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Niger Coup is Supported By Many Groups in Niger - Col. Salou Djibo
African Union Imposes Sanction
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African Union suspends Niger after military coup. The African Union has suspended Niger following Thursday's military coup, in which President Mamadou Tandja was deposed and the government dissolved. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also condemned the coup, and appealed for calm and respect for human rights.
Col Abdul Karimou said the situation was "under control" and that there was "no single voice of dissension" in the West African state. Thousands of people took to the streets on Friday in support of the takeover. Troops stormed the palace during a cabinet meeting on Thursday afternoon, seizing Mr Tandja and his ministers before announcing that they were suspending the constitution and dissolving all state institutions.
Col Goukoye Abdul Karimou read a statement signed by Col Salou Djibo
Calling themselves the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy (CSRD), the coup leaders promised to turn Niger into an example of "democracy and good governance" and save its people from "poverty, deception and corruption". The US said it believed the coup had been triggered by Mr Tandja's actions last August, when he held a controversial referendum to abolish limits on presidential terms of office. The opposition Co-ordination of Democratic Forces for the Republic (CFDR) - a coalition of political parties, trade unions and human rights groups formed last year to protest against the constitutional changes - welcomed it.
US Turns Its Focus On Somalian Yemen Extremist
Yemen Extremist Masterminded Mutallab's Attempt on Detroit
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U.S. General David Petraeus met with Yemen's president Saturday, as US turns its focus to the country where the mastermind of the failed Detroit Delta attack originated in efforts to stop al-Quaeda militants. Sources say Petraeus, who oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, discussed the security situation in Yemen with President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Yemeni officials said Saturday that extra security forces have been deployed to eastern provinces where al-Qaida and mainly Somalian militants operate. On Friday, a Somali Islamic extremist insurgent group al-Shabab said it was sending fighters to Yemen to help al-Qaida there. Yemen said it will not tolerate foreign terrorists on its soil. Somalia boarders Yemen across the red sea which seperates both country.
In the meantime, Sheikh Mukhtar Robow Abu Mansour a leading extremist figure has called on Muslims everywhere to join the fight. It is clear that the Somalian Yemen axis is now the rising hot bed for extremist militants and the US authorities are taking notice. The Yemeni government has tried its best to combat the growing threat of the extremist in the Arabian Peninsula boardering with Somali and the US is steping up their assistance to the Yemeni forces.
More Than One Thousand Cars Burnt in France
New Year Celebration Excesses
Car burnings are regular occurrences in poor suburbs that ring France's big cities, but the arson is especially prevalent during New Year's Eve revelry.
The number of vehicles torched was only 10 short of the record 1,147 burned this time last year, even though the Interior Ministry mobilized 45,000 police during the night -- 10,000 more than 12 months ago.
It said police detained 549 people overnight, compared with 288 in 2009 New Year celebrations. However, unlike in previous years, there were no direct clashes between police and youths. "The few disturbances that did take place were brought swiftly under control," the ministry said in a statement.
Former Nigerian First Lady To Be Buried
Maryam Babagida Died Recently in the USA
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Maryam Babagida To Be Buried in Minna
Gen. Babagida Announced Today
MINNA- Former First Lady and founder of the Better Life for Rural Women, Mrs. Maryam Babangida, is scheduled to be buried in Minna.
She died at City Hope Hospital, California, United States of America, at 12 noon Nigerian local time, with her husband of over three decades, General Ibrahim Babangida, beside her sick bed.
Maryam, 61, who celebrated her last birthday on her sick bed on November 1, in the American Hospital, battled with Ovarian Cancer before she lost the out yesterday, after three months in the hospital.
Former Military President, Gen. Babangida, broke the news of her death in a telephone call to his cousin, Alhaji Datijjo Aliyu, a former Commissioner for Health in Niger State, an hour after the doctors certified her dead.
According to Aliyu, "My brother, Gen. Babangida, called me this afternoon about 1 p.m. that He lost his wife. He told me she passed on about an hour ago."
Aliyu, who was with her second son, Aminu, added that her remains would be buried in Minna. The Governor of Niger State, Dr. Mu'azu Babangida Aliyu, described the deceased as a woman who positively touched many lives He noted that, "She left good people and was good.
Haidar Western Sahara Activist Returns To Morocco's Western Sahara
Denied Entry After Receiving a Peace Prize in the USA
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Aminatou Haidar the Western Sahara activist, was allowed to return home from Spain's Canary Islands, days after Moroccan authorities denied her entry to her native Western Sahara, following a event honoring her in the united States.
She had been returning from a trip to the United States, where she had received the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Prize in New York.
As her health deteriorated, the affair turned into a stalemate between Spain and Morocco. French President Nicolas Sarkozy intervened this week, asking Rabat to give Haidar a passport. Haidar campaigns for the independence of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony annexed by Morocco in 1975. She was released late Thursday from hospital in Lanzarote, where she was admitted a day earlier at her own request, and taken to the airport for the flight home. "This is a triumph for international law, for human rights, for international justice and for the cause of Western Sahara," Haidar said in Lanzarote. "The first thing I am going to do when I arrive will be to kiss my mother and my two children." Her plane touched down shortly after midnight in Laayoune, the main city in Western Sahara. Police said Haidar fulfilled entry requirements at the airport, stating on a form that she was "arriving in Morocco", before leaving in a car driven by her uncle. The Moroccan Foreign Ministry confirmed Friday that Rabat had granted the request of "friendly countries and partners" for Haidar's return to Laayoune. But it said it remained firm on "total respect for Moroccan law by everybody without exception and on the integrity of the national territory".
