{jcomments on}OMAR, AGNEWS, BXL, le 24 mars 2010 – The New Times- March 24, 2010–The leader of the yet-to-be registered political party, Forces Démocratiques Unifiées- FDU-Inkingi, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, was yesterday intercepted at Kigali International Airport, as she attempted to sneak out of the country.
RWANDA
Rwanda: FDU’s Ingabire Attempts to Flee
Edmund Kagire/The New Times/allafrica.com/24 March 2010
Kigali — The leader of the yet-to-be registered political party, Forces Démocratiques Unifiées- FDU-Inkingi, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, was yesterday intercepted at Kigali International Airport, as she attempted to sneak out of the country.
Ingabire, who was scheduled to report to the Criminal Investigations Department today, as investigations into her FDLR activities continue, was advised to return home.
In an interview with The New Times, Government Spokesperson, Louise Mushikiwabo, who is also the Minister of Foreign Affairs, confirmed the attempted escape, adding that Ingabire has deliberately continued to disregard the laws of the country.
“What happened is that Ingabire was intercepted at the entrance of the airport trying to leave the country, yet there are investigations still going on.
“Whatever country she was headed to, I assume it is the Netherlands, she should know that they have the same laws as those here. When one has to answer to any authorities for investigation purposes, they are not allowed to leave the country until investigations are over,” Mushikiwabo said.
In November last year, Ingabire featured prominently in a UN report, as one of the key supporters and fundraisers for the FDLR terrorist organisation..
“This confirms what has been said all along. This woman does not think that she should abide by the laws that govern this country,” Mushikiwabo said.
Police Spokesperson Supt. Eric Kayiranga confirmed that Ingabire is scheduled to report to CID today.
“We are expecting her to abide by the rules and report today,” Kayiranga said.
According to diplomatic sources, subsequent to her return home, Victoire Ingabire automatically lost her refugee status in the Netherlands. However, she was strangely issued a three-year visa by the Dutch embassy in Kigali, which she apparently was attempting to use to sneak out of the country.
UGANDA
TANZANIA:
CONGO RDC :
KENYA :
Kenya, South Africa: Sub-Sahara African Bond, Currency Preview
March 24, 2010/By Janice Kew/Bloomberg
March 24 (Bloomberg) — The following events and economic reports may influence trading in sub-Saharan African bonds and currencies today. Bond yields and exchange rates are from the previous session.
Ghana: The west African nation’s statistics agency is scheduled to publish producer price inflation data for February at 10 a.m. local time.
Ghana’s cedi weakened 0.1 percent to 1.412 per dollar by 5.40 p.m. in the capital, Accra.
Kenya: The East African nation will sell as much as 16.5 billion Kenyan shillings of 2-year and 15-year fixed-rate bonds.
The Kenyan shilling was strengthened 0.1 percent to 77.03 versus the dollar as of 9:35 p.m. in Nairobi.
Nigeria: The West African nation’s new cabinet may be announced at a weekly meeting.
The naira was 0.2 percent stronger at 149.63 against the dollar as of 6:36 p.m. in Lagos.
Uganda: The East African nation’s central bank plans to sell 70 billion shillings ($32.9 million) of 91-day, 182-day, and 364-day Treasury bills.
The Ugandan shilling was 0.7 percent stronger per dollar at 2,125 by 5:33 p.m. in the capital, Kampala.
South Africa: Africa’s biggest economy is scheduled to publish a report showing inflation eased into the target range in February, slowing to an annual 5.7 percent, according to the median estimate of 23 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Statistics South Africa will publish the data at 9 a.m.
The rand strengthened 0.1 percent to 7.3255 per dollar by 7:31 p.m. in South Africa’s commercial capital, Johannesburg. The yield on the benchmark government bond due September 2015 declined 3 basis points to 8.13 percent.
Swaziland: The southern African kingdom’s central bank is scheduled to sell 30 million emalangeni ($4.1 million) of 91-day bills at an auction. The Central Bank of Swaziland the bill at an average yield of 6.98 percent at a March 17 auction.
Swaziland’s currency, the lilangeni, is pegged to the rand.
–Editor: Ana Monteiro.
Danquah Institute: Kenya goes E-voting in 2012, as Ghana dithers
news.myjoyonline.com/ 24 March 2010
Kenya, keen on preventing the kind of violence that followed the general election of December 2007, has resorted to the introduction of electronic voting for the 2012 general election.
Kenyan politicians, civil society and the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) of Kenya have all committed the destiny of the East African country’s democracy to the introduction of electronic voting. Unfortunately, it seems Ghana is waiting for violence to strike before heeding similar calls here for election automation technology.
At a recent national conference on the viability of e-voting in Ghana, participants urged the Electoral Commission to begin the process of implementing e-voting at least on a pilot basis. Kenya has opted for a
pilot scheme which combines electronic voter registration with electronic voting in 18 constituencies (out of a total of 210 constituencies) or 5 per cent of polling stations nationwide. Kenya has just begun that process of
electronic registration of voters in 1,299 out of 26,000 polling centres.
Considering Ghana’s role as a beacon of hope for the success of the multiparty experiment in Africa, the consequences of Ghana slipping back are too grave to contemplate for Ghanaians, in particular, and Africans, in general.
In Kenya, the IIEC says it is currently sampling different electronic voter systems to find the most suitable one for the country for the 2012 election. Among the companies is Electronic Corporation of India, which has
offered an electronic voter registration plus India’s reputable Electronic Voting Machines which were successfully used last year in India’s general elections with over 700 million people voting.
In line with the Kenyan process, on Monday March 22, Kenya began a countrywide voter registration to compile a new and credible register of an estimated 18 million voters for the 2012 general election. The 2007 general election using the old register resulted in violence which killed over 1,000 and left an estimated 600,000 others displaced. The old voters’ register was said to contain between 1.2 million to two million ghost
names.
A national opinion poll in Kenya shows 83 per cent of the electorate wants electronic voting introduced for the next election scheduled for 2012. The survey sampled 2,537 respondents in 20 constituencies. Commenting on the survey, the Institute for Education in Democracy Director Peter Aling’o said Kenyans were embracing information technology as a means to protecting the integrity of their votes.
Though, no such survey has been conducted in Ghana there is no doubt that Ghanaians would also welcome the introduction of mechanisms that would make our elections more credible.
Like Ghanaians, Kenyans are going to the polls in 2012. Like Ghana, Kenya says it is determined to significantly enhance the integrity of its voting system to prevent any future violence after election results are declared. So, like Ghana, Kenya has opted for a new voter register based on the biometric capturing of voters’ finger prints. Ghana is also working on a biometric voter register for 2012.
But, Ghana’s Electoral Commission, so far, seems very reluctant to even entertain the idea of e-voting. The Chairman of the EC has even scoffed at efforts by countries like Nigeria and Kenya at exploring e-voting.
While a biometric voter register may resolve the illegal practice of multiple registrations, it will, nevertheless, not arrest entirely the problems confronting our voting system, including rejected ballots, ballot box theft, multiple voting due to the normal expectation of non-100% voter turnout and the anticipated absence of an electronic biometric data identification/verification system for individual voters at the polling station on voting day.
Aware of these shortcomings, the IIEC of Kenya is implementing an electronic (digital) voter registration system for the 2012 general elections and an electronic verification and/or e-voting component at the polling centre to curb cases of double registration, vote rigging, ballot box exchange and delays.
According to IIEC Commissioner, Ms Winnie Gushu, “Voters will be identified electronically before they are allowed to vote”. After registering and acquiring an electronic card, voting will be as simple as swiping the card and choosing desired candidates by the touch of a button.
On the contrary, even with the biometric voter register that Ghana has in mind for 2012, beyond the issuance of a biometric voter ID card, there is no talk of an electronic polling station authentication system, let alone
e-voting.
