The celebrations went on in Lusaka long after the results were announced

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Michael Sata: Zambia's 'King Cobra' finally strikes

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Zambia profile

Zambian opposition leader Michael Sata has been sworn in as president after beating incumbent Rupiah Banda in a tightly contested election.

Mr Sata, who had run for the presidency four times, was declared the winner with 43% of the vote.

“The people of Zambia have spoken and we must all listen,” Mr Banda told journalists, wiping away tears after finishing his speech.

His Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) had ruled Zambia for 20 years.

Mr Banda was booed was by Mr Sata's supporters at the inauguration ceremony in the capital, Lusaka.

Mr Sata – the candidate of the Patriotic Front (PF) party – was sworn in by the Chief Justice Ernest Sakala and handed the ceremonial presidential flag by Mr Banda.

Banda gracious

He said he would fulfil his electoral promises, including forcing foreign companies to improve working conditions.

“I promise to put Zambia first,” he told thousands of people at the ceremony in Lusaka.

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Michael Sata – Profile

Started in politics as municipal councillor and served as governor of Lusaka under Zambia's first President, Kenneth Kaunda

Resigned from Kaunda's United National Independence Party in 1991 and joined Frederick Chiluba's newly formed MMD

Served as MMD minister of local government, labour, and health. Was later minister without portfolio, the third-highest post in government

Formed Patriotic Front in 2001, losing an election that year and in 2006 and 2008

Profile of Michael Sata: Zambia's 'King Cobra'

Mr Sata said he would reduce the size of government and tackle corruption.

“Corruption has been a scourge in this country and there is a wide link between corruption and poverty,” he said.

Mr Banda told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that he attended the ceremony to “greet my friend [Mr Sata] and to show the country that's how we should pass the mantle.

“Deep inside me, I feel some kind of relief that this is over and this has been done in a democratic and civilised way,” he said.

He said previous Zambian presidents had accepted electoral defeat and “I did not want to be the first one to disturb our democratic process”.

On Thursday, there had been riots in the country's northern mining region by opposition supporters impatient for the results of Tuesday's polls.

The BBC's Louise Redvers in the capital, Lusaka, says with the declaration of Mr Sata's victory, the tension in the results centre dissolved into screams as PF supporters celebrated their win.

Thousands of people flocked outside the heavily guarded gates banging drums, beeping horns and waving flags.

'King Cobra'

Mr Sata, who reportedly used to sweep floors at London's Victoria Station, has had a lengthy career in politics.

He served as an MMD minister for local government, labour and social security, and health before quitting in 2001.

Known as “King Cobra” for his venomous tongue, he has frequently criticised foreign mining firms – often from China – about labour conditions.

While the party has disputed media reports that it is anti-Chinese, his election is likely to shake up the way contracts are awarded, our correspondent says.

During the campaign, Mr Banda had highlighted the economic growth largely spurred by Chinese investments and the government's decision to scrap a windfall tax of 25% on mining companies.

Mr Banda said that after the inauguration ceremony, he would go home to spend time with his family.

“I'll just play a little bit with my children. They give me solace,” he said.

Mr Sata has promised to re-introduce the windfall mining tax and to promote policies that will bring greater benefit to poor people.

More than 60% of Zambians live on less than $2 [£1.29] a day.

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WASHINGTON – Four Republican senators traveled to Libya on Thursday to meet with the nation’s new rulers, the highest-profile American delegation to visit the country since the ouster of longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi.

The four lawmakers — John McCain of Arizona, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Marco Rubio of Florida — planned to meet with members of the National Transitional Council, which is now governing Libya after the rebels forced Gadhafi from power. Gadhafi’s whereabouts remain unknown, but the new leaders suspect he is hiding in the southern desert of the North African nation.

The senators, whose brief visit was largely shrouded in secrecy, also planned to tour Martyrs’ Square and hold a news conference with reporters. They traveled from Malta, where they met with Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi on Wednesday.

