Islamist militant group al-Shabab, which controls much of Somalia, has released a joint video with al-Qaeda, announcing the two groups have merged.

Al-Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane, known as Mukhtar Abu Zubair, said he "pledged obedience" to al-Qaeda head Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The two groups have long worked together and foreigners are known to fight alongside Somali militants.

The announcement comes as al-Shabab is under pressure on several fronts.

Africa Union troops supporting the forces of the UN-backed government have taken control of the capital, Mogadishu, while both Kenya and Ethiopia have sent forces into Somalia to push back the Islamists.

Al-Shabab, however, still controls many southern and central areas of the country.

However, correspondents say al-Shabab's policy of banning many foreign aid agencies from areas it controls during the region's worst drought in 60 years has lost the group some of its popular support.

The United Nations says that although the famine in Somalia is officially over, a third of the population still needs urgent feeding.

BBC Somali editor Yusuf Garaad Omar says the merger of al-Shabab and al-Qaeda has the potential to change the dynamics of the conflict in Somalia.

During the 15-minute Arabic-language video posted on jihadist websites, Zawahiri said the move was "good news" for al-Qaeda.

Analysts say the announcement helps boost al-Qaeda after its leader Osama Bin Laden was killed last year.

"Al-Qaeda needs to project power and influence, particularly given its own operational impotence," Australian analyst Leah Farrall told Reuters news agency.

"Al-Shabab's acceptance under the al-Qaeda umbrella probably came with permission from Zawahiri for the group to launch external operations against the West."

This week, the London-based Royal United Services Institute think-tank warned that about 50 Britons were training with al-Shabab and could return to attack the UK.

Last week, William Hague was also in Mogadishu, the first visit by a British foreign secretary in 20 years.

The UK government is holding a conference in London on 23 February to try to find a political solution to Somalia's problems, and tackle piracy and extremism.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991 and since then, has been convulsed by conflict.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16979440

Un haut responsable a précisé à La Presse Canadienne que l'ambassade canadienne à Moscou avait envoyé une note de protestation officielle au ministère russe des Affaires étrangères.

Il ne disposait toutefois pas de détails sur l'ampleur de l'aide militaire fournie.

En dépit de la répression de la contestation en Syrie, la Russie a indiqué récemment qu'elle continuerait d'y exporter des armes et d'honorer les contrats déjà conclus.

La Syrie, à laquelle la Russie fournit des armes depuis la guerre froide, demeure son principal importateur d'armements dans la région.

Selon le cabinet spécialisé Cast à Moscou, cité récemment par RFI, Damas a acheté l'an dernier à son allié des armes totalisant près de 960 millions de dollars. Au cours des dernières années, les deux pays ont en outre signé des contrats d'armements totalisant 6 milliards de dollars, toujours selon le cabinet Cast.

Cette semaine, Le Figaro évoquait une entente de 550 millions de dollars « portant sur la livraison de 36 avions d'entraînement et d'attaque légers Yak-130 ».

La semaine dernière, RFI rapportait de son côté que la Syrie, inquiète d'éventuelles frappes de l'OTAN, avait acheté à la Russie 24 avions MIG-29 ultramodernes et commandé des missiles antinavires supersoniques et des batteries de missiles sol-air Patsir et S300. Le réseau rappelait par ailleurs que la Russie avait perdu des milliards de dollars de contrats d'armement lors du soulèvement en Libye.

Le ministre des Affaires étrangères du Canada, John Baird, avait déjà exprimé sa déception à la suite du veto opposé samedi par Moscou et Pékin devant le Conseil de sécurité des Nations unies. Leur veto a tué une résolution qui aurait condamné le régime du président Al-Assad.

Depuis le début de la contestation à la mi-mars, le bilan des morts en Syrie s'élèverait à plus de 5000.

Source: http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/International/2012/02/08/006-canada-russie-syrie-protestation.shtml

A Guinean court has filed charges against a top army officer over the killing of scores of protesters and mass rape of women during a 2009 demonstration against military rule, rights groups said.

