Hargeysa, Somaliland, November 15, 2006 – 13 October 2006 marked the first anniversary of the opening of a school for internally displaced children of the State House settlement in Hargeysa Northwest Somalia (' Somaliland'). The settlement has existed for 15 years but it was only in 2005 that the school, State House Primary, was opened to serve the community.
The school is one of five in the area established by UNICEF in partnership with the Norwegian Refugee Council with funding from the European Community. Ten teachers (three of them female) serve the five schools.
Suspects Confess To Terror Links, Says Yemen
Sana’a, Yemen, November 15, 2006 – Seven suspects, including two Australian sons of a Jemaah Islamiah leader, have confessed to involvement in smuggling weapons to Somalia and collecting money for terrorist attacks, Yemeni officials say.
The group includes Sydney men Abdullah Ayub, 19, Mohammed Ayub, 21, and Marek Samulski, 35. The Ayub brothers are sons of JI leader Abdul Rahim Ayub, who fled Australia after the Bali bombings. Investigators have linked them to a member of an alleged Sydney terrorist cell who was arrested and charged a year ago.
Djibouti Urges Talks To Salvage Somalia
Djibouti, November 14, 2006 – Djibouti President Ismael Omar Guelleh on Tuesday lamented the worsening situation in Somalia, but called for serious dialogue between feuding leaders to avert an all-out war.
After the failure of previous talks between the weak government and the powerful Islamist militia, Guelleh said there was little hope that the prevailing climate in Somalia could achieve a lasting peace.
Kenya Detains Somali Planes After Flight Ban
Nairobi, November 14, 2006 – Kenyan authorities on Monday detained two planes, including a UN aircraft, that landed in Nairobi from Somalia as a ban on flights to and from the lawless nation took effect, officials said.
The ban, announced at the weekend for security reasons after a US warning that Somali extremists have threatened suicide attacks in Kenya, snagged a UN charter and a commercial airliner coming from Mogadishu, they said.
Kismayo, Somalia November 14, 2006 – Islamic religious police on Tuesday arrested 22 people for smoking in the Somali port of Kismayo, where they will be flogged if found guilty of violating a new tobacco ban, officials said.
Those detained were nabbed just days after local Islamist officials announced a total ban on the use of tobacco in the key southern port, in a new sign of their increasingly strict application of Sharia law.
Nov 18, 2006 (MOGADISHU) — Somalia’s Islamic leader wants the Somali regions of Kenya and Ethiopia to be part of Somalia, he said in a radio interview, reviving the idea of a "Greater Somalia," which caused tensions in the 1970s and was a cause of the war with Ethiopia.
Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, chairman of the Council of Islamic Courts, told Shabelle Radio in a live call-in interview late Friday that his group will work to unite Somali peoples, but he did not say how they proposed to achieve what he referred to as "Greater Somalia.
18 November 2006
Eritrea on Saturday joined several nations that denied accusations by UN experts of violating a 1992 arms embargo on Somalia where rivals are now preparing for war.
Asmara slammed allegations it had supplied weapons, including sophisticated shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, 2000 troops and training to Somalia's powerful Islamists as a plot to discredit it and destabilize the region.
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Somalia's Islamic Courts order capital's residents to vacate public property
MOGADISHU, Somalia-November 18, 2006: Somalia's Council of Islamic Courts ordered residents of the capital to vacate all public buildings and land they occupied after Mogadishu's central administration collapsed more than 15 years ago.
The officials on Friday said that they wanted to reclaim and restore the buildings and land in the capital for public use, but they did not give details of their reconstruction plans.
Mogadishu, November 13, 2006 – Islamic authorities in the Somalia capital Mogadishu have endorsed overnight the decision by the Kenyan government in which it suspended all flights to Somalia.
In a meeting held in Mogadishu last night between Islamic Courts officials and some religious men in Banadir province, they discussed over how it would start religious awareness towards telling the good acts and clearing the evil.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, November 13, 2006 – Ethiopia loses 3,000 tones of gold and other precious to smugglers every year, the Ministry of Mines and Energy said, - Ethiopian Herald.
Ethiopia’s State Minister of Mines and Energy Sinknesh Ejigu said the traditionally extracted gold and the precious metals have been smuggled out of the country via the neighboring countries.
