Zelaya said in a statement from the Dominican Republic that the charges undermine efforts to promote national reconciliation following his ouster.

He said the charges “seek personal revenge and worsen the political persecution against me, forgetting national reconciliation.”

Honduras’ anti-corruption prosecutor is seeking to charge Zelaya with allegedly diverting $1.5 million in welfare funds to his campaign for a referendum on reforming the constitution.

Zelaya was recently appointed the head of a new political council in Petrocaribe, founded by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2005 as he prepared to begin a life of relative obscurity in exile in the Dominican Republic. Through this appointment, Chavez has ostentatiously incorporated Zelaya to his payroll. Many analysts agree that the appointment by Chavez was more than a gesture of friendship.

Meanwhile in Honduras, Zelaya already faces abuse of power and treason charges over his defiance of the Supreme Court order.

In his statement, Zelaya expressed anger that the military chiefs who participated in the coup have been absolved while he faces more criminal charges.

The military chief of staff whose soldiers hustled Zelaya out of the country aboard an airplane was replaced Thursday. Gen. Romeo Vasquez, who Zelaya tried to dismiss as head of the joint chiefs of staff, retired, and President Porfirio Lobo swore in Gen. Carlos Cuellas as his replacement.

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Faure Gnassingbe succeeded his father, President Gnassingbe Eyadema, who died five years ago after ruling since 1967.

President Gnassingbe had 1.2 million votes, according to preliminary results released by the country’s election commission Saturday.

His main challenger, opposition leader Jean-Pierre Fabre, got nearly 700,000 votes, the commission reported.

“The opposition will contest the results” in court and on the streets, Union of Forces for Change representative Kofi Yamgnane told reporters Sunday.

Indeed they did. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at the opposition party headquarters in Lome, the capital.  The opposition’s insistency the election was stolen has further raised political risk amidst fears of a new wave of violence in Togo. Protesters in Lomé have already been met with tear gas.

The ‘UFC ‘ opposition has historic precedents to refer to when being sceptical towards the election commission’s announcement. During the ruling dynasty, none of the elections organised were free or fair. At each poll, gross manipulation was revealed, the opposition was harassed and violence against the UFC caused a large numbers of deaths.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on political leaders and their supporters to remain calm after the announcement of provisional results.

Ban asked political leaders and their supporters “to refrain from any action that might compromise the peaceful conclusion of the electoral process.” He urged that all claims be presented “through legal means and institutions in a fair and transparent manner.”

Under the Togolese constitution, there are no limits on the number of times one can run for president. A controversial constitutional amendment in 2002 removed a two-term limit.

International organizations, including the African Union and the European Union, sent hundreds of observers to the country for the elections, but have not issued official statements on the validity of the preliminary results.

But the E.U. mission to Togo said Saturday that the elections took place “in an atmosphere of calm and with no major incidents.”

The results from the election will go to Togo’s constitutional court within eight days, where they are open for appeal. That is when the opposition will launch its challenges, the UFC spokesman said.

The court is scheduled to announce final results later this month.

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It appears as though Ghana will retain 38% of its domestic oil revenue, an advisor to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr. Joe Amoako-Tuffuor has stated, quoting a Daily Graphic report from March 6, 2010.

With the country’s current GDP at well over $18 billion, Dr Oteng-Adjei said the total revenue to the government and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) in respect of royalties, income tax and interest payment on oil and gas exploration would be $1 billion per annum, at an average crude oil price of $60 per barrel.

With oil, telecoms and alternative investors pouring in to the country, we mustn’t take a blind eye to the gaping holes in their sustainable development plan, one of which, being ongoing corruption in governance.

The Committee for Joint Action (CJA) on Tuesday expressed concern about the inaction of Ghana’s parliament in the fight against corruption.

The group said it was not enough for Parliament to hold public hearings where officials were made to answer questions on audit reports but no actions were taken to deter others from engaging in similar practices.

