ATLANTA, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Globe-trotting Ernie Els, the most travelled player in the modern game, is considering not playing in his native South Africa at the end of this year.

The triple major champion has been a regular competitor at the Sun City Challenge in December, among other events, but believes he needs a rest after another hectic season.

"I'll probably not play in South Africa," Els, 39, told reporters after surging into contention in Friday's second round of the elite Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club.

"Maybe I'll go to South Africa and have a real holiday instead of work. Any time I go down there I've got to play, and maybe I'll just have a holiday this time."

Els, who fired a sparkling four-under-par 66 on Friday, will play in Scotland next week before returning to the United States for the Oct. 8-11 Presidents Cup in San Francisco.

"I know it (Scotland) is a long way to fly, and I can't recover so good any more, but it's one of my good weeks of the year believe it or not," said Els, referring to the European Tour's Alfred Dunhill Links Championship from Oct. 1-4.

"That tournament has been so dear to myself and my dad. We've played it ever since they changed the format.

"Except for last year, we made the cut until the fourth day every time so it's a great time for me and my dad to be together at the home of golf," added the double U.S. Open champion.

* To pay 6.6 mln stg in fines and other penalties

* First UK prosecution for overseas corruption

* Ghana launches probe into possible bribery (Adds Ghanaian investigation)

LONDON, Sept 25 (Reuters) - The first firm to be prosecuted in Britain for overseas corruption and breaching United Nations sanctions is to pay 6.6 million pounds ($10.55 million) in fines and penalties, the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said.

Bridge manufacturer Mabey & Johnson was convicted of two corruption charges relating to contracts in Jamaica and Ghana between 1993 and 2001.

It also pleaded guilty to applying for contracts under the Iraq oil-for-food programme in 2001-02 in breach of U.N. sanctions.

London's Southwark Crown Court was told the company paid out 1 million pounds in sweeteners it thought helped it to win contracts worth 60 million pounds, the Press Association reported.

A subsequent investigation found it had also paid bribes to individuals in Madagascar, Angola, Mozambique and Bangladesh.

The penalties paid by the firm, which is now under new management, include fines of 3.5 million pounds, a confiscation order of 1.1 million pounds, total reparations of just over 1.4 million pounds to Ghana, Iraq and Jamaica, as well as costs.

Sep 25, 2009

* Madagascar president illegitimate, official says

* Rajoelina had received a formal UN invitation

By Andrew Quinn

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 25 (Reuters) - African nations blocked the president of Madagascar from addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, saying his rise to power through a military coup made him illegitimate.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, speaking on behalf of the 15-member Southern African Development Community, said Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina should be barred, a motion later carried by a vote on the Assembly floor.

"Madagascar is represented at this session of the assembly by persons who rose from an attempted coup," Congo Foreign Minister Alexis Thambwe-Mwamba said as the delegation from the oil and mineral producing Indian Ocean island sat silently at their desk.

The president of the Assembly, Libya's Ali Triki, said the U.N. legal counsel had ruled that Rajoelina -- who had received an official U.N. invitation to attend the assembly -- should be allowed to participate and then called for a vote that quickly led to confusion.

"I'm not sure what we just voted for. I'm totally confused," one delegate said after the circuitously worded motion was put the floor.

Finally, with most countries abstaining, the Africans marshaled 23 votes against Rajoelina versus four in support and he was prevented from taking the podium.

reuters

A group of indigenous people (file photo): Villagers in the Republic of Congo's Plateaux nord region have started mapping their forest resources

BRAZZAVILLE, 23 September 2009 (IRIN) - Villagers in the Republic of Congo's Plateaux nord region have started mapping their forest resources, in a move officials say will help to protect their interests.

"We began making maps which show where we grow things, where we hunt, fish and gather - everything which allows us to live from day to day," said Denis Bongo, village headman in Assengue, Ollombo District.

"With the ongoing exploitation of the forest, we have in the maps a bargaining tool [for] discussion [with logging companies] to help us [protect] what we hold most dear to us - our children."

The initiative started in the first half of this year in Assengue, Ibangui, Epounou and Inga villages in Ollombo District, with the aim of protecting their livelihoods in the face of rampant deforestation and logging activities.

Implemented by the Congolese Human Rights Forum (OCDH) with the Rainforest Foundation of UK (RFUK), the project aims to promote the rights of forest communities to access, control and utilize the forests in accordance with Congolese law.

It is also being implemented in two other countries in the Congo basin - Gabon and the Central African Republic. Funding came from the UK Department for International Development.

"Its aim is to ensure that the forest communities, the authorities and civil society in each of the three countries have the capacity and resources to accurately map the occupation and use of the forests and provide data to help decision-making relating to forests and forest communities," said Georges Thierry Handja, the project coordinator.

The maps show areas where local people grow food crops, fish, gather berries and other food resources and where they hunt. They will be used as a tool in negotiations with logging companies and the authorities.

