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Saturday, January 8, 2011

Shops burn in Algerian riots


Youths attacked a police station and burned shops in Algiers on Thursday, in a second day of protests against rising costs and unemployment. Demonstrators are also protesting against a lack of social housing and allegations of corruption.

“There’s been a simmering tension already caused by unemployment, caused by high prices,” says Gita Subrahmanyam, Algeria specialist at the London School of Economics.

“But it’s also to do with housing, and the riots are supposedly the result of the authorities closing down and destroying some illegal housing settlements.”

More than a million houses in the country were destroyed in an earthquake in 2003 and they have not yet been replaced, despite a government promise.

"In Algiers and in some of the other cities like Oran where there were riots, there’s a real, serious problem of lack of housing and overcrowding,” says Subrahmanyam.

Algeria has a strong hydrocarbon industry, but that is only adding to the frustration among protesters, she adds.

“There’s a real frustration that this wealth is being kept by government rather than being distributed across the population.”

Another problem the country faces is that it has not been able to diversify its industry. This is partly to do with a lack of available skills and partly because the country’s history of violence is putting off foreign investors.

Ghana president says 'no' to troops in Ivory Coast

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — The president of Ghana on Friday said his country is not able to send troops to oust the leader of Ivory Coast who is unwilling to cede office after losing presidential election in late November.

The announcement could complicate a move by a regional bloc of 15 nations in West Africa to mount a military intervention in order to allow the internationally recognized winner of the election Alassane Ouattara to assume his functions. He and his staff are barricaded inside a hotel, his exits blocked by soldiers loyal to Gbagbo.

ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States, has twice sent a delegation to try to persuade Gbagbo to step down.

After the second attempt failed this week, the group began deliberating the military option. The move is controversial, however, since it could entail civilian casualties as well as reprisal attacks against expatriates from ECOWAS member countries living in Ivory Coast.

Ghanaian President John Atta Mills said he backs ECOWAS, but said his troops are already committed to other peace missions around the world — including in Ivory Coast

"Ghana's position is that even though we support the decision by ECOWAS to send a force to Ivory Coast, Ghana finds itself unable to contribute troops," because they are overstretched, he told reporters at a press conference in Accra, the capital of Ghana. "Currently, Ghana has 500 soldiers on United Nations missions in Ivory Coast who are guarding Mr. Alassane Ouattara."

The international community has been uncharacteristically united in their decision to not recognize Gbagbo because the results were carefully reviewed and certified by a special United Nations election unit.

Ouattara is under 24-hour guard at the Golf Hotel where he is guarded by some 800 U.N. peacekeepers, who have encircled the perimeter of the hotel with sandbags and razor wire.

Gbagbo came to office 10 years ago in another messy election and overstayed his legal mandate, which expired in 2005 just after the end of the nation's brief civil war. The election was rescheduled at least six times before it was finally held in October. Results from the runoff held on November 28, which were released by the electoral commission and validated by the United Nations, showed that Ouattara had won with 54 percent of the vote.

The United States, the European Union, the African Union and the United Nations' General Assembly have all recognized Ouattara as the legitimate president. It's created a dichotomy where the man that is the president-elect in the eyes of the world has no control of the institutions of state inside the country he was elected to run. Gbagbo still occupies the presidential palace and in the past week, he has stepped up the blockade on the Golf Hotel where Ouattara is holed up to the point that now the only way in or out is via a United Nations helicopter.

Ouattara has asked foreign governments to no longer recognize ambassadors appointed by Gbagbo. Several countries have asked the pro-Gbagbo ambassadors to leave, including Canada and Britain. In London, the Foreign Office notified the Ivorian diplomat on New Year's Eve that his diplomatic privileges and immunity had been suspended and that he his dependents have 31 days to leave the country.

On Thursday, the Gbagbo regime retaliated. A government spokesman said they have asked the British and Canadian ambassadors to leave Ivory Coast within 30 days.

The demand comes on the heels of an earlier declaration asking the nearly 10,000-strong United Nations mission to leave. But the force will stay and may grow. On Wednesday, Alain Le Roy, the U.N.'s peacekeeping chief said he will formally request an additional 1,000 to 2,000 peacekeepers from the Security Council to beef up the force in Ivory Coast.

The latest order does not actually impact the British ambassador, who is based in Accra. The Canadian foreign minister issued a statement saying that since Canada does not recognize Gbagbo, they do not consider the demand to remove their ambassador legitimate.

The Gbagbo regime, however, has not asked the U.S. ambassador in Abidjan to leave, even though the Gbagbo-appointed diplomat in Washington was given his 30-day notice on Dec. 30, said an Obama administration official.

Contacted by telephone in Abidjan, Pascal Affi N'Guessan, one of Gbagbo's closest advisers, said the administration would apply the principle of reciprocity equally and said he did not know why the U.S. ambassador had not yet been asked to leave.

"There is no discrimination. I think probably the foreign ministry has not yet been informed that (Ivory Coast Ambassador to Washington) Charles Koffi was told to leave. We plan to apply this to everyone."

New Israeli military technology speeds up warfare



AP – In this Dec. 29, 2010 photo, Israeli soldiers cover their ears as a shell is fired during an army drill …




SHIVTA ARTILLERY TRAINING SCHOOL, Israel – Intense winds scraped sand from the desert floor, clouding the view and leaving the Israeli soldiers scarcely able to see each other as they practiced blasting artillery shells at distant targets.

In a nearby armored vehicle, commanders armed with small screens could easily monitor every cannon, jeep and target involved, ordering strikes with the tap of a finger. Their weapon: a sophisticated communication system that compiles battlefield information in an easy-to-use, video game-like map interface, helping militaries make sense of the chaos of battle.

The Associated Press was given rare access to the exercise by a military eager to reclaim some of the deterrence it held in the region when technologically inferior Arab armies were the main threat against it.

That deterrence has eroded in recent times, as guerrilla warfare became more prominent and left conventional armies — here as elsewhere — looking clumsy and vulnerable.

In a monthlong war in 2006, Lebanese guerrillas with relatively simple rockets knocked out Israeli tanks, and Israel's high-tech military was powerless to stop a barrage of primitive, unguided Katyusha rockets on northern Israel.

The latest computerized gadgetry is designed to knock down the military's response time. Troops on the ground can add new targets as soon as they spot them — like militants on foot, a rocket squad or a vehicle — to the network for commanders to see instantly and hit.

Strikes that used to take 20 or more minutes to coordinate now take just seconds, said Maj. Hagai Ben-Shushan, head of the C4I section for Israel's artillery. "It doesn't take much, then shells are going to the target," he said.

Israel is among several nations harnessing digital and satellite technology to develop C4I systems — short for "command, control, communications, computers and intelligence" — that integrate battlefield information.

The goal is to have "all the elements of a force ... seeing the same tactical picture, and you can move information from one to the other completely seamlessly," said Britain-based Giles Ebbutt, who studies such systems for Jane's Information Group.

C4I systems are operational in the United States, which started development in the 1990s, as well as France, Singapore, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy, among other countries, Ebbutt said.

Israel's version — being developed over the past decade or so — is "a little bit further down the road than some people ... because they have a focus on the problem, they are constantly operationally alert, and they need to be as operationally developed as they can," Ebbutt said.

The army says it started using the first, basic version in 2005, but it did not include all units and functions. The latest, completed in 2009 and in training since last March, allows all forces on the ground to communicate instantaneously.

"Visually, now everything is on the map, so it's much easier to coordinate," said the battalion commander whose men were being trained. "You can easily understand the map and the position of forces." He spoke on condition of anonymity under military rules.

On a stretch of sand near the army base at Shivta, deep in Israel's southern Negev desert, six artillery cannon stood with their barrels aimed at targets about 4 miles (6 kilometers) away. Commanders in a nearby armored vehicle stared at two screens, watching all movement on an interactive satellite map.

Pink squares marked each cannon, dotted lines of shell trajectory extended from their barrels and circles showed the expected blast radius of any shells fired.

Different symbols marked other army vehicles, their locations kept up to date with GPS-like devices. All the vehicles carried similar screens, giving soldiers a realtime map of the battlefield.

One soldier demonstrates how to add a new target to the map: A tap on the screen places it, then he can describe its size and character.

Seeing the target, a commander can then order a strike with a few more taps, deciding who will fire and how much. The order immediately appears on those units' screens.

The system's newest version, built by Israeli defense contractor Elbit, has yet to be battle-tested, but Israel used an earlier one in its Gaza offensive two years ago, Ben-Shushan said.

That war, launched to stop militant rocket fire on Israeli towns, killed about 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis. Four of the 10 Israeli soldiers were killed by friendly fire, but Col. Gil Maoz, head of Israel's Digital Army program, said the technology helped to prevent other Israeli fatalities.

