20100107

CONAKRY (Reuters) - Guineans were guardedly optimistic on Thursday about prospects for a move to civilian rule and a future without hospitalised military junta chief Captain Moussa Dadis Camara.

Acting head of state Sekouba Konate said on Wednesday Camara would need time to recover from a failed assassination bid in December, and that a prime minister from the opposition should head a unity government.

"It's positive for Guineans, because everybody wants a change," said Aboubacar Camara, an unemployed 30-year-old in the ramshackle capital Conakry, where huge army bases sit alongside patched-up bars and fish markets.

Guineans, initially hopeful when the Camara-led National Council for Democracy and Development (CNDD) seized power in December 2008 after loathed strongman ruler Lansana Conte died, long since lost faith in the junta.

The major turning point was September 28, when security forces killed more than 150 unarmed pro-democracy marchers and raped dozens of women in what a U.N. report described as crimes against humanity.

Since then, the country has been internationally isolated and economic activity has slowed, cutting jobs and making basic goods more expensive for Guineans, who hope the next leader pays more attention to the needs of the people.

"It's a question of doing something for the people, not of being in power without doing anything," said Conakry resident Djibril Camara.

The international community has welcomed the sidelining of Camara, the military ruler whose implication in the September 28 massacre had rendered him persona non grata even before a December 3 gun attack by an ex-aide that put him in a Moroccan clinic.

20100107

JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) - Armed Nuer tribesmen have killed at least 139 members of a rival tribe in an attack in a remote area of southern Sudan, an official said on Thursday.

The Nuer gunmen attacked Dinka cattle herders on Saturday in Tonj East, one of the most remote parts of oil-producing south Sudan, and seized about 5,000 animals, the deputy governor of the surrounding Warrap state, Sabino Makana, told Reuters.

"They killed 139 people and wounded 54. Nobody knows how many attackers were killed. But it may be many as a lot of people came to fight."

A surge of tribal violence in 2009 resulted in the deaths of about 2,500 people and forced 350,000 to flee their homes in the south, a report issued by ten aid groups including Oxfam, Save the Children and TearFund said on Thursday.

There was now a risk the violence could escalate, undermining a fragile 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of north-south civil war, the report added.

"A lethal cocktail of rising violence, chronic poverty and political tensions has left the peace deal on the brink of collapse," it said.

The underdeveloped region has long been plagued by violent tribal clashes, often involving cattle-rustling, although the scale of recent attacks has shocked observers.

Southern leaders last year accused Khartoum of backing militias to undermine the south, although some politicians acknowledged southern officials may also have been arming fellow tribesmen to build up support ahead of elections due in April.

20100107

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan immigration authorities deported a Jamaican Muslim cleric to Gambia on Thursday because they believed he had links to terrorism, the government said.

"Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal has chosen to go to Gambia and that country accepted to receive him. We have already deported him," Kenyan Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang told reporters.

Faisal was visiting Kenya for a preaching tour, but intelligence officials in the east African country feared his speeches would have encouraged radicalism in a nation that has suffered two al Qaeda-linked attacks. Police sources said he was placed on a flight to West Africa early on Thursday.

Faisal was also deported from Britain in 2007 for preaching racial hatred and urging his audiences to kill Jews, Hindus and Westerners. He was arrested in Kenya last week.

Attacks in Kenya include a 1998 bomb at the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, as well as a hotel bombing and a botched missile attack on an Israeli airliner leaving Kenya's Mombasa airport in 2002.

20100107

CAIRO (Reuters) - Coptic Christian protestors clashed with police in the southern Egyptian town of Nagaa Hamady on Thursday after six Christians and a Muslim police officer were killed in a shooting in front of a church, witnesses said.

The shooting took place after a Coptic midnight mass on Christmas, which is celebrated on January 7. Nine more Copts were wounded, the Interior Ministry said.

Protests took place inside Nagaa Hamady hospital and outside the church where the shooting occurred. Police later pushed the protestors into the church grounds.

20100107

TUNIS (Reuters) - The family of a jailed Tunisian journalist and government critic has begun a hunger strike to press for his release from prison due to his failing health, his wife said on Thursday.

