Israel urged to treat Palestinian child detainees in accordance with rights law – UN

UN News Centre, 20 July 2012

Special Rapporteur Richard Falk. UN Photo/Jess Hoffman

20 July 2012 – A United Nations independent human rights expert today condemned Israel’s use of solitary confinement against Palestinian children, and urged the Israeli Government to treat such detainees in accordance with international human rights laws.

“Israel’s use of solitary confinement against children flagrantly violates international human rights standards,” the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Richard Falk, said in a news release.

“However, using solitary confinement as a punishment for Palestinian children who wish to peacefully protest their situation, including by commencing a hunger strike against conditions of detention, is an appalling abuse of child prisoners,” he added. “I again condemn Israel’s harsh arrest operations and procedures.”

Mr. Falk’s comments came in the wake of earlier concerns on the issue, raised today by the UN Special Committee on Israeli practices in the Occupied Territories, at the end of a fact-finding mission to Jordan, Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

“According to testimony received, Israel uses solitary confinement against 12 per cent of Palestinian child detainees,” the Special Committee’s Chairperson, Ambassador Palitha T.B. Kohona of Sri Lanka, said in a news release. “This is especially troubling when one considers that Israel arrests about 500 to 700 Palestinian children every year.”

The Special Committee also warned that a pattern of detaining and mistreating children “links to broader, longstanding concerns regarding Israel detention of Palestinians generally.”

“Witnesses informed the Committee that mistreatment of Palestinian children starts from the moment of detention,” Mr. Kohona said. “Large numbers are routinely detained. Children’s homes are surrounded by Israeli soldiers late at night, sound grenades are fired into the houses, doors are broken down, live shots are often fired; no warrant is presented. Children are tightly bound, blindfolded and forced into the backs of military vehicles.”

The Special Committee head said that parents are not allowed to accompany the detainees, and that family members are insulted, intimidated and at times physically assaulted. According to witnesses, the detention and transfer of children can last for hours, and can often include stops in Israeli settlements, Israeli checkpoints and police or military bases.

“This pattern of abuse by Israel is grave,” said Special Rapporteur Falk. “It is inhumane, cruel, degrading, and unlawful, and, most worryingly, it is likely to adversely affect the mental and physical health of underage detainees.”

The Special Rapporteur appealed to the Government of Israel to take urgent steps to bring their treatment of Palestinian children detainees into line with international human rights laws, in particular the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which spells out the basic human rights that children everywhere have.

In its preliminary observations in the wake of its fact-finding mission, the Special Committee drew attention to two further areas of immediate concern in the West bank, including East Jerusalem: the Israeli practice of demolishing Palestinian homes, and violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians.

The Special Committee also assessed the economic impact of the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip.

“These Israeli practices lead the Special Committee to one over-arching and deeply troubling conclusion,” Mr. Kohona said. “The mass imprisonment of Palestinians; the routine demolition of homes and the displacement of Palestinians; the widespread violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians; and the blockade and resultant reliance on illegal smuggling to survive; these practices amount to a strategy to either force the Palestinian people off their land or so severely marginalize them as to establish and maintain a system of permanent oppression.”

The Special Committee will present a mission report to the UN General Assembly in November, with its observations and recommendations to improve the human rights situation.

Independent experts, or special rapporteurs, are appointed by the Geneva-based Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not United Nations staff, nor are they paid for their work.

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UN high court calls for trial of former Chad president

Deutsche Welle, 20 July 2012

The UN's highest judicial body has said that a former Chadian dictator should be tried for crimes against humanity. It is a landmark ruling that could make other exiled autocrats very nervous.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday ruled that Senegal should put the former president of Chad, Hissene Habre, on trial or extradite him, in a landmark case that could have repercussions for other exiled former leaders with checkered pasts.

The ICJ's rulings are binding; the institution is the UN's highest judicial organ.

Habre is currently in exile in Senegal, living in a luxury villa, and Dakar has so far failed to hand him over to be tried. Senegal has so far countered accusations that it is breaching international convention obligations by pointing out that it is itself planning to try Habre. But Senegal made that promise in 2000 and has still not delivered.

