{jcomments on}OMAR, AGNEWS, BXL, le 18 mai 2010 – www.presstv.ir- May 18, 2010–Egypt says it is angered by Ethiopia’s inauguration of a new dam on the Nile River and will block the deal recently signed by four Nile Basin countries.
RWANDA
Egypt plans to block Nile Basin deal
Tue, 18 May 2010 / www.presstv.ir
Egypt says it is angered by Ethiopia’s inauguration of a new dam on the Nile River and will block the deal recently signed by four Nile Basin countries.
Egyptian officials met on Sunday in Cairo to intensify diplomatic efforts to delegitimize the deal for fair utilization of the Nile’s water signed by Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda on May 14.
Despite fierce objections from Egypt and Sudan, which control the lion’s share of the waters, the deal was signed.
Egypt is preparing a strong protest to Ethiopia and other signatories of the deal.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is set to travel to Italy in protest over European assistance for Ethiopian dam construction projects. He is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Italy and the European Investment Bank have provided a multi-million-dollar loan to Ethiopia for the construction of five hydroelectric dams.
Egyptian diplomats are also rushing to lobby key players in East Africa and North Africa.
It has also been reported that Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Burundi may sign the agreement soon.
FTP/MTM/HGL
UGANDA
Uganda Seeks $404 Million From Heritage Oil, Vision Reports
By Fred Ojambo/Bloomberg/May 18
May 18 (Bloomberg) — The Uganda Revenue Authority is demanding $404 million from Heritage Oil Plc as income tax and capital gains tax from the planned sale of two oil concessions, the New Vision reported, citing Moses Kajubi, the authority’s commissioner for domestic taxes.
Heritage Oil is selling its interest in Block 1 and 3A for $1.5 billion, the Kampala-based newspaper reported. Tullow Oil Plc, an equal partner with Heritage in the fields found in the Lake Albert region, is negotiating to buy them.
TANZANIA:
Record heat recorded for Africa’s greatest lake
By Daniel Howden in Nairobi/ www.independent.co.uk/Tuesday, 18 May 2010
Africa’s deepest lake is warming at an “unprecedented” rate thanks to man-made climate change, scientists have warned. Lake Tanganyika, which stretches from Burundi and DR Congo on its northern shores to southern Tanzania and Zambia, is the second largest lake in the world by volume.
The 420-mile-long finger of water in south-central Africa is now warmer than at any point in the last 1,500 years, according to research published in the journal Nature Geoscience, and the consequences could be dire for the 10 million people who live around it and depend on its fisheries.
“Our records indicate that changes in the temperature of Lake Tanganyika in the past few decades exceed previous natural variability,” the paper found. “We conclude that these unprecedented temperatures and a corresponding decrease in productivity can be attributed to anthropogenic global warming.”
Geologists from Rhode Island’s Brown University and the University of Arizona took samples from the lake floor. By carbon dating these “lake cores”, taken from depths of up 4,700 feet, and testing fossilised micro-organisms, they were able to create an accurate picture of temperature changes since AD500.
What they found was a gradual warming that accelerated alarmingly in recent decades as heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere have driven global climate change. The scientists were also able for the first time to link the warming to lower productivity in the lake, concluding that higher temperatures were killing life. The study found that the warmer the surface of the lake has become, the harder it is for cold currents to rise from the bottom and penetrate and recharge warmer layers.
A less productive lake means fewer fish and therefore less food and income in one of the poorest regions on earth. “The people throughout south-central Africa depend on the fish from Lake Tanganyika as a crucial source of protein,” said Andrew Cohen, professor of geological sciences at the University of Arizona. “This resource is likely threatened by the lake’s unprecedented warming since the late 19th century and the associated loss of lake productivity.”
The surface temperature of the lake has risen by slightly less than one degree in the last 90 years to 26C, while the levels of algae that indicate the productivity of the lake have dropped.
The vast body of water, which at some points is more than 45 miles across, produces some 200,000 tonnes of fish annually, mainly sardines. It is also the region’s main source of freshwater.
While scientists have previously focused on the Earth’s atmosphere to understand the extent and consequences of climate change, they are increasingly looking to its lakes and seas, which absorb tremendous amounts of heat.
Jessica Tierney, from Brown University and the lead scientist on the paper, said: “We’re showing that the trend of warming that we’ve seen is also affecting these remote places in the tropics in a very severe way.”
The Great Lakes region of Africa – Lake Malawi, Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika – were formed after Eurasia and Africa collided some 25 million years ago, creating the Great Rift Valley stretching from Syria to Mozambique.
Officials from the UN Environment Programme (Unep) in Nairobi, Kenya, have warned that Tanganyika is not alone among Africa’s Great Lakes in being threatened by climate change. Lake Victoria, the continent’s largest by surface area but shallow in comparison with Tanganyika, has registered record temperature rises since the 1960s, which have added further stress to an ecosystem already under attack from human waste, agricultural run-off and invasive species.
With the fastest-growing population of any lake basin in the world, Victoria is offering what some scientists are calling “an accelerated preview of the great environmental challenges” of the coming century. More than 30 million people already live around “Victoria Nyanza”, as it is known in Kenya, and that figure is projected to double by 2025, according to Unep.
CONGO RDC :
Vodacom’s iBurst sale opens way to licence
THABISO MOCHIKO/ www.businessday.co.za/ 2010/05/18
VODACOM plans to dispose of stakes in two subsidiaries that have been shrouded in controversy over the past year.
It said yesterday it would sell its 24,9% stake in internet service provider iBurst to enable it to apply for a similar licence from the regulator. Former CEO Alan Knott-Craig was accused of a conflict of interest as his son was the MD of iBurst.
In the other venture, Vodacom said it would withdraw from the Democratic Republic of Congo if it failed to resolve its dispute with its partner Congolese Wireless Network and if the operating conditions there do not improve. If it pulls out, it will be the second failure in Africa after a disastrous venture in Nigeria more than five years ago.
