SOUTH KOREA: President Barack Obama delivered a stern message on Thursday to North Korea and Iran telling them to halt their nuclear ambitions to avoid facing further sanctions and isolation.

BANGLADESH: Bangladesh’s Supreme Court on Thursday upheld death sentences on the five ex-army officers convicted of killing the country’s first president in a coup 34 years ago.

SOUTH AFRICA: South African leader Jacob Zuma vowed to make the fight against corruption a top priority for his government.

Runner Castor Semenaya, whose gender was questioned, will keep her  World Championship medal.

GUINEA: An African Union human rights representative says he was denied entry into Guinea, where he planned to investigate alleged mass killings and rapes by the country’s military.

EU leaders are meeting today in Brussels to decide who will be the new EU President. France and Germany are likely to support the Belgian Prime Minister, Herman van Rompuy.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development doubled its 2010 growth forecast for developed economies, which is largely due to accelerated growth in Asian economies.

France beat Ireland in a contentious win in its World Cup Soccer qualifying match Wednesday night, on a play that many believe included an illegal “handball” from French player Thierry Henry.

RUSSIA and CIS:

Russia’s Constitutional Court has extended a moratorium on the death penalty, which was imposed after it joined the Council of Europe in 1996. The Court chairman said the ban has set in place an “irreversible process to abolish capital punishment” in Russia.

Speaking at the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, President Medvedev spoke out against the 3,500 deaths caused daily by accidents on the road. Russia is one of six countries that will receive part of a $125 million donation from NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg to promote road safety.

Kyrgyzstan has deported a human rights activist who was investigating abuses against Muslims. The activist, Bakhrom Khamroyev, who worked for the human rights group Memorial, was detained and deported to Russia. Actisits say political freedoms in Kyrgyzstan have been declining since Kurmanbek Bakiev came to power in 2005.

Opposition activists in Moscow have obtained a copy of of a high-level police memo ordering officers to disrupt a series of lawful protests.

The Russian Foreign Ministry is expressing concern about the declining status of the Russian language in former Soviet Republics, particularly in the Baltics and in Ukraine, where Russian has no official status and where there reportedly is pressure on Russian-language education. In Kyrgyzstan, the country’s main political party has adopted draft legislation making Kyrgyz the official language for diplomats and diplomatic record-keeping.

MEXICO: Mexico’s abortion debate is headed to the federal level after a 17th state in the country passed a law declaring life begins at conception.

CUBA: Experts in Cuba say 70 percent of the soil on the island is threatened by erosion.

YEMEN: The Yemeni army said that it has succeeded in pushing back an attack by Houthi rebels on the northern Yemeni city of Saada.

AFGHANISTAN: In a ceremony in the capital Kabul, Afghan President Hamid Karzai was sworn in for a second five-year term.

PAKISTAN:At least 19 people have been killed and dozens injured in a suicide bomb blast in Peshawar, Pakistan.

PALESTINE: Israeli jets bombed a weapons-manufacturing facility and two smuggling tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip today. The airstrikes came in response to recent rocket attacks on Israel. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an interview with Egyptian television denied that Israel, or the US has asked him to remain in office.

IRAN: US President Barack Obama warned of “consequences” if Iran does not accept the IAEA-backed proposal on a nuclear fuel deal.

ISRAEL: China criticized the Israeli government’s decision to build 900 more units in the part of Jerusalem claimed by Palestinians, saying it poses new obstacles to the Middle East peace process.

A group was formed to restore Jewish presence to the Joseph’s tomb compound in Nablus nine years after the Israel Defense Forces withdrew from the area.

An employee of Logistique Petroliere in Madagascar. Photo: Flickr user DavidDarricau

Ayo Johnson, a Worldfocus contributing blogger, writes about extraction of natural resources in Africa. The piece is excerpted from his blog, Africa Speak International.

The truth is that Africa is the next new frontier of mineral exploration. With major stakeholders battling, wilding and conniving their charm against a complex network of shady deals to outwit the cool, smart and calculative moves of the Chinese.

Africa’s strategic importance cannot be underplayed nor its value cheapened. Its geographical positioning and untapped mineral wealth make it a unique selling proposition to any investor. The trading ability of any multinational company is dependent on contracts signed and memorandum of understandings reached between hosts and investing governments.

African countries, dissatisfied by unequal trading relationships with the rest of the world, have hardened their political stance. China’s current interest in Africa is only a convenient opportunity for African governments to support another would-be investor.

China’s relationship building with Africa over the past 10 years has left the continent in relatively decent shape. African governments have realized that they need trade far more than aid. They need fair term without carrot and stick approach linked to investment. Africans clearly understand that they can choose between China from the East versus the rest of the world.

China has stolen the lead in Africa with over $60 billion worth of investment and untold influence.

Virtually in slow motion, overnight the Chinese had taken a grip of mineral extraction with Europe and the U.S. a distant fourth. Behind Russia and Brazil — both major players in their own right.

Industrialized nations’ appetite for oil goes unabated despite calls from pressure groups. Governments need to diversify into large scale production of new greener cleaner technologies of wind, solar and hydro. Wars in the Middle East, combined with strained relationships with many other oil-producing countries, have forced the West to look for new suppliers of oil.

China is also desperate; its rapid growth and technological advancement have increased its appetite for energy to fuel its enormous economy. This is the central driving force that justifies it presence in Africa. China’s dominance across the continent has come at a price. The Chinese have built bridges, road and general infrastructure all for free — in a bid to guarantee access to Africa’s precious minerals.

China has also provided soft loans to African governments, namely Angola, Sudan, Zambia, Congo and Rwanda as a means of raising much needed private capital outside of the framework of the IMF and the World Bank.

The Chinese have not imposed conditionality packages as part of their loan agreements, unlike the stringent and detrimental conditionality packages imposed by industrialized nations. Instead China has requested that African governments in receipt of Chinese money do business with Chinese companies and buy goods from Chinese firms.

Guaranteeing that the circulation of money is kept strictly with the China-Africa trade zone squeezes Western products and firms out of the picture. There are now little Chinatown enclaves popping up all over Africa with cheap Chinese goods replacing Western brand names.

It is therefore not surprising that President Obama visited Africa, flagged by an extended trip to various mineral hot spots by Hillary Clinton. The U.S. is eager to show support to Africa and to rekindle influence in a bid to up root and dislodge the Chinese iron grip on the continent.

African leaders and their advisers have finally awakened, realizing what the new type of global politics is all about. Who are the new major players, and what choices have to be made?

