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 408

Oren Gruenbaum

ABSTRACT
British politics was transformed by a hung parliament producing the first coalition government in 70 years. Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua died after months of incapacitation; in Jamaica, a growing diplomatic rift with the US forced Prime Minister Bruce Golding to allow the extradition of an alleged drug kingpin, and Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa won a landslide victory amid persistent calls for investigations into alleged war crimes against Tamil civilians. A tribe in Vanuatu that worships the Duke of Edinburgh was awaiting his imminent return to their island to live in a hut with them.

AFRICA

Cameroon
Cameroon Express editor Germain 'Bibi' Ngota died in April in a Yaoundé prison. His family and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists blamed the authorities for his death; the government alleged that he had died of an HIV-related infection. The journalists' union, SNJC, said Ngota was denied medical treatment after he was detained with two other journalists in March on fraud charges. Hundreds of journalists protesting over his death clashed with riot police in the capital on World Press Freedom Day in May. Serge Sabouang, editor of La Nation, and Robert Mintya, editor of Le Devoir, are still detained, while another journalist, Lewis Medjo, editor of La Détente Libre, has been held in Douala since 2008, Reporters Without Borders said.

Gambia, The
A group of senior officers and businessmen were charged with trying to overthrow President Yahya Jammeh. Newstime Africa reported that those arrested include Ensa Badjie, inspector-general of police, and naval commander Sarjo Fofona. The former chief of defence staff, Lang Tombong Tamba, and four other senior security officials have been detained since November without trial. Deputy chief of defence Yankuba Drammeh was sacked.

Kenya
The International Criminal Court (ICC) agreed to an investigation of 2007's post-election violence, raising the possibility of Kenya's most powerful politicians standing trial in The Hague. It accepted ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo's argument that crimes against humanity occurred when at least 1,300 civilians were killed in ethnic attacks or by police in the weeks after President Mwai Kibaki's dubious re-election and more than 300,000 people fled their homes. The coalition government abandoned a pledge to set up a tribunal to try the accused, who included several cabinet ministers, according to the state-funded Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights.

MPs approved a draft constitution in April, after nearly 20 years of acrimonious debate, to go to a referendum this year. It devolves more power to a senate and regions, removes the president's right to appoint judges and obliges cabinet ministers to quit as MPs. The previous constitution gave too much power to the president and only foreign donors' pressure forced a return to multi-party politics in 1992.

Kenya denied reports that many of its citizens were fighting with Somalia's al-Shabab Islamic militants. A report, 'In Harm's Way: The Impact of Kenya's Restrictive Abortion Law', from the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, said: 'Kenya's abortion fatality rates are substantially higher than in the African region as a whole and more than nine times higher than for developed regions. In Kenya, 35% of maternal deaths are attributable to unsafe abortion. These deaths are a direct consequence of Kenya's abortion law, one of the most restrictive in the world.'

The ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano halted flights and cost the horticulture industry-the largest supplier of cut flowers to Europe-about $2m a day from the disruption. About 5,000 staff were laid off. One firm said it was paying 60%-70% more in freight charges and that 3m flowers had been dumped.

Ten former top officials denied corruption charges over the purchase of land for a cemetery. They are accused of paying $3.6m (£2.4m) of taxpayers' money for the land, which was only worth 10% as much and which did not have a title deed.

Protests by environmentalists blocked a shipment of genetically modified maize at Mombasa. The cargo came from South Africa and contained maize varieties developed by the US multinational Monsanto. Protestors claimed that safety checks had not been carried out on the maize and that it could contaminate the soil.

Malawi
A Blantyre judge found a gay couple guilty of unnatural acts and gross indecency after a trial that has sparked worldwide condemnation of Malawi's laws on homosexuality. The men face up to 14 years in prison with hard labour after becoming the first gay couple in Malawi to wed. The Malawi Law Society called for their release, saying they posed no danger to society but President Bingu wa Mutharika condemned the pair as 'unMalawian'. Gay sex remains illegal in 37 countries in Africa.

Muslims protested at government plans to ban polygamy. The gender minister, Patricia Kaliati, said it was necessary to prevent women from being abused in polygamous relationships but the Muslim Association of Malawi told the BBC the proposed law would discriminate against the Muslim minority. 'Banning polygamous marriages ... means many women will go into prostitution', he said. The government also had to defend a controversial bill making it a crime for a person to knowingly pass on HIV. About 12% of the population are HIV positive.

