TOMMY BURNS SHIRTS TO GO TO AFRICA !
Shirts and scarves from all eras of the club were left at Celtic Park. Thousands of football shirts left at Celtic Park as tributes to the late footballer and coach Tommy Burns are to be sent to Africa. They will be washed and sorted into matching sets before being shipped to projects in Malawi, South Africa, Zambia and Uganda.
Celtic said it was fitting that the shirts would go to help others who were less fortunate. The charity, Glasgow the Caring City, is in charge of the project. Tommy Burns died on 15 May at the age of 51, after losing his battle against skin cancer. Since his death, the outside of Celtic Park has been turned into a shrine.
Burns was with Celtic from 1974 to 1989, had a spell as manager in the mid-1990s and was the club's first-team coach until his illness returned earlier this year.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
CLASHES AT NAIROBI FOOD PROTEST !
Kenyan police have fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of people demonstrating against the soaring cost of food. Protesters in the capital Nairobi carried placards demanding the government cut the cost of basic Kenyan staples like maize flour. The police said the demonstration was illegal and four arrests were made.
Food prices in the east African country have risen sharply since the recent political crisis led to shortages. December's disputed presidential election triggered violence across Kenya, leaving 1,500 people dead and some 600,000 people displaced. Granaries and farms were set on fire, leading the government to import three million bags of maize.
Annual inflation rose to 26.6% in April from 21.8% in March, mainly because of increasing food prices. Tom Aosa, who helped organise the demonstration in Nairobi on Saturday, said: "The government must subsidise the cost of food, it is not fair for the poor to be suffering with high food prices yet the government has not increased salaries."
Sharp increases in the cost of food have also triggered deadly riots in Somalia, Cameroon and Senegal. The price of wheat, rice and maize has nearly doubled in the past year and many poor people in developing countries, particularly those who live in cities, are struggling to afford imported food.
World population growth, increased food consumption in emerging economies such as China, climate change and increased land being given over for biofuel production are all having an impact on the price of food.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
MOZAMBIQICANS HEAD HOME FOR SAFETY !
By Eleuterio Fenita -BBC News, Mozambique.
Until recently, Mozambicans in South Africa described the country as "brotherly and friendly" place.
But more than 32,000 Mozambicans have now been pushed back across the border by a wave of anti-foreigner violence.
Fifty-six people have been killed and at least 70,000 displaced by the attacks, which began earlier this month near Johannesburg.
They have been asking us not to let anger get to us and that we should not retaliate
Mozambican returnee Levis
"It's absolute chaos. It's a massacre, as close to a war as you can get," says Levis, clearly shaken.
"I've lost a lot but at least still got my soul," he sighs, sharing a smile with a few fellow returnees.
They have been staying in one of two transit camps set up by the authorities in Beluluane, about 20km (30 miles) from the capital, Maputo.
In the background, in a fenced perimeter adjacent to a local police station, stand 74 neatly organised tents, spacious enough to accommodate six to eight people.
Close by, water tanks lie in wait, while health workers chat to a South African woman who says her Mozambican companion "was almost burnt alive".
"They said I should leave and follow him. We've got two young children and don't know what will become of us now," she laments.
The immediate priority is to give people medical treatment, food and counselling says Ilda Cuna, the provincial secretary of the Mozambican Red Cross, which is helping to run the camps.
"The idea is not to have people in the camps for too long, unless we're unable to get them back to their home provinces immediately upon their arrival and after they have received basic assistance."
Efforts to assist the returnees are being overseen by the reactivated Emergency Operations Center, commended for its work during recent floods in central Mozambique.
Levis hails the work the Mozambican authorities are doing to help people like him.
"I'm grateful to the government," he says. "They have been asking us not to let anger get to us and that we should not retaliate. I hope all of us heed the call."
This forgiving sentiment is not shared by everyone though.
