Geneva - The International Committee of the Red Cross called on lawmakers Monday to take greater steps towards helping people who have "been disappeared."

The term refers to people who go missing during armed conflicts. In recent decades, making people "disappear" has become a tactic of certain regimes and rebel groups. Their families subsequently never know for certain about the missing people's fate.

The call came in conjunction with the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which was starting its 121st assembly in Geneva.

New Delhi, Aug 30 : Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba will hold official-level talks with Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh here today.

Several agreements/MoUs for institutionalizing bilateral cooperation are expected to be signed.

The two sides will ink a MoU to provide an umbrella framework for Indian investment in the exploration of mineral resources, including gold, diamond and uranium in Zambia.

Later, President Pohamba will call on President Pratibha Patil.

New Delhi, Aug 30 : Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba arrived here on a five-day state visit to India today.

This is President Pohamba''s first visit to India.

He is accompanied by a 43-member delegation, which includes five Ministers, senior officials, representatives of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, businessmen.

During his visit, President Pohamba will call on President Pratibha Patil and would hold official talks with Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

Johannesburg - A British and a South African journalist were due to be brought before court in the south-west African country of Namibia on Friday after being arrested while filming the controversial annual seal cull, police confirmed.

Jim Wickens, a journalist with British investigative agency Ecostorm, and Bart Smithers, a South African cameraman, were arrested Thursday at Henties Bay, north of the coastal resort of Swakopmund, a Namibian police spokesman said.

Windhoek  - An team of inspectors from an anti-"blood diamonds" body was wrapping up a visit to Zimbabwe Friday, where they have been investigating allegations of gross rights abuses in diamond mining.

The United Nations-founded Kimberley Process (KP) is a body that monitors international trade in diamonds with a view to barring so- called conflict or blood diamonds - gems that are used to bankroll conflicts.

Windhoek  - Namibia's seal-hunting season opened on Wednesday despite efforts by South African animal rights activists to stop the annual cull of the Cape Fur seals along the south-west African country's coast, industry insiders said Thursday.

While there has so far been no culling activity, industry sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the German Press Agency dpa "the cull will go ahead."

Windhoek  - Namibia's seal-hunting season opened on Wednesday despite efforts by South African animal rights activists to stop the annual cull of the Cape Fur seals along the south-west African country's coast, industry insiders said Thursday.

While there has so far been no culling activity, industry sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the German Press Agency dpa "the cull will go ahead."

The Ministry of Fisheries put out a quota of 86,000 seal pups and 6,000 bulls per year for three years in 2007 to contain the population of an estimated 650,000 seals inhabiting Namibia's coastal waters for the current season.

Windhoek - An international team of inspectors will return to Zimbabwe next week to continue their investigation into the trade of diamonds mined in the eastern Marange area, the Kimberley Process announced Friday in Namibia.

The United Nations-founded Kimberley Process is a body that monitors international trade in diamonds, to try to root out so- called conflict or blood diamonds.

Blood diamonds are diamonds, which are used to bankroll conflicts.

Windhoek - Russian President Dimitry Medvedev continued his four-country tour of Africa on Thursday in the uranium-rich, south-western desert state of Namibia.

Medvedev arrived in the Namibian capital Windhoek from Nigeria, where the two countries signed agreements giving Russia access to a part of Nigeria's gas deposits in return for investment in infrastructure, including a proposed gas pipeline to Europe.

Windhoek  - Major players in the world's diamond industry converged on the Namibian capital Windhoek on Tuesday for a three-day meeting of the international scheme tasked with ensuring the ethical trade in diamonds.

The meeting of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), takes place under pressure on the body to effectively act on its mission to combat the trade in so-called conflict or blood diamonds.

KEC International, one of the largest Power Transmission EPC companies in the world, has received two new orders worth Rs 95 crore in Mozambique and Namibia.
 
According to an official statement, the first order, which is for Mozambique includes construction of a 100 km-110 kv transmission line and substation in Cabo Dalgado region.

Windhoek  - A leading rights group has welcomed a proposal by Namibia's opposition for a South Africa-style truth commission to examine past human rights violations to further national healing.

The Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), which was formed in 2007 by breakaway members of the ruling party SWAPO, has vowed to establish a truth commission if voted into power in elections later this year.

Windhoek - Growing competition for business between local companies and Chinese investors that allegedly flout labour laws is stoking tensions in Namibia, a research institute in the south-west African state has warned.

Namibia's Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper on Thursday cited the independent Labour Research Institute (LARRI) as sounding the alarm over what it called "unacceptable" working conditions in Chinese companies.

Windhoek - Residents of the south-west African desert state of Namibia are bracing for what could be "the worst flood in four decades" in the north of the country, local media reported Thursday.

The flood waters have already claimed close to 100 lives.

Earlier this week Namibia's government declared an emergency and appealed for international aid over the floods that have displaced over 5,000 people and destroyed vast tracts of precious farmland.

Windhoek  - Jacob Zuma, the leader of South Africa's ruling African National Congress party, on Monday reiterated his calls for a speedy solution to the political crisis in Zimbabwe as he started a two-day visit to Namibia.

Zuma is in Namibia to boost relations between the ANC and its Namibian counterpart, the former liberation-movement-turned-ruling party, SWAPO.

"We need some swift action to deal with the situation in Zimbabwe," Zuma told Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba during official talks between the ANC and SWAPO at State House in the capital Windhoek.

Windhoek, Namibia  - Namibia's second legal auction of stockpiled ivory tusks to Chinese and Japanese bidders began behind closed doors in the capital Windhoek on Tuesday morning.

The event, held under the auspices of the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), was closed to all media and observers due to what ministry officials termed the "sensitive nature" of the first of four ivory auctions to take place in southern Africa in the coming weeks.

Local papers had expressed dismay at not being allowed to cover the event, which has raised the hackles of animal rights activists, who claim any sale of ivory stimulates black market trade in the so- called white gold.

Windhoek, Johannesburg - Ivory tusks will be sold for the first time in nearly 10 years in southern Africa on Tuesday as four one-off auctions of ivory stockpiles to Chinese and Japanese buyers kick off in Namibia.

South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe, all of which have booming elephant populations, have been given permission by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to sell off stockpiles of ivory from their national parks.

Windhoek  , Namibia - Namibia's government is calling for the repatriation of dozens of skulls that have been stored in German universities since the colonial era.

The Namibian government in a statement on Tuesday said it designated the National Monuments Council to deal with the matter in which it wants Germany "to pay for the repatriation of the remains and all related costs."

Windhoek  - A German aristocrat is scheduled to appear in court in the south-west African state of Namibia Thursday on suspicion of killing scores of endangered mountain zebra.

Christian Prinz zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg, 28, is alleged to have killed the animals at a private game reserve owned by his father 70 kilometres south-west of the capital Windhoek.

Oranjemund, Namibia - The archeologists are into raptures about the close to 500-year-old shipwreck currently being removed from the seabed off Namibia's southern coast.

"This is a world heritage that needs to be carefully preserved," says Bruno Werz, the archeologist leading the excavation. His colleague, Francisco Alves agrees, saying the find provides a window into bygone times of seafarers and discoverers.

Their work is concentrated around the wreck of a Portuguese merchant ship discovered along a restricted area seven metres below sea level on the treacherous Atlantic coast about 160 kilometres south of Luederitz.