{jcomments on}OMAR, BXL, AGNEWS, le 22 juin 2010 — Kenya’s Assistant Roads Minister Wilfred Machage has been suspended by President Mwai Kibaki a day after being charged with inciting hatred.
BURUNDI :
Burundi govt. recalls arms from illegal holders
Pana/22/06/2010
Bujumbura, Burundi – In an attempt to curb the rising crime wave in Burundi, President Pierre Nkurunziza on Sunday urged citizens illegally possessing weapons to surrender them to the authorities.
Speaking at a political rally here, Nkurunziza said “The government will do all it can if, by 25 June, those illegally holding weapons have not voluntarily surrendered them.”
The warning followed a week-long wave of grenade attacks in different parts of the country that killed two persons and left 30 others injured.
The Burundi National Police said that the latest grenade attack on Saturday night wounded about 20 persons in Kayanza, in the northern part of the country.
A week before, Bujumbura, the capital, was under siege with grenade attacks at public places.
The attacks began on 12 June, the official opening date of electioneering campaigns for the presidential polls in the country.
The opposition and the ruling parties have traded harsh words, accusing one anot her of being responsible for the election violence.
Opposition parties are boycotting ongoing campaigns and have demanded the cancellation of the 24 May communal elections which, they said, were “massively rigged “.
The ruling party won that election with more than 64% of votes cast.
They have also called on the government to “unconditionally” release many of their members who were jailed following the grenade attacks and demanded the immediate dissolution of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The Council of Catholic churches in Burundi, which is very influential in the country, on Sunday called on the government and all political parties “to ensure security of lives and property”.
Bujumbura
RWANDA
The house that genocide built: Why Rwanda is still worth worrying about
trueslant.com/Jun. 22 2010
Somalia. Sudan. Iraq. Afghanistan. Pakistan. Haiti. North Korea. Lebanon. Iran. All these countries top Rwanda in the latest Failed States Index. (In 2009, Rwanda was ranked No. 49.) All these countries have long eclipsed Rwanda for the world’s attention. The 1994 genocide that decimated Rwanda happened a generation ago, but the country is still a nation in turmoil – evident by two big news events of the past week: Rwanda’s arrest and release of a U.S. lawyer, who was accused of denying the country’s official facts on the mass killings; and Rwanda’s alleged involvement in the assassination attempt on a former Rwandan general, who was living in South Africa.
The general will reportedly survive his critical injuries. And the lawyer is free to return to the United States. Both cases, though, highlight Rwanda’s ongoing instability. The country has made giant strides since the murders of 800,000 men, women and children, but critics have voiced doubts about Rwanda’s progress, and about Rwandan president Paul Kagame, who was a central figure in stopping the 1994 genocide but is now accused of quashing dissent. I interviewed Kagame in 2005, at a university event in California that was protested by Africans holding signs like, “Paul Kagame is a criminal.” The demonstrators – Africans now living in the United States – called Kagame a hypocrite for overseeing Rwandan military control of a neighboring portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Like other countries involved in the Congo war, Rwanda stole millions of dollars in minerals. A United Nations report said Kagame and Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni had virtually turned into the “godfathers of the illegal exploitation of natural resources and the continuation of the conflict in the DRC.”
In Rwanda, Kagame has stifled opposition through “divisionism” laws that essentially require Rwandans to repeat the government’s accepted version of the 1994 genocide, which minimizes Tutsi atrocities. Kagame is Tutsi. Presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, who believes that all Rwandan war crimes should be investigated, has been put under house arrest in the lead-up to new elections in August. Human Rights Watch has criticized Kagame’s crackdown on opposition candidates, and its undermining of Human Rights Watch’s work in Rwanda.
“The Rwandan government often accuses its critics of ‘divisionism’ or ‘genocide ideology,’ vaguely defined offenses to punish the spreading of ideas that encourage ethnic animosity between the country’s Tutsi and Hutu populations and the expression of any ideas that could lead to genocide,” the organization wrote late last year. “Largely aimed at the Hutu population, such offenses permit, among other measures, the government to send away children of any age to rehabilitation centers for up to one year—including for the teasing of classmates—and for parents and teachers to face sentences of 15 to 25 years for the child’s conduct. The government has repeatedly accused the Voice of America, the British Broadcasting Corporation and other media outlets, as well as Human Rights Watch, of promoting genocide ideology; accusations these organizations deny.”
Kagame’s government denies these charges of intimidation, but its finger-pointing at the media is another sign of the back-sliding that Rwanda has taken. Just like in 1994, Rwanda is in the news for all the wrong reasons. And just like in 1994, the world should be paying close attention. Otherwise, Rwanda may move even higher in the Failed States Index, vaulting past countries that offer their own grim lessons in instability, dysfunction, and violent upheavals.
UGANDA
Bharti Airtel To Infuse $100 Mln. In Uganda: Report
6/22/2010 /RTTNews
(RTTNews) – Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile phone operator, plans to invest around $100 million in the East African state of Uganda in the next two years, say reports, quoting that country’s newspaper, “New Vision”.
Company Joint Managing Director Manoj Kohli reportedly said a part of the $100-million investment would be pumped into expanding its network, distribution, infrastructure and broadband.
Bharti recently completed the $9-billion takeover of assets of Zain Africa, the Kuwait-based Mobile Telecommunications, in 15 African countries.
Uganda: Kampala to Get Second Public Varsity
Micheal Sseppuya/East African Business Week (Kampala) /allafrica.com/22 June 2010
Kampala — Makerere University Business School (MUBS) has finally been granted independence from Makerere University, the State Minister for Higher Education Mwesigwa Rukutana has announced.
The minister said the Parliamentary Committee on Social Services has already recommended that MUBS becomes an independent university.
