{jcomments on}[ Le président du Groupe de la Banque africaine de développement (BAD), le Rwandais Donald Kaberuka, est attendu mardi dans son pays pour une visite de travail au cours de laquelle il doit prendre part à une conférence internationale sur le renforcement des capacités de l’institution financière continentale.]
BURUNDI :
Burundi arrests 8 Pakistani preachers
2011-02-07 /
Bujumbura – Burundian police arrested eight Pakistani Muslim preachers in a mosque in the central province of Gitega overnight, police and local officials said on Monday.
“A group of eight people calling themselves Pakistani Muslim preachers arrived… two days ago and started holding unauthorised meetings, day and night, in the Bihororo mosque,” local official Alexis Manirakiza told AFP.
“Residents became suspicious at the presence of these foreigners in a remote area at a time when there is a terror threat from Somali Islamists and they informed the police,” he said.
The eight were arrested, together with two Burundians who were with them.
A police officer who asked not to be named said the eight were travelling on Pakistani passports.
“We’re investigating to find out exactly who they are and what they were doing in this part of the world without informing the security services or the administrative authorities,” the officer said.
Expecting attacks
The arrests come less than a week after the US embassy in Burundi warned its citizens in the central African country that terror organisations, including Somalia’s al-Qaeda-inspired Shebaab, could carry out attacks in February.
Security measures have been stepped up since last week, with soldiers and police now patrolling the streets of the capital.
Burundi contributes almost half of the more than 8 000 African Union troops deployed in Mogadishu to prop up a weak pro-Western transitional federal government which the Shebaab have been trying to topple for two years.
The Shebaab claimed responsibility for suicide blasts in Kampala in July that left 76 people dead in the worst attack to strike the region since the 1998 al-Qaeda bombings against the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
Uganda forms the backbone of the AU force in Somalia and the Shebaab have repeatedly warned that Burundi would be the next target. / – SAPA
RWANDA
Le président de la BAD attendu mardi au Rwanda
PANA / 8-02-2011
Le président du Groupe de la Banque africaine de développement (BAD), le Rwandais Donald Kaberuka, est attendu mardi dans son pays pour une visite de travail au cours de laquelle il doit prendre part à une conférence internationale sur le renforcement des capacités de l’institution financière continentale.
Cette rencontre de deux jours devrait s’ouvrir dans la capitale rwandaise, mardi, sous le thème de “L’avenir de l’Afrique, c’est maintenant le rôle capital du renforcement des capacités”, a-t-on appris de source sûre.
Il est prévu que cette conférence regroupe les membres fondateurs de la Fondation pour le renforcement des capacités en Afrique (ACBF), une filiale de la BAD qui va célébrer ses 20 20 ans d’existence lors de cette rencontre, à en croire un communiqué de la BAD transmis lundi à la PANA à Kigali.
“Cette rencontre vise à rajeunir et à redynamiser au plus haut niveau des instances de décision, l’engagement au renforcement des capacités sur le continent africain”, selon la même source qui ajoute qu’environ 500 délégués sont attendus à ces assises.
Parmi les personnalités africaines attendues lors de cette conférence figurent le président de la Commission de l’Union africaine, Jean Ping, le Premier ministre éthiopien Meles Zenawi, ainsi que ses homologues du Kenya (Raila Odinga) du Togo (Gilbert Houngbo), ainsi que plusieurs ministres des Finances en provenance d’une vingtaine de pays africains
Rwanda: Africa Still Faces Many Challenges – ACBF Boss
Edmund Kagire 8 February 2011
Rwanda, just like other African countries, still faces a challenge of addressing skills and capacity gaps.
The observation was made by the Executive Secretary of African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), Dr Frannie A Leautier ahead of the Kigali Summit to mark 20th anniversary of the foundation.
In an exclusive interview with The New Times, Dr. Leautier said that African countries still face stiff challenges in building a strong capacity and meeting development challenges such as Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The Executive Secretary of ACBF noted that the way forward for Africa, is to first meet emerging challenges for the continent.
She noted that the current wave of revolts in African countries are a result of people getting frustrated by poor policy implementation by governments as well as lack of food and high consumer prices.
“There is the question of food security and food prices, all these riots that you see in Africa, they actually started in Mozambique, Cameroon, Tunisia and then Egypt. It is becoming a continent-wide issue and there is no reason Africa should not be able to feed itself,”
60% of the crop-able land of the world lies in Africa, according to Dr. Leautier.
She noted that Agriculture needs to be transformed to increase productivity. This, she said, would require developing markets to complement each other. Those that have surplus should supply others.
Dr. Leautier pointed out that the ABCF has registered tremendous successes since its establishment in the 1991, supporting capacity and skills development, policy research and formulation in 34 of its member states.
The foundation, which is mainly funded by the World Bank, supports hundreds of think tanks, policy institutes and as well as Universities across the continent.
Dr. Leautier noted that for the last 11 years that ACBF has been supporting Rwanda, the country has proved to be one of the most aid effective and efficient members.
“We are in Rwanda for a special reason. We consider Rwanda a country that has used ACBF very effectively because when Rwanda came out of conflict, ACBF was the first to come on the ground to support capacity building,” Dr. Lautier said.
ACBF, has funded several programmes in Rwanda to the tune of US$9m.
“The funds that Rwanda got, which were not a lot at the beginning, were so effectively used, starting with the work Dr. Kaberuka (Donald) did in training people in finance and banking when he was still Finance Minister,” she added.
She added that Rwanda, under the leadership of President Paul Kagame, provides great lessons to other countries.
Among the confirmed speakers and panellists at the summit are Thabo Mbeki, former President of the Republic of South Africa; Dr Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank; Dr Abdoulaye Janneh, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Community for Africa; Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Managing Director of the World Bank and Dr. Ibrahim A Mayaki, Chief Executive Officer, NEPAD.
RDC –Congo
CHAN 2011-Cameroun-RD Congo: L’heure de vérité pour les Lions
Cameroun-RD Congo – Absent de Côte d’Ivoire en 2009 qui avait accueilli l’épreuve inaugurale, le Cameroun participe, pour la première fois, à cette compétition organisée par la Confédération africaine de football (Caf) tous les deux ans en alternance avec la Coupe d’Afrique des nations (CAN). Lentement mais sûrement, le Championnat d’Afrique des nations (CHAN) fait du chemin. Le coup d’envoi de la deuxième édition de la « Can » réservée aux amateurs sera donné dans quelques heures à Khartoum au Soudan.
Absent de Côte d’Ivoire en 2009 qui avait accueilli l’épreuve inaugurale, le Cameroun participe, pour la première fois, à cette compétition organisée par la Confédération africaine de football (Caf) tous les deux ans en alternance avec la Coupe d’Afrique des nations (CAN).
La sélection camerounaise dirigée par Emmanuel Ndoumbé Bosso descend dans l’arène dimanche. Pour son premier match, elle est tombée sur un gros « morceau », la République démocratique du Congo (RDC), tenante du titre.
Le Cameroun fait partie des seize pays qui vont à la chasse au trophée. L’une des particularités du tournoi de Khartoum réside sur la profondeur du plateau des pays participants qui passe de huit à seize nations. A priori, la deuxième édition sera plus animée et plus disputée que la première.
