KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan has arrested three Sudanese suspected of helping to kidnap a French/British Red Cross worker in Darfur, security and aid sources said on Tuesday.

Gauthier Lefevre was the fifth expatriate humanitarian worker to be kidnapped in Sudan since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir in March, accusing him of war crimes in western Sudan.

"We have arrested three people ... Sudanese ... and they are under interrogation," a senior official in Sudan's intelligence forces told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

He said the three were accused of helping to plan the kidnapping and were being held in the West Darfur capital el-Geneina.

Another security source said one of those detained was a woman, accused of letting the kidnappers stay at her home.

The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC), which suspended operations in West Darfur after Lefevre's abduction, said it had no information on the detentions.

"The ICRC trusts that the authorities are taking all measures to ensure a smooth release," said ICRC spokeswoman Tamara al-Rifai.

Aid workers fear further abductions as Khartoum has not caught any of the kidnappers despite knowing their identities. Reports of ransoms being paid for those released have encouraged more kidnappings, they say.

Nov 24, 2009

PRETORIA (Reuters) - South Africa included figures for drugs and prostitution in its economic growth calculation for the first time on Tuesday, but analysts said the estimated $465 million for illegal activities last year was too low.

Statistics South Africa said illegal and underground activities make up only 0.2 percent of the economy in the country, which has one of the world's highest rates of violent crime.

Analysts immediately cast doubt on the estimate of 3.5 billion rand for 2008.

"I think it is a bit conservative," said Freddie Mitchell, economist at research group Efficient.

"The international community sees South Africa as a haven for drugs, so I think 3.5 (billion rand) is a bit of an underestimation."

The statistics agency released previously "non-observed" activities in its gross domestic product calculations for the first time, in line with international standards.

The new category includes many activities like prostitution, abalone poaching and the growing and selling of drugs.

Carjacking is common in South Africa and drug use is rife in some areas and among young people. Marijuana is seen as a cash crop in many rural areas.

Stats S.A. said in the release of third quarter data, which also revised and rebased previous figures, that Africa's biggest economy measured 2.284 trillion rand, of which illegal activities make up 0.2 percent.

Nov 24, 2009

LIBREVILLE (Reuters) - Gabon's new President Ali Ben Bongo has ordered a census of the central African country's bloated civil service in a bid to cut state spending and take charge of the body, the prime minister said on Tuesday.

The move is one of the first policy decisions by Ben Bongo since he took over from his late father Omar in a disputed election this August, campaigning on promises to cut red tape and encourage entrepreneurship.

"It's a step the government has taken in order to have reliable records, to have the most accurate information possible, and to finally take control of its staff," Prime Minister Paul Mba told reporters after a government meeting.

Under Omar Bongo's rule of over 40 years, the oil nation of 1.5 million people saw its government headcount swell to 55,000.

Their salaries cost 336 billion CFA francs a year, and the service as a whole consumed around a quarter of the national budget.

It was known for a system of cronyism and fraud in which salaries were paid to non-existent workers and staff were employed despite having no qualifications for their positions.

Gabon in March cut its overall budget by 13 percent to just over $3 billion, citing lower revenues from oil and other exports, though it remains one of the richest countries in Africa as measured by per capita gross domestic product.

The country, one of the few in the region to have issued a Eurobond, is looking for ways to diversify its economy away from reliance on its dwindling oil stocks.

Nov 24, 2009

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's infant mortality rate has risen by 20 percent over the past two decades as children under five succumb to the HIV/AIDS pandemic and pneumonia, a joint government and United Nations survey showed on Tuesday.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday a survey it carried with Zimbabwe's government in May this year showed the number of children dying under the age of five had risen by 20 percent since 1990, the baseline year for the UN's Millennium Development Goals.

However, UNICEF had said in a March 2005 report that the under-5 mortality rate rose 50 percent between 1990-2005 to 1 death in every 8 births, suggesting that the mortality rate is now increasing at a slower pace than before.

