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Seven Lions Den men have been arrested for allegedly fatally assaulting a mentally ill man they suspected to be a thief when he came begging for food.

Jealous Marufu (35) of Nyamatiwa Farm in Lions Den believed to occasionally suffer from mental problems reportedly went missing on March 23 at around 1030 am.

Later that day he went to Godonia Farm. He approached Edshiton Zvinowanda at around 8pm begging for food and water. However, Zvinowanda allegedly accused him of being a thief after he failed to produce some form of identification.

Acting provincial police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Ian Kohwera confirmed the incident.

"He suspected that Marufu was a thief and apprehended him claiming that there had been numerous theft cases in the area," he said.

Zvinowanda allegedly led Marufu to Machingauta Bar where he allegedly teamed up with six other people after telling them that Marufu was a thief and started kicking and punching him all over the body.

The other six suspects are Leonard Makota (23), Louisdale Kaitano (21), Member Madzivadondo (57), brothers Tapfuma (30) and Tigere (32) Mandaza and Chamunorwa Machingauta.

They are expected to appear in court soon facing murder charges.

They took him to Chisuyana Machingauta, a village head, to report that they had apprehended a thief but he could no longer walk or talk and the village head declined to attend to the matter.

The seven men then tried in vain to resuscitate him by pouring water all over his body. After realising that he had died, they allegedly dragged him and dumped his body along a road leading to Chifundi Primary School. The body was found three days later by a passer-by who made a report to the police and the village head. Investigations linked the seven to the murder and they were arrested.

CAIRO, April 4 (Xinhua) -- "Every day, at the same time after dawn prayers, I come here to buy my daily need of bread. If I do not come at such early time, I will instead have to wait in a long queue," Abu Abdallah, a 63-year-old man said while waiting before one of Cairo bakeries which sell subsidized bread.

Despite strenuous efforts exerted by the Egyptian government to ease the suffering of impoverished people and extend the umbrella of subsidy to cover more poor families, the shortage of some subsidized commodities, especially bread and cooking gas, has become wilder.

In recent years the scene of people standing in queues, either waiting to get a little share of subsidized bread or a refilled butane cylinder to cook food, has became habitual for most Egyptians, especially in poor areas.

According to official figures, Egypt imports about 7 million tons of wheat, or half of its total need, from foreign countries.

Although the Egyptian government has increased wheat imports to cover the needs of its people, the effort has been offset by the bigger increase in consumption.

Some experts attribute the increase of subsidized bread consumption to the deterioration of living conditions of many Egyptian families and the expansion of low income brackets due to financial challenges and unemployment, both of which forced many families to depend more on subsidized bread.

"Bread is the most important. As long as it is available, even small quantity of other food will be enough," Abu Abdallah said.

Abdel Hamid El-Gazali, an Egyptian socioeconomic expert and professor of economics in Cairo University, attributes a major portion of subsidy problem to ill-practices like reselling subsidized wheat in black markets and using subsidized bread as fodder.

The Egyptian government, however, has adopted several measures to curb such ill-practices, including strict observation system on bakeries and imposing huge fines on violations instead of penal punishments.

The government has also decided to separate distribution from production and developed a new ration card system to deliver subsidized bread to needy families.

However, the violations were inevitable for a country with some 23,500 bakeries that are involved in the process.

In addition to bread, the government's subsidy system also covers basic commodities like sugar, tea, rice and cooking oil, as well as butter, beans, lentils and macaroni.

But people complain that the subsidized commodities provided through the ration card system are insufficient and shoddy.

"It is not enough but it helps. I wish the government could increase the quantities and issue more ration cards as food commodities became unaffordable," said Um Ayman, 31, standing in a subsidized commodity distribution center.

However, the government denies the claims, saying that it has doubled the number of families which benefit from the ration card system in the past five years.

In 2004, the number of people who fell under the umbrella of the system was estimated at 39.8 million. Now, 63 million of the 79 million total population benefit from the system, according to figures of the Ministry of Social Solidarity.