Africa finds itself in a very unique position to be able to choose among multiple investors all bidding for the same job. This increases the value of Africa’s currency, ensuring that the best deals are signed.

Africa’s choice will be at the expense of Western governments and their respective multinational companies. A liberalized continent is voting with its feet and changing suppliers, manufacturers and investors all at the same time. This is ground-breaking and truly unprecedented.

CHINA: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met with US President Barack Obama in Beijing, where they discussed a range of issues of common concern to both countries. China made few concessions to the U.S.

INDIA: Ahead of India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Washington, the U.S. is asking Pakistan to take actions against the groups allegedly responsible for the Mumbai attacks.

SOUTH KOREA: Legislators of South Korea’s National Assembly were in favor of the government’s latest decision to dispatch military forces to protect civilian aid workers in Afghanistan.

SOMALIA: Late Tuesday a woman accused of committing adultery was stoned to death in Somalia. A judge working for the militant group Al-Shabaab said the women had given birth to a stillborn baby. Her boyfriend was given 100 lashes.

Pirates on Wednesday attacked the US flagged ship Maersk Alabama for the second time. Just seven months ago the ship was attacked and the captain taken hostage, though he was eventually rescued. This time the ship was able to repel the attack.

ITALY: The UN Food and Agriculture Summit ended Wednesday with little progress in the way of a new strategy to combat hunger, as aid agency Oxfam said the effort offered little more than “crumbs” to the one in six people who do not have enough to eat.

GERMANY: Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday that German troops would stay in Afghanistan for another year, though she would not commit additional troops to the region.

UK: Queen Elizabeth II laid out new plans for financial regulation in her speech at the opening of Parliament on Wednesday.

LATIN AMERICA: Analysts say that the number of people per household in Latin America will drop by 18% in 2020.

EL SALVADOR: The government in El Salvador estimates $880 million worth of damage due to flooding and mudslides in the country in early November.

MEXICO: Experts in Mexico say that the epidemic of obesity in children could reduce life expectancy rates in the country.

IRAQ: Preparation for Iraq’s January general elections are on hold because Iraq’s Sunni Arab vice president vetoed part of an election law.

ISRAEL: The United States, in an unusually strong criticism of Israel, voiced dismay at the approval of new Jewish housing in annexed east Jerusalem.

A charity linked to the militant Hamas group offered $1.4 million dollars for anyone who takes an Israeli soldier hostage.

UAE, DUBAI: American talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey apologized to her followers for an episode of her show featuring women from around the world in which a guest from Dubai gave false information about life in Dubai.

PALESTINE: Israeli bulldozers demolished a two-family Palestinian home in the town of Al-Isawiya in occupied East Jerusalem today, the second home demolition in two days.

CHINA: U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged cooperation between the two countries on a range of issues including the climate change and nuclear safety in the Korean peninsula and in Iran. However, both leaders have not refrained from pointing out remaining differences between the two nations.

SOUTH KOREA: South Korea has promised to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent below expected levels in 2020. The announcement is expected to put pressure on other developed nations to fight global warming more aggressively.

GUINEA: Recruits for Guinea’s military junta are being trained by South African and Israeli military officials according to the news agency AFP. Witnesses claim to have seen the training exercises in a town south of the capital Conkary.

Man using a vuvuzela at a soccer game

SOMALIA: Somalia is once again the world’s most corrupt country. In Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perception Index which measures perceived levels of public sector corruption, Somalia took the lowest spot with a score of 1.1 out of 10.

SOUTH AFRICA: The noisy South African vuvuzela trumpet is under attack again, this time by Japan. The Japanese Football Association President has requested the trumpet be banned from next years World Cup saying its loud noise limits communication with players, coaches, broadcasters, etc. The vuvuzela is a common instrument used by South African soccer fans.

GERMANY: A 90-year-old former Nazi SS member was charged Tuesday with 58 counts of murder in the deaths of forced Jewish laborers in Austria.

SPAIN: Pirates have released a Spanish vessel with 36 crew members which they had held for 6 weeks, according to Spain’s prime minister.

FRANCE: A Frenchwoman who was kept in Iranian prison after allegedly “provoking rioters” during Iran’s post-election protests appeared in Iranian court on Tuesday, and then returned to the French Embassy, where she has been permitted to remain since August.

CZECH REPUBLIC: Czechs mark the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution today, which lend to the end of Communist rule in the former Czechoskovakia. Thousands of people in the capital Prague are celebrating with with reenactment of a student protest.

RUSSIA AND CIS:

A British security software firm says Russian criminals are making millions off the H1N1 flu epidemic by selling fake flu drugs over the Internet. The firm, Sophos, intercepted web sites and hundreds of millions of fake pharmaceutical span adverts, many of which are based in Russia.

A Russian human rights campaigner has been killed with a bullet shot to his head, as he entered his apartment building. The 26-year-old, Ivan Khutorsky, reportedly campaigned actively against neo-Nazi groups.

Vladimir Nabokov’s last unfinished novel “The Original of Laura” goes on sale today in London and New York. Nabokov had made his wife promise to burn the manuscript after his death, but she refrained from doing so, leaving it to their son Dmitri to decide its fate.

The Russian Orthodox Church is considering severing ties with the Evangelic Church in Germany, after the latter elected its first female leader last month. The Orthodox Archbishop reportedly said the church could not maintain a dialogue with a church headed by a woman.

The Wall Street Journal reports on the death in a Russian prison of a lawyer for the investment fund Hermitage Capital. The lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was jailed a year ago on tax evasion charges. At a court hearing this past September, he complained of inhumane conditions at the prison and of being denied medical treatment.

EL SALVADOR: The Yaqui indigenous group in Mexico has finally won the battle to get back the remains of some of their lost heroes, held in the storage of New York’s American Museum of Natural History for more than a century.

ARGENTINA: Argentina has granted its first marriage license to a gay couple, both men HIV positive.

GUATEMALA: Forty percent of Guatemala’s elderly are living in a state of poverty.

PALESTINE: The European Union said that it is “premature” for the Palestinians to try to have the UN recognize an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza.

ISRAEL/SYRIA: French president Nicolas Sarkozy says his country is ready to mediate between Syria and Israel and warns that extremists could benefit from a continued deadlock in the Mideast peace process.

SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Arabia’s government has said that all military activities have ceased on its southern borders with Yemen.

EGYPT: Amnesty International warned in a report out today that Egypt must take immediate steps to ensure there is no repeat of a 2008 rockslide that killed more than 100 residents of a Cairo shantytown.

