20091215
independent

A jubilant Cape Town last night took delivery of its spectacular £370m World Cup stadium. But elsewhere in South Africa, officials faced claims that the country has wasted resources on state-of-the-art sports facilities that will be white elephants after the final whistle is blown.

The 68,000-seat Cape Town stadium, which has taken 2,500 workers less than three years to build, was formally handed over by the contractors to mayor Dan Plato. "Cape Town stadium will become one of the world's sporting landmarks,'' he said.

Eight World Cup matches will be played there next June and July, including one semi-final. The seaside stadium, which has 37,000 sq metres of glass roofing to protect spectators from the elements, is Cape Town's most expensive building ever.

20091215
independent

The civil war in Sierra Leone became a byword for savagery. Marauding militias, often using child soldiers, killed and raped across the land. The country’s natural riches turned to a curse, with predators, both domestic and foreign, engaged in a fierce struggle to control mines producing the highly lucrative “blood diamonds”.

Ten years on, peace has broken out in the West African state. There is relative political stability, a programme - broadly successful - to reintegrate the armed groups and a number of ongoing reconstruction projects. Sierra Leone, backed by the billionaire financier and philanthropist George Soros, now presents itself as one of the region's successful investment opportunities.

However, for many in Sierra Leone the long years of strife and poverty has left a legacy of hardship. Particularly vulnerable are those who are physically handicapped, either through deliberate mutilations or disease. They are the ones, says General Sir David Richards, who will especially need help and must not be forgotten.

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LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's anti-corruption agency said late on Monday it had brought additional charges against the former head of Bank PHB in one of several money laundering cases following a $4 billion banking sector bailout.

Former Bank PHB managing director Francis Atuche had asked a federal court in Lagos to quash the 26-count charge against him but the court instead accepted an additional 19 counts, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said.

Atuche and one of the bank's executive directors, Charles Ojo, are being tried for their roles in granting a 450 billion naira credit facility without any collateral.

The two men are among several former bank executives to face criminal charges after a bank bailout in which the central bank injected around 600 billion naira to rescue nine weakly capitalised institutions, including Bank PHB.

Auditors found lax governance at the institutions had left them so weak that they posed a systemic risk.

Atuche resigned on October 2, shortly before the central bank announced the results of the audit of his bank.

Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi's bailout and the sacking of the top managers at the banks sent shockwaves through the country's corporate establishment.

Analysts are watching to see whether the country's judicial system, which has in the past been slow to prosecute graft cases against powerful politicians, will be any bolder in dealing with corporate leaders.

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LONDON (Reuters) - Increased funding is starting to pay off in the battle against malaria but prevention and treatment must be increased to try to halt the killer disease, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday.

The WHO's World Malaria Report 2009 found "significant progress" in the delivery of mosquito nets and malaria drugs, thanks largely to an increase in funds to $1.7 billion in 2009 from $0.3 billion in 2003. But it said $5 billion more was needed every year to get maximum global impact worldwide.

"The tremendous increase in funding for malaria control is resulting in the rapid scale up of today's control tools," WHO director-general Margaret Chan said in a statement.

"This, in turn, is having a profound effect on health -- especially the health of children in sub-Saharan Africa. In a nutshell, development aid for health is working."

Around 40 percent of the world's population is at risk of malaria, a potentially deadly disease transmitted via mosquito bites. It kills more than a million people worldwide each year and children account for about 90 percent of the deaths in the worst affected areas of sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia.

The fight against malaria has been slowed by resistance to chloroquine, the cheapest and most widely used malaria drug, which is now common throughout Africa.

Resistance to sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, often seen as the first and least expensive alternative, is also increasing.

As a result, artemisinin combination therapy drugs, or ACTs -- made by firms such as Novartis and Sanofi -Aventis -- are now regarded as the best medicines against malaria, but access to them is limited because they are expensive.

NAIROBI, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Britain's Department for International Development (DFID) signed an agreement with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), supporting the East African Community (EAC) in its efforts to harmonize migration management in the region.

A statement from IOM said the agreement will contribute towards overall efforts to ensure free and safe movement of people between EAC partner states while tackling issues such as irregular migration, smuggling, human trafficking and labor migration.

"The project will be implemented as a component of TradeMark East Africa, a multi-donor initiative managed by DFID to promote regional economic integration," the statement said.

It works with the EAC Secretariat, partner state governments, civil society organizations and businesses to promote greater regional integration and trade competitiveness in East Africa.

The British High Commission will also be involved in overseeing the implementation of this project.

"Large refugee movements and internally displaced people, labor migration, irregular migration (including trafficking and human smuggling) and traditional temporary migration characterize East Africa's migration flows," the IOM said.

