It is nearly two decades since the world gazed in silence as hundreds of thousands of civilians, men, women and children, were hacked to death in the frenzy known as the Rwanda Genocide. Bill Clinton now acknowledges that he failed to act when there was an opportunity to prevent the slaughter of the innocent. Scholars have written books, there are dozens of articles which prove the massacre could have been avoided. Fast forward to 2014. Fast forward to South Sudan, which was formed when the nation of Sudan was divided in order to accommodate the reality of a Muslim north and a Christian south. Thousands of innocent people had already died in the Darfur massacres, and the hope was by creating two separate nations it would end the Muslim-Christian conflict.
So, what happened? South Sudan is now torn between two rivalries. South Sudan President Salva Kiir is engaged in a conflict with his former ally and now rebel leader, Riek Machar, in a struggle as to which one would gain power. Thousands have died, at least 1.2 million people have fled to the security of UN refugee camps. South Sudan does possess oil, but war is making it difficult to get the oil to market. Navi Pillay, UN Commissioner for Human Rights, was clear about the reality, she is “appalled by the apparent lack of concern displayed by both leaders.” People are dying of famine, women are getting raped and at least 9,000 children are fighting as soldiers rather than fighting for higher grades in school. Another Rwanda??
A Haringey father will be running 100km in the Comrades Marathon in South Africa this summer.
Simon Heale will run across Africa and donate the money he raises to Haringey Shed.
He said: “I’ll be joining 18,000 other crazies to run the greatest ultra-marathon, the Comrades Marathon. It is a 56 mile run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban, South Africa.”
The race is the world’s oldest ultra marathon, and was founded in 1921 by Vic Clapham to celebrate the friendship of soldiers in the aftermath of the First World War.
Heale said: “The story behind the marathon is a real inspiration, as are the people of Haringey Shed, for whom I’m running the 56 miles.”
Haringey Shed work to teach local children drama, music and moment skills, and hold weekly workshops at the Irish Centre on Pretoria Road.
To most in the West, the title question of Roy Agyemang’s provocative documentary hardly needs to be asked. Accused of inept leadership and human-rights abuses, Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, who has ruled the country since its independence from Great Britain in 1980 and was sworn in for a new five-year term just last summer, is also known for being the first African leader to seize white-controlled farms and redistribute them to the local population. British-born of Ghanaian parents, Agyemang set out to gain a fresh perspective on Mugabe by exploring the reality behind the headlines. And what was supposed to be a three-month project became a three-year all-access journey with Mugabe and his inner circle that reveals a charismatic, complicated man ruling a country at the intersection of international economics and postcolonial fallout. This personal film also raises wider serious issues about the relationship between African leaders and the West in the fight for the continent’s minerals and land.
May 1 (Bloomberg) -- Rio Tinto Plc sued Vale SA and Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz and his BSG Resources Ltd., saying they conspired to steal rights to the world’s biggest untapped iron-ore deposit by bribing officials in Guinea.
Rio also accused Vale of passing confidential information it obtained during discussions the two companies had about Vale buying a stake in the Guinea property to Steinmetz and BSGR. Steinmetz, BSGR and Vale then used that information to advance their bid for the mining rights, Rio said in a complaint filed yesterday in federal court in New York.
“It’s up to the accuser to present the evidence, otherwise they would be acting in bad faith,” Vale Chief Executive Officer Murilo Ferreira told reporters during a conference call yesterday.
Rio, which said it spent 11 years and hundreds of millions of dollars developing mining operations in the Simandou region of southeast Guinea, lost half its interest in 2008, valued in the billions of dollars, when the Guinean government decided to give the stake to BSGR, according to the complaint. That decision followed a $200 million bribe to Mahmoud Thiam, the former mining minister, Rio claimed.
“While BSGR and Steinmetz pursued their illegal bribery campaign in Guinea, Vale’s role in the scheme was to continue to obtain Rio Tinto’s highly confidential and proprietary information under false pretenses, and pass that information on to Steinmetz and BSGR in order to facilitate their efforts to induce officials in the Guinean government to rescind Rio Tinto’s rights,” Rio said in the complaint.
Grand Jury
In January 2013, a grand jury in New York began investigating possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and criminal money-laundering in connection with the Simandou mining concession, according to U.S. prosecutors.
Vale was cleared of any wrongdoing in connection with the purchase of Simandou mining rights by the governments of Guinea, France, Switzerland and the U.S., Ferreira said. Guinean President Alpha Conde said he expects Vale to participate in a future bidding process for Simandou, Ferreira said, adding that the company still needs to learn about contractual terms for an eventual participation.
“Rio Tinto chose to do nothing with its mining rights so the mining rights were taken away,” Theo Crutcher, a spokesman for BSGR, said in an e-mail yesterday. “Baseless and bizarre lawsuits like this won’t change that fact.”
‘Borderline Comical’
Thiam, the former mining minister, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday that Rio’s claims are false and “borderline comical.” He said Rio poses as facts events that never took place and may be attempting to divert attention from its unwillingness to develop the property.
“Unfortunately, it’s Guinea’s economy that will continue to suffer at the hand of corporate bandits,” Thiam wrote.
James Margolin, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan, declined to comment on whether the government is investigating Rio’s allegations.
Steinmetz’s Geneva-based lawyer, Marc Bonnant, didn’t respond to phone calls seeking comment on the lawsuit.
The dispute over the Guinean mining rights pits two of the world’s biggest mining companies against one another. Rio and Vale, the No. 2 and No. 3 mining companies in the world respectively, have a combined market value of about $170 billion and control of more than half the world’s iron exports. BHP Billiton Ltd., based in Melbourne, is the world’s biggest mining company.
Diamond Trade
Steinmetz, who has a net worth of about $4.2 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, began amassing his fortune in the diamond trade, according to his personal website. He and BSGR partnered with Vale because the company had iron mining experience and resources to develop the mine, Rio claimed.
Vale began discussions in August 2008 to buy part of Rio’s Simandou rights, Rio said in the complaint filed yesterday. As part of the negotiations, Vale gained access to confidential information, including geological and technical data, mining and drilling methods, ore composition and plans to build a railroad through Guinea’s west African neighbor, Liberia, to bring the iron ore to port, Rio claimed.
Rio contended Vale broke a confidentiality agreement, secretly sharing the information with Steinmetz and BSGR. Vale continued discussions with Rio, feigning interest in doing a deal while extracting information, according to the suit.
Rio also claims Vale “knew or should have known” that BSGR was bribing Guinean officials to undermine Vale and take away its rights to mine in Simandou.
Fourth Wife
In addition to Thiam, the mining minister, BSGR paid bribes to Mamadie Toure, the fourth wife of former Guinean president General Lansana Conte according to Rio. Toure is named as a defendant in the Rio complaint.
