20100101

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya is likely to have a new constitution in 2010, the east African nation's president said in his New Year address to the country.

The search for a new constitution -- viewed by some as a tool to check state powers and a guarantee of an equitable distribution of resources -- began in the early 1990s, but its realisation has been held back by various political interests.

The quest was given fresh impetus in 2008 when the former British colony, long held up as a model of stability in a region blighted by civil wars, erupted in deadly violence after disputed presidential polls in December 2007.

Under the terms of a peace deal brokered by international mediators, a team known as the Committee of Experts (COE) on the Constitution was formed and published a draft constitution in November, seeking the public's input.

"Our country is at the threshold of a new constitutional dispensation in the New Year... They (the COE) must now carefully and prudently harmonise these views," Mwai Kibaki said in the speech.

Kenyans expect a unifying, final document that reflects the will of the majority, the president said, adding the government would step up the implementation of projects aimed at stimulating east Africa's largest economy.

"I am confident that we are now ready to begin works on Kenya's second transport corridor linking us to Southern Sudan and Ethiopia and a new port at Lamu," Kibaki said.

He said the government would start various initiatives to help the country combat the growing effects of climate change.

"More emphasis will be placed on energy production via green pathways including geothermal and wind energy. We will also begin an ambitious plan of planting trees and get our forest cover to 10 percent," he said.

20100101

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian Vice President Goodluck Jonathan said on Friday he was hopeful that President Umaru Yar'Adua, who is in hospital in Saudi Arabia, would return soon and continue to govern Africa's most populous nation.

Yar'Adua has been absent for more than a month and Jonathan has been presiding over cabinet meetings. But executive powers have not officially been transferred, leading to questions over the legality of government decisions.

Political analysts, senior lawyers and a former U.S. envoy have warned Nigeria is on the brink of a constitutional crisis. The Bar Association has brought legal action to try to compel Yar'Adua to temporarily hand over power.

But in a wide-ranging New Year's Day address to the nation, Jonathan said "the ship of state continues to sail" and that "the nation remains united and driven by a common purpose".

"Although Mr President has been away from us for sometime on account of a medical condition, he has maintained sustained interest and optimism (in state affairs)," Jonathan said.

"We are hopeful Mr President would return to us before long to continue his good works, with renewed vigour and vitality."

Lawyers and members of the opposition who have challenged Yar'Adua's failure to formally transfer powers say affairs of state are already being affected.

A new chief justice was sworn in on Wednesday in Yar'Adua's absence, leading legal experts to question the legality of the ceremony. The top judge is a key position because he would in turn swear in a new president, legal experts say.

MOGADISHU, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Somalia's hardline Islamist rebel group of Al Shabaab on Friday vowed it will send fighters to fight along side radical insurgent groups in Yemen across the Gulf of Aden north of war torn Somalia.

The group, which controls much of south and center of Somalia, paraded hundreds of newly-trained Islamist fighters at a one of the group's base on the northeastern part of Mogadishu.

"We will help our brothers in Yemen. We will cross the sea between us and fight along side with you against the enemy of Allah," sheikh Muqtar Robow Abu Mansuur, a prominent Al Shabaab official, told hundreds of heavily armed newly trained militias who chanted "God is great" in Arabic.

Yemen, which borders Somalia just across the Gulf of Aden, has been fighting Islamist rebels opposed to the government there.

Al Shabaab, which wages relentless attacks on Somali government targets, said it was prepared to counter a possible offensive by the Somali government forces and African Union peacekeepers based in Mogadishu.

The groups' officials urged its militias to "destroy" the United Nations, the International Court of Justice in the Hague and the international community as a whole accusing them of being "anti-Islam".

The radical movement, the largest and most powerful rebel group in Somalia, which is considered a terrorist entity by the Somali government and several other countries, sees the international institutions as tools used by the West against Islam.

