Fighting erupts in northern Mali

FRESH fighting has erupted in northern Mali between ethnic Tuaregs and an unidentified armed group, the latest violence in the wake of a French-led campaign that drove radical Islamists from major cities.

Tuaregs of the Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA) were fighting on Saturday what one source said "seemed to be Arab fighters" near the northern town of Tessalit, where suicide car bombers killed three people a day earlier.

The al-Qaeda-linked Islamist rebel group, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), has claimed responsibility for the bombings in In-Khalil near Tessalit, saying they were specifically targeting the MNLA, which has been co-operating with French forces to flush out Islamists from northern Mali.

"Through the car bombings against MNLA elements in the In-Khalil zone, the MUJAO is committed to pursuing jihad against infidels," group spokesman Adnan Abu Walid Sahraoui said in a statement sent to AFP in Bamako.

On Thursday, MUJAO also claimed an attack in the northern city of Kidal where a vehicle exploded near a camp occupied by French and Chadian troops.

The mountainous region between Tessalit and Kidal is strategically important, seen as a stronghold for many Tuaregs and used by Islamists as a hideout from French forces.

France sent in troops on January 11 to help the Malian army oust Islamist militants who last year captured the desert north of the country.

Since then, thousands of soldiers from African countries have also deployed, and France plans to start withdrawing its troops next month.

In Saturday's statement, the MUJAO spokesman warned that future suicide attacks are planned in Mali's capital as well as in the capitals of Burkina Faso and Niger, whose troops are part of the African force in Mali.

"Bamako, Ouagadougou and Niamey remain favourable zones for our suicide bombers who are ready to make the planned attacks," he said, without elaborating.

He also demanded that the groups holding French hostages in the Sahel region and in Niger kill their victims in revenge against France, which he accused of "staging a crusade against Islam and Muslims".

Seven members of a French family, including four young children, were seized by kidnappers in Cameroon on Tuesday and are believed to have been taken over the border into Nigeria.

French-led forces met little resistance during the initial offensive that drove the Islamists from the main northern centres of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu.

Now, however, they are facing a guerrilla campaign that includes sudden raids, suicide attacks and land mines.

On Friday, Chad, which also has troops Mali, suffered its heaviest losses so far after clashes with Islamists in the mountainous northern Ifoghas region.

The Chadian army said the fighting claimed the lives of 13 Chadian soldiers and 65 Islamists.

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Egypt's ElBaradei urges election boycott

OPPOSITION leader Mohamed ElBaradei has called for a boycott of Egypt's upcoming legislative elections, with the president set to reschedule the first round which clashes with a Christian holiday.

"Called for parliamentary election boycott in 2010 to expose sham democracy. Today I repeat my call, will not be part of an act of deception," the Nobel Peace laureate and former head of the UN atomic watchdog wrote on Twitter.

Former foreign minister Amr Mussa, another leader in the National Salvation Front (NSF), said many members of the opposition bloc were inclined to boycott the four-round election, but a final position had not yet been taken.

"There is a large group that wants a boycott, but it has not yet been discussed, and no decision has been taken," he told AFP.

The election is scheduled to begin on April 27, with a new parliament to convene on July 6.

But the presidency said it was "seriously" considering changing the starting date because it falls on the Christian holidays of Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday, after objections from the Coptic Church.

"Today President (Mohamed) Morsi said he is seriously considering rescheduling elections to avoid any overlap with Coptic Christian holidays," the presidency said on its English-language Twitter feed.

Father Rafiq Greish, the Catholic Church's spokesman in Egypt, told AFP he spoke with the presidency, which "accepted" rescheduling the first round.

Greish said he discussed with an adviser to the Islamist president the possibility of changing the first round of the election to April 23.

ElBaradei, who did not elaborate about his boycott call on Twitter, raised the suspicion that the vote might be rigged, as was the case in a 2010 election under ousted long-time president Hosni Mubarak.

Leaders of the NSF, an alliance that brings together liberal and secular leaning groups, have previously proposed a postponement of the vote.

