Rwanda leader 'at a loss' why FDLR chiefs still free

KIGALI:   President Paul Kagame  said on Saturday he is "at a loss" to understand how some leaders of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) are still at large in the West.

The FDLR is the continuation of a movement created in the refugee camps of neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by members of the former Rwandan army that was routed by Kagame's then rebel group in 1994.

Some FDLR elements are being sought by Kigali on charges of taking part in the 1994 genocide.

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Al-Qaida in N. Africa says French hostage killed

CAIRO:   The leader of al-Qaida's offshoot in North Africa said in a message broadcast Sunday that the group has killed a French engineer taken hostage in Niger in April.

In an audio message broadcast on Al-Jazeera, Abdelmalek Droukdel said the group killed the 78-year-old French hostage in retaliation for the killing of six al-Qaida members in a recent raid by Mauritanian forces aided by the French military.

The hostage, Michel Germaneau, was abducted April 22 in Niger and officials believed he was subsequently taken to Mali. Al-Qaida demanded in several Internet messages addressed to French President Nicolas Sarkozy that France help negotiate the release of the group's prisoners in countries in the region.

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Uganda president calls for Africa to fight terror

KAMPALA:   A top U.S. official on Sunday pledged continued support for African peacekeeping efforts in war-torn Somalia, as Uganda's president urged African leaders to unite against terrorism just weeks after Somali militants set off deadly twin bombings in Uganda.

President Yoweri Museveni told some 35 heads of state who convened in Uganda's capital for an African Union summit that the continent needed to step up its efforts against terror.

"Let us work in concert to sweep (terrorists) out of Africa," he said.

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Egypt's president not attending Africa summit

CAIRO:   Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak  will not go to the African Union summit in Uganda despite officials earlier citing his planned attendance as proof of his good health, the state media reported Saturday.

Mubarak delegated Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif to represent Egypt at the summit in Kampala, which is expected to address the sensitive issue of sharing Nile river water, the official Al-Ahram daily reported.

The government press earlier reported the president would be attending the summit and then on July 14 officials specifically cited the summit trip in order to discount rumors proliferating about the 82-year-old president's declining health.

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Blasts hit World Cup watchers in Uganda, kill 64

KAMPALA:   Explosions tore through crowds watching the World Cup final at a rugby club  and an Ethiopian restaurant, killing at least 64 people. Police feared an al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group was behind the attacks, as Uganda's president declared Monday "we shall get them wherever they are."

The blasts came two days after a commander with the Somali group, al-Shabab, called for militants to attack sites in Uganda and Burundi, two nations that contribute troops to the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.

A California-based aid group said one of its American workers was among the dead. Police said Ethiopian, Indian and Congolese nationals were also among the injured and dead, police said.

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