Top stories from DAWNS Digest.
Egypt’s Military Council Delays Election Results
The final, official results of the Egypt’s election were supposed to be certified by the ruling Military Council, but in further evidence of their determination to eviscerate the revolution, they have delayed the election announcement until further notice. “Authorities delayed the announcement of the winner of Egypt’s presidential election, which had been expected Thursday, and gave no date for a decision, hiking tension as allegations of fraud swirled and each candidate declared he was the victor. Amid the atmosphere of political confusion, the Muslim Brotherhood claimed there was an organized campaign of allegations against it to mar the election and keep its candidate, Mohammed Morsi, out of the presidency. The accusation raises temperatures and the possibility of a backlash from the Brotherhood if its rival — former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq — is declared the winner. On top of the potentially explosive dispute over the election is murkiness over the latest health scare of the 84-year-old former President Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in Egypt’s uprising last year and is now serving a life sentence in prison.” (ABC http://abcn.ws/M7uz1B)
Uganda to Ban 38 NGOs accused of “Promoting Homosexuality”
One more step toward restricting the space available to civil society. “Ethics Minister Simon Lokodo told Reuters the organizations being targeted were receiving support from abroad for Uganda’s homosexuals and accused gays and lesbians of “recruiting” young children in the country into homosexuality…’I have got a record of meetings that they have held to empower, enhance and recruit (homosexuals),’ Lokodo said. On Monday, he ordered the breakup of a gay rights conference being held at a hotel just outside the capital Kampala. Police officers sealed off the venue for several hours, detaining gay activists from around the region. ‘They claimed they (were) investigating a security threat,’ Pepe Julian Onziema, an activist with Sexual Minorities Uganda who attended the conference. ‘(The minister) is just trying to intimidate us.’ Around 15 activists from Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania were questioned and later released without charge.” (Reuters http://bit.ly/L57WWf)
Polio Eradication Drive Short $1 Billion
A report released by the the independent monitoring board of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative on Wednesday warned of the poor funding to eradicate polio. “Donaldson said the global financial crisis coupled with growing needs for polio funding had led to a shortfall of $945 million out of a total 2012-13 eradication programme budget of $2 billion. The shortfall would have a “real and immediate” impact, he said. Vaccination campaigns for 2012 would have to be cancelled in 33 countries, leaving 94 million children “exposed to the horrors of this disease”. “This is an extreme and unacceptable risk,” Donaldson said. “These campaigns are not optional extras, they are totally essential. It could set this global endeavour back by many years and vastly increase the eventual cost of achieving eradication.”” (Reuters http://reut.rs/NVxcpb)
Rio Brief
The TWO Rio Plus 20s. There are actually two Rio Plus 20s going on right now. There’s the official United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development that produced a mediocre outcome document. But on the sidelines of the official conference is where the real action is happening. You are seeing coalitions of the willing coming together around very specific issues to make tangible commitments and take concrete action. For example, eight multilateral development banks pledged $175 billion toward sustainable transport infrastructure. Also, one of the biggest things to come out this conference from the American perspective is a $2 billion pledge to the Secretary General’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative. These kinds of commitments and coalitions will be the lasting outcome of the events this week. — Mark Leon Goldberg, down in Rio reporting for my DAWNsers
Rio+20
A look at the various compromises that took place to allow for a final document that nations would sign. (IRIN http://bit.ly/MuAU3O)
Governments can’t agree on too many things in Rio, but NGOs seem to have come to the consensus that they do not like what has been produced so far. (Think Africa Press http://bit.ly/M5KFqm)
The Guardian has a live blog from Day 1 http://bit.ly/PwbWmY
Development banks pledge $175bn for public transport at Rio+20 (Guardian http://bit.ly/KO9A4K)