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Friday, July 15, 2011

MACTV About US



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Who We Are:

My Africa Channel Television (MACTV), is an independent, public television station. Our missions is to deliver international programming, and to provide diverse, robust African cultural perspectives to the U.S. viewer market.

We are a Pan African television network with headquarters in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area. We endeavor to promote the African cause globally through the creation and broadcast of events from the continent and international community.

We wish to be the voice of the African continent, empowering Africans to be heard and restore African heritage.


For more up to date News visit our website: http://www.myafricachannel.tv or follow us on tweeter @mactv_dc.

MACTV WORLD News:World's top asylum spot S.Africa plans crackdown, Posted by Menelik Zeleke

July 15, 2011 4:59:49 PM

 

* Strong economy attracts regional migrants
* Violent attacks on migrants worries gov't, investors

By Jon Herskovitz

JOHANNESBURG, July 15 (Reuters) - South Africa has set the stage for the mass deportation of more than one million Zimbabwean immigrants later this month in a move that could alter its status as the world's largest country of refuge.

South Africa has been a beacon for asylum seekers due to its liberal immigration laws, proximity to African trouble spots and massive economy compared to the rest of the continent that has attracted millions seeking wealth they cannot find at home.

About one in five of the 845,800 asylum seekers globally in 2010 sought refuge in South Africa, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

That is nearly double the combined figure for the United States and France, the world's number two and three countries in terms of asylum applications.

The bulk of asylum seekers are from neighbouring Zimbabwe, which has become an economic basket case under its entrenched leader Robert Mugabe, whose ZANU-PF party has been charged by global powers with using violence and vote fraud to stay in power.

The government said the crackdown on the Zimbabweans is a signal it wants to get tough on those who use asylum applications to seek work and money.

"Following this project, our intention is to document nationals of other neighbouring countries," said Home Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa.

South Africa allowed hundreds of thousands from Zimbabwe to enter without documents about two years ago when its neighbour was swept up in political violence and its already unsteady economy collapsed under the weight of hyperinflation.

It set an end of 2010 deadline for the Zimbabweans to apply for proper visas -- with 275,000 filling out paperwork -- and said when July ends, it will start deporting what analysts estimate could be one to two million other Zimbabweans without proper documents.


BOTTLENECKS

With few staff and a flood of applicants, it can take Home Affairs months or even years to process applications, allowing immigrants to stay long enough to earn mostly modest sums of money to help their families back home.

"As long as regional economic inequalities remain so stark, South Africa will continue to be a primary (if temporary) destination," said Loren Landau, director of the African Centre for Migration and Society at the University the Witwatersrand.

The only problem is that those legitimately seeking political asylum face an uncertain future, waiting longer in South Africa for a decision than in many other countries.

A concern for South Africa is that not only are the number of asylum seekers from neighbouring countries growing, but so are the numbers from further afield African states including Somalia, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

With unemployment at 25 percent, the government has faced criticism from its poor for allowing immigrants into South Africa, where they compete for scarce jobs and space in shantytowns that have mushroomed in major cities.

Tensions flared about two years ago when attacks on migrants left at least 62 dead and more than 100,000 homeless, rattling the nerves of the government and investors.

The refugees strain public services but many also take on jobs for which there are not enough skilled South Africans, or perform work that South Africans do not want to do.

"I would say that the net result is that the benefit equates to or surpasses the burden," said James Chapman, a refugee attorney at the University of Cape Town Law Clinic.

The government, concerned about the influx, is planning to tighten its borders and expel those who stay illegally.

