{jcomments on}OMAR, AGNEWS, BXL, le 19 mars 2010 – www.independent.co.uk- March 19, 2010–Belgium has been attempting to smooth over its strained relations with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but the latest effort by the Defence minister has badly backfired.
RWANDA
UGANDA
Uganda: Pentecostal Movement Mourns With Buganda
Ephraim Kasozi/The Monitor/ allafrica.com/19 March 2010
Kampala — Leaders of the Pentecostal Movement in Uganda have consoled Buganda Kingdom over the burning of Kasubi Tombs in which four of the former Kings were buried.
The historical tombs on Tuesday night went up in flames engulfing the main building housing.
“As members of the Pentecostal Movement, we are greatly concerned and wish to express our sorrow over the loss of invaluable items that cannot be replaced,” said Pastor Fred Wantaate, the leader of Makerere Full Gospel Church on Thursday.
He said the burning of the 128-year-old burial grounds revered by the Baganda, was a great loss to everyone.
Tullow Close to Agreeing Total, Cnooc Uganda Deal, WSJ Reports
By John Duce/Bloomberg/March 19
March 19 (Bloomberg) — Tullow Oil Plc is close to agreeing the terms of a partnership with Cnooc Ltd. and Total SA to develop oil assets in Uganda, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the deal.
An agreement may be signed as early as today, the newspaper said. Any deal still needs government approval, the report said.
Tullow expects Cnooc and Total to each take a one-third share in its three oil blocks in the Lake Albert region if the Ugandan government approves the deal, Chief Operating Officer Paul McDade said on March 10.
Cnooc’s Beijing-based spokesman Jiang Yongzhi declined to comment on the report.
TANZANIA:
CONGO RDC :
Belgium and a new row over the Congo
By Vanessa Mock in Brussels/www.independent.co.uk/Friday, 19 March 2010
Belgium has been attempting to smooth over its strained relations with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but the latest effort by the Defence minister has badly backfired.
There has been an outcry over Pieter De Crem’s unilateral decision to invite soldiers from the DRC army to take part in a national-day parade, which he said was a bid to “normalise” ties in the year that the former colony celebrates 50 years of independence from Belgium.
But the gaffe-prone minister is now under huge pressure to withdraw his invitation amid fresh reports of crimes perpetrated by some branches of the army in the DRC. Yesterday, Médecins sans Frontières condemned a group of soldiers who had marched into one of the aid agency’s hospitals and forcibly removed four patients. Today, the UN is set to issue a report outlining crimes committed by some branches of the Congolese Army.
There has also been a national debate over whether King Albert II should have accepted an invitation to attend Kinshasa’s independence celebrations – the first Belgian royal visit there for a quarter of a century.
Both invitations have exposed Belgians’ deep unease in engaging with the government of Joseph Kabila, who was publicly blasted over corruption in 2008 by the then Foreign minister. The current government of Yves Leterme has sought to improve ties since that major diplomatic spat, but many tensions remain.
During a heated parliamentary debate, the Defence minister was accused of being “naive” in his invitation to Congolese soldiers. He retorted that “the reactions have been completely out of proportion… All these rumours and half-truths will do nothing to improve our relationship.”
The Flemish MP Gerald Kindermans explained that many Belgians felt an “obligation” towards Congo because of the abuses perpetrated during Belgian rule under King Leopold II. “Last year, the government tried to normalise relations and we have a responsibility, given what happened in the past, not to walk away, and keep up the pressure to help them improve their human-rights record,” he said.
KENYA :
Kenyan Farmers insured through mobile phones
By Kevin James Moore/mediaglobal.org/19 March 2010
18 March 2010 [MediaGlobal]: Kenyan farmers fear that droughts or excess rains will wreck havoc with their crops and rob them of their savings. These farmers can now protect their harvest from extreme weather conditions with an innovative micro-insurance plan. The unprecedented plan protects farms as small as one acre with affordable insurance by incorporating mobile phone and solar powered weather station technologies.
“At times of severe drought, farmers investments in seeds and fertilizer are lost due to poor harvests,” Fritz Brugger of the Syngenta Foundation told MediaGlobal. Weather-related risks expose farmers to financial difficulties and food security issues. The micro-insurance plan will protect investments farmers have made in seeds and fertilizers.
The insurance plan is called “Kilimo Salama”—which means, “safe farming” in Kiswahili— and differs from regular insurance in accessibility and cost. “Regular agricultural insurance covers multiple perils and is based on field inspection and on-site loss assessment,” Brugger explained this type of insurance is only economically viable for big farms. Therefore, farmers with small plots of land had no chance of affording risk coverage.
Mobile phones are used to provide farmers in rural areas access to this new insurance by distributing information and to transfer money. “To make this distribution channel work and to bring down transaction costs we use mobile phones,” said Brugger. When a farmer purchases farming products, the barcode is scanned using the camera on the phone and the information is sent to the Kilimo Salama server. For a small premium each bag of seed or fertilizer bought is insured and confirmation is received via text message on the phone.
Small solar powered weather stations distribute information to the network and notify if a payout is due because of severe weather. “Compensation to each farmer in case of a payout are done over mobile phones,” said Brugger. He explained with this system there is no paperwork and there is always a real-time overview of policies being sold.
The mobile phones and weather stations design will bring down transaction cost, and make insurance more affordable for farmers in heavy drought affected zones where insurance premiums are usually high. To make the micro-insurance more cost-effective for farmers, “companies that produce seeds, fertilizers, and other crop protection products are willing to contribute half of the premiums because they have an interest in keeping farmers in business,” said Brugger.
The program is a partnership between the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, UAP Insurance, and telecoms operator Safaricom, and was initially tested in Laikipia, Kenya. “The Laikipia [test] insured 200 farmers and all were compensated because of the drought last year,” said Brugger. The test revealed important results. First, the farmers liked it, explained Brugger. Second, the use of mobile phones was well received by the farmers. Finally, farmers overcame their trust issues with insurance, as insurance companies had an unfavorable reputation, according to Brugger. “As a survey revealed this perception has clearly changed after farmers received payout.”
The majority of Kenya’s farmers have never dealt with insurance, but Brugger perceives Kilimo Salama as a change. “Micro insurance will give farmers confidence to invest in their farms by giving them freedom from fear of bad weather.” Brugger foresees farmers increasing productivity and having a better understanding of the farming business with this safety net.
“This is the beginning. Right now, we’re only offering limited coverage,” said Brugger Kilimo Salama will soon offer a more comprehensive policy, according to Brugger. “Later this year, we hope to offer a micro insurance policy through which the farmer can insure any value related to his farm.” The more extensive coverage will include seeds, fertilizer, labor, and “ perhaps even the value of the expected harvest.”
ANGOLA :
SOUTH AFRICA:
Kumba Iron Ore, Rare May Move: South Africa Equity Preview
March 19, 2010/By Janice Kew/Bloomberg
March 18 (Bloomberg) — The following is a list of companies whose shares may have unusual price changes in South Africa. Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names and prices are from the last close.
South Africa’s FTSE/JSE Africa All Share Index rose for a third day, climbing 275.20, or 1 percent, to 28,806.14 in Johannesburg.
Kumba Iron Ore Ltd. (KIO SJ): Imperial Crown Trading won a 21.4 percent share in the prospecting rights for Kumba Iron Ore Ltd.’s Sishen mine property, Jeremy Michaels, a spokesman for the Departments of Mineral Resources of South Africa, said in a text message. Kumba, the largest African producer of the steelmaking ingredient, slid 1.10 rand, or 0.3 percent, to 351.99 rand.
