By Angela Benton, BlackWeb20.com

If you are surprised by the headline of this story you may not be the only one.  Currently there are riots in Kampala Uganda and local newsources that would typically provide information to people caught in the mix are literally halted…atleast on the web.  The Independent, a local Ugandan newsource, apparently is down because so many people are looking to it for information.  They are communicating via Twitter  In this day in age that shouldn’t be an issue right?  Especially with so many people relying on Twitter as a source for information similar to a newswire.  The main problem with that is information generally has to trend high enough to be distributed to masses on the platform.  In this instance it hasn’t.  Hundreds if not thousands of people (in Kampala and in the US who may have family there) literally have no idea what is going on from the ground.  You are probably thinking that mainstream media has surely covered this in World News.  No dice.  Of course as far at the US is concerned it is September 11th so most coverage today has been focused on that.  However, there is no mention of riots in Kampala on CNN.com which is often dubbed as the “King of News Media using Social Media.”  MSNBC.com does have coverage in their world section.  Most coverage is coming from the BBC and The Guardian (as seen from Google News).  What has resulted is a handful of citizen journalist, one of who includes Gospel Singer Kirk Franklin who was caught in the riots yesterday, reporting what was going on from the ground there.   We reported on this early this morning on Black Web 2.0, here is his own video account of what is going on via YouTube: Read the rest of this entry »

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.

 Rebels from Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) are to blame for a church massacre the day after Christmas that left 45 people butchered, according to the Ugandan army. A spokesman for the LRA, however, says the group had nothing to do with the killings. The horrific attack happened in a Catholic church in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The aftermath was “horrendous … dead bodies of mostly women and children cut into pieces,” said Capt. Chris Magezi. At least 189 people were killed as a result of attacks in Congo just last week, according to the United Nations. The LRA has been involved with peace talks with the Ugandan government (sponsored by the South Sudanese government) for a long time. But the two sides haven’t been able to agree on terms. LRA head Joseph Kony, who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, will not sign a deal until his arrest warrants and his fellow LRA members warrants are dropped.

Female circumcision is banned in Ugandan community. Female circumcision (also referred to as female genital mutilation, FGM) has been banned in a Ugandan community, reports the BBC. The practice, which entails cutting of a girl’s clitoris, is “outmoded” and “not useful” for women in the community, said Kapchorwa district chairman Nelson Chelimo. “The community decided that it was not useful, that women were not getting anything out of it, so the district council decided to establish an ordinance banning it,” he continued. He also said that the council had also sent legislation to Uganda’s parliament to make the ban nationwide. Some believe that women who get married without being circumcised would fall ill, Chelimo said.  Where FGM is practiced, many see it as a way to make sure a woman stays a virgin until she is married. According to the U.N. three million African girls are at risk of FGM. But the agency has called for the practice to be drastically reduced by 2015, arguing it causes bleeding, infections and increases the likelihood of infant mortality. The only group that practices FGM in Uganda are the Sabiny people.
 

World Lens: More peace troops head into Somalia, Rapper Jay-Z catches a game in London and Reggaeton star Daddy Yankee gets political. See pictures.

Uganda wants charities to stop giving aid to rebels. Ugandan leaders want to starve rebel leaders into ending the country’s 20-year-old war. The Minister for Disaster Preparedness Tarsis Kabwegyere is asking that charities stop giving food aid to the rebel group Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), so its members will be starved out of their camps and be more likely to sign a peace deal with the government. The LRA backed out of signing an agreement earlier this year because some of their leaders had international arrest warrants. And Kabwegyere thinks they manipulated the talks to get food and medicine.  ”Whoever is giving food to LRA should say, ‘We’re giving you food only when you can sign,’” he told the BBC. The rebel group’s leader, Joseph Kony, should “know that ending the war is the best thing to do,” he continued. Many in the LRA have moved to camps on the Sudan-Congo border. Just last week, 75,000 people escaped LRA-led fighting in the Congo. Two million people were made homeless during the 20-year war.

