{jcomments on}OMAR, AGNEWS, BXL, le 15 avril 2010 – AFP- April 15, 2010–The leaders of China, India and South Africa have flown into Brazil for two days of talks among the world’s top emerging economies.
RWANDA
Survey: A quarter of Africans worry about future religious conflict; Nigeria, Rwanda top list
TOM MALITI/Associated Press Writer/April 15, 2010
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — More than a quarter of people in sub-Saharan Africa worry about future conflict along religious lines, though concerns in Rwanda and Nigeria are even higher, according to a new survey on religious attitudes released Thursday.
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, which conducted the survey, however, found that unemployment, crime and corruption are of greater concern to Africans than future religious conflict.
But the survey found that in Nigeria and Rwanda — countries that have suffered from vicious sectarian conflict — 58 percent in each country fear future bloodshed.
The survey, which involved interviewing 25,000 people in 19 sub-Saharan African countries, found that in many cases fear of religious conflict were tied to fears of ethnic conflict.
“For many in Africa religion and ethnicity are very closely connected in that basically they see the two working together in terms of their concern about violence,” said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Acting Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan echoed those views in a BBC interview late Tuesday when he was asked what his government is doing about violence in central Nigeria, where more than 500 people have been killed this year.
Jonathan said that people indigenous to the central Nigerian city of Jos and its surrounding region are mainly Christians and feel that people who have migrated there from other parts of Nigeria dominate commerce. Some of those people are Muslims and when the two groups fight, it assumes “religious connotations.”
“So if anything touches a settler who is a Muslim it will be interpreted as if they are attacking the Muslims,” Jonathan told the BBC. “And if the settlers that are Muslims touch the indigenous population that are Christians it will be interpreted as the Christians are being attacked.”
In January, 300 people, most of them Muslims, were killed in Jos and its surrounding villages. In March, more than 200 people were killed in what are predominantly Christian villages in the same area.
That violence, though fractured across religious lines, often has more to do with local politics, economics and rights to grazing lands.
The survey also found that in 17 of the 19 countries covered, 40 percent of respondents were concerned about religious extremism, particularly within their own faith.
Less than a quarter of them believed that large numbers of Muslims support extremist groups like al-Qaida. In most cases, researchers found that Christians and Muslims held similar views on the level of support for al-Qaida. But in Ghana, the survey found that Muslims are three times more likely to say fellow Muslims support al-Qaida than Christians.
The group conducted the survey, titled “Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa,” between December 2008 and April 2009.
The organization conducted the survey because sub-Saharan Africa is “the most important meeting place between Christianity and Islam anywhere in the world, so if we are going to probe issues of inter-religious understanding and inter-religious engagement, this is a good place as any to begin,” said Lugo.
Rwanda Editor Says Suspension of Paper Politically Motivated
Jean Bosco Gasasira says the suspension of Umuvugizi for six months is intended to silence him from covering Rwanda’s presidential election due in August
www1.voanews.com/James Butty | Washington, DC/ 15 April 2010
The editor of Rwanda’s Umuvugizi independent newspaper said the suspension of his paper is politically motivated.
Rwanda’s Media High Council earlier this week suspended Umuvugizi and Umuseso for six months on the grounds the two weeklies violated Rwanda’s media laws and incited public order.
Umuvugizi editor Jean Bosco Gasasira said the six-month suspension is intended to silence the two papers from covering Rwanda’s presidential elections scheduled for August this year.
“As you know we are entering into election period; the election period is going to be in August, but campaign starts in May. The Media High Council suspended our newspapers before getting orders from the Ministry of Justice. Secondly, just hours before that, the president (Paul Kagame) said in parliament that he’s tired of the criticizing newspapers. He’s going to close it in good faith or by force,” he said.
The Chairman of the Rwanda Media High Council, Arthur Asiimwe, in announcing the suspension accused Umuvugizi and Umuseso of mixing news and opinions in their reporting.
Asiimwe reportedly said most of the articles written by the two newspapers since January this year were full of fabrications and were provocative.
Editor Gasasira described Asiimwe’s comments as false political allegations and propaganda.
He said the Media High Council is a tool of the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front party.
“In the constitution, the Media High Council is supposed to be independent. But it’s not independent of the ruling party; it’s not independent of the government; they are just a political tool,” Gasasira said.
Gasasira rejected assertions by Media High Council Executive Secretary Patrice Mulama that Umuvugizi and Umuseso failed to respond to warnings from the council about their reporting.
“When a newspaper in Rwanda, according to the new media law, writes anything inciting or anything bad, the Media High Council summons them and forces them to make correction of that. When they refused, they are at least suspended for two months. Then if they repeat that, you suspend them for six months. Neither Umuseso nor Umuvugizi have never been summoned by the Media High Council officially nor suspended for two months which shows that this was politically motivated. They just want to eliminate us before the election campaign,” Gasasira said.
Rwandan Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama said the Media High Council acted within Rwandan laws when it suspended the two papers.
“As far as I know from the legal point of view, the law on the media empowers the Media High Council to do that. The law provides both disciplinary and criminal proceedings. The penal code does indeed punish. Some of the utterances, some of the publications that the two papers were engaged in, I don’t think any criminal proceedings had been invoked at all. I think what has happened is that the Media High Council took disciplinary actions against the two papers,” Karugarama said.
Gasasira said President Paul Kagame had warned journalists critical of his government to leave Rwanda or face their papers being shut down.
But he said he’s not a coward and would not be driven into exile.
