UN blue helmets to airlift nine orphan gorillas to DR Congo nature reserve

Nine orphan gorillas will start new lives in a nature reserve in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), thanks to assistance from peacekeepers serving with the United Nations mission in the country, known as MONUC.

Africa Jobs Recovery Lags Economic Rebound, Says UNECA

Africa jobs recovery lags economic rebound - UN

Tue Mar 30, 2010 5:52pm GMT
By Phumza Macanda

LILONGWE, March 30 (Reuters) - Africa’s economy is likely to grow by an average 4.3 percent this year from just 1.6 percent in 2009, but poverty could still increase as there may not be an similar increase in employment, a U.N. report said on Tuesday.

The United Nations’ Economic Commission for Africa report predicted that oil exporting countries in the sub-Saharan region, which excludes North Africa, would grow by 5.1 percent in 2010 while oil importers would expand by 4.9 percent.

The projections are well short of the 7 percent needed to achieve the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals of halving poverty by 2015, it said, adding that the growth rates were not enough to create large numbers of jobs.

“This means that unemployment and vulnerable employment as well as working poverty in Africa are likely to increase in 2010,” said the report, released at an African Union finance and economics ministers conference.

The Commission also said inflation in southern African countries could rise to double-digit figures because of lagged effects from high oil and food prices in the region.

“Malawi’s headline inflation for 2010 is forecast to rest at 10 percent, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola would rest at 10.2 percent, 14.6 percent and 15.4 percent, respectively,” it said in its report.

The issue of creating good jobs to lift millions out of poverty dominated the two-day meeting of senior government officials in the Malawi capital, Lilongwe.

Despite growth averaging 5 percent or more in much of the previous decade, millions of Africans still live below the breadline as the economic gains have failed to translate into more and better jobs.

Fallout from the global economic crisis last year has only exacerbated the situation.

“The problem is widespread; of the four countries studied, economic growth was accompanied by increasing unemployment in three of them, while the fourth showed a drastic rise in informal sector employment,” the report said.

“The problem of high and rising unemployment persists, making it difficult for the continent to reduce poverty rapidly.”

Growth will be driven by demand for African exports — in most cases oil and minerals — and continued fiscal and monetary stimulus.

While the developed world has started raising interest rates, many African economies are still easing monetary policy.

South Africa, the continent’s biggest economy, cut interest rates by a shock 50 basis points last week, taking its repo rate to the lowest in decades. Ghana has also cut rates and indicated further monetary loosening as inflation moderates.

The report also said Africa needed to look at ways of mobilising its own capital to finance investment and growth.

“The current global economic crisis has demonstrated the vulnerability of Africa to the fortunes of the global economy. It has also demonstrated that Africa cannot rely on external sources to finance its development in a sustainable way.” (Additional reporting by Mabvuto Banda, Editing by Ed Cropley and Stephen Nisbet)

Russia Vows to ‘Destroy Terrorists’

Tuesday, March 30, 2010
21:55 Mecca time, 18:55 GMT

Russia vows to ‘destroy terrorists’

Russian leaders have pledged to “find and wipe out” those behind twin suicide bombings at metro stations in Moscow that killed 39 people and left scores injured.

“They are simply beasts,” Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, said of the bombers after laying a wreath of red roses at Lubyanka metro station, one of the sites targeted.

“I don’t have the slightest doubt: we will find and wipe out all of them,” Medvedev said.

Russia held a day of mourning on Tuesday, with flags at half-mast and Muscovites leaving flowers and lit candles at the stations hit by the rush-hour blasts

‘Heinous’ crime

Neave Barker, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Moscow, said many people in the capital were “still nervous about venturing underground”.

“The Kremlin is now under mounting public pressure to review its security policy,” he said.

Medvedev’s predecessor, Vladimir Putin, who is now prime minister, has also vowed that those responsible for the attacks would be “destroyed”.

The death toll from the bombings rose on Tuesday to 39 after a young woman died in hospital, a Russian health official said.

