{jcomments on}OMAR, AGNEWS, BXL, le 07 mai 2010 – www.ngrguardiannews.com- May 07, 2010–WORLD leaders, eminent Nigerians and groups yesterday commiserated with the Federal Government over the demise of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
RWANDA
UGANDA
At UN, Uganda Ambassador Tells Colleagues Wives of Iran, Nuclear Monsters
www.innercitypress.com/By Matthew Russell Lee /May 7
UNITED NATIONS, May 6 — Answering a question about Iran on Thursday the UN Ambassador of Uganda, a member of the Security Council, said “we should not let the development of science makes nuclear weapons move faster than us, who are trying to stop these monsters of mass destruction.”
Ambassador Ruhakana Rugunda, who invited Inner City Press to his session with Women’s International Forum, fielded questions from the wives of Ambassadors to the UN from, for example, Bosnia and Mali. The latter, Mrs. Amalle Baba Lamine Keita Daou, asked “what about Iran?” (Click here for Inner City Press’ question and answer with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.)
Ahmadinejad recently traveled to Uganda, in what was reported as a trip to lobby for Uganda to vote against nuclear sanctions on Iran. Afterwards, Uganda’s position was that it would confer with other African nations, which it represents on the Security Council, and would seek “clarification” from the Obama Administration in the US.
Some read this as putting Uganda in the camp of Brazil and Turkey, for example, said to be skeptical of sanctions on Iran. But Uganda’s Ambassador Rugunda on Thursday thundered against even non-weapon nuclear developments unless they could be closely monitored. He is a medical doctor, graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, and a member of a group against nuclear weapons.
Rugunda was also his government’s representative at the talks in Juba, South Sudan with the Lord’s Resistance Army. He was asked about this, and characterized the LRA as reduced to groups of four or five “causing trouble.” There are, however, reports from the Congo of massacres of 100 and even 300 civilians at a time by the LRA.
In the WIF audience on Thursday was Madam Yoo (Ban) Soon-taek, the wife of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Rugunda was introduced, quite formally and informatively, by his wife Jocelyn. While Thursday’s session was productive, some thought the grouping a bit anachronistic, asking, are their any male spouses of Permanent Representatives, for example those of Brazil, Luxembourg, the U.S. and one other Permanent Five Security Council member? The group will hear next month from New Yorker author Adam Gopnik. The group’s webmaster is leaving. So… watch this site.
Footnote: the Security Council members are set to dine Thursday evening with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mottaki at the Iranian resident on Fifth Avenue and 84th Street. France will be represented by its “Charge d’Affaires.” It is not clear who will be representing the United States. We’ll see.
Update of 5:44 p.m. — word on the street (84th Street, that is) is that since Susan Rice of the US is not going, the UK’s Mark Lyall Grant is not, either, nor is his deputy Philip Parham. Apparently it is too late to talk…
Or, the UK PR and DPR will be drinking away their sorrows at Labour’s loss, or celebrating the Conservatives’ failure to gain a majority. One wondered if the Germans — the one in the P5 Plus One — are invited, at least for dessert.
* * *
At UN, Ahmadinejad Defends Iran’s Treatment of Women, Mocks Obama & Ban Ki-moon
By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, May 4 — When Iran dropped its candidacy for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council last month, some described it as restoring at least some credibility to the UN, as when Bosnia stepped in and beat out Belarus for a seat two years ago.
But when Inner City Press asked President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about Iran’s successful replacement candidacy, for a seat on the UN Commission on the Status of Women, despite gender discrimination and repression, Ahmadinejad had a different and lengthy answer.
He said the switch was procedural, that Iran had always wanted the CSW seat more than the Human Rights Council, which within the Asia Group Pakistan was supposed to run for. Due to a misunderstanding, Ahmadinejad said, Iran temporarily made a grab for the HRC, before returning to the seat promised to it, on the Commission on the Status of Women.
But how does Iran intend to use the seat, Inner City Press asked, since it has refused to sign the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women? We will never sign that, Ahmadinejad vowed. He went to on paint of picture of “love and complementariness” in Iran.
Women won’t do menial jobs in Iran, he said, nothing “like you and me, cleaning the street or driving a truck.” He said he had read that 70% of married women in Europe suffer physical abuse, but refuse to complain for fear of losing their families. Women are better off, he concluded, in Iran than in Europe.
Ahmadinejad’s answers came during a more than one hour long press conference held Tuesday across the street from the UN. The room in the Millennium Hotel was full, with journalists from the Daily News, Washington Post and wires, and even Christiane Amanpour (who was not called on).
The moderator had taken a list of reporters who wanted to ask question, which Inner City Press arrive too late to sign. But having covered Iran’s Nowruz receptions — “be more positive next time,” the Iranian mission admonished, leading Inner City Press to ask “or what?” — the moderator nodded and allowed the question.
In fact, many journalists remarked that Ahmadinejad’s press conference was more open and democratic than those of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, or the pre-screened stakeout by Hillary Clinton the previous day. There, the US State Department decided in advance which questions to take. At Iran’s event, alongside some very pro Tehran question, questions were taken about for example the reports of North Korean weapons intercepted on their way to Iran.
We don’t need weapons from them, Ahmadinejad answered. If America finds and seizes such weapons they can keep them. Regarding Ban Ki-moon, Ahmadinejad said that if the UN were in Tehran and Iran had a Security Council veto, Ban would never have spoken as he did on Monday. Asked repeatedly about sanctions, he said that if they go through, it will mean that US President Obama has “submitted” and been taken control of by a gang. This order, he said, will soon collapse.
But what of those arrested and disappeared after the contested elections? Ahmadinejad did not answer that question, fastening instead on the women’s rights part of the question. Whether the Iranian mission will in the future allow such questions to be asked, and even answered, remains to be seen.
Uganda’s New National Development Plan not so new
By Allyn Gaestel/ [MediaGlobal]/7 May 2010
6 May 2010 [MediaGlobal]: Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni launched a New Development Plan in Kampala last week. The plan specifies five-year incremental actions to achieve the 30-year National Vision Framework and develop Uganda from a least-developed to a middle-income country.
Key tenets of the plan include development of infrastructure, particularly roads, railways, energy, air and water transport, and human capacity building. The plan emphasizes public-private partnerships and a continuation of export and market-driven development.
Successive national governments since independence in 1961 have struggled to develop the country, oscillating between wanting to nationalize the economy and relying on conditional foreign aid. In 1986, after having attempted to nationalize the economy, Museveni needed foreign assistance. Ever since, Museveni has worked under structural adjustment programs with the IMF and the World Bank. Structural adjustment demands liberalization of the economy, opening the country to exportation and tariff free imports, and balancing the budget, which has led to decreases in state spending on social services.
Critics claim that these policies do not benefit the majority of Ugandans and maintains a colonial model of exporting raw materials and importing expensive goods. Eric Kashambuzi, a Ugandan activist and scholar and current senior policy advisor on the United Nations Millennium Promise Project, told MediaGlobal “The colonial policy of producing what we don’t consume, and consuming what we don’t produce in terms of manufactured goods has remained in place.”
Recent years have seen growth in Uganda fluctuating around 6 to 7 percent of GDP. The government, the World Bank, and the IMF have hailed this growth as evidence of success of the structural adjustment program. Kashambuzi, however links this growth to an unsustainable reinvigoration of the industrial sector, which had been underutilized during years of instability in the 1980s, and also to the presence of UN peacekeepers consuming in the country and thus feeding into the economy.
The plan presents itself as a new strategy. At first glance the written document appears to distance itself from earlier strategies of deregulation of the economy: “Considering the magnitude of the transformation gap facing Uganda and the infancy stage of our private sector, it is inevitable for the government to play a more proactive role in context of a quasi-market economy if the country is to achieve its vision.” But the document continues: “The development strategies for the medium term will encourage growth in export-oriented industries.” The emphasis on exports is a direct continuation of the earlier policies.
Professor Morris Ogenga-Latigo, leader of the opposition in Parliament told MediaGlobal by e-mail: “My immediate reaction is that this is the previous Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) repackaged. It is not a specific action plan based on current realities, plausible progression targets, specific, tangible outputs; rather it is the old development framework from which concrete action plans ought to be derived to constitute the development plan/agenda.” Kashambuzi added that the plan does not present policy innovations, but instead aims to increase Museveni’s public image ahead of elections next year. “This is just designed for election purposes,” he said.
