20091218

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch navy warship released 13 suspected Somali pirates back onto their own vessel on European Union orders because it failed to find a nation willing to prosecute them, the Dutch Defence ministry said.

The ministry said on Friday the 13 suspects were arrested two weeks ago when they tried to hijack a cargo ship and had been held on board the Dutch ship Evertsen in the Gulf of Aden while the EU tried to find a country willing to try them.

The EU has treaties with the Seychelles and Kenya but both countries declined to take in the suspects, as did Tanzania.

"The Defence Ministry regrets that the European Union has not been able to find a suitable solution," the ministry said.

Anti-piracy operations by the European Union, NATO and several individual states have failed to deter the pirates, who are still holding 11 ships, and experts have said efforts to establish an international court to prosecute the pirates will face complex legal obstacles.

The Dutch ship is now en route back to the Netherlands.

2001218

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's once-famous cotton industry risks a slow death without state investment to reverse decades of neglect, boost quality and encourage farmers to keep growing the crop.

Analysts say the textiles sector has been overlooked amid a wave of other reforms.

"It's not easy to reverse the effects of years and years of neglect," said Mena Sadek, consumer goods analyst at investment bank Beltone Financial. "Anything you do without restructuring will not work. It will be a short-term solution."

In its heyday in the 1960s, Egypt's "white gold" was highly sought after by those seeking smooth luxury bedsheets, soft thick towels and lavish apparel.

But cheaper raw cotton imports have made inroads as ailing textile firms, stunted after decades of poor investment, have focused on creating low-quality products. Farmers are also turning away from cotton to more lucrative crops such as corn.

The state has long promised to pay more attention to the sector. But the textile industry is bogged down by old machinery, and lacks the design and technology expertise among its workers that is needed to lure foreign firms to Egypt.

"The market is unbalanced," said Mohamed Abdel Aziz, head of Egypt's state-run Cotton Research Institute. "The industry was neither really privatised nor left public."

Liberalisation in 1994 exposed farmers to volatile global prices and rising fertiliser costs. Lower domestic demand for pricey extra long staple cotton also took a toll as spinners turned to cheaper, lower-quality imports.

20091218

SINGAPORE, Dec 18 (Reuters Life!) - South Africa's Bushmans Kloof Wilderness Reserve was voted the world's best hotel in 2009 in a survey by travel website Travel+Leisue that showed luxury still had its place in the economic downturn.

The survey, released this week, ranks the tops 500 places to stay across the globe, and was compiled based on the opinions of the website's experts and thousands of readers.

Located in the Cederberg Mountains area some 3 hours away from Cape Town, Bushmans Kloof, where double rooms start at $715 a night, unseated last year's top hotel, Singita Sabi Sand in South Africa's Kruger National Park.

India's deluxe Oberoi Vanyavilas in Rajasthan, where double rooms begin at $875, took second place, and in the third spot was Jade Mountain in the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, where room rates start at $1,150.

Earth Lodge at Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve in South Africa, where rooms cost at least $2,200, was voted 4th, and Canada's Inn at Manitou, McKellar, Ontario, where doubles start at $575, rounded out the top five.

Travel+Leisure, however, said that 66 out of the top 500 hotels cost $250 or less a night, which showed luxury doesn't always have to cost too much, especially as people across the globe have cut back on travel due to the downturn.

"What did we discover in 2009? That in a year filled with challenges, our readers still love hotels that deliver unique experiences and stellar service. Particularly if the price is right" the website said.

Following is a list of the top hotels in the world's main regions from Travel+Leisure (www.travelandleisure.com).

* United States - Inn at Palmetto Bluff, Bluffton, South Carolina

20091218

LONDON (Reuters) - Angola, holder of the OPEC presidency and host of an OPEC meeting next week, is the least compliant with the group's agreements to limit oil output, according to Reuters calculations.

That irony will not be lost on other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries as they head to the Angolan capital Luanda for Tuesday's meeting to review their oil output policy.

"I don't want to say pressure, but there will be a request from the conference for more compliance," said an OPEC delegate. "This is the main thing that the meeting will concentrate on."

OPEC agreed last year to curb supply by 4.2 million barrels per day (bpd) as recession eroded demand. Compliance with the accord has slipped to 60 percent from 80 percent earlier this year, alongside a recovery in oil prices.

Past disputes within the exporter group over how much oil members are pumping and their compliance with agreed limits have led to internal squabbling which has undermined the group's credibility with the market.

