|
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
| Front
Page |
| News Headlines
|
|
|
| Local
and Regional Affairs |
|
|
|
Editorial |
|
|
|
Features
& Commentry |
|
|
|
International News
|
|
|
|
Opinion |
|
|
|
|
U.S. Embassy, Nairobi, Kenya
Press Release
February 5, 2009
The United States Government condemns the February 4 murder
of Said Tahlil Ahmed, Director of Horn Afrik’s Mogadishu
station. The senseless assassination of Mr. Ahmed is yet
another indication of the dangerous environment in which
Somalia’s brave journalists perform their vital work. We
offer our condolences to the family, colleagues and friends
of Mr. Ahmed.
Read full text...
|
|
|
VANCOUVER, BRITISH
COLUMBIA, Feb. 4, 2009 – Africa Oil Corp. ("Africa Oil" or
"the Company") (TSX VENTURE:AOI) is pleased to announce that
it has signed a Share Purchase Agreement to acquire a large
portfolio of East African oil exploration projects from
Lundin Petroleum AB. The projects are located within a
vastly underexplored region of the rich East African rift
basin petroleum system. The projects acquired include an 85%
working interest in Blocks 2, 6, 7 and 8 and a 50% working
interest in the Adigala Block in Ethiopia plus a 100%
interest in Block 10A and a 30% interest in Block 9 in
Kenya. Africa Oil will assume operatorship of these projects
excluding Block 9 in Kenya.
Read full text...
|
|
|
By Tricia Escobedo
Addis Ababa, February 05, 2009 – It was an odd sight in
Ethiopia's capital this week: a standing ovation for Sharif
Sheikh Ahmed, the man whom Ethiopian forces had removed from
power in neighboring Somalia two years ago.
He once led the Islamic Courts Union, which ruled much of
Somalia in 2006 before it was routed by the Ethiopians.
Read full text...
|
|
|
GAROWE, Somalia Feb 5, 2009 – Somali pirates who seized a
Ukrainian vessel with controversial cargo in September have
released the ship after cashing in a ransom payment, three
days after a pirate kingpin was killed in Puntland, Radio
Garowe reports.
The MV Faina was being held hostage off the coast of central
Somalia for more than four months, making it the longest
period of time a ship has been held hostage by the pirates.
Read full text...
|
|
|
Addis Ababa, February 6, 2009 – Uganda has categorically
rejected media reports that its peacekeepers in Somalia shot
and killed civilians this week after a troop convoy was
struck by a bomb. Uganda joined human rights groups in
calling for an independent inquiry into the incident.
Read full text...
|
|
|
New York, February 5, 2009) – A new incident involving
African Union troops in Mogadishu that left at least 13
people dead underscores the urgent need for an independent
inquiry into laws-of-war violations by all forces in
Somalia, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch
also called on the top UN official in Somalia to immediately
retract a statement comparing Somali journalists reporting
the incident to those who incited the Rwandan genocide.
Read full text...
|
|
|
New York, February 4, 2009—The director of HornAfrik, one of
Somalia’s leading radio and television stations, was killed
by three masked gunmen in the Bakara Market area of
Mogadishu on Tuesday afternoon, local journalists told CPJ.
The assailants shot Said Tahlil repeatedly as he and six
other senior journalists were walking to a meeting with
members of the militant Al-Shabaab group.
“We send our deepest condolences to Said Tahlil’s family and
colleagues at HornAfrik,” said CPJ’s Africa program
coordinator, Tom Rhodes. “Tahlil and other brave reporters
in Mogadishu who continue to work under extremely dangerous
conditions must be supported. We call on the new Somali
administration make every effort to protect journalists.”
Read full text...
|
|
|
By: Eric Quade
Barron, February 6, 2009 – One of the men originally charged
in connection with a break-in last year at Safari Restaurant
in Barron has had those charges against him dropped locally,
but he has now been arrested for allegedly trying to enter
Canada with his brother's passport. The border incident also
reportedly linked the subject to a possible presidential
inauguration threat.