“Right now when I’m talking to you, I’m a lamed person. My left hand side has a stroke when they tried to assassinate me in 2007. I’m living on medication; I’m a living person who has a lot of health problems because of my line of duty. So I’ve become a sacrifice of my work. So I don’t believe in escaping the country; I don’t believe being a coward. I will remain here,” Gasasira said.
Gasasira described as untrue allegations by Media High Council Executive Secretary Patrice Mulama that media criticism of the Kagame government could lead to decline in foreign investment in Rwanda.
He said most foreign embassies in Rwanda subscribe to Umuvugizi and Umuseso.
“Umuvugizi and Umuseso are the best sel
ling newspapers in the country. They are the only independent newspapers in the country. All embassies subscribe, all investors subscribe. So let them say the true that they are tired of our criticizing, of our independent view and analysis,” Gasasira said.
Umuvugizi and Umuseso are known for their critical coverage of the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front party.
Both Paris-based Reporters Without Borders and New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists have condemned the suspensions.
UGANDA
Senate Passes Resolution Condemning Ugandan Anti-Gay Bill
By Dana Rudolph / www.keennewsservice.com/ April 15, 2010
The U.S. Senate yesterday unanimously passed a resolution calling on the Ugandan Parliament to reject a proposed bill that would impose harsh penalties—including life imprisonment and the death penalty—against gay people.
The resolution, sponsored by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.), “encourages” the U.S. Secretary of State to “closely monitor human rights abuses that occur because of sexual orientation and to encourage the repeal or reform of laws.”
Iran, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan are among the countries where the penalty for homosexuality includes death. The Senate bill calls on governments of all countries to reject similar laws.
The resolution states that the U.S. has been a champion of universal human rights in order to “promote the core American principles of equality and ‘Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.’” It notes that religious leaders in the U.S., including representatives from the Vatican and Anglican Church, have said that laws criminalizing homosexuality are unjust. Finally, it observes that such laws undermine U.S. efforts to fighting HIV/AIDS through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
A similar House bill, introduced by Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) awaits a hearing in the Committee on Foreign Affairs. It provides a more detailed justification of why action against the Ugandan bill is necessary and calls on both the President and the Secretary of State to express this to the Ugandan government.
“I’m very pleased by the Senate passage and am working closely with Chairman Berman to see a similar vote in the House,” said Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), co-chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus.
The U.S. is not alone in its efforts. At the end of March, Canadian members of parliament passed a motion praising their government for its stance against the Ugandan bill and encouraging continued diplomatic efforts to have it withdrawn. Last week, 118 British MPs submitted a motion urging the Ugandan government to abandon its bill, decriminalize homosexuality, and ban discrimination against gay people.
Last week, the AFP reported that a Ugandan parliamentary panel said the bill was “useless” and not a priority.
Survey: Sub-Saharan Africa one of the world’s most religious places
By Julia Duin/www.washingtontimes.com/Thursday, April 15, 2010
A continent that was more known for tribal shamans than for steeples and minarets has, in just 110 years, become one of the world’s most religiously devout regions, according to the Pew Forum.
A new massive survey, “Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa,” released Thursday, charts how a region that gave birth to the term “global South” is now in the driver’s seat in terms of world religious practice.
Twenty percent of the world’s Christians now live south of the Sahara Desert and 15 percent of the world’s Muslims live there. It’s one of the world’s most religious places, with at least 85 percent of the population in most countries saying religion is very important to them.
The picture was quite different in 1900, when animist religions comprised the bulk of the population while Muslims and Christians combined made up less than one-quarter.
Animists and traditional African religions have plummeted since then to about 13 percent of the population while conversion rates of Muslims and Christians have soared. Muslim adherents have gone from 11 million in 1900 to 234 million in 2010; Christians have gone from 7 million to 470 million.
Northern Africa is heavily Muslim and southern Africa is mostly Christian but where the two religions meet in a 4,000-mile belt from Somalia to Senegal has often turned violent, especially in Nigeria and Rwanda.
At least 45 percent of the Christians surveyed in Ghana, Zambia, Mozambique, Cameroon, Kenya, Uganda and Chad — which topped the list at 70 percent — consider Muslims to be violent.
Far smaller percentages of Muslims see Christians as violent — Djibouti had the largest percentage at 40 percent, followed by Kenya and Uganda in the low 30s.
From December 2008 to April 2009, the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life conducted 25,000 interviews in more than 60 languages or dialects in 19 countries to ascertain the state of belief and practice among 820 million people in one of the world’s most religiously volatile regions.
They found a group of people with heavily pentecostal and messianic beliefs, in both religions. More than half of the Christians surveyed believe Jesus Christ will return to rule the Earth in their lifetimes. More than half of the Christians surveyed believe in the “prosperity gospel,” that God will give health and wealth to people if they have enough faith.
Similar attitudes were common among Africa’s Muslims: About one-third said they expect the restoration of the caliphate — worldwide Islamic rule — in their lifetimes.
More than half of the Muslims surveyed said society as a whole — not individual women — should decide on whether to wear the veil.
Although Muslims often get blamed for allowing female “circumcision,” which is the mutilating of female genitals, the practice is more common among Christians than Muslims in Uganda and Nigeria. However, the highest rates of female circumcision are in the majority Muslim countries of Mali and Djibouti.
And sizable minorities cling to aspects of African religion. More than half the people surveyed in Mali, Tanzania, Senegal and South Africa believed that sacrifices to spirits will protect them from harm. One-quarter of the Muslims and Christians surveyed in several countries said they believed in the power of charms or amulets to protect them.
With most of the populations adhering to one or the other religion, chances are, surveyors said, that neither religion will keep up its current growth rates as the pool of potential converts has shrunk. Neither religion seems to be converting members of the opposing religion in great numbers, they said, with the exception of Uganda where 32 percent of the respondents who were raised Muslim now say they are Christian.