Three Malian Men Charged For Drug Terrorist Case Linked To Al-Qeada
First Link of its Kind
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Three accused al-Qaeda associates have been arrested in Africa and brought to New York on charges they conspired to support terrorism by smuggling drugs bound for Europe, authorities said Friday.
The arrests mark the first time U.S. authorities have captured and charged al-Qaeda suspects in a drug trafficking plot in Africa, in a case officials say demonstrates the spread of the terror network into global criminal activity.
The three suspects — believed to be in their 30's and originally from Mali— were arrested in Ghana earlier this week and arrived in the United States early Friday morning, according to law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.
The three suspects are expected to appear Friday in federal court in New York on charges stemming from a months-long undercover investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Authorities say the men are members of al-Qaeda's North African branch, and told DEA informants that al-Qaeda could protect major shipments of cocaine in the region.
A criminal complaint unsealed Friday charges that Oumar Issa, Harouna Toure, and Idriss Abdelrahman worked with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb.
The three face narcoterrorism conspiracy charges, as well as conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.
Court papers say the DEA infiltrated the al-Qaeda offshoot in western Africa by using informants posing as supporters of Columbia's rebel army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which the U.S. government considers a terrorist organization.
In recent years, drug networks in South America are increasingly using
A British and Norwegian Sentence To Death in Congo
Miscarriage of Justice Cry From the International Community
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A Norwegian and a former British soldier sentenced to death for espionage and murder of a taxi driver in the Democratic Republic of Congo have lost their appeal. The two men were ordered to pay $500m in damages before facing the death sentence. Their only remaining option is to appeal before the military high court. The two men were convicted to death by firing squad for murder, espionage and arm smuggling by a military tribunal on 8 September of this year.
The ruling drew immediate international protests fo miscarriage of justice.
Norway condemned the verdict and said it would complain to the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The human rights group Reprieve claims the two men have suffered a series of miscarriages of justice since their arrest, reported the Press Association news agency. "Witnesses who testified against the pair received $5,000 each in compensation in a country where people earn about $3-4 a day." Both men deny murdering Abedi Kasongo, 47, maintaining that he was shot and killed when their car was ambushed by gunmen on the road near the city of Kisangani.
UN Mission Arrives in Guinea To Investigate Massacre
Government Claims 57 Death While Human Rights Groups Says 157
CONAKRY, Guinea — A United Nations human rights official says a three-member U.N. commission has arrived in this West African nation to investigate the September massacre in which troops fatally shot pro-democracy demonstrators and raped women in broad daylight.
Sonia Muller-Rappard said the all-African commission arrived in Conakry on Wednesday. The group was appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last month to determine who was responsible for the massacre.
A peaceful pro-democracy rally in the West African country on Sept. 28 took a violent turn when presidential guard troops opened fire on tens of thousands of demonstrators. A Guinean human rights group says 157 people were killed. The government put the death toll at 57.
Bostwana is Africa's Least Corrupt Country
Corruption Continues To Hunt the Continent
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Botswana continues to be seen as Africa’s least corrupt, and Somalia as the continent’s – and the world’s – most corrupt country, according to a new survey. South Africa: Zuma Tells Cabinet Team to Tackle Corruption Scourge. President Jacob Zuma and his Cabinet have vowed to deal with the "scourge" of corruption in the government in a determined and co-ordinated way to prevent it infesting every nook and cranny of ...
Nigeria's downward spiral in the ranking of Transparency International, is a testament to the failures of the Yaradua's administration, however the Federal Government yesterday blamed the low rating on the Organised Private Sector, Nigerian banks as well as other lame excuses. Rwanda government received high marks as least Corrupt in their East African Region.
Nigeria dropped nine places to 130th position out of the 180 countries ranked on the global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2009 by Transparency International (TI), a global anti-corruption watch group
Tanzania, Country Drops 24 Places in Global Corruption Ranking, Namibia, is still regarded as a highly corrupt country worldwide, the latest report of Transparency International (TI) shows. Uganda, Country Ranks Low But is There Further Left to Fall.
Zambian News Editor Acquitted of Pornographic Charges
Distribuited Photos of Woman Delivery a Baby in a Parking Lot
Chansa Kabwela, a Zambian news editor at The Post newspaper, was arrested in July after she sent photos of the woman giving birth in the car park without medical assistance to top government officials, during a national health workers' pay strike. She was acquitted of all charges.
"The prosecution has failed to establish a prima facie case and it would be prejudicial for me to put the accused on her defence," said magistrate Charles Kafunda in acquitting Kabwela and dismissing the case. The trial began in August.
Kabwela said she the pictures were not publishable so she had sent them to government officials in the hope that they would stop the strike, she said.
Zambian President Rupiah Banda condemned The Post for circulating what he called pornography.
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