Nigeria was not invited to the month of May's G8 Gathering in United States

Ethiopia, Ghana, Tanzania and Benin presidents were officially invited to the forthcoming G8 Summit later this month in the United States by U.S. President Barack Obama. United States will be hosting the next G8 summit and with the tradition of the event, the host nation can invite other world leaders that have issues that can enhanced the gathering. Nigeria, an oil rich nation with a powerful and recognized influence in Africa has always receive invitation to the august meeting. But this time around invitation card was not extended to her.

According to Voice of America: " White House spokesman Jay Carney says Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Ghana's President John Mills, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete and Benin President Yayi Boni, who is the current chairman of the African Union, will attend the summit for a discussion of food security on May 19 at the U.S. president's mountain retreat – Camp David in Maryland.”

There is no African nation that is a member of the esteemed G8 Group that includes the United States, Canada, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia. The G8 nations are characterized with developed and industrialized economies, open societies and intimidating Gross Domestic Products. The G8 are member nations of the world's largest economies but having one of the largest economies are not only the criteria for membership for China and Brazil with large economies by any standard have not made it to the well respected group.

G8 leaders pic:White House

Voice of America, further reported, "The Group of Eight holds a summit each year of the leaders of eight of the world's largest economies – the United States, Canada, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia. The host of each year's summit frequently invites other leaders for an expanded discussion of specific issues. Last month, the United States announced it is providing nearly $200 million in additional humanitarian aid to the Horn of Africa, where a lack of rain is again threatening food supplies.  Last year, the Horn suffered through a severe drought that triggered famine conditions in parts of southern Somalia. Thousands of Somalis died and tens of thousands more fled to camps in Mogadishu or refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, in search of food and water. The United States says it has provided more than $1.1 billion in humanitarian aid to the Horn since the crisis began in 2011."

Nigeria has enjoyed the privileged of being invited to G8 meeting until this time despite not even being a member nation of G20. South Africa is the only African nation that has both memberships in G20 and BRICS nations.

Mitt Romney is in the midst of a bruising, costly campaign to oust Barack Obama from the White House, but one expert has long said the Republican challenger's efforts are for naught: the president's re-election is a sure thing.

"Even if I am being conservative, I don't see how Obama can lose," historian and American University professor Allan Lichtman told US News & World Report.

That was last August, and he stands by his prediction today.

Lichtman is no ordinary soothsayer; he and his pattern-recognition model have been right 100% of the time since he created The Keys to the White House in the early 1980s.

His system, based on 13 conditions that favour re-election of the incumbent party, has also retroactively called every presidential election since 1860.

That's 37 in a row, including advance calls on every election since 1984.

As for 2012, "I don't think [Romney] can upset the apple cart," Lichtman said, as his system gyrates around a simple truth: "presidential elections are essentially referenda on the performance of the party holding the White House."

In other words, "there is little or nothing the challenging party can do to change election outcomes."

Assessing strengths

The 13 keys assess the strength of the incumbent party, the presidency's perceived achievements and failures on issues such as the economy and foreign affairs, and charisma of the incumbent and the challenger.

Obama currently holds 10 keys. He'd have to lose three more to lose the election, but Lichtman says such a collapse this late in the game would be unprecedented.

The professor has fended off criticism, notably by Nate Silver of the New York Times, who wrote in the FiveThirtyEight blog last year that many of the keys are subjective.

President Obama and Mitt Romney (Credit: AP Photo)

Lichtman argued that "the world is subjective, and can't be reduced to these equations as we know."

He's stirred controversy by saying for example that Republican John McCain's status as a war hero was not enough to turn the challenger charisma key in 2008.

This year he scores some keys controversially in favour of Obama, such as the president effecting "major changes in national policy," a nod to his health care reform, even though the law is unpopular.

Silver and experts like University of Chicago professor John Brehm say Lichtman engages in data dredging, mining details of past elections in order to establish a winning set of criteria.

Margin of victory

Brehm points to Lichtman's deficiencies in forecasting the margin of victory, including in some elections that were "squeakers in reality but ... the model predicted them to be runaways," such as John F Kennedy's razor-thin 1960 defeat of Richard Nixon.