A long time coming

The ruling comes after pressure from a team of lawyers in Brussels, which initially asked the ICJ to order Senegal to hand the ex-leader over to be tried in Brussels. The attempt by authorities in Brussels to nail Habre goes back some years. It was in 2005, after receiving complaints from survivors of his rule, that they indicted Habre and first called for his extradition.

If Chad's former strongman is tried, whether in Senegal or in Brussels, he is expected to face charges of crimes against humanity and torture during his 1982 to 1990 reign over the Central African Nation.

According to a Human Rights Watch report, Habre seized power and then proceeded to violently smash his opposition until he was ousted in 1990.  A Chadian commission of inquiry also found that Habre's power apparatus was responsible for the killing and torture of tens of thousands of political opponents.

sej/slk (AP, Reuters)

Ethiopia's Meles in 'stable' health, to take leave

AFP/Google, by Jenny Vaughan (AFP), 19 July 2012

ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, a key regional strongman in the volatile Horn of Africa, is in "stable" health but has been told to take some leave, a government spokesman said Thursday.

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi

 pictured in Nairobi in March 2012 

(AFP/File, Simon Maina)

"He has been given the necessary medical treatment by his doctors, and at this point his health condition is very good and stable," Bereket Simon told journalists. "The issue of stepping down has not been raised."

However "doctors have advised him to take a certain leave of absence so that he could have rapid recuperation and recovery" and have advised him to "stay out of active government functions," the spokesman added.

He was unable to say how long the leave of absence would last but said "it will be not too long" and that "we are expecting him to be back in days."

The 57-year-old premier has not been seen in public since June and missed an African Union summit hosted in the Ethiopian capital last weekend, prompting speculation over the former Marxist rebel's health.

Benin's president and current AU chairman Thomas Boni Yayi said at the opening of the summit that the "unusual absence... cannot go unnoticed, because we know that Mr Meles is full of dynamism and leadership in our meetings."

Diplomatic sources told AFP in Brussels on Wednesday that Meles was in hospital in a life-threatening condition.

"He is in a critical state, his life is in danger," said one diplomat.

"He is in a critical state but is alive," said another.

Earlier this week Meles's wife, Azeb Mesfin, herself a lawmaker, declined to talk to reporters about her husband's health.

Bereket refused to discuss Meles' ailment other than to say: "It's not brain cancer, it's not whatever the detractors say.

"It's a recent phenomenon and we hope it will go away as soon as possible," he said, conceding that Meles could have been suffering from the undisclosed illness "for longer than we know."

Meles, who toppled the bloody dictatorship of Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991, has said he will stand down at the end of his current term in 2015.

Bereket made no mention of who was running the country during Meles' absence.

Ethiopia's constitution does not provide any replacement procedure for the prime minister but stipulates that the deputy prime minister should "act on his behalf" if he is absent.

Hailemariam Deselgn, 47, who has been deputy prime minister and foreign minister since 2010, should therefore be running day-to-day affairs.

Bereket said the workload Meles has been shouldering was "enormous" and that the ruling party, formerly a rebel group headed by Meles, has been saying a "new batch of leaders should come so that they should receive the baton."

The Ethiopian prime minister is either hailed as a visionary or criticized for ruling the country with an iron fist. Under Meles Ethiopia has proved a key ally of the US in its fight against Islamists in the Horn of Africa.

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Aids breakthrough as study says treatment should cost less

Clinton Foundation delivers report showing cost of treating people with HIV is four times less than previously thought

guardian.co.uk, Sarah Boseley, health editor, Friday 20 July 2012

Bill Clinton with school pupils in Matugga, Uganda. The former US president

 has hailed the results of the Clinton Foundation study. Photograph: 

Kasamani Isaac/AFP

Lack of money can no longer be considered a reason – or an excuse – for failing to treat all those with HIV who need drugs to stay alive, following game-changing work about to be published by the Clinton Foundation that shows the real cost is four times less than previously thought.

The striking findings of a substantial study carried out in five countries of sub-Saharan Africa are hugely important and will set a new hopeful tone for the International Aids Conference in Washington DC, which opens on Sunday. It will help make the argument for President Obama and other international donors to dig deeper into their pockets – because the cost of saving lives, slowing the spread of HIV and achieving the ambition of an Aids-free world is lower than anyone assumed.

