(SomaliNet) The Burundi capital, Bujumbura was on Thursday night shelled by suspected rebels and an army spokesman says four soldiers and 10 rebels were killed in the clashes. The sound of explosion and gunfire could be heard throughout the night, a BBC correspondent in the city reported.
The military's deputy spokesman Colonel Justace Ciza said the fighting had broken out in Bubanza, 50km (30 miles) north-west of the capital. "FNL rebels shelled mortar bombs and threw hand grenades on our different positions... but we retaliated," he said, Reuters reports.
However, an rebel FNL spokesman said the army had started the fighting.
Shortly before the shelling started, witnesses said they saw troops and armoured vehicles heading to the hillsides north of the capita.
The United Nations announced today that it will close its human rights office in Angola, after authorities in the southern African nation decided not to sign an agreement that would have formally established the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in the country.
OHCHR, which has had a presence in Angola since 2003, has been asked by the Government to cease its activities in the country by 31 May, according to a news release issued by the Geneva-based Office. This came "after the authorities decided not to proceed any further with negotiations on establishing a formal Memorandum of Understanding similar to those under which OHCHR usually operates in other countries."
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said she "respected but regretted" the Government's decision. "We look forward to examining any fresh initiatives the Government may suggest in line with its voluntary pledge to the Human Rights Council to increase its cooperation with my Office," Ms. Arbour said.
This is all it takes to evict the UNHCHR? Wonder if Israel could try the same thing.
#1
Angola is not a significant violator of human rights, at least by African standards - which could explain why the UN office was there (not too dangerous for them). Now where will they go?
President Robert Mugabe devoted his first major speech since the unresolved election three weeks ago to denouncing whites and former colonial ruler Britain, an attempt to convince Zimbabweans their political and economic troubles stem from abroad. Because Zimbabwe is such a strategic prize. Well, at one time it was the breadbasket of Africa.
The scene at the official 28th Independence Day celebration Friday had all the pomp of old, with air force jets sweeping overhead and Mugabe, bedecked in sash and medals, striding past soldiers at attention.
But any private observances by ordinary Zimbabweans were likely muted prices for food, gasoline and drinks have more than doubled just in the past week amid an economic meltdown that has emptied store shelves and idled four of every five workers.
"There are black people who are putting prices up, but they are being used by the whites," Mugabe said, promising to tighten laws that set prices and to crack down on and possibly take over businesses that break the rules. Whites "want the people to starve so they think the government is wrong and they should remove it," said Mugabe, who has ruled since independence in 1980 but who, according to independent monitors, failed to win re-election in the March 29 presidential vote.
The opposition and independent economists blame Mugabe's economic policies for the collapse of what was once southern Africa's breadbasket. Often violent seizures of white-owned commercial farms that began on Mugabe's orders in 2000 put land in the hands of his cronies instead of productive farmers, black or white, and agricultural production slumped.
The farm invasions were a dramatic example of Mugabe's familiar tactic of demonizing whites. His anti-white rhetoric has long struck a chord in a country that suffered under white minority rule until 1980, and where whites controlled much of the economy even decades later. But after repeated attacks on the white community, the seizure of most white-owned farms and a dwindling of the white community's size and power, the effectiveness of scapegoating whites may have dwindled.
Mugabe claimed Friday that his political opposition wants "this country to go back to white people, to the British, the country we died for. It will never happen."
The 84-year-old president spoke calmly for more than hour, with no visible signs of tiring. He spoke mostly in the Shona language instead of English unusual for an event attended by diplomats and other foreign dignitaries.
And sending a signal to all the other tribes ...
"Beware. Be vigilant in the face of the vicious machinations of Britain and its other allies," Mugabe said. "Yesterday they ruled by brute force. Today they have perfected their tactics to be more subtle. They are literally buying people to turn against the government. We are being bought like sheep because they have money and because we are suffering."
The few passages in English included thanks to leaders of other southern African countries "for clearly articulating our case" about the election. The leaders held an emergency summit on Zimbabwe last weekend and issued a weak declaration that failed to criticize Mugabe. "I want to thank South Africa in a special way for the role it has played in brokering our dialogue," Mugabe added in English.
South African President Thabo Mbeki has argued against the international community taking a hard line against Mugabe, saying he is unlikely to respond to a confrontational approach.
But the failure of Zimbabwe's electoral board to release results of the presidential ballot has angered many people, including in South Africa. On Friday, South African port workers and truckers refused to move a load of weapons destined for Zimbabwe's security forces.