“I have assessed and verified that MUBS can become an independent university. I have made a directive to the National Council for Higher Education to start the process and I can guarantee sooner than later MUBS will be an independent university,” said Rukutana.
Rukutana was speaking at the International Leadership Conference organised by MUBS in Kampala last week.
He said the recommendation was stayed because they wanted to study the decision and look at the implications.
“We have now verified that it can run independently because it has everything including the infrastructure, good courses and lecturers,” he said.
Since 2008 when President Yoweri Museveni set up a visitation committee that recommended that MUBS be made an independent university, it has been locked in wrangles with Makerere University main campus over the legality of becoming independent.
“There was a misinterpretation of the law by the then leadership at the campus. I thank the new leadership because they have been able to resolve that,” he said. Since it was founded in 1997, MUBS has been operating as an affiliate of Makerere University main campus and therefore required to do everything under the main campus. “This will put to rest all the issues that have been there between the two institutions and I think it is the best thing that will have happened to higher education in the country,” said Prof Wasswa Balunywa, the principal MUBS.
The two institutions have often clashed on issues like registering and enrollment of students, and scrapping of some of the courses at MUBS.
“We believe scrapping of some courses was done in bad faith because these courses are market driven and needed in our economy,” said Balunywa. He said the independence of MUBS will bring more options for higher education and healthy competition.
TANZANIA:
CONGO RDC :
Harper to take up Quantum case at G20
John Ivison, Financial Post / www.nationalpost.com/ Jun. 22, 2010
Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister, is set to raise the issue of a Canadian copper mining company whose assets have been expropriated by the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo when the G8 and G20 nations convene in Canada this week.
An official in the Prime Minister’s Office said Mr. Harper will raise the case of Vancouver-based First Quantum Minerals Ltd. with representatives from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other governments that do business in the DRC.
“This type of behaviour and disregard for the rule of law should not go unnoticed,” the official said. “The government is very concerned about the action taken against First Quantum.”
Last September, First Quantum had a $765-million project in the DRC expropriated and its rights handed to another company whose principal is connected to DRC president Joseph Kabila.
As the National Post reported last week, the company is concerned the project will now be sold to a third party, with all profit flowing to insiders.
Two other First Quantum projects in the DRC are under threat and the company has lost more than $1-billion in market capitalization because of the uncertainty. Nearly 90% of First Quantum’s shareholders are Canadian.
First Quantum has asked the Canadian government to link the expropriation to concurrent debt-relief negotiations in the DRC.
Canadian officials protested an agreement with the Paris Club, an informal group of creditors that includes France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the United States, when it was first negotiated last November.
However, there was little political will to oppose the deal at the time, so Canada withdrew its opposition.
As a result, the DRC saw $1.3-billion in debt cancelled and another $1.6-billion re-scheduled — an amount that accounts for around half of the external debt owed to Paris Club members (a further $4-billion is owed to the IMF).
The debt relief was provided on the basis that the Kabila government demonstrated a commitment to poverty reduction, macro-economic stability, good governance and transparency.
Yet the expropriation of the First Quantum project suggests that investment security in the DRC is notable by its absence. News out of the DRC last week suggested the government had transferred oil rights held by British-based Tullow Oil to another company. “Tullow thinks it can only be false information or a misprint because no responsible government would put a contract on top of a contract,” an executive told Bloomberg.
Lawrence Cannon, the Foreign Minister, referred to Canada’s debt relief program when he unveiled the Muskoka Accountability report on this country’s development efforts Sunday, pointing out that programs are aimed at supporting nations that have “demonstrated a commitment to invest in the current needs of their citizens.” Yet, as proponents of the First Quantum case point out, the citizens of the DRC will forgo hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues that the company would have paid to the country’s government.
The Paris Club deal on the DRC’s debt has not yet been finalized but the PMO official said the government, which is owed $46.4-million by the country, will wait until that process is completed before taking further action. The DRC also received $54-million in foreign aid in 2008-09 but the official said this is delivered through non-governmental organizations, so there can be no linkage to the First Quantum dispute.
jivison@nationalpost.com
KENYA :
Mobile Phone Registration Begins in Kenya
indyposted.com/22062010
In a bid to curb crime, the Kenyan government has started to register mobile phones being used by its citizens, with unregistered numbers to be cut off by the end of July according to a report by the BBC.
Kenya has roughly 20 million mobile phone citizens, representing almost half of its population. Mobile phone users will have to supply identity papers and a proof of their address to keep or get a new mobile phone number.
This move has been welcomed by most of Kenyans, citing that crime gangs had been using unregistered mobile numbers to commit fraud, send ransom notes, hate messages and other illegal activities.
Kenya has a developed mobile-banking network, which is reason enough for mobile phones to be likened to computers as said by Police commissioner Mathew Iteer:
It has become a tool of banking, it can be used to steal data, [to] transmit unauthorised information and perpetrates huge frauds.
With this mobile registration scheme, the Kenyan government hopes to improve its crime-fighting and anti-terror abilities.
Kenya Suspends Hate Speech MP
accra-mail.com/Source: BBC /22062010
Kenya’s Assistant Roads Minister Wilfred Machage has been suspended by President Mwai Kibaki a day after being charged with inciting hatred.
Along with two other MPs, he was charged with hate speech during the campaign for a new constitution.
They allegedly said some ethnic groups would have to leave their land if the constitution was approved.
Six people died on Sunday in a stampede after grenades exploded at a campaign rally for the “No” campaign.
Some fear that the campaign ahead of a 4 August referendum could lead to a repeat of the violence which followed elections in December 2007.
