[ A grenade attack killed two people and wounded at least 28 in Rwanda’s capital Kigali during the Friday evening rush hour, the police said Saturday.   Police spokesman Theos Badege said four people had been arrested in connection with the blast and investigations were underway. No details of the suspects were given.  The grenade exploded near a busy bus terminal in Giporoso, Remera, a suburb of Kigali.]

{jcomments on} BURUNDI :

Sport / Coupe de la CAF: Missile Fc bat l’Interstars du Burundi (4-0)Burundi

 Libreville, 29 janvier (GABONEWS) – Missile Football club de Libreville (Gabon) s’est imposé ce samedi, au stade Monédan de Sibang, par 4 buts à 0 face à l’Interstars du Burundi en match aller comptant pour le tour préliminaire de la Coupe de la Confédération africaine de football (CAF).

6ème au classement du championnat gabonais de première division de football (D1) après 8 journées, 12 points au compteur, 3 victoires, 3 nuls, 2 défaites, Missile Fc qui effectuait son baptême de feu dans une compétition continentale a fait d’un coup d’essai un coup de maître.

 Avec cette victoire sur ce score de 4-0, Missile Fc qui a entamé le championnat national de manière timorée affiche là son ambition à jouer un rôle important et non des figurants dans cette compétition.

Dimanche 30 janvier 2011, le tour reviendra à l’Union sportive de Bitam d’affronter, dans son antre d’Akoakam (Bitam), le champion du Cameroun, l’Astre de Douala pour le compte des préliminaires de la ligue africaine des champions.

GN/DCD/11 / Mis à jour ( Dimanche, 30 Janvier 2011 13:54 )

Les Fardc repoussent le Fnl du Burundi à Rukoko !

Kinshasa, 28/01/2011 / Politique / http://www.digitalcongo.net/article/73331

Le bilan du reste confirmé par le commandant du 41e secteur opérationnel Amani Leo dans la plaine de Rizizi, fait état de six morts dont du côté des FARDC et quatre chez les ex-combattants burundais.

Les éléments du 12e bataillon intégré des FARDC ont repoussé des ex-combattants burundais du Front national de libération, FNL, dans la forêt de Rukoko, à cheval entre le Burundi et la RDC, après d’âpres combats qui ont duré deux jours (mardi et mercredi), près de Kiliba, à 20 kilomètres au Nord-Est de la cité d’Uvira.

Le bilan du reste confirmé par le commandant du 41e secteur opérationnel Amani Leo dans la plaine de Rizizi, fait état de six morts dont du côté des FARDC et quatre chez les ex-combattants burundais.

Ces opérations militaires ne sont pas faciles pour les FARDC dans cette vaste forêt réputée depuis des années comme étant le sanctuaire des ex-­combattants burundais du Front national de libération, FNL, a reconnu le commandant du 12e bataillon intégré FARDC.

Selon lui, deux soldats FARDC ont été tués mardi 25 janvier dans une embuscade tendue par les assaillants pendant la patrouille.

Les FARDC ont réagi mercredi 26 janvier en tuant à leur tour quatre assaillants, ajoute la même source.

Un camp des assaillants en pleine construction a été détruit et quelques butins récupérés. Le lieutenant colonel Héritier Byamungu affirme que l’ennemi s’est dispersé dans la forêt. Mais une partie d’assaillants a réussi à traverser la rivière Ruzizi vers le Burundi voisin.

Pour rappel, les accrochages entre les FARDC et les ex-­combattants burundais sont récurrents dans cette forêt. D’après le chef de la cité de Kiliba, des bandits armés ont, à maintes fois, agressé les paysans agriculteurs.

De gros et petits bétails ainsi que la volaille sont volés dans les localités voisines puis acheminés vers Rukoko. Le chef Alimasi Masasika affirme avoir interdit tout accès aux champs jusqu’à la fin des opérations militaires en cours dans cette forêt.

Le Palmarès / (CL/TH/GW/Yes) / Last edited: 28/01/2011 14:31:39

Uvira : accrochages entre FARDC et FNL à Rukoko, 6 morts

janvier 27, 2011, http://radiookapi.net/actualite/2011/01/27/uvira-accrochages-entre-fardc-et-fnl-a-rukoko-6-morts/

Les éléments du 12e bataillon intégré des  FARDC ont repoussé des ex-combattants burundais du Front national de libération, FNL, dans la forêt de Rukoko, à cheval entre le Burundi et la RDC, après d’âpres combats  qui ont duré deux jours (mardi et mercredi), près de Kiliba, à 20 kilomètres au nord-est de la cité d’Uvira. Le bilan, du reste confirmé par le commandant du 41e secteur opérationnel Amani Leo dans la plaine de Rizizi, fait état de six morts dont du côté des FARDC et quatre chez les ex combattants burundais.

Ces opérations militaires ne sont pas faciles pour les FARDC dans cette vaste forêt réputée depuis des années comme étant le sanctuaire des ex-combattants burundais du Front national de libération, FNL, a reconnu  le commandant du 12e bataillon intégré FARDC.

Selon lui, deux soldats FARDC ont été tués mardi 25 janvier dans une embuscade tendue par les assaillants pendant la patrouille.

Les FARDC ont réagi  mercredi 26 janvier en tuant à leur tour quatre assaillants, ajoute la même source.

Un camp des assaillants en pleine construction a été détruit et quelques butins récupérés.

Le lieutenant colonel Héritier Byamungu affirme que l’ennemi s’est dispersé dans la forêt. Mais une partie d’assaillants a réussi à traverser la rivière Ruzizi vers le Burundi voisin.

Pour rappel, les accrochages entre les FARDC et  les ex-combattants burundais sont récurrents dans cette forêt.

D’après le chef de la cité de Kiliba,  des bandits armés ont,  à maintes fois, agressé les paysans agriculteurs. De gros et petits bétails ainsi que la volaille sont volés dans les localités voisines puis acheminés vers Rukoko.

Le chef Alimasi Masasika affirme avoir interdit tout accès aux champs jusqu’à la fin des opérations militaires en cours dans cette forêt.

Burundi albinos renew call for govt protection

By Moise Gahungu  (email the author) /  Posted Monday, January 31 2011 at 19:20

The slaying of two albinos last December in Burundi, has renewed calls for special protection, as the death toll resulting from arbitrary killings reaches 17 in two years.

