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/ 18 January 2008
Israel closed border crossings with the Gaza Strip and destroyed the Hamas-run Interior Ministry on Friday in what witnesses said was an air strike, stepping up what it says is a campaign to halt Palestinian rocket attacks. One woman was killed and at least 30 others nearby were wounded in a large explosion, medical officials said.
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/ 18 January 2008
The African Union Commission’s chairperson recommended on Friday a six-month extension for a peacekeeping force in Somalia and criticised member states for failing to honour pledges for troops. A 1 800-strong AU Mission in Somalia has been carrying out peacekeeping duties in Mogadishu, where Islamist insurgents have been fighting the interim government.
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/ 18 January 2008
Zambia has declared a national disaster after floods swept through the Southern African nation and several neighbouring countries, killing at least 45 people and destroying roads, bridges, crops and livestock. ”This is a national disaster and it requires concerted efforts of all of us to solve,” Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa said late on Thursday.
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/ 18 January 2008
Opposition street protests over the disputed re-election of Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki will end after demonstrations planned for Friday, a spokesperson said. At least eight people have been shot dead by police during two days of protests called by Raila Odinga, leader of the opposition Orange Democratic Movement.
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/ 17 January 2008
Floods in Southern Africa have killed about 45 people in a growing humanitarian crisis that has engulfed the region and brought renewed appeals for Western financial help. Heavy rains have caused rivers in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi to burst, killing three people in Malawi since Friday and forcing hundreds of others to flee.
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/ 17 January 2008
Kenyan police clashed with opposition members on Thursday in a second day of unrest over President Mwai Kibaki’s disputed re-election, and the opposition said police had killed seven. In opposition strongholds in the capital, Nairobi, and the western town of Kisumu, police fired tear gas and live bullets and struck at least two people.
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/ 16 January 2008
South Africa wants countries who have promised troops for the peacekeeping operation in Sudan’s Darfur region to speed up their deployment. ”If we don’t get fast movement of the forces, their full deployment and the technical assistance, then the whole comprehensive agreement … could be endangered,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Wednesday.
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/ 16 January 2008
Press-freedom groups agree that an increase in arrests, intimidation and harassment of journalists in Niger is impeding development in one of the poorest countries in the world. At least 14 journalists were arrested in Niger in 2007. Four of them are still in prison awaiting sentencing.
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/ 16 January 2008
Fresh violence in the Sudanese state of West Darfur has restricted humanitarian work around El Geneina, with aid workers describing the region as a "no-go area". According to aid workers, who did not want to be named, two villages in Geneina were bombed on January 12 and 13 by Sudanese government Antonov planes.
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/ 16 January 2008
A federal judge in Washington has ordered Libya and six of its officials to pay more than -billion in damages to families of seven Americans killed in the 1989 bombing of a French airliner, lawyers for the families said in a statement late on Tuesday.
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/ 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.
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/ 15 January 2008
At least three people were killed in an explosion that damaged a United States diplomatic car in Beirut on Tuesday and wounded a US passenger, security sources said. The sources said a total of 16 people were wounded in the explosion, which occurred in a Christian neighbourhood of Beirut. They said no US personnel were killed.
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/ 15 January 2008
Pakistani political leaders face a looming threat of attack and must get serious about their security and avoid unnecessary exposure in the run-up to a February general election, the government said on Tuesday. Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed in a gun and bomb attack as she left an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi on December 27.
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/ 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.
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/ 15 January 2008
The United Nations on Tuesday warned of the worsening situation in flood-affected parts of Southern Africa as more rain was expected in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi over the next 24 hours. In Geneva, the UN Children’s Fund launched an emergency appeal for almost ,5-million for Malawi, where more than a million people face food shortages.
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/ 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.
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/ 15 January 2008
Taliban militants stormed Kabul’s leading luxury hotel on Monday night, killing seven people in a significant escalation of insurgent tactics against foreign civilians in Afghanistan. The Norwegian Foreign Minister, Jonas Gahr Stoere, and other guests fled into the basement of the five-star Serena hotel.