"The issue here is not about too many asylum seekers, per se. Rather, it's about a migration management regime that is ill-suited to South Africa's regional position," Landau said. (Additional reporting by Mmathabo Tladi; Editing by Marius Bosch and Sophie Hares)
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For more up to date News visit our website: http://www.myafricachannel.tv or follow us on tweeter @mactv_dc.

mactv World News: Millions at risk of cholera in Ethiopia, WHO warns

July 15, 2011 1:17:10 PM

 

* Outbreak not confined to refugees
* Horn of Africa at risk of disease due drought, movements
* U.N. refugee agency planning airlift of aid and tents


By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA, July 15 (Reuters) - Five million people are at risk of cholera in drought-hit Ethiopia, where acute watery diarrhoea has broken out in crowded, unsanitary conditions, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday.

More on this story at http://www.myafricachannel.tv

For more up to date News visit our website: http://www.myafricachannel.tv or follow us on tweeter @mactv_dc.

White House News:Home • Photos & Videos • Video President Obama’s News Conference on Deficit Reduction, Posted by Menelik Zeleke




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July 15, 2011 | 39:36 | Public Domain

President Obama holds a news conference to discuss the status of efforts to find a balanced approach on deficit reduction.

For more up to date News visit our website: http://www.myafricachannel.tv or follow us on tweeter @mactv_dc.

White House News:President Obama’s News Conference on Deficit Reduction, Posted by Menelik Zeleke


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MACTV News: UPDATE 2-Obama urges compromise to ease way for trade deals, Posted by Menelik Zeleke

July 15, 2011 6:49:26 PM

 

* Dispute over retraining program threatens pacts
* White House's Daley says time for deal running out


By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON, July 15 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday urged Republicans to pave the way for quick approval of trade deals with Colombia, South Korea and Panama by cooperating with the White House to extend a program to help workers who have lost their job because of trade.

"I've got three trade deals, sitting ready to go. These are all trade deals that Republicans told me were their top priorities. They told me this would be one of the best job creators we could have," Obama told a White House news conference.

"And yet it's still being held up because some folks don't want to provide Trade Adjustment Assistance to people who may be displaced as a consequence of trade. Surely we can come up with a compromise to solve those problems," he added.

Trade Adjustment Assistance is a nearly 50-year-old program that provides retraining and income assistance to help workers who have lost their jobs because of foreign competition.

Congress has modified the program over the years, most recently in 2009 when it was expanded to cover additional workers and provide more generous healthcare assistance.

The new benefits expired early this year when many newly elected Tea Party conservatives objected to the approximately $1 billion annual cost of the expanded program.

Obama administration officials warned Republicans in May the White House would not send the trade deals to Congress for a vote until there was deal to renew the expired TAA benefits.

The administration and key lawmakers in the Senate and House of Representatives struck a bipartisan compromise on a slimmed-down version of the 2009 TAA reforms, but no deal was reached on how Congress would consider the legislation.

Democrats fear Republicans will block a vote on the program and so have insisted that Obama put the TAA package into the implementing legislation for the South Korea agreement, where it would be protected against any amendments.

However, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and some other party members have threatened to vote against the Korea trade deal if it includes TAA.

"Senate Republicans have offered a way forward, and in fact Senator McConnell discussed the issue with the President on Thursday at the White House," a McConnell spokesman said. He declined to say what Senate Republicans have offered.

White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley told the U.S.-Korea Business Council on Thursday evening that Republicans had not offered any "credible" plan for ensuring consideration of the three trade deals and TAA.

"We can no longer wait. If there's no agreement on an alternative approach in the very near future, we will move forward to seek passage of the FTA (Free Trade Agreement) with TAA" included, Daley said.

For more up to date News visit our website: http://www.myafricachannel.tv or follow us on tweeter @mactv_dc.

MACTV News: Republicans Want To Bring Down Obama Even If The Economy Comes Too, Posted by Menelik Zeleke




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For all of my conservative friends who think that Barack Obama will never be re-elected if the economy is still in the doldrums next year, I have three words for you: Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

FDR was re-elected in 1936 and the economy was in a very bad way — far, far worse than it is today or likely to be in November 2012.