According to Kassim Kazungu, the chairperson of a non-governmental organisation Albinos Without Borders, the situation is now out of control, while the government has turned a blind eye to the community’s pleas for protection.

The two albinos were killed late December, one in the southern province of Makamba bordering Tanzania and the other in Muramvya province, central Burundi.

“It seems the government has abandoned us given the rising death toll,” said Mr Kazungu.

He now wants the government to emulate Tanzania where those found guilty of killing albinos are sentenced to death, although this would be in violation of Burundi’s new criminal laws that outlaw capital punishment.

“We are asking the government to revisit the criminal code and sanction the death penalty in order to punish offenders,” said Mr Kazungu. 

Earlier this month, the chairman of the albino association told journalists it would help if the government provided sanctuaries for the albinos at the country’s  provincial centres with a view of ensuring the security of the entire albino community, estimated at over 600 people.

The association also notes that most albinos are forced to leave their homes whenever a murder is reported.

However, government spokesperson Philippe Nzobonariba said the government had done its best to stem the practice by prosecuting offenders.

“The security of albinos is the responsibility of the local administration who in collaboration with the community are working hard to stem the vice,” he said.

But according to Edouard Biha, the executive secretary of the human rights body Ligue Iteka, the government needs to show more commitment towards the protection of albinos.

“Even if it means employing more policemen to specifically serve the albino community, it should be done,” he said. 

Targeted murders of albino’s spilled into Burundi from Tanzania where witchdoctors believe albino body parts are the pathway to prosperity.

In a bid to stop the heinous acts, the provincial attorney of Ruyigi court Nicodème Gahimbare, in 2008, sentenced four of 10 suspects found guilty of killing albinos.

Two of them were sentenced to death, another to life imprisonment and one to seven year’s imprisonment.

RWANDA

Rwanda grenade attack kills two people, wounds 28

Sat Jan 29, 2011   By Kezio-Musoke David

KIGALI (Reuters) – A grenade attack killed two people and wounded at least 28 in Rwanda’s capital Kigali during the Friday evening rush hour, the police said Saturday.

Police spokesman Theos Badege said four people had been arrested in connection with the blast and investigations were underway. No details of the suspects were given.

The grenade exploded near a busy bus terminal in Giporoso, Remera, a suburb of Kigali.

Badege said the police cannot at the moment figure out the motive of those who threw the grenade, but were not ruling out that the attack was designed to cause instability.

“So far two people are dead and among the 28 who sustained injuries, 10 are critically injured and hospitalised,” Badege told Reuters.

“This particular type was a hand grenade. It went off at around 7 p.m. Kigali time at Giporoso near the bus park.

“It could be an isolated incident, but we can’t say it was by accident because someone was definitely moving with this grenade. A mini bus was also party damaged,” he said.

Kigali was hit by a string of grenade attacks last year which the government has blamed on two high-ranking officers now in exile. 

One of the exiles — Lieutenant-General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, a former chief of staff and ambassador to India — denied the allegations last year.

He said the Rwandan authorities had staged grenade attacks and then accused him of being behind them.

Nyamwasa now lives in South Africa. He was shot and wounded last June in an attack his wife blamed on Rwanda, a charge labelled as “preposterous” by Kigali.

Many grenades were left over from lengthy conflicts in the Great Lakes region and are sometimes used to settle scores.

While there has generally been little crime in recent years in the central African country — where 800,000 were killed in 100 days in the 1994 genocide — there are occasional bombings.

(Editing by David Clarke/Maria Golovnina)

Rwanda Hutu Leader Faces ICC

Selah Hennessy | London  January 28, 2011

A Rwandan rebel leader appeared before the International Criminal Court on Friday facing charges of murder, torture and rape of Congolese civilians.

Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court, or ICC, say Calixte Mbarushimana was a top leader of the Rwandan rebel group FDLR who spread terror in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Prosecutors say he directed operations from France, where he’s been living in exile since 2002.

Mbarushimana spoke before war crimes judges on Friday.

He said all his life he has fought injustice, hatred of other people and all forms of exploitation.

Mbarushimana is accused of 11 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes carried out by his rebel forces – that includes murder, rape, and torture. He said Friday he has “in no way” been involved in any of those crimes.

He said he condemns attacks on innocent civilians.

Mbarushimana hasn’t yet entered a formal plea.

Geraldine Mattioli, from the New York-based campaign group Human Rights Watch, says it’s an important step for Mbarushimana, who was living in France for almost a decade before French authorities handed him over to the ICC last year, to finally face trial. And, she says, it’s not the only such case in Europe. Germany arrested two top FDLR leaders in 2009; they’re awaiting trial.

“I think there has been some commitment on the part of the European Union for some time now to take care of these kind of networks supporting this rebel group the FDLR in Congo,” she said.

But she adds the battle shouldn’t stop with Mbarushimana. She says there are many armed groups in DRC’s eastern provinces that are responsible for ongoing atrocities.

“Other groups in the Kivus have been involved in committing very serious crimes. I’m thinking here of the Mai Mai, the CNDP – a Congolese Tutsi group, and the Congolese army itself. In this campaign in 2009 all of these groups have committed very serious crimes against civilians,” she said.

She says new arrest warrants should be made for the leaders of these other armed groups. 

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Rwanda-Hutu-Leader-Faces-ICC-114800809.html

Rwanda: The story of a food secure nation

By CATHERINE RIUNGU  (email the author) / Posted Monday, January 31 2011 at 00:00

A food-sufficient Africa is close at hand, but we must innovate

The plan sounded comical but it was its three-pronged intention that has since changed Rwanda’s food security status.

Proponents of the policy said could provide milk to the household, put some money in their pockets and provide organic manure.

Then East Africa’s second smallest economy formulated a policy to stop land fragmentation.

Farmers merged their small parcels and worked together in larger single units making the best use of fertiliser, improved seeds and labour.

To make agriculture a better managed sector the Rwanda Agricultural Board was formed bringing the Rwanda Agricultural Research Institute, Rwanda Agricultural Development Authority and Rwanda Animal Resources Development Authority under one roof.

The result is that three years later, Rwanda has bid food deficits goodbye.

Minister for Agriculture Agnes Kalibata, points out that President Paul Kagame has repeatedly said hunger is shameful and must be eradicated.

“That is why he has placed right thinking people in charge of agriculture,” she said in July last year, at the first African Green Revolution Forum in Accra, Ghana.

