{jcomments on}[- The growing interest of European governments in the East African Community is set to unlock foreign funding and attract technical support to accelerate the remaining phases of integration. European countries had previously expressed misgivings at the rapid pace of EAC’s integration but have now started establishing diplomatic ties with Arusha with Turkey, the Netherlands, and Denmark taking the lead. The European Union has also appointed its head of delegation to Tanzania, Timothy Clarke, as its representative to EAC…]

BURUNDI :

RWANDA

RDC –Congo

En RDC, mystérieuse attaque de l’aéroport de Lubumbashi

Samedi 05 février 2011 / Par RFI

En RDCongo, beaucoup de questions restent sans réponse au lendemain de la mystérieuse attaque attribuée à des séparatistes katangais sur l’aéroport de Lubumbashi. Pas de dégâts, et encore moins de traces de combats, c’est ce que l’on peut constater 24 heures après cet événement qui a semé la panique dans le chef-lieu du Katanga.

Des tirs, il y en a eu certainement, des témoins dignes de foi les ont entendus. En revanche, il n’y a pas de traces de combats sur l’aéroport. Pas un seul trou sur les façades du bâtiment. Et surtout, à l’heure où cet incident s’est déroulé, il y avait 11 avions stationnés sur cet aéroport qui n’est pas très grand. Pas un seul de ces appareils n’a reçu ne serait-ce qu’une balle perdue.

Les seuls dégâts visibles sont quelques vitres cassées à la guérite d’entrée de la zone aéroportuaire, sans que l’on sache si elles étaient peut-être déjà cassées depuis longtemps.

Les surveillants de la zone occupée par la Monusco (Mission des Nations unies en RDC) ont certes vu des « soit-disant » assaillants, mais à aucun moment ils n’ont constaté de combats, ni même de poursuites à leur encontre.

« Une commission d’enquête est constituée pour faire la lumière sur ces événements » promet le gouverneur de la province Moïse Katumbi. Le gouverneur pense à « un sabotage » mais ne veut pas se prononcer sur « qui aurait intérêt à une telle mise scène ». « S’il y a une commission d’enquête, c’est parce qu’il y a eu un mort et un blessé » dit-il.

Le blessé, un lieutenant, a-t-il été victime d’un accident ? Le mort, un gardien, a-t-il été victime d’une balle perdue ? Ou bien a-t-on voulu se débarrasser d’un témoin gênant de cette mise en scène ? Ces questions restent en suspens.

UGANDA

Police warn of pre-poll attacks on Ugandan capital

Sun Feb 6, 2011 – By Barry Malone – KAMPALA (Reuters) – Ugandan police said they believe terrorists are targeting Kampala before national elections this month, the latest in a series of threats since twin bombs killed 79 people in the capital last year.

Police told people living in Kampala to look out for “unexpected gifts, flowers,” prompting one newspaper to warn readers of a potential plot on Valentine’s Day, four days before the February 18 poll.

However, the opposition said it feared the government could use the alert for a clampdown before the presidential and parliamentary elections.

“We have received credible information of a plan by terrorists to carry out attacks during the last days of the elections,” Uganda’s top police officer, Inspector General Kale Kayihura, said in a statement late on Saturday.

“Consequently, the police supported by the other sister security agencies are stepping up vigilance to avert these evil plans.”

Suicide blasts tore through two Kampala bars on July 11 while people were watching the World Cup soccer final, marking the first attacks on foreign soil by Somalia’s al-Qaeda-allied al Shabaab militant group.

Al Shabaab has threatened to carry out more attacks until Uganda and Burundi withdraw their troops from an African Union force protecting a weak United Nations-backed interim government in Somalia.

Analysts widely expect long-serving Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to win a fourth term despite a strong challenge from former ally Kizza Besigye, who has run twice before.

The opposition, however, have been eating into the president’s rural base and say that, if they lose, it will be because of rigging. Besigye has promised to release his own results and warned of Egyptian-style protests if the poll is unfair.

Since the July attacks Uganda has defiantly committed to sending more troops to Somalia. In November Museveni became the first foreign head of state to visit the Horn of Africa country’s chaotic capital Mogadishu for almost 20 years.

Opposition officials in Kampala told Reuters they were worried the alert could be an excuse to round them up or ban their rallies during the final days of campaigning.

Police boss Kayihura and Besigye regularly exchange public criticism. Besigye said this week that Kayihura had no experience and called the police a “militia.”

(Editing by George Obulutsa, David Stamp)

Kibaki, Kagame invite South Sudan to join EA regional bloc Send to a friend

Sunday, 06 February 2011 / By The Citizen Correspondent

Nairobi. Kenya and Rwanda have invited the independent South Sudan to join the East African community.

Presidents Mwai Kibaki of Kenya and Paul Kagame of Rwanda said late last week that South Sudan will be welcome to join the trading bloc whose other members are Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi.

South Sudan has huge oil deposits and would require massive reconstruction when independence is finally declared. The two leaders sought to downplay the tug of war between Nairobi and Kigali over the nomination of the next secretary general of the community.

Kenya has been claiming the rights while President Kigame has maintained that the rotational post should now go to either Rwanda or Burundi. Presidents Kibaki and Kagame assured that there were no outstanding issues between the two countries on the matter of the next secretary general of the EAC.

President Kibaki and President Kagame noted that there were clear procedures on the appointment of persons to the EAC Secretariat, pointing out that talk of disagreements on the issue between the governments of Rwanda and Kenya were a creation of the media.

The two leaders assured all East Africans that their countries were committed to the successful and full integration of the region. But in a separate event, President Kagame insisted that the next East African Community secretary-general should either come from his country or neighbouring Burundi. President Kagame said yesterday that with Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania having occupied the position, it was only logical that the other remaining EAC member countries be accorded the opportunity.

Mr Kagame spoke at the United States International University-Africa, during a celebration of its 40th anniversary yesterday. The Rwandan president added: “It is therefore only logical that this trend will continue to cover other members of the East African Community.”

Mr Juma Mwapachu, a Tanzanian, has been at the helm of the regional bloc since 2006, and his tenure is set to expire in April.

According to the EAC Treaty, the secretary-general has to come from a different member state after a five-year term. To-date, the position has been occupied on a rotational basis by member countries of the EAC.

