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UNITED NATIONS – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday that African, Arab and European organizations agreed on the urgent need to end the fighting in Libya and restore order with help from international police if the new government requests security assistance.
The U.N. chief told reporters after a videoconference with top officials of the African Union, Arab League, European Union and Organization of Islamic Cooperation that “all agreed that the crisis in Libya has entered a new and decisive phase” and a smooth transition is essential with the U.N. playing a key coordinating role.
“That transition must be grounded in inclusiveness, reconciliation and national unity — under a new government that can effectively deliver on the Libyan people’s aspirations for democracy, freedom, and growing social and economic prosperity,” Ban said.
“Clearly, the challenges ahead are enormous,” he said.
The opposition National Transitional Council, which controls most of the country, is setting up an interim government in Tripoli despite ongoing street battles in the capital. It says it urgently needs at least $5 billion in frozen assets to pay state salaries and maintain services in Libya, including in areas still under Moammar Gadhafi’s control, as well as for salaries for an army and a police force to restore order and confiscate arms.
Earlier on Friday, Mahmoud Jibril, the head of the rebel council, called for the urgent release of frozen Libyan assets, saying the government could face a “legitimacy crisis” if the Libyan people’s demands are not met.
He also urged the African Union to recognize the council, known as the NTC. But South African President Jacob Zuma said after the AU meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia that the 53-nation organization would not yet recognize Libyan rebels as the new government.
Many African nations have long ties with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, including South Africa, and the AU has had difficulty taking a unanimous stand.
“Fighting is still going on. That is the reality,” said Zuma, who chairs the AU committee on Libya. “We can’t say this is a legitimate (government) now.”
He said the AU did not rule out pro- or anti-Gadhafi forces from taking part in a future Libyan government. African countries like Ethiopia and Nigeria that already recognized the rebels were free to do so and also support the AU position, he said.
The United Nations has urged African leaders to “encourage new leadership” in Libya.
“We must help the country’s new leaders to establish an effective, legitimate government that represents and speaks for all the country’s diverse people,” U.N. deputy secretary general Asha-Rose Migiro told AU leaders.
The secretary-general said leaders of the four regional organizations agreed with the U.N. that “there is an urgent need to put an end to the conflict and restore order and stability.”
“All agreed that, if the Libyan authorities request, we should be prepared to help develop police capacity, bearing in mind that the country is awash with small arms,” he said.
The international community must also come together and help Libya deal with shortages of fuel, food, medical supplies and water, he said.
Ban said he had spoken to Jibril twice, including on Friday afternoon, and would meet him on the sidelines of an international conference on Libya hosted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris next Thursday.
Jibril, who was in Turkey to attend a meeting of the so-called “Contact Group” of some 30 countries leading efforts to stabilize Libya, told a news conference in Istanbul on Friday that he hoped a rebel representative would soon take up the country’s seat at the U.N.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who stood beside him, said “the waving of the new flag, international recognition and financial support are the three pillars for a sovereign Libya.”
The U.S. and South Africa reached a deal Thursday that will release $1.5 billion in frozen Libyan assets in American banks which the U.S. is earmarking for the cash-strapped rebels.
South Africa had blocked agreement in the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against Libya on unfreezing the $1.5 billion in U.S. banks over concerns that it implied recognition of the Council. South Africa, the AU and the U.N. have not recognized the rebel government.
Analysts estimate that as much as $110 billion is frozen in banks worldwide. Several European nations are also seeking to release funds, including Britain, France and Italy.
A British official said Friday that Britain is seeking the release of about 1 billion pounds worth ($1.6 billion) of Libyan dinars which were printed in the United Kingdom. In March, Britain blocked the export of the bank notes, which are manufactured by British currency printer De La Rue.
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Associated Press Writers Luc Van Kemenade in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and David Stringer in London contributed to this report.
Equatorial Guinea is a small country off West Africa which has recently struck oil and which is now being cited as a textbook case of the resource curse – or the paradox of plenty.
Since the mid 1990s the former Spanish colony has become one of sub-Sahara's biggest oil producers and in 2004 was said to have the world's fastest-growing economy.
However, few people have benefited from the oil riches and the country ranks near the bottom of the UN human development index. The UN says that less than half the population has access to clean drinking water and that 20 percent of children die before reaching five.
