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Nigeria plans talks with Islamist group Boko Haram
Burning vehicles in police HQ car park Boko Haram said it attacked Nigeria's police headquarters last month
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Nigeria's government says it wants to start negotiating with Islamist group Boko Haram, which has been blamed for a series of recent attacks.

The government said a panel would open talks with the group and report back by 16 August.

There was no immediate reaction to the statement from Boko Haram.

The group, whose name roughly translates as "Western education is forbidden", is fighting to topple the government and create an Islamic state.

It led an uprising across a number of states in northern Nigeria in 2009, during which hundreds were killed.

In recent weeks it has been blamed for a series of bombings and shootings in Nigeria's north-east.

The government statement said President Goodluck Jonathan had appointed seven people, including the ministers of defence and labour, to a negotiation committee.

It said the panel's role would be to act "as a liaison between the federal government ,  and Boko Haram and to initiate negotiations with the sect".

It would also work with Nigeria's national security adviser to ensure that security forces acted with "professionalism", the statement added.

The governor of the Nigerian state of Borno has admitted that the army has been guilty of excesses during operations to counter Boko Haram.

Most of Boko Haram's recent attacks have been carried out in the Borno city of Maiduguri.

It also claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing of the police headquarters in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, last month.

The negotiation panel is to be inaugurated on Tuesday.

Viewpoint Friday, July 29, 2011

THE event of July 19 in Abia State where a police officer, Corporal Umoru Mohammed attached to Government House Umuahia allegedly shot his colleague, Corporal Clement Amachi to death, calls for serious concern, thorough investigation and total overhauling of the country's security apparati, especially the Police.

Some may say that the ugly incident is not unusual, as we have witnessed similar incidents in the past where a police officer killed his colleague. But that is beside the point.



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Since the alleged incident occurred, I have been following media reports both on the internet and in the newspapers and I have strongly observed the bias and contradictory reportage by a newspaper owned by a chieftain of an opposition party in the state, even as the matter is still under investigation by the appropriate authorities.

In the July 20 publication of the newspaper was a story which headline alleged that the late police man was killed in a shoot-out over a largesse from Governor Theodore Orji.

The report, with a by-line, claimed that according to hospital sources, Mohammed allegedly killed Amachi because of differences over the sharing of N2.5 million given to them by Governor Orji.

Among all the national dailies in the country, it was only the said paper that raised the allegation against Governor Orji on the incident, even without caring or bothering to get the Governor or his government's side of the story.

On page 6 of the same newspaper of July 21, another story titled: "Shoot-Out In Abia Govt. House: Suspect Incoherent, Denies Killing Anybody, Sedated" was published on the incident, but without byline, indicating it was a syndicated story. In the concluding part of the story, it was claimed that the cause of the incident has not been unravelled.

Again in the July 22 issue of the newspaper, another story was published on page 10 titled: "Abia Govt. House Shooting Not Boko Haram–CP; Accused Policeman Leaves Intensive Unit". The story was also without any byline and the concluding part of it claimed that the shooting was linked to the sharing formula of N2.5 million gift from Governor Orji.

Even without being a journalist, we all know that the basic principles of news writing and reporting are objectivity, fairness, balance and clarity. All these ingredients were lacking in the paper’s reportage of the incident since it occurred.

The reports were full of bias and contradictions, thereby clearly indicating a vested interest in the matter, possibly with the intention of embarrassing the state government over political differences with their paymaster.

For how would the newspaper within three days publish different and contradicting stories on a particular incident, without caring to get the other side of the story? Since the incident occurred, neither Gov. Orji nor any of his aides has made a public statement on the matter except his ex-media aide, Mr. Ugochukwu Emezue, who condemned the incident and assured that it would be thoroughly investigated and dealt with accordingly.

Governor Orji's silence on the matter even as the chief security officer of the state is quite commendable, because it will allow the appropriate authorities to investigate the incident without interference or bias.

The media all over the world should serve as a vehicle for societal development, an agent of change and protection of the society, not a campaign tool for calumny and political blackmailing as this newspaper has exhibited in recent times against the Abia State government. The alleged shooting incident is certainly a cause for worry to anybody who wishes the state well, and so should not be trivailised or politicised for no just cause.