TANZANIA:
Turkish Airlines to launch service to Dar es Salaam Tanzania in June 2010
www.eturbonews.com/By eTN Staff Writer /Apr 15, 2010
The Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) announced that Turkish Airlines will launch scheduled service from Istanbul to Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital of Tanzania on the Indian Ocean Coast. The Turkish Airlines flights to Dar es Salaam are expected to begin June 2010 in time for the peak tourism season in Tanzania.
According to Mr. Amant Macha, TTB’s acting managing director: “Tanzania applauds this move by Turkish Airlines and it is a good indicator of the passenger demand for tourism and trade between our two countries. We expect that this new service will boost the number of Turkish visitors by about 25,000. We also anticipate that this will be yet another gateway for the American market, who would be interested in combining these two very popular, but different destinations.”
Ihsan Baytan, director, Turkish Airlines in New York, said that flights from New York’s JFK to Dar es Salaam will have good connections through Istanbul. He also added that Turkish Airlines in North America looks forward to working together with the Tanzania Tourist Board to promote packages to Tanzania with optional layovers in Istanbul.
About Tanzania
Tanzania, the largest country in East Africa, is focused on wildlife conservation and sustainable tourism, with approximately 28 percent of the land protected by the government. It boasts 15 national parks and 32 game reserves. It is the home of the tallest mountain in Africa, the legendary Mt. Kilimanjaro; the Serengeti, named in October, 2006, the New 7th Wonder of the World by USA Today and Good Morning America; the world-acclaimed Ngorongoro Crater, often called the 8th Wonder of the World; Olduvai Gorge, the cradle of mankind; the Selous, the world’s largest game reserve; Ruaha, now the second largest national park in Africa; the spice islands of Zanzibar; and seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Most important for visitors, the Tanzanian people are warm and friendly, speak English, which together with Kiswahili, are the two official languages; and the country is an oasis of peace and stability with a democratically-elected and stable government.
CONGO RDC :
Congo, Nigeria, South Africa: Africa Bond, Currency Preview
April 15, 2010/By Renee Bonorchis/Bloomberg
April 15 (Bloomberg) — The following events and economic reports may influence trading in sub-Saharan African bonds and currencies today.
Democratic Republic of Congo: The central African nation is scheduled to announce the results of its weekly auction of Treasury bills.
Congo’s franc was unchanged against the dollar to 896.2507 as of 6:29 a.m. in the capital, Kinshasa.
Mauritania: The West African country’s central bank plans to announce the results of its Treasury-bill auction.
The ouguiya traded at 265.995 per dollar as of 5:30 a.m. in the capital, Nouakchott, little changed from yesterday’s close of 266.
Nigeria: The central bank holds a special Monetary Policy Committee meeting, the bank said in a statement on its Web site on April 7. The meeting has been called to take decisions on issues discussed at the previous scheduled MPC meeting last month, the statement said. Nigerian monthly consumer inflation data may be released.
The naira was unchanged at 150.3 to the dollar by 6:31 a.m. in the capital, Abuja.
South Africa: Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan presents a speech to parliament on her department’s budget allocation.
The rand weakened 0.5 percent to 7.3395 per dollar by 7:31 a.m. in Johannesburg.
The yield on the benchmark government bond due September 2015 rose 1 basis points to 7.92 percent.
Uganda: The East African country’s central bank may announce the results of its weekly Treasury-bill auction.
The Ugandan shilling rose 0.1 percent to 2,070 per dollar by 8:33 a.m. in the capital, Kampala.
Tanzania: The East African nation releases consumer inflation data for March.
The shilling climbed 0.3 percent to 1,360 to the dollar as of 8:34 a.m. in the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.
–Editors: Stephen Kirkland, Vernon Wessels.
KENYA :
ANGOLA :
American Idol: Brooke White and Justin Gaston want to “Dream”
www.providingnews.com/Thursday, April 15, 2010
Before Ryan breaks another singer’s heart, next Wednesday on American Idol when he gives the latest Idol Gives Back plug. But before that, he also introduces a film clip of Kara DioGuardi and Elliott Yamin’s trip to Angola, where a malaria-proof school dormitory is built from the Idol Gives Back funds and buying hundreds of thousands of mosquito nets.
Ryan then runs down next week’s entertainment lineup: Black Eyed Peas, Jeff Beck and Joss Stone, Mary J. Blige, Annie Lennox, Carrie Underwood and Sir Elton John.
Tonight, though, we get Brooke White and If I Can Dream star Justin Gaston singing, nothing other than, If I Can Dream – a highlight from 1968 Christmas special for NBC with Elvis Presley, also referred to as his “Comeback Special”. Brooke White got on the blockbuster TV show and Justin Gaston a web series after their duet shows.
‘American Idol’: What was Elliott Yamin singing?
By Christine Law/blog.zap2it.com/April 15, 2010
It’s the week before “Idol Gives Back,” and to get us prepped for the charity event that’s already drawn big-name star power, we saw a promo clip of Elliott Yamin and Kara DioGuardi’s recent trip to Angola.
Yamin sings one of his songs with the children towards the end — and they all seem to know it by heart (hmmm). Do you know the name of that song?
Tick tock. tick tock. Ok time’s up — it’s “Can’t Keep on Loving You (From a Distance)” from Yamin’s “Fight for Love” album.
SOUTH AFRICA:
BHP, Kumba and Steinhoff: South African Equity Market Preview
April 15, 2010/By Janice Kew and Nasreen Seria/Bloomberg
April 15 (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 rose to the highest since July 1, 2008, gaining 557.87, or 1.9 percent, to 29,499.70, snapping two days of declines.
