Antananarivo

Voters braved heavy rains brought by Cyclone Jaya on Wednesday to have their say on revisions to Madagascar’s Constitution, criticised by the opposition for giving more power to the president. Meanwhile, Mozambican coastal towns have been placed on blue alert as authorities fear the same tropical cyclone could hit late on Wednesday.

Twelve people were killed and about 14 000 made homeless after a cyclone struck northern Madagascar last week, according to revised figures released on Monday. A toll on Sunday said cyclone Indlala, the deadliest so far this season, had killed two people in Antalaha, 570km north-east of the capital of the Indian Ocean island.

Two people were killed and thousands left homeless when a ruinous cyclone smashed the northern coast of Madagascar this week, authorities said on Saturday. Cyclone Indlala left a trail of devastation in its wake on Thursday, damaging buildings and infrastructure on the Indian Ocean island.

Rain- and wind-battered Madagascar off the east coast of Africa was on Friday weathering its fourth heavy cyclone in recent months. Intense Cyclone Indlala hit land in the tropical island on Thursday and continued to rage over the island’s vanilla plantations on Friday, flooding cities in the north.

Incumbent Marc Ravalomanana was on Saturday officially declared the winner of Madagascar’s December 3 presidential elections. ”Candidate Ravalomanana Marc is elected the president of the republic, having won more than 50% of the votes,” said Jean Michel Rajaonarivony, the head of the Constitutional Court.

Madagascar’s incumbent president, Marc Ravalomanana, has been re-elected with 54,8% of the votes, provisional Interior Ministry figures showed on Sunday with all first-round ballots counted. Ravalomanana took 2 430 489 of the votes cast in the first round of the presidential poll across the large Indian Ocean island.

Major oil companies are scrambling for oil off the shores of Madagascar, which has rich mineral reserves and huge quantities of gemstones, including an estimated 70% of the world’s sapphires. The former French colony is the world’s biggest exporter of vanilla and occupies a strategic position off the volatile African coast, 400km to the west.

Madagascar police have released six detained opposition members, including a senator, but political tensions flared as their party’s exiled leader vowed to return despite arrest threats. Government officials renewed pledges to detain Arema party chief Pierrot Rajaonarivelo if he sets foot on the Indian Ocean island, saying they had proof of financial crimes

Madagascan police fired tear gas to break up an opposition rally and arrested six people on Tuesday as the party’s exiled leader vowed to return to the Indian Ocean island to run in upcoming elections. Officials in the eastern city of Toamasina said security forces were compelled to act when members of the Arema party left a compound where they were holding their annual convention.

A long-haul Air Madagascar flight carrying about 200 people had to make an emergency landing after its right engine failed moments after taking off, the airline said on Monday. No one was hurt in the incident involving a Boeing 767-300 jet that was bound from the capital, Antananarivo, to Paris late on Saturday night.

Madagascar’s Parliament on Monday sacked Speaker Jean Lahiniriko for misconduct after he spoke approvingly of Iran’s controversial nuclear programme during a visit to Tehran, officials said. The motion was submitted by the ruling TIM party of which the speaker had been a member until being expelled last week.

The Indian Ocean nation of Madagascar on Thursday hailed the first-ever visit by United Nations chief Kofi Annan to the island on a farewell African tour before leaving his post later this year. ”It has always been a dream of mine to receive you here,” said President Marc Ravalomanana after receiving the UN leader.

Madagascar’s President Marc Ravalomanana, his wife, Lalao, and a government minister escaped unhurt when their helicopter caught fire on landing, a presidential aide said on Thursday. Raymond Ramandimbilahatra said the rotor assembly burst into flames as the helicopter was landing.

The Malagasy tourism industry is patiently awaiting an expected boom in visitors to the Indian Ocean island nation driven by the animated box-office hit Madagascar. Though tourist arrivals have yet to register any significant jump from the film that was released in May, officials said prospects are bright.

