BURUNDI :

RWANDA

UGANDA

TANZANIA: 

Hostage Briton ‘has eye infection’
(UKPA) /The Press Association/28022010

A British man being held hostage by Somali pirates is suffering from a serious eye infection which could leave him blind, it has been reported.

Paul Chandler, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and his wife Rachel have been held for more than four months after they were captured while sailing from the Seychelles towards Tanzania.

A photographer who has filmed the couple since they were captured said the pirates have requested medicine to treat Mr Chandler’s eyes.

Mohamed Dahir, a Somali freelance photographer, said the group contacted Dr Mohamed Helmi Hangul, in Mogadishu, who had assessed the couple previously.

Mr Dahir told the Mail on Sunday: “The pirates told the doctor that they tried to get the medicine for Paul but could not get hold of it.

“They are asking the doctor to deliver it to them.”

Trachoma is caused by the Chlamydia trachomatis micro-organism which is spread by flies or through contact with eye discharge from an infected person.

Repeated infection can cause scarring to the inside of the eyelid which may cause it to fold, causing the lashes to rub on the eye.

Untreated, the condition can lead to blindness.

A gaunt-looking Mrs Chandler, who is being kept separate from her husband, said they were being treated “cruelly” by the pirates in footage broadcast by Sky News last month. 

CONGO RDC   : 

KENYA :

Tension high at Kenya-Ethiopian border

www.nation.co.ke/By BARNABAS BII/ Posted Sunday, February 28 2010

Security personnel were on Sunday deployed to the Kenya-Ethiopia border following the death of a senior policeman. Merille bandits are said to have shot the General Service Unit Chief Inspector on Friday evening.

The Turkana Regional Commissioner Christopher Musambu said a team of security officers would assess the security situation in the area.

“Additional policemen from Lodwar have been deployed to the area to contain acts of aggression by the Merille attackers,” said Mr Musambu.

“The officer was shot dead following a confrontation with the militia who had re-grouped on the common border of the two countries,” he said, adding that the killing was an act of provocation.

The attack occurred after Merille herdsmen were turned away from grazing their animals on Kenya soil. It is then that they re-grouped before staging an attack against Kenyan security forces which lasted for almost four hours.

According to Mr Musambu, six GSU officers who were said to have gone missing after the attack are now safe and further attempted attacks will be dealt with.

“We did not lose any other life apart from the senior GSU officer. Causalities on the militia side remains unknown,” said Mr Musumbu.

He said a security meeting between administrators from the two countries will be held on Monday to discuss how to secure the volatile region that has witnessed cross border attacks in the recent past.

The incident follows the killing of two army men and injury of six others early last month by Toposa militia at Nadapal region on the Kenya-Southern Sudan border.

The army men were killed after their truck was hit by a grenade as they returned to Nadapal from Lokichoggio town.

The Kenya Army and Administration Police have set up bases in Nadapal but frequency of clashes between Kenya security forces and the Toposa militia still remains high.

Todonyang region has also experienced recurrent attacks from Ethiopian Merille militia caused by conflict over water and pasture.  

ANGOLA :

SOUTH AFRICA:

Cullinan Heritage Diamond sells for $35.3M

28.02.10/www.israelidiamond.co.il

World

Johan Dippenaar, Petra’s CEO said: “It is fitting that The Cullinan Heritage should achieve a sale price of US$35.3 million, the highest sale price on record ever achieved for a rough diamond, as it has the potential to produce one of the world’s most important polished gems. The sale proceeds further bolster Petra’s treasury and will be invested in the growth of our core assets.”

AFRICA / AU :

Somali pirates free Panama-registered cargo vessel

Sun Feb 28, 2010/Reuters

NAIROBI (Reuters) – A Panamanian-registered cargo ship seized by Somali pirates two months ago has been released after a ransom was air-dropped on to the vessel, maritime officials said Sunday.

World

The bulk carrier Navios Apollon was hijacked about 800 miles off the Somali coast north of the Seychelles while on its way from the United States to India with a cargo of fertilizer.

“The last gunman disembarked from the ship last night. She is steaming out to safe waters,” Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya-based East Africa Seafarers’ Assistance Program told Reuters by telephone.

The vessel is managed by the Greek firm Navios ShipManagement and a Greek government official confirmed its release.

“The Navios Apollon was released yesterday evening. The ship is now sailing to Oman and its final destination is India. They are all well and safe,” a Merchant Marine Ministry official told Reuters in Athens.

An unspecified sum of money was air-dropped on to the ship as a ransom, maritime officials said.

All 19 members of the crew, one Greek and 18 Filipinos, were safe, Mwangura added.

Piracy attacks rose by almost 40 percent worldwide last year, with gunmen from the failed Horn of Africa state of Somalia accounting for more than half the 406 reported incidents, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

(Reporting by Duncan Miriri and Renee Maltezou in Athens; editing by Andrew Dobbie)

HIV Still Plagues the U.S.: Some Areas Have Higher Rates Than Africa
Newsweek /By Jaime Cunningham /February 28, 2010

In December, NEWSWEEK argued that new signs of life were showing in the AIDS activism movement. Let’s hope so. Recent research published in The New England Journal of Medicine shows that within certain populations in America, the prevalence of HIV-infected people is higher than in certain parts of Africa:

More than 1 in 30 adults in Washington, D.C., are HIV-infected—a prevalence higher than that reported in Ethiopia, Nigeria, or Rwanda. Certain U.S. subpopulations are particularly hard hit. In New York City, 1 in 40 blacks, 1 in 10 men who have sex with men, and 1 in 8 injection-drug users are HIV-infected, as are 1 in 16 black men in Washington, D.C. In several U.S. urban areas, the HIV prevalence among men who have sex with men is as high as 30%—as compared with a general-population prevalence of 7.8% in Kenya and 16.9% in South Africa.

