Makaziwe

SEE ALSO: We Must Get Justice For Ramarley Graham

The women are allegedly fighting a 2004 Johannesburg High Court order that gives Mandela the right to instruct his then-attorney Ismail Ayob to stop managing his financial, personal, and legal affairs. The order also prevented the lawyer from selling any of Nelson’s collection of art pieces.

Last week, Nelson’s current attorney, Bally Chuene, filed a court document in response to the lawsuit that was brought by Makaziwe and Zenani, whose legal counsel is now Ayob.

The suit is mandating that Chuene; George Bizos, a renowned human rights attorney; and Tokyo Sexwale, a cabinet minister, who are named as trustees and directors of the valuable artwork and trust, be removed from their positions and instead allow the daughters to be in control their father’s fortune. The two daughters claim that the three men were never appointed as shareholders or even directors.

The 94-year-old former president of South Africa, who has had more than his fair share of medical problems throughout the last few years, has reportedly informed his legal team in no uncertain terms that he does not want daughters Makaziwe and Zenani involved in his business dealings.

The Global Post states that as per Chuene, who manages Nelson’s investment funds, which are worth more than $1.7 million, “Mr. Mandela made it clear to Makaziwe and Zenani that he did not want them involved in his affairs…the only persons he wanted involved were myself, advocate Bizos…and his other various nominees.”

The attorney goes on to state that the women are only seeking their father’s fortune and their current legal actions are fueled by “greed.”

Chuene also contends that Nelson wanted his two daughters removed as trustees of the companies after they were appointed by his ex-attorney, Ayob, whom Nelson released from his duties after a disagreement.

Bizos, who has been friends with Nelson for years, says that he is ready to fight the lawsuit as he continues to assist his ailing confidant in managing his estate.

A court date for a hearing is still pending.

Sound off!

As he evolved away from his past as Detroit Red, he transformed himself first, into a loyal protégé of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, then, into a world renowned human rights activist. He never hid behind his legend to avoid speaking of his time as a petty criminal, instead using his story to bolster the confidence of everyday men facing his same struggles. He let them know, in no uncertain terms, that they didn’t have to have a pristine past to make a difference in the present and the future.

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The seismic shift that occurred in our culture, politics and philosophy as Black Americans in the ’50s and ’60s will forever be linked to brother Malcolm and his strength in the face of adversity, his unwillingness to bow to the hypocrisy that he had grown to see within the Nation of Islam, and his refusal to dilute his power for a country that feared his influence.

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Malcolm Shabazz, Grandson Of Malcolm X, Dead At 28

Top 5 Malcolm X Speeches

When looking back at the often tumultuous days of Malcolm’s life, one can not help but wonder what was on his mind. As he began to separate from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the man he credited with saving his life, as he broke ranks with the Nation of Islam, the brothers he had molded into the image of Black manhood that was deemed necessary for the separation of Black and White Americans to be successful, as his philosophy began to shift away from merging race and religion, to his belief that matters of human rights can not be confined by such a flimsy institution, as he begin to realize that he was living a lie and all White Americans were no more our enemies than all Black Americans were our friends, what was on his mind?

Many of us forget that he was only 39-years-old when he was gunned down in the Audubon Ballroom just north of Harlem, New York on February 21, 1965. In his short life he went through three pivotal transformations that culminated with the founding of Organization of Afro-America Unity and Muslim Mosque, Inc. Though the two convergent movements never gained the traction and power of the NOI, it spoke to Malcolm’s influence that he was able to step out on purpose and take people with him that were ready to die for him.

Where are those leaders today?

As we celebrate the birth of Malcolm, I’m reminded of the day that I had the honor of meeting his eldest daughter, Ambassador Attallah Shabazz in Los Angeles. I was able to look into her eyes and see her father’s spirit, intelligence, resilience and passion — and to also tell her that he shaped my philosophy on religion, politics and race. I shared with her that he gave me strength to stand on principal when it seemed that no one was standing by my side. She smiled when I told her that when I was first introduced to his focus on human rights, rather than civil rights — because how can we expect civility until we are first considered human? — it changed my life.

In a poem I penned in 2011, I recount how I was also able to share my unyielding love and respect for the great El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz with my now 8-year-old son:

Today  my son went to school like any other day
He took his shower, brushed his hair, ate his breakfast and
Kissed me goodbye
But not before I told him about a man
Not before I explained to him that, though this man’s time was brief
His impact on the world is one that shook the buildings in Washington
And the hoods from Detroit to Harlem
Not before I told him that here stood a Prince who stood for something
A King who struggled in the trenches each and every day
To shed light in darkness
To weld the power burning in our collective psyches
Into Weapons of Mass Instruction
Not before I told him that because of one Warrior
Freedom will forever be a word in his mother’s vocabulary

Because I’m ready to die for it

Not before I told him that there once was a man
Whose body was defiled by bullets and lies
His death certificate signed by traitors and bureaucrats
A man who could not contain brilliance so bright it lit minds
From the ghettos of this stolen nation to the deserts of Africa
Reminding us that the shackles of slavery have been broken
Yet we still have to escape the plantation
I told him about a Soldier who refused to withdraw from a battle with a country
That refused to define him as man and in that defiance of oppression
Taught an entire generation that equality  — on our terms — will be had

By Any Means Necessary

Before my son walked out of the door
I told him about his brother, his teacher, his elder, his ancestor
Who refused to live a lie even if it assured his death
Who refused to kowtow or step and fetch it
Or be a diluted version of the man he was destined to be
Just so he could later be deemed acceptable enough
To warrant a holiday on the day of his birth
Yes, my son went to school today…

But not before I told him about brother Malcolm.

Today, I hope we all take a moment to honor the life of a man who died for us all — and continue to walk in his legacy.

Happy Birthday, brother Malcolm.

SEE ALSO:

Official Family Statement On Death Of Malcolm Shabazz

Where Have All The Leaders Gone? New Poll Suggests Black America No Longer Looking For Heroes

(PHOTO CREDIT: Malcolm Shabazz)

The family of Malcolm Shabazz, 28, who was killed in Mexico on Thursday, May 9, has released an official statement regarding his tragic death:

We are deeply saddened by the passing of our beloved El Hajj Malcolm El Shabazz. To all who knew him, he offered kindness, encouragement and hope for a better tomorrow. Although his bright light and boundless potential are gone from this life, we are grateful that he now rests in peace in the arms of his grandparents and the safety of God. We will miss him.

With grateful hearts, we send sincerest appreciation to our supporters around the world for your tremendous outpouring of love and respect during our time of grief.

Sorrowfully,
The Shabazz Family

RELATED: Malcolm Shabazz, Grandson Of Malcolm X, Dead At 28

The statement was released through Shabazz family friend, Terrie M. Williams, who was the first to break the devastating news to the world via social media:

I'm confirming, per US Embassy, on bhalf of family, the tragic death of Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of Malcolm X.Statement frm family 2 come—
Terrie M. Williams (@TerrieWilliams) May 09, 2013

As previously reported by NewsOne, family members of Malcolm Shabazz were making plans Friday to travel to Mexico, a day after he was killed in Mexico City under sketchy circumstances, Shabazz family spiritual adviser, Imam Al-Hajj Talib Abdur-Rashid of the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood in Harlem, told The Journal News.

“I was told by the family that they’re in the process of trying to get down to Mexico, so they can identify his remains and claim them,” said Imam Abdur-Rashid.

Imam Abdur-Rashid offered further insight into Shabazz, who has been off the radar of some people who are only aware of the more salacious details of his life:

“He’s really just a youngster, a very young man who was just struggling to get his life moving on a forward-looking track,” Abdur-Rashid said. “He was always concerned about forging his own path. I’m just sad that things turned out the way they did.”

“We’re just encouraging people to offer prayers for the family because that’s the most important thing in this initial moment,” he continued.

Read NewsOne’s continued coverage of Malcolm’s tragic passing as details become available.

Our hearts continue to be heavy and our deepest, sincere condolences to the entire Shabazz family.

Photo courtesy of Shabazz family

WATCH NEWSONE’S BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO WITH MALCOLM SHABAZZ BELOW:

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The threat reportedly came on the heels of a meeting the couple had after their 5-year-old son told his teacher that he had “two Mothers.”  The unnamed teacher went to the school’s principle, after being reportedly taken aback by the child’s news. Samantha, 26, and Kally, 27, who had been living their lives openly as lesbians, were called by school administrators to discuss the child’s announcement.

When the women met with the principal, he was accompanied by a pastor. Both women claim that the men demanded they remove their 5-year-old son as soon as possible from the learning institution or risk having them remove his name from their school’s list of attendees.

The school heads reportedly mentioned that their decision to remove the child if the couple failed to comply with their demand was placed on the table because they “do not cater to their type of people,” according to the pair. Kally, the boy’s biological mom, added, “The pastor said that if they had known, they would never have allowed our son in the school.”

Oddly enough, the Mabe’s wedding was publicized.  The women even insist that when they filled out the school’s enrollment paperwork, they did not shroud who they are as a couple, reportedly stating that there are two Mrs. Mabe’s.

After the Mabes refused to succumb to the school’s threats — deciding instead to keep their child in Christian school — the pastor allegedly threatened legal action against them.

The matter has now crossed the desk of the administrators of the Mpumalanga’s education department, and according to spokesman Jasper Zwane, “We view such matters in a very serious light, and even though the school is independent, we will still find out what happened and make sure that whoever worked outside the legal framework is brought to book,” he told Gay Star News.

Sound off!

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Seven U.S. soldiers and a member of the NATO-led coalition were killed on Saturday in one of the deadliest days for Americans and other foreign troops in Afghanistan in recent months, as the Taliban continued attacks as part of their spring offensive.

The renewed violence came as Afghan President Hamid Karzai acknowledged at a news conference that regular payments his government has received from the CIA for more than a decade would continue. Karzai also said that talks on a U.S.-Afghan bilateral security agreement to govern future American military presence in the country had been delayed because of conditions the Afghans were placing on the deal.

The U.S.-led coalition reported that five international troops were killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, and coalition spokesman Capt. Luca Carniel confirmed that all five were American.

The coalition did not disclose the location of the roadside bombing. However, Javeed Faisal, a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province, said the coalition patrol hit the bomb in the Maiwand district of the province, the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban.

Later, the coalition reported that a soldier with the Afghan National Army turned his weapon on coalition troops in the west, killing two in the most recent of so-called insider attacks. Such attacks by members of the Afghan security forces against their fellow colleagues or international troops have eroded confidence in the Afghan forces as they work to take over from foreign forces.

Both killed were American, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose the nationalities ahead of an official announcement.

Another coalition service member was killed in an insurgent attack in northern Afghanistan, the NATO-led force said. It did not provide any further details of the incident.

It was the fourth time since last summer that seven Americans have been killed on a single day in the war.

On March 12, a Black Hawk helicopter crashed outside Kandahar, killing five U.S. troops. Two more U.S. troops were killed that day by an insider attack.

And on April 6, Afghan militants killed six Americans, including a young female diplomat, and an Afghan doctor in a pair of attacks in southern Afghanistan. The three U.S. service members, two U.S. civilians and the doctor were killed when the group was struck by an explosion while traveling to donate books to a school. A seventh American, a civilian, was killed in a separate insurgent attack in the east.

On Aug. 16, 2012, seven American service members were killed in two attacks in Kandahar province. Six were killed when their helicopter was shot down by insurgents and one soldier died in a roadside bomb explosion.

At the news conference, Karzai said he had met earlier in the day with the Kabul station chief of the CIA and was reassured that the agency’s payments to the Afghan government would continue. The New York Times had reported that for more than a decade, the CIA had given the Afghan National Security Council tens of millions of dollars in monthly payments delivered in suitcases, backpacks and plastic shopping bags.

Karzai said he told the station chief: “`Because of all these rumors in the media, please do not cut all this money because we really need it. We want to continue this sort of assistance.’ And he promised that they are not going to cut this money.”

