AFRICAN LEADERS DEBATE ISREAL

African countries recommended on Tuesday that a U.N. forum on racism next year discuss concerns over the treatment of Palestinians in the Middle East, an issue that has led some countries to consider not participating.

The controversial topic marred a previous U.N. conference on racism in 2001 when Israel and the United States walked out in protest over a draft text branding Israel as a racist and apartheid state — language that was later dropped.Officials from 21 African states met in Nigeria’s capital Abuja for talks ahead of a U.N. meeting in Geneva next April to chart progress in the global fight against racism since the landmark conference seven years ago in Durban.

The World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance was meant to lay down a blueprint for nations to address the issues.Canada said earlier this year it would not take part in the follow-up forum in Geneva next April because it was likely to descend into “regrettable anti-Semitism”.

Participants at the talks in Abuja unanimously adopted a text which raised “concern about the plight of the Palestinian people under foreign occupations”.“It is only one paragraph that mentions the Palestinians, so the interest of Israel was never badly damaged,” Ibrahim Wani, from the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said after the 3-day talks in Abuja.Human rights activists criticized African countries for choosing to highlight the Palestinian issue but at the same time ignore “racist crimes” in Sudan, South Africa and Kenya

SOUTH AFRICA SHELVES BILL

South Africa has shelved legislation designed to speed up a land reform programme by allowing the government to expropriate white-owned farms. A parliamentary committee blamed a lack of consultation and said it aimed to re-introduce the Bill at a later date.

The government says it wants to redistribute nearly one third of white-owned farmland by 2014. At the end of apartheid in 1994, nearly 90% of land was owned by whites, who made up under 10% of the population.

But so far just 4% has been transferred to blacks. Critics say the legislation would be unconstitutional as it would stop people going to court if their property was taken.

The expropriation bill, which aims to give the government greater powers to transfer land and property from existing owners, was introduced by the ruling ANC in April. A committee statement said: “The decision [to shelve the bill] was reached after consultation with various stakeholders both within and outside parliament and in the interest of broader consultation and effective public participation.”

GUNMEN KIDNAP ISRAELI

Gunmen kidnapped an Israeli expatriate from his residence in Nigeria’s oil hub of Port Harcourt, a security official in the restive Niger Delta region said on Wednesday. The security source, who asked not to be named, said the Israeli was abducted on Tuesday evening. No group has yet claimed responsibility.

 More than 200 foreigners have been seized in the Niger Delta, the heart of the country’s oil sector, since early 2006. Almost all have been released unharmed.

 Insecurity in Nigeria, the world’s eighth largest oil exporter, has cut crude output by around a fifth since militants launched a campaign of violence two years ago to press for greater development in their neglected communities.

 Criminal gangs have taken advantage of the breakdown in law and order, frequently kidnapping businessmen, local politicians and foreign workers for ransom.

 

Nigeria’s largest construction firm Julius Berger suspended operations in the delta last month after two of its employees were kidnapped. The hostages have since been released, but the company has yet to resume its work in the area

HIJACKERS FREE ALL PASSENGERS

The hijackers of a Sudanese plane flown to Libya have freed all the passengers according to Libya’s civil aviation authority.

‘we can confirm all the passengers have been freed’ an airport official told the Reuters news agency. The Sun Air Boeing 737 was carrying some 95 passengers when it was seized shortly after taking off from the Darfur town of Nyala.

The pilot had said that some passengers had fainted after the air-conditioning failed in Libya’s desert town of Kufra. He said the hijackers were Darfur rebels but this has been denied.

The plane was on its way to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, when a man with a knife hijacked it, a Sudanese security official was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency. The hijackers have asked for fuel to fly the plane to France. The plane initially tried to land in Cairo, Egypt, where it was denied permission to land.

A five-year conflict in Darfur has left about 200,000 people dead and more than two million homeless. The desert oasis of Kufra is in a remote region approximately 1,700km (1,050 miles) south of the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

It is an area close to both the Sudanese and Chadian borders, and is often used as a corridor for humanitarian aid for displaced Darfurians