The quantity of subsidized sugar has increased to 750,000 tons against only 480,000 in 2004, the cooking oil to 385,000 tons against 192,000, extra quantities of rice to 960,000 tons against 224,000.

Gazali said that one problem is that the ration card system is unfair. Some people carry full-subsidy cards, even though they do not need them to survive, while others, who deserve full subsidy, unfortunately carry partial-subsidy ones.

He attributed this to the governmental negligence of regular update of subscribers' database and a lack of investigation into the social conditions of the families, which makes some people profit from the subsidy.

Gazali's study says 45 percent of the ration cards include the names of dead people, while 55 percent of the families can not add the names of the new births in their ration cards.

The Egyptian government says it is currently building a new database to guarantee delivering subsidy to the people in actual need of it.

"I do not think the government will keep it (subsidy system) in the current formula. Maybe they will come out with a plan to reach out more for the neediest," Ahmed, a 26-year-old journalist, said.

KINSHASA, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Enyele rebels entered the capital of Equateur province in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) on Sunday, according to provincial government sources.

The insurgents of the Enyele tribe entered the city of Mbandaka by force and took the local airport, the sources reported.

The Radio Okapi run by the UN Mission in DR Congo known as MONUC quoted the sources as reporting that about 100 assailants landed at the River Congo port of Banika on Sunday morning, fighting their way into the city.

The insurgents launched the attack in the direction of the residence of governor Jean Claude Baende, the radio said.

The rebels claimed to have controlled Mbandaka and seized the logistic base of the government forces FARDC, which had deserted the city. The attack caused a panic among citizens, the radio said.

Baende, who has stayed in the capital Kinshasa since last week, confirmed the raid as the Enyele insurgency.

MONUC maintained blue casques in Mbandaka where they were making an assessment of the situation, the radio said.

The rebel swoop came after Governor Baende, announced the end of the months old Enyele rebellion on Tuesday.

Baende said "the Enyele rebellion" was no longer "an organized group, but just as small groups of residual elements who are searching for means of survival."

The armed youths from the Enyele tribe started attacking on Oct. 30 on the Boba tribe over the control of fishing points in Dongo. 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.

In early January, FARDC said it had taken control of Dongo, driving the insurgents out of the stronghold after fighting.

The Enyele insurgency has killed more than 100 people, including police officers intervening the tribal clash. It has also caused massive displacement, with 50,000 refugees still taking shelter in Impfondo in the Republic of Congo.

JOHANNESBURG, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Twenty two people have been killed in road accidents in South Africa over the Easter holiday, the country's Ministry of Transport said on Sunday.

According to South African Press Association, the ministry's Spokesman Logan Maistry said six people were killed on the R63 between Pearston and Somerset East in the Eastern Cape, five people were killed between Warden and Roadside in the Free State and seven others were killed on Moloto Road in Pretoria in Gauteng. All of these accidents happened on Thursday.

Another four people were killed on the N1 near Colesburg in the Northern Cape on Friday.

"We want to convey our condolences to the families and relatives of all those killed in road crashes over the past few days. We wish those injured a speedy recovery," Minister Sibusiso Ndebele said in the statement.

He said hundreds of motorists have been arrested and more than a thousand unroadworthy vehicles have been removed from the countries roads over the weekend.

"214 drivers were arrested for drinking and driving and 29 drivers for other offences," said Maistry.

CAIRO, April 4 (Xinhua) -- The Arab League condemned on Sunday a spate of deadly blasts hitting the Iraqi capital of Baghdad and claiming the lives of dozens of people.

The Arab League denounces these terrorist attacks which are a serious development that needs to be studied, said the head of the Arab League chief's office, Ambassador Hisham Yousef, in a statement.

"We are following the situation with deep concern through our diplomatic mission in Baghdad," he said.

"We urge the political leadership in the country to promptly form a new government to be able to bring the security situation under control as quickly as possible," Yousef said.

Earlier on Sunday, 30 people were killed and 224 others wounded in Baghdad car bomb attacks targeted at the Iranian embassy, Mansour-Melia Hotel and the consulate office of the Egyptian embassy.