The country has exasperated a variety of rights organisations who have described the two post-independence leaders as among the worst abusers of human rights in Africa.
Francisco Macias Nguema's reign of terror – from independence in 1968 until his overthrow in 1979 – prompted a third of the population to flee. Apart from allegedly committing genocide against the Bubi ethnic minority, he ordered the death of thousands of suspected opponents, closed down churches and presided over the economy's collapse.
His successor – Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo – took over in a coup and has shown little tolerance for opposition during the three decades of his rule. While the country is nominally a multiparty democracy, elections have generally been considered a sham.
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At a glance
Politics: President Obiang seized power in 1979; rights groups have condemned his rule as one Africa's most brutal; he faces a “government in exile” and a separatist movement
Economy: Equatorial Guinea is sub-Saharan Africa's third biggest oil producer. Oil earnings are allegedly stolen by the ruling elite
International: Equatorial Guinea and Gabon are in dispute over islands in potentially oil-rich off-shore waters
According to Human Rights Watch, the ''dictatorship under President Obiang has used an oil boom to entrench and enrich itself further at the expense of the country's people''.
The corruption watchdog Transparency International has put Equatorial Guinea in the top 12 of its list of most corrupt states. Resisting calls for more transparency, President Obiang has for long held that oil revenues are a state secret. In 2008 the country became a candidate of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative – an international project meant to promote openness about government oil revenues – but failed to qualify by an April 2010 deadline.
A 2004 US Senate investigation into the Washington-based Riggs Bank found that President Obiang's family had received huge payments from US oil companies such as Exxon Mobil and Amerada Hess.
Observers say the US finds it hard to criticise a country which is seen as an ally in a volatile, oil-rich region. In 2006, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hailed President Obiang as a “good friend” despite repeated criticism of his human rights and civil liberties record by her own department. More recently President Barack Obama posed for an official photograph with President Obiang at a New York reception.
The advocacy group Global Witness has been lobbying the United States to act against the President Obiang's son Teodor, a government minister. It says there is credible evidence that he spent millions buying a Malibu mansion and private jet using corruptly acquired funds – grounds for denying him a visa.
Equatorial Guinea hit the headlines in 2004 when a plane load of suspected mercenaries was intercepted in Zimbabwe while allegedly on the way to overthrow President Obiang.
ABUJA, Nigeria – A car laden with explosives rammed through two gates and blew up at the United Nations’ offices in Nigeria’s capital Friday, killing at least eight people and shattering part of the concrete structure.
The brazen attack, carried out as the U.N. offices teemed with staff, comes as Africa’s most populous nation faces the growing threat of both homegrown and international terrorism. Militants from a radical Muslim sect from northeast Nigeria have carried out attacks in the country’s capital, though never on a foreign target. The country’s oil-rich Niger Delta in the south has also spawned a violent militant group.
Witnesses told The Associated Press that a sedan rammed through two separate gates at the U.N. compound as guards tried to stop the vehicle. The suicide bomber inside crashed the car into the main reception area and detonated the explosives, inflicting the most damage possible, a spokesman for the Nigerian National Emergency Management Agency said.
“I saw scattered bodies,” said Michael Ofilaje, a UNICEF worker at the building, which he said shook with the explosion. “Many people are dead.”
The building houses about 400 employees of the U.N. in Nigeria, including the majority of its offices. A local U.N. spokesman declined to comment, but a local hospital administrator told the AP it had treated as many as 40 victims so far, with more people coming in.
Eight bodies of victims were brought to the morgue of the nearby National Hospital, spokesman Payo Hastrup said. Local television stations broadcast pleas for blood donation. Officials tried to account for everyone inside the building at the time of the explosion.
“We believe there are many casualties but at this point we don’t know what the level of casualties is,” U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said in New York. “We condemn all terror attacks regardless of motivation.”
The building, located in the same neighborhood as the U.S. embassy and other diplomatic posts in Abuja, houses offices of a number of U.N. agencies including the U.N. Development Program, UNICEF and the U.N. Population Fund.
The explosion punched a huge hole in the building. Workers brought three large cranes to the site within hours of the attack, trying to pull away the concrete and rubble to find survivors. Others at the site stood around, stunned, as medical workers began carrying out what appeared to be the dead.