Andrei Seltsovsky, the chief of Moscow’s health department, said 71 other people were still in hospital, five of them in critical condition.

Putin, who cut short a visit to Siberia to return to Moscow, said “a crime that is terrible in its consequences and heinous in its manner has been committed”.

“I am confident that law enforcement bodies will spare no effort to track down and punish the criminals. The terrorists will be destroyed,” he said before visiting survivors in hospital.

Caucasus rebels blamed

No group has claimed responsibility for the bombings, but Russian authorities, who have blamed separatist fighters from the North Caucasus region for previous attacks, once again pointed the finger at the region’s fighters.

Barker said Russian intelligence services remain convinced that two female suicide bombers with links to separatist fighters were responsible.

“Even before the death toll became official yesterday, the head of the intelligence service already made it very clear that they felt the links were obvious, this after only a few months the main line between Moscow and St. Petersburg was targeted by attackers,” he said.

Officials said the attacks, at Lubyanka in the city centre and Park Kultury in the southwest, were carried out by two women wearing belts packed with the explosive hexogen and metal shrapnel.

“Body parts of two terrorists - female suicide bombers - were found at the scenes of the blasts,” Alexander Bortnikov, the chief of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), said in a televised meeting at the Kremlin.

The headquarters of the FSB, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB, is located just above Lubyanka station.

“According to preliminary information, these people had links to places of residence in the Northern Caucasus,” Bortnikov said.

Afghanistan link

Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said foreign involvement in the attacks had not been ruled out.

“We all know very well that clandestine terrorists are very active on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan,” the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying at a Group of Eight ministers’ meeting in Canada.

“We know that several attacks have been prepared there, to be carried out not only in Afghanistan, but also in other countries.

“Sometimes, these journeys go as far as the Caucasus,” he said, although he did not offer any evidence or explain the links.

Russian police are searching for two women who accompanied the suspected suicide bombers, plus a man who may also have been an accomplice, after identifying them and the suspected bombers through surveillance footage, Interfax reported, citing a security source.

‘Politically motivated’

Our correspondent said the bombings have “to be seen as a politically motivated attack targeting what is perhaps one of the most symbolic signs of Russian authority in the capital”.

In February, Doku Umarov, the leader of a Chechen separatist group, said in an interview on a rebel-affiliated website that “the zone of military operations will be extended to the territory of Russia”.

Umarov, who claimed responsibility for the bombing of a passenger train travelling between Moscow and St Petersburg in November, warned that “the war is coming to their cities”.

Russian forces fought two wars with Chechen separatists, and last year declared that the conflict was over.

However, the violence has spread from Chechnya to the neighbouring regions of Dagestan and Ingushetia.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Noting progress, Ban encourages Cypriot leaders to continue efforts to end dispute

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the progress achieved by the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders in their United Nations-backed reunification talks and encouraged them to continue working towards a solution that takes into account the legitimate rights and concerns of both sides.

Detroit City Council Opposes Plan to Dissolve Pension Systems

Council opposes plan to dissolve pension systems

By NAOMI R. PATTON
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

The Detroit City Council unanimously voted to oppose state legislation that would dissolve the city’s pension systems.

The council and Mayor Dave Bing’s administration butted heads earlier today over the legislation that would turn the city’s pension systems over to a Lansing-based nonprofit.

Today’s activity began with council resolutions opposing the legislation with dozens of firefighters, city workers and former mayoral candidate Tom Barrow speaking against the legislation.

Council members blasted the administration for taking the plan to Lansing before bringing it to the council.

“You shouldn’t put the cart before the horse,” Council President Charles Pugh said.

Councilwoman JoAnn Watson called the plan “very flawed.”

“It’s not a takeover; it’s a giveaway,” Councilman Kwame Kenyatta said, calling the legislation “unfortunate” and “disrespectful.”

“What you’re saying and what you’re representing here is two different things,” he said to Bing group executives Saul Green and Norm White.

