(Adds comment from military spokesman)
By Nick Tattersall
LAGOS, May 26 (Reuters) - Rebels from Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta said they had blown up a Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> pipeline and killed 11 soldiers in a firefight on Monday, but the army denied losing any men.
The rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said in an emailed statement that it had sabotaged the Shell pipeline at Awoba flow station in southern Rivers state in the early hours of Monday morning.
"Today's attack is dedicated to the administration of (President) Umaru Yar'Adua and (Vice President) Goodluck Jonathan who have failed after one year in office to ensure peace, security and reconciliation in the Niger Delta region," the MEND statement said.
Shell in Nigeria said it was investigating and had no immediate comment.
Nigeria's army initially denied there had been an attack but later confirmed there had been a blast early on Monday at a Shell facility close to Awoba which was not guarded by soldiers.
"The cause of the explosion has not yet been determined but it is strongly suspected that explosives might have been used by miscreants," Sagir Musa, military spokesman in Rivers state, told Reuters.
Musa said troops had been sent to the site of the blast but denied that 11 soldiers in a military gunboat had been killed in a shoot-out.
The Niger Delta is home to the world's eighth-biggest oil industry, exporting about 2.1 million barrels per day, but rebels have led a campaign of sabotage since early 2006 to push demands for greater local control over oil revenues.
The unrest has depressed Nigerian output by around a fifth since then, helping to push world oil prices to record highs. Oil rose above $133 a barrel on Monday after striking a record high of $135.09 last week.
A new government in Nigeria led by Yar'Adua and Jonathan, a native of the delta, took office on May 29 last year promising to address the root causes of the violence in the Niger Delta and to negotiate with the militants.
But attacks on oil installations and the kidnapping of oil industry workers have continued in the region, with MEND last week accusing the government of "insincerity" in its handling of the situation.
Shell was forced to shut in about 164,000 barrels per day of Bonny Light crude production -- or about 40 percent of the Anglo-Dutch major's equity oil output in Nigeria -- late last month due to militant attacks in the delta.
The company has been restoring some of the shut-in production but a force majeure remains in place for Bonny Light exports, meaning it cannot guarantee to meet its contract commitments. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/ ) (Additional reporting by Austin Ekeinde in Port Harcourt, Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Matthew Jones) ((Reuters messaging: nicholas.tattersall.reuters.com@reuters.net, Lagos Newsroom +234 1 463 0257))
Keywords: NIGERIA DELTA/ATTACK
By Jonathan Wright
CAIRO, May 26 (Reuters) - The governments of the Middle East, from Iran to Israel and beyond, are increasingly ignoring the wishes of a U.S. administration which has only eight months left in office, going their own way in regional diplomacy.
U.S. President George W. Bush's latest speech on Middle East policy, made in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh last week, shows how the gap has grown between what Washington would like and what is happening in the region. It is part of a wider picture of Washington's declining clout, accelerated by its debilitating deployment of more than 100,000 troops to Iraq for the past five years.
France has had contacts with the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, for example, and Israel has had indirect talks with Syria, which Washington is trying to isolate.
Bush said in Sharm el-Sheikh that all nations in the region should stand together against Hamas, a group which he said was attempting to undermine efforts at making peace.
But the Egyptian government, his host and a longstanding friend of the United States, was simultaneously, and with U.S. consent, trying to mediate a truce between Gaza and Israel.
Israeli commentators said the Egyptian mediation amounted to indirect negotiations between the Israeli government and Hamas, a group with which the United States refuses to have dealings.
The Islamist organisation, which controls the Gaza Strip, was offering Israel a long-term truce which could make it easier for the rival Palestinian group Fatah to reach an agreement with Israel -- a goal which the United States says it is promoting.
In his Sharm el-Sheikh speech, Bush also attacked the Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah, calling it "terrorists funded by Iran" and "the enemy of a free Lebanon".
HEZBOLLAH'S CENTRAL ROLE
Three days later in the Gulf state of Qatar, Hezbollah and other Lebanese groups reached an agreement ending the political crisis that had paralysed Lebanon for months.
Hezbollah had defeated its rivals in Beirut in short order this month when Washington's allies in the Lebanese government tried to challenge some of the privileges it enjoyed as the force which helped drive Israel out of south Lebanon.
The new political arrangement in Lebanon, symbolised by the election of Michel Suleiman as president on Sunday, tilts the balance of power significantly in Hezbollah's favour and underscores its central role in Lebanese politics.
Bush maintained his confrontational attitude towards Iran and Syria, saying: "Every peaceful nation in the region has an interest in stopping these nations from supporting terrorism."
On the same day of the Lebanese agreement, Israel and Syria disclosed they had held indirect talks mediated by Turkey -- the closest they have come to serious negotiations since talks brokered by the United States collapsed in 2000.
The Bush administration walked away from high-level contacts with the Syrians after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in 2005. The United States says it suspects Syria of the killing, a charge Syria denies.
Bush's audience included Gulf Arab officials whose governments have maintained working relations with Iran, defying to some extent Washington's attempts to isolate Tehran.
Years of U.S. policy, including sanctions and a debate about the possibility of military strikes, have not persuaded Iran to abandon its ambitions to produce its own enriched uranium.
DIALOGUE WITH IRAN
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that in his talk about Iran's nuclear programme Bush had again failed to address the nuclear activities of Israel. It is widely believed to have some 200 nuclear warheads.