Israel had only an early version of the system during its war with the Lebanese militia Hezbollah in 2006, which killed about 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis. An Israeli investigation into the war, which was widely seen as a failure, criticized the inability of commanders to relay key information to the field.

Maoz said having the system then could have lowered the Israeli death toll.

Elbit spokeswoman Dalia Rosen said that what sets the Israeli system apart from others is the ease with which it allows land, naval and air forces to communicate with each other and its ability to link everyone from rank-and-file soldiers in the field to the highest commanders.

She said Australia purchased Elbit communications technology for its own battle management system in a deal last year valued at $298 million.

Jehovah Witnesses say harassed in south Sudan

JUBA (Reuters) – Jehovah's Witnesses in a south Sudan town have been harassed and expelled and a place of worship was burned down after it was alleged they had told voters not to take part in a secession referendum, members of the sect said.

Members of the small minority Christian group in Sudan said the sect was wrongly accused of preventing its followers from taking part for religious reasons in the vote on Sunday that will likely see the south secede.

The semi-autonomous southern government, formed after a 2005 peace deal, has faced criticism for rights abuses including harassing the press and opposition party members and widespread intimidation and fraud during April elections.

"They (the government) accused our brothers there that they were going from house to house telling people not to register and not to vote," Taban Jamba Lemi, a Jehovah's Witness based in Juba, told Reuters late on Friday.

"They are just allegations and the government took them seriously," Lemi added.

"For Jehovah's Witnesses, each one has his own responsibility whether he votes or not. We are not dictating that all Jehovah's Witnesses cannot vote."

Police in Yambio, Western Equatoria State, arrested and later released two Jehovah's Witnesses in December while a Kingdom Hall there was burned down on January 1 by "local people ... instigated by the government," Lemi said.

Two Kenyan members were expelled from the semi-autonomous region and the local government on radio announced a ban on all activities by the sect in the south Sudanese state, Lemi added.

A spokesman for Western Equatoria denied the allegations.

"The government has not banned their activities in Yambio. The radio announcement asked them to stop their campaigning against registration," Gibson Wande, minister of information and communication for the state, told Reuters.

"They burned their own church and are accusing the government."

Lemi said Jehovah's Witnesses had not faced similar problems in Juba as representatives had met with the governor to explain the misunderstanding. He said around 1,000 members of the sect were in Sudan, with the majority living in the south.

The Carter Center international observers said in a statement last month it was "concerned about intimidating rhetoric prevalent in Western Equatoria aimed at the Jehovah's Witness congregation."

"The Carter Center calls upon all stakeholders in Western Equatoria to respect the right of all individuals to participate in or refrain from the referendum process."

Earth’s magnetic pole shifts, screws up runway at Florida airport

An airport in Tampa, Florida, has had to temporarily close its runways to keep up with Earth's magnetic north pole, which is drifting toward Russia at a rate of 40 miles per year.

Fox News reports that the international airport was forced to adjust the signs on its busiest runway Thursday because pilots depend on the magnetic fields to navigate. The runway will be closed until Jan. 13, and will re-open with new taxiway signs that indicate its new location on aviation charts, the Tampa Bay Tribune reports.

Paul Takemoto, a spokesman for the FAA, says the Earth's magnetic fields are constantly in flux -- but rarely so much so that runway signage needs to be changed. "You want to be absolutely precise in your compass heading," he told Fox. "To make sure the precision is there that we need, you have to make these changes."

[Rewind: Scary gaffe adds to week of airline mishaps]


"The Earth's poles are changing constantly, and when they change more than three degrees, that can affect runway numbering," FAA spokesperson Kathleen Bergen told Fox News. It's unclear whether any other airports will have to adjust their runways.

Earth's magnetic field, which still flummoxes those who study it, "is thought to be generated deep inside the planet," LiveScience writer Jeanna Bryner explains. "An inner core of solid iron is surrounded by an outer core of molten iron. They rotate at different rates, and the interaction between the regions creates what scientists call a 'hydromagnetic dynamo.' It's something like an electric motor, and it generates a magnetic field akin to a giant bar magnet."



Sometimes, the poles completely flip -- and presumably when that happens, many bigger changes are afoot than modest tweaks to airport signs. The last time the planet experienced a polarity flip was 780,000 years ago.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Ouattara offers amnesty if Ivory Coast's Gbagbo quits fast

PARIS (Reuters) – Ivory Coast presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara promised rival Laurent Gbagbo an amnesty if the latter steps down quickly, according to an interview published in a French newspaper on Friday.

The comment shed further light after remarks on Thursday in which Ouattara, recognized internationally as winner of a November 28 election, said that Gbagbo had blood on his hands and had to go but that he would guarantee him safety.

In the interview in Le Figaro newspaper, Ouattara was quoted as having said: "For me, peace has no price. That's why I am willing to declare an amnesty for Gbagbo, as happened in the past for Benin President (Mathieu) Kerekou."

Ouattara said he would be willing to grant Gbagbo the status of a former head of state.

"But he has to accept rapidly, because he's a person with blood on his hands," Ouattara added.

The U.S. Treasury Department stepped up outside pressure on Gbagbo on Thursday when it barred U.S. citizens from financial dealings with a man who has ruled for more than a decade and whose standoff with Ouattara has raised fears of renewed civil war in the former French colony.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

PROMISES, PROMISES: GOP drops some out of the gate



Cool Democracy...
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio holds up the gavel after receiving it from outgoing House Speaker …





WASHINGTON – Republicans have already violated some of the vows they made in taking stewardship of the House.

Their pledge to cut $100 billion from the budget in one year won't be kept.
And for a coming vote seeking to repeal the health care overhaul, the first major initiative of the new Congress, lawmakers won't be allowed to propose changes to the legislation despite Republican promises to end such heavy-handed tactics from the days of Democratic control.

Is business as usual really back so fast? That's not clear one day after Democrat Nancy Pelosi yielded the gavel to the new Republican House leader, John Boehner. The GOP came to power in the House with an agenda that, if carried through, would in fact change how the government spends, taxes and does its legislative business.

But those with long memories may have the feeling they've seen this movie before.

After the GOP won control of Congress in the 1994 elections, the House churned out a series of votes aimed at fulfilling promises made in the party's "Contract With America." Most hit a dead end in the Senate. The GOP's new governing document, "A Pledge to America," covers many of the same themes and faces many of the same problems.

The effort to repeal the health care law, for one, is expected to pass in the House and fail in the Senate, going nowhere.

A look at some of the Republican promises in the campaign that delivered them control of the House, and their prospects now:

CUT SPENDING: "We will roll back government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, saving us at least $100 billion in the first year alone," the GOP pledge stated.

It turns out $100 billion is way out of reach.

By the time the current stopgap spending bill expires March 4, five months of the budget year — which began Oct. 1 — will have passed. Republicans acknowledge it's unrealistic to force even deeper cuts for the rest of the budget year to make up for money that's already been spent at the current, higher levels.

What is more, Republicans juiced up the $100 billion promise in the first place by using as their starting point President Barack Obama's $1.128 trillion budget request, a theoretical figure that was never approved by Congress.

Republicans are bristling at accusations that they're backtracking from the $100 billion promise even as they concede they can't pull it off. Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Republicans will set spending limits "for the remainder" of the budget year at levels in effect before the 2009 stimulus.

___

REFORM CONGRESS: "We will let any lawmaker — Democrat or Republican — offer amendments to reduce spending," the pledge said. "House Democrats have relied heavily on what are known as `martial law' procedures during the current Congress, particularly provisions that allow them to bring any bill to the floor with little or no notice and deny Republican members of Congress or even factions of their own party their right to debate and offer amendments or substitutes for consideration or vote."

Despite the promise of more open debate and the opportunity to offer floor amendments, GOP leaders will bring legislation to repeal Obama's signature health care overhaul bill to the floor next week and deny Democrats any chance to try to preserve popular provisions.

Republicans say that repealing the health care measure is a core campaign promise that deserves an up or down vote.

But it denies minority Democrats the chance to force individual votes on certain provisions of the new law, such as the ban on insurance company discrimination against people with pre-existing illness or the measure allowing children to stay on their parents' health plan until they turn 26.

Blocking votes on such popular provisions would protect newly elected Republicans, especially in swing districts, from politically difficult decisions. It also would guarantee a united GOP front against the bill.

Democrats also say that repealing the health care law would add to the deficit, contrary to the GOP's promise to curb runaway deficits. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office's most recent estimate says that the Democratic health measure would reduce the deficit by $143 billion over the coming decade, savings that would disappear if the law is repealed. Republicans counter that that figure is unrealistic.

Wal-Mart Could Pay $40 Million To Settle Claims It Colluded With Netflix

Did Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) illegally divide up the DVD market back in 2005? Wal-Mart has denied the allegations, but the retail giant is now set to cut a check—for anywhere from $29 million to $40 million—to make them go away.

