Zimbabwe army chief: No talks with prime minister

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe's army commander said he would not speak to the nation's prime minister, describing him as a "sellout" and a "psychiatric patient," reported a state-controlled Sunday newspaper.

Gen. Constantine Chiwenga dismissed calls for him and other top security officials to meet with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to discuss demands for reforms in the armed forces ahead of crucial elections this year, reported the Sunday Mail, , which is a mouthpiece of President Robert Mugabe's party.

Chiwenga denied claims by Tsvangirai's party, which is in a shaky coalition with Mugabe, that military chiefs have welcomed approaches on reforms. He called the claims "hallucinations" and said the military chiefs will not meet with politicians who did not fight in the guerrilla war that ended colonial rule in 1980.

"We have no time to meet sellouts. Clearly Tsvangirai is a psychiatric patient who needs a competent psychiatrist . he seems to be suffering from hallucinations," said Chiwenga. "We are different. Just like oil and water, we cannot mix."

Zimbabwe's police and military are accused of state-orchestrated violence surrounding the last disputed polls in 2008.

Similar remarks against Tsvangirai were made by Mugabe's loyalist police commissioner general on April 27.

The army commander was "fired up" when speaking Saturday after the funeral of his brother outside Harare, said The Sunday Mail.

"Who the hell does Tsvangirai think he is? No-one can make us turn our back on the liberation struggle. It is unimaginable for us to spit on the struggle by meeting sellouts," Chiwenga said, the according to the paper.

Tsvangirai, 60, was a trade union leader when the independence war ended with a British-negotiated truce in 1979, leading to the first democratic elections that swept Mugabe to power.

Several service commanders have refused to salute Tsvangirai at state ceremonial events.

Tsvangirai's party insists it wants to meet with powerful pro-Mugabe generals to discuss their future role after new elections expected later this year, possibly in September. Tsvangirai's supporters have demanded that the security chiefs be fired, charging that in their loyalty to Mugabe the military heads have been partisan and unprofessional.

The two similar statements by Mugabe's two top security chiefs within a week of each other signal a hardening of their stance and point to continuing bias of the police and military against Tsvangirai's party ahead of upcoming polls, say analysts.

The coalition agreement brokered by regional leaders that made Tsvangirai the Zimbabwe prime minister in 2009 demands significant democratic and security reforms, the scrapping of sweeping media curbs and an end to hate speech dominating the state media controlled by Mugabe loyalists before new elections.

The international media freedom group Reporters Without Borders on Friday described Mugabe, 89, as "a predator of freedom of information."

Mugabe remained inflexible, refused to cooperate with the former opposition in the power-sharing government and blocked media reforms necessary for a free and fair election, said the group in a statement marking World Press Freedom Day.

Mugabe and his senior officers and officials still exercised strict control over the state media and curtailed the activities of independent media organizations through threats and surveillance, said the press watchdog.

That included an oppressive George Orwell-style "Big Brother is Watching You" law that lets Zimbabwe security authorities intercept communications without asking the courts, said Reporters Without Borders.

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Surprise Bank of Canada chief stands ready to nurture economy

By Louise Egan and Randall Palmer

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada tapped an outsider on Thursday to head its central bank, bringing in the well-respected head of the Canadian export credit agency, who immediately stressed the need to nurture a choppy economic recovery.

Incoming Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz, 57, worked at the central bank for 14 years earlier in his career. But he has spent the last 14 years at Export Development Canada.

Poloz takes over as central bank chief on June 3 when Mark Carney leaves, a surprise for markets, which had tipped Carney's senior deputy Tiff Macklem as the most likely choice. Carney becomes governor of the Bank of England on July 1.

In his debut with reporters, Poloz was careful not to contradict the views that Carney and the central bank expressed in their quarterly economic report last month.

"We are in a recovery that is not as vigorous as would normally be expected and ... I think it will be necessary to nourish it, I don't know for how long," Poloz said in an introductory news briefing in Ottawa.

Canada's economy recovered well from the 2008-09 recession thanks to aggressive government spending, tax cuts and record-low interest rates. But growth stalled last year, with the economy recording its slowest two quarters of growth since the crisis.

