Mandela calls on world leaders to fight poverty

Former South African president Nelson Mandela has called on world leaders and business to ensure that they address the question of global poverty. He also called on the youth of South Africa to behave with the discipline which, Madiba says, has allowed him to live to the age of 90.

Madiba was speaking at his house in Qunu in the Eastern Cape, where he is celebrating his birthday surrounded by members of his family. Madiba and Graca are also celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary. They will have a private lunch, at which traditional Xhosa food is expected to feature prominently – according to Mandela’s personal chef, Xoliswa Ndoyiya who has cooked for and looked after Madiba for the past 15 years.

Ndoyiya says he is very strict about eating healthy food including meat cooked without oil and lots of green vegetables but she says he often craves traditional Xhosa food such as umngqushu and dumplings. And that’s why today’s birthday meal will include tripe, sheep’s head (skopo) boiled lamb and oxtail. There’s fruit for dessert, but Ndoyiya says Madiba can’t go without his double toffee ice cream, irrespective of the weather.

South Africa and the world are gripped by Madiba Magic, as the world’s most loved icon celebrates his 90th birthday. Tributes range from songs by little children to sobering birthday messages.

Original source can be read here, http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/general/0,2172,173475,00.html

Israel confirms identity of soldiers’ bodies

Hezbollah has handed the bodies of two Israeli soldiers to the Red Cross to be exchanged for Lebanese prisoners held by Israel.

Many Israelis see it as a painful necessity, two years after the soldiers’ capture sparked a 34-day war with Hezbollah that killed about 1,200 people in Lebanon and 159 Israelis.

Two black coffins were unloaded from a Hezbollah vehicle at a UN peacekeeping base on the Israel-Lebanon border after a Hezbollah official, Wafik Safa, disclosed for the first time that army reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were dead.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) took the coffins and drove them into Israel.The Israeli army positively identified the bodies.

A report on Israeli radio said Israeli generals were on the way to notify the families of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. An Israeli military spokesman said earlier there would be no official announcement on the matter until the families were informed.

“We are now handing over the two imprisoned Israeli soldiers, who were captured by the Islamic resistance on July 12, 2006, to the ICRC,” Mr Safa said at the border. “The Israeli side will now hand over the great Arab mujahid (holy warrior) … Samir Qantar and his companions to the ICRC.”

In a deal mediated by a UN-appointed German intelligence officer, Israel was to free Mr Qantar and four other prisoners.

Mr Qantar had been serving a life prison term for the deaths of four Israelis, including a four-year-old girl and her father, in a 1979 Palestinian guerrilla attack on an Israeli town.

The fathers of the two Israelis soldiers spoke of their pain at watching the television pictures of their sons’ coffins. “It is not easy to see this, although there was not much surprise to it. But … confronting this reality was difficult, yes,” Shlomo Goldwasser told Israel radio.

Zvi Regev said on Army Radio: “It was very moving when we saw it. We couldn’t watch too long. It was a terrible thing to see, really terrible. I was always optimistic, and I hoped all the time that I would meet Eldad and hug him.”

An ICRC truck later drove into Lebanon with the bodies of eight Hezbollah fighters killed during the 2006 war.

Israel will also hand over the remains of nearly 200 Arabs killed trying to infiltrate northern Israel. Hezbollah will return the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in south Lebanon.

The deal also calls for Israel to release scores of Palestinian prisoners at a later date as a gesture to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Hezbollah has dubbed the exchange “Operation Radwan”, in honour of “Hajj Radwan”, or Imad Moughniyah, the group’s military commander who was assassinated in Syria in February.

Yellow Hezbollah flags and banners fluttered across south Lebanon and along the coastal highway from the border village of Naqoura to the capital, Beirut. “Liberation of the captives: a new dawn for Lebanon and Palestine,” one banner read.

Israel denounced the planned festivities.

“Samir Qantar is a brutal murderer of children and anybody celebrating him as a hero is trampling on basic human decency,” Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s spokesman Mark Regev said.

