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THE democratisation campaign that begun in Tunisia in North Africa last year and in Egypt at the beginning of this year seems to have gotten trapped in Yemen and Libya while Bashar al-Assad has resorted to brutal force to halt the pro-democracy movement in Syria. Syria is in turmoil, following the killing spree started by the Syrian security forces in the cities of Bushra al-Harir, Jisr al-Shughur and Maarat al-Numan in the name of restoring peace and security after thousands of protesters overwhelmed security forces and torched the courthouse. The army's brutal operation in Maarat al-Numan and Jisr al-shughour has compelled hundreds to cross the Turkish border to take refuge. According to United Nations and Turkish officials, more than 3,000 Syrians have fled to Turkey. Turkish authorities have put up dozens of tents in refugee camps and are offering treatment to wounded Syrians in hospitals. Lebanon, another Syrian neighbour to the west, has already accommodated 5,000 Syrians.

The brutal crackdown on the Syrian people has caused another refugee crisis. Refugees in many parts of the world are still languishing in foreign lands without any hope to return to their home and hearth. Syrian security forces appear to be ruthless and brutal against peaceful protesters. Recent video footages showed members of security forces dancing on mutilated bodies of protesters while a 15-year-old boy was being tortured to death. The photos of this heinous act have evoked sharp reaction in the capital of America against the leader of the Muslim-majority country.

In Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Saleh has backed out from a compromise formula worked out by the Gulf Cooperation Council to step down and transit power to people's representatives. It could have paved the way for power transfer. The battles between protesters backed by a powerful tribal group in Yemen, Sadiq al-Ahmar, and Saleh's security forces led to a new threat to President Saleh's 33-year dictatorial rule. President Saleh is reported to have been seriously injured during counterattack by rebel groups on the presidential palace and flew to Saudi Arabia for treatment. It seems Saudi Arabia has turned out to be a sanctuary for dethroned dictators.

By now, thousands of Yemenis have demanded, through peaceful demonstrations for the last four months, for democratic reforms and ouster of President Saleh, with no results. The recent violent clash between Saleh's security forces and pro-democracy protesters in Sanaa and other parts of the county led to the death of dozens fighters, soldiers and civilians. The escalation of fighting between opposition and pro-Saleh security forces prompted US secretary of state Hillary Clinton to say that the conflict would end only when Saleh and his government, a close ally of America in the war on terrors, move out of the way. The same message has, time and again, been echoed by thousands of anti-Saleh freedom fighters camped out in Sanaa's central square and protected by General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a powerful military leader who switched over allegiance to opposition rebels in March.

On June 10, after Jum'a prayer, tens of thousands assembled in Sanaa's Central Square demanding resignation of President Saleh and his trial for crime against humanity after government media announced that Saleh would return to Sanaa soon from Saudi Arabia. The al-Qaeda card is being played by the Yemen president while Saudi Arab print media is adding fuel to the claim. 'Yemen's revolution has degenerated into a free-for-all of competing militia tribes and powerful families and confederations. In the chaos, more than 200 al-Qaida fighters took over the capital of the southern province of Abyan, and declared it an Islamic emirate. There is a real danger that al-Qaeda may use the power vacuum to its advantage,' says the Arab News.

The blame lies squarely with President Saleh who did not improve the underdeveloped part of the country despite massive aid received from USA. I think San Francisco Chronicle is right to point out that Saleh tried every trick in the autocrat's playbook - from vague reform to military attacks on protesters - to stay in office. The possibility of Saleh's coming back is remote and now the country is being governed by the vice-president, Abdul Rabo Mansour Hadi. Another dictator will formally depart from the political scene soon. Now CIA has decided to carry drone attacks to flash out al-Qaeda elements from Abyan.

The situation in Libya remains uncertain as NATO-led strikes against the forces of the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, did not produce effective results. Meanwhile, Gaddafi defied the call of the US president, Barack Obama, the British prime minister, David Cameron, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, to step down. Instead, he at a recent TV interview vowed to fight against foreign powers and die in Libya. On the other hand, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has sought the arrest of Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi for crimes against humanity. The warrant of arrest could only be issued if judges are satisfied with evidential proof.

Gaddafi is becoming isolated internationally as Russia joined European leaders calling on Gaddafi to step down. Until last week, Russia had strongly criticised the bombing of Tripoli as an attempt at regime change beyond the scope of the UN mandate. The Russian president sent an envoy to Tripoli to negotiate Gaddafi's exit. It is an irony that no dictatorial leader at any part of the world has resigned or left the scene willingly. The trend is that dictators cling to power as long as they can manage by hook or by crook. They do not take lessons from the history and history repeats itself, time and again.

The scientific committee of the journal Oasis opened its annual meeting to discuss the present and future of the 'Jasmine Revolutions'. Great new things are now possible, ranging from the battle against poverty and the struggle for human dignity to the rejection of Islamic radicalism. There are also worrisome signs with regard to fundamentalist groups and fears in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Europe. For Patriarch Scola, a new "economic reason" is necessary. Christian humanism must help the changes underway.

In less than a year, the Middle East (and North Africa) has radically changed following its new and "unexpected Arab spring". What is its fate? What contributions can Christians make to stabilise such change? What are the consequences for a powerless Europe that is looking at events with grave concerns as waves of new refugees reach its shores? These are some of the questions raised by the Scientific Committee of the journal Oasis, which at present is holding its annual meeting in Venice, chaired by its founder, Card Angelo Scola.

The meeting, which ends on 22 June, is being held at the Study Centre of San Servolo Island. It brings together Church authorities from Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi, as well as academics and scholars from various parts of the world, to address to issues raised by the meeting's topic, namely "Where is the Middle East heading? New secularism and North Africa's unexpected turn".

This morning, following the customary greetings for the occasion by Oasis director Martino Diez, the Patriarch of Venice outlined the problem. Notwithstanding reactions that range from "optimism to pessimism" towards the changes underway, Card Scola stressed that the Arab spring is bringing forth a "new secularism" that is not rooted in (Islamic) religion, but in the search of human dignity, as people react to the humiliation of poverty and the lack of rights. At the same time, he acknowledged the revolution's fragility and its need for time to solidify and consolidate, especially in economic terms.

At the same time, he looked at the problem from a European perspective (a continent that is "tired, passive, dissipated and divided"), which has focused only on the flow of refugees that reach the its shores (a few thousands), oblivious to the fact that poverty-stricken Tunisia has welcomed ten times that number. Europe, he noted, must rethink its economy and the global economic system in order to meet the demands of the "Arab spring".

The answer is a "new economic reason", as outlined by Benedict XVI in his Encyclical Caritas in veritate, whose focal point is the development of Africa and the need to go beyond the globalisation of goods and people (even refugees) to include the globalisation of riches and values.

For this reason, the Arab and Western worlds need "Christian humanism" to bear witness, with, as its basis, the dignity of the human person (of man created in God's "image", Genesis, 1:27; or man as God's "successive authority" on earth, Qur'an, 2:30).

The other presentations were more analytical, centred on specific situations. Malika Zeghal, of Harvard University, looked at Tunisia and the temptations of al-Nahdha, a radical fundamentalist organisation that has resurfaced after Ben Ali's fall.

Prof Nikolaus Lobkowitcz (Eichstaett University) compared the 1989 revolutions in Eastern Europe to the current Arab revolution.

Mgr Maroun Lahham, archbishop of Tunis, talked about the Church's marginal role in the Arab spring in Tunisia, describing it however as an example of the "seeds of the Kingdom" outside the borders of the Church.

Among the various papers, the one by Olivier Roy, professor at the European University Institute in Florence, stood out. For Roy, the "Arab spring" is a point of no return that fills him with optimism.

In his view, the uprising is rooted in individuals (not masses), demanding their rights. What is more, it has undermined political Islam (for it has nothing in common with Khomeini's revolution, Palestinian demands, or the Muslim Brotherhood's claim that the Qur'an is the solution to societal problems) and it supports "personal dignity more than group "honour".

In this context, religion is taking a backseat because at the root of the unrest are the multiple choices of young people (the real agents of revolution), some following Sufis, others opting for spiritual masters, and still more choosing yoga or Zen . . . .

Yet, the presence of radical groups is worrisome for the future. For now, all that can be said is that the immediate outlook is one of debates, even acrimonious ones, which will touch some aspects of the relationship between religion and politics, like apostasy, blasphemy, etc.

Roy also noted how much world public opinion has been stunned by the course of events, how it has generated fear in Iran and Saudi Arabia, raised concerns in Europe over its economy and refugee flow and alarmed Israel over the destabilisation of the Middle East.

According to the French scholar, the nature of the Arab revolution is not however measured by "secularism", but by the place, religion can play in the new socio-political framework that could emerge.

In any case, changes underway are a path towards "universal values", which are close but not reducible to the notions of "man's dignity" and "good government" that are part of the Western tradition.

In Riyadh the "jasmine revolution" has been largely "virtual", expressed by bloggers and petitions. But it was quickly stifled, accused of being a "sedition" against Allah and maneuver "Iranian". Some protesters have disappeared in police custody. The demand for a constitution "written by man," considered an insult to the Koran ("not written by human hands"). Western governments unconditional support for Saud has also played a role.

The Arab Spring, which is transforming the face of society in North Africa and the Middle East has a tomb: Saudi Arabia. And this not because of religious fundamentalism, but the strength of a political power that "submits" religion to its rule. This very special picture of the Saudi kingdom emerged today on the second day of the meeting of the Scientific Committee of the magazine Oasis, which is reflecting on the future of the "Arab Spring".

Professor Madawi al-Rasheed of King's College London delivered a key note speech on the exceptional impact of "jasmine revolution" in the Saudi kingdom. "The regime - she said - deployed religious economic and security strategies to suppress even the tiniest virtual sign, before it turned into a real protest."At the beginning - continued Madawi - Saudi rulers did everything they could to claim that Saudi "is different" from Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, they "were almost prepared to say that we are not Arabs!". In fact, the social situation in Riyadh is very similar to other Arab countries: 30% unemployment, especially among young people, 78% of educated women without work, corruption, a management of power that is akin to "the ancient principalities of the Italian Renaissance."

Since social control is extensive, the "jasmine revolution" in Saudi Arabia has mainly found expression on the web. "In February 2011 many petitions circulated on Internet sites, demanding political reform." But the regime blocked them all. The distribution of outpouring of economic benefits was intended to appease the unemployed people's demands for more wealth. But the petitions have not stopped.

Among the most persistent questions in addition to the recognition of human rights, political participation, the end of corruption, is the request for a constitution "made by human hands": the Saudi rulers, in fact, say that the country has no need of a constitution, because "our constitution is the Koran (not "made by human hands, but by Allah ")."

Even the "day of wrath", which in other Arab countries saw millions of people take to the streets, were held only on the web in Saudi Arabia, with the signing of petitions and proclamations and with practical information on how to bypass the official censorship.

The initial intervention to quell the riots in Bahrain allowed the Saudis to stigmatize all Arabian riots (and especially the one at home) as a "conspiracy of Iran", led from the outside, backed by dark foreign powers ( Western).

By exploiting " iranophobia" and using harsh methods (death in police custody, such as that of the young blogger Muhammad al-Wadan), even some small hints of protest were successfully quashed.

Even religion - with Koranic scholars who are actually in the pay of the ruling bureaucrats - has been used to stigmatize any desire for change, seen as an attack on Allah, as an invitation to chaos (fitna).

The upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa give rise to hopes, but also to fears of an military or fundamentalist involution. The Churches of Tunisia and Egypt want to live alongside the entire population. The debate on the "secularism" of the institutions and religious freedom. A tired and "cowardly" West is in need of a new evangelization. The outcome of the Oasis Scientific Committee meeting.

The "Arab Spring" is ambiguous and there is still a very strong risk that it may be betrayed by Islamic fundamentalism or political or military authoritarianism. But it is also a "point of no return" because it brought out the need for pluralism within Arab Islam itself. This is why to ensure this pluralism, religious freedom and the life of Christian communities is the best guarantee for a democratic future and an open civil society.

At the same time, the "Arab Spring" also calls into question the values that the West, where the very values that the Arab world is seeking are translated in ways that marginalize religion or extol relativism.

These are some of the themes that were the focus of a three-day meeting (June 19 to 22) of the Scientific Committee of Oasis magazine in Venice, under the chairmanship of Card. Angelo Scola. A meeting that saw the presence of bishops and patriarchs from the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, and Islamic and Christian scholars from the most qualified universities in the world.

The uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa are "ambiguous" primarily because they have taken different paths in different countries: non-violent revolution (or almost) in Tunisia and Egypt; bloody conflict in Libya, Syria, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia. All, however, were motivated by the people's demands for a more dignified life, for work, for a regime change, for democracy seen as an opportunity for groups and minorities that make up the population of the countries concerned to become the protagonists of their societies.

Various experts have intervened to point out that all this shows the deep need for a plurality that is respected and experienced and the desire for a society that is based on the dignity of the person and not on power or corruption. In this sense, the "uprisings" reject a monolithic Islam, which leaves no room for different ways of living the Muslim faith or other religious minorities. For this reason, in many cases (especially Tunisia and Egypt) Christians took to the streets to demonstrate side by side with young Muslims.

Msgr. Maroun Laham, Archbishop of Tunis has repeatedly said that Christians "are not afraid" of these upheavals. On the contrary, the Christians of the Middle East (and North Africa) must be helped to integrate more and more into the social fabric of their peoples.

In this regard, the Catholic patriarch of Alexandria Antonio Naguib, recalled that during the demonstrations in Tahrir Square, "Christians did not ask for the West's protection." The imam of Al Azhar and the Mubarak government have argued instead that Benedict XVI had requested such protection for Christians, but this is a misinterpretation of the words of the Pope (see AsiaNews.it, The 20/01/2011 Islamic Al Azhar University suspends dialogue with Vatican).

The prospects of the young people's revolt still remain suspended however. Mainly because in addition to the desire for change, there are several other factors: the army, the fundamentalist groups, the old nomenclature. Some experts - such as Mark Movsesian, Director of the Center for Law and Religion at St John's University (New York, USA) - recalled that at the end of the nineteenth century, the Ottoman Empire tried to secularize society (Tanzimat) guaranteeing full citizenship to all groups (including Christians) and pushing for democracy. But the fall of the empire led to the Turkish military power and caused the backlash of the Armenian and Christian genocide.

In the search for a society that gives full citizenship to all social groups, the Middle East is faced with two models: the "American", in which the state is neutral toward religions, but allows them to exert an influence in society, though subject to respect for human rights, the "French" in which religions are reduced to the private sphere, excluding them from public life. Several authors - and among these, Lebanese Salim Daccache, of St Joseph University (Beirut) - have shown that in Lebanon and the Middle East people have a profound sense of belonging to their religious communities, so it is important to seek "a third way ", in which the state gives space to the influence of religion in society, but at the same time guarantees the plurality of religious expressions.

It must be said that fundamentalist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt or Salafi parties in Tunisia are also involved in this search for a "third way", although some of these experts believe that the moderate positions taken by these groups are a pre-election gimmick rather than a sign of real change.

Card. Scola repeatedly stressed that the positive future of the "insurgency" can be verified in the passage towards institutionalization, in the spaces that new social structures and political will allocate to religious freedom.

In this context of upheaval and of searching the silence or the pusillanimity of the West (Europe and USA) has clearly emerged. It had always supported the various dictators of countries involved in the "jasmine revolution" and remained speechless before the demonstrations, preaching respect and justice when governments (supported and recognized by Europe and America) have tried to suppress the movement even with violence .

Some (Prof. Vittorio E. Parsi, Catholic University of Milan) attempted to show the NATO intervention in Libya as a commitment to "human rights", but many pointed out the local Churches' criticism of the intervention, which leaves no room for diplomacy, and many suspect that the Western military manoeuvres in Libya hides its oil and financial interests.

The parsimoniousness of the West's indifference to the Arab revolutions (or its partial interest), has pushed Card. Scola to conclude the meeting by recalling the importance of evangelization, not only in the Middle East, but also in Europe, where secularization is dragging Christians to live Christianity as if it were merely a cultural or charitable inspiration. "We need - said the patriarch of Venice - to return to a Christian identity that is live on a personal and communal level."

