South Sudan suspends radio station for criticising government.

South Sudan suspended a Catholic radio station after it investigated the suspicious death of a prisoner, reporters and human rights activists said, the latest crackdown on media in the young republic. Journalists in South Sudan, which seceded from Sudan in 2011, often complain of harassment and arbitrary detention by the security forces, a loose conglomeration of former militias from decades of civil war with Khartoum. The government of the central Lakes state ordered the Good News Radio station on Friday to stop broadcasting for three days for "criticising the government", said Fernando Colombo, the administrator of the Catholic diocese that owns the station. He did not elaborate but reporters and human rights activists said the station had annoyed the government by questioning the official line on the death of a civilian in jail, among other critical reports. "The Lakes state government is intimidating the media, harassing media personnel and trying to malign those who are speaking against the abuses of human rights," said Biel Boutrous Biel, head of the South Sudan Human Rights Society for Advocacy. The regional government, which is headed by an interim military governor, could not be reached. Last month, New York-based Human Rights Watch accused the army of having detained 130 civilians without charge in Lakes state since February. Good News Radio went back on air on Monday evening but was playing only music. Former acting director Peter Mapuor Makur said reporters were afraid to return to work. South Sudan, a staunch U.S. ally, is a country without media law where the government is made up mostly of former guerilla commanders who dislike scrutiny. This year, South Sudan slipped 13 places to 124 out of 179 countries on a press freedom index compiled by the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders

Egypt:Elections do not make a democracy.

An election is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for democracy. That’s the takeaway from the continuing upheaval in Egypt. Last year, Mohamed Mursi became Egypt’s first freely elected president. Mursi won with 51.7 percent of the vote — slightly more than the 51.1 percent that Barack Obama won in 2012. Mursi was the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization that had been banned and persecuted in Egypt for 60 years. Mursi’s overthrow last week put the United States on the spot. Could Washington support the removal of a democratically elected government, even one we did not like? The Mursi government may have been elected, but there are other requirements for a democracy. A democratic government has to guarantee minority rights. It has to accept the opposition as legitimate. It has to be willing to abide by the rules. And the truest test of a democracy: The government has to give up power if it is defeated at the polls. The Mursi government failed all those tests except the last one. That’s because it was only in power for a year and got removed by the military before it could stand for re-election. In that one year, however, Mursi asserted near-unlimited power over the country. He appointed Islamic radicals to key positions. He rammed through a new constitution that enshrined the principles of Islamic law. He arrested opponents and allowed attacks on religious minorities. He neglected the failing economy. He angered the military by calling for Egyptian intervention in Ethiopia and Syria. Friday, the Republican chairman and ranking Democratic member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee issued a joint statement saying, “Real democracy requires inclusiveness, compromise, respect for human and minority rights and a commitment to the rule of law. Mursi and his inner circle did not embrace any of those principles and instead chose to consolidate power and rule by fiat.” Egypt has always been a secular country. But a majority of its voters are religious and, given a chance to compete in free elections, they will elect an Islamist government. That has happened in other Arab and Muslim countries as well – for example, Tunisia, Turkey, Iran. In 2006, Palestinians in Gaza elected a Hamas government allied with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. Islamist governments usually infuriate the secular population and antagonize the military — which is what happened in Egypt. Tensions are also high in Turkey, where a relatively moderate Islamic government faces large-scale protests by the secular population. The point is, elections sometimes produce unsavory results. The classic example: the German parliamentary elections of July and November 1932, which made the Nazis Germany’s largest party. As a result, Adolf Hitler became chancellor in 1933. Mursi is no Hitler, but the Muslim Brotherhood is a paranoid and fanatical movement whose long-term commitment to democracy is much in doubt. To radical Islamists, elections are a way to gain power. They are enraged because the results of Egypt’s 2012 election have been nullified. “Didn’t we do what they asked?” an Islamist voter told The New York Times, “We don’t believe in democracy to begin with. It’s not part of our ideology. But we accepted it. We followed them, and then this is what they do?” An Islamist in Libya had this complaint: “Do you think I can sell [democracy] to the people any more? I have been saying all along, ‘If you want to build Shariah law, come to elections.’ Now they will just say, ‘Look at Egypt,’ and you don’t need to say anything else.” To many Islamists, the United States has been exposed as hypocritical. We promote democracy, but we will not stand by a democratically elected government when it is threatened. Many believe that Washington was complicit in Mursi’s overthrow. The Obama administration reportedly tried to broker a compromise that Mursi was unwilling to accept. At the same time, secular Egyptians complain that Washington did not criticize Mursi’s undemocratic regime. To them, it proves that Washington is interested only in stability, not democracy. Didn’t the United States support the corrupt regime of deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak all those years? More than any other recent event, the overthrow of the Mursi government in Egypt highlights a conflict between the form and the substance of democracy. “Why is it just ballot boxes?” a human-rights activist asked. “Are ballot boxes the only forms of democratic expression when the rulers fail the people?” We Americans nurture the pothole theory of democracy. We like to believe that, if a radical government is elected, it will quickly learn that it has to moderate and serve the needs of the people in order to stay in power: It has to fill the potholes and keep the lights on. But to many Islamic radicals, the ballot is just an alternative to the bullet as a way to gain power. They are ready to abandon democracy if the military and the West won’t allow them to stay in power. There was a frightening sight in Egypt last week. Thousands of Mursi supporters rallied under the black flag of jihad and chanted, “No more elections after today!” But democracy means a lot more than holding elections. That’s something they have to learn. We just learned it in Egypt.

