International

Zimbabwe has threatened to close 9,000 foreign owned firms after they ignored a deadline to submit plans on how they intend to release some of their shareholding to locals.

President Robert Mugabe's government wants the foreign owned companies with a value of over $500,000 to transfer 51 per cent of their shareholding to locals.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Nigeria on Wednesday for the Developing Eight (D-8) summit, a gathering of the world's largest Muslim countries.

The D-8, with a total population of 930 million, includes Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.

United States President Barack Obama on Monday nominated Mr. Terence P. McCulley as Ambassador-designate to Nigeria.

He will replace Ambassador Ms. Robin Renee Sanders when he is eventually confirmed by the US Senate.

United States Vice President Joe Biden has said he is optimistic that Kenya's reform process will be successfully concluded.

Mr Biden said the US wants to see Kenya conduct a peaceful referendum that will leave the country united.

AHEAD of a new phase of negotiation at the United Nations General Assembly, this month, aimed at producing a synthesis of the proposal for a permanent seat for Africa in the Security Council, President Goodluck Jonathan and his host, Mr. Nicholas Sarkozy, yesterday, resolved to support immediate reformation of the United Nations Security Council to include Africa as permanent member.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on the world to adopt a new approach to bring peace to Somalia, telling an international conference on the Horn of Africa country that a failure to act now risks expanding the violence to its neighbours and beyond.

A new threat has emerged to the immediate resumption of Zimbabwe-European Union re-engagement talks and this time it is not disagreements among the parties involved, but a force of nature.

A cloud of volcanic ash following the eruption of Mt Eyjafjoell in Iceland last week has covered Northern European skies and grounded airlines, scuppering the inter-ministerial team's travel plans.

U.S. Secretary for Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, is due in Abuja today on the invitation of the federal government to assess steps taken so far to strengthen aviation security at the nation's international airports.

US President, Barack Obama, on Wednesday said that his country is committed to its partnership with Rwanda and will continue supporting the country to achieve its development ambitions.

In his message on the 16th Commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Obama said that the United States stands with the people of Rwanda during this painful time of commemorating the genocide.

Female police officers from Nigeria will be deployed to Liberia for peace keeping operations, Inspector General of Police Obonna Onovo has said. Onovo made the remarks yesterday during the visit of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) to Liberia (SRSG) Madam Ellen Margrethe to the police headquarters in Abuja.

The African Union peace and Security Council has imposed sanctions against the Madagascar government on travel ban and diplomatic isolation.

The AU hinted that economic sanctions were on the pipeline.

The sanctions come after the Madagascar leadership failed to implement the AU-backed peace proposal.

Already listed

United Nations agencies and their partners on Saturday launched a polio immunization campaign targeting 85 million children under the age of five in 19 countries across West and Central Africa.

The Transitional Federal Government of Somalia on Sunday called for the World Food Programme (WFP) to continue its operations in Somalia, just hours after Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen issued press released suspending whole activities if the agency in southern Somalia.

Somalia's president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has called on international community to assist his fragile government in restoring peace and stability in the war-torn country.

Ahmed acknowledged that his government has no powers to pacify the country from the powerful insurgents, urging world to urgently help.

Amnesty International and Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) have disclosed that some Nigerians and other Africans are being held without trials in secret maximum security cells in Gambia.