Studies have shown that countries in the region are also source and transit countries for both refugee and irregular migrant flows along the Mediterranean Route (from the region to Sudan, Egypt, Libya and onwards to Europe), and the southern route towards South Africa.

With the EAC and its partner states aiming to establish a common market for the free movement of people by 2010, IOM said several issues and hurdles need to be addressed such as national security, migrants' and workers rights, refugee protection and human trafficking.

"Funding of 821,000 U.S. dollars from DFID will allow IOM to support the EAC Secretariat and partner States -- Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi -- to strengthen their capacity to address these migration issues," the statement said.

This, the UN agency said, will be through technical support to a new Migration Desk to be established at the EAC Secretariat, increasing migration expertise at EAC policy making level.

It will also help ensure that migration is incorporated into the common market protocol and provide information to the Secretariat and partner states on emerging migration challenges and possible interventions.

In addition, a Regional Advisory Committee will be set up to enhance dialogue on migration with other regions and countries and a Migration Resource Center established in Arusha at the EAC Secretariat.

This will include a physical and online library for the collection and sharing of information on migration trends and practices.

JOHANNESBURG, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Two hijackers were shot dead by South African police snipers following a 20-hour hostage drama outside Petrusburg in the Free State on Tuesday morning, the South African Press Association reported.

ER24 spokesman Lloyd Krause said the saga started around 10 a. m. on Monday, when a farm in the small town of Petrusburg was attacked.

"The farmer whose farm was under attack called his neighbors for assistance and the neighbors responded."

But the neighbors, a father and son, were hijacked by the attackers on their way to the farmhouse.

"The father and son duo is believed to have had a hunting rifle with them at the time of the hijacking," said Krause.

The hijackers sped off with them on Abrahamskraal road from Petrusburg toward Bloemfontein.

"The son managed to escape from the hijacked vehicle and managed to run to the Bainsvlei police station and summoned help."

A chase ensued when the police became involved and the hijacked vehicle came to a standstill on the road around 2 p. m., but the hijackers refused to hand themselves over.

"The police task force arrived on the scene at approximately 5 p. m.. Negotiations ceased at approximately 5 a. m. this morning [Tuesday] and resumed at approximately 6:10 a. m.. Food was delivered to the hijacked vehicle's occupants at approximately 9 p.m. last night."

Krause said at around 7 a. m. on Tuesday, the two hijackers were shot dead.

"Both of the hijackers were shot by police task force officers and are deceased. The sniper unit of the task force just neutralized them," said Krause.

The father was taken to hospital with minor injuries.

Beeld newspaper named him as Gerhard Venter and said he was the father-in-law -- and not father, as reported by the paramedics -- of Gerdus Venter, who was hijacked with him.

The Venters went to help Flip Kotze, of the Farm Uitvlug, who was held up and assaulted by two farm attackers.

But when the Venters arrived at the farm, according to Beeld, the two robbers were walking in the garden carrying big sports bags.

The two men told the Venters they were helping out on the farm, but the Venters ordered them to get into their bakkie.

But once inside the Venters' vehicle, the robbers held them up with a firearm that belonged to Kotze.

Gerhard Venter, in his 50s, then told Gerdus Venter to jump outof the bakkie. Two shots were fired at him as he did so, but he managed to get away.

Gerdus Venter, in his 30s, alerted the police who tracked down the bakkie and surrounded it, but the two men refused to hand over Venter.

That was when the negotiations started with them and the task force eventually arrived at the scene, after having their flight to Bloemfontein delayed twice due to bad weather.

At one stage, the wife of Gerhard Venter received an SMS from his phone, typed by one of the hijackers, which said: "We will have 2 [sic] kill him".

Police spokesman Senior Superintendent Vishnu Naidoo would not confirm the information released by the paramedics, saying the police would issue its own statement later in the day.

KINSHASA, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Members of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) have kidnapped at least four people since last week in the Nyamilima area, about 100 km from Goma, the capital of North-Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Local media said the battered Rwandan rebels were resorting to abductions for ransoms of between 300 U. S. dollars and 1,000 dollars from the families of the victims.

A radio station in Goma on Sunday quoted local administrative and police sources as saying that the very last case of abductions happened on Friday, when a young man of 20 years old and a woman were abducted in a rice field during day time at Kinyana in Nyamilima. The two have not been found to date.

On Thursday, police in Nyamilima reported that a local primary school teacher was abducted from his school by two FDLR soldiers at mid-day.

The abductors left behind their telephone number at the school for use by the family of the victim and later made a ransom demand of 1,200 dollars for his release.

One week ago, another man aged 70 was abducted at Kamusenga, an area close to Nyamilima. His family got him back after paying 300 dollars to the FDLR abductors.