Mary Mulligan of Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman LLP, a lawyer for Toure, declined to comment on the Rio allegations.
Guinea, located on Africa’s west coast, ranked 150 out of 177 in Transparency International’s 2013 corruption perceptions index.
In March, Frederic Cilins, a French citizen with ties to BSGR and Steinmetz, pleaded guilty to interfering with the U.S. grand jury probing the Simandou mining concession. Cilins was charged with trying to pay Toure, who’s cooperating with prosecutors, to lie to investigators and to turn over documents for Cilins to destroy. Cilins faces as much as five years in prison when he’s sentenced June 27.
Florida Arrest
Prosecutors claimed Cilins, who’s named as a defendant in the Rio suit, was acting on behalf of BSGR and Steinmetz when he was arrested April 14, 2013, at the airport in Jacksonville, Florida. Also named in the Rio suit are two men prosecutors linked to Cilins.
Rio is represented in the suit filed yesterday by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP. The law firm represented billionaire Leonard Blavatnik in his lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Rio claims the defendants violated U.S. civil racketeering law and committed fraud. It’s seeking unspecified damages, which may be tripled under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
The case is Rio Tinto PLC v. Vale SA, 14-cv-03042, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
--With assistance from Juan Pablo Spinetto in Rio de Janeiro and Andy Hoffman in Geneva.
*We made a mistake — Chike-Obi .AMCON shields culprit
BY JONAH NWOKPOKU
Nigeria stands the risk of losing $31 million, about N4.96 billion as Mr. Mustafa Chike-Obi, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON, yesterday, admitted that it was a mistake on the part of the corporation to have acquired a private jet as part of its debt recovery efforts.
He stated this while speaking at the Board of Directors Association of Nigeria, BDAN symposium on ‘The impact of AMCON on the Nigerian Economy’ in Lagos.
Indications emerged that AMCON might have difficulty in recovering the $31 million spent in the acquisition of the jet, as Chike-Obi disclosed that AMCON “ïs currently experiencing difficulties in selling off the jet.”
It was learnt that the corporation had been incurring storage costs on the plane in the last eight months in order to continue to keep it airworthy.
Chike-Obi said AMCON was offering to sell the jet for $28 million, but it has been gathered that prospective buyers are offering far below the amount.
It was learnt that there was little hope that prospective buyers would offer higher amount for the jet due to the falling prices of private jets globally.
Explaining how the private jet was acquired, he said, it was collected from a business executive through an asset transfer deal in settlement of his indebtedness.
According to him, AMCON had this customer, who was highly indebted. He came to them and said he had assets which he would willingly relinquish, but asked to be left with some of his assets amounting to just five per cent. That included his living house, a house in Abuja and others.
Chike-Obi said: “If we don’t do that, he will go to court and we knew it will cost us more than ten per cent if went to court, so we surrendered.
“But as we were negotiating with the gentleman, we found out that he had deposited $4 million, (N640 million) with an aeroplane company for a private jet. So we said, ‘no, you cannot be negotiating with us and be buying private jet.’
“We told him that we will take over that $4 million, and he said he will give us back the $4 million, but the aeroplane company will not give us the money unless we complete the purchase of the private jet.
“So we decided to complete the purchase and took delivery of the plane. But we have encountered difficulty in selling the plane.
Regret
“We did not anticipate such difficulty. Had we known that would happen, we would have let the $4 million go and that was a mistake on our part.
“Everybody makes mistakes. It was an honest mistake based on the fact that we did not want to allow the customer to settle with us and go ahead to buy aeroplane.”
He explained that AMCON put in additional $27 million to complete the purchase of the private jet as the total cost was $31 million (about N4.9 billion).
He, however, refused to name the customer that was involved even as he said that the corporation already had a buyer and they are close to disposing of the plane.
Speaking on the extent of the debt recovery so far, he said: “We are recovering about 112 per cent and we are getting more than we paid for the loans so far. That means that on the non performing loans side, we are making profit, but we have other things.
“We capitalised the banks with N2.3 trillion and that is not going to be wrapped together with the sinking fund.”
He also disclosed that Enterprise and Mainstreet banks will be sold this month.
“Enterprise will be sold first and then Mainstreet second,” he said.
He added that he hoped that both transactions would have been concluded by September this year.
He did not, however, disclose who the buyers would be, but said there are interested buyers, who cannot be named because regulatory approvals are needed from both Central Bank of Nigeria, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory bodies.
For over a decade, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue lived like a prince. He paid $30 million in cash for a lavish estate in Malibu, complete with a 15,000-square-foot mansion, a swimming pool, a tennis court, and grounds overlooking the Pacific Ocean. He bought his clothes from Gucci, Versace, and Dolce & Gabbana, and owned at least three dozen luxury cars, including seven Ferraris and four Rolls-Royces. But Teodoro Obiang—“Teodorin” to his friends—is not a prince. He is the son of Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the dictator of Equatorial Guinea, and they made their vast fortune through the corruption that surrounds the country’s greatest export: oil.
Mention of that corruption, or the oil industry’s seamy underbelly, conjures images of enormous, multinational corporations making shady deals with greedy dictators like Obiang’s father. Contracts are signed and fuel extracted with barely a thought for the environment, while the indigenous population suffers the consequences. Ken Silverstein knows this, which is why The Secret World of Oil (Verso, May 13), his fascinating, dismaying look behind the scenes of the global oil industry, devotes a hefty chapter to the Obiangs and the misery they have wrought in Equatorial Guinea.
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But Silverstein is interested, too, in a much wider story, one that encompasses lobbyists and traders, academics and flacks, politicians and hustlers. An investigative journalist and one-time Washington editor of Harper’s, Silverstein travels across three continents and fills his book with facts, analysis, and eloquent indignation about a world most consumers don’t realize exists. He presents a series of profiles, with each chapter revolving around a prominent figure or group and their sometimes-discomfiting role in keeping America’s gas pumps full. Together, they show that the oil industry operates in moral shades of gray.
One chapter centers on Ely Calil, an oil industry fixer. Born in Nigeria to Lebanese parents and now based in the United Kingdom, Calil is one of the wealthiest men in Britain. He is also one of a few dozen middlemen who quietly broker the deals and financial transactions the industry depends on to function. Calil traded oil from Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, channelled money to African dictators to win concessions for oil companies, and advised politicians and political exiles. Over the decades, he has assembled a formidable network of contacts and allegiances that stretches across three continents. “It’s sort of like The Godfather,” a former senior CIA official tells Silverstein. “One day he’ll come to ask for a favor, and you’ll have to comply.”
