Al Jazeera and agencies | November 07

Al Jazeera -
Seven Saudis and an unknown number of Houthi fighters have been killed as Saudi forces battle Yemen rebels for the fifth straight day, medics have said.

Saudi commanders said troops were shelling suspected Houthi positions on Saturday and plumes of smoke could be seen rising above the Jebel al-Dukhan peak that marks the frontier near the border town of Al-Khubah.

A medical official said seven Saudis, four of them women civilians, had been killed and 126 people wounded since the fighting erupted.

The Houthis claimed that they captured a number of Saudi soldiers on Friday.

Daniel Howden | Oct 15

The Independent - From Liberia to Ethiopia, Beijing is constructing a 21st century empire thousands of miles from home

This afternoon more than a dozen Liberians are expected at the Samuel Doe sports stadium in the capital, Monrovia. In a makeshift classroom with some plastic chairs and a whiteboard their teacher, Li Peng, is waiting to finish the group's second week of instruction in Mandarin Chinese. Early attendances at the free daily lessons provided by the Chinese embassy have been poor, but officials are blaming heavy rain rather than light interest. The class is still struggling with the basics and few Chinese listeners apart from their teacher would recognise the strange "hellos" and "goodbyes" being called out.

"Learning Chinese may prove difficult," Mr Li admitted. "But if they work hard they will make it."

The West African country set up to settle freed American slaves in 1843 is English-speaking and the going is hard.

"Traditionally, we Liberians are closer to the Americans than we are to the Chinese," he says. "But the irony is that the Chinese are more open to us than the Americans are."

Liberia's government has no Mandarin speakers, and China's ambassador, Zhou Yuxiao, admits that he's uncomfortable that multibillion-dollar accords between the two countries are signed with one side unable to read the documents.

Eli Clifton | Pittsburgh | Sept 27

IPS - World leaders at the two-day G20 Summit in the U.S. city of Pittsburgh agreed to work cooperatively to recover from the global economic crisis and create structural reforms with long-term growth as the goal.

In their end of meeting statement, the heads of the world's biggest economies also vowed to reform banking sectors and raise capital standards, replace the G8 with the G20 as the primary forum for international economic diplomacy, endorse a World Bank-led food security initiative for the world's poorest countries, and commit to phasing out fossil fuel subsidies.

Catching most observers by surprise was the announcement that the G8 would now be supplanted by the G20, a more representative body of the world's most powerful countries but a far cry from the inclusive global governance called for by the world's poorest countries and development NGOs.

The G8 comprises Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain, Russia and the United States. The G20 adds Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the European Union.

"The G20 is more representative than the G8 but there is still no seat at the table for the poorest countries," said Oxfam senior policy adviser Max Lawson. "South Africa is the only African country included in this club. That means when the G20 talks about growth and stability, they are leaving the poorest countries in the cold."

Jane Merrick | Sept 20

The Independent - Chancellor claims fund-raising charge on all global banking transactions is not workable

Britain was last night accused of stalling on a deal to use banks' multibillion-pound profits to help the world's poorest nations as new figures show that the global recession has opened up a $70bn (£43bn) black hole in the budgets of sub-Saharan Africa.

Chancellor Alistair Darling is accused of blocking plans for a tax on worldwide currency transactions that could raise up to £30bn for developing countries.

But the plan which is being pushed by the German and French governments at a meeting of G20 leaders in Pittsburgh this week, has the sympathetic ear of the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband.

The need for a lifeboat for poor nations was given added urgency last night when research by Oxfam revealed that sub-Saharan African countries face a £30bn deficit this year – on top of £12bn debts from last year, leaving a total black hole of £43bn – because of the economic crisis.

African governments are increasingly unable to protect their citizens from falling trade, investment and remittances, and from hunger and the impact of climate change, Oxfam said.

Paul Redfern | Nairobi | Sept 9

The East African. - Hundreds of young African children, many of whom are under five years old, are being locked up by the British government because of legal battles over whether or not their parents should be allowed political asylum in the UK.

