{jcomments on}OMAR, AGNEWS, BXL, le 31 mai 2010 – news.bbc.co.uk- May 31, 2010–France aims to give a new push to business ties with Africa at a two-day summit opening in the Mediterranean city of Nice.
BURUNDI :
Burundi: Polls Acid Test of EAC Credibility
31 May 2010/The East African/allafrica.com
Nairobi — The three-month Burundi elections have taken off on a positive note, with most observers agreeing that they have met international standards.
But it would be unwise to start celebrating, since Burundi — which is still recovering from decades of civil strife — will be conducting parliamentary and presidential elections in June and July, where the stakes are higher.
Calls for a re-run by the opposition, citing massive irregularities, should serve as a warning to all stakeholders because Burundi is holding the second democratic elections after series of civil strife and is still fluid.
Moreover, the elections in Burundi have put the East African Community on the spot given that their success or failures will seen in terms of the EAC’s ability to promote free and peaceful elections among its five member states.
Apparently, the polls had been delayed twice from Friday as a result of problems with the supply of voter cards and ballots, which underlined concerns about the capacity of the young electoral body to undertake the more intensive parliamentary and presidential elections.
The local elections for councillors, who are later to pick the country’s senate, were seen as a key barometer for presidential and legislative elections. Some 92 per cent of the country’s 3.5 million voters cast a ballot on Monday, which is high by any standards.
Indications are that the ruling CNDD-FDD party of outgoing President Pierre Nkurunziza, will win the vote, given the party had won over 80 percent support in 32 of the 35 constituencies that had been counted, out of the total 129 countrywide.
Still, there is some cause for anxiety, given that eight opposition groups led by former rebel leader Agathon Rwasa of the FNL, have called for a re-run due to what they saw as massive rigging in favour of the ruling party.
The challenge now falls on the four other EAC member states to ensure that the elections in June and July are free of hitches.
The EAC has taken an active role in Burundi’s elections, as part of its broader programme to push for free and fair polls across the region, and promote common good electoral practices among the EAC member states.
It formed an Electoral Support Mission to Burundi; the caucus of six people is drawn from the electoral bodies of member states, with the support of the United Nations, to help the nascent Burundi electoral body.
The regional body is also working on a Protocol on Good Governance — a binding document that will foster good electoral practices. Ultimately, the EAC will ensure the standardisation of election processes across the region.
Rwanda and Tanzania are due to hold elections in August and October respectively; Uganda will follow next year and Kenya in 2012. Even though the EAC observer group is yet to issue their assessment report, the European Union has said the electoral process.
RWANDA
Rwanda denies William Mitchell College of Law professor a visit from his attorneys
By Leslie Brooks Suzukamo and Frederick Melo /Pioneer Press/ www.twincities.com/ 05/31/2010
Rwandan officials blocked lawyers Sunday from visiting a crusading St. Paul attorney who is charged with promoting genocidal ideology, the jailed lawyer’s daughter said.
Two attorneys had been allowed to see Peter Erlinder on Saturday, but when they returned Sunday, a Rwandan official denied them access, Sarah Erlinder said.
“That he has unfettered access to counsel just isn’t true,” Sarah Erlinder said Sunday from her home in Flagstaff, Ariz.
Peter Erlinder, a faculty member at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, is in Rwanda to help defend presidential hopeful Victoire Ingabire against charges of promoting genocidal ideology. Ingabire was arrested earlier this year.
Erlinder was arrested on charges of genocide denial on Friday, after he warned that he might be targeted by the government of President Paul Kagame.
Kagame has been lauded abroad for social and economic reforms and is running for another seven-year term in his country’s Aug. 9 elections. But human rights groups say his administration rules with an iron hand and quashes dissent.
Rwanda’s 1994 genocide claimed the lives of more than 500,000 people, mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The massacres ended when mostly Tutsi rebels, led by Kagame, defeated the mainly Hutu extremists.
Ingabire, a Hutu, is free on bail but her passport has been seized and she cannot leave the capital city of Kigali.
Both Ingabire and Erlinder face possible sentences of up to 20 years in prison
if convicted.
Erlinder, the director of the International Humanitarian Law Institute at William Mitchell, has made a career of representing political dissidents, opposition candidates in foreign countries and even suspected terrorists.
The U.S. National Lawyers Guild, William Mitchell College and the International Criminal Defense Attorneys Association have issued statements supporting his release.
Leslie Brooks Suzukamo can be reached at 651-228-5475. Frederick Melo can be reached at 651-228-2172.
Rwanda: Kagame in France for Summit
Edmund Kagire/The New Times/allafrica.com/31 May 2010
Kigali — President Paul Kagame, yesterday, departed Kigali for Nice, France where he will participate in the 25th France Africa Summit, following an invitation extended to him by President Nicholas Sarkozy during his visit to Kigali in February.
Around 40 African Heads of State have confirmed attendance at the two-day summit which will mainly discuss issues of governance, reinforcement of peace and security, as well as climate change.
This is President Kagame’s first visit to France in eight years, having last visited during the same Summit held in Paris in 2002.
Taking place on the margins of the Heads of State Summit are ministerial meetings on commerce and the economy, and a business forum.
Rwanda’s delegation at the Summit includes, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Louise Mushikiwabo, the Minister of Finance, John Rwangombwa, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Emmanuel Hategeka, as well as Robert Bayigamba, the president of the Private Sector Federation.
After the meeting in Nice, President Kagame is scheduled to address the World Summit for the Future of Haiti, taking place at Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.
The President has been invited to share – with participating dignitaries – Rwanda’s post genocide experience, particularly reconstruction in the absence of proper state structures.
The World Summit for the Future of Haiti was called by the President of the Dominican Republic, Dr. Leonel Fernández, with the aim of ratifying the commitment of the International Community to Haiti.
The Summit is also an opportunity to provide an update as to where Haiti is at present.
Several Heads of State from the Latin America and Caribbean region and/or representatives of donor countries are expected to attend.
UGANDA
Disruption threat to ICC conference in Uganda
News round-up: Young people threaten to disrupt ICC conference over September’s Kampala riots; WFP set to buy more food from Uganda; concerns over new cassava disease strain
Eliza Anyangwe /guardian.co.uk/Monday 31 May 2010
Hundreds of opposition youth in Uganda have threatened to disrupt the International Criminal Court (ICC) conference, scheduled to begin today in Kampala, if the court does not take up their petition to see those who were responsible for the alleged deaths of more than 30 people in last September’s riots brought to justice, reported Uganda People News.
Violence erupted in the Ugandan capital Kampala last year after the government moved to prevent Ronald Muwenda Mutebi – the king of Uganda’s largest ethnic group, the Baganda – from visiting a part of his territory.
Civil Society across Africa is also taking an interest in the ICC conference with 124 organisations from 25 African countries releasing a declaration calling for their governments to show support for the work of the ICC.
“The civil society declaration is a strong showing of support for positive African government action at the Kampala conference and for the ICC more generally,” said Oby Nwankwo, executive director of Nigeria’s Civil Resource Development and Documentation Center.
“While some leaders have tried to paint Africa as against the ICC, our voices are testament to the fallacy of such claims,” he added.
The ICC conference is scheduled to run until June 11 and on the agenda is a review of the state of international justice and a discussion of possible amendments to the ICC treaty, the Rome statute.
Officials gathered for the conference will also discuss extending the jurisdiction of the court to crimes of aggression, which has proved controversial and risks exposing the ICC to claims that it is politically motivated, suggests a report in the New York Times.
According to New Vision, the Ugandan parliament recently passed an ICC bill, making it one of only a handful of African countries to have ratified the Rome statute.
WFP set to buy 40% more food from Uganda
The World Food Programme (WFP) announced it expects to buy 40% more food from Ugandan farmers for its food programmes by the end of the year.
A successful harvest of maize in Uganda at the end of last year and the beginning of 2010 drove down food prices enabling WFP to shore up its reserves, reported Reuters. By 2011, the WFP estimates it will be spending $100m on Ugandan produce.
As a result of poor rains and 20 years of civil war in the north of Uganda, WFP has been providing food to 2 million Ugandans, Reuters reported. While in previous years much of that food was imported, improvements in yields and the organisation’s work to support farmers’ livelihoods, WFP, which last year spent $50m on Ugandan food, forecasts spending up to £20m more, mostly on maize and beans.
Speaking to Reuters, Stanlake Samkange, WFP Uganda country director, said: “So far by the end of May… we’ll have purchased almost $25m worth of food commodities in Uganda.”
He added: “That’s a bit ahead of where we were last year and I think by the end of the year we’ll be in the $60 to $70m range, which will be a significant increase over last year’s $50m.”
As well as food commodities, WFP have invested money in Uganda’s warehousing facilities, adding value to food crops.
WFP is present in 77 countries around the world, but only provides traditional humanitarian assistance to 12. Instead, increasing numbers of country projects are intended to stimulate growth in the agricultural sector.