IRAN: Iran’s nuclear envoy denied that the IAEA tour of its recently revealed uranium enrichment site has turned up any evidence that the Iran is seeking nuclear weapons.

ISRAEL: Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned today that Iran’s nuclear program posed a threat not just to Israel, but to the entire world.

CHINA: President Barack Obama pointed out the importance of unlimited access to information and called for Internet freedom during a town hall-style meeting with Chinese students in Shanghai. President Obama’s meeting was not broadcast live on national TV across China and the national news website Xinhua only made the transcripts of the meeting available even though it had earlier announced the meeting would be broadcast live online.

Police detained dozens of activists and petitioners in Beijing and other parts of China as President Obama arrived on his first trip to the country, human rights groups said on Monday.

AUSTRALIA: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd offered a historic apology to thousands of impoverished British children who were forced to migrate to Australia with promises of a better life and were abused and neglected under state care. However, the government ruled out paying compensation.

MAURITANIA: Law enforcement and justice officials are learning some key tools to fight the practice of slavery. On Sunday training began to help these groups of officials uphold the 2007 law that bans slavery in Mauritania.

KENYA: Eleven people were killed when cattle raiders ransacked a village in central Kenya. There has been in increased amount of similar attacks as pressure from severe conditions due to the ongoing drought pushes clans to vie for resources.

ZIMBABWE: Tourism seems to be on the rise in Zimbabwe. According to the chief of tourism hotels have been around 60% full since the formation of the unity government in February compared to last years occupancy of only 30%. He attributes the increase to better political and economic stability brought about by the new government.

FRANCE/BRAZIL: The leaders of France and Brazil presented a joint plan on Saturday aimed at cutting emissions in advance of the Copenhagen climate change conference next month. They hope to convince other world leaders to adopt their plan.

UK: The British and Australian governments have issued an apology to the thousands of poor British children who were shipped to Australia and other former British colonies until the 1960s. Many of the children were abused and neglected, and often wound up in institutions or as farm laborers.

KOSOVO: Kosovo has peacefully conducted its first independent elections. Despite minority Serb calls for a boycott, voter turnout was estimated at 45 percent.

RUSSIA AND CIS:

Russia’s Energy Minister announced that it has delayed the launch of Iran’s first nuclear power plant, citing technical reasons.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke out following President Medvedev’s meeting with Barak Obama on Sunday, declaring that Moscow is still hoping for a diplomatic solution to the Iran nuclear problem.

The world’s largest country is growing even bigger. As a result of earthquakes in the far east, Russia’s territory has expanded 4.5 square kilometers over the past three years.

Chechnya’s international airport opened this morning, when its first international flight in 15 years set off with passengers traveling to Saudi Arabia to make the Hajj pilgrimage.

LATIN AMERICA: Due to the fact that Europe is tightening its immigration laws, more and more immigrants from Africa are headed to Latin AmerIca.

EL SALVADOR: Authorities in El Salvador have raised the death toll to 192, after heavy rains caused massive mudslides in the country last week.

BRAZIL: Wrapping up a visit to Brazil, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights decried discrimination against Afro-Brazilians and indigenous groups, who she said lack access to basic services, employment, and are “mired in poverty.” She said these problems would hamper Brazil’s progress in other areas.

YEMEN: Yemen is once again is accusing Iran of funding Houthi fighters in their war against government forces in northern Yemen. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s military is continuing its shelling of Huthi positions in northern Yemen while a spokesman for the rebels said the Huthis have fired Katyusha rockets at a Saudi military base.

IRAN: The IAEA reported that Iran may have more secret nuclear sites.

PALESTINE: Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat said yesterday that seeking UN Security Council recognition was aimed at protecting the two-state solution, which the PLO still prefers.

An Israeli cabinet minister said that Israel could annex more of the West Bank if Palestinians declared statehood without concluding a peace agreement.

PAKISTAN: A suicide bomber attack has killed at least four people in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province.

JAPAN: The United States and Japan must “find ways to renew and refresh the alliance for the 21st century,” said President Barack Obama in Tokyo on Friday. He agreed to reopen talks on the contentious issue of the relocation of a U.S. airbase in the island of Okinawa.

CHINA: The general consensus at today’s APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) meeting was that the balance of global growth is shifting towards Asia, with China, India and to some extent Indonesia leading the recovery from the global economic recession.

SUDAN: Eleven people were recently killed in tribal clashes in South Sudan’s Jonglei state. Clashes among rival ethnic groups often erupt over issues of cattle rustling and natural resources. Over 2,000 people have died and 250,000 been displaced in South Sudan since January.

SOMALIA: Twelve Somalis were arrested on Thursday on suspicion of piracy by the French navy. The suspects were captured 650 miles off the coat of Somalia.

Europe has officially emerged from the worldwide economic recession. The European Union expanded by 0.2 percent in the third quarter.

SWITZERLAND: Google Inc. is headed to court over charges of violating Switzerland’s personal privacy laws though the use of its Street View application. The application — which allows users to see a 360-degree view of a street-level location– is being criticized for identifying people without their knowledge.

VATICAN: A four-day symposium to bring the Vatican into the digital age began on Thursday. Officials and bishops are being trained on internet tools such as Facebook, Wikipedia, and Google.

RUSSIA AND CIS:

Russian President Medvedev will meet with US President Obama on Sunday on the sidelines of the APEC meeting in Singapore. On the agenda: a new arms reduction deal and the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs.

The diaries of a British journalist who was one of the first to write about the 1932-33 famine in Ukraine will go on display to the public for the first time in London tomorrow.

Three people have been killed in a blast in a cemetery in the southern republic of Dagestan. The victims had come to pay tribute to police officer Abdumalik Magomedov, who had been killed last year.

Russia’s police scandal is widening. Two more policemen have posted appeals to President Medvedev on YouTube speaking out against abuse and corruption in the country’s police force: Mikhail Yevsev, who alleges police fabricated cases against innocent citizens, and Gregory Chekalin.

Lake Titicaca in Bolivia Photo: flickr user: Swiatoslaw Wojtkowiak

BOLIVIA: Evaporation due to global warming has caused the Lake Titicaca in Bolivia to be at its lowest level since 1949.

MEXICO: Mexican President Felipe Calderon says he rejects a proposal by business leaders in the border town of Ciudad Juarez for U.N. peacekeepers to enter the town and quell drug-related violence.