Calil prefers to keep out of the spotlight and little was known about him until 2004, when a group of about sixty European and South African mercenaries were arrested buying weapons in Zimbabwe. The men were reportedly en route to Equatorial Guinea under orders from Calil; the Obiang regime alleged that Calil had backed a plot to install Obiang’s exiled rival, Severo Moto. The charges weren’t proven, and Calil still denies them. But the ensuing scandal brought him a wealth of unwanted media attention, which makes it all the more impressive that Silverstein persuaded him to submit to a profile.
It helps that the two men are friends. Silverstein doesn’t hide his relationship with Calil, explaining that he has visited the fixer’s home in London several times and appreciates his sincerity. Calil doesn’t hide behind false altruism, Silverstein writes; he is clear that he’s in the oil business because oil made him rich. Their friendship breeds great access, which is a boon for Silverstein’s readers, even if the ethics of his reporting might make journalists wince. Calil ushers Silverstein into a power dinner with another longtime fixer, letting the journalist be a fly on the wall as he deals with a pushy hedge funder anxious to unload two oil refineries. Calil suggested placing one of the refineries in Lebanon. The fund would need political clout, but fortunately Calil knows the Lebanese energy minister, as well as officials in Syria and Iraq. Connections and deals like these have made his fortune.
Musanze, Rwanda -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/01/2014 -- Umubano is a local tour operator based in Rwanda that focuses in Tailor Made Safaris to several countries in Eastern Africa which are Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Uganda.
What makes Umubano Tours outstanding is the emphasis placed on every client’s individual requirements, interests, timescale, and budget. Umubano Tours focuses on giving visitors an exceptional chance to appreciate the beauty and diversity of wild Africa surrounded in amazing luxury and style.
Umubano is a Rwandese name that means “cooperation,” whereby instead of working in competition for selfish gain, Umubano Tours brings groups together in order to work toward mutual benefit. Umubano Tours is owned by two brothers with a smaller share owned by other local members. The company can also be referred to as an intercultural expedition business as it has employed a team proficient tour guides and local guides in Rwanda, Uganda, DR Congo and Burundi.
Umubano Tours has engaged in Eco-Tourism and Community Development which it has openly participated in while active in the field of tourism and conservation. The company is exceptionally placed to offer its customers the opportunity to experience the Great Lakes Region Magic in a remarkable manner and to help them witness the difference in conservation and the livelihoods of the local people.
Apart from outstanding tour services, Umubano has been involved in a range of community activities around Gisenyi, Musanze and its surroundings. These activities have improved the living of the community and also have brought amusement and happiness within the community people. Some of these activities include:
Beekeeping
Honey has been an important product in these communities as it has been used for a long time to cure a number of diseases and is used by the local witch doctors. There are number of bee keeping associations that produce beehives that are placed in swamps or forest areas that are rich in certain types of plants. The honey is still sold to the local people and the benefits are shared with the association people. This has created employment as well as a source of traditional medicine.
Traditional Beer Production
A traditional Rwandese brew commonly consumed across the country is Banana Beer. It is a six-day procedure from putting the bananas into the ground until they can be relished in the form of a pleasant glass of beer. Thousands of litres of this famous local specialty are produced everyday by hundreds of families across this country. Visitors get the chance to participate in the brewing process of a women’s association as they get to taste the sweet beer and purchase quality by-products such a mats and pumpkin carafes.
Family Home Stays
Most tourists are also interested in knowing more about the local people, the culture, and the lifestyle. There is no other better way of getting to know all these without having to get closer and interacting with the local people and also taking part in their day to day chores. Visitors can stay at a local hotel but Umubano Tours believes it is truly better to visit as a home stay guest for a few days with one of the many welcoming families within the community. This option is for the more adventurous and open-minded, as it is a valued experience highlighting how minor discomforts are far out-weighed by the benefits of unique and amazing experiences such as this.
Other community activities that we are involved include town, village and local market tours, traditional healing and medicine garden, a day trip to Lake Kivu, Musave Cave Exploration and a visit to Iby’iwacu Cultural Village. Each of these activities give Umubano Tour guests an unforgettable experience in beautiful Rwanda.
Alonzo King, the celebrated contemporary ballet company, is guided by its uniquely global artistic vision. Drawing on a diverse set of deeply rooted cultural traditions, the company's works imbue classical ballet with new expressive potential. Alonzo King's visionary choreography is renowned for its ability to connect audiences to a profound sense of shared humanity-of vulnerability and tenderness, but also of furious abandon and exhilarating freedom. The program includes Concerto for Two Violiins, Writing Ground, and Rasa, set to an original score created and performed live by tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain. Scroll down for some photos of the ballet!
Rasa is a deeply evocative and shimmering piece set to an original score created and performed live by tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain. Zakir Hussain's mastery of classical Indian percussion and unique vision of world music have brought him worldwide renown, including a Grammy nomination, and his collaborations with Alonzo King renew classical forms in an entirely innovative way. Tabla music began as dancing music, in Northern Indian courts in the early 1700s, and its hypnotic intensity and complex rhythms convey the strong feeling that they are meant to move the body. Rasa is thus both a continuation of a deep tradition-the interdependence of dance and tabla music as art forms-and an expression of the contemporary global vision of both artists.
Concerto for Two Violins surrenders to the rhythms of Bach, utilizing music first immortalized by Balanchine last century. From its opening, the 16-minute ballet unfurls with energetic passages of uniform formations and exploding solos, the exacting movements defining King's brand of "muscular classicalism." Concerto for Two Violins delivers emotionality equal to the rich, textured voice of the accompanying strings.
Commissioned in 2010 by Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, King's masterful Writing Ground draws inspiration from poems by award-winning author Colum McCann. An emotionally searing and lyrical work set to a collection of sacred early music from the Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Tibetan Buddhist traditions, Writing Ground challenges the Company to explore new physical territory.
Alonzo King LINES Ballet is a celebrated contemporary ballet company that has been guided since 1982 by the unique artistic vision of Alonzo King. Collaborating with noted composers, musicians, and visual artists from around the world, Alonzo King creates works that draw on a diverse set of deeply rooted cultural traditions, imbuing classical ballet with new expressive potential. Alonzo King understands ballet as a science - founded on universal, geometric principles of energy and evolution - and continues to develop a new language of movement from its classical forms and techniques. Alonzo King's visionary choreography, brought to life by the extraordinary LINES Ballet dancers, is renowned for connecting audiences to a profound sense of shared humanity.
While the Company's spring and fall home seasons bring new works of illuminating beauty to Bay Area audiences, LINES Ballet's global tours allow us to share our vision of transformative, revelatory dance worldwide. LINES Ballet has been featured at venues such as the Venice Biennale, Monaco Dance Forum, Maison de la Dance, the Edinburgh Festival, Montpellier Danse, the Wolfsburg Festival, and the Holland Dance Festival. This past spring, the first full-length film of the Company's performances was released in Europe, inaugurating Alonzo King LINES Ballet's 30th Anniversary season.