As well as Uganda, the UN agency is bolstering production by buying local produce in Angola, Tanzania and Kenya. Africa is the largest supplier to the WFP, according to ANGOP.
Earlier this month, the Daily Monitor reported that WFP had launched a three-year campaign to eliminate chronic hunger in children in Bundibugyo district in the west of Uganda, with support from the Ugandan Ministry of Health and the local government. The region, which is known for its fertile soil and diverse produce, is facing a crisis number of children being stunted by chronic hunger.
“Over 38% of all children in Uganda, aged five and under, are stunted,” Samkange told the newspaper. “This a major challenge as the condition can lead to life-long damage to the minds and futures of children.”
Disease threatens food security
A new strain of the Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD) threatens food security in Uganda.
Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) is a viral disease that is spread by white flies and attacks the edible part of the tuber, often leading to a complete loss of the crop, reported IRIN. Unlike Mosaic disease, which affects the whole plant, cassava brown streak leaves the leaves looking healthy and only affects the tubes growing under the soil, causing cracks and discolouration.
The New Vision reported that the Ministry of Agriculture had said the disease has affected 50% of the country.
Mike Thresh, a consultant on cassava viral diseases, told IRIN the disease was now occurring in areas previously believed to be immune, such as high altitude areas away from the Indian Ocean coastal belt of Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique.
“The gravity of the situation is that almost all varieties bred or selected for resistance to Cassava Mosaic Disease are susceptible to the ‘new strain’ of CBSD occurring in Uganda, inland areas of Tanzania and Western Kenya,” said Thresh.
Ephram Tumubweine, the commissioner of crop protection, reiterated that all varieties of cassava except 2951 and Akena were susceptible to brown streak.
Mukono district in central Uganda is believed to be worst hit with almost all the crop in the area destroyed. Some 85% of the population are farmers, escalating fears of a food crisis.
In the early 1990s CMD reduced Uganda’s cassava output of 6 million tonnes to zero, a loss of $60m per year.
Last year the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref), which is implementing a development project in Katine, in north-east Uganda with technical advice from Farm-Africa, introduced farmers in the sub-county to the 2961 variety of cassava, which was considered resistant to both viruses, able to produce higher yields and mature in a fraction of the time. The variety was considered a miracle crop in a region where cassava is a staple crop.
Concern over HIV/Aids funding freeze
HIV/AIDS mortality rates could rise in Uganda as donors freeze funding.
A report published last Friday by Medecins sans Frontiers (MSF) UK, the NGO that pioneered antiretroviral (ARVs) drug programmes in the shanty town of Khayelitsha in South Africa, has urged the donor community to continue funding HIV treatment.
“How can we give up the fight halfway and pretend that the crisis is over? Nine million people worldwide in need of urgent treatment still lack access to this lifesaving care – two thirds of them in sub-Saharan Africa alone. There is a real risk that many of them will die within the next few years if necessary steps are not taken now. Also, the current donor retreat will prevent more people from accessing treatment and will threaten to undermine all the progress made since the introduction of ARV’s,” said Dr Mit Philips, health policy analyst for MSF and one of the authors of the report.
The organisation said that “backtracking by international donors in HIV/AIDS funding risks undermining years of positive achievements and will cause more unnecessary deaths”.
Uganda was cited often in the report, entitled No time to quit: HIV/AIDS treatment gap widening in Africa, as one of the countries where institutions such as PEPFAR, the World Bank and UNITAID have decided to reduce or freeze their spending on ARVs, resulting in a fall in the number of people able to start treatment. Drug supply to individuals already on treatment programmes is already faltering with MSF providing emergency supplies to Uganda as well as Malawi, Zimba
bwe, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kenya.
An earlier article in the New York Times claimed all new patients accessing clinics in Uganda are being put on a waiting list for treatment – a slot only becoming available when a patient dies.
Over the last decade, the cost of drugs fell from $12,000 a year to less than $100. With donors meeting these costs, Uganda was able to expand its treatment programme from 10,000 patients 10 years ago to 200,000 now.
But that figure still falls far short of the true need: 500,000 people need treatment and an additional 110,000 are infected with the virus every year.
The Global Fund, the largest funding institution in the fight against HIV/AIDS, is dependent on funding from donor nations and faces a major funding shortfall. MSF reported that Ireland, the Netherlands and the US have already announced that they will lower their contributions to the Global Fund.
Speaking to the Associated Press from Geneva, Stefan Emblad, who coordinates fundraising for the Global Fund, said that wealthy donor countries were making “extraordinary efforts” to maintain and even increase AIDS funding.
He, however, cautioned that the Global Fund budget for the next three years, decided in October, “will be far off [from what the fund is asking for]. That’s the sad truth of the situation.”
Uganda’s inflation rate slows to 4.4 percent
Monday, 31st May, 2010/www.newvision.co.ug
Uganda’s headline year-on-year inflation rate slowed to 4.4 percent in May from 5.9 percent a month earlier as increased supplies to markets eased food crop inflation, official data showed on Monday.
The Uganda Bureau of Statistics said year-on-year food crop inflation slumped to 5.5 percent in May from 10.7 percent a month earlier.
The underlying rate of inflation, which excludes food, energy and metered water prices, also eased to 4.6 percent in May from 5.5 percent in April.
No selective justice for northern Uganda war crimes: ICC official
May 31, 2010/ english.peopledaily.com.cn/Source: Xinhua
The International Criminal Court (ICC) will indict more individuals who committed war crimes against the civilian population in northern Uganda during the two decade insurgency of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a top court official has said.
“There will be no selective justice for trials into war crimes committed in northern Uganda,” said Sang-Hyun Song, the ICC President who made the remarks at a consultative dialogue meeting with LRA war victims in Gulu, northern Uganda, on Saturday.
The remark follows concern by war victims that the ICC has tended to be one-sided in indicting rebel commanders yet government soldiers committed as well similar crimes in northern Uganda.
“Those who committed war crimes will face justice. The ICC arrest warrant is a life time order; we are waiting,” he added.
Alex Odongo one of the war victims requested the court conduct fresh investigation as previous one in 2005 was unfair.
“By then people were living in fear in IDP camps, so the war affected communities could not give full account of crimes committed against them for fear of their life,” Odongo said.
Song urged northern Uganda communities to come out with evidence for anyone involved in the war crimes and the court will institute an investigation and try the offenders.
“I share frustration of many war victims in northern Uganda, all who commit crime should be held responsible, this is the full answer to your peace and justice’, he said.
Meanwhile, non-governmental organizations in Gulu, the epicenter of LRA’s prolonged and brutal insurgency, called for the adoption of a full transitional justice process backed by legislation.
Charles Tolit Atiya, the coordinator of Northern Uganda Transitional Justice Working Group (NUTJWG), said the detachment of the court from the midst of the communities has reinforced the doubt in the court’s ability to address the situation in northern Uganda.
“We remain skeptical to the government’s willingness to pursue justice with fairness to its logical conclusion,” he said.
LRA’s insurgency has left tens of thousands of people dead and some two million internally displaced in northern Uganda. Five of the group’s top commanders were indicted by the ICC in 2005 and wanted by the Interpol since 2006.
UN chief tries to score for justice
Mon, 31 May 2010/www.presstv.ir
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon played in a charity football match in remembrance of northern Uganda war victims in Kampala on Sunday.
The 60-minute match was organized by the African Youth Initiative Network and the Uganda War Victims Foundation to honor the victims of wars in Uganda, Darfur, southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic, the Kampala newspaper The Daily Monitor reported on Sunday.
The players included war victims from Darfur, southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic.
Museveni and Ban took to the field with 15 minutes to the final whistle amidst cheers from about 20,000 people.
The only serious tackle on the Ugandan president was from himself on 88 minutes. He advanced into the box from his favorite right, his right kicked the left, and he landed awkwardly.
Ban helped him up and referee Fred Mufta waved off penalty appeals. “All are equal in the eyes of the referee” ran the message on a board.
In the end, Museveni’s Dignity team defeated Ban’s Justice team 4-3.
After the game, Ban Ki-Moon and Museveni awarded each other and other participants with medals.
NHA/HGL
TANZANIA:
East African Breweries Upgraded to ‘Buy’ at Kestrel (Update1)
May 31, 2010/By Eric Ombok/Bloomberg
May 31 (Bloomberg) — East Africa Breweries Ltd., Diageo Plc’s Kenyan unit, was upgraded to “buy” from “hold” at Kestrel Capital East Africa Ltd., which cited expectations of improved earnings based on higher volumes.
EABL, as the company is known, expects to sell more beer and spirits in all its three key markets of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, Wycliffe Masinde, an analyst at Nairobi-based Kestrel, said in an e-mailed note to clients.
In Kenya, the gain will be “driven by a reversal of the punitive tax regime on spirits and a positive growth trend in lower-end beers as a result of increasing capacity and its distribution footprint,” Masinde said.
EABL’s intended acquisition of Serengeti Breweries Ltd. after the expiry of its contract with Tanzania Breweries Ltd. is expected to “substantially” boost the brewer’s earnings per share, he said.
