Venezuelan TV Station Ordered to Hand Over Equipment to Government

Venezuelan journalists hold a press conference to protest the closing of RCTV, in Caracas, 25 May 2007

The Venezuelan Supreme Court has ordered a private television station to surrender its transmission equipment to the government, which is shutting the station down.

The court also ordered the Venezuelan military to guard the equipment of Radio Caracas Television as part of a ruling issued Friday. RCTV, Venezuela's oldest private broadcaster and a frequent critic of President Hugo Chavez, will go off the air Sunday. Officials say its license was canceled because it supported an unsuccessful coup against Mr. Chavez in 2002.

The high court has rejected the station's request to stay on the air during an appeal of the government's decision. National Guard units have been deployed in the capital of Caracas ahead of expected demonstrations. The government says a new public-service channel will take up RCTV's frequencies Monday.

University students protest in Caracas, 25 May 2007 Chavez decision to not renew broadcasting license of Radio Caracas Television

RCTV is one of Venezuela's most popular broadcasters. Reporters in Caracas have said a large majority of the population opposes its closure.

The U.S. Senate passed a unanimous resolution Friday condemning Mr. Chavez and his government for what the Senate called "an assault against freedom of thought and expression [that] can not be accepted by democratic countries."

Similar reaction came from many news media organizations across Latin America.

Dakar Marks 150 Year Anniversary, Struggles to Support Population

Traffic hawkers in the streets of Dakar, Senegal

Friday marks 150 years since French colonists first established a port in what is now the Senegalese capital of Dakar. Originally a small fishing village, Dakar has become the political, economic, and cultural center of the country. But with a population of over two million, the city is facing serious infrastructure problems and is struggling to maintain basic sanitation and transportation for its ever increasing population. For VOA, Selah Hennessy reports from Dakar.

In his makeshift studio in a garden in the impoverished Dakar suburb of Pikine, artist Birame Ndiaye is painting a city scene with heavy brown and gray hues.

Ndiaye says his art is inspired by the many decaying walls of Dakar; the deteriorated remnants of grand colonial buildings.

For him, the history of the walls, which are now crumbling and covered with flyers and graffiti, reflect the history and deterioration of Dakar.

He says it is through the walls that he understands the life of the city.

In his studio he is surrounded by dozens of paintings, all in the same heavy colors, depicting gray ghetto scenes and indistinct figures.

He says the figures depict the faceless, anonymous poor who struggle everyday in the ghettos of Dakar.

The population of Dakar is now over two million, having more than doubled in the last three decades.

Traffic in Dakar

Ndiaye says that as the population of Dakar has ballooned and the city has rapidly expanded, the poor have been pushed to the outskirts and forgotten.

Ibrahima Aidara, of Oxfam America, says Dakar is struggling to keep pace with the mass influx of people.

"You can see a lot of tension on land. Land is a big issue, because Dakar is a quiet island and it is very small comparatively to the population living within the city," he said.

He adds that Dakar does not have a sufficient infrastructure to provide health care, education, and water and sanitation facilities to the impoverished city suburbs.

"You can see in a lot of suburb areas in Dakar where people are getting, its unbelievable but true, people are getting water from wells, which is to me not acceptable," he said.

Many immigrants to Dakar work in construction

The economist Moubarak Lo says Dakar is now entering a new phase of its history, one in which the government is re-emerging and playing an active role in improving the city. He uses as an example the expansion of the corniche, a main road that runs the length of Dakar, along the coast.

"The government wants to promote development of hotels and conference facilities all along the corniche. And you have also extension of the roads, not new roads, but just there used to be say two lines, making them four, building many bridges, and also lighting more the city to make it in the standard of the big metropolises in the world."

A scavenger at Dakar's dump collects trash to sell

He says these are good steps, but that basic needs such as sanitation and electricity must still be met.

"You can build a new building, nice building, but if the jobs and other advancements do not follow, you will have a third world in a first world city," he said.

The artist Ndiaye says that though the suburbs of Dakar are marked by poverty, they are also filled with color and creativity, and may bring new life to Dakar.

Oil Unions Suspend Strike in Nigeria

A two-day strike by Nigerian oil workers that had threatened oil exports has been called off. Gilbert da Costa in Abuja reports the strike was suspended after the government accepted a key workers demand late Friday.

Nigeria's refineries have struggled

Oil union officials say the government has agreed to a reasonable pay increase and severance package relating to the privatization of Nigeria's largest oil refinery in Port Harcourt.

Peter Esele, head of the powerful blue-collar union, Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association, says the unions are still in talks with the government over other issues.

"There was this issue of collective bargain for 2007, which was approved by the NNPC [Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation] board for the staff of NNPC," he said. "Only for us to hear about a week ago that NNPC is going revert to public [service] pay as civil servants and we felt that was unacceptable."

"The only option was for us to down tools. Then yesterday evening, the president finally approved it and so for approving that one, we said we can now come out of it [strike] and continue talks on other issues," he added.

The unions had faulted the government's privatization of state-owned refineries without considering the welfare of workers. The government rejects the accusation.

The strike had threatened oil exports from Africa's leading exporter and worsened fuel shortages across the West African nation in the build up to next week's change of government.

Oil unions will join other unionists in a separate protest planned for Monday and Tuesday against widespread rigging in last month's elections.

Ruling party candidate Umaru Yar'Adua won the disputed presidential ballot and is due to succeed President Olusegun Obasanjo at an inauguration ceremony in Abuja on Tuesday.

Elsewhere, in the unruly oil-rich Niger Delta, militants who kidnapped 10 oil workers on Friday released three of them later in the day.

Three U.S. citizens and four Britons are still being held. More than 100 foreign workers have been abducted in the region this year.

Japan's Aid to Burma Criticized Amid Global Calls for Release of Opposition Leader

While world leaders and human rights groups criticize Burma for extending the house arrest of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, special attention is being paid to the position of Japan, which is one of the world's largest donors of aid to Burma. Catherine Makino reports from Tokyo.

While the European Union and the United States have imposed sanctions on Burma, and the United Nations has condemned it for its refusal to enact democratic reforms, Japan remains one of Burma's largest aid donors.

According to Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the country gave Burma $27 million in aid in 2005, making it one of the country's largest aid donors.

Aung San Suu Kyi (May 2002)

Burma's military rulers have been under renewed international pressure in recent weeks to release the country's pro-democracy leader, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, from house arrest. She has been detained for 11 of the past 17 years.

Maung Min Nya, the head of the Burma Office, an activist group based in Japan, says Japanese aid is not benefiting the Burmese people.

"The humanitarian aids given by Japanese government, it doesn't reach to the people, just only, you know, it reached to the military only," he said.

He says Japanese companies should stop doing business with Burma, because it only helps the military leaders.

Lim Kit Siang (l) from Malaysia, and Buranaj Smutharaks, from Thailand, both members of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus steering committee (AIPMC) confer prior to the start of International Conference in Tokyo, 21 may 2007

At a recent international conference in Tokyo on Burma, lawmakers from six Southeast Asian countries, rights activists and Burmese exiles called for political reforms in the country.

Japan says it has chosen aid over sanctions as a way to push for democracy in Burma, and says it will continue funding humanitarian projects because of worsening living conditions there. The Japanese government says it is concerned about the political situation however, and has called for the release of political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi.

Last week, 59 former heads of state and government issued an open letter to the Burmese military junta calling for Aung San Suu Kyi's immediate release. The signatories included several former U.S. presidents, two former British prime ministers, and former leaders of many Asian countries. One of those who signed was former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Global Warming Becomes Major US Campaign Issue

For the first time climate change is expected to be a major issue in the U.S. presidential campaign. Analysts say in past campaigns candidates argued about whether global warming is actually occurring, but the results of recent scientific studies have now shifted the debate to possible solutions that could reduce the future impact of a changing climate. VOA correspondent Meredith Buel has details in this background report from Washington.

