The Karen are the third largest ethnic minority that is stateless. Most of the Karen live in Myanmar near the border with Thailand. There are an estimated 500,000 Karen refugees in Thailand.
Ethnic Karen fighters have been battling Myanmar’s government for 60 years with the aim of establishing an independent homeland. But many soldiers and refugees say their hope of returning home is fading.
Somalia was racked by violence since mid-May, as suspected Islamist insurgents killed government soldiers and seized territories throughout the capital, Mogadishu, in a backlash against a US missile strike that killed a leader who the US says had links to Al Qaeda.
A suicide bombing in western Somalia killed at least 20 people Thursday including the national security minister. The Somali president blamed al-Qaida while an extremist group with alleged links to the terror network claimed responsibility.
Witness Mohamed Nur said a small car headed toward the gate of the Medina Hotel in Belet Weyne, then drove into vehicles leaving the hotel and exploded.
Information Minister Farhan Ali Mohamud announced the death of National Security Minister Omar Hashi Aden but declined to give any other details.
Somalia’s president accused al-Qaida of being behind the bombing but did not offer any evidence. He said the attack also killed a senior Somali diplomat.
“It was an act of terrorism and it is part of the terrorist attack on our people,” Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed told journalists in the capital. “Al-Qaida is attacking us.”
Al-Shabab spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage told local radio stations by phone that his group carried out the attack and that one of their fighters died.
“We killed the national security minister and the former ambassador to Ethiopia,” said Rage, speaking from an undisclosed location.
Al-Shabab, an extremist Somali Islamic group, is considered by the U.S. State Department to be a terrorist organization with links to al-Qaida, the terror network headed by Osama bin Laden. But al-Shabab has denied those links to the international group.
The United States accuses al-Shabab of harboring al-Qaida-linked terrorists who allegedly blew up U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. The United States has attempted to kill suspected al-Qaida members in Somalia several times with airstrikes.
Climate change presents a challenge to resilient and durable economic growth across Africa. However, international discussions, particularly on adaptation and deforestation, remain broad, top-down and do not adequately leverage the private sector.
What domestic initiatives can most effectively address the challenges to natural resources, infrastructure and growth that different countries in Africa face because of climate change?
How can these be bundled together to provide a bottom-up directive from the major economies in Africa to the UN negotiations in December 2009?
Panelists
Marcus Agius, Chairman, Barclays, United Kingdom
Tom Boardman, Chief Executive, Nedbank Group, South Africa
Robert M. Godsell, Non-Executive Chairman, Eskom Holdings, South Africa
Buyelwa Patience Sonjica, Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs of South Africa
Ulla Tørnæs, Minister for Development Cooperation of Denmark
Chaired by Christopher Burns, TV Reporter, Bloomberg, Belgium