The work by the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) shows that the total cost of treatment in health facilities – including drugs, lab tests, health workers' salaries and other overheads – comes to an average of $200 a patient a year across Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia – four of the Aids-hit African nations studied. That rises to $682 in South Africa, which has higher salaries and lab costs.

Until now the generally accepted total cost of treating a patient for a year was an average of $880 – based on a study by the US president's emergency plan for Aids relief (Pepfar) released at the last International Aids Conference two years ago in Vienna.

Bernhard Schwartländer, director of strategy at UNAIDS, believes the CHAI work should lead to new optimism. "I think the cost argument is just a false argument and it has been used as an escape. We do need more money but it is not at a level that will be impossible," he said.

The costings are particularly important in the wake of recent scientific findings that show putting people on antiretroviral drugs makes them far less likely to infect others – helping to stop the spread of HIV as well as keeping people alive. CHAI will also announce that it has negotiated down the prices of some of the newer and most important drugs needed for treatment by around a third.

Former US president Bill Clinton hailed the findings as evidence that all 15 million people with HIV in need of treatment could affordably get it — the target for 2015. At the moment, 8 million are being treated. "We now have compelling evidence that universal access to high-quality HIV treatment is achievable, sustainable, and within our means," said Clinton.

"Together, the costing study and price reductions open the door to scaling up and sustaining services for the 7 million people who currently lack access to HIV treatment. Providing treatment will save lives and help prevent the spread of HIV."

CHAI worked with the Centre for Global Development and the governments of those African countries involved to collect data from 161 health facilities for the last financial year on record – mostly 2010.

The original aim of the study was to find out whether there was any potential to reduce waste, cut costs and save money, but researchers found salaries and other costs were already so low that this was unlikely, except possibly in South Africa.

Average costs per patient were lowest in Malawi, at $136 a year. That rose to $186 in Ethiopia, $232 in Rwanda and $278 in Zambia. Nearly half the cost, on average, was the price of drugs – which will increase slightly as countries begin to use more effective and more expensive drugs now recommended by the World Health Organisation. CHAI, however, is about to announce a deal with generic drug companies, which will reduce tenofovir-based regimens, which are the "gold-standard" in the USA and recommended by the World Health Organisation, to $125 from $409. CHAI says this will save countries over $500 million between now and 2015.

Kate Condliffe, executive vice-president for health programmes at CHAI, said finances were thought to be a bottleneck to expanding the numbers of drugs in many countries. "The perception that treatment costs are higher is casting a cloud over conversations on how to accelerate treatments," she said.

"You sit through conversations on treatment and prevention where there should be incredible optimism, given the science, and yet there is concern about feasibility and cost that lead to an incremental approach."

But while there are not huge opportunities to save money on treatment in the clinics, there is a disparity between the costs at health facilities and the costs at government level. That was illustrated this week in the major UNAIDS report, which referred to national costs in Zambia – around a third higher than costs in the clinic.

Schwartländer said that even if one assumed a cost of $300 a patient a year, the bill to put 20 million people on HIV treatment would be $6bn a year. "It is not outrageous. It can really be handled," he said.

"Look at the amount of money moving around in low-income countries. $6bn should not shock us – it is not impossible. We need a different view from that of the 'treatment timebomb'."

An Aids treatment clinic in South Africa – a study says the average cost
 of treatment in Africa should be $200. Photograph: Stephane De Sakutin/
AFP/Getty Images

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Vast aquifer found in Namibia could last for centuries

BBC News, by Matt McGrath, Science reporter, 20 July 2012

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Pressure from the aquifer means
the water is cheap to extract

A newly discovered water source in Namibia could have a major impact on development in the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa.

Estimates suggest the aquifer could supply the north of the country for 400 years at current rates of consumption.

Scientists say the water is up to 10,000 years old but is cleaner to drink than many modern sources.

However, there are concerns that unauthorised drilling could threaten the new supply.

Huge resource

For the people of northern Namibia water is something that they either have too much of or too little.

