20091220
guardian

Militants say President Umaru Yar'Adua's absence in Saudi Arabia is being used to delay oil wealth reforms



Claims by Nigerian militants that they staged an attack on an oil installation, breaching a five-month ceasefire, have deepened fears that the country is on the verge of a constitutional crisis.

Nigeria, which in 1999 ended a 40-year era of military dictatorship, is in the midst of a power vacuum in the absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua, who has been in hospital in Saudi Arabia for more than three weeks.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) claimed that its fighters, armed with rocket launchers and machine-guns, had carried out a "warning strike" against a pipeline at Abonemma in Rivers state. There was no independent confirmation of the attack. Mend said it struck because the government was using Yar'Adua's absence to stall negotiations promised as part of an amnesty programme. The group said it would review an indefinite ceasefire it offered on 25 October.

The densely populated Niger delta has been the scene of conflict for 20 years, amid calls from its ethnic groups for a greater share of vast oil earnings. The most celebrated victim of the government's clampdown against the minorities was author Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed with eight other Ogoni activists in 1995.

If confirmed, Friday night's attack would be a major blow to peace efforts by Yar'Adua's administration, which in July pledged to spend millions of pounds developing the region and offered host communities a 10% share in all oil and gas operations.

The proposal convinced thousands of activists to accept a presidential amnesty, which ended in October. But the plan is politically unpopular and has raised eyebrows among oil multinationals because it demands a huge programme of reform and a major audit of the delta's oil wealth.

Nevertheless, multinationals admit that, since the amnesty offer and ceasefire, production had increased. Mend attacks over the past three years have prevented Nigeria from extracting more than two thirds of its capacity.

A Mend statement yesterday suggested that the group believed the government was using the president's illness as a stalling tactic. "While the government has conveniently tied the advancement of talks on the demands of this group to a sick president, it has not tied the repair of pipelines, exploitation of oil and gas, as well as the deployment and retooling of troops in the region to the president's health," it said in a statement to news agencies. "A situation where the future of the Niger delta is tied to the health and wellbeing of one man is unacceptable."

Yar'Adua, 58, is receiving treatment for a heart complaint and has failed to formally hand power to vice-president Goodluck Jonathan. Speculation is rife in the capital, Abuja, that a power struggle has begun in the ruling People's Democratic party or that junior officers could be planning a move.

Nigeria's fragile power balance has traditionally depended on rotating presidencies between the Muslim north and the south. Jonathan, a Christian from Rivers state in the south, is seen by analysts as an unacceptable choice in the eyes of the northern elite from which Yar'Adua comes.

20091220
guardian

Four of last eight rhinos from endangered subspecies are sent to Kenya from Czech zoo with aim of repopulating their homeland

Four of the world's last eight northern white rhinos landed in Kenya today and were transported to a game park where officials hope the endangered animals will reproduce and save their subspecies.

No white rhinos are known to remain in the wild, and the transported animals have produced no offspring after nearly 24 years in a Czech zoo. So wildlife workers hoping to save the subspecies loaded two males and two females into wooden crates and began the effort to return them to what was once their savannah homeland.

When teams of Kenyan wildlife workers opened the crates, two of the rhinos lingered several minutes before moving to a larger pen as Czech animal handlers coaxed them out.

The rhinos' handlers and park officials said they hoped the two females will bear as many young as possible for several years but all those involved acknowledged it was not a sure bet that the rhinos would reproduce.

The northern white rhino is the world's rarest large mammal. "Objective No 1 is to get as many offspring as you can from the females – at least one calf out of each within two years," said Rob Brett, the director of Fauna and Flora International, the organisation that helped arrange and finance the move.

The rhinos were transported in large wooden crates by the international shipping company DHL on two flatbed trucks. On the side of the crates was written "Last Chance to Survive."

The four were flown from a zoo in the Czech Republic to the Ol Pejeta Conservancy – about 180 miles north of the capital, Kenya – where a black rhino population has made strong gains and the rhinos will be protected from poachers.