The latest report showed that between 2005-2009, 94 children out of every 1,000 newly born children died before reaching the age of five, up from 82 deaths in 2005.

"Major causes of death of children under five are HIV/AIDS, newborn disorders, pneumonia and diarrhoea," it said.

Half of women in Zimbabwe's poor rural areas were also giving birth at home, with high hospital fees proving a barrier to women accessing obstetric services.

Zimbabwe's economic woes have destroyed the public health system, a factor highlighted by last year's cholera outbreak which killed nearly 5,000 people.

On Tuesday the official Herald newspaper reported that six suspected cholera cases had been recorded in the past week in a poor township in the capital Harare, whose authorities are struggling to supply clean water to residents.

24/11/2009

Geneva. Switzerland (PANA) , New data in the 2009 AIDS epidemic update have show n that new HIV infections have been reduced by 17% over the past eight years, ac c ording to a joint report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Joint UN

Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

It said since 2001, when the UN Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS was signed , the number of new infections in sub-Saharan Africa is approximately 15% lower,

which is about 400,000 fewer infections in 2008.

In East Asia, the statement said, HIV incidence has declined by nearly 25% and i n South and South East Asia by 10% in the same time period. In Eastern Europe, a f ter a dramatic increase in new infections among injecting drug users, the epidem i c has leveled off considerably.

However, in some countries there are signs that HIV incidence is rising again, i t said, while highlighting that beyond the peak and natural course of the epidem i c - HIV prevention programmes are making a difference.

??The good news is that we have evidence that the declines we are seeing are du e, at least in part, to HIV prevention,?? said Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS. ??However, the findings also show that prevention programming is often off the mark and that if we do a better job of getting resources and programmes to where they will make most impact, quicker progress can be made and more lives saved.??

In this first double issue, the UNAIDS Outlook report further explores how ??mo des of transmission?? studies are changing the approach of HIV prevention effort s. The new magazine-style report looks at new ideas and ways to use the data collec ted in the companion epidemiological report.

Data from the AIDS Epidemic Update also show that at 33.4 million, [31.1 million ?"35.8 million] there are more people living with HIV than ever before as people are living longer due to the beneficial effects of antiretroviral therapy and popula tion growth.

However the number of AIDS-related deaths has declined by over 10% over the past five years, as more people gained to access to the life saving treatment. UNAIDS and WHO estimate that since the availability of effective treatment in 19 96, some 2.9 million lives have been saved.

Dr Margaret Chan, Director- General of WHO said: "International and national inv estment in HIV treatment scale-up has yielded concrete and measurable results. W e

cannot let this momentum wane. Now is the time to redouble our efforts, and save many more lives."

Antiretroviral therapy has also made a significant impact in preventing new infe ctions in children as more HIV-positive mothers gain access to treatment prevent i ng them from transmitting the virus to their children. Around 200 000 new infections amo ng children have been prevented since 2001.

In Botswana, where treatment coverage is 80%, AIDS-related deaths have fallen by over 50% over the past five years and the number of children newly orphaned is a lso coming down as parents are living longer.

One of the significant findings of the report is that the impact of the AIDS res ponse is high where HIV prevention and treatment programmes have been integrated

with other health and social welfare services.

The double report also shows that the face of the epidemic is changing and that prevention efforts are not keeping pace with this shift. For example the epidemi c in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, once characterized by injecting drug use, is now spread ing to the sexual partners of people who inject drugs. Similarly in parts of Asi a an epidemic once characterized by transmission through sex work and injecting drug use is no w increasingly affecting heterosexual couples.

24/11/2009

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua has submitted the 4.0 79 trillion naira 2010 budget bill to the National Assembly (parliament), after a supremacy fight between the two cham bers of the bicameral legislature prevented him from formally presenting the budget to a joint session of the assembly last week (US$1=150 Naira).

