{jcomments on}[The Times Editorial: Barley five weeks after al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Ladan was executed by US Navy Seals, the terror network’s chief of operations in East Africa has been killed. ]

 

BURUNDI :

 

Gel des prix de l’eau et d’électricité au Burundi

PANA /13-06-2011

 

Les prix de l’eau et de l’électricité devraient revenir à la normale après avoir grimpé jusqu’à 260% et soulevé des vagues de mécontentements sans précédent ces derniers jours au sein des consommateurs de ces produits de première nécessité, apprend-on de source officielle à Bujumbura.

 

La révision à la hausse des prix des produits de la Régie nationale de Production et de Distribution de l’Eau et d’Electricité (REGIDESO) était entrée en vigueur le 1er juin dernier, suite à une décision du conseil des ministres du 28 avril 2011 déclarant son soutien à l’ajustement tarifaire de cette entreprise étatique en difficultés financières.

 

Les associations de la société civile avaient aussitôt appelé à des manifestations de masse pour faire reculer la mesure « impopulaire ».

 

C’est ainsi que le gouvernement, réuni les 9 et 10 juin 2011 en conseil des ministres, a reconnu que la décision portant révision à la hausse des tarifs de l’eau et de l’électricité n’a pas bénéficié de mesures d’accompagnement suffisantes avant sa mise en application.

 

Selon le porte-parole du gouvernement, Philippe Nzobonariba, le conseil des ministres a indiqué que l’une des mesures d’accompagnement devait être « une campagne d’explication et de sensibilisation à l’endroit des partenaires concernés par la question, notamment les différentes catégories de consommateurs, et surtout les services de la REGIDESO qui, apparemment, ne maîtrisent pas encore les mécanismes de la nouvelle facturation.

 

Les prix d’autres produits et services de base avaient pris la même courbe ascendante que ceux de la REGIDESO, « alors que l’objectif visé par l’ajustement était d’instaurer l’équité dans la tarification en faveur de la catégorie des plus pauvres », a encore ajouté le porte-parole du gouvernement

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RWANDA :

Rwanda: ICTR, DRC in Talks Over Munyagishari Transfer

Gashegu Muramira/The New Times/13 June 2011

Kampala — The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), has disclosed that its finalising plans to transfer Bernard Munyagishari, a Genocide suspect arrested last month in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Munyagishari is still detained in Goma, pending transfer to the ICTR, where he is wanted on charges of Genocide and crimes against humanity, including rape.

“The Registry is finalising with authorities in DRC the process of transfer. There is no problem. The transfer will take place anytime,” Danford Mpumilwa, ICTR’s officer in Charge of Communications Unit told reporters over the weekend.

In his address to the UN Security Council last week, ICTR Chief Prosecutor, Hassan Bubacar Jallow called upon the DRC government to expedite the transfer of the suspect to the Tanzanian-based tribunal.

Munyagishari was born in 1959 in the then Rubavu commune in the Western Province. He was arrested pursuant to an international arrest warrant issued by the tribunal in 2005.

He has featured on the US Rewards for Justice program as a fugitive from international justice.

RDC CONGO:

 

Pourquoi les Congolais (RDC) fuient toujours leurs responsabilités ?

13/06/2011 /www.lepost.fr

1) En octobre 1990, vous les congolais, vous êtes les premiers à attaquer le Rwanda, jamais auparavant le Rwanda n’avait attaqué le Congo.

 

Soi-disant pour secourir son ami le Président Habyarimana, Mobutu envoie ses troupes au Rwanda. Arrivée au Rwanda, l’armée congolaise a fait des massacres, viols et pillages tels que Habyarimana et la France, excédés par la réaction internationale suite à ces massacres et viols, exigea de Mobutu de ramener son armée. Ce n’est donc pas les Rwandais qui ont commencé cette guerre….rappelez-vous… !

 

2) Il faut vous rappeler également, que sous Mobutu, vous avez mené des opérations au Burundi en 1972 avec des meurtres, pillages, viols. En Angola avec l’armée de Savimbi, vous avez fait la même chose contre la population civile angolaise. En Centre-Afrique, au Soudan et au Tchad, leurs peuples se souviennent encore de meurtres et toute sorte d’atrocités que leur ont fait subir les armées de Mobutu. D’ailleurs les congolais s’en vantent souvent. Comme s’ils éprouvaient une certaine fierté et nostalgie de cette époque !!!…

 

3) Après avoir commis le génocide des Tutsis au Rwanda, la milice Interahamwe (appelés FDLR actuellement) et l’ex armée de Habyarimana (FAR), vaincus, Mobutu accepta de les accueillir et de les protéger sur son territoire, sans avoir même pris la peine de les désarmer. Ensuite, Kabila père et fils ont consolidé leurs équipements militaires, après les avoir sanctuarisés au Kivu, afin de faciliter leurs incursions militaires sur le territoire rwandais.

 

Il faut vous rappeler ici que ce sont les mêmes (actuellement appelés FDLR), qui saccagent, violent, pillent tout l’Est du Congo.

 

4) En voulant nuire au Rwanda et à Kagame, Mobutu, Laurent Kabila et son fils ont instrumentalisé et soutenu la milice Interahamwe (FDLR) et l’ex-armée de Habyarimana (FAR). L’objectif était d’attaquer le Rwanda. Ce qu’ils ont d’ailleurs essayé à plusieurs reprises, sans succès heureusement. Suite à cela, Kagame décida de détruire ces camps puisque la communauté internationale avait décidé de ne pas bouger. Rappelez- vous les différentes mises en garde de Kagame à l’ONU et à la communauté internationale. La suite vous la connaissez….

 

5) Plus tard, lorsque les relations se sont un peu améliorées entre Kabila Fils et Kagame, faisant suite aux exactions des FAR (ex-armée de Habyarimana) et les Interahamwes (FDLR) envers la population de l’Est du Congo, et, à l’incapacité de l’armée congolaise d’y faire face, Kagame proposa son aide militaire à Kabila, celui-ci l’accepta. Et ce fût l’Opération Umoja Wetu.

 

Sensible à la manipulation, à l’intoxication et à la propagande outrancière et démagogique de Kamerhe et consort, l’opinion congolaise s’opposa à cette opération (UMOJA WETU). Conséquences, elle fut aussitôt interrompue avant que tout l’Est du Congo ne soit pacifié. L’armée rwandaise repartie, aussitôt les viols, pillages, massacres ont repris et cela continue jusqu’aujourd’hui. Actuellement, votre armée, une fois de plus, est incapable d’y faire face. Pourtant, au Kivu, les violences et les viols, ont atteint une ampleur sans précédent, pendant que l’armée congolaise, elle, fait plutôt du trafic clandestin des matières premières. Et c’est Kagame et le Rwanda qui sont accusés…pourquoi ??

 

6) S’il faut tirer une leçon, vous les congolais, vous avez voulu nuire au Rwanda en pactisant avec le diable (La milice Interahamwe), maintenant ces mêmes FDLR tuent, violent vos sœurs et vos mères dans l’Est du Congo, pillent vos richesses. Ce piège que vous vouliez tendre au Rwanda s’est finalement retourné contre vous.

 

Est-ce la faute de Kagame et les Tutsis (comme vous dîtes) ?

 

7) Prendre le peuple du Rwanda et son Président Paul Kagame comme vos victimes expiatoires de vos propres incompétences et de vos propres échecs, ce n’est pas la bonne méthode. C’est ridicule. La solution c’est corriger d’abord ce qui ne va pas chez vous. Ensuite, ayez le courage de résister à la Belgique, à la France, à l’Angleterre et les Etats-Unis, car ce sont vos vrais ennemis. Les vrais pilleurs de vos richesses et les tueurs de Lumumba. Et vous verrez qu’après, pour vous, il y aura une ère nouvelle. Arrêtez donc de vous en prendre aux victimes parce que vous avez peur de puissants.

 

8) Je vous entends déjà nous rechanter vos vieilles rengaines de vos richesses volées. Pourtant c’est vous-mêmes qui les bradent aux puissances étrangères et ce depuis la mort de Lumumba. Lumumba est mort pour cela, tué par ces mêmes puissances occidentales dont, souvent, vous évitez soigneusement d’évoquer dans vos blogs. Même pas un procès ne fût-ce que pour sa mémoire. Pourtant ses assassins l’ont eux-mêmes avoué. Au lieu de cela, vous vous en prenez aux rwandais qui, tout de même, vous ont débarrassés de Mobutu qui vous dominait depuis 32 ans. Ayez le courage d’accepter au moins que vous avez vous-mêmes beaucoup contribué à vos malheurs. Si vous voulez corriger cette situation, pourtant il va falloir commencer par là, c’est-à-dire, accepter vos responsabilités.

 

Travestir votre propre l’histoire pour cacher vos responsabilités, n’arrange pas votre image aux yeux du monde, et ceci ne vous amènera à rien.

 

9) Quant au Rapport Mapping, ce ramassis de mensonges, a été fait pour nuire au Rwanda et pour vous maintenir dans l’illusion que, de tout ce qui est arrivé à votre pays, vous n’en avez aucune part de responsabilité. C’est une autre façon de vous dire, les responsables, ce ne sont pas vous ni nous les grandes puissances, ce sont ceux-là vos frères et surtout ne vous occupez pas de vos problèmes, on s’en occupe. En montrant du doigt le Rwanda, c’est parce qu’ils mesurent votre détresse psychologique, et savent mieux que quiconque, que vous avez besoin d’une victime expiatoire. Cette manipulation psychologique est vieille comme le monde. Elle consiste à dévier une certaine hostilité à ta personne vers une autre personne. Et le Rwanda, c’est la victime idéale pour les anciens mobutistes qui n’ont pas digéré la perte de leur pouvoir et les congolais en général qui ne supportent plus les violences des FDLR (Interahamwe) au Kivu.

 

10) Quant aux congolais qui rêvent encore d’attaquer le Rwanda, pour des raisons que votre propre histoire vous a montré, n’oubliez pas que vous avez plus d’ennemis que nous rwandais, parce que vous avez un pays riche. Vos attaques et vos agressions se sont toujours retournées contre vous. Et ça ce n’est pas un hasard…C’est un conseil d’ami…

 

Kagame et le Rwanda ne sont pas vos ennemis…

 

 

 

RDC : Elections 2011, le grand dilemme

12/06/2011 / KongoTimes!

 

Pour ou contre les élections en RD Congo? A quelques six mois de la fin de la législature commencée le 6 décembre 2006, l’opinion congolaise paraît plus que jamais divisée sur les consultations politiques censées débuter le 28 novembre prochain par l’élection présidentielle et les législatives. Il y a d’un côté, les «légalistes» et de l’autre, ceux qu’on pourrait appeler les «souverainistes».

 

Les premiers – à savoir les gouvernants sortants et l’opposition intérieure au sens le plus large y compris les forces sociales -, considèrent qu’il importe de s’inscrire dans la légalité institutionnelle. Et ce, en dépit du fait que le président sortant dispose des moyens d’Etat. Une situation qui le place en position potentielle de “candidat favori”. Secrétaire général de l’UDPS, Jacquemain Shabani, l’a dit et répété que son parti ne conçoit l’accession au pouvoir d’Etat autrement que par des «moyens démocratiques». Le vote. Une attitude qui devrait rencontrer l’assentiment de la très nébuleuse «communauté internationale». En 2006, celle-ci avait déboursé près de 500 millions US$ pour financer 90% des opérations électorales au Congo. Faire table-rase des institutions mises “péniblement” en place équivaudrait à un immense «gâchis».

 

Les seconds – composés essentiellement des «opposants en exil» et les membres de la très remuante diaspora congolaise disséminée aux quatre coins du globe -, opposent un véritable «veto». Pour eux, «il est illusoire d’espérer l’organisation des élections libres, transparentes et démocratiques dans un pays occupé.» Pour eux, la RD Congo est occupée. Par qui? La réponse est unanime : «La RD Congo est occupée par le Rwanda de Paul Kagamé» et dans une certaine mesure «par l’Ouganda de Yoweri Museveni.» Le président sortant «Joseph Kabila» passe, dès lors, pour un «infiltré rwandais». Il n’est pas rare d’entendre à son sujet des réflexions du genre : «Il est chargé d’une mission.» Ici, une conviction se renforce : «Kabila» et ses lieutenants vont recourir à la fraude pour «perpétuer l’occupation» et achever le travail de «liquidation» de l’Etat congolais. Travail commencé le 17 mai 1997. Ceatains tenants de ce second groupe «rêvent» d’un «printemps congolais» à l’image de ce qui s’est passé en Tunisie et en Egypte. D’autres n’excluent aucun scénario y compris la «lutte armée». Là où le bat blesse est que ces derniers peinent à esquisser le modus operandi dont l’objectif se résume à la “libérration” du pays et son rétablissement dans sa souveraineté.

 

Depuis son accession à la magistrature suprême le 26 janvier 2001, dans les conditions que l’on sait, «Joseph Kabila» souffre d’un désamour symptomatique dans les milieux des Congolais de la diaspora. Ceux-ci le suspectent, plus à raison qu’à tort, d’être un imposteur. Le secret entourant les origines et le parcours personnel de l’homme y est pour beaucoup. Sans omettre le caractère calamiteux du bilan des dix années de présence à la tête de l’Etat : insécurité dans les provinces du Kivu et la Province Orientale, dérive autoritaire, violations massives des droits et libertés, corruption, pauvreté, effondrement du système judiciaire. Plus graves, les Congolais de l’étranger accusent l’actuel chef de l’Etat d’avoir organisé l’infiltration des «agents rwandais», sous le label du CNDP (Congrès national pour la défense du peuple), dans les grands corps de l’Etat congolais. A savoir : les gouvernements provinciaux, l’armée, la police, les Régions militaires, les services de renseignements, les entreprises publiques etc. A titre d’illustration, la logistique des Forces armées de la RD Congo est gérée par le général Malik Kijege. La Région militaire du Kasaï Oriental est dirigée par le général Obeid Rwabasirwa. Au Sud Kivu, c’est le général Patrick Masunzu. La police nationale est dirigée “à titre intérimaire” par le général Charles Bisengimana. A Mbandaka, le colonel Janvier Mayanga dirige la troupe. A Goma, un certain Bosco Ntaganda pavoise en tant que chef militaire au Nord Kivu. En tous cas, le déploiement des troupes rwandaises sur le sol congolais dans le cadre des opérations «Umoja Wetu» et autre «Kimya», à partir de janvier 2009, a fini par convaincre de la «félonie» de l’homme qui dirige la RD Congo depuis dix ans. Aux dernières nouvelles, “Joseph” a engagé des négociations en vue de “déménager” les miliciens Hutus des FDLR de la région de Walikale et Masisi au Kivu pour les installer dans la province du Maniema. Pour préserver la “sécurité nationale” du Rwanda.

 

Depuis quelques temps, des analystes commencent à se poser des questions sur la «viabilité» des élections prévues le 28 novembre prochain. En cause, des problèmes logistiques. Au 6 juin dernier, la Commission électorale nationale indépendante n’avait enregistré que près de 24 millions d’électeurs. Habité par plus ou moins 70 millions d’âmes, le pays ne compterait pas moins de 40 millions de citoyens en âge de voter. Or les opérations d’inscription devraient s’arrêter début juillet. Par ailleurs, la RD Congo n’a rien prévu dans son budget pour financer le processus électoral. Elle comptait, comme en 2006, sur la «communauté internationale». Celle-ci paraît de moins en moins “généreuse” et volontariste.

 

Echaudées par la crise post-électorale en Côte d’Ivoire, des organisations non gouvernementales exhortent les opérateurs politiques congolais à envisager sans tarder des négociations tendant à la mise en place d’un «gouvernement de transition ». C’est le cas notamment de l’International Crisis Group et de l’Asadho. Un gouvernement de transition pour quoi faire ? Est-ce uniquement pour organiser les élections? Est-ce pour administrer le pays en commençant par redonner à l’Etat son caractère impartial en dépolitisant – “dékabilisant”? – ses piliers que sont l’administration (territoriale), l’armée, la police et les services de renseignements civils et militaires ? C’est le grand dilemme ! Une chose paraît sûre : même si aucune enquête d’opinions n’a été réalisée, «l’humeur du moment» de la grande majorité de la population congolaise est à l’heure du Changement. Très rares sont les citoyens congolais qui seraient prêts «à subir» un second quinquennat avec «Joseph Kabila» à la tête de la RD Congo au regard des griefs qui précèdent.

 

Baudouin Amba Wetshi

Published By www.KongoTimes.info – © KongoTimes! – All Rights Reserved.

UGANDA:

8th Parliment awards itself top marks

Sunday, 12th June, 2011 /www.newvision.co.ug/By Raymond Baguma

THE Parliamentary Centre Africa Programme report has disclosed that Uganda’s legislators in the eighth Parliament believe they commendably played their role of offering financial oversight as well as transparency and integrity.

The African Parliamentary Index report (API) was launched last week in Nairobi by the Parliamentary Centre, a Canadian NGO, which aims at improving the effectiveness of representative legislative assemblies around the world.

The index is a self-assessment tool which examined the capability of African parliaments to provide budget oversight, representation, law making, oversee public expenditure, finance, transparency and integrity.

The assessment was done in seven African countries of Benin, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia.

MPs and Parliament staff made a self-assessment which was validated by civil society organisations.

In the East African region, Ugandan parliamentarians were second after Tanzania in representing the people, while Kenya took third place. But the Ugandan Parliament trailed Kenya and Tanzania in playing its legislative function.

The report also showed that the Ugandan Parliament was the best in the region in offering financial oversight as well as transparency and integrity.

In offering financial oversight, Kenya was second, while Tanzania was in third place.

However, in transparency and integrity, Kenyan parliamentarians were the least transparent of the three East African countries.

But in playing its oversight function, the Kenyan parliament was the best followed by Uganda and Tanzania.

However, on the institutional capacity of parliament, the Tanzanian parliament led, while Uganda was in second place and Kenya trailed.

Dr. Rasheed Draman, the director of Africa Programmes at the Parliamentary Centre, said the findings do not categorise parliamentary performance as good or bad, strong or weak, assertive or rubber-stamp.

UTL finally clarifies on row with MTN

By Ephraim Kasozi /www.monitor.co.ug//Posted Monday, June 13 2011

Uganda Telecom Limited has refuted reports about the 30-day ultimatum by the Uganda Communications Commission directing it to pay its debt to MTN as directed by court, in order to defuse tension in the industry.

On June 8, Daily Monitor reported the Executive Director of UCC, Mr Godfrey Mutabazi, as saying that the problems between MTN and UTL are affecting consumers and in 30 days the regulator will make another move to ease tension in the telecom sector.

UTL Chief Operations Officer, Mr Stanley Henning, however, said in a statement that the report did not accurately reflect the status of things on the ground.

“Uganda Telecom and MTN Uganda had resolved in writing the payment terms on unpaid arrears in relation to local interconnection.

“We sat and agreed on the payment of the arrears on local interconnection and as UTL, we are happy with the agreement and its terms,” Mr Henning, also UTL managing director, said.

The court ordered UTL to pay Shs20b interconnection fees to MTN for users to call across the two networks.

Mr Henning explained that the dispute between the two parties is in relation to interconnection fees for traffic that UTL carried to Southern Sudan, in which the High Court made a ruling in favour of MTN Uganda.

“We were not satisfied with the High Court ruling and we appealed against it. So there is a legal process going on which we can’t interfere with. The amount of money under dispute is not Shs20 billion as reflected in the article, but Shs5 billion as stated in the court ruling of April 28 2011,” he said in the statement.

Mr Henning said that UTL is concerned by statements that there is warfare between them and MTN Uganda: “We are concerned about the statement that there is warfare between us as reported by the press. But as far as we are concerned, there is no warfare between MTN and UTL.”

Uganda, Iran fund $40m abattoir

Written by John Musinguzi /www.observer.ug/Sunday, 12 June 2011

Uganda’s meat industry is on the verge of a major transformation after a joint venture between the Ugandan government and Iran was set up to construct a modern abattoir.

The Uganda Modern Halal Abattoir is being set up at Nakirebe, 17km along the Kampala-Masaka road, by Iran-registered Halal Meat Co Ltd, supported by the Uganda Investment Authority. Halal has been registered in Uganda by Zanjan Cooperative Foundation. It is a joint venture of the governments of Uganda and Iran.

An official statement dated June 6 said the project’s objectives are to encourage quality improvement in the livestock sector, promotion of meat production for both the local market and for export and value addition.

The first phase of the project will be completed in 18 months and will directly employ 130 people and benefit thousands of others involved in the livestock sector across the country, notes the statement.