Logé dans le groupe C, le Cameroun aura comme adversaires la RDC, la Côte d’Ivoire et le Mali. Le premier match donnera une indication sur les chances des Lions A’. Ndoumbé Bosso, mis sur la sellette avant son départ à cause des choix de certains joueurs jugés laxistes pour certains observateurs, pense lui aussi que la première sortie constituera un tournant.
Un bon résultat pourrait assurer un long séjour au Soudan à la délégation camerounaise qui séjourne depuis quelques jours dans ce pays. Le Chan ouvert seulement aux joueurs amateurs peut aussi être considéré comme le concours du plus grand championnat d’Afrique.
La compétition permettra d’évaluer le vrai niveau de la MTN-Elite One, championnat national de football première division qui sera en concurrence avec quinze autres championnats.
Les animateurs de la MTN-Elite One tels que Abouna Ndzana, Bebey Kingue, Arnaud Monkam, Mouangue Otele, Ousmaïla Baba, etc…ont ainsi l’occasion de se mettre en évidence aux yeux des recruteurs toujours à la recherche de l’oiseau rare.
Le Cameroun s’est-il donné les moyens pour faire une bonne compétition ? Après une série d’échecs fracassants à la Can, à la Coupe du monde, assortis d’une qualification manquée à la Can cadets, le pays espère sortir la tête de l’eau.
Le Chan sera également aussi l’occasion d’évaluer l’apport, dans le chantier de reconstruction, de la direction technique nationale, associée dans les différentes étapes de la préparation et de la participation de cette sélection A’.
Enfin, l’expédition soudanaise sera un prétexte pour éprouver, à la réalité du terrain, les réformes du ministère des Sports et de l’Education physique et de la Fécafoot quelques mois après la tenue du Forum national pour le football et des états généraux des sports et de l’éducation physique.
Dès demain donc, les regards seront tournés du côté de Khartoum. Le football camerounais est à la recherche d’un sourire, d’un souffle, d’une espérance. Vivement que la lueur de la renaissance nous vienne du Soudan !
Cameroon Tribune
RDC/trafic présumé d’or: un Américain, un Français et 2 Nigérians encore interrogés
GOMA (RDCongo) – Un Américain, un Français et deux Nigérians étaient toujours interrogés mardi à Goma, dans l’est de la République démocratique du Congo (RDC), dans le cadre d’une enquête sur un trafic présumé d’or, a-t-on appris de sources concordantes.
“Il y a un Américain, un Français et deux Nigérians qui sont toujours en garde à vue” à Goma, a déclaré à l’AFP une source sécuritaire au chef-lieu de la province du Nord-Kivu, où des groupes armés sont actifs et régulièrement accusés de se financer grâce au trafic illicite de minerais, dont la région regorge.
Ces quatre personnes avaient été interpellées en fin de semaine dernière après l’atterrissage de leur avion, immatriculé aux Etats-Unis, le 3 février à Goma, “avec une importante somme d’argent, en millions de dollars américains, pour une transaction d’or”, avait indiqué lundi le gouverneur de la province, Julien Paluku.
Par ailleurs, quatre autres personnes, membres de l’équipage de l’avion -trois Américains et un Nigérian- ont été rapidement laissées libres.
M. Paluku avait précisé à l’AFP que 435,6 kg d’or avaient été interceptés par les enquêteurs, mais refusé d’indiquer la somme d’argent saisie.
L’avion, un jet bi-réacteur toujours immobilisé mardi sur le tarmac de l’aéroport de Goma, venait d’Abuja au Nigeria, et serait basé à Houston (Texas), selon des sources concordantes.
Le gouverneur avait indiqué qu’il s’agissait “peut-être d’un des réseaux qui alimentent la guerre à l’Est”.
Confirmant des informations de presse, une source onusienne a indiqué à l’AFP que des militaires congolais, proches du général Bosco Ntaganda, un ex-rebelle rallié à Kinshasa avec ses hommes début 2009 et intégrés à l’armée, avaient été vus près de l’avion peu après son atterrissage, portant un colis et des caisses métalliques.
Des membres de la Garde républicaine (ex-garde présidentielle) auraient tenté d’intervenir, mais en auraient été empêchés par les militaires.
Ce sont les services de sécurité civil et de l’armée qui auraient finalement saisi l’or et l’argent, et interpellé les quatre passagers de l’avion, selon la source onusienne.
Le colonel Wilson Sengivuva, chargé du renseignement au sein de l’armée congolaise à Goma, a démenti mardi à la presse l’implication de militaires dans le trafic d’or, l’armée ayant au contraire contribué au démantèlement de trafic.
“Nous avions accepté d’aider ces voleurs, dans le but de les attraper. Nous étions au courant de l’opération depuis 3 semaines. Un vendeur (d’or) nous avait contacté”, a-t-il affirmé.
“Nous avons saisi des faux billets dans une grosse valise cadenassée que nous avons détuite”, a-t-il ajouté précisant que 456 kg d’or avaient été récupérés.
Le nom du général Ntaganda a été évoqué car c’est lui qui était de permanence à ce moment-là à Goma, en l’absence de ses supérieurs, a-t-il ajouté. “Nous avons eu les félicitations du chef de l’armée”, a-t-il conclu.
Cette affaire intervient alors que l’exploitation minière au Nord-Kivu, Sud-Kivu et Maniema (est) a été suspendue depuis septembre par le président de la RDC Joseph Kabila, qui avait dénoncé l’implication d’autorités civiles et militaires congolaises dans le commerce illicites de minerais (cassitérite, coltan, or…) dans la région.
(©AFP / 08 février 2011 20h17)
UGANDA
Tension, Uncertainty as Uganda Prepares for Election
Michael Onyiego | Nairobi February 08, 2011
In just over one week Ugandans will go to the polls to elect their president for the fourth time since the reinstitution of democracy. Facing perhaps his toughest competition yet, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni will seek a fourth term and a continuation of his 25-year rule.
On February 18, Museveni will face yet another election and another challenge to his long tenure as the country’s leader. Museveni has soundly defeated his challengers every five years since 1996, but his support has steadily declined. In the 1996 poll, the Ugandan leader received around 75 percent of the vote, but registered just under 60 percent in 2006.
Despite the numbers, many observers have pegged Museveni as the inevitable winner. The long-serving president ended the corruption-marred rule of President Milton Obote in 1985 and has since overseen a period of relatively strong economic growth.
Corruption within Museveni’s government, however, also has grown in recent years. Senior Fellow at Makerere Institute of Social Research Frederick Golooba-Mutebi believes such corruption is likely to help keep the president in power.
“Every election President Museveni has won has been contested on the grounds that it has been marred by malpractice, that there has been significant rigging,” said Golooba-Mutebi. “I do not think that that is going to go away this time.”
The upcoming election is likely to be Museveni’s most difficult yet. Though facing seven other candidates, his most serious challenge is retired Ugandan Colonel Dr. Kizza Besigye.
