{jcomments on}OMAR, BXL, AGNEWS, le 15 juillet 2010 —The leader of the al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group that claimed responsibility for twin bombings in Uganda during the World Cup final is threatening further attacks.

BURUNDI :

RWANDA

Rwanda: Missing Green Party Official Found Dead
Paul Ntambara/The New Times/allafrica.com/15 July 2010

Huye — An official of the yet-to-be registered Green Party of Rwanda who went missing in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, has been found dead, Police has confirmed.

Andre Kagwa Rwisereka, the group’s vice president and owner of a popular entertainment spot, Sombrero, in Butare town, was reported missing after his car, a Toyota pick-up, was found by residents on the banks of River Mukura near the border with Burundi.

Police yesterday mounted a hunt for the missing official only to find him dead about 1km from where his car was found abandoned Tuesday.

“The body has been found and taken to the University Teaching Hospital in Butare for post-mortem, all efforts are being made to ensure that all those involved in the crime are arrested and prosecuted,” said Police Spokesperson Eric Kayiranga in a telephone interview.

The deceased’s body was discovered a few metres off the Huye-Akanyaru highway by local residents who alerted the Police. According to an eyewitness, the body had deep cuts on the neck.

“We were informed of the presence of a dead person by our colleagues who were working by the road side, a closer look at the fully dressed body revealed a deep cut on the neck with the face covered in blood,” a witness at the scene said.

Will the Internet Delete Rwanda’s Past?
Thursday, 15 July 2010/ by Annemarie Dooling /rnanews.com

Kigali: In the middle of Africa, sitting on Lake Kivu, between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, you’ll find a little island. This happy accident is a place where families established of Congolese and Rwandan refugees have created a unique culture. Behind canopies of pure green, their children pile into a tiny schoolhouse; marching up mud hills without the aid of shoes.

Women dance and sell necklaces made out of paper beads to the few visitors brought over by tour boat. It’s both a proud and humble place, and difficult to explain if you haven’t seen it yourself. However, if you wanted to share these amazing visions with your friends back home, all you would have to do is pull out your iPhone and snap a Twitpic. On top of that hill, in a bright yellow kiosk, you can buy a SIM card to provide Internet to your phone.

MTN is the global telecom responsible for these kiosks, standing out, freshly painted and nearly pristine against a muddy green landscape. They sell the SIM cards at just $2 USD each, or about $1100 Rwandan Francs, the monetary system the country has used since its 1916 Belgian occupation. This digital super-brand offers services like Mobile TV, games, and prepaid Internet access to over 20 countries, including the Middle East. They also offer MobileMoney, providing personal bank account access from “anywhere in the world” via your mobile device. As we speak, they are launching efforts to cast a wider WiFi net, encompassing not only the Rwandan capital of Kigali, but surrounding rural areas.

And they aren’t the only online provider staking claim in Africa’s East. Royal purple banners and storefronts mark the arrival of TiGo, who became Rwanda’s 3rd largest telecom nine months ago. With 31 million subscribers to their parent company, Millicom International Cellular, their service spans across Africa, Central and South America. TiGo’s headquarters lie in Rwanda’s capital.

Growth of mobile gaming and free wifi might seem laughable to those in the Western world, but consider this: 16 years ago Rwanda was a country in total crisis, in the midst of extreme civil war. 20% of the population was slaughtered in the genocide and most of the remaining 80% were responsible. Though conflict was resolved in 1994, technology was not on the menu until 2000, when mobile devices gained popularity in urban areas.

In the 10 years since then, Rwandans have quickly taken control over their access to the World Wide Web, first by welcoming the addition of SEACOM fiber optic cables implanted in their streets. Then, by lobbying for new alternatives to the troubled SEACOM system; homegrown telecom Rwandatel has been tapped to provide extra service in outage areas this year. Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, has been given a co-chair seat of the Broadband Commission for Digital Development, to accelerate broadband networks for healthcare and education across Africa. In the capital city, Kigali Wireless Broadband, or WiBro, and Kigali Metropolitan Network, KMN, are working fast to reach service across a range of suburban areas outside of Kigali. While in 2007 only 17% of Rwandans used the Internet, the East African telecom market is expected to reach $9 billion by 2015. For Rwandans it’s more than leisure, it’s a way to control their destiny and move on from a painful past.

When arriving in Kigali International Airport, you’re greeted by three distinct items; an armed guard, a customs agent, and a banner explaining the best route of opening a business in Rwanda. Should you become so excited, you can stop in the Bourbon coffee shop downstairs and take advantage of free wifi to create your plans. Far away from the capital, rural Rwandans are finding uses for mobile data and Internet in their own lives. In Gisenyi, a tourism driver is at the scene of an accident. He pays the crowds to keep quiet as he surveys the scene and the motorbike that hit him speeds off. Unshaken, he reaches for his cell phone and pulls up a browser to scan the Internet for information before speaking to police and carrying on with his day. In a field in Volcanoes National Park, surrounded by mountains, a trail of cattle running behind him, John, a smiling teenager, rips a piece of paper out of his back pocket and asks for a pen. His father has died, he tells a group of tourists. His mother is now responsible for making ends meat, and he helps by leading people to the baskets that she weaves, in a small studio, just outside of a hotel colony. He points to the shops location, then scribbles his Yahoo.fr email address on the paper. It’s the best way to get in touch with him, he says.

The Tourism Department of Rwanda has attached themselves to the slogan “Bridging the Digital Divide.” They use tools like Twitter to locate travel writers and bloggers, and invite them on trips across the country. If getting people to Africa is half the problem, they are, indeed, bridging that divide with microblogging. And it’s by use of the Internet only that a young man in Butare finds his new favorite shop, a New York transplant. Blue Marble Dreams, the non-profit venture of Brooklyn’s Blue Marble ice cream, recently raised enough to build Rwanda’s first ice cream shop. Also in the States, One Laptop per Child plans to build that Internet awareness.

The program has made it a mission to deploy 120,000 laptops to Rwandan school children.

The future looks bright for the advancement of this Third world, and it’s hopes for widespread online access. English has replaced French as the official language, for both political and business reasons. Economic strides have warranted President Kagame awards, as have environmental efforts, such as the conservation of beloved mountain gorillas and the decision to ban plastic bag
s from the entire country. The national income has experienced extensive growth since coming out of its genocide haze, and continues to expand as a global business force.

But for all these advancements, there are major problems that even booming telecom cannot solve. Power outages are a common occurrence across even the most established neighborhoods. Rumblings of political abuse still linger in the minds of a people who have a freshly painful past. And how well will Internet be used in villages where walking to a fresh water well is a daily activity? Will the market traders, basket weavers and their families find use for the Internet? Who will show them how to use it?

Back in that field in Volcanoes National Park, John and his friends have crowded around a tourist’s iPhone. Their fingers poke and prod at the screen, almost second nature for children growing up in the digital age. They click open the application Foursquare, the mobile location based service game so wildly popular in the States. There, among a list of New York landmarks and French café’s, they are excited to see that the visitor has also virtually “checked-in” to this field. Their eyes laugh and they clap hands, excited to see that their village, a secluded place surrounded by mountain tops, is among the restaurants and venues of the world, and the Internet has broadcasted its existence.

UGANDA

Al-Shabab leader threatens more Uganda attacks
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN (AP) /15072010

MOGADISHU, Somalia — The leader of the al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group that claimed responsibility for twin bombings in Uganda during the World Cup final is threatening further attacks.

The leader of al-Shabab — Sheik Muktar Abu Zubayr — also thanked the militants who carried out Sunday’s twin bombings in Uganda. The attacks killed 76 people.

In the audio message played on Mogadishu radio stations Thursday, Abu Zubayr told Uganda’s president that Sunday’s attacks were only the beginning.

The bombings on Sunday ripped through a restaurant and rugby club. Al-Shabab said the bombings were revenge for Uganda’s deployment of peacekeepers in Mogadishu with the African Union.

Vigil held for family of Uganda victim
July 15, 2010/www.weartv.com

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — A prayer vigil has been held in Wilmington, Del., for the family and friends of a Uganda bombing victim.

Nate Henn was killed Sunday in Kampala, Uganda, where he was an aid worker. His brother Kyle was hurt in a small plane crash in Chapel Hill, N.C., Monday while traveling from Delaware to Raleigh to grieve with his parents.

Supporters of the family attended a vigil at Bethel Baptist Church in Wilmington on Wednesday night.

Nate Henn had attended the church before his family moved south. A speaker says Henn’s faith caused him to care deeply for those in need and to serve the children of Uganda.

Henn was among nearly 80 people killed when a Somali group linked to al-Qaida set off two blasts in Uganda’s capital Sunday night. Many of the victims were in crowds that had been watching the broadcast of the World Cup final.

Delaware people: After week of tragedy, Henn family honored
Mourners pay respects to Nate, killed in Uganda
By WADE MALCOLM • The News Journal / www.delawareonline.com/ July 15, 2010

On Sunday, Kyle Henn lost his older brother Nate in a terrorist bombing in Uganda.

On Monday, while traveling to grieve with his family in North Carolina, his plane crashed, killing the pilot and somehow sparing his life.
Back in Delaware on Wednesday, Kyle Henn told those gathered at a prayer service to think less of the tragedy roiling his family — and more about what his 25-year-old brother, a Concord High School graduate, would have wanted.
“Nate’s legacy is a pursuit of peace and hope for the children of Uganda and the Congo,” Kyle Henn said.
The service did not intend to memorialize Henn, Pastor Chris McGarvey said. Instead, the people at Bethel Baptist Church in Brandywine Hundred reflected on Nate Henn’s values and beliefs, notably his passion for the plight of African children. They laughed at the funny stories and cried plenty of tears for the sadder ones.
Mostly, the mourners prayed. They gave thanks for Henn’s life, and asked for his family’s comfort. They hoped for the safety of Henn’s father, Bob, in his journey to Africa to retrieve Nate’s body. And when it was Kyle Henn’s turn to speak, they cheered.
“I’d like to speak from my heart, but I’m afraid I’d break down if I did, so I wrote a speech instead,” Kyle Henn said. “By the grace of God I did not lose my life.”
If Nate had it his way, Kyle Henn said, the tragedy would shine a light on the suffering and oppression of African children forced to become soldiers. The family has established a Web site — natehenn.com — to raise money for a memorial fund that will support the work Henn died doing.
“We fully expect God will use this tragedy to continue to change lives,” Kyle Henn said.
The front of the event program included the nickname Nate Henn’s Ugandan friends gave him — Oteka, meaning “strong one.” Former Bethel youth pastor Andrew Hudson and longtime Henn family friend Jay Foggy also described him as a person of great persistence. As a kid, his parents called him “Buggy.”
As an adult, he sent mass e-mails rallying friends and family to the cause of Invisible Children, the aid group he served.
“If he had your e-mail address, you were going to hear about it — passionately,” Hudson said.
Foggy also read an eyewitness account of the plane crash relayed to him by a friend of the Henn family. Witnesses saw Kyle Henn emerge from the wreckage, virtually unscathed, and start looking for the surviving passenger, Jim Donahue, Foggy said. He and another man wrapped makeshift tourniquets around Donahue’s legs and helped load him into an ambulance.
“The same hand that pulled Nate to the heavens delivered Kyle back to the Earth,” Foggy said.

UNICEF: Farrow touring Uganda
July 15, 2010 /UPI

NEW YORK, July 14 (UPI) — U.S. actress-activist Mia Farrow traveled to Uganda Wednesday in her role as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Fund, the organization said.

During her three-day trip she is expected to visit Gulu, an area in the north where she intends to speak with children once held captive by the rebel group known as the Lord’s Resistance Army — which is notorious for using children as soldiers and terrorizing civilians in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic — UNICEF said.