It has shown how petty and mischievous politicians can be in using the media for destruction and incitement. It is very obvious that policemen in the country some times act under Dutch courage, especially when they are on duty, which explains their occasional misbehaviour.

That is why it has become imperative that officers of the Nigeria Police Force should be made to undergo routine pyshcratic test from time to time to ascertain the correctness of their minds. If such ugly incident could occur between two policemen attached to Government House, what is the safety of the man they are supposed to be protecting in the person of Governor Orji?

The alleged incident has shown that the Governor may not be safe at all, and such development calls for adequate concern and urgent attention from all quarters. No stone should be left unturned in investigating and ascertaining the remote cause of the alleged incident because the likes of Mohammed might be an agent of forces against Abia people who will stop at nothing in pulling the state down.

The biased and contradictory reports of the newspaper in question should not discourage the appropriate authorities from investigating the matter thoroughly.

LOVETH CHIEBO a medical doctor, wrote from Jos, Plateau State.

The Punch

Friday, July 29, 2011

11 arraigned for attempting to burn police station

Adeola Akinyode

Eleven middle-aged men have been arraigned at an Ikeja Magistrate's Court, Lagos, on charges of arson and attempting to set the Dopemu Divisional Police station located on Awosoga Street, Dopemu, ablaze on Monday.



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The accused are Samuel Olise (29); Kehinide Ahmed(19; Akor Victor (30); Tosin Oluwagbemi (18); Wisdom Ajano (20); Ibe Anthony (28); Okolie Friday (20); Femi Adeyemi (25; Konafe Sodiq (23); Oboyi Julius (23) and Okah Matthew (26).

PUNCH METRO had on Wednesday reported a pandemonium in Dopemu area on Tuesday, involving commercial motorcyclists popularly called okada riders and some policemen, which lasted for over 30 minutes on Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway.

The accused were said to have "conspired to commit felony with arson," an offence which according to the prosecutor, contravened Section 516 of the Criminal Code Cap 27 Vol. II, Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2003

The charge read to the accused in court, also stated that "on the same date and around 10am, you conducted yourselves in the way and manner to cause breach of peace by setting fire on the Lagos-Abeokuta Express, by Cement Bus Stop and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 249 (d) of the Criminal Code Cap 27 Vol. II, Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2003," and "on the same date attempted to set Dopemu Divisional Police Station ablaze and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 441(1) of the Criminal Code Cap 27 Vol.II, Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2003."

The accused all pleaded not guilty when the three-count charge was read to them in court.

In her ruling, Magistrate A.O. Komolafe, granted the accused bail in the sum of N20,000 with one responsible surety. The case was thereafter adjourned till August 23.

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Anyim inaugurates NDDC probe panel

News Friday, July 29, 2011

By Okey Ndiribe

ABUJA – Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Senator Anyim Anyim, has charged members of the Presidential Committee set up to audit the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, to unravel the causes of the crisis, which had bedeviled the commission over the years. He made the call, yesterday, while inaugurating the Committee in Abuja.



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The SGF said that the Federal Government was aware there were internal squabbles among members of the commission's board and management team.

Throwing more light on why Mr. Steve Oronsaye was chosen to head the Committee, Anyim said it was because of his wealth of experience as a former Head of Service of the Federation who is versed in the civil service procedure and rules.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Six feared dead, several hurt in Enugu fuel tanker fire

From Lawrence Njoku , Enugu

NOT less than six people were feared dead and several others including officials of the Enugu Fire Service seriously wounded after a fuel tanker exploded at about 7.05 a.m. at the Prisons Roundabout in Enugu.



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The petrol tanker marked Lagos XL 968 JJJ, according to reports, which belonged to Shorelink Oil and Gas services Limited Port Harcourt and bearing 33,000 litres of fuel fell while negotiating a corner.

Those who tried to salvage the fire received various degrees of injuries and are being treated at the ESUT Teaching Hospital, Park-lane.

When the inferno was contained several hours later, six persons had been consumed in the inferno while over 50 residential houses occupied by prison and police officials in the barracks had been gutted.

Enugu State Deputy Governor, Sunday Onyebuchi , who rushed to the scene at exactly 11.11 a.m. described the incident as "bad disaster and very unfortunate", saying that it should be placed on record as among the setbacks in the history of the state.