According to some details of the budget, contained in a presidential statement o btained by PANA here Tuesday, the budget comprises 180.28 billion Naira for Statutory Transfers, 517.07 billion Naira for Debt Serv ice, 2.011 trillion Naira for Recurrent (Non-Debt) Expenditure and 1.370 trillion Naira for Capital Expenditure.

This represents a 31.5% increase over the 3.102 trillion Naira appropriated for 2009.

The 2010 Budget is predicated on an oil production of 2.088 million barrels per day; Benchmark oil price of US$57/barrel; Joint Venture cash calls of US$5billion; average exchange rate of 150 Naira to the US dollar; Targe t GDP growth rate of 6.1%; and Target inflation rate of 11.2%.

''The 2010 Budget is the principal policy instrument to transform our solemn pro mises to the Nigerian people embedded in this Administration??s Seven-Point Agenda and Nigeria Vision 20:2020 into tangible and enduring realiti es,'' President Yar'Adua said.

''We remain committed to transforming the socio-economic fortunes of our people by implementing a strategic plan for stimulating economic growth and launching the nation onto a trajectory of sustained development that will propel Nigeria to the top twenty economies in the world by the year 2020,'' he added.

He said the purpose of the 2010 Budget was to accelerate economic recovery ''thr ough targeted fiscal interventions intended to further stimulate the economy and support private sector growth''

''Accordingly, the 2010 Budget provides about 90% of MDAs?? (Ministries, Depar tments and Agencies) capital expenditure to 5 key priority sectors, namely Critical Infrastructure; Human Capital Development; Land Reform and Food Security; Physical Security, Law and Order; and the Niger Delta,'' the President said.

A disagreement between the Senate and the House of Representatives, over which v enue to be used for their joint sitting, scuttled the President's plan to present the budget last week.

It was the first time since Nigeria's return to democratic rule in 1999 that the President has not been able to present the annual budget bill to the National Assembly.

Nov 24, 2009

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria plans to increase spending by a third next year, to help lift itself out of an economic downturn, overhaul its shambolic power sector and develop the Niger Delta, the restive heartland of its mainstay oil industry.

President Umaru Yar'Adua sent a 4.079 trillion naira 2010 budget proposal to parliament on Tuesday, a 32 percent increase in planned spending on 2009 which, if approved, will push sub-Saharan Africa's second biggest economy to a fiscal deficit of 4.79 percent.

About a third of the planned budget is capital spending on areas including infrastructure, the power sector and development in the Niger Delta, where an amnesty programme earlier this year has so far brought a lull in militant attacks on the oil sector.

"The purpose of the 2010 budget is to accelerate economic recovery through targeted fiscal interventions intended to further stimulate the economy and support private sector growth," Yar'Adua said in a budget statement presented to parliament by one of his aides.

The statement said 1.37 trillion naira was for capex and 2.011 trillion naira for recurrent, non-debt expenditure.

Total government revenue was seen at 2.517 trillion naira.

Yar'Adua said improving power infrastructure was a top priority and that Nigeria aimed to double electricity capacity to 10,000 megawatts (MW) by the end of 2011. Intermittent power supply is seen as a major brake on economic growth.

The spending plans for Nigeria, which vies with Angola as Africa's top oil producer, assume oil output of 2.088 million barrels per day (bpd), a benchmark oil price of $57 and an exchange rate of 150 naira to the U.S. dollar.

LAGOS, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Visiting former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Bin Mohamad blamed the increased level of corruption across the world on bad governance, local press reported on Tuesday.

"No country of the world is completely free of corruption today," Mahathir told the 11th edition of Emmanuel Onyechere Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe lecture series, which was opened on Monday in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial hub.

"Corruption has become an endemic problem in the world," the News Agency of Nigeria quoted him as saying.

The lecture entitled, "To live in the Way of Honors, Incorruptibility; A Spiritual Premise for Material Well Being", was organized by the Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe Foundation.

According to him, corruption has eaten so deep into the fabric of most countries because of the failure of the leaders to stem poverty, unemployment and infrastructural decay.

