Police arrest second city man from 2004 robbery

By Nate Delesline III

Published: July 2, 2008

CULPEPER — Police have arrested a second Fredericksburg man in connection with the 2004 robbery of a Culpeper restaurant.

Garrett Michael Sheffield, 26, is charged with robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and accessory to abduction in connection with the Oct. 16, 2004 robbery of the Pizza Hut at 876 N. Main St.

Sheffield was arrested late Thursday afternoon and posted a $10,000 bond.

He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in general district court Aug. 6 at 11 a.m.

In December 2007, police charged another Fredericksburg man, 28-year-old Ernest J. Brooks, Jr., with the robbery.

A grand jury returned direct indictments charging Brooks with armed robbery, wearing a mask in public, conspiracy to commit robbery, use of a firearm in commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Police said that during the 2004 robbery, a man wearing a Halloween mask and carrying what appeared to be handgun demanded cash.

Two employees were in the rear of the pizza restaurant and another employee and a customer were in the front.

The masked gunman ordered the employees and customer into the freezer, then took an undisclosed amount of money before fleeing out the back door.

According to Lt. Chris Settle, after the arrest of Brooks, who was a former Pizza Hut employee, information that Sheffield was also involved in the robbery was uncovered.

Brooks is scheduled to be tried by a jury in circuit court Sept. 3 at 9:30 a.m.

Settle said the recent arrest shows that cold cases don’t always stay cold. “We’re always looking for new information no matter how old the case is.”

Nate Delesline III is a staff writer for Media General’s Culpeper Star Exponent.

Can theatre change immigration law?

My new play is based on accounts of life

inside UK detention centres. Will the

politicians listen?

Can a play lead to legislative change? … Unstated at the Southwark Playhouse

02/07/08

guardian.co.uk,

Benjamin was brought up in Nigeria by a stepfather who had been a hitman for the government. As a boy, his stepfather had forced him to dismember the bodies of his victims, and had also regularly raped and beat him. When political allegiances changed, their knowledge became a liability and men were sent to kill them both. They fled to the UK where Benjamin, now aged 12, was deposited with his natural father. He spent the following decade as an ordinary British Nigerian boy in London, studying hard, getting to university and even having a baby with his girlfriend. A chance immigration check at Belfast airport was where it all unravelled. His family had never cemented his immigration status beyond that of a dependent minor, so he had no legal basis to be in the UK.

I met Benjamin earlier this year, now aged 22, in Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre (IRC), a grim high-security facility near Heathrow airport. He claimed that he had been beaten up by guards, his hand so badly broken that he later discovered it would need surgery – though at the time I met him medical attention had been repeatedly denied. (Colnbrook denied this when I put it to them, so essentially it is Benjamin’s word against theirs.)

Furthermore, Benjamin painted a horrifying picture of life in the UK’s removal centres. The use of violence and solitary confinement to subdue prisoners was widespread, he said, while personal effects, including cash, were often confiscated and not returned, and he claimed staff regularly “lost” important paperwork relating to detainees’ appeal hearings. Hard drugs were everywhere. Benjamin led a hunger strike while in Harmondsworth IRC. It was reported on Indymedia, nowhere else. He was subsequently deported. I received a couple of distressing text messages from him, but now all is quiet.

All this was part of my research for a new play for The Red Room theatre company, Unstated, which opens at Southwark Playhouse tonight. A multimedia “theatre installation”, it documents and dramatises the experiences of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK, and is an overtly campaigning play for a theatre company which wears its political colours on its sleeve. The director, Topher Campbell, has said that he would like to see real legislative change as a result of this production. It’s a terrific ambition, and one that I share – but how realistic is it?

I began a letter-writing campaign after meeting Benjamin. I wrote to his MP, to the management of Colnbrook, to John McDonnell MP, in whose constituency it is located, and to the chief executive of Serco plc, the corporation which owns and runs Colnbrook. I got in touch with Benjamin’s university student union, who began to mount a campaign. I received a handwritten letter from John McDonnell expressing his ongoing concern about Colnbrook and promising to raise the matter with ministers. Serco and Colnbrook dismissed Benjamin’s allegations out of hand.

There is of course a fine history of politically active dramatists in this country, from Littlewood, Wesker, Griffiths and Brenton, through to McGrath, Pinter, Edgar and Churchill. I’m sure every one of them would aspire not only to diagnose the nation’s ills but to promote political change. But did they ever achieve this?

