The World Wide Economic Downturn Will Greatly Affect The Progression Of Africa!

The global credit crunch is causing some pretty dire predictions for the future state of affairs in Africa.The poverty rate is already the highest in the world in Africa.How will the land of my ancestors weather this evolving economic storm? Here's more from BBC News:

"The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that Africa's economic growth will be affected by the continuing world downturn.

It predicts that growth in sub-Saharan Africa will slow to 3.25% in 2009, half the growth rate it previously thought.

The slump in commodity prices and the credit squeeze are the main culprits, the IMF said.

The report comes ahead of a major IMF conference on Tuesday in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, to discuss how to respond.

The conference will discuss what external support the IMF and other Western donors may be able to provide to help mitigate the impact of the crisis on Africa, which has the highest poverty rate of any region in the world.

The IMF's managing director, Dominique Strauss Kahn, told the BBC that the conference would be a "milestone" and that he wanted to build a different kind of partnership with Africa, as well as providing additional funds.

In recent years, many African countries have enjoyed strong growth rates, boosted by rising commodity prices, including oil.

"The gains of the past decade, during which many countries in sub-Saharan Africa saw sustained high rates of economic growth and rising income levels, are at risk," said Antoinette Sayeh, the IMF's African department director.

Less than a year ago, the IMF's forecast for sub-Saharan Africa was economic growth of 6.7% in 2009, an increase on the 5% growth enjoyed in 2008.

Now the low growth forecast means that many African countries are likely to see very little increase in living standards, and could fall further behind in meeting poverty targets.

It says that 15 of the 21 countries which it judges most vulnerable to the crisis are in Africa."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

The Wife Of Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Was Killed In A Car Crash! May She Rest In Peace!

Susan Tsvangirai was the beautiful wife of the prime minister of Zimbabwe.She was a woman of great strength & courage who worked tirelessly for the poor.She was a true humanitarian.Tragically,she was killed in a car crash on March 6,2009.Here's more on her life from The Guardian:

"Susan Tsvangirai, the wife of Zimbabwe's prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, was killed on Friday, at the age of 50, when a seven-ton aid truck hammered into their four-wheel-drive. It was part of a convoy of three vehicles passing along potholed roads. Morgan went into hospital in Harare with head and neck injuries before being flown out to Botswana.

Parallels were drawn between this new but shortlived figure in the senior echelons of Zimbabwe's government, and the country's first lady, President Robert Mugabe's wife, Grace - the "queen of consumers", whose spending habits have contributed to the collapse of morale in the country. The wife of the new premier - he was sworn in on 11 February - had run a sewing and catering business before her husband went into politics. She made her own alterations to clothes she had bought from discount stores.

Susan was born in Buhera, as was Morgan, about 50 km south of Harare, the country's capital; the convoy in which the fatal accident happened was heading there so that Morgan could address a rally in his home region the following day. The couple met in 1978, when Morgan was foreman of a local nickel mine. They married later that year, and had three daughters and three sons together.

An unquestioning supporter of her husband, she said of him in an interview shortly before her death: "He is a good man, husband and a loving father. Once he sets his eyes on a target he never takes his eyes off the target until he has achieved it.

"He is a man of great determination, and above all a man of great courage. I think he has proved his courage to the world. He has fought Mugabe for 10 years and is still fighting. We all know that Mugabe's tactics are not always above board, but that didn't faze my Morgan."

In 2003, she was very distressed to see him in prison, and sat in court to hear the treason proceedings against him. She visited him in prison and saw the gashes in his head after he was arrested and assaulted in March 2007. As she put it: "I would be lying if I said it has been easy. There were times when I so feared for my husband's life that sleeping was no longer part of my life, I just prayed. As a mother, I feared for my children. I felt that they were so vulnerable. But at the end off the day I had to support my husband, that is the role of a wife, a good wife at least."

A deeply religious woman committed to the alleviation of poverty and HIV/Aids, she ran a soup kitchen from her own home in Harare. Though she often accompanied her husband to political events, she rarely spoke publicly: when she did, her personal charm proved very effective."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

Gunman Kills Baptist Pastor During Church Service In Ilinois!

You don't expect to go to church & witness a murder.But,that's precisely what happened to the unlucky folks who watched their pastor get shot during service this past Sunday.They learned that evil is truly everywhere!Here's more from CBS News:

"The pastor of an Illinois church was shot and killed during a service Sunday morning, according to the Maryville Police Department.

CBS Affiliate KMOV reports that a gunman opened fire after 8:00 a.m. at the First Baptist Church in Maryville, Ill., fatally shooting Pastor Fred Winters, 45.

Illinois State Police spokesperson Ralph Timmens said that the gunman walked up one of the aisles at the church and exchanged words with Winters, who walked over towards him.

The suspect then pulled out a .45 caliber handgun and started shooting.

Police said the pastor used a Bible to deflect the first of four rounds fired.

Timmens said the gun then jammed, and the assailant pulled out a knife and started stabbing himself. When parishioners tried to subdue him, he stabbed two others in the process.

At a press briefing this afternoon, Illinois State Police Director Larry Trent said the Bible exploded, producing what appeared to be confetti, causing some in attendence to believe the episode was a skit being performed as part of the service.

Only one of the four rounds fired struck and killed Winters.

Officials don't know if Winters and the suspect knew each other.

"We don't know the relationship (between the gunman and pastor), why he's here or what the circumstances came about that caused him in the first place to be here," Timmins said.

Winters was taken to Anderson Hospital in Maryville, where he was pronounced dead on arrival, according to spokeswoman Natalie Head.

The gunman and one victim, 39-year-old Terry Bullard, were being treated at St. Louis University Hospital, said spokeswoman Laura Keller. Bullard underwent surgery for stab wounds and was in serious condition, she said. The second wounded congregation member was treated and released.

Keller said the gunman was undergoing surgery early Sunday afternoon but could not provide his name, condition, or type of injuries.

At a press briefing he was described as a 27-year-old white male from Troy, Ill.

The Rev. Mark Jones, another pastor at First Baptist, said he briefly saw the gunman but did not recognize him by name or face.

"We have no idea what this guy's motives were," Jones said outside the church. "We don't know if we'll ever know that."

Police said at the time there were approximately 150 people in the church for the first of three Sunday services. Many coming for the second service arrived to find emergency vehicles directing them away from the church, which reportedly has 1,500 members. Some parked at a nearby senior center where they were consoling one another.

First Baptist parishioner Sharla Dryden pulled into the church parking lot for a 9:30 a.m. service in time to see "just a lot of chaos, lot of police, fire, and people just devastated."

"They just said there had been a shooting," said Dryden, 62. "I would have been devastated if anyone had been shot, but to hear it was the pastor was terrible. You just never expect this to happen at a church." (END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.