Lichtman said he has not heard from the Romney campaign.

But he has over the years fielded calls from Democratic challengers, including one from an advisor to a man Lichtman had never heard of in 1991: Arkansas governor Bill Clinton.

"I shared the copy [of 'The Keys'] with governor Clinton and he loved it," Kay Goss, who was senior assistant to Clinton at the time, said.

In the aftermath of the Gulf War George W Bush had some of the highest approval ratings in history, and Democrats were avoiding running against him in 1992.

Lichtman saw it differently, and wrote that based on the keys, Bush could be beaten.

"I can't speak to the exact impact it had on his decision-making process," Goss said, but the book was "quite helpful to me and to many others supporting governor Clinton's successful quest for the presidency."

Tobe Berkovitz, an advertising professor at Boston University and long-time political consultant, says the system provokes collegial envy and criticism.

Popular vote

"It's a brilliant work of marketing. But, he's been accurate," Berkovitz conceded -- though he stressed Lichtman's model predicts the popular vote, not the electoral college, which allowed him to keep his perfect record in 2000 when he picked Al Gore.

Gore won the popular vote, but Bush won the White House.

"Overall, more power to him," said Berkovitz. "But am I going to bet the farm on his prediction? No."

Lichtman says there is still a path to victory for Romney -- albeit a negative one.

"The economy could take a catastrophic dive into recession, there could be some terrible disaster abroad, and some presidential scandal. Those three things would do [Obama] in," he said.

As for 2016, some keys are already in the Republicans' favour, especially if Obama wins re-election and there's a Democratic nominations battle four years from now.

"Run," Lichtman tells Republicans, "because it's more likely to be a better Republican year than now." -- Sapa-AFP

Source: CBSNews.com

At the annual American-Israeli conference in Washington, DC, President Obama promised the crowd that the United States would stand by Israel, but he warned against a rush to war with Iran.

The day before his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Obama attempted to assure the pro-Israel audience that the United States will not sit idly by and watch Iran build a nuclear weapon.

“I have said that when it comes to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, I will take no options off the table, and I mean what I say,” the President said.

The President had a similar message for Iran: “Iran’s leaders should understand that I do not have a policy of containment; I have a policy to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”

Prime Minister of IsrealTHE HONORABLE BENJAMIN NETANYAHU  Picture credit United with Israel

But, the president urged more diplomacy, first, and to tame down any talk of military strikes against Iran.

“I only use force when the time and circumstances demand it,” he said. “Already, there is too much loose talk of war.”

The president urged continued use of sanctions, travel restrictions and efforts to choke off the Iranian regime, but he said that the United States is willing to take military action. "Of course, so long as Iran fails to meet its obligations, this problem remains unsolved. The effective implementation of our policy is not enough - we must accomplish our objective," the president said.

READING CONTINUES: CBSNews.com

Operation "Let's Stay Together"

Mr. Barack Obama, the president and commander-in-chief did something that may be a clue on how his campaign will be conducted in the forthcoming presidential election. While in New York at the famous Apollo Theater he made the spur-of-the-moment rendition of Rev. Al Green classic song “Let’s Stay Together” and the crowd went ecstatic, later the sales of the classic escalated. Right there he has gotten himself a campaign strategy - Operation "Let's Stay Together." A winning strategy of bringing all people together, working together for a common goal of fixing the economy and producing 21st century jobs.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it," is President Obama pathway to his reelection victory and he's to bring back his 2008 election campaign style and sensibility. Observing President Obama strategy for victory can best be summarized with the Rev. Al Green classic “Let’s Stay Together.”  As President Obama broke into a line of Rev. Al Green classic song “Let’s Stay Together,”  he brought the house down and that was on every lip in the country. People are coming together and talking about the president and the future with smile and confidence. The economic climate of the country is gradually changing for the best and unemployment is slowly but steadily coming out from the hole.