The Somali government which controls only parts of Mogadishu under the protection of some 5,000 African Union peacekeeping forces, enjoys international legitimacy but is fighting for its survival and is widely believed to be planning for a major offensive against the rebels in Mogadishu.

LAGOS, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Air passengers in Nigeria have been subjected to thorough screening before departure after a failed attack on a U. S. airliner by a Nigerian man.

Some of the security measures put in place by airports' authorities include further limits on carry-on luggage, more searches, and the requirement of passengers to stay in their seats for the last hour of their flights.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, is accused of trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines Airbus as it made its descent to Detroit on Dec. 25 from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.

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

Harold Demuren, director general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), said all the operatives involved in passengers facilitation have re-strategized with a view to ensuring no one passes through any of the airports skipping statutory screening.

Demuren appealed to both Nigerians and foreign travelers to cooperate with airport personnel as painstaking efforts would be made to ensure no one could slip by the airport security checks under any guise.

The 23-year-old under-graduate of Mechanical Engineering at the University of London reportedly detonated an explosive device aboard Airbus 330 aircraft while landing at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

The suspect, a son of a prominent businessman from northern Nigeria's Katsina State and former chairman of First Bank Umaru Abdul Mutallab, made the attempt on Christmas day.

20091231

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria is on the brink of constitutional crisis with its ailing president not transferring powers to his deputy and political king makers feuding over his succession, a senior lawyer and a former U.S. envoy have warned.

President Umaru Yar'Adua has been absent from Africa's most populous nation for more than a month receiving treatment for a heart condition in Saudi Arabia, but there have been no official updates on his health for weeks.

Vice President Goodluck 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 Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the umbrella body of all lawyers in the country, has launched legal action against the Attorney-General, asking a top court to declare that Yar'Adua has violated the constitution by omitting to transfer powers.

"We are saying there is a duty on the president to do it, it is not discretionary ... We cannot continue this way, we are not running a banana republic," NBA president Rotimi Akeredolu told Reuters in a telephone interview on Thursday.

"We are treading a very dangerous path and we have to be very careful. We are trying to paper over a few cracks ... but if we are not careful the whole building will collapse," he said.

The NBA's legal action follows a similar suit already brought by prominent human rights lawyer Femi Falana.

It also adds to a crisis in the judiciary triggered by the swearing in on Wednesday of a new chief justice, the first time in the country's history the head of state has been absent for the ceremony and an act some senior lawyers say is illegal.

20091231

LOME (Reuters) - Togo will hold its next presidential election on February 28, state media in the West African country said on Thursday.

President Faure Gnassingbe has ruled the world's fourth biggest phosphates producer since 2005, when he was elected amid violence and accusations that the vote was flawed.

In April this year, the president's brother Kpatcha was arrested and charged with plotting to overthrow the head of state after a foiled coup attempt.

The former French colony has been emerging from international isolation since the 2005 death of strongman Gnassingbe Eyadema, who seized power in 1967 and ruled the country until he died.

"The presidential election will be on Sunday 28 February 2010. Polling stations will open from 0700 to 1700," state media said.

20091231

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt has allowed 84 pro-Palestinian foreign activists to march to Gaza, which is under an Israeli-led blockade, an Egyptian official in the North Sinai governorate said.

Some 1,400 activists from 43 countries had gathered in Cairo since Sunday to mark the first anniversary of the Israeli three-week offensive on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Egypt said 100 activists would be allowed to pass through.

"Egyptian authorities made an exception and opened the Rafah border on Wednesday and allowed activists from the Gaza Freedom March to pass through," Alhamy Aref, secretary-general of the North Sinai governorate, said.

The activists, several hundred of whom were from France, had asked Egypt for permission to cross into Gaza but the Interior Ministry said the march was illegal and a threat to national security.

The group has staged protests almost daily since Sunday in different parts of Egypt, surrounded by a heavy police presence. Such demonstrations are rare in Egypt but no violence broke out and no arrests were made, witnesses and security officials said.

Israel controls the air space, sea access and most of the entry points into the coastal enclave of Gaza.

