Africa
Saturday, 18 May 2013 20:22
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BAMAKO: Fighting has broken out in northern Mali between Tuareg separatists and local Arab-led gunmen, only days after the African country won a $4.2 billion aid pledge to help it recover from a conflict with rebels affiliated to al Qaeda.Rebel and military sources both confirmed the clashes, although they differed over precisely which groups were involved.The violence highlights how pockets of fighters who escaped a four-month French-led offensive against the al Qaeda-linked militants in the north are undermining efforts to restore state authority ahead of a presidential election set for July 28. France said this week the 'terrorists' had been defeated.The MNLA, a Tuareg rebel group, said its forces were attacked in the town of Anefis by a column of Islamist fighters on Friday. Its Paris-based spokesman, Moussa Ag Acharatoumane, said fighting continued on Saturday morning, with two of the group's fighters and at least seven Islamists killed so far.The ...
BENGHAZI: Armed groups attacked military posts in Libya's second city Benghazi with bombs and a rocket-propelled grenade, an army commander said on Saturday.Nearly two years after the uprising that ended Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule, the government still exerts little control over the armed brigades that helped overthrow him.Oil-producer Libya is largely split into fiefdoms of such brigades that are competing for influence.No one was hurt in the four overnight attacks on three Benghazi army posts, ...
KANO: Residents of an insurgent stronghold in northeast Nigeria fled their homes on Saturday as military fighter jets and helicopters carried out heavy air strikes on Boko Haram camps. Nigeria launched a massive offensive against Boko Haram this week, deploying several thousand troops across three states where President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency after the insurgent seized territory and chased out the government. Dozens of insurgents have been killed in the fighting, the ...
JOHANNESBURG: Operations at a chrome mine in South Africa owned by chemicals group LANXESS have been suspended since Thursday after workers started an illegal strike over bonus payments, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Saturday.The dispute at the mine in Rustenburg, 120 km (70 miles) northwest of Johannesburg, adds to growing labour tensions around South Africa's platinum belt, which are set to intensify over looming job cuts and wage talks in the sector."The ...
CAIRO: Egyptian police angered by the kidnapping of seven colleagues by rebels kept a crossing into the Gaza Strip closed again on Saturday, stranding hundreds of Palestinian travellers, witnesses said.The protest began on Friday when police strung barbed wire across the Rafah border post and chained up the gates, local residents said, a day after the abductions.Gunmen demanding the release of jailed militants had seized seven policemen and soldiers on a road between the Sinai ...
BEIJING: Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on Friday touted his troubled but improving economy as an attractive entry point for Chinese investment into the European Union."Greece can become a real 'gateway' for investment and trade flows between China and Europe," Samaris told a Greek-Chinese business forum, according to a copy of his speech text.Samaris is visiting China, the world's second-largest economy, in a bid to strengthen economic ties. He met Chinese President Xi Jinping on ...
TUNIS: The Tunisian government has decided to ban the congress of hardline Salafist group Ansar al-Sharia due to take place at the end of this week, the ruling Islamist party's leader said Wednesday."The government has decided to prohibit this congress whose organisers have not obtained prior permission from the authorities as required by law," Ennahda party chief Rached Ghannouchi told a news conference.He was speaking shortly after the Salafist group said tens of thousands of ...
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