The Commonwealth Update

An Authoritative, nation-by-nation review of events across the Commonwealth, with an update now published six times a year in an issue of The Round Table.

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From 2008, the review is being written by Oren Gruenbaum, the Commonwealth Update editor, and currently Senior Sub-Editor at The Guardian in the UK

In 2007, the review was written by Judith Soal, a journalist who has worked extensively in South Africa and is currently deputy night editor at The Guardian in the UK.

Until 2007 the review was written by Derek Ingram, who was the Founding Editor of Gemini News Service until 1993, and is the author of a number of books about the Commonwealth and is active in the CJA, CPU, CHRI and the RCS, as well as a member of the Moot.

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Commonwealth Update - Issue 402

Oren Gruenbaum

ABSTRACT
Fiji's President Ratu Josefa Iloilo reinstated his military chief, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, as prime minister a day after suspending the constitution. Sharia law was officially introduced in Pakistan's Swat region under a peace deal with Islamist militants. India and South Africa went to the polls. Shell faced charges in a US court of complicity in human rights abuses in Nigeria. World leaders met to tackle the global recession at the G20 summit in London, while Trinidad and Tobago hosted the Fifth Summit of the Americas.

AFRICA

The Gambia
A state witch-hunt began in March as up to 1,000 people were taken to secret detention centres, then stripped, beaten and poisoned. President Yahya Jammeh, who took power in a 1994 coup, has reportedly become fearful of witchcraft since his aunt died. Victims told Amnesty International that the army and police accompanied witchdoctors to round up suspects, many elderly people, who were held for days in poor conditions, made to drink herbal potions and forced into false confessions. More than 300 people were released in April after at least two detainees died. Jammeh has previously claimed he could cure AIDS.

The opposition leader Halifa Sallah was imprisoned in March until charges of spying, sedition and holding illegal meetings were dropped. Sallah, who leads the National Alliance for Democracy and Development, had condemned the witch-hunt. Meanwhile, a court freed Pap Saine, editor of the independent Point newspaper, who had faced charges of "false publication and false broadcasting". David Fulton, a British missionary jailed in December for criticising Yammeh, was sentenced to a further three years of hard labour for forging a licence plate.

Ghana
The former president John Kufuor had his last three official cars seized by the government. Kufuor stood down in January after serving the maximum two terms, when his ruling party narrowly lost elections to John Atta Mills. He left office with 11 official vehicles. The head of a Ghanaian king executed by Dutch colonists in the 1830s was returned for burial. The head of Badu Bonsu II, king of the Ahanta, had been kept in formaldehyde at Leiden University. Ghana will compete at the 2010 Winter Olympics after Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, who grew up in Accra but lives in Scotland, qualified as a skier.

Kenya
Martha Karua resigned as justice minister a week after President Mwai Kibaki appointed seven new judges. "I cannot institute reforms … I am being undermined," she said. Karua was Kibaki's negotiator for the power-sharing deal to end the bloodshed after disputed polls in 2007. Days before, Raila Odinga-the opposition Orange Democratic Movement leader who became prime minister-walked out of talks aimed at healing rifts. Meanwhile, the environmentalist and Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai said four human rights activists had fled the country and others were in hiding. In March, Oscar Kamau Kingara and John Paul Oulo, who had accused the police of extrajudicial killings, were shot dead in their car in Nairobi. Maathai said all those who had testified to a UN enquiry into the police were now being silenced. A riot broke out after clashes between police and student protesters.

The UN World Food Programme will give food aid to 3.5 million people hit by drought and high food prices-double the current number. A national disaster was declared in January after rains failed and post-election violence in 2008 prevented crops being planted. Kenya's government will tax border trade and train civil servants for Somalia to help the embattled administration raise revenue. Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991.

A farm manager fought a python for three hours after the snake wrapped itself around him and dragged him up a tree. After biting it on the tail, Ben Nyaumbe managed to phone for help on his mobile.

Malawi
Bakili Muluzi appealed against the electoral commission's ruling barring him from running in May's polls. The commission said Muluzi, president from 1994 to 2004, had served for the maximum two terms but Muluzi claims he can stand again after a period out of office. A judge rejected an attempt by the US pop star Madonna to adopt a second child there because of residency rules. The judge said: "The courts by [allowing foreigners to adopt] could actually facilitate trafficking of children."