“This is getting out of hand,” said a U.N. staffer who identified himself as Bodunrin. “If they can get into the U.N. House, they can reach anywhere.”
Ali Tikko, who was in a building 100 yards (meters) from the site of the blast when it occurred said, “I heard one big boom.”
“I see a number of people lying on the floor — at least four or five. I cannot see if they are dead. There are a lot of security around,” Tikko said by telephone.
Local police spokesman Jimoh Moshood said police are investigating. Reuben Abati, a spokesman for President Goodluck Jonathan, said the presidency would later issue a statement on the attack.
No one immediately claimed responsibility. Oil-rich Nigeria faces terrorism threats on multiple fronts.
Nigeria, a nation of 150 million, is split between a largely Christian south and Muslim north. In recent months, the country has faced an increasing threat from a radical Muslim sect called Boko Haram, which wants to implement a strict version of Shariah law in the nation. The sect has carried out assassinations and bombings, including the June car bombing in Abuja of the national headquarters of Nigeria’s federal police that killed at least two people.
Earlier this month, the commander for U.S. military operations in Africa said Boko Haram may be trying to link with two al-Qaida-linked groups in other African countries to mount joint attacks in Nigeria.
Gen. Carter Ham told AP on Aug. 17 during a visit to Nigeria that “multiple sources” indicate Boko Haram made contacts with al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which operates in northwest Africa, and with al-Shabab in Somalia.
“I think it would be the most dangerous thing to happen not only to the Africans, but to us as well,” Carter said.
Last year, a militant group from the country’s oil patch, the Niger Delta, blew up car bombs in the capital during Nigeria’s 50th independence anniversary ceremony, killing at least 12. The militant group did not immediately respond to an AP request for comment Friday.
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Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell and Yinka Ibukun in Lagos, Nigeria, Michelle Faul in Johannesburg, Rukmini Callimachi in Dakar, Senegal and Edith Lederer in New York contributed to this report.
Mr Mubarak's first appearance in court shocked the nation
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Egypt's Revolution
Historic trial
Officials in the dock
Your views
Mid-east media coverage
Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who is charged with ordering the deaths of hundreds of protesters, has appeared in court for the second time. His trial is a big test for the new Egypt, says BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen in Cairo.
As Mr Mubarak, old and ill, was wheeled into the courtroom, a man dressed in a white prison uniform turned away from the stretcher, shook his head in exasperation and put his hand over the lens of the television camera that was relaying the scene live to millions of rapt viewers.
The man was Alaa Mubarak, once a prince of the old regime, one of the ex-president's two sons who have been brought down by his father's disgrace.
Gamal, his brother, was the heir apparent, the crown prince.
Both are charged with corruption alongside the former president, who also faces a capital charge of murder.
They spent much of their time in the prisoner's cage in the courtroom trying to shield their father from the cameras.
‘Cover-up’
The euphoria of the revolution that ousted Mr Mubarak in February faded very fast.
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The charges
Hosni Mubarak: Conspiring in killing of protesters (15 years in prison or death penalty); abusing power to amass wealth (5-15 years)
Alaa and Gamal Mubarak: abusing power to amass wealth (5-15 years)
Former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly and six aides: Conspiring in killing of protesters (15 years or death penalty)
Hussein Salem, business tycoon and Mubarak confidant: tried in absentia for corruption (5-15 years in prison)
Reaction to Mubarak trial delay
In pictures: Trial resumes
Trial splits region's press
Egypt faces a list of problems that will not be solved easily or quickly.
But it is still remarkable to see the man who was the absolute ruler of Egypt behind bars in a courtroom in a hospital bed, flanked by sons whose lives of wealth, privilege and power have changed beyond measure.
Millions of Arabs – who have found the two sessions so far of the Mubarak trial compulsive viewing – won't, it seems, get the chance to see part three live.
When the court reconvenes on 5 September, moving from procedure to substance, according to Judge Ahmed Rifaat, cameras will be banned from the courtroom.
It is assumed that Judge Rifaat wants lawyers to stop showing off, though some Egyptians will smell a cover-up.
Bad omens
The trial is still a solid achievement for Egypt's revolutionaries, a distraction in an unhappy, fretful country.