Sporadic attacks, including deadly bombings, still common in Iraq about a month after the country held their landmark parliamentary election which is widely expected to shape the future of the war-torn country.

Related:

30 people killed, 224 wounded in Baghdad suicide car bombings

The cloud of smoke rises over the scene of an explosion in central Baghdad, capital of Iraq, April 4, 2010. (Xinhua/Xu Yanyan)

BAGHDAD, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Three suicide car bombs targeted Iranian embassy, the consulate office of the Egyptian Embassy and house of German ambassador in Baghdad on Sunday, killing 30 people and wounding up to 224 others, security and witnesses said. Full story

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Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade has renewed calls for a United States of Africa. The West African leader, who was speaking at the inauguration of the African Renaissance monument, described the contentious multimillion dollar bronze statue as marking the moment for the continent to "take-off".
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He said: “The slave traders have left, the last colonialist has left. We have no more excuses. We must seize this opportunity so that history does not repeat itself.”

According to President Wade, “The time has arrived for Africa to take-off”. He added that “after five centuries of ordeals, slavery, Africa is still there, folding sometimes, but never breaking. She is upright and resolute to take her future in hand.”

The Senegalese leader went on: “Only a political integration of the United States of Africa will shelter us from potentially fatal marginalization.” He said Africa is the world’s poorest continent which holds the richest economic potential.

Present at the ceremony were 19 heads of states from across the African continents as well as some of the continent’s states men, including former Nigerian leader, Olusegun Obasanjo, who cut a ribbon in the colors of the Senegalese flag. Also at the ceremony were the African Union chief, the head of the African Union Commission Jean Ping, the presidents of Benin, Cap Verde, the Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania and Zimbabwe.

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A Ghanaian-UN peacekeeper was killed Sunday at the airport in Mbandaka in northwest Democratic Republic of Congo where government forces exchanged fire with tribal insurgents, officials said.
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The gun battle in Mbandaka, the main town in Equateur province, erupted after security personnel found the rebels in a boat from the capital Kinshasa.

"We confirm that the airport in Mbandaka has been attacked by insurgents who arrived by boat. A UN peacekeeper has been killed while he was travelling towards the airport," said Madnodje Mounoubai, a spokesman for MONUC, the UN mission in DR Congo.

"He was in a vehicle and was hit by shrapnel," he added. "There are pockets of fighting in Mbandaka but the city is not controlled by the assailants," Mounoubai said, adding that the UN had reports that about 30 insurgents were found in the boat.

Earlier the provincial interior minister Guy Inenge said in a BBC report that some 100 insurgents were discovered during a search and that "there was a clash with the security forces and then they fled" and dispersed in the town, he said.

"Our forces pursued them but the situation is now relatively calm," Inenge said, adding that the rebels were "well organized."

However, later Sunday the UN spokesman said the situation in Mbandaka was unclear with reports of fighting around the airport.

Fighting first began in the area in October between the Lobala (or Enyele) tribe and the Monzaya people over disputed fishing rights in nearby lakes. Thousands of people left the region and the UN and the Congolese army sent reinforcements to the area, eventually restoring state control in December. At least 270 people have been killed in the fighting and 187,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, according to government figures.

CAIRO, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Four people working in the consulate office of Egyptian embassy in Baghdad were injured on Sunday due to a car suicide bomb explosion, Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The consulate employees have been taken to Yarmouk Hospital for treatment and their condition is not life-threatening, according to initial reports sent to the Foreign Ministry by both the Egyptian ambassador and consul in Baghdad.

The blast shattered the building's windows and injured the four employees, the statement added.

"We extend our deepest condolences to the Iraqi people and the families of the martyred policemen," Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hossam Zaki said.

The Egyptian ambassador and the embassy staff are safe and sound and the embassy is back to work as usual in Baghdad's heavily-fortified Green Zone, Zaki said.

Earlier on Sunday, 30 people were killed and 168 others wounded in Baghdad car bomb attacks targeted at the Iranian embassy, Mansour-Melia Hotel and the consulate office of the Egyptian embassy.

Sporadic attacks, including deadly bombings, still common in Iraq about a month after the country held their landmark parliamentary election which is widely expected to shape the future of the war-torn country.