Mozambique
Three senior police officers were arrested after 13 people suffocated in an overcrowded cell holding 48 prisoners in Nampula province. The dead were among those held over the deaths of two Red Cross staff, who were attacked by a mob in March. The aid workers had been accused of spreading cholera when they were adding chlorine to decontaminate wells. The Brazilian multinational Vale began work on a $1.3bn mining project at Moatize in what is seen as one of the world's largest unexploited coal reserves.

Namibia
President Hifikepunye Pohamba declared a state of emergency in April after floods killed up to 120 people and destroyed buildings, roads and crops. Crocodiles and hippos attacked survivors in the floodwaters. Human rights activists accused the government of failing to prepare for the flooding, which swamped a 1,500km-wide swath from Namibia to Mozambique. However, an official said: "Some people are saying that in 52 years they never experienced this kind of flood."

Nigeria
The oil multinational Shell and one of its top executives face charges in a US court of complicity in human rights abuses, execution and torture by security forces in the Niger Delta, including the 1995 execution of the environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. Meanwhile, the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer agreed to pay about $75m in damages over Kano state's allegations that its trial of the antibiotic Trovan during a 1996 meningitis epidemic killed 11 children and disabled scores more.

Opposition parties are to unite to compete against the governing People's Democratic Party (PDP) in elections due in 2011. Nineteen parties are forming a "mega-party" to challenge President Umaru Yar'Adua and are now seeking registration. Politicians involved include former presidential contenders Atiku Abubakar and Muhammadu Buhari, who also led Nigeria after a coup in the 1980s. The PDP has dominated since Nigeria's return to civilian rule in 1999 but observers say elections are marred by rigging, voter intimidation and security forces helping the PDP.

At least 1,000 people died, 300 were kidnapped and $24bn lost through shutdowns, spillages and theft in the oil-rich Niger Delta over just the first nine months of 2008, a report claimed. Unrest there has cut oil output by about 25%.

Seychelles
The government has made food security a priority over the lucrative tourist sector by cancelling a new hotel development after objections about arable land being sold to foreign investors. Jacquelin Dugasse, development minister, said: "We should not stop agricultural development when food security is an issue." Seychelles remains Africa's richest country by gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and yet, according to the World Bank, with public debt at 123% of GDP, it is one of the world's most highly indebted countries.

Sierra Leone
The UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone jailed three former rebel leaders-Issa Sesay, Morris Kallon and Augustine Gbao-for 52, 39 and 25 years, respectively, on 9 April. The Revolutionary United Front leaders were convicted in February of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape and the use of child soldiers, during the 1991-2001 civil war.

About 120,000 people were killed in the war. Police fired tear gas after supporters of the two main political parties clashed in the capital, Freetown, in March. Several women were reportedly raped during the violence, which began at a by-election in Pujehun and spread to Freetown.

The APC and SLPP radio stations were shut down for allegedly stoking hostilities.

South Africa
More than 23 million people, including 16,000 South Africans living abroad, registered to vote for 156 parties in the country's biggest elections yet, on 22 April. Nelson Mandela's controversial former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, was poised for a return to frontline politics after winning fourth position in the ruling African National Congress's list of candidates for MP, ahead of several ministers. The ANC's victory was considered a certainty, despite lingering allegations of corruption against the party's leader, Jacob Zuma. However, the Congress of the People (Cope)-a breakaway from the ANC-was expected to challenge the ruling party's dominance, despite only being formed last November. An SABC poll on 27 March put Cope's support at 15%, vying with the Democratic Alliance on 16% to become the biggest opposition party and probably preventing the ANC winning a two-thirds majority, as in 2004.

Cope accused the ANC of intimidation and disrupting its rallies. Two weeks before the election, the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) threw out corruption charges against Zuma, blaming political interference. Zuma said: "I was the victim of a systematic abuse of power." Critics say the charges were dropped on a technicality and suspicion will linger as Zuma has not cleared his name in court. A judicial review of the NPA decision will be heard after the election.

The Nobel peace prize winners Archbishop Desmond Tutu and FW de Klerk pulled out of a Johannesburg conference on racism after what they branded as Pretoria's "disgraceful" decision to ban the Dalai Lama from attending following Chinese pressure. Tutu called it: "A total betrayal of our struggle's history."