Assistance to those fleeing, support to maintain the Christian presence in the region, so they can live as fellow citizens and not as foreigners, recognizing their equal dignity and real freedom.

That "every possible form of mediation" is explored to stop the violence in North Africa and the Middle East, so that peace returns "respecting the rights of both individuals and communities." This was the prayer Benedict XVI raised today on receiving the participants of the Meeting of the Reunion of Aid Agencies for the Oriental Churches (ROACO) and in doing so he once again appealed for an end to conflicts in favour of the path of dialogue.

"I pray - his words - that the necessary emergency assistance will be forthcoming, but above all I pray that every possible form of mediation will be explored, so that violence may cease and social harmony and peaceful coexistence may everywhere be restored, with respect for the rights of individuals as well as communities. Fervent prayer and reflection will help us at the same time to read the signs emerging from the present season of toil and tears: may the Lord of history always turn them to the common good".

The prayer of the Pope comes a little more than a month on from his exhortation addressed to the Syrian ambassador, when he said that "global solution" is needed in the Middle East that "should not harm the interests of any of the parties involved and be the fruit of a compromise, not unilateral decisions imposed by force" that "do not solve anything. "

Today, referring to "changes that are occurring in the countries of North Africa and the Middle East, which is cause for concern throughout the world," the Pope said he was being kept informed by the Coptic Catholic Patriarch (of Egypt), the Maronite Patriarch (Lebanese) from the Pontifical representatives in Jerusalem and the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, from congregations and agencies that "will be able to assess the situation on the ground for the Church and the peoples of that region, which is so important for world peace and stability”. The Pope expresses his closeness, even through you, to those who are suffering and those who are trying desperately to escape, thereby increasing the flow of migration that remains without hope. "

To ROACO, finally, he recommended "ecclesial charity" for the Holy Land and throughout the Middle East "to sustain the Christian presence. I ask you to do everything you can - even by interesting the public authorities with whom you are dealing internationally – so that in the East where the pastors and faithful of Christ were born may live not as' foreigners' but as' fellow citizens, that the sons and daughters of the Eastern Churches may bear witness to Jesus Christ, as the saints of the past have before them. The East is rightly their earthly homeland. It is there that they are required to promote, without distinction, the good of all, through their faith. To all those who profess this faith an equal dignity and real freedom must be recognized, to allow a fruitful ecumenical and inter-religious collaboration. "

The UN warned yesterday that austerity measures in countries such as Greece threaten a global recovery, and called on governments to take social implications into account when drafting policies.

"Austerity measures in response to high government debt in some advanced economies, such as Greece and Spain, are not only threatening public sector employment and social expenditure, but also making the recovery more uncertain and fragile," said the UN department of economic and social affairs in a report.

Heavily-indebted Greece is being forced to deepen and accelerate its reforms in order to qualify for further loans from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

However, the austerity measures being imposed in return have led to mounting social unrest in the country.

The United Nations report stressed that "it is essential that governments take into account the likely social implications of their economic policies."

The report noted that 31 out of 41 agreements with the IMF included pro-cyclical policies -- such as cuts in fiscal deficits -- which could exacerbate a slowdown.

"International financial institutions ... continue to attach pro-cyclical conditions to the financial assistance packages they extend to countries in need and have paid insufficient attention to the social implications of such policies," it said.

"Countries need to be able to pursue countercyclical policies in a consistent manner.

"Such policy space should be enabled by changing the fundamental orientation and nature of policy prescriptions that international organisations impose on countries as conditions for assistance."

The hardest part of Jan Egeland's job is coming home at the end of the day. He is the Director of the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs and the former U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator, and has travelled to the farthest reaches of the world to help protect refugees and displaced people.

"It's very hard to leave," he told IPS, "because when you leave, you go back to your welfare, your safety, all your riches, and I've always felt in a way a bad conscious."

On Monday, World Refugee Day, Egeland spoke in New York to commemorate the 150th birthday of Fridtjof Nansen, the first High Commissioner for Refugees, as well as the 60th anniversary of the UNHCR's landmark 1951 Refugee Convention.

Egeland described his experiences in places like Darfur and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and noted the lack of international attention to the world's most desperate migrants, despite their staggering numbers.

"The reason we're not hearing more about it is it's hurting very poor people, very far away," he said, adding, "The most difficult thing in meetings like this, so far from the front lines, is to try to imagine how it is to be at the front lines."

To shed some light on the situation on the ground, the U.N. Refugee Agency, or UNHCR, annually releases a report on its work, spanning 120 countries. The 2010 edition, released last week, cites 43.7 million displaced people worldwide, including 15.4 million refugees, 27.5 million internally displaced people (IDP) - those displaced within their own countries - and 850,000 asylum seekers.

These figures account only for migrants in 2010, and exclude any displacement caused by the Arab Spring or other recent conflicts - such as in Cote D'Ivoire.

Overall, the report finds an increasing protraction of the refugee experience, with millions of people in exile for 5 to 30 years.

Another primary challenge is the disproportionate pressure on developing countries to house increasing numbers of refugees and IDPs.

"Poor countries host vastly more displaced people than wealthier nations," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday. "Anti-refugee sentiment is often hardest in industrialised nations, yet it is actually developing countries that host 80 percent of the world's refugees," he added, referring to new data from the 2010 UNHCR report.

Pakistan currently houses the greatest number of displaced people worldwide, with 1.9 million as of 2010. It is followed by Iran and Syria, with 1.1 million and 1 million migrants, respectively.

Tanzanian Ambassador Ombeni Sefue pointed out that, as a continent, Africa holds the greatest concentration of displaced people. "If a poor country like Tanzania, like others in Africa, can host so many refugees and try to help them," he said, "it should be possible for others to do."

Refugee living has also become largely a women's issue. "The majority of refugees are women or children," Sarah Costa, executive director of the Women's Refugee Commission, told IPS. "It's incredibly important that their needs are addressed," she said, "and their needs are quite different."

The unique concerns of female refugees range from accessing reproductive healthcare to finding employment - and, of course, avoiding sexual harassment and exploitation.

"We know that rape is a weapon of war," said Costa, "but we also know that in these kinds of settings, when women are fleeing, they're incredibly vulnerable to rape and sexual abuse. And then when they do finally land in an urban area to work, they're also vulnerable," she said. "They get exploited and they live in the shadows of their city."

That is what happened to Nour al-Kahl, an Iraqi woman who was kidnapped while working as a translator for 'New York Times' journalist Steven Vincent. They were both shot, but she survived and fled to Jordan, where she spent 18 months in exile.

In Jordan, however, Iraqi refugees are recognised only as visitors. As such, she had no access to health care or employment. When she did find a job, she learned that most women are sexually harassed in the workplace and forced to have sex before they are paid, she said.

Al-Kahl, however, was eventually assisted by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), gained refugee status, and moved to the U.S.

"I said, there's no way I would go back where there is violence and my life is endangered. I must hold on to my dreams and hopes," she said in an interview with IPS. "And I want them to do the same thing," she added, referring to the increasing number of refugees, including many women, who are fleeing to countries like Jordan in the wake of the Arab Spring. "I'm just asking them to hold on, not to give up, not to compromise."

She also finds the international community too light-hearted in their refugee protection efforts.

"They are optimistic - I don't know why, because more and more people... get displaced and have to flee their countries," she said. "I'm not as optimistic as they are," she added.

Al-Kahl asked the international community "to act quickly and take the issue seriously - not just for media or propaganda."

And she is not the only one calling for more than 'band-aid' solutions and fleeting media coverage.

According to Egeland, all too often, refugee efforts result only in "keeping people alive, but giving them no life - giving them no protection."

Sefue agreed. "We have to invest in making sure that we don't impress only the short-term humanitarian needs, but we also need to feed the foundations of growing economies, inclusive economies," he said. "We have to save lives today, but we must also make those lives worth saving."

According to Costa, party of the answer is talking with the victims themselves. "They can tell you on the ground what should be in place to help them be better protected," she said. "Listening to them is key."

The African continent, which is projected to make significant economic gains over the next decade, is in danger of being weighed down by a dramatic explosion in population growth.

A new study titled "Africa's Demographic Multiplication", commissioned by the Washington-based Globalist Research Center, points out that Africa's population has more than tripled during the second half of the 20th century, growing from 230 million to 811 million.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country at 158 million, is expected to grow to 730 million by century's end, making it larger than Europe's projected population of 675 million.

The study, authored by Joseph Chamie of the New York-based Center for Migration Studies and a former director of the U.N. Population Division, says that Nigeria is currently the only African country with a population exceeding 100 million.

But 10 other countries in the African continent are expected to join that club before the close of the century: the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

Together, he says, the population of these 11 African nations is expected to reach 2.4 billion by 2100, representing about a quarter of the world's population at that time.

According to current projections, total world population is expected to reach a historic seven billion by October this year.

The world's five most populous countries are China (1.3 billion), India (1.2 billion), the United States (310.2 million), Indonesia (242.9 million) and Brazil (201.1 million).

Africa's population will soon reach close to one billion, or nearly 15 percent of the world population.

Due to continuing high birth rates (close to five children per woman) and comparatively lower death rates (life expectancy at birth is 56 years), the population of Africa continues to grow rapidly.

While the average annual growth rate for the entire continent is around 2.3 percent, there are even higher rates of growth in excess of 3.0 percent.

This implies a doubling of the population within a generation, as observed in countries such as Mali, Niger and Uganda, whose average fertility rates exceed six children per woman.

Asked if Africa's future economic growth will be jeopardised by its rising population, Chamie told IPS, "This is a perennial question posed by many."

The answer depends on many factors, he said, including the size of the population, resources, environment, education, composition and location.

Generally speaking, however, he said, "My answer is this: for many African countries, especially for the least developed, rapidly growing populations will pose serious challenges for their overall development, including future economic growth."

It would be far easier for these countries to develop and progress with low rates of population growth.

Chamie said future demographic trends are critical components in effectively confronting Africa's numerous development challenges.

"The international community can play an important role in facilitating the demographic transition to low death and birth rates," he said.

By virtually any measure, he said, the costs of international assistance to Africa aimed at advancing the continent's growing population expeditiously through the demographic transition are small, and the resulting benefits are undeniably enormous for families and nations.

In a joint report released last month, the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Union Commission said African economies will continue to enjoy high growth rates in 2011. But the report called for "a larger role for the state" in order to translate that growth into job creation and poverty reduction.

According to the 130-page report, the African continent registered a growth rate of 4.7 percent in 2010, and is estimated to rise to 5.0 percent in 2011.

This is attributed to the rebound of export demand and commodity prices over the past 18 months, as well as an increased flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) in extractive industries and also development aid.

"This is good news for Africa, but not good enough for millions of people who are yet to feel the benefits of prosperity in their daily lives," the report noted.

Still, the continent is far from attaining the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), including drastic reductions in hunger and poverty.

The study said that stronger growth has yet to translate into meaningful reductions in unemployment as "poverty rates and high unemployment and food prices have instigated political unrest in some African countries such as Tunisia and Algeria."

In his report, Chamie said that if Africa's fertility rates remain unchanged over the coming decades, the population of the continent would grow extremely rapidly, reaching three billion by 2050 and an incredible 15 billion by 2100, or about 15 times Africa's current population.

Even if fertility rates were to fall instantly to replacement levels, the African population would continue to increase due to its young age-structure (half the population is less than 20 years old), growing to 1.5 billion in 2050 and 1.8 billion in 2100. With high rates of natural increase, in excess of two percent, by the close of the century the population of Africa's 33 Least Developed Countries (LDCs) is expected to reach 2.2 billion, or slightly more than a fifth of the world's population at that time, noted Chamie.

Asked if the rise in population growth in Africa is also due to improvement in overall health (and extending the average life span) and decline in HIV/AIDS, Chamie told IPS the decline in mortality rates, especially among infants and young children, has contributed to rising population growth.

"And also, yes, if HIV/AIDS levels are high, this will have an impact on population growth as any other mortality factor does," he added.

If death rates are high, even with high birth rates, population growth will be relatively low (births minus deaths equals population growth, setting aside international migration patterns).

He said rapid population growth occurs when the death rates decline, but birth rates remain high.

Population growth rates return to low levels when fertility rates come down near to replacement, i.e., about two children per couple.

This is basically the demographic transition which has occurred in nearly every major region except Africa, he said.

"The goal is to move Africa through the demographic transition as rapidly as possible," he added.

The International Energy Agency releases 60 billion barrels from the reserves. After seven weeks of decline, share values climb. EU decision to help Greece and Wen Jiabao's pledge to contain China's inflation help trend.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) had decided to increase global oil supplies in an effort to control prices. This has boosted major stock indexes across Asia following several weeks of decline.

The IEA is adding 60 million barrels to global markets from its reserves over the next month, ahead of peak demand, saying it has to make up for the shortfall due to the war in Libya.

For analysts, the move will help the United States stabilise its economic recovery by lowering the price of oil.

Crude oil for August delivery tumbled 4.6 percent to US$ 91.02 a barrel in New York yesterday. In London, Brent Crude dropped by just over 5 per cent.

Asian shares were up. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index rose 1.9 per cent. In China, the Shanghai Composite Index surged 2.2 per cent, whilst in South Korea, the Kospi Index gained 1.7 per cent. Since the start of May, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index had dropped 6.2 per cent.

Two factors boosted stock values. First, the European Union pledged to stabilise the economy of the Euro zone, vowing to stave off a Greek default as long as the country's parliament voted in favour of 78 billion Euros (US$ 111 billion) of budget cuts next week. Secondly, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao reassured markets that his government would keep inflation under control.

The Asian Churches welcome with appreciation and with high hopes the appointment of Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli as the first Apostolic Nuncio at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). As reported to Fides, the local Churches hope that he can be a voice that encourages dialogue and good relations between the Churches and governments, brings Christian values and creates more attention to issues such as protection of human dignity, religious freedom and human rights in ASEAN countries.

Mgr. Girelli is already Apostolic Nuncio in Singapore and East Timor, the apostolic Delegate in Malaysia and Brunei and non-resident papal representative for Vietnam, and "for many years has been an expert in the complex reality of Southeast Asia", remarks Fr. Raymond O'Toole in an interview with Fides, who works at the General Secretariat of the FABC, the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences. "His presence at the meetings of ASEAN -he notes - will serve as a social conscience and moral reference point, based on the teaching of the Church in these difficult situations where references are needed or are missing altogether". In the ASEAN, recalls Fr. O'Toole, there are "countries like Myanmar where dictatorship penalizes dissent and lack of tolerance; such as Indonesia, where Islamic extremism increases, such as Vietnam, with signs of openness on the one hand and hardness on the other. The presence of a voice of the Church at the table of discussion is a positive step forward", he adds.

"In the most difficult realities of Asian countries - the Indian Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil, head of the Commission for the Evangelization in the FABC explains to Fides - we need, as a Church, a dialogical approach that, respects the historical and cultural traditions of each context and develops good relations on a local level. We are confident that the presence of the Nuncio in the ASEAN will be an opportunity to improve relations with civil authorities and the conditions of the people of the region, so the states and Churches work together for the good common".

Fr. Peter Watchasin, a priest from Bangkok and Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Thailand, believes the appointment is very important: "We hope more attention, among the ASEAN countries, will be given to issues related to religious freedom and human rights. I think, for example, about the difficult situation of believers in Laos, where freedom of worship is also severely limited. I think there is space for hope and good news".

Born in the late '60s, to promote interest on a political, economic and cultural level, the Association of South East Asia Countries, currently has 10 members: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand (the 5 founders), Brunei , Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. Among the aims of ASEAN, promote economic growth, peace and regional stability, friendship and cooperation. The Association represents more than 560 million people. (PA)

The Philippines are turning to the United States to modernize their military. China launches a warning to the U.S., to stay "away" from the region. Chinese diplomacy seeks to calm tensions with Vietnam. But it is open war between the newspapers close to the communist governments of Beijing and Hanoi.