"What is a plus, is that local people support the project and are themselves making the maps and registering their interest," said Joseph Moumbouilou, head of studies and projects in the Congolese Ministry of Forest Economy.

"In the process of planning the units of forest land that are to be exploited, we will henceforth use this data, which will allow the interests of local and autochthonous communities to be taken into account."

A similar project in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo in 2008 trained “Master Mappers” to help more than 500 villagers use GPS technology to map their forests.

irinnews

GABORONE, 25 September 2009 (IRIN) - A report on the marginalization of Botswana's San people by a faith-based organization that monitors corporate responsibility has ignited a war of words with the government and diamond companies operating in the country.

A foreword to the report - Corporate Social Responsibility in the Diamond Mining Industry in Botswana: De Beers, Botswana and the Control of a Country - published on 23 September by the Bench Marks Foundation (BMF), challenged corporations to "address some of the negative impacts mining brings", and find innovative methods "to promote development".

The plight of the San, also known as Bushmen, has become an international public relations nightmare for Botswana. Although the country is generally applauded by donor nations for its commitment to democracy, and health and social programmes, the San issue has continued to tarnish the government's reputation.

A key finding noted that mineral prospecting and mining, "including diamonds in national parks and conservation areas, is simply unethical. Strict legislation must be in place in this regard and enforced by government. The threat posed to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) by prospecting, and the potential threats to the Okavango Delta, are matters of serious international concern."

Controversy has raged for more than a decade about diamond mining in the CKGR, the Bushmen's ancestral lands, an arid area the size of Belgium. In 2006 the Botswana High Court ruled that hundreds of San had been wrongly evicted and should be allowed to return there. However, after the judgement the attorney-general said the government was not obliged to provide essential services to the Bushmen in CKGR.

BMF said mining operations in the CKGR were making it difficult for the community to access water, and proposed that mining companies pay royalties to indigenous communities.

The report also claimed that operations by the Debswana Mining Company, a partnership between the government and diamond conglomerate De Beers, did not benefit communities living in and around such areas, and had been excluded from environmental impact assessments, even though most mining operations were on ancestral lands.

In a joint statement the government and De Beers dismissed the report as inaccurate, and said it had failed to provide "any significant insights from it in terms of our performance as corporate citizens or in terms of defining our role as a development partner in Botswana".
''Debswana's contribution to social development in Botswana vastly exceeds the global benchmark for Corporate Social Investment of 1 percent of pre-tax profits''

"The key criticism made by the BMF is that Debswana's operations have not generated benefits at a community level in Botswana. This is not the case," the joint statement said.

"Debswana is widely recognized as one of the most successful public-private partnerships in the world in terms of its contribution to national and community development - within the region of 80 percent of all gross profits realized by Debswana goes into government revenues," the partnership maintained.

"Debswana's contribution to social development in Botswana vastly exceeds the global benchmark for Corporate Social Investment of 1 percent of pre-tax profits."

The government and mining companies argue that the communities "all formed following the initial discovery of diamonds ... Before the mines were established, the Jwaneng [in southern Botswana] and Orapa [in the northeast] areas were utilised as cattle-posts and seasonal grazing."

Any talk of communities benefiting from royalties was dismissed out of hand by the government. "This policy [that the state owns all mineral resources], dovetails with a common understanding, found among virtually all of our country's indigenous communities, that nature can never be owned, is now firmly embedded in legislation."

Mining empowers Bushmen

Haile Mphusu, managing director of diamond mining company Gope Exploration, told IRIN: "People have been accusing us of denying drinking water to Basarwa [a local term for Bushmen]. There was never water at Gope - the government borehole is at least 120km by any road from Gope. The people of Gope never really use that water; they depend on water from the neighbouring farms."
''A mining project like that will bring some economic empowerment to the people. The fact that there will be economic activity in their area means that Basarwa will be able to benefit more''

He said mining at Gope had not displaced any Bushmen. "The problem with most of the people pointing fingers at us is that they have never been to the CKGR, let alone Gope." He insisted that a few families arrived in Gope during the rainy season, when the berries were in fruit, and then left.

"Bushmen were very happy to co-exist with us. We consulted four communities in the CKGR and five communities in villages outside the CKGR, three of which comprise people who were resettled from the reserve," Mphusu said.

"A mining project like that will bring some economic empowerment to the people. The fact that there will be economic activity in their area means that Basarwa will be able to benefit more than any other community in Botswana from the project."

He said a social impact survey was conducted after human rights organizations had raised objections to mining in the CKGR. "If I believe that starting a mine in Gope would not benefit ... [the people] in the CKGR, I would not get involved."


irinnews

MPULUNGU, 25 September 2009 (IRIN) - A freeze in donor funding after allegations of Zambian government corruption is being keenly felt by those living with HIV in rural areas, which were receiving the lion's share of financial HIV/AIDS support.

