{jcomments on}Omar,AGNEWS, BXL,18/02/2010 –U.S. restrictions designed to stop terrorists in Somalia from diverting aid are hurting humanitarian operations in the lawless Horn of Africa country, U.N. officials said Wednesday. U.N. agencies have not seen any evidence from the American government that food aid is being diverted to Islamists fighting the U.N.-backed Somali government, said the top U.N. humanitarian official for Somalia, Mark Bowden.

BURUNDI :

RWANDA

Rwanda: Mushikiwabo Emphases Business Diplomacy
James Karuhanga/The New Timesallafrica.com/18 February 2010

Kigali — Minister of Foreign Affairs Louise Mushikiwabo has called upon Rwanda diplomats to put more effort in marketing the country as a potential business destination in addition to the traditional diplomatic roles.

Speaking at the opening of the annual Ambassadors’ retreat at the ministry headquarters yesterday, Rwanda’s top diplomat said that the country is opening a new chapter in its diplomacy.

“Our diplomacy is moving very rapidly from the traditional good relations approach, political approach to a much more business oriented diplomacy,” Mushikiwabo said.

She cited the example of the rejuvenated diplomatic relations with the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

“Even as we pursue more security and peace in the region, we (Rwanda and DRC) have embarked on purely economic activities of common interest.”

“And we are confident that these projects are going to bring about the kind of standard of living and understanding that the peoples of the two countries need,” she noted.

On the reinstated relations between Rwanda and France, Mushikiwabo noted that though it came as a surprise to some people, the process of normalizing ties between the two countries was on-going for some time.

Mushikiwabo told the diplomats that it has been noticed, from some French media, that Sarkozy is taking some heat and criticism for deciding to come to Rwanda.

“There is a level of disappointment by some cycles in France who have never thought it was worth trying to mend fences with Rwanda. I think there is a sense of commitment from him as he is taking domestic heat for coming to this country.”

Mushikiwabo said that Sarkozy’s visit is important and is going to signal “what we do from here – normalization is only beginning.”

Rwanda: “I Do Not Waver On My Genocide Ideology” – Ingabire
Theobald Gasarasi/The New Times/allafrica.com/18 February 2010

Kigali — As she continues to articulate her genocide denial, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, is increasingly coming out in the open as truly the revisionist demagogue that she is.

Her latest interview in The East African truly revealed that she is afflicted by the worst case of megalomania and, unfortunately, there is no remedy in sight.

Recently, when Ingabire tried to push her weight around at Kinyinya Sector by attempting to arrogantly jump a queue expecting preferential treatment, she caused a fracas but in which she went away unscathed; That was the cue for her comedy to begin.

When she was interviewed by the BBC, she confirmed that no one laid a finger on her, only that her handbag which contained her newly acquired Rwandan ID and passport had been snatched, but were later recovered by police which also went along and arrested five people involved in the brawl.

That is when she realised that she had let slip a golden opportunity to play the victimisation card; but she could always catch up.

Soon she was telling anyone willing to listen that she had fallen into a well-planned ambush where she and her assistant were lynched! (Interestingly her assistant was arrested a few days later on a pending Gacaca arrest warrant for Genocide)… talk of bad company.

Every statement she made on the incident contradicted the previous one, and it became comical, if not cynical, as international media outdid themselves in airing and publishing her patchwork of delusional fabrications.

In this week’s issue of The East African, her interviewers claim that “She is now fighting to get a national identity card so that she can participate in the election as a legitimate candidate”.

If the journalists had bothered to do some research, they would have found out that their “scoop” was sitting right there with her ID, given to her in record time.

When she says; “I will ensure that there are more women in power”, is she of this world? Which country has more women representation?

Rwanda’s women participation at all levels of national institutions is a matter of world record,

Her obsession and resentment against successful Made-in- Rwanda solutions such as GACACA and national reconciliation programs that have been lauded worldwide, is simply motivated by her politics of hate.

Of course Gacaca is personal for having had the audacity to sentence her own mother, Theresa Dusabe, twice in two separate trials receiving 30 and life sentences respectively.

Ingabire’s abhorrence for Gacaca and why she has pledged to do away with it once in power, is understandable.

She is emboldened possibly because she is used to dealing with ignorant or biased media, as she seeks to cleanse the bloody hands of the FDLR that has evolved from her own RDR, and ALIR, who have terrorized the region for the last 15 years.

“We shall do everything in our power to normalise relations with the Democratic Republic of Congo”, Ingabire says.

Evidently, she has a point as far as this item on her wish-list is concerned since the FDLR which she supports and has been fundraising for, is currently the subject of military operations by the DRC army (FARDC) and MONUC.

“The FDLR claims to be fighting for peace… Our argument is political space – it would solve the problem”, Ingabire tells the paper. Will it also bring to life the millions of innocent men women and children who perished?

In what should be her parting shot, she is quoted in The East African as saying;

“The genocide took place 16 years ago and now is the time for democracy”, she shamelessly tells The East African. Basically, her message is: “who cares about the Genocide that happened 16 years ago?

