PORLAMAR (Venezuela), Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Saturday that trade between African and South American countries has grown rapidly in recent years as a result of cooperation driven by the Africa-South American summit for the development of peoples.

Speaking at the summit, Lula said that six years ago, trade relations between the two regions were calculated at 6,000 million dollars, but after the first Summit held in Abuja, Nigeria, in November 2006, bilateral commercial exchanges have passed 36,000 million dollars, which shows a process of strengthening the economic sovereignty.

Lula said this would be possible without the substantial progress in Africa, and urged members of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) to learn from Africa to consolidate the same results in their region.

He noted that this meeting is the perfect setting to take a further step in building a partnership between two continents determined to build a bridge for dialogue and collaboration, reduce distances, bringing peoples and consolidate strategy for development and peace.

"That was the bold vision that brought together Africa and South America for the first time in Abuja in 2006, and it is with great pride and optimism as I see the concrete results that we are harvesting," he said.

The second Africa-South America summit opened Saturday in Porlamar, the main town on the island of Margarita, Venezuela, with participation of over 20 heads of state and government.

Under the theme "Closing the gap, opening up opportunities", the summit is aimed at boosting the cooperation of the participant countries, facing the food, financial, economic and environmental crisis, and strengthening agreements and plans of action started in 2006 at the first Summit, held in Abuja, Nigeria.

PORLAMAR, Venezuela, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- South African President Jacob Zuma said on Saturday during the opening of the second summit of Africa-South American (ASA) that the South-South union between South American and African regions will contribute to the development of both.

"Our relationships have a great potential for success that will realize the long-awaited development of our two continents," said the South African leader.

Zuma warned that failure to take into account the link between the regions, the global economic crisis that has affected millions of poor people worldwide will bring worse consequences.

He called for forging closer ties and a global multilateral system of benefit to all, enabling strict controls in banking system.

Other topics of interest to the South African delegation are climate change, human rights and non-proliferation and disarmament, according to him.

The second Africa-South America summit started Saturday in Porlamar, the main town on the island of Margarita, Venezuela, with participation of over 20 heads of state and government from South America and Africa.

Under the theme "Closing the gap, opening up opportunities", the summit is aimed at boosting the cooperation of the participant countries, facing the food, financial, economic and environmental crisis, and strengthening agreements and plans of action started in 2006 at the first Summit, held in Abuja, Nigeria.

MOGADISHU, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdurashid Ali Sharmarke, on Saturday said the Somali government is in dialogue with "key" individuals in the opposition and he expected positive results from the talks.

The Somali government is fighting deadly insurgency with Islamist rebels since it returned to the capital early this year following a UN-sponsored talks in Djibouti late 2008 which culminated with the election of the current president and the formation of the government of national unity led by Sharmarke.

The prime minister, who was speaking in an exclusive interview with Xinhua, said there were both "direct and indirect" dialogues going on between the government and the opposition.

"We will continue to engage the opposition. We try to discuss directly or indirectly and I think there have been a lot of progress in our talk. I hope the results may be seen later on but we continue to have a meaningful dialogue," said the prime minister.

Sharmarke acknowledged that there are difficulties in the talks with the opposition groups who are basically two main Islamist factions of Al-Shabaab and the Hezbul Islam.

The prime minister said there will always be going to be "elements" within the opposition that as he put it "will not agree to anything", but he stated that as a government it was their responsibility to reach out to those who were "still out of the (peace) process of Djibouti".

The Somali prime minister was hopeful that the opposition groups would come to terms with the fact that the only way out was to join hands and move forward.

The official also talked about the current security situation, African Union peacekeeping Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), the bilateral relations between China and Somalia, and the unfulfilled pledged funds from the international community.

Sharmarke, whose beleaguered government is confined to parts of Mogadishu and fights off daily attacks from insurgent groups poised to topple it, said his government was doing all it could to improve security in Mogadishu.

He acknowledged that the latest deadly twin suicide car bombings against AMISOM headquarters in Mogadishu was a "setback" and nothing could be done to prevent such attacks.

"I think you can hardly prevent such suicide bombings. I think you can only minimize the effects of such things. When one decides to blow himself up, I think very little can be done," the prime minister told Xinhua.

The suicide attacks which killed nearly 21 people, mostly peacekeepers, and wounded as many as 40 others, was claimed by Al-Shabaab Islamist rebels who along with the Hezbul Islam faction, control much of southern and central Somalia.