On August 20 2009, Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, and Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka met at the “Setting the Electoral Reform Agenda for Kenya” conference held at the Kenya
International Conference Centre (KICC) to mark the introduction of Electronic Voting in Kenya.
It was made unequivocally clear that they were speaking one language: Let us create a tamper-proof voting system to guard against the failures of 2007.
The United Nations later in October 2009, warned that a repeat of the problems that marred the 2007 elections in Kenya could reoccur in the 2012 presidential election, if among others, Kenya did not strengthen its institutions and also punish the perpetrators of the 2007 violence.
The Danquah Institute has repeatedly warned that a repeat of the problems that nearly marred the 2008 elections in Ghana could reoccur in the 2012 presidential election and with worse consequences. What if, in 2012, unlike 2008, the Electoral Commission declared the incumbent the winner amid a tensed background of incitement to a violent rejection of the results by the opposition as witnessed in 2008?
Those who followed the Kenyan elections in 2007 raised serious concerns about irregularities prior to the Kenyan elections voting. These irregularities were similar to those discussed here in Ghana and included a
bloated voter register, ballot box theft and stuffing, voter impersonation, multiple voting, violence and intimidation. These allegations were trumpeted by both sides prior to the elections in both Kenya and Ghana.
However, what ignited the eruption of violence in Kenya were serious concerns about irregularities in the manual vote count. It is recalled that in Ghana there were similar concerns about irregularities in the vote count or collation. Analysis of violent and inciting language by politicians, journalists, panellists through the mass media, especially radio, were considered to be even worse in Ghana in the days leading to the declaration of results by the Chairman of the Electoral Commission than what occurred
in Kenya.
The one significant event that in our view spared Ghana the kind of violence, killings and destruction of property that blighted the Kenyan election was that the results of the presidential run-off were called for
the opposition candidate rather than the candidate of the party in power.
In Kenya, Odinga held a strong lead in vote counting on December 28, 2007, the day after the election, and his party, the ODM, unilaterally declared victory for Odinga on December 29. However, as more results were announced on the same day, the gap between the two candidates narrowed, and with almost 90% of the votes counted (180 out of 210 constituencies), Odinga’s lead shrank to only 38,000 votes. At a press conference on the morning of December 30, Odinga accused the government of fraud, urged Kibaki to concede defeat, and called for a recount. The Electoral Commission declared Kibaki the winner on December 30, placing him ahead of Odinga by about 232,000 votes. What followed next is the kind of violence no one would have associated with Kenyan democracy.
If democracy in Ghana is to su
cceed then it requires solutions to the basic instruments of rigging which undermine it. These include a bloated voter register, ballot box stuffing, theft or destruction, multiple voting, voter impersonation, spoilt ballots, intimidation and violence at the polling station, alteration of counted ballots before declaration, and manipulation of results during the long periods between the closure of polls and the declaration of results.
Despite having succeeded in holding five consecutive elections since the Fourth Republic began on January 7, 1993 and witnessing a relatively smooth transition of power from one political party to the other on two occasions, the 2008 elections showed that the future of democracy in Ghana is far from
assured.
If democracy is to become truly grounded in the bedrock of our continent, it is extremely important that we have a trusted election process that produces results that are regarded as reasonably fair by all with the
outcome accepted even by the losing side.
The author is the Executive Director of the Danquah Institute, an Accra-based policy think tank.
Credit: Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko/Danquah Institute
ANGOLA :
SOUTH AFRICA:
O happy day
Settlement reached with headmistress
By MICHAEL STARR/www.nypost.com/ March 24, 2010
Oprah Winfrey settled a potentially explosive lawsuit with the former headmistress of her South African girls academy late yesterday.
The two women met privately — without lawyers, according to a statement — and ended the defamation case just days before it was set to go to trial on Monday in Philadelphia federal court.
The statement, issued by lawyers for both sides, made no mention of a financial settlement and a spokesman for Oprah’s production company declined to say whether money had been paid to end the case.
Winfrey and Lerato Nomvuyo Mzamane “met woman to woman without their lawyers” to “resolve this dispute peacefully to their mutual satisfaction,” the statement said.
Some reports had said Mzamane was seeking $250,000 in damages — but lawyers for Oprah claimed that the ex-headmistress had never specified in court papers how much she was seeking.
Mzamane, the ex-headmistress of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa, had claimed Winfrey defamed her in comments she made in the wake of a sex-abuse scandal that rocked the school in 2007.
In a press conference, and in comments she made to parents, Winfrey claimed Mzamane — who was fired after the scandal broke — didn’t act quickly enough after hearing about Virginia “Tiny” Makopo, who allegedly preyed on six young girls and a co-worker.
The judge in the case had ruled that Mzamane was a public figure, which made the case into an uphill legal battle. She had to prove not only that Oprah had made false statements about her but that she had done it knowing they were false.
The lawyer’s statements were, in effect, carefully worded apologies that let both women off the legal hook.
“Ms. Winfrey testified in her deposition that she did not intend the implications placed on her words by the plaintiff,” it read.
“Ms. Mzamane testified in her deposition that she has no evidence that Ms. Winfrey knowingly made a false statement about her or entertained serious doubt about the truth of what she said.
“We are pleased both parties have reached a conclusion.”
Yesterday’s settlement came just two days before a critical evidentiary hearing on the case.
How the judge ruled on several key witnesses and pieces of evidence could have swayed the trial to one side or the other.
The 11th-hour settlement allowed both sides to bow out of the confrontation without losing face.
Correction: A photo caption in the TV section yesterday mistakenly stated that some students from Oprah Winfrey’s school in South Africa were going to testify against her in an upcoming defamation trial. In fact, the students were scheduled to testify in favor of the talk show host.
Highveld, JD Group, SABMiller: South African Equity Preview
March 24, 2010/By Nicky Smith and Carli Lourens/Bloomberg
March 24 (Bloomberg) — The following is a list of companies whose shares may have unusual price changes in South Africa. Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names and prices are from the last close.
South Africa’s FTSE/JSE Africa All Share Index retreated for a second day, losing 93.14, or 0.3 percent, to 28,451.01.
Highveld Steel & Vanadium Corp. (HVL SJ): South Africa’s second-biggest steelmaker said 2009 profit fell 94 percent to 163 million rand ($22 million) and antitrust authorities made a “further inquiry” this month with regards to alleged price- fixing. The Evraz Group SA unit’s stock fell 62 cents, or 0.8 percent, to 74.88 rand.
Foschini Ltd: The South African clothing retailer was cut to “hold” from “buy” at Citigroup Inc. Foschini fell 60 cents, or 0.9 percent, to 66.60 rand.
JD Group Ltd. (JDG SJ): The furniture retailer was raised to “equal weight” from “underweight” at RMB Morgan Stanley. The share added 25 cents, or 0.5 percent, to 46.24 rand.
Makalani Holdings Ltd. (MKL SJ): The company set up to fund sales of South African businesses to black investors is reviewing its plan to buy securities back from investors, which may have a “material effect” on the terms of the buyout. The stock added 10 cents, or 0.1 percent, to 81.35 rand.
Mr Price Group Ltd. (MPC SJ): The South African clothing and linen retailer was cut to “sell” from “hold” at Citigroup. Mr Price added 1 cent, or less than 0.1 percent, to 41 rand.
SABMiller Plc (SAB SJ): South African Breweries Ltd., the local unit of the world’s second-largest brewer, had an application to have a case of market abuse against the company dismissed. The stock fell 4.12 rand, or 1.9 percent, to 212.57 rand.
Sappi Ltd. (SAP SJ): The world’s largest maker of glossy magazine maker said it plans to sell a stake equivalent to 4.5 percent of its equity to a group of black investors in a transaction valued at 814 million rand. Sappi rose 25 cents, or 0.8 percent, to 32.70 rand.
