2-year-old held with parents in Zim released

HARARE – A lawyer says a two-year-old boy has been released from jail in Zimbabwe after being held for weeks with his parents in what the opposition calls a crackdown on dissent.

Defence lawyer Charles Kwaramba said yesterday that Nigel Mutemagau was released to other relatives a day earlier after the judge said there was no reason to hold him.
His parents are accused in a plot to overthrow President Robert Mugabe and were in court for a hearing yesterday. It was the first time since they were detained that they were seen without Nigel in their arms.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change says the charges against Nigel’s parents and six other defendants in the case are ‘trumped up’. – Nampa-AP

Nigerian militants threaten
to end ceasefire

LAGOS – Nigeria’s main armed militant group yesterday threatened to end a ceasefire by attacking military targets after a gang leader was killed by soldiers ton Tuesday.
‘Our first spectacular urban attack on a military patrol will announce the end of the ceasefire,’ the Movement for the Emancipation for the Niger Delta (MEND) said in an emailed statement. – Nampa-AP

Algeria landslide kills mother and 5 children

ALGIERS – A mother and her five children were killed when a landslide struck their home in eastern Algeria on Tuesday, official news agency APS reported.
The landslide was triggered by heavy rains in the village of Chehna in Jijel province, some 360 km from the capital Algiers, APS cited emergency services as saying.
Unusually heavy rains have hit Algeria and Morocco in recent months and dozens have been killed by flash floods, landslides, road accidents and collapsing buildings.
Floods killed more than 40 people in the Algerian oasis town of Ghardaia in October.
– Nampa-Reuters

Renamo refuses to
change election strategy

MAPUTO – Mozambique’s main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, has declared that, despite its disastrous performance in the municipal elections held on November 19, it will not change its electoral strategy and expects to win the presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections scheduled for later this year.
Nor will it change its candidate. Renamo national spokesperson Fernando Mazanga told AIM that Renamo will stand its leader, Afonso Dhlakama. This will be the fourth time Dhlakama has run for the presidency.
– Nampa-AIM