The 800,000 people who live in the area depend for their drinking water on a 40-year-old canal that brings the scarce resource across the border from Angola.

Over the past decade the Namibian government have been trying to tackle the lack of a sustainable supply in partnership with researchers from Germany and other EU countries.

They have now identified a new aquifer called Ohangwena II, which flows under the boundary between Angola and Namibia.

On the Namibian side of the border it covers an area roughly 70 km by 40 km (43 miles by 25 miles).

According to project manager Martin Quinger, from the German federal institute for geoscience and natural resources (BGR), it's a substantial body of water.

"The amount of stored water would equal the current supply of this area in northern Namibia for 400 years, which has about 40 percent of the nation's population."

"What we are aiming at is a sustainable water supply so we only extract the amount of water that is being recharged.

"What we can say is that the huge amount of stored water is will always be enough for a back up for an area that is currently supplied only by surface water." 

Test drilling on the new aquifer

This region is dependent on two rivers for its water supply. But this has restricted agricultural development to areas close to these water sources. Mr Quinger says that the new aquifer has great potential to change the nature of farming in the area.

"For the rural water supply the water will be well suited for irrigation and stock watering, the possibilities that we open with this alternative resource are quite massive." he explains.

As well as providing a new source for agriculture in a region the aquifer will augment existing potable supplies. Martin Quinger says the discovery may be up to 10,000 years old but it is still good to drink.

"If the water [has spent] 10,000 years underground, it means it was recharged at a time when environmental pollution was not yet an issue, so on average it can be a lot better than water that infiltrates in cycles of months or years."

Dangerous drilling

The natural pressure that the water is under means that it is easy and cheap to extract. But because a smaller salty aquifer sits on top of the new find it raises the possibility that unauthorised drilling could threaten the quality of the water.

Martin Quinger says that random drilling into the aquifer could be dangerous.

"If people don't comply with our technical recommendations they might create a hydraulic shortcut between the two aquifers which might lead to the salty water from the upper one contaminating the deep one or vice versa."

One of the biggest advantages of the new aquifer could be in helping people cope with climate change.

The researchers estimate that it could act as a natural buffer for up to 15 years of drought.

As well as identifying the new water source a key aim for the researchers involved is to develop the capacity among young Namibians to manage their country's water resources before the funding from the EU runs out.

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Tutu calls for end to gay stigma to help tackle HIV

BBC News, 20 July 2012

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Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called for homosexuality to be decriminalised to help tackle HIV.

His comments come in an analysis in The Lancet journal of why incidence of the virus continues to grow among men who have sex with men.

Dr Tutu said anti-homosexuality laws would in the future be seen as "wrong" as apartheid laws are now.

Campaigners said it was important for community leaders to speak out.

The archbishop is patron of the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, based in Cape Town, which provides treatment for HIV and carries out research.

Writing in The Lancet, he said: "In the future, the laws that criminalise so many forms of human love and commitment will look the way apartheid laws do to us now - so obviously wrong.

"Never let anyone make you feel inferior for being who you are. When you live the life you were meant to live, in freedom and dignity".

Also writing in The Lancet, an international team of researchers, led by Prof Chris Beyrer of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the US, said men who have sex with men (MSM) bore a "disproportionate burden" of HIV.

The fact HIV was first identified in gay men has "indelibly marked the global response" and "stigmatised those living with the virus", they said.

The researchers' paper said there was optimism among HIV specialists about the potential to use prevention, such as the drug Truvada, to reduce levels of HIV in men who have sex with men.

Earlier this week, the US Food and Drug Administration approved Truvada for preventative use in those at high risk of infection and who may engage in sexual activity with HIV-infected partners, the first time it has approved a drug to prevent HIV infection.

'Struggle for equity'

But the international team said the picture was very different in many other countries.

"In too many settings in 2012, MSM still do not have access to the most basic of HIV services and technologies such as affordable and accessible condoms, appropriate lubricants and safe HIV testing and counselling," they said.

"The struggle for equity in HIV services is likely to be inseparably linked to the struggle for sexual minority rights—and hence to be both a human rights struggle, and in many countries, a civil rights one."

The paper, published on the eve of the international Aids 2012 conference, adds that by the end of 2011, only 87 countries had reported prevalence of HIV in MSM.