For the first time in several years the January job report shows that President Obama and his administration are heading in the right direction. The payroll jobs added into the economy was 243,000 while the unemployment fell to 8.3 percent. This positive and solid economic growth is the key to his re-election.

Confidence building statistics are trickling down from US labor Department; fewer people are receiving and filing for unemployment checks. The American productivity and consumer confidence are bumping higher, inflation is under control and Americans are becoming optimistic even bullish on the economy. It is beginning to look like the good time is coming back again. But let us not get so fast, a recession in Europe or China may dampen American rising economy.

That is why it is important for the problem of Greece to be skillfully managed before it does more damage to the European economy that is already weaken by runaway debt. German and French leaders are doing a good job in working with President Obama to make sure that Europe is not totally fallen apart. The success of the going deficit treaty talks in European Union can be a reassurance to the global market and bond holders of European debt. A global double dip recession particularly in Europe will be a disaster to United States and that will not be good news for Obama's reelection.

Back to Obama's reelection, the emerging operation "Let's Stay Together” is the endeavor to bring back all the voters especially Democrats and Independent together in the fold once again, as President Obama did in 2008. Just go and review his State of the Union address, his big smile, wits and charisma are all back again. Everything was coming into place, David Axelrod is charge of the campaign and the former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs is back on the Obama payroll as a 'roving surrogate and strategic consultant' for the reelection campaign.

The first task of the campaign is to get people to start believing again and to believe against all odds. One great thing going for President Obama is the level of trust American people has for him in spite of the economic problems. They know that he is working hard day and night to improve the economy. Another thing is that they know he did not cause the problem, they maybe little impatience but they know that he cares for all Americans. When he became president the economy was losing jobs and there was hardly any GDP growth but now the affirmative changes are becoming apparent.

Obama and Al Green Getty Images

President Obama has done so much to fix the economy, although the economic problems persisted but the downturn have ceased. When we reflect on his accomplishments, he has stood up for the American people and turned the economy around with affirmative policies. The current economic outlook, growth and jobs maybe slow but it is steady. When he came into his presidency the economy was losing thousands of jobs but since his presidency millions of jobs have been added to the private sector, auto industry was bailed out and it is registering big profit, health care for all was passed and Iraq war has been successfully ended. His foreign policy can be describe in one word - impeccable and he reminded us in State of the Union address that Osama bin laden is no longer here, he managed Arab spring skillfully and has given Iran the most restrictive sanction ever.

Rasmussen recent polling reported by Forbes stated that "Obama beats former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney by four points and Newt Gingrich by 10 points, firming a comment made by former senator Bob Dole this week that if Gingrich is chosen to be the party’s presidential candidate then an Obama re-election is assured. Obama also beats Texas congressman Ron Paul by 10 points and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum by 8 points, according to Rasmussen. Obama beats Gingrich, Santorum and Paul in at least six polls taken during the Primary season, including those conducted by conservative Fox News. Only Romney comes marginally close to beating Obama in two polls conducted early this month by CNN/Opinion Research and ABC News/Washington Post. Both have Romney beating the president by no more than two points."

Obama's people can see the Rasmussen polls as encouraging despite the state of the economy and without a Republican presidential nominee that has not been visited with barrage of adverts and criticism. President Obama should also make sure that he did not invite extra burden by self inflicting which can be avoided. For example he did not need to isolate and alienate religious voters with his healthcare policy on contraceptives. If President Obama can keep and sustain the strategy of “Let's Stay Together," comes January 2013 he will be sitting in the oval office.

Emeka Chiakwelu is the Principal Policy Strategist at Afripol Organization. Africa Political and Economic Strategic Center (Afripol) is foremost a public policy center whose fundamental objective is to broaden the parameters of public policy debates in Africa. To advocate, promote and encourage free enterprise, democracy, sustainable green environment, human rights, conflict resolutions, transparency and probity in Africa. http://afripol.org.   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Obama's singing of 'Let's Stay Together' at Apollo Theater last week upped sales of iconic 1972 hit.

Sure, clean energy, the return of manufacturing, a boost in education spending and saving the domestic car industry are awesome ways to revive the American economy. But another tactic President Obama might consider is more singing.