JOHANNESBURG, April 4 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's police chief has on Sunday warned against fanning up racial tensions following the death of Eugene Terre'Blanche, media reported.

"Let us not fan the flames, let us not romanticise violence, let us allow the police to do their work," police chief Nathi Mthethwa was quoted as saying.

KINSHASA, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Guns shots were heard at around 10:00 local time on Sunday morning in the capital city Mbandaka of DR Congo's Equateur Province, an unnamed source from the armed forces told Xinhua.

JOHANNESBURG, April 4 (Xinhua) -- South African political organizations and parties reacted strongly and variously after Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging leader Eugene Terre'Blanche was alleged murdered this Saturday during South African's public holiday of Easter Day.

According to the report from South African Press Association, the murder of Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging leader Eugene Terre'Blanche was senseless and could flare up emotions and polarize South Africans even more, the Afrikanerbond said on Sunday.

"South Africa's history is intertwined with particular incidents, but the history is shaped and defined by the manner in which South Africans responded to that particular defining moment.

This is such a moment in South African history," said chairman Peter Vorster.

The Christian Democratic Party (CDP) on Sunday said it was shocked to hear about the murder of the leader of Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB), Eugene Terreblanche.

"The viciousness...on Mr Terreblanche, who was mutilated with a pipe and panga, underlines what happens when a so-called leader stirs up hatred and revenge by defying a court interdict and continuing to encourage his gullible followers to kill the boer," said acting chairman Theunis Botha in a statement.

President Jacob Zuma rendered his concern about this incident as soon as he was informed. "The President appeals for calm following this terrible deed and asks South Africans not to allow agent provocateurs to take advantage of this situation by inciting or fueling racial hatred," said the presidency in a statement.

However, some opposing parties and organizations uttered different allegations that the call for calm by President Jacob Zuma would not diffuse the current situation if the taunting of white people continue, released by Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder.

"(The call) will not diffuse the current situation if (ANC youth league president Julius) Malema and the ANC are to continue with its taunting of white people by singing the 'Kill the Boer' and similar kinds of inciting songs," said Mulder.

He said Zuma had a constitutional responsibility and obligation to ensure and promote stability, order and security for all South African citizens.

"President Zuma now has to visibly show leadership and without any hesitation, publicly condemn the singing of inciting songs which could create a climate of violence in the country," he said in a statement.

Trade union Solidarity on Saturday said that the alleged murder of Eugene Terre'Blanche showed the prevalence of crime in South Africa.

"The Terre'Blanche murder shows that nobody in South Africa is safe," said Solidarity general secretary Flip Buys in a statement.

According to the latest report from South African Press Association, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa and Commissioner of police, Bheki Cele were warmly received by Eugene Terre'Blanche's family on Sunday during a visit, a spokesman said.

"They were well received by the family and Terre'Blanche's daughter, Beya even expressed appreciation and said she had confidence in the police that this matter would be concluded soon, " North West spokesman for Public Safety, Lesiba Kgwele said.

Terre'Blanche, 69, was attacked by a man and minor with a panga and pipe at his North West farm. A 21-year-old man and 15- year-old boy were arrested for the crime.

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Islamist rebels ambushed and killed at least seven Algerian security guards working for a Turkish company in the worst such attack in months, newspapers reported on Sunday.

The guards came under fire in their vehicle late on Saturday in the mountainous region of Kabylie, Liberty and Ennahar dailies said, citing security sources.

A soldier was killed an hour later in the same place after a bomb was detonated from a distance, El Watan newspaper said.

The guards were working for private security firm SPAS under contract to state electricity and gas company Sonelgaz.

They were providing security for workers from a Turkish company working on a high-voltage electricity line near Bejaia, some 250 km (156 miles) east of Algiers. There were no reported Turkish victims and newspapers did not name the Turkish firm.

Authorities were not immediately available for comment on the attack and there was no claim of responsibility.

It was the deadliest reported attack since October 22 when rebels killed seven guards working for Canadian company SNC Lavalin in Tizi Ouzou province, also part of the Kabylie area, where al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has its stronghold.