The first phase targets the slaughter and processing of 200 cattle, 500 sheep and 500 goats per day. Half of the meat will be sold locally and the other exported. Muhammed Mousabi, the chairman Halal Meat Co told The Observer the project is estimated to cost up to $40m in total.

jmusinguzi@observer.ug

SOUTH AFRICA:

Zuma, SADC leaders urged to call “despotic” Mugabe to order

Written by Mxolisi Ncube /www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/Monday, 13 June 2011

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s main opposition party – the The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called on President Jacob Zuma (Pictured) to take the lead in pushing for an end to the Zimbabwean political stalemate at the SADC summit that resumes in Johannesburg later this evening.

The South African leader is SADC-appointed mediator in the Zimbabwean political crisis and the DA says he should pull the plug on Mugabe’s push for elections in Zimbabwe without proper reforms.

Stephen Mokgalapa, the DA’s shadow deputy minister for International Relations, said that South Africa’s role will be central to the creation of political stability in Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party remain obstinate in face of democratic reforms.

“Zuma needs to ensure that elections do not go ahead in Zimbabwe until progress has been made in a number of key areas,” said Mokgalapa. Adding to concerns of Mugabe’s political opponents, Zimbabwean civil rights movements, ordinary citizens and the international community, the DA leader said that the roadmap to democratic elections in Zimbabwe is not yet clear, while Mugabe has thus far failed to implement the necessary political reforms as required by the GPA. “South Africa needs to play a central role in taking a decisive stand against ongoing political repression in Zimbabwe as reports of intimidation, violence and voter fraud continue,” said Mokgalapa.

“Given Zimbabwe’s current political climate, and the fact that basic preconditions for a fresh election- such as the drawing up of a new constitution- have not yet been met, SADC should steadfastly oppose President Mugabe’s attempts to push for early elections.

“Under the current conditions, it is likely that voting would be neither be free nor fair, and would, in all likelihood, lead to the political instability that saw the troubled Government of National Unity (GNU) established in the first place.” The DA supports a communiqué released by SADC earlier this year following a summit held in Livingston, Zambia on March 31 this year, which is up for discussion at today’s summit.

In the communiqué, SADC leaders called on Robert Mugabe to end the ongoing political turmoil in Zimbabwe and to implement immediate political reforms, among other resolutions. “Further action is now imperative. SADC delegates have been presented with an ideal opportunity to take a decisive stand against President Mugabe’s despotic regime, and to push for concrete changes.

“Both President Jacob Zuma and SADC need to use the summit to present a united front against President Mugabe’s authoritarian rule, for reasons of both national and regional importance.”

Cricket South Africa finances under scrutiny – Staff Bonuses defended

Posted By: Michelle Beckett/blogs.bettor.com/13062011

Cricket South Africa finances under scrutiny – Staff Bonuses defended

Cricket South Africa (CSA) has come up hard against the national media, turning down all allegations of illegal bonuses allocations and defending the board’s financial position.

The African media has been critical of CSA and blamed it for diverting the cricket development fund to bonuses for staff.

As a part of its recent move to uplift cricket in the region, the CSA granted some additional bonuses to its employees in order to enhance their working capacity. Despite the board’s frequent claims that the bonuses are just incentives, the media is not ready to stop blame game.

CSA’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Naasei Appiah, said, “The correct facts are as follows. A meeting of Remco (the Human Resources and Remunerations Committee) was held on April 15, 2011, and the following items were discussed, General Salary increases, Salary adjustments, Annual bonus payments”.

He further elaborated, “It was also agreed that bonuses should be performance driven. The chairperson of Remco, Thandeka Mgoduso, agreed with the decisions taken with the exception of one salary adjustment which was originally set at 10 percent but, after discussion with the CEO, was reduced to eight percent”.

CSA is currently working on a number of developmental plans that include providing technical and logistical assistant to all regional boards, recruiting talented youngsters in the domestic teams and motivating the board personnel to strive devotedly for the success of the entire process.

The board also plans to raise staff salaries further so that they may perform well for the betterment of the game.

The current controversy is second in a row after an intense tussle between the board’s Chief Executive, Gerald Majola, and President, Mtutuzeli Nyoka, on the issue of mismanagement of the funds given by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as a hosting fee for Indian Premier League in 2009.

Following the Mumbai attacks in 2008, the second edition of the league was held in South Africa for security concerns.

Some analysts argue that CSA will have to settle financial disputes before it can improve the sport in South Africa

ANCYL conference

Monday, 13 June 2011 / www.leadershiponline.co.za

A decisive week for Zuma and South Africa

This week is going to be an important one for President Jacob Zuma and the ANC as the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) gathers of its 24th national conference from Thursday at Midrand, north of Johannesburg where Julius Malema is likely to be re-elected as its president for another three years with potentially huge influence on future political developments.

In ANC circles it is hardly a secret anymore that Malema has been sharpening his daggers to get rid of President Zuma and his trusted ally, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe. Apparently, if Malema and the current ANCYL-leadership have it their way, Kgalema Motlanthe would become president, former business mogul and current Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale his deputy, and Sports and Recreation Minister and former ANCYL president Fikile Mbalula would replace Mantashe as ANC secretary-general.

It would only be possible if Malema and his most trusted lieutenants are elected this week. That would position them for the next three years to marshal the several hundred thousand ANCYL-members – being one of the biggest, most powerful ANC constituencies – to support the leaders of their choice at the next ANC’s national elective conference next year.

If they achieve that, they will be in a powerful, perhaps even unstoppable, position to push the ANC government to often radical Youth League policy positions.

As reported last week, Malema’s appeal to marginalised, unemployed youth is vast and wide – creating hope where there seems to be very little. He also brings a youth appealing sense of drama and excitement to the political stage.

The run-up drama

The past week has been one of high drama in the run-up to the conference. While Malema’s position mostly seemed unassailable as one region or province after the other pledged to back him, it became clear that there also are considerable, less public, forces ranged against him.

For one, Malema himself has alluded to a conspiracy in high ANC circles to topple him, causing Mantashe to respond harshly. Secondly, it may be no mere coincidence that a confidential Cosatu report was leaked only days before the ANCYL conference in which Vavi expresses concerns about an ANCYL campaign to topple Zuma and Mantashe – despite his own reservations that they should be supported by Cosatu for re-election next year. The report warns that should the ANCYL succeed with this campaign, it could turn South Africa into a banana republic.

Vavi has long accused the ANCYL leaders of practising populist politics to pave the way for a lining of their own pockets. In the document, The Sunday Times reports, he again accuses some, but not all ANCYL leaders of being tenderpreneurs – “a new tendency that largely depends on demagogue zigzag political rhetoric in the most spectacular and unprincipled fashion and is hell-bent on material gain, corruption and looting”.

Malema himself has in the past been linked to both a company and the lucrative tenders awarded to it, while it was alleged last week that a R44-million tender had irregularly been awarded to Malema’s cousin, Tshepo Malema. Some rumours suggest the proceeds from this are being used to fund Malema’s re-election campaign.

Underscoring Vavi’s concerns of corruption, two Sunday newspapers this weekend also detailed how Malema and his ANCYL leadership cronies are coining it all the way to the bank through their political positions and connections. Both Cosatu and the SACP have also strongly rejected Malema’s brand of nationalisation in the past. With Cosatu being another massive ANC constituency – perhaps the best organised, led and funded – events beyond this week could well pit the labour federation against the youth league in a battle for the soul of the ANC.

According to Vavi if the ANCYL succeeds with its campaign against Zuma and Mantashe, “the ANC as we have known it will be history”.

Meanwhile the backers of Lebogang Maile, the Gauteng sports MEC and the only one brave enough to challenge Malema for the ANCYL-presidency, give the assurance that all is not lost for their man, claiming his supporters remain hidden for now and will emerge in numbers from the floor at the conference to sweep him into the presidential chair.

While that is an ancient Machiavellian political strategy in itself, it is also a well-known kite-flying strategy whereby false rumours of hidden support are spread in the hope that it will mobilise a last-minute switch of support among doubters. But a sober assessment says things do not look good for Maile and excellent for Malema. Then again, politics is often full of surprises.

Meanwhile there are fears of a repeat of the kind of undisciplined chaos and skullduggery of the 2008 ANCYL conference that brought Malema to power after the intervention of the ANC leadership he may now want to topple. If not a bloody conference, at least an interesting one, with possible major consequences for the future of this country, lies ahead.

Holdsport to List Shares in Johannesburg to Allow Ethos to Sell Its Stake

By Sikonathi Mantshantsha -/www.bloomberg.com/ Jun 13, 2011

Holdsport Ltd., a South African company that runs the Sportsmans Warehouse and Outdoor Warehouse retail chains, plans to start trading its shares to facilitate the exit of its majority shareholder, Ethos Private Equity, Chief Executive Officer Kevin Hodgson said.

Ethos, the nation’s largest private equity firm, owns about 67 percent of the company while management holds the rest, Hodgson said on a conference call today.

“We can open two to three stores a year for the next five years,” said Hodgson. adding that the company doesn’t plan to raise capital from the listing.

The company, which operates 51 stores in South Africa and one in Namibia, has revenue of about 1.1 billion rand ($162 million), it said in an e-mailed statement. Ethos bought its stake in Holdsport in September 2006 for 681 million rand, according to a statement on its website. UBS AG will advise Holdsport on the offer.

Holdsport will publish the pre-listing statement “in the next few weeks,” Hodgson said.

Another Monday: Zuma is yet to spell out a clear vision

Henry Jeffreys/www.thenewage.co.za/Monday, June 13, 2011

The good news is that Trevor Manuel is staying put in South Africa and has no designs on the top job at the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF).

President Jacob Zuma’s national planning “tsar” last week shed the decidedly low-key profile he seems to have adopted since taking on his new job, to talk about what he and the National Planning Commission (NPC) have been up to, and to categorically commit him personally to seeing his task through.

Good for him and good for the country.

The occasion was the release of the NPC’s “diagnostic overview” – a document that gives some indication of the NPC’s thinking and intended direction towards a national vision and plan. And that, for those who expected more from the intrepid goal-directed and driven former finance minister, is the bad news.

After two years in the works, the NPC had very little to show for its efforts, except for a comprehensive analysis of the challenges confronting the country – all of it well-known and documented.

How to overcome these challenges will only become clear in November, when the NPC is expected to publish a draft vision statement, which is to be followed by a consultation process, including with the public at large.

So it will still take a while before we get anywhere near a vision and plan of action that will take the country forward in any meaningful way. But don’t hasten to blame the minister for this seemingly tardy progress.

Needless to say, we all should be happy that Manuel is the man charged with getting a real strategy in place to provide the country with a workable plan to rid us of the ills of deeply entrenched socio-economic stagnation – a plan that can truly provide that elusive “better life for all”, that all and sundry so glibly expound.

There can be very little doubt that, left to his own devices and empowered to act decisively, Manuel would have been much closer to a convincing vision and implementable action plan.

But, unlike when he was at finance, he is not in full control of his, and his commission’s, destiny, and does not seem to enjoy the full support and attention of the person that matters most – the president.

There are other compelling forces and processes at play, designed – explicitly or implicitly – to complicate Manuel and his commission’s task and which, in fact, might ultimately prove to be a fatal barrier to their progress and success.

At the heart of these lies the internal state of the ANC, and it is, sadly, reflected in the manner in which Zuma – also a man seemingly not in full control of his destiny and power – constructed the various departments and institutions tasked with national planning and execution.

It had very little to do with giving the idea of a national plan the best chance of success and everything to do with the ANC’s deeply divisive internal dynamics and cross-cutting thinking.

When Manuel was at finance, he had the difficult task of redirecting economic and development policy away from the more interventionist foundations of the old Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) to the more liberal Growth, Employment and Redistribution (Gear) policy – very much the basis of the country’s current economic policy.

Manuel’s success with Gear was by no means possible without the support of former presidents, Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. It was particularly the support of the latter that allowed Manuel and his team to rapidly steer the country’s economy from the brink of the disaster that was apartheid to levels of growth needed to make a difference in people’s lives.

Both Manuel and Mbeki took a lot of political pain but they had a clear vision – whether you agreed with it or not – and they stuck to their guns. This has changed. There is no clarity of purpose.

For all his charm and popularity among ordinary South Africans, Zuma is yet to spell out a clear vision for the country. He had the opportunity when he appointed Manuel in the presidency to oversee the development of a national plan but, alas, immediately suckered the idea by creating at the same time a department tasked with economic planning.

To add to the confusion, he created a cabinet level monitoring and evaluation unit within the presidency. More madness than method in the thinking it increasingly became clear.

The crucial question is where the buck stops if we are to get to an implementable national plan. You could argue with Zuma but when last – except on the day he announced Manuel’s new position – did you hear him talk about a vision and plan for the country?

It certainly is not with Manuel – where it should vest and everything else underneath him. Nor is it with Ebrahim Patel, the Economic Planning Minister, who has lots of ideas but, like Manuel, seemingly very little power to make things happen.

Given the increasing uncertainty of Zuma’s own longevity in Luthuli House and the Union Buildings, one can’t help but wonder where it will end, and whether all Manuel will have to show for his tenure in the Zuma cabinet is a sad waste of his outstanding talents and capabilities

Exxaro strike postponed

www.miningreview.com/13 June 2011

Johannesburg, South Africa — MININGREVIEW.COM — 13 June 2011 – A strike of about 7,000 workers over jobs cuts at diversified resources group Exxaro Resources Limited (Exxaro), which was due to start today, has been postponed.

Revealing this in a statement issued here, the National Union of Mineworkers said Exxaro, which mines for coal, zinc and mineral sands, had obtained a court interdict on Friday to prevent today’s work stoppage, but added that the union had vowed to pursue legal action to go ahead with the strike at a later date.

“This is a temporary victory for Exxarro. We are challenging the interdict and should we succeed, the company should expect no mercy from us,” said NUM spokesperson Khaya Blaai.

Last November Exxaro said that it might cut up to 300 jobs as it sought to improve productivity and reduce costs of services and operations.

Zuma Praised For Setting New Course For Zimbabwe

Monday, June 13, 2011/ www.newstime.co.za

While analysts consider the progress being made by the South African Development Community’s special summit on Zimbabwe on Sunday, it is clear that the prospects of a better life for Zimbabweans is no longer an intangible, subject to the mercy of Chinese and Russian vetoes at the United Nations.

Previously South Africa and the SADC – despite the enormous economic cost to the region – propped up or allowed the regime of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to conduct unfettered attacks on its own population with impunity in order to cling to power.

In 2008 when Britain and the United States tried to force the issue at the United Nations Security Council it was South Africa that intervened with the help of the Russians and Chinese to prolong Mugabe’s stay.

This meant with his police and army in place and outside intervention blocked Mugabe culd carry on regardless.

Things are different now.

While the obstacles still to be overcome are going to be a major challenge the shift in approach – from appeasing Mugabe to assessing what is best for all Zimbabweans – is a credit to the SADC and in particular President Jacob Zuma.

The New York Times quote a senior official in the Movement for Democratic Change Jameson Timba : “It is a new day, believe you me, from where we’ve come from in the last decade.

“Solidarity with a dictator has now been ruptured. SADC is now in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe.”

According to the NYT Timba credited Zuma with setting the regional body, the Southern African Development Community on a new course.

The SADC special summit on Zimbabwe mandated the Organ Troika to speed up the full implementation of the Global Political Agreement by Harare’s governing parties, Sunday.

In addition regional leaders endorsed the Livingstone Troika resolutions effectively ending Mugabe’s push for elections this year unless he opts to ignore the SADC which would ensure his departure far quicker than a free and fair election.

This time nobody would run to the UN to stop the world powers from intervening – like the Arab League in Libya they’d be calling for action.

This means that the police and army would need to think very long and hard before standing up for an individual against the people of their own country.

It could cost them their lives.

The Livingstone resolutions demanded an immediate end to violence, intimidation, hate speech, harassment, and any other form of action that contradicted the letter and spirit of the GPA.

That Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front start to comply with the agreement reached with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC and implement all the terms.

Importantly the summit resolved that the parties should have a timeframe for the implementation of the roadmap which will lead to free and fair elections.

What is clear is that it is vital that the SADC continue with their new approach which will usher in a free Zimbabwe which will be a valuable member of the SADC rather than the biggest drain on resources.

While Mugabe might snigger at the lessons of North Africa and the Middle East those younger than him have the burden of living on after he is no longer there.

Zuma, SADC take step closer to creating a single African market

12 juin, 2011/www.businesslive.co.za

Steps towards creating a single African market moved from the realm of fantasy to reality on Sunday when leaders from 26 African countries signaled a commitment to developing a free trade agreement.

Countries from the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) met on Sunday at the Sandton Convention Centre for the Second Tripartite Summit of heads of state and government to formally launch the Tripartite Free Trade Area (T-FTA) negotiations.

South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma spoke of the need to create an enabling environment for economies to grow and prosper as “no single country can prosper on its own – our destinies are intertwined”. He spoke strongly about the need for governments to work together to create the foundations needed across markets, infrastructure and industry to now make this happen against a backdrop of global turbulence and “seemingly fragile world economy and outlook”.

The T-FTA provides for the creation of a larger, integrated market with a combined GDP of $625 billion and a combined population of approximately 700 million, though forecasts are that Africa would double its GDP in the next ten years, creating a large middle class that will attract significant investment interest. The delegates to the conference, including Zuma, were not unaware of how important it is to get the foundations right in order to reap rewards down the line and also to alleviate poverty in the process.

This is why it is so important to get the recalcitrant Zimbabwe on course too, with a special closed session dedicated to Zimbabwe taking place on the fringes of the summit. The reported aim of that meeting was to ensure free and fair elections could take place, possibly next year. The elections have been delayed due to continuing in-fighting within the ruling alliance.

Britain, the US and EU have imposed sanctions on Mugabe in the interim, with SADC recently visiting all three power blocs in an attempt to get the sanctions lifted. Moves by Mugabe to relent on critical issues of the FTA will, no doubt, be a key part of the decision making and lobbying. Notably, Mugabe was present for the free trade negotiations on Sunday, but missed the first three speeches after arriving around an hour late.

The current chair of the 15-nation SADC regional bloc, Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba, said it was now important the right partnerships were created to build on the market, infrastructure and industry pillars being created for the FTA, while it was important to support the development of small, medium and micro enterprises, in particular.

Swaziland’s King Mswati, as chair of the EAC, called for assurances that worse off member states – Swaziland’s unemployment rate is 43% – not be placed at a disadvantage in the negotiations.

Zuma’s breakdown of what is needed to make the FTA work was well crafted.

He spoke of the need to grow regional productive businesses and for the diversification of products – a shift from just producing primary products to value-added products.

“We can achieve greater competitive advantages through the tripartite FTA,” he said.

However, he said, this would entail “removing barriers” to inter-African trade, like poor transport infrastructure and other blockages to the easy movement of goods across borders, with poor administration seen adding to the trade woes.

He called for the need for regional, co-ordinated infrastructure development in the mold of the current north-south rail corridor being developed, the development of cross-border value chains, and the promotion of industrial development.

SA’s Minister for Economic Development, chaired proceedings, and he said the foundations were being laid for a prosperous future. “This is an inter-generational project for greater African unity,” said Patel.

The first Tripartite Summit that was held on 22 October 2008 in Kampala, Uganda agreed on a programme of harmonisation of trading arrangements amongst COMESA-EAC-SADC, free movement of business persons, joint implementation of inter-regional infrastructure programmes as well as institutional arrangements on the basis of which the three RECs would foster co-operation.

It is expected it will take three years to get the FTA to full implementation phase. Leaders want to set up further ties with Asia in the process, but also spoke about the need to accommodate traditional bases, like Europe. Asia is now SA’s biggest trading partner, displacing Europe last year.

Inter-African trade needs to catch up significantly to Asian levels in order to ensure growth rates can ratchet up like they did in the Asian boom – and leaders at the conference spoke of the need to follow best of breed success stories in drawing up their own plans. Out of the 35% of the global trade pie in Asia, 15% is internal. In Africa, less than 1% of trade is internal.

South African ‘Emerging’-Market Stocks May Grow 15%, Sasfin’s Shapiro Says

By Sikonathi Mantshantsha – /www.bloomberg.com/ Jun 13, 2011

South African stocks that do business in emerging markets, including BHP Billiton Plc (BIL) and Kumba Iron Ore Ltd. (KIO), will rise 10 percent to 15 percent annually over the next three years, Sasfin Holdings Ltd. (SFN) said.