Because a week after the falsetto singer-in-chief unleashed his version of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" at an Apollo Theater fundraiser, sales of the good Rev.'s most iconic hit have taken off.

President Obama singingat the Apollo Theater Shahar Azran/WireImage

According to Billboard magazine, the viral video of the president singing the first line of the #1 hit from 1972 boosted sales of the song by 490 percent. In fact, the tune had its best week since SoundScan began tracking digital sales in 2003, with 16,000 downloads. The YouTube video of the impromptu recital has been viewed more than 4 million times.

Despite his African heritage Barack Obama appears to have done little for his father's continent in his first term as US president.

He could not match George Bush's generous legacy of millions of dollars poured in into health in Africa. Besides, he could not be seen to be worrying about such a remote and ostensibly inconsequential continent (for Americans, anyway) while the US was under threat from Islamic militants and its economy was shedding jobs.

All US presidents, and uniquely this one (given his unconventional background) have to prove themselves to the American people in their first term. In his case Obama had to prove that he was not some liberal pacifist wimp of foreign parentage who couldn't use military might to punish America's enemies. He had to 'win' the war in Iraq, track down Bin Laden and kill him and send drones over Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia to kill terrorists. That, by the way, may be a war crime under international law.

He also expended a huge amount of political capital getting his health scheme through Congress. It is still to be implemented. He has however been able to do little about America's declining economy and the subsequent decline in political power in the world. As campaigning gets under way for next November's election we will, I suspect, see little of the compassionate, intellectual man and more of warrior Obama.

If he wins a second term things will be different. He doesn't need to get re-elected. Consequently we may see Obama trying to straighten out Africa's bad politics. I am told he is ready for it. Contrary to appearances, he has remained quietly engaged with Africa throughout his first term, constantly phoning presidents and others - especially the Kenyans when there is tension. He has also had many of the Big Men to Washington for state visits. But it has been low profile.

Richard Dowden with President Jonathan in Nigeria

The paradox of Africa at the moment is that, at last, it is where the hot money is going. Trade is booming and Africa's economies are among the fastest growing on the planet. But the politics are as bad as ever and next year several countries, Kenya included, are facing elections which may spark violence and war. At this moment of economic opportunity there remains the great threat of disruption, and a dearth of leadership to guide countries around it or through it. There is no one like Olusegun Obasanjo, Thabo Mbeki or Nelson Mandela who could provide a continent-wide vision and summon other rulers to help deal with crises. The traditional Big Men - the South Africans and Nigerians - are inward looking, their leaders not confident of making the right calls and giving decisive leadership. They backed different horses in Cote d'Ivoire and, like almost all African governments, kept quiet about Libya.

So there is a role for Obama in his second term, maybe not too prominent, but as a consensus builder. US interests outside West African oil are almost purely concentrated on making Africa successful and secure. Future generations may wonder how on earth China managed to get every one of Africa's rulers to come and shake hands with the Chinese president and premier in 2006 while the United States never even bothered to invite them. If the US is going to continue to be sole or joint Top Nation, it surely needs a substantial engagement in Africa beyond aid money and fighting terrorism. Obama could provide that.

Richard Dowden is Director of the Royal African Society and author of Africa: altered states, ordinary miracles

United States President Obama sends Troops to Uganda, Africa

President Obama authorized the deployment to Uganda of approximately 100 combat-equipped U.S. forces to help regional forces “remove from the battlefield” – meaning capture or kill – Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony and senior leaders of the LRA. The forces will deploy beginning with a small group and grow over the next  month to 100. They will ultimately go to Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the permission of those countries.

The president made this announcement in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Friday afternoon, saying that “deploying these U.S. Armed Forces furthers U.S. national security interests and foreign policy and will be a significant contribution toward counter-LRA efforts in central Africa.” He said that “although the U.S. forces are combat-equipped, they will only be providing information, advice, and assistance to partner nation forces, and they will not themselves engage LRA forces unless necessary for self-defense.”