Egypt controls the Rafah border, imposing restrictions on the movement of Palestinians and some foreigners. It is also building a controversial steel wall along its Gaza border to prevent smuggling.

Talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been suspended since the December start of the Gaza war, in which 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.

The U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell is expected to visit the region in January for a fresh push to resume the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. But months of Mitchell's shuttling between the sides yielded no concrete signs of progress in 2009.

20091231

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A fall in street battles in the capital Mogadishu led to significantly fewer civilians being killed in Somalia this year, a human rights group said on Wednesday.

The Mogadishu-based Elman Peace and Human Rights Organisation said 1,739 civilians were killed in fighting in Somalia this year, down from 7,574 in 2008 and 8,636 in 2007.

"The death toll was lower this year because there was no serious face-to-face fighting in Mogadishu, but beheadings and the exchange of shells in a hit-and-run war," said Ali Yasin Gedi, Elman's vice chairman.

Islamists launched an insurgency at the start of 2007 to drive out Ethiopian troops propping up the Western-backed government in the Horn of Africa nation. There were heavy clashes in Mogadishu and other parts of southern and central Somalia until the Ethiopians left at the start of this year.

A former Islamist rebel, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, was elected president in January. While there were hopes he would be able to reconcile with the insurgents he has made little headway and the government controls only a few blocks of Mogadishu.

Western security agencies say the country has become a safe haven for militants, including foreign jihadists, who are using it to plot attacks across the impoverished region and beyond.

FIGHTING FEARS

But there have been fewer full-blown clashes between government troops and insurgents in the capital during 2009.

20091231

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria will equip its international airports with full-body scanners next year after a 23-year-old Nigerian man tried to blow up a U.S. passenger plane on Christmas Day, an aviation official said on Wednesday.

Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority chief Harold Demuren said Nigeria had started the process of acquiring the machines, which use radio waves to generate a picture of the body that can see through clothing and spot hidden weapons or packages.

"These are new machines. Not many airports in the world are operating them right now, but Nigeria is determined because of the new face of the threat we are seeing, to acquire them," Demuren told reporters in Lagos.

"This will be taking place in the New Year. We plan to acquire them at all our international airports," he said.

International airlines serve Nigeria's capital Abuja and the commercial hub of Lagos from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. There are also direct flights to the United States.

Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has been charged with trying to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam with almost 300 people on board.

Abdulmutallab started his journey to Detroit in Lagos, where he boarded a KLM flight to Amsterdam before going through transit at Schiphol airport.

Schiphol will begin using full-body scanners within three weeks to check people travelling to the United States, after consultations with U.S. authorities, Dutch Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst said on Wednesday.

20091231

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's parliament passed a law on Wednesday governing the oil-producing Abyei region's right to join the country's southern region if it secedes, or to remain part of the north.

But lawmakers said problems remained about who in Abyei would be allowed to vote on the question in a ballot that will coincide with a referendum in the south in a little over a year on whether southern Sudan should go its own way.

In a 2005 peace deal which ended more than two decades of civil war, Abyei was a major bone of contention and the region remains a possible flashpoint for a return to conflict.

The dominant northern National Congress Party and the former southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), which formed a coalition government after the 2005 deal, voted for the law. But some lawmakers said significant problems remained.

The law allows for the people of Abyei, in central Sudan, to choose whether to remain in the north or join the south, which many analysts expect to secede in a simultaneous vote in January 2011.

It gives the Ngok Dinka tribe and other Sudanese who reside in Abyei the right to vote. A simple majority will decide the region's future.

Prominent lawmakers from the nomadic Missiriya tribe, who graze cattle a few months a year in Abyei, walked out of parliament, saying they wanted the same status as the Ngok Dinka.

"What happened today was a conspiracy against the Missiriya," said Mahdi Babo Nimr, a senior Missiriya figure.