He said most leaders who came into office through corrupt practices always infested clean ones in their cabinets.

Mahathir said the future remained bleak if something urgent was not done to fight corruption in all spheres of human endeavor across the globe.

"With corruption, it becomes difficult for businesses to thrive and developmental projects would remain uncompleted in different locations due to mismanagement of available resources," he said.

He added that Malaysia was able to achieve relative development over the years due to good governance and series of anti-corruption measures put in place.

Former prime minister of Pakistan, Shaukat Aziz,who also spoke at the forum, said the current global financial crisis was far from over.

He said good leadership was in short supply globally, due to corruption.

Aziz said there was the need for countries to resist corruption and embrace peace, harmony and tolerance so as to bequeath better legacies to the younger generation.

LUSAKA, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- A senior Zambian government official has warned immigration officers involved in corrupt activities, saying they would be dealt with because they were tarnishing the image of the country's Immigration Department, the Times of Zambia reported on Tuesday.

Minister of Home Affairs Lameck Mangani said in Lusaka on Monday that he had been receiving reports on some immigration officers who were engaged in vices, adding that the government would not hesitate to deal with such officers.

"If you engage in corruption you will cut your careers short when you are caught. You should not take advantage of an individual because of your position," Mangani was quoted as saying by the paper.

The Zambian Minister said when he visited the Immigration Department headquarters in Lusaka that "they were some bad elements in the department" and warned them not to distort the image of the entire department.

Some immigration officers have been nabbed trying to help prohibited immigrants. Last week, a senior immigration official in northern Zambia was nabbed for trying to help illegal immigrants enter the country.

According to Mangani, the department was critical in running national affairs because it handled foreign nationals who came to the country, adding that they should ensure that foreign national shad proper documents.

USAKA, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- A senior World Bank official has said integration efforts for Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) requires a spending of 5.5 billion U.S. dollars over the next decade, the Zambia Daily Mail reported on Tuesday.

Countries in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have been working at integrating their programs, saying there was a lot of duplication of each other programs.

World Bank Senior Economist Vivien Foster said in Lusaka on Monday that water, transport, power and information and communication technology were some of the illustrative targets for regional integration in ESA over the next decade.

The World Bank official said there was need to upgrade the regional the road network to good quality and that there was need for countries to complete regional transmission network to allow power trade and develop large-scale regional hydro-power projects.

She further said countries in the region should complete the missing kilometers optic fiber backbone network, giving all landlocked countries two alternative routes to submarine cables and added though the region had a relatively advanced air transport market, but has still a long way to go on liberalization and surveillance safety.?

HARARE, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- The three parties in Zimbabwe's Global Political Agreement on Monday started negotiations to iron out differences which have created deep chasms within the country's inclusive government, in line with a SADC resolution passed in Maputo, Mozambique on Nov. 5.

Negotiations went well into the evening, with none of the chief negotiators shedding light on what was going on behind doors, according to the state controlled Herald newspaper.

There is an agreement that the media should not have a blow by blow account of the discussions, as this would be tantamount to negotiating in public.

President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF is represented by Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche, while Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC is represented by Tendai Biti and Elton Mangoma.

Welshman Ncube and Priscillah Misihairabwi-Mushonga represent Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara's smaller MDC faction.

Talks had been scheduled to begin by Nov. 20 as per the resolution of the summit of the SADC troika on politics, defense and security that they should start within 15 days, but the negotiators failed to achieve this, citing other pressing government commitments.

The troika was flexible, however, giving room that negotiations should not start later than 30 days from the date of the resolution.

The GPA, signed on Sept. 15 2008 after a serious political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe and the absence of a clear winner in that year's general elections, resulted in the formation of the inclusive government in February.

Under the agreement, Mugabe retained his post while Tsvangirai became prime minister and Mutambara became deputy prime minister.

