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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2013
FOREIGN NEWS ECOWAS experts meet on girl education From Vincent Ikuomola and Nike Adebowale, Abuja
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XPERTS on education from West Africa and development partners will be gathering in Banjul, the Gambia to discuss the issue of education of girl child and other vulnerable children. The Banjul forum will also propose a mechanism for enhancing the inclusion of children, who account for more than half of the population of school age children, into formal education for the timely realization of EFA and MDG goals. The meeting which is under the auspices of the ECOWAS Girls’ education Programme will commence from 16 to 19 of April 2013. The ECOWAS Girls’ education Programme is designed to strengthen the operational capacities of national structures for the promotion of girls’ education by improving access, retention and completion. The program is part of ECOWAS’ efforts to promote universal access to quality education and training opportunities as well as harmonize admission criteria into educational and training institutes in member states. The meeting which is the third is expected will document Member States’report on policies, programmes, initiatives and activities for education of the girl child and other vulnerable children. The expected outcome of the meeting will be incorporated in the ECOWAS priority programme of Education of Girls and other vulnerable children. The document will be used for advocacy, sensitization and resource mobilization within the frame work of MDG and EFA goals and the African Union plan of action for the second decade of education 2006-2015. The conclave will also provide Member States and partners the opportunity to share experiences and best practices on the ongoing and completed educational programmes and activities in the region. It will also help to chart the way forward towards achieving the MDG and Education for All goals as well as the A U Decade of education for Africa by 2015. ECOW AS is adopting multisectoral approaches to the plight of girls, women and other vulnerable groups in order to raise living standards, ensure economic growth and contribute to the progress and development of the African Continent.
China ‘reveals army structure’ in White Paper
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HINA has revealed the structure of its military units, in what state-run media describe as a first. The army has a total of 850,000 officers, while the navy and air force have a strength of 235,000 and 398,000, China said in its defence white paper. The paper also criticised the US’s expanded military presence in the Asia Pacific, saying it had exacerbated regional tensions. China’s defence budget rose by 11.2% in 2012, exceeding $100bn (£65bn). The defence white paper, which state media describe as China’s 8th since 1998, emphasised China’s “unshakable national commitment... to take the road of peaceful development”. China’s People’s Liberation Army is on a fast path to modernisation. Following years of double-digit budget increases, the military has acquired submarines and naval destroyers. Aircraft carriers and Chinese-made fighter planes are in development. In 2010, technology to destroy missiles in mid-air was tested. Now, it seems the generals have forged a new marketing strategy. In its latest white paper, the defence ministry takes pains to outline the PLA’s work relating to peacekeeping and natural disasters.
•Supporters of opposition leader Henrique Capriles run from riot police as they demonstrate for a recount of the votes in Sunday’s election, in Caracas Venezuela ...yesterday. PHOTO: REUTERS
Seven dead in Venezuela post-election violence
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IOLENT clashes over Venezuela’s disputed presidential election have killed four people, the state news agency said on Tuesday, as both sides in the standoff planned rival demonstrations. The deaths occurred when hundreds of protesters took to the streets in various parts of the capital, Caracas, and in other cities on Monday, blocking streets, burning tires and clashing with security forces, in some cases. The AVN news agency said two people were killed in Miranda state, which includes part of Caracas, one in Tachira state on the border with Colombia, and another in western Zulia state. It gave no further details. In one of the confrontations, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets in a running battle with masked, rockwielding opposition supporters in a
wealthy district of Caracas. Opposition leader Henrique Capriles is demanding a recount of the votes from Sunday’s election after official results showed a narrow victory for ruling party candidate Nicolas Maduro, the acting president. Capriles said his team’s figures show that he won the election and he has called his supporters into the streets for peaceful demonstrations. The National Electoral Council refused to hold a full recount, saying a 54 percent audit of the widely respected electronic vote system had already been carried out. The election was triggered by the death of socialist leader Hugo Chavez last month after a two-year battle with cancer. He named Maduro as his successor before he died and his protege won the election with 50.8 percent of
the vote against Capriles’ 49.0 percent. Both sides have urged their supporters to hold peaceful demonstrations nationwide on Tuesday, raising fears of more unrest in the oil-exporting nation of 29 million people, which has seen plenty of political turbulence in the last few decades. “Imagine if I went crazy and called the people and armed forces onto the street? What would happen in this country? How many millions would pour onto the street?” Maduro said late on Monday, blaming Capriles for the violence. “We’re not going to do it. This country needs peace. Where are the opposition politicians who believe in democracy?” The unrest in Caracas included demonstrations outside the offices of state television channel VTV and the home
17 killed in Ghana mine collapse
Pakistan’s Musharraf barred from May polls
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AKISTAN’S former military leader Pervez Musharraf has been barred from standing in general elections in May. An election tribunal disqualified him from running in Chitral in the north-west. Earlier, he failed in an attempt to stand in three other seats. Musharraf’s lawyer says he plans to file an appeal with the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, at least four people were killed in an attack on a convoy of the main opposition PML-N party in the south-western province of Balochistan.