What’s interesting is that the research shows that a person’s sexual network, more than just his or her lifestyle choices, defines the risk of getting HIV in America. So, black and Hispanic women are at increased risk due to the instability of their sexual relationships —which is attributed to the high rate of incarceration of men in their networks—and their vulnerable or dependent economic situation, which may cause them to be fearful of suggesting safer-sex options to their companions. And black men who have sex with men are at high risk because of the likelihood of their choosing to engage in sexual activity with someone who is racially similar, and because of the prevalence of HIV within their sexual networks.

America’s epidemic most strongly affects the urban regions of the Northeast and West Coast, and small towns and cities in the South. Part of this is because these local populations have unprotected sex within “relatively insular social-sexual networks.” Lower-income black Americans with poor education and unstable housing are disproportionally affected, and black or Hispanic women make up more than 25 percent of new HIV infections in the U.S.

More than 20 percent of the estimated 1 million HIV-positive Americans are unaware of their status. Additional behavioral studies, better communication, and preventive education need to be directed toward the identified at-risk communities. It’s time to admit that HIV is still a major threat to Americans.

Visitor center opens at NY’s African Burial Ground
By VERENA DOBNIK (AP) /28022010

NEW YORK — About 15,000 African slaves and their descendants were once unceremoniously buried under what is today Manhattan — and forgotten.

On Saturday, a new visitor center opened near the rediscovered cemetery from the 17th and 18th centuries to celebrate the ethnic Africans who had toiled, many unpaid, to help make New York the nation’s commercial capital.

“It’s shocking — the number of people today who are still unaware that this history exists in New York,” said Tara Morrison, superintendent of the African Burial Ground National Memorial.

It’s located a short walk from Wall Street, where African slaves once were traded.

Some of their remains were exhumed after 1991 and reburied on a third of an acre surrounded by high-rises amid bustling lower Manhattan.

The visitor center on Broadway opened Saturday afternoon after a ceremony that included remarks by Howard Dodson, director of Harlem’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

“People say the South was evil, keeping slaves, and that the good people of the North were opposed to it,” Dodson said. “The truth is, New York was just as involved; this city’s economy was tied to slavery, and New York merchants financed the South’s cotton trade.”

The street-level center offers interactive exhibits showing that the African labor force was crucial to the prosperity of Dutch-colonized New Amsterdam in the 1600s, and later New York, governed by the English until the American Revolution. In 1776, there were about 25,000 people living in New York, about one-fifth of them slaves.

The slaves had come off ships from Africa and the Caribbean, landing in Perth Amboy, N.J., a busy duty-free port for the importation of slaves — men and women practicing Christian, Muslim and traditional African faiths.

They worked on docks and made roads or did farm and domestic work. The skilled artisans and craftsmen were associated with shipping, construction and various trades.

Some remained enslaved, while others gained some degree of freedom and could raise their families, though none had the full rights of the colonists.

But all were among those building a new nation.

When these early New Yorkers died, they were wrapped in shrouds and buried on more than 6 acres of land beyond the then official northern boundary of the city, at today’s Chambers Street in lower Manhattan. Only non-Africans could be buried in the city proper.

After the 1741 slave insurrection, 18 slaves were hanged and 13 burned at the stake on vague charges of arson and conspiracy.

At the entrance to the visitor center is a burial scene with life-size figures, “to remind people that they are visiting a sacred site,” Morrison said.

The forgotten burial place was rediscovered in 1991, when construction began on the foundation of a federal office building. The remains of about 400 men, women and children were found 20 feet underground.

Photos of individual graves, with skeletal remains, fill a wall of the new center.

Each is numbered, with descriptions of what people suffered while alive, based on scientific analysis.

“The bones show that they were overworked and malnourished, and some show signs of trauma,” said Michael Blakey, a physical anthropologist and the scientific director of the African Burial Ground Project.

Slaves were raped, lynched and beaten at various times, according to historic accounts.

Even slave children were used as labor, some separated from their families and sold to the New York colonists.

The government building was redesigned to accommodate the memorial, and in 1993 the Burial Ground became a National Historic Landmark.

President George W. Bush signed a proclamation in 2006 designating it a National Monument as the “most important historic urban archaeological project undertaken in the United States.” A memorial was dedicated the following year.

Opening to the public Saturday afternoon, the 6,700-square-foot space has four exhibit areas, a theater and a gift shop.

The African Burial Ground is part of the National Park Service, and there’s no entrance fee.

It took almost two decades to officially preserve the site, after an emotionally charged battle pitting scholars, activists and officials against those arguing that business in the densely built-up neighborhood would be disrupted during excavation.

The rest of the original cemetery under existing buildings remains untouched.

The visitor center also will examine the preservation efforts, said Morrison, adding that they reflect “the importance of citizens taking action.”

She said she’s seen adults at the Burial Ground who looked “very angry, because they’re learning this history for the first time. Now they’ll know when they walk down Broadway: This is our complex, collective heritage.”

New York abolished slavery in 1827.

African Burial Ground National Monument: http://www.nps.gov/afbg/index.htm

UN /ONU :

USA :

Black History Month still needed, locals say
by Kathleen Thurber/Midland Reporter-Telegram/www.mywesttexas.com/ February 28, 2010
With a black president and an ever growing list of black CEOs, coaches, lawyers and other professionals, locals say they understand the argument that a specific month for Black History may emphasize the separateness that still exists among the races.

But, several said, while they recognize the reasoning for such viewpoints, even advances like the election of a black man to the White House don’t mean the U.S. has entered into a post-racial society.

“When education about all cultures is integrated and factually taught we won’t need this, but until then,” said Latisha Williams, who helped organize Black History Month events at Midland College.

Unfortunately, she said, there remain many individuals who don’t realize the contributions blacks and those from other cultures made in shaping both Texas and the United States.

And while they may be willing to tout the accomplishments of minorities now, she said, students and adults also need to realize the significant contributions made in the past by groups and individuals all cultures.

