{jcomments on}OMAR, AGNEWS, BXL, le 09 avril 2010 – www.cfr.org- April 09, 2010–Today is National Genocide Day in Rwanda, marking the 16th anniversary of the start of the genocide that claimed nearly a million lives out of a population of 8 million people.

RWANDA

Rwanda: Road to Recovery
Author: Isobel Coleman, Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy
www.cfr.org/Huffington Post / April 9, 2010

Today is National Genocide Day in Rwanda, marking the 16th anniversary of the start of the genocide that claimed nearly a million lives out of a population of 8 million people. I happen to be in Rwanda, and took a drive this morning out to the Ntarama Genocide Museum, about 20 miles outside the capital Kigali. The road to Ntarama is an immaculate, two lane highway, constructed just a few years ago. As it winds gently up into the lush hills overlooking Kigali, it passes through the bustling suburb of Kicukiro, where newly prosperous Rwandans have built large white-washed houses with red-tiled roofs, terraces, balconies, and satellite dishes. A banner proudly advertises the Kicukiro College of Technology.
Risen from the ashes of genocide, Rwanda is in many ways an African success story. President Paul Kagame, the Tutsi leader who defeated the genocidal Hutu extremists in July 1994 and has served as Rwanda’s president since 2000, runs a tight ship. A poster at the airport warns arriving visitors that the country has outlawed plastic bags: it is better for the environment and helps keep the streets clean. Indeed it does – there is little of the trash on the streets of Kigali that is ubiquitous in other poor cities. Under Kagame’s undeniably strong but technocratic hand, Rwanda has enjoyed robust economic growth since the dark days of genocide. In the past decade and a half, per capita GDP has nearly tripled, admittedly from a desperately low base.
The country has clearly benefited from foreign assistance – on the road to Ntarama, signs announce projects of all sorts by various NGOs and multilateral agencies. Foreign aid accounts for about half of the Rwandan budget. But the government is determined to wean itself from aid dependence. Kagame has increased tax collection and pushed privatization and investment. In 2009, Rwanda signed its largest deal yet – a $325 million contract with the energy and power company ContourGlobal to produce 100 megawatts of electricity from methane stored under Lake Kivu. Investors are also interested in Rwanda’s rich mineral deposits such as coltan and gold. The Chinese have built an embassy in Kigali noticeably larger than any other in town. Meanwhile, Kagame’s government is desperately trying to improve infrastructure, which was essentially non-existent at the end of the genocide. Today, wireless is readily available throughout Kigali; my cell phone works better in the Rwandan countryside than in many New York suburbs; billboards in town advertise internet banking; paved roads traverse the countryside.
As our car speeds along the road to Ntarama, we pass through banana groves and other well tended fields. Past Kicukiro, towns are few and the neat brick houses give way to mud-walled huts with straw or corrugated metal roofs. I see no more than half a dozen other cars on the road, but hundreds of people walking or biking, carrying unbelievable loads on their heads and backs – yellow water jugs, bundles of kindling wood, newly threshed reeds, children.
I ask my driver, Allen, a Tutsi, about Hutu-Tutsi relations in Rwanda today. He immediately gives me the party line: “That is all behind us. Today, we are all Rwandans.” Alongside the road, on the edge of a banana grove, I notice government soldiers toting machine guns, interspersed among the trees. Why are they there, I wonder? My driver tells me that today, especially, it is dangerous. “There are many people still with hate in their hearts, and other people who cannot forgive.”
Kagame launched a process of “reconciliation” which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of Hutu perpetrators of the genocide now living among Tutsi survivors. In return for admitting their guilt and renouncing their ways, the génocidaires have been released from prison and sent home to live among the relatives of those they killed. When I ask Rwandans what they think of this reconciliation, most give me a pained look, but say that there is no other way.
The Ntarama Genocide Museum is about a mile off the highway, up a red dirt road that has been carefully graded. On the right, a cluster of houses is discernable in the fields, built by the Rwanda Red Cross to house orphans after the genocide. On the left is the museum, a simple brick church set among flower beds. In 1994, thousands of Tutsis from the area fled to the church, thinking it provided a safe haven from the carnage around them. Instead, the Hutu militia surrounded the church, flung grenades through the small windows, and hacked to death their Tutsi neighbors cowering inside. A metal rack in the back of the church holds hundreds of skulls, each with a jagged crack across the top marking the work of machetes. Some of the skulls are tiny – no bigger than an orange. The walls of the church are lined with ragged, bloody clothes peeled long ago from the victims and now slowly disintegrating in the musty air. Next to the altar is a table with the instruments of death – rusty knives and machetes. The woman showing me around, tall with long tight braids pulled into a pony tail, has a wool scarf wrapped around her neck even though it is a hot, muggy day. Her cell phone rings and I hear her ring tone’s refrain: “Never again, never again.”
When I sign the guest book, I notice that only five or six people a day visit the museum, and most are foreigners from Europe and the United States. Even on this anniversary day, I am the only visitor there. Back in the car, I ask Allen if Hutus would ever visit one of the country’s many genocide memorials. He shakes his head emphatically no. “Hutus and Tutsis do not like to mix,” he tells me. “If I go into a bar and see Hutus, I will leave. I do not feel safe among them.” One policy Kagame put in place after the genocide was to remove any indication of Hutu or Tutsi from national identity cards, but as Allen’s words reveal, they still know who is who. Today, I am told again and again that “we are all Rwandans.” Kagame himself insists that he measures his own success by whether Rwandans view him as a Tutsi leader, or a Rwandan leader. Many Hutus do seem to support Kagame, perhaps fearing Tutsi retribution without his steadying hand, and happy to prosper from his strong economic management. Across the border in Congo, Hutu-Tutsi fighting continues, with disastrous consequences for both. Kagame has been criticized for his authoritarianism and heavy-handed constraints on political freedoms. On this day, I leave Ntarama thinking that full-fledged democracy sometimes needs to take a back seat. Kagame’s legacy will be whether he can build the institutions of democracy, as he claims to want to do, in this blood-soaked land that has suffered so much.

UGANDA

TANZANIA:

Tanzania: Malaba Laid to Rest in Dar
9 April 2010/Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam) /allafrica.com

Dar Es Salaam — HUNDREDS of mourners including golfers today turned up for the burial ceremony of the departed President of the Tanzania Ladies Golf Union (TLGU), Betty Malaba.

Malaba was laid to rest at the Kinondoni Cemetery in Dar es Salaam shortly after the afternoon mass at St Peter’s Church in the city. She passed away last Thursday in Muscat, Oman, where she had gone to visit relatives. She died after a short illness.

The mourners included the chairman of Tanzania Golf union (TGU), Dioniz Malinzi, and the Secretary General of Uganda Ladies Golf Union (ULGU), Jasper Kamukama, who also conveyed a message of condolence from a member of the East and central Africa Golf Trustee, Monica Ntege.

Malinzi challenged women to keep Malaba’s spirit in a bid to develop the sport among women in the country. “Betty (Malaba) played a great role in promoting golf among women in the country.

Invariably, it is difficult to find people of her calibre. It is also difficult to get people who are keen to see to it that sports were developed from one level to another by volunteering their time and resources. Her death is a huge blow to us,” said Malinzi, who contributed 500,000/- at the funeral from TGU.

Speaking on behalf of Ntege, Kamukama said that ULGU received the news on Malaba’s death with shock. “She was a close friend of ours. She was charming and friendly, always ready to help.

Her death is a big blow to the women golfers in the region,” said Kamukama.

TLGU’s Secretary General Joyce Svarvar reiterated her call to golfers especially the youngsters to remember Malaba for her kindliness.

CONGO RDC :

DRC Rebel Groups to Form Coalition
Peter Clottey/www1.voanews.com/ 09 April 2010

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the leader of the Mai Mai Kifuafua rebels says a new rebel coalition comprising over 17 different armed groups will be unveiled in the eastern part of the country Friday.

Didier Bitaki said the various armed groups decided to join forces after President Joseph Kabila’s government failed to fully implement several peace accords.

“What the government did was only to facilitate the former armed groups to know each other. Unfortunately the government did not take advantage of that opportunity so that they will bring peace to our region. And we said we cannot allow that peace accord to fail while we are here, and that is why …we want to create something that will bring peace and maybe change our government,” he said.

Bitaki said the group, to be known as the Alliance for Maintaining the Peace Agreement of Goma, will ensure President Kabila’s administration lives up to the promises made when it signed peace accords with the various armed groups.

He said the rebel coalition includes Mai Mai Kifuafua, National Congress for People’s Defense (CNDP), Pareko and Mai Mai Yakutumba, among other rebel groups.

Analysts say the rebels felt cheated following President Kabila’s latest cabinet reshuffle which did not include members of the various armed groups it signed agreements with.

The rebel groups accused the government of failing to live up to the peace accords which called for leaders of the armed groups to be politically integrated into the government.

They had previously demanded four ministerial positions before President Kabila’s recent cabinet reshuffle.

Congo’s media recently quoted the prime minister’s office as saying there were no cabinet posts for the former rebels whose units have been integrated into the national army.

Bitaki said the new rebel coalition will put pressure on the government to abide by the various agreements it signed with rebel groups.

“This Friday we already decided together to bring peace by putting our efforts together on one movement and push the government to respect the accord,” Bitaki said.

He further said the rebels decided to bury their differences after coming to the realization that President Kabila’s government will continue to deceive them by refusing to abide by the peace accords.

DRC information minister Lambert Mende has often urged the rebels to focus on forming a legitimate political party to participate in elections just like all other political parties.

AngloGold Ashanti, Okimo to jointly develop DRC project
www.miningweekly.com/By: Jonathan Faurie/9th April 2010

Updated 16 minutes agoTEXT SIZE Gold-mining major AngloGold Ashanti has entered into a definitive joint venture (JV) with l’Office des Mines d’Or de Kilo-Moto (Okimo) to develop the Ashanti Goldfields Kilo (AGK) project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the transfer of the exploitation permits to AGK.