International institutions have sought to minimize their visibility in directing Uganda’s economy, with help from President Museveni. However, Museveni asserted his sovereignty and autonomy in the creation of the plan. Speaking at the launch of the plan on 18 April he said, “We invited development partners to feed into the plan so that they don’t (direct). There’s a plan here.”
Kathryn Funk, World Bank program coordinator for Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi reiterated the emphasis on Uganda’s ownership of the plan. She told MediaGlobal via email: “The NDP is a fully country-owned and –led plan. The Bank provided advice and support whenever it was called upon to do so.” But Thomas Richardson, senior resident representative of the IMF in Uganda asserted more directly that the IMF’s role in developing the economic aspects of the plan: “In line with our mandate, the IMF was involved in advising on the macroeconomic framework underlying the NDP.”
The question of international involvement in the creation and implementation of the NDP is relevant in the context of criticism about the effectiveness of World Bank and IMF policies have had on the well-being of ordinary Ugandans. Exportation of agriculture, timber, and fish have depleted natural resources and deprived Ugandans of the resources they need to support their own livelihoods.
Uganda mainly exports coffee, tea, tobacco, and cotton, none of which can double as food. Kashambuzi noted the growing income inequality during the years of structural adjustment and increases in the manifestations of poverty, including mounting rates of maternal mortality, malnutrition, and outbreaks of disease. Seventy percent of GDP is centered in the capital, Kampala, and surrounding areas, while 90 percent of the population lives in rural areas.
Structural adjustment was based on the assumption that economic growth will translate into poverty reduction. Yet the continuing daily struggle many Ugandans face questions the validity of this claim. By maintaining old policies while presenting them as a new plan, Ugandans may be forced to wait longer still for holistic and broad ranging development.
TANZANIA:
CONGO RDC :
KENYA :
Kenyans Await ICC Chief Prosecutor’s Arrival
Peter Clottey /www1.voanews.com/07 May 2010
Kenya’s local media reports that the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo, is scheduled to arrive in the country this weekend to spearhead investigations into the 2007 post-election violence.
Douglas Mutua, a journalist with the Nations Media group said Kenyans have been demanding justice since the end of the electoral violence that led to the loss of lives and properties.
“Moreno-Ocampo will be coming to Kenya on Saturday this week to see victims of the post-election violence and even people who think they are among the suspects,” he said.
The chief prosecutor is scheduled to officially launch an inquiry into Kenya’s post-election violence that led to the deaths of at least 1133 and displaced over 600,000 people.
The chief prosecutor has reportedly expressed the wish to have suspects of the post-election violence arrested next year ahead of their trial scheduled for 2012.
Mutua said Kenyans are eagerly awaiting the chief prosecutor’s arrival.
“Generally, Kenyans are seeing a situation whereby they would be getting justice. Justice will be done because they already know that Moreno-Ocampo earlier announced that he had 20 suspects that he will be investigating. So, they are seeing a situation whereby the ICC has taken up this case seriously, and they are bound to benefit,” Mutua said.
Kenya’s government has so far agreed to cooperate with the ICC’s chief prosecutor investigations into the electoral violence.
But, Mutua said government officials seem reluctant to comment on Moreno-Ocampo’s arrival.
“The leadership is kind of scared because they are not discussing the issue in public. You know the main culprits here would be politicians and I believe that most of them fear a bit to talk so boldly about the statement Moreno-Ocampo is making because they may be suspects. No one has ruled out that the president and the prime minister will be suspects because whatever happened in this country in that period was because of the two,” Mutua said.
ANGOLA :
Oil containment structure moves into position
By Steven Mufson/Washington Post Staff Writer /Friday, May 7, 2010
HOUSTON — BP lowered a 100-ton steel box the size of a small townhouse into the Gulf of Mexico Thursday night in a perilous and technically challenging effort to capture most of the oil leaking from a damaged well 5,000 feet below the surface.
The box, tethered by cables to a crane on a barge, was expected to be lowered to the sea floor over more than four hours, a process that would not conclude until Friday morning.
If successful, by Sunday, the structure will contain 85 percent of the oil and gas from a leak in a ruptured pipe known as the riser, funneling it to the surface, where the gas will be burned and the oil will be transferred to barges or tankers. If the box fails, and other efforts also fail, oil could continue to gush into the gulf for more than two months, experts said.
At BP’s U.S. headquarters here, hundreds of technical experts from major oil companies and universities were working in the company’s third-floor crisis center, calculating forces and factors that might affect the operation.
“We’ve brought in the brightest minds and we are working around the clock to do this,” said Bob Fryer, chief executive of BP Angola who returned to help with the crisis that began with an explosion April 20 on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.
Half a dozen experts experienced with remote-operated vehicles watched a wall of video images from the sea floor as one remotely operated submersible used metal fingers to grab hold of and move a yellow transponder that was to help guide the giant box, or dome, to the proper part of the sea floor.
The silent drama played out underwater while a noisier drama played out on land. The Interior Department postponed plans for drilling or seismic testing off Virginia’s coast. After visiting BP’s office here, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the department would grant no new permits until at least May 28, when an investigation of the gulf accident is expected to be complete.
“I want to make sure that every question that needs to be asked is asked and answered,” Salazar said.
He said that Shell Oil’s plans to drill off the coast of Alaska would fall under the freeze.
Salazar also said that “no significant violations were found” during recent emergency inspections of other offshore drilling rigs by the department’s Minerals Management Service.
Meanwhile, Gulf Coast states took precautions as pinkish rivulets of oil began to encroach on their shores. Louisiana’s Department of Wildlife and Fisheries closed shrimp harvesting areas west of the mouth of the Mississippi River.
Rodney Mallett, a spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, said emulsified oil has reached the state’s Chandeleur Islands. “The oil is surrounding the Chandeleur Islands now,” he said, adding that it has washed ashore in some places.
How much worse the shorelines get depends on whether BP can stop the leak or funnel the oil into barges and tankers at the surface.
The number of remotely controlled vehicles near the well accident site is up to 10, and four were in the water early Thursday as spill response teams got the dome into position above. Using an open phone line, the experts talked to people on barges controlling the undersea vehicles with joysticks.
The view of the sea floor was limited. “It’s like looking at a fish tank through the eye of a needle,” said Eric Munstereifel, a BP employee who has been working with remotely operated underwater vehicles for 20 years.
Nonetheless, the vehicles’ cameras will tell BP whether the structure is in the right place.
While waiting for the dome, the vehicles have continued to work on the blowout preventer, the failsafe mechanism that failed. On Wednesday, contractors working for BP removed the “brain” portion of the device to see if they could repair and reinstall it. The company might also connect the 2-inch-wide hydraulic hoses on the side of the blowout preventer to new controls.
Although the Obama administration urged BP to get help from the Defense Department, a BP official here said that the Defense Department rarely works below 2,000 feet.
But thousands of individuals have called BP to offer ideas. One man faxed a photo of blue items in a wheelbarrow. A woman wanted to send hair to help absorb oil near shore. A retired engineer asked how to make sure his letter would reach BP chief executive Tony Hayward.
One person from NASA, who was working with former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, showed up to pitch an idea for clamping the leaking pipe. He met with BP technical experts.
The installation of the structure faces several challenges. The sea floor is muddy, not sandy. To prevent the structure from sinking under its own weight into the mud, BP contractors have outfitted it with flaps, which are similar to horizontal shutters that distribute the weight over a greater area.
Tadeusz W. Patzek, a University of Texas professor involved in the effort, said BP also needs to worry about the stability of the structure given the tremendous force of the leak.
Finally, BP said it is worried that the natural gas mixed in with the oil will expand dramatically as it travels up a new pipeline toward the surface and that it could form something resembling an ice block, obstructing the pipeline. Pressure at the sea floor is about 2,300 pounds per square inch, compared with 14.7 pounds at the surface.
To counteract the gas expansion problem, the company might attempt to inject methanol into the well; it could act in a way similar to antifreeze in cars. The company might also pump warm seawater into the lower parts of the pipe. The temperature at the sea floor is only about 39 degrees, Fryer said.
These are some of the issues being examined by hundreds of people in rooms equipped with long tables and laptops. Among those on hand were engineers from Chevron and Adam “Ted” Bourgoyne, a longtime professor of petroleum engineering at Louisiana State University.
“That’s the guy who taught me drilling,” said Fryer, the London-based BP executive in charge of offshore exploration and production activities in Angola.