Meanwhile, the Somali prime minister praised what he called "the long and historic ties" between the Somali and Chinese peoples and governments and urged the further strengthening of the ties between the two nations.

He sent congratulation to the government and people of China as they celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

"I would urge people and government of China to continue to do their own progress to continue to grow their economy. I think growth in China is a growth for the entire world," he told Xinhua.

He, however, described as unfortunate the international community's inability to deliver its pledged funds to support the Somali government and AU peacekeeping forces.

The official hoped that the 8,000-strong African Union peacekeeping forces, of which nearly 5,000 are currently on the ground in Mogadishu, would soon be fully deployed and that their mandate, which is now limited, would be strengthened to enable them to fight Islamist rebels.

26 Sep 2009

In a meeting with relatives of some victims of the Lockerbie incident, Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi has condemned all terrorist attacks.

In 1988, the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, organized by Libyan agent Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, killed 270 people.

Last month, Scotland freed Megrahi on compassionate grounds to the anger of many relatives of the victims. Libya has formally accepted responsibility for the bombing and has paid billions of dollars to families of the victims, Reuters reported.

In an interview with CNN that is to air on Sunday, Qaddafi compared the bombing to a 1986 US military raid against Libya that killed around 40 people, including Qaddafi's daughter.

"Whether it is Lockerbie or whether it is the '86 raid against Libya, we are all families ... terror in all its forms is a common enemy to all of us," he said.

Former US President Ronald Reagan ordered the military action after the bombing of a Berlin nightclub that was blamed on Libya.

presstv

26 Sep 2009

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has accused Western countries of 'filthy antics' aimed at undermining a power-sharing government forged in February.

During his remarks, which were made at the UN General Assembly in New York on Friday, Mugabe pointed out that the United States and European Union had refused to lift sanctions on Zimbabwe.

"Some of them (western countries) are working strenuously to divide the parties in Inclusive government-if they will not assist the Inclusive government in rehabilitating our economy, could they please, please stop their filthy, clandestine, divisive antics. Where stand their humanitarian principles? Where stand their humanitarian principles we ask, when their illegal sanctions are ruining the lives of our children?" Mugabe told the delegates.

The African country which gained its independence from the United Kingdom in 1980 has long been under US and EU sanctions.

Zimbabwe says it needs $10 billion in foreign reconstruction aid. Western countries, however, are reluctant to release cash saying the country should carry out further political and economic reform promised as part of a power-sharing pact.

presstv

26 Sep 2009

The Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez both will sign eight cooperation agreements, Venezuela's state media says.

The accords will be signed in Caracas, according to Venezuela's ABN news agency.

Venezuelan Ambassador to Tripoli Afif Tajeldine said five agreements have already been signed with Libya, Venezuela's top African ally, but he did not provide the figures or domain involved.

"Libya is the gateway to Africa for us because it is a country well-known for its socialist policies that plays an important and strategic role for us," he added.

Gaddafi was on Venezuela's scenic Isla Margarita, where a two-day summit began on Saturday, bringing together nine South American presidents and some 20 African leaders.

Chavez's other high-profile guests at the Caribbean resort destination included the Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and the Democratic Republic of Congo's Joseph Kabila.

Gaddafi's trip to Venezuela is his first to Latin America since he came to power 40 years ago.

presstv

NAIROBI, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Saturday wrote a protest letter to U.S. President Barack Obama expressing displeasure and concerns about letters written to 15 prominent Kenyans.

In a statement issued in Nairobi, Kibaki said letters written to some ministers, lawmakers and permanent secretaries was out of step with the international protocol in the conduct of relations between friendly nations.

"His Excellency President Mwai Kibaki has written to President Barack Obama of the United States expressing displeasure and concern about letters written by a U.S. Government official to some Ministers, some Members of Parliament and some civil servants in their personal capacity on matters of Kenya's public policy," read the statement.

Kibaki's move comes just a day after Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said Washington had the right to take action on individuals it deems to be blocking reforms.

Odinga who was delivering a speech at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government in the United States said Washington could take action "if they are convinced the people they are banning from coming to the United States are engaged in forms of impunity".

He said he was at the forefront of championing reforms and was opposed to all forms of impunity.

"I have been a victim of impunity in the past," Odinga said, noting that he had been detained three times for a total of nine years. Odinga is the government's representative to the 64th United Nations General Assembly in New York.

U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger announced on Thursday that they have dispatched threatening letters to the Kenyan officials with possible visa bans.