Under the JV agreement, the companies are to jointly develop the AGK project through the joint company AGK, in which AngloGold Ashanti holds an 86,22% interest and Okimo the remaining 13,78%.

AngloGold Ashanti CEO Mark Cutifani reported that this agreement enabled the company to move forward with an “enormously prospective” exploration programme from which it expected to develop another world-class gold project.

“It also allows AngloGold the opportunity to generate prosperity for local communities and the country as a whole, which is a critical part of creating a sustainable operating model in this region.”

Okimo CEO Willy Bafoa Lifeta remarked that, by signing this agreement, the parties had responded positively to the requirements of the DRC government review.

This agreement also had the advantage of enabling Okimo to regain its position as a mining operator in the Ituri district by having its own infrastructure and mineral deposits outside of the AGK project area.

The JV provides for the exploitation permits to be transferred from Okimo to AGK covering an area of about 6 000 km2 in the Ituri district, in the north-eastern DRC. This included the Mongbwalu project where a mineral resource of about three-million ounces had been identified by previous exploration work, and where further exploration and feasibility studies were currently taking place.

In addition, greenfield exploration programmes were planned throughout the AGK project area. Through these greenfields exploration activities, AGK has agreed to return about 30% of the AGK project area to Okimo over a period of three years, at a rate of about 600 km2/y. AGK might, however, delay such returns by up to a further two years to facilitate an element of flexibility in the exploration programmes.

It had been agreed that an area of about 121 km2, located around the towns of Bambu and Nizi, where Okimo’s existing operations and headquarters were situated, would not initially be part of the AGK project. AngloGold Ashanti and Okimo had agreed that AngloGold Ashanti would have a right to explore this area at its own cost, subject to a programme that would be discussed jointly with Okimo.

Should AngloGold Ashanti identify deposits having an inferred mineral resource of more than 1,5-million ounces, the two parties would develop up to two such deposits in terms of a separate JV, which both parties had undertaken to negotiate expediently and in good faith. Okimo had further agreed that it would not be entitled to transfer all or any part of this area to any third party until a JV had been agreed with AngloGold Ashanti. Thereafter, any transfer of all or part of this area to any third party would be subject to pre-emptive rights in favour of AngloGold Ashanti.

Under the JV a total amount of $1,25-million would be payable by AGK to the government of DRC and about $10,6-million would be payable by AGK to, or on behalf of, Okimo as compensation for the loss of rent and payment of surfaces rights arrears. Of this amount, about $4,33-million would be repayable by Okimo to AGK under the loan agreement between AGK and Okimo.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

>> The joint venture agreement provides for the exploitation permits, covering an area of about 6 000 km2 in the Ituri district, in the north-eastern DRC to be transferred from Okimo to AGK.

>> Greenfield exploration programmes are planned throughout the AGK project area.

Edited by: Martin Zhuwakinyu

KENYA :

SPECIAL REPORT-Southern Sudan: oil boom to bust-up?
Fri Apr 9, 2010/Reuters/By Ed Cropley

* Mounting insecurity ahead of poll fuels tribal strife

Stocks | Bonds

* Chinese oil producers “preparing for the worst”

* Even with secession, tribal fights may multiply

TEREKEKA, Sudan, April 9 (Reuters) – With southern Sudan stumbling towards independence next year, the Chinese oil workers in Africa’s biggest country are bracing for trouble. For southern villagers like Maria Jande, trouble is already here.

Dinka tribesmen briefly abducted Jande, her family and more than a dozen other women and children in a raid last month that destroyed crops and food stores and killed five men from her Mundari tribe.

It’s a far cry from the hopes that sprung up in southern Sudan five years ago, when a peace deal with the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum in Sudan’s north promised to end a generation of conflict.

Elections this month and a secession referendum by January were meant to secure a stable future for the south after 22 years of civil war and the loss of two million lives.

Instead, age-old rivalries between the south’s dozens of different tribes are resurfacing.

“If we stay here, we’ll die of hunger. There’s no food,” Jande said, standing beside a pot of rancid goat meat cooking beneath a mango tree in Terekeka, a tiny town 100 km (60 miles) north of southern Sudan’s capital, Juba.

As she spoke, her five-year-old twins hid in the folds of her tattered brown skirt, which would be scant protection from the annual rains and malaria-carrying mosquitos due in force within days.

A host of foreign governments including the United States, Kenya, Uganda and Britain backed Sudan’s 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which gave the south autonomy, a 50-50 share of oil revenues from wells within its borders and a route to independence via referendum by January 2011.

Mutual distrust and vitriol between Khartoum and Juba in the run-up to the April 11-13 elections mean the plebiscite is not assured: if it does proceed the south is almost sure to split and declare itself an independent state within six months.

So the deeply impoverished region’s outlook is far from clear.

In the worst-case scenario, the hostility between north and south that has riven Sudan since before its independence from Britain in 1956 will boil over once again, rekindling a civil war that would destabilise east Africa and halt oil output from the sub-Saharan region’s third-biggest producer.

Or the south could negotiate — as the United States is hoping — a “civil divorce, not a civil war” with Khartoum, securing billions of dollars in oil revenues that it can use to drag itself out of its war-induced time-warp.

Under this view, a flood of foreign investment should ensue, developing hoped-for oil reserves across the region and giving birth to state-of-the-art farms and fisheries fed by the waters of the upper Nile and its tributaries.

In their more fanciful moments, southern ministers even talk of droves of foreign tourists flying in to witness wild animal migrations said to rival those in Kenya’s Masai Mara.

ARMS FLOWS

History suggests optimists in southern Sudan, a region nearly as big as Texas and with a population estimated at anywhere between 8 and 13 million people, are more likely to be wrong than right. A return to war is not out of the question.

In the five years since the peace accord, the bulk of oil money accruing to the south — more than $2 billion a year — has gone on pay for civil servants and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the southern rebel movement that has morphed into its government.

But the SPLA, whose soldiers rescued Jande and her family from her Dinka captors, has also spent at least some of the cash re-arming, according to the Small Arms Survey, a global arms trade watchdog.

Citing satellite images and reports of arms shipments from Ukraine via Kenya, the Survey estimates the south bought more than 100 Soviet-era battle tanks, anti-aircraft guns, rocket launchers and 10,000 AK-47 assault rifles from 2007 to 2009.

Not only do such flows break an agreed weapons embargo, they also ensure that any conflict would have implications beyond southern Sudan’s borders.

“The southern Sudanese arms acquisitions are rooted in civil war-era political alliances, with regional allies, including Ethiopia and Kenya, acting as conduits for arms supplies from their own stocks or acquired on the international market,” the Survey said.

Alongside reported arms purchases by the north from China, Iran and Belarus, this has set nerves jangling at the Chinese, Indian and Malaysian oil firms running the south’s oil fields, which all lie close to the unofficial border.

In the event of conflict, they would have little option but to halt production from a country that was China’s fourth or fifth largest supplier of crude oil for much of 2009.

State-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the largest foreign player with a roughly 40 percent stake in Sudan’s oil industry, is “hoping for the best but preparing for the worst”, according to an industry source familiar with Chinese operations in Sudan.

“An independence vote for the south is likely to lead to clashes between the north and south, a worst-case scenario that we do not wish to see,” said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

CNPC would have no option but to “halt production and evacuate our 2,000 people in Khartoum and the oil-fields,” the source added.

WANING APPETITE FOR WAR

However, analysts say neither north nor south have much to gain from a resumption of hostilities: the disruption of oil exports would cut a cash lifeline that both governments need, now and in the foreseeable future.

“As much as oil has been a major source of conflict in the past, it also potentially represents the single greatest disincentive to renewed conflict if the parties can agree on wealth-sharing,” said Zachary Vertin, a Sudan analyst for the International Crisis Group in Nairobi.

Southern oil accounts for the lion’s share of Sudan’s total output, although the precise proportion depends on the final demarcation of a north-south border in areas such as Abyei, which was too sensitive to be included in the 2005 pact.

However, more importantly for the south, all its oil goes by pipeline through the north to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. This means that if it wants to, Khartoum can cut off a revenue stream that accounts for 98 percent of Juba’s budget.

In that event SPLA soldiers would quickly find themselves without pay, suggesting the south’s generals would struggle to mobilise large numbers of troops.

For the north, the prospect of disrupted or no production is almost as alarming, given that oil currently accounts for 45 percent of Sudan’s national budget.

As southern Presidential Affairs Minister Luka Biong Deng put it, both sides know what they stand to lose.

“Peace is our common objective because nobody will benefit from going back to war or seeing either party collapsing,” he told Reuters.

The United States has broadly backed the south, mainly due to its dislike for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the western region of Darfur.

But analysts say Washington will be loathe to take sides in a fiendishly complex conflict in the heart of Africa, and is more likely to focus on avoiding a new north-south war and keeping an independent south in one piece and on its feet.

“I would guess that the prefe
rence for the U.S. government all along is the unity of Sudan,” former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia David Shinn told Reuters.

“But you have to make plans for a divided Sudan — and then just hope that it doesn’t divide into more than two parts.”

NPR archive describes Obama as ‘Kenyan-born’
Description accompanies interview about ‘son of Africa’
April 09, 2010/By Bob Unruh/WorldNetDaily

Those crazy “birthers” are citing National Public Radio.

Really? NPR?

Archives for the tax-supported organization reveal that a 2008 report described then-Sen. Barack Obama as “Kenyan-born” and a “son of Africa.”

NPR’s promotion for the story included a brief description of West African correspondent Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, who “describes the stories that have been exciting, including the U.S. presidential race of Kenyan-born Sen. Barack Obama.”

After discussing various issues developing in Africa at the time – such as Kenya’s violent elections, the attacks in Zimbabwe and the presidency of South Africa – the conversation on the program “Tell Me More” turned to Obama.

New strategy unveiled today on answering Obama’s eligibility questions. See how you can help.