But analysts say as long as oil prices hold firm, the chances of compliance rising are limited. Oil was trading at above $71 Friday, within the $70-$80 range that OPEC members have repeatedly said is high enough for producers and low enough to nurse a still fragile world economy.

"The compliance will be reviewed but given the current price level holding above $70, the incentive for greater cohesion around the targeted cuts is reduced," said Harry Tchilinguirian of BNP Paribas.

20091218

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Election observers in Sudan said on Friday they were gravely concerned about government crackdowns on opposition rallies that undermined "political rights and fundamental freedoms" ahead of polls in April.

Riot police used tear gas to break up two demonstrations in Khartoum this month as tension mounted in the build-up to the first full multi-party election in the oil-producing nation in 24 years.

International observers from the Carter Centre called on the government to investigate reports of police brutality during the rallies, end arbitrary arrests and release "persons detained while conducting peaceful political activities".

The election is one of the centrepieces of a faltering 2005 peace deal that ended two decades of north-south civil war.

The main political force in south Sudan and opposition groups organised the rare demonstrations this month in streets around Sudan's parliament to call for a raft of democratic reforms ahead of the poll.

The interior ministry ruled both events were illegal, saying organisers had not asked for permission. Security services detained three leading members of the south's dominant Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and scores of supporters.

"The Centre is gravely concerned by the recent action of the security forces in Khartoum to restrict legitimate activity related to the exercise of freedom of assembly, association and speech," a report by the observers said.

It also condemned attacks on the offices of north Sudan's dominant National Congress Party in two towns in south Sudan, and reports of harassment of minority parties in the south.

The report congratulated Sudan on holding a broadly peaceful voter registration exercise which, authorities said, reached more than three quarters of eligible voters in Africa's largest state.

20091218

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council on Thursday exempted the government of Liberia from an arms embargo slapped on the West African country six years ago in the wake of a ruinous civil war.

A unanimous council resolution renewed the embargo on everyone else in Liberia except for the 10,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force there, but said it would not apply to the government for an experimental 12-month period.

It asked a panel of U.N. experts to assess the impact of the decision, "specifically the effect on the stability and security of Liberia."

Liberia, scene of a 1989-2003 civil war from which it has not fully recovered, has a small fledgling army that has been under training by U.S. troops. Hitherto, only limited amounts of arms have been allowed into Liberia, mainly for training.

The council said a U.N. sanctions committee must be notified in advance of any arms shipments to Liberia and demanded that President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's government mark the weapons and keep a registry of them.

Liberia's former president, Charles Taylor, is currently on trial at a U.N.-backed court in The Hague for war crimes in neighboring Sierra Leone, where a 1991-2002 civil war was intertwined with that in Liberia.

The council noted "with serious concern" a finding by the expert panel that little progress was being made in imposing a U.N. freeze on assets owned or controlled by Taylor, his family and associates. It demanded that Liberia's government "make all necessary efforts to fulfill its obligations."

The council also called on Monrovia to redouble efforts to impose controls on trade in so-called "blood diamonds" required by the diamond industry's Kimberley Process, a certification scheme set up in 2003.

20091218

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somali pirates have released the Greek-owned ship MV Delvina, a Kenyan maritime official said on Thursday.

The bulk carrier shipping wheat was seized on November 5, northwest of Madagascar. It had 21 crew on board, seven Ukrainians and 14 Filipinos.

"They must have paid a ransom," said Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya-based East Africa Seafarers' Association. "It's on its way to Mombasa."

Heavily armed Somali pirates have made tens of millions of dollars in ransoms by hijacking ships in the Indian Ocean and strategic Gulf of Aden, which links Europe to Asia, despite anti-piracy naval operations there.

Delvina's company, Meadway Shipping said in a statement the ship was released Thursday afternoon and that all of the crew was unharmed despite 43 days in captivity.

The vessel was hijacked to the northeast of the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean whilst sailing from Ukraine to Mombassa in Kenya, it said, but would not disclose further information on its release.

"The company does not wish to jeopardise the safety of other vessels or crews that are still held by pirates in the area," it said.

20091218

MANGA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - As world leaders haggle over a plan to fight global warming, tribes in Congo's rainforest have armed themselves with satellite GPS devices in the hope of coming out winners from any deal.

Their goal is simple: by creating an ecological inventory of their ancestral home, the tribes hope the world's second largest rainforest will be ringfenced as a weapon to combat climate change and so be spared from commercial loggers.

