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‘Doubts’ Over Credibility of Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s Accuser

The sex assault case against former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn appears to be in trouble amid reported concerns over the alleged victim’s credibility.

Law enforcement officials have told US media the accuser has repeatedly lied since the alleged attack on 14 May.

The Guinean-born maid also appeared to have lied about her asylum application, officials reportedly said.

Mr Strauss-Kahn is due in court on Friday. His lawyers are expected to ask for his bail conditions to be relaxed.

The 62-year-old French politician has been under house arrest in a New York apartment since posting a $6m (£3.7m) cash bail and bond in May. He has armed guards, electronic surveillance and wears an electronic ankle monitor.

‘Thrown to the wolves’

He is charged with seven counts including four felony charges – two of criminal sexual acts, one of attempted rape and one of sexual abuse – plus three misdemeanour offences, including unlawful imprisonment.

Mr Strauss-Kahn, who resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund to defend himself, vigorously denies the charges.

Former Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin described the latest developments as “a thunderbolt”. “He was thrown to the wolves,” Mr Jospin said, in an apparent criticism of the US justice system.

In earlier court hearings, prosecutors had spoken of the strength of their case. One attorney said the proof against him was “substantial”.

But US media now report that prosecutors plan to outline their concerns about the 32-year-old maid’s credibility to the judge in Friday’s unscheduled court hearing.

Although forensic tests found unambiguous evidence of a sexual encounter between Mr Strauss-Kahn and the woman, prosecutors now do not believe much of what the accuser has told them about the circumstances or about herself, the The New York Times reports.

Law enforcement officials believe there are inconsistencies over claims the immigrant accuser made in her application for asylum, particularly over an allegation that she had been raped in her native West African state of Guinea, US media reports.

The maid told the authorities that Mr Strauss-Kahn accosted her after she entered his room in New York’s Sofitel hotel to clean it.

The defence team had been expected to argue that a sexual encounter occurred, but that it was consensual.

In recent weeks, they had claimed to have information that “gravely undermined” the credibility of the woman, but the New York Times says it was the prosecutors’ own investigators who uncovered the current reported inconsistencies.

Until his arrest, Mr Strauss-Kahn was seen as a leading candidate to be the next centre-left French presidential candidate and challenger to conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The BBC’s Christian Fraser says that, although there are still two weeks left for socialist candidates to put their name forward for next year’s presidential election, it seems unthinkable that Mr Strauss-Kahn could still enter the race.

In the days after his arrest, his reputation was further tarnished by a litany of stories about his reputation as a womaniser.

The issues sparked some soul searching in France about attitudes in general towards sexual harassment and abuse, and the treatment of women in the workplace, our correspondent says.

On Wednesday, France’s former Finance Minister Christine Lagarde was officially named as Mr Strauss-Kahn’s replacement at the IMF.

Whatever the merits of this new evidence, or of the character of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French felt particularly aggrieved at the way the case was conducted in the days after his arrest.

It was not only his reputation that was tarnished, but also that of the French nation in the eyes of the international community. The “perp walk”, the parading of the accused, the headlines such as “Chez Perv” and “Frog Legs It”, were widely perceived as insulting and humiliating.

And already the French media is talking about Mr Strauss-Kahn’s rehabilitation, even though there is unambiguous DNA evidence that a sexual encounter did take place.

The list of socialist candidates for next year’s presidential election is still open and will be for two more weeks. But it is surely unthinkable that Dominique Strauss-Kahn will re-enter the race.

Aside from the allegations in New York, there has been too much written about his previous encounters and his questionable behaviour towards women.

BBC Reporter

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Youth Education and Employment key to Progress in Africa

 30 June 2011 –

The United Nations today urged African countries to empower the continent’s youth through schooling and jobs, stressing that the foundation for peace and development lay in giving young people opportunities to build better lives for themselves.

“If we are to bring lasting peace and sustainable development to the continent, we must empower Africa’s youth,” Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro told heads of State at the annual African Union (AU) summit, which is being held in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, and whose theme is youth empowerment for sustainable development.