At about 9:45 of the audio report, interviewer Michelle Martin said “a son of Africa. Barack Obama is poised to at least have the opportunity to become the next president of the United States.” She asked, “How does this campaign look overseas?”

Quist-Arcton responded by describing Obama as a member of the Kenyan Luo tribe and reporting how Africa viewed the race.

“You know [the campaign] has absolutely fired the imagination not only of American people but of people in Africa,” she said. “For a start Barack Obama’s father is from Kenya. People were very excited and because they had had a failed election in Kenya, and the opposition leader Raila Odinga comes from the same tribe as Barack Obama’s father, the Luo. The joke was going around Kenya that America is going to have a Luo president before Kenya does.”

She continued, “There’s huge interest. Not just in Kenya. All over the continent. … The fact that a black man and one with African blood has managed to get this far … you know, I think has made young people sit up and listen and watch and follow the campaign and made the older generations who lived through the colonization and independence say, ‘Well, well, well. So it can happen in American too.”

WND also reported this week when a video appeared in which Michelle Obama said her husband’s “home country” was Kenya.

The video, posted April 3 on YouTube and forwarded by a score of Internet e-mails, shows Michelle Obama saying, “When we took our trip to Africa and visited his home country in Kenya, we took a public HIV test.”

The reference drew attention because of the claim made in numerous lawsuits and other challenges to Obama’s occupancy of the Oval Office that he is not eligible to be president under the requirement of Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution that the president be a “natural born citizen.”

But the NPR reference and Michelle Obama’s comment are far from the only ones of their kind.

At one point, there were reports that even Obama’s grandmother claimed being in attendance at his birth in Africa.

According to a compilation of images at a military forum, another reference was made in 2008 in the Nigerian Observer.

Under a byline from Solomon Asowata and a Washington dateline, the report says, “Americans will today go to the polls to elect their next president with Democratic Party candidate, Senator Barack Obama largely favoured to win. The Kenyan-born Senator will, however, face a stiff competition from his Republican counterpart…”

A commentary at the Post & E-mail website said, “It is no wonder that many doubt Obama’s claim of a Hawaiian birth.”

It cited another report from African Travel Magazine that said, “As Kenyan born U.S. Senator Barack Obama jets into Kenya today as part of his African tour, concerns have once again been raised on the security preparations for other visitors and residents. ….”

The commentary cited a similar report from Indonesia Matters but noted that the references had been “scrubbed” from the Internet.

WND documented earlier several other statements linking Obama and Kenya.

These included the apparently archived article from the Sunday Standard in Kenya.

The report begins, “Kenyan-born US Senate hopeful, Barrack (sic) Obama, appeared set to take over the Illinois Senate seat after his main rival, Jack Ryan, dropped out of the race on Friday night amid a furor over lurid sex club allegations.”
The article is credited to the wire service Associated Press at the bottom of the page. However, the article could not be found either in the AP archives available to the public online or the archive on the newspaper’s website. WND telephone calls and e-mails to the newspaper did not generate a response.

Last year, an African news site and an MSNBC broadcaster referred to President Obama’s birthplace as being outside of the United States.

Network correspondent Mara Schiavocampo was reporting on the celebratory atmosphere in Accra, Ghana, immediately prior to Obama’s visit to the west African nation.

Interviewing a person who appeared to be a shop operator, she stated, “Barack Obama is Kenyan … but Ghanaians are still proud of him.”

Also, a report at Modern Ghana posted in advance of the president’s visit cited his birthplace on the continent of Africa.

“For Ghana, Obama’s visit will be a celebration of another milestone in African history as it hosts the first-ever African-American President on this presidential visit to the continent of his birth,” the report said.
WND has reported on dozens of legal challenges to Obama’s status as a “natural born citizen.” The Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, states, “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.”

Some of the lawsuits question whether he was actually born in Hawaii, as he insists. If he was born out of the country, Obama’s American mother, the suits contend, was too young at the time of his birth to confer American citizenship to her son under the law at the time.

Other challenges have focused on Obama’s citizenship through his father, a Kenyan subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of his birth, thus making him a dual citizen. The cases contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born.

Complicating the situation is Obama’s decision to spend sums exceeding $1.7 million to avoid releasing an original long-form state birth certificate that would put to rest the questions.

WND also has reported that among the documentation not yet available for Obama includes his kindergarten records, Punahou school records, Occidental College records, Columbia University records, Columbia thesis, Harvard Law School records, Harvard Law Review articles, scholarly articles from the University of Chicago, passport, medical records, files from his years as an Illinois state senator, his Illinois State Bar Association records, any baptism records and his adoption records.

Because of the dearth of information about Obama’s eligibility, WND founder Joseph Farah has launched a campaign to raise contributions to post billboards asking a simple question: “Where’s the birth certificate?”
WND also reported previously when Michelle Obama contradicted Obama’s story that he lived with his mother and father for several years in Hawaii after he was born before his father left to pursue a graduate degree.

Michelle Obama said her husband
‘s m
other, Ann Dunham, was “very young and very single” when she gave birth to the future U.S. president.

Her comments undermine the official story as told by Barack Obama – that Dunham was married to his father, Barack Obama Sr., at the time of birth.

The remarks were made by Michelle Obama during a July 2008 round table at the University of Missouri. Obama was responding to criticism of her husband’s presidential campaign speeches about fatherhood and faith-based initiatives.

ANGOLA :

Oil Gains on Economic Recovery Optimism After U.S. Retail Sales
April 9, 2010/By Ben Sharples/Bloomberg

April 9 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil rose for the first time in three days as concerns over a Greek default subsided and better- than-estimated retail sales in the U.S. bolstered optimism of a global economic recovery and increased fuel demand.

Oil pared yesterday’s losses as March sales at 31 chain stores rose 9 percent, the biggest one-month gain since March 1999, according to the New York-based International Council of Shopping Centers. U.S. refineries operated at 84.5 percent of capacity last week, the highest rate since October, the Energy Department reported April 7.

“We saw some fairly encouraging retail sales data in the U.S. and that seemed to buoy market sentiment,” said Toby Hassall, a research analyst at CWA Global Markets Pty in Sydney. “It’s the latest in a string of encouraging macro data.”

Crude oil for May delivery gained as much as 43 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $85.82 a barrel, and was at $85.80 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 10:58 a.m. in Sydney. Yesterday, the contract fell 49 cents to $85.39. Oil is poised for a 1 percent gain for the week.

Oil declined yesterday after a gain in U.S. jobless claims and amid speculation Greece may default. The euro came within a cent of its weakest against the dollar in 11 months before erasing losses after Greece’s finance ministry said the country’s first-quarter budget deficit narrowed and European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said default is “not an issue.”

Crude oil prices had surged for six days from March 29 to April 6 following reports that showed growth in U.S. jobs and service industries.

Angolan Output

Angola, which vies with Nigeria as Africa’s biggest oil producer, expects new discoveries to boost crude output by 16 percent next year. Oil production will reach 2.2 million barrels a day by 2011, compared with 1.9 million barrels at present, Deputy Petroleum Minister Anibal Octavio da Silva said at a conference in Cape Town yesterday.

Angola pumped 1.935 million barrels of crude oil a day in March, a Bloomberg News survey of oil companies, producers and analysts showed. It exceeded its output target by 418,000 barrels a day, making the country the second-biggest overproducer in OPEC, after Iran.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is set to keep shipments steady in the four weeks ending April 24, according to tanker-tracker Oil Movements. OPEC, which supplies about 40 percent of the world’s crude, will ship 23.24 million barrels a day in the period, little changed from the month ended March 27, the Halifax, England-based consultant said yesterday in a report. The data exclude Ecuador and Angola.

Brent crude oil for May settlement gained 37 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $85.18 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Yesterday, the contract dropped 78 cents, or 0.9 percent, to end the session at $84.81.

–Editors: John Viljoen, Jane Lee.

SOUTH AFRICA:

South Africa: World Bank to Finance Coal-Fired Plant
By CELIA W. DUGGER/www.nytimes.com/2010/04/09

Eskom, the government-controlled utility, got its $3.75 billion loan on Thursday from the World Bank, mostly to finance a giant coal-fired power plant. The Obama administration, despite its unhappiness with the plant’s significant carbon emissions that will contribute to global warming, abstained rather than voting no and profoundly upsetting a regional powerhouse. The United States explicitly warned the bank in a statement that it would not actively oppose the loan because of South Africa’s acute energy needs, but that the bank should not bring forward similar coal projects in the future “without a plan to ensure there is no net increase in carbon emissions.”

2-million-year-old fossils offer look at human evolution
Scientists say the skeletons of a woman and boy could be one of the most important finds of recent times. A discovery by a 9-year-old led to finding the pair, dubbed Australopithecus sediba.
www.latimes.com/By Thomas H. Maugh II/April 9, 2010

The middle-aged woman and the young boy, perhaps her son or simply another member of her tribe, were out hunting on the African plains or maybe looking for water in the midst of a drought when they fell into a sinkhole, dying almost instantly.

Shortly thereafter, a monsoon or a flood washed them into a deeper basin, where they were covered with mud and rapidly fossilized.

In 2008, nearly 2 million years later, another boy, 9-year-old Matthew Berger, discovered part of their skeletons outside the Malapa cave north of Johannesburg, South Africa, a find that experts have dubbed one of the most important of recent times.

Matthew was accompanying his father, paleoanthropologist Lee R. Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, who had used images from Google Earth to identify caves in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site that might hold fossil deposits.

On his first visit to the Malapa cave, Berger took Matthew and suggested that the boy look around outside for fossils. Within 15 minutes, the boy returned carrying a block of stone bearing a hominid collarbone and a jawbone that had apparently been thrown out of the cave by miners.

Excited by Matthew’s discovery, a team led by Berger began excavating the cave and found the rest of that skeleton, which appears to be that of an 11-to-12-year-old boy, and the skeleton of a woman in her mid-30s.

