AFRICAN ASCENSION BLOG.™

Not-So-Trivial Pursuit Of A United States Of Africa

2009-10-23T12:33:00.000-07:00

Some board games aim to improve your general knowledge, others are just fun. A Senegalese entrepreneur is hoping his new game promoting African unity will be both.

Game designer Salif Tidiane Ba wants to succeed where the continent's leaders have so far failed: to create a United States of Africa.

On a recent day, surrounded by children at his cramped headquarters in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, Ba shows off his latest venture: Jekaben, which means "let's unite and work together" in the local Bambara language.

Ba is passionate about Africa and says the game's purpose is to educate players about the continent and steer them toward achieving the United States of Africa.

The children demonstrate how the elaborate game is played.

Part Monopoly, part Trivial Pursuit, the game centers on a colorful board with a green and white map of Africa in the middle. A player's goal is to "build" the continent by answering questions about Africa, such as, "Which country in Africa was never colonized?" (Ethiopia)

A piece of the map is added at the end of a series of correct answers, and for certain pieces, 1 of 20 United States of Africa passports is awarded.
The board game Jekaben, which means Let's Unite and Work Together in the Sendialect of Bambara

Ba hopes the new game, which is a cross between Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit, will educate players about the continent and encourage them to create a United States of Africa.

The board game Jekaben, which means Let's Unite and Work Together in the Sendialect of Bambara

Ba hopes the new game, which is a cross between Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit, will educate players about the continent and encourage them to create a United States of Africa.

The person with the greatest number of passports when the last piece of the puzzle is added — completing the map and a message that reads, "Welcome to the United States of Africa" — wins the game.

Players are also dealt cards and roll dice to move around the Monopoly-like board. The cards are traded in; money changes hands along the way, too.

Then there are the trump cards that are a free pass of sorts. In Jekaben, these cards are called the Wise Leaders of Africa — but some of the sages featured may not be universally popular choices.

Ba's "wise" leaders include some who are considered dictators, such as Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, who has held power for 40 years. Another, the late Omar Bongo of oil-rich Gabon, was an autocratic, old-style president and Africa's longest-serving leader when he died in June.

Ba says his choice of sages is entirely personal and symbolic. Any African leader is eligible to become a sage, Ba says, as long as they share the common goal of the United States of Africa — hence the founding fathers of the continent's independence, such as Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah; Nelson Mandela, with his impeccable Pan-African credentials; and more contentious choices such as Gadhafi, a more recent convert to African unity.

The game already exists in French, English and Arabic. Ba wants to have it translated into Portuguese and Spanish, as well as Swahili, Hausa and other African languages. He hopes his board game will encourage a new generation of Pan-African champions who will put the interests of their continent first.

A final question: Who was Felix Houphouet Boigny? A Cameroonian footballer, president of Ivory Coast or a famous African film director?

The correct answer? President of Ivory Coast.

Roman Catholic Church African people globally

2009-10-22T08:27:00.000-07:00

September 21, 2009

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
Apostolic Palace
00120 Vatican City

Your Holiness:

It is with great humility that I request an audience with you while in Rome on October 18-22, 2009. The purpose for our visit is to seek the help of the Roman Catholic Church in addressing the plight of African people globally. I am honored to say that Princess Giada Ruspoli is my hostess and mediator for this august meeting, if granted.

I have been on the forefront of the struggle for Civil/Human Rights since 1978, beginning with my work with the Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition where I currently serve as the Regional Director, Southern Region, and with the Reverend Cameron Alexander, Pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, where I am a deacon, the Director of Human Resources, and former Executive Director of Antioch Urban Ministries, Inc., an outreach ministry to the poor and disenfranchised of metro-Atlanta.. I am also a former President of the Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta. Six years ago I founded African Ascension, an organization which helps to unite Africans in Africa and throughout the world.

I have worked to support peace efforts and civil rights internationally in the Middle East, South Korea, and Haiti. I was a member of the Peace Makers tours of the Middle East in 1992, Southern Korea in 1993 and 1998. I worked tirelessly to help end apartheid in South Africa and for the release of Nelson Mandela from prison. I went to South Africa and joined the African National Congress and worked in a campaign to register voters prior to the presidential elections in South Africa in 1994 in which Mr. Mandela emerged as the President of that nation. I was an official non-governmental representative to the United Nations Habitat II Conference, held in Istanbul, Turkey in 1997. This conference was designed to bring leaders together from around the world to discuss options for developing sustainable communities. I was also a delegate to the United Nations Conference on Racism held in Durban in 2001.

Over the years, I have worked with governments and international humanitarian organizations to improve the quality of life for its citizens. In addition, I have a long-term involvement in Zambia, where, among other things, I serve on the Board of Directors of the Zambian human rights organization, Afronet. I help found Zumbi Palamares University in Sao Paulo, Brazil six years ago for which their library was named in my honor. Our aim was to increase the number of our people in that nation who are receiving a college education. Presently only 2 percent of African descendants living in Brazil are receiving an education at that level.

I was in Florence, Italy at the invitation of the Tuscony Association to address the issue of Abolition of the Death Penalty. I was invited to Pisa, Italy by the same group in July of 2008 to address the issue of Racism in the 20th Century. I am actively engaged in

YOUR HOLINESS Benedict XVI:
September 21, 2009
Page 2

working with the African Union which is currently divided into five regions. A sixth region is being established which will enable Africans living in the Diaspora to become voting members of the African Union.

I have sent medical supplies worth several millions of dollars to Haiti, San Andres, Liberia, and Zambia and was named “Man of the Millennium” Tapeo, Haiti. We have joined forces with the people of Cameroon to insure that they are treated in an equitable manner in developing the mineral resources of that nation, especially cobalt and nickel.

Currently, I am serving on a Presidential Commission in Colombia with the mandate of bringing African descendants into the mainstream of that nation. Africans make-up 26% of Colombia and many are being displaced from their ancestral land due to the ongoing war in that nation fueled by drug trafficking.

Your Holiness, I am an African American, 72 years of age, born the son of a sharecropper in the state of Georgia, USA. I served 21 years in the United States Air Force before retiring in 1978, and during that time, I had lived abroad almost as much as I had visited: 3 years in England, 3 years in Spain, 2 years in Vietnam, 1 1/2 years on Guam, and six months in Casablanca, Morocco.

My military residences and my humanitarian outreach throughout the world have shown me that the masses of African people are on the margins of society globally. There are over 200 million Africans living in the Americas, 30 million in Europe and another 800-900 million on the continent of Africa. Catholicism is very prominent in Colombia and Brazil and throughout the Americas. I am deeply concerned about the conditions in Africa where the Catholic Church is at the vanguard for people of the Christian faith. While Colonialism ended in most countries almost 50 years ago the exploitation of the people and the resources of this Continent continue unabated.

I will be in Haiti in early October. However, over the past decade we have traveled to Haiti several dozens times providing material support for the people on that island nation that have been suffering since 1804 when, in a slave revolt, they won their independence from France. This is an impoverished nation where the Catholic Church has great influence.

These are the issues I would like to address with your Holiness should you grant me an audience. I am convinced that it would make a tremendous positive difference, not only to Africa and African descendents, but to the world, if your Holiness would address the plight of African people globally

It is with deep humility that I seek this important audience with you.

Respectfully,

Joe Beasley, President
African Ascension: www.africanascension.org

Claims of Fix Gabon's Presidential election

2009-09-06T21:04:00.000-07:00

Opponents claim vote results in oil-rich Gabon are a ‘fraudulent farce’

LIBREVILLE, Gabon - The government on Thursday declared the eldest son of the late dictator Omar Bongo the winner of weekend presidential elections, enraging opposition supporters who torched a French diplomatic mission as a main opposition candidate went into hiding, nursing an injury he reportedly suffered when police fired tear gas canisters.

The anger extended outside Gabon's borders. In Dakar, Senegal, Gabonese students pushed past the sole guard at the Gabonese Embassy. A loud explosion was followed by the sound of breaking glass. The students charged out as a huge plume of smoke rose from the two-story structure.

"We want change," said one of the students. "This election is a fraud."

Even before the results of Sunday's election were announced on state TV, there was violence.

In Gabon's capital, Libreville, police fired tear gas at opposition demonstrators who had camped outside the electoral commission overnight, waiting to hear the outcome. The results had been expected Wednesday night but were delayed because the election commission disagreed on how to review province-by-province results.

Within hours of the announcement that Ali Bongo had won, opposition supporters attacked the French consulate in the oil hub of Port Gentil, 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Libreville, setting the building alight and ransacking nearby shops, a local TV station reported.

The unrest is not likely to affect global oil prices, said Leo Drollas, chief economist at the London-based Center for Global Energy Studies, noting Gabon's small petroleum output. According to the U.S. Energy Administration, Gabon produces 247,000 barrels of oil a day, one-tenth of Nigeria's output.

Credits: msnbc

Black leaders unhappy about Delta Air Lines’ diversity

2009-05-13T11:00:00.000-07:00

Top Atlanta civil rights leaders are voicing concern about Delta Air Lines Inc.’s commitment to diversity — be it in the number of executives, directors, suppliers, pilots or the overall workforce.

For the past several months, civil rights leaders have been meeting with the top executives of Delta — Richard Anderson, its CEO; Steve Gorman, the chief operating officer; and Michael Campbell, executive vice president of human resources and labor relations — to discuss their concerns.

Delta officials say increasing diversity within its ranks and in procurement is one of its CEO’s top priorities given the company’s status as a global airline. Nearly half of all new executives hired from outside Delta since Anderson took over are women and minorities, officials said, and Delta also pointed to deeds in the community, including its recent $1 million scholarship endowment at Morehouse College.

The African-American leaders meeting with Delta include the Rev. Joseph Lowery, head of the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda; the Rev. James Milner, senior pastor of the Chapel of Christian Love Baptist Church; and Joe Beasley, president of the African Ascension and human resources director at Antioch Baptist Church North.

Credits: ETN

Delta Airlines is spending less than 1% with African American businesses,

2009-04-25T06:43:00.002-07:00

April 21, 2009

Mr. Michael Campbell
Executive Vice President
HR & Labor Relations
Dear Mr. Campbell

It was good meeting with you, Mr. Anderson and Mr. Gorman, along with Dr. Lowery and Rev. Milner to discuss a number of concerns that have been brought to our attention by your employees and members of the community. I felt the meeting was cordial and candid. One area that is of great concern to me and the larger community is Delta’s abysmal record on affording equal opportunity to African American vendors.

Delta Airlines is spending less than 1% with African American businesses, as confirmed by Mr. Gorman. That is outrageous and must be corrected. African Americans make up 13% of the United States and over 50% of Atlanta. As an objective standard, businesses are expected to do business based upon the percentage in the community in which they are doing business. In other words you should be doing 50% with African Americans, and certainly not less than our representation in the population of our Country.

You promised to revisit your decision regarding Dr. Georgiana Thomas’ bid on your amenities kit. Further, Mr. Anderson promised to meet personally with the Skycaps. Frankly, I was dismayed by his initial response, which suggested that he would not reconsider the decision to restore them as core Delta employees. I believe you have a very volatile situation dealing with inequity in pay for your employees doing the same job. It is a fact that you have at least one employee at Hartsfield, a former Northwest employee that is making over $13.00 per hour while the remainder is making less than $3.00 per hour. Additionally, you have many other Skycaps in cities such as Memphis, Seattle, Minneapolis, etc. who are being paid the Northwest wage of $13.00 per hour? That is a major problem in my eyes, and the eyes of the larger community.

In these challenging economic times it would be very difficult to understand how Delta could require these Union employees to take such a drastic cut in pay. Union busting is illegal in the United States. This is the kind of situation I believe Delta should avoid.

Coca Cola is doing business with African Americans

2009-04-25T06:43:00.001-07:00

Mr. Michael Campbell
April 21, 2009
Page 2

I met with senior members of The Coca Cola Company last week and talked about many of the issues we discussed with you and your colleagues. As you know, when you talk about Atlanta two companies come to mind, Delta and Coca Cola. When it comes to how Coca Cola is doing business with African Americans it puts Delta to shame. I strongly urge you to look at how Coca Cola is doing business in that area; you might want to emulate what they are doing. As I discussed with you in my previous letter, you might want to look at using strata’s in your procurement, in other words, requiring large successful bidders to minter smaller businesses such as the one owned by Dr. Georgiana Thomas.

I am committed to working with Delta and the larger community in improving the numbers and amount of dollars you are spending with African American vendors. In that regard I called your office on Friday and left a message with your secretary advising that a Mr. Latron Price of K. G. Group would welcome the opportunity to sell Delta jet fuel. Fuel, as I understand it, which is readily available in Houston, Texas. I trust you will pursue that opportunity.

Warm regards,

Joe Beasley

Cc: Dr. Joseph Lowery
Mr. Richard H. Anderson
Rev. J. Allen Milner
Mr. Steve Gorman

ARE PIRATES THE REAL HEROES?

2009-04-12T07:34:00.000-07:00

The drama that is now being played out on the high seas off the coast of Africa is symbolic of what is wrong with our world. Captain Phillip is symbolic of the west who has exploited Africa and African people for the past 500 years! The "so called pirates" are symbolic of African people, whether in Haiti, Colombia, Brazil or the United States.

