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/ 27 December 2007
World leaders voiced outrage at the assassination on Thursday of Pakistan’s opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and expressed fears for the fate of the nuclear-armed state. United States President George Bush condemned the killing as a ”cowardly act”.
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/ 27 December 2007
A new generation of nuclear power plants could burn 100 tonnes of surplus weapons-grade plutonium as a good way of keeping it away from terrorists, according to scientists working for the European Union. Most of Britain’s weapons-grade plutonium is held in bunkers at the Sellafield complex in Cumbria, behind three perimeters of razor wire.
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/ 27 December 2007
United Nations officials were on Wednesday night working to prevent the expulsion from Afghanistan of two senior Western diplomats who have been accused of holding illegal talks with Taliban leaders in the British theatre of operations in the southern province of Helmand.
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/ 27 December 2007
Six French aid workers were sentenced to eight years of hard labour each after a court in Chad found them guilty on Wednesday of trying to kidnap 103 children from the African country. The court in the capital N’Djamena handed down its sentence on the fourth day of the trial of six members of the French humanitarian group Zoe’s Ark.
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/ 26 December 2007
Two heavyweights of Kenya’s post-independence politics square off in a presidential vote on Thursday after a campaign that has overshadowed Christmas and seen the opposition holding a small lead in opinion polls. The closeness of the vote has raised fears that fraud and intimidation may be used to try to swing results.
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/ 24 December 2007
Two heavyweights of Kenya’s post-independence politics square off in a presidential vote on Thursday whose run-up has seen the opposition hold a small lead in opinion polls over President Mwai Kibaki. But the closeness of the vote has raised fears fraud and intimidation may be used to try to swing the result.
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/ 24 December 2007
Uzbekistan’s autocratic ruler Islam Karimov on Sunday tightened his grip on power, when he was re-elected president in an election condemned by opposition activists as illegal and a ”farce”. Karimov won an overwhelming victory despite being ineligible to stand as a candidate.
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/ 23 December 2007
The Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, on Sunday ruled out ceasefire negotiations with the Islamist movement Hamas and said his military was fighting a ”true war” against armed groups in Gaza. He warned of further Israeli military strikes in the days ahead which he said were intended to prevent Palestinian militants from firing makeshift rockets into Israel.
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/ 21 December 2007
European leaders on Friday hailed the expansion of the Schengen passport-free travel zone to nine mostly ex-East Bloc nations as a landmark moment for the continent’s integration. ”This is an historic moment for which we have been waiting for a long time,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
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/ 21 December 2007
The European Union’s chief election observer on Friday condemned violence that has marred the lead-up to Kenya’s elections, left at least 70 people dead since July and risks disenfranchising 20 000 people. Alexander Graf Lambsdorff was visiting the epicentre of tribal clashes that have been ongoing for months.
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/ 20 December 2007
United States President George Bush is to embark on a week-long tour of the Middle East in the new year to nudge Israelis and Palestinians towards an end to their decades-long conflict and to bolster an Arab coalition against Iran. It will be the first time in his seven years as president that Bush will have visited Israel, the West Bank, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states.
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/ 19 December 2007
Six French humanitarian workers accused of trying to kidnap 103 African children go on trial in Chad on Friday as speculation grows that a diplomatic deal could send them back to France. Although the accused risk forced labour sentences if convicted, Chadian lawyers and many citizens believe they will either be able to serve their jail terms in France
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/ 19 December 2007
The United Nations General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution on Tuesday calling for a moratorium on the death penalty, overcoming protests from a bloc of states that said it undermined their sovereignty. The resolution, which calls for ”a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty,” was passed by a 104 to 54 vote, with 29 abstentions.
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/ 18 December 2007
Microcredit, tiny loans to the world’s poorest, is booming and now benefits more than half a billion people but Africa and Latin America lag behind Asia and unscrupulous lenders are cashing in. The Microcredit Summit Campaign surveyed more than 3 000 microcredit bodies around the world and found they reported reaching 133-million people by the end of 2006.
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/ 17 December 2007
SantaSport, SantaFood, SantaPark, Hotel Santa Claus, Santa Hair Centre: in the Finnish Arctic town of Rovaniemi Father Christmas is everywhere, milked to the max by local businesses. ”Christmas tourism is a magnet for investments,” says Tuula Rintala-Gardin, the head of tourism for the municipality of Rovaniemi.
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/ 17 December 2007
The United States backtracked on Sunday on the climate change agreement reached after marathon talks in Bali, saying it had ”serious concerns” about the new global consensus and that developing countries had to do far more if there was to be any pact in two years’ time.