At the November EAC Heads of State Food Security and Climate Change Retreat in Arusha, Kigali was cited as probably the best example of how a tiny, hilly and recovering nation has turned around its agriculture to play in the league of the few countries in the world that can pass the test of being food secure.

For the past three years, Rwanda has steadily raised its production, which has been growing at 16 per cent per annum since 2007.

Favourable weather conditions, improved seeds and better crop husbandry have combined to raise food harvests, significantly boosting food security.

For a country that in 2006 recorded a miserable 0.7 per cent growth in agricultural production, Rwanda has every reason to blow its own trumpet.

It produces mainly maize, cassava, beans and bananas.

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/Rwanda%20The%20story%20of%20a%20food%20secure%20nation/-/2558/1098378/-/yse4eg/-/

UN chief discusses global issues with presidents of France and Rwanda

30 January 2011 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today had a meeting with the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, during which he reaffirmed United Nations’ commitment to working closely with the Group of 20 industrialized and emerging economies to generate innovative financing for development.

During the meeting in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Mr. Ban and Mr. Sarkozy also discussed the situation in Côte d’Ivoire, with the French leader welcoming the decision by the African Union Peace and Security Council to set up a high-level panel to help resolve the political deadlock in the West African country.

The Secretary-General expressed hope that a peaceful solution will be found soon that respects the will of the people of Côte d’Ivoire and the principles of the UN charter, according to a statement issued by the spokesperson of the Secretary-General.

Commenting on the recent developments in Lebanon, the Secretary-General voiced concern over the rising tensions there and the threats against the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. He stated that the activities of the Special Tribunal should continue unimpeded, as it is carrying out an independent judicial process that cannot be stopped.

On Haiti, Mr. Ban expressed his strong hope that the Government will accept the recommendations of the Organization of American States regarding the presidential elections. He assured Mr. Sarkozy that the UN is working hard to bring the cholera epidemic in Haiti under control.

The Secretary-General also conferred with the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, and welcomed the collaboration between neighbouring African States to bring an end to violence in the region.

Mr. Ban and Mr. Kagame also discussed and agreed on the need for effective measures to bring an end to gender-based violence in conflict situations.

Kagame’s authoritarian turn risks Rwanda’s future

Stephen Kinzer / guardian.co.uk,       Thursday 27 January 2011

When President Paul Kagame of Rwanda won re-election in August, he could look back with pride on his accomplishments. Rwanda has emerged from the devastation of genocide and become more secure and prosperous than anyone had a right to expect. The central task of his second seven-year term, which by law must be his last, is to add broader democracy to this security and prosperity.

Since his inauguration, however, Kagame has given no sign that he is eager to face this challenge. On the contrary, he has continued to scorn his critics. This month, a Rwandan court issued harsh sentences against four of his former comrades who denounced his rule and urged a change in course for their homeland.

All four of those sentenced are safely outside Rwanda, but the severity of the sentences,which range from 20 to 24 years, was startling. The defendants were Kagame’s former chief of staff and ambassador to Washington, Theogene Rudasingwa; Gerald Gahima, Rwanda’s former prosecutor general and vice president of the supreme court; Col Patrick Karegeya, former director of Rwanda’s external security services; and Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa, a former army chief of staff who survived an assassination attempt in South Africa last year.

The four were found guilty of forming a terrorist group, threatening state security, undermining public order, promoting ethnic divisions and insulting the president. Evidence was taken in part from a “Rwanda Briefing” they issued as their former boss began his second term, describing him as “a callous and reckless leader” shaped by “greed for absolute power”. They asserted that there is “more to Rwanda and Paul Kagame than new buildings, clean streets, and efficient government … Rwanda is essentially a hard-line, one-party, secretive police state with a façade of democracy.” To avoid future conflict, they urged Kagame to convene a “genuine, inclusive, unconditional and comprehensive national dialogue” with the aim of creating a new “national partnership government”.

In one passage, which the court cited as a criminal attempt to stir communal hatred, they warned of another ethnic explosion in Rwanda. “The Tutsi minority cannot hope to impose their will on the Hutu majority forever,” they warned. “The military victory of Hutu insurgency could, in turn, conceivably lead to the genocide of the remaining Tutsi population of Rwanda.”

Adding to the fear of new instability were this week’s reports that regional leaders meeting in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, concluded that a new armed force is emerging on the turbulent eastern Congo, which borders on Rwanda and which has, in the past, been a staging ground for anti-Kagame forces. There was ominous speculation that the force might be collaborating with one or more of the newly-sentenced signers of “Rwanda Briefing”.

Kagame’s repression of opposition during his first term may have been unwise, but it was at least defensible. Some of his most outspoken critics were allies of the defeated genocide army, which still dreams of returning to power. The four men convicted this month, however, became prominent because Kagame himself elevated them to high office. He trusted them once – and should listen to them now.

No authoritarian leader cedes power easily, or turns it over to bodies he cannot control. This is especially true of leaders who come to power by guerrilla war, as Kagame did. Guerrilla leaders win wars by being paranoid and ruthless. Once they take power, they are expected to abandon those qualities and embrace opposite ones: tolerance, compromise and humility. Almost none manages to do so. Kagame has proven himself to be a visionary figure in some ways, so there seemed hope that he would be an exception. Events of recent weeks suggest otherwise.

Kagame and his allies argue that opening too much political space in Rwanda now would unleash ethnic hatreds and possibly lead to another genocide. His critics, including the four who were sentenced this month, argue the opposite: that opening political space is the best way to prevent another genocide. Both arguments are plausible, and both should be openly discussed. Instead of having a court sentence his four ex-comrades to prison terms, Kagame should invite them and others to join him in planning a sustainable path toward Rwandan democracy. By rejecting their counsel, he is increasing his pool of enemies and perhaps even contributing to the destabilisation of the country he has done so much to settle on a better course.

It may or may not be true, as the four men convicted this month have asserted, that Rwanda is “again on the brink of an abyss”. The stakes, however, are enormous. President Kagame should accept the possibility that his judgment may not always be correct, and listen earnestly to Rwandans with different ideas. He still has the chance to enter history as one of the greatest modern African leaders. There is also the chance, however, that he will be remembered as another failed African big-man, a tragic figure who built the foundations of a spectacular future for his country, but saw his achievements collapse because he could not take his country from one-man rule toward democracy.