The Bank of Canada has kept its key rate on hold at what it describes as a stimulative 1 percent since 2010. But it has signaled for the past year that the next move will be a rate hike, not a cut.

Poloz said exports now needed to fuel the Canadian economy, and he believed this was already starting to happen. Canada unexpectedly recorded a trade surplus in March, the first monthly surplus after a year of deficits.

"In my judgment, it's looking promising. I hope you agree with that," he said, turning to Carney, who smiled broadly: "Yes, absolutely," Carney replied.

Analysts do not expect Poloz to rethink central bank policies, especially because of his experience working there earlier in his career. The bank, which guards its independence jealously, targets inflation of 2 percent, but has said it will be flexible with the timeline for reaching that target in difficult economic times.

"The move was a surprise, but I don't look for any change in monetary policy," said Craig Wright, chief economist at Royal Bank of Canada.

Unlike the U.S. Federal Reserve or the Bank of England, there are no discernible "hawks" or "doves" among the Bank of Canada's six governing council members because the council reaches decisions by consensus and takes pains to speak from a common script at public appearances.

Poloz will serve a seven-year term.

In a Reuters poll on April 10, Poloz was seen as the second most likely candidate to get the job after Macklem.

Poloz appeared upbeat about signs of gradual cooling of the once-hot Canadian housing market and a slowing in record-high household debt levels in Canada - both top concerns of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

"Of course it's a concern in the sense of where we are," Poloz said. "However, the evolution appears to be constructive, and I think that's great, for us to continue to watch that and to, if you like, nurture that process of a return to more normal conditions."

Economists have said Poloz has the credentials to succeed as governor and that he was viewed as a governor-in-waiting in his previous period at the central bank.

FOLKSY COMMUNICATOR

He is a good communicator, described by one person as "folksy" in his speeches but also whip-smart. He worked at a private-sector financial research firm in Montreal for five years after leaving the central bank.

Poloz joined EDC, a quasi-independent organization that provides loans to importers of Canadian goods, in 1999 as its chief economist and became president of the agency in 2010.

One possible strike against him was the perception among some market players that he may be more sympathetic than his predecessors to exporters' complaints about the strong Canadian dollar and lean towards a weaker currency.

RBC assistant chief economist Paul Ferley dismissed that notion.

"This would do a disservice to Poloz's early career at the central bank where the priority is to set monetary policy to achieve an appropriate rate of inflation," he said.

Poloz will have only about a month to transition to his new role, much shorter than the four months Carney had between his appointment in October 2007 and his first day of work in February 2008.

This is the third time in a row that the top job at the Bank of Canada has gone to an outside candidate rather than to the most senior internal policymaker, in this case Macklem.

Macklem said in a statement that he would stay with the bank and looked forward to working with Poloz.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren and Louise Egan; Editing by Janet Guttsman, Peter Galloway and Paul Simao)

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Venezuela court chief: no ground for vote recount

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's Supreme Court president says there is no legal basis for the vote-by-vote recount that opposition candidate Henrique Capriles is demanding, suggesting his petition can be rejected when filed.

Capriles alleges Sunday's election was stolen from him through widespread abuses. He has not yet formally filed a request for a recount with the National Electoral Council, which on Monday ratified the 50.8-to-49 percent victory of Nicolas Maduro, Hugo Chavez's anointed successor.

Judge Luisa Morales said Wednesday that Venezuela's voting system is so automated that a manual count doesn't exist. But technically, a recount is possible as a paper receipt is issued for every vote cast.

Morales is the same judge who issued a controversial decision in March that Maduro effectively became president the moment Chavez died.

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Venezuela high court chief: No basis for recount

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's Supreme Court president said Wednesday there is no legal basis for holding a vote-by-vote recount that opposition candidate Henrique Capriles is demanding for the disputed presidential election.

It was the latest indication that the governing system left behind by Hugo Chavez when he died of cancer last month has no intention of agreeing to Capriles' request. He claims Sunday's election was stolen from him.

Capriles has not formally filed a request for a recount with the National Electoral Council, which on Monday ratified Nicolas Maduro, Chavez's anointed successor, as the winner. The council says Maduro won with 50.8 percent of the vote to Capriles' 49 percent.