Rare Holdings Ltd. (RAR SJ): The maker of valves and pipes used in mining and construction said it posted a loss of 8 million rand ($1.1 million) in the six months through December, from a profit of 12.7 million a year earlier. Rare rose 2 cents, or 2.9 percent, to 72 cents.
–Editor: Antony Sguazzin
AFRICA / AU :
Drug-resistant TB at record levels worldwide, the WHO says
March 19, 2010 /latimesblogs.latimes.com
An estimated 440,000 people had multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in 2008 and a third of them died as the new variant of the TB mycobacterium continues to spread, the World Health Organization said Thursday. Nearly half of the cases were in China and India, which have been hit hardest by the outbreak. But in some areas of the world, especially three provinces in Russia, more than one in every four cases of tuberculosis are the result of the hard-to-treat strain, according to the report.
Worldwide, there were an estimated 9.4 million cases of TB and 1.8 million deaths, so the drug-resistant forms remain a relatively small problem. But experts fear that they will continue to spread, displacing the drug-susceptible strains and greatly complicating treatment and increasing its cost.
Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) is caused by bacteria that are resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampicin, the anti-TB drugs most commonly used. It may be caused by infection with the resistant bacterium or the resistance may appear during treatment. It is most commonly caused by failure to complete the normal six-month course of treatment or the use of substandard or counterfeit drugs. A course of treatment for MDR-TB can take as long as two years and cost as much as $500, compared with six months and $20 for treatment with standard drugs. About 60% of those who are diagnosed with the variant are cured, according to the WHO.
The numbers for MDR-TB are estimates because so many of the cases remain undiagnosed. In Africa, for example, where an estimated 69,000 cases emerged in 2008, the vast majority of them were undiagnosed. Diagnosing an MDR infection can take as long as four months using conventional tests. New, rapid tests that work in as little as two days are becoming available, but are not yet widely used, in part because the testing infrastructure is not widely available, the WHO said. That is a special problem in Africa. Only about 7% of all MDR-TB patients worldwide are diagnosed
A potentially more serious problem is extensively drug-resistant TB or XDR-TB, in which the bacteria are resistant not only to isoniazid and rifampicin, but also to a fluoroquinolone and any of the second-line injectable drugs, such as amikacin, kanamycin and capreomycin. Treatment is far more expensive than treatment of MDR-TB. No good numbers are available for the incidence of XDR-TB, but the WHO estimates there were about 25,000 cases in 2008 and that nearly all its victims died. Since XDR-TB was first reported in 2006, 58 countries have reported at least one case.
— Thomas H. Maugh II
African Barrick sets IPO price at 575p a share
March 19, 2010/www.marketwatch.com/By Polya Lesova
FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — African Barrick Gold PLC, the largest gold producer in Tanzania and one of Africa’s five largest gold producers, said Friday it has set an offer price of 575 pence per ordinary share for its initial public offering to institutional investors in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Conditional trading will start on the London Stock Exchange’s main market on Friday. The offer comprises more than 100 million ordinary shares, representing 25% of the company’s capital. After the offer, Canada’s Barrick Gold Corp. /quotes/comstock/13*!abx/quotes/nls/abx (ABX 39.78, -0.38, -0.95%) /quotes/comstock/11t!abx (CA:ABX 40.32, -0.26, -0.64%) will continue to own about 75% of the company. Based on the offer price, the market capitalization of African Barrick Gold is expected to be approximately 2.3 billion British pounds ($3.5 billion).
Freedom Schooner Amistad Visits Cuba Next Week
www.prnewswire.com/March 19
To Commemorate UN Day of Remembrance for Slavery Victims
WASHINGTON, March 18 /PRNewswire/ — The Freedom Schooner Amistad will visit Cuba next week as part of the United Nations commemoration of March 25 as the global Day of Remembrance for the victims of the Atlantic slave trade.
The Amistad will enter Cuban waters on March 22, 2010 for a 10-day, two city Cuba tour that will culminate its recent Caribbean Heritage Voyage. The ship will first visit Matanzas, site of a new UNESCO-affiliated slavery museum. On March 25, the Amistad will sail into Havana Harbor to commemorate the historic “triangle of trade” connections between America, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. The next day, the vessel will host a three-hour simulcast about the shared slave trade heritage, connecting Cuban students to classrooms across the Atlantic Ocean and at the UN in New York. In addition to public tours of the boat and academic panels on its history, the Cuba visits will focus on the impact of the slave trade on our transatlantic cultural heritage — including religious ritual, film, music, dance, poetry and visits to former plantations.
“The sale of the Amistad captives in Havana was a small transaction in the thriving international slave trade,” said Gregory Belanger, president of Amistad America Inc. “But the resulting events arguably turned the tide against slavery itself — and the historical connections across the modern African diaspora are direct and profound.”
“This visit is especially poignant because Amistad’s own story began in Cuba,” said Belanger, noting the original ship was built in Cuba. In 1839, the Amistad sailed from Havana, the center of the illegal slave trade. This will be the replica’s first visit to Cuba — and it coincides with the tenth anniversary of its launch at Mystic Seaport Museum on March 25, 2000.
The Amistad is a 140-foot replica of the two-masted black schooner that was at the center of the 1841 slave rebellion case argued successfully by John Quincy Adams, leading to the first US Supreme Court case freeing African captives. The replica Amistad has visited 70 domestic and international ports as a symbol of this human rights milestone.
In 2008, the Amistad undertook a 14,000-mile transatlantic sail to Africa. On March 25 of that year, the Amistad was linked via satellite directly to the UN as the General Assembly voted to commemorate that date as the bicentennial of the pioneering British act that first outlawed the slave trade. Students from six countries sailed legs of the Africa voyage. Soon thereafter, the Amistad was designated as floating ambassador for the UN Permanent Memorial to Honour the Victims of Slavery and the Atlantic Slave Trade. The vessel’s most recent port of call was Santo Domingo, for a week of programs for youths from the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
Following the current Caribbean tour, the vessel will visit five cities historically linked to the 19th century slave trade: Savannah, Charleston, Norfolk, Washington DC and Baltimore. The next heritage tour will include visits this summer to Boston, Halifax and seven Great Lakes ports, culminating in Chicago. In December, the Amistad sails back to Africa.
Rio Tinto, Chinalco sign JV for Simandou
Fri Mar 19 2010/news.ninemsn.com.au/By Xavier La Canna
Mining giant Rio Tinto Ltd and a Chinese state-owned company have set aside their differences and partnered up to develop the $US6 billion ($A6.52 billion) Simandou iron ore project in West Africa.
Rio Tinto and Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco) have signed a non-binding joint venture agreement that covers developing rail and port infrastructure and the mine itself in Guinea.
The deal comes just days before four Rio Tinto employees including Australian Stern Hu are due to be tried in China on charges of bribery and stealing state secrets.
Rio Tinto owns 95 per cent of the Simandou project, believed to hold 2.25 billion tonnes of iron ore, with another five per owned by the World Bank.
Under the deal, Chinalco will spend $US1.35 billion ($A1.47 billion) to fund ongoing development over the next two to three years to earn a 47 per cent stake.
The two companies have buried the hatchet since Rio Tinto last year angered Chinalco when it spurned a $US19.5 billion ($A21.19 billion) investment the Chinese state-owned company wanted to make in Rio Tinto.