Spar Group Ltd. (SPP SJ): The grocery and liquor retailer was cut to “hold” from “buy” at Citigroup. Spar added 88 cents, or 1.2 percent, to 77.70 rand.
Truworths International Ltd. (TRU SJ): A South African clothing retailer was cut to “sell” from “hold” by Citigroup. Truworths fell 53 cents, or 1 percent, to 54.15 rand.
Woolworths Holdings Ltd. (WHL SJ): The food and clothing retailer was cut to “hold” from “buy” at Citigroup. Woolworths fell 12 cents, or 0.5 percent, to 22.58 rand.
Shares or American depositary receipts of the following South African companies closed as follows:
Anglo American Plc (AAUK US) rose 1.3 percent to $20.55. AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (AU US) added 0.4 percent to $38.61. BHP Billiton Ltd. (BBL US) gained 2.2 percent to $68.16. DRDGold Ltd. (DROOY US) advanced 4.8 percent to $5.07. Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI US) rose 0.3 percent to $12.49. Harmony Gold Mining Co. (HMY US) slipped 0.3 percent to $9.61. Impala Platinum Holdings (IMPUY US) fell 1.3 percent to $27.40. Sappi Ltd. (SPP US) added 1.1 percent to $4.46. Sasol Ltd. (SSL US) rose 0.2 percent to $38.52.
–Editors: Vernon Wessels, Alastair Reed.
Sudan’s Elections: Teaching Elephants to fly
Wednesday 24 March 2010 /www.sudantribune.com/By John A. Akec
March 23, 2010 — Most recently, I shared a table with a Sudanese diplomat in a social function in Juba. The EU-based diplomat was on special leave to enable him to join Salva Kiir’s election campaign team. Learning that, all the eyes on the table turned on him. Quizzed as to what he thought about the impending elections, the diplomat was brutally honest: “It is the first time in history that a guerrilla movement is asked to practice democracy in so short a time”, he said. I was quick to respond: “what about ANC in South Africa? Was it not a guerrilla movement like SPLM and yet did not have problem contesting elections and practicing democracy?” I asked.
The diplomat calmly explained that considering the baseline or the legacy SPLM is building on, especially where South Sudan was five years ago, to be asked to practice true democracy now is quite a tall order. Many heads on the table nodded in a reserved approval. I liked his honesty. And in a way, this election is really about teaching old elephants to fly. I will explain my sweeping statement.
For starter, the ruling parties themselves, Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM), and National Congress (NCP) are not inherently democratic by their very history. There is one big difference, though: SPLM has claimed all along that its main aim is to transform Sudan into a secular democratic state. Yet as a movement, it never practiced democracy. While fighting for democracy, the SPLM leaders, as read through their actions and occasional utterances, never believed democracy is an effective tool of decision-making when waging a liberation war. Alternative views or visions were never tolerated, let alone any form of criticism no how matter mild or constructive it may be. And this was one of the reasons for the many splits the movement suffered and still is stalked by it to this day. Yet, it does not stop SPLM supporters and Sudanese people from holding SPLM to ransom for its long advocated slogans.
NCP, too, has been fighting for an Islamic theocracy with no mention of democracy. And for two decades, NCP has thrived on repressive dictatorship. To have their way, they built torturing houses that have become popularised in Sudan’s political vocabulary as “Ghost Houses”. This is the baseline for the two ruling parties. None has a track record of democracy.
Outside the corridors of power, are some of Sudan political parties with a long history of contesting elections and practicing democracy at certain times since independence. As all know, Sudan has seen power changing hands many times between democratically elected governments and despotic military juntas, the NCP regime being the most repressive and yet most versatile dictatorship to rule in modern history of Sudan. Manned by a bunch of educated elites, they bend and twist without breaking in order to survive. Overall, Sudan has been under dictatorship more than it has been ruled by a democracy.
Democracy, therefore, if I may say, was a kind of heaven we longed for, yet never experienced in real life. Although war and oppression has pushed millions of Sudanese to seek refuge in democracies of Europe, North America, and Australia. This author spent nearly two decades in Britain and had only returned to Sudan two years ago, having experienced real democracy for 17 years in the UK. And speaking from this experience, democracy as such is not an unattainable utopia as we would like sometimes to think. It is not defect free either, but it is by far the most natural and humane alternative to despotism that Sudan and most of Middle East are accustomed to. The coming elections may attest to that.
Back to the point of this article, here we are asking giant elephants that never flied nor danced in their entire lives to do just that. We have two powerful ruling parties (SPLM and NCP) controlling both military and financial resources, and state machinery of the country; and we are asking them to contest democratic elections while creating a levelled playing field for all and protecting the rights of all.
European Union is sending 130 election monitors (56 of them already in the country), Carter Centre has already deployed 60 monitors, while the League of Arab States is planning to deploy 60 of its own monitors. Surrounded by ubiquitous means of transmitting information from mobile phone to internet, the pressure for all to ensure a “fair and free elections” has never been high.
Both the SPLM and NCP have assured the Sudanese that they are working hard towards fair and free elections. Like rats playing a game with cats, it could go ugly anytime when a rat gets on cat’s sensitive nerve. That is exactly what happened when a group of youth formed NGO organisation in Khartoum calling themselves “Girivina”, meaning “fed up”, began to distribute leaflets calling for voting out of NCP regime and organising public rallies. Many of their members were arrested and tortured on charge of causing public disorder. No one believes the government’s accusation. It is all about election heat getting to them, and stretching their patience beyond breaking point. And so the smiley Omer Al Bashir could in no time turned into an angry boar, causing all the rabbits in the election valley to disappear into holes, shaking with terror.
This is also true of SPLM in South Sudan. Having shown good faith by according the only other candidates for presidency of South Sudan, Dr. Lam Akol, the protection of the state security forces, and having issued guidelines on code of good practice, there are incidents that showed the party’s intolerance to ideal of democracy such as competition and freedom of expression.
Lam Akol, the leader of SPLM Democratic Changed accused some of SPLA forces in Malakal of tearing down his party’s posters and called for more discipline in the SPLA once elected. This generated an angry reaction from the army spokesperson General Kuol Diem, who called for the presidential candidate to “shut up” and avoid talking about SPLA. That in turn sparked public controversy about the constitutionality of asking a presidential candidate to shut up.
Also, in Unity State last week, there were clashes in the stadium between supporters of incumbent governor, Taban Deng Gai, and his independent contender, Angelina Riek Teny. Presidential candidate and incumbent President of South Sudan was in town to launch his electoral campaign. Seeing the clashes, Kiir flew back to Juba without addressing the rally, the attendants of which were united in Kiir’s candidacy and that of Yasir Arman but disagreed on who should be elected as the next governor of Unity State.
In Western Equatoria state, there had been raids on the lodge of Joseph Bakosoro, the independent candidate for post of the governor. Cars were taken away by police and body guards arrested and later released. It was not clear who was behind this harassment but not too hard to form opinion as to who might be responsible for it. But within minutes of the incident, one of his supporters sent an urgent message to an internet discussion group, and quickly generated heated debate about the fairness and freedom of candidates for right to campaign without fear.
All in all, this election is putting Sudan’s “test tube” democracy on trial. We can see that the parties are trying their best to rise to the challenge. It is a matter of weeks to see whether or not Sudan elephants have been taught to dance and fly.
Dr John Akec is assistant professor at the University of Juba Sudan. To read more of his articles please click the following link to author’s personal blog: http://johnakecsouthsudan.blogspot.com/
AFRICA / AU :
Aussie endurance bike champ dead
SCOTT HANNAFORD/ www.smh.com.au/March 24, 2010
.Canberra elite mountain biker and former world solo 24-hour champion James Williamson has reportedly died while competing in South Africa.
The Cape Argus newspaper reported that Williamson, 26, died in Ceres in the Western Cape province while competing in the 722-kilometre Absa Cape Epic stage race, one of the highlights of the international endurance cross-country mountain biking calendar.