The abductions have prompted actions by the United Nations peacekeepers in the DRC (MONUC) based in Nyamilima and the local authorities, but without concrete results by far.

The FDLR's new form of presence despite the mopping-up operation by the military has forced some people in Nyamilima to flee into the forest again.

Meanwhile, the FDLR appeared to have intensified its attacks inthe past week on villages in the eastern North Kivu province, which borders Rwanda.

The FDLR has been taking shelter in North Kivu after committing the 1994 Rwanda massacre. It suffered a heavy blow in the joint military operation between the DRC and Rwanda early in the year, but has managed to launch sporadic attacks in small groups on civilians ever since.

Last week, the Rwandan rebels who are allied with the local MaiMai militia attacked the Omate locality, more than 140 km from Goma, killing one person and looting a number of villages.

After repeated attacks by the FDLR in the past seven days, local authorities said up to 11 inflicted areas were rendered empty, adding to the number of internally displaced persons in North Kivu.

The administrator of Walikale territory, Dieudonne Tshishiku, told local radio that the current security situation in his area was precarious.

Commenting on the Omate attack, he noted, "Saturday at 5.00 a.m., the FDLR joined the Mai Mai in an attack on the Omate mining quarry. The number of the assailants was actually bigger than that of the FARDC being deployed on the ground. The FARDC controls only Ntoto. This is why they came from the forest to get supplies in almost all the villages. This is the case of Mutakatu, Luvungi and today, the Omate mining quarry."

"I can certainly tell you that between Ngora and Ntoto, there are 15 villages. And among these 15 villages, 11 of them have no inhabitants. All the people are currently putting up at the main town of this territory," he said.

Tshishiku has been in Goma since Friday, leading a delegation of the security council of Walikale territory to make a report of the situation in Walikale to the provincial authorities in North Kivu.

HARARE, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- After enduring economic hardships for close to a decade, many Zimbabweans saw the year 2009 as the spring of hope and boding well for the future as the country's political leaders engaged each other to arrest the economic meltdown and ease political tension.

The year saw many basic commodities that had disappeared from shelves in retail shops become easily available, albeit at a cost, while health delivery services were resuscitated from the intensive care unit to provide a tonic to the country's poor. It was a year full of hope and promise.

The year started with inflation running in millions and prices rising every day, at times more than once a day. The education system was in tatters, with teachers spending more time at home or in staff rooms than in classrooms, while many workers spent hours on queuing outside banks for money that was rendered valueless as soon as they withdrew it.

A number of retail shops had closed down because of the shortage of goods and expenses incurred in retaining unproductive labor force. Fuel was not readily available and many motorists had to cross the borders into Mozambique and Botswana to obtain it.

Generally, basic commodities were scarce, with some producers being accused of channeling their products to the parallel marketwhere they fetched higher prices.

On the political front, there was a lot of tension following the presidential elections of the previous year. People were fighting and arguing with each other,

The formation of an inclusive government by President Robert Mugabe of Zanu-PF and his political rivals Morgan Tsvangirai of MDC-T and Arthur Mutambara of MDC-M was a turning point, heralding a new political, economic and social dispensation.

The inclusive government is a child of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) brokered by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and signed by the three as they sought to put the country back on rail.

It came about following the contested presidential election results of March 2008 and the absence of a clear winner in the parliamentary elections of the same year.

Among the major achievements of the GPA were the return to political stability, peace and economic resuscitation through the introduction of other currencies.

According to the Central Statistical Office, the annualized rate of inflation for the first 10 months of 2009 was -9.6 percent, thanks to the introduction of multi-currencies.

Under the GPA, the parties agreed to give priority to the restoration of economic stability and growth in Zimbabwe and committed themselves to working together on a full and comprehensive program to resuscitate economy, address issues of production, food security, poverty and unemployment and the challenges of high inflation, interest rates and the exchange rate.

They recognized that one way to fight inflation and boost employment levels was to increase the industry's capacity utilization and set themselves a target of 60 percent of capacity utilization by the end of the year. This target has since proved to be ambitious and experts predict that industry will achieve around 30 percent of capacity utilization, although some companies have vastly improved their operations.

The parties also committed themselves to working together in re-engaging the international community.

Despite restoring hope, the country is not yet generating enough money to pay salaries, attend to social and health programs and rehabilitate dilapidated infrastructure.

Despite the gains made, the country's health and education sectors still remain a far-cry from the time when they had become the envy of the African continent.

Moves to engage the international community in rebuilding the economy have so far not yielded tangible results as donors still wait to see if the new government meets their expectations on the issues of governance and human rights and sticking to humanitarian assistance.