That’s the good news for President Obama. The bad news is that FDR is the only president in the last 75 years to be re-elected when the economy was in bad shape and unemployment was over 8 percent. And if the economy doesn’t get a lot better soon, if unemployment doesn’t fall significantly by November 2012, Barack Obama may very well be a one-and-out president who made it on charm the first time around but now has a crummy record hanging around his neck.

But for Republicans, this may be nothing more than wishful thinking masquerading as political analysis. After all, sitting presidents usually win re-election. Since 1936, 11 incumbent presidents have run for a second term and only three were defeated – Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush.

And, like FDR, Barack Obama has something else going for him – an intangible that may compensate for bad economic news: likeability — an essential characteristic for anyone hoping to do well in politics.

Except for his enemies – and that’s not too strong a word if you’ve ever listened to his most passionate detractors — Americans generally like Barack Obama, even when they disagree with him on matters of policy.

They like his smile, they like the way he talks, they like the way he dresses and carries himself, and yes, they like the fact that he is the first black man elected president of the United States of America. In some ways, it is a source of national pride.

Consider these four things that set President Obama apart from his likely Republican challengers: he’s young, he’s cool, he’s black and he’s liberal. Those traits, as much as anything else, I believe, got him elected the first time around. The Obama magic could not have centered on his politics. He was a first term senator with no discernible record. A respected magazine – National Journal – said he was the most liberal member of the Senate. In a center-right country, that’s not a plus.

Still he won. And in early polls – despite the fact that Americans are not enamored by his politics – President Obama beats potential Republican nominees just about every time. So what’s going on?

Republicans come off like stiffs, that’s what’s going on. Whatever they are, they are not cool. And when they (rightly) focus on deficit reduction and spending cuts – as conservative scholar Shelby Steele recently noted in a Wall Street Journal op-ed — “they can be made to look like a gaggle of scolding accountants.”

And who wants to vote for a scolding accountant?

In other words, Barack Obama is tomorrow; all those white, male Republicans come off as yesterday. We’ve seen people who look like them before. The juxtaposition beat McCain in 2008. Obama and his team are betting it will happen again in 2012.

“The point is that anyone who runs against Mr. Obama will be seen through the filter of this racial impressionism, in which white skin is redundant and dark skin is fresh and exceptional,” says Steele. “This is the new cultural charisma that the president has introduced into American politics.”

Charisma goes a long way in politics, especially when it’s up against scolding accountants. So what to do if you’re a Republican with dreams of becoming president? Turn President Obama into the candidate of yesterday. Tell the American people that Mr. Obama represents everything tired and old in American politics. Tell them that capturing bin Laden was great and being the first black American president is historic, but it’s not enough, not anymore – not after he shoved ObamaCare down the throats of the American people, not after he spent nearly a trillion dollars on a stimulus package with questionable results, not after his worldwide tour apologizing for America’s supposed sins, and not after his failure to deliver on his promise to usher in a new tone and new politics in Washington.

Tell them the Republicans are the candidate with new ideas while Mr. Obama hasn’t had a new idea, maybe ever. And tell them, as Shelby Steele smartly points out, that “Barack Obama believes in government; we believe in you.”

President Obama’s base – the so-called mainstream media – will do everything it can to get him re-elected. Last time around they weren’t content being eye-witnesses and chroniclers of history. Last time around they were intent on helping shape history. After all, this wasn’t just one more Mondale or Dukakis or Gore or Kerry running for president. So they have a lot invested in this president. The good news for Republicans is that the American people understand all this. Having the lamestreams on your side helps. But if the Republicans play their cards right, it won’t help enough.