Rio Tinto chief Tom Albanese described Chinalco as an “excellent partner” for Simandou.
“We have long believed that Rio Tinto and Chinalco could work together on major projects for mutual benefit,” Mr Albanese said in a statement on Friday.
Chinalco president Xiong Weiping said the transaction would benefit all parties involved – and balance the global iron ore market structure.
Chinese steel mills have in the past complained that global iron ore sales are dominated by just three companies – Brazil’s Vale SA, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton Ltd.
“Chinalco and Rio Tinto will work together to build this world-class iron ore project in Simandou through leveraging our complementary strengths and advantages,” Mr Weiping said.
Simandou is a huge iron ore project in south eastern Guinea, in West Africa, which has been compared in size to Western Australia’s Pilbara region in terms of opportunity.
The 70 million tonne per annum project is expected to cost in the order of $US6 billion ($A6.52 billion), according to Rio Tinto’s website.
“We believe the Simandou project is a large scale, long life asset and is the single best undeveloped source of high grade iron ore,” Mr Albanese said on Friday.
Rio Tinto has had a sometimes prickly relationship with the Guinean government, which in 2008 moved to award two of the four exploration zones at Simandou to a rival company.
The Guinean government and Rio Tinto remain in talks about that issue, but the identified iron ore resource at the project is in the two zones that are not in dispute, a Rio Tinto spokesman said.
Rio Tinto has already spent more than $US600 million ($A651.89 million) on exploration and development at Simandou, and the project, managed by subsidiary Simfer, employs more than 1,000 people.
After the formation of the joint venture, Simfer will continue to manage the project.
“Rio Tinto and Chinalco will now work on finalising definitive and binding transaction documentation,” the Australian company said in the statement on Friday.
Following the collapse of Chinalco’s investment plans in Rio Tinto last year, four of Rio Tinto’s staff in China were arrested, including Australian man Stern Hu.
Some commentators, including Australian politician Barnaby Joyce, linked the arrests to Chinalco’s failed bid to secure the 18 per cent stake in Rio Tinto.
The trial of Mr Hu and the other Rio Tinto staff accused of receiving bribes and infringing commercial secrets is due to begin in China on Monday.
Australia has asked to have officials present for the entire three-day trial.
Resources analyst with Mine Life, Gavin Wendt, said that aligning with the Chinese government on developing Simandou may have political advantages for Rio Tinto.
“I believe Simandou is Rio Tinto’s most important project worldwide,” Mr Wendt said.
“The timing is all important, given the Stern Hu trial is just about to take place and we have discussion and angst in regards to iron ore pricing,” Mr Wendt said.
“It seems as though all of the stars are aligning,” he said.
Mr Wendt said that with a Chinese state-owned firm backing the project Rio Tinto may be better able to deal with problems with the Guinean government.
“While the Guinean government may try to intimidate Rio Tinto, being a Western corporation, I can’t imagine the same sort of intimidation would work on the Chinese,” Mr Wendt said.
Shares in Rio Tinto closed down 80 cents at $76.19 on Friday.
Ghaddafi: Nigeria Recalls Ambassador from Libya
From Onwuka Nzeshi in Abuja with agency repor/ www.thisdayonline.com/ 03.19.2010
In a move that could lead to a major diplomatic row, Nigeria has recalled its ambassador to Libya, Alhaji M. K. Ibrahim.
The recall is in relation to the North African country’s leader Muammar Ghaddafi’s suggestion that Nigeria is better off “split” into two countries – one Muslim, the other Christian – as a way of solving its sectarian and religious problems.
Nigeria’s action comes as the House of Representatives strongly expressed displeasure yesterday over Ghaddafi’s utterances, urging the Nigerian government to commence the process of severing ties with the country.
A statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the ambassador to Tripoli, the Libyan capital, was recalled for “urgent negotiations” because of the “irresponsible utterances of Colonel Ghaddafi”.
“His theatrics and grandstanding at every auspicious occasion have become too numerous to recount,” the statement added.
Lawmakers also asked the Nigerian government to summon the Libyan envoy in Nigeria to explain the true position of his home government on the matter.
Chairman, House Committee on Airforce, Honourable John Halims Agoda, who sponsored a motion on the Libyan issue said Ghaddafi’s comments deserved to be condemned.
Agoda argued that it is ironical and unfortunate that Ghaddafi who during his recent tenure as the Chairman of the African Union (AU) had canvassed the creation of a United States of Africa, is now interested in the balkanisation of Africa’s most populous country.
He said that although Ghaddafi has remained controversial on African politics and global politics, his call for the disintegration of Nigeria must not be taken lightly.
“We urge the Federal Government to liaise with the United Nations Security Council to as a matter of utmost urgency order the Libyan Leader, Colonel Muammar Ghaddafi, to stop forthwith his call for the break up of Nigeria along religious divide in order to end the recurring crisis in the country.
“We also call on the Federal Government to request the African Union (AU) to order an independent investigation into the motivation of Colonel Ghaddafi’s comments on Nigeria and ascertain if there is a relationship between the comments and the primary sources of the supply of infiltrators who come to fight Nigerians in their homeland.
“It is very inciting and dangerous to the corporate existence of Nigeria. We should condemn his (Ghaddafi) utterances and forge ahead as one indivisible nation in line with the vision of our founding fathers. We must see our differences as something that should propel us to move ahead and continue to live in peace with our neighbours,” Agoda said.
Chairman, House Committee on Banking and Currency, Honourable Ogbuefi Ozomgbachi, said the utterances credited to Ghaddafi are the hallmark of irresponsibility while Honourable Sada Soli Jibia said they are laughable. He added that his words must have been borne out of ignorance on the true situation of things in Nigeria. Others who condemned the Libyan leader include Honourable Khadijat Bukar Ibrahim and Honourable Dino Melaye.
Although Honourable Patrick Obahiagbon expressed misgivings with the utterances, he called on the National Assembly and Nigerians to see it as a wake up call. According to Obahiagbon, Ghaddafi might have gone too far in his postulations on Nigeria, but the religious and ethnic conflicts that had plagued the nation in recent times need to be addressed decisively to safeguard the unity of the country.
Obahiagbon recalled that not too long ago, a group in the United States of America predicted that Nigeria would become a failed state by 2015 and later reviewed it to 2013. He argued that given the trend of events in the country in recent times, Nigeria may actually be moving towards the precipice just as Ghaddafi said, unless urgent steps are taken to halt the drift towards disintegration.
Former Speaker of the House, Honourable Patricia Etteh, also argued in the same direction but the duo of Honourable Ike Chinwo and Honourable Alex Ukam were bluntly against the motion because of their belief that Ghaddafi spoke based on the indices of disintegration which, they said, were already manifesting across Nigeria.
They both argued that rather than vilify Ghaddafi, the Federal Government should rise to the challenge of insecurity in places such as Jos, Plateau State and the Niger Delta. Security agencies deployed in these flash points should be alive to their responsibilities – investigating, apprehending, prosecuting and punishing all persons who unleash terror on the society, they argued.
On Tuesday, Senate President David Mark described Ghaddafi as a “mad man” for advocating the break-up of the country. Other reactions also condemned the North African leader for his inflammatory comments.
Ghaddafi had also suggested that India and Pakistan are better off after they were split between the mainly Muslim Pakistan and Hindu dominated India.
