Venezuela restarts refinery after fatal blast

Workers have resumed operations at Venezuela's biggest refinery, a week after an explosion that killed 42 people, the state-owned oil company PDVSA said.
"Operational activities have resumed safely and gradually," said Jesus Luongo, a PDVSA director who heads the Paraguana refining complex, noting that the refinery was ramping up output, initially processing 160,000 barrels on Friday.
Firefighters struggled for days to put out the blaze triggered by a gas leak at the Amuay refinery, which produces 645,000 barrels per day at normal capacity.
At least 20 members of a national guard unit assigned to protect the facility were killed, along with some members of their families, and about 500 homes were damaged in the blaze.
The refinery is located in a residential and commercial complex where workers live with their relatives and poor families who settled in surrounding neighbourhoods.
The accident was the worst in the history of the oil industry in Venezuela, which has the largest oil reserves in the world. Its reserves, which the government estimates at 297.57 billion barrels, surpass those of Saudi Arabia, which has the biggest refining capacity.
Refinery failures
The disaster has prompted questions about whether Petroleos de Venezuela SA has neglected maintenance while funneling its revenues into social programmes run by President Hugo Chavez's socialist government.
A document published on Thursday by two national Venezuelan newspapers said that months before the explosion, a study by engineers had found failures in the complex's maintenance and listed dozens of accidents.

The report was prepared in March by RJG Risk Engineering for the international insurance company QBE.
The study said there had been 222 accidents at the Paraguana Refining Center last year. It said 100 of those involved fires, and 60 were breaks and leaks in pipes that carry combustible liquids.
Critics have said that in addition to refinery failures from delayed maintenance, PDVSA's operations have also suffered from the firing of nearly 18,000 oil workers in 2003, about 45 per cent of the payroll, after they joined a strike called by Chavez's political opponents to press demands that the president resign.
In recent years, Chavez's government has increasingly used a share of earnings from PDVSA to fund social programmes known as "missions". Its contributions to such programmes rose from less than $1.6bn in 2004 to $10.4bn last year.
Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez has said Venezuela has plenty of fuel on hand to meet domestic demand in the aftermath of the disaster and will not have to increase imports, but he has not discussed the possible financial impacts for the state oil company.

Obama releases secret ale ingredients

Bowing to growing pressure from thirsty and curious US citizens in both parties, the White House released the recipes for President Barack Obama's homemade beers, revealing the executive branch's penchant for
honey-flavoured brews.
In a blog post on Saturday entitled "Ale to the Chief," White House Assistant Chef and Senior Policy Adviser for Healthy Food Initiatives Sam Kass said that "with public excitement about White House beer fermenting such a buzz, we decided we better hop right to it."
"Inspired by home brewers from across the country, last year President Obama bought a home brewing kit for the kitchen" at the White House, the chef explained.
"To be honest, we were surprised that the beer turned out so well since none of us had brewed beer before," Kass wrote.
"George Washington brewed beer and distilled whiskey at Mount Vernon and Thomas Jefferson made wine, but there's no evidence that any beer has been brewed in the White House," he continued.
Obama bought his own brewing kit in January last year and decided he wanted to start making beer on the White House grounds, said Al Jazeera's Cath Turner in Washington, DC.
The president had only served his beer to White House guests until a couple of weeks ago when he was campaigning in Iowa, Turner said.
"He decided to pull out a beer from the campaign bus and share it with a man he had just met in that state. And that got all the White House reporters excited."
Secret recipe
The key ingredient for the White House Honey Brown Ale and the White House Honey Porter, though, may be tough to come by - the honey is straight from the White House's first-ever beehive.
Kass wrote that the "honey gives the beer a rich aroma and a nice finish but it doesn't sweeten it."
However, Brandon Skall, the chief executive of local brewery DC Brau, said it would "pump up the alcohol and give it some sweetness."
The ale would likely pair well with a spicy and savoury dish such as pork tenderloin or roast duck, said Skall, who added he would like to make the beers in his District of Columbia brewery. The porter would work well with a dessert or even floated with ice cream, he added.
The recipes were released as Obama headed to campaign in Colorado, a swing state that is embracing small, independent beer producers.
The birthplace of Coors beer currently has the third highest number of craft breweries in the country, behind
only California and Washington, according to the web magazine Atlantic Cities.
Obama is now part of a growing movement - 28,835 people currently belong to the American Homebrewers Association.