On the outskirts of Maputo, one woman says she will never forgive those who chased her, chanting the name of a southern Mozambican ethnic group common in South Africa: "Kill the Shangaans, beat the Shangaans!"
Conscious of growing anger among the returnees and the general public, President Armando Guebuza has been warning that "violence only generates more violence".
He has reminded Mozambicans of the heavy price they had to pay during another period of upheaval - the civil war that killed up to a million people before a settlement in 1992.
Meanwhile, about 100km (62 miles) away at the Ressano Garcia border, Mozambicans continue arriving, albeit in smaller numbers compared with last week.
One man arrives exhausted, his van overloaded and far too small the mattress, the fridge, the hi-fi equipment and everything else.
He says he had no choice but to flee. "I drove all night and will have to continue driving for at least another 800km (500 miles)." "I will not go back for at least six months," he vows.
In fact, there is not much road traffic from Mozambique to South Africa these days.
This explains why you do not see the long queues of people waiting to go through immigration and customs on their way to earn money in "the land of the rand [South Africa's currency]".
"Usually you'd have at least 10 to 15 minibuses leaving here for the border and beyond," says the man in charge of the local terminal for "chapas" - as the minibuses, the main means of public transport, are known. "Now it's come down to almost zero."
For the time being the authorities appear to be coping with the demands suddenly imposed by the flood of Mozambicans returning home.
The question though is whether the communities the returnees are going back to - some after a long absence - will have the means to meet the additional social-economic burden brought about by the wave of xenophobic violence.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
CHALLENGER BLASTS MUGABE'S RULE !
Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has described the country under President Robert Mugabe as an "unmitigated embarrassment" to Africa. He said that during 28 years of Mr Mugabe's rule, services such as education and healthcare had gone from the best in Africa to among the worst.
He is standing against Mr Mugabe in a run-off election at the end of June.
Zimbabwe's justice minister said a Tsvangirai victory would plunge the nation into crisis. Mr Tsvangirai was speaking at a gathering of parliamentarians from his party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and media in the Zimbabwean capital Harare.
This was, in effect, his election manifesto, the BBC's Peter Greste reports from Johannesburg in neighbouring South Africa.
The MDC leader again condemned the ruling Zanu-Pf party for what his party insists is a campaign of intimidation and violence. He said there would be no amnesty for anyone responsible for political attacks. "The violence that is currently taking place must stop," he said. "There will be no tolerance or amnesty for those who continue to injure, rape and murder our citizens. We consider these acts as criminal acts, not political acts."
Senator David Coltart, a human rights lawyer and a member of the MDC, described for the BBC some of the attacks on supporters of his party.
"Gratuitous forms of violence... the cutting out of tongues, gouging out of eyes," he said. "And I think that has caused the Morgan Tsvangirai statement. It amounts to a plea in desperation to get this violence to stop."
Mr Tsvangirai listed Zimbabwe' s problems as:
"The world's highest inflation, 80% unemployment, education that has plummeted from the best in Africa to one of the worst and a healthcare system that has dire shortages of doctors, nurses, medicines, beds and blankets."
But the country, he insisted, was about to witness a "new and different era of governance" under the MDC, which won a narrow majority in the parliamentary election in March.
The Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, said the MDC was to blame for the country's troubles. He accused the intelligence services of the UK and the US of acting as a sinister third force to undermine the ruling party's revolution. "We are aware that the intelligence services have been involved in some of the acts of politically motivated violence," he said, speaking in the South African capital Pretoria.
That is something the MDC, Britain and the US have all denied, our correspondent notes.
The justice minister, who lost his seat in the election, said an opposition victory in the run-off vote would reverse the gains of the revolution and destabilise the country.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
NIGERIA POWER SHORTAGE TO PERSISIT !
Nigeria will not be able to generate enough electricity for its population until at least 2015, President Umaru Yar'Adua has said. Speaking live on television, the president answered critics who said he had been slow to address the problem.