Farrow is scheduled to visit Kotido in the northeastern region of Karamoja where children face violence caused by local tensions.

Also as part of her visit, Farrow is to attend Saturday’s opening of the first African Youth Forum in Entebbe, which is organized in cooperation with the African Union Commission and the Government of Uganda.

The focus of the forum is on maternal and child health and development. It will also address issues such as HIV/AIDS, child rights and access to quality education, UNICEF said in a news release.

TANZANIA:

Irish lands award for serving Kenya’s Maasai
www.nation.co.ke/By LUCAS BARASA, lbarassa@ke.nationmedia.com/Thursday, July 15 2010

An Irish national working as a volunteer with a Kenyan non governmental organisation has been honoured with a prestigious award.

Ms Elaine Bannon was presented with the Order of the Golden Warrior of Kenya medal Wednesday by Kenya Foreign minister Moses Wetang’ula on behalf of President Kibaki.

Ms Bannon was awarded on December, 12 2009 by the President during the 46th Jamhuri Day celebrations.

She has been working in Rombo, Loitikitok District since 2002 when she left a life of comfort in Dublin and travelled to the Kenyan south Rift to serve the local Maasai community.

Rombo is in the southern part of the Rift Valley, near the border with Tanzania where the organisation—the Light of the Maasai— is located.

Ms Bannon was moved by the news of unfortunate residents of Rombo, who were grappling with poverty that she decided to relocate to Kenya to serve the poor people.

Since her arrival, Ms Bannon has helped the local community initiate development projects in health, education and water services by building schools, wells and clinics.

She later established and registered the Light of the Maasai and acquired funding through the Dublin Central Rotary Club. The club has endorsed the Rombo project for long term support with widespread sponsorship from both North and South Ireland.

Ms Bannon is also a beneficiary of an award by the Rotary Foundation in recognition of her work in Rombo. The recognition has benefitted the Light of the Maasai projects as it raised awareness and encouraged Rotarians to become involved.

Positive impact

It is for these selfless humanitarian efforts that have made a positive impact in the lives of ordinary Kenyans in Rombo, that Ms Elaine Bannon was nominated to receive the Award of the Order of the Golden Warrior of Kenya by the President.

Speaking during the presentation of the award at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Mr Wetang’ula appreciated the selfless effort of Ms Bannon in improving the lives of the local community.

He recognised her sacrifice by leaving a comfortable life in Dublin to live and work with residents of rural Rombo.

The minister compared her sacrifice to some NGOs which only operate from the convenience of the capital city, Nairobi.

He said it is only through actual interaction with the rural communities that NGOs will understand the problems facing the residents. He said that the government will continue providing support to the Light of the Maasai, and urged the local community to provide a strong link between themselves and the government.

Receiving the award, Ms Bannon said she would dedicate it to the Maasai community which she serves and thanked the government of Kenya for cooperating with her organisation.

She also gave tribute to her parents for giving her financial and moral support. Ms Bannon described them as humble and understanding, whose support to her is indispensable.

The presentation ceremony was attended by Foreign Affairs PS Thuita Mwangi, the Irish ambassador to Tanzania—who is also accredited to Kenya—Anne Barrington, Councillor Joseph Nkanoni, Mr Elijah Kilempu and Mr Jonathan Kipano, all partners of the Light of the Maasai.

Airtel In Africa: Investment Targets; Tanzania Problem; Wants Infra Sharing, MNP
By Nikhil Pahwa / www.medianama.com/July 15th, 2010

Following its landmark acquisition of Zain Africa, which made it the fifth largest telecom operator in the world, Bharti Airtel is making all the right noises in Africa. On the regulatory front, Airtel is pushing for infrastructure sharing among telecom operators, which will reduce its cost of roll out, making the case for the implementation of Mobile Number Portability, which will assist it in customer acquisition, and highlighting the Indian example of high minutes of use (around 5 times of the African average of 40 minutes per month) to push for reduction in rates. Manoj Kohli, CEO (International) & Joint MD, Bharti Airtel, who is heading the African operations, has been doing the rounds of the countries where Zain has operations, announcing investment plans, and stating that growth of teledensity in rural areas will be important for the company.

As we had reported last month, the Airtel brand will be rolled out in Africa in October, and Kohli has set the following targets for the company by 2012-2013:
– 100 million customers (Zain Africa currently has 42 million)
– $5 Billion in revenue (Zain Africa currently does around $3.6 Bn)
– $ 2 Billion EBITDA (Zain Africa currently does $1.2 Billion EBITDA)

Issues With Tanzania Government Over Ownership

According to reports, Airtel put in a bid for the Tanzania governments 40% stake in Zain Tanzania, but the government doesn’t want to sell it. Instead, the government wants to buy back the majority stake in the company, which is with Airtel. Zain also held 35% stake in national fixed line operator TTCL, which it agreed to sell back to the government. According to reports, the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) has not formally granted permission for the sale of Zain Tanzania.More at Telegeography and Cellular News. According to The Citizen, Airtel had offered $11.2 million to the government, and also allow it to retain its stake. Apparently, mobile companies are required by law, to list on the Dar es Salaam stock exchange.

To Invest At Least $1.5 Billion

At press conferences around the continent, Kolhi’s announced investment plans over the next 2-3 years that aggregate to at least $1.5 billion. Plans and investments for Chad, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Congo Brazzaville and Madagascar are yet to be announced.

– In Kenya, $150 Million: In Nairobi, Kohli said that Bharti Airtel will invest $150 million in Kenya to help boost network and capacity distribution, and start services with a rural focus. The company is open to infrastructure sharing. Airtel is also pushing for Mobile Number Portability in Kenya. Kohli said that the estimated minutes of use is 50 min per month in Kenya, which the company will look to push up. Kenyan subscribers pay 28% tax on call value. Read more at Reuters and Business Daily Africa.
– In Nigera, $600 Million: Nigeria was a tricky situation for Airtel earlier. Airtel has announced plans to invest N90 billion (around $600 million) in network expansion over the next three years in Nigeria, around N45billion of which will be invested in the first year itself. Consumers expect the company to improve call quality and customer service, and reduce tariff. Rajan Swaroop is the CEO of Zain Nigeria. Read more at Daily Independent
– In Ghana, $200 Million: Airtel will invest $200 million in Ghana, and look to reduce the cost of connectivity for consumers, provide deep network coverage and distribution. Airtel will look to share infrastructure with other telecom operators, but is also pushing for mobile number portability in Ghana. Additionally, they’ll also roll out Corporate Social Responsibility programmes in Ghana. More at Ghana News Agency
– In Gabon, $100 Million: the investment will be made over three years, for network expansion, and the launch of new services. More at The Hindu
– In Niger, $100 Million: Around 50 billion CFA francs (around $100 million), over around three years, will be invested in Niger for improving network quality. Telecom penetration in Niger is around 10-11% . [Economic Times]
– In Malawi, $100 million: Airtel is targeting farmers in Malawi, and will invest $100 million over three years, and is looking to push average minutes of use from 40 per month to 250, by bringing down rates. Airtel is targeting 7 million subscribers in the country. Kohli also said that availability of electricity is a key issue, though Zain Malawi has solar powered booths. [AfricaNews.com & Digital Journal]
– In Uganda, $100 Million: the investment will be made over the next two to three years, and Airtel is looking to push mobile penetration to over 60% from the current 30% level. More at Business Daily Africa.
– In Zambia, $150 million: Again, the investment will be over the next two to three years according to Kohli. Zambia is a market where Airtel/Zain is dominant. [CIOL]

CONGO RDC :

Oxfam questions military action in DR Congo
JODY CLARKE in Kampala/The Irish Times /Thursday, July 15, 2010

CIVILIANS IN eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are facing an increased risk of rape and forced labour as a result of internationally backed military operations against rebel groups, according to a new report by aid agency Oxfam.
The survey of people living in north and south Kivu provinces in eastern Congo found 75 per cent of women felt in more danger than a year ago. This rose to 99 per cent in the parts of south Kivu, which is at the centre of a UN-supported offensive by the Congolese army against the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR) and other rebel groups.
Some 65 per cent of boys surveyed said they were less safe, with this rising to 100 per cent in areas where operations were ongoing.
Women said rape had increased in 20 of the 24 communities surveyed, with boys stating that schools were often raided to provide forced labour.
“The military operations are having a devastating effect on Congolese communities, who are being attacked from all sides,” said Marcel Stoessel, head of Oxfam in Congo.
“The army is supposed to protect people, but until real root-and-branch military reform takes place, the risks this offensive poses to communities are just too high.”
Crimes committed by the army, which included killing, torture, burning houses and gang rape, were so extreme that they were often indistinguishable from the worst excesses of the FDLR, which is descended from those Hutu groups who carried out the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Three-quarters of communities reported looting, with soldiers taking everything from cash and mobile phones to livestock and food. A separate survey in Kabare, south Kivu, found that 15 army checkpoints in the area may be making as much as $18,000 a month through extortion.
More than 20,000 civilians fled fighting in eastern Congo in the last week, according to the United Nations, as the Democratic Republic of Congo’s army pursued Ugandan rebels in Congo’s north Kivu province, near the Ugandan border. The offensive is aimed at finally driving rebel groups from the east of the country, which they have used as a base since the Rwandan genocide saw hundreds of thousands of refugees cross the border into the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1994. A UN peacekeeping force is charged with stabilising the region, but the Congolese government has asked them to leave as they insist it violates the country’s sovereignty.

Inpex picks up Congo slice
Upstream staff /15 July 2010

UK-listed Soco International said its Congolese unit is set to farm out a 20% interest in Nganzi Block to Japan’s Inpex Corporation.

Inpex will fund 40% of the drilling cost, subject to agreed caps, for three planned wells in the block onshore the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Japanese explorer will also refund Soco past costs incurred on the 20% participating interest in the onshore block.

The transfer of the block interest is subject to regulatory approval.

Soco will retain 65% interest as the block operator. National oil company, La Congolaise des Hydrocarbures (“Cohydro”) holds the remaining 15% stake.

Four large structures have been identified in the 800-square-kilometre onshore block from 2008 2D seismic data.

Drilling on the first of the three exploration probes, the Nganga well commenced today. Two other wells are planned for 2010.

Each well will take about 40 to 50 days to drill and will test about 200 million barrels of oil in place.

DRC – Nicéphore Mpela: “Nothing could be capitalised”
15 July 2010 /By RNW Africa Desk /By Patrick Kassongh

Nicéphore Mpela Dimambu, an inspector at the Ministry of Education for primary, secondary and vocational education is the son of Carlos Mpela.

Now 52 years of age, he began his career as a high school teacher in 1979. Since then, he has gone from being director of studies to his current position, an inspector.

The concept of independence, does it have any meaning in the DRC? Nicéphore: “Our country is independent and we are proud.”

Making ends meet
Nicéphore was already working in the time the late President Mobutu was ruling Zaire, as the Democratic Republic of Congo was known then. Nicéphore recognises that in the colonial era people did not earn much, but that it was enough to make ends meet.

“It was during Mobutu’s reign that the purchasing power took a serious blow, that was the time when life became terrible in this country.”

Originally from the province of Bas Congo, in the Lukaya District, Nicéphore Mpela Dimambu quotes the constitution, the coat of arms, the national anthem and the plethora of academics as a symbol of independence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

But did the Congolese take anything from the Belgian colonial legacy and, more importantly, did they turn it into something they could properly benefit from? Nicéphore: “The only thing that comes up in my mind is the respect of the daily working hours. There was little else that could be capitalised, not even the maintenance of real estate left by the settler. “

Earning ‘pocket money’
Married with four children, the inpector also speaks of the current salary scale, 50 years after the Belgians left: “I am head of service, level 5, but I earn only 45,000 Congolese francs ($ 50) a month. It’s little else than pocket money for a weekend. ” A way of saying he is underpaid.