"We are suffering very much here; every month we have to come here [the health centre in Mpulungu town] to get drugs," said Evans Sikazwe, who lives in Mpulungu district in Northern Province, about 1,100km north of the capital, Lusaka.

"Previously, health workers used to follow us [up] and bring us drugs in our area, but for the past two months we have been coming [to get them] on our own," Sikazwe told IRIN. He has been HIV-positive for the past two years and now has to travel 70km every month to access life-saving antiretroviral (ARV) drugs.

About 200,000 Zambians nationwide are accessing antiretroviral therapy (ART) services at various government health facilities, but only urban clinics are mandated to administer ART in rural districts.

In the absence of donor funds, outreach programmes such as mobile voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) and ART services have been discontinued. The Mpulungu clinic is the main referral centre for the district's 82,000 inhabitants.

"It is very unfortunate, especially for people like me who are on ARVs and also TB [tuberculosis] treatment. Things are very difficult ... this is like punishing us, and yet we need the support of everyone," Sikazwe said.

Corruption

In May 2009 several donors, including two of Zambia's main donors, the governments of the Netherlands and Sweden, announced the suspension of aid after it was confirmed that senior government officials had embezzled about US$5 million of donor funds from the health ministry. Donors provide 55 percent of Zambia's health budget for the prevention and treatment of malaria, TB and HIV, as well as training medical staff.

A tough stance on corruption had endeared the late President Levy Mwanawasa's administration to the donor community, but since his death in August 2008, that of his successor, President Rupiah Banda, has been deemed soft on corruption.

''The crisis in the health sector financial management, the issue of single sourcing of procurement of mobile hospitals, issues surrounding road sector investments and a general lack of progress in financial management reform in government are the most notable issues''
In the wake of the aid suspension, Zambia's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and its Auditor-General investigated the corruption claims and a number of high-profile officials subsequently appeared in court. However, donors insist that Zambia needs to meet certain benchmarks in good governance and public financial management before further funding is released.

"The crisis in the health sector financial management, the issue of single sourcing of procurement of mobile hospitals, issues surrounding road sector investments and a general lack of progress in financial management reform in government are the most notable issues," the Dutch Ambassador to Zambia, Harry Molennar, told a local newspaper, The Times of Zambia.

"The recent developments in Zambia regarding high-profile corruption cases, and the international response to it, serve as a case in point to illustrate the need for both strong political leadership in the fight against corruption, and the resolve of that same leadership to let justice have its independent and transparent way," he said.

Obert Mubyana, the district HIV and TB programmes officer in Mpulungu, told IRIN that in "The past three or four months [since donor aid was suspended], the situation has been very bad. We are not able to travel ... [and] have a lot of patients that we need to monitor." A lack of funds has also meant that patients in outlying areas who need to start taking ARVs are not doing so.

"The whole grant ... per month ... [from] donors and government is about 120 million kwacha [about US$27,000], but after the withdrawal [of donor funding] we have been receiving as [little] as 40 million kwacha [about US$9,000]. This is not enough because ... [we have] to carry out mobile VCT, mobile ART, we need fuel, we need allowances, so we have had to suspend a lot of programmes," Mubyana said.

Trading hub

Mpulungu, Zambia's only port on Lake Tanganyika and a regional trading hub, attracts people from neighbouring Tanzania, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and is a high-risk area for HIV infection.

The town has thousands of sex workers, some of whom often travel the country's highways. "We come here this month; we go to Kapiri Mposhi [town on the main road about 150k north of Lusaka] next time. We go to Chirundu [on the Zimbabwean border] also, even Nakonde [on the border with Tanzania]," a teenage sex worker told IRIN. She charges about US$1.25 for her services.

HIV Prevalence is around 12.6 percent – the national average is 14 percent – but unofficial statistics from local health facilities estimate the rate could be as high as 50 percent. At Mpulungu clinic, 2,308 people have been tested for HIV since 2006, of whom 1,199 were found positive and 1,189 are receiving treatment.

"Of course, most of these people only come here when things are really critical, after they have failed with their ... [traditional healers], so there could be some margin of error," Flexon Mauluka, a data entry clerk at the clinic, told IRIN.

irinnews

HARARE, 24 September 2009 (IRIN) - A comprehensive land audit to establish who owns what after almost a decade of often chaotic land transfers in Zimbabwe is being stalled by a lack of money.

President Robert Mugabe launched the fast-track land reform programme in 2000 to redistribute white-owned commercial farms to landless blacks. It also heralded the country's steep economic decline, widespread food shortages and political violence, while allegations that the redistribution process served as a smokescreen for land grabs by members of Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF elite were rampant.

The audit formed part of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) signed on 15 September 2008 by Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and an MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara.

The agreement led to the establishment of the unity government in February 2009, but major donors have held back billions of dollars in aid, adopting a wait-and-see attitude to gauge Mugabe's commitment to democracy.