Nigeria is the eighth largest exporter of oil but cannot generate enough electricity to meet the needs of its 140 million-strong population. Before his election, President Yar'Adua promised to take swift action on power.
But three finished gas-fuelled power stations are unable to generate electricity because Nigeria has sold all its gas for export, the president said. These deals with international oil companies would have to be renegotiated over seven years, he added.
"It is only now that the nation realises the critical importance of gas to the national economy," the president said. The president said the nation's privatisation of the power industry had failed.
During the televised press conference with a select group of journalists he declared his intention to spend some of Nigeria's savings from oil earnings on repairing the nation's power stations and transmission grid.
Under the previous administration of Olusegun Obasanjo, the government-run power company was split up so parts of it could be sold.
Nigeria's electricity facts
Currently generates 3500MW
Would need 100,000MW to become an industrialised economy, according to the ex-president
Six power stations begun under the last administration have not been completed
$16bn (£8bn) has so far been spent on the power sector since 1999
Power stations are rotting away unfinished, and imported generator turbines are still in ports unable to be moved years after they were delivered, a parliamentary investigation found in March.
There was no way investors could be attracted to the industry as it was he said. "Today, still, most of the companies are still publicly owned," President Yar'Adua said. "Emergency legislation" will be needed to allow the government to spend some of the billions of dollars in oil revenue it has saved in the central bank on power, he said.
For every barrel of oil sold $59 goes to the national budget. The rest is held in an account which has now swelled to $12 billion. By law this has to be shared among the state governments.
The president coughed constantly through the press conference. One of the reasons his critics have said he has been slow to act is his deteriorating health. Last month he was flown to Germany for emergency medical treatment. "They prepared the operating theatre, all the surgeons were ready," he said. "But they ran tests on me and said an operation wasn't necessary." An allergic reaction to a malaria drug was responsible for his illness, he said.
In 2000 he suffered from an unnamed kidney condition, from which he says he has recovered. He was also flown to Germany for medical treatment in the middle of his election campaign. "I am just a human being, I could die tomorrow, but I could also live until 90," he told the conference.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
U.N. PEEACE OFFICER KILLED IN DARFUR !
A Ugandan officer serving with the joint United Nations-African Union force (Unamid) in Sudan's Darfur region has been found dead in his vehicle. A spokesman for the mission said the officer's body was found with bullet wounds on Wednesday. The officer, who had been working as a police adviser with the force, was killed in El Fasher, North Darfur. He is the first Unamid peacekeeper to be killed since the UN took joint control of the force in January.
Since the conflict began in Darfur five years ago, the UN estimates that some 300,000 have died and 2m have fled their homes. "We are peacekeepers. We are not here to participate in conflict, so it is a shock to receive news of what happened," Unamid spokesman Noureddine Mezni said.
The force is investigating the circumstances of the officer's death, he said. Nothing was taken from the officer's car, but the spokesman said that it was too early to make conclusions about the incident. Since January the UN-AU force has not been able to bring peace to the region.
It has just 9,000 of the planned 26,000 troops. The conflict began when rebels took up arms in protest at alleged government discrimination against the region. Pro-government Arab militias have been accused of widespread atrocities against the black African population.
But the rebel groups have split into numerous different factions, making a settlement difficult.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
CHURCH TURNS TO UN OVER ZIMBABWE!
By Robert Pigott - BBC religious affairs correspondent
Several Anglican leaders have been outspoken on Zimbabwe. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has issued a powerful challenge to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to intervene in Zimbabwe. He is asking for effective action to protect Christians from what he says is the brutality being used against them.
Dr Williams warned last month Zimbabwe was poised on the brink of disaster. Now he has called on Mr Ban to explain what is being done to prevent murderous, state-organised violence, directed especially against Anglicans. The archbishop has watched with dismay and frustration as the Zimbabwean police have attacked political activists and singled out Anglicans for harsh treatment, while the country's neighbours in southern Africa have appeared unwilling to act. Now he seems ready to shame the UN into taking effective action.