SOUTH AFRICA:
Overturned bus kills dozens in South Africa
2010-05-07/english.ntdtv.com
It’s a scene of utter carnage. Dozens of body bags lie by the road as emergency workers try to examine what went wrong.
A single-decker bus was travelling to Cape Town along the N1 Highway when the driver reportedly lost control and the vehicle overturned. 24 South Africans were killed. Many of them small children.
The stretch of road is often referred to as the “road of death” due to the high number of fatalities.
Lennit Max of the Western Cape Town Province insists that the government considers road safety a priority.
[Lennit Max, Provincial Minister for Community Safety, Western Cape Province]:
“We and the Western Cape, the Western Cape government, is very serious in road safety. We do everything possible in our power to ensure that vehicles are roadworthy and that road users comply with the roads rules, rules of the road.”
At a nearby hospital, doctors treat the injured. One man who survived the accident says the bus was traveling at high speed when the driver lost control.
[Unidentified survivor]:
“There was a truck in front of us, our driver tried to overtake the truck at high speed. But unfortunately he lost control and the bus overturned.”
South Africa, which will host the 2010 Soccer World Cup in June, has spent billions of rands to upgrade roads and improve road safety.
AFRICA / AU :
AngloGold, Gold Fields, IFA, Sappi: South Africa Equity Preview
May 7, 2010/Bloomberg
May 7 (Bloomberg) — The following is a list of companies whose shares may have unusual price changes in South Africa. Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names and prices are from the last close.
South Africa’s FTSE/JSE Africa All Share Index fell for a fifth day, sliding 103.85, or 0.4 percent, to 27,512.83.
AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (ANG SJ): Africa’s largest gold producer releases first-quarter earnings and holds its annual general meeting. AngloGold fell 1.50 rand, or 0.5 percent, to 311.50 rand.
Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI SJ): Africa’s second-largest gold producer reports third-quarter earnings. Gold Fields rose 1 rand, or 1 percent, to 100 rand.
IFA Hotels & Resorts Ltd. (IFH SJ): The gaming, entertainment and leisure operator has started additional talks over one of its investments. IFA was unchanged at 92 cents.
Sappi Ltd. (SAP SJ): The world’s largest producer of glossy magazine paper reports second-quarter earnings. Sappi fell 90 cents, or 2.9 percent, to 29.83 rand.
Simmer & Jack Mines Ltd. (SIM SJ): All shafts at Simmer’s Buffelsfontein mine in South Africa have been suspended by the Department of Mineral Resources after a fall of ground killed three workers. Simmer rose 5 cents, or 4.1 percent, to 1.28 rand.
–Editor: Ana Monteiro.
Detainee: I’ll skip trial if strip searches go on
By LARRY NEUMEISTER (AP) /070510
NEW YORK — A former Guantanamo Bay detainee described by U.S. authorities as a bomb-making former aide to Osama bin Laden told a judge Thursday that he will waive his right to attend his September trial on terrorism charges if strip search procedures are not relaxed.
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, charged in the August 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, told U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan of his plans to boycott his trial during a hearing in Manhattan. He is the first Guantanamo detainee to be prosecuted in civilian courts.
The judge has yet to rule on a defense request that he force the Bureau of Prisons to alter its strip search policy because the searches trigger scary memories for Ghailani of his treatment during interrogations at a secret CIA-run camp abroad after his July 2004 arrest.
If the judge lets the strip searches proceed as they occur now, “I would not want to come here,” Ghailani said. “I want to waive my right.”
Strip searches have long been a contentious issue for inmates, who say it is humiliating and an invasion of privacy. Authorities say privacy concerns are trumped by security issues, particularly the worry that inmates could hide a weapon in a body cavity.
Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, a co-defendant of Ghailani and a former top aide to bin Laden, in late 2000 stabbed a prison guard in the eye with a plastic comb ground into the shape of a dagger, permanently disabling him. Salim, serving a 32-year prison sentence in the attack, had hid the weapon in his cell.
Ghailani, sitting at the defense table in his blue prison uniform, on Thursday answered a series of questions from the judge that were meant to determine whether he was competent to waive his right to attend his trial.
Ghailani was brought to court against his wishes so Kaplan could tell him that his defense against terrorism charges might be harmed if he does not attend his trial. He said he understands that.
The judge said that if Ghailani skips his trial, he still will be required to attend at least once and might be brought to court other days if the judge chooses to verify for himself that Ghailani still declines to participate.
Anna Nicole Sideris, a paralegal for the defense, testified at the hearing that Ghailani has repeatedly told her that he wants to be at his court hearings and trial, but not if he must submit to strip searches requiring him to squat and expose his private areas.
“He just wants peace, even if it means spending the rest of his life in jail. He doesn’t want to go through this,” she said. “He’s terrified of going through it.”
She said the strip searches were “something that makes him extremely upset and it’s traumatizing.”
Ghailani, smiling slightly at times, appeared calm in court throughout the proceeding, which lasted more than an hour.
The judge said he will rule on the request after hearing testimony later this month from psychologist Katherine A. Porterfield. Defense lawyers say Porterfield concluded Ghailani suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. She could not attend Thursday’s hearing because she was at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for another proceeding.
“Nudity serves as a profound ‘trigger’ for Mr. Ghailani, thrusting him into vivid memories of the interrogation process he endured, as well as a real fear that further maltreatment will occur in the present setting,” she wrote in a defense submission.
Ghailani, accused of being a bomb maker, document forger and aide to Osama bin Laden, was brought to New York last spring to await trial in connection with al-Qaida bombings that killed 224 people — including 12 Americans — at the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.
Ghailani, who has pleaded not guilty, has denied knowing that the TNT and oxygen tanks he delivered would be used to make a bomb. He also has denied buying a vehicle used in one of the attacks, saying he could not drive.
A defense lawyer has said Ghailani was subjected after his arrest to enhanced interrogation for 14 hours over five days.
Before scaling back its enhanced interrogation program, the CIA used 10 harsh methods, including waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning.
UN /ONU :
International Briefs: Acting leader sworn in as president of Nigeria
May. 07, 2010/www.star-telegram.com
Acting leader becomes president
NIGERIA — Oil-rich Nigeria’s acting leader Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in Thursday as president of Africa’s most populous nation, as officials buried the flag-draped corpse of his predecessor. The power shift to Jonathan peacefully ended a profound leadership crisis triggered last November when elected President Umaru Yar’Adua, who died Wednesday at the age of 58, left the country for medical treatment without transferring authority to his deputy.
— The Associated Press
Europe wants U.S. nukes removed
UNITED NATIONS — Germany and other West European nations at the U.N. nonproliferation conference are calling for elimination of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons in Europe — “leftovers from the Cold War” — as a way to advance global arms control. Belgian disarmament official Werner Bauwens, speaking Thursday, the fourth day of the monthlong conference, urged the U.S. and Russia to launch negotiations “as soon as possible” to reduce their shorter-range nuclear weapons. The United States still has an estimated 200 nuclear bombs at six NATO bases — in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Turkey.
— The Associated Press
USA :
How much does Washington care about African democracy?
The U.S. government’s rhetoric on atrocities in Africa doesn’t match its long record of supporting authoritarian regimes.
Kevin Funk and Steven Fake /www.latimes.com/May 7, 2010
After five days of voting, the withdrawal of virtually all of the opposition presidential candidates and countless accusations of ballot tampering, voter intimidation and worse, Sudan’s flawed elections drew to an unceremonial conclusion last month, while doing little to advance democracy in Africa. Indicted war criminal Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir has maintained his grip on the presidency with 68% of the national vote, and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement will do the same in the south after obtaining 93% of votes in that region.
For their part, despite pro forma criticisms of electoral irregularities, outside powers appear largely content to play along. In his April 28 Times Op-Ed article, former President Jimmy Carter hailed Sudan’s election as, despite flaws, an important step to peace for the country. Glib comments such as U.S. special envoy Scott Gration’s eyebrow-raising assertion that Sudan’s elections would be “as free and fair as possible” raise an important and oft-obscured question: What is Washington actually looking to accomplish in Africa’s largest nation?
Tellingly, relations between the U.S. and Sudan have typically been less bitter than frequently reported. Even as the Darfur conflict peaked, Washington was actively collaborating with Sudanese officials and groups directly implicated in the violence and developed a close intelligence-sharing relationship with Sudan’s notorious security agency. Then-Sudanese intelligence chief Salah Abdallah Gosh — against whom the U.N. recommended instituting sanctions — was flown to Washington for meetings with U.S. government officials on a CIA jet in 2005.