Barron Police Chief Byron Miller said that Bile A.
Abdillahi, 22, of St. Paul had been one of several
individuals that had been accused of burglarizing Safari
Restaurant the night of June 15
Read full text...
|
|
|
JNAIROBI, Kenya, February 5, 2009 _ As U.S. navy ships
looked on, Somalian pirates sped away Thursday with US$3.2
million in ransom after releasing an arms-laden Ukrainian
freighter, ending a four-month standoff that focused world
attention on piracy off Somalia's lawless coast.
The navy said it couldn't seize the bandits for fear of
endangering 147 other seamen still held hostage on other
hijacked ships.
So, within sight of two nearby U.S. warships, the pirates
counted the cash _ air-dropped by parachute _ then took off
in motorboats, pirate Aden Abdi Omar said, speaking to The
Associated Press by satellite phone after arriving in the
central Somali town of Harardhere.
“We are not holding it (the ship) anymore,'' said Omar,
adding that more than two dozen pirates made their escape
aboard motorized skiffs, navigating the choppy waters in
small groups.
Read full text...
|
|
|
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
It might take a village to raise a child - but it takes
a community to save one.
That's why local Somalis will gather Saturday to meet
with city cops, hoping to keep their children safe from
violence that left four young Somali men slain in
Edmonton last year. A fifth was shot, but survived. All
had just moved here from Toronto.
This weekend, cops and community members will attempt to
work toward a solution, said a Somali Canadian Cultural
Society of Edmonton spokesman.
Read full text...
|
|
ROCKFORD,
February 04, 2009 (WREX) - Rockford has a major drug
problem, but police arrest a man for something most of us
have never heard of. It's call khat, an illegal plant used
in some African cultures to get high . 
On Monday, Ahmed Hussen Hassan of Chicago, 32, was arrested
after he took possession of a package mailed from overseas
to a hotel in the area of East State Street and Interstate
90. Police claim the package contained more than 15 pounds
of khat, a shrub that grows in the Horn of Africa.
"The package was intercepted in Philadelphia," says John
Biffany, commander of the State Line Area Narcotics Team.
"It had originated in China, went to Switzerland, Germany
and then to Philadelphia."
Read full text...
|
|
Press Release
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Zakaria Ahmed Ali, a 15-year old from Somalia and living in
Reston, Virginia, had been missing since Monday, January 25,
2009. The Fairfax County Police and the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children had been searching for Ali
since Monday.
Ali was found alive and well yesterday, Sunday, February 1,
2009, by volunteers led by the Somali American Community
Association (SACA), a nonprofit, 501 C (3) organization, in
Maryland. Members of SACA and 18 dedicated volunteers
conducted a campaign that canvassed several neighborhoods in
the Reston area looking for the missing child.
Read full text...
|
|
|
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
As the judge sentenced him to 17 to 20 years in prison for
the death of a Somali man, John Zechmann sat staring
straight ahead while family and friends wiped away tears.
In addition to the time for manslaughter, Hall County
District Judge James Livingston gave Zechmann, 22, two to
four years in prison for second-degree assault. The terms
will run at the same time, and he was given credit for the
540 days he has already served in the Hall County Jail.
He pleaded guilty to the felonies in December 2008. He had
been charged with first-degree murder and using a gun to
commit a felony for the death of Faud Osman.
Read full text...
|
|
|
New York, February 5, 2009 --
Amnesty International today called for an immediate,
independent and impartial investigation into allegations
that AMISOM, the African Union peace support operation in
Somalia, opened fire indiscriminately in the capital of
Mogadishu, killing civilians on Monday, (February 2).
An AMISOM spokesperson denied that troops opened fire on
civilians, saying that three civilians were killed and one
of their soldiers injured by an explosion on the Maka Al-Mukarama
road that targeted one of their vehicles.
Read full text...
|
|
US Navy Gives Fuel, Food To Freed Weapons Ship |
|
NAIROBI,
Kenya, February 06, 2009 — The U.S. Navy gave fuel, food
and water Friday to a Ukrainian arms ship off the coast of
Somalia, helping it get ready to leave the area after being
held hostage by pirates for more than four months.