She pointed out that 35 per cent of Africa’s total population is between the ages of 15 and 35, the phase in people’s lives when they lay foundations for their future, build careers and plan families.

“For too many young adults in Africa, this is a time of dashed hopes, frustration, and political, economic and social exclusion,” said Ms. Migiro. “But there is a way for African nations to defuse the youth time bomb – by empowering youth and reaping the benefits. You have recognized this yourselves – by choosing the theme of this meeting and by prioritizing youth development in your development agenda,” she added.

She said that the United Nations will continue to work closely with Africa’s leaders to maintain and strengthen peace by supporting the efforts of the African people to realize their right to choose their own leaders.

“Countries that prioritize democratic principles generally fare better in avoiding armed conflict, promoting stable and equitable development, and building socially inclusive societies,” Ms. Migiro.

“The young men and women of Africa need to know that their dreams can and will be achieved – not through violence and crime, but through the ballot box and the decent jobs that will come from thriving economies,” she added.

She pointed out that the continent has over the past decade undergone a period of rapid economic growth, a stark contrast to the stagnation and reversals of previous years.

Attractive investment opportunities are expanding beyond the minerals and energy sectors, and a middle class is also emerging in several countries, although extreme poverty, hunger and inequality remain a major concern.

“For Africa, this is, in many ways, an era of opportunity. Our job is to ensure that it is an era of opportunity for all,” she said.

Ms. Migiro reminded the African heads of State that this year marks the tenth anniversary of the coming into force of the Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The protocols prohibit the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has launched a global campaign to promote the universal ratification of the protocols, Ms. Migiro said, but only 18 AU Member States are parties. “I call on all 53 AU Members to become parties and implement them fully,” she said.

On Sudan, Ms. Migiro noted that despite the recent outbreaks of violence in Southern Kordofan and Abyei, the upcoming independence of Southern Sudan was another milestone for Africa, and for the continent’s partnership with the UN.

“The United Nations will remain committed to supporting South Sudan’s peaceful development and to good neighbourly relations between north and south,” she said

She also reiterated that the UN remains committed to the search for a political solution to the ongoing crisis in Libya.

“There should be no doubt about our aims. The objective – and the obligation – of the international community is to protect civilians and to work for a durable peace that meets the legitimate aspirations of Libyan people,” she added.

UN News Center

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Swaziland Goes to South Africa for Bailout

Swaziland has asked neighbouring South Africa for an emergency bailout to patch over a national cash crunch that has sparked rare political unrest against King Mswati III, Africa’s last absolute monarch.

Swazi dissident groups have suggested Mswati, who has at least a dozen wives and an estimated personal fortune of $200 million, is looking for a 10 billion rand loan from Pretoria.

However, Deputy Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene told Reuters this was probably too high.

“I’m not sure where the 10 billion rand figure comes from and I don’t foresee assistance amounting to that much,” he said. “It is too early to put a figure to it until such time as the review and the assessment of Swaziland’s problems are done.”

The sums of money are a drop in the ocean for South Africa, far and away the continent’s biggest economy, but, in a curiously African echo of the euro zone debt crisis, Pretoria fears it may be simply the first of a series of bailouts for Swaziland.

Like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it will also balk at lending anything to the landlocked nation of 1.4 million people until its government takes the carving knife to what is Africa’s most bloated civil service.

The IMF said last month the tiny southern African country was near financial collapse, with a budget deficit of 14.3 percent of GDP – similar to Greece – and an economy stuck in the doldrums. Swaziland’s public wage bill amounts to 18 percent of GDP, more than any other country in Africa.

The IMF identified $87 million in immediate state spending cuts but described the general commitment to reform as “mixed”, rendering immediate budgetary assistance impossible for now.