However, since Khartoum’s defiant tendencies and China’s well-cemented position in Sudan’s booming oil industry make a full Washington-Khartoum rapprochement unlikely, the U.S. has turned to cultivating its budding alliance with oil-rich and increasingly oppressive south Sudan, expected to be an independent nation after a 2011 referendum on its status.
And while the dust settles on postelection Sudan, several regional U.S. allies are gearing up for their own supposed exercises in democracy.
On Sudan’s eastern border, U.S. stalwart Ethiopia has been preparing for late May elections by “waging a coordinated and sustained attack on political opponents, journalists and rights activists,” in the unminced words of Human Rights Watch (HRW).
As documented, the ruling party has been using its “near-total control” of the state apparatus to “systematically punish … opposition supporters” and “severely restrict the activities of civil society and the media.”
As HRW comments with some understatement, “Ethiopia is heavily dependent on foreign assistance, which accounts for approximately one-third of all government expenditures.” However, “The country’s principal foreign donors — the World Bank, United States, United Kingdom and European Union — have been very timid in their criticisms of Ethiopia’s deteriorating human rights situation.”
One could also mention Ethiopia’s past service to the U.S. in invading Somalia to decimate a nascent, relatively functional government in 2006 as part of the ever-invoked “war on terror,” thus ensuring the latter country’s continued descent into chaos.
Elsewhere, in central Africa, the U.S.-allied government of Paul Kagame in Rwanda is gearing up for its own elections by “doing everything it can to silence independent voices,” according to HRW.
“We’ve seen a real crackdown on critics,” according to Georgette Gagnon, HRW’s Africa director, including “increasing threats, attacks and harassment” against opposition parties. Tellingly, the Economist noted that while Kagame “vigorously pursues his admirers in Western democracies, he allows less political space and press freedom at home than Robert Mugabe does in Zimbabwe.”
That Kagame also won his second term in office in 2003 with a highly suspicious 95.1% of the vote, and has continued a long-standing Rwandan policy of ravaging the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo, speaks volumes about Washington’s commitment to human rights and democracy.
Finally, in Egypt, Sudan’s neighbor to the north and the recipient of more U.S. aid than any country in the world except Israel, president-for-life Hosni Mubarak’s nearly 30-year-reign continues unabated. Notably, the announcement by the prominent dissident Mohamed ElBaradei that he would be willing to contest Mubarak in 2011 in the normally rubber-stamp elections has elicited few smiles in Washington.
Barack Obama is one in a long of line U.S. presidents who have proclaimed their dedication to freedom for the world’s people. Yet a simple review of the facts makes it apparent that Sudanese President Bashir’s open disdain for democracy in the region is amply matched by Washington’s.
Kevin Funk and Steven Fake are the authors of “The Scramble for Africa: Darfur – Intervention and the USA” (Black Rose Books, 2008). They maintain a Website with their commentary at scrambleforafrica.org.
Group Backs Ritual ‘Nick’ as Female Circumcision Option
By PAM BELLUCK/www.nytimes.com/Published: May 7, 2010
In a controversial change to a longstanding policy concerning the practice of female circumcision in some African and Asian cultures, the American Academy of Pediatrics is suggesting that American doctors be given permission to perform a ceremonial pinprick or “nick” on girls from these cultures if it would keep their families from sending them overseas for the full circumcision.
The academy’s committee on bioethics, in a policy statement last week, said some pediatricians had suggested that current federal law, which “makes criminal any nonmedical procedure performed on the genitals” of a girl in the United States, has had the unintended consequence of driving some families to take their daughters to other countries to undergo mutilation.
“It might be more effective if federal and state laws enabled pediatricians to reach out to families by offering a ritual nick as a possible compromise to avoid greater harm,” the group said.
But some opponents of female genital mutilation, or F.G.M., denounced the statement.
“I am sure the academy had only good intentions, but what their recommendation has done is only create confusion about whether F.G.M. is acceptable in any form, and it is the wrong step forward on how best to protect young women and girls,” said Representative Joseph Crowley, Democrat of New York, who recently introduced a bill to toughen federal law by making it a crime to take a girl overseas to be circumcised. “F.G.M. serves no medical purpose, and it is rightfully banned in the U.S.”
Georganne Chapin, executive director of an advocacy group called Intact America, said she was “astonished that a group of intelligent people did not see the utter slippery slope that we put physicians on” with the new policy statement. “How much blood will parents be satisfied with?”
She added: “There are countries in the world that allow wife beating, slavery and child abuse, but we don’t allow people to practice those customs in this country. We don’t let people have slavery a little bit because they’re going to do it anyway, or beat their wives a little bit because they’re going to do it anyway.”
A member of the academy’s bioethics committee, Dr. Lainie Friedman Ross, associate director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago, said the panel’s intent was to issue a “statement on safety in a culturally sensitive context.”
Dr. Friedman Ross said that the committee members “oppose all types of female genital cutting that impose risks or physical or psychological harm,” and consider the ritual nick “a last resort,” but that the nick is “supposed to be as benign as getting a girl’s ears pierced. It’s taking a pin and creating a drop of blood.”
She said the panel had heard anecdotes from worried doctors.
“If we just told parents, ‘No, this is wrong,’ our concern is they may take their daughters back to their home countries, where the procedure may be more extensive cutting and may even be done without anesthesia, with unsterilized knives or even glass,” she said. “A just-say-no policy may end up alienating these families, who are going to then find an alternative that will do more harm than good.”
Currently, more than 130 million women and girls worldwide have undergone female genital cutting, according to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. It is mostly performed on girls younger than 15 in countries including Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia. Consequences can include severe complications with pregnancy, childbirth and sexual dysfunction.
The academy’s statement acknowledged that opponents of the procedure, “including women from African countries, strongly oppose any compromise that would legitimize even the most minimal procedure.”
Dr. Friedman Ross said, “If you medicalize it and say it’s permissible, is there a possibility that some people will misunderstand it and go beyond a nick? Yes.”
But she said the risk that people denied the ceremonial procedure, usually on the clitoris, would opt for the more harmful one was much more dangerous.
And the statement said that, “in some countries where FGC is common, some progress toward eradication or amelioration has been made by substituting ritual ‘nicks’ for more severe forms.”
CANADA :
AUSTRALIA :
AngloGold Says Australia Tax ‘Potentially Damages Industry’
By Ron Derby/Bloomberg/May 7
May 7 (Bloomberg) — AnglogGold Ashanti Ltd., Africa’s biggest gold producer, said Australia’s proposed 40 percent mining tax is “potentially” damaging to that nation’s gold industry.
The proposal presents an opportunity for South Africa, Chief Executive Officer Mark Cutifani said in an interview today from Johannesburg, adding that he thinks “Australia’s sovereign risk is higher than South Africa’s.”
Coal of Africa expects no impact from Australia Super Profit Tax
www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/Friday, May 07, 2010
Coal of Africa (AIM/ASX/JSE: CZA), the coal development and mining company operating in South Africa, has received queries from shareholders as to the potential effects of the proposed Resource Super Profit Tax (RSPT) announced by the Australian Government on 3 May 2010.
The underlying intention of the RSPT is the levying of tax on profits arising from the exploitation of non-renewable resources located in Australia.
Coal of Africa has consulted its advisors and, as the company has no operational projects in Australia, it expects no increased taxation charges resulting from the implementation of the RSPT.
REPEAT-Q+A-How the new Australian mining tax works
Fri, 7th May 2010 /By Mark Bendeich /Reuters
SYDNEY, May 3 (Reuters) – Australia’s new 40 percent tax on mining profits is not as far-reaching as it first seems.
The tax will sting, no doubt, but it will not apply to all the profits of miners working in Australia. Any profits derived from mines outside Australia will be left untouched.
So companies like Anglo-Australian mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto have less to lose than the naked headlines would suggest: their non-Australian mining operations are completely outside the tax.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
A mining company will need to calculate how much profit it makes from each of its Australian operations and declare that to the tax authorities. The profit is to be calculated as close to the ground as possible: that is, at the mine gate. But the details on this have yet to be hammered out, leaving wide scope for mining companies to agree on a more flexible approach.
For example, a miner with two adjacent operations may push for both mines to be included in one profit calculation for the tax authorities, if it felt this would lead to a lower tax bill.
