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South Africa's government has confirmed it will not issue a visa for the Dalai Lama to enter the country, because his visit is "not in the country's best interest ". The Dalai Lama was supposed to join Nobel laureates in South Africa this week to discuss how peace and co-existence can be promoted during the football World Cup in 2010, set to be hosted in South Africa. The meeting has been postponed after several members of the Nobel laureate pulled out after the Dalai Lama's ban, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu. BBC article here .

Al Jazeera had a story on the IMF report I mentioned in my last post. An excerpt: "Jakayo Kikweke, president of Tanzania, told those gathered in Dar es Salaam that the economic gains made across the continent in recent years are now under threat due to the global slowdown. "There are growing worries about the potential effects of the global financial meltdown, coming so soon after the food and oil crisis," he said. "Only a few years ago the prospects for sub-Saharan Africa seemed so bright; for the first time in two decades the region was growing at the same rate as the rest of the developing world, except China and India," he said. The IMF's assessment comes a day after the World Bank said that developing countries face a financing gap of $270bn to $700bn this year as trade income dwindles and rich nations vie for capital to deal with the global economic slowdown." Seen. Except... who is "Jakayo Kikweke"? Pretty sure that ain't my P...

The International Monetary Fund has released a report titled "The Implications of the Global Financial Crisis for Low-Income Countries". The report can be found through this direct link . The report identifies 26 countries that will be most-affected by global economic slowdown, 13 of which are in Sub-Saharan Africa. I found the report while checking out BBC short-term blog focussed on economies in Africa affected by the crisis. Going to read the IMF report later tonight, but feel free to post your thoughts.

Enough said (seen?). BBC article here .