Alonzo King has been called a visionary choreographer, who is altering the way we look at ballet. King calls his works 'thought structures' created by the manipulation of energies that exist in matter through laws, which govern the shapes and movement directions of everything that exists.
King has works in the repertories of the Swedish Royal Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet, Ballet Bejart, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Joffrey Ballet, Alvin Ailey, Hong Kong Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theatre, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. He has worked extensively in opera, television, and film. Known for collaborations, seminal works include People of the Forest (2001), choreographed with Baka artists from Central African Republic and Long River High Sky (2007), with China's Shaolin Monks. He has collaborated with actor Danny Glover, legendary jazz saxophonist Pharaoh Sanders, Hamza al Din, Pawel Szymanski, Jason Moran, and tabla master Zakir Hussain. Renowned for his skill as a teacher, Mr. King has been guest ballet master for dance companies around the globe. In 2012 King was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Corps de Ballet International Teacher Conference.
King is the director of the international touring Company, Alonzo King LINES Ballet housed in San Francisco with the Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA at Dominican University of California, Training Program, Summer Program, and Dance Center.
BRADENTON, Fla., Updated Jan. 29, 2011-- Americans don't ask their country to get involved in the internal political struggles of the nations it interacts with, and the general rule is that we don't.
But prior to the last decade, we were surely too involved in such struggles. I recall a Bolivian official telling me in 1970 how a CIA officer gave $25,000 to a candidate of the early 1960s to throw the presidential election there. The official spilling those beans was a head of the nation's state police, and was forced into exile himself.
In 2001, credible evidence emerged that the CIA dropped $10 million from 1990 onward on Peruvian spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos, along with high-tech surveillance gear, to spy on political rivals of President Alberto Fujimori. They're both in jail now after their secret videos showed dozens of politicians taking bribes.
By virtue of U.S. financial support for Tunisia's leader, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was able to ensure that government contracts and a lot of employment in the country was controlled by his family and friends, while he stood accused of ignoring falling wages and growing poverty among the great majority of Tunisians. So far, to protestors, Ben Ali's replacement looks too much like his predecessor. His regime's secret files have not yet come to light. He is in exile.
So, as Capital One ads ask, after 30 years of unbending rule, what is in Hosni Mubarak's pocket?
I'll get to that later, but I really hope the CIA has not made their historic mistakes again. It's always nasty business when the intelligence gathered by dictators gets revealed on CNN.
For now, forces I will not deign to characterize are threatening Mubarak, the leader of Egypt who is a key ally in our effort to prevent a genocidal war against Israel. Already, those forces have overthrown the dictatorial leader of Tunisia, a country on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa; there's also a rebellion in Yemen, where an autocracy with little regard for the common man remains in power but under constant challenge; and there's yet another, milder one in Jordan. In the first week of January, there was also widespread unrest in Algeria over food and oil prices, but for now, amid plans to reshuffle membership in President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's cabinet, Algeria is calm.
The United States is warily awaiting a definitive outcome of these various events. While being publicly sympathetic to calls for economic and political reform, it is carefully distancing itself from future Fujimoris. Last Thursday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs openly waffled when asked if the U.S. still stands behind Mubarak; just a month ago, his answer would have been a firm and unequivocal "Yes."
So when President Obama took to the airwaves Friday evening, it wasn't to praise Mubarak's leadership; instead, Obama told him to keep his promises to Egypt's people, and called on him to refrain from violence against protestors - about 70 have died - and restore Internet and cell phone service. In the same hour, both NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams and anchor Shepard Smith on FoxNews went out of their way (in identical phrases, each unattributed) to call Egypt "the greatest ally of the United States in the Middle East." That phrase should pertain to Israel alone, but was aimed now at reassuring Mubarak. These deliberately mixed and inchoate signals obscure the real truth: Israel is our one true ally in the Middle East, and Mubarak is just a special case, a faithful friend but a creature of necessity. Smith said tonight that Israel is "standing by" the current Egyptian government, a predictable and practical stance.
I don't want to characterize the protestors across the Middle East as "reformers" because I really don't know what their truest, deepest motives are. So far, media coverage of the uprisings suggests they are not motivated by hatred of the U.S. - something much espoused by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt - except that the protestors don't seem to be too fond of us, either.
That's because of our practical-minded support for their corrupt, authoritarian and reform-resistant leaders. For that reason, I would never discount the ability of Islamic extremists to co-opt a revolution anywhere in the Middle East, so my usual sympathies for the forces of freedom and reform are tempered by that very great possibility - presuming it is not already fact.
While it hasn't yet clarified itself to such a degree, the new revolt looks a lot like the Middle Eastern equivalent of the breakup of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and is moving at the same speed or faster - it's underway in five countries.
Notably, it also dovetails well with Osama bin Laden's plans for a region-wide Fifth Caliphate, yet he seems absent here - perhaps because he is under so much pressure from surveillance drones he can't stick his head out of a foxhole without getting it blown off. Unlike the historic revolt of the USSR's member states in the early 1990s, though, it remains very much unclear where genuine democracy may find a home in its aftermath.
In Egypt, at least, one key opposition leader is former United Nations nuclear arms inspector Mohammed ElBaradei, an intelligent, progressive and even heroic man whom Western leaders and Israel will likely welcome if he comes to power. As in the former USSR, though, democracy can prove elusive for those who seek it, and uncontrollable even for those who actually hold its reins. In the Middle East, democracy's future is even harder to predict than it was in Russia.
If ElBaradei becomes the next president of Egypt, is he the strongman who can hold onto the office? We knew for sure where Boris Yeltsin stood in 1991 - atop a tank in Red Square - so we were quick to cast our lot with him. We won't move so quickly now.
On Friday, Egypt's Mubarak called in the Egyptian Army to fight his own people. That was after scenes of his riot police sharing water bottles with protestors in Alexandria escaped the wet blanket of his communications crackdown and bloomed on the Internet. Now the army seems to also have embraced the revolt. As the world watched Saturday, protestors climbed on Army tanks and shared kisses anf flowers with Mubarak's last line of defense.
Naming his brutal chief spy as Egypt's first vice-president in 30 years also seems unwise. Peru's Fujimori also appointed his chief spy, the aforementioned Montesinos, as his chief advisor, only to have Montesino's 100-odd videos of Peruvian politicians taking bribes quickly force both to leave the country; Montesino's now in jail, where Fujimori's joined him.
As in Russia, and in the Marcos-era Philippines, and in Peru, huge demonstrations may force events in Cairo move very, very quickly for Mubarak and his new Vice-President. On Saturday, NBC News reported, the number of protestors in Cairo topped 100,000. Those numbers will get anyone's attention. When they all decide to knock on your door, you'd better have a helicopter "standing by" on the roof.