The second-biggest company by market value in Kenya after Safaricom Ltd., East Africa Breweries is targeting an initial market share of 30 percent upon buying the Tanzanian business. Presently, Serengeti has an estimated 20 percent market share with a capacity of 1.4 million hectoliters (37 million gallons), which is being increased to 2 million hectoliters by the fourth quarter of this year, Kestrel said.
Expansion
EABL plans to build a 700,000-hectoliter plant in Juba, Southern Sudan, which can be expanded to 1 million hectoliters.
“EABL plans to make a full entry into Southern Sudan after the referendum,” Masinde said. Southern Sudan will decide whether it will secede and form its own country in a January vote which is part of a 2005 peace deal.
Kenya remains the brewer’s largest operation, where its market share is 73 percent of revenue and 68 percent of volumes. Diageo, the world’s biggest beer maker, has a 50.03 percent stake in East African Breweries.
SABMiller, the world’s second-largest brewer by volume, holds 52.83 percent of Tanzania Breweries. East African Breweries also owns 20 percent of the SABMiller unit.
–Editors: Ana Monteiro, Paul Richardson.
Tanzanian growth better than expected
234next.com/May 31, 2010
Tanzania’s economy expanded by 6 percent in 2009, beating a forecast for 5.0-5.5 percent growth, and should grow by 7 percent this year, the east African country’s finance minister said.
Finance Minister Mustafa Mkulo gave the figures to a parliamentary committee on finance and economic affairs late on Friday. A report of the session was seen by Reuters on Saturday.
The 6 percent economic expansion in 2009 was down from growth of 7.4 percent in 2008.
Like its east African neighbours, Tanzania’s economy was hurt by the fallout from the financial crisis hitting demand for exports and tourism in late 2008 and the early part of 2009.
It had also been suffering from a prolonged drought that weighed on agricultural output and energy production.
CONGO RDC :
Uganda: The Road to the ICC Kampala Conference
Milton Olupot and Felix Osike/The New Vision/31 May 2010
Kampala — Against a backdrop of widespread criticism of its jurisdiction, the biggest International Criminal Court (ICC) gathering will be in Kampala, to take stock of its 11 years of operation.
The Review Conference opens today at the Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort and will end June 11.
“This major gathering of officials and activists from around the world in Kampala is bad news for those responsible for the worst international crimes,” said Richard Dicker, international justice director at Human Rights Watch.
The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and representatives of the court’s 111 member states, non-member states, the United Nations, and civil society groups are expected to reaffirm their commitment to global justice.
The conference will take stock of the state of international justice and consider amendments to the ICC founding treaty, the Rome Statute with a view to strengthening it.
ICC is the world’s first permanent court mandated to bring to justice, perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide when national courts are unable or unwilling to do so.
The Rome Statute, entered into force in 2002. The ICC does not have retroactive jurisdiction and therefore does not apply to crimes committed before July 1, 2002 when the statute came into force.
The conference will also review the list of crimes within ICC and will discuss the crime of aggression. Member states agreed to include the crime of aggression in the Rome Statute in 1998, but could not agree at the time of its drafting on a definition-using force that is manifestly contrary to the UN charter.
Some UN permanent members like US and China have declined to ratify the statute on grounds that that the court’s prosecutor has overriding powers and the UN Security Council has a limited role.
Although former US President Bill Clinton signed the statute in December 2000, President George Bush ‘unsigned’ it in 2002 fearing the court would unfairly target U.S. military personnel deployed around the world.
Uganda ratified the Rome Statute in June 2002, becoming one of the first countries to do it. Uganda Parliament on March 12 this year also passed the ICC Bill, three years after it was tabled. The Bill makes provision in Uganda’s law for the punishment of the international crimes of genocide, crime against humanity and war crimes.
It will enable Uganda to cooperate with the ICC in performance of its functions, including the investigation and prosecution of persons accused of having committed heinous crimes.
It provides for the arrest and surrender to the ICC of persons alleged to have committed crimes against humanity in addition to enabling the ICC to conduct proceedings in Uganda.
The ICC’s action may be triggered in one of three ways: member states or the UN Security Council can refer a situation, to the ICC prosecutor, or the ICC prosecutor can seek on his or her own, authorisation by a pre-trial chamber of ICC judges to open an investigation.
Since the Rome statute came into force, three state parties have referred their ‘situations’ to the ICC: Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.
The ICC in July 2005 on the request of Uganda government indicted Lord’s Resistance Army rebel leader, Joseph Kony, and his top commanders – Okot Odhiambo, Dominic Ongwen, who along with their demised colleagues Vincent Otti and Raska Lukwiya for their roles in over 2000 killings and 3200 abductions in over 850 attacks committed between July 2002 and June 2004.
However, the ICC warrant for the top LRA commanders became a big issue during the peace talks in Juba mediated by the Southern Sudanese Vice President, Dr. Riek Machar, and was eventually the scape goat for the failure by Kony to sign the Final Peace Agreement.
A top Kampala advocate who took part in the Juba peace process, Jacob Oulanyah, says: “the entry of the ICC into the picture of the peace process became a big problem in the negotiating room.”
The UN Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC in March 2005.
Three arrest warrants were in April 2007 issued against Muhammed Ali Abd-Al -Rahman, the Janjaweed militia leader and Muhammed Harun, former state minister for interior of the Sudanese government.
In March 2009, an arrest warrant was issued against Sudanese president Omar Hassan al Bashir, the only sitting head of state wanted for war crimes by the ICC.The ICC prosecutor, Moreno Ocampo, is sure they will eventually get him.
“Bashir can not travel to any country that is a signatory to the Rome statute, that’s how far we have limited his movement. We shall finally capture him,” he says.
In light of allegations of widespread use of rape, torture and murder against civilians, Jean Pierre Bemba, former Vice President of the DRC was arrested in Belgium in May 2008 after an arrest warrant was issued by the court.
The court began its first trial, of the Congolese rebel leader Thomas Lubanga, on January 26, 2009. Its second trial against the Congolese rebel leaders, Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, began on November 24, 2009.
An arrest warrant remains outstanding for Bosco Ntaganda, a former rebel commander now integrated into the Congolese national army.
In Kenya, Moreno Ocampo’s request was granted to commence an investigation on the crimes against humanity, allegedly committed during the post electoral violence between December 2007 and January 2008.
The Kampala meet comes as prescribed in the Rome Statute that seven years after the treaty enters into force, the UN secretary-general is to convene a review conference to consider any amendments to the treaty.
There will be four topics for discussion- cooperation; complementarity, or strengthening national courts to try Rome Statute crimes; the impact of the Rome Statute system on victims and affected communities; and the relationship between peace and justice.
Under the principle of complementarity, states retain the primary jurisdiction to try genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity suspects. It means the ICC can only intervene where a state party is unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute the specific case the prosecutor has built.
A war crimes court has already been set up in Uganda although it has not yet commenced work. It is expected that some fighters already captured by the Uganda People’s Defence Forces, will be tried here, as the search for Kony and others continues.
The court does not have its own police but relies on governments to carry out arrests and assist its investigations and prosecutions.
Richard Dicker of Human Rightd Watch contends that unless governments make arrests, the ICC cannot deliver justice to victims of mass atrocities.
“We will be listening in Kampala for pledges of increased support to place perpetrators and would-be perpetrators on notice that they will be held to account.”
KENYA :
Kenyan banks to reap from expected credit uptake appetite
By Edith Musyoki Nairobi : Kenya / www.allvoices.com/ May 31, 2010
While announcing their first quarter results this year, commercial banks in Kenya reported impressive profit growth. This is expected to continue as credit uptake especially by the private sector is projected to increase through the year according to a report by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).
The increased credit uptake will be driven by low lending rates, which will continue due to decline in credit risk and improved macroeconomic stability.
“The move is expected to create demand for credit by the private sector and further stimulate economic growth,” says the CBK Governor Prof Njuguna Ndung’u.
Ndung’u says 80 per cent of commercial banks are expected to extend credit to private sector in the second half of the year mainly through unveiling of new products.
Over the recent past, CBK has been pushing for low interest rates and most banks have so far responded positively to the pleas since April. Barclays Bank was the first commercial bank to cut its lending rate and it was followed by others including KCB, NIC, Citi Bank, Co-operative Bank and Equity Bank.
The reduction of lending rates has created competition as banks try to outdo each other in cutting the rates in a bid to woo borrowers.
Equity Bank has cut its base lending rates from 15 per cent to 12 per cent. In addition, recently, the bank secured Ksh 4 billion medium-term loan facility for the small and medium sized enterprises (SME) sector. The SME clients access the loan facility at 7 to 9 per cent interest rates, for periods of between three to seven years. They are also able to access between Ksh 2 million and Ksh 3 million.
Being a long- term lending, the facility is expected to attract a significant number of SMEs who will have an opportunity to expand their businesses. Previously, SMEs have not been able to cope with the short-term lending of banks thus were often locked out of credit facilities.
Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) has also been able to reduce its base lending rate from 15 per cent to 13.5 per cent effective from June, while NIC Bank announced plans to cut its lending rates to 14.5 per cent from 15.5 per cent.
Barclays Bank of Kenya (BBK) also cut its base lending rate from 15.75 to 13.75 per cent, Cooperative Bank from 14 per cent to 13 per cent, Citi Bank from 14.75 per cent to 10 per cent, while Standard Chartered bank reduced to 16.5 per cent.
The reduction of base lending rates signifies confidence among commercial banks. This is expected to speed up credit expansion in the economy to finance growth.
Basically, commercial banks lend according to the credit quality of the borrower with most corporate clients getting served at the base rate, while personal loans are priced at 100 to 300 basis points above the prime level.
As the lending rate comes down, people are expected to seek for credit in order to finance investments.
Investments are expected to increase owing to among other reasons, the improved rainfall which has enhanced agricultural production thereby easing basic food prices and reducing reliance on expensive oil generated power.
Business people will be seeking credit to develop their output as demand for goods and services is expected to increase due to the improved economy.
According to the CBK report, there has been a noteworthy increase of 20 per cent in loans to building and construction sector which has been a major force for growth in the recent past.
Ndung’u says there has been sustained growth and stability in the banking sector with continuing decline in non performing loans.
“Between February and April this year, non-performing loans contracted by 1.9 per cent with major improvements in agriculture, manufacturing, trade and real estate sectors,” he says.
There was also an increase in gross loans and the number of loan accounts with gross loans expanding by 2 per cent from Ksh 783.8 billion in February to Ksh 799.5 billion in April. The number of loan accounts increased from 1, 832, 085 to 1, 843, 342 in the same period.
The governor points out that commercial banks are absorbing Credit Reference Bureaus (CBR) signals with more than 75 per cent of respondents expecting interest rates to decline significantly in the remaining months of the year. The overall picture thus corroborates the decline in inflation and optimistic economic activity in the future.
The CBK report states that the current economic growth prospects show that the economy is performing below its long run potential and trend which gives comfort that the upside risks to inflation remains low.
This has been corroborated by the market survey which shows no expected increase in inflation by both banks and private sector firms. Besides, any inflationary pressures which may arise from higher oil prices, will be mitigated by the declining electricity prices and subsequent lower production costs.
World Bank Approves $330 Million Loan to Kenya (Update1)
May 31, 2010/By Eric Ombok/Bloomberg
May 31 (Bloomberg) — The World Bank approved a $330 million loan to Kenya to expand access to electricity in the East African nation, the Washington-based lender said.
“Kenya has demonstrated a strong commitment to clean and green energy by exploiting its geothermal potential,” Johannes Zutt, the World Bank’s country director for Kenya, said in an e- mailed statement today. “The bank is supporting these efforts to promote equitable access by Kenyans to modern energy while protecting the environment.”
The loan has been approved under a project of more than $1.4 billion being invested in the electricity industry by the Kenyan government, the World Bank and other development partners to strengthen the nation’s foundations for economic growth and competitiveness, Zutt said.
Kenya had scheduled power cuts between Aug. 6 and Oct. 22 last year after low water levels in its hydro-generation dams cut capacity to about 30 percent. It plans to build power plants to generate 1,500 megawatts by 2019 after drought reduced supplies from hydropower plants, which generate about 60 percent of its electricity, according Kenya Power & Lighting Ltd., the nation’s monopoly power distributor.
The World Bank has invested $160 million in Kenya’s energy industry since 2004 to increase geothermal generation, improve electricity distribution and implement electrification programs to support economic growth and reduce regional disparities, the statement said.
“Lack of reliable energy lowers the annual sale revenues of Kenyan firms by about seven percent and reduces Kenya’s growth rate by about 1.5 percent,” according to the statement, which cited the 2008 Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic Report.
–Editors: Ana Monteiro, Karl Maier.
Puzzle over Kenya civic education cash
BY SIMON NDONG’A/www.capitalfm.co.ke/May 31
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 31 – The riddle over the civic education funds continues unresolved with the Treasury remaining firm it had no more funds to disburse, at least in the current financial year.
Despite an insistence from Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Mutula Kilonzo and the Committee of Experts that the Treasury still owes money, the Finance Ministry says that it has released all the funds due.
In a statement, Permanent Secretary Joseph Kinyua said that the last batch of Sh100 million meant for the civic education programme had been released, while Sh230 million had been used to print copies of the proposed new law.
“As far as the Treasury is concerned, all the financing for the three activities has been provided as agreed with the CoE,” said Mr Kinyua while ruling out the prospect of the government releasing more funds for the exercise.
Mr Kinyua said the Treasury had earlier engaged with the Committee of Experts on several occasions to agree on the modalities of financing the main activities leading to the referendum which are printing of the Constitution, civic education and media publicity.
He said the total budget of printing by the government printer is Sh1.2 billion of which Sh400 million has already been and the balance has been factored in the next fiscal year.
“It was agreed that due to budgetary constraints, GoK financing would be prorated such that only those activities that are to take place in May and June 2010 were going to be financed, while the balance would be provided for in the 2010/11 budget,” he said.
The budget is due to be read on June 10.
Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta on Sunday dismissed claims that the Treasury was frustrating the review process by delaying the release of funds saying: “I cannot break the law by releasing money that was not passed by Parliament.”
“All the facts relating to this matter are document and can be availed to anyone who wants to confirm,” Mr Kinyua added.
Last week the CoE and Mr Kilonzo however said that the explanation given by the government did not add up and expressed disappointment over the fiasco.
“We were supposed to be given Sh330 million but we have just been given Sh100 million. We have however seen that we cannot delay this exercise until the money arrives so we had to go forward with it being helped by donors,” said Nzamba Kitonga, chairman of the CoE.
“When we inquired from the Treasury about the funds, they told us that the funds would be made available and that we should talk to the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs,” he stated.
He said that the Committee of Experts on Constitutional Review was now relying on limited funding from donors to fund the civic education programme after the Treasury delayed the release of monies as scheduled.
Mr Kitonga however said the Committee had been able to print copies of the draft in English, Kiswahili and Braille and further simplified it so that it can be easily understood.
Telkom Kenya tightens noose on cable vandals
By Edith Musyoki Nairobi : Kenya/ www.allvoices.com/ May 31, 2010
The war against cable vandals went a notch higher last week when Telkom Kenya introduced new dress code for technicians working on sites.
The new Orange branded uniforms will be critical in tightening the noose around people practicing the vice since security agents will easily be able to identify.
Telkom Kenya Chief Executive Officer Mickael Ghossein confirmed that the firm had retained a large workforce of over 1,200 security agents and enlisted the assistance of several neighbourhood groups to assist in the process of community policing.
“It became necessary for us to hasten the fight against vandalism by giving our field technicians a uniform identity that will identify them when they are at work, thereby giving the vandals less space to operate in,” he said.
Ghossein said the company had invested in the new dress code as it was critical for the fight to preserve its telecommunication infrastructure. This he explained was because the firm was nearly concluding a nationwide switch upgrade exercise.
The switch upgrade is necessary following a recent adoption of an intelligent converged network by the government which enables the firm to deliver fast, reliable and affordable voice and data services to Kenyans across the country.
“This exercise that is critical to the modernization of our fixed line service, which remains very close to people hearts,” he said.
ANGOLA :
Diamonds shine for Trans Hex
May 31, 2010 /By Sapa
Diamond producer Trans Hex reported a profit for the year ended March 31 2010 as diamond prices staged a recovery.
In a statement on Monday, the group reported a profit after tax of R22 million compared to a loss of R798 million in the previous reporting period.
Earnings per share from continuing operations increased to 23,8 cents from a loss per share of 719,4 cents.
“These achievements are largely attributed to two factors; stringent cost management that resulted in substantial reductions in cash operating costs against the previous comparative period; and the recovery of diamond prices,” the group said.
“After a difficult previous financial year when demand and prices for rough diamond production fell significantly due to the global financial crisis, the current year saw continual growth in both of these key areas,” the group added.
Prices had improved significantly and demand for Trans Hex production had remained strong.
In its outlook, Trans Hex said SA land operations production was anticipated around 100,000 carats for the 2011 financial year.
“The declining grade at Baken [on the Orange River] will be countered by increasing the plant throughput,” it added.
It said tight cost and cash control would continue to be exerted.
“We remain positive for demand and pricing levels as sales since year-end have continued to show a strengthening in prices.
“Longer-term, reduced rough production levels globally and a gradual recovery in major economies from the recession will likely see demand for rough production increase.”
The group’s Luana mining contract for Angola was signed on May 12 2010.
“Pilot production will continue with equipment already on site, and the partners will in due course decide how the mine will be developed.
“Sale of Luana product will commence imminently,” Trans Hex said.