Vodacom bought into iBurst’s parent company WBS four years ago to get access to lucrative and scarce spectrum. It spent about R100m to build base stations for iBurst.
Now Vodacom wants to apply for a spectrum allocation of its own, and its investment in iBurst could prevent it from doing so.
Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys said yesterday it was in discussion with potential buyers. “Our strategy (to sell iBurst shares) is purely driven by spectrum. But we will continue to have a relationship with iBurst,” he said.
In the Congo, Vodacom is involved in a bitter quarrel with Congolese Wireless Network over funding of their joint venture, Vodacom DRC.
The matter is in arbitration after the two failed to resolve several areas of disagreement.
The Congo business has declined in the past year because of tough trading conditions. Vodacom has put the brakes on investments in the Congo until the dispute over funding for the business is resolved.
Uys said although there were growth opportunities in the Congo, “we want a stable environment. Over the years I have been positive and still positive about prospects in the Congo ,” he said.
Uys said if regulatory matters, tax problems and its shareholding impasse could not be resolved “we will have to call it a day … and move to something else”.
He said industry players would have to work closely to resolve regulatory issues such as tax. “When we deal with one regulatory matter the next one comes and there is a need for the industry to come together to ensure a stable tax regime. We would like to have resolved most of the issues soon,” he said.
In the year to March Vodacom was hit by a tax of 35m in the Congo, which dragged down earnings. Vodacom has 3,3-million customers in the country , down from 4,1-million in the previous year.
Spiwe Chireka, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan, warned that market-related issues in the Congo could continue affecting the growth of Vodacom there.
Analysts have previously said that Vodacom was unlikely to pull out of the Congo because it wanted to maintain its footprint in Africa. They said it had to sustain and grow what it had rather than shrink, because new growth opportunities were few.
Although Vodacom has been evaluating opportunities, it was not prepared to overpay, Uys said.
Andrew Kingston, an equity analyst at Sanlam Investment Management, said Vodacom seemed to be more “level-headed post the Gateway acquisition”.
mochikot@bdfm.co.za
KENYA :
ANGOLA :
Sinopec Shareholders OK Plan To Buy Parent’s Africa Oil Assets
online.wsj.com/MAY 18, 2010
HONG KONG (Dow Jones)–China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (SNP), or Sinopec, said Tuesday its shareholders approved its plan to buy a 55% stake in Sonangol Sinopec International Ltd. from its parent, its first acquisition of overseas upstream assets.
Sinopec said in March it agreed to buy the stake in Sonangol Sinopec International Ltd. from China Petrochemical Corp. for US$2.46 billion.
Sonangol Sinopec International owns a 50% interest in Angola Block 18, a deep-water oil asset in Angola. Block 18 is divided into east and west zones, with an average water depth of 1,500 meters. The East Zone has been in operation since October 2007, with daily production capacity of 240,000 barrels. The West Zone is in the development phase.
With the completion of the deal, Sinopec’s proven reserves of crude oil will increase by 3.6%, or 102 million barrels. Its daily crude oil production will increase by 8.8%, or 72,520 barrels, the company said earlier.
-By Xu Wan and Yvonne Lee, Dow Jones Newswires; 852-2802-7002; xu.wan@dowjones.com
SOUTH AFRICA:
Al-Qaeda World Cup arrest follows South African professor’s warning
news.xinhuanet.com/English.news.cn/ 2010-05-18
JOHANNESBURG, May 17 (Xinhua) — The arrest of Saudi army officer in Iraq on Monday in connection with an alleged al-Qaeda terror plot to disrupt the FIFA World Cup in South Africa follows a warning by a an expert South Africa last week that al-Qaeda was targeting the football tournament.
Professor Hussein Solomon, head of the International Institute for Islamic Studies at Pretoria University, told The Citizen newspaper in Johannesburg on May 13 that he believed Al Qaeda had every intention of committing wholesale slaughter during the World Cup.
He said al-Qaeda suspects in many parts of the world had been found to have South African passports.
On Monday Saudi Colonel Azzam al-Qahtani was detained. He is suspected of planning attacks on the World Cup which kicks off on June 11.
South African police commissioner Bheki Cele told the South African parliament two weeks ago that South African police had investigated a threat by Al Shabaab, an al-Qaeda offshoot, and decided it was not credible.
Cele insisted South Africa was more than prepared for any terror threat to the World Cup.
Mark Schroeder, the Sub-Saharan Africa expert for South African private intelligence company Strategic Forecasting, disagreed with Solomon’s assessment of an al-Qaeda threat to the World Cup in South Africa.
Schroeder told The Citizen: “Any attack will hurt them (al-Qaeda) more than it could benefit them.”
He also pointed out that South African intelligence services had recently been “waking up” to the real threats posed by al-Qaeda offshoots.
Schroeder said that, prior to threats being made against the U.S. Embassy in South Africa last year, the South African Secret Service and National Intelligence Agency had very little or no idea of what al- Qaeda and its affiliate Al Shabaab was up to in Somalia.
Schroeder said that Al Shabaab – who threatened to blow up the FIFA World Cup – was active and established in the Cape Flats near Cape Town and was also using the Somali diaspora across Africa to raise funds for terror activities.
Schroeder said he was adamant that crime, not al-Qaeda terrorism, should be the major concern for tourists and the South African security services.
However, last week Solomon told The Citizen that, contrary to some opinions, he was convinced that the terror group intended biting the hand that has fed it, attacking the country where crooked officials had for years allowed them access to false passports and identity documents with which to carry out their terror schemes.
Solomon told The Citizen that he did not agree with assessments that al-Qaeda would ignore the World Cup because South Africa was too valuable as a logistics hub for them. Said Solomon: “We have a terrible rot in our Department of Home Affairs, which in many ways is the root of all evil. South African passports and documents routinely turn up in the hands of criminals as well as Islamic terror cells.”
