MASKED MILITIA RAID SOMALI TOWN !
More than 100 masked Islamic militiamen have taken control of a strategic town in the south-west of Somalia.
The BBC's Mohamed Olad Hassan in the capital says the fighters occupied Hudur town without any resistance. They told inhabitants they were al-Shabab militants, who are opposed to Ethiopian troops in the country.
Meanwhile, insurgents have attacked a camp in the capital, Mogadishu, housing government troops and those of their allies, the Ethiopians. There are no indications of casualties. On Thursday, there was an attack on the presidential palace in the central town of Baidoa, where parliament sits, as well as at the airport.
Al-Shabab, a radical wing of the Islamists who controlled much of Somalia in 2006 before being ousted by Ethiopian forcesa and Somali government troops. The group has refused to recognise a ceasefire signed in June between the government and one Islamist leader.
Our correspondent says al-Shabab has recently carried out brazen raids in towns and villages in south and central Somalia. "There was not a single gunshot," Dahir Ahmed, a businessman in Hudur told the BBC. Reports say the militia have set up a base at the town's central police station and taken over the local administration offices.
Government forces reportedly fled Hudur, which lies along the main road to Ethiopia, to Baidoa. The fighting comes as MPs gather in Baidoa to discuss the political differences between President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein in recent weeks.
Last weekend, more than half the Somali cabinet resigned, angered that Mr Hussein had sacked Mogadishu's mayor, Mohammed Dhere, a close ally of the president. Somalia has experienced almost constant civil conflict since the collapse of Mohamed Siad Barre's regime in January 1991.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
MBEKI SET FOR NEW ZIMBABWE TALKS !
South Africa's leader Thabo Mbeki is to travel to Zimbabwe for weekend talks with President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
South African newspapers are reporting that a power-sharing deal is close, with Mr Tsvangirai becoming PM. The news comes as an investigation into mass rapes allegedly committed by militia loyal to Mr Mugabe during the election campaign was launched.
Aids-Free World wants to collect the evidence to be used in future trials. It says that in the run-up to June's polls, women were subjected to a wide range of sexual violence as part of a campaign against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Mr Mugabe won the presidential run-off in June after Mr Tsvangirai pulled out, saying there was a campaign of violence against his supporters.
South Africa's department of foreign affairs confirmed that Mr Mbeki would be travelling to Zimbabwe on Saturday afternoon and returning on Sunday afternoon amid reports that a power-sharing deal was close.
He has been mediating between the country's ruling party and opposition. Last month, the two rivals agreed to hold crisis talks after meeting for the first time in a decade. The talks have been held at a secret location in South Africa and are subject to a media blackout.
South African newspapers are reporting that the power-sharing deal would see Mr Mugabe retaining the presidency and Mr Tsvangirai becoming prime minister with executive powers. There has been no official comment on these reports, apart from statements from all sides that the talks have been progressing well.
Stephen Lewis, co-director of Aids-Free World, said that the group already had 53 cases of women prepared to come forward and testify and the true number of those affected could be in the hundreds or thousands. He told the BBC's Network Africa programme there was a "horrific series" of abuses.
Aid-Free World intends to preserve the evidence to be used at a later date by those seeking justice, he said. "We have no doubt that the people at the top were involved in unleashing the militia - it is a command situation." Mr Lewis said he knew there were concerns that the investigation could affect the power-sharing talks. "There are always risks when you pursue people - we have not said that we are pursuing Mugabe, we are seeking justice for the women.
"I think that justice and peace are inextricable and that you don't have one without the other and that it is a piece of sophistry to pretend that they are somehow separate."
BBC NEWS REPORT.
NIGERIAN ADVISES AGAINST 86 WIVES !
By Andrew Walker - BBC News, Bida, Nigeria.
Mr Bello Abubakar says he does not go and find women, they come to him.Nigerian Mohammed Bello Abubakar, 84, has advised other men not to follow his example and marry 86 women. The former teacher and Muslim preacher, who lives in Niger State with his wives and at least 170 children, says he is able to cope only with the help of God. "A man with 10 wives would collapse and die, but my own power is given by Allah. That is why I have been able to control 86 of them," he told the BBC.
He says his wives have sought him out because of his reputation as a healer. "I don't go looking for them, they come to me. I will consider the fact that God has asked me to do it and I will just marry them."
But such claims have alienated the Islamic authorities in Nigeria, who have branded his family a cult. Most Muslim scholars agree that a man is allowed to have four wives, as long as he can treat them equally.
But Mr Bello Abubakar says there is no punishment stated in the Koran for having more than four wives. "To my understanding the Koran does not place a limit and it is up to what your own power, your own endowment and ability allows," he says. "God did not say what the punishment should be for a man who has more than four wives, but he was specific about the punishment for fornication and adultery."