Independent tallies suggest opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai got the most votes but not enough to win outright and avoid a runoff with Mugabe after a campaign in which the economy was the main issue. Tsvangirai's opposition Movement for Democratic Change is accusing Mugabe of planning to hold onto power simply by refusing to release the election results. The postelection period also has seen stepped-up violence against opposition activists.
Results in legislative elections held alongside the presidential ballot gave control of parliament to the opposition for the first time. But that victory is threatened by a re-count set for Saturday. Electoral officials say they found problems in 23 districts most of which were won by opposition candidates. An opposition attempt to stop the re-count was blocked in court Friday. Earlier this week, a court rejected an opposition appeal for the immediate release of the presidential election results. Courts here are stacked with Mugabe loyalists.
There has been a government campaign of arrests, assaults and other intimidation designed to suppress political dissent following the vote. The independent Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights reports at least 200 people severely injured in political violence and says it is investigating at least two reported but unconfirmed deaths.
Mugabe accused others of plotting violence. While he named no one, his comments could signal a further government crackdown. "We know some people are planning that there will be places where there will be violence, with people burning shops and cars," he said. "Those who are planning this, please stop it immediately, otherwise you are going to be in serious trouble with us."
#3
When I take off my tinfoil hat I see an evil plot underway in Rhodesia. I see the hand of China secretly enabling and encouraging their oblivious pawn Mugabe to totally destroy the country, while they simultaneously cultivate a successor regime, which will give China near carte-blanche access to the platinum and chromium resources in return for humanitarian aid and civil re-development funds.
#4
Possible Mr. Glenmore. Also possible the country is being ruled by three lemurs with Magic 8 Balls, am inexensive Triumvar of sorts.
Posted by: George Smiley ||
04/19/2008 8:09 Comments ||
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#5
Hey, Farmin B.!
Is it Whitey keeping you down? Are you the victim of racist neo-post-colonialism which has intentionally made you both culturally and economically dependent on the Western running dogs of capitalism?
Or is Bad Bob just a lying, murdering, syphilis-ridden thug? Please discuss.
Posted by: Thaimble Scourge of the Pixies4707 ||
04/19/2008 18:09 Comments ||
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#6
"It was THEM, I tell ya! Stop looking at me that way! And put down that machete!..."
A Russian Soyuz spacecraft has returned to Earth, but came down more than 400km (250 miles) away from its planned touchdown point, say Russian officials.
The crew are safe, but were subjected to severe G-forces during re-entry, said a spokesman for Mission Control according to AP news agency. He said they were being examined on site by medical staff. On board are Yi So-yeon, South Korea's first astronaut, Yuri Malenchenko from Russia and American Peggy Whitson.
The Russian TMA-11 landing capsule touched down some 420km away from its planned landing point in the Kazakh steppe, and some 20 minutes later than scheduled. The three crew are said to be safe, say space officials. However, they are undergoing medical examinations after being subjected to G-forces up to 10 times those present on Earth, said spokesman Valery Lyndin. Officials said the craft followed a so-called "ballistic re-entry" - a plunge with an uncontrollable, steep trajectory.
Ms Yi had spent 11 days conducting tests at the International Space Station. Ms Whitson now holds the record for the cumulative length of time spent in space by an American at 377 days, the US space agency Nasa said earlier.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/19/2008 08:33 ||
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#1
Ballistic re-entry.
Posted by: George Smiley ||
04/19/2008 16:10 Comments ||
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#2
that's gotta be a rough acclimation: 377 days in zero gravity to 10g's? Jeebus!
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/19/2008 16:28 Comments ||
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New Delhi (PTI): India on Saturday said it would be happy to participate in providing a home to a nuclear fuel bank for supplying fuel to nations interested in renewing their atomic energy programmes.
"We run a full nuclear fuel cycle of our own and we would be happy to participate in providing a home for a nuclear fuel bank," Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said in an interactive session at the India Global Forum here.
However, he pointed out that discussions on this issue of setting up a nuclear fuel bank "were a long way away."
The concept of having an international nuclear fuel bank was put forth by International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohammad ElBaradei last year.
It seeks to set up an international uranium enrichment facility where countries can source their nuclear fuel requirements to run atomic power plants.
On the civil nuclear agreement with the US, Menon said India hopes to bring the deal to "fruition" soon.
"We hope civil nuclear cooperation with the US and other countries will become possible soon ... we hope to bring it to fruition soon," he said.