Mohamed ElBaradei, Egyptian head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the same conference in Sharm el-Sheikh that Washington was maintaining double standards on nuclear weapons, and dialogue with Iran was the right approach.
Bush argued that "terrorist organisations and their state sponsors" are the main opponents to democracy in the Arab world.
"(They) know they cannot survive in a free society, so they create chaos and take innocent lives in an effort to stop democracy from taking root," he said.
But civil society and human rights groups say that governments friendly towards the United States are some of the most determined obstacles to democracy, repressing peaceful Islamist groups which seek power through democratic elections.
In Egypt, for example, where Bush was speaking, the authorities prevented the non-violent Muslim Brotherhood from standing in local elections and some parliamentary elections over the past two years, ignoring occasional U.S. criticism.
Without naming names, the U.S. president did criticise his friends in the Arab world for holding political prisoners.
But five years after Bush launched his campaign for political change in the Middle East, Arab leaders have learned that the price for ignoring him on human rights is low.
"We've heard these speeches before," said an Egyptian official who asked not to be named.
In Cairo three years ago U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the time had come for the rule of law to replace emergency decrees. But this week the Egyptian parliament is expected to extend for another year a system of emergency law that has been in force for more than 26 years. (Writing by Jonathan Wright) ((jonathan.wright@thomsonreuters.com; +20 2 2578 3290/1; Reuters Messaging: jonathan.wright.reuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: BUSH MIDEAST/
BRUSSELS, May 26 (Reuters) - France said on Monday the latest proposals for a world trade liberalisation deal were neither balanced nor ambitious, but the EU's trade chief said he had overwhelming support to pursue the talks.
Anne-Marie Idrac, France's junior trade minister, told a news conference the compromise texts put forward by senior trade diplomats in the World Trade Organisation last week were "less ambitious and balanced than ever".
But Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said after briefing EU foreign ministers on the plans: "The overwhelming majority of member states are in favour of remaining engaged and taking forward the negotiation... The view expressed that the conditions do not exist for the round to be concluded successfully was a very small minority view." (Reporting by Ingrid Melander and William Schomberg, writing by Paul Taylor) ((ingrid.melander@reuters.com; +32 2 287 6832; Reuters Messaging: ingrid.melander.reuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: EU TRADE/
May 26 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2008
European Tour on Monday (British unless stated):
1. Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain) 1,342,676 euros
2. Oliver Wilson 1,042,132
3. Henrik Stenson (Sweden) 997,156
4. Trevor Immelman (South Africa) 992,958
5. Lee Westwood 909,593
6. Robert Karlsson (Sweden) 856,464
7. Vijay Singh (Fiji) 756,380
8. Richard Finch 746,662
9. Retief Goosen (South Africa) 662,477
10. Martin Kaymer (Germany) 625,607
11. Graeme McDowell 616,560
12. Damien McGrane (Ireland) 570,209
13. Felipe Aguilar (Chile) 523,328
14. Peter Lawrie (Ireland) 505,467
15. Adam Scott (Australia) 503,460
16. Hennie Otto (South Africa) 477,979
17. Jeev Milkha Singh (India) 475,708
18. Darren Clarke 460,882
19. Padraig Harrington (Ireland) 440,047
20. Ross Fisher 437,182
(Editing by Patrick Johnston)
((patrick.johnston@reuters.com; +44207 542 2604; Reuters
Messaging: patrick.johnston.reuters.com@reuters.net; For the
latest Reuters Premier League and international football news
see: http://football.uk.reuters.com/))
Please double click on the news links below:
[GOLF-LEN] for more golf stories
By Mabvuto Banda
LILONGWE, May 26 (Reuters) - Police in Malawi have begun interrogating former president Bakili Muluzi in connection with an alleged plot to topple the government, its home affairs minister said on Monday.
Muluzi, the opposition United Democratic Front's candidate in the 2009 presidential election, was arrested at the main airport in the capital Lilongwe on Sunday after returning from a trip to Britain.
"Muluzi is being interrogated by police as we speak. He has been put under house arrest. His house has been searched, but I can't disclose what we have found to the public," Home Affairs Minister Ernest Malenga told Reuters.
A defence lawyer confirmed the raid on the Malawian politician's home in Blantyre and said Muluzi was confined to the premises.
"They have searched the house and found nothing, and we are still waiting for them to charge formally," defence lawyer Fahad Assani said.
Five members of Muluzi's UDF and three army generals were arrested last week on suspicion of being part of a plot to oust President Bingu wa Mutharika and put Muluzi into power. They have been released on bail.
An arrest warrest was issued at the time for Muluzi.
The UDF said that at least 10 of its supporters had been arrested and several injured in Lilongwe for protesting against Muluzi's arrest. He had been scheduled to address a public rally there on Sunday.
Muluzi remains popular in the impoverished southern African nation for ending the rule of longtime strongman Hastings Kamuzu Banda in 1994 and paving the way for democracy. He held power until 2004 when he was replaced by wa Mutharika.
The two, however, have fallen out over the president's anti-corruption drive, which has targetted some UDF members, including Muluzi. Wa Mutharika quit the UDF to form the Democratic Progressive Party.
Muluzi was briefly investigated for corruption in 2006. (Editing by Paul Simao and Richard Balmforth)
((paul.simao@thomsonreuters.com; +27 11 775 3165; Reuters Messaging: paul.simao.reuters.com@reuters.net)) (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/)
Keywords: MALAWI POLITICS/MULUZI
Next: UPDATE 1-Egypt government seeks 2 more years of emergency law