ERITREA INSISTS IT IS NOT A SPONSOR OF TERRORISM

Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki said renewed accusations that Asmara is arming Somalia’s Islamist rebels was the work of CIA agents in the region bent on blackening his government’s name.

“We don’t interfere (in Somalia) and we don’t want to see any terrorism prevail in Somalia,” Isaias told Reuters.

Somalia’s government has accused Eritrea of supporting al Shabaab insurgents with planeloads of AK-47 assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons.

To the anger of Asmara — which says there is no evidence in accusations that have been around for several years — the U.N. has ordered a probe and east African bloc IGAD wants sanctions on Eritrea including a no-fly zone.

“It’s CIA operatives … these people are liars,” Isaias, a former rebel commander in power since 1991, said during an interview at Asmara’s colonial-era presidential palace.

“This is a continuation of the old story. I know for sure, even the individuals behind these things. I don’t want to talk about that because it would poison the whole mood.”

Former U.S. president George W. Bush’s government had threatened to put Eritrea on its list of state sponsors of terrorism, and Isaias said old interest groups were still jostling for influence with President Barack Obama.

He said Asmara would wait to see the impact of the Bush-Obama transition, and what he termed a bigger historical transition of U.S. economic ties and international attitudes.

SOURCED FROM REUTERS

AMNESTY SAYS HUNDREDS WERE KILLED IN NIGER DELTA CLASH

Rights group Amnesty International said on Thursday it had received reports suggesting hundreds of people, mainly civilians, may have been killed in a week-old Nigerian military offensive in the oil-producing Niger Delta.

Nigeria last week launched its biggest military campaign for years in the western delta, bombarding militant camps near the town of Warri from the air and sea before sending in hundreds of troops to try to flush rebel fighters out of local communities.

Amnesty said the highest death toll was believed to have come when the joint military taskforce (JTF) in the delta used helicopter gunships to attack communities around a major militant camp close to Warri last Friday.

“According to reports received by Amnesty International, hundreds of bystanders including women and children are believed to have been killed and injured by the JTF (military) and by the armed groups while shooting at the JTF,” it said in a statement.

The Nigerian army has repeatedly denied using excessive force and has said that no innocent civilians have been killed or displaced.

“We are applying minimum force,” military spokesman Colonel Rabe Abubakar said on Wednesday.

“There are no casualties on the civilian side. Whoever is injured must have taken part in the fighting. It means they are criminals and if we get them, we will arrest them,” he said.

Minister of State for Petroleum Odein Ajumogobia told reporters on Wednesday the government was doing all it could to minimise the loss of lives.

SOURCED FROM REUTERS

TANZANIAN TO BE TRIED ON TERROR CHARGES IN US

An al-Qaeda suspect is to become the first Guantanamo inmate to stand trial in a US civilian court, reports say.

Ahmed Ghailani will be sent to New York to face charges over the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa, the White House is expected to announce.

The news comes as the US Senate voted against funding President Obama’s plans to close down Guantanamo Bay detention centre and transfer its 240 detainees.

Mr Obama is due to address concerns in a major speech later on Thursday.

He is under pressure from both Democrats and Republicans over his pledge to shut the camp in Cuba by January 2010.

At the same time, former vice-president Dick Cheney is due to give his own address – explaining why President Obama’s national security policies are leaving Americans less safe.

Officials, on condition of anonymity, told US media the Obama administration would announce that Ahmed Ghailani will be sent to New York City for trial.

They did not specify when that might be. Ghailani, a Tanzanian, was seized in Pakistan in 2004 and was one of 14 so-called “high-value detainees” transferred from secret CIA prisons abroad to Guantanamo in September 2006.

He was indicted in New York on charges related to the August 1998 bombing of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya that killed more than 200 people.

According to the transcript of a closed-door hearing in March 2007, Mr Ghailani admitted delivering explosives used to blow up the US embassy in Dar Es Salaam.

However, he told the hearing he did not know about the attack beforehand and apologised to the US government and the victims’ families.

The expected announcement comes as Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete is to hold talks with President Obama – the first African head of state to meet the new US leader in Washington.

SOURCED FROM BBC

LEBANESE POP STAR, SUZANNE TAMIM’S KILLERS SENTENCED TO DEATH

An Egyptian billionaire and former top political figure has been sentenced to death in Cairo for the 2008 murder of Lebanese pop star Suzanne Tamim.

Hisham Talaat Moustafa was found guilty of paying $2m to an ex-policeman to kill the singer. The killer Muhsin Sukkari was also sentenced to hang.

Ms Tamim reportedly broke off a secret love affair with Moustafa months before she was stabbed to death in Dubai.

The tale of sex, politics, money and show business gripped the Arab world.

Reports described “chaos” in the courtroom after the judge read out a short statement and ordered the sentences referred to the religious authorities for confirmation – as is normal in

Sukkari’s face went pale and family members burst into tears as the sentence was delivered, news agency AFP said.

The indictment had accused the security guard who worked at a hotel owned by Moustafa of

30, with a knife at her luxury Dubai apartment last July.  Clothes found at the apartment carried his DNA, and he was identified after being caught on film by a security camera.

Telephone conversations between Sukkari and Moustafa also formed part of the prosecution’s case.

The indictment had accused Moustafa, former head of the Talaat Moustafa Group property empire, of participating in the murder through “incitement, agreement and assistance”.

As well as serving in the upper house of the Egyptian parliament, Hisham Talaat Moustafa is known to have been close to President Hosni Mubarak’s politically powerful son Gamal and he sat on the ruling National Democratic Party’s policy committee.

Members of are often viewed in the country as being above the law, and there was massive public interest in the case.

 The Dubai authorities applied such pressure on the Egyptians to bring the case to trial that he was eventually stripped of his parliamentary immunity.

But in Egypt after the opening statements – a ruling which brought sharp criticism from the opposition.

Suzanne Tamim had risen to stardom throughout the Middle East as the winner of a pop idol contest in Lebanon in 1996.

But her career was marred by reports of a troubled private life.

SOURCED FROM BBC

MDC MEMBER DETAINED FOR RAPING A 13 YEAR OLD

A senior member of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Zimbabwe is in custody over allegations he raped a 13-year-old girl.

Blessing Chebundo MP was held in the capital, Harare, while on parliamentary business on Tuesday.

State media reported that the member for Kwekwe Central allegedly attacked the teenager near Kadoma, Mashonaland West province, in January.

MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa confirmed the MP’s arrest to the BBC. He said: “I can confirm that he is in custody. This is a very unfortunate development. We’re awaiting further investigations.

“We’re also going to make our own efforts to inspect the veracity of the case as we’ve had problems with cases being concocted against members of the MDC, but we can’t jump the gun.”

The MDC joined President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF in a power-sharing government in January, aimed at halting Zimbabwe’s economic collapse.

But relations between the long-time rivals remain strained, with the MDC accusing Zanu-PF hardliners, especially in the security forces, of trying to derail the unity deal.

The MDC is demanding that several opposition and civil rights activists be freed from custody.

A founder member of the MDC, Mr Chebundo became an MP in 2000, when he defeated Zanu-PF heavyweight Emmerson Mnangagwa following a vicious campaign.

SOURCED FROM BBC