Mauritius
The opposition leader Paul Berenger conceded defeat to the prime minister, Navin Ramgoolam, whose Labour alliance won 41 out of 62 parliamentary seats after a 78% turnout. The main issues were economic and constitutional reform, fraud, corruption, drug trafficking and ethnicity-there is a growing rift between the majority Hindus and Christians, Muslims, Creoles and Europeans.

The British government's decision to create a conservation area and ban fishing around the Chagos Islands-reputedly as ecologically important as the Galapagos islands or Great Barrier Reef-was hailed by environmentalists but condemned by exiled Chagossians and the Mauritian socialist party, Lalit de Klas. The islands were ceded to Britain in 1814 but 2,000 inhabitants were deported to Mauritius in the 1960s to make way for a US military base on Diego Garcia.

Nigeria
President Umaru Yar'Adua, who returned to Nigeria in February after months of medical treatment in Saudi Arabia, died aged 58 on 5 May. His vice-president, Goodluck Jonathan, was sworn in and said his priorities would be peace in the oil-rich Niger Delta, electoral reform and tackling corruption. He named the governor of the northern state of Kaduna, Namadi Sambo, as his new vice-president. Debate now centres on whether Jonathan, a Christian Ijaw southerner, will be allowed to stand for president next year or whether a northerner will be chosen, as expected under regional rotation of the post. Yar'Adua, a Muslim northerner picked for the presidency by General Olusegun Obasanjo, had been in poor health even in 2007. When he flew to Saudi Arabia for treatment, he left a power vacuum by not informing parliament or swearing in Jonathan.

The former military leader General Ibrahim Babangida said he would run in presidential elections, due in 2011, for the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He took power in 1985 in a peaceful coup but was overthrown by mass protests after annulling elections in 1993. He told the BBC that he would not use his wealth to buy power.

Forty-nine people face murder charges over a sectarian massacre near the central city of Jos that left hundreds dead and caused thousands to flee. In the latest violence in the area, at least 10 people were killed in an attack on a mainly Christian village.

The oil company Shell blamed thieves and militants after a report detailed the spilling of nearly 14,000 tonnes of crude oil into the Niger Delta in 2009.

Abba Abacha, son of the former military ruler Sani Abacha, appealed against a Swiss court order to return $350m in illegal assets. Vincent Ogbulafor, PDP chairman, was charged with fraudulently awarding $1.5m in federal funds under Obasanjo. The charges have been linked to a PDP leadership struggle. Charges were dropped against former anti-corruption agency boss Nuhu Ribadu, who was controversially suspended in 2007. Police trying to arrest James Ibori, a former Delta state governor charged with corruption and money-laundering, were attacked by his supporters.

Three journalists were murdered in one weekend in April. Edo Ugbagwu, a court reporter with the Nation, was shot dead at his Lagos home, while Nathan Dabak and Sunday Gyang Bwede, with the Christian newspaper Light Bearer, were stabbed to death en route to Jos.

Rwanda (Joined November 2009)
The authorities arrested opposition leader Victoire Ingabire for allegedly helping rebels linked to the 1994 genocide. Ingabire, a Hutu, plans to run against President Paul Kagame, a Tutsi. Le Monde noted that Ingabire had equated Tutsi and Hutu losses in the genocide but reported other targeted opposition figures included Frank Habineza, Green Party leader, and Bernard Ntaganda, head of the Social (PS-Imberakuri) party, who is accused of spreading 'genocidal ideology', which carries a 25-year jail term.

Sierra Leone
The head of the Anti-Corruption Commission, Abdul Tejan-Cole, resigned for reasons not made public. The former human rights lawyer's agency had led to a minister being sacked and a former minister of fisheries go on trial for fraud. Health workers ended a 10-day strike after President Ernest Bai Koroma agreed to increase their pay six-fold. Sierra Leone is introducing free healthcare for pregnant women, new mothers and children under five. A judge ruled for the first time that a woman could become a paramount chief. The high court overturned a ban on Iye Kendor Bandabla from becoming chief in Kissy Teng.

South Africa
Supporters of Julius Malema, leader of the African National Congress Youth League, stepped up their power struggle against Jacob Zuma by criticising the president's promiscuity (Zuma recently acknowledged his 20th child) under the guise of an anti-AIDS slogan 'one girlfriend, one boyfriend'. Earlier, Malema was fined and ordered to attend anger-management classes after being disciplined by the ruling ANC. Ignoring a court order, he had sung an apartheid-era song at a press conference containing the words 'kill the boer [white farmer]', praised Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and racially abused a BBC journalist.