Mr. Edward Bawa, a member of the CJA, said this at a press conference in Accra on the findings contained in the 2008 Auditor General’s report into the public accounts of Ghana.

He urged Parliament to prosecute officials found culpable of misapplying state funds to take steps to seal the loopholes that enabled such reprehensible crimes to be committed against the people of Ghana. “We insist that the laws governing the utilization of public funds must be rigorously adhered to in order to spare the long suffering masses of this country the agony of watching on helplessly as their taxes are stolen by greedy and unscrupulous officials,” he said. Mr Bawa said total irregularities in 2008 alone amounted to GHc 166.1 million, representing an increase of 177.4 per cent over that of the previous year.

Yes, we are looking at a growing Ghana, a nation with great potential and great opportunity. With this opportunity however, comes an unspoken responsibility to ensure a just and sound nation for Ghanaians. Abiding by the rule of law, exposing corruption and promoting transparency are fundamental steps their government must take to ensure such positive development takes place and sustains.

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Amidst the controversy encircling the executive office, a recent resurgence of ethnic clashes may showcase the further dissolution of a transitional government.

During the absence of former/current President Yar ‘Adua due to serious health issues, acting President Goodluck Jonathan is set to meet with security chiefs to discuss the recent clashes involving Muslim herders and Christian villagers that killed hundreds of people near the central city of Jos.

A security meeting in Abuja is begging held as authorities in Jos bury hundreds of hacked bodies of victims, mostly women and children, in mass graves.

A spokesman for the state government, Gregory Nianlong, says at least 500 people were slaughtered in a night raid on three villages near Jos, capital of Plateau state. There was no independent confirmation of the figure.Several more victims are being treated while about 100 suspects have been arrested.

Security forces have been ordered to hunt down those behind the clashes. Lagos-based political analyst, George Eke, says the lack of opportunities, and the extreme poverty it breeds, is responsible for the unending crises in Jos.

“A lot of these problems are caused by politicians,” he said. “Nigeria has been classified, particularly the north, has been classified as a place where al-Qaida could go and pick people to do their operations. Why? Because there is lack of education there. Governments in-out, in-out, each administration, is doing nothing to lift these children up.”

Clashes between rival ethnic and religious groups in January left 320 dead in Jos, according to the police. Religious and human-rights activists put the overall toll at more than 500.

Sectarian violence in central Nigeria has left thousands dead over the past decade.  The greater the discombobulation at head office, the more uncontrolled these clashes will become, and the world’s fourth largest oil reserve will continue to tailspin with political risk .

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Penn, appearing on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” on Friday, defended Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during a segment in which he detailed his work with the JP Haitian Relief Organization, which he co-founded.

“Every day, this elected leader is called a dictator here, and we just accept it, and accept it” said Penn, winner of two Best Actor Academy Awards. “And this is mainstream media, who should — truly, there should be a bar by which one goes to prison for these kinds of lies.”

And the award for best supporting actor of an erratic authoritative regime goes to….

Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox News’ senior judicial analyst, said the same constitutional protection that applies to journalists also applies to Penn, who can say pretty much anything he wants in the “political arena” — aside from an immediate incitement of violence.

“What he is saying is protected, as wacky and weird as it is,” Napolitano told FoxNews.com. “But the substance of what he’s saying would be absolutely contrary to the First Amendment, which fully protects all political opinions. So if a journalist says Dick Cheney should go to jail, the journalist is privileged to say that.”

“Mr. Penn is calling for a communist-like regime in which journalists who criticize the government are sent to jail because of that criticism,” Napolitano added. “That is utterly un-American and hasn’t happened here since the Civil War.”

Shockingly, Penn’s own references are invalid. Although recently we have seen both the media and human rights activists protesting the atrocities Chavez has overseen, according to a study by the Business and Media Institute, news coverage pertaining to Chavez between 1998 to 2006 found the Venezuelan president’s human rights record was mentioned in only 10 percent of stories, and he was described as a leftist in only 12 percent of stories.