Turkey condemns Cairo shooting,calls it massacre.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu condemned the Cairo shooting in which at least 42 people died on Monday, describing the incident as a "massacre" and calling for the start of a normalization process. Islamist protesters angered by president Mohamed Mursi's overthrow said the killings occurred when they were fired on outside Republican Guard headquarters. The military blamed the bloodshed on a "terrorist group" that tried to storm the compound and said at least one soldier was killed and 40 hurt. "I strongly condemn the massacre that took place in Egypt at morning prayer in the name of the fundamental human values which we have been advocating," Davutoglu said on Twitter. He called for the start of a political normalization process that respects the national will of Egyptians. Turkey's government has Islamist roots like Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood. Davutoglu last week denounced the Egyptian army's removal of Mursi after days of mass unrest against his rule "a military coup" and said this was "unacceptable".

Cars seized from Equatorial Guinea president's son reap 2.8 million euros.

From Bugatti and Bentley to Ferrari, Porsche and Maserati, nine luxury cars seized from the son of Equatorial Guinea's president as part of a money-laundering investigation fetched 2.8 million euros ($3.6 million) at an auction in Paris on Monday. Teodorin Obiang, the son of President Teodoro Obiang and apotential successor, is second vice-president of the small oil-rich African state and is wanted in France on charges he embezzled public funds to buy real estate in Paris. He denies wrongdoing and says he earned the money in legitimate business. The cars, seized by French judges in September 2011, drew a crowd of about 100 potential buyers, mostly male, to the prestigious Drouot auction house, with other bids coming over the phone or online. The auction was ordered by a state collection agency that can use the proceeds to indemnify victims. Dating from 2004 to 2010, the cars with leather interiors and spotless paint work appeared infrequently used, with very little mileage, providing a glimpse into Obiang's lavish lifestyle in Paris and abroad. "I'm delighted, it went really well. We met our target - it's a judicial process and we're trying to recover as much money as possible," auctioneer Damien Libert said. ($1 = 0.7792 euros)

South African police arrest five for botched circumcision deaths.

South African police have arrested five people on suspicion of murder for botched circumcisions that led to the deaths of about 30 boys in coming-of-age rituals in the rural Eastern Cape province, a police spokeswoman said on Monday. Police were also investigating suspected assault, gross bodily harm and unlawful circumcisions that left 300 others injured across the province over the last week, police spokeswoman Sibongile Soci said. Every year in South Africa, boys aged 10 to 15 from several of the country's tribal groups are circumcised in traditional "initiation rituals". The ceremonies usually take place over a number of weeks in remote rural areas. Deaths are mainly caused by blood loss or infection from circumcisions poorly performed by traditional practitioners. The ruling African National Congress called the deaths and injuries "tragic" and said the government must act immediately. "Authorities can no longer pay lip service to dealing with this disaster that afflicts our nation during the traditional initiation season," it said in a statement. In May, more than 20 youths died in the northern Mpumalanga province, prompting rare cross-party calls for reform of a practice ingrained in local culture.

U.N. urged to consider drones,gunships for South Sudan mission.