Williamson could not be roused on Tuesday morning by teammate Shaun Lewis, reports said. He was taken to Ceres Private Hospital but was pronounced dead at 6.47am local time (3.47pm yesterday AEDT).
Williamson, one of Canberra’s most successful mountain biking exports and a respected cycling journalist, was competing in a two-man team with Lewis, co-sponsored by Enduro magazine, of which he was editor, and Canberra design company Swell.
The pair had finished stage two of the race in 22nd place on Monday and Williamson, writing on his blog, appeared to be relishing the experience.
“Wow, what a day! The start saw us hit up a cobbled climb through a winery before a brief flat section and then yet more climbing, and more, and more … then we were in some awesome singletrack before a long steady climb up to Water Point 1. In between sucking up the pain in my legs as I clung to Shaun’s wheel, I was able to take in the scenery below as we wound our way up the valley. It was sensational and riding in a bunch of guys from all over the world, a new experience for me,” he wrote.
Williamson’s sponsor Giant bicycles MTB team manager Martin Clucas said the 26-year-old was incredibly fit, having completed 24-hour races, marathons and several Olympic-distance events.
“James was obviously an elite athlete in the prime of his life,” Mr Clucas said this afternoon.
“To sum James up as simply one of the nicest guys you will ever come across is no exaggeration. Always happy to go the extra mile for his sponsors.
“He was exceptionally talented and this combined with his courage and ability to dig deep brought him great success.”
Mr Clucas said Williamson had recently spoken of his excitement heading into the South African event.
“James was thrilled to be competing in this event, James used the words ‘incredible’ to describe his trip in an email sent to sponsors, friends and family,” he said.
“James was approachable, committed, happy to go the extra mile, mature beyond his years and an incredibly well respected member of the MTB community.”
International media director of the Cape Epic race Sonja Güldner-Hamel told BikeRadar.com: “James was a very enthusiastic mountain bike journalist who had expressed interest to ride the race over the last few years. 2010 was the year that he could fit it into his publishing schedule and he was thrilled to finally be participating in the race.
“After yesterday’s Stage 2 through singletrack paradise he was all smiles, repeatedly expressing how he enjoyed yesterday’s route. He’ll be deeply missed in the mountain biking media fraternity.”
In 2006 Williamson won the Australian 24-hour solo title. In 2008 he won the World Solo 24-hour mountain bike Championships in Canmore, Canada. While competing with Lewis as part of a four-man team in October he also won the 2009 Scott 24-hour race at Mount Stromlo.
Williamson moved to the ACT from the Southern Highlands to study journalism at the University of Canberra. He was a passionate advocate of Canberra as a riding destination and an enthusiastic proponent of the city’s bid to host the 2009 Mountain Bike and Trials World Championships.
A post-mortem examination is expected to be carried out either in South Africa or Australia to determine the cause of death. Members of Williamson’s family are due to arrive in South Africa today.
Paul Tatnell and Canberra Times
Rio, BHP chiefs very bullish on iron ore outlook
ibtimes.com.au/By Aireview/24 March 2010
Against the background of strong demand for iron ore, especially from China and other big Asian buyers, senior BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto executives were sounding very bullish at a big iron and steel conference in Perth yesterday.
There was lots of talk about new projects, expanding capacity and Chinese demand and little public discussion of the new pricing deals that the big iron ore companies seem to be in the processing of reaching with Japanese steel mills.
These quarterly agreements would seemingly match the quarterly pricing and volume arrangements that BHP struck with buyers of its hard coking coal in Japan, Asia and Europe (but not China).
Rio’s iron ore boss, Sam Walsh said he expected delays to the BHP joint venture because the project was very complex; the company was looking at six major projects to boost production, with the driver being an expectation that Chinese demand would double by 2020.
He said this strong growth would happen despite risks of a property bubble and low or no economic stimulus measures.
“We will go through blips along the way, but when you look at the fundamentals of urbanisation and industrialisation that is happening in China, we feel confident we’ll see that growth,” he said.
“We have in the past underestimated China.”
To get there Rio and BHP will have to do some sweet talking of the Chinese steel mills who are worried about a looming price jump, and that Pilbara joint venture.
European and Japanese mills are also concerned and have lobbied the European Commission to try and stop the venture.
Mr Walsh warned challenges from regulators would be “complex and demanding” and this could delay the venture until later this year.
“We’d expect that approvals would be more likely later this year than the original time frame,” Mr Walsh said in response to questions at the Perth meeting.
The main sticking point for speedy resolution of the venture is the EC competition inquiry.
Mr Walsh also said Rio had six projects on a list it was studying for possible development.
“To align with major port expansions, we’re immediately studying six new mine developments or expansions to increase iron ore capacity,” Mr Walsh said.
China took 70% of Rio’s iron ore exports in 2009. The company plans to boost production to 330 million tonnes a year by 2015.
Rio last Friday signed a joint venture agreement with Chinalco (it’s biggest shareholder) for the possible development of a huge iron ore project in Guinea in West Africa.
And the man slated to run the joint venture with BHP, had a similar upbeat message for the conference.
BHP Billiton Iron Ore president Ian Ashby said “China will not reach its inflection point in steel intensity for at least another 20 years”.
Both Mr Walsh and Mr Ashby reiterated theirs calls for a quarterly index-based iron ore pricing system.
“There is a disparity between the benchmark (pricing system) and the spot market,” Mr Walsh said.
“The benchmark system has to evolve.”
That’s the argument BHP has been making to buyers in 2010 contract talks.
BHP shares ended up 47c at $43.06, and Rio shares closed 69c higher at $75.72.
UN /ONU :
Ivory Stockpile Sale Rejected by U.N.
Internet, not guns, biggest threat to endangered species, says U.N. conference on the International Trade of Endangered Species
By Peter Valk/Epoch Times Staff /Mar 24, 2010
Zambia and Tanzania’s request to hold a one-off sale for their ivory stockpile, valued of approximately $15 million, were rejected during the U.N.’s Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) annual meeting in Doha. The increase of poaching and illegal ivory sales in both countries in 2009 were the main reasons for the rejection.
Since the ivory trade was banned in 1989, there has been an exemption that allows countries that have proven effective in conservation measures to have a small amount of regulated trade in ivory. Currently, Zambia and Tanzania are forbidden to sell ivory.
“It’s crucial that central and western African nations suppress the brazen poaching, mainly fueled by organized crime and illegal ivory markets openly operating within their borders before any further ivory sales take place,” said Sybille Klenzendorf, managing director of Species Conservation at WWF-U.S. in a press release.
According to a report from the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS), which keeps track of ivory seizures, there exists a direct relationship between an increase in poaching and poor law enforcement. In the past two years, the number of elephants that were killed as a result of poaching has quadrupled.
Opponents of the ban say that Tanzania ought be allowed to dispose of their ivory stockpile as to avoid spending large sums of money on security and storage.
During the meeting, in which 175 countries participated, some animals were added to the list of protected species. The rise of e-commerce is now believed to be one of the latest and biggest threats to wildlife, as global Internet access has made it increasingly easy to buy and sell illegal wildlife products with little control.
“The transactions kind of come and go and take place before anybody really even knows it, leaving it to the post office to be enforcing this global regime of trade regulation,” Paul Todd, a campaign manager for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (FAW) was reported as saying by ABC news in Australia.
Back in 2005, a FAW investigation reported that in one week alone, over 9,000 live animals or products in five categories of animals were for sale on English-language Web sites, chat rooms and the popular auction site eBay. Some of the live animals found included a gorilla in London, and a Siberian tiger in the U.S. Body parts and products were also commonly found with ivory being common.
Sony to partner with UNDP and JICA to further anti-AIDS Millennium Goal.