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Pepe Julian Onziema looks great in a suit. Tall and lanky, she doesn’t slouch to hide her height and doesn’t apologize for her boyish figure. Or for anything. She’s got at least 10 suits: pinstripes, white linen, black, gray, navy and others. She buys them from a guy who runs a shop on Entebbe Road, a major Kampala thoroughfare. He knows her build, and he knows what she likes.

These days, though, Onziema doesn’t wear suits nearly as often as she used to. As one of a dozen or so publicly out Ugandan homosexuals, Onziema knows that even a trip to a local shop is risky. Wearing a suit can be a death wish.

Continued, as excerpted from TIME Magazine:

Last year, a member of Uganda’s parliament, David Bahati, introduced a bill that, if it becomes law, will further criminalize homosexuality in Uganda. “Aggravated homosexuality,” according to the bill, will become a capital offense. Anyone who doesn’t report a known homosexual within 24 hours will be subject to punishment of up to seven years in jail.

No matter how many precautions homosexuals in Uganda take, it doesn’t mean they’ll be safe, says Onziema’s partner, who did not want her name used for fear she will be persecuted. “When you’re just walking, someone will turn and look, and have a second look, and a third, and a fourth.” That’s not surprising in a country where newspaper polls show 95% of people support the bill.

Onziema and her partner met playing rugby at a local Kampala club a couple of years ago. Onziema knew “within five seconds” that she had met the one, she says. It took her partner a bit longer. Onziema has known she’s gay her whole life but her partner is not out publicly, and the process of coming to terms with who she is took a little longer.

After they’d been friends for a couple of months, Onziema made her move. “There was a kiss,” she grins. “She wasn’t expecting it.”
Since then, the couple have been through a lot together. One year in a kuchu relationship — the Luganda word for gay is one the community uses to describe themselves — is like 10 years in a heterosexual relationship, kuchus say. That would make Onziema and her partner’s three years more like 30.

Oziema’s partner doesn’t mind that her girlfriend works trying to protect gay rights and change public opinion in Uganda. But she worries about the dangers Oziema might face, especially with the bill working its way through parliament. In 2008, when Onziema and a few other kuchus, handed out flyers at an HIV conference in Kampala, they were charged with trespassing. The trial dragged on for months and months. Though the charges were ultimately dropped, the experience in prison was traumatic for Onziema. Several officers taunted her — was she to be put with the male inmates or the female ones? Her clothes were forcibly removed and an officer touched her genitals “for confirmation.”
Both Onziema and her partner know that next time might be even worse.

With things as turbulent as they are now, Onziema stays at home most of the time, but inevitably has to leave the house from time to time. About a year ago, her partner’s father assaulted Onziema when he saw the couple walking down the street together. She ended up bruised and battered, her clothes torn and with a mild concussion.

In comparison to the open hostility Onziema faces from the outside world, at her and her girlfriend’s airy apartment in a Kampala, life is beautifully mundane domesticity. Her partner cooks, and Onziema chimes in that she does too in a way that makes it obvious that she doesn’t.

They both clean, they have friends over for beers, they watch music videos. Onziema wants more. She bought her girlfriend a ring and hopes to get married. “But if we get married, her dad has to give her away,” Onziema says, discouraged by the torn jeans she keeps from the night of the attack.

To be gay in Uganda is to be hopeful, always, that things will get better. Onziema hopes, believes, she and her partner will marry one day. They’ve already talked about buying a new suit at the shop on Entebbe Road for her, and a white dress for her partner.

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“We have always related better with the British through the Conservatives than Labour,” Zimbabwe’s president said today. “Conservatives are bold, [Tony] Blair and [Gordon] Brown run away when they see me, but not these fools, they know how to relate to others.”

If David Cameron relates to others like Robert Mugabe relates to others, I for one am happy I’m on this side of the pond.

