EXPECTATION GROWS WITHIN ZIMBABWE!
The BBC is banned from operating in Zimbabwe, but our correspondent Ian Pannell has entered the country. We cannot disclose his location for security reasons.
Robert Mugabe has ruled since 1980.
Zimbabwe and its people are in a state of suspense, waiting for election results that will decide the fate of this blighted country. The air is thick with expectation and with rumour. The parts of the country we have seen are very calm and, in some cases, unusually quiet. For security reasons, I cannot reveal our location but the people we have come across have been friendly and ready to speak out.
They do not seem tense, that surprised me. When you talk to them, they are overwhelmingly confident, it is a triumph of optimism over circumstance that people feel that really that this time will be the time for change. In most cases they have volunteered an opinion - and, invariably, it has been the same one: that Robert Mugabe and his party have been roundly beaten in the polls and now the president must leave office.
There are also plenty of rumours - that perhaps he has fled, what the police and the army will do next - but all uninformed rumour that seems to be swirling around in essentially what is a vacuum in the country because all media sources are controlled by the government. Only people who have access to satellite television or sporadic facilities with the internet are able to access sources outside the country.
Travelling across the country, you get a sense of what it is that has driven people into the arms of the opposition. It is fields without crops, shops without goods, petrol stations that are low or empty, women at the side of the road begging for food and traders desperate for customers and hard currency.
Two words crop up in conversation again and again - hope and change. People say they have voted for change, now they hope the president will stand to one side. But they also know he is a man who does not like to lose and there have been false dawns before now in Zimbabwe. When you put it to them "What happens if the president does not go?", this seems an idea they do not seem willing to entertain.
There is also a concern that the longer the results are delayed, the greater the chances are of violence.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
CHAD PARDONS FRENCH AID WORKERS !
The aid workers always insisted that they acted in good faith. Chad has pardoned six French aid workers imprisoned last December for abducting 103 African children. The six, who work for Paris-based agency Zoe's Ark, are serving an eight-year prison sentence in France. The aid workers had said that they believed they were rescuing orphans from Sudan's troubled Darfur region to take them to foster homes in Europe.
But it emerged that most of the children were from Chadian border villages and were not orphans. The six, who had been sentenced to eight years' hard labour in Chad, flew back to France in late December and have been serving their sentence there under a co-operation agreement. "The Higher Judicial Council has given a favourable opinion on the request for a pardon," Justice Minister Albert Pahimi Padacke told Reuters news agency.
Though members of the organisation - set up after the 2004 Asian tsunami - insisted that they always acted in good faith, their actions were criticised by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
zZIMBABWE : VOTERS REACT !
Official results from Zimbabwe's general election are trickling in amid speculation about vote-rigging. Voters from across the country have been sending the BBC their experiences and observations after the elections.
Are you in Zimbabwe? Send us your experiences by text on +44 7786 20 50 85 or use the form below - and let us know if you do not want your full name to be published.
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Delay adds to fraud fears
13:54 GMT, Mutare Lazarus e-mails in to say that if people feel election results have been rigged, "people will burst with anger and probably demonstrate or become violent".
13:51 GMT, Harare Thomas told the BBC of his fears: "My constituency is Harare central. I think the results are there and they are taking their time. I feel they are manipulating the numbers. I fear a win for Zanu-PF. We really fear that. We know for sure that in the urban areas Zanu-PF will not win. But what about elsewhere?"
13:25 GMT Ndondandishe from Harare e-mails in saying that in Glen Norah there has been no reported violence and claims that the MDC has taken the constituency by a big margin: "We want change - and sure enough change has come. I phoned my parents in the rural areas of Masvingo and they said MDC has also won there, even though the official results have yet to be announced. That used to be a Zanu stronghold, but not anymore. We are tired of prices that go up everyday."
13:21 GMT An anonymous voter from Gweru e-mails in to express concerns: "The delay is becoming dubious, it seems they are trying to cook figures."
13:03 GMT, Harare: Shingie contacted the BBC to say: What worries me is that the results have not been published yet. Those working at the polling stations claimed counting was completed yesterday morning. How can it take so much time to verify? We are anxious and the longer it takes the more likely it seems that the 'verified' result will be far from the actual result."
10:43 GMT, Harare: Wilma e-mailed us to say: "They are already rigging the results, judging from the announcements on radio and television. It truly pathetic for Mugabe to keep holding on to power when it is pretty obvious that he has lost."
09:55 GMT, Zvishavane: Dhewa e-mailed us to say he believes "something fishy is going on". He says: "I understand the counting of the votes started soon after the polling stations were closed. So what puzzles me is the delay. Heavy deployment of riot police and other armed forces really shows something is being cooked up."
08:53 GMT, Gweru: Willard Nyamubarwa contacted the BBC to say voting was very straightforward and peaceful. But he is concerned about the delay in the publication of results, and that there is a tense atmosphere as people wait to find out the final results. Willard is also concerned that that MDC is saying it has won ahead of official results.
0837 GMT, Harare: Adam e-mailed us to say there is great concern that results are being manipulated by the government.
08:37 GMT: MDC supporter Munya texts in to say: "We are happy, enjoying a landmark victory despite the delay in announcing results."
