Student critical after Chicago attack

An Irish university student is in a critical condition in a Chicago hospital today after sustaining head injuries in an attack yesterday.

Natasha McShane (23), a postgraduate student from UCD who was studying at the University of Illinois in Chicago, was with a female friend, Stacy Jurich (24), when they were attacked while on the way back to the friend's house in the Bucktown area of the city.

According to a report in the Chicago Sun Times  newspaper, the women were attacked by a man with an aluminium baseball bat.

The attacker is said to have struck the women several times with the bat, before stealing their purses and running away.

Ms Jurich is understood to be in a stable condition in hospital while Ms McShane remains in a critical condition in intensive care.

Ms McShane’s parents are travelling to Chicago to be by their daughter's side.

She is a student at University College Dublin but had been studying at the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois, according to a spokesman for the school.

The Department for Foreign Affairs confirmed today it was providing assistance to the family through its consulate in Chicago. 

The Irish Independent

Ahmadinejad denounces West in Uganda visit

By Samson Ntale For CNN

Entebbe, Uganda (CNN) -- The Iranian president Saturday accused the West of trying to deny countries the right to nuclear energy during a visit to Uganda aimed at building stronger alliances with the east African nation.

Countries have the right to use nuclear energy and it's treason to deny nations that right, the Ugandan presidential press service quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying.

His Ugandan counterpart, on the other hand, called for a "nuclear weapons-free world." President Yoweri Museveni defended nations' rights to have access to nuclear technology, but only for "peaceful purposes" such as medical uses.

"Nuclear weapons are dangerous for humanity -- even more dangerous than all the other previous weapon systems," Museveni said.

"We should, therefore, work for a nuclear weapons-free world. This means that those who have these weapons should work to get rid of them under an internationally agreed and verifiable treaty".

Iran has been under harsh criticism from the United States and its allies, who have called for tougher sanctions over its nuclear ambitions. The Islamic republic has said it intends to produce nuclear energy only for peaceful purposes, including civilian electricity and medical research.

Ahmadinejad arrived in Uganda on Friday to seek support for his country's nuclear program as he eyes Uganda's virgin oil sector. He is expected to sign various trade and investment deals in oil development, agriculture, health and real estate.

During a visit to Tehran last year, Museveni invited Iranian investors to build an oil refinery in Uganda's northwest region, which is believed to hold at least 2 billion barrels of commercial oil. Museveni has said Uganda is looking for partners with technical expertise to set up a refinery. Oil-rich Iran also will fund a housing complex and a tractor assembly plant near the capital, Kampala.

Museveni addressed various issues Friday, including his support for a two-state solution in the Middle East with Israelis and Palestinians "living side by side, within internationally recognized and secure borders".

He also handed his guest a surprise gift -- a black Bible tied with a silver bow.

"When I was in Iran, I told you about the reference to the Persians and Medians in the Bible," Museveni said. "To provide you with a permanent reference, I present to you a copy of the Bible".

Uganda, a nonpermanent member of the U.N. Security Council, was one of two African nations Ahmadinejad visited this week.

He also made a two-day trip to Zimbabwe, where he launched a tractor production line and attended a trade fair.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe said he and Ahmadinejad have the "same policy and same stance -- anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist and a stance to protect our sovereignty and our right of ownership of our resources".

Iran has economic agreements with more than a dozen African nations.

CNN

Thai PM rejects protesters' peace offer

By Jason Szep and Apornrath Phoonphongphiphat

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Saturday a rejected a new, compromise offer by anti-government red-shirt demonstrators to end weeks of increasingly violent protests in return for early polls.

The red-shirted supporters of ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra immediately removed their offer to end a three-week occupation of Bangkok's ritzy shopping area if the government dissolved parliament and announced elections in 30 days.

Abhisit said the peace overture looked insincere and designed only to improve the protesters' image. "They keep saying they will escalate the situation. That's why the government cannot consider the proposal," he told reporters.

