[An Nahar] South Sudan's government said Saturday it was optimistic it may soon sign a ceasefire agreement with rebels, amid the first signs that peace talks underway in neighboring Æthiopia could be making progress.
A front man for President Salva Kiir said the government's chief negotiator, who had been back in Juba for consultations, was preparing to return to Addis Ababa intent on signing a truce.
"He will be leaving to Addis to sign the cessation of hostilities, and you heard that the side of the rebels has accepted," said the front man, Ateny Wek Ateny.
"The government is ready to sign a cessation of hostilities tomorrow or on Monday. The chief negotiator had come here to consult on the conditions imposed by the rebels," he added, without specifying if all of the differences had been ironed out.
Speaking in the Æthiopian capital, top rebel negotiator Mabior Garang said a draft deal presented by IGAD, the East African bloc that is brokering the talks, had been accepted by the rebel side.
"We have seen a draft agreement for a cessation of hostilities that we could sign, but we are waiting for our counterparts (the government) to agree," he said, but cautioned that the opposition had doubts about the government's "sincerity".
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[Al Ahram] South Sudanese government forces on Saturday recaptured the key town of Bor, defeating an army of thousands of rebels, an army front man said.
"Today the gallant SPLA forces entered Bor, they have defeated more than 15,000 forces of (rebel leader) Riek Machar and frustrated his plans to attack Juba," army front man Philip Aguer told news hounds.
Bor is the capital of Jonglei State and situated 200 kilometres (130 miles) north of the capital Juba. The town has changed hands four times since the conflict in the world's youngest nation began five weeks ago.
Ateny Wek Ateny, front man for President Salva Kiir, said the troops had been "congratulated for a job well done".
He also said the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) would "observe international rule of law" -- a day after a top UN rights envoy reported that the conflict has been marked by mass killings, extrajudicial killings, widespread destruction and looting.
"If there are people captured they should be kept in regards to the international law," the front man said.
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[An Nahar] South Africa's health minister accused multi-national drug companies of orchestrating a "satanic" and "genocidal" plot to rig patent laws, according to a newspaper interview published Friday.
Commenting on pharmaceutical firm's efforts to scupper patent reforms that would lower the cost of some medicine with generic versions, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told the Mail & Guardian newspaper it was a conspiracy of "satanic magnitude".
"I am not using strong words; I am using appropriate words. This is genocide," Motsoaledi said. "This document can sentence many South Africans to death."
South Africa's current laws allow drug firms to renew patents indefinitely by changing small elements in a medicine's composition.
Reforms would change that, paving the way for patents to expire and generic versions of the drugs to be legally produced.
The government hopes that would make providing life-saving treatment for over six million South Africans living with AIDS much cheaper.
Motsoaledi's comments came after documents emerged detailing a lobby group's strategy to influence policy.
The Innovative Pharmaceutical Association of South Africa (IPASA) planned a campaign across Africa and Europe to pressure Pretoria into strengthening the patent laws, according to the newspaper which obtained a copy of the plan.
It includes efforts to "mobilize voices inside and outside South Africa to send the message that the proposed IP (intellectual property) policy threatens continued investment and thus economic and social well-being," the paper quoted from the nine-page document.
"This mobilization will occur through an energetic campaign, which will feel like a political campaign."
Motsoaledi said the project put profits ahead of people.
"They want to prove to patients that the lack of access to medicine has nothing to do with IP but everything to do with the incompetence of the government," said Motsoaledi.
"They are not hoping to influence government; they are hoping to influence society to turn against government," he said.
IPASA reportedly enlisted US-based lobby firm Public Affairs Engagement for its campaign.
But its head Val Beaumont denied they had contracted outside parties.
"IPASA is considering various communication strategies and proposals to augment our ongoing policy advocacy and communications outreach concerning the draft policy," she told the newspaper.
Rights group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) lauded Motsoaledi's strong reaction.