A conflict between security forces and Islamist rebels reached a peak in the 1990s after authorities cancelled elections an Islamist party was poised to win.

Violence has subsided since then, but there have been some attacks on civilians, government forces and foreigners for which the north African wing of al Qaeda has claimed responsibility.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian police have arrested the publisher of a book on former UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei and his calls for political change in Egypt ahead of elections this year and next, a security source said.

ElBaradei, who returned to Egypt in February after 12 years as head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has said he would consider running for president if certain conditions were met.

Ahmed Mahanna, head of Dawan publishing house, was arrested on Saturday, the source said.

"Officials from national security attacked the house at 1:00 a.m. and my son was not there so they called him from his mother's mobile phone and told him to return. They said: 'we want you and are waiting for you at home'," independent newspaper al-Shorouk quoted Mahanna's father as saying on Sunday.

The book "ElBaradei and the Dream of the Green Revolution" was written by Egyptian journalist Kamal Gabrayal, who also works in the state-run Roze al-Yusef publishing house, which publishes a daily newspaper and a weekly magazine.

ElBaradei has called for a new constitution with checks on power, guarantees of a fair vote and better respect for human rights.

He has begun a campaign and petition for reforms, attending Friday Muslim prayers and the Coptic Easter festival and travelling to Mansoura, a provincial capital in the Nile Delta.

Analysts say the campaign is unlikely to force a change in the constitution, which makes it nearly impossible for any person to run for the presidency against the ruling party, headed by President Hosni Mubarak, 81, who has ruled Egypt for almost 30 years.

An ElBaradei supporter and former senior judge, Mahmoud El-Khoudairy, told Reuters some weeks ago the government would detain ElBaradei's supporters to pressure him to abandon his political platform.

"People think the government will not do anything to him, and this is not wrong ... the government might not be able to do anything to ElBaradei due to his current popularity and that the whole world knows him, but they can simply arrest his supporters and without his supporters, what will he do? Nothing," he said.

A parliamentary election is expected in December followed by the presidential election around January next year.

VENTERSDORP, South Africa (Reuters) - South African President Jacob Zuma called for calm on Sunday after the killing of white far-right leader Eugene Terre'blanche in a suspected pay dispute with black workers fanned fears of racial strains.

Police detained two farm workers and said they were investigating the quarrel they had with Terre'blanche, but his Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB) says he was battered and hacked to death in an attack with political overtones.

Zuma, who has made it a priority to court white Afrikaners, called it a "terrible deed" and urged South Africans "not to allow agent provocateurs to take advantage of this situation by inciting or fuelling racial hatred".

Terre'blanche, 69, was the voice of hardline opposition to the end of apartheid in the early 1990s although his party has played a marginal role since then and does not have a big following among the 10 percent of white South Africans.

The AWB urged restraint while the funeral is prepared and before the party decides next steps. In Ventersdorp, in rolling farmland over 100 km (60 miles) west of Johannesburg, party followers in paramilitary khaki laid flowers at the farm gate.

"We will decide upon the action we are going to take to avenge Mr Terre'blanche's death," said spokesman Andre Visagie.

Concerns over increasing racial polarisation have been thrown into the open by a row over the singing of an apartheid-era song with the lyrics "Kill the Boer" by the youth leader of the ruling African National Congress.

The ANC has defended the song as no more than a way to remember a history of oppression, but it has worried minority groups and particularly white farmers, some 3,000 of whom have been killed since the end of apartheid.

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"The killing of Terre'blanche will symbolically be seen as a strain of these relationships," said analyst Nic Borain of HBC Securities.

"But Terre'blanche is an old criminal and I don't think people would come to his defence or his killing somehow invigorate white people opposition to the new South Africa."

Terre'blanche's party did not hesitate to link the murder to the song. He had always described himself as a Boer.

"That's what this is all about," Visagie said.

Zuma's spokesman Vincent Magwenya said, however, there was no evidence at this stage linking the killing to the song sung by firebrand ANC youth wing leader Julius Malema.