Dollar signs are swirling before the eyes of Malagasy tourism officials as the release date nears for Hollywood’s new cartoon feature Madagascar, a film that is hoped will send holidaymakers trooping to this Indian Ocean island. The family-oriented, computer-generated comedy premieres in the United States on May 27.

Two children died on Monday from injuries sustained in a stampede at an overcrowded soccer stadium. Another 45 people were injured in the stampede at a match between South Africa’s Kaizer Chiefs and Madagascar’s USJF Ravinala on Sunday.

Madagascar has banned a Brazilian sect and ordered it to cease operations in the vast Indian Ocean island, four months after its members were jailed for burning a Bible and other religious objects, officials said on Thursday. Last year, a court in Madagascar jailed four members of the same sect, which claims to have six million members worldwide.

The death toll from the strong tropical storm Cyclone Ernest, which hit Madagascar at the weekend, has risen to seven, with the recovery of the bodies of four more fishermen off the island’s southern coast, officials said on Friday. The death toll is likely to grow given that 79 fishermen, whose boats capsized in the storm, are still missing.

Researchers at a United States zoo have discovered two new species of lemurs in Madagascar, the Indian Ocean island nation that is the only place the highly endangered small primates live. Scientists from the Henry Doorly Zoo in Nebraska said the new lemur species were found in forests on Madagascar’s east and west coasts.

A grenade exploded overnight in a shop owned by a group linked to Madagascar’s President Marc Ravalomanana in the central town of Fianarantsoa, the Indian Ocean island state’s public safety minister said on Thursday. The blast took place hours after a grenade exploded in the courtyard of the home of former president Albert Zafy.

Hundreds of unarmed army reservists who had barricaded Madagascar’s Parliament on Friday morning saying they had taken lawmakers hostage over a pay dispute left the area early in the afternoon, an AFP journalist at the scene reported. The leader of the reservists called on the demonstrators to disperse at about 2pm.

Several hundred unarmed army reservists in Madagascar on Friday barricaded Parliament and said they were taking lawmakers hostage to press for long-standing demands they be paid for backing President Marc Ravalomanana during the country’s political crisis in 2002.

Seven people have been arrested in Madagascar on suspicion of trafficking children through a bogus adoption scheme, police said late on Monday, adding that a worrying number of babies are disappearing in the Indian Ocean island. Police said the arrests were made about a fortnight after four people were detained on similar charges.

Authorities in Madagascar said on Monday they had broken up a fraudulent international adoption ring that allegedly trafficked in bought or stolen infants. Eight people have been charged in connection with the case, four of whom have been detained, according to senior judicial police officer Albert Rakotondravao.

The cyclone that lashed northern Madagascar early this month claimed 237 lives and 181 people are still unaccounted for, the national rescue service on the Indian Ocean island said on Tuesday, issuing a new toll. An earlier toll put the number of dead at 198, with 166 missing. More than 304 000 people were left homeless by the storm.

At least 74 people were killed when cyclone Gafilo ripped across northern Madagascar eight days ago, rescue officials said on Monday. The storm also left about 200 000 homeless and 169 people were still listed as missing, including 100 of the passengers and crew of a ferry from the nearby Comoro Islands that sank during the storm.

Cyclone Gafilo was downgraded to a moderate storm and about to leave Madagascar on Thursday after leaving 32 confirmed dead, 155 missing and thousands others injured or homeless, local meteorological services said. A Comoran ferry, the Samson, with 113 people on board, is still missing.

Officials in Madagascar have had no word of a ferry carrying 113 passengers and crew since a cyclone ripped across the Indian Ocean island, killing at least 11 and leaving tens of thousands homeless. The ferry reached the Mahajanga port at 5pm on Sunday but was not allowed to dock because customs officers were not on duty.

Tropical Cyclone Gafilo is nearing Madagascar and expected to sweep across the northwestern coast of the Indian Ocean island nation on Sunday, the local meteorological office warned on Friday. Last month, 29 people were killed, 100 injured and 44 000 left homeless on the island by Cyclone Elita.