But for now, amid rumors his sons have fled to London, Mubarak shows no sign of stepping down. Yet he is viewed by Egyptians in the same way Tunisians viewed Ben Ali. Mubarak has manipulated elections, been implicated in the death of protestors and favored his family in political and economic dealings. He let most Egyptians suffer a grinding and indelicate poverty - despite a booming corporate economy that yet pays workers an average of just $4 a day.
Should the Egyptian Army rebel against him - as they did against Anwar Sadat, whose his own army officers shot him down on a reviewing stand - it will be the end of an important American ally and respecter of Israel. Mr. Sadat signed a historic peace accord with Israel's Menachem Begin in 1978 that transformed the Middle East's alliances, led to rapprochement with other Mideast nations, and still endures today. Some say that treaty would be the first to go if the new President is a product of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, which remains powerful in Egypt.
And other outposts of the new revolt? In Yemen, according to WikiLeaks cables released about a month ago, the U.S. has had to conceal a somewhat secret war against Al-Qaeda and its sympathizers and allies, where protestors are challenging the unpopular government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in office for 32 years - longer than Mubarak.
Saleh is another key ally as American anti-terrorism efforts focus on the group known as "al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula," whose membership spawned the Christmas Day bomber of 2009. On Thursday, four different, mostly peaceful demonstrations aimed at Saleh took place in Sana, the capital, as protestors reacted to Saleh's plan to effectively appoint himself president for life - sort of like Hugo Chavez did last month.
But why is the world's leading proponent of democracy so often allied with despotic rulers in the Middle East? It is partly due to the great warp that our affinity and friendship with Israel has introduced into our foreign policy. To the extent that we are fighting terrorism and insurgency across the Middle East it is because of our unshakeable ties to Israel and profound support for its continued existence.
Whenever a Middle East government becomes threatening or inimical to Israel, we ally ourselves with leaders who support Israel's right to exist - either overtly, as Egypt does, or in unspoken fashion, as the leaders of Tunisia and Yemen did. The reward is inevitably U.S. aid, in the form of cash and military gear, that help those leaders withstand the vicissitudes of democratic elections and continue to suppress reform, as well as fight terrorism on their own soil.
None of this is news to anyone. What is news is that protestors, whether reformers or extremist-inspired puppets, can overthrow unpopular governments even in the Middle East that are usually seen as impregnable. Judging by the widespread, angry wage-and-price protests in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, another important U.S. ally, they may even be able to undo popular governments - even if that's unlikely to happen in Jordan - in the name of economic hardships and reform.
What meaning and impact can all this have for Israel? Will new governments, whose aid from America depends on rejecting anti-Israeli movements, toe the line their predecessors did? And if they do, will the cycle of suppression and corruption begin all over again? Or will they revert to hatred to cloak their own shortcomings, making Israel a scapegoat for their economic problems? Or even seek a fresh path to peace?
Let's hope we don't have to find out the hard way. So far, there's little sign that Israel is a target of wrath or playing any role in this entire situation. In itself, that is a good sign of growing health in the Middle Eastern culture that has too long supported anti-Israeli sentiment. Yet it's time for Israel to act.
The best thing Israel can do in this new USSR-like context of revolutionary change is to take a far more serious approach to resolving its internal and external relationship with the nascent State of Palestine, which has already been recognized by Brazil and several other countries.
Reportedly, for instance, the Palestinians recently told Israel that they would cede East Jerusalem and the right of return in exchange for recognition of Palestinian autonomy and sovereignty. Israel apparently was unmoved by this sea change in the Palestinian stance. That intransigence needs to be altered, and quickly, before the new revolt surrounds Israel with strangers, and its lack of progress toward peace can be used as powerful diplomatic leverage against Israel's best interests.
Before we and Israel lose a few more allies where we need them most, Israel should move to accept negotiated solutions with the Palestinians on the right of return and status of East Jerusalem, and dramatically restrain the extreme right-wing Hasidic elements who want to build settlements on the West Bank.
What has also been surprising in these new revolts is how deep and fervent anti-corruption sentiments can be in people who have always been seen as perfectly willing to accept any form of suppression in the name of their devotion to Allah. In Iran, harsh economic realities have long been obscured by the religious posturing of fundamentalist politicians, but elsewhere the economic suffering due to the global recession and repressive governments has become painfully obvious to ordinary people. Many giant corporations in Egypt are doing extremely well, we are told, while many ordinary people have almost nothing, and no jobs.
Even in the United States, corporate profits and reserves are at an all-time high and growing. Yet, as millions of Americans, short of cash, lose their homes or declare bankruptcy, the big firms have stopped hiring. They have abandoned American workers to pay low wages elsewhere - in Egypt, perhaps, in Tunisia, Jordan and Yemen, or Mexico and China. In that condition, revolution - political or violent - is always a possibility, as the Democrats here just learned.
In the Mideast, too, at the moment, Allah is apparently fading from the picture and being replaced by yearning for the Almighty Dollar - or its equivalent - and the promise it brings of real economic equality, a free media and the fashions and lifestyles of the West. For many Egyptians, Tunisians, Yemenis, Jordanians and Algerians, those appear to be so much more fun than compulsory religious obedience, ankle-length burqas and the anonymity of the veil.
Let us hope, then, that economics is the true motive, even if the bright allures of the West are often more false to those who embrace them than the leaders they now hate. (This article was updated at 11:00 p.m. on Jan. 29, 2011.)
Write Joe Shea at editor@american-reporter.com.
A Note: Under the auspices of the U.S. Dept. of State, the U.S. Information Agency and the International Visitors Council of Los Angeles, more than 140 journalists - Including from Al Ahram - from 50 nations have visited the offices of The American Reporter to discuss AR's work on the Internet and foreign relations with Editor-in-Chief Joe Shea. Correspondent Ron Kenner hosted three of those.
Copyright 2014 Joe Shea The American Reporter. All Rights Reserved.
Premier Li Keqiang will sign some 60 agreements during his week-long tour to Africa, according to officials. Photo: Reuters
Premier Li Keqiang will announce more aid to Africa during his four-nation tour to the continent starting next Monday, as China shifts its bilateral focus from energy and trade deals to boosting the African people's livelihood, senior officials say.
The move comes amid criticisms that Beijing’s growing economic interests in the region could be harmful to local economies and could exacerbate the foreign exploitation of resources.
More than 60 agreements will be signed with Ethiopia, Nigeria, Angola and Kenya during Li’s week-long visit – his first tour to Africa since rising to the post in March last year – according to officials from the Chinese Foreign Ministry and Commerce Ministry.
Li will deliver a keynote speech on Sino-African ties in the African Union, whose Ethiopian headquarters was funded by China, and the World Economic Forum on Africa, a regional meeting of the Davos fixture, in Nigeria.