Manila is seeking help to modernize its war machine and strengthen the armed forces; Beijing, however, has launched a warning to "stay away" from the controversy. The role of the United States and Washington's aims in the area could exacerbate tensions in the South China Sea, the center of a territorial dispute involving the Philippines, Vietnam and China. Meanwhile it is now open war - at least verbally - between the Chinese and Vietnamese newspapers, with reciprocal exchanges of accusations.

The U.S. will provide weapons to strengthen the Philippine army, ready to "counter any aggressive posture" in the portion of the sea including the Spratly and Paracel islands. In a joint conference with Foreign Minister Albert del Rosario, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the government is "determined and committed" to support the defense of the Philippines. Del Rosario meet with Robert Gates, U.S. Minister of Defense, and other senior U.S. officials to "evaluate what means will be of use" to the government in Manila. Clinton also said she was "concerned" about the evolution of the situation in the South China Sea. However, the Philippine Foreign Minister ensures that the country is "prepared to do what is necessary to repel any attack." Meanwhile, the President Benigno Aquino has allocated 11 billion pesos (just over 250 million dollars) to strengthening the navy.

The U.S. government's interests in the Asia-Pacific alarm China, which has called on Washington to "stay away" from the disputes in the area. Cui Tiankai, Deputy Foreign Minister, stressed that Beijing is not interested in exacerbating the tension, to the point of conflict, but warned that the United States "is not a nation with legitimate claims in the South China Sea." Earlier, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei had assured the intention of promoting friendly relations and cooperation "with all nations of the world, especially those close to us."

In the meantime its open warfare - at least in print - between China and Vietnam, with vitriolic articles in major newspapers in both countries. The Hanoi papers point the finger at Beijing, guilty of "exacerbating" the situation, of "distorting" the facts. The Chinese rallied with an editorial in the People's Daily, accusing Vietnam of "continuous provocations," which will be "responded to" by the powerful Chinese navy. It should be noted that the average Chinese and Vietnamese are close to the government and bodies of the Communist Party, which is why, this strategy of tension between the two fronts can not be due to chance or personal initiative.

Among the nations of the Asia-Pacific region, China has the most extensive claims in the South China Sea, which includes the uninhabited Spratly and Paracel Islands, with rich fishing grounds and important oil and gas reserves. Beijing's claims also reflect its strategic goal of hegemonic control over trade and mineral development, above all oil and natural gas.

Chinese demands have not gone unchallenged. Contenders include Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan, as well as the United States, which has its own strategic interests in the region.

The Inter American Development Bank (IDB) estimates the cost of the spiral of violence afflicting Central America due to widespread organised crime, drug and human trafficking at over $6.5-billion, equivalent to 8% of the regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP). "Approximately half of this total ($3,341-million) consists of costs related to health; $1,281 are expenditures for private security; $1,137 million are costs to institutions; and the remainder is the cost of loss of property", indicates an IDB report, adding that "insecurity and organized transnational crime have emerged as the main challenge to the development of democracies in Central America by undermining the rule of law, destabilizing institutions, and overwhelming the capacity of government to take effective action". The IDB report stresses that "violence and crime have a direct impact on economic development by discouraging investors, affecting the business climate, increasing operating costs for the private sector, and imposing a fiscal burden on governments that could allocate prevention and enforcement resources to other priorities". According to the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), Central America has a homicide rate of 33.3 per 100,000 persons: "This figure exceeds the rate of 28.8 for the Caribbean, 24.8 for the Andean countries, and 10.9 for the Southern Cone. It is four times the world average of 8 per 100,000 persons". Updates listed in the IDB report indicate that "in 2009 there were 18,815 homicides in Central America, an average of 52 per day: young people are both the main victims and the perpetrators of violence", a circumstance which "compromises the future of the region".

A regional summit on security is due to open tomorrow until Thursday in Guatemala. The International Conference in Support of the Central American Security Strategy will be attended, among others, by the Presidents of the region, the Heads of State of Mexico, Colombia and the Dominican Republic, US State Secretary Hillary Clinton, Spain's Foreign minister Trinidad Jimenez and Organisation of American States (OAS) secretary general José Miguel Insulza.

THERE is a common perception among many South Asians that the Western world is hyper-materialistic; the finer instincts of sacrifice, humility and compassion having been lost in the race for selfish, worldly gains.

Is this observation based on facts or is it a view shaped by the romantic musings of the Eastern mind? A conversation with my close friend Priya triggered wide-ranging reflections on this controversial issue.

Last week, Priya and I met for a tete-a tete. She was back from an extended trip to Bangladesh where she had gone to care for her 80-year old ailing mother, hospitalised for knee replacement.

As we lounged on Priya's sun deck, sipping "Organic KK Tea" recently acquired in Dhaka, the conversation drifted to her mother's health situation. She praised the quality of doctors and nurses at Dhaka's Apollo Hospital.

However, during the course of this discussion, her mood turned somewhat sour. Quite uncharacteristically, she erupted into a litany of complaints about the difficulties she encountered: the horrendous traffic, the inadequacy of public services and, particularly, the minimalistic support from family and friends.

Seeing my surprised expression at her last comment, Priya explained: "I am not playing a blame-game. The truth is, most of my family and friends are extremely busy catering to their own multiple and complex problems."

I asked her what had happened to the traditional eastern value of someone always being there to help out in times of need. Priya responded rather tartly, "Don't you realise that life in Bangladeshi cities have changed dramatically? Most women pursue stressful careers and also cater to household demands. The men are busy facing the difficult challenges at work. Since the joint-family system is falling apart, there are no grandmas or aunts, or underemployed uncles, to help out with daily chores!"

I respect Priya's opinions immensely, since she represents the best of both the East and the West. Having lived in US for 15 years, she has morphed into a liberal and open-minded person.

However, her core values remain rooted in the rich culture of Bangladesh. In sum, she is not a "wannabe" American, but can be aptly described as a naturalised hybrid! Her remarks set my mind ticking for a considerable length of time. Mulling over the issue, I realised that her observations were indeed true.

Urban Bangladeshis have made a quantum leap in their lifestyles, which are starting to mirror western standards. However, the external support system has remained more or less stagnant and does not provide the fire wall of protection that is available in the West.

US, too, experienced such a transitory phase after the Second World War, when social norms changed and nuclear families became the focal points of activity. Gradually, the idea of family support gave way to community support.

As a matter of fact, I am a direct beneficiary of the wider community support system.

Each winter my family heads east for three long months, leaving our home in the care of neighbours and friends. Judy, from my American Literature Group, minds the house, occasionally visiting to check for water leaks, storms and snow hazards.

My neighbour Wendy tends to the potted plants. A day before my return, friends, Fauzia and Larry, make sure that the fridge is stocked with essentials, so that I don't have to drive to the grocery, right after a 28-hour journey.

It is true that I have seldom visited my neighbour's house for a casual dinner or a random chit-chat, but when the occasion arises my American friends and neighbours are there for me almost all the time.

Compelled by necessity, Americans have created and institutionalised a mutual support structure which works fairly well. Stay-at-home moms car pool children to and from after-school activities. If someone is seriously ill, neighbours offer to help with chores.

Recently a friend told me that when her daughter's classmate's mother was hospitalised for cancer the entire class expressed solidarity. They pledged that each day a student would take food to the family and help out with errands. This support continued for three months, until the mother had recovered sufficiently to assume her normal activities. Hence, I find it difficult to label the Western society as cold and uncaring!

Essentially, all societies have their own social safety nets for helping friends and family. The difference lies in the ways each culture approach the issue of empathy and support! Western thinking is largely confined to a rational plane -- help is forthcoming on an "as-you-need-it" basis.

Alternatively, in the East, despite the growing pressures and demands of daily life, the feely-touchy stuff exists. Friends and family offer help in whatever way they can. There is also a spontaneous culture of inviting friends and cooking their favourite dish, or offering free tickets to a much coveted World Cup Cricket game!

The debate over cultural differences between the East and the West is not new and will continue to rage for many more years to come. Unfortunately, this narrative has given rise to disagreements, sometimes causing strong reactions.

However, my interactions with friends from both sides of the invisible dividing line have convinced me that cultural diversities, when exploited positively, can create synergies and enhance collaboration among people of different races and regions.

Call me an idealist, but I tend to subscribe to the view expressed by Rudyard Kipling in The Ballad of East and West: "But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth, when two strong men stand face to face, tho' they come from the ends of the earth!"

In recent days the Government of Bangladesh has "backed off", on the theme of the laity of the state, as reported by the Christian human rights activists who work on site to Fides. The Special Parliamentary Committee, appointed by the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to examine amendments to the Constitution, has recommended to maintain Islam as state religion, to preserve the religious debut in the preamble of the Constitution ("In the name of Allah, forgiving and merciful ") and to allow the presence of religious parties within the Constitution. According to religious Christian minority, Hindus and Buddhists, it is a "shift" due to pressure from Islamic fundamentalist groups. The government, in fact, had announced in the program the desire to want to restore laity to the state, and also to fight religious extremism in politics.

The move has generated controversy and disappointment in civil society. A Catholic activist in Dhaka tells Fides: "The proposed text to be modified by the Constitution literally states that 'Islam is the state religion in the Republic, which guarantees equal rights to other religions': it is a blatant contradiction and creates confusion. Meanwhile, as Christians (0.03% of the 160 million inhabitants, the vast majority are Muslims) we find ourselves living several problems in this so-called lay government of the Awami League". "The religious minorities, intellectuals, civil society activists - today ask the return to the Constitution of 1972, which was lay style. The government, which initially said was available, now is afraid of the reactions of Islamic radicals, and has stepped back". Even the government of Hasina, remarks, " is making an instrumental use of Islam to ensure legitimacy and political consensus".

Bangladesh was declared a lay state in 1972, but a series of constitutional amendments in subsequent years and two military dictatorships abandoned that principle to the point to declare Islam the state religion in 1988. Since taking power two years ago, Sheikh Hasina has publicly announced an agenda to restore the lay state and reintroduce the original "four principles" underlying the nation: democracy, nationalism, secularism and socialism. (PA)

Commemorating World Refugee Day on June 20 is a good time to reflect upon the plight of refugees around the world. With a number of landmark anniversaries this year, 2011 also highlights just how the refugee experience has been intertwined with the history and humanitarian tradition of Bangladesh.

Today some 43.7 million people around the world have been forced to flee their homes due to persecution and violence. This number includes over 10.5 million refugees and 14.7 million internally displaced persons who receive protection and assistance from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or UNHCR. Another 12 million people are stateless and cannot enjoy the basic rights which come with citizenship or nationality.

Last year alone, some 845,800 people around the world sought asylum as refugees -- one in three was a child and more than 15,500 were unaccompanied or separated from their families. Not surprisingly, women and girls make up almost half of all refugees worldwide while an equal percentage are children under 18. Developing countries also shoulder a disproportionate responsibility by hosting four-fifths of the world's refugee population, including most of the 7.2 million refugees whose lives are caught in dismal, protracted situations where there is often no apparent solution in sight.

These statistics present a sobering reality as we consider that 2011 is also the 60th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 50th anniversary of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. While international laws alone are not a universal remedy to their plight, these conventions have long provided a solid foundation for the protection of refugees and stateless persons around the world and today serve as a practical guide for states, the UN and civil society to pursue durable solutions for these same people.

Of course, 2011 is also important as we commemorate 40 years of independence of Bangladesh. Many Bangladeshis hold vivid and sometimes traumatic recollections of the events of 1971 when some 10 million Bangladeshis sought safety in neighbouring India. This remains the largest and most rapid forced displacement in human history. In the midst of these tumultuous events, UNHCR was tasked to serve as the UN's focal point to coordinate the inter-agency humanitarian response.

The scale of this massive and complex humanitarian operation was a first for the UN Refugee Agency and was the start of what has become an intertwined history between Bangladesh and UNHCR. Lessons learnt in 1971 helped shape UNHCR into the organisation it is today.

In 1978, and again in 1991, many Bangladeshis will know of UNHCR through our work with refugees from Myanmar. Today, some 29,000 registered refugees reside in two camps in Cox's Bazar District in addition to a government-estimated 200,000-500,000 Myanmar nationals who are undocumented, but who still figure among persons of concern to UNHCR.

Over the last two decades, UNHCR has worked closely with the government of Bangladesh to protect and assist these refugees while still harbouring the hope that a durable solution for all Myanmarese might someday be found. To support Bangladesh in resolving what may be one of the most protracted and forgotten refugee situations in the world today, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antònio Guterres, has designated this as one of his priority operations.

In an increasingly interconnected world, we are facing new and sometimes unexpected challenges. Earlier this year, the events in Libya led to a unique situation where for the first time in recent history, the number of "third country nationals" -- non-Libyans such as Egyptians, Ghanaians, Vietnamese and of course, Bangladeshis -- vastly outnumbered the Libyan refugees who fled to neighbouring countries.

While many will correctly point out that the Bangladeshis fleeing Libya were migrant workers and not refugees, there were some obvious similarities. Many Bangladeshis in Libya, like refugees and asylum seekers, did not want to leave, but instead were forced to leave due to the insecurity they faced. Together with refugees and asylum seekers, many migrant workers from Bangladesh and other countries had to beat a dangerous and often traumatic path to safety and needed support when they arrived in Tunisia, Egypt and other neighbouring countries.

Together with the hosting countries and other international organisations and NGOs, UNHCR provided tents, food, water, and medical care like it would to any other displaced person. At the peak of the crisis, UNHCR also used its own funds to charter 17 long-haul aircraft to repatriate 5,670 Bangladeshis who were among the more than 36,000 who have so far returned home from Libya.

Quite simply, these actions were in response to a humanitarian and moral imperative -- the same sentiment that led to the creation of UNHCR and the passage of international law to protect refugees and stateless persons. It was also the same sentiment that led to the assistance provided to Bangladeshi refugees in 1971 and later for Bangladesh to host and assist refugees from Myanmar for the last 20 years.

A last landmark date to mention is the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, who remarked: "Where our humanity is concerned we are weak -- because we do not consider some human beings as part of mankind." Where in many parts of the world we see xenophobia and discrimination on the rise, Tagore's words strike a familiar chord which resonates well beyond his native Bengal.

All too often, refugees are faulted for fleeing from violence and persecution and seeking safety for their loved ones and themselves. They are blamed for not returning to their homes quickly enough, even if this might result in their imprisonment, torture, rape, or death. Too often, refugees must sacrifice some of the last shreds of basic human dignity just to survive.

Tagore's counsel is an echoing reminder that we -- the world community -- must consider all displaced persons as an integral part of mankind, only then can we effectively address the ever-complex issue of forced displacement which affects refugees, the internally displaced, and so many others around the world

LAST week, the US think-tank Fund for Peace and the influential Foreign Policy Magazine published the 2011 Failed State Index of the world.

The Index is a list of 177 countries of which 60 are close to being a failed state. The surveyors used 12 elements to assess a failed state.

On the basis of these indicators, Bangladesh was a notch better in its ranking this year than last year. This means that it has moved from 24th position of being a failed state to being the 25th in line.

This is no consolation to the Awami League government, nor is it a matter of elation for the BNP opposition. The index provides us an idea of the precarious nature of our state. If it is of any satisfaction to us, the Index ranks Pakistan 12th in line as a failed state and Myanmar 18th. Both these countries are worse off than us. However, Nepal occupies 27th position and Bhutan is in the 50th position. Both are in better positions than Bangladesh.

International organisations, including those from UN, the World Bank and other influential think tanks, are nowadays rating countries against a set of prefixed indices, in order to judge the country's overall position relative to other countries in the world. The rankings give policy-makers a sense of the direction in which they are moving and also allow them to take a holistic approach in formulating national plans.

Based on such rankings, the world draws an idea of Bangladesh. We in turn also view the rest of the world and other countries in our region.

For some time now, the Transparency International's Corruption Perception Reception Index has been irking us. We were ranked as one of the most corrupted country in the world. However due to the efforts over the last few years, we have come out of that rut.

Where are we now on corruption? Bangladesh is still 134 in the list of 178 countries. Topping this list are Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore with an impressive 9.3 score out of 10 (highly clean). Bringing up the rear is Somalia (1.1), Myanmar (1.4) and Iraq (1.5). Bangladesh has scored 2.4 out of 10, which is quite low by any estimation.