When will the western world stop their global rape and pillage? I was in Haiti last week and went into the prisons and witnessed human beings being kept in dungeons of despair. The men's prison, built for 800 is holding over 4000! The women's prison built for 50 have 400! They are in a dysfunctional world that is being punished because they had the audacity to defeat Napoleon over 200 years because they was tired of being the property of the French.

President Preval do not have the money to build new prisons because he has to pay $2 million dollars a week to the World Bank for money they loaned Papa Doc, a brutal dictator, a puppet of the United States government, the same government that deposed the democratically elected President of Haiti, President Aristead, still the most popular personality in Haiti!

Africa, like Haiti, is paying an illegal debt to the World Bank which has left the Continent impoverished. Every baby born in Africa owe the world bank $200, a debt they will never be able to pay!

The war that is being waged in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is a part of this western demonic nightmare. It must be noted that African people are not manufacturing weapons nowhere in the world. While women are being raped in Congo the western governments are stealing the precious mineral resources from that Country. The Congo alone is worth $24 trillion dollars, equal the resources of the United States and all of Europe combined.

Meanwhile, the "so called Pirates," former fishermen, who's water has been despoiled with toxic waste from the west, not to speak of the western commerical fishermen who has stolen the fish from African waters for decades, are left in a dilemma. In my view, the "so called Pirates" are the heroes and Captain Phillips, like the west, are the real villains.

We must find a more excellent way to do business in our world!

Mr. Sagesse Jean Death May Come in Prison Letter of Hope....

2009-04-05T12:21:00.000-07:00

March 3, 2009

His Excellency Rene Preval
President Republic of Haiti
Haitian National Palace
9, rue Riviere
Port au Prince, Haiti

Dear Mr. President:

I was invited to join a delegation from the New England Human Rights Commission to visit the Dominican Republic and Haiti on a “Fact Finding Mission” related to infringements of human rights in both Countries. I was shocked and dismayed by what we observed.

Your immediate attention is solicited in the matter of Mr. Sagesse Jean who is being held in Administration 4 National Penitentiary in Port au Prince. I met with him briefly and observed that he was very ill and in need of urgent medial attention. After returning to the United States I learned today that his condition has deteriorated and he is in imminent danger of death if he is not afforded medical care.

I am appealing to you based upon your personal humanity that you use your unique authority as Chief of State of the Republic of Haiti to bring relief to Mr. Sagesse Jean and his family.

I will be sending you a more detailed report of our observations and findings under separate cover of our mission to your historic nation in a few days. The matter of Mr. Sagesse Jean deserves your immediate attention and action.
With much respect and honor I make this request.

Respectfully,

Joe Beasley, President African Ascension: www.africanascention.org
Cc: Prime Minister, Republic of Haiti
Honorable Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, USA
Reverend Jesse Jackson, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, USA

Credits: Google Images

African Ascension's 7 Days .......

2009-03-26T13:35:00.000-07:00

Joe Beasley and former prime minister of Haiti Mr. Yvon Neptune

African Ascension's 8 Days .......

2009-03-25T10:42:00.000-07:00

This is the picture we took at the sugarcane field with two thirteen year old boys that have been working for four years. We are across
the street from a batay, which are slums for poor black Haitians.

Zimbabwe says US dollar prices falling

2009-03-24T17:34:00.000-07:00

HARARE (AFP) – Zimbabwe officials said Tuesday that consumer prices fell at the beginning of the year, in the first sign that a switch to the US dollar has tamed the devastating hyperinflation of recent years.

The last official assessment of Zimbabwe's inflation in July last year put the rate at 231 million percent, a figure that independent economists saw as a gross understatement.

But the Central Statistical Office said it had stopped calculating inflation in Zimbabwe dollar terms since January, when the government legalised the use of US dollars and South African rands for all trade.

Since that decision, the Zimbabwe dollar has disappeared from the streets. The central bank had been printing ever larger denominations into the trillions every few weeks, meaning even small purchases required staggering sums.

The statistics office said all inflation calculations would now be based in US dollars, and by that measure, prices have been declining all year.

"Prices as measured by the all-items consumer price index decreased an average of 3.1 percent from January 2009 to February 2009," the agency said.

"The month-on-month inflation rate in February was -3.1 percent, shedding 0.8 percentage points on the January rate of -2.3 percent," it said.

Last week Finance Minister Tendai Biti said that by the end of year, annual inflation would be below 10 percent.

Credits: AFP/File – A shopper uses a bundle of Zimbabwean dollars to buy a handful of fresh tomatoes in Harare. Zimbabwe …

War Against Women

2009-02-23T17:21:00.000-08:00

(CBS) This segment was originally broadcast on Jan. 13, 2008. It was updated on Aug. 14, 2008.

Right now there's a war taking place in the heart of Africa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and more people have died there than in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Darfur combined.

You probably haven't heard much about it, but as CNN's Anderson Cooper first reported last January, it's the deadliest conflict since World War II. Within the last ten years, more than five million people have died and the numbers keep rising.

As Cooper and a 60 Minutes team found when they went there a few months ago, the most frequent targets of this hidden war are women. It is, in fact, a war against women, and the weapon used to destroy them, their families and whole communities, is rape.

See the video, parental discretion is advised some scenes are disturbing:

Credits: CBS

'Concern' over peers cash claims

2009-01-24T21:57:00.001-08:00

The leader of the House of Lords says she is "deeply concerned" over allegations four peers were prepared to accept money to put down amendments.

The Sunday Times claims they offered to help make amendments to legislation in return for up to £120,000.

Lady Royall told the BBC she had spoken to the four Labour peers concerned and would be "pursuing the matter with utmost vigour".

She also said House of Lords members must "abide by its high standards."

One of the peers, Lord Truscott, has denied the claims.

The former energy minister did admit to having had "discussions" with the reporter, but told the BBC that "to suggest I would offer to put down amendments for money is a lie".

One of the other peers named, Lord Moonie, a former defence minister, told the BBC that he had been suspicious of the people who had approached him.

Credits: BBC

Thailand defies UN over migrants

2009-01-24T21:55:00.000-08:00

Thailand says 126 asylum-seekers from the Burmese Rohingya minority who were detained by the military a week ago have been sent back out to sea.

The UN Refugee Agency asked to see the detainees three days ago, but never received a response.

Last month almost 1,000 Rohingyas were detained and then towed out to sea by Thai security forces in boats with little food and no motors.

Hundreds of survivors have been rescued, but hundreds more are missing.

Less than a month after taking office the new Thai government is struggling to manage a public relations disaster caused by the treatment meted out by Thai military units to Rohingya boat people last month.

Credits: BBC

Nine dead in Congo rebel drive

2009-01-24T21:52:00.000-08:00

Congolese soldier watches as Rwandan troops pass on road east of Goma
Congo let thousands of Rwandan soldiers in to help fight Hutu rebels

The Congolese military says nine Hutu rebels have been killed in eastern DR Congo, as a joint drive with Rwandan soldiers against rebels is stepped up.

A Congolese army commander reported fighting with Rwandan Hutu rebels in five villages in the Lubero area, over 200km (125 miles) north of Goma.

Meanwhile there is no word on the possible extradition to DR Congo of Tutsi rebel chief Laurent Nkunda.

He was was arrested in Rwanda on Thursday night.

A Congolese army commander reported fighting with Rwandan Hutu rebels in five villages in the Lubero area, over 200km (125 miles) north of Goma.

Meanwhile there is no word on the possible extradition to DR Congo of Tutsi rebel chief Laurent Nkunda.

He was was arrested in Rwanda on Thursday night.

Congolese soldiers are fighting alongside at least 3,500 Rwandan soldiers to disarm the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

Members of this ethnic Hutu militia fled Rwanda after the 1994 genocide against Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Some FDLR leaders are accused of involvement in the genocide.

General John Numbi, who is in charge of joint operations with Rwandan troops, reported fighting in five villages in Lubero on Friday and Saturday.

He said nine FDLR fighters had been killed and one Congolese soldier wounded.

Credits: BBC

Minister attacks banking bosses

2009-01-24T21:49:00.000-08:00

Banks and their "grossly over-rewarded" executives are partly to blame for causing the economic recession, a government minister has said.

In an interview with the Times, City minister Lord Myners said the "golden days of huge bonuses" were over.

Executives had "no sense of the broader society around them", he added.

Lord Myners, the financial services secretary, said the bank system came close to collapse last October, before the government's £500bn rescue package.

"There were two or three hours when things felt very bad, nervous and fragile," he said.

"Major depositors were trying to withdraw - and willing to pay penalties for early withdrawal - from a number of large banks."

He said: "I have met more masters of the universe than I would like to, people who were grossly over-rewarded and did not recognise that. Some of that is pretty unpalatable.

Credits: BBC

South Korea's "prophet of doom" indicted

2009-01-22T12:00:00.000-08:00

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean prosecutors indicted a blogger on Thursday who had warned of financial doom for the country with critics saying he was targeted because his gloomy forecasts upset the government battling an economic downturn.

The blogger, writing under the pseudonym Minerva, became a household name for his predictions of sharp falls in the won and the local stock market and the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers. Prosecutors said he hurt the local currency by posting incorrect information online.

"The suspect in this case was indicted on charges of false information on two occasions," an official at the prosecutors' office said by telephone.

As South Korean markets tumbled late last year amid the global downturn, the main financial regulator warned it would crack down on what it considered malicious rumors and some economic analysts say they have come under pressure from authorities not to voice negative views on the economy.

"The prosecution hurriedly went ahead with its investigation and a court readily gave prosecutors a permit to conduct a witch hunt," the liberal Hankyoreh daily said in a recent editorial, calling the case an infringement of freedom of speech.

Credits: Just Jared Jr., Yahoo Tech

Fidel Castro says doesn't doubt Obama 'honesty'

2009-01-22T11:56:00.002-08:00

HAVANA – Fidel Castro watched the U.S. inauguration on television and says he doesn't doubt Barack Obama's "honesty," breaking a monthlong silence with an essay published Thursday in Cuba's state-run press.

The comments by the former Cuban president were released after a meeting Wednesday with visiting Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, who told reporters that "Fidel believes in Obama."

The meeting with Fernandez dispelled persistent rumors that the 82-year-old Castro had suffered a stroke or lapsed into a coma in recent days.

"I was with Fidel about an hour or more," she told reporters at the airport as she left. "We were chatting, conversing. He looked good." Castro himself wrote that the meeting lasted 40 minutes and he said the two exchanged thoughts about the new U.S. president.

"I personally did not have the slightest doubt about the honesty of Obama, the 11th president since Jan. 1, 1959, when he expresses his ideas," Castro said he told Fernandez, referring to the day his band of bearded rebels toppled a dictator and took power in Cuba.

Credits: Associated Press

Israeli troops invade Gaza

2009-01-22T11:56:00.001-08:00

Fishermen work the waters near to shore in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, in the Gaza strip, at sunset on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2009. Fishing is one of the main sources of food and income for many people in the area but it remains a risky business with Israeli gunboats still enforcing a sea blockade and firing shells into Gaza's shore line, despite the cease-fire. On Thursday Jan. 22, a Palestinian man and a girl were wounded by one of the shells which hit a house in the camp, according to a Palestinian medical official.

Credits: (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Michelle Obama Debuts Inauguration Dress

2009-01-20T07:26:00.000-08:00

Incoming First Lady, Michelle Obama, heads to St. John’s Church with President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday morning prior to the Inauguration ceremony in Washington D.C.

Much has been made about the First Lady’s inauguration dress — which designer she will choose and how the outfit could set the done for her White House style. The L.A. Times takes a look at previous First Ladies and their outfit choices for the Inauguration of their husbands.

Credits: Just Jared Jr., Posted to Barack Obama, Michelle Obama
Photos: AP Images

Obamas, Bidens enjoy Lincoln Memorial concert

2009-01-19T17:32:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON – Under the gaze of Abraham Lincoln's statue, Bruce Springsteen and a red-robed gospel choir kicked off a spirited preinaugural concert Sunday before tens of thousands on the National Mall.

The crowd erupted in cheers when Obama and his wife, Michelle, arrived, walking down the steps of the memorial, and kept applauding for the high-energy Springsteen act and the performances that followed.

There was no red carpet, but the event had the feel of a Hollywood awards ceremony, with stars taking the stage to praise, serenade, and even impersonate the next president.

Performers including Bono, Beyonce and James Taylor were on the bill.

A crowd expected to reach up to a half-million was stretched past the reflecting pool separating the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.

Obama and his wife and Vice President-elect Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, sat behind bullet-proof glass near the stage erected on the steps of the memorial.

Credits: Associated Press

Obama steps to door of White House — and history

2009-01-19T17:24:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama stood at the threshold of the White House on Monday, summoning fellow Americans to join him in service as tens of thousands flocked to the nation's capital to celebrate his inauguration as the first black president. "Tomorrow we will come together as one people on the same Mall where Dr. King's dream echoes still," said the president-elect, invoking the memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the national holiday in his honor.

The 47-year-old former senator takes office at noon Tuesday at a time of economic crisis at home and two wars overseas. But the challenges of the moment receded into the background for many who came for a chance to witness history.

"I didn't think I would see a black president in my generation. I just had to be here," said Donald Butler, 20, a University of Washington student.