The retired soldier is a familiar face of the opposition. Besigye also ran in 2001 and 2006, taking over 35 percent of the vote in the most recent poll. In the upcoming vote, Besigye represents the Inter-Party Coalition, a group of four opposition parties that have united to challenge the president and his National Resistance Movement.
While the campaigns have been mostly peaceful, supporters of Besigye’s IPC and the ruling party have clashed in recent months. Uganda’s electoral commission also has found that various parties have formed militias before the vote and warned of possible violence during the election.
Tensions have been on the rise since the New Year with Besigye’s coalition threatening a boycott of the vote. The opposition leader has accused the National Resistance Movement of planning to rig the vote and warned of unrest similar to that in Egypt and Tunisia if the poll is unfair.
Recent reports reveal the Ugandan government is preparing for some measure of civil unrest with an increase in police recruitment and the import of riot-gear, such as tear gas.
Golooba-Mutebi said such actions will only stoke public suspicion. “The question for me and for other people is: a government that is preparing to contest a free and fair election – why are they preparing for trouble? They expect to win in a way that is going to leave a lot of dissatisfaction among the public and that that might cause trouble.”
A recent Synovate poll published by Ugandan newspaper New Vision found President Museveni to be favored by 67 percent of Ugandans. But the results have recently been disputed, with officials from Synovate denying involvement in the polling.
Museveni is still favored to win the upcoming vote, but the rising tension and uncertainty have left many in Uganda fearing a disputed election and perhaps even violence on the streets.
Wet weather harms Uganda coffee crops
Feb 08, 2011
Exports of coffee from Uganda might be slashed by 30 percent because inclement weather prompted poor yields from the harvest, according to the Uganda Coffee Development Authority.
Bloomberg reports Uganda exports of robusta beans are set to drop from 2010 figures of 262,793 bags to 185,000 bags this year. Each bag weighs about 132 pounds. Ethiopia is Africa’s top grower of coffee and Uganda places second. Robusta beans are 85 percent of Uganda’s coffee output, representing a $243.6 million cash crop in 2010.
In 2009, the harvest was worth $291.3 million, according to the authority.
In January, earnings from exports of coffee increased 19 percent over the same period one year prior because of prices throughout the globe improved.
Significant amounts of rain interrupted the harvesting process last month as the wet weather obstructed harvesting and drying of the beans. Consequently, crops were subject to mealy bugs and twig borers, according to the authority.
Just prior to noon on Tuesday, coffee futures were down 0.50 percent, a 1.25 cent decrease to $248.50 per pound.
Sudan: Lord’s Resistance Army murders nun
February 08, 2011 / http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=9177
The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a brutal group that has moved into southern Sudan after compiling a bloody record of human-rights abuses in northern Uganda, has murdered a 37-year-old nun, according to Bishop Edward Hiiboro Kussala of Tombura-Yambio.
“Each day that goes by without a solution to the LRA problem is another day of terror and pain for those of us living under constant threat of renewed attacks,” the bishop told Aid to the Church in Need, as he discussed a recent rash of kidnappings and murders in recent weeks. “The threat of violence widening could stress any new government in South Sudan, ruining the resources of a young nation as it fights to protect its citizens and prevent others from being drawn into the struggle.”
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TANZANIA:
Canaco Initiates Phase 1 Drill Program on the Handeni Gold Trend in Tanzania
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwire – Feb. 8, 2011) – Canaco Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE:CAN) is pleased to report that reverse circulation (RC) drilling has commenced on its 100%-owned Kilindi licence on the Handeni project in Tanzania. A total of 10,000 metres of drilling is planned for the four key target areas of Kwadijava, Kwadijava South, Majiri and Majiri Bomba. Infill and extension drilling has also recommenced on the Magambazi zone with three rigs, and an additional fourth rig is scheduled to start in February to accelerate Magambazi definition drilling.
Three high-priority targets are defined along the Majiri-Semwaliko-Kwadijava (MSK) trend, supported by artisanal workings including bedrock and alluvial operations, soil geochemical anomalies, and magnetic and IP targets/trends. These targets will be the principal focus of the RC drill campaign.
The Handeni gold trend is now recognized as consisting of two parallel gold trends with a combined strike length of over 15 kilometres. All of Canaco’s diamond drilling to date, which comprises more than 100 holes totalling 30,000 metres, has been along the Magambazi trend. The MSK trend has not been drill tested. The MSK trend is a sequence of metamorphosed mafic rocks (amphibolites) inter-bedded with sedimentary rocks (shales and siltstones – now kyanite-bearing gneiss), directly above a major geological boundary (basement granitic gneiss).
Quality Control
The planning, execution and monitoring of Canaco’s quality control programs at the Harvest project are under the supervision Jeff Heidema, P.Geo, Canaco’s VP Exploration, and Dr. David Groves, Canaco’s Director of Project Development. Mr. Heidema and Dr. Groves are Qualified Persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Canaco utilizes an industry standard QA/QC protocol with respect to sampling procedures. Blanks and certified reference standards are inserted into the sample stream to monitor laboratory performance and duplicates of pulps and bulk rejects are also used to monitor laboratory performance.
Additional information and public documents about Canaco, including a complete list of drill hole intercepts and drill collar maps, can be viewed at the Company’s website www.canaco.ca or at www.sedar.com.
About Canaco
Canaco is a Vancouver-based mineral exploration company focused on advanced exploration in Africa. Built on a foundation of experienced management and focused on rapidly advancing exploration projects in Tanzania and throughout Africa, Canaco is well positioned to build shareholder value through discovery and resource development.
Canaco’s shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol CAN.
On behalf of the Board of Directors
Andrew Lee Smith, P.Geo, President, CEO and Director
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information
This press release contains “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “anticipate”, “believe”, “plan”, “expect”, “intend”, “estimate”, “forecast”, “project”, “budget”, “schedule”, “may”, “will”, “could”, “might”, “should” or variations of such words or similar words or expressions. Forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions that have been made by the Company as at the date of such information and is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: risks associated with mineral exploration and development; metal and mineral prices; availability of capital; accuracy of the Company’s projections and estimates; interest and exchange rates; competition; stock price fluctuations; availability of drilling equipment and access; actual results of current exploration activities; government regulation; political or economic developments; environmental risks; insurance risks; capital expenditures; operating or technical difficulties in connection with development activities; personnel relations; the speculative nature of strategic metal exploration and development including the risks of diminishing quantities of grades of reserves; contests over title to properties; and changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions management believes to be reasonable, including but not limited to the price of gold; the demand for gold; the ability to carry on exploration and development activities; the timely receipt of any required approvals; the ability to obtain qualified personnel, equipment and services in a timely and cost-efficient manner; the ability to operate in a safe, efficient and effective manner; and the regulatory framework regarding environmental matters, and such other assumptions and factors as set out herein. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking contained herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
KENYA :
Kenyan Police Accused Of Extrajudicial Killings
by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
No one has seen Kenneth Ngoche since his arrest three weeks ago. Family members have searched every police station and mortuary for the 22-year-old, and now fear the worst in a country where police are again being accused of carrying out extrajudicial killings.
