wpid 53902607 africaunitedpremiere getty Genocide baby Roger – in the grey shirt – at the London premiere of Africa United

Roger's father John, a Tutsi, was murdered by Hutu friends who had attended his wedding. Fifty members of his family were also killed.

After the genocide, Illuminee and Roger fled to England. Illuminee has since forgiven John's killers.

“It was hurting me inside so I thought the way to get rid of it was to get it outside,” she says. “It was my healing, but I will live with this forever.”

Roger returned to Rwanda to take part in a week of special events marking the genocide, to see if he could follow his mother's path to forgiveness.

On his first day in the country, he attended a memorial event in Kigali's national stadium.

He listened as a woman said: “Time heals all wounds but there won't ever become a day when I don't miss your smiling face.”

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Rwanda's genocide

wpid 53902613 memorial afp Genocide baby

Sparked by death of President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, when his plane was shot down on 6 April 1994

Within hours, Hutu militia spread across the country systematically killing Tutsis

Moderate Hutus who refused to take part also slaughtered

A French judge has blamed current President Paul Kagame – then leader of a Tutsi rebel group – for downing the plane, but he vehemently denies this

Killings ended when Mr Kagame's rebels seized power in June 1994

120,000 people were later arrested

International Criminal Tribunal (ICTR) for Rwanda has now completed 59 trials

More than 1.5m people tried in Rwanda's local Gacaca courts – and 40,000 imprisoned

But then a long piercing scream could be heard in the crowd, and then another.

“They are mourning,” he was told. He saw wailing women being carried from the stadium.

It was a reminder of the intense grief thousands still feel.

Roger's father has a memorial in Norwich, but no-one knows where he was actually buried. It is thought he may be in Rwanda's largest mass grave, along with 250,000 others.

Roger returned to see a picture of his father he had placed there seven years ago. At that time he said he could forgive his father's killers, but things have changed.

“I understand quite a lot more,” says Roger. “It was a bit more innocent then, now it's an anger that I would like to act upon.

“What I'm doing is a let-down to quite a lot of Rwandans, because me saying 'it's an anger I would like act upon' is detrimental to Rwanda now. I hate to use the word revenge but that's how I'm feeling at the moment.”

But Roger is best friends with a Hutu teenager, Yves Desenge, who lives in Rwanda and co-starred with him in Africa United.

“I don't feel anger towards my generation of Hutus because we were babies when this happened,” says Roger.

Tension and rivalry has always existed between the Hutus, who make up 85% of the population, and the Tutsi minority, who formed the traditional elite.

wpid 53917538 rogerandyves Genocide baby Roger, left, says his best friend Yves, a Hutu, is like a brother to him

In the years since the genocide, they have been encouraged to live alongside each other, like neighbours Frederick and Jacqueline do.

Jacqueline was 16 when a gang killed all 12 of her family with machetes and swords, while Frederick has served nine years for his part in a death squad that killed seven Tutsis in one day.

“Our relationship is good,” says Frederick. “Our children live happily together. If she has a long journey she can leave her children here and they'll be taken care of here in my home.”

And when Frederick asks if Roger can forgive him, the younger man finds himself lost for words. After a long pause, Roger says he can “generally”.

“Because you've been so kind and you're doing a great thing. But in terms of asking forgiveness for my father's death, I can't because that wasn't your fault.”

wpid 53902605 frederickjacqueline Genocide baby Frederick, a Hutu killer, and Jacqueline, a Tutsi whose family was murdered, now live as neighbours

But he cannot say the same of his father's killers.

“I hate to say it but I'd love to see them in body bags. If you're told to kill someone on the street and it's because they're a Tutsi, that's disgusting.

“But if you know that person and you're friends with their wife and their newborn is coming, I can't understand that. So I can't forgive that.”

Despite the attempts at reconciliation in Rwanda, a report on 32 schools revealed that ethnic hatred is still prevalent.

And Roger realises the path to forgiveness is not straightforward.

“It's very complicated. It will be quite weird seeing this all again in another 10 years, seeing the difference between the me then and the me now.

“I'm young. I'm still only 16 so hopefully that anger will somehow fizzle out.”

Roger: Genocide Baby is on BBC Three, Wednesday 13 July at 2100 BST. It is not available to viewers outside the UK.