In Kagame’s early years in power, he made enemies of many he might have turned into allies, including former president Pasteur Bizimungu, former prime minister Faustin Twagiramungu, former speaker of parliament Joseph Sebarenzi, and Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager whose story was the basis for the film Hotel Rwanda. He could plausibly argue that in those days he felt under siege, with the former genocide army waging war against him and the country still in upheaval. Today, the country is secure, and Kagame has attracted foreign supporters ranging from Bill Clinton and Tony Blair to Rev Rick Warren and high-powered American business tycoons.

Yet, his contempt for critics seems as intense as ever. Around the same time his four ex-comrades were given long, if symbolic, prison terms, prosecutors asked a Kigali court to impose sentences of 12 and 33 years on two opposition journalists charged with genocide denial, inciting public disorder, insulting the president and spreading false rumours.

“The challenge that Rwanda and her partners have is to engineer peaceful transition to inclusive, democratic governance in time to avoid renewed widespread violence and sectarian bloodshed,” Kagame’s four former aides wrote in their “Rwanda Briefing”. He should heed their warning and seek their counsel.

Le Rwanda choisi comme pays hôte

Publié le 29.01.2011    

Le Rwanda a été choisi comme pays organisateur du Championnat d’Afrique des nations 2016, a annoncé le comité exécutif de la Confédération africaine (CAF) après une réunion en République démocratique du Congo. Cette compétition est réservée aux joueurs évoluant sur le continent et le Soudan accueillera sa deuxième édition du 4 au 25 février prochains. La première avait eu lieu en Côte d’Ivoire il y a deux ans.

http://www.leparisien.fr/sports/football/le-rwanda-choisi-comme-pays-hote-29-01-2011-1267808.php

RDC –Congo

UGANDA

TANZANIA:

Tanzania needs a new constitution  Send to a friend

Sunday, 30 January 2011  / By Devotha John

Young Citizen reporter meets  Form Six students from Benjamin Mkapa Secondary School in Dar es Salaam in a debate whose motion is: Tanzania needs a new constitution. Below are their views:

Proposers:

Ramadhani Pango

Tanzania needs a new constitution because the one we have is already outdated hence failed to tackle some touchy issues.

We need the constitution that will incorporate and address everyone’s problems.

There are a lot of controversial issues that need urgent attention among them being the land issue.

Gwamaka Ulimboka

We need a new constitution because the current one lacks political legitimacy because it was drafted and adapted without the involvement of Tanzanians.

The current constitution also rests a lot of powers and immunity to our present leaders especially the president, making him untouchable even when he commits grave mistakes.

We therefore, need the new constitution to shave off some of these powers and hold everyone responsible regardless of his or her title.

Edina Ngowi, Form Six EGM

Our nation desperately needs a new constitution to steer forward development and democracy.

The new constitution will address issues such as private political candidates contesting in our national elections.

The constitution will also make other important institutions like the PCCB, Nation Electoral Commission (Nec) more effective in the sense that, they will not be accountable to the president but by the parliament for instance.

Opposers:

Rose Tairo, Form Six

There is no need for the new constitution. What we need are just some few amendments in some items.

The exercise of drafting a new constitution is very costly to the nation’s already crippling economy.

So, there is no need to engage ourselves in such an expensive exercise right now when we have other important issues to address like building classrooms and so on.

Halima Selemani, Form Six

Our problem is not the absence of a good constitution but lack of proper ethics.

So, an overhaul change of the constitution is only a waste of time, money and energy if our morals are not upright.

We, therefore, first of all, need to instil within ourselves a culture of respect, responsibility and hard work before we demand a new constitution.

Rehema Clinus, Form Six PCM

I don’t see the need for a new constitution, but I only see the need for some few amendments in some sections.

The public should improvise on the current one before thinking of the new one.

http://thecitizen.co.tz/sunday-citizen/39-young-citizen/7757-tanzania-needs-a-new-constitution.html

Indian Investors now troop into Tanzania

By Mary John  (email the author) / Posted Monday, January 31 2011

Indian companies are increasing their presence in East Africa where they have been sourcing raw materials for the country’s thriving industry and manufacturing sector.

Close to 10 companies — dealing in steel, seed, packaging, electrical appliances and tourism among others — are set to build factories or set up operations in Tanzania at a cost of over $250 million.

According to Trade and Industry Minister Cyril Chami, the construction of the factories will start in the next six months.

The biggest single investment will see Kamal Steel Industries build a $220 million-worth steel and iron sheet factory that is expected to generate almost 5,000 jobs. The current factory in Dar es Salaam employs about 400 people.

The other investment, which will cost about $20 million, will involve the construction of an assembly line for Bajaj vehicles (auto richshaws) and motorcycles by Bajaj Auto. The assembly line will employ 500 people.

Adelhelm Meru, managing director of the Economic Processing Zone Authority, said that other projects by Indian investors are a $3 million seed plant to be built by Science and Corp Ltd in line with the government’s implementation of Kilimo Kwanza. This will create another 500 jobs.

Lotters Packaging Ltd will invest $1.2 million in a manufacturing plant to take advatange of the country’s acute shortage of modern packaging.

Other investments will be by UK Electrical (India Ltd) which will produce water pumps. Other investors have expressed interest in a factory for producing mechanical spare parts and small machines which will be helpful to the informal sector.

According to Dr Meru, beyond industry, Indian business magnate Mukesh Ambani plans to invest in luxury hotel chains to tap into the growing tourism industry.

Tanzania’s economy depends on tourism, mining and agriculture. But the growing telecommunications, energy, manufacturing, financial services and transport sectors are attracting investors who see great potential for returns.

According to the Investment Climate 2010 report prepared by the Bank of Tanzania, the country generally has a favourable attitude toward foreign direct investment and has made significant efforts to encourage foreign investment.

Emmanuel ole Naiko, the executive director of Tanzania Investment Centre, said that despite the fact that the world is still recovering from the financial crisis, FDI is expected to rebound and to surge to $800 million in 2011 from a low of $645m in 2009.

KENYA :

AFRICA / AU :

African Union summit opens with focus on stability

2011-01-30 /  Addis Ababa, Jan 30 (IANS) The 16th African Union (AU) summit opened Sunday in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa as African leaders gather to discuss peace, security and stability in the continent.

The summit’s theme ‘Towards Greater Unity and Integration Through Shared Values’ is likely to be overshadowed by heated discussion on a number of thorny issues, including the political crisis in Cote d’Ivoire, the social unrest in Tunisia and Egypt, the post-referendum reconstruction in Sudan, and the deteriorating situation in Somalia, Xinhua reported.