07:57 GMT, Harare: Dumiso e-mailed to say: "The voting was peaceful, the only concern is the delay of the results. This will cause some problems if the opposition lose the at the end of the day. We want to change now."
07:13 GMT, Harare: Tawanda e-mailed us to say that he thinks the MDC won the election at all levels. "But the important thing is no longer who won but whether Mugabe will be willing to accept defeat," he says.
06:52 GMT, Harare: Esther e-mailed to say there have been unprecedented events - with no main news bulletin on Sunday night. She believes it is because the results are simply too embarrassing for Zanu PF.
The BBC has not been allowed to send reporters into Zimbabwe. Some names have been changed to protect their identities.
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Are you in Zimbabwe? Did you vote in Saturday's election? What happened in your constituency? Send us your comments and experiences using the form below or by text on +44 7786 20 50 85
BBC NEWS REPORT.
CATHY BLUCKLE'S LETTER FROM ZIMBABWE
Unchartered water
Sunday 30th March 2008
Dear Family and Friends,
We finally arrived at the March 29th elections in typical Zimbabwean splendour. It was a glorious day with a clear, bright blue sky, a warm sun and everywhere an overwhelmingly positive feeling. The mood was one of anticipation and relief that at last this momentous day had arrived and it would surely mark the turning point and define the future of Zimbabwe.
Voting started with long queues at a few polling stations in my home area but nothing even remotely similar to the elections of 2002 and 2005 when we had waited for ten or more hours to vote. This time people waited for short periods and by mid day the queues had reduced considerably. The actual voting process was efficient and streamlined and many polling stations were completely deserted by early afternoon - hours before the close of the election.
At 7am on the 30th March, 12 hours after polling stations had closed and counting had been underway, there was still no official information or any election results.
By 11 am, 16 hours into the counting process numerous phone calls had come in from excited, exhausted people telling of major opposition wins but still no official announcements were forthcoming. On the government controlled ZBC television there were no analysts, commentators or even news stories of Zimbabwe's most crucial election. Finally at midday a short announcement was made by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. They said results were being collated and verified and would be announced in "due course."
As I write this letter the polls have been closed and counting has been underway for over 27 hours and still not a single official result from even one constituency has been announced. Tallying results publicly displayed at individual polling stations, the MDC have declared that they have a strong advantage. British Foreign Secretary Lord Malloch Brown has said that it is "quite likely that Mr Mugabe has lost the election" and Pan African Election Observers are expressing growing concern at the lack of official results.
As each hour passes without any official results, anxiety and suspicions are growing. We are in uncharted water. Never before has there been a complete media blackout after an election. We can do nothing but hope and pray that somehow we will emerge from this with a true and honest reflection of the will of the people. Perhaps by the time you read this letter the facts will be known, I hope so.
Until next time, love cathy.
FROM HOPE TO LETHARGY !
By Farai Sevenzo - Harare !
Voting has finished without incident in Harare and throughout Zimbabwe. The day was an ordinary Saturday first, an election day of perceived importance second. The constituency of Mabvuku and Tafara, in the suburbs of the capital Harare, has 32 polling stations. The sheer number of tents into which people have been filing since 0700 reflects the number of new constituencies established for these elections, and the easy passage of voters.
The youngest councillor running nationwide is 27-year-old Enias Gengezha, standing for Morgan Tsvangirai's opposition MDC, as his candidate card proudly proclaims. It is a card that once belonged to a chief election agent, but resources are stretched, and he now pins his card to his shirt with the election agent tab crossed out.
At 27, he is a year younger than the country, which achieved its independence in 1980, and he has had the same president all his life. Mabvuku and Tafara is one of those places that has fought running battles with the authorities at one time or another, whose people have consistently refused to vote anyone else in but their own people.
The elections have seen white tents spring up all over the constituency's rough rocky landscape, providing impromptu polling stations. Enias shows me around the area he hopes to represent at council level. I don't really know where my vote is going to go, or whether it will count or whether it will be declared a spoilt ballot - Zimbabwean voter.
Sewage is streaming downhill from a burst pipe. The heat is distracting and relentless, and the sewage invades the senses. "Yes, the voting here has been very peaceful, but we are having a lot of problems with our people being turned away from the polling booths because their names are not appearing on the voter's roll. They were there some time ago, now they are not there".
This is a poor area with extremely high rates of unemployment, and I've been told that since I last visited in November 2007, the electricity has only just come back on for the last three days. The problems of national power supply are many and well documented, but the residents of this area feel particularly neglected. The last year has seen cases of cholera, and a large unemployed group of young men clashing with authorities over their open support for the opposition. For them, some sort of expectation that turning up to vote would get them something new is keeping them going.
It is not just the tents. Primary schools and local halls were also converted into polling stations. But with the new rules and demarcations, poll observers from the MDC are nervous. In Tafara 5, the young councillor is told that "things are not standing right". I follow him and his team and the police are friendly and allow them in.
They tell me they are worried that so many people in their constituency are being declared aliens, men and women not deemed natural citizens of this country. Enias Gengezha had to use a recycled candidate card With only a couple of hours or so to go, the voting lines are getting shorter and shorter. The youths at the shopping centre all proudly show off their red stained fingers, proof that they have made their mark to vote. Road blocks leading in and out of Mabvuku and Tafara are casual, as officials keep their distance and let everyone through.