"The minister is right to take a firm stand against pharmaceutical companies that seek to protect their profit margins at the expense of ordinary South Africans," said the organization's Julia Hill.
"The government is bringing national law in line with international norms, so they have the ability to take action when inflated prices put crucial medicines out of reach."
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"The government is bringing national law in line with international norms, so they have the ability to take action when inflated prices put crucial medicines out of reach."
[An Nahar] At least 10,000 people marched in Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other... 's capital Saturday to protest against plans by President Blaise Compaore that could allow him to extend his mandate by another five years, police said.
The rally in Ouagadougou was called by the opposition over a planned change to the constitution which currently limits the president to two five-year terms. Compaore is set to reach that limit next year.
"We are tired of Compaore's rule," shouted some in the crowd in the capital's main square, as others carried signs saying "2015 - the terminus for Blaise Compaore".
"Compaore has to go. I'm 26 and I have only known one president. It's not normal," said Reine Kabore, a student at the rally.
Burkina Faso's opposition leader Zephirin Diabre called Saturday's protest an "historic day" as rallies were also reported in other cities around the west African country.
"The people are taking a stand in this free and republican protest to send Compaore into retirement in 2015," he said.
Compaore, who will be 63 next month, seized power in a 1987 coup and has backed constitutional change before to extend his rule.
He first served two seven-year terms (1991-98 and 1998-2005) as president and then a change to the constitution allowed him to serve two five-year mandates.
Opposition figures had accused Compaore last month of preparing a "constitutional coup" after he mentioned plans for a referendum on changes to article 37 on presidential term limits.
Compaore has so far been evasive about whether he would run again in 2015.
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[Dhaka Tribune] BNP leaders were subjected to cheap jibes from party activists as they took part in a discussion after about two months yesterday.
The discussion was organised on the occasion of the 78th birth anniversary of BNP founder late president Ziaur Rahman.
BNP activists present at the programme hurled abusive words at their leaders as they went into hiding leaving them on the streets during the countrywide hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... and blockades.
However, some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them... the discussion continued amid taunt and tease from the activists.
Addressing the discussion BNP standing committee member Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain alleged that democracy had been subverted at the hand of the Awami League trying to establish a one-party rule in the country.
Terming the January 5 poll "farcical", BNP standing committee member Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain said the Awami League formed the parliament through the voterless election.
He also claimed that their movement to thwart the lopsided poll was successful as 95% people of the country did not go to polling centres.
"The Awami League has formed the government through the voterless polls and there is not any existence of the opposition party," Mosharraf said.
Addressing the discussion at the National Press Club in the capital marking the 78th birth anniversary of BNP founder late president Ziaur Rahman, Mosharraf called upon its leaders and activists to resort to movement to free the country from the clutches of Awami League's Baksal and to return to democracy.
After around two months, the BNP held the programme in the capital.
"None of them elected and sworn in as parliamentarians could say how many votes they got," added Mosharraf.
He claimed that 95% people did not cast their ballot responding to the BNP's call for boycott of the election.
"The Awami League took the Office by force as people rejected them. This election was not acceptable nationally and internationally. BNP's movement was fully successful."
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[Egypt Independent] Turkey has extended a purge of official bodies to the banking and telecoms regulators and state TV, firing dozens of executives in moves that appear to broaden Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi only they haven't dumped him yet... 's backlash against a corruption investigation.
The authorities have already sacked thousands of coppers, dozens of prosecutors and some state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
officials in response to the corruption investigation, which has become the biggest challenge to Erdogan's 11-year rule.
Investigators are believed to have been looking into allegations of corruption at a state-run bank and bribery involving big real estate projects, although details of their charges have not been made public.
The combative prime minister says the investigations, which began a month ago with arrests of high profile figures including the sons of three of his cabinet ministers, are part of an attempted "judicial coup".
His opponents say they fear a purge of official bodies will destroy the independence of the judiciary, police and media.
Among dozens of officials dismissed in the latest sackings, Turkish media reported on Saturday that the deputy head of the banking watchdog BDDK and two department heads had been removed.
