Over the years, I have read stories from various media, speaking about the atrocities humans are inflicting upon one another. In the land where all of our ancestries originate, we see more and more
disturbing news against woman, children and nature. Read the articles and realize, we only have now to make a better impression on tomorrow. Our children will own tomorrow.______________
Edited on Sun Aug-31-03 12:59 PM by elad
Meet Black Diamond, Woman Fighter in Liberia’s War Sat August 30, 2003 07:23 AM ET
TUBMANBURG, Liberia (Reuters) – A 22-year-old woman in embroidered jeans, a bright top and heeled shoes sips a soft fruit drink through a thick smudge of lipstick.
Meet Black Diamond, one of the most feared woman fighters in Liberia’s civil war.
“Mortars are my favorite weapon,” she says in a matter-of-fact way, adding that they dispose of even the most obstinate government troops.
“They are the most damaging for those good commanders on the government side,” she said, sitting on a veranda on the outskirts of Tubmanburg, where the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) have set up their headquarters.
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from Photographers Blog:
Through my video “The children of Dadaab: Life through the Lens” I wanted to tell the story of the Somali children living in Kenya’s Dadaab. Living in the world’s largest refugee camp, they are the ones bearing the brunt of Africa’s worst famine in sixty years.
I wanted to see if I could tell their story through a different lens, showing their daily lives instead of just glaring down at their ribbed bodies and swollen eyes.
It was a challenging project. As one senior photographer asked, how else can we tell the story without showing images that clearly illustrate the plight of the starving millions? Few photographs cover all aspects of life in the camps.
Many of Dadaab’s children are dying. And then there are others who, despite living in the world’s oldest refugee camp, embrace their childhood; they play, go to school, care for their siblings and collect water for their families. I wanted to incorporate all of these aspects of life for Dadaab’s children into this project.
To tell the story, I combined Reuters photography captured during the height of the famine with footage I had collected when I was in Dadaab six months ago, before the severity of the crisis hit international headlines.
The point is, when news of the famine made it to the front pages, the children I had filmed in Dadaab were now only perceived as children on the frontline of famine. Not just as children who were excited with the furor we brought to the camp.
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19 July 2011 Last updated at 17:21 ET
Forced to choose between Sudans
By James Copnall BBC News, Khartoum
Magbula Osman says people left their homes after promises they would be bused south but are now waiting in misery
Makwaj Adol Malek has a problem – and it’s one shared by hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese living in the north.
Their region has become an independent country – and they face losing their Sudanese nationality, and maybe much more, because of the split.
“South Sudan’s independence has created problems for me,” Mr Malek says.
“I feel I am in danger. When I take public transport people tell me ‘your brothers have left – what are you doing here?’”
“But I tell them I have a pension and rights here.”
Mr Malek was born in Khartoum around half a century ago and worked as a teacher and a soldier.
He speaks Arabic, not English, the new official language of South Sudan.
All the same, he is one of thousands of South Sudanese gathered at a train station in the Khartoum suburbs, waiting for a ride home.
Bed-frames and cooking pots are piled up next to the station as people move their whole lives to a place they may not even have seen.
“I did not decide to go back to the south, but the government told me ‘your part of Sudan has decided to become an independent state, so you have nothing here,’” Malek explains.
He will take his family to his ancestral home, a place he scarcely knows, and then come back to Khartoum in an attempt to get his pension.
No choice but to leave
A few kilometres away along paved roads cutting through the desert, 545 Southern Sudanese are living rough under the hot sun.
Continue reading the main story
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Even if I lose my Sudanese nationality, it is not a problem, I am going. There is no future for me in the north”
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They left their homes in December and are still waiting for the money they say they have been promised to take buses back to the south.
They have made houses out of anything they can find – bits of wood and old clothes and towels.
Magbula Osman is a chief, and is pushed forward by the residents of the improvised tent town to talk on their behalf.
“They are poor people, tired people with no money and they don’t know what to do,” she says.
“Their children are out of school since they were told they would be taken back home.
“People are living in complete misery, with nothing to eat.”
She and others here blame both Khartoum and the new government in Juba, saying both have responsibilities to get them to South Sudan.