"If the forest is poorly managed, we won't get anything," said local green activist Dieudonne Nzabi.

"But if it is well managed, we will get more money than from commercial logging," he said, explaining the painstaking efforts of eight villagers this month to log exact coordinates of forest resources from cassava fields to freshwater springs.

While an overall deal from the climate summit in Copenhagen looked elusive on Thursday, a U.N.-backed deal to reward local communities for protecting their forests could yet emerge.

The official chairing negotiations on the so-called REDD (Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation) scheme said on Wednesday a draft deal was "more or less agreed".

Second in size only to the Amazon rainforest, the 2.2 million square kilometre Congo forest stretches over five Central African nations. Under the REDD scheme, it could provide those countries with a lucrative new revenue stream as long as they can prove they are preserving it properly.

20091218

ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - An Egyptian soldier was shot dead on Thursday on the border with Israel by Egyptian smugglers, a security source said.

The 20-year-old was dead on arrival at a hospital in the border town of Rafah, the source added.

Egypt says it is trying to staunch an active smuggling trade from Sinai to both Israel and the Gaza Strip.

20091218

TUNIS (Reuters) - Morocco won two loans worth 272 million euros from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to finance its electricity network expansion and a reform of its financial sector, the AfDB said on Thursday.

The bank has ramped up lending in response to the global downturn that left some African countries facing budget shortfalls and also led to private finance drying up.

It envisages lending about $10 billion this year and expects total lending to fall to around $7 billion next year.

20091218

LONDON (Reuters) - A rights group accused Chad on Thursday of refusing a passport to a former Guantanamo detainee needing foreign treatment for injuries lawyers say were caused during seven years in captivity, which he began as a teenager.

Reprieve, a human rights group that campaigned for the release of the man, Mohammed El Gharani, said Chad's failure to allow him to travel meant he could not see his parents, who live in Saudi Arabia, or get foreign specialist medical treatment.

Gharani was freed in June, five months after a U.S. federal judge ordered him released having reviewed the evidence against him and ruled that there was nothing to suggest he was ever an "enemy combatant".

A Reprieve statement said his inability to travel since his return to Chad in mid-year meant he could not seek attention for a crippling spine injury resulting from abuse in captivity, and ensured "he remains impoverished and emotionally isolated".

The statement quoted the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, as urging Chad to provide Gharani, a Chadian citizen, "with a passport and to permit his travelling abroad for receiving appropriate medical and psychological torture rehabilitation treatment".

"I am particularly concerned about the fate of Gharani, who began his captivity as a teenager, was still a child when transferred to Guantanamo and who has lost some of his most important years of adolescence in illegal detention," he added.

Youssouf Takane, Chad's deputy ambassador to the United States, told Reuters by telephone he expected that in time Gharani would be issued with a new passport.

"The Chadian government cannot deprive Gharani of his citizenship or his rights of citizenship," he said. "It is maybe a question of time. There are a few minor security matters to be addressed. The authorities will accelerate this issue."

20091218

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Narrowing Angola's non-oil related fiscal deficit in Angola will help the southern African country tame rampant inflation and ease the burden on monetary policy, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday.

IMF Deputy Managing Director Takatoshi Kato said in a statement at the end of a visit to Luanda that such measures would also create scope for a sustainable private sector growth.

"Prudent fiscal policy that aims to reduce the non-oil primary fiscal deficit and strengthen public financial management, including through the government's Sovereign Wealth Fund should help improve the management of the oil wealth," Kato said.

The IMF last month approved a $1.4 billion loan to Angola following a commitment to increase transparency, especially in the country's oil sector.

Angola, which rivals Nigeria as Africa's biggest oil producer, is battling double-digit inflation, which the government has blamed on the country's heavy dependence on imports following a 27-year civil war that devastated its once-properous farming sector.

The IMF would also continue working with the National Bank of Angola to advance reforms in the foreign exchange market, Kato said.

"While the road ahead will invariably involve difficult choices, I look forward to rapid advances toward economic stability and public financial management which will contribute to the effective use of oil revenues," he said.

"With adequate will and effort, we will succeed in our shared goal of stabilizing the macroeconomy and laying the foundation for the development of the non-oil sector as a source of sustained growth for Angola in the years to come."

20091218

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials said on Thursday they will change directions on one trial in Botswana trying to show whether it is possible to prevent HIV infections by taking a daily pill because too few people are being infected.