But let us warn you that not everyone agrees with the way Transparency International measures the perception of corruption in various countries around the world.

Let us look at what other competitive rankings Bangladesh is subjected to each year. There are several credible ones. We shall mention a few of them here to further understand Bangladesh's place in the globe.

Let us take the matter of "cost of doing business." The World Bank tabulates this regularly and has ranked us 107 out of a total of 183 countries. The items that merit their consideration for determining the ranking of countries are: Ease of starting a business; dealing with construction permits; registering property; getting credit; protecting investors; paying taxes; trading across borders; enforcing contracts; and closing a business.

Interestingly Greece, Jordan, Brunei, Argentina, Indonesia, Russia, Brazil, India and the Philippines enjoy poorer ratings than us.

Now let us look at the "freedom of the press." Each year UNESCO releases a survey report on this subject. Bangladesh ranks comparatively high being 118 out of 196 countries surveyed.

Freedom of the press is the guarantee by a government of free public press for their citizens. This guarantee is extended to members of news-related organisations and their published reporting of that country. Some governments restrict dissemination of governmental information. The survey takes this also into account while computing the ratings.

Since we live in a globalised world, Bangladesh is also subjected to the rigours of being assessed on its "global competitiveness."

Switzerland leads this ranking while Bangladesh ranks 107 out of 139 countries. The survey assesses the ability of economies to provide higher levels of prosperity. We are unfortunately at the lower end. The index also measures institutions, policies and factors that fix the current and medium term levels of economic prosperity.

The World Bank has introduced another important index called the "global logistics performance index." This measures the capacity of countries to efficiently move goods and connect manufacturers and consumers with international markets.

Bangladesh ranks 79 out of 155 countries. Six areas are judged in each country. They are: The state of the customs; infrastructure; international shipments; logistics competence; tracking and tracing; and timelines.

Germany leads here, while Singapore comes second. India leads in South Asia with Bangladesh following her. Pakistan and Sri Lanka are below Bangladesh in their ranking.

A very relevant ranking among nations is the "environmental performance index (EPI)." This is a method of quantifying and numerically benchmarking the environmental performance of a country's policies. The index is based on 25 performance indicators grouped under two key objectives: Environmental health and eco-system vitality.

In the 2010 survey, Iceland, Switzerland, Costa Rica and Sweden topped the list. Bangladesh was positioned 139 out of 163 countries. This was a poor rating as our EPI scores were within the range of 55-40 only. India and Pakistan scored better than us. Nepal and Bhutan were 38th and 40th among these 163 countries.

After looking closely at surveys which judge the performance of countries, let us now look at the global scorecard on the cities of the world.

The Intelligence Unit of the magazine the Economist (EIU), published from UK annually, ranks 140 cities around the world. It calls the survey the "Economist's most livable cities." EIU ranks the livability of world cities on a scale of 0-100 based on 30 indicators grouped in five categories: Stability (25%); healthcare (20%); culture and environment (25%); education (10%) and infrastructure (20%).

In 2011 Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe scored the lowest (37.5 out of 100) while Vancouver in Canada scored the highest on the basis of these indicators. Unfortunately Dhaka scored the second lowest, just above Harare. What a shame, Mr. Mayor!

Bangladesh's capital city Dhaka therefore is one of the least livable cities in the world. London took 56th place while New York sits 53rd in the list. Seven of the top ten scoring cities are in Australia and Canada.

So as we view the international indexes, both our government of the day and the opposition must realise that policies which they formulate or oppose have a direct bearing on the international rating of a country in the context of today's world.

We are proud to be Bangladeshis. But what kind of country we intend to be proud of. Think again

Vocalists use World Music Day to promote their art and press for better rewards

While others celebrated World Music Day yesterday, Christian singers used the event to urge more support to see their art develop and progress.

The nation marked the day with a cultural show at the Bangladesh National Academy for Fine and Performing Arts in Dhaka organized by the Musical Organizations Coordination Council of Bangladesh.

World Music Day, or Fête de la Musique, is a music festival that began in France in 1987 and is now held in many countries on June 21.

Minister for information and cultural affairs Abul Kalam Azad was guest of honor and who announced a one-billion taka (around US$13.5 million) budget for cultural events over the next year.

However, Christian artists yesterday complained that there are few initiatives from within Christian circles to promote music and singers.

"Christian organizations need to promote singers more. We need to organize training to take our singers to national level," said prominent singer Joseph Komol Rodriques.

He said the Catholic Bishops' Christian Communications Center arranges only two national events over Christmas and Easter, and no training for would-be singers.

"Nowadays fewer parents encourage their children to sing. This should change," Rodriques added.

"There are many organizations spending lots of money on trivial things but they don't like to reward singers. Even in radio, payments per song performed are not satisfactory, they should increase," he said.

Popular female artist, Anima D'Costa, however was more philosophical, saying the most challenging thing in music is to survive in the business which is possible only through continuous practice.

Music can also be a very effective tool in spreading Christian values, she added.

A Bangladeshi woman repairs her house that was damaged by a tropical storm

A national income survey has drawn mixed reactions from religious and government officials who say that while progress has been made, more needs to be done to improve living conditions.

The report, Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2010 sponsored by the World Bank and conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), found that poverty declined to 31.5 percent from 40 percent in 2005.

About 130 million people rose above the poverty line, the report also said.

Shajahan Ali Molla, director general of the BBS, told journalists on June 22 during an event to launch the report that surveys were conducted among 12,240 households across 64 districts.

“Poverty has decreased, but average incomes and expenditures have also fallen,” he said, adding that the lower middle classes experienced greater income growth than the middle classes.

Economist Wahiduddin Mahmud said the report was conducted during three different government administrations and was above any controversy over bias.

The results were more impressive, he added, in light of the global economic crisis in recent years.

But Bishop Gervas Rozario, chairman of the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace, said the survey’s findings might not accurately reflect actual conditions.

“If poverty has truly declined by 8.5 percent, this is a good figure, but I’m doubtful about the realities on the ground.”

Francis Atul Sarker, development director of the Church-based social service agency Caritas Bangladesh, said greater development of the country would have a greater effect on poverty alleviation.

“If the ruling party and opposition could cooperate in developing the country, I think in next five years poverty will see a decline in poverty of up to 16 percent.”

About 17.6 percent of people live below the poverty line, with 21 percent in urban areas and 31.5 percent in rural areas.

Monthly household incomes average 10,641 taka (US$146) with remittance payments from family members abroad, according to data from the survey. With remittances, average income rises to 19,387 taka.

Higher education is one of the few fundamental indicators of a country's prosperity. With quality of education remaining where it was a hundred years ago, that indicator seems to lead us nowhere in a fast changing world where knowledge, of science and humanities alike, is considered power.

After his HSC exams were over Russel, with a sigh of relief, thought that the days of memorising cheap notes and regurgitating them at the exams were finally no more. It was the mountainous load of those perfunctorily written notes that pained him the most because at times he had to learn them by heart without even a shallow understanding of what he was memorising. Therefore, having bidden farewell to his college life, he was all set for stepping into a university which for him was a voyage to self-discovery, a scintillating journey to the unknown wherein the banal task of learning by rote would be done away with to spark off his imagination and creative urges. Accordingly, he enrolled in the biggest and most reputed university of the country. Two years have passed since. He, however, already sounds disillusioned and all his enthusiasm has dissipated. Instead of an innovative method kindling the thirst for knowledge and facilitating self-evaluation; the old, ugly ghost of thoughtless memorisation is back in giant strides again.

The unavoidable grip of student politics has not shocked Russel, a second-year student of Chemistry at Dhaka University (DU). But the quality of education certainly has. Most of all, it has stripped him of motivation and passion towards learning. “As I came from a college in town, politics was nothing new to me. However, the tedious, age-old system was definitely a shock that offered us nothing creative to facilitate understanding or go deeper into the subject. Eventually I found myself in the same boring trap of attending classes, memorising sheets and sitting for exams. If you don't memorise, you do badly in exams. This is what disappointed me so much that I don't feel encouraged anymore to work out things on my own,” he says.

A K Azad Chowdhury, chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) and also former vice-chancellor of DU, acknowledges that this trend exists rampantly among the public universities and says that overall performance of tertiary education depends on the quality and dedication of teachers, scientific curriculum, society's responsibility towards the academia and financial support.

“Enrolment of students at the university level has considerably increased. It is a very good sign provided that they get quality education. Otherwise they will backfire turning it into our burden.”

Building up dreams around the university and then seeing them being shattered is not unique only to Russels's experience. Shanto (not his real name), a third-year student of Physics at DU, thought that the teacher-student relationship in university would be predicated upon friendly interaction, not dread. Much to his disappointment, at DU he found it worse than the National University where at least exam papers of one college are delivered to teachers of another college to ward off any possibility of nepotism or retaliation.

Mustafa (not his real name), a fourth-year student of Fisheries and Marine Resource Technology Discipline at Khulna University (KU), echoes Shanto saying that in the absence of student politics, the teachers enjoy absolute power since the university's inception and maintains a school-like interaction with students. On condition of anonymity, a third-year student of Forestry and Wood Technology Discipline and a second-year student of Architecture Discipline of KU say that they are not allowed to raise their voice regarding anything and if they do, the teachers never deter from imposing the harshest punishment in the form of fine or suspension. Besides, the same trend of memorisation is also prevalent there.

“Except for one or two teachers, most others especially the comparatively younger ones provided us with sheets (hand outs) and we swallowed them, and if we didn't, we lost points,” says Kanika, an ex-student of Agrotechnology Discipline at KU.

Dr Mizanur Rahman, dean of the life science school at KU, denies all allegations against the teachers and says that all the disciplines in the life science school involve many tours, field work and practical sessions which altogether ensure creative involvement of students and also their friendly interaction with teachers.

The lab, mandatory for most of the departments in the science faculty where students get a chance to connect theory with practice, promises nothing different across the public universities mainly because its effectiveness depends on the good intentions of the teachers which in most cases are scarcely visible. As for the tutorials (sessions which carry marks/grades and are supposed to ensure meaningful interaction between teachers and students), they are not unlike the lab outputs.

“Effective output of both labs and tutorials depend on the extent to which students can interact freely with the teachers. If we are scared to ask questions in the lab, then how will we ever learn freely? How will we ever get the answer to our question?” complains Russel of DU.

In this connection, dean of the science faculty at DU could not be reached. However, Syed Rezaur Rahman, registrar of DU, refutes the students' claims. Instead, he holds the students responsible for their indifference to studies and lack of inquisitiveness.

He demands: “Tell me how many students go to the library? If they don't come up with creative questions in the classroom, then why should the teachers feel like getting some prior preparation?” He also denies allegations against the teachers' aggressive reaction.

Their demand in the job market is also a factor that keeps them motivated, adds Hasib. Students of Microbiology at DU and Pharmacy at both DU and KU have taken a similar stance especially with regard to good lab facilities, even though they have admitted to the traditional methods of class teaching and examination. Thanks to the boom of local pharmaceutical industry, their employment opportunities are also high.

Along with the conventional methods of dispensing and swallowing notes, students of arts and humanities reveal quite a stunning trend that has been in vogue for decades. Shetu (not his real name), an honours final year student of Government and Politics at Jahangirn-agar University, says that not only do they memorise like Madrasa students, they also write as much as they can in the final exam. Asked why, he briefly says: the more you write, the more grades you get. In so doing, their long-winded answers lack coherence and unnecessary repetitions, but their teachers' fondness for verbosity over incoherence has made this ill-practice very popular among students.

The Centre for Advanced Research in Sciences which provides lab facilities and modern equipment for scientific research

“We know what brings extra grades. So we hardly care that most of our teachers come to class for the sake of attending as they teach without any preparation. Sometimes they just come and go while the backbenchers literally fall asleep to while away the time,” he adds.

Selim (not his real name), a master's student of History at DU complains that there has been no upgrading of the curriculum for years. They are following a long-existing syllabus which is neither interesting nor modern.

“I think there is scope for creative involvement and productive interaction with teachers through tutorials, assignments and so on, but there is no enforcement of these provisions. Truly speaking, students are also responsible to some extent as they always try to avoid creative methods,” he says.

Departments of English Literature across the universities show a common trend. Unlike a handful of senior teachers, most others do not engage students in creative assignments or tutorials or other activities. Instead, they follow the hackneyed interpretation of the selected texts.

“In the first year, I laid stress on understanding and used to read all the recommended references such as the Twentieth Century Interpretation series. But when I found out that those memorising the cheap Indian notes are obtaining higher grades, my perception changed and I began to focus less on understanding and more on memorisation of the cheap notes,” says a student of English Department at Rajshahi University on condition of anonymity.

They say that they have to get involved with many creative assignments as part of different courses. As an example of such a creative course, Zahid Hossain, an honours final year student of Sociology at DU, cites a course in which they have to select a locality and work extensively with local people to work out the existing class structure of that locality, understanding which is not possible without a better understanding of Marxist theory. Another student, however, says that they are no better than other disciplines in matters of creative studies.

He, however, stresses that education is an integral part of university life but not the whole. The rest of it must be complemented by cultural and social activities and sports through which students will explore their talents and areas of interest.

Azad Chowdhury opines that in order to create more employment for students of science and arts, the curriculum must be modernised to keep students abreast of the present day requirements.

“IT education should be a must. All subjects in the science and arts faculties should incorporate more technical courses with the aim of producing skilled manpower that would be fit for the job market at home and abroad,” he says.

Education minister Nurul Islam Nahid welcomes the idea of modernising the tertiary level education. He believes that if we cannot break away from the traditional system, we won't be able to make any progress in social and economic terms.

“I'd like to envision a model that will not only make the students well equipped with necessary scientific and IT knowledge, but also will also help flourish their creative faculties fostering in them a patriotic zeal. Keeping this broader vision in mind, we have formulated the national education policy the implementation of which has got underway. But before setting our eyes on the tertiary level, we have to improve the primary education, then secondary and higher secondary levels.”

The education minister, who has brought about remarkable changes in the improvement of primary and secondary education, also draws attention to our colonial mindset that impedes reformation of the education system.

“Whenever it comes to education, people think of obtaining an honours certificate even though that does not relate to his interest or offer any job whereas vocational training and other IT courses are left unattended. It reflects our colonial mindset that sees education as a status symbol, not as a key to national development,” says a despondent Nahid. Asked about any specific step to initiate qualitative change, he mentions the generation of an approximately 800 crore taka fund in association with the World Bank that would be utilised through the UGC to strengthen research in the public universities.

Much as large-scale research works are essential to qualitative change, the elementary act of producing a researcher through proper education should not be glossed over. The vicious circle that has confined higher education to indifference, memorisation and uncertainty can never be conducive to progress and development. Hence, modernisation of the curriculum and incorporation of new, state-of-the-art courses to cope with the job market is of utmost importance. However, all such steps should be preceded by a devoted as well as co-ordinated effort on the part of the teachers to make education a sacred process of self-discovery whereby s/he would learn to evaluate himself against the world.

Fourth annual unity meeting addresses needs of domestic migrants to the capital

The North Bengal Christian Multipurpose Cooperative Society held its fourth annual unity meeting June 17 to address ongoing needs among Christian migrants from the country's northwest to the capital.

About 1,000 mostly Catholic Christians from Rajshahi and Dinajpur attended the meeting, titled Development Initiatives of North Bengal People: Present and Future, which included panel discussions, cultural performances and the distribution of awards to students for academic excellence.

Shishir Angelo Rozario, 36, secretary of the society, said the group provides vital support and a sense of community for families relocating from the northwest.

"People from north Bengal used to be among the most backward. They formed the society and over time have organized their lives, provided a place of union and eventually fostered development through a credit movement."

Rozario, a Catholic, said the society has 1,200 active members who deposit money and have access to loans to help them achieve financial independence, adding that it "also fosters information exchange" for new arrivals to the capital.

Nila Costa, 38, a Catholic doctor and a director of the society, said the cooperative helps migrants find employment.

"When we know of organizations recruiting new employees, we pass that information on to unemployed people. Many have found jobs this way."

