1. in Georgia foreigners (which ones?) form bandit groupings to conduct terrorist acts in Russia
Foreign instructors train terrorist groups in Georgian military bases to conduct terrorist acts in Russia, stated deputy Interior Minister of Russia Arkadiy Yedelev at yesterday’s meeting in Vladikavkaz, devoted to results of work of the Ministry in North Ossetia - RIA Novosti. “And first I’ll name the regions they see as conflict ones, able to destabilize situation in North Caucasus in general and in the South of Russia: North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Dsagestan, Chechnya, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachayevo-Cherkessia,” Yedelev said.
The deputy Minister called on republican police to “take most seriously the increased activity of structures and unions, including religious ones, spreading radical ideas.” He added that Muslim clergymen, calling on struggle with religious extremism, receive more and more threats. He also highlighted the threat of escalation of the conflict in the South of Russia remains real.
2. racism in Russia as Ghanian man murdered in cold blood
As lawlessness and racism grips Russia, Africans living in the Country have been victims of racist attacks time and again. The Russians are known to be systematically racist as their hatred for blacks goes unabated. Africans in Russia, Germany, France and Italy have been victims of racist attacks ranging from their houses and living areas being burnt down to them being stabbed on the streets by racist gangs and also being killed in cold blood. It has become very rare for governments in this countries to pursue would be perpetrators of such heinous crimes.
It has been reported that a group of unidentified attackers has stabbed to death a Ghanaian national in Russia’s second largest city of St. Petersburg, The 25-year-old man was taken to hospital in critical condition, with some 20 injuries to his head, neck, chest, kidney, stomach and limbs. He died several hours later. According to the Russian authorities, an investigation into the attack has been launched. Whether this investigation will be followed-up with a conviction is another matter. Russia has seen a wave of racially motivated crime since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Attacks by gangs of youths on foreigners and people with non-Slavic features are a routine occurrence in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Voronezh, which hosts many foreign university students.
3. similar incident in Ukraine recently: Lebanese man killed in Kiev
The body of a 47-year-old Lebanese, who was killed in Ukraine, arrived in Beirut overnight as his family urged Beirut authorities to ask officials in Kiev to follow up the investigation into the murder of Mounir Abdo Mansour.The National News Agency quoted Mansour’s family members as saying Thursday that they are planning to visit the Ukrainian embassy in Beirut to urge judicial authorities in Kiev to probe the man’s murder.The family told NNA it was not the first time that a Lebanese was attacked in the Ukrainian capital. It said authorities there have also previously tampered with evidence at crime scenes to cover up the “heinous crimes” rather than bringing perpetrators to justice. “Lebanese youth are killed without restraint from anyone,” Mansour’s sister, Rima, told NNA. “Involved officials should interfere to follow up the issue.”
4. African immigrants in Italy: a shadow of things to come
To give a dog a bad name in order to hang it has become synonymous to the plight of African immigrants in Italy. The Italian government under Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and his Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni have been accused of exploiting and inciting xenophobia and racism. Africans live in a war zone without protection.
…Italy, according to some Analysts, is now a climate reminiscent of Mississipi Burning, a 1988 film loosely based on the real-life murders of three civil rights workers in Mississippi in 1964. Analysts have also said the Italian regulations give support to fascistic elements and it does not only undermine the basic democratic rights of refugees, but those of the entire working population. At the same time, the government’s campaign against immigrant workers is increasingly being used to provide a scapegoat for the country’s economic demise and deflect blame away from the ruling elite.
5. Italy slammed for deep-rooted racism after violence
Italy took a sharp turn to the right in 2008 when conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi swept to power for a third time in coalition with the anti-immigration Northern League. Their campaign emphasized pledges to fight illegal immigration and crime, often closely linking the two.
The humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres accused Italy of “hypocrisy” over the plight of the African migrants. “Everyone — the authorities and employers — is aware of the miserable conditions of these immigrants,” said Loris de Filippi of MSF’s Italian branch. “Throughout southern Italy, illegal immigrants work for us in a situation that resembles slavery,” De Filippi told a news conference. “There is widespread hypocrisy.” “It is high time that the Italian authorities set about improving conditions for the seasonal workers,” De Filippi added.
Alessandra Tramontana, an MSF medical official, said conditions were “often worse than in refugee camps in Africa”. Seasonal workers are “victims of a perverse economic and political system that exploits them and at the same time tolerates them, but then criminalizes them,” MSF said in a 2007 report. As part of an investigation launched last year, police Tuesday arrested 11 suspected members of the ‘Ndrangheta mafia in Rosarno amid allegations that the unrest was linked to organized crime. The ‘Ndrangheta, heavily involved in drug trafficking, is considered the most dangerous of Italy’s four organized crime syndicates. Alberto Cisterna, a national-level anti-mafia judge, said he was convinced that ‘Ndrangheta operatives fired on immigrants “to prove that they control the area.”
6. Italian FM to visit Uganda in growing interest in African OIL
KAMPALA, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) — Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini is scheduled to visit Uganda this week as Italy’s interest in the East African country’s oil sector continues to grow. Patrick Guma, spokesman for Uganda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, confirmed to Xinhua by telephone on Wednesday about the minister’s visit on his seven-nation African tour, including Mauritania, Mali, Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt and Tunisia. During the visit, Frattini will meet Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa.
Frattini in a statement ahead of his visit said Italian interest in Africa continues to grow, describing Africa as a continent with enormous potential in human capital, a major supplier of raw materials and a market of 900 million consumers.
“Italy is focusing with new and closer attention on the African continent, in the conviction that there is a different Africa from the one traditionally depicted as a land of poverty, disease and endemic conflicts,” he said in a statement carried by the state owned New Vision daily on Wednesday. … Museveni recently said the development of the oil sector including oil production will be done through the private sector including international companies.
Uganda’s recently discovered oil has attracted a lot of international attention, with its reserves in the western part of the country estimated to hit billions of barrels. The country, however, lacks enough funds to build a medium-sized oil refinery to meet domestic and regional oil demand. Oil experts say the country needs more than 2 billion U. S. dollars, a third of the country’s national budget to construct the refinery.
7. IITA to intensify fight against deadly cassava disease in sub-Saharan Africa
Dar es Salaam (IITA) – The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and its partners the Agricultural Research Institute (ARI), Tanzania, and the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), Uganda, have received a US$2.4 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to identify and use molecular markers for faster and more accurate breeding of cassava varieties resistant to Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD). The disease, which is caused by the Cassava Brown Streak Virus (CBSV) and results in a dry rot in the tuberous roots rendering them inedible, is one of greatest threats to food security in sub-Saharan Africa. Cassava is an important staple food from which over 200 million people derive over 50% of their carbohydrate intake. It is a hardy crop that does well during times of drought and in poor soils. It requires little inputs such as fertilizer and the whole plant is useful from the leaves to the roots.
8. UN report paints grim picture of condition of world’s indigenous peoples
UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) — The world’s 370 million indigenous peoples suffer from disproportionately, often exponentially, higher rates of poverty, health problems, crime and human rights abuses, the first ever United Nations study on the issue reported here Thursday.
The report stressed that self-determination and land rights are vital for their survival….“Every day, indigenous communities all over the world face issues of violence and brutality, continuing assimilation policies, dispossession of land, marginalization, forced removal or relocation, denial of land rights, impacts of large-scale development, abuses by military forces and a host of other abuses,” the report’s authors said at a news release here.
Although indigenous peoples make up only 5 percent of the global population, they constitute around one third of the world’s900 million extremely poor rural people. In both developed and developing countries, poor nutrition, limited access to care, lack of resources crucial to maintaining health and well-being and contamination of natural resources are all contributing factors to the terrible state of indigenous health worldwide.
…The study repeatedly identifies displacement from lands, territories and resources as one of the most significant threats for indigenous peoples, citing many examples, including in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Hawaii, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Colombia.
…Indigenous peoples, who are the stewards of some of the most biologically diverse areas, accumulating an immeasurable amount of traditional knowledge about their ecosystems, also face the dual and somewhat contradictory threats of discrimination and commodification.
They face racism and discrimination that sees them as inferior, yet they are increasingly recognized for their unique relationship with their environment, their traditional knowledge and their spirituality, leading to external efforts to profit from their culture which are frequently out of their control, providing them no benefits, and often a great deal of harm.