Judge Luisa Estela Morales, the Supreme Court chief, said Venezuela's voting system is so automated that a manual count doesn't exist. Technically, however, a recount is possible as paper receipts are issued for every vote cast and can be checked against tallies done by each voting machine, voter registries and centralized records.

"This presumed instigation to a manual count has angered many Venezuelans," said Morales, whose court, like all of Venezuela's national government institutions, is packed with Chavista loyalists. What was unusual about her statement is that it was impromptu, unrelated to any specific court case.

Morales is the same judge who issued a controversial decision three days after Chavez's March 5 death saying that Maduro effectively became president at the moment of his mentor's passing. That enabled Maduro to be sworn in the same day as acting president.

Analysts say Capriles has few options, given Maduro's solid hold on all the levers of power, including the loyalty of the military high command. On Tuesday, Capriles canceled a big protest march he had called for Wednesday after Maduro responded by telling his backers to take to the streets, too.

"Whoever goes out into the street tomorrow is playing the government's game," Capriles said. "The government wants there to be deaths in the country."

Edgard Gutierrez, an independent Venezuelan political consultant, said that given the lack of an institutional solution to the dispute, Capriles' supporters "are going to become disenchanted" if he doesn't summon them into the streets to protest.

Capriles has presented a series of allegations of vote fraud and other irregularities that he contends easily add up to more than Maduro's 262,000-vote winning margin about of 14.9 million votes cast. In addition, the electoral council says about 100,000 votes from abroad had not been counted by Wednesday, and Capriles got about 90 percent of such overseas ballots in the October presidential election won by Chavez.

Capriles' list of alleged irregularities includes:

— Government backers forced his observers out of 283 polling places at which 722,983 votes were cast, and the lack of witnesses raises the possibility of fraud, including double voting.

— Menacing packs of government supporters turned pro-Capriles voters away from the polls.

— There were 3,535 damaged voting machines, representing 189,982 votes.

— Voting rolls included 600,000 dead people.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday reiterated Washington's call for a recount. He declined to say whether the U.S. would refuse to recognize a Maduro presidency without one. Panama and Paraguay are the only other foreign governments to demand a recount.

All day Tuesday, Maduro and his ruling circle filled Venezuela's airways with a steady drumbeat of attacks on Capriles. They called him a coup plotter and accused him of inciting post-election violence by "neo-Nazi gangs" that the government said claimed seven lives and injured 61.

Maduro further charged that the violence was being bankrolled and directed by the United States.

It was not clear, however, whether the violence was as serious as Maduro claimed. Venezuela has an average of more than 40 homicides daily, one of the highest rates in the world, and the government offered almost no information on the deaths.

Capriles called the government assault a smoke screen to divert attention from his recount demand.

A number of opposition protests across Venezuela on Monday and Tuesday turned violent, but apparently only after National Guard riot troops and police used tear gas and plastic pellets to keep marchers away from electoral council offices. There were no reports of deaths in those confrontations.

Maduro's government said 15 countries had confirmed they were sending high-level delegations to Maduro's swearing-in Friday. They included Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Haiti, Uruguay and Argentina.

Interior Minister Nestor Reverol accused Capriles of numerous crimes, including insurrection and civil disobedience. National Assembly speaker Diosdado Cabello said criminal investigations should also be opened against two top Capriles aides, Lara state Gov. Henry Falcon and Carlos Ocariz.

The Chavistas have long used a loyal criminal justice system to repress the opposition, human rights groups say. A Capriles campaign aide, Leopoldo Lopez, is currently facing influence-peddling charges in a 15-year-old case that he calls part of an attempt to selectively silence a now-emboldened opposition.

Security analyst Adam Isacson at the Washington Office on Latin America said the rising tension increases chances that the government could arrest opposition leaders. But he said he was more worried about "mob violence against opposition figures, and perhaps pro-government ones, too."

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Associated Press writers Vivian Sequera, Fabiola Sanchez and Christopher Toothaker contributed to this report.