As Mr Bello Abubakar emerged from his compound to speak to the BBC, his wives and children broke out into a praise song. Some of Mr Bello Abubakar's wives are younger than some of his children Most of his wives are less than a quarter of his age - and many are younger than some of his own children. The wives the BBC spoke to say they met Mr Bello Abubakar when they went to him to seek help for various illnesses, which they say he cured.
"As soon as I met him the headache was gone," says Sharifat Bello Abubakar, who was 25 at the time and Mr Bello Abubakar 74. "God told me it was time to be his wife. Praise be to God I am his wife now."
Ganiat Mohammed Bello has been married to the man everyone calls "Baba" for 20 years. When she was in secondary school her mother took her for a consultation with Mr Bello Abubakar and he proposed afterwards. "I said I couldn't marry an older man, but he said it was directly an order from God," she says. She married another man but they divorced and she returned to Mr Bello Abubakar. "I am now the happiest woman on earth. When you marry a man with 86 wives you know he knows how to look after them," she said.
Mr Bello Abubakar and his wives do not work and he has no visible means of supporting such a large family. Many of the wives live three to a room, some have seven children. He refuses to say how he makes enough money to pay for the huge cost of feeding and clothing so many people. Every mealtime they cook three 12kg bags of rice which costs $915 (£457) every day. "It's all from God," he says.
Other residents of Bida, the village where he lives in the northern Nigerian state, say they do not know how he supports the family. According to one of his wives, Mr Bello Abubakar sometimes asks his children to go and beg for 200 naira ($1.69, £0.87), which if they all did so would bring in about $290 (£149).
Most of his wives live in a squalid, unfinished house in Bida; others live in his house in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital. He refuses to allow any of his family or other devotees to take medicine and says he does not believe that malaria exists. "As you sit here if you have any illness I can see it and just remove it," he says. But not everyone can be cured and one of his wives, Hafsat Bello Mohammed, says two of her children have died. "They were sick and we told God and God said their time has come." She says that most of the wives see Mr Bello Abubakar as next in line from the Prophet Muhammad.
Indeed, he claims the Prophet Muhammad speaks to him personally and gives detailed descriptions of his experiences. It is a serious claim for a Muslim to make. "This is heresy, he is a heretic," says Ustaz Abubakar Siddique, an imam of Abuja's Central Mosque.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
DARFUR CAMEL AMBUSH 'KILLS SIX'
The Janjaweed are accused of trying to "cleanse" black Africans in Darfur.
Six people have been killed and 28 wounded after men on camels attacked a civilian convoy in the Sudanese region of Darfur, the UN has said.
The convoy was travelling between Nyala and Fasher in northern Darfur, according to Unamid, a joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission.
It said the attackers were suspected members of the Janjaweed militia.
The UN estimates that the Darfur conflict has left 300,000 dead and more than two million homeless.
The violence there began in 2003 when rebel groups complaining of discrimination against black Africans began attacking government targets.
The government mobilised what it called "self-defence militias" in response, but denies any links to the Janjaweed, accused of trying to "cleanse" black Africans from Darfur.
The Janjaweed are accused of terrorising local populations in Darfur, attacking villages on horses or camels.
Unamid said it had evacuated some of the wounded by helicopter, taking them to a hospital in Fasher.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
ZIMBABWE TALKS 'MAKING PROGRESS' !
Zimbabwe's power-sharing talks are making significant progress, says South Africa, which has been mediating the crisis negotiations.
South African President Thabo Mbeki has been mediating between the country's ruling and opposition parties after Robert Mugabe was re-elected in June.
Senior members of Zimbabwe's security forces have travelled to South Africa to meet the mediators, reports say.
On Wednesday, the two parties issued a call for an end to post-poll violence. A deadline to complete the talks passed on Monday without any news of a deal. "The government as the mediator will not be giving any details about details of the talks except to say that they are progressing extremely well," South African government spokesman Themba Maseko said at a news conference.
But sources close to Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), were sceptical, saying many obstacles remained, they told the BBC. Members of Zimbabwe's Joint Operations Command, a body that includes Mr Mugabe's top security chiefs, met with two South African government officials mediating the talks, South Africa's Star newspaper reported.
The meetings occurred this week, the paper said, citing unnamed sources, but did not say which members of the command travelled to South Africa.
On Wednesday, the Star said a draft agreement was being circulated under which opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai would run Zimbabwe as prime minister and Mr Mugabe would serve as a ceremonial president. The South African talks have been held at a secret location and are subject to a media blackout.
Mr Mugabe won a run-off presidential election in June after Mr Tsvangirai pulled out because of a campaign of violence against his supporters. Last month, the two rivals agreed to hold crisis talks after meeting for the first time in a decade.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
KENYA'S TERROR SCARS YET TO HEAL !
By Anne Mawathe - BBC News, Nairobi.