Sanctions remain the major obstacle for the government, with the little assistance which the country is getting from the international community going directly towards humanitarian assistance via nongovernmental organizations.

Mugabe and his party wanted Tsvangirai and his party to call for the removal of sanctions, arguing that it was them that had called for the imposition in the first place.

However, Tsvangirai's party said it can not go further than asking for what it calls "restrictive measures" to be removed. It further argued that the "restrictive measures were imposed on the Zanu-PF so that it could address issues of concern to the international community, and as such, it was up to the Zanu-PF to convince the international community that it had addressed the issues."

The International Monetary Fund has given Zimbabwe 510 million U.S. dollars support to weather the storm of the global recession. The money has, however, been subject to disputes between the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono and Finance Minister Tendai Biti over how it should be used.

Other lines of credit so far secured are being directed to strategic sectors in industry and manufacturing as the government seeks to boost employment opportunities, support exporters and enable the local production of basic commodities. One major obstacle is that locally-manufactured basic commodities are still more expensive than imported ones, prompting local companies to seek protection from the government.

The zeal and enthusiasm that characterized the performance of the inclusive government soon after its formation has also fizzled out as the parties quarrel over issues which they argue are still outstanding in the GPA.

The larger MDC faction led by Prime Minister Tsvangirai has raised a number of outstanding issues which it said Mugabe's Zanu-PF was failing to address, and at one time announced a partial disengagement from the inclusive government. The disengagement was reversed following SADC intervention on November 5.

Among other issues, the party wanted the appointments of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gono and Attorney-General Johannes Tomana to be reversed.

It also wanted Mugabe to swear into office its treasurer Roy Bennett as deputy minister of agriculture, mechanization and irrigation development. Mugabe has said he will not swear Bennett into office until he is cleared of insurgency and banditry chargeshe is facing in the courts of law.

Together with Mutambara's smaller MDC faction, Tsvangirai's party also wanted the appointment of provincial governors to be done on the basis of which party prevailed in the provinces during the March 2008 harmonized elections.

The Zanu-PF has declared that the appointments of Gono, Tomana and provincial governors were non-issues in the GPA, although it has softened a bit on provincial governors, saying negotiators could reach an agreement on these.

Among its demands, the Zanu-PF wanted Tsvangirai's party to make an unequivocal call for the removal of economic and travel sanctions on its members, as it was promised in the GPA, while the international community has maintained that the sanctions are targeted, and ordinary Zimbabweans have also been affected.

The party also wanted MDC formations, especially Tsvangirai's party, to call for the stopping of radio broadcasts beaming into Zimbabwe from beyond its borders. The broadcasts are generally anti-Zanu-PF, although some party officials have granted interviews to the radio stations.

In its argument on the radio stations, Tsvangirai's party was calling for the opening up of the media landscape to allow other players to compete with the national broadcaster, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. It also said it does not own or support any radio station.

These issues are now before negotiators from the three parties, who had been meeting. A summit of heads of state of the SADC troika on politics, defense and security held in Maputo on November 5 directed that the parties meet to iron out their differences.

It is expected that with the facilitator to the GPA, South Africa, monitoring the situation and reporting back on progress tothe troika, negotiators will now resolve their differences once and for all.

Many Zimbabweans who have invested into the future of the inclusive government do not want it to crumble and lead the country into political and economic chaos.

"Most Zimbabweans, unless if there are some who are benefiting from the previous chaos, want this experiment of the inclusive government to succeed. SADC should, therefore, wake up from its slumber and interfere in a constructive manner in the problems the government is experiencing," Eldred Masunungure, a professor of political science at the University of Zimbabwe, told Xinhua in an earlier interview.

His sentiments were echoed by the spokesman for Tsvangirai's party Nelson Chamisa who, in reviewing the first seven months of the inclusive government, said although outstanding issues remained, the GPA was still the best answer to the challenges besetting the country.

For now, it is not possible to look into the crystal ball and see where Zimbabwe is going, but many people want security, peace and prosperity. They also want investor confidence restored so that jobs are created to reduce the unemployment rate in the country. Most of all, they do not want hunger to stalk them again.

"I believe that all the gains made so far are a direct result of the inclusive government. These political leaders should, therefore, cast away personal interests and work for the benefits of all Zimbabweans. We know that this is a transitional arrangement, but neither Mugabe nor Tsvangirai can go it alone and they have to learn to work together until the next election," said Harare resident David Chikwanha.

According to the GPA, the country should come up with a new constitution before general and presidential elections. While the constitution-making process has started, there are fears that it will not meet the 18 months deadline. A failure to meet the deadline will mean that the inclusive government will exceed the two years it is meant to last.

