Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says talks with President Mugabe have failed to produce agreement on cabinet posts.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa accused Mr Mugabe of demanding all the key ministries for his Zanu-PF party in the new unity government. He was speaking after a meeting between MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and the Zimbabwean President.
A power-sharing deal was signed two weeks ago to end the political crisis. Mr Chamisa said the opposition and Mr Mugabe remained far apart on the issue of who should control which ministries.
"He wants to grab all the resource ministries like finance, home affairs, information, justice and make the MDC a peripheral player," he said. "We will end up in but out of government." Mr Chamisa also called for further mediation as well as African Union involvement.
Former South African President Thabo Mbeki mediated the negotiations which produced the power-sharing agreement.
On Monday, Mr Mugabe said he expected a unity government to be formed by the end of this week and rejected suggestions that the talks were deadlocked over appointments to cabinet posts. Under the deal, Mr Mugabe will remain president, while Mr Tsvangirai will become prime minister. The agreement also provides for Zanu-PF to hold 15 cabinet seats.
Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC will get 13 cabinet posts, and a breakaway faction of the MDC, led by Arthur Mutambara, will be handed three positions, giving the combined opposition a narrow majority.
Mr Mugabe will chair the cabinet, which decides on government policy. Mr Tsvangirai will chair a council of ministers, which implements policy. The president also keeps control of the military, while the MDC wants to direct the police.
The hope is that a new government can overcome the acute economic crisis. Inflation is still officially about 11 million per cent and there are severe shortages of food. The crisis worsened after disputed elections earlier this year.
Mr Tsvangirai gained more votes than Mr Mugabe in the March elections but not enough for outright victory. He pulled out of a run-off in June, accusing Zanu-PF militia and the army of organising attacks on its supporters which left some 200 people dead.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
South Africa's Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has dismissed the possibility of a split within the governing party. He told the BBC there would be continuity despite some government resignations following ex-President Thabo Mbeki's controversial ouster.
Earlier, the head of Gauteng province also resigned over the decision by the African National Congress to force Mr Mbeki to leave office last week.
New leader Kgalema Motlanthe has been trying to ensure a smooth transition.
Mr Mbeki quit after a court ruling suggested he had tried to influence the prosecution on corruption charges of Jacob Zuma, head of the ANC. He denies interfering in the case.
Mr Zuma, who is favourite to become president in elections due next year, has been locked in a power struggle with Mr Mbeki and there have been rumours of the ANC splitting.
Meanwhile, prosecutors say they have filed papers asking for the right to appeal against a ruling that dismissed the corruption charges against Mr Zuma.
Mr Manuel told the BBC's Hardtalk programme that he has had an "unequivocal assurance" from Mr Motlanthe that South Africa's economic strategy and policy would not change. The finance minister, viewed as the architect of South Africa's recent economic success, initially resigned last week, but has accepted a position in the new cabinet. He said that over the next few weeks there would be a few other resignations, like that of Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa. "There's likely to be some steadying of the ship over the next period. And as that happens individuals would choose to depart," Mr Manuel said, rejecting rumours of a party split. "I can't for a moment believe that there's anybody in their right minds who would want us to abandon the source of our sustainable growth over more than a decade, to abandon that on the altar of some populism".
Mr Shilowa had said he did not feel he could publicly defend the party's decision to order Mr Mbeki's removal.
When Mr Manuel was asked whether he thought ex-President Mbeki had been badly treated he said: "The short answer is yes. I think that we should have seen through his term until the next election." But he said that although it had come as a shock, "these things happen in politics". "I think that part of what we're dealing with is the normalisation of politics in South Africa. "So we shouldn't be too melodramatic about it. It's part of the normalisation."
HARDtalk will be broadcast on Tuesday 30 September at 0330 GMT, 0830 GMT, 1430 GMT, 2030 GMT and 2230 GMT on BBC World News and at 0430 GMT and 2330 GMT on BBC News channel.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
There has been a shoot-out between Somali pirates on a hijacked cargo ship loaded with 33 tanks, the East African Seafarers' Association says. The maritime group's Andrew Mwangura told the BBC three men where shot in a row over tactics.