The settlement Wal-Mart has agreed to is outlined in papers that were filed with the Oakland federal court that is hearing the class-action lawsuit. Wal-Mart will give either cash or a Walmart.com gift card to every “class member” who asks for one, and will spend no less than $29 million and no more than $40 million. The class—which has now been certified by the judge overseeing the case—includes everyone who has paid for a Netflix subscription since 2005. The exact size of the class still hasn’t been determined, but Netflix today has more than 16 million members in the U.S. and Canada. The settlement applies only in the U.S.

The judge overseeing the case still has to approve the settlement, which is a normal step in class-action lawsuits. Wal-Mart first agreed to settle the case back in August but didn’t disclose the cost of the settlement or any details.

For its part, Netflix is going to fight on. Contacted for this story, a Netflix spokesman said the company “believes the lawsuit lacks merit and we will defend it.”

The plaintiffs have passed an important hurdle by getting class certification from the Oakland federal judge. The certification of such an enormous class isn’t good news for Netflix, because it increases the potential damages it could have to pay out if it loses. In class-action suits, defendants often try to prevent the certification of a class, because class-actions can be more difficult and expensive to defend than complaints filed by individual plaintiffs. The order certifying the class doesn’t suggest anything about the actual merits of the suit, however.

The lawsuit stems from an agreement between Wal-Mart and Netflix in 2005. Wal-Mart agreed to get out of the business of renting DVDs online, even though it was doing well in that increasingly competitive market, while Netflix agreed it wouldn’t go into physical DVD sales, a core area for Wal-Mart. The pact came about shortly after Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) got into the online rental business. The pact, which included a provision that called for the two companies to help market each others’ services, was reportedly widely in the press; Netflix had a 4 percent bump in its stock price the day the agreement was announced. The plaintiffs’ lawyers in the class-action case argue that the agreement by the two companies to help each other violated antitrust laws

Turkish Airlines passengers overpower 'hijacker' claiming to have a bomb







The Telegraph




Passengers aboard a Turkish Airlines flight from Oslo have overpowered a would-be hijacker
as the plane landed at Istanbul airport.12:00AM GMT 06 Jan 2011.
Police said the man was a Turk who had demanded that the plane return to Norway. His motive was unclear.

Reports suggest he tried to force his way into the cockpit of the plane saying: "I have a bomb."

The pilot notified emergency services at Istanbul's Ataturk airport. Passengers were quickly taken off after landing and the man was arrested and the bomb found to be a fake.

"I was sitting at the front end of the plane and I heard voices at the back of the plane around 30 minutes before we landed," said Lelya Kilic, one of the 60 passengers aboard flight TK1754 from Oslo.

"I saw a fight between passengers and a man with a mask, carrying a device that looked like a radio handset."

Police said a passenger had been sitting on top of the hijacker when they entered the plane. Police identified the hijacker as Cuma Yasar, 40, and Anatolia news agency said the man was carrying a card identifying him as a disabled person.

Salim Tahar, a passenger, told Norwegian television that someone in the back of the aircraft had put on a mask and threatened to blow up the plane in the air.

"The man spoke Turkish and demanded the plane return to Oslo," Mr Tahar said.

He said the crew moved the other passengers to the front of the plane, while the would-be hijacker remained at the back.

There were no reports of anyone being hurt in the incident

More than 200 Chinese children poisoned by lead

BEIJING (Reuters) – More than 200 Chinese children have been poisoned by lead from battery plants located too close to houses in the east of the country, state media said on Thursday, the latest in a string of heavy metal pollution cases.

After tests last month showed three children in Gaohe in Anhui province had elevated levels of lead in their blood, 280 others were subsequently checked, more than 200 of whom were found to have been poisoned, Xinhua news agency said.

Authorities have now closed both battery plants blamed for the poisoning, the report said.

One of the plants was separated from residences in Gaohe by only a narrow road, it added, in contravention of environmental protection guidelines.

Some of the children affected were just a few months old, the official news agency said.

"When she was a baby, she stayed with my in-laws in Changsha, of the central Hunan Province, and was perfectly healthy. She's been in Gaohe town for just a few months," resident Jiang Feng told Xinhua of her poisoned child.

Lead poisoning, which often builds up slowly as a result of repeated exposure to small amounts of lead, can damage various parts of the body including the nervous and reproductive systems and the kidneys, and it can cause high blood pressure and anemia.

Lead is especially harmful to the developing brains of young children and can cause consequences that may be irreversible including learning difficulties and behavioral problems.

China's environment ministry has called for urgent measures to tackle heavy metal poisoning as cases of mass poisoning created widespread public anger.

In 2009, protesters broke into a smelting works they blamed for the lead poisoning of more than 600 children, smashing trucks and tearing down fences.

Suicidal New York man leaps, but saved by garbage pile


NEW YORK (Reuters) – A would-be suicide jumper in New York was alive on Monday after leaping from a ninth-floor window but landing in a giant heap of garbage uncollected since the city's massive snowstorm a week ago.

Vangelis Kapatos, 26, was hospitalized in critical but stable condition after jumping from his apartment on West 45th Street on Sunday afternoon, authorities said.

Sanitation workers have not collected trash since the December 26 storm dumped more than a foot and a half of snow on the city. Mounds of garbage several feet high line many sidewalks.

"Everybody is complaining that the trash hasn't been picked up," Kapatos' aunt said on Monday. "But me, I'm thankful that it was never picked up."

Police said the trash bags below broke Kapatos' fall and that he left no suicide note before jumping.

The Department of Sanitation, which was only resuming garbage collecting on Monday, estimates 77,000 tons of trash have been left uncollected since the storm.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he expects workers to be caught up with trash collection by Friday.

"It will take a few days to catch up," Bloomberg said. "But they're out there today and hopefully in the next three to four days, we'll be done with it."

Katharina Capatos, who spells her surname differently from her nephew, told Reuters he was severely depressed and had spent a month in the psychiatric ward at Bellevue Hospital before being released last week.

He also was worried about the possibility of being evicted from his $572-a-month rent-stabilized apartment, she said.

Kapatos' eviction hearing was scheduled to proceed on Tuesday, according to the New York City Housing Court.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

IVORY COAST TODAY




Nigeria Senate leader Teslim Folarin on murder charge



Teslim Folarin, a PDP member, is the majority leader of Nigeria's Senate



A court in Nigeria has charged the leader of the Senate, Teslim Folarin, with involvement in the murder of trade union activist Lateef Salako.

Mr Salako, a transport workers' union leader, was shot dead during a dispute at a ruling party PDP meeting in the south-western city of Ibadan last week.

Three others have also been charged with his killing.

Senator Folarin, who was present at the PDP meeting, is to remain in custody until a bail hearing later this month.

The residents of Ibadan in Oyo State witnessed violent scenes following a local meeting of the PDP last Thursday.

The BBC's Tomi Oladipo in Lagos says during the chaos, unidentified gunmen killed Mr Salako, who rose to prominence last September when a court validated his leadership of Oyo State's National Union of Road Transport Workers, which had been split for months over a bitter power dispute.

Many of Mr Salako's rivals were unhappy at his appointment and clashes broke out between different factions - and dozens were killed in the violence.

It is believed that being the leader of the transport workers' union, and having the subsequent control over the bus stations in the state, brings greater political influence, our reporter says.

Mr Folarin, a PDP member, has been a senator for Oyo State since 2003.

Elections are due in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, in April.

Public Angry


PEACE FM Online



The recent 30 percent increase in petroleum products has triggered a lot of public criticisms and anger from a cross-section of the public.

Many of those condemning the Mills government over the price hike recall how the then opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) he led, politicized the issue of petroleum products pricing.

The NDC slammed the then New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, claiming it was insensitive to the plight of Ghanaians and went ahead to organize a series of demonstrations to register their displeasure about the manner in which the NPP was managing the affairs of the country.

Many ordinary Ghanaians could not understand why President Mills, who promised during the 2008 electioneering campaign to reduce fuel prices drastically, is now doing the contrary.

“Why is the NDC government full of lies? The National Petroleum Authority boss was interviewed about this price increases and he categorically denied it, only to come out and slap 25 to 30 percent increment. Ghanaians are watching,” Francis Twum, a resident of Accra lamented.

Contributing, Evelyn Mensah, a civil servant stated: “The government last year promised to hedge the price of the commodity so that if the price goes up we will still get it at a lower price. Where is the promise? This is robbing Peter to pay Paul. Ghanaians must reject the new price!

“The NPA has done a disservice to this country, at a time when businesses that fund the nation's coffers are struggling. The NPA has chosen to serve the parochial interests of a few and they will surely have to give account of their stewardship,” she added.

