Women to rule Rwanda parliament

Rwanda already holds the world record for highest proportion of female MPs




Rwanda will be the first country where women will outnumber men in parliament, preliminary election results show.

Women have taken 44 out of 80 seats so far and the number could rise if three seats reserved for the disabled and youth representatives go to females.

Rwanda, whose post-genocide constitution ensures a 30% quota for female MPs, already held the record for the most women in parliament.

The ruling party coalition won 78% of seats in Monday's vote.

Indirect elections for women's quota seats took place on Tuesday and votes for two youth representatives and a disabled quota seat are taking place on Wednesday and Thursday.

It is the second parliamentary elections since the genocide of 1994 when some 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by Hutu militias in just 100 days.

slaughtered by Hutu militias in just 100 days.

80-SEAT PARLIAMENT
Elected seats: 53
* RPF: 42 seats, 78.76% of the vote
* Social Democratic Party: 7 seats, 13.12% of the vote
* Liberal Party: 4 seats, 7.5% of the vote
Quota seats: 27 (women 24, youth 2, disabled 1)

Women total: 44 seats, 55% of parliament
Preliminary results Rwanda National Electoral Commission

President Paul Kagame was instrumental in establishing the Tutsi-led 's Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) - the rebel force which took power and ended the genocide.

The BBC's Geoffrey Mutagoma in the capital, Kigali, says the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party have conceded defeat.

In the outgoing parliament, 48.8% of MPs were women - the world's highest rate. It is now set to be at least 55%.

Women who stood in seats reserved for female candidates were not allowed to represent a party.

"The problems of women are understood much better, much better by women themselves," voter Anne Kayitesi told the BBC's Focus on Africa.

"You see men, especially in our culture, men used to think that women are there to be in the house, cook food, look after the children... but the real problems of a family are known by a woman and when they do it, they help a country to get much better."

The World wants Obama as president: poll

Posted Tue Sep 9, 2008 10:50pm AEST

US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama may be struggling to nudge ahead of his Republican rival in polls at home, but people across the world want him in the White House, a BBC poll said.

All 22 countries covered in the poll would prefer to see Senator Obama elected US president ahead of Republican John McCain.

In 17 of the 22 nations, people expect relations between the US and the rest of the world to improve if Senator Obama wins.

More than 22,000 people were questioned by pollster GlobeScan in countries ranging from Australia to India and across Africa, Europe and South America.

The margin in favour of Senator Obama ranged from 9 per cent in India to 82 per cent in Kenya, while an average of 49 per cent across the 22 countries preferred Senator Obama compared with 12 per cent preferring Senator McCain. Some four in 10 did not take a view.

"Large numbers of people around the world clearly like what Barack Obama represents," GlobeScan chairman Doug Miller said.

"Given how negative America's international image is at present, it is quite striking that only one in five think a McCain presidency would improve on the Bush administration's relations with the world."

In the United States, three polls taken since the Republican party convention ended on Thursday (local time) show Senator McCain with a lead of 1 to 4 percentage points - within the margin of error - and two others show the two neck-and-neck.

The countries most optimistic that an Obama presidency would improve relations were America's NATO allies, including Australia (62 per cent).

A similar BBC/Globescan poll conducted ahead of the 2004 U.S presidential election found that, of 35 countries polled, 30 would have preferred to see Democratic nominee John Kerry, rather than the incumbent George Bush, who was elected.

A total of 23,531 people in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria, Panama, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Turkey, the UAE, Britain and the United States were interviewed face-to-face or by telephone in July and August 2008 for the poll.

Black police 'are spied on' claim

September 22, 2008 -
Senior members of the Met's Black Police Association (BPA) say they are concerned they are being spied on by fellow officers.
Senior members of the Met's Black Police Association (BPA) say they are concerned they are being spied on by fellow officers, the BBC has learnt.

Some are so worried that they are taking counter-surveillance measures, such as having rooms "swept" for bugs.

It is the latest twist in a bitter dispute between the Met and its prominent ethnic minority staff.

A source said the BPA was fighting against attempts by the Met to "crush any challenge" to its authority.

BBC correspondent Barnie Choudhury said the revelation the BPA suspected conversations were being monitored "shows the level of mistrust of the Metropolitan Police by some black and Asian officers."

An unnamed BPA source told the BBC: "There is a constant battle and it's the systematic failure within the organisation. It's an attempt to crush any challenge, any dissent, by black and Asian officers."