IBM, Ford, General Motors and Daimler are among multinational corporations being sued in a New York court over allegedly supplying equipment used by the apartheid regime to suppress dissent. The South African government wants the complaints dismissed, arguing that the lawsuit threatens international relations and development.

Swaziland
The European Commission banned all six airlines based in Swaziland in April in the latest safety blacklist. Among Commonwealth countries, Sierra Leone's seven airlines were also banned.

Tanzania
Tanzanians are being asked to secretly identify those behind ritual killings of albinos. In the past 18 months, 45 albino Tanzanians have been murdered and the trade in albino body parts has spread to neighbouring countries. The government banned traditional healers in a bid to stop the killings and several have been arrested.

Police said a train crash near Dodoma that killed seven people was caused deliberately to steal petrol from fuel tanks. Seven people have been arrested, including the train driver.

Uganda
The Joint Anti-terrorism Task Force tortured and killed detainees, the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in April. Suspects had been held incommunicado for up to 11 months and chilli pepper rubbed into their eyes.

Many arrests occurred in the run-up to Uganda's hosting of the November 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, HRW said.

Zambia
The country's biggest copper-mining company, Konkola, laid off 1,300 workers, or 10%, as it struggles with a fall in demand and copper prices halving since the credit crunch. Last month, the Mineworkers' Union of Zambia said about 8,200 jobs had been lost in the sector since December. Copper mines account for 90% of Zambia's exports and directly employ 50,000 workers.

Zimbabwe (Left Commonwealth, 2003)
The controversial Zanu-PF "land reform" policy of farm seizures was continuing more than a month after President Robert Mugabe and the veteran leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai, formed a coalition government. Despite pledges by Tsvangirai, now prime minister, that anyone invading farms would be arrested, about 100 white farmers had come under renewed pressure to force them off their land.

Tendai Biti, the MDC finance minister, welcomed Australia's decision to increase humanitarian aid by $6m but warned that the power-sharing government would fall if cash were not urgently injected into the treasury. He was backed by South Africa's respected finance minister, Trevor Manuel, who told the Observer that the unity government was running out of time: "There is a fundamental set of issues that needs to be addressed. But they [the government] have to be afforded the opportunity to make a difference."

Meanwhile, there was anger over perks for ministers including a luxury retreat at a Victoria Falls resort and $50,000 Mercedes cars while up to half the population survives on food aid. There was even criticism from the state-owned Herald newspaper. Days after the retreat, the government announced that restrictions on foreign media would be lifted and human rights restored to end Zimbabwe's international isolation. The MDC's deputy agriculture minister, Roy Bennett, who was arrested in February as the new government was sworn in, was released from custody. "The rule of law means nothing," he said. Tsvangirai was at the Victoria Falls talks but left early after his two-year-old grandson drowned in a swimming pool in Harare. The tragedy happened weeks after his wife, Susan, died in a car crash.

The Zimbabwe dollar would remain suspended for at least a year, until industrial output returned to about 60% capacity from the current 20%, officials said. "There was nothing to support the value of the Zimbabwean dollar," said Elton Mangoma, economic planning minister. Foreign currency was legalised in January as hyperinflation had left even Z$1tn notes worthless. Since then, consumer prices have fallen by 3% month-on-month.

The cholera epidemic that began last August had killed about 4,000 people, though the outbreak may have peaked, the World Health Organisation said.

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ASIA

Bangladesh
Hasan Masood Chowdhury, appointed head of the Anti-Corruption Commission by the army-backed interim government in 2007, resigned, citing "personal reasons". About 150 political and business figures were charged, including Sheikh Hasina Wazed, who became prime minister after December's polls and who accused commission officials of harassing innocent people into making false allegations and taking bribes to free detainees. Prosecutors will investigate war crimes by the Pakistan army and its local militia during Bangladesh's war of independence in 1971, in which up to three million people died. The Awami League, which fought for independence in 1971, has recently been returned to power. The government banned two leaders of the opposition Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, which is implicated in war crimes, from leaving Bangladesh.

The minister coordinating the inquiry into a mutiny by border guards said militant Islamists were involved. More than 74 people were killed in the violence, mostly senior army officers. The commerce minister, Farukh Khan, said investigators had uncovered a link between the mutineers and Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, which detonated 500 bombs at 300 locations on the same day in 2005.