"I'm just really happy that I'm living to see this wonderful event," said 70-year-old Betty Bryant, who rode a chartered bus from Augusta, Ga. Standing in front of the icy Reflecting Pool facing the Capitol, she made plans to rise at 3 a.m. Tuesday to take her place on the Mall for the swearing-in.

Credits: Associated Press

Bank of America to get $20 billion in emergency funds

2009-01-17T01:26:00.000-08:00

With a new round of turmoil gripping financial markets, the Bush administration late Thursday night was rushing $20 billion in emergency funding for Bank of America to prop up a bank that was supposed to come to the rescue of another.

Just months ago, Bank of America, based in Charlotte, N.C., appeared to emerge as the nation's top bank after it stepped in on Sept. 15 to purchase investment bank Merrill Lynch. After Merrill's fourth-quarter results proved worse than expected, however, the acquisition was in peril and investors have fled Bank of America in droves.

Bank of America's stock has lost 40 percent of its value during the past 10 days - shares closed on Thursday in single digits for the first time in 18 years - and the taxpayer money will be used to ameliorate the losses from its acquisition of Merrill Lynch. Chief Executive Ken Lewis called it the "deal of a lifetime" when it was announced.

People familiar with the unfolding events, requesting anonymity to speak freely, said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, with the knowledge of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, pressured the bank to stick to its purchase of Merrill Lynch.

Credits: KansasCity.com

Stimulus plan repeals big tax break for banks

2009-01-17T01:21:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON – House Democrats' version of the $825 billion recession rescue package would end billions of dollars in tax breaks the Bush administration quietly gave to banks last fall.

Already almost exclusive beneficiaries of a $700 billion Wall Street bailout, banks are largely left out of the House stimulus package that President-elect Barack Obama wants passed quickly through Congress. Those getting financial bailout money wouldn't even be eligible for one of the main business tax breaks aimed at priming the economic pump.

Homebuilders, manufacturers, retailers and low-income families share the bulk of the $275 billion in proposed new tax cuts.

House leaders moved this week to repeal the tax break for banks even as the Senate voted to help many of those same institutions by releasing the second $350 billion of the widely unpopular Wall Street bailout. Many lawmakers are unhappy with the results after the Bush administration spent the first $350 billion, making them wary of helping banks in the stimulus package.

To address the financial industry meltdown, the Treasury Department last fall issued a new tax rule to make it more attractive for healthy banks to buy troubled ones hit hard by the mortgage crisis. It allowed healthy banks to avoid billions of dollars in taxes by offsetting their profits with the losses of the banks they acquire.

Credits: Associated Press

Major troop decisions for Afghan war await Obama

2009-01-17T01:19:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON – Lingering decisions on how quickly the Pentagon can get U.S. forces out of Iraq and into Afghanistan are being pushed off until after the Obama administration takes over next week as military commanders continue to wrangle over where the troops are needed most.

By the end of this month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected to approve sending more Marines to southern Afghanistan, effectively lowering their numbers in Iraq's western Anbar province, and he may also endorse deploying an Army brigade equipped with armored Stryker vehicles. Senior military officials say there is general agreement to cut back on the 22,000 Marines in Iraq, but Army officials have concerns about how to free up the Stryker unit.

As the Pentagon looks to double the existing force in Afghanistan, the overall cast of the military's growing force in Afghanistan is becoming clearer: Commanders want to beef up the expeditionary units and trainers in the south and east with enough new troops to stem the violence without becoming an occupying force that would alienate the Afghan population.

Their challenge, however, is to get troops out into the hundreds of tiny villages in the volatile southern region, where the Taliban insurgency has been centered. To do that, Gen. David McKiernan, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has asked for more mobile forces and believes the strykers will allow soldiers to move more easily along the rugged trails to the widely dispersed tribal enclaves.

Credits: Associated Press

Kellogg recalls 16 products due to salmonella risk

2009-01-17T01:14:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON – Kellogg Co. on Friday recalled 16 products containing peanut butter due to possible salmonella contamination, adding new urgency to the nationwide outbreak as federal officials confirmed contamination at a Georgia facility that ships peanut products to 85 food companies.

The Battle Creek, Mich., company earlier this week had asked stores to pull some of its venerable Keebler crackers from shelves as a precaution. But in a statement late Friday, Kellogg said it was voluntarily announcing a formal recall of the crackers and other products in light of the problems in Georgia.

The outbreak has sickened hundreds of people in 43 states and killed at least six.

"The actions we are taking today are in keeping with our more than 100-year commitment to providing consumers with safe, high-quality products," said David Mackay, Kellogg's president and CEO. "We apologize for this unfortunate situation."

The recall includes Austin and Keebler branded Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers, as well as some snack-size packs of Famous Amos Peanut Butter Cookies and Keebler Soft Batch Homestyle Peanut Butter Cookies.

Credits: Associated Press

Obama's 'Beast' of a car revealed

2009-01-14T16:34:00.000-08:00

It looks like something out of a James Bond film.

But the presidential seal on the side marks this hulking limo out as something not even the superspy will be able to get his hands on.

These are the first pictures of the new armoured limousine which will be used to ferry Barack Obama around.

Nicknamed "The Beast", the Cadillac will make its debut on 20 January, as part of the inaugural parade.

It is traditional to show presidential cars off for the first time in this way.

Credit: BBC

China's economy leapfrogs Germany

2009-01-14T11:53:00.001-08:00

The Chinese government has increased its estimate of how much the economy grew during 2007.

The revision means China's economy overtook Germany's to become the world's third largest in 2007.

Gross domestic product expanded 13%, up from an earlier estimate of 11.9%, to 25.7 trillion yuan ($3.5 trillion).

The figures underscore China's emergence as an economic superpower, although the country's growth rate is expected to have dropped to 9% in 2008.

China's government is taking measures to try and ease the slowdown.

The government has launched a 4 trillion yuan ($586bn) stimulus package and has promised measures to help struggling exporters and vehicle and steel makers.

Individually, most of China's more than one billion people remain poor.

Germany's GDP per person was $38,800 in 2007 compared with $2,800 in China, which has wide disparities between rich and poor.

Credits: BBC

EU warns of legal action over gas

2009-01-14T11:51:00.001-08:00

The European Commission has warned Russian and Ukrainian gas companies of legal action over a dispute which has left many Europeans without heat.

Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said he would advise EU energy companies to sue unless Gazprom and Naftogaz move fast to restore supplies.

Bulgarian, Slovak and Moldovan prime ministers have held talks in Moscow and Kiev but the deadlock remains.

Supplies remain cut off because of a row between Russia and Ukraine.

'Matter of urgency'

Mr Barroso told the European Parliament the dispute between Ukraine and Russia was "most unacceptable and incredible".

He said if agreements, sponsored by the European Union, are not observed "as a matter of urgency", he would advise energy companies that have deals with Gazprom and Naftogaz, to file lawsuits against them.

Credits: BBC

Washington diary: Inaugural fever

2009-01-14T11:02:00.000-08:00

Washington DC, a city of just over one million inhabitants, may play host to a visiting crowd of three million.

Trains have been booked solid for months.

You cannot find a hotel room as far away as Baltimore or Richmond, and enterprising citizens of the District are pitching tents and renting their homes for astronomical sums.

For one week the recession - or is it now a depression? - will be banished from this town like an evil spirit.

Bars will stay open until 4am on the day after inauguration night.

Barack Obama has risen to the mounting challenge of crisis and expectation by flexing his muscles

Hollywood stars who normally shun the federal capital like a leper colony will descend en masse.

Reagan airport will become a parking lot for executive jets. And at one night club they have taken the Obama worship to new levels by offering the "Dream" cocktail, a sickly concoction of rum, caramel and cinnamon.

The economy continues to tank, Gaza continues to burn and Eastern Europe continues to shiver without Russian gas but the world, it seems, does not begrudge Washington its festivities, just as the world wishes George Bush a speedy transition to retirement amid the tumbleweed of Texas.

Credits: BBC

'More than 1,000 killed in Gaza'

2009-01-14T11:01:00.000-08:00

Nearly a third of the dead are reported to be children and nearly 5,000 people have been injured.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he wanted to find a durable and sustainable ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian fighters.

But clashes reportedly intensified as Mr Ban began a Middle East tour.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza said 1,013 people have died in the conflict which started 19 days ago.

More than 300 of the dead are said to be children, 76 are women and more than 4,500 people in Gaza have been injured, of whom 1,600 are children and 678 are women.

Thirteen Israelis have been killed, including three civilians and one soldier from rockets fired from Gaza and nine soldiers killed in fighting in Gaza.

Credits: BBC

US calls for UN force in Somalia by June 1

2009-01-14T07:41:00.000-08:00

UNITED NATIONS – The United States circulated a draft resolution calling for a U.N. peacekeeping force to be deployed in Somalia by June 1 to replace an African Union force now confined to a small area of the capital.

The draft obtained Monday by The Associated Press would renew the mandate of the AU force for six months and urge African nations to increase its strength from the current 2,600 to the 8,000 originally called for before the U.N. deploys its force.

The resolution is drafted under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which is militarily enforceable, and declares that "the situation in Somalia constitutes a threat to international peace and security in the region."

The Horn of Africa nation is at a dangerous crossroads. The president resigned in late December, saying he had lost most of the country to Islamic insurgents, and the Ethiopian troops who have been protecting the weak U.N.-backed government have begun pulling out. Islamic groups are starting to fight among themselves for power.

Credits: Associated Press

Million-dollar film studio to put South Africa on movie map

2009-01-13T21:31:00.000-08:00

CAPE TOWN (AFP) – When actor Nicolas Cage made love to Bridget Moynahan in the 2005 hit "Lord of War", a pungent smell still hung over the old Cape Town fertiliser plant-turned-movie studio where the scene was filmed.

Even its chief executive Nico Dekker said the site opposite a sewerage works was a "stinky" and "hellish" place.

Yet the revamped factory helped turn South Africa into a top-notch movie-making spot, attracting filmmakers from around the world and showing the time was right to build a whole new multi-million dollar complex.

Construction recently started to turn 200 hectares (nearly 500 acres) near pristine wetlands and lush Cape vineyards into Africa's first state-of-the art studio worthy of Hollywood or Bollywood.

"It is like manna, honey to the bees. It positions us as believing in the future of filmmaking in Africa," Dekker told AFP.

Cape Town Film Studios, initially named Dreamworld, lies 25 kilometers (15 miles) east of its namesake city. It is the country's largest ever investment in its film industry, which employs more than 20,000 people.

Hope runs high it will boost the sector's annual earnings from the current one billion rand (10 million dollars, seven million euros) to as much as four times that amount.

Credits: Associated Press, AFP/File – The chief executive of the Cape Town Film Studio project, Nico Dekker, posing on land near Cape Town, …

Nigeria Oil Unrest

2009-01-13T21:29:00.000-08:00

ABUJA (AFP) – Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua on Tuesday sacked the head of the country's state-run oil company and replaced him with a former OPEC chief scribe, his office announced.

No reason was given for dropping Abubakar Yar'Adua who has been managing director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for the past 17 months.

He has been replaced by Mohammed Barkindo, a former secretary general of the global oil cartel, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). He was acting secretary general of OPEC in 2006.

Yar'Adua has vowed to reorganise the corruption-ridden and inefficient NNPC into a more productive and commercially viable oil outfit.

Nigeria is one of Africa's leading oil producers.

Crude production now stands at roughly two million barrels a day, compared with 2.6 million in 2006, with Nigeria vying with Angola for the title of Africa's largest oil producer.

The drop in production has largely been blamed on unrest in the southern oil producing Niger Delta where armed militants have over the past three years, attacked oil companies, equipment and staff.

Credits: Associated Press, AFP/File – Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua on Tuesday sacked the head of the country's state-run oil company …

US mission in Afghanistan tougher than Iraq

2009-01-13T21:24:00.000-08:00

KABUL (AFP) – The United States is hoping a strategy similar to the one it used to improve security in Iraq, including an influx of troops, will work in Afghanistan -- one of president-elect Barack Obama's priorities.

But US and Afghan officials say the mission will be more difficult here as Afghanistan is splintered by tribal rivalries and weakened by the existence of militant safe havens across the border in Pakistan.

"We cannot just take the tactics, techniques and procedures that worked in Iraq and employ them in Afghanistan," General David Petraeus, commander of US forces in the Middle East and Central Asia, recently told Foreign Affairs.

At the start of 2006, Afghanistan was touted as a US military success, while Iraq was mired in a seemingly endless spiral of violence.

Today, the tables have turned: 2008 was the deadliest year for US soldiers in Afghanistan since they arrived in 2001, and the least deadly in Iraq since the start of the invasion there in 2003.

Washington helped reduce the violence in Iraq and pave the way for progress toward political reconciliation by sending more troops, intensifying operations and co-opting some of the rebels into militias paid to help maintain security.

The US military is hoping to implement a similar plan in Afghanistan, where security has worsened in the past two years as the Taliban-led insurgency has gathered pace.

Credits: AFP/File – File photo shows an Afghan man pushing his bicycle as he walks past a tomb in Kabul. The United States …

Zimbabwe cholera deaths more than 2,000: WHO

2009-01-13T21:22:00.000-08:00

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic has killed more than 2,000 people and almost 40,000 have contracted the normally preventable disease in Africa's worst outbreak in nearly a decade, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday.

