Traders in Kampala, Uganda on Wednesday started a- three day sit down strike protesting commercial banks' refusal to lower interest rates on loans given to them. The traders under their association Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA) accused commercial banks of arbitrarily increasing interest rates on even old loans; Interest rates on old loans were increased after the central bank raised its key rate by 10 percentage points to 23 percent in November, 2011. - The traders want the Banks to stop charging increased interest rates on old loans and to refund the monies they say has been illegally collected from borrowers in form of increased interest rates. The Central Bank Governo…

Former Ugandan vice resident Gilbert Bukenya has been charged with fraud by the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). Prof. Bukenya is charged with abuse of office and taking advantage from a $3.9 million deal to provide cars to the 2007 Commonwealth summit in Uganda's capital city; Kampala. - The luxury cars were used to transport dozens of heads of state during the 2007 CHOGM where the former vice-president was the chair of the cabinet team in charge of the event’s preparations. Bukenya has denied the charges. Magistrate Irene Akankwasa canceled his bail and sent him to Luzira prision. "The accused person is hereby committed to High Court. His bail elapse…

At least 43 people have been killed by landslides in Bulambuli District in eastern Uganda, local leaders and witnesses said. But Uganda Red Cross Society could only confirm 18 deaths. Fourteen other people remained unaccounted. Among the people killed was a local chief, his wife and all of his eight children after his house was buried by a mudslide. - The mud flow, which residents said is the most devastating ever witnessed in Sisiyi and Buluganya sub-counties in the last 20 years, buried the homes of 22 families. Rescue workers digging through the sludge with hoes, mattocks and pickaxes, and some scooping the soaked soil with their bare hands, had by 3:00pm Monday, retrieved 26 corpses. …

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has described those complaining about the high cost of living in the country as sick people. Presiding over the national celebrations to mark the international youth day in Arua town, the president said those complaining are against development. - This comes a day after the main opposition leader Kizza Besigye who this week court dropped all charges against him and other opposition leaders launched a second round of walk-to- work protests in Masaka district in a rally organized by Masaka Municipality MP Mathias Mpuuga under the Activists 4 Change (A4C) pressure group, Dr Besigye was joined by Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Nandala Mafabi and other po…

Uganda's largest Owino market for the second time has been burnt to ashes causing a loss of billions to over 30000 market traders. On Sunday night the fire started consuming the market on a very high speed, Uganda police fire fighters were seen on the scene but nothing was recovered. - Over 30,000 traders operate in the area, most dealing in clothes, shoes and similar merchandise. The Sunday night fire comes barely two years after the market was gutted down by another inferno. Most of the traders dealing in second hand clothes and shoes among other merchandise had their goods burnt beyond recognition and most of the inner shops collapsed as a result of uncontainable fire. The cau…

Uganda Public transport taxi drivers and conductors have started a two day sit down demonstration paralyzing transport sector in the country. Taxi drivers and conductors announced a countrywide demonstration protesting what they called Uganda Taxi Operators and Drivers Association (Utoda) continued harassment of drivers and charging of exorbitant illegal loading and welfare fees. - By Monday morning, Commercial motorcycle riders (Boda Boda) in Kampala were in brisk business and doubled fares after most Taxi drivers parked their vehicles in protest. “We have decided to park our vehicles at home come Monday to show dissatisfaction over what Utoda is doing. They are forcefully and ille…

Uganda's capital city Kampala is gradually turning into a slum city. With all modern facelifts the city is surrounded by so many slums which are fighting to take over its presence. Slums such as Bwaise, Katwe, Kisenyi, Kibuli, Katanga, Nakulabye, Naguru II and many others are really less developed but are all in Kampala. - But the big battle is between Kampala city council and Kisenya slums which are just near the city centre of Kampala and around 45.000 people live in this crowded slum. It is located just 800m from the heart of the capital Kampala and also 100m from Uganda's biggest market "Owino market". But everything in the slum is under developed; roads, housing a…

The authorities in Uganda have cracked down on demonstrators, killing over ten protesters and injuring more than a hundred in the past six weeks. The campaign which was designed by the opposition leaders to protest rising fuel and food prices started with a view people but recently it had gained momentum threatening Museveni's 25-year grip on power. - President Yoweri Museveni’s government crackdown and brutal arrests on the latest “Walk to Work” day organized by his political rivals has seen Uganda going back to the dark days of Amin's rule which was characterized by human rights abuse, political repressions, ethic persecution, extrajudicial killings, nepotism, c…

