Six In The Morning

India courts Africa, long wooed by China

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh takes a six-day trip to the continent, in an effort to boost business ties and drum up support for New Delhi in its bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.

By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles  Times

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrives Thursday in Tanzania on the last stop of a six-day Africa trip designed to underscore his nation’s growing stature on the global stage, lobby for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council and signal to China that the South Asian giant is also a player on the resource-rich continent.

China has long targeted Africa under its “Going Out” strategy launched in 1998, and India, as part of a bid to make up for lost time, this week participated in the India-Africa Forum Summit, its second in three years. New Delhi said it would extend a $5-billion line of credit, fund 22,000 scholarships, set up a “virtual university” and support infrastructure and training programs on the continent.

G8 summit: aid package for Arab spring tops agenda

Two-day summit will also examine impact of the Japanese nuclear meltdown, climate change and the world economy

Patrick Wintour

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 May 2011

A multibillion package of aid, loans and trade access for the fledgling democracies of north Africa will top a sprawling agenda for world leaders when they gather as the G8 in Deauville, Normandy under the chairmanship of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

The G8 is expected to organise financial support through global financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The two-day summit in France is also due to examine the impact of the Japanese nuclear meltdown, climate change and the state of the world economy.

Exclusive: Battered Libya sues for peace

As President Obama vows ‘We will not relent until the shadow of tyranny is lifted’, Gaddafi’s Prime Minister offers Nato a ceasefire, amnesty for rebels, reconciliation, constitutional government – and an exit strategy

By Kim Sengupta and Solomon Hughes Thursday, 26 May 2011

The Libyan regime is preparing to make a fresh overture to the international community, offering concessions designed to end the bloodshed of the three-month-long civil war.

The Independent has obtained a copy of a letter from the country’s Prime Minister, Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, being sent to a number of foreign governments. It proposes an immediate ceasefire to be monitored by the United Nations and the African Union, unconditional talks with the opposition, amnesty for both sides in the conflict, and the drafting of a new constitution.

Georgian police crack down on protesters on Independence Day

Georgian riot police have clashed with protesters demanding the resignation of President Mikhail Saakashvili. The demonstrations were meant to block an Independence Day parade in the capital Tbilisi.

GEORGIA | 26.05.2011

Riot police used teargas, water cannon and rubber bullets to disperse protesters early on Thursday after mass demonstrations in Tbilisi against President Saakashvili. The interior ministry said one policeman and a former security forces officer were killed, and 37 people were in hospital with minor injuries.

Interior Ministry Spokesman Shota Utiashvili said the policeman who died had been struck by a vehicle in a convoy of cars, one of which was carrying opposition leader Nino Bujanadze.

Wave of Roma Rejected as Asylum Seekers

From Serbia to Germany — and Back

By James Angelos in Berlin  05/26/2011

By most European standards, the Marienfelde Refugee Center on the southern edge of Berlin is not luxurious accommodation. But the three-story buildings that house asylum seekers do feature heating, hot water and ceiling lights — things that for 33-year-old Sashko Tomovski and his family are lavish amenities.

“This for us is Las Vegas,” Tomovski, an asylum seeker from the Republic of Macedonia, said as he stood outside his modest apartment building at the center. Until recently, he said, he and his wife and their three young daughters lived in a flimsy shelter with no electricity, heat, or running water in a Roma settlement in eastern Macedonia he called “hell.”

UN rights chief slams ‘racist’ Australia

 

May 26, 2011    

The United Nations’s top human rights watchdog has attacked Australia’s tough refugee policies and the treatment of outback Aborigines, saying there was a strong undercurrent of racism in the country.

Long-standing policies of locking up asylum seekers had “cast a shadow over Australia’s human rights record”, and appeared to be completely arbitrary, UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay said.