Otis Boykin, for example, was the engineer who created an electronic control device for guided missiles as well as for the pacemaker. W.B. Purvis invented the fountain pen. Benjamin Oliver Davis, born in the 1870s, was the first African-American general in the U.S. Army and several other African-Americans were key to successes in each of the wars America has been involved in, locals said.

The list of accomplished African-Americans, both who’ve shaped the past and are continuing to shape the future, is extensive, several locals said.

Once their stories are as pervasive as those of other Americans, they said, then conversations can begin about whether America has entered into a time where difference in race are looked at similarly to differences in hair color.

Still, said sociology professor at Midland College Mike Schneider, during a recent panel, making February Black History Month instead of simply recognizing it as “History Month” does in a sense cause society to divide itself.

“We can’t do post-racial and then do this too,” he said.

Assistant City Attorney Natasha Brooks said she understands those arguments, but said Black History Month also is meant for everyone.

“It’s not only for African-Americans,” she said. “It’s for all races.”

Plus, she said, by using this month to emphasize how far blacks have come, it helps youth to value their own history and current opportunities to a greater extent.

“If one doesn’t know their history then one doesn’t know how far they’ve come,” she said.

This historical perspective, others say also helps illuminate how far there is yet to go.

Joanna Hadjicostandi, associate professor and sociology program coordinator at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin agreed and said progress certainly has been made in moving past stereotypes. But, she said, because they’re so deeply embedded in our culture through concepts passed down from generation to generation, generalizations about races and misconceptions certainly remain prevalent.

“Individuals who are not affected by it probably do not realize that they are still deeply rooted in the system,” Hadjicostandi said.

Midland College Athletic Director Forrest Allen said he remembers a time when seeing an African-American on television was something to call the neighbors about and says at that time they never imagined a black or bi-racial president.

However, he said, until African-Americans see themselves reflected in everyday history, the need for a specific focus on black history is necessary.

“At the point we get to that we’ve moved a great deal further,” Allen said.

James Fuller, who helped organize Black History Month events at Midland College, echoed those sentiments. He added that there continues to be a large segment of the population that doesn’t know or doesn’t care about the country’s plurality and things like Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month help undercut those mindsets.

“The fact that we continue to emphasize African-American history in February is not to say that African-American history isn’t 365 days a year,” Fuller said. “However this is a celebration, just like we take the time on July 4 to celebrate America.”

Kathleen Thurber can be reached at kthurber@mrt.com.

Coup draws praise in Niger
In twist, junta seen as protector of democracy

By Todd Pitman /Associated Press / February 28, 2010
NIAMEY, Niger – It’s politics, upside down.

The elected president of a uranium-rich nation morphs into a despot and refuses to relinquish power, prompting the army to stage a popular coup with guns blazing in the name of democracy.

Most governments check executive excesses through sister branches – the Legislature, the judiciary. In Niger, the military has assumed the bizarre yet vital role of safeguarding democratic institutions by force – most recently by blowing a hole through the front gate of the presidential palace this month and taking hostage an entire government.

The soldiers who overthrew Mamadou Tandja are vowing to restore civilian rule, an assertion that has often proved hollow among Africa’s myriad juntas. The difference in Niger, though, is profound: Most people here actually believe them.

“For democracy activists like us, it’s difficult to applaud a coup d’etat,’’ said Marou Amadou, a leading human rights worker who was jailed for a month and beaten by security forces during Tandja’s regime. “But this had to happen and we are overjoyed. There was no other way.’’

Though officially condemned by governments worldwide, Tandja’s ouster has been widely praised at home: by unions, human rights groups, civil society leaders, abd local media. The trust is so great, in fact, that the director of one widely respected independent Niamey newspaper was working protocol for the junta.

Last week, the junta named Mahamadou Dandah, one-time Information minister, as civilian prime minister to lead the West African nation’s transitional government until elections are held.

Tandja ascended to power a decade ago through the ballot box and won elections again five years later. But in the twilight of his final term, he transformed his Islamic nation into a dictatorship, abolishing Parliament and the nation’s highest court and imposing rule by decree.

In a final blow last August, he forced through a controversial referendum that cast aside a constitutionally protected ban on term limits. A new constitution, which critics say was illegal, granted him three more years in power and the chance to run for president as many times as he wanted.

Tandja initially succeeded because, Amadou said, “he knew most our people fall into one of three categories. They are either illiterate, corrupt, or afraid.’’

The nation of 15 million on the Sahara’s southern edge has the dubious honor of being last among 182 nations on the UN’s Human Development Index, which ranks general well-being. It is regularly battered by drought and food shortages, and its lawless northern deserts have been the scene of repeated insurgencies, and more recently, kidnappings linked to Al Qaeda terrorists.

After the refer
endum, a regional West African economic bloc suspended Niger from its ranks. The United States cut nonhumanitarian aid. Europe also froze vital support to a country whose budget is 40 percent dependent on donors. Amid the isolation, the putschists had little to lose. And, critics say, much to gain: Oil deposits have recently been discovered and there are plans to build the world’s biggest uranium mine.

“They present themselves as saviors of democracy, but are they?’’ asked Ali Sabo, a top member of Tandja’s ousted political party. “Who’s to say they won’t loot our country as other military regimes have done?’’

The coup, he said, simply proves the army “is still a powerful political force that can intervene at any moment with arms.’’

One reason the educated public has placed so much trust in the military is because it has a track record. Several of the top putschists engineered a similar coup in 1999, and went on to oversee free elections the same year that set the stage for a decade of democratic peace.

Transparency International’s Aissata Bagnan Fall said the junta appeared comprised of a new generation of soldiers better educated than their predecessors, some of whom could not read or write.

Today, most officers have university degrees and many been trained abroad. They’ve studied human rights. Some, like coup leader Major Salou Djibou, have taken part in peacekeeping missions in Congo and Ivory Coast, giving them a firsthand look at how conflict can tear nations apart.