TANZANIA:

Tanzania wants more oil, gas bids Send to a friend

Sunday, 06 February 2011 / By The Citizen Reporter & Agencies

Kampala. The Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC), a state oil firm, plans to open the fourth deep-offshore bidding round on April 12, this year as it seeks more exploration companies to take part in the country’s oil and gas sector, its officials have said.

They disclosed the plan here on Friday at the end of the 5th East African Petroleum Conference & Exhibition 2011 (EAPCE’11), which attracted about 700 participants from the region and across the world. The biennial conference and exhibition, hosted by the East African Community (EAC), sought to promote the region’s petroleum potential and investment opportunities.

TPDC research officer Baltazar Thomas said the bidding details would be revealed at a conference in Houston, Texas, in April, focusing on 13 deepwater blocks sitting between 1,200 and 3,500 metres.

“We have been receiving expressions of interest from various international companies following recent exploration successes in the region,” he said.

Tanzania has so far licensed 12 deepwater blocks to various companies, and recent exploration works have encountered at least 7.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

TPDC’s principal petroleum geologist Sebastian Shana said at least 13 new blocks had been demarcated, including “new areas and relinquished acreage.” The document for bid offers includes the revised production-sharing agreement of 2008, Tanzania’s petroleum exploration and production act and the offshore gas terms, he added.

Oil and gas exploration companies already licensed in Tanzania include a local subsidiary of Shell International, Orca Exploration Group, Dominion Gas and Oil Ltd., Tullow Oil and Tower Resources.

Mr Baltazar explained that Tanzania plans to double gas production over the next five years by expanding its two processing facilities and building new pipelines. The country aims to boost output to 200 million cubic feet per day from the current 100 million cubic feet per day, he said.

The EAPCE gatherings and exhibitions bring together participants from international oil companies, oil industry service companies, government and academic institutions, international geo-scientific journals, non-oil and gas entities and the media.

The EAPCE’11 took place at a time when the EAC is transforming into a common market. The change is expected to provide greater opportunities for business and investment in all sectors, since the single market provides for free movement of goods, capital and services within the region. During the exhibition, the EAC Secretariat educated the public on the recently launched EAC Common Market Protocol and other regional integration initiatives.

KENYA :

Russia likely to back deferral of ICC trials

By PETER MWAI pmwai@ke.nationmedia.com / Sunday, February 6 2011

Kenya’s bid to defer ICC cases faces more hurdles

Rough road ahead as Kenya plans to lobby UN’s Big Five

Russian ambassador to Kenya Valery Yegoshkin said that whereas his country has not yet taken a stand, it supports the sovereignty of states.

“Russia is not party to the Rome Statute. We are not concerned and have not taken any position. However, every country has a sovereign right,” he told the Nation.

Russia, together with China, US, UK and France, make up the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The council has another 10 non-permanent members.

Under Article 27 of the UN Charter, Security Council decisions on all substantive matters require the affirmative votes of nine of the 15 members.

A negative vote, or veto, by a permanent member prevents adoption of a proposal even if it has received the required number of affirmative votes.

“This kind of organisation (ICC) restricts the sovereignty of nations. Perhaps this is the reason why states such as Russia aren’t members,” said Mr Yegoshkin. “We think this is not our affair,” he added.

However, the US, also not a member of the ICC, has always urged Kenya to comply with its obligations under the Rome Statute.

Protect the suspects

Through deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg, Washington has said it would not support the deferrals, especially if they were meant to protect the suspects.

“What is critical is to make sure accountability is achieved and impunity is avoided,” Mr Steinberg said.

Kenya has already obtained the support of the African Union, which on Monday, during a two day summit in Addis Ababa, issued a declaration requesting the UN Security Council to accede to Kenya’s request for deferment of the ICC investigations and prosecutions.

Two months ago, Parliament voted overwhelmingly for Kenya to pull out of the Rome Statute which established the ICC. (Read: Parliament pulls Kenya from ICC treaty)

Kenya’s growth to hit 6pc on the back of increased private lending

By MWAURA KIMANI and SCOLA KAMAU (email the author)/ Monday, February 7 2011

Kenya’s economy is likely to expand by 6 per cent in 2011 from an estimated 5.6 per cent growth last year, helped by increased private sector lending and confidence in East Africa’s biggest economy, the country’s Central Bank said last week.

The bank sees the economy overcoming inflationary threats and a looming drought, although this outlook has to be supported by high levels of cheap credit expansion to the private sector and households.

Official data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics shows that inflation increased to 5.42 per cent in January from 4.51 per cent in December, despite the government target of keeping the cost of living measure at below five per cent.

The rise in food prices inflation to its highest levels in 11 months, pushed by expensive energy and food led by maize flour, vegetables and cooking fat has seen analysts warning that this could scuttle the projected growth as life becomes expensive for most households.

Independent analysts said key risks facing the Kenyan economy in 2011 include the pace of global recovery, which could cut demand for Kenyan exports, and a dry spell at home with drought reducing farm sector output and energy supplies.

Kenya’s economic growth is closely tied to seasonal rainfall as one quarter of the total gross domestic output comes from rain-fed agricultural production.

A prolonged dry spell means reduced water supply, which in turn means increased cost of doing business by diminishing hydro-power generation and raising the proportion of the relatively more expensive diesel-generated power on the national grid.

“The dry weather conditions witnessed in some areas of the country could cause some downturn in agricultural output and food inflation but this is largely seasonal,” said Prof Njuguna Ndungu, the Cental Bank of Kenya governor.

Kenya’s economy is also expected to get a boost from the ongoing global recovery that should change the fortunes of key sectors such as tourism and the global agricultural commodities market where Kenya sells its tea, coffee and cut flowers.

“The outlook for Kenya is positive and there are no specific threats in the balance of payments,” said Prof Ndungu, adding that the bank’s decision to lower the Central Bank Rate (CBR) by 25 basis points to 5.75 per cent last week, was meant to ensure banks lend cheaply to the private sector.

Growth in cheap lending should provide capital to businesses to expand their output in tandem with the expected rise in demand for products.

Interest rates have been on the rise in the past two months as investors demanded higher returns on Treasury bonds following the state’s announcement that it would increase its domestic borrowing target by 14 per cent to Ksh120 billion ($1,478 million) this year.

“Private sector credit expansion has generally been on target. Given the strong link between growth in private sector credit and economic growth, improved credit expansion indicates increased demand to finance economic activity, ” said the CBK governor.

Banks extended at least $568.7 million to the private sector in the fourth quarter ending December 2010, up from $546.25 million the previous quarter.