"While differing on the methodology of acquisition and redistribution, the parties acknowledge that compulsory acquisition and redistribution of land has taken place under a land reform programme undertaken since 2000," the GPA noted.

"The parties hereby agree to conduct a comprehensive, transparent and nonpartisan land audit during the tenure of the Seventh Parliament of Zimbabwe, for the purpose of establishing accountability and eliminating multiple farm ownership."

Three land audits were undertaken by the ZANU-PF administration but the findings have yet to be made public. Herbert Murerwa, the current Minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement, said his ministry required US$31.2 million to perform the audit, which could take up to nine months to complete, rather than the anticipated three months or so.

"The 100 days given for the exercise is inadequate and, without resources, implementation of the programme is very difficult. We are also seeking to establish an independent land committee - an inter-ministerial [body] to be made up of permanent secretaries and other senior government officials. The committee will also be replicated at provincial and district levels," Murerwa said.

However, Justice for Agriculture (JAG), an organization advocating the rights of the more than 4,000 white farmers forced from their land, was pessimistic about the proposed audit.

''Farming activities have been disturbed by senior government officials, who get on to a farm and strip all the assets before moving to a new farm''
"To start with, if an audit is to be done then it should be done by an independent group of people and not government officials, who may be beneficiaries of the same programme," JAG spokesman John Worswick told IRIN.

"I don't think there will be a comprehensive audit anytime soon because senior [ZANU-PF] government officials, judges and the military have taken over many farms - we have cases where individuals own as many as two or three farms," he said.

"Farming activities have been disturbed by senior government officials, who get on to a farm and strip all the assets before moving to a new farm." There has also been renewed violence on commercial farms in recent weeks.

Moreover, Minister of Justice Patrick Chinamasa announced that Zimbabwe would withdraw from participating in the Tribunal of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) after it ruled in favour of 78 former commercial farmers, describing their evictions as racist, discriminatory and illegal under the SADC treaty. The SADC was responsible for negotiating the GPA.

The Zimbabwean government also intends recalling a judge seconded to the SADC Tribunal in 2005, although Tsvangirai said the country would not pull out as there had been no consultation on the matter.

"The decision to pull out of the SADC Tribunal was a comment by an individual minister and the country cannot be bound by that. The issue has not been discussed in cabinet and we cannot therefore be bound by the decision of a single minister."

Gorden Moyo, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, told IRIN that the government would try to raise the necessary finance to conduct the audit, even if it meant conducting it in phases. He said offers of funding had been made and it was envisaged that the audit would also involve local and international land experts.

He blamed the renewed farm disturbances on "residual elements" wanting to frustrate the GPA. "As the government, we are yet to establish the source of those problems, but what is clear is that some of them are political motivated, while others are driven by corruption and criminal tendencies," Moyo said.

"The government, in its entirety, is convinced that a comprehensive land audit is important to, among other things, address multiple farm ownership, productivity, security of tenure and transparency."


irinnews

24 Sep 2009

The Gambian President Yahya Jammeh's controversial threat against humanitarian workers earlier this week has prompted the launch of an online petition protesting the remarks.

"If you are affiliated with any human rights group, be rest assured that your security is not guaranteed ... we are ready to kill saboteurs," Jammeh said on state television ahead of his departure for the UN General Assembly.

"I will kill anyone who wants to destabilize this country ... If you think that you can collaborate with the so-called human rights defenders, and get away with it, you must be living in a dream world. I will kill you, and nothing will come out of it," he added.

A coalition of pressure groups is leading the campaign, seeking the relocation of African Union's human rights commission headquarters from Gambia amid concerns over the "safety, security, and lives" of aid workers and other NGOs working with the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in the country.

The petition is due to be sent to the African Union later this month.

President Jammeh came to power in a coup in 1994 and has won three multi-party elections since then.

However, amid claims of plots to oust him, journalists have been harassed and dozens of people have been unlawfully detained, human rights groups say.


presstv

24 Sep 2009

A UN military source has warned that while a join military offensive has weakened Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), the rebels still pose a threat.

"The LRA are weakened but still remain active. They're still a threat," said Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich, the military spokesman of the UN mission in Congo (MONUC), quoted by AFP Thursday.

Northeastern Congo is the most violence-prone area, with 'indiscriminate' attacks by the rebels.

"They attack any target, including military ones, capable of providing them with some supplies," Dietrich stressed.

The joint offensive by Ugandan and South Sudanese armies, fighting alongside the Congolese armed forces (FARDC), which ended in March, sought to uproot the rebellion and capture the LRA leader, Joseph Kony.

The uprising, now one of Africa's longest-running conflicts, began in 1987 as an uprising against the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

The crackdown, backed by the MONUC since April, has claimed 344 rebels and led to the arrest of another 82, including two of Kony's wives, according to figures released by FARDC.