South Sudan's Rebecca Kadi Loburang Dinduch - thought to be the oldest voter who is expected to be between 100 -115 years according to her granddaughter, on Wednesday arrived at the polling station in a five-car convoy to cast her ballot for independence. - "Praise to God!" Rebbecca cried in the local Arabic dialect, wearing a white dress, a tiara and a chain of flowers around her neck, as she entered the voting room at Sadaka primary school in the south's capital Juba on Wednesday. The frail woman, who has watched as the region moved out of colonial rule to the years of war-torn union with the north, was carried into a wheelchair as she waved a secession flag at the u…

World leaders called for calm after a deadly ambush by Misseriya Arab tribesmen which killed 10 south Sudanese civilians and wounded 18 near the border as they were returning from the north for the independence vote, said southern internal affairs minister Gier Chuang. - "A convoy of returnees coming from the north to the south were ambushed Monday at about 17:00 (14:00 GMT) by armed Misseriya. Ten were killed and 18 were wounded," Chuang told a news conference in the southern regional capital Juba. Despite the killings, the landmark independence referendum has shown a big turnout on its third day, prompting tens of thousands of southerners to return from the north. Chuang ca…

Sudan President Omar al-Bashir has said Southern Sudan will face instability if it votes to secede from the north in a forthcoming referendum saying it did not have the ability to create a stable state or provide for its citizens. He said he understood why many southerners wanted independence, but he expressed concern at how the new nation would cope. - "The south suffers from many problems," he said in an interview with al-Jazeera. "It's been at war since 1959. The south does not have the ability to provide for its citizens or create a state or authority." Mr Bashir said southerners living in the north would not be allowed dual citizenship, and floated the ide…

South Sudan's information minister Dr Barnaba Marial Benjamin has welcomed reassurances by the Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir that he will respect Sunday's referendum on southern independence. - He told the BBC he was pleased with President Omar al-Bashir acceptance of the referendum. He said the vote will allow the people of South Sudan to decide their own future for the first time since 1898. On his final visit to the south before the referendum, Bashir said that he would be sad to see Sudan split in two. But he added he would be happy if that brought "real peace" to both sides. Analysts said President Bashir's remarks reflect a growing realisation by the …

Zimbabwe is making efforts to increase security on its government websites to prevent cyber attacks. On its website, a cyber activist group called Anonymous says it brought down Zimbabwe websites last week to protest the government's censorship of free press and Wiki Leaks cables. - President Robert Mugabe's wife has sued a newspaper that published Wikileaks reports implicating her in illegal diamond deals. Zimbabwe's IT minister said on Monday that they are "dealing with" threats by the pro-Wikileaks group to cripple the websites. Most of the government's websites were up and running on Monday in a nation where power outages and technology breakdowns are …

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak is pushing for peace between Muslims and Christians in the northern African country after a bomb blast on New Year's Eve outside the al-Qiddissin church in the Alexandria city killed at least 21 people. He said the act bore the hallmark of "foreign hands" seeking to destabilise Egypt. - Several hundred Christians later clashed nearby with Muslims and police, according to the BBC. US President Barack Obama condemned "this barbaric and heinous act" and said those behind it had to be brought to justice. He said: "The perpetrators of this attack were clearly targeting Christian worshippers, and have no respect for human life and d…

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned supporters of Ivory Coast's embattled president Laurent Gbagbo that peacekeepers will use deadly force if attacked by supporters who have threatened to seize a UN-protected hotel occupied by Alassane Ouattara, the winner of last month's presidential vote. - On Wednesday Gbagbo's Minister for Youth, Charles Ble Goude, urged followers to storm the Golf Hotel on Saturday "with our bare hands". A statement from Ki-moon’s office said he was "deeply alarmed" by Goude's call, adding that the UN mission would use all necessary means to protect Ouattara. "Any attack on the Golf Hotel could…

The new Ivory Coast ambassador to the United Nations Youssoufou Bamba has warned the country is "on the brink of genocide". Embattled president Laurent Gbagbo has locked horns with world acclaimed leader Alassane Ouattara leading to intense tension in the cocoa-rich West African state. - In a TV interview, Bamba said there had been large scale violation of human rights as a result of the ongoing political unrest. The UN formally welcomed Bamba, who was appointed by Ouattara, at the UN's New York headquarters on Wednesday, solidifying UN support for Ouattara. At a press conference, Bamba said Ouattara had been elected in a "free, fair, transparent, democratic electio…

The African Union which suspended Ivory Coast on December 6 because of embattled Laurent Gbagbo refusal to stand down, has asked Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga to lead its efforts in resolving the political crisis in Ivory Coast, a statement said Monday. - The African Union which suspended Ivory Coast on December 6 because of embattled Laurent Gbagbo refusal to stand down, has asked Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga to lead its efforts in resolving the political crisis in Ivory Coast, a statement said Monday. The AU Commission chief Jean Ping said he had asked Odinga to "lead the monitoring of the situation in Ivory Coast and bolster the efforts being undertaken&quot…

Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has filed a case suing President Robert Mugabe for violating the constitution and a power-sharing agreement. He said he seeks annulment of Mugabe's unilateral appointment of 10 provincial governors last month, which he alleged in court papers intentionally violated the constitution. - He pointed out that the power-sharing agreement requires the president to consult with the prime minister before making key appointments, and that Mugabe did not. According to news agencies in the country, however, the presidency did not immediately comment, but in October, Tsvangirai sent letters asking the United Nations, European Union and four nations…

Zimbabwean government denied claims that it was planning mass evictions from a shantytown outside Harare. The denial comes after Amnesty International said the government had threatened about 20 000 residents of Hatcliffe Extension with eviction if they failed to pay a $140 "lease renewal fee" - an unaffordable sum for the shantytown's impoverished residents. - In a statement , housing minister Giles Mutseyekwa said, according to the state-run news agency, New Ziana that ,"I wish to categorically state that no such thing, and I repeat no such thing or action has been planned or is being planned." Many Hatcliffe residents are victims of a 2005 eviction campaign cal…

Burundi's former rebel movement member was executed overnight by a group of men wearing police uniforms north of the capital Bujumbura, officials said. "Eight armed men, including six in police uniforms, entered the home of a National Liberation Forces demobilised member called Anicet Ndayshimiye and took him away," local official Jean-Pierre Ndayiragije said. - "They then tied him up and riddled his body with bullets, from his head down to his feet, before making off in a jeep that was waiting for them," he said. Ndayiragije refused to speculate on who might be behind the execution but local residents alleged the killers were agents of the regime. The killing …

Trouble is brewing in Zimbabwe's power-sharing cabinet as Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai accused President Robert Mugabe of violating the constitution and unilateral decision-making. He said his MDC party would not recognize a string of senior appointments made by Mugabe. - Addressing journalists after a meeting of his party's top executives, Tsvangirai accused Mugabe of breaching the power-sharing agreement and the constitution in making senior government positions without consulting him, according to Reuters. Tsvangirai assured that he would not quit the unity government. "We will refuse to recognize any of the appointments which the president has made illegally and …

The Sudanese government promised to inject almost $2bn into conflict-stricken Darfur, but again demanded war crimes charges against its president Omar al-Bashir be dropped. Vice President Ali Osman Taha told the UN General Assembly that about $1.9bn will be spent over four years. - He said the move is part of a new strategy to bring peace to the western region where hundreds of thousands have been killed over the past decade. The United Nations has imposed sanctions on Sudan aiming to halt the flow of arms into the region and President al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges that he masterminded a campaign of genocide in Darfur. Taha said the government…

More than two million people have been displaced after authorities had to open flood gates on two rivers, a government official said on Friday. The flooding was caused after authorities opened flood gates of the Challawa and Tiga dams in neighbouring Kano state to avoid overflowing following heavy rains. - The flooding began suddenly when the gates on the Challawa and Tiga dams were opened, a spokesman for the Jigawa governor said. "We have about two million people affected," Umar Kyari spokesperson of Jigawa state told AFP. Jigawa has a population of about 4.3 million people. "When the rains became too much they realised the water was too much and opened the dams,"…

Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has threatened to boycott all the country's elections if is marred by violence, this comes a day after supporters of rival President Robert Mugabe stoned a constitutional meeting. "I will not commit anyone to any election if it is a declaration of war," Tsvangirai said. - Five people were injured in Harare on Sunday when pro-Mugabe militants stoned a meeting meant to gather public opinion on a new constitution Police stood by and watched as the violence broke out in the populous Mbare district. Tsvangirai agreed two years ago to join Mugabe in a unity government, partly to end deadly political violence that his party says …

About 70 000 people in Chad have been left homeless due to floods caused by heavy rains threatening the country's food security, a UN agency said. Almost half of the country's regions affected. Over 31 000ha of crops lost and about 145 000 people hit by flooding, according to UN Humanitarian office. - But those figures would climb as some areas are still inaccessible, it added. "The floods could exacerbate food insecurity for some households in areas where (floods) washed away crops and destroyed livelihoods," OCHA's Chad office said in a statement.

The electoral commission in Niger has again postponed presidential polls from next January 3 to 31 of that same month. The election is aimed at restoring civilian rule after this year's military coup ousted the sitting president Mamadou Tandja. He is under house arrest. - The Junta spokesman Col. Goukoye Abdoulkarim had said in May the election would be held by December 26, but electoral officials said they needed more time to prepare. The military junta ousted the country's dictatorial and unpopular president, Tandja, in February after he refused to step down when his mandate expired last year.