“Although banks have generally lowered their lending rates, there is scope to lower further and we will seek their stance,” added Prof Ndung’u.

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/-/2558/1102096/-/o6ciruz/-/

AFRICA / AU :

World Social Forum starts as turmoil strikes Arab world

By Laurence Boutreux (AFP) –DAKAR — Tens of thousands of people marched through Dakar on Sunday at the start of the annual World Social Forum, an annual leftist gathering taking place as anti-government protests sweep the Arab world.

The 11th edition of the forum, an alternative to the elite World Economic Forum held in the posh Swiss ski resort of Davos last week, brings together anti-globalisation activists opposed to capitalism.

This year participants are focusing on the popular revolt spreading across northern Africa with demands for democracy and criticism of dire social conditions reflecting the crisis of capitalism.

Bolivia’s leftist President Evo Morales told the crowd that capitalism was “dying in the face of a people’s rebellion.”

“There is a rebellion of the Arab peoples against US imperialism. The peoples’ struggle is unstoppable. Even if the US government spends millions and millions to end these social movements, it is certain that they will not end.

“Capitalism is suffering a financial crisis, an energy crisis and is bringing us a food crisis. And it is the poor – be they farmers, workers or townspeople – who must pay for this crisis of capitalism.”

Morale’s 35-minute long speech, the longest of all speakers, was criticised by some marchers at the Forum which is meant to be apolitical.

Representatives from Arab countries currently gripped by popular protest, such as Egypt, took their place among marchers to demand the departure of authoritarian and dictatorial regimes.

“I am among those who demand the departure of (Egyptian President) Hosni Mubarak so that the blood in the peaceful protests of recent days was not spilled in vain,” said Egyptian translator Asma El Batraoui Han, 68.

Commenting on events in Egypt and Tunisia — where street protests forced president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee on January 14 — Moroccan trade unionist Mohamed Kabba, 65 said: “pressure from the streets, that is what gets results.”

“What is happening in Tunisia shows that the people can become masters of their destiny whatever their means. It is perhaps this which Europe forgets,” said French Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry.

Host Senegal is also facing growing anger over serious social and economic problems.

“In the darkness until when?,” one placard read, in reference to the long power cuts exasperating all sectors of Senegalese society and which lead to spontaneous protests that often turn violent.

Banners and slogans on the fringes of the march denounced land grabbing, financial secrecy and looting of minerals – among the themes to be debated at the six day forum seeking alternatives to “the crisis of the capitalist system.”

Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Boni Yayi of Benin and Alpha Conde of Guinea as well as former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are also expected in Dakar.

This is the second time the Forum has come to Africa since its inception in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2001. It was held in Nairobi in 2007.

“Africa is an example of the biggest failures of three decades of neo-liberal policies,” according to the Forum’s organisers.

“We do not decide. We analyze policies and we make alternative proposals,” said Mignane Diouf, the Forum’s chief organiser.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jdiV6GoHNsE1_63QN3h6JRLTASJw?docId=CNG.5951de4dd51162eb7b7760899d77c459.2d1

Europe’s growing interest in EAC to boost integration

By GEORGE OMONDI (email the author) / Monday, February 7 2011

The growing interest of European governments in the East African Community is set to unlock foreign funding and attract technical support to accelerate the remaining phases of integration.

European countries had previously expressed misgivings at the rapid pace of EAC’s integration but have now started establishing diplomatic ties with Arusha with Turkey, the Netherlands, and Denmark taking the lead.

The European Union has also appointed its head of delegation to Tanzania, Timothy Clarke, as its representative to EAC.

RELATED STORIES

EAC summit key driver of regional integration process

Battle for top EAC post sparks fears of cracks in bloc’s integration process

Soren Pind, Danish Minister for cooperation said merging the economies of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi was quicker because of experiences with the East African Community before it collapsed in 1977.

“These countries also share common trading interest and have shown strong political will to move the integration agenda forward,” Mr Pind said in Nairobi on Wednesday.

In only ten years after reviving its integration project, the EAC has managed to negotiate and launch both the custom union and common market protocols, setting stage for the rollout of the monetary union next year — region’s twelfth year of integration.

This has raised concerns that some of the stages were implemented without proper consultations, leading to the many non tariff barriers currently undermining intra regional trade, especially when viewed against the EU which took 42 years to become a monetary union.

Stephen O’Brien, UK’s Development minister, said regional integration in Africa will stir the international community’s interest to raise the level of funding that the continent needs to meet its millennium development goals. Donors fund 52 per cent of the EAC budget.

The World Bank estimates that Africa requires $93 billion each year out of which $18 billion should be channelled to the transport system to raise the region’s competitiveness internationally and accelerate employment through expanded opportunities.

“A functioning common market is of interest to foreign investors especially those from EU who are currently shying away from region’s cost of operation that is more than 70 per cent of what they pay to do business in EU,” said Mr O’Brien.

Cutting costs

On Wednesday, the Netherlands became the latest EU state to approve Sh1.1 billion (€10 million) in support of Trade Mark East Africa’s (TMEA) initiative which seeks to automate and increase capacity of the region’s ports and export corridors, cutting the cost of doing business in the region by 40 per cent.

Laeitia Van Den Assum, Netherlands ambassador to EAC said the country’s ambassadors to individual EAC countries will work closely with host countries in implementing EAC programmes.

Other European governments such as the United Kingdom, Denmark, Belgium and Sweden have already put their money in the TMEA project, joining Germany which is currently involved in the construction of EAC’s headquarters at a cost of €14 million.

Through its organisation GTZ Germany has also doubled its contributions to EAC from the previous €1.5 million to €3 million, starting with a contribution of €600,000 in 2009/2010, €1 million in 2010/2011 and a further installment of €1.4 million expected in the 2011/2012 fiscal year.

In the region, the ongoing campaign to lower cost of doing business in the region is set to release the creative energies of the private sector that has been hesitant to spread operations across national borders.

Nik Nesbitt, CEO of Kencall, Kenya-based outsourcing company said clearing the non tariff barriers give private firms the opportunity to spread their operations easily across the national borders, employing more citizens of the region.

“With lower transaction costs, only the sky can be the limit as companies begin to expand aggressively, hiring and increasing mobility of people and other factors of production,” Mr Nesbitt said.