KINSHASA, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- The 321st special intervention battalion of the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) coming from Kindu, Maniema province entered the troubled Dongo area in Equateur province, the military and UN sources confirmed late Monday.

Dongo was the theatre of ethnic confrontations since the end of October, in which hundreds of people were killed including police officers. Thousands of others have been displaced, including 74,000 fleeing into the neighboring Republic of Congo.

The FARDC entered Dongo without meeting any resistance on Sunday afternoon, according to the district commissioner of South Ubangi, Jean Baptiste Lumbwe.

After the FARDC deployment, the UN mission in the DRC (MONUC) decided to patrol the Bozene-Bobito-Dongo route on Monday.

On Sunday night, the regular police took control of the Gemena-Dongo route after five days of advancement. A security source who declined to be identified said the last combats they encountered from the Enyele insurgents occurred on Tuesday.

The UN military source said that there was logistical support from MONUC in the advancement by the regular Congolese police towards Dongo.

The armed youths from the Enyele tribe started attacking on Oct.30 on the Boba tribe over the control of fishing points. But when they were carried away by their victories, they formed a rebel movement and began to take away some other localities like Buburu in the Gemena district.?

20091215

(Xinhua) -- Two staff members of the United Nations and African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), who were abducted on Aug. 29, have been freed and arrived in Al Fasher, North Darfur, on Monday, the UNAMID said in a statement issued in Khartoum.

"They were on their way to their respective countries," the statement said, adding that "Patrick and Pamela went free on Sunday after 107 days of abduction."

UNAMID Joint Special Representative ad interim, Henry Anyidoho, led the welcoming team at Al Fasher Airport and expressed gratification for their freedom and safety.

"We are all very happy and relieved that they will be able to have a reunion with their families, particularly with their children who had to wait for their parents for so long and under a great deal of uncertainty," Anyidoho said in the statement.

He thanked the government of Sudan for its efforts to bring the abduction to an end.

"The government has consistently assured UNAMID that Pamela and Patrick would be released unharmed and we are extremely grateful and happy that this has been the case. I have already spoken to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to convey my appreciation for their efforts and will send notes of thanks to all officials involved," he added.

However, the statement did neither disclose the details on how the two UNAMID staff members were freed, nor the identifications of the abductors.

Pirates have seized an Indian dhow with an unconfirmed number of crew off the coast of Somalia.

In the third such incident in a week, the Indian vessel, Laxmi Sagar, which operates frequently between Arabia and the African coast with the usual 10 crew members onboard, is reported to have been seized on Sunday, a Press TV correspondent, quoting Andrew Mwangura of the Mombasa-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Program, reported late on Monday.

Somali pirates are currently holding at least 14 vessels and nearly 300 crewmen for ransom.

Last week, the Greek ship Ariana and its 24 Ukrainian crew members were freed after a helicopter dropped a multi-million dollar ransom onto its deck.

presstv

At least 24 people, mostly civilians, have been killed and over 30 others injured in heavy firefights between Somali forces and militants in Mogadishu, witnesses and officials said.

The fighting, which started on Sunday and continued through the better part of Monday, was concentrated in northern Mogadishu, where pro-government forces engaged with militants in a fierce battle that left at least 16 civilians and eight combatants from the two sides dead.

Col. Dahir Ali Farey, a Somali military spokesman, confirmed that there were some casualties on his side but maintained that his troops successfully secured rebel-held areas in northern districts.

Heavy fighting erupted on Monday near the base of the African Union's Burundian troops at the Jalle Siad military camp, north of Mogadishu, where heavily-armed Al Shabaab fighters carried out attacks.

Al Shabaab and another militant group, Hizbul Islam, have claimed responsibility for the latest flare-ups, which have rattled the capital's relative tranquility.

In addition, five children and several animals were killed by a landmine near the central Somali town of Balanbal in Galgadud.

According to the town's administrator, the landmine exploded after the children, four boys and a girl from the same family and their animals, came into contact with it.

The children's parents were reportedly unharmed, he added.

presstv

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A damning report by the Human Rights Watch says more than 1,400 civilians were killed this year by both Congolese troops and rebels.

The report blamed a UN-backed military offensive in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, aimed at uprooting a rebel group involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, for sparking a bloodbath from January to September.

"Congolese army soldiers and FDLR [the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda] rebel combatants have attacked civilians, accused them of being collaborators, and 'punished' them by chopping many to death with machetes," said the report released Monday.

In January, the Congolese army launched an aggressive offensive against the FDLR — a Hutu militia that took part in the massacre of Rwanda's Tutsis in 1994 and has been accused of war crimes in Congo.

The HRW cited one witness as saying a number of victims were tied together before their throats were “slit like chickens.”