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Cricket-Australia lack batting depth admits chief selector

By Nick Mulvenney

SYDNEY, April 3 (Reuters) - Australia's chief selector John Inverarity admitted they were struggling for batting depth ahead of this year's Ashes as he announced the list of centrally contracted players for the 2013-14 season on Wednesday.

The 20 named gave a strong indication of the players Australia will be relying on to try and win the Ashes back from England in the first of back-to-back series this year and there were no surprises.

Of the 17 who were on the list last year, only 35-year-old short form specialist David Hussey failed to retain his contract, while Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey have retired.

Top order batsmen Ed Cowan and Phil Hughes, Twenty20 captain George Bailey, all-rounders Glenn Maxwell and James Faulkner as well as quick bowler Clint McKay were the six players brought into the fold.

Inverarity said the discussions on the squad for the first Ashes series, which begins at Trent Bridge on July 10, were at an "advanced" stage but there would be few changes to the party that were humbled 4-0 in India.

"We thought we took our best squad to India, the Ashes squad is likely to be similar to that. There'll be a couple of changes," he told reporters in Perth.

"This list has a broader view because it takes in T20s and one-dayers as well."

Iverarity said the Ashes party would be 16 or 17 strong, have five or six pace bowlers with possibly one all-rounder as well as two spinners.

"I think our pace bowling is likely to be good, I think the wickets in England are likely to suit us more than they did in India," he said.

"But the stability in the batting, we need to get more stability and certainty in our top six.

"We do not have the batting depth in Australia that we had 15 to 20 years ago, we just don't. That is something cricket in Australia has to address," he added.

Batsmen Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith, along with pace bowler Jackson Bird and all-rounder Moises Henriques, had been "very close" to making the list, he said, adding batsmen Alex Doolan and Adam Voges were still in the frame for the Ashes.

David Hussey's omission was an indication that Australia was looking to the future, Inverarity said.

"We are very much in a transition stage in Australian cricket, we've lost some wonderful players. We're in transition and we're looking to offer experience to those young players we think will come through best."

Inverarity said he was "very excited" about the Ashes series and was certain Australia would give a better account of themselves than they had in India.

"The team's performances in India was poor, there were some performances that were unacceptable," he said.

"The conditions there were very, very demanding and I thought a number of the young players learned and improved and they'll be better for that experience."

Contracted players: George Bailey, Michael Clarke, Ed Cowan, Patrick Cummins, Xavier Doherty, James Faulkner, Brad Haddin, Ryan Harris, Ben Hilfenhaus, Phil Hughes, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Clint McKay, James Pattinson, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Shane Watson. (Editing by Patrick Johnston)

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U.N. development chief flags failings of "war on drugs"

By Gabriel Stargardter

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - There is increasing evidence that the war on drugs has failed, with criminalization often creating more problems than it solves, said Helen Clark, the head of the United Nations Development Program.

Speaking ahead of Thursday's presentation of the UNDP's 2013 Human Development Report, Clark, a former New Zealand prime minister, said Latin American leaders should be encouraged to develop different policies to tackle the drug scourge.

"I've been a health minister in my past and there's no doubt that the health position would be to treat the issue of drugs as primarily a health and social issue rather than a criminalized issue," Clark told Reuters in an interview.

"Once you criminalize, you put very big stakes around. Of course, our world has proceeded on the basis that criminalization is the approach," she added.

Clark did not prescribe remedies to the Latin American governments but said they should "act on evidence," noting that she favored treating drugs as a public health problem.

In recent years, many Latin American governments have begun to openly challenge the 40-year orthodoxy of the U.S.-led "war on drugs" that seeks to stamp out the cultivation and distribution of drugs like marijuana and cocaine.

Clark declined to comment on the responsibilities the United States should shoulder in any new drug policy and advised Latin American governments against adopting an "us-and-them" stance when dealing with the United States and consumer countries.

UNDP spokeswoman Christina LoNigro later said in a statement that Clark had not criticized the U.S. policy on the so-called war on drugs.

"She was speaking about the negative effects the drug trade has had on development in some Latin American countries in the context of the Human Development Report," she added.