A student of the University of Ghana, John Tei, on his part said: “Mills promised 2011 will be the year of action. Kufuor bought a barrel of crude oil for $147 per barrel and the highest Ghanaians paid for a gallon of petrol was GH¢5.30. Now that the price is at $92, the NDC government is selling a gallon of petrol at more than GH¢6.00. This is the action he (Mills) is talking about; an action that will send most Ghanaians to their graves.

“Last year, the same government told Ghanaians that it had agreed to hedge oil to prevent the nation from buying oil at higher prices when the price of the most important commodity rises on the world market. So the question we are asking is; why the increment?” Mr Tei asked.

Some traders in the Accra Metropolis have also registered their displeasure about the current hikes in petroleum prices which took effect from yesterday January 4, 2011.

According to the traders, patronage of goods and services on the market had already fallen to an all-time low, noting that the price hike would make it very difficult to make ends meet. The traders, who were mostly market women, told DAILY GUIDE that the increment in petroleum prices would definitely affect the prices of goods and services.

“The 30 percent increase in petroleum products which translates into 18 percent increase in transport fares would make life unbearable for us,” Mrs. Faustina Ansah Boamah, a trader at the Hawkers Market at Circle noted.

Meanwhile, the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) has expressed its fury at the latest petroleum prices hikes, dreading that it might kill the businesses of some of its members.

According to the president of the association, Nana Owusu Afari, last year’s price increment in electricity tariffs nearly collapsed some businesses of its members.

Following the announcement of the price hikes, he is apprehensive, telling Citi Business the move might make doing business in Ghana almost impossible and reduce the country’s attraction as an investment destination. “We have already been complaining about the cost of doing business in this country. Now this increase is going to take a lot of money, and when that happens? The people’s ability to purchase goods are reduced and this will have a very sad effect on industry because when you produce the goods and you cannot sell, you have to cut down production and lay off workers.

“Secondly, industry will also become uncompetitive in the ECOWAS region. We are in a global economy, so a lot of people who want to make their profits may be looking to re-locate somewhere. “These are things that we have always been talking to the government about. We did not expect the quantum of the percentage (increase) that we are having to handle. It’s too much on the high side and industry will suffer."

Transport fares have gone up by 18 percent, beginning yesterday. The increase follows late Monday evening announcement by the National Petroleum Authority of a 30- percent adjustment of prices of petrol, diesel, and LPG. Petrol will now sell at GHp 152.07 from GHp116.98 per litre, with diesel going for GHp153.46 from GHp118.05 per litre. LPG will now sell at 104.76 from 83.81 per kilogram. Kerosene and pre-mix fuel are not affected by the price increases.

Government blamed the price hike on increases in crude oil prices on the international market as well as increases in Tema Oil Refinery debt recovery levy approved by Parliament.

Petroleum price increases often lead to nasty clashes and disagreements between commuters and transport owners. To forestall such quarrels, Chairman of the Ghana Road Transport Coordinating Council, Mathew Hayford, said the council had already met and approved an 18 percent increase.

He explained that the increase in fuel prices accounted for eight percent increase in the fares, with increases in insurance levies and prices of lubricants accounting for the remaining 10 percent. Mr Hayford said taxi fares would however be calculated differently.

The international community recently warned that Ghana’s decision to hedge a barrel of oil for the next 6 to 12 months could have dire consequences on the fragile economy but the government ignored the warning and went ahead to hedge the commodity.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Soldiers Gun Down Cop



Source: Daily Guide


CORROBORATIVE EYEWITNESS accounts have made clearer the circumstances under which a group of soldiers shot and killed an off-duty policeman at Ashaiman, near Accra, last Friday.

The deceased cop, 32-year-old Corporal Sampson Sorsey Quarshie of the Panthers Unit of the Ghana Police Service, was said to be the personal bodyguard of the Minister for Employment, E.T. Mensah.

His shattered mortal remains have been deposited at the Police Hospital morgue in Accra.

A reliable source said that Quarshie, who was riding a motorbike with registration number M-09-GR 4527 to his base at Prampram, was believed to have earlier gone to purchase some items for his two-month-old baby and his wife from the Ashaiman Main Market.

Persons who witnessed the killing said Lance Corporal Quarshie was in a shop at Ashaiman when a commercial driver rushed into the shop asking for help and claiming that his life was at stake.

The policeman then went outside the shop and saw that a soldier, whose name was given as Sergeant Lawrence Agbawu of the 1st Battalion Infantry, Michel Camp near Tema, was furiously at the heels of the taxi driver.

Eyewitnesses said the policeman walked up to the soldier to ask what the matter was but the soldier answered his question with some quick hefty slaps.

Not happy with the action of the military man, Quarshie was said to have retaliated with an equally hefty slap, an action that sent the soldier sprawling on the ground.

On getting up, Sergeant Agbawu was said to have cocked his gun and fired a warning shot into the air. In retaliation, the policeman also pulled out his gun and fired to disarm the furious soldier, injuring him.

The soldier was part of a joint elections security task force deployed to beef up security at the just-ended District Assembly and Unit Committee Elections in the Ashaiman area.

According to eyewitnesses, shortly after the policeman disarmed him, his colleague soldiers rushed down from the patrol vehicle to his aide.

They were said to have held the deceased from behind while one of them shot the policeman who was by this time on the floor. Afterwards, a hail of bullets was pumped into him in different parts of his body, an action which scared onlookers who ran for their dear lives.

The soldiers, after the bloody display, reportedly abandoned the policeman but picked their injured colleague into their vehicle and sped off to the Tema General Hospital.

They later returned and picked up the policeman’s pistol but left him, still lying in a pool of blood.

Onlookers, mostly the youth of the area, who earlier fled the scene in fear and panic, rushed back to rescue the over six feet policeman, after the military men had taken his pistol and left the scene.

The youth carried him from the scene to a distance of about five hundred metres where they shoved him into a taxi which conveyed him to the Tema General hospital where he was confirmed dead on arrival.

He was later pronounced dead as staff of the emergency unit of the Tema General Hospital tried desperately to save his life.

A certain Inspector Eduful of the Tema Buffalo Unit of the Ghana Police who was in the vehicle in which the military men were in was reported to have witnessed the incident.

Quarshie’s body was later conveyed to the Police Hospital in Accra.

Some persons believed to be family relations of the deceased, the source hinted, visited the mortuary of the Police Hospital on Saturday morning where they identified the dead as Lance Corporal Quarshie.

Meanwhile, an autopsy is yet to be carried on the remains of the late policeman at the morgue.

When DAILY GUIDE contacted the Ashaiman Police on the incident, they indicated that the matter had been referred to the Tema Regional Police Command to carry out investigations on the incident.

As at the time of filling this story, the boots of the late Quarshie were still at the emergency centre of the Tema General Hospital.

Yesterday, a statement jointly issued by the Defence Public Relations Directorate and the Police Public Affairs Directorate gave a rather interesting account of what led to the death of the policeman.

According to them, the joint elections security task force was responding to a distress call during the district level elections but was blocked by a Toyota van then discharging supplies at the Ashaiman market.

It said the situation compelled one of the patrolmen to ask the driver to reverse so their vehicle could have easy access but he refused so a verbal exchange ensued between the soldier and the civilian driver.

A policeman who chanced upon the development, the statement claimed, prevented the patrolmen from having the driver move his vehicle from the road.

“Even when the patrol leader, a police inspector, prevailed upon him to reason with the patrol, he would not budge. In the course of the fracas, he threatened the patrol members with his side arm,” the statement explained.

“As a solider-member of the patrol team attempted disarming the policeman, both men fell to the ground and in the course of the ensuing struggle, their weapons went off leaving them seriously injured,” the statement pointed out.

From Razak Mardorgyz Abubakar & Vincent Kubi, Ashaiman






Source: Daily Guide

7 insurers sue Toyota over acceleration crashes






AP – FILE - In this Feb. 3, 2010 file photo, a shim that will be used to repair springs in the gas pedal systems




LOS ANGELES – Seven insurance companies have sued Toyota Motor Corp. in an attempt to recover money paid to cover crashes they blame on sudden acceleration.

The insurers cite data that blames 725 crashes on the problem and fault the Japanese automaker for failing to equip its cars with an override system that would cause a car to idle if the brake and gas were deployed simultaneously. They are seeking damages in excess of $230,000 from 14 crashes throughout the United States.

The lawsuits allege that "certain of Toyota's cars and trucks have a defect that causes sudden uncontrolled acceleration to speeds of up to 100 mph or more," the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

Toyota said the latest lawsuits were without merit.

"Toyota believes that any allegation that a vehicle-based defect is the cause of unintended acceleration in this or any other complaint is completely unfounded and has no basis," Toyota spokeswoman Celeste Migliore told the Times.

The insurance companies are American Automobile Insurance Co., Fireman's Fund Insurance, National Surety Corp., Ameriprise Insurance, IDS Property Casualty Insurance, Motorists Mutual Insurance and American Hardware Mutual Insurance.