For some Lebanese, the exchange demonstrated the futility of the devastating conflict with Israel two summers ago.

“There shouldn’t have been a war in 2006. A lot of lives were lost,” said Rami Nasereddine, an 18-year-old student in downtown Beirut. “It’s good that the prisoner exchange is taking place. Israel should have done that two years ago.”

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas said the prisoner swap strengthened its own position in demanding the release of hundreds of long-serving prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured two years ago near the Gaza Strip.

“This is a great victory to the resistance and to Hezbollah and it is a festival for the Lebanese prisoners and their families,” Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said in Gaza.

Original source can be read here, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/16/2305933.htm

Rasool says he’ll go quietly

Premier Ebrahim Rasool says he will obey his political masters and go quietly if instructed to do so by the ANC.

On Monday morning Rasool spoke out about his imminent axing, a decision reportedly taken by the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC), as speculation grew that a complete overhaul of the provincial cabinet is expected to follow, with MECs believed to be aligned to the premier also facing the chop.

A similar purge is expected in the Eastern Cape after Premier Nosimo Balindlela was also effectively sacked by the NEC.

‘You can’t hide newspapers from your children’

By Monday morning Rasool had still not been informed that he was due to be sacked, or forced to resign.

He said the news had been “a long time coming” and he was thus “not unduly shattered”, this in reference to his long-standing battle with political foes within the ANC, in particular a faction led by provincial secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha and his deputy Max Ozinsky.

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He described the internal battles within the ANC as “a dangerous cocktail of matters in the Western Cape”.

Rasool believed that one could possibly question whether the decision had been the “wisest”, the “fairest” or the most “even-handed”. But “it’s good someone is making a decisive intervention”.

“For many, the fact that there is an intervention to get the ANC ready for 2009 should be a relief. I feel fairly relieved that the thing is coming to a head,” he admitted.

Rasool said that while he would obey any ANC decision, handing over the premiership would have a significant impact on his life.

“You can’t hide newspapers from your children, in their heads you have to prepare them at a personal level,” he said after news of his departure made headlines on Sunday.

Similarly, a transition needed to be made in the government and politically, too, he said.

Asked what he might pursue personally, he said: “I’ve not been preparing for a life outside the work that I do now, but as soon as I’m told, those are the things I will have to activate.”

Rasool said there were many callings where he could possibly play a role. Among them was his continued belief in making the Western Cape “a home for all”, his provincial government’s slogan.

Other matters in which he wished to continue to play a role were in dealing with Islamaphobia, Islamic radicalism and other post-September 11 dynamics, “instances in which people have not found one another”.

He would not ask the ANC for any role in particular.

However, “I hope that people will concede that I may have some talents”, he said.

Asked on Good Hope FM whether he supported ANC leader Jacob Zuma, he said: “I had my worries and I failed in my preferences (when President Thabo Mbeki lost the ANC presidency).

“But I have reconciled with the leadership elected; that’s the way democracy works. I have done nothing to undermine that leadership.”

News of Rasool’s axing has been described by some ANC members as an “unashamed purge”.

Community Safety MEC Leonard Ramatlakane, Education MEC Cameron Dugmore and Environment and Economic Planning MEC Tasneem Essop are also believed to be on their way out.

Finance and Tourism MEC Lynne Brown is tipped to take Rasool’s place as acting premier until a new premier is appointed after 2009’s election.

Provincial parliament Deputy Speaker Yousuf Gabru and ANC provincial executive committee members Zodwa Magwaza and Max Ozinsky are among those up for new cabinet positions.

Sources say the cabinet shake-up would be the provincial ANC’s baby and not that of the NEC.

“Who takes over from whom will be discussed at provincial level,” said an ANC source.

Meanwhile, a special sitting of the provincial legislature is expected to take place on Tuesday, when Rasool will either have to resign or be forced out by a two-thirds vote of the legislature.

While some ANC sources say Rasool and Balindlela were both sacked by the NEC for being “behind factional divisions in their provinces”, others say the “redeployments” are strategic, to strengthen the party ahead of next year’s elections and “had nothing to do with personalities”.