Two northern whites remain behind in the Czech zoo; two others are in San Diego. The aim of the project – years down the line – is to reintroduce the rhino to southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon, said Patrick Omondi, of the Kenya Wildlife Service.

Alastair Lucas, the vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs in Australia, helped finance the rhinos' move to Kenya, a project he became involved with earlier this year after visiting Uganda and being told parks there no longer have rhinos. He declined to say how much he donated or the cost of moving the animals.

"Shipping rhinos across the world is not cheap. They don't fit in economy seats," he said. "I had to fly them business class."

The rhinos will remain penned in the Kenyan park as they adapt to the climate and vegetation. They will be given more room to roam in coming weeks and will eventually be released to the entire park.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Twelve inmates have been transferred from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Afghanistan, Yemen and the breakaway Somali enclave of Somaliland, the U.S. Justice Department said on Sunday.

Six Yemeni and four Afghan detainees were sent over the weekend to their home countries while two Somalis were transferred to regional authorities in Somaliland, an self-governing region within Somalia, the department said.

The transfers are the latest from the controversial prison President Barack Obama has pledged to close next month, but that deadline will likely be missed because of diplomatic and political hurdles.

With the latest moves, there are now 198 prisoners left at Guantanamo. Some of the remaining detainees will likely face trials in U.S. criminal or military courts while others are expected to be transferred abroad.

The transfers to Yemen are likely to revive concerns about moving individuals who were once considered terrorism suspects to a country where U.S. officials believe that al Qaeda elements are active.

Additionally, there have also been concerns about Al Qaeda activities in Somalia. In contrast, the breakaway region of Somaliland has enjoyed relative peace compared to the rest of Somalia since the Horn of Africa nation descended into chaos in 1991.

"These transfers were carried out under individual arrangements between the United States and relevant foreign authorities to ensure the transfers took place under appropriate security measures," the Justice Department said in a statement.

20091220

ZURICH (Reuters) - Trials of two Swiss businessmen in Libya, which had been due to take place this weekend, have been delayed until the start of next year, the Swiss foreign ministry said on Sunday.

The two were denied permission to leave Libya in July 2008 after a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was arrested in Geneva on charges, later dropped, of mistreating two domestic employees.

Max Goeldi, the Libya head of Swiss electrical engineering group ABB, and Rachid Hamdani, a construction company employee, have already been sentenced to 16 months in prison for immigration offences. They are now facing trials on charges of illegal economic activity.

Goeldi's trial has been moved to January 2 and Hamdani's to January 3, foreign ministry spokesman Erik Reumann said. "We cannot and will not comment on the reason for this," he added.

The men have yet to receive written charges, said Manon Schick of human rights group Amnesty International. "This does not follow international standards for fair trials," she said.

Critics within Switzerland have accused the government of mishandling the case, which has unsettled some of the foreign investors who are flocking to Libya's buoyant economy.

Libyan officials deny any connection between the arrest of Gaddafi's son and the case of the two businessmen.

20091220

MORONI (Reuters) - A Comoros opposition leader alleged irregularities in parliamentary elections on Sunday which are likely to determine whether the Indian Ocean nation's president can stay in power after he is supposed to stand down.

One of the new assembly's first tasks will be to ratify or reject a "Yes" vote in a referendum last May to prolong President Ahmed Abdalla Sambi's term, which ends next year.

The opposition has warned that any evidence of rigging risked destabilising the politically volatile archipelago.

"The measures taken in order to avoid fraud are not being followed through in all constituencies," opposition leader Houmed Msaidie told Reuters.

Not all ballot papers were being signed off by the heads of polling stations and election observers during Sunday's second round of voting, he said.

Sambi took over the presidency, which rotates between the archipelago's three main islands, in 2006 in the first democratic handover since independence from France in 1975.

Under this system he is due to step down next May but earlier this year Comorians voted to extend Sambi's mandate by a year and streamline the convoluted federal political system.

Local observers say parliament is expected to pass a bill endorsing the referendum result if Sambi's ruling coalition wins a majority in the assembly.