The mostly rural and working-class red-shirts responded by threatening more aggressive measures, including laying siege to Central World, the second-largest shopping complex in Southeast Asia, next to the stage at their main protest site.

"If you want Central World shopping mall back safely, you must withdraw army forces out of the nearby Rajaprasong area immediately," a protest leader Jatuporn Prompan told supporters.

The shopping center has been closed since the protesters occupied the area on April 3.

The risk of violence remains high after a series of grenade blasts that killed one person and wounded 88 on Thursday in Bangkok's business district, an attack the government blamed on the red-shirts, who deny they were responsible.

As part of their demands, the red-shirts also want an independent probe into an April 10 clash between protesters and the army that killed 25 people and wounded more than 800 in Thailand's worst political violence in nearly two decades.

Thousands of troops, many armed with M-16 assault rifles, keep watch over red-shirts at several city intersections. Royalist pro-government protesters often gather outside their fortress-like barricade, sparking clashes in which both sides hurl bottles and insults.

Jatuporn encouraged some protesters to do away with their signature red shirts to make it more difficult to separate them in the capital city of 15 million people. "We will take off our red shirt and wear other colors, but our goal and our ideals are still the same," he said.

RISK OF CRACKDOWN

Tens of thousands of red-shirts remain encamped at the central Bangkok shopping district, vowing to stay until parliament is dissolved and defying a state of emergency that bans large gatherings of protesters.

"This hardening of the battle lines between the two sides does not bode well for Bangkok's security situation and a risk of another, and this time maybe even more violent, crackdown is immediate," risk consultancy IHS Global Insight said in a note.

The military says the crowd includes "terrorists" willing to use violence to bring down the government and overturn the monarchy and wants to go after them, not peaceful protesters.

"We're ready to wipe out terrorists and we'll do it at an appropriate time," army spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said.

"We need to make sure very few innocent people are there before doing anything".

Analysts say the protests are radically different from any other period of unrest in Thailand's polarizing five-year political crisis -- and arguably in modern Thai history, pushing the nation close to an undeclared civil war.

Diplomats and analysts say the army's middle ranks look dangerously split with one faction backing the protesters led by retired generals allied with Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and later sentenced in absentia for corruption.

The red-shirts say British-born and Oxford-educated Abhisit came to power illegitimately in December 2008, heading a coalition the military cobbled together after courts dissolved a pro-Thaksin party that led the previous government.

They chafe at what they say is an unelected elite preventing allies of twice-elected Thaksin from returning to power through a vote. Thaksin lives in self-imposed exile, mostly in Dubai.

The United Nations and foreign governments have urged both sides of the political divide to show restraint.

The central bank in Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy said this week the crisis was hitting confidence, tourism, private consumption and investment. Ratings agency Fitch has cut its outlook on Thailand's local currency because of the strife.

A powerful backlash against the red-shirts is also growing among Bangkok's royalist establishment. A pro-government group calling themselves "multi-colored shirts" have begun daily rallies in the capital demanding the red-shirts go home.

Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Louise Ireland

Reuters Canada

Two killed in south Sudan election clash: UN

By Skye Wheeler

JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) - At least two people were killed during a clash between security forces and supporters of an independent candidate in elections in south Sudan's oil-producing Unity state on Friday, the United Nations said.

The deaths were the first serious violence reported during the announcement of results in Sudan's complex presidential, legislative and gubernatorial ballots.

Sudan is in the closing stages of its first open polls in 24 years, a process already marred by delays, boycotts and opposition accusations of widespread vote rigging.

The elections, set up under a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of north-south civil war, were designed to help transform Africa's largest nation into a democracy.

The violence erupted in the state capital Bentiu after a radio announcement said Angelina Teny had lost the race to become Unity governor to incumbent Taban Deng Gai, a member of Teny's campaign team told Reuters, asking not to be named.

"From what I understand there was some sort of a demonstration over a gubernatorial radio announcement," U.N. regional coordinator for southern Sudan David Gressly told Reuters.

"It's not clear how it happened but there seems to have been some shooting and two people were killed and four were wounded".