The MV Faina,
seized Sept. 25, was freed Thursday after pirates received
an airdropped ransom of $3.2 million. The pirates then left
with the cash, but the ship remained anchored at sea near
the Somali coastal town of Hobyo.
In addition,
the U.S. Navy gave all Faina crew members medical attention,
said Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the
Bahrain-based 5th Fleet.
Read full text... |
|
Headlines |
BCIMR
Opens First Commercial Bank In Somaliland |
|
BCIMR office in
Hargeysa |
Hargeysa, Somaliland,
February 07, 2009 (SL
Times) - The Banque pour
le Commerce et
l’Industrie - Mer Rouge
(BCI-MR), the
partly-owned subsidiary
of French bank BNP
Paribas, held a
ribbon-cutting ceremony
on Sunday in Hargeysa to
officially open the
first commercial bank
ever in Somaliland.
Read full text...
|
|
Libya's
President Muammar Gaddafi (left) shakes hands with
delegates during the opening session of the 12th African
Union Summit in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa February
2, 2009 |
AU chairman says groups
are fighting against greedy and capitalist West
Addis Ababa, February 5 2009 – AU chairman Muammar Gaddafi
has said that his priority will be to claim colonial
compensation and to limit the power of Western nations
The Libyan leader further said he believed that piracy was a
way of counter defence against the greedy Western nations.
Col Gaddafi expressed the sentiments Thursday morning when
he paid his first day official visit to African Union head
quarter in Addis Ababa. He addressed AU officials and staff.
Read full text...
|
|
Progressio Leads Observers For Somaliland Elections |
|
London, February 3, 2009 -
Development agency Progressio has been chosen to coordinate a
team of election observers from four continents during the
forthcoming presidential elections in the internationally
unrecognized Republic of Somaliland, currently scheduled for 29
March.
The invitation to conduct the mission, issued by the Somaliland
National Electoral Commission, will see Progressio working in
partnership with the Development Planning Unit at University
College London (UCL), FOPAG (Forum for Peace and Governance) in
Somaliland and Somaliland Focus UK.
The team will oversee organization of the election observation
team and will remain in Somaliland’s capital, Hargeysa,
following the vote to prepare a report on the conduct of the
campaign and poll.
Read full text...
|
|
|
Dahir Riyale Kahin, President
|
Hargeysa, Somaliland, February 7, 2009 – The president of
Somaliland has won the ruling party's nomination to run for
president on March 29, but some party insiders have condemned
the process.
President Dahir Riyale and Vice-President Ahmed Yusuf Yasin were
present at Hotel Mansor in Hargeysa, where hundreds of
congregants gathered for the UDUB party convention to nominate
candidates for the upcoming election.
Read full text...
|
|
Somaliland president
congratulates Iranian president and scientists |
|
Hargeysa, Somaliland, February 4, 2009 President of Somaliland
Dahir R Kahin sent his congratulations on Tuesday to Iran's
aerospace scientists and the current president of Iran
Ahmadinejad after the safe and successful launch of
communications satellite Omit ('Hope') into orbit.
In his message, Kahin noted the immense need of Middle East and
Africa for 'modest access to communications technologies' to
cater for the growing telecom and communications market
currently serviced and supplied at higher rates.
Read full text...
|
|
|
Somalia's
newly elected president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed
arrives at the UN compound in Addis Ababa for
consultations, 01 Feb 2009 |
Nairobi, February 06, 2009 – Somalia's new leader is appealing
for peace and unity after four insurgent factions, opposed to
his leadership of an anticipated unity government for Somalia,
agreed to merge and continue fighting.
President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed responded late Thursday to
one of the earliest challenges to his authority. He asked the
newly-created opposition group to lay down their arms and join
the government.
Read full text...
|
|
|
Hargeysa, Somaliland, February 6, 2009 -- Authorities in the
republic of Somaliland said 81 Yemenis were fined and deported
to their home country for fishing illegally in the southern port
town of Berbera, officials said Friday.