The U.S. government has been vocal on issues that touch on Kenyan public including corruption, post-election violence and lately the reform agenda.

"Letters signed by Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Johnnie Carson have been sent to 15 persons making clear that the future relationship of those persons with the United States is tied to their support for implementation of the reform agenda and opposition to the use of violence," Ranneberger said.

This is the first time that President Kibaki has taken action on communications or threats issued by foreign ambassadors to the country.

"The action by the U.S. government official is considered out of step with international protocols in the conduct of relations between friendly nations," Kibaki said in the statement.

The U.S. letter also reiterated the reforms that were expected of the Kenyan government, among others "decisive, bold anti-corruption steps; reforms to ensure the rule of law, including police reform, judicial reform ... accountability for perpetrators of post-election violence, land reform".

Ranneberger said the steps taken by his country reflected the view at the highest levels of the U.S. government that implementation of the comprehensive reform agenda agreed to as the foundation of the coalition government must proceed with a much greater sense of urgency, because doing so was crucial to the future democratic stability of Kenya.

Both Kibaki and Odinga who signed a power-sharing deal to end the bloody post-election crisis, have publicly expressed their commitment to introducing necessary reforms in the country.

They reached a power-sharing deal last year to end post-election violence, which had left some 1,200 people dead and forced 350,000 from their homes.

KHARTOUM, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Sudanese government Saturday denied the report that the government was not transparent in the distribution of the oil revenues between northern and southern Sudan.

Sudanese Minister of Energy and Mining Al-Zubair Ahmed Hassan criticized the London-based Global Witness Organization, which issued a report last month saying the figures of oil sales published by the Sudanese government are "less than what had been actually announced by the oil companies."

The Sudanese minister said "the oil revenues are managed by a joint mechanism between the Sudanese government and the southern Sudanese government besides foreign observers."

"The Global Witness Organization report depended on inaccurate information and had not asked the Sudanese government about the real situation," he added.

The minister downplayed the negative effect of the report on the relationship between the partners to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), namely the National Congress Party and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, saying "there is a full transparency in the distribution of the oil revenues as stipulated in the CPA."

The two sides have agreed, according to the CPA inked in 2005, to share the country's oil revenues, as the South was stipulated to receive half of the official revenues of the oil extracted from the fields on its land.

The oil revenues constitute 98 percent of the budget of southern Sudanese government.

JOHANNESBURG, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's efforts to fight its high crime rate are "not working," Dr Johan Burger, a senior researcher at the Institute for Strategic Studies, said on Saturday.

He told the local newspaper Pretoria News that the high crime statistics released by the government this week bore testament to the fact, and South Africa's murder rate of 37 per 100 000 people could not compare with that in most developed countries, where it was less than two per 100 000.

Burger said the statistics showed that South Africa's other violent crimes, especially those categorized under aggravated robbery, were also cause for serious concern.

"If we look at some crime categories, such as house robberies and business robberies, they increased in all nine provinces - in some provinces as high as 160 percent increases." he said.

"This really paints a very, very serious picture, but more than that it tells us we are not doing the right things to fight these crimes," he added.

Burger criticized the government for delaying the release of the crime statistics for several months. The delay was also questioned by a second member of the debating panel, Dianne Kohler-Barnard, the Democratic Alliance's spokeswoman on safety and security.

She said the increase in business robberies of 42 percent was of particular concern. And the World Economic Forum's latest global competitiveness report ranked South Africa as the worst place to do business, largely because of crime.

LAGOS, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian militants in southeast Niger Delta region have threatened to go back to the creeks and launch a fresh offensive less than two weeks to the deadline of the disarmament program, the Nigerian Tribune newspaper reported on Saturday.

About 200 former militants, on Friday, took to the streets of Yenagoa in Bayelsa State, protesting over non-payment of allowance as agreed by the Nigerian federal government in the amnesty deal with them, the report said.

The protest, the third in past month, started around 6.00 a.m. local time, paralyzing social and commercial activities in the city.

The former militants accused governments at various levels of insensitivity, complaining that since they were disarmed, the government had not kept its own side of the bargain, especially the payment of their monthly allowance.

Security has been beefed up around the state capital, where business and commercial activities were resumed after the protest.

LAGOS, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian federal government has given an assurance of its sincerity about the amnesty it offered to militant groups in the Niger Delta region, the Nigerian Compass newspaper reported on Saturday.