Reflecting on Congo’s future in 2060, Nicéphore Mpela realises that he probably won’t be there anymore in 50 years’time. Nonetheless, this resident of Kisantu, a town located 25 km outside the city of Mbanza Ngungu where he grew up, believes that a better future of his country depends on whether they can get rid of countervalues, including selfishness, tribalism and corruption.

“But on June 30, 2010, without any money, I will at home. I will celebrate Congo’s independence by reflecting on what was, what is and what will be.”

UN forces accused of sex abuse in DRC
Thu, 15 Jul 2010/www.presstv.ir

Two UN peacekeepers have been accused of sexual exploitation in the African nation of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) will investigate the charges against the two military personnel, AFP quoted UN spokesman Farhan Haq as saying on Wednesday.

The spokesperson further added that more details on the case would be provided once the OIOS probe is completed.

However, a UN source who spoke on condition of anonymity said the allegations involved a Tunisian and an Indian.

The 20,000-strong UN force has been embroiled in a series of scandals involving sexual abuse as well as gold and gun trafficking since it was first deployed in the central African country in late 1999.

In 2005, the world body set a “zero tolerance” policy for its troops having sex with Congolese.

AGB/JG/HRF

KENYA :

Kenya: U.S. Accused of Paying Groups to Boost ‘Yes’ Camp Support
Kevin J Kelley/Daily Nation/allafrica.com/15 July 2010

Nairobi — The Obama administration is providing about Sh50 million to 10 Kenyan groups promoting a ‘Yes’ vote in the referendum, a US congressman said on Wednesday.

Recipients of the funding include the Central Organisation of Trade Unions, the Kenya Muslim Youth Alliance, Christian Community Services as well as theatre groups and peace-advocacy organisations, said Representative Chris Smith.

“There is no doubt that the Obama administration is funding the ‘Yes’ campaign in Kenya,” he alleged.

“By funding NGOs charged with obtaining ‘Yes’ votes, the administration has crossed the line,” he declared, adding: “The US is running a political campaign in Kenya.”

“US taxpayer funds should not be used to support one side or the other,” he said.

Detailed list

Mr Smith’s allegations will escalate the controversy over US involvement in the referendum campaign and his detailed list contradicts a US embassy statement on Monday that the government is only supporting the constitution review process.

Mr Smith is one of three Congress members who have accused the administration of violating a law prohibiting use of government funds to support or oppose abortion.

The three Republicans claim that the proposed constitution would give Kenyan women unrestricted access to abortion and have requested a probe into US funding in the referendum.

On Tuesday, Mr Smith released a list of Kenyan groups he said had received the Sh50 million from the US Agency for International Development, claiming it had been supplied by Usaid’s inspector general.

According to the list, the Provincial Peace Forum, Eastern Providence was given about Sh8 million to “gain buy-in for the proposed constitution by educating professional elites in Isiolo South about its benefits and getting their commitment to use their influence to ensure people vote ‘Yes’.

Next referendum

It says the Cotu also got Sh8 million to “marshal a coalition of pro-constitution individuals and institutions to drum up support by organising a rally at the historic Kamukunji Grounds.”

The provincial commissioner for North Eastern Province allegedly got about Sh8 million for “one of a series of activities that aim to contribute to an ‘overrepresentation’ of Yes voters at the next referendum.”

The Kenya Muslim Youth Alliance is said to have got about Sh5 million for “one of a series of activities that aim to contribute to an ‘overrepresentation’ of the Yes voters…”

Other organisations that were allegedly funded to ensure a victory for the ‘Yes’ team at the referendum include the Provincial Peace Forum, Rift Valley Province, Inter Community Peace Choir Organisation, North Rift Theatre Ambassadors, Amani People’s Theatre, Christian Community Services and Pokot Outreach Ministries.

US envoy irks Kenyan MPs
BY LABAN WANAMBISI/www.capitalfm.co.ke/ Jul 15

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 14 – Six Members of Parliament in the No camp are demanding the recall of American ambassador Michael Ranneberger over what they call political interference.

Speaking at the Parliament media centre on Wednesday, Makueni MP Peter Kiilu questioned why Mr Ranneberger has been going round the country campaigning for the proposed Constitution completely oblivious of his role as the US envoy.

“Mr Ranneberger’s behaviour is demeaning, wanting and hinges on acts of a political activist that does not befit the status of a diplomat. If he cannot play his diplomatic role we demand his immediate recall by his government to allow him to play a political activist’s role in his country,” he said.

The MPs said Kenya is a sovereign country that should be able to deal with its issues without outside interference from foreign countries.

Mosop MP David Koech said the No team was convinced that the proposed Constitution had contentious clauses that need amendment before Kenyans usher a new constitutional dispensation.

“The US is a country which has the highest number of classified information than any country in the whole world, why Mr Ranneberger is encouraging Kenyans to pass a document that is going to open the secrets of Kenya to the world, I cannot understand,” he said.

The US Ambassador has recently come under scathing attack for allegedly interfering with the Kenyan constitutional review process.

Those in the No camp especially the church leaders and a section of politicians have alleged that the US ambassador has been promised to aid MPs develop their constituencies if they campaign for the contentious proposed Constitution.

However, the U.S. said it was supporting the constitutional review process as the centerpiece of the broad reform agenda agreed to after the post-election crisis.

Higher Education Minister William Ruto, has often said those in support of the proposed Constitution were in agreement with them that the document was bad but were simply yielding to foreign pressure.

The No team has been campaigning on the grounds that the proposed Constitution had contentious clauses that need amendment before Kenyans usher a new constitutional dispensation.

The No team say that Kenyans long wait for a Constitution must be guided by the enactment of a new one does not hold any water with such ambiguity.

He said: “the fact that Kenyans had yearned for a new Constitution for 20 years was no reason for the country to accept a faulty one in desperation.”

The MPs accused Mr Ranneberger of going behind the back of politicians opposed to the proposed Constitution and inciting people against them citing a case in Kitale where it is said he promised the youth foreign aid and received defector from the No team.

The American envoy has however maintained that the US will not influence voting during Kenya’s second constitutional referendum to be held on August 4, but looks forward to helping the country achieve her reform agenda.

Kenya: COTU, KNUT Threaten Strikes On MP’s Pay
Mosoku Geoffrey/Nairobi Star (Nairobi) /allafrica.com/15 July 2010

Nairobi — KENYAN workers and civil society groups are threatening mass action to force President Kibaki to dissolve Parliament and hold fresh elections after the August 4 referendum.

In an apparent reference to a countrywide general strike, Central Organisation of Trade Unions, Kenya National Union of Teachers, Union of Civil Servants, Nurses Association of Kenya, National Civil Society Congress, National Convention Executive Council and the Multi Sectoral National Yes Campaign yesterday jointly declared that they will leave Kibaki no option other than to dissolve Parliament if he does not cooperate with them.

The coalition, which for the first time spoke in one voice, declared that this would remove the current MPs whom they described as selfish.

The coalition of government workers and civil society said the only solution is to pass the new proposed constitution as it provides for a Salaries and Remuneration Commission that will decide salaries for MPs and public officials.

At Cotu headquarters in Gikomba yesterday morning, deputy secretary general George Muchai read out a statement on behalf of the groups accusing the MPs of being selfish in demanding a substantial salary increase.

“We are calling on the President to convene a meeting with workers’ representatives, trade unions, civil organisations, and student leaders, youth and women representatives so that we can give him the way forward.

If he does not do so, then we will cause a situation that will leave him with no option other than to dissolve Parliament,” declared a combative Muchai.

Those present at the press conference included NCEC’s Cyprian Nyamwamu, Centre for Multiparty Democracy chair Professor Larry Gumbe, KNUT’s George Wesonga, Lawrence Majali and Fred Ontere and Cotu chair Rajab Mwonda.

Kenyans were angered last week when MPs adopted the Akiwumi report that raised their salaries to Sh1.2 million plus generous additional allowances proposed by their Parliamentary Service Commission.

Civil society groups held street protests before delivering a petition to Parliament.

Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta said the salary increases were unaffordable but last week MPs twice refused to adjourn Parliament for the scheduled recess demanding that he tables the legislation to implement their pay rise.

Yesterday the coalition said dissolving Parliament would enable Kenyans to elect better MPs who can implement the proposed constitution once it is passed.

They claimed that MPs could conspire to amend the proposed constitution to allow ministers to be appointed from among them.

Muchai said that they could resort to peaceful mass action and other ways to stop MPs from “blackmailing” Kenyans.

“We are gathered here today to let Kenyans and the world know that Kenyan MPs have become a major threat to national security and development,” he declared.

The coalition representatives said that MPs do not have the legal power to increase their salaries.

“Under section 48 of the current constitution, Parliament is prohibited, except with the recommendation of the President, from making any Bill or law to impose additional tax or impose any charge to the Consolidated Fund.”

“Therefore it is outright illegal and unlawful for Parliament to use the Akiwumi recommendations to raid the Treasury,” Muchai added.

The coalition representatives said an employee cannot appoint a committee to recommend his own salary increase.

“The Akiwumi tribunal was appointed by the Parliamentary Service Commission as an agent of the House,” Muchai said.

The MPs have not only refused to go on recess but are threatening to shoot down all government bills until they get their pay rise.

Muchai dared the MPs to make good their threat.

“We know the Finance Bill is coming to the House. We dare them to shoot it down and we shall petition the President to convene a meeting with us so that we can author their punishment,” he said.

“They should go home and look for alternative jobs if they are unhappy with their current pay.”

The coalition said MPs had become insensitive to the plight of workers including police officers, nurses, teachers and civil servants.

He said that under the recommendations former MPs will be entitled to Sh750,000 monthly.

“This is bizarre. This is madness. Knowing that 80 per cent of MPs are thrown out of Parliament every five years, how do they expect us to sustain thousands of former MPs on this high pension?” Muchai asked.

The coalition described Akiwumi’s proposal to improve the perks of the President, Prime Minister and Vice President as bribery.

“We can only discern their intention was to cajole the executive to accept the immoral and reasonable recommendations,” Muchai added.

ANGOLA :

Marrack Goulding, Former Chief Peacekeeper for the U.N., Dies at 73
By DENNIS HEVESI/ www.nytimes.com/July 15, 2010

Marrack I. Goulding, who for seven years as an under secretary general of the United Nations oversaw peacekeeping missions around the world — at times coming under fire himself — died Friday at a nursing home in Somerset, England. He was 73 and lived in London.
The cause was cancer, his daughter, Rachel Nickerson, said.

Mr. Goulding, a former British ambassador to Angola, led United Nations peacekeeping operations from 1986 to 1993. Before his tenure the peacekeeping office had been run on a shoestring budget, employing a handful of officials.

By 1993, when Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali transferred Mr. Goulding to the post of under secretary general for political affairs — with a mission of “preventive diplomacy” to foster peace rather than monitor it — his department had 60,000 peacekeepers in the field at an annual cost of about $2.8 billion and was carrying out 13 operations from El Salvador to Angola to the former Yugoslavia to Cambodia.

Mr. Goulding also led the planning for a command and control center at the United Nations headquarters in New York to keep officials linked day and night with all peacekeeping operations around the world.

Marrack Irvine Goulding was born in Plymouth, England, on Sept. 2, 1936, one of two children of Ernest and Gladys Sennett Goulding. His father was a High Court judge.

