Mr Lewis is also adamant that it should be as extensive as possible covering

Mr Lewis is also adamant that it should be as extensive as possible, covering everything from the slave ships that left Senegal right up to last November’s election to the Senate of the black Chicagoan Barack Obama.The move comes at a time of growing interest in black history. Mr Lewis wants it to be on the Mall, its central location symbolic of the integral role of black Americans. Officials from the institution are currently deciding where the new museum should be established. The National Museum of African-American History and Culture will be part of the extensive Smithsonian Institution, which oversees and co-ordinates many leading museums in Washington, including its most recent addition, the National Museum of the American Indian. In every session of Congress between 1988 to 2003 he introduced legislation to fund such a museum In November 2003, Congress voted to do so. He became aware of a previous effort made by African-American veterans of the US Civil War, and took up the campaign.

Mr Lewis, a civil rights leader in the 1960s who helped to organise the 1963 march, when hundreds of thousands travelled to Washington in support of voting rights and heard Dr Martin Luther King deliver his “I Have ADream” speech, began campaigning for a museum when he was elected to Congress in 1986. She said opponents of the scheme eventually felt that “there was just no reason not to recognise the contribution”. The remaining $500m will come from federal funds.Brenda Jones, a spokeswoman for a Georgia Congressman, John Lewis, who has led the effort to establish the museum, said that the time it had taken “speaks to the dynamics of politics in America and a lack of understanding of African-American history and the width and the breadth of their contribution to American society”. But decades after the plan was first proposed, Congress has finally given its approval and the group of black celebrities is poised to launch a drive to raise $250m (£133m) to help fund the project. Clothes worn by protesters in the March on Washington in 1963, chains from the slave ships that came from Africa, and photographs of lynchings in the Deep South are among the items to be displayed in a national American museum dedicated to black history.

Immigrants are also told not to resist arrest by Border Patrol officers.About 400 immigrants died along the border in 2002, a 10 per cent increase on 2001, and in the past two years 125 people have died in the Arizona desert.Mexican officials said the 32-page booklet informs those who have already decided to cross on how to avoid injury and death. But the handbook’s publication has unleashed a torrent of condemnation from activists already concerned at the porous nature of the border. Heavy clothing becomes heavier when wet and this makes swimming or floating difficult.”Migrants are told: “If you get lost, guide yourself with light posts, train tracks or dirt roads,” and warned to avoid smugglers known as “coyotes”. To those planning to brave the Rio Grande, the government-sponsored guide advises: “Crossing a river can be very risky, especially if you cross alone and at night. Conservative groups in the United States have been outraged by an illustrated handbook issued by Mexican authorities that gives migrants tips on how to cross America’s southern border illegally.
The books, denounced by some as “how-to manuals”, urge would-be immigrants to carry enough water, follow railway lines and wear clothing that will protect them from the elements.

The favourites now are Randall Tobias, in charge of the Bush administration’s global Aids policy, and Christine Todd Whitman, former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, who resigned in 2003.. Despite quiet lobbying, Mr Wolfensohn, a Clinton appointee in 1995, has failed in his bid for a third term.Mr Zoellick had been considered front-runner to succeed him. That job has by informal agreement always gone to an American. He also played a large part in the launch of the Doha trade liberalisation round in late 2001.His move to the State Department will cause new uncertainty over the successor to John Wolfensohn as president of the World Bank. But he is also known as a pragmatist and deal-maker, with special expertise in international economic affairs.