CHILE: Michelle Bachelet, the Chilean president, said that there are signs that the economies of Latin America are turning the corner after the global recession.

EL SALVADOR: Aid agencies say that as many as 10,000 people may need food assistance in the Central American country after massive floods which left at least 140 people dead and destroyed acres of crops.

PAKISTAN: A suicide bomber today attacked the northwestern regional headquarters of the Pakistani intelligence agency killing more than 17 people and wounding many more.

TURKEY: A Turkish diplomatic source has said that the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog (IAEA) revealed the details of a proposal suggesting Turkey as a third-country destination for transport of Iran’s enriched uranium. On another front, the Turkish government announced new details today of its plan to reconcile with its minority Kurds in hope of ending an insurgency that has dragged on for 25 years.

SYRIA: Syrian President Bashar al-Asad, in France to meet with President Nicolas Sarkozy, says Syria wants peace with Israel but questions Israel’s commitment to the process.  The visit comes after talks between Sarkozy and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

ISRAEL:Israeli army officials said today that Israeli troops killed one Palestinian and wounded four others along the Gaza border in what the military described as an attempted bomb attack.

An American Jewish group criticized Hezbollah for removing the “Diary of Anne Frank” from textbooks in a private school in Beirut.

AFGHANISTAN: The Taliban claimed responsibility on Friday for a suicide bombing attack near US military base outside the Afghan capital Kabul. The attack target was a NATO convoy.

SINGAPORE: Asia-Pacific nations pledged on Thursday to embrace more flexible exchange rates as they start to scale back their stimulus spending in the wake of easing of the global financial crisis.

NEPAL: Tens of thousands of Maoist demonstrators flooded the streets of Nepal’s capital on Thursday to call for the resignation of the government.

CHINA: Human Right Watch released a report on Thursday accusing China of running unlawful detention centers called “black jails” in which ordinary citizens can be kept for months.

SOMALIA: A judge well known for sending Islamic militants and pirates to prison was gunned down outside a mosque in Somalia’s Puntland region. Three people have been arrested in relation to the killing.

SUDAN: The Sudanese government has announced that the Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps that house millions of displaced Darfuris will be shut down beginning in 2010. The government says they have begun constructing housing units to relocate the IDPs. Rebel groups have criticized the move.

NIGERIA: A Nigerian group is demanding that traditional leaders follow in the footstep of Britain and the US and apologize for their complicity in the transatlantic slave trade.

FRANCE: France has begun vaccinating high-risk people as it launches its swine flu vaccination campaign, despite a recent poll which revealed 76% of the public does not want to be vaccinated.

UK: Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced plans to toughen immigration rules into the UK by restricting the number of professions that can recruit in countries outside of Europe.

NORWAY: A freelance journalist from Norway who was captured in Afghanistan with his interpreter has been freed, according to the Norwegian Foreign Ministry.

RUSSIA AND CIS:

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev presented his annual address to the nation today, emphasizing the need for Russia to refocus its economy on telecommunications, space and information technology.

Vladimir Putin has been named the third most powerful person of the year by Forbes Magazine, following Chinese President Hu Jintao and US President Barak Obama.

The legendary Russian goldsmith Faberge, known for the jeweled eggs it produced in the 1880s, is back in business. The House of Faberge is introducing a new line of jewels that will be sold on-line and at its single shop in Geneva.

A German court has dropped all charges against Dmitry Kovtun, who had been a suspect in the 2006 murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London.

Estonia’s economy shows signs of improvement: the country’s economic decline slowed in the third quarter for the first time since 2007.

AFGHANISTAN: The White House has said that US military commitment to Afghanistan is “not open-ended,” warning that the Afghan government must take steps to improve the way the country is run.

LEBANON: The leader of the Lebanese group Hezbollah has accused US President Barack Obama, of “absolute bias” in favor of Israel and of disregard for the dignity of Arabs and Muslims.

ISRAEL: Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signalled to French President Nicolas Sarkozy that Israel is willing to withdraw from the Golan Heights as part of a peace deal between Syria and Israel.

YEMEN: A Yemeni Houthi leader has called for a ceasefire and expressed his group’s willingness to engage in dialogue with Saudi Arabia amid reports that Saudi Arabia’s forces have penetrated inside Yemen.

PALESTINE: The Palestinian Election Commission has recommended the postponement of presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for January.

Map of Ogaden, Ethiopia courtesy of Wiki user Lencer.

The violent, separatist conflict in southeastern Ethiopia known as the Somali region or Ogaden has been referred by some as the next Darfur. The conflict has claimed thousands of lives over the last 15 years.

Ethiopia sealed off the region to media so there is little accurate information about the conflict, including claims of human rights abuses.

The region is rich in natural gas and is home to about 5 million predominantly Muslim people, mainly ethnic Somali nomadic tribes. The U.S. has said little about the conflict, as Ethiopia is its main regional ally in the increasingly unstable Horn of Africa region.

Worldfocus interviewed David H. Shinn, a former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia and Burkina Faso. Amb. Shinn is currently an adjunct professor of international affairs at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. His research interests include China-Africa relations, East Africa and the Horn, terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism, conflict situations, U.S. policy in Africa and the African brain drain.

Worldfocus: Ethiopia has labeled the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) as a terrorist organization. Is this an accurate description?

Amb. Shinn: While the ONLF has on occasion used tactics that qualify as terrorist — for example the kidnapping and/or killing of civilian Ethiopian government officials — it does not have any links of which I am aware with international terrorist organizations.

It receives external support from the government of Eritrea, which opposes the government of Ethiopia. It also receives financial assistance from Ogadenis in the Somali Diaspora. In 2007, 74 persons, including nine Chinese oil field personnel, were killed during an ONLF attack on a Chinese oil exploration work site in the Ogaden protected by Ethiopian troops.

The Chinese may have died in a crossfire between Ethiopian and ONLF forces. In the view of the U.S. government, ONLF activity so far does not meet the test of a terrorist organization. Should the ONLF escalate its tactics, however, this could change.

Worldfocus: The U.S. denied Ethiopia’s request to label the ONLF an international terrorist organization but also remained silent on claims that the Ogaden region is potentially the next Darfur. Ethiopia has shut down media access to the region, so accusations of human rights abuses are unconfirmed. Should the U.S. and other Western countries be speaking out?

Amb. Shinn: On those occasions when there are carefully documented human rights violations by the government of Ethiopia, the ONLF or any other organization, the U.S. and the rest of the world should speak out.