Meanwhile, the House urged security agencies to conduct a thorough probe into the bomb blasts that rocked Warri, Delta State on Monday during a post-amnesty conference organised by Vanguard Newspapers.
UN /ONU :
Antonio Banderas to Help the Poor in Africa, Latin America as a UN Goodwill Ambassador
March 19, 2010 /Rob Kuznia — HispanicBusiness.com
Spanish singer and Hollywood actor Antonio Banderas, who portrayed the
Robin Hood-eque character Zorro in a 1998 blockbuster movie, has been named a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador for the world’s poor.
In his new position, he will play a key role in the global goal to end world poverty by 2015, the Associated Press reports.
“Poverty robs us of our potential as a people, preventing us from being all that we can be,” the 49-year-old Banderas said in a statement. “This is why it is so important to mobilize all of our efforts to defeat it, especially if today we have the knowledge, the tools and the resources to do it.”
He will focus primarily on the countries of Africa and Latin America.
Banderas, who is married to actress Melanie Griffith, was reared in a middle-class family in Spain, the son of a school-teacher mother and police-officer father.
In 1998’s “Mask of Zorro,” Banderas became the first Spanish actor to portray the Spanish folk hero since the character was created in 1919. Zorro was popularized by the Italian-American actor Guy Williams in the 1950s TV series.
Banderas has also appeared in Assassins, Evita, Interview With a Vampire, Philadelphia, Desperado and the Shrek sequels.
Source: HispanicBusiness.com (c) 2010. All rights reserved
USA :
A Delicate Balancing Act for the Black Agenda
By DON TERRYwww.nytimes.com/Published: March 19, 2010
What a difference hard times make.
Until recently, most black discontent with the Obama administration — especially in Barack Obama’s hometown, Chicago — was largely kept in the family and out of the mainstream press, even as black business, civil rights and political leaders quietly grappled with and debated how best to support and challenge the nation’s first black president without hurting the causes of racial and economic justice.
But as the economic crisis continues to slam black America disproportionately hard, while bonuses rain down on Wall Street, the debate has spilled into the open and will get its loudest and most public hearing yet on Saturday, in a forum held just a few miles from Mr. Obama’s house in Kenwood, at Chicago State University.
Tavis Smiley, an author and talk show host and a frequent — and until recently rare — black critic of the president, is scheduled to convene a panel of civil rights leaders and scholars called “We Count: The Black Agenda Is the American Agenda.”
The discussion will be nationally televised on C-Span, and the invited panelists include Cornel West, a Princeton University professor; Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader; and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.
“A black agenda is jobs, jobs, jobs, quality education, investment in infrastructure and strong democratic regulation of corporations,” Dr. West said. “The black agenda, at its best, looks at America from the vantage point of the least of thee and asks what’s best for all.”
During his run to the White House, voters, black and white, projected all sorts of hopes and dreams onto Mr. Obama, no matter what he said or did. When it comes to race, for example, Mr. Obama has forcefully tried to avoid the subject. The one notable exception was his now-famous speech in Philadelphia in 2008, and only then when his campaign was in peril from the fiery words of his former Chicago pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright.
Mr. Obama’s black supporters were willing to give him a pass, to give him “time to learn his way around the White House.” But too many homes have been lost to foreclosure, too many fathers have lost jobs, too many mothers are losing hope for his most loyal bloc to be happy with what many are now saying is more symbolism than substance coming from Mr. Obama’s administration in regard to black America.
“The question I hear a lot on the street is, ‘Would we have been better off with Hillary Clinton?’ ” said Hermene D. Hartman, publisher of the weekly N’Digo newspaper in Chicago.
Others, though, like Jacky Grimshaw, a senior adviser to former Mayor Harold Washington, are reading more into the timing and location of the black agenda meeting 14 months into Mr. Obama’s presidency.
“If the idea is to embarrass the president,” Ms. Grimshaw said, “this is a good way of doing it.”
Given Mr. Smiley’s vocal criticism of Mr. Obama — raising questions about the president’s effectiveness in pursuing the agenda many black voters favor — some see the meeting as a sign of a division among blacks here and across the country. On one side are those who believe Mr. Obama is doing his best under tough circumstances. On the other are those who feel let down by a perceived lack of action by Mr. Obama on behalf of black Americans. By hosting the forum in Chicago, Mr. Smiley seems to be spotlighting the discussion in a place most likely to draw national attention.
Mr. Smiley said the goal of the event was not to attack or embarrass Mr. Obama in his Chicago backyard, but to pressure other black leaders to develop and press for a black agenda, an action plan for tackling poverty, poor schools, infant mortality and an unemployment rate among blacks that is at least twice the national average.
“Black people are getting crushed,” Mr. Smiley said.
No one argues that point. But since announcing the event last month, Mr. Smiley and the Rev. Al Sharpton, one of Mr. Obama’s most vocal supporters — “Barack’s pet preacher,” as one Chicago activist put it — have conducted a sometimes heated debate on black radio about the wisdom of convening the “We Count” panel discussion.
Mr. Sharpton seems to have the numbers on his side. Support for Mr. Obama among black Americans is hovering around 90 percent in polls.
Mr. Sharpton said he would not attend the Chicago gathering. “Yes, we need a black agenda,” he said. “But the president shouldn’t be leading it. Black leaders should be.”
Herman Brewer, the acting president and chief executive of the Chicago Urban League, expects to attend, although with some trepidation.
“I think it’s O.K. if folks are critical of the president,” Mr. Brewer said. “But I wouldn’t want it to be viewed as a condemnation, a smackdown of the president. Hopefully, it can be viewed as constructive.”
Mark Allen, a longtime civil rights advocate on the South Side, said that just a couple of months ago if he had made even a mild public criticism about Mr. Obama’s not doing enough for the poor or for small businesses in the inner city, “black middle class folks would curse me out.”
The message was clear: If you are black, you just didn’t air complaints about “our homeboy,” Mr. Allen said, certainly not in public where the news media could see and hear. Doing so was seen as undermining the first black president, of giving comfort to the enemy, of betraying the race.
But these days, even in Chicago, Mr. Allen said: “It’s not as taboo anymore. You get cursed out a lot less.”
Some blacks in Chicago seem to be having a case of unrequited love.
“Barack is ignoring the black community,” said Ms. Hartman, the publisher. “There’s no communication, no reaching out, no speaking out. Every black business I know is hurting. Trickle down is not trickling down.”
Mr. Obama worked 20 years ago as a community organizer in the Altgeld Gardens public housing development on Chicago’s South Side. There, Bamani Obadele, who runs a youth program in Roseland, and Cheryl Johnson, who runs an environmental justice organization at the sprawling development, recently discussed Mr. Obama and the We Count event.
Mr. Obadele said Mr. Obama attended several antiviolence rallies that Mr. Obadele organized in the Robert Taylor Homes public housing development in the 1990s.
“He helped me carry a casket through the streets,” Mr. Obadele said, referring to an antiviolence mock funeral. “He absolutely understands the struggle of black folks. But he’s not the same Barack I knew. The Barack I knew wouldn’t bail out the banks and let the people go hungry. I think his advisers are giving him bad advice.”
Ms. Johnson said: “It’s complicated. He’s inherited a mess we haven’t experienced since the Great Depression. Let’s give him some time.”
Mr. Obadele added: “I hope we don’t end up being a national embarrassment on Saturday, fighting about the black president. I hope something positive comes out of it. But we have to do something. There’s just too much suffering out here.”
