Uganda to deport Briton charged over gay sex

Bernard Randall's lawyers say prosecutors are using expired visa as excuse to deport him after case is dropped.

A Ugandan court has ordered the deportation of a British man facing criminal charges related to images of him having sex with another man. A lawyer for Bernard Randall said on Wednesday that prosecutors were using the excuse of an expired visa to seek Randall's deportation after failing to find evidence against him in the criminal case. Lawyer Francis Onyango said his client traveled to Uganda on a tourist visa that expired after his passport was stolen. Jane Kajuga, a spokeswoman for Uganda's directorate of prosecutions, said prosecutors dropped the case but did not explain why. Randall, 65, will likely be flown out of the country on Thursday after a magistrate ordered his immediate deportation, police commander Edgar Nyabongo told the Associated Press news agency. The Briton was charged last year with trafficking in obscene material. His laptop computer was stolen from his home and photos on the computer showing him have sex with another man were sent to a Ugandan newspaper that published them. That led to the charges.  Randall will be the second foreigner deported from the East African country over alleged homosexual offenses. Last year the British producer of a gay-themed play was deported after being jailed for staging the play without official authorisation. Such authorisation is not usually required to stage a play. Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda, where lawmakers last month passed a new bill that prescribes life imprisonment for "aggravated'' homosexual acts. The bill, which appears to have wide support among Ugandans, has been opposed by the president, who says it is too harsh and has yet to sign it into law. Rights groups have condemned it as draconian.

Source: AP

Silkair Marks Silver Jubilee With Delivery Of New Boeing 737-800 Aircraft

SINGAPORE, Jan 9 - With 25 years in the air under its wing, SilkAir, the regional arm of Singapore Airlines, will be celebrating its Silver anniversary this year.

To mark the jubilee celebrations, the airline will be taking delivery of the first aircraft in its new fleet of 54 Boeing 737s in early February 2014.

A total of eight planes are expected this year, with the remaining aircraft to be delivered by the end of this decade.

With the new aircraft, several enhancements will be offered to improve the in-flight experience for travellers including upgraded cabin interiors with more spacious overhead luggage compartments and lighting systems.

In addition to the milestone aircraft delivery, SilkAir will roll out a host of surprises and celebrations for their avid Asian traveller target.

At a press briefing here Thursday, SilkAir chief executive, Leslie Thng, said: "Our new Boeing fleet will enable us to put the passengers at the centre of our focus, with the objective of delivering a higher level of quality and experience.

"Despite aggressive competition, we have maintained a strong foothold in the market as a full-service regional carrier and become known for offering access to unique destinations, with genuine and thoughtful service that exemplifies true Asian hospitality," he said.

Moving forward, Thng said the airline would continue to improve and adapt, catering to the evolving needs of travellers in Asia.

"We will focus on expanding our network to unique destinations especially in key markets such as China, India and Indonesia and continue to build on the last 25 years, and soar to new heights of air travel excellence."

To rally consumers and involve them in SilkAir's historic Boeing delivery, the airline will bring aviation buffs together to virtually deliver the new aircraft to Singapore.

Tracking the actual delivery route, from the Boeing Renton factory in Seattle to Singapore's Changi Airport, the "Bringing Boeing Home with SilAir" programme is Asia's first 25-hour flight simulator event that will allow up to 150 selected members of the public to fly a simulator SilkAir Boeing 737-800 plane into Singapore.

The event will take place overnight from Feb 7-8 at Flight Experience Singapore, located at the Singapore Flyer.

SilkAir travellers will also be rewarded through special promotional deals where 250,000 tickets will be made available at special rates for consumers in Singapore and across the region.

The first aircraft is planned to enter service from Feb 20, 2014, flying to destinations including Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Phuket and Medan while the arrival of the second plane will allow the addition of other routes including Siem Reap, Danang, Davao, Cebu and Kochi from March 17.

BERNAMA

Angolan Capital To Host Summit Of Leaders Of Africa's Great Lakes Region

LUANDA, Jan 9 - The Angolan capital will play host from Friday until Jan 15 to the 5th Ordinary Summit of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR ) to discuss peace, stability and development in the 12-nation grouping stretching across central Africa from the Atlantic to the Indian Oceans.

A source at the Foreign Ministry here told ANGOP Wednesday that members of some delegations were already in Luanda to attend Friday's meetings of the grouping's Heads of Army General Staff and of the Chiefs of Intelligence Services.

On Saturday, ICGLR defence ministers will hold their meeting and this will be followed by a meeting of the National Co-ordinators on Sunday and Monday. Tuesday will see the meeting of the Regional Inter-Ministerial Committee.

The leaders of the region are expected in the country on Tuesday and on Wednesday morning will gather at the Talatona Centre, south of Luanda, for their summit to discuss the peace and security situation in the region. Angola will assume the chair of the ICGLR at the summit.

The ICGLR was created after the political conflicts that marked the Great Lakes region in 1994, whose result marked the recognition of their size and the need for a concerted effort aimed at promoting peace and development in the region.

The ICGLR executive secretariat is based since May 2007, in Bujumbura, Burundi, and has the function of co-ordinating, facilitating and ensuring the implementation of the pact to create the conditions of peace, security, political stability and development in the Great Lakes region.

The current executive secretary is from th Democratic Republic of Congo, elected in December 2011, and the chairmanship of the ICGLR is with Uganda since 2011.

The ICGLR members are Angola , Burundi , Central African Republic (CAR ), Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo ( DRC ), Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.

BERNAMA-NNN-ANGOP

Father of Nigella Lawson aides nabbed for extortion

ROME  - The mobster father of British celebrity chef Nigella Lawson's two assistants, who were acquitted at a high-profile fraud trial in London last month, has been arrested for allegedly extorting nightclubs in Milan.

Michele Grillo, 66, previously served 15 years in prison for a kidnapping in the 1980s by the 'Ndrangheta organised crime syndicate but claimed he had changed his ways and was now working honestly as a truck driver.

Prosecutors who ordered his arrest on Wednesday said he is in fact the right-hand man of Agostino Catanzariti, who was also detained and is alleged to be the ring-leader of the group taking protection money from some of Milan's top clubs.

"In this particular case the link between business owners and 'Ndrangheta goes back a decade with a sort of 'insurance' that was periodically renewed," Paolo Storari, a prosecutor in charge of the investigation, was quoted as saying.

AFP

France to cut troop numbers in Mali

French president says "mission accomplished" in Mali and announces troop reductions starting February.

France will cut its troops in Mali to 1,600 by the middle of February from the current level of 2,500, President Francois Hollande has said. Speaking at an airbase in Creil in northern France on Wednesday, Hollande said the "situation is well under control" in Mali, where the "key objectives of the mission have been accomplished". "The troop size will be reduced from about 2,500 at present to 1,600 and then to 1,000, which is the number necessary to fight any threat that might resurface as these terrorist groups are still present in northern Mali," the president said. He also announced that France plans to use two unarmed Reaper drones to survey the region. France launched Operation Serval in its former colony in January 11 last year to repel the advance of al-Qaeda linked armed groups following a coup. At the height of the operation, 5,000 troops were deployed. A UN mission also deployed more than 12,000 troops. The French intervention sought to stop armed groups and Tuareg rebels from advancing on the capital, Bamako. The armed groups that once controlled northern Mali are believe to have been killed, or dispersed elsewhere in the Sahel region, notably to southern Libya.

Source: Agencies