Disputes over allegations of electoral fraud ignited ethnic tensions, leading to the deaths of some 1,300 people and forced 300,00 from their homes.
Higher Education Minister William Ruto, among another three MPs also accused of hate speech earlier this week but not charged, has appeared before the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC).
Mr Ruto is alleged to have asked Muslims to reject the proposed constitution if they do not want a war with Christians.
The NCIC was set up to ease ethnic tensions after the post-election violence in 2007 and 2008.
The commission has written to President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, asking for the suspension of all campaigning.
Power share
NCIC chairman Mzalendo Kibunjia said he wanted the politicians to be prosecuted quickly after the experience of 2008.
Much of the post-election violence in 2008 was over land disputes between rival ethnic groups and the proposed constitution would set up a land commission to manage public and community land, which is opposed by some.
The violence ended when election rivals Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga agreed to share power – and write a new constitution.
The coalition remains shaky but supporters of both men generally support the draft constitution.
The document provides for greater checks on presidential powers and more regional devolution.
It also recognises the UN human rights charter and creates a second parliamentary chamber – the senate.
ANGOLA :
SOUTH AFRICA:
College Station councilman dies in South Africa
06/22/2010/Associated Press
College Station City Council member Larry Stewart has died at age 67 after falling ill while on a South African safari.
A statement issued by the city says Stewart died Monday in a Pretoria, South Africa, hospital of complications of pneumonia.
The former Texas A&M University student and U.S. Naval Academy midshipman moved to College Station in 2003 after retiring from careers as a Navy aviator and a systems engineer for Raytheon Data Systems. In his first race for public office, he won a seat on the College Station City Council in 2008.
Stewart is survived by a daughter.
World Cup 2010: France players may boycott match against South Africa
Reuters /guardian.co.uk/ Tuesday 22 June 2010
• Coach Raymond Domenech attacks squad’s ‘imbecility’
• Row over expulsion of Nicolas Anelka reaches new levels
France’s coach, Raymond Domenech, has said that some of his team may not want to play against South Africa in their final Group A game today.
The admission is the latest development in the row over the expulsion of the striker Nicolas Anelka from the squad for obscene comments made at half-time during last Thursday’s 2-0 defeat by Mexico.
Domenech said he backed the French Football Federation’s decision to send Anelka home after the player insulted him and he attacked the “imbecility” of the squad for boycotting training on Sunday – behaviour which has horrified the French government and people, who have criticised the players as overpaid brats.
Domenech added that it “is a possibility” some of the players would not want to play against the hosts in Bloemfontein, where both teams face elimination unless they secure a high-scoring victory.
The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has reportedly asked his sports minister, Roselyne Bachelot, to visit Les Bleus’ camp in Knysna
AFRICA / AU :
Three UN-AU peacekeepers killed in Sudan’s Darfur
June 22, 2010 /english.peopledaily.com.cn/Source: Xinhua
Gunmen killed three Rwandan peacekeepers in the western Sudan region of Darfur on Monday, the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) said.
Ali Hamati, a spokesman for UNAMID, said in a statement sent to Xinhua that “about 20 militants opened fire without warning” at the UNAMID peacekeepers who were working at a base in the Jebel Marra region of West Darfur, resulting in the killing of three of them and seriously wounding of another who had been taken to hospital.
He added that the UNAMID mission responded to the fire and killed three of the attackers before they escaped.
The spokesman did not specify the identity of the victims, but local sources said they belong to a Rwandan unit which is responsible of the area.
Sundance Resources board killed in plane crash
By John Letzing /www.marketwatch.com/June 22, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — The entire board of directors of Australian miner Sundance Resources Ltd. /quotes/comstock/22x!e:sdl (AU:SDL 0.13, 0.00, 0.00%) was killed in a plane crash in the Republic of Congo on Saturday, the company said in a statement released Tuesday. Rescuers have found the wreckage of a plane that was carrying board members when it went missing on Saturday, but located no survivors. Authorities are waiting to study the plane’s black box for clues as to why it crashed. Sundance Resources said in a statement that its board members were on their way to visit the company’s Mbalam iron-ore project in Cameroon and Congo, and to meet with government representatives of both countries. Shares of Sundance have been suspended since Monday in Sydney, following news that the plane was missing
Mining industry mourns Queensland pioneer
COURTNEY TRENWITH /www.smh.com.au/June 22, 2010
The Sunshine State has lost one of its greatest business pioneers in Ken Talbot, according to the Queensland Resources Council.
The mining tycoon, who founded Macarthur Coal and rose to become one of Australia’s richest men, is assumed to be among 11 people killed in a plane crash in Africa at the weekend.
Rescuers located the wreckage last night but confirmed there were no survivors.
The plane, also carrying the entire board of Perth-based Sundance Resources mining company and a senior Talbot staff member, also based in Brisbane, went missing over thick jungle on Saturday on a flight from Cameroon to Yangadou.
QRC chief executive Michael Roche said the accident emphasised the risks of the mining industry.
“What we had on that plane were a whole bunch of people who had this drive and vision in relation to the resources sector in Australia, and globally,” Mr Roche told brisbanetimes.com.au.
“Ken Talbot was an entrepreneur in the very best sense of the term.”
While it was a dark day for mining in Queensland, Mr Roche said he hoped Talbot’s legacy would not be tainted by the unanswered corruption allegations he faced.
He was due to stand trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court in August on charges of corruption in relation to $360,000 paid to disgraced former state member Gordon Nuttall.
Nuttall is serving a seven-year jail sentence, but Talbot denied he did anything other than offer a generous gift.
Talbot Group chairman Don Nissen said his boss was confident of beating the corruption charge.
”His legal team were confident of defending the charges and as the trial became nearer their confidence increased,” Mr Nissen told a media conference this morning.
