NAIROBI STAR Tuesday, 27 January 2009 AFRICAN AND FOREIGN NEWS 13

★africanews ★ ETHIOPIA COMPLETELY OUT OF SOMALIA ★ UNEASE AS YAR'ADUA GOES ON LEAVE

★ DATE SET FOR ZUMA TRIAL

ETHIOPIA PULLS ITS LAST UN confirms deaths in Darfur

KHARTOUM A bomb Union UNAMID force

TROOPS OUT OF SOMALIA

attack by Sudanese gov- said it did not know how
ernment planes on a town many were killed when the
in southern Darfur killed jet fighter dropped at least
and wounded civilians, two bombs on rebel-held
peacekeepers said in the Muhajiriya on Saturday.
BAIDOA Ethiopia pulled its last sol- 18 years of conflict. Predictions the first independent verifica- Sudan’s armed forces
diers out of Somalia yesterday after power vacuum would herald more tion of civilian fatalities. were not available for
a more than two-year intervention to bloodshed were confirmed with im- The joint UN/African comment.
combat an Islamist movement in its mediate violence in Baidoa, the seat of
Horn of Africa neighbour, officials on Somalia’s parliament which Ethiopian
both sides said. troops left overnight. Worry over Yar’Adua leave
The departure of Addis Ababa’s Clan militia and local police looted
roughly 3,000 troops starts a new the empty bases, with two people dy- would be away for
era for Somalia, which has suffered ing from shooting during the melee, two weeks. A presi-
witnesses said. dential aide said
Insurgents then hurled a grenade at he would undergo
government soldiers near a bus-stop, medical check-ups
prompting return fire. At least three abroad during that
people were killed and eight others in- time.
jured in that incident, locals said. “Mr President
Somalia’s parliament, meeting in will be spending his
Djibouti due to insecurity at home, leave in Nigeria,”
voted to double its size and invite 200 ON LEAVE: Yar’Adua presidential spokes-
members of the moderate Islamist op- man Olusegun Ad-
position to join the expanded body. ABUJA Nigerian eniyi said yesterday.
International players including the President Umaru “He will spend
African Union and United Nations Yar’Adua will remain a few days in the
MISSION OVER: Ethiopian soldiers are pushing for a unity government. in Nigeria and not presidential resort
travel abroad during at Obudu cattle
two weeks of leave, ranch, a few days at
SA hosts regional summit on Zimbabwe Zuma trial next month his spokesman
said yesterday, in
the Dodan Barracks
(presidential retreat
JOHANNESBURG Zimbabwean Presi- been deadlocked in talks to form a PRETORIA A South African high court will an apparent move in Lagos), and a
dent Robert Mugabe was yesterday unity government since a power- set a date on February 4 for a corruption trial to douse concern couple of days in
meetings regional leaders at a sum- sharing agreement in September, of ANC President Jacob Zuma following a about his health. Katsina,” Adeniyi
mit in South Africa, seeking a nod to with neither side showing any sign court decision to overturn a ruling dismissing The government told reporters in the
form a government with or without of compromise. graft charges, a local newspaper reported on said on Friday the capital Abuja.
his rivals in a stance critics say will Mugabe has urged the opposition Sunday. 57-year-old leader, Yar’Adua has
deepen his country’s crisis. to join a unity government but has An appeals court ruling earlier this month who is known to regularly sought
Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, made it clear he would not hesitate revived the corruption case against the ruling have a chronic medical treatment
leader of the opposition MDC, have to name one without them. party leader, opening the way for prosecutors kidney problem, in Germany.
to pursue charges against Zuma.

★world news ★ GOVERNOR DEFENDS HIS SENATE CHOICE ★ HAMAS REJECTS CEASEFIRE PLAN
★ RUSSIA KNOWS CHURCH HEAD TODAY

Russia picks church head today

MOSCOW Senior clergy from
the Russian Orthodox church
backed a moderniser who fa-
vours closer ties with the Vatican
yesterday in the first round of
voting to choose their first new
patriarch since the fall of the So-
viet Union.
Metropolitan Kirill of Smo-
lensk and Kaliningrad, one of
Muslim rebels get life terms
the most senior Russian clerics MANILA A Philippine court three men were members
to have met the Roman Catho- sentenced three Muslim of the Moro Islamic Libera-
lic pontiff, won the most votes in rebels to life imprisonment tion Front, the largest Muslim
the church’s Council of Bishops yesterday for multiple bomb- rebel group in the mainly
and enters the next round of vot- ings in the capital eight years Catholic state. “This is a tri-
ing as favourite. ago that killed 22 people and umph of justice,” a police told
The final vote takes place to- wounded nearly 100. The reporters.
day.

Hamas rejects long truce

CAIRO Israel has
GOVERNOR CENSURED FOR
PICK TO REPLACE CLINTON
proposed to Egyptian
mediators an 18-month
ceasefire with Hamas,
but the Islamist group
that controls Gaza said NEW YORK New York Governor David have prohibited her from serving. She took
it wants a one-year Paterson said that Caroline Kennedy re- her name out of consideration.”
ceasefire, a Hamas ceived “no signal from me that she had to When he announced Gillibrand’s selec-
official said. withdraw” from her campaign to fill Hil- tion Friday, Paterson declared, “I believe
“Hamas listened to lary Clinton’s vacant US Senate. that I have found the best candidate to be
the Israeli proposal OUTCOME: Gaza ruins Appearing at a news conference with the the next US senator from New York.”
presented by (Israeli person he picked to fill that seat – Demo- In her turn at the microphone Sunday,
Defence Ministry of- lifting of the blockade cratic Representative Kirsten Gillibrand of Gillibrand made no reference to Kennedy,
ficial) Amos Gilad, and imposed on the impov- Hudson in upstate New York – Paterson trying instead to fend off criticism of her
with it a proposal for erished and devastated briefly answered reporters’ questions about selection as a little-known congresswoman
a ceasefire for a year Gaza Strip by Israel and the Kennedy withdrawal, saying the deci- from a mostly rural district in upstate New
and a half, but Hamas Egypt. sion was entirely hers. York. Much of that criticism has come
presented a counter- “It (Hamas) called “Caroline Kennedy called me on Wednes- from her consistent support of gun-owner
proposal of one year for a complete lifting day to inform me that for personal reasons rights.
only,” Ayman Taha said. of the blockade and she had to withdraw,” Paterson said. “I grew up in a family of hunters,” Gilli-
Taha reiterated an opening of all the Paterson was not asked what might have brand said. “I very much believe in protect-
the group’s calls for a crossings,” Taha said. happened if Kennedy had stayed in conten- ing hunters’ rights – it is a core value for
tion but said: “There was nothing that would our region and our state.” CHOSEN: Gillibrand