But he said he was told that only "one person died" in the fire which spread into the barracks occupied by prison officials. As the fire raged, it razed property, goods, cars, shops, animals as well as other objects within sight.

From the gutters in the prison quarters, the fire spread into the police quarters at the Central Police Station where it rendered many officers homeless. Parts of the adjoining Ogbete market were equally razed.

An eyewitness, Ndubuisi Ota, a security man in the neighbourhood told The Guardian at the scene how the tanker fell and explained that his shouting helped save several persons, many of who were still in bed when the incident happened.

He said: "The tanker man was driving from the new market , and from where I was buying battery, I saw how he was struggling with the steering while attempting to negotiate this bend and climbed a stone that was abandoned here. Suddenly the tanker fell and fuel started gushing out.

"Initially, those who heard the loud bang were confused whether it was a bomb or some other thing, and even when they noticed the content of the tanker flowing into the barracks, some thought it was kerosene. So I was shouting it was fuel and all of a sudden a ball of fire came up immediately and as the fuel was flowing, the fire followed it. But I kept shouting, 'this is fire, this is fire and people started running.' "

Ota, who said all efforts to get fire-fighting men to the scene on time were not successful, and that the driver of the tanker jumped down and took to his heels, stressing that so many families including squatters in the quarters were affected.

Onyebuchi who spoke to journalists after inspecting the extent of destruction, was full of praise for the Divisional Police Officer at the Central Police Station, Ike Mbah and stressed that his prompt intervention saved the fire from causing more damage.

He was also full of gratitude to officials of the road safety corps, civil defence corps and men of the fire service for their efforts.

He ordered the immediate evacuation of the fallen tanker from the road to avert another accident and asked the police to cordon off the area to avoid further casualties.

He assured that the State government would come to the aid of the affected families and directed the state commissioner for environment to relocate all shops, stores and houses blocking major entry into the quarters within the next two weeks.

Onyebuchi said the situation could have been salvaged early enough if the firemen had easy access into the quarters, which he observed were overcrowded.

Also speaking, Chairman of Enugu North Council, Herbert Oji in whose domain the incident occurred, said the council would take steps to assist families affected in the incident and called on the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to come to the aid of the families.

NGO demands Jonathan's asset declaration form

Friday Olokor and Olalekan Adetayo

The African Centre for Media and Information Literacy on Thursday asked the Code of Conduct Bureau to make available copies of the 2007 asset declaration of President Goodluck Jonathan for inspection.



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The centre also demanded the President's asset declaration at the end of his tenure on May 28, 2011 as well as his current asset declaration at his inauguration on May 29, 2011.

The centre made the request in a letter by its Coordinator, Mr. Chido Onumah, dated July 28, 2011 and addressed to the bureau's chairman.

A copy of the letter was obtained by our correspondent in Abuja on Thursday.

The centre invoked the provision of Section 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2011 that states that "notwithstanding anything contained in any other Act, Law or Regulation, the right of any person to access or request information, whether or not contained in any written form, which is in the custody or possession of any public official, agency or institution howsoever described, is hereby established."

Also invoking the relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution as amended, the centre said it was sure that such information on the President's property, assets and liabilities and those of his unmarried children under the age of 18 years are in the custody of the CCB.

Onumah in a separate statement said if the CCB did not furnish the centre with the relevant information within seven days as required by Section 5:1 of the FoI Act, it would be left with no other option but to go to court to seek redress.

He faulted the proposed bill to be sent the National Assembly by Jonathan for a single six-year term for the President and the state governors, describing it as diversionary.

He said it was unbelievable that the first bill that the President plans to send to the National Assembly was that of tenure amendment.

Meanwhile, a former Chairman, National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, Chief Fortunatus Williams, on Thursday in Abuja called on the Board of the Code of Conduct Bureau to give the management of the organisation a free hand to operate.

He stated this in a paper entitled: 'Working relationships between the Board, Management and staff of an Executive Body: Responsibilities and chain of demand' at a retreat organised by the CCB for its board, management and state directors.

The autonomy, he said, should include providing the board with relevant and adequate information to facilitate the formulation of adequate policies and set targets for the achievement of the organisation's larger goals.

Others include facilitating the activities of the Board, implementing policy decisions of the Board, ensuring effective service delivery and upholding the ethical principles of the public service.