Virtually all of the information coming out of the Ogaden comes from either the Ethiopian government or the ONLF. Much of the information from both sides is unreliable. The problem, therefore, is making certain that accurate information exists before speaking out publicly. A good start would be a willingness by the Ethiopian government to allow independent, third party observers into the Ogaden to provide information about events there.

Worldfocus: Do the 4.5 million ethnic Somalis living in the region mostly support the ONLF? Do the majority of Ogadenis want to secede from Ethiopia?

Men chewing khat in Jigjiga, the capital of Ogaden. Photo: Flickr user CharlesFred

Amb. Shinn: It is impossible to know with any certainty what Somalis in southeastern Ethiopia really want. Because of the difficult security situation, there are no public opinion polls in the area. I think it is reasonable to conclude that the vast majority of Somalis feel marginalized in their own country and that most of them have legitimate grievances against government policies. But do most of them support the ONLF? There is no conclusive evidence.

Not all of the Somalis living in Ethiopia’s Region Five or Somali Region are ethnic Ogaden Somalis. There are significant numbers of non-Ogaden Darod, Isaaq and Dir. Ogadeni from the Darod clan constitute the most numerous group of Somalis and occupy the largest geographical part of the region.

While there may be widespread support for the ONLF by the majority Ogadeni, many Somalis from other clans are concerned about Ogadeni domination. It is even less clear whether the Ogadeni who support the ONLF agree on a political outcome for the region.

Worldfocus: Do Ogadenis have irredentist tendencies, and what is their relationship with Somalia?

Amb. Shinn: In March 2009, there was a leadership split in the organization. The leader of the main faction of the ONLF, Mohamed Omar Osman, is on the record as saying that he wants to hold a referendum so that the Somalis in the region can determine if they wish to remain part of Ethiopia, become an independent country or join with Somalia. It is my understanding that the leadership of both factions of the ONLF prefers an independent Ogaden.

Worldfocus: With national elections slotted for next May, what is at stake for the ONLF and their representation or lack thereof in the Ethiopian government?

Amb. Shinn: Ethiopian national elections in May 2010 will probably change nothing in the Ogaden. Because of the difficult security situation, it is doubtful that elections can even take place in much of Somali Region.

The ONLF, although it participated in the government as a political organization from 1991 to 1994, has shown no interest in rejoining the political process. Even if it believed that the Ethiopian government would allow it to compete freely and fairly as a political party, which it does not believe to be the case, it does not appear that the ONLF is prepared to lay down its arms.

The head of the original ONLF faction, Mohamed Omar Osman, did state in October 2009 that he is prepared to engage in negotiations with the Ethiopian government, but only in the presence of a neutral third party and in a neutral location.

- Lisa Biagiotti

A North Korean sailor on the U.S.S. Pueblo, captured in 1968. Photo: Ben Piven.

KOREAS: A North Korean patrol ship exchanged fire with a South Korea naval vessel along their disputed western naval coast. The North Korean ship was badly damaged and retreated in flames. Both sides blamed each other for the incident.

JAPAN: Japan’s government has pledged five billion dollars in aid to Afghanistan over the next five years. The money will mostly go to civilian aid, infrastructure, job training and rehabilitation efforts for former Taliban soldiers.

AUSTRALIA: An environmental group wants the Australian government to categorize koalas as endangered.  The Australia Koala Foundation says the population of koalas has declined by 90% in the past two decades due to drought, over-development and disease.

LIBYA: Libya’s interior minister on Monday said that the country has reduced the number of  African migrants attempting to reach Europe illegally by sea by 90% through greater cooperation with Italy.

RWANDA: A Belgian court has ruled that the case against Ephrem Nkezabera, also know as the “Banker to the Genocide,” will go ahead despite his absence due to illness. Nkezabera is charged with helping to fund the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

SOMALIA: The United Nations is warning of significant displacement of Somalis due to heavy rains. The rains also make aid distribution even more difficult.

UK: Lloyds Bank has announced plans to cut 5,000 jobs by the end of 2010.

CZECH REPUBLIC: Czech officials said they would discipline soldiers for wearing Nazi symbols while in Afghanistan.

TURKEY: The Turkish government announced a plan to make peace with its Kurdish insurgents who have been waging a separatist battle for decades.

RUSSIA AND CIS: Swine flu cases in Russia have surpassed 4,500, and 19 people have died from the pandemic. In the far eastern Khabarovsk region, people working in shops, food services and the transportation sector are required to wear masks; those who refuse to comply will be fined.

Some 72 percent of Russians consider themselves happy, up from an all-time low of 42 percent in 1992, according to a poll conducted by the All Russian Public Opinion Research Center. The “happiest” respondents were young people living in the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Russians today celebrate the birthday of Mikhail Kalashnikov, founder of the AK-47, who turns 90, and note the death of Nobel-prize winning physicist Vitaly Ginzburg, who helped develop the Soviet hydrogen bomb.

Russia’s security service caught fourteen members of an international prostitute ring. The ring, including citizens of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, recruited girls from the Russian provinces and sent them to Europe, where they were forced into prostitution.

Russia’s Constitutional Court held hearings yesterday on whether or not to reimpose the death penalty in the country. There is currently a moratorium on the death penalty, which expires on January 1.

Videos posted by a policeman from Novorossiisk have become a media sensation in Russia. Policeman Alexei Dymovsky posted the videos last week, in which he addresses corruption in the police and appeals to Prime Minister Putin to improve conditions for the demoralized force. In response, Dymovsky was fired from his post. He now faces three investigations, including one for slander.

PAKISTAN: At least 30 people were killed and 50 injured in a bomb blast ripped through a busy traffic intersection in northwest Pakistan.

SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Defense Minister said that his country’s military will continue its air assault against Yemeni rebels until they retreat from the two countries’ border. Also, a Saudi Arabian government adviser says the kingdom has imposed a naval blockade on northern Yemen’s Red Sea coast to try to prevent weapons and fighters flowing to Shiite rebels in the area.

ISRAEL: Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said that the Lebanese group Hezbollah currently possesses tens of thousands of rockets, some capable of reaching up to 185 miles within Israel.

LEBANON: Months after parliamentary elections, Lebanon’s prime minister Saad al-Hariri formed a new Cabinet, which includes members of Hezbollah and its allies.

PALESTINE: Aides close to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said that he intends to resign and that other Palestinian officials would follow suit.