AU Commission chairperson Jean Ping, AU president and Malawi President Bingu Mutharika, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and French President Nicolas Sarkozy were among the top dignitaries present at the opening ceremony.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Ban expressed concern over the situation in Cote d’ Ivoire.

He reiterated the UN’s stance that Alassane Ouattara was the rightful president-elect of Cote d’ Ivoire, and he welcomed the decision by the AU Peace and Security Council to create a high-level panel to deal with the crisis in the West African country.

Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Ngcuema Mbasogo will take over the rotating presidency of the AU from Mutharika during the opening ceremony.

During a press conference on the eve of the summit, Ping predicted that the summit would be characterised by ‘serious divergences’, with intense discussions on Cote d’Ivoire, Tunisia and south Sudan, among others.

The establishment of the AU to replace the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was founded in 1963, was envisaged at an African summit in September 1999 in Libya’s Sirte, with a view to furthering African cooperation, development and integration. The Constitutive Act of the AU entered into force in May 2001 and the AU was formally established in July 2002.

The AU, which has 53 member states, is aimed at building a partnership between governments and all segments of civil society, in particular women, youth and the private sector, in a bid to strengthen solidarity and cohesion among the people of Africa.

Equatorial Guinea President Named Head of AU, Human Rights Groups Protest

By Mike Cohen and William Davison – Jan 30, 2011 /  Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has held power for more than three decades, was named the ceremonial head of the African Union, an appointment human rights groups said undermined the 53-nation bloc’s commitment to democracy.

Obiang’s election was announced by his predecessor Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika at a heads-of-state summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, today. Under AU rules, the bloc’s political leadership rotates annually between Africa’s five geographic regions.

“We accept our role with humility,” Obiang told the summit. “Africa must assume, more than ever, a leading role not just on the continent but in the international arena.”

Obiang has ruled sub-Saharan Africa’s fourth-biggest oil- producer since 1979, when he seized power from his uncle in a coup. He won a fourth term in elections in November 2009, securing more than 95 percent of the vote. Groups including Human Rights Watch said conditions weren’t in place for a free and fair contest, an allegation Obiang denies.

A 2004 U.S. Senate investigation into money laundering found Washington-based Riggs Bank was holding as much as $750 million in accounts controlled by Obiang, his family members or government officials. Obiang says he is unaware of any public funds being diverted from the country and that allegations made against his government and family are untrue.

‘Disastrous’ Leadership

“Obiang’s leadership of Equatorial Guinea has been disastrous,” New York-based Human Rights Watch said in an e- mailed statement yesterday. “For the more than 30 years that he has been in power, Equatorial Guinea has been plagued by appalling human rights violations and corruption,” with vast oil revenue being “diverted to fund lavish lifestyles for the small elite surrounding the president.”

Only 10 countries ranked below Equatorial Guinea on Transparency International’s 2010 list of global corruption perceptions. Last year, Equatorial Guinea was ejected from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, an organization of companies, governments and civil groups that aims to clean up the oil and mining industries, for failing to meet its guidelines.

Oil Revenue

Oil revenue has given Equatorial Guinea, with a population of about 840,000, Africa’s highest gross domestic product per capita. Even so, latest World Bank data shows average life expectancy is 52 years and 81 out of every 1,000 children die before the age of five.

The African Union and Africans, don’t deserve a leader “whose regime is notorious for abuses, corruption and a disregard for the welfare of its people,” Alioune Tine, president of the Dakar, Senegal-based African Assembly for Human Rights, said in an e-mailed statement today.

At a conference in Cape Town in June last year, Obiang committed his government to greater transparency on oil revenue, judicial independence and press freedom. He also pledged to invest billions of dollars in health and education.

Established in 2002 as a successor to the Organization of African Unity, the AU’s stated aims include achieving greater unity among member states, promoting peace, stability and development and raising living standards.

To contact the reporters on this story: Mike Cohen in Cape Town at mcohen21@bloomberg.net; William Davison in Addis Ababa via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net.

South Sudan votes for independence

Reuters/Tim McKulka/Unmis Handout /  By RFI   30/11/2011 –

Close to 99 per cent of south Sudanese voted to secede from the north in an independence referendum, according to the first complete preliminary results announced on Sunday. Official figures were announced publicly for the first time during a ceremony attended by southern President Salva Kiir in the southern capital Juba.

There was 99 per cent turnout in the south, and only 16,129 people voted to remain united, according to the Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau. Of those who voted, 99.57 per cent chose secession.

Of southerners living in the north, 58 per cent voted for secession, giving an overall total of 98.83 in favour of independence.

“I assured you southerners would vote over 90 per cent and now you have proved me right,” Kiir said. “I want to assure them and their families that these people did not die in vain.”

Kiir is expected at the African Union summit that opened on Sunday in Addis Ababa.

Khartoum and Juba have six months to agree on the demarcation of their border, oil revenue sharing, citizenship and the future of the disputed region of Abyei, before the south secedes on 9 July.

African Union in new move to end Ivory Coast crisis

By Richard Lough  /  ADDIS ABABA | Fri Jan 28, 2011

(Reuters) – The African Union said on Friday it would form a panel of heads of state to solve the leadership crisis in Ivory Coast which would come up with a legally binding settlement within one month.

The world’s top cocoa grower has been paralyzed by a power struggle stand-off following a November election. U.N.-certified results showed that opposition candidate Alassane Ouattara won but they were overturned by a top legal body and incumbent Laurent Gbagbo has resisted calls to step down.

“We have decided to set up a panel of heads of state to solve the crisis. The panel will conclude its work within a timeframe of one month. It’s conclusions will be legally binding on the Ivorian authorities,” said Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz

Mauritania currently chairs the African Union’s Peace and Security Council (PSC). Abdel Aziz said there would be five heads of state on the panel and that he would chair the panel, and its members would be chosen within the next one to two days.

The PSC also demanded the immediate lifting of the blocade around the lagoon-side Golf Hotel from where Ouattara is running his parallel government.

“We are not changing the negotiations but expanding the framework in order to find a negotiated settlement,” said Jean Ping, chairman of the African Union Commission after more than four hours of negotiations that included the leaders of Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mauritania.

Earlier, the bloc’s mediator said ahead of their summit on Friday that leaders of the African Union must demand Ivory Coast’s presidential rivals hold face-to-face talks to resolve a deepening post-election crisis.