Data is most sparse in the Middle East and Africa, where homosexual activity is a criminal offence.

The researchers call for same-sex relations to be decriminalised in all countries, so that a true picture of the scale of HIV in men who have sex with men can be ascertained.

A spokeswoman for the UK's Terrence Higgins Trust said: "We've got to have community leaders and people with influence speaking out.

"That's why what Desmond Tutu is saying is so important."

And she said it was right to focus efforts on men who have sex with men, in all countries.

She added: "In London, one in seven gay men has HIV."

This 2011 file photo shows two women, both active duty sailors in the Navy
 who gave their names as Nikki, left, and Lisa, kiss as they march in the Gay
 Pride Parade in San Diego. The Defense Department on Thursday announced it
 is allowing service members to march in uniform in a gay pride parade for the first
 time in US history. The department said it was making the exception for Saturday's
 San Diego's Gay Pride Parade because organizers had encouraged military personnel
 to march in their uniform and the event was getting national attention. (AP Photo/
 Gregory Bull, File)

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About the Challenges of Being a Gay Man – Oct 23, 2010 (Saint Germain channelled by Alexandra Mahlimay and Dan Bennack) - “You see, your Soul and Creator are not concerned with any perspective you have that contradicts the reality of your Divinity – whether this be your gender, your sexual preference, your nationality – or your race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, or anything else.”

"The Akashic System" – Jul 17, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Religion, The Humanization of God, Benevolent Design, DNA, Akashic Circle, (Old) Souls, Gaia, Indigenous People, Talents, Reincarnation, Genders, Gender Switches, In “between” Gender Change, Gender Confusion, Shift of Human Consciousness, Global Unity,..... etc.)  - (Text version)

Saudi Arabia Helps Morocco Kick-Start Solar Program

Forbes, Christopher Coats, Contributor, Green Tech, Jul 19, 2012

English: Photovoltaic Micro-plants by
Isofoton (Morocco) (Photo credit:
Wikipedia)

Hailed as the next green energy leader in the sun-soaked Mediterranean, Morocco has been taking steps towards reaching a 40 percent renewable mix by 2020, essentially doubling even Europe’s clean energy goals. However, figuring out just how a country with little in the way of domestic energy reserves and rather unsustainable public spending obligations is going to pay for it all has remained a sticking point for all concerned.

The last few months have done little to remedy this situation. To the north, the country’s main trading partners and potential investors continue to struggle with a seemingly endless economic crisis. Closer to home, government spending has continued to rise in step with efforts to curb the kind of growing public protests that led to challenges to the government in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. Taken with a nation-wide drought, the situation has left Morocco posting a modest 2.5 to 3 percent growth rate for the year.

Enter Saudi Arabia. This week saw an anonymous government source tell Reuters that Morocco state officials had all but decided that they would team with Saudi Arabia’s International Company for Water and Power (ACWA) to kick start what amounts to the first stage of the country’s sprawling solar plan outside the southern town of Ouarzazate – a 160 MW component of a 6 GW overall renewable strategy planned over the next eight years. The public-private effort will cost about $500 million and include an agreement with ACWA to handle financing, design, construction and maintenance of the plant.

The broader plan, which was initiated in 2009, promises 2 GW from wind power (300 MW are already installed) and 2GW from a planned 5 solar projects across the country, amounting to about 18 percent of Morocco’s energy demand, with construction planned between 2014 and 2020, according to a Saudi Gazette report. The remaining renewable options will come from hydro and biomass projects.

While an official government announcement on the project funding and partnership has not been offered, the reported step forward is welcome news for the country’s green energy advocates, both at home and those associated with the German-led Desertec initiative. While the far-reaching Desertec renewable energy project includes green energy projects from Tunis to Cairo, Morocco has emerged as the program’s best bet for a successful anchor project thanks to their early adoption and support for solar and wind efforts.

Still, there is a long road ahead for the North African nation’s renewable energy dreams, not least because of recent increases in government spending green advocates would have rather seen go towards project and infrastructure development. Over the past year, public program spending from Rabat has increased in response to growing political protests, with new subsidies and job efforts aimed at calming potential opposition movements. While early efforts combined with elections and pledges for constitutional reforms helped ease the tension, sustaining such spending with minimal natural resource revenue is becoming an increasingly difficult task to keep up.

