The AU has called for an end to the siege of the hotel where Alassane Ouattara is living
The African Union is setting up a panel of heads of state to find a solution to the political crisis in Ivory Coast.
The panel will come up with a legally binding settlement within a month, according to the Mauritanian president.
Alassane Ouattara is internationally recognised as the winner of Ivory Coast’s November presidential election.
But the incumbent, Laurent Gbagbo, is refusing to step down after the Constitutional Council, headed by one of his allies, ruled in his favour.
The AU has previously backed Mr Ouattara, who is running a parallel government from a hotel in Abidjan which Mr Gbagbo’s forces have blockaded.
But Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni suggested earlier this week that the UN should not have recognised Mr Ouattara so quickly.
The African Union’s peace and security council met in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Friday.
Announcing the panel initiative afterwards, Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz told reporters that faced with an African problem, they were trying to find an African solution.
The panel will be made up of five heads of state, one from each region of the continent, and a spokesman said its make-up would be announced within 48 hours.
A statement by the peace and security council included a demand for “the immediate removal of the siege of the Hotel du Golfe and an end to all acts of violence and abuses against the civilian population as well as calls having the effect of inciting hatred and violence”.
Earlier on Friday, the AU mediator to the crisis, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, called for direct talks between the presidential rivals.
He said a summit of the 53-nation bloc starting in Addis Ababa on Sunday should “send a strong and unequivocal message that the two parties must negotiate face to face.”
The Kenyan prime minister wants the AU to make the two Ivory Coast rivals hold direct talks
“Every day lost in moving forward towards a peaceful resolution of the crisis makes more imminent the spectre of further threats to peace and security in Cote d’Ivoire and the region,” Mr Odinga told reporters.
The Kenyan leader was in Ivory Coast only last week in his latest attempt to break the political deadlock. But Mr Gbagbo’s camp accused him of bias.
This week’s visitor to Abidjan, Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika, struck quite a different tone.
After talks with both leaders, Mr Mutharika, current chairman of the African Union, promised to present the “proposals” of his “brother and friend” Laurent Gbagbo to the African Union summit.
In early January, Mr Mutharika had told Mr Gbagbo to step down “to avoid a bloodbath”.
But the AU appears more divided on the issue that it was even a few weeks ago.
Mr Gbagbo’s call for a vote recount has been taken up by some African leaders who appear increasingly reluctant to resort to the military option suggested by the West African bloc Ecowas.
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Liverpool reject a written transfer request from Spain international striker Fernando Torres.
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The killings all occurred in the same neighbourhood of Curitiba, in Parana state
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A former Brazilian fire chief wanted in connection with a series of murders has turned himself in.
Jorge Luiz Thais Martins is suspected of involvement in the murders of nine drug users in southern Parana state.
The killings happened after his son was murdered by robbers; two suspects in the case, both drug users, were released for lack of evidence.
Police are investigating suspicions that Mr Martins killed them out of revenge, a charge his lawyer denies.
Mr Martins, 56, commanded the firefighters’ department in Parana state from 2007 to 2009.
His son, Jorge Guilherme Marinho Martins, 26, was killed by robbers in October 2009.
Two drug addicts were arrested in connection with the murder at the time, but were released shortly afterwards as there was not enough evidence to link them to the crime.
Following their release, nine drug users were killed and five more attacked in the months between August 2010 and January 2011.
All the killings happened in the city of Curitiba, in the neighbourhood where Mr Martins’ son was murdered.
Police went to Mr Martin’s house on Thursday and seized ammunition which they say is of the same type as that used in the murders.
His lawyer says there is no concrete proof against Mr Martins.
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BBC discovers Tate Modern’s porcelain sunflower seeds exhibit are coated in lead paint.
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Visitors had been invited to feel the seeds, but asked not to take them home
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One of the most striking exhibitions at the Tate Modern for years is at the centre of a new health scare.
The BBC has learned that the installation of 100 million porcelain “sunflower seeds” was made in China using paint containing lead.
People were initially able to walk on and pick up the “seeds” but this was soon banned after concerns over the amount of ceramic dust created.
The Tate says the installation poses no health risk in its present form.
The work created by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in the vast Turbine Hall for the Tate’s annual Unilever Series was cordoned off from the public just days after opening in October because of the concerns about dust.
BBC arts editor Will Gompertz says the latest revelation will raise more questions about possible health risks, and whether the Tate carried out enough safety checks.
The Tate said in a statement: “The tests show that traces of lead are present in the material of the seeds and the dust that resulted from the interaction with the work by visitors.
“The results showed that exposure to the dust during the period when the work could still be walked on was below the relevant workplace exposure limits.
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Consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of economic activity
US economic growth accelerated in the last three months of 2010 to an annualised rate of 3.2%, corresponding to a 0.78% quarterly increase.
This compares with an annual GDP rate of 2.6% from the Commerce Department in the previous quarter.
A rise in consumer spending contributed to the growth, as did falling imports.
The Labor Department said that wages and benefits rose 2% in 2010, which is faster than 2009, but still the second slowest rate since records began.
The Labor Department has been collecting the figures for 28 years.
The fourth-quarter GDP figure is a first estimate, and could be revised either up or down in the coming months.