Karzai described the payments as a form of “government-to-government” assistance, and while he wouldn’t say how much the CIA gave to the National Directorate of Security, which is the Afghan intelligence service, he said the financial help was very useful. He claimed that much of the money was used to care for wounded employees of the NDS, Afghanistan’s intelligence service, and operational expenses.

“We have spent it in different areas (and) solved lots of our problems,” Karzai said.

He said the CIA payments were made in cash and that “all the money which we have spent, receipts have been sent back to the intelligence service of the United States monthly.”

The CIA declined to comment on Saturday.

During the news conference at the presidential palace, Karzai also discussed ongoing negotiations on a U.S.-Afghan bilateral security agreement. He said talks had been delayed because of certain conditions that Afghanistan was insisting be included in the pact, which will govern a U.S. military presence after 2014 when nearly all foreign combat troops are to have finished their withdrawal from Afghanistan. The talks, which started in late 2012, are set to last up to a year.

President Barack Obama has not said how many troops will remain, although there have been estimates ranging from 8,000 to 12,000. It is unlikely such an announcement will be made until the security agreement is signed. Those troops would help train Afghan forces and also carry out operations against al-Qaida and other militant groups.

Karzai said Afghanistan was ready to sign a deal as long as the American government in exchange for being able to stay on bases in the country agrees to terms of Afghan security, funding assistance and help with training and equipping Afghan security forces. It is thought that the contentious issue of providing U.S. troops immunity from Afghan law is a low priority for the Afghan government in the negotiations.

The Afghan government has not said how much rent it would want for three or four U.S. bases, but it is believed to be in the billions. Afghanistan is also thought to be seeking security guarantees to protect its porous borders, including the frontier with Pakistan that is the main infiltration route for insurgents who retain sanctuary in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas.

It was unclear how Karzai expected the United States or any of its allies to guarantee Afghanistan’s borders against attack.

“I do not foresee a scenario in which boots on the ground in Syria, American boots on the ground, would not only be good for America but also would be good for Syria,” Obama said at a news conference.

The president’s declaration was in line with the apparent prevailing sentiment in Washington. Even one of Obama’s chief antagonists on Syria, Sen. John McCain, R- Ariz., has said he does not advocate sending ground troops, arguing that would be “the worst thing the United States could do right now.”

Obama also said he had consulted with Mideast leaders who want to see Syrian President Bashar Assad’s departure and agree with his assessment that the U.S. shouldn’t send ground forces. After long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, another U.S. intervention in the region could further inflame anti-American sentiment.

Obama, who was meeting with Central American leaders in Costa Rica, was asked what the United States would do if its investigations find firmer evidence of Syrian use of chemical weapons. He repeated his earlier assertion that it would be a “game-changer.”

“We will stay on this,” Obama said. The United States has sent humanitarian aid to the Syrian rebels, but not arms. The two-year civil war that has left an estimated 70,000 people dead and hundreds of thousands of refugees.

On Thursday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the Obama administration is rethinking its opposition to arming the rebels. Hagel said that the U.S. was consulting with allies and that and he personally hadn’t decided whether it would be a wise move. Sending arms is considered risky partly because of fears that some would end up in the hands of al-Qaida-linked fighters and might someday be used against the United States.

Obama said the U.S. already is putting pressure on the Syrian government, including through humanitarian aid to the opposition. If systematic use of chemical weapons by Assad’s forces were confirmed, he said, the United States would present that evidence to the international community.

“When it comes to using chemical weapons, the entire world should be concerned,” he said.

He also stressed the importance of moving cautiously. The Syria question comes as the U.S. is leaving Afghanistan after more than a decade of war there, most of it fought as the nation was also at war in Iraq.

“When we rush into things, when we leap before we look, not only do we pay a price but oftentimes we see unintended consequences on the ground,” Obama said. “It’s important for us to do it right.”

The administration announced last week that it believes Assad has used chemical weapons but said the intelligence wasn’t clear enough to be certain that the regime has crossed a “red line” of definite chemical weapons use that he said would have “enormous consequences” for Assad’s government.

Obama said Friday it’s not yet clear when, where or how the weapons might have been used.

ROME — It was hailed as a giant step forward for racial integration in a country that has long been ill at ease with its growing immigrant classes.

But Cecile Kyenge’s (pictured) appointment as Italy’s first Black Cabinet minister has instead exposed the nation’s ugly race problem, a blight that flares regularly on the soccer pitch with racist taunts and in the diatribes of xenophobic politicians – but has now raised its head at the center of political life.

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One politician derided what he called Italy’s new “bonga bonga government.”

On Wednesday, amid increasing revulsion over the reaction, the government authorized an investigation into neo-fascist websites whose members called Kyenge “Congolese monkey” and other epithets.

Kyenge, 48, was born in Congo and moved to Italy three decades ago to study medicine. An eye surgeon, she lives in Modena with her Italian husband and two children. She was active in local center-left politics before winning a seat in the lower Chamber of Deputies in February elections.

Premier Enrico Letta tapped Kyenge to be minister of integration in his hybrid center-left and center-right government that won its second vote of confidence Tuesday. In his introductory speech to Parliament, Letta touted Kyenge’s appointment as a “new concept about the confines of barriers giving way to hope, of unsurpassable limits giving way to a bridge between diverse communities.”

Unfortunately, his praise and that of others has been almost drowned out by the racist slurs directed at Kyenge by politicians of the anti-immigrant Northern League party, an on-again, off-again ally of long-serving ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, and members of neo-fascist Internet groups.

In addition to his “bonga bonga” slur, Mario Borghezio, a European parliamentarian for the League, warned in an interview with Radio 24 that Kyenge would try to “impose tribal traditions” from her native Congo on Italy.

Kyenge on Tuesday responded to the insults, thanking those who had come to her defense and taking a veiled jab at the vulgarity of her critics. “I believe even criticism can inform if it’s done with respect,” she tweeted.

Unlike France, Germany, or Britain, where second and third generations of immigrants have settled albeit uneasily, Italy is a relative newcomer to the phenomenon. France has several high-ranking government ministers with immigrant roots, and few French had a problem with the appointments: Former President Nicolas Sarkozy named a justice minister and urban policy minister, both born in France to North African parents, to his cabinet, while his minister for human rights was born in Senegal. Francois Hollande’s government spokeswoman was born in Morocco and raised in France, and his interior minister was born in Spain. He also has two Black ministers from French overseas territories – one from Guyana and one from Guadeloupe.

Italy is another story: Once a country of emigration to North and South America at the turn of the last century, Italy saw the first waves of migrants from Eastern Europe and Africa coming to its shores only in the 1980s.

In the last decade or two, their numbers have increased exponentially, and with them anti-immigrant sentiment: Surveys show Italians blame immigrants for crime and overtaxing the already burdened public health system. Foreigners made up about 2 percent of Italy’s population in 1990; currently the figure stands at 7.5 percent, according to official statistics bureau Istat.

Some of the most blatant manifestations of racism occur in the realm of Italy’s favorite sport, soccer – which for Italians and others has shown itself to be a perfect venue for displays of pent-up emotions. In the case of a handful of Italian teams, soccer is a way for right-wing fan clubs to vent.

Mario Balotelli (pictured at left), the AC Milan striker born in Palermo to Ghanaian immigrants and raised by an Italian adoptive family, knows all about it. Perhaps Italy’s best player today, he has long been the subject of racist taunts on and off the field: Rival fans once hung a banner during a match saying “Black Italians don’t exist” while the vice-president of his own club once called him the household’s “little Black boy.”

Balotelli called Kyenge’s nomination “another great step forward for an Italian society that is more civil, responsible, and understanding of the need for better, definitive integration.”

Watch news coverage of Balotelli being abused by fans with inflatable bananas during one of his matches here:

The race situation is almost schizophrenic in Italy. In the same week Kyenge was made a government minister and Balotelli was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world, AC Milan’s cross-town rival, Juventus, was fined 30,000 euro for fans’ racist taunts during a game against Milan in which Balotelli wasn’t even playing.

“There was no racism 40 years ago because there were no non-white Italians,” said James Walston, a political science professor at American University of Rome. “You need the other in order to hate the other.”

“It will take a long time – probably there will never be a completely racism-free society – but it will take a long time for Italy to reach the sort of acceptance, multi-cultural acceptance that the rest of Europe has and North America has,” he said in an interview.

Kyenge got off to a rocky start with the Northern League when, on the day she was named minister, she said one of her top priorities would be to make it easier for children of immigrants born in Italy to obtain Italian citizenship. Currently, such children can only apply once they turn 18.

The issue has vexed Italy for years and previous center-left governments have failed to change the law even though most Italians — 72 percent according to a 2012 Istat-aided study — favor it. It’s not just a matter of a passport but has real impact on the ability of an immigrant family to integrate into Italian society: Children of non-EU immigrants born in Italy, for example, can’t take advantage of the EU citizen discounts at the Colosseum and other cultural treasures, having to pay full admission prices to get in to learn the heritage of the nation where they were born. If they were Italian citizens, they’d get in free until they were 18.

But raising an issue that so riles the Northern League – during an already tense political transition – was enough to set off Roberto Maroni, the interior minister in Berlusconi’s last center-right government and a top League official. Maroni immediately demanded that his successor as interior minister make clear his position on the law.

Other members of Maroni’s party were more blunt: Italian newspapers quoted the head of the League in Italy’s northern Lombardy region Matteo Salvini as saying that Kyenge was a “symbol of a hypocritical and do-gooding left that wants to cancel out the crime of illegal immigration and thinks only about immigrants’ rights and not their duties.”

La Repubblica newspaper on Tuesday, meanwhile, cited the vile insults directed at her on fascist Internet groups such as www.ilduce.net . Repubblica said the antagonism was born from the League’s basic opposition to a minister who tends to favor immigrant rights. “But the racist origins had to explode. And here they are. True, they’re consigned to the stupid transience of the web, but they’re a sign of the widespread climate of hatred” in the country, the paper wrote.

Coming to Kyenge’s defense was Laura Boldrini, the president of parliament’s lower chamber, who for years was the chief spokeswoman in Italy for the U.N. refugee agency. In that role she frequently defended the rights of immigrants – and squared off with Northern League leaders after they pushed through a controversial 2009 policy to send back would-be Libyan migrants without screening them first for asylum.

“It is indecent that in a civil society there can be a series of insults — on websites but not only there — that are being hurled against the neo-minister Cecile Kyenge,” Boldrini said. “Like many people, watching her take her oath of office I felt that Italy was taking an important step forward, and not just for `new Italians.’”

Also defending Kyenge was the other foreign-born minister in Letta’s government, Josefa Idem, a German-born Italian who won five Olympic kayaking medals before retiring after the London Games. Idem is Italy’s new equal opportunities minister – one of seven women in Letta’s government – and in that role authorized an investigation by Italy’s national anti-discrimination office into the racist online slurs directed against Kyenge.

Italian news reports quoted Idem as saying she was doing so in her capacity as minister “but also as a woman.”

Sociologist Michele Sorice at Rome’s Luiss University said Italians have long harbored racist attitudes, stemming from the nation’s colonial past in north Africa, but that they stayed hidden until the Northern League “legitimized” xenophobic political rhetoric after entering the government in the 1990s. The League denies it’s xenophobic and says it is merely protecting the interests of Italians.

Italy has since become more sensitized to the issue, Sorice said, but it still lags behind its European and North American partners. Changing the law on citizenship, as Kyenge wants, “wouldn’t do anything more than to bring Italy into line with the great European traditions,” he said.

But he was doubtful that this particular government, made up of longtime political rivals, could pull it off when even previous center-left governments had failed to do so.

“It remains to be seen how this can be done on a practical level with a coalition government,” he said.

LAGOS, Nigeria — The traffic is there, grinding life to a halt as the middle class pound out messages on BlackBerry mobile phones and worry about Facebook. The heat, the sweat, and the daily tragedy of unclaimed bodies lying alongside roadways, passers-by hurrying past for fear of someone else’s misfortune becoming entangled in their own.