Dependent on exports for much of their energy needs and largely free of domestic oil and gas resources, Morocco launched their 2009 renewable energy program as a part of a diversification effort that has included traditional projects and beefing up the country’s role as an energy transport hub. Looking beyond green options, Morocco has also stepped up traditional energy license offers as well as exploring offshore drilling efforts, though there is far less confidence in that sector’s potential. Earlier this year, Tangiers opened an expanded storage facility for oil, gas and other refined materials aimed at the more than 70,000 ships that pass through the Strait of Gibraltar each year.

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Ex-Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman dies

Deutsche Welle, 19 July 2012

Egypt’s former intelligence chief has died. Omar Suleiman had served under deposed leader Hosni Mubarak for over 20 years. He had tried to come back into power as a presidential candidate during Egypt’s May elections.

Egypt's long-time intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, has died. Suleiman passed away early Thursday in a US hospital after undergoing medical tests, according to the official Middle East News Agency. Aides to Suleiman said that his death came unexpectedly, but did not indicate the cause.

“His health deteriorated recently. He was in the United States with his family," one of his aides, Reem Mamdouh, told AFP.

The family was reportedly making plans to return Suleiman's body to Egypt for burial.

Best known for role in Mubarak's regime

Suleiman, who was born in the southern city of Qena in 1936, was best known as Egypt's intelligence director. He began his military career after graduating from Egypt's military academy in 1955.

Deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak promoted Suleiman to director of the country's intelligence service in 1991. During his nearly 20 years as a top-ranking official, Suleiman became a key negotiator in diplomatic relations between Egypt and Israel, the US, and Palestinian factions.

Mubarak appointed Suleiman to vice president in January 2011 during the uprising. After Mubarak's regime fell, Suleiman disappeared from the public, only to return last spring as a presidential candidate. Egypt's election commission denied his request because he had not collected the required number of signatures.

Suleiman left Egypt soon after being disqualified from the presidential election.

kms/msh (AP, AFP, Reuters)

China offers $20bn in loans to Africa

Hu Jintao pledges to 'expand aid to Africa, so that the benefits of development can be realised by the African people'

guardian.co.uk, Reuters in Beijing, Thursday 19 July 2012

Chinese president Hu Jintao with South African president Jacob Zuma at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Photograph: Andy Wong/AFP/Getty Images

Chinese President Hu Jintao has offered $20bn (£12bn) in loans to African countries over the next three years, boosting a relationship that has been criticised by the west and given Beijing growing access to the resource-rich continent.

The loans offered were double the amount China pledged for the previous three-year period in 2009 and is the latest in a string of aid and credit provided to African countries.

The pledge is likely to boost China's good relations with Africa, which supplies it with oil and raw materials such as copper and uranium.

But the loans could add to discomfort in the west, which criticises China for overlooking human rights abuses in its business dealings with Africa, especially in Beijing's desire to feed its booming economy.

Hu brushed off such concerns in his speech at the Great Hall of the People, attended by leaders including South African president Jacob Zuma and Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema, a man widely condemned by rights groups as one of the world's most corrupt leaders.

"China wholeheartedly and sincerely supports African countries to choose their own development path, and will wholeheartedly and sincerely support them to raise their development ability," Hu said.

China will "continue to steadfastly stand together with the African people, and will forever be a good friend, a good partner and a good brother", he added at the summit held every three years since 2000.

Hu also pledged to "continue to expand aid to Africa, so that the benefits of development can be realised by the African people". He did not provide an amount.

Hu said the new loans would support infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing and development of small and medium-sized businesses in Africa.

Aid history

Critics say China supports African governments with dubious human rights records as a means to get access to resources.

The EU has rejected what they call China's cheque book approach to doing business with Africa, saying it would continue to demand good governance and the transparent use of funds from its trading partners.

Such criticism draws rebukes from China that the west still views Africa as though it were a colony. Many African countries say they appreciate China's no-strings approach to aid.

