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The central bank had to bail out the five lenders earlier this month
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Nigerian anti-corruption police have begun bringing criminal charges against executives from five banks rescued in a 400bn naira ($2.6bn; £1.6bn) bail-out.
Former Finbank chief Okey Nwosu pleaded not guilty to 11 charges relating to bad debt built up under his management.
Other executives will appear in court later, said the country's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The banks needed rescuing after they were found to have very low cash reserves because of bad loans.
The EFCC said some loans were unsecured or did not have board approval, and that, in some cases, they went to individuals or companies using fictitious names.
Five bank bosses have been removed as a result of the crisis.
Fifteen other chief executives at the banks - Afribank, Intercontinental Bank, Finbank, Oceanic Bank and Union Bank - are being questioned by police after the loans were not repaid.
Shares in the five banks, which account for 40% of the country's bank credit, have been suspended.
They had run up bad loans totalling a collective 1.14 trillion naira.
However last week, the governor of Nigeria's Central Bank said that the banking system was sound following the financial scandal that has rocked the country.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
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The case moved Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to tears
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The South African government is investigating the suicide of a young man who was refused the identity documents he needed to start a job.
A local official reportedly refused to issue the papers to Skhumbuzo Mhlongo, 22, accusing him of being a foreigner.
In the absence of his parents, he was looking after his four siblings.
The case prompted Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to break down in tears at a press conference. She suspects the official wanted a bribe.
She said she "would leave no stone unturned" in the investigation into the identity of the official.
The BBC's Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg says the Department of Home Affairs has come under heavy criticism over the years for its inefficiency in issuing ID documents, birth certificates and passports, with some people claiming to have waited up to four years.
She points out it would be even more difficult to obtain the documents if you have no parents to vouch for your identity.
In response to the case, the Department of Home Affairs has set up a hotline for people to register complaints: 0800-2044-76.
However, it was not working when the BBC tried it on four separate occasions on Monday afternoon.
A senior delegation from the Department of Home Affairs has visited the office in Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal province, where his demand was rejected.
Mr Mhlongo had been due to start the new job at a factory which manufactures bird food on Monday.
He apparently left a suicide note before hanging himself.
Home Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mampoepa told the BBC that Mhlongo had been raised by his mother, who disappeared in 2000, leaving him to care for his younger siblings.
He had apparently been trying to get an ID card for some time without any luck.
"He did not have parents. He was the eldest in his family and needed the ID to secure a job as he was the sole bread-winner," said Mr Mamoepa.
Mr Mamoepa told the BBC that Mhlongo had been told to bring someone who could vouch for his nationality.
"We understand he visited the office with an elderly man who shared his surname and told the official that served him that the man was his father."
The official didn't believe the young man's story, tore up Mhlongo's papers and called him a "kwere-kwere" - a derogatory term used for foreign nationals.
The opposition Democratic Alliance welcomed the minister's strong action but said it was not isolated case.
"There are thousands of other citizens who on a daily basis face the same disgraceful treatment from public servants across all departments," DA Home Affairs spokesperson Juanita Terblanche told The Mercury newspaper.
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BBC NEWS REPORT.
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Many African students in Moscow are afraid to go outside
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Nearly 60% of black and African people living in Russia's capital Moscow have been physically assaulted in racially motivated attacks, says a new study.
Africans working or studying in the city live in constant fear of attack, according to the report by the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy.
A quarter of 200 people surveyed said they had been assaulted more than once. Some 80% had been verbally abused.
But the number of assaults was down from the MPC's last survey in 2002.
The report's clear conclusion was that Africans living in Russia exist in a state of virtual siege, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield Hayes in Moscow.
Many of the African respondents said they:
- Avoided using the Moscow metro
- Were also careful to avoid crowded public places
- Did not go out on Russian national holidays or on days when there were football matches
Many of the attacks on Africans were pre-meditated and extremely violent, the report found.
One Nigerian migrant interviewed by the BBC had been repeatedly stabbed in the back and then shot.
Another man said his attacker had attempted to remove his scalp.
Officially there are some 10,000 Africans living in Moscow, but far more are believed to live there illegally - many as economic migrants.
The Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy is an English-speaking interdenominational Christian congregation that has ministered to Moscow's foreign community since 1962.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
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Burning House !
Saturday 29th August 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
"The house is burning down" is how someone described the situation in Zimbabwe this week.
They weren't referring to the swirling rumours that 85 year old Mr Mugabe was apparently very ill and in Dubai for medical treatment.
They weren't talking about the continuing jostling for positions in the higher levels of Zanu PF since the recent death of Vice President Joseph Msika. The burning house didn't refer to the shocking reports in the State run press that AIDS levies deducted from salaries nationwide were being abused. Or that of the 1.7 million US dollars collected in AIDS levies this year, only 20 thousand had been spent on anti-retroviral.