“Many of us can’t sleep. Nobody is eating in my house. If you know somebody has died you go and bury him, but this one is unknown so you continue hoping to see them,” his father, Salim Ngoche, told The Associated Press.
Kenneth Ngoche is one of five young men who went missing in Nairobi a day before police were photographed fatally shooting three suspects on a busy highway. Human rights groups say they believe the new killings and disappearances are proof that Kenyan police never stopped extrajudicial killings after an international outcry, only slowed them down.
A 2009 U.N. report had found the existence of “a systematic, widespread and clearly planned strategy to execute individuals carried out on a regular basis by the Kenya police.”
A Kenyan lawyer says that human rights activists and journalists who report on the cases are facing intimidation.
“There can be no doubt that there is a government policy to execute suspects. You can’t have people die in such large numbers in the hands of the police without a policy,” said Paul Muite, who has represented some of the families whose relatives were killed. “Nobody has been prosecuted for these deaths.”
The government-funded Kenyan National Commission of Human Rights says that at least 14 people have been killed in extrajudicial police attacks, in addition to the five men who have disappeared.
The most prominent case came last month, when a motorist captured photos that appeared to show undercover police shooting three submissive suspects in the head during rush-hour traffic on a busy Nairobi highway. A police commander at the scene told journalists the suspects died in a shootout, though the photos indicated otherwise.
Last week a fiery legislator named Martha Karua demanded an explanation from Orwa Ojode, an assistant minister for internal security. Karua said more than 70 people have been killed by police in the last six months. Ojode said he was only aware of 18 people being shot dead by police during that period.
“There those who have been killed by thugs. Those are the thugs my police officers are looking for to kill,” Ojode said during a televised parliament session as Karua questioned him vigorously.
Ojode later recanted the statement after members of parliament asked him to clarify what he meant.
“I am saying that my officers will not allow thugs to come and take over this country,” he said.
“We have instructed the police that they must weed out known criminals. ‘Weed out’ means they have to arrest them and take them to court. That is weeding them out!” he said.
He denied knowledge of extrajudicial executions and disappearances and said any police officer who is trigger happy will be prosecuted.
Still, those investigating the reports feel threatened. When the AP contacted a human rights advocate last week, he said: “Please let’s talk on e-mail. We cannot discuss this on the phone. They are listening.”
The advocate, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, said the few rights groups that are investigating suspected extrajudicial killings do not speak about the cases on their phones. They often change their SIM cards and sometimes will change vehicles during trips to shake off any followers.
Muite, a former member of parliament who has called on the International Criminal Court to investigate extrajudicial killings, said in 2009 he was warned by a friend in government that his life was in danger. He said a man concealed an AK-47 assault rifle under his overcoat and walked up to his car at an intersection, flashed the gun and walked away.
A group of relatives — mostly wary and fearful — told the AP about the five young men who disappeared on Jan. 18.
Benson Mutinda, an uncle of two of the missing men, believes his nephews may be the victims of a revenge attack after a police officer was wounded in a shooting in Nairobi’s Majengo slum on Jan. 15. Benson Mutinda believes Boniface Mutinda, 23, and Charles Mwangangi, 19, are still alive.
“I would have sensed if they were dead,” Mutinda said of his nephews. “We will find them.”
Katherine Wanjiru, a manager with a private security firm, said two of her nephews were found dead just days after they were arrested by police following a scuffle with a conductor of a minibus over a fare hike of less than $1.
Wanjiru said a relative who was with the two men said plain clothes police arrested her nephews. The bodies of the young men she had helped raise were found on the side of a road Dec. 31 riddled with bullet wounds.
“It is the hardest thing I have ever experienced. I have heard that people are killed but I never thought that they could be faultless,” said Wanjiru, who denied her nephews were involved in any criminal activity.
“The dead cannot raise issues but we are crying so that this does not happen to others.”
AFRICA / AU :
Latin America Boosting Ties With Africa
Drew Hinshaw | Dakar February 08, 2011
Visits to Senegal this week by Bolivian President Evo Morales and Brazil’s ex-President Lula da Silva highlight what analysts say is Latin America’s growing geopolitical interest in Africa.
The cries of “Olé” that pierced the Senegalese air before a rally Monday are an exotic noise to this continent that boasts only one Spanish-speaking country, and but a handful of countries that use the Portuguese colonial tongue shared by ex-Brazilian president Lula da Silva.
But when the former Brazilian president came for a speech in Senegal, hundreds of Spanish-speaking well-wishers came with him, from activists draped in South American flags, to Guatemala Mayan women, and even Evo Morales the first indigenous President of Bolivia.
Their arrival comes at a time when analysts say Latin America is increasing ties with the continent to the east.
The two landmasses share cash crops, and a history of 15th through 19th century colonial exploitation followed by 20th-century military rule.
But in the 21st century, da Silva says, they share new opportunities due to tremendous economic growth.
He says in the 29 countries he visited as president, he has been struck by the vitality with which Africa is affirming itself as the master of its destiny.
The continent, he said, is more relevant than ever to developing nations like Brazil. And while the former Portuguese colony is by far Latin America’s most active player on the continent, it is setting an example that other regional leaders are following.
For Morales, Africa is a place where Latin Americans can find link-minded people who have been oppressed by many of the same global forces.
He says that “you here in Africa, my brothers sisters, at a certain point, you were beaten, colonized, forced to work by forces coming from Europe. But you should know that we too were conquered and humiliated by European forces,” he says.
Eurasia Group’s Africa Analyst Anne Frauhauf says countries like Bolivia have not yet found a way to leverage the history they share with Africa into an overall strategy for boosting South Atlantic ties.
But that will change, she says, as economic growth on both continents inspire trade, travel, and political cooperation between across the ocean.
Already, she says, Brazil is “leading the charge” with a focus on boosting agriculture and health services on the continent.
“In general, I think it’s seen as a very important opportunity for African governments,” said Frauhauf. “Brazil is one of the most exciting emerging economies. In some ways it comes with less of some of the baggage associated with China. It is going to be a very important middle-ground player in this sort of scramble for Africa.”
During president Lula’s eight-year term, she says Brazil doubled the number of embassies in Africa and increased trade with the continent five-fold. She adds the country also is pushing its commercial banks to lend to African infrastructure projects.
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Latin-America-Boosting-Ties-With-Africa-115573959.html
UN /ONU :
U.N. warns China drought could pressure wheat prices
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/08/AR2011020804288.html?hpid=topnews
By Howard Schneider / Tuesday, February 8, 2011; 4:19 PM
A record drought in China’s major wheat producing areas threatens to push world food prices beyond their current high level, the United Nations warned in a report Tuesday, adding to growing concern about how the rising cost of food is affecting the poor around the globe.
China, the world’s largest wheat producer, consumes almost all of what it grows and keeps roughly 55 million tons in reserve. But the prospect of a failed winter wheat crop might prompt the country to import grain on a scale that could put further stress on world prices, the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization warned.
The FAO’s world food price index, a composite indicator of the cost of a basket of goods, is at its highest level since it was introduced in 1990. Wheat prices have roughly doubled since mid-2010, according to International Monetary Fund data.