Earlier on September, the fight was extended to the Central Africa Republic, Where Kony is now believed to be hiding.

The LRA, founded more than a decade ago in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has spread to neighboring South Sudan and Uganda and blamed for some the most brutal crimes in the region.

On September 11, UN officials accused the LRA of mounting a series of "brutal" attacks in south Sudan, burning villages, massacring civilians and abducting children.

A few days later, the Ugandan army said it had killed Lieutenant-Colonel Arit Santos, an LRA commander, during a clash in the Central African Republic.

presstv

24 Sep 2009

Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi has reportedly met with Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly meeting, amid rising tensions.

The Swiss finance ministry said on Thursday that Merz had received an assurance over the freedom of two Swiss men detained in Libya last year over alleged visa violations.

The meeting in New York on Wednesday evening "focused on the normalization of bilateral relations between Libya and Switzerland," the ministry statement said, confirming media reports.

The arrest came in July 2008 shortly after Bern detained one of Gadhafi's sons, Hannibal, for abusing two servants in Switzerland, angering the Libyan leader to the point where he filed a motion asking the UN to abolish the country and divide its land between France, Italy, and Germany, according to a Daily Mail article published in early September.

The two servants, a Moroccan and a Tunisian, have since dropped their compliant with an out-of-court settlement and Hannibal and his wife were freed on bail after two days in detention, but the issue provoked a diplomatic crisis.

"Both sides reiterated their desire to swiftly implement the agreement concluded between the two states on August 20, 2009," the statement said, referring to an accord in August, when Merz apologized for Hannibal's arrest despite being criticized at home.

Libya retaliated by removing its assets from Swiss banks, leaving a mere 628 million Swiss francs from an estimated 5.7 billion in 2007. It also froze all business dealings with the country.

At Wednesday's meeting, Merz spoke of "Libya's wish to develop bilateral international relations with mutual interests and mutual respect," Jana news agency reported.

presstv

23 Sep 2009

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has described the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as the "terror council," urging its reformation.

"It should not be called the Security Council, it should be called the "terror council," he said attending the UN General Assembly gathering in New York on Wednesday.

Gadhafi envisioned an overhauled UNSC where the permanent membership, United States, Britain, France, China and Russia, did not enjoy a veto power over the decisions made by the rest of the body.

The reformed council could alternatively absorb more members, he added.

The speech was preceded by that of US President Barack Obama who together with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the country's UN Ambassador Susan Rice represented Washington at the meeting.

At one point during the impassioned speech, Gadhafi threw a copy of the UN Charter he was holding throughout his performance, at the Assembly President Ali Treki who was sitting at the raised tier behind him.

US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, who left before Gadhafi's address, had, earlier in the month, warned him over his conduct at the convention.

She had cautioned that how Gadhafi "chooses to comport himself" could "further aggravate" the Americans angered by the recent release of the Libyan convict of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing over Scotland which claimed 189 US nationals.

The Libyan leader also targeted the world body's inability to prevent violence since its establishment in 1945.

"…65 aggressive wars took place without any collective action by the United Nations to prevent them."

He, however, hailed Obama's presentation during which, the US president had called for an international sense of responsibility in the face of global challenges.

"Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world's problems alone," Obama had said.


presstv

A man sets a car on fire during a demonstration after the disputed 2007 elections in Kenya (file photo)

NAIROBI, 23 September 2009 (IRIN) - Stakeholders in Somaliland need to reach a consensus on the role the media can play before, during and after elections to avoid election violence, a report says.

The report, entitled The Role of the Media in the Upcoming Somaliland Elections: Lessons from Kenya, discusses potential scenarios and interventions in the run-up to Somaliland's elections and compares them with the post-election violence experienced in Kenya in 2008.

It is published by the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy at the University of Oxford, Center for Global Communication Studies at University of Pennsylvania and Stanhope Centre for Communications Policy Research, London.

Both countries have polarized electorates with significant political and economic grievances, political parties accused of manipulating the system, weak institutions and politically influential media. "The challenge... is how the media can be harnessed for nation-building rather than partisan politics and violence," the report notes.

Somaliland's elections were planned for 27 September, but were postponed after violence broke out. The term of the current government ends on 29 October.

irinnews

ISIOLO-LAIKIPIA, 23 September 2009 (IRIN) - The drought that has ravaged parts of northeastern Kenya, killing a large number of livestock, has affected the availability of milk, in turn undermining child nutrition, say officials.

"I decided to migrate from Losuk [in Samburu District] to save the remaining livestock and my family, but they almost perished along the way," Joseph Lemanyan, a livestock keeper, said.

"Most [of my livestock] died as we migrated. My youngest child, a girl, became ill and died on the way."

Lemanyan's family is among hundreds to have moved south to the foothills of Mount Kenya, but there they lost more cattle because of the cold weather.