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This is modern life in Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos, which becomes almost a character of its own in novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s (pictured) new book, “Americanah” (pictured at right). And within its pages, one catches self-acknowledged glimpses of the writer herself, who shot to fame with her previous love story set during Nigeria’s civil war called “Half of a Yellow Sun.”

As that book is being made into a movie, more international attention will focus on Adichie, part of a raft of new Nigerian writers finding acclaim after years of military-induced slumber in a nation with a rich literary history. Yet Adichie, like her new book’s heroine, finds herself straddled between a life in the United States and one in Nigeria, where even seemingly innocuous comments on hair care and wigs can stir resentment.

“I’m writing about where I care about and I deeply, deeply care about Nigeria,” Adichie told the Associated Press. “Nigeria is the country that most infuriates me and it is the country I love the most. I think when you’re emotionally invested in a place as a storyteller, it becomes organic.”

That sense of place runs throughout “Americanah,” — make sure to stress the fourth syllable, says the daughter of a university professor and a university registrar. It’s a term people use to describe the accents carried by some of the Nigerians now returning in droves to the country after it embraced an uneasy democracy after years of military rule. While oil and gas money continues to flow and other business opportunities abound, the nation’s universities now sit in shambles, graduating more unqualified students than can be offered jobs.

That intellectual dulling has been challenged by a host of new writers, many of whom like Adichie live almost double lives abroad.

“She is part of the pack of novelists who have, after what you might call the two decades of silence, who have helped to tell Nigerian stories to the whole world again,” writer Tolu Ogunlesi said. “It was the dictatorships and all that’s associated with them. … The ’80s and ’90s were dark ages of sorts for Nigeria.”

It’s that period where “Americanah” finds its beginning. Though dismissing the idea of being a “dutiful daughter of literary conventions,” Adichie’s new novel takes root in the vagaries and murmured promises of a love story like much of her other work. It also focuses largely on the slim percentage of Nigerians able to afford diesel generators in a country largely without electricity and who look at the poor through the chilled air and tinted-glass windows of luxury SUVs.

Despite that, her writing hits a nerve with Nigerian readers who identify with the descriptions of church worship services focused on getting foreign visas and the nervous wives of rich men in a nation notorious for philandering. Adichie describes herself as looking “at the world through Nigerian eyes,” but she doesn’t hold back on criticizing its culture that fosters widespread government corruption. Or what she perceives as the excessive, neutered politeness of “political-correct language” in the United States.

“Nigeria wasn’t set up to succeed, but the extent of its failure is ours. It’s our responsibility,” she said. “This country is full of so many intelligent people, so much energy, so much potential, so why are we here?”

That kind of truth telling isn’t exactly welcome, even in a democratic Nigeria. Speaking Saturday night at a book signing, Adichie drew laughter and a few nervous looks from organizers by describing President Goodluck Jonathan as “not a bad guy, he just seems like he’s floundering and has no clue.”

It also leads to comparisons some make between Adichie and late author Chinua Achebe, who died in March at age 82. Both come from the Igbo people of Nigeria’s southeast and Achebe’s own praise of Adichie graces the cover of her new novel in Nigeria. Adichie said the rise of new writers served as a testament to the power of Achebe’s writings and the works of others.

“I think there’s just this wonderful flowering that’s happening,” she said.

Even more controversial, it seems, have been Adichie’s comments on natural hair in Nigeria, where many spend huge sums of money on straight-banged wigs and weaves known as Indian hair. An online commenter on Twitter asserted that Adichie, whose natural hair sits in buns atop her head, said that those wearing weaves were insecure, sparking controversy. Adichie herself ended up responding to the criticism and gave a recent audience advice on finding hair conditioners with no sulfates.

“It’s only Black women for whom an entire industry exists, which is geared toward specifically making sure that the hair that grows on their head looks different,” she said. “I want natural black hair to be an equally valid option, not something interesting, not something you do when you’re a jazz musician, but something you can do when you’re a lawyer in a fancy firm in New York City or if you’re a politician in Abuja,” Nigeria’s capital.

That, however, still remains a challenge. Adichie acknowledged it herself by pausing, and then adding: “My mother doesn’t like my hair like that. She is still praying.”

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After a factory fire killed 112 garment workers in November, clothing brands and retailers continued to reject a union-sponsored proposal to improve safety throughout Bangladesh’s $20 billion garment industry. Instead, companies expanded a patchwork system of private audits and training that labor groups say improves very little in a country where official inspections are lax and factory owners have close relations with the government.

In the meantime, the number of deaths and injuries has mounted. In the five months since last year’s deadly blaze at Tazreen Fashions Ltd., there were 40 other fires in Bangladeshi factories, killing nine workers and injuring more than 660, according to a labor organization tied to the AFL-CIO umbrella group of American unions. Manufacturers dispute that there have been that many recent incidents.

Wednesday’s collapse of the Rana Plaza building that killed more than 300 people is the worst disaster to hit Bangladesh’s fast-growing and politically powerful garment industry.

For those attempting to overhaul conditions for workers who are paid as little as $38 a month, it is a grim reminder that corporate social responsibility programs are failing to deliver on lofty promises.

More than 48 hours after the eight-story building collapsed, some garment workers were still trapped alive Friday, pinned beneath tons of mangled metal and concrete. Rescue crews struggled to save them, knowing they probably had just a few hours left to live, as desperate relatives clashed with police.

“Improvement is not happening,” said Amirul Haque Amin, president of the National Garment Workers Federation in Bangladesh, who said a total of 600 workers have died in factory accidents in the last decade. “The multinational companies claim a lot of things. They claim they have very good policies, they have their own code of conduct, they have their auditing and monitoring system,” Amin said. “But yet these things keep happening.”

What role retailers should play in making working conditions safer at the factories that manufacture their apparel has become a central issue for the $1 trillion global clothing industry.

The clothing brands say they are working to improve safety, but the size of the garment industry – some 4,000 factories in Bangladesh alone -means such efforts skim the surface. That opaqueness is further muddied by subcontracting. Retailers can be unwittingly involved with problematic factories when their main suppliers farm out work to others to ensure orders are filled on time.

“We remain committed to promoting stronger safety measures in factories and that work continues,” Wal-Mart said in a statement after the Rana Plaza collapse. The world’s largest retailer says there was no authorized Wal-Mart production in the building. One of the Rana Plaza factories, Ether Tex, listed Wal-Mart as a customer on its website.

Labor groups argue the best way to clean up Bangladesh’s garment factories already is outlined in a nine-page safety proposal drawn up by Bangladeshi and international unions.

The plan would ditch government inspections, which are infrequent and easily subverted by corruption, and establish an independent inspectorate to oversee all factories in Bangladesh, with powers to shut down unsafe facilities as part of a legally binding contract signed by suppliers, customers and unions. The inspections would be funded by contributions from the companies of up to $500,000 per year.

The proposal was presented at a 2011 meeting in Dhaka attended by more than a dozen of the world’s largest clothing brands and retailers – including Wal-Mart, Gap, and Swedish clothing giant H&M – but was rejected by the companies because it would be legally binding and costly.

At the time, Wal-Mart’s representative told the meeting it was “not financially feasible … to make such investments,” according to minutes of the meeting obtained by The Associated Press.

After last year’s Tazreen blaze, Bangladeshi union president Amin said he and international labor activists renewed a push for the independent inspectorate plan, but none of the factories or big brands would agree.

Siddiqur Rahman, former vice president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, denied the factories are responsible for killing the plan, saying the problem was that buyers did not want to pay for it.

“We welcome anything that is good for the garment industry and its workers here,” Rahman said. He also disputed several union groups’ figures of dozens of factory fires since November, saying there had been only one.

This week, none of the large clothing brands or retailers would comment about the proposal.

Wal-Mart spokesman Kevin Gardner did not directly answer questions about the unions’ safety plans in replies to questions e-mailed by the Associated Press. H&M responded to questions with e-mailed links to corporate social responsibility websites.

In December, however, a spokesperson for the Gap – which owns the Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic chains – said the company turned down the proposal because it did not want to be vulnerable to lawsuits and did not want to pay factories more money to help with safety upgrades.

H&M also did not sign on to the proposal because it believes factories and local government in Bangladesh should be taking on the responsibility, Pierre Börjesson, manager of sustainability and social issues, told AP in December.

H&M, which places the most apparel orders in Bangladesh and works with more than 200 factories there, is one of about 20 retailers and brands that have banded together to develop training films for garment manufacturers.

Wal-Mart last year began requiring regular audits of factories, fire drills and mandated fire safety training for all levels of factory management. It also announced in January it would immediately cut ties with any factory that failed an inspection, instead of giving warnings first as before.

And the Gap has hired its own chief fire inspector to oversee factories that produce its clothing in Bangladesh.

But many insist such measures are not enough to overhaul an industry that employs 3 million workers.

“No matter how much training you have, you can’t walk through flames or escape a collapsed building,” said Ineke Zeldenrust of the Amsterdam-based Clean Clothes Campaign, which lobbies for garment workers’ rights.

Private audits also have their failings, she said. Because audits are confidential, even if one company pulls its business from a supplier over safety issues, it won’t tell its competitors, who will continue to place orders – allowing the unsafe factory to stay open.

The Tazreen factory that burned last year had passed inspections, and two of the factories in the Rana Plaza building had passed the standards of a major European group that does factory inspections in developing countries. The Business Social Compliance Initiative, which represents hundreds of companies, said the factories of Phantom Apparels and New Wave Style had been audited against its code of conduct which it said focuses on labor issues, not building standards.

“The audits and inspections are too much focused on checklists,” said Saif Khan, who worked for Phillips Van Heusen, the owner of brands Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, in Bangladesh until 2011 as a factory compliance supervisor.

“They touch on broader areas but do not consider the realities on the ground,” he said.

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Residents of Russia’s predominantly Muslim province of Chechnya wear traditional costumes as they dance during an official celebration of May Day in the provincial capital Grozny, Friday, May 1, 2009. During the Soviet era, May 1 was a major celebration of worker solidarity, Soviet might and the advent of spring. (AP Photo/Musa Sadulayev)

After a week of reporting on Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev – and subsequently, Chechnya – we know no more about this complex part of  the world or its people than we did before the Boston Marathon bombings of April 15th.

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As soon as Chechnya was identified as the suspects’ homeland of origin, the entire region became a symbol of age-old conflicts, mass stereotyping, and incomplete, Wikipedia-style reporting. Before the Tsarnaev brothers carried out the Boston Marathon bombings, very little attention was concentrated on the region. Now it’s a “breeding ground of terror,” whose  200-year-old independence struggle against Russia and domestic terrorism issues are now supposed to make Americans shake in their boots.

Such a fear has little basis.

For four years, I lived in the former Soviet Union. More than two of those years were spent in the Caucasus nation of Georgia, mostly as a Peace Corps volunteer and, subsequently, a Georgian language student. I was also in the country when it was engaged in an eight-day war with Russia over several conflict regions, Osetia and Abkhazia. My area of concentration for my Master’s in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies focused on ethnic conflict in the Caucasus.

While much reporting has been done on the issue, I still believe there are some misunderstandings about the region. Below, I address some of them.

1. Are Chechens Ethnically Russian?

No. They’re nationality is Russian, but ethnically they are part of the Nakh peoples of the North Caucasus. The Nakh people are one of many ethnic tribes of the Caucasus region. Russians, on the other hand, are ethnic Slavs.

Short Documentary On Chechnya:

2. Are Chechens “Dark-Skinned”?

Well, I can open my family photo album and point to an uncle who looks like Louis Armstrong and right next to him is an aunt who could pass for a much lighter-skinned version of Jennifer Lopez. Both would tell you that they are Black. All ethnicities have various shades of skintone, including Chechens. Regionally, Chechens and other Caucasus peoples are often referred to as “dark-skinned” because most do not have Slavic facial features like their Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian comrades, although some actually can pass for Slavs.

Point being, Chechens and other people of the Caucasus region can pass for a lot of things other than “dark-skinned.” If we knew nothing about the Tsarnaevs’ roots, one could argue that they could pass for frat boys on any college campus in America.

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3. Is The Caucasus Region “Volatile”?

For the most part, no.