These profit calculations are purely for the tax authorities and are not the group accounts drafted for investors, but they won’t be entirely new arithmetic for global miners. South Africa and Canada and the U.S. mining state of Nevada already require them to produce accounts for profits-based taxes.
IS IT ALL PAIN & NO GAIN?
The Australian government knows there are very few votes to be lost from taxing rich miners that hire fewer workers per dollar of profit than many other sectors of the economy. But Canberra is still dangling some carrots for the mining industry in the form of a tax allowance and an exploration tax rebate.
The allowance represents an amount of profit that is exempt from the new tax. In principle, it is the government’s estimate of a fair rate of return on mining assets.
Utilities world-wide understand this concept well because their returns on assets are routinely regulated in order to prevent them from unjustifiable increases in power bills.
For miners, there is a lot to play for here: the government wants untaxed returns on assets to be set at a rate equivalent to the 10-year government bond yield, now just 5.76 percent. But, if the miners lose their war against the tax, they could win a decisive battle by raising the tax-free return rate.
GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE…
Say, a mine (not a miner) has assets worth A$100 million. Using the current bond yield, the company may deduct $5.76 million from its calculation of the mine’s profit.
‘Using a rate higher than the government bond rate would result in a significant subsidy to the resource sector…,’ the government said. Expect the miners to lobby for exactly that.
THE EXPLORATION FREEBIE
The government is also offering a tax rebate on exploration costs, which will be set initially at 30 percent. That means for every dollar spent on exploration, 30 cents will be available for miners as a tax credit. The industry spends hundreds of millions of dollars every year on exploration in Australia.
And when mines are wound up, the owners can crystallise any leftover tax credits accumulated during the mine’s life.
OUTBACK ACCOUNTING
Mines can be an auditor’s nightmare: in Australia, they are scattered over the desert, thousands of km (miles) from any place where people go to work in suits. So auditing of a mine’s assets could be trickier to confirm than a utility’s balance sheet.
The new tax calculations will be kinder to mines with lots of assets and conservative accounting for expenses, so tax officials will be on the lookout for any clever accounting. Armed with sophisticated data-matching systems, they will compare public accounts against the figures produced for tax purposes.
More than ever before, tax officials will keep an eagle eye on the outback.
(Editing by Jean Yoon)
EUROPE :
World leaders mourn, laud Yar’Adua
www.ngrguardiannews.com/07052010
Nigeria will remain U.S. ally, says Obama
Ghana declares three-day of mourning
Mark, Bankole, Atiku lament ex-leader’s exit
NLC, NBA pay tributes
From Laolu Akande (New York), Alifa Daniel, Azimazi Momoh Jimoh, Oghogho Obayuwana, Emeka Anuforo, Collins Olayinka (Abuja) and Francis Obinor (Lagos)
WORLD leaders, eminent Nigerians and groups yesterday commiserated with the Federal Government over the demise of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
Among those who sent their condolence messages to the government and people of Nigeria are the United States (U.S.) President Barack Obama, the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the European Union (EU).
In a statement released by the White House on Wednesday night, New York time, Obama praised Yar’Adua for his “profound personal decency and integrity.” He assured Nigerians “that in this time of national mourning they have a friend and enduring partner in the United States.”
Also, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, said: “On behalf of the people of the United Kingdom (UK), I wish to extend my deepest sympathy to the Yar’Adua family and the people of Nigeria on the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. He served his country with great dedication, decency and integrity. I was impressed by his willingness to tackle poverty, promote democracy, resolve conflict and defend the rule of law. He leaves a legacy of a peace initiative in the Niger Delta, and vital progress on economic reform”.
President Horst Kohler of Germany on his part said: “My fellow citizens and I mourn with the Nigerian people the deceased President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. We extend our most sincere sympathy to his wife and to his family. In personal meetings I have had the clearance to come to know and to esteem President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua as a statesman and as an individual. President Yar’Adua was convinced that his country and his nation could only develop further by means of adherance to the rule of law and to good governance. These principles characterised his work as the Head of State of Nigeria. In return the people of Nigeria have shown him particular confidence.”
African leaders such as Ghana’s President John Evans Atta Mills yesterday declared three days of national mourning with immediate effect, in solidarity with ”the brotherly people of Nigeria.”
Accordingly, flags at all public places in the country will fly at half mast for the period, a statement from the Castle, the nation’s seat of government, said.
“The government and the people of Ghana have learnt with deep sadness and a great sense of loss, the passing away of His Excellency Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria after a long illness.
”President Yar Adua was an acknowledged man of peace who worked tirelessly to maintain the rule of law and order and restore internal security in the Niger Delta,” the statement added.
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said: “It’s very sad, it’s tragic, he is so young, he died too early. We join the people of Nigeria in mourning his death. Nigeria is strong enough, the citizens will weather the storm.”
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe also said: “It’s a very, very sorry event and I’m terribly sorry about it. We didn’t think that it would come to this. We thought he was recovering, actually. But we are very sorry.”
The country’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, added that “it’s a great loss for Nigeria at this time, he has been ill for some time and it’s unfortunate that this is what has happened. I hope it provides the stability for the country to move forward.”
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki said
although Yar’Adua has “sadly left us, he has bequeathed upon the people of Nigeria and Africa at large a rich legacy of integrity,” while his South African counterpart Jacob Zuma wished that the leadership of Nigeria would do everything in its power to ensure that “this African country forges ahead with the vision of President Yar’Adua to make Africa and the world a better place to live in.”
Nigerian leaders that mourned Yar’Adua yesterday included Senate President David Mark, Speaker of the House of Representatives Dimeji Bankole and Prof. Ibrahim Gambari. former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and some U.S.-based Nigerians.
Ban, who expressed sadness at the news of the Nigerian leader’s death, praised Yar’Adua for his “unwavering support to the United Nations and its ideals and principles.”
Obama said: “We are are saddened by the news of Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua’s passing and our thoughts and prayers are with the Yar’Adua family and the people of Nigeria as they mourn his loss. Tonight (Wednesday), we remember and honour President Yar’Adua’s profound personal decency and integrity, his deep commitment to public service, and his passionate belief in the vast potential and bright future of Nigeria’s 150 million people.
“President Yar’Adua worked to promote peace and stability in Africa through his support of Nigerian peacekeeping efforts as well as his strong criticism of undemocratic actions in the region. He was committed to creating lasting peace and prosperity within Nigeria’s own borders, and continuing that work will be an important part of honouring his legacy.
“Under President Yar’Adua’s leadership, Nigeria and the United States took steps to deepen the strong bilateral relationship between our two nations and that work has continued even in recent months when President Yar’Adua’s illness forced him to step back from his governing duties. The Nigerian people and government should know that in this time of national mourning they have a friend and enduring partner in the United States and that together we will continue to work to address the common challenges we face.”
The UN Secretariat on Wednesday night in New York said: “The Secretary-General is deeply saddened to learn of the death of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
“Mr. Yar’Adua’s death is a great loss for Nigeria and its people. He will be remembered, among other things, for his efforts to bring peace and stability to the Niger Delta region and for his commitment to democratic governance and electoral reforms.
“He extends his heartfelt condolences to Mr. Yar’Adua’s family and the people and Government of Nigeria.”
The ECOWAS Commission said it received “with a profound sense of shock and sadness” the death of Yar’ Adua, who until his death Wednesday night held the rotational chairmanship of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS.”
The commission also congratulated Jonathan, and urged him to continue to uphold Nigeria’s commitment to the values of regional integration and development
In a statement, ECOWAS said during his tenure, ”Yar’Adua was very active in spearheading regional efforts towards ensuring that the goals of regional integration, in particular, peace and security were achieved.”
The delegation of the European Union (EU) to Nigeria in a message from the President of the European Commission commiserated with Nigeria over Yar’Adua’s death.
The EU in his letter to Jonathan, the President of the European Commission, Mr. Jose Manuel Barroso said: “I have learned with sadness that His Excellency Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, has passed away. On behalf of the European Commission, I wish to express my sincerest condolences to his family and to the Government and people of Nigeria.”
The Sena
te President said the country had lost an honest leader.
Mark in a statement yesterday, described the death of Yar’Adua as a monumental loss to the nation, noting that he left a legacy of selfless service that would be difficult to rival.