The government plans to eradicate begging from Dhaka and five other cities by 2014, after pushing an anti-begging bill through parliament. The social welfare ministry said beggars, who may number 700,000, faced up to three months' jail but aid groups wondered how the government intended to eradicate begging. Conservationists said there were thousands more rare Irrawaddy dolphins in the Bay of Bengal than thought but warned that the newly discovered population was under threat from climate change and fishing. The New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society estimated nearly 6,000 dolphins were in waters near the Sundarbans mangrove forest-the population had been thought to number a few hundred.

Hong Kong
Analysts said Hong Kong's critical shipping sector had been badly hit by the global recession; in April, about 70 ships were waiting with full crews for cargo. Daily leasing rates have fallen from $150,000 a day to $5,000, which does not cover costs, and many more ships are being built.

India
Massive protests erupted in Uttar Pradesh state after a parliamentary candidate was found hanging from a tree. Bahadur Sonkar, of the Indian Justice Party in Jaunpur, feared for his life and had sought protection from the state's governing Bahujan Samaj Party, journalists said.

Communist, socialist, regional and low-caste parties joined to launch a "third front" alternative to Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for national elections from 16 April to 13 May. Varun Gandhi, great-grandson of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was arrested on charges of inciting violence against Muslims. Campaign videos showed him making venomous speeches attacking Muslims in his Uttar Pradesh constituency. Gandhi, a candidate of the stridently Hindu BJP opposition, denied the charges and blamed a conspiracy. If convicted, he faces disqualification from office and three years in prison.

At least 10 paramilitary troops and four Maoists were killed in a failed raid to seize explosives at a bauxite mine in Orissa state. Unidentified gunmen in Assam state shot dead Anil Mazumder, editor of the Assamese daily newspaper Aji. Also in Assam, a police officer was killed in an attack on a train by separatists. As security concerns mount over next year's Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, the home affairs minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, insisted the country was safe to stage sporting events, despite the Indian Premier League cricket tournament moving to South Africa after the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan and November's terrorist raids on Mumbai. The games will be India's biggest sporting event ever.

The world's cheapest car, the Tata Nano, went on sale, with reports of queues to buy the vehicles, which cost 100,000 rupees ($2,000). A land dispute at Tata's Singur factory delayed production. India's Reliance Industries started pumping natural gas from a huge deep-sea field in the Bay of Bengal. It will almost double India's output and reduce crude oil imports by $9bn a year.

Malaysia
Najib Razak was sworn in as prime minister after Abdullah Badawi resigned as president of the United Malays National Organisation party, which has governed Malaysia since independence, on 3 April. Abdullah warned the party congress that UMNO would perish unless it stopped suppressing dissent, jailing opponents and discriminating against the minority Chinese and Indian communities. Najib again rejected allegations linking him to the murder of a Mongolian woman - two former bodyguards are on trial for the death.

Karpal Singh, a leading opposition politician, was charged with sedition for allegedly insulting the sultan of Perak state. He said the charges were politically motivated. A day earlier, his son, also an opposition politician, was suspended from parliament for a year. The government revoked work visas for tens of thousands of Bangladeshis after protesters said jobs should be kept for Malaysians. The Bangladeshis already had work permits, for which they paid 12,000 ringgit ($3,200) in fees. There are an estimated 500,000 Bangladeshis among some three million Asian migrant workers in Malaysia, both legal and illegal. However, a recent report forecast 45,000 Malaysians losing their jobs in the coming months. The government increased stimulus spending by 10bn ringgit to revive the economy.

Maldives
President Mohamed Nasheed announced plans to make the Maldives the world's first carbon-neutral country within 10 years at a cost of $1bn. About 80% of the land is less than a metre above sea level and Nasheed has warned of Maldivians becoming climate change refugees as storms wash away islands.