Mr. Goulding graduated from Oxford in 1959 and then joined the British Foreign Office. After being sent to Lebanon to learn Arabic, he was posted to Kuwait and, later, to Libya, Egypt and Portugal. He was in charge of the British Mission to the United Nations from 1979 to 1983. Then, after serving as ambassador to Angola from 1983 to 1985, he was named an under secretary general at the United Nations.

In trouble spots like El Salvador, Namibia, Mozambique, Western Sahara, Angola and Cambodia, United Nations forces under his leadership found themselves disarming rebels, monitoring local police forces and organizing free elections.

Like his troops, Mr. Goulding sometimes found himself in dangerous situations. In 1988, while investigating conditions in Palestinian refugee camps, he was caught in a hail of rubber bullets and tear gas as Israeli soldiers chased protesters.

Four years later, despite a cease-fire, mortar shells landed within yards of Mr. Goulding as he left the headquarters of the United Nations peacekeeping operation in Croatia.

SOUTH AFRICA:

South African Equities: Anglo, BHP Billiton, Didata, Merafe
July 15, 2010/Bloomberg

July 15 (Bloomberg) — South Africa’s FTSE/JSE Africa All Share Index gained 30.5, or 0.1 percent, to 27,474.17 at 10:24 a.m. in Johannesburg. The index fell 0.2 percent yesterday.

The following are among the most active stocks in the South African market today.

AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (ANG SJ), Africa’s largest gold producer, gained 2.56 rand, or 0.8 percent, to 316.07 rand. Gold for immediate delivery strengthened as much as 0.8 percent to $1,213.85.

Datatec Ltd. (DTC SJ), the computer-services company, rose 1.06 rand, or 3.3 percent, to 33.71 rand, the strongest intraday level since June 22. The company said trading and profitability between March 1 and June 30 continued to improve and that its forecast for fiscal full-year earnings through Feb 28, 2011, remain unchanged.

Dimension Data Holdings Plc. (DDT SJ) climbed 2.32 rand, or 20 percent, to 13.89 rand, its biggest gain in more than seven years. The largest computer-services technology company in Africa received an offer from Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. offered 2.1 billion pounds ($3.2 billion).

Merafe Resources Ltd. (MRF SJ), the ferrochrome producer, advanced the most in a week, gaining 3 cents, or 2.3 percent, to 1.33 rand. The company said it will report earnings a share of between 7 cents and 8 cents in the first half from a loss a year earlier.

Shoprite Holdings Ltd. (SHP SJ), South Africa’s biggest retailer by market value, gained 70 cents, or 0.8 percent, to 88.95 rand. Turnover for the year through June increased 14 percent to about 67.4 billion rand from a year earlier, the company said today.

–Editors: Ana Monteiro, Linda Shen.

South Africa Buys $2.2 Billion of Foreign Currency
By Garth Theunissen/Bloomberg/Thursday, July 15, 2010

July 15 (Bloomberg) — South Africa’s National Treasury bought an estimated $2.2 billion of foreign currency this year to boost reserves, limiting gains in the rand during the nation’s hosting of the soccer World Cup, said Citigroup Inc.

The foreign-exchange purchases included $700 million in June, Leon Myburgh, Citigroup’s sub-Saharan Africa analyst, wrote in a research note today. Citigroup’s estimates are based on data published by the South African Reserve Bank, according to the note.

“This reflects a new dynamic in the foreign-exchange market and helps explain why the rand did not appreciate in the face of World Cup-related inflows,” Myburgh said. “The accumulation of foreign exchange by the National Treasury must be seen in the light of a commitment by the monetary and fiscal authorities to build foreign-exchange reserves.”

Organized labor groups including the Congress of South African Trade Unions have lobbied the nation’s central bank to aggressively step up dollar purchases to weaken the rand and boost exports. Deputy Governor Daniel Mminele said May 20 that while policy makers would seek to build foreign-currency reserves, they would not target a specific level for the rand.

“Aggressive intervention” in the foreign-currency market or pegging the rand to the dollar “would be a very costly exercise,” Mminele said June 3.

The rand appreciated 1.1 percent against the dollar during the soccer World Cup, which ran from June 11 to July 11. The tournament attracted as many as 500,000 foreign visitors to South Africa and added about 0.4 percentage point to gross domestic product, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said July 2.

NTT buys South Africa’s Dimension Data
15 July 2010/ www.bbc.co.uk

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) says it will buy the South African IT firm Dimension Data in £2.12bn ($3.24bn) deal.

The move will give Japanese NTT access to overseas markets and exposure to fast-growing Africa.

Dimension also provides IT-related services in the United States, Europe and Asia.

NTT will finance the acquisition through cash and debt.

The deal will mark the largest acquisition by far of a South African firm by a Japanese company, according to data from Thomson Reuters.

Japanese companies have been slow to enter Africa, which offers huge potential growth in mobile telephony and information technology thanks to rising personal incomes, a growing middle class and improving infrastructure.

Indian and Chinese companies have been far more active on the continent.

Last month, Bharti Airtel completed a $9bn acquisition of mobile operations in 15 African countries.

Also last month, the world’s biggest mobile phone company, China Mobile said it was looking to invest in Africa.

UPDATE: MTN Plans $1.1B Black Empowerment Deal In S Africa
JULY 15, 2010/online.wsj.com

By Robb M. Stewart Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES JOHANNESBURG (Dow Jones)–MTN Group Ltd. (MTN.JO) Thursday announced an 8.1 billion rand ($1.1 billion) plan to sell a roughly 4% stake to black South Africans, in what it said will be the largest empowerment transaction to date in the country’s telecommunications industry.

The Johannesburg-based company, Africa’s largest cellphone network operator, said it will also offer shares to employees outside management who were discriminated against under South Africa’s former apartheid system that kept non-whites out of the mainstream economy until democratic elections in 1994.

The cost to MTN will be roughly ZAR2.28 billion, including an estimated ZAR983 million in vendor financing to the company that will be created to effect the deal and the ZAR152 million cost of the employee share ownership program, it said.

MTN said that if the transaction goes ahead as proposed, it will mean a further 29% of its South African operations are indirectly held by black individuals and groups to push such ownership beyond 30%.

The company had delayed plans for a black economic empowerment deal until now because of the effect the global recession had on financial markets. It previously had said it would offer stock to black investors and employees in the first half of last year under a scheme that would replace its previous black shareholding structure, whereby a company owned by a trust for senior management and staff held a 13% stake in MTN.

MTN was launched in 1994, the same year Nelson Mandela took office as president, and has rapidly expanded to having operations in 21 African and Middle Eastern countries. The company had 116 million subscribers by the end of last year and revenue of ZAR111.9 billion and has said it expects to add another about 20 million customers in 2010.

MTN said it plans to launch a public offer at the end of August, which will close about mid-October and offer the public a chance to buy shares in empowerment vehicle Black Investment Co. at ZAR20 each. The minimum subscription for shares will be ZAR2,000, but it said allocations will start with applications for the least number of shares in order to reach as many people as possible.

Participants in the scheme will be required to hold their shares in BIC for three years, after which they will be able to trade with other black investors, a term which in South Africa also covers people of Indian and Chinese decent.

At the same time, MTN said it will offer the equivalent of 0.1% of its issued share capital to South African employees, excluding managers and directors. The workers will receive 400 MTN shares each, without having to contribute any equity, it said.

-By Robb M. Stewart, Dow Jones Newswires

Al-Qaida sees African lives as cheap, says Obama
By Alex Spillius, The Daily Telegraph/ www.montrealgazette.com/ July 15, 2010

President Barack Obama has urged Africans to shun al-Qaida, which saw their “innocent” lives as cheap.

He said terrorist organisations “do not regard African life as valuable in and of itself”. “They see it as a potential place where you can carry out ideological battles that kill innocents without regard to long-term consequences for their short-term tactical gains,” he told South African television.

A U.S. official suggested that Mr Obama was criticizing the ideology and motives of al-Qaida affiliates on the continent, which U.S. intelligence agencies say are the extremist group’s most active branches. “Al-Qaida is a racist organization that treats black Africans like cannon fodder and does not value human life,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Mr Obama’s warning came days after suicide bombers killed 76 in Uganda in an attack by al-Shabaab, a Somali militant group that has links to al-Qaida. He said the timing of the attacks on a crowded bar and restaurant during Sunday’s World Cup final was particularly cruel. “It was so tragic to see an explosion like this take place when people in Africa were watching the World Cup take place in South Africa,” he said.

U.S. officials drew parallels between the attacks and the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed hundreds of Africans, to suggest that al-Qaida viewed people on the continent as acceptable casualties of its mission.

There are fears that al-Shabaab could seek to carry out attacks outside Africa. The Kampala bombings were its first outside Somalia, where it is involved in the civil war. A statement from the group said the blasts were retaliation for the presence of Ugandan troops in Mogadishu

AFRICA / AU :

Clergy want Africa to face up to Somalia conflict
www.monitor.co.ug/By Sheila Naturinda / Thursday, July 15 2010

Kampala

The Inter-Religious Council of Uganda has called on government to use the forthcoming African Union Summit to remind all African countries that peace keeping in Somalia cannot be left to Uganda and Burundi alone.

Uganda and Burundi are the only two countries that have so far contributed troops to the African Union peacekeeping mission in war-torn Somalia — a fact that has made them a declared target for elements opposed to what they say is foreign interference in that country’s internal affairs.

In a three-page statement read by the leader of the Orthodox Church in Uganda, Metropolitan Jonah Lwanga, who chairs the council, the men of the cloth yesterday said the Sunday night terror attacks have raised questions about Uganda’s immigration and foreign affairs policies, plus security matters in the country.

They asked Uganda’s security forces to learn from the July 11 incidents, noting that they “have tested the capacity of government [to] meet [its] obligation of protecting the lives and property of Ugandans”.

The council observed that some people believe that the tragedy could have been prevented if the country had a better security alert system. “We need to listen to such people even if they may not be wholly right,” the men of God said.

Echoing calls made in Parliament on Tuesday, the council urged the government to urgently revisit the role of peacekeeping in Africa with a view to sharing concerns with other heads of states.

Dr Cyprian Lwanga, the Archbishop of Kampala Catholic Diocese, the Most Rev. Henry Luke Orombi of the Church of Uganda, Sheikh Ramadhan Shaban Mubajje, the Mufti and Pastor John Kakembo, the archbishop of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, signed yesterday’s statement.

Prior to presenting the statement, the religious leaders visited injured victims currently admitted in Mulago National Referral Hospital and the private International Hospital Kampala.
The religious leaders appealed to the public to desist from speculation about who could have been behind the attacks. The radical Islamist al Shabaab militants of Somalia have claimed responsibility for the atrocities. “We urge you to join forces in rejecting terrorism. You need to guard against being consumed by anger and hatred.”

“>

Indian Oil to Invest in Africa in $1 Billion Overseas Push
www.washingtonpost.com/By Rakteem Katakey/Thursday, July 15, 2010

“Africa is top of our list to buy assets because it is near India and has good quality crude,” Brij Mohan Bansal said in an interview at his office in New Delhi today. “We are planning retail outlets in Indonesia.”

State-run Indian Oil’s renewed plans to expand overseas came after the government freed gasoline prices from its control last month and said it will eventually allow refiners to set diesel rates, helping to increase cash flow. The refiner has set aside $1 billion for acquisitions overseas, Bansal reiterated.

“Deregulating fuel prices helps us increase cash flows and profitability,” Bansal, 59, said.

The refiner delayed crude-processing and pipeline projects overseas, including Nigeria and Turkey, because of reduced cash flow after selling fuels below cost, Bansal said in July last year. Indian Oil and Turkish builder Calik Holding had planned to spend $4.9 billion to build a 300,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Ceyhan on the Mediterranean coast.

