Renegade soldiers kill Guinea-Bissau president

Renegade soldiers kill Guinea-Bissau president

Assassination comes hours after bomb blast kills West African leader's rival

Soldiers assassinate Guinea-Bissau's leader
March 2: A group of renegade soldiers assassinate the president of Guinea-Bissau. Msnbc.com's Becca Field reports.
msnbc.com

BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau - Renegade soldiers assassinated the president of Guinea-Bissau in his palace Monday, hours after a bomb blast killed his rival, but the military said that no coup was in progress in the fragile West African nation.

The military statement broadcast on state radio attributed President Joao Bernardo Vieira's death to an "isolated" group of unidentified soldiers whom the military said it was now hunting down.

Luis Sanca, security adviser to Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Jr., confirmed the president had died but gave no details.

The military said the armed forces would respect the constitutional order, which calls for parliament chief Raimundo Pereira to succeed the president in the event of his death.

It also dismissed claims that the armed forces headquarters was implicated in Vieira's killing as a retaliation for the assassination late Sunday of armed forces chief of staff Gen. Batiste Tagme na Waie at his headquarters in Bissau.

The two men were considered staunch political rivals and both had survived assassination attempts in recent months.

Poverty, coups and cocaine
The former Portuguese colony has suffered multiple coups and attempted coups since 1980, when Vieira himself first took power in one. The United Nations says Guinea-Bissau, an impoverished nation on the Atlantic coast of Africa, has become a key transit point for cocaine smuggled from Latin America to Europe.

Bissau was remarkably calm on Monday despite the president's death, and traffic flowed normally in some parts of town.

Just hours after Waie's death late Sunday, volleys of automatic gunfire were heard for at least two hours before dawn in Bissau and residents said soldiers had converged on Vieira's palace.

The Portuguese news agency LUSA reported that troops attacked with rockets and rifles. The president's press chief, Barnabe Gomes, escaped from the house after being struck by a bullet in his right shoulder, LUSA said.

It was the second attack on Vieira in recent months. In November, Vieira's residence was attacked by renegade soldiers with automatic weapons. At least one guard was killed in the failed coup attempt that was repulsed by loyalist security forces.

Waie also survived an apparent assassination attempt when unidentified attackers opened fire on his car in January.

Waie killed by blast
It was not immediately clear what caused the blast that killed Waie. Defense Minister Artur Silva and other top officials contacted by The Associated Press declined to comment.

On Sunday in Bissau, troops closed roads around the armed forces building and prevented reporters from approaching. The British Broadcasting Corp. reported that the blast had destroyed part of the building.

Soldiers also shut down the city's five private radio stations, said Zikue Swaeibi, a journalist at one of them, Radio Bombolom. State radio was on the air, but it played only traditional music and there were no news broadcasts.

The three soldiers wounded in the blast were taken to the main public hospital. An AP reporter who visited the hospital saw that two of the soldiers were covered in blood and a third suffered severe burns.

In Lisbon, the Portuguese Foreign Ministry lamented Vieira's death and said it was "fundamental that all political and military authorities in the country respect the constitutional order."

Portugal said it would call an emergency meeting of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries, an eight-member organization based in Lisbon.

Crisis-hit Serbia seeks 2 bln more dollars from IMF

Crisis-hit Serbia seeks 2 bln more dollars from IMF:
BELGRADE (AFP) –

Having been hit harder than expected by the worldwide financial crisis, Serbia plans to seek a two-billion-dollar (1.5-billion-euro) additional arrangement with the IMF, media said Saturday.

Growth for 2009 is now expected to be between 0.5 and 1.0 percent, significantly lower than the initially forecasted three percent, Jurij Bajec, economic adviser for Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic, told the state-run Tanjug news agency.

"It was necessary to make a new agreement with IMF on an additional two billion dollars as a precondition to revise the budget in April," Bajec was quoted as saying, describing previous economic forecasts as "too optimistic."

The budget deficit is now expected to be three percent of gross domestic product, instead of the 1.5 percent agreed with IMF, he said, adding that inflation -- targeted at eight percent -- would likely be higher as well.

The International Monetary Fund's executive board approved a 530-million-dollar loan last month to help Serbia cope with the downturn.

According to Bajec, Serbia will ask the IMF to extend the initial arrangement to a total amount of 2.5 billion dollars, to be used mostly to cover foreign currency reserves and stabilise the national currency.

The dinar has lost 4.0 percent of its value since the beginning of the year, despite central bank efforts to stem the slide.

Serbia is also negotiating for 510 million dollars in assistance from the European Union as well as 300 million dollars from the World Bank, Bajec said.

Crisis in Africa

some issues in Africa remains peculiar and unique in their various capacity and as they proceed towards to what is cited as ’ African way of dealing with severe threats’ they assume pseudo shapes characterized by strong statements from the leaders who define African priorities and ideals according to the duration of time spent in power,terrorising citizens with factious based tyranny systems of governance is the secret behind such unconstitutional tendencies of clinging into power for economic empowerment. Democracy in Africa is more of an ideal concept than reality considering the fact that natives are tethered with chains of absolute poverty coupled with the highest callous of treatment.

Election call in Serbia crisis

Election call in Serbia crisis

By Matthew Price
Belgrade


Serbia's two largest opposition parties have called for early elections amid a deepening political crisis.

They released a joint statement demanding the elections, which are not due for another year.

As the political crisis bites, there are daily attacks on politicians on all sides.


Djindjic's assassination has sent politics spiralling deeper into crisis
Major scandals tear every day at the heart of government.

Politics was never particularly pleasant under the former Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.

But since his assassination in March the atmosphere has worsened.

Now, the joint statement says the situation is so "grave that only early parliamentary elections" can help.

Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic has dismissed the call. But it is sure to add to pressure on his administration.

The latest polls suggest that most people feel there should be early elections. But with public trust in politicians at its lowest ever, few know who they would vote for.

Unity plea

As if to underline the political problems facing Belgrade the prime minister has sent a letter to all the parties in his ruling coalition urging them to continue their work together.

Mr Zivkovic knows that if some of the parties leave the coalition he may well be forced into early elections.

The two opposition parties now callomg for elections were once part of the ruling coalition which overthrew the former President Slobodan Milosevic in 2001.

They represent different ends of the political spectrum.

But they are so angry about the current state of Serbian politics, they seem prepared to bury former differences, and work together, at least for now.