CANADA :
Why we trust people we don’t know
Treating strangers fairly linked to growing societies
By Rachael Rettner /www.msnbc.msn.com/ March 19, 2010
In large, industrialized societies, people are surprisingly fair and trusting when it comes to dealing with strangers — shoplifters and pick-pocketers are a minority rather than the norm.
But how did we come to play nice with unfamiliar individuals? After all, much of our ancestral history was spent in small, hunter-gather communities, where everyone knew each other.
This pro-social behavior results from a change in social norms that allowed us to trust strangers, a new study suggests. That change is likely linked to a rise in markets where goods are exchanged for money, as well as increased participation in major world religions.
This finding contradicts a previously suggested theory: the idea that we treat strangers fairly because we mistakenly transferred our feelings of kinship to unrelated individuals as societies grew.
The results, based on more than 2,000 participants from 15 societies across the globe, show that “fair” behavior during a bargaining game increases the more a society has incorporated market exchange and world religions.
“Measures of fairness toward anonymous others, in terms of motivations and beliefs, vary dramatically across human societies,” said study author Joseph Henrich, an anthropologist at the University of British Columbia, Canada. “And we can explain most of the variation between groups by the degree of market incorporation and the presence of a world religion.”
Markets and religion
While humans have likely been exchanging things for thousands of years, most of the past exchanges probably took place amongst people who knew each other, Henrich said. People simply didn’t have the type of trust needed for wide-scale exchange with strangers, he said.
But those who did trade with strangers would have had an advantage over other groups, and could have spread at their expense, he said. The researchers think that, in order for market exchange to really take off, societies had to evolve new norms for interacting with strangers.
Similarly, major world religions, with their beliefs about fairness and punishment, could have also influenced norms and allowed societies to grow. Religions in small-scale societies tend to lack such moralizing gods that are concerned with generosity toward strangers, Henrich said.
“One of the things that might have occurred through cultural evolution to help build these larger groups, is the evolution of religious systems with supernatural agents that were in some sense police, concerned about those elements of behavior that would facilitate exchange and trade and harmonious groups, allowing groups to get larger and larger,” he said.
Bargaining games
To test out these ideas, the researchers studied participants from small-scale communities in Africa, North and South America, Oceania, New Guinea, and Asia. The societies varied in size from 20 to 10,000 people, and in some sense, were meant to serve as a proxy for what life was like before the spread of agriculture, Henrich said.
The subjects played three bargaining games. In one game meant to measure fairness, one player simply had to decide how to divide up a certain sum of money, with the second player having no say in the matter.
In another game, a third player took part, deciding whether to give up some of their allotted money to punish the first player for low offers. All interactions were anonymous.
Very small communities with almost no market integration and less involvement in world religions generally made lower, or less fair, offers during the games, and were less willing to punish unfair offers. On the flip side, the largest societies with the most market integration and world religion participation made higher offers, and were more willing to penalize those who made unfair offers.
“This is consistent with the idea that the expansion of human societies was driven by the evolution of these norms that allowed people to interact with strangers,” Henrich said.
The results will be published March 19 in the journal Science.
World votes to continue trading in species on verge of extinction
Ben Webster, Environment Editor, and Frank Pope /The Times/ March 19, 2010
Their sheer size and strength have made them among the most celebrated of endangered species, yet they have all been betrayed — by vested interests at a UN meeting on wildlife protection.
Proposals to ban trade in bluefin tuna and polar bears were overwhelmingly rejected yesterday at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), meeting in Doha, Qatar.
A plan for a 20-year ban on ivory sales, to protect African elephants, is also likely to fail in the coming days — partly because Britain and other members of the EU are refusing to support it. Delegates are instead expected to approve a weak compromise, which would encourage poaching by allowing the sale of ivory being stored by several African nations.
Feelings were running high yesterday about the failure of measures to protect endangered tuna. Only 20 of the 120 countries at the meeting voted to ban trade in the bluefin. Intensive lobbying by Japan, which consumes 80 per cent of Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin, meant that a snap vote was held before any debate on scientific reports that show a catastrophic decline in the largest of the tuna family.
Campaigners reacted with dismay. Oliver Knowles, of Greenpeace, said: “It is an own goal by Japan. By pushing for a few more years of this luxury product it has put the future of bluefin, and the future of its own supply, at serious risk. The abject failure of governments here at Cites to protect Atlantic bluefin tuna spells disaster for its future, and sets the species on a pathway to extinction.”
France, Italy and Spain catch most of the tuna consumed by the global market. In 2009 a quota of 19,950 tonnes of tuna was set by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, but many fish are caught live in nets, transferred to farms and fattened before slaughter.
Susan Lieberman, director of international policy for the Pew Environment Group, said: “The market for this fish is just too lucrative and the pressure from fishing interests too great for enough governments to support a truly sustainable future for the fish.”
The Cites process, which requires a two-thirds majority for a proposal to be adopted, is vulnerable to well-funded lobbying by countries and industries that depend on trade in a species. The vested interests exploit uncertainties in the estimates of population numbers, and strike backroom deals to secure the votes of developing countries where endangered species are far down the list of political priorities.
A US proposal to protect polar bears fell victim to arguments put forward by Inuit groups that their livelihoods depended on hunting the animals. The vote on protecting elephants is due on Monday, and is viewed by wildlife groups as the last opportunity to protect many of Africa’s most threatened herds.
The few remaining elephants in Sierra Leone were killed in October by poachers serving the thriving black market in ivory, which fetches up to $1,500 (£980) a kilo in the Far East. In the Zakouma National Park in Chad, poaching has cut the population from 3,885 in 2006 to only 617 last year. The number of elephants lost to poaching in Kenya has quadrupled in the past two years. Kenya is one of seven African nations proposing a 20-year moratorium on sales of stockpiled ivory.
International trade in ivory was banned in 1989, but since then Cites has agreed several “one-off sales” of stockpiled ivory on condition that the proceeds were spent on elephant conservation. Britain supported a one-off sale of 105 tonnes in 2008, arguing that it would reduce poaching by satisfying demand. But Kenya says that the one-off sales have expanded the market in China and Japan for ivory ornaments, and that this in turn has encouraged poaching.
Asian-run crime syndicates are able to pass off illegal ivory as coming from stockpiles sold with Cites approval.
Tanzania and Zambia want to sell 112 tonnes of ivory, and have submitted proposals that would allow the sale to take place by reducing their elephants’ level of protection under Cites trade rules.
Britain will join the rest of the EU in voting against Kenya’s proposal. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said it was still considering whether to support a lowering of the Cites protection for Tanzanian and Zambian elephants.
Robbie Marsland, UK Director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said: “We are disappointed that the UK Government, and European Union member countries as a whole, have not gone into this meeting with a much stronger message against the ivory trade and in favour of elephant protection.
“This leaves the door open to future trade, which would result in further illegal poaching.”
Nick Herbert, the Shadow Environment Secretary, said the Government should be pressing for the destruction of stockpiles of ivory. “No one proposes stockpiling seized drugs or weapons to sell for profit, and ivory should be treated in just the same way. Instead of flooding the market with more ivory and legitimising the trade these stockpiles should be destroyed. We should be choking demand for ivory, not stoking it.”
A Defra spokesman said: “The UK will not consider other sales of ivory until the effects of last year’s one-off sale of ivory, intended to reduce demand for illegal poached ivory, have been fully analysed. This will take at least a further six years.”