Pirates seized the Ukrainian ship last week and have demanded a $20m (£11m) ransom to release it.
Mr Mwangura said the situation is very tense with the ship, the Faina, surrounded by US navy vessels.
US navy spokesman Lt Nathan Christensen said on Monday that destroyers and cruisers has been deployed within 10 miles (16kms) of the hijacked ship.
Meanwhile, Malaysian shipping company MISC Berhad says two of its oil tankers hijacked in August have been freed. Company chairman Hassan Marican said ransoms were paid for MT Bunga Melati 2 and MT Bunga Melati 5, but declined to name the amount. He said paying ransoms was against company policy, but necessary to obtain the release of its crew.
Somalia has been without a functioning central government for 17 years and has suffered continual civil strife, with rival armed clans and groups fighting for control.
Mr Mwangura said there are pirates from two different clans on board the Ukrainian-operated Faina. "One clan is radical the other is moderate," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme. It seems the radicals wanted to take hold of the shipment of 33 72-T tanks and other weapons, while the moderates wanted "to backpedal on the ransom issue", he said.
It was not immediately clear if the three men shot in the incident had survived. Mr Mwangura said his main concern was the safety of the crew, and that the military activity in the area had unnerved the hijackers. "We are asking the international community and the negotiators around that area to pull back - so they cool off." One of the ship's 21 crew is reported to have died from an illness on board.
The Faina, which had been sailing to the Kenyan port of Mombasa, has been moored near the town of Hobyo. Kenya has insisted that the shipment of tanks on board were destined for its military. But other sources, including the US navy spokesman, have said they were bound for the autonomous government of South Sudan, in possible contravention of a UN arms embargo.
The waters off Somalia's coast are considered some of the world's most dangerous. Even ships carrying food aid are often targeted, hampering the delivery of humanitarian supplies to the estimated three million Somalis in need of aid.
A Canadian navy frigate has been escorting food aid supplies for the UN World Food Programme over the last month. WFP spokesman Peter Smerdon told the BBC Canada's mission is due to end on 23 October and no-one has offered to replace them.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Russia is preparing to provide four transport helicopters with crew to help the EU's peace mission in Chad - despite tensions over Georgia.
The EU force commander, General Patrick Nash, says talks about the Russian helicopters are "very advanced".
The operation - called Eufor Chad/CAR - has been hampered by a shortage of helicopters, needed to reach refugees scattered over a vast area of desert.
EU leaders have recently criticised Russia's deep incursion into Georgia.
Russia poured troops into Georgia in August after Georgian forces tried to retake the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
EU observers are arriving in Georgia this week, but Russia does not want them to enter South Ossetia or the other breakaway region it is supporting - Abkhazia.
The Russian helicopters - expected to arrive in November - will boost by one-third the number available to the EU forces in Chad, Gen Nash said.
"With 3,500 troops in an area of operations the size of France, you cannot have enough air assets," he told a news conference on Monday.
Troops in the French-dominated EU force started to deploy to Chad and the Central African Republic in February, to protect civilians fleeing attacks in the neighbouring Darfur region of Sudan.
In May, the EU said it was holding discussions with Russia "to prepare the deployment of helicopters" and said "Russia intends to provide four Mi-8 MT utility helicopters with full supporting equipment and up to 120 personnel".
There are 12 refugee camps in eastern Chad housing some 250,000 refugees from the conflict-torn Darfur region.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
South African President Kgalema Motlanthe has said his country proved its resilience in the wake of "one of its most difficult weeks". Mr Motlanthe was sworn is as president on Thursday following the resignation of Thabo Mbeki and senior ministers.
In his first address to the nation, he said there would be no major change of policy and the country would continue to fight poverty and unemployment. Mr Motlanthe also pledged to tackle HIV/Aids and crime.