The companies, with Eni SpA, Europe’s fourth-largest oil company, had also planned to spend $2 billion on a pipeline from Samsun on Turkey’s Black Sea coast to Ceyhan to transport as much as 1.5 million metric tons of Central Asian crude oil a day.

The shares have increased 23 percent in Mumbai trading this year compared with the 2 percent gain in the benchmark Sensitive Index of the Bombay Stock Exchange. The stock declined 3.2 percent to 376.75 rupees at 1:07 p.m. local time.

Indian Oil, which owns stakes in ventures in Africa and the Middle East, had plans to invest in refinery and pipeline projects in Nigeria, former company spokesman M. Kali Krishna said in October 2006. The Economic Times reported then that the company may invest $3.5 billion to build a 300,000 barrel-a-day crude processing plant in the African nation.

The refiner holds shares in exploration ventures in Iran, Yemen, Gabon, Nigeria and Venezuela. The projects are yet to produce oil.

India’s crude imports increased 20 percent to 153.2 million tons in the year ended March from a year earlier, according to the oil ministry’s data. The nation’s energy use may more than double by 2030 to the equivalent of 833 million tons of oil from 2007, the International Energy Agency said.

Terror In Kampala
With a long-standing and close friendship with the people of Uganda, the United States is deeply saddened by the loss of life resulting from these cowardly and deplorable acts.
07-15-2010/www1.voanews.com

Authorities in Uganda continue to search for those responsible for two coordinated bombings that killed more than 70 people crowded into a sports club and popular restaurant watching television coverage of the World Cup final. With a long-standing and close friendship with the people of Uganda, the United States is deeply saddened by the loss of life resulting from these cowardly and deplorable acts.

The bombings were more than an attack against Uganda and its citizens, however. If the claims of responsibility by a Somali militant group are to be believed, the blasts also were aimed at all those supporting the international effort to restore stability to the troubled region. And in effect it was also an attack on African solidarity, in which Uganda and other members of the African Union have been in the forefront, working to solve African problems with African solutions.

With the support of African peacekeepers, Somalia’s transitional federal government is seeking to secure the nation’s capital, Mogadishu. Key elements of the AU force, known as AMISOM, are provided by Uganda and its neighbor Burundi, and they are to be commended for their work.

Instead, Somali militants for weeks have issued threats to force Uganda to remove its peacekeepers, now numbering about 3,600. The threats were renewed days before the attack when Uganda and other East African nations pledged to send an additional 2,000 troops. The scope of the terror attacks in a city known for its relative calm is underscored by the long list of citizens of other nations killed while watching the world’s premier international sporting event. The bombings can also be seen as a warning to the African Union, which will hold its annual summit later this month in Kampala.

Uganda President Yoweri Museveni is unbowed, however, and it is likely his fellow AU leaders will remain resolute as well. At the request of Ugandan officials, the U.S. will do its part too, sending investigators to help find the perpetrators and with any other assistance that might be needed.

Zara eyes Australian market
Jul 15, 2010/au.ibtimes.com

International fast-fashion brand Zara is heading for Australia next year, according to parent Inditex, one of the world’s largest retail clothing group based in Spain.
“The company plans to open its first stores in Australia and South Africa in 2011,” said chief executive Pablo Isla at the Inditex’s annual meeting.

The Australian licence for Zara, which is considered to be the most successful retail fashion brand in the world, is held by Peter Lew, the son of retail mogul Solomon Lew. A spokeswoman for Mr Lew refused to give details.

Zara’s arrival is expected to threaten Australia’s Witchery and Country Road.

According to retail veteran Michael Lloyd, publisher of Shopping Centre News magazine, Zara is “probably the number one success story in their category, in young ladies’ fashion, for at least a decade.”

“I would say that in Australia, they will have the same success.

When Zara opened a store in China last year, “it just murdered everything around it,” he said.

Although Mr Lloyd does not expect any local labels to go bankrupt, he says “they’re going to notice that the turnover Zara gets here used to be theirs”.

Zara has nearly 1900 stores in more than 60 countries. Its founder Amancio Ortega recently ranked the 9th richest man in the world by Forbes magazine.

News of Zara’s coming followed recent reports that Hennes & Mauritz, another European clothing chain, is eyeing the Australian market as part of its plan to expand into the southern hemisphere.

BHP, Gunns, Healthscope, Linc, Intoll, Rio, Nufarm: Australia, N.Z. Stocks
By Lisa Pham and Shani Raja / www.bloomberg.com/Jul 15, 2010

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 0.4 percent to 4,442.60 at the close of trading in Sydney. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index declined 0.8 percent to 3,002.32 in Wellington.

The following were among the most active shares in the market today. Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names.

Mining shares: Copper for three-month delivery dropped as much as 1.8 percent to $6,603 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange before trading at $6,684 at 10:29 a.m. in Shanghai.

BHP Billiton (BHP AU), the world’s largest mining company, fell 0.7 percent to A$38.13.

Rio Tinto Group (RIO AU), the world’s third-largest mining company, decreased 1.1 percent to A$66.61.

Oil companies: Crude oil for August delivery dropped as much as 0.7 percent to $76.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $76.84 at 12:58 p.m. Singapore time.

Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL AU), Australia’s second- largest oil and gas producer, dropped 0.4 percent to A$42.85. Rival Santos Ltd. (STO AU) declined 0.9 percent to A$13.77.

Gold producers: Gold for immediate delivery climbed 0.4 percent to $1,212.70 an ounce at 10:51 a.m. in Singapore.

Newcrest Mining Ltd. (NCM AU), Australia’s biggest gold producer, slipped 0.7 percent to A$35.02.

APA Group (APA AU) rose 1.9 percent to A$3.77. The company, whose pipelines carry more than half Australia’s natural gas, raised A$300 million ($265 million) from 10-year bonds to refinance maturing debt and reduce interest costs.

CSL Ltd. (CSL AU), the world’s second-biggest maker of medical treatments derived from blood, declined 2.8 percent to A$32.80 after German rival Biotest AG cut its full-year earnings forecast because of lower prices.

Gunns Ltd. (GNS AU) dropped 1.5 percent to 64.5 Australian cents. Australia’s largest woodchip exporter was downgraded to “neutral” from “buy” at UBS AG by equity analyst Lachlan Parker.

Healthscope Ltd. (HSP AU) fell 0.9 percent to A$5.41. Carlyle Group, Blackstone Group and TPG Inc. remain in talks to purchase Australia’s second-largest hospital operator, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an unidentified person familiar with the situation. The Australian Financial Review said today Carlyle may exit the group because of a disagreement over pricing.

Intoll Group (ITO AU) gained 30 percent to A$1.45. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board offered A$3.47 billion ($3.1 billion) for Macquarie Group Ltd.-backed Intoll in its second attempt to buy an Australian toll-road operator in eight months.

Nufarm Ltd. (NUF AU) plunged 28 percent to A$3.75. Australia’s largest supplier of farm chemicals cut its full-year profit forecast and said it won’t achieve one of its loan conditions. Nufarm also had its stock rating lowered at Credit Suisse Group AG, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and UBS AG.

Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (SIP AU) fell 2.1 percent to 47.5 Australian cents. The target of a takeover by Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd., Africa’s biggest drugmaker, Melbourne- based Sigma cut its full-year profit forecast by as much as 46 percent, citing competition in the generic-drug business.

Obama Departs from Revised Policy, Links ‘Radical Islam’ to Terror Groups
July 15, 2010/ FoxNews.com

In a rare divergence from administration policy, President Obama used the term “radical Islam” to describe the African-based terror group that took credit Monday for killing 74 people in Uganda during an interview Tuesday with the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

The interview came just three months after the administration removed such religious terms from its national security playbook and two months after Attorney General Eric Holder hesitated to link “radical Islam” to recent terror attacks and plots in the U.S. during questioning at a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

When asked about opinions attributing radical Islam’s impact on the development and stability on the African continent, Obama called Islam “a great religion,” but added that the radical version views as anti-Islam “any efforts to modernize, any efforts to provide basic human rights, any efforts to democratize.”

“And I think that is absolutely wrong,” he said. “I think the vast majority of people of the Islamic faith reject that. I think the people of Africa reject it.”

Obama also accused terror groups such as Al Qaeda an Al Shabab of being racist.

“What you’ve seen in some of the statements that have been made by these terrorist organizations is that they do not regard African life as valuable in and of itself,” he said. “They see it as a potential place where you can carry out ideological battles that kill innocents without regard to long-term consequences for their short-term tactical gains.”

An administration official explained that these terror groups have shown their racism through different actions including the 1998 embassy bombings in which hundreds of Africans were killed and thousands more were wounded in an effort to attack American embassies, and Monday’s attack that came on the same day that Africa was celebrating its achievement of hosting a successful World Cup

The official also noted that U.S. intelligence indicates that Al Qaeda leadership specifically targets and recruits black Africans to become homicide bombers because they believe that poor economic and social conditions make them more susceptible to recruitment than Arabs. And that Al Qaeda recruits have accused the organization of racism against West African blacks because they are only used in lower-level operations.

“In short, Al Qaeda is a racist organization that treats black Africans like cannon fodder and does not value human life,” the official said.

In April, Obama’s advisers said they would scrub religious terms such as “Islamic extremism” from the central document outlining the U.S. national security strategy and rewrite it to emphasize that the U.S. does not view Muslim nations through the lens of terror.

That change stood in stark contrast to the Bush Doctrine of preventive war that stated” The struggle against militant Islamic radicalism is the great ideological conflict of the early years of the 21st century.”

In May, Holder refused to acknowledge whether radical Islam influenced the Fort Hood shooting last November, the failed Christmas Day bombing last December and the botched Times Square attack this year.

“There are a variety of reasons why I think people have taken these actions,” Holder told Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee.

After being pressed by Smith to acknowledge that radical Islam may have been a factor, Holder finally said, “I certainly think that it’s possible that people who espouse a radical version of Islam have had an ability to have an impact on people like Mr. Shahzad.” That was a reference to Faisal Shahzad, who pleaded guilty last month to trying to blow up a car in Times Square on May 1 and to receiving terror training from the Pakistani Taliban.

On Tuesday, Obama said the U.S. aims to help Africa provide more freedoms and establish strong democracies to help break the back of terrorism.

“There’s obviously young people, if they don’t have opportunity, are more vulnerable to these misguided ideologies, but we also have to directly confront the fact that issues like an anti-Democratic, anti-free speech, anti-freedom of religion agenda, which is what an organization like Al Shabab promotes, also often goes hand in hand with violence,” he said.

UN /ONU :

UN ups aid appeal for Niger as hunger grows
Thu Jul 15, 2010 /Reuters

DAKAR (Reuters) – Humanitarian groups led by U.N. agency OCHA called for more aid for the West African state of Niger on Wednesday, citing a growing risk of disease and death after failed rains.

Niger and neighbouring Chad, already among the poorest nations in the world, are at the centre of a food crisis seen affecting 10 million people in the Sahel region over coming weeks.

The move to increase the aid appeal for Niger to $253 million from $191 million was expected after new figures last month showed that over one in five children were already facing acute malnutrition in worst-hit regions.

“Interventions need to be reinforced immediately to limit diseases and losses of human life. Donors’ support is crucial at this stage,” OCHA said in its mid-year review of humanitarian action around the world.

It added that donors had by June 25 provided 58 percent of the revised requirement, leaving a shortfall of $107 million.

Last year’s failed rains in the Sahel belt stretching across the south of the Sahara from Mauritania to Sudan mean the human cost this season could be as high as in 2005, when TV images of starving children shook the world out of inertia but too late.

While a final death toll was not established, U.N. agency UNICEF estimated at the height of the 2005 crisis that hunger and malnutrition were threatening the lives of 3.6 million people in Niger alone.