However, Tsvangirai on Oct. 16 announced his party's partial withdrawal from the government, citing unfulfilled promises by Mugabe's Zanu-PF, and prompting the SADC to hold a troika summit.

Among other issues, Tsvangirai's party wants the appointments of Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono and Attorney-General Johannes Tomana reversed.

It also wants 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 the terrorism, insurgency and banditry charges he is facing in the courts of law.

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

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

On its part, Zanu-PF wants Tsvangirai's party to make an unequivocal call for the removal of economic and travel sanctions on its members, as per its promise in the GPA. While the international community has maintained that the sanctions are targeted, ordinary Zimbabweans have felt their pinch over the years.

MDC-T also argues that it has no capacity to have the sanctions removed, adding that the onus is on Zanu-PF to satisfy the international community's expectations in the area of good governance.

Among the issues Zanu-PF regards as outstanding are the setting up of a National Economic Council, the constitution-making process and a land audit, which it says are constrained by lack of funds "and the rather crowded agenda."

The party also wants radio broadcasts beaming into Zimbabwe from beyond its borders to be stopped. The broadcasts are generally anti-Zanu-PF, even though some party officials have granted interviews to the radio stations.

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

NAIROBI, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- The African Development Bank (AfDB) has granted two million U.S. dollars to Somalia to provide financial and technical assistance to Public Financial Management after decades of interruption.

A statement from AfDB said on Tuesday the support to the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia comes from the Fragile States Facility (FSF) administrated by the Bank's Fragile States Unit.

The Bank said the grant will also help the country establish sound and transparent public financial systems and develop an appropriate legal framework for fiscal and monetary institutions as well as human and institutional capacity.

Nono Matondo-Fundani, AfDB Country Director for Somalia, said the Bank "congratulates the Government of Somalia for ensuring that all government institutions are now based in Mogadishu, the formulation of a national plan and the establishment of a functional Central Bank and effective anti-corruption commission".

Matondo-Fundani added that the Bank appreciates Somali government efforts to normalize the security situation.

"We were an active member of the African Development Bank before, and we are excited to be back in business with the Bank. We can assure the Bank that we will make good use of the 2 million dollars grant to strengthen our financial sector and my government is committed to transparency and accountability," Somalia's Finance Minister Hassan Cheikh Issak said.

Head of the Bank's Fragile States Unit, Margaret Kilo, said "Today's signing ceremony is a momentous event and a first step towards Somalia reengaging with the Bank after nearly two decades."

"The Bank is committed to accompanying the government through the process of reengagement," Kilo added.

Somalia has been under sanctions with the Bank Group since the early 1990s when it started accumulating arrears on its loans repayments.

Although the Bank had suspended its operations in the country because of the sanctions, it remained engaged in the provision of humanitarian assistance.

Given Somalia's complex political volatility, its prevailing fragile security situation and the deteriorating social and economic situation, there is currently no clear solution to the country's arrears problem.

To date, the most feasible option for the Bank's engagement in Somalia is through the Fragile States Facility (FSF) which provides financial resources to Bank Group Regional Member Countries under sanctions.

"In October 2009, following the government's request to the AfDB to assist in rebuilding financial management, the Bank approved a grant of two million dollars from the Targeted Support Window of the FSF," the Bank said.

This window, it said, was designed to provide targeted support for technical assistance and knowledge management.

The Transitional Federal Government is the internationally recognized government of Somalia.

The country currently faces several complex constraints and challenges, among which are the urgent need for humanitarian assistance, weak governance, eroded state organs, low government capacity, and a pronounced lack of capacity to deliver basic social services.

Somalia is defined as a Least Developed Country and is one of the ten poorest countries in the world. About 60 percent of Somalia's economy is based on agriculture.

Somalia is a fragile state with hundreds of thousands of refugees due to massive floods and the latest fighting in the country's civil war.

Due to the lack of government oversight and data, and the recent war, it is difficult to get an accurate picture of the country's economic situation.