The hominid pair may be direct ancestors of humans or they may be from a closely related branch on the human evolutionary tree, South African researchers reported Thursday in the journal Science.

Either way, experts agree that the rare discovery of nearly intact skeletons provides a look at evolution during what is considered one of the most significant periods of human development, when hominids were changing from the ape-like genus known as Australopithecus into the more modern forms we now know as Homo.

The skeletons are the only complete specimens that fall between the Australopithecus afarensis known as Lucy, dating from 3 million years ago, and the Homo erectus known as Turkana boy, dating from 1.5 million years ago.

“This give us a good chance to look at the rates of change of various parts” of the body, said biological anthropologist William Kimbel of Arizona State University, who was not involved in the discovery. It is exceptionally rare to get such insights from single individuals in which all the body parts are together, he said.

“There are very few things that we can call a skeleton from that time period,” said biological anthropologist Christopher Ruff of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who was also not involved in the research. Most often, researchers discover isolated craniums, jawbones or limbs and must extrapolate what the species looked like.

The research process is very much like the ancient tale of the seven blind men who each touch a different part of an elephant and draw widely differing conclusions about the beast’s shape, Ruff said. The new specimens are important because they provide a look at the whole elephant.

In addition to the hominid skeletons, the team found fossilized remains of at least 25 animal species, including antelope, mice, saber-toothed cats, a wildcat, a brown hyena, a wild dog and a horse.

They also found at least two other hominid skeletons, another woman and an infant, Berger said in a news conference, but they are not yet reporting on those.

All of the skeletons are in excellent shape because their fall into the pit protected them from scavengers and they were all fossilized rapidly.

The two “really remarkable skeletons” of primitive hominids that the team is reporting were quite surprising when they were completely unearthed, showing some characteristics of primitive australopithecines and some of the more modern Homo, Berger said.

The boy has a brain volume of about 420 cubic centimeters, less than the 510 cubic centimeters of the smallest known example of Homo and much less than the 1,200 to 1,600 cubic centimeters of modern humans.

The woman and the boy were about 4 feet tall, about the same as australopithecines. They also had long arms like those of the australopithecines. The woman weighed about 70 pounds and the boy about 60.

But the skeletons also had the smaller teeth, more prominent nose and less pronounced cheekbones of Homo erectus, as well as longer legs and changes in the pelvis characteristic of more modern hominids.

This combination of traits has never been observed in a single specimen. Harking back to the story of the blind men and the elephant, if anthropologists had only the teeth, they would think they had a species of Homo; if they had only the cranium, they would think it was Australopithecus; and if they had only the arm bone, they would think it’s an ape, Berger said.

“What we now know from this is that you need a lot more than just one part of the [body] to define a genus,” he said.

The lower limbs and the pelvis of the creatures, which the team has christened Australopithecus sediba, indicate that they easily walked upright. (“Australopithecus” means southern ape, and “sediba” is Sotho for natural spring, fountain or wellspring.) The long arms, however, indicate that they still climbed trees. Despite the name, then, “this is very different from australopithecines,” Berger said.

There are three primary possibilities, Berger said: Australopithecus sediba is either a direct ancestor of Homo erectus, an ancestor of some of the variants within the Homo lineage, or “a very close side branch mimicking the earliest members of Homo.”

Berger said the team would hold a competition among African children to give the boy a common name.

thomas.maugh

@latimes.com

War on white South Africa
www.wnd.com/Posted: April 09, 2010

Eugene Terre’Blanche, leader of the Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB) that seeks the establishment of a homeland for the Afrikaners of South Africa, was alone at his homestead over the Easter period, when two farmhands bludgeoned the 69-year-old separatist to a pulp with pangas and pipes. Based on hearsay – and their abiding sympathy for savages – news media across the West are insisting that the motive for the murder was a “labor dispute.”

This the oleaginous officials of the African National Congress (Mandela’s gang) must just love; they share with their admirers in the West a determination to ignore (and perhaps to encourage) the black onslaught against white South African farmers, or Boers (who happen to feed the continent).

Those of us who’ve been studying the systematic, race-based extermination of farming South Africa know too well the telltale signs of a farm murder. Without exception, Mr. Terre’Blanche and all 3,149 farmers murdered since “freedom” were slaughtered in ways that would do Shaka Zulu proud.

The brutality of the racially motivated murders of white farmers in South Africa, and, increasingly, of whites in general, is one aspect of these crimes. Mr. Terre’Blanche was unrecognizable. Two weeks before he was slaughtered, 17-year-old Anika Smit was raped, her throat slashed 16 times and her hands hacked off and removed from the scene.

Both acts of butchery were unremarkable in Mandela’s South Africa.

The dehumanization of the victim – Crimen injuria in South African law – is another feature of these feral acts. When they were finished with him, Terre’Blanche’s killers pulled down the old man’s pants, exposing his privates. Slain white farmers are often displayed like trophies by their black killers.

Mr. Terre’Blanche was a victim of a farm murder, plain and simple.

Afrikaner farmers are being exterminated at the genocidal annual rate of 313 per 100,000 inhabitants. Or, in the estimation of Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, who heads “Genocide Watch,” “four times as high as is for the rest of the population,” making farming in South Africa the most dangerous occupation in the world. (Miners, by comparison, suffer 27.8 fatalities per 100,000 workers.)

Mr. Terre’Blanche’s killers, who crept up on him in his sleep, were being hailed as heroes by black groups outside the Ventersdorp courthouse in which they appeared (in a part of South Africa now known as the North West Province) and beyond. Just in case her readers forgot who here was on the side of the angels, the Associated Press’ pack animal Michelle Faul gave them a history lesson peppered with politically correct pieties. She wrote:

“Blacks outside the courthouse were singing … songs from the struggle for majority rule that finally came in 1994 after years of state-sponsored violence by the white minority regime and urban guerrilla warfare waged by the African National Congress.”

As Ms. Faul tells it, the white crowd, there to protest (gasp) the slaying of Mr. Terre’Blanche, was singing (horrors) “the apartheid-era anthem in the Afrikaans language.”

As hard as it is for stupid Westerners to believe, there was life before black majority rule. The white minority settled the tip of the African continent around the same time Americans settled this one. Like their American coreligionists, the puritans of South Africa built the country currently being dismantled by the black majority. And, lo – they had a national life and an anthem: “Die Stem.”

Here’s a verse of that old “hate speech”:

In the golden warmth of summer,
In the chill of winter’s air,
In the surging life of springtime,
In the autumn of despair;
When the wedding bells are chiming,
Or when those we love depart,
Thou dost know us for thy children
And dost take us to thy heart.
Loudly peals the answering chorus;
We are thine, and we shall stand,
Be it life or death, to answer
Thy call, beloved land.

“Die Stem” is a paean to God and country, and rather beautiful at that.
Western journalists hunt in packs. The AP is only aping the ANC, according to which the old anthem is unsavory. Not so the hit jingle, “Kill The Boer; Kill the Farmer.” For it, says the ANC, does no more than pay homage to the Party’s illustrious history. (Agreed: Incitement to murder is a fitting ANC anthem.)

In the “New South Africa,” there is indeed a renewed appreciation for this old slogan, chanted at political rallies and funerals during “The Struggle” (against apartheid). The riff has been revived by ANC Youth League President Julius Malema, who stomps around the country calling for Boer scalps at every opportunity. (Malema has lived most of his life under black rule.)

Variants of the hit “Kill the Boer” have hit the social networking site Facebook. At the time Anika was taken, the country had been embroiled in a debate about posts that appeared under the name of Malema. One entry called on “fellow black people” to “take [their] land,” and “rape every trespasser, namely white whores … till the last breath is out. … White kids will be burned, especially those in Pretoria and Vrystaat.”

Anika, an Afrikaner, was from Pretoria.

Popularized by Mandela’s men, and sung by The Man himself, the AP considers an exhortation to kill whites nothing but an “anti-apartheid song.” Liberation lyrics.

Mantras and chants have a mesmerizing, often murderous, power in African life. The West’s malpracticing and mindless media (liberal and, sadly, “conservative” alike) have forgotten this.

In its hypnotic hold on the popular imagination, “Kill the Boer; Kill the Farmer” is not unlike the “Kill them before they kill you” catch phrase that helped excite Hutus to massacre half a million of their Tutsi neighbors, whom they had dehumanized first by dubbing as “inyenzi” (“cockroaches”).

Of course, banning an incitement to murder will do nothing to excise a dark reality embedded deep in the human heart.
Ilana Mercer is a libertarian writer and a fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies, an independent, nonprofit, economic-policy think tank. By popular demand, Ilana’s libertarian manifesto, “Broad Sides: One Woman’s Clash With A Corrupt Society,” is back in print. To learn more about Ilana and her work, visit IlanaMercer.com. To comment on this column, go to Ilana’s blog.

A disappointed South African
by Trisha Naidu/www.news24.com/2010-04-09

Being born in the apartheid era, going through the convictions of being a minority, we hoped for a better South Africa.

Nelson Mandela a man of status, integrity, wisdom, fought for the freedom of South Africa. What a mockery the ANC has made of his hard work and sacrifices.

Reading the news and watching the TV news brings great anger with what Julius Malema’s focus for the youth of today is. What is it that Julius Malema trying to do or teach today’s youth.

He claims not to be a racist, yet he is one. He claims to help to make the youth understand THE DYNAMIC of the history during the apartheid era; however his way of teaching is no history. He holds such a high moral about teaching the youth about the history during the apartheid era towards the black people, forgetting that the whole idea is to bring about peace in our country rather than war. Nelson Mandela has never sung liberation songs while he was fighting for the all of South Africa, not only for the black people, but also for the Indians, coloureds and whites. He wanted freedom and to walk the talk for freedom in this country.

Julius Malema, who do you think you are? You are not God, and not indispensable.

