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Saturday, 24 March 2012

Mali junta leader Sanogo denies counter-coup rumours

BAMAKO (Reuters) - The leader of a military coup in Mali, Amadou Sanogo, appeared on television on Saturday to say he was alive and well, denying rumours that he had been killed in a counter-coup days after seizing power.

"Good evening, people of Mali, good evening comrades in arms, good evening citizens, I am Captain Sanogo and I am here in good health, all is well," Sanogo said in a broadcast aired on state television in the early hours.

Rather than making an extended address, he handed over to a spokesman, who said all the Malian army was behind the coup.
It was not clear when the statement had been recorded.

Sanogo heads the National Committee for the Return of Democracy and the Restoration of the State (CNRDR), a body set up by soldiers who overthrew President Amadou Toumani Toure on Wednesday.

The coup's leaders are seeking to capitalise on popular dissatisfaction at Toure's handling of a rebellion by northern nomadic Tuaregs launched in January.
But they have looked increasingly isolated as a coalition of parties condemned the coup and urged that elections, which had been scheduled for April, be held as soon as possible.
Mali's neighbours, the United Nations, France, the United States and the European Union have all called for a return to constitutional rule.
The regional body ECOWAS said it would not recognise the junta and scheduled a summit in Abidjan on Tuesday to discuss the Mali crisis. The African Union suspended Mali's membership.

The coup has left the West African nation, a stable democracy over the past two decades, in limbo and added to fears of regional instability after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya.

FRONTLINE

The northern rebel MNLA, whose numbers have been swollen by Malian Tuaregs returning from the ranks of Libya's army after Gaddafi's fall, launched their fight for an independent north in January.

Aiming to capitalise on confusion in the capital, they have pushed south to occupy positions abandoned by government forces.

The governor of the northeastern region of Kidal told Reuters late on Friday that government troops had retreated from the frontline after they heard of the coup in Bamako.

"We are now surrounded (in Kidal city) by rebels of the MNLA. The current situation in Bamako contributed much to the weak commitment of soldiers on the frontline," Colonel Salifou Kone told Reuters by telephone.

Sanogo has said he is ready to negotiate with the rebels but that his aim is to maintain Mali's territorial integrity.

Hama Ag Mahmoud of the MNLA's political wing told Reuters in Nouakchott, the capital of neighbouring Mauritania: "We are ready to negotiate but there are conditions - the incumbent must be well-established, representative and have the political class behind him, and we must have guarantees from big powers."

Ag Mahmoud said the MNLA's ambitions did not extend beyond the occupation of three northern regions of Mali.

25 labourers in Gurgaon sent to jail on arson charges

Gurgaon (Haryana), March 24 (IANS) Twenty-five labourers in Gurgaon were Saturday sent to police custody for indulging in vandalism and arson at a construction site in the city Friday, police said.

Police also filed a criminal case against the contractors for not providing proper safety equipment to workers.

'We have filed a criminal case against the officials of Larsen and Toubro (L&T) and Alufit for forcing labourers to work without providing safety equipment. We have also sent 25 workers to jail for the vandalism and arson that they indulged in Friday,' a police official told IANS.

Angered over the death of a co-worker Babul Hasan (25) from Baghpat (Uttar Pradesh), labourers at a construction site of L&T and Alufit had pelted stones at private vehicles and torched a police gypsy Friday.

What will you miss during foreign tour

London, March 24 (IANS) While touring a foreign country what things would you miss the most? Parents, children, or homecooked food? Britons admit to yearning for favourite television shows, home cooking and perfect cup of tea when they are abroad.

The survey, commissioned by Alison Tennant of the Believe in Gloucester campaign, found British holidaymakers start to miss home four days and 14 hours into a foreign break, the Daily Express reported.

The researchers found over half were unable to detach from their home life while on holiday. Drinking tap water without worrying was a big issue for 40 percent while one in 10 admitting missing their job.

It was found over a fifth made at least four calls home, a third ringing on the first day. Many were desperate to check on pets.

The study of 2,200 people showed one fifth of Britons moan when abroad. Swimming pools are most likely to trigger complaints, followed by mosquitoes, bad food - and other tourists.

Odisha talks halted as Maoists seize legislator

hubaneswar/New Delhi, March 24 (IANS) Talks to secure the release of two Italians abducted 10 days ago by Maoists in Odisha were suspended Saturday after the rebels daringly kidnapped a ruling party legislator and killed a police officers. The two Maoist-named mediators also announced they were withdrawing from the talks.