A report last week by an international team of 27 scientists and conservationists concluded that previous one-off sales had contributed to a rise in poaching and failed to deliver the promised conservation benefits, resulting in “only short-term profitability to the few individuals who ran the scheme”.
Easy ammunition on family planning
By Mindelle Jacobs/www.edmontonsun.com/March 19, 2010
Stephen Harper has so botched up the government spin promoting maternal and child health during the G8 that he’s left the impression he’s against contraception.
Perception is everything in politics so the PM had better clarify the situation before … well, before he feels the need for another prorogation to escape the opposition.
Consider this zinger from NDP Leader Jack Layton the other day: “Is Canada’s signature initiative at the G8 going to be the ‘no condoms for Africa’ strategy?”
Likewise, Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett wondered whether the Conservatives were going to follow in the footsteps of the right-wing administration of former U.S. president George W. Bush.
For some reason, the Tories have been reluctant to include reproductive health issues, such as contraception, as part of their maternal health initiative during the June G8.
This has prompted days of fearmongering and demands for clarification from opposition MPs and aid groups.
Some have even suggested the Harperites might be poised to axe all family planning funding for the developing world.
“Do they mean no family planning in development aid programs or do they mean no family planning under a limited budget for maternal health?” asks Katherine McDonald, executive director of Action Canada for Population and Development.
“My deepest fear is that because they said family planning isn’t part of this initiative, they will then stop funding other family planning programming as the projects end.
“How many Canadians are against family planning?” she quips.
Except for a very few right-wing nuts who have no problem with destitute women in the Third World having a baby a year until they die from blood loss or other obstetrical complications, no one opposes reproductive health services.
Women in developing countries have just as much right as women in the rich West to space their children apart so they and their kids have a better chance of survival. So why exclude family planning from the wider issue of maternal health at the G8?
It just gave critics the opportunity to accuse the Conservatives of pandering to the barefoot-in-the-kitchen fundamentalist crowd.
As McDonald wonders: “Are they ignoring (the benefits of family planning) or are they playing to an ideological base? It’s one or the other.”
Combining family planning with good maternal health services could reduce maternal deaths in the Third World by 70%, she adds.
On Thursday, Harper finally said the birth control issue would be an “option” in its G8 initiative — whatever that means.
Avoided
If the PM had included reproductive health services in his G8 legacy project in the first place, all of this nonsense could have been avoided.
Harper also dropped the ball by neglecting to emphasize that Canada spends tens of millions of dollars annually on reproductive health services in poor nations.
In 2008, Canada donated $25 million to the United Nations Population Fund alone, which has a strong focus on reproductive health.
Canada, through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), has also donated to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) for three decades.
But the last funding contract expired in December and the federation hasn’t heard a peep from CIDA about whether the grant will be renewed.
Perhaps it’s just the process. After all, Barack Obama has been in power for more than a year and the IPPF is still waiting for U.S. funding after the repeal of the Bush-era restrictions.
Still, Harper might give CIDA a kick in the butt to speed up that grant renewal, to beat back the conspiracy theorists.
mindy.jacobs@sunmedia.ca
AUSTRALIA :
African Barrick Gold Raises 581 Million Pounds in London IPO
March 19, 2010/By Thomas Biesheuvel/Bloomberg
March 19 (Bloomberg) — Barrick Gold Corp., the largest gold producer, raised 581 million pounds ($882 million) selling shares of its African unit in a London initial public offering.
Barrick Gold sold 101 million shares of African Barrick Gold Plc at 575 pence apiece, Toronto-based Barrick said in a statement today. The company had planned to sell 25 percent of the unit at between 550 and 650 pence a share. The sale gives African Barrick a market value of 2.3 billion pounds.
Jersey, Channel Islands-based Randgold Resources Ltd., which operates in Mali, and Petropavlovsk Plc, which mines in eastern Russia, are among gold companies listed in London.
“London has an appetite for African risk,” said John McGloin, a mining analyst at Arbuthnot Securities Ltd. in London. “The London market has a great affinity for companies with assets in Africa.”
JPMorgan Cazenove and Morgan Stanley are joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners for the IPO.
African Barrick comprises Barrick Gold’s four Tanzania mines and produced 716,000 so-called attributable ounces of gold last year, more than Petropavlovsk or Randgold. Africa accounted for 10 percent of third-quarter sales at Barrick, which also mines in North America, South America and Australia.
Barrick Gold said this week it suspended mining at its Bulyanhulu mine in Tanzania after three workers were killed in an accident. It said it would resume operations today.
The IPO follows the 2008 decision by Mexico’s Industrias Penoles SAB to spin off its silver assets, creating Fresnillo Plc and listing it in London. Fresnillo, the world’s largest primary silver producer, has gained 51 percent since its May 2008 share sale.
–Editors: Simon Casey, Dan Weeks
EUROPE :
Ships take new plan against pirates
By: WIRE EDITOR/www.phillyburbs.com/Burlington County Times/The Associated Press/2010/march/19
NAIROBI, Kenya
An international fleet of warships is attacking and destroying Somali pirate vessels closer to the shores of East Africa and the new strategy, combined with more aggressive confrontations further out to sea, has dealt the brigands a setback, officials and experts said Thursday.
The new tactics by the European Union naval force comes after Spain – which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, and whose fishing vessels are frequent pirate targets – encouraged more aggressive pursuit of pirates and the coalition obtained more aircraft and other military assets, said Rear Adm. Peter Hudson, the force commander.
The EU Naval Force attacked 12 groups of pirate vessels, which normally includes several skiffs and a mother vessel, this month, more than last year.
Half of those attacks were on the high seas and half close to shore, reflecting the new strategy to intercept pirates before they reach deep water and international shipping lanes.
DOHA, Qatar
Sudan’s government and a collection of Darfur rebel groups signed a cease-fire Thursday – the second such deal in less than a month with a key rebel faction – opening the way for political negotiations ahead of a full peace agreement.
The Sudanese government now has peace deals with two major rebel blocs, leaving just the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Paris-based Abdelwahid Elnur on the outside – though the history of the conflict has been marked by failed peace agreements.
Thursday’s truce was with the newly formed Liberation and Justice Movement, an umbrella organization of several smaller rebel groups, including some who broke away from the SLM.
Ibrahim Gambari, the joint special representative of the U.N. and the African Union in Darfur, told the ceremony that the signing “represents yet another important milestone in the road toward the destination of an all inclusive and comprehensive peace agreement that should usher in durable peace and stability in Darfur.”
He warned, however, that the key to the agreement was the commitment of all parties to the implementation.
LONDON
A former Scotland Yard drug squad detective was jailed Thursday for his role in a botched attempt to smuggle hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cocaine into Ireland.
Prosecutors said Michael Daly, 49, was one of the chief organizers of a plot to land some 1.65 tons of high-quality cocaine on the coast of southern Ireland, where his family had a home.
Daly and his predominantly London-based gang of cocaine runners arranged for a catamaran full of Colombian cocaine to sail from the Caribbean island of Barbados to a point off the coast of Ireland, where it was picked up by an inflatable dinghy in the early hours of July 2, 2007.
But the plan fell apart after a member of the crew accidentally filled the dinghy’s twin engines with diesel instead of gasoline, stranding them in unusually rough seas just a few hundred yards (meters) from shore.
An attempt by Daly to rescue the drugs in a second boat failed amid darkness and nasty weather, and the crew abandoned ship, with most of them – including Daly; his younger brother Joe; and Alan Wells, a former firefighter – managing to swim ashore.
