US COURT TO SENTENCE CHARLES TAYLOR’S SON

“Chuckie” Taylor, the son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor is due to be sentenced by a US court after being convicted of torture.

The case is the first test of a 1994 US law allowing the prosecution of citizens who commit torture overseas.

Chuckie Taylor, 31, headed a notorious paramilitary unit while his father’s government was battling rebels.

Charles Taylor is on trial at a court in The Hague – he denies 11 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

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The prosecution has urged that Chuckie Taylor be sentenced to 147 years in prison. He was born in the US but after his father won Liberia’s 1997 elections, he moved to the country and was made the head of the notorious Anti-Terrorist Unit (ATU) while in his early 20s.

This elite pro-government military division was widely feared in Liberia and the crimes were especially brutal when the unit was cracking down on a rebellion which began in 1999.

At his trial in October 2008, Chuckie Taylor was accused of committing or conspiring to commit executions, imprisoning a group of individuals in a hole in the ground, burning victims and administering electric shocks.

The Miami jury made a direct link between some incidents of torture and the defendant.

GHADDAFI URGES ARAB NATIONS TO ATTACK ISREAL

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who has accused Arab leaders of a “cowardly” response to Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, urged them to let their citizens join Palestinian fighters as volunteers, state media said on Friday.

“I call on Arabs to open the door for volunteers to fight alongside the Palestinians,” said Gaddafi in a one-line statement carried by state news agency Jana.

The maverick Libyan leader did not say whether he would specifically ask Egypt, the only country with a border with Gaza, to let would-be Arab combatants into the Palestinian enclave, which is under an Israeli-led blockade.

A day after Israeli offensive on Gaza began on December 27, Gaddafi assailed Arab leaders for failing to back the Palestinians living there beyond offering humanitarian aid or discussing a possible Arab summit.

Israel says its 14-day-old offensive on Gaza, where Islamist Hamas leaders say more than 750 Palestinians have been killed, is designed to stop cross-border attacks by Hamas.

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TSVANGIRAI IN LAST DITCH EFFORT TO SAVE DEAL

Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has requested a meeting with President Robert Mugabe in a last-ditch effort to salvage a power-sharing deal, an opposition spokesman said on Friday.

Tsvangirai and Mugabe signed a unity pact last September, but the agreement appears to be unravelling following a dispute over the control of key ministries and the abduction of several opposition and human rights activists.

Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) spokesman Nelson Chamisa told Reuters that the opposition party had sought a meeting with Mugabe on the dialogue.

“We have written to Mugabe, indicating that we want a meeting between him and (MDC) president Tsvangirai to bring finality and closure to the dialogue,” he said.

“We can’t keep Zimbabweans guessing, we have to close the chapter on dialogue, whether in success or failure.”

Chamisa said Mugabe had yet to respond to the MDC’s overtures. He declined to give details on what Tsvangirai expected from the meeting.

Chamisa said Tsvangirai, who has been outside Zimbabwe since a regional summit in South Africa last November, would return to the country “within days”.

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SOMALI PIRATES RELEASE SAUDI VESSEL

Somali pirates took a $3 million ransom and freed on Friday a Saudi supertanker seized in the world’s biggest ship hijacking, an associate of the gang said.

Farah Osman, speaking to Reuters from Haradheere port near where the Sirius Star had been held for nearly two months, said the pirates had wanted more money but finally agreed $3 million for the ship which has a $100 million oil cargo.

A regional maritime group confirmed the release.

“The last batch of gunmen have disembarked from the Sirius Star. She is now steaming out to safe waters,” said Andrew Mwangura, of the East African Seafarers Assistance programme, based in the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

The Sirius Star was captured in November with 25 crew members, 450 nautical miles southeast off Kenya in the boldest seizure to date by Somali pirates.

That strike, one of the most spectacular in maritime history, drew world attention to rampant piracy off Somalia that had worsened dramatically in 2008 as an Islamist insurgency fuelled chaos onshore.

ZUMA SAYS CORRUPTION CASE CAN’T STOP HIM

Jacob Zuma will lead South Africa’s ruling ANC into this year’s elections even if he is charged with corruption, the president has said. Kgalema Motlanthe was speaking ahead of Monday’s Supreme Court ruling on whether the charges should be dropped.

State prosecutors have appealed against a ruling that they were wrong to resurrect the charges last year.  As ANC leader, Mr Zuma would be the strong favourite to become president after the polls in a few months’ time. According to Mr Motlanthe “He remains the ANC’s contender for presidency of the country in this year’s elections.”

Mr Zuma, 65, has always denied charges of graft, money-laundering and racketeering, stemming from a controversial $5bn 1999 arms deal. He has said he would only resign from public office if convicted.  His supporters say the charges were part of a plot to prevent him becoming president.

He won a bitter contest a year ago against former President Thabo Mbeki to leader the African National Congress.  When Judge Chris Nicholson dismissed the case on a technicality in September, he stressed his ruling had no bearing on the guilt or otherwise of Mr Zuma.

But he said there was evidence of political interference – that Mr Mbeki had colluded with prosecutors against Mr Zuma as part of the “titanic power struggle” within the ANC.  This led to Mr Mbeki standing down as president and his replacement by Mr Motlanthe, an ally of the ANC leader.

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