The four countries he will visit are among Africa’s top 15 largest economies. Angola is China's biggest source of crude oil, while Kenya is home to various UN agency headquarters, a foreign ministry official explained.
China’s presence in Africa has grown in recent years, funnelling billions of dollars into mining, infrastructure and foreign aid funding. Last year, President Xi Jinping pledged US$20 billion in loans between last year-15.
In 2012, China made a grand gesture by funding the US$200 million Addis Ababa headquarters of the African Union, the 54-nation political association seen as Africa’s equivalent of the European Union.
But China’s African strategy has been marred by controversy, with critics accusing Beijing of only being interested in exploiting Africa’s vast mineral and energy resources at the expense of the local community.
Wary observers in Africa have charged China is a “neo-colonialist”, and that the influx of Chinese companies, brining their own workers, has deprived Africans of jobs.
But deputy minister of commerce Zhang Xiangchen said yesterday that China would focus more on the general livelihood of the African public – in addition to its interests in oil and natural resources.
“We are paying more attention to livelihood issues,” Zhang told a press briefing on Li’s trip. “This is what the African nations need. They believe that economic and livelihood development are equally important. They can boost the economy with enterprises and business activities, but they need government input to boost living standards.
“Over the past years, China focused on building landmark architecture. We will still be doing so in the future, but we will also keep a closer look at issues relating to the public,” he said.
Agreements to build schools and medical facilities will be signed during Li’s trip, Zhang added, but refused to disclose how much aid China would be offering.
Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Ming said at the same briefing that the premier’s visit would inject “new vitality” into Sino-Africa relations, and create positive momentum for the second-largest and second most populous continent in the world at 1.1 billion people.
China has been Africa’s largest trade partner for five consecutive years and a major source of new investment. China’s direct investment stock to Africa reached US$25 billion by the end of last year, Zhang said.
LUXOR, Egypt (AP) — Egypt on Wednesday inaugurated an exact replica of the tomb of King Tutankhamun in the desert valley where many of its ancient pharaohs were buried, aiming to protect the 3,300-year-old original from deterioration caused by visiting tourists.
The facsimile, in an underground chamber not far from the original in the Valley of the Kings, recreates the tomb down to minute detail. Spanish and Swiss experts recreated the elaborate wall murals using a 3D scanning technology. In the middle of the burial chamber stands a rectangular rock setting where in the original King Tut's sarcophagus and mummy once rested.
In a hall between the burial chamber and an antechamber hang photos and explanations of the discovery of the tomb and its treasures in 1922 by British archaeologist Howard Carter.
Egyptian tourism officials, who unveiled the replica Wednesday alongside foreign dignitaries, are hoping the exhibit will help revive a tourism industry that has been heavily battered by the country's unrest since the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
A pillar of the Egyptian economy, tourism plunged by more than 30 percent in 2011 and, after slowly building back the following year, was heavily hit again by a wave of violence surrounding the military's ouster last summer of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Tourism officials have said revenues in the first three months of this year fell 43 percent from the same period in 2013, down to around $1.3 billion.
The 18th Dynasty King Tut has long been a major draw of tourists to Egypt — both his tomb in the Valley of the Kings on the western bank of the Nile opposite the southern city of Luxor, and the golden treasures uncovered in it, most of which are now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
But the tomb has suffered from the crowds of tourists descending into it over the years. Tourists' breath damages the ancient stone and murals, and its walls expand and contract with changing temperatures, causing paint to flake off and opening fractures that dust enters, experts say.
"These tombs were never built to be visited, they were built to last for eternity," said Adam Lowe, of the Factum Foundation, a Madrid-based conservation organization that created the facsimile in collaboration with Zurich-based Society of the Friends of the Royal Tombs in Egypt and the Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities ministries.
"They lasted very successfully for 3,300 and in the 90 years since it has been open, it suffered a great deal," Lowe told The Associated Press. "All of the attempts to try and conserve it create more problems."
For the time being, the original Tut tomb will remain open, but tourism authorities are aiming to reduce visitors and steer them toward the replica, said Mohammed Osman, vice president of the Chamber of Tourist Companies. Ticket prices for the replica will be 50 Egyptian pounds, around $7, half the price for visiting the original, he said.
Egyptian Antiquities Minister Mohammed Ibrahim and Lowe said facsimiles will also be made of the tombs of the pharaoh Seti I and Nefertari, a wife of the pharaoh Ramses the Great, both currently closed to the general public.
Experts carried out the copying work on the original in 2009 and the building of the replica in Madrid was finished in 2011, but delivery was delayed several times by Egypt's tumultuous political conditions, Lowe said.
"We are here to celebrate but also to send a message that this area is a wonderful place to visit, and now with this tomb in place, it becomes an even more interesting place to visit for tourists," James Moran, ambassador of the European Union, said at the opening ceremony. The EU helped in transport of the replica to Egypt.
Osman said he hoped the ceremony — which was attended by 20 ambassadors — will send "a reassuring message that Egypt is safe" and encourage a return of tourists.
Secretary of State John Kerry speaks to members of the media at the State Department in Washington, Tuesday, April 29, 2014, during his meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy. Photo: AP
Secretary of State John Kerry speaks to members of the media at the...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry is bringing his two main tools of diplomacy — peace talks and threatened sanctions — to Africa this week to help find a way to end months of killing that is threatening to rip apart the world's newest nation, South Sudan.
It's not yet clear whether the U.S. will impose the sanctions while Kerry is in South Sudan — which, he said recently, he planned to visit during a week of stops that also include Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola. U.S. officials are still trying to persuade three of South Sudan's immediate neighbors to issue similar penalties against people on both sides of the brutal fighting.
A senior State Department official traveling with Kerry said the U.S. was still compiling its own list of individuals whose assets could be frozen and who could be banned from travel to the U.S. The official was not authorized to be identified by name while briefing reporters and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Kerry arrives in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on Wednesday. While there, he will meet with African Union leaders to discuss a range of security issues confronting the sub-Saharan region, including South Sudan. The U.S. wants the AU to deploy peacekeeping forces to South Sudan, but that was still being negotiated, the State Department official said.
South Sudan has been rocked by violence since December, when President Salva Kiir accused former Vice President Riek Machar of staging a coup. The violence is taking on an increasingly ethnic dimension between Kiir's Dinka community and Machar's Nuer community.
The State Department has not provided additional details of Kerry's visit to South Sudan and usually does not disclose travels to high-threat conflict zones ahead of time for security reasons.
The trip gives Kerry a chance to help shepherd peace in a new area of the world after his nine-month quest to end decades-long tensions between Israel and Palestinian authorities fell flat. Kerry had hoped to at least put the Mideast on a path to peace, but an April 29 deadline to keep talks going passed this week with both sides as far apart as ever.