Pakistan
President Asif Ali Zardari signed a controversial bill introducing Islamic Sharia law to the Swat region as part of a peace deal with the Pakistan Taliban. The creation of Islamic courts was agreed in February to end the local Taliban insurgency. Zardari had resisted signing the deal, which is also opposed by the Karachi-based Muttahida Qaumi Movement, amid concerns about human rights abuses and the growing strength of the militants. "We can't accept Islamic law at gunpoint," said Farooq Sattar, an MQM leader, as the party walked out of parliament before a vote on the deal. But Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said parliament had committed itself to implementing Sharia in the troubled Malakand area, including Swat. Sharia courts are already operating in the region. A Taliban spokesman, Muslim Khan, said MPs opposing the deal would be considered apostates, which is seen as justifying execution. Controversy over sharia spread abroad as a video circulated of a girl being whipped in public. The growing influence of hardliners in the more liberal Sindh province was seen when the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazlur, led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, banned female dancers from a traditional spring festival known for Sufi music and dance.

The sacked supreme court chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, formally resumed office on 22 March following months of mass protests. Meanwhile, the government agreed to review a ban on former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother holding elected office. US President Barack Obama promised to consult Pakistan more after cross-border operations by US-led forces strained ties with Islamabad but Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, told CNN that elements in Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency were so close to the Taliban and al-Qaida that they tipped off militants before attacks. An American UN official who was kidnapped two months ago in Baluchistan was released after several separatists were freed, the Times reported.

As violence continued around the country, commandos stormed a police academy in Lahore, overwhelming Taliban fighters who had killed eight cadets and wounded scores. Three militants blew themselves up and commandos rescued 10 hostages. Three local female aid workers and their male driver were kidnapped and shot dead near Mansehra. In sectarian attacks, a suicide bomber killed at least 20 people at a Shia mosque in Chakwal, Punjab. A day earlier eight paramilitary soldiers were killed in a suicide attack on an Islamabad base. Another suicide bombing destroyed a mosque near Jamrud, killing at least 50. A US missile fired from a drone in North Waziristan killed 13 people, who security officials said were militants but the Taliban said were all civilians. Days before, a drone missile killed at least 14 people in the Orakzai tribal area, and seven militants died in a drone attack in Makin, South Waziristan. About 35 drone strikes have killed more than 340 people since August. At least 10 people were killed when a suicide bomber targeted, but missed, Turkistan Bittani, a pro-government tribal leader, in a restaurant in Jandola, South Waziristan. At least eight people were killed when a suicide car bomb blew up a bus depot in Rawalpindi. Three Taliban rockets killed 10 at a police base in Landi Kotal. Forty-four migrants suffocated in a shipping container containing about 150 people, mostly Afghans, being trafficked to Iran.

Singapore
The export-dependent economy shrank at the fastest pace in recent history; trade has gone from 20% growth to shrinking by a third within months.

Singapore is the world's busiest container port, handling a fifth of all containers, but now hundreds of empty ships are anchored offshore. Migrant workers on the island-state have been worst hit: numbers of laid-off workers, who borrowed heavily to travel abroad in search of jobs, have tripled at one homeless shelter in the past year.

Sri Lanka
The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and government forces traded accusations as fighting broke out during a two-day truce. The ceasefire was intended to allow an estimated 100,000 civilians to leave a 17-square kilometre "no-fire zone" in the north-east, where 50,000 soldiers surround LTTE forces. The military accused the rebels of holding the civilians against their will, while the LTTE said civilians feared the military too much to leave. Thousands of people, mostly Tamils, protested in Western capitals to demand a full internationally monitored ceasefire.

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, said government and rebel actions may amount to war crimes. The Tamil Tigers are alleged to have shot civilians attempting to flee, used them as human shields, and used children to dig bunkers, collect weapons from killed combatants, and fight. One UN worker said a five-year-old boy was shot in the head as he fled. In the run-up to the ceasefire, called to mark the Sinhala and Tamil new year, at least 128 civilians were killed and two hospitals hit by shells fired by government forces into the no-fire zone. The military denied responsibility but said separately that more than 500 Tamil Tigers had been killed in two land battles and 11 fighters killed and four ships destroyed at sea.

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EUROPE

Cyprus
An investigation into Ergenekon - an alleged ultra-nationalist coup plot to topple Turkey's Islamist government - spread to Northern Cyprus, which is controlled and recognised only by Ankara. The territory's prime minister, Ferdi Sabit Soyer, called for two former Turkish Cypriot leaders - Dervis Eroglu and former president Rauf Denktash - to be investigated. Eroglu dismissed the move as a "dirty political game". Northern Cyprus was due to hold general elections in late April.