Some of the young children, several of whom are from Uganda, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo became so traumatised by the experience that they have needed prolonged counselling afterwards.

Britain's Home Office has been extraordinarily cagey about how many minors it keeps in the UK's detention centres while political asylum appeals are being dealt with but last week (August 31), it was revealed that on one day alone in June, more than 470 minors were being detained with their families.

One such victim who was tracked down by the Guardian newspaper is four-year old Ibrahim Ssentongo, a Ugandan child who was held along with his father Stephen in the notorious detention centre Yarl's Wood.

He is now so traumatised by the incident that even seven months after his detention he does not like going out.

"When he sees people in uniforms or white shirts and black trousers, like bus drivers or security guards in shopping centres, he stops," his father told the UK paper.

Many however are too scared to speak out about their ordeal even though Sheila Melzak, a consultant child psychotherapist working with families who have been detained, said Ibrahim's trauma was far from unusual.

James Shikwati | Sept 2

Nairobi's Business Daily - One of the reasons Africans go hungry is that indigenous foods have been replaced on their menus by wheat and beef, writes economist James Shikwati in Nairobi's Business Daily.

Gustavo Capdevila | Geneva | Aug 7

IPS - Noma, an ulcerous disease whose name comes from a Greek word that means "to devour" because it literally eats away at malnourished children's faces in just a few months, is found in the developing world, mainly in Africa.

It attacks small children among the poorest of the poor. And although it can be easily treated by common antibiotics if caught in the early stages, 70 to 90 percent of its victims die. The disease is closely linked to malnourishment.

"The mere existence of this disease demonstrates that the right to food of the most vulnerable is being violated," said Jean Ziegler, vice-chairperson of the United Nations Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, a group of experts created a year ago that held its third session in Geneva Aug. 2-7.

Ziegler told IPS that "noma is absolutely dreadful…Families in Africa are ashamed by it, and hide away their sick children" because of the stigma attached to the disease.

Noma or "cancrum oris" is an infective gangrene that generally starts as gingivitis or another kind of ulcer in the mouth. If treatment is delayed, it rapidly destroys the hard and soft tissues of the mouth and often the face, leaving its victims – mainly children between the ages of one and five – "horribly disfigured," the expert said.

In his report to the Advisory Committee, Ziegler states that there are some 30,000 cases a year of noma worldwide.

Nairobi | Aug 5

AFP - Africa's economic progress will depend on good governance, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a meeting of African trade partners on Wednesday in Nairobi.

"Progress will depend on good governance and adherence to the rule of law – that is critical to creating positive, predictable investment climates and inclusive economic growth," she said.

Clinton was addressing the eighth annual forum on the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a US law giving preferential access to the world's biggest market to African states with open markets and democratic governments.

"True economic progress in Africa will depend on responsible governments that reject corruption, enforce the rule of law, and deliver results for their people," said Clinton, who arrived in the Kenyan capital on Tuesday.

Melbourne | August 4th

Australian.com.au - IT was a single phone call that sparked the second-largest terror investigation in Australian history, known as Operation Neath. A plot by Islamic extremists in Melbourne to launch a suicide attack on an Australian Army base has been uncovered by national security agencies.

* Police swoop on Melbourne homes after Somali Islamists' terror plot exposed
* Terror suspect to face prolonged grilling
* Out of Africa, a new terrorism threat dawns

Adele Waugaman | June 2 | Reuters

When obstetrician Laura Stachel arrived in rural Nigeria to collect data about maternal care, she was shocked to discover that women were dying in childbirth because clinics had no reliable power supply.

After taking a course on solar electricity, she created what she calls the "solar suitcase" - which is now proving a life-saver in one of the hospitals she visited.

Laura's "solar suitcase", a kit of solar panels and rechargeable batteries, can light operating and delivery rooms, run a blood bank refrigerator and power two-way radios so that staff can call in off-duty doctors for emergency surgery.