He said, "In order to ensure that the organisation achieves its goals and objectives, the management should be given a free hand by the Board to perform its legitimate duties."

In his speech at the event, the Chairman of the CCB, Mr. Sam Saba, stated that the war against corruption in the public service would not be over so long as public servants continue to indulge in unhealthy practices.

Nigeria health indicators call for concern, says minister

Written by Gbola Subair, Abuja
Friday, July 29, 2011

Nigeria health indicators are a source of concern to the Federal Government and should be addressed by the three tiers of government if meaningful achievement is to be recorded in relation to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Minster of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu has said.



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Professor Chukwu, while addressing participants at the national seminar on the presentation of the 2006 Census priority tables organised by the National Population Commission (NPC) on Thursday in Abuja, stated that maternal mortality and infant mortality rates in Nigeria when compared to the rest of the world, were too high and did not speak well of a country desirous of achieving the MDGs.

Saying that this called for concern, the health minister, who was represented by the Director, Planning, Research and Statistics in the Federal Ministry of Health, Mr Samuel Oluwole, declared that this very serious gap in health indicators must be addressed in the shortest possible time for any development to take place.

Professor Chukwu, however, stated that the task of addressing the health problem was not that of the Federal Government alone noting that state governments and all the 774 local governments in the country must brace up to the health challenges and achieve significant success in the MDGs.

In his keynote address, the NPC chairman, Chief Samuila Makama, contented that Nigeria was confronted with numerous developmental challenges such as pervasive poverty, infrastructural inadequacies in the health, education.

Energy, water, transport sectors, a situation which he said made improvement in the standard of living difficult.

Stakeholders want ECOWAS free movement protocol enforced

By Joe Adiorho

THE Principal Programme Officer of the Free Movement in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Mr. Tony Elumelu, yesterday, in Abuja, reiterated the urgent need to aggregate resources necessary towards ensuring that free movement along the West African coast is attained in the shortest possible time.


Stakeholders want ECOWAS free movement protocol enforced

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He said that after more than 30 years of the signing into existence of the Free Movement of Persons, Goods and Services Protocol by the heads of state of the member countries of ECOWAS, it has become imperative that all obstacles hindering the implementation are removed.

And at ECOWAS secretariat Abuja, the police and other security chiefs of the member countries were holding a conference to fashion out strategies to check the rising proliferation and the increasing free flow of the large and small arms movement across the borders of West Africa.

The Nigerian Inspector General of police (IG), Hafiz Ringim, who was the chief host and chairman of the conference, said that even though he supported the free movement of persons, goods and services along the West Coast, steps must be taken to stop the supply and movement of firearms along the coast.

According to him, "the ministers of security, the inspectors general of police and heads of judiciary of the countries that make up ECOWAS are meeting in order to fashion out modalities for crime fighting within the West African sub-region.

"We are trying to look in perspective the current security threat to the entire sub-region and also to discuss within ourselves how we can share information in order to achieve the best practices that can make our borders and investments secure so that the region will prosper and progress in the best possible manners.

"We are here also to discuss and find possible solutions to the basic problems of the movement of large weapons and small arms within and across the borders. We are critically looking at the issue of joint border patrol to check the movement of fire arms, which we believe, come from Cameroun, Chad, Niger and Mali."

Elumelu spoke when a delegation of Media Network for Free Movement, Integration and Cross Border Cooperation in West Africa paid a visit to the ECOWAS secretariat in Abuja to commensurate with the commission on the death of Mohammed Daramy, the commissioner for Trade, Industry and Tourism and Free Movement of Persons and Goods.

According to him, the only way to keep the memory of Daramy alive and compensate the great effort he made to enforce a borderless sub-region is to garner sufficient political will to implement the free movement protocol.

^^shaaaarrraaaaap! tribalist aboki lover, yoruba IDIO.T . afanna igbo wanabe. imbeci.le

Afanna IS ALJ HAREM.

HE IS DEFINITELY A yORUBA MUSLIM NOTHING ELSE.

A Lagos LovePeddler has landed herself in deep trouble. She is currently in police custody after allegedly stabbing a man to death after arguments over – wait for it – MouthAction.
The young lady isn’t denying that she committed the crime; she’s saying, however, that she killed the man in self defence.