So where is the problem? All sides are running on large tanks of hope and belief. The young councillor and his lieutenants cannot contemplate the idea of defeat in these polls. "No we are not losing these elections. Come Monday our president will be president." But there has to be a loser. And it is how the losers take defeat when the tallies are made that will be more interesting than the thinly spread lines at a multitude of polling booths.
By Monday, the whole exercise of collecting votes from the biggest number of polling stations since independence may not be over. "No, voting wasn't very exciting," one woman tells me. "I went in, voted and left. After talking about voting for the last three months, it was a bit of an anticlimax." "And what's more, I don't really know where my vote is going to go, or whether it will count or whether it will be declared a spoilt ballot".
After the excitement, the build up, the last few hours to the close of the polls have given way to an inexplicable lethargy. The counting begins and there are those, like Enias, whose neighbourhoods have dropped everything for the next few days to wait for the result.
If you voted on Saturday, send us your experiences by text on +44 7786 20 50 85.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
DELAY ADDS TO ZIMBABWE FRAUD FEAR !
By Joseph Winter - BBC News.
The delay in announcing the results from Zimbabwe's general elections is raising fears that the outcome is being rigged. The MDC celebrations could prove premature Counting began immediately after voting ended on Saturday night at some 9,000 polling stations around the country but Zimbabwe's population still do not know whether or not President Robert Mugabe will extend his 28 years in power.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) argues that the election was actually four different contests in one - president, Senate, House of Assembly and local councils - and so urges voters to be patient. But around the country, voters can go to where they cast their ballots and see the results from that polling station, which were generally posted as early as Sunday morning.
They are asking why it takes so long to add up the results and announce them. Surely in the 21st Century, adding up four lots of 9,000 results should not take more than a few hours? Although Zimbabwe's economic crisis has not spared the election process - votes were counted by candlelight in some areas due to a lack of electricity.
"I have no doubt that the large part - if not all - results are known," Marwick Khumalo, head of the Pan-African Parliament observer team, told South Africa's SABC TV. He said the delay was "frustrating" and risked "upsetting a very peaceful electoral process". "The regime is at a loss and it is taking its time deliberately," said opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Secretary General Tendai Biti.
The fears of rigging are also grounded in what happened in Kenya's elections last December. There, it took three days for the local election commission to announce the results. Elections observers in Kenya said the declared results were often different from those posted outside polling stations - and the discrepancies generally favoured the incumbent, who was announced the winner. This led to opposition protests and some 1,500 deaths.
"The delay is a worry - people are afraid," Denford Magora, a spokesman for independent presidential candidate Simba Makoni told the BBC News website.
ZIMBABWE POLLS - KEY FACTS
Some 5.9m eligible voters
They elect president, parliament and local government
Nearly 9,000 polling stations
Winner needs more than 50% to avoid presidential run-off
"We just hope and pray that the army doesn't do something stupid." The MDC has cranked up the tension by announcing that they are in the lead - a move the government has condemned as "causing unnecessary havoc". The MDC bases their announcements on results that their polling agents have texted to party headquarters, where they have done the sums themselves.
Most interestingly, they say they are winning not just in their urban strongholds but also in rural areas which have previously voted for President Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party. Contributors to the BBC around the country who have visited polling stations in their areas agree that the MDC has done well, as does Mr Magora.
"The MDC has swept the board - ministers are falling like flies," he said. While Mr Magora's candidate is fighting against Mr Mugabe, he comes from Zanu-PF, several of whose parliamentary candidates are believed to back his campaign. So he is fairly impartial in the parliamentary race.
Some opposition activists have already started celebrating, only to be dispersed by police in the second city of Bulawayo. And the opposition jubilation is certainly premature. Until the official results are announced by the ZEC, Zimbabwe's future direction remains up in the air.
ZEC chairman George Chiweshe had to be rescued by security officials from journalists and opposition supporters demanding results on Sunday. "This has been a more complicated election. We will be releasing the results as soon as we can," he promised.
The vote itself was generally peaceful and the major concern on the day seemed to be the large numbers of people turned away from polling stations. Ashley (not his real name) in Harare, told the BBC that he had registered to vote but when he turned up to cast his ballot, his name was not on the voters' roll.
He suspects that young people's names were deliberately removed, as they are likely to support the opposition. But Rindai Chipfunde from the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, which had some 8,000 observers during the election, told the BBC that these problems seemed to stem from a lack of voter education, rather than systematic fraud.
What next?
Mr Mugabe himself strongly denied any plans to rig the polls. Zimbabweans have been looking at results posted at polling stations."I cannot sleep with a clear conscience if there is any cheating," he said after voting and promised to respect the results. "If you lose an election and are rejected by the people, it is time to leave politics."
If the MDC is right about how the vote went, the president and his allies are no doubt currently deciding whether or not to live up to those grand words. Giving up and going quietly would be out of character for the veteran nationalist, who ran his campaign on the slogan "Behind the Fist".
Another scenario would be for the fist to hit back, declare victory and use the security forces to stamp out any opposition protests - as they have in the past. This option obviously relies on the loyalty of the military - some of whom are reported to be sympathetic to Mr Makoni.
A third, compromise solution would be for the ZEC to announce that no candidate has won more than the 50% of the vote required for victory and for a run-off to be held in three weeks' time.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
TANZANIAN GEM MINERS FEARED DEAD !