The fishermen, captured by the local coastal guards last week
with six fishing boats, were found guilty of illegal fishing by
a regional court in the eastern Saahil Province, Abdalla Mohamed
Ali, Mayor of Berbera, the provincial capital of Saahil, told
Xinhua by phone from the coastal town.
Read full text...
|
|
|
Pakistan Releases Abdul Qadeer Khan - The Man
Behind A Nuclear Black Market |
|
'Fully vindicated':
Nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan waves to the media
after his court verdict |
Islamabad, Pakistan, February 7, 2009 – The disgraced Pakistani
nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan was freed yesterday after
spending five years under house arrest for selling atomic
secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya in the world’s biggest
nuclear proliferation scandal.
A court declared Dr Khan, 72, a free man in a move likely to
anger the United States and its allies. They have long sought to
question him and believe that his international nuclear black
market is still active.
Read full text...
|
|
|
There have been a
series of meetings to try to find a compromise position |
Washington, February 7, 2009 – Senators in Washington say they
have reached agreement on a huge economic stimulus package
designed to revitalize the US economy.
Senior Democrats say they will back a plan worth $780bn
(£534bn), instead of the $900bn sought by the president, in
order to gain vital Republican support.
President Barack Obama has become angry with delays to the bill,
which mixes big spending plans and tax cuts.
Some Democrats are now saying the bill will go to a vote late on
Friday.
Read full text...
|
|
|
Photo
taken at undisclosed location in Iran shows Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, second right, looking at
Iranian satellite launching vehicle (Aug 2008 file
photo) |
Washington, February 06, 2009 – On Tuesday [February 3] with
great domestic fanfare, Iran put its first satellite, called
Omid, into orbit. But to leaders and analysts in the west, the
satellite launch represents a forward step in Iran's apparent
quest to be both nuclear capable and able to deliver a warhead
on target.
Just days ago, Iran joined the nations who have a presence in
space. The satellite Iran put in orbit has heightened concerns
in Washington and elsewhere about Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Read full text...
|
|
|
By Tom Rhodes/Africa Program Coordinator
Falastiin Iman, a former producer for the
independent Somali broadcaster HornAfrik, was talking by phone
on Sunday with the station's director, Said Tahlil. He was
upbeat, she said, a mood that is not easy to come by in
Mogadishu. "He was so happy that peace was finally coming to
Somalia and that, miraculously,
HornAfrik TV and Radio was still able to operate and report
throughout all the crises."
On Tuesday,
Tahlil was killed, shot repeatedly by masked assailants. He
and several other senior journalists were on their way to a
meeting with members of Al-Shabaab, a militant Islamist group
that was apparently displeased with local coverage of Saturday's
presidential election won by
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. The moderate Islamic leader's
easy victory was seen by many, including Tahlil, as a turning
point in Somalia and a chance for peace after decades of
fighting. Al-Shabaab had rejected the election and considered
the newly elected Sheikh to be a puppet of the west.
Read full text...
|
|
|
|
|
By Eritrean Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Feb 2, 2009, 13:40
In the past few days, seemingly new developments regarding the
situation in Somalia have attracted international limelight.
The current perceptions and sentiments notwithstanding, the
events require an objective evaluation so as to present a sound
understanding of the issue, and to direct the efforts of those
who seek a genuine solution to the crisis and wish for a stable
Somalia in the right direction.
Read full text...
|
|
|
The
associate professor has visited Somaliland, which does
not enjoy international recognition |
February 03, 2009
1. Transdnestria
This is a breakaway region of Moldova in south-eastern Europe.
Although not internationally recognized, Transdnestria has its
own government, military, currency, passport and flag.
'I was standing outside a palace trying to sneak a photo of a
statue of Lenin.
'I looked around first and didn't see anyone, so I snapped away.
But the moment I did, two big guys in dark suits and ties ran
out from the palace towards me.
'They looked like Mafia guys but the strange thing was, they
were actually friendly. They took me into the palace and asked
me where I was from and what I was doing.
