EU: The Euro is adopted by 13 countries and is used by 315 million people

European Economic Community

A prominent policy goal of the European Union is the development and maintenance of an effective single market. Significant efforts have been made to create harmonised standards claimed by their proponents to bring economic benefits through creating larger, more efficient markets. Since the Treaty of Rome, policies have implemented free trade of goods and services among member states, and continue to do so. This policy goal was further extended to three of the four EFTA states by the European Economic Area, EEA. Common EU competition law restricts anti-competitive activities of companies (through antitrust law and merger control) and member states (through the State Aids regime). The EU promotes free movement of capital between member states (and other EEA states). The members have a common system of indirect taxation, the VAT, as well as common customs duties and excises on various products.

New member states expect investments financed with EU Structural Funds and Cohesion Funds, (motorway in Katowice, Poland)They have a Common Agricultural Policy (with the Common Fisheries Policy) and the structural and cohesion funds, which improve infrastructure and assist disadvantaged regions. Together they are known as the cohesion policies. The EU also has funds for emergency financial aid, for instance after natural disasters. The funding extends to programmes in candidate countries and other Eastern European countries, as well as aid to many developing countries, through programmes such as Phare, TACIS, ISPA. The EU also funds research and technological development, through four-year Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development.

In a more political sense, the EU attempts to create – with much controversy – a sense of European citizenship and European political life. That includes freedom for citizens of the EU to vote and to stand as candidates in local government and European Parliament elections in any member state.[15] The European Parliament is now attempting to create pan-European political parties, and almost all members have joined at least a federation of national political parties.

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UN against amnesty to those guilty of war crimes

Kampala (Uganda) The United Nation High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, in a statement released Saturday ahead of the resumption of talks between the government and the LRA to end Uganda’s two-decade civil war has urged that any peace deal must not offer an amnesty to those guilty of war crimes.

Arbor said the government of Uganda and the LRA must reject impunity and ensure respect for international standards during the peace talks set to resume Sunday in Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan. She said it was critical that those responsible for gross violations against civilians and children be held to account. She said any accord must reaffirm the commitment of both parties to the core principle of international law that there can be no amnesty for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and gross violations of human rights.

Tens of thousands of people died and 1.7 million were uprooted in northern Uganda after a popular uprising in 1986 sparked one of Africa’s longest wars.

The peace talks that began last year produced a truce in August, but little progress has been made since. The government and LRA are now set to embark upon the thorny issue of accountability for war crimes.

LRA leader Joseph Kony and four other commanders are wanted in the International Criminal Court (ICC) over allegations of wholesale killing of civilians, rape and child abduction. The rebels have repeatedly said they would never make peace unless the indictments are dropped.

In her statement, Arbour stressed that those indicted by the ICC must be brought to the Hague-based court. She encouraged parties in Juba to commit to a national victim-centered consultative process aimed at gathering the views of all stakeholders on appropriate justice, accountability and reconciliation mechanisms.

The High Commissioner commended the parties for extending the cessation of hostilities agreement and said the Juba talks provided a unique opportunity to set a framework for the longer term restoration of the rule of law and the rebuilding of a democratic society.

Meanwhile, the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki- moon, Saturday voiced concern over the use of child soldiers in Uganda and Somalia, while unveiling two reports detailing the situation of children in the two countries.

In his report on Somalia, the Secretary-General estimated that more than one third of the victims who were killed and injured in fighting there in 2006 were children.

The UN Secretary General said that the recruitment and use of child soldiers by Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government and other armed groups is a significant concern.

Commenting on the situation in Uganda, Ban ki-moon urged the leaders of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) to take immediate steps to end child recruitment and the use of child soldiers, and to immediately release all children to child protection agencies.

UN estimates that more than 250,000 children continue to be exploited as child soldiers in over 30 conflicts around the world.

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The two factions fighting for the control of the West African Football Union (WAFU) will meet respectively on Saturday in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, and Tuesday in Lagos, Nigeria

Dakar (Senegal) The two factions fighting for the control of the West African Football Union (WAFU) will meet respectively on Saturday in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, and Tuesday in Lagos, Nigeria, to discuss the launching or speed up of the implementation of programmes.

First to hold a meeting is the zonal authority chaired by the Ivorian Jacques Anouma, elected in April 2004, and claiming the status of “statutory president”.