He said: “The nation has lost an honest leader that meant well for all Nigerians. His record of prudence and administrative excellence both as a Katsina State governor and President will remain ever green in our memories…he was a rare kind, a patriot and a detribalised leader, who was faithful to Nigeria. We shall miss him.”
In a statement issued by the Speaker’s Special Adviser on Communications, Mr. Kayode Odunaro, Bankole described Yar’Adua as a peace loving and patriotic national leader, whose approach to governance was marked by adherence to the rule of law, due process and peaceful resolution of knotty national issues.
Bankole said Yar’Adua would be remembered for his seven-point agenda, the amnesty programme for Niger Delta militants that saw thousands of armed youths laying down their arms, electoral reform and the cordial relationship he maintained with the legislature.
Atiku also described Yar’Adua’s death as “a sad and painful loss of a dear brother and patriot.”
In a condolence message yesterday, Atiku through his media office, said the nation had lost a decent, humble and brilliant leader, whose contributions to the development of Nigeria would be remembered by generations to come.
“I have known him since late 1980s when I met and became a friend and close political associate of his elder brother, Shehu Musa Yar’Adua,” Atiku said, adding that “over the years, the ties between my family and that of the Yar’Aduas have grown so strong that we have come to treat ourselves genuinely as brothers and sisters. Umaru was one of the closest state governors to me between 1999 and 2007 when he served as Katsina State governor and I was Vice President of Nigeria.”
. “Similarly, Gambari, who once served as Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister and Permanent Representative to the UN, said: ” I am saddened by the news of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s death and want to express my heartfelt condolence, especially to his immediate family, and generally, alongside all Nigerians at this time of national mourning.”
A U.S.-based Nigerian activist, Dr. Baba Adam, a known friend of the Yar’Adua family, said in his condolence message: “We send our condolences to the people of Nigeria. Specifically, we send our very deep sympathy and extend our sincere condolences to the late President Yar’Adua’s family.”
NLC said the departure of Yar’Adua had robbed Nigeria of its most educated leader in its 50-year history.
Its President Abdulwaheed Omar said Labour believed that the death of President was tragic and a big blow to the country in many respects.
He said: “Up to his death he was the most educated leader to have led Nigeria aside the fact that he died at his prime and at the time he was bringing the perspectives of the young generation of Nigerians to the governance process in the country.”
Omar held that though Yar’Adua stay in power was brief, “he restored some degree of confidence in the political leadership by some of the practical steps he took to resolve critical national problems. Even though he operated within the machinery of a political party that was generally perceived as insincere and highly irresponsible, Yar’Adua was seen as a straight, quiet and honest man who inspired and attracted confidence and trust.”
The NBA said it received the sad news of the transition of Yar’ Adua and commiserated with the family for the colossal loss.
NBA President Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, (SAN) said Yar’Adua was, undoubtedly, one of the few Nigerian leaders imbued with the rare virtues of humility and decency. “He came across easily as an unassuming personality despite his elitist pedigree. It is on record that he declared his assets without prompting and this excited a bandwagon effect with public officials making ‘anticipatory’ declarations. He should be accorded the credit for, at least, acknowledging publicly that the electoral process that brought him to office was flawed. He also empanelled the Uwais Committee, which has come up with far reaching recommendations on electoral reforms.
“We deprecate the venality displayed by politicians, especially the palace hustlers, who turned the fact of his ill health to their advantage. It is to their eternal damnation that the issue of the President’s health degenerated to unhealthy national nay international spectacle thus becoming an excuse for them to commit treason. Ministers and other appointees told barefaced lies on the President’s state of health. They used the late President as a protective shield to perpetrate all sorts of illegalities. They ensured that the man never had a moment of respite until he died and unfortunately now assail our eardrums with the virtues of the departed President. Harsh verdict of history await these mercenaries,” he said.
The diplomatic community in Nigeria also condoled with Nigeria over Yar’çdua’s death.
The Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, Moroccan Ambassador to Nigeria Mustapha Cherqaui, called on Nigeria to be strong at this period, noting that “the diplomatic community would remember the selfless service rendered by the late President for the stability of Nigeria, the region.”
The Israeli Embassy in Nigeria also commiserated with Nigeria. Its ambassador Moshe Ram said: “I sympathise with the government and people of Nigeria over the demise of President Umar Musa Yar’Adua after a protracted illness. I also join the immediate and extended families of the late President to grieve the loss of their breadwinner.”
The Swedish King Carl Gustaf also mourned the Nigerian leader. He said: “The bilateral relations between Nigeria and Sweden have deepened over the last years: politically, commercially and otherwise. We hope to continue fostering the relations under President Jonathan, who is well-known and much appreciated in Sweden since his successful visit to our country in May last year, when he met with the Swedish King.”
France also yesterday said it shared in Nigeria’s pain. The embassy in a statement said: “France underlines with emphasis the work of the demised President in his quest for peace, especially through the amnesty programme targeting the militants in the Niger Delta.”
CHINA :
SA opens pavilion at Shanghai expo
May 07, 2010 / www.thestar.co.za
Edition 1
Paul Cockburn Independent Foreign Service
SHANGHAI: Minister of International Relations and Co-operation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane has officially invited the world into South Africa’s rondavel at the spectacular Shanghai 2010 World Expo.
More than 200 invited guests attended her official opening of the South African pavilion. These are not easy things to manage, especially in a round space. Nonetheless, it’s a cool and homely South African space.
The guests drank South African wine and listened to a roster of speakers praising the important and growing links between China and South Africa.
Nkoana-Mashabane was perhaps a bit on the modest side when she praised her hosts for their achievements in staging “this billion-dollar event”. The expo is estimated to have cost some $59 billion (R450bn).
Nkoana-Mashabane predicted that the Shanghai 2010 World Expo would be remembered as one of the great events of the 21st century.
This is a spectacular exhibition in a spectacular city. The nations of the world have combined to outdo each other. For example, Japan has spent more than $150 million on its exhibit.
South Africa’s theme, “The Rise of a Modern Economy” might well be the theme for the Chinese themselves.
South Africa’s ambassador to China, Ndumisa Ntshinga, said many Chinese companies were choosing South Africa as a base from which to enter the African market, while others were leveraging networks of South African companies for fast access to the continent. Chinese banks had also entered South Africa with significant deals.
World dateline briefs
Compiled from Deseret News wire services
www.deseretnews.com/ May 7, 2010
China: Kim Jong Il
BEIJING — North Korea confirmed today that its secretive leader Kim Jong Il completed a five-day trip to China, his most important ally, that experts said focused on economic aid for his struggling country and a possible return to nuclear talks.
The Korean Central News agency said in a dispatch from Pyongyang that Kim made the unofficial visit to China starting Monday and ending Friday. The trip had been shrouded in secrecy, with no previous mention of it by China or North Korea or their official media, even though Kim was seen by journalists several times.
India: Death sentence
MUMBAI — An Indian court sentenced the only surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks to death Thursday, a punishment officials hoped would send a message to archrival Pakistan to stop future violence as fears about the global reach of militancy based on its soil grow.
Judge M.L. Tahaliyani gave Mohammed Ajmal Kasab multiple death sentences for murder, waging war against India, conspiracy and terrorism. He also handed down penalties for over two dozen other offenses ranging to life in prison.
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“He shall be hanged by his neck until he is dead,” Tahaliyani said.
Nigeria: New president
LAGOS — Oil-rich Nigeria’s acting leader Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in Thursday as president of Africa’s most populous nation, as officials buried the flag-draped corpse of his Muslim predecessor before sundown.
The power shift to Jonathan, a Christian, peacefully ended a profound leadership crisis triggered last November when elected President Umaru Yar’Adua, who died Wednesday at the age of 58, left the country for medical treatment without transferring authority to his deputy.
South Africa: Weapons
JOHANNESBURG — South African police have confiscated a large cache of weapons and arrested suspects linked to right-wing groups, the police ministry said Thursday.
Zweli Mnisi, a spokesman for Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa, told The Associated Press that police acting on tips raided sites in the capital and a western town and found large caches of explosives, illegal guns and ammunition. He said there was a “strong linkage to right-wing operations.”
Grenada: No bail
ST. GEORGE’S — A man who allegedly carried two severed human heads into a police station was denied bail on Thursday after a large crowd gathered outside a courthouse and hurled insults at him.
Steve Gory, 32, did not say anything in court or show any emotion.
Police say Gory showed up at a precinct Monday night carrying the heads in a plastic bucket. He was immediately detained and charged Wednesday with two counts of first-degree murder.
