Nairobi

A dozen West African countries have signed a wide-ranging accord to conserve dwindling elephant populations devastated by poaching, conflict and habitat loss, the United Nations said on Wednesday. The 12 nations are now home to fewer than 13 000 elephants due to the combined effect of those dangers.

The United States and international maritime authorities have boosted already-dire piracy warnings for vessels off the coast of lawless Somalia following a surge in attempted hijackings. In a new alert, the US Office of Naval Intelligence said ships in the region should stay at least 200 nautical miles (370km) from the coast.

Kenyan voters soundly rejected a proposed new Constitution in a landmark referendum, dealing a major blow to President Mwai Kibaki, who supported the draft, according to official results released on Tuesday. Kibaki had invested heavy political capital leading the ”yes” campaign ahead of presidential elections due in 2007.

Kenyan voters appear to have rejected a proposed new Constitution in a landmark referendum after a vitriolic campaign that deeply split the East African country, an election official said on Tuesday. In a major blow to President Mwai Kibaki, the official said near-complete results showed the ”no”-vote with an insurmountable lead.

The power of microcredit to pull people out of destitution has been celebrated around the world during 2005, designated the ”International Year of Microcredit” by the United Nations. In Kenya, however, the concept of microcredit risks losing its bloom.

A 11-nation summit on restoring stability to Africa’s Great Lakes region, earlier scheduled for December in Kenya, has been postponed to the second half of next year due to rescheduled elections in Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations announced on Thursday.

An epidemic of ship hijackings off the coast of lawless Somalia is choking the delivery of relief supplies to more than half-a-million people facing acute food shortages in the country’s southern regions, the World Food Programme warned on Thursday. The agency is seeking alternative avenues of transportation.

Two Kenyan Cabinet ministers may be charged with treason for remarks suggesting the East African nation risks a coup if a proposed new Constitution is approved by voters. Police are now collecting evidence against Roads Minister Raila Odinga and Environment Minister Kalonzo Musyoka, who have warned of a possible coup if the draft charter is passed in a November 21 referendum.

Dozens of people were wounded, one of them seriously, on Thursday in clashes between rival factions in the bitter campaign for next month’s referendum on Kenya’s draft Constitution, police and witnesses said. In addition to the injuries, many caused by machete-wielding rioters, a car belonging to a Kenyan lawmaker was set ablaze when then two camps attacked each other in the west of the country.

African nations in increasing numbers are slapping bans on poultry imports and stepping up monitoring of wild fowl amid growing fears of outbreaks of a deadly strain of bird flu on the continent. About a dozen countries in Africa have imposed full or partial bans on imports of poultry and poultry products.

Kenya could lose millions of euros in European Union budgetary support unless President Mwai Kibaki approves tough anti-corruption measures by the end of the year, a senior EU official said on Tuesday. Earlier this year, the bloc, Kenya’s largest collective donor, warned Kibaki’s government about endemic corruption.

An unidentified merchant vessel is feared to have been hijacked in pirate-infested Somali waters in the latest in a surge of attacks on commercial shipping that have sparked dire maritime warnings, an official said on Monday. Contact with the ship, which was transporting cargo from Dubai to Somalia, was lost late last week.

With too many weapons, too little food and three factions vying for control, Somalia’s anarchy is fast overwhelming its new government even before it can establish itself in the country. The competition for power could combine with a potential humanitarian crisis for a repeat of the disaster that followed the collapse of Somalia’s last regime in 1991.

Official campaigning got under way on Friday for the November 21 referendum on a draft Constitution which has split the ruling National Rainbow Coalition government into opposing factions. If the 12-million electorate vote ”Yes” to the proposed draft, it will be the first overhaul of the Constitution since the country’s independence 42 years ago. But the text, which aims to retain a powerful presidency, has many detractors.

Elections set for March in the volatile Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could spark ”mass violence” if current conditions in the vast Central African state persist, an influential policy group warned on Wednesday. Failure to address problematic issues could plunge the nation into another cycle of violence, the Brussels-based Crisis Group said.

Test strugglers Bangladesh and Zimbabwe have both turned down an offer by Kenya to play them in a one-day international, claiming their national sides needed a break, local officials said on Monday. Kenya are keen to play top-quality opposition ahead of this month’s International Cricket Council International Cup semifinals in Namibia.

Southern Sudan’s new parliament sat for the first time on Friday in the southern capital of Juba to discuss the region’s post-war constitution, according to reports monitored in the Kenyan capital. The legislature is part of a peace deal signed by the Khartoum government and the former southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement .

A Ugandan was arrested after being caught roasting his neighbour’s dog in order to eat it, local media reported on Thursday. Police arrested Hakim Abale Asega on a tip-off from neighbours who said they found him barbecueing ”a fat brown dog”. They suspected he had earlier clubbed it to death.

The four parties that make up Ethiopia’s largest opposition alliance, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) have merged to form one party, an official of the coalition said on Thursday. The All Ethiopia Unity Party, the Union of Ethiopia Democracy Party, Rainbow Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Democratic League announced their unification on Saturday.

The Kenyan Wildlife Service on Wednesday suspended the relocation of elephants from an overcrowded coastal reserve to a more spacious park in order to monitor their resettlement and avoid bad weather, officials said. The operation began in August to move 400 animals from Shimba Hills National Reserve to Tsavo East National Park.

Police have detained a journalist on charges of incitement stemming from a commentary he wrote during a constitutional debate that has brought Kenyans to blows, his editor said on Wednesday. Detectives lured David Ochami of the Kenya Times from the newsroom on Tuesday by pretending to be news sources.