Colonel Moussa Tiegboro Camara, secretary of state in charge of fighting organised crime, is the highest-level official yet to be charged over the massacre, one of bloodiest events in the West African state's history.

"This is a very important step in the probe into the September 28 massacre," Florent Geel, an official at the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, told Reuters, adding the charges had been filed on Wednesday.

A senior police official confirmed Camara had been charged, but declined further comment.

The move comes amid broad international pressure on President Alpha Conde, elected in 2010, to investigate the crackdown on thousands of people who had gathered in a Conakry stadium to protest against the then-ruling military junta.

More than 150 people were shot, stabbed, bludgeoned or trampled to death, while more than 100 women were raped, according to Human Rights Watch. A U.N.-led probe concluded the abuses likely constituted crimes against humanity.

Camara was seen inside the stadium during the crackdown, according to TV images seen by Reuters. Human Rights Watch said forces commanded by Camara "took an active part in the massacre, and, to a lesser degree, in the sexual violence that followed."

  Junta rule in the country ended after elections in 2010 that brought Conde, a veteran opposition figure, to power.

At least two other men have been charged for their alleged roles in the crackdown, including Lieutenant Aboubacar Sidiki Diakite, who was then-head of the Presidential Guard.

"For years, political interference and intimidation has undermined the independence of the judiciary and contributed to the widely held perception that the powerful are above the law," Corinne Dufka, a senior West Africa researcher for Human Rights Watch, said in a press release.

"The efforts by the judges and Ministry of Justice to hold accountable those responsible for the 2009 stadium violence are playing an important role in reversing this trend."

Source: http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE81805G20120209?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

An anti-homosexuality bill described by Barack Obama as "odious" has been resurrected by the Ugandan parliament. But according to the politician who reintroduced the bill, it no longer contains a provision for the death penalty and proposes reduced proposed prison sentences for homosexual acts instead of a life sentence.

David Bahati, a member of Uganda's ruling partyput his bill, first tabled in 2009, before parliament to a standing ovation and cheers from fellow parliamentarians, shouting "our bill, our bill".

There was some confusion about what exactly the text presented to parliament contained, but reaction from activists was swift, with Amnesty International condemning the bill's revival, and a Ugandan campaigner describing its reception in parliament as "shocking".

Uganda gained international notoriety when the original bill was unveiled, prompting denunciations from governments and activists across the world. Homosexuality is widely condemned in Uganda, and the country faced another media storm in January last year when a prominent gay activist, David Kato, was bludgeoned to death.

Police said Kato was killed during a robbery but human rights activists suspected that the murder was linked to his campaigning. His picture had been published a few months earlier in a newspaper that called for gays to be executed. The murder cemented Uganda's reputation for homophobia.

Bahati said the confusion over his bill's content resulted from ignorance about Ugandan parliamentary procedure. He said he had to resubmit the bill in its original form but amendments had been agreed last year and accepted.

These included a decision to drop references to the death penalty, originally mandated for "serial offenders" or people found guilty of a number of other homosexual acts. Bahati said life imprisonment terms contained in the first bill had also been dropped.

"We are reducing the prison sentences to two to seven years. Even the life imprisonment is not there," he told the Guardian by telephone from Uganda, adding that the bill would take into account what "other people say".

Julian Pepe Onziema, director of programmes at Sexual Minorities Uganda, where Kato also used to work, said he was in parliament when Bahati reintroduced the bill.

"It was really scary and traumatising, seeing MPs from the opposition camp and the incumbent camp cheering the bill and calling it 'our bill'," said Onziema, who is transgender.

Homosexuality is taboo in many African countries, and is illegal in 37, including Uganda. Few Africans are openly gay, as they fear stigma, imprisonment and violence. Anti-gay feelings in Uganda have been stoked in recent years by religious leaders, US evangelicals and politicians.

Amnesty International described the reintroduction of the bill as "a grave assault on human rights" and said it was alarming that Uganda's parliament would again consider it.

