(GIN) – South Africa and Nigeria are the worst greenhouse gas emitters in Africa, according to climate experts attending the U.N. conference on climate change this week in Accra, Ghana.

By Abdullah Kiatamba

They huddle every other Sundays, rehearsing speeches, fine-tuning sound bites and punchlines, managing bodily gestures, undergoing peer evaluation, and building a bond of supportive relationships, all in one breath.

SAINT PAUL, Minn. – The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library has opened nominations for the 21st annual Minnesota Book Awards, honoring the state’s finest authors and primary artistic creators.  Eight categories recognize and celebrate the best in Minnesota literature:  Children’s Literature, General Nonfiction, Genre Fiction, Memoir & Creative Nonfiction, Minnesota, Novel & Short Story, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature. 

By Ndze Ntuv Evaristus Tunka, Editor 
The African News Journal 
On Special Assignment in Harare-Zimbabwe

Over the past year, the name Zimbabwe has become synonymous with corruption, pain, violence, fractured democracy, and a failed government. Its leader Mr. Robert Mugabe, who was once idolized by the Zimbabwean people for wriggling power from the minority white rule and ushering the country into independence in 1980; is today seen as the true incarnation of charlatanism, a murderer, and a first-class tyrant-whose tyranny matches to only the ruthlessness of the early rulers of the Mali and Songhai Empires.

ST. PAUL — Public safety officials are urging motorcyclists to practice safe riding behaviors following a week of crashes that resulted in four rider deaths and two serious injuries. To date in 2008, 39 riders have died, compared to 37 at this time last year. In all, 61 riders died on Minnesota roads last year.
The safety alert to riders from the Department of Public Safety (DPS) is underscored as the state heads into September, typically one of the deadliest months for motorcycle crashes.

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: Vice President Announcement

Springfield, IL  - Nineteen months ago, on a cold February day right here on the steps of the Old State Capitol, I stood before you to announce my candidacy for President of the United States of America.

We started this journey with a simple belief: that the American people were better than their government in Washington - a government that has fallen prey to special interests and policies that have left working people behind. As I've travelled to towns and cities, farms and factories, front porches and fairgrounds in almost all fifty states - that belief has been strengthened. Because at this defining moment in our history - with our nation at war, and our economy in recession - we know that the American people cannot afford four more years of the same failed policies and the same old politics in Washington. We know that the time for change has come.

(GIN) – Liberia will be home to a four-star, luxury beachfront resort, in capital city Monrovia, built by Black Entertainment Television founder-turned-billionaire developer Bob Johnson.
 
Johnson hopes this project, scheduled to open in March 2009, will help improve the country's global image.
 
RLJ Kendeja Resorts & Villas will be an $8 million, 85-room resort with restaurant, tennis courts, a spa, health club and pool. Security measures include infrared motion detectors and bulletproof glass. Rates will be in the $150-$200 range and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is expected to host the first guests.
 

ARLINGTON, VA -- Today, the McCain and Obama campaigns released the following statement on the Presidential debates:

"The Barack Obama and John McCain campaigns have agreed to hold three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate in September and October sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. The campaigns have come to the earliest agreement on presidential debates reached in any general election in recent history.

The Hennepin County Board of Commissioners approved county priorities for a potential economic stimulus package that may be introduced in Congress before the August recess.

At the recommendation of members of the Minnesota congressional delegation, the board set the following parameters for requests.

Shakane writes from Ethiopia, “I am the poor daughter for my mother. I don't have father. My mother goes three times in a day to collect wood and sell it for getting our sustenance. In times when my mother can't go to collect wood we feel hungry. Since I got the chance of continuing education from you, my tongue and my heart is full of thanks.”

Shakane is one of 105 Ethiopian girls being supported by the Twin Cities nonprofit, REAL (Resources for the Enrichment of African Lives).  REAL operates with the philosophy that the education of women has a profound impact on life in communities of the developing world. Education is the most effective investment to transform the vicious cycle of economic decline and poverty.

WASHINGTON –U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today an extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for nationals of Sudan through May 2, 2010. The extension will offer those who have already been granted TPS an opportunity to re-register and maintain their status for an additional 18 months. TPS does not apply to Sudanese nationals who entered the United States after Oct. 4, 2007. 

(GIN) - Kenyan techies are among 4 finalists for the Grand Prize in this year’s Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism.
 
Their project: Ushahidi: Crowdsourcing Crisis Information – modeling urgent grassroots information-sharing in a time of crisis - lets bloggers and citizen journalists text eyewitness accounts and map incidents of political violence.

By Swallehe Msuya

A group of enlightened and energetic African immigrants in Minnesota met at the Pan African Mall on Thursday, August 14 at Brooklyn Center in what turned out to be a brain-storming kick off of the four-day event of AFRIFEST 2008. 

By A. Irshad

“The Nationhood of Somalia has been destroyed and its people degraded. The once pristine coast of Somalia is now a damping site for all sorts of nuclear waste”, the UN Somali Envoy Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah told mammoth of crowd gathered at the Minnesota International Institute last week.

Rallying support from Somalis in the Diaspora, UN ambassador said, “the international standing of Somalia is at its lowest nadir and Somalis need to restore its image in the world of nations”.

By artist & author Ibe Kaba

1st Cup Cafe is slowly becoming a pillar in the Twin Cities Pan African community. Walk into this cafe on any given day and you are likely to see a rainbow of Africans congregated around a topic or issue vital to our local and Diaspora community. In one such meeting I attended few weeks ago, the cafe played host to three local politicians (Sen. Lawrence Pogemiller, Sen. Linda Berglin, and Rep. Karen Clark) talking about recent and future legislations that could affect all our lives.