Faster economic growth in China, Russia and India will compensate for slower expansion in developed nations, David Shapiro, the chief executive officer of Sasfin’s securities business, which oversees 45 billion rand ($6.6 billion) of assets, said in an interview.

“Emerging countries will continue to grow and they continue to demand the commodities produced by the companies,” he said. “Investors need to focus on the individual companies and see what they do on the ground.”

South Africa has underperformed emerging markets, with the FTSE/JSE Africa All Share Index down 3.5 percent this year compared with a 2.3 percent slide for the MSCI Emerging Markets measure. Developing economies are forecast to expand 6.3 percent this year, outpacing a 3.2 percent worldwide average, the World Bank said on June 8.

Shares including British American Tobacco Plc (BTI), Exxaro Resources Ltd. (EXX), and Cie. Financiere Richemont SA, the maker of luxury watches, will also help lead “double-digit growth” in South Africa’s stocks gauge, Shapiro said. Wealthy Chinese consumers own 4.4 luxury watches on average and Richemont’s Cartier is the most preferred jewelry brand, according to the Hurun Wealth Report.

South African Coal Prices Climb to Highest in a Month on One-Off Purchase

By Alistair Holloway /www.bloomberg.com/- Jun 13, 2011

Coal export prices at South Africa’s Richards Bay terminal rose to the highest in almost a month as a single purchase pushed the average higher.

Prices at Richards Bay, the continent’s largest facility for shipping coal, rose 1.6 percent to $120.37 a metric ton in the week to June 10, according to data from Petersfield, England-based research IHS McCloskey. That’s the highest since the week ended May 13 and a 29 percent increase over the past 12 months.

“Prices did see a surprise spike on June 9, but this was more of a one-off deal” than sustained volume, Miswin Mahesh, an analyst at Barclays Capital in London, said by e-mail without naming the buyer. “We continue to see lackluster demand for South African coal as Asian buyers remain price sensitive and there is adequate supply for Europe from the U.S. and Colombia.”

Richards Bay coal exports may fall or stay at current levels as India enters monsoon season and European demand “shows little sign of life,” Mark Pervan, head of commodity research at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. said in a note today. Rains in India from June to September disrupt infrastructure and deliveries from ports.

China, the world’s biggest coal consumer, will meet its increased demand for the fuel by buying more Australian coal, Pervan said. The Asian country may have a 30- to 40-gigawatt power shortfall during peak summer demand, exacerbated by a drought in central part the country, he said. Lower reservoirs curb the amount of power that can be generated by water. A gigawatt can supply 1 million U.S. households on average.

China boosted coal imports 64 percent in the two months through April. The price of coal at the country’s Qinhuangdao port has jumped 29 percent in the past 12 months to $150.22 a ton, according to data from McCloskey.

Power-station coal prices at Australia’s Newcastle port, an Asian benchmark, were little changed in the week ended June 10. Coal prices at the New South Wales port were $119.35 a ton compared with $119.34 the previous week, according to the globalCOAL NEWC Index.

DA welcomes moves to reduce intra-Africa trade barriers

Jun 13 2011/-Sapa

Reducing intra-African trade barriers is essential to strengthen South Africa’s position as a springboard into African markets, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday.

The DA welcomed the decision to start talks on an African “Grand Free Trade Area” bloc, DA spokesman Tim Harris said in a statement.

“Such a free trade area has the potential to be a second major trade policy feather in President [Jacob] Zuma’s cap, following South Africa’s admission to the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-SA) last year,” he said.

“Our presence at the BRICS meetings indicates to investors that we are becoming a major player among emerging markets.

“But that status is linked to our potential to act as the gateway to Africa’s 800 million consumers.

“In this light, the successful reduction of intra-African trade barriers is essential to strengthen South Africa’s position as a springboard into African markets,” Harris said.

The trade and industry department’s (dti) trade negotiation team was highly regarded internationally, and the DA was confident they would be able to tackle the tariff barriers between the 26 countries involved in the Grand Free Trade Area.

It was critical, however, that the dti also made progress on addressing the additional barriers that often served as a greater trade impediment than tariffs.

Real and perceived corruption, non-existent transport infrastructure and security risks on transport routes would continue to block trade even once tariff barriers had been lowered.

South Africa had to push for commitments from other African governments to tackle these problems decisively as part of the negotiations, and be prepared to help these countries to do so.

The removal of both tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade would be hugely beneficial to all countries within the free trade area.

“We therefore call on the dti negotiators to convene a multilateral effort to tackle non-tariff reforms in the 26 countries concerned to support the negotiations of the African Grand Free Trade Area,” Harris said.

African leaders on Sunday signed an agreement to launch talks on the continent’s biggest free-trade bloc to boost the region’s economies.

The Grand Free Trade Area would cross 26 countries, stretching from Cape Town to Cairo, with a combined population of 700 million people.

SA lagging in African renaissance

June 13 2011 / www.iol.co.za/By Sim Tshabalala

 

As the advanced economies skulk out of the Great Recession, Africa’s emerging and frontier markets are thriving. Seven of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world over the next five years will be in sub-Saharan Africa.

There has been a lot of concern lately that South Africa is going to be left behind in Africa’s economic advance. This is a threefold concern:

First, that South African products and firms will be outcompeted by their international rivals in the continent’s fast-growing markets.

Second, that South Africa will lose its appeal as a beachhead for expansion into Africa because other countries – such as Kenya or Mauritius – will offer more attractive terms to foreign investors.

Third, that South Africa’s internal challenges, including its red tape and policy uncertainty, are preventing the domestic economy from being as competitive, as fast-growing and as job-creating as it could be.

There’s some truth behind the first two of these worries and a great deal of truth behind the third. We have a lot of work to do to enhance our competitiveness.

Admittedly, South Africa share’s of sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP has declined from about 40 percent in 2000 to 33 percent now, and it is true that our growth rate has not kept pace with the rest of the continent. But our “decline” should not be exaggerated. South Africa still accounts for about 80 percent of the continent’s output – Nigeria’s oil-dominated economy excluded.

Furthermore, the rise of Africa’s economies is something to rejoice over. Economic growth is not a race: if others start doing better, that does not mean that we are somehow losing. On the contrary, more prosperous neighbours will mean a more prosperous South Africa.

It’s equally true that the manner in which the Bric (Brazil, Russia, India, China) economies have ramped up their roles in African trade since 2000 has been a remarkable lesson in competitiveness for South African companies. Yet, adjusting for relative economic size, South Africa remains by far the most integrated economy in Africa’s pattern of trade. Last year, almost 16 percent of South Africa’s total exports were to African partners. Trade with the rest of Africa amounts to more than 7 percent of South Africa’s GDP but less than 2 percent of Bric GDP.

Moreover, stripping out mineral fuel exports from Africa’s trade pattern allows South Africa’s importance to the continent to shine through. Last year, about a third of all non-mineral intra-Africa exports were produced in South Africa. And this is a fast-growing business: intra-African trade has burgeoned by 20 percent a year since 2001.

There are many powerful multinationals taking a strong interest in African markets. But South Africa enterprises are more than holding their own. The involvement of South Africa’s corporations in Africa has grown exponentially over the past few years. According to Reserve Bank figures, total direct investment by South Africans in the rest of Africa has increased at least eightfold since 2001, while a browse through Who Owns Whom reveals that almost a hundred large South African corporations – from telecoms and construction firms to retailers and banks – have substantial operations in the rest of continent. South African products and services have become household names across Africa. For many large South African firms, rest-of-Africa markets make significant (10 percent or more) contributions to revenue. For example, MTN and Illovo earn the majority of their revenue in the rest of Africa.

The hard policy fact is that South Africa is unwilling to offer investment incentives on the scale of Mauritius or Kenya, and our transport and energy networks are under serious strain. But we have remarkable strengths. Our macroeconomic discipline remains solid. Admittedly, our physical infrastructure creaks, but it is now under urgent and ambitious repair, and it is still unrivalled on the continent for scale. We have a world-class financial sector. Our legal system, although often slower than it could be, is a skilful and reliable adjudicator of commercial matters.

Our skills pool seems small to us, but is huge by African standards. We understand deeply what it means to be African, but we have the confidence and sophistication to be equal partners with anyone from anywhere. All this adds up to an unanswerable case for South Africa’s prime role as the bridgehead into the continent. Take the recent Wal-Mart takeover of Massmart. We did not make it particularly easy – and still it came.

But although South Africa is not missing the boat, we are not doing nearly as well as we could.

Unhappily, too many South Africa businesses still rest on their laurels, aiming to preserve existing pockets of competitive advantage rather than to compete vigorously in new markets. This is why it is so important that we keep our domestic markets open to international firms and products.

The South African private sector and the state have regrettably jointly failed to rise to the challenge posed by the way in which the Bric nations, in particular, use diplomacy and the fervour of a common national purpose to enhance their access to African markets. The Bric countries systematically leverage high-profile state visits to usher in broader corporate linkages.

Corporate South Africa has frequently opted for a “go it alone” approach to international expansion. While our authorities have made visible and sterling efforts in economic diplomacy, in comparison with the Bric economies, our government has not yet devoted as much energy as it could to this endeavour. Consider, by way of comparison, that high-level delegates from Bric have visited Africa nearly 100 times in the past decade.

However, the biggest barriers to taking further advantage of Africa’s rapid growth are not the overwhelming power of our rivals nor a lack of energy or skill among South African companies and diplomats.

Our problems, unfortunately, run deeper. We are tripping ourselves up on increasingly impenetrable red tape; and confusing ourselves and others by sending mixed policy messages.

Well-designed laws and regulations are powerful forces for good. Intelligent and efficient laws and regulations set essential standards, enhance stability and shepherd companies and citizens into socially responsible behaviour. But much of South Africa’s laws and regulations are arguably not of this quality. The South African economy is under what often appears to be an inexorable deluge of some really unfortunate laws and regulations.

These days, some companies are even caught between one set of laws and regulations that forbids something and another that makes it compulsory. This red tape burden is very bad for growth. South Africa could increase its rate of GDP growth by as much as 2 percentage points annually if our regulatory systems could be improved to the average level of the best quarter of countries. That’s an extraordinarily large effect – one that could make an immense difference to our domestic and African competitiveness, to job creation and to growth.

Next, policy uncertainty: some parts of the government and the ruling party vigorously advocate more use of private-public partnerships; others want to expand state enterprises into new sectors. Some authorities send clear messages that they wish the currency were weaker; others point out that the current level is a welcome barrier against inflation. Some politicians hint at increased labour market flexibility; others move to tighten the rules. Some officials lament our skills shortages; others make it more difficult to bring skilled foreigners to this country to relieve immediate bottlenecks and train locals.

It is impossible for industrialists and commercial concerns to plan, invest and create jobs energetically and with confidence in such confusing circumstances.

We need stronger and clearer leadership on economic policy. South Africa needs a single directing economic vision and a unified, coherent policy thrust. Indeed, this could be the difference between economic growth in the region of 4-5 percent versus 6-7 percent in the next couple of decades.

The rapid growth of our continent is a great source of pride. At long last, Africa is taking its rightful place in the global family.

South Africa is not – yet – missing the boat. But if we could take the necessary steps to improve our national competitiveness, we would do so much more to support Africa’s development and to create fast growth, good jobs, and a more equitable society here at home.

l Sim Tshabalala is deputy CEO of Standard Bank.

Nation bids final goodbye to Struggle heroine

June 13 2011 /www.iol.co.za/By Baldwin Ndaba and Vuyo Mkize

The sun came out to warm what was to be a day of mourning and celebration of Albertina Sisulu’s life at Orlando Stadium.

One by one, state and foreign dignitaries, Sisulu relatives and mourners walked sombrely into the stadium along a long red carpet leading to the middle of the field.

Among the foreign dignitaries were Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Lesotho Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili, former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda and Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwele.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, one of the first to arrive at the stadium said: “Ma’Sisulu has been such a fantastic and beautiful ornament that God feels should come back and decorate heaven.”

ANC Youth League president Julius Malema, Irvin Khoza, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Jimmy Manyi, media personality Basetsana Khumalo and Joburg mayor, Parks Tau were among the first to arrive.

President Jacob Zuma, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa and SANDF officers stood in formation and welcomed foreign dignitaries and the Sisulu family as they arrived.

Zuma hugged each of the Sisulu relatives who were led by Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and her brother Max Sisulu, Speaker of the National Assembly.

The coffin was draped in an ANC flag. Once it arrived inside the stadium it was replaced by the national flag. SANDF officers carried the coffin and led the procession in a slow march inside the stadium.

Mbulelo Lolwana, who was part of the clergy’s procession led by Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba, was both nervous and excited to perform his duties at a state funeral.

“Laying to rest a Struggle leader and someone who helped set us free is a huge privilege and honour.

“It’s an honour and great feeling to serve in this funeral – hopefully I’ll grow up to be a great leader too,” he said.

Zintle Dube and Zwai Bala sang a love song in memory of Walter and Albertina Sisulu.

“I love you, Albertina. I love you, Walter” was the love story of ANC stalwarts Albertina and Walter Sisulu that played itself out at the Orlando Stadium.

On Saturday revered musicians Zintle Dube and Zwai Bala sang the love rendition in memory of the two at the funeral of Albertina Sisulu.

The lyrics were the words of a young Walter declaring his undying love for Albertina – played out just a few hours before she was finally buried next to him.

The duo ended their song with exchanges of love to the amusement of ANC president Jacob Zuma and his deputy Kgalema Motlanthe and the thousands who thronged the stadium.

One of the lyrics went: “Out of all the things I believe in, I believe in you.”

Zuma paid tribute to the Struggle stalwart.

“She was a leader in her own right – a founding co-president of the United Democratic Front and former Deputy President of the ANC Women’s League.

“We are bidding farewell to a national heroine who produced many cadres of the liberation movement, and shaped our political thought and action in many ways. We are paying tribute today not just to the wife of our beloved leader Isithwalandwe Walter Sisulu.”

What had been a quiet and solemn start to the funeral programme erupted as the crowd roared after Graça Machel read her husband, Nelson Mandela’s tribute to Albertina.

At the gravesite in Croesus cemetery, flower arrangements were perched on white stone pillars around the Sisulu grave – as pallbearers carried ma’Sisulu’s coffin next to her beloved husband Walter, who was buried in 2003.

Albertina’s send off on Saturday June 11 was the 47th marking of the day Walter, Mandela and other Rivonia Trialists were sentenced to life in jail.

It was also the celebration of the first anniversary of the successful hosting of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

A white marquee was reserved for the family and dignitaries who watched on as the guard of honour ushered in the coffin. The flag was folded, and the coffin was lowered.

An emotional Lindiwe could not hold back tears after throwing the sand on the coffin, and had to be comforted by family members.

As their final goodbye, relatives also threw their roses into the grave. – The Star

Millions set to gather for global day of prayer

June 11, 2011 /BY LYXAN TOLEDANES/ www.oaoa.com

Across datelines and country borders, millions of Christians are set to gather in prayer for the Global Day of Prayer on Pentecost Sunday.

Christians from many denominations will unite as they recite a prayer from 2 Chronicles 7:14, asking God to heal their distressed lands and countries.

It’s an exciting and awe-inspiring aspect for the Rev. Terry Pierce, who will gather with members of his church and several Odessa and Midland church congregations 6 p.m. Sunday at Life Unlimited Church.

“To know there are literally millions of people called around the world by God’s name has a tremendous power in it,” Pierce, pastor at the First Church of the Nazarene, said. “There’s not anything I’ve known about in my lifetime that has the potential of reaching fulfillment.”

The Global Day of Prayer began in 2000, when South African businessman Graham Power received a vision from God to call all Christian denominations to pray and repent at the Newlands Stadium in Cape Town, South Africa, according to the Global Day of Prayer website.

As word spread, the prayer day that began in Cape Town soon spread to the rest of South Africa and eventually all of Africa before spreading throughout the world. The Global Day of Prayer reached Odessa five years ago, Pierce said.

In 2010, Pierce said around eight to 10 churches were represented in the prayer gathering in the Midland-Odessa area, with around 150 people attending.

The Rev. Don Palmer of Life Unlimited, which is hosting the gathering, said that people of different denominations coming together to pray on Pentecost Sunday emphasizes the prayer’s message to God.

Palmer attested to the power of interdenominational prayer in 1991 after praying with several of Odessa’s religious leaders. Palmer said because the leaders prayed together, the city’s crime rate decreased by 40 percent.

“I am a very strong believer in corporate prayer. By corporate prayer, I mean crossing denominational lines, racial lines, about every line there is. There’s much power in this,” Palmer said. “This is an ecumenical movement. It’s not one denomination. Unity is a huge factor in God moving.”

Pierce said more and more Christians are gathering together for events like the Global Day of Prayer, because they are realizing that one denomination does not hold all of the answers.

“There are a lot of things about our individual doctrines that we’ll never agree on,” Pierce said. “But, there are so many things we do have in common, and we can come together so he (Jesus) can show himself in us.”

To emphasize churches working together, Pierce said Global Day of Prayer officials are also asking churches in the week leading up to Pentecost to form a 24-hour prayer chain. Each church in the chain will have members praying for 24 hours for God’s blessings.

As churches of different denominations unite in prayer, Palmer said they will realize prayer’s power in reaching God.

“Our country’s in a mess. When you look at all the things going on, God’s trying to get people’s attention,” Palmer said. “There needs to be some changes in our country. Prayer is one thing that changes things, especially when you can pray with people of different denominations.”

@OAlifestyle

What’s the Global Day of Prayer?

The Global Day of Prayer asks Christians of different denominations to gather in small groups on Pentecost Sunday to pray together and repent.

The Global Day of Prayer began in July 2000 in Cape Town, South Africa, by Christian businessman Graham Power, who said he received a vision from God.

On Pentecost Sunday, participants are asked to recite a prayer from 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Source: Global Day of Prayer.

TANZANIA:

Hillary Clinton honors victims of embassy bombings

Steven Lee Myers, New York Times/www.sfgate.com/Monday, June 13, 2011

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Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday honored those killed in the bombings of the U.S. embassies here and in Kenya in 1998, a day after the authorities confirmed the death of the feared al Qaeda operative who masterminded the attacks.

“We have not forgotten your losses,” Clinton told diplomats and employees at the embassy in Dar es Salaam, built after the attacks, which killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. She spoke after laying flowers in front of a stone memorial for the dead, accompanied by three Tanzanians who survived the bombing.

“And we have also not forgotten our pledge to seek justice against those who would commit such atrocities,” Clinton said.

The mastermind of the bombings, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, al Qaeda’s leader in East Africa, was killed in a late-night shootout Tuesday at a military checkpoint in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital. Somali and U.S. officials confirmed his identity Saturday, as Clinton arrived in Tanzania on a visit intended to highlight American aid programs and the progress she said the country had made.

Mohammed, also known by U.S. authorities as Haroun Fazul, was indicted for his role in masterminding the bombings and remained on the FBI’s most-wanted list, with a $5 million bounty for information leading to his capture. Rather than being the target of a military operation, he appeared to have blundered into a checkpoint in a part of Mogadishu controlled by the government and was killed in a firefight.

Somali officials said his identity had been confirmed through DNA tests while suggesting that they were helped by U.S. intelligence officials.

He was the third major al Qaeda figure killed in recent weeks, beginning with the death of Osama bin Laden in a U.S. raid in Pakistan last month. An American drone strike killed a senior operations commander for the group, Ilyas Kashmiri, in Pakistan this month.

“I know nothing can replace those who have been taken from us by such senseless violence,” Clinton said, “but I know justice was served and I hope that can give you some measure of comfort.”

Symbion Power Seeks to Expand Capacity in Tanzania, CEO Says

June 13, 2011/www.businessweek.com/By David Malingha Doya

June 13 (Bloomberg) — Symbion Power LLC, owner of a 120- megawatt power plant in Tanzania, is interested in expanding capacity in the East African nation and may make further acquisitions there, Chief Executive Officer Paul Hinks said.

The company, based in Washington D.C., is in talks with the Tanzania Electric Supply Co. about boosting output and any increase “will depend on Tanesco wanting us to produce more,” Hicks told reporters yesterday in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital. “We also hope to make some more acquisitions, but there is nothing in the pipeline.”

Symbion purchased the gas-fired Dowans Power plant in Tanzania last month. The acquisition is one of the measures that the Tanzanian government expects to help close a 260-megawatt power deficit in East Africa’s second-biggest economy, Energy and Mineral Minister William Ngeleja told reporters in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

Last week, the Planning Commission in the Tanzanian presidency published a five-year development plan that proposes spending 4.7 trillion shillings ($2.96 billion) to increase electricity output to 2,780 megawatts by 2015 from 1,000 megawatts currently.