Hundreds fear dead in DRC boat incidence Many people are feared dead in the Democratic Republic of Congo after two boats capsized in separate incidents. One of the boats was carrying up to 300 people when it caught fire on the Kasai River near the border with Angola. Officials are investigating why the boat was sailing at night without lights. - Equateur Province spokesperson Ebale Engumba said on Sunday the boat hit a rock early on Saturday in northwest DRC. She says 15 people survived among more than 100 estimated passengers. Information Minister Lambert Mende Omalanga told that the BBC the vessel had been transporting fuel and was not supposed to be carrying any passengers. In the ot…

Kenyan government allowed the International Criminal Court to open an office in the country, a development that comes after Kenya's commitment to the court came into question when the nation hosted Sudan's indicted leader. The court's prosecutor is investigating top Kenyan leaders and business people for their roles in political violence that killed more than 1 000 people in 2007-08. - Kenya granted the ICC immunity from legal challenges, tax exemptions and other privileges in a letter signed by Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula. However, Al-Bashir faces charges of genocide and crimes against humanity at the ICC stemming from the violence in Sudan's Darfur regio…

The Libyan government has announced the release of 38 more members of a radical Islamist group who were jailed for plotting to overthrow the government of Muammar Gaddafi and they are expected to leave prison by the close of the day, the country's attorney general Abderhmane al Abbar has said. - The authorities have taken the decision to release the 38 prisoners of Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) leaders, jailed in Abu Salim on the outskirts of Tripoli after negotiating a deal over the past two years to renounce violence and its radical brand of Islam in exchange for the release of LIFG members. It was not clear whether the remaining LIFG leaders would be among the 38 prisoners …

The Sudanese government is planning to build a nuclear reactor which is first of its kind purposely for peaceful electricity by 2020, according to the state news agency, SUNA. It has also built dams along the Blue and White Niles, which merge in Sudan, to generate power. But large swathes of the country remain without regular electricity. - SUNA quoted Mohamed Ahmed Hassan el-Tayeb, director-general of the Sudanese Atomic Energy Agency, as saying the government had begun to plan in early 2010 to develop nuclear energy. "The Ministry of Electricity and Dams has already started preparing for the project to produce power from nuclear energy in cooperation with the International Atomic E…

Workers in South Africa including Police, teachers, doctors, and nurses have begun a strike demanding an 8.6% pay hike, improved housing subsidies, and other benefits after rejecting the government's offer of a pay rise. Many schools and hospitals and public offices are expected to be affected. - Unions affiliated with Cosatu, South Africa's main union federation, have been holding out for an 8.6% rise, more than the latest government offer of 7%. The government has increased its offer to 7%, but this has so far been rejected by unions, with negotiations continuing until late on Tuesday. The coalition of unions threatening to strike represents an estimated 1.3 million public …

Two opposition parties, Independent Democrat party and Democratic Alliance in South Africa are planning to merge in a bid to form a united front against the ruling ANC to challenge its overwhelming grip of power. The two parties will merge in their fight of corruption, infighting, and a failure by the ANC to deliver on its election promises. - The Democratic Alliance (DA) is the country's main opposition party but much of its support comes from white voters around Cape Town. Sunday's deal sees the DA more or less take over the tiny Independent Democrats who have strong support among mixed-race voters. It wants, and needs, to broaden its appeal. On its own, the merger pose…

The results coming from different parts of Rwanda shows the country's President Paul Kagame led on Tuesday in early results after a poll expected to return the post-genocide leader for a second term with a landslide, sparking giant celebrations in the capital. - Tens of thousands of Kagame supporters packed Kigali's main football stadium for raucous festivities combining party songs with reggae after Monday's presidential election, whose tense run up was marred by arrests and killings. The announcement of partial results for Rwandans living overseas, who voted on Sunday, flashed on a giant screen, giving Kagame 96.7 percent of the vote, sending the crowd in frenzy. &quot…

Guinea's long-delayed presidential run-off has finally been scheduled for 19 September, Secretary General of the presidency Tibou Kamara has said. This happens after a month long wait and expression of fear by the population that the run-off in the West African nation could be rigged. - A meeting attended by the electoral commission, national transition council and the two final candidates "decided that the second round of the presidential election will be held on September 19," secretary-general of the presidency Tibou Kamara told AFP. A presidential source said the reason behind the long delay will be "the wait for the end of Ramadan", a month-long Islamic pract…

