{jcomments on}[South Africa’s former finance minister Trevor Manuel said he won’t stand as a candidate for managing director of the International Monetary Fund as a deadline for nominations closed today]

BURUNDI :

RWANDA :

Rwanda: First Ladies Discuss Ending Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission

10 June 2011/The New Times

New York — The First Lady, Mrs Jeannette Kagame, joined 30 other First spouses from across the world, at the United Nations, to mobilise support, and to recommit themselves to the Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS (EMCT) by 2015.

The meeting is one of several events taking place in conjunction with the three-day High-Level Meeting of the General Assembly, that brings together Heads of State and Government, representatives of international organisations, civil society and people living with HIV, to chart the future course of the global AIDS response.

According to UNAIDS, around 1,000 babies are infected with HIV each day, 90 percent of whom are in sub-Saharan Africa. HIV is also the leading cause of maternal mortality in developing countries.

The First Ladies meeting was held on the opening day of the UN High-Level Meeting on AIDS and was co-hosted by Mrs. Ban-Ki Moon, Mr. Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director, and Azeb Mesfin, First Lady of Ethiopia and President of the Organisation of African First Ladies against HIV/AIDS.

Sidibe stated that “When women and girls protect themselves from HIV, they protect a whole new generation from HIV.”

“The fact that, in still too many places, HIV-positive women are denied the right to give birth to healthy babies, is a global injustice that we can end by 2015,” said Ban Soon-Taek, the wife of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

In her message, Mrs Kagame highlighted that Rwanda has achieved key milestones in the fight against HIV/AIDS over the last nine years. She thanked all the partners committed to fighting HIV/AIDS. She noted that Rwanda has integrated all healthcare services, and has significantly improved access to services through decentralisation. The government has made HIV/AIDS part and parcel of its poverty reduction program and Vision 2020. Rwanda is on the right track and is hopeful about achieving its targets.

Mrs. Kagame launched Rwanda’s national initiative for the Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS (EMTCT) in May 2011. Following the launch, various activities were carried out at national level to raise awareness and encourage the public to fully participate in the EMTCT Campaign.

An ‘EMTCT Day’ was held at all health centres offering Prevention of Mother to Child transmission services with the aim of sensitising community health workers on the importance of bringing to an end mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS

Rwanda: Tanzanian Medic Hails Nation On Policy Implementation

Gashegu Muramira/The New Times/10 June 2011

Kampala — A Tanzanian medical expert has called on African countries to emulate Rwanda to ensure vigorous implementation of policies for the benefit of the population.

Dr. Mark Bura, an Arusha based consultant in health, told reporters yesterday, that what matters most is to ensure that what EAC partner states have promised to do in their budgets are implemented to the expectations of the people.

All the five member-states of the East African Community, on Wednesday, presented their budgets to their respective parliaments.

“Governments should emulate Rwanda where senior government officials are taken to task if they fail to reach certain targets in project implementation,” he said.

Bura added that many East Africans are waiting to see the targets spelt out in the 2011/2012 budgetary plans fully implemented.

In the recent past, the rising food prices have been a major point of concern to a population of over 100 million people in the region who predominantly rely on agriculture.

The budget presented by Finance minister, John Rwangombwa, allocated Rwf 67.1 billion compared to Rwf 64.4 billion in 2010/11 financial year, indicating an increase of about 5%.

The Minister said that the money would among other objectives, support scaling-up of irrigation in both marshland and hillside to protect against soil erosion across the country to increase long-term farmer productivity.

His Tanzanian counterpart Mustafa Mkulo listed agriculture as one of his country’s major priorities alongside; electricity, water, infrastructure, and job creation.

The Minister announced a VAT exemption on spare parts for threshers, rice dryers and mills, planters, trailers and power tillers to be used in organised farming.

“It is my hope that this measure will promote agricultural mechanisation and attract investment in the agriculture sector,” he told members of the Tanzanian Parliament.

Kenya’s Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta allocated a cumulative Sh100 billion to promote agriculture to enhance food security, which will stem the spiralling food prices caused by production shortfalls.

Also, duty on maize, wheat and rice was cut to increase local supply and reduce prices.

“We all know the tough times we are facing following the new challenges stemming from rising international commodity prices, including fuel and drought-related concerns on food security,” Kenyatta said.

He added that there is need to take drastic measures to reduce, on a sustainable basis, the cost of living as well as assuring people of food security and employment going forward.

Uganda’s Finance Minister Maria Kiwanuka removed all import duty on hoes and premixes for animal and poultry feeds, while cutting by more than half the same duties on food supplements.

Rwanda: Ministers Expound On Govt Spending, Tax Cuts

Edmund Kagire/The New Times/10 June 2011

In a bid to sensitise the masses on government spending in the 2011/12 fiscal year, government officials have began a campaign to expound more on how the government will spend the over Rwf1 trillion budget in the next 12 months.

The exercise is championed by the Minister of Finance, John Rwangombwa, together with three other ministers – Agriculture, Education, Infrastructure – who got priority funding.

Following the reading of the National Budget on Wednesday, the four ministers took questions from the reporters in a live call-in news conference.

Rwangombwa explained that the Rwf 14 billion loss to be incurred by the government following the slashing of taxes on petroleum products will be covered by the sale of government shares in BRALIRWA and MTN, expected to raise Rwf 25 billion.

He said that the government would reduce taxes on fuel to halt pump prices from increasing, but added that the impact will be mainly felt in declining commodity prices by the end of the year and early next year.

“We know that fuel prices affect the movement of goods so the action the government is taking is aimed at influencing domestic price levels through reduced domestic fuel pump price.

“By reducing taxes on both petrol and diesel by Rwf 100 per litre, pump prices will reduce. Pump prices affect the movement of goods, so by reducing them, both food and commodity prices will effectively go down. We will talk to fuel importers to see what to do,” Rwangombwa said.

He, however, said that the decision to reduce taxes on fuel will unlikely lead to a reduction of passenger fares since it is mainly aimed at reducing commodity prices.

“I have already stated that Government has accepted the fact that we must start harmonising our fuel tax rates with those in the region, and at the same time reduce the inflationary pressure emanating from world fuel and food price increases,” the minister said.

The reduction is to be carried out in two stages: In the June-December period of 2011, the government will effect a reduction in fuel taxes by Rwf 50 per litre for both super and diesel, while the second reduction of Rwf 50 will to be carried out in January 2012.

Rwangombwa said that if the global oil prices do not escalate, average pump prices for both super and gasoil should come down and that at the beginning of next month, new prices will be announced.

In a bid to fill the gaps caused by government losses, Rwangombwa said that they aim increase tax efficiency, by among others, deducting VAT and submitting it directly to the revenue authority from all the goods and services the government will procure.

Despite uncertainties projected in the next 12 months, including an inflation rate of 7.5 percent, unstable food and commodity prices, Rwangombwa said that he is optimistic that the economy will grow by 7 percent in 2011 and between 7.5 to 8 percent in 2012.

“Inflation is expected to hit an all time high of 7.5 percent, this is a figure we are not used to, but we are optimistic that with keen monetary and tax policies in place, the situation will remain under control,” Rwangombwa said.

It is expected that despite the challenges, a number of sectors expected to perform well will boost the economy as well as several government programmes aimed at achieving sustainable growth.

The agriculture sector, trade and manufacturing, a flourishing banking sector, remittances, real estate and construction, as well as tourism, will provide cushions to the economy, still coming to terms with the effects of the global financial crisis.

On her part, the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Agnes Kalibata, shed light on several government projects where efforts will be directed in line with the budget theme; “Ensuring Food Security and Price Stability whilst Maintaining Sustainable Growth”

The agriculture sector was allocated Rwf 67.1 billion and most of the money will go towards irrigation and implementing the countrywide crop intensification programme to boost yields.

Among other things, the government will focus on encouraging farmers to grow high yield crops such as maize and supply them with incentives such as fertilisers.

“That is what we tell our people, if they come together and grow the same crop, it is very easy to supply them with fertilisers and other incentives. Even the irrigation we talk about works properly when people consolidate land and carry out an intensive project,” she said.

Kalibata said that it is expected that the harvest for this season will be stable despite the rain stopping before crops such as maize could be ready for harvest, adding that the government is trying to help farmers water the near ready crops.

She noted that the government intends to increase reserves from 10,000 tonnes to 20,000 while irrigation projects for over 2,000 hectares are already underway. Food prices are also expected to decline.

The Minister of Infrastructure, Albert Nsengiyumva, highlighted priority areas mainly in upgrading the national road network as well as energy generation projects, while the Minister of Education Pierre Damien Habumuremyi expounded on the spending in the education sector in the coming fiscal year

RDC CONGO:

RD Congo : Améliorer la protection des civils avant les élections

www.hrw.org /2011/06/09

L’ONU devrait allouer des ressources supplémentaires pour répondre aux attaques de la LRA et à de possibles violences liées aux élections

Juin 9, 2011

(New York, le 9 juin 2011) – Le Conseil de sécurité des Nations Unies devrait faire en sorte que la mission onusienne en République démocratique du Congo (MONUSCO) dispose de ressources suffisantes et appropriées pour protéger les civils des attaques conduites par l’Armée de résistance du Seigneur (Lord’s Resistance Army, LRA) et prévenir la violence liée aux élections, a déclaré aujourd’hui une coalition de 47 organisations internationales et congolaises. La coalition affirme que la mission de l’ONU, dans sa forme actuelle, n’est pas suffisamment préparée pour répondre aux nombreux défis posés par la violence continue perpétrée par différents groupes, notamment dans les provinces orientales des Kivu, et par les élections à venir.

Le Conseil de sécurité va être informé de la situation en République démocratique du Congo (RDC) aujourd’hui et tenir des consultations sur l’avenir de la mission de maintien de la paix, la MONUSCO, dont le mandat doit être renouvelé à la fin du mois de juin. La responsabilité première de la mission est de protéger les civils. Les élections présidentielles et législatives congolaises sont prévues le 28 novembre 2011.

Les organisations exhortent en particulier le Conseil de sécurité à lutter contre la menace de la LRA, le groupe rebelle ougandais à l’origine de l’une des insurrections les plus longues et les plus brutales au monde.

« C’est le travail du Conseil de sécurité d’assurer que les ressources déjà insuffisantes ne sont pas détournées de la tâche essentielle de protection des civils de la MONUSCO », a déclaré Kirsten Hagon, responsable d’Oxfam a New York. « La mission a aussi urgemment besoin de ressources additionnelles afin de réduire au maximum de potentielles violences liées aux élections. »

Depuis septembre 2008, la LRA a tué près de 2 400 civils et en a enlevé plus de 3 400, dont un grand nombre d’enfants. La LRA opère en République centrafricaine, dans le Sud-Soudan ainsi que dans le nord de la RDC, où au moins 107 nouvelles attaques ont eu lieu depuis le début de l’année. Plus de 400 000 personnes ont été déplacées à cause de la LRA à travers cette région africaine isolée, avec un accès limité ou inexistant à l’aide humanitaire.

Malgré la menace que représente la LRA pour les civils, moins de 5 pour cent des troupes de la MONUSCO sont déployées dans des zones affectées par la LRA. La LRA est responsable du déplacement en RDC d’environ 340 000 personnes qui ont fui leur domicile – soit près d’un cinquième des déplacés internes en RDC, dont le total dépasse 1,7 million. Aucun Casque bleu n’est présent dans le district du Bas-Uélé, dans le nord de la RDC, où certaines des pires attaques de la LRA ont eu lieu et où opérerait le chef de la LRA, Joseph Kony.

« La MONUSCO est bien consciente du problème de la LRA, mais n’a tout simplement pas assez de ressources ni de personnel mobilisés pour la protection des civils exposés aux attaques de la LRA », a souligné Paul Ronan, directeur du plaidoyer à Resolve. « Pour le Conseil de sécurité, ce serait renoncer à son devoir que d’échouer à contrer la menace de la LRA. »

Les organisations appellent le Conseil de sécurité à orienter la mission des Nations Unies en RDC de façon à augmenter d’urgence le nombre de troupes de maintien de la paix présentes dans les zones affectées par la LRA, à améliorer la coordination transfrontière, et à déployer des ressources et du personnel sénior efficaces pour protéger les civils. Les organisations exhortent également le Conseil de sécurité à coordonner ses efforts pour lutter contre la menace de la LRA avec l’Union africaine.

En plus des attaques continuelles de la LRA dans le nord de la RDC, les provinces des Kivu dans l’est font l’objet de niveaux élevés de violence, incluant des tueries et des viols, en grande partie perpétrés par le groupe rebelle Hutu rwandais, les Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR), ainsi que par d’autres groupes armés et par des soldats de l’armée nationale congolaise, dont ceux récemment intégrés du Congrès national pour la défense du peuple (CNDP). Alors que le Conseil de sécurité cherche à répondre aux risques liés aux attaques continues de la LRA et aux élections à venir, les organisations l’exhortent à faire en sorte qu’aucune ressource ne soit détournée des activités de protection, cruciales dans cette région dangereuse.

Reconnaissant que la mission des Nations Unies sera appelée à soutenir les élections, logistiquement et par d’autres types d’appuis, les organisations ont appelé également la MONUSCO à aider à faire en sorte que ces élections soient équitables et à fournir une sécurité aux votants, à la société civile, aux médias et aux candidats politiques.

« L’ONU ne peut pas se permettre d’être associée à des élections frauduleuses ou violentes en RDC », a affirmé Anneke Van Woudenberg, chercheuse senior sur l’Afrique à Human Rights Watch. « La MONUSCO doit renforcer son rôle dans le processus électoral afin de minimiser les violences liées aux élections et d’agir rapidement pour protéger les votants et les candidats d’une attaque. »

Les organisations exhortent la mission des Nations Unies à établir rapidement une unité de surveillance consacrée à documenter les violences liées aux élections, notamment les attaques et menaces faites aux candidats politiques et à leur supporters, aux journalistes et aux défenseurs des droits humains. De telles attaques ont été fréquentes pendant et immédiatement après les élections de 2006 en RDC.

Dans son rapport du 12 mai, le Secrétaire général de l’ONU Ban Ki-moon a informé le Conseil de sécurité que 100 incidents relatifs à des attaques contre des opposants politiques, des journalistes et des défenseurs des droits humains avaient déjà été signalés à la MONUSCO ; il a exprimé sa « grave préoccupation » au sujet des violences liées aux élections.

