No image available
/ 20 January 2008
Kenya’s opposition party, determined to bring down the government of President Mwai Kibaki, has called for another day of ”peaceful rallies” across Kenya in defiance of a ban and despite the deaths of more than 20 people in this week’s demonstrations.
No image available
/ 19 January 2008
Cuba will support crisis-riddled Zimbabwe, which is being ”punished” by the West for seizing white-owned farms, the Cuban ambassador was quoted as saying in Harare on Saturday. Cosme Torres Espinoza told reporters that there were similarities in the way the United States treated Cuba and Zimbabwe.
No image available
/ 16 January 2008
United States farmers have been given the green light to produce cloned meat for the human food chain. In a 968-page report billed as a ”final risk assessment” of the technology, the US Food and Drug Administration has concluded that healthy cloned animals and products from them such as milk are safe for consumers.
No image available
/ 16 January 2008
Youths erected roadblocks, shopkeepers nailed up windows and Kenyan riot police guarded streets before opposition protests planned for Wednesday against President Mwai Kibaki’s re-election. Police have banned the rallies, scheduled for midday (9am GMT), and many Kenyans were staying at home for fear of trouble.
No image available
/ 15 January 2008
Kenya’s new government and opposition clashed in Parliament for the first time on Tuesday in a bad-tempered session reflecting deep bitterness over the disputed re-election of President Mwai Kibaki. Despite demands for urgent action to end a crisis in which hundreds have been killed, opposition and government legislators argued for an hour.
No image available
/ 15 January 2008
Turkish warplanes attacked Kurdish guerrilla targets in northern Iraq on Tuesday, Turkey’s General Staff said, but there were no reports of casualties or serious damage. The latest strike follows a series of cross-border raids on Kurdistan Workers’ Party positions in the mountainous region in December.
No image available
/ 15 January 2008
The dispute over President Mwai Kibaki’s re-election in Kenya moved to Parliament on Tuesday as the government and opposition prepared to wrestle for control of the East African nation’s legislature. Roads were closed and riot police ringed the building in downtown Nairobi from early morning before the opening session of the new Parliament.
No image available
/ 14 January 2008
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern expressed ”great concern” over the economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe at the outset of a visit to South Africa on Monday.
”I would like to thank President [Thabo] Mbeki for his work as the SADC [Southern African Development Community] mediator in Zimbabwe,” Ahern said.
No image available
/ 14 January 2008
The European Commission said on Monday it will propose tighter restrictions on biofuels next week amid mounting concerns that the energy source can cause unintended environmental and social problems. Biofuels are renewable and environmentally friendlier than fossils, but not completely clean.
No image available
/ 14 January 2008
European Union competition regulators said on Monday they would launch two new antitrust probes against Microsoft, opening fresh fronts in their battle against the United States software giant’s dominant market power. The European Commission said one investigation targeted the interoperability of a broad range of software with rival products.
No image available
/ 14 January 2008
Zimbabwe will prohibit foreign observers deemed to be biased from overseeing its upcoming presidential and legislative elections, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said on Monday. ”Our stance on foreign observers is that they are not a legal requirement,” Chinamasa was quoted as saying by the state-controlled Herald newspaper.
No image available
/ 14 January 2008
Kenya’s feuding parties prepared on Monday for fresh duels in parliament and on the streets despite another international push to mediate a post-election crisis that has now killed at least 612 people. But for many around the East African nation, the top priority was getting millions of children back to their studies.
No image available
/ 13 January 2008
The unimaginable has happened, to the displeasure of arrogant Europe. Africa, thought to be so poor that it would agree to anything, has said no in rebellious pride. No to the straitjacket of the economic partnership agreements (EPAs), no to the complete liberalisation of trade, no to the latest manifestations of the colonial pact.
No image available
/ 13 January 2008
President Nicolas Sarkozy’s talk of creating a new growth and well-being index for France is part of a mounting global campaign that many economists believe will shape civilisation and democracy in the 21st century. Sarkozy presented his recruitment of Nobel prize-winning economists Jospeh Stiglitz and Amartya Sen to work on a quality-of-life index.
No image available
/ 13 January 2008
Up to a million migrants have gathered in Libya, from where they will attempt to sail across the Mediterranean for Europe and, ultimately, the United Kingdom. New estimates reveal that there are two million migrants massed in the North African country and that half of them plan to sail to the European mainland and travel on to Britain in the hope of building a new life.