However, the two premiers publicly supported Mbeki for a third term as ANC president before the party’s landmark national conference in Polokwane in December.

Rasool’s sacking comes two months after he told the Cape Argus he was “as surprised as everyone else that he still has his job after publicly supporting Mbeki in Polokwane”.

Sources inside the NEC meeting told the Cape Argus that when the Western Cape issues came up for discussion on Saturday evening, two proposals were put on the table by the national working committee (NWC), which had been investigating matters relating to the province.

The NWC proposed that Rasool be dismissed, and provincial ANC chairperson James Ngculu and secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha not contest elections at July’s provincial conference.

“The former suggestion was ‘unanimously’ endorsed while the latter was squashed by the NEC, with some calling for the NWC to apologise to Skwatsha for even contemplating that proposal,” said one source.

The NWC was expected to visit both the Eastern and Western Cape on Monday and Tuesday to explain their decisions to provincial structures.

While Brown’s star continues to rise in the ANC, it is not clear whether Rasool’s would diminish altogether or he would remain a member of the provincial parliament.

Brown was elected to the NEC at the Polokwane conference and post-Polokwane she has also been chairing the NEC’s sub-committee on legislature and governance.

The ANC in the province has beens divided into two warring camps, one headed by Rasool and the other by Skwatsha.

The NEC’s “intervention” comes after the infighting escalated in the past few months, with accusations of data manipulation, break-ins at ANC offices, accusations of sexual harassment and guns going off at branch meetings, all culminating in Skwatsha’s stabbing in June.

This all plays itself out just three weeks before the provincial conference scheduled for the second week of August.

In response to the dismissals, DA leader Helen Zille said the ANC’s factional power-play had triumphed over service delivery.

Zille said: “Reports of the imminent removal of premiers Nosimo Balindlela and Ebrahim Rasool demonstrate yet again that ANC decisions are driven by factional power plays, not the interests of the people. Service delivery is never a consideration for the ANC in making these decisions.”

She said it should be noted that, contrary to some press reports, the ANC NEC did not have the power to remove or appoint premiers.

“The constitution clearly states that premiers can only be removed by a resolution in a provincial legislature adopted with a supporting vote of at least two-thirds of its members.

The ID’s Patricia de Lille said the dismissals would lead to a loss of support for the ruling party in both provinces.

Original source can be read here, http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=6&art_id=vn20080714114230896C760608

Jesse Jackson Apologizes for Remarks on Obama

WASHINGTON — The Rev. Jesse Jackson apologized on Wednesday for critical and crude comments he made about Senator Barack Obama, remarks in which he accused Mr. Obama of “talking down to black people.”

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Mr. Jackson, before an interview with a Fox News anchor on a different topic, sharply criticized Mr. Obama for how he has been referring to African-Americans. He specifically took issue with how Mr. Obama had singled out black men in recent speeches for failing to uphold their responsibility as fathers.

Mr. Jackson’s words, which included a vulgar reference, were recorded by a live microphone on Sunday. His apology came after Fox News said it would broadcast the remarks on “The O’Reilly Factor” on Wednesday night.

“I don’t want harm nor hurt to come to this campaign,” Mr. Jackson said in an afternoon news conference in Chicago, after his comments were referred to throughout the day on cable television. He called his words “hurtful and wrong.”

Mr. Jackson, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, has been a supporter of Mr. Obama. He has played no formal role in the campaign, but tensions have occasionally flared behind the scenes with Mr. Jackson, who is known for his outspokenness and his penchant for drawing attention to himself.

Mr. Obama’s candidacy has served as an example of a generational and stylistic shift in black political leadership in America. The remarks drew an unusually stern rebuke from Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., Democrat of Illinois, who also serves as a national co-chairman of Mr. Obama’s presidential campaign.

“Reverend Jackson is my dad, and I’ll always love him,” the congressman said Wednesday evening in a statement. He added, “I thoroughly reject and repudiate his ugly rhetoric. He should keep hope alive and any personal attacks and insults to himself.”

