News briefs for June 18, 2008, an Africanamedia way of providing you with short read on events of interest.
OBAMA: BIN LADEN STILL FREE BECAUSE OF GOP TACTICS
Democrat Barack Obama says he’ll take no lectures from Republicans on who will keep America safer. GOP rival John McCain’s campaign criticized Obama Tuesday for speaking approvingly of the successful prosecution of terrorists. Read More
CLINTON AND OBAMA TO APPEAR TOGETHER TO RALLY HER DONORS
GORE ENDORSES OBAMA AS A SOLVER OF PROBLEMS
MCCAIN RISKS ‘FLIP-FLOP’ JIBES BY VOTERS
Nobody is yet calling John McCain a “flip-flopper”. But the Republican nominee’s increasingly finely balanced efforts to shore up his support among the shrinking Republican base while reaching out to independents is starting to fire up the critics....read more
OBAMA’S WIFE TO GET A NEW MAKE-OVER
Michelle Obama’s eyes flicker tentatively even as she offers a trained smile. As her campaign plane arcs over the Flathead Range in Montana, she is asked to consider her complicated public image.
Conservative columnists accuse her of being unpatriotic and say she simmers with undigested racial anger. A blogger who supported Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton circulates unfounded claims that Obama gave an accusatory speech in her church about the sins of “whitey.” Obama shakes her head.
“You are amazed sometimes at how deep the lies can be,” she says in an interview. Referring to a character in a 1970s sitcom, she adds: “I mean, ‘whitey?’ That’s something that George Jefferson would say. Anyone who says that doesn’t know me. They don’t know the life I’ve lived. They don’t know anything about me.”
Now her husband’s presidential campaign is giving her image a subtle makeover, with a new speech in the works to emphasize her humble roots and a tough new chief of staff. On Wednesday, Michelle Obama will do a guest turn on “The View,” the daytime talk show on ABC, with an eye toward softening her reputation....read more
EQUATORIAL GUINEA SEEKS 30NYEARS FOR MANN
Prosecutors in Equatorial Guinea have called for British mercenary Simon Mann to serve 30 years in jail for his 2004 coup plot, as his trial got under way....read more
AFRICA NEEDS EXTRA $40 BILLION AID - KOFI ANNAN
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has said Africa faces an aid shortfall of $40bn (£26bn).
Speaking at the launch of a new report by the Africa Commission, he said African leaders had to live up to their promises on good governance.
Mr Annan also chastised the industrialised world for failing to meet the pledges they gave to double aid by 2010.....read more
CONSENSUS GROWS FOR ZIMBABWE UNITY GOVERNMENT
Robert Mugabe’s strongest ally in the region, Angola, has thrown its weight behind the idea of a government of national unity in Zimbabwe...read more
WHY AFRICA IS BANKING ON CELLPHONES
For consumers in developed markets, using a cellphone for banking services is a smart add-on to a bank’s branch network. But to people in the developing world, the arrival of mobile banking—or m-banking—is potentially revolutionary.
If money is an economy’s lifeblood, improving its circulation plays a critical role. Many Africans living in rural areas, for instance, rely on money sent home by members of their family who work in towns and cities.
But getting that cash to a village that could be hundreds of kilometres away is a tricky business. In Kenya, for example, workers in urban areas hand wages over to bus drivers, who promise to stop off at the worker’s home village en route to their destination.
Even those who do have a bank account—and they make up only a few percent of Africa’s 950-million population—are restricted in what they can do with their money because of the dearth of branches in rural areas.....read more
SENIOR UN POLITICAL OFFICIAL MEETS WITH MUGABE
17 June 2008 – A senior United Nations political envoy has held talks with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe at the start of his visit to the Southern African country, aimed at reducing political tensions ahead of the run-off round of the presidential election later this month.....read more
CAPE VERDE AIRLINE PILOT THROWS OUT PRIME MINISTER
The national airliner of Cape Verde, TACV, this week asked the country’s Prime Minister José Maria Neves to leave one of its planes. The reason was that the captain did not want transport members of Mr Neves’ security guards, which were carrying arms.....read more
IMMIGRATION: NIGERIAN WINS IN US SUPREME COURT
A Nigerian has won a landmark case in the United States Supreme Court that has opened the way for millions of foreigners who overstay their visas to seek to remain in the country legally.
The case pitted Samson Dada, who stayed beyond the expiration of his tourist visa in 1998, against the U.S. Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) and the Justice Department.....read more
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