Eugene Terre Blanche, leader of the Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB), an all-white, far-right group that still argues for apartheid, was murdered, allegedly by two black workers. Claims by a lawyer that the victim had tried to rape the younger defendant were withdrawn. The Economist said: 'Had [Terre Blanche] been less of a buffoon, South Africa's road to democracy might have been bloodier.'

The government began the world's biggest HIV testing programme, aiming to persuade 15 million people to find out their status by 2011. Police used pepper spray to break up a fight as World Cup tickets went on sale in Pretoria and a pensioner died of a heart attack queuing in Cape Town. Despite scuffles and computer glitches in nine host cities, 101,000 tickets were sold in the first day.

The agricultural union TAU-SA expressed outrage at the state's proposal for farmers to transfer 40% of their interests to black shareholders. The state-owned Eskom utility borrowed $3.75bn from the World Bank to build one of the world's biggest coal-fired power stations, despite criticism over its huge emissions. The US, Britain, the Netherlands, Italy and Norway abstained from the vote in protest. Science reported the discovery of a new 1.9m-year-old hominid species, Australopithecus sediba, at Malapa, near Johannesburg.

Swaziland
Mario Masuku, president of the People's United Democratic Movement (Pudemo) party, accused police of killing one of its members in custody after being arrested for wearing a party T-shirt at a May Day rally, South Africa's Independent Online reported. Police said Sipho Jele hanged himself but Masuku called this 'absolute nonsense'. Political parties have been banned in Swaziland since 1973.

The inaugural African Grandmothers' Gathering brought together nearly 500 women from 12 countries to share their experiences of raising children whose parents have died of AIDS and seeking better support for their young charges.

Tanzania
The UN praised Tanzania for granting citizenship to some 162,000 refugees who fled Burundi 38 years ago. The UN refugee agency called it the 'most generous naturalisation of refugees anywhere'.

The teaching union said it would sue the government after four teachers, one of whom was pregnant, were publicly caned by the official Sungusungu militia after they were late for a meeting.

Controversial proposals by Tanzania and Zambia to loosen the 21-year-old ban on ivory sales and downgrade elephants' protection were defeated by conservationists at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species over concerns that it would increase poaching.

Uganda
The government launched an ambitious five-year national development plan aiming to raise average per capita income of $850, and upgrade transport. But the Ugandan Observer warned that corruption and rapid population growth could forestall the required 8% annual growth.

Fighters from Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) hacked or beat to death at least 321 Congolese villagers in one of the worst atrocities of their 23-year insurgency, Human Rights Watch reported. The LRA also killed 10 people and kidnapped more than 50 civilians in the Central African Republic. The rebels have killed 1,600 Congolese civilians and abducted more than 2,500 since 2008 when peace talks broke down.

Britain said it would bar David Bahati, a Ugandan MP and evangelical Christian, if his bill imposing the death penalty for being gay was passed.

President Yoweri Museveni has been criticised for not signing Uganda's first domestic violence bill into law. The opposition Forum for Democratic Change said the bill had been passed by MPs and ministers more than a year ago. Meanwhile, Museveni's presidential guard killed three protesters as he visited royal Bugandan tombs that were gutted by fire. The Kasubi tombs are of deep spiritual and political significance for the Buganda kingdom, which has been in conflict with Museveni.

Zambia
Human Rights Watch and two local organisations denounced prison health conditions after visiting six jails and interviewing some 250 prisoners. 'Prisoners told us how they were packed together in their cells, forced to sleep seated or in shifts. They told us of being so hungry that food has become a commodity traded for sex.'

Zimbabwe (Left Commonwealth, 2003)
The uneasy coalition government suspended recently proposed 'indigenisation' rules that would have forced foreigners and white Zimbabweans to transfer ownership of at least 51% of their companies and property to black Zimbabweans by 2015. The deep divisions within the government were underlined by the visit of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Zimbabwe, despite protests by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change party, which called Ahmadinejad a 'warmonger [and] executioner'. So it surprised even the organisers of the World Economic Forum's Africa meeting in Dar es Salaam when Tsvangirai appeared to appeal for investment with President Robert Mugabe.

Roy Bennett, a white former farmer and MDC treasurer, was acquitted of buying arms in 2006 for a plot to topple Mugabe. Prosecutors said they would appeal against the acquittal. The charges could have led to the death penalty. South Africa's president, Jacob Zuma, visited Zimbabwe to mediate between Mugabe and Tsvangirai; an election next year is being mooted. Graça Machel, founder of the Elders group of world leaders and wife of Nelson Mandela, warned Britain to let African diplomacy take its course. The former wife of Mozambique's independence leader Samora Machel told The Guardian that Britain should 're-examine its relationship with its colonies' and urged: 'Keep quiet, because the more you shout, the worse [it is].'