The government's declaration came on the heels of calls by some unrepentant armed youth for an extension of the amnesty period, while some militant leaders have also expressed concerns about the commitment of the government to the terms of the amnesty.

Nigerian Minister of Special Duties Ibrahim Kazaure gave the guarantee after a visit to southwest Nigeria's Ogun State Governor Gbenga Daniel.

According to the minister, President Yar'Adua would consider the calls for the extension of the amnesty period and take a decision without compromising the nation's overall security.

Kazaure said the president has taken personal responsibility for all issues relating to the amnesty deal and would do everything needed for it to succeed.

LUSAKA, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Zambia's ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy has advised diplomats accredited to the southern African country to use proper channels to air their grievances, instead of attacking the government through the media, local newspaper the Zambia Daily Mail reported on Saturday.

The governing party's chief whip in parliament Vernon Mwaanga said that "the tutorial being given in the media" by some diplomats were a "breach of diplomatic etiquette".

Mwaanga made the remarks in parliament when contributing to the motion of thanks to Zambian President Rupiah Banda's speech during the official opening of the fourth session of the country's 10th National Assembly.

"It was not proper for diplomats accredited to Zambia" to be attacking the government and decisions made by the parliament or the courts of law, he said.

"Even if we are a poor country, Zambia is a sovereign state and its sovereignty must be respected. There are established channels which our colleagues can use to give advice. This can be done through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that's the way diplomacy should be conducted," Mwaanga was quoted as saying by the paper.

One of the country's privately owned daily newspaper has quoted various diplomats as condemning the Zambian government, especially on the corruption fight following a court's acquittal of former president Fredrick Chiluba, who was facing a charge of stealing state funds amounting to 500,000 U.S. dollars.

YAOUNDE, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Germany has accorded 15 billion FCFA (about 33 million U.S. dollars) to the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa States (CEMAC) to help them fight against AIDS, local media reported on Saturday.

The funding is intended to encourage female condoms, integrate reproductive health with the control of sexually transmitted diseases (STI) and boost the fight against stigmatization and discrimination of people living with HIV/AIDS.

This financial aid comes in the second phase of the sub-regional project of HIV/AIDS prevention in central Africa, which is funded by Germany. The first has yielded good results since its launch in 2006, according to officials of both sides.

Three countries are involved in the project, including Cameroon, Chad and Central African Republic. Germany hopes to spread the health project to cover all the six member countries of CEMAC.

KHARTOUM, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- A conference, to be hosted by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), is scheduled to begin Saturday in Juba, southern Sudan, with the participation of 25 Sudanese opposition parties.

The conference tends to set up a map for tackling Sudan's internal and external issues.

Leaders of the National Umma Party, the Popular Congress Party, the Communist Parties, Umma Party (reform and renewal), the Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party and others will take part in the conference besides the SPLM.

In the meantime, 40 Sudanese political parties, including the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) Thursday announced their boycott of the conference, saying the conference "had hidden agenda."

The four-day conference will discuss many political issues including the 2010 general elections, the 2011 referendum in southern Sudan, the Darfur conflict and the future of the relationship between the NCP and the SPLM.

The SPLM said the conference did not tend to establish an opposition alliance against its NCP partner.

"This conference does not tend to form alliances because alliances are usually established against enemies," Malik Aqar, a leading SPLM member said in a press statement.

"We meet to form a unified front to discuss these important issues and we seek to reach a consensus on them," he added.

According to political observers, the Juba conference is aimed at establishing an alliance before the forthcoming general elections in April next year and that the leaders of the attending parties could agree on a presidential candidate to face the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, the sole NCP candidate.

The Sudanese Media Center (SMC) reported that prominent leading SPLM members are pushing towards the establishment of an alliance with the opposition parties to select a candidate to compete with the NCP candidate and with a full support of the SPLM.

The SMC quoted Hassan al-Saoury, the chairperson of the Sudanese Political Society, describing the conference as "a form of pressure practiced by the opposition and the SPLM on the NCP," saying that any alliances between the SPLM and the opposition parties might not work due to differences in their stances and as these parties lack popular support.

The NCP has refused to participate in the Juba conference. "We set our terms but there was no response and therefore we decided to boycott it," the party's political secretary Mandour al-Mahdi was quoted in a press conference in Khartoum Thursday as saying.

The NCP demanded to be involved in the arrangements for the conference together with all the registered Sudanese political parties which are about 60.