The rights group urged the United Nations, involved in the conflict since March when its regional peacekeeping mission joined the offensive, to set up a "civilian protection expert group."

The group would be tasked with devising measures to avoid the mounting civilian toll in the country's strife-torn east.

The 183-page report, titled "You Will Be Punished: Attacks on Civilians in Eastern Congo" and based on the testimony of some 600 victims and witnesses, also condemned all parties in the conflict for committing rape on a large scale.

"Over the first nine months of 2009, the UN recorded over 7,500 cases of sexual violence against women and girls across North and South Kivu in eastern Congo, nearly surpassing the figures recorded during all of last year, and probably representing only a fraction of the total," the report adds.

presstv

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Ailing Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua may act this w eek to stem the worsening constitutional and governance crisis caused by his ill n ess by moving to empower his deputy to act for him while he recuperates from his

sickness, the local press reported.

Yar'Adua was flown to Saudi Arabia 23 Nov. for medical treatment after his docto rs found he was suffering from acute pericardities (inflammation of the outer li n ing of the heart).

But because the President failed to formally hand over the reigns of power to hi s deputy, governance has all but come to a halt, fuelling calls for his resigna t ion.

Also, PANA reported that President Yar'Adua's illness has had a regional impact, forcing the postponement of the annual ECOWAS Summit of Heads of State and Gove r nment - which he is supposed to preside over in his capacity as the ECOWAS Chai r man - from this month to next January.

However, the private Nation newspaper reported Monday that the President may thi s week comply with Section 145 of the country's Constitution, which reads: ''Whe n ever the President transmits to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of t h e House of Representatives a written declaration that he is proceeding on vacati o n, or that he is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, unti l he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such functions will

be discharged by the Vice President or the Acting President.''

The plan, according to the paper, is that the President may write the bicameral legislature to say he is proceeding on vacation to take care of his health, pavi n g the way for Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to become acting President.

Analysts told PANA Monday such a move will reduce the tension in the polity and perhaps stem the growing calls on the President to resign on account of his ill- h ealth.

``If indeed this is true, it will be a welcome development,'' one analyst told P ANA on the condition of anonymity. ``The issue is, why has it taken the Presiden t this long to act in accordance with the stipulations of the 1999 Constitution?' '

The President's long absence has already taken a toll on governance, as Vice Pre sident Jonathan has refused to sign key bills into law in an effort to avert a c o nstitutional crisis. Such bills include the 2009 Supplementary Appropriation Bil l .

Meanwhile, Nigeria's Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Abdullahi Aminc, has said the P resident is currently on bed rest at the King Faisal Specialists Hospital and Re s earch Centre in Jeddah, where he is on admission.

``Since his arrival in the Kingdom, he has been feeling better by the day...the doctors will decide when he can leave,'' the Ambassador said in a statement.

Concerns about the President's health date back to 2007, when he had to be rushe d to a German hospital in the heat of the campaign for that year's general elect i ons.

Since then he has travelled to Germany and Saudi Arabia a number of times for me dical attention, each time fuelling fresh debate about his ability to govern Afr i ca's most populous nation.

Lagos - 14/12/2009

Copenhagen, Denmark (PANA) ?" As the UN Climate Ch ange Conference in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, entered its second and final week Monday, billions of people around the world are eagerly awaiting the negotiations to deliver a fair, ambitious, binding and timely global deal.

This week, the conference will be joined by ministers from around the world, and the proceedings are expected to take a giant step forward in addressing climate change.

Ahead of the final debate, rallies were held around the world over the weekend, with hundreds of thousands people from 140 countries calling for 'climate justice'.

Among the crunch issues that the negotiators need to resolve are enhanced action to assist the most vulnerable and the poorest to adapt to the impacts of climate change and ambitious emission reduction targets for industria lised countries.

The conference also needs to address nationally-appropriate mitigation actions b y developing countries with the necessary support, significantly scaled-up financial and technological resources.

The current aggregate target for developed countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions is a paltry 10-17 percent by 2020 based on 1990 levels. They need to be increased to 40 percent and right now the meeting is discussing a range of 25-45 percent cuts.

There is also the issue of US$140 billion a year needed to be paid for developin g world climate action, adaptation and mitigation, and an end to tropical deforestation by 2020.

There are also proposals on the table that could lead to an amended Kyoto Protoc ol and a Copenhagen Protocol. Most observers here say a legally binding outcome is vital for the survival of millions of people.

The deal to be clinched here will follow on the first phase of the UN??s Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.

Greenpeace on Monday called on world leaders to listen to the people and the sci ence, and agree on the fair, ambitious and legally binding climate deal the world is waiting for.