There are also problems keeping people enrolled in the trial, so it will be adjusted to show instead how well people can stick to the routine, the team at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

"We are not giving up on the trial -- we are going to complete the trial. We just will not get all of the answers we set out to get," the CDC's Terry Butler said in a telephone interview.

The trial of 1,200 people was trying to see if people could prevent infection with the AIDS virus if they took a daily pill that combined two HIV drugs. It was using Gilead Sciences Inc's Truvada, a combination of two drugs called tenofovir and emtricitabine.

The CDC did not release the data on how many people in the trial became infected, and said there appeared to be no safety concerns with the treatment so far.

The study, called TDF2, is one of several globally looking at the new approach, called pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP. The idea is that a daily low dose of the drugs, which interfere with the ability of the virus to replicate, could also lower the risk of infection.

It has worked in monkeys and researchers are keen to see if it could provide an easy and cheap way to protect people from the virus, which infects 33 million globally and has killed 25 million people.

"The trial protocol and timeline will be revised to focus instead on the other remaining study questions -- primarily behavioral and clinical safety and adherence," the CDC said in a statement.

20091217

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Security Council members have agreed to impose an arms embargo on Eritrea this month, as well as travel bans and asset freezes for government and military leaders aiding Somali insurgents, diplomats said.

The United States and other council members accuse Eritrea of supplying Islamist rebels with money and weapons in their fight to topple the fragile U.N.-backed transitional government in Somalia, a virtually lawless Horn of Africa nation.

Western diplomats on the 15-nation Security Council said most members of the panel have agreed to support a Ugandan-drafted resolution to punish Eritrea and that they hoped to approve it by next week.

Reuters obtained the latest draft resolution on Wednesday.

In addition to imposing sanctions on Eritrea, the resolution orders Asmara to end all support to "to armed groups and their members, including al Shabaab," which is battling to oust Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the diplomats said they were not expecting a unanimous vote, as Libya has made clear it would vote against the resolution. But they said they were ready to make further revisions to secure Tripoli's vote.

Russia and China, which are generally reluctant to back sanctions, came around after it became clear the overwhelming majority of African Union members support taking the action against Somalia's neighbor, diplomats said.

"We've got a balanced resolution that is tough, which imposes sanctions on Eritrea and the key elements in Eritrea who are supporting the Somali rebels," a diplomat said. "I think we'll get 14 votes."

20091217

TUNIS (Reuters) - The African Development Bank (AfDB) on Wednesday signed an agreement to lend Nigeria's United Bank for Africa (UBA) $150 million, the biggest loan it has given to date to a private sector institution in Africa.

The AfDB said the cash would allow UBA to keep credit flowing to its corporate customers, filling the gap left after lending slowed in the global downturn.

"Coming at a time of severe credit constraints globally, this deal ... is a major recognition of UBA's ability to support private and public enterprises across Africa" said Faith Tuedor-Matthews, UBA's Deputy Managing Director.

UBA is one of Nigeria's biggest banks in terms of assets. It has operations in Kenya and a presence in 10 other African countries.

A number of Nigerian banks have had problems with bad loans triggered by the downturn. The central bank rescued nine of them this year with a $4 billion injection.

UBA was not one of the banks which received cash in the bailout. Analysts say it is one of four Nigerian banks with healthy balance sheets which are likely to play a role in a wave of banking sector consolidation in the wake of the slump.

PROFITS EXPECTED

Asked at a signing ceremony at the AfDB's headquarters in Tunis about her bank's financial outlook, Tuedor-Matthews said: "We expect some profits at the end of December." She did not give any further details.

In its last quarterly results, the bank said its pre-tax profits dropped 36.6 percent from a year earlier because of provisions it had to make for loan losses.

20091217

BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali believes three Spanish aid workers who went missing in Mauritania last month are being held on its territory by al Qaeda's wing in North Africa, a source close to efforts to free them said on Wednesday.

"Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb states it has kidnapped them and is holding them in Mali, and we have every reason to believe them," said the Malian source, who requested anonymity.

"We are seeking contact with them to negotiate the conditions of their release," the source said of the three Spaniards and a Frenchman seized in a separate incident in Mali itself.

Last week an Internet statement purporting to be from the al Qaeda wing said the four were in good health and being treated well, adding that France and Spain would be informed later of conditions for their release.