To effect actual legislative change it seems to me that a play would have to do two things: gain access to a substantial proportion of the nation’s politicians and law-makers, and then prove to them that a state of affairs is either illegal or of such harm to the nation that it can no longer be tolerated. A well-connected theatre company may be able to achieve the first, but I’m not sure drama of any kind will ever achieve the second, as drama is necessarily anecdotal and never conclusive. Fine legal arguments are also rarely conducive to a good night out.

John McGrath, founder of radical Scottish theatre company 7:84, argued that “the theatre can never ’cause’ a social change. It can articulate pressure towards one … it can be the way people find their voice, their solidarity and their collective determination.”

Last week was International Refugee Week, a multi-agency series of events to “counter negative stereotypes of refugees through cultural events … and promote understanding about the reasons why people seek sanctuary”. Perhaps taken as part of larger movements like this, theatre’s power to make a public spectacle out of private suffering can articulate the pressure that is needed for things to change.

I’ve sent flyers for Unstated to Serco, Colnbrook, and a batch for John McDonnell to pass on to ministers. We shall have to wait and see what happens.

UK : UN Refugee Agency concerned over asylum decision-making

The start of the “Dignity Not Detention”

By UNHCR ( Wbe)

Image ( adal voice)

02/07/08

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has today issued findings from its fifth audit report on the UK asylum system, focusing on asylum decision-making in detention centres, where some individuals are held while their applications are being decided in accelerated procedures.

UNHCR’s latest audit highlights serious concerns with the UK Border Agency’s ‘fast track’ refugee status determination process in Yarl’s Wood and Harmondsworth detention centres, and found that the emphasis on quick decision-making does not allow caseworkers to reach well-reasoned decisions on some individual cases.

“The tight time-frame for decisions – which are usually made within three days of an asylum seeker’s arrival at a detention centre – often results in cases not being given full consideration”, said Jacqueline Parlevliet, head of UNHCR’s office in London.

According to UNHCR, some decisions within the Detained Fast Track demonstrate a limited understanding of key concepts in refugee law and do not engage sufficiently with the specific facts of the individual claims, for example in relation to gender issues.

Whilst the Home Office does have mechanisms in place to safeguard the most vulnerable applicants, UNHCR is concerned that UK Border Agency staff are not using the discretion available to them to extend the timescale for decision-making in order to consider applications in greater detail.

In one case, the audit found that an asylum applicant claiming a history of rape, trafficking and prostitution was deemed eligible for fast track detention, illustrating UNHCR’s position that some unsuitable cases are being referred to the Home Office’s fast track process. The UN agency recommends the implementation of more rigorous screening procedures in order to avoid the detention of the most vulnerable applicants and those applicants with complex cases that cannot be decided within short timescales.

“Having to make a decision on an asylum claim in short time frames combined with increasing targets for UK Border Agency staff, highlights the urgent need for increased training for asylum caseworkers on, at a minimum, the correct approach to assessing credibility of asylum applicants and the identification of complex claims not suited to accelerated procedures,” said Parlevliet.

In addition to highlighting key areas of concern, UNHCR’s study welcomed progress made by the government in improving the quality of asylum decisions across the UK. Initiatives such as the Solihull Early Legal Advice Pilot, which helps to facilitate better quality and more efficient status determination, and the creation of a Home Office quality audit team are evidence of the government’s openness and willingness to engage with UNHCR’s recommendations.

At the government’s invitation, UNHCR has audited the Home Office’s first-instance asylum decisions since 2004 under a project called the Quality Initiative. UNHCR will continue to work with government to address the issues highlighted in its report and to improve the overall quality of asylum decisions in the UK.

14 million in Horn of Africa facing food emergency: agencies

NAIROBI (AFP)

02/07/08

Some 14 million people in the Horn of Africa are facing food shortages in an acute emergency worsened by war, drought and rising prices, aid agencies warned Wednesday.

The Somali conflict, frontier tension in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Djibouti and Asmara’s clampdown on aid operations have each stoked the crisis, with the agencies pressing for urgent intervention from governments and donors.

“Large areas of the Horn of Africa are facing — or rapidly sliding into — a state of humanitarian emergency with more than 14 million people requiring urgent food aid and other humanitarian assistance over the coming months,” they said in a joint statement.

Six UN agencies, World Vision International, Care international and Handicap International called on governments and donors “to act promptly to save lives and prevent an escalation of the crisis.”