The Sudanese government has halted the broadcast of BBC service in Arabic on FM radio frequencies after suspending its agreement with the British public broadcaster for reasons it said had nothing to do with its newscasts, according to an official statement. - In a statement carried by the official Suna news agency late on Sunday, the information ministry alleged that the BBC had imported technical equipment via British diplomatic courier. According to AFP, shortly after midnight, the BBC broadcasts on FM radio in the Sudanese capital could no longer be heard while other stations were operating normally. The information ministry also took the BBC to task for training schemes in the abs…

Rwandans are voting on Monday to elect a new president with incumbent Paul Kagame highly tipped to win by a landslide. Kagame who won the elections in 2003 with 95% of the vote now faces three rivals in the election, all with links to the president's all-powerful Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). - Kagame's supporters say he has brought both stability and steady economic growth since the country's genocide in 1994. His critics accuse him of suppressing opposition and undermining democracy. But as he completed campaigning, Kagame told critics among rights groups and the international community they should "not tell us how to shape our country" in a BBC report. H…

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is demanding apologies from three Western diplomats for walking out of a burial ceremony of his younger sister Sabina Mugabe, who died in the capital Harare at the age of 76, five years after suffering a stroke on Sunday - The president demands apologies from German, US and EU envoys who left after he attacked Western nations, saying they should "go to hell" for interfering in his country's affairs. US Ambassador Charles Ray said he had left the ceremony because he was "very disappointed" in Mugabe's conduct. While she was declared a national heroine by the ruling party, others accused her of benefiting from Zimbabwe…

The government of Chad has defied international calls and pressure to arrest indicted Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir, when he landed in the country for a regional bloc meeting. The International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague is on the heels on al-Bashir for charges of genocide and war crimes. - Chad recognises the ICC, but a minister insisted that it was a sovereign state which did not depend on the injunctions of international organisations. It is the first time the Sudanese leader has set foot in a country which is an ICC member since he was first indicted in 2009. The charges relate to the conflict in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, which the UN estimates has co…

US President Barack Obama warned Africans that terrorist groups like al-Qaeda saw their "innocent" lives as cheap, in a personal challenge to extremists on the continent after the Uganda bombings. Obama was reacting to recent two bomb attacks in Uganda killing 76 people while watching the World Cup. - A US official meanwhile branded al-Qaeda, linked to the Somalia-based al-shabab group which claimed responsibilities for the attacks, as "racist", as the United States cranked up its diplomatic response to increasingly active extremists in Africa. Obama, leveraging his African heritage and popularity on the continent, took direct aim at Al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda after attac…

A man has been nabbed with a bag containing more than 70 dead babies in Nigeria. He is alleged to be evading morgue and burial fees. According to media reports he was employed by the Lagos University Teaching Hospital to take the corpses to a cemetery and was arrested while dumping them. - The BBC said a hospital spokesman said it was co-operating with police investigations into the incident. The report said many families are too devastated to deal with the dead babies and others cannot afford morgue fees, so abandon them outside hospitals. Hospitals hire contractors to bury the corpses. A police preliminary investigation also led to the arrest of some workers in the Department of Mor…

The East African internet Seacom cable which was set to bring high speed net access to East African countries has been disrupted by a fault, Seacom said. The firm said it had been working since the fault was first reported on the 5 July to find alternative methods to route internet traffic, including alternative cables. - The undersea cable which was completed in July 2009, promised to bring down the cost of a connection and boost internet access across the region but now is facing fault problems which Seacom said it has "initiated emergency repairs", which may take eight days. According to Seacom, the exact cause of the fault was "still being investigated", but was th…

FIFA is to release 5,000 tickets which had been reserved by fans hoping South Africa's hosts Bafana Bafana and Group A favourites France would reach the last 16, FIFA spokesperson Pekka Odriozola said on Wednesday. 4,000 tickets are available for Saturday's Uruguay-South Korea match. - About 1,000 more tickets are also available for Sunday's Argentina-Mexico clash at Johannesburg's Soccer City. South Africa the hosts and 1998 champions France went out at the group stage leaving Uruguay and Mexico to qualify from the section and will face South Korea and Argentina respectively. FIFA had been criticized for its early online ticketing strategy that excluded many poor S…

Chad is holding the first summit on the "Great Green Wall" of Africa which is a proposal to plant trees along the borders of northern Africa to battle alarming desertification. The Global Environment Facility is funding the project with about US$119 million. Eleven leaders are at the summit. - "We will make an allocation to each of your countries," GEF chief executive officer Monique Barbut told the leaders in Ndjamena. "The size of the allocation will depend on the country. The cumulative total of aid from the GEF comes to about 119 million dollars." "The Great Green Wall is a project conceived of by Africans for Africans and for future generations,&quo…

South African riot police in Durban have crashed with hundreds of security stewards protesting over alleged pay cuts in a car park at the city's Moses Mabhida stadium shortly after it hosted a match between Australia and Germany. The stewards said they were being paid only 190 rand (£17; $25) a day, although they had been promised more. - Reports say one woman was injured and at least two people were arrested. It was not immediately clear how much the stewards were supposed to have been paid according to their contracts. So far there, have been no public comments on the incident from South Africa's World Cup organising committee or Fifa.