Rainfall has been more than 30 percent below normal since October across five northern provinces that account for about two-thirds of Chinese wheat production, the FAO reported. Shandong province, China’s second-largest wheat-growing area, has had less than half an inch of rain since September, and is heading for its worst drought in 200 years, according to reports from China’s official news agency.
Not all of the wheat crop is at risk. The FAO, quoting Chinese officials, said that about one third of the 34 million acres under cultivation could be damaged. The most immediate threat is the cold: Less-than-average snow cover makes the crops more susceptible to freezing, and an FAO official said that if temperatures drop below zero, it could easily kill the winter wheat seeds, which are planted in fall and lay dormant until spring.
If precipitation remains inadequate during the spring growing period, the government might need to step in with more extensive irrigation efforts, said FAO agricultural economist Kisan Gunjal.
Food prices rose sharply during the last half of 2010, driven by rising demand, the rising price of oil and other inputs, and a cutoff of wheat exports from Russia as the country tried to cope with its own drought.
Food inflation contributed to the recent political unrest in Tunisia and Egypt, and officials at the World Bank and other international organizations have said the world’s major economic powers should work together to find a way to avoid volatile swings in the prices of staple goods.
Chinese officials have focused attention on the drought, with top leaders visiting the most hard-hit regions during the country’s recent Lunar New Year festivities and moving to bolster water supplies. The Reuters news service, reporting from Beijing, said that in some areas of Shandong Province, firetrucks were hauling in drinking water for about a quarter of a million people.
The FAO said that perhaps 2.6 million people and 2.8 million livestock are facing water shortages throughout the drought area.
Wheat futures prices jumped by about 2 percent on Tuesday.
Sudan: UN Peacekeepers Patrol Site of Deadly Military Clash
8 February 2011 – http://allafrica.com/stories/201102081202.html
United Nations peacekeepers have positioned armoured personnel carriers and are patrolling an area in Sudan where units made up of Northern and Southern Sudanese troops clashed last week, killing 54 soldiers and wounding 85 others.
“The United Nations urges the parties to remain calm and exercise caution,” spokesman Martin Nesirky told a news briefing in New York today, referring to the outbreak of violence in Malakal in Sudan’s Upper Nile State between 3 and 5 February. All movement restrictions at the Malakal airport, which was closed after the clashes, have been lifted, and it is now open for regular traffic, he said, adding that the situation is now relatively calm. The clashes erupted before yesterday’s announcement of the official results of January’s independence referendum in South Sudan, showing that an overwhelming majority opted for secession from what until now has been Africa’s largest country. In a joint statement issued today, the UN joined a dozen signatories in hailing the official results, a culminating point of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) ending two decades of civil war between the North and the South that killed some 2 million people and drove an estimated 4.5 million others from their homes.
As Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the panel he appointed to monitor the vote did yesterday, they called on both sides to reach lasting post-referendum arrangements on such issues as border security, citizenship, wealth-sharing, frontier demarcation, and popular consultations in the states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile. Also still to be decided is the issue of Abyei, an area straddling northern and southern Sudan, that was due to have voted in a separate but simultaneous referendum on which side it would join. But a referendum commission has yet to be established there, and there is still no agreement on who would be eligible to vote. “We emphasize our commitment to the establishment of long-term peace, security and prosperity for all of the people of Sudan,” the co-signatories said in the statement. “As witnesses to the CPA, we recognize the critical importance of continued close cooperation between the Northern and Southern Sudan and we underline our willingness to continue to provide international support.” The other signers were the African Union, Egypt, the European Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, Kenya, Italy, the Arab League, Netherlands, Norway, Uganda, United Kingdom and United States.
USA :
Head of Boston Fund Named Co-Conspirator, U.S. Says
February 08, 2011, / – By Katherine Burton and Saijel Kishan
(Adds defendants starting in second paragraph.)
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) — The owner and president of a Boston- based hedge fund was named as a co-conspirator in a nationwide insider trading case, according to a complaint filed by federal prosecutors in New York.
The complaint against Noah Freeman, who pleaded guilty yesterday to securities fraud, said he provided inside information to “CC-1,” whom prosecutors described as president and owner of “Hedge Fund A,” where Freeman was working until 2008. Freeman was one of four investment professionals charged today by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.
“While working at Hedge Fund A, Freeman and his co- conspirators provided the inside information to CC-1 for the purpose of executing securities transactions in publicly traded companies based, in whole or in part, on inside information,” according to the complaint.
Freeman was a managing director at Sonar Capital Management LLC in Boston from March 2005 to May 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Sonar was founded by Neil Druker in 2003. Druker is described as general partner and portfolio manager in a 2009 marketing document. A form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in March 2006 states that Druker owned at least 75 percent of the hedge fund firm.
“Any violation of law by Mr. Freeman was unauthorized and unknown to Sonar and, to Sonar’s knowledge, took place without the involvement of management or any other Sonar employee,” the firm said in an e-mailed statement. “Sonar Capital has robust policies against insider trading and expects its personnel to fully comply with such policies.”
SAC
A month after leaving Sonar, Freeman moved to Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital LLC, where he was a junior portfolio manager in its Boston office until January 2010. He also engaged in insider trading while at SAC, according to the complaint.
The three other investment professionals charged today were Donald Longueuil, another former portfolio manager at SAC; Samir Barai, the founder of Barai Capital Management; and Jason Pflaum, who worked for Barai. Pflaum pleaded guilty yesterday.
Freeman and Longueuil were both dismissed from SAC in 2010 because of poor performance, Jonathan Gasthalter, a spokesman for SAC, said today.
–With assistance from Kelly Bit in New York. Editors: Christian Baumgaertel, Steven Crabill
To contact the reporters on this story: Katherine Burton in New York at kburton@bloomberg.net; Saijel Kishan in New York at skishan@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christian Baumgaertel at cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net
CANADA :
CANADA STOCKS-TSX extends rally, gold miners lead way
By Solarina Ho / TORONTO, Feb 8 (Reuters) – Toronto’s main stock index
finished firmly higher on Tuesday as strong bullion prices
pushed up gold miners.
Goldcorp (G.TO) jumped 4.8 percent to C$42.76 while Barrick
Gold (ABX.TO) rose 2.47 percent to C$48.45. Kinross Gold (K.TO)
advanced 2.7 percent to C$17.10 and Agnico Eagle (AEM.TO)
climbed 3.13 percent to C$73.47.
The overall materials sector, where gold miners reside, was
up 1.85 percent.
Gold prices rose 1 percent to their highest level in almost
three weeks on inflation fears and a technical breakout after
breaching a key resistance level. [GOL/] [ID:nLDE7170VV]
China moved to cool inflation with an interest rate hike
on Tuesday, which benefited gold’s position as an inflation
hedge. [ID:nTOE706030]
“The commodities, especially silver, gold, the precious
metals sector was powering ahead,” said Levente Mady, a market
strategist at Union Securities.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index
.GSPTSE closed up 80.59 points, or 0.58 percent, at
13,892.52. Six of its 10 main groups finished higher.
“It’s been a steady day … a little bit of consolidation,
profit-taking on the opening. But the market held and today had
a quiet, positive tone to it,” said Bruce Latimer, a trader
with Dundee Securities.