Mr Mbeki quit after a court ruling suggested he had tried to influence the prosecution on corruption charges of Jacob Zuma, head of the ruling African National Congress (ANC). Mr Mbeki denies interfering in the case.
Mr Zuma is favourite to become South African president in elections due next year.
Mr Zuma and Mr Mbeki have been locked in a power struggle and there have been rumours of the ANC splitting.
But newly-elected Deputy President Baleka Mbete said any ANC members planning to start their own movement were wasting their time. "The rules and practices of the ANC allow people to raise whatever grievances they might have and express themselves," she was quoted as saying.
Mr Mbeki's departure triggered a flurry of resignations, though several ministers - including Finance Minister Trevor Manuel - have been retained.
Mr Motlanthe said the government had "no choice now other than to move forward, to forge ahead undaunted with the tasks we have set ourselves".
"Our country is emerging from one of the most difficult weeks in the history of our young democracy," he said. "Over the course of the last few days, we have proven the durability of our constitutional order and the vibrancy of our democracy."
BBC NEWS REPORT.
The Nigerian consortium hoping to buy Newcastle United has told the BBC it has presented its bid to the club. The group is one of several thought to be interested, but is the first to announce it has tabled an offer.
The man fronting the bid, UK-based businessman Chris Nathaniel, refused to confirm the size of the offer. "We can't at this stage, that's confidential between ourselves and Newcastle, but a bid was put in on Friday evening," he said. "There's been no timeline given by Newcastle but we hope it will be sometime soon."
Previous reports suggested the Nigerian group had raised £350m and was looking to increase that figure.
Newcastle United's owner Mike Ashley put the club up for sale in the wake of the sudden departure of former manager Kevin Keegan, but has insisted he will hold out for the right price.
But Nathaniel told the BBC's African sports programme Fast Track the Nigerian group would not get involved in a bidding war. "What they don't want to do is spend a load of money to buy the club and have no money to buy players and to work on what is a quite a troubled infrastructure," he said.
The identities of the people behind the deal remain a closely guarded secret, and Nathaniel said they wanted to remain anonymous until their bid is accepted.
A spokesman for Newcastle United said the club had no comment to make.
BBC SPORTS REPORT.
The Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe has said he expects a unity government to be formed by the end of this week. He also denied that negotiations with the opposition were deadlocked over appointments to key cabinet posts. Mr Mugabe and the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, signed an outline agreement on a new government earlier this month.
Under the deal, Mr Mugabe will remain as president while Mr Tsvangirai will become prime minister.
Speaking to reporters in Zimbabwe upon his return from a United Nations General Assembly meeting, Mr Mugabe said ministries had been discussed before he had left for the UN. "Only four [ministries] remain, but there is no deadlock. We will be setting up government this week, towards the end of the week," he said.
Mr Mugabe's comments follow calls last Saturday by Morgan Tsvangirai for the power-sharing government to be formed "in the next few days".
BBC NEWS REPORT.
A group of Western tourists and their Egyptian guides, who were kidnapped 10 days ago, have been freed. The 11 hostages - five Italians, five Germans and a Romanian - and their guides are said to be in good health. The group was abducted by gunmen in a remote border region of Egypt. They are now said to be en route to Cairo.
They have been moved around a lawless desert region touching on the borders of Egypt, Sudan, Libya and Chad. Their exact whereabouts is unclear. The release of the Westerners was reported on Egyptian state television and confirmed by the Italian foreign ministry.
The kidnappers had demanded that Germany take charge of payment of an $8.8m (£4.9m) ransom. It is unclear if any payment was exchanged.
News of the release comes a day after Sudanese troops clashed with alleged kidnappers in northern Sudan, killing six gunmen. Another two were taken into custody. The two suspects claimed the tourists were in Chad but their exact whereabouts at the time of rescue remains unclear.
In a statement, the military said the vehicle of the hostage-takers was full of weapons and documents detailing how the ransom should have been paid.
Other documents found inside led the army to believe a faction of the Darfur rebel Sudan Liberation Army was involved in the kidnapping.
