Bissau to swear in new leader

Guinea-Bissau's National Assembly speaker Raimundo Pereira would take the oath as interim head of state yesterday after the assassination of President Joao Bernardo Vieira, a parliamentary communique said.

Vieira was killed in his home on Monday in an apparent revenge attack for the death late on Sunday of a key rival, armed forces chief General Batista Tagme Na Wai, throwing the tiny and unstable West African state into confusion.

African envoys flew to the capital Bissau yesterday, to try to avert a possible coup or further unrest.