The U.S. National Academy of Sciences says there is a growing body of evidence that the Earth's atmosphere is warming and in recent decades that temperature change has been caused by human activities.

Scientists at the Academy say the most striking proof of global warming is what they call a relatively rapid and widespread increase in temperature during the past century.

They say other evidence of warming, such as increases in ocean temperatures, shrinking mountain glaciers and the decreasing polar ice cover are consistent with this trend.

David Sandalow

David Sandalow, an energy and environment scholar at the Brookings Institution, says the evidence is clear.

"We have a good body of science on the impacts of global warming," said David Sandalow. "We have never seen greenhouse gas concentrations in this range in all of human history. They are accelerating at rates that are wildly unknown in human history. The potential threat is very serious."

The National Academy of Sciences says greenhouse gases have increased significantly since the Industrial Revolution, mostly from the burning of fossil fuels for energy, industry and transportation.

It was only in recent years, however, that most scientists and political leaders began to agree that the changes are due primarily to human behavior.

Rick Klein, a senior political reporter for ABC News, says it is now a major campaign issue for presidential candidates in the United States.

"We have seen this entire issue change over the last few years in a pretty extraordinary way," said Rick Klein. "There really is not a major debate in Washington anymore over whether climate change is happening. It has moved to [asking] what we are going to do about it."

Gregg Easterbrook is a senior editor of The New Republic Magazine and writes frequently about politics and the environment.

Easterbrook argues the next president should favor legislation putting a price on greenhouse emissions to give inventors the financial incentive to create cost-effective solutions to global warming.

"I think in the coming election everybody is going to say that they are in favor of action on climate change," said Easterbrook. "I don't see any candidate who won't say that. The question will be whether they favor a substantive reform or some kind of symbolic action."

At a recent forum at the Brookings Institution, policy advisers to some of the major presidential candidates agreed on the importance of global warming as a campaign issue, saying it plays a role in environmental considerations, economic development and national security.

Denis McDonough advises Illinois Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

"So at the end of the day, if I could put one word on it, it is urgency," said McDonough. "This is a problem that is far past its prime. It now has to be confronted with the urgency it demands."

Todd Stern is a policy adviser for New York Senator Hillary Clinton, currently the frontrunner in the race for the Democratic Party's nomination.

Stern says Clinton favors a balanced approach to climate change.

"We have twin challenges here, which is oil security," he said. "We want to depend less on oil, less on foreign oil, but less on oil all together for national security and economic reasons, but also a climate challenge. We do not want to solve one, the oil security problem, while creating a bigger problem on the climate front."

On the Republican side, John Raidt, an advisor to Arizona Senator John McCain, says his candidate is a long-time supporter of nuclear energy.

All of the political advisers at the Brookings forum say their candidates support policies to create alternate energy technologies, promote fuel efficiency and reduce dependence on foreign oil.

Australian Scientists Say Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions Are Accelerating

Australian government scientists have found that greenhouse gases are being pumped into the earth's atmosphere faster than ever since the turn of the century. They have also found that emissions in Australia are increasing considerably faster than the global average. From Sydney, Phil Mercer reports.

Goulburn town council water utilities manager Matthew O'Rourke does his weekly checks at Pejar Dam (file photo)

The sobering findings came in a report on climate change published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an American scientific journal.

Scientists from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, or CSIRO, say the global amount of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels has been increasing more rapidly since 2000 than it did during the 1990's.

The report estimates that global emissions have grown by about three percent per year in recent years, compared to one percent a year during the previous decade.

It says Australia is slightly behind the United States in per-capita greenhouse emissions, which are thought to contribute to global warming. But it says Australia's emissions are growing at twice the U.S. rate. On a person-by-person basis, Australia is ranked as one of the worst polluters in the developed world.

Mike Raupach, one of the scientists at CSIRO, says Australia must do more to clean up its act.

"Our emissions per person are near the top of the world league table, just below the United States - we're about the second or third country," he said. "Our own improvement in the energy efficiency of the economy and the carbon efficiency of the economy has been not as rapid as improvements in other developed countries."

According to the report, Australia's per-capita emissions in 2004 were four-point-five times the global average. Its carbon "intensity of energy," another measure of carbon emissions, was 20 per cent higher than the world average, and 25 to 30 per cent higher than the values for the U.S., Europe or Japan.

The country's greenhouse gas emissions come principally from electricity generation, and the majority of that is produced by coal-fired power stations.

The country's economy is booming - fueled by a lucrative trade in natural resources with China and India - which requires more electricity.

In addition, Australia is sparsely populated, and its people tend to drive long distances, adding to vehicle emissions.

Environmentalists have urged the government in Canberra to do more to address the problem of global warming.

Prime Minister John Howard insists he is taking the environmental challenges seriously. But he has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, saying it would cost jobs and damage Australian industry.

US Disappointed Over Failure of Bosnia Reform Talks

The State Department is expressing disappointment over the failure by key leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina to make progress on government reforms in three days of U.S.-brokered talks in Washington. U.S. officials say the stalemate is blocking the Balkan country's prospective membership in the European Union and NATO. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.

Officials here are using unusually blunt terms to express their displeasure over the continuing impasse in U.S.-mediated reform talks between the Bosnian Serb and Muslim leaders.

Haris Silajdzic, leader of the country's Muslim community, and prime minister Milorad Dodik of the country's ethnic-Serb entity the Republika Serbska, spent three days behind closed doors with senior State Department officials in a new U.S. push for constitutional reforms.

The Bush administration had hoped to conclude an agreement to unify the ethnically-separate police forces of the country's two mini-states, one led by Serbs and the other by Muslims and Croats, and to at least make progress on a streamlined central government.

But a written statement issued at the close of the meetings late Thursday by State Department Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey expressed disappointment that the two leaders had failed to reach agreement on the issues.

Casey said by failing to overcome the differences, the sides are making it impossible for Bosnia and Herzegovina to proceed on a path of full integration into Euro-Atlantic structures.

Casey said the leaders must work within the framework of the 1995 Dayton peace accords to resolve their issues, and live up to their obligations to the country's citizens for a stable and prosperous future.

Ambassador Douglas McElhaney (2005 file photo)

U.S. participants in the talks included Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicolas Burns, Assistant Secretary for Europe and Eurasia Dan Fried, and the U.S. Ambassador in Sarajevo Douglas McElhaney.

In a VOA interview, McElhaney said the United States will not halt its mediation efforts though no new talks are in immediate prospect. He declined to apportion blame, and said both sides need to compromise:

"We thought we had a good chance of coming to agreements and I think a lot of people were very optimistic," he said. "This doesn't mean however that we're somehow or another going to walk away from the issues involved here. We're going to continue to push this forward, and we're going to have to remind people, as we reminded Mr. DodiK and Mr. Silajdzic, that you can't do anything today in Bosnia and Herzegovina without compromising. And the compromise was not there."

Ambassador McElhaney said it is virtually impossible under the country's current political structure to get anything done on the national level, and he said unifying the police is a fundamental condition for Bosnia reaching a stabilization and association agreement with the EU.

The statement issued here said Undersecretary Burns stressed the importance of halting the nationalist rhetoric that has characterized the Bosnian political environment for the past year.

In an appearance earlier Thursday at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies, Mr. Silajdzic accused the ethnic-Serb side of wanting to make the divided status-quo a permanent solution, though he said he remained hopeful of an agreement in the near future.

Before leaving for Washington, Mr. Dodik reiterated his party's stand that Bosnia should become a federation of three ethnically-based units, one Serb, one Muslim and the other Croat.