Menon sought to assure that the nuclear deal is "more of an immediate answer" to India's energy security needs and less as a non-proliferation issue.
On the Iran issue, Menon said it was not in India's interest to have another nuclear weapons state in its neighbourhood but Tehran had the right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy subject to its international obligations.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/19/2008 11:52 ||
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New Delhi (PTI): India on Saturday did not give much credence to the test-firing of a ballistic missile by Pakistan saying such tests were regularly required as the technology was imported.
"Such tests have been happening for ever. Pakistan requires testing of missiles as the technology is flowing in from some other parts of the world. Therefore, regular testing is required," Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta, who is also the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, told reporters here.
His comment was sought on the test-firing of the Shaheen-II or Hatf-VI long-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile by Pakistan today. It is Pakistan's longest range missile with a reach of 2,000 kms and capable of carrying nuclear and conventional warheads.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/19/2008 08:18 ||
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NEW DELHI: Warships from the U.S. and France will participate in the annual bilateral India-U.K. naval exercises on the western seaboard near Goa, the British High Commission said here in a statement.
This is the third edition of the Konkan series of India-U.K. exercises. It is scheduled from April 21 to May 2.
The Royal Navy will field the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious (with six helicopters), guided missile frigate HMS Westminster and the submarine HMS Trafalgar along with logistic and fuel support ships. They will be joined by the U.S. Navys guided missile destroyer USS Cole and the French frigate FS Surcouf.
The Indian Navy will field two guided missile destroyers INS Mysore and INS Rajput, the guided missile frigate INS Gomati and submarine INS Shishukumar, besides the fuel replenishment ship INS Aditya. The exercise will be conducted under the tactical command of the Flag Officer Commander, Western Fleet, Rear Admiral Anil Chopra. The major thrust will be on combined maritime operations, with the Indian Navys Sea Harrier fighters operating from Goa, and exercises between the submarines of the two navies.
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04/19/2008 07:57 ||
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Legendary Texas oil man T. Boone Pickens has gone green with a plan to spend $10 billion to build the world's biggest wind farm. But he's not doing it out of generosity - he expects to turn a buck. The Southern octogenarian's plans are as big as the Texas prairie, where he lives on a ranch with his horses, and entail fundamentally reworking how Americans use energy.
Next month, Pickens' company, Mesa Power, will begin buying land and ordering 2,700 wind turbines that will eventually generate 4,000 megawatts of electricity - the equivalent of building two commercial scale nuclear power plants - enough power for about 1 million homes. What do Kennedy (L) and Kerry (R) think about a Cape Cod wind farm?
"These are substantial," said Pickens, speaking to students at Georgetown University on Thursday. "They're big." Pickens knows a thing or two about big. He heads the BP Capital hedge fund with over $4 billion under management, and earned about $1 billion in 2006 making big bets on commodity and equity markets.
Though a long-time oil man, Pickens said he has embraced the call for cleaner energy sources that don't emit heat-trapping greenhouse gases. "I'm an environmentalist - I can pass the saliva test," he said. Maybe somebody can explain that to me?
But Pickens is not out to save the planet except through capitalism. He intends to make money. Though Pickens admits that wind power won't be as lucrative as oil deals, he still expects the Texas project to turn at least a 25 percent return. "When I go into these markets, I expect to make money on them," Pickens said. "I don't expect to lose."
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/19/2008 07:30 ||
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#1
Mesa used to own huge tracts of land in the Hugoton gas field - Boone probably remembers how WINDY it is out there (when driving through, your car will jump upwind as you go under an overpass and are still compensating for the wind that is suddenly blocked.)
#2
Mesa leased a lot of land, but I don't recall them buying here in western kansas during the oil boom. Likewise, Sky energy and the others lease the ground and put up the turbines. The most interesting wind farm to me is down by Woodward OK. where it is located on small mesas and on top of the hills as compared to Montezuma where the turbines are laid out in a grid over many acres of wheat ground.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/19/2008 14:16 Comments ||
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#4
And on calm days we will more likely have power outages as more and more we rely on sources that rely on windy days. I would favor such a system if we also had some mechanism to store power when it was windy and we had excess (a windy night at 3am when it is 70 degrees).
Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU's 'Mr Euro', has given the clearest warning to date that the world authorities may take action to halt the collapse of the dollar and undercut commodity speculation by hedge funds.
Louis Gallois, head of the Airbus group EADS, said his company is already taking dramatic steps to shift plant to the dollar-zone. "The euro at its current level is asphyxiating a large part of European industry by shaving export margins," he said.