"We are concerned to know what the UN Security Council... is doing to defend Mothers' Union meetings at churches and prevent people being torn away from altar rails on the orders of ruling party or state official," said Dr Williams. "We plead once more for immediate high level SADC [Southern African Development Community] and UN mediation and monitoring to ensure a free and fair presidential run-off, and the protection of its citizens from state-organised violence."
For several weeks the police have disrupted Anglican services in Zimbabwe and attacked worshippers with batons. In one case they beat women as they knelt in front of the altar in the act of taking the bread and wine of the communion service.
Anglicans have been targeted since the Church replaced former Bishop Nolbert Kunonga, who was a strong supporter of President Robert Mugabe. Since then the deposed bishop has been able to prevent Anglicans getting into the cathedral.
Dr Williams said: "There is a continuing failure to enforce court orders permitting Anglicans to worship in their cathedral church in Harare and other parishes."
Other Anglican leaders have gone on record demanding that the international community take responsibility for dealing with the violence and intimidation in Zimbabwe.
The Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, himself once a refugee from Idi Amin's Uganda, last year cut up his clerical collar live on BBC television, promising to go without one until Robert Mugabe had gone. He issued a joint statement with Dr Williams last month calling on Zimbabwe's neighbours to act far more robustly to avert a "spiral of communal violence". Dr Sentamu said on that occasion: "I didn't believe the softy-softly approach of [South African President] Thabo Mbeki would work. "I think it's time we acknowledged that African countries are sometimes incapable of creating good governance on their own. "We must stop saying this is just an African problem... this is an international problem."
Rowan Williams has now reinforced the call for international action, and pointedly directed it at Mr Ban. The head of the Anglican Communion is telling the UN Security Council that someone must take responsibility for Zimbabwe, that doing nothing is not enough and the ball is now in the UN's court.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
NIGERIA POWER SHORTAGE TO PERSIST !
Nigeria will not be able to generate enough electricity for its population until at least 2015, President Umaru Yar'Adua has said. Speaking live on television, the president answered critics who said he had been slow to address the problem.
Nigeria is the eighth largest exporter of oil but cannot generate enough electricity to meet the needs of its 140 million-strong population.
Before his election, President Yar'Adua promised to take swift action on power. But three finished gas-fuelled power stations are unable to generate electricity because Nigeria has sold all its gas for export, the president said.
These deals with international oil companies would have to be renegotiated over seven years, he added. "It is only now that the nation realises the critical importance of gas to the national economy," the president said. The president said the nation's privatisation of the power industry had failed.
During the televised press conference with a select group of journalists he declared his intention to spend some of Nigeria's savings from oil earnings on repairing the nation's power stations and transmission grid.
Under the previous administration of Olusegun Obasanjo, the government-run power company was split up so parts of it could be sold. Nigeria's electricity facts
Currently generates 3500MW
Would need 100,000MW to become an industrialised economy, according to the ex-president
Six power stations begun under the last administration have not been completed
$16bn (£8bn) has so far been spent on the power sector since 1999
Power stations are rotting away unfinished, and imported generator turbines are still in ports unable to be moved years after they were delivered, a parliamentary investigation found in March. There was no way investors could be attracted to the industry as it was he said. "Today, still, most of the companies are still publicly owned," President Yar'Adua said. "Emergency legislation" will be needed to allow the government to spend some of the billions of dollars in oil revenue it has saved in the central bank on power, he said.
For every barrel of oil sold $59 goes to the national budget. The rest is held in an account which has now swelled to $12 billion. By law this has to be shared among the state governments.
The president coughed constantly through the press conference. One of the reasons his critics have said he has been slow to act is his deteriorating health. Last month he was flown to Germany for emergency medical treatment. "They prepared the operating theatre, all the surgeons were ready," he said. "But they ran tests on me and said an operation wasn't necessary." An allergic reaction to a malaria drug was responsible for his illness, he said.