The burning house reference wasn't connected to the visit by South African President and SADC chairman Jacob Zuma to Zimbabwe. It had nothing to do with the behind closed doors talks Mr Zuma had with Mr Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara about unresolved issues in the unity government's political agreement which have been outstanding for over 6 months.
The house is burning down is a literal description of Zimbabwe in the last week of August 2009. Fires are burning everywhere. In residential areas smoke rises as household garbage is burnt by residents desperate to try and keep down rats, snakes, mosquitoes and disease. Its a very sore point that six months after new town councils took office they still aren't even collecting garbage. They say they have no fuel but their officials, whose salaries we pay, are busy travelling to "workshops and seminars" in other parts of the country. In residential areas smoke rises during the increasing number of power cuts and from the houses of people who cannot afford the electricity charges. Smoke is also rising from roadsides, along railway lines, under electricity pylons and even on the corner of intersections as everyone prepares little patches of ground where they can grow a few mealies. On the outskirts of residential areas smoke can be seen at any time in any direction as fires burn unchecked. At night, any night, an orange glow lights the sky as the flames gobble up unproductive, unprotected farms, plots and wetlands.
Every evening as dusk falls the sun is crimson as it drops into the horizon through the haze of dust, ash and smoke. Every dawn, if you are lucky and can find a view without smoke, the Msasa trees are glorious, their leaves red as they announce a new season. Zimbabwe waits, holding its breath to see if something sensible is going to happen on farming land in the next month as we get into planting time.
Until next week, from the burning house, thanks for reading, love cathy
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South Africa's President Jacob Zuma has urged Zimbabwe's political rivals to work together if they are to see foreign aid restored.
He said the power-sharing government must fully implement its agreement to "create confidence".
He was speaking after holding talks with President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in Harare.
Mr Tsvangirai's MDC party accuses Mr Mugabe of acting in bad faith and donors remain dubious.
The former opposition Movement for Democratic Change says its activists continue to be harassed even after it joined the government in February.
It also complains that it has not been consulted about key appointments, including the central bank governor and the attorney-general.
"The inclusive government has the responsibility to fully implement the global political agreement and thus create confidence in the
process," Mr Zuma said at a speech at the Harare Agricultural Show.
"The important factor is that there is commitment amongst all parties which will make movement forward possible."
Mr Mugabe's long-time rival embarked on a tour of western capitals in June seeking a resumption of aid.
But most donors are reluctant to resume funding to Zimbabwe in case the money helps Mr Mugabe, who they accuse of human rights abuses and destroying the once promising economy.
The MDC wanted Mr Zuma to put pressure on Mr Mugabe to rein in his hardline supporters, especially in the security forces, who it says are trying to derail the unity accord.
Mr Zuma is the current chair of the Southern African Development Community, the body which helped to broker the power-sharing deal.
At a state banquet hosted by President Mugabe on Thursday night, Mr Zuma said the problems were not "insurmountable".
On Thursday, the pair attended a state banquet
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"The most difficult path has already been travelled."
Mr Mugabe said "teething problems" were inevitable but had "not detracted us from our agreed common vision to establish peace, turn around the economy and work to deliver the services expected of us by the generality of our people".
Zimbabwean journalist Brian Hungwe says Mr Mugabe, 85, appeared healthy.
Zimbabwe officials have denied recent press reports that Mr Mugabe was ill, labelling them the product of "sick and evil minds".
A spokesman for Mr Zuma's African National Congress party said he had planned to be more outspoken about Zimbabwe's problems - a contrast to the "quiet diplomacy" of his predecessor Thabo Mbeki.
"President Zuma will be more vocal in terms of what we see as deviant behaviour," Gwede Mantashe told reporters.
BBC NEWS REPORT. |
Posted by: Mara at August 30, 2009 18:35 |
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africa
A notorious killer who has repeatedly escaped from jail in Mozambique has been recaptured in South Africa after his latest attempt to flee.
Mozambican authorities confirmed the recapture of Anibal dos Santos, known as Anibalzinho, who murdered prominent journalist Carlos Cardoso in 2000.
It is thought to be the third time Dos Santos has managed to escape.
After a previous attempt to flee in 2005 police said he would be incarcerated in an escape-proof cell.
But Mozambique news agency AIM reported that he apparently escaped in broad daylight last December through a hole knocked in a first-floor corridor wall.
Dos Santos, who holds Portuguese citizenship, has been picked up in Canada and South Africa after fleeing custody on previous occasions.
Dos Santos was convicted of leading a death squad which carried out the Cardoso murder and sentenced to 30 years in jail.
Mr Cardoso was killed while he was investigating allegations of corruption.