“They have laptops and access to the Internet,’’ Fall said. “They are aware of how they are perceived and that affects how they act.’’

Still, Fall said the junta should be treated with great caution, because “you can only truly know a man when he is given money and power, and you see what he does with it.’’

Carson Articulates Obama Policy on Africa
news.ncmonline.com/M’shale, Charles W. Corey /Posted: Feb 28, 2010

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The top U.S. envoy for Africa, Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson, met with reporters February 24 and answered questions on a wide array of issues: Ethiopia, Kenya, Niger, Cote d’Ivoire, Somalia, and China’s operations in Africa.

Carson spoke at the Foreign Press Center in Washington and took questions from journalists there and in Johannesburg and New York through a video feed. Carson’s briefing followed his trip to Europe and Africa, which included stops in Spain for meetings with European Union officials, attendance at the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and stops in Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria.

Asked to offer his view on the 2010 election in Ethiopia, Carson said it would be premature to comment prior to the voting. “Let’s see how they turn out. What we do say to Ethiopia, to the government, to the opposition parties and to the citizens is that we hope that this election will be run freely and fairly and that there be a level playing field for all — that the government and the opposition take their responsibilities seriously, that both sides respect the political rights of the others and that both carry out their responsibilities.”

Carson said the United States also has strongly urged that these elections be “substantially better in their aftermath than the 2005 elections, in which there was very bitter and serious violence in their wake. We all want Ethiopia to continue to move along an upward and more inclusive and stronger democratic trajectory,” he said. “Elections are simply an important process in the selection of democratic leaders. We want this to go well” and are “looking for an outcome that makes things better for everyone: free, transparent and open, with both sides taking their responsibilities seriously.”

On Kenya, Carson, a former U.S. ambassador to that country, said “we continue to encourage” that country’s president and prime minster to work toward the full implementation of the Kofi Annan Agreements that were worked out at the conclusion of violence in that country in 2008 following the “very difficult” elections there.

“It is important that in the run-up to the next elections in Kenya that there be a consensus … especially around the constitution. Both of those individuals — as leaders of their parties — have a responsibility to ensure that there is not a repetition of the violence there that followed the presidential and parliamentary elections. Constitution making is at an advanced stage. It is important that both men form a consensus behind it and that they deal with the issues of executive power … issues of impunity and issues of corruption” and land as well.

Carson added: “If we see individuals like [Attorney General] Amos Wako who are standing in the way of justice and progress and who violate our statutes in the United States, we will not hesitate to pursue action against them through all available means.” The career diplomat said that any action taken against Wako by the United States was done for “very, very clear and manifest reasons.” (While relevant U.S. law does not permit disclosure of these actions, the attorney general has publicly announced the measures that the United States has taken against him.)

“He has been attorney general in Kenya for a decade and a half. During that decade and a half, we have seen both grand corruption and minor corruption. We saw a billion-dollar scam shortly after he was named attorney general, and we saw most recently … another scam … in which another $150 million to $200 million in government money was stolen. During his term in office as attorney general, he has not successfully prosecuted one — not a single one — senior government official. No ministers. No deputy ministers. No permanent secretaries. Yes, he seems to be able to find the stockroom clerk but he cannot find the senior officials who are there.”

Additionally, Carson said, there has been a rash of high-level crime in which “impunity seems to be the rule of the day” and in which civil society leaders have been gunned down in the streets of Nairobi. “He [Wako] has not successfully prosecuted any of those individuals as well.”

On Niger, Carson said the United States has been “deeply concerned and troubled” by events since July and August of 2009, when the former president, Mamadou Tandja, started to unravel his country’s democratic institutions in pursuit of a constitutionally prohibited third term. The United States encouraged Tandja not to move in that direction, Carson said. When Tandja extended his term of office illegally on December 23 of 2009, Carson said, the United States suspended Niger’s participation in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), ended the Millennium Challenge Corporation program there, terminated all U.S. assistance with the exception of humanitarian aid and asked Nigerien military officers studying in the United States to return home.

“We said we were opposed to the hijacking of democracy, even by civilians, and we meant it.” The coup that has just taken place, he said, offers an opportunity to move Niger back into the ranks of democracy. He quickly cautioned, however, that “no coup, whether it is a civilian or military coup, is a good coup. Coups by their nature are bad” and a “disruption of the political process,” he said.

Carson said the United States is looking to the military junta in Niger to restore democracy there expeditiously, within six months.

On Cote d’Ivoire, Carson said the United States remains very much concerned about the eruption of violence that occurred when President Laurent Gbagbo dismissed the government and suspended the movement toward elections in that country — which have been “too long in the coming.”

There is a need to return swiftly to the Ouagadougou Accords, Carson said. National elections have been postponed six times in the last two to three years, he said. “It is time for a serious effort to be made to resolve the political disagreements that have continued to tear apart what once was the most important economic country in Francophone Africa,” Carson said.

Asked about Somalia, Carson said the United States has been the largest contributor of food aid and humanitarian assistance there for much of the last decade. “We remain … committed to providing as much food assistance as we possibly can,” he said.

The continuing conflict in the South between the Transitional Federal Government and al-Shabaab warlords, Carson said, makes food delivery extraordinarily difficult. Despite this, he said, the United States remains committed to getting food there to feed the hungry.

Asked to comment on China’s rapidly expanding operations in Africa, Carson acknowledged that China has been focused on trying to acquire hydrocarbon and mineral resource rights to fuel its economic growth at home. Equally, he said, China is looking for markets for its own products. “In this context, Africa is a place where they see enormous opportunity.” Carson stressed that it is “up to African countries to manage very skillfully and carefully” their own particular economic and commercial relationships with China.

For this reason, he said, it is more important than ever that democratic institutions are present in African countries so that the voices of people throughout society can speak effectively about the consequences of this relationship. “This is what
good governance is all about,” he said.

