Ainashe.net

Following are few extracts from the transcript of the Daily Press Briefing at the United States Department of State in Washington, DC.

Tom Casey, Acting Spokesman
Washington, DC
June 2, 2006

QUESTION: Are you concerned at the growing importance of China and Africa and would you be looking at other trading blocs and their interest within China?

MS. THOMAS-GREENFIELD: I think —

QUESTION: Within Africa, sorry.

MS. THOMAS-GREENFIELD: Yeah. I think concern is not the word. I think we’re watching it very closely. But there is lots of room for every country to do trade and development in Africa.

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Andrew McGregor writes:

As the insurgencies in Afghanistan and Iraq continue to dominate headlines, a new front in the war on terrorism has opened in Somalia. At a brutal cost to Mogadishu’s civilian population, once-discredited warlords have reinvented themselves as “counter-terrorists,” seeking and apparently gaining U.S. support by characterizing their Islamist opponents as agents of al-Qaeda. The warlords have grouped together as the Anti-Terrorism Alliance (ATA) and insist they are dedicated to expelling foreign al-Qaeda members they allege are sheltered by the Islamic Court Union (ICU). Although nearly all the ATA warlords are cabinet ministers in the new Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) located in Baidoa, they have abandoned the TFG to pursue an unauthorized war against their Islamist rivals in Mogadishu. Allegations of U.S. funding for the unpopular ATA leaders are undermining U.S. efforts to stabilize the region.

Click here to view the full report on the Jamestown Foundation (Global Terrorism Analysis)

Following is the entire text of a Press Release by the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs:

Press release
01 June 2006
Ministry for Foreign Affairs

Press invitation: Annika Söder to meet Somalia’s Minister of Planning and International Cooperation. State Secretary Annika Söder and Abdirizak Osman Hassan, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation in Somalia’s transitional government, will hold a press conference at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs on Friday 2 June at 12.30.

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Following is the text of today’s (May 31.06) Press Statement delivered by Acting Security Council President Pascal Gayama ( Congo):

The members of the Security Council received a briefing on 30 May 2006 from the Department of Political Affairs, related to the recent developments in Somalia. They strongly condemned the resumption of fighting in Mogadishu. The members of the Security Council expressed their deep concern over the loss of life, suffering and the renewed violence against the civilian populations.

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