Five department chiefs were fired at the Telecommunications Directorate (TIB), a body that carries out electronic surveillance as well as serving as telecoms regulator, and a dozen people were fired at Turkey's state channel TRT, including department heads and senior news editors.
Erdogan has suggested the graft inquiry, which has led to the resignation of three cabinet ministers and detention of businessmen close to the government, is an attempt by Fethullan Gulen, a U.S.-based holy man with influence among the police and judiciary, to undermine his rule.
Many of the people who have been fired are believed to be associated with the holy man's Hizmet movement, which claims more than a million followers and runs schools and charities throughout Turkey.
Earlier in the week the government reassigned twenty high-profile prosecutors, stepping up the purge of the judiciary.
The government has also prepared a draft bill to tighten its grip on High Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK), a panel that controls the appointment of all judges and prosecutors.
There were heated discussions and even fights among members of parliament during talks over the draft bill last week.
Erdogan, who has presided over an extended economic boom that has transformed Turkey and lifted millions of people from poverty, remains the country's most popular politician.
He and his moderate Islamist AK Party have long battled for influence against the secularist military establishment that dominated Turkey for a century. His conflict with the judiciary, police and Gulen followers add to his list of enemies.
It is still not clear what effect the crisis might have an local elections approaching in March. Last year saw mass street demonstrations among Turks who accuse the prime minister of authoritarianism, but those protests did little to undermine Erdogan's support among his conservative base of followers.
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turkish stock exchange has lost over 20% since may 2013 in liras and if you take into account the decline of the lira, its more like a 30% loss
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[Al Ahram] Turkish riot police fired tear gas and plastic bullets to break up a protest Saturday by an estimated 2,000 people against the embattled government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi only they haven't dumped him yet...
"Government resign", "All united against fascism ...a political system developed in Italy symbolized by the Roman fasces -- thin reeds, each flimsy in itself but unbreakable when bound into a bundle. The word is nowadays thrown around by all sorts of people who have no idea what they're talking about... ," protesters chanted at Istanbul's Taksim Square, some of them hurling fireworks and stones at police.
"Everywhere Taksim, everywhere resistance," they shouted, using the slogan of last June's anti-government protests that first erupted in the square.
The demonstration was organised in protest at plans to impose curbs on the Internet and over the graft scandal rocking the government.
It broke up after the police action without any immediate reports of injuries or arrests.
The Internet bill, which would allow officials to keep a record of the activities of web users and block keywords deemed problematic, was approved by a parliamentary committee on Thursday despite concerns about censorship.
It had raised an outcry among rights groups and even business leaders who feared the bill would further limit fundamental rights and freedoms in Turkey.
But the government said it is aimed at protecting people's privacy and blocking Internet content such as pornography and child sex abuse.
"This legal arrangement is by no means a regulation that brings censorship," Communications Minister Lutfi Elvan has said. "With the new legal arrangement, we intend to protect individual rights."
The Islamic-leaning Erdogan is nevertheless accused of becoming increasingly authoritarian and of trying to impose greater government controls on all sectors of the traditionally secular society.
Erdogan, whose image was already bruised by last year's massive anti-government street protests, has faced more demonstrations in the wake of the damaging corruption scandal.
Smaller demonstrations also took place in the coastal city of Izmir and in the capital Ankara, where about 300 protesters rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud opposing the government and the internet bill.
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Doctors have said that the wife of a senior Indian minister died an "unnatural, sudden death" after revelations about her husband's alleged affair.
Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor, 52, was found dead on Friday in a luxury hotel in Delhi. She had used Twitter to allege that her husband, Shashi Tharoor, had had an affair with a Pakistani journalist.
One of the doctors who carried out the autopsy said that "more tests" are needed to determine the final cause of Mrs Tharoor's death, and the results will not be known for two to three days.
Mrs Tharoor's death shocked India's political establishment, which had been captivated by the public row over her husband Shashi Tharoor's relationship with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar only hours earlier.