« Nous avons besoin que la MONUSCO ait les moyens d’intervenir quand des défenseurs des droits humains ou des journalistes sont attaqués, au lieu simplement de ne rien faire », a insisté Jérôme Bonso, responsable d’Agir Ensemble pour les Élections Transparentes et Apaisées (AETA). « Des élections équitables et libres, sans violence, sont la seule façon de sortir la RDC du conflit vers un futur plus stable. »

Organisations signataires de ce communiqué :

Organisations internationales

1.Agir Ensemble pour les Droits de l’Homme (AEDH)

2.Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC)

3.Cosi

4.Deutsche Welthungerhilfe

5.Ecumenical Network Central Africa (OeNZ)

6.ENOUGH Project

7.EurAc: The European Network for Central Africa

8.Fédération Internationale des Ligues de Droits de l’Homme (FIDH)

9.Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (GCR2P)

10.Human Rights Watch

11.International Rescue Committee

12.Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA)

13.Oxfam

14.Réseau France – Afrique Centrale (Réfac)

15.Resolve

16.Save the Congo

17.Society for Threatened Peoples

18.Trocaire

Organisations congolaises

1.Action des Chrétiens pour l’Abolition de la Torture au Nord-Kivu (ACAT/NK)

2.Action pour la Promotion et la Défense des Droits des Personnes Défavorisées (APRODEPED)

3.Action Sociale pour la Paix et le Développement (ASPD)

4.Agir Ensemble pour les Élections Transparentes et Apaisées (AETA)

5.Assistance Judiciaires aux Vulnérables (AJV)

6.Association des Jeunes Engagés pour le Développement et la Santé (AJDS)

7.Blessed Aid

8.Bureau pour le Volontariat au Service de l’Enfance et de la Santé (BVES)

9.Campagne Pour la Paix (CPP)

10.Centre d’Etudes et de Formation Populaire pour les Droits de l’Homme (CEFOP/DH)

11.Centre de Promotion Socio-Sanitaire (CEPROSSAN)

12.Centre de Recherche sur l’Environnement, la Démocratie et les Droits de l’Homme (CREDDHO)

13.Centre pour la Justice et la Réconciliation (CJR)

14.Centre pour la Paix et les Droits de l’Homme (CPDH)

15.Child Protection Consulting Group (CPCG)

16.Collectif ALPHA UJUVI

17.Commission Catholique Justice et Paix de Dungu

18.Défense et Assistance aux Femmes et Enfants Vulnérables en Afrique (DAFEVA)

19.Encadrement des Femmes Indigènes et des Ménages Vulnérables (EFIM)

20.Groupe Justice et Libération (GJL)

21.Groupe Lotus

22.Ligue pour la Défense et la Vulgarisation des Droits de l’Homme (LDVDH)

23.OLAME Centre

24.Renaissance Africaine – Sud Kivu

25.Réseau d’Initiatives Locales pour un Développement Durable (REID)

26.Solidarité des Volontaires pour l’Humanité (SVH)

27.Solidarité Féminine pour la Paix et le Développement Intégral (SOFEPADI)

28.Synergie des Femmes pour les Victimes des Violences Sexuelles (SFVS)

29.Synergie pour l’Assistance Judiciaire aux Victimes de Violations des Droits Humains au Nord-Kivu (SAJ)

UGANDA :

Uganda: Otunnu ‘Drowned’ As Police Block Rally

Richard Wanambwa/The Monitor/10 June 2011

The Police yesterday used dogs and sprayed high pressure water to block a planned opposition rally in Kampala.

The rally was planned by Free Uganda Now, a new pressure group comprising opposition political parties Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC), Democratic Party (DP) and Social Democratic Party (SDP).

The leaders of the parties were set to address a rally at Nsambya playgrounds at noon but the police cordoned off Uganda House, the headquarters of UPC, where Mr Olara Otunnu, Mr Matthias Nsubuga (DP) and Mr Mike Mabikke (SDP), among others, were holed up for a meeting before heading to Nsambya.

Police spokesperson Judith Nabakooba said the rally was blocked because the leaders had failed to comply with police directives.

At 1:45 pm, youth donned in red T-shirts with inscriptions, Free Uganda Now, stormed out of Uganda House only to be confronted by the police that quickly built a ring around them and blocked their planned procession to Nsambya.

At 1:57 pm, Mr Otunnu, Mr Mabike and Mr Nsubuga emerged from the sixth floor of Uganda House but the police promptly blocked their exit and surrounded them together with the youth, sparking off a scuffle and exchange of words with Kampala Metropolitan South Police chief Moses Kafeero, in front of Uganda House.

“There is no rally today and you are inciting the public. We shall not allow you to waste people’s time,” Mr Kafeero said.

But Mr Otunnu interjected that it was the police wasting their time because their activities were within the law. “We wrote to you and you were aware and therefore we don’t expect this type of confrontation. The law says we should notify you and thereafter you provide us with security,” he said.

Dogs on the loose

As the debate raged on, Mr Kafeero seemed to have struck a common ground with the opposition leaders, but Central Police Station District Police Commander Norman Musinga stormed the group with police dogs and water cannons.

Sensing danger, the leaders and their supporters decided to sit down and address the press.

But At 2:30 pm, Mr Musinga quickly ordered the police to disperse the crowds using dogs and water cannon.

The politicians remained defiant despite being sprayed with the high pressure water before the police moved in, manhandling them at the doorsteps of Uganda House. The opposition leaders huddled together, sang the National Anthem and retreated to the sixth floor to address a press conference.

Out of danger, they reaffirmed their commitment to the struggle and resolved to go on with more rallies in their struggle to “Free Uganda Now”.

The Police also deployed heavily and cordoned off Nsambya playgrounds, the venue for the rally.

The ‘Free Uganda Now’ leadership late last month wrote to the police notifying them of an intended rally but the police refused to grant them permission, reasoning that past processions through the Kampala central business district had turned riotous and they could not guarantee safety and protection of the business community.

Being a public holiday yesterday, there was visibly little business with most shops in the city centre closed.

Uganda tourism workshops get hammered

By Wolfgang H. Thome, eTN /www.eturbonews.com /Jun 09, 2011

UGANDA (eTN) – The annual budget reading yesterday provided a level of shock to the local hospitality industry, when the new Minister for Finance announced an across the board cut in government budgets and funding for workshop tourism. The Hon. Maria Kiwanuka, in her first action as minister – she took over from her predecessor the Hon. Syda Bumba only hours prior to presenting the annual budget outlines – slashed the respective budget allocations by 30 percent, leaving hoteliers and venue providers reeling from the likely impact of this decree, taken, according to the Minister, to reduce “wastage” in government funding.

At the same time advertising budgets for all government bodies were slashed by 50 percent, leaving those media depending on extensive government adverts reeling, too.

The new budget outline seeks to re-allocate as much as 40 billion Uganda shillings made in such savings to other sectors like health, education, infrastructure, and business support, as the new minister demands “austerity” from government and is intent on cutting discretionary spending across the board.

Hence, the tourism and hospitality sector in Uganda braces now for a double whammy as local spending on workshops and seminars, a mainstream activity by many hotels in Kampala, Entebbe, Mukono, Jinja, and across the entire country, in fact, will see a third less bookings from government bodies, while the allocation of funds to the newly-created Ministry of Tourism and most notably the Uganda Tourist Board remain frugal, to put it nicely.

Yet, the budget also addressed key issues on price increases for ordinary wananchi, like the removal of the excise duty on kerosene, removal of taxes and duties on imported farming implements like hoes, and a substantial reduction on the import duty on food supplements, which should translate to lower prices on the market very early and – good for tourism – take the sting of the opposition campaign to create chaos in the city riding on the sentiments of the poorest in society. A calm and peaceful country is a country more likely to attract more visitors and those we need to fill the beds in our lodges and camps in the safari parks and the hotels and make up for the loss of spending by government.

SOUTH AFRICA:

South Africa’s Manuel may battle Lagarde in IMF contest

By Catherine Bremer/ Reuters/ Fri Jun 10, 2011

PARIS

PARIS (Reuters) – French finance minister Christine Lagarde, favorite to take the IMF’s top job, could face a late challenge after a report that South Africa’s Trevor Manuel could enter the race as the window for bids closes.

With Lagarde lobbying African officials in Lisbon over her candidacy on Friday, Emerging Markets magazine said South Africa will nominate Manuel, a former finance minister, for the job. It cited a “senior and well-placed” source in Pretoria.

President Jacob Zuma’s office would not confirm the report and Manuel said his focus was on South Africa but appeared to leave some room for maneuver.

“Today is the deadline. I haven’t put my hat into the ring as I speak to you,” he told public radio station SAFM. “My adrenaline is flowing about South Africa right now. It’s where my focus is.”

Manuel, who handled Africa’s biggest economy deftly for a decade, has long been touted as an ideal developing-world candidate for the IMF job.

Many see him winning more support than the only other declared rival to Lagarde, Mexican Central Bank chief Agustin Carstens, whose policy views are viewed as too conservative by many of his emerging market peers.

Lagarde, an adept negotiator with hands-on experience in the euro zone’s debt crisis, is seen as the clear favorite despite a legal investigation hanging over her concerning a 2008 arbitration payout.

French judges are expected to ask on Friday for more time to consider whether allegations that she abused her authority when she granted a large payout to a prominent businessman to settle a legal case warrant opening a formal inquiry.

Lagarde told reporters in Lisbon, where she was attending the African Development Bank’s annual meeting, that she was confident about the investigation’s outcome.

Lagarde has flown to Brazil, India and China to tout her merits for the IMF job, and will carry on her tour to Saudi Arabia and Egypt this weekend.

BRICS STILL DIVIDED

The African Union said on Thursday it wanted to see a non-European in the job but emerging market powers have failed to come up with an agreed candidate to challenge Europe’s traditional grip on the job.

“Lagarde is still the favorite,” said Jacques Reland of the Global Policy Institute. “The BRICS are still quite divided and I don’t think a new candidate from South Africa can threaten her candidacy given the importance of the European and U.S. vote.”

The United States and Europe hold 48 percent of votes at the International Monetary Fund. Emerging nations have 12 percent.

The Fund will name its new managing director on June 30.

Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn quit the post in May over charges he tried to rape a New York hotel maid.

Emerging market powers like Russia, India and China want an end to Europe’s grip on the top job at the international lender, given their increasing weight in the world economy, but some see it as too early to change a years-old pact that keeps the IMF in European hands and the World Bank run by an American.

A Reuters exclusive report that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been in talks about leaving her job next year to head the World Bank made it look even more likely Lagarde will get the IMF job.

Lagarde, 55, would be the first woman to head the Fund. A medal-winning synchronized swimmer and high-flying corporate lawyer, she has played a key role in Europe’s battle to recover from economic crisis and is France’s main G20 negotiator.

Manuel, also 55, won plaudits for his time as finance minister from 1999 to 2009. Born under apartheid and imprisoned for political activities in the 1980s, he made a swift transition from blue-jeaned activist to dark-suited minister and won investor confidence in post-apartheid South Africa.

Carstens has an economics PhD from the University of Chicago, a haven for proponents of deregulation and laissez-faire economics.

(Editing by Mike Peacock)

Zuma Takes Aim at Eskom, Transnet to Increase Confidence in South Africa

By Franz Wild and Carli Lourens -/www.bloomberg.com/ Jun 10, 2011

South Africa replaced the chairman and most of the board of state-owned power utility Eskom Holdings Ltd. and plans a similar reorganization at its rail and ports operation as their capacity constraints hampered investment.

The government named Zola Tsotsi, the head of the power authority in neighboring Lesotho, as chairman of Eskom and replaced all but two of the company’s board members, Cabinet spokesman Jimmy Manyi said in Cape Town yesterday, without giving reasons. A new chairman was also appointed at defense company, Denel Ltd., and a reorganization can be expected at Transnet SOC Ltd., Manyi said.

State-owned companies have “not got any credibility, they’ve not inspired confidence in the business community” for the past six years, said Iraj Abedian, chief executive officer at Johannesburg-based Pan-African Investment and Research Services. “The undertone here is that President Jacob Zuma is saying, ‘If you don’t deliver I sack you.’”

Eskom, which supplies about 95 percent of South Africa’s electricity, is spending 485 billion rand ($72 billion) to build power plants and prevent a repeat of shortages that shut the country’s biggest gold and platinum mines for about five days in January 2008. The government prohibited Eskom from expanding for four years until 2004 in a failed bid to attract private investment into the power industry.

Power Outages

A lack of generating capacity may have cost Africa’s largest economy investment. Rio Tinto Group scrapped an aluminum smelter project in 2009 and BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s largest mining company, partially closed its Bayside aluminum smelter in 2008 because of power shortages.

Several residential neighborhoods in northern Johannesburg were without power today because of technical faults, Sol Mosolo, a spokesman for electricity distributor City Power, said in a phone interview.

“This is a decision that comes right from the top,” said Susan Booysen, a political analyst at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. “In Zuma, there is more of a willingness to reshuffle at the top if there’s underperformance. However, the proof is in the pudding.”

In October, Zuma fired seven ministers, including Barbara Hogan, who was in charge of public enterprises, naming Malusi Gigaba as her replacement. The department is expected to issue a statement later today, spokesman Richard Mantu said.

‘Entirely Unexpected’

The Eskom action took the mining industry and labor unions by surprise, raising concern that it would be disruptive to the utility. South Africa’s Chamber of Mines said in a statement yesterday that it does “not understand the logic” of the action and will approach Gigaba for reasons.

“It’s entirely unexpected,” said Mike Rossouw, head of the Energy Intensive Users Group, which represents Eskom’s largest customers, such as Xstrata Plc (XTA) and Anglo American Platinum Ltd. “Is this a hard-nosed attempt to sweep clean, or are there any other reasons? One wants to have stability.”

Zuma, whose ruling African National Congress lost support in last month’s municipal elections, has pledged to create 5 million jobs in the next decade to slash a 25 percent unemployment rate. To do that, the economy needs to expand 7 percent a year, according to government estimates. The economy grew 2.8 percent in 2010 and is forecast by the central bank to expand 3.6 percent this year.

Transnet

Transnet didn’t have a permanent chief executive officer for almost two years until Brian Molefe was appointed to the position in February. The utility is spending 110 billion rand over the next five years to expand rail and ports capacity and ease constraints on coal, manganese and iron ore exports.

Richards Bay Coal Terminal, Africa’s biggest coal export facility, said on May 30 it won’t expand further until South Africa’s rail network allows it to use all of its current capacity. While RBCT is capable of shipping 91 million metric tons of coal a year, it exported 63.4 million tons last year, Chief Executive Officer Raymond Chirwa said.

The performance of state-owned companies was among factors inhibiting growth and development in South Africa, the National Planning Commission said in a report to lawmakers in Cape Town yesterday. The companies need more investment and greater focus on efficiency, according to the commission, which is led by Minister Trevor Manuel.

“Levels of efficiency in delivery of these services have been lower than they should be,” commission member Anton Eberhard told reporters in Cape Town. “That led us to think about the governance of these bodies and whether there should be changes in those governance structures. That certainly will be part of our discussions in future.”

How mobile money innovation made South Africans millionaires

Gugulethu Mfuphi/ moneyweb.co.za/10 June 2011

Cape Town based Fundamo gets $110m from Visa acquisition with more investment to follow.

JOHANNESBURG – More than ten years of hard work and smart innovation has made the founder and CEO of a Cape Town mobile financial services provider a multi-millionaire – and if you’re an innovative thinker you could potentially be one too!

On Thursday, leader in global payments Visa announced that it had acquired Fundamo, a South African company specialising in the provision of mobile financial services for $110m (+/- R741m) – and with fingers crossed and thumbs held, locally based South African software companies could soon be snatched by other multinational conglomerates. According to Bill Gajda, global head of mobile products at Visa Inc, “mobile money innovation in South Africa is alive and well” and key decision industry leaders are keeping a watch on our country.

“I think companies need to think global[ly] as South Africans it’s the one major hurdle[s] that we have to cross is to figure out what we do with global relevance and jump into that pond,” said COO of Fundamo Aletha Ling.