At 1037 on 7 August 1998, a powerful explosion rocked the US embassy in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Three minutes later a second bomb ripped through the US embassy in Tanzania's capital, Dar es Salaam. The co-ordinated attacks killed more than 200 people and maimed at least 4,000.
That was the day the face of East Africa changed forever, scarred by the ugly acts of terror so mercilessly unleashed on innocent civilians. In Nairobi, two buildings adjacent to the US embassy - Ufundi House and the Cooperative Bank - were reduced to rubble.
As rescue efforts got under way, Catherine Bwire was trapped in the rubble at the Cooperative Bank building, where she worked as an accounts clerk. "My eyes were destroyed on the spot by the glass, so I lost my sight. I also had deep cuts all over my body and I lost a lot of blood," Ms Bwire says.
She spent three months in hospital. Later, she enrolled at the Machakos School for the blind, where she undertook life skills training. Her baby Zawadi - Swahili for Gift - was born months after the bomb attack that left her mother blind. Catherine Bwire now works as a phone operator. Ms Bwire's resilience has helped her to move on and today she works as a telephone operator at a government-run institution.
Other survivors have also struggled to move on with their lives, but the past is still a painful reminder of what they lost. For some, there is lingering bitterness over what they feel was a lack of support from the US and Kenyan governments in rebuilding their lives.
Calls for compensation from the US may have faded, but many of the survivors still feel they were abandoned during their hour of need. "Nobody ever came to me and said sorry. Not the Americans, not al-Qaeda," says one survivor, David Ohingo.
For the country's security forces, the 1998 bombing was a wake up call. "This was a very new phenomenon in terms of terrorism... it really took the security forces by surprise," says Francis Sang, who was the assistant police commissioner at the time of the blast. "It really made the security forces reassess themselves and see what could be done."
However, critics point out that Kenya still lacks anti-terrorism legislation - a proposed law was shot down by parliament in 2003 over claims that it would violate constitutional and human rights. Opponents also saw the hand of the US on the bill and argued that, if enacted into law, it would infringe on Kenya's sovereignty.
The Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (APTU) was set up in 2003 to bolster anti-terrorism efforts. But the special police unit has come under criticism from various quarters, most recently in the week before the anniversary of the bombing.
A key suspect in the 1998 attacks, al-Qaeda operative Faizul Abdullah, narrowly escaped a police dragnet, and there is evidence that Mr Abdullah has repeatedly been in and out of Kenya. Police found two Kenyan passports issued to Mr Abdullah under different aliases - one issued in 1999, the other just five months ago.
This has once again raised questions about whether the Kenyan government is doing enough to protect its citizens from the threat of terrorism. Following the 9/11 attacks seven years ago, the US government stepped up efforts to work with African countries, including Kenya, to implement steps to curb terrorism. A joint force known as Operation Enduring Freedom focuses its efforts on detecting and stopping terrorist activities in the region.
However, some groups have condemned the tactics used in the "war on terror", arguing that they infringe on human rights. Leaders from the sizeable Muslim community complain that the "war on terror" is being used to victimise Muslims. Sheikh Amir Ali Banda, chairman of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya (CIPK), says he has been a victim of arbitrary arrest. "They think that a faithful Muslim is a terrorist," he says.
The Kenyan government says there are about 17 Kenyans being held in Ethiopia on suspicion of involvement in terrorism. The family of Shaban Mwazumi, one of the suspects, is still holding on to the hope that their son will return one day. "If my son has done something wrong, then he should be arraigned in court and if he's guilty, then he should serve his jail term. If he's not, they should set him free," his father says.
Human rights groups, political and religious leaders continue to put pressure on the government to end what they say is unwarranted harassment of innocent people by the security forces. It is a thorny issue in a country that is struggling to do the right thing. But Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula defends the alliances formed to tackle terrorism.
"We must double and re-dedicate our efforts to fight terror but equally, as we fight terrorism, we must make sure that people's human rights are not violated without just cause," Mr Wetangula says. After the bombing, the US embassy was relocated away from the city centre to the outskirts of the capital, and in its place, a memorial garden was built, a reminder of that day's tragic events.
Ten years on, Kenya still bears physical and psychological scars of the attacks that sent the first signals that terrorism was becoming truly global.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
EAST AFRICA MARKS TERROR ATTACKS !
Kenya and Tanzania are marking the 10th anniversary of the US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam. More than 220 people were killed and 5,000 injured in the first major attack by al-Qaeda on US targets.
Relatives and survivors have gathered at the site of the attack in Nairobi, which is now a memorial garden. The ceremonies come days after Kenyan police narrowly failed to arrest the suspected mastermind of the bombings, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed.
The BBC's Peter Greste in Nairobi says many of those survivors and the families of the victims there will gather at the memorial garden on the site where the US embassy used to stand. At about 1030 local time on 7 August 1998, a suicide bomber threw a grenade at the guardhouse outside the US embassy in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, and tried to ram his way through the barricades.