“A combination of drought conditions and rising food prices is driving the crisis which is affecting populations already food insecure due to conflict, displacement and a drop in food production.

“The emergency is exacerbated by the erosion of livelihoods among the landless, pastoralists, internally displaced persons and the urban poor across the region,” the statement added.

“Disease outbreaks fueled by poor hygiene and sanitation in drought-affected areas, and poor health and nutrition services including low immunisation coverage, are additional high risks for mothers and children.”

They said that although Ethiopia and Somalia are the worst affected, parts of Eritrea, Djibouti, Kenya and Uganda are showing similarly ominous signs.

Some 4.6 million Ethiopians need emergency food support, an increase from 2.2 million in the period from January to March 2008 while an additional 5.7 million drought-affected others require extended support — food or cash.

At least 2.6 million Somalis are facing acute shortages, but the figure may increase to 3.5 million by the end of 2008, worsened the withdrawal of aid workers owing to worsening insecurity.

The price of imported rice has increased up to 350 percent between January 2007 and May 2008 in Somalia, a nation of up to 10 million that has been wracked by violence since the 1991 overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Kenya, recovering from months of post-election violence, is experiencing widespread food insecurity with 1.2 million people in need of urgent supplies while 70 percent of the country’s 35 million are suffering from steep food prices.

The agencies said 707,000 people in Uganda’s pastoralist region of Karamoja are in dire need of food.

Another 80,000 are locked in an acute food and livelihood crisis in Djibouti while in Eritrea, a combination of drought and the knock-on effect of global food price increases is likely to have humanitarian consequences.

“The time to act is now, to save children’s lives,” Per Engebak, UNICEF’s regional director for East and Southern Africa, said in the statement.

UNICEF said global acute malnutrition rates in Somalia topped 20 percent, while millions of people were food insecure in neighbouring Ethiopia.

The region has yet to recover from a 2006 drought that threatened 11 million people, whose conditions were later worsened by heavy rains that inundated parched soil, causing floods that have displaced thousands and disrupted aid distribution.

Interventions for improving livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa

FAO (web )

02/07/08

FAO and IFAD have recently produced a report where they argue about the existing potentials for well-targeted, local interventions in water that can contribute to the rapid improvement in the livelihoods of the rural poor in SSA.

The same interventions that can help attaining the Millennium Development Goal of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.

There are important opportunities for new investments in water but their success depend on the development of new models of interventions, centered on enhancing the diversity of livelihood conditions of rural populations.

There is no “one size fits all” approach for improving livelihoods. Different contexts and needs require different types of investments to guide the choice for specific interventions.

Sub-Saharan Africa can be divided in 13 major “livelihood zones”. Each zone offers distinct opportunities for livelihood sustenance and development, has different agro-ecological conditions, and shows different angles for water-related investments for poverty reduction.

A closer observation also shows the differences of rural poor distribution across the livelihood zones, with high prevalence of relative poverty in the highlands of Ethiopia, the Lake Victoria basin, parts of Nigeria and in the semi-arid and sub-humid areas.

The types of interventions required rarely involve large-scale irrigation schemes, although there is a need to improve those already existing, when these systems are used below capacity and are poorly maintained. In all cases, clear policies need to be put in place to allow equitable access to the water by poor farmers, who also require favorable market linkages and conditions.

The report’s main focus is on small-scale on-farm improvements, structures that are easy to operate and maintain locally and that target mainly female and male smallholders. Such interventions will focus in particular on improving water management in rainfed agriculture.

Investments in water infrastructure alone cannot suffice to improve agricultural productivity in SSA. Farmers need secure access to inputs including fertilizer, better seeds, and credit. They need to be better educated and informed on the use of inputs and the latest techniques.

Investments in water control need to be planned and implemented in the much broader framework of agricultural and rural development, where production, markets, finance and infrastructure are conceived in an integrated way and are mutually supporting. Furthermore, the policy and institutional framework has to ensure fair and equitable access to water resources and effective access to markets for agricultural products.

Climate change represents an additional challenge to rural people in SSA, and a further reason for investment in water control. In view of their limited adaptive capacity, smallholder farmers, pastoralists and artisanal fishers in SSA are among the most vulnerable to the impact of climate change. While projections on possible changes in annual rainfall vary across Africa, these populations will experience the negative effects of increased temperature on yields, combined with a high vulnerability to extreme events. For them, enhanced control of water will become critical in building resilience to increased climate variabilit

High-Level Conference on World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy

FAO(WEb)

02/07/08

Securing world food security in light of the impact of climate change may be one of the biggest challenges we face in this century.