20091231

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An underground wall that Egypt is building along its border with the Gaza Strip will significantly stem Palestinian arms smuggling when is completed, an Israeli military officer said on Wednesday.

It may be months before it is finished, however, the officer said.

Cairo has played down the scope of the dig on the 14-km (8-mile)-long frontier but Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers condemn it as a "wall of death" that could seal an Israeli-led blockade by smothering smuggler tunnels from the Egyptian Sinai.

"The wall definitely has the potential to make things difficult, though it (smuggling) won't stop hermetically," an Israeli military officer briefed on Gaza intelligence said.

"There has certainly been an effect already. It's driving Hamas crazy."

Israel has long lobbied Egypt to tackle the cross-border smuggling, which supplies Palestinians with both munitions and basic commercial goods lacking in Gaza.

Asked when the Egyptian wall might be finished, the officer, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said: "If they work 24/7, it will still take a protracted period -- months."

Egyptian officials have said steel tubes were being placed at several points along the frontier to form a barrier, but have not elaborated on its purpose. Unlike Israel, Egypt maintains relations with Hamas and has an Islamist opposition movement.

20091231

LIBREVILLE (Reuters) - Gabon warned environmental services group Veolia's SEEG unit on Wednesday to improve water distribution in the capital Libreville or risk seeing its concession frozen.

"The water distribution system faces shortages going back to 2003 as a result of obsolescence and saturation of the transport system for treated water," government spokesman Seraphin Moundounga said after a cabinet meeting.

Some Libreville districts had no water at all, while others faced cuts of up to eight hours a day, he said. Failure to make improvements would result in a "sequestration" of the contract.

He did not indicate how much time SEEG, 51 percent owned by Veolia's water services division, had to react.

SEEG has agreed to try and alleviate the problem by seeking to transfer water from a reservoir currently being used to supply the north of the city. Tests on that project began on December 28 and are due to last seven days.

Veolia has been operating in Gabon since 1997.

20091231

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Security officers arrested a young Somali man attempting to board a Dubai-bound plane in November in the capital Mogadishu with a suspicious white powder, liquid and syringes, Somali officials said on Wednesday.

Somali officials said they initially thought the chemicals were for use in the so-called "black dollar" scam in which fraudsters convince people they can turn black bills into U.S. dollars using chemicals.

But the botched attempt to blow up a U.S.-bound plane on December 25 by a Nigerian who says he was trained by al Qaeda aroused suspicions the Somali may have had similar aims.

"Before, we thought these were for washing the money we had seized. But the incident at Detroit shows the similarity of the chemicals," Ahmed Ali Aftooje, chief of police at Mogadishu airport, told Reuters.

"He was carrying empty syringes, liquid and powder separately in the same bag," he said.

Security Minister Abdullahi Mohamed Ali, Barigye Ba-hoku, spokesman for the African Union peacekeepers in Somalia, and a senior officer in the National Security Service all told Reuters a man carrying suspicious chemicals was detained at the airport.

Ali told Reuters they had established the chemicals were explosive, and not for the money scam as initially thought.

The suspect is believed to be in custody in Somalia.

20091231

BISSAU (Reuters) - A former Guinea Bissau navy chief who fled the tiny West African state after being implicated in a failed 2008 coup has returned and is sheltering at the United Nations office there, officials said on Wednesday.

Rear Admiral Bubo Na Tchuto returned from exile in nearby Gambia this week disguised as a fisherman and on board a canoe, according to local media. His return prompted a tightening of security, including increased road checks, in a fragile state seen as a hub of the narcotics trade towards Europe.

"We wish to state that former Rear Admiral Bubo Na Tchuto arrived unannounced at UN premises in Bissau early Monday, 28 December 2009 and remains there at this time. He has asked for protection," a statement on the U.N. spokesman's website said.

"We have been in constant contact with the authorities in Guinea-Bissau in an effort to resolve this situation peacefully and in accordance with international law," the statement added.

Na Tchuto is wanted in connection with a failed coup attempt against former president Joao Bernardo Vieira in August 2008.