He then detonated the explosives packed inside the vehicle, severely damaging the embassy and bringing down a seven-story building near by, killing 218 people and wounding 500. A simultaneous attack on the embassy in Dar-es-Salaam killed 11 people, and wounded 72. The bombings were al-Qaeda's first major strike in its conflict with the United States, and they fundamentally changed both the US and Kenya.
Among those who remember the day in Nairobi is Catherine Bwire, who was a 24-year-old accounts clerk at the time. Like so many, she heard a small explosion - a grenade - go off outside the embassy just by her office. She went to the window to see what the trouble was and as she watched, the attackers detonated their main charge which shattered surrounding windows. The glass tore out Catherine's eyes, blinding her instantly, it was a tragically common injury.
Our correspondent says the blast changed the lives of so many victims, but it also created a kind of bond among them. It did much the same for Kenya and the United States. The two countries are now firm allies in the fight against terrorism, both countries still struggling to come to terms with its consequences.
But the botched operation on Sunday has raised questions in Kenya about whether the government is doing enough to protect its citizens from the threat of terrorism. The police have intensified their manhunt for the fugitive in the coastal city of Mombasa, and security along the country's borders has been tightened.
The country's sizeable Muslim community also says the "war on terror" is being used to victimise Muslims. At least 17 Kenyan Muslims are being held in Ethiopia on suspicion of involvement in terrorism.
The survivors and families of those who died in the attacks have called for compensation from the US and Kenyan governments to help them cope with the effects of the blasts.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
S. AFRICA UNIONS STAGE MASS STRIKE !
South African trade unions are holding a one-day strike, which has caused widespread disruption and brought much of the economy to a standstill. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is mobilising its two million members to protest against the high cost of living.
The public transport network has been severely disrupted, with a knock-on effect on schools, mines and carmakers. Some of the country's biggest mining companies say they have been badly hit. Unionists are mobilising in all of South Africa's nine provinces. Public transport was affected across the country, unions said, with long queues forming for buses and taxis in Johannesburg. Many workers and students stayed at home as a result of the disruption.
The union movement has significant political influence in South Africa Thousands of demonstrators gathered outside Pretoria's city hall, waving sticks and singing, says the BBC's Jonah Fisher, in the South African capital.
Though the march was meant to focus on the cost of electricity, the banners and chants show that for most, this is a chance for the poor to vent their anger at steep rises in the cost of food and fuel, our correspondent says.
"Food is at a higher price than petrol. Everything is high. We cannot live life like this. We are sick and tired... The government must make a plan," one woman said. "I've got a house, but what about the people who are staying on the street? People are dying, especially in the wintertime," a man said.
Similar rallies are being held at 17 other locations across South Africa. Patrick Craven, of Cosatu, told the BBC that the strike was over rising costs across the board. "It has to be seen in the context of all the other increases in prices which clearly make the electricity tariff that much more difficult to bear, particularly the food price increases, the fuel price going up and the rise in interest rates," he said.
There is particular concern about job cuts in the mining sector, where output and earnings have been slashed. Mining company Anglogold Ashanti says no underground work was going on at the firm's mines.
Anglo Platinum - the world's top producer of the precious metal - said some of its mines and a smelter had been affected, Reuters news agency reported.
Cosatu, an ally of the governing African National Congress (ANC), said the strike would be a warning to employers who may want to sack workers because of a downturn in profits due to a power supply crisis. A five-day power cut in January and the rationing of electricity to mines cut output and earnings.
"We hope to also send a strong message to the government that, as the working people in this country, we are not going to be taking on the burden when it comes to financing power," National Union of Mineworkers spokesman Lesiba Seshoka told the BBC's Network Africa programme. He also said the union hoped that South Africa's government would punish companies that fix prices by giving them "very serious fines".
Cosatu has urged the government to subsidise essential commodities and demands higher wages for workers.
With President Thabo Mbeki due to leave office next year, South Africa's workers are determined to put their concerns at the heart of the next government, our correspondent says.
Another strike is planned for next month.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
ANGOLA LEADER PROMISES MORE POLLS !
Jose Edwardo dos Santos has been president for 29 years.
Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has said parliamentary elections will be held every four years, ahead of his country's first polls in 16 years. He made the comments in a rare radio address on the eve of campaigning. He called on Angolans to respect the democratic process and make the country an example to Africa and the world.
Elections have been expected and repeatedly delayed since 2002, when the government ended a 27-year conflict with the Unita rebel movement.
The ruling MPLA narrowly won the 1992 polls, which were part of a peace plan, but war resumed as Unita rejected the results. Ten parties and four coalitions are competing for parliamentary votes, but Mr Dos Santos' MPLA is expected to retain its majority in parliament.
"Angola can be an example to the African continent and to the world in general on how to hold democratic, free and transparent elections," the president said.