BHP Billiton (BIL SJ): China, the world’s largest consumer of iron ore, said it is investigating the possibility that BHP, Vale SA and Rio Tinto Group may be monopolizing supplies of the steelmaking ingredients. BHP, the world’s largest mining company, rose 8.57 rand, or 3.4 percent, to 258.99 rand.
Bonatla Property Holdings Ltd. (BNT SJ): The property investor said its annual loss per share narrowed to 70 cents, from 3.55 rand a year earlier. The stock was unchanged at 10 cents.
Kumba Iron Ore Ltd. (KIO SJ): Chinese imports of iron ore could increase 47 percent this year compared with last year as steel production rises and domestic output falls, Kumba said in a presentation to analysts. Kumba, Africa’s biggest producer of the steelmaking ingredient, rose 10.90 rand, or 3 percent, to 375.90 rand.
Steinhoff International Holdings Ltd. (SHF SJ): Moody’s Investors Service said it assigned a Ba1 corporate family rating with a positive outlook to Africa’s largest furniture manufacturer, citing Steinhoff’s “significant scale” and geographic diversity. The stock added 20 cents, or 1 percent, to 20.80 rand.
Shares or American depositary receipts of the following South African companies closed as follows:
Anglo American Plc (AAUKY US) rose 2.6 percent to $23.18. AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (AU US) increased 0.6 percent to $40.21. BHP Billiton Plc (BBL US) advanced 2 percent to $70.95. DRDGold Ltd. (DROOY US) rose 2.6 percent to $5.17. Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI US) increased 1.9 percent to $13.11. Harmony Gold Mining Co. (HMY US) added 0.6 percent to $9.76. Impala Platinum Holdings (IMPUY US) climbed 3.8 percent to $29.75. Sappi Ltd. (SPP US) increased 2.8 percent to $4.44. Sasol Ltd. (SSL US) rose 1.5 percent to $42.21.
–Editors: Vernon Wessels, Karl Maier.
US, South Africa sign strategic dialogue deal
(AFP)/15042010
WASHINGTON — The United States and South Africa on Wednesday signed a deal to boost diplomatic exchanges, a new sign of the importance the US administration accords Pretoria’s role in the region.
The “strategic dialogue” set up by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her South African counterpart Maite Nkoana-Mashabane seeks to strengthen cooperation between the two nations on a wide range of issues.
Among the areas the two sides will work on are health, education, food security, public security, commerce, investments, energy and nuclear non-proliferation, the State Department said.
“South Africa’s leadership is critical to the prosperity and security of the South African people and to Africa and the world,” Clinton said in signing the agreement.
South Africa, a member of the Group of 20 and the most influential nation in its region, is considered by Washington one of three key players in Africa, along with oil producers Nigeria and Angola.
The United States has already signed a similar agreement with Nigeria and is expected to seal a deal with Angola as well.
The first annual bilateral forum between the United States and South Africa will be held in Pretoria on 12-13 May, US diplomatic sources said.
Zimbabwe Issues Six-Month Travel Document to Relieve South Africa Border Woes
Home Affairs Co-Minister Giles Mutsekwa said the new documents were required to harmonize with after South Africa modified its policy to allow a stay of up to 90 days in the country
Sandra Nyaira | Washington / www1.voanews.com/15 April 2010
The Zimbabwean government on Wednesday started to issue longer-dated temporary travel documents good for six months, replacing the previous 21-day documents in a move to harmonize such documents with a change in South African law allowing longer visits.
The new document, said to meet international standards, is machine-readable like a passport and has advanced security features including invisible markings that only special customs machines can detect.
Home Affairs Co-Minister Giles Mutsekwa said the new documents were needed after South Africa modified its policy to allow a stay of up to 90 days in the country, rendering the three-week documents obsolete.
Zimbabwean officials had been stamping and signing the old documents to extend their life, but the South African customs service rejected many such documents at the turn of the year, stranding travelers.
Minister Mutsekwa says the new documents should make life easier for Zimbabweans on the move.
Elsewhere, 10 people died as the result of a crash late Tuesday on the highway from the Zimbabwe-Zambia border crossing at Chirundu to Harare when a bus on its way to South Africa collided with a truck on its way to Zambia with a cargo of fertilizer. Police said the bus driver was trying to pass another vehicle.
Police Inspector Tigere Chigome told VOA Studio 7 reporter Sandra Nyaira that accidents on Zimbabwe’s highways are becoming more frequent because drivers disregard warnings to drive safely on the deteriorating roadways. He said safe-driving campaigns appear to be falling on deaf ears as motorists speed up after passing police check-points, resulting in accidents.
AFRICA / AU :
S.Africa’s rand weaker vs dollar, stock futures down
Thu Apr 15, 2010 /Reuters
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand softened against the dollar on Thursday as recent gains encouraged importer buying of greenbacks and it was seen watching the euro for direction.
Stock futures looked set to open flat, with the blue chip Top-40 June futures contract down 0.04 percent ahead of the 0700 GMT start of trade. Local stocks gained on Wednesday.
The rand was trading at 7.3250 against the dollar at 0640 GMT, 0.33 percent weaker than New York’s close of 7.3010 on Wednesday. The rand had moved further away from a 20-month high of 7.1950 it hit last week.
“I think through the 7.34 and 7.35 area we would go a bit higher towards 7.40. On the downside 7.27 (is key),” said Jim Bryson, chief dealer at Rand Merchant Bank.
“The rand is very much range bound and looking for direction … but the euro/rand is of interest,” he added.