The epidemic is adding to the humanitarian crisis in the country, where President Robert Mugabe and the opposition are deadlocked over a power-sharing deal and the veteran leader is resisting Western calls to step down.

An update dated January 12 showed 2,024 people had been killed by cholera from 39,806 cases. It is the worst outbreak of the disease in Africa since 1999 when 2,085 people died from cholera in Nigeria, according to WHO data.

The waterborne disease, which causes severe diarrhea and dehydration, has spread to all of Zimbabwe's 10 provinces because of the collapse of health and sanitation systems. The WHO said 89 percent of the country's 62 districts are affected.

Zimbabwe's government has warned that the epidemic could get worse in the rainy season which peaks in January or February and ends in late March. Floods may increase the spread of the disease.

Cholera has also spread to Zimbabwe's neighbors with at least 13 deaths and 1,419 cases in South Africa. Botswana, Mozambique and Zambia have also reported cholera cases.

U.S.-based Physicians for Human Rights called on Zimbabwe's government to hand over control of its health services, water supply, sanitation and disease surveillance to a United Nations-designated agency.

The group said the U.N. Security Council should enact a resolution referring Zimbabwe's crisis to the International Criminal Court for investigation.

Credits: Reuters – Cholera patients rest on their beds inside the male ward of Budiriro Polyclinic in Harare December 1,

Lack of sleep 'raises cold risk'

2009-01-12T21:42:00.000-08:00

Sleeping less than seven hours a night greatly raises the risk of catching a cold, US research has suggested.

A team from Carnegie Mellon University found the risk was trebled compared with those who sleep eight hours or more a night.

It is thought that a lack of sleep impairs the immune system, and the body's ability to fight off the viruses that cause colds and flu.

The study appears in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

Previous research has suggested that people who sleep seven to eight hours a night have the lowest rates of heart disease.

However, there has been little direct evidence that getting a good night's sleep can help ward off a cold.

The researchers studied 153 health men and women with an average age of 37 between 2000 and 2004.

Each was interviewed about their sleeping habits over a two-week period.

Credits: BBC

Barack Obama meets Mexican leader

2009-01-12T21:40:00.000-08:00

Mexico's violent drugs war, immigration and trade have dominated talks between US President-elect Barack Obama and Mexico's President Felipe Calderon.

Monday's meeting in Washington DC was Mr Obama's first with a foreign leader since his election in November.

His transition office said the talks highlighted the importance of the relationship between the US and Mexico.

Mr Obama, who will be sworn in on 20 January, will make his first foreign trip to Canada, officials have said.

No date has been set but officials indicated it would be "soon" after Mr Obama takes office, restoring a long-standing tradition that Canada is the first destination for a new US president.

"It will be the first foreign trip of his presidency, underscoring the importance of the relationship between the United States and Canada," said Brooke Anderson, a transition spokeswoman.

Canada is the US's biggest trading partner, followed by China, and then Mexico.

Credit: BBC

Dollar is key to Zimbabwe survival

2009-01-11T23:15:00.000-08:00

Last week the reserve bank issued a new Zimbabwean banknote - a $500m bill. Its value changes by the day, but a rough estimate of its worth now is about US $50 (£33).

Its release was enough to see a surge of people flock onto the streets and form huge queues outside the banks. Harare's pavements were gridlocked for most of the day.

But increasingly it is only US dollars that are accepted in Zimbabwe's shops. Petrol stations are among those now turning away people who offer fistfuls of local currency.

Even water bills - for what little clean water there is - have to be paid in hard US cash. And bread is now a dollar commodity in many parts of the country.

'Dollarisation'

There has been a surge in cross-border trade in recent weeks with the lifting of restrictions on US dollar transactions.

Consumer goods, food and cars are being brought across from neighbouring South Africa.

Shoppers at a supermarket in Harare selling goods priced in foreign currency

Supermarkets are now stuffed with food, filling shelves that just a month or so ago were empty.

These supermarkets are for Zimbabwe's tiny dollar elite - the type that drive brand new cars into the car parks as others try to fend off starvation. They only accept US dollar bills in these swanky shops.

Credits: BBC

Economy tops Seoul summit agenda

2009-01-11T23:10:00.000-08:00

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has held summit talks with his South Korean counterpart, Lee Myung-bak, on the second day of his visit to Seoul.

Japan and South Korea have been hard hit by the global financial crisis.

Discussions covered a possible free trade deal and other ways to reinforce business and economic cooperation, the BBC correspondent in Seoul said.

Since taking office eleven months ago, President Lee has pushed for improved ties with Japan.

He has held regular meetings with Japanese leaders.

He has also resumed top level visits to Tokyo, which were suspended in 2005 in protest at then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated trips to a controversial Tokyo shrine that honours Japan's war dead, including convicted war criminals.

Talking business

Mr Aso arrived in Seoul on Sunday with 20 Japanese business executives in tow.

Representing corporate giants like Toyota, Canon and Nippon Steel, the delegation was a clear signal that Monday's summit meeting with Mr Lee would focus on economic issues, the BBC's John Sudworth said.

"President Lee agreed to my view that Asia should be the growth centre in the world and play a big role in the global economy recovery," Mr Aso told a news conference after the leaders' meeting.

Credits: BBC

Motown marks its 50th anniversary

2009-01-11T22:58:00.000-08:00

Motown Records, one of the most influential record labels in the history of popular music, is marking its 50th anniversary.

Originally called Tamla, the label was founded by songwriter and businessman Berry Gordy in the US city of Detroit.

He started the label in 1959 from a studio in his cellar with an $800 loan.

Motown Records boasts nearly 200 No 1 songs worldwide, and has produced stars from Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye to The Temptations and The Supremes.

The trademark of Motown was developing black musical talent and, during the 1960s and 1970s, the label helped launch the careers of a long line of stars such as Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson and Michael Jackson.

Mr Gordy changed the label's name to Motown in honour of the city's dominant position in the then-thriving US auto industry.

Credits: BBC

Court to rule on Zuma graft case

2009-01-11T22:57:00.000-08:00

An appeal court is to decide whether Jacob Zuma, the leader of South Africa's governing ANC, should be recharged with corruption and fraud.

Judges are to decide if an earlier high court ruling dismissing charges against Mr Zuma was correct.

If the judgement goes in favour of the state prosecutors, the case against Mr Zuma could be reinstated.

The ANC leader is widely tipped to become the country's next president after upcoming elections.

Whatever happens in the Bloemfontein appeal court on Monday, Mr Zuma will remain the ANC's contender to run the country after the forthcoming general election, says the BBC's Southern Africa correspondent Peter Biles.

The 65-year-old has always denied charges of graft, money-laundering and racketeering, stemming from a controversial $5bn 1999 arms deal.

Credits: BBC

Army 'takes key Sri Lanka pass'

2009-01-10T13:36:00.001-08:00

The Sri Lankan army has captured Elephant Pass, the strategic causeway linking the Jaffna peninsula with the mainland, the president has said.

Mahinda Rajapaksa said Tamil Tiger rebels had been completely dislodged. The Tigers have made no comment yet.

Troops took Kilinochchi, the HQ of the rebels, last week and began a pincer movement on Elephant Pass.

The Tigers have been fighting for a separate homeland for 25 years and have held the pass since 2000.

De facto state

President Rajapaksa said in a televised address: "Our forces have recorded another historic victory. That is the complete dislodging of the Tigers from Elephant Pass and the security forces establishing their authority there."

See map of the region

On Thursday, troops coming south from Muhamalai took over the rebel base at Pallai and then advanced 5km (3 miles) further south to capture Sorampattu, the military said.

Credits: BBC

Obama plan 'could create 4m jobs'

2009-01-10T13:31:00.001-08:00

US President-elect Barack Obama says urgent action is needed on the economy, and his $775bn (£509bn) stimulus plan could create up to four million jobs.

Mr Obama, who takes office in two weeks, wants to cut taxes and create jobs through increased government spending on public works projects.

"It's not too late to change course, but only if we take immediate and drastic action," he said.

The US unemployment rate is 7.2%, after 524,000 jobs were lost in December.

Recession fears

The number of job losses last year was 2.6 million, the largest since World War II.

The figures, released on Friday, heightened fears that the US is entering a long period of recession.

The president-elect published a detailed analysis of his recovery plan by his economic advisers, who said it could create up to four million jobs by the end of 2010.

Credits: BBC

Behaviour link to lifelong health

2009-01-10T13:28:00.000-08:00

People who behaved badly at school are more likely to suffer mental health and social difficulties as adults, a 40-year-study of Britons suggests.

Canadian researchers writing in the British Medical Journal examined data from 3,500 people from the age of 13 until they reached their 40s or 50s.

Those who had school behaviour problems were more likely to be depressed, divorced or have financial problems.

But a psychologist questioned whether the same would apply in other eras.

In the late 1950s and the start of the 1960s, teachers across Britain were asked to rate the behaviour of a nationally representative sample of children, all of them born in 1946, as they entered their early teenage years.

A quarter of the children were described by the teachers as having some sort of mild or more severe behavioural problem.

The participants were then reinterviewed between the ages of 36 and 53, asked about their mental health, and social and economic status.

Credits: BBC

ANC launches election manifesto

2009-01-10T13:23:00.000-08:00

South Africa's governing African National Congress (ANC) has unveiled its election manifesto at a packed stadium rally.

The party promised massive public spending to create jobs and more government intervention in the economy.

With elections in a few months, tens of thousands of supporters attended the rally in Eastern Cape province.

The ANC faces a challenge from the newly-formed breakaway Congress of the People (Cope) party.

ANC leader Jacob Zuma said the party had identified five priorities: Jobs creation, education, health, rural development (including land reform), and the fight against crime.

'Shift to the left'

"The most important task of the beginning of the year is to ensure that the ANC returns a decisive election victory," the 66-year-old leader told cheering crowds at the stadium in East London.

He added: "We can expect this campaign to be robust and interesting."

Credits: BBC

Republicans cry foul over Obama's 'big government' plan

2009-01-06T20:07:00.001-08:00

WASHINGTON (AFP) – President-elect Barack Obama's plan to haul the US economy out of recession entails a hefty expansion of the federal government -- a prospect that has conservative critics aghast.

The centerpiece of the plan is Obama's pledge to create or preserve three million jobs -- of which he says "more than 80 percent" will be in the private sector.

That means up to 20 percent of the jobs would be in government, or 600,000, a sizeable addition to the roughly 2.5 million people now on the federal payroll.

Reared on president Ronald Reagan's article of faith that "big government" is the problem, not the solution, conservative pundits accuse Obama of belatedly showing his true "liberal" colors.

"FDR had his Hundred Days; Obama was going to have his Day," National Review editor Rich Lowry wrote, comparing president Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal to the incoming administration's "madcap" dash for a stimulus package.

Rush Limbaugh, the dean of right-wing talk radio, said the only way Obama and "liberal Democrats" could meet their target was to restore the draft and conscript unsuspecting small-town Americans into the military.

Credits: Associated Press

Gaza truce proposed after Israel shelling kills 30

2009-01-06T19:59:00.000-08:00

GAZA CITY, Gaza – France and Egypt announced an initiative to stop the fighting in Gaza late Tuesday, hours after Israeli mortar shells exploded near a U.N. school sheltering hundreds of people displaced by the onslaught on Hamas militants. At least 30 Palestinians died, staining streets with blood.

The Egyptian and French presidents didn't release details of their proposal, saying only that it involved an immediate cease-fire to permit humanitarian aid into Gaza and talks to settle the differences between Israel and the Islamic militants of Hamas who rule the small coastal territory.

They said they were awaiting a response from Israel. Israeli officials in Jerusalem declined immediate comment on the announcement, which came amid diplomatic efforts by the U.S. and other nations to resolve a conflict that has seen 600 people killed in 11 days.

Credits: Associated Press

New Congress opens pledging to rescue economy

2009-01-06T19:58:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON – The Capitol rang loud with vows to fix the crisis-ridden economy Tuesday as Congress opened for business at the dawn of a new Democratic era. "We need action and we need action now," said Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Republicans agreed, and pledged cooperation in Congress as well as with President-elect Barack Obama — to a point.

On a day largely devoted to ceremony, new members of Congress and those newly re-elected swore to defend the Constitution. The Senate galleries were crowded; children and grandchildren of lawmakers squirmed in their seats in the House chamber as the winners in last fall's elections claimed their prizes.

One office-seeker was not among them.

In a scripted bit of political theater, Democrat Roland Burris of Illinois was informed he would not be seated because his paperwork was not in order. He pledged a lawsuit, the latest twist in a political drama that began when he was named to Obama's Senate seat by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who has been charged with having attempted to sell the appointment.

Credits: Associated Press

Scientists dismiss 'detox myth'

2009-01-05T09:35:00.000-08:00

There is no evidence that products widely promoted to help the body "detox" work, scientists warn.

The charitable trust Sense About Science reviewed 15 products, from bottled water to face scrub, and found many detox claims were "meaningless".

Anyone worried about the after-effects of Christmas overindulgence would get the same benefits from eating healthily and getting plenty of sleep, they said.

Advertising regulators said they looked at such issues on a case-by-case basis.

The investigation, done by research members of the Voice of Young Science network, was kicked off by a campaign to unpick "dodgy" science claims - where companies use phrases that sound scientific but do not actually mean anything.