EAC summit key driver of regional integration process

Battle for top EAC post sparks fears of cracks in bloc’s integration process

omondi@ke.nationmedia.com

UN /ONU :

USA :

U.S. Gasoline Rises to $3.13 a Gallon, Lundberg Says

By Paul Burkhardt and Barbara Powell – Feb 6, 2011

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-06/u-s-regular-gasoline-rises-1-49-cents-to-3-13-a-gallon-lundberg-says.html

The average price for regular gasoline at U.S. filling stations increased 1.49 cents to $3.13 a gallon, according to a survey.

The price covers the two-week period ended Feb. 4 and is derived from data provided by 2,500 filling stations nationwide to Trilby Lundberg, an independent gasoline analyst in Camarillo, California.

“It’s a small add-on to what’s been going on since September,” when prices started to rise, Lundberg said in a telephone interview. The gain in gasoline would’ve been higher, if not for the drop in crude oil, she said.

The front-month crude oil contract dropped 8 cents, or 0.1 percent, in the two weeks, settling at $89.03 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Futures are up 22 percent from a year ago. The current price of retail gasoline is about 46 cents above the price of $2.67 a year earlier.

Crude oil may decline this week as U.S. inventories increase and fuel consumption drops, a Bloomberg News survey showed.

Fourteen of 31 analysts, or 45 percent, forecast crude oil will drop through Feb. 11. Twelve respondents, or 39 percent, predicted prices will climb and five estimated little change. Last week, 46 percent said futures would decrease.

Oil Supplies

U.S. crude-oil supplies rose 2.59 million barrels to 343.2 million in the week ended Jan. 28, according to an Energy Department report on Feb. 2.

Crude inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for New York-traded West Texas Intermediate oil, climbed 667,000 barrels to 38.3 million, the highest level since the department started keeping records at the storage hub in 2004.

Gasoline for front-month delivery lost 1 percent to settle at $2.4353 a gallon in the two weeks ended Feb. 4.

The U.S. has an “oversupply of gasoline, weak gasoline demand growth, unemployment and the underuse of refining capacity,” Lundberg said. “In predicting gasoline price surges for spring and summer, we have to consider these factors.”

Gasoline Supplies

U.S. gasoline stockpiles rose 6.15 million barrels to 236.2 million barrels in the week ended Jan. 28, the largest total since March 1993, according to the department. Gasoline demand, measured by deliveries to wholesalers, fell 1 percent to 8.55 million barrels a day, the lowest level since Feb. 12, 2010.

On Long Island, regular gasoline averaged $3.38 a gallon, Lundberg said. Los Angeles-area retail stations averaged $3.36 a gallon.

The highest price in the continental U.S. was in San Francisco, at about $3.41 a gallon. The cheapest place to buy the fuel was Memphis, Tennessee, where a gallon averaged $2.90, Lundberg said.

Price forecasts of $3.50 and $4 a gallon are “unrealistic,” Lundberg said. “Gasoline will depend on crude oil more than anything” and June crude oil futures would only move the driving fuel about 16 cents higher than its current level, she said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Burkhardt in New York at pburkhardt@bloomberg.net; To contact the editor responsible for this story: Barbara J. Powell in Dallas at bpowell4@bloomberg.net

CANADA :

Special forces to help fight al-Qaeda in Africa

BY DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN FEBRUARY 4, 2011

Canadian special forces troops from Petawawa will be soon heading overseas to train soldiers from countries in North Africa who are fighting al-Qaeda insurgents.

The U.S.-led training exercise, dubbed Flintlock, will see troops from the Canadian Special Operations Regiment heading to Senegal.

Other countries besides the U.S. and Canada involved in the exercise include Spain, France, The Netherlands and Germany, as well as soldiers from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria and Senegal, according to a statement released Thursday by U.S. Africa Command.

This is the first time that Canada has participated in Flintlock, an annual special forces training exercise held in Africa. Governments in North Africa have been fighting a group that calls itself al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb or AQIM.

The organization traces its roots back to Islamist insurgents fighting the Algerian government.

But insurgents have since become associated with al-Qaeda and have branched out to conduct attacks in other countries in the region, as well as kidnapping westerners.

Canadian diplomats Robert Fowler and Louis Guay were held by AQIM after being kidnapped in December 2008. They were released 130 days later amid claims by government officials in Mali that four AQIM detainees were set free in return. The Canadian government has said it played no part in any such deal and did not pay any ransom for the release of the two diplomats.

On Wednesday, the Mauritanian army announced it had killed three AQIM insurgents who had planned to assassinate Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. In early January, AQIM was in the news after two Frenchmen were executed during an attempted rescue mission by troops from France and Niger. The two had been kidnapped by gunmen in Niamey, Niger.

The Flintlock exercise runs from Feb. 21 to March 11.

The contingent of Canadian trainers will number around 15. The African troops will be taught small-unit tactics.

In addition, the exercise will focus on improving the sharing of information and increasing co-ordination between the various countries.

Participants in Flintlock will also help the indigenous population by providing medical and veterinary programs. In total, around 800 military personnel will take part in the exercise, according to Africa Command.

The Canadian Special Operations Regiment, or CSOR, was created in 2006. Its soldiers have conducted operations in Afghanistan, but the details are secret.

In 2008, the Citizen reported that CSOR helped train the Jamaican counter-terrorism team that stormed a hijacked CanJet airliner in Montego Bay and captured a mentally troubled gunman without firing a shot. The hijacker had earlier allowed 159 Canadian passengers and two crew members to leave the chartered aircraft. CSOR members did not take part in the raid. In a previous interview with the Citizen, special forces commander Brig-Gen. Mike Day said CSOR will continue to send small training teams to Jamaica and that missions to additional countries could be organized.

Countries that could qualify for such training would be selected based on Canadian government policy needs and economic and various other ties between Canada and the nation in question, said Day, head of the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, also known as CANSOFCOM.

CANSOFCOM was created in 2006 to oversee Joint Task Force 2, the special forces and counter-terrorism unit based at Dwyer Hill, CSOR and the 427 Special Operations Aviation Squadron, both at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa and the Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit at CFB Trenton. The response unit deals with weapons of mass destruction.

CSOR has around 450 people. It is slowly growing with a goal of having 690 personnel in its ranks, but the military does not have a set timetable on when that number would be reached.

AUSTRALIA :

Australia and US sign secret satellite spy deal

Philip Dorling / February 7, 2011

AUSTRALIA and the United States have begun a partnership to share top-secret intelligence from spy satellites as Australia moves to acquire its own satellite to boost surveillance of Asia and the Pacific.