You may think you are a hero, but there is nothing to show your heroism. You sit in high power yet the youth of today are still suffering from starvation, no jobs, no homes, no motivation of being a better citizen. All you do is bring about corruption in this country, and teach not the truth of freedom, but the revenge of your bruised ego and hatred toward all whites.

You do not deserve the seat that you so proudly hold in the ANC. You claim that the apartheid era was all about whites, and only the black people suffered, you are wrong. For even the Indians who are a minority in this country faced the same grievances that the black people endured. Gandhi, a great man like Nelson Mandela, fought for the Indian people, but do you see the Indian people who are still in great poverty curse and point fingers at the apartheid era? In 1949 the Indians were terrorised, but we as Indians have moved past that hurtful time and look back at it as history.

You on the other hand Julius Malema are creating a confusion of history, and now. Today’s generation should not be blamed for what happened in the earlier times of history.

You drive in a Luxury car, live in a luxury home, have a luxury job, and the youth who support your wrong doings have nothing to show off your teaching.

Your hate speech is only going to create war in our Country. It is only a few days to the FIFA World Cup. What impression are you sending out to the world? You have no control with your anger, which is why you teach the youth of today to live in an angry world based on your hatred toward the white people. And all those that support you and your so called hatred, remember that there is no one GREATER THAN GOD.
You need help Julius Malema, You can’t separate the hatred you carry in your heart. Your pride will be broken. You only stand tall because you have money and status and back up from the ANC. You are a disgrace to our TRUE BORN LEADER NELSON MANDELA. You have destroyed all that he worked so hard for.

Julius Malema let go of your hatred and live as every other poor person in this country.

Malema get a life, and get of your high horse, for the horse you ride is going to drop you very soon. You have not made a difference amongst the youth of today.

AFRICA / AU :

Unearthing new species child’s play in S. Africa
Scientists say they have found the bones of a new hominid species that lived in Africa almost 2 million years ago during the period spanning the emergence of the human family.
April 9, 2010 /By Seattle Times news services/seattletimes.nwsource.com

CRADLE OF HUMANKIND, South Africa — Matthew Berger, 9, dashed after his dog Tau into the high grass here one morning in 2008, tripped over a log and stumbled onto a major archaeological discovery. Scientists said Thursday that he had found the bones of a new hominid species that lived almost 2 million years ago during the period spanning the emergence of the human family.

“Dad, I found a fossil!” Matthew said he cried out to his father, Lee Berger, an American paleoanthropologist, who had been searching for hominid bones a hill-and-a-half away for almost 20 years.

Matthew held the ancient remains of a 4-foot-2 boy who had been just a few years older than Matthew. Berger, with the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and his fellow researchers have since found more of the boy’s skeleton, including his well-preserved skull, and three other individuals.

In a report Friday in the journal Science, Berger, 44, and a team of scientists said the fossils from the boy and a woman are a distinctive mixture of primitive and advanced anatomy and thus qualified as a new species of hominid, the ancestors and other close relatives of humans.

It was named Australopithecus sediba, meaning “southern ape, wellspring,” to indicate its relation to earlier apelike forms and to features found in modern people.

The species strode upright on long legs, with human-shape hips and pelvis, but climbed through trees on apelike arms. It had the small teeth and more modern face of Homo, the genus that includes modern humans, but the relatively primitive feet and “tiny brain” of Australopithecus, Berger said.

Modern humans, Homo sapiens, descended over millions of years from earlier groups, such as Australopithecus, the best-known example of which may be the fossil Lucy, who lived about a million years before the newly discovered A. sediba.

Berger said the newly described fossils date between 1.95 million and 1.78 million years ago.

Some have characterized the find as a “missing link,” but that is a concept no longer accepted by science. “The ‘missing link’ made sense when we could take the earliest fossils and the latest ones and line them up in a row. It was easy back then,” said Smithsonian Institution paleontologist Richard Potts. But now researchers know there was great diversity of branches in the human family tree rather than a single smooth line.

In a teleconference Wednesday, Berger described the species as a possible ancestor of Homo erectus, an immediate predecessor to Homo sapiens, or a close “side branch” that did not lead to modern humans.

Scientists not involved in the research debate whether the bones belong to the Homo or Australopithecus genus, but most agreed the discovery of the skeletons at the Malapa site in the Cradle of Humankind, a World Heritage site where limestone caves contain fossils of ancient animals and hominids, was a major advance in the early fossil history of hominids.

“They are a fascinating mosaic of features,” Potts said.”It reminds us of the combining and recombining of characteristics, the tinkering and experimentation, that go on in evolution.”

Berger used images from Google Earth to identify caves in the Cradle of Humankind that might hold fossil deposits. On his first visit to the Malapa cave in August 2008, he took Matthew and suggested the boy look around outside the cave for fossils. Within 15 minutes, the boy had returned carrying a block of stone bearing a hominid collarbone and a jawbone that had apparently been thrown out of the cave by miners.

Excited by Matthew’s discovery, the team began excavating the cave and found the rest of that skeleton, of what appears to be an 11- to 12-year-old boy and another skeleton of a woman in her mid-30s, and skeletons of at least 25 species of animals, including antelope, mice, saber-toothed cats, a wildcat, a hyena, a wild dog and a horse. They also found at least two other hominid skeletons, another woman and an infant, Berger said at a news conference, but the team is not yet reporting on those.

All of the skeletons are in excellent shape because their fall into a pit in the cave protected them from scavengers and they were all fossilized rapidly.

South Africa set for Eugene Terreblanche funeral
Jonah Fisher /BBC News, Ventersdorp /Friday, 9 April 2010

The funeral of Eugene Terreblanche, the infamous South African white supremacist leader, is to take place.

Thousands of supporters are expected in the rural town Ventersdorp to commemorate his controversial life.

Terreblanche was killed on his farm on Sunday. Two of his workers have been charged with murder.

Having fought South Africa’s transition to democracy, Terreblanche was hated by many, if not most, of his fellow countrymen.

But thousands of Terreblanche’s supporters are expected to fill the grounds of the Afrikaans Protestant Church for his funeral in Ventersdorp.

Though all the indications are that the murder had more to do with money than politics, it has led to a period of heightened racial tension.

White groups and opposition parties blamed an ANC official, Julius Malema, for singing an apartheid-era song at rallies, that includes the lyrics “shoot the farmer”.

The ANC has rejected that link, but accepts that the song and the debate around it was polarising society.

It has now instructed its members to stop using it.

Anglo American, Aveng, Sasol: South Africa Stock Market Preview
April 09, 2010/By Nicky Smith/Bloomberg

April 9 (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 second day, losing 234.79, or 0.8 percent, to 29,030.38 in Johannesburg.

Anglo American Plc (AGL SJ): Three-month contracts for copper, aluminum, lead and zinc all rose on the London Metal Exchange. The diversified mining company which accounts for about 10 percent of South Africa’s benchmark index, fell 4.19 rand, or 1.3 percent, to 323.77 rand. BHP Billiton Ltd. (BIL SJ), the world’s largest mining company, fell 1.03 rand, or 0.4 percent, to 250.32 rand.

Aveng Ltd. (AEG SJ): The World Bank granted a $3.75 billion loan to South Africa to help finance the building costs of a coal-fired power station. Shares in South Africa’s largest construction company by market value fell 20 cents, or 0.5 percent, to 38.80 rand. Murray & Roberts Holdings Ltd. (MUR SJ), the second-largest, added 14 cents, or 0.3 percent, to 46.75.

Datatec Ltd. (DTC SJ): The largest Africa-based computer- services company, said it agreed to buy Indian management consultancy BDA Connect Ltd. for an undisclosed sum. Shares in Datatec fell 8 cents, or 0.2 percent, to 34.40 rand.

Sasol Ltd. (SOL SJ): Oil rose for the first time in three days, buoyed by positive market sentiment on U.S. retail sales. Sasol, the largest maker of automotive fuel from coal, added 4.01 rand, or 1.3 percent, to 315.51 rand.

Shares or American depositary receipts of the following South African companies closed as follows:

Anglo American Plc (AAUK US) was unchanged at $22.37. AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (AU US) dropped 1 percent to $40.70. BHP Billiton Ltd. (BBL US) added 0.8 percent to $69.73. DRDGold Ltd. (DROOY US) gained 0.2 percent to $5.36. Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI US) retreated 1 percent to $13.10. Harmony Gold Mining Co. (HMY US) slipped 1.7 percent to $10.05. Impala Platinum Holdings (IMPUY US) retreated 0.3 percent to $30.40. Sappi Ltd. (SPP US) added 0.2 percent to $4.43. Sasol Ltd. (SSL US) rose 1.8 percent to $43.54.

–Editors: Alastair Reed, Philip Sanders.

African Union leaders and international experts launch campaign to combat human trafficking
By Anthony Mwangi/www.unicef.org/9 April 2010

ABUJA, Nigeria, 8 April 2010 – An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked worldwide each year for sexual exploitation and cheap labor. Child trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry that affects every country in the world – either as a source or a destination country – and the global economic crisis has only exacerbated this grave violation of children’s human rights.

In Western and Central Africa, as in other regions, extreme poverty can create conditions that are conducive to child trafficking. Women and children are the worst affected.

In response, African Union (AU) leaders and international experts met recently to launch a new campaign against trafficking in persons – especially women and children.

Links to poverty and gender

“Trafficking persons in the western Africa region is linked to poverty, large family size, lack of education opportunities, unemployment, low status of children and women, and ignorance,” said H.E. James Victor Gbeho, President of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) during the AU Commission/ECOWAS regional launch of a new Initiative Against Trafficking in Human Persons.
The campaign, which was launched during a 24 to 26 March 2010 meeting and workshop in Abuja, Nigeria, is also known as ‘AU Commit.’ It focuses on implementing the Ouagadougou Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings, Especially Women and Children – a plan adopted by world leaders in 2006 to provide ‘actionable measures’ to protect those at risk of trafficking. The recent workshop was attended by representatives from the ECOWAS Members States, the Regional Economic Communities of the African Union and UN agencies, including UNICEF.