Gressly said it appeared security forces had tried to disperse the crowd. The dead and injured were all civilians, he added.

Teny, the wife of South Sudan's Vice President Riek Machar, told Reuters she had reports one of the injured people died later from their wounds.

Sudan's National Elections Commission (NEC) announced late on Friday that Gai, from the south's dominant Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), won the gubernatorial race with 137,636 votes, with Teny in second place with 63,500 votes.

Teny said that she would contest the outcome. During the election period she complained her agents had been harassed and arrested.

Teny was running as an independent after failing to get the SPLM nomination.

Southern officials told Reuters they were tightening security in two other southern states where independents ran against SPLM candidates.

Earlier on Friday, SPLM secretary general Pagan Amum told reporters the party won overwhelming victories at all levels of elections in the south.

The 2005 accord set up a semi-autonomous southern government and promised a referendum on southern secession in 2011.

Early results suggest Sudan's incumbent president Omar Hassan al-Bashir will keep the top job while his northern National Congress Party will retain control of the national assembly.

Reuters Africa

Most Kenyans say they would endorse new law: poll

By Helen Nyambura-Mwaura

NAIROBI (Reuters) - A majority of Kenyans would endorse a proposed new constitution in a referendum although most are unhappy about one thing or another in the draft charter, a poll published on Saturday showed.

Kenyans have been calling for a new constitution since the 1990s to replace one dating back to 1963. Guarantees of a new charter were central to a power-sharing deal in 2008 that ended weeks of violence that killed about 1,300 people after a disputed poll.

Parliament voted unanimously in favour of the draft this month but some legislators are now asking Kenyans to vote against it when it comes to the referendum to be held in late July or early August.

A total of 64 percent said they would vote Yes if a referendum on the constitution were held now and 17 percent said they were against it. The remainder were undecided, the survey by pollster Synovate said.

"Kenyans are very eager to have a new constitution," said George Waititu, Synovate's managing director. "It is one of the tools they are looking forward to, to have the country governed better".

The new legal framework would curtail sweeping presidential powers and strengthen civil liberties.

The poll showed 68 percent of potential voters were unsatisfied with at least one issue in the proposed charter.

"We are seeing a high degree of tolerance. 68 percent of potential voters have something they don't like but the majority are supporting the draft nevertheless," Waititu told reporters.

And 91 percent of the 2,003 Kenyans surveyed said it was absolutely or quite important that the country had a new constitution although 45 percent of them said they knew very little or nothing of what the draft contained.

A total of 37 percent said they had personally formed their own opinion of the new constitution; 21 percent said they had been influenced by politicians and 19 percent had been swayed by religious leaders.

Some politicians are backing a No vote, angry at the failure to devolve power to the regions and plans to cap private land holdings.

Some Christian church leaders are also spearheading a No campaign after an amendment to abolish abortion on medical grounds failed, while Islamic courts dealing with divorce and inheritance were left enshrined in the constitution.

Reuters Africa

Tanzania increases royalties in new mining law

By Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzania's parliament has passed a new mining law that increases the rate of royalty paid on minerals like gold from 3 percent to 4 percent and requires the government to own a stake in future mining projects.

Tanzania is Africa's third largest gold producer, but also has reserves of uranium, nickel and coal. Gold exports alone earned it $1.076 billion in 2009, up from $932.4 million the previous year.

The Mining Act 2010 passed late on Friday also requires mining companies to list on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange.

As part of the new legislation, Tanzania will not issue new gemstone mining licences to foreign companies. Current agreements with foreign mining companies remain unchanged.

"This bill makes comprehensive provision for prospecting for minerals, mining, processing and dealing in minerals, for the granting, renewal and termination of mineral rights, for payment of royalties, fees and other charges and for any other relevant matters," said part of the legislation.

"The bill is a response to challenges faced and experience gained during 12 years of the implementation of the Mining Act ... that was enacted in the year 1998".

African Barrick Gold has four gold mines in Tanzania while Australia's third largest gold miner, Resolute Mining and South Africa's Anglogold Ashanti also have gold operations there.