All Star Cast Returns for Final Chapter of Trilogy, 'Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End'

Hoist the Jolly Roger! The movie world's most popular pirates are back on the big screen for a third adventure inspired by a ride at the Disneyland theme parks. Alan Silverman has a look at Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

The original Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl was a surprise hit in 2003. The saga of tipsy Captain Jack Sparrow, naive Will Turner and daring Elizabeth Swann continued in 2006 with a sequel; but that one had a cliff-hanger ending and so the story had to continue with this third film, "...At World's End."

Get him back? Well, it seems he did not exactly die, but went to a sort of purgatory known as Davy Jones Locker. So that's where Will, Elizabeth and the rest of the motley crew must go, led by the Jack Sparrow's nefarious nemesis Barbossa:

Keira Knightley, left, and Johnny Depp in scene from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

That's about as much sense as the plot makes in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End ; but that should not bother the legions of fans around the world anxious to see Johnny Depp back in character one more time as Captain Jack.

"What I love about Captain Jack is what I love about being Captain Jack, which is the irreverence," says Depp. "You can be so irresponsible and boisterous and loud and wrong and kind of get away with. There is no responsibility and you're in a position to do the most ridiculous things you can come up with and it's fun.

Geoffrey Rush in scene from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Crossing verbal swords with Depp's Sparrow: Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush as Barbossa. Hong Kong action star Chow Yun Fat plays a Singapore pirate warlord; but the saltiest of them all turns out to be rock-and-roller Keith Richard, in a brief cameo as Captain Jack's father. Depp has explained that he originally modeled the Sparrow character, in part, after the Rolling Stone guitarist, so he was pleased that Richards agreed to take the small part in this third film of the trilogy.

"The funny thing is I felt so comfortable as Captain Jack acting opposite Keith that it was as if these guys had known each other a lot longer that Johnny has known Keith," says Depp. " It was very strange and a very interesting moment when Keith and Captain Jack met.

Orlando Bloom, center in scene from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Meanwhile, Orlando Bloom gets bolder as young Will Turner determined to win the heart of Elizabeth Swann, who, by now, has become something of a pirate herself.

"It feels like I've been doing a Pirate movie most of my adult life, so it's definitely a bittersweet feeling," says Bloom. "It's going to be sad to say goodbye to the character of Will because I love him. He's completely fearless and he has become a pirate by the end of this. Just as I was starting to get excited about being a pirate, it's come to an end."

Is this it? Is At World's End the final Pirates of the Caribbean adventure? Johnny Depp says if the Black Pearl again sets sail on the bounding main, he might be on board.

"Oh, I'd definitely be open to it. If all the right elements were involved and there it would be great," he admits. "I would say Captain Jack is a character, because he is so much fun to play, that I can certainly see other situations that would be fun to explore as that character."

Scene from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

The international cast of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End features Keira Knightley again as Elizabeth Swann. Bill Nighy returns as Davy Jones with squid-like tentacles covering his face. Stellan Skarsgaard plays Will Turner's father, condemned to an eternity of servitude on Jones's ship, the Flying Dutchman (unless young Will can save him). Like the first two Pirates adventures, At World's End is produced by veteran action filmmaker Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Gore Verbinski.

"What did we do the first time that worked? Well, we took risks and were willing to fail. Trying to recapture that spirit was what it was all about," he says.

Most of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End was filmed on location in the Bahamas.

Zambian Doctors to Determine the Cause of Chiluba’s Collapse

Doctors in Zambia are soon expected to announce what caused former President Frederick Chiluba to collapse Thursday in his home, shortly after attempting to answer a telephone call. The former President is being kept under observation after being admitted to Lusaka's University Teaching Hospital. Sources say he is being closely monitored to ascertain the cause of his sudden collapse. There is  speculation, however, that his numerous court cases are having an adverse effect on his health.

From the capital, Lusaka, Chiluba spokesman Emmanuel Mwamba tells the  Voice Of America it was fortunate Chiluba's wife was nearby.

"Around 10:15 hours this morning, Dr. Chiluba stood up to answer a phone call and then he suddenly collapsed. Mrs. Chiluba immediately attended to him. She has been taught how to attend to him in case he collapsed, because he is a cardiac patient. So she remembered to make him lie down on the carpet and put him in a lying down posture, and immediately called the doctor," Mwamba noted.

He said the former president's physician instantly recommended Chiluba be admitted to the hospital, due to what Mwamba said was the seriousness of his health.

"The Doctor who observed him arrived within 15 minutes, and said it was a serious matter that needed Dr. Chiluba to be admitted to a hospital immediately. Dr. Chiluba was later in the day admitted in a University teaching hospital. He is currently at the hospital for observation to ascertain what caused him to collapse," he said.

Mwamba said the former president's condition would be known today after the doctors attending to him finish their observation.

"Remember he already has a longstanding condition. He suffers from a cardiac condition that he's been treated for, for the last year. So they are observing him, monitoring his vitals to ensure that nothing serious happens to him. And I think they've done some medical tests. We would know exactly what it is that made him collapse," Mwamba pointed out.

He said the former president had been summoned to appear before a team of Zambian doctors to ascertain whether Chiluba was fit to stand trial for graft charges leveled against him by President Levy Mwanawasa's government.

"In fact the appointment was for Monday. He was supposed to have been taken to the hospital on Monday to be examined on the issue that Zambian courts want, whether he was fit to attend trial or not.  But this sudden development has just put everything in disarray. I don't know what will happen exactly. I think the government should be able to say exactly what will happen. But from our side, we are concerned about his health… we don't know yet until the doctors tell us," he said

Mwamba agreed that the former president's legal troubles are having an adverse effect on his poor health. 

"It's taken a serious toll on his condition. We can't rule that out. When Dr. Chiluba came back from South Africa, he showed a lot of improvement. In fact, that is why there was even an application in court that probably he should go back to court because he had shown some improvement. But we've seen marked deterioration, for us that are close to him in the last in the last two weeks. So really the issues of what is happening with the legal battles has something to do with it. It must be stressing him a lot," he said.

Zambian HIV Drama Wins New York Film Festival Award

A Zambian movie dealing with HIV—Road to Hope – recently won a silver medal at the recent 2007 New York Festivals International Film and Video Competition. The awards recognize the best informational, educational and industrial films in a given year.  Voice of America's Danstan Kaunda reports the film competed against over 100 rivals from Europe, Asia and Latin America.

"Road to Hope" explores the realities faced by everyday people living with HIV and AIDS in Zambia.  It focuses on their personal stories – bringing one of the world's deadliest epidemics to a more intimate level.

Uttara Kumar is a deputy chief of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in Lusaka.  She says, "The actors are real people living with HIV. This is not fictional, they are not acting. They are actually in treatment.  It is extraordinary that they were [brave] enough to come on television [to be filmed.]  

Kumar says the film tries to clear-up misconceptions about the use of anti-retroviral therapies (ARTs) including their side-effects.  And, the drama reminds viewers that ARTs are not a cure for HIV. It also discourages the use of traditional herbal remedies.

The film achieves its goal by presenting three stories, including one that follows the problems of an HIV-infected pregnant woman.  Her husband – on learning of her status – leaves her.

The woman said, "When I got pregnant last year, I went to the clinic for the antenatal visit.  I agreed to take the test, because I wanted to protect my child, and being a married woman, I felt I had no worries. Imagine the shock I had, when I was tested HIV positive. My husband said that he had nothing to do with it and then he left me."  

Kumar says the people in the film are taking ART's and are doing well.  She says, "The people in the video do not look like either sick or dying. They do not look like they are miserable or on their death beds. They are actually fine.  And they talk about their stories, why they took the treatment and how they are fine now.  So those are things that people can actually relate to."

Kumar says documentaries and films are the best way to teach people about the disease.  She says, "We strongly believe that entertainment education is the better way to get information to people because a lot of the people in Zambia do not read very well and literacy levels are low, so printed materials do not go very far."