NAIROBI, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- A key UN conference on south-south economic relations will be held in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, early next month, organizers said on Tuesday.

A statement from the UN office in Nairobi said the Dec. 1-3 conference whose theme is "Promotion of South-South Cooperation for Development" will bring together key leaders together to forge stronger cooperation and discuss their positions with regard to a number of pressing international concerns.

"All States of the UN system, as well as intergovernmental organizations with observer status with the UN General Assembly and UN specialized agencies and other entities of the UN system, have been invited by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to participate in the conference," the statement said.

It said the meeting will consist of plenary meetings and interactive multi-sector stakeholder round tables on two sub-themes and will seek to strengthen the role of the UN system in supporting South-South and triangular cooperation.

Heads of State or Government, ministers, special representatives and other high-ranking government officials are among those expected to attend.

"Also invited are Non-Governmental Organizations and public and private sector development partners of the United Nations. UNDP Administrator Helen Clark is one of the high-level UN officials who will attend the Conference," the statement said.

The conference is the outcome of a UN decision to convene such a conference on the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among developing countries (TCDC).

The General Assembly has described South-South cooperation as an important element of international cooperation for development, which offers viable opportunities for developing countries in their individual and collective pursuits of sustained economic growth and sustainable development, and emphasized that South-South cooperation is not a substitute for, but is complementary to, North-South cooperation.

24/11/2009
South Africa's black economic empowerment policy has been operating, if a little feebly, since the end of apartheid in 1994. Just last week however, a group of disgruntled Afrikaners launched a campaign to boycott the country's biggest cellular network, and its owners, Vodafone and Telkom, for selling just 3.44% of its shares to non-white buyers only.

The investment scheme, called YebuYetho, was launched by Vodacom in October 2008. Flagged as one of South Africa's largest broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE) transactions, its stated purpose was "to provide the Black Public [which includes all non-Caucasian ethnicities] with an opportunity to participate in the ownership of Vodacom SA". The initiative, along with shares bought elsewhere, raised the company's percentage of black-owned shares from 1.9% in 2007 to 6.97% in 2009.

A year later, a viral campaign calling for the boycott of the three companies has emerged on the Web. A Facebook group, a blog, and an email campaign have been set up by one John Kerlen (who is incidentally, based in the United Kingdom and a representative of South Africa's Cape Independence Party).

Along with a dozen supporters, Kerlen is asking others to send a proposed email to Vodafone Chief Executive Vittorio Colao (seen above in the wanted poster), who he describes as "the disgusting man that sits back and allows his company to use racist policies." The email reads "Pretty disgusting isn't it? We are campaigning for all decent like-minded people across the world to boycott Vodafone, Vodacom and Telkom products".

france24

24 November 2009
Two Congolese warlords are scheduled to appear before the International Criminal Court (ICC) (pictured) Tuesday for allegedly directing a February 2003 attack on a village as rival groups fought for control of the region’s gold, diamonds and oil.

Two Congolese militiamen pleaded not guilty when they were accused in The Hague Tuesday of planning to wipe out an entire village as their men killed civilians, raped women and enslaved child soldiers.

"Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui are responsible for some of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community," chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told judges of the International Criminal Court as the trial opened.

"They used children as soldiers, they killed more than 200 civilians in a few hours, they raped women; girls and the elderly, they looted the entire village and they transformed women into sex slaves."

Katanga, 31, and Ngudjolo, 39, stand accused over an attack by their forces on the village of Bogoro in Democratic Republic of Congo's northeastern Ituri region that killed about 200 people in February 2003.

The prosecution says more than 1,000 fighters of Katanga's Patriotic Resistance Force in Ituri (FRPI) and Ngudjolo's National Integrationist Front (FNI), many of them child soldiers, entered Bogoro in the early morning hours of February 24 six years ago.

"The plan was to wipe out Bogoro," said Moreno-Ocampo.