He said that after the London bombings several years ago vast numbers of South African passports were recovered by the UK police.
South African has been deeply infiltrated by organized crime syndicates, and the South African department of home affairs has been very heavily infiltrated.
The Citizen reported that in early 2008 a series of raids by UK police saw dozens of men being arrested as part of an organized human trafficking scheme. The suspects were jailed after UK courts found that they had obtained false South African passports for Indian and Pakistani citizen who wanted to enter the UK illegally.
After the July 7, 2005 London bus bombings dozens of South African passports were found by police investigating the attacks, Solomon told The Citizen.
Said Solomon: “Years before the 2008 arrests it was known there was a problem with Home Affairs. Haroon Aswat, the mastermind of the July 7 London bus bombings, and a former bodyguard of Osama Bin Laden’s, lived in South Africa for years, and traveled to the UK two weeks before those bombings.”
He told The Citizen: “It is fair to presume he may have been the source of the fake South African passports. It is also fair to presume he planned the attacks from Gauteng (province in South Africa).”
Solomon said Aswat was by far the most senior al-Qaeda operative linked to the London bombings.
He continued: “Let’s not forget that false South African passports do not only turn up in the hands of serious international criminals. They are so easy to obtain that even (U.S. actor) Wesley Snipes apparently bought himself a South African passport off a crooked Home Affairs official.”
Solomon said that the widespread use of South African passports had led many experts to believe that al-Qaeda would not risk losing such a resource – however he believed that this was not the case: “That argument presumes that al-Qaeda is a homogenous entity with a central command – which it is not. Al-Qaeda has already made its intentions clear.”
Solomon said that a few weeks ago a Jamaican born cleric was deported from Botswana after that country caught him red-handed attempting to recruit suicide bombers to target the World Cup.
Solomon continued: “Al-Qaeda have had seven years to plan an operation and plant their people here (in South Africa). For seven years they have had time to prepare their plans and obtain the weapons, passports and identity documents they need”.
He added that weapons and chemicals are in plentiful supply in South Africa.
“They will have billions of people watching televisions and they will have no limit of targets. The only way to take on al-Qaeda is an operation that needs to be driven by intelligence, and our intelligence services have been gutted.”
Editor: yan
World Cup: Electricity might be in short supply in South Africa
May 18, 2010 /latimesblogs.latimes.com
Turn out the lights, the party’s starting.
That’s the story in South Africa, where the state-owned Eskom electricity company has issued an early warning that supplies could be limited during the June 11-July 11 World Cup and has urged residents to curtail their use.
The company has even suggested that, in the event of power shortages, South Africans shut off everything except their television and one light. Supposedly, TV announcements are to be used for updates on possible blackouts.
Residents have long suspected that they might face shortages because the government and the organizing committee will demand that the stadiums and other World Cup facilities receive priority over households. Some residents already have bought generators or a supply of candles.
“Although electricity is expected to be sufficient over this period, cold winter temperatures combined with high electricity demand is likely to place Eskom under additional pressure,” the company said.
According to reports from Zimbabwe, that country is planning to export electricity to South Africa during the World Cup even though its own supply is limited and Zimbabwe itself imports electricity from Mozambique and Zambia. The plan has angered Zimbabweans, who now fear they will not be able to watch the tournament because of power outages in their own country.
In March, South Africa’s Deputy President, Kgalema Motlanthe, promised the World Cup would not be disrupted by outages.
“I think we can definitely give that guarantee that there will be no blackouts, unless, of course, a major national disaster happens,” he said. “All stadiums will run on diesel generators [and] the electricity grid will serve as backup.
“Eskom has also assured us that there will be no power interruptions during the World Cup.”
— Grahame L. Jones
AFRICA / AU :
S. Africa’s Zuma Will Consider Request for Regional Summit on Harare Disputes – Aide
The MDC formation of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai urged Mr. Zuma to call an urgent SADC summit to discuss the many issues troubling the Harare government and take up “guarantees to the legitimacy” of a near-term election
Ntungamili Nkomo & Sandra Nyaira/ www1.voanews.com/18 May 2010
Washington
South African President Jacob Zuma, who is mediating talks in Zimbabwe’s power-sharing government for the Southern African Development Community, will consider a call by the Movement for Democratic Change for a SADC summit on the stalled negotiations if the request is officially lodged with him, an aide to Zuma said Monday.
The MDC formation of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai concluded consultations Sunday on the party’s participation in the unity government. Among other resolutions it urged Mr. Zuma to call an urgent SADC summit to discuss the many issues troubling the Harare government and take up “guarantees to the legitimacy” of a near-term election.
Both Mr. Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe have raised the possibility of a new round of elections next year, though most observers say the country is not ready institutionally or psychologically for balloting in 2011
Speaking to reporters Sunday, Mr. Tsvangirai blamed ZANU-PF hardliners for holding the unity government hostage by blocking full implementation of the 2008 Global Political Agreement for power sharing.
A meeting which Mr. Tsvangirai had proposed on Monday with President Robert Mugabe to discuss the deepening crisis in the government was called off because Mr. Mugabe is in Iran on official business.
South African facilitator Lindiwe Zulu told VOA Studio 7 reporter Ntungamili Nkomo that while Mr. Zuma continues to be optimistic as to the prospects for resolving the contentious issues destabilizing the Harare government, he will consider asking SADC to call a summit if he is officially asked to do so by parties in the government.
Mr. Zuma vowed last week to continue mediation in Zimbabwe, telling the Cape Town parliament that he and team of his facilitators were evaluating proposals for a lasting solution to the problems besetting the Harare government.
Tsvangirai MDC spokeswoman Thabitha Khumalo said that although her party wants SADC to step up its involvement in the extended and for the most fruitless political negotiations, the Zimbabwe economy is an urgent issue too, in particular the lack of transparency in developing the rich diamond resources of eastern Marange district.
