Aids, oil and Africom on Bush tour

y Laura Trevelyan BBC News, Liberia

Mr Bush visited five African countries during his tour

For a president whose foreign policy has been dominated by Iraq, this visit was a chance for George W Bush to show the world what he calls his mission of mercy - trying to rid Africa of HIV/Aids and Malaria.

There were strategic considerations too - showing China it is not the only power that can sign investment deals with African nations, and cementing friendly relations with West African countries.

West Africa is expected to produce a quarter of America's oil by 2015.

George Bush says moral and national security considerations go together - by ending hopelessness, a moral imperative for a wealthy nation, so the conditions which breed extremism can be eradicated, thus making America safer.

Yet this visit was complicated by the unresolved question of where the planned US military command for Africa, Africom, would be located, and what exactly it is for.

To many Africans, it sounded like a plan for American military expansion into their territory to safeguard US interests.

Distance lobbying

The president used his visit to Tanzania to showcase the work America is funding to combat HIV/AIDS.

In pictures: Bush's tour

The US has spent $15bn (£7.7bn) over five years in 15 countries, most of them in Africa, buying life-saving drugs.

But the "ABC" focus of the policy - which stands for Abstinence, Be faithful, and use a Condom - has made it unpopular with Democrats in the US congress.

Encouraging people not to have sex as a way of preventing the spread of Aids is unrealistic, say many Democrats, who are threatening not to authorise the president's $30bn programme to combat Aids over the next five years.

So Mr Bush used this visit to do some long-distance lobbying.

He was aided by the Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, who warned that if Pepfar, the presidential programme for fighting Aids, was not renewed, there would be more orphans in his country, and it would be a recipe for disaster.

But the president was challenged by a Ghanaian journalist, who asked how abstinence can work when people have multiple sexual partners.

Successes

Ghana is seen as a success story among African countries

This visit was also about highlighting what the White House regards as African success stories, like Ghana and Tanzania, and the need to support fragile countries emerging from conflicts - Rwanda and Liberia.

But there was no escaping the continent's ongoing troubles.

The tribal violence which has riven Kenya left the White House fending off questions about the president's record as a peacekeeper in Africa.

He despatched Condoleezza Rice, his secretary of state, to Nairobi on Monday, to back up the mediation efforts of the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Mr Bush visited Rwanda, to highlight how the nation is recovering from the 1994 genocide which shocked the world, and to underscore the US efforts to help end the conflict in Sudan's western region of Darfur.

The US has called what is happening in Darfur "genocide", and Mr Bush admitted that his decision not to send US troops there meant he had to live with the UN leading the peacekeeping efforts - slow, and bureaucratic, he observed critically.

By committing $100m to help train and equip African peacekeepers bound for the joint UN/African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, he hopes to speed up the deployment.

The Sudanese government has objected to the use of non-African troops in the force, yet not all the African peacekeepers had the right equipment - hence the US move.

Sovereignty threat

PRESIDENT BUSH'S ITINERARY Benin - Cotonou: arrival ceremony, meets president Tanzania - Dar-es-Salaam: meets president, tours hospital; Arusha: tours hospital, textile mill and girls' school Rwanda - Kigali: meets president, visits genocide memorial Ghana - Accra: meets president, state dinner Liberia - Monrovia: meets president, visits university

The lukewarm response in Africa to Mr Bush's idea of a US military command headquarters in Africa, called Africom, was evident on this visit.

It has been seen as a fig leaf for US troops in Africa, which could be poised to defend strategic interests like oil in, for example, Nigeria.

In Ghana, the US president tackled the issue even before he was asked about it, saying there were rumours that he was coming here to build military bases - this he described as "baloney".

White House officials say Africom is about training African peacekeepers, and co-ordinating US efforts to help the continent.

But many African nations, from South Africa to Ghana, see it as a threat to their sovereignty.

The US support for Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia to put down the Islamic opposition is seen as the kind of mission which could be launched from Africom.

So far only Liberia, Washington's staunchest ally among the 53 African nations, has offered to host Africom.

China is busy building bridges and investing in infrastructure across the continent, in return for oil and minerals to fuel its rapidly expanding economy.

By coming here and showing how the US is spending money in Africa too, Mr Bush is signalling to China that America is a player here as well.

He played down the idea of China as a rival, saying there was room for both countries here. But President John Kufour of Ghana told reporters China is very competitive if Africa wants to buy something, coming to the continent not as a colonial power but as a guest.

Tenor Luciano Pavarotti dead at 71

(CNN) -- Famed opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who appeared on stage with singers as varied as opera star Dame Joan Sutherland, U2's Bono and Liza Minnelli, died Thursday after suffering from pancreatic cancer, his manager Terri Robson said in a statement. He was 71.

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"The great tenor, Luciano Pavarotti, died today at 5:00 a.m. at his home in Modena, the city of his birth," according to Robson.

"The Maestro fought a long, tough battle against the pancreatic cancer which eventually took his life. In fitting with the approach that characterized his life and work, he remained positive until finally succumbing to the last stages of his illness."

The portly singer retired from staged opera in 2004, but was on a "farewell tour" of concerts when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006 and underwent emergency surgery to remove the tumor.

