More militants disarm

Nigeria: Government Tompolo, which heads the main rebel faction in the western Delta, is due to make the move before an amnesty expires at midnight local time. On Saturday, militant commanders Akete Tom and Farah Dagogo led their fighters in handing over weapons. The government has offered an amnesty in return for pledges of cash and jobs. Militants took up arms in 2006, saying proceeds from the region’s oil wealth had not benefited local people. Although Nigeria is the world’s eighth biggest oil exporter, unrest in the Delta has prevented it from pumping much more than two-thirds of its production capacity. — Agencies

ElBaradei’s plea

Tehran: Mohamed ElBaradei, who is visiting Tehran, said on Sunday that this was a “critical moment” and urged Iran to be as transparent as possible. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency also announced inspectors would visit Tehran’s newly revealed uranium

enrichment plant on October 25. Iran denies concerns it is developing a nuclear weapons capability. The US had urged the Iranian government to give the IAEA “unfettered access” within two weeks to the site disclosed last month. — Agencies

Pope’s warning

ROME: Pope Benedict has warned that a form of colonialism continues to blight Africa. Opening a three-week synod of African bishops on Sunday, he said political colonialism was over. But he said the developed world continued to export materialism - which he called “toxic spiritual rubbish” - to the continent. Almost 200 bishops from 53 African states have gathered to discuss how the Catholic Church can help resolve the continent’s social injustices and wars. The Pope says he will attend as many of the working sessions of the synod as possible, his other duties permitting. — Agencies

Al-Qaeda suspect held

Frankfurt : A German-Turkish citizen was in Germany on suspicion of preparing explosive devices and posting al-Qaeda propaganda on the internet, police say. They said the 24-year-old, named only as Adnan V, was arrested on Thursday. A small amount of explosives and a suspected detonator were also seized in two police raids in Frankfurt. The suspect was not immediately linked to videos that emerged ahead of last Sunday’s elections threatening al-Qaeda attacks within Germany. Those videos, made by al-Qaeda’s media production arm, warned of an impending attack within two weeks of the elections if German troops were not withdrawn from Afghanistan. — Agencies

IMF funds for poor

Istanbul : The French and British governments have announced a $4bn (£2.5bn) allocation to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help poorer countries. The money will go to the IMF’s new loan facility to help countries which do not have enough money to pay for imports as a result of the economic crisis. It will come from a $250bn (£157bn) allocation distributed a few weeks ago. The money is essentially created by the IMF so, according to French ministers, there is no cost to the taxpayer. The allocation of special drawing rights (SDRs) was agreed by the G20 summit in April. — Agencies

Los Angeles fire

Los Angeles: A fire in the San Bernardino Mountains has burned 3,500 acres, destroyed at least three houses and threatened hundreds more homes. Several remote canyon areas and a portion of Wrightwood were under mandatory evacuation, and the rest of Wrightwood was under voluntary evacuation. Fire officials said erratic winds were pushing the fire in several different directions through dense forest land— Agencies