BBC News with Fiona McDonald
The newly elected president of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta has promised to work together with his defeated rival Raila Odinga and serve all Kenyans in his words ‘without fear or favor.’ He said he would continue to cooperate with international institutions.
“To the nations of the world, I give you my assurances that we truly understand that Kenya is part of the community of nations. We recognize and accept our international obligations.”
Mr. Odinga said he would challenge the result in court saying the poll was tainted by rampant illegality. But he warned that any violence would ruin Kenya.
“We want to appeal to all Kenyans to respect the rule of law. Any violence now could destroy this nation forever. Please therefore look upon each other as brothers and sisters whose national bond should not be broken.”
A radical Islamist militant group in northern Nigeria says it has killed seven foreigners kidnapped last month. Ansaru said it took the action because Nigerian and British forces had killed Muslims in an operation to free the captives who worked for a Lebanese construction company. Ansaru is thought to be a splinter group of the Islamist sect Boko Haram. Frank Gardner reports.
Foreign office officials say they are urgently checking reports of the extremist Nigerian group Ansaru had murdered all seven hostages it seized from a construction site last month including a British national. The claim was posted on the Internet today accompanied by photographs that purported to show a gunman standing over at least one body. A statement said the hostages from Lebanon, Italy, Greece and Britain were killed because of a rescue attempt by British and Nigerian forces. But while the officials said they were not aware of any such attempt.
There’ve been protests in Egypt after a court verdict over a football match riot in the city of Port Said a year ago. The court sentenced two former security chiefs to 15 years in prison for their part in the riot but it acquitted seven other officers. The verdict’s prompted protests in Port Said. In Cairo, rioters targeted buildings in Egypt’s football federation.
The former South African president Nelson Mandela is in hospital for what officials say is a scheduled medical checkup. Mr. Mandela who is 94 spent 18 days in hospital in December to receive treatment for a lung infection and gallstones. Mac Maharaj is a spokesman for the South African President Jacob Zuma.
“Former President Nelson Mandela was admitted this afternoon to hospital in Pretoria for a scheduled medical checkup in order to assist doctors in managing his existing conditions which are very much in line with his age. The doctors are conducting tests and that’s why they have been indicated there is no reason for any alarm.”
World News from the BBC
Twenty one United Nations peacekeepers seized by a Syrian rebel group on the Golan Heights on Wednesday have been released and now are in Jordan. A rebel spokesman said the peacekeepers who are all from the Philippines are in good health. On Friday the UN had to abandon an attempt to collect peacekeepers because of Syrian government shelling.
A judge in London has refused bail to a radical Muslim preacher who’s fought a decade long legal battle against deportation to Jordan. The preacher Abu Qatada was arrested on Friday for allegedly breaching his bail conditions. Tom Symonds reports.
Abu Qatada had been on bail since last November when the Special Immigration Appeals Commission decided he could not be deported to Jordan because evidence obtained through torture might be used against him. But now Mr. Justice Irwin, the chairman of the commission has sent him back to Belmarsh Prison in southeast London for allegedly breaching a condition of his bail that he doesn’t use or even switch on a mobile phone at his home and doesn’t have rewritable CDs or memory sticks. On Monday, lawyers for the home secretary would be at the court of appeal trying to get the legal block on Abu Qatada’s deportation overturned.
Venezuela’s election authorities are meeting to choose a date for the presidential election. Under the constitution it must be held 30 days after the death of the incumbent but correspondents say the most likely date for the poll is April 14th. Opinion polls suggest the country’s acting president Nicolas Maduro is likely to win. He was chosen by Mr. Chavez as his successor.
Three days before Roman Catholic cardinals in the Vatican begin the process of electing a new pope a special chimney’s been installed on the Sistine Chapel for the smoke that will announce the result. Cardinals from around the world will meet under Michelangelo’s frescoes to hold a series of votes in conditions of utmost secrecy.
BBC News