At the launch of the film, U.S Ambassador to Zambia, Carmen Martinez, said giving people who live with HIV/AIDS an opportunity to tell their stories is the best way to increase awareness.

The documentary was produced by the Health Communication Partnership/Zambia, the Ministry of Health and the National AIDS Council. The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and USAID provided financial support.  The Zambian National Broadcasting Corporation aired "Road to Hope" on World AIDS Day. 

G-8 Challenged to Outlaw Unjust Debts to African Countries

In the two years since the G-8 Gleneagles debt relief agreement, African nations have seen a majority of their debts to the IMF, the World Bank, and the African Development Bank cancelled under terms of the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI).  As G-8 countries get ready to meet next month in Germany, one of the challenges to a broader solution to unfair and unjust financial burdens is the threat posed by so-called vulture funds, which speculate and profiteer from poor countries' debts in default.  The director of the Jubilee USA Network, Neil Watkins, asked a House foreign affairs subcommittee this week to address this challenge at upcoming world trade talks.  He explains how vulture funds have impeded Zambia's economic recovery.

"Romania offered Zambia a loan in the late 1970's, and in the late 1990's, Romania sold that debt for a fraction of the original value, which was just over three million dollars.  And it was picked up by a vulture fund called  Donegal, who then enforced the debt and sued the government of Zambia for 55 million dollars, claiming that it was entitled, not only to the face value of the debt, but also interest and penalties," he said.

About a month ago, in court in London, the court ruled that Zambia had to pay 15 million dollars, which Watkins notes is "not quite as much as they had asked for, but still, a significant amount of money to owe Donegal in damages."  To counteract this and other liabilities plaguing financially strapped countries trying to loosen their indebtedness, Watkins told Congress, the G-8 nations should take action next month at their summit in Germany.

"First, they can call on the World Bank to expand access to its debt reduction facility, which actually buys back debt which is at risk of being bought up by vulture funds.  Second, they should support a charter for responsible lending, which would not allow these practices to continue.  And third, they should help provide technical and legal assistance to countries which are threatened by vulture fund cases because many countries simply don't know how to respond and don't have the expertise on hand," he recommended.

Watkins says that ultimately, the United States and other nations will also have to change their international trade laws to ensure that vulture lending practices won't continue into the future.

On another topic, the Jubilee USA director described yesterday's meeting in Paris between Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and incoming French President Nicolas Sarkozy as very important.

"France continues to be one the countries which has not agreed to a way to solve the Liberian debt problems.  So it's very important that France moves forward quickly to support full debt cancellation for Liberia, a clearing of their arrears.  This (Liberia) is a country that has suffered through decades of terrible conflict, faces a tremendous need to rebuild, and really, the next couple of weeks at the G-8 summit, there needs to be an agreement reached to cancel Liberia's debt, and France is key to that," he explained.

Zambian citizens Blame Government for Roaming Elephant Damage

Roaming elephants in Zambia are said to be destroying food crops, property and even human lives. The country's wildlife authorities say they are working to resolve the problems, but villagers blame the continuing rampage on what they see as the government's reluctance to take action.

Lewis Saiwana is the director-general of the Zambian Wildlife Authority (ZAWA.) Voice of America English to Africa reporter Angel Tabe asked him why there's a nationwide problem with elephants and what is being done about it. He said, "There is an increase in the elephant population. They have found a better habitat in Zambia. As the Zambia Wildlife Authority, our control hunters control these problem elephants through…fencing. When elephants destroy public property, our hunters control them."

Saiwana says the animals are fleeing harassment in search of
security, which can be guaranteed not only by good wildlife policies, but also by better resources.  He says, "The protection of wildlife is actually the same in the region, but [if funds are] available, the level of protection is also quite good."

Since this issue involves the borders of Zambia and Zimbabwe, Sainwana says the two countries have agreed to work things out as a team: "There are arrangements that we establish a trans-frontier conservation area." And to balance wildlife conservation and community livelihood demands, He says, "We need to sit down with the Zimbabwean Wildlife Authority so that we can put programs in place which are accepted on both sides…maybe the situation can be normalized."

Regarding compensation for losses resulting from rampaging elephants, Sainwana says, "No law exists to regulate that. But in terms of crops, maybe an estimation can be used and our government is actually discussing [the possibility of] compensating people, but there are just debates on that."

Africa Commemorates 'Africa Day'

Friday "Africa Day", set aside annually to commemorate the founding in 1963 of the Organization of African Unity (OAU).  In July 2002, the OAU was succeeded by the present African Union. While much of the efforts of the OAU was focused on attaining political idependence, forty-four years later, some say the task of the African Union is to bring about sustainable economic development, good governance, eradicate poverty, and end the many conflicts on the continent. 

Couaovi Apan Johnson is secretary to the African Union Commission.  From the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, he told VOA several events are planned in observance of Africa Day.

"The first one is the launching of the African Union diplomatic passport. I will tell you that the chairman of the African Union, President Kufuor of Ghana will launch the African Union diplomatic passport here at the headquarters. The second activity will be the launching of the VSAT Project. As you know, communication is the main budget consumer for the headquarters. We pay a lot for communication, but we don't have the best facilities. So the member states have decided that we should have our own communication system," he said.

Johnson said the VSAT communication system will be used to communicate with AU offices outside Addis Ababa while at the same time making possible videoconferences with all foreign ministers of all AU member countries.

He said the new AU diplomatic passport is significant because it would enable officials of the organization to travel freely and easily.

"You should remember that in the past, officials of the OAU had what we call OAU laissez passer to travel within the continent. But now it has been decided to have a true passport for the movement of the staff of the organization. The new significance of this passport is that it will be extended to officials of member states.  All the head of states of the 53 member states will have this passport, ministers from member states, and renown personalities on the continent, and also some people from the Diaspora," he said.

Johnson said the theme for this year's Africa Day celebration is "Let's strengthen Africa's place in the world through strategic, balanced and responsible partnership."

"As you know, Africa has developed historical relationship with Europe through colonization. Because of that, we have a strong partnership with European Union. But we believe that this partnership is not yet what it should be. So Africa believes that the new partnership has to develop through balanced partnership and responsive strategy, which will be based on equal advantages. But to do that Africa has to be united," he said.

Johnson confirmed that talk of a united Africa is alive within the Africa Union.

"All our members have agreed that the ultimate goal of the African Union is the United States of Africa. But the debate in Africa now is how and when to get there," he said.

Southern African Healthcare Worker Shortage Hindering AIDS Treatment

The medical aid group Doctors Without Borders says the "dire lack of healthcare workers in southern Africa" threatens efforts to expand treatment for HIV/AIDS.

The group has issued a new report on healthcare workers in South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique and Lesotho. It calls the shortages "severe" and "compromising the quality and availability of HIV/AIDS care."

Dr. Eric Goemaere is the head of programs in South Africa for Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF. He works in a township about 30 kilometers from Cape Town. He says the number of new people being enrolled in MSF AIDS treatment programs has fallen because there aren't enough nurses, nurse assistants and community health workers to handle the patient load.

"What's happening is that the staff is exhausted and there's no new staff coming in and no new options to delegate tasks," he says.

He says there are several reasons for the shortages.

, there is probably not enough of them trained. And we speak here about nurses. And some will leave straight away (from) the country and some will work for the short term and then leave for greener pastures," he says.

Dr. Goemaere says a clear message needs to be sent to healthcare workers in Africa that they are needed and appreciated.

"The message would be the following in a nutshell: This is a major challenge. It's probably the biggest one we've been confronted with. We need you and we're going to prove to you that you're important to us. So this, in practical terms, means we're going to pay you more. We're going to give you a career path. And we're going to allow you to do tasks that you were not allowed before to do, namely prescribing ARVs (anti-retroviral drugs) and treating those patients," he says.

Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa are moving to train more nurses and nurse assistants. But the lure of a better life overseas can be strong.

"To give you an example, in a district we're involved in in Lesotho, we lost last year, in only one year, 26 nurses. Where did they go? Most of them came first to South Africa and then they moved into the UK," he says.

He says that the United States, with its own nurse shortage, is also recruiting Africans.

"We need to block and stop this poaching practice. Make sure that there's a total ban on poaching the nurses trained in those countries that need them so much. But this will not be enough. We need to use also pull factors. And the pull factors will be to give them a real perspective in their own country," he says.

Dr. Goemaere says if countries and donors are willing to pay for AIDS drugs for many years to come, they should also be willing to pay healthcare workers a livable wage. 

Discriminatory Beliefs Heighten HIV Risk for Women

A new study says inequality and discrimination can make women more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. The report – from Physicians for Human Rights – bases its findings on research in Swaziland and Botswana. It links widespread discriminatory views about women to risky sex and very high HIV prevalence rates.

Leonard Rubenstein is the executive director of Physicians for Human Rights.  From Boston, he spoke to VOA English to Africa Service reporter Joe De Capua.

"The report is based on a survey and the survey listed a lot of questions to determine what beliefs may be discriminatory. They're basically standardized questions concerning whether woman have the same rights in decision making as men, whether women get to decide about their future, about whether women should hold property. Things like that. These are attitudes that may be prevalent in society and we're trying to distinguish beliefs that are discriminatory and those which are not," he says.

Such information is not readily available. Rubenstein says, "No one really had looked at how gender discriminatory beliefs affects vulnerability to HIV. And so what we did is we questioned people in surveys in both countries about the beliefs. We questioned them about risky sexual practices, which are sex without condom, major age difference between the man and the woman, sex used for survival, for income, all of which likely lead to HIV. So we did a correlation between the discriminatory beliefs and the risky sexual practices. And what we found was the more sexual discriminatory beliefs that one has, whether a man or a woman, the more likely it is to engage in risky sexual practices."

The study found that (for) people who hold four or more discriminatory beliefs, there's a 2.7 greater likelihood of engaging in one of those risky sexual practices.

Physicians for Human Rights recommends that governments do much more to empower women by ensuring their rights and provide economic opportunities for them.

Southeast Asian Nations Agree to Strengthen Fight Against Wildlife Smuggling

Tiger and leopard skins for sale in Sichuan, China, ( 2005 file photo)

Southeast Asian nations have announced increased cooperation to reduce the thriving cross-border trade in smuggled animals and plants. VOA's Nancy-Amelia Collins reports from Jakarta.

Officials from the 10 nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, have agreed to set up regional interagency task forces to combat the multi-million dollar trade in smuggled wildlife.

The announcement came Thursday at the close of a four-day conference of ASEAN's Wildlife Enforcement Network, held in the Indonesian city of Bogor.

Participants say the conference established a framework for political and operational cooperation among the ten ASEAN countries. Officials agreed to focus on training law enforcement officials and the judicial sector, and raising general awareness about wildlife trafficking.

The meeting was also attended by officers from Interpol and officials of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

ASEAN'S Wildlife Enforcement Network aims to protect Asia's plants and animals through exchanges of intelligence among regional police, customs, and environmental agencies. This was the second meeting of the network, which was set up in December 2005.

James Compton is Southeast Asia regional director of Traffic, a private group that monitors the international trade in wildlife. He says the task requires closer cooperation than before, what he calls a "holistic approach" among the region's law enforcement agencies.

"What we're looking at here is the use of accurate and timely intelligence to try to disrupt these middlemen, trades that are involved in smuggling wildlife from the forests, from the reefs, and from the various environments, to their ultimate market destination. So I think it has to be a holistic approach," said Compton. 

Smugglers trade in a wide range of animals, from bears and snakes, to endangered species as orangutans, cockatoos, elephants and tigers. The trade is driven in large part by the demand for animal parts used in traditional medicines, especially in China.

Conservation groups say wildlife smuggling is increasing in Southeast Asia, and urgent action is needed to stop it.

Indonesian Earthquake Survivors Struggling After One Year

One year after a massive earthquake struck Indonesia's Java island, thousands of people hit hardest by the disaster still struggle to rebuild their lives. As Chad Bouchard reports from Yogyakarta, aid workers have turned their attention from emergency needs to work programs for the most vulnerable groups.

An elderly woman stands next to her temporary shelter nearly one year after an earthquake shuttered the region, 20 May 2007

The 6.2 magnitude earthquake killed nearly 6,000 people and disrupted hundreds of thousands of lives. The temblor did more than $3 billion in damage and triggered the world's largest international emergency response of 2006.

During the first months of recovery, local and international agencies churned out tens of thousands of shelters to house more than 1.5 million people left homeless.

Government officials say less than 10,000 people in remote areas remain without adequate shelter.

Phil Vine with the International Federation of Red Cross Agencies says the housing operation here is a model for disaster response. The Red Cross set up small teams to build houses out of local material, such as bamboo, that is cheap, easy to use and earthquake resistant.

"What has happened here in the Yogyakarta earthquake has been seen globally as a benchmark for recovery using local materials in a low-cost way, in which the people themselves, based on the Javanese tradition of helping each other, just put these things up and rebuilt their lives in three months," Vine said.

But aid workers say as survivors focused on shelter and other immediate needs following the disaster, critical long-term sources of income were neglected.

Hadiwiyono, a farmer from the Mutihan Village in the hard-hit Klaten district, stands ankle deep in a rice paddy, tending neat green rows of shoots. The 57-year-old mother of five is one among thousands of farmers who lost their homes in the quake. During last fall's growing season, fields like this one were left fallow and choked with weeds.

Many farmers lost an entire planting cycle, and the fall crop was about 40 percent below normal.

Hadiwiyono says she left the fields behind because she had to work on her collapsed house. She says the first months after the quake were chaotic, but with some fertilizer and seed donations from the Food and Agriculture Organization she is able to go back to her life as a rice farmer.

FAO officials say 132 farmers have received seed and fertilizer help, but harvests remain below normal. The program will expand to help more people.

Challenges also remain for more than 1,000 people who suffered debilitating spinal injuries in the quake. Health care workers say many of those left with limited mobility have suffered severe depression. Dozens have attempted suicide.

Tatur Prianto is a Red Cross volunteer and an amateur radio hobbyist. He decided to connect secluded patients over a radio network.

Prianto says two religious programs and one counseling show are broadcast each day, and participants can talk about their lives and connect with other severely injured survivors. He says they usually share experiences on how to cope with their disabilities, or how to sell flowers and other small business ideas. Sometimes they even talk about sex. He adds that he wants to see the program include more disabled people.

Phil Vine says the Red Cross will likely employ this model during future disasters.

"I can only see it expanding. I mean it is just one of those smart ideas. There is a lot of counseling that goes on, and there is a lot of flirting that goes on," he said. "One of them is a budding romance between this 23-year-old who had a spinal injury, totally lost the use of her legs, and she is hooked up with one of the Indonesian ambulance drivers. And they are engaged to be married."

The International Organization for Migration and other agencies have stepped in to provide handicap-accessible housing and job opportunities for the disabled.

Purniewen is the livelihood assistance coordinator for the U.N. Development Program in Yogyakarta. He says relief agencies learned important lessons from previous disasters in Indonesia, such as the Indian Ocean tsunami in the country's Aceh province, where about 160,000 people died.

He says aid groups have learned to take advantage of community ties - with neighbors volunteering to help rebuild each other's homes. He says that helped get people back to their jobs so they could provide for their families.