But all insist they have no choice but to leave Khartoum.
“I am South Sudanese,” says Jerome. “Even if I lose my Sudanese nationality, it is not a problem, I am going. There is no future for me in the north.”
‘Thank you Khartoum’
Of course, not all Southern Sudanese here are in such a difficult situation.
Sudanese officials have made it clear dual nationality will not be an option
Banguang Tap, a young opposition politician, lives in relative comfort.
The sofas in his living room are comfortable and he can watch Southern Sudan TV via a satellite dish.
“Those who came to Khartoum got educated here and engaged themselves in the Khartoum lifestyle,” he says.
“You cannot say they do not belong to Khartoum, they belong to Khartoum in all senses.
“Khartoum received us during the war so we say thank you Khartoum!”
All the same, he and his friends intend to go to South Sudan.
They believe that as the south has seceded, they can no longer consider themselves Sudanese.
That opinion will soon become fact.
No dual nationality
The national assembly has agreed on a draft law that removes Sudanese nationality from anyone the authorities consider South Sudanese.
“When our government acknowledged the secession, that means all southerners living in the north will not have a right to enjoy northern nationality,” explained Rabie Abdelati, a senior official at the ministry of information.
“This does not mean they will be all deprived of nationality, but their situations will be looked at on a case by case basis.”
The law still needs to be signed off by the president, who would retain the right to restore Sudanese nationality to those who have lost it.
But Sudanese officials have already made it clear dual nationality will not be an option.
It seems likely that South Sudanese will be able to acquire some sort of residency right.
But the current situation is very unclear.
At the moment foreigners cannot own property in Sudan, which means losing their Sudanese nationality would be a big problem for the wealthier South Sudanese here.
Senior presidential adviser Nafie Ali Nafie has said there will be a nine-month transitional period for individuals to sort out their situation.
But in a country where many people do not have the correct papers this will be tricky.
Then there is the issue of those truly caught between two countries.
Mohamed Nour’s grandmother was a Dinka from South Sudan, and the rest of his family is northern.
He was hired as a southerner in the civil service, as part of a peace deal, and then lost his job once the south became independent.
“It is a very bad thing. It is just like you are dividing one person into two,” he says.
But if politics took his job away, what about his Sudanese passport?
“I don’t think I will lose my nationality. Practically it is very hard to take people’s citizenship away.”
All the same, the status of those with parental links to Sudan and South Sudan is still very unclear.
‘Not northern or southern’
It is estimated there are 800,000 to one million South Sudanese in Sudan.
Since last autumn a further 300,000 have already made their way to South Sudan.
Many more are likely to follow.
“Many people were born here, they’ve got their lives here, they’ve got their children in school, they’ve got many reasons to remain here actually,” says Peter de Clerq, the Sudan representative for the UN’s refugee body UNHCR.
“But for them, with the withdrawal of the nationality and very high bar that has been set for maintaining their status its going to be very difficult to maintain themselves here.
“So they may not have much of a choice in the long term.”
Back at the train station, Mr Malek’s dilemma is one felt by many.
“I feel like I belong to both countries.
“I’m grateful to the north because I am born here. I see it as my village.
“But I still love the south. I see my nationality as Sudanese, not northern or southern.”
Unfortunately for Mr Malek, that is no longer reality.
Sudan: A country divided
The great divide across Sudan is visible even from space, as this Nasa satellite image shows. The northern states are a blanket of desert, broken only by the fertile Nile corridor. South Sudan is covered by green swathes of grassland, swamps and tropical forest.
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24 November 2011 Last updated at 17:52 ET
BBC News
Trinidad PM Persad-Bissessar: Assassination plot foiled
Ms Persad-Bissessar says she will not be deterred from the fight against crime
Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar says police have thwarted a plot to assassinate her and members of her cabinet.
A dozen people have been arrested, including members of the army and police, officials said.
Ms Persad-Bissessar blamed the alleged plot on “criminal elements” acting in “reprisal” for a state of emergency she declared in August.
She said her government was in control, with the security forces on full alert.