None of Darfur's numerous rebel groups have said they were linked to the kidnappings.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
The widow and a sister of the two ministers killed in a plane crash in June have won by-elections in Kenya's Rift Valley Province. Beatrice Kones, widow of the late Roads Minister Kipkalya Kones won the Bomet contest, while Joyce Laboso won her sister's former seat in Sotik.
The by-elections were the first elections since an inquiry into last year's polls called for radical reform. The by-elections passed off peacefully but turn-out was low.
The BBC's Wanyama Chebusiri in Sotik says the two constituencies are in a carnival mood and residents are celebrating the victories.
The two women won the seats on Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party tickets, dashing claims that the party's popularity in the region is waning.
The Rift Valley Province was one of ODM's strongholds in the last elections.
But the party has been facing a growing rebellion from some of the region's MPs over the government's plans to reclaim land irregularly allocated in the Mau Forest and the distribution of cabinet posts. The MPs are demanding that both of the cabinet positions left vacant by the death of the two ministers should be given to leaders from the Rift Valley.
Some ODM MPs openly defied their party by campaigning for candidates with a relatively small party - the United Democratic Movement.
More than 1,500 people were killed and 600,000 displaced in political and ethnic violence after last December's elections, following ODM claims that the results had been rigged.
Some of the worst violence was in the Rift Valley, where members of President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu community were targeted.
A power-sharing arrangement was agreed to end the violence, with ODM leader Raila Odinga becoming prime minister.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
"THE GREATEST PLEASURE IN LIFE
IS DOING WHAT PEOPLE SAY
YOU CANNOT DO" !
__________
Posted by: Mara at September 29, 2008 08:50 |
link | comments |
sayings
Haile Gebrselassie broke his own world record as he won the Berlin Marathon for the third time in a row. The 35-year-old Ethiopian became the first man to run under two hours, four minutes as he clocked 2:03:59. His time was nearly half a minute quicker than his previous record, set over the same course last year.
"I am so, so happy, everything was perfect, the weather was perfect, the spectators were perfect, everything - I am so happy," said Gebrselassie. "Since I started running, Berlin is my lucky city."
James Kwambai went with the Ethiopian when he broke away just after the 33km mark but Gebrselassie stepped up the pace 6km out and the Kenyan wilted.
Gebrselassie, the first man to win the event three times, picked up £39,000 for the victory and the same amount for his world record. His achievement was all the more impressive given that his training had been interrupted by a calf injury.
"Two weeks ago I had a bit of a problem with my calf muscle, but I took a week off," he said. "It gave me a few worries coming here, but I forgot about it as the race wore on. "I knew before I came here I could do something special."
It is the sixth time the world record has been broken over the flat Berlin course.
Irina Mikitenko, who won the London Marathon earlier this year, won the women's race in a time of 2hrs 19mins 18secs.
It was a personal best for the German and the fastest time in the world this year.
BBC SPORTS REPORT.
The game hopes to highlight the cause of vulnerable people across the world. A charity has launched an internet game to raise awareness about victims of war, in which the object is to help a displaced Ugandan boy find his mother.
The British Red Cross says it is the first charity Alternative Reality Game (ARG), with clues on various websites.
Traces of Hope aims to engage players in treasure-hunt style game-play as they use detective skills to compete.
The game is set in northern Uganda, where a 20-year rebellion has forced two million people to flee their homes.
Having just arrived in a camp for displaced people called "Hopetown", Joseph, 16, has 24 hours to track down a Red Cross messenger who might have news from his mother. The Red Cross works to reconnect families separated by conflict.
After signing up for the game, players will have to wait for Joseph to contact them with news of his situation.
The game's designers say they have placed clues and solutions around the internet in order to blur the boundaries between the game and the real world. Players go to real websites as they try to help Joseph.
The game was scripted by one of the creators of KateModern, the UK's biggest online interactive drama series.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has endured more than a decade of conflict, but as Ben Rawlence finds, a simple bottle of beer can represent a welcome token of normal life.