The 21-year-old lady, Kofoworola, said when she boarded a Honda car at Borno Crescent, Apapa, Lagos, at about 3.30 am that fateful night, she was very grateful to the driver. The driver, she said, reportedly assured her he would not collect any money since he wasn’t driving a commercial vehicle.

Kofoworola, (other names are being withheld by us) said she never knew that danger was lurking around the corner until the driver, identified as Patrick, refused to stop at her destination – Monalido Night Club, Apapa. Kofoworola said when she protested, the driver brought out a knife and threatened to kill her if she failed to do his bidding. Ironically, it was Kofoworola that ended up killing the man with that same knife. How did it happen?

“He threatened to kill me with the knife if I refused to perform MouthAction on him,” she said. “He said I should use my mouth to stimulate his manhood. I told him I could not do it. I had never done such a thing before. I begged him and even told him that such act irritates me and would make me vomit. All my pleading fell on deaf ears. I later told him to allow me ease myself. I told him I was not going to run because my bag was on the back seat. He stopped the vehicle, but as I wanted to come down, he sped off again.

He held my neck with one hand as he drove and was pressing my throat with it while he controlled the steering with the other hand. He then pulled over at a dark spot along Hyndra Road, Apapa. He pulled down his trousers and commanded me to do what he wanted me to do. I still refused. He stabbed me in my foot to show how serious he was. I screamed and begged him to leave me alone.

He pressed my face to his lap and ordered me to do what he wanted me to do. I did not obey him. As he was pressing my neck, the knife fell off from his hands. I quickly grabbed it. When he saw that I had collected the knife, he attempted to collect it from me by force. He bit me in the hand. So I first stabbed him on the thigh and later stabbed him in the chest several times.

“I didn’t mean to kill him. I was only trying to defend myself since he had vowed to kill me. I made a mistake. Maybe instead of killing him I should have allowed him to kill me. That would have been better. I would not have been in this problem now.”
She also explained how she became a LovePeddler. Her words: “I am a Lagosian. I come from Lagos Island. I live at Casco Street, Old Ojo Road, Mazamaza with my mother. I am also a mother, as I have a three-year-old daughter. My father never cared about me and that was why I am into prostitution.

My father is not interested whether we survive or not. My mother is just a petty trader. There is little she can do financially. I needed to do something so that I could be able to take care of my child and myself. Now that I am in trouble, who will take care of my baby? I have to do something to take care of my baby. I love my baby. I love her so much.

“What am I going to do now? Who will help me out of this problem? They said they will charge the case to court. I have not entered any court since I was born. Now I am going there because of murder. God, I should have allowed him to kill me. If I had died, at least I will rest from all these worldly problems. I don’t have a helper. See what poverty has dragged me into. If not for poverty, I should be sleeping in my house instead of going to the club. But I do it on part time basis. I am not a full time LovePeddler.”

The lady said the man who impregnated her abandoned her and the baby, saying she even dragged him to the police station over the matter.
“I tried to make Collins understand that he is the owner of the baby but he denied it. The police tried to settle the matter. But you know you can take a horse to the stream, you cannot force it to drink water. My family were also disappointed in him. Up till now he never cares about his baby. He is not interested in her. For three years now, I have been the one rearing the baby alone. All these problems made me look for money by all means.

I had to drop my pride and take my destiny in my hands.”
According to her, she is regretting ever venturing into prostitution. She urges women to avoid it as much as possible. “Prostitution is not a job,” she said. “It is immoral. It can put you in trouble at any time. Please learn from my own experience. I became pregnant during my final year in secondary school. After I delivered, I later went back to write my WAEC examinations. Unfortunately, I failed English language.”

An investigation by this reporter in many night clubs in Apapa revealed that the dead man might have violated several LovePeddlers in the area before he was finally killed.
At Wazobia Night Club, a lady called Ngozi spoke of her experience in the hands of the dead man. Her words: “One day at about 2 am., I was leaving the residence of one of my ‘customers’. He is a white man. He lives at Calcutta Crescent, Apapa. I was waiting for either a commercial motorcycle or a taxi that would convey me to a hotel on Azare Street, Apapa, where another customer was waiting for me. I saw this car and it stopped in front of me.