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default The Empire in Africa

Now on iTunes: www.iTunes.com The rebels who started the civil war in Sierra Leone 15 years ago wanted only one thing: to reclaim the richness of the country from foreign corporations in order to end the exploitation of its people. In response, the international community decided to wage a war on this country, with bombs, executions, torture, rigged elections and manipulation of the international media. This created one of the worst humanitarian disasters of the 20th century.
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wpid capt.photo 1310857493294 1 0 Nigerian governor urges Islamists accept ceasefire, dialogue 
    (AFP)

KANO, Nigeria (AFP) – The governor of a northern Nigerian state rocked by bomb and shooting attacks blamed on radical Islamists Saturday urged them to accept a ceasefire and embrace dialogue with authorities.

Kashim Shettima, governor of northeastern Borno State, called on members of the Boko Haram sect that have in recent weeks stepped up bomb and drive-by shooting attacks in the state capital Maiduguri to lay down arms and open talks with his government.

“Once again, I wish to beseech my brothers in the Jama'atul ahlul sunnah lidda'awati wal jihad to lay down their arms and come and dialogue with us, for indeed this is the only way we can move our beleaguered state forward,” he said in a television broadcast.

He was using the name preferred by Boko Haram.

“Our doors are open for constructive dialogue and a speedy resolution to this state of insecurity,” said Shettima, who assumed office on May 29.

He also appealed to fleeing residents to stop their exodus from the troubled city. Thousands of residents have fled the city in recent days over alleged rights violations by soldiers.

“This administration is seriously and sincerely concerned about the plight of our people and the rate at which people are leaving the state capital in search of safer zones.

“May I, therefore, seize this opportunity to appeal to our people not to flee, as government is making every effort to contain the situation and restore normalcy,” Shettima said.

Shettima had on assumption of office made overtures to sect members and offered amnesty to those who renounced violence, an offer that received the blessing of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Boko Haram had in 2009 waged a short-lived armed uprising in the north in a doomed bid to establish an Islamic state which was crushed in a brutal military assault that left hundreds dead.

Sect members that survived regrouped and resorted to shoot-and-run and bomb attacks against police and military personnel, community and religious leaders, politicians, public buildings, beer gardens, churches and a prison.

The sect has concentrated the attacks in Maiduguri where the military onslaught against the sect took place.

Shettima disagreed with recent calls by some eminent politicians and community leaders that the troops be withdrawn, saying that such calls were not a solution to the problem of insecurity in the troubled city.

“With no intent to denigrate or question the motives of eminent personalities agitating for withdrawal of the JTF from the state, I regret to note that none has offered a tangible yet sustainable alternative to fill the security vacuum to be created in the event of the withdrawal of the JTF,” he said.

The JTF (Joint Task Force) is a crack security team Jonathan sent to Maiduguri last month, which residents and Amnesty International have accused of rights violations, such as extra-judicial killings, rape and burning of houses.

Amnesty said 25 people were killed during a military raid last week.

It called for a probe into the killings.

The JTF has denied the charges.

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wpid capt.photo 1310624779733 1 0 Turkey proposes 'road map' to end Libyan crisis 
    (AP)

ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey will present a “road map” to help end the Libyan crisis when countries backing NATO’s military mission in Libya gather in Istanbul to rev up pressure on Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to step aside, Turkey’s foreign ministry said Thursday.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and some 40 other members of the so-called Contact Group on Libya will hold their fourth meeting on Friday to support a post-Gadhafi era, boost support to the Libyan main opposition group and plot steps for a political transition.

A Turkish Foreign Ministry official said Thursday nations participating in the fourth Contact Group meeting were expected to discuss a Turkish plan delineating political options to end the Libyan crisis despite Gadhafi’s refusal to stand down, and to set the stage for a democratic transition.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with the ministry’s rule, would not provide further details of what Turkey was bringing to the table.

NATO has been bombing Gadhafi’s forces and military sites to enforce a U.N. resolution to protect civilians. Still, the civil war has fallen into a virtual stalemate, with neither side able to make significant progress in recent weeks.

Clinton warned Gadhafi late Wednesday that his days in power are numbered and that the international community will be stepping up pressure on him to leave.