He convened a “briefing” last Saturday in the Ivorian economic capital.

Three points are on the agenda : “the situation of WAFU, the preparations of the 16-nation tournament and any other business,” as indicated in the invitation letter sent by WAFU secretary-general Abou Traore.

This week, Cote d’Ivoire gave the Anouma faction 600 million CFA francs (approximately 1 million Euro) for the holding of the 16 WAFU member-countries’ tourney.

Anouma, whose mandate should end in April 2008, was deposed and replaced by Nigerian Amos Adamu, at an extraordinary general assembly organised on 14 March in Accra by 9 of the 16 members. They denounced the “lethargy” of the structure and the “problems” of its management.

The president of the Ivorian football association (FIF) rejected these charges, claiming he is a victim of a « putsch attempt”.

The Adamu-led faction has called for a general assembly next Tuesday in Lagos, Nigeria.

They intend, during this meeting, to launch Adamu’s programme, with particularly the signing of contracts with sponsors, an official of the Senegalese football association (FSF), member of the Nigeria faction, said.

At a press conference held in April in Lagos, Adamu promised to manage a bold policy to search for means and to get down to the regular organisation of zonal competitions as well as competitions at club and national levels.

WAFU has 16 members which are Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, The Gambia, Sierra Leone , Niger, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Cape Verde, Mauritania, Senegal, Liberia, Ghana, Burkina and Mali.

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The scarcity of health centers and access to basic health in post-war Liberia has become a matter of serious concern

Monrovia (Liberia) The scarcity of health centers and access to basic health in post-war Liberia has become a matter of serious concern to the authorities, APA has learnt.

As a result of this type of a situation, sick people have to walk several miles in some parts of the country, specially the southeast, the most backward part of Liberia, to access medical services.

Recently, there was the story of how a woman who walked several miles in eastern Grand Kru County to seek medical treatment at a clinic died after she was forced to overdose herself.

The senior Senator of the County, Blamo Nelson told journalists Saturday how the lady, after obtaining her drugs for an unnamed ailment, began her return journey on foot.

Mid-way during the journey, he said, it began to rain, and the unprotected drugs got wet and dissolved. The illiterate lady, not wanting to lose the drugs for which she undertook the long journey on foot, decided to swallow them. Not knowing the effect this would have on her, the lady swallowed all the drugs. She staggered her way back home, only to give up the ghost shortly upon arrival.

“It is a pathetic story. The woman preferred to die than lose the drugs for which she had suffered so much,” Senator Nelson observed.

Grand Kru County, one of the most backward political sub-divisions of Liberia, lacks everything from roads to schools and hospitals.

A recent publication reported that Grand Kru lacked a full-fledged medical doctor, and has only one physician assistant, three registered nurses and no more than four nurse aids, at its referral hospital.

A recent humanitarian report noted that about 75 per cent of medical services in post-war Liberia are provided by NGOs.

This is authenticated by government’s admission earlier this week, that it has no capacity to run the government hospital in the northern provincial town of Foya, following the withdrawal of the medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) from the town. MSF argued that the emergency situation that prompted its intervention in the area no longer exists.

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Nigeria and Cameroon Friday signed in Abjua, the Nigerian federal capital, an agreement to seal the final delineation of the maritime boundary

Lagos (Nigeria) Nigeria and Cameroon Friday signed in Abjua, the Nigerian federal capital, an agreement to seal the final delineation of the maritime boundary between the two countries, APA learns here.

The documents were signed by the head of the Nigerian delegation, Mr. Bola Ajibola and his Cameroonian counterpart, Amadou Ali.

The Chairman of the Nigeria-Cameroon Mixed Commission, Ahmadou Abdallah, who witnessed the ceremony, commended the leadership of both countries for taking the boundary dispute before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

“It is hoped that, this will open fruitful prospects of co-operation in the common interest of their people,’’ Abdallah said.

The head of the commission said that it directed the joint team to finalise the conversion of the British Admiralty Chart 3433, containing the maritime boundary line, approved by the parties and adopted by the commission.

He noted that the Mixed Commission also decided that the joint team would compare the different options obtained from the points surveyed during the field mission at sea, carried out last November.

The chairman also said that it would compare the four-point option proposed by the Cameroonian delegation and the 14-point option presented by the UN experts.