A veteran opposition leader in Togo, Gilchrist Olympio, has agreed to join a power-sharing deal with the government. He said his party will get eight ministerial posts in the coalition. But some members of his party - such as the former presidential candidate, Jean-Pierre Fabre - disagreed with the move. - President Gnassingbe who took power in 2005 from his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who had ruled since 1967, won re-election in March although the opposition alleged irregularities in the vote-counting system. In a report with BBC's Focus on Africa, Olympio - whose father was assassinated in 1963 two years after being elected Togo's first president said he wanted to save Togo f…

More than 300 Johannesburg metro police officials and Gauteng safety traffic officers would be deployed to ensure traffic moved smoothly during the international friendly between World Cup host South Africa and Colombia tonight, SA Football Association (SAFA) assured on Wednesday. - Soccer fans have been urged to leave early for the game scheduled to kick-off at 20:35 at Soccer City on Thursday night and to use the Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system or the city's park-and-ride facilities. However, roads around Soccer City would be open only to ticket-holders and Other road-users will use alternative routes and avoid Soccer City on Thursday night. SAFA chief executive office…

Fifty-four people are reported missing in a landslide on the slopes of a volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A UN spokesperson Madnodje Mounoubai said some 250 homes had been destroyed. An overflowing river caused a landslide on the slopes of Nyiragongo volcano, near the eastern town of Goma. - Mounoubai told the BBC the UN Mission in DR Congo (Monuc) is searching for missing people as well as providing emergency relief. The mission has recovered 26 dead bodies, with 28 people still missing, the report said. Eastern DR Congo - including the North Kivu province around Goma - is still plagued by army and militia violence despite the end of the country's five-year war in…

Algerian Coach Rabah Saadane has resorted to technology experts based in abroad to spy on their World Cup 2010 Group C opponents. They have been paired with England, USA and Slovenia at the global football showpiece in South Africa that comes on from June 11 - July 11. - Saadane said in a statement on BBC: "To learn more about our rivals, we have consulted specialists outside of Algeria who have sophisticated software to do summaries about their strengths and weaknesses." "When I arrive at (Swiss base) Crans Montana, I will work on it because until now I have a lot of work and I didn't have the time to do it." Algeria have qualified now three times for the fina…

Three Nigerian journalists were killed in two separate incidents over the weekend. Muslim rioters killed two reporters working with a local Christian newspaper on Saturday, according to local journalists and news reports. - The Committee to Protect Journalists said on its website that on Saturday, court reporter Edo Sule Ugbagwu, from the private daily The Nation was shot dead at his home by two gunmen, according to local journalists. "Reporting in Nigeria has become an increasingly hazardous profession as the list of unsolved journalist murders in the country continues to grow,” said CPJ’s Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes. “CPJ urges local authorities to doubl…

Two oil tankers collided and burst into flames in Nigeria's southwest Ogun State on Saturday killing at least five people and several wounded. The two tankers rammed into each other in heavy rain and exploded. Three big freight trucks along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway also caught fire. - The bodies were burnt beyond recognition according to an AFP photographer saying the five injured were pulled out of the inferno before firefighters arrived. An assistant driver from one of the tankers said they were driving from a fuel depot in Lagos, less than 20 kilometres (12 miles) away, when they ran into another tanker while trying to avoid a stationary truck. "We tried to avoid one st…

Nine people were killed, including a member of President Omar al-Beshir's National Congress Party, as violence broke out on Thursday that was unrelated to nationwide elections, according to the southern Sudan army. The country held its first national election in 24 years. - Lam Akol, a candidate for the leadership of south Sudan, had said on Tuesday that two voters had been killed after the southern army opened fire at a polling station at Riak in the southern Unity State, according to Capital FM based in Kenya. But the southern army said the killings actually happened in the remote village of Temsah, according to Kuol Deim Kuol, spokesman for the former rebel Sudan People's Lib…