In 2000 he suffered from an unnamed kidney condition, from which he says he has recovered. He was also flown to Germany for medical treatment in the middle of his election campaign. "I am just a human being, I could die tomorrow, but I could also live until 90," he told the conference.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
S.L. TRIBUNAL DOUBLES PRISON TERMS !
Sierra Leone's UN-backed war crimes court has more than doubled the prison terms of two former pro-government militia leaders during the civil war. Judges said the original terms did not reflect the gravity of their crimes. Moinina Fofana's sentence was increased to 15 years from six and Allieu Kondewa's to 20 years from eight.
The men led the Civil Defence Force that fought against rebels in the 10-year war in which some 50,000 were killed and many more maimed and raped.
The UN court originally convicted Fofana and Kondewa last year in what was a controversial trial. The CDF recruited traditional Kamajor hunter militias to fight various rebel groups.
Correspondents say many Sierra Leoneans see the CDF as a force that fought for a noble cause, to defend the population against brutal rebel groups such as the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).
When the head of Kamajors, Sam Hinga Norman, was indicted five years ago there was public outcry. He has since died in custody.
The new decision on sentences was welcomed by Human Rights Watch, which said there was no excuse for attacking and mutilating civilians. The Special Court for Sierra Leone was set up when the war officially ended in 2002 to try those people who bore the greatest responsibility for the atrocities.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
"SAYINGS"
"HE WHO ANGERS YOU
CONQUERS YOU" !
______
TROOPS RESUME SHOOTING IN GUINEA!
Mutinous troops in Guinea have blocked off the administrative district of the capital, Conakry, in a continuing dispute over army pay and conditions. The soldiers, who have been shooting at locations across the city, have said they are now demanding the dismissal of top-ranking army officers.
The unrest began on Monday as soldiers demanded pay dating back eight years. Protests have carried on, despite concessions from the government earlier in the week. On Thursday, the soldiers set up roadblocks at the entrance to the administrative district, which houses the presidency, the army headquarters and some embassies.
Some shops were closed and residents were keeping off the streets as troops fired off rounds into the air, the BBC's Alhassan Sillah reports from Guinea. Late on Wednesday, some soldiers forced their way on to an airport runway, preventing a US military plane from landing. At least two commercial airlines also had to cancel flights before the soldiers returned to their barracks.
Soldiers from the Alpha Yaya Diallo barracks near the airport took the deputy head of the army captive at their base on Monday. The soldiers went on the rampage, looting shops and leaving at least one person dead.
Shots were also heard near two inland barracks. On Tuesday, President Lansana Conte fired the defence minister in a concession to the soldiers. Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane Souare then announced that troops would receive GNF5m ($1,140), and an increase in army rice subsidies in an effort to stop the unrest. He has also asked the opposition to help him name a consensus government.
But our correspondent says the concessions do not appear to have appeased the troops. Soldiers say that some of them have not received any pay since 1996. President Conte, who took power in a coup in 1984, fought off a similar revolt and general strike last year.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
KENYA 'WITCH' CASE MASS ARRESTS !
Kenya police have arrested 86 people in connection with killing of 11 elderly people suspected of being witches.
Last week, eight women and three men were burned to death in the western Kisii district, where belief in witchcraft is widespread.
A police spokesman told the BBC that those arrested may face charges ranging from murder to robbery with violence. Investigations were still under way, he said, but those charged with murder could face the death sentence.
Five of the suspects were found in possession of property and livestock belonging to some of the victims and will be tried for violent robbery, deputy police spokesman Charles Owino said. "Somebody has a responsibility to teach them a lesson," he told the BBC. He said that the suspects could appear in court by June 10, after investigations were completed.
The BBC's Muliro Telewa in the region says although those suspected of engaging in witchcraft have been killed or ostracised in the past, it was a surprisingly large number of people to be attacked at the same time. The mob dragged the victims out of their houses and burned them individually and then set their homes alight.
