16 April 2009

A Sudanese court on Wednesday condemned 10 rebels from the Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement to death for an unprecedented attack on Khartoum last year which killed more than 220 people.

Nigeria's main militant group warned yesterday of further clashes with the military in the oil-producing Niger Delta and said it had moved two British hostages "out of harm's way" in anticipation of unrest. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said it would "join the fray" between the military joint task force and youths who it said were protesting against Royal Dutch Shell in the southern state of Bayelsa.

Gunmen in Nigeria had released an Italian national abducted earlier this month, Italy's foreign ministry said on Wednesday. Giuseppe Canova, a 60-year-old working for a construction company, was abducted on April 6 as he travelled to work in Abakaliki, the capital of south-eastern Ebonyi state.

Gunmen on Wednesday shot dead a Somali legislator in the country's war-riven capital, Mogadishu, a police officer said. Abdullahi Issa Adow was gunned down, becoming the first legislator casualty under new President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.

Sudan hangs nine for journalist's murder

Nine Sudanese men convicted of murdering a prominent journalist in 2006 were hanged on Monday in a Khartoum prison.

The hanging took place at the Kober prison in Khartoum-North in presence of family members of Mohammed Taha Mohammed Ahmed but journalists were not allowed to witness the execution.

Ahmed's decapitated body was found in the Sudanese capital in September 2006, a day after he was abducted by armed men from his home in north Khartoum.

The former chief editor of the pro-Islamist newspaper Al-Wifaq, he was considered close to the Muslim Brotherhood and had strained ties with the government of President Omar al-Bashir.

Ten people were sentenced to death in November 2007 for Ahmed's murder and beheading at the end of a trial that lasted nine months but one of the suspects was later acquitted.

The accused were members of the Fur tribe from the troubled region of Darfur.

Ahmed had angered rebels in Darfur after articles harshly criticising them were published in his newspaper.

The journalist had been arrested in 2005 after being accused of writing an article on the family of the Prophet Mohammed and publication of his newspaper was suspended by the Sudanese authorities. - Sapa-AFP