The Tanzanian government also has $206 million available from a U.S. grant program to improve electricity distribution in the country, according to the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania. Symbion Power and Pike Electric Corp., based in Mount Airy, North Carolina, won contracts of $110 million and $18 million respectively from the Millennium Challenge Account to build substations and extend electricity distribution in Tanzania, the embassy said on its website.

Symbion Power said last week it signed an interim agreement with Tanesco to sell power to the state-owned utility. The company charges a rate of $4.99 per kilowatt hour, it said.

–Editors: Paul Richardson, Ana Monteiro.

United Stated, Ireland praise Tanzania’s national nutrition strategy

Pana /13/06/2011

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania – Hailing Tanzania’s efforts to improve the nutrition of infants and mothers, US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has challenged countries around the world to come up with national programmes that will end the global crisis of chronic under-nutrition. “We challenge countries to key benchmarks to make national progress in the 1,000 days effort to reduce maternal and child under-nutrition between September 2010 and June 2013,” Clinton said at a one-day roundtable discussion with Tanzania’s Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda, Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore and senior Tanzanian government officials.

Clinton and then-Irish Minister for Foreign affairs Michael Martin, joined by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and leaders from around the world, in September 2010 launched the 1,000 Days Initiative to focus attention on the 1,000-day window of opportunity from pregnancy to age two to save young lives from under-nutrition-related deaths.

Every year, under-nutrition causes over 3.5 million child deaths worldwide.

“Scientific insight motivated me and our Irish friends to launch the 1,000 days partnership last September as part of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement,” said Clinton.

“A healthy 1,000 days changes the cause of a child’s life. It also significantly benefits communities and even countries,” she argued, adding: “Healthy children will get off to a good start, will be more productive members of the workforce.”

On his part, Gilmore, recalling that hunger had a deep resonance with the Irish people, said: “Famine experience has shaped the values and principles that were embedded in our development programmes.”

It was for that reason, he explained, Ireland and the United States were working in partnership to lead efforts to combat under-nutrition around the world.

“We committed to 1,000 days of action to scale up nutrition. We committed to lead by influence and example. We are 264 days into that work,” Gilmore said, stressing his country’s pledge to support local communities, national governments and the international community to reduce maternal and child under-nutrition.

“It is essential that the SUN movement is now translated into action at country level, action that will transform the lives of millions and enable them to unleash their full human potential,” he said after Prime Minister Pinda outlined Tanzania’s strategy to improve nutrition for mothers, infants and young children.

Both the United States and Ireland emphasised that they would support country-led strategies that aim to scale up nutrition nationally in order to create economic growth and improve the lives of people.

“The US, along with other partners, has begun to think differently about our work in nutrition. The Obama administration has made a central point of our policies and programmes across a range of related issues,” said Clinton, announcing that the US has decided to increase nutrition funding in Tanzania this year by four times to nearly US$6.7 million.

“This funding will support public campaigns to make sure every parent, grandparent, all siblings and children know about what goes into nutrition. We stand ready to support nutrition programmes that provide high returns.

“We are focusing on the 1,000-day window of opportunity between pregnancy and two years of age, because we know conclusively from brain research that is the time when a child is cognition, intellectual and physical development is at most risk,” Clinton said.

According to the Secretary of State, the US was also devoting agricultural resources to developing country programmes with a greater impact on improving nutrition.

“I hope Tanzania will become a model for other nations seeking to reduce hunger and under-nutrition to create economic growth and improve people’s lives,” she added.

Meanwhile, Gilmore announced that, in addition to support in the agriculture and health sectors, Ireland will devote over US$2 million to nutrition programmes in Tanzania this year.

Premier Pinda said the Tanzanian government had committed itself to key issues on scaling up nutrition, starting with finalisation of implementation arrangements for the national nutrition strategy, which includes clear responsibilities for ministries, development partners, private sector and civil society.

He said the government would soon set up a high-level steering committee for nutrition and establish a designated budget line for nutrition, commencing in fiscal 2012/2013.

The government, he explained, has made its commitment clear to integrate nutrition into agricultural activities as outlined in the Tanzania Agriculture and Food Security Investment Plan.

In addition, it would speed up the establishment and deployment of nutrition focal points at district level, while it enforces the national food fortification standards for oil, wheat and maize flour that were approved in 2010.

World leaders last September agreed they would look at the progress of the SUN movement and 1,000 Days partnership after one year, when they meet again in New York.

Commitment to mining lauded

Monday, 13 June 2011/By The Citizen Reporter

African Barrick Gold told investors that the Tanzanian government has shown its ongoing commitment to the mining industry.The company tried to allay fears of reported changes to the tax regime for mining companies in Tanzania, after the minister for finance presented the 2011/12 Budget to the Dodoma Parliament on Wednesday.

While there were several initiatives put forward with relevance to African Barrick’s business in Tanzania, it said that, contrary to media reports, there were no measures announced addressing the tax status of mining companies in Tanzania.

“The budget speech is illustrative of the Tanzanian government’s ongoing commitment to promoting a balanced investment environment for mining businesses operating here in Tanzania,” says the firm’s chief executive, Greg Hawkins.

African Barrick pointed out proposals made for mining companies to put funds into a special escrow account for indirect tax payments, for a timely repayment of fuel excise duties.

“We have been working with the government and the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) to find a solution to this administrative issue and the new process should improve our working capital management going forward,” notes the company’s CEO.

Other measures were announced relating to investments in electricity infrastructure to address power shortage problems. This includes a commitment to help secure financing for the state utility company, TANESCO, for the longer term development of the national network.

Hawkins added: “We have put considerable efforts into achieving a workable framework for dealing with the issue of fuel excise duty recovery and it is encouraging to see this articulated in the solution proposed today.

“This builds on the increased level of governmental engagement we have seen following the recent unfortunate events at North Mara, as well as in dealing with the replacement of the SAG mill motor at Buzwagi, which is now installed and fully functional.”

African Barrick recently fell behind its targeted production run-rate, but it said it is confident it will make up the 15,000 ounces of lost gold production over the course of the year.

African Barrick Gold, the largest producer of the metal in Tanzania, rose the most in two months in London trading after dismissing concerns its operations in Tanzania may be affected by increased taxes.

African Barrick climbed 10 pence, or 2.4 per cent, to 425 pence by the 4:30 p.m. close, the biggest gain since April 8.

The shares dropped 7.8 per cent on Thursday after Tanzania’s national planning commission recommended the government consider a so-called super-profit tax on the mining industry.

“The tax treatment of our existing operations is, and will continue to be, that set out in the respective Mineral Development Agreements,” London-based African Barrick said in a statement last week, according to bloomberg.net

Share trading of African Barrick Gold fell the most in more than seven months, on Wednesday, at the London Stock Exchange over fears that Tanzania was going to set the tax similar to a levy proposed in Australia.

Before the tabling of the budget on Wednesday African Barrick Gold ’s stock slumped as much as 10 per cent to 404.1 pence.

This was considered the biggest decline since last October when AngloGold Ashanti, which also mines in Tanzania, dropped as much as two per cent in Johannesburg.

African Barrick operates four mines in the country that account for all of its gold production, while AngloGold runs the Geita mine.

Tanzania is the joint third-largest gold producer in Africa behind South Africa and Ghana, matching Mali’s 44.6 metric tonnes in 2010, according to research company GFMS Ltd.

Expectations were that royalty payments would have doubled from three per cent to six per cent or tax rising from 30 per cent to 40 per cent, according to experts.

In fact the increase was proposed in a five-year planning report that targets an annual average economic growth rate of eight per cent from 2011-12 to 2015-16, by the Planning Commission.

Australia, whose economy depends heavily on mining, has already a ‘super-profit” tax in place. Its planned 30 per cent tax on iron ore and coal profits will earn Australian $7.7 billion ($8.2 billion) in its first two years, the country’s Treasury Department said last month. The tax is scheduled to start in July 2012 after the laws are passed by parliament.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard in July scaled back the original proposal from a 40 per cent tax on all resource profits to a levy with a higher threshold that exempts most commodities.

KENYA:

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed’s death celebrated in Kenya and Somalia

Associated press guardian.co.uk,/ Sunday 12 June 2011

Somalia’s president congratulates troops who killed al-Qaida terrorist responsible for African embassy bombings

Kenyans and Somalis are celebrating the death of al-Qaida mastermind who planned East Africa’s deadliest terror attack in recent history and had eluded capture for 13 years, and Somalia’s president has congratulated the troops who killed him.

The death of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed – a man who topped the FBI’s most wanted list for planning the Aug. 7, 1998, U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania – was the third major strike in six weeks against the worldwide terror group that was headed by Osama bin Laden until his death last month.

Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed congratulated government soldiers for killing Mohammed on Tuesday at a Mogadishu security checkpoint.

“His aim was to commit violence in and outside the country,” Ahmed said, showing reporters documents and pictures he said government troops recovered from Mohammed.

Ahmed did not let reporters check the documents, but he held up photos he said were of Mohammed’s family and operational maps for the militants in Mogadishu.

Ahmed also held up a condolence letter he said Mohammed sent after bin Laden’s death. He didn’t say who it was addressed to, but said Mohammed co-authored the letter with a known Islamist leader in Somalia, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also honoured the victims of the bombings during a visit to the American compound in Tanzania.

She put flowers on a large rock just inside the main gate of the embassy, said a silent prayer and spoke with three Tanzanian employees who were at the embassy when it was bombed.

The attacks in Tanzania and Kenya killed 224 people. Most of the dead were Kenyans. Twelve Americans died.

One of the survivors, Douglas Sidialo, was blinded by the bombing in Kenya’s capital of Nairobi.

“God the creator has delivered Fazul Abdullah Mohammed to his destiny the same way he delivered Bin Laden to his destiny,” he said. “When you kill by the sword, bullets and bombs you die through a similar tragedy.”

Sidialo, who said he once wanted to skin Bin Laden alive, said Sunday he has “moved on” and now would have preferred to see Mohammed captured alive and asked to account for his decisions.

“Any death is not a cause of celebration,” he said.

Thousands were wounded when a pickup truck rigged as a bomb exploded outside the four-story U.S. Embassy building. Within minutes, another bomb shattered the U.S. mission in Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.

“Killing terrorists only breeds more terrorists. We must find a lasting solution to this menace,” said Sidialo.

Kenyan woman arrested with Sh12m Cocaine

BY BERNARD MOMANYI /www.capitalfm.co.ke/ Jun 12

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 12 – Police at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) have arrested a woman alleged to have been trafficking cocaine worth Sh12 million.

The Kenyan woman was nabbed on Saturday evening, soon after landing from Douala Cameroon.

“She was carrying 3.9 kilograms of Cocaine in her bag,” Head of the Anti-Narcotics Unit Sebastian Ndaru said. “We have intensified security checks at all the entries and exits and that is why we are able to detect such cases.”

Mr Ndaru said the woman was being detained at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport police cells waiting to be arraigned in court on Monday.

“She is being interrogated because we want to know the destination of these drugs. Is she a courier or the actual seller or distributor? Those are the issues we are trying to get from her before she is taken to court,” he added.

Mr Ndaru who heads the police unit charged with the responsibility of fighting drug traffickers and drug trafficking cases countrywide said they had intensified security checks and screening at all entries and exits.

“We are on a high alert because we want to ensure this issue of drug trafficking is an issue of the past, they will not escape at all,” he warned.

Last month, two Nigerians were arrested while trafficking Heroine worth Sh15 million at the same airport, raising fears of increased cases of drug trafficking at the region’s hub.

The suspects were enroute to Indonesia when they were arrested when they landed from Cameroon, police said.

ANGOLA:

Angola: Govt Restitutes Vehicles Lost During War

11 June 2011/AngolaPress

Lobito — At least 66 citizens from south Benguela province, who lost their vehicles whilst at the services of the state during the war, were refunded on Friday under the executive programme for the restitution of the destroyed cars.

In the ceremony, chaired by the Angolan minister of Transport, Augusto da Silva Tomás, the citizens contemplated expressed, through a message, their satisfaction at the fact that the government has a programme aimed at refunding the means lost during the war.

In the message, they stated that they did not think the government would have approved a programme to help citizens who lost their mobile means.

Benjamim Dombu, one of the beneficiaries, told ANGOP that the government never forgets its responsibilities.

On his hand, the governor of Benguela province, Armando da Cruz Neto, said that this process of restitution has laid the foundation for the increase of the capacity of transporting goods from the cities to the rural zones.

He advised the beneficiaries to preserve their vehicles in order for them to contribute to programmes of reconstruction and of combating poverty.

TAAG Angola Airlines purchases Boeing 777-300ER jet

Jun 12, 2011 / www.eturbonews.com

WASHINGTON – The national flag carrier of Angola, TAAG Angola Airlines (Linhas Aereas de Angola) is purchasing Boeing 777-300ER aircraft with GE90 engines assisted by an approximately $256 million long-term loan guarantee from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank). The aircraft will be used to expand TAAG’s intercontinental service provided through its all-Boeing fleet.

The guaranteed lender is the Private Export Funding Corporation (PEFCO) in New York, N.Y. HSBC Bank PLC in London, U.K., is the arranger.

A ceremonial signing took place today at Ex-Im Bank headquarters in Washington, D.C. Participants were Ex-Im Bank Chairman Fred P. Hochberg, TAAG Angola Airlines Chairman Dr. Pimentel Araujo and PEFCO Senior Vice President Richard Youtz. Also signing were Matinho Codo, charge d’Affaires of the Republic of Angola to the United States; Miguel Santos, director of International Sales for Boeing Commercial Airplanes; and Richard Hodder, director, Sub-Saharan Africa, Project and Export Finance, HSBC.

“Ex-Im Bank is pleased to add this transaction to our support for Boeing sales to TAAG Angola Airlines. Our loan guarantees have helped the airline to access affordable financing and build its fleet in order to provide expanded air service for Angola. The U.S. aerospace exports financed by this transaction also will support jobs at Boeing and its hundreds of suppliers across the United States,” said Ex-Im Bank Chairman Fred P. Hochberg.

“This transaction also adds to Ex-Im Bank’s significantly increased support for U.S. exports to sub-Saharan Africa in fiscal year 2011, which has more than doubled over the previous record set last year,” Hochberg added.

“Ex-Im Bank’s financing support of our acquisition of 777-300ER aircraft is critical to TAAG’s success in achieving a strongly competitive position in the Africa-to-Europe marketplace,” said Dr. Pimentel Araujo, chairman of TAAG Angola Airlines.

The transaction is structured as an asset-backed finance lease in which Ex-Im Bank retains a first-priority security interest in the financed aircraft. Ex-Im Bank’s guarantee is supported by a sovereign guarantee from the Angolan government.

Ex-Im Bank previously provided approximately $338.5 million in loan guarantees in 2006 to assist TAAG Angola Airlines in its purchase of B737-700 and B777-200ER aircraft.

TAAG Angola Airlines was founded in 1938 and is based in Luanda, Angola’s capital. The state-owned airline has operated flights both domestically and internationally and primarily serves the major cities of Angola and cities in Europe and South America.

AU/AFRICA:

Expert: Weaker Africans to Benefit From Free Trade

By DONNA BRYSON Associated Press / June 12, 2011

JOHANNESBURG June 12, 2011 (AP)

Weaker countries that fear being overwhelmed in a huge African free trade area will benefit from it in the long term, a development expert said Sunday as leaders of 26 governments launched negotiations to create the zone encompassing nearly 600 million people and a combined GDP of more than $800 billion.

In the short term, “you have to acknowledge the fact that within an FTA there are winners and losers,” Kennedy Mbekeani, an African Development Bank official, said in an interview. But he said as the zone helps boost the region’s economies, smaller members will benefit and find and develop sectors where they have competitive advantage.

“They should not be defensive, they should go in with an open mind,” said Mbekeani, recently appointed by his bank to help find ways to support the zone that stretches from Egypt down to South Africa and from Angola across to the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. The bank would like to see a continentwide free trade zone, and sees the south and east bloc — which accounts for half the continent’s population and GDP — as an important step in that direction.

In the early days, Mbekeani said, some countries will want to establish tariff and other barriers. He said barriers should be temporary, and while they are in place, countries should be strengthening their economies.

In a speech to the summit Sunday, the leader of Swaziland, King Mswati III, expressed some of the misgivings of countries like his, with among the smallest populations and weakest economies in the zone. Mswati called for negotiations to proceed cautiously.

“We should not compete, but complement one another so that we can all share in its success,” the king said.

Host South Africa is the continent’s economic powerhouse, but has high levels of unemployment and poverty. President Jacob Zuma, in his address to the summit, said the zone will help neighbors work together to alleviate poverty and build industrial capacity.

“There is no single country that can prosper on its own,” Zuma said.

The zone brings together members of the Southern African Development Community, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the East African Community. Officials envision members lobbying together for aid and investment, presenting coherent and integrated plans. Plans for the zone include joint projects to improve roads and rail networks and power supply.

Zuma said a first phase of negotiations on allowing the free movement of goods were expected to take three years under the framework he and other leaders signed Sunday. Future negotiations will tackle trade in services and other issues. He also commended planners for recognizing the need to build manufacturing capacity and infrastructure.

“Regional and continental infrastructure development is of fundamental importance,” Zuma said.

Rob Davies, South Africa’s trade minister, said the three trade blocs behind the free trade agreement have a combined population of 533 million, or 57 percent of the combined population of African Union member states, and a combined GDP of $833 billion, or 58 percent of the continent’s GDP.

“Given the fact that many African countries are too small to grow an internal market themselves, … enlarging a regional market of a reasonably sizable proportion is a very, very important step forward,” Davies said.

Foreign companies also will see opportunity in a larger market — EU and British observers attended Sunday’s summit.

Multinationals can send their goods duty free across African borders if they set up factories — creating jobs for Africans — within the zone. Mbekeani says the rules, yet to be worked out, should allow non-African companies to set up a factory in the zone to assemble products that might rely on inputs from elsewhere.

Mbekeani said it is hard to predict when the zone might resemble the European Union, with its single central bank and a currency used across borders. He pointed out that the EU has been a work in progress since the 1950s, and still encounters problems. One lesson Africa can learn from Europe, he said, is “not to move too fast.”

On the sidelines of the summit, members of the Southern African Development Community, or SADC, have been holding talks on crises affecting two of its members, Madagascar and Zimbabwe. A new round began Sunday evening as was expected to stretch late into the night.

SADC is trying to restore democracy in Madagascar, where a military-backed coup leader has held power since 2009.

In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe’s supporters are calling for polls before the year ends to replace a shaky coalition with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s party formed after violent and inconclusive elections in 2008. Mugabe has been accused of using violence and election fraud to hold onto power and independent groups have said the possibility of a vote has led to new attacks on Mugabe’s opponents.

Plans for joint EAC axle load limits in trouble

By CHRISTABEL LIGAMI /www.theeastafrican.co.ke/Posted Sunday, June 12

Kenya has broken ranks with its East Africa Community counterparts over plans to adopt harmonised gross vehicle weight limits by August.

Officials at the EAC Secretariat said Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Burundi have agreed on 56 tonnes axle load (weight per tyre).

In October 2008, President Mwai Kibaki issued a directive reducing the number of axles allowed on Kenyan roads from four to three, lowering the limit of the gross weight of a truck to 48 tonnes. Now Kenya says it can only go up to 52.

Burundi and Rwanda both have an axle load limits of 53 tonnes while Uganda and Tanzania have theirs at 56 tonnes. The variance could frustrate efforts towards integration.

Article 90 of the EAC Treaty provides for the adoption of common axle-load to facilitate transit transport in the region, which is a key pillar of integration.

Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi have harmonised their axle-load limits in line with those of Comesa, while Tanzania has harmonised its axle-load limits in line with the Southern Africa Development Community countries.

According to PADECO, an international development consulting company that recently conducted a study on transport infrastructure in the region, the EAC will save about $7 million per year if axle load is controlled. Also, that transit time for vehicles carrying goods from one partner state to the other will reduce by an hour.

EAC’s director of productive Services and Infrastructure Alfred Kisoro, said consultations on the implementation of a harmonised weight and axle limit are in top gear. “The lack of a harmonised axle load is among major factors impeding efficient transport in the region as vehicles on transit are delayed for several hours at weighbridges,” said Mr Kisoro.

In most East and Southern Africa countries, enforcement is hampered by the lack of harmonised rules on axle load limits and vehicle specifications. Also to blame for poor enforcement of the rules and regulations is the fact that most implementing authorities are ill-equipped for their work. On the other hand, corruption among public officials manning weighbridges has led to a lack of faith in the systems used in different countries.