Uzzal Gomes, 25, is a Catholic graduate student and beneficiary of the cooperative.

"After migrating to Dhaka, I was unemployed. Because of my involvement with the society, I received information about employment opportunities and eventually found a job."

Patrick D'Rozario, Holy Cross coadjutor archbishop of Dhaka and guest of honor at the meeting, praised the work of the society and also encouraged them to mature spiritually.

"The society has strengthened unity among the people of North Bengal. I hope they will take the next step with mature Christian values and faith."

The Household Income and Expenditure survey (HIES), 2010 has come up with some good news. The poverty rate at the national level has gone down by 8.5 per cent between 2005 and 2010. In absolute terms, this is no mean achievement, given the shock of global recession and internal political instabilities it had to absorb along the way.

The overall decline in poverty, however, does not reflect the proportionate distribution of national income among the different sections of the population. The Gini coefficient, for instance, has fallen by only 0.009, from 0.467 in 2005 to 0.458 in 2010. It reflects the lack of matching performance by the economy in addressing the ever-widening income gap. As Gini ratios serve to measure per capita income inequality vis-à-vis average increase in social income, it becomes obvious that far from moving towards an equitable distribution of wealth, it has rather remained concentrated in a few hands.

During the five-year survey period, traditional poverty pockets in Rajshahi and Rangpur could not show any significant improvement. Driven perhaps by climate change, Barisal division, which was once known for its surplus crops, has now joined the rank of poorer districts with a poverty rate of 40 per cent.

On a par with the general decline in average poverty level, rural as well as urban poverty has also diminished between 2005 and 2010. That brings to the fore government's continued emphasis on poverty alleviation through various income generation programmes for the poor. We cannot also forget the contribution being made by the non-government organisations (NGOs) in addressing poverty, especially in the countryside.

To help reduce rural poverty, the visible shift in the people's dietary patterns from cereals dominated

While the economy's overall performance is praiseworthy in terms of combating poverty, there are still genuine reasons for caution seeing that increase in social income has not readily translated into reduction in the rich-poor gap

The Inter-faith Tribal Welfare Association (TWA) and Tribal Cultural Academy (TCA) jointly organized a two-day fair last weekend to promote culture and traditions of various lowland ethnic tribal groups.

The 25-stall fair and cultural events at Haluaghat High School in northeastern Mymensingh drew about 6,000 tribal people from at least ten districts.

Bangladesh information and cultural affairs minister Abul Kalam Azad opened the fair, the first of its kind, with the Catholic state minister for cultural affairs Promod Mankin.

"Cultures of ethnic minorities have enriched Bengali culture. This festival will enhance and strengthen their cultural heritage," Azad told the gathering. He assured tribals of his government's support to empower tribals in restoring and preserving their culture.

Four young students from the Holy Cross run Notre Dame University in the United States are taking time out from their studies to help tribal Catholics in the northeast of the country.

Having made donations for tribal social development and educational advancement projects, they are currently busy teaching in Church-run schools in Srimangal parish in Moulvibazar district and in Pirgacha parish in Tangail district.

Their six-week visit to Bangladesh is part of membership requirements for Notre Dame's Men's Boxing Club which hosts the annual Bengal Bouts, a charity tournament where the proceeds go to Holy Cross missions in Bangladesh.

They are also visiting tribal families to experience traditional culture, customs and the day-to-day lives of local people.

"I feel very welcome here. The biggest surprise is that although I'm the teacher, the students teach me spiritually more than I teach them academically," said student Kevin Ortenzio.

For Jeffrey Ulrich, the experience has made him realize just what the Bengal Bouts is all about.

"Being here has given me the opportunity to see what are we're fighting for, we're not fighting for a faceless nation; we're fighting for people. I've started appreciating the importance of the boxing club's mission," Jeffrey Ulrich said.

Holy Cross Father Ponkoj Nokrek, headmaster of Notre Dame Junior School in Srimangal said the visit, the latest in an eight-decade old tradition, is very encouraging and useful.

"Our students have learned correct English pronunciation and our teachers have learned better teaching skills. I hope this experience will encourage more students from the US to visit Bangladesh and help more needy people," he said.

The Church in Cambodia wants to strengthen its program of education in order to secure a future for the young of today, say priests.

Bishop Olivier Schmitthaeusler, Apostolic Vicar of Phnom Penh, said the human resource is vital for Cambodia's development and it is a priority of the Church to partner the government in improving education, especially at the pre-primary stage.

He said a beautiful house could be built in just a year or two but it takes 20 or event 30 years to fashion a human being.

Torrential rains continue to fall in Hubei and Zhejiang. Floods are the strongest recorded since 1955. The army has evacuated hundreds of thousands of people. The drought in the center and north, east and flooding have caused loss of crops. They are afraid of repercussions on prices worldwide.

More than five million people are suffering from serious to disastrous floods in eastern China. Torrential rains continue to fall, and therefore large areas of Hubei and Zhejiang are under water, official sources said. Over one thousand factories have been destroyed by floods, and crops have been lost, growing them in an extraordinary way of taking the food.

The floods this year are the worst ever occurred in the country since 1955. Already 170 people have died or are missing as a result of the disaster. The government mobilized the army to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people from areas at risk of being flooded, and the alert level was raised to level four. The floods have created landslides that buried under mud homes and villages. Several people lost their lives as well.

The floods came after the drought had destroyed the agricultural production in central and northern Iraq. Some areas along the Yangtze have experienced the worst drought in a century. The situation of crops and food stocks is considered very serious by the authorities. Analysts think that the food shortage in China may have a relapse in the short term the price of wheat rice and other grains worldwide.

Building a quality learning model of education, fair and right, is everyone's responsibility

In the context of student protests, the Chilean bishops have stressed the urgency of researching proposals that meet with a broad consensus, in order to give the processes the go-ahead that meet the right demands. The spokesman of the Episcopal Conference of Chile, Jaime Coiro, has recently presented a statement signed by the President of the Episcopal Conference, Mgr. Ricardo Ezzati, and the Chairman of the Education field, Mgr. Héctor Vargas. The text states that the Chilean Church closely follows the demands of the student movement (see Fides 05/19/2011) considering that the heated debate around the education system is a sign of uneasiness of which society as a whole must take responsibility .

In the text of the bishops' communication, sent to Fides, reads: "There is a long way to go in the task of building an educational model of learning quality, fair and right, where every student, regardless of his or her personal and social condition, is assured of the necessary training to fully develop, to build a life project and to contribute generously, with all its wealth, to the society of his or her time".

The bishops also recognize that there is, in this area, a serious debt. It has been stated many times that the effort to improve the quality of teaching and make it fairer, requires work that must involve the State, educational institutions, teachers, families and students: "It is urgent to pursue the research of proposals for broad consensus, to guide and direct the processes that allow to meet the right demands".

In this context, it has clearly been said that incorrect measures and verbal or physical violence are not the way to solve the problem, but only "a genuine desire for dialogue will help to solve the delicate climate of polarization that is driving the debate and mobilizations associated with it", the bishops conclude. (EC)

The Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has launched a project for street children. The program was presented by Ferdinand Kambere Kalumbi, Minister of Social Affairs, Humanitarian Action and National Solidarity. The project aims primarily to tackle the serious problems faced by these young people: extreme poverty, conflict, malnutrition, malaria, neglect and abuse, the worst forms of labor, AIDS. According to the Minister of Social Affairs, there are about 60,000 street children in the DRC, of whom 14,000 in the capital, Kinshasa. 74% are boys and 26% girls. 20% of these have never attended school, while 64% only have primary education.

According to Don Paul Augustin Madimba, pastor of Notre-Dame de Grâce in Kinshasa, who was interviewed by the newspaper "Le Potentiel", "the main reason for this phenomenon must be sought in the social situation of the country. The misery in which the population rots away has thrown several families in total instability. The parents are unemployed and do not know how to shoulder their responsibilities. Even the famous African solidarity no longer exists. The proof of the fact that many street children are victims of mistreatment of their parents and others. "According to the priest, the solution to this situation is to fight poverty through development, and to strengthen the school system. (L.M.)

The missionaries working in the country have been recognized as "heroes" by Parliament

On the occasion of the National Day of the Country, the President of East Timor, Jose Ramos Horta, has praised the work of many Catholic missionaries who lived and worked with the local population before independence from Indonesia. In his speech, reported by "Province Express", biweekly Australian Catholic Jesuit publication, Horta described them as "heroes". In particular, he recalled an Italian Salesian priest, some Canossian nuns, three Portuguese Jesuit missionaries in addition to another German Jesuit, who was assassinated in 1999. Parliament has proposed to give citizenship to a group of these missionaries, delivering the first Timorese passport during the 90 th birthday of Father João Felgueiras. The 3 Portuguese missionaries, Father João Felgueiras, Father Jose Martins and brother Daniel de Ornelas (deceased), arrived in the country in the early '70s and remained there for over 24 years during the Indonesian invasion of the island.

Thanking the Prime Minister for granting citizenship, father Felgueiras stressed the need to "encourage other religious men and women religious to leave for Timor, to evangelize a growing number of children, so they themselves can take on the role of leaders in faith in this far corner of the world". The Jesuits have always been involved with the people of East Timor, both before and after the independence of the country, particularly through education at San Jose High School in Dili, entrusted to them in 1993 and will return to the diocese at the end 2011. The commitment of the religious in the sector will continue with a new project already in the starting phase in the west of Dili. The Jesuits are also present in the parish of Railaco and a community center in Suai, and are also responsible for the pastoral and health care and education of children in the village. Many young people of East Timor have entered the novitiate and are currently studying in the country to continue the mission of the Society of Jesus (PA)

The draft stipulates that religious buildings must be at least 1 km from other existing buildings, but it does not explain whether mosques or churches. Also challenged the minimum size of 1000 square meters and regional governors management of permits.

The new law for the regulation of new religious buildings proposed by the Council of the Egyptian armed forces is confusing and fails to convince the representatives of the Christian minorities, which in these days, has sought clarification from the authorities.

Fr. Greich Rafiq, spokesman for the Egyptian Catholic Church, explains that there are several inconsistencies in the law and at least three points of the current draft should be reviewed. "First things first to note - the priest says -is that for the first time this draft also legislates the construction of mosques and does not distinguish between Islam and the minorities. According to the draft new religious buildings must be at least 1 km from existing constructions. However, the draft has not specified whether the regulation rgeards buildings of the same religion, for example, Coptic church, Protestant or Catholic, or between different religions, such as Islam and Christianity. "

The second point concerns the disputed minimum size of a building, which must be at least 1000 square meters. "Finding the resources for a building of this size - said Fr Greich - it is very difficult and in many cases virtually impossible. Upper Egypt, where Christian communities are very small and scattered in villages a church of this size is not needed. The existing buildings do not exceed 200 square meters. Moreover, especially in cities, it is hard to find such a large lot of vacant land. "

The third point concerns the authorization for the construction of religious buildings, which for Christians went from president to regional governors. "The State - says Fr Greich - gives regional authorities the power to grant approval as a last resort for churches and mosques. However, in the draft there is no criterion for allowing or not one or other religious building. "

The priest says this presents a risk of an arbitrary application of law to the detriment of minorities.

Proposed last June 2, the law is considered the first fruit of the Jasmine revolution and the new post-Mubarak Egypt. It was created with the intent to eliminate the absurd bureaucratic rules, which for decades have prevented the Christians from building new churches, and the obligation to request authorization from the President of the Republic or the Prime Minister. During the Mubarak government projects were often blocked by the Muslim community, despite the authorization of the highest offices of state. In many cases the buildings were razed to the ground by radical Islamic groups or for family vendettas, using the lack of security or use of substandard materials to build the building as an excuse, forcing minorities to start the approval process from the beginning. (Sc)

Young delegates at the International Young Catholic Students (IYCS) global formation session have resolved to be ambassadors of peace and strive to solve problems plaguing society.

"We covered five points during the session, including human, economic and faith crises," said IYCS general secretary, Eduardo Koutsava, at a ceremony marking the end of the first part of the IYCS global formation session and 14th World Council in New Delhi on Wednesday.

The ceremony saw delegates given a certificate and a memento and also celebrated the IYCS's 65th anniversary.

"We as students have limited resources, but nothing can overcome our decision to spread peace in the world," Koutsava said.

He called upon governments and civil societies to join them and help bring about change in society."

Around 120 delegates from 37 countries discussed the theme: Crisis and Conflict in the World - Students Offering Hope.

The students also attended study sessions to identify problem areas such as migration, drug addiction, abuse of women, human rights and environmental issues.

"Through this session we have learned more about crises and conflict in the world," said 17-year-old Ravish Zahid, a participant from Pakistan.

She said the discussions taught her how students can play an important role in solving problems in their countries.

Lama Tanjar, 21, from Lebanon said the study sessions have been very enriching. "I learned about how students from other countries would handle a crisis."

Young Catholic Students' Asia coordinator, Reyna Clemena Deloso said the sessions were a success.

"The students learned a lot from the study sessions and they will be able to carry out plans of action identified in the sessions," she added.

The general body meeting and elections are to be held during the second part of the IYCS World Council, which ends on June 26.

The incident involved a 31-year-old woman employed as a technician at Kochi's Infopark. For Global Council of Indian Christians president Sajan K George, "Such incidents are manifestations of the rising tide of fundamentalism, which is taking root in Kerala".

A 31-year-old woman working as an information technology technician at the Infopark in Kakkanad, Kochi, Kerala, was brutally assaulted by a group of people acting as 'morality police'. The incident occurred last Sunday at 10.30 pm.

Tasni Banu was cycling with a friend when a group of men started shouting at them. "We won't allow you to make this place another Bangalore where girls go out in the night and party," they said.

"Later four persons abused me using filthy language," Tasni said. "When I questioned their behaviour, they assaulted me," she said.

It is a very serious concern that many girls have recently been attacked by anti-social elements in Kerala. In Tasni's case, the attackers warned her to stay off the streets and not to go out at night. They also told her to avoid the Bangalore lifestyle. According to the victim, one of her attackers was probably drunk.

Police believe that fundamentalists are probably behind the incident. "We have collected certain information about the persons who attacked the girl. We will take them into custody soon," said Thrikkakara Assistant Commissioner of Police T R Prakash.

The police on Tuesday recorded statements from Tasni, who is in hospital with severe bruises on her neck and hand. "Women are not safe in the streets of Kochi. The attack reflects the attitude of society towards women who have to go out during the night," Tasni added.

Police said they have identified Thajuddin, one of the attackers. He is said to be an auto-rickshaw driver.

According to Sajan K George, President, Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), "Such incidents are manifestations of the rising tide of fundamentalism which is taking roots in Kerala". It shows "how a section of the Muslim community is persecuting its own."

"A few years ago, Tasni Banu, was in the news years ago for defying the fundamentalists in Malappuram as she had opted to marry under the Special Marriage Act . At that time, she had to face the wrath of not only her parents but also a group of fundamentalists who imposed a house arrest on her and later ostracised her."(N.C.)

It's 4.30 in the morning and the full moon is low in the sky above Lampedusa harbour as the Guardia di Finanza patrol boat escorts a fishing boat containing 19 Tunisian migrants into the closed military port. They include six women, one child and - to the amusement of the Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) team - one sheep. The migrants are driven away in a coach to one of the two holding centres, some of them wrapped in silver emergency blankets. But the sheep remains in the port.

Tunisians are something of a rarity amongst the migrants who now come here on an almost daily basis, most of whom are sub-Saharan Africans fleeing the Libyan war. Just over a week ago on Saturday 1,500 migrants arrived in seven boats at the commercial harbour.

"We were working continuously from two in the morning till four in the afternoon," says Ennio Ciuffi, commander of the Red Cross, which maintains a permanent triage centre on the wharf. Four days later another 280 migrants arrived at six in the morning.

Reception procedures for incoming migrants have improved dramatically since the arrival of 12,000 Tunisians in the space of a few days overwhelmed this tiny volcanic island of 6,000 inhabitants in early March. Today all migrants receive immediate medical assessment and treatment from the Red Cross and MSF. A phalanx of NGOs is present to ensure that those who want refugee protection can apply for it.