Mererani mines like this one were damaged by the rainfall.About 65 miners are feared dead after rainfall triggered the collapse of mines in Tanzania, the government says. Six bodies have so far been recovered in the Mererani region, about 40km (25 miles) south-east of Arusha in north-eastern Tanzania. Rescuers say the flooding is hampering their efforts and there is little hope of finding anyone else alive.
The area mines Tanzanite, a valuable blue gemstone found only in a small area near Arusha. Ten years ago more than 100 Tanzanite miners died in an accident caused by heavy rain. A regional commissioner, Henry Shekifu, told Associated Press news agency the men went missing on Friday amid heavy rains.
The government is trying to deploy equipment that will drain the mines, he said. He said the flooding had affected 100 people - 35 had escaped the pit alive, six bodies had been found, and another 59 were missing. He was jeered by some miners, as he addressed them at the pit entrance on Sunday, the French news agency AFP reported. "You come with Land Cruisers instead of machines to help us pull out colleagues," said one of the miners.
Thousands of workers have been drawn to Mererani to mine the Tanzanite. Tanzania is also rich in diamonds, emeralds, rubies and sapphires and is Africa's third-largest gold producer. The mining sector has boomed with economic liberalisation policies applied in the mid-1980s.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
FATAL SHELLING AT SOMALI MARKET !
Bakara market has seen frequent skirmishes. At least 10 people have died and many have been hurt as Ethiopian forces backing the Somali government shelled Mogadishu's main market, witnesses say. The attack was launched after mortar rounds landed on the Somali president's official residence while he was holding talks with Ethiopia's foreign minister.
No-one was injured in that attack, a presidential aide told Reuters. Ethiopian troops intervened in Somalia in December 2006 to help government forces oust an Islamist militia. Since then Mogadishu, the capital, has been the scene of battles with government and Ethiopian troops taking on insurgents.
Earlier this week, aid groups said that 20,000 people were being forced to flee fighting in the city each month. Bakara market, which the government says it is a stronghold for militants, has been the site of frequent violence.
It is thought that President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin were discussing a plan to hold peace talks in Nairobi between the Somali government and its opponents when the attack on the residence was launched.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
VOTE COUNT UNDER WAY IN ZIMBABWE!
The counting process is likely to take several days. Vote counting is under way in Zimbabwe, with the main opposition MDC claiming it is winning the battle to oust President Robert Mugabe. The MDC said it was ahead in most constituencies but continues to fear the vote will be rigged.
Results may not be finalised for some days and the government warned the MDC not to declare an early victory. Mr Mugabe is battling the MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai and independent Simba Makoni for president. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said early results showed it had won the poll. "We have won this election," said its secretary general Tendai Biti early on Sunday. "This trend is irreversible." He said early results posted at polling stations showed Mr Tsvangirai would win 66% in Harare.
But BBC Southern Africa correspondent Peter Biles says the MDC is working on the basis of partial, unofficial results. President Mugabe and his ruling Zanu PF have always had majority support in the countryside, our correspondent says, and the rural areas may decide the outcome of the elections. Mr Biti also claimed the MDC was making inroads in the rural areas, including Mr Mugabe's home province of Mashonaland West.
Mr Mugabe blames Zimbabwe's problems on a Western plot.The government has warned that no-one should claim an early victory. The state-run Sunday Mail quoted ministry of information secretary George Charamba as saying that if Mr Tsvangirai declared himself president "it is called a coup d'etat and we all know how coups are handled". Mr Biti said the MDC was just "protecting its vote" and would not make the "mistake" of the 2002 and 2005 elections when it did not claim victory.
Mr Mugabe has made no comment on the counting so far but before the election, state-run media predicted he would win 57%. A candidate needs 51% in the presidential vote to avoid a run-off.
Morgan Tsvangirai said he was confident of victory The MDC has repeatedly expressed fears the election would be rigged. Across the country on Saturday, there were reports of voters not being allowed to cast ballots - either because their names were not on the voters' roll or because they were trying to vote in the wrong ward.
A presidential decree ahead of the elections had permitted police to go into polling stations, ostensibly to help illiterate voters. The opposition feared many voters would be intimidated and stay at home. Pan-African Parliament observers have also written to the electoral commission, saying that more than 8,450 voters had been registered on a patch of deserted land in Harare.
ZIMBABWE POLLS - KEY FACTS
Some 5.9m eligible voters
They elect president, parliament and local government
Nearly 9,000 polling stations
Winner needs more than 50% to avoid presidential run-off.
Most Western observers were banned from the election. Some voters told the BBC they had been turned away but others that the system had worked efficiently and the atmosphere was good. After voting in Harare, Mr Mugabe dismissed concerns of vote-rigging, saying: "We don't rig elections. I cannot sleep with my conscience if I have rigged."
President Mugabe, in power since 1980 and seeking a sixth term, said of his chances: "This time around, like the last time, very good... we will succeed and we will conquer." Of the possibility of a second round, he said: "We are not used to boxing matches where we go from round one to round two. We just knock each other out."
Mr Mugabe's rivals were also confident. Mr Tsvangirai said: "Victory is assured in spite of the regime's attempt to subvert the will of the people."