Walking through the bombed out brewery of Manono it is hard to believe that it once supplied beer to the whole region. At one point, this was a city of nearly half a million people, the tin-mining capital of the world.
Now the tall cathedral - built by Belgian missionaries - has mortar holes in the roof, trees grow behind the counter in the post office and a river runs through the walls of a hydro-electric power station that used to provide the town and tin factories with electricity. Being a strategic site, Manono was hit badly during Congo's decade-long war. In the shell of the old brewery are hundreds of rusting tanks of compressed air, once used to carbonate the beer made here.
The local tipple was called Nyota, or Star in Swahili. The last bottle, though, was drunk some time in the 1980s, after the world tin price collapsed, taking Manono's industries with it. The priests at the mission where I am staying swear it was the sweetest-tasting beer in the world, but it is unlikely that Nyota will ever be drunk again.
I arrived in Manono this morning after two days on the back of a motorbike. One of the first questions the priests asked me when I arrived was whether I drunk alcohol. "Great, then perhaps after dinner we can go and taste a little something," said Abbaye Jean. After dinner we sit in the courtyard of a man called Robert. There are no bars any more. Instead, enterprising citizens serve beer in their homes.
Children come and go. Robert yells at them to keep quiet. A girl washes clothes in the lee of the house. Robert makes the journey from the hut balancing a tray with a tall brown bottle and three glasses. He wipes the glasses and the bottle and places them in front of me, and my two companions, Abbaye Simon and Abbaye Jean.
Simon and Jean cannot take their eyes off the beer. Robert looks up expectantly with his hand on the bottle cap. Jean nods his head and with a flourish, the top comes off. Jean pours the golden liquid into the three glasses and we drink a toast to "the river".
The revered bottle with a blue label is called Simba - lion in Swahili. It has travelled nearly 1,000 miles (1,600km) from the southern city of Lubumbashi by barge up the Congo river. It is a two-week round trip to fetch the precious liquid. Robert's wife is currently travelling with fresh supplies. He complains that she is away too much, and that business is bad. "No one has any money to buy beer anyway, except the priests!" he says. She is expected home tomorrow and we agree to go and meet the barge.
The next morning I am groggy and grumpy. I cannot remember how many bottles of Simba we had but my plastic bag of Congolese francs seems much lighter than before. Each bottle cost about £2 ($4). I have a dim memory of three of us perched on a motorbike, wobbling home through the muddy streets in the moonlight.
Jean, however, is thrilled with his hangover - a badge of affluence.
At the port, a painted rickety barge is tied with rope to the muddy shore under the shadow of rusting cranes, overgrown train tracks and abandoned hulks of boats, including a speed boat with a machine gun mount on the front. Muscle-bound men unload the cargo in order of priority: petrol, Coca-Cola, beer, rice, salt, powdered milk, Chinese batteries then umbrellas and a goat.
A heavily armed unit of soldiers watches the cargo being unloaded and then collects a blue tin chest locked with two padlocks. It is their salary for the month.
Back at the mission, a party is in full swing. It is the first birthday party of the mission choir, reconstituted after the war. In one of the buildings previously occupied by the military, gross and distorted cartoons carved by illiterate soldiers - some of them, no doubt, children - litter the wall.
But now the room is filled with young girls in matching school uniforms and matching smiles. They race round filling the glasses of the priests and nuns with palm wine from an old whisky bottle - the poison of choice for the clergy when they cannot afford beer.
As I stare at the graffiti of guns, helicopters, aeroplanes and dead bodies, the girls shriek and play musical chairs. I get an unfamiliar feeling in my stomach. It takes me a while to recognise it, but, for the first time, I am imagining a positive future for Congo.
In the way the nuns gently marshal the girls in their brightly coloured, handmade clothes, in the way that they serve the palm wine grasping the bottle with both hands, performing little curtsies, I get the first stirrings of hope I have felt after several depressing months in Congo.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Posted by: Mara at September 28, 2008 07:44 |
link | comments |
africa
SHINY MULBERRIES!