The lawsuits were filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court. They follow the recent disclosure that Toyota paid $10 million to the family of four people killed in a runaway Lexus crash that led to recalls of millions of the automaker's vehicles

Snakes, crocodiles threaten flood-hit Australia town


ROCKHAMPTON, Australia (AFP) – Australian residents fled their homes and sandbagged properties Tuesday as a major town was threatened by a worsening flood disaster which unleashed a plague of snakes and crocodiles.

Tens of thousands of people in Rockhampton braced for complete isolation as waters which have inundated an area bigger than France and Germany, and closed the town's airport and railway, lapped at the last remaining road link.

Rumours of crocodile sightings swept the besieged cattle-farming centre northeast of Brisbane, population 75,000, while snakes up to two metres (6.5 feet) long were spotted around the town centre.

The snakes, including highly venomous taipans, brown snakes and red-bellied blacks, are climbing trees and hiding in people's houses as they search for dry refuge, residents said.

"The snakes are a massive problem, I've shut all the doors because they're coming in," said Suzanne Miller, owner of the Pioneer Hotel pub, adding that her mother was "almost killed" by a brown snake.

"She is living on a boat near here and it was curled round the rope," Miller said. "She could feel the tongue flicking on to her face to test how far away it was, ready to bite, and then it jumped into her lap."

Miller said her mother's husband used a stick to flick the snake into the water, adding that the boat almost capsized as the pair leaped around and screamed in panic.

Emergency officials warned that the snakes were aggressive, while crocodiles flushed from rivers by the rising floods could easily be mistaken for debris.

"(Snakes are) in their mating season and they've been flushed out of their environment... snakes are very, very cranky right now," State Emergency Service (SES) operations director Scott Mahaffey said.

"(And) the problem with crocodiles now is it's very, very hard to pick (them out) with the amount of debris," he added. One SES volunteer told AFP he had seen "two cops hightailing it out of the water with a croc going past".

Thousands of poisonous cane toads were also spotted around Rockhampton while authorities say the town will also be hit by sandflies and disease-carrying mosquitoes breeding in the standing water.

About 200 people have evacuated on foot or by boat, including two pregnant women who went into labour. Some 200 homes are already flooded with the Fitzroy River bisecting town expected to peak at 9.4 metres on Wednesday or Thursday.

"I know people around here are pretty tough, but if your house gets smashed up pretty bad and you have lost all of your kids' presents (it's difficult)," Mahaffey said.

Rockhampton, 500 kilometres (300 miles) from Brisbane and a hub for the farming and coal-mining region, is now the focus for what officials call "biblical" floods affecting 200,000 people across Queensland state.

Weeks of heavy rains have swollen rivers to record levels, deluging mines and farms, washing away bridges and forcing military evacuations of entire towns by helicopter.

Ten people have died trying to negotiate fast-running waters in vehicles, swimming or on foot over the past month, while the disaster is expected to cost several billions of dollars (several billion US).

Flooded mines and railways and closed ports have hammered Queensland's all-important production of hard coking coal, much of it bound for urbanising Asia's steel mills.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed condolences Monday for the dead and offered aid, while neighbouring New Zealand promised to send an emergency response team.

In Rockhampton, the military trucked in supplies and police frog-marched one reluctant resident from his home, considered too dangerous to remain in as the waters rise.

Other parts of the state are already cleaning up after the worst of the flooding passed, but officials warn relief and recovery operations could last for weeks.

Official: Zetas drug gang had base in Guatemala

GUATEMALA CITY – Guatemala's top security official says the Zetas drug gang from Mexico had set up an operations center in the border province of Alta Verapaz where the government declared a state of siege Dec. 19.

Interior Minister Carlos Menocal says a two-week-old military offensive against the cartel is making progress. In his words, "This is just the beginning."

Menocal said Monday that authorities have seized planes, vehicles and $40,000 in cash. He said the Zetas "had their base, their hiding place, their operations center in Alta Verapaz."

The Zetas initially began on Mexico's Gulf coast, but have extended their operations to other parts of Mexico and into Central America.

Nigeria's president sets out anti-terror plans

ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan announced a series of anti-terrorism initiatives on Monday as he looks to regain control after a wave of attacks in the last week of 2010 rocked Africa's most populous nation.

Jonathan is preparing to contest in ruling party primaries next week that are likely to be the most fiercely contested since the end of military rule more than a decade ago.

A bombing in Nigeria's capital Abuja on New Year's Eve killed four people, a week after 80 were killed in a series of blasts and subsequent violence in the central city of Jos.

Religious clashes in the northeast have killed more than a dozen with police pointing the finger at an Islamist sect that claimed responsibility for the Abuja blast.

Jonathan will be hoping his show of intent Monday will help boost confidence in his leadership credentials as rivals look to seize on any signs of weakness.

"Mr President in the next one week is to appoint a special adviser on terrorism," presidential spokesman Ima Niboro said after an emergency meeting of Nigeria's security council.

"Mr President is going to work with the National Assembly to ensure the speedy passage of the anti-terrorism bill that is before the assembly."

Niboro said four new presidential committees would be launched, including a group working on controlling explosives and another to promote public security awareness.

PARTY PRIMARIES

Nigerian elections usually favor the incumbent and Jonathan is the frontrunner.

But an unofficial party pact says that power within the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) should rotate between the mostly Muslim north and largely Christian south every two terms.

Jonathan, a southerner, took over when President Umaru Yar'Adua, a northerner, died during his first term, and some northern factions are opposed to his candidacy.

He faces a northern challenge from former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for the party nomination.

The New Year's Eve blasts at a crowded market area in Abuja left dozens injured. No group has claimed responsibility and the president has said the culprits have yet to be identified.

Radical Islamist group Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sinful" in Hausa, the language spoken across northern Nigeria, said it carried out the Jos bombings but it has not claimed involvement in the Abuja attack.

Nigeria's main militant group operating in the oil-producing Niger Delta, which said it planned car bomb attacks in Abuja in October, said it was not involved in Friday's blasts.

Nigeria can ill-afford a security crisis ahead of April's presidential, governorship and parliamentary polls as the West African nation has a history of violent elections.

Copts in Canada step up security after Egypt attack

MONTREAL (AFP) – Copts in Canada have hired private security contractors to protect churchgoers during this week's Christmas period after an attack in Egypt and Islamist threats, the national association said Monday.

Canada has an estimated 255,000 Copts, mainly in Toronto where there are 14 Coptic churches, but also in Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver, where police patrols are also likely to be stepped up for midnight masses on Thursday.

"The churches are going to conduct ceremonies with no problem, it's going to be the same as usual. However, the security will be tightened up around the buildings," Canadian Coptic Association spokesman Sherif Mansour told AFP.

"The people who are going to enter (the churches) will be only people known by the community, and we have hired a private security company to be within the churches perimeters," Mansour said.

The security announcements came in the wake of a deadly attack that killed 21 worshippers at a New Year's mass in Alexandria, the city in Egypt where the branch of Christianity originated.

Canada's Coptic community was already on high alert after the names and addresses of 100 Copts, along with photographs, were published on an Islamist website in December.

"Everybody is now worried of going to church but we won't stop," Mishriky Guindi, whose name appeared on the website, told AFP.

Police in several European countries have also boosted security at the group's churches following threats from Islamists.

Mansour said a new wave of Copts was immigrating to places like Australia and Canada because of the violence they are subjected to in the Middle East.

"We are seeing a new trend of young professionals that are leaving with their families," he said.

Copts, who celebrate Christmas on January 7, make up about 10 percent of Egypt's 80-million population and often complain of discrimination.

Nearly 4 million Sudanese to vote on independence

JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) – Almost 4 million southern Sudanese, or roughly half the south's population, have registered to take part in an independence referendum next week that is likely to split Africa's largest country in two, officials said on Monday.

The U.S. State Department said it was optimistic ahead of the vote, which is due to begin in six days and marks the climax of a 2005 peace deal that ended a civil war in Sudan that killed at least 2 million people and destabilized much of the region.

"At this point, we are optimistic about the referendum this coming weekend," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told a news briefing in Washington.

Southerners are expected to vote to separate from the north and form a new nation.

"The total number of people registered in the south, in the eight countries abroad and in the states of northern Sudan is 3,930,916," said Chan Reek Madut, a member of the referendum's organizing commission.

The vast majority of voters are in the southern region. Only some sixty thousand registered in the diaspora and less than 120,000 in the north, amid accusations of voter intimidation and a fear of reprisals should the south separate.

The south's population was estimated to be 8 million in the latest census.

THE RIGHT SIGNALS

Madut said 52 percent of those registered were women. Organizers made a concerted effort to ensure women, often uneducated in rural areas, were able to sign up to vote.