“Trafficking characteristics are intertwined with violence chiefly directed at the female gender,” said Ms. Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, during the launch meeting.

She added that trafficking shares the underlying causes of violence against women and girls, including unequal power relations, discrimination, feminization of poverty, sexual objectification and the prevalence of sex stereotypes.

More convictions, more rescues

Despite the insidious roots of human trafficking, participants at the AU Commit launch noted that some strives have been made in protecting those most vulnerable.

H.E. Bience Gawanas, the AU Commissioner for Social Affairs, said that the number of countries enacting anti-trafficking legislation has more than doubled in recent years. And at the 10th anniversary of the Palermo Protocol’s adoption, 43 out of 53 AU Member States have now ratified it.

“More and more convictions of traffickers have been made, and more trafficked persons rescued,” she said.

Nigeria ratified the Palermo Protocol in 2001 and domesticated it by enacting a local legislation in 2003, Ms. Gawanas pointed out. The country is one of the very few in the world with specific national legislation criminalizing human trafficking.

UN /ONU :

At UN, US envoy says vote is going ‘awry’ in Sudan
By JOHN HEILPRIN (AP) /09042010

UNITED NATIONS — U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice brushed aside Sudan’s assurances that it will hold fair elections this month, telling reporters Thursday that what she heard about the situation at a U.N. Security Council briefing was troubling.

“Unfortunately, the trends on the ground are very disturbing,” Rice said after a closed-door briefing by U.N. peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy on Sudan’s first multiparty elections in more than two decades, set to begin on April 11. “The larger picture is that much is awry in this process, and that is a real concern.”

Rice said the United States would favor delaying the vote, particularly after the European Union’s decision, announced Wednesday, to withdraw its election observers from Sudan, whose fate poses a risk to the stability of the broader East Africa region.

She had requested the report by Le Roy after former Sudanese Prime Minister Sadig al Mahdi’s Umma party announced it will boycott the election. Several of Sudan’s biggest opposition parties have withdrawn from the race.

“There have been some significant impediments on the ground, restrictions on civil liberties, harassment of the media, reduction in the number of polling places, insecurity, an inability of many of the people, particularly in Darfur, to be able to register and participate,” she said. “If a very brief delay were decided to be necessary, and we thought that a brief delay would enable the process to be more credible, we would be prepared to entertain that.”

Rice said Le Roy reinforced the United States’ long-standing concerns about the elections. That contrasts with U.S. President Barack Obama’s special envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration, who said five days ago the assurances he got from Sudan’s election commission have given him “confidence that the election will start on time and that they will be as free and that they well be as fair as possible.”

Le Roy told reporters it will be up to the 18,000 Sudanese and 750 international election observers to assess the results, since the U.N. is only providing technical help as mandated by the Security Council.

The turmoil over Sudan’s elections stems from allegations of government violations and opposition threats of a boycott, dampening hopes the conflict-plagued nation can avoid more violence in Darfur and the south.

Sudan’s Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamed, who has vehemently defended the president, Omar al-Bashir, promised the elections would serve as a real turning point in his nation, after 50 years of civil war between north and south that killed 2 million people.

He predicted that the elections will be “fair, transparent and successful” despite repeated military coups and years of violence in Darfur that have claimed an estimated 300,000 lives and brought international war crimes charges against al-Bashir.

“We have no electoral crisis at all,” he said. “We may have some crisis within some political parties.”

A U.S.-backed peace treaty in 2005 ended the north-south war, setting in motion both the elections this month and a key vote next year on a referendum that could grant independence to the southern oil-rich and mainly Christian and animist region. Sudan is sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest oil producer.

Fears are rising any such move could lead to more violence with the predominantly Muslim north that has ruled for decades. The separate conflict in Darfur erupted in 2003, when ethnic African tribes rose up complaining of discrimination by the Arab-led government in Khartoum.

Climate change deal could take another year
The world is unlikely to agree a deal to stop global warming this year, the head of climate change negotiations has admitted, as nations meet for the latest round of talks.
By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent/www.telegraph.co.uk/09 Apr 2010

The last meeting in Copenhagen ended in chaos after rich and poor countries failed to agree on the best way to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Environmentalists now say the last hope for preventing catastrophic climate change is if the United Nations agree a treaty in Mexico at the end of this year.

But Yvo de Boer, head of the UN body in charge of negotiations, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), doubted a legally binding deal would be reached in 2010. He expected the best outcome from Mexico would be if countries agree the basic architecture “so that a year later, you can decide or not decide to turn that into a treaty”. The 2011 meeting is in South Africa.

Negotiators from more than 175 countries will meet in Bonn this weekend for the first meeting since Copenhagen. It is their job to work on the complex text between now and the end of the year so leaders have a deal to sign. Key issues include setting up a system for protecting rainforests and paying billions of pounds to poor countries most vulnerable to climate change. However there are already fears that the talks will immediately dissolve into a “blame game” over who was responsible for the failure in Denmark last year.

The rich countries, including the United States, want a completely new agreement that commits developing countries to making cuts for the first time.

But poor countries refuse to act until the rich world, that is historically responsible for most emissions, has signed up to legally binding targets under an existing treaty, the Kyoto Protocol.

The UK Government is leading the way by pledging to sign the Kyoto Protocol as long as developing countries also agree to cut emissions.

Wendel Trio, of Greenpeace, hoped the meeting in Bonn will begin the process of bringing the two sides together so the world can finally reach a legal agreement.

He pointed out that the current national targets for cutting greenhouse gases put forward as part of a weak ‘Copenhagen Accord’ will not keep global temperature rise below 2C (3.6F) and therefore risk floods, droughts and sea level rise.

“We are hoping the meeting will not descend into a blame game but look at how the world can go forward and raise the level of ambition,” he said.

The meeting may also throw up more information on who will replace Mr de Boer when he leaves the post later this year. Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary General, will choose the best person for the post – that could be upgraded to Under Secretary General of the UN in order to give it more status and power.

Top contenders are India’s former environment secretary Vijai Sharma, South Africa’s former Tourism Minister Marthinus Van Schalkwyk and Costa Rica’s Christiana Figueres, who currently is an adviser to a Spanish energy company. Barbados, Indonesia, Ecuador and Pakistan also have nominated candidates.

USA :

World Bank approves loan for coal-fired power plant in South Africa
By Reuters/Friday, April 9, 2010

The World Bank on Thursday approved a controversial $3 billion loan for the development of a coal-fired power plant by the South African state utility Eskom despite lack of support from major shareholder countries.

The United States, the Netherlands and Britain said they abstained from supporting the loan because of environmental and other concerns about the project.

Eskom has defended the development of the 4,800-megawatt Medupi plant in the northern Limpopo region, saying it is critical to ease the country’s chronic power shortages as well as to ensure electricity flows to neighboring states.

The World Bank said the loan would help “South Africa achieve a reliable electricity supply.” In addition to the $3 billion loan for the coal plant, the World Bank approved $750 million in financing for renewables and energy-efficiency projects.

“Without an increased energy supply, South Africans will face hardship for the poor and limited economic growth,” Obiageli Ezekwesili, World Bank vice president for Africa, said in a statement.

The U.S. Treasury said it abstained because of “concerns about the climate impact of the project and its incompatibility with the World Bank’s commitment to be a leader in climate change mitigation and adaptation.”

The Treasury also said the project was inconsistent with guidelines the Obama administration issued in December on coal-related lending by development banks. It said that although it recognized South Africa’s pressing needs, it was concerned the project would produce “significant” greenhouse gas emissions.

A Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman cited concerns that Eskom was not doing enough to develop alternatives to coal. Britain’s Department for International Development said the project raised “several sensitive and potentially controversial issues” that it couldn’t resolve because of an election campaign.

The opposition to the Eskom loan has raised eyebrows among some observers, who note that Britain and the United States are allowing development of coal-powered plants at home even as they raise concerns about those in poorer countries. The South African plant is using the same technology used in the United States and other developing countries to lower carbon emissions.

The Environmental Defense Fund called the bank’s decision a setback. “This was a missed opportunity for the U.S. and the World Bank to move away from a traditional focus on fossil-fueled growth and toward a new model of low-carbon economic development,” said Peter Goldmark, director of the fund’s climate and air program.

Parker: Michael Steele: Pride or prejudice?
By Kathleen Parker/www.recordonline.com/04/09/10

When you’re Michael Steele, there’s no waking up and thinking: Ahhhh, at least the worst is over.

Whatever the week, Monday is the start of another very bad one. No exception to the trend, this week began dramatically.

First, Steele’s chief of staff, Ken McKay, resigned in another RNC stab (cue soundtrack from “Psycho”) at damage control in the wake of profligate spending and that whole bondage-stripper thing.

Next, Steele’s longtime political consulting firm, On Message, severed ties with the RNC head. His relentless off-messaging apparently was hurting the company’s brand. Nothing personal, of course. High regard and all that. “We wish him well,” said consultant Curt Anderson, as he lowered himself into the Titanic’s last lifeboat.

And that was the good part of the week. Still to come was reaction to the latest on the list of “Things Michael Steele Shouldn’t Have Said”: It’s about race.

Appearing recently on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Steele told George Stephanopoulos that being African-American has magnified his travails. Stephanopoulos had asked Steele whether his race gave him a “slimmer margin for error.”

“The honest answer is yes,” said Steele. “It just is. Barack Obama has a slimmer margin. We all — a lot of folks do. It’s a different role for me to play and others to play, and that’s just the reality of it.”

Except that African-American Republicans aren’t buying it. For starters, Steele was elected by the predominantly white party. After months of unforced errors, he can’t now turn around and charge his party with racism. Actually, racism would mean expecting less from an African-American than from a white counterpart.