U.S. sanctions have had slightly better, if mixed, success when deployed in recent days. Kerry and the rest of the Obama administration have imposed several rounds of economic sanctions and travel bans against dozens of Russian and former Ukrainian officials and businesses to punish Moscow, in the White House's view, for inciting unrest against the new pro-Western government in Kiev. U.S. officials have described the sanctions as pinching Russia, but so far they have not deterred President Vladimir Putin, who has amassed 40,000 troops on his border with Ukraine in what many fear is the first step to an invasion.
It's unclear how effective U.S. sanctions would be in South Sudan without similar penalties imposed by Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya.
Describing the fighting as an extension of a personal battle between Kiir and Machar, the State Department official said the U.S. was well aware of the potential of tensions when the country broke off from Sudan after a 2011 referendum. But, the official said, few expected any fighting to happen so quickly or be so brutal.
The U.N. Security Council last week expressed "horror" at the recent massacre of several hundred civilians in the city of Bentiu by rebel fighters. It said council members may be willing to impose sanctions if attacks on civilians continue.
In a statement Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called Kiir and demanded assurances that militants who attacked the U.N. compound in the southern city of Bor and others behind the killings in Bentiu would be apprehended. He also "called for an immediate halt to the vicious fighting and the appalling killing of South Sudanese civilians" and denounced the attack in Bor as "completely unacceptable."
Kerry was expected to return to Washington on May 5.
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CNNDonetsk, Ukraine (CNN) — The world sees Ukraine in turmoil, a country divided between Russian speakers and Ukrainian nationalists, its towns and cities roiled by occupations, its highways dotted...
NAIROBI, Kenya -- The rainy season is about to start in South Sudan, but war in the world's newest country has forced more than 1 million people to flee their homes, leaving few people to plant or harvest crops. The U.N.'s top official for human rights said Wednesday she is appalled by the apparent lack of concern by the country's two warring leaders that a catastrophic famine looms.
"The prospect of widespread hunger and malnutrition being inflicted on hundreds of thousands of their people, because of their personal failure to resolve their differences peacefully, did not appear to concern them very much," said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navy Pillay, referring to the president and the former vice president.
Pillay told a news conference in South Sudan's capital Wednesday that the country is on the verge of catastrophe because it has been in the grip of a deadly mix of recrimination, hate speech and revenge killings since December. That's when South Sudan descended into mass violence after a split between President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, the leaders of two ethnic groups now carrying out mass killings against one another.
"If famine does take hold later in the year — and the humanitarian agencies are deeply fearful that it will — responsibility for it will lie squarely with the country's leaders who agreed to a cessation of hostilities in January and then failed to observe it themselves, while placing all the blame on each other," Pillay said.
Like the use of the word genocide, the use of the word famine is often seen as a measure of last resort by government and aid officials. J. Peter Pham, the director of the Africa Center at the Washington-based Atlantic Council, said while there is no doubt that hundreds of thousands — "if not millions" — of South Sudanese will face grave food needs this year, he is also concerned that "sensationalist language aimed at grabbing headlines" could lead to desensitization.
Still, it's clear that world leaders have decided that South Sudan's situation is grave enough to warn of famine.
"Without immediate action, up to a million people could face famine in a matter of months," U.N. Secretary-General Ban-ki Moon said in April.
The World Food Program says it is facing a $224 million shortfall over the next six months of an emergency request it made to feed 1.1 million people.
Toby Lanzer, the U.N.'s top aid official in South Sudan, says the conflict has put 7 million people at risk of hunger.
"April and May are the time to plant. April is behind us. Only May is left to enable people to prepare their fields and try to ensure that they have a harvest at the end of 2014," he said.
Civilians flee from renewed attacks in Bentiu, Unity state of South Sudan April 20, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Emre Rende
JUBA (Reuters) - A personal power struggle between South Sudan's leaders is driving Africa's newest nation to "catastrophe", the U.N. rights chief said on Wednesday.
The visit by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay was prompted by a rebel attack on the South Sudanese oil hub of Bentiu this month that left hundreds dead and a revenge assault by rivals on people sheltering in a U.N. base.
The U.N. Security Council has called for an investigation into the killings and is considering sanctions against both sides, one led by President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and the other commanded by his sacked deputy, Riek Machar, a Nuer.
"The country's leaders, instead of seizing their chance to steer their impoverished and war-battered young nation to stability and greater prosperity, have instead embarked on a personal power struggle that has brought their people to the verge of catastrophe," Pillay told a news conference in Juba.
The United Nations has accused rebels loyal to Machar of hunting down and butchering civilians in Bentiu, a strategic prize at the heart of one of South Sudan's main oil producing areas. Rebels deny the charge.
Pillay said she had also been sent to investigate the killings days later in Bor, another flashpoint town during the more than four months of fighting, where residents in the predominantly Dinka area attacked a U.N. base where Nuers were sheltering. Dozens were killed.
Pillay, who met Kiir in Juba and Machar at his base in the bush in Upper Nile state during her visit, said the two attacks "have starkly underlined how close South Sudan is to calamity".
Many thousands have been killed in similar assaults, mostly involving rivals from the Dinka or Nuer killing their opponents. There has been little respite in the killings since fighting first erupted in mid-December, despite a January ceasefire.
A group of African and Western mediators met Machar last week to call for a face-to-face meeting with Kiir to halt the bloodshed and to demand a change of attitude to peace talks that have made no tangible change to fighting on the ground.
The mediators also warned Machar that both sides would be held to account for any rights abuses. Rights groups have said both parties may have carried out "war crimes", which could lead to prosecutions.
A new round of peace talks began in Addis Ababa on Monday.
(Writing and additional reporting by Edmund Blair in Nairobi; Editing by Louise Ireland)
Bombo Lin, president of Gabonese telecoms regulator ARCEP has announced the upcoming launch of a campaign against low-priced counterfeit mobile phones in the country, reports Agence Ecofin. According to ARCEP, many mobile devices used in Gabon are not manufactured according to official specifications or international standards, and are ‘a danger to the health of consumers’. The counterfeit devices are sold in Gabon at prices equivalent to around USD20-USD31. Lin said that the campaign will be launched ‘by surprise’ targeting key markets and commercial spaces in the capital Libreville, before expanding to other cities, with any counterfeit devices discovered to be destroyed. The ARCEP head added that, via agreements with Gabon’s mobile operators, there are ongoing initiatives for ‘considerable’ reductions in the price of legitimate equipment to make mobile communications more affordable and reduce demand for grey market products.
In 2007 Kenya held an election, at which time President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner, and thus maintained his position as president. Many believed this election to have been rigged and numerous sources came forward announcing the numbers were inflated in President Kibaki's favor, reported the New York Times in their December 31, 2007 article, "Disputed Vote Plunges Kenya Into Bloodshed."