Dear Family and Friends,
Every day since the power sharing deal was signed between Zanu PF and the
MDC, Zimbabweans have waited with anticipation for a sign, any sign, that
things are happening. So far the wait has been in vain as the same old,
same old fills our days and the basic human rights crisis gets worse in
every regard: food, electricity, water and access to our own money.
This week Gideon Gono, the Governor of the Reserve Bank, swept into an
underground car park in a dark limousine. A line of well dressed men
clamoured forward to greet him and followed him to the waiting camera and
microphone of ZBC TV. Speaking as if he was doing us some huge favour and
with an ingratiating smile, Mr Gono announced that the maximum bank
withdrawal limit for individuals was about to increase from one thousand to
twenty thousand dollars a day. In real terms, as I write, this new limit is
worth about 20 British pence. It's impossible to believe that Mr Gono or
any of Zimbabwe's political elite are living on 20 pence a day and yet they
offer no suggestion as to how ordinary people should survive.
For weeks we've been stuck in a living hell, queuing at banks for hours at
a time day after day, to draw out enough of our own money to buy just one
single loaf of bread - if we can find it. Riot police and dogs outside
banks have become commonplace and so too have men selling money. They strut
around brazenly, openly carrying huge bags of local coins that they are
selling in exchange for US dollars or South African rand. Police don't seem
to be able to see them or the lines of black market currency dealers
sitting on pavements everywhere and so the economic collapse continues to
gallop ahead. Less than two months ago Mr Gono removed 10 zeroes from our
currency and 7 of them are back already.
There is no doubt that this trend will continue as long as the power
sharing deal between Zanu PF and the MDC remains words on paper and not
deeds on the street. While Zimbabwe may just be a tadpole in the shark pool
of the world economic crisis but the suffering of ordinary people is almost
too unbearable to witness.
Its hard not to feel depressed as the wheels of power sharing don't move at
all and so we look to the glorious Jacaranda trees dripping purple flowers
and to the shiny, deep purple mulberries that stain fingers and feet but
give a moment of sweetness to our hardest of days.
Until next time, thanks for reading,
love cathy.
cCopyright cathy buckle 27 September 2008.
www.cathybuckle.com .
Mr Mugabe said the Security Council had become undemocratic. Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has urged the lifting of what he called illegal sanctions against his country. Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York, he said the sanctions were hampering Zimbabwe's economy.
After his re-election in disputed polls this year, Western countries tightened measures against individuals and firms seen to be supporting Mr Mugabe.
At the UN, he also called for reform of the Security Council, saying it had become the tool of powerful countries.
Zimbabwe's economy has gone into a sharp crisis in recent years, with annual inflation officially standing at 11,000,000%.
"Once again, I appeal to the world's collective conscience to apply pressure for the immediate removal of these sanctions by Britain, the United States and their allies, which have brought untold suffering to our people," he said.
Mr Mugabe frequently blames the limited sanctions for his country's economic woes. An attempt to tighten the sanctions earlier this year failed to get UN backing after China and Russia refused to support them.
He said powerful nations on the Security Council - which he did not name - had falsely accused his government of human rights abuses.
Supporters of Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party were accused of mounting a campaign of intimidation against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) during the elections earlier this year.
"By the way, those who falsely accuse us of these violations are themselves international perpetrators of genocide, acts of aggression and mass destruction," he said, referring to the invasion of Iraq. Mr Mugabe said the Security Council had become undemocratic and should be re-organised to include greater geographical representation with permanent seats for African nations.
He also thanked South Africa's former President Thabo Mbeki for brokering a power-sharing agreement reached earlier this month with the MDC. Earlier, Mr Mugabe said he was devastated by Mr Mbeki's forced departure.
Under the deal, a new government is to be formed with ministers from both Zanu-PF and the MDC. However, the two sides cannot agree on which ministries each party should hold.