Convening of the Juba conference and the NCP's rejecting stance constitute a new dimension in the tensed relationship between the two signatories to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended a two-decade war between northern and southern Sudan in 2005.

The two sides have their differences over the implementation of some items of the CPA, namely with regard to the referendum on unity or separation between north and south, which is scheduled for January 2011.

The SPLM and the NCP have not yet agreed on an regulating law to the referendum, whereas the NCP insists that all southerners, whether they reside in the south, north or outside Sudan, have the right to participate in the referendum, while the SPLM says only the southerners who live in the south have that right.

26 September 2009

Authorities in Beijing have ordered that pigeons remain in their birdcages on October 1 to prevent them disturbing celebrations to mark 60 years of communist rule.

To ensure no official feathers are ruffled by wayward birds, the 30,000 homes in Beijing which between them have raised more than one million pigeons were informed by the authorities that their birds would be banned from flying until October 2 under threat of a fine, the Beijing News reported Saturday.

The only pigeons to take part will be the 60,000 to be released during the celebrations.

China's first military parade in 10 years, mass song and dance performances, and fireworks on October 1 will mark the day when revolutionary leader Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic in 1949 at Tiananmen Square.


france24

26 September 2009

Madagascar's de facto leader Andry Rajoelina was prevented from speaking before the UN General Assembly on Friday, after the Southern African Development Community objected, saying that he is not internationally recognised as head of state.

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.


The island state has experienced months of political turmoil after Rajoelina, 35, led violent street protests culminating in a military-backed coup in March that toppled former leader Marc Ravalomanana.


The United Nations joined the African Union and the European Union in branding the power-grab unconstitutional and called for Madagascar's leaders to form a consensus government ahead of fresh elections in late 2010.


The African Union in particular has been trying to take a stronger stance against coups, hoping to break the continent's history of military takeovers.


Rajoelina's invitation to the General Assembly had spurred speculation in Madagascar that the United Nations was softening its stance. U.N. officials indicated the invitation and the question of Rajoelina's legitimacy were separate issues.


Opposition parties say they remain united in their determination to pick a consensus government, and last weekend saw a return to street violence after riot police clashed with opposition supporters.

france24

26 September 2009

In a move that is bound to raise alarm bells in Washington, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez hosts the second Africa-South America summit this weekend in what he called a bid to build “a multi-polar world” to oppose US global hegemony.

AFP - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is hosting the second Africa-South America summit this weekend in a push to bolster relations with other countries raising the hackles of Washington and other Western capitals.

Nine South American presidents and some 20 African leaders were scheduled to attend the two-day summit beginning Saturday on Venezuela's scenic Isla Margarita, including Libya's Moamer Kadhafi and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe.

The leaders were to discuss a broad range of issues, including finance, energy, agriculture, health, education, science and tourism, with Chavez pledging the meeting would be forward-looking and feature an "ambitious agenda."

"We don't want this to be just another summit, we want it to lay the path for the next 10 years," the firebrand leftist leader said from New York, where he attended the United Nations General Assembly.

The Venezuela summit is also likely to feature tirades launched at the United States and other global powers, as well as Chavez's recurring arguments about the failures of capitalism.

In his first speech to the UN General Assembly since taking power four decades ago, Kadhafi launched into a rambling, 95-minute diatribe where he berated Western powers and accused the global body of failing to prevent millions of deaths as he demanded trillions of dollars in colonial reparations.

But Chavez, a longtime US foe, told CNN on Thursday that he wanted a "good relationship" with the administration of US President Barack Obama, similar to the ties shared between Caracas and Washington when Bill Clinton was in the White House.

On Friday, foreign ministers from the participating countries met to finalize a joint declaration to be issued at the end of the meeting.

One top priority will be energy cooperation, with Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez noting that the two regions have "24 percent of the world's hydrocarbon riches."

"We have the great strategic challenge of bridging the gap," he said. "We do not communicate. Here Africa and South America will begin to work on filling in the gaps."

The leaders are also set to discuss drug trafficking, a long-standing problem in South America, and a new concern for countries in west Africa.

The African Union has expressed concern that west Africa is becoming a new route for drugs to enter Europe, and insisted the issue be discussed at the summit.

While the presence of cocaine in west Africa remains pales in comparison to some other regions, seizures have increased seven-fold in the last decade, to 5.5 tonnes in 2007, according the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

Drug labs capable of producing ecstasy, cocaine and heroin have been uncovered in countries like Guinea, and officials are concerned the problem could grow.