After months of fighting, anti-Gadhafi forces seized control of Tripoli and much the country late last month. Battles still continue in three areas — Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte, Bani Walid and the southern city of Sabha.

The leaders of Britain, France and Turkey have visited Libya, and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman has traveled to Benghazi. But the congressional group was the most significant American presence as Libya begins a new chapter.

McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and panel member Graham had pressed President Barack Obama for U.S. military intervention in Libya, weeks before the U.N. Security Council voted in March to authorize military action to protect civilians and impose a no-fly zone. McCain had invoked the humanitarian disasters in Rwanda and Bosnia in the 1990s.

When other lawmakers criticized Obama for acting with limited congressional consultation, McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, defended the president.

In April, McCain traveled to Benghazi, where he called the rebels “patriots” and “heroes.”

Rubio is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Kirk serves on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations.

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Ethiopia is Africa's oldest independent country. Apart from a five-year occupation by Mussolini's Italy, it has never been colonised.

But the nation is better known for its periodic droughts and famines, its long civil conflict and a border war with Eritrea.

In the first part of the 20th century Ethiopia forged strong links with Britain, whose troops helped evict the Italians in 1941 and put Emperor Haile Selassie back on his throne. From the 1960s British influence gave way to that of the US, which in turn was supplanted by the Soviet Union.

Drought-prone and short of food, Ethiopia has suffered a series of famines in recent decades

Although it has had fewer of the coups that have plagued other African countries, Ethiopia's turmoil has been no less devastating. Drought, famine, war and ill-conceived policies brought millions to the brink of starvation in the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1974 this helped topple Haile Selassie. His regime was replaced by a self-proclaimed Marxist junta led by Mengistu Haile Mariam under which many thousands of opponents were purged or killed, property was confiscated and defence spending spiralled.

The overthrow of the junta in 1991 saw political and economic conditions stabilise, to the extent that the country is regarded as one of Africa's most stable.

Eritrea gained independence in 1993 following a referendum. Poor border demarcation developed into military conflict and full-scale war in the late 1990s in which tens of thousands of people were killed.

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At a glance

Politics: Prime Minister Meles Zenawi won a fourth term in elections held in May 2010. Secessionist groups maintain a low-level armed struggle

Economy: One of fastest growing non-oil economies in Africa. Depends heavily on agriculture, which is often affected by drought. Coffee is a key export

International: Eritrea hived off in 1993 and a border dispute escalated into full-scale war in 1999. Border tensions persist. Ethiopian troops helped oust Islamists who controlled southern Somalia in 2006. Ethiopia is seen as a key US ally

A fragile truce has held, but the UN says ongoing disputes over the demarcation of the border threaten peace.

Ethiopia is one of Africa's poorest states. Almost two-thirds of its people are illiterate. The economy revolves around agriculture, which in turn relies on rainfall. The country is one of Africa's leading coffee producers.

Many Ethiopians depend on food aid from abroad. In 2004 the government began a drive to move more than two million people away from the arid highlands of the east in an attempt to provide a lasting solution to food shortages.

At the end of 2006 Ethiopia sent between 5,000 and 10,000 troops into Somalia to support forces of the weak transitional government there and helped to oust the Islamists who had controlled southern Somalia for six months.

But, despite initial successes, the Ethiopians were unable to break the power of the Islamists, who gradually began to win back lost territory.

Ethiopia's presence in Somalia formally ended in early 2009, when it pulled its troops under an agreement between the transitional Somali government and moderate Islamists.

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SIRTE (Reuters) – Libya's new rulers have said they believe fugitive former leader Muammar Gaddafi is being shielded by nomadic tribesmen in the desert near the Algerian border, while his followers fend off assaults on his hometown.

Intense sniper and artillery fire from pro-Gaddafi fighters has so far prevented National Transitional Council (NTC) forces from taking Sirte despite more than two weeks of fighting.

One of Gaddafi's last two bastions, it has withstood a siege, NTC tank and rocket fire as well as NATO air strikes. The United Nations and international aid agencies are worried about conditions for civilians trapped inside.