The near-90-year-old President fell out with the British government when, under his land reforms, he encouraged Zimbabweans to seize the farms of British descendants. After Mugabe was accused of rigging the 2002 election, Blair imposed sanctions on the Zimbabwean leader and some of his associates, banning their travel and freezing their bank accounts.

Today Brown restated the British government’s position telling the visiting South African president Jacob Zuma, involved in brokering Zimbabwe’s unity accord, that the sanctions would not be lifted

Speaking in Zimbabwe after hearing of Brown’s comments to Zuma, Mugabe said: “We have a better chance with David Cameron than with Brown.” Margaret Thatcher’s government presided over independence for then Rhodesia in 1980.

This isn’t the first time Mugabe has used harsh language; the Guardian’s Allegra Stratton went on to document that in 1999 , the President stated that Blair was a “little man” for refusing to honour commitments made by Conservative governments to help fund Zimbabwe’s land reforms.

Mr. Jong-Il’s endorsement has yet to be accounted for, but we’ll keep you updated.

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And so, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on a mission to mend relations with a new and improved Honduras, took an opportunity during a recent interview in Sao Paulo, Brazil to touch on Venezuela’s crisis of democracy.

Clearly referring to our often-referenced authoritarian, Hillary noted that “…there are leaders in countries who just want to rule the way they choose. They don’t want to make their people freer, they don’t want to take away special privileges from the elite and share it with the people, they don’t want to change.”

More specifically?

“I see the free press that Brazil has. I saw it in very active participation where there were so many cameras and so many different reporters there. President Chavez is trying to stifle the press in Venezuela. If you say anything negative about him, he tries to shut you down. That is not the way a democracy operates. He is taking over companies and taking their assets and, unfortunately now, we see the results of those economic policies. There are electricity shortages in Venezuela, a country with oil. It makes no sense.

So we wish for a better future for the people of Venezuela. We wish that their government would govern more in the interests of all of the people. We also wish that there would be less rhetoric and threats coming from Venezuela. But that is not our choice; that is their choice. ”

We await the sure-to-be-entertaining response from Mr. Chavez. The circus should be underway momentarily.

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Proposed in October, 2009, the measure would broaden the criminalization of homosexuality and introduce the death penalty for those who have previous convictions, are HIV positive or engage in homosexual sex with people younger than 18. Gay sex already is illegal in Uganda.

Sekandi suggested those opposed to the bill present views to the parliamentary legal affairs committee.

“We shall consider your views, but we cannot withdraw the bill,” Ssekandi said Monday. “It has to follow proper procedures.”

Sekandi was responding to a petition presented to Parliament by a group that described itself as AIDS service providers, spiritual mentors and counselors. It is headed by the Rev. Gideon Byamugisha. More than 450,000 people have signed an online petition against the bill.

“We are calling on you to reject this Bill and the hatred, intolerance, self-righteousness and violence it promotes,” the petition said.

The activists added that being gay was a right that needed to be respected.

The group, which includes prominent AIDS activists like Rtd Maj Rubaramira Ruranga, said “We’ll lose what we’ve achieved in the AIDS fight.” Pressed to show how the bill would do that, Rubaramira said “Gay infected patients will fear to go for treatment since the law requires the doctors to report the patient within 24 hours.”

Sekandi then asked: “Would you be happy if your son brought home a man or your daughter another girl for a partner?”

Though President Museveni aims for this bill not to effect foreign policy, diplomatically speaking, it may be too late.

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Colom says he found irregularities in a contract signed by Interior Minister Raul Velasquez to buy fuel for the country’s national police. Colom then announced he was firing Velasquez in a televised message to the nation Sunday night.

Local media say that Velasquez authorized a $6.2 million contract with a private company to buy fuel for police but that the company embezzled the money.

Colom replaced Velasquez with Carlos Menocal, a former journalist who was a presidential commissioner responsible for combatting organized crime and corruption.

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