”Ken was always confident about everything. It almost beggars belief he didn’t end up with money – Ken always thought his ideas were the best in the world anyway and why wouldn’t anyone want to go with them.”
Mr Nissen said Talbot’s wife, Amanda, and children, Alexandra, Claudia, Courtney and Liam, were doing well.
Amanda is in Paris with the youngest daughters, while Courtney is in London and Liam is home in Brisbane.
”[Amanda] is doing remarkably well. She’s relatively calm, quiet, asking lots of questions and making some plans,” Mr Nissen said.
”[The children] thought he was pretty flash.
”They’re losing a father that used to spoil them a lot. I don’t know anything they’d ask for that he wasn’t prepared to give.
”Kenny was a bit of a soft touch, we all benefited from that, not only his kids.”
Mr Nissen said Talbot had been ”meticulous” about aviation safety and had bought two private jets to avoid an incident like that in Africa.
Mr Nissen broke down when asked whether it was the darkest day for him.
He described a close friend with whom he had ”a deep business relationship”.
”I’d be fibbing if I said it was only fun and golf and stupidity, but we certainly had a lot of that,” Mr Nissen said.
”He worked harder than any of us. He never seemed to get tired.
”He wanted to be up and at the gym by six because he wanted to be at the office by seven.
”And if anyone wanted to be silly enough to have a rum and coke with him at 11 o’clock, he’d be in for that too and back at work the next day.”
Talbot was famous for his philanthropy, donating millions of dollars each year to a variety of community groups, mainly in Brisbane.
“Ken was generous to a fault and that was displayed to family, friends and acquaintances,” Mr Roche said.
“It was that generosity that got him into hot water and he was certainly looking forward to clearing his name in the upcoming court case.
“I would hate to think Ken’s legacy is in an unresolved court case. It’s unquestionably in [his contribution to] the Queensland resource industry.”
Mr Roche said the council would somehow honour Talbot’s “major contribution” to the industry.
With the establishment of Macarthur Coal in 1995, Talbot opened up an entirely new coal export market in Queensland, providing the much sought after pulverised coal to steel makers.
“Ken really pioneered that market,” Mr Roche said.
Talbot also was instrumental in bringing Chinese investors to Australia.
“He created a lot of wealth for many people in Queensland. People backed Ken and his instincts because they knew he had special insights about the long-term trends in the resources sector,” Mr Roche said.
“He thought about it a lot. He had insights backed up by analysis.”
Talbot had refused to allow the corruption allegations to destroy him, Mr Roche insisted.
Although he resigned as head of Macarthur Coal to avoid market backlash, he retained an 18 per cent share in the company and moved on to build up the Talbot Group, his private investment company.
“When he left Macarthur Coal he didn’t sit back and count his millions, he got on with the next phase of his resource sector career and that involved getting a whole range of resource companies up and running [and] investing in projects here in Australia and overseas,” Mr Roche said.
The mining team killed in the crash had been “highly valued” in the global resource sector, he said and similar risky trips were taken regularly.
“We had people like [Talbot] pointedly around the globe, going into risky parts of the world day in and day out, as Australian resource sector people are highly valued throughout the world for their skills and expertise,” Mr Roche said.
“The Africans in Cameroon would have much understood the special skills that the people in Sundance and Ken Talbot brought to their country.”
Plans are being made to repatriate the bodies to Australia.
Sundance Resources acting chief executive officer George Jones said this morning family members would not fly to Africa.
Talbot’s family, who live at their Bulimba home on the Brisbane River, were believed to be holidaying in Europe at the time of the crash.
The passengers were on their way to inspect an iron ore mine. It is not yet known what caused the crash.
UN /ONU :
USA :
Absa, Adcock, Exxaro, Medi-Clinic: South Africa Stock Preview
June 22, 2010/By Garth Theunissen and Janice Kew/Bloomberg
June 22 (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 advanced 267.63, or 1 percent, to 28,029.33 at the close in Johannesburg.
Absa Group Ltd. (ASA SJ): South African inflation probably eased for a fifth month in May, giving the central bank more room to lower its benchmark interest rate to boost the economy. Consumer price growth slowed to 4.6 percent last month from 4.8 percent in April, according to the median estimate of 24 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
Absa, South Africa’s largest retail bank, rose 1.66 rand, or 1.3 percent, to 126.65 rand. FirstRand Ltd. (FSR SJ), the second-biggest banking group, climbed 3 cents, or 0.2 percent, to 18.98 rand.
Adcock Ingram Holdings Ltd. (AIP SJ): The southern hemisphere’s biggest generic-drugs manufacturer said it has started talks relating to a marketing and distribution arrangement that may benefit the company’s future. Adcock’s stock fell 43 cents, or 0.7 percent, to 58.80 rand.
Coal of Africa Ltd. (CZA SJ): The coal producer said it issued 50 million ordinary shares to so-called sophisticated and institutional investors who are clients of J.P. Morgan Securities Ltd., Macquarie First South Advisers (Pty) Ltd., Evolution Securities Ltd. and Mirabaud Securities LLP at an issue price of 110 pence per share. Coal of Africa advanced 18 cents, or 1.4 percent, to 12.83 rand.
Exxaro Resources Ltd. (EXX SJ): South Africa’s third- largest coal miner is studying a possible iron-ore venture that may allow it to produce the steelmaking ingredient in Australia and Africa, according to Ernst Venter, Exxaro’s executive manager of business growth. Exxaro’s stock increased 29 cents, or 0.2 percent, to 118.90 rand.
Gijima Ast Group Ltd. (GIJ SJ): The computer-services company issued 300 million rand in new debentures as part of a restructuring of debt under its debtors’ securitization program.
