The Guardian 17 May, 2006
Global briefs
LAOS: The Lao People’s Revolutionary Party has won almost all seats in parliament at the recent general elections (April 30, 2006). The party won 113 of 115 seats, with the two seats going to independent candidates. Speaking at a meeting to assess the elections, the President of National Assembly thanked the election committees at all levels for making it possible for all eligible voters to exercise their democratic right to vote. More than half of the newly-elected members of parliament are newcomers. Laos has a population of 5.9 million people, and while currently one of Asia’s poorest nations it achieved an average GDP growth rate of 6 percent annually between 1988 and 2004. The growth during 2005 was 7.2 percent.
ANGOLA: When the brutal 27-year-long civil war in the southern Africa country ended in 2002, the country embarked on a desperately needed reconstruction program. Angola is one of the largest oil-producing countries in sub-Saharan Africa, second only to Nigeria. Offshore oil platforms pump 1.4 million barrels a day, and volume is expected to increase to 2 million barrels in the next six months. While the lucrative oil industry has helped fill the national coffers and, according to the UN new agency IRIN, made Angola one of the world’s fastest growing economies in the world, the country’s rural provinces — long neglected throughout years of war and colonialism — remain isolated. Once home to a thriving agricultural economy, these provinces are now without roads, schools, markets, jobs and health clinics. A senior UN official stressed building a viable infrastructure in the provinces is essential for progress. China is involved in building a $240 million highway to connect Luanda, the capital, to towns in the north.
PALESTINE: At the same time Palestinians are confronted with a virtual economic siege, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East issued a protest to the Israeli government for restricting movement of UNRWA staff from the West Bank to Jerusalem last week. UNRWA’s work is centred on humanitarian relief and emergency aid, both of which have become even more critical as the Palestinian economy remains in an economic stranglehold imposed by Israel, the US and the European Union.
MEXICO: The town of San Salvador Atenco near Mexico City was besieged last week by hundreds of Federal Preventative Police who ransacked homes and attacked residents in a door-to-door rampage. The activist "autonomous" community is the home base of Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra, the People’s Front in Defence of the Land, which after years of struggle, successfully defeated a US$2 billion airport project slated for construction on their communally owned land.