An estimated 850 million people in the world today suffer from hunger. Of those, about 820 million live in developing countries, the very countries expected to be most affected by climate change. Governments, international organizations, civil society, the private sector and other actors, must work together to address these challenges and to devise appropriate strategies and responses.

The recent thirty-fourth session of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Conference, held during November 2007,  called for a series of expert meetings and stakeholder consultations on climate change and bioenergy, to be followed by a High-Level Conference on World Food Security and the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy.

The preparatory meetings were held January-April 2008 and the High-Level Conference will take place 3-5 June 2008. The High-Level Conference will be informed by work undertaken and findings which emerged from the expert meetings and stakeholder consultations, as well as new analysis undertaken by the Organization, as part of its regular activities.

This High-Level Conference has become even more timely in light of  soaring food prices and the additional challenges this situation poses to achieving global food security. Many Heads of State and Governments have confirmed their attendance, as well as the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, transforming the June High-Level Conference into a true Summit on world food security.

Rights Groups Warn of New NGO Restrictions in Ethiopia

By Derek Kilner

Nairobi

News VOA

02/07/08

International human rights groups have warned of new legislation being prepared by the government of Ethiopia that the groups say would constrain the activities of nongovernmental organizations operating in the country. As Derek Kilner reports for VOA’s East Africa bureau in Nairobi, the government maintains the new regulations would simply be meant to streamline the operations of NGOs.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International say that the current draft of Ethiopia’s proposed Charities and Societies Proclamation would drastically increase government monitoring of NGOs operating in the country and make it easier for the government to punish groups whose work it does not agree with.

The organizations say Western donor governments have been involved in unsuccessful back-channel negotiations with Ethiopian officials to soften the bill and they are now calling on those governments to condemn the proposed legislation.

The Ethiopian government denies that the bill threatens the work of NGOs, maintaining that the legislation is merely an attempt to simplify current regulations and promote transparency.

Wahade Belay, spokesman for Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry, said he had not seen the accusations made by Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International, but rejected the idea that the bill would restrict development work in the country.

“Whether it’s international or domestic NGOs, it will facilitate a smooth operation for them,” he said. “It comes with accountability, how they should raise funds, and then where should they apply if they are domestic, if they are international. This is a draft proclamation which is designed to make the operation of NGOs smooth. This is a law that you can find in any other country.”

According to the international groups, Ethiopian organizations working on human rights and peace-building are likely to face the biggest challenges, with new penalties for engaging in “unlawful” activities, and restrictions on foreign funding.

But international development NGOs operating in the country would also face restrictions. In particular, international organizations would not be allowed to engage in democracy, governance, or peace-building work.

Human rights groups have criticized Ethiopia’s government in recent years for cracking down on political opponents from opposition political parties and from civil society. The government has also been accused of widespread human rights abuses, particularly in its campaign against insurgent groups in the ethnically Somali region of the Ogaden.

AU demands Eritrea withdraws “immediately” from Djibouti territory

Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki is not attending the summit.

03/07/08

Posted by africanpress

The African Union Commission’s Peace and Security Council on Tuesday demanded the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Eritrean troops from Djibouti territory.

The council said it “strongly condemns Eritrea’s military action against Djibouti in Ras Doumeira and Doumeira Island and demands that Eritrea withdraws immediately and unconditionally from the Djiboutian territories it occupies.\”

The council called for the immediate return to the situation prevailing at the common border between the two countries before the current tension, including the withdrawal from the border of all forces that have been positioned there since 4 February 2008.

The council also urged the two countries, in particular Eritrea, to show restraint and resort to dialogue to resolve any bilateral dispute and cooperate with all efforts deployed to this effect.

Recently, the council sent a mission to the two countries but the mission was able to visit only Djibouti while Eritrea refused the mission access to its territory without giving any official reason.

\”The council expressed deep concern at the refusal by the Eritrean authorities to receive the mission of the commission and strongly urges them to extend full cooperation to the efforts deployed by the AU towards the peaceful resolution of the crisis,\” the council said.

So far, over 10 soldiers from the Djibouti side are reported to have been killed and over 60 injured.