The case caused a huge public outcry and the eldest son of former President Joaquim Chissano, Nympine Chissano, was eventually implicated.
He denied any involvement but died while under investigation for the killing.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
The South African authorities are investigating how hundreds of soldiers were able to march on government buildings in a dispute over pay.
More than 1,000 soldiers left their Pretoria barracks on Wednesday and approached the Union Buildings, which houses the president's office.
Police used rubber bullets and teargas to disperse the troops, who are campaigning for a 30% pay rise.
The defence minister said the country's national security had been put at risk.
"The bases from which these soldiers are being mobilised would be without adequate protection, thus exposing them to potential raids by criminals," said Lindiwe Sisulu.
She said all of the soldiers involved would be suspended without pay, and warned that she would not tolerate "thuggish behaviour by our armed forces".
The soldiers' protest is the latest in a series of rallies, strikes and disputes over pay and service over the past few months.
Several unions have walked out, demanding inflation-busting wage rises - and have largely had their demands met.
But the government said the military was subject to different rules to the rest of society.
A high court ruling had declared the protest illegal, and officials warned of "drastic" measures against any soldier found to have damaged property or carried out vandalism.
South African National Defence Union (Sandu) spokesperson Pikkie Greeff said soldiers had the right to protest because they were South Africa's worst paid civil servants.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
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Last year many classrooms were left entirely without teachers
One of Zimbabwe's many unqualified teachers tells the BBC of her fears about returning to work after the current holidays, saying she faces intimidation from officials, crammed classrooms, chronic staff shortages and the possibility of going another month without pay.
She says little has changed despite the power-sharing government formed in February between President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the former opposition MDC.
I was praying that I could come home to Chinhoyi for the holidays and forget the intimidation we have been through.
I work at a village school in Mashonaland West province.
Though I have not been paid since February, I have never uttered a word because a local Zanu-PF official is the prime suspect in the violence which gripped the area last year.
He visits all the schools occasionally and at times he is accompanied by youths and war veterans who were part of his terror gang.
They move around with Zanu-PF party regalia, forcing us all to remain with them like captives. It's mental torture to anyone from the area. Rural folks need counselling for what they went through last year.
The official last visited the school in May.
We all froze as he spoke, as this was the man who had tormented village folks in the disputed elections.
One MDC supporter was brutally murdered by the gang he led, but the suspects have impunity because they are supporters of Zanu-PF.
The official tried to discuss the challenges the country is going through and blamed Western countries - among them Britain. As he talked, no-one wanted to give their own ideas fearing that we may cross his line of thought.
Some male teachers joined the discussion just to please him, and for the whole day we could not excuse ourselves, even for lunch.
Teachers remain suspects in the eyes of these war veterans and youths. They still believe teachers support the MDC.
This has been my second year as temporary teacher in the village.
It was easy for me to be employed as a teacher because the area where I work has large numbers of untrained teachers.
In fact at our school the acting headmaster has only recently graduated from college. We assist him with administrative issues.
My class has 54 pupils instead of the required 38 or 40 because of a high turnout of pupils this year - hunger and politics disturbed them last year.
The shortage of teachers has been a burden to us as we have more children in a class and there is less attention to a child's challenges.
I can safely say we are not able to give the children our best.
Temporary teachers have been left unpaid because of bungling by district education officials.
Our forms were submitted to the Salary Service Bureau in Harare but were returned in February because of missing information. The officials haven't resubmitted them yet.
This kind of bungling has affected nearly 10,000 teachers - qualified and unqualified - throughout the country.
I have survived without a salary since February because my family send me groceries every month.
Generally groceries worth US$40 can last me the whole month.
All I need is salt, cooking oil, sugar and lotion and it's easy to get mealie-meal [maize flour] from local people. They hold teachers in high esteem and can assist wherever possible since some had better harvests last season.
Right now schools are closed and I have travelled back to Chinhoyi hoping that I may regain the strength and go back to my school.
I hope that sanity may prevail if the inclusive government pushes for a new constitution where there will be rule of law and those who committed crimes will be arrested.
If that happens, normalcy could come back even in the villages.
I may go back because I want to be working and I have the passion to teach children in remote parts of the country.
I hope I will leave my own mark for a future generation.
BBC NEWS REPORT. |
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Twelve schoolgirls who died in a fire at a school in Tanzania will be buried in a mass grave because their bodies cannot be identified, officials say.
The education department said the girls would be buried on Tuesday on the school grounds in Idodi, 460km (285 miles) west of Dar es Salaam.
President Jakaya Kikwete is expected to attend the burial.
The fire was apparently started by a candle left burning in a dormitory on Saturday night.
The candle is thought to have set light to a mosquito net and the flames spread through the dormitory.
