The United Nations today provided hundreds of bicycles and motorcycles for Zimbabwean health workers to respond to potential cholera and flu outbreaks, the latest in a series of steps by the world body to help the southern African country confront acute humanitarian needs.

Jeddah, Asharq Al-Awsat- A Saudi official yesterday dismissed reports that Saudi Arabia had agreed to turn a blind eye to Israeli aircrafts flying through Saudi airspace in the event of Israel attacking Iran’s recently announced new nuclear facility.

 

The Saudi official described the report published in the British “Daily Express” newspaper on Monday which claimed that the director of MI6 and the chief of Israeli Mossad had met with Saudi officials in London and concluded an agreement that Saudi Arabia would agree to turn a blind eye to Israeli aircraft using its airspace in the event of Israel attacking Iran’s new nuclear facility as being “completely untrue and baseless.”

 

The official source called for the Sunday Express to retract this report which has no basis in fact or reality.

 

Then again, they would have to deny it even if it was true, wouldn’t they? So who knows?

 

 

Ami Isseroff

Mozambique Prime Minister Luisa Dias Diogo. The southern African nation will open a bridge that has been in the works for the last three decades.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

MOZ POLITICAL PARTIES LOSE ELECTION BID

The Mozambican Constitutional Council has dismissed claims by 14
political parties that they were unfairly excluded from the
upcoming elections, a report said on Tuesday.

The state controlled daily Noticias said the parties had claimed
they were unfairly excluded from the October 28 elections by the
national election commission (CNE).

The parties had sought the intervention of the Constitutional
Council after the CNE had said candidates for the presidential,
legislative and provincial parliament had submitted incomplete
nomination papers.

The exclusion of the 14 parties generated much controversy as
local political commentators and western diplomats accredited to
Mozambique alleged the move was unconstitutional.

However, CNE president Leopoldo da Costa insisted he was
following the electoral laws and could not bend laws to accommodate parties which had submitted incomplete nomination papers.

Mozambique will hold presidential, national and provincial
parliamentary elections on October 28.

Current president Armando Emilio Guebuza will stand as the
presidential candidate on the ruling Frelimo ticket against Daviz
Simango from the Mozambique Democratic Movement and Afonso Dhlakama from the main opposition party Renamo.

MOZAMBIQUE POLITICAL PARTIES’ COMPLAINTS REJECTED

Mozambique’s constitutional council has dismissed complaints
from 14 parties that they were unfairly excluded from running in
all electoral districts in next month’s vote.

The rejection upheld a Mozambican elections commission decision
of two weeks ago that 14 political parties could not run in all
electoral districts for the October 28 vote on grounds of
incomplete documents.

Only ruling party Frelimo and long-time opposition movement
Renamo were approved by the commission to stand for parliament in all 13 electoral districts.

The Renamo breakaway group Democratic Movement of Mozambique led by Daviz Simango, mayor of Beira city, was among those excluded.

“In a unanimous decision, the constitutional council rejected
the appeal of MDM against the exclusion of the lists from most
provinces,” the Mozambique Political Process Bulletin said Tuesday.

The O’Pais daily newspaper reported earlier, citing a statement
from the council said “the parties claims had no legal foundation.”

The excluded parties complained that the candidate approval
process was arbitrary and lacked transparency — a complaint that
was echoed by ambassadors from the European Union, the United
States and Canada.

Political analyst Antonio Frangoulis told the newspaper: “This
negative decision discredit the national electoral commissions and
other public institutions.”

There are 17 parties which are running for seats in the
Mozambican parliament, known as the Assembly of the Republic, and, for the first time, provincial assemblies.

The elections will be fourth since the country became a
multi-party democracy 15 years ago.