2010/03/24/www.asahi.com
.- Campaign to kick off during the 2010 FIFA World Cup (TM) –
Tokyo, Japan, 24 March 2010 – Sony Corporation is partnering with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to bolster the global fight to end poverty by 2015, with a special focus on the campaign to reverse the spread of HIV and AIDS.
Stopping the rise of HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases is one of eight key Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) UN member nations are striving to achieve within the next five years. The other goals are to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; to establish universal primary education; to promote gender equality; to reduce child mortality; to improve maternal health; to ensure environmental sustainability.
The partnership’s AIDS-awareness campaign in Africa, called “Public Viewing in Africa,” will focus on bringing health information to vulnerable communities in Cameroon and Ghana. This summer, Sony will set up large screens to broadcast live, for free, approximately 20 FIFA World Cup matches, allowing people in areas where TVs are scarce to see the matches (*1). Throughout the games, UNDP, JICA and local partners will also be offering the viewers HIV and AIDS counseling, and advocacy materials. Both countries’ national football teams will be participating in the World Cup, to be held in South Africa this June and July.
“The World Cup brings people together, both as teams, and as nations cheering on their players. The same can be true for the Millennium Development Goals,” said UNDP Administrator Helen Clark. “There can be no spectators in the fight against poverty. Everyone has a role to play in scoring the 8 Millennium Development Goals, which if reached would improve the quantity and quality of life for many hundreds of millions of people across developing countries.”
This year, by conducting the joint project during the biggest sporting event of the year, the World Cup, the partners aim to attract approximately 13,000 participants, and ensure there are approximately 1,800 recipients of HIV tests.
“FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa is a wonderful opportunity to reaffirm the world’s solidarity with Africa,” said JICA President, Sadako Ogata. “Sony, UNDP and JICA together will take a step forward to open the door to be closer to Africa. Collaborative efforts between people in Africa and all over the world are indispensable to bring about global peace and prosperity.”
Although football is the most popular and closely followed sport in Cameroon and Ghana, the countries are characterized by low rates of household TV penetration (22 percent in Cameroon, and 21 percent in Ghana) with many people unable to watch football matches on TV and support their home country.
“I am delighted that Sony can contribute to the prevention of HIV and AIDS through our partnership with JICA and UNDP, while also delivering great football experiences to the people of Cameroon and Ghana through our cutting-edge technology and sponsorship of the 2010 FIFA World Cup (*2),” said Howard Stringer, Chairman, CEO and President, Sony Corporation. “Sony will continue to support the UN’s efforts to achieve the MDGs, as a central part of our ongoing CSR activities.”
UNDP and Sony will be working together on several global initiatives throughout the year to advocate for the Millennium Development Goals through the use of Sony’s advanced technology, and its worldwide presence.
(*1): As part of its CSR activities, under the theme “For the Next Generation,” the Sony Group is aiming to collaborate closely with external organizations to leverage Sony’s strengths in meeting the needs of today’s society, while aiming to contribute to social sustainability and the development of the next generation. In recent years, Sony has also supported various activities in Africa with the aim of contributing to the MDGs.
(*2): Sony is an official FIFA Partner from 2007 to 2014. (http://www.sony.net/united/football/)
Notes to editor:
JICA and Sony conducted a similar joint project in Ghana in July 2009, and it was a great success. Some 9,000 people gathered in seven cities to watch Sony’s high-definition broadcasts of football matches, about three times the typical attendance. About 1,100 young people and adults visited the HIV and AIDS testing sites and took the HIV test – again about three times as many people as usual.
Sony Corporation is a leading manufacturer of audio, video, game, communications, key device and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. With its music, pictures, computer entertainment and on-line businesses, Sony is uniquely positioned to be the leading electronics and entertainment company in the world. Sony recorded consolidated annual sales of approximately $79 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2009. Sony Global Web Site: (http://www.sony.net/)
UNDP is the UN’s global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and our wide range of partners. Please visit: (www.undp.org)
JICA is advancing its activities around the pillars of a field-oriented approach, human security, and enhanced effectiveness, efficiency, and speed. JICA contributes to the promotion of international cooperation as well as the sound development of Japanese and global economy by supporting the socioeconomic development, recovery or economic stability of developing regions. About hundred offices are located worldwide to promote projects that meet local needs. (www.jica.go.jp/english/)
(press release)
USA :
Oprah Winfrey settles defamation legal action
Wednesday, 24 March 2010/news.bbc.co.uk
Oprah Winfrey has settled a defamation lawsuit filed by the former headmistress of a South Africa girls’ school set up by the US TV star.
Nomvuho Mzamane had claimed Winfrey defamed her in remarks in 2007, in the wake of a scandal over alleged sex abuse at the school.
Ms Mzamane said she later had trouble finding a job.
On Tuesday, lawyers for both parties said they had met “woman to woman” and resolved their differences.
In a statement they said the two parties “are happy that they could resolve this dispute peacefully to their mutual satisfaction,” without disclosing details of the settlement, the Associated Press news agency reports.
Winfrey had been expected to testify next week at a trial in Philadelphia.
The school was opened in Johannesburg in 2007 at a cost of $40m (£26.3m).
Winfrey pledged to build the academy after a meeting with former South African President Nelson Mandela in 2002, and personally interviewed many of the South African girls from low-income families who applied for the initial 150 places at the school.
The US talk-show host has said she was herself abused as a child and has campaigned against abuse in the US.
She described the complaints at her school as one of the most devastating experiences of her life.
Chrysler whistle-blower’s tip brings U.S. charges of global bribery by Daimler
By Justin Hyde/Free Press Washington Staff/March 24, 2010
WASHINGTON – Nine years ago, Chrysler auditor David Bazzetta was shocked to hear from DaimlerChrysler executives in Germany that the company regularly bribed foreign governments for business – even though they knew it violated U.S. law.
That whistle Bazzetta blew will finally be answered next week, when Daimler appears in a U.S. federal court in Washington on charges it spent hundreds of millions of dollars on payoffs to officials in 22 countries between 1998 and 2008. Several outlets reported that the company will pay $185 million to settle the charges, but the company and the U.S. Department of Justice declined comment.
So too did Bazzetta, 54, of Macomb Township, whose 2004 lawsuit first revealed the secret accounting system Daimler ran to pay off officials from Greece to North Korea, and included kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s government under the United Nations’ “oil-for-food” program.
According to his lawsuit, Bazzetta, an 18-year veteran of Chrysler, warned about the payments to his boss. When he told Bazzetta to keep quiet, Bazzetta went over his head. When nothing was done, he was transferred, and eventually fired in January 2004, two weeks after his corporate protector retired.
At the time, DaimlerChrysler was trying to recover the aura that surrounded its creation, washed away by Chrysler’s struggles and anger in the United States that the “merger of equals” had given way to a German takeover of Chrysler.
The Justice Department said today that all told, Daimler’s bribes generated at least $50 million in pretax profits.
At the time of its 1997 purchase of Chrysler, Daimler had 200 accounts used for bribes around the world. By 2004, it had winnowed such accounts to 40, but the Justice complaint says the company only eliminated the practice after the launch of probes by U.S. officials.
The kickbacks weren’t just handed over in cash. Daimler paid for tourist trips for Chinese officials, and gave the son of a Chinese government official an internship, a four-month job and help getting him and his girlfriend German student visas.
The company also gave an armored Mercedes sedan worth 267,000 euros to a Liberian government official in 1999, and sent another worth 300,000 euros to a high-ranking official in the Turkmenistan government in 2003, likely late president-for-life Saparmurat Niyazov.
Daimler’s distributor also tried to get in Niyazov’s personal graces by spending $250,000 on translating 10,000 copies of his personal manifesto from Turkmen into German, delivered to Niyazov in a golden box. Daimler eventually sold 879 vehicles in the country from 2000 to 2008.