Reports indicate that cross-border transport is three to five times more expensive in Africa than it is in Asia and Latin America. For example, truck transport from Mombasa to Kampala over a distance of about 1,100 km takes five days, of which 19 hours are spent crossing borders and at weighbridges.

EAC Secretary General Richard Sezibera described the efforts to harmonise vehicle weight limits as critical if EAC partner states are to improve transport infrastructure in the region. This, he said would spur efficiency and lower the cost of doing business.

“If we can ensure efficiency in the transport sector, we shall be able to reduce the cost of doing business by over 50 per cent which will boost the competitiveness of the East African Common Market,” said Dr Sezibera.

Flashad

Southern Africa’s bishops blast Swaziland’s ‘brutal’ regime

June 13, 2011 /www.catholicculture.org

Speaking on behalf of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban called for prayers for “meaningful change” in Swaziland.

“Swaziland is a country in turmoil, a country tearing itself apart from the inside by the actions of an uncaring head of state and a regime that is getting more brutal by the day,” he said following a visit to the landlocked nation, which is surrounded by South Africa. “Abuse by those in authority is the primary cause of the current crisis, in which dissenting views meet with brutality of the highest order.”

“Swaziland is currently in the throes of an unprecedented crisis,” he continued. “It has the highest HIV AIDS infection rate in the world (26%); the lowest life expectancy in the world (32 years); an unemployment rate of 40% and rising; an extreme poverty rate with 70% of its population living below the poverty line, which is set at under 6 dollars a day.”

Calling Swaziland’s government “a breeding place for corruption and greed,” the cardinal added that “Monies intended for alleviating the people’s suffering are diverted to support the lavish lifestyle of the monarchy and its cohorts, namely the king, his 13 wives, 30 children, other members of the royal family and hangers-on.”

The nation of 1.2 million is 5% Catholic, according to Vatican statistics.

Latest developments in Arab political unrest stretching from North Africa to the Persian Gulf

By Associated Press/ Published: June 12

Elite Syrian troops backed by helicopters and tanks regain control of a town where police and soldiers joined forces with the protesters they were ordered to shoot. Troops led by the president’s brother shell Jisr al-Shughour as the gunships hover overhead, clearing the way for scores of tanks and armored personnel carriers to roll in from two directions. The developments, and actions by opponents of the Syrian government, mark a major departure from what had been a largely peaceful protest movement. Among them: the discovery of a mass grave filled with uniformed bodies and the increasing willingness of mutineers and outgunned residents to fight back.

___

LIBYA

Resurgent rebel forces fight street by street to retake the Mediterranean port city of Zawiya, a prize that would put them within striking distance of the capital and cut off one of Moammar Gadhafi’s last supply routes from Tunisia. It appears the rebels may have been coordinating attacks on several fronts nationwide but poor communications make it impossible to confirm such reports from opposition voices outside Libya. The United Arab Emirates says it has recognized the Libyan rebels’ political group as the sole representatives for the country. The UAE moves comes just three days after hosting an international gathering on ways to aid the rebels and their Transitional National Council based in eastern Libya.

EGYPT

Egyptian authorities detain an alleged Israeli agent and are interrogating him on suspicion of spying and trying to influence protesters during the popular uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, a court official and the prosecution spokesman say. The prosecution spokesman says the suspect is being interrogated by the state security prosecution. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor says he is “totally unfamiliar” with the report.

BAHRAIN

A 20-year-old woman who recited poems critical of Bahrain’s rulers and later claimed she was beaten in jail is sentenced to a year in prison as part of the kingdom’s crackdown on Shiite protesters calling for greater rights. The ruling by a special security tribunal sends a strong message that Bahrain’s Sunni monarchy is not easing off on punishments linked to the unrest, despite appeals for talks with Shiite groups in the strategic Gulf island nation, which is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

JORDAN

Jordan’s king bows to popular demands for elected Cabinets but gives no timetable, saying that sudden change could lead to “chaos and unrest” in this country that has averted the turmoil seen in other Arab nations. It’s the first time that King Abdullah II has made such a concession to Jordanians, who have taken to the streets during six months of pro-democracy protests to demand a greater political say in this key U.S. Arab ally. Many Jordanians want the king to loosen his absolute grip on power, which includes appointing prime ministers and Cabinets.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Imbalance of power in Africa land deals

The Guardian,/Monday 13 June 2011

Your report that US universities and UK hedge funds are grabbing land in Africa (US universities in Africa ‘land grab’, 9 June) is disturbing but perhaps not surprising. Investors are benefiting from the massive imbalance of power between themselves and families living in poverty in rural Africa, who often lack legal titles to the land on which they grow food, let alone the means to demand consultation or challenge their eviction. At present, across much of the world, land-grabbing is all too easy and the protections for poor people are terrifyingly few.

There is no simple solution to this growing problem, but many measures that together could help. For instance, community land titling initiatives of the sort being supported in Africa by the International Development Law Organisation are valuable, as is expert legal advice to help governments and poor communities negotiate better land deals with foreign investors – as has happened in Liberia. Wealthy countries such as the UK should support such initiatives.

Given many governments’ widespread neglect – at best – of poor people’s most basic rights, we should also demand that foreign investors be totally transparent about the terms and human and environmental impacts of their land deals.

Rachel Baird

Policy and campaigns journalist, Christian Aid

Africa free trade plan must be finalised within three years

LINDA ENSOR and LOYISO LANGENI/www.businessday.co.za/Published: 2011/06/13

Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies says leaders had agreed that a $1-trillion free trade plan for Africa must be finalised within three years

The heads of state involved in the weekend summit of three economic blocs in Africa – Sadc, Ecowas and Comesa – have decided that member countries must finalise a free trade agreement within three years, Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies said today.

He was addressing a transport investors conference organised by the transport department to attract investors in massive infrastructure projects planned for the sector.

The so-called Grand Free Trade Area would straddle 26 countries, stretching from Cape Town to Cairo.

Mr Davies said the heads of state had instructed that the free trade agreement would have to have a development aspect because many of the constraints to trade on the continent were of an infrastructural or logistical nature.

SA hailed the meeting as a historic milestone that would give rise to sustainable economic development on the continent.

“We meet fully conscious of the collective responsibility we bear towards Africa’s founding fathers to create a single continental market of real economic value,” said President Jacob Zuma during the opening .

SA stands to make considerable gains with tariffs likely to be cut when the bloc is formed. South African companies in the financial services, telecommunications and retail sectors have operations throughout the three blocs.

Tariffs in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the East African Community are twice the Southern African Development Community’s average, a condition SA is hoping to change, especially since its exports to both groupings have doubled in recent years, Matthew Stern of DNA Economics said last week.

Mr Zuma told his peers to take responsibility for creating an environment conducive to foreign direct investment.

The proposed free trade area would merge three existing blocs covering central, eastern and southern Africa — Sadc, the East African Community and Comesa .

The blocs have a combined population of 590-million and a gross domestic product of $860bn a year according to Sindiso Ngwenya, general secretary of Comesa.

“Africa is growing, but there are risks. Urgent attention is needed to foster inclusive growth, to improve political accountability, and address the youth bulge,” said Mthuli Ncube, chief economist and vice-president of African Development Bank.

The International Monetary Fund expects Africa to grow faster than the global average in the coming years. Last year, six of the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies were in Africa.

The proposed bloc faces significant obstacles: tariff barriers; poor infrastructure; weak supply chains; and economies often reliant on natural resources.

The bloc would bring under one roof such diverse economies as those of SA, Egypt, Angola and Ethiopia.

It would also include countries facing or struggling to outgrow turmoil, such as Libya, Madagascar, Sudan and Zimbabwe.

Countries which fall outside the three blocs would be invited to join once a free trade area was established.

Africa’s top five emerging trade partners are now China (38%), India (14%), Korea (7,2%), Brazil (7,1%), and Turkey (6,5%).

“This ‘tripartite’ is blazing a path to be followed by other regions in Africa in realising the dream of a united Africa,” Mr Ngwenya said yesterday.

“There are a number of areas where, by building on the work already done by member and partner states, working regionally, we can expect quick wins,” he said.

King Mswati, leader of cash- strapped Swaziland and chairman of Comesa, said the trade agreement would bring bigger opportunities for the small, landlocked kingdom. “The integration of various regional blocs would no doubt improve trade within the African economies,” King Mswati said. “This cannot be achieved overnight, it could only be done in phases, as there is a lot of work that still needs to be done.”

“We are ready to negotiate (a free trade zone) in three years,” Pierre Nkurunziza, Burundi’s president and chairman of the East African Community, said. “We have no right to delay the establishment of a tripartite free trade zone any longer.”

Erastus Mwencha, deputy chairman of the African Union Commission said: “It is now well- documented that regional integration is one of the four factors that have sustained Africa’s growth in the last decade, as well as the quick and robust recovery from the recent financial crisis.” With Sapa-AFP

langenil@bdfm.co.za

Death of al-Qaeda’s East Africa boss an opportunity for AU

Jun 12, 2011 / By The Editor, The Times Newspaper

The Times Editorial: Barley five weeks after al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Ladan was executed by US Navy Seals, the terror network’s chief of operations in East Africa has been killed.

It emerged at the weekend that Fazul Abdullah Mahammed, Africa’s most wanted terrorist, was shot dead by chance, along with one of his henchmen, after refusing to stop at a roadblock in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, last week.

Mahammed, who is believed to have masterminded the deadly 1998 al-Qaeda truck bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, and his cohort appeared to have taken a wrong turning as they drove their vehicle to a meeting with members of al-Shebab, the Somali terror group that has caused so much mayhem in the anarchic Horn of Africa country.

Mahammed’s death will no doubt significantly disrupt al-Qaeda’s operations in East Africa.

Not only was he behind the embassy bombings, which killed 224 people, in 2002 he planned a suicide attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, which killed 15 people, and last year he was linked to a double bombing in Uganda – on the eve of the World Cup final – that killed 76 people.

While Africa might be a safer place after the demise of Mahammed, appalling socio-economic conditions in countries such as Somalia, where effective government ceases to exist outside the capital, are a fertile breeding ground for men of his ilk.

The African Union, supported by the United Nations, would do well to press home the advantage by beefing up the AU’s peacekeeping force in that lawless country and redoubling their efforts to find a lasting political solution to its conflicts.

While they are at it, renewed efforts should be made to support the transition to democracy in countries such as Tunisia and Egypt

Clinton to Meet African Union Officials

Peter Clottey /www.voanews.com/ June 12, 2011

A university professor says he expects U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to urge the African Union [AU] to be proactive in resolving conflicts on the continent at a meeting scheduled for the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, today [Monday].

“I expect that is going to be one of the central messages that Mrs. Clinton is likely to take to the African Union leadership,” said Professor Kabiru Mato, director of the political science department at the University of Abuja in Nigeria.

He says the continental body lacks what he described as the necessary tools to decisively deal with conflicts on the continent.

“The African Union itself is seriously handicapped in terms of its capacity to address very pressing continental problems that manifest themselves in terms of the protracted conflicts in some of the countries,” said Mato.

He also said the continental body lacks the capacity to “reinforce” decisions it often takes to resolve conflicts, including the ongoing crisis in Libya and the escalating tensions in Sudan.

While in Ethiopia, Secretary Clinton is scheduled to meet Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

She is also expected to focus on regional issues when she visits the African Union (AU) headquarters and meets with AU Chairperson Jean Ping, in addition to holding bilateral meetings.

She will also meet with civil society to draw attention to their innovative and enterprising work.

Mato said it is unclear if Secretary Clinton’s message will have the desired impact on the leadership of the Africa Union.

“About whether the message is going to result in any change of positive attitude or otherwise is what am exactly not sure about,” said Mato.

He also said that the African Union is in a dilemma over how to deal with the ongoing crisis in Libya. Mato rejected criticisms that the African Union has continually failed to resolve conflicts on the continent.

“The political will might be there, but the material as well as other logistics required to enforce whatever political decisions are taken…are absent,” Mato said.

He also attributed many African conflicts to endemic poverty.

Mato’s comments came after Secretary Clinton warned African leaders of a creeping “new colonialism” on the continent from foreign investors and governments, who she said are only interested in extracting natural resources to enrich themselves.

She also encouraged leaders of the continent to ensure that foreign projects are sustainable and benefit all of their citizens, not only elites.

Sudan leaders meet on border conflict

Sunday, 12 June 2011 /By AGENCE-FRANCE PRESSE / english.alarabiya.net

Addis Ababa Ethiopia

The leaders of north and south Sudan Sunday began seeking solutions to the crises in the border regions of Abyei and South Kordofan, one month ahead of the south’s independence.

Sudan President Omar Al Bashir and south Sudan leader Salva Kiir attended an official opening ceremony hosted by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, before heading to the African Union (AU) headquarters for the talks proper, an AFP reporter said.

The talks are also attended by former South African president Thabo Mbeki, who heads an AU team trying to resolve outstanding issues between north and south ahead of southern independence on July 9.

Malik Agar, head of the northern branch of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), the ruling party in the south, said the hope was to find a “solution to big problems.”

“We are here for talks to resolve serious issues,” he told AFP.

An AU statement prior to the talks said they would “focus upon key issues facing Sudan at this historic juncture.”

“High on the agenda is the issue of Abyei, including the withdrawal of armed forces from the area and the dispatch of an African-led international mission to provide security, to provide conditions for the speedy return of displaced people and steps towards a final settlement of the status of the area,” it added.

Representatives of the Sudanese government and leaders of the SPLM from the “two areas” of Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan will also meet Sunday and Monday, it said.

“This high-level meeting will focus on the political and security challenges of the two areas including the immediate challenge of an end to the armed conflict that has recently erupted in Southern Kordofan State.”

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who will arrive in the Ethiopian capital on Monday as part of her Africa tour, will meet with Mr. Kiir but not with Mr. Bashir, an aide said.

Mr. Bashir has been charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague but refuses to recognize his authority, though his travels have been severely restricted.

Heavy clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and northern members of the former southern rebel army have raged all week across Southern Kordofan, the north’s only oil-producing state, with intense fighting in and around the state capital Kadugli.

 

The violence in central Sudan has poisoned the atmosphere of north-south negotiations that have been taking place in Ethiopia, where the country’s two leaders were due to meet on Sunday to try to resolve their differences.

The South Kordofan conflict erupted less than three weeks after northern troops occupied the contested Abyei border region nearby, in response to an attack on a convoy of SAF troops and UN peacekeepers.

The violence comes just a month before south Sudan is due to proclaim formal independence from the north.

UN officials estimate more 100,000 people, mostly southern Dinka Ngok farmers, fled the northern army’s occupation of Abyei last month, while up to 40,000 people have been displaced by the fighting in Kadugli alone.

Madagascar’s Rajoelina Rejects SADC Plan to Let Rival Ravalomanana Return

By Hannah McNeish /www.bloomberg.com/- Jun 13, 2011

Madagascar’s government, led by Andry Rajoelina, will reject a South African Development Community resolution that it should allow former president Marc Ravalomanana to return from exile.

“We will not sign an amended roadmap,” Harry Rahajason, minister of communications, said by phone from Antananarivo, the capital. “We’ve already got our constitution. We agreed to take part in SADC talks in this spirit.”

The Indian Ocean island nation’s transitional government will keep to a previous SADC-proposed agreement that left Rajoelina as head of a transitional government and called for Ravalomanana to remain in South Africa until after elections, he said.

A SADC heads-of-state summit in Johannesburg yesterday endorsed the roadmap with some changes, including that Ravalomanana be allowed to return to Madagascar. Rajoelina ousted Ravalomanana as president with the help of the military in 2009, leading to the country’s suspension from SADC and the African Union, and resulting in donors stopping aid that made up two-thirds of state revenue. SADC consists of 15 southern African states, including South Africa.

The refusal to agree to the latest plan after two years of SADC mediation may extend the political crisis and discredit elections expected to take place within a year. Madagascar, with a $9 billion economy, is the world’s largest vanilla grower, while oil, nickel and titanium products have also attracted investor interest.

EU Sanctions

Madagascar’s three main opposition political groups, led by former presidents Didier Ratsiraka, Albert Zafy and Ravalomanana, didn’t agree to the previous roadmap.

“Last night the SADC unilaterally amended their own roadmap,” Rahajason said. “The regional mediators have nothing to impose on Madagascar,” he said.

The decision to change an agreement that was signed by eight of 11 political parties may lead to those parties pulling out of SADC mediation, Rahajason said.

Rajoelina has reneged on various power-sharing agreements over the past two years, and his government isn’t recognized by the United Nations Security Council, European Union parliament said.

The EU and UNSC should “impose and extend sanctions on the regime until the political crisis is resolved,” the EU parliament said in a statement on its website.

Madagascar’s ariary has weakened 3.4 percent to 1,935.50 against the dollar since the start of 2009, according to Bloomberg data.

Africa’s progress belongs to Africa / Overseas Development Institute – ODI

Source: African Press Organization /www.modernghana.com/13062011

‘Progress in African development happens best when it is lead by African states and citizens’ is the message from a new global research project released by the Overseas Development Institute. The Mapping Progress report identifies the crucial role of effective leadership, smart policies, proper institutional foundations and international partnerships in driving development and calls for a new outlook on development. The report highlights star performers, surprise performers and potential performers across the continent for their progress in various areas including growth, agriculture, healthcare, education and sanitation.

ODI Director Alison Evans said:

“Looking across all of these tremendous examples we can see that the most transformative and sustainable developments have occurred when the commitment to change has come from African countries and communities.

“This has happened in a number of ways – from the quality of political and technical leadership, to the quality and quantity of financing to specific innovations in delivery.

“The world’s perception of Africa needs to change and we hope that this report will show a continent making great strides towards a brighter future.”

The drivers of development

Smart leadership – Transformation in Ghana, Rwanda and Brazil would not have happened without Presidents Rawlings, Kagame and Lula.

Smart policies – Progress has involved a changing role for government away from controlling (markets and prices) to facilitating and enabling (investment and production), and, in the best cases empowering citizens. Policies have been built on clear vision or national strategy and have been evidence based.

Smart institutions – In many countries, progress has been achieved through governance reforms that have decentralised and strengthened local institutions. Reforms have not only led to improved service delivery but also enabled more effective revenue collection and management of public finances.

Smart friends – Effective international partnerships can be important catalysts for progress. These partnerships can take various forms beyond aid, including the transfer of knowledge and technology, international trading relations and diplomatic interventions.

Development Progress Storiesinclude:

Ghana (Star performer)

Government-led reforms of the domestic cocoa market have driven a tremendous record of agricultural growth – averaging over 5% for the last 25 years. Ghana is on track to meet Millennium Development Goal 1 – halving rates of poverty and malnutrition by 2015. Having raised food production per capita by more than 80% since the early 1980s, Ghana is largely self-sufficient in staple foods.

Star performers, such as Ghana, have shown sustained progress for more than two decades. By diversifying products and services they have added considerable value to national performance. Star countries display a more mature level of development and are now beginning to face challenges more common to developed countries such as environmental degradation, aging populations and non-communicable diseases. Other Star perfomers include Bhutan, Thailand, Brazil and Uganda.

Ethiopia (Surprise performer)

Since emerging from civil war in 1991, Ethiopia has significantly improved access to education for its population. Primary school enrolment rates have risen by more than 13 million since 2005. A sustained Government commitment matched by increased spending, allowing the removal of school fees, has triggered this astonishing rise. Other surprise performers are Rwanda, Cambodia, Laos and Somaliland.

Surprise performers such as Ethiopia have delivered progress against the odds, often recovering from crisis and war or dealing with ongoing conflict, challenging political situations and highly inaccessible topography. The surprise elements of progress in these countries often lie in the speed of recovery, sometimes allowing them to eclipse previous levels of development.

Malawi (Potential performer)

Malawi has the potential to deliver significant progress towards its development over the next decade according to a newly published global research project. The country’s recent progress in providing economic stability has begun to have a positive effect on development indicators, placing Malawi in the top 20 performers on several of the Millennium Development Goals. Growth of over 7% per year for most of the last decade and a steady fall in rates of inflation suggest a bright future for the country. Potential performers such as Malawi have shown recent examples of progress, often achieved over a short period of time. Progress may be limited to individual sectors or regions. Whilst these countries have already produced impressive results they now need to sustain them into the future. Other potential performers include Benin, Malawi and Burkina Faso.

Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of the Overseas Development Institute

Terrorist leader killed in Somalia carried plans for bombing the West

From Monday’s Globe and Mail /Published Sunday, Jun. 12, 2011

GEOFFREY YORK

JOHANNESBURG—

Suspected al-Qaeda terrorist leader Fazul Abdullah Mohammed was carrying “very specific” plans for bombings in Western countries when he was killed by Somali soldiers near Mogadishu, a Somali intelligence official says.

Mr. Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 1998 bombings that killed 224 people at two U.S. embassies in East Africa, was shot dead when his vehicle apparently blundered into a military checkpoint by mistake.

He was believed to be the senior al-Qaeda commander in East Africa, and for more than a decade he was Africa’s most wanted fugitive, with a $5-million bounty on his head. He was a bomb-making specialist who was suspected of involvement in a series of recent bombings, including the explosions in Uganda last July that killed 79 people who were watching the World Cup final on television.

After he and another suspected militant were shot dead in an exchange of gunfire at midnight at an army checkpoint near Mogadishu last Tuesday night, he was originally identified as a Somali-Canadian who fought for the militant al-Shabab group under the nom-de-guerre “Abdurrahman Canadian.” Somali sources are now uncertain why he was linked to Canada, but they say he was carrying a South African passport, not a Canadian passport.

After the shootout, Somali soldiers discovered that his SUV contained a cache of weapons, mobile phones, video cameras, laptop computers, photos, about $40,000 in cash, and Qaeda-linked documents in English and Arabic. “By the next morning, it was clear that he was a very, very important person,” said the Somali government intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Mr. Mohammed’s fingerprints and DNA were sent to Nairobi, where his identity was eventually confirmed.

“This is going to be huge,” the Somali intelligence official said. “The documents we got from him are about plans not only in Somalia but throughout the world. I think we’ve saved a lot of lives.”

The bombing plans in Mr. Mohammed’s possession were “very specific” and included targets in the West, the official said. “We will share these with all the relevant agencies.”

Mr. Mohammed was a master of disguise and forgery who reputedly spoke five languages and used 18 different names, along with three different dates of birth on his multiple passports. Born in the Comoros Islands off the eastern coast of Africa in the early 1970s, he reportedly trained at al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

At a young age, he is said to have participated in the “Black Hawk Down” battle in which 18 U.S. soldiers were killed in Mogadishu in October, 1993. He was allegedly the chief planner of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. And he was a key organizer of the bombing of a Kenyan beach resort in 2002, which killed 16 people, along with an attempted missile attack on an Israeli passenger jet at the same time. He was reportedly appointed by Osama bin Laden as the head of al-Qaeda operations in East Africa.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the death of Mr. Mohammed was “a just end” and “a significant blow to al-Qaeda, its extremist allies, and its operations in East Africa.” As she placed flowers at a memorial to the embassy victims in Dar es Salaam on Sunday, she noted the recent deaths of Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Mohammed. “I know justice was served and I hope that that gives you some measure of comfort,” she told those at the memorial service.

A senior U.S. intelligence official, quoted by the Long War Journal, described Mr. Mohammed as one of al-Qaeda’s “most dangerous and most capable leaders.” The official added: “He has been at the top of our list for some time.”

A spokesman for al-Shabab confirmed that Mr. Mohammed was one of the men killed in the checkpoint shootout last week, according to Agence France-Presse.

Somali officials say Mr. Mohammed was carrying a South African passport under the name “Daniel Robinson.” The passport was issued on April 13, 2009, and it contained visa stamps indicating that he had been in South Africa as recently as March of this year, the officials said.

The South African government has been widely criticized for corruption that allows criminals to easily obtain fraudulent South African passports. One source said a fake South African passport can be obtained in three days with $1,000 in bribes.

With a report from Colin Freeze in Toronto

Longest Total Lunar Eclipse in 11 Years Occurs Wednesday

SPACE.com Staff/Date: 13 June 2011

The longest total lunar eclipse since July 2000 will occur on Wednesday (June 15), with skywatchers in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Australia in prime position to witness the lunar treat.

The event is the first lunar eclipse of 2011 and one of two total lunar eclipses this year. The eclipse, which will occur during June’s full moon, will begin at 1:24 p.m. EDT (1724 GMT) and last until 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT), but it will not be visible from North America.

For observers in regions where it will be visible, the eclipse could offer an amazing sight: the period of totality will be 100 minutes. In the last 100 years, only three other eclipses have rivaled the duration of totality of this eclipse, according to SPACE.com’s skywatching columnist Joe. Rao. The last lunar eclipse of similar length occured on July 16, 2000 and lasted 107 minutes.

“The entire event will be seen from the eastern half of Africa, the Middle East, central Asia and western Australia,” stated the NASA Eclipse Website of the June 15 event. “Observers throughout Europe will miss the early stages of the eclipse because they occur before moonrise.”

Total eclipse of the moon

Total lunar eclipses occur when the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, casting a deep shadow through which the moon then travels through. [Blood Moon: 2010 Total Lunar Eclipse Photos ]

“From the Earth, the moon will appear to darken and turn a deep red before eventually returning to normal,” explained NASA officials at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in an advisory. “When light from the sun goes by the side of the Earth, it passes through a long and thick layer of Earth’s atmosphere. Shorter wavelengths of sunlight, like blue, are scattered by the atmosphere, so by the time the light has finished its trip to the moon, more of the longer wavelengths, like red, are left over. On the Earth, the same thing happens at sunset as the ground you stand on gradually passes into night.”

Unlike their solar counterparts, lunar eclipses are safe to view without any special protective glasses or equipment.

Countries in prime viewing position

According to NASA’s eclipse website, Wednesday’s total lunar eclipse will be visible during its peak to skywatchers throughout Europe, with the exception of Scotland and northern Scandinavia.

In eastern South America, Western Europe and the west coast of Africa, the eclipse will occur Wednesday evening, according to Rao. Skywatchers in eastern Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina have a chance to see the lunar eclipse during its total stage, NASA officials said.

But for some countries, the event will be visible in the wee hours of Thursday (June 16) because the eclipse’s region of visibility crosses the International Date Line. The early Thursday viewing times apply to observers in central Siberia, eastern Mongolia, northeast China, and most of Japan, Korea, New Guinea, eastern Australia and New Zealand, Rao explained.

“Eastern Asia, eastern Australia, and New Zealand will miss the last stages of eclipse because they occur after moonset,” the NASA Eclipse Website advisory stated.

Wednesday’s lunar eclipse is part of a rare three-eclipse series of events occurring in June and early July. It follows the June 1 partial solar eclipse and comes before another partial solar eclipse, which will occur on July 1 but only be visible from a remote region near Antarctica.

The second lunar eclipse of 2011 will occur on Dec. 10 and will also be a total lunar eclipse. That even should be visible from the western United States and Canada.

If you plan to observe or photograph the total lunar eclipse of June 15 and would like to share your comments and images with SPACE.com for a possible story or image gallery, contact Managing Editor Tariq Malik at: tmalik@space.com.

Catholiques et musulmans marchent ensemble au Sénégal

www.la-croix.com/ 8/6/11

Le sanctuaire marial de Poponguine, près de Dakar, accueille pour la Pentecôte la 123e édition de son pèlerinage.

Les chefs musulmans participeront lundi à une célébration avec 100 000 fidèles.

Le dialogue interreligieux reste vivant au Sénégal, malgré les propos du président Wade contre les catholiques en 2009.

 

Assis devant une mosquée, dans la rue principale de Poponguine baignée par le soleil, Ousmane Faye affiche un calme que rien ne semble devoir altérer. Pas même les 100 000 personnes qui vont affluer dès samedi dans le sanctuaire marial pour la 123e édition du pèlerinage marial organisé chaque année pour la Pentecôte.

 

D’ailleurs, est-il concerné par cet événement phare de la communauté catholique sénégalaise, lui le représentant de l’imam dans cette petite station balnéaire bordée par l’océan, à 70 kilomètres de Dakar ? La question lui arrache un petit sourire, en forme d’évidence.

 

« Mais le pèlerinage, c’est pour tout le monde ! Chacun prie dans sa religion car elles viennent toutes de Dieu. » Un démenti aussi clair qu’assuré aux paroles du président Abdoulaye Wade, qui avaient ébranlé le légendaire modèle sénégalais de tolérance religieuse, en déclarant en décembre 2009 que les « chrétiens prient un homme qui n’est pas Dieu ». Les chrétiens représentent 5 à 10 % de la population.

 

Les propos du président ont choqué

Théodore Sene, menuisier de 52 ans et président du conseil paroissial de Poponguine, ne cache pas que les mots présidentiels l’avaient aussi « choqué » à l’époque. Le cardinal Sarr, archevêque de Dakar, avait alors fait part de sa ferme réprobation.

 

Dans la capitale sénégalaise, aux abords du palais présidentiel, des débordements de violence avaient opposé de jeunes catholiques aux forces de l’ordre. D’autres témoignent avoir été « blessés » par ces paroles, même s’ils les attribuent à un « dérapage » plus ou moins volontaire d’Abdoulaye Wade.

 

La construction à Dakar du Monument de la Renaissance africaine – statue pharaonique de 52 mètres surplombant l’océan dont le coût est estimé entre 15 et 23 millions d’euros – lui attirant de vives critiques, le chef de l’État aurait cherché à souder les musulmans en s’en prenant verbalement aux catholiques.

 

« D’abord, il avait cherché à diviser les marabouts. En vain. Il a donc tenté d’opposer chrétiens et musulmans mais ce n’est pas possible », s’indigne l’abbé Jacques Seck, figure tutélaire du dialogue islamo-chrétien.

 

« Nous avons tous les même sang »

Pourtant, les esprits ont manqué de s’enflammer. « À Poponguine, les jeunes du village étaient en particulier fougueux, ils étaient prêts à prendre le car pour Dakar. Heureusement, les frères de Saint-Jean, qui animent le sanctuaire, nous ont beaucoup calmés », raconte Théodore Sene.

 

La communauté musulmane elle-même a joué un grand rôle d’apaisement. « Ils se sont désolidarisés de leur président et nous ont réconfortés », reprend le responsable catholique, qui donne la même explication que tout le monde à cette volonté de concorde.

 

« Ici, la différence religieuse, ce n’est pas un problème car nous la vivons tous au quotidien. Moi-même, j’habite dans le même carré que l’imam du village. Dans toutes les familles catholiques, quelqu’un a un parent musulman. Y compris un fils ou une fille. Chacun prie comme il veut. On ne peut pas séparer les familles, nous avons tous le même sang. »

 

Dialogue avec les chefs musulmans

Vicaire général de l’archidiocèse de Dakar, curé de la paroisse Saint-Paul de Grand Yoff, dans un quartier très populaire de la capitale, Alphonse Seck fait le même constat : « Quand je regarde ce qui se passe ailleurs, je rends grâce pour la situation sénégalaise. Il y a bien quelques problèmes d’ostracisme pour l’attribution d’emplois et de logements mais la cohabitation, au sein des familles, se passe bien. L’incident provoqué par le président Wade est vraiment derrière nous. L’islam, dans son ensemble, n’était pas concerné. »

 

De même qu’il se souvient encore de l’accueil réservé par l’ensemble des chefs musulmans à Jean-Paul II lors de sa visite en 1992 à Dakar comme à Poponguine, le P. Seck a été témoin, près de vingt ans plus tard, de leurs visites au cardinal Sarr pour l’assurer de leur soutien.

 

Tout aussi naturellement, les responsables du culte musulman seront présents, en ce lundi de Pentecôte, au sanctuaire de Poponguine pour la messe dont l’affluence record met les autorités en émoi.

 

« Les catholiques sont intouchables »

« Cette communion avec nos frères musulmans est dans nos racines », indique Marie-Rosalie NDiaye, 24 ans, présidente de la coordination des jeunes de la paroisse de Grand Yoff qui effectueront cette année le pèlerinage. Au total, 2 000 adolescents et jeunes adultes – soit la moitié du nombre total de jeunes pèlerins – partiront de Dakar dès dimanche à 5 heures du matin pour relier la côte près de 12 heures plus tard, sous un soleil de plomb.

 

Marie-Rosalie a accompagné des journalistes musulmans le long de la route l’an dernier. « Depuis le cardinal Hyacinthe Thiandoum (NDLR : archevêque de Dakar de 1962 à 2000 et natif de Poponguine), l’Église sénégalaise a toujours prôné le dialogue islamo-chrétien », rappelle la jeune femme, qui dit ne pas se reconnaître dans la réaction violente de ses compatriotes en décembre 2009.

 

Son collègue Jean-Paul Nunez, 27 ans, tout aussi impliqué dans l’organisation du pèlerinage de Poponguine, abonde dans son sens. « Au Sénégal, les catholiques sont intouchables », affirme cet éducateur spécialisé, dont la mère s’est mariée avec un musulman : « Je crois qu’Abdoulaye Wade a compris qu’on ne peut pas attenter aux valeurs fondamentales de notre pays. »

 

BRUNO BOUVET, à Dakar et Poponguine (Sénégal)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UN/AFRICA:

U.N. Pulls Staff from Sudanese City

By JOSH KRON/www.nytimes.com/Published: June 12, 2011

NAIROBI, Kenya — The United Nations has begun pulling nonessential staff members from the restive Sudanese state of Southern Kordofan, even as it sends more peacekeepers there to protect civilians, officials said Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, met with his southern counterpart, Salva Kiir, in Ethiopia, alongside Ethiopia’s president and Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, to begin talks aimed at resolving the border dispute.

Heavy fighting erupted in Kadugli, the capital of Southern Kordofan, a week ago, one of two border areas where the northern Sudanese government has deployed troops in recent weeks ahead of a planned split of north and south into separate countries next month.

Humanitarian officials said Sunday that the situation in Kadugli was deteriorating.

“The troop capacity is stretched to the limit,” said Hua Jiang, a spokeswoman for the United Nations in Sudan. “The troops that we have there are not enough to secure the whole area.”

She said a contingent of Bangladeshi peacekeepers had been brought to the region from elsewhere in the country.

The United Nations compound in Kadugli seemed to be at risk. A United Nations humanitarian official said that the compound had five days of food rations left, and a security report issued Saturday said the peacekeeping force “can no longer guarantee the safety of some of its national staff.”

The report said that up to 60 staff members were stranded in central Kadugli, and the local government had not allowed the United Nations to take them to its compound on the city’s outskirts.

Thousands of city residents have crowded a displaced persons camp near the compound. At least 6,000 were believed to be there on Sunday, and the protection was said to be spotty.

United Nations officials said they could not rule out reports that people had been abducted from the camp.

A report by the United Nations humanitarian agency, dated Friday, said security officers in Kadugli had seen two trucks of blindfolded men being transported. It was not clear who the men were, where they were being taken or by whom.

At the same time, the United Nations has been trying to evacuate its own personnel.

On Saturday, a convoy of vehicles carrying nonessential international staff members was forced to turn around, United Nations officials said, when northern Sudanese soldiers stopped the vehicles and the Egyptian peacekeepers assigned to protect them abandoned the convoy.

A convoy with 30 international staff members is to try again to leave Kadugli on Monday.

Evacuating local staff members has faced other obstacles. The northern Sudanese government had prohibited all Sudanese citizens working with the United Nations from leaving.

On Saturday, the United Nations moved about 80 percent of its Sudanese staff out of Kadugli secretly, using commercial vehicles, according to a security report. There are approximately 380 United Nations staff members in Kadugli, a public information officer said.

Over the last several days, fighting in Southern Kordofan — a northern Sudanese state with a large and militarized population aligned with southern Sudan — has spread to more than half of the state.

Since the fighting began on June 5, humanitarian officials estimate at least 40,000 people have fled Kadugli, a city surrounded by the Nuba Mountains, where thousands of ethnically African locals, aligned toward southern Sudan, remain armed.

The Nubans fought alongside the ethnically African southern Sudanese during their decades-long civil war with the predominantly Arab north. But while southern Sudan is scheduled to declare independence on July 9, in accord with a 2005 American-brokered peace agreement, Southern Kordofan and neighboring Blue Nile State will remain part of the north.

The northern Sudanese army invaded the contested border region of Abyei last month, forcing nearly 100,000 southern Sudanese to flee.

US criticised over climate change stance at UN talks

The Irish Times /Monday, June 13, 2011

FRANK McDONALD, Environment Editor

AS TWO new reports warned that agriculture and food production is likely to be severely hit by global warming, the latest round of United Nations climate talks in Bonn is making little or no progress in dealing with substantive issues.

“Some say that we are discussing the agenda and getting bogged down with procedural matters,” said Argentina’s ambassador, Jorge Argüello. “Make no mistake: this is not a procedural negotiation. The negotiations are highly political . . .” He said the Bonn talks, which continue until Friday, would determine “what remains on the negotiating table” in the run-up to December’s UN climate change summit in Durban, South Africa. “We cannot go home empty-handed”, he warned.

Mr Argüello, chairman of the G77 group of 134 developing countries to which China is also affiliated, said: “What is at stake is the chance for Durban to mean we get back on track in order to preserve the environment.”

He noted that the agreement reached at last year’s UN climate summit in Cancún, Mexico, was “to continue to work on the pending issues, some of which are key for progress this year – not just for developing countries but for the majority of the parties”.

In a veiled reference to the United States and others, Mr Argüello said developing countries were faced in Bonn with “inflexibility from some parties who are determined to prejudge the results of Durban without even the chance for a dialogue on the substance.” He said all 194 parties involved in the talks had made commitments at the 2007 summit in Bali, Indonesia, but some parties “are now trying to preclude any chance of completing the negotiations from the start, by going back on those commitments.”

However, there was a “real will from the G77 and China to complete the mandate we have and to extend the international climate regime for the next five years, including a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol” after it expires at the end of 2012.

Ilana Solomon, climate expert with ActionAid, said the US delegation in Bonn “refuses to discuss” concrete ways of raising money to help poor countries cope with climate change, and this risked turning the much-anticipated “Green Climate Fund” into an “empty vault”.

She said it was “simply unacceptable” for the US to backtrack on secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s commitment at the Copenhagen summit in 2009 to work with others to raise $100 billion (€69.7 billion) a year in climate finance for developing countries by 2020.

At Cancún, developed countries, including the US, reaffirmed their commitment to this goal.

“Now, however, the US is saying that it is not prepared to talk about how to generate that finance within the ongoing UN process,” Ms Solomon said.

She said there were “multiple ways” to generate adequate and sustainable public financing for climate change”, including taxing financial transactions, aviation and shipping, using International Monetary Fund special drawing rights or “redirecting” fossil fuel subsidies.

According to CIDSE, an international network of Catholic aid agencies (including Trócaire), a tax of just 0.05 per cent on international financial transactions would raise as much as €465 billion a year that could be used to “finance the fight against climate change”.

In a report issued last week, the Brussels-based organisation said such a tax “would mainly impact on short-term trading, which has no added value for the real economy, and contribute to the stabilisation of financial markets by reducing speculation”. Network’s president Chris Bain said it would “generate substantial amounts of money to help fill the climate fund and finance other global challenges, without requiring additional sacrifices from the taxpayer”. Thus, there was “no excuse for procrastination”.

 

But the necessary political will was lacking, he said. “Countries like Germany, France, Belgium and Luxembourg are supportive, while many others, including the UK, the US and the Netherlands, are still unwilling to consider taxing financial transactions.”

 

Meanwhile, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation said climate change “will significantly impact agriculture by increasing water demand, limiting crop productivity and reducing water availability in areas where irrigation is most needed”. A separate report by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research predicted tropical regions are likely to be worst hit, with widespread famine in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, areas where millions already lack enough food.

Oxfam’s climate adviser Tim Gore said global warming could “devastate our future food supply”. Calling on those involved in the Bonn talks to take notice, he said: “We need less talk and more action if a warming world is to feed itself.”

Agriculture Output Must Grow 70% to Meet World Demand, UN Says

By Tony C. Dreibus – /www.bloomberg.com/ Jun 13, 2011

Global agriculture production needs to increase 70 percent to meet food demand by the middle of the century as more people move to cities, the United Nations said.

Growers will have to increase yields on existing farms as the amount of land available for agriculture is shrinking, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said in a book on farming, “Save and Farm.” About 70 percent of people will live in urban areas by 2050, up from 50 percent today, the FAO said.

“We have no option but to further intensify crop production,” the FAO said.

Demand for food such as wheat and rice will rise along with the global population, which is expected to jump 33 percent to 9.2 billion by 2050, according to the FAO. Between 2015 and 2030, “an estimated 80 percent of the required food production increases will have to come from intensification in the form of yield increases and higher cropping intensities.”

