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Kenya is pursuing Islamist militants in Somalia
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Are Kenyans seeking a buffer zone in Somalia?
Kenya raises the stakes
Q&A: Al-Shabab
At least five people, including three children, have died after a refugee camp in southern Somalia was bombed, the MSF charity says.
Kenya's army denied bombing the camp, saying it had been attacked by the militant Islamist group, al-Shabab.
A Kenya fighter jet only hit al-Shabab positions in Jilib, killing 10 of its fighters, an army spokesman said.
Kenya sent troops into Somalia on 16 October to pursue al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaeda.
In a statement, MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres) said aerial bombardments in Jilib – a stronghold of al-Shabab – had hit a camp for displaced people on Sunday.
Three children, a woman and a man were killed in the attack and another 45 people were treated for shrapnel wounds, MSF-Holland Somalia mission head Gautam Chatterjee said.
In a BBC interview, Kenyan military spokesman Maj Emmanuel Chirchir denied that Kenya's air force had bombed the camp.
‘Attack at sea’
“MSF is being used by al-Shabab [for propaganda purposes],” he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.
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“Start Quote
The nutrition clinic and cholera centre are closed”
End Quote Gautam Chatterjee MSF official
He said an al-Shabab militant had driven a truck laden with explosives into the camp, causing the casualties.
A Kenyan fighter jet had attacked an al-Shabab base near the refugee camp, Maj Chirchir said.
“We received intelligence that a top al-Shabab leader was to visit a camp in Jilib so we conducted an air raid,” he said.
Maj Chirchir said “human intelligence” showed that 10 al-Shabab fighters had been killed and 47 wounded.
Mr Chatterjee said MSF had evacuated its staff from Jilib, the AFP news agency reports.
“So today the nutrition clinic and cholera centre are closed. We will re-open as soon as things are a bit safer for our staff there,” he is quoted as saying.
Maj Chirchir said al-Shabab had also been attacked at sea, with the Kenyan navy capsizing three of its boats along the Somali coast.
Kenya says it is pursuing al-Shabab in Somalia because it poses a threat to its stability.
It accuses the group of a spate of kidnappings in Kenya – including that of a French woman who died in Somalia earlier this month.
Al-Shabab denies involvement in the abductions.
It has vowed to retaliate against Kenya for sending troops into Somalia.
Somalia has been without an effective for more than 20 years.
The UN declared a famine earlier this year in six areas under al-Shabab's control.
Somalia's Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohammed visited Kenya on Monday and said al-Shabab was the common enemy of Somalia and Kenya and the best way to deal with the effects of the famine was to defeat the group.
He said Somali government troops were taking the lead in the offensive against al-Shabab and that the Kenyan military was playing a supportive role.
Last week, Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said he was opposed to Kenya's intervention.
Some humanitarian agencies are worried that the operation threatens to make it harder to get aid to the victims of the famine in southern Somalia, correspondents say.
Suha Arafat had set up an international school with Leila Trabelsi in Tunisia
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Tunisian rebirth
Already winners?
Islamist enigma
Q&A: Tunisia elections
Press hails “new era” in Tunisia
Tunisian authorities have issued an international arrest warrant for Suha Arafat, the widow of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
The justice ministry said she is suspected of involvement in financial corruption with the family of deposed President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
Mrs Arafat used to spend much time in the country and went into business with Ben Ali's wife, Leila Trabelsi.
She has denied the charges, AFP news agency says.
“Tunisia issued an arrest warrant against Mrs Arafat on suspicion of involvement in cases of financial corruption with the family of Ben Ali's wife,” a spokesman for the justice ministry said.
The Ben Ali and Trabelsi families controlled much of the Tunisian economy.
After Mr Arafat's death in 2004, Mrs Arafat received Tunisian citizenship and set up an international school in the city of Carthage with Trabelsi.
Relations between the two soured and in 2007 her citizenship was revoked and she was forced to leave the country.
Former President Ben Ali was overthrown in January, in the first popular uprising of the Arab Spring, and fled to Saudi Arabia.
Tunisia's interim government has launched cases against dozens of people suspected of corruption during Ben Ali's 23 years in power.
Tunisian courts have convicted Ben Ali and Trabelsi in absentia of theft, corruption and other charges, which they denied.
The Arafat connection to Tunisia dates back to the 1980s when the Palestinian Liberation Organisation was exiled and set up its headquarters in Tunis.
Mrs Arafat is now reported to be living in Malta.