Environmentalists criticised an order by Mugabe to send an 'ark' of wild animals taken from a national park, including endangered rhinos and baby elephants, to a zoo in North Korea. Experts said many creatures would die before they got to North Korea, which has long been an ally of Mugabe and trained a Zimbabwe army brigade that massacred thousands of Zimbabweans in the 1980s.

Bishop Abel Muzorewa, the former prime minister of the short-lived Republic of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, died aged 84. He was much criticised for his 'internal settlement' with white minority leader Ian Smith in 1978.

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ASIA

Bangladesh
The first few dozen mutineers of about 3,500 border guards who attacked and killed more than 70 officers and others in a 2009 rebellion were sentenced to jail terms of up to seven years.

South Talpatti Island in the Bay of Bengal (New Moore island to Indians), which has been the subject of a sovereignty dispute between India and Bangladesh for 30 years, has now disappeared due to rising sea levels.

A 38-year ban on Indian 'Bollywood' films has been reinstated after furious protests from Bangladeshi actors and film-makers who warned that warned that 25,000 jobs could be lost if Bangladeshi cinemas were allowed to show Indian movies.

Hong Kong (Left Commonwealth, 1997)
Google pulled out of mainland China after four years there and relocated to Hong Kong, which was granted free-speech protections when China took control of the colony from Britain in 1997. It followed a two-month standoff with Beijing over online freedom and an alleged intrusion by hackers targeting Chinese dissidents. However, there were reports that some Google searches were still being filtered.

A journalist who fought a decade-long legal battle with a Hong Kong hospital over his wife's death was awarded 'substantial' compensation. Martin Jacques, a Guardian columnist, maintained that his Indian-Malaysian wife, Harinder Veriah, died after negligent care due to racism.

India
Muhammad Ajmal Qasab, a Pakistani, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death for his role in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, in which 174 people died. In the bloodiest-ever attack on security forces in India, Maoist rebels killed 76 policemen in a camp in dense jungle in Chhattisgarh state. India arrested one of its embassy workers in Islamabad for allegedly spying for Pakistan.

Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat and a leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was questioned for 10 hours by an inquiry over alleged collusion in a pogrom in his state in 2002, in which more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed. India began a year-long census of its 1.2 billion people, which will involve photographing and fingerprinting everybody over 15 to create a biometric database for identity cards. Hundreds of villagers died when a cyclone demolished 50,000 mud huts in West Bengal, Assam and Bihar. India's greenhouse gas emissions rose 58% between 1994 and 2007 but fell 30% relative to gross domestic product, a government report said, ranking India fifth globally for emissions.

The marriage of two of south Asia's best-known sports personalities, India's top tennis star, Sania Mirza, and the former Pakistan cricket captain Shoaib Malik, caused diplomatic ructions as Hindu nationalists protested in India and the Pakistani media celebrated the match.

Malaysia
The trial of the opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on sodomy charges resumed after a three-month suspension while Anwar tried to have the judge recuse himself for bias. Anwar claims the charge is a conspiracy led by the prime minister, Najib Razak, to undermine Malaysia's opposition alliance, which threatens to defeat the government in elections to be held by 2013. In 1998, Anwar lost his post as deputy premier and was jailed for six years on charges of sodomy and abuse of power.

Malaysia's two million migrant workers were routinely exploited by employers and police, Amnesty International said. Amnesty condemned the 'widespread nature of exploitation in Malaysia ... of harassment, of petty extortion, frankly, of robbery, of targeting of migrant workers, and of refugees for small sums of money'.

A woman sentenced under shariah law to be caned for drinking beer had her punishment commuted to three weeks' community service. Three unmarried Muslim women were recently caned for having sex.

Pakistan
A senior police officer and interior ministry official were among nine people suspended from their jobs following a UN commission's report into the assassination of the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. 'The failure of the police to investigate effectively Ms Bhutto's assassination was deliberate', the UN report found. However, no action was taken against any officers of the army or intelligence agencies, though the UN report directly implicated the military.

