Former U.N. chief Kofi Annan has brought together Kenya's political rivals for crisis talks, against a backdrop of mounting violence and tension following the killing of an opposition lawmaker. Former U.N. chief Kofi Annan launched formal mediation efforts on Tuesday (January 29) to end the post-election crisis in Kenya, where the killing of an opposition legislator stoked bloody protests. About a dozen people were killed in the east African country on Tuesday, bringing the toll to more than 850 since President Mwai Kibaki's disputed Dec. 27 election triggered turmoil that has taken on an ethnic momentum of its own. In the western Kenya opposition stronghold of Kisumu, hundreds of pro-opposition demonstrators took to the streets to complain about the deaths of members of their Luo ethnic community in the towns of Nakuru and Naivasha. One man in Kisumu, witnesses said to be a Kikuyu like President Kibaki, was hacked to death and burnt. His body lay on the streets as opposition...