The US economy grew by 2.9% in the whole of 2010, which is the strongest year of growth since 2005.
The 4.4% rise in consumer spending had a particularly strong effect because such spending accounts for more than two thirds of US economic activity.
“Unfortunately we still need to see much stronger growth to begin to really make a dent in the unemployment rate,” said Ryan Sweet at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
“Right now we are just barely creating enough jobs to stabilise the unemployment rate.”
Home building made an unexpected contribution to the figures, growing 3.4%.
Government spending contracted, with much of the fall coming from state and local government.
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The posters criticised the home secretary, Theresa May, because of the UK’s stance on radical clerics
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Wanted-style posters which declared a “fatwa” on the home secretary are being investigated by police in south London.
Several posters have been displayed around Tooting, criticising Theresa May “for the abduction, kidnapping and false imprisonment” of radical clerics.
These include Abu Hamza, the preacher imprisoned in 2006 for inciting murder and racial hatred.
The Metropolitan Police said it was “working to find out who put them up” and hoped the posters would be removed.
It was talking to the local authority about this, a spokesman added.
A fatwa is a religious ruling under Islamic law which can be interpreted as an incitement to kill.
The Home Office said it would not comment as it was a matter for the police to investigate.
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There has been a day of violent clashes in the Egyptian city of Suez as riot police tried to regain control of the streets from anti-government protesters.
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Troops are on the streets of Egypt’s capital tonight as the government struggles to quell widespread rioting.
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The demonstration was noisy but there was no violence
Tens of thousands of Egyptians calling for the removal of President Hosni Mubarak have clashed with police on the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and Suez. Around 30 Egyptians took part in a peaceful demonstration outside the country’s embassy in London.
The bitterly cold streets of the capital may be a long way from the souks of Cairo but the frustration and anger echoed the passions which have come to the surface in Egypt in recent days.
Protesters waved placards which berated the 82-year-old president and bellowed slogans like “The people want Mubarak out”, “Revolution, revolution until victory” and “Mubarak has killed his people and is a traitor from head to toe”.
Ali Amir, a student who helped organise Friday’s protest, said: “We want change and democracy. We have been asking for it for 30 years.
“Eighty million people in Egypt had lost hope but when the Tunisian people stood up and kicked out their president that gave us hope.
The protesters called for regime change in Egypt
“I was one of the first to join the Facebook page calling for protests [on 25 January] but now there are over a million members.”
Abdullah Ali, a 26-year-old who works in public relations in London, had come to the demonstration in response to messages on Facebook.
He said: “We have come here to stand shoulder to shoulder with our brothers and sisters in Egypt. Enough is enough.
“We want the regime out. We want the whole lot out – Mubarak, the prime minister and all those in the regime. We want elections free from rigging.”
Amr El-Bayoumi, a lawyer, flew from Cairo to London on Thursday, and said he had witnessed some of the demonstrations first-hand.
He said: “Men, women, children, old and young are expressing their frustration and outrage.
“They have been denied their dignity and it’s a system which requires an uprising. It’s a spontaneous uprising at the rampant corruption at every level.”
Mr El-Bayoumi said: “Egyptians of all religions are striving for democracy. These are the early days.
The “jasmine revolution” in Tunisia has encouraged protesters in Egypt
“Egyptians are not a passive people. They are (a) loving people but if you push them you have what you see today. They have been patient, but no more. Enough is enough.”
But Mr El-Bayoumi questioned the credibility as a genuine alternative of Mohammed ElBaradei, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning former head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, who has returned to Egypt and called on President Mubarak to go.
Mr El-Bayoumi said Egyptians were fed up with their government doing whatever the United States told them to and wanted a return to the ethos of Gamal Abdel Nasser, who preached self-determination and anti-imperialism.
El-Khiam Dora, a 27-year-old student, said: “Everyone in Egypt wants democracy and freedom.”
He said: “They [the government] go on about reforms but it’s all a hoax. We want what the rest of the world has. Thirty years is more than enough.”
Yvonne Ridley said it was wrong to think Islamists would “fill the vacuum” in Egypt
Mr Dora said he had been unable to get through to his family in Egypt because the phone lines and internet were down.
“Is that a democratic country, one that cuts phone lines and the internet? That is a crime in itself,” he said.
He claimed last year’s parliamentary elections in Egypt – which the ruling National Democratic Party won with 95% of the vote according to official figures – were rigged.
Watching the protest, and sympathising, was journalist Yvonne Ridley, who converted to Islam after being captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001.
Ms Ridley, European president of the International Muslim Women’s Union, visited Egypt last year and she said she recognised some of the “plain clothes thugs” she had seen on television beating up demonstrators.
She said: “What the Egyptian people are doing is so courageous because what they are facing, as we can see on our screens, is this terrible machine which seeks to instil fear and brutalises the people.”
Ms Ridley criticised former prime minister Tony Blair’s remarks on Friday in which he supported Mr Mubarak and warned of Islamists “filling the vacuum” if he was removed.
She said: “It’s the irrational fear of Islam which all the despots in the Middle East play on. The Muslim Brotherhood is liked and admired in Egypt but they would not be swept into power, just like in Tunisia.”
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