"I arrived here [in August] with 42 [heads of] cattle... half of them have died due to cold here," said the father of five, who left Losuk after losing 64 heads of cattle within three months.

The death of so many cattle has reduced the supply of milk, which should form a large part of the daily diet of children.

"Children are on the brink of death... The numbers of malnourished children coming to our feeding centres is going up and up and we expect it to get worse," Catherine Fitzgibbon, Save the Children’s deputy director in Kenya, said on 22 September.

"If we cannot get more food or cash to the region urgently to help families buy food, more children will die."



One meal a day

Most of the rural population in the areas where Save the Children is working is heavily dependent on relief food and many children are eating only one meal a day, of corn porridge.

"This poor diet means they are missing out on vital nutrients, which can mean they grow up stunted and their brains and bodies can suffer permanent damage," the organization said.

Since July, the number of severely malnourished children seeking treatment at its northeastern emergency feeding centres has increased by 25 percent.

Molu Sora, the programme manager in the Marsabit Arid Lands Resource Management office, said livestock had also died across the rangelands stretching between Kenya and Ethiopia. "Animal carcasses are all over the place," he said.

As a result, many families, mostly comprising women and children, are trekking long distances to save remaining livestock herds, said Francis Merinyi, a child rights activist with the ILAMAIYO community group in Laikipia.

School attendance

Merinyi said a survey conducted in Laikipia West District in August found that about 900 children had left school to join the migrating herds. More children had also been forced to work.

Increased conflicts among pastoralists have also been reported. On 15 September, at least 400 Pokot raiders attacked Samburu manyattas (homesteads), killing 21 residents. Eleven raiders were also killed, according to the Kenya Red Cross.

Observers say El Niño-related short rains, expected from mid-September to December, could either help or aggravate the situation.

"The government and donors need to be aware of the changing climate now and in future, and shape their policies accordingly," Philippa Crosland-Taylor, head of Oxfam GB in Kenya, said in August.

"Emergency aid is urgently needed now, but in the long term we need to rethink policies to focus on mitigating the risks of droughts before they occur, rather than rushing in food aid when it is too late."

irinnews

JOHANNESBURG, 23 September 2009 (IRIN) - Climate related natural disasters like droughts, hurricanes and floods forced 20 million people - slightly less than the population of Australia - out of their homes in 2008 alone said a new study, making a strong case for regularly monitoring displacement in the context of climate change.

A total of 36 million people were displaced worldwide by sudden-onset natural disasters, including earthquakes and landslides. During the same period 4.6 million people were internally displaced by conflicts.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre jointly conducted the study, Monitoring Disaster Displacement in the Context of Climate Change.

"Had it not been for the Sichuan earthquake in China, which displaced 15 million people, climate related disasters would have been responsible for over 90 percent of disaster related displacement in 2008," the study commented.

Using the 2008 data as a test case, the study proposed the ongoing monitoring of disaster related displacement using existing information, such as the Emergency Events Database produced by the Belgium-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, cross-referenced with various other sources, and individually investigating events to estimate the numbers of persons displaced.

The next step is further research into displacement caused by slow-onset disasters and sea level rise. The study also called for a legal framework to protect people forced to cross a border by a natural disaster.


irinnews

NAIROBI, 24 September 2009 (IRIN) - Donor-backed user fees for health services were supposed to decentralise primary healthcare and provide revenue for essential drugs: instead, advocacy groups charge, they have ended up killing the poor in the developing world.

For the vulnerable, even nominal fees can mean a denial of access to basic healthcare – especially among women and children. According to the online research guide Eldis, user fees “appear to have raised less revenue than expected; have acted as a disincentive for both poor and non-poor people to use health services; and have not led to the degree of community participation envisaged”.

Anti-user fee campaigners have now won powerful international backing from, among others, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Six countries - Malawi, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nepal and Burundi – are to receive US$5.3 billion in financing raised by the high level taskforce on International Innovative Finance for Health Systems, to help them extend free healthcare to women and children.

But doing away with user fees alone is no panacea to improving medical access for the poor. “Focusing on user fees may do little to improve access as there are usually other, greater financial barriers such as purchasing drugs, unofficial fees, and transport,” Eldis noted.

In a 14 September policy paper – Your Money or Your Life – a group of NGOs and health organizations stated: “The need to make healthcare free and expand access in these and other countries is beyond question, but to do so successfully requires high-level political commitment and sustained additional financial and technical support.”

Donor funding is notoriously unreliable; governments may well eventually have to turn to taxation to cover those costs – or a hybrid mix of free care for the poorest, and national insurance schemes for those who can afford to pay modest premiums. Meanwhile, most African governments are still well short of fulfilling their commitment made in 2001 at Abuja, Nigeria, to allocate 15 percent of their budgets to health.

“Ultimately the decision to abolish or keep fees has to be made as part of broader health sector financing policy,” Eldis concludes.