WE CARE Solar

Tony Paterson | Berlin | July 12

The Independent -

It's decision day on a chain of solar generators across the desert that could supply a quarter of Europe's power

Concentrating solar thermal plants use an array of mirrors to capture and focus sunlight, which can then heat water and power turbines

The world's most ambitious green energy project is about to take shape. It is a plan for a chain of mammoth sun-powered energy plants in the deserts of North Africa to supply power to Europe's homes and factories by the end of the next decade.

In a few days' time a consortium of 20 German firms will meet in Munich to hammer out plans for funding the giant €400bn (£343bn) project, named Desertec. The scheme is being backed by Chancellor Angela Merkel's government and several German industry household names including Siemens, Deutsche Bank, and the energy companies RWE and E.ON. The Munich meeting will also involve Italian and Spanish energy concerns, as well as representatives from the Arab League and the Club of Rome think-tank.

Eva Krafczyk | Nairobi/Accra | July 9

DPA - Technically, it is only a short two-day visit, following the G8 summit. But across the continent of Africa, the arrival of US President Barack Obama will be a home-coming of epic proportions.

The trip to Ghana will be Obama's first trip to the continent of his Kenyan-born father as president.

Obama will arrive in Accra, and the decision to come to Ghana is widely regarded to be symbolic.

The former British colony was the first sub-Saharan country to gain independence in 1957. Centuries before it had been one of the main centres of the slave trade.

During their trip to the Cape Coast Barack and Michelle Obama will visit one of the slave forts where tens of thousands spent their last days in Africa before being forced onto the slaveships.

'Will he cry?' African bloggers are wondering about the emotional impact on the US president at this significant place for the victims and descendants of slavery. His wife is the direct descendent of slaves. Others wonder if he will comment on the compensation claims for the descendants of slaves.

Daniel Howden | June 25

The Independent - Six years ago, the world came together to stop a trade in gems that was fuelling civil war in Africa. Now the architect of the deal has quit, warning that jewels 'have blood all over them' again

The leading architect of the international system to stop the trade in blood diamonds has warned that the safety net is close to collapse with governments and the industry failing to act against gross violations.

Ian Smillie, the "grandfather" of the landmark Kimberley Process, that was agreed in response to appalling civil wars in Africa fuelled by illegal gems, said he had "stomped out" on his scheme as it was no longer working.

"It isn't regulating the rough diamond trade," the Canadian expert said yesterday. "It is in danger of becoming irrelevant and it's letting all manner of crooks off the hook."

William Maclean | London | June 19

Reuters - Under pressure in his Pakistan enclaves, Osama bin Laden is facing a familiar quandary: Where to go next? The answer is unlikely to be Yemen or Somalia, despite their new prominence as regional al Qaeda sanctuaries.

U.S. drone attacks and a looming Pakistan army offensive against one of al Qaeda's main allies in a northwestern tribal area have stirred speculation that bin Laden's men are seeking a less risky refuge for their anti-Western campaign.

But simply leaving Pakistan's remote Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) could expose the world's most wanted man and his entourage of planners and bodyguards to satellite detection and the curious gaze of a local population of uncertain loyalty.

Related thread: Yemen could be "another Afghanistan" -EU official

Johannesburg | June 17

IRIN - It will take at least ten years to develop a variety of staple grain that will survive in the climates caused by global warming in most parts of Africa, and the continent has less than two decades in which to do it, warn the authors of a new study.

"The countries have to start developing varieties now, but many of these countries don't have breeding programmes," said Luigi Guarino, one of three authors of a study to be published on 19 June in the US journal, Global Environmental Change. "This study, we hope, at least raises the flag."

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an international scientific body, has predicted that food production in Africa could halve by 2020 as global warming pushes temperatures up and droughts become more intense.

The new study by researchers at Stanford University's Program on Food Security and the Environment, in the US, and the Rome-based Global Crop Diversity Trust, noted that "For a majority of Africa's farmers, warming will rapidly take climate not only beyond the range of their personal experience, but also beyond the experience of farmers within their own country."