More than a month since NTC fighters captured the capital Tripoli, Gaddafi remains defiantly on the run pledging to lead a campaign of armed resistance against the new leaders.

Gaddafi himself may be holed up near the western town of Ghadames, near the Algerian border, under the protection of Tuareg tribesmen, a senior NTC military official said.

“There has been a fight between Tuareg tribesmen who are loyal to Gaddafi and Arabs living there (in the south). We are negotiating. The Gaddafi search is taking a different course,” Hisham Buhagiar told Reuters, without elaborating.

Many Tuaregs, nomads who roam the desert spanning the borders of Libya and its neighbors, have backed Gaddafi since he supported their rebellions against the governments of Mali and Niger in the 1970s and allowed them to settle in Libya.

Buhagiar said Gaddafi's most politically prominent son, Saif al-Islam, was in the other final loyalist holdout, Bani Walid, and that another son, Mutassem, was in Sirte.

STRUGGLE FOR SIRTE

Lack of coordination and divisions at the frontlines have been hampering NTC attempts to capture Sirte and Bani Walid.

Fighting continued on separate eastern and western fronts in Sirte on Wednesday and commanders said they would try to join the two fronts together and take the city's airport.

“There is progress toward the coastal road and the airport…. The plan is for various brigades to invade from other directions,” NTC fighter Amran al-Oweiwi said.

Street-fighting was under way at a roundabout 2 km (1.5 miles) east of the town center, where anti-Gaddafi fighters were pinned down for a third day by sniper and artillery fire.

As NATO planes circled overhead, NTC forces moved five tanks to the front but were immediately met with Grad rockets fired from inside the town, missing the tanks by only yards.

A Reuters crew at the scene saw some NTC fighters flee the frontline under heavy fire while others stood their ground.

Civilians continued to flee from Sirte.

“There is no fuel, no electricity and there are shells flying everywhere,” resident Mohammad Bashir, who left Sirte on Wednesday, said at a checkpoint just outside the city.

He said that most pro-Gaddafi fighters in Sirte were volunteers. “Some tried to stop us from leaving and some of them will shoot at you,” Bashir said.

Medical workers said 15 fighters were killed in Sirte on Tuesday, the highest single-day death toll. Two more, including a senior NTC field commander, were killed on Wednesday. More than 100 fighters were wounded, many from sniper fire.

NTC fighters captured 60 African mercenaries in Sirte on Wednesday. They said most had come from Chad and Mali to fight with Gaddafi loyalists.

GADDAFI CLAN STILL VOCAL

As the fighting continues, humanitarian organizations are sounding the alarm about the possibility of civilian casualties in the town. Gaddafi's spokesman has said NATO air strikes and NTC shelling are killing civilians.

NATO and the NTC deny that. They say Gaddafi loyalists are using civilians inside Sirte as human shields and have kidnapped and executed those they believe to be NTC supporters.

Four civilians were wounded when a shell fell on a house on the eastern outskirts of Sirte on Wednesday. Medical workers evacuated the four men to a hospital in Ras Lanuf, which lies 220 km (137 miles) east of Sirte.

“We were sitting in the house, making tea, and all of a sudden a rocket landed,” said Ali Al-Ferjani, adding that he believed the shell was fired by Gaddafi fighters.

(Additional reporting by William MacLean and Alexander Dziadosz in Tripoli, Emad Omar in Benghazi, Samia Nakhoul in London, Christian Lowe and Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers; Writing by Barry Malone and Joseph Nasr; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

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Ceuta and Melilla, fragments of Europe on north Africa's Mediterranean coast, came under Spanish control around 500 years ago.

Madrid says the urban enclaves are integral parts of Spain. They are surrounded by Morocco, which views the Spanish presence as anachronistic and claims sovereignty.

But improving relations were jeopardised in November 2007 by Spanish King Juan Carlos' II first visit to the territories in more than 30 years, which King Mohammed VI strongly condemned.