A court gave Taoufik Ben Brik a six-month prison sentence in November after finding him guilty of assaulting a woman.

International press freedom groups say the charges were concocted to punish him for criticising Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, a claim officials have denied.

Ben Brik's family visited him at Seliana prison northwest of the capital Tunis on Wednesday and said they were shocked by a sharp deterioration in his health.

"Taoufik's health is very bad. He is in a lot of pain... The only weapons we have left are our bodies," Azza Zarrad, Ben Brik's wife, told Reuters.

She said she and his five brothers and two sisters would not eat until her husband is freed.

"We have chosen to die or to live an honourable life," she added.

Ben Brik suffers from diabetes, chronic diarrhoea and Cushing's Syndrome, a hormonal disorder, according to Amnesty International.

Government officials were not immediately available for comment. The authorities have repeatedly denied that Ben Brik was jailed for political motives, saying he was guilty of a violent assault and that no one was above the law.

20100107

SANAA (Reuters) - A Nigerian man accused in the attempted bombing of a U.S.-bound plane met a radical American Muslim preacher in Yemen during his time in the country, a top government official said on Thursday.

"According to our investigations, the Nigerian went to Shabwa (province) and met Anwar al-Awlaki," Rshad al-Alimi, Deputy Prime Minister for Defence and Security, told a news conference.

Awlaki, a radical English-speaking cleric linked to a gunman who ran amok a U.S. Army base in Texas, is believed to have later died in an airstrike on al Qaeda militants last month.

20100107

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe will begin auctioning diamonds from its controversial Marange fields on Thursday, state media reported, as the government moves to curb illegal trade and comply with international standards.

Rights groups, which accuse Zimbabwe's security forces of committing widespread atrocities in a bid to stop thousands of illegal diamond miners who descended upon the poorly secured fields in the eastern part of the country, have been pushing for a ban on Zimbabwean diamonds.

The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme -- which regulates the global diamond trade -- voted last November to allow Zimbabwe to continue mining and trading in diamonds, but gave it six months to improve conditions in Marange.

The government, through its mining arm Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation, has partnered little-known South African companies, Core Mining and Grandwell Holdings, to set up Mbada Diamonds, a joint venture firm which is mining diamonds in Marange.

Mbada Diamonds chairman, Robert Mhlanga, told the state-controlled Herald newspaper that about 300,000 carats worth of diamonds would be auctioned in Harare on Thursday.

International diamond buyers from the Americas, Europe Asia and Africa would take part in the auction, Mhlanga was quoted saying.

"This inaugural sale will be followed by a similar sale of another 300,000 carats next week, following about a month of mining operations at Mbada's...Marange diamond fields," Mhlanaga said.

"The entire process of mining, transportation and marketing is being done in compliance with the requirements of the Kimberley Process."

The Zimbabwe government would earn up to 80 percent of the proceeds from the diamond sales, the newspaper added.

20100107

ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Madagascar's government has said it will crack down on opposition leaders and their supporters, who reject plans for elections, if they provoke further civil unrest.

Prime Minister Colonel Camille Vital said anti-government protesters vandalised private property and disrupted traffic in the capital Antananarivo during clashes with security forces on Wednesday.

"It is unacceptable to take to the streets to disturb the public order and destroy the property of others," Vital said in a televised statement late on Wednesday.

"If this continues, we will take draconian measures on those who continue to go too far."

Madagascar's year-long political crisis risks deteriorating further as the Indian Ocean island's leader, Andry Rajoelina, forges ahead with unilateral plans for parliamentary elections, weeks after a power-sharing government appeared within grasp.

Major foreign companies including oil giant Exxon Mobil have been unsettled by the political fallout following the overthrow of Marc Ravalomanana in March last year.

The instability has led to a decline in exploration activities and a delay in the auctioning of dozens of offshore oil fields, officials say.

The African Union (AU) has urged African nations and foreign powers to redouble efforts to resolve the deadlock between the nation's bickering power-brokers.

20100107

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. grand jury on Wednesday indicted Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on six counts for trying to blow up an American airliner in a plot that exposed large breakdowns in U.S. security and intelligence.