“This summit must send a strong and unequivocal message that the two parties must negotiate face-to-face,” Raila Odinga said before presenting a report on Ivory Coast to the PSC.

Odinga, prime minister of Kenya, failed to make a breakthrough during two visits to the West African country this month.

COCOA YEAR HIGHS

The political crisis has sparked fears of renewed conflict in a country divided since a 2002-3 civil war. A subsequent ban on exports ordered by Ouattara has pushed cocoa futures to one-year highs this week.

Ouattara was recognized by world leaders as winner of the poll, but Gbagbo refused to step aside after the pro-Gbagbo Constitutional Council said he was the victor.

Gbagbo’s camp has said it would hold talks but Ouattara said these can only take place once Gbagbo steps down.

Odinga said the AU and West African bloc ECOWAS both want a peaceful, negotiated settlement to the crisis in Ivory Coast but other measures must be considered.

“Given the grave risk the continuation of this crisis poses to Ivorians and the people and the states in the region, Africa must stand ready to deploy other measures if a settlement cannot be agreed through negotiations,” he told reporters.

African Union accuses ICC prosecutor of bias

Sun Jan 30, 2011    By Richard Lough   ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – African countries support the International Criminal Court (ICC) but its chief prosecutor is guilty of double standards, the chairman of the African Union Commission said on Saturday.

Jean Ping’s comments came a day after Africa’s foreign ministers threw support behind Kenya’s bid to defer the trials of key suspects accused of masterminding the ethnic bloodshed that followed a disputed election in 2007.

That vote, although still to be rubber-stamped by heads of state, is expected to embolden the east African nation to ask the U.N. Security Council — which helped set up The Hague-based court — to invoke article 16 and defer or suspend the cases.

“We Africans and the African Union are not against the International Criminal Court. That should be clear,” Ping told a news conference at an African Union summit in Ethiopia.

“We are against Ocampo who is rendering justice with double standards,” he said, referring to ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo.

The ICC’s active cases all target crimes against humanity committed in the African states of Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Uganda and Kenya.

“Why not Argentina, why not Myanmar … why not Iraq?,” said Ping.

Moreno-Ocampo has rejected criticism from African states, saying the ICC is only a court of last resort for countries that are either unable or unwilling to try suspects themselves.

The ICC is also conducting preliminary examinations to determine whether it has the jurisdiction to open formal investigations in Afghanistan, Colombia, Georgia, Guinea, Honduras, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and the Palestinian territories.

The case of Kenya’s post-election violence was referred to the ICC after east Africa’s largest economy failed to set up a local tribunal to try suspects.

The ICC’s pre-trial chamber is expected to announce by early March whether Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and suspended ministers William Ruto and Henry Kosgey have a case to answer.

Kenya says it is now better placed to hold local hearings after adopting a new constitution in August that was designed to strengthen the judiciary.

UN /ONU :

USA :

Top Obama aide William Daley says U.S. not trying to steer Egypt

By Peter Nicholas /  Washington Bureau /  January 30, 2011 / –  WASHINGTON — President Obama’s top aide, William Daley, signaled in an interview Sunday that the U.S. did not want to steer events in Egypt but, rather, hoped the Egyptian people would come up with a solution to the standoff between President Hosni Mubarak and protesters who want him ousted.

Daley, in his first interview since he was named White House chief of staff on Jan. 6, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the White House supported “basic human rights of the people of Egypt.”

Obama has urged his Egyptian counterpart that the government needs to show “restraint” toward protesters massed on city streets demanding Mubarak’s ouster, Daley said. Striking an even-handed posture, Obama also has cautioned that the protesters need to show restraint too, Daley noted.

“The determination of Egypt will be done by the people of Egypt,” Daley said.

Egypt’s escalating tensions amount to the first real foreign crisis for the Obama administration that it did not inherit. The crisis serves as a test of Obama’s revamped White House operation. Daley, a former Commerce secretary in the Clinton administration, is now running a staff that is briefing Obama regularly on Egypt.

Daley’s appearance on the Sunday TV talk-show circuit demonstrates that he will play a major role both in shaping and communicating the White House message.

The White House is choosy about who it sends out on the Sunday talk shows. Even after two years in office, certain Cabinet members have been largely invisible to the American public, making rare appearances on TV. That Daley was deployed so quickly after arriving in the West Wing suggests he’ll be a major presidential surrogate heading into the 2012 reelection campaign.

In his debut, Daley spoke in measured tones and hewed to the White House talking points. He repeated that conditions in Egypt were “fluid” and that Obama was “monitoring” events closely.

“We hope that it works itself out for the people of Egypt,” the new chief of staff said.

CANADA :

UPDATE 1-Stellar Pacific to buy Namarana licence in Mali

Jan 25 (Reuters) – Canadian gold miner Stellar Pacific Ventures Inc (SPX.V) said it signed an option agreement to buy the Namarana Gold licence in Mali, West Africa.

The Namarana licence, which covers an area of 132 square kilometers in the Kangaba Circle of Mali, is currently at a renewal stage.

Upon completion, Stellar, which is focused on exploring and developing gold deposits in Canada and Africa, could buy the licence by paying $60,000, and spending $500,000 over a period of three years.

Shares of the Montreal, Quebec-based Stellar were trading down 5.26 percent at 9 Canadian cents on Tuesday on the Toronto Venture Exchange. (Reporting by Amruta Sabnis in Bangalore)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/25/stellarpacific-idUSSGE70O0EB20110125

AUSTRALIA :

Australia Offers 1,000 Scholarships For African Students                          

Written by solomon      / Saturday, 29 January 2011

APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) The Australian government on Thursday announced the award of 1000 scholarships for African students as from 2013.

The announcement was made by the visiting Australian Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd who made a statement at the opening of the 16th Executive Council meeting of the AU Commission, being held in Addis Ababa.

Accordingly, Rudd said that his government has established the Australia-Africa Awards which offers 400 scholarships for study each year to students across the continent in the areas of development priority for Africa.

“And by 2013, we will offer 1,000 new scholarships each year to support the future skills needs of this continent,” said Rudd.

He also promised to increase his country’s investment in Africa.

“Our mining investment in Africa will grow beyond the $ 20 billion now invested. We have already doubled our level of cooperation with Africa in the last three years,” said Rudd. “We have come here to cooperate on a new level, to build new bonds of commerce, development, investment and political dialogue.”

He indicated that his country was active in mining in Africa with $ 20 billion of investments, in more than 200 companies, and more than 600 projects across more than 40 countries in Africa.

