By�KENNETH OGOSIA and BERNARD NAMUNANE

In Summary

• Constituencies that previously were ranked as the poorest in the country have suddenly shot up the table
• Kajiado North is richest constituency with 10.7 per cent below poverty line, while Turkana Central is poorest with 96.9 per cent.
• The document, acknowledges the transformation in previously poor areas has been inspired by the CDF
• Prof Nyongo: �I think somebody fed the wrong data into the computer.”

A new Government report on ranking parliamentary constituencies on poverty index has been withheld after some MPs complained that their areas were not projected as poor enough.

Last week the death of opposition leader Kokouvi Agbobli under mysterious circumstances sent shock waves throughout Togo.
But glaring contradictions in autopsy report and an earlier press statement released by the Togolese Minister for Security about the mystery death of the Togolese opposition leader has triggered widespread about the actual cause of his death leading to wild speculations in Lom� .
Last� week the Togolese Minister for Security and Interior , Colonel Atcha Titikpina said in an official press statement in Lome that the body of Kokouvi Agbobli , a prominent Togolese opposition leader who was reported missing was found washed ashore at a beach in Lome after a search lasting 48 hours.
But an autopsy ordered by the Chief State Prosecutor , Boubadi Bakai later claimed that the opposition leader neither died from drowning nor� from any violent means.
The autopsy released by professor Napo Ouro Koura , Chief Pathologist at the University central Hospital in Lome said that the opposition leader died from systematic intoxication induced by the taking of an overdose of medical substances capable of causing death.
The autopsy could however not produce an analysis of the composition of the chemical substances contained in the overdose taken by the opposition leader due to what the pathologist called the lack of appropriate laboratory equipment .
Rather than to smother growing skepticism , the glaring disparities in the Security Minister�s earlier press statement and the autopsy released by the pathologist have added more fuel to the conflagration of doubts about the actual cause of death of the opposition leader.
Ayaovi Agbobli , son of the dead opposition leader told the press that the contradictions in the two reports have raised doubts of dust about the impartiality of the Togo government in the whole bizarre scenario surrounding his father�s death.
So aggravated are the doubts that Togolese opposition leaders, Gilchrist Olympio of the Union of Forces for Change , UFC , party� and Lawyer Yawovi Agboyibo of the Action Committee for Renewal, CAR, have all joined the Togo National Human Rights Commission in the call for an independent probe into what they called �the mystery death of opposition leader Kokouvi Agbobli�.
Even though preliminary police investigations seem to support the theory� of suicide , opposition groups and many NGOs are insisting that an independent probe will help to throw more light on the whole bizarre affair put an end to the canker of� impunity in Togo.
The contradictions between the earlier press statement by the Togolese Minister for Security and that of the pathologist are at the base of their present confusion leading to the million dollar question on every lip here, as to whether the body of the opposition leader�s was washed ashore or whether he committed suicide.
Ayaovi Agbobli son of the late opposition leader told the press that the glaring contradictions are raising� doubts about the impartiality of the Togo government on the whole issue about his father�s death.
But he said � the family was awaiting the final report of police investigations before knowing what next line action to take�.

By Ekoue Blame, Lom�

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Published by African Press International – API

