Eritrea-Ethiopia: UN, AU, EU Can Avert War and Trigger Peace

Analysis by Reinhardt Jacobsen *

BRUSSELS (IDN) – While UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged both Ethiopia and Eritrea to exercise “maximum restraint and refrain from any act or statement that could exacerbate the situation”, reports gathered by IDN from several independent sources close to the border between the two countries and in Eritrea, underscore the grave risks the armed conflict between the two East African countries entails.

Diverse sources claim that border skirmishes are ongoing unabated and that “war logic” is gripping both sides – with Eritrean and Ethiopian leaders putting on their “war masks”.

NEWSBRIEF: ‘Naive’ Libyan Fund Sues Goldman Sachs for ‘Abuse’

NEW YORK (IDN | GIN) – Over a four-month period, complex and unsuitable trades made by Goldman Sachs bankers ate up nearly the entire investment of a Libyan sovereign-wealth fund – an amount Libya is suing to recoup, according to a case now before a UK High Court.

The fund, set up under the regime of the then Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi, was intended to invest the country’s oil wealth just as sanctions against it were being lifted. Due to the fund’s limited experience with so-called “jumbo and elephant trades”, unwise trades nearly bankrupted the fund.

Goldman Sachs, on the other hand, reaped huge profits from only nine trades – including one larger than the bank had undertaken in a single stock – earning more than $200 million for the company, it was alleged.

NEWSBRIEF: U.S. Grants Asylum to Gambian President’s Nephew

NEW YORK (IDN | GIN) – The nephew of Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, threatened with the loss of his government scholarship over a pro-LGBT Facebook post, has been granted asylum in the U.S., local media reports.

Alagie Jammeh confirmed the story to the Washington Blade, an LGBT news source, in a telephone interview. Jammeh, who is due to graduate next week from the University of California, Santa Barbara, told the Blade that he wrote the post after he became friends with a gay man.

Alagie Jammeh had learned on May 17 – the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia – that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had recommended him for approval. He told the Blade that his lawyer called him two days later and said his asylum request had been granted after passing a background check.

Famous Buddhist Temple Massages Its Way into Modern Healthcare Industry

By Kalinga Seneviratne*

This article is the seventh in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate.

BANGKOK (IDN | Lotus News Features) – Wat Po temple in Bangkok is better known for the huge reclining Buddha statue, which attracts millions of tourists each year. Some also quietly walk into the air-conditioned massage clinic inside the monastery premises to try out an “authentic” Thai massage wondering what has the temple and Buddhism got to do with massage.

What is today called Thai Massage is an ancient healing system combining acupressure and energy balancing techniques, based on Indian Ayurvedic medicine, and yoga postures. The founding father of Thai massage is an Indian born Ayurvedic doctor named Jivaka Kumar Bhacca, who lived during the time of the Buddha and is believed to have treated him as well. He is revered to this day throughout Thailand as the Father of Thai Medicine.

Working to Raise Awareness About Migration Through Art

By A.D. McKenzie

PARIS | LONDON (IDN) – Concerned by widespread public confusion and the lack of clear political action on migration, many non-governmental groups have been launching initiatives to raise awareness about the issue, and about the current situation of refugees in Europe.

One of these projects is an exhibition currently under way in London, titled Call me by my name: stories from Calais and beyond, which comes as countries prepare to observe World Refugee Day on June 20 and Refugee Week from June 20 to 26.

The exhibition features the inhabitants of the infamous Calais camp in France, which the show’s organisers say has become “a potent symbol of Europe’s migration crisis”. There, some 4,000 to 5,000 migrants have been living in squalid conditions as they try to reach Britain, although the French authorities this year set up shelters made from shipping containers to house about 1,500 people.

‘The Uncondemned‘ Captures Rapes in Rwandan Genocide

NEW YORK (IDN | GIN) – The outlines of the Rwandan genocide are known by many. The time it took place (April to July 1994), the troubling silence of the international community, the number of those brutally murdered (as many as 800,000 mostly of the Tutsi minority and some Hutus) and the ever-debated questions – what could turn a people against their neighbour with a cruelty that was both devastating and inhumane?

NEWSBRIEF: Guessing Game about Nigerian President’s Health

NEW YORK (IDN | GIN) – Cancellation of the scheduled appointments of President Muhammadu Buhari and the arrangement of a 10 day trip to England for treatment of an ear infection have raised concerns that a serious health issue is afflicting the recently-elected leader.

Though it would not be the first time a Nigerian president claimed to be receiving treatment abroad but was actually at an advanced stage of a serious illness. In 2010, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was reportedly receiving treatment in Saudi Arabia for a long-standing kidney ailment when in fact he was near death and died quickly upon his return.

Asia-Europe Meeting Spurs Media Dialogue on Connectivity

Analysis by Shastri Ramachandaran

GUANGZHOU | China (IDN) – Twenty years of striving to strengthen understanding, trust and cooperation between two continents through political dialogue, economic cooperation and socio-cultural exchange is a remarkable effort.

In the course of these two decades, the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), as the pre-eminent trans-regional forum in this part of the world, has come a long way for its modest beginnings in Bangkok in 1996 attended by 25 Asian and European leaders.

Today, it has 53 members, and more than 200 of their representatives gathered in Guangzhou on May 9-10 for the Media Dialogue on Connectivity held for Promoting Public Awareness and Partnership. It was a milestone on the eve of the ASEM’s 11th Summit scheduled in Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia, in July 2016.

Timber Smuggling Could Eliminate Senegal’s Forests in Two Years

DAKAR (IDN | GIN) – Illegal timber smuggling is devastating the lush Casamance region of Senegal and could strip it completely within two years, predicts Senegalese environmentalist and former minister Haidar El Ali.

Casamance in southern Senegal contains the country’s last remaining forests, an area of 74,000 acres that could be depleted by 2018 as smugglers feed the demand for rosewood furniture in China, said El Ali.

Exporting timber from Senegal is illegal, so traffickers smuggle it to neighbouring Gambia for shipping to China.

Anti-Mugabe Movement Takes on New Life Not Seen in Decades

HARARE (IDN | GIN) – A “Million Men” march in support of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe that drew thousands in support of the aging leader failed to diminish the impact of an opposition rally last month that brought out thousands of citizens concerned with the country’s troubled economy.

Despite his advanced age, Mugabe has vowed to run for another term in office at the next election in 2018 when he will be 94.

At the “Million Men” march, Mrs Mugabe declared that her husband would rule Zimbabwe even from the grave.

The opposition, meanwhile, has been energized by a Twitter campaign called #ThisFlag, or what The Guardian newspaper called “an accidental movement for change”.

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