Mubarak supporters chanted slogans outside the court
It is also a big test for the new Egypt.
Once again the omens were not good, with the judge struggling to bring order to what had become judicial chaos – and outside the courthouse riot police charging opponents of the former president after they clashed with Mubarak supporters.
The trial is being held at what used to be called the Mubarak police academy.
The police were expecting trouble outside, and so were Mr Mubarak's supporters. His opponents brought their own rocks.
“We don't want Mr Mubarak humiliated,” one of his supporters said. “That humiliates all Egyptians.”
His opponents brandished hangman's nooses, demanding his execution.
Not long after the ex-president was wheeled into the courtroom cage, the riot started outside.
The police waded in, but could not stop men – and even a few women – trading rocks and punches. A lot of hatred was stored up in the Mubarak years.
Deep divisions
The Mubarak legacy touches every part of Egypt.
The way the country deals with it will shape the new system as it emerges.
But as the violence outside the trial showed, Egyptians are uncertain and deeply divided about the way this country should go.
Judge Rifaat complained about the noise being made by more than 100 lawyers, telling them to sit down and to show some respect.
To try to streamline the legal process, he merged the Mubarak trial with that of the former Interior Minister, Habib al-Adly, and six of his former aides.
Like the ex-president, they deny ordering the killing of protesters.
The judge says witnesses will start to testify when the trial resumes next month.
The defence says it will call 1,600 of them.
SUBSCRIBE TO EXCELLENT WORLD WAR II VIDEOS UPDATED WEEKLY When Italian dictator Benito Mussolini declared war on the Allies on June 10, 1940, he already had more than a million men in the Italian army based in Libya. In neighboring Egypt, the British Army had only 36000 men guarding the Suez Canal and the Arabian oil fields. Italian forces became a potential threat to Allied supply routes in the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. The early part of the North African Campaign was plagued by a lack of supplies on both sides. Sweeping battles took place that culminated with one side or the other’s supply lines growing too long while the other’s grew shorter. Major engagements of the campaign include the Battle of Gazala, First Battle of El Alamein, and the Second Battle of El Alamein. Most of the battles took place far to the east of the Italian bases and supply depots in Libya. By 1942, the Royal Navy had beaten the Italian fleet out of the Mediterranean, and allowed their own transports free movement. American forces landed in western North Africa in 1942. The Siege of Tobruk took place from April to August 1941. The Allied garrison, largely Australian, backed by British artillery and tanks, captured the fortress in the first Allied drive through Libya, and held it against great odds. The Western Desert Campaign, or Libya-Egypt Campaign, began on September 13, 1940, when Italian forces stationed in Libya launched a small invasion into British-held Egypt and set up defensive forts …
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – India coach Duncan Fletcher faces a dilemma after player power and a lack of discipline helped account for India's 4-0 series loss to England, according to former South Africa captain Kepler Wessels.
Wessels, a well travelled television commentator, told Reuters on Thursday that former coach Gary Kirsten allowed the senior players to run the team.
“The general consensus is that Fletcher was appointed as long as he continued with the same coaching style as Gary Kirsten. The senior players wanted that, they wanted Gary to stay on, but when that didn't happen, they wanted a like-for-like replacement,” he said.
“Gary allowed the senior players and superstars to run the show and do their own thing. But then the team arrived in England totally unprepared, there was no dedicated approach and no hunger there. India need a much firmer hand, superstars or not,” Wessels told Reuters on Thursday.
Wessels said Fletcher was now “between a rock and a hard place”.
“If he agreed to go with the Kirsten approach, he can't change now. The situation is crying out for more control and a firm hand, but if he does flex his muscles, the players won't like it and it is unclear whether the board will sanction a different approach,” he said.
The former opening batsman, who was renowned for his gritty, disciplined approach during his 16 tests for South Africa and 24 for Australia, said India could not compete with an England team run by team director Andy Flower.
“Flower takes a hard line, he's meticulous on fitness, there are no short cuts and he sets very high standards. The players and management can either buy into it or not be part of the team. He runs a very tight ship and the players have bought into it,” he said.
“The England players are technically very good at the moment in all three disciplines of the game. Due to their superior fitness and technical expertise, they have become used to winning, which has made them mentally strong and ruthless in their pursuit of excellence.”