Libyan rebels have enlarged the area under their control in the west and inched closer to a key supply route to the capital Tripoli.

U.S. officials say pressure appears to be building against Gadhafi’s regime after months of apparent stalemate. They point at three key indicators: dwindling fuel supplies, a cash crisis and reports of low morale among regime troops. Gadhafi is also facing a cash crisis after Turkey cut off his access, on July 4, to hundreds of millions in Libyan funds held in a Turkish-Libyan bank, they say.

The assessment comes as French authorities describe overtures from Libyan emissaries reportedly seeking sanctuary for the Libyan leader, who has survived sustained bombing by NATO war planes and U.S. armed drones since mid-March. Clinton said Gadhafi associates were sending mixed messages about whether he would be willing to step down.

Many of the Contact Group nations have formalized ties with Libya’s opposition Transitional National Council and provide it with financial assistance. At a meeting in the United Arab Emirates last month, the international contact group pledged more than $1.3 billion to help support the council.

Italy said Wednesday a the shift among some African leaders to discuss a Libya without Gadhafi was a significant development that should help spur a political resolution to the conflict.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Maurizio Massari said Wednesday there was now a “convergence” with the African Union about negotiating a post-Gadhafi Libya.

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wpid 54104132 012467043 1 UN flies aid to Islamist Somalia Somalis are fleeing to Ethiopia, Kenya and the capital, Mogadishu, in search of food

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Horn of Africa drought

Fighting and food aid

Babies left to die

'A vision of hell'

In pictures: Kenya refugee camp

The UN has made its first aid delivery to drought victims in areas of Somalia controlled by al-Qaeda-linked militants since they lifted an aid ban.

UN children organisation's Rozanne Chorlton said al-Shabab had given UN workers unhindered access and hoped this would encourage other agencies.

It comes as the UK pledged £52.25m ($84m) in emergency drought aid.

But the UK's overseas aid minister told the BBC the UK would not deal with al-Shabab, which controls much of Somalia.

Andrew Mitchell is touring the huge Dadaab camp in north-eastern Kenya to see the scale of the crisis caused by the drought, the Horn of Africa's worst in 60 years which is estimated to be affecting some 10 million people.

‘Close to famine’

Unicef airlifted food and medicine to malnourished children to the central town of Baidoa, more than 200km (about 125 miles) north-west of the capital, Mogadishu.

Ms Chorlton, the Unicef representative for Somalia, said al-Shabab had assured the agency it could operate without undue interference.

wpid 54096934 jex 1109338 de01 1 UN flies aid to Islamist Somalia

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Andrew Mitchell: “Britain is putting its shoulder to the wheel… to stop this becoming a catastrophe”

Al-Shabab, which rules over large swathes of south and central Somalia, had imposed a ban on foreign aid agencies in its territories two years ago, accusing them of being anti-Muslim. It lifted the ban 10 days ago as long as groups had “no hidden agenda”.

“They gave assurances that our access for humanitarian purposes would be unhindered and that we would be able to reach the people who need support most,” Ms Chorlton told the BBC.

Unicef paid no fees to al-Shabab, and that the success of the mission meant it would be repeated in the near future, she added.

She warned the situation was close to famine.

Thousands of people have been fleeing al-Shabab's territories in search of food and water – some to Mogadishu, where aid agencies are operating in areas controlled by the the weak interim government, and others to Ethiopia and Kenya.

Some 1,400 Somali refugees are arriving every day at Kenya's overcrowded Dadaab camp – some walking up to 20 days to get there.

‘Catastrophe’

Mr Mitchell, the UK's international development secretary, estimates that there are about 400,000 people in the camp. Aid agencies fear numbers could rise to half a million.

“More than 3,000 people every day are fleeing over the borders to Ethiopia and Kenya, many of them arriving with starving children,” Mr Mitchell said.

“We need everyone who can help from across the world now to make sure they focus on this developing crisis here to stop it becoming a catastrophe. There is an emergency developing of profound proportions,” said the minister.