"They killed without distinction. Some were shot in their sleep. Some were cut up with machetes to preserve bullets. Others were burnt alive after their houses were set alight.

"Troops of the accused first raped and then killed women."

The prosecutor said survivors were taken outside at gunpoint the following day to lure out community members hiding in the bushes.

"When they appeared, these survivors were brutally executed."

The militia had also taken children to swell their ranks of child soldiers, and captured women as sex slaves.

Katanga "boasted" about the operation, which he and Ngudjolo had planned, said Moreno-Ocampo.

"Nothing was spared, absolutely nothing. Chickens, goats, everything. There was nothing left," he quoted Katanga as having said after the attack.

Katanga responded: "I plead not guilty," to each of the 10 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity read out against him as the trial started, a plea echoed count-for-count by his co-accused Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui.

They face charges of murder, rape, sexual slavery, using child soldiers, attacking civilians, pillaging and destruction of property.

Until the attack, Bogoro had been controlled by rival Thomas Lubanga's Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), blocking FRPI and FNI fighters and camps from the road to the key city of Bunia.

Katanga and Ngudjolo are both of Lendu ethnicity, while the Bogoro inhabitants were mostly Hema. Lubanga's own war crimes trial, the ICC's first, started in January.

Non-governmental bodies claim that inter-ethnic and militia violence in Ituri is about control of the area's gold mines, and has claimed 60,000 lives since 1999.

Katanga was surrendered by the DR Congo government to the ICC in October 2007, while Ngudjolo was arrested and transferred to The Hague in February 2008.

Their trial is only the ICC's second and its first for murder since opening as the world's first permanent and independent war crimes tribunal in 2002.

It has given victim status to 345 people -- including 10 former child soldiers -- to participate in the trial through two lawyers.

The trial is expected to last several months, with the prosecution set to call 26 witnesses, 19 of whom will benefit from protective measures for their security.

Lawyers representing victims and the defence were set to make opening statements later in the day.

france24

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama honored a group of women on Monday who have confronted Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and said they had defied a dictator.

"They often don't get far before being confronted by President Mugabe's riot police," Obama said at a ceremony for Magodonga Mahlangu and the organization she helps lead -- WOZA, which stands for Women of Zimbabwe Arise.

"By her example, Magodonga has shown the women of WOZA and the people of Zimbabwe that they can undermine their oppressors' power with their own power -- that they can sap a dictator's strength with their own," he said, presenting the annual Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.

The United States wants Mugabe to halt political arrests and media censorship and to honor a power-sharing agreement signed in September 2008 with his political rival, Morgan Tsvangirai.

Mugabe is a pariah in the West, blamed by critics for plunging his southern African country into poverty through his authoritarian rule and economic mismanagement. He has led Zimbabwe since the country's independence from Britain in 1980.

Mugabe has often blamed Western foes for ruining his country via sanctions, which he says are in retaliation for the seizing of white-owned farms on behalf of landless blacks. Critics say the policy is used as a tool to intimidate political opponents and to give land to Mugabe's ZANU-PF party loyalists.

After long negotiations, ZANU-PF formed a unity government in February with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, led by Tsvangirai, who is now Zimbabwe's prime minister.

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The world's first permanent war crimes court opens its second trial on Tuesday when two Congolese warlords face charges they ordered subordinates to attack civilians, rape women and enlist child soldiers.

Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui are accused by International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors of directing a February 2003 attack on a village in the Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as rival groups fought for control of the region's gold, diamonds and oil.

Katanga, 31, an ethnic Ngiti, allegedly commanded the Patriotic Resistance Force. Ngudjolo, 39, a Lendu, is the alleged former leader of the National Integrationist Front.

Both have denied seven counts of war crimes and three charges of crimes against humanity and through defence lawyers have expressed their sympathies for the victims.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the Congo conflicts had involved the governments of Uganda, Rwanda and Congo.