When the bill was originally submitted to parliament, Hillary Clinton called on the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, to reject it, and some international donors, including Britain, threatened to cut aid if it became law.

Uganda's cabinet dropped the bill last August, saying that existing legislation was strong enough to deal with homosexual crimes.

Bahati said he resurrected the bill to stop what he called the "promotion" of homosexuality and the inducement of children, and to provide a "safety net" for Uganda, so that future governments would have to consult parliament before adopting any international protocols that accepted homosexuality.

"The people of Uganda are anxiously looking to parliament to protect the children," he said. "We are not targeting anybody … we are just trying to protect the majority of Ugandans from this evil," he said, describing his campaign as "a fight against a new form of imperialism".

Bahati accused western nations of hypocrisy, saying that they defended democracy elsewhere and yet wanted to stop a democratic process in Uganda.

"The west is saying that for us to give you money, we want you to accept behaviour that you abhor," he said. "President Obama [is] a man who stood on a platform of change but certainly, this is not the change the world is looking for. It is the evil the world should fight."

Onziema said the homosexual community was being used as a scapegoat. "My gut feeling is that it's a statement to the western world … Uganda is trying to prove a point that it can do what it wants.

"I think they are just using us as a political pawn. They know we are harmless … they are just trying to gain support from the public, which has already been brainwashed," he said, adding that issues such as alleged corruption and a lack of spending on health and education were more important.

"Those are issues they should be looking at. They should not be looking at people just seeking to love each other."

Bahati said the bill had been referred to a parliamentary committee, which had 45 days to examine it.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/08/uganda-gay-death-sentence-bill

Plusieurs manifestations ont eu lieu mercredi 8 février dans les régions tibétaines du Sichuan, mais aussi du Qinghai.

Un homme, possiblement un moine ou un ancien moine, se serait immolé par le feu à Aba (Ngaba en tibétain), préfecture de Ganzi (Sichuan), le même jour, portant à 21 le nombre de personnes qui ont recouru à cette forme de protestation depuis le début de l'année 2011, selon les médias et ONG liés à la communauté tibétaine en exil. Trois personnes auraient tenté de s'immoler par le feu la semaine dernière dans le comté de Serthar, siège de plusieurs manifestations réprimées ces dernières semaines.

Près d'un millier de manifestants demandant le retour du dalai lama se seraient ainsi rassemblées hier à Nangcheng, un comté de la préfecture de Yushu connu pour les dizaines de monastères qu'il abrite, ainsi que dans une autre région de cette préfecture. Comme Ganzi dans le Sichuan, Yushu fait partie de l'ancien Kham tibétain, une terre de guerriers extrêmement attachés à la culture tibétaine. Radio Free Asia a publié sur son site des photos des manifestations.

Brice Pedroletti

Source: http://www.lemonde.fr/asie-pacifique/article/2012/02/09/de-nouvelles-immolations-et-manifestations-ont-lieu-dans-les-regions-tibetaines_1640714_3216.html

Après le Conseil nationale de transition libyen (CNT), et le Conseil national syrien (CNS), un « Conseil national de transition » va-t-il voir le jour au Sénégal ? L’idée a pour la première fois été évoquée par l’ex-ministre des Affaires étrangères d’Abdoulaye Wade et aujourd’hui opposant, Cheikh Tidiane Gadio, lundi 6 févier lors d'un meeting tenu conjointement à Rufisque avec la plupart des autres candidats d'opposition.

« Si Abdoulaye Wade persiste, nous n'allons pas le reconnaître, ni reconnaître son gouvernement, et nous allons organiser une campagne pour la reconnaissance d'un Conseil national de transition que nous allons, nous autres, créer », a déclaré Cheikh Tidiane Gadio, devant des milliers de personnes.

« La seule façon de servir le Sénégal dans l'honneur et la dignité, c'est de s'opposer à la candidature inconstitutionnelle d'Abdoulaye Wade jusqu'au bout », a-t-il ajouté.

Opposition unie contre Wade

Cheikh Tidiane Gadio fait partie des huit candidats de l’opposition ayant décidé de mener en commun la campagne électorale qui s'est ouverte dimanche au Sénégal, à l'approche du scrutin présidentiel du 26 février.

Lors de ce meeting, Youssou Ndour, dont la candidature a été invalidée par le Conseil constitutionnel, a appelé les électeurs à prendre l'argent de ceux qui voudraient acheter leurs voix, et de voter contre eux.

« Cet argent est l'argent de l'État (qui a été) volé, c'est votre argent. Prenez-le, bouffez-le (...) et fermez-leur vos portes ! », a-t-il lancé.

Le président des Maldives a annoncé mardi sa démission après trois semaines de manifestations de l'opposition et une mutinerie de policiers.

Le président Mohamed Nasheed a remis le pouvoir au vice-président, Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik. Dans un message télévisé, le chef de l'État a expliqué qu'il refusait de recourir à la force contre sa population, comme il devrait le faire pour demeurer au pouvoir.

« Ce sera mieux pour le pays dans la situation actuelle si je démissionne. Je ne veux pas diriger le pays d'une main de fer », a-t-il déclaré.

Les rumeurs concernant le départ du président Nasheed avaient commencé à circuler dans la nuit de lundi à mardi. Des témoins rapportaient que des policiers mutins avaient pris le contrôle de la télévision d'État et commencé à diffuser des appels au renversement du président.

L'archipel des Maldives, situé au sud-ouest de l'Inde, est plongé dans une crise politique depuis l'arrestation à la mi-janvier du président de la cour criminelle, Abdullah Mohamed, accusé de corruption. L'opposition, menée par l'ancien président Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, accuse le président Nasheed de dérive autoritaire.

Ancien militant des droits de l'homme, Mohamed Nasheed était devenu en 2008 le premier président élu démocratiquement dans l'histoire du pays, mettant fin à 30 ans de règne de Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

Source: http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/International/2012/02/07/002-maldives-demission-president.shtml

THE problem with understanding human uniqueness is precisely that it is unique. Though the proper study of mankind may be man, that study will yield little if there is no reference point to compare man with.

That, at least, is the philosophy of Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in Leipzig. Dr Paabo, whose work on fossil DNA was the inspiration for “Jurassic Park”, has since become interested in human evolution. To this end, he and his colleagues have sequenced the DNA of both Neanderthal man and an Asian species of prehistoric human, the Denisovians, which Dr Paabo’s own work identified.

Now he has turned his attentions to modern Homo sapiens. In collaboration with a team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dr Paabo and his colleague Philipp Khaitovich have compared genetic activity over the course of a lifetime in the brains of humans, chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys. They have then matched what they found with what is known of Neanderthals, and think they have thus discovered at least part of the genetic difference between Homo sapiens and the others that creates human uniqueness.

Dr Paabo and his colleagues focused their examination, just published in Genome Research, on two parts of the brain. One was the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is the seat of abstract reasoning and social behaviour—things that humans are particularly good at. The other was the lateral cerebellar cortex, which is more to do with manual abilities. They extracted cells, post mortem, from people, chimps and monkeys of many ages, and looked at which genes had been active in these cells when the owners were alive.

The vortex of the cortex

They did this by examining the RNA in the cells. RNA molecules are single-stranded copies of the double-helical DNA genes in the cell nucleus. Their job is to carry instructions from the genes to a cell’s protein-making machinery. Most primate genes have now been identified, so it is possible to make chips covered with complementary strands to the RNA messengers, to which these messengers will uniquely stick, and which thus act as probes for particular messenger molecules.

Using such chips, Dr Khaitovich and Dr Paabo were able to find out when, during the course of life, particular genes were active, by working out how much RNA from each gene cells from particular parts of the brains of individuals of different ages contained. Their results fell into six categories.