"One lesson is actually that social capital is quite important in terms of fostering the recovery," he said. "Yogya has very strong social capital. Eighty percent of people are already working - not recovered, but already work again. That is an indication that social capital played a role important in this case."

The U.N. and other agencies have revived small traditional industries such as pottery, weaving, and furniture production for more than 4,000 households.

Aid workers say while thousands more still need assistance, restoring livelihoods is the only way to leave behind a self-reliant community.

New Bird Flu Outbreak Confirmed in Northern Nigeria

Health officials in Nigeria have confirmed an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in another northern state. Gilbert da Costa has more for VOA from Abuja.

Fowl vendors wait for buyers in a fowl market in Lagos, Nigeria, 06 Feb 2007

A spokesman for the Zamfara state ministry of health in northern Nigeria, Aminu Abdulrazak, told reporters that tests on birds showing signs of the H5N1 bird flu confirmed the outbreak.

He said more than 200 birds have so far been culled at an infected farm in Namafara village to minimize the spread of the disease.

The first confirmed case of bird flu in Nigeria was reported in February last year.  The deadly virus subsequently spread to other parts of the country.

Zamfara now joins the long list of Nigerian states that have reported outbreaks since last year.

Experts fear this is another sign that the virus may be spreading among poultry farms in Nigeria.

Nigeria Veterinary Association President Garba Sharabutu blames a weak monitoring system and the influx of unqualified animal health personnel for the persistence of avian flu in Nigeria.

"Up till now, the populace has not come to terms with the issue of movement of birds," he said.  "And the second thing is that, we are also trying to caution members of our profession and the quack doctors that move about, because by the time people engage people who do not know the implication of moving from one farm to another without taking necessary precautions, it is possible to have these [new infections]."

The Department of Veterinary Research says about 1 million birds have died since the bird flu outbreak of February last year.

Dr. Sharabutu says Nigeria will have an idea of the extent of bird flu infections soon, when officials finish analyzing results from a nationwide surveillance project. 

"People were sent to the various states of the federation and we undertook surveillance, " said Dr. Sharabutu.  "So in the next month it is possible that we will be able to know the real status of the disease in all parts of the federation from the samples that we had gone around to collect."

Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation with some 150 million people, reported West Africa's first human death from bird flu early last year.  It is the only country in the region to report a human death from the disease.

The World Health Organization says bird flu has killed 185 people since late 2003, most of them in Asia.

Nigerian Merger May Spawn Strong Continent Wide Bank

A Togo-based bank sees Africa's economic growth as a means for expanding its own financial services.  Ecobank Transnational Incorporated is a well-known name in central and west Africa.  Now the bank wants to expand into other regions. But as Voice of America English to Africa reporter Paul Okolo in Lagos, Nigeria, reports, some people think it will not be easy.

Evidence of the bank's intentions came with the recent announcement that it plans to merge with a rival – Unity Bank of Nigeria. The new entity would have nearly three billion dollars in assets, including 700 million dollars in stockholder funds.  It would also have more than 350 branches and a staff of over 55 hundred people – with room for further expansion. 

Ecobank has its headquarters in the Togolese capital, Lome. Nigerian Chief Executive Officer, Arnold Ekpe, says it's now ready to branch out into other parts of the continent, "We're now in 18 countries. We're going to be increasing that number this year.   We would like to strengthen our business in Nigeria, where we think we're still relatively weak.  We'd like to strengthen our business in other markets.''

Late last year, Ecobank – a leader in electronic banking -- listed its shares simultaneously on the stock exchanges in Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast.

Ekpe says it gave many investors an opportunity to buy shares in an African bank with an international outlook. In the next few months, Ecobank plans to sell new shares on the three stock exchanges to raise three hundred million dollars.

Ekpe says some of the money will be used for its expansion, "We've gone beyond West and Central Africa. We're looking at eastern and southern Africa as well.  Our coverage is really sub sub-Saharan Africa.''

That's easier said than done, says Lagos-based financial analyst Mike Uzor.  While Ecobank might have found it easy to dominate relatively smaller countries in West and Central Africa, Uzor says it may be hard to become an established player in countries like Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. There are already big operators there, and competition is tough, "If you're to do business in Africa, you must be playing big in South Africa,which is the biggest economy in the continent, and you must be playing in Nigeria, which has the largest population in Africa, with a rapid economic growth that is expected to overtake South Africa in the next ten years … you must be there.''

But for Ekpe, it is not an impossible mission.  To achieve this objective, he says Ecobank's strategy is to acquire existing banks in any country it enters.  He says their goal is to become one of the top three banks.

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated was started in 1988 by a group of West African business people. They wanted to create a bank that would help promote trade among the countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS.)  Now, almost twenty years later, the bank is well established in west Africa.

If the merger with Unity Bank of Nigeria succeeds, Uzor says, Ecobank will be taken seriously not only in Nigeria, but in all of Africa.

Jefferson Court Case Focuses on US Separation of Powers

A Nigerian connection to the bribery probe of US Congressman William Jefferson has been all but overshadowed by a separation of powers court fight here in the United States between the American legislative and executive branches of government.  Jefferson's lawyer went to court last week, seeking to recover thousands of documents and electronic files seized by Federal agents from the Louisiana congressman's office. Jefferson earlier had contacted Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar, reportedly seeking help for an American company represented by former aides and colleagues to compete for a lucrative internet and telecommunications contract in Nigeria.  Neither Jefferson nor Abubakar has been charged in the case, and Abubakar's attorney denies he received any money from the congressman.  Stanford University law professor Mariano-Fiorentino Cuellar explains why he thinks the US case has evolved beyond a corruption probe of Jefferson and Abubakar and turned into a hotly debated challenge of constitutional powers.

"Mr. Jefferson is not just a potential criminal.  He's also a member of Congress, and anytime we have the executive branch investigating members of the legislative branch, separation of powers issues are potentially implicated," he said.

The case, which has involved raids on Abubakar's suburban Washington mansion, Jefferson's Capitol Hill apartment, and the first foray into a congressional office in US history, has opened up into a much wider test of legislative branch immunity from investigation by an executive agency.  Professor Cuellar notes that in deciding cases of this nature, the courts historically have tended to apply principles that focus on the specific circumstances of the offense.

"Some of the issues being raised in this appeal might be quite different if this wasn't an isolated incident, but was part of a systematic executive power grab involving harassing members of Congress and breaking down doors and invading their office space across the board, and that doesn't seem to be at all what is in the offing," he said.

Two years ago, Jefferson was said to have received money from an American company trying to win the Nigeria bid.  Agents subsequently  raided the Washington area homes of both the congressman and the Nigerian vice president, reportedly looking for evidence of a cash payoff that may have passed between the two men.  The raid on Jefferson's Capitol Hill apartment yielded 90-thousand dollars in 100-dollar bills concealed in his freezer.  Cuellar says he thinks if the prosecution and court tests had focused more on the deal itself rather than on the constitution questions, Nigerian voters may have been able to gain a clearer understanding of the issues involved.

"One of the considerations that prosecutors increasingly have to take into account is the political context, not just in the United States, but in other countries.  That doesn't mean they should stop doing a prosecution if they believe it's the right one.  It just means that they should understand that their actions have effects and those effects can involve the judgments of the voters in other countries, can involve regime change, can involve domestic politics -- and it's not really possible to separate politics and criminal justice across borders," he said.

Given the current post-election political climate in Nigeria, in which President-Elect Umaru Yar'Adua's landslide political victory is being challenged by the opposition, Professor Cuellar says it is understandable that the corruption issue against Abubakar could be raised by his detractors.

"If there's a competitive political environment, where people feel that there's a huge amount at stake, with respect to who takes control of the country, and there's strife and conflict and controversy, that if there is political advantage to emphasizing the procedures in a US case, emphasizing that those procedures seem to indicate that some politician involved is corrupt, that people are going to try to make that argument very aggressively," he noted.