Mr Dos Santos came to power in 1979 aged just 37, in the wake of the unexpected death from medical complications of Angola's first President, Agostinho Neto. He is expected to stand in presidential elections in 2009.
Sub-Saharan Africa's second largest oil producer after Nigeria, Angola has one of the worst infant mortality rates in Africa and millions of its citizens continue to live in shantytowns and slums.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
ZUMA FATE DELAYED TILL SEPTEMBER !
A South African judge says he will rule next month on whether the corruption trial of the leader of South Africa's ruling party, Jacob Zuma, can go ahead. Judge Chris Nicholson also set 8 December as a provisional date for a criminal trial.
Mr Zuma, who is favourite to become president next year, denies charges of corruption linked to an arms deal. His legal team have argued that delays in bringing the case to court mean he would not get a fair trial.
For the second day running, a large crowd of Mr Zuma's supporters has gathered outside the High Court where Judge Nicholson set 12 September as the date he would give his ruling. The BBC's Peter Biles says Mr Zuma's supporters are waiting for him to address them, as he did on Monday night, in what was a colourful and high-spirited event.
Mr Zuma's colleagues in the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) are standing firmly by him. They say he is been the victim of a political conspiracy intended to prevent him becoming South Africa's president in elections due to be held before July 2009. Mr Zuma has said he will stand down as ANC leader only if he is found guilty of the charges - corruption, fraud, racketeering and money-laundering.
Critics say he is just trying to delay proceedings until after he is elected president. The shadow of corruption has been hanging over Mr Zuma for several years. In 2005 he was sacked as South Africa's deputy president when his financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, was found guilty of soliciting a bribe on behalf of Mr Zuma and jailed for 15 years in connection with an arms deal.
Mr Zuma then went on trial, but the case collapsed in 2006 when the prosecution said it was not ready to proceed. He was charged again last December shortly after winning a bitter campaign against President Thabo Mbeki to become ANC leader. Mr Zuma suffered a setback last week when he lost a legal bid to stop documents seized from his home and other locations being used as evidence in a trial.
The ANC says it expects Mr Zuma, a former deputy president, to be its candidate for president in next year's election, when Mr Mbeki steps down. In February 2006, Mr Zuma was acquitted of rape in a separate case, though he was widely criticised for comments about sex and HIV/Aids.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
GUINEAN SACKED TWICE IN FOUR DAYS !
A minister in Guinea has been sacked for the second time in four days.
Mamady Sam Soumah was fired as secretary-general for the presidency on Friday, but reinstated on Sunday before being sacked again the following day.
A BBC correspondent says the dismissals are believed to be linked to disagreements over a mining contract with international firm Rio Tinto.
They are also thought to reveal a broader power struggle surrounding ailing President Lansana Conte.
The BBC's Alhassan Sillah reports from Guinea that the president and his one-time powerful ally, Mr Soumah, are believed not to see eye to eye on the mining contract.
Mr Soumah reportedly played a central role in questioning the legality of a huge iron ore concession being given to Rio Tinto in Guinea.
Political analysts say there is a power-struggle going on around the president - who has been in poor health - with people positioning themselves for a possible succession.
President Conte recently sacked the prime minister who had been appointed last year as part of a deal to end deadly anti-government protests across the country.
Shortly afterwards, troops mutinied, demanding back pay and better conditions.
When they were granted concessions, police staged similar protests.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
RIVALS RESUME ZIMBABWE DEAL TALKS !
Talks have resumed between Zimbabwe's ruling party and the main opposition on a possible power-sharing deal. The discussions, between President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), broke up for several days last week.
Officials said the delay was so that delegates could consult their leaders on possible next steps. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has said he is "fairly satisfied" with the progress of the talks so far.
A spokesman for South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is mediating the discussions, confirmed that the power-sharing talks had resumed. He has suggested that the initial two-week deadline for the talks - which expires on Monday - is flexible, in part because of the adjournment.
Mr Tsvangirai has said he is satisfied with the progress of talks so far. Mr Tsvangirai's supporters say the MDC leader should succeed Mr Mugabe as president of Zimbabwe, because he won the popular vote in the first round of the country's recent presidential election.
Mr Mugabe won the second round run-off in a poll that was widely criticised as flawed and was boycotted by the MDC.
The talks began again the day after a bomb exploded at the main police station in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare. A police spokesman said Saturday's blast caused some damage to the building but nobody was injured. Correspondents say bomb attacks are rare in Zimbabwe but last year the government accused opposition activists of throwing petrol bombs at several police stations.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
KENYA MANHUNT FOR AL-QAEDA WANTED !
There is a manhunt under way in Kenya for an al-Qaeda operative wanted for the attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania 10 years ago. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed allegedly evaded a police raid at the weekend in the coastal town of Malindi, where he was being hosted by friends.
