Hey Everybody, im confused about whats happening on here, is it the yr 2025 yet,?
LoL, parden me for being dumb

Up, Up, and away..............

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I think im just getting started.....hope i enjoy d websites 2.

The corruption charge against Jacob Zuma, the new head of the African National Congress (ANC), is on the agenda of the first meeting since his election of the party's national executive council (NEC) on Monday, the party secretary general said on Sunday.

"The corruption charge against Zuma is on the agenda. It [NEC] will deal with the issue but it will not be the major focus of the meeting," Gwede Mantashe, said.

"We will handle the issue in a way that it will not affect the nation's judiciary process," he said, without further explanation.

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Zuma (65), who was elected ANC president about two weeks ago, was on December 28 charged with fraud, corruption, money laundering, racketeering and tax evasion following a probe that also implicated French arms manufacturing group Thales.

The trial of Zuma, who married his fourth wife on Saturday, is scheduled for August 4.

Two leading South African jurists on Saturday said that the graft case against Zuma, which has attracted local and international attention, should be settled by the courts alone.

In a statement, Arthur Chaskalson, the first post-apartheid head of South Africa's Constitutional Court, and George Bizos, ex-defence lawyer for former president Nelson Mandela, said the courts must be allowed to decide on the matter.

"Putting pressure on the courts by making serious allegations of partiality, uttering threats of massive demonstrations and expressing opinions in intemperate language are harmful to the judicial process, to our constitutional democracy and to our country's reputation," the statement, sent to the South African Press Association, said.

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Given the ANC's dominance of South African politics since the end of the whites-only apartheid rule in 1994, Zuma would normally expect to become the country's president after President Thabo Mbeki's second term of office expires in 2009.

CONTINUES BELOW


He has said he will stand down from the ANC if found guilty of any offence but he has steadfastly insisted on his innocence.

Zuma was sacked by Mbeki in 2005 after his financial adviser was found guilty of soliciting bribes on his behalf.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions, one of Zuma's biggest backers, condemned the move by the National Prosecuting Authority to charge Zuma with corruption as a "politically inspired campaign" using state institutions to settle factional battles within the ANC.

His other supporters said that Zuma, believed to be on frosty terms with Mbeki, was the victim of a "political vendetta".

The ANC national executive meeting in Johannesburg will, among other things, also elect a 20-member national working committee (NWC) to oversee the day-to-day running of the party, Mantashe said.

Zuma and members of the ANC executive were elected at the party's conference in Polokwane.

The meeting will also discuss the contents of the ANC's yearly "January 8" statement.

The statement, which gives the policy direction of the party, is given annually to mark the anniversary of the ANC.

The ANC, which turns 96 on January 8, led the struggle against whites-only minority apartheid rule.

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'Two centres of power'
Meanwhile, the election of the all-powerful NWC on Monday would likely be an indication of how the party dealt with the issue of two centres of power, political analyst Adam Habib, from the University of Johannesburg, said on Sunday.

"Firstly, the two centres of power, clearly this is going to be the time to manage relations between the two [state and party]. This may well be a big item on the agenda.

"It will be interesting to see how the NWC elections turn out -- if people from both camps are elected then it will be what the president [Jacob Zuma] wanted in his closing address in Polokwane, to see unity," said Habib.

"If the Zuma camps takes the NWC, this will set the parameter for how conflict will evolve.

"The big issue is going to be how to bridge divide between party and state," he said.

Mbeki was likely to cut a lone figure at Monday's meeting with many of his key allies no longer on the party's NEC. -- AFP, Sapa

I embrace with great satisfaction the opportunity which now presents itself of congratulating you on the present favorable prospects of our public affairs. The recent accession of the important state of north Carolina to the Constitution of the United States (of which official information has been received), the rising credit and respectability of our country, the general and increasing good will toward the government of the Union, and the concord, peace, and plenty with which we are blessed are circumstances auspicious in an eminent degree to our national prosperity.

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In resuming your consultations for the general good you can not but derive encouragement from the reflection that the measures of the last session have been as satisfactory to your constituents as the novelty and difficulty of the work allowed you to hope. Still further to realize their expectations and to secure the blessings which a gracious Providence has placed within our reach will in the course of the present important session call for the cool and deliberate exertion of your patriotism, firmness, and wisdom.