BLOODSHED

Frustrated by ceaseless bloodshed and a perception that the United States has not done enough to curb its own drug consumption, many leaders in the region are now speaking openly about the possibility of legalizing drugs.

In Mexico, more than 70,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since the start of 2007.

Supported by the United States, former Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who left office in December, launched a military offensive on drug gangs soon after taking office in late 2006. Rather than quelling the violence, killings rose and Calderon gradually moved away from his hardline stance.

At the U.N. General Assembly in September, Calderon and the leaders of Colombia and Guatemala - traditionally three of the most reliable U.S. partners on drug control - called on world governments to explore new alternatives to the problem.

In Latin America and other regions, calls are growing for new thinking on how to combat the trade in illicit drugs and the resulting bloodshed, Clark noted.

They have said "that the approach being followed has failed so we need a fresh set of eyes on this as well. And I think the debate going on at the regional level is a very, very useful one," Clark said, referring to Latin America.

The latest UNDP report argues that growing prosperity in the traditionally poor global south is driving gains in human development there. As a result, it said, "stronger voices from the south are demanding more representative frameworks of international governance."

Among those demands are growing calls to redraw the battle lines of the "war on drugs."

"To deal with drugs as a one-dimensional, law-and-order issue is to miss the point," Clark said. She stopped short of calling for outright legalization, but said the focus should be on keeping illegal profits out of criminal hands.

"We have waves of violent crime sustained by drug trade, so we have to take the money out of drugs," she said.

One of the arguments for legalizing drugs is that it would take away a key source of revenue for traffickers.

"The countries in the region that have been ravaged by the armed violence associated with drug cartels are starting to think laterally about a broad range of approaches and they should be encouraged to do that," said Clark.

"They should act on evidence," she added.

(Editing by Dave Graham and Todd Eastham)

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Venezuela investigates slaying of indigenous chief

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan authorities launched an investigation on Monday into the shooting death of an Indian chief who had repeatedly requested protection from the government as he campaigned for indigenous rights in a largely lawless and increasingly violent region.

Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said Sabino Romero, a leader of the Yukpa tribe, was fatally shot on Sunday along a highway in the western state of Zulia.

Villegas said investigators suspect Romero may have been the victim of a hired killing, but authorities have not determined a motive.

"The investigation is under way," Villegas said. "We cannot put forth any type of hypothesis regarding this reprehensible act."

The Prosecutor General's Office issued a statement saying that Romero reportedly was gunned down by two assailants riding a motorcycle. The gunmen stopped a vehicle carrying Romero and sprayed it with bullets, according to prosecutors.

The indigenous leader's wife, Luisa Martinez de Romero, was wounded.

No suspects have been arrested.

Justice Minister Nestor Reverol told state television that federal police traveled from Caracas to Zulia to assist state authorities investigating Romero's murder.

Reverol suggested that owners of large swaths of land located along the Perija mountain range may be responsible for Romero's murder.

In a message posted on the Twitter social networking site, Zulia state governor Francisco Arias, a close ally of President Hugo Chavez, announced that federal and state officials would also join forces "to advance on the distribution of land for the Yukpas."

Romero had long campaigned for the rights of the Yukpa and the demarcation of their lands in the Perija mountain range bordering neighboring Colombia.

Foro por la Vida, a group of Venezuela's most prominent human rights organizations, in a statement strongly condemned the killing, calling for "exhaustive, transparent and quick investigation" to determine who was responsible.

In a statement of its own, Foro por la Vida noted that tensions between the Yukpa and cattle ranchers have increased in recent years, occasionally leading to violence, as the Indians have settled on lands claimed by ranchers and demanded the government initiate the demarcation of their ancestral lands.

Land owners are suspected of killing several tribe members amid land-related disputes, according to human rights organizations. Rights groups said the Yukpa repeatedly denounced threats from ranchers, but authorities failed to act.

"There's a lot of tension in the region," said Lusbi Portillo, an Indian rights activist, told The Associated Press in an interview.

Portillo counts at least eight murders involving Yukpa tribe members in recent years.

"There are no investigations, nobody is arrested," added Portillo, a representative of Sociedad Homo et Natura, a non-governmental organization that closely tracks indigenous rights issues in Venezuela.

