Mandela, Mugabe is a failure

Former South African leader Nelson Mandela has added his voice to the growing international condemnation of the political violence in Zimbabwe.

In his first public comments about the crisis, he noted "the tragic failure of leadership" of President Robert Mugabe. Southern African leaders earlier called for Friday's run-off presidential vote to be postponed because conditions did not permit a free and fair election.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has urged foreign help to end the crisis. Speaking at a dinner in London to mark his 90th birthday, Mr. Mandela said: "We watch with sadness the continuing tragedy in Darfur. Nearer to home we have seen the outbreak of violence against fellow Africans in our own country and the tragic failure of leadership in our neighboring Zimbabwe."

Now time to do something serious, Mugabe’s cell is awaiting!

Ovi today

Torturing Aristotle by Thanos Kalamidas
Today is International Day in Support of Torture Victims and Thanos asks whether there is any way to identify the meaning of the word 'torture'.

Impasse by Luis Alves
Os últimos eventos políticos vêm confirmar que o processo de regionalização português não deve estar excessivamente dependente do sistema político-partidário, sob o risco de ser eternamente adia

Life Undercover #79 by Thanos K & Asa B
It is time to change the sheets... our inquisitive duvet-loving hero has some female company now asking the great questions of life, religion and the universe.

"Letter from the Warmer Regions" by Jan Sand
"There is as much difference between good poetry and fine verses, as between the smell of a flower-garden and of a perfumer's shop." - Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare

Taliban’s drug holy business

The Taliban made an estimated $100m in 2007 from Afghan farmers growing poppy for the opium trade, the United Nations says.

Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said the money was raised by a 10% tax on farmers in Taleban-controlled areas. The UN estimates last year's poppy harvest was worth $1bn.

Mr. Costa said the Taleban made even more money from other activities related to the opium trade.

I presume they were blessing and pray to Allah before spreading death!

Rape a …war tactic

The UN Security Council has voted unanimously in favor of a resolution classifying rape as a weapon of war.

The document describes the deliberate use of rape as a tactic in war and a threat to international security. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said violence against women had reached "unspeakable proportions" in some societies recovering from conflict.

The UN is also setting up an inquiry to report next June on how widespread the practice is and how to tackle it. Human-rights group hailed the resolution as historic.

Ki-moon doing something right?

Food crisis talks begin

Envoys from 26 Latin American and Caribbean countries meet on Friday to discuss the rising cost of food and draw up a united policy for the region.

The talks in Caracas, Venezuela, mark the beginning of a week of meetings on the issue, leading up to a three-day UN food crisis summit in Rome on Tuesday. According to the World Bank, global food prices have risen by 83% over the past three years. The lender has announced a package of food grants totaling $1.2bn.

An influential report on Thursday warned that higher food prices might be here to stay as demand from developing countries and production costs rose. Prices would fall, but only gradually, the report by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said.

They are missing the point once more; there is NO TIME FOR TALK! People are starving to death!

Trying to relieve Iraq’s debt

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has said he will ask the international community to relieve the country's debt, as envoys gather for a UN forum.

Officials said the move was aimed mainly at Arab countries, to which Iraq owes most of its $67bn debt. Meanwhile US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged countries to stand by Iraq during reconstruction.

Nearly 100 countries are represented at the economic and political reform forum near Sweden's capital, Stockholm. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki are also in Sweden.

The gathering is aimed at supporting Iraq's efforts to restore stability and rebuild a functioning economy. Correspondents say progress in these areas remains fragile. The UN called the conference to review a five-year package it brokered last year, called the International Compact with Iraq. On the eve of the forum the largest Sunni Muslim bloc suspended talks on rejoining Iraq's Shia-led government.

Shouldn’t the ones who promised the reconstruction of the country to …pay the bill for the damaged they helped to be done?

Peacekeepers abusing children

Children as young as six are being sexually abused by peacekeepers and aid workers, says a leading UK charity.

Children in post-conflict areas are being abused by the very people drafted into such zones to help look after them, says Save the Children. After research in Ivory Coast, southern Sudan and Haiti, the charity proposed an international watchdog be set up.

Save the Children said it had sacked three workers for breaching its codes, and called on others to do the same. The three men were all dismissed in the past year for having had sex with girls aged 17 - which the charity said was a sackable offence even though not illegal.

The UN has said it welcomes the charity's report, which it will study closely. Save the Children says the most shocking aspect of child sex abuse is that most of it goes unreported and unpunished, with children too scared to speak out.

There is only one word for that …shame!!!

Ahtisaari Winner of UNESCO Peace Prize

The former Finnish president and current United Nations envoy Martti Ahtisaari has been named as the winner of the prestigious UNESCO peace prize.