Among the many interesting objects which will engage your attention that of providing for the common defense will merit particular regard. To be prepared for war is on e of the most effectual means of preserving peace.

A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies.

The proper establishment of the troops which may be deemed indispensable will be entitled to mature consideration. In the arrangements which may be made respecting it it will be of importance to conciliate the comfortable support of the officers and soldiers with a due regard to economy.

There was reason to hope that the pacific measures adopted with regard to certain hostile tribes of Indians would have relieved the inhabitants of our southern and western frontiers from their depredations, but you will perceive from the information contained in the papers which I shall direct to be laid before you (comprehending a communication from the Commonwealth of Virginia) that we ought to be prepared to afford protection to those parts of the Union, and, if necessary, to punish aggressors.

The interests of the United States require that our intercourse with other nations should be facilitated by such provisions as will enable me to fulfill my duty in that respect in the manner which circumstances may render most conducive to the public good, and to this end that the compensation to be made to the persons who may be employed should, according to the nature of their appointments, be defined by law, and a competent fund designated for defraying the expenses incident to the conduct of foreign affairs.

Various considerations also render it expedient that the terms on which foreigners may be admitted to the rights of citizens should be speedily ascertained by a uniform rule of naturalization.

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Uniformity in the currency, weights, and measures of the United States is an object of great importance, and will, I am persuaded, be duly attended to.

The advancement of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures by all proper means will not, I trust, need recommendation; but I can not forbear intimating to you the expediency of giving effectual encouragement as well to the introduction of new and useful inventions from abroad as to the exertions of skill and genius in producing them at home, and of facilitating the intercourse between the distant parts of our country by a due attention to the post-office and post-roads.

Nor am I less persuaded that you will agree with me in opinion that there is nothing which can better deserve your patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness. In one in which the measures of government receive their impressions so immediately from the sense of the community as in ours it is proportionably essential.

To the security of a free constitution it contributes in various ways - by convincing those who are intrusted with the public administration that every valuable end of government is best answered by the enlightened confidence of the people, and by teaching the people themselves to know and to value their own rights; to discern and provide against invasions of them; to distinguish between oppression and the necessary exercise of lawful authority; between burthens proceeding from a disregard to their convenience and those resulting from the inevitable exigencies of society; to discriminate the spirit of liberty from that of licentiousness - cherishing the first, avoiding the last - and uniting a speedy but temperate vigilance against encroachments, with an inviolable respect to the laws.

Whether this desirable object will be best promoted by affording aids to seminaries of learning already established, by the institution of a national university, or by any other expedients will be well worthy of a place in the deliberations of the legislature.

Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:

I saw with peculiar pleasure at the close of the last session the resolution entered into by you expressive of your opinion that an adequate provision for the support of the public credit is a matter of high importance to the national honor and prosperity. In this sentiment I entirely concur; and to a perfect confidence in your best endeavors to devise such a provision as will be truly with the end I add an equal reliance on the cheerful cooperation of the other branch of the legislature.

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It would be superfluous to specify inducements to a measure in which the character and interests of the United States are so obviously so deeply concerned, and which has received so explicit a sanction from your declaration.

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:

I have directed the proper officers to lay before you, respectively, such papers and estimates as regard the affairs particularly recommended to your consideration, and necessary to convey to you that information of the state of the Union which it is my duty to afford.

The welfare of our country is the great object to which our cares and efforts ought to be directed, and I shall derive great satisfaction from a cooperation with you in the pleasing though arduous task of insuring to our fellow citizens the blessings which they have a right to expect from a free, efficient, and equal government.

US President Barack Obama on Sunday told Myanmar's junta to free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi during an unusual face-to-face interaction with a top leader of the ruling military.
Members of detained pro...

Members of detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy Party show portraits of their leader.
Photo: AP
SLIDESHOW: Israel & Region | World

Obama delivered the strong message during his summit with leaders of 10 Southeast Asian nations, which included Myanmar Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that Obama called on Myanmar to free his fellow Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, and end oppression of minorities.

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"Obama brought that up directly with that government," Gibbs said, indicating that the president addressed Thein Sein.