"It burnt one dormitory completely and 12 students were killed. Another 20 have been injured," local police commander Evarist Mangala told Reuters news agency.
"It looks like it was from a candle lit by a student who was trying to study at night."
Officials said the school - named as the Idodi Secondary School - has no electricity overnight and pupils often use candles to help them study.
Scores of schoolchildren have died in similar incidents in neighbouring Kenya and Uganda in recent years.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
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Posted by: Mara at August 24, 2009 13:40 |
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africa
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By Louise Greenwood
BBC Africa Business Report
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Across Africa, free trade zones are being set up between countries and even at individual locations.
They claim to offer a cheaper and easier way to buy and sell goods, boosting economies. But what are "free trade" or "tariff-free" zones and how do they work?
What is a free trade zone?
Free trade zones, describe an arrangement where different trading entities, usually member countries, agree to cut or scrap taxes in order to lower business costs and remove bureaucracy. They are also known as "special economic zones" and are mostly found in developing economies. The aim is to give a massive artificial boost to trade, especially between raw material producers and manufacturing based economies. These zones are also attractive to foreign investors as it's cheaper for them to do business there.
Why have they become so popular in Africa?
Economists argue that free trade zones are particularly suited to African countries which were created under colonial occupation when land was divided up, often with little regard for the economic sustainability of the newly created plot.
Plus, post-independence conflict in Africa has left much of the continent with a legacy of poor governance and a lack of political integration which free trade zones aim to address.
For example, landlocked Uganda was almost ruined by the Ugandan-Tanzanian War (1978-79). Today it remains dependent for the supply of finished goods on its wealthier neighbour Kenya, with its international seaports.
African states are looking for freer markets
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The two countries entered into the East Africa Community Customs Union, EAC, in March 2004, along with Tanzania.
However, these trading blocs are not always tariff-free. Kenya continued to pay export duties to Tanzania and Uganda for five years after the EAC union began, to compensate for the fact that it was a more prosperous, diversified economy.
Other large free trade zones in Africa include SADC, the Southern African Development Community (South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe) and Comesa (Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda and Sudan), illustrating the point that these "zones" often overlap.
Free trade zones can also cover individual areas within a country. The Lekki free trade zone in Nigeria's former capital, Lagos, aims to create a new commercial hub by removing tariffs for international investors. Eritrea plans a similar arrangement at its port at Massawa on the Red Sea coast.
Last October, plans were agreed to create a "super" free trade zone encompassing 26 African countries, stretching from Libya in the north to South Africa. The GDP of this group of nations is put at $624bn (£382.9bn).
What do free trade zones claim to offer?
The hope is that free trade zones will boost both trade and Africa's economic independence.
The Lagos State governor wants to boost Nigeria's economic clout
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Babatunde Raji Fashola, governor of Lagos state, told Africa Business Report: "At airports, Nigerians are the people you see with excess luggage and it comprises mainly of household goods, clothing.
"Every time we import goods, we invariably, without knowing it, export jobs because we keep those industries offshore."
World trade experts also believe in the future, more of the world's big multi national deals will be "South-to-South", ie between Southern Hemisphere nations.
A recent example is a plan by India's mobile phone giant, Bharti Airtel, to take a controlling stake in South Africa's MTN. Free trade zones can greatly boost the attraction of such deals.
Is there any evidence they work?
Some critics claim that free trade zones give an unfair advantage to multinational corporations, who are able to manufacture in a low-cost base and export around the world, rather than indigenous firms.
These companies are often given other incentives to locate in developing economies, such as grants to help with set-up costs and lax employment legislation, which trade unions and some charities claim are open to abuse.
Free trade zones can also take a long time to set up while member countries agree terms. The East African EAC bloc took six years to come into being, even though it was replacing a previous similar arrangement which collapsed in the 1980s.
The fear is that the dominant economy will set the agenda for the bloc as a whole - a criticism levelled at the SADC, which contains South Africa, the continent's only G20 member country.
But supporters say free trade zones are ultimately one of the fairest ways for developing world economies so that they can begin to compete on a global scale. They could even be extended to encompass other financial unions, such as pan-regional banks and a common currency.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
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Posted by: Mara at August 24, 2009 09:45 |
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africa
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Many Kenyans displaced in the fighting are still in refugee camps
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Kenya is preparing to hold its first national census for 10 years, amid controversy over a question which asks which ethnic group people belong to.
Many Kenyans believe the question is insensitive, coming 18 months after more than 1,000 people were killed in ethnic violence after an election.
Ministers say the question is needed to help the authorities plan better.
Critics say the census will be misused by politicians and could damage efforts to heal rifts between communities.
The BBC's Will Ross, in Nairobi, says ethnic divisions are deeply rooted in Kenyan society and many people are proud of their tribe.