Mr. Ahtisaari, who also founded the non-governmental organization Crisis Management Initiative, was chosen for "his lifetime contribution to world peace," said the head of the international jury that awards the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Congratulations for a man who is worth much more for all the things he has done for the world peace!

Children facing death

Thousands of children in cyclone-hit Burma will starve to death within weeks unless food reaches them soon, UK charity Save the Children has warned.

The charity said 30,000 under-fives in the Irrawaddy Delta were malnourished before Cyclone Nargis hit on 2 May. It says energy-rich food now needs to reach them "before it is too late".

The warning comes as a UN envoy is due in Burma to join international efforts to try to persuade the ruling junta to grant more access to relief workers. Humanitarian envoy John Holmes will carry a letter from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to Burma's leader, Than Shwe, who has refused to answer Mr. Ban's calls.

Perhaps it is time for Mr. Ban to stop …calling and act, even though that will come as a surprise to what he has done till now!!!

The dictators screw Burma disappointing even UN

The UN says it is extremely disappointed at the slow progress made in securing access to victims of last weekend's cyclone in Burma.

Humanitarian chief John Holmes told reporters that Burma's response was "nothing like as much as is needed". In addition to at least 23,000 people who died in the storm and tidal surge, 1.5 million are at risk, he said. Some supplies have been allowed into Burma but many more tones of aid, and dozens of foreign staff, have not.

To disappoint Ki-moon needs a lot of effect and proves how dangerous the dictators of Burma are!

The Ovi magazine today

...Namely the State of Israel by The Ovi Team
An article from Gush Shalom, whose primary aim is to influence Israeli public opinion and lead it towards peace and conciliation with the Palestinian people.

The Un-peaceful Pacific by Lorem Ipsum
Today China is more than a defensive, easily offended, blustering nation: the PRC is a superpower with economic clout, nuclear weapons, an independent space program and currently the chary host to the 2008 Olympic Games.

Après la stabilisation des Balkans, vers la balkanisation de l'UE by Newropeans-Magazine
Tout le processus d'élargissement de l’UE aux pays des Balkans tel qu’il est actuellement mené, et qui repose sur des chantages à l’intégration européenne...

Lift Spirits #03 by Thanos K & Asa B
Lift doors slide open, you enter, press the button and then face that awkward proximity to a stranger... perhaps this will lift your spirit.

UN's food agency a waste of money

An African leader has dismissed the UN's food agency as a "waste of money" and called for it to be scrapped.

President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal spoke out days after the UN announced an emergency plan to bring soaring world food prices under control. Mr. Wade said the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was itself largely to blame for the price rises.

His comments came as bakers in Nigeria began a week-long national strike in protest at the cost of flour and sugar. Some global food prices have nearly doubled in the past three years, provoking riots and other protests in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

A bitter truth coming from the one who lives the problem?

Food crisis

Key United Nations development agencies are meeting in Switzerland to try to develop solutions to ease the escalating global food crisis.

Led by secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, officials want to mitigate the impact of the steep rise in staple food prices and prevent food shortages worsening. The World Food Programme (WFP) has said an extra 100 million people need food aid because of higher prices. Food has become increasingly expensive, triggering unrest in several countries.

Ki-moon is waking up and somebody told him that people are hungry and it is UN obligation to do something!!!

UN armed DR Congo rebels?

The UN has covered up claims that its troops in Democratic Republic of Congo gave arms to militias and smuggled gold and ivory.

The allegations, based on confidential UN sources, involve Pakistani and Indian troops working as peacekeepers. The UN investigated some of the claims in 2007, but said it could not substantiate claims of arms dealing.

Making business instead of stopping ones?

Mbeki on Zimbabwe

South African President Thabo Mbeki has defended his record on Zimbabwe, while playing down the crisis at a UN debate.

His governing ANC party, however, said it was concerned about the deepening crisis brewing in its neighbor. Gordon Brown told the UN Security Council no one believed Robert Mugabe won last month's presidential election in the country.

Meanwhile, the opposition in Zimbabwe said 50 supporters were arrested after a strike over delayed poll results. Mr. Mbeki had said there was "no crisis" in Zimbabwe after meeting Mr. Mugabe on Saturday. He defended those remarks in New York, saying dialogue was essential to bring about a resolution to the situation in Zimbabwe, where 18 days after presidential elections, electoral officials have yet to announce a result.

"The solution to the problem of Zimbabwe lies in the hands of the people of Zimbabwe," he said. "In our engagement with the situation, we needed to talk continuously at all times with both the ruling party and the opposition."

The truth Mr. Mbeki, Mr. UN General Secretary, African Union and the rest of you is that you failed and the people of Zimbabwe have to pay your failure, Mugabe the caricature African Hitler is still on power and there is no excuse for that!