The rand was last trading at 9.97 to the euro and Bryson said the key level to watch would be 10.05.
South African government bonds weakened, reversing the previous session’s gains, after retail sales data kept some hopes of another interest rate cut alive.
The yield on the 2015 bond went up 1 basis point to 7.92 percent and that on the 2036 note rose 1.5 basis points to 8.85 percent.
UN /ONU :
USA :
US study sheds light on Africa’s unique religious mix
April 15 /(AFP)
WASHINGTON,
In the space of a century, Africa has morphed from a continent dominated by traditional beliefs to one where the majority of people are Christian or Muslim, a US study showed Thursday.
The vast majority of people in sub-Saharan Africa are deeply committed to the world’s two largest religions, according to the study by the Pew Research Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Pew researchers surveyed 25,000 people in 19 sub-Saharan African countries between December 2008 and April 2009 to reach their conclusions.
Traditional African beliefs however have not been lost — instead, they have been incorporated into Africans’ Christian or Muslim belief sets, according to the study.
“It doesn’t seem to be an either-or for many people. They can describe themselves primarily as Muslim or Christian and continue to practice many of the traditions that are characteristic of African traditional religion,” Luis Lugo, executive director of the Pew Forum, told AFP.
“Africans still practice sacrifices, believe in the protective powers of charms and amulets — called juju in west Africa.
“Significant percentages strongly believe in the evil eye, that there are certain people who can cast curses on others. Africans believe in sacred objects, they consult traditional religious healers — upwards of a third of the people we interviewed did,” Lugo said.
And yet in around half the countries involved in the study, everyone interviewed said they were Christian or Muslim. In most of the other countries, the vast majority — nine out of 10 interviewees — said the same.
In contrast, 100 years ago, fewer than 25 percent of the population said they were Christian or Muslim.
“This is quite a religious transformation in a very short period of time,” Lugo said.
The number of Muslims living between the Sahara desert and South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope has increased more than 20-fold since 1900, from around 11 million to some 234 million this year, but the number of Christians in Africa has grown even faster.
Around seven million Africans said they were Christian in 1900 compared with 470 million today.
Nigeria has the largest number of Christians and the largest number of Muslims of any place in sub-Saharan Africa, the study found.
The west African nation is the continent’s most populous and is divided almost evenly between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south.
The French-speaking countries of Mali, Senegal and Djibouti were predominantly Muslim; Chad and Cameroon were more of an even mix in terms of adherents of Christianity and Islam, while countries in southern Africa were predominantly Christian.
The central African states of Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda were also predominantly Christian, something Lugo put down to the influence of the two countries’ erstwhile colonial power, Belgium.
Sub-Saharan African has become home to one in five of all the world’s Christians, and more than 15 percent of the world’s Muslims, making the continent unique in having a roughly equal number of Christians and Muslims, the study found.
Gartner: Worldwide PC Shipments Rebound Strongly In 1Q
online.wsj.com/APRIL 15, 2010
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Worldwide personal computer shipments jumped a stronger-than-expected 27%, as Gartner Inc. (GT) noted robust recovery in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The EMEA region grew 25% for the quarter, and all other regions posted double-digit growth, according to Gartner’s preliminary results, although analyst Mikako Kitagawa said the improvement in the U.S. and Latin America was slightly lower than expected.
Kitagawa said the results indicate that the professional PC market is gradually picking up, driven by PC replacements in mature markets. Demand in the second half of the year and in early 2011 will be driven by Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT) Windows 7 operating system, she added.
The researcher said Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) continued to be the market leader, with 20% growth in shipments, although its market share slid to 18.2% from 19.3% a year earlier. Gartner said H-P faces continued pressure from its Asian rivals which are gaining market share, although it could benefit as the professional market rebounds.
Acer Inc. (ACEIY, 2353.TW), meanwhile, reported a jump in market share as its shipments grew 54%. Dell Inc. (DELL), like H-P, saw its market share fall, to 12.1% from 12.7%, as shipments grew 21%, according to Gartner.
Gartner estimated shipments totaled 84.3 million units worldwide, with 17.4 million of that total from the U.S. The U.S. market, which posted a 20% jump in the first quarter, has registered two consecutive quarters of double-digit shipment growth.
Apple Inc. (AAPL), which launched its iPad media tablet earlier this month, posted a 34% increase in U.S. shipments. The company was fifth overall in the U.S., with H-P maintaining its top position.
-By John Kell, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2480; john.kell@dowjones.com
CANADA :
Canada. Energy companies unveil bought deals
The Ottawa Citizen; News Services/April 15, 2010
Two Calgary-based energy companies announced financings Wednesday, more evidence of a growing investor appetite for the sector. Trican Well Service Ltd., which provides equipment and services to the oil industry in Canada, Russia, the U.S., and North Africa, said Wednesday it raised at least $150 million in a bought-deal financing. And Zapata Energy Corp., a Calgary-based oil company, said it plans to raise at least $50 million.
Canada Endorses Obama Nuclear Security Goals
More must be done to support total nuclear disarmament, says Roche
By Cindy Chan/Epoch Times Staff/Apr 15, 2010
While Canada made two commitments at this week’s nuclear summit and joined other countries in endorsing U.S. President Barack Obama’s call to secure nuclear materials against terrorism, a prominent Canadian advocate for nuclear disarmament says Canada needs to do more.
“We need to begin to try to implement President Obama’s vision for a nuclear-weapons-free world. We need to get onboard what Obama is trying to do,” said Douglas Roche.