20091220

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's Foreign Ministry confirmed an Italian couple has been kidnapped in Mauritania and said it had activated all political and diplomatic channels to secure their release.

In a short statement posted on its Web site late on Saturday, the ministry asked for media discretion "to guarantee the safety of the hostages and favour a positive solution to the case".

Italian media named the two as 65-year-old Sergio Cicala and his 39-year old wife Philomene Kabouree, who is from Burkina Faso and has dual Italian nationality.

Their bullet-riddled vehicle was found in eastern Mauritania near the border with Mali in an area where armed groups with links to al Qaeda are known to operate, diplomats said on Saturday. The couple's driver, from Ivory Coast, was also missing, a local journalist said.

Cicala's daughter Alexia made an emotional appeal on Italian television, urging Foreign Minister Franco Frattini to quickly establish contact with the kidnappers.

"I want to know what is my father's condition, I have had no news since Wednesday," she told Sky Italia.

She said the couple, who live in Sicily, was travelling to Burkina Faso to visit Kabouree's 12-year old son.

Local diplomats said the attack appeared to be the latest in a string of kidnappings in the region.

Malian security forces have been put on high alert by their Mauritanian counterparts, who warned that gunmen may attempt to smuggle their hostages across the border, Malian government officials said.

20091220

ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - Egypt is stepping up security on its border with the Gaza Strip after earth moving equipment came under fire from the Palestinian side for three days, a security source said on Saturday.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz said Egypt was installing an underground metal barrier between 20 and 30 metres (70 and 100 feet) deep along the short border strip where Palestinians have dug tunnels to circumvent an Israeli blockade of Gaza.

Egyptian officials say authorities have been installing steel tubes in the ground at several points on the border, but their purpose has not been specified.

Egypt had stationed about 200 policemen and increased armoured vehicle patrols along the length of the border and in areas where excavating is under way, the security source said.

"We have sent new forces from the police to the border with Gaza after repeated shooting from the Palestinian side," the source told Reuters.

Shots had been fired from the Palestinian side of the border at equipment in the area since Thursday, the source said. No injuries were reported.

Egyptian authorities suspect those shooting were smugglers afraid that the work will damage tunnels used to take goods into Gaza clandestinely, the source added.

Despite Israeli aerial bombardment, the tunnels have remained open. Palestinian sources say the flourishing business works with the paid collusion of Egyptian border guards.

20091220

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - U.N. climate talks ended with a bare-minimum agreement on Saturday when delegates "noted" an accord struck by the United States, China and other emerging powers that falls far short of the conference's original goals.

"Finally we sealed a deal," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. "The 'Copenhagen Accord' may not be everything everyone had hoped for, but this ... is an important beginning."

A long road lies ahead. The accord -- weaker than a legally binding treaty and weaker even than the 'political' deal many had foreseen -- left much to the imagination.

It set a target of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial times -- seen as a threshold for dangerous changes such as more floods, droughts, mudslides, sandstorms and rising seas. But it failed to say how this would be achieved.

It held out the prospect of $100 billion in annual aid from 2020 for developing nations but did not specify precisely where this money would come from. And it pushed decisions on core issues such as emissions cuts into the future.

"This basically is a letter of intent ... the ingredients of an architecture that can respond to the long-term challenge of climate change, but not in precise legal terms. That means we have a lot of work to do on the long road to Mexico," said Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat.

Another round of climate talks is scheduled for November 2010 in Mexico. Negotiators are hoping to nail down then what they failed to achieve in Copenhagen -- a new treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol. But there are no guarantees.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Artillery shelling between Islamist rebels and Somali government forces killed at least 14 people and wounded 28 others in Mogadishu on Sunday, residents and a rights group said.

Insurgents fired mortars at government troops, prompting a heavier response of shells that killed civilians in several suburbs of Mogadishu and made residents cower indoors.

"Fourteen civilians died and 28 others were wounded on Saturday night and Sunday morning in mortar shell exchanges in Mogadishu," Ali Yasin Gedi, vice chairman of Mogadishu's Elman Peace and Human Rights Organization, told Reuters.