Only the driver was inside. He beckoned on me to come inside and I did.
He asked where I was going and I told him. He said he was going towards that direction and that he would drop me at no cost. But instead to move towards the direction I was going, the man brought out a knife and threatened to stab me to death if I failed to cooperate. He pulled over at a dark spot along Hyndra Road, Apapa. He pulled his trouser down and ordered me to perform MouthAction on him. I was afraid. Tears rolled down my eyes as I begged him that I could not do it. I begged him to have normal sex with me instead.

But he refused and threatened to kill me. He claimed to be an ex-soldier. Since I didn’t want to die, I had to do what he wanted. Later he held my bag and said he would do me a favour. He told me to go down, open his boot and bring his bag. Immediately I got down, the man sped off. My two handsets were inside the bag.”
The police said the lady would soon be charged to court.

More tribalist ga.y news editing. fake news

Fake news by tribalist. Armed Robbers are Igbo to tribalist ga.y.

Fake News! tribalist make up their own news these days. Look below for were the man-lover got the story and then edited to igbo. Idiooot.

List of appointed female heads of state in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_elected_or_appointed_female_heads_of_state

Liberian becomes Africa's first female president.

sabel Peron, President of Argentina 1974-1976

Isabel Peron was the first woman president in Latin America.

She took over as president of Argentina when her husband - the three-time president Juan Domingo Peron - died in office in 1974.

Isabel Peron was his third wife, and they married several years after the death of the much-loved First Lady Eva Peron.
Isabel Peron waves to the crowds in 1974 in Buenos Aires

Known to Argentineans as "Isabelita", Ms Peron was a former cabaret dancer.

During her presidency, there were numerous labour strikes, and hundreds of political murders.

Isabel Peron was removed in a military coup in 1976, and held under house arrest for several years before moving to Spain.

In 2007, Argentina issued an international arrest warrant for her, over her alleged links to a right-wing paramilitary group, which operated during her rule.

Argentinean authorities also wanted to question her over the disappearance of two men.

Spain rejected the extradition request; the court there ruled that there was insufficient evidence against her.

Lidia Gueiler Tejada, interim President of Bolivia, 1979-1980

Lidia Gueiler Tejada was interim president of Bolivia from 1979 to 1980.

She was chosen to run the country after inconclusive elections and the ousting of the temporary president Walter Guevara.

She was to lead Bolivia until fresh elections, but she herself was removed in a coup before they were held.

She trained as an accountant, and worked as a Member of Congress and as president of the Chamber of Deputies before being interim leader.

She later worked as Bolivian Ambassador to a number of countries.

Violeta Chamorro, President of Nicaragua 1990-1997
Violeta Chamorro, President of Nicaragua 1990-1997

Violetta Chamorro beat the incumbent Daniel Ortega in elections, to become president of Nicaragua in April 1990.

She was the candidate for the National Opposition Union - a coalition of parties that ran against the Sandinistas.

Her bid was backed by the US, who lifted sanctions on the country after her election.

Ms Chamorro comes from a wealthy family and was educated abroad, including in the US.

She entered politics after her husband Pedro Joaquin Chamorro - who had been editor of an anti-government newspaper - was assassinated. She took over as editor of the paper after his murder.

She is credited for helping bring stability and peace to Nicaragua.

Rosalia Arteaga, interim President of Ecuador 1997

Rosalia Arteaga acted as interim president of Ecuador for just two days in February 1997, when the former leader, Abdala Bucaram, was declared unfit to govern.

She was vice-president before that.

Ms Arteaga ran for the presidency in elections in 1998, but got only a small share of the vote.

Mireya Moscoso won presidential elections in May 1999, and was in charge a year later for the US handover of the Panama canal.

She is the widow of three-time president Arnulfo Arias.

She began her political career after her husband's death.

Ms Moscoso came from a poor, rural background, and trained as an interior designer.

She promised to work to reduce poverty in Panama. However, her presidency was dogged by allegations of corruption.

Michelle Bachelet, President of Chile 2006-2010

Michelle Bachelet was inaugurated as president of Chile for the Socialist Party in March 2006.

She had previously been Chile's Defence Minister - the first woman to hold that post in Latin America - and also health minister.
Michelle Bachelet, head of UN women and former president of Chile

She studied military strategy and is trained as a paediatrician and an epidemiologist.