“He needs support, strong support from countries like Canada, and I think Canada’s support for the Obama agenda so far is too weak,” added Mr. Roche, who has served as an MP for Edmonton, United Nations Ambassador for Disarmament representing Canada, and a senator from 1998 to 2004.
The nuclear security summit on Monday and Tuesday convened by Mr. Obama in Washington, D.C., brought agreement from 47 world leaders on actions over the next four years toward stemming the threat of terrorists obtaining fissile material—plutonium or HEU—to build nuclear weapons or devices.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that Canada will return spent inventories of highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Ontario’s Chalk River Laboratories to the U.S., where it will be made unusable for nuclear weapons.
Canada will also help fund the return of all HEU from Mexico to the U.S. and convert Mexico’s single reactor to use non-weapons-grade low-enriched uranium fuel in a joint project with Mexico, the U.S., and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
This project further strengthens the G8 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction, launched in Canada in 2002.
Canada was among 25 countries at the summit that announced specific actions. In the closing summit communiqué, nations pledged to secure all nuclear materials and facilities they possess by 2014.
They committed to preventing non-state actors from obtaining information or technology required to build nuclear weapons.
They also stressed the need for laws, regulations and new technology to strengthen nuclear security and voiced support for better international cooperation to deal with illicit nuclear trafficking.
Summit only the beginning
The summit has “only begun to scratch the surface of the problem,” Mr. Roche said.
As a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), he said Canada should work with “likeminded countries” like Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, and Sweden that have formed a coalition calling for greater progress on nuclear disarmament as set out in the NPT.
But Canada has been reluctant to join, he noted, because it is a member of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) which subscribes to the doctrine that nuclear weapons are essential.
“The position that Canada holds in supporting, on the one hand, the NPT which has called for an unequivocal undertaking, total elimination of nuclear weapons, and on the other hand, supporting NATO, which is nuclear weapons essential—it’s an incoherent position,” said Mr. Roche.
At the same time, the NPT has its own challenges.
Mr. Roche said India, Pakistan, and Israel, which have nuclear weapons, aren’t members because they say the NPT is discriminatory in allowing major states to retain their nuclear weapons while proscribing acquisition by the other states. North Korea, another nuclear weapon state, dropped out of the NPT in 2003.
India, Pakistan, and Israel were invited to the summit, while North Korea, along with NPT members Iran and Syria, were not invited. The international community views Iran and North Korea as violators of the NPT, and, according to the Associated Press, the U.S. believes Syria also has nuclear ambitions.
The U.S. and Russia signed an arms reduction treaty on April 8 in Prague, but Mr. Roche said “it still leaves them each with 1,500 strategic weapons deployed plus countless reserve weapons and tactical nuclear weapon, so there will still be roughly 22,000 nuclear weapons left in the world, 95 percent of them owned by the U.S. and Russia.”
“The NPT, while it’s very, very important, is subject to erosion right now,” he said, attributing it to “the major powers not fulfilling their Article VI obligations [on disarmament].”
An NPT review conference is held every five years, and the next conference will take place in May in New York. Meanwhile, South Korea will host the next nuclear security summit in 2012.
Seeking a Nuclear Weapons Convention
Mr. Roche is calling for a Nuclear Weapons Convention that would prohibit the development and production of all nuclear weapons by all countries. Adherence would be verified and enforced by international law.
On behalf of over 500 Order of Canada recipients, last Friday Mr. Roche, Nobel laureate John Polanyi, and Pearson Peace Medal recipient Murray Thomson presented Mr. Harper with a cosigned statement in support of a Nuclear Weapons Convention.
Their petition joins a growing global movement working toward such an agreement.
“Someday there will be such a treaty or there will be nuclear war. It’s pretty easy to foresee one or the other would happen,” Mr. Roche said.
He noted a warning last November from former IAEA director-general Mohamed ElBaradei, who said more than 200 incidents of illicit trafficking were reported to the agency over the past year and that this figure might well be only “the tip of the iceberg.”
Mr. Roche added that former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan has said the world is “sleepwalking” toward a nuclear disaster.
“Sufficient political will” already led to two global treaties banning chemical and biological weapons, Mr. Roche said.
“Countries seemed to understand the damage that [those weapons] were doing, and they’ve forgotten that nuclear weapons would have a global catastrophic effect.”
Racism: Alive & Well in South Africa
April 15, 2010/ ricksanchez.blogs.cnn.com
It started as an interesting ‘viral’ video that went around the newsroom: an interview guest on a South African TV program furiously stands up, yanks off his microphone, storms off the set, only to return with more choice words for the interviewer. It’s riveting and very tense to watch this man being physically restrained, as all decorum leaves the room. All of this is caught on live television.
But I wanted to know more. Who was this man? What infuriated him? There’s a backstory here that illustrates just how much of South Africa’s racist and segregationist past remains.
In short: a lot.
AUSTRALIA :
Deaths during childbirth may have dropped sharply worldwide — or maybe not
latimesblogs.latimes.com/April 15, 2010
Deaths of women during childbirth dropped by a startling 35% from 1980 to 2008, from more than half a million yearly to 343,000, according to a new analysis reported online this week in the journal Lancet.
Or maybe not, depending on whom you listen to. The report, coming on the eve of a major New York City conference on maternal health, has provoked widesrpead criticism and confusion, as well as conflicting media reports.
The new report, by researchers from the University of Washington and the University of Queensland in Australia, is startling because most previous studies, including a United Nations report released only two years ago, have indicated that the rate has remained fairly steady at about half a million, with only modest improvements in some areas. But the new report by Dr. Christopher Murray of Washington and his colleagues suggests that the rate has been dropping by an average of about 1.4% per year since 1980. If they are correct, that is very good news because it means that countries are making a concerted effort to reduce maternal deaths.