At least 71 civilians were killed by a misdirected air strike in the Khyber tribal zone against suspected extremists, locals claimed, as thousands fled a military offensive against Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. The bombing of a school and a marketplace in Peshawar killed at least 24. A bomber targeting Shia Muslims at Quetta hospital killed eight. The Taliban was blamed for a suicide bomb that killed 41 and wounded 80 at a rally for a secular Pashtun party in Lower Dir and a gun and bomb attack near the US consulate in Peshawar, killing five. The Pakistan Taliban leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, survived an American drone strike in January, the Observer reported. The CIA has stepped up drone attacks, with 38 this year, compared with 49 in the whole of 2009. One estimate says these have killed 690 alleged insurgents and 181 innocent villagers so far (the CIA puts it at 20 civilians). Up to 18 US missiles hit a Taliban sanctuary near the Afghan border, killing 14 insurgents in the third such strike since a failed car bombing in New York in May blamed on the Taliban.

Five of seven 'tribal agencies' bordering Afghanistan were now under control but $1bn was needed to develop the region to avoid it relapsing into an al-Qaida base, said Major General Tariq Khan, head of the Frontier Corps. Operations were still under way only in Orakzai and North Waziristan, he said. The United Nations warned that 200,000 new refugees had fled the latest anti-Taliban offensive, mostly from Orakzai.

MPs unanimously approved a constitutional amendment that strips President Asif Ali Zardari of powers inherited from the former military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, including the ability to fire an elected government. The changes mean Zardari will occupy a largely ceremonial post, deriving much of his power from leading the largest party.

Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab, warned that the province was a 'potential bomb' because the regional government led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's party was tolerating and supporting Islamic militants of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, formerly known as Lashkar-e-Taiba, responsible for sectarian murders and kidnappings.

Drastic power-saving measures were announced as 20-hour blackouts plagued the country, including extending the official weekend from one to two days, closing markets early, halving power to government offices and restricting wedding celebrations at night. Tens of thousands of people were being evacuated in Upper Hunza as a 10-mile lake created by a landslide and rising by a metre a day threatened to sweep away dozens of villages.

Singapore
Singapore's thirst for sand to increase land reclamation and construction was driving an ecologically damaging sand-dredging industry in Cambodia. The London-based organisation Global Witness said Cambodia's lucrative sand-dredging industry (producing a 300% profit) threatened endangered species, fish stocks and local livelihoods, despite a 2009 ban.

Automatic execution for drug smugglers was inhumane, disproportionate and violated international standards, a Singapore court heard as Yong Vui Kong, a 22-year-old Malaysian, challenged his death sentence for smuggling heroin. Singapore is one of very few countries imposing mandatory death sentences for drug offences.

Sri Lanka
The United People's Freedom Alliance, the ruling coalition of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections but fell just short of the two-thirds majority enabling Rajapaksa to amend the constitution. Turnout, at just over 50%, was very low. DM Jayaratne was named prime minister but will wield little power. The main Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance, which backed the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, dropped its demand for an independent state and said it would accept regional self-rule in a 'federal structure'.

Sarath Fonseka, the defeated presidential candidate and former army chief, appeared before a civilian court to deny inciting unrest after saying last year that the defence minister, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa-brother of the president-ordered the killing of surrendering Tamil rebels. Earlier, he appeared before a court martial charged with engaging in politics while in the army. He also faces charges of corrupt military procurement. The general led the offensive that eliminated the separatist Tamil Tiger leadership last year, ending 37 years of ethnic conflict that had claimed up to 100,000 lives. The government partially lifted tough emergency laws including curbs on meetings and distributing certain literature but kept detention without trial. It also began releasing Tamil rebel prisoners, with some 1,100 disabled detainees freed initially and 9,000 still in camps. About three-quarters of the 280,000 civilians held have been freed. The president's office denied there was a 'hit list' of human rights activists and journalists after 35 names appeared on a local website.

A report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) found evidence of war crimes against Tamil civilians and called for a UN-led international inquiry. The ICG said the shelling by government forces of civilians concentrated in so-called no-fire zones, the 'intentional shelling' of hospitals and relief operations, similar smaller-scale actions against civilians by the Tigers, and 'the execution by security forces of those who had laid down their arms and were trying to surrender' were in danger of creating a model other repressive regimes may follow.

Jeyaprakash Tissainayagam, the Tamil editor of the North-Eastern Monthly, who was convicted of 'supporting terrorism' by writing about the effects of the war on Tamils, was pardoned after his 20-year prison term was strongly criticised by the US and European Union.

A woman who converted from Buddhism to Islam was arrested for anti-state activities.

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EUROPE

Cyprus
The presidential election in North Cyprus was won by Dervish Eroglu, a nationalist hardliner favouring confederated independent states. The Greek Cypriots will only accept a 'bizonal, bicommunal federation'-the basis of all Cyprus talks since 1977. Eroglu ousted the pro-settlement Mehmet Ali Talat, friend and trade union colleague of the Greek-Cypriot president, Demetris Christofias. Eroglu's win dashed hopes for the reunification of Cyprus, which has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded after a Greek-backed coup.