“The people of Africa must get a fair return for the vast mineral wealth that belongs to them,” added Rudd.

http://www.apanews.net/apa.php?page=show_article_eng&id_article=139466

EUROPE :

The EU sanctioned people associated with the regime of Ben Ali

Posted by admincoffe on January 30, 2011 in Featured News, World News | 0 Comment

http://www.coffetoday.com/the-eu-sanctioned-people-associated-with-the-regime-of-ben-ali/9010349/

The European Union today stressed its willingness to support the democratic transition in Tunisia and its intention to impose sanctions on persons associated with the regime of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.  These measures include asset freezes and travel bans to the EU, and would be taken in coordination with the Tunisian authorities, “said European Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy, Stefan Fule, speaking before the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament Europe on the situation in that country.  Fule said the measures taken initially by the transitional government are “steps in the right direction” but also insisted that the new authorities comply “fully” its commitments on governance, fundamental freedoms and economic reforms.

The EU has offered to help the transition process, including support for the organization of free and transparent democratic elections.  ”We are ready to offer our political, legal, technical and material” for the preparation and organization of these elections, said Fule.  The European commissioner also stressed that the EU is looking to adapt its financial assistance in accordance with the changing needs of the country, and to strengthening support to civil society in Tunisia.

The EU today announced the shipment to Tunisia’s Middle East director general of the Foreign Service, Hugues Mingarelli, to follow more closely the situation in the country and pass on European support for its democratic reforms.  European measures will be addressed by European foreign ministers during the Council to hold next Monday in Brussels.

CHINA :

Despite China’s might, US factories maintain edge

By Associated Press , January 30, 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) — WASHINGTON — U.S. factories are closing. American manufacturing jobs are reappearing overseas. China’s industrial might is growing each year.

And it might seem as if the United States doesn’t make world–class goods as well as some other nations.

“There’s no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains, or the new factories that manufacture clean energy products,” President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union address last week.

Yet America remains by far the No. 1 manufacturing country. It out–produces No. 2 China by more than 40 percent. U.S. manufacturers cranked out nearly $1.7 trillion in goods in 2009, according to the United Nations.

The story of American factories essentially boils down to this: They’ve managed to make more goods with fewer workers.

The United States has lost nearly 8 million factory jobs since manufacturing employment peaked at 19.6 million in mid–1979. U.S. manufacturers have ranked near the top of world rankings in productivity gains over the past three decades.

That higher productivity has meant a leaner manufacturing force that’s capitalized on efficiency.

“You can add more capability, but it doesn’t mean you necessarily have to hire hundreds of people,” says James Vitak, a spokesman for specialty chemical maker Ashland Inc.

The industry’s fortunes are brightening enough that U.S. factories are finally adding jobs after years of shrinking their payrolls. Not a lot. But even a slight increase shows manufacturers are growing more confident. They added 136,000 workers last year — the first net increase since 1997.

What’s changed is that U.S. manufacturers have abandoned products with thin profit margins, like consumer electronics, toys and shoes. They’ve ceded that sector to China, Indonesia and other emerging nations with low labor costs.

Instead, American factories have seized upon complex and expensive goods requiring specialized labor: industrial lathes, computer chips, fighter jets, health care products.

Consider Greatbatch Inc., which makes orthopedics and other medical goods. The company is expanding its manufacturing operations near Fort Wayne, Ind. Greatbatch wanted to take advantage of a specialized work force in northeastern Indiana, a hub of medical research and manufacturing.

“When you’re talking about medical devices, failure is not an option,” CEO Thomas Hook says. “It’s a zero–mistake environment. These products are customized and high–tech. They go into patients to keep them alive.”

Hook says the United States offers advantages over poorer, low–wage countries: reliable supplies of electricity and water, decent roads. And some localities support businesses by providing infrastructure and vocational training for potential hires.

Centerline Machining & Grinding in Hobart, Wis., which makes custom parts for manufacturers in the paper industry, plans to add to its staff of 26. But it’s struggling to find the skilled tradesmen it needs for jobs paying $18 to $25 an hour.

CEO Sara Dietzen laments that local vocational schools cut back training courses in recent years, having concluded that the future for manufacturing was dim. Not from her view it isn’t. For her company, output is all about speed.

“Our average customer wants a turnaround in less than three weeks,” Dietzen says. “You’re not going to get that in China.”

Still, economist Cliff Waldman of the industry research group Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI doubts that U.S. factories will continue to expand their payrolls in the long run. Manufacturing, he says, is “not a job creator for the U.S., basically.”

Global competition will always force factory managers to try to replace expensive workers with machines or with low–wage labor overseas, Waldman says.

Mark Perry (News – Alert), a visiting scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, likens the loss of manufacturing jobs to the exodus of workers from farms between the 19th and 20th centuries. If that migration hadn’t happened, Perry says, “we’d still have millions of people working in agriculture. Now, we can employ fewer people in factories.”

But the transition can be painful, he concedes.

The U.S. remains No. 1 in global manufacturing, accounting for 18 percent of global manufacturing output in 2008. But China is catching up. Its share of manufacturing output jumped from about 6 percent in 1998 to 15 percent in 2008.

Critics have a ready explanation for that: unfair competition.

Robert Scott of the left–leaning Economic Policy Institute says China is cheating in world markets — keeping its currency artificially low to make Chinese products less expensive overseas and unfairly subsidizing its exporters.

Scott and other critics want to see the Obama administration support U.S. manufacturers by pressuring Beijing to drop the subsidies and let its currency rise freely. A higher–valued Chinese currency would make U.S. exports cheaper for Chinese consumers.

Centerline CEO Dietzen says she isn’t fazed by Chinese manufacturing. Some of her customers have placed orders with Chinese companies, she says, only to return, frustrated, to her company.

Chinese factories want mainly big orders. And they demand lots of time to fill them.

Dietzen says her clients are “finding when they get their parts back from China, they’re not always what they want. So we end up doing the work anyway.”

“A common misperception,” Greatbatch CEO Hook says, is that the United States doesn’t make anything anymore.

The reality is rather different.

“We need a highly skilled work force,” Hook says. “So it’s very advantageous to be in a country like the United States where people are educated and ready to be hired.”