UN News:General Assembly 65th Session, Posted by Menelik Zeleke




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14 July 2011

108th plenary meeting

Admission of new Members to the United Nations

(a) Application for admission of South Sudan (A/65/900)

(b) Draft resolution (A/65/L.84)

Thursday, July 14, 2011

MACTV News:UPDATE 3-US judge declares mistrial in Clemens perjury case), Posted by Menelik Zeleke

July 14, 2011 7:59:49 PM

 BASEBALL-CLEMENS/MISTRIAL (UPDATE 3, PIX)

* Prosecutors introduced inadmissible evidence, judge says
* Mistrial a major setback for government
* No date set for a possible new trial (Adds further details of judge's concerns, comments)

By Jeremy Pelofsky and Keith Harriston

WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) - A judge declared a mistrial on Thursday in the perjury trial of baseball pitching great Roger Clemens because the lead prosecutor gave jurors information that had been barred from the courtroom.

Judge Reggie Walton was furious at prosecutor Steven Durham for introducing material in a video that appeared to bolster the credibility of a future witness, Clemens' former teammate Andy Pettitte, and referred to Pettitte's wife, Laura.

"If this man is convicted, knowing how I sentence, he goes to jail," Walton said. "He is entitled to a fair trial, in my view he cannot get one."

The mistrial was a major setback for the government, which spent more than a year preparing the case and was only in its second day of presenting its evidence with the prosecution's third witness on the stand.
Four days were spent on selecting a jury.

Clemens, 48, whose career spanned 24 years playing for four teams and winning the Cy Young Award for best pitcher seven times, was fighting charges that he lied to Congress in 2008 when he denied taking steroids and human growth hormones.

Walton said the parties would have to discuss whether retrying Clemens would violate the constitutional protection against double jeopardy, which protects an individual from being tried twice for the same offenses.

A hearing on that issue will be on held Sept. 2 but no new possible trial date was set.

Durham had pressed Walton to reconsider or instead instruct the jury to disregard the information presented in a video of the 2008 congressional testimony by Clemens to the House of Representatives' Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

"You're not going to be able to convince me," Walton said in rejecting the request.

A spokesman for the prosecutors declined to comment.

VIDEO FROM HEARING AT ISSUE

In admonishing Durham, Walton said the prosecutor had violated his order in his opening statement as well as by referring to certain other players who took steroids, all of which he had ruled inadmissible.

"A first-year law student would know that you can't bolster the credibility of one witness with clearly inadmissible evidence," Walton said, raising his voice in anger at Durham. "I don't see how I unring the bell."

The video showed Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings during the steroids hearing making references to Pettitte, who admitted to using the drugs, and references to conversations the ballplayer said he had with his wife about Clemens regarding human growth hormones.

Walton halted the video tape as it was playing, and called the lawyers to the bench to discuss the violation of his order, leaving for several minutes the video with the text of Cummings' remarks frozen on the screen for jurors to see.

The judge expressed grave concerns that Cummings' remarks were improperly bolstering the credibility of Pettitte, calling him a "critical witness" and one that would be hard for Clemens to undermine in such circumstances.

He was also upset that Cummings was referring to an affidavit by Laura Pettitte.

"Andy told me he had a conversation with Roger Clemens in which Roger admitted to him that he had used human growth hormones," were the words of Laura Pettitte highlighted and frozen on the screen in front of the jury.

Prosecutors have promised several witnesses to prove Clemens took the performance-enhancing drugs and then lied about it, including Pettitte and his former trainer Brian McNamee. Defense attorneys have branded the latter a liar.

Clemens has said Pettitte, once a close friend, had misremembered and misheard the conversation which had been relayed to his wife. Walton had previously excluded any initial references to Laura Pettitte.

In addition to fighting the possible double-jeopardy argument, prosecutors will also have to decide whether they want to attempt to retry the case in the wake of criticism that there were more important cases to pursue.

Clemens' chief defense lawyer, Rusty Hardin, patted his client on the back after jurors were excused from the courtroom. The former pitcher signed a few autographs as he left the courthouse and went into a nearby sandwich shop.

"He's eager to get back to his family as soon as he can," Hardin said, declining further comment because Walton has issued a gag order in the case. (Additional reporting by Molly O'Toole in Washington; editing by Mohammad Zargham and Todd Eastham)