THE GUARDIAN, Wednesday, May 29, 2013
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WorldReport 100,000 Christians die for faith every year, claims Vatican ONSIGNOR Silvano M Maria Tomasi, a top Vatican official, has claimed that around 100,000 Christians are killed every year for reasons linked to their faith and pointed to the Middle East, Africa and Asia as the biggest problem areas. Tomasi was quoted by Vatican radio yesterday as saying that the figures were “shocking” and “incredible”. He said Christians were also forced to leave their homes and see their churches destroyed in some parts of the world, and were often subjected to rapes, kidnappings and discrimination.
The Vatican official made particular reference to the kidnapping of two Orthodox bishops near Aleppo in Syria last month. Religious freedom is beset by “sectarianism, intolerance, terrorism and exclusionary laws,” he said, while also pointing to exceptions like Bangladesh where he said rights are protected. Another senior Vatican figure, the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Mario Toso, said recently that discrimination against Christians “should be countered in the same way as anti-Semitism and Islamophobia”.
20 suspects plead innocence over U.S. embassy attack in Tunis U.S. President Barack Obama (right) greets people along the boardwalk as he views rebuilding efforts following last year’s Hurricane Sandy in Point Pleasant, New Jersey…yesterday. PHOTO: AFP
Natural resources can fuel Africa’s growth, transformation, says report By Bola Olajuwon HE African Economic Outlook 2013 has asserted that Africa’s resources in the agricultural, mining and energy sectors can boost the continent’s economic growth and pave the way for a leap forward in human development. The report, produced yearly by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Development Centre of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), was released in Morocco on Monday. It claims that the continent’s economic outlook for this year and 2014 is promising, confirming its healthy resistance to internal and external shocks and its role as a growth pole in an ailing global economy. The report states that African countries must take full advantage of their natural
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• Ties sustainable progress to diversification, human capital • Ban Ki-moon pledges support for continent’s future resource wealth to accelerate the pace of growth and ensure the process can benefit ordinary Africans. It also stresses that this must be accompanied by inclusive social policies that seek to reduce inequality in the continent. According to its projection, Africa’s economy will grow by 4.8 per cent in 2013 and accelerate further to 5.3 per cent in 2014. But the report, made available to The Guardian by ECA yesterday, regrets that this growth has been accompanied by insufficient poverty reduction, persisting unemployment, increased income inequalities and in some countries, deteriorating levels of health and education. Meanwhile, the United Nations (UN) SecretaryGeneral, Ban Ki-moon, has declared that while Africans
forge ahead with “a new narrative” for their continent, the United Nations (UN) will support them as they faced any challenges that remain on the path towards a prosperous future. In his message to mark Africa Day, which commemorates the founding in 1963 of the Organisation of African Unity, now known as the African Union (AU), Ban acknowledged that over the past decade, the continent had witnessed “unprecedented progress,” largely at the hands of the AU. “The launch of the AU’s Partnership for Africa’s Development and Peer Review Mechanism has helped to advance economic, social, political and institutional reforms,” he stated, referring to the self-monitoring mechanism by which participating African nations promote and
re-enforce high standards of g o v e r n a n c e . “Similarly, the African Union is playing an increasingly more dynamic leadership role in preventing, managing, and resolving Africa’s conflicts through its revamped Peace and Security Architecture,” he added. However, the authors of the African Economic Outlook 2013 said: “Now is the time to step up the tempo of economic transformation, so that African economies become more competitive and create more gainful jobs”, They added that “widening the sources of economic activity is fundamental to meeting this challenge.” The report argues that African countries must tap into their natural resource wealth to accelerate the pace of growth and ensure the process can benefit ordinary Africans.
HE 20 suspects implicated T in a deadly attack on the United States (U.S. embassy in the Tunisian capital last year insisted they were innocent as their trial opened yesterday. Hundreds of angry Islamist protesters attacked the U.S. mission in Tunis on September 14 after an American-made film mocking their religion was published on the Internet. Four of the assailants were killed and dozens wounded in the violence, which saw protesters storm the embassy and torch a neighbouring American school.
Questioned individually by the judge, the accused, nine of whom have been remanded in custody, denied having taken part in the protest or attacking the embassy and the police. Defence lawyers strongly criticised the trial and demanded the charges be dropped, saying the process was a result of the Tunisian judiciary bowing to pressure from the West. “These protests were part of a spontaneous reaction throughout the (Muslim) world against attacks on our sacred symbols,” said one of them, Slah Barakati.
France seeks action against Islamists in southern Libya RENCH government has Fmake urged African nations to a concerted effort to tackle a growing Islamist threat in the deserts of southern Libya. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, speaking on a visit to Niger where suicide bombers attacked a Frenchrun uranium mine last week, said there were signs that Libya’s lawless south was becoming a safe haven for Islamist groups in the Sahara. “It seems we must make a special effort on southern Libya - which is also what Libya wants,” Fabius said after meeting Niger President
Mahamadou Issoufou. “We spoke about the initiatives which neighboring countries can take in liaison with Libya.” A five-month French-led military campaign broke Islamists’ hold over the northern two-thirds of Mali, killing hundreds of al Qaedalinked fighters and pushing others into neighbouring states. Niger has said the Islamists who carried out Thursday’s twin attacks on an Areva mine and a military barracks, which killed 25 people had crossed the border from Libya. Tripoli has denied this.
Disputes over arms for Syria, rebels dim U.S.-Russian peace plan Alleged US. drone crashes in ISAGREEMENTS between until EU foreign ministers southern Somalia DRussia and the West over • Moscow moves to deliver air defence system to Damascus next meet on August 1. arming warring sides in Syria • Israel’s defence minister warns over new missiles But on plan to deliver an SUSPECTED U.S. reconnai- crashed. yesterday dimmed prospects protected Assad diplomati- ing fuel on the fire” and advanced S-300 air defence “Finally, they hit it and the A sance drone reportedly for peace talks just as disarray cally since the Syrian upris- directly damaging the system to Syria, the Russian crashed yesterday in southern drone crashed,” Nur told among President Bashar alAssad’s political foes also clouded the move. But Russia, Iran and Lebanon’s Shi’ite Hezbollah group have reportedly closing ranks behind him. As Western nations debate what action, if any, they should take on Syria, Assad’s main allies - Russia, which has
ing erupted in March 2011, said it would deliver an advanced S-300 air defence system to Damascus despite U.S., French and Israeli objections, arguing that it would help deter “hotheads” intent on intervention in the conflict. Moscow also accused the European Union of “throw-
chances of convening a peace conference by letting its own arms embargo on Syria expire. France and Britain, the EU’s strongest military powers and most ardent advocates of scrapping the embargo, said they had not yet decided to arm Syrian rebels, but did not have to delay such action
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said: “We think this (S-300) delivery is a stabilizing factor and that such steps in many ways restrain some hotheads... from exploring scenarios in which this conflict could be given an international character with participation of outside forces.”
Somalia, where African forces are fighting Islamist al Shabaab insurgents, the rebels and the provincial governor said. Lower Shabelle region governor, Abdikadir Mohamed Nur, said that al Shabaab militants had shot at the aircraft over the town of Bulamareer for several hours before it
Reuters. The insurgents confirmed that a drone had crashed but did not say if they had downed it. “A U.S. drone has just crashed near one of the towns under the administration of the Mujahideen in the Lower Shabelle region,” al Shabaab said on a social media account.