Che Guevara and Juan Almeida, leaders of the Cuban revolution. Guevara died in Bolivia in 1967 and Almeida passed on during September 2009.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

The life of Juan Almeida: Interview With Llusif Sadin Tasse

Interview by Tidiane Kassé
2009-09-24, Issue 449
http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/58974

Juan Almeida, the only Afro-Cuban to hold the title of Revolutionary Commander, died on 11 September. The second person after Che Guevara to be elevated to this rank, he remained the Cuban revolution’s ‘Number Three’ behind Fidel and Raul Castro throughout his life. Llusif Sadin Tassé, Cuba’s ambassador to Senegal, spoke to Pambazuka News about the life of this hero, who is credited for the famous battle cry: ‘Nobody here is going to surrender!’

In his homage to Almeida, Fidel Castro described him as a ‘companion of exemplary conduct in the course of over 50 years of heroic and triumphant resistance’. Almeida, the son of a labourer, was part of the revolution right from the beginning. He was part of the attack on the Moncada army barracks in Santiago, on the 26th of July 1953, as well as all the other battles that led to the eventual triumph by Castro’s forces.

Facing the onslaught of Batista’s superior troops, he is credited with the famous battle cry, ‘nobody here is going to surrender!’ He was a member of the new Cuban Communist Party’s Politburo at its inception in 1965. H.E. Llusif Sadin Tassé, Cuba’s ambassador to Senegal, spoke to Pambazuka News about the life of this hero.

Fidel Castro reflected that he had no idea just how much pain Almeida’s passing would cause the Cuban people. Almeida, who passed away on 11 September, is more than just an icon. He is part and parcel of the country’s history, its revolution, and all that gave his life meaning.

Almeida was the second of twelve children. At a very young age he was forced to join his mason father to make ends meet. In 1952 when Batista staged his coup d’Etat, he joined the progressive voices, especially the students, who took up arms. His political conscience made him keenly aware that Cuban democracy was under threat, and it was only through armed conflict that it could be safeguarded. It was at this point that Almeida joined the revolutionary forces. He took part in the assault on the Moncada army barracks in 1953. The ill-fated assault landed him in prison, along with Fidel, Raul and a number of other key revolutionaries.

Under public pressure, a general amnesty was declared, and Almeida was one of those who were exiled to Mexico. There, the core revolutionary group formed, with the arrival of Che Guevarra and others. He remained very close to Fidel, even after they returned to Cuba. He was aboard the Granma, and on the frontline of all subsequent battles leading up to the fall of Havana in 1959.

His revolutionary pedigree does not however detract from another facet of this man – Almeida the poet, writer and artist. His works chronicled the nexus moments of the revolution, from a first-person perspective. Almeida the writer and revolutionary was one of only three people to achieve the rank of commander in the course of the Sierra war. He ranked third behind Che and Raul.

He owed this distinction to his extraordinary qualities. As Fidel stated, he was one of those fighters who was always ready to fight with one, and for one, to the death. Every time he went into combat he was ready to die. He was a living example. He is credited with the battle cry ‘nobody here is going to surrender!’ He uttered this when his fellow fighters, surrounded and outnumbered by Batista’s troops, were losing hope.

Almeida carried all his battle glory with unbelievable humility. He headed the veterans’ association, all the while remaining an artist and a creator of beauty. A number of songs he composed won international accolades. One of these songs, La Lupita, which went on to become a Cuban classic, was composed aboard the Granma.

It is a sad song of loss and separation, and it has been said that Almeida was singing of a lost love. In reality Lupita was about all the friends and loved ones that the revolutionaries left behind on their way to the battlefront.

After the triumphant revolution, all his prestigious appointments did not prevent him for running the association for veterans of the Cuban revolution. The association represented not only those who fought in Cuba, but also on other fronts like Angola and elsewhere. He forged strong links with the great leaders of the Luso-African revolutions.

As the only Afro-Cuban to hold the title of Revolutionary Commander, Almeida’s dedication over-shadowed the race issue. He was dedicated to the fight against poverty and social injustices, which were undoubtedly even starker when one was black and poor in Cuba at the time. His dedication is thus a reflection of his sensitivity towards others and to their suffering.