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droughtslide 1 UN flies aid to Islamist Somalia droughtslide 2 UN flies aid to Islamist Somalia Extended drought is causing a severe food crisis in the Horn of Africa, which includes Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia. Weather conditions over the Pacific means the rains have failed for two seasons and are unlikely to return until September. droughtslide 3 UN flies aid to Islamist Somalia Food shortages are affecting up to 12 million people. The UN has not declared a famine but large areas of the region are now classified as in crisis or emergency, with malnutrition affecting up to 35-40% of children under five. droughtslide 4 UN flies aid to Islamist Somalia The humanitarian problem is made worse by ongoing conflicts, which means that until July militant groups had only allowed aid organisations limited access to large parts of southern Somalia and eastern Ethiopia. droughtslide 5 UN flies aid to Islamist Somalia Since the beginning of 2011, around 15,000 Somalis each month have fled into refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia looking for food and water. The refugee camp at Dadaab, in Kenya, has been overwhelmed by 370,000 people. droughtslide 6 UN flies aid to Islamist Somalia Farmers unable to meet their basic food costs are abandoning their herds. High cereal and fuel prices had already forced them to sell many animals before the drought and their smaller herds are now unprofitable or dying. droughtslide 7 UN flies aid to Islamist Somalia The refugee problem may have been preventable. However, violent conflict in the region has deterred international investment in long-term development programmes, which may have reduced the effects of the drought. droughtslide 8 UN flies aid to Islamist Somalia Development aid would focus on reducing deforestation, topsoil erosion and overgrazing and improving water conservation. New roads and infrastructure for markets would help farmers increase their profits. droughtslide 9 UN flies aid to Islamist Somalia The result of climate conditions, conflict and lack of investment is that 6.7 million people in Kenya and Ethiopia are currently existing on food rations, and relief agencies estimate 2.6 million in Somalia will need assistance a new emergency operation.

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“Britain, as always, has shown huge generosity and is in a leadership position to try and resolve this crisis. We need others to do so too. We need the whole of the international community now to bend every sinew to help these poor people here who are in a desperate condition.”

He said the UK's aid package would also help victims of the drought who remain in Somalia, which has been racked by constant war for more than 20 years – its last functioning national government was toppled in 1991.

“We simply will not deal with al-Shabab and we will not allow our operations to be fettered by them,” said Mr Mitchell.

“We must be able to see that it can actually reach, with lifesaving provision, those for whom it is intended, then we will be giving additional support inside Somalia now and scaling that up.”

The UK's £52.25m aid package comes after a joint charity appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) saw more than £13m raised in a week.

The cash is in addition to the £38m food aid package announced on 3 July to feed 1.3m people for three months.

The Department for International Development (Dfid) said the money would help:

500,000 people in Somalia, including treatment for nearly 70,000 acutely malnourished children

More than 130,000 people in the Dadaab camps to help provide them with clean drinking water and health care

100,000 people in Dolo Ado refugee camps in Ethiopia to provide them with shelter and clean drinking water as well as targeted treatment of starving children

300,000 Kenyans, including special rations to prevent malnutrition in children under the age of five and breastfeeding mothers

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wpid capt.photo 1309978405878 1 01 Egypt denies responsibility for E. coli contamination 
    (AFP)

CAIRO (AFP) – Cairo denied responsibility on Wednesday for an E. coli outbreak that killed 50 people, mainly in Germany, blamed by the European Union on fenugreek seeds imported from Egypt.

The Egyptian agriculture ministry said the suspected batch dated back to November 2009 and contained dried seeds, arguing the bacteria could not have survived for so long.

“Scientifically, the bacteria cannot remain on this dry surface from 2009 till June 2011,” the ministry said.

“If the fenugreek sprouts are suspected of being contaminated by an E. coli strain, it could be down to different processes such as their re-packing or the water used for sprouting,” the statement added.

The European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) on Tuesday singled out the 15-tonne batch imported to Germany and then distributed elsewhere as “the most likely common link between the two outbreaks” but added that subsequent imports could also be implicated.

As a result, the European Union slapped a temporary ban on all seeds and beans from Egypt.

“The report published today leads us to the withdrawing of some Egyptian seeds from the EU market and to a temporary ban on imports of all seeds and beans originating from that country,” EU health commissioner John Dalli said.

The World Health Organisation has confirmed 4,050 infections related to the outbreak across 14 European countries, the United States and Canada, the majority of them in Germany.

According to the latest figures, 48 people have died in Germany, one in the United States and another in Sweden.