The president said that for more than two decades the LRA has been responsible for having “murdered, raped, and kidnapped tens of thousands of men, women, and children in central Africa” and continues to “commit atrocities across the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and South Sudan that have a disproportionate impact on regional security.”

A senior Defense official says the 100 military personnel will be mostly Special Operations Forces and that they “will be traveling  out to field locations in the areas affected by the LRA where they can interact with and advise those forces that are actively pursuing the LRA.”   The official stressed, “they will not be engaging in direct combat against the LRA.” The US has been helping the four African nations counter the LRA for several years by providing local militaries with training and equipment.  In the Democratic Republic of the Congo the US helped train a light infantry battalion deployed to fight the LAR and  over the last three years in Uganda the US has provided $33 million to help Uganda’s military.

This 31-year-old woman from Niangara was abducted and mutilated by the LRA on April 13, 2010. After clasping her lips together with pliers, the LRA combatants forced a 16-year-old Congolese boy, abducted during a previous attack, to slice off her lips and her right ear with a knife. © 2010 Human Rights Watch

When the president signed that letter in May 2010,  he said the bill “crystallizes the commitment of the United States to help bring an end to the brutality and destruction that have been a hallmark of the LRA across several countries for two decades, and to pursue a future of greater security and hope for the people of central Africa. The Lord’s Resistance Army preys on civilians – killing, raping, and mutilating the people of central Africa; stealing and brutalizing their children; and displacing hundreds of thousands of people.  Its leadership, indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, has no agenda and no purpose other than its own survival.  It fills its ranks of fighters with the young boys and girls it abducts.  By any measure, its actions are an affront to human dignity.”

The act passed both houses of Congress with overwhelming support on May 10, 2010 with language that included “providing political, economic, military, and intelligence support for viable multilateral efforts to protect civilians from the Lord’s Resistance Army.”

More from  Human Rights Watch on the infamous LRA.

ABC NEWS

German comedian Martin Sonneborn is well-known for jokes bordering on the tasteless. But a satirical political billboard of him posing in blackface makeup as US President Barack Obama is sparking outrage.

US ambassador laments ‘racist jerks’ in Germany - Society (8 Sep 11)

“Ick bin ein Obama (I am an Obama),” reads the poster at Berlin’s central Ernst Reuter Platz square, in an apparent play on John F. Kennedy’s famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech. On the poster, a "black" Sonneborn smiles as he raises his arm in the air.

The billboard is the latest in Sonneborn’s campaign for his satirical political party Die Partei ahead of state elections in Berlin this Sunday. It’s meant to make fun of the entire German political establishment and go up to the edge of propriety – another poster is entitled “MILFS against Merkel” and the campaign has also mocked the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party.

But the latest one is upsetting to some because of the racial connotations of blackface theatre, which was widespread in America in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Based on ugly stereotypes, blackface consisted of white performers painting themselves black for degrading minstrel shows. It it quickly died out in the United States after the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

In an interview with The Local on Thursday, Sonneborn, staying in character as the leader of Die Partei, said his billboard wasn’t racist.

He said he was “Germany’s Obama” and added he was mocking the “hype” surrounding the US president. Sonneborn, formerly editor-in-chief of the German satire magazine Titanic, said he wasn’t aware of the history of blackface and didn’t care if anyone was upset.

“No, I didn’t know that,” he told The Local. “If Americans associate it with that, then I’m sorry, but I’m not going to take it down.”

But Tahir Della a spokesman for the Initiative for Black Germans (ISD), which tries to represent the interests of the black community in Germany, called the billboard "unbelievably hurtful."

"This is 2011 and not 1950," he said. "I find it racist through and through."

DPA photo

Quaide Williams, the vice chair of the German chapter of Democrats Abroad, also said the poster was insensitive, although he emphasized that he was speaking for himself and not the organization.

“Do I think that racism is a problem in Germany? Yes I do. I think this shows how insensitive people are to this topic,” Williams told The Local. “It’s kind of interesting to look at how little they recognize racism in their own politics.”

There have been several incidents in recent years involving Obama that have led to charges of racial insensitivity by Germans.