Credits: BBC World News

Wind of change for Ghana

2009-01-05T09:34:00.001-08:00

As soon as the chair of Ghana's Electoral Commission, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, had announced the final result a few parties began.

People danced outside the EC office with party flags, sounded car horns, pulled wheelies on mopeds and one man charged up and down the road on horseback.

It was third time lucky for Professor John Atta Mills who had stood against John Kufuor in 2000 and 2004.

After eight years of the New Patriotic Party in power, a wind of change has blown across Ghana just strong enough to push the opposition candidate over the line.

From around nine million valid ballots cast the governing party's candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, lost by just 40,000 votes.

'Bad blood'

Outside the National Democratic Congress office in Accra a carnival was underway.

Some of the people were covered in white powder - a sign of victory in Ghana - and they danced to some of Professor Mills' campaign songs and the popular hit by DJ Blakk Rasta "Barack Obama" sent the crowd into a frenzy.

Credits: BBC World News

China vows new crackdown on Google, other web sites

2009-01-05T09:27:00.000-08:00

SHANGHAI (AFP) – China announced Monday it was cracking down on major websites, including search engine giants Google and Baidu, over the spread of pornography and other material that could corrupt young people.

China's Ministry of Public Security and six other government agencies announced the crackdown at a meeting on Monday, the official China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Centre said in a statement.

"For those websites that repeatedly ignore warnings, we will publicise a few, punish a few and even close down a few," Cai Mingzhao, deputy chief of the cabinet's Information Office, said in the statement.

Cai said some websites had taken advantage of government policies and loopholes to publish "low-class, crude and even vulgar contents, which severely corrupted the public mentality".

"The vulgar trend has deeply harmed the mental and physical health of young generation ... Many parents are calling out: 'Save our children'. They want the government to take drastic action."

The government would initially target 19 Internet service providers and websites that had failed to remove "vulgar" content and had shrugged off censors' warnings, the statement said.

It named Google as having failed to take action on government complaints that its search engine results contained a "massive number of links to pornographic web sites."

Baidu is the most popular search engine in China, followed by Google, and it was similarly accused of linking to obscene sites as well as providing blogging services that were used by some people to post vulgar images.

Credits: Associated Press

US joins press for truce as Gaza onslaught goes on

2009-01-05T09:25:00.000-08:00

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israel seized control of high-rise buildings and attacked houses, mosques and smuggling tunnels as it pressed its offensive against the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers on Monday, while the U.S. joined a stream of countries pushing for a cease-fire.

At least 14 Palestinian children were killed, raising the known death toll from a new ground invasion to more than 80. The vast majority of confirmed deaths have been civilians, fueling international outrage. Gaza's biggest hospital said it was overwhelmed.

As the bruising campaign against Gaza's Hamas rulers entered its 10th day, the Islamic militant group continued to pummel southern Israel with more than two dozen rockets on Monday and promised to wait for Israeli soldiers "in every street and every alleyway."

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the offensive would go on until Israel achieved "peace and tranquility" for residents of southern Israel.

Credits: Associated Press

The Obamas Move to Washington

2009-01-04T10:22:00.001-08:00

Future first lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha flew to Washington on Saturday, just one day before President-elect Barack Obama's planned departure for D.C.

The timing of the move – at the start of a new school semester – echoes Michelle's vow to help her girls transition smoothly into their new life. On Monday, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, will begin classes at the prestigious Sidwell Friends School, according to the Washington Post.

At Sidwell Friends, a private institution, the Obama girls will have Vice-President-elect Joe Biden's grandchildren as classmates. (Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton is an alum).

In the two weeks leading up the Jan. 20 inauguration, the famous former Chicagoans will call Washington's Hay-Adams Hotel their temporary home, according to the Post.

After that the girls will have a new address to memorize: The famous 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Credits: People, Photo by: Joe Raedle / Getty

Obama names education chief, focuses on economy

2009-01-04T10:12:00.000-08:00

CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday called the high U.S. school dropout rate "economically untenable" and said making schools more competitive would be a top job of his education secretary.

Saying the road to jobs and growth begins in the classroom, Obama announced Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan -- a longtime basketball partner and friend -- as his choice for education secretary. He charged Duncan with improving America's teachers and schools to help the United States become more competitive.

"If we want to out-compete the world tomorrow, then we're going to have to out-educate the world today," Obama told a news conference at an elementary school.

Obama, who takes office on January 20, noted that the U.S. high school dropout rate is one of the highest in the industrialized world and many young American children cannot even do basic math.

"We can't continue like this," he said. "It's morally unacceptable for our children and economically untenable for America."

After the news conference, Obama held a meeting of the key members of his economic team amid continuing bleak news on the U.S. economy, with consumer prices plunging at a record pace and housing starts falling to a new low.

Credits: Associated Press

UN rebuffs Nkunda allegations over DR Congo troop surge

2009-01-04T10:07:00.000-08:00

KINSHASA (AFP) – The UN has denied allegations made by rebel leader Laurent Nkunda that the Congolese army is boosting troop numbers at a key battle line in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Nkunda, who leads the Tutsi rebel group the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), wrote to the UN envoy to DR Congo Alan Doss on December 24 to protest at what he called the "redeployment" of Congolese troops.

He said they were reinforcing the front line in Kibati, 10 kilometres (7 miles) north of Goma, the provincial capital of the Nord-Kivu region.

Doss rebuffed Nkunda's claims, saying the UN mission to Congo (MONUC) had carried out investigations on the ground and saw no evidence of any advance by the Congolese army in the areas in question.

Kibati has been one of the main flashpoints between the Congolese army and the rebels since fresh fighting broke out at the end of August. Just a few hundred metres separate the two camps.

Talks opened between the government and the rebels earlier in December in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. Since then, fighting between the two sides has subsided and they are set to meet for another round of talks on January 7.

Credits: Associated Press

Series of quakes hit Indonesia, killing 4

2009-01-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

MANOKWARI, Indonesia – A series of powerful earthquakes killed at least four people and injured dozens in remote eastern Indonesia Sunday and briefly triggered fears of another tsunami in a country still recovering from 2004's deadly waves.

One of the quakes — a 7.3-magnitude tremor — was felt as far away as Australia and sent small tsunamis into Japan's southeastern coast.

Residents near the epicenter in Papua province rushed from their homes in search of higher ground shortly after the first 7.6-magnitude quake struck at 4:43 a.m. local time (1943 GMT), afraid that huge waves might wash over the island.

The epicenter was about 85 miles (135 kilometers) from Papua's main city of Manokwari and occurred at a depth of 22 miles (35 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was followed by dozens of aftershocks.

At least four people died, dozens were injured and some 135 homes and other buildings were badly damaged or toppled in the province. Power lines fell, cutting off electricity, and the runway of Manokwari's Rendani airport was cracked, prompting the cancellation of commercial flights.

Credits: Associated Press

Darfur peace push slowed by splits among rebels

2009-01-04T09:59:00.001-08:00

NYALA, Sudan – International mediators pushing for new negotiations on Darfur are being hampered by divisions among Darfur's rebels and by some rebels' hopes that genocide charges will bring down Sudan's president.

The ethnic African rebels, who rose up against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government six years ago, have never been united. But over the past year, factions have multiplied — up to 30 now by U.N. estimates, divided on tribal, political or personal lines.

Some faction leaders are not communicating with their commanders, and the U.N., African and Arab mediators have complained they sometimes don't know whom to talk to.

Now there are fears the conflict could spread beyond Darfur. Sudan's government has sent forces into neighboring South Kordofan province, claiming Darfur rebels are operating there, and the Justice and Equality Movement, the strongest Darfur rebel faction, has announced a military alliance with armed groups in Kordofan.

Meanwhile, the U.N. and African Union's point man on Darfur has spent the past two months meeting with rebel factions in Darfur and abroad. The Persian Gulf state of Qatar is supposed to host a gathering of rebels and Khartoum officials, but Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali Sadiq said Friday that some rebel factions were refusing and no meeting date has been set.

Qatar "does not want to leave any loophole" by not having all rebels involved, Sadiq told The Associated Press. Another meeting for Arab and African mediators scheduled in Qatar on Monday has been indefinitely postponed.

Credits: Associated Press

Brazil freed 4,600 farm slaves in 2008

2009-01-03T23:07:00.000-08:00

SAO PAULO, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- More than 4,600 people forced into slavery on farms in Brazil were released in government raids in 2008, the Brazilian Labor Ministry says.

The ministry's records state its anti-slavery task force and federal police had raided 255 remote ranches and plantations over the course of the year in a continuing crackdown on so-called debt slavery.

Britain's The Guardian reported Saturday that many of the workers came from impoverished areas of northeast Brazil and were forced to work in squalid conditions to pay off debts for food and housing.

Human rights activists say the practice continues in remote agricultural regions despite the government's efforts to eradicate it.

"The federal government has acted -- but having slave labor in a country where the wealth is so evident is a very painful contradiction," said Leonardo Sakamoto, head of the non-governmental organization Reporter Brasil.

Credits: © 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Hasina wins Bangladesh's 1st election in 7 years

2008-12-29T23:23:00.000-08:00

DHAKA, Bangladesh – An alliance led by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina won a landslide victory in elections aimed at restoring democracy to Bangladesh, an election official said Tuesday.

But even before the tally was complete, Hasina's opponents launched allegations of irregularities and forgery late Monday night — leading some to wonder if the election would be able to end a cycle of unrest that has made the South Asian country virtually ungovernable. The party led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia said it would make a formal comment on the result later Tuesday.

Election official Humayun Kabir said Hasina's alliance won a two-thirds majority in Parliament after votes in most districts had been tallied.

"This has been a very free and fair election," Kabir told reporters at his office in the capital Dhaka.

Hasina asked her supporters not to take to the streets to celebrate the victory, fearing potential clashes with rivals. She was expected to speak at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

Credits: Associated Press, AP – Bangladeshi former prime minister and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina gestures after casting her

AFP/File – Jordan's King Abdullah II, seen here in November 2008, on Thursday ordered the setting up of a health …

2008-12-29T23:21:00.000-08:00

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – The African Union suspended Guinea on Monday after a coup in the West African nation.

The suspension will stand "until the return of constitutional order in that country," the African bloc said after a meeting of its Peace and Security Council in the Ethiopian capital, where it is based.

The military coup followed the Dec. 22 death of Guinea's longtime dictator Lansana Conte after more than two decades in power. The coup leader, renegade army Capt. Moussa Camara, said his group would hold power until elections in two years.

Until Conte's death, Guinea had been ruled by only two people since its 1958 independence from France.

Conte first took power in a 1984 military coup after his predecessor's death, embarking on more than two decades of stern-handed, dictatorial rule.

Credits: BBC, AFP/File – This week's coup in Guinea should serve as a warning as to what may happen in Zimbabwe if veteran

Jordan to build health centre in Darfur

2008-12-29T23:18:00.000-08:00

AMMAN (AFP) – Jordan's King Abdullah II on Thursday ordered the setting up of a health centre in Kas in Sudan's war-torn region of Darfur to serve more than 25,000 people there, an official said.

"A military airplane left today (Thursday) for Darfur, carrying equipment to build the medical centre, which will be fully operational in January 2009," Mohammed Aitan, secretary of Jordan's Hashemite Charity Organisation, said in a statement.

Aitan said the facility is expected to cost 400,000 dollars.

"A second military plane carrying more equipment will go to Darfur later," he said without elaborating.

Conflict has been raging in the Darfur region in western Sudan since 2003, when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime.

UN officials estimate that up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have been forced to flee their homes.

Credits: BBC, AFP/File – Jordan's King Abdullah II, seen here in November 2008, on Thursday ordered the setting up of a health …

Somalia's president quits office

2008-12-29T23:14:00.001-08:00

Somalia's President Abdullahi Yusuf has resigned - a move which adds to the chaos in the country as Ethiopian troops are to withdraw shortly.

Mr Yusuf's resignation follows a power struggle with Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, who parliament backed after Mr Yusuf tried to sack him.

Various Islamist and nationalist groups control most of southern Somalia.

Some experts say Mr Yusuf's departure could make it easier to reach a peace deal with moderate Islamists.

The president had clashed in recent months with Mr Nur over attempts to negotiate a peace deal with the Islamist-led armed opposition.

Credits: BBC

Ghana: Narrow lead for opposition candidate

2008-12-29T22:32:00.000-08:00

ACCRA, Ghana – Opposition leader John Atta Mills was leading in Ghana's presidential election Monday, and his supporters poured into the streets to claim victory after a local radio station said he would be the West African nation's next leader.

Official results of Sunday's runoff are expected Tuesday.

But on Monday the Electoral Commission certified results from 200 of 233 constituencies giving Atta Mills 4,065,883 votes, or 52.1 percent of counted ballots, compared with 47.9 percent, or 3,737,655 votes, for the governing party's Nana Akufo-Addo.

The influential and independent Radio Joy FM announced it "has projected Prof. John Evans Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress as Ghana's next president." It predicted that Atta Mills would win with 50.47 percent of votes.

Singing and dancing supporters of the academic spilled into the streets to declare their victory.

The governing New Patriotic Party challenged the radio station's call, with national chairman Peter Mac-Manu telling a news conference it was "highly speculative and premature, especially in the face of the challenges to both the process and many of its outcomes."