Spain also controls a scattering of islets along the north African coast, including uninhabited Perejil, which was at the centre of a spat in 2002 when Moroccan soldiers occupied it before being removed by the Spanish army.

More recently, differences over Ceuta and Melilla have not prevented a warming of relations between Morocco and Spain, particularly economic ones. Morocco's premier has advocated “neighbourly” talks on the issue.

With its rebuilt 15th century cathedral, shipyards and a fish-processing plant, Ceuta is viewed by Spain as the more strategically-valuable enclave. The town is a 90-minute ferry ride from mainland Spain.

Melilla, conquered in 1497, is a modern town with a distinctive old quarter.

The enclaves are surrounded by fences, intended to deter illegal immigrants. But Ceuta and Melilla are nonetheless used by many Africans as stepping-stones to Iberia. Many migrants are caught and some drown while attempting to make the sea crossing. People trafficking is common.

After a series of increasingly-desperate attempts by would-be immigrants to surmount the barriers in 2005, Spain and Morocco agreed to deploy extra troops to try to secure the borders.

Ceuta and Melilla are linked to Spain by ferry services to Malaga, Algeciras and Almeria. Borders and defence are controlled by Madrid. Tourism is an important money-earner with duty-free goods being a big draw for visitors.

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A largely semi-desert country, Chad is rich in gold and uranium and stands to benefit from its recently-acquired status as an oil-exporting state.

However, Africa's fifth-largest nation suffers from inadequate infrastructure and internal conflict. Poverty is rife, and health and social conditions compare unfavourably with those elsewhere in the region.

Chad's post-independence history has been marked by instability and violence stemming mostly from tension between the mainly Arab-Muslim north and the predominantly Christian and animist south.

In 1969 Muslim dissatisfaction with the first president, Ngarta Tombalbaye – a Christian southerner – developed into a guerrilla war. This, combined with a severe drought, undermined his rule and in 1975 President Tombalbaye was killed in a coup led by another southerner, Felix Malloum.

Mr Malloum, too, failed to end the war, and in 1979 he was replaced by a Libyan-backed northerner, Goukouki Oueddei. But the fighting continued, this time with a former defence minister, Hissen Habre, on the opposite side.

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At a glance

Politics: Crises on several fronts: President Deby, in power since 1990, faces an armed rebellion by several groups and incursions from neighbouring Sudan. He survived a coup attempt in 2006

Humanitarian issues: 140,000 people are internal refugees; 200,000 refugees are from Sudan

Economy: Chad is enjoying an oil boom. Changes to rules governing how revenues can be spent have been controversial. Chad ranks as the world's most corrupt state

International: Chad cut ties with Sudan in 2006, accusing it of supporting rebels, but since 2009 efforts have been made to resolve the countries' differences. Chad hosts large numbers of refugees from Central African Republic and Sudan's Darfur

In 1982, with French help, Mr Habre captured the capital, N'Djamena, and Mr Oueddei escaped to the north, where he formed a rival government. The standoff ended in 1990, when Mr Habre was toppled by the Libyan-backed Idriss Deby.

By the mid-1990s the situation had stabilised and in 1996 Mr Deby was confirmed president in Chad's first election.

In 1998 an armed insurgency began in the north, led by President Deby's former defence chief, Youssouf Togoimi. A Libyan-brokered peace deal in 2002 failed to put an end to the fighting.

From 2003 unrest in neighbouring Sudan's Darfur region spilled across the border, along with hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees. They have been joined by thousands of Chadians who are fleeing rebel fighting as well as violence between ethnic Arab and ethnic African Chadians.

Chad and Sudan accuse each other of backing and harbouring rebels, and the dispute led to severing of relations in 2006. However, since then, progress has been made towards normalising ties, with the two countries' presidents meeting for the first time in six years in 2010.

Chad became an oil-producing nation in 2003 with the completion of a $4bn pipeline linking its oilfields to terminals on the Atlantic coast. The government has moved to relax a law controlling the use of oil money, which the World Bank had made a condition of its $39m loan.

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