. Earth Science News .
AFRICA NEWS
Young French hostages executed in Niger desert

Chinese vice premier in Zambia on five state African tour
Lusaka (AFP) Jan 9, 2011 - Hui Liangyu, a Chinese vice premier in charge of agriculture, arrived in Zambia on Sunday on the second leg of a five-country African tour, a Chinese embassy official said. Hui flew into southern Livingstone, some 450 kilometres (270 miles) south of the capital, and was to President Rupiah Banda and Vice President George Kunda in Lusaka on Monday. "He will meet the president at State House and sign some agreements," Chinese embassy official Wang Zhongyu told AFP.

Hui will also attend the sod-turning ceremony of the new Lusaka stadium which is being built by the Chinese and the opening of a representative office of the China-Africa Development Fund. He leaves Zambia on Tuesday for the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon and Senegal after having first visited the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. The tour ends on January 19.

French helicopters 'used in Niger attack'
Bamako (AFP) Jan 9, 2011 - Four French military helicopters took part in an attack on gunmen who abducted two Frenchmen in Niger, who were later found dead, a security source in northern Mali told AFP Sunday. "Four helicopters belonging to the French army participated in the attack against the kidnappers of the two killed Frenchmen. The aircraft were stationed at the airport of a town in northern Mali," said a source at the airport. "I saw the helicopters. One of them was damaged, surely by enemy fire," added the same source.

A joint Franco-Nigerien attack was carried out in an attempt to rescue two 25-year old Frenchmen who were seized by gunmen with assault rifles at a restaurant in Niamey on Friday night. Both men were found dead after the military's failed rescue operation in the desert on Saturday. The hostage-takers have not been identified but the killing raised suspicions that they were linked to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which has claimed other abductions of French nationals in Niger.
by Staff Writers
Niamey (AFP) Jan 9, 2011
Suspected Al-Qaeda-linked militants in Niger who kidnapped two young Frenchmen apparently executed the hostages during an attempted rescue mission by Niger and French troops, officials said Sunday.

A French husband-to-be and his childhood friend, both 25, were seized by gunmen with assault rifles at a restaurant in Niamey on Friday and found dead after the military's failed rescue operation in the desert on Saturday.

"Pending the outcome of an investigation, everything seems to indicate that the two French hostages were executed," said Thierry Burkhard, a spokesman for the armed forces in the French defence ministry.

Defence Minister Alain Juppe, due in Niamey for talks with Niger officials and French nationals on Monday, said that given the circumstances there was "little doubt" about the involvement of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

A Nigerien government spokesman said on state television late Sunday that three Nigerien security forces had been killed in the attack on the kidnappers, without elaborating on the circumstances of their deaths.

One of the dead hostages was a former aid worker who had been due to marry a Nigerien woman next week. The other was his best man, according to France's Journal du Dimanche, who had just arrived in Niamey for the ceremony.

The hostages' local member of parliament named them as Antoine de Leocour, who had worked in Niger, and Vincent Delory, two friends who had grown up together on the same street in the small northern French town of Linselles.

Leocour's fiancee, Rakia Hassan Kouka, told AFP she would pray for the two.

"I'm in no state to talk right now, I'm in shock, I can't believe it," she said, choking back tears. "I'm going to pray a lot for them, so that they can go to paradise."

Another childhood friend of Leocour, named as Louis, told France's Europe 1 radio station that he arrived in Niamey on Friday night to join him, only to hear the news of the abduction.

"We came to see him married and now we're going to see him buried," he said. "I am torn between pain and hatred."

Burkhard said a French surveillance aircraft backing up Niger armed forces chased the kidnappers and caught up with them in the desert, enabling troops on the ground to attack.

A commander in the Niger forces was wounded in a first clash with the kidnappers, he said.

The aircraft then pursued the captors further and a second firefight took place in which "several" of the kidnappers were killed and two French ground troops slightly injured, Burkhard said.