CHEYENNE, WY, Nov. 13, 2006 – Equitable Mining Corp. (EQUITABLE), a resource company trading as EQBL on PinkSheets.com and E5W on the Frankfurt Exchange, is selling assets to Soma Petroleum Limited (SOMA) an oil and gas resource company in exchange for SOMA shares.
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Paris, France, November 14 2006 – Reporters Without Borders today called on the Eritrean government to urgently produce evidence that three journalists illegally held since September 2001 are still alive, as information from credible sources indicates they died in the course of the past 20 months in a detention centre at a place called Eiraeiro, in a remote northeastern desert.
The organization wrote to the Eritrean embassy in France on 9 October asking the government to provide an explanation "within a reasonable period" about these "very disturbing reports." If we do not get a reply from you in the near future, our organization will publish this information," said the letter, which did not receive a response.
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Mogadishu, November 16 2006 – Tensions have risen between the Western-backed interim administration and powerful Islamists whose control over most of southern Somalia has thwarted the government's aim to impose central rule on a country in chaos since 1991.
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Djibouti, November 16, 2006 – Leaders from Africa's main trading bloc have opened a summit to mull ways of forming a unified customs system for its 21-member states.
Six presidents and a prime minister, attending the 11th summit of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), will explore possibilities of putting in place the commons unions for their markets by 2008, an AFP correspondent said Wednesday.
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MOGADISHU, Nov 15, 2006 – Somalia's powerful Islamists on Wednesday dismissed as "fabrication" a U.N. report which says they are receiving military support from seven African and Middle Eastern nations and international Islamic militants.
An advance copy of the 80-page report to the U.N. Security Council, obtained by Reuters, paints a detailed picture of foreign interests it says are allied both to Somalia's interim government and its Islamist rivals.
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Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki: |
Washington, November 15, 2006 – Eritrean President Issayas Afewerki, who has been in conflict with most of the Horn region's states, now has defined Washington as its historic foe. The US, he says, had fuelled all conflicts Eritrea has ever been involved in. Only two years ago, however, Eritrea tried to market itself as Washington's prime ally in the region.
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U.N. Briefed On Somalia Arms Trading
Islamist militia guards a rally in Buur Hakaba, (10 Nov. 2006). |
UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 18, 2006 - The authors of a controversial U.N. report that accused 10 countries of providing weapons, money and training to rival sides in Somalia briefed a Security Council committee Friday amid denials and complaints from many of those named.
The closed-door briefing to the committee monitoring a 1992 arms embargo against Somalia follows leaks of the report, which raised skepticism among experts and diplomats about some of its allegations.
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One of the Worst Floods in Recent History Hits Somalia - Up to One Million People Could Be Affected in the Coming Weeks
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Nairobi, Kenya, November 15, 2006 – The humanitarian crisis in southern Somalia is deepening, as the Shabelle and Juba Valley river basins are potentially facing one of the worst floods in recent history. Already 50,000 people were displaced by severe floods in Hiran region over the weekend, and serious floods are ongoing in parts of Middle and Lower Juba. Some stations in Somalia have recorded more than 400-600% of their normal recorded rainfall. It is anticipated that up to one million people could be directly affected by the flooding throughout Shabelle and Juba valley river basins over the coming weeks.
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Hargeysa, Somaliland, November 18, 2006 (SL Times) - The Berbera demonstration is the opposite of what Somaliland stands for. Somaliland stands for the rule of law, for legal and peaceful assembly. The demonstration was anything but peaceful. It was violent and bloody. The demonstrators or rioters burnt tires and destroyed government offices. Did they ever ask themselves who paid for the property they were destroying? It definitely wasn’t the government that paid for it. Tax payers paid for what was destroyed, and tax payers will pay for replacing and fixing it.
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Hargeysa, Somaliland - November 13, 2006 – “Due to the high level of mobility in the Horn of Africa, important population groups consistently remain outside the reach of national efforts to address HIV/AIDS. It is imperative that we jointly respond to HIV vulnerability among mobile populations and the host populations with whom they interact”. This was the consensus of representatives of AIDS Commissions from Djibouti, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, north and south Sudan, Somaliland, Puntland and south central Somalia who began a three-day meeting in Hargeysa, Somaliland on Monday, to agree concrete action on the Regional Partnership to address HIV Vulnerability and Cross-border mobility in the Horn of Africa.