Earlier this year the suspect, who is from the Comoros Islands, survived a US missile attack on a hideout in Somalia The United States has offered a reward of up to $5m (£2.5m) for his arrest.
Three people arrested over the weekend - reportedly relatives of Mr Mohammed - pleaded not guilty on Monday to accusations they had harboured him. A judge ordered that they be held for four more days while prosecutors gather information.
Meanwhile, the man who led the investigation into the Kenya bombing, Maj Marsden Madoka, has told the BBC's African Perspective programme that Kenyan intelligence passed on information to the US embassy ahead of the attack in 1998, but it was not acted on.
Is terrorism a threat in Africa?
The failure may have been due to a lack of communication between the embassy and US intelligence agencies, he said. More than 250 people were killed in the bomb attacks 10 years ago that Mr Mohammed allegedly planned.
The BBC's Odhiambo Joseph in Mombasa says police and naval patrols have been intensified at the coast after the failed arrest bid at the weekend.
In neighbouring Uganda, the US embassy has warned that Americans in East Africa may be at heightened risk from attack ahead of Thursday's tenth anniversary of the bombings.
Reports say Mr Mohammed gained entry to Kenya through Lamu Island which borders Somalia to seek treatment for a kidney ailment, our correspondent says.
Mr Mohammed allegedly leads the al-Qaeda cell in East Africa from a base in lawless Somalia.
The US accused the Islamist group that ruled much of southern Somalia in 2006 of harbouring al-Qaeda suspects - charges they denied.
Mr Mohammed joined al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and trained there with Osama bin Laden, the terror network's leader, according to the transcript of an FBI interrogation of a known associate.
As well as the embassy bombings, he is also suspected of planning the car bombing of a beach resort in Kenya and a near simultaneous attempt to shoot down an Israeli aircraft in 2002.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
GAY NIGERIAN TELLS OF DEATH THREATS !
By Christopher Landau
BBC World Service religious affairs correspondent
Davis Mac-Iyalla is an Anglican from Nigeria - nothing unusual about that - but he is also gay and the death threats he has received since being open about his sexuality led him to seek asylum in the UK.
Now he is campaigning at the Lambeth Conference, hoping that bishops will face up to the existence of gay Christians in Africa.
I met him just before he began a demonstration at the conference venue on the Kent university campus, joined by lesbian and gay Anglicans from six African countries.
With dancing accompanied by traditional drumming, the campaigners held a banner proclaiming, "We're here!" Many gay Anglicans around the world still feel that the church would prefer to deny their existence.
Mr Mac-Iyalla's message is simple. "Homosexuality does exist in Africa - it's not a Western thing, as our African bishops would want people to believe," he says.
His troubles began when, in 2005, he founded the Nigerian branch of Changing Attitude, an Anglican pressure group that campaigns for the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the life of the church. He says that the group's success "offended the leaders of the Nigerian church", which went on to issue a press statement denying that Mr Mac-Iyalla was a practising Anglican. He says that statement, posted on the Nigerian church's website, had repercussions for his personal safety. "People began to send me death threats by e-mail, by text messages, and it got so serious I had to flee Nigeria to Togo."
In Togo he received a further handwritten death threat, and then in March 2008 he was physically attacked.
Mr Mac-Iyalla has become an iconic figure in the homosexuality debate. Someone tried to stab his forearm with a syringe. He showed me what is still a prominent scar. This summer, Mr Mac-Iyalla was planning to attend the Church of England's General Synod meeting. On arrival in the UK, he - along with the director of the English Changing Attitude group - received yet further death threats.
He decided to apply for asylum in the UK - and it was rapidly granted. "I am so grateful to the government of the UK for granting me asylum, for giving me safety, and for allowing me to be alive to continue my work," he says. Mr Mac-Iyalla has become an iconic figure in the global debate about homosexuality in the Anglican Communion.
He stands to counter the traditionalist suggestion that homosexuality is a problem found only in Western societies. But his presence at various Anglican meetings in recent years has challenged bishops - though he says they are "not listening" to the gay Christians in their churches.
He recalls the last Lambeth Conference, held 10 years ago. That meeting affirmed that homosexual practice was incompatible with scripture, though Anglican bishops also committed to listening to the experience of homosexual Christians.
Mr Mac-Iyalla believes that too many African Christians focus entirely on condemning homosexual practice and ignore their commitment to hearing stories like his own. Many African clerics have opposed the ordination of gay priests. Of African bishops, he says, "I think they should open their ears to listen rather than doing the talking." But he does believe that change is on the way. "For people like me and my members, to begin to come out, to have pride in who we are - I think change is coming. "The bishops need to know that what comes out of their mouths is affecting us, and putting us in a very difficult situation."
Davis Mac-Iyalla remains optimistic about the Anglican Communion's ability to affirm the place of gay people. But as Anglican bishops meet to discuss how the row over sexuality has affected the church's mission, the question is how willing they are to hear his story.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
NIGERIA TO APPEAL BAKASSI DELAY!