The dramatic developments pushed the fate of all three hostages into uncertainty. The government did not say whether it will resume the talks or will it use force against the rebels.

Meanwhile, a statement from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's office said that the two Maoist-named mediators, tribal expert B.D. Sharma and social activist Dandapani Mohanty, have withdrawn from the talks after the latest abduction and other violent acts by Maoists.

'The state government expects that the Maoists will very soon nominate their new mediators for negotiation for the release of two Italian citizens as well as for the release of the young MLA,' it added.

The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) accused the Congress-led central government of not cooperating with it to free the Italians, while the Congress said law and order was a state subject.

In an unexpected development, the Maoists kidnapped BJD legislator and a popular tribal leader Jhina Hikaka, 37, early Saturday even as the government held a dialogue with the rebels through their mediators for the release of Italians Bosusco Paolo, 54, and Claudio Colangelo, 61.

Hikaka, a first time legislator who represents Laxmipur constituency, was returning from a party meeting in Koraput district when his vehicle was stopped on the road near Toyaput, a hilly area, about 500 kms from Bhubaneswar, at about 1 a.m. Saturday.

Police sources said some 100 rebels were involved in the abduction.
While holding on to him, the rebels freed his driver and his guard who were accompanying him.

After the abduction, the Maoists who had also dug the road, left behind a leaflet restating their 13 demands they have set for the release of the Italians and demanded that these should be met at the earliest, police said.

The demands include a ban on the visit of tourists to the tribal areas, halt to anti-Maoist operations, and release of several prisoners.
Hikaka's wife, Kaushalya Hikaka, said her husband is a popular tribal leader and had no enemy.

She appeared on local television channels to appeal to the Maoists to release her husband. 'Please release my husband. He has never caused harm to any body,' she said.

Chief Minister Patnaik held meetings with police and other officials. He said his government was handling the latest kidnapping on a crisis mode.

After several hours of discussion for the third consecutive day Saturday, both the government-appointed mediators and the Maoist interlocutors announced the suspension of the dialogue over the legislator's abduction.

Saying they were backing off only for now, they, however, did not specify when the talks will resume.
Mohanty and Sharma, who were named by the rebels to mediate, blamed both the government and the Maoists for the disruption.
The two told reporters that after the abduction of the Italian tourists, the state committee of the banned Communist Party of India-Maoist declared a ceasefire, while the government also promised that there would be no coercive action by the security forces.

'But the fact is that while we are discussing in Bhubaneswar, unfortunate incidents of disrupting peace continued in many parts of the state,' they said. 'We feel that this is a mockery of peaceful talks and negotiations.

'We, therefore, suggest that the negotiation be kept under suspension,' they said.

Home Secretary U.N. Behera, one of the negotiators from the government side, said the decision to suspend the talks was taken on the request of the Maoist mediators.

The two Italians were abducted from the border of Ganjam and Kandhamal district March 14.

The rebels earlier shot dead a police sub-inspector in Malkangiri, a Maoist stronghold, late Thursday even as the talks were on.

The kidnapping incident had an echo in the assembly when Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members created uproar, forcing Speaker Pradip Amat to adjourn it a number of times and finally for the day.

The BJP also asked the central government to wage a war against the Maoists.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the kidnapping of a legislator was a matter of serious concern.

'But the state government is competent to handle the situation and it comes under the state's responsibility. 'The centre has been providing all necessary help whenever the state has asked for it,' he added.

Married woman gangraped by six men in Ghaziabad

Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), March 24 (IANS) A 28-year-old woman whose husband was away to attend a marriage function was gang raped by six men in Ghaziabad Saturday, police said.

The incident occurred at around 1.00 a.m. Saturday morning.

According to the First Information Report (FIR) lodged at the Masuri police station in Ghaziabad district, the woman's husband had gone to attend a marriage ceremony in nearby Baghpat.

The six men barged into the house of the woman situated in the Nahal locality, taking advantage of the night-time darkness.

They overpowered the woman from behind and covered her face with a piece of a cloth so that she could not recognize them. They then gang raped her one by one.
But when the woman shouted for help, the rapists fled the spot. In the meantime, the woman's daughter, who was sleeping in the adjoining room recognized two of the men. They are said to be neighbours of the woman.
When the woman's husband returned from the marriage function on early Saturday morning, he lodged a complaint with police.