"Most of these people died this morning after an exchange of heavy shelling," he said.

Maryan Said, a resident in the sprawling Bakara market, told Reuters by telephone that six people from one family were killed by one shell that also killed three others in a nearby house.

"Their house has partially demolished and the dead bodies are in pool of blood," she said.

Bakara, which is notorious for its open-air weapons bazaar, has long been viewed by the government and the African Union force AMISOM as a stronghold of hardline Islamist al Shabaab insurgents who are trying to overthrow the country's transitional administration.

Washington accuses the rebel group of being al Qaeda's proxy in the failed Horn of Africa state.

BLANTYRE/DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - A four-year-old boy and two adults were killed and up to 250 people injured on Sunday when a 6.0 magnitude earthquake destroyed buildings in Malawi's northern district of Karonga.

A local government official called on thousands of people to leave their homes because of damage to buildings and the threat of further tremors.

Another tremor struck neighbouring Tanzania, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), but initial reports said there was no serious damage or injuries.

The Malawi quake, which occurred at 0119 a.m. (2319 GMT Saturday) at a depth of 9.4 miles (15.2 km), was the latest in a series in the uranium-rich Karonga district this month. A one-year-old child was killed on December 8.

"Two people have died, a four-year-old child and his grandmother, after the house they were sleeping in collapsed on them," police spokesman Enock Livasoni told Reuters.

Another man died in hospital as a result of head injuries, said nurse who declined to be identified.

She said up to 250 people appeared to have been injured, but no other patients were in critical condition.

Livasoni said damage to villages was extensive, with many schools and government buildings affected.

CAIRO, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Egypt would formally request Germany to return the statue of Queen Nefertiti, as a Berlin museum official presented papers showing it was taken illegally in 1912, an Egyptian official announced on Sunday.

Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that his country would officially request the return of the bust of Nefertiti, queen of ancient Egypt and wife of Akhenaten, from Berlin Museum in Germany.

Hawass made the announcement after talks with Friederike Seyfried, director of the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection at the Neues Museum in Berlin.

He said that Seyfried presented him with the agreement signed in 1913 which divided archeological finds between Germany and Egypt.

"This shows the statue left Egypt in an unethical manner and that there was fraud and deception from the German part at that time," said Hawass.

Earlier on Wednesday, Egypt received five stolen Pharaonic wall paintings from France. The paintings arrived at the Egyptian Museum after a meeting between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy.

Hawass also pressed Britain last week to return the Rosetta Stone, an ancient stone tablet which is the key to the decipherment of hieroglyphs and seen as an icon of Egypt.

NAIROBI, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Strong earthquakes hit southern African countries Malawi and Tanzania on Sunday, causing a number of casualties, according to reports monitored here.

Several people died and hundreds of others were injured early in the day in northern Malawi, after being hit by a magnitude-6.0quake.

The authorities have begun evacuating more than 200,000 people in the worst-hit Karonga area, while appealing to the international community to supply tents and other materials.

In southwestern Tanzania, a tremor measuring 6.2 magnitude was reported 130 km away from the city of Mbeya. There have been no reports of injuries and damage.

MARRAKECH, Morocco, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Participants at a summit of African cities called on developed countries and international institutions to support Africa's efforts to minimize the effects of the world economic crisis, local channel reported 2M Sunday.

They stressed the need for industrialized countries and regional and international financial institutions to back up African countries to carry on the development process in an economic situation characterized by recession and difficulties to have access to loans.

The participants made the remarks at a meeting on the margins of the fifth summit of African cities, which began on Wednesday in the third largest Moroccan city of Marrakech.

The participants called on developed countries to adopt new eco-friendly production and consuming methods, and stressed the need for a new partnership between the private and public sectors, and to foster the principle of local governance.

The five-day summit at the west-central Moroccan city brought together the mayors of the major cities and towns in African countries.