Keep in mind that the region is a huge area nestled between the borders of Europe and Asia and is situated between the Black and Caspian Seas. Its largest ethnic groups are from the countries of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan of the South Caucasus. All of these nations are free of terrorism and tourists mostly from Europe visit them regularly. Some regions in the North Caucasus are volatile, with Dagestan and Chechnya, the regions of the Tsarnaev’s family roots, being the worst case scenarios.

4. Is Chechnya A Country?

No, it is not. Officially, it is an autonomous Republic within the borders of Russia. It has certain political rights to govern itself as a semi-state. For example, the people can vote for their own president, but like most elections in Russia, Chechnya’s elections are mere formalities and highly predictable. Moscow “supports” its own presidential nominee and other political candidates and they almost always win.

Map Of The Caucasus:

5. “Has Radicalization Extended Into The Chechen Community?”– U.S. Representative Peter King (R-NY)

First, this comment is reckless.

Though King admitted that he had not heard of the Chechen community in the United States being radicalized, he still posed a sweeping question that perhaps it was. Moreover, he cited no intelligence to back up his assumption. Second, according to the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington D.C.,-based foundation that focuses on Chechnya and the rest of the region, there are fewer than 200 Chechen refugees in the United States.

Moreover, the United States does not admit that many Chechen immigrants green cards anyway. Of the 80,000 people resettled into the United States in 2011, for example, Chechens got a stab at 2,000 spaces allotted to the entire Europe and Central Asia area, where Chechnya is located. In 2012, only 197 people from all of Russia resettled to the United States.

So, to answer Rep. King’s question, I doubt it.

6. Is Chechnya A “Breeding Ground of Terror”?

It depends on your outlook. As I have written on the subject before:

Chechnya is no more a ‘hotbed’ or ‘breeding ground’ for terrorism than any other nation conquered by a superior enemy left to build itself back up with little help from its oppressor. It has been the victim of a particularly bloody conquest, and has created one of the world’s most brutal separatist groups. But the separatists’ violence has always been aimed at Russia, not at America or other targets of global Jihad.

For more than 200 years, Chechnya, along with every other Caucasus nation, endured one external conquest after another. When they weren’t fighting the Ottoman Empire or the Mongols from the East, they were fighting the Russian Empire. The Caucasian War of 1817-1864 ended with Chechens and roughly a dozen other ethnic groups divided into their own autonomous regions — all forcibly incorporated into southern Russia (or the South Caucasus).

The terror did not stop there. Between 1941-1944, Stalin deported 1.4 million people from western regions of the former USSR — including some 387,000 Chechens — to Central Asia.

Why? With Stalin, you never knew for sure, but he reportedly accused them of collaborating with the Nazis during World War II.

And let’s not forget those two wars Chechnya fought against Russia over the course of 15 years, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. During that period, human rights groups documented severe human rights abuses carried out by Russian security forces against innocent Chechen civilians.

More than 80,000 Chechen civilians died during the two wars, according to several estimates.

The Chechen response has indeed grown increasingly radical, and brutal. The worst act of Chechen terror was probably the 2004 Beslan Massacre, where Chechen terrorists raided a school in a bloody takeover that left more than 300 children dead. Chechen extremists also took over a Moscow theater in 2002, leaving more than 100 innocent people dead. There are many more.

These horrible attacks were carried out on Russian soil. Chechen extremism has not had a global focus. And most Chechens are not Muslim extremists who wake up with Jihad on their minds.

However, some may argue that, because of Chechnya’s bloody history with Russia and acts of domestic terror against its northern neighbor by Chechen separatists, the republic as a whole deserves to be labeled as a terrorist nation. Then again, some Chechen Mothers who have lost their sons to alleged Russian military abuses may argue that such an outlook would be akin to looking at the Civil Rights Movement from the perspective of Bull Connor.

7. Is there a connection between Chechnya and the Tsarnaev’s alleged acts of terror?

Anecdotally speaking, sure.

But we’re not talking about anecdotes. We’re talking about facts. And all we know so far is that Dzhokhar is a naturalized American citizen who seems to have limited knowledge of Chechnya. As for his brother, Tamerlan, it’s being reported that he had traveled to the region for training that prepared him to carry out the Boston Marathon bombings.

Even if that is true, to suggest that Chechnya is America’s new enemy is a stretch. Remember that 15 of the 19 September 11th hijackers were Saudi citizens, yet Saudi Arabia is not considered an enemy of the state.

The truth of the matter is no one knows what motivated these young men to carry out the horrible acts they are accused of committing, even though the narrative floating around is that their motivations stem from their homeland’s complicated, misunderstood history with terrorism and battles with Russia. The connection is most unfair.

As Caucasus expert Sarah Kendzior, keenly points out, “Do not look to a foreign country to explain a domestic crime. Look to the two men who did it – and judge them by what they have done, not from where their ancestors came.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Moctar Dembele (pictured right) and Gerard Niyondiko (pictured) have won the Global Science Venture (GSVC) competition for creating an anti-malaria repellent soap, reports CP-Africa.

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Burkina Faso native Dembele and Burundi native Niyondiko created Faso Soap from different herbs, including karate citronella. According to the product profile:

In many countries of tropical Africa, malaria is the leading cause of death for the population. It represents 30-40% of hospital admissions and up to 40% of public health expenditure.

Solution

Production and marketing of soap “mosquito,” based on shea butter and enriched with essential oils of lemongrass and concern, to protect its users from malaria.

Impact

Reduction massive number of people affected by malaria, especially among the poorest and basic hygiene.

According to Niyondiko, the soap will initially be available in African countries hit hardest by malaria. “The soap will be available first here, and then given to NGO.”

Watch the Faso Soap GSVC pitch here:

“We want a simple solution, because every one uses soaps, even in the very poor communities,” Dembélé added.

Dembele and Niyondiko have not only helped Africa with their creation, they’ve also made history.

They are also the first non-Americans to win the GSVC, which challenges students across the world to create their own business plans for social ventures. The grand prize is $25,000

According to the World Health Organization, the African continent accounts for 85 percent of malaria cases and 90 percent of malaria deaths worldwide. Eighty-five percent of those deaths occur in children under 5 years old.

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Saturday’s quake, while not as destructive as the one in 2008, toppled buildings, triggered landslides and disrupted phone and power connections in mountainous Lushan county. The village of Longmen was hit particularly hard, with authorities saying nearly all the buildings there had been destroyed in a frightening minute-long shaking by the quake.

“It was such a big quake that everyone was scared,” said a woman who answered the phone at a kindergarten hours later and declined to give her name. “We all fled for our lives.”

Rescuers turned the square outside the Lushan County Hospital into a triage center, where medical personnel bandaged bleeding victims, according to footage on China Central Television. Rescuers dynamited boulders that had fallen across roads to reach Longmen and other damaged areas lying farther up the mountain valleys, state media reported.

CCTV reported that at least 156 people had died. The government of Ya’an city, which administers Lushan, said in a statement that more than 2,600 people were injured, 330 of them severely.

The quake – measured by the China Earthquake Administration at magnitude-7.0 and by the U.S. Geological Survey at 6.6 – struck the steep hills of Lushan county shortly after 8 a.m., when many people were at home, sleeping or having breakfast. People in their underwear and wrapped in blankets ran into the streets of Ya’an and even the provincial capital of Chengdu, 115 kilometers (70 miles) east of Lushan, according to photos, video and accounts posted online.

The quake’s shallow depth, less than 13 kilometers (8 miles), likely magnified the impact.

Chengdu’s airport shut down for about an hour before reopening, though many flights were canceled or delayed, and its railway station halted dozens of scheduled train rides Saturday, state media said.

Lushan reported the most deaths, 76, but there was concern that casualties in neighboring Baoxing county might have been under-reported because of inaccessibility after roads were blocked and power and phone services cut off.

As the region went into the first night after the quake, rain started to fall, slowing rescue work. Forecasts called for more rain in the next several days, and the China Meteorological Administration warned of possible landslides and other geological disasters.

Tens of thousands of people moved into tents or cars, unable to return home or too afraid to go back as aftershocks continued to jolt the region.

Lushan, where the quake struck, lies where the fertile Sichuan plain meets foothills that eventually rise to the Tibetan plateau and sits atop the Longmenshan fault. It was along that fault line that a devastating magnitude-7.9 quake struck on May 12, 2008, leaving more than 90,000 people dead or missing and presumed dead in one of the worst natural disasters to strike China in recent decades.

“It was just like May 12,” Liu Xi, a writer in Ya’an city, who was jolted awake by Saturday’s quake, said via a private message on his account on Sina Corporation’s Twitter-like Weibo service. “All the home decorations fell at once, and the old house cracked.”

The official Xinhua News Agency said the well-known Bifengxia panda preserve, which is near Lushan, was not affected by the quake. Dozens of pandas were moved to Bifengxia from another preserve, Wolong, after its habitat was wrecked by the 2008 quake.

As in most natural disasters, the government mobilized thousands of soldiers and others – 7,000 people by Saturday afternoon – sending excavators and other heavy machinery as well as tents, blankets and other emergency supplies. Two soldiers died after the vehicle that they and more than a dozen others were in slipped off the road and rolled down a cliff, state media reported.

Premier Li Keqiang flew to Ya’an to direct rescue efforts, and he and President Xi Jinping ordered officials and rescuers to make saving people the top priority, Xinhua said.

The Chinese Red Cross said it had deployed relief teams with supplies of food, water, medicine and rescue equipment to the disaster areas.

With roads blocked for several hours after the quake, the military surveyed the disaster area by air. Aerial photos released by the military and shown on state television showed individual houses in ruins in Lushan and outlying villages flattened into rubble. The roofs of some taller buildings appeared to have slipped off, exposing the floors beneath them.

A person whose posts to the micro-blogging account “Qingyi Riverside” on Weibo carried a locator geotag for Lushan said many buildings collapsed and that people could spot helicopters hovering above.

The earthquake administration said there had been at least 627 aftershocks, including two of magnitude-5.0 or higher.

“It’s too dangerous,” said a person with the Weibo account Chengduxinglin and with a Lushan geotag. “Even the aftershocks are scary.”

While rescuers and state media rushed to the disaster scene, China’s active social media users filled the information gap. They posted photos of people fleeing to streets for safety and of buildings flattened by the quake. They shared information on the availability of phone services, apparently through data services.

A mother and her daughter bled to death on a road in Jaipur, India after being hit by a truck and left to die, the Hindustan Times reports.

Scroll down for video 

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A truck hit the family of four as they rode on a motorcycle in Jaipur Monday. They were going through a tunnel where motorcycles are not permitted. Though people illegally drive through the tunnel anyway to save time. Video of the accident shows the mother, Guddi Raigher, 26, lying motionless on the ground as her husband, Kanhaiyalal Raigher, begs passersby for help.

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Local police say the husband begged pedestrians and drivers for help for more than 40 minutes but no one offered assistance.

Here is more on this story:

The accident victims were attended to only when a staffer of a toll booth noticed the crying husband and his son inside the tunnel on a CCTV monitor.

“Kanhaiya Lal along with his 26-year old wife Guddi, four-year- old son Tanish and eight-month-old Arushi was on his way to in-laws’ house in Luniawas village from their house in Thikariya village yesterday when a speeding truck hit their motorcycle 300 metres inside the tunnel,” police said on Monday.

Guddi and Arushi were run over by the truck while Kanhaiya and Tanish received minor injuries.

After the accident, Kanhaiya called his relatives and police but there was no network coverage so he tried to stop vehicles for help only to be ignored.

No one stepped out for help as the man holding his son sat in the middle of the road while his wife and daughter lay in an unconscious state and without knowing their fate.

The 2.8 km tunnel bored through Jhalana hills was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President in January this year. Two-wheelers are banned inside the tunnel.

“A worker of toll tax booth noticed it on a CCTV monitor and informed police. The police help reached them within a few minutes and they were rushed to hospital. Soon after policemen, staffers of the toll tax also reached the spot,” officiating police commissioner Biju George Joseph said.