A security source in the north of Mali, where the kidnappers were headed, said that four French attack helicopters had taken part in the attack, one of which was hit by the kidnappers.

"The aircraft were stationed at the airport of a town in northern Mali... One of them was damaged, surely by enemy fire," the source said.

A statement from defence chief Juppe on Saturday said: "At the end of the operation, the lifeless bodies of the two hostages were discovered."

Juppe told French TF1 television late Sunday the government was taking "full responsibility" for the decision to free the hostages.

"It was a decision that had to be taken, it was grave, it was serious, we took it and we take full responsibility," said Juppe.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned the killings as "a barbarous and cowardly act".

France will "never accept the diktat of terrorism and terrorists", he vowed.

A military source in Mali said the kidnapping may have been carried out on behalf of militants linked to the Al-Qaeda network in the Sahel desert region spanning Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Algeria.

But Niger government spokesman Laouali Dan Dah said it was too soon to say if the kidnappers were linked to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which has claimed other abductions in the largely lawless desert zone.

The group in July killed a 78-year-old French hostage who was kidnapped in Niger. It is currently believed to be holding five French hostages, a Togolese and a Madagascan in Mali after they too were seized in Niger.

The Niamey abduction appeared the boldest in the recent spate of kidnappings and the first to strike in the heart of a capital city in the region.

France's foreign ministry warned its nationals against travel to the region.

"In light of the terrorist threat in the region, no place can be considered safe," the ministry said on its website.

burs-cjo/gk



Share This Article With Planet Earth
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit
YahooMyWebYahooMyWeb GoogleGoogle FacebookFacebook



Related Links
Africa News - Resources, Health, Food



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


AFRICA NEWS
Ivory Coast leader intensifies stand-off with world
Abidjan (AFP) Jan 7, 2011
Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo's stand-off with the world intensified Friday after Britain and Canada rejected his expulsion of their envoys, insisting they only recognise his rival. But with the crisis escalating as regional powers mull military intervention to remove Gbagbo in favour of the man the world says beat him democratically, Alassane Ouattara, neighbouring Ghana said it oppo ... read more







AFRICA NEWS
Time for aid groups to 'step aside' in Haiti: MSF

Aid group says Haiti rebuilding effort too slow

In Haiti, empty tombs but no resurrection

'Noah's Ark' refuge for Australia's flood-hit animals

AFRICA NEWS
Direct Observation Of Carbon Monoxide Binding To Metal-Porphyrines

Tablets and smart gadgets ruled at CES

Liquid Pistons Could Drive New Advances In Camera Lenses And Drug Delivery

How Do You Make Lithium Melt In The Cold

AFRICA NEWS
Low squid haul worries Argentina

Study Establishes Methods To Assess Recycled Aquifer Water

Igloo-Shaped Poo-Gloos Eat Sewage

US urges less fluoride in water supply

AFRICA NEWS
Warming to devastate glaciers, Antarctic icesheet - studies

Russia reaches first stranded fishermen

Russia frees two of five ships trapped in ice floes

Polar Bears No Longer On Thin Ice

AFRICA NEWS
Germany seeks to learn dioxin lessons

Statistical Analysis Can Estimate Crop Performance

Germany re-opens farms and vows action after dioxin scare

Global fears rise over German meat

AFRICA NEWS
8 dead, scores missing in Australian flash floods

'Dramatic' rain warning for flood-soaked Australia

Veteran pilot astounded by Australian floods

More rains for Australia's flooded northeast

AFRICA NEWS
Much hope as Sudan's election starts

AFRICOM's Gen. Ward visits Rwanda

Young French hostages executed in Niger desert

Ivory Coast leader intensifies stand-off with world

AFRICA NEWS
Impact Of Traffic Noise On Sleep Patterns

Humans First Wore Clothes 170,000 Years Ago

Publication of ESP study causes furor

Biological Joints Could Replace Artificial Joints Soon


The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement