WINDHOEK (AFP) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday called for boosting trade ties with Namibia, at the start of the first-ever visit by a Kremlin chief to the southern African nation.
"We will develop our partnership with Africa," Medvedev said at the start of talks with his Namibian counterpart Hifikepunye Pohamba.
"We should promote activization of trade and economic ties," he said.
"The first visit of the Russian president should open a qualitatively new stage in our relations."
Pohamba said his nation was also keen to "strengthen our cooperation" and build a "durable economic partnership."
"We would like to secure access of our products to Russia," he said, urging Moscow to lower tariffs on metal and farm goods.
After their meeting, Medvedev said he had discussed expanding cooperation in energy, including on Namibia's vast uranium deposits.
The Russian leader is later scheduled to go to the Okapuka natural park, famous for its rhinos, giraffes and crocodiles.
Medvedev is making a four-nation tour across Africa, aiming at boosting energy ties with the continent. His final stop will be in Angola on Friday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090625/ ... mibiarussiadiplomacytrade

    ADDIS ABABA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia has no plan to deploy its troops in neighboring Somalia despite escalating insecurity in that country, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Wednesday.
    "We have no plans to do so for a number of reasons," said Meles.
    He said Ethiopia believes that the situation in Somalia could be stabilized without the deployment of Ethiopian troops.
    Through the international support to the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and its allies in Somalia, Ethiopia believes that the situation would be resolved, he told journalists.
    Ethiopia is not yet convinced that the situation would pose clear and present danger to its national security, Meles said, referring to the other factor for not deploying Ethiopian troops in Somalia.
    In addition, he said the deployment of Ethiopian troops in Somalia would be unwarranted.
    He reiterated that Ethiopia, which is in full support of the TFG in Somalia, now prefers to assist that country by means other than the deployment of Ethiopian troops.
    In recent weeks, witnesses have reportedly seen Ethiopian troops inside Somalia, mainly around Somalia's border areas.
    Meles admitted Ethiopia sometimes undertook military reconnaissance operations in border areas between the two countries.
    But,Meles said Ethiopia has no plans to go back to Somalia.
    Ethiopian troops entered into Somalia in late 2006 to back the embattled TFG against Islamist insurgents. But it has many times rejected accusations that it crossed back into the country in the wake of renewed fighting which has killed hundreds of local people.
    On Monday, Somalia's TFG declared a state of emergency in the country to counter an Islamist insurgency that has been battling with the government forces, urging neighboring countries to send troops to help.
    The neighboring Kenyan government said last week it would not sit back and watch security in Somalia to deteriorate further but declined to send troops.
    The radical Somali Islamist leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, said on Wednesday that his forces would fight any foreign troops coming to aid the Somali government, reiterating his call for the African Union (AU) peacekeepers in Mogadishu to leave.
    Nearly 4,300 peacekeepers from Uganda and Burundi are currently deployed in Mogadishu as part of the proposed 8,000-strong AU peacekeeping forces.
    Somalia has been through nearly two decades of civil strife and the current Somali government is the fifteenth attempt at setting up strong central authority for the fragmented Horn of Africa country.     

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-06/25/content_11596318.htm

  
  NAIROBI, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The Kenyan government said on Wednesday it has heightened security along its common border with Somalia following threats of invasion by Somali Islamist militants.
    Speaking in Nairobi, Internal Security Assistant Minister Orwa Ojode said Kenya which brokered the protracted negotiations that culminated in the formation of the transitional government of Somalia is not taking such militia threats lightly.
    "I actually do not think that the presence of Kenyan forces along the Kenya-Somalia border will compromise security in the country," Ojode told journalists in Nairobi.
    The fragile Western-backed Somali transitional government is coming under intense pressure from Islamist militias that control swathes of the country.
    Somalia has asked for urgent foreign military intervention, a call backed by the African Union. The international community is concerned that Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network may get a grip on the failed Horn of Africa state that has been without a central government for 18 years.
    "Bad elements might come into the country through some porous border, but we have our intelligence on the ground. We shall deal with them," the assistant minister vowed.
    Ojode said that security forces around the country are on high alert following threats by the militants who have demanded that Kenya withdraws its military presence on its borders or they willl "destroy the tall, glass buildings in Nairobi."
    Ojode spoke in the wake of reports that the al Qaida terrorist group has pitched tents in Somalia where it is fighting alongside extremists to oust the transitional government, posing a deadly threat to the stability of neighboring countries including Kenya.
    The reports that Al-Muhajirun, a terrorist outfit linked to al Qaida and commanded by a Kenyan, Saleh Nabhan, have brought to Somalia some of the most dangerous terrorists in the world, posing a major concern to Kenya.
    But Ojode said the government would beef up security personnel not only along the porous borders, but also around the country to avert any intended terrorist attacks. 

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-06/25/content_11596224.htm

ADDIS ABABA, June 26 (Reuters) - Ethiopia said on Friday it arrested three Oromo Liberation Front rebels who beat up Chinese technicians in a raid on a dam construction site in the west.

State TV said three Chinese were in hospital after being badly beaten by the OLF gang during the attack this week at the Neshie Dam. The statement said they were planning "terrorist activities" there, and were later caught by security forces.

"The culprits beat Chinese technicians working at the site, robbed laptops, printers, digital surveying machines and other equipment at the site," it said.

The three were paraded on TV, together with guns, communications equipment and bomb-making materials.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's government blames the OLF, which has fought for autonomy for its southern homeland since 1993, for various explosions in the capital Addis Ababa.

Addis Ababa accuses arch-enemy Eritrea of training and funding the OLF and other small rebel groups in Ethiopia's remote, outlying areas. Asmara says that is an excuse to mask popular unrest with Meles' government.

An opposition figure said the government's version on the arrests was not credible.

"Unless there is ample evidence that the three persons apprehended as terrorists were attempting to carry out terrorist activities along the dam site, we cannot trust what the government is alleging," said Gebru Gebremariam, chief whip in parliament for United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF).

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLQ155807

President Robert Mugabe said he may revive the Zimbabwe dollar because the US dollar is unavailable to a majority of people.
Mr Mugabe allowed the use of multiple foreign currencies in January to stem hyperinflation of over 230 million per cent which left the Zimbabwe dollar almost worthless.
This situation has caused untold suffering because rural people have no access to the dollars and South African rands circulating in towns.
The state Herald newspaper said Mr Mugabe's new unity government with rival Morgan Tsvangirai was battling to ease economic hardships, but added that Zimbabwe could not have a system where rural people were forced to trade their livestock.
His comments contradict those of economic planning minister Elton Mangoma who told a mining investment conference in London on Tuesday that Harare had no plans to move away from the US dollar until southern Africa adopted a regional currency.

http://news.uk.msn.com/world/article.aspx?cp-documentid=148190598

27 June, 2009 12:10:00 By N. B. / English version: Echoroukonline

Algerian interior minister Nourredine Yazid Zerhouni said Thursday the latest terrorist attacks in eastern Algiers were carried out in « calm areas to mislead security forces. »
•  
• "The latest terrorist attacks were carried in places where there is a total absence of such acts,” Zehouni told reporters.
• Terrorists killed at least 18 gendarmes in the town of Mansoura (east of Algiers) when they ambushed a military convoy.
• The town is considered as a “safe place” as it has not witnessed any terrorist attack since 1995 when the Armed Islamic Group(GIA) set up a false roadblock.
• Zerhouni said terrorist acts went down in the traditional strongholds in the provinces of Boumerdes, Tizi Ouzou, Tebessa and Jijel in eastern Algiers.
• “Pressure is getting higher on terrorists who are still operating. Their number has become very low following the blows they received as part of the fight against terrorism.”
• Asked about security measures on the 2nd Pan-African Festival due to be held in July, the minister urged people to be “more vigilant so that the event would take place in the best conditions.”
• A worker at the base of a Chinese company in Bordj Bouerreridj (east of Algiers) was arrested for giving information to terrorists about gendarmes, Echorouk has learnt.
• “He was involved in the attack before he had joined his house,” said the same sources.
• Investigators found a hunting gun in his house while a woman was arrested for sheltering the terrorists shortly before carrying out the attack.
• Investigators are questioning 17 suspicious people. Preliminary investigations show that one of the involved terrorists is a repentant activists and he carried out the attack. Most of the terrorists belong to terror support networks.. They provided some terrorists in mountains with arms and medicines.
http://www.echoroukonline.com/eng/index.php?news=7072
 
 

Zimbabwe's vice-president on Friday expressed frustration that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's European and US trip didn't raise as much financial aid as her government had hoped, but called it a "quite successful" first step.

