20091216

CONAKRY (Reuters) - A former aide to Guinean junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara has confessed to shooting the West African leader out of fear that he would be held to blame for the bloody quashing of a pro-democracy rally.

The botched December 3 assassination attempt has left Camara lying in hospital in Morocco with gunshot wounds to his head and thrown the world's top bauxite exporter into crisis.

"I shot him because ... (Camara) was committing treason," Lieutenant Aboubacar "Toumba" Diakite told Radio France International (RFI) in an interview aired on Wednesday.

"He tried to blame me for everything that happened on September 28. It was this act of treason that pushed me into acting," he said of a September crackdown by security forces on anti-junta marchers which witnesses say left more than 150 people dead.

Toumba was speaking from an undisclosed location and told RFI he would remain in hiding.

The assassination attempt took place as United Nations investigators were in Guinea probing into the September 28 incident. The world body is due to issue a report later this month on who was responsible for the September killings.

Defence Minister Sekouba Konate, Camara's number two, is currently leading the West African nation. Konate has led operations to search for Toumba and appears for now to have restored order to the ranks of the soldiers.

Camara's bloodless coup in December last year was initially welcomed by a population seduced by promises of change after years of misrule under the late strongman Lansana Conte.

But deepening divisions within the military and Camara's erratic leadership have increased calls for the junta to step aside and allow elections to restore civilian rule.

Talks between the military and the opposition at the weekend failed to make any progress.

20091216

LAGOS (Reuters) - A leading Nigerian human rights lawyer has launched legal action to try to force President Umaru Yar'Adua to hand executive powers to his deputy while he is receiving medical treatment in Saudi Arabia.

Femi Falana, who was a prominent pro-democracy campaigner during military rule in Nigeria, said decisions made by the cabinet in Yar'Adua's absence were illegal because he had not formally handed over to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan.

Africa's most populous nation risked sliding into crisis if it continued to be unclear who was in charge, he said.

"When the president is not around and there is no acting president, the business of government will simply be paralysed," Falana said in a telephone interview, a day after filing his law suit with a federal high court in the capital Abuja.

"(The aim) is to compel President Yar'Adua to hand over formally to the vice president," he said.

The 58-year-old leader was flown to a clinic in Jeddah more than three weeks ago after complaining of chest pains and has been diagnosed with acute pericarditis, an inflammation of the membrane around the heart that can restrict normal beating.

The cabinet has dismissed calls for him to resign.

Justice Minister and Attorney-General Michael Aondoakaa was quoted on Wednesday as saying that Yar'Adua could exercise his presidential powers from anywhere in the world.

20091216

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - World leaders took the stage at the largest ever climate talks on Wednesday as ministers scrambled to rescue troubled negotiations on a pact to avoid dangerous global warming.

Police using truncheons and pepper spray detained 230 people outside the conference centre in Copenhagen as hundreds of protesters demanding tough action on climate change tried to push through barricades, a Reuters reporter said.

Inside, frustration was growing over the lack of progress after nearly two weeks of talks to try to agree on steps by all nations to try to expand or replace the existing Kyoto Protocol.

India's environment minister said the Kyoto pact was in "intensive care" two days before heads of state from around the globe are expected to agree a deal to slow rising temperatures set to cause heat waves, floods, desertification and rising seas. He blamed rich nations for trying to sideline the pact.

A formal summit of more than 120 world leaders will be held on Thursday and Friday to try to break the deadlock on who should cut greenhouse gas emissions, by how much and who should pay.

But some delegates in the main plenary meeting on Wednesday said an agreement was far away.

"Tuvalu are extremely disappointed by the lack of progress," on extending the Kyoto Protocol, said Ian Fry. Tuvalu is among the most vulnerable low-lying island states at risk of disappearing as seas rise.

"It's time to save this process," he said.

20091216

NAIROBI (Reuters) - A group of mostly elderly Christian women said to have been arrested last week for practising a religion not endorsed by the Eritrean government have been released in the capital, a diplomat said on Wednesday.