Today’s council vote came on a resolution proposed by Pugh, but the vote alone won’t prevent the bills from making their way through the Legislature. The legislation does not require City Council approval.

Under the proposed legislation, the general pension fund and the police and fire pension fund would be managed by the Municipal Employees’ Retirement. In the first year of MERS managing the city’s retirement systems, city officials have said, the city could see a $20-million reduction in its contribution to the pension boards. Green said earlier this week that the transition to MERS would not adversely affect retirees’ pension.

The city’s general pension board and its police and fire pension board — with assets of about $5 billion — for years have made questionable investments, allowed lavish travel and lacked ethics policies, all chronicled all in a yearlong investigation by the Free Press.

Councilman Ken Cockrel Jr. today pointed out that pension board members are elected by city workers.

“If this gets transferred to MERS where is the accountability,” Cockrel said.

Green said the administration thought state legislation was the best approach to reforming the city’s pension system.

“If we don’t get the costs under control, our ability to pay them is in dire, dire jeopardy,” he said.

President Obama’s Demands Mark Dramatic Shift in US Policy TowardsIsrael, Says Some Analysts

Obama’s demands mark dramatic shift in US policy towards Israel

Analysts say Tel Aviv worried as American diplomacy changes tack
By Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief
Published: 00:00 March 31, 2010

Demands tabled by US President Barack Obama last week during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mark a dramatic change in US policy towards Israel, Israeli political sources have said.

The demands are the tip of the change iceberg and indicate an intention to impose a permanent peace deal on Israel and the Palestinians in less than two years, the Haaretz newspaper reported on Monday.

Four of Obama’s demands deal with occupied Jerusalem. These include moves to open a Palestinian commercial interests office in occupied east Jerusalem; halt the destruction of structures in Palestinian neighbourhoods in occupied Jerusalem; end construction work in Jewish neighbourhoods in occupied east Jerusalem; and scrap plans to build the neighbourhood of Ramat Shlomo, the Israeli daily said.

Problematic

However, the key demand to discuss the core issues at the centre of the dispute, during the planned indirect talks, has been perceived as “problematic” in Tel Aviv.

Such a development would set up a framework through which the Americans would be able to impose a final deal to resolve the dispute.

It is not just Obama’s demands that are perceived as problematic, but also the new modus operandi of American diplomacy.

The fact that the White House and State Department have been in contact with Israel’s European allies is seen as part of an effort to isolate Israel and put enormous political pressure on it, the unnamed sources were quoted as saying.

Israeli officials say that the Obama administration’s new policy contradicts commitments made by previous administrations, as well as a letter from George W. Bush in 2004 to the prime minister at the time, Ariel Sharon.

According to them, the new policy is also incongruous with a framework tabled by Bill Clinton in 2000.

Senior Israeli sources say that as a result of the US administration’s policies, the Palestinians will toughen their stance and seriously undermine the success of the peace process.

Sudan: UN mission takes to the airwaves with civic education drama

The United Nations Mission in Sudan is taking to the airwaves with a new radio drama series aimed at raising public awareness on various issues, including measures related to the ongoing process of implementing the peace accord that ended two decades of civil war in Africa’s largest country.

Today on New Scientist: 30 March 2010

All today’s stories on newscientist.com at a glance, including: bats steering by compass and also dying of a mystery disease, why slow thinking is good and what’s wrong with TV doctors

Gaza War Fuels UK Arms Review Call

Tuesday, March 30, 2010
20:55 Mecca time, 17:55 GMT

Gaza war fuels UK arms review call

Israel’s war on Gaza led to the deaths of 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis

A committee of British members of parliament has called for a review of future arms sales after it emerged that components supplied by Britain to Israel were highly likely to have been used during the war on Gaza last year.

The parliamentary committee on strategic export controls expressed regret after discovering that arms exports from the UK were “almost certainly” used by Israel during Operation Cast Lead.

In a report released on Tuesday, the MPs said: “It is regrettable that arms exports to Israel were almost certainly used in Operation Cast Lead.