The former detective managed to dodge the authorities and escape from Ireland on a fake passport, but his brother and fellow gang member Perry Wharrie were arrested by Irish police 48 hours later. Wells also managed to escape.
PARIS
A court in Normandy on Thursday convicted a 38-year-old woman of killing six of her newborn babies – a deed she acknowledged – and sentenced her to 15 years in prison.
Hours before the verdict, Celine Lesage said what she had told investigators, that she had killed her newborns at birth.
Prosecutor Eric Bouillard had sought a 16-year prison sentence for Lesage with no early release before half the term was served.
Lesage was suspected of killing her six newborns between August 2000 and September 2007. She was charged with aggravated voluntary homicide and could have received a life sentence.
“Yes, I killed the babies,” she said under questioning Thursday ahead of the verdict. She burst into tears. “I did it but … I can’t explain it.”
BAD STAFFELSTEIN, Germany
A prominent archbishop called Thursday for justice for sexual abuse victims in Germany’s Roman Catholic Church, saying they need to feel they can finally speak openly about their suffering.
Reinhard Marx, the archbishop of Munich and Freising, said Catholic bishops in the southern German state of Bavaria – the homeland of Pope Benedict XVI – felt “deep consternation and shame” over the reports of abuse of children in church-run schools and institutions in past weeks.
Advertisement “The priority is the search for the truth and achieving an open atmosphere that will give the victims courage to speak about what happened to them,” Marx told reporters following a meeting with Bavarian bishops.
Marx said the bishops had agreed to investigate each claim and would contact authorities in cases where sexual or physical abuse is suspected.
The statements come as the German church continues to grapple with the magnitude of abuse claims; since the first victims came forward in January, at least 300 others have said they suffered sexual or physical abuse at the hands of priests.
In Ireland, which has been shaken by an even wider crisis over child abuse, a Catholic bishop on Thursday ordered a priest to remain silent about his views that church officials should not tell police about child abusers within the priesthood.
WARSAW, Poland
A Polish court convicted three men Thursday of the theft of the notorious “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Sets You Free) sign from the Auschwitz memorial site in December.
The men, two of whom are brothers, were given prison sentences ranging from 18 months to 2 1/2 years.
In footage from the court, TVN24 showed the men, with their faces blurred, showed each man in turn expressing regret and acknowledging that stealing the sign was not a good idea.
Krakow’s district court said the men confessed to the theft and agreed to settlements, which meant the case did not have to go to trial. The court identified them only as Radoslaw M., Lukasz M., and Pawel S., in keeping with Polish privacy laws.
The theft occurred in the night between Dec. 17 and Dec. 18, a brazen heist that shocked Holocaust survivors and many others committed to preserving the Auschwitz-Birkenau site.
The former death camp gets more than 1 million visitors a year and is one of Europe’s most important sites honoring the memory of the Nazis’ victims and of warning the world about the dangers of hatred and totalitarianism.
The thieves left traces in the snow and then cut the sign into three pieces to make it easier to transport. They also left behind the last letter “i” in the snow. Authorities later said that the Polish men who carried out the theft were petty thieves working on commission for someone else.
LONDON
New British guidelines on handling terrorism suspects held overseas have been delayed over a dispute about how to deal with potentially life-saving information from detainees who may be at risk of torture by allies.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised a year ago that new rules would be drawn up, and the government was expected to make them public for the first time on Thursday. But officials have acknowledged the document won’t appear before the country’s national election, due within three months.
Brown ordered the rules to be rewritten following accusations that British officials were complicit in the torture of terror suspects held overseas by other nations, including the United
States. Police are investigating two cases related to the actions of intelligence officers from the MI5 and MI6 spy agencies.
Two government officials, who demanded anonymity to discuss the issue, said Britain’s government and Parliament’s intelligence oversight committee disagree over a section of the new rules dealing with how ministers should handle material gleaned from suspects who may be at risk of mistreatment.
“The problem is that there is a difference of opinion about something we have written in the report,” said Michael Mates, a Conservative lawmaker and a member of Parliament’s Intelligence and Security oversight committee.
SANTIAGO, Chile
A U.S. seismologist says Chileans will continue to feel aftershocks from last month’s megaquake for a year or longer.
Walter Mooney of the U.S. Geological Survey predicts that in the coming month there will be 25 to 45 temblors topping magnitude 5.0. Already, dozens of powerful aftershocks have shaken the country since the Feb. 27 quake.
Mooney also says there is a one-in-three chance of a 7.0-magnititude jolt – the same force as the quake that devastated Haiti in January.
The seismologist spoke Thursday during a news conference at the U.S. Embassy in the South American nation.
Chile’s government says the 8.8-magnitude quake caused at least 700 known or presumed deaths. It also spawned a tsunami that devastated parts of the coast.
From The Associated Press/March 19, 2010
ACP ink concerns over sugar deal
Elenoa Baselala/ www.fijitimes.com/Friday, March 19, 2010
THE ACP countries have written to the European Union expressing their concern on its recent sugar agreement with Peru and Columbia.
The letter authored by Patrick Gomes of Guyana who is also the chairman of the ACP Consultative Group on Sugar on March 15 accused the EU of not respecting provisions under the Cotonou Partnership Agreement and European Partnership Agreements.
In particular, the countries were concerned they were not consulted and that the EU agreement with the Latin American countries would be “potentially disastrous consequences this may have on the sugar industries”.
The Pacific’s agreement with the EU is a minimum tonnage of 210,000, however, Fiji exported over 220,000 tonnes in the last season.
Mr Gomes explained that most countries had signed EPAs on the broad assumption of the long term outlook for the EU sugar market including the maintenance of a stable EU sugar market.
“On these assumptions and in order to adapt to the reform of the EU sugar regime, many ACP industries embarked on the implementation of painful reforms including the multi annual adaptation strategies for their sugar sectors,” Mr Gomes said.
“Their implementation requires heavy investments and in this respect have benefitted from EU accompanying measures and in some cases European Investment Bank support. But unilaterally changing in terms of international agreements negotiated in good faith, the proposed concessions of Latin American countries would negatively impact on the economic development value of the EPAs and will alter the rights and obligations of the parties enshrined in these agreements.
“Such an approach is unacceptable and puts into question the coherence of the EU policy.”
An EU official however said the countries were consulted and were fully aware of these negotiations.
CHINA :
Hong Kong Stocks Advance; Chalco Surges on Africa Mine Deal
March 19, 2010/By Hanny Wan/Bloomberg
March 19 (Bloomberg) — Hong Kong stocks rose, erasing declines, as Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. rallied after its parent agreed to buy a stake in an African iron-ore mine, countering a drop in Orient Overseas (International) Ltd.
Aluminum Corp., China’s largest maker of the lightweight metal, rallied 3.3 percent, reversing a drop of as much as 2.3 percent. Orient Overseas retreated 2.9 percent after Hong Kong’s biggest container line posted its first annual loss in 11 years. New World Development Co. advanced 2.2 percent, leading gains among developers, after a report showed the city’s luxury-home prices have gained this year.
“There’s good reason to believe that macro growth would be good, but the optimism is slightly less on the markets, and a lot of that is priced in,” Manpreet Gill, Singapore-based strategist for Asia at Barclays Wealth, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “On a relative basis I’d have a little bit more developed markets at this point in time than in emerging.”