Remains of the Berlin Wall Photo: via flickr by riotcitygirl

SOUTH KOREA: As Germany celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall, South Koreans reflect on their own version of the wall, which represents the last Cold War frontier - with communist North Korea. Editorials in South Korean newspapers urge the country to contemplate their own division and be seriously prepared for a possible re-unification of the Koreas.

CHINA: China blocked a website that displays twitter messages with thoughts on the fall of the Berlin Wall after nearly 2000 Chinese web users in the country posted their tweets on the site. The Berlin Twitterwall is supported by Reporters without Borders and has displayed more than 6000 messages so far.

JAPAN: President Barack Obama will visit Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea later this month.

SUDAN: Sudanese President Omar al Bashir will not attend the Organization of the Islamic Conference meeting held in Turkey on Monday. Turkey was experiencing pressure from the European Union over its decision to invite Bashir to the conference with an warrant out for his arrest for war crimes in Darfur.

SOMALIA: Two Kenyans working at a printing business in Somalia were kidnapped on Sunday in the capital Mogadishu. The kidnappers are now demanding a ransom.

ZIMBABWE: A top aide to Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai went on trial on Monday on charges of terrorism. Roy Bennett’s case has caused serious friction within Zimbabwe’s unity government with Tsvangirai saying the case is politically motivated.

UK: Britain is taking new steps to create eco-friendly public transportation. An airport bus at East Midlands Airport will be run on fuel produced from decomposing organic waste.

Gordon Brown apologized to the mother of a soldier who was killed in Afghanistan to whom he had sent a handwritten condolence note on which he misspelled both the family name and her son’s first name.

GERMANY: As the world marks the 20th year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, many Berlin residents celebrated the event. Yet others marked the 71st anniversary of Kristallnacht, known as the Night of Broken Glass, during which Jewish business were ransacked in 1938.

EL SALVADOR: Mudslides in El Salvador have left 124 dead and dozens missing.

VENEZUELA: President Hugo Chavez has warned the Venezuelan military to be prepared for a possible war with Colombia.

LEBANON:Lebanon’s opposition has agreed to a proposed national unity government, paving the way for Prime-Minister designate Saad al-Hariri to form a government.

SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Arabia announced that its forces regained control of territory seized last week by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

SYRIA: During Monday’s meeting in Istanbul of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Syrian President Bashar Assad warned that the failure of the Middle East peace negotiations will lead Arabs to turn to resistance as an “alternative solution.”

IRAN: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also in Istanbul for a one-day Islamic summit, while international pressure is increasing on Iran to agree to United Nations agreement on its nuclear program.

ISRAEL: US President Barack Obama will meet with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the Israeli leader’s trip to Washington amid growing tension over the stalled peace process and Israeli settlement policy.

PALESTINE: Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets of Ramallah marching towards the Palestinian presidential compound in an attempt to persuade President Mahmoud Abbas to reconsider running for reelection. Also, Palestinian protesters managed to remove a segment of the Israeli-built wall in the West Bank village of Qalandiya today.

MYANMAR: The United States wants to see real progress in Myanmar towards democracy before any policy changes, said a senior U.S. diplomat after the first high-level talks between the two nations in more than a decade were completed.

JAPAN: Toyota Motor Corporation announced a surprise profit last quarter, suggesting a gradual recovery may be under way for Japan’s automakers.

CHINA: China’s ministry of health is going to ban the use of beating to treat teenagers addicted to the web. There are dozens of treatment centers in the country that offers to help teenagers withdraw from their web addiction by using military-style boot camp methods with tough extreme physical exercise and counseling.

NIGERIA: Late Wednesday Nigeria recorded its first swine flu case. The virus was found in a 9-year old girl from the United States living in Lagos.

MAURITANIA: Despite a law enacted in 2007 criminalizing slavery, the practice still persists in the northwest African country of Mauritania. That’s according to an independent UN representative who recently toured the country.

GERMANY: Thousands of Opel workers went on strike to protest GM’s move to stop the sale of Opel, a move which GM has said will cost thousands of German jobs.

SWEDEN: The Scandinavian country approved a gas pipeline which would bring natural gas from Russia to Germany. The move has already been approved by Denmark, and needs the go-ahead from Finland, Russia, and Germany to move forward.

UK: The Bank of England said Thursday it would inject an additional 25 billion pounds into its economy.

CZECH REPUBLIC: Forty-five percent of Czech citizens believe that social conditions are better today than before 1989, according to a poll published prior to the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. Seventy-four percent pointed to the desire for freedom as the main factor behind the revolution.

RUSSIA AND CIS:

Russian investigators have arrested two people they say are responsible for last summer’s killings of human rights activist Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburina.

Swine flu deaths are on the rise in Russia, where fifteen people have died thus far from the epidemic. Buryatia–the latest region to declare a swine flu emergency–has banned all mass gatherings and is requiring every individual to wear a mask in public.

A Wassily Kandinsky painting has sold at Sotheby’s for $9.4 million. Sales of Russian art at Sotheby’s this week have netted more than $13 billion.

Police have seized more than 48 buckets of salmon caviar and 9 boxes of crab meat from poachers on the far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula. Illegal poaching is a main source of livelihood for many residents of the area.

Time reports on global warming skeptics in Russia and the challenges the rest of the world faces in getting Russia to sign on to reductions in emissions targets in advance of next month’s Copenhagen conference.

Bloggers and free speech activists are criticizing Russia’s largest search engine Yandex for pandering to Kremlin censorship, the Times of London reports.

MEXICO: An American airman was killed in a Ciudad Juarez bar along with five other people last night, bringing the total number of homicides to 30 over the last four days.

Authorities in Mexico have arrested three doctors and a nurse at a private hospital for telling mothers that their newborns had died and then selling the babies.

CUBA: Russia and Cuba have signed four accords that will allow a Russian state energy firm to run oil exploration projects on the Island for the next 25 years.

ISRAEL: Haaretz newspaper reports that a ship seized on Wednesday by Israeli security forces has been released. Israeli officials said it contained tons of weapons supplied by Iran to Hezbollah.

LEBANON: In its official channel Al Manar TV, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah denied Israeli allegations that the ship Israel intercepted on Wednesday was headed for Lebanon. Hezbollah says that Israel is creating a distraction from the Goldstone report on war crimes in Gaza.

IRAN: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei’s said that a resolution to the dispute over Iran’s ongoing nuclear program could be the key to a stable Middle East.

PALESTINE: In an emotional speech, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas confirmed he will not seek reelection.