The women were members of the Faith Mission Church, an evangelical church with a Methodist background that was forced underground when the government required all religious groups to register in 2002, according to a U.S.-based rights group.

Eritrean officials have made no official response to the reports but Information Minister Ali Abdu told Reuters last week he was not aware of any such arrests, adding that they would not have been religiously motivated in any case.

"The 27 women were released today after being held in an Asmara police station since Saturday. We don't know if any charges were laid," an Asmara-based diplomat told Reuters. "They were given water, and family members came with food."

The diplomat said their release was welcome news for families because concern for the women's health was growing -- all were in their forties or older, one was in her seventies, and a number had health concerns that required medicine.

There had been confusion as to how many women had been put behind bars with reports of between 25 and 30.

Eritrea is accused by rights organisations of harassing religious groups who have not been officially registered and approved by the government.

Three Christian churches are registered: Eritrean Orthodox, Roman Catholic and the Lutheran Evangelical Church of Eritrea.

20091216

PARIS (Reuters) - European leaders are courting some African, Asian and Latin American nations to counter the clout of China and the United States at the climate change talks in Copenhagen, French officials said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his EU allies were wary of letting Beijing present itself as a spokesman for emerging economies, they said. This would be based on China's ties with the G77 bloc of developing nations which is chaired by Sudan, an ally of Beijing.

"We have Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia with us. What we need is to rally the 51 African countries, all the little islands, the vulnerable countries, Bangladesh, and India if possible," said a Sarkozy adviser, who did not wish to be named.

Sarkozy has pushed his climate agenda during talks with leaders from Ethiopia, Egypt and Indonesia this week, and was meeting heads from the 1l countries in the Congo basin, the world's second-biggest forest after the Amazon, on Wednesday.

The leaders of France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Spain, Denmark and Sweden agreed on a joint diplomatic charm offensive on the fringes of a European Union summit last week, they said.

"They divvied up the phone calls. It's obvious for example that to talk to Argentina and Chile, (Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez) Zapatero is better placed," an aide told Reuters.

After a working lunch with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Tuesday, Sarkozy said Africa and the EU were "on the same political line" in terms of targets for cutting carbon emissions -- one of the sticking points in Copenhagen.

Meles, who is representing Africa at the talks, was slightly less upbeat, speaking of "near-total agreement".

20091216

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish police detained 230 people on Wednesday as protesters stormed barricades around a global climate summit and a handful briefly broke through, witnesses and a police spokesman said.

Police, some with dogs, used truncheons and pepper spray to keep back the hundreds of protesters who gathered outside Copenhagen's Bella Centre, where world leaders are meeting to try to broker a new deal on global warming.

A spokesman for the group which organised the protest had said they aimed to penetrate a police cordon and disrupt the talks. A few did break through an outer ring of security for a minute or two but were chased down by police, a Reuters witness said.

One climbed onto a police van but an officer climbed up after him, and hit him twice with a baton, until he fell back down.

Roads surrounding the centre and the nearest metro station were closed, apparently in response to the protests. A helicopter circled overhead, and police were inspecting the belongings of some people heading towards the conference venue.

The demonstrators had set out from Taarnby, a suburb of Copenhagen a few kilometres (miles) from the Bella Centre conference facility where 190 governments were meeting. Light snow flurries fell as they started their march.

Police later held some protesters at bay across a footbridge from the conference centre, where one man shouted at police: "We told you we would be peaceful, and you reacted with violence. Shame on you."

Climate Justice Action, which organised the march, said 1,000 people were expected to take part. Police declined to estimate the number of protesters or comment on policing.

20091216

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Support for a South African opposition party formed by defectors from the ruling African National Congress has slumped since the April election due to internal leadership battles, a poll showed on Wednesday.

Only 2.2 percent of eligible voters would back the Congress of the People (COPE), set up by loyalists of ousted President Thabo Mbeki in what was seen as the biggest challenge to the ruling party since apartheid ended in 1994.