Four UN peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region are still missing after 24 hours of search and rescue. The soldiers with UNAMID, a joint AU-UN peacekeeping force left their team site just outside Nyala in south Darfur on Sunday and nothing has been heard about them, according to UNAMID spokesman. - The spokesman Kemal Saiki also expressed concerns about the wellbeing of the missing peacekeepers, while it has informed the Sudanese authorities about the four soldiers, reported RTT News. Darfur has witnessed a wave of kidnappings of foreign aid workers ever since ethnic Africans in the region took up arms against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum in 2003 to fight discrimination. U…

At least 14 people were killed and nearly 38,000 left homeless when tropical storm Hubert smashed into Madagascar this week, authorities said on Saturday. "So far we have counted 14 dead, two missing and 37 891 homeless on the east coast," the press service of the national emergencies office BNGRC said. - Hubert caused torrential rain all week in Madagascar, which only finally stopped on Friday morning. "Our main problem now is evacuating victims," a spokesperson for the BNGRC said, adding that 50 tons of rice had been sent to each of the six districts worst affected. Hubert was the first cyclone to cause serious damage on the island in the current cyclone season, w…

Niger's junta has banned its own members and also government ministers from standing in planned elections, in a decree signed by its chief, Major Salou Djibo, according to State radio report over the weekend. It also applies "to the prime minister and members of the transitional government." - "Ineligibility applies particularly to the president of the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy (CSRD, the junta) and its members," said the decree read out on La Voix du Sahel. It also listed police, gendarmes, troops, customs officers and employees of the national forestry and water agencies as ineligible to stand for election in the West African country. T…

Over 49 people totalling 200 arrested during the killings near the city of Jos in Nigeria are to be charged with murder after communal violence that left scores of villagers dead. According to police, 109 Christians and 300 Muslims died in bloodshed totalling to about 500 people in the killings. - In Nigeria's central Plateau State, Christians occupy mainly south and Muslims taking the north. Although the violence takes place largely between Muslims and Christians, analysts say the underlying causes are economic and political. A survivor in the village of Dogo Nahawa, near the city of Jos, said he heard his neighbours scream as they were attacked. "I went to my neighbour…

Togo's polls closed smoothly but with great fears from opposition that incumbent President Faure Gnassingbé may seek to rig the results in a presidential election that is widely viewed as a test of democracy for that country. Voters now wait with bated breath for the election results to be declared in 48 hours. - However, Polls opened at 7 am local time on Thursday with hundreds of voters lining up at polling stations in the Togolese capital of Lomé and voting in the early hours was calm with more than three million citizens expected to choose between seven candidates, including incumbent President Faure Gnassingbé -- son of Togo’s late dictator, General Gnassingbé Eyadema, who ru…

More than three million Togolese are expected to vote on Thursday to pick a new president among candidates including incumbent Faure Gnassingbe, in the West African nation. The Independent Electoral Commission (CENI), charged for the first time with organising presidential polls in Togo, has vowed to stage a free and fair poll, devoid of violence. - In a statement, CENI president, Issifou Taffa Tabiou, told a news conference in Lome, "We commit ourselves to organising a just, fair and transparent election devoid of violence, to ensure that Togo, our country, finds its place in the comity of modern democracies," However, six opposition candidates are challenging Gnassingbe, 43, …

The polls in the West African country of Togo on Thursday is expected to be seen as a test of democracy for that country with over three million citizens to choose between seven candidates, including incumbent President Faure Gnassingbé. Togo was ruled for 38 years by a strongman, General Eyadema. - After his sudden death in February 2005, his son Faure Gnassingbé was first put in power by the army, before going on to win quickly-held elections. Togo’s President Faure Gnassingbé has called the poll a “test of legitimacy” for him and the other candidates in a recent AFP interview. He said that he hoped the upcoming ballot would end political violence and disputes, thi…

After the Re-establishment of electoral commission as it was the wish of the opposition. Finally the Ivory Coast's opposition says it will join the new government and call off violent protests that have rocked the nation since President Laurent Gbagbo dissolved the electoral commission this month, an opposition spokesman said. - Gbagbo disbanded the government and electoral commission on February 12 after accusing former commission Chief Robert Mambe, also a PDCI member, of illegally adding names to the voter list to boost the opposition. Mambe has since denied the charge. That decision delayed elections that were already years overdue from March, provoking a public outcry that led t…

Nigerian Vice President Goodluck Jonathan has assumed office as acting president, more than two months after President Umaru Yar'Adua left for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia. Parliament earlier recognised Jonathan as acting head of state in an effort to end uncertainty that has threatened to paralyse government business. - “The circumstances in which I find myself assuming office today as Acting President of our country are uncommon, sober and reflective,” Jonathan said in an address on national television, urging Nigerians to pray for Yar’Adua’s recovery and return, according to Reuters. The fact that there was no formal transfer of power had led to doubts…

