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World calls on Kenya to end deadly riots

Diplomatic pressure mounted yesterday on Kenya's political leaders to stem the violence that has engulfed the country in the wake of disputed presidential elections, claiming nearly 260 lives.

A second consecutive night of tribal conflict and clashes between police and protestors left more than 70 dead, with no end in sight to the unrest that has plunged one of Africa's more stable democracies into an unprecedented and crippling crisis.

World leaders called on Kenya's rival leaders to open a dialogue, but Raila Odinga, the opposition candidate defeated in the Dec. 27 poll by incumbent President Mwai Kibaki, refused yesterday to negotiate until Kibaki owned up to vote-rigging allegations and stepped down.

"I have asked my people to be peaceful, to desist from acts of hooliganism or thuggery, but to continue to protest peacefully, which is what we call the act of civil disobedience until President Kibaki agrees to hand over power," Odinga said in an interview with the BBC.

His charges of fraud were lent extra weight by the EU team monitoring the elections, which issued a report yesterday saying the vote had "fallen short" of international standards and called for an independent audit into the results.

The polls were "marred by a lack of transparency in the processing and tallying of presidential results, which raises concerns about the accuracy of the final results," the report said.

Clashes were reported by police and witnesses overnight in most Nairobi slums as well as in several of Odinga's strongholds in western Kenya.

The city of Kisumu, northwest of Nairobi, appeared to be the worst affected, with a mortuary attendant saying that 48 bodies were brought in overnight.

Church torched

A mob torched a church outside the town of Eldoret yesterday, killing up to 30 people sheltering inside, witnesses said.

The reporter said about 200 people had been seeking refuge at the Kenya Assemblies of God Pentecostal church, about 8km from Eldoret in fertile Rift Valley Province.

He said the victims were mostly Kikuyus from Kibaki's ethnic group, who fled homes in the area in fear of their lives.

Another local journalist in Eldoret said up to 30 bodies lay in the church, and four were outside.
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