But he says some people say they intend to answer "I am a Kenyan", when asked which group they belong to.
Collins Opiyo, from the National Bureau of Statistics, said it would have been "an exhibition of professional recklessness" to leave out questions about tribes.
"If we do not have the official position and people come up with figures and numbers we cannot be able to dispute them," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
The census is intended to shed light on a range of issues including education, fertility and mortality levels as well as migration patterns.
Security has been beefed up for the census, which is due to begin at 1500 local time (1800 GMT) and will last all week.
Tuesday has been declared a public holiday as officials encourage people to answer the questions.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
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Posted by: Mara at August 24, 2009 09:40 |
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africa
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Mali protest against women's law
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Women were among the crowd at the rally at Bamako's main stadium
Tens of thousands of people in Mali's capital, Bamako, have been protesting against a new law which gives women equal rights in marriage.
The law, passed earlier this month, also strengthens inheritance rights for women and children born out of wedlock.
The head of a Muslim women's association says only a minority of Malian women - "the intellectuals" as she put it - supports the law.
Several other protests have taken place in other parts of the country.
The law was adopted by the Malian parliament at the beginning of August, and has yet to be signed into force by the president.
One of the most contentious issues in the new legislation is that women are no longer required to obey their husbands.
Hadja Sapiato Dembele of the National Union of Muslim Women's Associations said the law goes against Islamic principles.
"We have to stick to the Koran," Ms Dembele told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme. "A man must protect his wife, a wife must obey her husband."
"It's a tiny minority of women here that wants this new law - the intellectuals. The poor and illiterate women of this country - the real Muslims - are against it," she added.
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BBC NEWS REPORT.
OF SWINE FLU AND FLYING PIGS !
20th August, 2009.
Dear Family and Friends,
Swine Flu has officially arrived in Zimbabwe. A ZBC TV news bulletin
this week reported that there were a number of confirmed cases of
swine flu in Mutare. The report said that people should not panic
because hospitals were prepared, staff had been trained and
information would soon be disseminated to private practitioners.
Special attention is apparently going to be given to critical areas
like the country's border posts.
This latter cannot come soon enough and I am sure that every poor
soul who has had to endure the horrors of Beitbridge border post will
agree with me. In the last few days I have met two Zimbabweans who
have been through the Beitbridge border post this month. They say it
is hell, a nightmare, a national disgrace, a shame on our country, a
deep embarrassment to Zimbabwe. And this is being polite!
When you arrive at Beitbridge from South Africa you are overwhelmed
by touts. Aggressive young men in their twenties who swarm around you
and solicit bribes in order for you to proceed through the
formalities. The touts control the speed and progress of everything:
the queues, the forms, the stamps and signatures, the customs
inspections and the final scrap of paper, the gate pass, that allows
you get through the boom and into Zimbabwe. Both of the travellers I
spoke to said they simply found it impossible to proceed without
giving in to the demands for bribes. Every time they got near the
counters in the border post the touts and their customers would push
in ahead of them with great piles of papers and none of the officials
on duty were interested in intervening, not immigration, security,
customs or tax collectors. Touts appeared to be making an average of
500 Rand, or 50 US dollars per customer - half the month's pay of a
trained teacher in Zimbabwe.
The toilets at the border are apparently a swamp, there is no toilet
paper, no towels and no way at all to keep yourself clean. Everyone
waits till they are through the border and then pull up on the
roadside and relieve themselves in the bush. If we are to believe
ZBC, it is into this madness of Beitbridge border post that there is
going to be swine flu detection and control. Pardon the pun, but pigs
might fly!
Zimbabwe's unity government has been in place for six months but it
is still the thieves, con-men, blackmailers and bullies that are
manning the entry points into our country. Until they are gone and
until Zimbabwe can clean up the shop window to the country we haven't
got a hope of controlling swine flu, of tempting tourists into the
country or of getting any of the overflow of visitors from the 2010
World Cup football games in South Africa. Its about time that some of
our senior leaders went incognito to Zimbabwe's borders and saw the
thieves and bullies holding tourists, visitors and returning
residents to ransom.
Until next week, thanks for reading, love cathy
Caster Semenya's birth certificate clearly states she is female
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The BBC has seen the birth certificate of South African athlete Caster Semenya, which states that the new 800m world champion is female.
Ms Semanya, 18, has been told to take a gender test after several remarkable improvements in recent performances.
The case has provoked an angry reaction in South Africa, where many have said she has been unfairly treated.
A South African official said Ms Semenya almost snubbed her gold medal ceremony because of the test.
Visited by the BBC, Ms Semenya's mother told the BBC that the 18-year-old athlete is certainly female.
"I have no doubt about what I see. It's a girl," Dorcus Semenya said.