But an analysis released about the same time by a group called Countdown to 2015 — so-named because two of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals for 2015 include significant reductions in both maternal and child deaths before that year — says its own analysis shows that 350,000 to 500,000 women still die in childbirth each year, with the number probably at the higher end of the range.
Overlaying the dispute on numbers is a political disagreement, fueled by that most contentious of topics: money. Countdown to 2015 and other groups say that an additional $16 billion in donor funds over the $4 billion currently received will be required by 2015 to help meet the development goals. But good news about a reduction in mortality might put a crimp in their plans. Typically, when success is being achieved in any public health area, there is less urgency to donate new funds to continue the effort. Thus, the editor of the Lancet, Dr. Richard Horton, noted in an editorial that he had been pressured by some — as yet unnamed — maternal health advocates to delay publication of Murray’s report until September, after the end of the current fundraising season.
Murray and his colleagues say they are confident in their figures because they have compiled a lot more data than has been possible before, from vital registration data, censuses, surveys and autopsy studies. Using this data, they have generated a maternal mortality ratio (MMR) for each country, as well as for the world as a whole. An MMR is the number of women who die during childbirth for every 100,000 live births. Globally, the MMR fell from 422 in 1980 to 251 in 2008, they reported. The highest MMR was 1,575 in Afghanistan, while the lowest was four in Italy. The U.S. ranked 39th worldwide, with an MMR of 17.
More than 80% of all maternal deaths were concentrated in 21 countries in 2008, while 50% were in only six countries: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Despite Murray’s observed reduction in maternal mortality, the team concluded that only 23 countries were on track to achieve their target of lowering MMR by 75% between 1990 and 2015. Among those doing the best are Egypt, China, Ecuador and Bolivia.
Among developed countries, the U.S., Canada and Denmark have been trending in the opposite direction, according to the study. The MMR in the United States has increased from 12 in 1990 to 17 in 2008, a 42% increase. Part of the increase may be due to changes in the way such deaths are reported, the authors concluded, but that does not explain why deaths here are occurring at double the rate of in Britain, triple the rate in Australia and four times the rate in Italy.
The analysis found that nearly one in five deaths in 2008, a total of 61,400, were associated with HIV infections. The high incidence of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa is a major reason why many countries there are having difficulty lowering their MMR.
Some possible solutions to the problem of maternal deaths are simple “if the will and the funds are present,” said Dr. Flavia Bustreo, director of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, a group of more than 300 organizations that plays a major role in Countdown to 2015. For example, if women were to go to clinics with trained staff or midwives and proper equipment, an estimated 50% of mothers and newborns could be saved, she said. If mothers received adequate prenatal care, up to two-thirds of them could be rescued.
Reducing stigma linked to childbirth and deaths is also important. In many parts of Southeast Asia, for example, childbirth is considered dirty and women are forced to deliver in cowsheds, where they must remain for a month. Cords are often cut with dirty tools, leading to infections. Babies with pneumonia do not get antibiotics. And families know that many mothers and babies will die, so they simply accept it and do not report it.
“Millions of babies die without people realizing it can be different,” said Dr. Joy Lawn of Saving Newborn Lives/Save the Children. “This is not high tech. Up to 3 million newborns can be saved each year with simple approaches” like using clean tools, providing antibiotics to treat pneumonia and kangaroo care, where the mother acts as an incubator for her preterm infant.
For some other coverage of the subject, see the New York Times here, the Washington Post here and a Columbia Review of Journalism analysis of the story here.
— Thomas H. Maugh II
EUROPE :
CHINA :
Time to get rid of the term third world: Zoellick
Thursday, April 15, 2010/OneIndia News
Washington, Apr 15: World Bank President, Robert Zoellick said on Wednesday, Apr 14, that it is time to stop using the term ‘Third World’ to refer to developing countries and acknowledge that they are an essential part of a new, fast evolving, multi-polar international economy.
Referring to the global economic crisis in 2009, Zoellick said that the emergence of nations like China, India and Brazil as an increasing economic power clearly highlighted that the categorisation of First and Third Worlds, donor and supplicant, leader and led, is no longer applicable.
The World Bank head said that it is essential to involve developing countries in solving big international issues.
“We cannot afford geopolitics as usual,” he said.
During his talk at Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, Zoellick said that developed countries fail to consider the need of the developing countries in their one-size-fits-all approach.
“While we must take care of the environment, we cannot consign African children to homework by candlelight or deny African workers manufacturing jobs,” he said.
Leaders of top emerging economies meet in Brazil
(AFP)/15042010
BRASILIA — The leaders of China, India and South Africa have flown into Brazil for two days of talks among the world’s top emerging economies.
The main event is a BRIC summit on Friday that brings together the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chinese President Hu Jintao and South African President Jacob Zuma arrived one after the other in Brasilia late Wednesday, Brazilian officials confirmed.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was to arrive Thursday.
India, Brazil and South Africa will hold their own three-way summit on Thursday, while China’s Hu and Russia’s Medvedev hold a number of bilateral talks.
Hu’s presence in Brasilia comes as his country struggles with the aftermath of a quake that killed nearly 600 people in northwestern China.
Singh, Lula, Zuma and visiting Palestinian foreign minister Riad al-Malki will hold talks on Thursday, followed by a meeting between Singh and Lula, then a full gathering of Singh, Lula and Zuma.
Hu, meanwhile, was to hold bilateral meetings with Singh, Zuma and Medvedev on Thursday, according to the Chinese embassy.
