But even though the Pakistan/Nigeria deal fell through; do not feel bad, Iran is going to adopt Nigeria. Sufi said Iran is ready to export technical and engineering services to Nigeria to promote mutual trade and commercial ties. http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=2540906
Another neighbor of Nigeria is Ghana. China is giving monumental military assistance to Ghana.
All the guests have arrived in Africa. -Am
China's military assistance monumental- Kufuor Accra, March 9, GNA- President John Agyekum Kufuor on Tuesday said the military assistance by China to Ghana was monumental in the cordial relationship between the two countries.
He said China had been supportive in operations of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) not only with the provision of equipment but financial assistance to build barracks and the Headquarters of the GAF.
President Kufuor made the observation when Major-General Zhang Bangdong, the visiting Chinese Director of Foreign Affairs of the Office of National Defence of the People's Republic of China paid a courtesy call on him at the Castle, Osu.
Major-General Zhang is at the head of a six-man delegation from China, who are in the country to acquaint themselves with the GAF.
He said China had offered more assistance to Ghana in the economic sector through manufacturing, training and infrastructures especially roads, adding, " I look forward to more co-operation between both countries".
President Kufuor said Ghana was proud to be related to China that was becoming more important in world affairs.
He said China was not only the most populous country but had great potentials in future to become an economic power and was willing to relate positively with the rest of the world.
Major-General Zhang said the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China attached great importance to the friendship between them and the GAF. He said the fruitful co-operation had not only been with the provision of equipment and materials, but training programmes as well.
Major-General Zhang said Ghana had made great contribution to world peace and stability.
He said President Kufuor was held in high esteem in China because of his assistance in 1971 to vote for China to secure a seat in the United Nations (UN) Security Council.
During the Second Republic in 1971, President Kufuor was the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and among the delegation who attended the UN meeting that year.
Major-General Zhang on behalf of his country signed an agreement with Dr. Kwame Addo-Kufuor, Minister of Defence during a meeting at Burma Camp in Accra on Monday.
The agreement was a Chinese government military assistance grant of 10 million Chinese Yuan to the GAF to help mitigate their mobility problems.
The grant would be used to purchase vehicles to beef up GAF's transportation needs as well as for peacekeeping operations.
There is one other group who could have been responsible for or taken part in the bombings in Spain. Armed Basque separatist group ETA and al Oaeda don’t quite fit.
The US and multi-national companies have been implicated in the plot to overthrow the president of Equatorial Guinea and apparently install Severo Moto, who is being harbored in Spain and has had a series of discussions with the Spanish Prime Minister Aznar, with a view to getting recognition, were he to succeed in overthrowing the Obiang government.
The United States and multi-national companies supposedly paid to overthrow the president of Equatorial Guinea and install Spanish-based opposition leader Moto.
Did Equatorial Guinea seek revenge?
Background
The Spanish government has said Basque separatists are the main suspect in the bombings of four trains early on Thursday that killed 192 people.
But the country's interior minister held open the possibility of a militant Islamist link on Thursday evening when he told a newspaper conference that a suspect van had been found containing detonators and an Arabic-language tape. He said, however, militant Basque separatists remained chief suspects. http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pri&dt=040311&cat=news&st=newssecurityusaqaedadc
ETA
Many political analysts said that if ETA was responsible for the attack it would favor the Popular Party in the election because of its hard line against the group.
Some experts on ETA said the bombings did not fit the group's usual profile for attacks. ETA has frequently warned in advance of its attacks.
Last month ETA declared a cease-fire limited to the northeastern region of Catalonia
After initially blaming ETA outright for the attack, three days before a general election, Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's government said a stolen van had been found near Madrid carrying seven detonators and an Arabic tape of Koran verses.
Spain focused blame on the Basque separatist group ETA, but a purported al Qaeda letter claimed responsibility for the 10 blasts and said a big attack on the United States was nearly ready, triggering fresh jitters in world financial markets. No authentication was available on the purported al Qaeda letter, a copy of which was faxed to Reuters by the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper. The letter was attributed to the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, a group that aligns itself to al Qaeda.
Al-Qaeda is not known for claims of responsibility, even for its boldest strikes against the United States. #msg-2021417
Moto
Spain is harboring Severo Moto, self-proclaimed president of a so called Equatorial Guinean “government-in-exile.” Moto was arrested in 1997 in Angola on suspicion of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea. The very recent coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea has supposedly been tied to Ely Calil, a businessman close to Servero Moto.
He said one of the men had said the group was acting on behalf of Ely Calil, a Lebanese businessman close to Severo Moto, self-proclaimed president of a so-called Equatorial Guinean "government-in-exile" in Spain.
Sources close to Calil, authorised to speak to Reuters, said on Tuesday he denied involvement and believed he was being made a scapegoat because of his friendship with Moto.
Moto was arrested in 1997 in Angola on suspicion of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea and expelled to Spain.
South African Nick du Toit appeared on state television in Equatorial Guinea claiming to be the leader of the group, whose mission was to abduct Obiang and force him into exile. "It wasn't a question of taking the life of the head of state, but of forcing him into exile and then installing the government in exile of Severo Moto Nsa," he said.
This tallies with a report in Africa Confidential, which said it had learned that both the arrests in Equatorial Guinea and the arrests in Zimbabwe were part of a plot to overthrow Obiang and install Spanish-based opposition leader Moto. http://allafrica.com/stories/200403110035.html
Equatorial Guinea's state television plans to air a second interview in which a suspected South African mercenary confesses to involvement in a plot to topple the country's government. Executives at the station say they will show footage of Nick du Toit, the suspected mercenary, telling the foreign minister he had been paid by the US and multi-national companies to overthrow the president.