Environmentally Friendly

“More environmentally friendly agriculture will ‘‘help to reduce crops’ water needs by 30 percent and the energy costs of production by up to 60 percent,’’ according to the FAO.

Little spare land is available in South Asia and the Near East and north Africa and about 70 percent of the area that is available, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, suffers from soil and terrain constraints, according to the FAO.

The use of agricultural commodities in the production of biofuels including ethanol and biodiesel will grow, the UN said. Food costs rose to a record in February this year, UN data show. Corn has more than doubled in the past year, wheat is up 75 percent and rice has gained 37 percent.

‘‘Changes in demand will drive the need for significant increases in production of all major food and feed crops,’’ according to the book. ‘‘The food price spike of 2008 and the surge in food prices to record levels early in 2011 portend rising and more frequent threats to world food security.’’

— Editor: Sharon Lindores

US/AFRICA:

Good Governance Will Unleash Africa’s Potential, Clinton Says

By Stephen Kaufman/www.africom.mil/ Jun 13, 2011

Bureau of International Information Programs

WASHINGTON, D.C., Jun 13, 2011 — Good governance is essential for Africa’s development and achievement of its full potential, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says, calling for free elections across the continent and for strong democratic institutions.

Speaking in Lusaka, Zambia, June 11, 2011, on the Africa 360 current affairs show, Clinton said authoritarian regimes “try to put everybody into the same mold” by dictating to their people, while good governance has the power to unleash individual human potential.

“I want to see an African renaissance that provides opportunities of all kinds for people because I am confident you can compete with anybody anywhere,” she told viewers.

She recalled President Obama’s 2009 speech in Ghana where he condemned leaders who use coups or change laws to stay in power. “Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions,” Clinton said.

Clinton said there needs to be “enormous cultural pressure on people who run for office to abide by the rules and the outcomes of the election.”

Good governance can be measured not only through indicators such as economic growth, education and the availability of health care, but also if the population is cooperating across tribal, ethnic and religious divides for the betterment of the whole country, she said.

“Leaders have to understand that in the 21st century people know a lot more than they did even 15, 25 years ago, and so they expect more. So good governance ultimately is whether or not people believe they are governed well,” Clinton said.

“As we are seeing in the Arab Spring, young people in particular are not going to accept being told what to do. They want the freedom and the education and the opportunity,” she said.

The secretary urged young Africans to participate more in the political process by voting, being active in campaigns, or even running for office themselves. Unless they participate, their leaders may not pay attention to them or their priorities, she said.

She also urged that women be granted the same entrepreneurship opportunities as men, noting that women small business owners and small farmers “are actually the backbone of a lot of the economic development that can and should occur inside Africa.”

“We don’t think Africa can be all it can be unless women and girls, 50 percent of the population, are included in every respect,” she said.

INVESTORS IN AFRICA SHOULD DO GOOD, NOT JUST DO WELL

U.S. assistance to Africa is being given with the long-term goal of improving standards of living and creating “a ladder of opportunity” for the African people, she said.

“We don’t want to see a new colonialism in Africa,” where investors “come in, take out natural resources, pay off leaders and leave,” Clinton said.

The Obama administration wants investors to “do good” as well as prosper in African countries, Clinton said.

“We don’t want them to undermine good governance. We don’t want them to basically deal with just the top elites and, frankly, too often pay for their concessions or their opportunities to invest,” she said.

The United States is investing in Africa’s people and “not just the elites,” she said.

“We’ve spent many tens of millions of dollars working with the people of Zambia to combat HIV/AIDS. Are we doing that to make money? No. But we’re doing it because we want to see a healthy, prospering Zambian people, which we do ultimately think is in American interests,” Clinton said.

But along with increasing opportunities for women entrepreneurs, African nations also need to take advantage of the tens of millions of consumers on the continent and trade more with each other, as well as enact reforms to make it easier to do business, she said.

“We have to knock down legal, cultural barriers, but we also have to learn from what’s working, particularly in Asia,” she said. “If governments here literally took the lessons and said ‘here’s what we need to do to improve distribution, infrastructure, supply chains, marketing,’ I think within 10 years you would see a very different story.”

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/iipdigital-en/index.html)

Source: IIP Digital

Clinton pushes for trade with Africa

FOREIGN STAFF /www.businessday.co.za/Published: 2011/06/13

US secretary of State Hillary Clinton took her push for expanded trade with Africa to Dar es Salaam and Tanzania.

US SECRETARY of State Hillary Clinton took her push for expanded trade with Africa to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, yesterday, after warning leaders in Zambia of China’s neocolonialist ambitions.

Ms Clinton, sharpening her criticism of China, said in Lusaka on Friday that the world’s second- biggest economy was doing everything to “stifle the internet” and displaying traits of “new colonialism” in Africa. She said China was not a role model for good governance.

“We saw that during colonial times, it is easy to come in, take out natural resources, pay off leaders and leave,” Ms Clinton said. “And when you leave, you don’t leave much behind for the people who are there. We don’t want to see a new colonialism in Africa ,” she said. “We are beginning to see a lot of problems you are going to pay more attention to in the next 10 years .”

Her audience clapped when she ended by saying “young people will not accept being told what to do “.

Yesterday, Ms Clinton started a three-day official visit to Tanzania. She was received at Julius Nyerere International Airport by Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation Bernard Membe amid tight security.

China is the biggest player in Africa in trade and investments. Trade with the continent surged 10- fold to $129b n last year, up from $11b n about a decade ago.

Though the US introduced a trade programme known as the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) nearly a decade ago, trade with the continent is limited. Agoa provides for quota and duty-free entry into the US for certain goods, expanding the benefits under the generalised system of preferences programme.

Agoa expanded market access for textile and apparel goods into the US for eligible countries, which created jobs. But a change to parts of the agreement in 2005 reversed some of the gains made in the African textile industry due to increased competition from developing nations outside Africa, particularly China.

US trade with sub-Saharan Africa accounts for about 3% of total US imports. Oil makes up more than 90% of the $44bn generated by the scheme. Ms Clintion is scheduled to meet President Jakaya Kikwete today. Bloomberg, Staff Writer

Al-Qaeda’s Africa chief’s death a just end: Clinton

June 13, 2011. /www.smh.com.au

Dar Es Salaam

US SECRETARY of State Hillary Clinton says the death of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, the presumed al-Qaeda chief for East Africa, is a ”significant blow” for the group.

Shortly after landing in Dar es Salaam on the second leg of an Africa tour, Mrs Clinton reacted to the news of the death of the man behind the 1998 US embassy bombings in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

His ”death is a significant blow to al-Qaeda, its extremist allies, and its operations in East Africa,” she said in a statement.

”It is a just end for a terrorist who brought so much death and pain to so many innocents in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and elsewhere – Tanzanians, Kenyans, Somalis, and our own embassy personnel,” Mrs Clinton said.

Mohammed, considered the most wanted man in East Africa, was the third major al-Qaeda leader slain in six weeks. Osama bin Laden was killed in early May, and Ilyas Kashmiri, who was implicated in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, died a month later in a US drone strike in Pakistan.

Mohammed had topped the FBI’s most wanted list for nearly 13 years, with a $5 million bounty on his head, for orchestrating the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.

Somali forces killed Mohammed, believed to be in his late 30s, during a late-night shooting in Mogadishu on Tuesday, after he and another man apparently got lost and mistakenly drove their truck to a security checkpoint.

When they tried to speed away, the soldiers opened fire, killing them instantly, Somali officials said.

A US official said Mohammed’s body was identified through DNA analysis.

Agencies

‘Justice served’: Hillary Clinton visits site of U.S. embassy bombing in Africa – as Al Qaeda mastermind is gunned down in Somalia shootout

By Daily Mail Reporter/ 13th June 2011

Mrs Clinton said justice has been served since alleged mastermind killed

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed was shot by police earlier this week

He allegedly plotted 1998 terror attacks in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton honoured the victims of the American embassy bombings in East Africa in 1998 and told survivors that justice had been served with the killing of the attacks’ suspected mastermind.

Just inside the main gate of the U.S. compound in the Tanzanian capital, she placed flowers at the foot of a large rock with the plaque listing victims’ names.

Mrs Clinton said a silent prayer and spoke with three Tanzanian employees who were at the embassy when it, along with the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in neighbouring Kenya, was bombed on Aug. 7, 1998.

Mrs Clinton said on Sunday: ‘I know that there are those of you here today who were serving in the embassy on that awful occasion.

‘Some of you lost your friends and loved ones and all Americans grieved with you then and have not forgotten your losses’.

Somali officials reported Saturday that soldiers earlier in the week had killed Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, the al-Qaida operative who allegedly plotted the bombings.

Mrs Clinton said: ‘We also have not forgotten our pledge to seek justice against those who would commit such atrocities.

‘Last month al-Qaida suffered a major setback with the death of Osama bin Laden and yesterday we received news of another significant blow’, she said.

‘I know nothing can replace those who have been taken from us by such senseless violence, but I know that justice was served and I hope that can give you some measure of comfort’, Mrs Clinton said.

The attacks in Tanzania and Kenya killed 224 people, including 10 Tanzanians at the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam. The embassy has since been relocated.

Most of the people killed in the attacks were Kenyans. Twelve Americans at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi died.

Earlier Sunday, Clinton toured American-funded health, development and public works projects in and around the capital, receiving enthusiastic welcomes from audiences at the events.

Mrs Clinton visited a women’s cooperative farm, where she planted a sweet pepper seedling.

She was cheered by the female workers who will benefit from the Obama administration’s plans to pump an additional $70 million into Tanzania’s agriculture sector over the next two years under a food security initiative.

She was again hailed as a hero at a women’s health clinic, where she said she watched with tears in her eyes a skit about domestic violence and how to prevent it.

Mrs Clinton also announced $6.7 million to improve child nutrition and visited a thermal power plant that benefited from grants provided by the U.S.

Long-time aide Huma Abedin, wife of embattled Congressman Anthony Weiner, is accompanying Mrs Clinton on her trip.

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, one of Africa’s most wanted terrorists, was shot by police in the Somali capital Mogadishu earlier this week.

‘We have confirmed he was killed by our police at a control checkpoint this week,’ said Halima Aden, a senior national security officer.

‘He had a fake South African passport and of course other documents. After thorough investigation, we confirmed it was him, and then we buried his corpse.’

Mohammed was reputed to be the head of al Qaeda in east Africa, and operated in Somalia, which has been without an effective central government since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

The U.S. had offered a $5million reward for information leading to the capture of the Comorian, who speaks five languages and is said to be a master of disguise, forgery and bomb making.

He is accused of playing a lead role in the 1998 embassy attacks in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, which killed 240 people and left 5,000 injured.

‘He was killed on Tuesday midnight in the southern suburbs of Mogadishu at Ex-control police checkpoint. Another Somali armed man was driving him in a four-wheel drive when he accidentally drove up to the checkpoint,’ said Aden.

‘We had his pictures and so we cross-checked with his face. He had thousands of dollars. He also had a laptop and a modified AK-47.’

Fazul was reportedly the top military commander of al-Shabaab, the Islamist militant insurgent group engaged in a bid to control Somalia.

Kenyan anti-terrorist police said they had been informed of Mohammed’s killing by U.S. sources.

‘We received intelligence from within the U.S. embassy that he (Mohammed) is dead. We ourselves do not yet have any evidence of his death,said Nicholas Kamwende, the head of Kenya’s Anti Terrorism Police Unit.

Members of Somalia’s most dangerous militant group, al-Shabab, have pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda. Al-Shabab’s members include veterans of the Iraq and Pakistan conflicts.

Hundreds of foreign fighters are swelling the ranks of al-Shabab militants who are trying in vain to topple the country’s weak UN-backed government.

Somalia has been mired in violence since 1991, when the last central government collapsed.

US hails death of al-Qaeda’s Africa head

12 Jun 2011 /www.telegraph.co.uk

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, hailed the death of the suspected head of al-Qaeda in east Africa and the man held responsible for American embassy bombings in the 1990s.

By Aislinn Laing, Johannesburg

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed was gunned down by Somali government troops, after he refused to stop at a roadblock in the capital Mogadishu last week.

Mrs Clinton said it was a “just end” for the man accused of bomb attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania which killed 224 people in 1998.

The 38-year-old Comoran’s death is also seen as a rare victory for the Western-backed Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, which is fighting al-Shebab Islamic militants linked to al-Qaeda for control of the east African country.

On Friday, the organisation claimed the life of Somalia’s Interior Minister in a suicide bombing said to have been carried out by his own niece, who had allegedly joined al-Shebab. The suicide attack was the third in Mogadishu in less than two weeks.

Mohammed died in an exchange of fire at midnight on Tuesday in Somalia, where he fled along with several suspects of the embassy bombings to take advantage of the country’s chaotic state. The confrontation came just weeks after Osama bin Laden was killed by American troops in Pakistan. He is the second top level leader to be killed since the US retrieved a cache of bin Laden’s notes and communications with al Qaeda commanders.

Also known as Harun, he spoke five languages and was said to be a master of disguise, forgery and bomb making who had at least 18 aliases and masqueraded as an itinerant Islamic preacher.

Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, Somalia’s president, praised government soldiers manning the checkpoint for killing Mohammed and Mohammed Dere, a Kenyan extremist who was travelling with him in a car loaded with medicine, laptops and mobile phones.

He said that as well as the embassy attacks, Mohammed had been linked to attacks in Somalia. He said his death could also lead to a breakthrough in the battle against Islamic extremists in the country and showed documents, pictures and videos recovered from Mohammed’s car which could provide vital intelligence.

Mohammed was carrying documents with the signature of Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, one of the top leaders of al-Shebab, the government said.

He also had on him £25,000 in cash, and was said to be travelling on a South African passport identifying him as Daniel Robinson, aged 40.

Gen. Abdikarim Yusuf Dhagabadan, Somalia’s deputy army chief, said officials at first did not know that the person they killed was one of the FBI’s most wanted terrorists, with a £3.5 million bounty on his head.

“We buried him,” he said. “But soon after checking his documents, we exhumed his body and took his pictures and DNA. Then we had learned that he was the man wanted by the US authorities.”

Dhagabadan described the death as “similar to Osama bin Laden’s,” the al-Qaeda chief killed by the Americans in Pakistan last month. “He was worse to us than bin Laden,” he said. “It is a victory for the world. It is a victory for Somali army.”

The confirmation of his death came the day before Mrs Clinton was due to lay flowers at a memorial for the dead on the grounds of the new embassy in Dar es-Salaam, Tanzania, on the second leg of her Africa tour.

“I know nothing can replace those who have been taken from us by such senseless violence. But I know justice was served and I hope that that gives you some measure of comfort,” she told the crowd.

US backs Ethiopia peacekeepers in Abyei

(AFP) /13062011

DAR ES SALAAM — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday endorsed the idea of a peacekeeping force in Sudan’s disputed Abyei region and encouraged both sides in the conflict to take up an Ethiopian offer of troops.

“The United States strongly believes a robust peacekeeping presence should be a central part of the security arrangements in Abyei,” Clinton said before leaving Dar es Salaam on her Africa tour.

“The government of Sudan should urgently facilitate a viable security arrangement starting with the withdrawal of Sudanese Armed Forces,” Clinton said.

“We would welcome both parties (north and south Sudan) agreeing to ask Ethiopia, which has volunteered to send peacekeepers, to do so as part of the UN mission,” she said.

Sudan President Omar al-Bashir and south Sudan leader Salva Kiir have since Sunday been in talks in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa aimed at resolving the crises in the Abyei and another border region South Kordofan, one month ahead of the south’s independence.

Clinton will meet with Kiir in Addis Ababa later Monday, an aide said, but not with Bashir.

Bashir has been charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague but refuses to recognise its authority, though his travels have been severely restricted.

The chief US diplomat met Monday with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete before heading to the Ethiopian capital.

On the subject of Zimbabwe, Clinton said the United States had been “encouraged by the SADC meeting … yesterday, which emphasised the importance of President (Robert) Mugabe following the requirements of the global peace agreement.”

She was referring to a regional summit of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) on Sunday in South Africa.

“This is what was agreed to. This is what we expect him to implement and we are grateful for the leadership of Tanzania and others in the region who are making it very clear what the way forward should be. We will continue to follow this closely and support the work southern Africa is doing.”

On Sunday, regional leaders called on Mugabe and his long time-rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to speed up implementation of the power-sharing deal that brought them together in an uneasy coalition government in 2009.

China in Africa – America strikes back

Felicity Duncan/www.moneyweb.co.za/13 June 2011

Hilary Clinton has strong words about China and Africa.

It’s no secret that the Chinese have been very active in Africa over the last few decades, investing in mines and minerals, building roads and ports, and generally getting involved in the continent’s economies left, right, and centre (see article on the topic here).

As evidence of this intense activity, according to a Chinese White Paper on the topic, last year China became sub-Saharan Africa’s largest trading partner, with African imports from and exports to China amounting to $115bn in the first 11 months of last year, far ahead of the US, Africa’s second-largest trading partner, which saw trade with the continent amounting to $103bn in the same period.

Western nations like the United States have, in contrast to China, seemed relatively less interested in sub-Saharan Africa in recent years, distracted, as they have been, by events in the Middle East. However, recent developments suggest that America is now making an effort to counter Chinese activities in Africa and to boost US-Africa trade and diplomatic relations.

An example of this new emphasis on Africa can be seen in the fact that US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has been in Africa for the last few days, visiting Zambia, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. During her visit, Clinton has been hard at work raising awareness of American aid activities and of the centrepiece of US/African trade relations, AGOA, the African Growth and Opportunity Act.

America has, in some respects, been a relatively good friend to Africa. The US is the largest donor of aid to Africa; it disbursed some $7.4bn-worth of development assistance to sub-Saharan Africa in 2009 (the most recent year for which data is available from the OECD), about twice as much as the next-biggest donors France and the United Kingdom – statistics on Chinese aid are, unfortunately, not available, but it is far less.

Trade between the US and sub-Saharan Africa has also been robust through the years (see chart below). As you can see, US/Africa trade grew strongly in the early 2000s, and despite taking a knock during the Great Recession, promises to continue to grow, even though trade with China has been growing faster. Interestingly, Africa/US trade tends to be more one-directional than Africa/China trade; the US imports a lot from Africa and exports relatively little to her, while in trade with China, imports and exports almost balance out.

During her visit, Clinton has been emphasising all these facts, drawing attention to the extent of American aid to Africa and to the scale and favourable nature of US/Africa trade. Clinton also has had some unusually critical things to say about China’s activities in Africa.

Speaking at a press conference in Lusaka, Clinton said, “China’s presence in Africa reflects the reality that it has important and growing interests here on the continent, including access to resources and markets, as well as developing closer diplomatic ties.

“The United States does not see the Chinese interest as inherently incompatible with our own. I told President Obama, and I have made clear on numerous occasions, we do not see China’s rise as a zero-sum game. We hope that it will become successful in its own economic efforts on behalf of the Chinese people, and that it will assume a greater and more responsible role in addressing global challenges.

“We are, however, concerned that China’s foreign assistance and investment practices in Africa have not always been consistent with generally accepted international norms of transparency and good governance, and that it has not always utilized the talents of the African people in pursuing its business interests.”

Clinton’s criticisms echoed some of those being heard elsewhere within and outside Africa. Some observers worry that China relies too heavily on imported Chinese labour when operating in Africa, at the expense of African workers, and that China’s support of regimes like that of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe and Omar al-Bashir in Sudan makes it harder to achieve peaceful and democratic political outcomes in those countries. Renewed American interest in Africa could increase the volume of such criticisms.

Africa is slowly but surely becoming an important global economic player (see articles on the topic here and here). As African economies grow and develop, and as Africa becomes a target for companies seeking growth opportunities and countries seeking natural resources, both American and Chinese interest and activity in the continent will grow.

As China emerges as a new global power, confrontations with America are inevitable. We can expect to see some such confrontations manifesting themselves in Africa, as the two powers compete for hearts and minds, and for access to resources and markets. If African leaders are smart, they can leverage this strategic contest to Africa’s advantage.

US: Harun Fazul’s Death ‘Significant Blow’ To Al-Qaeda

6/13/2011/ RTTNews

(RTTNews) – The United States has described the death of al-Qaeda terrorist Fazul Abdullah Mohammed alias Harun Fazul as “a significant blow” to the global terror outfit, its extremist allies, and its operations in East Africa.

In a statement issued in the wake of his death, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said “it is a just end for a terrorist who brought so much death and pain to so many innocents in Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, and elsewhere – Tanzanians, Kenyans, Somalis, others in the region, and our own Embassy personnel.”