A key reason for the 30pc rise in the euro agasint [sic] the dollar over the last two years has been the move by Asia central banks and Mid-East wealth funds to parking huge sums of newly acquired wealth in European bonds as an alternative to the dollar.
BNP Paribas said Asian surplus countries and commodity exporters have accumulated $1,160bn in reserves over the last year alone. US Treasury data shows that only 19pc of this was invested in dollar assets. This is a sharp break with past practice. A large chunk of the money was invested in euro-zone securities. The question is whether China, Saudi Arabia, and others, have now reached euro saturation. Markets work. The problem is, once these guys get completely stuffed with dollars and euros, they'll have to start buying up the world.
#1
How deeply buried in the dollar's decline is Soros (who has stated before that he wanted to see the dollar replaced, to see America decline, and has been known to meddle in other nation's monetary affairs)?
#2
George Soros, the hedge fund baron who "broke" Europe's exchange system in the early 1990s, said yesterday that the euro could never anchor of the global system. "I don't think the euro can replace the dollar as the main world currency. The euro is not a truly attractive alternative," he said.
Mr Soros said the dollar would reclaim its crown eventually, but for now the financial crisis is leading to a flight from all paper currencies, causing a dash for gold, silver, and oil futures.
#5
Airbus has been shopping all over the Northwest looking for available properties and companies that they could buy up to augment their manufacturing base. Lots of Mom-n-Pop machine shops up here do a lot of work for the Lazy 'B' Ranch and Airbust would love to take that away as icing on the cake.....
#6
Louis Gallois, head of the Airbus group EADS, said his company is already taking dramatic steps to shift plant to the dollar-zone. "The euro at its current level is asphyxiating a large part of European industry by shaving export margins," he said.
That's why they call them big nations. So what does he really want? Would he prefer the likes of Zimbabwe, Sudan, NorK, or Syria to lead the bull around by the nose? Successful free societies are best suited to running the show, not nations run by one guy with all the guns.
Pope Benedict XVI warned diplomats at the United Nations on Friday that international cooperation needed to solve urgent problems is "in crisis" because decisions rest in the hands of a few powerful nations.
In a major speech on his U.S. trip, Benedict also said that respect for human rights, not violence, was the key to solving many of the world's problems. While he didn't identify the countries that have a stranglehold on global power, the German pope just the third pontiff to address the U.N. General Assembly addressed long-standing Vatican concerns about the struggle to achieve world peace and the development of the poorest regions.
On the one hand, he said, collective action by the international community is needed to solve the planet's greatest challenges. On the other, "we experience the obvious paradox of a multilateral consensus that continues to be in crisis because it is still subordinated to the decisions of a few."
The pope made no mention of the United States in his speech, though the Vatican did not support the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which occurred despite the Bush administration's failure to gain Security Council approval for it. At other moments on his trip, Benedict has been overtly critical of the U.S., noting how opportunity and hope have not always been available to minorities.
The pope said questions of security, development and protection of the environment require international leaders to work together in good faith, particularly when dealing with Africa and other underdeveloped areas vulnerable to "the negative effects of globalization."
Benedict also insisted that the way to peace was by insuring respect for the dignity of human beings. "The promotion of human rights remains the most effective strategy for eliminating inequalities between countries and social groups, and increasing security," the pope said. Those whose rights are trampled, he said, "become easy prey to the call to violence and they then become violators of peace."
By contrast, the leader of the world's 1 billion Roman Catholics said, the recognition of human rights favors "conversion of heart, which then leads to a commitment to resist violence, terrorism and war."
#3
The Pope controls the decision-making in the Roman Catholic Church -- perhaps he'd like to yield that to "collective action" too. And since he's so worried about the poor and protection of the environment, perhaps he should fly by common carrier next trip and donate the charter fees to the poor.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The United Nations announced today that it will close its human rights office in Angola, after authorities in the southern African nation decided not to sign an agreement that would have formally established the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in the country.
President Robert Mugabe devoted his first major speech since the unresolved election three weeks ago to denouncing whites and former colonial ruler Britain, an attempt to convince Zimbabweans their political and economic troubles stem from abroad. 
New Delhi (PTI): India on Saturday did not give much credence to the test-firing of a ballistic missile by Pakistan saying such tests were regularly required as the technology was imported.
Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU's 'Mr Euro', has given the clearest warning to date that the world authorities may take action to halt the collapse of the dollar and undercut commodity speculation by hedge funds.