Seven people were infected with E. coli in France after eating vegetable sprouts at a leisure centre near Bordeaux.

The import ban, to be enforced until October 31, hits all Egyptian seeds, fruit and spores used for sowing — including soya beans, dried leguminous vegetables and oil seeds.

The EFSA report said the contamination probably occurred before the seeds left the importer.

“The production or distribution process apparently allowed contamination with faecal material of human and/or animal origin.

“Where exactly this contamination occurred is still unknown,” the EU said.

Russia also decided Wednesday to halt imports of some seeds from Egypt.

Russian consumer protection watchdog chief, Gennady Onishchenko, said the ban also applied to some soy products, mustard and certain other vegetable seeds.

“Until special (new) instructions, we are also introducing a ban on the import and sale in our country of certain types of Egyptian products,” Interfax quoted Onishchenko as saying.

Russia last week resumed vegetable imports from four European Union countries after imposing a nearly month-long ban because of the deadly bacterial strain.

The Egyptian agriculture ministry stressed that all tests on produce have come back negative and that the E. coli strain has not been reported in Egypt.

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This video is used to promote Rwanda as a holiday destination. Compare this dancing to the dancing of other countries in Africa. You will notice the grace of it, showing the soul of Rwanda

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wpid capt.photo 1310848211155 7 0 Kadhafi defiant as rebels press offensive 
    (AFP)

TRIPOLI (AFP) – Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi said on Saturday he would never leave the land of his ancestors after fresh international calls for him to go and as rebels pressed their campaign to overthrow him.

“They are asking me to leave. That's a laugh. I will never leave the land of my ancestors or the people who have sacrificed themselves for me,” he said in a loudspeaker address to supporters in Zawiyah, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Tripoli.

Western and regional powers met in Istanbul on Friday for the fourth gathering of the Libya contact group, which saw a new call on Kadhafi to go after more than four decades in power.

“I'm ready to sacrifice myself for my people, and I will never quit this land sprinkled with the blood of my ancestors who fought Italian and British colonialists,” he said of the five-month-long revolt against his rule.

“These rats have taken our people hostage in Benghazi, Misrata and the western mountains, using them as human shields,” Kadhafi said of insurgents in the rebel capital in the east and port city in the west.

“Five million armed Libyans will march on them and liberate the occupied towns as soon as the order is given,” he added.

In the east, rebels said their steady advance on the key oil hub of Brega was hampered Saturday by the discovery of defensive trenches around the city that had been filled with flammable chemicals by retreating Kadhafi troops.

After a small rebel reconnaissance unit from the north punched through to Brega late on Friday before falling back, a rebel commander said troops were also moving “slowly but surely” towards the town from the south and the east.

By late on Saturday the rebels were positioned around four kilometres from Brega in their northern approach and within eyesight of the town coming from due east.

“We are advancing and we are very close to Brega,” said Mustafa al-Sagezli, a member of the rebel's revolutionary military council, adding that Kadhafi's troops had fallen back to positions inside the town.

But the commander said landmines and a series of booby-trapped trenches had forced them to slow the attack.

“We know Kadhafi's forces have installed a lot of mines. They have even dug holes and trenches (filled) with some chemical liquids and oil to fire them when our forces enter Brega,” he said.

It was not clear what kind of chemicals were being used, but Brega is home to a large petrochemical facility that produces a range of oil by-products.

Libya's largely volunteer rebel army began its push on Brega late on Thursday, hoping to oust an estimated 3,000 loyalist fighters and provide a morale boost for war-weary rebel supporters.

“Most of Kadhafi's troops seem to be at the centre,” said rebel military spokesman Mohammed Zawi.

But the rebel assault took its toll, with at least 12 dead and 178 wounded after bloodiest day yet since the offensive began, according to medics.

At a hospital in Ajdabiya, Dr Ahmed Dinari said many casualties were caused by landmines rather than heavy artillery.

“We have had five more injuries this morning, all of them from mine explosions,” he said.

Lying prone in “Bed 2,” 19-year-old Ali Saleh said he had been in the central rebel column when his armoured personnel carrier hit a mine.

“We were very close to Brega at around three in the morning. Then we got instructions from NATO to fall back and as we were falling back the vehicle hit a mine, destroying the chain track.”

He was suffering from shock and a lightly damaged knee.