Mr Makoni said: "I feel good, I voted for the best candidate, I voted for Simba Makoni." The MDC says it is fighting to save Zimbabwe's economy.
The country has the world's highest inflation rate, at more than 100,000%, and just one adult in five is believed to have a regular job.
The chiefs of Zimbabwe's police, army prison service and intelligence services warned on Friday that violence after the polls would not be tolerated.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
"SAYINGS "
"LOOK TO THE FUTURE,
BECAUSE THAT IS WHERE
YOU'LL SPEND THE REST OF YOUR LIFE" !
E. GUINEA SEEKS THATCHER'S ARREST !
Sir Mark has always denied direct involvement in the alleged plot.Equatorial Guinea has issued an arrest warrant for Sir Mark Thatcher over his alleged role in a failed 2004 coup. The country's attorney general said that Sir Mark, son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, had provided money and transport.
In 2005, Sir Mark was given a fine and a suspended sentence in South Africa after pleading guilty to unknowingly helping to finance the plot. However, he has always denied any direct involvement. He told the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper he was not worried by the arrest warrant. "As far as I'm concerned the issue has already been dealt with," he was quoted as saying. "I've been charged and tried in a court in South Africa on exactly those charges so I don't see what more they can do."
But Equatorial Guinea's Attorney General Jose Olo Obono said he had received new evidence against Sir Mark from Simon Mann, a former British army officer awaiting trial for his alleged role in the attempted coup. "Mark Thatcher provided financing for a coup d'etat in Equatorial Guinea and then he organised all the transport for the coup d'etat," Mr Obono told the Associated Press. "We don't understand how [South Africa] let him go with just this fine. With an issue like this, we can't just let it go."
In comments to AFP news agency, Mr Obono said that Interpol had been asked to help find Sir Mark, "because we really don't know where he is, no-one knows where he is living." The Daily Telegraph said that Sir Mark was speaking from the resort of Puerto Banus on the Costa del Sol.
Mann is being held at the notorious Black Beach prison in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea. He told a British television station recently that the plot did exist, but he was not the driving force behind it. The ex-SAS officer also alleged Sir Mark Thatcher was "part of the team". In the past, Sir Mark has always claimed he was an unwitting conspirator and that as far as he knew, he was helping finance an air ambulance business in West Africa.
The president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang, took power in 1979, in a coup in which he killed his uncle. Equatorial Guinea is now one of Africa's largest oil producers.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
JAIL TERM FOR TOP UGANDAN OFFICER!
Uganda's former army chief James Kazini has been sentenced to three years' jail for causing "financial loss". The court martial on Thursday also found him not guilty of creating ghost soldiers on the army payroll, forgery and of issuing false documents. Maj Gen Kazini led Ugandan forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo until 2001, when he was withdrawn amid claims he had profited from plunder.
The charges against him date to 1999 and are unconnected with DR Congo. They stem from irregularities in the army payroll, which cost the government around $36,000 ($18,000). Kazini was convicted along with two other officers, while his aide de camp, Lt Kenneth Ayebare, was acquitted, Uganda's New Vision newspaper reported. Kazini's lawyers say they will appeal against the verdict.
Allegations against Kazini were first made in two United Nations reports, at a time when Uganda had a heavy military presence in eastern DR Congo, supporting the rebellion against President Laurent Kabila and later against current President Joseph Kabila. Although Kazini was withdrawn from DR Congo in 2001, the Ugandan government protested his innocence and appointed him acting army chief.
The government nevertheless set up a judicial commission of inquiry into the UN's allegations. As a result of the inquiry the government recommended that action be taken against Kazini, and he was removed from his post as acting head of the army in 2003. An army spokesman said at the time that Kazini's removal from office was unconnected with the UN accusations, and that he was being sent for further training.
He is the first person of such high rank to be convicted and jailed, and news of his sentencing will probably be welcomed in the Rwandan capital Kigali, the BBC's Sarah Granger reports from Kampala. Kazini was in charge of Ugandan troops who clashed with their Rwandan counterparts in the eastern Congolese town of Kisangani in 1999.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
ANGOLAN POLICE STATION COLLAPSES!
Dozens of detainees at a police station in the Angolan capital, Luanda, have been taken to hospital after the six-storey building collapsed. There are no reports of deaths, but teams of rescue workers have been sifting through the rubble, where the cries of victims can he heard. The Angolan police criminal investigation department building collapsed at dawn.
It is not known how many officers and detainees were there at the time. "The most seriously wounded have been taken to the military hospital and others to the Sao Paolo prison hospital," Commander Eugenio Laborinho told AFP news agency.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
DOZENS MISSING IN TANZANIA MINES!
About 75 miners are feared dead after rainfall triggered the collapse of mines in Tanzania, the government says. Seven bodies have so far been recovered in the Mererani region, about 40km (25 miles) south-east of Arusha in north-eastern Tanzania.
Rescuers say the flooding is hampering their efforts and there is little hope of finding anyone else alive. The area mines Tanzanite, a valuable blue gemstone found only in a small area near Arusha. Ten years ago more than 100 Tanzanite miners died in an accident caused by heavy rain.