'I told them I was just a harmless tourist, and they made me
sign my name in a little records book and let me go. I was
relieved, because Transdnestria is not the kind of place you
want to be jailed in.'
Read full text...
|
|
GREAT FUN: Mr Tan and his new friends
from the head-hunting Naga tribes in Nagaland, India |
By Ng Tze Yong
Singapore, February 03, 2009 – HE'S an intrepid traveler who
can boast more than a passport-full of stamps and a good
travel tale.
Mr Tan Wee Cheng, 39, is also officially Singapore's most
widely-traveled person.
Last year, he entered the Singapore Book of Records under
the category of Most Countries Traveled By A Single Person.
(Yes, there is such a record.)
He has visited 174 countries and territories, including
breakaway regions which are not recognized internationally.
Each stamp in his passport tells a story: Mr. Tan has been
detained in Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine, mugged in Russia and
Romania, got into scuffles in Cyprus and Liberia, and
survived road accidents in Albania and riots in Burkina
Faso, Africa.
Read full text...
|
|
From Iqbal:
Photos of US President Obama, Professor Iqbal Jhazbhay & ANC
Youth League students
|
|
US President Obama visited
South Africa in 2006. President Obama was particularly keen to
meet the youth of South Africa.
In this respect, Professor
Iqbal Jhazbhay, a scholar of studies on Somaliland at the
University of South Africa, was called upon to arrange such a
youth meeting. The meeting explored the youth's view of various
dimensions of South African foreign policy. |
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| Our Trip to Somaliland |
|
Africa's Best Kept Secret |
|
|
|
Pawns
Of Foreign Powers |
Since the first
international Somali reconciliation conference was organized on
foreign soil almost two decades ago, Somalia’s politicians or
wannabe politicians have engaged in a game of trying to use
foreign countries for their own purposes. In their naiveté, many
of these politicians thought that asking foreign countries for
support comes without a price. Now they are finding out that
there is no such thing as free lunch in international politics.
One of the most recent victims of his alliance with foreign
powers is Abdillahi Yusuf who used his connections to countries
such as Ethiopia and Kenya to catapult him to the “presidency”
of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG).
Read full text...
|
OPINION |
|
Political Leadership Failure And Deficiency |
|
Eng. Abdirahman Mohamed Dualeh
Congratulations are in order for all those who contributed
in any way, shape, or form to this struggle of fighting the
dark forces of anarchy. With pride, determination, and God's
will, we shall survive from the unleashed political Tsunami
that brought the country on the brink of disaster. Though I
had faith in our ability to pull out of this, yet from afar
and for a while the picture looked bleak to many of our
expatriates here in Somaliland. But with enduring public
patience and diligent performance of a few patriotic
Somalilanders, we are prudently bound to beat the odds and
stabilize the situation back to normal. That itself speaks
in volumes about our traditional resilience to meet any
confronting challenges headlong. Through the selfless
sacrifice and credit of a few good Samaritans, we have
remarkably survived from Rayale’s “round-them-up” nefarious
political campaigns to derail nationhood off the cliff.
Read full text...
|
|
Khat: A Social Problem Without Any Borders |
By Liban Obsiye
Just like in Somalia, the khat problem here in the UK is
causing massive social and economic havoc among its users
within the Somali community. So much so that the Home Office
whose role it is to police the drug problems of the country
has decided to fund research into the pros and cons that
surround khat with a view to eventually banning it as a
classed drug in the UK if it so proves to be detrimental to
its users like other drugs such as cannabis and cocaine.
Read full text...
|
|
Concurring Bunch Of Idiots |
|
By Mohamed Mousa
Reading Somali news these days is very puzzling and
sometimes promising. It is promising because of the success
of The Djibouti Conference thanks to Djibouti President,
Ismail Omer Geele, and his efforts to solve the daunting
tasks and challenges facing Somalia. Nevertheless, the
success of that conference depends on how fast the
International Community supports the new president and his
government. The eastern African countries will be judged on
the amount of support they give to the New Government of
Somalia. The work ahead has many faces: The new government
campaign among the different Islamic factions in the south
and bringing Somaliland and Puntland to the table,
convincing our neighbors and the world that the new
government’s agenda is workable.
