AFP: Kagame urges Rwandan exiles to come home

BRUSSELS — Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Wednesday urged compatriots living in exile to return home to better economic times though the country has still to recover from the 1994 genocide. "If those who left returned they would see the country is doing better than when they left and that they are not doing as well as previously," Kagame said in an interview to the daily Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique. The leader of a country viewed as one of Africa's economic success stories flew into Belgium this week for a forum on development and while in Brussels met some 2,000 members of the Rwandan diaspora.

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AFP: Rwanda on target to meet health development goals: Blair

Former British prime minister Tony Blair said Rwanda is on target to meet the UN's Millennium Development Goals on healthcare, a statement said Tuesday. "Rwanda's healthcare has come a long way in the past few years. It's on target with the Millennium Development Goals," Blair was quoted as saying.

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AFP: UN report on DR Congo an 'insult to history': Rwanda

A draft United Nations report accusing Rwandan troops of having killed and raped Hutu refugees in the DR Congo, is "flawed and dangerous" and an "insult to history", the Kigali government said. The UN will officially publish later Friday the controversial report, which details a litany of crimes by armed forces against civilians over the period 1993 to 2003 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The draft version of the report said that some of the crimes perpetrated by Rwandan soldiers could count as possible acts of genocide. "Rwanda categorically states that the document is flawed and dangerous from start to finish," Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said in a statement released overnight.

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AFP: Rwanda set to meet child death reduction target

With big strides made against both malaria and pneumococcal disease, Rwanda is on track to meet UN Millennium Development Goal number four, the reduction of child mortality, officials say. "Rwanda is one of the few countries in Africa that stands a chance of reaching the MDG targets if the current rhythm is maintained," said Lamine Cisse Sarr, World Health Organisation representative to Rwanda.

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AFP: In Venice, Rwanda highlights traditional designs

Rwanda, a first-time presence at the Venice architectural Biennale, is shining the spotlight on the use of traditional techniques and materials in design and architecture. The strategy is seen as an essential way to safeguard traditional culture and national identity in the nation traumatised by the 1994 genocide.

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AFP: Kigali -- from sleepy backwater to Africa's Singapore

Rwanda's capital is changing from a sleepy backwater where most things closed at 9:00 pm to a future Singapore with gleaming office blocks and all-night shopping. Ten years ago, ordering a coffee got you an imported tin of the worst kind of Nescafe accompanied by a pot of powdered milk. Now you can choose from expresso, macchiato or mocha from home-grown beans and the milk comes frothing out of a steamer.

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AFP: Rwanda aims to become middle-income country

Rwanda's capital is changing from a sleepy backwater where most things closed at 9:00 pm to a future Singapore with gleaming office blocks and all-night shopping. Ten years ago, ordering a coffee got you an imported tin of the worst kind of Nescafe accompanied by a pot of powdered milk. Now you can choose from expresso, macchiato or mocha from home-grown beans and the milk comes frothing out of a steamer.

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AFP: Rwanda poll campaign 'free of intimidation'

The African Union team monitoring Rwanda's presidential election said on Sunday it has not received any proof of voter intimidation during a tense poll campaign. "We have not received any evidence of intimidation," Anil K. Gayan, the former Mauritius foreign minister heading the AU delegation told journalists.

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AFP: Rwanda backs free speech, not 'hate media': minister

Rwanda is "committed to free expression", but will not allow "hate media" to operate, its foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo said in London on Thursday days ahead of presidential elections. The landlocked east African country has been accused of restricting press freedom in the run up to the polls, following the assassination of one newspaper editor, blamed by some on government-linked forces, and the suspension of more than two dozen newspapers.

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