Guinea's Military Leader Taken to Morocco After Shooting Guinea's military ruler is in Morocco after being shot by troops loyal to his aide-de-camp. Burkinabe President Blaise Compaore says Guinea's military ruler Captain Moussa Dadis Camara is in a “difficult but not desperate” situation after being shot by renegade troops at an army barracks in downtown Conakry late Thursday. President Compaore is the regional mediator in Guinea's political crisis. He told reporters in Ouagadougou that Captain Camara has gone to Morocco for surgery. Guinea's Communications Minister Idrissa Cherif says Captain Camara is in Rabat for a “check-up.” It is the first time the 45-year-old ruler has left Guinea since taking power in a coup last December. In his absence, Cherif says power remains in the hands of the ruling military council, which met in emergency session Friday. Algerian Oil Minister: Too Much Oil In The Market Algerian Oil Minister Chakib Khelil said Friday “there is too much oil” in the market and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries should keep output unchanged when they meet in Angola later this month. “Oil prices are a little bit low, [but] we don't have a target for prices. The prices are better than last year…and OPEC shouldn't change production,” Khelil told reporters Khelil said there are no clear signs of recovery in the market. “[Recovery] isn't there yet. No one can predict when it will happen,” the minister said. He said that OPEC is seeing more demand from Asia, particularly China, but what is more important for the cartel is to see more demand coming from the U.S. and Europe. “If the U.S. doesn't recover, then we have a problem. There are no clear signs that there is a recovery,” Khelil said. “What is maintaining oil prices at this level is the hope that there will be a recovery. If there is no recovery, then there will be a reversal in the situation.” Algeria, which is currently 100% compliant with OPEC quotas, is happy with the compliance of OPEC countries, Khelil said. Italy to take more Gitmo detainees Italy is considering accepting in other prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in order to help American President Barack Obama close down the prison, the country's foreign minister said Tuesday, a day after Italy accepted two former detainees. Premier Silvio Berlusconi promised Obama at a White House meeting in June that Italy would accept three people as part of the U.S. administration's bid to close down Guantanamo. Obama said in November that he would miss his January deadline to close the prison, partly because he cannot persuade other nations to take the detainees. Italy took in two Tunisian inmates Monday as a “concrete political sign” of the country's commitment to help Washington close Guantanamo, Justice Minister Angelino Alfano said in a statement late Monday. Swiss businessmen in Libya to appeal sentence Two Swiss businessmen held in Libya amid a diplomatic spat between Bern and Tripoli are to appeal against a 16-month prison sentence imposed by a Libyan court, sources said Friday. Max Goldi, a senior manager at the Swedish-Swiss engineering giant ABB, and Rashid Hamdani, who works for a small construction firm, were detained in Libya after Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's son Hannibal and his wife were briefly arrested in Geneva in July 2008. Hamdani's wife told the Swiss ATS news agency that he had instructed his Libyan lawyer to appeal, while ABB said in a statement it had done the same for Goldi. The two, who are currently holed up in the Swiss embassy, were sentenced to prison and a fine of 2,000 dinars (1,100 euros) on Monday for overstaying their visas and face a further trial for alleged tax offenses, according to Libyan officials. Lebanon's Hariri to visit Damascus Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri said on Friday he will be visiting long-time foe Syria after parliament grants his government a vote of confidence, but gave no date for the trip. “I will be going on a tour after the vote of confidence, and Syria will be part of that tour,” Hariri told reporters in Beirut ahead of Thursday's vote in parliament. Hariri has had tense ties with Syria ever since his father and former premier, Rafiq Hariri, was killed in a massive Beirut bombing in February 2005. A UN inquiry in June said it had evidence that Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services were linked to the killing. Damascus has consistently denied any involvement. Earlier this week Hariri's 30-member government adopted a policy statement despite reservations by his Christian allies on a clause that deals with the weapons of the Syria- and Iran-backed Hezbollah. Syria blast kills three; officials say accident Three people were killed near a major Shiite shrine here Thursday by an explosion next to a bus that had been carrying Iranian pilgrims, Syrian officials said. The Syrian interior minister, Said Sammour, said on state-run television that the explosion was set off by a burst, tire, and was not a terrorist attack. Witnesses described a large explosion that left thick clouds of black smoke, with bits of human flesh scattered across a wide area. The back of the bus was destroyed and blackened, and broken glass from nearby buildings and other shrapnel was scattered in the street. The explosion was at 8:40 a.m. at a small shop next to the Bright Future gas station, just over a mile south of the Sayyida Zainab shrine, which draws large groups of Iranian pilgrims throughout the year. The gas station is next to the Imam Khomeini Hospital, named for the founder of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Only two people were inside the bus at the time of the explosion, the driver and his assistant, witnesses said. The dead and wounded were taken to a hospital in the suburb of Douma. BM