The secret agreement between Washington and Canberra provides for intensified co-operation and intelligence-sharing in the field of GEOINT – geospatial intelligence derived from imagery and other information obtained from surveillance satellites and reconnaissance aircraft.

The agreement, signed by the federal Labor government in February 2008, has been revealed in a secret US embassy cable obtained by WikiLeaks and provided exclusively to The Age.

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The cable reports that former defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates signed a “statement of principles on geospatial intelligence co-operation” at a “closed session” of the February 2008 Australia-United States Ministerial Meeting (AUSMIN) in Canberra.

The US record of the meeting says the agreement is designed “to take GEOINT co-operation to the same level that signals intelligence has reached between the two countries”.

The US and Australia have long worked closely under the framework of the United Kingdom-United States (UKUSA) Agreement that governs signals intelligence co-operation between the US, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

No reference was made to the new GEOINT agreement in either the 2008 AUSMIN communique or the media conference that followed. The reference to the agreement in the leaked cable from the US embassy in Canberra is specifically classified ”secret”.

The lead agencies involved in implementing the agreement are believed to be the Australian Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation at Russell Hill in Canberra and Bendigo in Victoria, and the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency with headquarters at Fort Belvoir in Virginia.

The agreement provides the context for the federal government’s little-noticed decision, mentioned in the May 2009 defence white paper, to acquire an Australian spy satellite as a “high priority”. Although the Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation already has access to satellite imagery provided by the US intelligence community and bought from commercial satellite imagery suppliers, Australia’s status as a satellite imagery consumer rather than producer has been a matter of concern for the Australian intelligence community.

The Defence Department has been considering acquiring an imaging satellite since at least the early 1990s.

”As a significant new measure, the government places a high priority on assured access to high-quality, space-based imagery to meet Defence’s needs for mapping, charting, navigation and targeting data,” the white paper said.

”It has decided to improve Australia’s intelligence collection capabilities by acquiring a satellite with a remote sensing capability, most likely to be based on high-resolution, cloud-penetrating, synthetic aperture radar.”

The federal government has released no further information, including the projected cost. US aerospace companies Boeing, Raytheon or Lockheed Martin are the most likely commercial partners in acquiring the satellite, which will be built and launched in the US. The operator of America’s spy satellites, the US National Reconnaissance Office, is believed to be closely involved with the Australian project, and the Australian surveillance satellite will probably form part of a constellation of similar satellites operated by the National Reconnaissance Office.

The National Reconnaissance Office in 2008 declassified the fact that it operates synthetic aperture radar satellites. Reportedly codenamed “Lacrosse” and “Onyx”, these systems can deliver high-resolution imagery, including through cloud, with a unit cost including launch estimated to be between $820 million and $1.65 billion.

The US will have access to imagery collected by the Australian-owned satellite under the terms of the February 2008 GEOINT agreement.

While Australia has specific intelligence priorities in relation to south-east Asia and Australia’s maritime approaches, including the early detection of illegal fishing and people-smuggling boats, an Australian surveillance satellite will also potentially acquire imagery of intelligence significance for the US and other US allies.

Depending on its orbital path, an Australian satellite could also contribute to strategic surveillance of countries including China, North Korea, Russia, India, Pakistan, Iran and other parts of the Middle East.

Unclassified studies indicate that a synthetic aperture radar satellite was identified by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation as a surveillance option for Australia as long ago as 1991. But at that time such a project was considered “beyond our resources and cannot be justified in the present strategic and economic circumstances” .

Another leaked US embassy cable shows that a congressman involved in oversight of the US intelligence community, Republican Ray LaHood, told then prime minister Kevin Rudd in January 2008 that “the US has no better friend on intelligence issues than Australia”.

EUROPE :

Europe’s growing interest in EAC to boost integration

By GEORGE OMONDI (email the author) / Monday, February 7 2011

The growing interest of European governments in the East African Community is set to unlock foreign funding and attract technical support to accelerate the remaining phases of integration.

European countries had previously expressed misgivings at the rapid pace of EAC’s integration but have now started establishing diplomatic ties with Arusha with Turkey, the Netherlands, and Denmark taking the lead.

The European Union has also appointed its head of delegation to Tanzania, Timothy Clarke, as its representative to EAC.

“These countries also share common trading interest and have shown strong political will to move the integration agenda forward,” Mr Pind said in Nairobi on Wednesday.

In only ten years after reviving its integration project, the EAC has managed to negotiate and launch both the custom union and common market protocols, setting stage for the rollout of the monetary union next year — region’s twelfth year of integration.

This has raised concerns that some of the stages were implemented without proper consultations, leading to the many non tariff barriers currently undermining intra regional trade, especially when viewed against the EU which took 42 years to become a monetary union.

Stephen O’Brien, UK’s Development minister, said regional integration in Africa will stir the international community’s interest to raise the level of funding that the continent needs to meet its millennium development goals. Donors fund 52 per cent of the EAC budget.

The World Bank estimates that Africa requires $93 billion each year out of which $18 billion should be channelled to the transport system to raise the region’s competitiveness internationally and accelerate employment through expanded opportunities.

“A functioning common market is of interest to foreign investors especially those from EU who are currently shying away from region’s cost of operation that is more than 70 per cent of what they pay to do business in EU,” said Mr O’Brien.

Cutting costs

On Wednesday, the Netherlands became the latest EU state to approve Sh1.1 billion (€10 million) in support of Trade Mark East Africa’s (TMEA) initiative which seeks to automate and increase capacity of the region’s ports and export corridors, cutting the cost of doing business in the region by 40 per cent.

Laeitia Van Den Assum, Netherlands ambassador to EAC said the country’s ambassadors to individual EAC countries will work closely with host countries in implementing EAC programmes.

Other European governments such as the United Kingdom, Denmark, Belgium and Sweden have already put their money in the TMEA project, joining Germany which is currently involved in the construction of EAC’s headquarters at a cost of €14 million.

Through its organisation GTZ Germany has also doubled its contributions to EAC from the previous €1.5 million to €3 million, starting with a contribution of €600,000 in 2009/2010, €1 million in 2010/2011 and a further installment of €1.4 million expected in the 2011/2012 fiscal year.

n the region, the ongoing campaign to lower cost of doing business in the region is set to release the creative energies of the private sector that has been hesitant to spread operations across national borders.