Although the remaining concerts of his tour were canceled, his management said that he hoped to resume the tour in 2007.

But in early August, Pavarotti was hospitalized in Modena with a fever and released 17 days later after undergoing diagnostic tests.

Pavarotti is survived by his wife, Nicoletta Mantovani, and a daughter, Alice, along with three grown daughters by his first wife, Adua Veroni, whom he divorced in 2000, and a granddaughter.

According to Robson, his wife, daughters and sister, along with other relatives and friends were at his side when he died.

Widespread appeal

Much as the star power of Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov revived widespread interest in classical ballet in the 1970s and 1980s, Pavarotti's beaming charisma and bravura style captured the attention of the late-20th-century audience for opera.

Widely considered the greatest tenor of his time, Pavarotti began his life modestly in Modena, the son of Fernando, a baker and amateur singer, and Adele, who worked at the local tobacco factory.

"I dreamed to become a singer when I was four and I hear my father singing in the church with a beautiful tenor voice," he told CNN in a 1991 interview. "And I say to myself, well, let's try to do something."

The young Pavarotti -- who played soccer with his town's junior team -- joined the church choir with his father and traveled with him to Wales, where the singing group won first prize at the Llangollen International singing competition.

Although the experience left Pavarotti enthralled with singing, he graduated from the local teaching institute in 1955 and taught elementary school for two years, then worked as an insurance salesman. He continued his vocal studies, however, working first with with Arrigo Pola and then with Ettore Campogalliani.

Then, in 1961, Pavarotti won the prestigious Concorso Internazionale and made his operatic debut at the Reggio Emilia Theater as Rodolfo in Giacomo Puccini's "La Boheme." His fame spread throughout Italy and then throughout the European continent as he made his international debut in Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata" in Belgrade.

When Dame Joan Sutherland brought him on-stage with her during a performance of Gaetano Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" with the Greater Miami Opera in 1965, Pavarotti began his American career. He debuted at New York's Metropolitan Opera House three years later, and eventually marked 379 performances there, including his final opera, Puccini's "Tosca" in 2004, in which he performed as the painter Mario Cavaradossi.

In between Pavarotti sold millions of records and raised millions of dollars for charity through benefit concerts, often sharing the stage with pop stars as well as other opera singers.

Of his recordings, 1990's "The Essential Pavarotti" was the first classical album to reach No. 1 on Britain's pop charts, where it remained for 5 weeks. 1994's "The Three Tenors in Concert," with Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras, remains the best selling classical album of all time.

Pavarotti joined with Domingo and Carreras in 1990, and although critics complained that Pavarotti's vocal skills were waning, the trio performed together for 14 years.

Among his charities were a 1995 "Concert for Bosnia" that raised $8.5 million and other concerts that raised $3.3 million for refugees from Afghanistan and $1 million for refugees from Kosovo.

In artistic terms, Pavarotti brought to the stage a voice neatly suited to the traditional bel canto, or "beautiful singing" style, essential to 17th-century Italian opera. As much about intensity as pitch, bel canto focuses the voice, concentrating the sound with both outstanding warmth and agility.

So demanding is this work even of the best singers that Pavarotti in concert recital could be seen rising to the balls of his feet during the most challenging passages. A long, white handkerchief always hung from one hand as he sang, his eyebrows arched high in the effort, forming an expression seemingly of surprise at his own success.

Humble beginnings

From his small beginnings, Pavarotti rose to great heights, performing in front of 500,000 people in New York's Central Park -- a concert seen by millions on television -- and before another 300,000 at Paris' Eiffel Tower.

He won countless awards and honors -- including five Grammies -- and was named United Nations Messenger for Peace by then-Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He launched an international competition, The Pavarotti International Voice Competition, in 1982. He even founded a teaching facility for young singers in his home town.

His signature aria, Puccini's "Nessun Dorma" from "Turandot," was chosen as the theme music for the 1990 soccer World Cup, hosted by Italy. He also performed the aria at the opening ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.

The great singer was also known as an equestrian expert, organizing one of the international show jumping circuit's most important competitions, the Pavarotti International, in Modena. Coinciding with that event, Pavarotti also staged an annual charity concert, Pavarotti and Friends.

When cancer finally stopped Pavarotti from singing, it was only the second interruption of his career.

"I think I just stop for one year when from a kid I become a man and the voice is changing," he said in 1991. "I was an alto and become a tenor and that is the only time I think I remember to have stopped singing. Otherwise I have sung all my life."

Amid reports this week that his condition was worsening, it was announced in Rome on Tuesday (September 4) by Italy's cultural minister, Francesco Rotelli, Pavarotti is receiving a newly created prize for excellence in cultural achievement.

The New York Times' Alan Riding pointed out in a February article that ironically, the modern-day popularity of operatic work has prompted the building of new opera houses in many major centers including Copenhagen, Tokyo and -- coming next year, Beijing -- at a time when the repertoire remains rooted in centuries-old work and the costs of production make tickets prohibitive for most younger would-be audience members.

For opera to survive today, Riding wrote, it needs not only new music but also "exciting young singers." Pavarotti was that singer, in the right place and the right time for his