TWO FRENCH NATIONALS KIDNAPPED IN SOMALIA BY GUNMEN

Somali armed men stormed into a hotel in the capital Mogadishu on Tuesday and kidnapped two French security consultants working for the government, a hotel worker said. The two French men, whose names were not immediately available, were initially thought to be journalists. But a government official told Reuters that they had pretended to be [...]

KIDNAPPERS REQUEST FOR $2 MILLION

Kidnappers of two female aid workers in Sudan’s Darfur region have demanded $2 million for their release, but the government is determined not to pay, a minister said on Tuesday. The two workers for Irish aid group GOAL were seized by armed men on July 3 from their base in the north Darfur town of [...]

FORMER KIGALI GOVERNOR JAILED FOR LIFE

A U.N. court trying the architects of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide jailed a former Kigali governor for life on five counts including ordering the killing of 60 Tutsi boys in a church-run pastoral centre. The Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) had indicted Tharcisse Renzaho of genocide, complicity in genocide, murder and rape in the [...]

SUDAN WOMEN FLOGGED FOR TROUSERS

Several Sudanese women have been flogged as a punishment for dressing “indecently”, according to a local journalist who was arrested with them.
Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, who says she is facing 40 lashes, said she and 12 other women wearing trousers were arrested in a restaurant in the capital, Khartoum. She told the BBC several [...]

ZIMBABWE LEADERS IMPLORE FOR PEACE

Zimbabwe’s president and prime minister have condemned disturbances at a meeting to discuss a new constitution, and issued a call for unity.
President Robert Mugabe told a news conference that the government would “not brook any further nonsense”. The comments came after the meeting was abandoned when fights broke out between his supporters and those [...]

TAYLOR:WAR CRIME CHARGES ARE LIES

Ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor has taken the stand for the first time at his war crimes trial in The Hague, dismissing the charges as “lies”.
He denies 11 counts at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, including terrorism, murder, rape and torture.The prosecution says he armed and directed rebel groups from Liberia in order to [...]