Terre'blanche had lived in relative obscurity since his release from prison in 2004 after serving a sentence for beating a black man nearly to death.

The party -- whose flag resembles a Nazi swastika -- was revived two years ago and he had begun efforts to try to build a united front among white far-right parties to fight for a white homeland, but had gained little traction.

Terre'blanche was a powerful orator in his Afrikaans language and was a distinctive figure, heavily built, with a thick grey beard and dressed in khaki. He often attended rallies on horseback during his fight to stop majority rule.

Police said the suspected killers were aged 16 and 21. Both had worked for Terre'blanche.

"It seems there was a dispute between and these guys were arrested ... The police are investigating and the public will be kept abreast," Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa told a news conference. "Somebody is dead, can we keep it at that."

JOHANNESBURG, April 4 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's police chief has on Sunday warned against fanning up racial tensions following the death of Eugene Terre'Blanche, media reported.

"Let us not fan the flames, let us not romanticise violence, let us allow the police to do their work," police chief Nathi Mthethwa was quoted as saying.

JOHANNESBURG, April 4 (Xinhua) -- South African President Jacob Zuma on Saturday appealed for calm and warned against "agent provocateurs" inciting violence following the alleged murder of Eugene Terre'Blanche, according to reports from South African Press Association this Sunday.

"The President appeals for calm following this terrible deed and asks South Africans not to allow agent provocateurs to take advantage of this situation by inciting or fueling racial hatred," said the presidency in a statement.

According to the police, Terre'Blanche, leader of Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, was allegedly murdered by two of his farm laborers following a pay dispute.

"In any dispute, especially in a country like South Africa where we uphold the rule of law, no one is allowed to take the law into his own hands," said Zuma in a statement.

"It against this background that the murder of Terre'Blanche must be condemned, irrespective of how his killers think they may have been justified. They had no right to take his life."

Zuma said he 'condemns in the strongest possible terms" the killing of Terre'Blanche and also offered his condolences to Terre'Blanche's family.

BISSAU, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Guinea-Bissau Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior has resumed his duty after being briefly arrested by mutineers earlier in the week, local media reported on Saturday.

The soldiers who entered the office of the prime minister and detained him on Thursday left the building the next day.

Gomes Junior then went to meet with President Malam Bacai Sanha, who expressed trust in him and asked him to remain on the post, according to local press and radio.

The resumption of Gomes Junior's work as the prime minister was reportedly the most important topic in the talks.

Reports also said the former chief of defense staff, General Jose Zamora Induta, was still confined to the air base near the capital Bissau.

Induta and 40 other officers were also arrested in Thursday's mutiny, in which deputy army chief Antonio Indjai replaced him.

Despite the rebellious move which was denounced by many as a coup, Indjai on the same day declared the army was still submissive to political powers.

The detention went parallel with the release of the former head of marines, the rear admiral Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchute, who had been accused of plotting a coup in August 2008.

The ex-chief of Guinea-Bissau's marines took refuge at the UN office in Guinea-Bissau known as UNOGBIS after returning to Guinea-Bissau in a canoe from Gambia on Dec. 28, 2009. UNOGBIS had previously indicated willingness to settle the issue in a "peaceful and legal" way.

Na Tchute and Indjai are seen as the men behind the action by soldiers on Thursday.

Although President Sanha had declared that "calm" had returned in his country, the incident has already sparked an outcry from across the globe.

In a statement condemning the latest upheaval in Guinea-Bissau, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said the coup attempt came at a time when the successful presidential election in July 2009 had created the required environment for ECOWAS and the international community to strengthen the democratic and national reconciliation process.

ECOWAS had been keeping watch on the country until the holding of elections on June 28, 2009, when Sanha was elected the new president. It has since warned that the military reform is critical to ensure the post-assassination stability in Guinea-Bissau.

"ECOWAS ... will leave no stone unturned in its efforts to defend the democratic gains and maintain stability in the country," it said in the statement.

The regional bloc also urged the African Union and the United Nations to scale up joint efforts to stabilize the political, security and economic situation in the country.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on the military and political leadership in Guinea-Bissau to resolve their differences by peaceful means and "to avoid any risks to the gains" made by the country in its current peace consolidation efforts.