Carson also was asked if President Obama planned to attend the 2010 World Cup tournament in South Africa. Carson said he is not aware of any such plans.

US$300 000 birthday bash for Mugabe

28/02/2010/www.newzimbabwe.com

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF supporters on Saturday splashed out about US$300 000 on a lavish party to celebrate the veteran leader’s 86th birthday at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) grounds in Bulawayo.

The huge party was attended by up to 7000 people as Mugabe’s supporters apparently defied the president’s stated wish to mark his birthday with nothing more than a “glass of water”.

Bulawayo businessman, Delma Lupepe said he had helped raise the money from donors.

Lupepe said: “We have to celebrate our leader, who is now 86. How many people reach that age?”

The 300 000 dollars however fell well short of the target of US$500 000.
Mugabe’s two deputies, Joyce Mujuru and John Nkomo, cabinet ministers and diplomats attended the party although no senior members from his coalition partners were present.

The veteran leader who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980 again defended government’s moves to ensure locals get the majority shareholding in big corporations, likening the policy to his land reforms.

“Our indigenisation policy, like the land reform programme, is meant to correct historical imbalances in the ownership of our resources.

“This policy is not meant to straight forward nationalise companies but to broaden ownership of our resources. We will need partners from outside, partners of our choice, not imposed on us,” he said.

“Yesterday we were downtrodden. There was slavery… Back home the people were colonised and turned into slaves and semi-slaves to do work for masters who had colonised us. It was slavery in the colonies and that is what created the imbalances,” he said.

The party was preceded by an all-night music bash with performers including Jamaican reggae star Sizzla Kalonji who performed a rendition of Bob Marley’s song, Zimbabwe, as well as artistes from South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Namibia.

City hotels reported brisk business with the majority of them fully-booked as guests arrived in their hundreds in the usually-serene city.

Jovial party supporters stuck their heads out through windows and sang as they arrived in buses from the country’s 10 provinces, while officials drove to the venue in luxury cars.

Three large cakes were at the centre-stage with banners saying: “Long live our President.”

The feast was held at a time the country is struggling to recover from years of economic decline and political instability.

While the unity administration has managed to ease political tensions and stabilise the economy the majority of the people still struggle to survive as the recovery fails to match anticipated levels.

CANADA :

AUSTRALIA :

Online insurers take on the old guard

DANNY JOHN AND ERIC JOHNSTON / www.smh.com.au/Source: The Age/28022010

AUSTRALIA’S two biggest providers of motor insurance are bracing themselves for an increasing online attack from domestic and overseas rivals, which threatens both their market shares and their underwriting profits.

In the wake of recent industry surveys that show that three-quarters of consumers undertake searches for car insurance online and that 68 per cent of them buy their cover through the same channels, local insurers are not only putting their traditional brands on the internet, but creating web-only ones.

Despite having more than 70 per cent of the business, Suncorp-Metway and Insurance Australia Group are closely watching the likes of Real Insurance, backed by the international Hollard Group, Virgin Insurance and the South African-owned Youi with their website offerings.

An additional threat is now being posed by Progressive Direct, the low-cost online service of the US-based Progressive Corporation, which launched its Australian business out of Melbourne two months ago.

The development of a website- and mobile-dominated industry is closely following trends seen in other countries such as Britain, where online insurance has effectively wiped out more traditional retail offerings.

Both Suncorp and IAG have sought to blunt the competitive threats by not only putting their own national and regional brands such as AAMI, GIO and NRMA Insurance online but also creating their own web-only offerings.

Suncorp has targeted the low-cost and young drivers’ markets with Bingle and Just Car while IAG launched Buzz insurance in conjunction with its partner RACV last May as part of its counter-attack.

The two major companies have so far seen little erosion of business from their respective customer bases and both of them reported at their half- year results last week that they had been able to push through premium increases on their motor insurance offerings.

Neither had their online rivals responded with a price war by undercutting the new higher rates. However, they are expected to increase their offerings in coming months.

Suncorp’s investors will have to wait until May to be given a detailed rundown on the performance of its website-only businesses but IAG disclosed that the Buzz lost money during the first half of its 2010 financial year.

EUROPE :

Somali pirates free Navios Apollon for ransom

From: AFP/ February 28, 2010
SOMALI pirates have released a Greek-owned freighter and its crew of 19, captured two months ago, after receiving a ransom payment.
THe EU’s naval force said: “The Greek-owned, Panama-flagged bulk carrier the Navios Apollon that was hijacked on December 28 has been released this morning.”

The release of the 52,000-tonne ship, its Greek captain and 18 Filipino crew members came the day after an unspecified ransom was paid to the pirates.

It was the second such ransom drop and release in days, with governments and companies in a dilemma over the need to recover their ships and crews amid fears that ransoms encourage further piracy.

The freed Greek ship, which had been hijacked in the Indian Ocean while en route to Thailand, was on its way to Oman, NAVFOR said.

Britain warned early this month that such payments could encourage more kidnaps, but denied blocking an independent negotiator from trying to agree a ransom for a British couple held hostage in Somalia since October 23.

Somali pirates, targeting one of the world’s busiest maritime trade routes, raked in an estimated $67.5 million in ransoms last year.

After the latest releases, they still hold four vessels and 99 seafarers, according to NAVFOR spokesman Commander John Harbour.

The EU NAVFOR Atalanta mission is tasked with escorting merchant vessels carrying humanitarian aid and to protect vulnerable ships in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.

EU a gang of criminals: SK Moyo

www.talkzimbabwe.com/Sun, 28 Feb 2010

FREELANCE journalist Raymond Utsiwegota recently interviewed the Zanu-PF National Chairman Simon Khaya Moyo on several issues including succession, elections and sanctions. The whole interview is reproduced below.

Question: As the new National Chairman, what is your vision for the direction of Zanu-PF and Zimbabwe at large?