United Kingdom
Leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) countries met on 2 April in London and agreed on a $1.1tn injection of financial aid into the global economy, with the International Monetary Fund's resources trebled to $700bn. The prime minister, Gordon Brown, had sought a "new deal" to tackle the financial crisis but some countries, notably France and Germany, were reluctant to sign up to any big new stimulus packages without overhauling global financial rules. Clashes broke out at street protests during the summit, with police accused of assaulting a passer-by, who collapsed and died, and demonstrators.

Amid much G20 rhetoric about a crackdown on tax avoidance, Britain's own secretive tax havens came under scrutiny. Jersey and Guernsey owe 50% and 40%, respectively, of their income to financial services, while the Cayman Islands are reputedly home to more than half of the world's offshore hedge funds. Dunfermline, Scotland's largest building society, became the latest victim of the recession when it collapsed along with the commercial property market it had invested heavily in. Unemployment climbed to more than two million for the first time since Labour took office in 1997.

The Bank of England governor, Mervyn King, suggested the government's prospective budget deficit was too big for any further fiscal stimulus to be possible. In a sign that investors are worried about Britain's finances, a sale of government bonds failed for the first time in seven years. The Institute for Fiscal Studies, a thinktank, predicted a £39bn-a-year hole in public finances by 2015-2016-the equivalent of freezing real government spending for five years. In November the government predicted the deficit would peak at 57% of GDP in 2013-2014 but the IFS thinks debt will rise to 82% if the cost of bailing out banks is added. Local councils are likely to be badly hit: the Local Government Association reckons 10,000 council jobs have been shed since September, and the Times predicted 40,000 could go in 2009. Newspapers revealed that 16 council chief executives earn more than the prime minister.

Several ministers - including home secretary Jacqui Smith, employment minister Tony McNulty and transport secretary Geoff Hoon - were embarrassed by revelations of MPs' second-home allowances. Smith was further humiliated when her expenses claims were found to include two porn films watched by her husband. The government announced that it would hold an inquiry into the Iraq war once the last 4,000 British soldiers had left in July. The National Farmers Union said rising food prices had led to an increase in livestock rustling and even animals being butchered in fields.

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AMERICAS

Antigua and Barbuda
Parliament approved the seizure of land and assets owned by the US financier Allen Stanford, the island's largest private employer, who is accused of an $8bn fraud. "We have to give ourselves a bargaining chip, so when the receivers come they have to deal with the government," Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer said. The US Securities and Exchange Commission alleges Stanford defrauded up to 50,000 customers worldwide by promising improbably high returns on investments, known as a Ponzi scheme. He denies the claims but refused to talk to the US regulators by pleading the Fifth Amendment. The Texan billionaire is also being sued for $226m by US tax authorities and is the focus of a US criminal investigation. Stanford's businesses on Antigua and Barbuda include two restaurants, a newspaper, cricket grounds, a development company, a three-branch local bank and the headquarters of his offshore bank. Together, they employed some 800 people but at least 107 workers on Antigua had lost their jobs by 9 April.

Bahamas
The Bahamas was among several Caribbean states identified as being at greater risk than thought from rising sea levels after scientists at a climate change summit in Copenhagen said latest studies of ice loss in Greenland showed earlier UN estimates were too low and that sea levels could rise by a metre or more by 2100. The World Bank said the Guyanas, Belize and Jamaica were also particularly at risk from a one-metre rise.

A British woman blacked out attempting to set a new world record by diving to a depth of 100 metres and back in a single breath. The free-diving champion, Sara Campbell, from London, was trying to beat her own world record of 96 metres, set days before off Bahamas' Long Island.

Barbados
The foreign affairs ministry was targeted by a shadowy cyber-espionage network dubbed GhostNet that is suspected of links to the Chinese government. GhostNet allows attackers to take over computers, including cameras and microphones, and access top-secret information. Other Commonwealth countries targeted include the Bangladesh foreign ministry, and embassies of India, Cyprus and Malta.

Canada
The first Canadian to be sentenced under new anti-terrorism legislation appealed against his conviction for involvement in a foiled fertiliser bomb plot in Britain. The Pakistan-born Momin Khawaja was sentenced to 10 years in prison last October by a judge in Ontario, who sat without a jury. The trial is seen as a test of Canada's anti-terror laws.

