Full length National Geographic documentary on illicit diamond trafficing.
Long a symbol of love, affection, and faithfulness, the diamond is now increasingly linked with war, blood and brutality. In the diamond rich West African nation of Sierra Leone, rebels used the precious gems to bankroll a violent ten-year insurrection, leaving a terrorized population and a ravaged [...]

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Russia’s use of companies such as OAO Gazprom, the world’s largest natural gas producer, to buy energy assets in Africa may thwart U.S. efforts to limit the role of oil and gas as political weapons wielded from Moscow.

Getty Images Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (left) and Gazprom chief Alexei Miller visit the Sevmash shipyard in [...]

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More strategic unhelpfulness out of China.
From the article:
The BBC has found the first evidence that China is currently helping Sudan’s government militarily in Darfur.
The Panorama TV programme tracked down Chinese army lorries in the Sudanese province that came from a batch exported from China to Sudan in 2005.
The BBC was also told that China was [...]

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More strategic unhelpfulness from Russia and China.
From the article:
Russia and China vetoed proposed sanctions on Zimbabwe on Friday, rejecting U.S. efforts to step up punitive measures after the African nation’s disputed presidential election.
Western powers mustered nine votes, the minimum needed to gain approval in the 15-nation council, in a show of hands. But the failed [...]

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With energy demand spiking, China looks for answers in Africa. But Western investment and influence still dominate the continent’s oil market.
As global demand for energy continues to rise, major players like the United States, European Union (EU), and Japan are facing a new competitor in the race to secure long-term energy supplies: China. As its [...]

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Since the end of apartheid, thousands of white South Africans have been forced into poverty. They blame the government’s positive discrimination policies, which favour black employees.

Link to video on YouTube.

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An in depth look at the troubled US intervention in Somalia. We reconstruct the most devastating battles between marines and Somalis using US army broadcasts.It began as a mission of mercy, to feed the starving in Somalia. But within a year American military forces would be killing - and killed by - those they came [...]

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Current troubles in Zimbabwe have caused large numbers to seek a better life in South Africa. However, the journey is perilous and the reality migrants face when they arrive often comes with bitter disillusions.
YouTube video
NY Times Video: Zimbabweans Flee to South Africa

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Fear are growing that Robert Mugabe’s regime had been strengthened ahead of a presidential election with the secret delivery of a shipment of arms from China.
Reports said the weapons, including three million bullets, mortar bombs and rocket-propelled grenades, had been off-loaded from the Chinese vessel, the An Yue Jiang, at the Angolan port of Lobito [...]

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A Chinese ship loaded with armaments for Zimbabwe steamed into the port of Durban this week and set off a political firefight, putting newfound pressure on South Africa — and now China — to reduce support for Zimbabwe’s government as it cracks down on its rivals after a disputed election.
Dock workers at the port, backed [...]

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Today starts Vladimir Putin’s visit to Libya. It’s the first time in history that Russia’s President leaves on a visit to this country. An array of Russian officials and top-managers of the largest corporations will accompany Vladimir Putin. Moscow intends to make Tripoli its strategic ally in Northern Africa, and for the sake of it [...]

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Satellite photos have revealed that Sudan now has Chinese made A-5 fighter-bombers. The A-5 is a twin engine Chinese design based on the 1950s era Russian MiG-19 fighter. The A-5 entered service in 1970, and about a thousand were built. Exports began in the 1980s, mainly to Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and North Korea. The [...]

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This is the fourth installment of a series of reports from several countries looking at the question of how to cope with China–a nation that has rapidly grown into a military and economic power, while ruling its people with an iron fist.
Employees of Gabon’s Ivindo National Park, about 400 kilometers east of the capital [...]

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SPIEGEL talks to Ernst Uhrlau, the president of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the BND, about the risk of attack by Islamist terrorists in Germany, how German Muslims are training in camps in Afghanistan and the risk from al-Qaida in North Africa. more…

Photo Gallery: Fighting Jihad in Germany
‘A New Crusade’: Bin Laden Threatens Europe over Muhammad [...]

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Zimbabwe’s economic crisis is so dire that the official inflation rate now exceeds 100,000 percent and at least one-quarter of the population has fled the country. As the economy has deteriorated, President Robert Mugabe has given security groups, including the intelligence service and the military, control over many political institutions. Experts say these groups could [...]

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Chinese sales of assault rifles and other small arms to its ally Sudan have grown rapidly during the Darfur conflict despite a U.N. arms embargo, a human rights group said on Thursday.
Human Rights First, a U.S.-based nonprofit group, said a detailed study of Sudanese and U.N. trade data showed that China was virtually the [...]

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Chinese entrepreneurs are invading Africa and reviving the fortunes of the world’s poorest continent. Are they just stripping it of its resources — or have they finally found the answer to a problem the West has been unable to solve?
Read More…

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Hungry for oil and minerals, India and China have become Africa’s new colonialists, exploiting the world’s poorest continent in the same way as its old European masters, billionaire financier George Soros said on Tuesday.
European nations’ scramble for resources, from slaves to diamonds and gold, led them to subjugate Africa’s peoples under colonialism. After independence swept [...]

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“With China’s help,” gloated Gen. Bashir (who has effectively obstructed the current mission of the combined force sent by the U.N. Security Council and the African Union), “Sudan will certainly score glorious achievements one after another on our path of construction and development.” And China’s glory in hosting this year’s Olympics, so important for the [...]

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In the past decade, Africa has seen an unprecedented boom in oil and gas investment.
With big companies shut out, or deterred from investing in the Middle East, Africa has by contrast offered multinationals relatively lenient terms and extensive access to its oilfields in the past 15 years. The continent has been able to attract money [...]

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Zimbabwe’s economic crisis has propelled its citizens into South Africa and Botswana. Both countries are feeling the strain of the migration.
These days, a bus ride from Francistown, near the Botswana-Zimbabwe border, to Gaborone, Botswana’s capital, includes a surprise encounter with the Botswana police. At a checkpoint one hour into the ride, the busload disembarks and [...]

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