Malta
Pope Benedict XVI expressed his 'shame and sorrow' over sex abuse scandals, which rocked the Catholic church globally, after meeting men who are testifying in court against three priests who sexually abused them at a Catholic orphanage.

United Kingdom
The Labour government was replaced by a coalition on 11 May under the new prime minister, Conservative Party leader David Cameron, and his deputy, Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats, after the closest general election in memory led to a 'hung' parliament. After several tense days of negotiation between and within parties, the Labour leader, Gordon Brown, resigned to allow Britain's first coalition government since the 1920s and the first real power for the Lib Dems since their Liberal forebears held office nearly 100 years ago.

After seemingly being assured of an emphatic win last year, as the UK suffered its worst recession in 60 years, the Conservatives' clear lead in the polls dwindled. Clegg's strong performance in Britain's first ever televised party leader election debate led to an extraordinary surge in support for him but the Lib Dems could not transform the bounce into votes. Brown suffered a further setback when he was caught on microphone describing a 66-year-old woman who had just confronted him with a question on immigration as 'bigoted'.

There was a higher turnout than in recent elections but chaos at many polling stations, with hundreds complaining of being prevented from voting at the end of the day. Due to the oddities of the British first-past-the-post electoral system, the Conservatives won 47% of seats with 36% of the vote; Labour won 39% of seats with 29% of votes, and the Lib Dems won 23% of votes but just 9% of seats (their main demand for joining the coalition is electoral reform). The Green Party returned its first MP; Peter Robinson, first minister of Northern Ireland and head of the Democratic Ulster Unionist Party, lost his seat after his wife become embroiled in a sexual and financial scandal, and 19 Labour ministers were defeated.

The UK faces years of budget cuts as deep as 25% to reduce the £167bn deficit, with previously sacrosanct areas of the welfare state, such as universal child benefits, being considered for the chop. The European debt crisis continued to threaten the UK, despite a €110bn ($145bn) bailout of Greece by eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund, amid fears that other European countries, notably Portugal and Spain, would get drawn into the crisis. In Britain, manufacturing output and exports grew at their fastest rate in 15 years but inflation was higher than expected, unemployment rose above 2.5 million and the economy has barely grown in 2010.

A volcanic eruption in Iceland led to almost 100,000 flights aircraft being cancelled in the biggest-ever closure of European airspace. The International Air Transport Association said the almost week-long shutdown cost airlines about $1.7bn. Oil was found off the Falkland Islands, prompting Argentina, which claims the British territory, to place restrictions on shipping. British Airways won court injunctions blocking strikes by cabin crew in its increasingly bitter labour dispute. BAE Systems, which has been embroiled in allegations of bribery and corruption, became the world's largest arms manufacturer. BAE, which makes Eurofighter-Typhoon jets and Trident nuclear submarines, sold $32.4bn of arms last year.

Malcolm McLaren, impresario and subversive manager of the notorious punk band the Sex Pistols, died aged 64. Two of the famous Redgrave acting dynasty died: Corin, aged 70, and his sister Lynn, 67.

AMERICAS

Barbados
The US defence secretary, Robert Gates, told leaders at a security conference in Barbados that he wanted to work more closely with the region as pressure on Mexican routes was likely to make drug traffickers shift to the Caribbean. Gates said he hoped to show 'the United States is re-engaging in this region'.

Belize
The former UK chancellor, Alistair Darling, announced an agreement on sharing tax information with Belize in the outgoing Labour government's final budget. The Caribbean country is the business base for the Conservative Party's deputy chairman and leading funder, Lord Ashcroft. It had been thought he had become resident in the UK for tax purposes when he was recommended for a peerage by then Conservative leader William Hague in 2000. But after years of questions from political opponents, and a Freedom of Information request, Ashcroft revealed that he was not domiciled in the UK for tax purposes, a so-called 'non-dom', who pays no UK tax on $1.5bn and thereby avoids paying an estimated $20m a year.

Canada
Canadians might return to the polls for the third time since 2006 as disenchantment with the two main parties increases. Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives slipped to 29%, while the Liberals were on 27%, a poll found. The New Democrats rose to 20%. Parliament has been wracked by allegations that all detainees handed over to Afghan authorities by Canadian troops had been tortured, and by procedural wrangling over the release of secret documents that followed.

