Moving http://africanpress.wordpress.com site to www.africanpress.in

API has now found a new permanent home. ALL API activities are expected to be carried out on the new site by the begining of the new year. API will operate the two sites for now and until the end of the year so as to avoid any activity disruption.

API is very thankful to WordPress who advised us today on elaborate ways to move our http://africanpress.wordpress.com to www.africanpress.in without loosing any of our articles and all the comments that posters have on the site. It means we will simply change the address but remain using some of WordPress’ templates.’

We will be independent and can do things our own way without having enemies report us to anyone.

WordPress has been good to us as they are good to other WordPress users and we appreciate their guidance.

Before we accomplish our plans to move the site, we will continue on this site as usual, but our readers will be allowwed limited hours daily to post their comments.

The question of the time to release the tape must be left to the MBOs to decide and we know, according to the contract that they will not let the American people down. They know when the impact will be great because one of the MBOs is American and knows the American audience well.

We realise through the advice given by many readers yesterday that the large number of people who send in emails are against the release of the tape. They make us believe that we will be opening wounds that has started to heal.

API has spoken to the MBOs today and came to an agreement to proceed despite the fact that there are more against the release than those for its release.

The MBOs have agreed to reschedule the airing date and will get back to us as soon as possible. Immediately we receive ffeedback from them, we will publish the schedules on the site here and the new site.

API will now stop discussing the tape and Imam document until we get feedback from the MBOs.

API is also scheduling interviews with interested TV and Radio  stations that have already taken contact with the MBOs. For the safety of API all interviews will be done through a telephone conference calls.

Any requests therefore by readers to have API comment on the tape and the Imam document will be met with silence.

 

API Editorial

Advising on what to do with Michelle Obama tape

Hi Chief,

 

I am just one opinion in a very large world……………….but here are my thoughts on the subject of the tapes and  the Iman:

 

(1) Personal Safety for you, staff and all families of staff is #1 in my book.  This comes before all else.  Is the danger worth the risk to the families of API and the Iman.  Only you, your staff and families can decide that.  If the only way to keep everyone safe is to not release the tape at this time, then I would say don’t release the tape.  Again, not my choice or anyone else’s choice except for of of you who are involved.   My first posts were about the dangers involved in this whole thing.  Other posters couldn’t understand what I was talking about.  Many people do not understand the risks that have to be   I say do what you need to do for you and your families.

 

(2)  Michelle Obama came to you.  She picked up the phone and called you.  I think that really needs to be emphasized over and over.  You were not out looking for a story.  She tracked you down and found you.  She initiated this whole situation.

 

(3)  Any violence “resulting” from API tape release is not API’s fault.  People have been threatening riots every step along the way.  When I was working on the Hillary Clinton campaign way back in April, people were threatening violence………….threatening to burn down Colorado if Clinton got the nomination.  The violent threats have been in the air a great deal longer than the API story. 

 

 I think people are really busy pointing fingers at who to blame, because they don’t want to look in the mirror.  There is certainly plenty of blame to go around.  I don’t think you should accept any blame thrown at you.  You haven’t done anything wrong.  You, if tapes released, are reporting a story…………….one that started because Michelle Obama called you…..not the other way around.

 

(4)Regarding timing of tape release–

 

Honestly Chief, I don’t think there is a perfect time or place.  I think it is as it is.  People have instilled this huge burden upon your shoulders.  To me, that is just wrong.  If you release the tapes, I would say do it on your own timeline, who care the day of the week or time.  Do what best works for you.

 

(5)  Finally Chief, in closing I would say one again that the vilolence threats have been going on long before the tapes even were made.  We dealt with people who were hostile, scary and violent a long time before the tapes. I was called racist, a communist, etc….had pictures of dead Iraqi children smack in my face…………………etc……………just because I was working for and voting for Clinton.  My computer has been attacked many times. I sent you that article about the 14 year old girl who did an experiment to test tolerance in Chicago.  What did she get?  Death threats……If there were to be violence in the streets after the tape release then it would not be the fault of API.  I think some people are just looking to get violent.  They don’t need a tape or a document.  They just want violence.

 

So Chief, as I have said before…………I encourage you to listen to your gut and soul and do what you need to do, regardless of anything people from the outside are throwing at you.Again I am just one person…………………….but I will fully support your  decision, whatever it may be. 

 

Resending you the Tolerance Test article.

 

Take care Chief and Peace to you.

 

From a good American reader

 

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WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT BARACK OBAMA?

We all know that many would like to get the truth about Mr Obama’s roots and especially if he was born to another citizenship and therefore only naturalized US citizen who is about to take over the presidency creating room for a constitutional crisis – http://www.africanpress.in/side7.html - that will most definitely cause unhealthy political situation that may plunge the country into chaos.