Patrick Smith, the editor of Africa Confidential magazine, says there isn't any evidence, but military sources in South Africa "are absolutely categorical that the South African soldiers on that plane to Zimbabwe on Sunday were involved in the Equatorial Guinea adventure".
He says they also claim that Severo Moto had a series of discussions with the Spanish Prime Minister Aznar, with a view to getting recognition, were he to succeed in overthrowing the Obiang government. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3500832.stm
-Am
Equatorial Guinea: Ripe for a coup
The BBC's Virginia Gidley-Kitchin tries to piece together the story behind the alleged involvement of mercenaries in a coup plot in Equatorial Guinea. The West African state of Equatorial Guinea has been awash for weeks now with rumours of trouble brewing.
President Obiang says "enemy powers" are trying to overthrow him But events seem to have come to a head.
On Sunday, the authorities in Zimbabwe impounded a plane which flew in from South Africa with 64 alleged mercenaries on board.
What exactly they were up to wasn't clear - particularly as they didn't have any actual weapons with them.
Plot
But on Tuesday, Information Minister August Nse Nfamu claimed that 15 more mercenaries had been arrested in his country and that they were an advance party for the group detained in Zimbabwe.
He said their aim was to overthrow and kill Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
The president then went further, declaring that the alleged coup plot had been funded by what he called enemy powers and multinational companies.
Then in a BBC interview, Justice Minister Ruben Mangue, pointed the finger specifically at a leading exiled politician, Severo Moto, head of the opposition Progress Party.
For its part, the Progress Party denied involvement in any such plot.
Mr Moto said the president was just trying to damage his reputation.
"I have absolutely nothing to do with this story. I believe that once again in the face of my announcement of my return to Equatorial Guinea, President Obiang has become nervous and of course he has no trouble plotting and preparing traps like this in order to tarnish my political career and really keep the population on tenterhooks".
Old tricks?
It is not the first time that the government of Equatorial Guinea has alleged its political opponents were plotting to overthrow it.
The benefits of oil have been slow to trickle down Such allegations have sometimes coincided with the run-up to elections and led to the arrest of opposition politicians - and another opposition leader, Bakale Celestino, claims that, with local elections coming up in April, the government is up to its old tricks again.
But some Equatorial Guinea-watchers think that this time the rumours may be correct.
Patrick Smith, the editor of Africa Confidential magazine, says there isn't any evidence, but military sources in South Africa "are absolutely categorical that the South African soldiers on that plane to Zimbabwe on Sunday were involved in the Equatorial Guinea adventure".
He says they also claim that Severo Moto had a series of discussions with the Spanish Prime Minister Aznar, with a view to getting recognition, were he to succeed in overthrowing the Obiang government.
Patrick Smith says that in recent months, there's been a lot of unease within the Equatorial Guinean military, particularly over the succession issue.
"It is felt that President Obiang's health is not good, and that should he die precipitously, there would be a bloody struggle to succeed him. And one of the key characters likely to lead that struggle would be his son, Teodorin, who is heartily disliked by many other people in the Equatorial Guinea military.
Explosive mix
Justice Minister Ruben Mangue says that rumours of a power struggle are commonplace everywhere but - he insists - completely untrue.
The plane was heading to Equatorial Guinea, the government believes "The president has just been elected last year for seven years. The president is healthy... it is not serious to talk about the succession to the president now".
It may be too early to know where the truth lies. But Anthony Goldman, Africa analyst for Clearwater Research Services, says that the sudden arrival of oil wealth in what until a few years ago was one of the poorest countries in the world has "created an explosive mix" in Equatorial Guinea.
"It's had an unfortunate passage of dictatorships from the colonial period and then after independence - regimes of unparalleled brutality even in Africa.
"In the 1970s a third of the population were killed or fled into exile under the regime of Masias Nguema. His nephew seized power in 1979, promising to liberalise the country.
"And although now in theory it's a multi-party democracy, opposition supporters, diplomats and a number of human rights activists maintain that it remains a dictatorial regime, fuelled now by the arrival of oil," he says.
It may be no coincidence that, again according to Anthony Goldman, Equatorial Guinea has long had the image of being the kind of small, sleepy place where a handful of mercenaries could quickly seize power.
If so, it seems that the country's image is now out of date.
President Mugabe’s Zimbabwe government is heavily involved in the DRC, the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire since war broke out. #msg-2561778 #msg-2497980
This coup almost immediately follows that attempted in Equatorial Guinea.
Updated 7:19 AM ET March 28, 2004
KINSHASA, Congo (AP) - Government forces battled attackers at military installations and a TV station in Congo's capital in what diplomats called a coup attempt against President Joseph Kabila.
Fighters loyal to the late Congo dictator Mobutu Sese Seko were among those behind the attempt, British Ambassador Jim Atkinson said.
The coup attempt began before dawn and lasted through four hours of gunfire. Shooting eased by late morning, with the coup attempt apparently contained by loyalist troops.
Government spokesman Vital Kamerhe said the gunmen attacked simultaneously at several military posts and a private television station, killing one loyalist soldier and injuring two others.
"We have the situation under control," Kamerhe told The Associated Press. "There have been arrests in the assailants' ranks and we've taken some arms and ammunitions."
Diplomats believed the attempt was the work of soldiers loyal to Mobutu, Congo's Cold War ruler.
Thousands of Mobutu's soldiers fled across the Congo River to Brazzaville, capital of neighboring Republic of Congo, after Mobutu was ousted in 1997.
"They've infiltrated into Kinshasa with weapons, presumably over the past days and weeks," Atkinson, the British diplomat said. "This morning they began attacking at various places."
A standoff appeared to be continuing in part of the city between the attackers and loyalists, Atkinson said.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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