A leading climate change scientist sued the National Post for libel over its claims that he ignored data refuting global warming to justify receiving government funding. Media experts said Andrew Weaver's lawsuit involved an unprecedented demand to remove not just the Post's own articles but also related blogs and comments on other sites. In another important case, the supreme court ruled that the National Post must give police documents obtained from a source in 2001 that alleged the former prime minister Jean Chrétien had been involved in a loan scandal. It said the need to protect confidential sources 'must be balanced against other important public interests, including the investigation of crime'.

A leading psychiatrist, Dr Aubrey Levin, is under investigation for sexually abusing a male patient and faces dozens more allegations, The Guardian reported. Levin was chief psychiatrist in apartheid-era South Africa, where he was known as Dr Shock for using electric shocks to 'cure' gay army recruits, it said.

The Canadian dollar strengthened, reaching parity with the US dollar for the first time in two years as Canada's gross domestic product grew faster than that of any other G7 country.

Jamaica
After months of opposition, the government said it would extradite Christopher 'Dudus' Coke to the US to face drug and weapons trafficking charges. Amid fears of trouble, shops and schools closed early in parts of the capital, Kingston, controlled by the gang that Coke allegedly leads, the Shower Posse. The prime minister, Bruce Golding, had come close to resigning after being forced to admit that he had hired a Los Angeles law firm to act for Coke. The scandal highlighted alleged links between Jamaican politicians and criminals. The Shower Posse is blamed for more than 1,400 murders across the US in the 1980s and controls the area of Kingston represented by Golding. The government had blocked the extradition on the grounds that the US used illegal wiretaps to record Coke's phone calls, causing a diplomatic rift.

Trinidad and Tobago
Police investigating an alleged plot to disrupt elections said they had arrested five people and seized an assault rifle and T-shirts for Fuad Abu Bakr's radical Islamic party, the New National Vision Party, in a raid. Prime Minister Patrick Manning called a general election on 24 May to seek a new mandate for his People's National Movement. He is being challenged by the opposition United National Congress, which has joined forces with the fringe Congress of the People. Manning, 64, has ruled Trinidad and Tobago for 13 of the past 17 years but has been under pressure over accusations of corruption and mismanaging public money.

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PACIFIC

Australia
The prime minister, Kevin Rudd, shelved plans for a trading emissions system until 2013, citing the need for global action and the opposition's refusal to pass legislation. Rudd has staked much on acting on climate change, warning of devastation to agriculture and the economy. Relying on coal for its electricity, Australia is one of the world's highest per-capita carbon-emitters. The opposition Liberal Party used its control of parliament's upper house in December to block Rudd's planned cap-and-trade scheme for a second time.

The government said it was no longer accepting asylum-seekers from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka as conditions were now safer there. Rudd was accused of bowing to populist pressure in an election year. Australia was criticised by the US for its proposed internet filtering system, which, if implemented, would be the strictest of any democracy. Critics say Australia's plan, which has been proposed repeatedly over the past five years, exceeds what is necessary and strays into matters of free speech.

The government said it would impose a new 40% tax on the profits of Australian mining companies such as Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, raising A$9bn ($8.1bn) a year. Meanwhile, a court in Shanghai handed down punitive jail sentences and fines to four employees of Rio Tinto who admitted taking bribes from private steel firms seeking to secure supplies of iron ore. The mining company, which originally said there was no evidence of wrongdoing, dismissed the four after the verdict, citing 'clear evidence' of bribery.

Jessica Watson, 16, arrived in Sydney harbour in her 10-metre yacht after a 210-day voyage as the youngest person to sail non-stop, solo and unassisted around the world. However, some claim she did not travel far enough north of the Equator.

Fiji (Fully Suspended, 2009)
A draft media industry development decree features harsh penalties for journalists and news organisations that breach vaguely worded content regulations, the New Zealand Herald reported. It warns media not to publish or broadcast material that is 'against the public interest or order, is against national interest, offends good taste or decency, or creates communal discord'. It also caps foreign ownership in media organisations at 10%. The decree allows for officials to enter newsrooms to seize any documents or equipment, even where no formal complaint has been laid. The attorney-general, Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum, said all media outlets must pledge allegiance to Fiji. Further measures being introduced that appear aimed at stifling dissent include withdrawing the pensions of MPs seen as opposing the regime, including members of the United Fiji Party (SDL) government ousted in the 2006 coup..