First, they found some genes whose expression patterns over a lifetime were uniquely human (ie, were the same in chimpanzees and monkeys, but different in people) and others that were uniquely chimpanzee (ie, the same in people and monkeys, but different in chimpanzees). Second, they discovered that there were more uniquely human expression patterns than uniquely chimp ones. Third, unique human expression patterns were more common in the prefrontal cortex than in the cerebellum. Fourth, though these uniquely expressed genes were most active in the young of all species, their period of activity was several years longer in humans than in the others. Fifth, the activities of a lot of the uniquely active genes seemed to be correlated: the researchers identified seven groups of genes (five in the prefrontal cortex and two in the cerebellum) which each seemed to be working as a module. And sixth, these modular genes seem to be involved in the crucial job of linking nerve cells together through junctions called synapses.

To summarise, human beings have suites of genes that probably cause their brains to be “plastic” and thus receptive to change far longer (to the age of about five) than is true for chimps or monkeys (whose brains are plastic for less than a year after birth). Moreover, Dr Khaitovich was able to work out how the expression of these modules of genes was co-ordinated, by looking at the switches, known as transcription factors, that turn them on and off.

Indeed, by comparing modern genomes with their discoveries about Neanderthals Dr Paabo’s group has found that the regulatory process for one of the modules came into existence after the modern human and Neanderthal lines separated from one another, about 300,000 years ago. Unfortunately, it is not possible to look at the expression pattern of genes in Neanderthals, and it probably never will be. But it might be possible, as knowledge advances, to reconstruct part of it from a better understanding of that extinct species’s DNA. “Pleistocene Park”, anybody?

Source: http://www.economist.com/node/21545972

Réunie à Dakar pour son premier meeting de campagne, l'opposition a tenu à afficher son « unité » et une cible commune, Abdoulaye Wade. Huit candidats de l’opposition sénégalaise ont tenu leur premier meeting de campagne dimanche 5 février, place de l'Obélisque à Dakar, devant un peu plus d'un millier de personnes. La veille, samedi, ils s’étaient formellement engagés à « rester unis » à l'approche du scrutin présidentielle du 26 février jusqu'à obtenir le retrait de la candidature du président sortant.

« Pas d'élection présidentielle au Sénégal avec Wade », proclamait une large banderole signée du Mouvement du 23 juin (M23), qui regroupe opposants et représentants de la société civile. Alioune Tine, coordinateur du M23 et président de la Rencontre africaine des droits de l'Homme (Raddho), était le grand ordonnateur de ce « méga-meeting ».

"Nous irons jusqu’au bout"

Sous les applaudissements, les trois cadors de l’opposition, Moustapha Niasse, Macky Sall, Idrissa Seck - tous trois d’anciens Premiers ministres de Wade -, et Ousmane Tanor Dieng, ont tour à tour pris la parole, essentiellement en langue locale Wolof.

« Nous irons jusqu'au bout, jusqu'à ce que Wade retire sa candidature, Wade doit partir! », tonne Tanor Dieng. « Le combat ne saurait se limiter à la place de l'Obélisque, étendons le à tout le Sénégal! », enchaîne Macky Sall. Youssou Ndour, dont la candidature a été invalidée par le Conseil constitutionnel, était lui aussi présent. « Prenez vos responsabilités », a-t-il répété à la foule.

Le rassemblement s’est déroulé dans le calme, une grosse satisfaction pour l’opposition qui avait déployé un important service s’ordre afin d’éviter tout débordements.

Seule ombre au tableau, la faible mobilisation, bien loin des attentes et inférieure à la manifestation de mardi. « Avec l'anniversaire de la naissance du prophète, les départs en province pour ce week-end férié, nous savions que nous ne ferions pas le plein », a expliqué Cheikh Tidiane Dieye, l'un des leaders du M23.

Wade à Mbacké

« Mais nous voulions être présents pour ce premier jour de campagne et diffuser notre message d'unité », a-t-il tout de même condédé.

De son côté, le président Abdoulaye Wade a débuté sa campagne électorale dans son fief de Mbacké près de Touba, la cité sainte des Mourides, en allant recueillir la bénédiction du khalife général des mourides à Touba. « Je viens rendre visite à mon marabout, et lui demander de prier pour moi », en vue de l'élection, a déclaré le président Wade.