_{Previously posted articles:
** Africa: The Second Scramble for Africa Starts
** Researchers urge rules to stop 'land-grabbing' worsening hunger
** Foreign land grabs for food could fuel unrest
** China's new export: farmers
** Financial crisis may worsen food crunch it eclipsed
** Rich countries launch great land grab to safeguard food supply}

Kate Connolly | Berlin | June 17

The Guardian - Twenty blue chip German companies are pooling their resources with the aim of harnessing solar power in the deserts of north Africa and transporting the clean electricity to Europe.

The businesses, which include some of the biggest names in European energy, finance and manufacturing, will form a consortium next month. If successful, the highly ambitious plan could see Europe fuelled by solar energy within a decade.

The consortium behind what would be the biggest ever solar energy initiative will first raise awareness and interest among other investors for the project, known as Desertec, which is estimated to cost around €400bn (£338bn).

BREAKING: $15 Million Settlement in Wiwa vs. Shell Oil

I was skeptical this would happen, but it is clearly an indication of how strong the case was against Shell…

This just in from the Center for Constitutional Rights:

Settlement Reached in Human Rights Cases Against Royal Dutch/Shell

On Eve of Trial, Settlement Agreements Provide $15.5 Million for Compensation to Nigerian Human Rights Activists and to Establish Trust Fund

Agencies | 9 June

Al Jazeera -
Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to settle a lawsuit accusing the firm of complicity in the executions of human rights activists in Nigeria for $15.5m, the families of those killed have said.

The settlement agreement came on Monday as the more than decade-long dispute was due to go to trial in a district court in New York.

The lawsuit accused Shell of human rights abuses, including violations in relation to the hangings in 1995 of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a well known rights activist, and eight other protesters by Nigeria's then-military government.

Megan Rowling | June 4

Reuters -

International food experts and African politicians are pushing for guidelines to prevent the surging trend of rich investors buying land in developing countries from hurting poor farmers and causing food crises.

The amount of land under negotiation in deals to help cash-rich countries in the Gulf and Asia secure food supplies for their growing populations has reached 15 to 20 million hectares, roughly equivalent to cropland in Germany or France, estimates the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). The monetary value is a huge - $20 to $30 billion.

IFPRI argues in a new policy brief that there are both opportunities and threats for poor nations - many of them in east and southern Africa - that are leasing or selling vast tracts of their land to foreign investors.

On the positive side, land acquisitions have the potential to inject much-needed investment into agriculture and rural areas, boosting food production and jobs. But that depends on the terms and conditions.

"The potential here is great. The question is the extent to which this translates into benefits for the poor and smallholders in the developing countries becoming hosts to these arrangements," said IFPRI research fellow Ruth Meinzen-Dick. "The question is, do these people...get new jobs and income, or do they lose access to the land they have been relying on?"

There's also a fear that, with many east African countries suffering food shortages, renting out land to foreign governments and companies to feed people overseas will make hunger at home even worse.

Stephanie McCrummen | Kisumu, Kenya | May 26

WaPo - With the U.S. economy in turmoil, his job as a truck driver no longer secure and his upwardly mobile life in the Dallas suburbs in jeopardy, James Odhiambo decided it was time for a change.

He wanted a healthier lifestyle for his family, less anxiety, fewer 14-hour days. So he recently traded his deluxe apartment, the pickup truck, the dishwasher and $4.99 McDonald's combos for life in a place he considers relatively better: sub-Saharan Africa.

"Right now I'm no stress, no anxiety," said Odhiambo, 34, relaxing in his family home in this western Kenyan city along the shores of Lake Victoria. "Think of it this way: When I was in the U.S., I was close to 300 pounds. Now, I'm like 200. The biggest thing for me was quality of life."