The 23-year-old man, who has told investigators that he was given an explosive device by al Qaeda in Yemen and trained there, had been previously charged with trying to blow up Northwest flight 253 on Christmas as it was approaching Detroit from Amsterdam.

A grand jury in Michigan indicted him on six counts for the failed bombing, including attempted murder of the other 289 passengers and crew aboard the plane, and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.

The bomb, concealed in his clothing, contained the high explosive Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate (PETN) and Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP), among other ingredients, and it was designed for Abdulmutallab to detonate it at a time of his choosing, the indictment said.

Abdulmutallab's attempt to blow up the aircraft was thwarted by passengers and crew on the plane who extinguished the flames and restrained him.

A detention hearing was scheduled to be held on Friday in a Detroit courtroom, however it was not immediately clear whether that proceeding would occur.

20100107

ABUJA (Reuters) - Ailing Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua, who has been in hospital overseas for the past six weeks, has spoken to the vice president and heads of parliament, a government minister and state governor said.

It was not clear what was discussed between Yar'Adua and Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, but supporters said the conversations late on Tuesday showed the 58-year-old leader's health was improving.

The government is facing growing pressure from senior lawyers, political analysts and opposition party officials to provide concrete evidence that Yar'Adua is fit enough to govern Africa's most populous country.

The president has been absent from Nigeria for more than a month receiving treatment for a heart condition in Saudi Arabia, but there have been few updates on his health.

Jonathan has been presiding over cabinet meetings but executive powers have not officially been transferred to him, leading to questions over the legality of decisions made by the government in Yar'Adua's absence.

"The vice president told us in the cabinet meeting that he spoke with the president at about 8 p.m. (1900 GMT) yesterday. That is all I can tell you," said Information Minister Dora Akunyili.

Bukola Saraki, governor of Kwara state, told reporters Yar'Adua also spoke to Senate President David Mark and Speaker of the House of Representatives Oladimeji Bankole late on Tuesday.

"Prior to now a lot of anti-democratic individuals have been feeding you that the president cannot talk, is in a coma, and cannot converse, but the same president has now spoken with some people," Saraki said. "We are happy to say that he is improving very well."

20100107

LILONGWE (Reuters) - Amnesty International urged Malawi on Wednesday to release two men arrested last week after becoming the first gay couple to wed in the conservative southern African state, which bars homosexuality.

A Malawi court on Monday denied bail to Steve Mojeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga following their arrest on charges of public indecency over the December 26 symbolic traditional wedding.

In a statement, Amnesty International said the men's arrest was a violation of their rights to "freedom of conscience, expression, and privacy".

"Amnesty International considers individuals imprisoned solely for their consensual sexual relationship in private as prisoners of conscience and calls for their immediate and unconditional release," it added.

The rights group also criticised what it said were attempts to carry out examinations on the men to establish if they had sexual intercourse.

"The arrest ... risks driving underground men who have sex with men in Malawi, making it more difficult for access to information on HIV prevention and health services," Amnesty said.

HIV/AIDS has killed more than 800,000 people in Malawi since the first case was reported in 1985, decimating a generation of the adult age group and leaving more than one million orphans.

On Wednesday Malawi police said the two men had been taken for psychiatric tests in ongoing investigations. They face a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison if convicted.

20100107

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain announced a 54 million pound aid package for Sudan on Wednesday and said the African country faced a "crucial and critical time" ahead of elections important for the whole region's stability.

The oil-producing country, which emerged from a north-south civil war in 2005, is due to hold its first multi-party elections in more than two decades in April, followed by an independence referendum in southern Sudan next year, as part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

Failure to deliver credible elections could see a return to conflict, with implications not only for Sudan and its oil production, but for the whole region, minister for Africa Glenys Kinnock said.

"We understand these are crucial and critical times for Sudan," she said.

"The risk of a return to further conflict is a real one. We understand and accept that. We know what has to be done, and we just have to get on and do it."

Kinnock said Britain and the international community must pursue "strong and determined engagement" with Sudan, if long-term peace and security was to be secured.

During the past 12-18 months the international community has helped diffuse tensions fuelled by competion for oil revenues in a country divided along religious, ethnic and ideological lines.