The Hang Seng Index climbed 0.2 percent to close at 21,370.82, after falling as much as 0.3 percent. The gauge has gained 0.8 percent this week. Shares on the measure are priced at an average 14.2 times estimated earnings, down from 18.1 times on Nov. 16 when the index closed at its highest level for 2009, according to Bloomberg data. Concerns over China’s policies to tighten money supply have contributed to a 6.9 percent drop in the stock benchmark from its November high.
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, which tracks the so- called H shares of Hong Kong-listed Chinese companies, advanced 0.4 percent to 12,262.36.
Orient Overseas
Aluminum Corp., known as Chalco, jumped 3.3 percent to HK$8.40, the sharpest gain on the Hang Seng Index. Parent Aluminum Corp. of China agreed to pay $1.35 billion for a stake in Rio Tinto Group’s Simandou iron-ore project in Guinea. Chinalco, as the state-owned company is known, signed a non- binding accord to acquire a 45 percent share of the project by funding development over the next two to three years, Rio said.
Orient Overseas, Hong Kong’s biggest container line, retreated 2.9 percent to HK$58. The $402.3 million net loss in 2009 it reported today compared with net income of $272.3 million a year earlier, the company said.
New World, a developer controlled by billionaire Cheng Yu- tung, gained 2.2 percent to HK$15.70. Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd., Hong Kong’s second-biggest developer by market value, advanced 1.1 percent to HK$99.75. Hang Lung Properties Ltd., this year’s best performer on the Hang Seng Property Index, rose 1 percent to HK$31.80.
Luxury Prices Rising
Luxury home prices in Hong Kong have risen 8.2 percent this year, signaling the government’s measures to cool the sector are not working, according to one of the city’s biggest property agencies. The average sale price of existing luxury homes in March is HK$11,823 ($1,523) a square foot from December’s HK$10,931, according to transactions at 30 of Hong Kong’s main such projects, Centaline Property Agency Ltd. said in a report.
China Eastern Airlines Corp. climbed 4.2 percent to HK$3.76. The carrier will receive more than 30 planes this year, President Ma Xulun said. The carrier will also get about 50 percent of the additional flights that open up nationwide as the summer season begins, helped by the opening of a new terminal in Shanghai’s Hongqiao airport, he said.
Hang Seng Index futures rose 0.2 percent to 21,321. Twenty- six stocks climbed while 17 dropped on the 43-company gauge.
–With assistance from Susan Li in Hong Kong. Editors: Nick Gentle, Nicolas Johnson.
China’s Stocks Rise, Capping Biggest Weekly Gain in Five Weeks
March 19, 2010/Bloomberg
March 19 (Bloomberg) — China’s stocks rose, capping the biggest weekly gain in five weeks, as raw-material producers rallied after Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd.’s parent agreed to buy a stake in an African iron ore mine and copper prices gained.
Aluminum Corp. of China, the nation’s biggest maker of the material and also known as Chalco, surged the most since October. Shandong Nanshan Aluminum Co. advanced 3.5 percent. Jiangxi Copper Co. climbed 2.2 percent. Poly Real Estate Group Co. and COFCO Property (Group) Co. led gains by developers after the government ordered some rivals to exit the real estate business.
The Shanghai Composite Index rose 21.66, or 0.7 percent, to 3,067.75 at the close, erasing an earlier loss. The gauge has advanced 1.8 percent this week as a U.S. pledge to keep interest rates low boosted commodity prices and investors speculated recent equity declines were excessive. The CSI 300 Index advanced 0.8 percent to 3,293.87.
“It’s good for commodity companies to build up their resource reserves through foreign investment because when metal prices rebound, they’ll be the first to benefit,” said Zheng Tuo, president of Shanghai Good Hope Equity Investment Management Co.
An index of six industrial metals traded on the London Metal Exchange fell 8.2 percent in January, the biggest drop since the end of 2008, before rebounding 6 percent last month.
Chalco jumped the 10 percent daily limit to 13.65 yuan, the most since Oct. 9. Parent Aluminum Corp. of China agreed to pay $1.35 billion for a stake in Rio Tinto Group’s Simandou iron ore project in Guinea, London-based Rio said in a statement.
Rio Deal
Chinalco, as the state-owned company is known, signed a non-binding accord to buy a 45 percent share of the project by funding development over the next two to three years, Rio said.
Nanshan Aluminum surged 3.5 percent to 12.01 yuan, the biggest gain since Feb. 3. Yunnan Aluminium Co., China’s fifth- largest producer of the light metal, rose 5 percent to 12.70 yuan. Companies in China, the biggest metals buyer, spent more than $30 billion buying up mines and oil deposits globally last year.
Jiangxi Copper, China’s biggest producer of the metal, rose 2.2 percent to 35.68 yuan. Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Co., the second biggest, gained 4 percent to 18.95 yuan.
The June copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange climbed as much as 0.9 percent to 60,050 yuan ($8,797) a ton and last traded at 59,900 yuan.
The Shanghai gauge has lost 6.4 percent this year, the fifth-worst performer among 93 global benchmark indexes tracked by Bloomberg, as the government twice increased lenders’ reserve requirements and re-imposed a tax on home sales.
Trading Forecast
The index surged 80 percent to 3,277.14 last year as the economy rebounded driven by a record 9.59 trillion yuan of new loans and 4 trillion yuan, two-year stimulus spending on railways, airports and homes. The economy grew 10.7 percent last quarter, the fastest pace since 2007.
The benchmark index may trade in a range between 2,700 and 3,200 in the second quarter, Shenyin & Wanguo Securities Co. said in a report. Investors should buy automakers and home appliance makers because of rising demand amid government support measures.
Poly Real Estate, the second-largest developer, rose 0.9 percent to 20.87 yuan. COFCO Property, the property unit of the country’s biggest grain trader, jumped 5.7 percent to 10.23 yuan, the most in four months. A gauge of property stocks advanced for a fifth day, the longest stretch of gains in six months.
Asset Sales
A total of 78 companies supervised by the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission have already been told to withdraw from property industry after their current projects are completed because real estate isn’t their core business, Du Yuanquan, spokesman for the agency, said in a statement on its Web site yesterday.
“The change may speed up restructuring of the property industry, involving asset sales,” Zhao Duo, an analyst at Sealand Securities Co. in Shenzhen, said by telephone. “The cut in the number of state companies in real estate market will also help existing builders.”
The following companies were among the most active in China’s markets. Stock symbols are in brackets after companies’ names.
Beijing CCID Media Investments Co. (000504 CH) added 5.6 percent to 11.33 yuan after saying the company’s biggest shareholder will sell its 25.58 percent stake in the company.
Sanlian Commercial Co. (600898 CH), a retailer, added 5 percent to 6.91 yuan after saying a court upheld Gome Electrical Appliances Holdings Ltd.’s right to buy a 10.7 percent stake in Sanlian Commerce. The parent of Sanlian Commerce sued Gome in January 2009 to invalidate Gome’s purchase of the stake.
Wuliangye Yibin Co. (000858 CH), China’s second-biggest maker of white liquor by market value, rose 2.6 percent to 28.03 yuan after the company said it targets net income and sales growth of 20 percent this year. Wuliangye said 2009 net income rose 79 percent to 3.2 billion yuan.
–Zhang Shidong. Editors: Richard Frost, Allen Wan
INDIA :
BRASIL:
EN BREF, CE 19 mars 2010 … AGNEWS / OMAR, BXL,19/03/2010