SK. Let me start by saying that Zanu-PF is a revolutionary party. It has a glorious history. To conceptualise my response, it must always be remembered that two former liberation movements, Zanu and Zapu, through their respective wings Zanla and Zipra, liberated this country against colonial oppression and the settler regime. The two parties spearheaded the final stages of the liberation armed struggle under the banner of the patriotic front, co-led by President Robert Mugabe and the late Dr Joshua Nkomo, Father Zimbabwe.

Under the Unity Accord of 22 December of 1987, the two parties merged as Zanu-PF with a clear motto of unity, peace and development. I subscribe fully to this vision of the party, which indeed must be embraced by all Zimbabweans. We are one people, with a common surname, Zimbabwe. The issues of tribe, religion, or race are God’s business, not a passport to fuller life.

Q: How do you intend to rejuvenate the party and attract the youths?

SK. A visionary party constantly rejuvenates itself, creating space to grow. The youths are the vanguard of the revolution. The party recognises that the youths have the necessary energy, zeal and stamina. They have got dynamism to propel the revolution and profusely defend our sovereignty. We want a rejuvenated party, the youths will engage in various visible programmes and projects which, not only benefit themselves, but Zimbabwe at large. They are the future leaders of this great country, key stakeholders to the country’s destiny. With education, discipline and high morals, the youths are our greatest investment. They are indeed our jewel in the crown.

Q: Factionalism is a cancer that is threatening the survival of the party. How do you intend to address the issue?

SK. Let me say, factionalism is indeed a cancer to any given organisation. However, it is not a threat to the survival of Zanu-PF, because it is by and large inconsequential. Differences in opinion don’t equate to factionalism. You may think otherwise over a particular subject, but that does not constitute factionalism. But, by the end of the day, there must be common ground for all of us, in order to move forward and achieve our objectives.

The party’s position is always to nip any form of factionalism in the bud where it rears its ugly head. Mechanisms are in place for the party to be accountable and deliver to the people, because to us the people are supreme. The voice of the people is the voice of God. Given that vision and position Zanu-PF has an unbreakable spine. It is no political ice cream.

Q: The succession issue has remained a talking point in the party. How best can the issue be addressed?

SK: Well, the so-called succession label is a non issue in Zanu-PF. Surprisingly, it is always spoken most by those outside the party, and one wonders the agenda these people have. We have mechanisms in the party and we follow the party constitution, from the cell, up to the presidium. Surely, if we follow those mechanisms, I don’t see why there should be cries about succession. You present yourself to the people and if you got capacity and qualities, surely people recognise you. But it cannot be free for all.

Q: But some are saying you are stifling the debate.

SK: We are not scuttling the debate; people are discussing everywhere at all levels. And when people say we don’t want our President to go, at branch level, at district level, at provincial level, at Central Committee level and Politburo and at Congress, what else do you want done? That’s democracy at its best. Nobody has scuttled debate on this matter at all, because the constitution is very clear. If you look at the party at the moment, there are new members of the Presidium including myself. Who scuttled me from getting there? (he laughs) It’s the people who decided, that’s how the party operates. Zanu-PF is preoccupied with national issues and not tissues.

Q: Can you comment on Zanu-PF’s relationship with other revolutionary parties in the region.

SK. Our relations with the ANC, Swapo, Frelimo, MPLA, Unip and Chama Cha Mapinduzi are cordial; they are excellent and deep-rooted as ever. Our relationship is premised on a common liberation history, on Pan-African ideals and on a common destiny as liberators of our people. We frequently share notes and strategies. We meet quite often and no force from whatever angle can divide us. The blood we shared together will forever bind us to nurture the revolution in our respective countries

Q: Your party is accused of trying to impose the Kariba Draft on the people. Can you comment?

SK: The glaring issue here is that it is a contradiction. If the three major parties authored the Kariba Draft Constitution and initialled it by the way, agreeing on it, how does then Zanu-PF, impose the draft on the other two parties? To proffer such an accusation, is indeed to run with the hares and chasing the hounds. It’s chasing after the wind.

Q: Given that the Kariba Draft Constitution was authored by the three major parties, what do you think has changed considerably to warrant the differences that now exist amongst the parties on its use?

SK: Well, absolutely nothing has changed. The external factor continues to wreck havoc in our internal affairs. When you are dictated to and you are not permitted to think for yourself, you cannot remain in the same position. In other words, you have no principles at all. I must say it is a painful assignment to be a puppet. (he laughs) It’s just the external factor. You do this today and you are told don’t do this tomorrow. He who pays the piper calls the tune.

Q: The Zanu-PF Politburo reiterated the 2009 Congress resolution not to accede anymore concessions to MDC until they lobby for the removal of sanctions. Your comment on that?

SK: I must emphasise that the position of the Politburo was a response to a statement by a British Foreign Secretary Mr David Miliband in the House of Commons not so long ago, that the illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by Britain and its European Union allies could only be lifted if MDC-T so advises. So if MDC-T does not so act, what other concessions would one be giving? Instead, they are telling the British to keep them until they tell them to remove, so what are these talks all about at the end of the day?

To us, the only two outstanding matters vis-a-vis these talks are the removal of the illegal sanctions and the issue of pirate radio stations, which continue to beam hate messages into Zimbabwe. The issue of Bennett, Reserve Bank Governor Gideon) Gono and (Attorney General Johannes) Tomana are not part of the GPA. Let’s get the sanctions off, let’s get these pirate radio stations stopped and then we know where we are going as an inclusive Government.

These illegal sanctions are not targeted at (President) Mugabe and his so-called cronies. They are comprehensive. They are affecting everybody, unless if you are saying every Zimbabwean is a crony of President Mugabe.

Q: Is such stance not an impediment to the full implementation of the GPA?