In a statement issued by the campaign, Mr. Obama accepted the apology from Mr. Jackson. But a spokesman said Mr. Obama would not refrain from calling upon fathers to take greater responsibility and participate in their children’s lives.

“As someone who grew up without a father in the home, Senator Obama has spoken and written for many years about the issue of parental responsibility, including the importance of fathers participating in their children’s lives,” said Bill Burton, a campaign spokesman.

Mr. Jackson made his remarks before an interview on “Fox & Friends” on Sunday during a segment about health care. The comments, which came when Mr. Jackson thought he was speaking privately, were brought to light on Wednesday when Bill O’Reilly, the host of “The O’Reilly Factor,” announced his intention to play the exchange. At least one of the words had to be blocked out.

Mr. Jackson’s comments apparently were a reaction to a speech Mr. Obama delivered on Father’s Day, when he told a Chicago church congregation that “we need fathers to recognize that responsibility doesn’t just end at conception.” Mr. Obama often tells his audiences that absentee fathers are, in part, to blame for some of the problems afflicting black Americans.

That message prompted Mr. Jackson to accuse Mr. Obama of “talking down to black people.” Mr. Jackson said other issues should be highlighted, including unemployment, the mortgage crisis and the number of blacks in prison.

In a statement, Mr. Jackson said, “My appeal was for the moral content of his message to not only deal with the personal and moral responsibility of black males, but to deal with the collective moral responsibility of government and the public policy which would be a corrective action for the lack of good choices that often led to their irresponsibility.”

Original source can be read here, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/us/politics/10jackson.html

Ginwala probe focuses on plea bargains

Two weeks of intensive listening and questioning began to take its toll at the Ginwala inquiry into Vusi Pikoli’s fitness to hold office, as the suspended prosecutions boss started showing signs of exasperation at having to repeat questions he had earlier answered.

Ginwala inquiry to hear of plea deals

State advocate Seth Nthai grilled him on the National Prosecuting Authority’s approach to plea bargains in exchange for testimony on other cases, with a specific focus on the agreement reached with Clinton Nassif, who was convicted of being involved in the storage of over 2000kg of hashish.

In exchange, Pikoli said, he could testify on the murder of mining businessman Brett Kebble, the Paparas drug case and possibly National Commissioner of Police, Jackie Selebi’s case.

The Stage argues that there is no policy directive allowing this, and Pikoli counters that there is nothing to prevent it.

“These plea bargains are against policy and case law,” Nthai said to Pikoli.

“I disagree,” said Pikoli. “The acting national director (Mokotedi Mpshe) said they must go ahead. They have already been approved and sanctioned by the court.”

Nthai responded with: “The courts make mistakes (sic) won’t save you.”

Pikoli argued that although he took responsibility for what happened in his office, he had already been suspended when the Nassif plea bargain was finalised.

Nthai tackled him over the details of the plea bargain and went through the minutiae of Nassif’s affidavit, including that he said he accompanied Kebble murder accused Glenn Agliotti to Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton, and agreed to provide physical protection while a sum of several hundred thousands pounds was to be collected from a “Daniel”, in a story Nthai said read like a fairytale.

“Can you cut through this fat and get to the bone?” said a frustrated Pikoli, with inquiry chairwoman Frene Ginwala saying: “Move on, I don’t see the relevance of the detail.”

Shortly afterwards Nthai demanded that he explain the use of the latin term “functus officio” (having performed his office) when describing the court’s role in finalizing the plea bargains. Pikoli refused to answer, saying he would discuss it with Nthai privately.

Later, when interrupted by Nthai while replying to a question, an exasperated Pikoli said: “No man, before I finish. I am sorry, for this, I am sorry madam chair.”

A malfunctioning microphone provided respite in the form of an early tea adjournment and the two faced each other again on the matter, with Pikoli insisting that the courts weighed all the information given to them by prosecutors before making a decision.