Three Spanish aid workers disappeared in Mauritania on November 29 and the Frenchman in Mali on November 26.

20091217

ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - President Andry Rajoelina said Madagascar would hold parliamentary elections on March 20 and told other countries to stop interfering after a succession of internationally brokered deals with the opposition collapsed.

Madagascar has been rocked by political instability since Rajoelina overthrew the democratically elected former president, Marc Ravalomanana, in a coup in March.

"We ask (the international community) to no longer involve yourselves in our problem. The solution to the crisis will only come from the people through this election," Rajoelina said in an interview on state television late on Wednesday.

He said the majority party would choose a new prime minister, the incoming parliament would draw up a new constitution for the Indian Ocean island and a new electoral commission would oversee the elections.

The refusal of Rajoelina, a former disc jockey, to accept more negotiations is likely to exasperate the African Union (AU), which suspended Madagascar in the aftermath of the coup.

African nations and foreign leaders have said a consensus government and a road map to credible elections are essential for the release of frozen aid worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Rajoelina's announcement was unlikely to allay the concerns of foreign companies like mining giant Rio Tinto and oil juggernaut Exxon Mobil. Exploration activities have slowed markedly this year.

"The international community's way out of the crisis was enforced cohabitation. But we have all seen that this won't work," said Rajoelina.

20091217

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan police said on Thursday they had arrested three people suspected of being behind the killing of an Irish Catholic priest who had been a missionary in the country for more than four decades.

Jeremiah Roche, a 68-year-old from west Limerick, was stabbed to death a week ago at his home on the outskirts of Kericho town, about 200 km (120 miles) west of Nairobi.

The burglars stole a laptop, his mobile phone and an unknown amount of money.

"The three suspects are assisting us with our investigation to know the motive of the murder and (we are) still pursuing other suspects," North West regional police commander Peterson Maelo, told Reuters by phone. "We have not managed to recover any of the stolen items."

Roche had worked in Kenya since 1968. His body was found by parishioners after he failed to appear for a 6 a.m. Mass.

Violent crime is a major problem in east Africa's biggest economy where armed robberies and car-jackings are common.

20091217

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Prospects for a strong U.N. climate change deal grew more remote on Thursday at the climax of two years of talks, with developed and developing nations deadlocked on sharing cuts in greenhouse gases.

Dozens of heads of state were arriving in the Danish capital to address the December 7-18 conference, which is meant to sign a new pact to curb greenhouse gas emissions on Friday.

Ministers have struggled to craft a coherent text for the leaders to sign because they have so far failed to close a rift over how far the developing world should join industrialised countries in cutting carbon emissions.

A Danish proposal to break the talks into smaller groups to speed up progress foundered on opposition from poor countries, backed by top greenhouse gas emitter China, who feared their voices would not be heard. There was no progress overnight.

"We've got a serious situation. We squandered a full day,"

German environment minister Norbert Roettgen told Reuters.

China told participants it saw no possibility of achieving a detailed accord to tackle global warming, an official from another nation involved in the talks said early on Thursday.

The official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters the Chinese had instead suggested issuing "a short political declaration of some sort."

20091217

GAZA (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has invited a senior Egyptian mediator to Jerusalem on Sunday, raising speculation that Israel is about to make its latest response to the Islamist group Hamas for a major prisoner swap.

Egypt and Germany are trying to mediate the prisoner exchange, which would set free a captured Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, in a deal to release nearly 1,000 Palestinians of the 11,000 held in Israeli jails.

The freeing of Shalit, who was snatched by Hamas in a raid on the borders of the Gaza Strip more than three years ago, has been a political priority for Netanyahu as it was for the government that preceded his, led by Ehud Olmert.

An exchange would be the first significant sign of a thaw between Israel and Hamas since Israel launched a military offensive on December 27 in which at least 1,000 Gaza Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in three weeks of heavy conflict.

The United Nations and Western powers hope a successful swap will open the way to a relaxation of Israel's blockade of Gaza, where 1.5 million Palestinians are dependent on food aid and smuggled goods for daily survival.

NEGOTIATIONS SLOW

Negotiations over the list of Palestinians to be released in return for Shalit have proceeded slowly, with Israel balking at allowing men convicted of deadly attacks on Israelis to go free and return to the Palestinian territories.

An official, who declined to be identified, said Egypt's mediator, Chief of Intelligence Omar Suleiman, would visit Israel on Sunday -- when Netanyahu holds his weekly cabinet meeting.