South Africa's ruling African National Congress, along with numerous officials and other bodies, has said the athlete has been unfairly treated.
The president of Athletics South Africa, Leonard Chuene, told a local newspaper that he had to "persuade" the athlete to go to the podium to accept her award.
"She is not rejoicing. She [didn't] want the medal," Mr Chuene told South Africa's Times newspaper.
"She told me: 'No-one ever said I was not a girl but here [at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin] I am not. I am not a boy.'
"Why did you bring me here? You should have left me in my village at home," Ms Semenya reportedly asked Mr Chuene.
On Thursday Mr Chuene expressed outrage at the order that Ms Semenya undergo a gender verification test.
He said she had been "humiliated" and treated like a "leper".
The International Association of Athletics Federation ordered Ms Semenya to take the test after she improved her personal best by more than eight seconds over the past year.
The IAAF stresses that it does not suspect her of deliberately cheating but questions whether she may have a rare medical condition which gives her an unfair advantage.
IAAF officials have said Ms Semenya would not necessarily have her medal withdrawn if she "failed" the tests.
In South Africa the ANC has urged people to rally round "our golden girl", while the Young Communist League of South Africa said she had been the victim of racism.
Groups supporting her have been formed on social networking site Facebook.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
The Jem rebel groups have not signed up to the deal
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At least four of the numerous rebel groups in Darfur have agreed to work together, says the US envoy to Sudan.
Scott Gration said the deal reached in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa provided a "very strong foundation for rebel unification".
He had earlier said that the existence of 26 different rebel groups was a major obstacle to bringing peace to the region after six years of conflict.
The UN believes that some 300,000 people have been killed.
The groups which have agreed to the "roadmap" are mostly splinter-groups from the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA).
Although factions originally from the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) have not signed up, Mr Gration described the deal as "tremendous progress".
Earlier, Sudanese Strategic Planning Minister Tajussir Mahjoub welcomed Mr Gration's efforts to unify the rebels.
He told the BBC that negotiating peace with more than 20 groups was very difficult.
More than two million people have been forced from their homes in Darfur.
Earlier this week, Mr Gration said he had brokered an agreement to ease tensions between the main political parties in north and south Sudan.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
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Megrahi with Libya's leader Colonel Gaddafi
Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi has defied strong criticism from the UK and the US by meeting Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi on Libyan TV.
The pair were shown embracing and talking, while Col Gaddafi also spoke to Megrahi's family.
The Scottish Government freed the terminally-ill 57-year-old on compassionate grounds on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the UK Foreign Office has denied claims Megrahi was released to ensure trade deals with Libya.
Col Gaddafi's son, Seif al-Islam, told Libyan TV Megrahi's case was raised during talks over oil and gas.
But the Foreign Office said no deal had been made.
Meanwhile, Megrahi told the Times newspaper he intended to present new evidence proving his innocence.
The man convicted of killing 270 people aboard a transatlantic airliner in 1988 said he would present the evidence through lawyers in Scotland and ask the British and Scottish communities to "be the jury".
He said he was "very, very happy" to be free.
"This was my hope and wish - to be back with my family before I pass away. I always believed I would come back if justice prevailed."
Colonel Gaddafi's son had labelled Megrahi's release a "victory".
In an interview with a Libyan station, Mr Islam reportedly claimed that the Megrahi issue had been raised repeatedly by Britain's former prime minister Tony Blair.
"In all commercial contracts, for oil and gas with Britain, (Megrahi) was always on the negotiating table," Mr Islam said told Libya's Al Mutawassit channel.
Mr Blair visited Libya in May 2007, during which UK energy giant BP signed a $900m (£540m) exploration deal.
However, the Foreign Office insisted Megrahi's release had been a matter solely for the Scottish authorities.
A spokesman said: "No deal has been made between the UK government and the Libyan government in relation to Megrahi and any commercial interests in the country."
UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband earlier rejected suggestions the UK pushed for Megrahi's release to improve relations as "a slur on both myself and the government".
Separately, the Foreign Office was unable to confirm whether a planned trip to Libya by the Duke of York in September would be cancelled.
A spokeswoman said an official invitation to the British government from Libya had not yet been received.
However, it is believed any visit by a member of the Royal Family is unlikely to go ahead in light of the furore surrounding Megrahi's return.
The bomber's release - and the hero's welcome he was given on return to Libya - provoked anger from many relatives of those who died aboard Pan-Am flight 103, particularly in the US.
President Barack Obama condemned the jubilant scenes at Tripoli airport as "highly objectionable".
The UK foreign secretary described TV footage of people greeting Megrahi by cheering and waving flags as "deeply distressing".
Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond also said the reception was "inappropriate".