Thanking the delegates he stated, ��I am to-day happy that , you, the militants from all over Togo have put your destiny into my hands by electing me as the party�s candidate for the next� presidential elections slated for 2010�, Mr Gilchrist Olympio declared at the end of the statutory congress his opposition Union of Forces for Change , UFC, party in Lome on the 19th of july 2008.
�The congress was attended by over 300 delegates from all over the country.
During the congress of held in the Togolese capital of Lome , all the delegates� gave their suffrages to their 72 years leader Gilchrist Olympio in overwhelming vote of confidence.
But some independent observers who attended the congress were unanimous that his election exceptionally surpassed and outclassed other presidential election contests .
Not even in France or United States of America have so many succeeded to put their fate in the hands of an aspirant two years ahead of the actual elections.
But according to some Togolese newspapers this political rush was due to the fact that new political �birds� were gliding� in the party�s sky with very strong wings.
According to independent sources the die-hard radicals of the UFC party renewed confidence in their leader as he was the only leader who has courageously defied the late Gnassingbe Eyadema .
It will be recalled that Mr Gilchrist Olympio has made wonders for the first time in Togo�s political history when he was declared second to his rival Gnassingbe Eyadema in the elections which was marred by political violence in 1998.
Mr Olympio claimed the elections were rigged .
Since then Mr Olympio was� found not eligible on several occasions to aspire to the presidential throne based on some prohibitive clauses of the Togolese constitution.
According to the Togolese constitution the presidential candidate must reside at his country for at least twelve months and must also hold only one citizenship.
It will be recalled that Gilchrist Olympio who was in exile in France has dual citizenship , French and Togolese.
For these two reasons , the Togolese largest opposition leader Mr Olympio was on several occasions disqualified from the presidential race in 2003 to compete against� the late Gnassingbe Eyadema.
Mr Olympio�s UFC was compelled to field� 75 years old Bob Akitani against the late Eyadema in 2003 and subsequently in 2005 after the latter�s sudden death.
But according to the sources , this time around� Mr Olmypio�s strategy was to exert psychological pressure on the Togolese Head of State Faure Gnassingbe to amend the inimical constitutional laws in order to enable him to present himself for the 2010 presidential elections �as the only way to pacify the country�.
The Togolese multi-party constitution was amended in 2002 by Togo�s parliament to allow the late President Gnassingbe Eyadema to run for several terms in office.
�The have put the chart in front of the horses because now the Togolese people are affected by the high prices of food and the dramatic floods events that shocked the country�, said a militant of the ruling Peoples Rally Party , RPT.
�It will not be a surprise to see Mr Olympio in the next months touring the continent in the hope to get the support of some African Heads of State like Yar A�Duah of��� Nigeria , Omar Bongo of Gabon , John Kuffur of Ghana and the Burkinabe Leader Blaise Compaore who is also the mediator in the Togo dialogue to convince Faure Gnassingbe in order to allow him to take part in the presidential race scheduled for 2010�, the militant added.
But in Lome some observers saw Mr Olympio�s move as pre-emptive to� position himself quickly as the only eligible candidate of his party to stop the presidential aspirations of some of his lieutenants or political Apostles like Patrick Lawson , now elected 1st Vice-President , and Jean-Pierre Fabre , the party�s Secretary-General.
According to the rumours circulating in the Togolese capital , the two men have put on weight in popularity in the sense that they constitute internal rivals to the political ambition of Mr Gilchrist Olympio.
Many Togolese are crossing their fingers to see if the constitutional and institutional reforms demanded on several times by the Union of Forces for Change party will be given the green light by the new multi-party parliament dominated by the ruling RPT party.
The UFC party claims that the constitutional and institutional reforms form part of the Global Political Agreement signed in august 2006.
But observers here believe that the political sky has changed with the global high food prices crisis coupled with the dramatic floods that ravaged the country.
But in may this year , the Togolese Minister for Cooperation Gilbert Bawara stressed the need for constitutional and institutional reforms but said � we are not obsessed by the 2010 elections, our ambitions are to satisfy the need of the Togolese people�.
After Gilchrist Olympio of the UFC party it was the turn of the� Togolese former Prime Minister Agbeyome Kodjo� to make public his presidential ambition as he launched his political party in Lome at the beginning of august 2008.

By�Ekoue Blame , Lome

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Published by African Press International – API

Norway’s plans to to with Osama bin Laden has been shattered by the USA who has pressurerised the country forcing it to abandon the plan to enter into negotiations. A suvereign country is expected to do things independently and yet Norway allows herself to be pushed around by the US on matters of policy.

Norway should not pretend that the media misquoted their intentions. It is only because they have realised that the big nations are not ready to dance to a tune started by a small nation in the world, a nation that wants to do everything for the sake of being noticed as part and parcel of the international players in top politics.� You do not fight big ball when you are a tiny nation.

Norway’s deputy foreign minister now says that Norway has no desire for a dialogue with either Osama bin Laden or the terror network he leads, al-Qaida. The foreign ministry sent out a clarification of remarks Johansen made on Wednesday, indicating he’d been misunderstood.

Raymond Johansen, a state secretary in Norway’s ministry and a deputy foreign minister, had some explaining to do on Thursday. PHOTO: CARL MARTIN NORDBY Norway, officials now say, has no desire for a dialogue with Osama bin Laden. PHOTO: MAZHAR ALI / AP

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Raymond Johansen confirmed Thursday that he told Oslo newspaper Dagsavisen on Wednesday that “you don�t make peace with your friends but with your enemies.” At the same time, Johansen claimed that he had “no illusions” that bin Laden would sit down at any negotiating table.

Johansen and officials in the Foreign Ministry now state in a press release that Johansen’s remarks don’t mean Norway wants to talk with bin Laden or al-Qaida. Johansen suggests news bureau NTB misunderstood his remarks, adding that NTB’s interpretation that Norway wants a dialogue with bin Laden — widely reported in Norwegian media Wednesday and Thursday — paints an erroneous picture of Norwegian foreign policy.