COPE got over 7 percent of the vote in the election, giving it 30 seats in the 400-member parliament. But it did little to dent support for now President Jacob Zuma with its efforts to win over voters tired of scandals around him.

"The emergence of COPE has not been without controversy and several leadership struggles crippled the party, both before and after the general election in April 2009," said Ipsos Markinor, which carried out the poll.

It said COPE might still turn things around, with 8 percent of those polled saying they would "perhaps vote" for the party.

Ipsos Markinor said the party's support was concentrated in the Gauteng province, South Africa's economic hub.

"The party has to address a variety of issues important to people who live in big cities, whilst not forgetting the interests of people in the more remote areas," it said.

Political analysts doubt COPE's effectiveness as it has made similar promises to the ANC on issues such as addressing poverty, a concern for much of the black majority that has been intensified by the first recession in 17 years.

20091216

NAIROBI (Reuters) - The United States committed $2.7 billion on Wednesday to help fight HIV infection in Kenya where more than a million people are living with the disease.

The pledge is part of the largest U.S. foreign aid programme devoted to a single disease -- the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief -- and has been lauded as a bright spot of former President George W. Bush's tenure.

The money, which is to be dispersed over the next five years, represents a 112 percent increase in funding for the programme in Kenya, east Africa's largest economy. It is seen by the United States as an enhancement of a successful programme.

"Kenya is now the biggest recipient of this programme in the world, more than South Africa," U.S. Ambassador Michael Ranneberger told reporters in Nairobi.

He said the agreement with Nairobi meant the government was expected to increase direct budget support for the fight against HIV/AIDS by a minimum of 10 percent annually.

Kenyan Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta said the effect of the HIV virus and AIDS on the Kenyan economy was great.

"Studies done assessing the effect of HIV/AIDS on economic growth in Africa show that we lose about 2 percentage points in terms of growth. This is due to the negative impact of HIV/AIDS impact on productivity of labour," he said.

The programme will include caring for more than 550,000 orphans and vulnerable children, as well as helping manage other related co-infections such as Tuberculosis, Kenyatta said.

20091216

N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - Chadian armed forces called in air support during clashes with rebels in the east of the country, the first such fighting since May, both sides confirmed on Tuesday.

"The fighting was very brief. Airplanes came in support of our men on the ground," said Mahamat Hissene, Chad's information minister, when asked about fighting that took place on Sunday and Monday near the towns of Ade and Tissi, in Chad's east.

Hissene gave no information on a casualty toll but said fighting had started when a Chadian military vehicle drove over a landmine. He dismissed a rebel account of dozens of dead soldiers as "propaganda".

The Union of Forces for Resistance (UFR), a loose coalition of rebels fighting against President Idriss Deby's government, said it had inflicted a heavy toll on the army.

"Chadian military planes bombed our positions on Sunday and Monday. We then killed about 100 of their soldiers who fell into our ambush," UFR spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah told Reuters.

"For now the government forces have pulled back but we are waiting for the Chadian army to hit back," he added.

Fighting is mostly limited to the remote border areas but the Chadian rebels have launched several lightning assaults on N'Djamena while Sudanese rebels reached the outskirts of Khartoum last year, before being repelled by the army.

Chad and Sudan have been embroiled in a bitter row over the last five years, each accusing the other of backing rebels fighting against the central government.

20091216

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Trading card and memorabilia company Upper Deck said on Tuesday that it would not end its sponsor deals with Tiger Woods, who has admitted to marital infidelity and has had other sponsors back away from him as a result.

The company said it stood by the world's No. 1 golfer, who said on Friday that he was taking an "indefinite break" from pro golf.

"Upper Deck will maintain its exclusive agreement with Tiger in both our sports cards and memorabilia categories, and we look forward to his eventual return to the PGA Tour," Upper Deck Chief Executive Richard McWilliam said in a statement. "Tiger and his family have our full support."

Woods has served as an exclusive spokesman and autograph signer for Upper Deck since 2001.