SAUDI ARABIA: Al Jazeera English is reporting that Saudi fighter jets have pounded the strongholds of Houthi combatants in northern Yemen after an earlier confrontation between Shia fighters and Saudi security forces killed two Saudi security men.

PAKISTAN: The Pakistani military said it has killed some 28 militants in South Waziristan.

AFGHANISTAN:The United Nations announced today said that it is temporarily relocating more than half its international staff in Afghanistan following last week’s deadly Taliban attack against UN workers. Also from Kandahar, Afghanistan, an overnight airstrike by international forces killed nine civilians, including at least three children.

According to local lore, the tradition began as a way to prevent hyenas from attacking local children by keeping them outside of the city. Today, it’s a way to make a living from Ethiopia’s small tourist trade.

NORTH KOREA: North Korea said it has reprocessed 8000 spent nuclear fuel rods and extracted enough plutonium to add to its atomic stockpile. If reprocessed with chemicals, this would give the regime enough weapons-grade plutonium for at least one more atomic bomb, according to experts.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is sending a special mission to Pyongyang next week Envoy Jack Lang said today that European aid to North Korea in exchange for nuclear guarantees is on the table.

MYANMAR: The United States embarked on a new policy of engagement with Myanmar’s military government on Tuesday, sending two senior diplomats for the highest-level visit in more than a decade.

Representatives of African countries at UN climate talks in Barcelona boycotted meetings on Tuesday and demanded industrialized countries do more to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

SOMALIA: Three women’s organizations were ordered closed in the Somali town of Balad Hawa by the Islamic militant group Al-Shabaab. The chairman of the town said that according to Islamic law women should be at home taking caring of their children and not in the office.

TANZANIA: A study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences said that 85% of the snow on Mount Kilimanjaro had melted from 1912 to 2007 and could disappear entirely in 20 years.

FINLAND: Nokia Siemens Networks mobile phone manufacturer will lay off as many as 5,700 employees, as a cost-cutting move.

NETHERLANDS: Radovan Karadzic appeared at his trial in the Hague Tuesday, after having boycotted his trial for the previous three days.

FRANCE: November 1 marked the start of France’s yearly ban on housing evictions. Between November and March 15, French law makes it difficult for landlords to evict tenants who are unable to make rent payments.

RUSSIA AND CIS:
The Lisbon Treaty has moved once step closer to adoption, following the Czech Constitutional Court’s ruling today that the treaty does not violate the Czech constitution.

Swine flu deaths in Russia continue to grow. Fourteen people have now died from the virus, and 3,122 cases have been confirmed, according to the Ministry of Health.

There are few bookstores left in Uzbekistan’s legendary city Samarkand, which used to be a literary mecca.

Samarkand Photo: Flickr user Xiamara_ugajin

A Russian businessman and former KGB spy was gunned down near his Moscow apartment yesterday. Shabattai Kalmanovich, who served five years in an Israeli jail for spying, had been working as director of a central Moscow shopping center since 1994.

Twenty years after the fall of communism, opinions are mixed in Eastern Europe and Russia as to whether people are better off today, according to a recent survey conducted by the Pew Forum. People born shortly after the Berlin Wall’s fall were overwhelmingly more supportive of the move towards democracy and a market economy than older generations.

The New York Times reports on a “drunk tank” in a Moscow suburb, where people caught drinking are taken to sober up. Russians consumer 4.75 gallons of pure alcohol per person per year–more than double the level the WHO considers a “healthy threat.”

CUBA: Cuban purchases from U.S. companies are down 37% this year compared to last year.

HONDURAS: The Honduras Congress today will begin debating a plan that would restore ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. The deal was agreed to last week by representatives of Zelaya and the de facto government.

AFGHANISTAN: A day after wining the election by default, Al Jazeera English reports that Afghanistan’s president Hamid Karzai promises to create a government of national participation.

MOROCCO: At a time of strained relations between Jews and Muslims, Al Arabiya TV reports on a music festival in the Moroccan city of Essaouira is helping to break down political divides.

ISRAEL: According to Israel’s head of military intelligence Maj-Gen Amos Yadlin, the Palestinian group Hamas has test-fired a rocket capable of reaching the outskirts of the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.

JERUSALEM: The Palestinian news agency Ma’an reports on a home take-over by Israeli settlers in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem.

IRAN: Al Alam TV reports on Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is warning against the United States attempting to impose its will in any negotiations with Tehran.

PAKISTAN: Despite a Taliban spokesman denial, the Pakistani military is advancing in its offensive in tribal South Waziristan, according to Dawn TV.

SOUTH KOREA: The non-profit body that oversees Internet addresses approved on Friday the use of non-Latin scripts like Hebrew, Hindi, Korean and Arabic in Internet domain names at the conclusion of a week-long meeting in South Korea’s Seoul. The regulatory body ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) says the decision is “the biggest change” to how the Internet works since its invention 40 years ago.

South Korea says it will deploy troops to Afghanistan to protect the country’s civilian aid workers.

CHINA: A U.S. Navy admiral expressed concern over China’s rapid military build-up and urged Beijing to be more transparent about its intentions. Rear Admiral Kevin Donegan told reporters on a visit to Hong Kong that with China’s military growing at an “unprecedented rate,” the U.S. wants to know how China will deploy its new power.

SOMALIA: In what is being hailed as a first, debit cards were introduced this week to Somalia. Customers will be able to use their cards at hotels, stores, ATM’s and other businesses that accept them.

UGANDA: A bomb attack was foiled on Friday in Uganda’s capital Kampala. The bomb was discovered wrapped up in newspaper by a security guard. Earlier in the week, a Somali militant group, Al-Shabaab threatened to attack Uganda’s capital.

NIGERIA/SUDAN: On Thursday in Nigeria the African Union backed the proposal for the establishment of a hybrid court to try crimes committed in Darfur.

UN: Al Arabiya is reporting that the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned that his organization is vulnerable to more attacks in Afghanistan.

ISRAEL: The U.S. envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell,  is back in the Middle East two days ahead of the arrival of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Al Jazeera English is reporting on the U.S. quest to persuade Israeli and Palestinian leaders to restart the Middle East peace negotiations.

IRAN: The New York Times is reporting that Iran will reject a draft proposal by the U.N. watchdog agency on its nuclear program, despite encouraging words by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nevertheless called the proposed agreement a “positive first step.” 

IRAQ: Middle East Online news site reports that U.S. Major General John D. Johnson is warning of more attacks like the deadly bombings in Baghdad last week ahead of the January election.

