A critical day for Kenya's peace talks hit a snag yesterday when the opposition leader unexpectedly left the country and his party said the government failed to show up on time for the latest negotiations.
Raila Odinga left Kenya on a charter flight to Nigeria, according to an airport employee and two officials of Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement. Odinga was expected back today and was still available for consultations while out of the country, said opposition official Musalia Mudavadi.
He said that government negotiators did not show up on time at a luxury hotel where the two sides were trying to strike a deal to end weeks of violence stemming from President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election, which local and foreign observers say was rigged.
"There has been a delay from the other side," Mudavadi said. "So we are waiting to hear their communication."
In Nigeria, Information Minister John Odey said he was unaware of Odinga's visit, indicating that the trip's purpose wasn't likely to have been officially sanctioned by the government. The presidential spokesman wasn't immediately available for comment.
Nigeria, an African military and diplomatic powerhouse, isn't known to be involved in mediation efforts in Kenya.
On Thursday, the two sides appeared to be edging toward a deal as the government tentatively agreed to create a prime minister's post to be filled by the opposition.
SEEING THE LIGHT
Government negotiator Mutula Kilonzo said a political deal was expected yesterday after weeks of international pressure on both sides to share power.
"I am beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel," former UN chief Kofi Annan, who has been mediating in the political negotiations, said in a statement on Thursday.
Odinga missed a scheduled meeting yesterday with Jean Ping, chairman of the African Union Commission, the AU executive body. But negotiators from his party attended instead, according to an AU official who asked that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
The Dec. 27 election returned Kibaki to power for a second five-year term after Odinga's lead in early vote counting evaporated overnight.
BLOODSHED
The ensuing violence has stirred up ethnic grievances over land and poverty that have bedeviled Kenya since independence in 1963. More than 1,000 people have been killed.
Much of the bloodshed has pitted other ethnic groups against Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, long resented for dominating politics and the economy.
On Thursday, a man was hacked to death in a Nairobi slum, police said. Witnesses said the fight started when a group of young Luos -- from the same ethnic group as Odinga -- began taunting Kikuyus.
"They started hurling insults then throwing stones at the Kikuyus, who are their neighbors," said a woman selling vegetables in the slum.
The Kikuyus then attacked, killing a Luo man, said the woman, who asked that her name not be used for fear of retribution.
MOBILIZING
A think tank said on Thursday that armed groups on opposing sides of the political and ethnic strife are mobilizing for new attacks and serious violence could erupt again if peace talks fail.
"Calm has partly returned but the situation remains highly volatile," the Brussels, Belgium-based International Crisis Group said in a report. "Armed groups are still mobilizing on both sides."
Talks between Kibaki and Odinga have focused on how to create a broader-based government to end the crisis. In particular, Odinga and his backers have demanded that the president share power.
The country remains caught between a desire to move on from waves of ethnic attacks and a fear that any compromise could spark new fighting.
People with missing teeth might be able to grow new ones, said Japanese dentists, who are testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants. Unlike reptiles and fish, which usually replace their fangs on a regular basis, it is widely accepted that humans and most other mammals only grow two sets of teeth. However, hidden underneath our gums are the dormant buds of a third generation, said Katsu Takahashi, head of oral surgery at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka, Japan. His team launched clinical trials at Kyoto University Hospital in October, administering an experimental
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
‘MONSTROUS CRIME’: The killings were overseen by a powerful gang leader who was convinced his son’s illness was caused by voodoo practitioners, a civil organization said Nearly 200 people in Haiti were killed in brutal weekend violence reportedly orchestrated against voodoo practitioners, with the government on Monday condemning a massacre of “unbearable cruelty.” The killings in the capital, Port-au-Prince, were overseen by a powerful gang leader convinced that his son’s illness was caused by followers of the religion, the civil organization the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD) said. It was the latest act of extreme violence by powerful gangs that control most of the capital in the impoverished Caribbean country mired for decades in political instability, natural disasters and other woes. “He decided to cruelly punish all
NOTORIOUS JAIL: Even from a distance, prisoners maimed by torture, weakened by illness and emaciated by hunger, could be distinguished Armed men broke the bolts on the cell and the prisoners crept out: haggard, bewildered and scarcely believing that their years of torment in Syria’s most brutal jail were over. “What has happened?” asked one prisoner after another. “You are free, come out. It is over,” cried the voice of a man filming them on his telephone. “Bashar has gone. We have crushed him.” The dramatic liberation of Saydnaya prison came hours after rebels took the nearby capital, Damascus, having sent former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad fleeing after more than 13 years of civil war. In the video, dozens of
RSS