The heavily weighted financials group, which makes up
nearly 30 percent of the index, was also firmer, climbing 0.47
percent. Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO) was up 0.97 percent at
C$59.17.
($1=$0.99 Canadian)
(Reporting by Solarina Ho; editing by Rob Wilson)
AUSTRALIA :
Rio Tinto ups investment in Canada, Australia
Feb 8, 2011 By The Associated Press / LONDON (AP) — Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto PLC says it has approved a $277 million expansion of operations at its subsidiary Iron Ore Company of Canada and a $933 million investment to extend the life of a key mine in Australia.
The expansion to IOC’s operations announced Tuesday will boost iron ore concentrate production at the Canadian unit to 26 million tons, or 40 percent, per year. It is the second phase of a planned three-stage expansion. Rio Tinto’s share of the new investment is $163 million.
The separate investment in the Marandoo iron ore mine in Western Australia’s Pilbara region will extend its life by 16 years to 2030. Rio Tinto owns the mine outright.
Rio Tinto shares are up just 0.04 percent at 4,627 pence ($74.58) on the London Stock Exchange.
Australian miners worried about Chinese interest in African iron ore
Tuesday, 08/02/2011
As iron ore prices continue to soar, Chinese companies are making inroads into West Africa to shore up their own supplies.
The virtual duopoly of BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto in Western Australia’s Pilbara region are dictating prices of the ore that’s the key component in steel making.
With construction in China at an all-time high, the country is embarking on a strategy to buy up vast tracts of under-explored and iron ore rich West Africa.
CEO of Cape Lambert, Tony Sage, says the world’s major iron ore miners are trying to get there first.
“Vale, BHP and Rio for the very first time in history competing in the same country at the same time,” he said.
“They are desperately worried the Chinese will take over all the West African iron ore.
“And at the moment there’s a fight between all the groups, including the Chinese, the Koreans, the Swedish with Xstrata, trying to compete with for all that iron ore ground.”
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201102/s3132979.htm
EUROPE :
Wary of future turmoil, EU to send expert team to Sudan
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The EU is preparing to send a team of technical experts to Sudan in the coming weeks, with senior officials warning that Africa’s largest and soon to be divided state continues to pose the greatest risk to the continent’s security, despite recent competition from Egypt.
“The mission will be sent to Juba [in south Sudan] to make a strategic assessment of what support the EU should provide for stability capacity building, development and security sector reform,” Maja Kocijancic, a spokeswoman for EU high representative Catherine Ashton, said on Tuesday (8 February).
Final results from last month’s referendum, released on Monday, showed that nearly 99 percent of the 3.9 million voters in south Sudan elected to separate form the Arab-led and Muslim north.
Despite fears that the vote, the centerpiece of a 2005 peace agreement which ended a decades-old civil war, could result in a widespread return to violence, observers say this has so far failed to materialise, although clashes in border regions last month left dozens dead.
“The worst case scenario didn’t happen … but the hardest part is still ahead of us,” Peter Zangl, director general of the European Commission’s humanitarian aid department said during a debate in the European Parliament on Tuesday.
A complete lack of development in southern Sudan for the past 25 years, security failings and a history of epidemics and floods are among the challenges facing the region, set to gain independence in July, said the official.
On top of this, an estimated two million migrants have moved from north to south Sudan as a result of the vote, with many unaccustomed to their new and tougher living conditions.
“The message to EU development commissioner Andris Piebalgs at the African Union summit in Addis-Ababa last month was that despite what’s happening in northern Africa at the moment, Sudan is probably the continent’s biggest challenge,” said Mr Zangl.
“If Sudan was to return to conflict it would result in a major security risk for the whole region,” he added.
Measured statements by Sudan’s current president Omar al-Bashir have been welcomed by the international community, especially his acceptance of Monday’s referendum results which will see the south break away from Khartoum’s control.
Media reports quoting unnamed officials suggest Mr Bashir may be set to gain a one-year reprieve from war crimes charges, as Western governments seek to consolidate peace between north and south Sudan after last months referendum.
Mr Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court in the Hague for his role in the Darfur conflict.
European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek said during Tuesday’s debate that the former Czechoslovakia offered a model for separation. In 1992, due to growing nationalist tensions, the central European state was peacefully dissolved by parliament and soon after was formally separated into two independent countries: the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
“We have strong hopes that it will be a friendly division,” said the Polish politician. “The referendum was important because it sets an example for Africa. Sudan was a problem in the past and now can become a solution.”
A number of outstanding issues could still derail the process, warn expects, among them the division of the country’s oil reserves and establishing citizenship rights.
Some in EU Object to German-French Debt Plan
VOA News February 08, 2011
A storm is brewing in Europe over a German-French plan that would impose stricter, uniform economic rules on the 17 nations that use the euro currency.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy proposed the plan last week. It called for the debt limits of each country to be written into their national constitutions, a common European corporate tax, higher retirement ages for workers and other measures. In exchange, Germany and France would agree to bolster the continent’s bailout fund, even as they seek to prevent the need for more international assistance deals like the ones that Greece and Ireland were forced to accept last year.
The austerity measures proposed by Europe’s two strongest economies are already drawing complaints from their less prosperous European neighbors, who fear a loss of autonomy for their individual governments.
Italy is seeking to block rules that would penalize high-debt countries for failing to meet deficit reduction targets. Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain and others are opposed to an end to index-linked wage increases, while Austria and others oppose regulating the retirement age. Ireland does not want to give up its low corporate tax rate. Greece opposes a requirement to make constitutional changes.
The common euro currency has now been in effect for 12 years, but the fortunes of the countries that employ it have varied widely after the 2008 worldwide recession. Those on the geographic periphery – Greece, Ireland, Spain and Portugal – have fared worse than Germany and France and others in the center of Europe.
Whether Germany and France can impose new economic rules on their neighbors is an open question. But the continent’s economic officials are discussing the various proposals and have scheduled more meetings on them in early and late March.
CHINA :
Africa’s resources central to China: expert
(AFP) – 08/02/2011 – CAPE TOWN — Africa’s rich natural resources will remain key to China as the Asian giant grows at a more moderate but sustainable pace, an expert on the country told an African mining conference Tuesday.
“We feel that demand from China is something to rely upon,” said Kobus van der Wath, managing director of consultancy Beijing Axis, adding that China’s economic performance was not a “flash in the pan”.
“If anything we will see a more moderate growth rate and therefore more moderate but certainly more sustainable demand.”
China should be viewed as a broad player on the continent, where a lack of infrastructure and capital play to the its strengths, he said.
The world’s second-biggest economy “comfortably” had outbound investments of more than $50 billion a year but there was greater appetite and ability to invest more, particularly in Africa, he said.
The “Chinese, although they are not new, are becoming a far more intensive player… and far more assertive in their global aspirations,” van der Wath told delegates at the Investing in African Mining Indaba conference.
“Raw materials is a big focus for this global expansion and really Africa is also a very big focus.”
“Africa will continue, and developing countries and resource hubs will continue, to be very very important in terms of focus,” said van der Wath.