(Editing by John Mehaffey; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
Rwanda experienced Africa's worst genocide in modern times, and the country's recovery was marred by its intervention in the conflict in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
The country has been beset by ethnic tension associated with the traditionally unequal relationship between the dominant Tutsi minority and the majority Hutus.
Although after 1959 the ethnic relationship was reversed, when civil war prompted around 200,000 Tutsis to flee to Burundi, lingering resentment led to periodic massacres of Tutsis.
The most notorious of these began in April 1994. The shooting down of the plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana, and his Burundian counterpart, near Kigali triggered what appeared to be a coordinated attempt by Hutus to eliminate the Tutsi population.
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At a glance
Politics: Rwanda is trying to shake off its image associated with the 1994 state-sponsored genocide; the government argues the country is now stable
Economy: Growth exceeded 5% in the five years since 2001, driven by coffee and tea exports and expanding tourism; poverty is widespread and Rwanda is highly dependent on aid
Justice: The UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has convicted 27 people for their involvement the 1994 genocide
In response, the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) launched a military campaign to control the country. It achieved this by July, by which time at least 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus had been brutally massacred.
Some two million Hutus fled to Zaire, now the DR Congo. They included some of those responsible for the massacres, and some joined Zairean forces to attack local Tutsis. Rwanda responded by invading refugee camps dominated by Hutu militiamen.
Meanwhile, Laurent Kabila, who seized control of Zaire and renamed it the DR Congo, failed to banish the Hutu extremists, prompting Rwanda to support the rebels trying to overthrow him.
Rwanda withdrew its forces from DR Congo in late 2002 after signing a peace deal with Kinshasa. But tensions simmer, with Rwanda accusing the Congolese army of aiding Hutu rebels in eastern DR Congo.
Rwanda has used traditional “gacaca” community courts to try those suspected of taking part in the 1994 genocide. But key individuals – particularly those accused of orchestrating the slaughter – appear before an International Criminal Tribunal in northern Tanzania.
The country is striving to rebuild its economy, with coffee and tea production being among its main sources of foreign exchange. Nearly two thirds of the population live below the poverty line.
There has been no claim of responsibility so far
There was a loud explosion and smoke billowed from the building following Friday's powerful blast, which shattered all the glass in the building and demolished part of the concrete wall.
Our correspondent said the ground floor of the building was badly damaged and he saw the emergency services removing dead bodies from the building while a number of wounded were rushed to hospital.
“I saw scattered bodies,” Michael Ofilaje, a Unicef worker at the building, said according to the Associated Press news agency (AP). “Many people are dead.”
He said it felt like “the blast came from the basement and shook the building”.
Local hospitals are said to be overwhelmed with the number of injured and have appealed for blood donations.
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A breakaway, semi-desert territory on the coast of the Gulf of Aden, Somaliland declared independence after the overthrow of Somali military dictator Siad Barre in 1991.
The move followed a secessionist struggle during which Siad Barre's forces pursued rebel guerrillas in the territory. Tens of thousands of people were killed and towns were flattened. Overview
Though not internationally recognised, Somaliland has a working political system, government institutions, a police force and its own currency. The territory has lobbied hard to win support for its claim to be a sovereign state.
The former British protectorate has also escaped much of the chaos and violence that plague Somalia, although attacks on Western aid workers in 2003 raised fears that Islamic militants in the territory were targeting foreigners.
Although there is a thriving private business sector, poverty and unemployment are widespread. The economy is highly dependent on money sent home by members of the diaspora. Duties from Berbera, a port used by landlocked Ethiopia, and livestock exports are important sources of revenue.
The latter have been hit by embargoes on exports, imposed by some Gulf countries to inhibit the spread of Rift Valley Fever.
Somaliland is in dispute with the neighbouring autonomous Somali region of Puntland over the Sanaag and Sool areas, some of whose inhabitants owe their allegiance to Puntland.
Somaliland's leaders have distanced themselves from Somalia's central transitional government, set up in 2004 following long-running talks in Kenya, which they see as a threat to Somaliland's autonomy.
Somaliland was independent for a few days in 1960, between the end of British colonial rule and its union with the former Italian colony of Somalia. More than 40 years later voters in the territory overwhelmingly backed its self-declared independence in a 2001 referendum.