Nik Nesbitt, CEO of Kencall, Kenya-based outsourcing company said clearing the non tariff barriers give private firms the opportunity to spread their operations easily across the national borders, employing more citizens of the region.

“With lower transaction costs, only the sky can be the limit as companies begin to expand aggressively, hiring and increasing mobility of people and other factors of production,” Mr Nesbitt said.

CHINA :

China’s economic invasion of Africa

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/06/chinas-economic-invasion-of-africa

About a million Chinese, from engineers to chefs, have moved to work in Africa in the past decade. Xan Rice talks to some of them to find out why

Xan Rice / guardian.co.uk /Sunday 6 February 2011 / In December 1999, a 24-year-old Chinese man called Zhang Hao left behind the freezing winter of his native Shenyang province to fly to Uganda. Zhang was nervous. He spoke no English. The journey was not even his idea, but that of his father, who had worked in Uganda a few years before on a fishing project involving the Chinese government.

“If you want to start something – and be the boss – Africa is the place to do it,” Zhang’s father had told him when he asked for business advice.

Zhang had quit university to travel to east Africa, but he did not need a degree to spot easy money-making opportunities as soon as he set foot in Kampala: goods that were available cheaply in every city in China were either expensive here, or unavailable. He started by importing shoes. Then schoolbags. Then fishing nets, nails and bicycles.

“I imported everything. At that time they needed everything!” recalls Zhang, an affable man with rimless glasses.

His business grew quickly; he made money and local friends. But after a few years he grew weary of the long buying trips to China. So he and his wife bought a large plot of land in Kampala. On it they constructed a spectacular Chinese-Korean restaurant, with private dining areas, karaoke rooms and a giant 500-seat dining hall. To the side of the restaurant they built a bedroom, which became their home. The business prospered, and soon he started additional enterprises including a bakery, a firm selling flat-screen televisions and a security company.

“Chinese don’t think, they just try without studying the market too much. Otherwise, the chance is gone,” he says.

At the site of each new enterprise, Zhang built a room for his family – he had a son in 2007 – to sleep in. They literally live at work.

It has paid off. Zhang says he is now the biggest Chinese employer in the country, with 1,200 local staff. He has even been offered a Ugandan passport, but has refused, just as he has declined to take an English first name.

“I am Chinese, and we need to build a Chinese name here – to let people know that our country is not like before. We are richer, catching up the world.”

Few Ugandans need reminding of that. When Zhang arrived in 1999 there were only a few hundred Chinese in the country, including embassy staff. Today, the most conservative estimate is 7,000, from the petty traders who have taken over whole blocks of the central business district to the construction engineers changing Kampala’s skyline and the sharp-suited oil executives who frequent Zhang’s restaurant. It is a similar story across the continent. Figures are hard to come by, but a decade ago there were probably no more than 100,000 Chinese people working in Africa. Today, there are around a million.

The first Chinese reached Africa nearly 600 years ago during the Ming dynasty, when the armada of admiral Zheng He landed on the Kenyan coast. The next significant arrival was in the early 1900s, when 60,000 Chinese miners worked on the South African goldfields. Half a century on, Chairman Mao Zedong sent tens of thousands of agricultural and construction workers to Africa to enhance ties with countries emerging from colonialism.

But post-cold war migration concerns economics rather than politics. China-Africa trade grew from $6bn in 1999 to more than $90bn (£56bn) in 2009, roughly split equally between imports and exports: Africa’s natural resources – oil, iron, platinum, copper, and timber – flowing east to feed China’s factories, and finished goods, from flip-flops to trucks, travelling the other way. Last year, the trade is estimated to have topped $100bn. Chinese state involvement in the trade is crucial. Each year Beijing provides billions of pounds in grants and loans to African governments as a sweetener to secure raw material deals or to finance infrastructure projects that could benefit its companies.

That is what brought Liu Hui to Kenya. A slight, 41-year-old civil engineer, he was working for China Wuyi, a state-owned construction firm, in Fujian province in 2006 when he was called into his “leader’s” office, and told he was needed on a project to upgrade Nairobi’s main airport. Liu had never set foot outside China. He was reluctant to leave his wife and seven-year-old son. He knew as little about Kenya as Zheng He’s sailors. “My image was: very poor, dry and hot,” says Liu. “But if my company wanted to send me somewhere, what could I have done? You have to show your capacity for work.”

On arrival, Liu found that Nairobi was neither dry nor too hot. When the airport contract finished, he was assigned to oversee the construction of a highway between Nairobi and Thika, a pineapple-growing district to the north-east.

Liu lives at China Wuyi’s main site office, a four-storey building alongside the highway. Though the commute to work consists of a flight of stairs, the day is long – from 7.15am to 6pm. The pace of work is often frustrating, and can be complicated by language difficulties; Liu speaks in halting English, and knows a few phrases of Swahili. “Chinese work very hard, very quickly,” he says. “But here we are training local people to do the work, and if someone does not understand, he works slowly. You have to watch.”

Most evenings Liu and his Chinese colleagues – there are about 100 on the road project – watch DVDs on their laptops or chat to family and friends over the internet. But they do get out occasionally, for coffee or dinner in nearby malls. Liu says he intends to return to China for good – his bosses permitting – when the road project finishes, in order to spend more time with his family.

But for Wang Lina, seated in her shop in downtown Nairobi, a few miles away, family is the reason she is here. The child of “normal worker” parents, Wang grew up with few thoughts of leaving Benxi, an industrial town nearly 600 miles north-east of Beijing. But in 2003, when she was 21 and newly married, her husband’s uncle approached them with a proposition. A few years before he had travelled to Kenya to set up a home furnishings company. Now his business was expanding fast, and he was looking for family members to help run it. Wang and her husband agreed to join him.

But she missed her friends. In Kenya she could not find any clothes to fit her. She was too shy to talk to local people. So, after a year, she and her husband quit and returned to Benxi. But soon his uncle came calling again, begging them to give it another try.

This time Wang found herself appreciating the upside of living in Nairobi. In Benxi, she had lived in a flat, but was now sharing a large house and garden with two other couples from the extended family. Instead of simply being a cashier in the store, Wang moved into design and sales. She works hard, often seven days a week, but has also found time to enjoy some of east Africa’s best tourist attractions – a safari near Mount Kenya, a beach holiday in Zanzibar. She and her husband have saved enough to buy an apartment back home, which is the goal of many young Chinese who take jobs abroad, even though she has no intention of returning soon.