"Faced with stricter enforcement in Europe, in the Schengen zone, South American traffickers prefer to take the African route to get small amounts of cocaine to the European market," said Gilles Sabatier, interior security attache to the French ambassador to Venezuela.

South American countries, including Colombia, have taken African concerns seriously.

"Commanding General Oscar Naranjo of the Colombian national police has invited African nations' police chiefs to attend drug law enforcement strategy conference in Colombia," said Jay Bergman, the regional director of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, in Bogota.

But he cautioned that "the best option we have is to attack this drug route here in South America... It's much easier to attack the cocaine pipeline at the source end than the distribution end."

On Isla Margarita, a scenic tourist destination, checkpoints were set up, manned by Venezuelan military personnel and guns were banned across the resort in anticipation of the world leaders' arrival.

Among those expected from South America were Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Ecuador's Rafael Correa, Bolivian leader Evo Morales and Argentine President Cristina Kirchner.

African leaders expected to attend include South African President Jacob Zuma and the Democratic Republic of Congo's Joseph Kabila.

The summit is the second time leaders from the two regions have gathered, after a first such meet in Abuja, Nigeria in 2006.

Kadhafi found a warmer welcome in Venezuela for his preferred sleeping quarters -- a traditional Bedouin tent -- than in New York, where his attempts to pitch his olive green tent in New York's Central Park and an estate outside Manhattan were thwarted by local officials.

france24

26 Sep 2009

The Group of 20 must fulfill promises made three years ago during the G8 summit, which resulted in doubling the amount of aid to Africa by 2010, South Africa's president says.

Jacob Zuma also reminded the summit, currently being held in Pittsburg in the United States that the members should focus urgently on implementing all commitments made by the G20 leaders on the needs of low-income South African countries.

He also told the summit on Friday that the G20 should help the developing countries out of the economic crisis; the South African Press Association quoted him as saying.

He noted that since the London summit earlier this year, G20 countries had moved quickly to make greater resources available to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and multilateral development banks for lending.

"South Africa welcomes proposals for introducing a robust and comprehensive framework for global regulation and oversight and it is calling for capacity support to low-income countries to enable them to comply with new regulations," he said.

South Africa is the only African country with a seat on the G20 and serves as co-chair of the working group on reforming the IMF.

presstv

26 Sep 2009

Somalia's president says he is ready to sit down at the negotiating table with anti-government groups to end the violence in his war-torn country.

Sheikh Sharif Ahmed addressing the 64th session of the UN General Assembly on Friday said that his UN-backed government would continue political dialogue with all Somali parties and groups, including armed rebels.

He added that continued violence, infighting and insurgency have paralyzed the interim government's attempts to restore central rule while militants are controlling large parts of the country. He also emphasized that instability in the country has increased kidnappings and piracy.

The Somali president said it was difficult to eradicate piracy in waters off Somalia without first dealing with the security situation in the country.

"This means piracy will continue in one form or another as long as security in Somalia continues as is.”

Somalia is in dire need of urgent humanitarian aid from the international community for 3.76 million people including refugees, Ahmed added.

presstv

26 September, 2009

The spectre of boycott from foreign publishers looms over this year’s Algiers International Book Fair due to take place as from October, 27 through November 6 because of the authorities’ decision to displace the event to the 5th July Olympic Stadium, upper Algiers.

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This unprecedented move has sparked anger among the Algerian publishers, who used to exhibit their literary products in the “Exhibition Palace”, eastern Algiers, and deepened dissentions that may affect the biggest cultural event in Algeria.
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In a declaration to “Echourok” the event’s commissioner Ismail Ameziane, yesterday revealed that the authorities have decided to relocate the exhibition to the Olympic Stadium, while in the past, the event was hosted by the Algerian Exhibitions Company “ SAFEX” located in eastern Algiers.
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He added that the decision was made by the ministry of culture and preparations are well underway after the completion of the administrative procedures in relation to the participation of the exhibitors last August.
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As to the problem of the location’s size that will eventually prevent professionals from exhibiting, M Ameziane declared “ I officially declare that the International Book Fair will not be organized inside the at the Dome premises but at the Olympic stadium courtyard whose total size is estimated at 14 thousand meter squares, which largely sufficient to host 170 publishing houses”.
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In addition, he added “ the location comprises a huge parking lot and is situated nearby several universities helping thus thousands of students to be at the core of the event”.

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