Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged Libya on Wednesday to investigate the suppression of a prison revolt 10 years ago during which hundreds of inmates are believed to have been killed. ”Hundreds of prisoners were apparently killed at Abu Salim prison” on June 28 and 29 1996, HRW’s Middle East and North Africa director Sarah Leah Whitson said in a statement.
Ethiopian forces killed 111 Eritrean-trained and armed insurgents in the north-west of the country, reported the government-owned newspaper Addis Zemen on Wednesday. The insurgents had infiltrated from neighbouring Eritrea on a mission of destabilisation, according to the Amharic-language daily.
More than a dozen European governments on Tuesday came under severe pressure to own up to their secret services’ role in handing over suspected terrorists to United States intelligence after Franco Frattini, the EU justice commissioner, admitted for the first time that European territory had been used for ”extraordinary renditions”.
The Gaza Strip, the lesser half of the Palestinians’ promised future state, is home to 1,4-million residents who struggle against poverty and violence on the shores of the Mediterranean. The Israeli army, which captured the territory from Egypt during the 1967 Six-Day War, on Wednesday launched its first serious ground offensive since leaving the territory on September 12 2005.
Days after a radical cleric took charge of Somalia’s Islamic militia, a clan leader said the militia broke a ceasefire to seize a clan-held checkpoint outside the capital Mogadishu in an hour-long battle that killed six people. Tuesday’s fighting marked the first military movement since the militia signed an agreement last week to stop all military action.
The poorly equipped African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur is set to quit the troubled western Sudanese region by end of September due to a lack of funds, the AU’s security organ said on Tuesday. ”Whatever happens, our mandate ends on September 31 unless there are new developments,” South Africa’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said.
Shareholders in South African mobile giant MTN have approved plans to buy Dubai-listed Investcom in a deal to create the biggest mobile operator in Africa and the Middle East, MTN said on Wednesday. The ,5-billion (€4,3-billion) deal, first announced on May 2, was expected to lead to operations in 21 countries and serving nearly 30-million subscribers.
Western Cape police officials have admitted they are losing the battle to maintain law and order on Cape Town’s increasingly anarchic highways because the city is so underpoliced. The city has significantly fewer police personnel than Johannesburg: There is one policeman for every 2 300 Capetonians.
From September 1 everyone will be able to access their credit records free of charge once a year as part of legislation introduced under the National Credit Act, which came into force at the beginning of June this year. According to Michael Bouchier, managing director of Credit Health, it is vitally important for everyone to regularly check their credit record.
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Ghana’s World Cup dreams were shattered by reigning champions Brazil, but the Black Stars played well against some top football teams and served notice of what might happen on African soil in 2010. A three-week Cinderella run ended on Tuesday in a 3-0 second-round loss to Brazil.