Green Awareness Grows in Oily Niger Delta

Environmental awareness is growing in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta, as well as anger over spills and drastic changes to the region's ecosystem. VOA's Nico Colombant reports from the towns of Ikarama and Odi in the Niger Delta.

Idoukumo stands in front of spill

Abila Idoukumo walks in tall grass just a few meters away from the Ikarama community in Bayelsa State, onto a knee-deep oily swamp the size of several football fields.

"Since January, the crude was spilled here and it has not been cleaned until this present date. It has not been awarded to any contractor," he said. "All the grasses, everything here has been damaged, fish that were still living within the water cycle are all dead and there is no way to utilize this place for our own farming system again."

Villagers say the oil seeped from underground pipelines operated by Dutch-based oil conglomerate Shell.

Nearby Shell pipelines blamed for spill

Shell officials in Nigeria refused to comment, saying they were too busy dealing with threats by militants who blow up oil installations and kidnap foreign workers.

Idoukumo, a plumber and father of seven, says children initially got skin infections, measles, and coughs, while adults got headaches.

"In the evening, you cannot get a very good breath of air," he said. "Children because of this have been getting sick from time to time and these are things we have been crying to find an avenue to be rescued from this problem. And so presently, you see with your eyes, that the community is always in hazard."

Lambert Miebi is trained as a chemical safety engineer, but he says the oil companies will not hire him, even though he believes he would be a better choice than outsiders who care little about local concerns.

"When I see this every day, I cry," he said.

He adds that Shell often blames oil spills on sabotage to steal oil, but he denies that took place here.

Bathing in foul waters

"They will always see that it is a sabotage. But sometimes let us take a good analysis of what is going on if really this is a sabotage," he said. "This pipe has been here for so long and none of these things have been restructured. So if any spillage [occurs], they say it is sabotage, but it is not all sabotage. So this thing has become a nuisance to this community and even the entire Niger Delta. We are talking about toxic substances that have degraded this environment. And if you have talk about compensation about all these things, no it has not been given to us."

Ibiba Don Pedro is the author of a book called Out of a Bleak Landscape. It details violence and environmental degradation that coincided with oil production in the Niger Delta.

"They used to have large bodies of fresh water," he said.

Don Pedro accuses oil companies of causing other problems that are less apparent, but sometimes even more troublesome in a context of poverty.

Villagers in canoes look for fresh water

"In the course of bringing in equipment and all that, they had to do dredging projects, they dredged into areas that used to be fresh water," he said. "Today, those areas have been inundated by salt water so the people that had depended on the fresh water sources in those areas, you can imagine how bad it is. You have to travel in canoes, you see canoes in the Niger Delta, with women, men and children, carrying plastic drums and so on, you know how slow the canoes are, several-hundred kilometers away from their communities every day. That is how bad it is."

Some activists are slowly trying to reverse the negative effects of living in an oil-rich but impoverished region.

On a patch of jungle land with chirping birds near the town of Odi, economist Gordon Abiama has a dream to build an eco-village.

Odi was razed by government forces in 1999 following the killing of a dozen policemen. It was also here that violent militants first rose against oil production in the 1960s, by blowing up an oil pipeline.

Abiama says he prefers constructive methods that empower people.

"The purpose of an eco-village is to encourage people to live a life in terms of sustainable lifestyle, not ostentatious lifestyle like is lived in developed countries, and that we are now trying to imitate," he said. "They are trying to come back to us, to have a sort of community life where you know your next neighbor. That life, that typical African tradition we want to keep it, but while embracing modern technology, we do not want to draw away from our deep well of traditional creativity, we want to fuse it together."

Abiama demonstrates how he has been making bricks to build houses in the eco-village he wants to build.

One brick at a time for Abiama's eco-village

"This brick is made of cement, just about 10 percent cement, water and then this red soil and it is manually produced using a brick machine and with this we could build an ecological eco-house so to speak, to make the room very, very cool. We are drawing this from our traditional house building system, but this is using modern techniques as well," he said.

Roof tiles are being made with cement and coconut fiber.

Funding for this project has dried up though, and two years into construction, little has been built, while Nigeria's oil production climbs, and ecologists say environmental problems in the Niger Delta worsen.

AIDS Vaccine Shows Promise in Large Scale Trials

An AIDS vaccine being administered

Nearly 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. The vast majority reside in developing countries where medications to treat the virus are often either unavailable locally or unaffordable. An estimated 14,000 new cases of the disease occur every day. While a vaccine may be the best hope for conquering the epidemic, significant challenges remain ahead.

Ever since HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, was identified more than 25 years ago, scientists have been trying to unlock its secrets. Their research has recently led the National Institutes of Health into large-scale vaccine trials worldwide.

Gary Nabel is director of the Vaccine Research Center at NIH. He says the purpose of the so-called T-cell vaccines trials is to induce a cellular immune response that would both reduce levels of the virus and also preserve cells critical for protection against infection.

He says within five years researchers will know whether or not the approach works. "If it does it will be important for us because it is an area that we can improve upon, and it's an area that we have lots of room to make progress."

Nabel says another promising avenue for vaccine exploration has been to use antibodies that can fight or neutralize the HIV virus. "If we can make progress there then we really have some great opportunities ahead of us."

HIV is a constantly moving mutating virus

Nabel says what makes an AIDS vaccine so problematic is the HIV virus itself, which is constantly mutating. "We're not really making a vaccine against a single virus, we are really making a vaccine that has to protect against millions of different viruses."

Nabel says the virus also has an extraordinary ability to evade the human immune system, which is why developing broadly neutralizing antibodies to fight HIV has been so difficult. "And part of the reason for that is the protein on the surface of the virus that is the target of those antibodies not only differs in sequence among different viruses, but even on any given virus."

Nabel says, "The virus is always lopping around and changing its shape on the surface making it a moving target."

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says the trial vaccines won't provide blanket protection. But he notes that if they are successful, they will alter the disease by lowering the population of the virus and slowing its proliferation. "Ultimately this may and likely will have a positive effect in decreasing the efficiency whereby those infected people infect other people."

Fauci says this approach combined with neutralizing antibodies that prevent infection could be the first big step towards an HIV vaccine.

An estimated 20,000 volunteers are participating in trials in 24 countries. But science alone cannot conquer the AIDS epidemic. Advocates for a vaccine say it will also take financial support, political commitment, private-sector involvement, and greater attention to the economies and health care systems of developing countries.

Developing Countries Urged to Contribute to Proposed Arms Trade Treaty

An international relief agency says major developing countries are running out of time to make proposals for an arms trade treaty. OXFAM says countries, including Liberia, Ghana, Namibia, Uganda, Botswana and Tanzania, have one more month to submit their suggestions on time.

Anna MacDonald is Oxfam's arms campaign manager. From London, she spoke to VOA English to Africa Service reporter Joe De Capua about efforts to write and approve an arms trade treaty.

"Last December 153 governments, which is more than 80 percent of the world's governments, voted in favor of a resolution to begin work on an arms trade treaty. This included a majority of countries in Africa, South America and many countries from Asia and other developing regions. These countries now have a month left in which to input their views on what should be in such a treaty. So, we're encouraging them all to submit their proposals to the Un as soon as possible," she says.

Supporters say such a treaty could help curtail or prevent many conflicts. "Basically, an arms trade treaty would control sales of arms and transfers of weapons across the world. At the moment, the arms trade is unregulated at the international level. Different governments have got different levels of export controls, which means that unscrupulous arms dealers or unscrupulous governments can easily find their way around these controls. Which is why we see so many weapons ending up in the world's worst conflict hotspots. And why the arms trade at the moment is contributing to fueling conflicts, fueling poverty and fueling human rights abuses in some of the poorest countries in the world," MacDonald says.