The debentures pay a weighted average interest rate of 10.04 percent, compared with 10.02 percent on existing securities. Half of the debentures mature in June 2015, with the remainder due in June 2012. The stock was unchanged at 82 cents.
Medi-Clinic Corp Ltd. (MDC SJ): South Africa’s second- largest publicly traded private hospital owner said it plans to raise 1.4 billion rand ($186.5 million) selling stock to existing investors. Medi-Clinic’s stock was unchanged at 27.30 rand.
Mvelaphanda Group Ltd. (MVG SJ): Mvelaphanda and Brimstone Investment Corp. (BRT SJ) plan to list their health interests in a separate entity on the JSE Ltd.’s Johannesburg Securities Exchange. Brimstone will dispose of its entire indirect shareholding in Life Healthcare Group Holdings Ltd. in exchange for a stake in a new listed entity to be known as Health, which will be listed on or about Aug. 16.
The only asset of the listing following a restructuring of Brimstone and Mvelaphanda’s assets will be a 26.6 percent direct holding in Life Healthcare. Mvelaphanda gained 10 cents, or 1.4 percent, to 7.42 rand. Brimstone rose 50 cents, or 4.4 percent, to 12 rand. Life Healthcare (LHC SJ) was unchanged at 13.75 rand.
Remgro Ltd. (REM SJ): The investment company controlled by the billionaire Rupert family said it plans to spin off its 28.49 percent stake in Trans Hex Group Ltd. (TSX SJ) and said earnings per share for the year through March declined to 6.16 rand from 95.70 rand a year earlier. Remgro’s stock declined 31 cents, or 0.3 percent, to 98.50 rand. Trans Hex, Africa’s biggest publicly traded producer of diamonds, was unchanged at 3.80 rand.
Sasol Ltd. (SOL SJ): Crude oil declined for the first time in three days as optimism faded that China’s plan to add more flexibility in the yuan’s fixed exchange rate would strengthen the global economic recovery. Sasol, the world’s biggest maker of motor fuel from coal, rose 10.30 rand, or 3.6 percent, to 296 rand.
Shares or American depositary receipts of the following South African companies closed as follows:
Anglo American Plc (AAUKY US) rose 1.6 percent to $19.82. AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (AU US) dropped 2.3 percent to $43.76. BHP Billiton Plc (BBL US) gained 2.6 percent to $58.92. DRDGold Ltd. (DROOY US) declined 2.9 percent to $4.65. Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI US) retreated 3.2 percent to $13.59. Harmony Gold Mining Co. (HMY US) decreased 1.7 percent to $10.14. Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. (IMPUY US) rallied 2.6 percent to $25.95. Sappi Ltd. (SPP US) slid 0.3 percent to $4.04. Sasol Ltd. (SSL US) advanced 2.2 percent to $38.78. Telkom South Africa Ltd. (TLKGY US) rose 1.9 percent to $20.10.
–Editors: Ana Monteiro, Emily Bowers.
CANADA :
Tories fall short on aid despite G8 maternal health plan, groups say
Jun 22 2010/www.thestar.com/Mike Blanchfield/The Canadian Press
OTTAWA—Canada says it earned an A for doubling aid to Africa, but development agencies quietly question whether it deserves an F for freezing future spending.
The grade depends on the math used to calculate Canadian generosity to the poorest parts of the world. Most aid groups say a close look at the numbers shows Canada doesn’t measure up.
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said on the weekend that Canada deserves an “A, quite honestly,” because it fulfilled a five-year-old G8 promise to double aid to Africa to more than $2 billion by this year.
Canada is freezing its overseas development budget next year at $5 billion, and has no plan to meet the UN-recommended target of boosting aid to 0.7 per cent of GDP. Canada’s ratio is about 0.33 per cent, a figure that will fall in the coming years as the aid budget stays constant against what is predicted to be an expanding economy.
Most aid groups are reluctant to point this out, especially those that pushed the Harper Conservatives to make child and maternal health its signature G8 issue. Canada is expected to contribute at least $1 billion to the initiative, and wants others to get on board.
The Conservatives are looking for a legacy issue out of the G8, and want to build momentum toward this fall’s United Nations summit that will assess the Millennium Development Goals, which include reducing child morality and maternal health by 2015.
“How the best to put this?” says Meg French, the director of international programs for UNICEF Canada. “This initiative of child and maternal health is extremely important …
“But I do think the Canadian government has an obligation to meet our international commitments to invest 0.7 per cent of our gross national income into overseas aid.”
It was Canada’s Lester Pearson who put forth the 0.7 per cent target in 1969 and it was adopted by the UN the following year. So far only five countries have met that target — Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
“No government has ever said actually that is not the right thing to do, so that commitment is still out there. There’s a huge amount of need. Even in the midst of an economic crisis we still have an international responsibility,” said French.
Canada is fourth in the G8 behind the U.K., France and Germany in aid spending. However, those countries have all put forth a plan to reach the 0.7 per cent target by 2015. Britain actually says it can get there by 2013.
Canada has not, and that includes the current ruling Conservatives as well as previous Liberal governments.
Rosemary McCarney, president of Plan Canada, was reluctant to criticize the federal government, given that Ottawa is spearheading maternal and child health at the G8 summit, and has lived up to its previous G8 promise to double aid to Africa.
But McCarney acknowledged that Canada has not made good on its commitment to raise aid to 0.7 per cent of GDP. “That promise was made years ago, and we are lagging in terms of what we’re putting towards international assistance,” she says.
Recent figures from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development show Canada ranked 15th out of 23 countries.
But CARE Canada President Kevin McCort says Canada will fall as far as 20th if it follows through on its aid freeze and the economy continues to recover.