Angola to enforce ban on public smoking
Pana /31/05/2010
Kuito, Angola – A senior official of the Ministry of Commerce, Hotels and Tourism in central Bié province, Jose Maria, on Sunday called for the enforcement of the ban on public smoking.
Speaking to the Angola News Agency (Angop), Maria said of late it was common to see people smoking in public places, such as snack bars and gardens against the law.
He stressed that despite the law banning smoking in public, many people were still acting that way, some pretending to be ignorant of the law, despite knowing that smoking was a health risk.
Maria said his institution will punish such offenders to end to this type of behaviour, stressing “from now on, there will be severe punishment for those who do break the law’.
Kuito –
Angola bank makes available US$50 million for agriculture
Pana /31/05/2010
Huambo, Angola – Sol Bank of Angola has made available nearly US$50 million as agriculture loans to farmers, the manager of micro-credit programme of the bank, Carla Van-Dunem, announced on Saturday.
According to her the amount is available for the next three months and will be given to peasant farmers organized in cooperatives, associations or groups.
She said the bank had identified some provinces as priority because of their agricultural potentials.
Huambo –
SOUTH AFRICA:
Technical Snag Ruled Out In Afriqiyah Airways Crash That Killed 103 People
5/31/2010 /RTTNews
(RTTNews) – A preliminary inquiry into the May 12 crash of a Libyan Afriqiyah Airways plane in capital Tripoli has ruled out mechanical failure as the cause for the tragedy, reports said Sunday.
In all, 103 persons were killed, most of them Dutch holiday-makers, when the Airbus 330 missed the runway at Tripoli airport after arriving from South Africa.
All but one passenger, a nine-year old Dutch boy, miraculously survived the disaster.
Neji Dhaou, heading the probe set up by the Libyan government, said the actual reasons behind the crash remained largely unknown and it might be a while before they could be known.
Data collected from the ill-fated aircraft’s black boxes showed no sign of any technical failure; also, its pilots did not radio for help.
The black boxes were sent to Paris for decoding under the supervision of international observers and after going through the contents. Officials also dismissed the possibility of sabotage.
Besides the about 70 Dutch holiday-makers, the passengers included some Austrians, French, Germans, South Africans, Britons and Zimbabweans while the crew members were Libyans.
by RTT Staff Writer
World Cup May Leave South Africa an Unexpected Legacy (Update1)
May 31, 2010/By Mike Cohen and Franz Wild/Bloomberg
May 31 (Bloomberg) — South Africa’s hosting of the soccer World Cup may leave an unintended legacy: a bloated wage bill at a time when the government is trying to rein in debt and bolster spending on basic services.
Following an 18-day strike that crippled exports, state transport company Transnet Ltd. last week agreed to raise wages by 11 percent, more than double the rate of inflation. Now, 1 million state employees are threatening action during the monthlong tournament that starts on June 11 unless they receive similar increases. Mediation efforts will resume this week.
“The unions are leveraging off the soccer,” Richard Downing, an independent economist, said by telephone from Pretoria on May 27. “The increases are absolute silliness. It’s going to cost the economy for sure. There will be a loss of jobs.”
Organizers predict the World Cup will draw about 300,000 foreign visitors and a television audience of 500 million, presenting the government with an unprecedented opportunity to showcase the country. The international attention may backfire if unions follow through on threats to rally tens of thousands of workers to join strikes and protests in the nine host cities, and disrupt power and water supplies.
Public sector unions are being “absolutely brazen” about using the World Cup to press home their wage demands, Andrew Levy, who head his own labor research company, said by phone from Johannesburg on May 27. “Nobody’s standing up to them. Business would be bankrupt” if they awarded similar increases.
‘Massive Strike’
The pay increase at Transnet will cost the company about 1 billion rand ($132 million) a year. Now workers at Eskom Holdings Ltd., the state power utility, are demanding 18 percent increases, while employees of the water boards want 15 percent.
Unions are also threatening strike action if a decision by regulators to allow Eskom to raise its tariffs by an average 25.5 percent over three years isn’t reviewed. Those demands will be discussed at a meeting with the government on June 14, three days after the start of the World Cup, and the federation has threatened a “massive strike” if it doesn’t get its way.
All World Cup stadiums have been fitted with generators to ensure that matches won’t be disrupted by electricity outages in the event of labor action.
‘Disappoint the Continent’
The central bank said May 17 that the level of wage increases could pose “an upside risk to the inflation outlook.” Inflation was 4.8 percent in April, the lowest in almost four years.
Unions representing nurses and teachers and other state employees declared a dispute on May 21 after the government offered them 5.3 percent pay increases, half of what they had demanded. An independent mediator has been given 30 days to end the impasse, failing which unions will ballot their members on whether to go on strike.
President Jacob Zuma, while defending workers’ right to strike, has called for restraint during the competition.
“The World Cup has never come to Africa,” he said in a May 20 interview with state-owned South African Broadcasting Corp. “I don’t think we should disappoint the continent. If you have visitors in your house, you don’t start fighting.”
The Congress of South African Trade Unions, the country’s biggest labor federation, said wage demands have nothing to do with the World Cup and described pressure on its members not to strike for its duration as blackmail.
Job Protection
“Nobody must say: ‘Oh hold on, there are visitors around, don’t do anything about this matter because of the national interest’,” Zwelinzima Vavi, the federation’s general secretary, told reporters in Johannesburg on May 27. “Our interest is to protect our jobs, to improve our standards of living. The World Cup will be a one-month event. It will come and go.”
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said the government can’t afford to pay much higher wages and simultaneously increase access to services and tackle poverty.
About a quarter of South Africa’s 49.3 million people lack proper shelter and one in four workers don’t have jobs.
“The wage bill has almost doubled in five years,” Gordhan said in his budget speech to Parliament on Feb. 17. “It will be necessary to moderate salary increases going forward. This is required to ensure that funds are also available for growth in public service employment and so that spending on school books, hospital buildings and maintenance of infrastructure is not compromised.”
–Editors: Philip Sanders, Karl Maier
AFRICA / AU :
France-Africa summit in Nice seeks business boost
Monday, 31 May 2010/ news.bbc.co.uk
France aims to give a new push to business ties with Africa at a two-day summit opening in the Mediterranean city of Nice.
President Nicolas Sarkozy is hosting the Africa-France summit for the first time. Thirty-eight African leaders and 250 business executives will be there.
The military junta leaders of two former French colonies – Guinea and Niger – are among those attending.
France is vying with China and other emerging powers for markets in Africa.
The problems of piracy, terrorism and climate change are also on the agenda.
African countries are demanding a bigger say in the UN Security Council and the G20 forum, so there will be some discussion of how that might be achieved.
Civil liberties groups say that of the 38 African heads of state invited only two could not be accused of human rights violations.
Madagascar – still embroiled in a political crisis – was not invited, and Zimbabwe refused to send a delegation after France objected to the attendance of President Robert Mugabe.
In a sign that France is not treating it as a Francophone “family gathering”, President Sarkozy will hold bilateral talks with the leaders of Nigeria and South Africa – the two heavyweight English-speaking powers on the continent, France’s Le Monde newspaper reports.
No technical fault detected in Libyan air crash: paper
English.news.cn / news.xinhuanet.com/2010-05-31
Special Report: Tripoli Air Crash
TRIPOLI, May 30 (Xinhua) — An investigation committee said Sunday that no evidence has been found to indicate that a technical failure was behind an air crash in Libya that killed 103 people this month, local Quryna newspaper reported.
According to a preliminary report published by the newspaper, the investigation team also did not find any evidence that the crash was caused by a terrorist attack.
An Airbus A-330 operated by Libya’s Afriqiyah Airways crashed on landing on May 12 at Tripoli airport after completing a more than seven-hour flight across the African continent from Johannesburg, South Africa, killing 103 people with a nine-year- old Dutch boy as a sole survivor.
“According to the data recovered so far from the two black boxes, there is no sign of any technical failure before the crash, ” the investigation committee chief Naji Ramadan Dhaw said in the report.
The report said that the pilots were highly qualified to fly this type of planes and they had already operated more than one flight on this route while the authorizations for the crew were valid.
The report also ruled out that an explosion or fire took place on board the plane before the incident.
The panel also said the crash was not caused by a lack of fuel, adding that all Tripoli airport’s aviation support services were operating normally that day.
“The two black boxes were in good condition when found, and the data were recovered with the help of facilitations offered by the French investigation bureau,” the report said, noting that the team included French, Dutch, and U.S. investigators as well as representatives from planemaker Airbus.
“Based on the voice recordings of the plane and those from air control tower, it has been found that the pilots did not call for any technical or medical assistance, and the control tower did not ask the pilots not to land at the airport,” the report concluded.
Jonathan addresses world leaders in France
234next.com/May 31, 2010
President Goodluck Jonathan has been nominated to make key note presentations to world leaders on peace keeping and conflict resolutions at the 25th Africa-France Summit in Nice.
Mr. Jonathan, who is attending the summit on the invitation of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, arrived the Southern French city of Nice on Sunday.