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has so far made no comment, although it has emerged he wrote to Col Gaddafi to ask that Libya "act with sensitivity" in its welcome.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
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Gloria Mika, the face of L'Oreal, left Gabon at 16
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Gabonese supermodel Gloria Mika has told the BBC she fears possible violence if elections in the West African nation are not free and fair.
The 29-year-old model has stepped off the catwalk in Paris to head a campaign for a transparent vote on 30 August.
The polls follow the death of Omar Bongo, Africa's longest-serving leader.
Ms Mika says her aim is not necessarily to stop his son Ali Ben Bongo winning the presidency, but to remind the Gabonese that their vote counts.
"Forty-two years with the same president could make the citizens feel like: 'What can we do anyway?'" she sa
Ms Mika, who is the face of L'Oreal cosmetics, left Gabon at the age of 16.
Ali Ben Bongo is favourite to win the elections
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Talking to the BBC's World Today programme and BBC French service, she said she has been surprised that her campaign has gathered such momentum.
It started earlier this month with a group on the social networking site Facebook and she now has a website, The Guardian Angels of Gabon.
Her aim is to recruit volunteers to act as observers at polling stations on 30 August.
"The feedback has been beyond my expectations," she said.
But it has also brought unexpected stresses, as different parties try to influence her.
She said with 23 presidential candidates and only one round, the prospects of a free vote are slim.
"It means the winner could be elected with 20% of the vote," she said.
She commended Bruno Ben Moubamba, an independent candidate who has gone on hunger strike demanding a postponement, for his conviction.
But Ms Mika will not be making the trip home next weekend, voting instead with other expatriates in Paris.
Omar Bongo amassed a vast fortune during his years in office - but most of the 1.4 million people in Gabon live in poverty.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
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Posted by: Mara at August 22, 2009 06:59 |
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africa
Civilians are often caught in the crossfire in Mogadishu
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More than 20 people have been killed in heavy battles in Somalia's capital after Islamist fighters launched a pre-dawn raid in the south of Mogadishu.
A BBC reporter says the al-Shabab group was acting in retaliation to an incursion into the area by African Union peacekeepers on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Australian government has decided to list al-Shabab as a terrorist organisation.
It follows the discovery of a suicide attack plot linked to the group.
Earlier this month five men - at least three of whom are of Somali origin - were arrested and charged with planning a suicide attack on an army barracks in Sydney.
Al-Shabab - which is accused of links to al-Qaeda - has denied any connection with the men charged in Australia.
The group is trying to overthrow Somalia's UN-backed government and was listed as a terrorist organisation in the United States in February last year.
The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says the latest fighting started early in the morning and mortars were exchanged by both sides.
He says AU tanks also fired shells.
"Hundreds of well-armed insurgents came to our district with minibuses and pick-up trucks and immediately they started firing towards the government troops and an AU base," local resident Abdi Haji Ahmed told the BBC.
"We ducked fearfully under our house's concrete balcony for hours."
The fighting affected several southern suburbs, causing civilian causalities - an ambulance co-ordinator said at least 18 people had died and 40 others had been taken to hospital.
People were also affected as they tried to get to work at the city's main Bakara market
"Mortars landed into the market, killing six people, including traders, who were rushing to open their business centres early this morning," a businessman said.
On Thursday AU troops patrolled along an industrial road in the south of the city where al-Shabab has several bases, our correspondent says.
The AU peacekeepers described the move as a routine military exercise, but the Islamist radicals regarded the patrol as provocative.
Our reporter says the attack comes the day before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when the insurgents have vowed to redouble their attacks.
This week has seen pro-government troops go on the offensive outside the capital.
Clashes have been reported on Friday morning in two separate areas of the central Hiran region, but details are sketchy.
Residents in the area say the fighting is close to the strategic town of Beledweyne, which witnessed clashes on Thursday, and the village of Mahas.
Beledweyne is reported to still be in the hands of the government.
Calm has returned to the central town of Buloburte, where government soldiers and al-Shabab fighters fought fiercely on Thursday.
Government forces have withdrawn from the town and al-Shabab is again in control.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
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By Mark Gregory
International business reporter, BBC World Service
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Nigeria's banks are in crisis, but this time it has little to do with aftershocks from the global financial meltdown.
Nigeria's high-level defaulters have undermined the financial system
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The problems facing the financial system in Africa's most populous country are mostly home grown.
Last week, Nigeria announced a $2.6bn bail-out of five of the country's most prominent banks.
And now in the latest move, the central bank has threatened legal action against more than 200 named individuals and organisations who, it says, have defaulted on bank loans.
By failing to repay billions of dollars of borrowings, those named have apparently weakened the capital base of major banks, threatening the credibility of the entire banking system.
The list has been described as a roll call of Nigeria's great and good.