A regional commissioner, Henry Shekifu, told Associated Press news agency the men went missing on Friday amid heavy rains. The government is trying to deploy equipment that will drain the mines, he said. Thousands of workers have been drawn to Mererani to mine the Tanzanite. Tanzania is also rich in diamonds, emeralds, rubies and sapphires and is Africa's third-largest gold producer.
The mining sector has boomed with economic liberalisation policies applied in the mid-1980s.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
KENYA'S ATHLETES GET BACK ON TRACK !
By Karen Allen - BBC News, Eldoret, Kenya.
Athletics is a way of life in north Rift Valley, home of the Kalenjin community where Moses Kiptanui trains.
"Everyone believes they can run here," Kiputani smiles. "I guess it's part of the culture."
But the fastest men and women in the world found themselves running scared when they saw their neighbours' houses torched and thousands of people forced to flee their homes in January and February after the disputed presidential election.
In the run-up to the World Cross-Country Championships in Edinburgh this weekend, athletes have tried to catch up with their training while coming to terms with the fear and disruption of the past few months. "The first week of January was particularly difficult," Kiptanui says. "You just didn't know who you were going to meet. People were fighting everywhere - maybe you would turn up at a roadblock and they would hurt you, harass you."
At the peak of the fighting the slightly-built steeplechase champion, who has broken seven world records, found himself defending his fellow sportsmen. After the killing of Lucas Sang, a prominent local athlete, the local papers were filled with allegations that successful sportsmen and women, who had invested their winnings in the town, were helping to fund the violence. "I know some athletes received death threats," Kiptanui says.
"These guys had won medals - and so [other people] see anyone with having money as funding the violence. People were very scared." Although the Kalenjin people make up the majority of the athletes here, other athletes are Kikuyus: members of President Mwai Kibaki's ethnic group, whom some saw as political rivals.
Nearly all the Kikuyus have been chased out of town or are penned up in a makeshift camp in the agricultural showground Some of the Kikuyu trainers had to move home, fearing their lives. "When it was going on people didn't realise how bad it was," Kiptanui says. "Psychologically it's something that's frightened everybody. Kenyans now have to put their house in order - we should not forget what we came through.
"This should remind us that we have to be united all the time." For Kenya's team of 27 athletes, the championships in Edinburgh will be a deeply symbolic moment as they run together under a single flag. A month since a historic peace deal was signed paving the way to a power sharing deal, Kenya's politicians are still squabbling and still have not formed a full cabinet.
What is more, the two months of post-election violence disrupted the athletes' training schedules - the impact of which could be revealed when they compete both in the Cross-Country Championships and later in the Beijing Olympics. "We need to show people that we are still united and build this nation," Kiptanui says, confident that the Kenyan team will do well.
His hope is the country's politicians will follow the athletes' lead.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
TUTU WANTS SA ARMS DEAL INQUIRY !
Tutu said South Africa's real enemies were poverty and disease.South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called for a judicial inquiry into a controversial 1999 arms deal. Jacob Zuma, leader of the governing ANC party, currently faces corruption charges related to the $4.8bn purchase. If acquitted, Mr Zuma is almost certain to succeed Thabo Mbeki as South African president after elections in 2009.
Archbishop Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, said South Africa's real enemies were not military, but poverty, disease and homelessness. "We need to do something about the arms deal," he said during a guest lecture at the University of the Western Cape, commemorating the late anti-apartheid activist and Justice Minister Dullah Omar. "We owe it to those who paid a heavy price for our freedom, we owe it to ourselves, we owe it to our future that a thorough independent judicial inquiry happens as a matter of urgency," the archbishop said.
The 1999 deal was the first major arms purchase by the ANC government, after the lifting of an arms embargo imposed during apartheid. Mr Zuma's former financial advisor, Schabir Shaik, is serving a 15-year jail sentence on charges that included soliciting bribes in connection with the arms purchases.
A corruption case against Mr Zuma collapsed in 2006, but he is expected to go on trial again later this year after prosecutors say they have new evidence against him. At the time of the arms purchase, Mr Zuma was a provincial ANC leader. In another case connected to the arms deal, Tony Yengeni, a member of the ANC's national executive and a former MP, was jailed for fraud in 2006 but released after five months.
"To buy sophisticated machines we did not need, for which we did not have the trained personnel, would be laughable if it was not so serious," Archbishop Tutu said. He also criticised the state-owned South African Broadcasting Corporation as being "sycophantic" and "an echo of His Master's Voice".
BBC NEWS REPORT.
ZIMBABWE VOTERS ELECT PRESIDENT !
People in Zimbabwe are voting in an election that will decide whether President Robert Mugabe, in power since 1980, wins a sixth term in office. His challengers are Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC party and ex-finance minister and independent Simba Makoni.
Correspondents say queues formed early at many polling stations, with voters determined to cast their ballots. The MDC fears the poll will be rigged but Mr Mugabe said as he cast his vote in Harare: "We don't rig elections." Zimbabwe's security forces are on full alert amid fears of violence.
BBC Southern African correspondent Peter Biles says Mr Mugabe and Zanu-PF will be relying on support from voters in the countryside, while the MDC is strongest in the cities. But in recent days it has become increasingly difficult to predict the outcome, he adds. Polls are scheduled to close at 1900 (1700 GMT) with preliminary results expected by Monday. A candidate needs more than 50% of the vote to avoid a run-off in three weeks' time.