All voting materials are expected to be in place across the region by Tuesday, dispelling fears that the late awarding of a tender to print ballot papers could delay the vote.

The State Department's Crowley said both the Obama administration's special envoy for Sudan, Scott Gration, and Princeton Lyman, a veteran U.S. diplomat named to help negotiations between north and south, would be in Sudan for the vote, and said both sides appeared to be sending "the right signals" about the need for an open and credible process.

But he noted that the two sides remain split on key issues including border demarcation, the fate of the disputed region of Abyei, and the sharing of oil revenues -- any of which could spark potential confrontation in the weeks following the referendum.

"The environment, we think, is constructive leading into this weekend. But we understand there are still many unresolved issues," Crowley said.

Madut said the option to extend the voting period was still available to organisers.

"If it appears there is a good reason we will recommend to the commission that there be an extension," he said.

In order to be valid, the referendum requires that 60 percent of those registered turn out to vote.

Africa heads offer amnesty to Ivory Coast's Gbagbo


ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast – African leaders on Monday offered Laurent Gbagbo one last chance to accept an amnesty deal on condition he immediately cede power to the internationally recognized winner of Ivory Coast's presidential election or face a military ouster.

They left hours later with no clear answer from the renegade president who has defied calls to step down, even though results tallied by the country's electoral commission and certified by the United Nations showed he had lost by a landslide to opposition leader Alassane Ouattara.

The trip is the second in less than a week by the three African presidents on behalf of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, in an attempt to give persuasion a final chance before resorting to military force. This time the leaders of Sierra Leone, Benin and Cape Verde were joined by Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, representing the African Union, as they shuttled between meetings with Gbagbo and Ouattara.

Even as Gbagbo's meeting with the African leaders was going on, his closest advisers continued to insist that the 65-year-old had won the election, indicating that the sitting president did not intend to budge.

Speaking to reporters after meeting with the African leaders, Ouattara told reporters that the dialogue was over.

"For us, the discussion is finished," said Ouattara. "Everything has been done so that we could find a solution through diplomacy and dialogue. Since that is not the case, perhaps Laurent Gbagbo will have a change of heart in coming hours? If not, then ECOWAS will need to use all the means at its disposal including the use of legitimate force so that the president that was elected can assume his functions."

He added that an amnesty deal was still in the realm of possibility, but only if Gbagbo recognizes defeat. "He needs to recognize the results of the election, renounce the powers he has usurped and leave for the sake of all Ivorians."

Despite increasing international pressure including a visa ban slapped on him last month by the European Union, Gbagbo has continued to cling to power with the backing of the army. Human rights groups accuse his security forces of abducting and killing hundreds of political opponents and the U.N. was barred entry from a building believed to be housing 60 to 80 of the bodies.

Although recognized internationally, at home Ouattara has been shut out of the institutions of power. He is attempting to govern from a hotel in Abidjan where he and his staff are barricaded behind sandbags and giant coils of razor wire. He is under the constant protection of United Nations peacekeepers, but Gbagbo's security forces have set up checkpoints on the roads leading to the hotel, barring anyone from entering or exiting.

In recent weeks, getting supplies to the Golf Hotel has become increasingly difficult, and the U.N. started running daily helicopter flights that land on the hotel's lawn ferrying cartons of vegetables and tins of powdered milk.

In Washington, U.S. officials said they remain willing to help Gbagbo make a "dignified exit," including revisiting the visa ban so he can travel to the United States and take up a possible teaching position, but only if he agrees to step down. They said the window of opportunity for that, however, is rapidly closing.

"We hope that President Gbagbo will listen intently to the message that he needs to step down," U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "So far, he hasn't. But we certainly endorse what ECOWAS is trying to do today."

An official from Odinga's office said the Ivorian leader would be guaranteed safety if he agrees to hand over power.

After leaving Ivory Coast late Monday, the African leaders were heading to Nigeria, whose president, Goodluck Jonathan, is the current chairman of ECOWAS, to discuss the next step. Odinga said the African leaders will be making "a comprehensive statement" on their mission after consulting with Jonathan on Tuesday.

Col. Mohammed Yerima, a Nigerian military spokesman, said defense chiefs from ECOWAS member states had met last week to begin strategizing what sort of assault they would use if talks fail.

President Barack Obama tried to call Gbagbo three times last month, including twice from Air Force One. He did not reach Gbagbo and at one point, Obama was told that Gbagbo was 'resting.' Administration officials believe the Ivorian leader sought to avoid contact. So Obama wrote Gbagbo a letter, offering him an international role if he stepped down.

Obama also made clear, however, that the longer Gbagbo holds on, and the more complicit he becomes in violence across the country, the more limited his options become, said a senior administration official who requested anonymity to speak about administration strategy.

Gbagbo, who came to power in 2000 and ruled during the civil war that erupted two years later, overstayed his legal term which expired in 2005, claiming the country was too unstable to organize a poll. The election was rescheduled at least six times before it was finally held in October. During the campaign, one of the slogans of Gbagbo's party's was, "Either we win. Or we win." Some have taken that to mean he never intended to step down, regardless of the results.

Severed head hung from bridge in Tijuana, Mexico

TIJUANA, Mexico – The severed head of a young man was found hanging from a bridge in the Mexican border city of Tijuana on Monday.

The Baja California state attorney general's office said the head belonged to a man between 25 and 30 years old.

It had several bullet wounds and was hung using a metallic ring and a nylon rope. A threatening message was found nearby on the bridge.

Hours earlier, a woman between 30 and 35 years old was found shot to death in another Tijuana neighborhood, also with a threatening message left nearby.

Authorities have blamed recent cartel-style violence in Tijuana on feuding between rivals and loyalists of Teodoro "El Teo" Garcia Simental, an alleged drug lord arrested last January.

Farther east along Mexico's border with the United States, Mexican soldiers on Monday found an unfinished tunnel under a house in the city of Nogales, across from Nogales, Arizona.

The army's 45th Military Zone command said the tunnel was dug about 5 feet (1.5 meters) beneath the surface and stretched almost 100 feet (30 meters), apparently just far enough to reach U.S. territory.

The command said in a statement the tunnel ended abruptly and had probably been intended to move drugs across the border.

The mouth of the tunnel was found in one of the rooms of the house in Mexico, which appeared abandoned. There were no arrests nor were any drugs found at the scene.

Nogales is located in northern Sonora state, and on Monday unidentified gunmen shot to death the state's interim prison director, Erasto Ortiz Valencia, outside his home.

State prosecutors' spokesman Jose Larrinaga said Ortiz Valencia died of three bullet wounds. He had been in office only 10 days when he died; his predecessor was fired after he was linked to the escape of a murder suspect.

The assistant police chief of the city of Empalme, near the coastal city of Guaymas, was also shot to death Monday by a gunmen who fired an assault rifle from an SUV.

In the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, police reported Monday that two boys ages 14 and 17 were shot to death in the remote mountain town of Alcozahuca, near the Oaxaca state line.

The assailants fled after killing the boys with assault rifles late Sunday. While there was no immediate evidence the killings were drug-related, Mexican cartels have been recruiting youths as young as 14.

Also in Guerrero, police in the resort of Acapulco reported Monday they had found the bound bodies of four young men dumped on a main boulevard.

The men had been killed with guns and knives and were found blindfolded and their hands or feet tied. Handwritten messages of the kind frequently left by drug cartels were found near the bodies, but Guerrero state police, in keeping with policy, did not release the contents of those messages.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Bolivian President Evo Morales cancels a decree that sharply raised fuel prices.


LA PAZ, Bolivia - Bolivian President Evo Morales on Friday abruptly canceled a decree that sharply raised fuel prices, reacting to widespread protests and the threat of more to come in the biggest setback of his five years in office.

Sunday's price hikes had caused a burst of street protests, many of them by core supporters of the leftist who is Bolivia's first indigenous president. Protesters vowed to renew their demonstrations after the New Year holiday, with workers from the crucial mining industry vowing to join in.

Morales said in a televised message about 90 minutes before midnight that he had listened to unions and social groups and decided "to obey what the people say by abrogating the decree raising gasoline and everything that accompanied that measure. That means that all of the measures are withdrawn."

The government announced Sunday that it was raising gasoline prices by 73 percent, to 92 cents a liter ($3.48 a gallon) for regular gasoline, up from 50 cents ($1.89).

Diesel jumped to 97 cents a liter ($3.67 a gallon) from about 50 cents. Some other fuel prices doubled.

The prices had been frozen for six years, and Vice President Alvaro Garcia said the state was paying $380 million a year to subsidize gasoline imports, with much of it smuggled to neighboring countries with higher prices.

The sharp rise prompted strikes by bus and taxi drivers that hobbled transit in many cities, and mass street protests on Thursday turned violent. At least 15 people were reported injured.