For decades, Western governments have avoided direct contacts with leaders of Myanmar because of the regime's poor human rights record and suppression of democracy.

A joint statement issued after the summit - the first ever between a US president and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations - devoted a paragraph on Myanmar, a major irritant in relations between the two sides.

But the statement did not call for the release of political prisoners, including Suu Kyi, who has spent 14 of the last 20 years under detention by the military regime. It only urged Myanmar to ensure that the elections it intends to hold in 2010 are "conducted in a free, fair, inclusive and transparent manner."

However, a direct appeal from Obama carries more weight as he is the most powerful leader to have conveyed the message directly to a top Myanmar official.

Thein Sein did not address leaders' concerns about Suu Kyi, said Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. "We expected a bit more but it was not forthcoming. We hope (democracy) ... in Myanmar will become a reality sooner than later," he told reporters.

He said a reference to Suu Kyi was not included in the statement because there was no consensus.

White House aides said ASEAN was unlikely to include an explicitly critical statement on one of its members, since it would amount to Myanmar criticizing itself. That's why Obama raised the issue directly in his remarks to the group, said the aides.

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Obama, in a broad policy speech in Tokyo on Saturday, also made a point of mentioning Suu Kyi by name.

Before the summit, the 11 leaders gathered for a photo shoot for a few minutes, but Obama and Thein Sein stayed far from each other and made no contact of any sort.

The Myanmar government has said the 2010 elections are another step toward democracy, but has not clarified whether Suu Kyi will be allowed to participate. The junta refused to honor the result of the last elections in 1990 when Suu Kyi's party won by a landslide.

Although the United States recently eased its policy toward Myanmar by initiating talks with the generals, it has made clear economic sanctions won't be lifted unless Suu Kyi is released.

Earlier this month, two senior U.S. diplomats went to Myanmar for talks, and also had a private meeting with Suu Kyi. It was the highest-level US visit to Myanmar in 14 years.

Sunday's US-ASEAN summit - held just after the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum - is the outcome of the new thinking in Washington that ignoring Myanmar will not yield any results, and relations with Southeast Asia should not be held hostage by the junta.

Yesterday, President Jacob Zuma made one of the most important speeches in the history of AIDS in South Africa. In front of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), he unequivocally acknowledged the devastation of AIDS on our country. With this speech state-supported AIDS denialism has been banished. The Treatment Action Campaign welcomes the ushering in of this new era, almost exactly ten years since former President Mbeki made a speech that began the era of state-supported denial in front of the NCOP.

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President Zuma acknowledged that government’s efforts so far have been insufficient to curb the devastation of the epidemic. The reality of this has been declining health outcomes and increasing mortality. We have a crippled health system and a ballooning epidemic from the years of AIDS denialism and inaction by former President Thabo Mbeki and former Health Minister Manto Tshablala-Msimang. However, today’s speech puts that behind us and provides hope that President Zuma will urgently tackle the epidemic with renewed commitment to meet the treatment and prevention targets of the HIV & AIDS and STIs National Strategic Plan 2007-2011 (NSP).

In his speech, President Zuma acknowledged that the fear and shame that have surrounded the epidemic must be overcome. The spread of the epidemic is intimately connected to government’s ability to safeguard our human rights. All South Africans must feel secure to know their status and access and adhere to treatment without fear of discrimination.

President Zuma emphasized the need for behaviour change to reduce new infections by 50% from 2007 to 2011, the NSP prevention target. Changing behaviour must be facilitated by increased access to prevention services and by reducing the vulnerabilities to HIV infection in our society. Converting knowledge to behaviour change will be directly linked to these interventions.

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A theme of the speech was that to turn the tide of the epidemic political will is needed not only by government but also by the citizens of South Africa. TAC and other civil societies have developed an active cadre of HIV activists in South Africa but this commitment to tackling the epidemic needs to be adopted throughout our society. As South African citizens we must actively engage with our own health and the health of each other. As active citizens we can overcome the stigma and discrimination that have driven the epidemic.

Key challenges remain to meeting the ambitious targets of the National Strategic Plan (2007 - 2011) for the treatment and prevention of HIV. But with the renewed political will demonstrated by President Zuma demonstrated by President Zuma and the leadership of Minister of Health, Aaron Motsoaledi, we believe these targets are achievable.