“DICTATOR NEXT DOOR”

South African aid is also complicated by the loathing felt towards Mswati’s notoriously inept and unaccountable rule — cabinet posts are dished out on the whim of the king — by the ruling ANC’s allies in the unions.

The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), which accuses the ANC of being soft on the likes of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, will also use the crisis to weaken Mswati’s grip on power by, say, pushing for an end to his ban on political parties and dissent.

“South Africa must be very firm and say we want to see some action, and not just give the South African taxpayers’ money away when we are not happy with the fact that right next door we have a dictatorship,” DA finance spokesman Dion George said.

Swaziland’s fiscal troubles stem from a sharp decline in revenues from the regional Southern African Customs Union (SACU), which has historically accounted for two-thirds of the government’s budget.

The SACU drop-off, caused by a 2009 South African recession, is equivalent to 11 percent of Swazi output although the IMF says profligate state spending is just as much to blame.

So far, the government has just about managed to keep its head above water by eating into central bank reserves and running up $180 million in domestic arrears.

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Two Former Presidents, Including Ghana’s Kuffour, Win World Food Prize

Washington — The foundation that gives the prize has honored John Agyekum Kufuor, president of Ghana from 2001 to 2009, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, leader of Brazil between 2003 and 2009, for putting into place policies to alleviate hunger and poverty in their countries.

“President Kufuor and President Lula da Silva have set a powerful example for other political leaders in the world,” said Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, which gives the award. Quinn spoke at a June 21 ceremony at the State Department.

“Both Ghana and Brazil are on track to exceed the U.N. Millennium Development Goal – to cut in half extreme hunger before 2015,” Quinn said.

In 2000, 189 nations pledged at a United Nations summit to “spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty.” They committed to act in concert to achieve eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015, including promoting gender equality, combating AIDS, ensuring environmental stability and eradicating poverty.

Kufuor and Lula will accept the World Food Prize at the Borlaug Dialogue international symposium in Des Moines, Iowa, on October 13. The World Food Prize was founded in 1986 by Norman Borlaug, recipient of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in agricultural research, for whom the Iowa symposium is named.

“President Kufuor and President Lula da Silva have set the gold standard for presidential leadership in tackling the global challenges of poverty and hunger,” said USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged African heads of state at a recent meeting of the African Union to follow Kufuor’s lead and make a priority of agriculture, and allow partners like the United States and multilateral institutions to work with them to fight hunger and poverty.

The two leaders “have advanced food security for their people by pursuing innovative policies and programs,” added U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

“Today, we need another Green Revolution … that includes to a greater degree Africa and extends all the way from farmer to market,” said Robert Hormats, undersecretary of state for economic, energy and agricultural affairs.

BOOSTING FARM YIELDS IN GHANA

Former President Kuffour of Ghana

Born in Kumasi, Ghana, in 1938, Kufuor began his education at one of the few schools in Ghana at the time. He went on to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Oxford University and a law degree at Lincoln’s Inn in London.

As president, Kufuor made a priority of national agricultural policies. During his term, Ghana became the first sub-Saharan African country to cut in half the proportion of people suffering from hunger and the proportion living on less than $1 a day. The country used its entire $547 million grant from the Millennium Challenge Corporation, awarded in 2006, to teach farmers improved growing practices and increase their incomes. (The Millennium Challenge Corporation is a U.S. aid agency that grants money to countries that focus on good policies, country ownership of development plans and results.)

As a result, Ghana’s cocoa production doubled between 2002 and 2005 and production of livestock, maize, cassava, yams and plantains increased significantly. By 2008, the country’s national economy had quadrupled. Kufuor also launched a program to give schoolchildren ages 4 to 14 at least one meal a day. By the end of 2010, more than 1 million schoolchildren had benefited from the program.

PUTTING THREE MEALS ON THE TABLE

Lula was born in 1945 into a working-class family in Garanhuns, Brazil. He began working at age 12 as a factory mechanic and metalworker. That led him to a leadership position in Brazil’s labor movement beginning in 1969, which in turn propelled him into national politics.