Mexico court rejects appeal to overturn vote

Mexico's highest electoral tribunal has rejected a bid to overturn July's presidential election win of Enrique Pena Nieto by the second-placed left-wing candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
One by one, the tribunal's seven judges rebuffed claims by Lopez Obrador that Pena Nieto's party bought millions
of votes, exceeded campaign spending limits and received biased news coverage.

The request to invalidate the election is groundless," court president Jose Alejandro Luna Ramos told a packed courtroom at the end of a session that lasted more than five hours.
The ruling triggered a protest of roughly 5,000 on the streets of Mexico City and clears the way for Pena Nieto to be formally declared president-elect and begin his six-year term on December 1, returning the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to power after a 12-year absence.

A recount of the election result gave Pena Nieto an estimated 38 per cent of the vote to Lopez Obrador's 31 per cent.
The PRI governed Mexico for 71 years until it lost the 2000 presidential election, but Pena Nieto has promised to break with his party's hard-line past.
'Move together'
"It is time to begin a new phase of work in favour of Mexico," he wrote on Twitter after the ruling.
"We move forward. Through dialogue, understanding and agreements, we move together for the unity and greatness of Mexico."
Lopez Obrador, backed by the Progressive Movement coalition, has accused the PRI of returning to its old ways in order to secure Pena Nieto's victory in the July 1 election.
He claimed that the PRI bought five million votes, including by distributing gift cards for a retail store. His coalition also charged that children were sent to polling stations to check how people voted.
Lopez Obrador's campaign manager Ricardo Monreal denounced the judges as a "band of scoundrels" as it became clear that they would reject the challenge.
Al Jazeera's Adam Raney, reporting from Mexico City, said the Lopez Obrador has no legal recourse at this point.
"The game is over for Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as far as this election is concerned. There is no way he's going to legally become the next president of Mexico," said Raney.
Our correspondent said that Lopez Obrador continues to mount a protest movement because "he continues to believe that this election was fraudulent, that it was full of corrupt practices...it would be antithetical for Lopez Obrador to go home and pack up and say, 'All right, I lost my case, this is all done.'"
Outside the court, some 300 protesters shouted "Mexico without the PRI," brought down barriers and threw water bottles, corncobs and stones toward the court, as riot police watched passively.
In the previous election in 2006, when Lopez Obrador also ran for president, he refused to recognise the result after he lost to Felipe Calderon, of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), by 0.06 percentage points.
He led massive protests but was unable to change the outcome.
Pena Nieto will inherit from Calderon a brutal drug war that has left more than 50,000 people dead since 2006. Calderon did not run due to term limits.

29 Killed in Potiskum-Kano Crash

Twenty-nine persons have been reported killed in a horrendous motor accident at Daniski village, on the Potiskum–Kano road in Nengere Local Government Area of Yobe State.

According to a statement by CSP Frank E. Mba, the Deputy Force Public Relations Officer in Abuja, the accident resulted from a head-on collision of two Toyota Hiace buses travelling in opposite directions.  In the ensuing fire, 11 of the 29 dead were burnt beyond recognition, and several people suffered various injuries. 
The statement further said that policemen from Nengere Division, Yobe State Police Command, assisted by members of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NUTRW) responded to the incident, rushing the injured to the General Hospital Potiskum.  The dead bodies were deposited at the Hospital’s mortuary.
Expressing concern over incessant cases of accidents on our highways, the Inspector-General of Police advised Nigerians to ensure that their vehicles are roadworthy at all times, the statement said.  He equally warned against reckless driving, over speeding, over loading and flagrant disobedience of road traffic laws and regulations. 
“He directed officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force attached to the newly rejuvenated Police Highway Patrol to take proactive measures, working in conjunction with other security agencies, to assist road users in preventing road accidents and rendering prompt assistance to victims of road mishap on our highways,” Mr. Mba said.

Deadly Pipeline Fire Kills Several Persons In Arepo Village On the Boundary of Ogun and Lagos

NEMA Officials and fire fighters returned to the scene of  a massive pipeline fire in Arepo village on the boundary of Ogun and Lagos states. The rescue team was earlier attacked by local vigilantes hired by the NNPC to protect the pipelines. Several person died in the pipeline fire that lasted for three days in the area, according to the police.

