The Conservative Harper wins a majority parliamentary

AFP - Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister, Conservative Stephen Harper, was reappointed Monday to head the government, his party won most seats in the House in early parliamentary elections.

According to preliminary official results, the Harper Conservatives get 166 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons.

"Canadians have chosen hope, a strong and united Canada, and we will govern for all Canadians, even those who did not vote for us," assured Mr. Harper, beaming in front of his supporters who applauded vigorously in Calgary, Alberta (west).

"Our government will defend the interests of all regions and all Canadians, including the great nation of Quebec," he said.

Alluding to the defeat of the separatist Bloc Quebecois, whose seats were often taken over by New Democratic Party (NDP, left), Mr.Harper has stated its intention to "make Canada a freer and more united."

"Quebecers have decided to send the Federalists in the House of Commons and we will work together for the betterment of our country."

Beyond the victory of the Conservatives get a majority after leading a minority government from the elections of 2006 and 2008, these elections will be completely transformed the political landscape.

The NDP confirmed its historic breakthrough announced by the polls, winning 106 electoral districts, nearly triple the 36 seats held in the outgoing House.This is by far the best score in the history of this party.

His meteoric rise was mainly at the expense of the Liberals and the Bloc Québécois, literally rolled by the wave "orange" training left.

Carried by the "wind of change" announced by its charismatic leader Jack Layton, the NDP is poised to become the official opposition in the government of Mr. Harper.

But change is not on the agenda of the Conservative leader who had, instead, focused his campaign on the stability and continuity, promising Canadians continued economic recovery and pledging not to raise taxes, Unlike the NDP and Liberals.

The fate of the Liberal Party leader, former academic Michael Ignatieff seems sealed by the disastrous result which gives him 35 seats. Mr. Ignatieff has campaigned honorably but has not created a decisive impact in the electorate and lost his own seat.His party, who does not like losers, could soon grow to the exit.

Finally, the sharp fall of the Bloc Quebecois, with just four seats against 47 held in the outgoing parliament, announced a steep turn in the attitude of the inhabitants of French-speaking province and greater openness to the English-speaking Canada. Its leader Gilles Duceppe, defeated in his riding of Montreal, announced his resignation.

Other highlights of the poll, there had been elected the leader of the Greens, Elizabeth May, a historic first, and the defeat of the Conservative Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs in the outgoing government.

Participation remained low at 60.3%, according to provisional figures, barely higher than the historic low of 58.8% registered in 2008.

NORTH KOREA: A quartet of former political leaders to visit Pyongyang

AFP - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter arrived Tuesday in North Korea for a visit to assess the food situation, pacify inter-Korean tensions and encourage the resumption of negotiations on denuclearization.

Jimmy Carter and three other former heads of state and government hope to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and his son and presumed successor Kim Jong-Un, but nothing is certain yet.The official news agency of North Korea announced their arrival in a statement on a line, with no details.

The group of four "old", which includes the former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland and former Irish President Mary Robinson, took off from China on Tuesday and will travel to Seoul on Thursday.

Efforts to resume the dialogue between the Koreas stalled. The South demanded an apology from Pyongyang about two serious indicents occurred in 2010 - the sinking of a corvette in March and the bombing of an island in November - but the North refused.

The six-party talks on denuclearization are also deadlocked since 2008.Pyongyang announced in November a uranium enrichment plant, which represents portentiellement a second way to obtain a nuclear bomb.

The food crisis in North Korea will also be the focus of this visit, had said Monday in Beijing the four "old".

According to the UN, more than six million people, or one quarter of the North Korean people, are in urgent need of food aid.

Jimmy Carter visited Pyongyang for the first time in 1994, to meet the founding president Kim Il-Sung, while North Korea and the United States was on the verge of declaring war because of nuclear program Pyongyang.

Former U.S. President had also visited this country in the summer of 2010, to secure the release of a U.S. citizen, but he had not met with Kim Jong-Il.

The President may also seek the release of a Korean-Americans detained in North Korea since last November because of unspecified crimes against the country. It would be a missionary, according to an anonymous source.

NIGERIA: Nigerians elect their president, Goodluck Jonathan outgoing favorite

Over 73 million Nigerians are electing their president Saturday in an election whose outgoing Goodluck Jonathan is favored, and show whether the giant nation has finally turned the page of the violent and fraudulent elections.

A week after the parliamentary elections that had been postponed twice but finally took place largely in a calm, voters are eligible to vote from 8:00 local time (0700 GMT).

Goodluck Jonathan, 53, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) training that dominates the political scene and has won every presidential election since the return to civilian rule in 1999, with a share ahead of analysts.

Especially since the opposition has failed this week to form an alliance to face him.

But the incumbent could be challenged by Muhammadu Buhari, former military dictator 69 years old who is seeking the highest office for the third time since 1999.

Muslim from the north, it can count on broad support in this region face Jonathan, a Christian of the Niger Delta, the southern oil-producing countries, the largest producer of crude oil from Africa.

Nuhu Ribadu, who led the anti-corruption agency in Nigeria, and Ibrahim Shekarau, outgoing governor of Kano State (North), two other candidates are considered important in this election.

Nigeria is currently engaged in a series of ballots.April 26 will be the elections of governors of the federation of 150 million people as well as regional assembled.

The 2007 general elections were marred by fraud in the view of most observers, and efforts have been made to ensure that things go differently this year, thanks to the work of a new electoral commission headed by a respected teacher .

The local and international observers have praised the good performance of legislative Saturday, raising hopes of a peaceful presidential election.