Human rights lawyer Dewa Mavhinga in an interview with VOA Studio 7 reporter Sandra Nyaira applauded the MDC for putting the Marange diamonds issue on the table, saying Mr. Tsvangirai and his party should have a plan of action should Mr. Mugabe’s ZANU-PF continue to defy efforts establish transparency and accountability there.
Elsewhere in Zimbabwean politics, the MDC formation led by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara on Monday overhauled its lineup of portfolio secretaries to fill vacancies left by deaths of senior officials.
The party has named famed writer Tsitsi Dangarembwa secretary for education and political analyst Joshua Mhambi deputy secretary for economic affairs. MDC Elections Director Paul Themba Nyathi told VOA reporter Brenda Moyo that these latest appointments show that the party is going strong despite what its critics say.
S.Africa’s Life Healthcare to raise $1 bln in IPO
Tue May 18, 2010/Reuters
JOHANNESBURG, May 18 (Reuters) – South African private healthcare company Life Healthcare said it will raise up to 8.04 billion rand ($1.07 billion) through an initial public offering, likely to be South Africa’s largest IPO on record.
Healthcare
The company, which operates private hospitals across South Africa, said on Tuesday it plans to sell 431.3 million shares at a price between 14.5 and 17 rand.
An additional 41.7 million shares could be sold through an overallotment, the company said.
Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley and Rand Merchant Bank are the bookrunners for the offer, the company said.
The final price for the offering will be announced on June 4 and the company is expected to list on the JSE on June 8.
Life Healthcare competes with listed rivals Medi Clinic (MDCJ.J) and Netcare (NTCJ.J).
The company said the IPO would likely be a record for the JSE. (Reporting by David Dolan)
Ex-Obama pastor: ‘Obama threw me under the bus’
By LARRY NEUMEISTER (AP)/18052010
NEW YORK — The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s controversial former pastor, said in a letter obtained by The Associated Press that he is “toxic” to the Obama administration and that the president “threw me under the bus.”
In his strongest language to date about the administration’s 2-year-old rift with the Chicago pastor, Wright told a group raising money for African relief that his pleas to release frozen funds for use in earthquake-ravaged Haiti would likely be ignored.
“No one in the Obama administration will respond to me, listen to me, talk to me or read anything that I write to them. I am ‘toxic’ in terms of the Obama administration,” Wright wrote the president of Africa 6000 International earlier this year.
“I am ‘radioactive,’ Sir. When Obama threw me under the bus, he threw me under the bus literally!” he wrote. “Any advice that I offer is going to be taken as something to be avoided. Please understand that!”
The White House didn’t respond to requests for comment Monday about Wright’s remarks. Several phone messages left by the AP for Wright at the Trinity United Church of Christ, where he is listed as a pastor emeritus, were not returned. Wright’s spokeswoman, his daughter Jeri Wright, did not immediately comment on the substance of the letter.
Then-Sen. Obama cut ties with Wright when his more incendiary remarks became an Internet sensation in the spring of 2008. At a National Press Club appearance in April 2008, he claimed the U.S. government could plant AIDS in the black community, praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and suggested Obama was putting his pastor at arm’s length for political purposes while privately agreeing with him.
Obama denounced Wright as “divisive and destructive” and later cut ties to the pastor altogether and left Wright’s church.
The letter was sent Feb. 18 to Joseph Prischak, the president of Africa 6000 International in Erie, Pa. Wright subsequently agreed to write a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on the group’s behalf to try to get access to millions of dollars.
Wright’s original letter ranting against Obama’s treatment of him surfaced in an appeal filed by federal inmate Arthur Morrison, boxing great Muhammad Ali’s one-time manager, who was convicted of making phone threats.
Charles Lofton, Wright’s executive assistant, told The Associated Press that he faxed a copy of the letter to Morrison’s attorney as requested. A copy of the faxed letter signed by Wright showed that it was sent from the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago on March 31 to the fax number for Goodwin’s law office in Tulsa, Okla.
Prischak, of Africa 6000 International, is a business partner of Morrison, who has been imprisoned for nearly 18 years after he was convicted of making phone threats between 1989 to 1992 to hospitals where an ex-girlfriend worked.
Prischak told Wright in a Feb. 11 letter that he was seeking the clergyman’s help in reaching out to the U.S. Treasury Department. He said that Uday Hussein, the son of Saddam Hussein, had entrusted 87 million British pounds in 1990 to Morrison and Ali to buy pharmaceuticals, milk and food for the children of Iraq.
Prischak said the money was never spent because Morrison was imprisoned. He sought Wright’s help in lobbying U.S. authorities to permit 25 million British pounds in interest from the money held in an overseas account to be allowed to be sent to faith-based groups for the children of Haiti.
UN /ONU :
UNAMID chief underlines cooperation of humanitarian community in Darfur
Pana /18/05/2010
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania – United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) Joint Special Representative (JSR) Ibrahim Gambari has emphasised the need for increased cooperation within the humanitarian agencies in the restive region of western Sudan.
”We must, at all times, be guided by the fact that we are here to serve the people of Darfur, in all aspects,” said Gambari, urging multilateral and bilateral development agencies in the region to ”employ resources more effectively, in a more coordinated fashion and add to each other’s strengths.”
According to a UNAMID media brief issued Monday, the JSR was speaking at a meeting of over 50 representatives of the UN Country Team, development agencies and UNAMID at the Mission’s headquarters in El Fasher, North Darfur.
The meeting brought together officials from the development and humanitarian community operating in the Sudan and in Darfur, notably from what is known as the UN country team, which includes all the UN agencies and organizations operating in the region.
UNAMID said the meeting provided a unique forum for all the development and humanitarian actors in Darfur to outline the various roles and strengths of their respective organisations and exchange ideas on how to improve collaboration and add ress common challenges.