President Jacob Zuma has apologized to the nation for fathering a child out of wedlock with the daughter of soccer boss Irvin Khoza. There is great danger the scandal would overshadow his state of the nation speech on Thursday evening amid accusations that his administration is in a state of torpor. - After vigorously defending himself, Zuma bowed to pressure at the weekend and apologized - his second apology in recent years for similar acts. Ruling African National Congress officials are due this week to commemorate the 20th anniversary of former president Nelson Mandela's release from prison at various ceremonies in the Western Cape, culminating in Zuma's state of the nation s…

SA's President Jacob Zuma has found himself in a new sex scandal. The President has allegedly fathered a child with the daughter of one of his friends. The news comes shortly after his fifth marriage this year. The opposition has been quick to accuse him "of undermining his own government's safe sex campaign, designed to limit the spread of HIV and AIDS." - Media outlets are awash with reports that Zuma fathered a baby girl with a 39-year-old divorcee Sonona Khoza in October last year. Sonono is the daughter of Irvin Khoza, a close friend of the President and the chairman of the organising committee for the world cup. He is also chairman of one of the biggest teams in Sou…

An Ethiopian plane Boeing 757 with 150 passengers on board made an emergency landing in Chad on Friday. The Addis Ababa bound flight set off from the Senegalese capital Dakar via Bamako, Mali. The problem was attributed to a radar issue. - However, the Airline officials have said the landing in Ndjamena was made as an extra precaution although nothing serious has been established on the ground. The plane is said to have taken-off on Saturday after some mechanical checks even though some of the passenger refused to re-board, claiming the same plane had earlier had electrical problems. The emergency landing in Chad follows just last week's crash of another Ethiopian Airline's …

Internet provider WirelessG is in talks with sub-Saharan airlines to provide wireless internet access for passengers during flights. The CEO Carel van der Merwe said that he is confident of getting the green light, despite the lack of Civil Aviation Authority approval, and that the service will be available within the next few months. - "After extensive testing in the US, the first complete set of hardware will arrive in SA shortly," Van der Merwe said. "This will be used to set up a ground-based proof-of-concept in SA to test the complete solution, including the satellites that will be used for the commercial product," website of TechCentral reports. Through an agreem…

SA President Jacob Zuma said 2010 is the year for South Africans to renew their commitment to national unity. "Together we must make 2010 the year in which we renew our commitment to national unity and nation building," Zuma said in a statement. He was speaking at a Reconciliation Day ceremony in that country. - He said 2010 would mark the beginning of the most important year in the country's history since 1994, with the Fifa Soccer World Cup the impetus behind nation building and economic recovery. "The year 2010 must be the year in which for the first time, we all communicate positive messages about our country to the world – the successes and possibilities.&qu…

President Jacob Zuma is all set to marry his fifth wife, disclosed Inkosi Bhekumuzi Zuma - a relative of the South Africa leader and head of Zuma's clan in his home area of Nkandla. The president is scheduled to tie the nuptial knot next Monday, January 4 2010. - He said Zuma's other fiancé, Gloria Bongi Ngema from Durban, had presented umbondo (gifts) to the Zuma family on Monday. Umbondo is the last Zulu traditional ceremony before the wedding. It is done after lobolo (dowry) has been paid. It was not known when Zuma would tie the knot with Ngema. Zuma married Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma, his third wife, two years ago during a traditional wedding at his Nkandla home. The wedding…

A Spanish citizen convicted for tax evasion in Rwanda, Luis Duenas Herrera, had the best Christmas gift when he walked out of the prison gates a free man. The President of the country, Paul Kagame, granted a presidential clemency to Herrera who had spent nine months of his one year prison sentence. - “The President based on his prerogative of mercy powers and on the compassionate plea he received from Mr. Luis Duenas Herrera and his close family members has today exercised presidential clemency and pardoned him,”Tharcise Karugarama Justice Minister told The New Times. Herrera was the head of Espina Obras Hidraulicas, a Spanish company and was sentenced to two years in jail alo…

The President of the DRC, Joseph Kabila, has warned FDLR militia to either lay down their arms and stop fighting or be fought to the last man. Kabila said this during his just concluded tour of war-torn South Kivu province where he spent nearly a week conducting a security assessment on the entire province. - “The president issued a warning to the Rwandan rebels (FDLR) – he particularly told them to lay down their arms or be continuously harassed by the army,” A Congolese journalist quoted the President. Categorized as a terrorist outfit, FDLR is made up of remnants Interahamwe Ex-FAR/ who spearheaded the 1994 genocide against Tutsi. They have long been entrenched in Eas…