Asked how it would control the flow of weapons, the OXFAM official says, "For a start, what it would do is make states responsible for all transfers of weapons that either begin from their country or pass through their country. At the moment, states don't have to authorize every weapon sale that passes through their country or goes from their country to another country because we don't have any international agreements."

She gives an example of conflicts where an arms treaty might have had an effect. "In the 90's, we saw unscrupulous arms dealers selling weapons to both sides of the civil war in Liberia, in Sierra Leone, in countries in Central Africa and so on. That kind of arms transfer needs to stop," she says.

Details of the treaty are expected to be worked out in 2008 with a vote at the United Nations in October of next year. 

Amnesty Report Warns of Politics of Fear, Divided World

Amnesty International has released its annual report, which says, "Powerful governments and armed groups are deliberately fomenting fear to erode human rights." It says the result is an "increasingly polarized and dangerous world." VOA's Joe De Capua tells us what Amnesty International has to say about Africa.

Tawanda Hondora, the group's deputy director of the Africa Program, gives an overview of the report's findings.

"Governments all over the world and also particularly in Africa are using fear to sustain or maintain an environment where human rights violations are committed, mostly by governments, but also by non-state actors, including armed opposition groups. And this can be seen in Africa when one looks at countries such as Zimbabwe. Countries like Sudan with the conflict that's continuing in that region, also the neighboring country of Chad," he says.

Amnesty calls the crisis in Darfur "a bleeding wound on world conscience."

"The conflict in Darfur, which has resulted in the mass displacement of over two-point-five-million people, the deaths reported of over 200,000 people – some statistics put it as high as 400,000 people that have died – without a solution in sight. It's the reason why Amnesty is extremely concerned about the continued violation of human rights in that region of Sudan. Current and ongoing negotiations and diplomatic maneuverings to address the situation have not resulted in much," Hondora says.

He says Zimbabwe is another example where the "politics of fear" is able to flourish through an absence of the rule of law.

"You have arbitrary arrests and detentions of human rights activists, as well as political opposition individuals. There are reports of torture being used, particularly by state agents against, again, human rights defenders, as well as political opposition parties. And that is of concern to Amnesty International, including some of their laws, which violate the right to freedom of expression, association," he says.

He says Zimbabwe and other countries also embarked on the evictions of thousands of people.

Zimbabwe: Operation Murambatsvina at Cowdray Park. Photo from Amnesty International

"The situation of evictions is not just a phenomenon that's found in Zimbabwe. They're also found in countries like Mozambique, like Nigeria, like Kenya. And it is because governments around the region in Africa are not paying adequate attention to the rule of law, putting in place adequate safeguards to ensure the people are not forcibly evicted. And that in the event that they are evicted that they are provided with adequate alternative accommodation and compensated," he says.

Amnesty International's annual report also says the divide between Muslims and non-Muslims has "deepened."

Hondora says, "I think that can be seen in particularly in countries in Africa such as Nigeria, where there is increasing inter-ethnic, inter-religious, inter-communal fighting or conflict that's been witnessed. The many factors that have influenced this development or at least the increasing incidents of this kind of conflict. Some of them may actually relate to the ongoing war on terror."

Hondora says some positive developments in Africa include the handing over of former Liberian leader Charles Taylor to the Special Court for Sierra Leone - and the indictment of Thomas Lubanga by the International Criminal Court. Lubanga is accused of recruiting child soldiers in the DRC. 

Film About Terrorist Victim Daniel Pearl Opens At Cannes Festival

A film about American journalist Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and murdered by Islamic militants in Pakistan in 2002, has opened at the Cannes Film Festival. The film, A Mighty Heart, is based on a book written by his wife Mariane Pearl, and stars Angelina Jolie. For VOA, Anita Elash filed this report from Paris.

Daniel Pearl

American journalist Daniel Pearl was researching a story in Pakistan about Richard Reid, the so-called "shoe bomber," when he was kidnapped in 2002. A group of Islamic militants claimed responsibility and said Pearl was an American spy. After he was killed, the group circulated a video on the Internet showing his execution.

The film, A Mighty Heart, is based on a book written by Pearl's wife, Mariane, who was five months pregnant when he was killed. It begins on her last day with her husband in Pakistan, where they were on assignment together, and depicts her efforts to find Daniel and to come to terms with his death.

From left: Mariane Pearl, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt at Cannes Film Festival, 21 May 2007

Mariane Pearl is played by American actress Angelina Jolie. Pearl said she asked Jolie to play the part after she read an interview with her and thought they could be friends.

Jolie was about six-months pregnant as she prepared for the film. She told reporters in Cannes that that helped her understand what Mariane Pearl was going through.

"I remember being six-months pregnant, and thinking 'I cannot imagine, at this time, not having the father with me', you know? Not having and being concerned about his life and trying to eat, and trying to remember to get some sleep and trying to take a deep breath, and physically even just moving around," she said. "So, as a woman, it just made me so much more connected to her and aware of her"

The film is directed by British director Michael Winterbottom and co-produced by Jolie's partner Brad Pitt. It opens in the United States on June 22.

Scholars Examine Status of Women in Middle East

The status of women in the Middle East was the focus of a conference held at the Baker Institute at Rice University in Houston Tuesday. Several panels including a total of 20 scholarly experts discussed such issues as education, politics, marriage, sexuality and reproductive health at the day-long event. VOA's Greg Flakus has more from Houston.

Iranian journalists of newly published reformist daily, Rouzegar (Times) work at the editorial of their newspaper (File)

If there was one clear theme at the conference it was that women in the Middle East and the Islamic nations of North Africa are not passively living under the thumb of patriarchal societies, but are actively demanding a greater role in society. In spite of rigid rules in some nations that restrict them, women have found ways of asserting their rights, according to a number of academic observers.

Janine Clark, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Guelph in Canada presented information about so-called honor crimes against women in Jordan. She noted that pressure on the government there to protect women has come from public protests organized by women. She said women throughout the region face many similar issues.

"If women have fewer rights than men and if they appear to be second-class citizens, it is not because women have not tried to alter the situation, nor is it necessarily because of the supposedly rigid nature of patriarchy or Islam," said Clark. "Rather, we must look at the authoritarian nature of the political systems in the region and, to a lesser extent, to the political instability at large."

Valentine Moghadam, Director of Women's Studies at Purdue University, argued that empowerment of women starts with access to education and that women who have been educated are the ones who stand up to authority.

"Women activists, who typically come from the more educated segments of society, are challenging the status quo, voicing their demands for equality in the family and society, and calling for women's economic, political and social empowerment. This trend is seen across the region, although the level of intensity and the organizational approaches vary by country," said Moghadam. "Even relatively conservative societies, such as Bahrain and Kuwait are feeling pressure as activists demand that women receive their full rights as full citizens."

She says educated women in the Middle East are leading movements that call for egalitarian family laws, nationality rights for women, criminalization of domestic violence, greater economic participation and political rights.

One nation where there has been a tradition of educating women is Iran. Shahla Haeri, Professor of Anthropology and Director of Women's Studies at Boston University, noted that Iranian women have found many ways of gaining access to education and good jobs, in spite of a government and legal system that has thrown barriers in their path.

"Women have increasingly resisted the unfair treatment in social, political and economic spheres and challenged the ethics of the discriminatory political and legal practices that permeate their daily lives," said Haeri.

She says women in Iran have used cyberspace to connect with others, both inside and outside their country, and have successfully maneuvered to avoid government attempts to restrict free dialogue on web sites. She also noted that Iranian women have remained faithful to their Islamic religion, while rejecting the formal, legalistic interpretations that have come from the patriarchal authorities in that country.

Tuesday's conference was the first of a series of conferences on the status of women and human rights in the Middle East to be held at the James Baker Institute at Rice University.