The participants discussed recent security and political developments in the region, including the draw-down of MINURCAT, the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Chad, and the latest clashes between the Sudanese forces and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), and their impact on the provision of humanitarian assistance to those in need.
In addition, the meeting has identified key areas of cooperation such as education, water, the protection of civilians and helping those displaced by the conflict to voluntarily return to productive livelihoods in an atmosphere of peace and security.
The meeting emphasised the need for an all-inclusive peace agreement to help stabilise the region and promote an atmosphere conducive to early recovery and development.
Dar es Salaam –
Study on cell phone link to cancer inconclusive
By FRANK JORDANS (AP) /18052010
GENEVA — If there’s one lifestyle tool that’s ubiquitous, from American cities to remote villages of the developing world, it’s the mobile phone.
But with its meteoric rise came concerns about safety and whether it can cause brain tumors.
The frustratingly unresolved debate erupted again this week with the release of a $24 million U.N. study covering 13 nations that suggests frequent cell phone use may increase — albeit marginally — the chances of developing a rare but deadly form of brain cancer.
What is more, since cancers takes years, even decades to develop — longer than cell phones have been in widespread use — even the study’s authors say there is no way yet to tell how big the risk is, if there is one.
Experts were nearly unanimous in saying the results of the study are inconclusive. But the fact that it turned up even some evidence of an increased cancer risk may cause some disquiet among people who have become accustomed to seeing the device as extensions of themselves.
From farmers in Africa who rely on cell phones to check crop reports to hedge fund traders obsessively checking BlackBerrys at trendy restaurants to suburban American kids spending hours calling their friends — people around the world have come to rely on mobile phones as never before.
Cell phones send out radio waves in a form that’s similar to the one used in microwave ovens, but at very low levels. There is no accepted theory to explain how or if these weak radio waves can affect the body, beyond heating it to a very small degree.
All the same, U.S. and European regulators already limit the energy cell phones can project into the body and today’s digital phones radiate less power than the analog phones that dominated in the early ’90s. Common advice for those concerned about the radiation is to use a headset, since these emit even less power.
The survey of almost 13,000 participants — the biggest ever of its kind — found up to 40 percent higher incidence of glioma, a cancerous brain tumor, among the top 10 percent of people who used their mobile phone most.
No increased risk was observed for meningioma, a more common and frequently benign tumor.
Researchers ignored the time spent using handsfree devices, keeping the phone in a pocket or beside the bed at night because even a distance of 4 inches (10 centimeters) reduces the amount of radiation to the brain to almost zero.
But because cell phone use has boomed since the study started, the researchers’ definition of heavy use as 30 minutes of calls or more a day is now common.
“The users in the study were light users compared to today,” said Prof. Elisabeth Cardis of the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, or IARC, which organized the study.
The highest risk found was for tumors on the same side of the head as users held their phone, particularly for tumors in the temporal lobe closest to the ear, Cardis told reporters in Geneva on Monday. “This is the region of the head which receives the most exposure.”
The 21 researchers involved in the study disagreed on the conclusion, in part because participants were asked to remember how much and on which ear they used their mobiles over the past decade — leading to what scientists call “recall error.”
For example, the study appeared to show that casual users had a lower risk of getting cancer than people who didn’t use cell phones at all, a result the researchers described as “implausible” and blamed on these methodological problems.
The message? The researchers refused to rule out that cell phone use causes brain cancer but wouldn’t say it does either.
“We can’t establish without any doubt that there is no link,” said Prof. Anthony Swerdlow of Britain’s Institute of Cancer Research, another of the study’s authors. But he added that “it seems unlikely that there are large risks that happen soon.”
Handset manufacturers and network providers, who paid for about a quarter of the study, have seized on such conclusions as evidence their products were safe.
“The overall conclusion of no increased risk is in accordance with the large body of existing research and many expert reviews that consistently conclude that there is no established health risk from radio signals that comply with international safety recommendations,” said Jack Rowley, director of research for the telecoms companies’ association GSMA.
The Mobile Manufacturers Forum likewise welcomed the study and insisted their industry “takes all questions regarding the safety of mobile phones seriously and has a strong commitment to supporting ongoing scientific research.”
But Christopher Wild, director of IARC, cautioned that the results related to a time when cell phones were much less common than they are now. “This investigation is a victim of the changing patterns of mobile phone use over the years,” he said.
Critics contend the study also ignored several important factors such as the slow growth rate of most brain tumors, which can take up to 25 years to develop.
“It is simply too early to detect anything,” said Graham Philips of the Britain-based anti-radiation campaign group Power Watch.
Prof. Bernard Stewart, a scientific adviser to Cancer Council Australia, said the study “tells us little about any risk associated with mobile phone use over decades.”
“In particular,” he said, “insufficient time has passed since mobile phones were introduced to determine whether there is a risk in
children.”
Cardis acknowledged that with X-rays and atomic explosions the spike in tumors could take up to 30 years to show up, but said it was unclear whether cell phones have the same effect on the body as those forms of radiation.
Most of the estimated 4.6 billion cell phone subscribers around the world today appear prepared to take the risk even without firm assurances that it’s safe.
In Copenhagen, student Michaela Vinter, 27, said she wasn’t worried.
“I have heard about this for all the years that I have had a cell phone and I have never heard anything firm about the risk,” she said.
The scientists involved in the study plan to publish a comprehensive overview of available research within two years. Separately, researchers are also examining whether cell phone use increases the risk of tumors in the ear’s acoustic nerve and the parotid gland, where saliva is produced. Another study will look into the effects of cell phone use on children, who are believed to be more susceptible to the effects of radiation.
“Until stronger conclusions can be drawn one way or another it may be reasonable to reduce one’s exposure,” said Cardis. One way to do this would be to make calls using a handsfree device.
“It can’t hurt,” she said.
The IARC study, which was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, was compiled by researchers in Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden. Scientists interviewed 12,848 participants, of which 5,150 had either meningioma or glioma tumors.
