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NEWS FROM AFRICA 07.11.2002

EVENING REPORT 07.11.2002.

UGANDA SENDS TROOPS TO EASTERN CONGO.

KAMPALA: Uganda has sent two new battalions of soldiers to the strife-torn Ituri region in the Democratic Republic of Congo's northeastern Orientale province. The Ugandan-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy-Liberation Movement says a first battalion has arrived and another is on its way. It says Uganda has sent fresh troops to the region after it lost about 140 men in clashes with rebels in Ituri. Kampala sent troops to the area, which lies close to Uganda, in 1998, to back a rebellion against the regime of then Congolese president Laurent Kabila and to counter the threat of Ugandan insurgents who reportedly had bases in the region.

SUDAN PREPARES TO RECAPTURE LOST TERRITORY.

KHARTOUM: Sudanese troops are reported to be preparing an offensive to recapture lost territory in eastern Sudan, while peace negotiations in Kenya are set to adjourn in ten days' time. The governor of Kassala state, Major General Adam Hamid Mussa, says the army is gearing up for the offensive not that neighbouring Eritrea has withdrawn troops which Khartoum charged were used to support rebels in the area. Mussa says there is no fighting at the moment but that preparations are underway to liberate the whole of the east, including Hamashkorib, Rassai and other localities seized by rebel Sudanese force early last month.

IVORIAN REBELS AND GOVERNMENT RESUME TALKS.

LOME: Ivory Coast's government and rebels have resumed talks at the presidential palace in Togo, where President Gnassingbe Eyadema is mediating efforts to resolve a nearly two-month-old Ivorian crisis. The talks began with Eyadema meeting with rebel negotiators in a bid to reconcile demands that neither side in the conflict appears willing to budge on. The Ivory Coast has been divided since a rebel uprising on the 19th of September. After three days of talks, the government agreed in principle to an amnesty for rebels and to reincorporate mutineers into the armed forces. However, the Ivorian government has refused to consider the rebels' political demands until they lay down their arms, which they have refused to do.

U.N. TRIBUNAL ON RWANDA TO HIRE OUTSIDE HELP.

ARUSHA: The United Nations tribunal hearing cases connected to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda says it plans to hire an investigator to determine whether defendants are really indigent and in need of legal aid lawyers. The tribunal's Kingsley Moghalu says all the defendants who have been tried or are currently on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania, have been defended by court-paid lawyers. This is despite the fact that many are believed to be well-off. Moghalu says since the tribunal was set up in 1994, it did not have the resources to properly investigate the finances of the people being tried. The investigator would now probe the financial status of those facing the Rwandan tribunal.

FOUR KILLED IN FERRY DISASTER IN LAKE VICTORIA.

NAIROBI: A passenger boat has capsized in Lake Victoria, claiming the lives of four people and raising fears of another 14 drowned. Kenyan police spokesman Jesse Mituki says the accident occurred in the early hours of yesterday morning. Mituki says 12 people managed to swim to shore. Rescue efforts are continuing. The accident took place near Nyandhiwa, about 280 kilometres west of the capital, Nairobi.

MEMBERS OF AFRICAN ECONOMIC DEAL SUBJECT TO VOLUNTARY REVIEW.

JOHANNESBURG: Reports say African countries will be subject to a voluntary review of their political progress under the New Partnership for African Development, or NEPAD. This is until the African Union is able to take over the review process. The process has been subject to speculation since South African President Thabo Mbeki said the review process would include only economic matters. However, a South African government spokesperson says the matter has been resolved at a meeting in Abuja of the 20 member nations of NEPAD.

ZIMBABWEAN ARRESTED FOR ALLEGEDLY INSULTING PRESIDENT.

HARARE: Police in Zimbabwe have arrested a man for mocking President Robert Mugabe, a jailable offence under the country's tough security laws. Reports say the man was arrested for carrying a placard reading: "God shall confront Mugabe over evils done to people, then would police and Central Intelligence officials arrest God on that day?" The man, who is also alleged to have verbally abused the president, was arrested at a shopping centre at Chitungwiza town, south of Harare. Under the Public Order and Security Act, he could face a fine of about three-thousand American dollars, a year in jail, or both. Meanwhile, the Anglican Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, has called on Mugabe to step down. He said Mugabe's policies were ruining the Zimbabwean economy and placing millions of people at the risk of starvation.

SOUTHERN AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN DELEGATES HOLD MEETING.

MAPUTO: Cabinet ministers from the Southern African Development Community, or SADEC, and the European Union are meeting in Maputo, Mozambique to discuss ways to foster peace, democracy and development in southern Africa. The gathering is the forth meeting between ministers of the European Union and their counterparts from SADEC since they signed a declaration in Berlin in 1994 to establish closer ties. The European Union's Development Commissioner, Poul Nielson, told the gathering he was impressed by progress in Southern Africa since the last meeting of ministers in Botswana in 2000. The gathering ends tomorrow.

DONORS PLEDGE FIVE-MILLION DOLLARS TO WEST AFRICAN UNION.

LOME: Donor nations and aid agencies have pledged five-million dollars to help the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, grouping implement Africa's new development strategy. The grouping says the short-term assistance by donor countries and aid agencies will cover the activities of the grouping for the next three years. The assistance was pledged on Tuesday at the end of a one-day meeting of ECOWAS representatives in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. It will enable ECOWAS to fulfill its mandate under the New Partnership for Africa's Development - NEPAD - and reinforce its own programmes that are complementary to NEPAD's.

U.N. TO WITHDRAW FROM SIERRA LEONE

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Security Council has approved of a resolution to withdraw U.N. peace-keepers from Sierra Leone. This move comes as stability is restored across the West African country, after a decade of civil war. The resolution authorises U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to withdraw, within eight months, a first instalment of four-thousand-500 of the 17-thousand-300 U.N. troops in Sierra Leone. The resolution also extended the mandate of the U.N. mission in Sierra Leone for a further six months, until the end of March next year. The mission has been in place since October 1999.