“There are several criteria that would need to be in place before we involve ourselves in dialogue with partners to a conflict,” Johansen said in a statement on Thursday. “A central criterion is that the partners themselves want such a dialogue. I pinpointed to Dagsavisen that I didn’t think Osama bin Laden and … al-Qaida want any dialogue. It’s therefore wrong to say that Norway has a desire for dialogue with bin Laden.”

The Swiss foreign office has also sent out a clarification of remarks made by its leader, Micheline Calmy-Rey. She had also reportedly urged dialogue with Osama bin Laden, but Swiss officials now say that’s not correct.

“In her speech to … ambassadors, the head of the FDFA (Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs) spoke of dialogue as an instrument of foreign policy,” reads a statement from the Swiss ministry. “She mentioned the appropriateness of such dialogue and the limits in which it should take place.

“In this context, she asked the rhetorical question of whether entering into a dialogue with bin Laden could be considered as a possibility. She did not state that she would promote such a dialogue, nor has she proposed such a dialogue.

“To put an end to this controversy once and for all, in practice there is no question of the FDFA proposing a dialogue with Osama Bin Laden,” concluded the Swiss clarification.

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Related story:

• Norway willing to talk with Osama bin Laden – Very interesting�move

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API/Source.aftenposteneng

Obama Watch

The change world looks for in Obama speech

Updated 1 hr(s) 45 min(s) ago

By Dan Okoth

In the next few days, two things will happen in America. The Democratic Party candidate Barack Obama will deliver one of the most watched speeches this decade, and the country will mark a sad anniversary � 9/11.

Although historic in many respects, two words will define the moments: �terrorism� and �change�. While �terrorism� has elusive definitions, the world will know how seriously Americans take the “change we can believe in” when Obama gets to occupy the White House.

While Obama�s stand on terror indicates change, it can only be such if viewed in the context of how the Bush administration spun the issue from being a US concern to a global affair.

Since French lawyer Maximilien Robespierre used the word in 1794, terrorism assumed a more significant meaning after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York, in which 3,000 Americans died.

In places outside the US, the twin bombings of Nairobi and Dar es Salaam US embassies on August 7, 1998, were also labelled terrorist. Some 250 people died in those attacks. Then followed the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel bombing in Kikambala in 2002, in which 13 people were killed.

One of the main suspects, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a suspected member of al-Qaeda, is on the run with a huge bounty on his head.

Al-Qaeda is also the organisation suspected to have masterminded the New York attacks, as well as the July 2005 London bombings in which 52 people died.

From 2001, the Bush administration has fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iran has been on the radar. In the land of milk and money, the challenge of balancing constitutionally protected human rights and fighting the war on terror remains.

Globally, international relations fall in or out with President Bush�s words of “you are either with us or against us”. There are no spectators. Although no country openly supports terrorism, not all are ranged on his side.

By the time Obama was talking about the possibility of “aggressive personal diplomacy” with Iran last year, the war on terror had been on for at least five years. US foreign policy had suffered a fatal dent, and the rest of the world openly questions whether America subscribes to the accepted principles of just war.

Its presentations on former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein�s “weapons of mass destruction” would have been a good joke � if so many lives had not been tied to them.

America may be justified to continue the war, given the number of its citizens who have died and the threat terrorism poses. Other countries may also justify taking sides in that war.

But one question remains: Is the war on terror a just war?

International law humanitarian law, which defines laws concerning acceptable conduct in war � jus in bello, also describes acceptable justification for using armed force � jus ad bellum.

The principles of war boil down to three principles: One, wars should be limited to achieving the political goals that started the war.

Two, wars should be brought to an end as quickly as possible.

Three, people and property that have nothing to do with the war should be shielded from unnecessary suffering and destruction.

Why should Obama be reminded of these principles? Because American soldiers are still in Iraq and Afghanistan, because the war on terror defines American foreign policy, and because Obama stands the better chance of occupying a changed White House. His rival, John McCain, inherits the Republican mantle from Bush with the same old change.

Nobody can predict when the war on terror will end, but as the possible incoming US President, Obama can define how it will change. The world will keep an ear open for that change in his speech at the Democratic National Convention on August 28. It will also keep an ear open in mid-September.

The writer is The Standard Group Senior Editor � Online

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API/Source.standard.ke

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The latest round of the United Nations-sponsored global Climate Change Talks in Accra, the Ghanaian capital concluded Wednesday with clear signals that the pace of negotiations to get to a deal on long-term strengthened international action on climate change is picking up.