There is no similar, large-scale study going on in the U.S., though here have been smaller studies which failed to show links between cell phone use and cancer. The federal government mandates that states collect data on benign brain tumors, at least partly in response to concerns about radiation.
USA :
Study shows wealth inequality between the races has skyrocketed
Tuesday, May 18, 2010/By Tim Grant, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
After decades of tracking income disparities between black and white families, a new study reveals that income equality does not always lead to wealth equality when it comes to race.
A report released Monday by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., found the wealth gap between black and white families and individuals being tracked in the study more than quadrupled over the course of a generation, and that the middle-income white families in the study accumulated a higher net worth than high-income African-Americans.
The escalating gap, according to the study researchers, was largely caused by assets being passed down within families and the fact that white families have historically had more wealth to pass down.
“About one in every four white families inherit money, and their average inheritance is $10,000,” said Thomas Shapiro, director of the IASP and author of “The Hidden Cost of Being African American: How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality.”
“That provides a huge head start,” he said. “Less than 8 percent of African-American families inherit wealth, and when they do, the average inheritance is $900.”
Using economic data taken from a nationally representative set of 2,000 families tracked from 1984 to 2007, researchers found that an initial wealth gap of $20,000 between black and white families mushroomed over the 23-year period to $95,000.
The project defined wealth, or net worth, as the amount of assets a person had — such as cash, stocks and bonds — minus liabilities — obligations such as credit card debts, car loans and student loans. Home equity was not considered because researchers said families who sold their homes would most likely need to replace them.
Wealth can make a difference in families helping their children with down payments on homes and paying for college. It also can provide a financial cushion if and when individuals have a financial setback.
The study’s data predates the economic collapse in 2008, which suggests the racial gap could be even wider now.
“It is wealth more than income that leads to economic security,” said Meizhu Lui, director of the Insight Center for Community Economic development in Oakland, Calif.
The families being studied were grouped by income.
Median wealth holdings for high-income African-Americans (those with incomes above $75,000) stood at $25,600 in 1984, and by 2007 they had fallen to $18,300. High-income whites with a similar income saw their net worth grow from $68,200 in 1984 to $238,400 in 2007.
Middle-income African-Americans in 1984 had a median net worth of $10,800, which rose to $11,700 in 2007. White families with similar incomes had a median net worth of $18,400 in 1984, which jumped to $73,500 in 2007.
Black families in the bottom 10 percent of wealth holdings fell deeper in debt over that period. In 1984, they had a median wealth of -$2,000, which by 2007 had dropped to -$3,600, according to the report.
For every year the study was conducted, at least one in four African-Americans had no assets or a negative net worth, which made them dependent on credit to make ends meet.
“Economic stagnation and decline was experienced by both low-wealth whites and low-wealth African-Americans,” the report said. “However, African-Americans were found to be more likely to have very low levels of wealth.”
Researchers said they had no reason to believe that there were any major differences in saving patterns that might have contributed to the startling disparities in wealth attainment.
“What the data tells us is shocking,” said Mr. Shapiro. “The racial wealth gap shows us we need to be concerned not only with equal opportunity, but that the same achievements translate to similar results.”
Tim Grant: tgrant@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1591.
Smallpox demise linked to spread of HIV infection
18 May 2010/news.bbc.co.uk
The worldwide eradication of smallpox may, inadvertently, have helped spread HIV infection, scientists believe.
Experts say the vaccine used to wipe out smallpox offered some protection against the Aids virus and, now it is no longer used, HIV has flourished.
The US investigators said trials indicated the smallpox jab interferes with how well HIV multiplies.
But they say in the journal BMC Immunology it is too early to recommend smallpox vaccine for fighting HIV.
Kill no cure
Lead researcher Dr Raymond Weinstein, from Virginia’s George Mason University, said: “There have been several proposed explanations for the rapid spread of HIV in Africa, including wars, the reuse of unsterilised needles and the contamination of early batches of polio vaccine.
“However, all of these have been either disproved or do not sufficiently explain the behaviour of the HIV pandemic.”
Dr Weinstein and his colleagues believe immunisation against smallpox may go some way to explain the recent rises in HIV prevalence.
Smallpox immunisation was gradually withdrawn from the 1950s to the 1970s, following the worldwide eradication of the disease, and HIV has been spreading exponentially since then, they say.
Now, only scientists and medical professionals working with smallpox are vaccinated.
To test if the events may be linked, the researchers looked at the white blood cells taken from people recently immunised against smallpox and tested how they responded to HIV.
They found significantly lower replication rates of HIV in blood cells from vaccinated individuals, compared with those from unvaccinated controls.
The smallpox vaccine appeared to cut HIV replication five-fold.
Immune boost
The researchers believe vaccination may offer some protection against HIV by producing long-term alterations in the immune system, possibly including the expression of a receptor called CCR5 on the surface of white blood cells, which is exploited by the smallpox virus and HIV.
Jason Warriner, clinical director for the Terrence Higgins Trust, said: “It’s impossible to say whether the withdrawal of the smallpox vaccine contributed to the initial explosion of HIV cases worldwide, but it is a plausible explanation.
“This is an interesting piece of research, and not just as a history lesson. Anything that gives us greater understanding of how the virus replicates is another step on the road towards a vaccine and, one day, a cure.
“Further studies into the role receptor cells play are needed, and even then any discoveries are likely to be just one part of the solution.
“Until we find a way to eradicate the virus from the body, the focus should remain on stopping it being passed on in the first place.”
Utah National Guard joins African Lion exercise in Morocco
May 18 2010/Mstr Sgt. Grady Fontana /www.moroccoboard.com
AGADIR, Morocco, (5/15/10) — More than 150 members of the joint task force conducting Exercise African Lion 2010 arrived here to mark the beginning of the exercise May 14.
The Utah National Guard alog with Marines, Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen will participate in the largest exercise in U.S. Africa Command’s area of activity.