Nigeria’s Ambassador to France, Gordon Bristol, told journalists that Mr. Jonathan was nominated by Mr. Sarkozy, the convener of the summit, because of the pivotal role Nigeria played in peace, security and conflict resolution in Africa and the world.
“From Kosovo to Middle East, we have sent peace keeping troops under the banner of the UN and AU. Nigeria has co-invented new approaches to peace keeping as evident in Liberia and Sierra-Leone, using the instrumentality of sub-regional organisation as envisaged under the relevant charters of the UN.
Nigeria is well suited to speak on the issue of peace and security in the world and Jonathan will do that at the summit,’’ Mr. Bristol said.
Heads of States and Governments from Africa, Asia and Europe are participating at the two-day summit which opens today at the Nice Acropolis Convention Centre.
As part of the visit, the president has also been scheduled to hold meetings with Mr. Sarkozy as well as Jacob Zuma of South Africa and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.
He will also hold a business forum with Nigerian and international business communities as well as meet with foreign ministers on the situation in the Great Lakes Area.
The Bayelsa State governor, Sullivan Chime and his Benue State counterpart, Gabriel Suswan, are in the president’s entourage, to explore areas of cooperation and investment in agriculture and tourism with foreign partners.
Also in the entourage are the ministers of petroleum, Deziani Allison Maduekwe, foreign affairs, Odein Ajumogobia, national planning, Samsudeen Usman and commerce, Jubril Martins Kuye.
Tagged a “Renovation Summit,” the multi-national gathering is to revamp relations between Africa and France and the growing awareness of the changes taking place on the continent.
It will also discuss Africa’s roles in global governance, peace and security as well as climate change, economic challenges and the need for a development leap.
The Africa-France Summit was initiated in 1973 by two African presidents, Niger Republic’s Mamman Troure and Senegal’s Leopold Senghor.
The summit initially was to provide a forum for French speaking African countries and France to discuss political and economic issues.
In 1975, however, the summit was extended to Asia, English and Portuguese-speaking African countries and later to all African countries.
Cadiz, Illovo, MTN, Trans Hex: South Africa Equity Preview
May 31, 2010/By Nicky Smith/Bloomberg
May 31 (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 dropped for the first time in three days, falling 247.02, or 0.9 percent, to 27,202.72. The measure gained 3.6 percent in the week, paring its loss this month to 5 percent.
Cadiz Holdings Ltd. (CDZ SJ): The money manager releases annual earnings. Cadiz said May 10 that earnings per share rose as much as 54 percent in the year through March 31. Cadiz advanced 1.5 percent to 3.30 rand.
Illovo Sugar Ltd. (ILV SJ): Africa’s biggest sugar producer said net income declined to 662 million rand ($87.4 million) for the twelve months through March from 739.1 million rand a year earlier. Illovo fell 0.2 percent to 30.48 rand.
MTN Group Ltd.: Africa’s largest mobile-phone company releases details on its capital expenditure for South Africa. MTN fell 2.1 percent to 106.55 rand.
Protech Khuthele Holdings Ltd. (PKH SJ): The civil engineering company said net income for the twelve months through February fell to 75.6 million rand from 92.9 million rand a year earlier. Protech rose 1.4 percent to 72 cents.
Trans Hex Group Ltd. (TSX SJ): Africa’s biggest publicly traded diamond producer reported profit of 21.6 million rand for the year through March compared to a loss of 798 million rand a year earlier. Trans Hex climbed 3.9 percent to 4 rand.
The following shares begin trading without the rights to their latest dividends:
Afrimat Ltd. (AFT SJ); Barloworld Ltd. (BAW SJ); Chrometco Ltd. (CMO SJ); Eqstra Holdings Ltd. (EQS SJ); Hulamin Ltd. (HLM SJ); Oasis Crescent Property Fund (OAS SJ); Pretoria Portland Cement Co. (PPC SJ); Verimark Holdings Ltd. (VMK SJ).
Shares or American depositary receipts of the following South African companies closed as follows:
Anglo American Plc (AAUKY US) fell 3.3 percent to $19.01. AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (AU US) shed 1.3 percent to $41.92. BHP Billiton Ltd. (BBL US) retreated 3.6 percent to $54.89. DRDGold Ltd. (DROOY US) dropped 4.1 percent to $4.42. Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI US) slid 0.4 percent to $13.75. Harmony Gold Mining Co. (HMY US) declined 0.3 percent to $9.68. Impala Platinum Holdings (IMPUY US) fell 3 percent to $25. Sappi Ltd. (SPP US) dropped 2.8 percent to $3.77. Sasol Ltd. (SSL US) shed 2 percent to $36.
–Editors: Phil Serafino, Hellmuth Tromm
Ellis confident in security at World Cup
Mon May 31 2010/wwos.ninemsn.com.au
Australian Sport Minister Kate Ellis is confident about World Cup security arrangements following reports there is a high risk of terror attack at next month’s tournament in South Africa.
The Sunday Times newspaper cited a briefing to the US Congress counter-terrorism caucus last week by the NEFA Foundation, a terror research group, which warned that simultaneous and random attacks were being planned during the month-long event.
But Ms Ellis, who is preparing to head over to South Africa for the competition, said she wasn’t worried.
“I’m very much looking forward to going over there, cheering on the Socceroos and doing everything I can to promote Australia’s bid so that we can put ourselves forward as a very safe place to host the World Cup in the future,” she told reporters in Canberra on Monday.
Mr Ellis said federal authorities were being kept abreast of any possible security risks at the World Cup, and travellers could monitor the situation through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s (DFAT) Smartraveller website.
“We have ongoing conversations with DFAT, who are also … working with the Football Federation of Australia,” she said.
“FIFA has been adamant that security in South Africa is as tight as it possibly can be.
“We’ve also heard from the South African organising committee that their security procedures have been tested over 150 times.”
Ms Ellis said the security of Australian athletes and spectators was the government’s priority.
UN /ONU :
USA :
New Bill to Keep American Jobs at Home
By Helena Zhu/Epoch Times Staff/ May 31, 2010
New York City NEW YORK—Sen. Charles Schumer unveiled a new bill Sunday, which would help stop U.S. call center jobs from going abroad.
The legislation would require companies to disclose to customers when their call is being transferred to another country. The bill would impose a per-call excise tax on companies that transfer domestic customer service calls to foreign call centers.
The regulations are designed to keep jobs at call centers across the United States, as well as to regain domestic jobs that were previously outsourced to foreign facilities.
“If we want to put a stop to the outsourcing of American jobs, than we need to provide incentives for American companies to keep American jobs here,” Schumer said in a press release. “This bill will not only serve to maintain call center jobs currently in the United States, but also provide a reason for companies that have already outsourced jobs to bring them back.”
Under the new legislation, if a caller dials an 800 number and is subsequently transferred to another country, the call center would be required to disclose where their call is being rerouted to. The call center would also be obligated to inform the caller where their personal information—such as their bank account number, credit card number, or medical history—is being kept.
The bill would impose a $0.25 excise tax on any customer service call that originates domestically but is then transferred to an agent abroad. The money obtained through this tax would be used to address personal security issues.
“This bill will go a long way toward keeping American jobs right here at home,” Schumer said. “If we want to stop the exporting of American jobs, than we need to make it less beneficial for companies to lay off American workers and send jobs overseas, and we can do that by providing disclosure as to where calls are being routed and [making it] less financially beneficial to send them abroad.”
Call centers serve as companies’ information clearing houses, answering a range of customer service questions and providing product support. The most popular destinations for calls transferred abroad include India, Indonesia, Ireland, Canada, Philippines, and South Africa.
US World Cup warning: heightened risk of terrorism
31 May 2010/www.radionz.co.nz
The US government has issued a travel alert warning its citizens that South Africa faces a heightened risk of terrorism during the football World Cup.
It says that large-scale public events present an attractive target.
“There is a heightened risk that extremist groups will conduct terrorist acts within South Africa in the near future,” the State Department says.
The department says it has no information on any specific, credible threat but notes that such threats have been reported in the media.
Swift denial of ‘80% chance’ story
South Africa has mobilised thousands of specially trained police to deal with fans’ safety, and security officials have moved swiftly to deny claims in Johannesburg’s Sunday Times about a briefing to the US Congress counter-terrorism caucus last week.
The story quotes Ronald Sandee, director of NEFA, a foundation that investigates terrorist activities, as saying there is an 80% chance of attack.
The National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure, which coordinates security operations for the World Cup, says there is no known specific terror threat against the tournament.
About 350,000 people are expected to visit South Africa for the World Cup, which starts on 11 June.
CANADA :
Breakthrough in Ebola treatment
by Kate Melville/www.scienceagogo.com/31 May 2010
Using genetic particles known as small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), scientists have halted the replication process of the deadly Ebola virus in monkeys; a breakthrough that the researchers say should be reproducible in humans.