Visa’s most recent investment is expected to accelerate the execution of its global strategy that was announced last month to provide the next generation of payments solutions, enabling consumers to transact wherever and whenever they choose, using a card, a computer or a mobile device with reliability, security and global acceptance, it said in a written statement. Both companies believe that they will be able to propel each other’s objectives. “Early on, [we] realised that Visa was the perfect partner for Fundamo because we share the same vision and same purpose,” said Ling

Whilst the company’s CEO and founder Hans van Rensburg is excited about the new opportunity he was quick to point out that the $110m price tag attached to the sale of the company did not influence his decision to sell. “It’s about passion; it’s not all about the money, because that’s when you go astray,” said Van Rensburg. He added that he would stick with Visa and its commitment to serve both Fundamo’s existing and emerging markets.

Gajda says “through [this] investment, we can increase the level of innovation. Innovation will accelerate in the country. Using Fundamo’s licence platform model and using its service provider platform we will be able to take closed looped systems to allow consumers to make more kinds of payments both internationally and locally– through a visa account.”

The company also appears excited about urging other innovators to start thinking outside the box. “I can’t tell you how passionate I am about the idea that South [Africa] is a great technology place and that we innovate great stuff here. Our ability to create something global and to create an export industry and maybe to encourage other businesses to create something similar to really create the jobs that matter for the future, “said Ling.

History of Fundamo

Fundamo – which stands for Fundamentally Mobile – believes it is a front runner in mobile banking. It was founded in 1999 by its current CEO Hannes van Rensburg. Its two major shareholders are Sanlam Group and Remgro Investment Holdings. Prior to the formation of Fundamo, Van Rensburg was the CIO of the Sanlam Group. Fundamo, had been a privately-held enterprise with more than 50 customers covering 5m subscribers in 40 countries, with a special emphasis in Africa. Its services work on the premise of SMS-based mobile payments, rather than new technologies like NFC (near field communication, a set of short-range wireless technologies, typically requiring a distance of 4 cm or less usually used in smartphones and high-tech points of sale).

South Africa: New Policy Saves Thousands of Babies From HIV

Anso Thom/ Health-e (Cape Town) / allafrica.com/9 June 2011

Government has slashed the HIV transmission rate from pregnant mothers to their babies to merely 3.5 percent, potentially sparing some 67 000 babies from HIV infection.

This success is due mainly to the health department vastly improving its programme for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV infection (PMTCT) from April last year.

“We have worked very, very hard to train staff to make the changes and we are so happy with the improvement,” said Precious Robinson, deputy director of government’s PMTCT programme, at the release of the new figures at the SA AIDS conference yesterday.

Under the old treatment programme, mothers and their newborns were given one dose of the antiretroviral drug nevirapine.

At best, this reduced the HIV transmission rate to 8.8 percent, according to small local surveys. But in some parts of KwaZulu-Natal, one in five HIV positive mothers were still infecting their babies despite getting nevirapine.

The health department estimated that around 70 000 babies a year were still being born with HIV in 2008, and many were dying from AIDS-related illnesses.

In order to save babies, the new health minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, prioritised improving the PMTCT treatment programme when he was appointed.

From last April, the health department advised that all pregnant women with HIV are given the ARV called AZT from 14 weeks of pregnancy and three ARVs during labour (nevirapine, tenofovir and 3TC), which is when most infections take place.

If a pregnant woman has a CD4 count of less than 350, she should be put onto triple therapy (three ARVs) within two weeks of getting her CD4 test results.

Newborn babies are now given nevirapine syrup for as long as their mothers are breastfeeding them, or for six weeks if not they are not breast-fed.

Between June and December last year, the national PMCTC survey tested almost 10 000 six-week-old babies at 580 clinics in all nine provinces.

Almost one-third of these babies had HIV positive mothers, yet only 3.5 percent of the HIV positive mothers had infected their babies.

In KwaZulu-Natal, four out of ten newborns had HIV positive mothers yet only 2.8 percent became infected – even lower than the national average.

Gauteng’s HIV transmission rate was the lowest in the country at 2.3 percent, while Mpumalanga had the worst rate of 6.2 percent, almost twice the national average. The Free State had the second worst rate (5.7 percent).

Without any ARV intervention, around 30-40 percent of HIV positive mothers can transmit HIV to their babies during pregnancy, labour and after birth through breastfeeding, according to Dr Ameena Goga.

Goga, from the Medical Research Council (MRC) was key in conducting the survey, and warned that more babies were likely to test HIV positive at 18 months.

One of the reasons for this was that some newborn babies were being both breast-fed and given other foods including formula. Mixed feeding makes babies very vulnerable to HIV infection.

Health Deputy Director General Dr Yogan Pillay admitted that government had given “mixed signals about infant feeding” but that it was moving towards exclusive breastfeeding.

“The Minister is having a high-level consultative meeting in August, and we might stop giving formula feed out at clinics,” said Pillay.

Meanwhile, Robinson said 11 percent of pregnant women who tested HIV negative initially became HIV positive during pregnancy.

“We are worried about these women because these might be the ones that are mostly transmitting HIV to their babies because a newly infected person is highly infectious,” said Robinson.

All women who initially tested HIV negative are now being re-tested at 32 weeks of pregnancy.

“It is possible that we can eradicate mother-to-child transmission by 2015, but we now need to focus on the post-natal process, including infant feeding and improved monitoring of babies,” said Robinson

Welcoming the results, Professor Helen Rees, director of the Reproductive Health Research Unit, said it proved that the health system could be made to work.

“We are always told how bad the health system is, but this is an example of how it can be made to work well to save lives,” said Rees.

Walmart entry a messed blessing

June 10 2011 / www.iol.co.za

Walmart’s acquisition of a 51 percent stake in Massmart will be a mixed blessing for the clothing industry.

This is according to a survey by the Redress Consultancy, which found contrasting views among clothing producers on the benefits of the deal.

Walmart’s entry into South Africa will no doubt have an operational impact on the retail sector.

Edcon, the owners of Edgars and Jet, reportedly said that new entrants to the market could result in lower prices and margins or a decrease in its market share.

However, the consequences of the deal for the clothing sector is uncertain.

Most respondents to the survey said South Africa’s clothing sector had the potential to entice more local procurement if it realigned itself to global productivity and delivery standards. But this could only be achieved through strengthening skills, productivity output and restructuring wages as has been proposed by clothing companies that don’t comply with minimum wage deals.

The industry is close to crisis with many firms saying they cannot afford the minimum wage, while the bargaining council is proceeding with writs of execution against firms that are not compliant.

Some of the respondents said the Walmart/Massmart deal might bring the industry, the union and the bargaining council closer to finding solutions that would make the sector more competitive.

One respondent argued that if Walmart did source from local clothing manufacturers, it would provide new opportunities for the industry and hopefully entice South African retailers to source more locally.

Job growth would escalate if the industry was able to become more competitive, but in order to do this both the industry and the union would need to revisit wages, the non-compliance issue and productivity.

Another respondent commented that if South Africa’s clothing sector was able to rejuvenate its productivity and competitiveness, “local retailers would resort to purchasing locally and the quicker turnaround and understanding of local conditions would give them an edge against the colossal giants like Walmart”.

But another said the competition between local retailers and Walmart could escalate into a price war that would have a negative impact on the clothing sector.

“I am not sure how much further down prices can go… they (Walmart) are very price sensitive and it would be an immense challenge for clothing manufacturers to meet their price points.”

Illegal imports are plaguing the clothing manufacturing sector as well.

One respondent summed up the industry’s view by saying: “If the authorities would apply the same vigour to limiting illegal imports as they did to investigating the Walmart proposal we might have a stronger value chain with broad-based benefits for South African workers and consumers.”

It is expected that the clothing merchandise stocked by Massmart stores will increase.

Asda, Walmart’s UK subsidiary, has a low-priced clothing label, George, which Walmart has rolled out in seven markets worldwide. It is expected to be launched in South Africa as well.

A report earlier this month on the Fibre2fashion website stated that George had announced joint sourcing with Walmart in order to moderate the increases in cotton prices and other input materials.

George and Walmart will jointly procure fabric, which accounts for 40 percent to 45 percent of the garment cost, and the clothing label is considering joint sourcing for garments as well.

George is evaluating its production units and is also considering options to bring manufacturing nearer home from southeast Asia. It has already started a production unit in Turkey and is procuring some fabrics from the UK. – Samantha Enslin-Payne

African Leaders Eye Cape-to-Cairo Trade Bloc

By Franz Wild / www.bloomberg.com/ Jun 10, 2011

African leaders meet this weekend to push forward proposals to bring more than half a billion consumers from Cape Town to Cairo into a single free trade zone.

Heads of state from the Southern African Development Community, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, and the East African Community trade blocs will meet on June 12 in Johannesburg, South Africa for only their second meeting after an initial summit in October 2008.

South Africa, the continent’s largest economy, is driving regional integration as it seeks to create a larger market for companies such as Shoprite Holdings Ltd. (SHP), Africa’s biggest retailer. Africa’s economy has grown an average of 5.7 percent over the past decade according to the International Monetary Fund, fueling the expansion of a new middle class.

Strong growth and “intensifying global competition for Africa’s resources and markets” make it “imperative that South Africa accelerates efforts to promote regional integration to ensure that we trade on terms at least as favorable as other competitors,” Trade Minister Rob Davies said.

Africa now has more families earning in excess of $20,000 a year than India, according to a McKinsey & Co. Inc study published in June last year.

While there are at least eight overlapping African economic blocs, poorly maintained transport routes and lengthy border- crossings have undermined internal trade.

Grand Area

The so-called Grand Free Trade Area, which encompasses 26 countries and 590 million people, would initially be limited to the trade of goods, Davies said in a June 8 opinion piece published in Johannesburg’s Business Report newspaper.

The growth of Africa’s consumer market saw Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) bid last year for a controlling stake in Massmart Holdings Ltd. (MSM), the continent’s third-largest retailer. Eliminating trade tariffs may aid U.S. companies such as Wal-Mart, which are looking for opportunities on the continent, said Jose Fernandez, U.S. assistant secretary of state for economic, energy and business affairs.

“It’s beneficial, it just opens up the market, it increases the customer base, it makes it cheaper to transport products from one place to another,” Fernandez said in a June 6 interview in Johannesburg. “It’s something we believe will help companies and customers will have access to cheaper products.”

Shift to Asia

Africa’s overseas trade has shifted from traditional partners such as the European Union and U.S. to emerging economies including South Korea, India and China, which is now the continent’s largest trading partner, according to a June 6 report by the African Development Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United Nations Development Programme and the UN Economic Commission for Africa.

Trade among African countries has been stymied by political instability, a lack of diversification in their economies and poor implementation of trade agreements, the report said.

The uneven pace of regional integration in Africa in which customs unions aren’t fully implemented, indicate that it will take years for the planned trade zone to take effect, said Paul Kruger, a trade analyst at the Trade Law Centre for Southern Africa based in Stellenbosch near Cape Town.

“We are going to run into a few problems,” Kruger said in an interview. “If you want to do this thing on a grandiose scale, how are you going to do that if you’ve never done it on the smaller scale.”

South Africa fails to nominate IMF candidate

www.businessday.co.za/ DES LATHAM / 2011/06/10

Deadline for nominations ends today, but South Africa has yet to nominate a preferred candidate in spite of Trevor Manuel being suggested

With hours to go before nominations for a new International Monetary Fund president close, the African Union issued a statement that the new candidate should not be European and South African diplomats have echoed this opinion.

However, South Africa and the AU has failed to name an alternative candidate.

Earlier today, Emerging Markets magazine reported that Pretoria would nominate former Finance Minister Trevor Manuel to head the International Monetary Fund.

The magazine said “high placed” sources in Pretoria said he had won the backing of President Jacob Zuma for the job, and government would officially announce his candidacy today.

Communications officers for the Presidency could not be contacted, but Zuma’s schedule for today does not include a major announcement about the IMF job.

Reuters reports that Zuma spokesman Zizi Kodwa denied this saying “It’s just a rumour”.

During a media conference in Cape Town on Thursday, Manuel also refused to talk about the IMF position.

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde who is the favourite to become next managing director, has used her Twitter feed to call for the organisation to recruit a more diverse range of staff.

Lagarde was responding to questions from Twitter users on Thursday, on the eve of the closing date for candidacies for the post, which has been empty since former head Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested on sex assault charges.

“There should be appropriate and proportionate representation at staff level to express and respect both diversity and universality,” she said, in response to a question from journalist Alicia Gonzalez about Latin American managers.

Lagarde has the support of most European governments to take over the IMF, but has encountered some resistance from some emerging economy countries which feel the time has come for Europe to lose its longstanding monopoly on the position.

But they have failed to suggest a single candidate for the job, leaving the door open for the EU to nominate Lagarde.

lathamd@bdfm.co.za

UPDATE 1-S.Africa’s Manuel says not running for IMF post

Fri Jun 10, 2011 / Reuters

JOHANNESBURG, June 10 (Reuters) – Former South African finance minister Trevor Manuel ruled himself out of the running for the post of International Monetary Fund chief on Friday and said Europe’s grip on the job should be prised open.

“It is important to understand that decisions take place in the context of world politics. Against that backdrop, I have decided not to avail myself,” he told a news conference.

He was critical of emerging nations for not doing more to field a candidate to take on French finance minister and front-runner Christine Lagarde for a post that has traditionally been the preserve of a European.

“A lot more should have been done to show Europeans that this birthright is not enough,” he said, adding that it would be “most unfortunate if we end up with a European who is bound by the EU”.

Earlier, Manuel told public broadcaster SAFM that his main focus was trying to ensure South Africa, which has defied critics and sceptics with its strong economic performance since the end of apartheid in 1994, remained a success story.

“My adrenaline is flowing about South Africa right now. It’s where my focus is,” he told the radio station. (Reporting by Peroshni Govender, Editing by Ed Cropley)

South Africa’s Manuel Says He Won’t Stand as Candidate for Head of IMF

By Franz Wild and Angeline Benoit / www.bloomberg.com/ Jun 10, 2011

South Africa’s former finance minister Trevor Manuel said he won’t stand as a candidate for managing director of the International Monetary Fund as a deadline for nominations closed today.

“I’m not available” for the position, Manuel told reporters in Johannesburg today. “I haven’t thrown my hat in the ring.”

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, who has the backing of European Union nations, is the top candidate to take over from Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned last month to fight a charge of attempted rape in New York. South Africa, which has lobbied for a non-European to head the fund, failed to win support from other emerging market countries for a joint candidate.

“More could have been done and more should have been done” by developing countries, Manuel said. “It would be most unfortunate if we ended up with a European who is bound by EU decisions about what to do,” given the credit crisis in Greece, Portugal and Ireland.

Lagarde is in Lisbon today, holding talks with African finance ministers and central bank governors attending the annual meeting of the African Development Bank. She visited China, Brazil and India since last month to lobby support.

Morocco Support

Morocco backs Lagarde for the IMF job, Finance Minister Salaheddine Mezouar said in an interview in Lisbon today. She is the “best candidate with the best profile,” he said.

“There clearly is a contradiction between an economy that is as globalized as the one that we live in now and institutions that are still premised on the events of 1944, when decisions about them were taken,” Manuel said.