Woods, 33, last week admitted to "infidelity" in his marriage to his Swedish wife Elin Nordegren as allegations of multiple extramarital affairs rocked his life and career.

Upper Deck is not the only company to stand by Woods as Nike Inc and Berkshire Hathaway's NetJets unit also recently have said they would not end their deals.

The star golfer was estimated to earn about $100 million a year in endorsement deals before his unwelcome troubles.

However, Woods' popularity has plummeted in the short space of two weeks as a parade of up to 13 women -- from cocktail waitresses to porn stars -- came forward to say they had had flings with the married father of two. The allegations emerged after Woods was involved in a minor November 27 car accident at his Florida home.

20091216

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Evangelist Oral Roberts, who became one of America's most successful and controversial television preacher with claims of faith healing and unusual money-raising tactics, died on Tuesday at the age of 91.

Oral Roberts Ministries published a tribute to Roberts on its website and news reports said that he died in Newport Beach, California, of complications from pneumonia.

Roberts, a preacher's son, started out putting on charismatic revival meetings in tents. He later took his ministry to radio and then to television, a path taken by other fiery evangelists such as Pat Robertson and Billy Graham.

He based his organization in Tulsa, Oklahoma, centered around Oral Roberts University, which he said he founded in 1963 on a command from God.

Hailing from Oklahoma, Roberts had Native American roots through his mother's side of the family, a heritage he took pride in.

Educated at Oklahoma Baptist and Phillips University, Roberts quit his pastorate at a Pentecostal church in 1947 to pursue a more fervent evangelical ministry.

20091216

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A neo-noir romance and a sweeping historical look at a Sicilian village were among the foreign language films earning Golden Globe nominations on Tuesday, hoping to boost recognition in the United States.

The five nominees come from Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Chile, and only Spanish director Pedro Almodovar and Italy's Giuseppe Tornatore have seen previous films get nominated before. Both walked away winners.

Tornatore, who won in 1990 for his "Cinema Paradiso," is back this year with "Baaria," a film that looks at three generations in the life of a Sicilian family

Almodovar's "Broken Embraces," starring Penelope Cruz, fuses a neo-noir style with a sprawling tale of dangerous love. The director has earned foreign language nominations for five of his films in the past, and he won for "All About My Mother" and "Talk to Her."

"Although I've received nominations before and I've even won Golden Globes in the past, every new nomination comes to me as a big and pleasant surprise," he said in a statement.

While Almodovar is well-known and "Cinema Paradiso" proved to be a crowd pleaser in the United States, all the other nominated films come from directors who have never received a Golden Globe before and will be looking to boost the recognition of their work for U.S. audiences.

The Golden Globes, given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, are annually one of most-watched awards shows on TV, although 2009's program drew the second-lowest total viewers since 1995 with an audience of 14.6 million.

Still, filmmakers looking to the show as a platform from which to promote their films, either for box offices or DVD.

ADDIS ABABA, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Africa is not prepared to accept empty words and agreements that undermine its fundamental interest, state media reported Wednesday, citing Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

"Africa loses more than most if there is no agreement on climate change," the official Ethiopian News Agency quoted Meles as saying at the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit.

"We are determined to make sure that in Copenhagen we will have an agreement that all of us, Africa included, are happy with," he declared.

Meles said Africa, under no circumstance, would accept a deal that would not ensure its interest and benefit.

The funding for adaptation and mitigation of climate change should rise to 100 billion U. S. dollars a year by 2020, said Meles, while making official Africa's position at the summit.

The funding should start by 2013 and reach 50 billion dollars a year by 2015, with the funds allocated for adaptation by vulnerable and poor countries and regions, such as Africa and small island states, he said.

He also suggested the fund should be financed through creative financing mechanisms and the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change should mandate a commission of political leaders and experts to review all such funding mechanisms and come up with a reliable system of funding and submit its report within six months.

In the short term, Meles said a start-up fund of 10 billion dollars a year for the three years of 2010-2012 should be established to address urgent adaptation and mitigation.

He proposed that 40 percent of the start-up fund should be earmarked for Africa.