The mother and daughter died before being taken to the hospital, but the husband and son survived. They were treated and later discharged.

Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles later accused the government of being behind the violence.

Maduro’s accusation against Washington came after the U.S. State Department said it would not recognize the results of Sunday’s unexpectedly close election without the vote-by-vote recount being demanded by Capriles.

“The (U.S.) embassy has financed and led all these violent acts,” President-elect Nicolas Maduro, the chosen heir of the late Hugo Chavez, said during a televised meeting at the headquarters of the state oil company.

Earlier, he said he would not allow an opposition protest march called for Wednesday in Caracas, saying Capriles was “responsible for the dead we are mourning” from violence during protests across the country.

Maduro then summoned his own supporters to take to the streets Wednesday in the capital, raising the possibility of a confrontation with anti-government protesters.

But Capriles called off the planned opposition march. “Whoever goes out into the street tomorrow is playing the government’s game,” he said. “The government wants there to be deaths in the country.”

He said the accusation by officials that he is mounting an attempt to overthrow the socialist government is a smoke screen to divert attention from demands for a recount.

“I want to ask Mr. Maduro to calm down a bit. I think he’s sort of going crazy,” Capriles said at a news conference.

According to the regime-friendly National Electoral Council, which quickly certified Maduro’s election Monday, he defeated Capriles by 262,000 votes out of 14.9 million ballots cast. Capriles has charged that Chavistas stole the election.

Outside the capital, a march to demand a recount turned violent in the capital of Barinas,the home state of Chavez. Police fired tear gas and plastic bullets at protesters heeding Capriles’ call for protests by marching on the provincial headquarters of the electoral council. Opposition leaders reported 30 arrests. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Barinas Gov. Adan Chavez is a brother of Hugo Chavez, the charismatic but divisive Venezuelan leader who succumbed to cancer March 5 after 14 years as president.

In a separate televised broadcast, Justice Minister Nestor Reverol accused Capriles of numerous crimes, including insurrection and civil disobedience.

It was part of a drumbeat of attacks by government officials who have been alleging since Monday that Capriles is plotting a coup.

Chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega said 135 people had been detained in protests, presumably on Monday, when Capriles’ supporters protested in Caracas and other cities, including Merida and Maracay.

Reverol said one death involved a man in the capital who he charged was shot by opposition supporters. He said other shooting deaths, in the states of Sucre, Tachira and Zulia, were being investigated.

Capriles issued a message on Twitter blaming the government and Maduro for any violence.

“The illegitimate one and his government ordered that there be violence to avoid counting the votes,” Capriles tweeted. “They are responsible!”

On Monday, thousands of students briefly clashed with National Guard troops who fired tear gas and plastic bullets while people across the nation banged on pots and pans to demand a recount.

Late Monday, Maduro announced he had met with a newly created “anti-coup” command at the military museum that holds Chavez’s remains.

He accused opposition protesters of attacking government clinics and the house of electoral council President Tibisay Lucena, without offering details.

Security analyst Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America said the tensions increased chances the government might arrest opposition leaders, although he wondered whether security forces would comply with a wave of arrest orders.

He said he was more concerned about “mob violence against opposition figures, and perhaps pro-government ones, too.”

Pro-government motorcycle gangs, some of them armed, have in the past threatened and attacked opposition activists.

Serious questions were raised about Maduro’s ability to lead after he squandered a double-digit lead in the race despite an outpouring of sympathy for his party following Chavez’s death.

Government leaders and military leaders have closed ranks around him.

A hint of discontent did emerge, however, in two Twitter messages by Diosdado Cabello, the National Assembly president who many consider Maduro’s chief rival within the “Chavismo” movement.

In the first, he called for a “profound self-criticism” within Chavista ranks. In the second, he wrote: “We should look for our faults under the rocks if we have to.”

Diego Moya-Ocampos, an analyst with the London-based consulting firm IHS Global Insight, said members of the ruling socialist party “realize that Maduro is not the man to guarantee continuity of the Chavista movement.”

Cabello expressed disbelief at Capriles’ strong showing, asking why “sectors of the poor population would vote for their exploiters of old.”

That might not be such a mystery.

Among Venezuela’s problems are crumbling infrastructure, frequent blackouts, persistent shortages of food and medicine, and double-digit inflation. The nonprofit Venezuelan Violence Observatory estimates Venezuela’s homicide rate last year was 73 per 100,000 people, among the world’s worst.

With such a narrow victory, Maduro has little political capital to make the difficult choices some of those problems require, said Risa Grais-Targow, Latin America analyst for the Eurasia Group.

Price and currency controls imposed under Chavez have failed to stem inflation or the flight of dollars and are strangling private firms. But lifting them abruptly could bring economic turmoil and hurt the poor.

Grais-Targow said Maduro will likely focus instead on expanding the myriad of social programs that cemented Chavez’s popularity. But that has become increasingly difficult to balance with the need to spend money on redressing Venezuela’s other problems.

The state-oil company that gave billions of dollars to fund social programs is saddled with mounting debt and declining profits. Critics say the company has failed to invest in boosting oil production, which has fallen for years even though Venezuela has the world’s biggest oil reserves.

Maduro’s narrow victory has given him little ability to maintain unity in a movement held together largely by loyalty to the charismatic Chavez.

Its factions include former soldiers like Cabello who joined Chavez in a failed 1992 coup. Maduro comes from the ranks of leftist political and labor groups that united to help elect Chavez president in 1998. Chavez’s relatives, led by brother Adan, form another bloc.

“His legitimacy comes from the fact that Chavez named him as his successor and other factions were forced to accept it,” said Grais-Targow. “But he faces this landscape where the other main figure, Diosdado Cabello, could elevate his role and have more power. There are also governors who have bases of support and could pose challenges.”

Still, for now, the powerful state political apparatus built by Chavez is standing with Maduro.

Four of the five directors of the National Electoral Council are pro-government. The Supreme Court is stacked with Chavista sympathizers as are lower courts. The National Assembly is also controlled by Chavistas.

China’s debut of “Django Unchained” was suddenly cancelled Thursday, with some suspecting censorship as the reason.

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“After watching it for about a minute, it stopped!” said Xue Yi Dao, a microblogger who was watching the premiere. “Staff then came in and said SARFT (State Administration Of Radio, Film And Television) had called to say it had to be delayed!! Can someone tell me what’s happening!!”

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“We were only told that it was due to some technology problems and were told to cancel it,” the official added. “They didn’t tell us when the film would be shown again.”

The country’s box office for American films grew by 36 percent last year, surpassing Japan, according to the Motion Picture Association Of America.

China’s government censors all films before release, filtering out any scenes with nudity, heavy political topics and extreme violence. In 2004, Chinese movie “Dahongmidian” was cancelled at the last minute because it had “erotic” scenes that “made improper propaganda without approval,” media sources claimed.

In the wake of the news that former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had died of a stroke on April 8 at the age of  87-years-old, critics have catapulted Judy Garland’s version of “Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead” to the top of several music charts, reports Metro.co.uk.

The Wizard of Oz classic has reached “No. 6 in the iTunes charts, No. 1 in the Amazon best-selling MP3s chart and looks set to nab a place in the official Top 10, possible the coveted No. 1 slot.”

Metro has more:

There was initial confusion when it was suggested that Judy Garland’s version is too short to qualify for the UK Top 40 charts, leading organisers to encourage people to buy Ella Fitzgerald’s lengthier rendition. The Official Charts Company appear to be allowing it however, leading to both tracks featuring in various charts.

Garland’s original has proved the most popular choice and at the time of writing is at No. 1 in the Amazon chart, No. 6 in the iTunes chart but is yet to pierce the official Top 40, residing at No. 54.

The Official Charts Company do expect her to feature in this week’s chart however, saying: ‘If the sales of all three were combined, the song would be in 40th place today, with almost 2,500 sales combined – but the leading contender by Judy Garland is likely to move into the Official Singles Chart Top 40 in its own right by Sunday if it maintains its current momentum.’

The critical responses to Thatcher’s death are not surprising. Considered by some to be a charismatic mouthpiece for patriarchy, imperialism, racism and bigotry, Twitter has exploded with scathing denouncements of her character and barely perceptible cyber-shrugs at news of her death.

Legendary Bigot Thatcher Gets Stinging Eulogy From South Africa huff.to/14Sy2KG via @HuffPostWorld—
Cheryl Contee (@ch3ryl) April 10, 2013

Margaret Thatcher was indeed a strong, resolute woman, but she was no friend of diversity or feminism. She actively worked against them.—
Nareen Young (@nareenyoung) April 10, 2013

Thatcher called anti-apartheid South African freedom fighters "terrorists". We'll all die one day. Her life wasn't something I celebrated.—
dream hampton (@dreamhampton) April 08, 2013

Thatcher’s career as a supporter of apartheid, going so far as to call the African National Congress “terrorists in 1987, led former ANC leader Pallo Jordan to issue the following statement:

“I’ve just sent a letter of congratulations,” Jordan said. “I say good riddance. She was a staunch supporter of the apartheid regime. She was part of the right wing alliance with Ronald Reagan that led to a lot of avoidable deaths.”

Though there have been Margaret Thatcher death parties across a Britain divided by news of her passing, President Barack Obama has been clear in his support:

"She stands as an example to our daughters that there is no glass ceiling that can’t be shattered." —Obama on Margaret Thatcher's passing—
Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 08, 2013

A Facebook group created in 2007 to make ‘Ding Dong The Witch is Dead’ on the charts the week that Thatcher died so far has 4,868 members.

Two 27-year-old South African men, Tshepo Cameron Modisane (pictured left) and Thoba Calvin Sithole (pictured right), tied the knot Saturday in a ceremony that is being heralded as the nation’s first gay wedding, according to the Huffington Post.

The couple was married in the town of KwaDukuza and stood before 200 guests as they exchanged their vows. On a continent that views homosexuality as vile lifestyle, both men were brave enough to proudly proclaim their love for one another in a public setting.

Modisane and Sithole met three years ago as students studying in Durban but then lost touch for a few months. They later bumped into each other at a gym and became fast friends, supporting each other during workouts. As their chemistry grew, the men soon realized that their relationship was moving past mere friendship.

According to Modisane, who spoke to Mamba Online, “The great step that we took in our relationship as a gay couple was introducing each other to our families. We are so blessed to have supportive families who care about us. Even though we are gay they still love us.”

Last June, Modisane decided they should take their relationship an even step further, so he made the decision to propose to Sithole, who accepted. Marriage between homosexuals is legal in South Africa and has been for six years. The two discussed having a ceremony that would fall along the lines of their traditions and customs.

“We communicated our intentions to get married to both our families as we wanted to have a traditional African ceremony and also have a traditional Western ‘fairytale white wedding,’” Sithole told Mamba Online. The date of April 6 was set for the ceremony.

The men want to stand as inspirational role models for others who are  gay. “We see no reason to hide in darkness as if there is something to be ashamed about. Our marriage is largely symbolic and a sign that black gay men can commit and build family through a happy and loving marriage,” Modisane says.

Sithole adds, “This is who we are and we are just tired of people judging with no understanding. We are people and entitled to live life to the fullest.”

Modisane, who is Tswana, and Sithole, who is Zulu, dressed in their respective customary grab for the wedding which turned into a cause célèbre.  After the grooms exchanged vows, the festivities that followed included traditional dancing, and the ritual of sacrificing a cow to honor the men’s ancestors. There was also an exchange of gifts between the couple’s families.

The couple, who plan to have their white wedding later in the year in Johannesburg, want to have children and will be using a surrogate to make it happen. “Family is important to us and that is the number one reason why we want to have children. We also want our children to grow up in an environment where they are loved greatly by both parents who appreciate them,”  Sithole told Mamba Online.

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Uganda is proposing a new law that could lead to arrests for those wearing skirts above the knee, reports the Daily Mail.

SEE ALSO: Gun Control Heads For Showdown This Week

The proposed bill would also extend to movies, TV programs and personal internet use which would be closely monitored by state officials.