The 2005 CPA formed a coalition government between the northern National Congress Party (NCP) and the former southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).

20100107

CAIRO (Reuters) - Five Coptic Christians were killed and 10 people wounded, including two Muslims, in a drive-by shooting in front of a church in southern Egypt, security sources said Thursday.

The attack was staged at midnight on the Coptic Christmas eve.

The five Copts were leaving Mary Gergis Church in the city of Nagaa Hamady after the Christmas eve service when a dark car pulled up in front of the building and unknown assailants opened fire. Two Muslims passing the church were also injured, security sources said.

Coptic Christians in Egypt celebrate Christmas on January 7.

Christians account for about 10 percent of Egypt's majority-Muslim population of roughly 80 million. Sectarian violence is rare, but religious disputes over issues including land or women occasionally erupt.

Nagaa Hamady is about 60 km (40 miles) from Luxor, the biggest city in the relatively underdeveloped south of the country. Security around churches is usually increased around Christmas and other religious holidays to prevent sectarian violence.

Medical sources at Qena General Hospital said two of the 10 were critically injured. All had gunshot wounds.

20100107

CONAKRY (Reuters) - Guinea's deputy junta chief pledged on Wednesday to pave the way for a return to civilian rule and announced that military leader Moussa Dadis Camara would need time to recover after an assassination attempt.

The comments by Sekouba Konate on state television were the clearest signal yet that Camara's political future was in doubt after a December 3 gun attack, and offered a possible way out of the deepening crisis in the unstable West African state, the world's top exporter of the aluminium ore bauxite.

"His life is not in danger but it will need time and patience, and medical attention for some time for him to recover fully," said Konate, who is also defence minister.

"We need to act to restore peace and the unity of all Guineans, and to put our state and political system on a new foundation," he said, promising to accept a prime minister drawn from the opposition as part of national unity government.

Camara, who took power in a bloodless coup in December 2008 after the death of President Lansana Conte, has not been seen in public for more than a month since he was evacuated for treatment in Morocco following the December 3 assassination bid by an ex-aide.

The Moroccan Foreign Ministry welcomed Konate's comments and revealed that Camara has been in intensive care.

"The Kingdom of Morocco ... which has received President Dadis Camara for intensive care, is pleased by the decision announced today by the Acting President General Sekouba Konate to immediately name a prime minister from the political forces to lead a transition government of national unity," it said.

Western diplomats in Rabat said they believed Morocco had joined hands with Paris and Washington to keep Camara away from Guinea and bolster efforts in Conakry to return the country to a civilian government in his absence.

20100107

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Two Sudanese men who kidnapped a group of tourists in Egypt's southern desert have each been jailed for 20 years, their lawyer said on Wednesday.

Masked gunmen seized the 19 hostages from Italy, Germany, Romania and Egypt while they were on a desert safari and took them over the border into Sudan in September 2008.

Sudan state media said at the time the kidnappers were members of a rebel faction from the country's strife-torn Darfur region, adding the Sudanese army had killed the leader of the band in a gunfight.

Abdullah Abdurahman and al-Haj Abdel Jabar, both from the Kornoi area of Darfur, were jailed on Tuesday after being found guilty of kidnapping, criminal partnership and engaging in war against the state, defence lawyer Tebn Abdullah told Reuters.

Abdullah said he would be appealing against the sentences. "They were not members of the kidnappers' group. They are victims themselves," he said.

The judge told Khartoum North court the men were both members of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army's Unity faction and six of their fellow kidnapers were killed in the rescue, said Abdullah.

07 January 2010

Solar-powered irrigation systems can boost food and income levels in rural Sub-Saharan Africa, researchers have found.
Solar_panel_2

Irrigation is known to reduce poverty in Asia, they wrote in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week, but the success of the technique is not well-documented in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The team, from Stanford University, United States, installed and analysed solar-powered drip irrigation systems - which use photovoltaic pumps to deliver groundwater to the surface - in arid Benin, where most farmers rely on a 3-6 month rainy season and irrigate by hand.

The researchers installed the solar pumps in two villages. Compared with villages using hand irrigation, the pumps led to more vegetables being produced and farmers earning more money.