The Nigerian government is preparing to appeal a court ruling delaying the handover of the oil-rich border region of Bakassi to Cameroon.
A Federal High Court ruled this week that the handover be delayed until a compensation claim can be resolved by the courts in October.
But the government is intent on ceding the Bakassi region in two weeks time.
A group of Bakassi leaders are seeking 400bn naira ($3.3bn, £1.7bn) in compensation from the government. They say the government has not prepared for all the people who have left Bakassi. The compensation would amount to 1.9m naira ($16,000, £8,000) for each person displaced.
The government built a block of apartments with 200 rooms to accommodate 206,000 people, said Joe Etene, one of the people who brought the suit.
"People have moved from their ancestral homes. Thousands of people now have no drinkable water, no place to live," he said. "We want the government to learn they can't do that to people."
The area set aside for the people who moved out of Bakassi has no access to the sea, campaigners say. Bakassi has a rich fishing culture and people say the handover has destroyed their way of life.
In 1981 Cameroon and Nigeria nearly went to war over the region, thought to be rich in oil and gas. During the 1990s there were bloody clashes that claimed dozens of lives. An International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled that the disputed region be ceded to Cameroon in 2002. Part of the region was handed over to the Cameroonians in 2006. The remaining portion will be ceded in August.
Nigerian President Umar Yar'Adua reportedly assured his Cameroonian counterpart that the handover would go ahead as planned, local media has reported.
Mr Etene said it was important to stop the handover before the compensation claim could be settled because after the handover there would be more refugees to deal with. Campaigners say the treaty that agreed the handover was not ratified by the Nigerian Senate.
But a Nigerian constitutional lawyer told the BBC the Federal High Court's decision would not stop the handover. "The government has behaved in a way that respects the treaty agreement to hand Bakassi over," said Awalu Yadudu. "It's now an legal argument only in theory."
BBC NEWS REPORT.
DEATHS MAR EGYPTS NEW ROAD LAWS !
Egyptian police say at least 11 people have been killed in a head-on collision on the day new laws came into effect aimed at bringing order to the roads.
The accident, involving two minibuses and a lorry, happened south of Cairo.
An estimated 6,000 people are killed in road accidents every year in Egypt and more than 30,000 are injured.
The new laws impose fines and other punishments for such things as driving without lights at night, and travelling on the wrong side of the road.
Friday's crash happened when one minibus tried to overtake the other as they headed south from Cairo towards Asyut and collided with a gravel truck travelling in the opposite direction.
The BBC's Magdi Abdelhadi in Cairo says many Egyptians are sceptical about the changes, because even the existing regulations are not always enforced.
Among the most controversial items of the new legislation is the requirement that all cars should have first-aid kits.
"We are drivers not doctors," one taxi driver told the BBC. "If a passenger is injured or has a broken bone, can someone like me help him? I will probably make things worse because I do not have the training."
Reckless driving, poorly maintained vehicles and the failure to enforce existing regulations are often cited as main cause of road accidents in Egypt.
Many people say laws are applied selectively, on the poor and not on the rich and powerful.
The stipulation that vehicles must have a specific kind of first-aid kit has fuelled a widely held belief that the law is designed to benefit well-connected businessmen rather than motorists.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
TOGO RAINS TRIGGER DEADLY FLOODS !
More than 20 people were killed by floods in September 2007.
Flooding from torrential rains in Togo has displaced thousands and reportedly left at least three people dead.
The floods have affected several parts of the country, including the capital, Lome, and the Maritime and Plateau regions, a BBC reporter says.
Downpours have also destroyed bridges, severing transport between the north and the rest of the country.
The army has begun rescue operations while the government has appealed for international aid.
At least three people have been killed in the flooding, UN officials said. Farming communities in central Togo have also been submerged in water after rivers burst their banks.
In the south of the country, 23 stranded children were rescued by helicopter provided by the air force in neighbouring Ghana, the BBC's Ebow Godwin reports from Lome.
The government has decided to evacuate affected areas and create settlements for those displaced, our correspondent says.
In Togblekope, a suburb of Lome, the military have been using canoes to ferry people to safety.
The government also says a road diversion has been created to replace a highway that normally links the south to the northern parts of the country and to neighbouring Burkina Faso.
Land-locked Burkina Faso gets its vital imports including food and crude oil supplies through the Lome Free Port.
An official from the UN humanitarian affairs agency said on Wednesday that recent flooding in Togo had affected 10,000 people, destroying 400 houses and cutting off nine bridges.
More of the heavy rains that have caused flooding in West Africa for a second consecutive year are expected, he said.
Rains caused flooding across the region in September 2007, leaving more than 20 people dead and another 20,000 homeless in Togo.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
KENYA BOY IN CIRCUMCISION INJURY !