Simon Lokodo (pictured), Uganda’s Ethics and Integrity minister, stands staunchly by the proposed plans, which also include banning the likes of Beyoncé and Madonna from television. The government considers pornography an “insidious social problem.”

“We are saying anything that exposes private parts of the human body is pornography and anything obscene will be outlawed. Television should not broadcast a sexy person. Certain intimate parts of the body cannot be opened except for a spouse in a private place. A lot of photos, television, films will be outlawed. Even on the internet, we’re going to put a monitoring system (in place) so we know who has watched which website and we know who has watched pornographic material,” Lokodo contends.

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Lokodo, a former Catholic priest who was stripped of his priestly privileges and functions due to his political ideologies, is actively seeking to stamp out pornography in his country and is sure that the bill will pass according to Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper.

But the bill has actually run into difficulty in the parliamentary committee stage after some members expressed concern about its implications for constitutional freedoms. Some members of the country’s Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee have pointed out that some of Uganda’s traditional customs might also be considered pornographic. The committee members asked that the government stop curtailing freedoms because it risks hurting tourism.

In its current form, it is proposed that those found guilty of abetting pornography face a fine of Shs10 million ($2,500 U.S. dollars).  While many argue that existing laws surrounding pornography already outlaw the practice in Uganda, Lokodo claims the laws only cover the publication of racy material.

Many Ugandans are up in arms and are opposed to the proposed bill. They have hit the Twitterverse with their heated opinions and seem to be very vocal about the country’s latest controversial move:

Hope Wamukota‏@hopewamukota28m

Simon Lokodo before talking,please connect your tongue to the brain

Hope Wamukota‏@hopewamukota1h

when injustice becomes law…resistance becomes a duty

Wayne Habig‏@Pencilgraffiti1h

With people like Simon Lokodo – Who can take Africa seriously..?

Intl Museum of Women‏@IMOWomen5 Apr

Wait a sec. Uganda wants to *outlaw* miniskirts? It is my right to dress myself!

Uganda has come under global fire for their official stance on homosexuality.

Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who spent 27 years in prison for opposing white racist rule, was robust during his decades as a public figure, endowed with charisma, a powerful memory and an extraordinary talent for articulating the aspirations of his people and winning over many of those who opposed him. In recent years, however, 94-year-old Mandela became more frail and last made a public appearance at the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament, where he didn’t deliver an address and was bundled against the cold in a stadium full of fans.

South Africans hold the former leader dear as a symbol of sacrifice and reconciliation stemming from his pivotal role in steering South Africa from the apartheid era and into democratic elections in 1994, at a time of great hope but also tension and uncertainty. The new South Africa, beset by economic inequality, crime and corruption, has not lived up to the soaring expectations of its people, but they still see hope through their icon, Mandela.

Primrose Mashoma, a South African, said she wished that Mandela would live, basically, forever.

“I wish him to stay maybe a hundred more years,” she said.

A statement from the office of President Jacob Zuma said there had been “a sustained and gradual improvement” in the condition of Mandela, who was admitted to a hospital on the night of March 27.

“The former President will now receive home-based high care,” the statement said.

Mandela had received similar treatment at his home in Johannesburg after a stay at a hospital in nearby Pretoria in December, when he was treated for a lung infection and had a procedure to remove gallstones. Earlier in March, the anti-apartheid leader was hospitalized overnight for what authorities said was a successful scheduled medical test.

During Mandela’s latest hospitalization, doctors drained fluid from his lung area, making it easier for him to breathe.

On Saturday afternoon, shortly after the presidential statement on Mandela’s discharge, a military ambulance was seen entering his home in the Johannesburg neighborhood of Houghton. In recent years, Mandela had been spending more time in Qunu, the rural area in Eastern Cape province where he grew up. But his delicate condition required that he be moved to South Africa’s biggest city.

Many South Africans refer affectionately to Mandela by his clan name, Madiba. Buildings, squares, and other places have been named after him, and his image adorns statues and artwork around the country. The central bank issued new banknotes last year that show his smiling face.

“I’m really happy about Madiba coming out,” said student Anele Gcolotela, using Mandela’s clan name, a term of affection. “I think it’s been too long now.”

After Mandela’s release from prison in 1990, he was widely credited with averting even greater bloodshed by helping the country in the transition to democratic rule, negotiating with the guardians of the same system that had deprived him of freedom for decades. He became South Africa’s first black president in 1994 after elections were held, bringing an end to apartheid.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been particularly vulnerable to respiratory problems since contracting tuberculosis during his 27-year imprisonment under apartheid. Most of those years were spent on Robben Island, a forbidding outpost off the coast of Cape Town where Mandela and other prisoners spent part of the time toiling in a stone quarry.

The elderly are especially vulnerable to pneumonia, which can be fatal. Its symptoms include fever, chills, a cough, chest pain and shortness of breath. Many germs cause pneumonia.

South African officials have said doctors were acting with extreme caution because of Mandela’s advanced age.

In Saturday’s statement, Zuma thanked the medical team and hospital staff that looked after Mandela and expressed gratitude for South Africans and people around the world who had shown support for Mandela. The South African government has sought to balance efforts to satisfy wide public interest in Mandela’s condition with an intense campaign to preserve the privacy of an ailing figure who already has his place in history.

The African National Congress, the ruling party that led the struggle against apartheid and has held power since its demise, expressed its “happiness” at the discharge of its former leader from the hospital.

“We acknowledge the important role played by President Zuma and his office to keep the nation, the continent and the world informed about progress made on his treatment on a regular basis,” the party said in a statement.

Despite the intense rhetoric, analysts do not expect a nuclear attack by North Korea, which knows the move could trigger a destructive, suicidal war that no one in the region wants. It’s not believed to have the ability to launch nuclear-tipped missiles, but its other nuclear capabilities aren’t fully known.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Washington was doing all it can to defuse the situation. The Pentagon also will deploy a missile defense system to the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam to strengthen regional protection against a possible attack.

The strident warning from Pyongyang is the latest escalating threats from North Korea, which has railed against joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises taking place in South Korea and has expressed anger over tightened sanctions for its February nuclear test.

Acting on one of its threats, North Korean border authorities have refused to allow entry to South Koreans who manage jointly run factories in the North Korean city of Kaesong. Trucks carrying cargo and South Korean workers were turned back Wednesday and again Thursday morning.

This spring’s annual U.S.-South Korea drills have incorporated fighter jets and nuclear-capable stealth bombers, though the allies insist they are routine exercises. Pyongyang calls them rehearsals for a northward invasion.

The foes fought on opposite sides of the three-year Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953. The divided Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war six decades later, and Washington keeps 28,500 troops in South Korea to protect its ally.

Hagel said Washington was doing all it can to defuse the situation, echoing comments a day earlier by Secretary of State John Kerry.

“Some of the actions they’ve taken over the last few weeks present a real and clear danger and threat to the interests, certainly of our allies, starting with South Korea and Japan and also the threats that the North Koreans have leveled directly at the United States regarding our base in Guam, threatened Hawaii, threatened the West Coast of the United States,” Hagel said Wednesday.

In Pyongyang, the military statement said North Korean troops had been authorized to counter U.S. “aggression” with “powerful practical military counteractions,” including nuclear weapons.

“We formally inform the White House and Pentagon that the ever-escalating U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK and its reckless nuclear threat will be smashed by the strong will of all the united service personnel and people and cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means,” an unnamed spokesman from the General Bureau of the Korean People’s Army said in a statement carried by state media, referring to North Korea by its formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “The U.S. had better ponder over the prevailing grave situation.”

However, North Korea’s nuclear strike capabilities remain unclear.

Pyongyang is believed to be working toward building an atomic bomb small enough to mount on a long-range missile. Long-range rocket launches designed to send satellites into space in 2009 and 2012 were widely considered covert tests of missile technology, and North Korea has conducted three underground nuclear tests, most recently in February.

“I don’t believe North Korea has to capacity to attack the United States with nuclear weapons mounted on missiles, and won’t for many years. Its ability to target and strike South Korea is also very limited,” nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker, a senior fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, said this week.

“And even if Pyongyang had the technical means, why would the regime want to launch a nuclear attack when it fully knows that any use of nuclear weapons would result in a devastating military response and would spell the end of the regime? ” he said in answers posted to CISAC’s website.

In Seoul, a senior government official said Tuesday that it wasn’t clear how advanced North Korea’s nuclear weapons capabilities are. But he also noted fallout from any nuclear strike on Seoul or beyond would threaten Pyongyang as well, making a strike unlikely. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly to the media.

North Korea maintains that it needs to build nuclear weapons to defend itself against the United States. On Monday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un led a high-level meeting of party officials who declared building the economy and “nuclear armed forces” as the nation’s two top priorities.

On Thursday (March 27), President Barack Obama met with the leaders of four sub-Saharan African countries in a bid to highlight the shared democratic sentiment shared between America and the nations. Present at the meeting were President Macky Sall of Senegal, President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone, President Joyce Banda of Malawi, and Prime Minister José Maria Pereira Neves of Cape Verde.

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The current administration maintains its ties with the countries based on what the White House calls “shared democratic values and shared interests,” along with praising the leaders for enacting protection of human rights, civil liberties, and inspiring economic growth. During the meeting, the President and leaders discussed strategies on strengthening their ties. President Obama also praised the leaders for their new commitment to the Open Government Partnership and offered assistance to the nations as they aim to create opportunities for youth.

Below is part of the transcript from President Obama’s remarks from the meeting:

So what our discussion has focused on is, No. 1, how do we continue to build on strong democracies; how do we continue to build on transparency and accountability. Because what we’ve learned over the last several decades is that when you’ve got good governance — when you have democracies that work, sound management of public funds, transparency and accountability to the citizens that put leaders in place — it turns out that that is not only good for the state and the functioning of government, it’s also good for economic development because it gives people confidence, it attracts business, it facilitates trade and commerce.

And all of these leaders have good stories to tell on that. They recognize that there’s still more work to be done, and so I’m very pleased that all of them are looking to move forward on the Open Government Partnership that we helped to organize through the United Nations several years ago, and that we are now seeing countries from all across the world sign up for — setting up international norms for accountability and transparency that can lead to good governance.

Read more about this meeting here.

UPDATE: 11:15 AM EST:

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s presidency says 94-year-old Nelson Mandela (pictured) is responding positively to hospital treatment for a recurring lung infection.

The office of President Jacob Zuma also said in a statement Thursday that the former president and anti-apartheid leader remains under observation.

Mandela was admitted late Wednesday to a hospital in Pretoria, the South African capital.

Mandela contracted tuberculosis during his 27-year imprisonment for fighting white racist rule in South Africa. He has repeatedly had lung problems.

________________________

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa says Nelson Mandela has been admitted to a hospital with a lung infection.

The office of President Jacob Zuma said in a statement Thursday that the 94-year-old former president and anti-apartheid leader went to the hospital just before midnight on Wednesday.

The statement says Mandela is being treated for a “recurrence of his lung infection” and that doctors are ensuring he has the best possible treatment.

Zuma wished Mandela a speedy recovery and he urged South Africans and the world to pray for the former leader and his family. Mandela has become increasingly frail in recent years.

See Madiba’s 1994 Inaugural Address Below:

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The incident reportedly took place over a two-day period last week in Stockholm, the country’s capital city.

When passengers were planning to visit a ferry terminal to catch boats to the Aland Islands, an unidentified driver, who works for the tour bus company People Travel Group, placed all of his Caucasian passengers on one bus and Blacks, Asians, and other non-Whites on another.

Once the tourists challenged the bus driver, he allegedly told them they could get off his buses, according to passenger Samer Chatila who was not allowed on the “White bus” and was therefore separated from his friend, “We felt insulted, offended, and discriminated against.”

Stockholm, which is a multicultural city comprised of 26 percent non-Swedes, has had a number of racist and xenophobic incidents. According to the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), which promotes equal treatment within the member states, racist views with regards to ethnicity and religion have negatively impacted Blacks, Jews, and Muslims, especially in the job market; skin color plays a decisive role in an individual’s opportunities in the labor market.