Meles, who represents Africa at Copenhagen climate change talks, has asked the rich industrialized nations to compensate the less developed Africa for the impact of global warming.

CAIRO, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Egypt received on Wednesday five stolen Pharaonic wall paintings from France, said Egyptian Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass in a statement.

The paintings arrived at the Egyptian Museum after a meeting between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday, said Hawass, adding that the paintings would be returned to its original location in Luxor later.

Earlier in October, Egypt announced to suspend cooperation with France's Louvre Museum till it returns the five stolen Pharaonic paintings.

"I have sent a letter one year ago to the Louvre Museum asking it to return the ancient paintings that were stolen from Luxor and smuggled out of the country more than 29 years ago," said Hawass.

The Louvre Museum said it decided to return the fragments after Hawass severed ties with the museum in October.

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. He denied that his countrymen were seeking to steal it back.

KHARTOUM, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S Special Envoy to Sudan, General Scott Gration on Wednesday commended efforts made by Sudan's National Election Commission to make forthcoming elections in the country in April 2009 a success.

Gration made the commendation following a meeting with NEC members in Khartoum.

"I got a very good report on the progress and preparations for the elections and we are very satisfied that they are undertaking all the measures that have to be done and completed so that the elections in April (2010) will be credible", Gration told reporters following the meeting.

He said he was pleased with the NEC efforts, which made successful the voters registration process, adding that "I understand that the results are still being gone through and validated."

NEC Chairman Abil Alier, for his part, described their meeting with the U.S. envoy as was "successful and constructive."

"We discussed many issues, particularly necessity of international monitors for the coming elections. We assured him that we are arranging for that."

Alier stressed importance of the American role in making the Sudanese elections a success, saying "the U.S. and the international community have a great role to play to help us make this experience successful."

The NEC conducted voters' registration process during November 1 to December 7, 2009, where official results of the registration are expected to be announced in a week's time.

Multi-party elections, the first in two decades, are expected to be held in Sudan in April 2010. The NEC earlier said it would allow participation of 200 thousand foreign monitors besides local monitors to ensure credibility and success of the elections.

KHARTOUM, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's former President Thabo Mbeki denied on Wednesday that he was pressing the Sudanese government to accept recommendations on the creation of "hybrid courts" as proposed by the African Union (AU).

"We should remember that these proposals, endorsed by the AU, are matters that are still going to be negotiated by the Sudanese themselves," said Mbeki at a press conference following talks with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

An AU panel on the Darfur conflict led by Mbeki has submitted a report proposing the establishment of hybrid courts which consist of both Sudanese and foreign judges to try crimes committed in the western Sudanese region of Darfur.

"So when in the negotiating process, all of the parties negotiating peace in Darfur must consider these proposals," he said.

Mbeki refuted that the proposal on setting up hybrid courts to achieve justice in Darfur violated Sudan's sovereignty.

One of the points in the mandate of the panel was to present proposals on how to achieve justice and the panel has discussed the matter with all the parties, he said.

Mbeki said the AU panel would come out with a "program of action" in the wake of the talks held in Khartoum.

"We will work out a program as to what the panel could do to accelerate the Darfur peace process, implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between north and south Sudan, and preparation for the general elections and referendum on self-determination for southern Sudan," he said.

The AU panel arrived in Khartoum on Friday for talks with Sudanese officials to know Khartoum's view points regarding implementation of the report on hybrid courts. It was endorsed by the AU Peace and Security Council summit in the Nigerian capital of Abuja on Oct. 29.

OUAGADOUGOU, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Former chief of Guinea's presidential guard said Wednesday he shot the president because the junta leader wanted him to take responsibility for a bloody massacre in September.

The claim is the first comment from Lt. Aboubakar Diakite (Toumba) since the assassination attempt on Dec. 3.

Guinea's junta leader, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, was wounded in the assassination attempt and received surgery in Morocco.

Diakite accused Camara of ordering the Sept. 28 massacre at a pro-democracy rally where a human rights group said 157 people were killed. Camara has blamed Diakite for the massacre.