Veira was subsequently killed by renegade soldiers in March this year and has been replaced by an elected government that has made tentative steps towards stabilising the country.

A statement issued by the government urged its citizens and the international community to remain calm. It said it understood that Na Tchuto, which it alleges played a key role in the country's narcotics trade, wanted asylum in Gambia.

20091231

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Demand for credit by South Africa's private sector fell for the second consecutive month in the year to November, data showed on Thursday, pointing to an economy still struggling despite exiting recession.

Africa's biggest economy emerged from its first recession in almost two decades in the third quarter, but recovery is expected to be slow, with household and company finances remaining tight.

Central bank figures showed that credit demand fell by 1.59 percent year-on-year in November after a contraction of 0.42 percent in October -- the first since 1966.

During the same period, growth in the broadly defined M3 measure of money supply slowed to 0.58 percent compared with 2.67 percent growth in October.

This was largely in line with a Reuters poll last week which forecast that private sector credit demand would decrease by 1.55 percent year-on-year in November, while annual M3 growth was seen at 0.45 percent.

"The credit numbers ... reflect that the economy has still not turned around and that should indicate that interest rates should remain at the current levels for the foreseeable future," said Sarel Pretorius, head of fixed income at Thebe Securities.

The Reserve Bank has left rates unchanged at 7.0 percent at its last 3 policy meetings after reducing them by a cumulative 500 basis points between December last year and August to help the economy.

The cuts unwound rate increases implemented between June 2006 and June 2008 as the bank sought to tame inflation.

20091231

DAKAR (Reuters) - Police in mostly Muslim Senegal broke up a protest outside the capital Dakar's cathedral on Wednesday after Catholics accused the country's president of making disparaging comments about Jesus.

The dispute between President Abdoulaye Wade and Senegal's small but influential Catholic community is the latest twist in a growing controversy over Wade's plan for a huge monument overlooking Dakar that depicts the "African renaissance".

Imams this month attacked the statue of a giant family group as un-Islamic for presenting the human form as an object of worship -- a criticism Wade sought to deflect this week by arguing that Christians prayed to a "man called Jesus Christ".

"We were shaken and humiliated by the comparison which the head of state made between the monument to African renaissance and the representations found in our churches," Theodore Adrien Sarr told a congregation in the cathedral.

"It is scandalous and unacceptable that the divinity of Jesus is jeered and questioned by the highest authority of state," he added.

Witnesses said security forces moved in quickly to break up an attempt by several hundred Christians to protest in the street outside the cathedral, a short walk from Wade's presidential palace in central Dakar.

Around 90 percent of Senegalese are Muslim but the West African country has long nurtured a tradition of religious tolerance, notably to Christians who make up around six percent of the population.

Wade's nearly-completed monument, a 50-metre bronze statue of a man, woman and a child, is perched on a hill looking out over the Atlantic and is meant to symbolise Africa's liberation from "centuries of ignorance, intolerance and racism".

Once finished in early 2010, the monument will be taller than New York's Statue of Liberty and Wade hopes it will draw in tourists and revenue. Critics have labelled it a waste of money.

20091231

NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger's President Mamadou Tandja tightened his grip on power in the Saharan uranium-producer on Wednesday as his ruling party won a municipal vote denounced by rivals as illegal.

Tandja faces growing international isolation after amending the constitution in August to extend a five-year rule in office that was originally due to have ended last week.

His National Movement for a Society of Development (MNSD) party won 1,939 of a total 3,600 seats in 264 local authorities in Sunday's poll, which opponents urged voters to boycott. The MNSD already won a national parliament majority in October and Tandja has seen his own powers boosted by the new constitution.

The United States last week terminated trade benefits for Niger, the latest in a line of measures taken by African neighbours, the European Union and others to punish Tandja.

However analysts question the impact of such measures while Niger continues to see revenues from exports of uranium, used notably by France as a part of its reliance on nuclear power.

