NAIROBI 22 February 2012 (IRIN) – In August, Somalia faces constitutional limbo if the key provisions of a political "roadmap" agreed in September 2011, and one of the topics of this week's conference in London, are not met.

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via http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=94926

Herman Nackaerts, chief inspector of the IAEA, has given a statement upon his return from talks with Iranian officials in Tehran. He confirmed that the agency were not granted access to a site thought to be relevant for their investigations, and that no agreement was reached on how to resolve other unanswered questions regarding suspected nuclear activities in Iran

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via http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/feb/22/iran-iaea-nuclear-tehran-video

Financial telecom company SWIFT cutting ties with Iran means that all international payment orders will be harder to cash for Tehran.

from (author unknown)

via http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-middle-east-17120379

The US-born Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik have been killed by shelling in the Syrian city of Homs.

from (author unknown)

via http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/feb/22/sunday-times-correspondent-marie-colvin-last-report-syria-video

Government denies it is intending to shut Dadaab camp at London conference

The Kenyan government has denied it is planning to close the world’s largest refugee camp, playing down suggestions that President Mwai Kibaki might do so during his visit to London.

Kibaki is currently in the UK for a three-day conference with David Cameron.

Almost half a million Somalis live in the Dadaab camp, 60 miles from the Somalian border. Numbers in the camp grew steadily last year as famine gripped the region.

Aid workers say any return of refugees to Somalia must be voluntary, and that some people have already gone back to their farms after good rains, hoping to rebuild lives devastated by last year’s drought and famine and by decades of conflict.

Ahead of the London conference, there had been some speculation that Kibaki might make an announcement about Dadaab at the meeting.

One aid official in Nairobi, speaking anonymously, said there was concern a statement might be “unpalatable” to the humanitarian community.

In January the permanent secretary to Kenya’s ministry of internal security said the country intended to begin preparing to relocate refugees to Somalia.

Dadaab has long been a drain on Kenya’s resources and government officials, including Kibaki, have previously called for refugees to be resettled in Somalia or elsewhere.

But a Kenyan government spokesman denied there were plans to close Dadaab, home to about 463,000 mainly Somali refugees.

Spokesman Alfred Mutua said any returns would be voluntary and carried out with the UN high commission for refugees (UNHCR).

He said the refugees were just a symptom of a wider problem, which Kenya wanted to treat. “We don’t want to deal with the symptoms. We want to deal with the problem and the problem is an unstable Somalia,” he said.

Dadaab, which was set up in 1991 when civil war and drought ravaged Somalia, is the only home some refugees have ever known: they were born in the camp and their children have also been born there.

The camp is on the frontline of war. Kenya has sent troops into Somalia to push back the al-Shabaab militia.

Police vehicles have been blown up and several officers killed inside the camp and in surrounding areas. Arms caches have also been found among the tents, and Human Rights Watch has accused Kenyan police of beating, raping and detaining refugees and ethnic Somalis in the area.

Many NGOs have pulled staff out of Dadaab and conditions are now inhumane, aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said in a report last week. Two Spanish doctors working for MSF were kidnapped from Dadaab last October.

MSF said: “While longer term solutions should be considered, today’s reality is that hundreds of thousands of refugees depend on the aid system and the host government to ensure their human rights are respected.

“Until this happens, the health of the refugees will continue to deteriorate with life-threatening consequences, with aid organisations helplessly watching this situation.”

Somali refugees in Dadaab might be forgiven for not expecting much from the London conference – just the latest attempt by the international community to stabilise a country described by British officials as “the world’s most failed state”.

Some are taking matters into their own hands: UNHCR says about 7,000 have returned home in recent months from camps in Kenya and Ethiopia.

Most of those leaving are men, with women and children staying behind, waiting for the certainty of a security that has so long eluded their country.

from Clar Ni Chonghaile

via http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/22/kenya-denies-plan-to-close-refugee-camp

Names of journalists and media workers and when they were killed in the Middle East and north Africa since January 2011

Journalists and media workers killed covering the Arab spring uprisings since January 2011

Syria

Marie Colvin (Sunday Times): 22 February 2012, Homs

Remi Ochlik (freelance photographer): 22 February 2012, Homs

Rami al-Sayed (video blogger): 22 February, 2012, Homs

Anthony Shadid (New York Times): 17 February 2012, near Turkish border

Mazhar Tayyara (freelance): 4 February 2012, Homs

Shukri Abu al-Burghul (al-Thawra and Radio Damascus): 3 January 2012, Damascus

Basil al-Sayed (freelance): 27 December 2011, Homs

Ferzat Jarban (freelance): 19 or 20 November 2011, Al-Qasir

Egypt

Wael Mikhael (al-Tareeq): 9 October 2011, Cairo

Ahmed Mohamed Mahmoud (al-Ta’awun): 4 February 2011, Cairo

Yemen

Hassan al-Wadhaf (Arabic Media Agency): 24 September 2011, Sana’a

Fuad al-Shamri (al-Saeeda TV): 22 October 2011, Sana’a

Jamal al-Sharaabi (al-Masdar): 18 March 2011, in Sana’a

Libya

Chris Hondros (Getty Images): 20 April 2011, Misrata

Tim Hetherington (freelance photographer): 20 April 2011, Misrata

Anton Hammerl (freelance): 5 April 2011, near Brega

Mohamed Shaglouf (freelance): 15 March 2011, Ajdabiya

Ali Hassan al-Jaber (al-Jazeera): 13 March 2011, near Benghazi

Bahrain

Karim Fakhrawi (al-Wasat): 12 April 2011, Manama

Zakariya Rashid Hassan al-Ashiri (freelance): 9 April 2011, Al-Dair

Tunisia

Lucas Mebrouk Dolega (European Pressphoto Agency): 17 January 2011, Tunis

Source: Committee to Protect Journalists

from Jason Deans

via http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/feb/22/timeline-journalists-killed-arab-spring