EL FAHSER, Sudan, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- An international conference on human rights in Sudan urged the international community to exert more efforts to improve the human rights situation in Darfur.

The conference, organized by the Sudan Human Rights Group and the Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel, was held Saturday in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.

A number of human rights activists in Sudan and abroad took part in the meeting, during which they discussed two working papers on impact of armed conflicts on implementing human rights in Darfur, and role of humanitarian work in peace building and resettlement.

The conference praised in its final communique what it termed "the positive steps" made by the Sudanese government and local authorities in Darfur to enact laws in line with international laws, namely in the field of children and women protection.

The conference called for promoting principles of international human rights law in Darfur through enhancing people's awareness, monitoring of violations, training experts and bringing the violators to trial.

The conference, in its final communique, urged Sudanese and international civil society organizations to boost cooperation and work together, through joint committees, to monitor and develop human rights situation in Darfur.

The conference also proposed to set up a joint committee of truth, justice and reconciliation from the Sudanese and international organizations to work out a comprehensive report on what had really happened in Darfur.

"The participating organizations in the conference pledge to work to disclose any violation of human rights in the region," the communique said.

Meanwhile, the conferees stressed importance of psychological support for families, especially children, when the conflicts are over.

LAGOS, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Up to 65 people were confirmed killed in an auto accident in central Nigeria's Kogi state when a truck heavily loaded with fertilizer lost control and ran into a market, local media reported on Sunday.

An eye witness said 38 people were fatally injured and are receiving treatment at the Ayingba Specialist Hospital in Kogi state.

He said the driver of the trailer lost control on the hill of Allo River on Friday evening. Without any form of restraint, the vehicle sped from the hill, destroying and killing motor vehicle occupants.

The fuel in vehicles flattened by the trailer cause fire outbreaks at each and every point where it hit cars, trucks and motorcycles. The vehicle rammed into the village's market finally, which was full of people.

The sector commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Yomi Asaniyan, confirmed the accident.

Kogi State Governor Ibrahim Idris, who hurriedly visited the scene of the accident, could not hold back his emotion and broke down in tears after seeing the gory sight of the accident. He quickly declared a three-day mourning beginning on Saturday.

The governor also directed that the injured be quickly moved to the Lokoja Specialist Hospital and those whose conditions were critical be flown abroad for medical attention.

20091219

KINSHASA (Reuters) - The U.N. peacekeeping force in Congo has put its soldiers on high alert after reports that Ugandan rebels are threatening to carry out mass killings of the kind they conducted last Christmas, a spokesman said on Friday.

Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, who murdered over 800 civilians around Christmas and early January last year, have threatened a fresh wave of attacks despite a year of multi-national military operations against them, analysts warn.

"We are taking things seriously," said Kevin Kennedy, head of public information for the U.N.'s Congo peacekeeping mission. Kennedy said information about the threats by the rebels had been passed on by aid workers in recent days and weeks.

The U.N. has Moroccan, Indonesian and Bangladeshi soldiers in and around Dungu, a town in Congo's remote northeast, near the border with Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR), where the wave of killings took place last year.

"We know there is concern among the population ... the force commander has asked troops to be on high alert," he added.

The U.N. force, which is also trying to help Congo's army battle a string of rebels and militia in separate conflicts in Congo's far east and northwest, has been criticised for not doing enough to protect civilians from attacks by the LRA.

Government troops from Uganda, where the LRA waged a two decade-long insurgency until rebasing to Congo in 2005, led a multinational strike against the rebels in December 2008.

Although training camps were broken up and some fighters have been disarmed, the rebels, whose leadership is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, have continued to carry out attacks on civilians in Congo, Sudan and the CAR.

"The LRA might be planning fresh Christmas attacks as a response to recent claims by the Congolese and Ugandan governments that the rebels are finished," U.S.-based advocacy group Enough Project warned in a statement on Thursday.

Enough said residents in the villages of Bangadi and Niangara, as well as local and international relief organisations, reported having seen letters from the rebels threatening mass killings over Christmas.