Manuel, 55, earned plaudits from financial leaders around the globe for his handling of the economy. As finance minister for 13 years prior to heading the country’s National Planning Commission from May 2009, Manuel brought the budget into a surplus and introduced inflation targeting.

“Christine and I are friends, we get on amazingly well,” Manuel said. “She’s very competent, she’s very charming. But let’s depersonalize this issue.”

Lagarde is due to visit Saudi Arabia tomorrow and Egypt the following day.

Egypt’s government has yet to take an official position on who it will back as head of the IMF, said Gouda Abdel Khaleq, the minister for social justice.

TANZANIA:

Eamon Gilmore begins Tanzania visit

Friday, 10 June 2011/ www.rte.ie

Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore has begun a three-day visit of Tanzania.

Ireland provided just over €31m in bilateral aid to the east African nation in 2010, where income levels are among the lowest in Africa.

On Sunday, the Tánaiste will meet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss improving nutrition in developing countries.

He is also due to meet President Jakaya Kikwete, Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda and representatives of Irish NGOs.

Ireland has been providing aid to Tanzania for more than 30 years .

Although the country has experienced economic growth, many there do not earn $1 a day and one in every 20 children born in Tanzania dies before their first birthday.

The Tánaiste’s trip comes amid debate on Ireland’s overseas aid budget, which currently stands at €670m a year representing 0.52% of GNP. He will visit projects benefitting from Irish aid.

The coalition is committed in the Programme for Government to achieving the UN target of 0.7% of GNP by 2015.

However, Department of Finance briefing documents say that increasing aid to meet that target could result in cuts elsewhere.

Minister of State Jan O’Sullivan recently said it will be a challenging target to meet in the current circumstances.

KENYA:

Dadaab, Kenya: No Way In – Dr Gedi Mohamed

10 Jun 2011 /www.msf.org

Dr Gedi Mohamed is director of the busy general hospital in Dagahaley refugee camp, near Dadaab. He is the first Kenyan Somali doctor to work in the camp since Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) took over healthcare there, and he believes that the linguistic and cultural links he shares with his predominantly Somali patients make a huge difference to the success of his work.

In recent months the hospital has come under increasing pressure, as thousands of new refugees arrive from Somalia in need of medical care. The hospital is operating at 110 percent capacity, and last week saw the opening of an extra 60-bed ward to accommodate all the sick and malnourished children. Dr Gedi describes what brought him to Dadaab, and how MSF is coping with the current crisis.

“I was born 130 km north of Dadaab, in the town of Wajir. My family are Kenyan Somalis. My parents are just ordinary people, but my grandmother educated me, my cousin – who was a pharmacist in Nairobi – encouraged me to do medicine, and my brother paid all of my fees. With this support from my family, I went to Uganda, to Makerere, the oldest university in East Africa, where I studied medicine and surgery for five years. This was followed by a year at the hospital in Embu, in central Kenya, which I can honestly say was the hardest year of my life. But that’s what made me who I am, and it was good preparation for working in Dadaab.

When I first came to work for MSF, in early 2010, I was the first Somali doctor in the hospital. In fact, at one point I was the only doctor in the hospital – now we have eight. In that first year I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of work. At that time, MSF was just starting up its surgical programme, and as surgery was my specialism, I decided to stay on. I’ve been director of Dagahaley hospital since September.

Working in Dadaab is incredibly challenging. The environment is very harsh, and we work hard – we take just two days’ holiday a month. On the other hand, the result of what we do is visible, and every day you get to help someone. When I go to the market, people are constantly coming up to thank me and say ‘I was your patient’. That is the satisfaction that keeps us going. I can’t imagine I’ll ever achieve more in my career than what I’m doing here, in terms both of helping patients and the special relationship I have with them.

Ninety-eight percent of the camp’s population come from Somalia. As I’m a Somali speaker, patients can come and talk straight to me. If you have a translator, you lose so much that is important. But it’s about far more than simply having a language in common. I understand the culture, the religion, the environment they’re in. I can relate directly to them. If there are issues around giving care – if a patient is refusing treatment, for example – I can explain it from a religious perspective. Our shared culture makes it easier for me, and for the patients too.

The challenges that the hospital faces are different for the two populations – the long-term refugees and the new arrivals. They both have different experiences and expectations, and need to receive different health education messages. In Somalia, healthcare has been a victim of the civil war. The new arrivals have no experience of conventional medical care, so we have to explain very clearly what is going on. We have to convince people that certain critical conditions are treatable, and that, if they will just give us time, the patient doesn’t have to die. They have a very different perception of health compared to someone who has lived in the camp for 20 years.

But our current challenge is less to do with perception than sheer numbers, as we try and deal with the thousands of new refugees who are arriving each month. Until recently, bed occupancy in the hospital was at about 80 percent, but now we are seeing occupancy rates of 110 percent. This is having a big impact on the quality of care provided, as staff who previously did a ward round for 20 patients are now doing ward rounds for twice that number.

Last month there were 308 deliveries in the maternity ward – double what it was a year ago – and the numbers of sick and malnourished children are rising steeply. Right now we have 80 severely malnourished children with medical complications in the inpatient feeding centre, and 782 children with malnutrition receiving outpatient care. We have just opened a temporary extension to the feeding centre, with 60 beds, to accommodate the overspill from the wards, and have taken on more staff. Outside the hospital, in our five primary care health posts, extra staff have also been brought in, while a new health post opened in March to cater specifically to the needs of the new arrivals.

I can say that health indicators are now at an emergency level.”

Kenya: Uhuru Allocates More Cash Under MPs Watch

Francis Mureithi/ Nairobi Star (Nairobi) /10 June 2011

Members of Parliament once again emerged the biggest winners in this year’s budget with Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta announcing that each constituency will directly receive Sh108 million under the Constituency Development Fund.

Uhuru appeared to inflate the resources directly under an MP announcing that each CDF board, where MPs serve as patrons, will further receive a grant of Sh17.8 million for completion of the on-going projects under education, health, water and sanitation in readiness for handing over to the new county governments.

“This is the highest ever direct allocation to CDF, amounting to Sh 108.3 million per constituency on average. I am confident, honourable members will do splendid job with these resources to further the devolved development agenda,” said the minister while presenting the 2011/2012 budget in Parliament.

He said the allocation does not include Sh28.3 million channeled directly to each constituency for roads, Sh6.4 million for water provision in 170 constituencies and a further Sh30 million for 35 constituencies in arid and semi arid areas.

In addition to cash directly under CDF, each MP will also have under his watch Sh4 million set aside for each constituency for awarding bursaries to needy and bright students. Further, each constituency will get Sh1 million per constituency to promote sports including buying trophies.

He however announced to MPs that the disbursement of CDF together with the Local Authority Transfer Fund (LATF) comes to an end by end of 2012.

ANGOLA:

Angolan air carrier Taag due to launch Luanda-Porto route in July

June 10th, 2011/ macauhub

Luanda, Angola, 10 June – Angolan flagship airline Taag is due in July to launch direct twice-weekly flights between Luanda and Porto in Portugal, the airline said Thursday in a statement issued in Luanda.

Taag announced that the flights would be on Fridays and Sundays.

Angolan weekly newspaper Expansão, citing company sources, reported that feasibility studies had concluded that the route was potentially profitable, taking into account the high number of Angolans living in the Portuguese city as well as the fact that Porto is the home city of many of the Portuguese working in Angola, particularly in the construction and public works sector.

The sources cited by the newspaper said that the request to launch the new route had been presented to the Portuguese Civil Aviation Institute in November, 2010, following an agreement between the two countries that allowed their airlines to offer flights to other cities in both countries, as before that they had only been authorised to fly between Luanda and Lisbon. (macauhub)

AU/AFRICA:

Is greed fuelling the land grab in Africa?

Debra Black/ Staff Reporter / www.thestar.com/ Thu Jun 9 2011

A U.S. think-tank is calling for a moratorium on the sale of land in Africa to hedge funds, investment firms and bio-energy companies until they begin to use ethical and fair negotiations when dealing with local farmers and villages.

The California-based Oakland Institute says that largely unregulated land purchases by hedge funds and foreign speculators result in virtually none of the “promised benefits” for native populations in a recently released report.

“We are finding these are false promises for Africa,” said Frederic Mousseau, policy director for the think-tank, in an interview with the Star.

Millions of local farmers are being forced off their land to make room for agribusiness, backed by bio-fuel companies, investment firms and hedge funds, Mousseau said. And the deals lack any transparency.

These groups are sometimes paying very little to use the land, paying in some cases in Sierra Leone and Ethiopia as little as $2 per hectare to rent land. And in other cases, the population is being forced off the land without any compensation.

In one land transfer, witnessed by the institute’s executive director Anuradha Mittal, a poor tribal chief was given a bottle of Johnny Walker in exchange for land in Zambia, Mousseau said.

Many of the land contracts run for 99 years, with no clauses specifying when any of the promised benefits like schools or health services will be delivered, he added. “We have many instances where the local population feels misled.”

The institute says that in 2009 alone nearly 60 million hectares of land — an area the size of France — was purchased or leased in what they describe as “land grabs.”

And while promises of new infrastructure, investment dollars, jobs and tax revenues for cash-strapped African nations are made, they often fail to materialize, according to the report.

“We see huge amounts of fiscal incentives for investors, including tax holidays, but very little tax revenues from these investments,” it added.

The Oakland Institute sent researchers to seven African countries — Ethiopia, Mali, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Tanzania, south Sudan and Zambia.

“We studied what was happening on the ground with communities, investigated what government and investors were doing and the international role of financial institutions,” Mousseau said.

And what they found did not paint a picture of burgeoning wealth, but rather one of continuing poverty for many, he said.

Researchers were told of cases in Mali by farm organizations that valuable land was given away for free to foreign investors. Farm groups said that they believed that the land could have been put to better use if local farmers were left to work the land and get out of poverty.

In Tanzania, 200,000 refugees from Burundi are being forced off their land for a 300,000 hectare bio-fuel project. Many have been farming on the land for 40 years, but now the government is moving them out.

And while many believed that the land was being grabbed by firms from India, China, Saudi Arabia and other emerging countries, Mousseau said the report found that many Western firms from Germany, England and the Netherlands, are buying up land as well.

These include: The London-based Emergent Asset Management; the Swiss-based Addax Bioenergy; Quifel International Holdings based in Portugal; the U.S.-based AgriSol Energy; Pharos Financial Group, a Russian hedge fund, and some prestigious American universities, including Harvard, Spellman and Vanderbilt.

And what’s motivating them is not an effort to reduce hunger in Africa, but rather energy and bio-fuels, Mousseau stresses. “A very important driver of this land grab is the American and European policies around bio-fuels.”

The institute suggests in its report that this land trend will do nothing but create insecurity in the global food system, which may be a much bigger threat to the world than terrorism.

It will also lead to conflict, environmental devastation, water loss and political instability, the report said

Where’s a Deposed Dictator to Go? Five Top Tyrant Retirement Homes for Gaddafi

Posted by Alex Perry / globalspin.blogs.time.com/Friday, June 10, 2011

With NATO ever more confident of, and explicit about, deposing Muammar Gaddafi and the Libyan leader losing even some of his longest-standing supporters in Africa, the question increasingly becomes not whether he will go but, assuming he survives, where. Here’s five possible retirement homes for the 69-year-old.

1. Zimbabwe. Even if many of Gaddafi’s other African friends are advising him to go after 42 years, 86-year-old Robert Mugabe – now into his fourth decade in power himself – remains a staunch supporter. The Zimbabwean and Libyan regimes have long been more than just friends. In the 1970s, Gaddafi supported Mugabe’s rebels in their fight against the white supremacist leadership of the former Rhodesia, as he did many African revolutions. The two leaders also share the same antipathy towards the West, which has imposed sanctions on both. Though Gaddafi’s rapprochement (until this year) with the West irked Mugabe, ties between Harare and Tripoli remain strong. Economic links between the two regimes stalled over Zimbabwe’s inability to pay for Libyan oil, but the Gaddafi family personally owns real estate and other corporate investments in Zimbabwe. Finally, Mugabe is a practised host to fellow autocrats: Harare is already home to former Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Miriam.

2. Saudi Arabia. Exile in Zimbabwe might be logical, but it may not be Gaddafi’s first choice. Although they accepted his money, few African leaders ever bought into Gaddafi’s declarations of African brotherhood, noting he discovered his enthusiasm for Africa only after his ambitions to foster pan-Arab unity were rebuffed. Gaddafi’s own attachment to tent living and deserts suggest a strong preference for the Arab world. And here precedent strongly favors Saudi Arabia, which became home to former Ugandan despot Idi Amin, who died there in 2003, former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who has stayed during periods of exile from his homeland in the last decade, and, since January, the deposed president of Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Still, just as the growth of international law means a villa in the south of France is ever less of an option, life in the kingdom is not as secure as it once was. This month Ben Ali felt compelled to issue a statement through a French lawyer denouncing allegations of corruption and criminality by the new regime in Tunisia, which claims to have seized weapons, money and drugs from the presidential palace at Carthage. Tunisian authorities are also demanding Ben Ali’s extradition and say they are probing accusations of murder, abuse of power, trafficking of archaeological artefacts and money laundering. In addition, several European countries have frozen the family’s assets. For Gaddafi, what might rule out Saudi Arabia from the start is that he and Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz al Saud dislike each other. “You are propelled by fibs towards the grave and you were made by Britain and protected by the US,” Gaddafi told the king in 2009.

3. North Korea. The International Criminal Court’s announcement this week that it has evidence of rape being used as a weapon of war by Gaddafi’s soldiers raises the possibility of an eventual war crimes trial for Gaddafi in The Hague. That rules out many African states, particularly Nigeria, which took in former Liberian warlord Charles Taylor in 2003 only to arrest him in 2006, an action which led to his ongoing trial in The Hague. Zimbabwe is a good place to hide from any ICC indictment: Mugabe never signed up to the ICC and the court consequently has no jurisdiction there. But if it’s isolation Gaddafi wants, he couldn’t do better than the hermit state of North Korea. Plus, Tripoli and Pyongyang are old allies: when Libya gave up its nuclear weapons program, tests on the processed uranium it surrendered to international inspectors indicated the material came from North Korea.

4. Venezuela. Concerns about the ICC narrow Gaddafi’s options considerably. This week Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade appealed to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to step down, saying he could “be one of those who help you pull out of political life.” But though Libya and Seneral have long-standing ties – Wade was a strong backer of Gaddafi’s call for a United States of Africa – Senegal is also an ICC signatory and would be legally-bound to act on any ICC arrest request. Likewise, South Africa might appear a likely candidate at face value. It has played host to exiled former leaders Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti and Marc Ravalomanana of Madagascar; former president Nelson Mandela stayed loyal to Gaddafi out of gratitude for the latter’s support for the struggle against apartheid; Gaddafi has substantial investments in South Africa; South Africa has a history of opposing the West at the United Nations; and during the latest crisis, President Jacob Zuma has emerged as a key mediator between Gaddafi and the outside world. But South Africa, an emerging BRICS power keen to expand its influence across Africa and beyond, is also unlikely to choose to flout any ICC indictment. (The possibility of arrest has, for instance, persuaded ICC indictee and Sudanese President Omar al Bashir to avoid touching down in Johannesburg.) Much less likely to care what the ICC thinks, or anybody else for that matter, is Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has visited Libya several times, has a football stadium there is named in his honor and actively enjoys annoying the West.