Vegetable intake increased by 500-750 grams per person per day - equivalent to 3-5 servings of vegetables - during the rainy season in villages with solar systems, and people in control villages ate 150 grams more, suggesting that extra vegetables grown in the two villages were being sold in local markets.

"This study thus indicates that solar-powered drip irrigation can provide substantial economic, nutritional and environmental benefits," wrote the authors.

SciDev.net

07 January 2010

The United Nations has bolstered its defence of thousands of endangered animal and plant species in Africa by signing up an iconic sportswear manufacturer to a campaign promoting the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity.

The ‘Play for Life' partnership teams up the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) with Puma for a revolutionary new ‘Africa Unity Kit' - the first ever continental football kit, or uniform - to be worn as the official third strip by Puma-sponsored national teams at the African Cup of Nations, which kicks off on Sunday in Angola.

The 12 African national teams which wear Puma kits are also slated to don the continental strip for international friendly matches played in the lead up to the FIFA World Cup in South Africa this summer as part of the UN International Year of Biodiversity raising awareness about habitat and species conservation among football fans and the general public worldwide.

For the full story, please visit Afrol News.

07 January 2010

Solar-powered irrigation systems can boost food and income levels in rural Sub-Saharan Africa, researchers have found.
Solar_panel_2

Irrigation is known to reduce poverty in Asia, they wrote in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week, but the success of the technique is not well-documented in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The team, from Stanford University, United States, installed and analysed solar-powered drip irrigation systems - which use photovoltaic pumps to deliver groundwater to the surface - in arid Benin, where most farmers rely on a 3-6 month rainy season and irrigate by hand.

The researchers installed the solar pumps in two villages. Compared with villages using hand irrigation, the pumps led to more vegetables being produced and farmers earning more money.

Vegetable intake increased by 500-750 grams per person per day - equivalent to 3-5 servings of vegetables - during the rainy season in villages with solar systems, and people in control villages ate 150 grams more, suggesting that extra vegetables grown in the two villages were being sold in local markets.

"This study thus indicates that solar-powered drip irrigation can provide substantial economic, nutritional and environmental benefits," wrote the authors.

SciDev.net

07 January 2010

Zimbabwe's struggling power utility has signed an eight million dollar deal with Botswana to revive a shut-down thermal power station and ease national blackouts, state media reported on Wednesday.
dam

Under the deal, the Botswana Power Company will provide funds to the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) to refurbish the plant in the second city of Bulawayo and buy coal from the country's main colliery, the Herald newspaper said.

Zimbabwe will export power to Gaborone in return, it added. "The deal will see us reviving the Bulawayo Thermal Power Station and enabling us to generate 90 megawatts and of this 40 megawatts will be exported to Botswana," ZPC managing director Noah Gwariro told the Herald newspaper.

"This will go a long way in easing pressure on the national grid."

Bulawayo and other small thermal power stations in the country were shut down in June 2008 due to Zimbabwe's financial crisis and ailing infrastructure.

Since February last year, industrial activity has been rising from a low of 10 percent to almost 55 percent by year end, but growth is limited by the scant power supply - adding to the pressure for more coal or other energy sources.

The southern African country spends millions of dollars importing electricity from its neighbours, just to keep the lights on some of the time in parts of the country, which at times go for 15 to 20 hours without power.

Sapa-AFP

07 January 2010

China will finance the building of a second port in Kenya, a transport corridor and the upgrading of a railroad linking Kenya's Mombasa port and the Ugandan capital, a statement said Wednesday.

The second port is to be built in the coastal town of Lamu, said the statement from President Mwai Kibaki's office, but did not give figures.

Initially, the port was to be financed by Qatar under a deal to lease swathes of arable land to the Gulf state, but the agreement was shelved.

The road could provide a route to export Chinese oil from southern Sudan.

Kibaki, who met with China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi who visited the east African country, "welcomed the commitment that the government of the People's Republic of China has shown in the development of a second port at Lamu".

China also granted Kenya seven million dollars for "various projects in the country", the statement said.

"For Africa to further take off, it is very important to build up the infrastructure so that African countries can conduct intra-regional trade on a massive scale," Yang told reporters.

Sapa-AFP