Eritrean Citizens for Peace hosted a successful Peace Conference in Brighton, UK, between May 21-23, 2010 in which local chapter members attended. 

 Judges at the 63RD Cannes Film Festival selected a film by Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun for the festival’s coveted Jury Prize.
 
It was the first film from sub-Saharan Africa in 13 years to be chosen for the festival's main honors.
 Haroun said the award represented a chance to bring Africa back into the international cinema scene. "I come from a country where little exists. In this desert-like context I learnt one thing: you have to make films the way you'd prepare dishes for the people you love," he said.
 

The City of Minneapolis has approved $578,175 in grants to strengthen and support neighborhood businesses throughout the city through the City’s Great Streets neighborhood business district program. Monies will support technical assistance for businesses such as branding and marketing, merchandising, business recruitment, and design services.

Tanzanian journalist Vicky Ntetema has been selected for a bravery prize for reporting on dangers faced by albinos in Tanzania and Burundi.
 
The International Women's Media Foundation gave her a Courage in Journalism Award for her investigation.
 
"I am surprised but not happy," Ms Ntetema said in a press interview, adding that a four-year-old boy with albinism had recently been killed.
 

Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro today urged African nations to harness the continent’s “boundless potential” to put an end to brutal conflicts and make headway on the road to economic and social development.
“Without durable peace, there will be no sustained development, and without sustained development, Africa will not attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” Ms. Migiro said,

A prominent Liberian journalist and community activist in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Mr. Samuel Togba Slewion has been appointed as Secretary to the Philadelphia Mayor's Commission on African and Caribbean Affairs.
The appointment was contained in a letter to Mr. Slewion, dated April 14, 2010 under the signature of  Mr. Stanley Straughter, Chairman of the Commission.
In his capacity, Mr. Slewion will function in the recording of the official activities of the Commission as well as the recording of the minutes of the official meetings and all sub-committee meetings.

By Dr. William D. Green
Minneapolis Schools Superintendent

Spring is a great time to be Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent because I have the opportunity to recognize some of our many outstanding students. I want to offer my whole-hearted congratulations to the six students who have ve recently been selected as Gates Millennium Scholars. These students are among only 1,000 scholars nationwide to receive good-through-graduation college scholarships via the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. They are Fadumo Abdullahi and Abdullahi Ali of Edison High School and Doua Kha, Mai Vang, Soua Chang and Susan Vang of Patrick Henry High School.

Summing Up the Summit: Some Doubts, Mostly Enthusiasm. Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship creates connections, hope!

By Andrzej Zwaniecki

Washington, D.C. — Tarik Yousef of Dubai wanted to be a government bureaucrat when he was young because there was no alternative for ambitious youngsters in his country.

KIGALI, RWANDA/ST. PAUL, MN, USA - Rwandan opposition presidential candidate Madame Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza was released on bail one day after being jailed by the Kagame-led government of Rwanda. President Paul Kagame, her would-be opponent in an apparent re-run of the 2003 sham “elections” that brought him to power with 95% of the vote, when opposition parties were outlawed and opposition candidates jailed or exiled, according to EU election monitors and later confirmed by Human Rights Watch and the British Commonwealth Human Rights Institute. 

As the police chiefs for Minnesota’s two largest cities, we oppose HF3830, the Arizona-style legislation recently introduced in the Minnesota House of Representatives that pushes local law enforcement officers to the front line on matters of immigration. 
 

ADC wins lender leader for the third year in a row. The organization was named the Number One Business Lender by the City of Minneapolis. This is the first time any organization has received this award for three years. The only organization to be recognized more than once is Franklin Bank, which had previously been recognized for two years. 

By Sara Chute

According to the UNAIDS/WHO December 2009 report, there were an estimated 33.4 million adults and children living with HIV and AIDS worldwide at the end of 2008:
• 22.4 million, or 67 percent, live in Sub-Saharan Africa;
• Sixty percent of these African cases are women;
• An estimated 1.9 million people were newly infected with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2008; and
• Nine countries in Southern Africa continue to share a disproportionate burden of the global AIDS epidemic, with adult HIV prevalence greater than 10 percent in each of those countries.

By Peter Bell

Over the last seven years, the Metropolitan Council has had considerable success in expanding our regional transit system and growing ridership.
We’ve opened our first light rail line in the Hiawatha corridor and begun work on our second in the Central corridor. We’ve started service on our first commuter rail line in the Northstar corridor. And we’ve completed the first phase of bus rapid transit improvements in the I-35W and Cedar Avenue corridors.

East metro anti-racism activists honored at The Saint Paul Foundation’s Facing Race event  
 
SAINT PAUL, Minn.– More than 500 members of the metro community listened as Naomi Tutu, international scholar and human rights advocate, addressed the need for an ongoing dialogue about race and racism in her keynote speech at The Saint Paul Foundation’s “Facing Race Ambassador Award Celebration” at the Prom Center in Oakdale, Minnesota. Facing Race is a special initiative of The Saint Paul Foundation that uses discussion tools to provide a greater understanding of race issues and what the community can do to create a more open and equitable society.  

The third child of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Naomi Tutu highlighted her experiences growing up in apartheid South Africa and the ravages of staying silent about race and racism.

Bshir slate carries Sudan, Agering the West 
 
(GIN) – A decisive electoral victory by Omar Hassan al-Bashir has returned the controversial Sudanese leader to a new 5-year term as president of this important oil-rich country in east Africa.
 
Al-Bashir won 68 percent of the votes. Under electoral law, he needed to surpass 50 percent to avoid a run-off election against his nearest competitor.