UNICEF already expects to treat 859,000 under-fives in the Sahel this season for severe malnutrition, the point at which a child faces an increased risk of disease or death.

Chad may ultimately prove more vulnerable than Niger, as it has fewer aid agencies on the ground and emergency food supplies can take up to five months to arrive via Libya and the Sahara or from Cameroon in the south.

Aid groups say the semi-arid Sahel region and its problems are often hard to explain to the world, with populations often made up of communities of cattle-rearers who shift from area to area according to the season.

There is also a perception that the donor response this time has suffered from coming months after the Haiti earthquake.

However OCHA said that as a whole, funding for humanitarian appeals around the world for the year so far was only slightly behind that of recent years, despite the Haiti effect and fears of the effects of the global recession on aid budgets.

It said that altogether, humanitarian appeals around the world were funded at 48 percent so far, leaving a $4.9 billion shortfall for planned action in the rest of 2010.

Uganda’s Museveni vows revenge on al-Shabab over blasts
15 July 2010/ www.bbc.co.uk

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has said he will crush Somalia’s al-Shabab over Sunday’s deadly Kampala blasts which killed 74 people.

He said he wanted to send up to 20,000 troops to Somalia to “eliminate” the hardline Islamist group.

Al-Shabab has said it was behind the twin attacks on people watching the World Cup final because Ugandan troops are supporting the Somali government.

Mr Museveni said other countries would now send troops to Mogadishu.

“I am optimistic that these numbers will be raised now – especially now – because these people have provoked the world more than before. And I can assure you they have invited a lot of problems for themselves,” he told journalists in Uganda.

The regional grouping Igad last week promised to send an extra 2,000 peacekeepers to the African Union Mission in Somalia, Amisom, which currently has 5,000 troops protecting the UN-backed government.

‘Typical language’

But Mr Museveni said he wanted their mandate to be changed.
“We were just in Mogadishu to guard the airport and the presidential palace – that was all,” he said.

“We are going to go on the offensive and go for all who did this in all areas, starting here.”

Al-Shabab controls much of southern and central Somalia, while the government’s writ only runs in parts of Mogadishu.

BBC East Africa correspondent Will Ross says this was typical language from President Museveni, whose reliance on military options has in the past been criticised.

Our reporter says some Ugandans will now question the wisdom of becoming further embroiled in the Somali conflict.

Some opposition politicians have said the country should withdraw – an option strongly rejected by the government.

Burundi, the only other country to have contributed to the AU force, has also said it will keep its troops in Somalia.

But it has stepped up security, as has Kenya, which is training Somali government forces.

Kampala is due to host an African Union summit next week, which Mr Museveni says will go ahead as planned.

The UN has agreed in principle to take over the peacekeeping mission in Somalia but has declined to set a date.

Many countries are wary of sending troops to lawless Somalia, which has been in a state of anarchy for two decades.

On Wednesday, US officials accused al-Shabab of being racist and not respecting the lives of Africans.

Six people have been arrested over the blasts, the AFP news agency quotes a police spokeswoman as saying.

AFP also quotes a minister as confirming that at least one of the blasts was caused by a suicide bomber.

UN: Poor Governance Undercuts W’Africa’s Progress
From Tokunbo Adedoja in New York/ www.thisdayonline.com/07.15.2010

Despite the progress in shoring up peace and human rights in West Africa, paucity of good governance still undercuts progress in the region, a United Nations (UN) report has said.

UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for West Africa, Said Djinnit, disclosed this while presenting the Secretary General’s latest report on the region to members of the Security Council.
“The resurgence of coups d’état in West Africa, which I have consistently denounced, and the major role played by the armed forces in these coups, are a reflection of the difficult civil-military relationships in situations of bad governance,” the envoy quoted the UN scribe, Ban Ki-moon, as stating in the report.

He said the past six months had seen economic growth in West Africa supported by the global economic recovery, but noted that these improvements have not resulted in sustainable poverty reduction schemes.
Noting the eight anti-poverty targets world leaders pledged to achieve by 2015, he said for the region, the “prospects for achieving the Millennium Development Goals remain weak.”

Also of great concern, according to him, is the food crisis touching the lives of millions of people in the Sahel, especially in Niger, home to more than seven million hungry people.

He however said recent experience in the subregion has shown that opportunities for crisis prevention and sustainable peace are now available more than ever, thereby underscoring the key role international assistance could play in promoting human rights, supporting electoral processes and helping in the fight against drug trafficking, among others.

While noting that earlier this year, a constitutional crisis was brewing in Niger, while the lives of large segments of Guinea’s population were affected by food insecurity, drug trafficking and other obstacles, the envoy noted that in the six months since his last briefing to the Council, situation in the region has improved.

The staging of peaceful elections in Togo – with the subsequent formation of a new government with the participation of part of the opposition – and the continued commitment of Niger’s authorities to a transition programme are encouraging signs of progress, he said.

Djinnit also said: “In Guinea, steps are being taken to restore constitutional order, with the first round of presidential polls having been peacefully held on 27 June….

“Needless to say… stable and peaceful democratic governance in Guinea will have far-reaching implications for regional stability, especially in bolstering hard-won peace in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Progress in Guinea could also help to address the ongoing crisis in neighbouring Guinea-Bissau, which has seen political and security tensions rise in recent months”.

The council however noted the proactive role played by the global body in forging strong partnerships with regional and continental partners and also mobilising international support.

French Bastille Day is called hypocritical by flop French footy players and Human Rights activists, pourquoi?
15 July 2010 /www.thespoof.com

Bastille Day celebrated by the French in memory of the storming of the Bastille and sparking off the French Revolution has been criticised from some strange quarters as being hypocritical?

Firstly the present French government led by that lovable chirpy chappy and “tres bien” lover of gorgeous young female things Sarkozy, invited some African dictators who are renowned serial killers, genocidal perpetrators and downright “cunts” (thanks Sir Bob Geldof) to the party.

Slightly wrong direction if one is to be celebrating a revolution??

Also the French flop footballers who represented France even more miserably than their English counterparts have called the whole thing “merde, hypocritical and distasteful”.

Pourquoi?

Well the flop French footy players are demanding their salaries and bonuses for the World Cup disaster and Sarkozy after banning Burkas (merci Dieu) has also banned them from receiving any form of bonus or salaries at all.

Nicolas Anelka, spokesman for the team called Sarkozy a “tarte de pommes, un dictateur, un scum bag (anglais) and has vowed never to represent his country again”

And as for Bastille Day Anelka said “Qui (as in we) will storm the Palace of Versailles, demand our bonuses, commence un Revolution, then escape back to our international clubs who pay us astronomical wages and hopefully Zarkosy, le Cochon, will be exiled to Saint Helena and we will get a decent trainer, sacre bleu, voila!”

USA :

GE CEO Immelt Sees Slow U.S. and European Crisis Exit: Report
July 15, 2010 /Reuters

MILAN (Reuters) – The United States and Europe are slowly pulling out of the economic crisis, General Electric Co chairman and chief executive Jeffrey Immelt told la Repubblica daily in an interview on Thursday.

“The base scenario is that which sees Europe and the United States exiting slowly from the crisis period,” Immelt said.

“I see it every day, I see the economy improving day after day. I especially see our orders improving day after day.”

China, India , Brazil, Africa , the Middle East and resource-rich areas “are clearly doing well,” he said.

He said General Electric was interested in acquisitions in Europe as the dollar strengthened.

Mentioning the company’s Nuovo Pignone energy research center in Italy, Immelt said: “We will find another investment, of the Nuovo Pignone kind.”

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Dan Lalor)

Naspers to excel where US firms failed
15.07.2010/www.republikein.com.na

SOUTH African internet and media giant Naspers says its increased stake in Russia’s Digital Sky Technology (DST) is key to its strategy for Eastern Europe, and that it will succeed where many American entrants have failed.
The key to cracking the Russian internet market, of which DST commands 70%, is “hyper-localisation”, said Antonie Roux, CEO of Naspers internet operations housed in subsidiary MIH, in an interview.

Naspers stocks were unchanged on the JSE at R283 per share.

Roux said that having invested in the so-called Bric (Brazil, Russian, India, China) nations for years, the group relies on the retention of local skills.
“American companies have been spectacularly unsuccessful in un-Americanising their services for the rest of world,” said Roux. “China is a graveyard of American companies that have failed there.”

No expats in foreign firms

Naspers, on the other hand, has had massive success in China, with its Tencent acquisition ranked a top provider of internet services in the Asian country.

“We do not have expats in any of these businesses,” said Roux. “Tencent has 11 000 staff and they are all Chinese,” he said. “In DST, everyone is Russian. You’ll find the same thing in our Indian company and elsewhere.”

Naspers will spend $2.9bn and exchange its shares in Russian company Mail.ru to up its stake in DST to 28.7%. Naspers owns 39.3% of Mail.ru and, after the transaction, DST will own 99.9% of it. Commenting on the Mail.ru investment, Roux said it had “performed really well.”

“Tencent came in as shareholder in DST a month or two ago and it made sense to do this deal, because DST holds interests in various internet assets in the Russian-speaking world.”

According to Roux, Naspers is waiting for regulatory and final approval from the South African Reserve Bank before the DST deal is finalised.

DST provides major services in just about every internet area except search and e-commerce, making it similar to Tencent.

Armenian Americans Rally for Decisive U.S. Action on Darfur
By: Weekly Staff/www.armenianweekly.com/Jul 15 2010

WASHINGTON—On July 14, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) joined Voices for Sudan, Africa Action, Hope for Darfur, and anti-genocide advocates from across the country, in marking the second anniversary of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Activists, including the 2010 ANCA “Leo Sarkisian” interns, braved tropical storm-like weather at the noon-time White House protest, held just two days after the ICC expanded its arrest warrant against al-Bashir to include three counts of genocide. The Armenian American participants echoed calls from the Darfurian American community for immediate U.S. action to bring Sudan’s genocidal dictator to justice.

ANCA executive director Aram Hamparian, in an interview with al-Jazeera held during the protest, welcomed the ICC’s indictment of al-Bashir on charges of genocide and called for decisive action from the Obama Administration to stop the killing in Darfur. “We are here to fight against the genocide in Darfur but more broadly to end the cycle of genocides”, explained Hamparian. “A genocide isn’t just a crime against one nation, it’s a crime against all nations, and, as such, it’s all our responsibility equally as human beings to see justice served and see genocide stopped.”

Africa Action, a lead organizer of the vigil, explained the importance of the July 14th protest in a statement on its website: “We must come together and commemorate this day and call the attention of the international community that they need to live up to their commitment and honor their promise by providing the necessary support to the ICC, reinforce its effort to execute the pending arrest warrant against al-Bashir and hold him accountable for the crimes committed against the people of Darfur.”

In the wake of the announcement of the ICC’s expansion of the al-Bashir arrest warrant this week, Save Darfur has called on anti-genocide activists to urge President Obama and the State Department to take immediate steps to block a Sudanese government crackdown against international aid workers in Darfur. The ANCA has joined with over 50 Save Darfur coalition partners in cosigning a letter on this subject to President Obama.

Last year, when the ICC issued its first warrant for Bashir for crimes against humanity and war crimes, the Sudanese government brutally retaliated against civilians in Darfur by expelling over a dozen international aid groups and forcing an emergency response by the United Nations and others to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur.