Bazzetta’s lawsuit sparked a probe in 2004 by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission officials. The payments fell under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act since DaimlerChrysler’s shares were traded in the United States, and several bribes were routed through U.S. bank accounts.
Daimler responded to Bazzetta’s suit in 2004 saying he had been fired because he falsified internal financial information and directed subordinates to do the same. It said Bazzetta’s whistleblower claims had no merit because corporate officials were addressing the practice.
The automaker settled the suit out of court in 2005, but later admitted in 2006 that its own investigation had found “improper payments” in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, and that several employees had been dismissed.
The government and Daimler are set to appear before a federal judge April 1.
Contact Justin Hyde at 202-906-8204 or jhyde@freepress.com
Ex-U.S. diplomat to speak at Misericordia
Times Leader Staff/March 24
DALLAS TWP. – Prudence Bushnell, a former U.S. ambassador, will be the guest speaker when Misericordia University holds its 84th annual commencement ceremony on May 23 at 2 p.m. in the Anderson Sports and Health Center on campus.
A baccalaureate Mass will precede the ceremony at 10:30 a.m.
Bushnell served as deputy assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from 1993-96, ambassador to Kenya from 1996-99 and Guatemala from 1999-2002, then as dean of the Leadership and Management School at the Foreign Service Institute from 2002-05.
Her role in raising awareness to the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 was portrayed by Debra Winger in the movie, “Sometimes in April.”
“Ambassador Bushnell has spent her life in the most volatile areas of the world serving humankind and her country,’” said Michael A. MacDowell, president of Misericordia University.
Now chief executive officer of Sage Associates in Falls Church, Va., Bushnell lectures and consults on international and leadership topics that range from crisis leadership and terrorism to leadership effectiveness strategies and women peacemakers.
During the ceremony, Misericordia will also present Bushnell, Nanticoke-native Stanley M. Dudrick, M.D., a professor of surgery at Yale University School of Medicine, and world-renowned artist Christopher Ries of Tunkhannock with honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees.
Dudrick is widely recognized and respected throughout the scientific, academic and clinical world for his innovative and pioneering research in the development of the specialized central venous feeding technique known as intravenous hyperalimentation (IVH) or total parenteral nutrition (TPN). His development and successful clinical application of this therapeutic modality has been described as one of the four most significant accomplishments in the history of the development of modern surgery.
“Dr. Dudrick has had a most distinguished career in medicine,” MacDowell said. “A renowned surgeon, medical researcher and medical college administrator, Dr. Dudrick has accomplished much in areas where Misericordia graduates, faculty and staff have great interest. His humanity is evident in all he has undertaken.”
CANADA :
Deal Provides Vaccines to Poor Nations at Lower Cost
www.nytimes.com/By ANDREW POLLACK/2010/03/24
Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline will supply hundreds of millions of doses of their pneumonia vaccines to the world’s poorest countries at heavily discounted prices under a novel agreement announced Tuesday.
But at least one expert maintains that the prices are still too high.
The deal was announced by the GAVI Alliance, a nonprofit organization, which estimated the program could save a total of 900,000 lives by 2015.
The vaccines — Pfizer’s Prevnar 13 and GlaxoSmithKline’s Synflorix — prevent pneumococcal disease, which includes pneumonia and meningitis. Pneumococcal disease kills 1.6 million people a year worldwide, including 800,000 children before their fifth birthday, according to GAVI.
Under the agreement, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline will provide up to 300 million doses each of their vaccines over a 10-year period. The price for the first 20 percent of the supply will be $7 a dose. Then the price will drop to $3.50 a dose for the remainder. The vaccines would be paid for by donations raised by GAVI and by the governments of the countries that ordered the vaccines.
In Western markets, the pneumococcal vaccines sell for $54 to $108 a dose.
“For the price of a Starbucks latte, developing countries are going to be able to buy a dose of a life-saving vaccine,” said Orin Levine, director of the international vaccine access center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who has worked with GAVI.
But Tido von Schoen-Angerer, who directs the essential medicines program at the international group Doctors Without Borders, said that even with the discounts, “it’s still quite an expensive vaccine in a developing country context.” With at least three doses required, the price would initially be $21 per patient.
The agreement is the first example of GAVI’s program called advance market commitments, in which donor money is used to essentially guarantee a market for vaccine companies if they undertake development of vaccines for poor countries, or if the companies agree to build extra capacity to supply those markets with an existing vaccine.
Such a strategy, if it works, might be particularly useful in spurring companies to develop vaccines for diseases like malaria, for which virtually the entire market would be in developing countries.
GAVI has already received pledges that total $1.5 billion for the pneumococcal disease campaign from the governments of Italy, Britain, Canada, Russia and Norway and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
But GAVI, which is also known as the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, still needs to raise another $1.5 billion by 2015 to pay for the procurement and distribution of the vaccines over the 10-year life of the program.
Dr. von Schoen-Angerer said that the multibillion-dollar cost of the project was straining GAVI’s finances and that the success of the pneumococcal program should be evaluated before the advance market commitment strategy was tried for another vaccine.
He said that experts he consulted estimated the cost of making each dose at $1.50 to $2.50, so Pfizer and Glaxo were still making a little profit.
The two companies would not disclose their costs but did not deny they would make money. “Certainly the whole notion was to create a sustainable model,” said Gwen Fisher, a spokeswoman for Pfizer. “It wasn’t to make it into a money-losing proposition.”
Costs could come down if vaccine makers from developing countries take part in the program. Two vaccine makers in India — Panacea Biotec and Serum Institute of India — are already moving toward supplying pneumococcal vaccines.
Officials involved in the deal say that it formerly took many years for a vaccine developed in the West to trickle down to developing countries. But the new program would make the first vaccines available to Africa this year.
“American kids and African kids will get this new vaccine in the same year,” Dr. Levine of Johns Hopkins said. “That’s just never happened before.”
Pharmaceutical companies already sell many of their drugs and vaccines at lower prices in poorer countries. Still, the agreement for the pneumococcal vaccines took four years to negotiate, in part because of all the parties involved. The World Bank, the World Health Organization and Unicef will all play a role in the program.
AUSTRALIA :
BG Group, China Sign Australia’s Biggest LNG Supply Agreement
March 24, 2010/By Ben Sharples/Bloomberg
March 24 (Bloomberg) — China National Offshore Oil Corp. will buy liquefied natural gas from BG Group Plc’s Queensland Curtis LNG venture in Australia for an estimated $70 billion, marking the nation’s largest export deal.
The companies signed an agreement in Beijing today to supply 3.6 million metric tons of LNG over 20 years starting 2014, Australian Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said in a statement, without giving a value. RBS Morgans analyst Nik Burns estimated the contract may be worth as much as $70 billion.
The transaction eclipses the A$50 billion ($46 billion) contract PetroChina Co. signed with Exxon Mobil Corp. in August to buy gas from the Chevron Corp.-led Gorgon LNG venture in Western Australia. It underscores the countries’ growing trade links even as China’s trial of four Rio Tinto Group iron ore executives strains political ties.
“China’s energy demand is growing strongly,” John Young, an analyst at Wilson HTM Investment Group in Melbourne, said by telephone. “‘The demand numbers are significant, it’s across a range of energy sources from coal, gas, oil and nuclear. Four percent of China’s energy demand is met by gas and that’s projected to increase to about 10 percent.”
Ferguson said the contract is the biggest company-to- company LNG deal done in Australia in volume terms. Using the A$50 billion valuation the government gave for Exxon’s accord with PetroChina as a benchmark, the BG deal will be worth $73.6 billion. Based on the $525 a ton paid in October for LNG shipments by Japan, it would be $38 billion.
Coal-Seam Gas
Chinese companies spent a record $32 billion on mining and energy acquisitions last year, securing oil fields, coal and metal mines in Africa, Asia and Australia to feed the world’s fastest-growing major economy. Gas producer Arrow Energy Ltd. this week accepted a A$3.5 billion joint takeover offer from Royal Dutch Shell Plc and PetroChina.