BUSINESS CONFIDENCE FALLS IN SOUTH AFRICA.

JOHANNESBURG: Business confidence in South Africa fell last month as the market absorbed the four interest rate increases so far this year. The South African Chamber of Business's monthly Business Confidence Index fell almost two points to 104-point-five following a small increase in September this year. The South African Chamber of Business says there was also some hesitancy ahead of the release of the Medium Term Budget late last month. But it has welcomed some of the measures outlined in the budget, including the amendment to the country's inflation targets and the further relaxation in exchange controls. It says the Rand's current strength should assist business confidence in the months ahead, and may make it unnecessary to increase interest rates again this month. However, an Economist from the South African Chamber of Business, Richard Downing, says the two-point drop in the Business Confidence Index in South Africa this month is not serious, as there is a see-sawing of confidence on a sustainable level. Downing says he does NOT believe the country will see the drop in confidence that occurred with the drop in the value of the South African Rand last year.

SOUTH AFRICA OMITS STAR PLAYER IN NATIONAL FOOTBALL SIDE.

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa have left out captain Lucas Radebe from their squad after the Leeds United player failed to commit himself to play in the friendly against Senegal on the 19th of this month. Radebe had previously been accused by coach Ephraim Mashaba of balking at playing for his country. Observers say his omission could well signal the end of his international career. The defender missed the African Nations Cup qualifier against Burundi last month after a row over his availability between his English premier league club and the South African Football Association.


MIDDAY REPORT 07/11/02

THERE ARE FEARS OF FLOODS IN MOZAMBIQUE.

MAPUTO: Torrential rain has intensified in southern and central Mozambique raising fears of floods in some parts of the country. Officials reported heavy rain and storms at the southern Mozambique town of Chokwe, and in the central city of Tete. At least 65 families have been made homeless at Chokwe, while storms uprooted trees and disrupted telephones and electricity lines in Tete. Mozambique was struck by massive floods and a series of storms in the year 2000 and last year.

JOHANNESBURG HOSTS AIDS PANDEMIC AND FOOD CRISIS DEBATE.

JOHANNESBURG: The South African city of Johannesburg is hosting a meeting that is debating the effect of the AIDS pandemic on the food crisis in southern Africa. The meeting is being attended by more than 50 representatives from United Nations agencies, non-governmental organisations and the Southern African Development Community. Delegates will try to devise a new strategy to help combat AIDS, focussing on how the U.N. could alter its food aid to make it more nutritious for AIDS sufferers. A report by the U.N. Special Envoy for Humanitarian Needs in southern Africa showed that AIDS remains the single greatest threat to the region's people. The agency says agricultural production has fallen significantly because many adults are too sick to work.

BLACK SOUTH AFRICANS WHO VOLUNTEERED IN WORLD WARS HONOURED.

LONDON: Black South Africans who volunteered for service in the two World Wars are among those honoured by a new memorial in Britain. Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip have unveiled the Memorial Gates on Constitution Hill in central London. It is the first monument in Britain to pay tribute to almost five-million African, Indian, and Caribbean volunteers who served the British Empire in World Wars I and II.

BELGIUM LOOKS AT S.A. AS POTENTIAL INVESTMENT PARTNER: REPORTS.

DURBAN: Reports say the Belgian government is looking at South Africa as a potential investment partner. Belgian Minister of Economics and Foreign Trade, Jaak Gabriel, is leading a business delegation to the country. They have met officials in the KwaZulu/Natal Province of South Africa. The Belgians pledged a million dollars towards training and capacity building for community based tourism projects in the province.

FORMER ALLY OF IVORY COAST PRESIDENT SIDES WITH REBELS.

PARIS: A former ally of Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo has sided with rebels who took control of approximately half of the country in September this year. Louis Dakoury-Tabley, the former deputy leader of Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front, has described himself as the foreign affairs co-ordinator of the Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement, the political wing of the rebels.

LAST CALL OF TUNISIA SYNAGOGUE BOMBER WAS TO AL-QAEDA: REPORT.

PARIS: French sources close to the probe into the alleged suicide bombing at Tunisia's synagogue say one of the last telephone calls was made to a member of the al-Qaeda network. The information has been released by the French and Tunisian authorities investigating the April attack on the resort island of Djerba. Nineteen people were killed. Officials say the call was made by the alleged suicide bomber, Tunisian national Nizar Nawar to a presumed al-Qaeda leader in the Pakistan city of Karachi on the same day of the attack. The al-Qaeda network later claimed responsibility.

DONORS PLEDGE FIVE MILLION DOLLARS TO HELP WEST AFRICA IMPLEMENT NEPAD.

ABUJA: Donor nations and aid agencies have pledged five million dollars to help the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, grouping implement Africa's new development strategy. The grouping says the short-term assistance by donor countries and aid agencies will cover the activities of the grouping for the next three years. The assistance was pledged on Tuesday at the end of a one-day meeting of ECOWAS representatives in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. It will enable ECOWAS to fulfill its mandate under the New Partnership for Africa's Development - NEPAD - and reinforce its own programmes that are complementary to NEPAD's.

TABLE BAY HOTEL IN S.A. IS BEST HOTEL IN AFRICA: MAGAZINE.

CAPE TOWN: The Table Bay Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa has been named the best hotel in Africa and the Middle East by readers of the American edition of the prestigious Conde Nast Traveller magazine. This moves the hotel into fourth position in world rankings as a result of the poll. Votes are cast by affluent world travellers who visit a host of similar establishments around the world.

Source: Channel Africa


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