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/ 17 December 2007
Russia warned on Monday that Kosovo could slip into ”uncontrollable crisis,” ahead of a United Nations Security Council showdown over the Serbian province’s push for independence. The Russian Foreign Ministry warned that the ”indulgence” of some countries in allowing Kosovo to move towards independence could have ”serious negative consequences” for stability.
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/ 16 December 2007
A ”historic” Bali deal. A ”Berlin Wall” dividing rich and poor nations on global warming policy falls. And now comes the hard part. After the praise for the agreement hammered out at the Bali meeting to work out a climate treaty involving all nations by late 2009, governments will have to work out the details.
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/ 15 December 2007
Nearly 200 nations agreed at United Nations-led talks in Bali on Saturday to launch negotiations on a new pact to fight global warming after a reversal by the United States allowed a breakthrough. Washington said the agreement marked a new chapter in climate diplomacy after six years of disputes with major allies since President George Bush pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol
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/ 15 December 2007
India and China objected on Saturday to a draft deal at United Nations talks meant to launch negotiations to fight climate change, saying rich nations should do more to lead the way. ”The need of the hour is for enhanced commitments and instead we see a huge watering down,” said Indian delegate Chandrasekhar Dasgupta.
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/ 14 December 2007
The European Union’s biggest four countries are pushing to impose and oversee independence in Kosovo without a fresh United Nations mandate, risking a showdown with a resurgent Russia and fierce resistance from Serbia, which vows no surrender of Kosovo.
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/ 14 December 2007
Negotiators at climate talks in Bali on Friday struggled to break a deadlock over United States objections to goals for cutting emissions by dropping a reference to a non-binding 2020 target in draft text. But the European Union insisted the two-week talks, due to end on Friday, should set stiff 2020 guidelines for rich nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
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/ 9 December 2007
Most African leaders on Sunday rejected new trade deals demanded by the European Union, dealing a blow to efforts to forge a new economic partnership at the first European Union (EU)-Africa summit in seven years. The EU wants to replace expiring trade accords with so-called Economic Partnership Agreements or temporary deals.
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/ 9 December 2007
German Chancellor Angela Merkel directly confronted Robert Mugabe over human rights abuses in front of European and African leaders in Portugal on Saturday, putting the Zimbabwean leader under the spotlight at a summit that has been overshadowed by the despot’s presence.
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/ 8 December 2007
Leaders of Europe and Africa opened a landmark summit on Saturday designed to forge a new partnership of equals, but with strains showing over trade and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s presence. ”We are here … to write a new page in the history of Europe and Africa,” Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates said in an inaugural address.
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/ 8 December 2007
European and African leaders arriving for Saturday’s summit in Lisbon were accused by parliamentarians and human rights groups on both continents of trying to sweep human rights issues under the carpet. Much of the criticism was aimed at the absence of Darfur from the main agenda of the European Union-Africa meeting.
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/ 7 December 2007
His arrival may have been low-key, but veteran Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is likely to steal the spotlight at this weekend’s European Union-Africa summit with his first trip to Europe in more than two years. Usually the subject of a travel ban from the EU, Mugabe touched down in Lisbon late on Thursday.
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/ 7 December 2007
The leaders of Africa and the Europe Union (EU) gathered in Lisbon on Friday for a summit designed to forge a new era in ties, but which is in danger of being overshadowed by the presence of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe. The two-day summit in the Portuguese capital is set to be dominated by issues such as trade, immigration, the environment and human rights.
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/ 7 December 2007
Zimbabwe and three other African nations provisionally agreed on a regional free trade deal with the European Union (EU) on Thursday. The deal is part of EU efforts to meet a December 31 deadline set by the World Trade Organisation for replacing its trading system with former European colonies.
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/ 7 December 2007
Kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers, eurocrats and countless diplomats from 80 countries will mingle on Friday evening at a sprawling exhibition centre in the east of Lisbon, at the biggest gathering of European and African leaders ever staged.
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/ 7 December 2007
Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu urged European Union (EU) leaders on Friday to confront Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on his human rights record, saying
their silence would be interpreted as condoning violations. ”I am deeply saddened by what has happened,” said Tutu.
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/ 7 December 2007
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned that the new 26 000-strong peacekeeping force for Darfur ”is at risk” unless it gets 24 critically needed helicopters and he appealed again to all countries for help. ”While helicopters alone cannot ensure the success of the mission, their absence may well doom it to failure,” Ban said in a letter.