PAKISTAN: Pakistani forces continue their offensive in South Waziristan. Aaj TV is reporting that the Pakistani army is closing in on a major Taliban base and has killed 14 insurgents over the last 24 hours.

Producer Gary Strieker reports from Ethiopia’s Amhara region where 60 percent of children suffer from trachoma.

For more on Worldfocus’ coverage on Ethiopia, click here.

JAPAN: A Japanese navy ship intercepted a medium-ranged ballistic missile in a test off the coast of Hawaii. Japan has been investing in U.S.-developed ballistic missile defense systems since North Korea test fired a long ranged ballistic missile over northern Japan in 1998.

MALAYSIA: Malaysia’s Islamic party has called Muslim men in the country to marry single mothers as their additional wives instead of “young, virgin girls.” Men in Malaysia are allowed to marry up to four women under the approval of the Islamic courts. Government officials said this will “ease the burden” on the single mothers as they need support to take care of their kids.

INDONESIA: Authorities in Indonesia said they might expel the 78 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers if they fail to cooperate with them over identity checks. The ethnic Tamil refugees were intercepted in international waters near Indonesia 11 days ago while trying to reach Australia.

ZIMBABWE: Al Jazeera English is reporting that  UN special rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak was denied entry to Zimbabwe.

SUDAN: African Union leaders are discussing various proposals to resolve the ongoing crisis in Darfur, reports Al-Arabiya.

IRAN: Iran’s Islamic Students News Agency is reporting that Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh has delivered his country’s response to the IAEA. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said  the West is moving from confrontation to cooperation on the issue, and the United Nations watchdog agency says it is hopeful an agreement can be reached.

According to the Middle East online news site, more than 60 Iraqi security force members have been arrested following the two bombings in Baghdad that killed more than 150 people. The New York Times is reporting on corruption on Iraq.

PAKISTAN: Pakistan Dawn TV reported on US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s town hall meeting where she told a Pakistani audience that Pakistan was not alone in its fight against militants and reiterated strong U.S. support for its ally.

ISRAEL: In Israel today, Haaretz is covering that country’s observation of the 14th year anniversary — according to the Jewish calendar — of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

PALESTINE: Palestinian Ma’an news agency said that Hamas’s Prime Minister in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh has told an American delegates on a medical mission in Gaza that he welcomes the U.S. change of language on the Middle East conflict.

Last year, the Economist magazine slotted Ethiopia as the fourth fastest growing economy in the world, ahead of China. The World Bank report “Doing Business 2010” ranks Ethiopia in the top 10 African nations in terms of the ease of doing business. The Ethiopian government is trying to strengthen local and regional businesses and attract foreign direct investment.

Martin Savidge, Ethiopian businessman Ermyas Amelga and economics professor Phillip LeBel discuss how easy it is to do business in Ethiopia, who’s investing and what this means as Ethiopia moves from an agrarian society to a more urban society. The entrenched poverty hinders the robust investment environment, saddling the country with drought, food shortages and inadequate infrastructure.

Some highlights from the show:

• Ethiopia is not a resource-based economy. The sectors that are thriving in Ethiopia are real estate, construction, services, manufacturing, textiles and commercial agriculture with arable land leasing
• A growing population topping 80 million people make Ethiopia a strong consumer society
• Major investors in Ethiopia: China, India, Turkey and Egypt — the U.S. is not a major investor
• Ethiopia’s poverty-stricken image and government-controlled electronic communications and the Internet are potential hurdles to foreign investment
• Ethiopia’s Diaspora community is driving Ethiopia’s real estate boom

Martin Savidge hosts the following guests:

Ermyas Amelga is an Ethiopian businessman based in Addis Ababa. In 1996, he returned to Ethiopia after academic training and working in investment banking in the U.S. He has founded or acquired 11 companies, overseeing more than 2000 employees in the mining, oil, agriculture and financial services sectors. Ermyas also consults investors on entering the Ethiopian market.

Phillip LeBel is an economist and business professor at Montclair State University in New Jersey. He specializes in economics of developing countries, with emphasis on Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia. This Spring, he was a Fulbright senior fellow in Addis Ababa teaching natural resources economics. He has consulted for USAID, the World Bank, UNESCO, WHO, FAO and the U.S. State Department on various subjects pertaining to economic policy issues.

For more coverage on Ethiopia, watch Worldfocus’ signature videos on the coffee industry, a remote village and Ethiopia’s history and beauty. Watch the PBS Wide Angle film “The Market Maker” about one woman who has created a commodities exchange and revolutionized agricultural distribution in the country.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti and Ben Piven

Worldfocus correspondent Martin Seemungal reports from Ethiopia’s coffee country, where farmers are deciding to plant corn and khat, a leafy drug that is chewed with stimulating effects somewhere between caffeine and cocaine.

For more on Worldfocus’ coverage on Ethiopia, click here. Listen to Worldfocus Radio on Entrepreneurship in Ethiopia. Watch the PBS Wide Angle film “The Market Maker” about one woman who has created a commodities exchange and revolutionized agricultural distribution in the country.

For more on Worldfocus’ coverage on Ethiopia, click here.

INDIA: Indian Foreign Minister welcomed his Russian and Chinese counterparts to Bangalore on Tuesday for talks about trilateral cooperation on regional and international issues.

SOUTH KOREA: Hospitals in South Korea on Tuesday began administering the country’s first locally developed vaccine for swine flu as three more South Koreans infected with the H1N1 have died. As of Monday the virus had killed 25 people in the country.

CHINA: The Chinese government has confirmed that two Tibetans have been executed for their involvement in the riots in Tibet last year in which at least 22 people died.

GUINEA : Human Rights Watch on Tuesday said that the killings that occurred on September 28 by security forces in the Guinean capital Conakry were premeditated. The European Union has imposed an arms embargo and sanctions against Guinea, and the restrictions specifically target Guinea’s military leaders.

SUDAN: Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir will not be attending an African Union meeting on Darfur in Nigeria this week. Human rights groups have been pressuring the government to arrest Bashir should he attend the meeting. Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

ISRAEL: According to an Amnesty International report published today in Haaretz, Israel is denying West Bank Palestinians adequate access to clean, safe water, while allowing an almost unlimited supply to Israeli settlers there.

IRAN: Iran’s Al Alam TV reports that Iran will accept a United Nations deal on Iran’s nuclear program after “very important changes” are made.

TURKEY: Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is on a visit to neighboring Iran. Hurriyet reports that the purpose of the visit is to improve ties between Iran and Turkey.