Protesters carried posters denouncing the president as a traitor and some shouted, "Evo, the people are angry!"

Morales' government at first tried to mitigate the blow of the higher prices by announcing a 20 percent salary increase for troops, police, health and education workers. The government also offered help for rice, corn and wheat farmers.

UK cable in 1980 said Israel ready to use bomb

LONDON (Reuters) – A British ambassador to Israel warned as early as 1980 that Israel would detonate a nuclear bomb in case of a new war with the Arabs, according to previously secret state documents released on Thursday.

"If they (Israelis) are to be destroyed, they will go down fighting this time. They will be ready to use their atomic weapon," ambassador John Robinson wrote in a cable to the Foreign Office on May 4, 1980.

Israel has never confirmed or denied having atom bombs under a policy of ambiguity to deter numerically superior foes.

Robinson's message, published under a rule that allows official British papers to be released after 30 years, voiced concern that U.S.-hosted negotiations would not lead to a comprehensive agreement on the Middle East conflict.

"As long as there is no agreement on the West Bank and Jerusalem which satisfies the Palestinians, they will be driven increasingly to extremism; moderate governments in the area and Western interest will be increasingly threatened; opportunities for Soviet influence and intervention will increase; and so will the danger

Two Wild Pit Bulls Run Amok




Kwame Asiedu

Ghanatelescope



Two wild pit bulls ran amok and terrorized Manet Court neighbourhood on Monday morning,killing puppies and snatching any moving creature in sight. It all started with a gesture of goodwill by a girlfriend of the owner of the dogs who, after spending the night opted to feed one of the dogs while the owner was still resting in bed. In the process, one of the dogs attacked her, tore off her breast while the other sprang towards a house boy who had rushed to her defense. The houseboy also suffered deep bites on his leg and lower thighs.
The commotion awoke the owner who frighteningly rushed the two victims to a nearby hospital, leaving the gates open and the house unattended. The dogs thereby dashed into the complex in pursuit of more deadly attacks on their preys. Among the casualties were three dogs killed along with humans who suffered bites and trauma.
When security guards were alerted a former garden boy of the owner who happened to be around volunteered to tame them and chained them back to their home. According to neighbours, the owner is a Lebanese resident with history of leaving his dogs unattended "to feed on armed robbers".
"The city must pass some byelaw to protect people against such wild dogs in all communities where children and pets roam around.
In some American cities and states strict measures are put in place against ownership of such dangerous breed." Remarked Dr Ben Assinor, a resident who moved from USA to enjoy home life. "Some foreigners think it is OK to bring these wild dogs to this country and leave them run loose to attack our children and pets just like the old south. Some laws are needed here to protect us. A few weeks ago there was a similar incident whereby a Chinese National left his dog loose to attack some young fellows down the street. Authorities must wake up to civic responsibilities like this - civil protection. That will be good governance and accountability to the people," he added.

Ivory Coast's Gbagbo resists African demands he step down


ABIDJAN (Reuters) – Ivory Coast's incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo has said he will reject a demand by African heads of state on Monday that he cede power to his rival Alassane Ouattara or face force.

Four leaders representing West African regional bloc ECOWAS and the African Union are due to meet with Gbagbo to ask him to give up the presidency after a November 28 poll that internationally recognized results showed he lost.

More than 170 people have been killed since the start of the standoff in the world's top cocoa grower, which threatens to restart open conflict in the country still split in two by a 2002-03 civil war.

Gbagbo, who has the backing of the country's top court and the army, has shrugged off pressure to step down and said on state television on the weekend that Ouattara "should not count on foreign armies to come and make him president."

A Gbagbo spokesman said Gbagbo, who has been in power since 2000, would not agree to leave.

Ivory Coast's constitutional court, run by a staunch Gbagbo ally, reversed the U.N.-ratified electoral commission results showing a Ouattara win, citing massive evidence of fraud.

LAST CHANCE

Three west African heads of state -- Benin's Boni Yayi, Sierra Leone's Ernest Bai Koroma and Cape Verde's Pedro Pires -- will return to Abidjan after an initial trip last week failed to convince Gbagbo to step down.

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga will join them.

"He will be the voice of the African Union," according to a statement issued by Odinga's office.

"He will seek a peaceful settlement to the election crisis (...) and seek an assurance of safety and security for Mr. Laurent Gbagbo and his supporters, if he agrees to cede power."

The United States and the European Union have imposed a travel ban on Gbagbo and his inner circle, while the World Bank and the regional West African central bank have frozen his finances in an attempt to weaken his grip on power.

If military forces are eventually sent in by ECOWAS, it may trigger open conflict between Gbagbo's government army and the ECOWAS force, known as ECOMOG, and northern rebels who tried to topple him in 2002 may also get involved.

Ouattara's camp say the army is divided and most troops would put up little resistance to a sufficient display of force.

But West African leaders are seen as unlikely to carry through the threat of force because of the risk of being bogged down in an urban war and might lack the operational intelligence to track Gbagbo and his supporters down in a strike.

Nigeria, the backbone of ECOMOG, has its own growing security issues at home -- and its own elections in April.

The United Nations has also said Gbagbo may be criminally responsible for human rights violations, including killings and kidnappings by security forces since the election.

Ouattara's Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, confined with the rest of Ouattara's rival government to the lagoon-side Golf Hotel under the protection of 600 U.N. troops, told reporters at the weekend that Gbagbo has only days to leave power peacefully.

The message the African neighbors were bringing "seems clear," he said. "This is the last chance for Mr. Gbagbo to get a peaceful departure from power and a guarantee of immunity."

Fears of an escalation of violence has led more than 18,000 people to leave Ivory Coast for neighboring Liberia, according to the United Nations.

Cocoa output from Ivory Coast has remained relatively robust despite the turmoil, helping drive cocoa futures below four-month peaks hit in December.

Church bombing Attack kills 21 people in Egypt on New Year’s Day


Probe focuses on Islamic group

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt — Egyptian police are focusing their investigation into the New Year’s suicide bombing of a church on a group of Islamic hard-liners inspired by al-Qaida and based in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria where the attack killed 21 people, security officials said Sunday.

The bombing touched off riots and protests by Egypt’s Christian minority, who feel they are targeted and discriminated against and do not get adequate protection from authorities. There were signs of beefed up security outside churches nationwide and dozens returned to pray Sunday in the bombed, blood-spattered Saints Church — many of them sobbing, screaming in anger and slapping themselves in grief.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack on Coptic Christians leaving a midnight Mass about a half hour into the new year Saturday, the worst attack on Egyptian Christians in a decade. In the immediate aftermath, President Hosni Mubarak blamed foreigners and the Alexandria governor accused al-Qaida, pointing to threats against Christians by the terror network’s branch in Iraq.

But on Sunday, security officials said police are looking at the possibility that homegrown Islamic extremists were behind it, and perhaps were inspired by al-Qaida though not directly under foreign command.

Investigators were also examining lists of air passengers who arrived recently in Egypt from Iraq because al-Qaida in Iraq threatened Christians in both countries. They said they are looking for any evidence of an al-Qaida financier or organizer who may have visited Egypt to recruit the bomber and his support team from local militants.

Investigators were also examining two heads found at the site on suspicion that at least one was the bomber’s, state news agency MENA reported. The crime lab investigation found the explosives used were locally made and were filled with nails and ball bearings to maximize the number of casualties.

Egypt’s government has long insisted that al-Qaida does not have a significant presence in the country, and it has never been conclusively linked to any attacks here.

Egypt does, however, have a rising movement of Islamic hard-liners who, while they do not advocate violence, adhere to an ideology similar in other ways to al-Qaida. There have been fears they could be further radicalized by sectarian tensions. The hard-liners, known as Salafis, have a large and active presence in Alexandria.

Christians staged demonstrations in at least three cities to protest what they see as the government’s failure to protect their community, but police moved quickly to break up the gatherings.

Sally Moore, another Christian protester, said Muslim and Coptic protesters are planning to form a “human shield” outside major churches in Cairo on Coptic Christmas Eve on Jan. 6 in a show of solidarity.

“The security is protecting the regime, not the people, not the churches,” she said.

Father Maqar, who led the service, did not give a sermon, preferring to express his grief with silence.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

GHANA CEDI EQUIVALENT OF CURRENCY

GHANA CEDI EQUIVALENT OF CURRENCY



CURRENCY BUYING - SELLING

US Dollar 1.4407 - 1.4656

Pound Sterling 2.2183 - 2.2569

Swiss Franc 1.5169 - 1.5427

Australian Dollar 1.4601 - 1.4866

Canadian Dollar 1.4434 - 1.4675

Danish Kroner 0.2541 - 0.2584

Japanese Yen 0.0176 - 0.0179

New Zealand Dollar 1.0965 - 1.1161

Norwegian Kroner 0.2425 - 0.2466

Swedish Kroner 0.2107 - 0.2143

South Africa Rand 0.2152 - 0.2188

Euro 1.8937 - 1.9264



CURRENCY EQUIVALENT OF GHANA CEDI



CFA 340.51 - 346.39

Dalasi 20.22 - 20.57

Ouguiya 190.20 - 193.49

Naira 113.35 - 115.31

Leone 2,896.06 - 2,946.13

214 Ghanaians Stranded In Libya

TWO HUNDRED and fourteen Ghanaians are allegedly living in undesirable conditions in Libya, the North African oil-rich country, according to information available to DAILY GUIDE.