Credits: Associated Press

Brazil: Country of the future or is it?

2008-12-20T16:00:00.000-08:00

Generations of Brazilians have long been taught that they lived in "the country of the future".

With its vast territory, natural resources and economic potential, its people were led to believe that Brazil had a guaranteed place as one of the world's leading countries.

But as the country celebrates 500 years since the arrival of European explorers, the promise of a bright future has not come true for the majority of its population.

A great number suffer daily from tremendous inequality, widespread corruption and growing violence.

Credits: BBC News

Zimbabwe vows to block UN Security move

2008-12-15T08:14:00.000-08:00

HARARE (AFP) – President Robert Mugabe's government on Monday vowed to thwart western efforts to put Zimbabwe on the UN Security Council agenda, saying it was not a threat to international security.

The United States and Britain were expected to lobby the council to turn up the heat on Mugabe, amid mounting international pressure for him to step aside as his country caves in under an economic meltdown and cholera crisis.

The 15-member UN Security Council was due Monday to hold a closed-door meeting, and Washington said last week it would pressure members to act against the veteran leader, whom it blames directly for Zimbabwe's woes.

Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu told the state-owned Herald newspaper it was "improper" for western countries to try to put Zimbabwe on the agenda.

Credits: Associated Press

Gov. may allow special election for Senate seat

2008-12-15T08:12:00.000-08:00

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Gov. Rod Blagojevich hasn't ruled out signing a bill creating a special election to fill President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat, his spokesman said Monday, the first hint that the embattled governor may loosen his grip on the seat.

Blagojevich was arrested last week on charges that he tried to profit from his power to choose Obama's replacement and shook down businesses seeking state deals.

The Legislature was to meet Monday afternoon to consider special election legislation, but lawmakers were also likely to discuss impeaching Blagojevich.

While Blagojevich hasn't seen a proposed special election bill, he hasn't ruled out the possibility of signing such a bill, spokesman Lucio Guerrero said early Monday without elaborating.

Blagojevich, meanwhile, remained defiant and returned to work Monday to sign a tax credit bill.

Credits: Associated Press

Bush's Iraq-Afghan farewell tour marred by dissent

2008-12-15T08:08:00.001-08:00

KABUL, Afghanistan – President George W. Bush wrapped up a whirlwind trip to two war zones Monday that in many ways was a victory lap without a clear victory. A signature event occurred when an Iraqi reporter hurled two shoes at Bush, an incident the president called "a bizarre moment."

Bush visited the Iraqi capital just 37 days before he hands the war off to his successor, Barack Obama, who has pledged to end it. The president wanted to highlight a drop in violence and to celebrate a recent U.S.-Iraq security agreement, which calls for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.

"The war is not over," Bush said, but "it is decisively on its way to being won."

Bush then traveled to Afghanistan where he spoke to U.S. soldiers and Marines at a hangar on the tarmac at Bagram Air Base. The rally for over a thousand military personnel took place in the dark, cold pre-dawn hours. Bush was greeted by loud cheers from the troops.

Credits: Associated Press

Iraqi Man Throws Shoes At Bush’s Face

2008-12-14T14:05:00.000-08:00

An Iraqi man angrily threw his size 10 shoes at President Bush during a press conference held in Baghdad today.

According to the International Herald Tribune, the man was saying: “This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog” when he threw the first one and “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq” when he chucked the second one.

Credits: CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News

In Jesus' town, Christmas looking cheerful again

2008-12-14T12:10:00.000-08:00

BETHLEHEM, West Bank – After eight bleak years, Jesus' birthplace finally has a Christmas season to cheer about.

Hotels are booked solid through January, Manger Square is bustling with tourists, and Israeli and Palestinian forces are working to make things go smoothly.

Elias Al-Araj's 200-room hotel is fully booked for the season, and he plans to open a 100-room annex. He says he already has bookings through July.

"This year, business was great," he said.

Bethlehem's economic fortunes are closely tied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Tourism blossomed in the 1990s, when peace hopes were alive, but was crushed by the outbreak of fighting in 2000. Christmas after Christmas, tourists were scared off by Palestinian violence and Israeli travel restrictions.

With calm gradually returning to the West Bank, Bethlehem has again become a magnet for Christmas pilgrims.

Credits: Associated Press

Illinois moves to oust governor amid graft scandal

2008-12-14T12:08:00.000-08:00

CHICAGO (AFP) – Illinois' attorney general moved to oust embattled governor Rod Blagojevich Friday amid charges he tried to sell president-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat to the highest bidder.

Blagojevich has refused to resign over the sordid allegations of kickbacks and chicanery exposed in FBI wire-taps and Illinois lawmakers are expected to begin impeachment proceedings Monday in a hastily called special session.

Chief of staff John Harris, who was also charged with fraud and solicitation of bribery Tuesday in what prosecutors called a "political corruption crime spree," tendered his resignation on Friday morning.

Blagojevich, who has declined to comment publicly on the charges, issued a press release saying he was "pleased" to sign a bill providing insurance coverage to parents of children with autism into law.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan said the state cannot wait for lawmakers to act on an impeachment -- a process which could take weeks or months -- because "state government is paralyzed by a governor who is incapable of governing."

Credits: Associated Press

McCain pledges to work with Obama on tough issues

2008-12-14T12:07:00.001-08:00

WASHINGTON – Republican Sen. John McCain pledged Sunday to work with his former Democratic rival, President-elect Barack Obama, on economic and national security issues.

He also rejected Republican attempts to link Obama to the scandal surrounding Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The chairman of the Republican National Committee, Mike Duncan, has accused Obama of not fully addressing contacts with Blagojevich concerning the Senate seat vacated by Obama.

Blagojevich has been accused of federal corruption, including trying to sell off that seat.

"You know, in all due respect to the Republican National Committee and anybody, right now, I think we should try to be working constructively together, not only on an issue such as this, but on the economy, stimulus package, reforms that are necessary," McCain said in a broadcast interview.

Credits: Associated Press

Police thwart Moscow rally, seize 90-130 people

2008-12-14T12:04:00.000-08:00

MOSCOW – Police thwarted a banned anti-Kremlin protest in central Moscow on Sunday, seizing demonstrators and shoving them into trucks. Organizers said 130 people were detained around the capital but police put the number at 90.

The opposition movement headed by fierce Kremlin critic and former chess champion Garry Kasparov said the co-leader of the group was one of those seized.

The Other Russia movement organized the protest, in defiance of a ban, to draw attention to Russia's economic troubles and to protest Kremlin plans to extend the presidential term from four years to six. Critics say the constitutional change as part of a retreat from democracy and is aimed at strengthening the grip of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his allies.

News broadcasts on the main television networks made no mention of the Moscow crackdown or of protests in St. Petersburg and Vladivostok.

Kasparov and other prominent liberals have just launched a new anti-Kremlin movement called Solidarity in a bid to unite Russia's liberal forces and encourage a popular revolution similar to those in Ukraine and Georgia.

Credits: Associated Press

Fed ready to slash key interest rate

2008-12-14T12:01:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON – With the country spiraling deeper into recession, the Federal Reserve is ready to slash its key interest rate — perhaps to an all-time low_ in hopes of cushioning some of the economic fallout felt by many struggling Americans.

To battle the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues already have ratcheted down their main lever for influencing the economy — the federal funds rate — to 1 percent, a level seen only once before in the last half-century.

The Fed opens a two-day meeting Monday to assess to economy and decide its next move on rates. Another reduction to the funds rate, the interest banks charge each other on overnight loans, is all but certain to be announced Tuesday.

Many economists predict the Fed will cut its rate in half — to just 0.50 percent. A few think the Fed could opt for an even more forceful action — lowering rates by a whopping three-quarters percentage point or more. If that larger cut occurs, it would be the lowest on records that track the monthly average of the targeted funds rate going back to 1954.

Credit: Associated Press

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez

2008-12-14T11:59:00.000-08:00

Cuba's President Raul Castro, left, stands with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Saturday, Dec 13, 2008. Castro is in Venezuela on his first international visit as Cuba's leader. Behind is a painting of Venezuela's independence hero Simon Bolivar.

Credits: (AP Photo/Fernando Llano), Associated Press

Former US President Carter meets Hamas leader

2008-12-14T11:56:00.000-08:00

DAMASCUS, Syria – Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter met with the exiled leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas for the second time this year.

Sunday's meeting in Damascus is part of Carter's regional discussions on Middle East conflicts.

Hamas officials kept reporters away from the venue and no news conference was scheduled. Hamas issued a statement but provided no details about what they talked about.

Carter first met with the head of Hamas, Khaled Mashaal, in April. That meeting drew sharp criticism from the Bush administration, which labels Hamas a terrorist group and contends such meetings give credibility to militants.

Carter said Saturday that he intends to continue meeting with Hamas because peace requires dialogue.

Credits: Associated Press

AP IMPACT: Pakistan offensive shows slow success

2008-12-14T11:54:00.000-08:00

SABAGAI, Pakistan – From atop a craggy hillock, the silver-haired Lt. Col. Javed Baloch gestures toward a small black opening in a sandstone outcropping. It's the mouth of a cave.

Two minutes later a powerful explosion rattles the hillock, and a massive plume of grayish-white smoke rushes skyward.

Cave by cave, the Pakistani army is trying to blow up the underground labyrinth running from tribal areas toward the border with Afghanistan to keep militants away.

This is the front line of Pakistan's battle against militants on its own soil. The three-month-old offensive is the country's most aggressive effort to date, countering U.S. and Afghan charges that it is not doing enough to root out Taliban and al-Qaida fighters who crisscross the border. It is also the Pakistani military's first foray into the Bajur region, where militants are dug in and have in places set up a parallel administration.

Credits: Associated Press, Yahoo News

University Celebrates Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database

2008-12-07T15:38:00.001-08:00

A new Web database created by historians may help millions of blacks find out more about their African ancestors who were forced onto slave ships, connecting them to their heritage in a way that white Europeans have done for years.

The project called, "Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database" launched Friday during a conference at Emory University marking the bicentennial of the official end of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in 1808. The University sponsored the two-year interactive project.

"It's basically doing for people of African descent what already exists for people of European descent in the Americas," said Emory history professor David Eltis, who helped direct the project.

The database documents the slave trade from Africa to the New World that took place over three centuries — between the 1500s and 1800s — and includes searchable information on nearly 35,000 trips and the names of 70,000 human cargo.

Users can search data on more than 95 percent of all voyages that left ports from England — the country with the second-largest slave trade — and documents two-thirds of all slave trade voyages between 1514 and 1866.

Eltis said blacks looking to trace their slave roots have begun turning to genealogy and DNA, and "Voyages" could help give a fuller picture of slavery for a culture stripped of its heritage.

However, because the database lists the slaves' African names, which were later Westernized, researching an ancestor by name is difficult.

"It's not a super tool for genealogists because you cannot make that connection from ancestor to voyager, but it does give a context," said Eltis
.

But Emory history professor Leslie Harris, author of the book "In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863, said for someone who knows that an ancestor was enslaved in a certain part of the South, the database might help them trace from where in Africa they most likely came.

Credits: Image Wikipedia, On The Net:, Emory University, Source: red Orbit staff

Change The Name or a Boycott is Certain to Happen!

2008-09-22T16:08:00.000-07:00

Soft drink maker Coca-Cola Co. said it will merge its Eurasia and Africa operations and create a new chief administrative officer position to oversee several back-office operations.

In a memo to employees, the company named Alex Cummings, the current president of the Africa group, to the new post.

Coca-Cola Chief Executive Muhtar Kent said he also plans to nominate Cummings as executive vice president at its board meeting next month.

In his chief administrative officer role, the company said, Cummings will oversee the company's legal, public affairs and communications and human resources operations, among other responsibilities.

Ahmet Bozer, the president of the current Eurasia group, will be the president of the new Eurasia and Africa group, the company said.

Coca-Cola added that it will move its Adriatic and Balkans business unit from the Eurasia group to the Europe division.

The company said the restructuring should help the company "sharpen our internal
focus on the marketplace with greater speed, productivity and effectiveness."

The letter below is what Mr. Beasley sent to Coca-Cola:

June 21, 2008

Dear Ms. Jones:

I just received a call from Nairobi, Kenya informing me of the pending merger of Coca Cola’s Africa, Europe and Asia. The new name, Eurasia, suggest that Africa no longer exist! This will serve to strengthen our resolve to press forward for change in the ownership structure in Africa. We will press for greater inclusion of African descendants living in the Americas, especially in Brazil and Columbia.

Over a billion loyal Coca Cola consumers are African! What percentage of Coca Cola worldwide is owned by Africans? With Mr. Alexander Cummings being moved into what is described as the “back office operations,” with the title of Chief Administrative Officer, what African hold real authority in your company?

What benefits will Africa derive from this merger? Have the African Union been apprised of this pending change. I understand that Coca Cola is a private company; however, financial advantage must not be the primary consideration for this restructure.

It would appear that a change of this magnitude would require approval of your board of directors. This merger is to take place on July 1, 2008 prior to your Wilmington meeting.

The group that met with you and Mr. Cummings earlier this year regarding Africa has been expanded to include people from Africa and Central/South America. We were surprised that we was not apprised of the pending changes and had to receive the information from a third party source in Africa.