??This is it. Around 120 heads of state will arrive with the task of agreeing a deal to avert catastrophic climate change. This week we will see history made -

for good or for bad,?? said Martin Kaiser, Climate Policy Director for Greenpeace Intern ational.

??Will our leaders have the courage and vision to agree a real deal to save the climate, or will they continue to play poker with the planet? They cannot come t o Copenhagen just to make grand statements which play to their domestic audiences while failing the planet,?? he added.

Greenpeace said the leaders from Germany, United Kingdom and United States are t he ones the world will be watching out for this week, charging that they all will arrive with inadequate emission reduction targets and peanuts in terms of t he finance needed for the developing world.

According to Jeremy Hobbs, Executive Director of Oxfam International, the negoti ations are stuck and rich countries will not budge on climate cash or emissions targets and the big players do not want to talk about the kind of deal that will come out the end of the week.

??We desperately need world leaders to get a grip on these issues now. All coun tries will need to give a little if we are going to get a deal in time. The big q uestion is whether those with the furthest to go ?" the rich countries - are ready to play catch up,?? Hobbs said Monday.

??We know what is needed: sharp emissions cuts, US$200bn a year in new money to help poor countries tackle climate change and guarantees of action. We will hav e

over 100 of the world??s most powerful people in one place. We have a golden op portunity to avert climate disaster. It must not be wasted,?? he added.

As Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Ch ange, said, ``a climate deal in Copenhagen is an unequivocal requirement to stop climate change from slipping out of control.??

Copenhagen - 14/12/2009

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OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) -- Guinea's military leadership on Monday rejected a proposal from a regional group to bring in foreign troops to prevent further violence, saying it would consider such a move an act of war.

Meanwhile, a diplomat and a bodyguard close to the junta's No. 2 said he would visit Morocco to assess the health of the wounded coup leader following an assassination attempt.

Col. Moussa Keita spoke after a Sunday meeting of African, American and European diplomats to discuss a plan to return Guinea to civilian rule.

"Any country that plans to send troops should desist because if they send troops we will consider their actions a declaration of war and consequently we will take measures," Keita said.

The West African economic bloc on Sunday called for troops to be sent to Guinea to prevent further violence following a military-led massacre at a stadium in September that human rights groups said killed at least 157 people.

Also Monday, a bodyguard and a retired diplomat said Gen. Sekouba Konate will travel on Tuesday to determine for himself if Capt. Moussa "Dadis" Camara will be able to return to Guinea after being shot earlier this month. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of concern for their security.

Konate was filmed over the weekend by state TV paying an official visit to Camara's mother in a suburb outside of Guinea's capital, Conakry.

The state of Camara's health has been a mystery ever since he was airlifted to a Moroccan military hospital on Dec. 4.

Junta officials say Camara's top aide, Lt. Abubakar "Toumba" Diakite, shot him in the head on Dec. 3. The 45-year-old president has not spoken publicly since the shooting, leading many to speculate he is in a coma.

Konate told reporters last week that he had spoken by telephone to Camara. But several diplomats based in Conakry said they doubted he had spoken to Camara who was said to be isolated inside his hospital room with access to no one but his doctors.

Konate's planned departure from Guinea casts further doubt on whether the junta is able and willing to move on without clear direction from their wounded leader.

Several experts and diplomats have speculated that Camara must be in a coma or he would have himself addressed the nation by TV or radio since undergoing surgery for a bullet wound to the head.

World Bank officials say Guinea already has defaulted on a major loan and stands to incur further penalties now that Camara appears to be incapacitated because he is the only one authorized to sign loan documents.

Camara seized power in a coup nearly one year ago and promised to quickly hand over power to civilians in elections in which he would not run. But he began dropping hints that he planned to run after all, prompting a massive pro-democracy protest in the capital on Sept. 28.

Members of the presidential guard shot at the demonstrators, killing at least 157 people, according to human rights groups. Women were raped in the streets by soldiers shouting slogans in support of Camara, the groups said.

hosted.ap.org

KHARTOUM, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Two staff members of the United Nations and African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), who were abducted on Aug. 29, have been freed and arrived in Al Fasher, North Darfur, on Monday, the UNAMID said in a statement issued in Khartoum.

"They were on their way to their respective countries," the statement said, adding that "Patrick and Pamela went free on Sunday after 107 days of abduction."

UNAMID Joint Special Representative ad interim, Henry Anyidoho, led the welcoming team at Al Fasher Airport and expressed gratification for their freedom and safety.

"We are all very happy and relieved that they will be able to have a reunion with their families, particularly with their children who had to wait for their parents for so long and under a great deal of uncertainty," Anyidoho said in the statement.

He thanked the government of Sudan for its efforts to bring the abduction to an end.

