Top stories from the Development and Aid World News Service — DAWNS Digest.
Gaddafi’s Former Spy Chief to be tried in Libya
The ICC wants him. France Wants Him. But it looks like Libya will get first crack at trying Gadhafi’s former spy chief Abdullah al Senussi. You may recall that the internationally wanted man was nabbed trying to sneak into Mauritania a few days ago. “The decision, if implemented, sets Libya on a collision course with France and the Hague-based International Criminal Court, which also want Senussi, Gaddafi’s right-hand man before the Libyan dictator’s overthrow and death in a revolt last year. ‘I have met the president of Mauritania and he agreed to the extradition of Senussi to Libya,’ Libyan Deputy Prime Minister Mustafa Abu Shagour wrote on Twitter on Tuesday in a comment confirmed as official by a Libyan government representative. ‘The Libyan delegation visited Senussi in prison and confirmed his identity. The criminal sits in a Mauritanian prison and soon will be in a Libyan prison,’ Shagour wrote in a second tweet in Arabic. A Mauritanian security source said a deal was close but acknowledged pressure from Paris.” (Reuters http://reut.rs/GCaI7p)
Security Council Very Close to Doing Something About Syria
With Russia apparently onboard, negotiations continue today at the Security Council to reach an agreement on a Presidential Statement supporting Kofi Annan’s mission. “The 15-nation panel held two rounds of negotiations on Tuesday on a Western-drafted statement, obtained by Reuters, that would express ‘full support’ for Annan’s peace efforts while threatening Damascus with ‘further measures’ if it fails to comply the council’s demands within seven days.After a two-hour closed-door negotiating session, Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin suggested to reporters that Moscow was prepared to back the Western-drafted statement. ‘Some need instructions,’ he said when asked why the council had not approved the statement. ‘We were ready to go.’ But a senior Western diplomat challenged Churkin’s remarks, saying it was the Russian envoy who pushed for a delay in the adoption of the statement. ‘He (Churkin) decided in the end that he wanted to wait until tomorrow morning,’ the diplomat said. If no one raises any objections by Wednesday morning, the statement will be automatically adopted without a vote under a process at the United Nations known as a ‘silence procedure.’” (Reuters http://reut.rs/GCkTu0)
Money Quote (About) a Donor: Nigeria and Colombia have want one of their own to be the next leader of the World Bank. Nigeria has nominated Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Colombian has nominated Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo. Brazil and South Africa said they’d back a developing world candidate. “The impressive credentials of both Ocampo and Okonjo-Iweala puts tremendous pressure on the White House to come up with a candidate of at least equivalent standing,” said Domenico Lombardi, a former World Bank board official now at the Brookings Institution in Washington. (Reuters http://reut.rs/GCm8t6)