BG will supply fuel to China National Offshore using gas extracted from Queensland coal seams and converted by BG unit QGC to liquid for export by ship. The supply pact was first announced in May.
“This deal makes Australia the world leader in the coal- seam-gas-based LNG industry and it brings us one important step closer to opening up a new LNG province on Australia’s east coast in Queensland,” Ferguson said.
China wants to treble the use of cleaner-burning gas to about 10 percent of energy consumption by 2020 to cut reliance on more-polluting coal.
China National Offshore, the nation’s third-biggest oil company, is set to sign “about three” term contracts to purchase LNG this year, President Fu Chengyu said on March 14.
Project Costs
BG, the U.K.’s third-largest oil and gas producer, plans to build an LNG plant with first-phase capacity of 7.4 million tons a year from two processing units near Gladstone on the central Queensland coast, according to the Web site of the Reading, England-based company.
Deutsche Bank in a report this month estimated the cost of Curtis LNG at A$20.1 billion, and said a final investment decision is expected in the middle of this year. BG’s project is one of five coal-seam-gas-to-LNG ventures proposed at Gladstone and among more than 12 LNG ventures intended for Australia and Papua New Guinea targeting Asian demand for cleaner-burning fuels than coal and oil.
China National’s initial accord with BG called for the Chinese company to gain a 10 percent stake in one of the two LNG production units. The companies will be part of a group that will build and own two LNG ships in China, BG says on its Web site.
China National Offshore operates three LNG terminals in Guangzhou, Fujian and Shanghai and is building a fourth in Zhejiang, according to the company’s Web site.
Chinese Demand
Coal-seam gas is mostly methane found on the surface of coal. The gas can be extracted when pressure on the seams is reduced, usually by removing water. LNG is natural gas chilled to liquid form for transport by ship to destinations not connected by pipeline.
Chinese companies have spent at least $13 billion on energy acquisitions in the last two years. China produced 76 billion cubic meters of gas and used 81 billion cubic meters in 2008, according to BP’s Statistical Review.
China’s annual gas imports, including LNG via ocean-going tankers, will exceed 135 billion cubic meters by 2020, according to Center for Energy Strategy Studies in Beijing. The country aims to cut the share of coal in its energy mix to 60 percent by 2020 from 70 percent.
“From China’s perspective, its own resources are not enough to fuel its economic growth that has remained at a high rate over the past 30 years, so the government is encouraging its companies to seek resources from the global market,” said Niu Li, an economist with China’s State Information Center in Beijing.
The trial of Australian citizen Stern Hu, and his Rio Tinto colleagues Liu Caikui, Wang Yong and Ge Minqiang has frayed relations between Australia and China. The trial ended today after a closed door session, lawyer Zhai Jian, who represents Ge told reporters in Shanghai. No verdict was given at the end of the proceedings, Zhai said.
Link to Company News: {857 HK CN } Link to Company News:{883 HK CN } Link to Company News:{BG/ LN CN }
–With assistance from Haslinda Amin in Singapore and Wang Ying Beijing. Editors: John Viljoen, Clyde Russell.
EUROPE :
Pirates hijack Turkish ship
By: WIRE EDITOR/Burlington County Times/ www.phillyburbs.com/March 24, 2010
NAIROBI, Kenya
Somali pirates hijacked a Turkish ship carrying fertilizer far out at sea in a takeover that took place closer to India than Africa, officials said Tuesday.
The hijacking of the Malta-flagged MV Frigia took place more than 1,000 miles out at sea and represents a substantial increase in the pirates’ range, said Cmdr. John Harbour, spokesman for the EU Naval Force. The attack took place more than 400 miles outside where the naval force operates.
The ship’s cargo could complicate the hostage-taking if the fertilizers on board could be used for bomb-making in Somalia, where militants and Somali government troops are engaging in increasingly violent battles.
Pirates in the past have hijacked ships carrying weapons and fuel, but they have never turned over the potentially dangerous cargo to militants.
Ayhan Ugurlubay, a spokesman for the Turkey-based Karya shipping company, said officials received a distress signal from the Frigia early Tuesday but have had no contact with the ship since then.
CALCUTTA, India
A fire raced through the upper floors of an old, six-story building in Calcutta on Tuesday, killing six people, including two who jumped to their deaths as onlookers began to crowd the area.
Thousands of people gathered in a busy section of the eastern Indian city to watch firefighters use ladders to rescue dozens of people trapped inside the office-and-apartment building while dense smoke and fire billowed from the fourth floor upward.
About 20 people were injured.
Police were investigating the cause of the fire, which was believed to have started in an elevator, police officer Javed Shamim said. Nearly 100 firefighters spent several hours to control the blaze.
Two people jumped to their deaths while four succumbed to burn injuries in a hospital, State Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen said. Five of the 20 people hospitalized were in critical condition, Sen told The Associated Press.
GENEVA
The World Trade Organization ruled that European governments unfairly financed planemaker Airbus’ battle against U.S. rival Boeing, officials said, even as the France-based Airbus claimed the decision as a victory.
Three officials with knowledge of the confidential WTO ruling Tuesday in the long-running trade dispute said it upheld findings of an interim decision handed down last September that faulted European governments for providing Airbus with subsidies through risk-free loans, research funding and infrastructure support.
Airbus, however, said “70 percent of the U.S. claims were rejected” and that the WTO panel dismissed Boeing’s claim that its performance suffered as a result of European subsidies. In that case, it would be a victory for Airbus and the European Union ahead of a possible June ruling on alleged U.S. subsidies to The Boeing Co.
While the WTO’s report won’t halt European subsidies for Airbus, the two disputes could provide tighter guidelines for how far governments can go in supporting companies in a market worth more than $3 trillion over the next two decades.
MIR ALI, Pakistan
A suspected U.S. missile struck a house in northwest Pakistan close to the Afghan border Tuesday, killing three people, Pakistani intelligence officials said.
The identities of the victims in Miran Shah in North Waziristan were not known, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media.
North Waziristan is dominated by militants from the Haqqani network, which is blamed for attacks against U.S. and NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan.
Advertisement The United States routinely fires missiles against al-Qaida and Taliban targets in northwest Pakistan, striking at an area that up until 18 months ago was largely a militant safe haven. The attacks, fired mostly from unmanned drones, have killed many low- and mid-ranking insurgents.
They have attracted protest from the Pakistani public and politicians complaining about violations of sovereignty, but these days attract little comment. The country’s leaders are widely believed to cooperate with the strikes, but do not admit this in public for fear of a backlash.
BEIJING
A former medical worker allegedly stabbed to death eight young children and wounded five others Tuesday in a bloody rampage outside an elementary school in eastern China.
The attacker struck in the morning as students arrived for classes, mingling with parents at the school gates before suddenly pulling out his knife and slashing children, according to witnesses interviewed on local television.
In the aftermath, doctors treated small children and bodies lay covered in bloody sheets after the attack at Nanping City Experimental Elementary School in Fujian province. Police officers manned a cordon around the school. Some comforted distraught parents.
China has witnessed a series of school attacks in recent years, most blamed on people with personal grudges or suffering from mental illness, leading to calls for improved security.
JERUSALEM
Jerusalem city hall has submitted a grandiose plan for hotels, businesses and new housing for Palestinians in the center of east Jerusalem, according to a statement issued Tuesday, triggering renewed Palestinian objections.
The plan calls for developing a large area across from the Old City wall for tourism and commerce, as well as building 1,000 additional apartments.
Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as the capital of the state they want to create, and they object in principle to any Israeli construction there. A Palestinian leader charged Tuesday that the downtown reconstruction plan is meant to compensate for new building in Jewish neighborhoods.