IRIN looks at the state of healthcare in three of the countries that have won funding:

Sierra Leone

The government plans to make healthcare free for pregnant and lactating women and under-fives by January 2010. But in a country with only about 170 doctors for more than five million people, minimal medical supplies and a health infrastructure still crawling back from 11 years of civil war, an enormous job lies ahead to ensure the free service will be a quality service.

“We must prepare health facilities for the four- to 10-fold increase we can expect from abolishing health fees,” Samuel Kargbo, the Health Ministry's director of reproductive and child health, told IRIN. “When we eliminate health user fees we must have sufficient equipment, manpower and medicines. Otherwise we negate everything we are trying to do.”

The government has made pronouncements of free care in the past but it was never backed up with the necessary planning and infrastructure.

Now a working group – representatives of the Health Ministry, donors, development organisations and NGOs – is studying how to implement free care in a sustainable way. Doctors from Nigeria and Cuba are due in Sierra Leone in the coming weeks, but in the longer term Sierra Leone needs to produce more doctors and retain them, Kargbo said.

“There are many hurdles to overcome,” noted Jan van ‘t Land, head of mission with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Sierra Leone. “Logistics and human resources are two of the biggest weaknesses of [this country’s] health system.” MSF is a member of the working group.

“The main question is who will pay in the end; it will cost a lot of money. The political will is there. I am hoping the government’s final policy on providing free care for pregnant women and under-five children will not be just another document,” said Van ‘t Land.

Sierra Leone’s free-care policy will be part of a two-pronged approach, with a national health insurance scheme to be introduced in the coming years, according to Health Ministry officials.

Burundi

In 2006, the government introduced free healthcare for maternal deliveries and children under five.

“Before the free medical care measure, 20.4 percent of women delivered at hospital. In 2007, 41 percent of women went to hospital, while in 2008 the number reached 47 percent. We expect to reach 51 percent this year,” Sostène Hicuburundi, in charge of health funding in the Ministry of Public Health, told IRIN. There has also been a significant rise in treatment of under-fives.

But there have been problems with implementation, with the health system unprepared for the rise in demand.

“Our work has doubled, even tripled. Before the measure we did from 35 to 40 caesarean sections per month. We now carry out about 65,” said Spes Ntaconayigize, head nurse of the gynaecology unit at Prince Regent Charles Hospital in the capital, Bujumbura.

A lack of equipment and staff shortages have taken their toll. "A woman can spend 24 hours on a stretcher after delivery for lack of beds. This is painful for us as the patient sometimes does not understand why she remains there. The lack of material adds to the stress on us," said Ntaconayigize.

According to Your Money or Your Life, “The performance of the existing free healthcare policy is compromised by inefficient reimbursement procedures for health facilities and insufficient support from aid agencies.”

Mozambique

Free is not always free. People living with HIV in Mozambique have access to free antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, but they must pay hospital user fees and for medicines to treat common HIV-related infections.

Hospitals charge patients an administrative fee of only 10 Meticais (US$0.37), but according to Alain Kassa, MSF head of mission, even that small amount is a barrier for many people, especially when combined with the cost of transport from distant rural areas.

Drugs to treat opportunistic infections, which are supposed to be free, are also not always available.

"This is commonplace: not to find prophylactics, antibiotics or Paracetamol [pain medication] in those public pharmacies," said Cesar Mufanequisso, coordinator of a local NGO, Movement for Access to Treatment in Mozambique (MATRAM). "People living with HIV get their ARVs free, but other medicines are usually out of stock and they have to buy them."

Those who cannot afford to go to hospital or buy medicines from private pharmacies “often opt to see a traditional healer who will allow them to pay at a later stage”, said Nacima Figia, HIV coordinator for the international anti-poverty NGO, ActionAid.

irinnews

25 Sep 2009

NATO has established a working relationship with authorities in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland in an attempt to uproot piracy off the Horn of Africa.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), has identified the move as a measure to target pirates active around the northern territories of Somalia and to help avoid possible clashes with 'honest fishermen.'

"Identifying areas from where pirates may launch their operations is one way to curtail this illegal activity. Once the pirate are at sea in their small skiffs they are difficult to identify from honest fisherman, although working closely with our allies, it has been possible to develop a profile on who they are," the international military alliance headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, said in a statement.

The statement adds that a number of Puntland coastguards in northern Somalia territories have joined two NATO warships, part of alliance's anti-piracy mission in the region that seeks to eliminate the threat of more attacks by sea bandits pestering trade ships in one of the world's business waterways.

"Working with Somali authorities in support of their own resolve to rid their shores of this scourge has shown early signs of success," A Press TV correspondent quoted the statement as saying on Friday.

NATO has recently warned of an increase in piracy around the Gulf of Aden and other coastal regions of the lawless state once the monsoon conditions ease off.

Somali pirates have carried out more than 114 attempted attacks on sea liners since the beginning of 2008, 29 of which ended in the hijacking of the targeted vessels.