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Libya Crisis
Muammar Gaddafi: How he died
The bloody birth of new Libya
Last of the buffoon dictators?
Revolution 'still has far to go'
Libya's National Transitional Council says it believes several hundred ancient coins stolen from a bank in Benghazi during the Libyan uprising have turned up in Egypt.
More than 7,000 priceless coins and other precious artefacts were taken during a robbery in May while the city fought for its survival against forces loyal to Col Muammar Gaddafi.
At the time, a fire at the bank was blamed on the fighting. Now it is thought to have been part of the audacious robbery.
The thieves targeted a collection known as the Treasure of Benghazi.
It included more than 10,000 pieces, with coins dating back to Greek, Roman, Byzantine and early Islamic times, but also other treasures such as small statues and jewellery.
Most had been discovered during the Italian occupation of Libya and were taken out of the country.
They were then returned to Libya in 1961 after the country's independence.
The collection has been kept in the vault of the Commercial Bank of Benghazi ever since, waiting for the opening of a museum that was never built.
The coins were never photographed or documented and seemed to have been forgotten, according to Dr Saleh Algab, the chairman of the Tripoli Museum.
Although not the only collection of ancient coins in Libya, Mr Algab said they were a hugely valuable representation of the mosaic of Libyan history – an important reminder for Libya's sometimes fractious, at times antagonistic, regions and ethnic groups that they all belong in one Libya, he said.
Inside job?
Fadel al-Hasi, Libya's acting minister for antiquities, told the BBC there were suspicions the robbery could have been an inside job.
The bank's employees have been questioned several times, he said.
Burglars drilled through the concrete ceiling of the bank vault to reach the coins.
They targeted the most valuable items only.
Mr al-Hasi alerted Interpol about the theft in July. He said international antiquities markets were being monitored.
Several hundred coins may have been recovered in Egypt, but that was still to be confirmed, he added.
Libya's recent tumultuous political events meant the theft of the coins had been a bit sidelined, he said, but that he or one of his colleagues would be travelling to Egypt in the next week or two.
There have also been reports of precious coins appearing at the daily gold market in Benghazi.
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Somalia – Failed State
Suicide strategy
Islamists and famine
Fleeing to war-zone
Q&A: Who are al-Shabab?
Somalia has been without an effective central government since President Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991.
Years of fighting between rival warlords and an inability to deal with famine and disease have led to the deaths of up to one million people.
Comprised of a former British protectorate and an Italian colony, Somalia was created in 1960 when the two territories merged. Since then its development has been slow. Relations with neighbours have been soured by its territorial claims on Somali-inhabited areas of Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti.
In 1970 Mr Barre proclaimed a socialist state, paving the way for close relations with the USSR. In 1977, with the help of Soviet arms, Somalia attempted to seize the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, but was defeated thanks to Soviet and Cuban backing for Ethiopia, which had turned Marxist.
In 1991 President Barre was overthrown by opposing clans. But they failed to agree on a replacement and plunged the country into lawlessness and clan warfare.
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At a glance
Scene of Africa's worst humanitarian crisis: aid agencies warn that millions face starvation
No effective government since 1991
Islamist militia and UN-backed transitional government compete for control of country
The self-proclaimed state of Somaliland and the region of Puntland run their own affairs
Country profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring
In 2000 clan elders and other senior figures appointed Abdulkassim Salat Hassan president at a conference in Djibouti. A transitional government was set up, with the aim of reconciling warring militias.
But as its mandate drew to a close, the administration had made little progress in uniting the country.
In 2004, after protracted talks in Kenya, the main warlords and politicians signed a deal to set up a new parliament, which later appointed a president.
The fledgling administration, the 14th attempt to establish a government since 1991, has faced a formidable task in bringing reconciliation to a country divided into clan fiefdoms.
Islamist insurgency
Its authority was further compromised in 2006 by the rise of Islamists who gained control of much of the south, including the capital, after their militias kicked out the warlords who had ruled the roost for 15 years.
With the backing of Ethiopian troops, forces loyal to the interim administration seized control from the Islamists at the end of 2006.
Islamist insurgents – including the Al-Shabab group, which later declared allegiance to al-Qaeda – fought back against the government and Ethiopian forces, regaining control of most of southern Somalia by late 2008.
Ethiopia pulled its troops out in January 2009. Soon after, Al-Shabab fighters took control of Baidoa, formerly a key stronghold of the transitional government.
Life continues amid the ruins of Mogadishu
Somalia's parliament met in neighbouring Djibouti in late January and swore in 149 new members from the main opposition movement, the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia.