Kiribati
A British yachtsman who stopped off at Kiribati's Kanton Island helped rescue its starving inhabitants. The crew stopped at the sole inhabited island of the Phoenix archipelago on their way from Hawaii to Australia to find the 14 adults and 10 children surviving on just fish and coconuts because a supply ship was three months late. Increasing salination of the soil from rising sea levels prevents growing crops. 'The children were suffering serious malnutrition', said Alex Bond. 'This is the second time in four years that they really have been down to nothing ... the children have got very bowed legs, very serious calcium deficiencies and really bad teeth.'

Nauru
The caretaker president, Marcus Stephen, said his government and the opposition may form a coalition to end a three-week stalemate after a snap election returned the same 18 MPs. The opposition's Godfrey Thoma, who was elected speaker, resigned when Stephen rejected fresh elections. The world's smallest independent republic has had more than 36 governments since independence in 1968.

New Zealand
A bill for a referendum on the country becoming a republic was thrown out by MPs on its first reading after John Key, the prime minister, marshalled his National Party and its allies to block the opposition move, leaving republicans complaining that the outcome would have been different if MPs were allowed a free vote. Keith Locke, the Green MP who tabled the bill with Labour support, said it could have led to an elected president with similar powers to the governor-general. 'Why should we have a head of state on the other side of the world who is not a citizen?' he said.

The French parliament votes to return the heads of at least 15 tattooed Maori warriors to New Zealand. The traditional preserved heads became exotic collectors' items in Europe in the 19th century.

The country's largest gecko has been seen on one of the main islands for the first time in almost a century-unfortunately, dead in a mousetrap.

Papua New Guinea
The prime minister, Sir Michael Somare, apologised for calling anti-corruption protesters and the media satanic and insane. The National newspaper said Somare branded demonstrators 'longlong', meaning depraved or mentally retarded, and journalists 'sadang', meaning evil or Satan, during protests outside parliament. Meanwhile, Somare said he sacked the attorney-general for breaching cabinet solidarity after Allan Marat publicly criticised major resource projects and legislation.

A public health emergency was declared after cholera spread to the capital, Port Moresby, killing five people.

Vanuatu
Vanuatu's coroner, New Zealand judge Nevin Dawson, left the Pacific territory after receiving a death threat. Dawson had completed a report damning the paramilitary police Vanuatu Mobile Force after a man was beaten to death in custody. The coroner's report revealed a culture of police brutality that appeared to be condoned at the highest levels of the police. Local media said rifle-carrying paramilitaries had made shows of force near his office.

A tribe on the island of Tanna that worships the Duke of Edinburgh was awaiting his return on 10 June, his 89th birthday, in fulfilment of what they believe is a promise made on a trip to Vanuatu in 1974, the Daily Telegraph reported. Siko Nathuan, chief of Yaohnanen, said: 'We know he is a very old man, but when he comes here he is going to be young again, and so will everyone else on the island.' The tribe believes Queen Elizabeth II's husband is descended from a spirit ancestor and went away to live in a vast palace but will return to live in a hut and hunt wild pigs with them. A portrait of the duke with a hunting club they sent as a gift is kept with newspaper clippings about him in a hut 'shrine'.

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GENERAL

Commonwealth News
A Commonwealth observer team visited the UK to see how the election was conducted and to suggest improvements-the first time a Commonwealth team has observed elections in a developed country. The trip was organised by the Royal Commonwealth Society and Commonwealth Parliamentary Association UK, with observers representing Bangladesh, Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana, Jamaica, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. Noting scepticism about the first-past-the-post electoral system, Danny Sriskandarajah, RCS director, said: 'Given how much effort has gone into designing strong democratic systems and electoral processes in many developing Commonwealth countries, Britain has much to learn from the rest of the world... Voter apathy has also attracted comment.'

Paul Kagame, Rwanda's president, promised 'free and fair elections' on a visit to the Commonwealth's headquarters in London. The leader of the Commonwealth's newest member stressed gains in stability, education and an average growth rate of 8% of GDP for the last seven years. He also noted: 'We now have women having the highest representation in parliament in the whole world.'

The futurologist Dr James Martin delivered the 13th Commonwealth Lecture, speaking on Science and Technology: Impacts on Society in the 21st Century.

Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia presented their joint continental shelf submission to the United Nations- the only submission by three small island states and the first joint submission from the Pacific. The Commonwealth Secretariat provided legal and technical advice and assisted in developing the submission, which claims an additional 602,000 sq km of resource-rich seabed.

Commonwealth Publications - http://publications.thecommonwealth.org/

  • Dirk Willem te Velde, Isabella Massa and Massimiliano Calì, Supporting Investment and Private Sector Development in Times of Crisis: Strategies for Small States, ISBN 978-1-84929-017-3

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