“I know I have the best [service members] of what each unit can offer,” said Col. Anthony Fernandez III, the Combined Joint Task Force commander for the exercise, while addressing the members of the task force. “This is a complicated exercise, and it is a large exercise; I know we’re going to be successful.”
Exercise African Lion, a U.S. Africa Command-sponsored exercise, will include various types of military training including command post, live-fire training, peacekeeping operations, disaster response training, intelligence capacity building seminar, aerial refueling/low-level flight training as well as a medical, dental, and veterinarian assistance projects and exercise related construction to run concurrent with the training.
Various units from the Marine Corps Forces Africa and Marine Corps Forces Reserve along with the Tennessee Army National Guard and Naval Forces Africa will conduct bi-lateral training, weapons qualification training and peacekeeping operations training with units from the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces.
Marines and aircraft from the Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 234 and 11th Tactical Aviation Command will conduct various ground courses as well as aerial refueling and low-level flight training with their counterparts in the Royal Moroccan Air Force.
Concurrent with the exercise, U.S. military professionals from the Utah Army and Air National Guard, which is joined with Morocco in the National Guard’s State Partnership Program, will provide medical, dental and veterinarian assistance to the local residents in and around the community of Taroudant.
The exercise is an annually scheduled, joint, combined U.S.-Moroccan exercise. It brings together nearly 1,000 U.S. service members from 16 locations throughout Europe and North America with more than 1,000 members of the Moroccan military.
African Lion is designed to promote interoperability and mutual understanding of each nation’s military tactics, techniques and procedures.
The exercise is scheduled to end on or around June 9. All U.S. forces will return to their home bases in the United States and Europe at the conclusion of the exercise.
The last African Lion exercise occurred in May 2009 and involved about 1,400 Moroccan and U.S. military personnel.
CANADA :
AUSTRALIA :
EUROPE :
Top EU diplomat Ashton begins anti-piracy tour
By Peter Greste /BBC News, Nairobi /Tuesday, 18 May 2010
The EU’s top diplomat is to visit East Africa at the start of a tour aimed at curbing piracy off Somalia’s coast.
The EU High Representative, Catherine Ashton, has said she wants to encourage a regional approach to the problem.
In Nairobi, she will be confronted by Kenyan leaders fed up with carrying what they say has been the burden of responsibility for dealing with piracy.
Kenya has agreed to prosecute pirates caught at sea by the EU force – the only nation in the region to do so.
It was to have been part of a wider regional effort. But so far no other country has agreed to let suspects into their legal system, and the Kenyans have called a halt to their own prosecutions.
A spokesman for Baroness Ashton said she wanted to find out what the EU could do to get them to resume.
She is also planning to head to Tanzania to encourage political leaders there to share the legal burden, before she finishes her tour in the Seychelles.
The spokesman said she would attend a regional ministerial conference aimed at forging a more unified approach to the problem.
But piracy is a symptom of the lawlessness in Somalia, and unless they can find a way to deal with that, it’s likely to remain a headache.
Nuking Washington’s Iran sanctions
By Marwan Bishara in Imperium/ blogs.aljazeera.net/ May 18, 2010
In the days ahead, western diplomats will weigh every word in the final Iranian, Brazilian, Turkish communiqué looking for ways to evaluate whether its is sufficient to end or at least freeze efforts to obtain another UN Security Council resolution that hardens sanctions against the Islamic republic.
But I won’t do any such analysis of the text, rather I will leave it to those searching for faults that might allow Iran off (or on) the hook.
No such short statement will ever be sufficient to ensure serious long term verification of Iran’s compliance..
Neither is it meant as a substitute for the relevant parties getting their hands dirty on the details of any long term arrangements. Nor is it sufficient to defuse the political tensions between the US and Iran. Let alone satisfy Israel.
But it is an excellent declaration of principle.
And while the US and Israel have been making the most noise regarding Iran’s nuclear programme, its no longer up to them and their European allies to decide whether Tehran will satisfy its international commitments.
There are many new kids on the block, BRIC, IBSA and the likes of Turkey and Brazil.
Scepticism vs enthusiasm
The nuclear communique might have nuked US efforts to pass new sanctions against Iran at the UN Security Council.
Which raises much scepticism among Western diplomats who reckon Tehran is buying time, and in the process pulling the rug from under US diplomatic efforts to corner Iran at the UN.
Or, according to the enthusiasts, the agreement could be a window of opportunity to engage Iran and begin a comprehensive process that deals with outstanding issues, including a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction and foreign invasions and occupations.
What is clear, is that the mediators have tried to model their communique on the recent Geneva agreement with Iran that was acceptable to the US and its European allies. This time, it will be harder for Iran to backtrack and harder for the US to bully Tehran.
Iran doesn’t have many enthusiastic friends that support its nuclear programme. And if it decides to turn its back to a deal with Turkey and Brazil, there will be little chance it could confront a harsh set of new security council sanctions.
Middle states middleman
Speaking to foreign ministers Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey and Celso Amorim of Brazil after their joint press conference in Brasilia last month, it was clear to me that they were particularly confident about the need for mediation and the categorical rejection of any escalation to the use of force.
As middle-size powers with no particular narrow agenda and rather good relations with the US and Iran, they make up the perfect duo for the sort of mediation needed between Iran and the US.
Their timing couldn’t have been better as both Iran and the US need a deal that allows them to climb down the tree.
During the Latin American-EU summit this week, Lula will make his diplomatic breakthrough central to the new multilateralism long desired by the EU. Spain which holds the rotating presidency of the bloc should be less sceptical than France.
Also the other BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries, whose leaders met in Brazil last month, are expected to support President Lula and Premier Erdogan.
No less important in this regard, is the enthusiastic support of IBSA (Brazil, India and South Africa) the three biggest and most powerful democracies in the south, who during last month’s summit rejected any escalation to sanctions or worse. Instead they advocated a serious diplomatic effort to resolve the standoff with Iran.