Mr Tharoor himself was taken to the hospital late on Friday suffering from palpitations and chest pains, a few hours after discovering his wife dead in their suite at the Leela Hotel. He was later discharged.
[DAWN] A relative and his two accomplices massacred five Afghan men on Friday over a feud in the family that had long been settled.
Police said the disgruntled relative Ghulam Rasool was a guest at the victims' house in the city's Naseerabad locality and enacted the bloodbath as they sat enjoying a campfire after lunch.
All three assailants then expeditiously departed at a goodly pace on their cycle of violences.
"Preliminary investigation suggested that the slain men were involved in a triple murder case in the family. But the feud had been settled to the extent that inter-marriages took place between the rivals," SSP Operations Mian Maqbool said.
However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... despite the reconciliation, Ghulam Rasool nursed a grudge against Hazrat Ali Khan, 25, his brother Sher Ali, 20, and their cousins Sadar Azam, 20, Zarghoon Khan, 25, and Moin Khan, 40.
They treated him, and the two men accompanying him, as guests when they arrived at their house on Friday morning.
"After lunch with the family, they sat outside around burning logs to keep themselves warm on the chilly day, when the accomplices opened fire on the hosts," said SP Maqbool.
Four was struck down in his prime and the fifth, Moin Khan, in the hospital.
Ghulam Rasool also took part in the shooting, using his pistol.
Documents issued by UNHCR showed the victims had arrived from Afghanistan as refugees and they were to stay here till June 2014.
Check posts at exit and entry points of the city were alerted to be on the lookout for them.
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"...over a feud in the family that had long apparently not been settled."
...sounds like a South Chicago Saturday night to me...
[FoxNews] The Environmental Protection Agency has told farmers and ranchers it is sorry for handing private information about them over to environmental groups, but agriculture advocates who fear attacks from eco-forces of Evil say it's like closing the barn door after the horses escaped.
In response to Freedom of Information Requests, the federal agency released information on up to 100,000 agriculture industry workers, including their home address and phone numbers, GPS coordinates and even personal medical histories.
Why does the EPA have medical histories in the first place? Knowing who, where, and how to contact them is one thing. But medical histories seem a bit unnecessary...
The agency later acknowledged much of the information should never have been provided, and even asked the recipients to give it back.
"And y'all be sure not to make any copies before returning it, or we'll be really uupset when we find out, y'hear?"
"If someone is setting out to create mischief at these locations, basically the government gave them a road map," Mace Thornton, front man for the American Farm Bureau Federation, which is participating in a joint lawsuit against the EPA, told FoxNews.com. "It is very clearly an unjustified intrusion into citizens' private lives by the government. And it is a betrayal of trust."
The EPA said it collected all the erroneous disclosures, released in July of 2012, and sent out new documents with sensitive personal information redacted, an EPA spokeswoman told FoxNews.com.
#5
Releasing personal and health information is important to potential new land speculators; let's them know how hard a sales point is without having to do the traditional legwork and fit-in. Also helps in selecting a pitcher.
Basically, all these groups are sitting at the table, and the EPA is standing behind the Farmers and Ranchers and making oooh and aaah oooooh sounds when the cards are looked at.
But hey, don't worry. Your obamacare info is secure. Your conceal carry will not grant police intrusiveness. Your tax info will not be used against you. Your gun registration is for information only.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
As your Sangoma and gov't approved provider, I recommend shunning evil, colonial potents and ways. 
[Egypt Independent] Turkey has extended a purge of official bodies to the banking and telecoms regulators and state TV, firing dozens of executives in moves that appear to broaden Prime Minister 
Doctors have said that the wife of a senior Indian minister died an "unnatural, sudden death" after revelations about her husband's alleged affair.
[DAWN] A relative and his two accomplices massacred five Afghan men on Friday over a feud in the family that had long been settled.
No worries my vriend, our gov't will see to it that our farms are protected. Our goods and services are much needed. 