Norway: Cruise ship
OSLO — Almost 100 people were stricken with vomiting and diarrhea while on a five-day voyage around northern Europe, a major cruise operator said after the ship returned to port Thursday.
It was the third outbreak of gastrointestinal illness in three months aboard the Vision of the Seas, operated by Royal Caribbean International.
South Korea: Licensed
SEOUL — A South Korean woman who earned a driver’s license after 960 tries is ready to buy a car and get behind the wheel.
Yonhap news agency reported Thursday that 69-year-old Cha Sa-soon passed the driving part of the test last month on her 10th try. South Korea requires a written test first, and Cha took it nearly daily since April 2005 before passing last year.
INDIA :
Zimbabwe rejects takeover bids from steel makers
Fri, May 07, 2010 / Source : Reuters
Zimbabwe has rejected bids for the takeover of state steel maker ZISCO from ArcelorMittal’s South Africa and India’s Jindal Steel and Power Ltd in a move that could slow a drive to attract foreign investment.
The government had shortlisted the two firms, but Industry and Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube said President Robert Mugabe had rejected the two bids because the two companies were too big to invest in ZISCO.
“The feeling is that we are a small country and we will have problems with a big multilateral company. The thinking is that we need a medium-sized investor for ZISCO,” Ncube told Reuters.
The move could be a major blow to the country’s drive to attract badly needed foreign investment in an economy that has endured a decade of contraction and remains fragile due to lack of donor support and investment.
A new unity government formed between Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai last year raised hopes among investors that the country would pursue policies to open up the economy to foreign investment.
On Thursday, Mugabe made a surprise showing at the World Economic Forum for Africa, the continent’s biggest business meeting, to appeal for investment alongside other members of the fractious coalition government.
Restart bidding process
ZISCO has capacity to produce 1 million tonnes of steel per year and had been targeted to be the first state-run firm to be disposed, but the government’s decision is likely to put into question its readiness to welcome investors.
Ncube, a minister from a splinter Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) group, said the government would restart the bidding process, which should be concluded in three months.
“What is left for us is how to attract the medium-sized investors and this time we will have a truncated bidding process, not the one year it took us during the previous one, so that it can be completed within three months,” Ncube said.
He said ZISCO’s privatisation would not be affected by a controversial law forcing foreign-owned companies, including mines and banks, to sell 51% shareholding to locals.
The empowerment law has divided the unity government, with Mugabe defending it as necessary to redistribute wealth to the country’s poor while Tsvangirai says the rules would discourage foreign investment.
The new administration has estimated around USD 10 billion is needed to repair the economy but foreign investors are also reluctant to pledge funds without faster political reform.
ZISCO was once the largest integrated steelworks in the region and a major foreign currency earner for the then white Rhodesian government before independence in 1980.
South Africa: No Band-Aid Solution for Country’s Racial Problems
William Gumede/Pambazuka News/allafrica.com/7 May 2010
Given South Africa’s long and bitter history of racial oppression and its continued legacy, it is astonishing that the country is yet to have an open and transparent public discussion about race.
In fact the only people who talk publicly about race are the extremists on both ends of the colour line, which in the end does not make rational debate possible; but without it, we cannot cobble together lasting solutions. Neither will we be able to agree on basic elements of policies to redress issues, be it in sport or in the workplace.
Of course, we should not be imprisoned by the past, but we cannot simply argue to let bygones be bygones, or say ‘I did not benefit from apartheid’, or did not know, as if 1994 was simply Year Zero, when we all started from the same slate in terms of education, property and social capital.
Because South Africans do not talk about the past, white South Africans will remain trapped in fear about the future and guilt about the past. Black South Africans will continue to be resentful and angry.
There has been no unequivocal apology for apartheid, from former apartheid era leaders, such as the former President FW De Klerk. South Africa had a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which dealt with racial abuses during the last three decades of the apartheid, but the process, for all its success to at least lift the lid on apartheid atrocities, was ultimately limited. For example, it only concentrated on gross human rights abuses over a very limited period.
The fact that poverty still runs along racial lines, with blacks mostly poor and whites mostly better-off, is a real obstacle to reconciliation. Racial reconciliation is unlikely to take place, unless it is accompanied with social justice. Although former President Nelson Mandela initiated a far-reaching policy of reconciliation, and former President Thabo Mbeki in a more limited manner also, this has not been accompanied by economic reparations for those who still suffer most from the apartheid legacy of limited education, the repossession of land and property and broken families. The fact that economic inequalities run along racial lines, helps perpetuate racism.
South Africa’s economic downturn will increase racial tensions. Naturally, many whites who fall into economic difficulties will be tempted to blame a black-dominated ANC government for being ‘against’ them. Poorer black South Africans may also be seduced to turn their anger solely on whites in general, rather than seeing it as a combination of the legacy of apartheid inequities and misguided policies by black-dominated democratic governments. Black economic empowerment for the few, as currently practiced, is only likely to increase the wealth gap between a small group of well-off blacks and the majority – and increase the latter’s resentment.
What is often under-estimated is that centuries of racism often also have an impact on its recipients. Some blacks often overcompensate for white prejudice. Mbeki often responded in an exaggerated manner to perceived white racism. For example, Mbeki’s adopted his ineffective quiet diplomacy towards Zimbabwe, partly because some South African whites unfairly compared neighbouring Zimbabwe’s Zanu PF’s disgusting reign to what could happen to whites under the ANC, and mostly focused on the plight of white Zimbabweans. In the end, the very people who suffered the brunt of Mugabe’s autocratic rule, black Zimbabweans, suffered even more with Mugabe’s continued tyranny, a reign which Mbeki’s quiet diplomacy ironically has helped to prolong.
We should not hide behind racial solidarity to support often very undemocratic practices. For example, should the appointment of a black judge be applauded just because he is or she is black, even though they for example act untransformed? A case in point is the fact that in many rape judgements, many black judges’ values were as conservative as some of their old-style white colleagues. Many black and white judges and magistrates still astonishingly blame the victims of rapes for being responsible for being raped. Surely, in such these cases, a black magistrate and judge cannot be supported merely on the basis of his or her blackness, even if their judgements are blatantly against the letter of the constitution.
Furthermore, to deal with racism we must also be able to point out when an unskilled or inexperienced black person is put in a position where they are not performing – rather than keep silent, because at least ‘he or she is black’. Of course, competence is not a white preserve, either. Black excellence must be acknowledged. When blacks do well, it should not be dismissed as because of their ‘political connections’, and so on. White instances of incompetence cannot be ignored, either. The poor ultimately pay the price for incompetence, whether it is white or black incompetence. The American scholar of race, Cornel West warns against the pitfalls of what he calls a resort to black ‘authenticity’ politics, whereby everything issue is reduced to ‘racial reasoning’. He argues rightly we must ‘replace racial reasoning with moral reasoning, to understand the black-freedom struggle not as an affair of skin pigmentation and racial phenotype but rather as a matter of ethical principles and wise politics’.
Shouting ‘racism’ to sideline rivals, for self-enrichment at the expense of the public good, or to deflect attention from our own wrongdoing is simply wrong – and will only increase racial tension. There appears to be increasing incidents of ‘crying wolf’ cases of racism, which are clearly for purely opportunistic reasons. White South Africans – for example those who call for the protection of Afrikaans – will have to do this not on the basis of racial exclusivity, but must genuinely include black Afrikaans speakers, and fight for the right of other indigenous languages, such as isiZulu, Venda or Shangaan to be protected too.
Poorer black South Africans bear the brunt of racism, but don’t have the power to respond to it. If you are poor and black, it is unlikely that one will know how to access institutions, neither will one have the money to do so, that can help seek redress against racism. But one way to deal with racism is for victims to be able to seek more redress against racial discrimination through courts, watchdog institutions and other formal institutions. This will mean that such institutions must become more accessible and supportive to the poorest who suffer from racism most – which they are not at the moment.
To breakdown racial stereotypes, there has to be greater integration, whether in clubs, social events or community organisations. Joint action on all levels, whether in government or the school committees, can do much to break down racial misunderstanding. Children will have to be taught in schools about the negative effects of racial discrimination. But adults, especially in the workplace, must also be educated about it. Whites will have to show a deeper understanding for the still very deep legacy of racial discrimination. Blacks will have to understand that whites have legitimate fears.
