ZIMBABWE GETS $950 MILLION CREDIT FROM CHINA

Zimbabwe has secured $950 million in credit lines from China to help rebuild the country’s economy, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on Tuesday. Zimbabwe has appealed to the world for a “financial stimulus package” for its devastated economy, saying lack of foreign support put a recovery plan drawn up by the unity government in peril.

The southern African country says it needs $10 billion to rebuild dilapidated infrastructure and ease a 90 percent unemployment rate. “The government through the minister of finance, secured credit lines of almost $950 million from China,” Tsvangirai said in a news conference. Tsvangirai, who shares power with President Robert Mugabe, said a three-week tour he conducted of the United States and Europe had yielded pledges totalling more than $500 million.

“The amount of assistance that was raised on my visit to Europe and the United States does not reflect the enormous support we will be able to utilise if we are to fulfil all our political obligations,” he said. He said other promises of aid would be fulfilled only when Zimbabwe created a democracy and improved human rights after what critics say is Mugabe’s repressive rule.

“If we want outside assistance, we must first prove that we are able to fulfil the obligations we have undertaken within the agreement that was brokered by SADC,” Tsvangirai said. “Actions speak louder than words and while I was away there were instances of peaceful protestors being beaten by our police, innocent individuals arrested on trumped up charges and continued vilification of the MDC by the state media.”

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RAI STAR UNDER TRIAL FOR FORCED FRENCH ABORTION

Algerian singer Cheb Mami is to stand trial in France over allegations that he forced a former partner to undergo an attempted abortion. Cheb Mami, whose real name is Mohammed Khalifati, was arrested at Orly airport in Paris on Monday.

The singer, 42, is credited with bringing Algeria’s popular Rai music to an international audience. He faces 10 years in prison if convicted of complicity in violence but has denied the charges. Prosecutors at Thursday’s trial in Bobigny will allege that Cheb Rami was one of a group who abducted and beat the woman, a French photographer, in the Algerian capital, Algiers, in 2005.

The woman was allegedly forced to undergo an abortion, but on returning to France she discovered she was still pregnant and later gave birth to a daughter. France issued an international arrest warrant for Cheb Mami after he skipped bail in Paris in May 2007 and fled to Algeria.

He denies any involvement in the alleged abortion and says he is being persecuted because he is a successful Arab star. His former manager, Maurice Levy, is also under investigation along with two former aides.

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NIGER COURT DISSOLUTION ‘A COUP’

An opposition leader in Niger has accused the president of carrying out a “coup d’etat”, by dissolving the country’s highest court. Bazoum Mohamed of the PNDS party told the BBC that President Mamadou Tandja did not have the right to scrap the court and suspend the constitution.

The court has three times ruled against the president’s plan to change the law to let him seek a third term in office. On Friday, Mr Tandja, 71, announced he would rule the country by decree. His plans to remain in power have sparked domestic protests and been criticised by international donors.

Meanwhile, prominent human rights campaigner Marou Amadou was arrested on Monday night and accused of sedition, calling for a military uprising and demoralisation of the army. The opposition is calling for a general strike, or “Operation dead city”, on Wednesday to oppose the president’s plan. They are also calling for nationwide protests on Saturday to call on him to resign.

Despite the opposition of parliament and the courts, President Tandja has scheduled a referendum for 4 August on changing the constitution to let him seek a third term in office. He has already dissolved parliament – new elections are due on 20 August. Mr. Tandja has governed the West African nation since 1999, serving two terms. He is due to step down in December.

But supporters of Mr Tandja say he has brought economic growth to one of the world’s poorest nations and so deserves the right to seek re-election.

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SOMALI ISLAMISTS REBEL THREATEN TO ATTACK ETHIOPIA

Somalia’s Islamist rebels threatened on Tuesday to attack Ethiopia after repeated witness reports that Ethiopian troops were back in the chaotic Horn of Africa country they withdrew from in January. Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia in 2006 to oust an Islamist movement from the capital in which new President Sheik Sharif Ahmed played a role. That sparked an Islamist insurgency which is still raging despite their withdrawal.

“I’m telling the people that it’s time we attacked Ethiopia, who are our Christian neighbours,” Sheikh Abdiqani Mohamed Yusuf said on a radio station controlled by the al Shabaab rebels in the southern port of Kismayu. “We have to invade their country, like they did to our country. This is our best chance,” he said. “The people should be ready to take part in jihad.”

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said last week possible suicide attacks in Ethiopia by Somali Islamist rebels were a threat he “didn’t expect to go away any time soon”. Witnesses have said heavily armed columns of Ethiopian troops have crossed the border and are in several parts of Somalia. The Ethiopian government has repeatedly denied that.

President Ahmed, a moderate Islamist, fled into exile after the Ethiopian intervention but joined a peace process last year and was elected in January. His government is battling hardline insurgents who were once allies in the Islamist movement.

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PRESIDENT YAR’ADUA ORDERS AMNESTY FOR HENRY OKAH

Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua told his interior minister on Monday immediately to meet rebel leader Henry Okah, who is on trial for gun-running and treason, and offer him amnesty. Yar’Adua offered a 60-day amnesty on Thursday to gunmen in the Niger Delta, including Okah, who have been responsible for pipeline bombings, attacks on oil and gas installations and the kidnappings of industry workers over the past three years.