According to him, the parties agreed that the Commission would consider any other option from the surveyed points that would realistically respect the terms of reference.

He said that it was also agreed that it would decide on the final option to be adopted during the fifth extraordinary session of the commission.

Speaking after signing the documents, Ajibola, who recalled the history of the boundary dispute between the two states, described it as an end to a long process.

“The dispute was a tough one, we had series of disagreements, but the end justifies the means,’’ he said.

Ajibola also commended Cameroon and the UN for the amicable resolution of the dispute, while Ali commended Nigeria for her maturity.

“We have made a big leap forward and I hope that by 2008, we would have completed the whole process,’’ Ali said.

Nigeria and Cameroon had to table their boundary dispute before the ICJ, following their inability to resolve the matter amicably.

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Desertions in the Niger Intervention and Security Forces (FNIS) is continuing in favour of the rebel Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ)

Niamey (Niger) Desertions in the Niger Intervention and Security Forces (FNIS) is continuing in favour of the rebel Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ), thus causing a situation of insecurity which sometimes even compels the abandoning of development projects carried out in the Agadez region (north), the Niger bi-monthly newspaper “Aïr Info” reported Friday in Niamey.

According to the paper, “over ten FNIS agents no longer answer to the call,” adding that these agents “deserted with their weapons and state ammunition.”

Last week, a Non-Commissioned Officer stationed in Aderbissanet (950 km north) and on a mission in Agadez “disappeared after sneaking away from his superiors” the same source said.

Armed attacks by MNJ men have been revived, since February, the security concerns in this region which faced an armed rebellion in the early 1990s.

For a few months now, the MNJ carried out repeated attacks against the Niger armed forces as well as the interests of the French industrial group, AREVA, titleholder of several uranium extraction sites in the region, “Aïr Info” said.

The implementation of the development programmes in Agadez, since the end of the Tuareg rebellion in 1995, is slowing down because of some “unfortunate acts such as the theft of vehicles of development projects,” the newspaper continued.

“Development projects are closing down or limiting their intervention area,” it added, noting that projects prospecting the mineral resources in El Mecki “suspended their work and went back to Niamey to wait for better days or concrete security guarantees”.

The theft of the vehicles of public services or development organizations has become the daily lot of the people of this area, such as « the 9 May carjacking of a vehicle belonging to the Niger Water Development Company, when it was making its rounds at the Kirboubou pumping station “.

The newspaper also mentioned the disappearance of an Irish Red Cross vehicle and the attack on an ambulance around Arlit and a fuel depot belonging to a private individual.

At the beginning of last week, the Niamey authorities, through the National Defence Minister, excluded any kind of negotiations with the MNJ, which in their eyes, is “a group of armed gangsters”.

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The Guinean head of state, General Lansana Conte, has sacked by decree the Defence Minister General Arafan Camara and the Army chief of staff

Conakry (Guinea) The Guinean head of state, General Lansana Conte, has sacked by decree the Defence Minister General Arafan Camara and the Army chief of staff Kerfala Camara, noted the presidential decree published Saturday in Conakry.

General Bailo Diallo, renown for being very strict, replaces General Arafan Camara as National Defence Minister, according to the decree read on the national radio.

Brigadier General Diarra Camara, previously heading the third military region, replaces Army chief of staff Camara.

General Lansana Conte also relieved of a command the deputy army chief of staff, General Ibrahima Diallo, as well as the director of the supplies office, Colonel Bambo Fofana.

From now, Colonel Mamadou Sampil is the number two of the army to replace General Ibrahima Diallo.

Commander Korka Diallo replaces Colonel Bambo Fofana of the Supplies office.

Malick Diakite is promoted deputy manager of supplies office.

Commander Abdoulaye Cherif Diaby is appointed General Manager of the Army health service to replace Lt. Colonel Nabe.

Through this step, President Conte grants thus one of the demands made by the soldiers who, for about two weeks, have been rebelling in the barracks.

The soldiers demanded the full payment of their 9 years salary arrears, the sacking of several amongst their seniors whom they believe have embezzled their wages.

Following heavy shootings noted in military barracks almost all over the country, Prime Minister Lansana Kouyate Friday called to calm the mutineers ensuring that all their demands will be satisfied.

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