According to ENAR, Africans, in particular, have a significantly lower probability of obtaining a job in Sweden that is relevant to their level of competence. Racism in the country is not only limited to jobs but also occurs in schools, politics, public service, nightlife, the legal system, housing, and the media.

The bus company reportedly received tons of complaints from irate riders. On Thursday, the company’s director, Tomas Karlsson, told the press, he had removed the driver from his route and the man will face a disciplinary board to explain his actions.

SEE ALSO: Rebel Leader Dissoves Central African Republic Constitution

RELATED: Central African Republic President Overthrown, Flees To Cameroon

Michel Djotodia (pictured), one of the leaders of the Seleka rebel coalition, said late Monday that he plans to stay in power until 2016, the length of time left in the term of the president he and his soldiers overthrew.

Ousted President Francois Bozize fled the presidential palace over the weekend, resurfacing Monday in the neighboring nation of Cameroon, where the government issued a statement saying he had sought “temporary exile” on their soil.

The Seleka rebel leader justified his coup d’etat, saying Bozize had veered in to dictatorship during his 10 years in power.

“Through us, it was the entire population of Central African Republic that rose up as a single man against the president,” Djotodia said, according to Radio France Internationale.

“To this effect, we have decided to guide the destiny of the people of the Central African Republic during this transitional period of three years, in keeping with the spirit of the accords signed in Libreville in January 11, 2013 … As a result, I have decided that it is, therefore, necessary to dissolve the constitution of Dec. 27, 2004, as well as the parliament and the government,” he said.

Meanwhile, French forces protecting Bangui’s main airport opened fire on three cars that were speeding toward a security checkpoint, said the French Defense Ministry.

The cars, carrying Indian and Chadian citizens, continued despite warning shots. Two Indian citizens were killed, and the wounded Indian and Chadian passengers were taken for medical care, the defense minister said in the statement Monday.

France is investigating in to the shooting, the statement said.

Pillaging, meanwhile, continued in the capital, Bangui, days after the Seleka rebels took the city. The rebels’ advance started last week when they pushed past Damara, a town 75 kilometers (47 miles) to the northeast, which had marked the line of control drawn by regional forces in January, following an accord signed in Libreville, the capital of neighboring Gabon.

The rebels broke that accord last week, claiming that Bozize’s government had failed to make good on a series of promises, including sending back the South African troops guarding the capital. The South African troops came under an onslaught of fire from the Seleka rebels, who shot and killed 13 South African soldiers over the weekend, in their fight to take the capital.

Seleka is a loose coalition of fighters, many of whom fought in previous rebellions. They joined forces last fall, beginning their advance toward the capital in December.

The developments mirrored a similar rebellion in eastern Congo by the M23 rebels, who took the provincial capital of Goma, pressing the government which then agreed to enter into talks with them. Seleka seemed to be taking a page from the Congolese rebels’ playbook as they advanced to less than 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the capital.

The Seleka fighters benefited from the growing dissatisfaction with Bozize, who came to power in 2003, at the helm of a column of a different rebel group which also invaded the capital and toppled the former leader.

Bozize is accused of growing cronyism, and in the last election in 2011, around 20 of Bozize’s family members and close associates including former mistresses, won posts in the government, according to Louisa Lombard, a postdoctoral fellow in geography at the University of California, Berkeley.

“There was the sense that governing was being carried out by a tighter and tighter circle of people around Bozize,” says Lombard, who has been travelling to Central African Republic for the past 10 years for research.

“And although all sorts of technocratic procedures were in place to make the government more inclusive, it was in fact less and less inclusive. The more technocratic people got sidelined. Those who held positions of power did not have much education, much background in their chosen field. There was a disregard for any kind of merit in governing.”

Lombard cautions, however, that the Seleka coalition is very loosely held together. Already on Monday, a different rebel leader, 26-year-old Nelson N’Djadder who is based in Paris, said that he does not recognize Djotodia as their new president.

“Seleka is a very heterogeneous group. That is something we noticed since the beginning, when it first emerged,” said Lombard. “Holding it together will be a big problem.”

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JOHANNESBURG — The president of the Central African Republic fled the country for Cameroon, after rebels overran the capital of the impoverished nation long wracked by rebellions.

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South Africa said Monday that 13 of its soldiers were killed in fighting with rebels, prompting criticism about why its forces had intervened in such a volatile conflict.

Ousted President Francois Bozize (pictured) sought “‘temporary” refuge on its territory, the Cameroonian government confirmed Monday.

Central African Republic’s new leadership appeared fragmented, with a split emerging in the rebel coalition that seized the capital.

The African Union on Monday imposed a travel ban and asset freeze on seven leaders of the rebel coalition, known as Seleka, and said their advance had undermined prospects for a lasting solution to the crisis in the landlocked country. It urged African states to deny “any sanctuary and cooperation” to the rebel chiefs.

The United States is “deeply concerned about a serious deterioration in the security situation” in Central African Republic, said U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement Sunday.

“We urgently call on the Seleka leadership, which has taken control of Bangui, to establish law and order in the city and to restore basic services of electricity and water,” the statement said.

Watch news coverage of this coup here:

The rebel groups making up the Seleka alliance agreed they wanted Bozize out. Some of the rebels complained of broken promises of government jobs and other benefits. Others cited the deep impoverishment of the country’s distant north despite the Central African Republic’s considerable wealth of gold, diamonds, timber, and uranium.

Africa has a fraught history of foreign military missions, whether for humanitarian or political purposes, or some combination of the two, in times of conflict. The central part of the continent, repeatedly buffeted by interlocking rebellions, is particularly treacherous for countries with an activist foreign policy.

In addition to the South African troop deaths, another 27 soldiers were wounded in the country’s worst loss in combat since nine soldiers died in Lesotho in 1998.

“I think South Africa realized right from the beginning that there will be casualties,” said Johan Potgieter, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, in Pretoria, the South African capital. “If you want to be in peacekeeping, and you don’t want body bags, you should get out of there.”

South Africa’s losses point to the challenges that the country faces as it tries to project continental leadership amid questions about the adequacy of its resources and the clarity of political direction from Pretoria. It has participated in peacekeeping in regions including Burundi and Darfur in Sudan.

South African troops served as trainers for the national army in the Central African Republic. But more troops were sent to protect those trainers as security deteriorated, and critics questioned the collaboration with Bozize, who came to power in a rebellion a decade ago and whose commitment to the terms of past peace deals was in doubt.

This week was meant to be triumphant for South Africa, which will host Brazil, Russia, India, and China at the “BRICS” summit. South African President Jacob Zuma gave a speech on Monday that was supposed to celebrate the summit, but he devoted his first remarks to mourning for those killed in the battle in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic.

Some 200 South African soldiers were deployed at the Bangui base. Estimates of the size of the rebel force that attacked them ranged from at least five to 15 times bigger, raising questions about the security precautions and reconnaissance abilities of the South African contingent.

South African troops “fought a high-tempo battle for nine hours defending the South African military base, until the bandits raised a white flag and asked for a cease-fire,” Zuma said. “Our soldiers inflicted heavy casualties among the attacking bandit forces.”

Gen. Solly Shoke, South Africa’s military chief, said 3,000 rebels armed with mortars and heavy machine guns took part in the fighting. The bulk of the fighting occurred Saturday, though rebels contacted South African forces early Sunday to arrange an “uneasy truce,” the military chief said.

South African authorities were working to identify a body, raising the possibility that the death toll would increase to 14 if it is determined the body is that of the missing serviceman.

The rebels’ invasion of the capital came two months after they signed a peace agreement that would have let Bozize serve until 2016. That deal unraveled in recent days, prompting the insurgents’ advance in to Bangui, where French troops moved to secure the airport.

Defense analyst Helmoed Heitman said on South Africa’s Radio 702 that the South African force in the Central African Republic was lightly equipped and had no aerial support. In the past, he said, South Africa turned down a deal for military transport helicopters because it could not afford them.

The Democratic Alliance, an opposition party in South Africa, said the government should explain why South African forces were deployed “in the middle of what amounted to a civil war, with so little military support.”

The government of Cameroon said Bozize would be leaving for another unspecified country. There were reports of looting in Bangui amid the specter of continuing unrest.

Michel Djotodia, one of the leaders of the rebel coalition, said he considers himself to be the new head of state. Another rebel leader, Nelson N’Djadder, said he does not recognize Djotodia as president.

“We had agreed that we would push to Bangui in order to arrest Bozize and that we would then announce an 18-month transition, a transition that would be as fast as possible – and not one that would last three years,” N’Djadder told the Associated Press by telephone from Paris. “I have enough soldiers loyal to me to attack Djotodia. I am planning to take the Wednesday flight to Bangui.”

N’Djadder said rebels — not those under his command — had pillaged homes in Bangui, including those of French expatriates.

The U.S. State Department said it was concerned about the security situation and urged the Seleka leadership to establish order and restore electricity and water.

The rebel success in the nation of 4.5 million suggests the possible backing of neighboring nations. There has been speculation that either Chad or Sudan or Gabon had provided the rebels with arms and logistical support. Djotodia rejected that claim.

The overthrow of Bozize could affect the hunt for Joseph Kony, said the commander of African troops tracking the fugitive warlord. Bozize was a strong supporter of African efforts to dismantle Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army.

Ugandan Brig. Dick Olum, speaking from his South Sudanese military base in Nzara, said Monday he is concerned by past rebel statements that all foreign troops must leave the country. Some 3,350 African troops are currently deployed against the LRA in South Sudan and the Central African Republic. The U.S. also has anti-Kony military advisers in the Central African Republic.

Central African Republic has suffered instability since obtaining independence from France in 1960, including at least three coup plots in 2012, according to a December analysis by Alex Vines of the London-based Royal Institute for International Affairs. He said the European Union had spent more than 100 million euros on peace missions there since 2004.

First Lady Michelle Obama has been given the distinctive honor of topping the best-dressed list of U.K.’s posh Sunday Times Style Magazine, reports NBC News.

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The magazine celebrated the very prestigious distinction by creating a cover with the First Lady on a first-class stamp. In the picture, Mrs. Obama is wearing a tiara and is placed in a profile position that resembles a monarch, a spot that has been traditionally reserved for the Queen of England (pictured).

The fashion-forward First Lady, who has an affinity for designs created by Jason Wu and Tracy Reese, can also currently be found gracing the April cover of this country’s fashion bible Vogue Magazine.  On the magazine’s cover, the 49-year-old Mrs. Obama is depicted showing off her best assets, which are her signature toned arms and her new much-talked-about bangs.

With regards to making smart fashion choices, Mrs. Obama told Vogue, “I always say that women should wear whatever makes them feel good about themselves,” she told the magazine. “That’s what I always try to do.”

She also discusses how she tries to keep up with the pretty exhausting schedules of her daughters Malia, 14 and Sasha, 11. “The stresses and the pressures of this job are so real that when you get a minute, you want to give that extra energy to your 14- and 11-year-old,” Mrs. Obama reveals.

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NEW YORK  — Chinua Achebe, the internationally celebrated Nigerian author, statesman and dissident who gave literary birth to modern Africa with “Things Fall Apart” and continued for decades to rewrite and reclaim the history of his native country, has died. He was 82.

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Achebe died following a brief illness, said his agent, Andrew Wylie.

“He was also a beloved husband, father, uncle and grandfather, whose wisdom and courage are an inspiration to all who knew him,” Wylie said.

His eminence worldwide was rivaled only by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Toni Morrison and a handful of others. Achebe was a moral and literary model for countless Africans and a profound influence on such American writers as Morrison, Ha Jin and Junot Diaz.

As a Nigerian, Achebe lived through and helped define revolutionary change in his country, from independence to dictatorship to the disastrous war between Nigeria and the breakaway country of Biafra in the late 1960s. He knew both the prestige of serving on government commissions and the fear of being declared an enemy of the state. He spent much of his adult life in the United States, but never stopped calling for democracy in Nigeria or resisting literary honors from a government he refused to accept.

His public life began in his mid-20s. He was a resident of London when he completed his handwritten manuscript for “Things Fall Apart,” a short novel about a Nigerian tribesman’s downfall at the hands of British colonialists.