“Maybe we’re being too cautious, too pessimistic. I know people are worried about a double dip or a second contagion spreading from Europe to North America but Canada’s economy seems to be doing OK.”
Polls show that Canadians actually think they spend more on foreign aid than they actually do, says David Morley, president of Save The Children Canada.
“Foreign aid, for a soft middle power like Canada, is an important way for us to take our place on the world stage, let alone the moral fact that it makes a difference in the lives of so many people,” he said.
Oxfam Canada says it won’t let the Harper government lose sight of the 0.7 per cent target as it prepares to host leaders of the world’s richest countries later this week.
“We’re never going to let go of that one. That’s what we pledged to do 40 years ago, and we’ve got to get the government to stick to it. It’s not a whole lot of money,” says Oxfam’s Mark Fried.
The government says it is freezing foreign aid to help bring down the $54 billion deficit. In order to meet the 0.7 target, Canada would have to double aid spending, but Fried and others say that’s not as onerous as its sounds.
“It would be the equivalent of about a sandwich and a cup of coffee per week per Canadian,” says Fried, or about $5 to $6 per week, per Canadian.
“It’s not a lot for the poorest people in the world.”
Canada can help to intensify war against killer diseases
www.thestar.com/ Tue Jun 22 2010
Dr. Michel Kazatchkine
Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
Rolling back AIDS,
Canada has before it the opportunity to determine whether the world can overcome AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. It is also poised to make a major difference for maternal and child health.
But time is running short, with only a few years to go until the 2015 target date for meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of eight development and health-related objectives adopted at the turn of the millennium by all UN nations. Recent history shows what can be achieved if the political will is there.
A decade ago, the world was floundering in its response to AIDS, TB and malaria in developing countries. Effective HIV treatment had been available in high-income countries since 1996, but was out of reach for nearly everyone else in need. The spread of malaria seemed unstoppable, and TB prevalence remained unacceptably high. After then UN secretary-general Kofi Annan issued a “call to action,” the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was created in 2002 to vastly accelerate the response to the three pandemics.
In the past eight years, the global fund has proven itself a cost-effective mechanism for massively strengthening the world’s response to aids, TB and malaria. every dollar given to the global fund goes straight to programs in more than 140 countries — the fund has no country offices and its operating expenses are almost entirely covered by interest earned on the contributions it receives.
By the end of 2010, global fund programs will provide life-saving antiretroviral medicines to 3 million people living with HIV. The global fund is also the main multilateral funder of measures to prevent the three diseases. For example, in 2009 alone, global fund grants made it possible for 340,000 women to receive medicines to prevent transmission of HIV to their children during pregnancy. Since 2004, global fund grants have distributed more than 100 million insecticide-treated nets to prevent malaria and have massively increased TB prevention efforts.
As a result of our efforts and those of our partners, AIDS deaths have decreased in many countries and the number of new HIV infections is falling in countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Countries in Africa are reporting 50 per cent to 80 per cent declines in new malaria cases and deaths. Prevalence of TB is also declining worldwide. Over the last six years, global fund programs have saved more than 5 million lives and, every day, another 3,600 lives are saved and thousands of new infections with HIV, TB or malaria are prevented.
But the benefits go even further. Investments to combat HIV, TB and malaria are strengthening health systems, from bolstering infrastructure such as laboratories and clinics to improving the skills of health workers. Global fund grants also contribute to reducing child mortality by, among other things, supporting activities for prevention and control of malaria, which directly causes 17 per cent of deaths among children aged 0 to 4; increasing access to pediatric HIV treatment, which dramatically reduces death rates among children with HIV; and reducing transmission of HIV to children during pregnancy. And they make a major contribution to improved maternal health through programs that are vastly scaling up prevention and treatment of HIV, TB and malaria. These programs are reducing the largest causes of mortality among women of child-bearing age, as well as reducing major causes of maternal deaths.
Worldwide, maternal mortality rates have declined, but progress has been slowed by the HIV epidemic. Providing greater access to treatment and care for HIV-positive pregnant women must therefore be an essential component of efforts to reduce maternal health risks.
This will be a decisive year in the fight against the three pandemics and for maternal and child health. This week, world leaders will meet in Muskoka and Toronto at the G8 and G20 summits. Later this year, countries will meet at the UN General Assembly to review what remains to be done to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Soon thereafter, in October, donor countries, including Canada, will meet to pledge their contributions to the global fund for 2011 to 2013. The outcome of these meetings will determine whether we will be able to continue scaling up programs and ultimately win the fight — or whether we will waver in our commitment and let the progress falter.
The gains made in the fight against HIV, TB and malaria are impressive, but remain fragile. A reduction or even stagnation of funding would put the Millennium Development Goals out of reach — in concrete terms, this means millions of lives lost, families devastated and economies struggling.
Instead, if donors, led by Canada and the other G8 countries, contribute the resources that would allow us to continue scaling up HIV, TB and malaria programs and interventions rapidly, we could achieve impressive results and make history. By 2015, we could eliminate malaria as a public health problem in most countries where it is endemic; prevent millions more HIV infections and save lives otherwise lost to AIDS; achieve further significant declines in TB prevalence and mortality; virtually eliminate transmission of HIV from mother to child; and substantially improve maternal health and reduce child mortality.
We must rise to this challenge. As the host of the G8 and G20, Canada could make a significant difference for maternal and child health if its initiative leads to bold, well-funded and comprehensive action, including for women’s sexual and reproductive health. Canada also needs to ensure that the G8 follows through on its commitments from previous summits to achieve “universal access” to HIV treatment and prevention measures. This is no time to slow down the world’s efforts on AIDS, TB and malaria. Rather, it is time to redouble them.