Asylum seekers are taken to the two temporary holding centres on the island, from where they are then transported by cruise ships to one of various reception centres on the Italian mainland, many of which have been especially created for the purpose under the auspices of the Ministry of Civil Protection.

Tunisians, on the other hand, are routinely repatriated by the Ministry of Interior as 'economic migrants' via Sicily, as the result of a recent agreement between Italy and the Tunisian transitional government.

This conveyor belt system represents a remarkable turnaround from the dysfunctional institutional response to the Tunisian influx earlier this year, when the paralysis of Berlusconi government turned a humanitarian crisis into a near-disaster.

For more than two weeks thousands of Tunisians slept amongst the rocky slope and disused pillboxes next to the airport or on the streets of the town below, while the efforts of Berlusconi and his Northern League partners were directed primarily towards whipping up fears in Europe of an imminent 'Biblical exodus' of North African migrants than doing anything to alleviate their plight.

Now Italy's institutions are working well in Lampedusa. Every day helicopters fly out from the island in response to reports of migrant sightings. The orange-rimmed coastguard vessels and militarised patrol boats of the Guardia di Finanza plough back and forth through the aquamarine seas in search and rescue operations or escorting migrant boats into the harbour.

Some 50-odd of these migrant boats are piled opposite the harbour - a grim monument to Lampedusa's transformation into Europe's southernmost migrant gateway. Some were wrecked en route, others were clearly unseaworthy to begin with. Not all those who set out on these journeys have made it to the island. According to the UN Refugee Agency, UNCHR, 1,500 migrants who left North Africa since March have never been accounted for - the single most lethal period in the history of Europe's Mediterranean migratory frontiers.

Some of these boats are so overcrowded that any extraneous movements can tip them over. Two months ago, according to its commander Captain Antonio Morana, the coastguard rescued 53 people from a capsized boat in which between 100 to 200 people died. The coastguard found only 20 bodies, but it was unable to retrieve them because of the weather. Others have never been accounted for.

The belated response of the Italian government to the crisis in Lampedusa does not indicate a new spirit of humanitarianism from the beleaguered Italian prime minister and his notoriously xenophobic Northern League allies.

Before last week's mass transfer of 800 migrants to the mainland on Wednesday morning, there were close to 800 people in the largest of the two holding centres - just within its capacity, and another 300 in the smaller centre. Some of their residents had been there for longer than 30 days. Last month there was an attempt to set fire to the main centre, that echoed the disturbances that preceded the centre's closure in 2009.

The flow of migrants to the island this year was partly a consequence of the breakdown of the 2009 'friendship agreement' between Italy and Libya, which enabled Italian and Maltese vessels to 'push back' migrant boats into Libyan territorial waters where the migrants would be detained by Colonel Gaddafi's security forces.

"Seventy-five percent of the people that entered Lampedusa from Libya were asylum seekers, and of these some 50 percent were in need of some form of protection," says Barbara Molinario, UNHCR field officer on the island. "So when these governments made this agreement with Libya what they did was to stop the main asylum route to Europe."

Neither Italy nor Europe are enthusiastic about the renewed flows. UNHCR has urged NATO to do more to assist migrant boats coming from Libya, but last week Berlusconi's Interior Minister Roberto Maroni urged NATO to stop migrants leaving Libya - a policy that would leave them stranded in a warzone.

On Friday Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini signed a new agreement in Naples with the Libyan National Transitional Council, which will commit Gaddafi's successors to a similar role in Europe's migratory controls.

On Sunday the UN High Commissioner Antonio Guterres visited the island, accompanied by UNHCR goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie, and appealed for Italy and Europe to show more solidarity towards the refugees coming to the island.

Gutteres described the 40,000 migrants who have come to Lampedusa as a 'drop in the ocean' for Europe as a whole. But the agreement with the Libyan rebels suggests once again that for the Italian government - and for many other European countries - closing Europe's 'asylum route' to Lampedusa remains more important than keeping it open.

It's only a few hundred metres from the rocky hillside overlooking Lampedusa's commercial port to the other side of the protected bay. For more than a decade this narrow strip of ocean has been a migratory gateway into Europe for tens of thousands of mostly African migrants. The numbers have risen and fallen in response to shifting government policies and geopolitical developments.

In terms of Lampedusa's wider political impact on Europe however, no previous influx has had the same potentially momentous consequences as the 26,000 Tunisians who converged on the island earlier this year.

The spectacularly inept response of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government to these arrivals transformed Lampedusa into the symbol of a nightmare scenario that has obsessed Europe for more than two decades - of an uncontrollable surge of impoverished Third World migrants pouring across the continent.

Italian politicians and the media did much to fan these anxieties with melodramatic descriptions of an 'invasion' and 'assault' on the island by undocumented migrants, and these siege narratives were echoed in the European media. Even the more reserved BBC entitled a recent documentary 'The Invasion of Lampedusa'.

The European far-right depicted the island in very similar terms for its own purposes. On Mar. 15, Marine Le Pen visited the island on the eve of French local elections with the anti-immigrant Northern League member of the European Parliament (MEP) Mario Borghezio. Last month Roberto Fiore, head of the neo-fascist Forza Nuova party accompanied Nick Griffin of the British National Party to the island in another demonstration of far-right 'solidarity'.

This assistance was not necessarily welcomed or desired by the islanders themselves. From a distance Lampedusa is often presented as a vulnerable bastion against Europe's unwanted migrants, but many of its inhabitants are surprisingly relaxed about their situation.

Outside the Café Mediterraneo on Lampedusa's main drag, a flag of the European Union with a question mark still remains from its transformation into what the café's owner Silvana calls a 'Tunisian city' earlier this year.

Silvana has good memories of the Tunisians who more than doubled the local population for two weeks. "They were good to us, and Lampedusan people were good to them," she says. Like many Lampedusans, she is more critical of the paralysis of her own government and the EU during the crisis than she is of the migrants who came to the island.

For many Lampedusans, this influx came as a shock, after years in which migrants were swiftly moved to the holding centres and transported off the island without many locals even being aware of their presence. Berlusconi's initial refusal to open the two holding centres brought many Lampedusans face to face with migrants for the first time, and their instinctive response was often more generous than that of their own government.

With the migrants receiving little assistance except from the Red Cross, and the survival kits provided by Médecins sans Frontières, the church and other local institutions gave them food, clothing and blankets. Some restaurants gave them free food, and electricity to charge their phones.

One schoolteacher took his pupils to meet the migrants for cultural exchanges. The Associazione Askavusa (Barefoot Association), a local cultural organisation, cooked 100 meals a day with money from its members' own pockets, or local donations.

The association celebrates Lampedusa's role as a migratory destination and organises an annual film and video festival dedicated to migration. It is also trying to create Europe's first museum of migration, using lifejackets, found objects, letters and clothes retrieved from the beaches where migrants have landed.

"They saw numbers, and we saw people," Jiacomo Sferlazzo, one of its members, tells IPS, asked why the islanders' perception is so different from that of the government.

Not everybody sees things this way. Lampedusa is a contradictory place. Its longstanding mayor Bernardino de Rubeis belongs to a local centre-right party and his deputy mayor is a senator with the Northern League. At one demonstration in March a group of local people shouted at the Coastguard not to bring migrants to the island. But this was clearly not the dominant response.

Today photographs of the Tunisians greet visitors to the tiny airport, and the local tourist magazine celebrates 'solidarietà lampedusana' - Lampedusan solidarity. Many Lampedusans are more concerned with the fall in hotel reservations than they are with the migrants who still come to the island.

"Many tourists are scared of this problem," says Jiacomo, a worker at the Baia Turchese hotel overlooking the port. Was he scared? "No. Lampedusans and Africans get on fine together. Many of the people who come here are young like us."

The presence of soldiers, police and carabinieri has compensated some hotels for the loss in trade. Vanloads of police with riot shields are a constant presence on the island, but most of them are there on temporary contracts that can be cancelled at short notice, and pay less than tourist rates. No one blamed migrants for this situation, and many attributed the fall in bookings to inaccurate and exaggerated media reporting.

To some extent both Lampedusans and migrants have become counters in the political posturing between Italy and France that followed the arrival of the Tunisians. For the scandal-prone Berlusconi, Lampedusa has been a distraction from mounting political pressure. For French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the decision to stop Tunisians entering France was intended to take the wind out of the resurgent Marine Le Pen's sails.

Both governments eventually resolved this conflict by calling on the EU to revisit one of the cornerstones of European integration - free movement of people within the Schengen Area. To its great discredit, the European Commission capitulated to this cynical politicking and agreed to reintroduce border controls in certain emergency situations.

As a result this tiny island of 20 square kilometres has cast another question mark over the European project, but these developments say more about the governments who agreed to them, than they do about an 'immigration tsunami' that remains conspicuously absent on Lampedusa itself.

Without a college education and against the backdrop of limited job opportunities, it was not easy for Salome Wairimu to find employment.

Each day ushered in more worries and uncertainties, sometimes she would have work but often days would go by before she had an opportunity to make money.

The single mother of two from Kiambu County, in Central Kenya, led a financially uncertain life before the Women Enterprise Fund (WEF) provided her with an opportunity that transformed her financial situation.

Official government statistics show an estimated 40 percent of Kenyans are unemployed. Millions survive by doing occasional work - non-permanent manual work.

The situation is worse for women in rural areas. High numbers of rural women are illiterate and at least 70 percent work as small-scale farmers, providing the bulk of Kenya's food supply. Their wages are dismally low and often uncertain.

Wairimu, who also lives in a rural area, also faced an uncertain future. She completed high school with a grade that allowed her entrance to college but her peasant parents could not afford the fees. So she began plaiting women's hair to earn money.

"While in high school I would plait my schoolmates' hair for a few coins. On completing school and with no employment and even worse, no capital, I couldn't set up a salon," Wairimu explains.

For six years she worked from her home. But it was not a regular business and she had difficulty attracting new customers.

"It was very frustrating because why would they come to my house instead of going to the salon where there are facilities to wash and dry their hair before braiding? I needed a work station and equipment to diversify my services."

In 2007 Wairimu attended a women's group meeting and learnt about government's drive to empower women economically through the WEF.

Women could apply for loans that would be repaid in instalments over a predetermined period. And after they successfully completed paying the first loan, women would be eligible for a second and even a third loan of greater amounts.

"I was not very excited then because there were all these rumours about this initiative being a government ploy to woo women voters. But I continued attending the meetings and I was convinced that it was a good idea. They required no collateral, so it was very enticing."

Together with nine other women, Wairimu formed a group to access the money, one of the Fund's requirements. Each woman had their own business venture but received about 600 dollars each. They paid the loan back within the first year and qualified for a second loan of the same amount.

"Being from the rural area, it meant that I could afford to rent a commercial room in town and pay rent for the first three months, including the deposit," Wairimu says.

She adds that it was something she could not have done without the loan. "With a strategic place to attract customers, I began expanding my client base. With the profit I made, including what little was left from the loan, I bought equipment to diversify my services."

Wairimu's group is only one of the 3, 913 groups that received loans since the inception WEF. She has now managed to change her family's circumstances from being poor, to comfortably middle-class.

It's time to end the bombing and find a political solution by Dr Ruhakana Rugunda

AT A meeting between the UN Security Council and the African Union High Level Ad hoc Committee on Libya on June 15, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, Uganda's permanent representative to the United Nations gave the African Union's stand on NATO's invasion of Libya.

1. Thank you for organising this interactive dialogue. It is good that the United Nations Security Council has met the African Union Mediation Committee (High-Level Ad hoc Committee on Libya) so that we can exchange views on the situation in Libya in a candid manner. This should have happened much earlier because Libya is a founding member of the AU.

An attack on Libya or any other member of the African Union without express agreement by the AU is a dangerous provocation that should be avoided given the relaxed international situation in the last 20 years since the release of Nelson Mandela from jail and the eventual freedom of South Africa.

2. The UN is on safer ground if it confines itself on maintaining international peace and deterring war among member states.

3. Intervening in internal affairs of states should be avoided except where there is proof of genocide or imminent genocide as happened in Rwanda or against the Jews in Germany and the European countries that were occupied by the Third Reich.

4. There are differences on the issue of Libya as to whether there was proof of genocide or intended genocide. Fighting between government troops and armed insurrectionists is not genocide. It is civil war.

It is the attack on unarmed civilians with the aim of exterminating a particular group that is genocide - to exterminate the genes of targeted groups such as the Jews, Tutsis, etc. It is wrong to characterise every violence as genocide or imminent genocide so as to use it as a pretext for the undermining of the sovereignty of states.

Certainly, sovereignty has been a tool of emancipation of the peoples of Africa who are beginning to chart transformational paths for most of the African countries after centuries of predation by the slave trade, colonialism and neo-colonialism.

Careless assaults on the sovereignty of African Countries are, therefore, tantamount to inflicting fresh wounds on the destiny of the African peoples. If foreign invasions, meddlings, interventions, etc, were a source of prosperity, then, Africa should be the richest continent in the world because we have had all versions of all that: slave trade, colonialism and neo- colonialism. Yet, Africa has been the most wretched on account of that foreign meddling.

5. Whatever the genesis of the intervention by NATO in Libya, the AU called for dialogue before the UN Resolutions 1970 and 1973 and after those resolutions.

Ignoring the AU for three months and going on with the bombings of the sacred land of Africa has been high-handed, arrogant and provocative. This is something that should not be sustained.

To a discerning mind, such a course is dangerous. It is unwise for certain players to be intoxicated with technological superiority and begin to think they alone can alter the course of human history towards freedom for the whole of mankind. Certainly, no constellation of states should think that they can recreate hegemony over Africa.

7. The UN or anybody acting on behalf of the UN must be neutral in relation to the internal affairs of states. Certainly, that should be the case with respect to African countries. The UN should not take sides in a civil war. The UN should promote dialogue, peaceful resolution of conflicts, and help in enforcing agreements arrived at after negotiations such as the agreement on the Sudan.

8. Regardless of the genesis of the Libyan problem, the correct way forward now is dialogue without pre-conditions. The demand by some countries that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi must go first before the dialogue is incorrect. Whether Gaddafi goes or stays is a matter for the Libyan people to decide. It is particularly wrong when the demand for Gaddafi's departure is made by outsiders.

9. In order for dialogue, without pre-conditions, to take place, we need a ceasefire in place that should be monitored by the AU troops among others. This will help the AU to confirm the veracity of the stories of Gaddafi killing civilians intentionally.

10. That dialogue should agree on the way forward in the direction of introducing competitive politics. Gaddafi thinks he has the most democratic system in the world of people's authority, elected local committees. Since so much chaos in Libya has emerged on the issue, Gaddafi should see the wisdom of accepting competitive democracy.

Gaddafi cannot ignore the fact that the rebels took over Benghazi and his authority melted away before NATO came in to confuse the picture. The pre- NATO uprising in Benghazi was, mainly, internal. Gaddafi may say that they were organised by al-Qaeda. Even if that is so, it is a fact that some Libyans in Benghazi threw out Gaddafi's authority. Therefore, Gaddafi must think of and agree to reforms, resulting into competitive politics.

11. A transitional mechanism could, then, be worked out and competitive elections would take place after an agreed timetable.

12. What about security for the opposition members? We have plenty of experience on such issues. What did we do in Burundi? We provided a protection force (a brigade) for the Hutu leaders who were living outside Burundi or were in the bush. One of them is now the president of Burundi after winning democratic elections.

13. How about those who are alleged to have committed war crimes - including Gaddafi and the rebels? Again, our decision in Burundi is useful here. We used the concept of 'immunité provisoire' (provisional immunity), for all the stakeholders so that they could participate in the dialogue. After peace is realised, then a Truth and Reconciliation body could be set up to look into these matters. After democratic elections, trials of guilty parties can take place.

14. Long-term safety of everybody can be ensured by security sector reform and especially reform of the army, so that it takes orders from any elected president.

15. The intervention in Libya was premised on the basis of protecting civilians and preventing further civilian deaths. However, the humanitarian situation in Libya remains serious and continues to get worse with continued hostilities.