INDIA :

Preneet addresses African Summit

Jan 30, 2011,

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Preneet-addresses-African-Summit/articleshow/7387862.cms

Union minister of state for external affairs and member of Parliament from Patiala, Preneet Kaur, who led the Indian delegation to the African Union Summit held at Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, addressed the ministerial executive council’s plenary session, there, in the morning. Foreign ministers of 53 countries of Africa and observer countries, including Australia, Denmark and Japan, were also present. Speaking on the sidelines of the summit, her spokeperson said that she held bilateral meetings with foreign ministers of around 20 countries including South Africa, Ethiopia, Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, Mauritania, Burundi and Libya, amongst others, according to a report from Patiala.

Prime witness in rights activist case goes missing: Kuldeep Singh, a key witness in the alleged murder of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra has gone missing from his house in Amritsar. Kuldeep was provided security cover of eight CRPF jawans. Special police officer Kuldeep had testified the torture of Khalra, who had disappeared in 1995. Tarn Taran SSP PS Virk said that police as well as CRPF were trying to trace the whereabouts of Kuldeep Singh. “As of now, I don’t see any foul play, but we are trying to find him,” he said.

5 arrested for betting racket, `1.50 lakh seized: Mansa police have cracked a racket of betting in cricket matches and have arrested five persons. A sum of Rs 1.50 lakh in cash, apart from a computer, 10 mobile phones and two telephones, has been recovered from them. The arrested persons used to make people bet on matches after every ball. Mansa SSP Hardyal Singh Mann said police had got a tip-off about a betting racket being operated from the town by some residents. Police on Saturday succeeded in arresting Naveen Kumar, Nikhil Kumar, Gopi Ram, Naresh Kumar and Brij Mohan, all residents of Mansa, from the place of Brij Mohan. These persons had set up a mini exchange at the upper storey of the house and were in constant touch with a bookie.

BSF arrests Bangladeshi trying to sneak into Pak: A day after Border Security Force (BSF) shot dead two Bangladeshi infiltrators, who were trying to sneak into Pakistani territory, the force claimed that it had also arrested one Bangladeshi citizen, who was trying to cross over to Pakistan from the Lusian Border Outpost on Friday, according to a report from Pathankot. BSF commandant Samrat Khosla said on Saturday that the accused had been identified as Alam, son of Altaf Deen, resident of Mari Sarfa village falling under Kishanganj police station in Bangladesh.

Police athlete dies in accident : A young and talented athlete of Punjab Police, Kulwinder Singh, was killed in a road accident in Jalandhar on Friday morning when he was going to PAP grounds for practice. “Kulwinder was a hammer thrower and had won gold medals in World Police Games in Canada and Australia in 2005 and 2007 respectively,” said his coach Ranjit Singh.

Two criminals killed in police encounter: Two hardcore criminals, Bhinda Shadipuria and Ruby Talwan, were reportedly killed in an encounter with Jalandhar (Rural) policemen late in the evening on Saturday. While the police officials avoided giving details it’s learnt that the encounter took place on a village road under Mehatpur Police Station in Nakodar sub-division. Cops claimed that they intercepted a vehicle, however its occupants started firing at the cops and when the latter retaliated two persons were killed in the firing. They were later identified as Bhinda and Ruby, who were wanted in several cases including those of murder. Police sources said that they had inputs that the duo were in the area and cops had laid nakas at various places. They were also wanted in the case of murder of NRI Mohinderjit Singh who was killed on the night of September 6 last year when he and his family were enroute to the Amritsar airport for returning to Canada.

BRASIL:

Brazil’s Rousseff criticizes currency protectionism

Jan 30 (Reuters) – Emerging market countries such as Brazil and Argentina must take a stronger position against “competitive depreciations,” Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff told Argentine newspaper Pagina 12 on Sunday.

Rousseff, who is due to visit the neighboring country on Monday in her first foreign visit as president, said multilateral bodies should tackle currency issues and developed countries must “assume their responsibility.”

The Brazilian real currency BRBYBRL= has gained more than a third against the dollar in just over two years, and the finance minister has blamed the rally on the developed world, slamming the United States for keeping interest rates low and the dollar weak through its quantitative easing policy.

“It’s well known that Brazil and Argentina suffer, that all emerging market countries suffer, as a result of the depreciation policy practiced by the countries in question,” Rousseff said when asked about the role of the United States and of China.

“Our position in the G20 needs to be one of increasing reaction against these depreciations, which always lead to difficult situations in the world. I’m talking about the so-called competitive depreciations,” she added.

Brazil is Argentina’s biggest export market, and surging demand from its neighbor for cars and other manufactured goods has stoked Argentine growth.

Argentine business leaders fear a weaker Brazilian currency could erode the competitiveness of their exports, but Rousseff said it was impossible to rule out the real’s future depreciation.

“No one in the world can promise that (the Brazilian currency won’t depreciate),” Rousseff said in the interview. “But we have managed of late to keep the dollar within a floating range of between 1.6 and 1.7 reals per dollar.” (Reporting by Helen Popper, editing by Maureen Bavdek)

Brazil and China face increase in trade tensions

By Joe Leahy in São Paulo / January 30 2011   Trade tensions between Brazil and China are expected to increase after the Asian country emerged last year as the biggest foreign direct investor in Latin America’s largest economy.

Analysis of data from Brazil’s central bank shows that China accounted for about $17bn of Brazil’s total FDI inflows in 2010 of $48.46bn, up from less than $300m in 2009, according to Sobeet, a Brazilian think-tank on transnational companies.

“This is the first time we have had so much investment from China,” Luis Afonso Lima, president of Sobeet, told the Financial Times. Exports of commodities, such as iron ore and the “soya complex” of beans, oil and meal, to China helped to keep Brazil’s economy afloat during the financial crisis.

However, tensions have surfaced after China last year also emerged as one of the biggest sources of cheap imports into Brazil, helped by a surge in the value of the real, which is undermining the competitiveness of domestic industry.

This prompted Guido Mantega, finance minister, this year to call for a revaluation of the renminbi.

Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo last week reported that the government was considering restrictions on FDI in mining, including imposing minimum domestic supply quotas and screening transactions based on “the investor’s profile”.

Mr Lima said most of China’s FDI into Brazil, much of which was channelled through tax havens such as Luxembourg, was related to commodities.

The biggest transaction was Chinese oil major Sinopec’s $7.1bn purchase of a 40 per cent stake in Repsol Brazil.

Most of the Chinese investment would lead to little transfer of technology for Brazilian industry, Mr Lima said.

EN BREF, CE 30 janvier 2011… AGNEWS /DAM, NY,30/01/2011