Mr Mugabe said the agreement showed Africans could solve African problems, which, he said, were often the legacy of the West's colonial involvement in the continent.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
The 44 teams will now play over the weekend of 11-12 October. Plans to play the next round of World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers at the same time have been scrapped by Fifa. The decision came after participating countries, particularly in west Africa, objected to playing in high daytime temperatures.
Fifa had originally ordered that 22 matches begin at 1300 GMT on 11 October to avoid any side having an advantage. But a Fifa spokesman said it "proved difficult due to climatic challenges". "Therefore, it was decided that matches would be played simultaneously only in those groups where the first and/or second places in the standings have not yet been determined," the spokesman said.
The matches, across 12 groups, will now be played on both Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 October. The 12 group winners plus eight best runners-up advance to the deciding group phase next year, with 17 of the 20 still up for grabs.
Benin, Cameroon and Nigeria are already assured of their places in the last phase.
BBC SPORTS REPORT.
Pirates who seized a Ukrainian ship off the coast of Somalia have reportedly demanded a ransom of $35m (£19m) to release the vessel and its crew. The pirates earlier warned against any attempt to rescue the crew or cargo of the MV Faina, which is carrying 33 battle tanks destined for Kenya. Pirates have seized dozens of ships near Somalia's coast in recent months.
A Russian Navy vessel is heading to the region and the US says it is monitoring developments in the area.
A spokesman for the pirates, who gave his name as Jalal Jama Ali, told a Somali website that the group were prepared to negotiate with the Kenyan government, but would not release the vessel unless the ransom was paid.
On Friday, Ukrainian Defence Minister Yury Yekhanurov confirmed 33 Russian T-72 tanks and "a substantial quantity of ammunition" were aboard the Faina. Ukraine's foreign ministry said the ship had a crew of 21 and was sailing towards the Kenyan port of Mombasa. The ship's captain had reported being surrounded by three boats of armed men on Thursday afternoon, it said.
Earlier reports suggested that the cargo had been destined for south Sudan, but Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua confirmed the tanks were heading to Kenya. "The cargo in the ship includes military hardware such as tanks and an assortment of spare parts for use by different branches of the Kenyan military," he said.
Security analyst Knox Chitiyo told the BBC the latest incident showed the waters off Somalia's coast had become a "global security problem". "Piracy has become big business and there seems to be no concerted response to the problem," said Mr Chitiyo, from the London-based Royal United Services Institute.
Authorities in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland say they are powerless to confront the pirates, who regularly hold ships for ransom at the port of Eyl. Senior UN officials estimate the ransoms pirates earn from hijacking ships exceed $100m (£54m) a year.Pirate "mother ships" travel far out to sea and launch smaller boats to attack passing vessels, sometimes using rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs).
Last week, France circulated a draft UN resolution urging states to deploy naval vessels and aircraft to combat such piracy. France, which has troops in nearby Djibouti and also participates in a multi-national naval force patrol in the area, has intervened twice to release French sailors kidnapped by pirates.
Commandos freed two people whose boat was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden earlier this month and in April, six arrested pirates were handed over to the French authorities for trial.
Russia announced on Friday it would start carrying out regular anti-piracy patrols in the waters off Somalia to protect Russian citizens and ships. A warship had been sent to the area earlier this week, it said.
Somalia has been without a functioning central government for 17 years and has suffered from continual civil strife.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Security has been tightened in Swaziland, where authorities are investigating a failed bomb attack near one of King Mswati III's royal palaces. Swazi investigators are conducting a joint probe with counterparts from neighbouring South Africa into last Saturday's attempted bombing.
Meanwhile, a government official acknowledged there had been previous attempted bomb attacks. He said an opposition group had claimed responsibility for Saturday's attempt.
Two activists - one Swazi and one South African - were killed planting the device near the capital, Mbabane, while a South African survivor was detained.
Government spokesman Percy Simelane told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that the opposition People's United Democratic Movement (Pudemo) had said it was behind the bombing.