If you can’t play the race card with your own race, you might be in a heap of denial. As Juliette Ochieng wrote in a blog item that was picked up by BookerRising.net, the black, moderate-conservative news site:

“Mr. Steele’s margin for error is smaller than it was when he first became RNC chair due entirely to the fact that he has made so many errors and due to the fact that he seems incapable of learning from them.”

It’s not clear who Steele thinks his audience is when he deals the race card. Meanwhile, black Republicans have their own complaints about Steele, principally that the RNC leader has failed to support African-American candidates.

One of the more outspoken among these is Jean Howard-Hill, a University of Tennessee-Chattanooga political science professor, lawyer and Republican activist. And, some might say … a troublemaker?

“I wear the label very proudly,” she says.

Howard-Hill is a familiar name in party politics, especially in Tennessee, where she is running for Congress after decades of recruiting blacks to the GOP. A Georgia-born scholar whose childhood memories include a cross burning in her front yard, she seems an unlikely Republican.

“You have to be a little crazy to be an African-American Republican. I admit that.”

But Howard-Hill sees the Republican Party as her natural home and, importantly, the best route for economic empowerment.

“Some of us are tired of being poor.”

When she goes into black churches to preach the GOP gospel, Howard-Hill reminds congregants that blacks were first elected to Congress as Republicans during Reconstruction and that their birthright was stolen by the Dixiecrats.

In South Carolina, rising Republican star Marvin Rogers, a candidate for the South Carolina Legislature, is telegraphing the same message with his book “Silence Makes the Loudest Sound.” Basically, conservative blacks want their party back.

But many political candidates are being hampered in part by a lack of access to the RNC coffers, says Howard-Hill. She blames Steele, and amends his different-standards defense accordingly.

“I would say we’re (blacks) treated differently within the party. But in terms of integrity, the standard is the same. Michael needs to own up because it’s not race. From day one, he has messed up. … If he wants to play the race card, play it with us.”

To be fair to Steele, he didn’t introduce the race issue and was responding to a question. Nevertheless, his answer and the African-American Republican response have shed light on Steele’s central flaw. As always, it isn’t the mistake that brings you down; it’s the cover-up.

In Steele’s case, the cover-up is pride — an unwillingness to take personal responsibility. Whether it’s the poor staffer who approved $1,900 for a strip club or the chief of staff who got the boot, it’s always someone else’s fault.

Steele needs to face the truth and set himself — and his party — free.

CANADA :

U.K. Stocks Advance; FTSE 100 Heads for Sixth Weekly Rally
By Adam Haigh/Bloomberg/April 9

April 9 (Bloomberg) — U.K. stocks rose, with the benchmark FTSE 100 Index heading for a sixth straight weekly gain, amid speculation a bailout for Greece is imminent.

Mining shares Xstrata Plc and Kazakhmys Plc climbed as metals prices advanced in London. Michael Page International Plc rose 1.2 percent after the U.K.’s second-largest recruitment company reported an increase in first quarter profit.

The FTSE 100 advanced 55.79, or 1 percent, to 5,768.49 at 8:34 a.m. in London, recouping yesterday’s drop. The gauge has rallied 6.6 percent this year as the European Union agreed to a contingency rescue package to help Greece cut its budget deficit. The FTSE All-Share Index gained 0.9 percent today and Ireland’s ISEQ Index rose 0.5 percent.

“The recent market action means that an external intervention may be unavoidable and could happen very soon as the situation is untenable,” London-based economists including Stephane Deo at UBS AG wrote in a report today. “An intervention over the weekend is a distinct possibility.”

Greek bonds have plunged this week on renewed concern that the country won’t succeed in cutting its budget deficit, the European Union’s largest. Leaders of the nations who share the euro last month endorsed a Franco-German proposal to help Greece with a mix of International Monetary Fund and bilateral loans at market interest rates that would be triggered only if Greece runs out of fund-raising options.

Xstrata, Kazakhmys

Xstrata gained 2.3 percent to 1,292 pence. Kazakhmys climbed 2.3 percent to 1,592 pence. Copper, lead and nickel prices rallied on the London Metals Exchange.

Separately, the Australian Financial Review reported Xstrata, the world’s fourth-largest copper producer, has approached Macarthur Coal Ltd. shareholders Posco and ArcelorMittal about a potential rival bid. The report did not say where it got the information.

Michael Page rose 1.2 percent to 428.6 pence. The recruitment company said its gross profit in the first quarter rose 8 percent to 97.8 million pounds.

Now, NDTV Imagine available in Canada on Bell TV
April 09, 10 /exchange4media Mumbai Bureau

After making its presence felt in international markets such as the US, the UK, the Middle East and North Africa, NDTV Imagine has now announced that it will be available in Canada as well. NDTV Imagine will be available on Bell TV channel 726 for $5 per month as an add-on to its South Asian combo theme pack.

Commenting on this development, Tharun Rai, Vice President – Distribution & New Ventures, NDTV Imagine, said, “We are very pleased to be partnering with Bell TV to offer the best of diverse Hindi programming to the ever-increasing, Hindi-speaking Diaspora in the region.”

He further said, “With the addition of the Canadian market, NDTV Imagine’s presence now extends to all the key markets in the world – USA, UK, Middle East & North Africa, as well as India and some of the neighbouring South Asian countries.”

NDTV Imagine airs popular shows such as ‘Jyoti’, ‘Kashi’, ‘Jamunia’, ‘Palkon Ki Chaaon Mein’, ‘Do Hanson Ka Jodaa’, ‘Devi’ and ‘Bandini’, among others.

Chinese miners eye expansion in new regions
April 09/english.people.com.cn/Source: China Daily

Chinese mining companies, while continuing to invest in Australia and Canada, will eye more mining opportunities in Africa, Central Asia and Russia in 2010, as they face more challenges in acquiring high-yield mines worldwide, according to an Ernst & Young report Thursday.

As commodity prices rally in a quicker than expected recovery, Australian and Canadian mining companies have withstood the test of financial difficulties and are not pressed to sell their assets for cash, said Eleanor Wu, transaction adviser at Ernst & Young.

“In the meantime, more buyers will compete with Chinese companies for quality assets in low-risk countries like Australia and Canada. Therefore, many of our customers showed interest in higher-risk investment destinations including Africa, Central Asia and Russia,” said Wu.

Africa, Central Asia and Russia are attractive to Chinese investors because they are more likely to acquire a controlling stake in those countries.

But infrastructure in those countries is not well-established. Costs and risks are increased accordingly.

To hedge the risks and build infrastructure like ports and railways, Chinese miners might invite international investors and domestic contractors to be their business partners for mining projects in developing countries.

“Chinese buyers gradually realized that they cannot always take a majority stake, so there will be more cases but on a smaller scale,” said Raymond Ng, assurance partner at Ernst & Young. “However, there is still a possibility to reach mega deals larger than $1 billion.”

The report forecasts mergers and acquisitions in the mining sector would increase steadily in 2010, with mega deals remaining scarce.

As continued demand from China and India fuels a rapid economic recovery, the financial conditions of mining companies are largely improved. Borrowing will return to historic averages of 20 to 30 percent, compared with an average of 50 percent during the crisis period.

According to the report, cash-rich Chinese state-owned enterprises and massive sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp have played leading roles in outbound deals for resource security concerns. In the meantime, a new breed of Chinese investors from the private sector will play a more active role in 2010, motivated by extensive technical due diligence and short term yields.

AUSTRALIA :

New species bridges gap between trees and ground for early humans
09, Apr 2010/www.inthenews.co.uk/By Matthew Champion.

Two partial skeletons of a new species of ancient descendants of modern-day humans have been unveiled by scientists, who are hailing the discovery for shedding new light on the evolution of our species.

The new hominids, found in a cave in South Africa and christened Australopithecus sediba, share many traits with the Homo genus, which includes Homo sapiens.

Scientists from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa and James Cook University in Australia working in the Cradle of Humankind, the World Heritage site 50km north-west of Johannesburg, uncovered the partial skeletons of an adult female and juvenile male – possibly mother and son – in 2008.

Publishing their findings in the journal Science, they claim that the new species – whose name translates as “fountain” or “wellspring” in seSotho – represents the transition period between our ancestors who lived in the trees to those who walked and ran on the ground.

The skeletons are between 1.95 million and 1.78 million years old, meaning they appeared more than a million years later than the famed Australopithecus afarensis creature found in Ethiopia and known as “Lucy”.

The scientists claim the skeletons suggest the transition from hominids to the Homo genus occurred in very slow stages, with several Homo-like species emerging first.

Lee Berger, lead author of the Science reports, said: “It is not possible to establish the precise phylogenetic position of Australopithecus sediba in relation to various species assigned to early Homo.

“We can conclude that… this new species shares more derived features with early Homo than any other known australopith species, and thus represents a candidate ancestor for the genus, or a sister group to a close ancestor that persisted for some time after the first appearance of Homo.”

Werner Enterprises’ Executive Addresses 2010 Australian Trucking Convention
April 9, 2010/www.marketwatch.com

OMAHA, Neb., Apr 08, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Derek Leathers, chief operating officer of Werner Enterprises /quotes/comstock/15*!wern/quotes/nls/wern (WERN 23.34, +0.18, +0.78%) and president of Werner Global Logistics spoke Thursday, April 8 to the 2010 Australian Trucking Convention at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre in Queensland, Australia. Leathers addressed a crowd of Australian trucking industry insiders and discussed how Werner Enterprises has successfully dealt with the recession and how the company’s success in transportation and logistics can help other organizations improve their business.

“Throughout the past 50 plus years, our company has successfully implemented transportation and logistics solutions across the globe,” Derek Leathers, chief operating officer of Werner Enterprises and president of Werner Global Logistics said at the conference. “The growing transportation needs of Australia make it a prime location to continue this model of success.”