5. Libya. Staying in Libya – alive or dead, like his son Saif al-Arab and three grandsons, killed in a NATO airstrike in April – is a real option, perhaps even the most likely. No matter how he has treated its people, Gaddafi loves Libya, loves the bedouin life of the Sahara and whatever remaining support he enjoys is strongest there. “I am a fighter, a revolutionary from tents,” he said in February, vowing he would fight “to my last drop of blood” and “die as a martyr at the end.” That may be his choice. But it is also one among few others

AU wants African as next IMF MD

On June 10, 2011 /By Okey Ndiribe/ www.vanguardngr.com

ABUJA — The African Union, AU, has made a case for an African to be appointed the next Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, IMF.

This was contained in a statement issued by the Department of Economic Affairs at the AU headquarters in Ethiopia.

Citing the reason for its position, the AU statement said: “The position of IMF Managing Director has never been held by a non-European because of the tacit agreement that currently exists for a European to head the institution.”

The AU further observed that “selecting a non-European and particularly someone from the developing world would go a long way in increasing the representation of the Third World in the IMF.”

The statement further called for reforming the selection procedure for the Managing Director of the global financial body, adding that this is also crucial considering that developing countries are increasingly becoming major contributors to the institution, representing about 42 per cent of the contributions to the Fund, compared with the less than 30 per cent contributed by Europe and the United States.

According to AU, “appointing an IMF Managing Director from a developing country, and in this case from Africa, would bring with it new perspectives and new ways of handling the macroeconomic and fiscal problems of IMF member countries that take into consideration the interests of all countries, and thereby help to foster improved global sustainable and balanced growth and macro-economic stability.”

The African Union also called on member countries to ensure that candidates from developing countries, and particularly Africa be given fair and equal opportunity for consideration for the position of IMF Managing Director.

According to the statement: “Europe can no longer maintain an absolute right to the position of IMF Managing Director. Should the tradition be done away with, one possible compromise in the package of change would be for the No. two position to be given to a European.

The time is now to deliver on the IMF governance reform agenda relating to ensuring an open, transparent and merit based selection of its Head.”

The AU also pointed out that : “Selecting a non-European would also better reflect the dynamic changes occurring in the global economy, with a gradual shift in global production and demand away from the industrialized economies to developing regions such as Africa, Asia and Latin America.”

Sudan: African Union seeks end to Abyei hostilities

Sudan Tribune (Sudan) / www.afrika.no/Thursday, 09 June 2011

Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) — The chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, Jean Ping, on Tuesday ended his two-day working visit to Sudan, on a mission to persuade north and south Sudan to end their hostilities through dialogue, said the AU in a statement issued today in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

The AU official met officials in Khartoum and in Juba to discuss the contentious region of Abyei and other aspects of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and the post-referendum arrangements.

North and South Sudan signed the CPA in 2005, ending more than two decades of civil war. The fate of Abyei, which is in the borderlands, is yet to be decided. Its invasion by the north’s Sudan Armed Force contravenes the CPA.

“Dr. Jean Ping discussed with President Omar Al Bashir the status of the CPA implementation as well as the efforts being made for the resolution of the current crisis in Abyei” the statement said.

Tension between north and south Sudan have been escalating as South Kordofan also becomes subject to conflict.

Bashir briefed the Ping on efforts being made by Sudan to resolve the crisis in Abyei, and underscored the importance of having dialogue with the Government of South Sudan (GoSS) to resolve the crisis.

Ping on Tuesday met Salva Kiir, First Vice President and President of GoSS where they discussed the progress being made on the implementation of the CPA and the challenges ahead.

Kiir and Ping underscored a need for both North and South Sudanese parties engage in dialogue to peacefully resolve crises in Abyei.

“The Chairperson and President Kiir agreed on the importance of dialogue between the two CPA parties in order to resolve the crisis in Abyei.” AU statement said adding “The Government of South Sudan expressed its readiness to continue with the facilitation of African Union High Level Implementation Panel [AUHIP].”

According to the AU, they have also discussed the preparations being made for the upcoming Independence of South Sudan on 9 July 2011, and the practical steps to be taken for the admission of the new country as the 54th AU member state.

The AU boss commended Sudanese officials for successfully conducting the general elections of April 2010, and the South Sudan referendum in January 2011 and also for the positive outcome of the Doha talks aimed at resolving the conflict in Darfur, and expressed the AU’s readiness to continue to assist for the early commencement of the Darfur Political Process (DPP).

Suicide bombers strike Somali capital port

2011-06-10/- SAPA

Mogadishu – Two Islamist suicide bombers killed a civilian worker but also lost their lives when they attacked the port in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Thursday, AU and security officials said.

“Several insurgents armed with pistols, including two wearing explosives belts, entered the [port] area and carried out an attack on the people working there,” said Paddy Ankunda, a spokesperson for the African Union force in Somalia (Amisom).

Mohamed Ibrahim, a Somali security services official, said one of the suicide bombers was killed by security forces while the other blew himself up near a depot of the World Food Programme.

Officials said one civilian was killed in the raid although earlier witness statements had put the civilian death toll at two.

Security at the port is the responsibility of government troops and Amisom.

Meanwhile Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, a spokesperson for the hardline Shabaab Islamists, told reporters that “specially trained Mujahedeen fighters have targeted the second biggest base at the seaport where infidels that invaded our country are based.

“Thanks to Allah, the information we got now indicates the Mujahedeen fighters who were armed with guns have killed many before committing suicide, the number of the dead reached 21 and many others were injured.”

Amisom meanwhile spoke of “an inhuman attack against civilians, aimed at terrorising them and disrupting the transit of merchandise”.

“The Shabaab know that their days are counted at Bakara [the city’s biggest market], and they wanted to bring commerce to its knees before departing,” the African peacekeeping force said.

Shabaab Islamists have vowed to topple the transitional Somali government and chase out African Union troops supporting it.

The Shabaab have been losing ground in the capital in recent months as pro-government troops and Amisom clawed back several key positions.

Regional security sources say that part of the Shabaab’s strategy in the face of Amisom’s advance was to step up suicide attacks.

Somali police said at the end of May they had learned of plans for a series of such attacks in Mogadishu.

On May 30 two Ugandan troops from Amisom were killed in a suicide attack on their base in south Mogadishu.

Ethiopia jails 14 for African Union HQ bomb plot

(AFP) /10062011

ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopia’s supreme court jailed 14 people for terms ranging from nine years to life for plotting bomb attacks, including on the African Union’s headquarters, court papers showed Thursday.

In the verdict handed down on Wednesday, judges said the 14 had the backing of Eritrea for the plan to bomb key targets in Addis Ababa last year, including Ethiopian government buildings as well as the AU’s base in the capital.

Four of the defendants received life sentences and six of them were handed 25-year terms. Of the remaining four, one was sentenced to 14 years and three to nine years.

The court said the 14 plotters had been trained in the use of explosives in Eritrea.

Ethiopia regularly accuses Eritrea, which gained independence from Ethiopia in 1991 after a 30-year war, of seeking to destabilise it by backing rebel groups such as the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) as well as the Somali Al Qaeda-affiliated Shebab.

In April Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told lawmakers Ethiopia was ready to help the people of Eritrea topple the regime of Issaias Afeworki.

The border war that pitted Eritrea against Ethiopia from 1998 to 2000 left some 80,000 dead. Despite a peace agreement signed in 2000 in Algiers, tension continues to run high between the two Horn of Africa neighbours.

All Eyes On SADC

Written by Radio VOP /www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/Friday, 10 June 2011

Harare – The Southern African Development Community (SADC) will again be the focus of attention at the weekend when it meets in Johannesburg, South Africa, to discuss the Zimbabwean crisis including the implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) and the election roadmap.

Tensions between the parties that signed the GPA have continued to rise fuelled mostly by breaches to the Agreement and Zanu (PF)’s culture of impunity.

The return of Zanu (PF) bases manned by militia and blamed for the increasing violence has also hyped tempers while the selective application of the law by a compromised police force led by a Zanu (PF) apologist, Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri, has complicated the situation.Chihuri is known for his partisan attitude and for his refusal to arrest Zanu (PF) members accused of murdering and maiming MDC activists over the last few years. Chihuri has also refused to act on corrupt Zanu (PF) stalwarts who have milked the Zimbabwean economy with impunity.

SADC convenes at a time when “the situation has worsened”, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told Radio VOP on Wednesday.

“The situation has worsened over the last six months with the election talk. Firstly, various spokespersons on behalf of Zanu (PF) insist that elections must be held this year and yet we all know that …certain issues have to be dealt with before an election date is announced. Issues such as the constitution making process, the cleaning up of the voters’ roll, the delimitation process and electoral reforms must be dealt with before we rush into an election.”

After being criticised for failing to meet its obligations and for promoting violence at a meeting of the Organ Troika of Politics, Security and Defence, in Livingstone Zambia last month, Zanu (PF) went into an overdrive attacking the SADC facilitator, South African President Jacob Zuma.The party’s chief propagandist, Jonathan Moyo launched a scathing and insulting attack on the character of President Zuma. Zanu PF also attempted to discredit President Zuma’s facilitation team.

Tsvangirai condemned what he described as “uncivilised and undiplomatic behaviour”.

“I do not think that it helps for anyone to attack the person of President Zuma. It does not help because SADC has appointed South Africa to be the Facilitator in the dispute here. One would respect SADC and its Organs and that Facilitator did not appoint himself,” said Tsvangirai.

Zanu (PF) which lost the March 2008 elections to the MDC, has been concentrating its efforts on whitewashing the events on the ground instead of implementing their side of the bargain in the agreement.

On the other hand, the MDC, believes that the primary function of the GPA is to create conditions for a free and fair election and thus to end the Zimbabwe crisis once and for all.

“Thus, the MDC refuses to entertain the notion of elections until the necessary conditions are in place for legitimate and credible elections that reflect the will of the people and whose results will be respected by all stakeholders. Key amongst these reforms is the opening of the broadcast environment, a new electoral act, a new voters’ roll and constituency delimitation process, an impartial Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and security sector reforms,” said MDC spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora.

“Hence that party’s desire to hold elections before further reforms can undermine its ability to undemocratically influence the election result. We believe that the summit must consolidate the SADC Troika position as communicated in Livingstone. It must also discuss the progress from the negotiators. The true test of this Summit is not which political party claims victory but what new freedoms and progress are tangible to the people of Zimbabwe.”

The MDC position is that the summit must take into account that once a new constitution is in place there needs to be some lag period within which the constitution must be implemented. For example, the constitution may call for creation of certain bodies or institutions, which must be in place, operating and effective prior to the election.

Tsvangirai praised SADC for its continued work on resolving the Zimbabwe issue.

“We are heartened by the brave stance of our colleagues in the region and by the facilitator, President Jacob Zuma.

The region has given us reason to believe that SADC and the AU are ready to prevent the circus of 2008 that began in Kenya, was perfected in Zimbabwe but backfired with disastrous consequences in the Ivory Coast,” said Tsvangirai.

“This is the circus where losers of national elections are accommodated through power sharing arrangements,” the Premier added.“We applaud the position of SADC in ensuring that the process towards a free and fair election in Zimbabwe is fully supported, enhanced and consolidated,” he said.

Tsvangirai added that the AU and SADC, as the guarantors to the GPA, have shown that they are ready to nurse this

process and to ensure that a credible government is put in place through a free and fair election.

“Thus the next months are going to be important in ensuring that we put in place the necessary mechanisms and building blocks to guarantee and protect the people’s vote and the people’s will.”

He also pledged his party’s commitment to abide by the GPA and to continue to be the voice and conscience of the people by standing for what is right and just.

Scientists: ‘Super’ Wheat To Boost Food Security

by The Associated Press/ June 9, 2011

MINNEAPOLIS

Scientists say they’re close to producing new “super varieties” of wheat that will resist a virulent fungus while boosting yields up to 15 percent, potentially easing a deadly threat to the world’s food supply.

The research is part of a global drive to protect wheat crops from the Ug99 strain of stem rust. It will be presented next week at a conference in St. Paul that’s part of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, based at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., organizers said Thursday.

Scientists will also report that Ug99 variants are becoming increasingly virulent and are being carried by the winds beyond Uganda and other East African countries where they were first identified in 1999. Once infected with the deadly fungus, wheat plants become covered in reddish-brown blisters.

According to a news release issued by the initiative ahead of the symposium, the fungus has now spread across all of eastern and southern Africa, and it might just be a matter of time before it reaches India or Pakistan, and even Australia and the Americas.

“We are facing the prospect of a biological firestorm, but it’s also clear that the research community has responded to the threat at top speed, and we are getting results in the form of new varieties that are resistant to rust and appealing to farmers,” Ronnie Coffman, who heads the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project at Cornell, said in the release.

Researchers will report at the conference that new varieties of wheat under development at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico show resistance to all three kinds of wheat rust — stem rust including Ug99, yellow rust and leaf rust — the release said. Some of those varieties also boost yields 10 to 15 percent, it said.

But significant obstacles must be overcome before the resistant new varieties of wheat can replace the susceptible varieties that make up as much as 90 percent of the wheat now in production, the researchers acknowledged. They called for more investments by wealthy countries and international institutions to continue developing the varieties, to help them keep them effective against diseases that continue to evolve, and to develop the seed production and distribution infrastructure needed to put the new varieties in the hands of poor farmers in developing countries.

The new strains mark a huge advance, said Marty Carson, research director at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Cereal Research Laboratory at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul.

“Anytime you can talk about a 15 percent boost in yields from existing varieties, I mean that’s phenomenal. And to get combined resistance to all three rusts, that’s also a very big deal,” said Carson, who wasn’t directly involved in that research. His lab, which is heavily involved in the fight against Ug99, is hosting the conference along with the University of Minnesota.

Carson pointed out in an interview that wheat farmers in the developing world that the Mexican institute known by its Spanish acronym CIMMYT is targeting with these new varieties don’t have many other options, such as fungicides, for dealing with threats such as rust. And while he was skeptical about the 15 percent claim, he said even a lower yield increase would be a major accomplishment.

The Borlaug Global Rust Initiative was launched five years ago by the late Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug in response to the Ug99 threat. Borlaug, an alumnus of the University of Minnesota, was a leader of CIMMYT. His research sparked the “Green Revolution” of the 1960s that transformed agriculture through high-yield, disease-resistant crops and other innovations, helping to more than double world food production by 1990. He’s credited with saving perhaps 1 billion people from starvation.

Ravi Singh, a wheat breeder at CIMMYT, helped lead the research on the new strains, which he’ll present at the conference and publish later this year in the Annual Review of Phytopathology. He said in an interview that the new varieties were developed through conventional crossbreeding, not genetic engineering. They have been tested successfully for disease resistance in Kenya and Ethiopia, where Ug99 is endemic, as well as at the USDA lab in St. Paul.

Donor-funded CIMMYT distributes its seed for free to keep it affordable, Singh said, and the new varieties will be planted in several countries for yield trials in the coming growing season in hopes they can enter widespread use in a few years.