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One of the largest overseas cash transfer companies in the U.S. lost a local man’s money and won’t give it back
Robbed A break-in at Dahabshil, supposedly insured, has one man out 24 grand. |
Nashville, November 16, 2006 – To many East Africans, Dahabshil Inc. is a lifeline to home. The company, which operates in 11 states from Oregon to Maine, allows people in the U.S to transfer cash to a number of Africa’s most impoverished countries.
Last Saturday, Dahabshil’s Nashville office on Murfreesboro Road was packed with Somalis, Ethiopians and other East Africans. They were there to help put food on the tables and clothes on the backs of the families that they left behind.
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Islamist militiamen on patrol in Mogadishu: |
Mogadishu, Somalia, November 17, 2006 – Many have held that the light drug khat is the main misfortune of Somali culture, but banning it overnight was not even a realistic option for the many women seeing their marriage and economy ruined by khat-chewing husbands. The Mogadishu Islamists are trying just this, resulting in popular unrest and a first real challenge to their power.
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Nairobi, Kenya, November 17, 2006 – Cool seasonal rains have slowed the march to war between Somalia's Islamic militants and the secular government, but in the weeks ahead the tropical sun will break through the clouds, dry the muddy roads, shrink the flooded rivers and, many fear, ignite a civil war.
There have been minor skirmishes in the past few weeks. After 20 years of neglect, Somalia's road system is in tatters and virtually impassable when it rains. That means neither side can move troops or maintain supply lines. No one wants to fight in the mud.
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Ethiopians unload aid supplies in Gode, Ethiopia, following a U.S. Air Force humanitarian delivery mission |
Washington, November 14, 2006 – The U.S. Air Force has helped transport more than 80 metric tons of food and emergency relief supplies to flood victims in the ethnic Somali region of southeastern Ethiopia, U.S. government officials said November 13.
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A handshake in a Melbourne mosque almost 20 years ago between the leaders of two radical Muslim groups signalled the start of an enduring alliance. Sally Neighbour explains
IN the hushed confines of a suburban mosque in the north of Melbourne, two men met in 1988. The pair were not well known at the time, but that would soon change.
The Melbourne-based sheik Mohammed Omran headed the fundamentalist Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah Association, now regarded as the most radical Islamic group in Australia. His visitor was the Indonesian preacher Abu Bakar Bashir, future head of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah.
Bashir, on his first trip to Australia, needed the blessing of the country's pre-eminent conservative cleric in order to begin building his jemaah or community, which would later become the Australian branch of JI. Omran was willing to oblige.
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November 18, 2006
A mission led by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative for Somalia will travel to the town of Baidoa, the seat of Somalia's transitional government, on Monday to discuss peace efforts with President Abdullahi Yusuf, a UN spokesman said Friday.
Francois Lonseny Fall will be accompanied by representatives of the Somalia Advisory Contact Group that was established earlier this year to support the peace process, said Stephane Dujarric, the UN chief's spokesman, in a noon briefing at the UN headquarters.
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International News
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As they say when the Olympics convene, "Let The Games Begin." A new Olympics gets underway today, the news Olympics, as the Anglo-American hegemony of the big news cartels has for the first time a challenger in the form of wellpackaged professional network. Al-Jazeera International goes on the air globally (but not yet in the USA) to offer another perspective.
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Thoughts form London
Rock casts the first stone but is he without sin
Given the limited time he spent in the East, Allan Rock (above) seems to be accepting as reliable and credible what he has been told’ |
The days when nations could act with impunity and turn a Nelsonian eye on the rest of the world are long gone.
That is, unless, a country has a geo-strategic advantage or has a big and powerful patron that brooks no interference. North Korea, an economically impoverished country can act menacingly to keep even the United States at bay because it is possibly a nuclear power and is a potential threat to a region that is of geo-strategic importance to Washington.
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Annan addresses Alliance of Civilizations meeting
Istanbul, Turkey, November 13, 2006 – Rejecting the notion of a clash of civilizations or religions, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called for better education and opportunities for youth, as well as the resolution of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, to stem mounting mistrust and violence between Islam and the West.
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What do Minnesota college officials do when someone gives them a camel?
Minneapolis, MN, November 10, 2006 – What do Minnesota college officials do when someone gives them a camel?
They say "thanks" and promise to visit the next time they're in Somalia.
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London, November 13, 2006 – Five suspected Rwandan architects of the 1994 Genocide who have been in the United Kingdom (UK) as asylum seekers since 1998 have been arrested by The British government, the New Times said Monday.