Unnecessary comment is not helpful and we have taken the view that less said in public is better

Metropolitan Police spokesman


Civil war within the Met Police

The revelations follow the suspension last week of the president of the National Black Police Association, Commander Ali Dizaei, on allegations of misconduct.

BBC News has been told some prominent members of the Met BPA are now holding secret meetings in undisclosed locations. They have also bought pay-as-you go phones to prevent conversations being tapped and are having their offices swept daily for electronic bugs.

They say it is because of fears following a two-year investigation into Dr Dizaei, the current President of the National Black Police Association.

Surveillance

In 1999 Dr Dizaei was put under surveillance in an investigation codenamed Operation Helios. He was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing in 2003.

Earlier this week, the Met BPA chairman, Alfred John, said: "Dr Dizaei has been the victim of what we believe to be the culmination of a sustained witch hunt."

The Met has responded by re-issuing a previous statement, which said: "We have seen a number of comments over recent weeks from Mr John and we do not recognise his description of what is happening in the Metropolitan Police Service and Metropolitan Police Authority.

"Unnecessary comment is not helpful and we have taken the view that less said in public is better."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7628044.stm

UF Celebrates 50th Anniversary Of Its Desegregation

George Starke, the first black student to enroll and attend classes at the University of Florida, speaks Wednesday to a crowd of at least 150 people from the steps of Tigert Hall in Gainesville.


The Associated Press

Published: September 17, 2008

Updated: 09/17/2008 03:14 pm

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Levin College Of Law
GAINESVILLE - Virgil Hawkins never reached the promised land in his attempt to gain admission to the University of Florida law school, but he was honored Wednesday as a trailblazer in the fight to open the school's doors to minority students.

UF's Levin College of Law celebrated the work of Hawkins and other pioneers in its Constitution Day observance Wednesday as it marked the 50th anniversary of integration at Florida's flagship university, where more than 12,000 blacks have graduated as part of his legacy.

Hawkins waged a nine-year legal battle to attend Florida's law school and included five trips to the Florida Supreme Court and four trips through the U.S. Supreme Court.

Hawkins, who died in 1988 at the age of 81, never was able to attend the University of Florida. As part of an agreement to desegregate the state's universities in 1958, Hawkins agreed to withdraw his application to attend the UF Law School.

"Mr. Hawkins fought a battle he never planned to fight," said Harley Herman, a UF law graduate and founder of the Virgil Hawkins Foundation. "Virgil Hawkins never expected to be the Rosa Parks of the state of Florida, nor did he expect his quest for admission to become Fort Sumter in a second civil war."

Hawkins' niece, Harriet Livingston, said her uncle was a trailblazer who suffered so that others could attend public universities.

"We began to see impossibilities turn into possibilities and possibilities turn into realities," she said.

As a result of Hawkins' fight, George Starke became the first black student admitted to the University of Florida's law school on Sept. 15, 1958. A plaque noting his accomplishments was unveiled Wednesday.

Starke discussed being shadowed by two state troopers while attending class, receiving angry phone calls and letters, and being told to be careful because of Ku Klux Klan activities.

U.S. District Judge Stephan Mickle, the first black student to graduate as an undergraduate, and the second to graduate from the law school, noted that his successes were the result of Hawkins and other pioneers who paved the way.

This year, 25.4 percent of the law school students were minority students, with 5.9 percent black; 8.6 percent Asian; 10.6 percent Hispanic, and half of one percent Native Americans. Since Starke was admitted, 850 black students have graduated from the law school.

Hawkins, a teacher at Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, first applied to the UF Law School in 1949. He met all the requirements, except one: He wasn't white.

Even after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the 1954 Brown v. Topeka Board of Education that the nation's public schools should be integrated, the Florida Supreme Court still refused to admit Hawkins.

Eventually, the court relented and allowed the state's schools to be integrated with the caveat that Hawkins not be admitted to the UF Law School.

Hawkins, although disappointed, agreed. He moved to Boston, where he obtained a law degree from the New England College of Law.

Hawkins returned to Florida, but his efforts to practice law were thwarted by The Florida Bar, which refused to allow him to take the bar exam, since his degree was from an unaccredited university.

He never gave up his dream of practicing law and in 1976, the state Supreme Court ruled that Hawkins should be admitted to the Bar. He opened his practice at age 70 in Leesburg in Lake County.

Hawkins resigned from the bar in 1985 after a complaint was filed against him alleging incompetence and misuse of client moneys.

"When I get to heaven, I want to be a member of the Florida Bar," he told the Supreme Court.

Hawkins was reinstated to the Bar in 1988 shortly after his death.