We are grateful for the role you continue to play at Coca Cola. Our source indicated that you are in Istanbul, Turkey we trust that you have a productive trip and a safe return to Atlanta.

Sincerely,

Joe Beasley, President, African Ascension www.africanascension.org

Libya: Italy to Pay U.S. $5 Billion for Colonialism

2008-09-01T12:29:00.000-07:00

Italy yesterday agreed to pay Libya US$5 billion as compensation for its 30-year occupation of the country, which ended in 1943.

AP reports that the compensation agreement was sealed in Benghazi, Libya, when the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi held a discussion with Libyan Prime Minister, Baghdadi Mahmudi.

Berlusconi and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi signed a memorandum pledging a US$5 billion compensation package involving construction projects, student grants and pensions for Libyan soldiers who served with the Italians during World War II.

"It is a material and emotional recognition of the mistakes that our country has done to yours during the colonial era," Berlusconi told reporters at the airport on his arrival. "This agreement opens the path to further cooperation."

In return, Italy wants Libya to crack down on illegal migrants turning up on Italian shores, and Italy will fund US$500 million worth of electronic monitoring devices on the Libyan coastline.

Gadhafi received Berlusconi under a big tent in Benghazi where they discussed the agreement over lunch. The Italian leader said US$200 million of the package would be for infrastructure projects over the next 25 years, including a coastal highway stretching across the country from Tunisia to Egypt.

The two leaders exchanged gifts, with Berlusconi giving Gadhafi a silver inkstand, sculpted in the form of a lion's head, with two pens inside to sign the agreement. The Libyan leader gave Berlusconi a linen suit.

Berlusconi's office said in a statement that the premier would also hand over to Gadhafi the Venus of Cyrene, an ancient Roman statue taken in 1913 by Italian troops from the ruins of the Greek and Roman settlement of Cyrene, on the Libyan coast.

Relations between the two countries have warmed over the last few years, with Italian leaders meeting Gadhafi several times. However, it has taken years of negotiations for the two sides to reach a deal on compensation for Italy's rule over Libya from 1911 to 1943.

Libya named Aug. 30 Libyan-Italian Friendship Day.

The Libyan success in getting monetary compensation for the exploitation of her resources by a colonial master raised the issue of whether Nigeria should also not initiate a process of demanding adequate compensation from Britain for decades of colonial subjugation spanning the period 1914 to 1960.

The only co-ordinated attempt by African nations to demand compensation from European colonial masters and slave traders was initiated in 1990 by late Chief M.K.O. Abiola who initiated discussions on reparation for Africa.

The initiative however died when late Abiola joined politics in 1993 and sought the presidency of Nigeria. He died in incarceration resulting from his struggle to reclaim his electoral mandate usurped by the military government of Gen. Sani Abacha.

While responding to the question of whether Nigeria can equally make legitimate claim for compensation from Britain her colonial master for over 40 years of exploitation, Dr. Eyimofe Atake (SAN) said: "To be able to answer that question, one needs to know exactly why compensation was paid and the circumstances in which compensation was paid. One needs to know the fact of the case between the Italians and the Libyans and how the issue for the payment of compensation arose. No two cases are necessarily similar, so in the absence of the facts and circumstances that led to the payment of compensation, it will be totally speculative to say if Nigeria could ask for compensation or be paid compensation by Britain.

"In any event, under international law, Britain and Italy are separate and distinct states. They are sovereign states. Consequently, the British government is not bound by the acts of the Italian government. The decision of the Italian government is personal to them based on their peculiar circumstance and facts, which have nothing to do with the British government and the Nigerian government," he said through a text message forwarded to THISDAY from Miami, Florida in the United States.

CITIBANK TURNING A BLIND EYE LOCKING AFRICAN COLOMBIAN'S OUT OF WORK...........

2008-08-24T21:30:00.000-07:00

Citi to slash a fifth of balance sheet in coming years......
Company aiming for 9% revenue growth in coming years, management says.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Citigroup Inc. said Friday that it would slash more than a fifth of the assets currently on the balance sheet over the next three years, in a bid to shore up its capital base and divest itself of riskier investments, the banking giant said Friday.

The company announced plans to sell about $100 billion in noncore businesses, and to eliminate by selling, or holding to maturity, some $400 billion of low-return and mark-to-market securities.

The company announced plans to sell about $100 billion in noncore businesses, and to eliminate by selling, or holding to maturity, some $400 billion of low-return and mark-to-market securities.

"These reductions will release capital that we could use in our other businesses," said Chief Executive Vikram Pandit. The $500 billion figure represents about 22% of the firm's total assets, he reported during a presentation to investors and analysts at Citigroup's midtown Manhattan headquarters. Read related commentary.

The asset reductions, which will be done either through sales or by holding to maturity, "will improve the quality of earnings" as they take place over the next several years, added Pandit.

Chief Financial Officer Gary Crittenden said that it would take about three years to run off and sell the assets, and that the divestitures would generate more than $40 billion of new incremental capital, above its current Tier 1 capital ratio of about 8.8% at the end of the first quarter.

More than 50% of the reduction would come in its consumer-banking business, primarily in the form of sales or runoffs of mortgage and mortgage-related securities, according to Citigroup.

The cuts will be broken down as follows: 4% from auto holdings; 5% from collateralized debt obligations related to subprime loans; 6% from highly leveraged commitments; 11% from structured investment vehicles; 35% from real estate; and 39% from other, unnamed assets.

Citi said all of the legacy asset wind-down would come in the securities and banking businesses, excluding alternative-investment businesses. Units the bank has been rumored to be considering selling include its private-equity branch in Japan, its German retail operations and an Australian retail brokerage.

Citigroup already has sold its Taiwanese Smith Barney brokerage and shuttered underperforming operations worldwide.

The same presentation showed that Citigroup would aim for 16% to 18% return on current equity. It also unveiled an ambitious strategy to reap 9% revenue growth as the company attempts to pull out from recent credit troubles.

Pandit further outlined how Citigroup expects to rebound from recent credit woes via a three-phase plan, during which he said Citi must first "get fit," then "restructure" and finally "maximize."

Divesting of "hobby" assets would be a major part of that "get fit" phase, he noted Friday.

Supplemental sources

The chief executive said that Citigroup will supplement the sell-off strategy with a push to achieve annual net revenue growth of 10% from its core businesses. Slides from the presentation broke down these increases as follows: 7% from card operations; 8% from consumer banking; 9% from both securities and banking and wealth management; and 14% from transaction services.

Citigroup has been hit hard by the global credit crunch and fallout in the U.S. subprime-mortgage market, as bad bets on securities and rising default rates forced the bank to write off billions of dollars on investments rendered virtually worthless.

As a result, the bank has dealt with close to $45 billion in credit losses and write-downs over the last year -- and has seen its stock slide more than 50% during the same period.

The further cuts announced Friday came as little surprise to analysts, who have watched Citigroup get rid of thousands of jobs (Crittenden recently said the total could be around 16,000) and shed several noncore businesses over the last 12 months.
The bank also slashed its dividend by more than 40% in January, and some have predicted that Citigroup will need to trim its payout to shareholders -- or eliminate it altogether.

So far, Wall Street has reacted coolly to the new strategy, with many analysts lukewarm about Citigroup's prospects at least until the global credit crunch eases.
Standard & Poor's stuck to that script Friday, saying it would keep its "hold" rating on the stock.

"While we believe the company's capital position is more sound following the recently announced capital infusions, we view the credit markets as still in turmoil and we expect further write-downs," wrote S&P bank analysts Erik Oja and Stuart Plesser.

Citigroup, they said, "still has about $29 billion of total direct subprime exposure."

Under the leadership of the recently installed Pandit, the bank has made a concentrated effort to improve its capital reserves through cash infusions from investors, and introduced a streamlined business model that focuses on the bread-and-butter business of banking. End of Story

COMMENTS:

Citibank in Colombia is locking African Colombian's out of job opportunities. I visited Citibank in Cartagena, Columbia on February 22, 2008 and spoke with the manager about their employment profile. I was told that 2 African Colombian's , out of a staff of 20, were employed at that branch. Cartagena is 80% African!

On February 28, 2008 I wrote Mr. Vikram Pandit and made him aware of this disparity. Since that time I have called his office on several occasions, without a response. On April 7, 2008 Congressman John Lewis of Georgia sent a letter to Mr. Carlos M. Gutierrez, Secretary of Commerce and Susan C. Schwab, US Trade Representative, with copies to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, requesting a more inclusive workforce in Colombia.

If Mr. Pandit refuses to respond to my letter indicating that he will address the matter in Columbia, in the very near future, Citibank Colombia will most certainly have picket lines around their banks.

Joe Beasley, President, African Ascension ~ www.africanascension.blogspot.com

visit the market watch link below copy and past the link to your browser. We ask that that you post a comment, in efforts to help African American's get Citibank workers jobs reinstated.

MARKET WATCH LINK COPY PASTE TO YOUR BROWSER

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/citi-trim
-500-billion-non-core/story.aspx?guid=%7B45C12D13%2DE08B
%2D44B0%2D8BC3%2D9B0A17E1E5AC%7D#comment237729

Coca-Cola to merge Eurasia, Africa divisions

2008-06-23T15:35:00.000-07:00

Nigerian youths blow up oil pipeline, output cut

2008-06-23T11:50:00.000-07:00

Armed youths blew up a Nigerian crude oil pipeline operated by U.S. major Chevron, a militant group said on Saturday, cutting more output from the world's eighth largest oil exporter.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it was contacted by youths claiming responsibility for Thursday's attack on Chevron's Abiteye-Olero crude pipeline and commended their action.

The military said about 120,000 barrels per day of crude oil production were shut by the sabotage.

"For production to have stopped, this shows the damage was serious," said army Brigadier-General Wuyep Rintip, head of the government's Joint Task Force in the western Delta.

A Chevron spokeswoman confirmed that one of its pipelines was damaged, but declined to say how much output was affected.

A wave of attacks in the West African country has cut production by a fifth since early 2006, helping push world oil prices to record highs.

Thursday's incident came hours after a bold night-time militant attack on Royal Dutch Shell's main offshore oil facility that cut Nigeria's oil output by 10 percent.

The rise in violence prompted Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua on Friday to order the country's armed forces to tighten security in the Niger Delta.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which claimed responsibility for the attack on Shell's Bonga oilfield, shrugged off the president's security order as "empty talk" but said it was on a war footing.

"MEND wishes to commend these patriotic youths who we are now empowering with more powerful explosives and new techniques to destroy additional pipelines inside Delta state," the group said in an email to Reuters.

COMMUNITY TENSION

A security source told Reuters the pipeline was located in Abiteye, where community members have attacked oil facilities in the past. In June 2007, armed youths attacked a Chevron-operated flow station in the area, forcing the company to shut down around 42,000 bpd of output.

Violence in the Niger Delta stems from a complex set of factors including poverty, lack of basic services, corruption among government officials and security forces, resentment toward foreign oil companies, and political thuggery.

Yar'Adua came into power just over a year ago promising to bring more security to the Niger Delta region, but the peace process has stalled.

The Nigerian government will hold a long-awaited Niger Delta peace summit next month. But MEND and another rebel group -- Ijaw Youth Council -- have said they will not attend because they have lost faith in the government's peace process.

Austalian Company Extorting Resources from Africa leaving 10% Profit, Company Profits 90%

2008-06-13T13:59:00.000-07:00

ASX-listed Sundance Resources says it expects to deliver an operating margin of around $25,5 a ton on its emerging Mbalam iron-ore project in Cameroon.

The proposed $2,46-billion mine – in which Sundance has a 90% stake - is targeting first production in 2011.

MD Don Lewis said that the project was shaping up as a potentially world-class high-grade hematite resource.

“On our proposed 35-million ton a year production, the mine should deliver an estimated annual operating margin of around $892-million,” Lewis said at the Africa DownUnder conference in Perth.

He said that the estimation was relatively conservative, as it was based on 2006 ore prices. Sundance was budgeting on a minimum 20-year mine life with Mbalam ore expected to arrive at market by 2011 with a continuing supply shortfall globally.

“The strength of iron ore demand is quite stunning. While most observers have forecast demand growth of 200-million tons to 300-million tons in the immediate years ahead, Sundance believes it will be more likely around 500-million tons.

“This growth will persist for at least a decade and, probably, beyond as even expansion plans among world majors will not meet the shortfall, particularly as current estimates do not account for any new demand from India.”

Lewis said the net result of the supply bottleneck would be continued price pressures.

“Forget any thought that price is going to flatten. It can be expected to head upwards around 20% next year and possibly as high as a 30% price rise. The market demand generally is not going away in the short term. This environment offers great opportunity for projects such as Sundance’s Mbalam mine.”

He said remaining priorities for 2007 were to confirm Mbalam’s potential for a one billion ton hematite resource, negotiate a project Convention Memorandum of Understanding with the Cameroon government, define infrastructure requirements, develop the financing strategy and identify key offtake and development partners.

“The essence for Sundance is scale. A one billion tonne resource will deliver very significant financial returns to the company.”

Lewis acknowledged that the company had significant work to do over the next 12 to 18 months to achieve its objectives. - Kevin Skinner

Laura Bush Makes Surprise Trip To Afghanistan

2008-06-08T13:03:00.000-07:00

BAMIYAN, Afghanistan — First lady Laura Bush, on a mission to highlight signs of rebirth in war-weary Afghanistan, ventured outside of Kabul on Sunday to an area that symbolizes both the destruction of war and Afghanistan's attempt at rebirth.