A judge upheld a ban on the British MP George Galloway entering the country for a speaking tour in March, claiming he spoke of providing financial support to the Palestinian group Hamas, which is banned in Canada. The MP said he had given aid to Gazans and was not a security threat. In the first HIV-related murder conviction in Canada, and possibly the world, Johnson Aziga was convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated sexual assault for failing to disclose his HIV-positive status to sexual partners, seven of whom became infected. Gerald Gallant, a contract killer, confessed at his trial in Quebec to 27 other killings and 12 attempted murders of bikers, gangsters and bystanders. Meanwhile, six prisoners used nail clippers to break out of prison in Saskatchewan.

Dominica
A giant frog featured on Dominica's coat of arms is being pushed towards extinction because of a lethal fungus. Known as the "mountain chicken" and weighing up to a kilo, the frog was Dominica's traditional dish but has become increasingly rare since chytrid disease arrived in 2002. Now chytrid has spread to Montserrat, home to the only other population.

Grenada
Finton De Bourg, former chief executive of the insolvent Capital Bank International of Grenada, which was taken over by the government last year, was arrested in March on charges of defrauding the bank of EC$16m ($6m).

Guyana
Janet Jagan, former president of Guyana and the first democratically elected female head of state in South America, died aged 88. The lifelong socialist, from Chicago, succeeded her husband Cheddi in 1997, winning an election triggered by his death in office before stepping down due to ill health. The Jagans moved to the then British Guiana in 1943 and founded the ruling People's Progressive Party.

Jamaica
Bob Marley beer, luggage and coffee could soon appear after the reggae star's family signed a merchandising deal with the private equity firm Hilco to capitalise on the iconic singer's name. "We're open to licensing just about anything," said his daughter Cedella. There is already a Marley Resort in the Bahamas. The counterfeit Marley merchandise industry is worth an estimated $600m.

The premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands, which used to be a Jamaican dependency, resigned after an inquiry found "clear signs" of corruption in the British overseas territory. Michael Misick has allegedly amassed a multimillion-dollar fortune since coming to power in 2003. He denies claims of selling Crown land for personal gain. The territory is a leading offshore financial centre and in a crackdown on tax avoidance, the UK Foreign Office is suspending much of the Turks and Caicos constitution and handing power to the governor.

The BBC's first black female broadcaster, Una Marson, was honoured with a plaque at her former home in Camberwell, London. The poet, publisher and activist joined the BBC in 1939.

St Kitts and Nevis
Nevis could become self-sufficient in renewable energy if plans to exploit volcanically heated water are successful. A geothermal energy project was demonstrated in April when one of three wellheads was opened. Nevis consumes only 10 megawatts of energy and the Spring Hill site is expected to generate up to 200MW.

St Vincent and the Grenadines
St Vincent's International Financial Services Authority took control of Millennium Bank, which has been linked to an alleged $68m Ponzi scheme. The US Securities and Exchange Commission said two US residents cheated more than 375 investors since 2004 by offering unfeasibly high interest rates.

Trinidad and Tobago
Cuba was set to dominate the Summit of the Americas, the $100m gathering of the 34-nation Organisation of American States in Port of Spain from 17 to 19 April, even though it has been excluded since 1962. Barack Obama wants a "new beginning" in hemispheric relations but is wary of upsetting the entrenched anti-Castro lobby in the US. However, many Caribbean and Latin American leaders are lobbying the US to lift its 47-year economic blockade.

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PACIFIC

Australia
Most Aboriginal men and women intermarry with non-indigenous Australians, Melbourne's Monash University said. Analysis of the 2006 census revealed that 52-55% of Aboriginal men and women were married to non-Aboriginal Australians. In east coast cities, the rate was above 70%. Australia formally adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, reversing the Howard government's policy. However, it is not legally binding. Australia will allow 14% fewer skilled foreign workers, especially in building and manufacturing trades, to preserve local jobs. Last October immigration reached a record high of 190,000-only 113,000 will be allowed in next year. The unemployment rate has risen to a four-year high of 5.2% and the government recently announced an A$27.5bn ($19.6bn) stimulus package, including cash handouts and infrastructure spending, to help the economy through Australia's first downturn in eight years.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced plans to extend broadband internet across the country in what he likened to the 19th-century construction of railways. Plans for a private tender for the biggest infrastructure project in Australian history were dropped in favour of an A$43bn government investment. Areas of the east coast were declared disaster zones; flash floods left about 2,000 people stranded in towns along the Bellinger river after 45cm of rain fell in 24 hours. Meanwhile, the death toll in February's devastating bushfires in Victoria state was reduced to 173.