The Ebola virus causes hemorrhagic fever with fatality rates as high as 80 percent in humans. The virus can be transmitted through the air although it is more commonly spread through blood and bodily fluids. Until now there have been no available vaccines or therapies.
Reporting their work in The Lancet, the researchers explain how RNA inhibitors were used to target a protein – called the L protein – that is essential for Ebola virus replication. RNA inhibitors are based on a natural gene silencing mechanism used by all cells, and lipid nanoparticles are the most widely used siRNA delivery approaches. In this study, the team used a proprietary technology called SNALP, or stable nucleic acid-lipid particles, to deliver the therapeutics to disease sites in animals infected with the Zaire strain of Ebola virus.
A group of three rhesus macaques was given anti-Ebola siRNAs intravenously, 30 minutes after exposure to the virus, and again on days 1, 3, and 5. A second group of four macaques was given the treatment after 30 minutes, and on days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, after exposure.
Two of the three animals in the first group (which received four post-exposure treatments) were protected from lethal infection and survived. All four of the monkeys given seven post-exposure treatments were protected. The treatment regimen in the second study was well tolerated, with minor changes in liver enzymes that might have been related to viral infection.
The study represents the first demonstration of complete protection against a lethal human infectious disease in nonhuman primates using RNAi, according to study leader Dr. Thomas W. Geisbert of the Boston University School of Medicine. “We believe this work justifies the immediate development of Ebola SNALP as a countermeasure to treat Ebola infected patients, either in outbreaks or accidental laboratory exposures,” he said. The researchers say that further studies in monkeys will be necessary to refine dosing, toxicology and other issues before the treatment could be licensed for human use.
Canadian Natural Resources Limited Announces Horizon Oil Sands Production
May 31, 2010 /www.marketwatch.com
CALGARY, ALBERTA, May 31, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — Canadian Natural Resources Limited (“Canadian Natural”) /quotes/comstock/11t!cnq (CA:CNQ 36.61, 0.00, 0.00%) /quotes/comstock/13*!cnq/quotes/nls/cnq (CNQ 69.46, +0.06, +0.09%) announces monthly production of Synthetic Crude Oil (“SCO”) at Horizon Oil Sands as follows:
—————————————
Month SCO Production (bbl/d)
—————————————
Q1 2010 86,995
—————————————
April 2010 101,000 (1)
—————————————
May 2010 forecast 75,000-80,000
—————————————
(1) rounded to the nearest hundred
May 2010 production is expected to be between 75,000 and 80,000 barrels per day of SCO due to a planned maintenance outage which reduces May’s volumes but is forecast to limit future operational issues and help reach and maintain sustained production levels.
The Company continues to target stable production levels with annual production guidance for 2010 remaining at 90,000 to 105,000 barrels per day of SCO at Horizon Oil Sands.
Canadian Natural is a senior crude oil and natural gas production company, with continuing operations in its core areas located in Western Canada, the U.K. portion of the North Sea and Offshore West Africa.
Contacts:
Canadian Natural Resources Limited
Allan P. Markin
Chairman
(403) 514-7777
(403) 514-7888 (FAX)
Canadian Natural Resources Limited
John G. Langille
Vice-Chairman
(403) 514-7777
(403) 514-7888 (FAX)
Canadian Natural Resources Limited
Steve W. Laut
President
(403) 514-7777
(403) 514-7888 (FAX)
Canadian Natural Resources Limited
Tim S. McKay
Chief Operating Officer
(403) 514-7777
(403) 514-7888 (FAX)
Canadian Natural Resources Limited
Douglas A. Proll
Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice-President, Finance
(403) 514-7777
(403) 514-7888 (FAX)
Canadian Natural Resources Limited
Corey B. Bieber
Vice-President, Finance & Investor Relations
(403) 514-7777
(403) 514-7888 (FAX)
Canadian Natural Resources Limited
2500, 855 – 2nd Street S.W.
Calgary, Alberta T2P 4J8
ir@cnrl.com
www.cnrl.com
SOURCE: Canadian Natural Resources Limited
AUSTRALIA :
South Africa mulls Australian style filters
We want to ban Internet porn
31 May 2010/by Nick Farrell/ www.techeye.net
South Africa, which has spent decades fighting repressive racial laws, wants to bring in a raft of sexual laws instead based around a firewall similar to that which is used in China and is mooted in Australia.
The South Africans believe that it is possible to purge the web of all pornography.
Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba has approached the country’s Law Reform Commission to ask whether a change in the law is possible.
He as chatted to the Justice Alliance for South Africa (JASA) which has written its own draft bill on the issue.
Gigaba said that since cars are already provided with brakes and seatbelts. There is no reason why the internet should be provided without the necessary restrictive mechanisms built into it.
The only difficulty with that scenerio is that a seat beat and brake saves your life in a car crash. Censorship of internet porn only saves… um. No there is no earthly reason for it what so ever.
Not surprisingly web insecurity experts have dismissed the idea as barking.
The idea is to use a form of filters set by internet service providers.
Media friendly Graham Cluley of security firm Sophos said previous attempts by other nations to ban pornography had not been successful.
“One wonders how on earth a democracy like South Africa would be able to introduce such a system, as it’s not as though the state has total control over telecommunications,” he told BBC News.
We think it is ironic that a country can free itself from one set of oppressive controls and then rush to impose another equally as daft.
EUROPE :
France pushes economic ties at new-look Africa summit
By Carole Landry (AFP) /31052010
NICE, France — France on Monday bids to shore up its dwindling clout in Africa at a summit designed to launch a renewal of Franco-African ties and enlist big business in development.
President Nicolas Sarkozy will play host to 38 African leaders in the Riviera city of Nice, hoping to put his stamp on a gathering that has been a fixture of French diplomacy in Africa for nearly three decades.
The 25th Africa-France summit is Sarkozy’s first since taking office in 2007 and reflects France’s shift away from its traditional west African allies toward engagement with the continent as a whole.
Among the heavy hitters at the high-level talks will be South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma, who travelled to Nice just weeks before the opening of the World Cup, and Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan, sworn in this month.
In a first, 80 French business leaders including top bosses at oil giant Total and nuclear behemoth Areva are taking part in summit talks along with 150 heads of African companies.
The push on the economic front comes as France has taken a back seat to China, Africa’s biggest trade partner, which has injected billions over the past decade to tap into raw materials needed to fuel its hungry economy.
“The competition is coming from China and India,” Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper at the weekend.
“Their products are cheap, good quality and it’s much easier to sign contracts with them.”
French business leaders are expected to unveil plans for a new solar power project in Africa, a social responsibility charter and private equity funds for African firms.
Underscoring France’s desire to engage with African powers, Sarkozy will have a working lunch with Zuma on Monday before the summit opening and also meet separately with Jonathan, who has been in office for less than a month.
The French president has done away with the traditional dinner of leaders from francophone west Africa and whittled down the three-day summit into a 24-hour affair.
Giving Africa a strong voice in world governance will be a key topic on the summit agenda as France prepares to take the helm of the Group of Eight and Group of 20 club of rich economies next year.
On Tuesday, Ethiopia’s Meles Zenawi chairs a round-table discussion on climate and development with a view to cementing a united Africa stance ahead of a key meeting in Cancun, Mexico later this year.
French development minister Alain Joyandet has described the Nice gathering as “the summit of renewal, a sort of launch of a new era.”
“Nice illustrates that change is underway,” said Stephen Smith, author of “A Post-Colonial Journey: The New Franco-African World”.
“The future belongs to lucrative trade with all African countries and no longer to aid for a few historical friends,” he said.
Rights group Survie has criticised the summit for turning a blind eye to corruption, human rights and the pillaging of resources that continue to plague Africa.
Two African leaders failed to make the guest list for Nice: Sudan’s President Omar al-Beshir, who is wanted by an international court for war crimes in Darfur, and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, still under an EU travel ban.
The summit venue was changed from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to Nice to spare Egypt the embarrassment of having to leave a leader of Sudan, a neighbouring state, out in the cold.
Most of France’s allies in west Africa are turning up, with the exception of Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, who is on poor terms with Paris over his country’s ongoing political crisis.
There was a sign of a warming of ties between France and Algeria when President Abdelaziz Bouteflika finally agreed to attend the Nice summit.
CHINA :
SA needs to get streetwise in new ‘Scramble for Africa’
www.weekendpost.co.za/– Reuters / Ed Cropley/ 2010/05/31
EVEN by the extended outlook of emerging market investors, a century is a very long time, but South Africa has been a staggering success by that measurement.
A punter who took a slice of the then British colony 100 years ago would have enjoyed annual returns of 7.6%, easily surpassing the United States, Germany and Japan and behind only Sweden and Australia, according to Credit Suisse research.
The 21st century looks less enticing. Stagnating population growth and dwindling deposits of the gold and other minerals that fuelled such dramatic expansion are likely to crimp South Africa’s growth.
The rest of the region is likely to fare much better.