Almeida asked to be buried at the Mausoleum at Santiago de Cuba in Oriente, built in memory of those members of the 3rd front that he led. He lies there among his fellow combatants, after all the military honours according him, and the homage of the country’s population

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

His Excellency Llusif Sadin Tassé is Cuba’s ambassador to Senegal. His reflections were recorded by Tidiane Kassé, editor of Pambazuka News, French Edition.

Translated by Josh Ogada

Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

It seems that in recent months some of those fighting Somalia’s Government are coming to understand the impact of the violence on the people of the struggling Horn of Africa nation, a senior United Nations official said today.

A 14-year-old girl died after receiving the human papilloma virus vaccine, but it now seems that the jab was not to blame

President Joseph Kabila on cover that reads "La Revue". The Democratic Republic of Congo has established joint military monitoring agreements with neighboring Rwanda and Uganda in order to curb rebel activity in the eastern region of the country.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

KINSHASA 29 September 2009 Sapa-AFP

DR CONGO SENATE REPORT DENOUNCES BAD PRACTICES IN MINING

A report for the senate in the Democratic Republic of Congo
shows that the mining sector is riddled with fraud, incorrect
figures and bad management that costs hundreds of millions of
dollar a year.

“No state service … is up to date to give reliable figures” on
the “number of operators in the mining sector, their quality and
the quantity of products exported,” said the report, passed by the
senate on Saturday and made available to AFP.

Products exported under inaccurate names and the underestimation
of weight are aspects of the industry where “statistics fail to
tell the whole story,” according to the document, which noted how
one mineral export of 33 tonnes was recorded “as 3.3 tonnes, at the
whim of an official.”

The state “lost more than 450 million dollars in 2008,”
according to the president of the Senate commission of enquiry,
David Mutamba, who added that this figure was based only on
available statistics.

But mineral production in the DR Congo — which has 34 percent
of world reserves of cobalt, 10 percent of copper and plentiful
supplies of gold, diamonds and uranium — should cover more than
half the country’s budget receipts, according to the senators.

The report blames bad management at the top level of government,
stating that the ministries of mining and finance charge much too
little for mining concessions, “in flagrant violation of the
constitution and the law, to the detriment of the public treasury.”

Senate investigators found that “80 percent of mineral ores are
fraudulently exported” in the eastern provinces of the DR Congo,
where rebels and armed groups are active.

In the diamond-rich central Kasai Occidental province, local
authorities “stand by powerless during unprecedented pillage by
numerous national mining exploiters or by foreigners guarded by
uniformed men.”

The lack of equipment, rundown infrastructure and poor rates of
pay for civil servants and mining industry employees all help to
explain why the mining sector is a mess.

The report gives the example of the directorate of mines in
Kinshasa, which is responsible for statistics, but only has a
“single, antiquated computer with a very low capacity.” There are
also no archives.

The Senate team recommends a revision of the mining code of
2002, since some of its clauses are judged “inefficient,” like the
“disorganised distribution of mining rights across the territory.”

A total of 4,542 mining concessions were granted to 642
companies according to a count in November 2008, but “numerous
operators exploit our mineral resources without abiding by the
demands of the mining code,” the report said.

“The services of the state know this situation, but they give
the impression of being determined not to remedy the excessive
growth, which is surrealistic in a state that wants to be modern.”

“Even if we revise the code, we’ll get the same results,” said
opposition senator Ramazani Baya, who stated that the management of the mining sector was “calamitous.”

Senators Henri-Thomas Lokondo and Denis Engunda regretted that
the Senate commission did not “give the names of the bad managers, nor those of the operators involved … and even less (proposed) sanctions.”

The pair made recommendations that will be added to the report.

A project is underway to use DNA and isotope analysis to help evaluate the claims of asylum seekers, but Linda Geddes cautions that we cannot rely solely on these techniques

Richard Fisher, deputy news editor A tsunami has devastated the coasts of Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga. On the morning of 30 September, the death toll was thought to be around 85 people, but this was expected to rise, according…