Read full text...
|
|
|
Abdirahman Ibrahim Abdilahi
Peace is a term that most commonly refers to an absence of
hostility, but which also represents a larger concept
wherein there are healthy or newly-healed interpersonal or
international relationships, safety in matters of social or
economic welfare, the acknowledgment of equality and
fairness in political relationships and, in world matters,
peacetime; a state of being absent any war or conflict.
It is also important because it precisely means human life.
Among the basic rights of mankind the first one is
protecting life. This right is infringed around the world
today. Some developed countries claiming they are protecting
and serving this right by meddling or interfering with
underdeveloped third-world countries internal affairs and as
a result thousands of innocent people die.
Read full text...
|
|
|
Bashir Goth
A goodbye often carries a dual meaning. On one side it
conveys a deep sense of fulfillment and satisfaction and on
the other it bears a harrowing feeling of depravation. It is
with this mixed feeling that I would like to bid farewell to
the devoted readers and valued contributors of Awdalnews.
From the moment we launched and I took over its editorial
stewardship in July 2003, I made it my task to enable
Awdalnews Network to stand out with punching editorials,
hard-hitting opinions and critical news coverage. Aware of
the mushrooming Somali online news sites and blogosphere, it
was my duty to make Awdalnews immediately recognizable for
meeting the issues head-on.
Read full text...
|
|
|
ANIIS A. ESSA
With all my respect of the international, African Unity,
and the Arab Organization who are trying hard bring about
peace and tranquility to the Somali people, I forward my
humble contributions to the fatal issue as a member of the
concerned.
May be I am wrong, but I see blood being shed again with in
the remains of the so-call Somali community after a drastic
twenty and more years of continuous mass destruction of
human, wealth and natural resources. The motives were the
same however the tactics very. Unfortunately, the wars and
the fighting’s in these almost thirty years were either
international, interboundarial or otherwise interclass or
clan. In the cases the poor Somali people were the players
of the battle games on their own grounds masterminded by the
same budget investors and weapon industry owners.
Read full text...
|
| |
|
Obama Ensemble Or Bush Quartet? |
|
Dr. Terry Lacey
When we think of the European Union and Palestine does it
bring to mind the stirring chords of Beethoven’s Fifth or
the sad chorus of Handle’s Messiah, “All we like sheep, have
gone astray” ?
Contrasting comments on Palestine by ex Presidents Carter
(talk with Hamas) and Clinton (the blockade of Gaza is an
atrocity) and President Obama, (the boundaries of Palestine
should be contiguous) with those of the EU Development
Commissioner Louis Michel in Gaza last week (you are all
terrorists and its all your own fault), one might conclude
the US is changing its tune with the Obama Ensemble, while
Europe remains in harmony with the Bush Quartet.
Read full text...
|
|
Somali
Islamist militants of a coalition of four insurgent
groups parade on the outskirts of the Somali capital
Mogadishu, Feb. 2, the day four rebel groups, the
Dr. Omar Iman faction of the Union of Islamic Courts
(UIC), Faruk Anole, Raskamboni, and the Islamic
Front of Somalia, announced opposition to the
newly-elected President of Somalia Sheikh Sharif
Sheikh Ahmed. |
By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross (Special
to the Middle East Times)
Washington, February 05, 2009 – Ethiopian efforts in Somalia
began with an unexpected intervention in December 2006 that
rapidly reversed many territorial gains made by the Islamic
Courts Union (ICU), an Islamist group that was then on the
brink of destroying Somalia's U.N.-recognized transitional
federal government (TFG). However, neither the Ethiopians
nor the United States (which supported the invasion) were
able to provide the country with badly needed stability. The
beginning of the end came in early January, when trucks
filled with Ethiopian soldiers began to roll out of
Mogadishu. They almost immediately hit a roadside bomb.