The stranded Ghanaians, who are currently living at Tripoli, the capital of Libya, according to sources, have no access to food, water, light and other basic necessities.

One of the stranded Ghanaians, Morgan Donkor, told Radio Mercury, a Kumasi-based radio station, in a telephone interview from their base on the desert on Tuesday afternoon that they had been trapped in that area for several weeks.

He said they were contracted by a foreign building and construction company, which was under the auspices of the Libyan government, as constructional workers who worked in various fields of the company.

Morgan, who claimed to be a resident of Techiman in the Brong Ahafo region, said they had been trapped on the desert because the company had refused to pay them for the services they rendered to the company.

According to him, the company owed the 214 people a total amount of 440 thousand dollars for the various services they rendered to the company in the area of carpentry, masonry, mechanical service among others.

Disclosing that the company used them to construct over 6,000 housing units as part of its agreement with the Libyan government, Morgan noted that depending on the kind of job one was assigned to, they were required to receive between 4,000 dollars to 2,000 dollars.

He indicated that every effort to get the company to pay them their money did not yield any result, pointing out that the intervention by the Ghanaian ambassador to Libya to save the situation had also proved futile.

Morgan stated that their attempt to voice out their irritation to President Mills when he visited the country recently fell on the rocks as the Libyan authorities made everything possible to stop them. He added that five of them were arrested and thrown into jail.

He said in as much as they wanted the company to pay them their money, they also wanted the Mills government to come to their aid and possibly airlift them back to the country so that they could regain their freedom.

Blackout on A New Year's Day

Vast sections of Accra Metropolitan area and parts of Eastern Region spent the New Year with disappointment and digust over "power outage on a New Year's Day of all days". The failure which started at 6.30 am lasted through 2pm.
Residents have been complaining that the authorities have been insentitive to their painful experiences resulting from relentless on and off shut-offs.
A check by Ghanatelescope found that for the past five years the average outages have been occuring three times a week. Officials could not be reached for comments.

Manage nation's oil resources properly-Ayawine

Tema, Jan. 2, GNA - The Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union (ICU) has observed that with political will, coupled with commitment, honesty and tenacity of purpose, the nation's oil resources could be managed well for the benefit of all Ghanaians.

Making the observation in a New Year Message, Mr Morgan Ayawine, Acting Deputy General-Secretary of the ICU, pointed out that, "more jobs for the people through our oil resources should not be a lip-service, but a priority on government's agenda".

Mr Morgan urged investors to respect all the provisions of the country's laws, cautioning them to avoid exploitation of Ghanaian labour and union busting in the emerging oil companies.

He said notwithstanding the difficulties associated with the unattractive conditions of service, Ghanaian workers put in their best last year, even when the reduction in inflation had not in any way reflected in their pockets.
"However, there is more room for improvement, and workers must work harder with a greater sense of discipline, and improve on productivity in the coming year and beyond, as we are poised to grow our economy through the deepening of industrial peace and harmony."

The ICU Acting Deputy General-Secretary pointed out that the Union "expects government to review downward, the new tax levels, as announced in the 2011 budget, to reduce the operational cost of local industries."
He said in spite of the many daunting challenges that confront the nation, Ghanaians should be grateful to God for the level of political stability, tolerance and peace that had prevailed in the country.

Mr Ayawine expressed regret about the massive lay-offs of workers by some distressed industries, which came about as a result of their inability to contain the increases in utility tariffs and fuel
He said the ICU was of the view that, as a developing nation, and considering Ghana's democratic credentials in Africa, "we should have been counting our blessings in terms of sustainable jobs and more opportunities for the Youth, to enable them to contribute their quota to the socio-economic advancement of our dear nation."

Mr Ayawine used the occasion to congratulate Ghanaian workers for putting in their best last year, and wished the Union's social partners, a productive and very prosperous New Year.

GNA

Twenty-two injured as Taxi runs into jubilant crowd

Ajumako C/R, Jan. 2, GNA - Twenty-two people received various degree of injuries, when a taxi cab drove through a large crowd of supporters celebrating the victory of their Assemblyman, at Ajumako, on Tuesday.

The Ajumako District Police Commander Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Mr Seth Tay, who made this known to the Ghana News Agency, at Ajumako, said 18 of the injured were treated and discharged at the Breman Asikuma Catholic Hospital, whilst the rest are still on admission.

The Police Commander said on December 28 this year, immediately after the counting of ballot papers, which declared Mr Robert Appiah as the winner of the Ahenbrom electoral area, his supporters started celebrating through the principal streets of the town.

He said during the process at about 1930, a taxi cab with registration number GW 51T, drove into the crowd and in the process injuring the 22 supporters.
ASP Tay said the driver, Mr Kingsford Esuon, who was driving without lights, is helping the police in their investigations.

GNA

Tail part of Russian passenger Tu-154 aircraft after explosion


MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's transport oversight agency on Sunday ordered the country's airlines to stop using Tu-154B planes until the cause of a passenger jet fire and explosion that killed three people is determined.

A spokesman for the agency, Sergei Romanchev, said airlines must obey the order. The state news agency RIA Novosti said there are 14 Tu-154Bs in service in Russia.

The Tu-154B is one variant of the Tu-154 model, which has been in service since the early 1970s and has been in wide use on Russian internal flights and extensively in other countries, including Iran and former Soviet republics.

No cause has been determined for Saturday's fire, which also injured 43 people. The fire began as the plane carrying 124 people taxied for takeoff at the airport in Surgut in western Siberia, about 2,100 kilometers (1,350 miles) east of Moscow. Frightened passengers clawed their way through the smoke-filled cabin and most managed to escape before the explosion.

Investigators have found the plane's flight recorders and taken fuel samples and documents from the regional airline, Kogalymavia, that used the plane.

The Tu-154, similar to the Boeing 727, has three engines mounted on the rear of the plane. The mid-range plane is noted for its ability to operate on gravel and unpaved airfields. However, noise regulations eventually stopped Tu-154s from flying to most of Europe. Russian flag carrier Aeroflot took the plane out of service in December 2009.

There have been more than 30 fatal incidents involving Tu-154s over their long history, but many of them were attributed to pilot error, poor maintenance or irresponsible operation.

In December, a Tu-154 operated by Russia's Dagestan Airlines, made an emergency landing in Moscow after two of its three engines failed. The third engine cut out just before the landing and the plane skidded off the snowy runway at Domodedovo Airport, killing two people.

Also Sunday, the Kogalymavia announced that it would pay the affected passengers in Saturday's accident 20,000 rubles ($650) each in compensation.

Iran says shot down two spy planes in Gulf: report

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran has shot down two unmanned western reconnaissance drone aircraft in the Gulf, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency on Sunday.

"Many spy planes and ultra-modern aircrafts of our enemies have been shot down (by our forces) ... We have also shot down two spy planes in the Persian Gulf," said commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the elite forces' aerospace unit.

"But it is the first time we are announcing it."

He did not say when the aircraft had been shot down, but described them as "western drone reconnaissance" aircraft.

Iran is at odds with major powers over its nuclear activities, which the United States and its allies suspect are intended to enable Iran to produce nuclear bombs. Iran denies the allegations and says it wants only to generate electricity.

The United States and Israel, Iran's main foes, do not rule out military action if diplomacy fails to end the nuclear row.

Hajizadeh said the enemies -- a term used by Iranian authorities for the United States and its allies -- had been using the drones mainly in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"But there has been cases of violations of our airspace by their drones," the commander said.

Iran has dismissed reports of possible U.S. or Israeli plans to strike Iran, but says it would respond by attacking U.S. interests and Israel if any such assault was made.

Analysts say Tehran could retaliate by launching hit-and-run strikes in the Gulf and by closing the Strait of Hormuz. About 40 percent of all traded oil leaves the Gulf region through the strategic waterway.

"All their military bases are completely within Iran's missile range ... We have full control of our enemies and notice any changes taking place on our shores," Hajizadeh said.

Iran often launches military drills in the country to display its military capabilities amid persistent speculation about a possible U.S. or Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

Alongside the regular army, Iran has a Revolutionary Guards force viewed as guardians of the Islamic ruling system. The Guards have a separate command and their own air, sea and land units, but often work with the regular military.