Judge Allows Terrorist Suspect’s Case to Proceed
By JONATHAN PERLOW /www.courthousenews.com/July 15, 2010

MANHATTAN (CN) – A federal judge refused to dismiss the case of an alleged al-Qaida member accused of the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in east Africa. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that holding the suspect in CIA custody and at Guantanamo Bay did not violate his right to a speedy trial.
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani is facing charges arising from the attacks on U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The nearly simultaneous truck bomb explosions killed 224 people, including 12 U.S. citizens, and injured more than 1,000 others.
Al-Qaida claimed responsibility for both attacks, and the FBI added Osama bin Laden to its Ten Most Wanted list.
Judge Kaplan said that four of Ghailani’s co-defendants have already been tried and sentenced.
The alleged embassy bomber argued that the case against him should be dismissed on the ground that the nearly five-year delay between when he came into U.S. custody and his presentation before a federal court violated his right to a speedy trial.
“Although the delay of this proceeding was long and entirely the product of decisions for which the executive branch of our government is responsible, the decisions that caused the delay were not made for the purpose of gaining any advantage over Ghailani in the prosecution of this indictment,” Kaplan wrote.
Ghailani became the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to be ordered into the civilian legal system, following the Obama administration’s decision to try terror suspects in U.S. federal courts instead of military tribunals.
While Ghailani was at large, the government claims, he worked as a cook and a bodyguard for bin Laden, and later as a document forger.
After the 1998 bombings, he remained on the run for years, finally being captured in 2004 by a foreign nation, the judge said. He was then transferred to the custody of the CIA, which interrogated him for roughly two years at one or more secret sites, according to the ruling.
Many details of the CIA program and its application to individuals remain classified, but the CIA did use “standard” and “enhanced” interrogation techniques in order to obtain “critical, real-time intelligence about terrorist networks and plots,” according to Kaplan.
The CIA then turned him over to the Department of Defense, which detained him at the U.S. navel base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for about three more years.
Judge Kaplan decision rested, in part, on the fact that “two years of the delay served compelling interests of national security.”
The judge said the delay was legal due to the intelligence gleaned from the “high value” detainee.
“Suffice it to say here that, on the record before the court and as further explained in the supplement, the CIA Program was effective in obtaining useful intelligence from Ghailani throughout his time in CIA custody,” Kaplan wrote. His ruling contained a classified supplement detailing the specific interrogation techniques used on Ghailani.
Ghailani’s case will no doubt affect other Guantanamo detainees ordered to face charges in U.S. criminal courts, including alleged 9/11 conspirators.
Kaplan acknowledged the controversial issue.
“The court understands that there are those who object to alleged terrorists, especially non-citizens, being afforded rights that are enjoyed by U.S. citizens,” the judge wrote. “Their anger at wanton terrorist attacks is understandable. Their conclusion, however, is unacceptable in a country that adheres to the rule of law.”
Kaplan also ruled that Ghailani’s status as an “enemy combatant” barred him from being released from U.S. custody until the country is no longer fighting al-Qaida.
“None of the entire five-year delay of this prosecution subjected Ghailani to a single day of incarceration that he would not otherwise has suffered,” the ruling states. “He would have been detained for that entire period as an enemy combatant regardless of the pendency of this indictment. None of that delay prejudiced any interests protected by the Speedy Trial Clause in any significant degree.”
Kaplan previously denied Ghailani’s bid to have his case dismissed due to alleged torture, and his attempt to keep two military lawyers for his upcoming criminal trial in Manhattan

CANADA :

Argentina Legalizes Gay Marriage!
www.passportmagazine.com/15072010

Today, Argentina became the first country in South America to legalize same-sex marriage in an historic vote by the government of that country. The law was passed in a 33-27 vote after 15 hours of debate. Same-sex couples will now have the same rights as heterosexuals, including the right to adopt children.

Argentina joins Belgium, Canada, Iceland, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, and Sweden in legalizing same-sex marriage.

Congratulations to the people of Argentina!

Canada Pharmaceuticals And Healthcare Report Q3 2010 – New Market Report Published
New report provides detailed analysis of the Healthcare and Medical market
July 15, 2010/by Press Office/www.officialwire.com

LONDON, ENGLAND

In the updated Americas Business Environment Ratings (BER) for Q310, Canada remains in second place in the expanded regional matrix, a position to which it rose in the previous quarter, having moved past Puerto Rico. On a global scale, Canada ranks third, after the US and Germany, out of the 82 markets now surveyed. However, cost-containment pressures, both on a federal and provincial level, will continue to pose an issue to manufacturers of novel products. In fact, according to an Rx&D International Report on Access to Medicines examining 25 countries within the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and 82 newly approved products, Canada only ranked 20th in 2008/09. The report found that only 56% of drugs were recommended for public reimbursement, which is considerably below the average for the OECD in the same period – namely 73%.

Additionally, in the 2010 version of the Special 301 Submission prepared by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), Canada was again included on the Priority Watch List. The country stands criticised over its failure to establish patent term restoration (PTR), the absence of an effective right of appeal, and some aspects of its patent laws. We caution that Canada’s appearance on this list will deal a blow to the pharmaceutical and biotech industry within the country, particularly since the authorities are trying to encourage investment into this sector.

Still, the absolute market size (around US$21bn) and the high per-capita spending on pharmaceuticals (calculated at US$626 in 2009) will continue to represent significant draws to manufacturers of novel products. Additionally, the government has drafted legislation to create a path for biosimilars and proposed a new approvals process with a greater emphasis on post-market evaluation. In local currency terms, we believe that pharmaceutical market growth in the 2009-2014 period will be solid, posting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.31%, while per-capita drug spending will reach US$686. The fastest-growing market segment will, however, be generics, which are expected to account for over 37% of the total market by value, up from around 30% presently.

In the meantime, a second decline in US economic activity would have major ripple effects in Canada. While we do not believe it has reached bubble status, the Canadian housing market is looking increasingly frothy, which could put pressure on the banking sector and economic activity, should interest rates rise aggressively in 2011. We forecast 2010 real GDP growth in Canada to come in at 3.1%, having revised our previous expectation of 2.7%. However, we are maintaining our expectation for a slowdown to 2.4% in 2011, with domestic consumer activity likely to peter out as economic stimulus programmes are unwound and as weakness in the US hurts external demand. This will also translate into lower finances for healthcare and pharmaceutical reimbursement, with private spending levels also to be constrained, thus impacting the over-the-counter (OTC) pharmaceutical market segment.

AUSTRALIA :

Sigma Reduces Profit Forecast on Generic Competition
July 15, 2010/Bloomberg

July 15 (Bloomberg) — Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd., the target of a takeover by South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd., cut its full-year profit forecast by as much as 46 percent, citing competition in the generic-drug business.

Net income will probably reach A$43 million ($37.8 million) to A$47 million in the year ending Jan. 31, 2011, Sigma said today. The Melbourne-based company said June 21 it may miss its earnings target, after forecasting in March that full-year profit would be similar to the A$80.1 million reported for 2009.

Sigma fell 2.1 percent to close at 47.5 Australian cents in Australian trading, extending this year’s decline to 52 percent. The company, Australia’s largest drug distributor, said it’s unsure about the short-term impact of changes to government regulations.

“Performance in the generics division remains below budget,” Sigma said in a statement. “Competition in this area remains intense. Sigma believes this is primarily due to suppliers seeking market share in anticipation of substantial future growth in the generics market.”

Aspen, Africa’s biggest drugmaker, reduced its bid on July 7 to 55 Australian cents a share, or about A$648 million in total, after examining Sigma’s books. The Australian company said July 12 it wants a better bid from Aspen, which previously offered 60 cents a share.

–Editors: Lena Lee, Mark McCord.

Japan’s NTT to buy South African IT company for $3.2 billion
By Associated Press/www.latimes.com/July 15, 2010

TOKYO (AP) — Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. said Thursday it has agreed to buy South Africa’s Dimension Data Holdings Plc for 2.1 billion pounds ($3.2 billion) in a deal that advances the Japanese company’s efforts to expand its global business.

Japan’s biggest telecommunications company, also known as NTT, is offering 120 pence per share of the Johannesburg-based IT service provider. The price was 18 percent higher than Dimension Data’s closing price Wednesday on the London Stock Exchange.

Dimension’s shares surged nearly 20 percent after news of the deal broke.
In a joint statement, the companies cited their areas of expertise as complementary. NTT builds and runs networks, data centers and mobile services, while Dimension Data focuses on helping clients operate and maintain IT systems.

They mesh geographically as well, they said. NTT does most of its business in Asia, the U.S. and Europe. Dimension Data has a strong foothold in Africa, the Middle East and Australia.

The acquisition reflects NTT’s drive to find growth overseas amid a saturated and shrinking home market. By bringing Dimension Data under its umbrella, NTT will inherit its 6,000 customers in 49 countries.

Last year, NTT’s mobile phone unit NTT DoCoMo Inc. bought a 26 percent static in India’s Tata Teleservices Ltd. and almost 80 percent of Germany’s net mobile AG.

The all-cash deal has been approved by Dimension Data’s board. NTT expects to finish the transaction by the end of October.

EUROPE :

Experts warn of further Uganda attacks
blog.washingtonpost.com/By Jeff Stein/ July 15, 2010

A Ugandan base where European Union troops are training Somali fighters to defend their fragile government is the next likely target for an attack by the same group that struck the capital Sunday night, experts on the region say.

“Kampala should be taken as a real warning,” says Joseph Sala, a former State Department official who keeps close tabs on East Africa. “Look for the base at Bihanga to be hit.”

Evidently EU forces training Somalis at Bihanga, about 200 miles west of Kampala, are taking the warnings seriously. The EU team is reinforcing security at the base, according to CNN.

Al-Shabab, the Somali militia that claimed responsibility for Monday’s deadly bombings at a Kampala rugby club and at a restaurant, which left about 80 people dead including an American citizen, vowed on July 5 to attack Uganda and Burundi. Troops from those countries make up the majority of an African Union mission on Somalia.

Its fighters “are trained by militant veterans of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq,” according to reports, linking it to al-Qaeda.

“The Uganda attacks represent the first time the jihadi group al-Shabab has carried out an attack outside of Somalia,” terrorism analyst Daveed Gartenstein-Ross wrote on the Fox News Web site. “Doing so represents a political calculation on the group’s part: Uganda is one of only two countries (the other being Burundi) that have devoted troops to the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM), a U.N.-sanctioned peacekeeping mission. AMISOM is meant to stabilize Somalia’s transitional federal government, which Shabaab is fighting to overthrow.”

Sala described the situation in the Horn of Africa, and Somalia in particular, as chaotic.

Shabab is fighting Hizb-i-Islam, another fundamentalist group in Somalia, he noted.

“Both oppose the U.S.-backed Transitional Federal Government in Mogadishu. The North of Somalia wants to separate. Puntland wants to separate. Eritrea is under sanctions for supporting Islamists. There’s a threat from al-Shabab to northern Kenya. Uganda is still fighting the LRA [the Lord’s Resistance Army, essentially large bands of looters]. And Southern Sudan is holding a referendum early next year” that could reignite full scale civil war.

“The political situation too fluid to discern the end game,” Sala said.

Isilon Helps Central and Eastern Europe’s Largest Broadcast Over Satellite Provider Meet Growing Demand
www.prnewswire.com/July 15

STN Deploys Isilon Scale-out Storage to Simplify Content Management and Accelerate Time-to-Delivery, Reducing Storage Management by 40 Percent
SEATTLE, July 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Isilon® (Nasdaq: ISLN) today announced that STN, a leading service provider delivering broadcasts over satellite for Central and Eastern Europe, has deployed Isilon scale-out storage to meet strong demand for its innovative broadcast services. Using the Isilon X-Series, featuring its OneFS® operating system, STN has simplified content management by unifying its data onto a central, shared storage resource, enabling the broadcast leader to easily migrate clients onto its new play-out system and speed time-to-delivery for a wide range of programming.