According to a press release issued here Thursday, important progress was made in Accra on a number of key issues for the deal, to be clinched at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009. Furthermore, the release said, parties under the Kyoto Protocol advanced their work on the tools and rules available to developed countries to set ambitious reduction targets beyond 2012.

�This has been a very important and encouraging meeting”, said Yvo de Boer, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). “We are still on track, the process has speeded up and governments are very serious about negotiating a result in Copenhagen.”

The meeting in Accra constituted the third major UNFCCC negotiating session this year and was the last meeting in the run up to this year�s UN Climate Change Conference scheduled to be held in Poznań, Poland, from 1 to 12 December.

Around 1,600 participants, including government delegates from 160 countries and representatives from environmental organizations, business and industry and research institutions, attended the one-week meeting in Accra.

“The highlight of this session is that governments have agreed to compile different proposals for solutions in a structured way for discussion at the next landmark meeting in Poznan,” the UN�s top climate change official said. “So Accra has laid the foundation of what could serve as a first negotiating text for a Copenhagen deal,” he added.

In a working group on long-term cooperative action under the UNFCCC, discussions took place on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries. “Countries have made it very clear that issue of forests need to be part of a Copenhagen deal,” de Boer said.

“That�s important because emissions from deforestation account for 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions.”

A second workshop provided more clarity on so-called “sectoral approaches” through which countries can address emissions from a whole sector of their economy.

Countries meeting in Ghana emphasized that such approaches should not lead to binding commitments for developing countries and that is up to a country to decide if it wants to put sectoral policies in place or not.

For the fist time at a UNFCCC gathering, governments discussed what is needed both in terms of financing and technology to step up action on both reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change.

“Parties were deeply committed and submitted proposals for solutions on the issues”, said Luiz Figueiredo Machado, Chair of the Ad hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action under the Convention. These proposals will now be assembled and submitted to the meeting in Poznan.

According to the release, at the Africa Carbon Forum scheduled to be held in Dakar from 3 to 5 September, African countries will discuss what can be done to improve the CDM. The forum will be the first event of its kind to be held on the African continent and will include a carbon investment trade fair, conference and policy meeting.

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API/SOURCE.APA

The Prime Minister of Cote d�Ivoire, Guillaume Soro, through his spokesperson, the Tourism and Craft Industry minister Sidiki Konate, called on the demobilized combatants for “dialogue and appeasement.

“As the president of the republic is out of the country, it is the Prime Minister who is acting on his behalf. That�s why he cannot be in Bouake, but he will come and speak to the people of Bouake,” Konate said during a mass meeting intended to support the actions of Prime Minister Soro.

“He gave us two messages. We all know how much the role of the population is important in the struggle of the New Forces (FN-former rebel group). The FN rests on four important pillars,” he revealed.

“The first one is its army, its soldiers. The second is its political and administrative wing. The third one is no doubt you, the population. Finally the fourth one is the FN general secretary,” the FN spokesperson said during this ceremony.

The problems were presented, Sidiki Konate continued, “we certainly deplore the drifts that happened, but we had time to talk to the youth, Corporal Diaby and his comrades. We are convinced that if they were to do the same thing again, there are remarks they will not make. “

Some demobilized troops, demanding their demobilization allowance of CFA 5 million each, organised a violent protest in Bouake last week.

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API/SOURCE.APA

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has paid tribute to the United States of America for its continuous support to Liberia.

US-Liberia relations, she noted, has helped Liberia improve in many sectors of development as it aims to become a post-conflict success story.

According to a presidential mansion press statement issued here Wednesday, President Sirleaf made the commendations when she received the letters of credence of Ms. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the new US to Liberia.

She traced the history of Liberia-U.S relations, saying interactions between both countries dates back to the birth of Liberia as a nation.

The Liberian leader pledged her commitment to proper accountability and transparency, and cited her recent signing into law an Act establishing the Anti-Corruption Commission.

She said US President George Bush�s recent visit to Liberia was a vindication of the progress made by her government�s commitment to strengthening US-Liberia�s relations.

President Sirleaf then commended Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield for her instrumentality in promoting programs from which Liberia is now benefiting.

In remarks, the newly accredited American envoy praised the Johnson Sirleaf administration for the successes achieved thus far, but added that more needs to be done.

Liberia, she noted, must continue to grow with its civil society and independent media strengthened in order to fight corruption.

Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield expressed the hope that with collective commitment, a new Liberia of equal opportunities will prevail. She revealed that Liberia is the second largest recipient of financial support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), adding that with unlimited potential at the country�s disposal, there is no reason why Liberia cannot be �an economic tiger in West Africa.�

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API/Source.apa