Long queues formed at some polling stations before the polls opened at 0500 GMT. "I've been here since five to three this morning," Harare voter Mathias Chimutsi told AFP news agency. "I am here to vote because my belly is empty." Nearly six million people are eligible to vote.
The BBC's Grant Ferrett in neighbouring South Africa says the relatively peaceful campaigning could tempt large numbers out to vote. However, he says there are fears the voting will be chaotic and confusing. Voters will be confronted with four ballot papers and four separate boxes, for local, senate, assembly and presidential polls.
Mr Makoni was one of the early voters and complained his polling station in Harare opened late and ballot casting was slow. However, he said he was confident. "I feel good, I voted for the best candidate, I voted for Simba Makoni," he said.
President Mugabe later cast his vote in Harare and, when asked of his chances, said: "This time around, like the last time, very good. I rate them in the same way, that we will succeed and we will conquer." One voter in Harare, a student, told the BBC previous elections had been rigged but this time it could be different: "This time round the whole world is watching and there are chances that it may be very difficult for [Mr Mugabe] to manipulate the will of the people."
On Friday, President Mugabe wrapped up his campaigning at a rally outside Harare with a fresh broadside against Britain and the MDC. "This is a vote against the British," he told a crowd of 6,000 supporters, calling the MDC "a puppet, a mouthpiece of the British".
ZIMBABWE POLLS - KEY FACTS
Some 5.9 eligible voters
They elect president, parliament and local government
Nearly 9,000 polling stations
Polls opened at 0500 GMT and close at 1700 GMT
Winner needs more than 50% to avoid presidential run-off
The MDC says it is fighting to save Zimbabwe's economy. The country has the world's highest inflation rate, at more than 100,000%, and just one adult in five is believed to have a regular job.
Mr Mugabe blames a Western plot for ruining the economy. Mr Tsvangirai claims to have made inroads into the president's traditional support base in the countryside. On Thursday, Mr Tsvangirai and Mr Makoni jointly expressed severe concerns about the polls. In a statement, they said they had still not received full nationwide voters' lists that could be verified, and suspected there were many thousands of "ghost voters".
The president has said the vote will be fair, warning opponents not to protest if they lose. On Friday, the chiefs of Zimbabwe's police, army, prison service and intelligence services warned that violence after the poll would not be tolerated. Augustine Chihuri, commissioner general of the police, said: "The defence and security forces of Zimbabwe are on full alert from now onwards."
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BBC NEWS REPORT.
TRICKY DEALINGS IN HOSTAGE CASE!
By Aidan Lewis - BBC News
More than a month after their disappearance, the fate of two Austrian hostages who were captured while touring the Tunisian desert remains shrouded in uncertainty. But the case has exposed the difficulty of controlling the vast expanses of the Sahara as al-Qaeda's North Africa affiliate seeks to make its presence felt across the Maghreb.
The group, which was blamed for a number of spectacular suicide bombings in Algeria last year, has raised its profile once more after claiming the kidnapping. It is now thought to be holding Wolfgang Ebner, 51, and Andrea Kloiber, 43, at an undisclosed location in northern Mali.
According to statements posted on the internet, the kidnappers have demanded that militants held in Algeria and Tunisia be freed in return for the release of the Austrians. They have twice deferred a deadline, stating most recently that their request must be met by 6 April. There have been unconfirmed reports that the group is also asking for a ransom.
The al-Qaeda Organisation in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) emerged from the remnants of the Islamist insurgency that began in Algeria in the 1990s. It adopted its current name early last year as - after years of being worn down by the Algerian security forces - it began to scale up bombings and increase its flow of propaganda. But recent attacks had been largely restricted to northern Algeria.
Jean-Francois Daguzin, a senior research fellow at the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris, said that last month's kidnapping showed the group was trying to spread its influence, drawing together smaller militant factions from across the region. "The desire is to create an insurrectional space, and to attract attention by targeting foreigners," he said.
The case of the Austrians is not without precedent. Between February and May 2003, a group of militants from the Salafist Group for Call and Combat - AQIM's precursor - captured 32 European tourists travelling across the Sahara and held them for several months.
One of the hostages is reported to have died of heat exhaustion, before the militants released the last of the tourists in August of that year after reportedly receiving a ransom of 5m euros from the German government. German officials refused to confirm or deny the reports. That incident focused attention on the security threat in the Sahara, and prompted efforts to tighten controls.
The US government had identified the Sahel area, which borders the Sahara desert and including Mali, Niger, Chad and Mauritania as a potential terrorist haven, setting up the Pan-Sahel Initiative as a counter measure. This developed into the expanded Trans-Saharan Counter Terrorism Initiative, which also covers Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal and Ghana. The programme is "designed to help develop the internal security forces necessary to control borders and combat terrorism and other illegal activity," according to the US military.
Although some observers have questioned how great the radical threat in the region really is, the disappearance of the Austrian tourists appears to show that there are still gaps along the porous desert borders.
"The Sahara is a dangerous place if only because various groups recognise that the states don't exercise a monopoly on power," said Geoff Porter, an analyst for the Eurasia Group in New York "They can't, they don't have the capacity." Senior Austrian diplomat Anton Prohaska has been sent to Bamako.