When he became president, Lula said his mission was to make it possible for all people in his country to eat three meals a day. His Zero Hunger initiative brought together government, civil society and the private sector to focus on giving people greater access to food, boosting rural family incomes, increasing primary school enrollment and empowering the poor. The initiative quickly became one of the most successful food and nutritional security policies in the world, according to the World Food Prize Foundation.

Under Zero Hunger, the Bolsa Família (Family Allowance) Program has benefited more than 12 million families by guaranteeing them a minimum income. The initiative’s Food Purchase Program makes locally produced food available at schools, community restaurants and facilities aiding the oldest and youngest members of the population. The School Feeding Program provides meals to Brazil’s schoolchildren. Today, 93 percent of children eat three meals a day. And the More Food Program mitigates the impact of rising food prices and boosts family farm production.

Established in 1986, the World Food Prize recognizes individuals who have made breakthrough achievements to improve the quality, quantity and availability of food throughout the world. It has been awarded to 30 people from all over the world working in areas such as plant breeding, soil science, early childhood nutrition, livestock health, famine relief and establishing government policies favorable to agricultural development.

Latest estimates show the world’s population growing to 9 billion by 2050, and currently one in eight people are hungry, according to the World Food Prize Foundation.

Kathryn Mcconnell, allafrica

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Michelle Obama Africa Trip: U.S. First Lady Visits Cape Town’s District Six Museum

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Michelle Obama on Thursday toured a museum that memorializes the forced segregation of a once vibrant and racially mixed area of this South African coastal city.

The visit to District Six Museum was a consolation prize to replace a long-planned ferry ride to Robben Island for the first lady and her traveling family members. The first lady’s aides blamed the decision to abandon the half-hour ferry ride into the Atlantic Ocean on high winds that made the waters too rough to cross.

Former president Nelson Mandela was jailed on Robben Island for 18 years for his role in the movement to abolish apartheid, South Africa’s system of racial separation. Apartheid ended in 1994, when Mandela was elected president several years after he again became a free man.

A tour of the closet-sized cell that housed Mandela also those years was expected to be an emotional high point of the trip. Aides said Mrs. Obama was looking forward to the visit.

Instead, she and her family spent about an hour at the museum being led on a tour by the director and a former District Six resident.

They also heard stories from Ahmed Kathrada, a former political prisoner and apartheid icon who was jailed on Robben Island with Mandela.

The museum memorializes a sector of Cape Town that was established in 1867 as a racially mixed area but was forcibly segregated in 1965. Non-whites were removed to barren outlying areas and their homes in District Six were destroyed.

Mrs. Obama has been traveling with several family members, including daughters Malia and Sasha; her mother, Marian Robinson; and a niece and nephew. President Barack Obama stayed in Washington.

The first lady and her entourage arrived in South Africa late Monday and were to fly to Botswana on

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Angelina Jolie and UN Refugee Chief Meet with Boat People on Lampedusa

On the eve of this year’s World Refugee Day, Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie joined the United Nations refugee chief on a visit on Sunday to Lampedusa, where they met some of the tens of thousands of people who have crossed the Mediterranean and descended on the small Italian island after fleeing unrest in North Africa.

More than 40,000 people, including refugees and asylum-seekers, have arrived by boat to Lampedusa since the beginning of this year, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

They include economic migrants from Tunisia, as well as those seeking international protection, including refugees from sub-Saharan Africa and Libya, where fighting continues between Government forces and rebel groups seeking the ouster of Colonel Muammar al-Qadhafi.

While in Lampedusa, Ms. Jolie, who serves as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN refugee agency, and High Commissioner António Guterres had a chance to visit detention facilities to see the crowded conditions faced by new arrivals.

The actress arrived in Lampedusa from Malta, which has also been a destination for people fleeing North Africa by boat. She visited Lyster Barracks, a former Royal Air Force facility and now a detention centre for asylum-seekers, many of whom who have fled the violence in Libya. They include Somalis, Ethiopians and others from sub-Saharan Africa.