“My friends who now work in Beijing and Shanghai are so tired,” she says. “There’s no time to relax, it’s always faster, faster! Things are slower here, and I like that. No hurry in Africa, that’s what they say.”

China’s move into Africa has not all been driven from the east. Countries such as Uganda have actively courted Chinese companies, to good effect: in 2010 China replaced the UK as the biggest source of foreign direct investment. One of the largest firms to have set up in Uganda is ZTE, China’s second-biggest telecommunications equipment company. Zhu Zhenxing, 32, is its MD in Uganda. Growing up in Jiangsu, along China’s east coast, Zhu was certain about two things: he wanted to learn English, and wanted to be an international businessman. He was recruited by ZTE at a job fair, with the promise of a job abroad.

“I did not want to stay in my home area, or even in China,” he says, puffing on a Dunhill cigarette. “I wanted to experience things, to grow. The further away the better.”

So when he was asked to go to Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, Zhu did not hesitate. “Other people said: Africa is like this and like that. But I thought if other humans lived there, I could too.”

He learned a lot. The corruption dismayed him. But Zhu liked Nigerians’ optimism, “always talking and smiling, not worrying about tomorrow”. He was so desperate to prove himself that he nearly burned out. He developed vitiligo, a disorder that causes loss of pigmentation. His face turned white “like Michael Jackson” and he was forced to return to China to recover.

He returned to Africa via Vietnam. In Uganda, he has grown ZTE’s business exponentially – the company sold more than 500,000 handsets this year. Zhu looks the modern high-flyer – smart shoes, trousers with a Mont Blanc belt, a dress shirt and trendy black glasses. At weekends he plays golf with clients and Chinese embassy staff. But beyond that his lifestyle is far more modest than that of most expats. He and his staff all live in the same apartment block. A company vehicle takes them to and from work each day. His salary is good by Chinese standards but not comparable with those of his western competitors. Still, he has no complaints.

“We are still working towards being a world-class company,” he says. “Our core competency is our low costs, so we must keep expenses down.”

If there is one home comfort Chinese migrants in Africa can’t do without it is their food. Most companies, including ZTE, bring over their own chefs. Xu Jianwen, 34, is one of them. Raised and trained in Sanhe, in northern China, he was working in a restaurant in Beijing when he heard that the China Road and Bridge Corporation, a state-owned construction giant, was hiring cooks. When he was offered a job in Uganda, his wife, with whom he has a young daughter, protested vehemently. But he won her over when he told her the salary – two and half times what he was earning in China. “Salaries in China are not enough,” he says. “I had to come for the money.”

His first job was to cook for 20 Chinese workers in Soroti, a small town in eastern Uganda. He had two local assistants but, lacking English, no way to communicate with them. At least the cooking was uncomplicated. Only five vegetables were available locally – aubergine, cabbage, potatoes, green peppers and tomatoes. “And there was no spicy sauce,” he says. “I work every day, because people need to eat every day. I wake up at six in the morning and finish at seven. Every day is like that. I rest on Chinese public holidays.”

Currently based at head office in Kampala, Xu plans to spend another two or three years overseas, saving all the while for “housing, education and food” for his family. He won’t miss the mosquitoes, he says, but he will miss the people. “They are very nice. Friendly to Chinese.”

That is not always the case. In parts of southern Africa there has been strong resentment towards Chinese traders, many of whom arrive on tourist visas and stay on illegally. In Zambia, the Chinese managers of a coal mine recently shot two Zambian employees who were protesting over pay, causing anger across the country. And in Sudan and Ethiopia, rebel groups have killed Chinese workers because they view them as proxies of the local government.

In Kenya, home to up to 15,000 Chinese, the main problem for some of the early migrants was a mistrust of their goods. Xu Hui gave up an editing position at the state news agency Xinhua to start a toy-import business in the mid-90s. But when he moved into computers, people did not trust the quality. He resorted to showing potential clients the labels on the computers they already owned that said: “Made in China”.

Today Xu runs a successful business importing Great Wall-brand televisions and giant rolls of toilet paper that are repackaged locally. He regards Kenya as his home – he enjoys the “simple, healthy lifestyle”, playing badminton at a sports club every week – and only reluctantly sent his family back to China for educational reasons. But though the attitude to Xu’s products may have changed, he is aware that western attitudes to China’s push into Africa remain largely negative – something he struggles to understand.

“Western countries also buy oil, and have mines around the world. People don’t talk about ‘grabbing’, or ‘new colonialism’ there. So why is it different for Chinese? We are not sending our armies to places and saying: ‘Now sell us this!'” Xu says. “If you can’t compete with us, you find an excuse. It’s like two children fighting, and the losing one crying to his parent about funny tricks.”

In fact, there is competition now on lots of levels. Every month thousands of African merchants travel to cities such as Guangzhou and Yiwu to buy wholesale goods. And other Chinese firms, including state-owned companies, battle for local tenders.

This can be stressful for company managers. Just ask Dong Junxia, an earnest, smartly dressed woman. Since 2008 she has been in charge of the small Ugandan office of the China Railway Seventh Group Corporation, a subsidiary of CREC, one of the world’s largest construction companies. She worked on road-building projects in difficult environments in Tanzania and Liberia, with some success. But in Uganda her company had yet to win a large tender. Dong seemed ashamed, and insisted that her name and that of her company stay out of this story.

“I have progressed professionally [in Africa], but suffered loss in being away from my family. In western culture it’s different. Being with the family is the priority. Chinese sacrifice themselves for the family. It is hard to decide which is more important.”

But a week later she called to say that her name could be used. She sounded exuberant: her company has been awarded a large contract to build a road. “After two years of hard work! You must understand how good that feels.”

Western lawmakers push Gates on China’s minerals dominance

By John T. Bennett – 02/06/11

Lawmakers are questioning whether the Pentagon is taking seriously enough the national security risks that arise from being dependent on China for a crucial mineral supply.

In a Jan. 28 letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, three lawmakers from western states questioned why the Pentagon has yet to compile a comprehensive list of what rare earth minerals the country is most dependent on China for.

Alaskan Sens. Mark Begich (D) and Lisa Murkowski (R) and Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) charged that the Pentagon “has dismissed the severity of the situation to date,” which they call “a serious vulnerability to our national security.”

Alaska and Colorado are both important states for the mining industry.