Sagezli said 250 mines had been uncovered so far.

South of Brega, where the rebels made initial gains but took many casualties, Kadhafi forces wounded many fighters with rocket fire before NATO warplanes carried out air strikes overnight.

The alliance said on Friday it hit one tank, a multiple rocket launcher, five armoured vehicles and seven armed vehicles around the town.

In raids near Tripoli, NATO aircraft also took out a radar facility and a surface-to-air missile launcher.

Southwest of the capital, a rebel checkpoint commander said Kadhafi troops had fired five missiles at their forces who responded with rockets.

“There has been no fighting in the valley (near Gualish); it is quiet. Kadhafi's forces have carried out several operations but they are sufficiently far from us not to pose any problems,” Shaban Aaboz said.

Another commander said rebel forces were still positioned near Asabah, 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Tripoli and the last obstacle between rebels and the garrison town of Gharyan.

“The position is secure; we are discussing with Asabah people how civilians can get out of town before we launch an assault,” said commander Mokhtar Lakhdar.

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wpid 53686349 012240452 1 Egypt abandons plans for IMF loan Many Egyptian protesters distrust the intentions of institutions such as the IMF

Continue reading the main story

Egypt's Revolution

Defending Mubarak

Power struggle over Mubarak fate

Cost of revolution

Egypt suffers post-revolution blues

Egypt has dropped plans to seek loans from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, Finance Minister Samir Radwan has said.

The move comes after the planned deficit in the 2011-12 budget was revised down from 11% to 8.6% of GDP, Mr Radwan told Reuters news agency.

An adviser told AFP news agency the decision had been partly a response to the “pressure of public opinion”.

Many of those who took part in Egypt's uprising denounced the role of the IMF.

It was seen as bolstering the rule of now-deposed President Hosni Mubarak while imposing harsh economic conditions that benefited the rich more than the poor, says the BBC's Arab affairs editor Sebastian Usher.

But the uprising led to a haemorrhaging of public finances, he says.

But Mr Radwan turned to the IMF in May, telling the BBC that the situation was “very difficult”, and extra funds were needed to finance the demands of the people on the heels of the revolution.

He agreed a $3bn (£1.9bn) 12-month stand-by loan facility – an agreement which came on top of loan deals agreed with the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

Despite apparently lenient terms on which the IMF offered the loan, many Egyptians were unhappy, feeling it was a betrayal of the protest movement that had denounced the IMF as a tool of imperialism, our correspondent says.

Mr Radwan now says that following discussions with civic and business groups and the military council, the budget forecast has been revised down from a deficit of 170 billion Egyptian pounds ($28.5bn; £17.8bn) to 134 billion pounds, and loans are thus not needed at this stage.

Dilemma

He said Egypt would cover the greater part of the deficit from “local sources”, as well as packages from Gulf Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which he said had provided $500m in the past week as a “gift”.

The issue over the loan highlights the huge dilemma facing Egypt – and the rest of the Arab world, our correspondent says.

The protesters want a complete change from the lumbering, state-controlled economic systems that failed to provide jobs for tens of millions of young people.

But the unrest has paralysed business and decimated tourism. To remake Arab economies, many state jobs will have to go – and the private sector is too weak to provide replacement jobs.

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wpid capt.photo 1310835703682 1 0 American arrested in Egypt over 'damaged' statue 
    (AFP)

CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt's military has detained an American national along with an Egyptian for allegedly damaging a statue of a war hero in central Cairo, the state-run MENA news service reported on Saturday.

The two were apprehended by passers-by after they used a ladder to climb up to the head of the statue of Abdel Moneim Riyad, a general who was killed by Israeli gunfire in 1969, and were handed over to police and then the military.

The suspects caused some “damage” to the bronze statue, the agency reported.

The “military prosecution on Saturday began a wide-ranging investigation into two people, one an Egyptian and the other an American citizen, who tried to destroy the martyr Abdel Moneim Riyad statue,” it added.

It said two other suspects fled the scene. The statue is on a roundabout in front of the Egyptian Museum, and close to the protest centre Tahrir Square.

The US embassy in Cairo could not immediately be reached for comment.

The military, in power since a popular revolt overthrew president Hosni Mubarak in February, has come under criticism for arresting and trying civilians.

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