After the BRIC summit on Friday, Hu was to hold a brief official visit to Brazil, with which China has trade ties worth 36 billion dollars.
On Saturday, the Chinese president was to fly on to Venezuela for a meeting with President Hugo Chavez, and on Sunday he visits Chile.
INDIA :
Nissan Says Its $3,000 India Car to Boost Profits (Update1)
April 15, 2010/By Makiko Kitamura and Yuki Hagiwara/Bloomberg
April 15 (Bloomberg) — Nissan Motor Co.’s planned $3,000 car for the Indian market will increase the company’s profitability as it takes advantage of its local partner’s low- cost production techniques, a company executive said.
In talks with Bajaj Auto Ltd., “we discovered that their margin on three-wheeler activities is by far above our current margin on our four-wheeler activities,” Gilles Normand, Nissan’s corporate vice president in charge of Africa, the Middle East and India, said in an interview yesterday in Yokohama, where Nissan is based. The low-cost car “will contribute to our growth in terms of volume and profitability.”
Nissan may post an operating margin of 4 percent for the year that ended March 31, according to a company forecast, compared with Bajaj’s 10.5 percent for the year that ended in March 2009. The Pune, India-based company didn’t make a forecast for the most recent fiscal year.
The Japanese carmaker plans to introduce a low-cost vehicle in 2012 to compete against Tata Motors Ltd.’s $2,500 Nano, the world’s cheapest passenger car, and take advantage of Indian expertise in low-cost production. About 50 percent of the Indian four-wheel auto market consists of models priced below $8,000, Normand said.
Three-Wheelers
Nissan fell 0.4 percent to close at 813 yen in Tokyo trading today.
Bajaj is India’s largest maker of three-wheeled auto rickshaws used as taxis and goods carriers.
“Just because the three-wheeler is cheap with high margins, doesn’t necessarily mean Nissan’s car will be, too.” said Koji Endo, managing director of Tokyo-based Advanced Research Japan. “The question is to what extent Bajaj’s production techniques can be applied to four-wheelers.”
Development and plant depreciation costs are other factors to consider, Endo said.
The two automakers have yet to begin developing the model and haven’t decided how to share development and production costs, Normand said.
“As of today, we have not engaged actually in any cash- out,” he said. “We are still at the very early stage of the project.”
Nissan Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn said in November the car would be introduced in 2012, a year later than planned because of delays in fixing details of the product.
The company said in a May 2008 statement that Nissan, its largest shareholder Renault SA, and Bajaj would form a venture that would produce a low-cost car at a 400,000 capacity plant in Maharashtra, India. Sales were slated due to start in “early 2011.”
Highest Grade
Nissan also expects its Nano competitor will be profitable as most buyers of Tata’s model choose the highest grade, not the base model, Normand said.
Fifty percent of the initial 203,000 customer orders were for the top-end Nano LX, which costs 185,375 rupees ($4,183), compared with 20 percent for the most basic version, Tata said in May.
Nissan is cutting costs by buying parts locally. At its plant in Chennai, southern India, where it will start building the Micra compact next month, 65 percent of 2,600 components come from suppliers in India, Normand said.
The Micra is the first model Nissan is producing in India, and four more will follow by 2012. Nissan plans to export 110,000 units annually from India by fiscal 2011, making it the company’s fourth-biggest export base “within the next three years” after Japan, North America and Thailand, he said.
Including three import models, Nissan plans to sell 100,000 units a year in India by 2013, compared with 360 sold in the year ended in March.
–Editors: Ian Rowley, Terje Langeland
Obama holds key to ‘loose nukes’
Published On Thu Apr 15 2010/www.thestar.com
If Barack Obama and the other world leaders really want to make the world safe from nuclear terrorism, they should respect national borders. Right now the only guarantee a nation has that the U.S or some other power won’t invade is the possession of nuclear weapons. North Korea developed them to ensure the U.S. wouldn’t restart the Korean conflict.
Pakistan developed their bomb to guard against a threat from India. Saddam Hussein ironically didn’t posses nuclear weapons and so found himself on the wrong end of U.S. “diplomacy.”
Nuclear power for electricity is too easily transformed into the production of weapons grade fissionable material — as we’ve seen in India, South Africa and other nations. The current Iran crisis is over the question of their intentions for their nuclear power generation program.
Again, it is solely the threat of invasion that would make them even consider using their power plants for weapons research. A nation that is so paranoid that it can’t control weapons ownership among its citizens should recognize the lure of the ultimate deterrent.
Obama should recognize that the first step is to remove the need for a nuclear capability by calling on his fellow leaders to renounce the use of force in international disputes.
Gary Dale, West Hill
Zuma to talk ties with India and Brazil leaders
Apr 15, 2010 / By Sapa
President Jacob Zuma will travel to Brazil to attend a summit focused on strengthening relations between India, Brazil and South Africa, the presidency said.
“The summit will be an opportunity for President Zuma, President Lula da Silva, of Brazil, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, of India, to discuss the co-ordination of positions on areas of importance such as UN Security Council reform, climate change, and the pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals,” the presidency said.
Zuma will travel to Brazil from Washington DC, in the United States where he attended the nuclear security summit.
The summit, which will also be attended by seven South African cabinet ministers, will allow the three countries to share their experiences of dealing with socio-economic challenges.
South Africans attending the Brazil summit include International Relations and Co-operation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies, Minister of Science and Technology Naledi Pandor, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Tina Joemat-Pettersson, Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Sicelo Shiceka and Minister for Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities Noluthando Mayende Sibiya.
BRASIL:
EN BREF, CE 15 avril 2010 … AGNEWS / OMAR, BXL,15/04/2010