China now controls nearly 100 percent of the world’s supply and production of rare earth minerals. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has said the United States imports nearly all of the rare earth minerals it needs.

The minerals are used to manufacture a list of parts that find their way into U.S. combat platforms like unmanned aircraft, radars, night-vision goggles, missiles, jet engine turbines and electronics systems. The rare earths family is composed of 15 lanthanoid elements, as well as scandium and yttrium.

Defense sources say a soon-to-be released Pentagon study will conclude Beijing’s monopoly will soon end. After months of study, the Defense Department study is expected to conclude that steps underway in the U.S. and Australia should be enough to eventually combat China’s current dominance, giving the Pentagon new suppliers and driving down market prices.

“I wouldn’t run out and buy a bunch of rare earths,” Pentagon industrial affairs chief Brett Lambert said late last year during a conference in New York. The U.S. may experience problems “in the near term,” he said, but over the long haul, “I think we’ll be fine.”

The lawmakers disagree with Lambert’s assessment, telling Gates that new sources of rare earths expected to come online in the next few years are “light rare earths.”

That could prove problematic because “some of the most critical materials are heavy rare earths,” states the letter. Citing a recent Energy Department critical materials plan, the lawmakers added: “Therefore, the new sources may not alleviate supply shortages faces by DoD.”

The trio urges Gates to “require contractors to provide a detailed accounting of the various rare earth containing components within their weapon systems,” to build a view of DoD’s “element-by-element” demand.

This kind of data package would allow the Pentagon to “identify critical vulnerabilities in our supply chain” and “establish policies to ensure the defense supply chain has access to those materials,” according to the letter.

While officials with the Energy and Defense departments have said there will be no need to build a U.S. rare earths stockpile, the lawmakers urge Gates to consider setting up a “limited stockpile or rare earth alloys that are in danger of supply interruption to ensure security of supply of both metals and magnets.”

DoD is months late with the report on its rare earths dependence

Philly museum makes replicas for China mummies

(AP) http://www.timesleader.com/news/ap?articleID=6479127

A Philadelphia museum barred from displaying mummies and other historic artifacts from China has come up with a solution to salvage a long-awaited exhibit _ just make some new mummies.

The replicas were whipped up by staff at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology after Chinese officials requested that 120 artifacts intended for use in the “Secrets of the Silk Road” exhibit not be removed from their crates.

“This is my Plan B,” Kate Quinn, director of exhibits, told The Philadelphia Inquirer. “We had to do something. We had so much invested in this.”

Quinn’s nine-member staff spent the last week blowing up catalog shots and computer images of pottery, masks, jewelry, coins, and the other antiquities, then printing and mounting them in the special display cases and spaces where the real antiquities would have been displayed.

To build the mummies, workers researched images from different vantage points, and a carpenter on staff was drafted to build replicas. For the female mummy called “Beauty of Xiaohe,” a body made of papier-mache was covered by a blanket made from fabric bought at a local store and boots made from deerskin. An infant mummy was also constructed and swaddled in a felt blanket.

“We wanted to represent all of the objects that we could in some way,” Quinn said. “It was a research journey.”

The display also features an extensive story line and visual presentations about the Silk Road, ancient trade routes covering 4,000 miles to connect China with the West.

Museum director Richard Hodges and curatorial consultant Victor Mair said negotiations were continuing for display of the real objects, which range in age from 700 to 3,800 years old.

The mummies are particularly fascinating because they have Caucasian features, proving that populations migrated eastward from Europe and brought their customs and skills with them. Other artifacts include clothing, fabrics, wooden and bone implements, and even preserved foods such as a wonton, spring roll and fried dough.

. Officials decided, however, not to charge a higher admission price and are offering free admission to all who pay the regular museum entry fee. The exhibit is scheduled to run through June 5.

About 570 people attended Saturday’s opening, which also featured music and several live camels. Many said they were disappointed not to see the original artifacts but were impressed by staff efforts to save the exhibit.

“I actually think they’ve done a wonderful job even though they don’t have the actual mummies,” said Robert Leavens of Medford. “My daughter’s afraid of mummies anyway.”

Sha’Quan Johnson, 14, who drove with teacher Carrie Lewis from Lynchburg, Va., to research her ninth-grade project on the Silk Road, said she wasn’t disappointed.

“If they hadn’t told me, I probably would have thought they were real,” she said.

China Tops World in Gold Output in 2010

2011-02-06 20:24:43 Xinhua / China, which became the world’s largest gold producer since in 2007, retained its position again in 2010 by mining 340.88 tonnes, up 8.57 percent year on year, the China Gold Association said Sunday.

China, which became the world’s largest gold producer since in 2007, retained its position again in 2010 by mining 340.88 tonnes, up 8.57 percent year on year, the China Gold Association said Sunday.

Increases in gold output will help China hedge against financial risks and inflation, as well as maintain economic security, the association said.

The number of domestic gold producers shrank to around 700 at the end of 2010, from 1,200 in 2002, through mergers and acquisitions. At present, China’s top ten producers account for 49.19 percent of the total gold output.

Production is concentrated in five provinces, including Shandong, Henan, Jiangxi, Yunnan, and Fujian, which account for 59.82 percent of total output.

Violent movements in asset prices caused by the financial crisis boosted Chinese investors’ demands for gold as a safe haven. The yearly average gold price jumped 25.6 percent from one year earlier to 1,224.53 U.S. dollars per ounce.

INDIA :

India: 28 Suspected Somali Pirates Captured

VOA News February 06, 2011

India’s military says it has captured 28 suspected Somali pirates on a ship in the Indian Ocean, after a brief clash.

A defense spokesman says navy and coast guard ships chased two small pirate boats to the main vessel, after the pirates tried to hijack a Greek-flagged merchant ship.

Captain M. Nambiar says the mothership, which was captured early Sunday, was a Thai fishing vessel that had been seized about six months ago.

Authorities say the pirates fired on the military ships, which returned fire. After a brief battle, officials say, the pirates hoisted a white flag and surrendered.

Military officials say they rescued 24 crew members who were still on board the seized Prantalay 11.

The suspects have been taken to Mumbai for questioning.

Earlier this month, India charged 15 Africans with attempted murder and other crimes for allegedly trying to hijack another Thai fishing boat near the Lakshadweep Islands.

BRASIL:

EN BREF, CE 6 février 2011… AGNEWS /DAM, NY,06/02/2011