The five Rwandese- who were all senior leaders of the Hutu militia during the Genocide- include one Vincent Bajinya, who has been allegedly working for a London-based charity as a doctor; Emmanuel Ntezilyayo, Charlesall Munyaneza and Celestin Ugirasebuja.
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In an article titled "Al Qaeda finds new partner: Salafist group finds limited success in native Algeria" (The Washington Post, October 5, 2006) by Craig Whitlock, Western sources, including French and American, assert that the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (originally a local Algerian group) has become global by joining with al Qaeda.
While the article is very interesting and informative, the analysis of the International Salafi movement by Western sources and expertise shows a continuous misunderstanding of Jihadism and its strategies. For in the essence of the article there is an assertion that the Algerian Salafists were restricted to fight their Government for "local" reasons, but it was U.S. intervention in the region that "compelled" the Combat Salafists to join al Qaeda worldwide. This assertion and other little informed debates taking place in the U.S. these days are committing an analytical sin: Projecting onto the Jihadists an alien thinking, most likely because of the pressures of American politics
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September 15, 2006
U.S. efforts at re-establishing occupation and colonial domination suffered a new setback on Sept. 4. The government of Sudan refused to allow United Nations forces to be stationed in its western region of Darfur.
On Sept. 1, the U.S. and Britain had ram med Resolution 1701 through the UN Security Council. It called for sending more than 20,000 UN troops to Sudan to take over from 7,000 African Union forces.
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| October 23, 2006 The daily headlines about a single congressman's online pedophiliac behavior obscure the greater issue of a nation off its moorings and afflicted by the collective perversion of defiling the foundational equity and justice-for-all letter and spirit of what the nation long-claimed to stand for but no longer does if it ever did. Nearly everyone in the administration, Congress and courts share the collective guilt and shame and by their actions destroyed Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address "resolve....that this nation....shall have a new birth of freedom (in a) "government of the people, by the people, for the people (that) shall not perish from the earth." |
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Islamist fighters in Mogadishu (October 2006 file photo) |
Nairobi, November 17, 2006 – Experts on Somalia have mixed opinions about some of the findings in a new U.N. commission report that accuses 10 countries from across the Middle East and Africa of supplying money, weapons, troops, and training to the Islamic militia that controls much of Somalia.
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Editorial
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A group of demonstrating students went to the streets in Somaliland’s port city of Berbera on Thursday to protest in the wake of rumors that the government sold an old nearby cement factory (shut down since 1991) to a scrap dealer. Though the rumors have been circulating in the town as early on as last Monday, the government has however made no effort to set the record straight.
As happens whenever it finds itself caught up in a corruption scandal, the government chose not to do anything until it was too late. Apparently the students’ protests were going on peacefully until groups of unemployed youngsters who later joined the demonstration started rampaging through the streets, sacking and burning 3 government offices.
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Special Report |
In November 2005, the Centre for Human Rights began investigating the possibility of a third destination for the LLM field trip. The reasons for increasing the number of field trip destinations to include Somaliland include the following:
Somaliland is a state in the making; it would be ideal for students on the programme to have a first hand experience of this. |
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Opinions
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Djibouti’s Dangerous Games
By Jamal Gabobe
Djibouti is a small country that is making one big miscalculation after another. First it spearheaded efforts to transform the Inter-Governmental Authority on Drought and Development (IGADD) from an organization whose main task was to do something about the effects of the recurring drought in the Horn Africa region, to an organization with a political agenda. Djibouti’s thinking was that since the secretariat of IGAD was placed in its territory, it would be the key player and main political beneficiary from IGAD’s new orientation. Djibouti’s thinking turned out to be wrong. A case in point is the issue of Somalia. Djibouti thought it could use the IGAD as cover for its efforts to impose on Somalis a settlement to its liking, but other bigger and more important countries within IGAD, such as Ethiopia and Kenya, not only blocked Djibouti’s efforts, but were finally able to outmuscle Djibouti and take charge of the Somalia issue.
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By Dr. Mohamud Tani, Ottawa, Canada
It is almost a certainty that the UDUB party will bring the president back into the ticket. As a matter of rule, the party does not usually change the incumbent.