Original source can be read here, http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=798136

3 rescued US hostages arrive safely in Texas

LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AP) — With little fanfare, three American hostages rescued from leftist guerillas in Colombia returned safely to the United States, more than five years after their plane went down in rebel-held jungle.

The men didn’t wave to reporters or bend down to kiss the ground upon their return late Wednesday. They simply boarded waiting helicopters, which took them to a hospital where they were expected to reunite with their families.

The U.S. military contractors — Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell — had been held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia since their drug-surveillance plane went down in the jungle in February 2003. Nowhere in the world have American hostages currently in captivity been held longer, according to the U.S. Embassy in Bogota.

The three were rescued when Colombian spies tricked leftist rebels into handing them over along with kidnapped presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. She was also freed Wednesday, as were 11 Colombian police and soldiers.

A plane carrying the Americans landed at Lackland Air Force Base shortly after 11 p.m. All appeared well as they exited the Air Force C-17. The men were then flown by choppers to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where they were expected to undergo tests.

Long before their rescue, it seemed like any public efforts to rescue the hostages had disappeared.

While France exhorted the world to care about the plight of Betancourt, and even sent a humanitarian mission in a failed rescue attempt this year, the U.S. government remained nearly silent about efforts to free the Americans, employees of a Northrop Grumman Corp. subsidiary that has supported Colombia’s fight against drugs and rebels.

Howes is a native of Chatham, Mass.; Gonsalves’ father lives in Hebron, Conn.; and Stansell’s family lives in Miami.

Their families complained publicly about what seemed to be the U.S. government’s failure to act.

“We didn’t know what the heck was going on,” Gonsalves’ father, George, told reporters. “I’m getting information from you guys.”

The Americans’ fate seemed particularly grim after “proof-of-life” images released in November showed them appearing haggard, even haunted, against a deep jungle background.

The contractors and Betancourt were among a group of rebel-designated “political prisoners” whom the FARC planned to release only in exchange for hundreds of imprisoned rebels. But every attempt at talking about a prisoner swap seemed to go nowhere.

Behind the scenes, however, Colombia’s armed forces were closing in on the rebels, with the help of billions of dollars in U.S. military support.

The U.S. and Colombian governments learned the hostages’ location “any number of times” and planned several rescue missions during their five years in captivity, but the difficulty of extracting them alive had prevented the missions from being carried out, according to a U.S. government official in Washington who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of intelligence matters.

Last month, Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said soldiers had spotted the three men in the southern jungles, but they disappeared into the forest before the troops could attempt a rescue.

After the men were freed, U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield said U.S. and Colombian forces cooperated closely on the rescue mission, including sharing intelligence, equipment, training advice and operational experience.

The Americans appeared healthy in a video shown on Colombian television, though Brownfield, who met with them at a Colombian military base, said two of the three were suffering from the jungle malady leishmaniasis and “looking forward to modern medical treatment.”

George Gonsalves was mowing his yard when an excited neighbor relayed the news he had seen on television.

“I didn’t know how to stop my lawnmower,” he said. “I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it.”

“We’re still teary-eyed and not quite have our wits about us,” said Stansell’s stepmother, Lynne.

And Howes’ niece, Amanda Howes, said the rescue “redefines the word miracle.”

Congratulations poured in to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe from President Bush and both presidential candidates. Republican Sen. John McCain said Uribe had told him in advance of the rescue plans while he was campaigning in Colombia. “It’s a very high-risk operation,” he said. “I congratulate President Uribe, the military and the nation of Colombia.”

Democrat Barack Obama also sent his congratulations, saying he supports “Colombia’s steady strategy of making no concessions to the FARC, and its targeted use of intelligence, military, law enforcement, diplomatic and political power to achieve important victories against terrorism.”

Gonsalves’ father, who later got a phone call from the FBI confirming his son was free, expected an emotional family reunion, especially for his son’s three children, now teenagers. “Think about your children if they don’t see you for a week a weekend or a month,” he said. “It’s five years pulled out of your life.”

Original source can be read here, http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iBtorXpFqZU8sqHzVJ4WUXv9epiQD91MBEA00