Following the incident, security levels have been raised in the Guinean capital of Conakry, eye witnesses said, adding that calm was restored as soldiers were deployed to major strategic points in the capital.

The political crisis in the West African country has lasted for nearly a year since Camara seized power in December 2008, hours after the death of long-time President Lansana Conte.

In August 2009, Camara announced he would return the country to democracy in a presidential poll in January 2010. But his intention to contest the elections ignited strong opposition in the country.

The standoff between the junta and the opposition has seemed ever more difficult to break since the Sept. 28 clash.

COPENHAGEN, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- The funding for adaption and mitigation of climate change should rise to 100 billion U.S. dollars a year by 2020, said Males Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, on behalf of the African Group, at the U.N. Climate Change Conference here on Wednesday.

He told the high-level segment of the conference the funding should start by 2013 and reach 50 billion dollars a year by 2015, with the funds allocated for adaption by vulnerable and poor countries and regions, such as Africa and small island states.

He also suggested the fund should be financed through creative financing mechanisms and the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change should mandate a commission of political leaders and experts to review all such funding mechanisms and come up with a reliable system of funding and submit its report within six months.

In the short term, Zenawi said, a start-up fund of 10 billion dollars a year for the three years of 2010-2012 should be established to address urgent adaption and mitigation. He also suggested that 40 percent of the start-up fund should be earmarked for Africa.

"Africa is not prepared to accept empty words and agreements that undermine its fundamental interest," the PM said, "Africa loses more than most if there is no agreement on climate change."

"We are determined to make sure that, in Copenhagen, we will have an agreement that all of us, Africa included, are happy with."

LUANDA, Dec.16 (Xinhua) -- The deputy commander for civil-military affairs of the U.S. Africa Command (Africom) Anthony Holmes said here on Wednesday that his department hoped to reinforce the existing "extensive relations" with Angola.

Upon his arrival in Luanda on a two-day visit, the U.S. general told reporters he would meet senior civil and military officials of the African country to explore possible cooperation in the fields of security.

He said his department hoped to reinforce the existing extensive relations with Angola, particularly in the energy sector, Angola's official news agency Angop said.

The general said the US government and Africom appreciated the role Angola had been playing in the continent and in the world community as a whole.

On the possibility of establishing a U.S. military base in Angola, the commander said he has come to exchange views with the Angolan government and explore possibilities.

He said the Africom has been based in Germany's Stuttgart for historical reasons and the location of the Africom would remain unchanged for the coming years.

As the Africom's deputy commander, Holmes is responsible for the command's plans on health, humanitarian aid, demining, natural disasters, reforms in the sector of security and peacekeeping operations.

The U.S. Africom, set up in October 2007 as the sixth strategic command of the U.S. military, was based in Germany's Stuttgart, and Pentagon said it had no plans to move the Africom to the African continent in the coming years.

LUSAKA, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Zambia has called on African ministers attending the on-going Copenhagen climate change summit in Denmark to remain united to achieve their goal, the Zambia Daily Mail reported on Wednesday.

Zambian Minister of Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources Catherine Namugala who is leading a Zambian delegation to the summit, said during a pan-African parliament ministerial briefing on the sidelines of the summit that Africa has come a long way in climate change negotiations and should remain united.

"I beg African ministers and delegates to hold together so that divide and rule should not prevail. Remember colonization, remember slavery. We have come a long way, so we have to get the good news. Our governments have spent a lot of money on this process," Namugala was quoted as saying by the paper.

Speaking at the same occasion, South African Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs Buyelwa Sonjica called on African delegations to the conference to speak with one voice, Daily Mail said.

"We don't want anyone to impose ideas on us. We must remain engaged. The bottom line is that developed countries must put money on the table and make bold emission reduction targets," Sonjica was quoted as saying by the paper.

At the 12th African Ministerial Conference on Environment in South Africa last year, African governments and civil society agreed on the importance of developing a common position for Africa climate change talks in Copenhagen, according to Daily Mail.