“Frontier Africa,” loosely defined as anywhere south of the Sahara excluding South Africa, remains a mish-mash of impoverished states with shoddy infrastructure and erratic governments. But beneath its soil and seas lie huge deposits of oil, gas and other minerals coveted by Asia’s booming economies.
Over the past decade, demand has spurred growth of 5% a year. With the continued benefits of debt relief, market liberalisation and spread of cellphones, the trend looks set to continue.
By the middle of the century, South Africa is unlikely to be a sole economic giant among dwarves. To stay competitive, it needs to profit from the new “Scramble for Africa” by positioning itself as a springboard into it.
“We are playing on a big stage now,” said Paul Runge of Africa Project Access, a consultancy helping South African firms invest in the region. “Africa is becoming an increasingly international arena. If we as South Africans are going to play on this stage, we had better get very worldly very quickly.”
Nearly all indicators point to a long-term decline in South Africa’s clout. In 2000, it accounted for nearly 40% of all economic output in the region, according to the International Monetary Fund. This will drop to 28% this year, partly because of the recession, and will shrink further as Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda notch up growth of 7% or more compared to the 2.3% forecast for South Africa this year.
With a heavy Aids burden and high urbanisation, the population will grow by only seven million to 57 million by 2050, says the UN.
Nigeria, Ethiopia and the DR Congo’s populations will double, which should help drive growth by creating vast pools of young labour in economies increasingly geared towards manufacturing for export – similar to China 30 years ago.
It is gold mining that most starkly illustrates South Africa’s waning fortunes. Annual production fell from 600 tons in 1990 to just 160 tons last year, making the country the world’s No 4 producer.
This is not lost on policy makers, who constantly talk of the need to restructure the economy away from mining and raw material exports to higher value manufacturing and service industries.
That is slowly beginning to happen. MTN, Shoprite, Standard Bank and packaging firm Nampak are the main success stories, having expanded aggressively into Africa to become its biggest operators in their fields, and exports of manufactured goods increased nearly fourfold from 2000 to 2008.
But in the copper mines of Zambia, South Africa is visible only in the form of trucks carrying equipment.
The mines are run by Indian, Chinese and Canadian firms, a telling example of the stiff competition South Africa faces for contracts and concessions in what should be its backyard. “South African companies need to wake up,” says consultant Duncan Bonnet. “A lot of opportunities are already being stolen from under our noses, and not just by the Chinese. It’s the Indians, the Brazilians, the Russians, the Canadians, Australians.”
INDIA :
Ambani brothers’ truce fuels talk of fresh attempt at Reliance-MTN deal
By Joe Leahy in Mumbai and Andrew Parker in London
www.ft.com/ May 31 2010
A week ago, the share price of MTN, South Africa’s leading telecoms company and the biggest mobile operator on the continent, suddenly shot up 6 per cent, three times the increase in the broader market.
News reports attributed the jump to a change in stock rating on the company by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. But others wondered whether it could have had something to do with developments in a business family dispute far away, in India’s financial capital, Mumbai.
One day earlier, India’s warring billionaire siblings, Mukesh and Anil Ambani, had announced a deal in which they decided to do away with “non-compete” agreements they had signed when they divided their late father’s empire between them in 2005.
One of these covered Anil Ambani’s flagship, Reliance Communications, India’s second-largest mobile operator. When Anil had tried to sell a large stake in Reliance to MTN two years earlier, older brother Mukesh had enacted a right of first refusal over the company contained in one of the non-compete deals. This in turn had helped scupper the Reliance-MTN proposed tie-up. With Mukesh now unlikely to object, could the prospect of a Reliance and MTN combination, which would create one of the world’s largest emerging-markets mobile groups with about 230m subscribers, be resurrected?
“Last time, the deal fell through because of the right of first refusal,” said a person familiar with that deal.
“Whether MTN wants a deal and Reliance wants to do a deal is a separate issue but at least that hurdle is not there any longer.”
Many believe MTN would be more than reluctant to consider returning to the negotiation table with an Indian company.
Phuthuma Nhleko, MTN’s chief executive, has tried three times before to tie up with an Indian company; once with Reliance and two times with Bharti Airtel, the biggest company in the subcontinent. The talks with Bharti failed after the South African government objected to giving away control of MTN.
Not only that, India’s mobile market is suffering from hyper-competition, with 15 operators slashing prices to levels that are undercutting margins.
The idea of MTN returning to India is “beyond absurd”, said one person familiar with both companies.
Yet some believe a deal could be revived. MTN is expected to hold a board meeting as early as tomorrow in which it will discuss a proposal to buy assets in Algeria and elsewhere in Africa worth $10bn from Orascom of Egypt.
With that deal running into trouble amid objections from the Algerian government, there is speculation the MTN board will also review its India strategy at the meeting.
Among the possible suitors in India, Reliance Communications would be the largest. Bharti is no longer available – it is occupied buying the African assets of Zain of Kuwait.
A deal with Reliance would circumvent some of the issues that sank the proposed merger with Bharti last year if it followed the previous structure put forward by Mr Ambani.
Under that proposal, he would give MTN a 51 per cent stake in Reliance Communications in return for a 25 per cent stake in the South African group.
While this would make him the biggest single shareholder in MTN, it would not give him majority control and would ensure the South African company kept its listing in Johannesburg – a key requirement of Pretoria.
Although the prospect of a return to India might appear to be far-fetched, Mr Nhleko has stated his ambition of pulling off one more career-defining deal before he steps down early next year.
The question is, would the MTN board tolerate another Indian adventure.
Championing Africa’s Renaissance (2)
Monday, 31 May 2010 / Kofi Annan/www.businessdayonline.com
The rapid spread of modern technology like mobile phones is changing the way Africa’s economies function, its people interact, and services are delivered. It is opening the door to an entire new world full of possibilities and promise.
These and other opportunities are real, but they are also under threat. They are under threat from global dynamics like climate change and economic volatility. But they are also under threat from within the continent – from new forms of insecurity and the spread of ungovernable areas; from the rise of organised crime and illicit activities; from the discrimination against women; from the inability to feed a growing population; and from our own complacency.
For the opportunities I have mentioned will not be realized automatically – we cannot take further progress for granted. We need to work hard for it. We know what is required; we have heard it from many of today’s speakers. It is strong leadership and good governance that will make the difference, both at home and on the global stage.
Despite some glaring setbacks, the last decades have already seen progress in the quality of African governance. But there is still a long way to go. There are still too many instances of corruption, of elite capture of resources, of growing inequality in wealth and opportunity, abuse of electoral processes and selective adherence to the rule of law.
We need to see the fulfillment of commitments in our national constitutions and in the AU Constitutive Act, promises kept on good governance, respect for human rights, and the rule of law. Across the continent, civil society needs to be given more space and rights to be able to hold leaders accountable for their actions and make an essential contribution to nation-building efforts. Women finally need to be given the rights and access to opportunities that correspond to their central role in our societies and economies. Gender equity is key to good governance, social stability, and sustainable development.
We must also see much greater transparency in the way governments manage revenues, particularly those from the extraction of natural resources. They must be turned into results for all citizens, not just the elite few. The same is true for our agricultural lands which increasingly attract the interest of foreign investors.
We need more progress, too, on consolidating and enhancing regional integration and cooperation. Africa’s international competitiveness and ability to meet its trade potential depend on much greater economies of scale, and on improvements in transport, energy, and communications infrastructure. This African agenda must be driven by strong African financial, economic and political institutions. The African Development Bank and the African Union, our springboard for cooperation within and beyond Africa, need to be further strengthened. There is great scope for more concerted action to ensure that Africa’s place in global decision-making fora is secured, and that its voice is heard.
The main challenge for African leaders is to manage these and other partnerships in a way that is mutually beneficial and generates tangible and lasting benefits for their citizens. In doing so, they can draw upon the experience of their partners – such as China’s pioneering activities in low carbon energy, India’s in agriculture, and Brazil’s in social protection. Partnerships that boost trade but not green growth and poverty reduction represent a wasted opportunity. Partnerships that do not include all stakeholders, including civil society, will not work. Governments cannot do it alone.
As we move ahead we must recognize that solid societies are built on three pillars. Security, development, and respect for human rights and the rule of law. There can be no long term security without development and there can be no long term development without security. And no society can long remain prosperous or secure without due respect for human rights and the rule of law.
The challenges before us are great. As we celebrate our successes, we must not forget that hundreds of millions of Africans continue to live in poverty and insecurity, without access to adequate food, health, education and other services, in conditions that have not improved since independence. But the many success stories of the last 50 years have proven that rapid progress is possible – even in the most difficult circumstances.
This, and the extraordinary talent and energy of Africa’s people, and the impatience of the younger generation to transform the quality of life and assert Africa’s place in the world, gives me the confidence that the next fifty years will be even better than the last. It is the next generation of leaders that must pick up the challenge from all of us in this room. From what I have seen on my travels throughout the continent, they are well up to the task. We just need to give them the chance
BRASIL:
EN BREF, CE 31 mai 2010 … AGNEWS / OMAR, BXL,31/05/2010
