France-Africa Summit opens minus Mugabe, Kagame and Mbeki - Meles present

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Also in the news: [Reuters: Mogadishu residents back to living in constant danger] - [Los Angeles Kinijit Support Organization Elects Its Leaders] - [Africa growers back Ethiopia in row with Starbucks] - [UN: Somalia's warlords re-emerge from shadows to threaten relief work]

International: [Giuliani Confirms He's Running in 2008] - [US to take in thousands of Iraqi refugees] - [Trial in '04 Madrid train bombings opens] - [Iraqi official confirms al-Sadr in Iran] - [Kenyans taught to be good lovers] and more of today's top stories!
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France-Africa Summit opens minus Mugabe, Kagame and Mbeki - Meles present

CANNES, France - A summit intended to strengthen ties between Africa and former colonial power France opened on Thursday but all eyes will be on a subject not on the agenda -- Sudan's battered Darfur province, Reuters news agency reported.

The conference opens without Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki who sent his foreign minister, Nkosazana Zumba, preferring to stay home and attend to his ruling ANC and government business.

The Zimbabwe government revealed Thursday Mugabe had not been invited but had been told by France through former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano that a lowly government delegations was welcome at the Cannes.

Prime Minister Meles is in France to attend the Summit and is expected to participate in various high-profile discussions with other heads of state on issues of raw materials in Africa, the stature of the continent and the information society, ENA reported.

The Los Angeles Kinijit Support Organization Elects Its Leaders

Press Release

Members of Kinijit’s Los Angeles Support and Development Association for Democracy elected a 9-member Executive Committee, and 3-member Audit Commission.

The election was handled by a Nomination and Election Committee that was composed of five of the support group’s members, elected two weeks earlier.

In accordance with the bylaws, a democratic election was exercised. At least two nominees were presented for each position and the voting was made by a secret ballot.

The newly elected committee has made a commitment to be action-oriented and apply Kinijit’s organizational policies of becoming transparent, accountable, and responsible.

Somalia's warlords re-emerge from shadows to threaten relief work, U.N. says

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somalia's warlords are re-emerging and pose a threat to humanitarian aid deliveries to the needy, the United Nations warned Wednesday, as the government struggles to quell growing unrest.

Rising violence and a power vacuum caused by the ousting of Islamic forces by the transitional government could lead to a return of the chaos that plagued Somalia for 16 years, the U.N. said in a monthly report.

The spiraling violence is also likely to undermine attempts to deploy an African Union peacekeeping mission designed to protect the country's weak, Ethiopian-backed government and train a new army for the lawless nation.(More...)

Africa growers back Ethiopia in row with Starbucks

ADDIS ABABA, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Africa's top coffee growers backed Ethiopia on Thursday in its trademark row with Starbucks (SBUX.O: Quote, Profile , Research), saying securing the protection rights for various crops and plants could lift millions from poverty.

Ethiopia and the British charity Oxfam have accused the U.S.-based coffee shop giant of blocking Ethiopia's attempts to trademark its beans, denying farmers there potential income of more than $90 million.

"We are dealing with the issue of improving the lives of millions of people," Sindiso Ngwenya, deputy secretary-general of the 20-member Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, told Reuters at a major coffee meeting in Addis Ababa. (More...)

Reuters: Mogadishu residents back to living in constant danger

MOGADISHU, 15 February (IRIN) - Maryan Aliyow Isse had hoped the security situation in Mogadishu would stabilise after the Ethiopian-backed transitional government took control of the Somali capital in December.

She was wrong. "We are in constant danger," said Maryan, who lives with her four children among 945 displaced families in a compound that used to be the Taleh government school in the southern Hodan district. "Mortars explode near the camp every night."

Other Mogadishu residents said worsening violence had already forced many families to leave the city. "Many families have left," Muhammed Rage told IRIN. "It is not an exodus yet but you can see families moving, particularly from the south of the city." (More...)

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-US to take in thousands of Iraqi refugees
-Trial in '04 Madrid train bombings opens
-Iraqi official confirms al-Sadr in Iran
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-Chinese man gets death for ant-breeding scam
-Kenyans taught to be good lovers




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