Ki-moon to miss Olympics opening

My god or better my Buddha …he woke up! UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will not attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, an aide has said. The decision was due to "schedule issues" and had been made months ago, said UN spokeswoman, Marie Mukabe.

Meanwhile, Buenos Aires is braced for Friday's Olympic torch relay after anti-China protests in other cities. Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai has withdrawn from the torch relay's Tanzanian leg, due to concerns over human rights in China.

The BBC's Laura Trevelyan said the UN was anxious not to give the impression that Mr. Ban's absence was a boycott of the Games. Ms Mukabe said Mr. Ban "had conveyed to the [Chinese] government some months ago that he may not be in a position to accept the invitation to attend this important event due to schedule issues".

This means the decision was made before violent anti-Beijing protests in and around Tibet last month that were suppressed by a heavy security presence.

Late as always to everything I have to admit Ki-moon surprised me with this decision even though I would expect him to be more …UN and say why he really doesn’t go, emphasize that whatever UN stands for there is one country member of the security council that ignores and violates them!

Seeking for U.N. help

Zimbabwe’s opposition party will ask the United Nations to intervene to avoid bloodshed ahead of a hotly contested presidential runoff, Mugabe is dangerous and he controls the army and the security forces that make him dramatically dangerous.

Police and army officers in Zimbabwe have already said that they are not going to hand the power to anybody and Mugabe is the president and they are threatening with a coup, tortures and murders. Nelson Chamisa, a spokesman for the Movement for Democratic Change, said Saturday the party feared President Robert Mugabe would use violence against opposition members in the days leading up to the runoff.

"We will have to appeal to all the international community organizations, including the United Nations, in order to stop Mugabe," Chamisa said from the city of Bulawayo. Zimbabwe's ruling party said Friday that Mugabe would be willing to face Morgan Tsvangirai in a runoff election. The announcement by Zanu-PF was made before official results of the March 29 presidential race were announced by the Electoral Commission, which will have the final say in whether a second round of voting occurs.

A runoff is required when neither candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote. Last Saturday, voters also cast ballots for House and Senate seats and local council members. The commission is required by law to release final figures six days after an election.

The evil man, the caricature Hitler of Zimbabwe will do anything to keep his power.

Food riots deadly in Haiti

At least four people were killed and 20 wounded when demonstrations against rising food prices turned into riots in southern Haiti, officials say.

Reports say scores of people went on the rampage in the town of Les Cayes, blocking roads, looting shops and shooting at UN peacekeepers. The UN said its personnel had opened fire at some of the armed protesters.

For two days running, parts of Haiti have been erupting into violence triggered by the soaring cost of food. The prices of rice, beans and fruit have gone up by 50% in the last year. Earlier this week, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued a report saying that the food crisis threatened the Caribbean nation's fragile security.

This is to remind how important is NATO summit, long rich presidential lunches that there are people starve to death and that IS IMPORTANT!

High-ranking Finnish peacekeepers involved in bribes?

The state prosecutor is charging two high-ranking Finnish peacekeeping officers with turning a blind eye to bribes collected by two junior peacekeepers in Afghanistan.

Furthermore, they are accused of neglecting to disclose information during the preliminary investigation. I suppose they did so respecting the fact that Finland is ranking on the top of the less corrupted countries!!!

Two other high-ranking Finnish officers working in Afghanistan, who were previously named in the case, were not charged. Recently, the two junior peacekeepers were sentenced to unconditional prison sentences. The men accepted bribes worth tens of thousands of Euros from Afghan companies from the years 2004 to 2006 in exchange for lucrative construction deals.

According to the sentenced men, taking money for such deals is the custom in Afghanistan. However, they said they did not demand payment.

So it was bribe for the non-corrupted Finns, it was …multiculturalism!

kidnapped in Somalia

Two foreign contractors, a Briton and a Kenyan, working for the UN in Somalia have been seized by unknown gunmen in southern Somalia, reports say. They were doing work for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

The incident happened on a road between the towns of Bu'aale and Sikow in the Juba region of Somalia, when gunmen fired on the men's car, witnesses say. The UN based in neighboring Kenya says it cannot confirm the kidnapping, although it had confirmed it earlier. A number of foreign aid workers have been kidnapped in Somalia in the past few months.

It is not known why the two men, who are believed to be working for the FAO-funded Somalia Water and Land Information Management project, may have been kidnapped. It is not known if either man has been harmed, although there are unconfirmed reports that a white man was seen with blood coming from a wound possibly on his leg. In February, MSF withdrew all their international staffs from Somalia after three of its workers were killed by a bomb.

Trying to help and be a victim of the worst kind of violence from the ones you try to help! That’s definitely disappointing and discouraging.