SK. It’s not an impediment at all as far as we concerned. Our sovereignty can never be compromised
because of the externally imposed impediments. We have always stated that before, that as we were our own political liberators, so shall we be our own economic liberators. So no concessions on anything unless there is the removal of illegal sanctions and pirate radio stations.

Is it so difficult for the MDC-T to say can you remove the sanctions? MDC Mutambara has been very clear. It stated openly that the sanctions must go and they have taken a position which we appreciate very much. That’s being patriotic to your country.

Q: Why then is it that some Zanu-PF members continue to be interviewed on the pirate radio stations when you say they are illegal?

SK: They are not supposed to. Those who are doing so give the impression that we recognize them. Why give any interview to something we don’t recognise. They should not do that at all. I am not talking only about the leadership of Zanu-PF, but every member, they must not entertain them.

Q: The EU has issued a statement that Zanu-PF has not done enough to warrant the removal of sanctions.

SK: The EU is not a guarantor of the GPA. The only people who can say that are either the Sadc or the AU, not the EU. Their sanctions are illegal. If they were legal why didn’t they go to the UN. So I take them as a gang of criminals, who have no political ethics of any kind. They must just remove the sanctions.

Q: The Prime Minister and the MDC-T have criticised the recently gazetted Indigenisation Act. Can you please comment on this?

SK: The Indigenisation Act went through Parliament. It’s an Act of Parliament, passed in the August House by the representatives of Zimbabweans, who are the Members of Parliament. What the minister just did was to gazette what was passed by the House. If someone does not understand that, it means he has a long way to understand how government and the legislature operate.

If Parliament fulfils its mandate, which it did in passing that Bill and the President accented to it, one would really expect the Prime Minister to respect that process and not condemn it.

Q: Is the Act unique to Zimbabwe?

SK: Certainly not. You can not own land in Europe. Their laws do not allow that. But they want to own land here.

Q: Is your party ready for future elections?

SK: We are ever ready.

Q: Please comment on the recent clashes between Zanu-PF and MDC-T supporters in Epworth.

SK. We deplore any form of violence, be it by Zanu-PF or any other party. As you are aware, in the inclusive Government we have got an organ on National Healing. We have said that that organ must go flat out to cool tempers. We want peace. That is why our motto is unity. Without unity you cannot have peace and without peace you have no development and without development you cannot have prosperity.

Noone should be involved in any violence of any kind. It does not help anybody, and it does not help Zimbabwe. We need to show the world that we are a peace-loving nation.

CHINA :

Player says Tiger Woods ‘awfully important’ for golf
Golfer won’t comment on infidelity scandal
By David Dykes • Staff writer/ www.greenvilleonline.com/ February 28, 2010

 Gary Player said Tiger Woods is “awfully important” to the game of golf, but he doesn’t know how Woods’ infidelity scandal will affect the sport.

“I’ve been asked hundreds of times by press people now, and what I’ve done is I’ve always said I have no comment on it because we don’t know the implications of it,” Player told The Greenville News
. “Everybody’s giving a different opinion.”
Nonetheless, Player said Woods’ superstar status is unquestionable and he is “one of the five most recognized names on the planet today.”
“You can go into the villages of Africa and they know Tiger Woods,” Player said. “You can go into India. You can go to China. The name Tiger Woods — they know it.”
“He’s awfully important” for golf, Player said.
Player, one of golf’s most successful players, said Woods isn’t the greatest in the sport’s history – yet.
“He’s still got to prove that,” Player said. “If anybody can do it, it’s Tiger Woods. But he’s still got to do it.”
Woods, 34, become a professional golfer in the late summer of 1996. He has won 95 tournaments, 71 of those on the PGA Tour, including 14 majors, four short of the record held by Jack Nicklaus.
Woods has withdrawn from competition and said he is seeking therapy to resolve his personal problems. He recently told a global audience he’s not sure when he’ll play golf again.
For his part, Player is concerned about golf’s popularity, but he believes it is prone to cycles like interest in other sports.
“I take it as part of history,” he said. “Everything goes up and down. Nothing ever goes up all the time.”
“If you look at when Arnold (Palmer), Jack and I came to the scene, television was coming to the fore,” he said.
They each won several major championships. The competition among the three golfers was spirited and, with the additional exposure, interest in the sport surged.
“It came at the right end of the all-competitive, beating-each-other equally, so it came up,” Player said. “And then it goes down a bit, and now it comes up again. This is what’s going to happen.”

INDIA :

BRASIL:

Strikes, earthquakes tend to encourage speculative buying

Robin Bromby /From: The Australian /28022010

NO doubt the people at Rey Resources (REY) would have been feeling yesterday that they had dodged a bullet.
A week ago, the company sold its Chilean copper prospects to China Yunnan Copper Australia (CYU) in order to concentrate on its Canning Basin coal interests. It looks as if the mining industry has not suffered too badly in the earthquake, but no doubt Rey might have had trouble getting the papers signed if the deal was to have been consummated this week (there is a precedent, outlined in the next item).

And no doubt shareholders of companies operating in Chile will be looking for reassuring announcements today that all is well.

Those affected include battered Admiralty Resources (ADY) trying to get its Chilean iron ore projects going; shareholders will want to know if the joint venture discussions are still on track. Then there’s Laguna Resources (LRC) and its Arqueros gold project and South American Iron & Steel Corp (SAY) which is drilling ironsands at its Putu project in Chile. On the energy side, Hot Rock (HRL) recently committed to Chile after being awarded three concessions there, and is pursuing other high temperature volcanic geothermal prospects in the country.

Friday’s good news from Southern Hemisphere Mining (SUH) was soon overtaken by events. The company reported it had just completed its third drilling program at Los Pumas manganese project, 175km east of the port of Arica in northern Chile.

The average grade is now 12.66 per cent manganese, and the company has also picked more ground for the project.

Initial news out of Chile suggests that most of the big mines suffered short stoppages at most, mainly for safety checks.

None of the juniors above is a producer, so any infrastructure dislocation is unlikely to be of significance to them.

