX will combine prices for Monday and Tuesday into a single trading session because of the Martin Luther King Day holiday.

"There is growing expectation that the Chinese data will surprise on the upside," said Pervan from Melbourne, Australia. "This means a reasonably strong commodities markets and oil is taking a lead from that."

A weaker dollar encouraged riskier trades in commodities. "That is also positive for the oil market," Pervan added.