Turned down by several publishers, the book was finally accepted by Heinemann and released in 1958 with a first printing of 2,000. Its initial review in The New York Times ran less than 500 words, but the novel soon became among the most important books of the 20th century, a universally acknowledged starting point for postcolonial, indigenous African fiction, the prophetic union of British letters and African oral culture.

“It would be impossible to say how `Things Fall Apart‘ influenced African writing,” the African scholar Kwame Anthony Appiah once observed. “It would be like asking how Shakespeare influenced English writers or Pushkin influenced Russians. Achebe didn’t only play the game, he invented it.”

“Things Fall Apart” has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide and has been translated into more than 50 languages. Achebe also was a forceful critic of Western literature about Africa, especially Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” standard reading for millions, but in Achebe’s opinion, a defining example of how even a great Western mind could reduce a foreign civilization to barbarism and menace.

“Now, I grew up among very eloquent elders. In the village, or even in the church, which my father made sure we attended, there were eloquent speakers. So if you reduce that eloquence which I encountered to eight words … it’s going to be very different,” Achebe told The Associated Press in 2008. “You know that it’s going to be a battle to turn it around, to say to people, `That’s not the way my people respond in this situation, by unintelligible grunts, and so on; they would speak.’ And it is that speech that I knew I wanted to be written down.”

His first novel was intended as a trilogy and the author continued its story in “A Man of the People” and “Arrow of God.” He also wrote short stories, poems, children’s stories and a political satire, “The Anthills of Savannah,” a 1987 release that was the last full-length fiction to come out in his lifetime. Achebe, who used a wheelchair in his later years, would cite his physical problems and displacement from home as stifling to his imaginative powers.

Achebe never did win the Nobel Prize, which many believed he deserved, but in 2007 he did receive the Man Booker International Prize, a $120,000 honor for lifetime achievement. Achebe, paralyzed from the waist down since a 1990 auto accident, lived for years in a cottage built for him on the campus of Bard College, a leading liberal arts school north of New York City where he was a faculty member. He joined Brown University in 2009 as a professor of languages and literature.

Achebe, a native of Ogidi, Nigeria, regarded his life as a bartering between conflicting cultures. He spoke of the “two types of music” running through his mind- Ibo legends and the prose of Dickens. He was also exposed to different faiths. His father worked in a local missionary and was among the first in their village to convert to Christianity. In Achebe’s memoir “There Was a Country,” he wrote that his “whole artistic career was probably sparked by this tension between the Christian religion” of his parents and the “retreating, older religion” of his ancestors. He would observe the conflicts between his father and great uncle and ponder “the essence, the meaning, the worldview of both religions.”

For much of his life, he had a sense that he was a person of special gifts who was part of an historic generation. Achebe was so avid a reader as a young man that his nickname was “Dictionary.” At Government College, Umuahia, he read Shakespeare, Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson and Jonathan Swift among others. He placed his name alongside an extraordinary range of alumni – government and artistic leaders from Jaja Wachukwa, a future ambassador to the United Nations; to future Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka; Achebe’s future wife (and mother of their four children) Christine Okoli; and the poet Christopher Okigbo, a close friend of Achebe’s who was killed during the Biafra war.

After graduating from the University College of Ibadan, in 1953, Achebe was a radio producer at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corp., then moved to London and worked at the British Broadcasting Corp. He was writing stories in college and called “Things Fall Apart” an act of “atonement” for what he says was the abandonment of traditional culture. The book’s title was taken from poet William Butler Yeats’ “The Second Coming,” which includes the widely quoted line, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.”

His novel was nearly lost before ever seen by the public. When Achebe finished his manuscript, he sent it to a London typing service, which misplaced the package and left it lying in an office for months. The proposed book was received coolly by London publishers, who doubted the appeal of fiction from Africa. Finally, an educational adviser at Heinemann who had recently traveled to west Africa had a look and declared: “This is the best novel I have read since the war.”

The opening sentence was as simple, declarative and revolutionary as a line out of Hemingway: “Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond.” Africans, Achebe had announced, had their own history, their own celebrities and reputations. In mockery of all the Western books about Africa, Achebe ended with a colonial official observing Okonkwo’s fate and imagining the book he will write: “The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.” Achebe’s novel was the opening of a long argument on his country’s behalf.

“Literature is always badly served when an author’s artistic insight yields to stereotype and malice,” Achebe said during a 1998 lecture at Harvard University that cited Joyce Cary’s “Mister Johnson” as a special offender. “And it becomes doubly offensive when such a work is arrogantly proffered to you as your story. Some people may wonder if, perhaps, we were not too touchy, if we were not oversensitive. We really were not.”

Achebe could be just as critical of his own country. The novels “A Man of the People” and “No Longer at Ease” were stories of corruption and collapse that anticipated the Nigerian civil war of 1967-70 and the years of mismanagement that followed. He not only supported Biafra’s independence, but was a government envoy and a member of a committee that was to write up the new and short-lived country’s constitution. He would flee from Nigeria and return many times and in 2004 refused the country’s second-highest award, the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic, in protest over conditions under President Olusegun Obasanjo.

“For some time now, I have watched events in Nigeria with alarm and dismay,” he said in an open letter to the president, referring to allegations of corruption and lawlessness in Achebe’s southeastern home state of Anambra.

“A small clique of renegades, openly boasting its connections in high places, seems determined to turn my homeland into a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom. … I had a strong belief that we would outgrow our shortcomings under leaders committed to uniting our diverse peoples.”

Besides his own writing, Achebe served for years as editor of Heinemann’s “African Writer Series,” which published works by Nadine Gordimer, Stephen Biko and others. He also edited numerous anthologies of African stories, poems and essays. In “There Was a Country,” he considered the role of the modern African writer.

“What I can say is that it was clear to many of us that an indigenous African literary renaissance was overdue,” he wrote. “A major objective was to challenge stereotypes, myths, and the image of ourselves and our continent, and to recast them through stories – prose, poetry, essays, and books for our children. That was my overall goal.”

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In remarks likely to disappoint, if not infuriate, the Palestinians, Obama said the United States continues to oppose the construction of Jewish housing on land claimed by the Palestinians but stressed that issues of disagreement between the two sides should not be used as an “excuse” to do nothing.

“If the expectation is that we can only have direct negotiations when everything is settled ahead of time, then there is no point for negotiations, so I think it is important to work through this process even if there are irritants on both sides,” Obama told reporters at a joint news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.

“My argument is that even though both sides may have areas of strong disagreement, maybe engaging in activities that the other side considers to be a breach of good faith, we have to push through those things to try to get to an agreement,” he said. “I think we can keep pushing through some of these problems and make sure that we don’t use them as an excuse not to do anything.”

Obama’s comments echoed those of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly called for the Palestinians to drop their preconditions for re-launching the stalled peace talks. The U.S. president’s remarks are sure to reinforce deep skepticism among Palestinians about whether Obama is willing or able to use U.S. influence to press Israel in to making concessions on a matter Palestinians have identified as a top priority.

Abbas and other Palestinian officials said they would not drop the demand, noting that much of the world considers the settlements to be outright illegal and not merely an impediment to peace talks.

“We require the Israeli government to stop settlements in order to discuss all our issues and their concerns,” Abbas told the news conference, a marquee event during Obama’s brief visit to the West Bank on the second day of his Mideast visit. “It’s the duty of the Israeli government to stop the settlement activities to enable us to talk about the issues in the negotiations.”

During his first four years in office, Obama had sided with the Palestinians on the issue.

He and his surrogates repeatedly demanded that all settlement activity cease. However, when Israel reluctantly declared a 10-month moratorium on construction, the Palestinians balked at returning to the table until shortly before it expired and talks floundered shortly thereafter.

The Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem – territories Israel captured in the 1967 war – but are ready for minor adjustments to accommodate some settlements closest to Israel. Since 1967, Israel has built dozens of settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem that are now home to 560,000 Israelis – an increase of 60,000 since Obama became president four years ago.

Obama said the U.S. remains opposed to settlements because “we do not consider continued settlement activity to be constructive, to be appropriate, to be something that can advance the cause of peace.” Still, he added that internal Israeli politics “are complex and I recognize that is not an issue that’s going to be solved immediately. It’s not going to be solved overnight.”

He did say that Palestinians deserve an independent and sovereign state and an end to occupation by Israel. He said the prospect of a contiguous Palestinian state alongside a Jewish state of Israel continues to exist if negotiations would restart.

“I absolutely believe that it is still possible, but I think it is very difficult,” Obama said.

Even before Obama spoke with Abbas, several dozen Palestinians in downtown Ramallah protested against perceived strong U.S. bias in favor of Israel.

Obama “should take immediate action to stop settlement activity because the passivity of his position toward settlements is happening while the very last option of a two-state solution is being killed by Israeli settlements,” said Mustafa Barghouti, a leading Palestinian activist.

A day earlier, Obama reaffirmed the unwavering U.S. commitment to Israel’s security and noted there had been no fatal attacks on Israelis last year from the West Bank, which is controlled by Abbas.

That calm has not extended to Gaza, which is run by the militant Islamic Hamas movement, and Obama said it would be helpful if rockets weren’t still being launched into Israel. As Obama began his program Thursday, Israeli police said militants in Gaza had fired two rockets at southern Israel, causing property damage but no injuries.

One of the rockets exploded in the courtyard of a house in the town of Sderot early in the morning, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. The other landed in an open field. Sirens wailed in Sderot shortly after the 7 a.m. rocket attack, forcing residents on their way to work or school to run to bomb shelters.

Obama condemned the action during his news conference with Abbas. As a presidential candidate in 2008, Obama visited the border town, which is frequently targeted by rocket attacks from the nearby Gaza Strip. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Over the past decade, Gaza militants have fired thousands of rockets and mortar shells at Israel, prompting Israel, with considerable U.S. assistance, to develop its Iron Dome missile defense system, which it credits with intercepting hundreds of rockets.

Immediately after his arrival in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toured an Iron Dome battery at Ben Gurion International Airport in a vivid display of U.S. security assistance to Israel.

In Jerusalem earlier Thursday, while examining the Dead Sea Scrolls and during a tour of a high-tech exhibit, Obama and Netanyahu continued the easy banter that the two leaders displayed on Wednesday. As Netanyahu read a facsimile of a scroll, Obama marveled that the Hebrew language had not changed much over the centuries.

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BEIJING — Chinese businesses operating in Africa need to follow local laws and put long-term benefits ahead of short-term gains, a Beijing diplomat said Monday, acknowledging that rising trade had created “growing pains” in economic ties.

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Chinese companies should work to benefit their African host economies by investing in industries such as power generation, agriculture, textiles and communications that create jobs and generate tax revenues, Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun told participants in an African business seminar in Beijing.

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“Making quick money and leaving is a myopic action, and `catching fish by draining the pond’ is unethical,” Zhai was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency. He said Chinese businesses in Africa need to compete fairly, respect local laws and customs, and improve worker welfare and environmental protection.”

Watch a news report on Chinese businesspeople in Africa:

Complaints over business practices have grown as Chinese firms pour into the continent in hopes of winning profits in areas and industries that competitors from the developed world have given up on.

Chinese diplomats were particularly stung by an editorial published in the Financial Times last week by Nigerian Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi which criticized China for exploiting the continent’s mineral wealth while undermining its manufacturing industries.

“We must see China for what it is: a competitor. We must not only produce locally goods in which we can build comparative advantage, but also actively fight off Chinese imports promoted by predatory policies,” Sanusi wrote.

According to official Chinese figures, China’s trade with Africa has grown from $10 billion to in 2000 to nearly $200 billion last year, driven largely by China’s demand for oil and other African raw commodities. Africa is also a major investment destination for Chinese companies building infrastructure ranging from hydroelectric projects to telecommunications grids, with a total of more than $15.3 billion invested directly by the end of last year, Zhai was quoted as saying.

Such rapid increases had created “growing pains in China-Africa economic and trade cooperation,” Zhai said.

“Although volume increased rapidly, there is not much progress in quality improvement,” he said.