Africa drew 14 percent of China’s investment last year, he said.
China Tackles Inflation. Food Prices Rising. Good For Monsanto & Syngenta.
Feb. 8 2011 – / The Chinese Central Bank, The People’s Bank of China, (PBOC), has increased interest rates once again. This is the third increase in four months as the authorities in Beijing seek a way to contain inflation.
PBOC announced that it would raise the 1 year lending rate to 6.06% from the previous level of 5.81% and the 1 year deposit rate to 3.0% from 2.75%.
Back in October, PBOC raised rates for the first time in nearly three years as it began doing battle with surging prices, exacerbated by the high growth rate of the domestic economy.
Data supplied by the Chinese Economic Information Bureau shows that inflation has started to rise again following a dip in 2009. Annual averages since 2007 read as: 2007 ~ 4.8%, 2008 ~ 5.9%, 2009 ~ -0.7%, 2010 ~ 3.3%. However in Q4 2010 the average was 4.7%. Clearly the trend is above the official target of 3.0%. The Government has leaned on the PBOC and for 2011 the official target has been adjusted higher to 4.0%. This alteration in inflation policy was announced by the main economic and planning agency, the National development and Reform Commission
Clearly the pace of economic growth is a major factor as Q4 2010 economic expansion was booked at 9.8% following increases in the level of industrial production and retail sales. For all of 2010 the economy grew at a pace of 10.3%, the strongest level in 3 years and compares to 9.25 in 2009.
A Billion plus hungry mouths:
If the workers keep the economy moving, then the workers have to be fed. Food prices around the world have risen substantially this year. Rough rice slipped to $10.485/cwt on June 30th 2010 marking a 25.95% fall from where the year began. Since then it has risen to $16.285/cwt on February 3rd, +55.32%. One has to hope that the Head of the Chinese Statistics Bureau is being completely honest when he says that China has an abundant supply of rice. I say this because with 3 Billion people in the world using rice as their staple food and just 6 to 7% of global rice production trades on the free and open global market. The Dollar Index is inversely correlated to the price of rice to such an extent that R2 is 0.98. As the Fed looks to keep rates low and the ECB is seen as an eager rate riser, so globally one can expect downward pressure on the Dollar and upward pressure on rice. That will in turn place greater strain on the nations that have many hungry mouths to feed. Of course China has a strong $ revenue stream from its exports and foreign exchange reserves have reached $199Bn in Q3 2010. So China should not face any immediate risk of civil unrest. However, if the stockpile ran too low and supplies where hard to come by, one never knows. The smallest spark can light the flame of uprising.
Of course the price of commodities has been incredible with the Reuters-Jefferies CRB Index higher by 35.35% since the low on May 25th 2010. Recently vast tracts of productive land has been out of commission as floods hit farmland Australia, which exports its wheat and sugar cane around the world. There are fears that their priceswill continue to rise. China has not escaped a knock on effect from this as providers to end customers have passed on cost hikes from their own value chain.
In January, wholesale food costs hit the highest monthly figure on record, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This is a serious issue although the FAO has been quick to argue that this is not the onset of another emergency.
Why are food prices rising?
Following the 2008 peaks there were good harvests for most basic foods and that allowed prices to fall back. At the end of last year severe weather in many of the world’s biggest food exporting countries damaged supplies so pushing food prices almost 20% higher than a year earlier, according to the FAO. Flooding hit the planting season in Canada, and destroyed crops of wheat and sugar cane in Australia. Severe drought and fires ruined wheat harvests in Russia and the surrounding region during the summer, prompting Russia to impose a ban exports.
Consequently wheat production is forecast to be lower this year than in the last two given the data released by the US government.
Not all food prices have risen as countries that are not reliant on supplies from disaster-hit exporters haven’t experienced the same price squeeze. As an example please consider maize in East Africa. Prices have backed off by 50% after outstanding harvests in 2010.
Onion prices have soared in India in the past month, following heavy rains in the west, where the majority of the supply comes from. Regional and national government has come under severe pressure to act, as onions are such an important part of the Indian diet.
OK…now let the politicians and bureaucrats blame the market speculator.
It is a great relief to hear the FAO be partially market savvy when they say that speculators trading commodities on the financial markets are not to blame for the huge rise in prices. It is a shame they had to add to this by saying they have made matters worse. One can sight as many examples as one likes, but it is the market that brings liquidity to the crops. Only through the market can buyers and sellers meet effectively and efficiently. If there is an issue with price movement, surely governments around the world should look to stop blocking the most efficient methods of growing hardy crops that can stand up to weather extremes.
Sugar production has failed to keep up with the growing demand coming from developing countries, pushing prices sharply higher. So there should encouragement to find better methods of crop production. Not a cheap swipe at market trading.
The World Development Movement (WDM) is keen to curb this betting on prices. It is determined to impose greater regulation and restriction on the buying and selling of futures. Big mistake as prices will become artificial and allow inefficient operators to stay in place so short changing the human race in the medium to long term.
Two companies that are set to benefit from this situation are Monsanto Co (US) and Syngenta AG (Switzerland). There are many others that one could select and at Spotlight Ideas a detailed analysis is soon to be released. In the year todate a global index of chemical companies has gained 3.14%. In contrast Syngenta is higher by 12.21% and Monsanto 7.09%. For the American player there has been several items of constructive news as the US has approved the use of GM beet seeds this year. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA), has announced that US sugar supplies could run short this year as farmers could lose 21% of the 2011 crop if they are not able to start sowing in the spring. Farmers have the go ahead to use GM Alfalfa that was developed by Monsanto.
For Syngenta, they too have a slice of the good news it has won approval from the National Biosafety Committee to distribute to farmers in Brazil supplies of “Triple Stack Corn”. This corn is resistant to corn borer, root worm and herbicide infection.
Price wise, Monsanto needs to break over 76.05…on that move the price will book gains to 84 as a short term first objective. Monsanto has a better chart, a classical impulsive rally and once over 310.90 it will rally to 342.72.
Stephen Pope ~ MarketMind / London
INDIA :
India’s Simhapuru targets S.African coal
8 FEB, 2011, 01.17PM IST,REUTERS / CAPE TOWN: India’s Simhapuri Energy , a unit of the Madhucon Group , wants to buy new or existing collieries in South Africa from where it aimed to export a minimum of 5 million tonnes within five years, an official said on Tuesday.
Indian companies are buying coal assets in top five global exporter South Africa as it moves to secure resources for a growing economy and to feed coal into new power plants.
“We want to invest in coal and are looking at some acquisitions. From South Africa we are targeting a minimum of five milion tonnes of coal for export within five years,” Nama Krishnaiah, director of Simhapuri Energy, told Reuters on the sidelines of an African mining conference.
Displacing Europe, India and China are emerging as the two main destinations for coal from South Africa, which last year shipped some 63 million tonnes of thermal coal.
Maducon Group has interests in the construction, coal and sugar industries, with Madhucon Projects listed in Bombay.
Krishnaiah said the company, which recently opened offices in Johannesburg, was in discussions with unnamed junior miners, as well as applying directly to the Department of Mineral Resources for mining licenses.