But he said that there were still questions about how the kidnappers had transported the Austrians across hundreds of kilometres of desert, some of which are militarised, and it was possible that regional governments had facilitated the transfer of the hostages to neutral ground.
The Austrian authorities say they are still not clear about exactly where the two tourists, who last contacted their relatives on 18 February, had disappeared. Once it was reported that they were being held in Mali, they dispatched a team of emissaries to the capital, Bamako, where there is no Austrian embassy.
Austria's government has been seeking help as it tries to get to handle a complex case in unfamiliar terrain. "We established contacts with governments, NGOs, individuals, and people who are knowledgeable about the area," said Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, a spokesman for the Austrian foreign ministry. "It's really a major effort involving all sorts of parties in the region and beyond."
There have even been unconfirmed reports that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has been involved in negotiations. Last week there was also an outbreak of violence in northern Mali as Tuareg rebels, who are seeking more autonomy and a greater share of resources across the region, attacked a Malian army convoy.
The Austrians are though to be in the remote desert of northern Mali Austrian authorities say they have no indication that the unrest has affected the kidnap case, but they are following the situation closely. In one of their statements, the kidnappers warned Western tourists not to visit Tunisia and other North African countries, including Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania.
A photograph released in conjunction with the statement shows a woman - said to be Ms Kloiber - wearing a blue headscarf with her face digitally obscured. This may be because showing a woman's face is prohibited under radical Islamist beliefs.
The case is particularly worrying for Tunisia, which has a thriving tourist industry. Apart from a suicide attack in 2002 on the island of Djerba, the country has been largely successful in keeping a lid on Islamic extremism. Austria has raised its travel warning for the south of Tunisia, though the foreign ministry noted that most tourism is directed to the Mediterranean coast in the north.
"Tunisia has always been the safest country in the Maghreb," said Mr Daguzin. "This shows that despite all their efforts to show that there is complete security, AQIM is able to strike wherever it wants."
BBC NEWS REPORT.
UGANDA REBELS 'KIDNAPPING' CAR !
More than 100 people are being held in Central African Republic, by armed men who local officials say are rebels from Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Most of the villagers abducted were women and girls, and some have been gang-raped, a UN official told the BBC. The Ugandan government and the LRA are due to sign a peace deal on 5 April.
Earlier this month, the Ugandan authorities said LRA leader Joseph Kony had moved to CAR from his base in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This move violated the terms of a ceasefire agreement.
Humanitarian sources have confirmed that 150 people have been abducted in south-eastern CAR in recent days, the BBC's Arnaud Zajtman reports. Reports say about 30 elders, who were used to carry looted goods for their abductors, have now been set free. About half of those were taken are reported to be girls, some as young as six. Some of those freed said they heard the girls screaming during the night.
The newly released elders say they were taken to a camp where the girls were offered to armed men by the rebel commander. Mboli Nani, MP for Obo in south-eastern CAR, said that some of those who had escaped from the rebels testified they had been beaten by their abductors. He said the armed men spoke English, Arabic and Lingala. "The style they used is the style of the LRA," Mr Nani told the BBC. "They attack in the night slowly and quietly - they take people and they steal goods."
The head of Ocha, the UN's humanitarian affairs agency in CAR, Jean-Sebastien Munier, told the BBC that the area where the kidnappings occurred was extremely remote and difficult to access. "We cannot confirm it is official LRA - it could be a dissident branch," he said, after the return of UN fact-finding team from the region.
The 22-year conflict between the LRA and the Ugandan government in northern Uganda has left thousands dead and nearly two million displaced. The LRA insists that the war crimes indictments placed on its leaders at the International Criminal Court are lifted before they sign the deal.
Uganda's government says the LRA leaders should face justice locally, not in The Hague but it does not have the power to get the arrest warrants cancelled.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
KENYA IN MOBILE PHONE SHARE SALE !
African mobile phone use has rocketed in recent years. The Kenyan government has launched a share flotation of Safaricom, the country's largest mobile phone network. President Mwai Kibaki's administration is selling off a 15% stake in the company, a move which is expected to raise about $750m (£376m).
Analysts said the share sale had been greatly oversubscribed, with ordinary citizens the bulk of the buyers. Opposition parties had tried to delay the issue because of uncertainty over Safaricom's other shareholders. It will be the largest flotation ever on the Kenyan stock market.
The BBC's Karen Allen in Nairobi says that banks were packed with investors looking to buy shares. She says that by the time the sale is finished, one in 10 working Kenyans is expected to own shares. While the government insists it currently owns 60% of Safaricom with the other 40% in the hands of UK giant Vodafone, opposition groups say another firm called Mobitelea also has an interest.
Registered in Guernsey in the Channel Islands, Mobitelea's owners remain unknown. Media reports in Kenya have speculated that Mobitelea owns as much as 10% of Safaricom. "They [the government] should have told this country who Mobitelea is, and whether they acquired the shares procedurally," opposition MP William Ruto told the BBC.
Kenyan Finance Minister reiterated that Mobitelea was not a direct Safaricom shareholder. Safaricom is the most profitable company in the whole of east Africa, enjoying profits of $370m last year. Employing more than 1,000 people, its 2007 revenues totalled $700m. The sale comes even though Kenya does not
have a full cabinet, as negotiations continue following last year's disputed elections.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