Authorities say they have found other bombs near railways, bridges and roads, but Mr Simelane played down the threat from Pudemo. "They have a following but unfortunately for them, that following is not bigger than the number of people who are for the system," he said. "It is simply because they have failed to convince the people that they want to kill the people, and we do not call that democracy."
Even so, authorities have increased police presence around government buildings in Mbabane over the last week, the BBC's Thulani Mtwethwa reports. The attempted bombings come amid a rise in opposition to one of the world's last absolute monarchies.
The Swazi opposition says they are a result of people's frustrations with a ban on political parties. Swaziland held its first parliamentary election under a new constitution a week ago. On the day of the election, authorities blocked protesters who said they wanted to shut down the border crossing between landlocked Swaziland and South Africa.
South African unionists held protests on their side of the border in solidarity with Swazi activists. Some Swazis blame King Mswati III for plunging the country into poverty and failing to tackle an Aids epidemic.
The king has been in power since 1986. His government recently organised a lavish $12m (£6.6m) party to celebrate the king's 40th birthday as well as the 40th anniversary of the country's independence from Britain.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
South African Aids campaigners have serenaded the new health minister and rejoiced at the departure of her controversial predecessor.
A group of activists sang outside the Cape Town flat of Barbara Hogan and drank champagne with her. They have long called for the dismissal of Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, known as "Dr Beetroot" for her advocacy of healthy eating rather than drugs. Some 5.5 million South Africans are HIV-positive. This is more than in any other country in the world.
The government of former President Thabo Mbeki has long been criticised for not doing enough to distribute the anti-retroviral drugs that scientists say are the most effective way of combating Aids. Dr Tshabalala-Msimang said the drugs were too expensive for South Africa and warned of possible harmful side-effects.
Instead, she urged people with HIV to eat lots of garlic and beetroot. Ms Hogan came down from her flat and drank champagne with the activists. The Cape Times newspaper reported that Ms Hogan told the serenading activists she was "deeply touched".
South Africa's leading Aids lobby group, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), said Ms Hogan had been one of the few MPs to speak out on HIV/Aids during Mr Mbeki's time in office. "She has a reputation for being hard-working, competent and principled," a TAC statement said. "We believe that the period of politically supported AIDS denialism has ended," it said.
Ms Hogan spent eight years in prison in the 1980s for campaigning against the white minority apartheid government. She has been an MP for the ruling African National Congress since apartheid was ended in 1994.
Aids Law Project attorney Fatima Hassan said the group was "ecstatic about the appointment of Barbara Hogan," the Sowetan newspaper reports. "Manto Tshabalala-Msimang should have been replaced a long time ago," she said. Mr Mbeki resigned on Thursday, to be replaced by Kgalema Motlanthe, who carried out a cabinet reshuffle.
Dr Tshabalala-Msimang was moved to become a minister in the president's office.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Thousands of people have turned out to vote in two by-elections in Kenya's Rift Valley Province. The parliamentary seats fell vacant after two ministers from the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) were killed in a plane crash in June. The by-elections come a week after an inquiry into the disputed December elections called for radical reforms of the country's electoral system.
More than 1,500 people were killed in political and ethnic violence. More than 600,000 fled their homes in the clashes, which began when ODM said the results had been rigged. Some of the worst violence was in the Rift Valley, where members of President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu community were targeted.
The Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) is under pressure to deliver credible elections after the Independent Review Commission probing the December elections recommended that the body be overhauled.
The by-elections will be a test of the ODM's popularity in the region, which was one of the party's strongholds in the last elections. But ODM leader Prime Minister Raila Odinga has been facing a growing rebellion from some of the region's MPs over the government's plans to reclaim land allocated in the Mau Forest and the distribution of cabinet posts. Some ODM MPs have openly defied their party by campaigning for candidates with a relatively small party - the United Democratic Movement.
President Kibaki's Party of National Unity is also hoping to increase its influence in the region after its poor showing there during the last elections. The results could also affect the balance of power in parliament, where the ODM hold a slight majority.
At least 20 candidates are contesting the polls in Sotik and Bomet constituencies.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