A sixteen-year-old Kenyan boy is being treated in hospital after losing part of his penis in a circumcision ritual. He suffered the accident during the Luhya people's circumcision festival in western Kenya when the circumciser's knife slipped.
Reporters say traditional circumcision often comes in for criticism because of the health risks but is a longstanding part of the Luhya culture. Doctors say he is in a stable condition but may require reconstructive surgery.
Medical officers at the Bungoma District hospital told the BBC that the tip of the boy's penis was chopped off by mistake when the knife wielded by the circumciser slipped. He has been undergoing surgery on Friday to prevent further bleeding. They said it was thought that he would be able to urinate but may not be able to have sex in future.
Correspondents say reconstructive surgery is expensive and the boy may have to go abroad for surgery. Hospital officials said this was the first such incident this year and in previous years boys had been admitted with complications such as bleeding or infections. The boy's father said that it was an unfortunate accident but he would not be suing the circumciser for compensation.
"I have learnt a bitter lesson," he told the BBC. "I shall take my remaining two boys to be circumcised in hospital in future." A new programme has been launched to introduce circumcision in neighbouring Nyanza province to combat the spread of HIV and Aids. About 2.5 million of 32 million Kenyans are currently living with HIV/Aids.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
ZIMBABWE ROLLS OUT NEW BANK NOTES !
Zimbabwe's central bank has revalued its currency in an effort to control the effects of hyperinflation.
The bank is striking ten zeros off Zimbabwe dollar bank notes, making 10bn dollars now equal to one dollar.
Reports from the capital, Harare, say long queues have formed outside banks as people seek to withdraw money.
The move comes in response to an official inflation rate of more than 2,000,000%, although it is believed the true figure is at least 9,000,000%.
The currency revaluation is intended to make business transactions easier for Zimbabwean retailers who increase their prices several times a day to keep up with inflation.
Computers, electronic calculators and automated teller machines at Zimbabwe's banks have difficulty handling basic transactions in billions and trillions of dollars.
"Other than making it easier for us to count and to carry around, our problems have not gone away," Lameck Chamunorwa, a 28-year-old shop cleaner, told Reuters news agency as he left a bank in Harare.
"It's like we are pretending that things are getting normal when the truth is that they are doing this because we are in a bad state and far from normality."
The BBC's Southern Africa correspondent Peter Biles says the changes to the currency are a largely cosmetic move that will not stabilise the Zimbabwean economy.
The new set of notes, from Z$1 to Z$500, will circulate alongside the higher-denominated currency which is being phased out by the end of the year. Coins are also being reintroduced - after being obsolete for years.
Only recently, the government introduced the Z$100bn note, which was still not enough to buy a loaf of bread.
Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono said Zimbabweans "must realise the country is practically in a state of socio-economic emergency". "As such, there is need for a universal moratorium on all incomes and prices for a minimum period of six months," the state-run Herald newspaper quoted Mr Gono as saying. He has repeatedly called for price and wage freezes in the past, as he battles to control inflation.
Our correspondent says that for most Zimbabweans there is an atmosphere of resignation and misery. There is little to buy in the shops and there are chronic shortages of food, medicine, electricity and water.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
MOB RIOT IN NIGERIA AFTER CRASH !
The mob blamed the German firm's vehicle for the crash. An irate mob went on the rampage in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, after a road accident killed at least 11 people.
A bus carrying 40 Nigerian employees of the German construction company Julius Berger crashed into a minibus and then turned over in the morning rush hour.
Riot police had to quell a violent crowd who then burned a rescue vehicle sent to collect the Julius Berger bus. Correspondents say Nigeria's roads are among the most dangerous in the world; thousands die every year in accidents.
The minibus was overtaking a large articulated lorry carrying a sea container converted into a bus, used for taking the construction company's employees to work.
Authorities said it seemed as if the two had collided and the truck over turned on top of the minibus, crushing it.
Two out of the 40 people in the truck were killed, along with nine in the minibus, a spokesman for Julius Berger said.
The dead in the minibus included two children; 12 others were injured, he said. But a rescuer told the BBC Hausa service that he counted more than 30 bodies. Police have not confirmed the number of dead.
Julius Berger sent a crane to pick up the truck and a mob several hundred strong, who blamed the company for the accident, burned it. "There were far too many of them for us to control," said Assistant Commissioner of Police Wilson Inalegwa.
A passing motorist then ran over the area commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) who was at the scene to investigate the accident.
He is in hospital and responding to treatment, the FRSC said.
According to official statistics, more than 4,000 people die and more than 20,000 are injured in road accidents in Nigeria each year.
Although the true figure could be higher because in rural areas villagers sometimes bury the dead before the authorities can arrive.
A Nigerian driving licence can be bought for 5,000 naira ($42, £21) without needing to take a test.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Posted by: Mara at August 01, 2008 18:11 |
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