“For us, the raw performance and stability of the storage system is critical, as downtime or data loss are catastrophic for our operations,” said Tomaz Lovsin, managing director, STN. “With many of our channels operating 24 hours a day and often playing live events, the loss of service for even a few minutes is simply unacceptable. Isilon’s simplicity and reliability ensure we don’t have to worry about any service interruption.”

STN operates several major contracts including the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, MYtv and Total TV, and has established itself as the largest independent satellite broadcaster in Central and Eastern Europe. STN’s previous NAS system required five full-time equivalents (FTE) to manage the storage environment, placing significant cost and resource restraints on the broadcaster’s IT operations. As STN’s business continued to expand, it needed a storage solution that could easily scale to meet changing application requirements and provide a simple, yet powerful foundation for future growth.

By deploying Isilon’s 36000X, STN has been able to reallocate two FTEs to higher order priorities, while maintaining 100 percent uptime for its broadcast operations, ensuring its programming is delivered without interruption. With Isilon, STN can independently scale system capacity and performance, providing maximum flexibility in aligning storage spend with business needs, while simultaneously accelerating its applications. Using Isilon’s X-Series, STN has created an on-demand, highly reliable storage pool for its broadcast workflow, driving increased operating leverage for its business and enabling the European broadcast leader to capitalize on market demand.

“Broadcast workflows require the highest levels of performance and data availability to ensure that programming is delivered as scheduled, without interruption,” said Sam Grocott, vice president of marketing, Isilon. “These mission-critical operations are representative of a wide range of enterprise applications, where downtime is unacceptable and performance is at a premium. By using Isilon to simplify data management, secure content and accelerate time-to-delivery, STN is demonstrating Isilon’s compelling benefits for broadcast and non-broadcast customers alike.”

About STN

STN has quickly risen to become a leading teleport service provider delivering broadcasts over satellite for Central and Eastern Europe. From its headquarters in Slovenia, STN offers TV channels, radio broadcasters and content producers a cost-effective outsource for all or part of their play-out and transmission requirements. Today the company transmits over 200 TV and radio stations and serves clients from Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Information about STN can be found at http://www.stn.eu.

About Isilon

As a global leader in scale-out storage, Isilon delivers powerful yet simple solutions for enterprises that want to manage their data, not their storage. Isilon’s products are simple to install, manage and scale, at any size. And, unlike traditional enterprise storage, Isilon stays simple no matter how much storage is added, how much performance is required or how business needs change in the future. We’re challenging enterprises to think differently about their storage, because when they do, they’ll recognize there’s a better, simpler way. Learn what we mean at http://www.isilon.com.

The names of companies mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.
SOURCE Isilon

CHINA :

Rand Weakens on Recovery Concern; Japan’s NTT in Didata Buyout
July 15, 2010/Bloomberg

July 15 (Bloomberg) — The rand snapped a two-day gain versus the dollar on concern the global recovery may stall. Declines were capped after Japan’s largest phone company agreed to buy South Africa’s Dimension Data Plc for $3.2 billion.

The rand weakened 0.4 percent to 7.5581 per dollar by 1:36 p.m. in Johannesburg, from a previous close of 7.5310. Earlier the rand declined as much as 0.7 percent to 7.5841.

Emerging-market stocks slumped after the Federal Reserve cut its growth forecast and China’s economic expansion slowed, reducing investors’ appetite for risk. About half of Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp.’s offer for Dimension Data Plc will flow to South Africa when the deal concludes in October, Brett Dawson, chief executive officer of Didata, said on a conference call with reporters today.

“People still aren’t convinced about strength of the global recovery so risk is coming off the table,” said Ian Martin, a currency strategist at Rand Merchant Bank in Johannesburg. The Didata deal “is generally rand-positive but the market is waiting for more detail on exactly how the deal is structured,” he said. “If the inflows are smoothed out over time it could have a limited impact on the currency.”

Fed officials trimmed their forecasts for growth and noted that risks to the recovery had increased though they see no need to boost stimulus to the economy, minutes of their June meeting showed late yesterday. Economic growth in China, the world’s fastest-growing major economy, slowed to 10.3 percent in the second quarter, from 11.9 percent in the first three months of the year, signaling a deeper second-half slowdown.

Bonds, Money-Market

The rand slipped versus all 16 most-actively traded currencies monitored by Bloomberg, losing most against the Swiss franc. Against the euro, the rand depreciated 0.8 percent to 9.6838 while it weakened 1 percent versus the pound to 11.6113.

Government bonds fell in South Africa for a second day, with the benchmark 13.5 percent security due September 2015 falling 8 cents to 124.05 rand. The yield on the bond rose 1 basis point to 7.74 percent.

Investors added to bets that South Africa’s central bank may lower its 6.5 percent benchmark interest rate when it next meets on July 22, forward-rate agreements show. The cost of three-month contracts for cash in one month fell 2 basis points to 6.42 percent.

South Africa’s National Treasury bought an estimated $2.2 billion of foreign currency this year to boost reserves, limiting gains in the rand during the nation’s hosting of the soccer World Cup, Citigroup Inc. said in a research note. The foreign-exchange purchases included $700 million in June, according to the note, which was based on data published by the central bank.

–Editors: Ana Monteiro, John Kohut.

INDIA :

Indian Oil to Invest in Africa in $1 Billion Push
By Rakteem Katakey/Bloomberg/Thursday, July 15, 2010

July 15 (Bloomberg) — Indian Oil Corp., the country’s second-biggest refiner, plans to acquire oilfields in Africa as part of a $1 billion overseas investment plan, its chairman said.

“Africa is top of our list to buy assets because it is near India and has good quality crude,” Brij Mohan Bansal said in an interview at his office in New Delhi today. “We are planning retail outlets in Indonesia.”

State-run Indian Oil’s renewed plans to expand overseas came after the government freed gasoline prices from its control last month and said it will eventually allow refiners to set diesel rates, helping to increase cash flow. The refiner has set aside $1 billion for acquisitions overseas, Bansal reiterated.

“Africa offers many grades of crude and gives refiners security of supplies to have fields there,” said Vinay Nair, a Mumbai-based analyst with Khandwala Securities Ltd. “They will however still need financial support from the government to help make profits.”

The refiner delayed crude-processing and pipeline projects overseas, including Nigeria and Turkey, because of reduced cash flow after selling fuels below cost, Bansal said in July last year. Indian Oil and Turkish builder Calik Holding had planned to spend $4.9 billion to build a 300,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Ceyhan on the Mediterranean coast.

The companies, with Eni SpA, Europe’s fourth-largest oil company, had also planned to spend $2 billion on a pipeline from Samsun on Turkey’s Black Sea coast to Ceyhan to transport as much as 1.5 million metric tons of Central Asian crude oil a day.

The shares have increased 23 percent in Mumbai trading this year compared with the 3 percent gain in the benchmark Sensitive Index of the Bombay Stock Exchange. The stock declined 3.8 percent to 374.45 rupees today.

Indian Oil, which owns stakes in ventures in Africa and the Middle East, had plans to invest in refinery and pipeline projects in Nigeria, former company spokesman M. Kali Krishna said in October 2006. The Economic Times reported then that the company may invest $3.5 billion to build a 300,000 barrel-a-day crude processing plant in the African nation.

The refiner holds shares in exploration ventures in Iran, Yemen, Gabon, Nigeria and Venezuela. The projects are yet to produce oil.

India’s crude imports increased 20 percent to 153.2 million tons in the year ended March from a year earlier, according to the oil ministry’s data. The nation’s energy use may more than double by 2030 to the equivalent of 833 million tons of oil from 2007, the International Energy Agency said.

“Deregulating fuel prices helps us increase cash flows and profitability,” Bansal, 59, said. The refiner currently has debt of 470 billion rupees, he added.

Indian Oil plans to revive a 200 billion-rupee ($4.3 billion) chemical project in the eastern state of Orissa and build nuclear, wind and solar power plants as cash flow increases, Bansal said.

“We will bring the petrochemical project out of the cupboard again since there is more clarity about our finances now,” he said. “We want to become an integrated energy player and will spend on renewables.”

The refiner plans to build a 1,400-megawatt nuclear power plant in the northwestern state of Rajasthan at a cost of 120 billion rupees in partnership with Nuclear Power Corp. of India. Indian Oil would own 26 percent in the venture and the plant may start producing electricity in 2015, said Bansal, who plans to seek the approval of his company’s board in two months.

Mobile advertising firm InMobi receives Rs 37 crore funding
afaqs! news bureau | afaqs! | New Delhi/ July 15, 2010

Bengaluru based mobile ad network company InMobi, previously known as mKhoj, has raised Rs 37 crore (US$8 million) funding from venture capital (VC) firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers (KPCB) and Sherpalo Ventures. This is the second time that these VC firms have invested money in the company. Since its inception, the mobile ad network has raised total funding of more than Rs 70 crore from KPCB, Sherpalo Ventures and Mumbai Angels.

For the uninitiated, InMobi serves ads, mostly on cost per click (CPC) basis, across more than 3,000 mobile sites and applications combined together globally.

Speaking to afaqs!, Abhay Singhal, co-founder and vice-president, global ad sales, InMobi, says, “We plan to employ the fund for our expansion in the US, Japan and Africa markets.

“We will hire more people and invest in technology in the US market, where InMobi established its presence a few months ago. We look forward to starting operations in Northern Africa region as well and hiring more people in Japan.”

There are no plans to use the raised fund to invest more money in India, Singhal clarifies. He adds, “We have already invested a fair amount of money in the Indian market and now, with 3G mobile telephony set to roll out in the near future, we expect good returns from India.”

In an official communiqué, Naveen Tewari, chief executive officer and founder, InMobi, says, “Since our launch in 2007, we have focused on building global expertise in mobile ad serving technology with a highly scalable platform. After launching our operations in the US and Europe and further expansion in Asia and Africa, our global ad impressions have increased from 7.5 billion to 16.9 billion monthly in just six months.”

Singhal reveals that out of 16.9 billion ad impressions served every month via the InMobi platform, about 10 billion ad impressions get served in the Asia Pacific region, which is represented by India and Indonesia (as its largest markets), along with various other smaller markets such as Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Philippines, Australia and New Zealand.

InMobi routes two billion ad impressions to mobile sites and applications in the US market, 2.3 billion impressions to Africa, 1.6 billion impressions to Europe and 0.5 billion to West Asia.

The company has presences across 108 countries and reaches to about 179 million mobile phone users. Interestingly, its geographical presence is restricted to six countries, including the US, the UK, Japan, South Africa, India and Singapore. In India, it works with companies such as Vodafone, Reebok, Nokia, Samsung, Airtel, Hungama Digital and ESPN.

“InMobi is a great example of the media transformation taking place due to mobile technology. We support their vision to provide high reach, transparent and performance based mobile advertising to all corners of the globe,” says Ajit Nazre, partner, KPCB in an official statement.

Another prominent player in the mobile ad network space is AdMob, which was acquired by Google for US$750 million in 2009.

Keys, Sade, Jay-Z to perform at charity ball in NY
(AP)/15072010

NEW YORK — Alicia Keys, Jay-Z and Sade will join musical forces later this year for charity.

Keys has recruited Jay-Z and Sade to perform at her charity’s annual Black Ball on Sept. 30 at New York’s Hammerstein Ball. Keys will also hit the stage.

The foundation, Keep a Child Alive, is celebrating its seventh year. The organization assists children and families affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India.

The 29-year-old Keys is expecting her first child with producer-rapper Swizz Beatz. She and Jay-Z teamed up last year for a hit song about New York called “Empire State of Mind.”

BRASIL:

EN BREF, CE 15 juillet 2010… AGNEWS /OMAR, BXL,15/07/2010