I announced to members of the House Appropriations Committee that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had lowered its original processing projections for naturalization applications. Individuals who filed for citizenship during the summer of 2007 can now anticipate an average processing time of 14-16 months for these applications. That’s a marked improvement from the 16-18 months projection we announced in January.

By Libuseng Nyaka

The leader of the National Assembly, Lesao Lehohla, says the Government will have to continue paying 21 legislators if it loses a High Court case in which Marematlou Freedom Party (MFP) is requesting the court to declare the allocation of seats in the seventh parliament of Lesotho as unconstitutional.
 
Lehohla said this in the Senate on March 18 prior to Government’s bid to make a sixth amendment to the constitution which hit a snag when the majority of senators voted against it.

The Chief Executive Officer of Multimedia Group Limited, Mr. Kwasi Twum, is among 10 individuals honoured at the first Ghana's Most Respected Company and CEO Awards.

The CEO of Unique Trust Financial Services, Prince Kofi Amoabeng, emerged winner of the coveted prize for Most Respected CEO, 2007, while Databank Ltd, was awarded the Most Respected Company.

By Scott Bobb

Zimbabweans began lining up outside polling stations before dawn Saturday hoping to cast their ballot early. The elections were seen as a choice between keeping in power the government of President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled since independence 28 years ago, and regime change advocated by two opposition candidates, Morgan Tsvangirai and Simba Makoni.

Zimbabwe police Chief Augustine Chihuri warned against any violence before or after the vote.

"All the defense and security forces of Zimbabwe are on full alert from now onwards covering the election period and beyond," said Chihuri.

By Peter Clottey 

Zambia’s former President Frederick Chiluba is expected to report to the headquarters of the anti-corruption task force to explain fresh allegations of corruption today (Thursday). This comes after the anti-corruption task force summoned the former president to explain the loss of more than 24-million dollars earmarked for the importation of maize when he was president. The task force alleges that the former president was deeply involved in the transaction with a Canadian company to supply maize, which the company never delivered.

By Paul Orieny, MA, LMTF and Alice Tindi, MSW, LGSW

A breach of humanity has occurred in Kenya, leaving people in a state of shock and disbelief. The see human beings willfully inflicting pain and death against another has wounded the souls of Kenyans not just at home but everywhere. The violence affects individuals as well as family and community.

As one Kenyan abroad recounts, “We cry ourselves to sleep, we worry about our families at home, we have severe headaches that we do not understand, our appetites are not the same, we feel or want to be left alone, we break into tears every so often, let us just say life ceased to be the same on December 30 2007.”

~ Most days, Ilhan Omar must feel like she is working at the United Nations ~

Omar is a Nutrition Education Assistant in the University of Minnesota Extension's Simply Good Eating for English Language Learners Program. The program was created by Extension in response to the huge increase in the number of non-native speakers of English, most of them recent immigrants, in Minnesota.

Like earlier immigrants, these new arrivals need to learn English and adjust to a new way of life. And one of the biggest adjustments is food. As a nutrition education assistant, Omar helps participants learn how to apply basic nutrition principles to their food choices, plan healthy meals on a limited budget, stretch their food dollar, and cook with an emphasis on safe food practices.
 

Jim Scheibel, former mayor of St. Paul, will speak on the topic, "Vital Force:  Making a Difference Through Civic Engagement," as part of Hennepin County Library's "Creative Aging" program series and its "55+:  Age Well, Live Smart" initiative at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 9 at the Ridgedale Library, 12601 Ridgedale Dr., Minnetonka.  Admission is free.

Adults in mid-life will be challenged to create new and flexible ways of contributing community service that fully engages their interests and skills. 

The Minneapolis City Council and Mayor R.T. Rybak unanimously approved a resolution on March 21 to urge the State of Minnesota to enact legislation that would effectively fund the Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP) beyond 2009.

The resolution encourages Minnesota Legislature to act to extend the TIF districts that are set to decertify in 2009. The resolution asks the legislature to extend the districts for the minimum time necessary to cumulatively provide $100 million to fund the needs of a neighborhood revitalization program that includes support for neighborhood organizations and neighborhood-direction action plans after 2009.

BY JOEL GROSTEPHAN , TC DAILY PLANET

On Saturday, two busloads of immigrant farmers from the 3rd Minority and Immigrant Farming Conference arrived at Gardens of Eagan near Faribault. Gardens of Eagan founder, Martin Diffley, showed the group his tractors.
“You don’t need an expensive tractor,” he said to the group of 50 bundled farmers. Few of the immigrant farmers have tractors or any of sort machinery for that matter. One of the farmers, middle-aged Hmong man, Chafong Xiong, asks Diffley about organic fertilizer.
“I use Sustane 154, that’s S-U-S-T-A-N-E,” Diffley said, pointing to the stacks of fertilizer bags behind a tractor.

Ghana plans Friday to repatriate 45 Liberian refugees who were arrested earlier this week at a refugee camp outside the capital, Accra. Liberian refugees in Ghana do not like their options. Authorities say the refugees found their way illegally into the Gomoa Buduburam Refugee Camp. They are among the 600 refugees rounded up for fueling tensions in the camp with a month-long protest.

 (GIN) - Botswana is set to have one of the world's largest and most sophisticated diamond sorting and valuing operations.
 
This month, the world’s largest and lowest cost producer of diamonds, with annual production worth over $2.5 billion, will be taking over diamond sorting and valuation operations of the Botswana Diamond Valuing Company. Board seats of the new valuing company will be shared equally between the Government of Botswana and the De Beers gem company.
 

By Nico Colombant

The U.N. mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo is trying to help the government contain explosive pockets of violence and insecurity in several parts of the country, while at the same time, cautioning against the government's use of force.  United Nations peacekeepers patrol near a burnt vehicle belonging to UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) 01 Feb 2007, in Matadi Officials from the U.N. mission known as MONUC are expressing concern at persistent insecurity in eastern Congo, and the recent resurgence of a political-religious conflict in the west.

MINNEAPOLIS-Minneapolis is the eighth greenest metropolitan area in the country, according to Country Home magazine’s “Best Green Places” study.

The magazine examined data for 379 metro areas. Factors such as mass transit, green power policies, biofuel use, green buildings, farmers markets and air and watershed qualities were taken into consideration.

Along with the eighth overall ranking, Minneapolis placed in the top 20 for use of alternative fuels. In the magazine’s state-by-state comparison, Minnesota ranked third in energy efficiency policies.

Governor Pawlenty has proclaimed March 16-22, 2008 to be Poison Prevention Week Statewide to coincide with National Poison Prevention Week.  This year’s theme is carbon monoxide (CO) awareness. Carbon monoxide is the leading cause of poisoning death in the U.S. The Minnesota Department of Health estimates that in just five years (2002–2006), 92 Minnesotan-related deaths from unintentional, non-fire related exposures to this colorless, tasteless, odorless gas. For severe cases of CO poisoning, hyperbaric oxygen therapy has long been recognized as a vital treatment.  Hennepin County Medical Center houses the largest HBO facility in the Midwest.  In 2007, 83 patients with severe CO poisoning were treated in the hyperbaric chamber.