Cops at the Masuri police station registered the case and sent the woman for medical examination.

'The medical report is yet to come but prima facie it seems a case of gang rape. We are trying to arrest the culprits but they are absconding as of now,' said the SP (Rural) A.K. Mishra.

French gunman's brother whisked to Paris intelligence HQ

ARIS (Reuters) - The brother of an al Qaeda-inspired gunman who murdered seven people was whisked to Paris on Saturday for further questioning and a police source disclosed he had said he was "proud" of his late sibling's killing spree.

President Nicolas Sarkozy summoned ministers and police chiefs to a meeting on Saturday to discuss the consequences of Mohamed Merah's massacre, which has raised troubling national security questions four weeks ahead of a presidential election.

Sarkozy is facing an uphill re-election battle and his chief intelligence adviser sought to head off media questions about the handling of the affair in the southwest city of Toulouse.

Abdelkader Merah, elder brother of the 23-year-old gunman who died in a hail of police gunfire on Thursday, was taken by car from police barracks in Toulouse for transfer to the capital, along with his wife, a judicial source said.

Both were arrested in the early hours of last Wednesday as negotiators sought their help in trying to persuade Merah to turn himself in. Merah's mother, arrested at the same time, was released on Friday evening, the public prosecutor's office said.

Her lawyer, Jean-Yves Gougnaud, said she told him "she saw nothing coming" and felt guilty for what had happened.
Merah was killed by a sniper after a gunbattle with police that ended a more than 30-hour siege at his Toulouse apartment, during which he admitted killing three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi and three soldiers in three separate attacks.
Abdelkader Merah and his wife, whose name was not given, were transferred to a detention centre at the headquarters of the DCRI domestic intelligence agency in Paris, where a judge was likely to decide in a matter of hours whether there were grounds for opening legal proceedings over possible links with Mohamed Merah's attacks.

Police have found explosives in a car Abdelkader owned, according to the public prosecutor leading the case. He was already known to security services for having helped smuggle jihadist militants into Iraq in 2007.

A police source said on Saturday that at a closed hearing in Toulouse he had declared himself "proud" of his brother's killings and had admitted helping Mohamed steal the scooter used in all seven murders. He had denied any knowledge of his brother's murderous plans, however, the source added.
DCRI head Bernard Squarcini told Le Monde newspaper on Friday that there was no evidence Merah belonged to any radical Islamist network and that he appeared to have turned fanatic alone.
Yet investigators are still trying to establish whether the young Frenchman of Algerian origin had any logistical or ideological support or really was a genuine "lone wolf."
Merah's brother, and a sister, were known to have studied the Koran in Egypt in 2010 and French police had in the past found links between them and a radical Islamist group based in southern France led by a Syrian-born Frenchman dubbed "The White Emir" by French media because of his fair hair and beard.
The shootings shifted the focus of political debate away from France's economic woes and played to the strengths of Sarkozy as he fights for re-election in a two-round vote in April and May.
Polls show that about two-thirds of voters approved of his handling of the Toulouse crisis, which reduced his challengers, chief among them Socialist frontrunner Francois Hollande, to the role of bystander.

Sarkozy's intelligence adviser, Ange Mancini, sought to head off increasing media debate about whether Merah could have been stopped before he started killing, saying the intelligence and police services had done an "exemplary" job and that it was always easy to ask after the fact if there were flaws.

"Obviously the aim now will be to dig deeper, not just to know more about the case in question, but to see whether there are other lessons, to try to identify whether anyone else might be heading down the same road," Mancini told BFM TV.
Mancini said Mohamed Merah appeared to have purchased guns and other weapons with around 20,000 euros he had seemingly got hold of from robberies or hold-ups.
Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said earlier this week that the question of any possible failings would have to be clarified in due course.
"I have a lot of respect for Alain Juppe but he is not an intelligence and intervention specialist," Mancini said.
An opinion poll released on Saturday appeared to contradict the idea that national security had shot to the top of the agenda for voters despite a week when national and international media provided round-the-clock coverage of the killings and the siege that culminated with a dramatic shootout and death of Merah.
The Ifop polling agency said 53 percent of people believed France faced a high risk of terrorist attack. It was the lowest worry score recorded since Ifop started sounding people out on the issue at the time of the suicide airliner attacks in the United States in 2001, when the number who perceived a high risk of terror attack was 78 percent, according to IFOP.