“At this moment we are targeting some brownfield projects that have mining licenses, but we are looking at greenfield (developments) also,” said Krishnaiah, adding that Zimbabwe’s coal fields were also attractive.
He said the company, which was developing a 1,920 megawatt power plant near India’s Krishnapatnam port, was financially strong and had capital to purchase coals assets.
The company already owns coal mines in Indonesia.
U.S. Delegation Is Seeking Deals in India
By VIKAS BAJAJ and HEATHER TIMMONS / Published: February 8, 2011
BANGALORE, India — Nearly two years ago, President Obama rankled many people here when he said that American tax law unfairly benefited companies that created jobs in Bangalore and punished companies that hired in Buffalo.
On Tuesday, however, the president’s commerce secretary offered a friendlier message: Let’s do business. In his second stop during a weeklong tour of India, the secretary, Gary Locke, said he wanted to help American companies sell planes, tractors and power equipment to create jobs in the United States while also helping to develop India.
“What we seek is really two-way, mutually beneficial trade,” Mr. Locke said in an interview. He added that the trade should create jobs in both the United States and in India.
Mr. Locke’s visit is part of a year-old initiative by the Obama administration to double exports by 2015 to bolster a still-struggling American economy. In the case of India, the administration has also cast the effort as a way to improve economic relations with an important ally and one of the fastest-growing countries in the world.
The United States is not alone in pursuing such a strategy. Other countries, like China, Russia, France and Britain, have been sending trade missions to India.
Acknowledging that many American companies have not looked outward to bolster their businesses, Mr. Locke said in an interview that he hoped to use his “trade mission” to India, and three other countries later this year, to help businesses exploit opportunities abroad.
“Only 1 percent of U.S. companies export, and of that 1 percent, 58 percent export to only one country, typically Canada or Mexico,” he said. “And yet 95 percent of the world’s consumers live outside the borders of the United States. So, if U.S. companies want to grow and expand, not only do they have to focus on the domestic market, but they have to look at the 95 percent of customers outside.”
As part of its charm offensive, the Obama administration recently removed nine Indian aerospace and defense companies from a list of restricted entities that cannot be sold certain technologies that have military uses. Mr. Locke is accompanied by representatives from 24 businesses, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Westinghouse, some of whom are hoping to win business as a result of the change in policy.
Trade between the United States and India was growing even before the administration’s recent efforts to focus on this economic relationship.
Total trade in goods and services jumped nearly 20 percent, to $54 billion in the first nine months of 2010. Later this week, India will host a biennial air show in Bangalore where American companies will try to win multibillion-dollar contracts from the Indian Air Force and civilian airlines. They will, however, face stiff competition from European and Russian companies.
Boeing had hoped to sell in India 10 cargo planes for $5 billion during Mr. Obama’s visit in November, but the deal is still not finished. Last month, however, Boeing’s European rival, Airbus, won a large order from IndiGo, a fast-growing Indian low-cost airline that plans to start flying international routes in August. IndiGo ordered 180 planes that have a list price of $15.6 billion. Deliveries are to start in 2015.
Mr. Locke is not the only American official trying to solicit business in India. Individual American states have also sent representatives to coincide with Mr. Locke’s visit. As state governments weigh painful budget cuts and grapple with lingering unemployment, some officials say that increasing exports to India and encouraging investment from its expanding companies is crucial.
“We’re not doing it to get ahead, we’re doing it to not be left behind,” said North Carolina’s secretary of commerce, J. Keith Crisco, who was in New Delhi this week with dozens of executives from his state.
This is the first trade delegation North Carolina has sent to India, Mr. Crisco said, though the state sent people to China and Brazil last year.
“Yes, we are catching up in India,” he said, adding that he expected some announcements of deals related to the trip in coming weeks.
New York State has gone even further. It set up an office in New Delhi last year and is organizing a series of investment conferences in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore this spring, aimed at Indian companies who want to expand to the United States or work as partners with a New York company.
The office is led by Kaviraj Singh, a Delhi lawyer who has lived and worked in New York. He said he planned to use the office to tie New York businesses “into a network that will make you feel as though you’ve always been here.”
Heather Timmons reported from New Delhi and Vikas Bajaj from Bangalore, India.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/09/business/global/09locke.html?src=busln
BRASIL:
Brazil Rate Futures Fall on Spending Cut Outlook; Real Advances
February 08, 2011 By Ben Bain and Josue Leonel / Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) — Yields on Brazilian interest-rate futures contracts fell the most since August amid growing speculation that President Dilma Rousseff’s administration is almost finished with a plan to cut spending.
The yield on the contract due January 2013 fell 17 basis points, or 0.17 percentage point, to 12.68 percent at 3:16 p.m. New York time. The yield dropped by 18 basis points on Aug. 16.
Rousseff will hold a cabinet meeting today to discuss plans to slash 40 billion reais ($24 billion) to 50 billion reais from this year’s budget, and the cuts are likely to be announced on Feb. 10, according to an article published on the website of Sao Paulo-based news service IG. Planning Minister Miriam Belchior said on Jan. 28 the government will announce the spending cuts for 2011 between Feb. 10 and 12.
“What’s happening in Brazil is expectations of an imminent fiscal adjustment package,” Siobhan Morden, head of Latin America strategy at RBS Securities Inc., said, referring to today’s drop in yields during a telephone interview from Stamford, Connecticut. “Right now we’re in a phase where let’s be prepared for some news. Some news is better than no news.”
Rousseff, in a speech at the opening session of Congress Feb. 2, told lawmakers she is committed to “maintaining a macro-economic policy compatible with fiscal balance, a firm control of inflation and rigorous use of public money.” The country’s budget surplus before interest payments, the so-called primary surplus, reached 2.8 percent of gross domestic product last year, falling short of the government’s 3.1 percent target.
Inflation
Brazilian prices, as measured by the benchmark IPCA index, rose 0.83 percent last month, the national statistics agency said today in Rio de Janeiro. The monthly gain was more than a 0.81 percent median estimate among 32 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Yields on interest-rate futures contracts also fell after China increased borrowing costs, driving down commodities and easing the outlook for Brazil’s inflation.
The Bloomberg Base Metals Spot Price Commodity Index sank 1.8 percent after the People’s Bank of China raised the one-year deposit and lending rates by 0.25 percentage point each to cool the economy.
“The prospect of deceleration in China may bring some relief for commodity prices,” said Luciano Rostagno, chief strategist at CM Capital Markets Ltda., the third-biggest currency broker on the BM&FBovespa SA exchange.
The real strengthened 0.9 percent to 1.6646 per dollar, from 1.6795 yesterday, the best performance among 16 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg.
–With assistance from Boris Korby in New York, Alexander Cuadros in Sao Paulo and Andre Soliani in Brasilia. Editors: Brendan Walsh, Glenn J. Kalinoski
To contact the reporters on this story: Ben Bain in New York at bbain2@bloomberg.net Josue Leonel in Sao Paulo at jleonel@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos in New York at papadopoulous@bloomberg.net
EN BREF, CE 8 février 2011… AGNEWS /DAM, NY,08/02/2011