Twelve are tried for poisoning in the Ivory Coast. Twelve people are being tried for dumping tons of toxic chemical waste in the Ivory Coast that allegedly resulted in the deaths of 17 people. The incident happened two years ago when a shocking 500 tons of waste from the oil industry was dumped in the nation’s largest city, Abidjan. Locals complained of breathing difficulties and rashes soon after. The head of a local company that entered an agreement with Dutch company Trafigura, to treat the waste, along with port and customs authorities face charges that include poisoning and complicity to poison, reports the BBC. While the victims’ family members are excited to see the trial begin, some are upset that no one from the Dutch company is charged. Some are also wondering why more of the higher-ranking government and port officials, who they accuse of ignoring the crime, aren’t in court either. But the Dutch company refuses to take responsibility for the poisoning since, they say, they trusted the local company they had the agreement with to dispose the waste safely. They did, however, pay the Ivorian government $200 million out of “sympathy.” Even now, two years later, the waste has not been removed and residents still claim to be suffering sickness and children born with defects due to it.

Charity will cut back on food aid to HIV positive. The World Food Program will have to cut back on aid to HIV-positive people in Uganda because funds are decreasing, reports The Monitor. The cuts are expected to hit 1.5 million people, not including the children currently receiving food from the school-feeding program. The organization will keep providing aid to people in the nation who are HIV-positive, but they should be in certain categories (like new moms and their babies, and some homeless people). Stanlake Samkange, the charity’s Ugandan representative, said if more money came their way they would be “happy to help” those who needed it. But he doesn’t want the group to promise aid when it isn’t sure it can provide it. A spokesman for the government’s AIDS Commission also stated that aid received from the program was never meant to be permanent anyway and that a replacement would need to be found soon so the needy won’t suffer. AIDS activists, of course, are not happy with the program’s announcement. One advocate said the patients are especially vulnerable. “They are not strong enough to engage in agriculture to feed themselves,” he said.

Ugandan man killed because he kept smoking.

In Uganda, a group of people attacked and killed a man because he would not stop smoking, reports the BBC. The incident, which has left local officials in shock, happened in a public bar, where the country has had a ban on smoking for about four years. “I’m really not happy with it. He had broken the law, but they should have taken it to the police for the law to take its course,” saidJohn Okeya, an official in the village where it all happened. While the victim was smoking and drinking at the bar he made “provocative comments” to others who told him to stop smoking before the mob eventually approached him and strangled him to death. Many residents have spoken out against the case of extreme vigilantism, saying the attackers went too far. “These people who killed made a mistake because the law does not say kill a smoker, the law says take the smoker to the authority concerned,” said one resident. However another local said the action was necessary. “He was told to move away and smoke from outside and he refused,” the he said. The police have detained several suspects in the killing.

Zimbabwe leaders already aren’t getting along, reports say. Not too long after holding a press conference where everyone was all smiles, it looks like there’s trouble between the Zimbabwe leaders already. Just days after President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai (along with Arthur Mutambara who leads a small faction of the opposition) publicly agreed on a power sharing deal, they are reportedly deadlocked once again on ministry appointments. Sources tell CNN that ZANU-Pf, the party of controversial longtime leader Mugabe wants to control important ministries like defense, justice and home affairs while giving Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change less important ones like correctional services. In the deal signed earlier this week, ZANU-Pf was assigned 15 council ministers and the opposition altogether was assigned 16. Mugabe seemed to have misgivings about the deal very early on. In fact, he told his supporters that the agreement was a humiliation, but that he had to sign it since Tsvangirai gained so many votes in the first round of elections (while Tsvangirai had the majority he didn’t have the over 50 percent needed to secure a victory). And at least one official from the Movement for Democratic Change also had problems with the deal the weekend before it was signed, saying Tsvangirai shouldn’t sign until issues with the ministries were taken care of. Still, he went ahead and inked the deal on Monday.

Wyclef helps Haiti, and there’s model search in Kenya

World Lens: Musician Wyclef Jean pitches in to help Haiti, Zimbabwe leaders are all smiles and the search for is on for Kenya’s next top model. See these pictures and more.

http://www.bet.com/News/Photos/NewsFlipBookWorldlens0915.htm??Referrer={457FF100-3B70-4ACA-BAD9-54876F2F0D30}

Ugandan official wants miniskirts banned. Don’t pack your “freakum” dress if you’re planning a trip to Uganda. One Ugandan official wants miniskirts banned because women wearing them distract drivers, causing traffic accidents. In addition, BBC reports, the skirts should be looked at as “indecent,” and those wearing them should be dealt with under the nation’s law, Nsaba Buturo, Uganda’s ethics and integrity minister told reporters. “What’s wrong with a miniskirt? You can cause an accident because some of our people are weak mentally,” he said. Get more of what Buturo had to say at BET.com/News.  Well, do you think short skirts are the root of all evil?