Looking at how Resolutions 1970 and 1973 are being implemented, the international community and the United Nations in particular, are being severely put to the test, as what is happening in Libya will undermine future efforts of the UN in the protection of civilians. There is, therefore, no need for any war-like activities in Libya because there is a peaceful way forward.

There has been no need for these war activities, ever since Gaddafi accepted dialogue when the AU mediation committee visited Tripoli on April 10, 2011. Any war activities after that has been provocation for Africa. It is an unnecessary war. It must stop.

16. The story that the rebels cannot engage in dialogue unless Gaddafi goes away does not convince us. If they do not want dialogue, then, let them fight their war with Gaddafi without NATO bombing. Then, eventually, a modus vivendus will emerge between the two parties or one of them will be defeated. The attitude of the rebels shows us the danger of external involvement in internal affairs of African countries.

The externally sponsored groups neglect dialogue and building internal consensus and, instead, concentrate on winning external patrons. This cannot be in the interest of that country. Mobutu's Congo as well as performance of all the other neo-colonies of Africa in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and their eventual collapse in the 1990s prove that foreign sponsored groups are of no value to Africa.

17. It is essential that the UN Security Council works with the African Union to ensure that a ceasefire is immediately established with an effective and verifiable monitoring mechanism and dialogue embarked upon, leading to a political process including transitional arrangements and the necessary reforms. The crisis in Libya requires a political solution and not a military one; and the AU Road Map is the most viable option.

Finally, what is needed on the issue of Libya is a genuine partnership between the United Nations Security Council and the African Union. By working together we can find a lasting solution to the crisis in Libya.

NATO airstrike targets home of a loyalist of the Rais, killing 19 people according to regime. Archbishop Martinelli points out that the population wants an end to the bombing and is tightening around their leader. Representative of the rebels in China to find a way out of the war and forge economic agreements with Beijing.

"The Libyan population wants an end to air raids. If NATO continues to drop bombs and cause casualties among civilians they will play into the hands of Gaddafi, who is returning to be a reference point for people who right now feel the need for a leader. " This is what Mgr. Giovanni Martinelli, Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli tells AsiaNews,. "NATO despite admitting to killing civilians, continues bombing - he stresses - the population is disgusted by this attitude, which solves nothing." Yesterday, in the town of Sorman (70 km east of Tripoli) raids have destroyed the home of Khouildi Hamidi, among the most faithful supporters of the rais and much loved by the people according to local sources. The regime has claimed that the raid killed at least 19 civilians, including 8 children. So far NATO has admitted the bombing, specifying the military and strategic nature of target and denies any casualties.

Monsignor Martinelli explains that these facts distance any possibility of a diplomatic agreement before September, the deadline set by NATO for an end to military operations. The prelate said that "if the leaders of both parties do not resort to diplomatic means the future of Libya will only grow even more uncertain."

A source for AsiaNews, anonymous for security reasons, warns of the risk of an escalation of violence between the various factions which divide the people of Libya. "We must do everything to guide these people towards elections - says the source - otherwise there is the risk of an even bloodier war between tribes that could lead to genocide."

Meanwhile, the Benghazi rebels have expressed their condolences to the families of victims killed by the NATO raid last June 19. But consider the Rais solely responsible for this situation of war, which began to defend and liberate the people from the Libyan regime. Today, Mahmoud Jibril, head of external relations for the National Transitional Council, the Libyan opposition, arrived in Beijing to tighten economic partnership agreements with the Chinese authorities and present any eventual negotiations with Tripoli. Earlier this month, Abdel Al - Obeidi, Libyan Foreign Minister visited China to discuss the possibility of a ceasefire. (Sc)

Two out of three Malagasy children live in poverty and 50% of children under five years of age has growth problems because of malnutrition. The situation is particularly serious in the city of South Amboasary, in the southeastern part of Anosy, Madagascar, where at the Center for Treatment and Cure for Acute Malnutrition with Complications (CRENI) is where children are hospitalized because their height-weight ratio results determine a state of acute malnutrition. Also in the same city, connected with the clinic is another center for Treatment and Cure for Acute Malnutrition without Complications (CRENAS). A graph by CREN in Amboasary South shows that about one third of the 130 admissions recorded in 2010 occurred between March and May, at the end of the dry season, but local doctors say that the drought is a cyclical problem that affects the region only occasionally, while there are social and economic phenomena that are a constant threat to food security.

In the more arid south, increasingly unpredictable weather conditions threaten to increase malnutrition among children, particularly between the months of October and March, when food is scarce. Chronic malnutrition is often caused by a prolonged lack of food. The medical and health care workers in charge of identifying malnutrition in children are turning to CRENAS, the most severe with complications are sent to CREN. Generally, children remain 10 days at CREN and after gaining some weight are sent back to CRENAS, where mothers and children are helped with support and training, ready to use therapeutic food to take home. It is highly nutritious food: peanut paste that contains micronutrients and is a real salvation for an area of the country where 60% of the population live more than 5 km away from the nearest health center.

Moreover, according to some experts, protein deficiencies also contribute to these "local trends" or taboo regarding the consumption of certain foods in areas where meat is an unaffordable luxury for most people. Children are forbidden to eat eggs and chicken and sweet potatoes can be eaten only when picked. Chickens are considered "dirty" and there is the belief that eating eggs will make men and women dumb. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 06/25/2011

Forces loyal to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad have been shelling a small town near the border with Turkey, forcing its residents to flee to safety on the other side. The operation demonstrates, four months into the unrest in Syria, the brutality of the regime in trying to suppress the popular movement for political change. In Libya, despite all the NATO bombing to force Muammar Gaddafi from power, the regime, despite its weakened nature, remains in place. NATO bombing has just resulted in more civilians dying, which raises the critical question of whether all this international pressure on Gaddafi is yielding the results the West had earlier thought it would. Meanwhile, in Morocco, King Muhammad's offer of reforms has left no one impressed. His detractors' argument that earlier reforms in the country's 400-year history have been superficial cannot be dismissed out of hand. Yemen's Ali Abdullah Saleh has fled to Saudi Arabia.

Much as the world is enthused by the Arab Spring, the fact remains that the changes one would have liked to see in the Middle East have come only half way. So far, the tide of change has yielded results in Tunisia and Egypt, though in the latter case the future remains uncertain. The military authorities, seemingly believing in their own approach to the future, have so far failed to take broad public opinion and the political classes into confidence. But if post-Mubarak Egypt is yet finding its way around, conditions in Syria and Libya are definitely horrendous. Libyans are now caught in a civil war, with neither the regime nor the rebels able to claim victory. NATO keeps pounding away, with no idea as to when these raids will end. It is innocent Libyans who die. Those who live confront an apocalyptic future. In Syria, the West is yet to make up its mind beyond sounding out warnings at intervals.

The Arab Spring is in danger of drawing itself out into a long, bitter autumn. Conscience is in short supply in Damascus and Tripoli. NATO's killing of Libyan civilians demonstrates an absence of moral dimensions in internationalism

Thousands of people fearing an escalation in fighting between ethnic rebels and government troops in Kachin state near the Myanmar-China border have fled their villages, with many seeking shelter in churches and temples.

The fighting, which first broke out between Kachin Independent Army and government forces on June 9, had spread yesterday and today to northern parts of neighboring Shan state, according to the Kachin News Group.

At least 700 refugees have so far sought refuge in churches and at a Buddhist temple in Wai Maw near the Kachin state capital Myitkyina in northern Myanmar.

The majority, however, have gone to Myitkyina or other major towns to stay with relatives or crossed the Chinese border.

"Those who do not have relatives in Myitkyina are going to churches for shelter and food," said Jan Nhkum, 45, a villager from Ga Ra Yang. Everyone from the village fled, she said.

Worried church workers in Wai Maw say if the fighting spreads they could be inundated by refugees.

Sara Yaw, a local Catholic catechist said: "We are already struggling to provide food and shelter for 300 refugees." But people are still coming to the church compound.

Sara Pawlu of the local Baptist church said: "Up to now, there are over 700 villagers registered as refugees in the Christian Churches as well as at a Buddhist temple." That figure is expected to rise.

He said the churches have informed the authorities and applied for aid. Local government has provided some food, but there was likely to be a need for clean water, shelters, medical supplies and volunteers to help the refugees.

" Fighting rages, the military governments do not hesitate to committing atrocities and revenge on the civilian population; there are over 10 thousand civil refugees of Kachin ethnic group, mostly Christians, who are escaping, victims of violence": is the alarm launched to Fides by a priest of the diocese of Myitkyina (in the North of Myanmar), who requested anonymity for security reasons. The priest says, with great concern, that the situation of civil conflict that has been going on for about two weeks, affects the state of Kachin (one of 14 among states and territories in which the nation is divided), an area that falls under the jurisdiction of the Catholic diocese of Myitkyina (see Fides 16/6/2011). Facing them are the army and guerrillas of the "Kachin Independent Army": This is a conflict on which news is very rare, given that the government "has taken steps to cut power and telephone lines on most of the Land , isolating the area", notes the priest.

The clashes began, says the source of Fides, because the Burmese government reached an agreement with China for the construction of a dam that will power a hydroelectric plant in Kachin territory. The plant will supply energy to the Chinese people and the project will cause the evacuation and the flooding of villages and territories where the Kachin people live, who then have rebelled. The negotiations in recent months have not been successful "because part of the military leadership has no respect for the rights of ethnic minority populations". On the contrary, the episode was considered a useful "casus belli" to unleash a violent repression against the Kachin.

"Today, more than 10 thousand refugees, mostly Christians - continues the priest - are escaping from the war and are crossing the borders with China and India. Hundreds of IDPs, meanwhile, are welcomed in the churches and Buddhist temples. The situation is dramatic because the civilian population, already very poor, is on their last legs".

Moreover, given that the guerrillas are hiding in the forest, "the soldiers of the Burmese army, when they meet Kachin villages, do not hesitate to make violence and atrocities against civilians, for revenge", explains the source of Fides, commenting the news on the systematic rapes on Kachin women. "For now we can not directly confirm this horrible news, but we believe it is true: in war atrocities are carried out and several times in the past the army used the tools of ethnic cleansing against the Karen, Shan, Kachin minorities and other ethnic groups living in Burmese territory", he recalls.

In this painful situation, "the local Church of Myitkyina is doing everything possible to accommodate the refugees, to comfort and encourage the people, exhorting the faithful to help each other. In addition, priests, religious and faithful pray constantly for peace, entrusting to God their immense suffering". (PA)

The United States said Thursday it was ready to provide hardware to modernise the military of the Philippines, which vowed to "stand up to any aggressive action" amid rising tension at sea with China.

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, on a visit to Washington, said the Philippines hoped to lease equipment to upgrade its aged fleet and called for the allies to revamp their relationship in light of the friction with China.

"We are determined and committed to supporting the defence of the Philippines," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a joint news conference when asked about the hardware wish-list from the Philippines.

Hillary said the two nations were working "to determine what are the additional assets that the Philippines needs and how we can best provide those."

Tensions in the strategic and resource-rich South China Sea have escalated in recent weeks, with the Philippines and Vietnam alarmed at what they say are increasingly aggressive actions by Beijing in the disputed waters.

"We are concerned that recent incidents in the South China Sea could undermine peace and stability," Clinton told reporters, urging "all sides to exercise self-restraint."

Del Rosario, with Clinton at his side, said: "While we are a small country, we are prepared to do what is necessary to stand up to any aggressive action in our backyard."

The United States signed a defence treaty with the Philippines in 1951, five years after the archipelago's independence from US colonial rule. Del Rosario said he believed the treaty -- which calls for mutual defence in the event of an attack in "the Pacific area" -- covers the South China Sea.

China has said that it will not resort to the use of force in the South China Sea but has also warned the United States to stay out of territorial spats.

"I believe some countries now are playing with fire. And I hope the US won't be burned by this fire," China's vice foreign minister Cui Tiankai said.

Cui will meet Saturday in Hawaii with Kurt Campbell, a US assistant secretary of state, for a first dialogue between the two nations to focus specifically on Asia-Pacific affairs.

The United States plans to hold joint exercises with the Philippines next week and the US Navy will visit Vietnam next month, although US officials have described the events as routine.

Approximately 10 thousand families evacuated slums on the outskirts of Manila. Massacre averted thanks to the new evacuation plan implemented after the storm Ketsana that caused 500 deaths in 2009. In the next few hours "Falcon" will reach the coasts of Taiwan.

11 are missing and over 50 thousand have been displaced by tropical storm "Falcon" which hit last night in capital, Manila, as well as Quezon City, Taguig, Valenzuala and other areas of the island of Luzon. Torrential rains and winds exceeding 100 km/h have caused landslides in the suburbs of the capital and other areas of the country.

According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management, about 10 thousand families have been affected, but there were no reported deaths thanks to the evacuation plan developed in the aftermath of the storm Ketsana in October 2009 that killed over 500 people and shut down half of Manila. For safety reasons, the authorities closed schools and government offices.

In these hours, Falcon is heading towards the island of Taiwan. According to the Department of Sciences at the University of Manila, the tropical storm is increasing in intensity and could become a typhoon.

The last celebration was held in 1918. The city's mayor granted permission for the procession, which will be led by Mgr Paolo Pezzi, archbishop of Moscow. Catholics will walk along Nevsky Prospekt, the main thoroughfare in the former capital.

Saint Petersburg's mayor granted permission for the first Corpus Christi procession in the former Russian capital since 1918. The announcement was made by the Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow. The procession will take place tomorrow, 26 June, along Nevsky Prospekt (Avenue), the city's main thoroughfare.

The avenue has traditionally been called the "way of confessional tolerance" since it is lined with Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran and Armenian churches.

According to archdiocesan officials, the last time a Corpus Christ procession was held on the prospekt was in 1918, before the Bolshevik takeover.

The last such procession was organised by Mgr Constantin Budkiewicz, who was shot in the back of the head by the Communists during the early morning hours of Easter 1923.

Now, 93 years later, Catholics will return to the Nevsky Avenue led by Archbishop Paolo Pezzi of Moscow.

After the noon Mass at Saint Catherine of Alexandria Catholic Church, located on the avenue, Archbishop Pezzi will lead the procession on Nevsky Prospekt and the surrounding streets with the Blessed Sacrament.

The World Russian People's Council will regularly publish information about violence and abuse against the community. Orthodox Church concerned over christianophobia in the Middle East.

Concerned by a widespread "Christianophobia", the Russian Orthodox Church has decided to publish regular information on episodes of violence that affect Christians in the world. Interfax news agency reports that the World Russian People's Council is a public forum that brings together several religious and political leaders in Russia and is chaired by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill.

"The Russian Orthodox Church will launch a program to protect the Christians who have recently become the most targeted religious," says Roman Silantyev, director of the Center. The idea is to monitor the crimes and atrocities committed against Christians, such as murders, threats, rapes, massacres and executions.

The greatest concern focuses on the Middle East, as explained by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Church Relations. "The escalation of Christianophobia in some Middle Eastern countries can lead to serious consequences for the Orthodox faith, putting at risk the lives of the faithful of the ancient local church, deprived of their rights," he denounced in an interview with Interfax-Religion after having met with the rector of the Egyptian Islamic Al-Azhar University. "If the governments of the Middle East do not take special measures to protect Christians, we will soon see another wave of immigration," continued the Metropolitan, concluding with a wish: that "extremism behind religious slogans is not identified with Islam, which preaches tolerance between members of different religions." (N.A.)

A new awareness campaign to support the Sahrawi people's cause has been approved by the representatives of South Africa and Algeria meeting in Algiers in view of the tripartite summit of the Sahrawi People Solidarity Movement, to take place next September which will also be attended by Nigeria.

"The initiative provides for a series of conferences and events aimed at supporting the Sahrawi people's self-determination to be attended by personalities from the worlds of entertainment, sports and more," explained Makina Zanella, director for North Africa of the South African ministry of Foreign Affairs and head of projects for the Algeria-South Africa Coordination (CNASPS).

"Independence is a Sahrawi people's right" said Zanella, noting her country's struggle against all forms of colonization and deploring "the abandon of inert civilians in refugee camps in the middle of the desert for years".