Villagers told reporters that they had evidence that the victims were witches.
They say they found an exercise book at a local primary school that contained the minutes of a "witches' meeting" which detailed who was going to be bewitched next.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
AFP - Wednesday, May 28 03:07 pm JOHANNESBURG (AFP) -
The South African cabinet was meeting on Wednesday to discuss an action plan to help victims of anti-foreigner violence as Nigeria called for its citizens caught up in the attacks to be compensated.
While a government spokesman said no official announcement was likely until Thursday, public radio reported ministers would approve plans to set up seven giant camps which would house some 30,000 people who have been displaced.
"The cabinet meeting will discuss everything around the violence against the immigrants. Any announcement will be tomorrow," the spokesman Themba Maseko told AFP.
Tens of thousands of mainly Zimbabwean and Mozambican immigrants have been forced out of their homes since the onset of the xenophobic attacks in the middle of the month which have so far left 56 people dead.
While many have simply decided to leave the country for good after their shacks were torched or razed to the ground, others have been sleeping either out in the open or head-to-toe in community centres.
Aid agencies say the existing conditions for those left homeless are unacceptable.
"The current temporary shelters carry health risks, a whole range of risks. It is vital that they are quickly moved to proper buildings, giving them better security and sanitary conditions," Francoise Le Goff, regional director of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told AFP.
Muriel Cornelius, South Africa programme director for the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF - Doctors Without Borders), said it was "unacceptable that those who have been displaced lack access to proper toilets, running water and are being left out in the cold."
National police spokeswoman Sally de Beer said no major incident had been reported in the last 24 hours, bolstering hopes the violence had been finally brought under control with the help of troop deployments.
The xenophobic violence has been a major embarrassment for the continent's economic powerhouse which has portrayed itself as a beacon of racial tolerance since the demise of the whites-only apartheid regime in 1994.
Nigeria's Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe announced late Tuesday that his government would press South Africa for compensation for its citizens caught up in the attacks.
"Following instructions from the foreign ministry, the Nigerian mission has already compiled the list of Nigerians affected during the mayhem with the purpose of seeking compensation from South African government for loss of properties and physical injuries," he told journalists in Abuja.
While no Nigerian was among those killed in the attacks, many have lost their properties and others have had their shops looted, said Maduekwe.
In a statement, the South African foreign minister said it had "noted media reports" about the compensation claim but had so far received no formal request from the Nigerian government.
"Furthermore, we would like to draw attention to the fact that both South Africa and the Federal Republic of Nigeria enjoy fraternal diplomatic relations which enables discussion of issues of mutual interest and concern between the two countries through existing bilateral mechanisms," said the statement.
South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is due to host his Nigerian counterpart Umaru Yar'Adua next week, has come under fire for his response to the crisis.
A televised national address on Sunday night, in which Mbeki described the attacks as a source of shame, failed to silence critics who have pointed out that he has still to visit any of the affected areas.
Report by AFP
U.S. CANDIDATES APPEAL OVER DARFUR !
More than 2 million people have been displaced by the Darfur conflict.
The three main US presidential candidates have made a rare joint statement, appealing for an end to the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region. Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and Republican candidate John McCain said the violence was "unacceptable". The candidates pledged to pursue peace with "unstinting resolve" if elected.
Since the conflict began five years ago, the UN estimates that some 300,000 have died and 2m have fled their homes. The candidates said the Sudanese government was "chiefly responsible" for the violence. Khartoum has always denied any links to the Janjaweed Arab militia, who have been accused of war crimes against civilians in Darfur.
"After more than five years of genocide, the Sudanese government and its proxies continue to commit atrocities against civilians in Darfur," said the statement. "This is unacceptable to the American people and to the world community." The UN has stopped short of calling the violence in Darfur genocide.