The alleged mastermind behind the 1998 terrorist attacks on U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania was killed at a roadblock in Somali capital Mogadishu on Wednesday.

Fazul was reportedly the leader of al-Qaeda operations in East Africa and top military commander of al-Shabaab, the Islamist militant group fighting to topple the U.N.-backed government in Somalia, alleging that it is too close to the West.

He was wanted by the U.S. in connection with several terrorist attacks, including the bombings on August 7, 1998 of the Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam that killed more than 200 people.

by RTT Staff Writer

First Total Lunar Eclipse Of 2011 Not Visible From U.S.

: Monday, 13 June 2011, / www.redorbit.com

The first total lunar eclipse of the year will last an unusually long time, but will not be visible in the U.S.

The lunar eclipse will take place on Wednesday and will be visible from start to finish from eastern Africa, central Asia, the Middle East and western Australia, reports the Associated Press (AP).

The eclipse will last 1 hour and 40 minutes, which will be the longest lunar eclipse since July 2000.

A total lunar eclipse occurs when the moon glides through the long shadow cast by the Earth and is blocked from the sunlight that illuminates it.

The disk will appear to gradually change color, turning from silver to orange or red.

It is difficult to predict the exact shade the moon will take because it depends on how much dust and clouds are in the atmosphere during the eclipse.

NASA eclipse expert Freed Espenak told AP reporter Alicia Chang that the total eclipse phase will be longer than usual because the moon will pass close to the center of the Earth’s shadow.

Observers in Europe will miss the first part of the eclipse because it will occur before the moon rises. Eastern Asia and eastern Australia will not catch the final stages. Portions of South America will be able to see the eclipse as well.

The last total lunar eclipse visible from the U.S. occurred in December last year, which coincided with winter solstice.

The next total lunar eclipse will fall on December 10, during which the moon will be blotted out for 51 minutes.

The U.S. will not be able to see another total lunar eclipse until April 15, 2014.

Source: RedOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

Alliee DeArmond, In The Spirit: Pondering the Pentecost

Posted: 06/11/2011 /www.santacruzsentinel.com

One of the oddities within Christendom is that Pentecostals don’t generally celebrate Pentecost. “That’s because we celebrate it all year long,” I was once told, somewhat huffily. But don’t Christians celebrate Easter all year long, and Christmas, too?

Liturgical churches dress-up for Pentecost: flames and doves, the fire of the Holy Spirit painting the vestments red and white. Often the congregation dresses in red as well, though I usually opt for orange.

The disciples were told to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father. They probably had no idea what color that promise would be. They waited, we are told, in one accord and in prayer, which is a good way to wait for just about anything.

Pentecost is the the Feast of Weeks, the celebration of the first-fruits, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the birthday of the church. It happens 50 days after Passover — seven weeks after Easter. Modern Jews celebrate Pentecost as Shavu’ot, commemorating the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, 50 days after the Exodus.

So far, Hallmark hasn’t taken hold of Pentecost, nor have the candymakers — though the transition from Peeps to doves would be easy enough. The fire of the microwave could even be added to the confection, delighting children of a certain age. However, Pentecost still remains the least commercialized of the major feasts. Shhh!

I am currently waiting for the promise at The Bishop’s Ranch; a retreat, youth camp and conference center in

Healdsburg. I am waiting in prayer — twice daily at the sound of the bell — and in as much accord as my heart can manage. Wandering the gorgeous grounds once managed by the Franciscans, I’ve come upon statues of St. Francis surrounded by birds. They remind me of my recent encounter with a couple of warblers: one rescued from flapping frantically around my kitchen and another younger version found a few weeks later chirping incessantly on my bathroom floor.

I scooped the baby bird up and took it outside, where it seemed happy to rest in my hands while I marveled at its beauty. I marvel still at the gift of holding a bird in my hand for long enough to look and love. And in between marveling, I try to remember that I too rest in God’s hands, a thing of beauty, worthy of love.

Catch the Fire

The United Methodists of Northern California and Nevada have spent the 50 days between Easter and Pentecost with a study designed to reignite the church. Faced with a declining population, the regional conference sought ways to encourage and support the faith communities in their area. The study has provided scripture, reflection questions and prayer designed to stimulate both personal and corporate growth and development. The hope is that having put in the time individually and in small groups during this season, new perspectives and energy will be shared at their annual conference mid-June. The website of the United Methodist Church of Aptos has a downloadable version of the Catch the Fire in 50 Days’ study guide. Visit www.aptosumc.org.

Global Prayer

One way Pentecost is often celebrated is by reading the Sunday scripture in a multiplicity of languages. The cacophony is a reminder of the gift of tongues that came at Pentecost — a reversal of the division of languages that happened at the Tower of Babel. In July 2000, the Global Day of Prayer was initiated by a South African businessman who called his country to a day of repentance and prayer. Since then it has spread worldwide with millions of Christians in more than 214 countries gathering and praying; a multiplicity of languages and cultures joining in prayer for the world.

This Sunday, local Christians will gather in the Santa Cruz Mission Plaza Park, in front of the Holy Cross Catholic Church Church at 126 High St. A barbecue lunch will be offered at 1 p.m., with a suggested donation of $3 to $5. At 1:30 p.m. a contemplative Prayer Walk for the Nations will commence. From 2-4 p.m. additional prayers and festivities will unfold in the park. The Global Day of Prayer is supported by Church Leaders Network, an association of Christ centered churches in Santa Cruz County. Visit www.gdop-sc.com.

ENDQUOTE: “Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?” — Corrie Ten Boom

In the Spirit column runs twice a month.

INDIA/AFRICA:

India catching up with China

(chinadaily.com.cn)/Updated: 2011-06-13

Despite its elephantine weight, India has long displayed mouse-like diplomatic clout. But now, it is trying harder to get noticed, by expanding into the African continent, according to an article published by the Economist magazine on May 26.

India’s diplomacy has been historically hampered by widespread poverty at home and by its sometimes rocky relationships with neighbors Pakistan and China, the article says, “even today, its foreign service remains woefully understaffed: both New Zealand and Singapore have more serving diplomats. “

However, as things stand, India’s breakneck economic growth and its ever expanding population requires “eyes to be raised to distant horizons”. As the worlds’ forth-largest oil consumer, which will import almost all of its oil in 15 years’ time, India is now increasingly turning to Central Asia and particularly Africa, in the hope of diversifying its oil supply away from the Middle East.

In fact, Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh spent a whole week in Africa at the end of May, along with hordes of Indian ministers and businessmen. More strikingly, the article says, Mr Singh promised “$5 billion of loans on easy terms over the next three years for Africans willing to trade with India,” with another $1 billion poured in education, railways and peacekeeping, a steep rise from last year’s $25m.

But Mr Singh wants something in return. Apart from oil, India also craves for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. To achieve this, Africa’s backing is essential. Besides, minerals and other raw materials also play a significant part. “India’s large jewelry industry gobbles up South African diamonds and gold. Mozambique’s coal fuels power stations. India wants uranium from Malawi and Niger for nuclear power,” according to the article.

While China for now is exerting more influence in Africa, India’s African forays may well prove to be “at least as rewarding as China’s,” the article asserts, since “accustomed already to dealing with hundreds of millions of poor Indian consumers, they know what to expect in Africa.” As India is experiencing the most rapid economic growth in decades, Indian companies are set to prosper. “All the more reason, then, for India’s diplomats to look a good deal keener, too.”

Blue Label pulls out of Nigeria, shifts global focus to India, Mexico

By: Brindaveni Naidoo /www.engineeringnews.co.za/13th June 2011

JSE-listed technology services company Blue Label Telecoms has decided to terminate its business activities in Nigeria and look to redeploy its resources to other international businesses, particularly its growing Indian and Mexican markets, Blue Label Telecoms joint CEO Mark Levy said on Monday.

The company, which has a 36.72% stake in Africa Prepaid Services Nigeria through its 72% shareholding in Africa Prepaid Services, cited the cancellation of the Multi-Links contract in November 2010, and its consequent impact on the viability of the business in Nigeria, as the reason for the closing business operations in that country.

The company would also be looking at opportunities to sell all or part of its shares of its business in Nigeria, Blue Label Telecoms spokesperson Michael Campbell told Engineering News Online.

Despite Blue Label remaining confident of growing its Nigerian operations earlier in the year, its efforts in the region to date were unsuccessful. “The company had decided to move the market from the existing physical prepaid vouchers to virtual prepaid vouchers to gain traction in the region. But, the shift to virtual vouchers was unsuccessful, with no uptake,” Campbell said.

“We undertook several assessments and realised that the operation was not viable and informed employees last week that we would be closing the operation,” he added.

Its Nigerian operations currently employ about 71 people, of which all expatriates would be retrenched, Campbell said. With regard to other employees, the company still had to make decisions on how to proceed.

In terms of the agreement with Multi-Links Telecommunications, a wholly owned subsidiary of Telkom South Africa, Africa Prepaid Services was given the right to procure customers for, and to sell and market, the complete range of Multi-Links’ cold-division multiple access (CDMA) services and products, on an exclusive basis in Nigeria, for a 10-year period which started in December 2008.

Multi-Links terminated its agreement with Africa Prepaid Services in November and announced in April that it would exit its voice CDMA service and products business.

However, Telkom reported on Monday that the sale of the Multi-Links CDMA business to Visafone Communications did not meet all conditions and that it would not proceed.

Edited by: Mariaan Webb

Aid to India will be stopped, pledges minister

By Christopher Hope, Whitehall Editor /www.telegraph.co.uk/ 13 Jun 2011

Britain is to stop giving aid money to India, Andrew Mitchell, the International Development secretary has said.

The Government has come under pressure to explain why British taxpayers are giving millions to countries like India at a time of public sector cuts.

Mr Mitchell’s international aid budget is one of only two, alongside health, which has been ring fenced and so is protected from the austerity drive.

India has been singled out because of increasing prosperity and the fact that it has a nuclear programme.

Mr Mitchell said it was not only “morally right” but in the UK’s national interests to continue to fund development projects around the world.

He said that he wanted the UK to become a “development superpower”, adding: “Britain is doing brilliant things around the world…

Just as America is a military superpower so because of the brilliant things that Britain is doing in the poorest places in the world, saving lives.”

A report from MPs on the Commons international development committee published on Tuesday is expected to be critical of Britain for giving money to India.

In a television interview, Mr Mitchell said that the Indian programme had been frozen “so for the first time this year since the war it is not Britain’s largest development programme”.

Mr Mitchell told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show that he did not think that the UK would continue to fund programmes in India “for very much longer”.

He said: “India is a place where there are more poor people than the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, Britain’s programme is demonstrative it shows how we can get more people into school, and women particularly.

“These programmes are massively scaled up by the Indian taxpayer.

British know how is making a huge contribution – now is not the time to stop the programme in India but I don’t think we will be there for very much longer.”

The Government has been under fire for continuing to give 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product to the developing world, despite the domestic cuts programme.

Mr Mitchell said: “I think it was absolutely right of the Coalition to say in the early days that we would not balance the books on the poorest people in Britain or on the planet.

“We don’t protect our security only by tanks and guns but also by training the police in Afghanistan, getting girls into school in the Horn of Africa and building up government structures in the Middle East.”

Mr Mitchell was speaking ahead of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi) conference in London on Monday.

The lives of more than four million children can be saved by a set of vaccines which cost the same as a cup of coffee, he said.

He said: “We had a look when we came into Government at all the different ways that Britain does development with British taxpayer funds and one of the very best was the Global Alliance of Vaccines and Immunisation, where effectively you can vaccinate a kid in the poor world for the price of a cup of coffee against all five of the killer diseases which mean so many of these children die before the age of five.”

Mr Mitchell said the Government would also match philanthropic donations by private individuals and companies.

He said that by Monday lunchtime he hoped to have “sufficient funding over the next four years to vaccinate 250,000 children in the poor world and save millions of lives”.

He added: “It’s really important. It’s Britain’s big ask for development this year. We want to support it very strongly. We have a leadership role in all of this.”

Gavi is facing a shortfall of £2.3 billion for its work over the next five years, charities have warned. The conference is being chaired by David Cameron, the Prime Minister, and Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates.

Writing in The Observer newspaper, Mr Cameron said he was “convinced” it was right to protect the country’s aid budget.

He said: “I don’t think it would be right to ignore the difference we can make, turn inwards solely to our own problems and effectively balance the books while breaking our promises to the world’s poorest.

“Instead, we should step up, deliver on our promises to the world’s poorest and help save millions of lives.”

He added: “The British people are not prone to self-aggrandising. But I think there are times when we should acknowledge the good that we do.”

Mr Gates said Monday’s meeting would “very, very positive”, adding: “This is my life’s work, and days like tomorrow energise us to do even better.”

 

BRAZIL/AFRICA:

Brazil’s economic ties with Africa continue to flourish

Monday, 13 June 2011 / thecitizen.co.tz

Former President Lula da Silva is often attributed with developing the increased economic relationship between Brazil and Africa – forming what is now known as the ‘south-south’ cooperation after visiting 27 of the 53 countries in 2003. It was this extensive trip that initiated the creation and expansion of a number of Brazilian consulates as well as other ties that were viewed as important.

According to the Financial Times, Brazilian commerce levels have reached US$25 billion in 2010 and there are now 500 Brazilian companies in operation in the continent (compared to 13 in 1995), many of whom see the region as not only an important export/investment destination but also as ways to use knowledge and expertise in fields such as hydro electricity, energy production and construction.

From a commercial perspective, the country is finding itself in increased competition with other nations with a strong desire to invest and boost trade links – particularly from China (that has double the level of commerce across the continent compared to Brazil); India; North America and Europe (although the latter two have slowed down their pace as a result of the global economic crisis).

Brazil’s leaders have been keen to gear up their activity to not fall behind with support of the government such as the BNDES $1.75 billion credit line for infrastructural construction firms (used by both Odebrecht and Camargo Corrêa).

The Bank of Brazil, Bradesco and the Espírito Santo bank have also stated their cooperative intention to actively search for opportunities, particularly in Mozambique, Angola and Cape Verde.

In February 2011, Lula revisited the continent to attend the World Social Forum in Senegal – largely in his post-presidency role to boost diplomatic relations –and heavily criticised the current model of international finance management, stating: “We must change the pages of the models from the outside”.

He said: “Brazil has no intention of dictating practices to anyone and always wants to learn with dignity from the wisdom of our brother countries.” Indeed, the Brazilian government has been commended on the co-development of programmes tied to the ministry of Social Development such as the auxiliary initiatives to the Bolsa Família (Family Grant) and the Zero Fome (Zero Hunger).

Such projects serve to resolve some of the core issues facing the African continent including food supply, HIV cure / prevention and other social / environmental issues.

A significant proportion of such investment has been witnessed in Portuguese speaking nations: Guinea Bissau, Mozambique and Angola.

But according to the United Nations, there are 300 Brazilian initiatives spread across 37 African nations (in 2002 there were 21 projects in 7 countries). One notable example is a project driven by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) for the production of HIV treatment in Mozambique.

Embrapa organization is involved in the development of core infrastructural endeavours focused on improving capacitation, technical skills and agricultural security in Mali, Benin, Chad and Burkina Faso.

According José Geraldo Di Stefano, an engineer from the organization, “with a strong Africa, Brazil also stays strong because we can fight against the World Trade Organisation with regards to the subsidies being given to rich countries for the production of cotton.”

Di Stefano further states that the programme’s complementary intention is to develop the provision of food production essentially in rural areas where crop supplies are low.

Embrapa is also bringing its wide knowledge of rice production to Senegal which is expected to be used as a model throughout the continent as well as a partnership with the Japanese government entitled ProSavana that will work on developing the vast grasslands in Mozambique.

Brazil’s Senai organisation has also become increasingly involved throughout the continent – including a $20 million employment training programme, a police training school and educational establishments in Guinea Bissau which will be used as models in other African countries.

For the future, the Dilma Rousseff government looks firmly set to continue the momentum created in recent years.

Brazil’s ministry of External Relations has also created a programme which gives the Brazilian Cooperation Agency more autonomy whilst removing some of the former restrictions on its effective functionality.

In April 2011, the four BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) in addition to South Africa announced the creation of a working group that will ease trade relations and create a cross lending system for mutual investment agreements to be made in local currencies.

However, amongst all the excitement, many questions remain with regards to the practically of expansion.

If Brazil chooses to focus on profitability – there is a risk that it will be viewed as egotistical.

If cooperation is the route to be taken, Brazil has to make an assessment whether its development interests will be fulfilled. It is difficult to say what will happen but it is certain that these decisions will have to be made.

Issues have also arisen with regards to transparency of funds being transferred between countries with the recent investigation being initiated into the disappearance of $300,000 which was passed through the Brazilian embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Air France Crash Suggestion: Have Planes Send Black Box Data by Satellite

By NED POTTER (@NedPotterABC) / abcnews.go.com/June 13, 2011

When Air France flight 447 crashed on a stormy night off Brazil in 2009, it took its secrets with it to the bottom of the Atlantic. There was no distress call, no sign of trouble before the plane disappeared. The plane’s “black boxes” — its flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder — were not recovered until this spring: 228 people died.

Now, some companies propose a way to prevent future accidents from becoming so mysterious. They suggest that overseas flights be equipped with transmitters so that planes automatically send information from their black boxes to satellites overhead if they get in trouble. It would only require the addition of a laptop-size blue box, they say, something that some jets already carry.

“The technology is available, people agree it works, every technical issue has been solved,” said Matthew Desch, the CEO of Iridium Communications, a firm that provides phones and data transmitters that can reach its 66 satellites in low Earth orbit. “An airplane should not go off the coast without anyone knowing where it is and what’s wrong with it.”

Send Black Box Data by Satellite

Iridium has joined with a Canadian firm, AeroMechanical Services Ltd., to promote a system called AFIRS — Automated Flight Information Reporting System for short. If a plane over the ocean or remote territory goes into a dive, or loses cabin pressure, AFIRS would automatically send black box data by satellite to the airline or whoever else is designated to receive it. The pilots, who might be busy dealing with the emergency, would have to do nothing. The transmission would take seconds.

“We’re at our best where communications are worst,” said Richard Hayden, the CEO of AeroMechanical Services, which also calls itself Flyht. He says he already sells AFIRS hardware to 33 customers — including charter operators, cargo carriers and airlines in other countries — that use it to track their planes and be at the ready if they’re delayed or need extra fuel. It would not be expensive, he says, to add to long-haul airliners.

Air France 447 was an Airbus 330, on a night flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. Investigators struggled to piece together what happened, and they’re not done yet, two years after the crash. The plane, flying through stormy weather over the equator between the coasts of Brazil and western Africa, was in a place where high-frequency radio communications are unreliable. The pilots may have been fooled by faulty instrument readings and gone into a stall.

One source says the plane did send an automated message that it was in trouble, but the message provided no specifics. It was downlinked by a computer at Air France headquarters near Paris — where nobody acted on it for six hours.

AFIRS, with its own power source and transmitter, could be configured to become active if a plane was in distress, quickly sending data on the plane’s condition over the previous 20 minutes. Its promoters say controllers on the ground would notice immediately when a transmission came in — and would know what was wrong.

“You just need a burst of data if the plane is in an unusual attitude,” said Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates accidents. “That is an entirely doable thing.”

The cost? About $50,000 to install in a plane, said Hayden. Not much, he argued, considering that a new jetliner may cost $450 million.

But while it would bring revenue for AeroMechanical Services and Iridium, the cost would be borne by airlines and manufacturers, which worry about the FAA or government agencies in other countries mandating such systems. Messages to several airlines and the Air Transport Association were not immediately returned.

Understanding Airline Crashes: Send Black Box Data by Satellite

Boeing, which dominates the market for large jetliners along with Airbus, replied to ABC News’ questions with a written statement.

“Boeing supports technology and research that help enhance the overall safety of the global air transportation system,” it said. “Those efforts include studying possible enhancements to the survivability and accessibility of the flight data recorder.

“However, it is premature for Boeing to recommend or reject any idea at this point. As each idea is evaluated, it is critical that all aviation stakeholders — operators, regulators, investigators and manufacturers — work together to determine the feasibility and practicality of those solutions.”

Goelz, the former NTSB manager, said he understood: “The industry will always say, ‘Christ, this is going to kill us.'”

But he said an accident like the Air France crash is far more costly than AFIRS, which he said could help engineers prevent future crashes.

“There’s nothing the aviation industry can tolerate less than a mystery,” he said. “You cannot have a cloud hanging over an aircraft.”

 

EN BREF, CE 13 Juin 2011 … AGNEWS/DAM,NY,13/06/2011