“This is in direct contravention to the UK government’s policy that UK arms exports to Israel should not be used in the Occupied Territories.”

‘Lessons’ learnt

The report recommends that the British government “set out clearly the longer term lessons learnt post Operation Cast Lead and how they will impact in practice on the issuing of future licences for arms exports to Israel.”

After the attack on Gaza, David Miliband, Britain’s foreign minister, told parliament that British made components were “almost certainly” used in F-16 fighter planes and Apache helicopters sold by the US to Israel.

Parts of armoured personnel carriers and Israeli naval vessels used in the conflict were also said to have been sourced to British producers.

Israel’s offensive on Gaza resulted in the deaths of about 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians.

It also left the impoverished territory in virutal ruins followed sustained Israeli air raids.

Thirteen Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed in the 22-day conflict.

After the Israeli assault on Gaza, the British government reviewed more than 180 pending arms licences destined for the country.

Five licences for equipment to be supplied to the Israeli navy were revoked as a result of the review.

But campaign groups in the UK are calling for a complete embargo on British arms sales to Israel.

The Campaign Against the Arms Trade says that “the only effective action would be the immediate imposition of embargo on arms and components going to Israel, whether directly or through incorporation into weaponry produced in third countries”.

During 2008, the year running up to the war on Gaza, the UK approved arms licences to Israel worth $41.3m, as well as providing the components for US-made weapons destined for Israel.

This figure fell after the conflict, with the MPs noting that the UK currently provides less than one per cent of all military supplies exported to Israel.

Most of the equipment Britain supplies to Israel is components, rather than full weapons systems, although recently approved licences have included small arms ammunition and parts for sniper rifles.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
———————————————————–

President Obama in Afghanistan - why are we there again?

President Barack Obama made a secret six-hour visit to Afghanistan last weekend to lecture Afghan President Hamid Karzai and visit American troops. Both reasons for the trip were absolutely necessary, however, the actual conduct of the trip was poorly handled.

Afghanistan is one of, if not the, most corrupt countries on the planet. It has probably always been that way, but now there are 100,000 American troops present in the country ostensibly helping Karzai establish a representative government by defeating the Taliban. Much American treasure is being expended to develop infrastructure as well as funding combat operations, treasure that we can ill afford given the economic situation at home. It is essential that the money be used effectively and wisely, as opposed to lining the pockets of a few dozen warlords and corrupt government officials.

President Obama was right to stress to his counterpart that American patience has about run out over the corruption in the country. Whether Karzai will take the message to heart, or whether he can do anything about it even if he does get the message, is another issue. In any case, the Afghans are on notice that U.S. largesse is not endless.

While in Afghanistan, the commander in chief met with American troops - certainly the duty of any president, and it appears his visit was well received. The troubling aspects of the visit were the absolute secrecy and the fact that the entire visit was carried out during the hours of darkness.

It is unseemly for the “leader of the free world” to move about in secrecy and darkness like a coward. The President of the United States should be seen exhibiting the same courage as his troops. Of course, the Secret Service calls the shots on security, but at some point, the President needs to stand up and take charge of his image. Scurrying about in the darkness is not the image we need of the commander in chief.

That said, my biggest issue with the President’s visit is his insistence that American troops are in Afghanistan fighting al-Qa’idah. Obama has perpetuated this myth since he made the decision to mount a counterinsurgency in Afghanistan to fight the Taliban rather than focusing on his successful counter terrorism campaign against al-Qa’idah - the real enemy - in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. He gets my criticism for the former and my praise for the latter. His decision to increase the drone-launched missile strikes was exactly the right thing to do.

On Saturday, he said, “We are going to disrupt and dismantle, defeat and destroy al-Qaida and its extremist allies.”

All well and good, but there are little if any al-Qa’idah remaining in Afghanistan. If the mission is to nation build, starting with the defeat of the Taliban, say so. Continuing to insist that America is confronting al-Qa’idah in Afghanistan is incredulous.