Obama has decided not to be straightforward on this and that leaves interested parties to do their own research and the results will soon be made public, not later than his probable inauguration.

Chief Editor Korir

Having your say: Will the Michelle Obama tape be aired anytime soon?

Strong feelings has risen due to the Michelle Obama tape and the Imam document on Mr Obama. The way the situation has been handled by API since the Michelle tape story broke out has made the readers to be divided in two groups. Those who believe the tape will be released and those who do not. All kinds of assurances by API has made no difference in the situation.

The two groups have different agendas. Those who would like to see Obama not getting inaugurated on the 20th of January 2009 as the US President and those who would like to ensure, by whatever means Obama takes the oath of office on that day.

API’s job is to bring news and stories to the readers and do not engage in activities that may be seen and concluded as taking sides. API’s tape is not supposed to raise tempers amongst the  American people, causing the people of  the only powerful nation in the world to hate one another.

API has a dilemma to deal with and will do so bravely for the sake of press freedom, after receiving 55,519 emails discussing the significance of the tape and what it might do to the country if the timing of the release of the tape is not well calculated.

As much as API wants to release the now “Golden Tape”, we do not wish to be connected with any riots, if any, after we tell the truth to the world and the Americans in Particular.

We are no longer struggling to convince people of the existence of the tape, – they have to believe or not believe. We are no longer using our energy to be concerned with API’s credibility or no-credibility. But we are concerned on what to do to get to the finishing line in what we started on the 15th of October, and yet we will not accept to be swayed by any party dictated by self interest or political gain in their efforts to make API do the regrettable – things that may connect us to civil disobedience of any kind.

API will now contact a number of people who have been actively involved in this from the start and agree with them on how to salvage the situation and come to a close.

We seek advise also from any one willing to give us advise today because we will sit down in the next few hours and make a final decision. Concerned readers may send to us advise by sending a direct mail to the Chief Editor using this personal mail address below, and while doing so, put yourself in our shoes concerning the security because we know things will change in our lives dramatically, after the tape is aired, an act that will definitely force us to re-sought to some underground safety measures.

korir@getmail.no

Tell the Chief Editor what you think must be done now. We seek for specific advise.

We will also be able to post comments later tonight and discus our way forward to the final countdown.

Appearing before a hearing in Congress.

The reason we come to the readers for advice is because word has come that it may become necessary to be summoned to appear before a Congress hearing. Our fear is to accept such a hearing in Washington and then we put our lives in direct danger. API will insist to be heard in a secret location, but we may face a problem if it is not accepted. We may stand weak because we do not know how the American laws are practised as concerns hearings by Non-America citizens.

We expect open-hearted advice from our readers who have so much shown interest in the developments of this Michelle Obama tape-situation.

Chief Editor Korir – API

How Barack Obama met Chicago poet/union activist Davis

November 29, 2008

The Dream Begins: How Hawai’i Shaped Barack Obama is the first book to explore President-elect Barack Obama’s friendship with Chicago union organizer-poet Frank Marshall Davis.

In 1948, Davis, an African American, and his wife, a white Chicago socialite named Helen Canfield Davis, visited Hawaii on a tip from Paul Robeson. They stayed the rest of their lives. Davis had been an editor with the Associated Negro Press in Chicago and wrote for the Gary (Ind.) American. In Hawaii, he became a champion of ethnic union workers while living in “The Waikiki Jungle” — a cluster of dense housing near the Diamond Head end of Waikiki.

“Barry’s grandfather brought him here to see Davis,” author Stu Glauberman says during a drive through the neighborhood.

Davis was an ally of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union that was organizing Hawaii’s plantations and docks.

 

API/Source.ChicagosunTimes

Europe: Russia praises US on Nato

 

Russia’s president has welcomed a decision by the US government against speeding up Nato membership to Georgia and Ukraine, two former Soviet republics. 

Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday he was “satisfied [that] common sense prevailed” in Washington’s decision not to fast-track Tblisi and Kiev through the membership process of the Western military alliance.

 

“Whatever the reasons, European pressure or whatever else, the main thing is that they [Washington] no longer push ahead with their previous ferociousness and senselessness,” he said in Havana, where he held talks with Cuban leaders. 

The comments came a day after Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, decided not to offer Georgia and Ukraine a formal roadmap to join Nato.

Washington led a push for the alliance to allow them in through a so-called Membership Action Plan, or MAP.

Britain has proposed investigating other ways to bring them into the alliance, Rice says.

Cuba visit

Moscow strongly opposes giving Nato membership to Georgia and Ukraine, saying that Russia’s security would be threatened if the two neighbours join the alliance.

Medvedev was in Havana to discuss energy, military and trade deals, having already visited Venezuela, itself a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec). 