"Africa's past economic experience with Europe dictates a need to be cautious when entering into partnerships with other countries," Zuma told the forum.

"We are particularly pleased that in our relationship with China we are equals and that agreements entered into are for mutual gain," Zuma added.

"We certainly are convinced that China's intention is different to that of Europe, which to date continues to intend to influence African countries for their sole benefit."

China's friendship with Africa dates back to the 1950s, when Beijing backed liberation movements in the continent fighting to throw off western colonial rule.

Chinese state-owned firms in Africa also face criticism for using imported labour to build government-financed projects such as roads and hospitals, while pumping out raw resources and processing them in China, leaving little for local economies.

"Certainly quite a number of us are thinking we need to move into more value addition," South African's trade and industry minister Rob Davies said.

"We need to export mineral products in a more processed form ... We need to bite this bullet very seriously."

Trade has jumped in the past decade, driven by Chinese hunger for resources to power its economic boom and African demand for cheap Chinese products.

China's trade with Africa reached $166.3 billion in 2011, according to Chinese statistics. In the past decade, African exports to China rose to $93.2 billion from $5.6 billion.

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Syria crisis enters new phase of uncertainty

• White House says Assad is losing control

• UN security council votes today on sanctions

• Assad's wife Asma believed to be in Russia

guardian.co.uk, Ian Black, Martin Chulov and agencies, Thursday 19 July 2012

Damascus streets have seen open clashes between Free Syrian Army
soldiers and government forces. Photograph: Ugarit News/AP

Syria's uprising has entered uncharted territory after rebels fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad killed three of his top security chiefs in a devastating bomb attack in the heart of Damascus on Wednesday – the single worst loss for the government in 16 months of increasingly bloody struggle.

Mass defections of soldiers and a rampage by pro-regime militiamen were reported in the capital amid a swirl of rumours, including one that Assad's wife, Asma, had fled to Russia and another that troops were being issued with gas masks, raising fears of the use of chemical weapons.

The president's whereabouts was also unclear, with one unconfirmed report that he had been wounded and left Damascus for Latakia on the coast.

The White House spokesman, Jay Carney, said it was "clear that Assad is losing control".

He told reporters: "All of our partners internationally need to come together to support a transition."

The UN security council is due to vote on western-backed resolution at 2pm BST on Thursday that threatens sanctions against the Assad government if it fails to withdraw troops and heavy weapons from populated areas.

The resolution is being tabled under chapter seven of the UN Charter, which could ultimately authorise force. Russia has said it will veto any chapter seven resolution. The US and Russian UN ambassadors met on Wednesday without reaching agreement.

David Cameron, meeting British troops in Afghanistan, said it was time for Assad to go and called on China and Russia to support the resolution.

Reports from Damascus on Wednesday described loud explosions, gunfire in the streets, attack helicopters firing and clouds of smoke over residential areas.

Earlier, Syrian state TV confirmed the deaths of Assef Shawkat, Assad's brother-in-law and the deputy head of the armed forces, and his closest security adviser, as well as Dawoud Rajha, the minister of defence and the regime's most senior Christian figure. Hassan Turkmani, his crisis management chief, was also killed.

Other leading figures, including the interior minister, Mohammad Shaar, and the intelligence chief, Hisham Bekhtyar, were wounded and being treated in the capital's al-Shami hospital. Uncertainty about the precise circumstances of the attack immediately gave rise to feverish speculation about possible internecine killings which the regime could blame on its enemies.

Explosions were also reported from the headquarters of the army's 4th Division in Damascus – the regime's elite unit commanded by Assad's brother, Maher.

Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, said a "decisive battle" had begun in Syria. Lavrov also made it clear that Moscow would oppose a draft UN security council resolution threatening punishment if Assad did not implement the UN-backed peace plan promoted by Kofi Annan.

In Syria, the Local Co-ordination Committees, an activist network, said 102 people had been killed in fighting across the country.

The morning attack on the headquarters of Syria's national security council in the al-Rawda area was the most audacious yet by anti-Assad rebels, who have been fighting sporadically in parts of the capital for the past four days. Syrian television said it was a suicide attack, and it was rumoured that the suspected killer may have been a bodyguard for Rajha or another member of Assad's inner circle. One pro-regime source in Damascus told the Guardian it was possible a bomb could have been planted on the premises.