Pervez Musharraf returned from self-imposed exile in Dubai last month saying he wanted to save Pakistan. The former military ruler is already embroiled in a series of legal battles attempting to stave off arrest, and a bid to try him for treason. In addition to his legal and political problems, he is facing a security threat from the Pakistani Taliban, who have vowed to target him with a squad of suicide bombers. There was no immediate claim for the attack in Balochistan. Correspondents say the area has no Taliban
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presence and is known to be a hotbed of separatist rebel activity.
On Baroness Margaret Thatcher’s Funeral Trail
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HE funeral of Baroness Thatcher, the first female UK prime minister, will be along the same lines as those of Diana, Princess of Wales, and the Queen Mother. She has been awarded a ceremonial funeral with military honours which takes place today, at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. It will be the first time the Queen has attended the funeral of a British prime minister since that of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965. Yesterday Thatcher’s coffin was moved to the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in the Palace of Westminster ahead of a short service for about 100 people led by the Dean of Westminster. A step short of a state funeral, which is normally reserved for sovereigns There is visually little difference between ceremonial and state funerals - the gun carriage during a state funeral is drawn by Royal Navy ratings rather than artillery horses Today the coffin will travel by hearse from the Palace of Westminster at 10:00 BST to the Church of St Clem-
Her funeral bearer party will be 10 - all members of the armed services - who will walk alongside the coffin. Where possible, personnel have been chosen from ships, units and stations connected to those who served during the Falklands campaign. The bearers have been taken from: Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Scots Guards ent Danes - the Central Church of the Royal Air Force - on the Strand. The coffin will then be transferred to a gun carriage drawn by the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery and taken in procession from St Clement Danes to St Paul’s Cathedral just after 10:30 BST. The route will be lined by military personnel from all three services.
of the head of the election authority. Capriles, the governor of Miranda state, hopes to highlight the weakness of Maduro’s mandate and stir up opposition anger over his charge that the electoral council is biased in favor of the ruling Socialist Party. The strategy could backfire if demonstrations turn into prolonged disturbances, such as those the opposition led between 2002 and 2004, which sometimes blocked roads for days with trash and burning tires and annoyed many Venezuelans. A return to prolonged trouble in the streets could renew questions about the opposition’s democratic credentials on the heels of their best showing in a presidential election, and just as Capriles has consolidated himself as its leader.
The processional route from St Clement Danes Church, along Fleet Street and Ludgate Hill, will be lined by more than 700 armed services personnel. The services and units represented will be: Royal Navy and Royal Marines, F Company Scots Guards, 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, Royal Air Force. The procession will be led by the Band of the Royal Marines and will see the Union flag-draped coffin carried on a horse-drawn gun carriage from St Clement Danes to St Paul’s. Her funeral bearer party will be 10 all members of the armed services who will walk alongside the coffin. Where possible, personnel have been chosen from ships, units and stations connected to those who served during the Falklands campaign. The bearers have been taken from: Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Scots Guards Welsh Guards, Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, Parachute Regiment Royal Gurkha Rifles
GOLD mine collapse in central Ghana has killed 17 people who were working illegally and had been told to leave by the operator, police and an official told AFP yesterday. The operator had completed its work at the mine near the town of Kyekyewere and returned only to shut down the operation and carry out reclamation work, said the area police commander William Otu. They found several people from the local community mining illegally, who refused when asked to leave. Not long after, “the operator got information that the mine caved in and covered the people,” the police commander said. “The number of those trapped were 22,” said local government official Peter Owusu-Ashia. Sixteen bodies were found dead at the scene, while six others were rushed to the hospital for treatment. “One later died” said OwusuAshia, putting the toll at 17. “We have stopped rescue operations for now.” He explained that the illegal miners were working with tools that they found discarded at the site. The west African nation of about 25 million people is one of the world’s top gold exporters. The country has been hit by similar disasters in the past, including a 2010 incident that killed 32 people in the south of the country. Heavy rains had poured into the clandestine mine causing it to cave in. The previous year 18 people, including 14 women, were killed in one of Ghana’s worst mining disasters. A similar number died in another cave-in in April 2007 at a mine west of the capital Accra.