"The ICC prosecutor should ensure that justice is done in Ituri by focusing on senior officials in Congo, Rwanda and Uganda who armed and supported the Ituri-based militias," said Param-Preet Singh, counsel with HRW's international justice programme.

The ICC is currently investigating four cases in the DRC, alongside investigations into violence in Sudan's Darfur region, Uganda and the Central African Republic.

The court started its first trial in 2008. A Congolese warlord, Thomas Lubanga, is accused of enlisting child soldiers to his Union of Congolese Patriots in the Ituri district to kill rival Lendus.

(Xinhua) -- The Nicaraguan Army (EN) on Monday approved Mayor General Julio Aviles as its new army chief at the request of Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega.

Aviles will assume his new position on Feb. 21, 2010. Before that, he will appoint a new chief of staff of the Armed Forces of Nicaragua, who should be presented to Ortega so that Aviles can take office, said Adolfo Zepeda, spokesman of the EN.

Aviles was appointed by Ortega last Saturday at an event of the governing Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).

Zepeda indicated that he did not want to speak about what would be the tasks of the new EN chief, because those tasks were for the current military chief, General Omar Halleslevens, who would leave his post on Feb. 21 of next year.

The charge will be handed over to Aviles in the beginning of December.

Aviles holds a degree in business administration. He has been a diplomat of defense in France as well as the Chief of Staff of Soldiers in Cuba. He also has been the EN's Chief of Military Intelligence and Couter-Intelligence.

Aviles was born on Aug. 11, 1965, in Jinotepe Department, south of Managua.

(Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday called on African leaders and donors to make intensified efforts to fight against poverty in Africa.

The secretary-general made the appeal as he spoke at the launch of a new UN report which outlines steps to be taken by Africa and its development partners to help lift millions of people across the continent out of poverty.

The report by the Commission on Effective Development Cooperation with Africa calls for steps including creating an African Guarantee Fund in partnership with the African Development Bank.

"The report's recommendations are far-reaching. They include creating an African Guarantee Fund in partnership with the African Development Bank; ensuring access to energy; and unleashing the power of African entrepreneurship," Ban said.

"If they are implemented conscientiously, such steps will help mitigate the effects of the economic crisis," he said. "They could help to lift millions of people out of poverty."

He also welcomed the report's emphasis on youth employment and opportunities for young people.

Recent figures show that more than sixty per cent of those unemployed in Sub-Saharan Africa are under 24 years old.

"This terrible waste of human resources is visible on the streets of the continent's cities. Africa needs its young people to get to work on its behalf," the UN chief said.

He called on African leaders to "show the bold leadership required to intensify the fight against poverty," and urged the donor community to "help implement the report's recommendations, including through financial and technical aid."

"The United Nations will continue to be Africa's close and enduring partner in this important effort," he added.

Launched in 2008 by Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the commission comprises heads of state and government, politicians, experts, representatives from international and regional organizations, as well as the business community, civil society and the academic world.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Africa has not benefited from its links with rich nations and should ensure economic interactions with others are not one-sided, South Africa's Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel said on Monday.

Patel told a conference on the continent's relations with China that Africa would continue to pursue relations which the United States and Europe, but that the "centre of geo-economic gravity" was shifting to Asia and Latin America.

"I will be blunt about it, we don't think Africa has benefited from the relationship with the (West)," Patel told the conference.

"There are significant gaps in our own economic trajectory, some of which we have not been able to address in that relationship, so bringing a wider range of investors into our economies is necessary for us," he added.

Patel encouraged Chinese firms operating in South Africa to enter into joint ventures with local companies.

"Those can constitute a huge assistance to the local economy. China's own economic growth has been fuelled by joint ventures it had with industrialised countries," Patel said.

"As the South African government (we) seek to strengthen that relationship and to ensure it has a much stronger job-creating impact in South Africa that helps us to diversify our economy and grasp the challenge of avoiding de-industrialisation."

Trade between China and Africa has soared in the past decade, driven by China's resource needs and growing African demand for cheap Chinese-made products.