AUSTRALIA :
Australia mourns mining executives after Congo crash
Tuesday, 22 June 2010/news.bbc.co.uk
Tributes have been paid in Australia to mining magnate Ken Talbot, after officials in the Republic of Congo found no survivors in the wreckage of a plane that disappeared on Saturday.
The aircraft came down in dense jungle, killing Mr Talbot and the entire board of the Sundance Resources mining firm.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said retrieving the 11 bodies would be a “long and painstaking process”.
Mr Talbot was among Australia’s richest men, with a $840m (£567m) fortune.
The wreckage was spotted on Monday by rescuers searching by helicopter in the Republic of Congo.
French military personnel, who were dropped at the crash site, confirmed there were no survivors.
Australian mining contractors are expected to start clearing a path through the jungle on Tuesday, Sundance Resources said in a statement.
The 11 mostly Australian mining executives were travelling from Cameroon to Republic of Congo to visit an iron ore project.
Mr Talbot was travelling with five other Australians, one American, two Britons and two French nationals.
Mr Talbot, 59, was a non-executive director of Sundance, with an estimated wealth of $840m (£567m), according to BRW business magazine’s latest rich list.
Trading in shares of the Perth-based company has been suspended on the Australian Stock Exchange, and analysts say there could be a significant markdown in its value given the uncertainty of the current situation.
For an entire board to share the same flight breaches traditional corporate protocols, though colleagues say they did not appear to have any choice.
Google’s data collecting is subject of multi-state investigation
More than 30 states may join a probe into whether Google illegally tapped private information from unsecured wireless networks while taking photos for its Street View feature.
By Kristena Hansen, Los Angeles Times/www.latimes.com/June 22, 2010
More than 30 states are considering pooling resources to investigate whether Google Inc. illegally tapped private information from unsecured wireless networks while collecting photos and data for its popular Street View feature.
Connecticut Atty. Gen. Richard Blumenthal said Monday that he was leading the multi-state probe, which will also look at how personal information, including e-mails and passwords, were collected and why the data were retained.
“Street View cannot mean Complete View — invading home and business computer networks and vacuuming up personal information and communications,” Blumenthal said in a statement. “Consumers have a right and a need to know what personal information — which could include e-mails, web browsing and passwords — Google may have collected, how and why.”
Google’s Street View has been under scrutiny since the Internet search giant acknowledged last month that it “inadvertently” collected data over unencrypted Wi-Fi networks in more than 30 countries for at least three years. The Mountain View, Calif., company said it has since disabled the function.
Several U.S. states have been individually looking into the case, which follows formal investigations in Germany and Australia.
In addition to determining whether Google broke any laws, the multi-state probe will also consider whether federal and state statutes need to be updated to prevent a similar occurrence.
Rob Enderle, a technology analyst, said the outcome of the investigation could have far-reaching implications for Internet privacy laws, especially in regard to protecting personal information that isn’t secured.
“If you leave your car unlocked on a street where there are known burglars and they steal your stuff, their defense can’t be you left your car unlocked,” Enderle said. “They clearly knew what they were doing was wrong.”
Google’s Street View function, which launched in 2007, allowed Web users to see 360-degree snapshots of spots along many streets and roadways. It has since expanded to most major U.S. cities as well as dozens of cities in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.
Google gathers the vast collection of street photos by sending around fleets of cars equipped with panoramic cameras that capture the street layout by taking photos in every direction.
But what Google did not disclose to users was that its cars were also fitted with radio receivers meant to gather information about home and business Wi-Fi networks in the areas where the cars were traveling.
Because Wi-Fi networks tend to be static — like street names and ZIP Codes — they are useful for Google applications that need to triangulate the current location of mobile phones — as when Google Maps is helping a user determine driving directions.
However, along with the names of the Wi-Fi networks, Google was also collecting private information that was traveling across those networks — much of it from people who had failed to password-protect their personal networks.
In the three years that its fleet of cars has been roving the streets, Google says it has collected 600 gigabytes of unsecured data.
The company has apologized for collecting the private data, saying it failed to realize that its software was sniffing the data out of the air. Google maintains it has not used or analyzed the data for any of its products and has begun destroying the data in several countries where it was requested to do so.
“It was a mistake for us to include code in our software that collected payload data, but we believe we did nothing illegal. We’re working with the relevant authorities to answer their questions and concerns,” a Google representative said in a statement.
California’s attorney general declined to say whether the state would be part of the multi-state investigation. Connecticut’s Blumenthal also declined to comment on any discussions involving federal agencies.
“We expect additional states to commit in the coming days and weeks,” Blumenthal said.
kristena.hansen@latimes.com
Times staff writer David Sarno contributed to this report.
EUROPE :
Gas and pies
Jun 22 2010/ www.economist.com/ by A.O.
| LONDON
ON JUNE 21st Russia started to reduce its gas supply to Belarus, which has been unable and unwilling to pay off its debt to Gazprom, Russia’s gas monopoly. This spat between the two countries is not the first and is unlikely to be the last. For years Alyaksandr Lukashenka, Belarus’s president, managed to milk Russia for money and subsidies while also poking it in the eye, reneging on promises and dragging his feet on agreements.
Despite all this, Moscow continued to subsidise the Belarus economy and provide it with cheap gas. This year Belarus unilaterally decided to pay last year’s gas price of $150 per thousand cubic meters despite Gazprom raising the price to $166 in the first quarter and to $184 in the second quarter of this year. The result, says Gazprom, is that Belarus now owes it $200 million.