“Malta has saved many lives, but it is the daily conditions on the ground that are of most concern,” she stated while in Malta.

“We’ve spoken about our shared concerns about making sure asylum claims are processed as quickly as possible so no one is sitting in a prison-like situation and waiting on a decision about their status, “she added. “They are not asking to go to any particular country, they just want to find safety to work, and to have freedom.”

She also visited an open centre near Malta’s main airport where vulnerable asylum-seekers are living in tents inside an old aircraft hangar while their asylum claims are assessed. The people she met there said living conditions were difficult and they were concerned about the pools of fuel on the ground and rats chewing their tents.

On Friday, Ms. Jolie traveled to a refugee camp in Turkey where she visited with Syrians who had fled the violence in their country. There are now over 9,600 Syrian refugees living in four camps managed by Turkey and the Turkish Red Crescent along the border area.

Syrian authorities have been widely criticised for their bloody repression of the protests that began earlier this year, part of a broader uprising in recent months across North Africa and the Middle East that has already toppled the long-standing regimes in Tunisia and Egypt.

UNHCR is set to mark World Refugee Day on 20 June with events in locations worldwide and the launch of a new global awareness campaign entitled “One” that will be rolled out over the course of the week.

Over the next six months it will increase awareness about the forcibly displaced and stateless by telling their powerful personal stories. The campaign will carry the message that “One Refugee Without Hope is too Many.”

The Italian capital of Rome will be the focus of this year’s events on Monday, with Mr. Guterres due to present UNHCR’s annual statistics report on the number of people of concern to the agency. He will also preside over a special commemorative event that will be attended by President Giorgio Napolitano and six refugees, including a Polish survivor of the Holocaust in World War II.

Rome’s ancient Colosseum will again be bathed in UN blue, one of many monuments around the world to be lit up to mark the occasion, including the iconic Empire State Building in New York.

UN News Center

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Naomi Campbell Diamond Trial Collapses

Johannesburg — Former Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund trustee Jeremy Ractliffe said on Wednesday he was never guilty of possession of uncut diamonds.

“As far as I was concerned I was innocent,” he told reporters after the Alexandra Magistrate’s Court in Johannesburg cleared him of the charge.

His wife Gail said she was very relived it was all over.

“My husband is a very good man.”

Ractliffe’s lawyer Nicholas Taitz said the State could not prove that diamonds were involved in the matter.

“The court is [of the] opinion that the State has not proved its case.

Mr Ractliffe, you are not guilty of this charge,” Magistrate Renier Boshoff told him.

Taitz said the State could not get a retrial, but could appeal.

An affidavit by a woman who evaluated the diamonds, Abigail Polohaha, was submitted by the State as evidence. However, Boshoff said the document was only valid if the person involved worked for the state.

Polohaha worked for the SA Diamond Board and therefore would have had to come to court to testify.

“You can’t cross-examine a statement,” Boshoff said.

State witness Lieutenant Colonel Eric Dewy testified Ractliffe handed the stones to police on August 5, 2010 at his home in Johannesburg.

The case was initially delayed due to technical problems on Wednesday.

“Is there anything in this place that is working?” Boshoff said when the transcribing machine stopped working. Eventually a lead was run from another office to the court.

On Monday Boshoff apologised to Ractliffe for the postponement caused by a power outage at the court.

International model Naomi Campbell testified at The Hague war crimes tribunal last year that she thought it was former Liberian president Charles Taylor who had given her a bag of diamonds, which, it was argued were “blood diamonds”. Campbell said she was given the uncut diamonds after a charity fund-raiser in South Africa in 1997, also attended by Taylor.

She said she handed the stones to Ractliffe, who at the time was the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund’s chief executive.

He said at the time he took and kept three small uncut diamonds so Campbell would not get into trouble. Ractliffe handed the stones to the police on the same day that Campbell testified at the war crimes tribunal.

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