KENYA

Kenya on Wednesday appealed for aid to help hundreds of thousands of people hit by devastating and deadly floods across the country, triggered by unusually heavy seasonal rains. As rains continued to pound north and coastal Kenya, authorities made a national appeal for almost -million to help about 300 000 people who are affected by the floods, which have so far killed 23 people.

The United Nations has not given up on sending its own troops to reinforce a peacekeeping force in Darfur, despite strong Sudanese opposition, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters in Nairobi, Annan also described the situation on Sudan’s border with Chad as ”very fragile and volatile”.

An independent commission will demarcate the Ethiopian-Eritrean border on maps and leave the rival nations to establish the physical boundary themselves, a letter obtained by Reuters on Tuesday shows. ”The commission has decided that it will complete the process of demarcation by the use of coordinates to establish fixed points … ,” the November 7 letter said.

A Nigerian banker was named African Business Leader of 2006 in a competition to honour major contributors to economic development. Tony Elumelu, chief executive officer of the Lagos-based United Bank for Africa, was hailed by United Kingdom-based African Investor magazine as a believer in excellence.

Nigerian Nobel Literature laureate Wole Soyinka has called on the world to shut its doors on the government of Sudan for ”genocide” in Darfur. ”Two million people are squatting in their own country, facing genocide by their own government,” he said during a visit to Nairobi.

On the sidelines of a key United Nations climate-change conference in Nairobi, Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai on Wednesday launched a massive drive aimed at curbing global warming and related environmental damage by planting a billion new trees by the end of next year.

Rwanda, Burundi, large tracts of southern Niger and Chad, and most of Ethiopia are the most vulnerable parts of a continent that could be the biggest loser from global warming, researchers said on Tuesday. Africa has contributed least to greenhouse gases that cause climate change but its underdevelopment means it is also least prepared to deal with the consequences.

Rwanda is seeking the extradition from Britain of four alleged masterminds of the 1994 genocide in which more than half a million people were killed, an official said on Tuesday. Tharcisse Karugarama, Rwanda’s Justice Minister, said his country has formally requested that the British government hand over the suspects.

Saying billions of the world’s poorest people are at risk from global warming, Kenya urged a 189-nation conference on Monday to do more to fight climate change and help Africa. Kenyan drummers and dancers started the annual November 6 to 17 talks to chart ways to widen the United Nations’s Kyoto Protocol beyond its first period.

Kenyan Muslims on Saturday accused the United States of lying about plans by Somali Islamists to carry out suicide attacks in Kenya and Ethiopia. The Supreme Council of Kenyan Muslims said Washington is using the alleged threats as a ploy to attack and destroy Somalia’s powerful Islamist movement.

Kenya is showing commitment to fight corruption that has strained relations with key donors but recognises it still has more work to do to eradicate the problem, a senior World Bank official has said. The World Bank has delayed -million worth of aid to Kenya until it is satisfied that the government is committed to the fight against corruption.

The high-profile murder trial of a British aristocrat charged with killing a Kenyan poacher resumed on Monday with a witness testifying the defendant’s family farm was frequented by the victim. After a month-long break in the trial of Thomas Cholmondeley, the witness said he had gone with the slain man to the farm to poach many times before the May 10 incident.

Kenya have been handed an indefinite ban from all international competitions by football’s world governing body Fifa on Tuesday, according to reports from Nairobi. Fifa’s disciplinary panel are reported to have suspended the country for failing to respect agreements to resolve recurrent problems in their football association.

In a warehouse on the outskirts of Nairobi, the ”Lord of the Ringtones” holds sway over a growing cellphone service empire amid an African explosion in mobile technology. Ken Njoroge’s two-year-old Cellulant firm has seized on the phenomenal surge in cellphone use.

Facing a huge surge in the number of Somali refugees fleeing unrest, Kenya on Friday renewed appeals for dialogue between Somalia’s powerful Islamist movement and weak government to prevent conflict. More than 30 000 Somalis have arrived in Kenya since the beginning of the year.

Kenyan football officials on Thursday accused Fifa of applying double standards in its condemnation of the country as they braced for another suspension for the second time in as many years. Fifa’s executive committee proposed on Wednesday that Kenya be suspended for failing to respect agreements to resolve recurrent problems in the country’s football association.

Eritrea on Wednesday rejected a United Nations Security Council call to immediately withdraw troops from a demilitarised buffer zone on its arch-foe Ethiopia, criticising the world body for ineffectiveness. Asmara claimed it had a sovereign right to have troops on any portion of its soil.

Ethiopian security forces massacred 193 people — triple the official death toll — during anti-government protests following last year’s election, a senior judge appointed to investigate the violence said on Wednesday. Unarmed protesters were shot, beaten and strangled to death, said Wolde-Michael Meshesha, vice-chairperson of the government-backed inquiry.