However, unless the new initative includes mechanism to defuse tensions beyond the nuclear enrichment issue, its hard to see how it could work in the medium-term if at all.
Sobering up in Washington
I am sure the Obama administration understands that if India, South Africa and Brazil reject, and China and Russia are cool to, new sanctions, it means they simply won’t work, let alone bite.
The administration’s first reaction was sober concern that sees the agreement as a step in the right direction, but still puts the onus on Iran to prove that its nuclear programme is strictly peaceful.
The same goes for its European allies who are playing hard ball after being left out.
Meanwhile, it’s hard to see how the US and its European allies could pass any new resolution in light of this week’s developments.
Brazil and Turkey are working in a new international climate where the West can no longer dictate sanctions. And they know it.
With the US heavy military deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Europe consumed by its economic crisis, Brazilian and Turkish diplomacy should only be welcomed and encouraged.
CHINA :
Egypt to begin PR offensive against Nile Water treaty
www.zawya.com/18 May 2010
CAIRO: Egypt is to begin a public relations initiative in the West in an attempt to bring the international community on board regarding its rights to the Nile water after four Nile basin countries signed a new treaty excluding Egypt and Sudan.
A diplomatic effort will be launched in the coming days. Delegates to the United States, the European Union and China will lobby to back Egypt in the dispute over the distribution of Nile water.
They will also attempt to appropriate Western help in annulling the treaty signed last Friday between Rwanda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Uganda with Kenya, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo due to sign the agreement at a later date.
Yet Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies researcher Nabil Abdel-Fatah had criticized the official approach, saying that the Egyptian response to Nile issue has been “slow and lacking in dynamism.”
He added: “The Egyptian political and diplomatic structure still perceives Africa from a position of superiority; they still see it as the old Africa just after colonialism.”
“Egypt must stop perceiving Africa in such a regressive way,” he said, “And our dealings with Africa should be revised on a more equitable and developmental level.”
Egypt and Sudan had no part in the treaty, as they have the lion’s share of use of the Nile water dating back to a treaty signed with the British in 1929 and later revised in 1959. The other seven countries have since gained independence and are calling for more equitable rights in the water-sharing agreement.
Under the treaty, Egypt and Sudan have the right of use of 87% of the Nile waters, which is around 74 billion cubic meters, 55.5 billion of which goes to Egypt, while 18.5 billion goes to Sudan.
“Many Egyptian researchers have long stated that the water sharing agreement should be revised or Egypt would face a problem. The Egyptian government dragged its heels and its interest in Africa waned,” Abdel-Fatah said.
After the treaty was signed, the Egyptian foreign ministry said that it was not binding to Egypt nor did it exempt the signatories from their commitments “under the rules of international and customary laws, and the current practices, as well as the existing agreements, which enjoy sanctity as being border agreements that cannot be disregarded.”
Recent talks between the nine Nile Basin countries in Sharm El-Sheikh had failed to reach common ground, as Egypt and Sudan insisted that they retain the right to grant permission to the other countries before beginning any large-scale projects that would affect the river’s water levels. Talks over a revised treaty have lasted a decade with no headway.
Abdel-Fatah said, “The latest comments from Egyptian officials was an attempt to placate public opinion, the government needs to revise its policy towards the Nile basin countries, which hasn’t happened till now.”
By Abdel-Rahman Hussein
INDIA :
Vodafone 2009 profits double
DPA /beta.thehindu.com/ mai 18, 2010
London,
Britain’s leading mobile phone company Vodafone on Tuesday reported a steep rise in profits, achieved mainly through increased revenues in the emerging markets of Asia and Africa, the company said.
Pre-tax profits for the year to the end of March totalled 8.7 billion pounds (12.6 billion dollars), more than double the figure reported in the previous financial year.
The company has 341 million customers, with 8.5 million added in the last three months alone.
“We are creating a stronger Vodafone, which is positioned to return to revenue growth during the 2011 financial year, as economic recovery should benefit our key markets,” Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao said.
Vodafone had benefited from its focus on emerging markets, with India providing strong revenue growth, he said. The company reported falls in revenues in some of its more established European markets.
South Africa acts on World Cup flu threat
By Andrew Jack /www.ft.com/May 18 2010
South Africa is taking extra precautions to prevent a flu outbreak at next month’s World Cup, amid concern a surge in infections during the football tournament may spread the disease globally.
The government has now taken delivery of 3.5m doses of pandemic flu vaccine donated by pharmaceutical companies via the World Health Organisation, supplementing its purchases of seasonal flu vaccines to protect its own citizens.
With 400,000 supporters predicted to travel to South Africa for the 32-team competition – which takes place at the time of South Africa’s traditional peak in seasonal flu cases – public health officials are watching closely for signs of any mutation in the virus and any accelerated spread back to fans’ own countries.
Asked when the WHO might call a formal end of the current swine flu pandemic, Keiji Fukuda, special advisor to the agency’s head, told the Financial Times: “The last big question is whether there will be anything unusual in the southern hemisphere” in the next few months, including in South Africa.
His comments came on the opening day of the World Health Assembly, the annual meeting of health ministers, where agency officials are bracing for fresh scrutiny of their actions a year after the formal announcement of swine flu as a pandemic, which triggered large-scale investment but few deaths from the disease.
Margaret Chan, head of the WHO, told delegates she welcomed the review of her actions now underway and said “we were plain lucky” that the virus had not proved more lethal. “Had things gone wrong . . . we would have a very different agenda before us today.”
No measures to vaccinate travellers on arrival have been planned in South Africa, although a number of countries, including the UK and Canada, have urged fans planning to travel there to obtain injections, especially those with underlying health conditions.
BRASIL:
EN BREF, CE 18 mai 2010 … AGNEWS / OMAR, BXL,18/05/2010
