INTERNATIONAL
The International Criminal Court (ICC) held a ceremony on 19 January 2012 at the seat of the Court in The Hague to welcome Cape Verde as the 119th State Party to the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding treaty. Cape Verde is also the 33rd African State Party, the first Lusophone country in Africa and the 12th member of the Economic Community of West African States to adhere to the Rome Statute, which took effect in the country on 1 January 2012 (ICC).
Cape Verde has risen to an amazing 9th place on the Reporters Without Frontiers Press Freedom Index 2011. Norway, Finland, Estonia, the Netherlands, Austria, Iceland, Luxembourg and Switzerland are leading the top 10, with Canada trailing Cape Verde at 10th place.
A Boston University’s fellowship has served a different but perhaps very important purpose: to highlight the small but growing group of countries in Africa that have already built successful democracies. It has served as a kind of think-tank and support system for well-run nations you almost never hear about: Cape Verde, Botswana, and Mauritius (Boston.com).
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SPLIT SECOND POLL
DEFENSE & SECURITY
A 17-year-old male was killed in the early morning hours of Saturday in the capital city during a confrontation between rival gangs from the Praia neighborhoods of Várzea and Achadinha. The boy was hit in the neck by a bullet fired from a homemade pistol (A Semana).
CULTURE
Most anyone who knows the music of Cape Verde, an archipelago nestled 500km off the coast of West Africa, first learned of these sublime sounds through the music of Cesária Évora. She popularised morna, the melancholy strains that are unmistakably the Cape-Verdean style of blues. Évora passed away last month, but the emotional essence of morna lives on through one of the country’s most celebrated sirens—27-year-old Mayra Andrade (The Economist).
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BOA VISTA
Current Boa Vista mayor José Pinto Almeida has beat José Luís Santos in the internal party dispute of which the two were protagonists, and is now the MpD’s candidate in this year’s municipal elections on the island (A Semana).