The parliament also extended the mandate of the transitional federal government for another two years, and installed moderate Islamist Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmad as the new president.
However, the government's military position weakened further, and in May 2009 Islamist insurgents launched an attack on Mogadishu, prompting President Ahmad to appeal for help from abroad.
Al-Shabab appears to have consolidated its position as the most powerful insurgent group by driving its main rival, Hizbul Islam, out of the southern port city of Kismayo in October 2009. Since then they have openly declared their alliance with al-Qaeda and have been steadily moving forces up towards Mogadishu.
Piracy
The long-standing absence of authority in the country has led to Somali pirates becoming a major threat to international shipping in the area, and has prompted Nato to take the lead in an anti-piracy operation.
In 2011, the plight of the Somali people was exacerbated by the worst drought in six decades, which left millions of people on the verge of starvation and caused tens of thousands to flee to Kenya and Ethiopia in search of food.
After the collapse of the Siad Barre regime in 1991, the north-west part of Somalia unilaterally declared itself the independent Republic of Somaliland. The territory, whose independence is not recognised by international bodies, has enjoyed relative stability.
USACE People: Europe District engineer takes to Africa’s dunes
Image by USACE Europe District
Runners race through the Sahara Desert’s hills and valleys during the fifth stage of the 25th annual Marathon Des Sables April 9, 2010. Achim Knacksterdt, chief of the Technical Engineering Section at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Europe District, participated in the 243 km (151 mile), seven-day race, equivalent to running almost six regular marathons. Read about his experience at www.army.mil/-news/2010/05/21/39559-usace-people-europe-d… (Photo courtesy of Achim Knacksterdt)
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – NATO ends its military operation in Libya at midnight on Monday, seven months after launching an air and sea campaign that helped bring the overthrow and death of Muammar Gaddafi.
In announcing the decision last week, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called it “one of the most successful” operations in the history of the 62-year-old alliance.
Rasmussen will mark the end of the mission by visiting Libya on Monday, where he will meet Libya's National Transitional Council and members of civil society, the alliance said.
Despite Rasmussen's depiction of the mission, the NATO intervention caused sharp rifts in the alliance and went on much longer than Western nations had expected or wanted.
NATO stuck to its decision to end the operation despite NTC calls for it to stay engaged longer and says it does not expect to play a major post-war role, although it could assist the transition to democracy by helping with security sector reform.
NATO took over the mission on March 31, based on a United Nations mandate that set a no-fly zone over Libya and permitted foreign military forces, including NATO, to use “all necessary measures” to protect Libyan civilians.
That mandate was terminated last Thursday, despite a request for the U.N. Security Council to wait for the NTC to decide if it wants NATO help to secure its borders.
NATO allies have been keen to see a quick conclusion to a costly effort that has involved more than 26,000 air sorties and round-the-clock naval patrols at a time when budgets are under severe strain due to the global economic crisis.
But NATO officials said members of the alliance are free to give further security aid to Libya individually.
The NTC officially announced Libya's liberation on October 23, days after the capture and death of Gaddafi. NATO commanders have said they believe the interim administration is able to take care of the country's security.
Libya has been the first NATO operation in which the United States sought to step back from a leading role and prompted some sharp criticism from Washington of the capabilities of allies after they failed to secure the quick results hoped for.
The U.S. ambassador to NATO, Ivo Daalder, and the alliance's top operations commander, U.S. Admiral James Stavridis, hailed the success of the mission on Monday in a commentary in the New York Times, but reiterated the need for allies to address the shortcomings in capabilities it revealed.
While calling it a “true alliance effort” in which non-U.S. allies flew 75 percent of the air missions, they said the United States played a leading role in destroying Libya's air defense system and providing critical resources, including the vast majority of intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and the aerial refueling assets.
Fourteen NATO members and four other states provided naval and air forces, but only eight NATO nations took part in combat missions. Some big NATO states, notably Germany, had opposed the intervention.
Daalder and Stavridis said U.S. planes flew a quarter of all sorties over Libya, France and Britain a third of all missions — most of them strike operations — and the remaining participants flew roughly 40 percent.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom Editing by Maria Golovnina)
Funerals in Ghana are elaborate affairs
If your spouse dies and you happen to be not very popular with your in-laws, then better get resigned to the fact that while you mourn the loss of your partner, you will be accused of having killed him or her.
I have seen it and it is not a pleasant experience.
My friend's husband died. Their children wanted their father buried after three weeks, but his family wanted his body kept for four months to enable relatives scattered around the four corners of the globe to attend the funeral.