Borlaug Global Rust Initiative: http://www.globalrust.org

Korea-AfDB – Agreement to Top Up Trust Fund With U.S.$ 8.5 Million

9 June 2011/ African Development Bank(Tunis) /allafrica.com

SPONSOR WIRE

Under an agreement signed today (Thursday 9 June) between the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Republic of Korea, at the Bank’s Annual Meetings in Lisbon, Korea has made a new contribution of U.S.$8.5 million to the Korea Africa Economic Cooperation (KOAFEC) Trust Fund, bringing total contributions to the Fund since its establishment in 2007 to over U.S.$ 26 million,.

AfDB President Donald Kaberuka and Korean vice Minister for Finance Sungkull Yoo used the occasion of the AfDB’s 2011 Annual Meetings’ in Lisbon for a formal signing of the protocol agreement.

Commenting on the agreement, Dr Kaberuka said: “This is further evidence, if it were needed , of strength of the Bank’s longstanding partnership with Korea.”

He highlighted Information Technology as a key priority area for collaboration in which Korea and the Bank could harness synergies to transform economies in Africa.

The first KOEAFEC meeting was held in Seoul in 2006 and has since become the permanent framework for economic cooperation between Korea and the Bank.

Among those who attended the signing ceremony were the AfDB’s Executive Director for Korea Bruce Montador, Partnership and Cooperation Unit Head, Kazumi Ikeda-Larhed and the President’s adviser, Paati Ofosu-Amaah.

Poor Countries Say Rich Evade New Climate Pledges

By ARTHUR MAX Associated Press/ June 10, 2011

AMSTERDAM June 10, 2011 (AP)

Developing countries have accused rich nations of refusing to negotiate an extension of their commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Jorge Arguello, head of a 131-nation group of developing countries, says industrial countries are blocking discussion on renewing emission reductions pledges under the Kyoto Protocol after they expire in 2012.

The two-week negotiations in Bonn, Germany, reached the halfway point Friday. The talks are designed to prepare for a major climate conference in South Africa starting Nov. 28.

Citing a new independent report, Arguello said poor countries are doing more to reduce emissions than rich ones. He said it’s “unthinkable” that the poor carry the burden, so rich countries “can maintain their privileges and levels of consumption.”

Africa: Sudan – The ‘Conflict is Inflaming Every Hour’

Sokari Ekine/Pambazuka News/9 June 2011

analysis

Sudan’s invasion of the town Abeyi; sexual harassment in Egypt; the impact of Egypt’s uprising on migrants; the detention of Syrian blogger Amina Arraf; Western Sahara; and the opening of the a centre for women in Eastern Congo, the City of Joy, are among the topics featured in this week’s review of African blogs, by Sokari Ekine.

Sudan’s invasion of the town of Abyei and the resulting displacement 100,000 (UN figures) has renewed discussions on whether Sudan is engaging in ethnic cleansing and the ethnic/religious nature of the attacks and subsequent occupation or is this simply a case of oil?

African Arguments publishes an article by Clement noting the military build-up which has been in place for the past four months and the invasion under the cover of clouds. The invasion was brutal.

‘Under the cover of clouds, which for two days obscured the region from the cameras in low-earth orbits of Satellite Sentinel, a consortium that has been monitoring and reporting on the militarization in and around Abyei for four months, invaded the area. The Sudanese Armed Forces accompanied by Misseriya militias used aerial bombardment, tanks, and artillery to quickly rout Southern People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) forces and police from the area, terrorizing tens of thousands of civilians to flee. Eye witness accounts related scenarios similar to tactics used in Darfur: Antonov cargo planes flew over populated areas dropping bombs or incendiary devices, soldiers and militias arrived soon after in trucks firing into dwellings and at anyone who seemed to resist.

‘After the residents fled, satellite imagery revealed that 70% of structures in Abyei town had been torched, but not before trucks loaded with personal goods and humanitarian stores looted from homes, businesses, and storehouses. Casualty rates are not known, but it appears that civilians were not the primary targets. Residents in the area, who are largely Ngok Dinka, were not allowed to vote in the January referendum, in part because the National Congress Party wanted the nomadic Misseriya, who are aligned with north or government of Sudan, to be able to vote as well.’

Sudan Reeves Sudan Reeves publishes a ‘compendium of reports’ from the ground in South Kordofan but points out that the facts have yet to be fully determined, and the larger ambitions of the Sudan remain uncertain. Below are excerpts from personal reports:

‘The conflict erupted in several places in south Kordofan such as Talodi, Ebradap and Kadougli the centre for the fight. The fight started in Kadougli yesterday at 4:00 pm and continued up to this day 7th June, and the worry is that there is hug[e] number of armies arrived Kadougli this morning in support of NCP army with modern type of weapons and the SPLM has also requested more sold[i]ers from their side to support them.’

‘Security situation is very bad, citizens of Kadougli town fled their homes to a save places even though hundred of them have nowhere to hide, people have been in door for three days and nights and there is no movement, market has become a battle ground, no food, no water, no fuel for transporting the civilians to where is a bit safer. There is need for an urgent action to stop the conflict and let civilians access water and food. Even the sick once in the hospital have run a way living their treatment. Humanitarian aid is needed because the conflict is inflaming every hour, urgent call for the NCP and the SPLM to stop fighting immediately.’

‘There is death and injuring among citizens and the solders only that the statistics is not yet known. Some families in Khartoum started mourning over their dead once, solders or victim citizens, the killing is increasing. If the UN has no mandate to speak to the fighters, we are calling that they should be allowed to intervene and assist the poor civilians have water, people should put in mind that there are children, there are sick persons, there are women in birth labour who cannot sty without water.’

The situation and impact of the Egyptian uprising on foreign migrant workers, particularly those from other parts of Africa, is as story which has been ignored. The Arabist focuses on Eritreans in this article on refugees and migrants in Egypt who face arrest, deportation, physical violence or even death from the authorities.

‘Legally speaking, it is important to differentiate between migrants whom the Egyptian authorities have detained–whether refugees, asylum seekers or other categories of migrants.

‘Some refugees in Egypt have been in detention from as far back as February 2008. A group of several Eritreans and Ethiopians, as well as a few Somalis, are currently being held in Qanater prison; some of them have been detained for entering Egypt illegally, mainly through the Sudanese border. Many of them are held with criminals who have life sentences for crimes like drug trafficking.

‘This is a particularly vulnerable group for a few reasons. Firstly, their detention violates the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which Egypt has ratified. The law says that illegal entry of refugees fleeing persecution should not be penalized granted that they present themselves to the authorities within a reasonable amount of time and can explain their illegal entry or presence. Secondly, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the agency responsible for conducting refugee status determination in Egypt, has not been able to access all such detained asylum seekers due to lack of response from the government authorities. While the UNHCR is the main actor involved in upholding the legal status and welfare of refugees in Egypt, the Egyptian government is the only authority.’

MyWeku reports that 83 per cent of Egyptian women and 98 per cent of foreign women living in Cairo have been sexually harassed. One response is the ‘HarassMap’.

‘A publication by Amnesty International also highlighted the plight of Egyptian women forced to undertake “virginity” tests at the hight of the Egyptian protests. In the report “20-year-old Salwa Hosseini told Amnesty International that after she was arrested and taken to a military prison in Heikstep, she was made, with the other women, to take off all her clothes to be searched by a female prison guard, in a room with two open doors and a window. During the strip search, Salwa Hosseini said male soldiers were looking into the room and taking pictures of the naked women. The women were then subjected to ‘virginity tests’ in a different room by a man in a white coat. They were threatened that “those not found to be virgins” would be charged with prostitution.

‘It is evident that Egypt and other parts of Africa need to demand not only political change that throw out dictators but also social change that will guarantee women with the same rights as men.’

Leil-Zahra Mortada reports on the detention of queer Syrian blogger Amina Arraf who authors the excellent ‘A Gay Girl in Damascus’ blog. The story of Amina’s detention broke on Wednesday 8 June and was published in most of the UK and US mainstream media as well as Al Jazeera. This has to be positive as the more publicity around her detention, possibly the safer and sooner she will be released. As Leil-Zahar points out as an openly queer woman in Syria, her arrest will be ‘mixed with trans/homophobic abuse and violence’.

‘When an openly queer person is subjected to state-brutality, any state, it is almost always mixed with trans/homophobic verbal and/or physical violence; just like when a woman is taken into “custody”. The state and its police, as every other patriarchal monstrosity, are quite commonly inclined to use gender violence against dissident women and queers. In the end, jail is meant to break a person on all levels and they seem to believe that hitting the gender nerve is our fastest highway to their hell. It was clear in the first attempt to terrorize her and her family in their visit to her house. Talk to most women or queer people who have been arrested and they will most probably tell you of how their jailer(s) took time to hit on that rooted nerve called gender identity; sometimes the hit being so brutal that it scars and bruises one ´s self and body pretty badly. Amina is queer, Amina is a woman, Amina is an openly queer woman.’

However, doubts are being raised as to the identity and authenticity of ‘Amina’, including her photo. Opinion on Twitter is divided; some say who cares even if the story is fake? Thousands of people have been arrested and hundreds killed in Syria over the past few months. Others felt if the story was fake, then it was cruel. Discussions were intense as her words, style and language (both English and Arabic) were dissected in small twitter bites under the tag #Amina

Meanwhile Book Maniac wrote:

‘Over the course of the day as I tracked the stories about Amina I noticed that all the articles sourced her blog, and then her other blog from 2007. I started looking for traces of her elsewhere. She has a Facebook page, but not a lot of other presence. It looked to me like her 2007 blog was a few chapters of experimentation with a memoir or a novel. Then she abandoned that and brought it back in mid-February on a new site. Not uncommon. But I started having doubts based on some of her patterns of talking about personas and fiction. Back when people were talking about My Father, the Hero, I heard people doubting Amina’s existence simply based on her being an out lesbian in Damascus. I argued against that doubt and would not doubt someone based on their identity. But now began to feel differently.’

One Tweet asked why the focus is on one person when so many have been arrested. There is something to be said, as #Amina is becoming a distraction, whether the person and story are fact or fiction. I think the focus on her is because she was so well known online – we all came to be her ‘friend’ as she engaged us in her life as a ‘queer activist in Syria’.

After 36 years in exile the Saharawis have had enough. Stiff Kitten’s Peter Kenworthy reports that after years of negotiation and no solution they are ready to go to war “to reclaim our land”:

‘And now that we are finally awakening to the fact that the picture of North Africa and the Middle East that we have been served by our governments and media – a region full of Al Qaida supporters and Muslim fanatics and fundamentalists – has been proved wrong, it is time to look critically at the EU’s and the USA’s closest ally in the region, Morocco.

‘Although Morocco has illegally occupied Western Sahara for 36 years now, the EU and the USA have not wavered in their support for Morocco. A steady stream of reports might have shown that the occupation of Western Sahara is illegal and that Morocco is responsible for grave human rights violations in the occupied territories of Western Sahara. But this has not stopped the EU and the USA from negotiating and renegotiating trade agreements with Morocco that violate international law.

‘Negotiations between Morocco and the Polisario Front, the Saharawi liberation front, which are overseen by the UN and mandated by the UN Security Council, have been ongoing for over twenty years now, since the ceasefire between the Polisario Front and Morocco, but these negotiations have not produced any results that are palatable for the Saharawis.’

Black Looks comments on the opening of the City of Joy centre in Eastern Congo.

‘The City of Joy is really like a dream that is coming true, because it was something that was created by the Congolese women. And at the beginning, it was just like a dream. And thanks to V-Day, who was like the wind behind our back, it becomes a reality. And we started receiving the first women like two weeks ago. So we are in the process. And it’s all amazing. I left Congo like two weeks ago. And every time I’m with them on the phone, they have new things. It’s like it really belongs to the Congolese women. So I just told them, “As long as we respect, you know, our budget and the program, just go on.”

The Same Financial Firms Responsible For Our Economic Crisis Are Driving Us Toward a Global Food Disaster

AlterNet / By Tina Gerhardt / June 9, 2011

Investors are involved in massive land grabs in Africa that may cause destabilization of food prices, mass displacement and environmental damage.

US and EU investors — including US universities, pension funds and investment firms — are involved in unprecedented land grabs currently taking place in Africa, according to a series of investigative reports released on Wednesday by the Oakland Institute.

The Oakland Institute spent over a year working undercover to gather information on land deals in Ethiopia, Mali, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Tanzania and South Sudan.

The reports show how land deals have a number of effects, including the destabilization of food prices, mass displacement and environmental damage.

“The same financial firms that drove us into a global recession by inflating the real estate bubble through risky financial maneuvers are now doing the same with the world’s food supply,” said Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute.

“In Africa,” she added, “this is resulting in the displacement of small farmers, environmental devastation, water loss and further political instability.”

These deals are often presented as agricultural investment, providing much-needed economic funds, creating jobs and infrastructure in developing countries.

Yet, the report argues, many of the deals have negative impacts. These include inadequate participation of local populations, misinformation, lack of adequate compensation, especially for women or indigenous populations.

The intention of releasing the reports is not to curb agricultural investment but rather to ensure that the funding does what it promises to do and minimizes the deleterious effects.

The “Understanding Land Investment Deals in Africa” reports reveal that these largely unregulated land purchases are resulting in virtually none of the promised benefits for native populations, but instead are forcing millions of small farmers off ancestral lands and small, local food farms in order to make room for export commodities, including biofuels and cut flowers.

So there is an inversion of small, local farming to industrialized agriculture.

As farmers are forced to vacate ancestral lands, they and their families, who rely on the land for grazing cattle or planting crops, are left without sustenance.

Frederic Mousseau, the Oakland Institute policy director, tells of land recently acquired, where “the investors were required to create 17 jobs. The village has 7000 people living on and surviving off of that land. We have spent time with these people. Seventeen jobs will not suffice. They need the land for the cattle and for the agriculture.”

In another instance, Mousseau says, “One thousand jobs were to be created for 100,000 acres acquired. But that is an area that could nurture 25,000 farmers and their families.”

Forced off the land, these farmers often find themselves struggling even more simply to survive.

“In many East African countries,” Obang Metho said, “we have customary rights. We have systems that can be turned around to take advantage.”

The reports charge that this acquisition is increasing in breadth and in speed. Mousseau stated, “in 2009 alone nearly 60 million hectares — an area the size of France — were purchased or leased in these land grabs. It is estimated that 80 million hectares were acquired in 2010.” By contrast, prior to 2008 the annual expansion of global agricultural land was less than 4 million hectares.

Not only are these land grabs, the land acquired is often also located near water resources. The reports state that major African rivers, including the Nile, the Niger and the Zambezi, are tapped by these land grabs. Hence, these land grabs are actually often water grabs, intended to stabilize not only food supplies but also water access in other countries. Countries that often acquire the land include China, India and the Gulf States.

According to Mittal, “Universities such as Harvard University, Vanderbilt University, Wake Forest University are investing in hedge funds that are involved in these land grabs.”

These universities put their money into a direct investment fund, which then purchases the land. According to the Oakland Institute’s reports, these are “investment funds with ties to major banks such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.”