Belarus first denied it owed Russia any debt, then, when Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s president, threatened to cut gas supplies to Belarus by 85%, Belarus offered to pay the debt in kind. Mr Medvedev said Gazprom should be paid in cash, not in “pies, butter, cheese or pancakes”. So far Russia has reduced its gas supplies to Belarus by 15%. Mr Lukashenka said this would impact the transit of Russian gas to Europe through Belarus. In fact only 20% of Russian gas goes through Belarus. Ukraine, the main gas transit route to Europe, has offered to compensate for any shortfall.
Despite his authoritarianism, Mr Lukashenka is one of the least liked leaders in the Kremlin. Yet the alternative of him being replaced by a more democratic and pro-Western leader seems worse. But even Mr Lukashenka’s authoritarian credentials, it seems, can no longer buy him cheap gas, particularly at a time of financial crisis.
CHINA :
Cautionary Notes Sounded as South-South Trade Booms
Ravi Kanth Deverakonda/ IPS /Jun 22
GENEVA, Jun 22 ( IPS ) – An Indian textile engineer and entrepreneur called Raj Rajendran visited Rwanda in 1999. He was tasked to close down an unviable textile factory following the civil war. But he discovered propitious agro-climatic conditions, particularly volcanic soil — ideal for the rearing of silk worms to produce raw silk.
“Rajendran converted an old refrigerator into an incubator to hatch silk worm eggs, imported second-hand machinery from India, and started reeling Rwanda’s first silk yarn,” Charles Gore, a senior official of the Africa division in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), told IPS.
Sustained efforts by Rajendran over the last 10 years resulted in him creating a new brand called “Silk Hills” which bears the label “Made in Rwanda”. Rajendran’s company now exports silk and cotton products to the U.S., Canada and elsewhere and is the largest private employer in the tiny east African country.
“In short, the Indian entrepreneur demonstrated that it is possible to bring about ‘transformational’ changes in an African country through economic interactions and knowledge-sharing skills with big developing countries like China, India and Brazil,” Gore argued.
He is the lead author of UNCTAD’s annual report on Africa, titled “South-South Cooperation: Africa and the New Forms of Development Partnership”, published on Jun 18.
The report confirms China and India’s status as the main drivers of trade and investment with African countries.
It is true that “increasing trade and investment between developing countries by reducing trade barriers could bring real benefits in terms of employment and incomes,” said Isabel M. Mazzei, senior policy advisor for Oxfam in Geneva, in an interview with IPS.
“It could also promote improved political relationships between countries and enable countries to reduce their dependence on markets in the industrialised countries.”
But Mazzei warned that, “due to large differences in the size and level of development of Third World economies, full liberalisation of South-South trade is not desirable.”
“Getting the balance right between further liberalisation and the appropriate protection of vulnerable farm sectors and infant industries will be a major challenge for economic policy makers,” she added.
At the launch of the report Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi, UNCTAD’s secretary general, pointed out that there exists a growing recognition that South-South cooperation — which is accelerating investment and trade between large developing countries, such as China, India and Brazil, and African countries — could pave the way for transfer of technology and knowledge skills.
Panitchpakdi urged the rising economic giants of the South to go well beyond trade and investment to create a new economic and social climate to reverse the historical trend which has seen Africa supplying agricultural goods and raw materials while importing manufactured goods.
“I am confident that with the rising trend of developmental aid flowing from the leading countries of the South to Africa, estimated at around 2.8 billion dollars in 2006, there will be a paradigmatic shift in the coming years,” he told IPS, adding that China also increased its assistance to Africa last year.
The 116-page report on Africa captures undercurrents that are gradually changing the landscape of South-South trade. For example, the total merchandise trade between African countries and non-African developing countries such as China, India, and Brazil, among others, jumped to 283 billion dollars in 2008 — from 34 billion dollars in 1995.
In contrast, Africa’s trade with developed countries increased from 138 billion dollars to 588 billion dollars over the same period. “The growing share of developing countries in Africa’s trade has led to a reduction in the proportion of the region’s trade going to its traditional partners in Europe and North America,” according to the report.
But the reports’ authors noted that, “although there has been an increase in Africa’s trade with developing countries, the composition is skewed more towards imports rather than exports”.
Non-African developing countries are now the major “greenfield” investors on the African continent. This kind of investment refers to creating new economic assets that could include manufacturing facilities, along with other infrastructural facilities.
Foreign direct investment in greenfield projects has shot to 184 in 2008, up from 52 in 2004. Chinese infrastructure and financial commitments increased to 4.5 billion dollars in 2007, compared to 470 million dollars in 2001.
But the report’s authors cautioned that China’s growing economic interaction with Africa should not be seen as a “China-Africa story” but part of a broader trend towards intensifying Africa-South economic relationships, particularly with large and dynamic emerging countries.
The report urged African countries to adopt a “pro-active” approach by planning long-term economic projects and asserting their domestic concerns when negotiating cooperation with other developing countries.
In effect, African nations should strive towards building their “productive capacities” to produce a greater variety of goods that are more sophisticated products, the report emphasised. (END/2010)
90% of Vuvuzelas come from China
Written by Admin/ www.breakingnewsonline.net/Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Breaking News: At least 90% Vuvuzelas – the musical instrument used widely during the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, are made in China. So, the Chinese connection to the World Cup is there, even if their team is not in the fray.
The loud sounds from vuvuzelas have annoyed many people outside Africa and complaints have been received against those. However, the authorities refused to ban vuvuzelas in the World Cup, saying they symbolise the African culture.
According to reports from China, about 90% of the World’s vuuvuzelas are produced in two Chinese provinces – Guangdong and Zhejiang.
The Chinese companies reportedly sold about 150,000 vuvuzelas ecvery month. The peak sale period was November – January.
INDIA :
BRASIL:
EN BREF, CE 22 juin 2010… AGNEWS /OMAR, BXL,22/06/2010