Author Florence Akumu Juma covers this tumultuous event in her new book, "Resuscitating Kenya: United Nations to the Rescue" (published by Trafford Publishing).
Juma, a Kenyan whose family was in Kenya during the violence, has worked with children for years. Juma uses healthcare as an allegory for the election violence in Kenya, which she believes will be easier to understand for children.
Throughout the book she follows the United Nations, which is in the midst of a mediation process. Readers will watch as nations come together for the sake of the common good, using democracy as their backbone.
Juma is hopeful her book will help children understand the value of democracy and the power of words over violence.
"There is always hope when people work together and not give up. Dialogue is better than fighting," Juma says.
Florence Akumu Juma is a ministry associate based in Waterloo, Ontario. She has worked with children of diverse age groups and backgrounds since the age of 16, both as an educator and a minister. Juma grew up in Kenya, East Africa, and started her career there. Her educational endeavors and vocation led her to Canada where she continues to share her resources in ministry.
Trafford Publishing, an Author Solutions, Inc. author services imprint, was the first publisher in the world to offer an "on-demand publishing service," and has led the independent publishing revolution since its establishment in 1995. Trafford was also one of the earliest publishers to utilize the Internet for selling books. More than 10,000 authors from over 120 countries have utilized Trafford's experience for self publishing their books. For more information about Trafford Publishing, or to publish your book today, call 1-888-232-4444 or visit trafford.com.
JUBA: Over 9,000 children have been recruited as soldiers in South Sudan's brutal four-month long civil war by both government and rebel forces, the UN's human rights chief said Wednesday.
"More than 9,000 children have been recruited into armed forces by both sides... Children have also been killed during indiscriminate attacks on civilians by both sides," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told reporters.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The rainy season is about to start in South Sudan, but war in the world's newest country has forced more than 1 million people to flee their homes, leaving few people to plant or harvest crops. The U.N.'s top official for human rights said Wednesday she is appalled by the apparent lack of concern by the country's two warring leaders that a catastrophic famine looms.
"The prospect of widespread hunger and malnutrition being inflicted on hundreds of thousands of their people, because of their personal failure to resolve their differences peacefully, did not appear to concern them very much," said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navy Pillay, referring to the president and the former vice president.
Pillay told a news conference in South Sudan's capital Wednesday that the country is on the verge of catastrophe because it has been in the grip of a deadly mix of recrimination, hate speech and revenge killings since December. That's when South Sudan descended into mass violence after a split between President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, the leaders of two ethnic groups now carrying out mass killings against one another.
"If famine does take hold later in the year — and the humanitarian agencies are deeply fearful that it will — responsibility for it will lie squarely with the country's leaders who agreed to a cessation of hostilities in January and then failed to observe it themselves, while placing all the blame on each other," Pillay said.
Like the use of the word genocide, the use of the word famine is often seen as a measure of last resort by government and aid officials. J. Peter Pham, the director of the Africa Center at the Washington-based Atlantic Council, said while there is no doubt that hundreds of thousands — "if not millions" — of South Sudanese will face grave food needs this year, he is also concerned that "sensationalist language aimed at grabbing headlines" could lead to desensitization.
Still, it's clear that world leaders have decided that South Sudan's situation is grave enough to warn of famine.
"Without immediate action, up to a million people could face famine in a matter of months," U.N. Secretary-General Ban-ki Moon said in April.
The World Food Program says it is facing a $224 million shortfall over the next six months of an emergency request it made to feed 1.1 million people.
Toby Lanzer, the U.N.'s top aid official in South Sudan, says the conflict has put 7 million people at risk of hunger.
"April and May are the time to plant. April is behind us. Only May is left to enable people to prepare their fields and try to ensure that they have a harvest at the end of 2014," he said.
Johannesburg, Apr 30: Sports in South Africa is still divided by race and the target of black-white equality in cricket and rugby is still a long way off, even after 20 years after the end of apartheid, according to a study.
The report marking two decades of democracy found that the number of blacks in rugby and cricket teams still had to increase threefold to reach the target of 50 percent representation.
According to Sport24, a member of the sport ministry’s panel that oversees racial transformation said that the processes to change the face of sport over the past 20 years have been largely ineffective.
The report mentioned that a development plan for 2030 has the goal of making teams more representative of national demographics – over 80 percent of South Africans are black, while under 10 percent are white, adding that cricket and rugby remain pillars of the white South African identity.
Even though South Africa is currently ranked the world’s top Test side and has won two Rugby World Cups, however, a top official of the sport and recreation ministry admitted that discrimination is still at work
However, the report said that football has the reverse problem with white players virtually absent from major teams and no sign that hosting the 2010 World Cup helped popularise the sport among non-blacks.
Sport Minister Fikile Mbalula came under fire recently for threatening to up the quotas to 60 percent before May 7 polls although he later toned down talk of targets. (ANI)
U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay says South Sudan President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar do not appear to be concerned about the prospect of famine in the crisis-hit country.
Pillay told reporters in Juba she was "appalled" after meeting with the two leaders, and that the violence that broke out in December has prevented people from planting crops.
The U.N. refugee agency is working to provide aid for those affected by the fighting, and says nearly 5 million people in South Sudan need humanitarian assistance.
Ethnic violence and clashes between rebel and government forces have killed thousands and displaced almost a million people. Another 400,000 people have fled to neighboring countries. Tens of thousands are sheltering on U.N. bases throughout the country to escape the violence.
Johannesburg - Hundreds of academics and business people, TV personalities and celebrities gathered at the Sandton Convention Centre just a few days before the elections and endorsed the ANC.
ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, Gauteng ANC chairman Paul Mashatile, treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize and several national executive committee members attended the ANC Gauteng manifesto endorsement event last night.
President Jacob Zuma was initially supposed to attend the event, but reportedly pulled out at the last minute and Ramaphosa replaced him.
Mashatile thanked the business people for their support and urged them to vote for the ruling party.
He said a lot had been achieved over the past 20 years, but acknowledged that challenges still existed in the country.
“We want your vote for us to be able to move South Africa forward. We need you to hold our hand. We want to see you succeed in what you do.”
Mashatile said they needed partnerships with business organisations to ensure that “we build the economy fast”.
Mashatile added that the people running Gauteng were doing a good job.
“The only thing I must remind you is that you must pay businesses on time,” he said.
One after the other, business people went to the podium to endorse the ANC.
There was a special moment when musician Zwai Bala sang a song from a musical about life on Robben Island that he has worked on for the past five years.
“This is a time when Madiba was in solitary confinement,” Bala said.
One of the captains of industry who took to the podium, Chris van Biljon, said: “Don’t let television or newspapers tell you who to vote for. We need each other’s support.
“Let’s look at what the ANC has done in the past 20 years,” he said.