The United Nations should consider deploying surveillance drones and helicopter gunships in South Sudan because peacekeepers are struggling to protect civilians from violence and rights abuses, the U.N. special envoy to South Sudan said on Monday. Hilde Johnson told the U.N. Security Council that after a U.N. civilian helicopter was shot down in December, new safety procedures and a lack of military helicopters - the peacekeepers have only three - had slowed the mission's ability to respond. Johnson said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had outlined several options to boost the South Sudan mission in a report to the 15-member Security Council, including surveillance drones, helicopter gunships and more cargo and riverine transport capabilities. "I urge the council to take urgent action to support the mission in filling these critical resource and capability gaps," Johnson told the Security Council in a video link briefing. South Sudan will mark two years of independence from Sudan on Tuesday and Johnson said that while most parts of the country remained stable, fighting between South Sudanese troops and armed groups in the eastern state of Jonglei was of "deep concern." Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes because of the violence and Johnson said there had been rights violations by both armed groups and national security authorities. On April 9, gunmen ambushed and killed five U.N. peacekeepers and seven civilian staff in Jonglei. The U.N. mission has fewer than 6,900 troops to cover a country the size of France that has barely 300 km (200 miles) of paved roads. Seasonal rains have turned the region into a swamp, severing road access. Johnson said "critical resource and capability gaps" had caused a mobility crisis for the peacekeepers that particularly affected operations in high-risk areas such as Jonglei. "This is having a particularly detrimental effect on the mission's ability to implement its protection of civilians' mandate," she said. "Effective protection is only possible through being present in those communities most at risk." The Security Council is due to renew the mandate of the U.N. mission in South Sudan later this month, and a senior council envoy said that peacekeepers should focus more on protecting civilians "rather than on spreading out across the country and doing infrastructure projects and nation building." DRONES FOR CONGO, IVORY COAST FIRST The envoy, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said deployment of unmanned surveillance drones would be useful, but that was unlikely to happen until next year and was dependent on the success of a pilot program in Democratic Republic of Congo. In his report, Ban also said surveillance drones should only be considered after the Congo program had been evaluated. The U.N. mission in Congo is due to begin using surveillance drones in August to monitor the thickly forested and remote eastern border with Rwanda and Uganda. Congo has been battling a year-long insurgency by M23 rebels. U.N. experts accused Rwanda of sending troops and weapons across the border to support the M23 last year. Rwanda denies the accusation. The United Nations has also set aside money to deploy surveillance drones eventually in Ivory Coast to monitor its border with Liberia following a recommendation by Ban and a request from the west African country. Western Ivory Coast has been the target of deadly raids blamed on supporters of former president Laurent Gbagbo, who was ousted in a civil war in 2011 after he rejected the election victory of rival Alassane Ouattara. While Gbagbo is in The Hague charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, many of his top political and military allies are living in exile in neighboring West African nations.

South Sudan's 'midwives' attack Kiir over corruption and abuses.

A group of U.S. activists who helped to bring about South Sudan's secession have blasted the government of Africa's newest nation in an open letter for allowing "shocking" human rights abuses and corruption to undermine stability. Two years ago, the oil producer won independence from Sudan under a 2005 peace deal that ended one of Africa's longest civil wars, helped by a group of U.S. activists who lobbied the United States to press Khartoum to let the south hold an independence referendum. The group, often known as South Sudan's "wonks" or "midwives", still wield influence with U.S. policymakers, and have long shielded South Sudan from rising criticism over human rights violations. But an open letter to President Salva Kiir distributed by email, they said they could no longer be silent about violence by security forces against civilians, critics of the government and journalists. "We joined you in your fight against these very abuses by the Khartoum regime for many years. We cannot turn a blind eye when yesterday's victims become today's perpetrators," said the activists, who include former U.S. State Department official John Prendergast and professor Eric Reeves. "This violence is shocking and has included rape, murder, theft and destruction of property." While normal South Sudanese had no access to hospitals or schools, people stealing public funds had sent their children to private schools abroad or to get the world's best medical service. "In a remarkably short period of time, the name of your country has become synonymous with corruption," the letter said. Kiir last month suspended two ministers over alleged fraud but critics say such measures are mere window-dressing to address rising criticism from donors. Kiir also wrote last year to 75 current and former officials to ask them to return $4 billion in stolen public money, but diplomats say this has not been backed up by any prosecutions.