What will be of more impact is the affect of the earthquake on metal prices. David Thurtell, Citigroup’s commodities man in London, emailed Pure Speculation that the quake may have “implications for copper, lead and zinc” when trading starts tonight on the London Metal Exchange. Metal prices are usually highly sensitive to the merest hints of supply disruption. Talk of a strike is usually enough to get the speculators buying into whichever metal is affected, so there will be nervous waiting for a clear picture of what is happening in Chile, the world’s largest copper producer.

Again with the timing. The earthquake came on the heels of news from Codelco of Chile that its copper output rose 16 per cent in 2009, reversing years of dwindling production. Metals made strong gains on Friday, with copper up nearly 3 per cent to $US7195/tonne. Zinc rose 3.7 per cent to $US2915/tonne while the big winner was nickel, jumping 4.1 per cent to $US21,175/tonne.

The precedent

NOW to that earthquake precedent. Back in May 2008, the then newly listed Newport Mining (NMN) was negotiating to buy an operating phosphate mine in China’s Sichuan province.

Those talks were dragging on, and then came the horrific earthquake, which left 90,000 dead or missing. Two hours after the quake, the seller called to accept Newport’s offer.

The junior backed out, which led to prolonged legal action and victory for Newport in Singapore, although an appeal has yet to be heard.

Anyway, Newport last week moved on to phosphate in Brazil.

Over recent months, several readers have taken issue with Pure Speculation over its faith in the long term outlook for fertilisers. The sceptic’s case got a boost from Moody’s Investment Service, which has been reported as warning that the entry of BHP Billiton (BHP) and Brazil’s Vale into the fertiliser sector would mean excess capacity and could weigh on prices. Others may see those moves as votes of confidence in the long-term outlook.

But, regardless of that argument, the Brazil case is a very specific one. Bloomberg reported last week the country’s agriculture minister Reinhold Stephanes indicating the government would create a national fertiliser company to help Brazil become self-sufficient in potash and phosphate by 2020. At present, this agricultural powerhouse imports almost half of its phosphate needs.

Newport’s stock has been in limbo and rarely traded while the Singapore case dragged on, so it was no wonder it got such a lift on the Thursday’s news of the phosphate deal. But the new investors may not have realised that Newport’s plan is to supply the domestic industry, which it estimates will slice as much as $US50/tonne off its production costs because there will be no need to rail long distances and then ship it abroad.

It is interesting, too, that Vale has recently pegged ground next to Newport’s Mada da Corda prospect. The Brazilian giant, in just two months, has paid $US3.8 billion to buy the Brazilian fertiliser operations of New York listed-Bunge, $US1.3bn for a 20 per cent stake in Fosfertil, Brazil’s largest fertiliser producer, and $US50 million to buy a phosphate processing plant in Sao Paulo.

Newport has just appointed as managing director Simon Taylor, who has 17 years as a geologist under his belt. He has spent the past few years with brokers Taylor Collison, where he looked at phosphate projects in Africa, China and South America.

To allow him more time to concentrate on Newport, Taylor resigned on Friday as a director at Bondi Mining (BOM) — which has just signed a uranium joint venture with the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp — but remains on the board at Chesser Resources (CHZ) which is drilling for gold in Turkey. (The earthquake news has left no room for other news we had about Australian players in Brazil. That and several other items — including CEOs who cannot be found on days they make announcements — will be posted at the online presence of Pure Speculation later this morning)

Written in the sands

JUNIOR Base Iron (BSE) has also been looking at phosphate projects — in South Africa, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo and also the Cabinda enclave of Angola, but that last one has been struck off the list after some Cabinda rebels tried to rub out the Togo football team.

Base Iron listed with greenfields iron ore projects in Western Australia, but it became apparent that these were not going to be company-makers. So the junior has been looking for a new direction.

While the phosphate interest remains, the company has picked up the Kwale mineral sands projects in Kenya. These were bought from Toronto-listed Tiomin Resources, which is now hot to trot on diamonds. We’re always hearing that London investors understand Africa better than Australians, Canadian investors likewise with Latin America, and so on.

So it was a change to read Tiomin’s Robert Jackson saying that the Australian capital markets understand mineral sands better than those of North America.

Flattering, but probably not all that accurate.

Some of the mineral sands players here have struggled to get their story across the brokers and fund managers.

Base Iron, aiming at a 2013 start-up, is taking heart from the latest projections from Iluka Resources (ILU). The world’s biggest zircon producer has released a positive outlook for mineral sands demand and prices by 2013.

Tailenders

lMANGANESE miner OM Holdings (OMH) is not letting the grass grow under its feet. Since the beginning of the year, it has invested $40.9m in Northern Iron (NFE) and its Norwegian iron ore mine and done a farm-in with South Australian manganese explorer Archer Exploration (AXE). Now it is taking 19.9 per cent of the Scandinavian Resources (SCR) float which has been struggling to get over the line. The attraction for OMH is obviously SCR’s pick up of ground 30km from the hug
e Kiruna iron ore mine in Sweden. Nearology it may be, but SCR now looks likely to get its $6.5m float away.

l WE know there’s a cheer squad out there for Reward Minerals (RWD). They weren’t daunted by Native Title claimants stymieing a promising potash project, and they will no doubt take on the chin the bad news on Friday from the company’s Lake Dumbleyung lithium project — which may not be a lithium project after all. They seem cheered by Colin McCavana, who ran former tantalum miner Haddington Resources, joining the board last week to assist make Reward a “revenue generating resource company”. Reward still has big lithium hopes elsewhere, but even McCavana has no magic wand — as he found at Haddington when in 2005 the administrators of Sons of Gwalia suddenly ended contracts to buy Haddington’s tantalum.

brombyr@theaustralian.com.au

EN BREF, CE 28 février 2010 … AGNEWS / OMAR, BXL,28/02/2010