Nairobi/Abuja - Almost 400 people slaughtered when Muslim herdsmen raided Christian villages near Nigeria's restive central town of Jos have been buried in a mass grave.

(Photo) A photograph made available 09 March 2010, shows the body of a man burned following religious violence in the village of Dogo-Nahawa  near Jos in central Nigeria, 07 March 2010. Fighting between gangs of Christian and Muslim youths has claimed more than 200 lives in central Nigeria on 07 March 2010. The military have been deployed to the area and a new curfew imposed.

The massacre was the latest outbreak of violence between rival ethnic groups in Plateau State, where the indigenous Christians are struggling with Muslims who immigrated to the region decades ago over control of land and resources.

"We have about 351 corpses being buried at this mass grave, and at the other end, there is another village called Zot, where there are about 36 corpses to be buried separately," Plateau State's chairman of the search, recovery and evacuation committee, Solomon Zang, said by the graveside in the village of Dogo Hawa Monday night.

The death toll was higher, Zang said, because some families had taken deceased relatives for burial, corpses were still in the mortuary and a search team was looking for more bodies.

Witnesses in Dogo Nahawa, the worst hit by the violence, said Hausa-Fulani tribesmen descended on four villages Sunday, firing shots in the air. When people ran out of their homes, they were set upon with machetes or shot.

The commissioner of police in Plateau State, Ikechukwu Ayo Aduba, said 93 people had been arrested in connection with the massacre.

"Nineteen Fulani ... were arrested after the incident with daggers and knives ... while four Fulani were shot dead ... by the joint patrol team," he said.

Another 74 people were arrested after an exchange of gunfire, he said.

Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has put the army on alert in the region to head off any further attacks.

The massacre was believed to be in reprisal for violence in Jos at the start of the year. More than 300 people died in January when rival gangs of youths clashed in Jos, burning mosques, churches and businesses.

More than 10,000 people have died in ethnic clashes since Nigeria's return to civilian rule in 1999.

The continued unrest came amid political uncertainty in Africa's most-populous country.

Jonathan, a Christian from the south, is running the country while President Umaru Yar'Adua, a Muslim from the north, recuperates from a heart complaint.

Yar'Adua has been out of commission, and the public eye, since November and is still seriously ill despite leaving the Saudi hospital where he was being treated.

The ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) has an unwritten agreement that its candidate for the presidency should alternate between the mainly Muslim north and Christian south with each side getting a shot at two terms.

Yar'Adua is still in his first term, meaning Jonathan should not be able to run in 2011.

However, Yar'Adua's political circle is reportedly concerned that the acting president is consolidating his control and could garner support from some northerners for a presidential bid.

Jonathan has indicated no desire to run, and the PDP last week said it would field a northerner as agreed.

DPA
 

Beijing - China has tightened security in its Tibet Autonomous Region ahead of Wednesday's anniversary of a Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule, reports said.

"In recent days, there are police officers on the street 24 hours and the police will check everyone from outside Tibet," a receptionist at the Xueyu Hotel in the regional capital Lhasa told the German Press Agency dpa by telephone.

"If you want to travel here, you'd better come after March," he said.

March 10 marks the 51st anniversary of an unsuccessful Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule. It is also the second anniversary of a memorial protest that escalated into ethnic violence and rioting in Lhasa.

The official Xinhua news agency quoted Ma Jun, Lhasa's deputy police chief, as saying on Tuesday that extra police patrols were deployed ahead of the anniversary to "prevent crime and maintain social stability."

The Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet quoted sources in Nepal as saying the main border crossing between Tibet and Nepal was "effectively closed in the lead-up to the anniversary."

Flights between Kathmandu and Lhasa were suspended from Friday. Nepalese travel agents said tourists may not be able to enter the Tibet Autonomous Region from Kathmandu until "several days after March 10," the group reported.

A Chinese government website said police in Lhasa had questioned 435 criminal suspects during a "Strike Hard" campaign in the city in late February and early March.

The report did not say if any of those questioned were suspected of involvement in political activities, but it said police detained seven people on suspicion of involvement apparently non-political criminal activities.

As part of the crackdown, more than 1,500 police and security guards checked 4,115 rented rooms in the city and questioned 7,374 migrants on the evening of March 2, the regional government reported on its website www.tibet.gov.cn.

Police and firemen also checked 178 hotels, 21 internet cafes, dozens of entertainment centres, several banks, petrol stations and other buildings in Lhasa, the report said.

Authorities confiscated 348 firearms and 6,225 bullets in the operation, it said without giving details.

The India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said authorities had restricted the movement of many monks at three of Lhasa's biggest monasteries.

The city government set up a "Lhasa Neighbourhood Committee" of volunteers charged with helping to "maintain social order" during the anniversary, the centre reported.

The 2008 protests in Lhasa grew into widespread demonstrations against Chinese rule in many Tibetan areas of China over the following weeks.

The government said clashes in Lhasa left 18 people dead and hundreds injured, while Tibetan exile groups put the death toll as high as 200 and said many protestors were shot dead by police.

Since the protests, the government has turned away journalists from Tibetan areas, limited access by foreign tourists and suspended communications in some places.

In January, leaders of China's ruling Communist Party outlined a 10-year economic and social development plan for Tibetan areas, which critics say will only consolidate Chinese control.

DPA
 

Athens/Nicosia - Cypriot authorities on Tuesday said they have discovered the stolen corpse of former president Tassos Papadopoulos, which was reported missing from his grave three months ago.

Police received an anonymous call that directed officials to a cemetery outside of Nicosia close to where Papadopoulos was initially buried. DNA testing confirmed that it was the remains of the former president.

The theft of Papadopoulos' body from the village cemetery of Deftera, southwest of the capital Nicosia, had shocked and outraged the community of the eastern Mediterranean island.

There was no claim of responsibility and the motive behind the theft remains unclear. Police suspected a criminal gang to have been involved.

The theft was discovered a day before the first anniversary of his death and the culprits had carefully covered their tracks. Papadopoulos died of lung cancer in Nicosia on December 12, 2008, aged 74.

Papadopoulos served as president from 2003 until March 2008. He lost a bid for a second term in office in 2008 after being defeated by Demetris Christofias, a former coalition partner.

He oversaw the Republic of Cyprus' entry into the European Union in 2004 and led his community to reject a United Nations peace plan to reunite the divided island of Cyprus.

The island has been split since 1974 after Turkey invaded the northern third of the island in response to a short-lived coup initiated by Greece.

DPA
 

Phnom Penh- Six villagers died one after another after entering a well filled with diesel fumes in east-central Cambodia, national media reported Tuesday.

The villagers had decided to use a diesel pump rather than buckets for the annual task of removing contaminated water from the well, the Cambodia Daily newspaper said.

Commune chief Men Sarun was quoted as saying the first man climbed into the well and installed the diesel pump above the waterline, about 2 metres below the top of the 9-metre-deep well. However, he succumbed to the fumes shortly after starting the motor, Men Sarun said.

Another two men then climbed into the well and managed to stop the engine but died too. As the others descended one after another to investigate, they were also overcome, the commune chief said.

The last to die managed to call out a warning before falling unconscious. His action prevented a seventh villager from going into the well.

"Due to these deaths caused by the old well, many villagers who currently use water from the well will never use it again," Men Sarun told the newspaper.

The incident happened in Kampong Cham province, east of Phnom Penh. Cambodia has limited infrastructure, particularly in rural areas, where the majority of its people live, and many Cambodians source water from wells and rivers.

DPA