In 1970s, in the early days of Augusto Pinochet's rule, her father was held on charges of treason. Ms Bachelet and her mother were also detained and tortured, before going into exile.

As health minister Ms Bachelet caused a stir in staunchly Catholic Chile by allowing the free distribution of the morning after pill for victims of sexual abuse.

She stepped down in March 2010 with a popularity rating of more than 80%, as the Chilean constitution does not allow a second consecutive presidential term.

She is currently head of a new United Nations agency working on gender issues, called UN Women.

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, President of Argentina 2007-

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner swept to victory in the first round of Argentina's presidential election in October 2007.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, President of Argentina

She took over the presidency from her husband Nestor Kirchner.

The two worked closely together, and were dubbed "the Clintons of the South".

Mr Kirchner died of a heart attack at the age of 60 in October 2010.

Christina Fernandez has a long track-record in politics dating back to the late 1980s. She has worked in the regional parliament, the national parliament, and as a senator.

She studied law at university, and is known for her work campaigning on human rights and women's rights.

Argentina country profile

Laura Chinchilla, President of Costa Rica 2010-

Laura Chinchilla was sworn in as president of Costa Rica in May of this year, after a conclusive victory in elections in February.
Laura Chinchilla, President of Costa Rica

She is with the centrist National Liberation Party, and was vice-president under her predecessor, Oscar Arias.

Ms Chinchilla has held several government posts and comes from a political family.

She studied in Costa Rica and at Georgetown University in the US.

Ms Chinchilla is regarded as a social conservative, and is opposed to man-lover marriage and abortion.

She has promised to continue with the free-market policies of former president Arias, and to expand on Costa Rica's free trade deals.

The women presidents of Latin America

Dilma Rousseff has just been elected President of Brazil, making her the country's first female president. She is the latest woman in Latin America to take up the top job. BBC News profiles the women presidents of the region - both past and present.


Dilma Rousseff, Brazil 2010-

Dilma Rousseff of the ruling Workers' Party has just been elected president of Brazil - a nation of almost 200 million people, and a rising global power.

She is a career diplomat, and was - until running for the presidency - chief of staff to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva; before that she was energy minister.
Dilma Rousseff, newly-elected President of Brazil

Lula gave her his full backing during the campaign and she has promised to continue his policies.

Those who know Rousseff describe her as a "tough cookie", and as a determined, pragmatic woman who likes to get things done. One of her nick-names is 'the iron lady'.

She is said to be astute, with a strategic, logical mind.

Her father was an immigrant from Bulgaria, and her mother a school teacher.

While a student in the 1960s, she joined the left-wing armed resistance against the military dictatorship.

Although she says she was never involved in violence herself, she was seen as a key figure within the movement.

She was arrested and held for three years, during which time she was tortured.

Ms Rousseff was released in 1973, resumed her studies in economics, and then joined the civil service.

U.S. restates AFRICOM's mission, urges support

From Laolu Akande, New York

THREE years after the United States (U.S.) set up a military command for Africa known as Africa Command (AFRICOM), some African nations are yet to fully embrace the idea, according to U.S. officials, who are insisting that the command is to support the militaries on the continent.


U.S. restates AFRICOM's mission, urges support

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Speaking at a hearing by a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives earlier in the week, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of African Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, Donald Yamamoto, stated that while many African nations have since embraced AFRICOM, "a continuing lingering wariness towards AFRICOM on the part of some African nations, " still exists.

At the same hearing, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Vicki Huddleston said AFRICOM, established in October 2008, did not create a competing military force in Africa, in an effort to douse such wariness. "AFRICOM is on the continent to build the capacity of professional militaries under civilian control," Huddleston said.

According to Yamamoto, another important downside in AFRICOM operations is "the large number of AFRICOM temporary assignment personnel deploying to the continent." Such large turnover of temporary personnel, he said, often present significant logistical challenges for U.S. embassies because the missions, "sometimes find it difficult to maintain full visibility and provide support, given their own very limited staffing levels."

The U.S. State Department official also told the House Sub-Committee on Africa that AFRICOM's large and growing presence and programming in Africa "at times risks overwhelming" the "soft power" of USAID and State Department programmes and personnel.

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