Raul Castro, Cuba’s president, and Medvedev held talks on the global financial crisis and economic and military ties.

“We have a systematic dialogue. Our relations have been generally good, but in the past six months they have become especially intense,” Medvedev told reporters after meeting with Castro.

Medvedev is the first Russian leader to visit Havana since Vladimir Putin, then president, closed down Russia’s Lourdes intelligence base in 2001.

The closure of the base led to a souring of relations between the countries and the visit by Medvedev appears aimed at improving the bilateral relationship.

New markets

While Havana is looking diversify its trading partnerships, Russia is thought to be looking for new markets so that it can ride out the worldwide financial crisis.
 
The trip to the Cuban capital comes amid tensions between Moscow and Washington over Russia’s war with Georgia in August and US plans for a missile defence shield.

Moscow has said that Washington should abandon its economic embargo of Cuba, which was imposed in 1962, three years after Fidel Castro took power in an armed revolution.

Havana received economic and military support from Moscow during the Cold War but the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union badly damaged Cuba’s economy.

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API/Source.aljazeera

 

 

Middle East: Livni calls on Olmert to step down

 

Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, has called on Ehud Olmert, the acting prime minister, to stand down immediately due to corruption charges. 

Livni made the call on Thursday after authorities announced that they would press charges against Olmert.

 

“The prime minister has to take a leave of absence, there’s no other choice,” Livni said at a meeting of the ruling Kadima party in the Tel Aviv satellite town of Petah Tikva. 

“Israel cannot tolerate a situation where he is acting as prime minister after a decision to indict him. This is a moral test, this is a question of values and a practical test.”

Israel’s attorney general wants to try Olmert for alleged double billing of Jewish groups for trips abroad.

Olmert said in July that he would step down as prime minister and not contest parliamentary elections scheduled for February, to fight corruption allegations. He is currently head of a caretaker government

However, Livni has said that he should not wait untill the elections to resign.

His exit would allow Livni to become acting prime minister until the elections.

Livni became leader of the Kadima party in September after an internal election.

But she was unable to gather support of enough legislators to form a new ruling coalition, prompting February’s early vote.

 

 

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API/Source.aljazeera

Asia-Pacific: Maid abuse draws 18-year sentence

<Nirmala’s abuse four years ago is the worst-ever reported case in the country [AFP][AFP]A Malaysian mother of four has been sentenced to 18 years in jail for abusing her Indonesian domestic worker. 

Judge Akhtar Tahir sentenced Yim Pek Ha, 40, on Thursday after she was found guilty of inflicting horrific wounds on Nirmala Bonat, who was working for her in a Kuala Lumpur condominium in 2004.

“Nirmala Bonat has been consistent in her statements that her lady boss injured her, from the time she was found by a security guard,” said the judge when passing the sentence. 

Yim, a former flight attendant, was charged on three counts of causing injury to Nirmala, and had faced prison sentences of up to 20 years on each count.

Nirmala, who was then 19, suffered severe burns and bruises over much of her body after Yim repeatedly pressed a hot iron on her back and breasts and scalded her with boiling water in the worst-ever case of maid abuse reported in the country.

‘Sadistic behaviour’

Rejecting Yim’s defence that the injuries were self-inflicted, the judge said he wanted to impose a “deterrent sentence” to show that “sadistic behaviour cannot be tolerated in civil society”.

“This will serve as a deterrent to future cases”Eka Suripto, Indonesian diplomat in Kuala Lumpur

Jagjit Singh, Yim’s lawyer, said he would appeal against the sentence which he described as “excessive” because there was “no loss of life, no disfigurement, no scars”.

The case sparked national outrage that focused attention on the plight of migrant domestic workers following photographs published in Malaysian newspapers in 2004 of Nirmala’s injuries.

Nirmala said she was beaten and burned for mistakes she made during her five months in Yim’s home.

She said that on one occasion her employer took a hot iron and pressed it against her breasts after complaining that clothes had not been properly ironed.

Nirmala has since left Malaysia.

Abuse of Indonesian maids in Malaysia have sparked protests in Jakarta [EPA]

Indonesia, which has asked Malaysia to do more to protect its workers in the country, said it was pleased with the ruling.

“This will serve as a deterrent to future cases,” said Eka Suripto, an Indonesian diplomat in Kuala Lumpur.

Indonesian diplomats say at least 1,500 maids seek help at their offices across Malaysia each year, most of them complaining of unpaid wages but some reporting physical abuse.

Nirmala’s plight even drew the attention of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Indonesian president, and led to street protests outside the Malaysian embassy in Jakarta.

Malaysia is home to up to two million foreign workers, mostly Indonesians who often take up jobs as domestic helpers, construction workers and plantation labourers.

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API/Source.aljazeera