Uganda Decides to Keep the Death Penalty
The Ugandan Supreme Court has turned down an appeal brought by more than 400 people on death row to get rid of the death penalty. However, many of the inmates did win one victory. The court also ruled that it was not reasonable to keep inmates on death row for more than three years, reports the BBC. So, those prisoners who have been on death row for more than three years will have their sentences commuted to life in prison. The country has not used the death penalty in about 10 years, but the court insisted that it deters murder. Four prisoners were in court for the ruling.
 

Nigerian Militants Attack a Tanker
Nigerian militants, from the country’s Niger Delta region, attacked a diesel tanker and kidnapped a Romanian worker, reports BBC. The tanker was carrying 4,000 tons of diesel from Lagos to Port Harcourt when its engine was blown up with dynamite. The tanker was seriously damaged.  Many militants in the region say they are fighting to get their fair share of wealth from Nigeria’s oil. Still, some groups get their money from extortion and oil theft. The violence has forced oil production in the nation to be cut by a fifth in the last few years.

Nigeria confiscates cash from Africans for Obama. The Nigerian government seized $630,000 (74m naira) raised by Africans for Obama, a group that backs U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama, reports the BBC. The country’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said that while the group did not break any laws, it will be giving the money back to the people who went to the organization’s fundraising gala dinner in Lagos last month.  Campaigns or political parties from the United States cannot receive contributions from groups overseas and the Obama campaign publically distanced themselves from the organization, according to reports.  Ndi Okereke-Onyuike, who leads the group (and is also chairman of the Nigerian Stock Exchange) insists the media got the group’s motives all wrong. The money, she says, actually was intended to be spent encouraging Nigerians in the United States to vote for Obama. “We never said we were going to donate money for the campaign. We paid for the hall and the entertainers and the surplus; we said it would be spent on advertisements aimed at persuading Nigerians to tell their relatives in America to register to vote,” she said, adding “There is not one Nigerian who doesn’t have a relative or friend in America.” But advertisements for the Aug. 11 gala (where it cost more than $21,000 for an eight-person table) didn’t really say what the group was going to do with the money. And, according to the EFCC, officials had told Okereke-Onyuike to “steer clear of such activities in future.”

South Africa signs oil agreement with Venezuela. South Africa and Venezuela signed a huge and historic oil agreement Tuesday, reports CNN. Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez met up with South African leader Thabo Mbeki to sign a deal involving oil and gas. While both sides are mum about specific details surrounding the agreement, reports speculate that it probably involves Venezuela providing South African oil company PetrosSA crude at lower rates. “It will be a wonderful day, the day when the first Venezuelan tanker will stop by to leave oil for South Africa,” said Chavez. At the news conference announcing the agreement, Chavez applauded unity between the southern nations, saying that with times being hard worldwide, it was necessary for the countries to use a “new strategic agenda, to conduct a true strategic change in international relations.” He also said he would like to examine the African nation’s “gas-to-liquid” technology and is looking to use the nation’s oil storage facilities (capable of holding 45 million barrels). Mbeki said the agreements added to “the further empowerment of the countries of the south.” He also hinted at the motivation behind the agreement saying, “The object is to assist in reducing the costs of energy.”

Guyana passes strict law against sex offenders
It seems like the Caribbean is toughening up on crime as a whole. Last week Jamaica’s prime minister introduced tougher penalties for gun crimes. Now, Guyana lawmakers just passed legislation that requires people convicted of certain sexual offenses (such as molestation, rape, sexual exploitation and prostitution) to face being supervised by the police for the rest of their lives, even after they have completed their sentences, reports the BBC. Also under the new law, those convicted of armed robbery, domestic violence and hijacking, would be supervised by police for a mandatory three years after serving their sentence. Members of the opposition in the nation’s Parliament supported the law in general but were also concerned that it allowed for the prime minister to add or remove offenses without consulting the governing body first.

Rebels Attack Two Nigerian oil pipelines
A Nigerian rebel group took responsibility for damaging two oil pipelines in southern Nigeria, reports CNN. About the attack, the group Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), said “detonation engineers backed by heavily armed fighters” caused damage to the pipelines early Monday morning. The rebels believe that the pipelines, located in two different cities, are the property of Shell Petroleum Development Company. And Shell has confirmed damage to at least one of its pipelines in the country. “We are working to ascertain the extent of the damage and have shut in some production to limit the amount of crude that will spill into the environment,” Caroline Wittgen, a Shell spokeswoman said. Nigeria is one of the United States’ major oil suppliers, and the rebel attacks on oil pipelines in the nation have led to the rise in crude oil prices. The recent attacks have cut the region’s oil production by 10 percent. “Anytime a pipeline is affected, anytime any production gets shut down, you see oil prices jump up one or two dollars a barrel just because there is no slack in the system,” Jim LeCamp, senior vice president with RBC Wealth Management ( a company that works with wealthy clients internationally) told CNN. Since 2006, MEND has made it a point to attack big foreign oil companies – by bombing pipelines or kidnapping foreign oil employees for ransom – because they believe the oil wealth should be shared with the mostly poor citizens of the Niger Delta region. More than 70 percent of natives in the oil-rich area get paid less that a dollar each day.