20091230
france24

Guinea's interim leader General Sekouba Konate visited junta chief Captain Moussa Dadis Camara in the Moroccan hospital Tuesday, saying afterward that there was "nothing more to be done" for the latter following treatment for a headshot wound.

AFP - Guinea's interim leader General Sekouba Konate visited the country's injured junta chief in Morocco Tuesday and afterwards said Captain Moussa Dadis Camara did not appear aware of his surroundings, a junta source told AFP.

Konate visited Camara for the first time in the Moroccan hospital where he is being treated after being shot in the head by his aide de camp on December 3.

The interim leader made no official comment after meeting Camara but according to a source close to the junta, Konate said: "Dadis was not aware of what was happening around him."

Konate also said of the wounded junta leader there was "nothing more to be done for him," according to the junta source, who requested anonymity.

Camara's condition since being shot has been a source of much speculation.

Guinea's official media has reported that Camara is recovering and will return to the west African country as soon as possible. Camara himself has not made any public statements or appearances since the attack.

Konate, also defence minister, had several times postponed the visit to Morocco, where Camara was flown for medical care after being shot by his aide de camp, Lieutenant Aboubacar Sidiki Diakite, who is now in hiding.

Konate took charge of Guinea after Camara was wounded, which was more than two months after junta soldiers killed scores of opposition protesters in a massacre that has drawn fierce international criticism.

Human rights groups and the United Nations put the death toll at the Conakry stadium opposition rally at more than 150, with hundreds injured, including women who were raped by troops.

Guinea has been suspended from the regional Economic Community of West African States and has lost development aid from the European Union.

Camara came to power on December 23 last year within hours of the death of longtime strongman Lansana Conte, a former general who had ruled the country since 1984.

RABAT, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- Commander of the United States African Command (AFRICOM) General William E. Ward visited Morocco, vowing to strengthen cooperation with the Moroccan army, local satellite channel Medi 1 Sat reported Thursday.

Ward met with Lieutenant General Abdelaziz Bennani, general inspector of the Moroccan Royal Armed Forces (FAR) and governor of the Southern Zone, and the two discussed bilateral military cooperation and opportunities to strengthen partnership between the Royal Armed Forces and the U.S. Army, the report said.

This is Ward's third visit to Morocco, heading a AFRICOM delegation, after two previous visits in 2008.

Morocco is an important partner in the region for the United States, and its efforts of counter-terrorism and smuggling and involvement in peace-keeping operations are highly appreciated by the U.S. Army, the report noted.

AFRICOM command, currently temporarily headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, will coordinate U.S. military and security interests throughout the African continent.

LAGOS, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- Riot in Zango area of northern Nigeria's Bauchi State has been put under control as everything is back in order, state police said on Thursday.

"Business and commercial activities have resumed fully just as more riot policemen and soldiers have been deployed to maintain peace," Mohammed Barau, the state police spokesman, told Xinhua on phone.

At least 38 people were killed and a number of houses burnt in a religious clash in northern Nigeria's Bauchi State.

He said both riot police and other security agencies deployed in the area would stay for some time to sustain the peace.

He advised people in the state to go about their normal business as security personnel are on alert to protect their lives and properties.

A competent source based in Bauchi told Xinhua that people are seen returning to their homes, while others whose houses were razed go round in company with relatives to see the damages done.

People who had taken refuge at the building of the defense industry had left for their different places of abode, he added.

The source said military personnel and policemen were seen patrolling the streets and the road blocks have been dismantled.

The violence erupted on Monday when a sect group known as Kala Kato went on rampage to demand the release of its arrested leader Malam Badamasi.

In July this year, the state witnessed another unrest, which later spread to the neighboring states of Adamawa, Kano, Bornoand and Yobe, leaving 800 people dead.

Nigeria is a secular country with the population evenly divided between Christians and Muslims. The northern region with 19 out of the country's 36 states is predominantly Muslim, while Christians dominate the south.