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One killed in clashes in southern Yemen

ONE person has reportedly been killed and three injured in an exchange of fire between security forces and suspected secessionist insurgents in southern Yemen.

The independent website Yemen News, citing medical sources, said on Saturday the dead man was a passer-by caught in the crossfire between the two sides in the southern port city of Aden.

However, officials in the separatist Southern Movement said he was one of its supporters and accused police of killing him.

Meanwhile, insurgents suspected of affiliation to the Southern Movement torched stores owned by northerners in the southern city of Hadramawt, reported Yemen News.

"They attacked my store, claiming I belong to the occupation forces," the site quoted a shop owner as saying.

The unrest came two days after three people were killed and dozens injured in a crackdown by police at an anti-government protest in Aden.

The Southern Movement calls for independence or autonomy for the former Marxist republic of South Yemen, which merged with more populous North Yemen in 1990.

Aden was the capital of the former South Yemen and is a stronghold of secessionists.

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Four arrested in Egypt for 'Harlem Shake'

EGYPTIAN police have arrested four students who filmed themselves publicly dancing in their underwear - possibly emulating an Australian-inspired Youtube number called the Harlem Shake.

The four pharmaceutical students shocked residents of a middle class Cairo neighbourhood when they removed most of their clothes and videotaped themselves performing the pelvis-thrusting dance, a police official said on Saturday.

The hostile audience tried to assault the students, who are accused of committing "a scandalous act," the official added.

Egypt has strict public indecency laws.

Some Egyptians have posted videos of themselves on Youtube doing the Harlem Shake in front of the pyramids.

One of them, dressed in white underwear and a bow tie, dances while riding a camel.

The dance craze was sparked by a group of Australian teenagers who uploaded the 31-second clip The Harlem Shake v1 (TSCS original) onto YouTube earlier this month.

It has since been viewed almost 16 million times.

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Arab militia kills 50 in Sudan's Darfur

AN Arab militia firing heavy machine guns has killed more than 50 people in Sudan's Darfur region, residents say, continuing unrest that has caused the largest displacement of people in years.

"They came on Land Cruisers, used Dushkas and they burned 30 houses (and killed) 53 people," said one resident of El Sireaf town, to which most of the 100,000 people displaced or severely affected by the earlier tribal fighting had fled.

Another resident, who said he was wounded, also gave a figure of 53 dead.

The two said the attackers belonged to a militia of the Rezeigat tribe, which has been fighting rival Arabs from the Beni Hussein group since early January in the Jebel Amir gold mining area of North Darfur state.

"We are in the cemetery burying these people," the first resident said, adding that the dead included two women and two children.

The second said he had been wounded in the leg and when he went to the town's hospital he found it filled with others who had been hurt in the attack.

"Some of them are waiting outside under trees," he said.

Both residents asked not to be identified. They said the victims were members of the Beni Hussein tribe.

A Rezeigat source said he heard there had been "tension" but did not immediately have details.

Officials at the African Union-UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) could not be reached for comment.

The violence illustrates the changed nature of Darfur's conflict, where 10 years ago on Tuesday rebels from black tribes began an insurrection against the Arab-dominated Khartoum regime.

Darfur's top official, Eltigani Seisi, told AFP last week "the major issue" in Darfur now is not rebel attacks but "ethnic violence" such as that in Jebel Amir.

He admitted that government-linked militia in North Darfur have "committed atrocities against innocent civilians" but he said they are to be disbanded under a peace deal reached with rebel splinter factions.

Darfur's major rebel groups rejected the peace deal signed two years ago in Qatar.

Generally the security situation "has improved a lot" in Darfur, Seisi said.

In late January, Amnesty International said Sudanese security officers were reportedly involved in the initial Jebel Amir attacks that killed up to 200 people.

Fighting began when a Rezeigat leader who is an officer in Sudan's Border Guard force apparently laid claim to a gold-rich area in Beni Hussein territory, Amnesty said.