When asked if these universities are aware of their implication in these land grabs, Mittal replied: “We would like to believe that these universities are not aware. But an educational institution also needs to be informed about the kinds of returns that these funds deliver, which are around 25 percent, 30 percent and more, and in this kind of economy, should raise some questions.”

“While countries such as China, India and Gulf States acquire the land, the financial sector involved also needs to be examined,” Mousseau added. “There is a high level of fiscal incentives.” These include exemption from VAT taxes. Moreover, the land is often acquired for very little compensation; some land parcels were even documented as being given away for free.

Obang Metho underscores the financial motivations, stating “These people are not there to feed the Ethiopian people. They are here for the profit. If this is not allowed in the free world, it should not be allowed in Ethiopia.”

Africa: Truth Dispatch – Updates From Libya

Cynthia Mckinney/Pambazuka News/9 June 2011

analysis

On the ground in Tripoli and western Libya, Cynthia McKinney reports that the current NATO-led war looks nothing like the mainstream media would have us believe: ‘The situation on the ground in Tripoli … could not more different from what is being portrayed by Western news networks and newspapers.’

DAY ONE: On Libyan-Tunisian border, it’s back to the future with refugees

3-4 June 2011 – Djerba, Tunisia

During the last air sanctions against Libya, imposed by the United Nations in 1992 over alleged Libyan involvement in the bombings of PanAm 103 and UTA 772, many Libyans travelling to and from Tripoli were forced to fly through Tunisia, travelling overland to and from the Tunisian border to their homes in Libya. With European Union sanctions now imposed on Libya, the old travel regime is back in force.

However, there is a new dimension to the air embargo on Libya. Attracted to the Libyan-Tunisian border by refugees, most African guest workers from sub-Sahara and pan-Sahel African nations, fleeing the fighting in their country, find that scores of international aid workers now occupy the tourist hotels of Djerba, the once popular Tunisian resort that has fallen on hard times after tour operators cancelled excursions following the Tunisian revolution earlier this year.

Today, prior to crossing into Libya, this reporter is witnessing representatives of the ‘misery industry’, young international aid workers with groups like the International Committee of the Red Cross, EU and International Organisation for Migration, lounging around the tourist hotels mingling with German and French pensioners eager to take advantage of the special travel packages being offered by a depressed Tunisian tourist industry.

Not only is war good for the weapons industry but refugee crises brought about by Western-implemented wars, fattening the wallets of NGOs anxious to cash in on the human misery created by Pentagon and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) overt and covert military operations. Meanwhile, here in Djerba, near the Libyan frontier, it’s pool-side and cold Heinekens for the NGO community here to ‘save’ the Libyan refugees.

DAY TWO: Western Libya portrait is not what is being painted by the Western media

4-5 June 2011 – Tripoli, Libya

Western media reports continue to indicate that Libyan rebels trying to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi from power, backed by daily NATO airstrikes, are gaining ground in western Libya. During a six-hour drive from the Tunisian border to Tripoli, the Libyan capital, this reporter saw no signs of Libyan rebel successes in western Libya. In fact, I witnessed a spontaneous pro-Gaddafi demonstration on the main Tunisia-Tripoli highway in a town about one and a half hours west of Tripoli.

The green flag of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya not only adorn flag poles in towns from Tripoli to the Tunisian border, but a number of private residences are flying the green flag from their rooftops, on flag poles and even from outside of top-floor windows in medium-size and small towns alike along the main highway.

There are some telltale signs of previous fighting in the western part of the country – bullet holes in the walls of some buildings and even some more extensive structural damage – but there are no signs that the rebels, backed by the United States, NATO and the European Union, have any substantial support in western Libya.

The one major sign of the Libyan civil war lies not in western Libya but across the Tunisian border, where several refugee tent cities have been set up to accommodate thousands of refugees, most of them black African guest workers from sub-Sahara and Sahel nations who were set upon by rebels who said the workers were ‘mercenaries’ brought to Libya by Gaddafi to fight on his behalf. In fact, there is a strong anti-black racialist element within the Libyan rebel movement that used the mercenary meme to justify heinous war crimes by rebel units against blacks from other African nations, as well as native Libyan blacks.

While many of the refugee camps on the Tunisian side of the Libyan frontier are sponsored by the International Committee of the Red Cross, one is funded by the United Arab Emirates, one of the nations participating in President Obama’s ‘coalition of the willing’ that is waging a war on behalf of the Libyan rebels. From our hotel on the Mediterranean coast, we expect to see and hear the attacks conducted against military and some civilian targets a further few miles inland in downtown Tripoli.

The EU and NATO sanctions on Libya are being severely felt by Libya’s civilians. Petrol stations are rationing gasoline and long lines of cars sit waiting for gasoline to be delivered to the pumps. The NATO, EU and US policy of ‘collective punishment’ of the western Libya’s civilian population is being compared to Israel’s collective punishment of the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank. In fact, many Libyans believe that Obama’s crippling sanctions on western Libya were crafted by Israel’s lobby in Washington, which pressured the Obama administration into adopting them.

NATO has conducted nightly airstrikes against western Libya, including downtown Tripoli, since 19 March. The attacks begin around 12 midnight local time and at the time of this report we are expecting another NATO bombing of Tripoli in a little less than an hour.

DAY THREE: NATO war crimes in Libya exposed

5-6 June 2011 – Tripoli, Libya

In the current NATO war on Libya, the citizens of European and North American NATO countries are being treated to the largest propaganda blitz by their governments in cahoots with corporate media outlets since the US-led invasions and occupation of Iraq. The situation on the ground in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, could not more different from what is being portrayed by Western news networks and newspapers.

The NATO missile attack that killed Muammar Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Arab Gaddafi on 30 April was an attempt to kill Muammar Gaddafi himself. This editor visited the devastated home where Seif was killed, along with his friend and three of Muammar Gaddafi’s grandchildren. The only reason why Muammar Gaddafi survived the blast was that he was away from the main residence tending to some animals, including two gazelles, kept in a small petting zoo maintained for his grandchildren. Muammar Gaddafi escaped the fate of his son and grandchildren by only about 500 feet. The residence was hit by bunker buster bombs fired from a US warplane. One of the warheads did not detonate and was later removed from what remained of a bedroom in the home. Libyan authorities do not have the technical capabilities to determine if the warhead contained depleted uranium.

NATO and the Pentagon claimed the residence was a military compound, yet there is no evidence that any military assets were located in the residence that was flanked by the homes of a Libyan doctor and businessmen. The Gaddafi residence actually is owned by Gaddafi’s wife. The neighbours’ homes were also badly damaged in the US air attack and are uninhabitable. Only a few hundred yards away from the Gaddafi compound sits the embassy of Cote d’Ivoire.

The presence of a foosball table and swing set in the yard of the Gaddafi compound belies the charge by the Pentagon that the home was a military target. However, considering that Gaddafi was present in the compound during the attack, it is clear that President Obama violated international law and three executive orders signed by three past presidents – Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan – in trying to assassinate the Libyan head of state. In fact, while Obama’s order to kill Gaddafi was being carried out, the president of the United States was preparing to yuck it up with Washington’s illuminati and Hollywood’s glitterati at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington.

Obama’s order to kill Gaddafi is reminiscent of George W. Bush’s order to kill Saddam Hussein at the outset of the US war against Iraq, an assassination order that was also a violation of international and US law.

Cynthia McKinney is a former Georgia congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate.

These updates were published by the Wayne Madsen Report.

Kyoto international agreement for emissions expires in 2012. What next?

Jessica Jordan, Sachs Rob /english.ruvr.ru/ Jun 10, 2011 10

Jessica Jordan: Over the next few weeks the national negotiating teams are meeting in Bonn, Germany, to talk about the future of climate and climate change and what restrictions might be emplaced when the Kyoto international agreement for emissions expires. Here to talk about the future of the climate change policy is James Warner, Director of Policy for the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association and a former climate and energy adviser to Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania; also joining the conversation is Jake Schmidt, International Climate Policy Director for the National Resources Defence Council and a blogger for the Energy Collective.

Jake, can you give us an overview on what is going to be debated this week in Bonn?

Jake Schmidt: Negotiators from all around the world are meeting in Bonn for the next two weeks to try to hash out some of the technical details in the leading to the next high-level session, which is held in Durban, South Africa, this December. So, negotiators are trying to lay the groundwork for that eventual agreement in Durban.

Rob Sachs: James, I remember President Obama was going to Copenhagen and he as going to have these broad, sweeping changes, and everything as going to be great, and we were all going to be on track to have clean air in 2050 or whatever. What happened in Copenhagen and what is going on currently with the US’s policy toward climate change?

James Warner: Surely, it’s going to be on the line with what Jake and I put together for a number of years, and a few people that we’ve talked to in this area. President Obama didn’t fail in Copenhagen. Actually, he salvaged Copenhagen. It was a very acrimonious and difficult negotiation with seemingly incompatible demands from the developing world and more prosperous nations. And what we got out of it – the Copenhagen Accord, at which many developing countries agreed to take some action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, including the major developing economies – Brazil, India, South Africa and China. To get them even to say they would do anything at all was a major step forward. President Obama at that negotiation had a virtuoso performance of personal diplomacy. And if you read the press accounts, there were some very exciting moments of pulling the Indians off their plane and bringing them back to the negotiating table. In terms of what happened – Congress happened. The House representatives passed last Congress an economy-wide cap and trade bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 17% below 2005 level by 2020 and going out to 2050. But that measure died in the Senate for a variety of reasons and never came to the floor. Every country has their special set of circumstances and international negotiations, and for the US it’s Congress. Unlike many other countries, our president can’t just go and sign a treaty and have a bid affected. It has to be ratified by the Senate and it’s a very difficult thing to do.

Jessica Jordan: Can you delve into some of those reasons why that bill did not pass?

James Warner: First of all, energy in the US is not necessarily a political issue in terms of dividing evenly by parties. It’s also regional. Some states, like Indiana, West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, where I was helping to represent, are heavily dependent on coal and energy intensive manufacturing. And in the House they only get a certain amount of votes, but in the Senate everyone gets two votes. In addition, an international treaty above and beyond domestic legislation needs 67 votes out of 100, which is quite a lot. And there are a number of reasons. All the time was spent on healthcare legislation, on which we wasted a lot of time on the Senate floor. I think there was a lack of clear direction from the administration. There was the inability of people who really wanted the legislation to unify around one set of policies or another. And it’s very hard to do big legislation that is going to result in changes to some very powerful interests in the US – the petroleum business, the coal business, the steel and heavy manufacturing business. It would have been ultimately a very good scene for the American economy, and we desperately need a price on carbon. But it was a lot of stakeholders, a lot of interest groups who were going to have to abide by a lot of changes – and it’s hard to bring that big compromise altogether.

Rob Sachs: They are talking about this being kind of a post-Kyoto era now in terms of what countries they mean to get tied into. Can you tell us about what we might see in the future in terms of international agreements on climate change?

Jake Schmidt: Yes, there has been since Copenhagen and even in the lead of Copenhagen 2-3 really important changes that have occurred. First is that, coming out of Copenhagen, we had countries accounting for over 80% of the world’s carbon pollution making specific commitments to reduce their emissions. That includes China, Indonesia, as well as the US and Europe, which is a very different picture than what we had coming into Copenhagen, where at best 40% of the world’s emissions were under specific commitments to reduce that pollution. That means that a main focus of negotiation and of the action going forward is how countries are living up to those commitments, what kinds of policies, programmes, laws they are putting in place to create a clean energy economy, to reduce deforestation, emissions and subsequently to meet their commitments.

Jessica Jordan: So, you are saying that other countries were able to reduce their emissions more so than we were here in the US then? And why so?

Jake Schmidt: The story is still being told on that front. A number of countries have made very sizeable shifts from their emissions portfolio over the last couple of years. You have Brazil, which except for a recent couple of months had made dramatic cuts in their deforestation rates to the extent that they hadn’t seen. China embarked on a massive effort to improve the efficiency of their overall economy. And even in the US, where we are seeing mixed signals at best from Congress, the trend in terms of energy investment is shifting away from high carbon sources of energy into much lower sources. Are any of those happening fast enough? No. And that leads to the second sort of trend that we’ve seen. The International Energy Agency just raised a major red flag that emissions across the world had reached the highest level that they had ever reached, this despite last year taking a downturn because of the global recession. And in some sense this was an unprecedented uptake on the mission that raises major alarm bells that the commitments the countries are making are not deep enough and are not happening fast enough. But, of course, the story isn’t completely told on that. So, we need countries to move forward with their commitments and ultimately move forward with policies and measures at home to reduce these emissions.

Jessica Jordan: You mentioned their commitments to reduce emissions weren’t deep enough. Can you expand on that? What should these countries be looking to do in reducing their emissions?

Jake Schmidt: What we are seeing is the beginning of countries’ actions. Just last year, global clean energy deployment reached another record level of 243 billion dollars. If you were to think of clean energy as a country, it would be the 30th largest country in the world, and it just grew 30% last year and similar amounts before – and this in the time when general economy is not doing fantastic across the world. Those are pretty astounding numbers. And so what I think we’re seeing is countries ‘building in’ the recognition that moving to low carbon energy is in heir own self-interest. It provides them with job creation opportunities – they can tap into these new industries in the future; they can reduce their health pollution. But, obviously, that takes some time to manifest itself in the way that countries develop their policies. So, I think we’re seeing the beginning of countries’ taking action, but, clearly, they need to make the transition to lower forms of energy and reducing deforestation at a much quicker scale than what we’re seeing today.

Rob Sachs: Where does carbon trading stand right now in terms of these talks that are going on in Bonn?

James Warner: In the US carbon trading is taking place at the regional level. There’s the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which unfortunately New Jersey has just pulled out of – but that’s a regional carbon trading scheme. As to the international carbon emissions trading – that’s part of what the conversations in Bonn are all about, because the Kyoto Protocol created a need and a mechanism for emissions trading, as the developed countries took on binding emissions targets, and one of the ways they could met them was by funding carbon reducing projects in developing countries, which didn’t have any targets or goals of their own. That’s changing. Almost all the countries in the world are in the process of developing their own emissions reduction plans. And some countries, like Brazil, which were seen as a potential large source of crediting for avoided deforestation, are starting to look at their own potential carbon reductions and want that credits for themselves, not sell those credits, so that other countries can get the benefit of those reductions. So, this is all part of the conversation as to what the next framework is going to look like. But the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) remained intact and is going straight ahead, and there’s going to be continued demand for emissions trading there, and also for offsetting projects.

Jessica Jordan: We mentioned after Copenhagen that all these countries started reducing their emissions and that the emissions reductions need to be deeper, there needs to be more cuts. What should be the end-goal for these countries, when it comes to emissions reductions?

James Warner: At the UN framework convention on climate change they talked about common, shared, but differentiated responsibilities. Each country is going to be able to do things in different ways. The key for developing countries is choosing lower carbon pathways of economic development. We want economies to grow – and to grow robustly, but in this century we have to decouple economic growth from greenhouse gas emissions. So, for some countries it’s going to be access to funding and to capital so that they can leapfrog some of inefficient, energy intensive ways of manufacturing and growing economically along low carbon pathways. From others, more developed countries, it’s going to take increased adoption of renewable energy, take a lot of avoided deforestation all over the world, reforming building codes, standards, reducing transportation emissions, increasing zero emission forms of transportation. There are many ways of going about it. The problem is that one of the biggest energy consumers and the biggest greenhouse gas producers in the world is the US. The likelihood of national carbon reduction policy is very unlikely in the near future.