It happens only if the circumstances dictate, and we do not see any dissenting voices within the UDUB demanding any change of direction. As far as most supporters of the ruling party are concerned, the ship of the state of Somaliland is sailing smoothly through the troubled waters of the Horn of Africa, and all thanks to the CAPTAIN at the steering wheel. Some would say that we are sailing a bit slow, but remember what the turtle told the hare in the old folklore story: Slow and Steady Takes you all the Way. However, let me state here unequivocally, even if we of the UDUB are crowning the president again, we would most certainly need to make the process transparent and democratic. |
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Gun-Trotting Mullahs
By Bashir Goth Abu Dhabi, UAE
"Peace and Islam" was the rallying cry of the Somali Islamists three months ago. Now these same people are capturing more land, invading towns, and slaughtering wounded combatants in their hospital beds. What happened?
When the Islamists routed the notorious warlords who kept the country hostage for over 15 years, Somalis all over the world saw Islamists as saviors. Even skeptics like me who don't like wrapping political agendas in religious rhetoric joined the chorus of adulation. If they acted as they talked, I said, they could be the first Islamists to win the Nobel peace. In an attempt to understand their motives, I was one of the first journalists to interview the Islamists' leading spin-doctor, Sheikh Sherif Sheikh Ahmed.
"Land is not our priority. Our priority is the people's peace, dignity and that they could live in liberty, that they could decide their own fate.... Our priority is not land; the people are important to us," is what he told me when I asked him whether they planned to reach the whole country and control the nation.
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By Abdulkadir J. Dualeh
The public of Somaliland has barred their elected political leaders from engaging in opportunistic politics designed to take advantage of the bias Ethiopia and the Western World harbor against the ICU leadership.
Knowing full well that Ethiopia and the West are ready to hound, hunt, persecute and slander the leaders of the ICU, Somaliland public have restrained their leaders from joining the enemy camp.
This public sentiment represents a sublime faith in the true spirit of Islamic teachings. It is an unprecedented fidelity to the directive that it is better to blow up the Kaba than to shed a Muslim blood.
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By Cabdale Farah Sigad
Quotation
(“Hadaba waxa muuqata – marka la eego habdhaqanka uu wasiirku kula kacay labada hablood ee Caarka ah ee uu shaqadii ay wasaaradda ka hayeen kaga eryey Jalaabiib ayay xidhan yihiin – inuu fulinayo dhaqan uu gurigooda kala yimi iyo colaad uu Aabihii ka dhaxlay labadaba, isagoo ah masuul qaran oo huwan sharaftii dowladnimo, taas oo ka reeban xilalka iyo masuuliyadda qaran, diinta iyo Dhaqanka dadka reer Somaliland By Xildhibaan; Xariir Bulaale).
These above hideous words belong to a man called Hariir Saiid Bulaale. Staggeringly this man is a member of Somaliland Parliament.
Mr. Hariir’s preposterous comments against the Minister of Information are very cheap, and idiotically blunder. His ludicrous remarks came after two female former employees made allegations against the Minister of Information Ahmed Haji Dahir by accusing him for preventing them to wear the Hijab at work. However this is only a contentious and unproved case so far. So why this man “Bulaale” had decided not only to villainies the Minister of Information but also to insult his entire household and easily get away with it?
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BY: Hashi Hassan
Contributing Writer for Somaliland Times.
Somalilanders attention has been captivated by the tense situation involving Harbi Trading Company. On October 26 2006, Harbi co: along with a foreign company (Total) and Red Sea brought fuel to Somaliland. All respective companies had their license to allot fuel to Somaliland. Upon arriving at the port of Berbera, Total and Red Sea co: excluding Harbi Company unloaded their fuel, a decision made by Total (foreign company) who apparently seems to have more power than the authority. Dismayed as to why their fuel is halted by equally competitive Company (Total); the chief executives of Harbi Company (Abdirahman Farah Harbi & Ahmed Farah Harbi) decided to meet the Minister of commerce who initially authorized the three companies to bring fuel, hoping that he (minister) may enforce given ministerial directives rejected by Total Company.
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| FEATURES & COMMENTARY |
Somalia In Mid-November: Sparring And Waiting For Someone To Strike
Drafted By: Dr. Michael A. Weinstein
After September 24, when the Islamic Courts Council (I.C.C.) peacefully gained control over the strategic port city of Kismayo in Somalia's deep south and extended its reach over the southern regions of Middle and Lower Jubba, the conflicts in that stateless country sharpened and broadened into a looming armed confrontation between the I.C.C. and Ethiopia. The I.C.C. seeks to unite Somalia in an Islamic state, while Ethiopia is determined to prevent that outcome and supports the Courts' rival, the Transitional Federal Government (T.F.G.), which is structured by a clan-based constitution.
