South African woman faces death sentence in China

PRETORIA, South Africa — South Africa says China has sentenced a South African woman to death for drug smuggling.

South Africa's foreign affairs department said in a statement Friday the sentence was confirmed by a court in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.

South Africa says its ambassador in China is leading efforts to have the sentence commuted. A final decision rests with a higher court in Beijing.

According to a report Friday in China's state-run Guangzhou Daily, a South African identified as Janice Bronwyn Linden flew from Dubai to Guangzhou in November 2008. Authorities say she was found with two bags of the drug methamphetamine hydrochloride.

China recently executed four Japanese citizens for drug smuggling and trafficking, as well as a British man.

Breaking News: South African Janice Linden executed in China

REV. AL SHARPTON TABS CHICAGOANS FOR HIS NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK

Rev. Al Sharpton has tabbed two Chicagoans for leadership roles with his organization The National Action Network and his "12 Month National Action Plan," that will follow his "Measuring The Movement" National Conference in New York April 14th-17th.

Maureen "Moe" Forte, a radio talk show host on WBGX-AM 1570, and a fomer South Surburban Director for The NAACP and The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition has been appointed by Rev. Sharpton as The Interim Executive Director for The Chicago Chapter of The National Action Network. Rev. Sharpton has also selected Veteran Political Activist/Journalist Mark Allen to serve as one of the National Community Organizers for his "12 Month National Action Plan." Sharpton calls Allen "one of Chicago's legendary poltical activists." Allen was recently included in the 2010 edition of Who's Who In Black Chicago, recognized in media as Associate Editor of The South Street Journal Newspaper, and Allen was one of the first that Barack Obama reached out to work with as a Chicago Community Organizer when he came to Chicago.

Forte, Allen, and a Chicago Delegation will in New York to participate in the 2010 National Action Network Convention with Rev. Sharpton and other national leaders and organizers including White House officials on a new Urban Agenda designed to direct more government resources to left out urban communities.

Part of the follow-up to the National Conference includes a grassroots organizers conference in Chicago in May. A lot of ordinary citizens around the country have been talking about the promise they see in this urban agenda process for Rev. Sharpton and other national civil rights leaders that met with President Obama have taken a grassroots agenda with the commitment to developing a "measurable" agenda that people in poor and urban can actually "see" if the new results have actually touched them where they are.

BY Mark S.Allen