Western Sahara is a former Spanish colony annexed by Morocco in 1975, when it became the object of a thirty-year-old dispute with Rabat, which has proposed to grant a wide and special autonomy for the region, while the Polisario Front, backed by Algeria, reiterates the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination through a popular referendum.

The next round of talks between the Moroccan government and the Polisario (Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro"), which have so far proceeded under UN auspices but without progress, is expected to take place in mid-July.

An organisation representing journalists and media hold press conference in which they slam politicians for fearing freedom of information. They note that Sri Lanka is the only nation in South Asia that does not have a law guaranteeing freedom of information.

Sri Lanka needs a bill to protect freedom of information, even if politicians "fear" such a law and would rather see us "kept in the dark", the Citizen's Rights and Collective of Media Organization (CRCMO) said at a press conference held last Wednesday in Colombo. In fact, the group noted that Sri Lanka is the only country in South Asia that has no 'right to information' law, something that has already been adopted in more than 80 countries in the world.

Now more than ever, there is "a need to empower people" and develop a political culture in which all agencies of the government are "accountable to the people". For this reason, CRMCO is organising an 'Awareness Raising" day for 5 July.

Being informed on all issues is an essential prerequisite to keep politicians accountable and limit any possible abuses of power, it said.

For Gamini Viyangoda, a member of the organisation, "The government is always trying to keep people in the dark. However, citizens have a right to know what happens to them and in what circumstances."

In September 2010, opposition lawmaker Karu Jayasuriya introduced a Freedom of Information bill to parliament. At the time, the government put the proposal on hold, promising that it would draft its own bill.

Seven months later, nothing has been done. Hence, last month Jayasuriya submitted his own proposal, again.

Rival north and south Sudan on Monday signed a deal to demilitarize their disputed frontier region of Abyei and let in an Ethiopian peacekeeping force, an international mediator said.

But while the UN Security Council welcomed the accord new fears were raised over heightening conflict in neighbouring South Kordofan where Khartoum's military had threatened to shoot down UN flights, according to the US envoy to the United Nations.

Former South African president Thabo Mbeki, heading an African Union panel, brokered the accord in Addis Ababa under which the north's troops agreed to leave Abyei.

The north occupied Abyei on May 21 and tens of thousands have since fled their homes, mainly to the south.

The deal would "bring to an end this threat of violence, and actual violence in the area, so we are really hoping that Security Council will look at this agreement as early as possible and take all the necessary decisions," Mbeki told the 15-nation body by videolink from the Ethiopian capital.

About 4,000 Ethiopian troops are expected to moved into Abyei, which has become a near ghost region since the north's occupation.

The 4,000 Ethiopian troops that the United Nations wants to send to the disputed Sudanese region of Abyei, only region of 10,000 km, will be one of the strongest forces ever assembled for a territory of this size, officials said Monday.

The US ambassador to the United Nations said the United States would soon distribute a draft resolution to other council members giving a UN mandate to the Ethiopian deployment.

There are currently about 1,000 UN troops in Abyei, which has been occupied by north Sudan forces since May 21.

Khartoum's chief Abyei negotiator Al-Dirdiri Mohammed Ahmed told AFP the government was satisfied with Monday's agreement because it had taken care of its main concerns about the bitterly contested region, primarily that it remain in the north.

"We think it is a sustainable solution, and that peace will prevail according to this formula," Ahmed said

"Whole families continue to wander aimlessly, with no humanitarian assistance, while bombing by government aviation continues", says Sister Carmen to Fides, a Comboni Mexican missionary who works in the Nuba Mountains, which are part of south Kordofan, where fighting continues between the armies of north and south Sudan (see Fides 16/6/2011). "We are concerned about the new fighting, but we still hope that the international community can come to our aid", concludes the missionary.

The satellite filming purchased from the "Satellite Sentinel Project" (promoted by the American actor George Clooney), shows a strengthening of the army's military presence of Khartoum in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan, occupied by the northern forces. The military growth raises fears of a new offensive on behalf of Khartoum.

In the other disputed area between north and south Sudan, that of Abyei, no more new fighting is registered but also here the humanitarian situation remains very serious. "The population is still displaced from Abyei and receives some sporadic help. The rains continue to beat the area constantly and displaced people are without protection", says Mgr. Roko Taban Mousa, Apostolic Administrator of Malakal to Fides. "Children and the elderly are the most affected by this tragic situation: malaria and diarrhea continue to kill people. There is therefore no significant improvement of the humanitarian conditions. In Abyei there is currently no fighting or bombing. The city, however, is still occupied by Khartoum's army and the population is afraid to return", concludes the Apostolic Administrator. (L.M.)

As the date for South Sudan's long anticipated Jul. 9 secession inches closer, on-going violence in the Northern state of South Kordofan threatens to destroy the country's hopes for peace.

United States President Barack Obama said in a White House statement Wednesday that the situation in the central region of the country is "dire, with deeply disturbing reports of attacks based on ethnicity".

"The United States condemns all acts of violence, in particular the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) aerial bombardment of civilians and harassment and intimidation of United Nations peacekeepers," Obama said.

Since early this year, the civilians of oil-rich South Sudan have paid heavily for their attempts to break from the Arab-dominated North - most recently by enduring a brutal occupation of the fiercely contested border region of Abyei by President Omar al-Bashir's notorious military forces.

Though the situation abated slightly Monday following the signing of a peace deal in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - which mandated a withdrawal of the Khartoum-backed SAF and the deployment of 4,000 U.N.-sponsored Ethiopian peacekeeping troops to patrol the region and buffer the North-South boundary - violence has rapidly spread now to the centre of the country, where the largely pro- Southern Nuba people are weathering a ferocious attack.

"Under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), both the Government of Sudan and the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) committed to resolve their differences peacefully, and both parties have a responsibility to end the current violence and allow immediate humanitarian access to desperate people who have been driven from their homes and are now cut off from outside help," Obama said today in Washington.

He commended the peace agreement, but warned that the crisis in Kordofan must also be addressed immediately. "Without [a ceasefire] in Southern Kordofan, the roadmap for better relations with the Government of Sudan cannot be carried forward, which will only deepen Sudan's isolation in the international community, [and] the people of Southern Kordofan [will not] enjoy the right to have their political grievances addressed."

However, with barely two weeks left before newly elected President Salva Kiir Mayardit's government officially takes its seat in the new Southern capital of Juba, reports from the ground in South Kordofan foreshadow a bloody and protracted conflict.

The 'New York Times' reported yesterday that the Sudanese Army and its allied militias have gone on a "rampage" to crush rebel fighters in South Kordofan's Nuba Mountains, "bombing thatched-roofed villages, executing elders, burning churches and pitching the central region... into crisis".

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), aerial bombardments, extra-judicial killings, assassinations of even women and children and destruction of property have caused "tens of thousands to flee".

Some sources believe the number is higher - the U.N. estimates that refugees from South Kordofan's capital Kadugli number 40,000, and the World Council of Churches reported that 300,000 civilians are besieged, totally barred from humanitarian assistance.

The Sudanese Army has forbidden all aid workers and threatened to shoot down U.N. helicopters.

Last week, the Sudan Ecumenical Council claimed, "civilians are being hunted down like animals by helicopter gunships."

"This is going to spread like wildfire," an American official speaking under condition of anonymity told the 'New York Times' yesterday. "Without mediation you're going to have massive destruction and death in central Sudan and no one seems able to do anything about it."

Eric Reeves, a Sudan analyst and researcher at Smith College, blasted U.S. special envoy Princeton Lyman's quiet diplomacy with Khartoum in the face of a "terrifying" crisis, warning that unless the U.S. leveraged its military and diplomatic muscle, the consequences would be disastrous.

"I have read enough accounts of the ethnically-targeted violence - including testimony from U.N. officials and interviews with civilians - to say that what we are seeing in Southern Kordofan is undisputedly ethnic cleansing," Reeves told IPS.

Some experts in Washington believe that the U.S. has little influence on al-Bashir, who has long relied on the support of oil-purchasing Gulf and Asian powers to back his army's military excesses.

"I'm not sure the administration has a muscle to flex anymore," David Shinn, former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia, told IPS. "The only thing it can do other than pontificate more vociferously than it has in the past is to threaten to slow down any aspects of the normalisation of relations."

"However, given that the overriding issues are moving forward with implementation of the CPA and [securing] Southern Sudan on Jul. 9, there will likely be a reluctance in Washington to do or say anything that threatens those processes," he added.

Home to the historically marginalised Nuba people - who have long endured the brunt of Khartoum's oppressive Islamist-Arabism, including what some experts have labelled a "genocidal massacre" in the 1990s - South Kordofan will not be won without a fight.

The ethnically, religiously and culturally distinct Nuba people now include over 30,000 Northern fighters, who battled alongside the Southern Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) during the civil war, and are now fighting tooth and nail against the Northern government's demand that all pro-Southern forces disarm on the eve of secession.

"When I was in the Nuba Mountains... I spoke to a number of senior military officials and civil society leaders," Reeves told IPS. "And they made very clear to me that Khartoum has never regarded them as human beings, that they have no exit, and no option but to fight to the death."

But when measured in terms of oil-revenues, the cost of the Nuba's autonomy in the North's only oil- producing state might be too high for Khartoum to bear.

Just last week Sudanese finance minister Ali Mahmoud claimed that "the national budget will lose 36.5 percent of its revenues" as a result of the secession since the South houses three quarters of the country's crude, which has thus far accounted for over 50 percent of Khartoum's annual budget.

Add potential lost revenues from South Kordofan's reserves and the equation bodes very badly for peace.

"Without international pressure, you can expect a continued military campaign by the SAF to eliminate or expel former SPLA units from Southern Kordofan," E.J. Hogendoorn, the Africa project director of the International Crisis Group, told IPS. "This will be difficult, since they are holed-up in the mountains and continued fighting could trigger a Southern response."

However, others continue to hold out hope that economic motivators might budge the international community into action in the face of ethnic cleansing.

"Khartoum has already threatened to close down the major pipeline unless the South agrees to pay transit fees that are likely to be extortionate - anywhere from 50 cents to 50 dollars a barrel," Reeves told IPS. "Currently, there is no incentive for the SPLM not to attack the oil infrastructure in retaliation, and this would be a disaster."

"What few people realise about Sudanese crude is that it is very dense in paraffin, which congeals very quickly. If the oil flow is stopped, it is enormously difficult to get it started again - and this should surely provoke China to act more aggressively," Reeves said.

"China-U.S. relations are also worth considering in this matter," Shinn told IPS. "I wouldn't be surprised if there haven't already been discussions with China in an effort to lean a little heavier on Khartoum."

"Given that China has more economic leverage than the U.S., they might well be willing to speak frankly with the government in Khartoum to ensure that the situation in Southern Kordofan doesn't totally destroy the possibility of a peaceful transition on Jul. 9," he added.

Assad has denounced a plot against Syria and promised amendments to the Constitution. Opposition demonstrations against the president's overtures, branded as "insufficient" even from his Turkish counterpart Gul. AsiaNews sources: the future is uncertain, the country is being subjected to "premeditated international pressure" need for more balance in West and media.

"We want change, but not at the price of blood and civil war." This is what a Christian source in Damascus tells AsiaNews, who has requested anonymity for security reasons. The people are calling for 'reforms and fight against corruption ", but there is also the fear that the situation can escalate. Yesterday Bashar al-Assad gave a speech to the nation, the third after two months of silence. The internal opposition strongly criticized the words of the Syrian president, deemed "insufficient", also by his Turkish counterpart Gul and the Western bloc.

Bashar al-Assad delivered his speech in the aula magna of the University of Damascus, a speech that lasted about 70 minutes and broadcast live on state television. Three main points of the president's speech: first, he admitted that Syria was experiencing "difficult days" due to a plot hatched by " blasphemous intellectuals" and "foreigners who threaten national unity and risk causing the collapse of the economy". He then announced the creation of a committee of 100 scholars, called to consider amendments to the Constitution. Finally he promised "gradual changes" in a process that should conclude by September or, at most, the end of the year.

Assad's words were rejected by the opposition, which within a few minutes from the end of his speech took to the streets to demonstrate in several cities: on the streets of Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Lattakia demonstrators chanted slogans against the regime, demanding greater "dignity and freedom." Criticism of the Syrian president also came from the Turkish Abdullah Gul, who branded the Assad's concessions as "unsatisfactory", giving him "a week to implement reforms." Meanwhile the EU is drawing up a new round of sanctions against Damascus, while the refugee emergency continues (nearly 9 thousand) along the border with Turkey.

Commenting on the President's words, the source spoke to AsiaNews about the "difficult situation" because Assad "wants to make reforms, but the opposition does not intend to wait, it demands change now". What was proposed, he said, "can not be done overnight" and "it is not possible to envisage future developments", because "everything depends on how the situation develops." The Christian source denounces "premeditated international pressure," of "indiscriminate criticism" because "any opening would not be enough" in their eyes.

The source says feeling is emerging in Damascus "that the media are actually pushing an agenda in their news reports, because they want the regime to change". From the home front there is a visible "will to remodel a new Middle East on the basis of a religious nature," as in Iraq where "Christians are fleeing in fear" and are among the targets of attacks.

Finally the AsiaNews source launches an appeal to the media and the West to "reflect before they act." "We all want to reform and to fight corruption - he clarifies - we want change, but not through the spilling of blood and civil war." Because if it is true that there are riots, demonstrations and dead ends, it is equally true that these episodes appear to be "fomented" from the outside. (DS)

A new bill before parliament will punish parents if they allow their underage children to go to church or mosque or study the catechism, all this ostensibly to prevent extremism from spreading. However, many slam the draft law as a violation of basic rights.

The lower house of Tajikistan's parliament approved a controversial Parental Responsibility Law on 15 June. President Emomali Rahmon had proposed it. Under the new piece of legislation, harsher measures would stop children under the age of 18 from attending religious functions, except funerals. Violations would be severely punished, including prison for parents.

Like a 2009 law, the new draft bill would require parents not to allow their underage children to take part in the activities of religious organisations, except those by state-approved establishments. The one exception is funerals and other mourning-related events.

All religious functions, catechism and other religious activities would be affected. Children would not be allowed to accompany their parents to church or mosque, Forum 18 reports.

Parents who violate the law would face hefty fines and even prison terms, between five and eight years if they participate in study groups and up to 12 years for those who organise such groups. Even when parents are unaware that their children are participating in religious activities, the law imposes a legal obligation to supervise them.

The Lower House amended the Criminal Code to impose harsher penalties on parents, even thought the existing provisions already punished "violation of the procedure for organising and conducting gatherings, meetings, demonstrations, street processions and pickets" with fines or imprisonment of up to two years for the first violation, with repeat violations punished with a possible prison term of between two and five years.

What this all means is that children can only get a religious education in government-licensed madrassas, Islamic schools or Christian institutes in which religion is taught as a subject. Across the country, only a few dozens of institutions provide this kind of education, and their offer is insufficient to meet the needs of young people.

The State Religious Affairs Committee told Forum 18 that it did not plan to approve new institutions.

Now the draft bill goes to the upper house, but everyone expects it will sail through easily.

The law's supporters argue that it is needed to fight religious extremism and prevent young people from falling under the influence of extremist religious groups belonging to Muslim terrorist organisations. However, the legislation does not define what extremist religious teaching is.

When faced with the objection that the ban touches everyone, even those who teach catechism to their children, Sattor Kholov, the lawmaker who led the discussion in the lower house in favour of the bill, said that judges will have the responsibility to identify and not punish non-extremist religious teachings.

For political commentator Faredun Hodizoda, the ban is "excessive" because even in Soviet times, boys were allowed to go to mosques.

Other critics have noted that religious extremism has not taken roots in the country, and that the law prevents young people from getting a religious education.

For lawmaker Muhiddin Kabiri, a member of the Islamic Renaissance Party, "this law will infringe even further upon citizens' rights and will bring even more restrictions."

Experts note that the new law will further restrict religious freedom, already limited by the 2009 law.

Since then, many mosques have been destroyed, Christians have been tried and convicted for "illegal" meetings and activities, and Jehovah's Witnesses have been banned.