We coaxed, we begged, we paid fines for all the years the children had not been to the village, but all to no avail – the body belongs to the family and they took it away.
This is an everyday occurrence in Ghana and if you think you can avoid it, let me tell you the story of a former chief justice who left strict instructions about what should happen when he dies.
He wanted to be buried within two weeks of his death and he did not want a state funeral.
Three weeks after he died, his family came to formally announce his death to the president and then added most helpfully that they had prayed and set aside the man's wishes and the president should feel free to accord a state funeral.
The man got a state funeral some six weeks after his death.
If that can happen to a chief justice, it is obvious there is no point in me leaving any instructions, but just in case anybody cares, I want to be cremated within a week.
Not that I plan on going any time soon.
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NEW YORK – An Emory University law student who was arrested months ago at a demonstration in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, accused of being a spy and locked in an Egyptian jail for the summer returned home to New York City on Saturday as part of a prisoner swap that also freed 25 Egyptians held in Israel.
Ilan Grapel, 27, arrived at Kennedy Airport looking tired and thin, but wearing a huge smile.
He said that after spending more than four months behind bars in Egypt, he had a new appreciation for the American legal system.
“All of a sudden, the Bill of Rights is not something for the history books,” he told reporters gathered in the terminal.
Grapel, who holds joint U.S. and Israeli citizenship, was volunteering for a group aiding Sudanese refugees in Egypt and staying at a youth hostel when he was detained by police who saw him carrying a protest sign at a rally on June 12.
He was accused of spying for Israel, then held for months without formal charges or a trial while U.S. and Israeli officials worked to gain his release.
Grapel said he was no spy, although he does have the type of resume that makes intelligence services drool. The high achiever graduated early from Johns Hopkins University, speaks fluent Arabic and Hebrew, served in Israel’s armed forces and had internships with Israel’s high court and in the Queens district office of U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman.
After Grapel’s joyful reunion with family members at the airport, Ackerman said the student was more like “the kind of kid who might have been at Zuccotti Park,” referring to the plaza that is home to New York City’s Occupy Wall Street encampment.
Israel has also denied that Grapel was a spy.
Grapel said he was kept in solitary confinement during his imprisonment, but was treated and fed well, and allowed a visit from his mother, Irene.
“I can only say that for four and a half months, we were heartbroken,” she said after accompanying her son home Saturday.
Grapel was released was from jail Thursday. He traveled to Israel, where he said he was given a hamburger and red wine by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and then departed for the U.S. early Saturday morning.
The Delta flight was delayed for several hours due to a mechanical problem, and was nearly canceled until the flight crew voted to work extended hours just so Grapel could get home, he said.
Grapel thanked Ackerman for lobbying Egypt’s ruling military council for his release. He said it wasn’t the first time the congressman had written him a recommendation, but he never thought he’d have to recommend that he wasn’t a spy.
Although Guinea's mineral wealth makes it potentially one of Africa's richest countries, its people are among the poorest in West Africa.
Ruled by strong-arm leaders since independence, Guinea has been seen as a bulwark against instability in neighbouring Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast. However it has also been implicated in the conflicts that have ravaged the region.
After independence in 1958 Guinea severed ties with France and turned to the Soviet Union. The first president, Ahmed Sekou Toure, pursued a revolutionary socialist agenda and crushed political opposition. Tens of thousands of people disappeared, or were tortured and executed, during his 26-year regime.
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At a glance
Politics: Military junta took control in December 2008 at the of death of President Lansana Conte, who seized power in a coup 24 years earlier. A provisional government supervised the transition to civilian rule at the end of 2010
Economy: Guinea is a leading bauxite exporter, but most of its people live on less than $1 a day
International: The US, the African Union and the European Union have imposed sanctions
Economic mismanagement and repression culminated in riots in 1977. These led to some relaxation of state control of the economy.
But it was only after the death in 1984 of Ahmed Sekou Toure, and the seizure of power by Lansana Conte and other officers, that the socialist experiment was abandoned – without reversing poverty.
In 2000 Guinea became home to up to half a million refugees fleeing fighting in Sierra Leone and Liberia. This increased the strain on its economy and generated suspicion and ethnic tension, amid mutual accusations of attempts at destabilisation and border attacks.
Acute economic problems, instability among its neighbours and uncertainty over a successor to its authoritarian president have prompted a European think-tank, the Crisis Group, to warn that Guinea risks becoming a “failed state”.