In the third quarter of 2009, Werner Global Logistics established its newest subsidiary, Werner Global Logistics Australia Pty. Ltd. The new subsidiary expands the company’s global presence and offers freight forwarding, logistics, local transportation and distribution services to the Australian market. The primary service areas include the most densely populated markets of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Werner Enterprises, Inc. was founded in 1956 and is a premier transportation and logistics company, with coverage throughout North America, Asia, Europe, South America, Africa and Australia. Werner maintains its global headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska and maintains offices in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China and Australia. Werner is among the five largest truckload carriers in the United States, with a diversified portfolio of transportation services that includes dedicated, medium-to-long-haul, regional and local van capacity, expedited, temperature-controlled and flatbed services. Werner’s Value Added Services portfolio includes freight management, truck brokerage, intermodal, load/mode and network optimization and freight forwarding. Werner, through its subsidiary companies, is a licensed U.S. NVOCC, U.S. Customs Broker, licensed Freight Forwarder in China, licensed China NVOCC, TSA-approved Indirect Air Carrier and IATA Accredited Cargo Agent.

SOURCE: Werner Enterprises, Inc.
Werner Enterprises, Inc.
Fred Thayer, 800-228-2240
Director of Corporate Communications

EUROPE :

CHINA :

South Africa to get $3.75 billion World Bank loan
By HARRY DUNPHY (AP) /09042010

WASHINGTON — The World Bank approved a $3.75 billion loan Thursday to help South Africa build a coal-fired power plant over opposition from the United States and environmental groups.

The bank said the loan is aimed at helping South Africa achieve a reliable power supply, to export electricity to neighboring countries and to avoid the power shortages in South Africa that led to blackouts in 2008.

The bank said the 4,800 megawatt coal-powered plant would be run by the state-owned Eskom electricity utility and use for the first time on the African continent the same proven, “supercritical technology” that major industrialized nations employ in similar plants.

The United States, the bank’s largest shareholder, abstained from the executive board’s discussion, expressing worries about the climate impact of the power plant project and saying it would produce significant greenhouse gas emissions. Environmental groups and others opposed the loan, saying the bank should not finance fossil fuel plants.

A statement from the U.S. Treasury Department said the loan was incompatible with the bank’s “commitment to be a leader in climate change mitigation and adaptation.”

The Americans said they did not expect similar projects for middle income countries such as South Africa without plans in place to ensure the planned projects would cause no net increase in carbon emissions.

The board’s other members, including India, China and Saudi Arabia, who represent other countries, went ahead with approving the project by consensus, which means without a vote.

But a top World Bank official defended the loan.

“Without an increased energy supply, South Africans will face hardship for the poor and limited economic growth,” said Obiageli K. Ezekwesili, the bank’s vice president for Africa. “Access to energy is essential for fighting poverty and catalyzing growth, both in South Africa and the wider region.”

The major part of the loan, $3.05 billion, will go toward completing the Medupi power plant in the northern part of the country. Wind and solar power projects were allocated $475 million from the loan.

INDIA :

Safaricom Sees Price Cuts After Bharti Purchase of Zain Assets
April 09, 2010/By Eric Ombok and Nicky Smith/Bloomberg

April 9 (Bloomberg) — Safaricom Ltd., Kenya’s biggest company by market value, said Bharti Airtel Ltd.’s purchase of Zain’s African assets may result in increased price competition among mobile-phone operators in the country.

“When Bharti comes the focus will be to reduce prices,” Chief Executive Officer Michael Joseph said in an interview on April 7. Nairobi-based Safaricom, the largest wireless operator in Kenya, and some of its competitors have already begun “price promotions,” he said.

Bharti agreed to buy Zain’s African assets for $9 billion last month. The New Delhi-based company has sought overseas businesses as competition at home has reduced call rates for many of its 122 million Indian subscribers to as little as half a U.S. cent a minute.

Bharti may be in a position to price aggressively and win customers because of its lower cost base. The company’s ability in India to negotiate lower prices from equipment suppliers because of the size of its orders may be replicated in Africa, said Julian Watson, a London-based director of telecoms research for IHS Global Insight. Zain had started to try to cut costs before the merger, Watson said in a phone interview.

“Bharti will be able to accelerate that,” he said. “It has huge purchasing power, so it can negotiate down equipment costs through vendors. It can use its global procurement to lower other types of costs.”

Increased competition in Kenya, East Africa’s biggest economy, may result in Safaricom’s market share shrinking to 69 percent by March 2014 from 78 percent, African Alliance, a Mauritius-based investment bank, said in a report in November.

‘Strong Competitor’

“Bharti is going to be a strong competitor,” Joseph said. “They run a very successful company, very innovative, very successful in terms of number of subscribers and financial performance.”

Safaricom has more than 15 million subscribers. It competes with Zain Kenya Ltd., which was bought by Bharti, along with Telkom Kenya Ltd., a unit of France Telecom SA, and Essar Telecom Kenya Ltd, a unit of India’s Essar Group. The four had a combined subscriber base of 17.4 million at the end of June, according to the Communications Commission of Kenya’s Web site.

Joseph said Safaricom will reduce charges to a level that enables it to achieve a return on investment and pay dividends to its shareholders. Price reductions won’t be sustainable in the longer term, he said.

“You have to have a return on your investment in order to reinvest the profits in your network in order to grow your network, and secondly you obviously have shareholders and stakeholders to satisfy,” Joseph said.

Operator Earnings

Operators in Africa earned $10.49 a month from their customers in the fourth quarter of last year, compared with $2.73 in India, according to Informa Telecoms & Media, a London- based research firm.

Internet access costs for customers have already fallen as much as 70 percent over the past six months for businesses and 30 percent for individuals following the activation of three fiber-optic links. Safaricom has about 3.5 million Internet customers, Joseph said.

The East African Submarine System, a fiber-optic cable linking 20 African countries, landed at the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa on March 22. Seacom, a link owned by Mauritius-based Seacom Ltd. was the first in East Africa to go live in July 2009. The East African Marine System fiber-optic cable, commonly known as Teams, started operating in October.

Network Expansion

Safaricom is expanding its data networks in Kenya using part of the 7.5 billion shillings ($97.7 million) the company raised selling bonds last year. The sale was the first portion of a planned 12 billion-shilling offering.

“For the balance of the bond, we will probably come back to the market around October,” Joseph said.

In November, Safaricom reported first-half profit rose 6.6 percent to 6.63 billion shillings. The company is scheduled to report full-year earnings on May 26. Its performance in the fiscal fourth quarter to March 31 “was in line with our expectations,” he said, without elaborating.

Safaricom is 40 percent owned by Newbury, England-based Vodafone Plc, the world’s largest mobile-phone company.

Foreign individuals and corporate investors hold 22 percent of its free float shares compared with 18.8 percent at the start of 2010, Joseph said. Over the same period, the shareholding of domestic individuals has reduced to 35.5 percent from 37 percent, while local company ownership has fallen to 42.5 percent from 43 percent.

Joseph, who has been CEO of Safaricom since it was established in 2000, said the 2008 initial public offering prospectus gave him the option to retire at the end of 2009. He will only leave the company “when a successor is in place.”

–Editors: Paul Richardson, Antony Sguazzin.

BRASIL:

New deepwater drilling rigs extend search for energy
By BRETT CLANTON /www.chron.com/April 9, 2010

SOME oil and gas industry leaders like to say the “easy oil” in the world has been found. But perhaps the only way to fully appreciate that idea is to step aboard a ship like the Discoverer Inspiration.

The $630 million vessel is one of a new wave of ultra-deepwater drilling rigs, leaving Asian shipyards now, that will again push the limits of what the offshore industry can do.

Nearly as big as an aircraft carrier, the Discoverer Inspiration is built to operate in waters up to 12,000 feet deep and drill wells an additional five miles below the sea floor. Think of flying in an airplane at 40,000 feet and trying to stick a 7-inch-wide pipe in a car on the ground below, and you get the idea.

Though a previous generation of ships could reach almost as far, the Inspiration has added more power, speed and automation to the drilling process, as well as more ways to track in real-time what is happening in the well so operators can correct problems as they go.

Given that drilling and completion costs represent two-thirds of the bill for big deepwater exploration projects, such advances are important, said Gary Luquette, president of Chevron’s North America Exploration and Production Co. in Houston.

“If you can cut that by a quarter or a third or even half, there’s huge, huge improvements in the economics, which would bring some discoveries in that in the past would be considered uneconomic,” he said.

Oil companies are demanding such rigs as they expand their search for oil and natural gas into deeper waters of mature basins like the Gulf of Mexico and eye emerging regions such as the Philippines and East Africa.

Today, there are 128 rigs in the world capable of drilling in at least 4,000 feet of water, and most reside in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Brazil and West Africa, said Tom Kellock, head of consulting at ODS-Petrodata in Houston. An additional 67 rigs are planned, on order or under construction, though 27 have still have no contract with oil companies, he said.

But they don’t come cheap. Chevron is paying Switzerland’s Transocean, which has major operations in Houston, about half a million dollars a day under a five-year contract for the Discoverer Inspiration. Total costs to run the rig come in closer to $1 million a day.

Aboard the Discoverer Inspiration, it’s easy to see how the tab can escalate quickly in the deep water.

The ship requires a cast of nearly 200 people to keep the operation running. Six 9,000-horsepower diesel engines — each capable of consuming 250 gallons of diesel per hour — run generators that create enough power to keep the lights on in a city of 42,000 people. They also run six rotating satellite-guided propellers that keep the ship almost perfectly still while drilling, eliminating the need for anchors.

Even drilling fluids, which lubricate drill bits and remove debris from the well, can run $10 million per well.

Such costs are easier to swallow now that oil prices are moving toward $90 a barrel again, but operators say the projects are planned over years and not subject to short-term moves in commodity prices.

Steven Newman, CEO of Transocean, said next-generation vessels may not look much different than those launching today. But he envisions further advances in the integration between what the drill bit is seeing downhole with instrumentation on the ship’s drill floor. The end result, he said, should be a more efficient well.

brett.clanton@chron.com

EN BREF, CE 09 avril 2010 … AGNEWS / OMAR, BXL,09/04/2010