 

Commercial Driver Crashes Into Pedestrians And Bikers Killing An Albino And Disrupting Gani Fawehinmi Memorial Rally

A commercial bus driver has killed an albino girl riding on the back of a bike along Kudirat Abiola way the Ikeja/Oregun/Ojota axis of Lagos and injuring two others at Ojota while attempting to escape, driving even more recklessly.
The tragedy hit around 12.35pm as a yellow commuter bus was driving against the one-way traffic along Kudirat Abiola way, just opposite the lane to activists on a march to commemorate the death of prominent civil rights lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi, today.
The activists had begun their march from under the popular bridge along Obafemi Awolowo way in Ikeja with five police vans watching them closely.
The train was going smoothly before the bus suddenly ran into some motorbikes and pedestrians on Kudirat Abiola way near the Olusosun garbage dump. The albino woman was killed in the accident.
The strong collision threw the woman against the culvert, instantly breaking her right leg and causing a crack on her skull, she died some thirty minutes later according to the police.
The activists ended the procession to engage in a furious chase to catch up with the hit-and-run driver riding on the back of several bikes at Ojota the road seemed closed to traffic but the commercial  driver in his haste to escape hit  two other persons   made an u-turn towards Alausa where he was finally rounded up by the comrades.
The killer driver has been apprehended and detained at the Alausa Police Station.

Grenade attack on police in Kenya riots

Stone-throwing youths have clashed with the police in the Kenyan city of Mombasa, Kenya's second biggest city, in a second day of violence prompted by the killing of a Muslim religious leader accused by the US of helping fighters in Somalia.

Police fired tear gas and warning shots on Tuesday as youths barricaded streets with burning tyres in the predominantly Muslim neighbourhood of Majengo.

Youth also threw a grenade at a police truck, wounding 16 police officers, two of them critically.

Mobs moved around Mombasa's city centre, taunting police who arrested some of the protesters, who are members of the city's Muslim minority.

Shopkeepers reported looting in some areas of Mombasa, a tourist hub and major Indian Ocean port.

The unrest began after armed men killed Aboud Rogo Mohamed on Monday, spraying his car with bullets in an attack many Muslims in Mombasa blamed on the police, who denied involvement.

Rogo was the spiritual leader of the Muslim Youth Centre (MYC), a group viewed as a close ally of Somalia's armed Islamist group, al-Shabab.

Churches torched

One person was killed in riots on Monday when protesters torched some churches, raising fears that the unrest may become more sectarian in a city where grenade attacks blamed on Somali fighters and their sympathisers have already strained Muslim-Christian relations.

Police and Muslim leaders had described the church burnings as impulsive, not premeditated. On Tuesday, the gangs of youths appeared to focus their anger more on the police.

Church leaders scrapped plans for a peaceful march for fear it might incite further clashes in a country where overall relations with minority Muslims have been relatively good.

The Supreme Council of Muslims in Kenya condemned the violence, especially the targeting of churches.

"This kind of violence goes against our faith. The protesters shouldn't hide behind Islam or any of its teachings," Adan Wachu, the council's secretary-general, said. "These are criminals and should be treated as such."

Kenyan police appealed on Tuesday to the public for information on Rogo's killing. Raila Odinga, Kenya's prime minister, has condemned the "horrific" murder, adding the government was "committed to bringing whoever was responsible to justice".

Rogo had been accused by the UN of using the MYC group as "a pathway for radicalisation and recruitment of principally Swahili-speaking Africans for carrying out violent militant activity in Somalia".

He is also alleged to have introduced Fazul Abdullah Mohammed - the late head of al-Qaeda's East Africa cell, shot dead last year in Somalia's war-torn capital Mogadishu - to at least one of the men who helped him carry out the twin US embassy bombings in 1998.

The bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam killed 224 people.

Al-Shabab appeal

Al-Shabab, for its part, urged Kenyan Muslims on Tuesday to protect their religion at all costs and boycott next year's presidential election. It condemned what it called a "witch-hunt" against Muslims by the Kenyan authorities.

"Muslims must take the matter into their own hands, stand united against the kuffar [non-believers] and take all necessary measures to protect their religion, their honour, their property and their lives from the enemies of Islam," al-Shabab said in a statement posted on the social media site Twitter.

The violence could worsen if it taps into long-standing local grievances over land ownership and unemployment, as well as calls by the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) for the coastal strip to secede.

The MRC said it was not involved in the unrest.

Prolonged trouble in Mombasa could hit Kenya's vital tourism industry, already damaged by the kidnappings of female Western tourists from beach resorts by Somali fighters.

The unrest could also knock trade and transport to Kenya's landlocked neighbours. Rwanda and Uganda rely on the Mombasa port for imports of food, consumer goods and fuel.