Portillo said that he has received anonymous death threats by telephone.

Romero's father, Jose Manuel Romero, was killed in 2009. Tribe members blame a local rancher for his slaying, but the alleged aggressor was never arrested or faced criminal charges, according to Portillo and human rights activists.

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Christopher Toothaker on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ctoothaker

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Chad's president: Al-Qaida chief killed in Mali

N'DJAMENA, Chad (AP) — Chadian President Idriss Deby announced Friday that Chadian troops fighting to dislodge an al-Qaida affiliate in northern Mali killed one of the group's leading commanders, Abou Zeid.

The death of the Algerian warlord, a feared radical leader of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb behind the kidnapping of several Westerners, could not immediately be verified. His death would be a big blow to his group and its growing influence in North and West Africa.

Officials in Mali and in France, which is leading an international military intervention in Mali against Islamic extremists linked to AQIM, could not confirm the death.

The Chadian president's spokesman said that Deby announced the death of Abou Zeid during a ceremony Friday for Chadian soldiers killed in fighting in Mali. The spokesman insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak ahead of an announcement on state television on the matter. He gave no further details.

The French military moved into Mali on Jan. 11 to push back al-Qaida-linked militants who had imposed harsh Islamic rule in the vast country and who were seen as an international terrorist threat. The extremists took control over northern Mali in a power vacuum after a coup last year, and had started moving toward the capital.

France is trying to rally other African troops to help in the military campaign, since Mali's military is weak and poor. Chadian troops have offered the most robust reinforcement.

For the past 10 days, French military, along with Chadian forces, have been locked in a weeklong battle against extremists in the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains of northern Mali that has left scores dead.

A French presidential aide said the French government would not comment on the Chadian president's announcement. Earlier, French President Francois Hollande said: "Information is circulating. It is not for me to confirm this, because we need to follow through the operation to the end."

French military spokesman Col. Thierry Burkhard said Friday night that French and Chadian soldiers are working together in a general sense but they are not always "side by side" in every operation. So he could not say whether French soldiers were involved in the operation that Deby says killed Abou Zeid.

Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, who led one of the most violent brigades of al-Qaida's North African franchise and helped lead the extremist takeover of the north, was thought to be 47 years old.

He was a pillar of the southern realm of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, responsible for the death of at least two European hostages. He was believed to be holding four French nationals kidnapped two years ago at a uranium mine in Niger. The fate of those hostages, working for French company Areva, was unclear Friday night.

Abou Zeid held a Frenchman released in February 2010, and another who was executed that July. He's also been linked to the execution of a British hostage in 2009.

There is uncertainty about his real name. Along with his nom de guerre, Abou Zeid had an alias, Mosab Abdelouadoud, and nicknames, the emir of the south and the little emir, due to his diminutive size. But the Algerian press has raised questions about his legal identity — Abid Hamadou or Mohamed Ghedir.

He was viewed as a disciplined radical with close ties to the overall AQIM boss, Abdelmalek Droukdel who overseas operations from his post in northern Algeria. But he was an arch rival of Moktar bel Moktar, known as "the one-eyed sheik" after lost an eye in combat in Afghanistan. Mokhtar's profile soared in January after a mid-January attack on a huge Algerian gas plant combined with a mass hostage taking which left 37 hostages and 29 attackers dead over four days.

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Charlton reported from Paris. Associated Press writer Rukmini Callimachi contributed from Dakar, Senegal.

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USAID chief visits Mogadishu, says US is committed

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — The administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development is in Mogadishu for talks with top Somali officials.

The visit on Thursday by Rajiv Shah, the administrator of USAID, makes him the highest ranking U.S. administration official to visit Mogadishu in years.

The U.S. is embracing the new government in Mogadishu, a formerly war-torn city that has seen about 18 months of relative peace. Last month the U.S. formally recognized Somalia's government for the first time in two decades.

Shah, standing beside Somalia's president, announced $20 million in new funding to support health and education programs. Shah said the U.S. also wants to help Somalia fight corruption.

He said Somalia was mired in conflict, famine and terrorism, but that its story line is now one of resilience, recovery and hope.

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