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Cardiff, Wales, UK, Friday, 10th November 2006 – The Chair and the Director of Somali Advice & Information Centre announced the outcome of a landmark visit of the Rt. Hon. Abdirahman Mohamed Abdillahi, Speaker and Rt. Hon. Abdiaziz Mohamed Samale, 1st Deputy Speaker of Somaliland House of Representatives to Wales.
This was a follow-up visit to cement a relationship that germinated from the attendance of the Speaker Rt. Hon. Abdirahman at the inauguration ceremony of the Welsh Assembly Chamber, last spring. Both visits were sponsored by Somali Progressive Association on behalf of Somaliland Community in Wales.
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Nov 16, 2006
Amid the cacophony and prospects of an all-out war that has characterized Somalia in the last one year, three events have taken place in the past two months that indicate there could be a ray of hope after all.
In late August, Mogadishu port became operational for the first time in 11 years. The main sea gateway to the troubled country had been a no-go zone, with various armed factions battling for its control.
The second event that indicates that disorder may soon lose ground in Somalia is the rescue of a ship taken hostage by pirates two weeks ago.
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The change of heart by the Union of Islamic Courts leading to its decision to resume talks with the transitional government is a fresh opportunity for Kenya to reclaim its rightful role as the honest arbiter in Somalia.
As the most crucial neighbor with so much to gain from peace in Somalia, it is time Kenya clearly defined its policy on the country. It is a relief that the Union of Islamic Courts has agreed to resume talks in principle, without giving any preconditions, but this should not be a ticket for complacency by Kenya, because the Courts are yet to unequivocally prove this country's neutrality. |
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By Elie Smith
The African kingdom of Morocco has been defiant on the issue of her occupation of the West or North West African state of Western Sahara since 1976. Attempts by the OAU, the ancestor of the African Union to change the situation have been snubbed by the authorities in Rabat. Even the UN’s own attempts to do justice to the Saharouis have been rebuked.
The humiliation of the UN and the African Union on the Western Saharan dossiers comes from some well informed minds manning the ruder of power in the African kingdom. These groups are often presented as westernized and at par with international law. Strangely it is those handled like spoiled children by western diplomats particularly in Brussels and Washington DC that have done everything to scuttle plans to solve the occupation of Western Sahara.
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Militant attacks on Yemeni oil facilities and the arrest of alleged foreign insurgents in the capital suggest al-Qaida has resurfaced in Yemen in the wake of a mass prison breakout.
17/11/06
Four would-be bombers and a security guard died on 15 September as militants driving two explosives-laden vehicles attempted to force their way into two oil refineries at Hadhramout and Marib in eastern Yemen.
An internet message posted on 7 November on a website used by militant Islamic groups claimed responsibility for the failed attacks on behalf of a group styling itself "al-Qaida in Yemen.
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MOGADISHU, SOMALIA, Nov 16, 2006 – For the first time since it degenerated into a war-zone 16 years ago, Mogadishu is experiencing total lack of miraa. Its relatively busy markets, which have been fairly peaceful over the past few months after hard-line Islamists took control of the town, are now sobering up to life without the narcotic leaf. Very rarely do marauding gunmen harass people in the town.
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By Elie Smith.
While the UN and the until thy kingdom come cashless African Union are in dire need of funds for operations in Darfur, Sudan, the UN supported by the hypocritical European Union have strangely already wasted colossal sum in the failed state called the DRC. According to the French daily Le Monde of Thursday August 24 th 2006, $ 450 millions were spent to organize the July 30 th 2006 presidential and parliamentary elections, that some have added the adjective historic to it. The indicated amount will swell the final addition of the UN mission to the DRC, whose budget according to the same paper is set to knock an all time high of $1.5 billion at the end of this year.
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Story by SALIM LONE
A local daily last week carried a banner headline, "Terror Alert." The sub-head indicated that Somali suicide bombers could strike Kenya "within hours." There was a picture of a woman in a hijab with a bomb strapped to her body.
That front page caused real alarm among Kenyans, especially as 6,000 senior officials from around the world were coming in for Monday’s opening of the global warming talks.
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