Excerpts of the statement were published in an advert in the New York Times by the SaveDarfur Coalition. The candidates blamed the Sudanese government for what they called "consistent efforts to undermine peace and security". This included putting up "multiple barriers" to the deployment of a peacekeeping force from the UN and the African Union, they said.
There are just 9,000 troops of a planned 26,000-strong UN-African Union peace force in the region. "If peace and security for the people of Sudan are not in place when one of us is inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009, we pledge that the next administration will pursue these goals with unstinting resolve," the joint statement said.
The candidates also said the government had failed to stick to the terms of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended two decades of civil war between north and south - a separate conflict to that in Darfur. The violence in Darfur began in 2003 when rebel groups complaining of discrimination against black Africans began attacking government targets.
The government admits mobilising "self-defence militias" following rebel attacks but denies any links to the Janjaweed, accused of trying to "cleanse" black Africans from Darfur.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
GUINEA ARMY TO 'RECEIVE BACK PAY' !
The authorities in Guinea, faced with mounting protests by soldiers demanding back pay, say they will pay the arrears, some of which go back to 1996. Each soldier will receive up to GNF5m ($1,140), and subsidies for army rice will be increased, Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane Souare announced.
Earlier, the defence minister was sacked a day after troops kidnapped the army's deputy head in the pay dispute. One person was killed but the capital, Conakry, is now reported calm. On Tuesday shots were fired and shops looted by soldiers based at the Alpha Yaya Diallo base in the capital, Conakry, BBC correspondents reported.
PM Souare, who was only appointed by President Lansana Conte last week, promised that none of the mutinous soldiers would be punished. He added that he had freed all soldiers who had been detained after a general strike in early 2007 against President Conte's rule. "I appeal to all our compatriots, and particularly our armed forces: consolidate the foundations of our state and our democratic achievements," said the prime minister in a televised statement.
On Monday, protesting troops had captured Gen Mamadou Sampil when he tried to negotiate with them at the Alpha Yaya Diallo base. The BBC's Alhassan Sillah in Guinea says shots were also heard in two other garrisons in Kindia, north-east of Conakry, and N'Zerekore in the south east.
There were unconfirmed reports that several people had been injured in the violence. Following the unrest President Conte summoned senior government officials including Mr Souare for a meeting that lasted more than four hours. Later a presidential decree read out on public radio announced that Defence Minister Gen Mamadou Bailo Diallo had been fired.
The protests come the week after President Conte also sacked Lansana Kouyate as prime minister. Mr Kouyate was appointed as part of a deal in 2007 to end deadly riots that paralysed the country, and left at least 130 dead. He was replaced by Mr Souare, a former minister of mines and ally of Mr Conte.
The dismissal of Mr Kouyate was reportedly one of the soldiers' complaints, as they said they had no-one left to petition. His sacking sparked protests in Conakry last week.
President Conte, who took power in a coup in 1984, fought off a similar revolt and general strike last year.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
JAPAN VOWS TO DOUBLE AFRICA AID!
By Chris Hogg - BBC News, Yokohama.
Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has promised to double his country's aid to Africa within five years.
Mr Fukuda made the pledge in front of leaders from more than 50 African countries at a conference in the Japanese city of Yokohama. He also called on Africa to work together on measures to try to combat climate change.
This is the fourth time Japan has hosted a major conference involving African leaders. It is competing with other countries like China and India for influence on the continent. Japan wants access to Africa's markets and to its natural resources. But it also wants to help.
Opening the conference Mr Fukuda pledged that by 2012 Japan would double its aid to Africa, currently $1.7bn (£850m), increasing it gradually year by year to meet the target.
That sounds generous, but Japan gives less to the continent than the United States does, and also less than Britain, France and Germany - three countries with smaller economies than Japan.
The prime minister promised to encourage Japanese firms to invest there. President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, replying on behalf of the African Union said the Japanese government needed to work much harder to persuade businessmen that Africa was a safe place to invest.