Mrs. Bush, on her third unannounced visit to the country, flew into the Afghan capital then immediately boarded a helicopter for a 50-minute flight to Bamiyan Province, the farthest she has traveled from Kabul.

Her chopper touched down in a dusty field at a provincial reconstruction team compound operated by New Zealand. From there she could see the empty niches in a cliffside where two giant Buddha statues once stood.

They were carved into the sandstone cliffs more than 2,000 years ago, but were demolished by the Taliban, which considered them idolatrous and anti-Muslim, in March 2001. Destruction of the historical and cultural treasures prompted an outcry from the international community.

Posted by Staff

$4 A Gallon: National Gas Price Average Reaches Record

2008-06-08T10:52:00.001-07:00

NEW YORK — Drivers are paying an average of $4 for a gallon of gasoline for the first time. AAA and the Oil Price Information Service say the national average price for a gallon of regular gas rose to $4.005 overnight from $3.988. But consumers in many parts of the country have already been paying well above that price for some time.

Gas is expected to keep climbing, putting greater pressure on consumers and businesses, because the price of oil is soaring in futures markets. Light, sweet crude shot up nearly $11 a barrel Friday and approached $140 for the first time.

Along with higher fuel costs, consumers are also contending with higher prices for food and other goods because of rising transportation costs.

Oil Prices and Joblessness Punish Shares What the Solution?

2008-06-07T00:08:00.000-07:00

Wall Street suffered its worst losses in more than two months on Friday after crude oil prices spiked over $138, an increase of nearly $11, and the unemployment rate rose more than expected.

All 30 of the stocks that make up the Dow Jones industrial average took a hit as the index dropped nearly 400 points on fears that high energy prices will extend and deepen an economic slowdown.

“The market is meeting its worst fears right now,” said Quincy Krosby, chief investment strategist at the Hartford, a financial services firm.

The Dow fell 3.13 percent, or 394.64 points, to close at 12,209.81. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index lost 43.37 points, or 3.09 percent, to 1,360.68, its lowest point in four months. The technology-laden Nasdaq composite index declined 75.38 points, or 2.96 percent, to 2,474.56.

Shares opened lower after the government reported that the unemployment rate in May increased the most in one month in 22 years. The market decline accelerated as crude oil rose steadily, closing $10.75 higher in its biggest one-day climb ever.

“Oil prices have reached the tipping point,” said Richard Sparks, an analyst at Schaeffer’s Investment Research. “Prices have rallied for a good two months, but now it’s really weighing on the market.”

Friday’s session wiped out the gains the markets had Thursday, and left all three major indexes down for the week. The Dow fell 3.39 percent for the week, the S.& P. 500 was off 2.83 percent and the Nasdaq had a loss of 1.91 percent.

Wall Street has run into choppy waters over the last two weeks after a period of relative calm. Friday’s decline was a return to the triple-digit collapses of February and March, when the market was rocked by the Bear Stearns bailout and significant interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.

Posted by Staff

The last time the Dow fell this much was at the beginning of the subprime mortgage crisis in February 2007.

Will Clinton's speech help unify the party?

2008-06-06T20:07:00.000-07:00

Sen. Hillary Clinton says she will throw her support behind Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign in a speech Saturday. Whether she can begin to unite Democrats behind their presumed nominee may be crucial to the party's success in the fall.

Posted by Staff

Africa Archeologists find 'missing pyramid'

2008-06-05T18:30:00.000-07:00

SAQQARA, Egypt (AP) -- Egyptian archaeologists have uncovered the "missing pyramid" of a pharaoh and a ceremonial procession road where high priests carried mummified remains of sacred bulls, Egypt's antiquities chief said Thursday.

Zahi Hawass said the pyramid, of which only the base remains, is believed to be that of King Menkauhor, an obscure pharaoh who ruled for only eight years more than 4,000 years ago.

In 1842, German archaeologist Karl Richard Lepsius mentioned Menkauhor's pyramid among his finds at Saqqara, calling it the "Headless Pyramid" because its top was missing, Hawass said.

But the desert sands covered Lepsius' discovery, and no archaeologist since was able to find it.

"We have filled the gap of the missing pyramid," Hawass said on a tour of the discoveries at Saqqara, the necropolis and burial site of the rulers of ancient Memphis, the capital of Egypt's Old Kingdom, south of Cairo.

Only the pyramid's base -- or the superstructure, as archeologists call it -- was found after a 25-foot-high mound of sand was removed over the past year and a half by Hawass' team. Watch "missing pyramid" discovered in Egypt »

The base was in a 15 foot-deep pit dug out by workers, with heaps of huge rocks marking its entrance and walls. A burial chamber also was discovered.

Hawass said the style of the pyramid and of a gray granite sarcophagus lid found in the burial chamber indicates the pyramid was from the Fifth Dynasty, a period that began in 2465 B.C. and ended in 2325 B.C.

That would put it about two centuries after the completion of the Great Pyramid of Giza, believed to have been finished in 2500 B.C.

Archaeologists have not found a cartouche -- a pharoah's name in hieroglyphs -- of the pyramid's owner. But Hawass said that, based on the estimated dating of the pyramid, he was convinced it belonged to Menkauhor.

The second discovery Hawass announced Thursday was a part of a ceremonial procession road, dating to the Ptolemaic period, which ran for about 300 years before 30 B.C.

It runs alongside Menkauhor's pyramid, leading from a mummification chamber toward the Saqqara Serapium, a network of underground tombs where sacred bulls were interred, discovered by French archaeologist August Mariette in 1850.

A high priest would carry the mummified bulls' remains down the road -- the only human allegedly allowed to walk on it -- to the chambers where the bulls would be placed in sarcophagi in the Serapium, about a third of a mile away, he said.

Ancient Egyptians considered Apis bulls to be earthy incarnations of the city god of Memphis and connected with fertility and the sun-cult.

A bull would be chosen for its deep black coloring and would be required to have a single white mark between the horns. Selected by priests and honored until death, it was mummified and buried in the Serapium's underground galleries.

The sprawling archaeological site at Saqqara is most famous for the Step Pyramid of King Djoserm the oldest of Egypt's 100-plus pyramids, built in the 27th century B.C.

Posted by Staff

Envoy Details Harrowing Run-In in Zimbabwe

2008-06-05T18:10:00.000-07:00

Military Tried to Force U.S.-U.K. Diplomatic Convoy Off Road Before Tense Confrontation.

The American diplomatic convoy sped down the road, with Zimbabwean police in hot pursuit. A police car tried to ram the speeding vehicle off the road, but the driver was able to maintain control.

Finally a police roadblock brought the chase to an end — but the ordeal would last almost six hours more.

A mob surrounded the car, beat the driver and threatened to burn alive the diplomats inside.

U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGee detailed the harrowing events to ABC News in a phone interview today from the capital, Harare.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the incident "outrageous."

As dangerous as the situation was, McGee acknowledges it could have turned out much worse.

"I had some very, very cool people out there in the field," he said. "This is a lawless country."

Posted by Staff

Why it will be 'President Obama' in 2009

2008-06-05T16:06:00.000-07:00

Barring several series of near seizure-like corrections, Barack Obama will take the Presidential oath of office in January of 2009. It will be a cold January morning, his beautiful wife and daughters will be by his side and they will shiver as he places his hand on the Bible and swears to uphold the Constitution of the United States. His presidency that will follow, if reflective of anything at all of his legislative record, will then seek to dismantle that same Constitution.

Posted by Staff

Obama Clinches Nomination; First Black Candidate to Lead a Major Party Ticket

2008-06-04T09:04:00.000-07:00

Senator Barack Obama claimed the Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday evening, prevailing through an epic battle with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in a primary campaign that inspired millions of voters from every corner of America to demand change in Washington.

A last-minute rush of Democratic superdelegates, as well as the results from the final primaries, in Montana and South Dakota, pushed Mr. Obama over the threshold of winning the 2,118 delegates needed to be nominated at the party’s convention in August. The victory for Mr. Obama, the son of a black Kenyan father and a white Kansan mother, broke racial barriers and represented a remarkable rise for a man who just four years ago served in the Illinois Senate.

“Tonight, we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another — a journey that will bring a new and better day to America,” Mr. Obama told supporters at a rally in St. Paul. “Because of you, tonight I can stand here and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States of America.”

Posted by Staff

Jesse Jackson hails historic Obama win

2008-06-04T08:58:00.000-07:00

Jesse Jackson, a two-time U.S. presidential candidate and long-time black civil rights leader, on Tuesday called Barack Obama's march to capture the Democratic presidential nomination a "transformational moment."

"It is a fulfilling moment to be in Africa trying to reconcile two continents so savagely torn apart by the slave trade ... as a son of America and Africa becomes the de facto Democratic Party nominee," Jackson, 66, said by telephone from Tanzania.

Posted by Staff

Working for a Better Colombia, Meeting with Honorable Maria Isabel Nieta Jaramillo

2008-05-24T17:09:00.000-07:00

Pictured is Honorable Maria Isabel Nieta Jaramillo, Vice-Minister of Interior, displayed hangs a picture with President John Kennedy in the background. We had a good conversation on how her office can be helpful in implementing the work of the Commission in moving Afrocolumbians into the mainstream of Colombian society.

Posted by Staff

Working for a Better Colombia, Meeting with Honorable Oscar Gamboa

2008-05-24T17:05:00.000-07:00

Pictured is Honorable Oscar Gamboa, Executive Director, Amunafro and Manager of Presindential Commission. In the bacground is President Bolivar, Founding Father of five nations. Mr Gamboa invited me to serve on the Commission and is my host on this visit to Colombia.

Posted by Staff

Working for a Better Colombia, Meeting with Andres Palacio, Vice-Minister of Labor

2008-05-24T17:02:00.001-07:00

Pictured is Andres Palacio, Vice-Minister of Labor lunch to discuss equal opportunity employment for all Colombians and role his office can play in insuring that the workfore properly reflect the makeup of the nation.

Equal employment is good business and will yield great dividends for the people and the nation as a whole.

Posted by Staff

Working for a Better Colombia, Meeting with Edwin Salcedo, Development Specalist, USAID

2008-05-24T16:56:00.000-07:00

Pictured is Edwin Salcedo, Development Specalist, USAID. USAID is the agency that help influene US policy abroad. They are very helpful in improving the conditions for AfroColombians. The Ambassador is Honorable William Brownfield and the Director of USAID Colombia is Honorable Liliana Ayalde. MS. Ayalde was recently appointed as Ambassador of Paraguay but is awaiting confirmation by Congress.

Posted by Staff

Working for a Better Colombia, Meeting with Honorable William Bush and Edwin Salcedo

2008-05-24T16:32:00.000-07:00

From right to left the pictures show Honorable William Bush, director of Foreign Affairs for the Amercas myself and Edwin Salcedo, Development Specalist, USAID. Mr. Bush is from the San Andreas Islands of Colombia. These Islands were cotton plantations during slavery. I visited the Island about six years ago and worked with former Governor Susana Bryan leading up to her election.

Mr. Bush has pledged to work closely with the Commission to fulfill its mission of bringing African Colombians into "first class citizenship" in Colombia.

Edwin Saledio with usaid

6.8 earthquake shakes Tokyo

2008-05-20T08:17:00.000-07:00

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- A strong earthquake struck off the coast of Japan early Thursday, the national Meteorological Agency said, waking up people 100 miles away in Tokyo.

Two people suffered minor injuries from falling furniture, public television broadcaster NHK reported. An 18-year-old man was hit when his stereo speakers fell onto his bed, and a 25-year-old man was hit by objects rattled off shelves.

There were no other immediate reports of injuries or damage from the magnitude 6.8 earthquake, NHK said. No tsunami warning was issued.

The earthquake occurred at 1:45 a.m. offshore at a depth of about 25 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The epicenter was about 100 miles northeast of Tokyo.
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* iReport.com: Did you feel the quake? Share your photos, video, stories

A second quake with a magnitude of 5.3 struck the same area about 30 minutes later, and more aftershocks could follow, Tamotsu Aketagawa, an official who monitors earthquakes for the country's Meteorological Agency, told The Associated Press.

"Since it was a very large-scale earthquake, we would expect to see some modest aftershocks," he said.

Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world because it sits atop four tectonic plates. Tokyo has not been hit by a major quake since 1923, when 140,000 people died in the Great Kanto

Posted by Staff

Joe Beasley at launching of Presidential Decree 4181 in Colombia

2008-05-20T07:50:00.000-07:00

The picture is taken with Francisco Santos, Vice-President
of Colombia it was taken just after the launching of the
Commission that is charged with accessing the true
conditions of Afrocolombians . I think the Commission
must move quickly to demonstrate that it have the clout
to make a difference. Since unemployment for
Afrocolumbians is said to be approaching 50% quotas
should be placed on multi-national corporations such as
Citigroup and Coca Cola.

Multi-nations headquartered in the US should be required
to follow the guidelines of the Commission using existing
US law dealing with Affirmative Actions, if need be, new
law should be enacted. This would be a requirement
for Colombia to receive American aid.

Posted by Staff