The UN Security Council also urged all parties concerned to avoid acts of violence and respect the rule of law in the West African country.

The unrest in Guinea-Bissau is the latest in a series to hit West Africa, where Mauritania, Guinea and Niger have witnessed the military coup since 2008.

Instability including the 1998-1999 civil war has haunted the country of 1.5 million people since its independence from Portugal in 1974.

Before the latest coup bid, the West African country had foiled a mutiny after holding a legislative election in November 2008, when the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde won the victory.

Coup fears were on the rise after President Joao Bernardo Vieira was assassinated in March, 2009. The country's Interior Ministry reported another "coup attempt" in early June 2009, just days ahead of the June 28 presidential election.

Being ranked the 175th out of 177 nations in the U.N. Development Program's Human Development Index, the country is one of the world's poorest country.

With a jagged Atlantic coastline, Guinea-Bissau is chosen by traffickers as a major hub for the flow of cocaine from Latin America to Europe.

JOHANNESBURG, April 4 (Xinhua) -- South African President Jacob Zuma urged restraint on Sunday after the murder of far-right party leader Eugene Terreblanche, who was hacked to death by his farm workers in a dispute over unpaid wages.

The president appealed for calm following this terrible incident and asked South Africans not to allow provocateurs to take advantage of this situation by inciting or fueling racial hatred, the South African Press Association (SAPA) quoted a statement from the presidential office as saying.

Terreblanche, 69, was leader of the Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB), which wanted to create self-governance for the "Boers": Afrikaans for white farmers.

Terreblanche was attacked by a 21-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy, who worked for him on his farm outside the town of Ventersdrop, about 110 km northwest of Johannesburg, police spokeswoman Adele Myburgh said.

"Terreblanche was found dead on the bed with facial and head injuries," the SAPA quoted Myburgh as saying. He was reportedly beaten by machetes and pipes.

The two suspected murderers, who were in custody, told the police that the argument happened because they were not paid for the work they did on the farm.

Terreblanche formed the AWB in 1973 with six other Afrikaans-speaking whites descended from Dutch immigrants amid growing opposition to white minority government and its apartheid policies.

ALGIERS, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Seven security guards and a soldier were killed late Saturday in two bomb attacks in east Algeria, local El-Watan daily reported.

The report said the attacks, which were an ambush, occurred on a town road in Tifra, near Bejaia, some 250 km east of Algiers.

The first bomb exploded in the path of a van carrying nine security guards, killing seven while two managed to flee. One hour later, the second bomb, which was remotely detonated in the same place, killed a soldier and wounded two others.

The report said local authorities have started a search operation immediately using two helicopters, while the whole region was sealed by the military.

The security guards belong to a private company which provides security service for a Turkish company, according to the report.

MOGADISHU, April 3 (Xinhua) -- The Somali government said on Saturday that its forces had killed 12 Islamist rebel fighters including three senior commanders in brief clashes in the Somali capital Mogadishu late on Friday.

The fighting erupted in the south of Mogadishu after Islamist fighters from the two rebel insurgent movements, Hezbul Islam and al Shabaab, attacked the Somali government checkpoint, causing the death of the three rebel commanders, senior government official said. "Six (fighters) from the Hezbul Islam were killed including two commanders while six more also died from Al Shabaab group including a middle rank commander," Sheikh Yusuf Siyad Indha Adde, the minister of state for defense told reporters in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

The state minister also said that several assault rifles had also seized following the brief confrontation between the two sides.

The Islamist rebel movements wage nearly daily attacks on targets of the Somali government and the peacekeepers from the African Union (AU) based in the restive capital.

Islamist groups who control much of south and center of Somalia including large parts of the coastal city have not so far comment on the Somali government's claims.

The Somali government has lately been planning a major offensive to drive Islamist rebel fighters from Mogadishu and spread its authority to the rest of areas controlled by Islamist insurgent groups.

Somalia has been without a strong central government since the overthrow of the late Somali ruler Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991.