Somalia-based pirates have so far obtained millions of dollars in ransom from shipping firms. The bandits claim that they need the money to pay out their tribal expense, while some reports allege that the fortune is amassed to fund anti-government campaigns.

presstv

25 Sep 2009

Nigeria has warned Niger Delta rebels fighting for larger share of the oil-rich country's revenues that an amnesty deadline for their surrender would not be extended.

Defense Minister Godwin Abbe rejected on Friday the rebel's request to rethink the October 4 deadline.

"To all those still in doubt, the deadline for amnesty is Sunday, October 4, 2009 and government does not intend to extend it," local media quoted Abbe as saying on Thursday.

"I therefore appeal to those that are yet to lay down their arms to do so and join all other peace-loving Nigerians in their quest for accelerated development of the Niger delta," he added.

The remarks were made at the end of a rehabilitation program for 300 of the militants who have given up arms under the amnesty, declared in June by President Umaru Yar'Adua, which offers an unconditional pardon to repentant rebels.

Government Tompolo and Ateke Tom, commanders of the region's main rebel group, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) waging a 'war' on the country's oil industry, asked for three more months last week to resolve some issues.

The amnesty, which officially began in August, is seeking to avert further unrest, which has blocked the country from pumping two-thirds of its oil capacity and caused production to decline, and resulted in a 60-day truce with MEND.

MEND has rejected the amnesty but extended the truce which ended on September 15 by a month, demanding the removal of military forces from the area and a “meaningful dialogue” with Abuja.

Insecurity has long plagued the Niger Delta, one of the world's largest wetlands where almost all of Nigeria's oil comes from. The locals are angry at their continued poverty in the world's eighth largest oil producer.

presstv

23 Sep 2009

Somalia's al-Shabaab group has publicly announced its loyalty to al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, in a video documentary released recently.

An al-Shabaab official in Mogadishu confirmed the authenticity of the 48-minute film--released for the Eid al-Fitr feast marking the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, AFP reported.

Entitled 'Labaik ya Osama' (At your service, Osama), the video was posted on Islamist Internet forums in recent days and is presented as a 'gift to the lions of Tawheed (belief in the oneness of Allah) and the Muslims everywhere'.

Al-Shabaab fighters distributed the video in several Mogadishu neighborhoods, including in Suqaholaha, where a public screening was also organized following the Eid prayers.

The group is fighting to overthrow a fragile western-backed transitional government in the Horn of Africa country.

The video opens with an artistic animation of whirling flower tendrils and text in English and Arabic paying tribute to the mujahedeen (holy warriors) in Palestine and the Arabian Peninsula, as well as the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"Receive glad tidings and rejoice, and we are awaiting your guidance in this advanced stage of jihad," the voice of top al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane (also known as Abu Zubayr) tells bin Laden in the video.

presstv

24 Sep 2009

Pirates have killed the Syrian captain of a Panama-flagged ship off the coast of Somalia, in a failed attempt to hijack the vessel.

The bandits boarded the Barwaqo near Mogadishu's port on Thursday, but were met with fierce resistance from the captain of the vessel, a Press TV correspondent reported.

"The pirates killed the captain after he refused to turn the ship. Usually, we send police when commercial ships draw near the port but the pirates were already on board and opened fire injuring one policeman," Abdiasis Hassan, a Somali Minister for ports, was quoted by Reuters as saying.

African Union peacekeeping troops and Somali police rescued the ship and managed to kill seven pirates and sink one of the boats used by the bandits, officials told Press TV.

"The captain was a Syrian and his body is at the port now," Ahmed Abdi, a port official, told Reuters.

presstv

On Thursday, Farhan Haq told the Swiss News Agency that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi submitted a proposal last month that would abolish Switzerland but it was immediately thrown out of discussion because it would have contradicted the United Nations charter, which states that no member country can threaten the existence or sovereignty of another nation. Therefore, the document was never circulated nor published.
Gaddafi was to present this to the General Assembly during his speech on Wednesday.
However, this is not the first time Gaddafi has made such a motion. During the G8 Summit in Italy in July, according to Foreign Policy, the Libyan leader said Switzerland “is a world mafia and not a state” and “formed of an Italian community that should return to Italy, another German community that should return to Germany, and a third French community that should return to France.”
The animosity that brews Gaddafi’s resentment towards Switzerland stems from last year’s incident when his son, Hannibal, was arrested at a hotel in Geneva because of aggravated assault against two of his servants, according to Time. When Gaddafi learned of these events, he immediately shut down Swiss-owned businesses in Libya and began expelling Swiss diplomats.
Many experts and analysts do not see much reasoning for his beliefs. Warner, a political scientist at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva said, according to Yahoo! News, "Even though Gaddafi is a leader of a country and the current head of the African Union, he loses credibility when he comes up with outrageous comments like that."

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