While that may seem counterintuitive to Americans accustomed to bleaker images of Africa, recent studies have documented the flight of immigrant professionals from the United States to their home countries. Chinese and Indian workers increasingly say they see better opportunities and lifestyles at home. And diaspora associations of Nigerians, Ghanaians, Kenyans and other Africans say their members -- mostly from middle-class backgrounds -- are joining the exodus, choosing life in the land of slow Internet connections and power outages over the pressures of recession-era America.

Cooperative Security Locations, Not Permanent Just Enduring
Charles Lemos | May 11 | MYDD

The Department of Defense has released a FY 2010 Budget Request Summary Justification (pdf.) presentation outlining its proposed expenditures. Some are curious, a few are disconcerting.

The FY 2010 Base budget includes $46 million for a cooperative security location at Palanquero Air Base in Colombia.

This is news to Colombians. Though Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos broached the subject of stationing a base in Colombia back in February, that trial balloon did not float. Colombians remain opposed to any US military presence in the country.

Significant investment at Camp Lemonier, Djibouti, a forward operating site for which responsibility has been moved from CENTCOM to AFRICOM.

It looks like AFRICOM, which remains homeless or perhaps better put awaiting a home in temporary quarters in Stuggart, Germany, is going to get rammed down hapless Djibou

Joel Achenbach | May 1

WaPo - Africans are more genetically diverse than the inhabitants of the rest of the world combined, according to a sweeping study that carried researchers into remote regions to sample the bloodlines of more than 100 distinct populations.

The report, published yesterday in the journal Science Express, suggests that, because of historical migrations and genetic mixing across the continent, it will be hard for African Americans to trace their ancestry in fine detail. African American genealogies are increasingly popular and commercialized, but the authors of the new study cast doubt on how precise such searches can be, given the complexity of the genetic makeup of Africans.

"It may be very challenging to trace back ancestry to particular tribes or ethnic groups," said Sarah Tishkoff, a University of Pennsylvania geneticist who led the international research team.

The first anatomically modern humans originated in Africa about 200,000 years ago, and all humans today are their direct descendants. The study points to an area along the Namibia-South Africa border, the homeland of the San people, as the starting point for a southwest-to-northeast migratory route that carried people through Africa and across the Red Sea into Eurasia.

Tishkoff said the new findings will help medical researchers tailor drug treatments for different groups of Africans rather than treating them as homogenous.

Apr 28

BBC - A court in French Polynesia has begun hearing complaints from former workers at France's nuclear weapons test sites.

The cases, being heard for the first time, relate to work in Mururoa and Fangataufa and seek recognition and compensation for ill health.

Eight cases have been lodged, although five of the workers have already died of what have been called radiation-linked diseases.

In March, the French government enacted legislation to allow compensation.

This could apply in cases relating to nuclear tests in the Pacific and Africa.

^{reprinted with the kind permission of the author.}

~Kyle Mills

First of all, I don't want to be misunderstood here. I have nothing against a healthy amount of sensitively with regard to the subject of race. In the U.S., increased empathy has gone a long way to clearing out the obnoxious and destructive behavior left over from a time that is thankfully becoming history. In fact, I'd never given the PC movement much thought at all until I moved to Africa to research a book.

In many ways, political correctness is just another luxury made possible by America's wealth and stability. Obsessive self-censoring and blinding ideology is little more than an inconvenience to most Americans, with no potential to cause a child to starve, die of disease, or be killed in an endless civil war. Of course, the reluctance of the media and organizations like the NAACP to frankly discuss the problems plaguing African-Americans may contribute to the persistence of those problems, but that's another article.

More after the jump.

10 April

Al jazeera -
A US court has ruled that victims of South Africa's apartheid-era government can sue General Motors, IBM and other corporations accused of complicity in human rights abuses.

A federal judge in New York ruled on Wednesday that joint actions against the corporations under a US law allowing rights claims from abroad should be addressed in a US court.

Car-makers Ford and Daimler and defence firm Rheinmetall are the other companies set to face legal action from South African plaintiffs.