In 2009, a frozen food company released Obama chicken fingers but later said it wasn’t aware some might see overtones of stereotyping blacks with the product’s name. That same year, Dresden’s Zoo renamed a mandrill – a monkey-like primate – it had called Obama after an unfortunate attempt to "honour" the US leader.

The gaffes have not been confined to one side of the Atlantic, however. After Obama’s election as president, the New York Post got in trouble for a political cartoon showing police officers shooting a chimpanzee while saying: “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.”

US Amb. Murphy

But the blackface billboard incident comes on the heels of an open letter by the US Ambassador to Germany, Philip Murphy, lamenting racism in the country after one of his black staffers had to endure abuse following a football game in Berlin.

The US Embassy said it had no immediate comment on the Obama billboard.

The full letter on the US Embassy website » on the controversy.

The Lithe ( German Newspaper)

President Jonathan in Washington and in New York in Pictures

"President Obama and President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria met at the White House on Wednesday, June 8 and reaffirmed the strong bilateral partnership between the two countries. The President personally congratulated President Jonathan on the success of Nigeria’s recent elections, which deepened the foundation for future democratic contests. The leaders discussed how the Jonathan administration can build on this momentum by investing in Nigeria’s energy supply, agricultural productivity, democratic institutions, and security sector. The President called on President Jonathan to make fighting corruption a national priority and a critical step in ensuring the necessary conditions for sustained economic growth and lasting prosperity. The President thanked President Jonathan for his leadership both regionally and within the United Nations Security Council on pressing issues such as Sudan, Libya, and Cote d’Ivoire. Both leaders agreed to continue to work together to promote peace and security."

                 - White House's  Readout of the President's Meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria

 credits: vanguard, thewill, Nigeriasquare, WH

Obama releases 'long form' birth certificate

The White House has released President Barack Obama's birth certificate, in response to persistent rumours he was not born in the US. Mr Obama had previously released an official "certification of live birth" showing he was born in Hawaii. But fringe "birther" theorists have insisted Mr Obama was actually born in his father's native Kenya, making him ineligible to be president. Recently potential Republican candidate Donald Trump has revived the rumour.

'Silliness'

On Wednesday, Mr Obama described the unprecedented move as an effort to rid the US political debate of a distraction, saying he had watched, puzzled and bemused, as the birther conspiracy had built and developed over the past years. "We do not have time for this kind of silliness," Mr Obama said. "We've got better stuff to do. I have better stuff to do. We've got big problems to solve, and I'm confident we can solve them, but we're going to have to focus on them - not on this."

The release of Mr Obama's long form birth certificate, which had been stored in a vault in Hawaii since his birth in August 1961, comes after years of speculation among conspiracy-minded conservatives.Under the US constitution, only a "natural born citizen" - a clause widely interpreted to mean born in the US or in some cases to US citizens abroad - is eligible to be president. The birther conspiracy held that Mr Obama was born in Kenya or in Indonesia, where he lived as a child, or that the birth certificate revealed other unwholesome information about the president.

During the 2008 presidential campaign Mr Obama released a computer print-out of the birth certificate information that is recognised as an official record of his birth, and Hawaiian public health officials vouched for its authenticity.But the move did little to quell the birthers, even as most mainstream Republicans have sought to quash the movement, calling it a distraction from substantive policy disagreements. On Wednesday, the White House released copies of the original birth certificate, with a stamp verifying its authenticity.

Birthers unsatisfied

It shows Barack Hussein Obama II was born 4 August 1961 at Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital in Honolulu, to Barack Hussein Obama, a 25-year-old student, and Stanley Ann Dunham, 18, and includes the signature of the attending physician. It remains unclear whether the release of the birth certificate will satisfy the most hard-core birthers.

Joseph Farah, chief executive of birther-oriented website WorldNetDaily.com, said on the site the document "raises as many questions as it answers". "It is important to remember there are still dozens of other questions concerning this question of eligibility that need to be resolved to assure what has become a very sceptical public concerning Barack Obama's parentage, his adoption, his citizenship status throughout his life and why he continues to cultivate a culture of secrecy around his life," he said.