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/ 14 January 2008
The Kenyan government on Monday rejected a mediation mission by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan to try to end political unrest and sent a stern warning to the opposition ahead of nationwide protests. Two weeks after President Mwai Kibaki’s contested re-election sparked violence that has left hundreds dead, Annan was due in Nairobi.
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/ 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.
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/ 14 January 2008
United States President George Bush on Sunday ratcheted up rhetoric over Iran, lambasting it as ”the world’s leading sponsor of state terror”, and urging America’s closest Arab allies to confront it ”before it is too late”. ”Iran’s actions threaten the security of nations everywhere,” he declared in Abu Dhabi.
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/ 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.
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/ 12 January 2008
The United Nations Security Council opened the door on Friday to new economic, political or military sanctions against Sudan because of an attack by its troops on a UN peacekeeping convoy earlier this week. The council said it ”condemns in the strongest possible terms” Monday’s attack on UN peacekeepers by ”elements of the Sudanese armed forces”.
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/ 11 January 2008
Police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi is to be charged with corruption and defeating the course of justice after his application to prevent the National Prosecuting Authority from prosecuting him was denied in the Pretoria High Court on Friday. Judge Nico Coetzee said Selebi’s application bore no merit.
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/ 11 January 2008
Kenya’s opposition said on Friday it planned to restart protests across the East African nation against President Mwai Kibaki’s disputed re-election after the failure of African Union mediation. Kibaki’s government has made clear it will not tolerate opposition marches. Previous protests have led to bloody clashes between opposition supporters and security forces.
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/ 11 January 2008
United States President George Bush arrived in Kuwait on Friday to rally the support of Arab allies against what he calls the Iranian "threat" after making a bold prediction for Middle East peace. Bush flew in aboard <i>Air Force One</i> after his first presidential trip to the Holy Land, where he said he believed a peace treaty would be signed within a year.
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/ 11 January 2008
Tutsi rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Friday rejoined a peace conference aimed at ending long-running conflict in the east, a day after suspending their participation over security concerns. The rebels’ leader, renegade General Laurent Nkunda, told Reuters he was ready if necessary to take part in the meeting.
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/ 11 January 2008
Japan is to resume its role in the war in Afghanistan after its government on Friday forced through a Bill extending a controversial refuelling mission. The move brought to an end months of political deadlock, and relieved friction with Washington over its commitment to the so-called war on terror.
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/ 11 January 2008
United States President George Bush made his most explicit call for an end to the Israeli occupation after making his first visit to the West Bank on Thursday, where he witnessed Israel’s military checkpoints, the vast West Bank barrier and the spread of Jewish settlements.
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/ 10 January 2008
African Union chairperson John Kufuor quit Kenya on Thursday without a deal to end a political crisis that has killed hundreds of people, leaving the president and opposition leader accusing each other of wrecking talks. Controversy over President Mwai Kibaki’s re-election in a December 27 vote triggered bloodletting that displaced 250 000 people.
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/ 10 January 2008
Sudan admitted on Thursday that its troops had opened fire on a joint United Nations/African Union peacekeeping convoy in Darfur, contradicting an earlier denial by its ambassador to the UN. A spokesperson for the Sudanese armed forces said the attack was the result of a ”shared mistake”.
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/ 10 January 2008
Morocco and Western Sahara’s Polisario independence movement ended a third round of talks near New York City on Wednesday without narrowing differences on Africa’s longest-running territorial dispute. But United Nations mediator Peter van Valsum said the sides had agreed to meet again from March 11 to 13 at the same location in the town of Manhasset.
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/ 10 January 2008
Kenya’s carnivorous wildlife — big cats and scavenger mammals and birds — may have made off with and devoured the bodies of human victims of recent post-election violence. ”There are also an unspecified number of uncollected bodies due to accessibility difficulties, and it was feared the bodies may have been consumed by animals and birds of prey,” said the Kenya Red Cross Society.