Joice Mujuru, who fought alongside President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe's war of independence, told the Associated Press that the government had hoped Tsvangirai's nearly three-week trip, which just ended in Paris, would have produced "more financial support, but being the first, it's a positive move".

She said it is being quickly followed up by ministerial visits to key countries and an investment conference to generate financial support for the new coalition government.

Tsvangirai launched the tour saying he wasn't carrying a begging bowl but wanted to mend his nation's relations with Western leaders, who accuse Mugabe of trampling on democracy and ruining a once-vibrant economy. Many Western nations want Mugabe to step down and are reluctant to offer Zimbabwe major aid or donate money directly to the government.

When Tsvangirai visited Britain this week, Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged £5-million ($8,2-million) in new aid for food projects and textbooks -- to be distributed by charities. Officials in France offered political support but said any new aid would focus on non-governmental organisations and not go directly to the government. Tsvangirai left Washington after meeting President Barack Obama with only a promise of $73-million in conditional aid.

Mujuru expressed frustration at Western reluctance to help the power-sharing government directly, saying Zimbabwe needs a "huge financial injection" -- estimated by the Ministry of Finance at $8-billion.

Longtime rivals Mugabe and Tsvangirai have pledged to work together to confront Zimbabwe's crippling poverty, collapsed utilities and chronic shortages of food and basic goods. Zimbabwe has had the highest inflation rate in the world, thousands have died during a major cholera outbreak, and much of the population goes to bed hungry. Many blame Mugabe, but have been increasingly critical of Tsvangirai.

Mujuru said that for almost 10 years, the government and opposition "were at each other ... but now we have decided to come together and work well" in an inclusive government.

The former rivals have the same message -- "come and help us, now we are ready to work together and improve our economy and improve the living conditions of our people," she said.

"I thought by just being one inclusive government sharing the same ideas and programmes of government is a big plus on our side, and that's where the world should come to our aid," Mujuru said.

"But still the world is saying, you are not yet ready."

The new government is "stretching the hand of friendship" to the West and the rest of the world, just as Obama has said he is ready to stretch his hand out to opponents, she said.

"My president is actually saying, 'let's build bridges'," Mujuru said. "So I don't know how they expect us to start building the bridges."

"How do you want us to show the world that we are ready?" Mujuru asked.

Western countries cite the slow pace of reform since the coalition government took power, the trials of activists on trumped up charges, claims that security forces still use force to crush political opponents, and other human rights violations.

Mujuru said "Yes, we still have those isolated cases of violence, but mind you, some of them are very criminal."

"It's not everything that is political," she said, noting that one lawmaker from Tsvangirai's party who is under arrest is accused of raping a 13-year-old girl.

She said Parliament is currently recruiting for three commissions that respond to Western concerns -- a human rights commission, an anti-corruption commission, and a media commission.

Although Tsvangirai didn't get the kind of financial support the government hoped for on his trip, Mujuru said "I think it was quite successful."

"We have leads that need follow-up and so the beginning is very important," she said.

Mujuru said the government sent the foreign minister, the finance minister, the minister of economic planning and others to visit EU and some non-EU countries starting last week in Brussels to "tell our story as a unity government, because we are not understood by many ..."

The government also announced this week that it will be holding an investment conference in late July in Harare, she said.

"It's a chance for the world to come over and see what is happening on the ground," Mujuru said.

While Zimbabwe is a former British colony with links to the West, she said, the government is ready to do business with countries from the East.

In addition to being one of two vice presidents in the unity government, Mujuru is a vice-president in Mugabe's Zanu-PF party. - Sapa-AP


Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-06-2 ... ed-at-western-aid-boycott

Turkish ambassador in Algiers has called for a free trade agreement between Turkey and Algeria, saying that such an agreement would significantly improve commercial relations between the two countries.
"Turkey and Algeria have become two strategic partners as we have signed a number of agreements, and we can improve our relations especially in trade and end an unfair competition with European Union countries if we sign a free trade agreement," Ahmet Necati Bigali told the Anadolu Agency on Friday.
Bigali also said political relations between Turkey and Algeria were at an excellent level, adding that the friendship and brotherhood had roots deep in history


http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/det ... tay&link=179144&bolum=105