Diplomatic crises have been set off by plans to build in existing Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, including current tensions between Israel and the U.S. over plans for 1,600 new apartments in Ramat Shlomo, a Jewish neighborhood in another part of east Jerusalem away from the center.
Though the downtown program appeared to be aimed at improving the rundown eastern sector, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, Palestinians have rejected it in the past because it appears to involve bulldozing large swaths of territory before building the planned hotels, commercial centers and apartment buildings.
CARACAS, Venezuela
The arrest of an outspoken government opponent for his critical remarks on a TV talk show drew condemnation on Tuesday from opposition parties and human rights activists who said the case shows freedoms are being eroded in Venezuela.
Opposition politician Oswaldo Alvarez Paz was detained by police on Monday and has been charged with conspiracy, spreading false information and publicly inciting violation.
A coalition of more than a dozen parties opposed to President Hugo Chavez said in a statement that Alvarez Paz was arrested for a “crime of opinion” in an attempt to silence criticism and encourage a climate of self-censorship. Opposition leaders called the 67-year-old former Zulia state governor a political prisoner.
From The Associated Press
CHINA :
China tables four-point proposal to cement ties with Africa
English.news.cn/ Xinhua / 2010-03-24
YAOUNDE, March 24 (Xinhua) — China’s top political advisor Jia Qinglin has put forward a four-point proposal aiming at fully advancing relations with Africa.
The proposal, which was made on Tuesday and was part of Jia’s key-note speech at National Assembly of Cameroon, covered political trust, economy collaboration, cultural exchanges and global issues.
“Under the new circumstances, China will work with Cameroon and other African countries to enhance the traditional friendship and grow the new type of China-Africa strategic partnership,” Jia said.
The speech, entitled “May the Flower of China-Africa Friendship Grow More Splendid,” reaffirmed China’s commitment to boosting the ties between the world’s biggest developing country and the continent with the largest number of developing countries.
“Both sides should remain committed to deepening political mutual trust,” said Jia, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country’s top advisory body.
Jia highlighted the importance of high-level visits, intergovernmental, parliamentary and party-to-party exchanges and cooperation.
“We support the efforts of African countries to uphold peace and stability and seek development through unity,” Jia said, adding China stood ready to make contribution to African peace, security and integration.
On the economic front, Jia pledged more cooperation with African countries in trade, investment, infrastructure, agriculture, energy, finance and telecommunications.
“We will fulfill the pledge of the Chinese government to provide 10 billion U.S. dollars of preferential loans to African countries,” Jia said.
The preferential loans were part of the eight new measures introduced by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao last November in Egypt, which also include debt cancellation, agriculture production, infrastructure and education.
Jia encouraged well-established Chinese companies to invest in Africa and take more favorable measures to increase the continent’ s exports to China.
“The Chinese businesses accompanying my visit to Africa will sign important agreements on importing goods from Cameroon,” Jia said.
Jia called for stronger cooperation in education, public health, culture, sports and tourism.
“We will work with African countries to train 20, 000 professionals for Africa within three years,” Jia said.
With the Shanghai World Expo in sight, Jia also extended a welcome to people in Africa.
The 41st World Expo will open in May in China’s economic hub.
Jia underscored the importance of China-Africa efforts to tackle global challenges, including world financial foe, climate change, food security, among others.
“We will strive to increase the representation and say of developing countries in the international system,” Jia said.
On the hot-button climate change, Jia said China would not “compete with African countries for a single penny of assistance.”
Instead, China will do it utmost to help African countries enhance the capacity to meet the climate challenge, Jia said.
The speech, delivered during Jia’s three-day official visit to the central African nation, drew around 400 parliamentarians, diplomats, experts and professionals.
Jia will meet with President of Cameroon Paul Biya on Wednesday.
Cameroon is the first leg of Jia’s ten-day African tour which will also take him to Namibia and South Africa.
INDIA :
BRASIL:
TAPA Taps BSI to Provide Cargo Risk Intelligence and Analysis
Source: BSI /www.environmental-expert.com/24, 2010
The Transported Asset Protection Association (TAPA) Americas region selected BSI to build a cargo theft repository for the association and to provide detailed analyses on cargo theft incident trends across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa.
In addition, BSI will provide TAPA with timely notifications of cargo disruption incidents, risk analysis assessments, and intelligence reporting that is pertinent to their members’ international supply chains. By tapping into one of the largest, continuously-updated, non-governmental, proprietary databases on security and cargo disruption threats in the world, BSI is able to augment these reports with the quantification and financial risk analysis TAPA members require when making informed decisions concerning global transportation of their goods.
Dan Purtell, BSI Senior Vice President, Supply Chain Solutions stated, “With our experience and extensive international expertise, BSI is uniquely positioned to provide TAPA accurate trend analyses regarding geographical hotspots by transportation modality. With staff present in more than 120 countries, BSI can quickly provide the membership up-to-date information regarding the situation on the ground.”
TAPA brings together global manufacturers, logistics providers, freight carriers, law enforcement agencies, and other stakeholders with a common goal to reduce losses in the supply chain. Historically, the association has been effective in reducing the number of incidents related to cargo theft losses in manufacturing, transportation, and distribution of high value products. TAPA Chairman, Alan Spear, stated, “Given their expertise and experience, BSI was the obvious choice to provide TAPA with the in-depth analyses its members require.”
BSI’s Supply Chain Security personnel have extensive experience in data collection and risk-based assessments of supply chains in over 50 countries. BSI’s expertise will improve the TAPA members’ ability to be more keenly aware of incident trend analysis, allowing members companies to actively mitigate their supply chain risks. These analyses will also provide assistance to TAPA members who seek to be in compliance with voluntary anti-terrorism programs in the North America such as C-TPAT and PIP.
About BSI
BSI is a global independent business services organization that inspires confidence and delivers assurance to over 80,000 customers with standards-based solutions. Originating as the world’s first national standards body, BSI has over 2,300 staff operating in over 120 countries through more than 50 global offices. BSI’s key offerings are:
* The development and sale of private, national and international standards and supporting information that promote and share best practice
* Second and third-party management systems assessment and certification in all critical areas of management disciplines
* Testing and certification of services and products for Kitemark and CE marking to UK, European and International standards. BSI is a Notified Body for 15 New Approach EU Directives
* Certification of high-risk, complex medical devices
* Performance management software solutions
* Training services in support of standards implementation and business best practice.
For further information, please visit www.bsiamerica.com
About BSI’s Supply Chain Solutions
BSI is a leading global provider of risk-based solutions, assessments, and training programs that emphasize C-TPAT regulatory compliance and protect corporate brand identity. Our extensive knowledge of business processes and management systems enables us to offer sophisticated supply chain management solutions, such as our Supplier Compliance Manager® (SCM). SCM incorporates BSI’s proprietary global cargo tampering data and terrorism risk modeling to enable customers to effectively assess and mitigate supply chain risk, as well as meet rigorous government regulatory requirements.
An intelligence-based risk mitigation approach to supply chain management enables:
* Informed procurement decisions by companies
* Identify and address chain of custody gaps before incidents occur
* Reduce costs associated with loss, theft, or other illicit activity
* Improve cycle-time to market
* Facilitate compliance with U.S. and other regulatory requirements related to supply chain safety and security
For further information, please visit: www.bsiamerica.com/supplychainsecurity
About TAPA
TAPA, the Transported Asset Protection Association, is a worldwide coalition of manufacturers, shippers, carriers, insurers, service providers, law enforcement and government agencies concerned with the risks of criminal activity against HVTT (High Value Theft Targeted) cargo in the transportation supply chain. TAPA members work together to prevent theft and other crimes against the transportation supply chain through the sharing of information, development of supply chain security standards, and cooperation with government agencies.
EN BREF, CE 24 mars 2010 … AGNEWS / OMAR, BXL,24/03/2010