In the long-term, lifting the economic and skills level of the poorest will be one of the surest ways to boost black confidence – and reconciliation. In the short-term, government must base the criteria for recipients of poverty-alleviation measures on the extent of their poverty, rather than on race. Because the majority of blacks are in absolute poverty, they would naturally be the largest recipients of poverty alleviation measures. As a social justice measure, we must introduce a basic income grant to all families – black or white – that are desperately poor.
Recipients of a basic income co
uld in turn be required to work in the community for a minimum period. Affirmative action must be honestly implemented – in both the public and private sectors, and targeted to advance those who are genuinely poor. It should be suspended in sectors in the economy identified as high-growth areas, those areas critical to service delivery, and where there is a scarcity of skills. We should have a clear timeframe for when the policy should be dropped.
Furthermore, we should abandon black economic empowerment (BEE) as a policy, and reward predominantly white companies for how much they invest in job creation, education, skills transfer, housing and uplifting the physical and social infrastructure of townships and rural areas; and for supporting the 5 million odd (mostly black) entrepreneurs in the informal sector. But we must also demand the beneficiaries of the current narrow BEE to plough back their political capital in the same way into economic development, and eschew the ‘bling’ culture and conspicuous consumption. To slay racism, whether from within South Africa or outside, the ANC government must govern better. Finally, to tackle racism effectively demands honesty, courage, social justice and pragmatism. There should be no place for easy stereotyping, generalisations and prejudices – from either blacks or whites.
William Gumede is co-editor (with Leslie Dikeni) of the recently released The Poverty of Ideas, published by Jacana Media (ISBN 978-1-77009-775-9).
Vodafone 150 @ Rs 799 in India
May 07, 2010/ By: Hema Manchanda /ub-news.com
Vodafone has introduced ultra low cost mobile the VF 150 at just Rs. 799. This mobile is intended for emerging markets. At MWC Barcelona, Vodafone showcased two models of mobile phones having ‘ ultra low cost “which were designed mainly for developing countries like India and Africa. The both handsets are made by Chinese TLC.
This year, manufacturers have competed mobile innovation in their smart phones, hoping to eat the biggest pie of mobile market especially in countries where purchasing power is very low Vodafone has introduced the cheapest mobile onto the planet. Manufactured by China’s TCL, the Vodafone 150 has been launched for Indians now.
Soon the handset will grab the market of Turkey where Vodafone is very well establishedand in eight African countries.
Besides the GSM function, through this handset you can send SMS. This handset is designed especially to make payments, According to Vodafone, 11 million people use their mobile for payments or money transfers.
BRASIL:
AngloGold Ashanti Profit Buoyed by Strong Tanzania, Brazil Performances
May 7, 2010/www.marketwatch.com
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA, May 07, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — AngloGold Ashanti /quotes/comstock/13*!au/quotes/nls/au (AU 40.94, +0.01, +0.02%) posted first-quarter adjusted headline earnings of $61 million after a strong performance from its mines in Tanzania and the Americas helped offset seasonally lower production from South Africa.
“Our operations in Brazil and Argentina had another strong quarter and the turnaround progress in the U.S. and Tanzania was also very encouraging,” Chief Executive Officer Mark Cutifani said. “Our focus now is to build on those performances and improve the contribution from our South African division.”
Production was 1.08Moz at a total cash cost of $619/oz in the three months to 31 March 2010, compared with production the previous quarter of 1.18Moz at $598/oz and guidance of 1.07Moz at $655/oz issued by the company in February. The Brasil Mineracao operations saw a cost reduction of 12% to $369/oz, consolidating its position as the company’s lowest-cost producer.
Adjusted headline earnings were $61 million, or 17 cents a share in the first quarter, given seasonally weak production at the South African operations following the December holiday shutdown. This compares with fourth-quarter profit of $228 million, or 62 cents a share, which was boosted by a once-off foreign exchange gain.
‘An Incredible Slate of New Projects’
AngloGold Ashanti’s board approved a $195m investment to develop its Corrego de Sitio mine in Brazil, which is expected to reach its commercial production rate of 140,000oz per annum by 2013.
A decision will be made toward the end of the year on the development of its new Tropicana project in western Australia, where exploration drilling has found new sources of gold mineralization near the main project area which has the potential to both increase the size of the proposed mine and its life. Negotiations with the state gold mining company of the Democratic Republic of the Congo were successfully concluded during the quarter, prompting the initiation of a pre-feasibility study for the proposed Mongbwalu mine in the country’s northeastern Ituri region.
In Colombia, where the company is awaiting water permits to allow resumption of drilling on its La Colosa deposit, exploration began on several other targets and talks are underway to determine with joint venture B2Gold the best way to progress the development of the Gramalote project.
“We’ve got an incredible slate of new projects in the Americas, Africa and Australasia,” Cutifani said. “Our focus is squarely on developing the potential that exists within our portfolio.”
‘A Strong Vote of Confidence’
AngloGold Ashanti strengthened its balance sheet post the quarter end, with the first investment-grade issue of a 30-year bond by a South African corporate. The issue of $300 million of 30-year notes and $700m of 10-year notes was more than six-times oversubscribed. This $1 billion bond issue was completed in April, only days after the company agreed with a group of 16 banks to a $1 billion, four-year revolving credit facility (RCF), which was 1.6 times oversubscribed.
“The overwhelming appetite to provide us with long-term debt demonstrates a strong vote of confidence not only in AngloGold Ashanti, but also in South Africa,” Cutifani said. “Wrapping up a $2 billion refinancing facility at very competitive interest rates gives us the flexibility to focus on delivering our operating and growth commitments.”
Production in the second quarter is anticipated to be similar to that of the first quarter at a total cash cost of $650/oz. This accounts for a previously announced interruption at the Ghanaian operations to implement a revised water management strategy and tailings facility upgrade, as well as a planned decline in output from Sunrise Dam in Australia. Full-year guidance is maintained at 4.5Moz to 4.7Moz at a cash cost of $590/oz to $615/oz.
Vale announces Q1 result
Friday, 07 May 2010/www.steelguru.com
Vale SA reported a solid performance in the Q1 of 2010. This reflects primarily our efforts to minimize costs and the strong recovery of the global demand for minerals and metals.
The main highlights of Vale’s performance in Q1 of 2010 were
1. Operating revenue of USD 6.8 billion in Q1 of 2010, 4.7% more than the USD 6.5 billion in Q4 of 2009.
2. Operational income, as measured by adjusted EBIT of USD 2.1 billion in Q1 of 2010, 86.9% above Q4 0f 2009.
3. Operational margin, as measured by adjusted EBIT margin, recovered to 31.2%, from 17.4% in Q4 of 2009.
4. Cash generation, as measured by adjusted EBITDA rose to USD 2.9 billion in Q1 2010 from USD 2.1 billion in Q4 of 2009.
5. Net earnings of USD 1.6 billion against USD 1.5 billion in Q4 of 2009.
6. Investments reached USD 2.2 billion, with USD 1.7 billion spent in organic growth and maintenance CAPEX.
7. Acquisitions: we entered into agreements to acquire fertilizer assets in Brazil and iron ore assets in West Africa, involving USD 8.2 billion to be disbursed from Q2 of 2010 onwards.
8. The first tranche of the minimum dividend for 2010, equal to USD 1.25 billion was paid on April 30.
9. Strong financial position, supported by large cash holdings of USD 11.1 billion, availability of significant medium and long-term credit lines and a low risk debt portfolio.
It said “As a consequence of the structural changes in the global iron ore market, we have reached agreements, permanent or provisional, with all our iron ore clients around the globe to move existing contracts to index based prices1. The implementation of the new pricing system will begin to be reflected in our financial performance in Q2 of 2010.”
Vale added “Our growth strategy encompasses a multilane road to sustainable value creation, entailing the development of a large and exciting pipeline of projects, strategic acquisitions of world-class assets and portfolio asset management, which is a very important option to optimize capital allocation and focus management attention.”
It said “We have taken a pro active stance towards the optimization of our asset portfolio, entering into transactions involving mainly our aluminum assets, the acquisition of world-class Brazilian fertilizer assets, which gives Vale a strong regional operating base in one of the leading consumers in the globe, and Simandou, in West Africa, one of the best undeveloped iron ore deposits in the world, combining high quality with large scale. The availability of Carajás and Simandou allows us to have by far the best and the largest growth potential in the global iron ore industry.”
EN BREF, CE 07 mai 2010 … AGNEWS / OMAR, BXL,07/05/2010