British mining company African Eagle Ltd. is raising funds for its nickel project in Tanzania.

Gemstones identified by the new law include diamonds, tanzanite, emerald, ruby, sapphire, turquoise, topaz, and others. Gemstone producer Tanzanite One, will not be affected by the new ownership rules.

INVESTOR CONCERNS

Mining stakeholders said they will issue a joint statement on the new mining law on Monday.

"The government will increase revenues a lot thanks to the new mining legislation ... But, it might send a negative signal to investors and might impact foreign direct investment. I'm worried on that," Zitto Kabwe, a member of parliament from the opposition Chadema party told Reuters.

The MP, who was a member of a commission appointed in 2007 to review Tanzania's mining sector, said the new legislation would bring significant changes to mining policy.

"We were supposed to pass a new law that balances benefits of the people and the interests of mining companies. The mood of the day in Tanzania is that foreign investors are stealing from the country and this might not necessarily be the case all the time".

Government's stake in future mining projects would be determined by the level of investment in each individual joint venture, Kabwe said.

Tanzania earned $57 million from mining royalties in 2009, but is expected to double this amount after the new mining law comes into force, he said.

"The main highlight of this new legislation is that it makes gemstone mining the preserve of Tanzanians. It also changes the method of calculating royalties by using the gross value of minerals instead of the net value," said Kabwe.

Reuters Africa

Thousands protest Russia-Ukraine deal

By the CNN Wire Staff

Moscow, Russia (CNN) -- Thousands of opposition demonstrators marched in front of the parliament building in Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, protesting a deal reached earlier this week to extend Russia's military presence in the former Soviet Republic, national news media reported.

Parliamentary opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko -- the former prime minister who lost to Viktor Yanukovych in the presidential election run-off in February -- told protesters Saturday that the ratification of the treaty must be prevented at all costs.

She claimed that Yanukovych is "selling out" Ukraine, has "openly embarked on the path of destruction of [Ukraine's] national interests, and has actually begun the process of eliminating the state's sovereignty," according to a transcript of the speech on her website.

After the deal was signed Wednesday by Yanukovych and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Tymoshenko said it violated part of the Ukrainian Constitution, which forbids the country from hosting foreign military bases after 2017.

Saturday, protesters reportedly adopted a resolution calling the agreement an "unprecedented act of national treason and disgrace," and calling on all opposition groups to unite against it.

According to Tymoshenko's website, some 10,000 people gathered at the rally. But Ukrainian national news agency UNIAN estimated the number of protesters at 5,000.

The deal extends Russia's lease of a major naval base in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, Ukraine, for an additional 25 years, in exchange for a 30 percent cut in the price of natural gas that Russia sells to Ukraine.

The agreement may bring an end to years of disputes over natural gas prices, which culminated in Russia turning off the pipeline to Ukraine. The dispute affected not only Ukrainians, but many Europeans who depend on Russian gas pumped through Ukraine.

The two countries had been at odds ever since the "Orange Revolution" swept Yanukovych's fiercely anti-Russian predecessor Viktor Yushchenko to power in 2005.

Throughout his time in office, Yushchenko repeatedly threatened to expel Russia's Black Sea Fleet from Sevastopol. The Russian military lease there was scheduled to expire in 2017.

"The prolongation of the Black Sea Fleet's presence in Sevastopol is essential to Russia," Yanukovych said Wednesday. "We understand that the Black Sea Fleet will be one of the guarantors of security on the Black Sea".

The Kremlin-friendly Yanukovych, who hails from predominantly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, trounced Yushchenko in national elections last January.

The Russian president said the new deal added a "concrete and pragmatic dimension" to centuries of relations between Ukrainians and Russians.

Opposition groups in Ukraine, however, were quick to denounce the agreement. Yuschenko's "Our Ukraine" party said the treaty would lead to the "Russification" of Ukraine.

Opposition activists decided Saturday to stage another protest in front of parliament April 27, when the deal will be put to a ratification vote.

CNN