20091219

ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Madagascar's leader on Friday fired the prime minister he named in October, in a move likely to anger international mediators and further jeopardise hopes for a consensus solution to the island's political crisis.

"The measures in the decree dated October 10 ... relating to the nomination of the leader of the government of national union are hereby annulled," Haja Resampa, Secretary General of the presidency, told reporters.

Andry Rajoelina, who spearheaded a coup earlier this year, had appointed Eugene Mangalaza under heavy international pressure as part of a power-sharing deal signed with his political rivals.

But that deal and a succession of others have fallen through as Rajoelina and three former presidents bicker over the division of key jobs in a consensus government.

Vice Prime Minister Cecile Manorohanta, a close ally of Rajoelina, will take over the premiership indefinitely.

Analysts said Rajoelina's move would dent hopes for the unblocking of aid worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Hours earlier, members of Madagascar's opposition said they would form a unity government within days and called on the military to stay in their barracks.

"We are going to put in place our ministers and we ask the armed forces to remain neutral and stay in their barracks," former vice-president Albert Zafy told reporters.

20091219

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's leaders still need to shed some of the attitudes and values built up under military rule if Africa's most populous nation is to reach its full potential, according to a review by its continental peers.

The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) is part of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), set up eight years ago to try to make African leaders promote democracy and good governance in return for increased Western investment.

"Corruption in the political and economic spheres primarily explains poverty in Nigeria," says the report, presented in Abuja late on Thursday by Nigerian economist Adebayo Adedeji.

"Nigeria also faces the challenges of reversing some values and attitudinal practices, particularly during the later part of its military history," it said.

Nigeria vies with Angola as Africa's top oil producer yet the majority of its more than 140 million people live on less than $2 a day, many with limited access to power or clean water.

It emerged from military rule a decade ago but critics say democracy still has a fragile hold.

Since General Abdulsalam Abubakar ceded power in May 1999, elections have been far from exemplary in a country that considers itself the biggest democracy in the black world.

The polls which brought President Umaru Yar'Adua to power in May 2007 were so marred by intimidation and vote-rigging that international observers said they were not credible.

20091219

EL-ARISH, Egypt (Reuters) - Egyptian police shot dead two African migrants trying to slip across the border into Israel on Friday, security sources said.

Police in Egypt have stepped up efforts to control the frontier with Israel in recent months and have killed at least 19 migrants at the border since May.

One of the migrants was identified as a 22-year-old Sudanese, Bakheet Noureen Abdullah, one source said, adding that the second man's identity was unknown.

The Sinai border is on one of the main routes for African migrants and refugees seeking work or asylum in Israel.

Eritreans are the largest group who try to cross into Israel but Ethiopians and Sudanese also frequently make the trek.

Egypt has faced Israeli pressure to halt the flow and says the people smugglers who ferry migrants to the border region sometimes fire on security forces.

20091219

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigerian militants said on Saturday they had carried out their first attack on an oil pipeline since an amnesty offer because the absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua was delaying peace talks.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said its fighters, armed with rocket launchers and machine guns, carried out a "warning strike" overnight on a Royal Dutch Shell or Chevron pipeline in Abonemma, Rivers state.

There was no independent confirmation of the incident.

The military joint taskforce (JTF), which polices the Niger Delta, said it could not immediately verify the attack. A Shell spokesperson and security contractors working in the oil industry said they had received no reports of a pipeline strike.

If confirmed, the attack would be a severe blow to peace efforts by Yar'Adua's administration, which has pledged to spend billions of dollars developing the region after thousands of gunmen accepted a presidential amnesty which ended in October.

Attacks by MEND on Africa's biggest oil and gas industry in the past three years have prevented the OPEC member from producing much above two-thirds of its capacity, costing it about $1 billion a month in lost revenues.

The instability has at times helped push up world oil prices.

On Saturday, MEND accused the government of using the ill health of Yar'Adua, who has been in Saudi Arabia for more than three weeks receiving treatment for a heart condition, to stall negotiations promised as part of the amnesty programme.