By Myron Kukla

HOLLAND TOWNSHIP -- For the past four years, West Ottawa High School student Lacey Vande Bunte has given up her Sunday afternoons to rebuild computers.

Vande Bunte is part of the student group Cultural, Technological, Environmental Exchange, which over the past 10 years has rebuilt and donated more than 1,500 computers so students in the West African nation of Cameroon can use technology in their schools.

Next month, another 200 computers get shipped to Cameroon through the CTEE program, said Vande Bunte, a senior who has become a whiz at pulling apart computers and rebuilding them.

Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed has announced his resignation after months of power struggle in the country's embattled government.

After four years at the helm of one of the most violent, impoverished countries in the world, Yusuf who is blamed for stalling a UN-backed peace process, handed his resignation letter to the parliament speaker for approval on Monday.

By Swallehe Msuya

Tanzanians in Minnesota through their Umoja Society are now talking business. This switch of gears follows Ambassador Ombeni Sefue’s recent call to Tanzanians in the United States to “bridge” trade and investment ties between the US and Tanzania.
The Tanzanian envoy to the US in a recent visit to Minnesota tasked Tanzanians resident here to be actively engaged in promoting trade and investment ties in the spirit of the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA). Under AGOA, sub-Sahara Africa can export to the US market an assortment of 6,000 items duty free and quota free.

Successful crime-fighting strategies such as proactive policing, community outreach and youth violence prevention have helped Minneapolis achieve a second straight year of double-digit reductions in crime.

Violent crime in Minneapolis is down 13 percent citywide so far in 2008 when compared to 2007 and down 24 percent compared to 2006. Homicides are down 22 percent from last year and down 39 percent from 2006. Robberies decreased 18 percent, aggravated assaults are down 8 percent, and juvenile crime dropped 17 percent in 2008.

Somalia's new prime minister resigns nearly a week after being appointed, saying he does not want to be an obstacle to the peace process.

"I decided to resign as premier of Somalia after considering many situations in the country," Mohamud Mohamed Guled told reporters in the capital Mogadishu on Wednesday.

Some reports say Guled decided to step down 'in a political effort to end the arguments among top leaders'.

Guinea's National Assembly Speaker Aboubacar Sompare says President Lansana Conte, who ruled the West African nation for 24 years, has died.

"We regret to announce to the people of Guinea the death of General Lansana Conte, after a long illness, at 6:45 pm," AFP News Agency quoted Sompare as saying.

Sompare officially called on the Supreme Court president to declare the presidency vacant and to apply the constitution.

The speaker of the assembly court would become acting president in case the Supreme Court rules that there is a vacancy in the top job.

The US has expressed support for ousted Somali premier Nur Hassan Hussein, mounting pressure on President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed to resign.

In a meeting with Yusuf in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, a senior US official Jendayi Frazer expressed Washington's disapproval of his extensive term in office, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Frazer, the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, had earlier met with Nur Hassan Hussein (Nur Adde) voicing the White House's support for his government, reports say.

A veteran anti-racist fighter, the Rev. Allan Boesak, has joined the stream of defectors leaving the ANC Party, once lead by Nelson Mandela, for the Congress of the People – also known as “COPE”.
 
One-time president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, Boesak joined former defense minister Mosiuoa “Terror” Lekota this week at the party launch at the University of Free State in the town of Bloemfontein. Lekota called COPE, “the party of the future.”

Shalita

By IBé Kaba

Long before Somali became synonymous with African, African music in Minnesota had one name:  Shalita. It was Loketo, Kanda Bongo Man, Prince Nico meet Kassav in Jamaica. It was African music with no continental borders. It would be years before I realized Shalita was not only the name of that band I first heard

By Ndze Ntuv Evaristus Tunka

The US Department of Defense recently announced the launching of a new recruiting program that is designed to attract immigrant healthcare workers, linguists and also cultural specialists to serve in the military. The new program targets immigrants who can legally work in the US but do not have “Green Cards”-Permanent Resident Status.

In a released official statement, the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Military Personnel Policy, Bill Carr said the program will attract immigrants with capabilities highly valued by the Military. Carr said these individuals will be
“…people that are legally present in the United States and have been here for years…people whom our military needs for the services they can provide for our country”.

Anthony Varfilay Kesselly National Executive President Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas delivers acceptance remarks

Anthony Varfilay Kesselly

By Robert Sayon Morris

The Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas (ULAA) has a new President. He is Mr. Anthony Varfilay Kesselly. Mr. Kesselly was sworn into office as the 24th President of the Union on last month. Reverend Dr. Amos Miamen administered the Oath of Office to the incoming administration in Chicago, Illinois. 

By Ndze Ntuv Evaristus Tunka in Washington

Many may have considered it a shocker when President-Elect Barack Obama announced that he was going to maintain Defense Secretary Robert Gates in that office under his administration. To some it might have been a political bluff, but, this decision to maintain Gates in office only goes to show the President-Elect’s political genius and commitment to ensure that he has the right people in his administration to tackle the challenges facing the American people today.

Speaking to reporters during a press conference at the Pentagon, Gates affirmed his devotion to serving as a member of the new administration of President-Elect Barack Obama so as to find solutions to the challenges facing the Department.

Sarah Obama

Kogelo (Kenya) – In the manner of tradition, a bull was readied for slaughter this week in the homestead of Barack Obama’s late father in western Kenya.
 
The East African nation temporarily changed its clocks to US time, with many determined to stay up all night to watch the TV coverage. At the Obama family home in the rural village of Kogelo, technicians wired up a giant TV to watch the election proceedings.

By Swallehe Msuya

A peace pact between President Museveni of Uganda and the rebel forces of Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) led by Joseph Kony due to have taken place in the South Sudanese town of Juba at the end of November appear improbable and worries many including Minnesotan Harriet Oyera.

A disappointed former President of Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano and Vice President of Southern Sudan Riek Machar waited for Joseph Kony to show up for the signing ceremony, but until we went to press, Kony was no where to be seen.

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa are looking at a new way of preventing HIV infections: criminal charges. But experts argue that applying criminal law to HIV transmission will achieve neither criminal justice nor curb the spread of the virus; rather, it will increase discrimination against people living with HIV, and undermine public health and human rights.