"The government has consistently assured UNAMID that Pamela and Patrick would be released unharmed and we are extremely grateful and happy that this has been the case. I have already spoken to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to convey my appreciation for their efforts and will send notes of thanks to all officials involved," he added.

However, the statement did neither disclose the details on how the two UNAMID staff members were freed, nor the identifications of the abductors.

NAIROBI, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Somali pirates have hijacked an Indian dhow off the coast of the Horn of the African nation in the latest pirate incidents, a regional maritime official confirmed on Monday.

Andrew Mwangura, the East African Coordinator of Seafarers' Assistance Program (SAP) said the Laxmi Sagar was seized on Sundaybut the reports reached his organization on Monday.

"The Indian dhow was seized on Sunday but we received the report early today. The crew is Indian. I have not established where the dhow was heading from and its destination," Mwangura told Xinhua by telephone from Mombasa.

Sources said the Indian dhow operates frequently between Saudi Arabia and the African coast.

Piracy has become rampant off the coast of Africa, especially in the waters near Somalia, which has been without an effective government since 1991.

An estimated 25,000 ships annually cruise the Gulf of Aden, off Somalia's northern coast.

The Gulf of Aden, off the northern coast of Somalia, has the highest risk of piracy in the world. About 25,000 ships use the channel south of Yemen, between the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.

OUAGADOUGOU, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- The ninth meeting of the international contact group on Guinea, which was opened in Ouagadougou on Sunday, recommended the deployment of an international security force in the West African country to protect its civilian population.

The first of its kind since the attempted assassination of the military junta head Moussa Dadis Camara, this high-level meeting comprised diplomats from the Western countries, representatives of the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), members of the opposition pressure groups, members of the ruling National Council for Democracy and Development (CNDD) and a delegation from the United States.

It was the president of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, who recommended the sending of an intervention force to Guinea not only to protect the civilian population, but to stop the possibility of the whole region being destabilized because of a prolonged conflict.

Chambas asked the CNDD to respect their commitment to give up power and not to contest for the next presidential elections. He said those who organized the Sept. 28 killings in the capital Conakry should be charged before international courts.

According to the international contact group on Guinea, the situation has become worse after the attempted assassination of the junta leader Dadis Camara.

An official of Guinea's Workers Confederation, Radiatou Ba, described the current situation as never been seen before in the country.

For the pressure groups, the meeting presented a new hope of ending the crisis. In the words of an opposition leader Sydia Toure, "We hope that this will be an occasion of solving all the problems once and for all so that we can get the country out of the crisis."

Moussa Keita, the head of the CNDD delegation, said, "It will be premature to comment; in any case, the discussions will continue and at an opportune time, the media will be given a briefing on the situation."

On the agenda of the gathering, which did not last a full day, was an expected meeting of Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaore, the facilitator in the Guinea crisis, with each of the political groups and a press briefing.

Guinea's situation is complicated with military the junta leader shot and wounded early in the month by his aide de camp, Aboubakar Toumba Diakite, who refused to answer questions before the UN investigators on the Sept. 28 crackdown.

The junta's No. 2, Defense Minister Sekouba Konate, temporarily takes over the leadership while Camara is away hospitalized in the Mohammad V Military Hospital in Rabat, Morocco.

While the opposition sees an opportunity of making a breakthrough in the talks with the military junta, which under Camara rejected the departure from power as being demanded by the pressure groups, others fear the spill-over of the conflicts even into neighboring countries to jeopardize the whole West African region.

Konate is seen as not directly involved in the Sept. 28 bloodshed in which the local human rights organization says up to 157 people were killed. The international contact group is apparently working on all sides to seek the best possible results while avoiding the worst under the circumstances different from under Camara, who was wounded in the head and has since been lying under medical care without a sign of returning any time soon.

The military led by Camara took power in December 2008 after the death of then president Lansana Conte, who also launched a coup d'etat following the death of Sekou Toure in 1984.

Guinea is under international and regional sanctions for its return to democracy and the constitutional order.

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(Xinhua) -- A collapsed stair case at a church in South Africa's Johannesburg on Sunday left 94 worshippers injured, the South African Press Association reported, citing Gauteng paramedics.

The stair case collapsed shortly after noon and fell upon congregants of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God on Eloffand Plein streets, said Netcare 911 spokesman Jeff Wicks.

Of those injured, 25 were in a serious condition.

"The cause of the collapse is still unknown but is being investigated by the fire service as well as the police services," said ER24 spokesman Lloyd Krause.

The worshippers suffered injuries ranging from minor bruises to fractures. They have been taken to Johannesburg hospital, Helen Josephs hospital and Hillbrow Clinic.?