Read full text...
|
|
|
We travel into the very heart of rural, and extremely
traditional, Somalia to meet a man who lives with
crocodiles, in the Shabelle River AND in his house.
Written By Abdinasir Mohamed Guled
Jowhar, Somalia, February 5, 2009 – Have you ever heard of
the ‘human crocodile leaders’?
I was always a skeptic, assuming that the stories about the
crocodile leaders were childish fables circulated by
imaginative and superstitious people. But despite my doubts,
and at same time intrigued by the stories, I decided to set
off to the areas where the crocodiles live.
Read full text...
|
|
|
Mark Hawthorne
Melbourne, February 4, 2009 – LITTLE joy can be found in the
word "recession", but at least we get to enjoy the absurd
language and rhetoric associated with impending financial
doom.
As Australia embarks on a ceiling battled recovery (CSR,
maker of Bradford Batts, was up 9.2 per cent on the news),
more than the odd schoolboy snigger can be heard as
economists discuss the size and potential stimulus of the
Prime Minister's injection package.
Read full text...
|
|
|
What a deceased
British politician can teach George Mitchell about
diplomacy.
By
John Barry | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Feb 2, 2009
As
George Mitchell embarks on his thankless odyssey as
President Obama's special envoy to seek peace between Israel
and the Palestinians, I offer him advice from someone who
has traveled a similar road: "Go where the power lies. You
may not like them. You may abhor them. But they are who you
must deal with. Any other course is a waste of time."
That piece of advice I
learned from the late
Iain Macleod, a brilliant British politician of the
post-World War II years. His boast was that, as secretary of
state for the colonies, 1959-1961, he "brought freedom to
more people than anyone since the Duke of Wellington," the
victor against Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo.
Read full text...
|
|
|
February 4, 2009: Djibouti has let both France and the UN
Security Council know that it prefers to use diplomatic and
international legal means to resolve the border dispute with
Eritrea. The phrase Djibouti is using, however, sends a
message: it will "exhaust" all diplomatic and legal
"solutions" and not be "lured" into war by Eritrea. That's a
message, and one that Eritrea has to assume is backed up by
France and likely the US. France has military forces in
Djibouti and the US has a large counter-terrorism "joint
task force" based in Djibouti. The UN Security Council has
demanded that Eritrea withdraw from the Ras Doueira area in
Djibouti and Doumeira Island.
Read full text...
|
|
|
Lonely Planet editor Tom Hall finds time stands still
in an ancient walled city
Guardian, February 2, 2009 - Ethiopia still has to be the
most underrated country in the world in which to travel.
Come for rough-and-ready bus and truck journeys, vast meals
of injera bread with spicy sauces which cost pennies, and a
treasure chest of historic wonders. The country has dozens
of great journeys, but a trip east from Addis Ababa to Harar
is the pick of the bunch. The fourth holiest city of Islam,
Harar has 82 mosques within its 16th-century walls. Among
the tiny alleyways are markets, coffee shops and more than a
100 shrines. You'll feel like no one else has stumbled upon
it since the French poet Arthur Rimbaud lived here as a
coffee trader in the 1880s.
Read full text...
|
|
|
The election-in-exile of a new Somali president lends
hope to a dire situation, but clan complexities, fragile
peace processes and humanitarian crisis make for a very
cautious optimism, Georg-Sebastian Holzer writes for ISN
Security Watch.
By Georg-Sebastian Holzer for ISN Security Watch
6 Feb 2009
The Somali parliament-in-exile on 31 January elected the
44-year-old cleric Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the former moderate
head of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), as their country’s
new president. While this has given many a glimmer of hope
that the country is on a path to stability, the fundamental
political struggles in Somalia remain to be solved.
Sharif Ahmed defeated the candidate favored by the West,
Prime Minister Nur Hassan, who was the driving force behind
the UN-sponsored Djibouti peace process that was initiated
to relaunch talks between the increasingly discredited
Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the ever-stronger
Islamist opposition.
Read full text...
|
| |
|
|
|
|