Fiji (Suspended, 2006)
President Ratu Josefa Iloilo reinstated his military chief, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, as prime minister a day after suspending the constitution (11 April). Iloilo acted after the court of appeal upheld a challenge to Bainimarama's rule by the ousted prime minister Laisenia Qarase and ruled that Bainimarama had come to power illegally through the 2006 coup and should be replaced with an interim government, led by neither Qarase nor Bainimarama. Iloilo subsequently sacked the judges, and the armed forces set up roadblocks and heavily censored newspapers. Iloilo said on TV that he had appointed himself as "head of state in the new order" and that Bainimarama would serve for five years to allow reforms before elections in 2014. The suspended constitution had a deadline of this year for elections.

Australia's prime minister, Kevin Rudd, said Fiji had become "virtually a military dictatorship", while the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, called for the "restoration of a legitimate government". The European Union has warned that Fiji's biggest export industry, sugar, was at risk if no elections were held, and earnings in the second-biggest market, tourism, are well down.

Nauru
The island nation was among 30 tax havens blacklisted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development for not yet implementing international tax standards as agreed. The other Commonwealth member states listed are: Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Bahamas, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa and Vanuatu. Malaysia is listed as one of four states not to have even agreed to tax standards.

New Zealand
The economy shrank at its fastest rate in 17 years in the last quarter of 2008; GDP dropped 0.9%, the most since 1992, led by a fall in manufacturing. The former prime minister Helen Clark was chosen as the new head of the United Nations Development Programme-one of the UN's most powerful positions. Clark resigned as leader of the Labour party after losing last year's elections.

Papua New Guinea
A liquid natural gas scheme that is PNG's biggest industrial project since independence will double gross domestic product, analysts said. The "PNG LNG" project will develop gas reserves in the highlands and western provinces by pumping 6.3m tonnes a year of LNG through a 500km pipeline to Port Moresby. The government is sending 300 soldiers and policemen to Enga province in the highlands to stop tribal violence and illegal mining around Porgera gold mine; 11 people have died there in recent years. Jumping spiders and a chirping frog are among more than 50 new species discovered, Conservation International reported.

Samoa
A Samoan woman was convicted in Auckland of giving birth on a flight to New Zealand and abandoning her baby in the aircraft toilet.

The Samoa Censor Board banned the film "Milk", based on the US gay activist politician Harvey Milk, which won a best actor Oscar for Sean Penn.

Tonga
A powerful 7.9 magnitude earthquake about 200km off Tonga triggered a tsunami but no damage was reported. Several earthquakes have been felt recently and an undersea volcano has erupted off Tongatapu.

Vanuatu
The supreme court heard the former justice minister Joshua Kalsakau deny charges of sex without consent, attempted incest and indecent assault.

Meanwhile, Port Vila MP Ralph Regenvanu appeared in the same court over his alleged role in a jailbreak by prisoners in the capital last year.

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GENERAL

Commonwealth News
Kamalesh Sharma, Commonwealth secretary-general, condemned the abrogation of Fiji's constitution and the sacking of the Fiji court of appeal (10 April). "The constitutional rule of law must be re-established as a priority, along with elections," he said. Ministers from nine Commonwealth countries said after meeting in London on 4 March that "Fiji remained in contravention of Commonwealth values and principles". Commodore Frank Bainimarama, Fiji's military ruler, has rejected demands from the Commonwealth to call elections. He said in February: "If they [the Commonwealth] want to suspend Fiji, they can go ahead."

Meanwhile, the secretary-general welcomed the ceasefire in Sri Lanka and said: "This is a positive step and should be used to ensure the evacuation of the several thousand civilians trapped in the fighting." The president of Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, called on the secretary-general in London on 7 April and expressed thanks for the Commonwealth's support over the years towards Maldives' progress to democracy. They discussed how the Commonwealth could assist Maldives in further consolidating democratic institutions, including the judiciary.

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