It includes well-known companies, prominent individuals and even some government agencies.
Two state governments are among the defaulters, along with Nigeria's Ministry of Economic Planning.
The list also includes two people marked out by Forbes magazine as Africa's richest men: Aliko Dangote, whose fortune comes from trading commodities such as salt and rice, and Femi Otedola, an oil trader.
Analysts have struggled to come up with a precedent for a public naming and shaming of loan defaulters by a monetary authority on this scale elsewhere in the world.
So what's behind it all?
Well, one reason clearly is there's a new man in charge at the central bank. Lamido Sanusi took up his post as governor on 1 June this year. He has a strong background in financial risk management.
Mr Sanusi has two priorities, according to Matthew Pearson, a banking expert at Renaissance Capital in Lagos: "He wants to understand the true liquidity and capital position of Nigeria's banks, and he wants to improve their transparency."
The new man is grappling with a crisis that has been some time in the making.
Governor Sanusi has pledged to clean up the financial system
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Nigerian bank shares fell very sharply last year, amid concern by investors about the quality of governance at major financial institutions.
Essentially, the issue appears to be that banks have been handing out loans to powerful and well-connected customers who may never have intended to repay the money.
"Nigeria may be the only country where customers think they aren't obliged to repay loans," says Dr Obadia Mailafiya, a former deputy governor of the Nigerian central bank.
Ironically, it is less than five years since the last major clean-out of the financial system. In 2005, then President Olusegun Obasanjo instigated tough new rules that reduced the number of banks from 89 to 24.
The idea was that the system would have greater credibility if there were a small number of bigger, better-capitalised banks.
The reforms appeared to work. In the last few years, Nigeria has had a financial boom, with a massive expansion of bank loan books, accompanied by innovations such as experiments in providing services to customers through their mobile phones.
For the first time, significant numbers of urban Nigerians began to aspire to modern banking services taken for granted in developed countries, including quick access to their money via cash machines.
But this explosion of the financial sector has been built on shaky foundations.
The difficulties of Nigeria's banks are partly linked to the global financial crisis, which has led to greater scrutiny of what financiers get up to behind the scenes almost everywhere.
But the basic issue is local in origin. Nigerian commercial banks have failed to impose elementary risk controls. The basic job of a banker is make sure loans go only to people who intend to repay.
Analysts make the point that some of the organisations and people alleged to have defaulted on loans are obviously wealthy and should be well able to service their debts.
Nigeria's banks now offer a sophisticated range of services
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Nigerian anti-corruption police are seeking 19 banking officials for questioning. It is not known exactly what they are being investigated for, but inevitably there are suspicions of corrupt collusion by bank staff involved in handing out questionable loans.
However, in a sign there may be another side to the story, one company named as a defaulter told the BBC, off the record, that it had been unfairly treated.
It claimed to have honoured every aspect of its loan conditions, yet had ended up wrongly on the list, simply because of the way the central bank defined the term default.
So what happens next?
On 14 September, the central bank is due to publish an audit of another 14 banks. However, the expectation is this will not lead to significant further revelations.
The optimists believe most of the bad news is now known and that Nigeria, a country with a famously poor reputation for financial management, has the chance to wipe the slate clean and set up a much better-run banking system.
But there are also plenty of pessimists who are less convinced about the prospects for real change.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Caster Semenya left her opponents trailing in the race
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New 800m world champion Caster Semenya almost snubbed her gold medal ceremony after being told to take a gender test, a South African sports official says.
Athletics South Africa President Leonard Chuene told a local paper that he had to "persuade" the athlete to go to the podium to accept her award.
Mr Chuene says the 18 year old was unhappy about the gender row and asked him why she had been taken to Berlin.
Ms Semenya's birth certificate, stating she is female, has also been published.
"She said she did not want to go on the podium, but I told her she must," Mr Chuene told South Africa's Times newspaper.
"She is not rejoicing. She [didn't] want the medal," he said.
"She told me: 'No-one ever said I was not a girl but here [at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin] I am not. I am not a boy,"
"Why did you bring me here? You should have left me in my village at home," Ms Semenya reportedly asked Mr Chuene.
Her mother Dorcus Semenya has told the BBC that the athlete is certainly female.
"I have no doubt about what I see. It's a girl," she said.
The Sowetan newspaper published her birth certificate, which confirms her gender as female.
Mr Chuene on Thursday expressed outrage at the order that Ms Semenya undergo a gender verification test.
He said she had been "humiliated" and treated like a "leper".
South Africa's ruling African National Congress, along with numerous officials and other bodies, have also backed Ms Semenya, saying she has been unfairly treated.
The International Association of Athletics Federation ordered Ms Semenya to take the test after she made remarkable improvements in her performances in recent months.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