The attack certainly appeared to be a deadly blow to the heart of the regime after two recent high-level defections – by a senior Republican Guard commander and Syria's ambassador to Iraq.

Syrian state television said foreign-backed "terrorists" had carried out the attack. The country's armed forces said in a statement that Syria was "determined to confront all forms of terrorism and chop off any hand that harms national security".

"The opposition has hit the jackpot," said Nadim Shehadi, a Middle East analyst at Chatham House in London. "The consequences are too big to digest. It may provoke more violence by the regime. Everyone is revising their calculations.

"People will be deciding whether to defect or not and the Russians will be wondering if they have backed the wrong horse," he said.

The attack was claimed by the Free Syrian Army, the main armed opposition group. "God willing, this is the beginning of the end of the regime," its commander, Riad al-Asaad, told AP in a telephone interview from Turkey. "Hopefully, Bashar will be next." An Islamist group called Liwa al-Islam also claimed responsibility.

Syrian state television, which was uncharacteristically quick to report the news, also said the military would call up its reserve forces on Thursday morning. Replacements for the three dead men were quickly announced.

General Fahd Jassem al-Freij, Rajha's replacement, denied reports on Arab satellite television channels about military defections in Idlib and Damascus and explosions at 4th Division HQ.

Rumours spread wildly in the hours after the incident, though much information was impossible to verify. According to one pro-government source, FSA rebels began moving around in pick-up trucks to demonstrate that they controlled parts of the city. Ba'ath party members had been executed by FSA men, the source said.

Damascus residents contacted by the Guardian said there had been no audible blast or visible damage at the site. Other Syrian sources suggested – without offering any evidence – that the three security chiefs might have been killed by the regime to forestall a possible coup or remove potential replacements for Assad.

"Either the generals were preparing a coup or if not there must be an intelligence operation here," said one Syrian analyst.

There were also widespread reports of defections in central Damascus as well as in the cities of Homs and Hama. Activists reported that several tanks had been abandoned near the centre of the capital and that several combat units had defected en masse. These reports could not be confirmed.

One activist, Omar al-Dimashki, said large numbers of troops and plainclothes police were deployed in the streets after the bombing, with snipers taking up positions on high buildings.

Shawkat, married to Assad's sister Bushra, was one of the most feared figures in the president's inner circle and had won the support of the clan's influential matriarch, Anisa. He was one of three central figures in the regime crackdown, along with Assad himself and his brother, Maher. As Syria's overall security chief, he had key input into all military and intelligence operations. He is known to have survived an attempt to poison him in late May when a cook contaminated food that had been prepared for him and key members of the national security ministry.

Abu Hamza, of the Free Syrian Army, told the Guardian at the time that rebel forces were trying to recruit aides of regime figures to carry out future attacks. "We have had some success with this," he said. "Some have been with us for a long time and have not yet been given orders to move."

Shawkat had also been a key point-man with Iran and with Hezbollah. Since the uprising started he had chaired key strategy meetings and had driven the regime's uncompromising and aggressive military response to the escalating dissent.

Rajha, a former general and an Orthodox Christian, was appointed defence minister last year in an apparent attempt by the Alawite-dominated regime to appoint a minority figure to a key job.

Prospects for any kind of negotiations between the government and rebels, always slim, have now all but disappeared.

Pro-regime Syrians appeared deeply shocked. "A lot of pro-Assad people are really panicking," said an opposition activist. "Now they sound really nervous."

Assad supporters admitted the attack was a serious blow. "This will not be the end of the regime in any way," said a member of Assad's Alawite community. "But it is serious and people are traumatised at the fact that the opposition managed to assassinate these people. But government supporters want the government to be firm and show it is still in control. The Syrian government is not usually impulsive."

Bashar al-Assad, centre, with Hassan Turkmani, right, in 2005.

 Turkmani died in the bomb blast on 18 July along with Assef Shawkat, 

Assad’s brother-in-law, and Dawoud Rajha, defence minister. 

Photograph: Sana/AP

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