No image available
/ 11 January 2008
The Turkish army on Friday pounded areas across the border in northern Iraq with artillery fire, continuing its assaults on suspected rebel positions, a Kurdish border guard official said. Major General Jabar Yawar, spokesperson for the Peshmerga border guard in Iraq’s northern autonomous Kurdistan area, said that there were no immediate reports of casualties.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called for the Presidency to break its silence over the ongoing fracas in Kenya. ”An upfront reiteration by the South African Presidency that it will not countenance ballot rigging and improper retention of power would be both appropriate and timeous,” the DA’s Tony Leon said.
The threat of open conflict between Sudan and neighbouring Chad is rising, with each side accusing the other of seeking to destabilise their already tense common border. Sudan said on Sunday it was ready for any Chadian attack the day after Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno said his forces would pursue rebels into Sudan’s region of Darfur.
Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno on Saturday threatened to pursue and strike Chadian rebels inside neighbouring Sudan and repeated charges that Khartoum was trying to destabilise his country. Déby claimed his forces had already driven out the rebels from Chad and said: ”We’re going to destroy them in their nest inside Sudan.”
Georgia’s opposition called for its supporters to take to the streets on Sunday after a disputed exit poll showed incumbent Mikheil Saakashvili winning in the first round of a snap presidential vote. Saakashvili predicted victory, saying in a statement that independent exit polls "show that we are winning in the first round".
Georgians began voting on Saturday in a snap presidential election called by fiery pro-Western reformer Mikheil Saakashvili to face down unrest and restore his democratic credentials. The election, where Saakashvili faces six challengers, opened under thick snow in the strategic ex-Soviet republic’s ancient capital, Tbilisi.
United Nations agencies have expressed increasing concern for the plight of up to 250 000 Kenyans displaced by post-election violence, as international diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis continued. The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that at least 100 000 people in the northern Rift Valley alone needed immediate help.
Military-run Burma put on a show of defiance on Friday on the 60th anniversary of independence from Britain amid global pressure for reform following the junta’s bloody crackdown on dissent. Soldiers raised the national flag at precisely 4.28am local time — the exact moment of freedom from Britain.
Supporters of Kenyan opposition chief Raila Odinga were on Friday set to defy a ban on a rally in the capital, Nairobi, as international pressure for an end to the political crisis mounted. The death toll from in post-election violence has already climbed past 350.
President Mwai Kibaki’s government accused rival Raila Odinga’s backers on Wednesday of responsibility for an explosion of tribal violence over a disputed presidential poll that has plunged Kenya into turmoil. ”Supporters of Raila Odinga are involved in ethnic cleansing,” said spokesperson Alfred Mutua.
Tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes amid brutal post-election violence in Kenya that had claimed at least 300 lives by Wednesday and threatens to descend into full-scale tribal conflict. On Tuesday, at least 35 children and adults sheltering in a church near the western town of Eldoret were burnt alive by an angry mob.
Police raids, arson and tribal attacks over the last 24 hours have claimed more than 100 lives in Kenya, police and officials said on Tuesday, bringing the toll for five days of post-election bloodshed to 299. ”At least 30 have burned to death inside a church in the Kiamba area,” a police commander said.
Brutal unrest across Kenya over President Mwai Kibaki’s re-election left about 150 people dead on Monday — some hacked to death — taking the overall toll to at least 185 killed in four days. Police opened fire on some protesters and looters and many people were killed with machetes as ethnic tensions mounted.
No image available
/ 31 December 2007
An eruption of fresh violence triggered by Kenya’s disputed presidential ballot left more than 100 dead on Monday, after defeated opposition candidate Raila Odinga rejected Mwai Kibaki’s re-election. Further clashes were feared as Odinga planned to hold his own alternative inauguration at a mass rally later on Monday.
No image available
/ 31 December 2007
Defeated opposition candidate Raila Odinga is set to press his claims of vote fraud on Monday at a Nairobi rally to declare him Kenya’s ”People’s President” despite threats of arrest. Mwai Kibaki was sworn in for a second term as Kenyan president on Sunday after being officially declared the winner.
No image available
/ 30 December 2007
Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki won a second five-year term on Sunday in a disputed election victory that triggered deadly riots by tens of thousands of opposition supporters. As smoke billowed from protests in Nairobi slums, Kibaki was sworn in on the lawn of State House just an hour after the result was announced.
No image available
/ 28 December 2007
Six French aid workers sentenced to hard labour in Chad for trying to kidnap 103 children flew out of the African nation on Friday bound for France where they are due to serve their sentences in jail. France invoked a 1976 judicial cooperation treaty with its former colony to obtain the quick transfer home of the six.