“The president has directed the chairman of the presidential panel on amnesty, Godwin Abbe, to immediately arrange a meeting with … Mr. Henry Okah and formally offer him the amnesty,” said Yar’Adua spokesman Olusegun Adeniyi. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which has launched a string of attacks against the oil industry this month, has made Okah’s release one of its key demands.

The government said Okah, who was arrested in Angola in September 2007 and extradited to Nigeria five months later, would be freed if he took the amnesty offer. “I wish to state that the offer of amnesty is unconditional and covers Henry Okah who will be released as soon as the federal government concludes its consultations with the governments of Angola and Equatorial Guinea,” said Timiebi Koripamo-Agary, spokeswoman for the amnesty committee.

A Nigerian delegation left for Angola and Equatorial Guinea on Saturday to inform the two countries’ leaders of the clemency offer. Officials said the two countries had “problems” with the suspected militant in the past and Nigeria wanted to pay them a courtesy visit before taking action.

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YEMINI PLANE CRASHES IN INDIAN OCEAN, BODIES FOUND

An Airbus A310-300 from Yemen with 153 people on board crashed into choppy seas as it tried to land in bad weather on the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros on Tuesday, officials said.An official from the state carrier Yemenia said some bodies had been recovered from the wreck. The official could not say whether there were any survivors.

Two French military planes and a French ship left the Indian Ocean islands of Mayotte and Reunion to search for the Yemenia aircraft that was carrying nationals from France and Comoros.”The planes have seen debris at the supposed point of impact,” Ibrahim Kassim, an official from regional air security body ASECNA, told Reuters.

A Yemenia official said there were 142 passengers, including three infants, and 11 crew. The plane was flying from Sanaa to Moroni, the capital of the main island of the archipelago.”We still do not have information about the reason behind the crash or survivors,” Mohammad al-Sumairi, deputy general manager for Yemenia operations told Reuters.

“The weather conditions were rough; strong wind and high seas. The wind speed recorded on land at the airport was 61 km (38 miles) an hour. There could be other factors,” he said.It is the second Airbus to plunge into the sea this month. An Air France Airbus A330-200 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean killing 228 people on board on June 1.

In 1996, a hijacked Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 also crashed into the sea off the Comoros islands in 1996, killing 125 of 175 passengers and crew.

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MDC MINISTERS BOYCOTTED CABINET MEETING

Ministers from Zimbabwe’s ex-opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have boycotted a cabinet meeting chaired by President Robert Mugabe. The meeting, usually held on a Tuesday, was brought forward as Mr Mugabe is off to Libya for an African Union summit. When Mr Mugabe is away, MDC leader and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai chairs the cabinet gathering.

The MDC deputy leader said it showed “contempt” for the power-sharing unity government formed in February. Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party “has not welcomed MDC as an equal”, MDC Vice President Thokozani Khupe said. She said the decision to move the meeting “reflects unilateralism, disrespect, contempt and refusal to recognise the reality and the letter of the global political agreement”, AFP news agency quotes her as saying.

“Is this inclusive government a government of hunger?”
President Robert Mugabe

She said the MDC had the right to consider leaving the power-sharing government. Mr Tsvangirai arrived back in Zimbabwe on Monday morning after touring the West lobbying for aid for the poverty-stricken country. He managed to drum up just over $200m (£121m) in aid, but not the $7bn the country’s finance minister says the country needs to revive its devastated economy.

Much of the money raised is not going directly to the government as donors are wary of sending money which could be misused by Mr Mugabe and his allies. But Mr Tsvangirai defended his move to join Mr Mugabe in government. “Those who accept me have to accept Robert Mugabe… If there is a problem, we go and fail together,” he told reporters in Johannesburg on Saturday, AFP reports.

However, last week Mr Mugabe said the unity government was not living up to its promises. “Our inclusive government came with the expectation that since we were all in this partnership, there would be aid from all quarters of the world,” Zimbabwe’s Herald newspaper quoted him as saying. “Money cannot be found to pay those who are working. Not even the ministers, not the president,” he said. “So is this inclusive government a government of hunger? I had never received a US$100 in salary but this year that is what I was promised – not a single cent has come to me so far.”

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STRIKING NURSES IN ZAMBIA DEFY GOVERNMENT SACK THREAT

Striking nurses in Zambia have defied a government deadline to return to work or face dismissal. They have been on strike for more than three weeks demanding an increase in pay and a variety of allowances. Unions have also urged them to return to work as the government says it will only negotiate if the strike ends.

There has been a public outcry about the strike after a woman gave birth in a hospital car park in the capital Lusaka and the baby died minutes later. All nurses, with the exception of senior managers, are demanding a 25% wage increase – the government has offered 15% – and an increase in uniform, night duty and housing allowances that have not been changed for six years.

“Firing is not the answer – it is failing leaders that should fired ”

The BBC’s Musonda Chibamba in Lusaka says health services in the country are heavily dependent on nurses. At the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka, for example, the out-patients department is being manned by student nurses.

Our reporter says the nurses defied expectations when they continued their strike on Monday. Instead, a large crowd of the nurses gathered on the lawns of the UTH where unarmed policemen were present, she says. The nurses privately expressed their disappointment at what they called government failure to meet them half-way.

They have also been angered by an assertion by government spokesman Ronnie Shikapwasha that once dismissed, they would be replaced by nurses from neighbouring Zimbabwe, our correspondent says.

SOURCED FROM BBC