Tanzanians

A Tanzanian whose house allegedly was used as a bomb factory in last year's deadly attacks on two U.S. embassies in East Africa pleaded innocent to conspiracy charges. The suspect, Khalfan Khamis Mohammed, 26, could face the death penalty if convicted. He was arrested Thursday in Cape Town, South Africa, and flown to the U.S. for trial. Mohammed was named in an indictment stemming from the Aug. 7 bombings in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people.

Those who never thought terrorists should be put on trial in civilian courts are now claiming vindication in the partial acquittal of a Tanzanian man accused in the bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998. It's nothing of the sort. The exoneration of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani on 276 counts of murder and attempted murder, and his conviction on a single conspiracy count that could lead to life imprisonment, instead demonstrate the deliberateness and fairness of civilian justice. The danger is that President Obama will overlook that fact amid the din from critics such as Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.

The acacia photo (My Best Shot, May 26) caught my attention. I too traveled to Kenya and Tanzania at a tense time: two weeks after the embassies were bombed. The Tanzanians couldn't have been friendlier. It is a wonderful country to visit, and they sorely need our tourist dollars. ANNE M. BRAY Los Angeles

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday made good on his pledge to appoint a woman from the developing world as deputy, choosing Tanzanian Foreign Minister Asha-Rose Migiro. Ban called Migiro "a highly respected leader who has championed the cause of developing countries," and said he planned to delegate much of the U.N.'s management and administrative work to her. She will also oversee socioeconomic affairs and development issues. The deputy secretary-general is a relatively new U.N.

Tanzanian Juma Ikangaa ran the fifth fastest marathon of all time--2 hours 8 minutes 10 seconds--to win the Tokyo International for the second time. Ikangaa, 28, broke away from Japan's Takeyuki Nakayama just after the 24-mile mark to repeat his 1984 victory. His time beat the 2:08:38 race record set by Japan's Toshihiko Seto in 1983. Belayenh Densimo of Ethiopia, 23, was second in 2:08:29 and Abebe Mekonnen, also of Ethiopia, was third at 2:08:39.

Four Tanzanian teenagers held in an immigration detention center in Harrisburg for eight months after leaving a Boy Scout gathering will be allowed to move in with a foster family, officials said. Karen Kraushaar, a spokeswoman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said the host family lives in the Midwest and speaks the boys' language, Swahili. The boys, ages 17 and 16, left an international Boy Scout gathering held near Fredericksburg, Va.

Twenty-four Tanzanian seamen drowned after their dhow or traditional sailing vessel capsized en route from Zanzibar Island to the mainland town of Bagamoyo, the only survivor said Saturday. Zanzibari sailor Msirifu Bweni said he was rescued Friday by British brothers Simon and Bruce Phillips, who found him clinging to the hull of the capsized boat as they were scuba diving near the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

About 500 passengers, many of them teenagers, drowned Tuesday after a ferry hit a rock and capsized in Lake Victoria, state-run radio and journalists said. Passing ships pulled 81 survivors from the water and recovered 21 bodies after the ferry sank 30 miles northwest of the Tanzanian lake port of Mwanza, Radio Tanzania said. "This is not an ordinary tragedy--it is a national tragedy," President Benjamin Mkapa said in a radio broadcast.

As many as 30 gold miners may have been killed last month in cave-ins at illegal mines, the state-run Shihata news agency said Monday. In a report published in the government-owned Daily News, the agency quoted two survivors as saying a police inspector had hired them to extract gold from a mine that the government had ordered closed. The dispatch said that as many as 30 men may have been buried when three adjacent pits collapsed last month in northwestern Tanzania near Lake Victoria.

Forty girls were killed in a blaze at their high school in Tanzania's Kilimanjaro region in the foothills of Africa's highest mountain, local officials said Monday. The fire Saturday gutted a dormitory and two other buildings at the school.

From a dimly lighted storefront along one of this ancient city's winding stone passageways, Khalid Azan is planning for what he sees as a bright, religious future. Zanzibar's economy is foundering and complaints about government abuse are on the rise. The ruling party made a mockery of democratic reforms by stealing the last two elections, international observers say. On islands where Muslims make up 99% of the population, Italian tourists flout Islamic mores by roaming the streets in bikinis.

A Tanzanian man who claimed in a hoax telephone call that Al Qaeda terrorists were planning to bomb a Westside shopping center has pleaded guilty to federal charges, the U.S. attorney's office said Tuesday. Zameer Mohamed, 23, will face a possible 10-year prison term when he is sentenced in February to one count of using a telephone to convey false information about an explosive attack.

Pakistan has captured one of the United States' 21 most-wanted terrorists, an alleged Al Qaeda operative who may have been involved in plotting new attacks in the United States, authorities said Thursday. The capture of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, the target of an intensive dragnet by U.S. authorities who placed a $25-million bounty on his head, was announced by Pakistani Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat. Ghailani, who is believed to be in his 30s, was wanted by U.S.

Saidi Mwile's face lights up as he squats down to examine an orchid on the Kitulo Plateau of this east African nation. But his delight is not in the brilliant red flower. He's imagining the delicious taste of its root. "When it's cooked, it tastes very nice, a lot like liver," Mwile said, carefully slicing off the tuber, which resembles a tiny potato. For generations, people on this high, chilly plateau known as the "Serengeti of Flowers" have been harvesting the tubers of terrestrial orchids.

The acacia photo (My Best Shot, May 26) caught my attention. I too traveled to Kenya and Tanzania at a tense time: two weeks after the embassies were bombed. The Tanzanians couldn't have been friendlier. It is a wonderful country to visit, and they sorely need our tourist dollars. ANNE M. BRAY Los Angeles

Four Tanzanian teenagers held in an immigration detention center in Harrisburg for eight months after leaving a Boy Scout gathering will be allowed to move in with a foster family, officials said. Karen Kraushaar, a spokeswoman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said the host family lives in the Midwest and speaks the boys' language, Swahili. The boys, ages 17 and 16, left an international Boy Scout gathering held near Fredericksburg, Va.

A Tanzanian man who claimed in a hoax telephone call that Al Qaeda terrorists were planning to bomb a Westside shopping center has pleaded guilty to federal charges, the U.S. attorney's office said Tuesday. Zameer Mohamed, 23, will face a possible 10-year prison term when he is sentenced in February to one count of using a telephone to convey false information about an explosive attack.

Omari Ali Juma, 60, vice president of Tanzania who had aided Congo peace efforts the day of his death, died Wednesday night in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, of a heart attack. Juma, a livestock expert, was born on Pemba Island, the northernmost in the Zanzibar archipelago, and served as chief minister in Zanzibar's semiautonomous government. He was President Benjamin Mkapa's right-hand man and had been vice president since Mkapa won his first election in 1995. Both men were reelected last year.

Attorneys for four Tanzanian teenagers who left an international gathering of Boy Scouts last month in Virginia have asked a judge to block deportation proceedings against the Scouts, arguing that the boys are in this country legally. Lawyers said that because the youths, ages 15 to 17, have tourist visas that don't expire until January, they should not be subjected to detention and a hearing before an administrative law judge, which is reserved for illegal immigrants who have broken the law.

Omari Ali Juma, 60, vice president of Tanzania who had aided Congo peace efforts the day of his death, died Wednesday night in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, of a heart attack. Juma, a livestock expert, was born on Pemba Island, the northernmost in the Zanzibar archipelago, and served as chief minister in Zanzibar's semiautonomous government. He was President Benjamin Mkapa's right-hand man and had been vice president since Mkapa won his first election in 1995. Both men were reelected last year.