‘Treason’Police and government officials in the Caribbean nation have released few details of the alleged plot, saying they did not want to jeopardise ongoing investigations.
In an address to the nation, Ms Persad-Bissessar condemned the alleged conspiracy against her and several members of her government as “an evil, devious act of treason”.
She linked the security threat to the state of emergency she declared in August to counter a surge in violent crime linked to drugs gangs.
Security has been stepped at the prime minsiter’s residence
She said she was not surprised that “criminal elements” were bent on “reprisals”.
But the prime minister said the threat would not deter her government from pursuing its campaign against crime and insecurity.
Ms Persad-Bissessar said the state of emergency, which gives the security forces sweeping powers to make arrests, was working.
She said more than 7,000 people had been arrested and large quantities of drugs and firearms seized.
She also reminded Trinidadians of a coup attempt in 1990, when a local Islamist group tried to overthrow the government.
The state of emergency is due to be reviewed in December.
Government critics have voiced scepticism, saying the authorities might use the reported plot to justify extending the measure.
“We have no evidence of this so-called assassination plot,” Vincent Cabrera, head of the Banking, Insurance and General Workers Union, told the AFP news agency.
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25 November 2011 Last updated at 12:20 ET
BBC News
Robotic prison wardens to patrol South Korean prison
The prison guard robot prototype is set to go on trial in March
Robot wardens are about to join the ranks of South Korea’s prison service.
A jail in the eastern city of Pohang plans to run a month-long trial with three of the automatons in March.
The machines will monitor inmates for abnormal behaviour. Researchers say they will help reduce the workload for other guards.
South Korea aims to be a world leaders in robotics. Business leaders believe the field has the potential to become a major export industry.
The three 5ft-high (1.5m) robots involved in the prison trial have been developed by the Asian Forum for Corrections, a South Korean group of researchers who specialise in criminality and prison policies.
It said the robots move on four wheels and are equipped with cameras and other sensors that allow them to detect risky behaviour such as violence and suicide.
Prof Lee Baik-Chu, of Kyonggi University, who led the design process, said the robots would alert human guards if they discovered a problem.
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24 November 2011 Last updated at 20:16 ET
BBC News
Tempers are running high in the mountains of Cajamarca
Thousands of people in northern Peru have protested against plans for a huge open-cast goldmine in the high Andes.
People in the Cajamarca region say the proposed Conga mine will cause pollution and destroy water supplies.
The US-based mining company Newmont has promised modern reservoirs to replace threatened mountain lakes.
The dispute is a test for President Ollanta Humala, who has promised to continue mining development while protecting affected communities.
Mining is the main engine of Peru’s booming economy, but it is also the cause of numerous social conflicts around the country.
The $4.8bn (£3.1bn) Conga project would be the biggest mining investment in the country’s history.
On foot and on horseback, rural protesters climbed to four high mountain lakes whose waters would be moved to make way for the gold mine.
There were also protests in the regional capital, Cajamarca, 160km (100 miles) away, where schools and businesses closed and buses stopped running.
Previous protests have involved some sabotage of machinery, and the mining camp is closely guarded by police.
ConsultationLocals say plans to replace the lakes with artificial reservoirs are inadequate.
There are also fears that pollution from the mine could affect agriculture and livestock.
The company behind the project – the Newmont Mining Corporation – says its plans have been drawn up in consultation with local communities and meet the highest environmental standards.
It says the Conga mine – which it owns jointly with a Peruvian company – will generate thousands of jobs.
Newmont also runs the nearby Yanacocha mine – Latin America’s biggest gold mine – which has also been the focus of environmental protests.
Peru’s left-wing President, Ollanta Humala, has approved the Conga mine, which would be a major source of government revenue, but this stance has been criticised by some of his supporters.
Mr Humala was elected in June after promising to ensure poor Peruvians saw more benefit from the development of the country’s natural resources.
Since taking office he has also increased taxes on mining companies and given indigenous communities the right to be consulted about development on their land.
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The reports will focus on child welfare in Catholic dioceses
The retired Bishop of Derry Seamus Hegarty is expected to be in the spotlight following the publications
Occupy Wall Street protesters called for a boycott of Macy’s