However, at least 35 people were killed in bombings and other election-related violence since late last week, according to election commission

The borders were closed Thursday night and had to reopen Monday. Restrictions on vehicular traffic have been imposed for Saturday.

PAKISTAN: At least 37 dead in suicide bombing at a funeral

At least 37 people were killed Wednesday by a suicide bomber who detonated his bomb at a funeral in Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan, a country gripped by a deadly wave of bombings Taliban allied with al-Qaeda, police said.

The man slipped in the middle of some 200 people who were preparing to pray at the funeral of the wife of a man fighting in an anti-Taliban militia, in the hamlet of Adeza, a suburb of Peshawar The metropolis of north-west, located at the gates of the tribal areas Islamist insurgent stronghold.

"The bomber came on foot, his target was the anti-Taliban militia members" who attended the outdoor funeral, told AFP by telephone Ijaz Mohammad Khan, a police officer in Peshawar.

"We took 37 dead and 45 wounded in hospital," said on-site AFP Kalam Khan, a police officer in Peshawar.

Adeza, a hamlet known for its anti-Taliban militia, was the target of fundamentalist attacks on several occasions in recent months.

Shortly after the powerful explosion, the floor of the place of prayer was stained with blood and shreds of flesh were lying among many caps that men cover their heads for prayer.

This new attack comes a day after a devastating attack at a service station near the offices of the powerful intelligence services in Faisalabad in central Pakistan, which killed 25 people and injured over 150.

A bomb hidden in a car set off a series of devastating explosions in the gas station was completely destroyed.Several surrounding buildings collapsed, but not the intelligence services building, apparently the target of the attack, police said.

Pakistan is experiencing an unprecedented wave of attacks (about 450 since summer 2007), mostly perpetrated by suicide bombers Taliban allied with al-Qaeda, which killed more than 4,100 dead in three and a half years.

The main insurgent group, the Movement of Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has declared in the summer of 2007 and in unison with Osama bin Laden himself, jihad Pakistani government for supporting Washington in its "war against terrorism" since late 2001.

The attacks are mostly security forces - army, police, intelligence services - but also increasingly civilians.

Friday in full great prayer, eleven people were killed in an attack against a mosque in Nowshera, near Peshawar, near the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

On several occasions recently, TTP claimed responsibility for attacks against security forces in retaliation, he said, the Pakistani army offensives and firing missiles almost daily by U.S. drones on executives' Al-Qaeda and Taliban Pakistani and Afghan tribal areas.

Tuesday, at least five insurgents were killed by two missiles from a U.S. drone in South Waziristan, the main stronghold of the TTP, as security forces.

COTE D'IVOIRE: African Union proposes a power-sharing or new elections

AFP - Four African presidents panel on the Ivorian crisis were preparing to meet Tuesday in Abidjan, Alassane Ouattara, leader of the state recognized by the international community, following a meeting with his rival, incumbent Laurent Gbagbo, background violence.

On the second day of their visit, Idriss Deby (Chad), Jikaya Kikwete (Tanzania), Jacob Zuma (South Africa) and Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz (Mauritania) should meet by mid-day with Mr. Ouattara at the Golf Hotel where he was entrenched with his team, his entourage said.

As to Mr. Gbagbo on Monday, the panel must submit to Mr.Ouattara's proposals to end by 28 February solutions "binding" on both sides.

According to a South African minister, the four Heads of State delegated by the African Union (AU) to resolve the crisis post-election power-sharing offer or an interim government until new elections.

The panel of mediators, which includes the South African President Jacob Zuma, "attempts to find a compromise solution, whether sharing the presidency between the two presidents or government (...) of interim until new elections, "he said Tuesday at the AFP Deputy South African Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ibrahim Ibrahim.

"I do not think the panel looks for one or the other, both Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara, because it would lead to a destabilization of the country," said Ibrahim, interviewed on the sidelines of the session Parliament in Cape Town.

The panel met with Mr. Ouattara, originally scheduled for Monday evening, could eventually take place. In the entourage of Mr.Ouattara, we explained that he wanted to express his dissatisfaction and a lack of representation of West Africa in the delegation.

The Burkinabe President Blaise Compaore, a panel member, agreed to drop to travel to Abidjan for "security reasons": more than a thousand pro-Gbagbo youths were waiting at the airport the former mediator in the peace process Côte d'Ivoire (2007-2010) whom they accuse of being an ally of Mr. Ouattara and the former French colonial power.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which adopted a harder line that the African Union with the threat of force to dislodge Mr.Gbagbo has also strongly criticized the continuation of the visit of the panel cut one of its members

"The ECOWAS Commission was concerned to see that the panel has nevertheless decided to conduct the tour immediately without the participation of a senior member whose contributions to the peace process in Côte d'Ivoire are priceless and deserve better assessments and more respect, "she said.

For her, the situation on the ground was not "conducive to the holding of a mission of such importance."

The President of the ECOWAS Commission, James Victor Gbeho, who recently ruled sternly attempts to compromise with Mr.Gbagbo has also canceled his trip to Abidjan.

The new mediation occurs when the Ivorian capital is experiencing a resurgence of tension since the weekend.

After nearly three months of crisis, the camp Ouattara, inspired by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, called on his people to take action to expel the president.

According to local newspapers, at least six people were killed Monday in clashes between supporters of very violent M.Ouattara and Forces for Defence and Security (FDS) loyal to his rival in the popular districts of Abobo (north), Kumasi and Treichville (south).

These clashes have resulted for several hours at the scenes of urban guerrillas, witnesses said.

The post-election violence killed at least 300 deaths since mid-December, the UN says.