Jessica Jordan: So, what specific examples, as far as low carbon energy or efforts to move towards low carbon energy, are we seeing here, as opposed to countries like Brazil, where the needs are different?

James Warner: We have a national combined mileage and emissions standard for motor vehicles. EPA has developed series of labels that well be seeing soon, so that when you buy your car you can see not only miles per gallon, but its greenhouse gas emission – it’s a unified standard. The administration is increasing is investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency from the point of the fuel cell and hydrogen community, not in the way that we would like – but it’s another conversation. A number of states – California is leading the way, but there are others – are increasing incentives for distributed generation and for more efficient buildings, and the federal government is doing that as well.

Rob Sachs: Jake, you’ve listed on your blog some things that individuals can think about doing, things like energy efficient light bulbs. What can people do on the individual level in terms of being more conscious about their carbon emissions?

Jake Schmidt: Every time we go to a store and purchase any kind of commodity we need to think about the amount of energy that’s going to use over its lifetime as well as how that product was produced, about tangible things like buying compact fluorescent light bulbs, or any other energy efficient light bulbs, the appliances that you buy, your refrigerators, your air conditioners, your televisions – major consumers of your energy. It’s critical to looking for things that use the least amount of energy, how products are sources. When you buy a product, it’s important to check whether it is sourced from something that comes from Brazilian Amazon, which is causing deforestation.

BRAZIL/AFRICA:

Jaret Anderson Thinks Potash Developers Blazing Trail to Brazil

06/10/11/ by Guest Contributor / Filed under Bourbon & Bayonets/oakshirefinancial.com

Brazil offers an ideal environment for potash developers, according to Salman Partners Analyst Jaret Anderson. A robust agricultural sector, favorable government policy with excellent transportation and infrastructure are leading to the development of a number of very attractive potash projects in Brazil. In this exclusive interview with The Energy Report, Jaret details his Brazil play and others.

The Energy Report: We know the general factors responsible for the growing need for fertilizers, but are there any growth drivers that aren’t quite so obvious?

Jaret Anderson: Absolutely. Everybody knows the earth’s population needs more food, and there’s a greater desire for increased meat consumption in a number of countries. Hundreds of millions of Chinese and Indians are making the transition from poverty to having some level of disposable income, and one of the first things people in that situation tend to demand is a higher protein content in their diet. One of the things that tends to get lost in the debate is the fact that in order to produce more protein we need a lot more arable land, or we need significantly more production from the arable land currently available.

In order to produce a kilogram (kg.) of beef, it takes about 7 kg. of feed, whether it’s corn or soy or what have you. In order to produce a kilogram of pork, it takes 4 kg. of feed, and for poultry it takes 2 kg. of feed. So, as hundreds of millions of people in India and China and around the world continue to move toward higher protein content in their diets, there is a need to produce more feed grains on a pretty much finite arable land base in order to satisfy those demands.

TER: It sounds like making protein is a very inefficient process.

JA: Regardless of whether it is efficient or inefficient, it’s what the world is demanding. I have no desire to give up my meat and I don’t think anybody else does either. There are ways we can achieve this with better farming techniques, such as more efficient use of fertilizers, genetically modified seed and superior irrigation. All of these things can help us improve crop yields and help us to offer everyone on the planet the food and protein they desire. So, moving yields up in less developed parts of the world to the levels that you see in North America and Western Europe, etc. is something that can be achieved over a longer period of time.

TER: Food producer risks would trickle down to the fertilizer producers. What are the risks?

JA: At the end of the day, the major risks are the impact of prices, which incorporate the supply and demand for the various crops, cattle, poultry, pork, etc. One macro-risk that could have a big impact on the agricultural system overall—and therefore on fertilizer producers and those who are trying to bring new fertilizer projects to market over the next number of years—is the political and economic debate surrounding ethanol.

A change in the political will to continue to subsidize ethanol in the United States could potentially have a significant impact on farm economics. Something like 40% of U.S. corn production is used to produce ethanol. A $0.45 per gallon subsidy currently goes toward the production of ethanol, and if that were to go away during this 2012 election season, it could hurt fertilizer producers.

TER: One Republican presidential candidate went to Iowa recently and made no bones about the need to reduce subsidies for ethanol.

JA: Yes, Minnesotan Tim Pawlenty made that statement pretty aggressively. Sarah Palin, whether she’s in or out, can have an impact on this issue. She’s saying some of the same sorts of things regarding the need to end all energy subsidies, including ethanol. So, it’s a risk. I don’t think it’s something to lose a lot of sleep over, but it is certainly something that can change the debate and the economics for corn production and, ultimately, fertilizer products.

TER: In an industry report, you expressed some thoughts about the significant advantages of producing potash in South America versus Africa. What thesis are you presenting to your clients regarding these two areas?

JA: Transportation costs represent approximately 40% of the total delivered North American potash costs. That’s another way of saying that location and infrastructure are critical elements for any prospective greenfield potash project. It’s critical to think about how infrastructure and transportation costs play into the various projects whether they’re located in Saskatchewan, Canada, Brazil, Ethiopia, Eritrea, the Republic of Congo or wherever else these projects are being developed.

Brazil, in my view, is a particularly interesting location. It’s the second-largest consumer of potash in the world today, and it has posted some of the best potash demand growth over the last 10 years. In addition, Brazil has a number of positive factors going for it. It has a well-developed infrastructure system, including modern roads, a well-developed rail network, access to water and power. By comparison, a number of projects in Africa have very interesting deposits but face significant challenges with respect to infrastructure, including a lack of access to rail, water, power and ports.

TER: Potash stocks are taking a well-deserved breather after phenomenal returns over the past 52 weeks. Is this an opportunity now for phosphates to catch up?

JA: There has been a big uptick in interest in phosphate projects over the last six months. I definitely receive more incoming calls on them than I did a year ago. I believe that phosphate projects do offer some advantages over potash projects because they are less expensive to build, and they’re generally brought to market faster than the five-plus years it can take to bring a potash project to market. Overall, though, the potash industry has offered much better returns over the cycle than phosphates.

PotashCorp (TSX:POT; NYSE:POT)—one of the largest fertilizer companies in the world—has generated an average gross margin over the past five years of 63% in its potash business. Its phosphate business, by comparison, has only generated an average gross margin of about 22%. I think that is the order of magnitude you can expect in potash versus phosphate over the cycle. That makes potash the more attractive business over the long term, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t attractive phosphate projects out there that can generate decent returns for investors.

TER: Companies vary how they report their resources. Investors would like to understand resource values on an apples-to-apples basis, specifically when it comes to understanding recoverable potassium chloride versus total tonnage of ore. This can have significant implications, can it not?

JA: It can. A number of these greenfield potash companies have taken different approaches with respect to the way they have chosen to report their resource figures. As you point out, some companies have reported the total number of tons of potash-bearing rock in the ground while others have been more conservative and report the amount of potash that they expect to be able to extract after accounting for the grade of the rock, allowances for losses during extraction and further losses during processing.

In general, we have found that companies with assets in North America have been more conservative in the way they have presented their figures than the companies with assets in Africa. In any event, when comparing two potash resources, investors have to take into consideration things like the resource grade, mineralization depth, existing infrastructure and the viability of moving forward over the long term.

In our opinion, too many of these companies have been painted with the same brush. Ultimately, not all of these projects are likely to make it to production. You have to consider carefully which of these projects have the most desirable characteristics and the lowest risk when making an investment decision.

TER: Does the Street typically give the recoverable potash resource reporter a premium?

JA: Not from what I’m seeing when I look at my comps, and that’s where I think there are some opportunities. To me, a company such as Western Potash Corp. (TSX.V:WPX), which is located in Saskatchewan and has a very large resource, has been conservative in the way it has presented its information compared to a lot of its peers in the greenfield potash space. Yet, it’s trading at a discount in terms of absolute EV or market cap to some of the companies operating in Africa with a fraction of the resource who have perhaps been less conservative in the way they’ve presented the figures. So, I think there are some opportunities there, and I think that a company like Western Potash does warrant a second look.

TER: Can a prolific producer command a premium price, or is the idea to get a better margin with lower infrastructure and transportation costs? Or is it both?

JA: In an ideal world, you want a large potash resource located close to a large source of end demand with good infrastructure already in place and a stable geopolitical environment. In our view, the projects in Saskatchewan and Brazil check most of these boxes. Brazil is particularly interesting in that it offers well-developed infrastructure, a stable political environment and very strong growth rates for potash demand going forward. If I had the ability to create a potash deposit located anywhere in the world, I would choose to locate it in Brazil. Brazil is likely to overtake China as the world’s largest consumer of potash sometime in the next decade. In my view, it offers the best combination of end-user demand, well-developed infrastructure, and an accommodative and stable government.

Something to keep in mind is the very long-life nature of these projects. When you’re building an operation that is expected to run for several decades, you need to think strategically about how the world is likely to unfold. Brazil is currently the world’s number one exporter of beef, chicken, sugar, coffee and orange juice. Given its very large undeveloped arable land base, those factors are only likely to go in Brazil’s favor. So, in my view, locating in a country with great agricultural promise going forward, a stable government, and good infrastructure makes a lot of sense.

TER: Could you give me a specific example?

JA: Sure, take the example of Verde Potash (TSX.V:NPK) (formerly Amazon Mining Holding), which has a very interesting greenfield potash project located in Brazil. Verde plans to produce a new type of potash in an area called Minas Gerais, a state with a very high level of agricultural production close to a number of fertilizer blenders that buy fertilizer today from companies such as PotashCorp, The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS), and OAO Uralkali (RTS:URKA, MICEX:URKA, LSE:URKA). Verde is likely to face freight costs of only about $45/ton to truck product from its location a couple hundred kilometers (km.) to the fertilizer blenders in Minas Gerais and Mato Grasso states. A supplier today in Saskatchewan such as PotashCorp or Mosaic is likely to face transportation costs of $35/ton to move its product from Saskatchewan to the port in Vancouver, another $35/ton via ship from Vancouver to the port in Brazil, and another $80-$115/ton to move the product from the port in Brazil to the inland location where the fertilizer blenders actually need the product. The total cost of end-to-end transportation is somewhere between $150 and $185/ton. So Verde’s $45/ton transportation cost gives it a very material competitive advantage. It really can’t be frittered away over time unless you believe rail and transportation costs are going to go down over the years, which is highly unlikely. This is an enduring competitive advantage.

TER: I am looking at Verde under its old ticker symbol as Amazon Mining, and its total return for the past 52 weeks is 383%. It’s given back about 14% over the past three months. Is there much left on the upside?

JA: Verde has plenty of upside left. I have a target of $11.50 per share, and you’re talking a return of 64% to my target. I believe there is certainly another $3–$4 left in the stock over the next 12 months. If the company’s R&D initiatives show positive developments, the stock has much, much more upside from here.

TER: Is there another company you might discuss?

JA: If you want to play in the Danakhil Basin in Ethiopia, I would steer someone toward Ethiopian Potash Corp (TSX.V:FED TSX.V:FED.WT), which has a land package located directly adjacent to Allana Potash (TSX.V:AAA; OTCQX:ALLRF) and yet has a market cap at roughly one-third that of Allana’s. If you’re bullish on the Ethiopian plays, they’re not all the same. Some are less expensive than others, and I think that Ethiopian Potash is an attractively valued name.

TER: Isn’t the Danakhil project 600 km from a port?

JA: It’s roughly 600 km by road to the nearest available port that it can use, which is Djibouti. Closer ports exist in Eritrea, but political problems limit access to those ports. Eritrea and Ethiopia have had troubled relations in the past. So, projects located in Ethiopia may have trouble gaining access to the ports in Eritrea. That could be resolved over time, but right now it looks like that’s going to be a challenge.

TER: Sticking with that transportation theme for a moment, you’re obviously very positive on Western Potash, but it’s 1,730 km to port.

JA: Yes, it’s a long ways away from the port in Vancouver. The difference is that there’s well-established rail infrastructure in place, which has been transporting large quantities of potash from Saskatchewan to Vancouver for several decades. The risk and the cost in moving potash out of Saskatchewan is much, much lower than I think you’re going to find in other parts of the world. So, it’s a large distance, but the infrastructure is largely in place to make that feasible.

TER: Thank you for your time. Best wishes.

JA: Thank you.

Jaret Anderson covers the fertilizer, agriculture and chemical sectors and brings over 10 years of research experience in the basic materials space to the Salman Partners research team. Jaret spent seven years at UBS Securities Canada covering paper & forest, fertilizer, chemical, gold and steel names prior to joining Salman Partners. In 2006 he was ranked #1 for earnings estimates accuracy in the paper and forest sector by Starmine, and in 2005 he was ranked #2 for quality of written reports (also in the paper & forest sector) by Brendan Woods International. Jaret holds a B.Com. (with Honors) from the University of British Columbia and became a CFA charterholder in 2000.

–

George Mack

The Energy Report

AfDB Signs Multi-Million Cooperation Agreements With China And Brazil

9 June 2011/African Development Bank (Tunis) / allafrica.com

SPONSOR WIRE

The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group on Wednesday in Lisbon signed two major cooperation agreements with China and Brazil for the funding of projects and programs in AfDB’s regional member countries.

AfDB policy and operations Vice President, Aloysius Uche Ordu, and the Executive Vice President, Agricultural Bank of China, Zhu Hongbo, signed a memorandum of understanding on a collaborative ventures in co-financing, technical cooperation for capacity building and knowledge partnership.

Mr. Hongbo said the deal, sealed on the eve of the AfDB 2011 Annual Meetings in the Portuguese capital, would ultimately focus on:

•Trade Finance;

•Infrastructure;

•Agriculture and agro-business;

•Clean energy projects such as solar energy and wind energy;

•Energy conservation, emission reduction and emission trading, promotion of biogas technology in rural areas, low-carbon planting, and bioelectrogenesis;

•Non-traditional lending business such as investment banking, consultancy and advisory business;

•Knowledge sharing and technical assistance; and

•Other areas which may be agreed upon by the Parties from time to time.

Vice President Ordu expressed the Bank’s appreciation of the alliance between the two banks. He commended the key role China is playing in the continent’s development. “We are privileged to be your partner and we will continue to work with you,” he added.

Under another agreement signed by Mr. Ordu and Brazil’s Secretary of International Affairs in the ministry of planning, budget and management, Carlos Augusto Vidotto, Brazil will, through its South-South Cooperation Trust Fund provide U.S.$ 6 million to the AfDB for the promotion of cooperation between the RMCs.

The fund is designed to facilitate the sharing of development knowledge, expertise and appropriate technologies between the Regional Member Countries and other developing regions outside Africa.

Focus areas include: Agriculture and Agri-business, Private Sector Development, Clean Energy/Environment, Governance, Health, Social Development,  other areas to be determined by the parties.

The Fund will become a multi-donor trust when agreement is reached with other contributing partners.

EN BREF, CE 10 Juin 2011 … AGNEWS/DAM,NY,10/06/201