"The perceived notion of risks about doing business with Africa or in Africa today is more a matter of the unforgotten past history than what is actually occurring on the ground in Africa today," he said.
The president also welcomed the pledge of more aid and called on the prime minister to urge his fellow leaders from the G8 group of leading economies to honour their commitments to Africa.
For the next three days the conference will debate how to turn the rhetoric of the opening speeches into practical measures.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
WEEK-LONG BLACKOUT HURTS ZANZIBAR !
Businesses in Zanzibar are closing down and residents are bemused as a power cut affecting the whole of the Tanzanian island enters its eighth day.
The BBC's Freddie Boswell in Zanzibar says there has been little official information about the blackout. It began after a massive power failure in Tanzania; power was restored quickly on the mainland, but not in Zanzibar. There are concerns that without running water, usually pumped into homes, there could be an outbreak of cholera. It is Zanzibar's worst power crisis for years, our correspondent says.
Generators have sold out and the price of water has doubled - a 20-litre container of water now costs $1 (50 pence). There is confusion about the cause of the failures, our reporter says.
Tanzania's state electricity company blames a blown transformer, although some media reports suggest it was a submarine cable that was affected. Many cafes in Stone Town have closed down. One cafe owner told the BBC she could not afford to spend $100 (£50) a day on fuel for a generator. The cost of running a generator for one day is the equivalent to half a month's electricity bill, some residents say.
People are desperately looking for places with generators to charge their mobile phones, our reporter says. There are also concerns that the power cut could affect the island's crucial tourist industry.
The Africa House Hotel says it is spending 20% of its daily revenue on diesel and water for its residents.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
MADONNA'S ADOPTION CASE APPROVED !
A court in Malawi has approved pop star Madonna's application to adopt a three-year-old boy, her lawyer has said.
"We are very happy with what the judge has ruled," Alan Chinula told reporters outside the courthouse in Malawi's capital Lilongwe.
The 49-year-old singer began adoption proceedings for David Banda back in October 2006.
She was granted a temporary custody order after choosing David from an orphanage when he was 13 months old.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
DE BEERS TO MOVE DIAMOND SORTING !
The Republic of Botswana is a big shareholder in De Beers. The diamond giant De Beers is moving part of its sorting operation from its traditional home in London to Botswana's capital, Gaborone.
The operation being moved is known as aggregation and involves sorting stones from different countries by size, shape, colour and quality. Aggregation has been carried out at De Beers headquarters in London since the 1930s and about 50 jobs will go.
De Beers opened a diamond processing plant in Botswana earlier this year. The country is the world's largest producer of diamonds and is also a major shareholder in De Beers.
A De Beers spokesperson described aggregation as "a bit like the consistent mix you get with an orange juice." "In other words manufacturers source oranges from around the world to make sure that each carton tastes exactly the same."
BBC NEWS REPORT.
PASSENGERS IN S.A. TRAPPED IN RIVER !
About 30 passengers have been trapped inside a bus that has plunged into a river in South Africa, officials say. Police say at least 26 people were killed when the bus drove off a cliff in Eastern Cape Province near Lesotho. It landed upside down in the river and rescue services are attempting to reach the passengers trapped under water.
Constable Knokwaba Kholisa told AFP news agency that 21 people have been taken to hospital. The bus is reported to have had 80 passengers on board. Mr Kholisa said the bus had "lost control" after the brakes failed near the town of Cedarville, AFP reports.
"There are also about 30 people still trapped inside the bus and paramedics are also treating patients at the scene," Chris Botha, from emergency services firm Netcare 911, told the South African Press Association.
The BBC's Will Ross in Johannesburg says the bus was on its way to nearby Matatiele. An army helicopter with a medical team has been sent to the scene, he says. Correspondents say South Africa is one of the most dangerous places in the world for driving, with about 10,000 deaths on the country's roads each year.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