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Palestinians hurt in West Bank clashes

THREE Palestinians have been wounded in clashes with Jewish settlers from a wildcat settlement near a village in the northern West Bank.

Settlers from Esh Kodesh clashed with Palestinians from Qusra village, south of Nablus, on Saturday, throwing rocks at them and destroying olive trees that belonged to them, according to witnesses and Palestinian security sources.

One Palestinian was hit by a live round fired by the settlers, and the two others by rubber bullets shot by Israeli security forces who arrived on the scene.

A military spokesman said the clashes had broken out "between around 150 Palestinians and 25 Israelis from the West Bank who were throwing stones," adding that the security forces were on the scene.

Confrontations have multiplied this year between Esh Kodesh settlers and Palestinians living nearby.

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Italy finds first case of horsemeat

ITALY says it's found its first case of horsemeat contamination in a batch of frozen lasagne produced in the region around the city of Bologna where the famous Italian dish originated.

The country's health ministry said on Saturday horse DNA was found in tests on six tonnes of mincemeat and 2400 packages labelled "lasagne bolognese" - literally "from Bologna" - seized from the company.

"There was a positive test for horsemeat, which was not declared on the label," the ministry said.

The package in which the horsemeat was found had been on a supermarket shelf in Brescia in northern Italy.

The ministry identified the company as Primia and said it had used meat from another company in Brescia and originally supplied by two other companies, also based there.

More checks are under way at the original suppliers.

The tests were carried out as part of sweeping checks by police on 121 brands across the country.

Officials earlier said they had found no horsemeat in batches seized from Swiss food giant Nestle.

The head of the company where the horsemeat was found told the Italian news agency ANSA he had bought it believing it was beef.

"We gave all the documents to the police," the executive, who was not named, was quoted as saying.

"On Tuesday there will be more checks. If they confirm that it is horsemeat, we will complain to our suppliers," he said.

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Pistorius spends time with family

SOUTH Africa's Olympic "Blade Runner" and murder suspect Oscar Pistorius has spent his first day out on bail with his family pending trial for the killing of his lover.

Pistorius was freed on a record one million rand ($A110,656) bail on Friday after eight days in custody and an emotionally charged four-day bail hearing.

"I would like Oscar to just compose himself and to have a normal day," his uncle Arnold Pistorius told the local Eyewitness News.

He will return to court later this year when a date will be set for trial for having shot dead his model girlfriend and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day.

When contacted by AFP, his father Henke Pistorius declined to say how his son had slept at his uncle's house in Pretoria.

But a source close to the family told AFP late on Friday "the family just want time together. They haven't thought about anything except being together."

Pistorius claims he repeatedly shot at and killed his lover by mistake thinking she was a burglar.

Steenkamp's grieving parents, however, did not appear convinced.

"It doesn't matter how rich he is and how good his legal team is. He needs to live with himself if he lets his legal team lie for him," her father Barry told the Afrikaans-language daily Beeld.

Pistorius has assembled some of the best legal brains in South Africa to defend his case.

"He'll have to live with his conscience. But if he's telling the truth, I may forgive him one day," Steenkamp's father said.

But "if it didn't happen as he described it, he should suffer. And he will suffer ... only he knows."

Pistorius's family has sent flowers and a card to the Steenkamp family but "what does that mean? Nothing," said June, Reeva's mother.

In addition to the bail cash he posted Friday afternoon, which experts say is among one of the highest ever set in South Africa, Pistorius had to surrender his passport and firearms.

The magistrate quadrupled the bail amount initially proposed by the state.

He will have to report twice weekly to Pretoria's Brooklyn police. He was also ordered not to take alcohol or drugs.

Pistorius may also hold talks with his trainer to get back on the track, despite being banned under his bail terms from competing outside South Africa.

"He is a professional athlete. He needs to keep his body in shape," the family source said.

His arrest on February 14 shocked the world and gripped South Africa, where he became a national hero after becoming the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics last year.

The state charged him with the premeditated killing of 29-year-old Steenkamp.

If found guilty he faces a possible life sentence.

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