It is time to start where we left to complete the unfinished business”. And get this: Ingabire tells The East African, “I do not waver on my genocide ideology”. Talk of unfinished business.

French envoy in DR Congo says Great Lakes countries to hold economic meeting

February 18, 2010/english.people.com.cn/Source: Xinhua

The French ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), Pierre Jacquemot, announced on Tuesday that there will be a meeting in June to mobilize funds for the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Region (CEPGL) to support Rwanda, Burundi and DR Congo.

The French diplomat declared this in Kinshasa during an opening ceremony of a seminar of government experts, which was to discuss the validation of basic agreements and the restructuring of CEPGL.

According to Jacquemot, France holds the opinion that regional cooperation would bring about lasting peace for the benefit of the local populations, especially during this post-conflict period.

The present meeting is pursuing three objectives, including a basic law to support CEPGL, measures to support the promotion of commercial exchanges and free movement of the populations and their goods, and a proposal for the restructuring of the permanent executive secretariat for CEPGL.

CEPGL is a sub-regional organization created in September 1976 for the economic integration and facilitation of movements of goods and people within the Great Lakes countries of Burundi, DR Congo and Rwanda.

In 1994, the Burundian conflict followed by the Rwandan genocide plunged CEPGL into a crisis. In 1996, all the agreements were suspended after attacks in DR Congo by the Alliance of Democratic Forces for Liberation and the Rwandan Patriotic Army. In 2004, the three countries started discussions on modalities of reactivating CEPGL.

UGANDA

Anti-gay pastor screens porn in Ugandan church to garner support for laws dubbed ‘odious’ by Barack Obama

AFP/February 18, 2010
A PASTOR seeking to bolster Uganda’s anti-gay laws screened gay porn in a church in the capital Kampala overnight in a bid to gain support. 
The screening in an evangelical church was attended by around 300 supporters after plans for a “million man march” were thwarted by police.

“The major argument homosexuals have is that what people do in the privacy of their bedrooms is nobody’s business, but do you know what they do in their bedrooms?” pastor Martin Ssempa asked the crowd.

Pastor Ssempa then displayed a slide show of gay pornographic pictures.

“Is this what Obama wants to bring to Africa?” he asked, referring to fierce US criticism of a Ugandan bill drafted last year that would further criminalize homosexuality.

The bill would even criminalize public discussion of homosexuality and could penalize people who knowingly rent property to homosexuals.

In some instances, homosexuality in Uganda could be punishable by life imprisonment. The penal code identified “carnal knowledge against the order of nature” as an offence.

The bill initially received broad political support in Uganda but attracted fierce criticism from US President Barack Obama, who called it “odious”.

“I want us to tell Barack Obama, who has African ancestry, that in Africa sodomy is an abomination,” Pastor Ssempa said.

He also accused rights groups such as Amnesty International, which were vocal in condemning the anti-gay campaign, of bringing money to Uganda with the aim of “converting people to lesbianism.”

The author of the proposed Ugandan bill, David Bahati, attended the gathering.

While the conservative wing of the Ugandan government continued to push for the bill, some politicians warned that its adoption could cost the country dearly in terms of foreign financial assistance and image.

Tullow rejects claim it will take excessive Uganda profit

JODY CLARKE in Kampala and BARRY O’HALLORAN/The Irish Times/ Thursday, February 18, 2010

EXPLORATION GROUP Tullow oil has rejected claims that its existing deal with the Ugandan government will see it make excessive profits from the oil it has discovered in the African country.

A report from London-based lobby group Platform claims production-sharing agreements between Tullow and the Kampala government will guarantee the company and its partners “excessive profits” while burdening the state with all the risks.

Citing leaked documents from multinational accountancy and consultancy firm Ernst Young, Platform claims that Tullow will be able to make a 30-35 per cent return. “This represents a very high profit level for the oil industry, even for risky projects, and indicates excessive profit-taking at the expense of the host government,” says the report, which adds that typical returns are less than 20 per cent.

However, the Irish company yesterday pointed out that its production-sharing agreements are in line with similar deals done between oil companies and governments all over the world.

“The Ugandan people will be the main beneficiary of revenues from oil production in Uganda when it begins,” the company said.

“Tullow and its partners alone have taken on and will continue to take on the immense financial capital risk of developing the Lake Albert Basin.”

Platform highlighted the report this week as speculation continues that Tullow is ready to sell a stake in its Lake Albert oil fields to either Total of France or Chinese state-owned group CNOOC.

The Irish company’s three exploration blocks in the Lake Albert basin could potentially contain up to 2.2 billion barrels. Tullow intends bringing in a partner to develop the infrastructure to get the oil to the market. Uganda’s government must approve such a deal.

Platform’s Uganda-based campaigner, Taimour Lay, argued that if oil prices rise, the government cannot increase the tax it claims on Tullow’s profits. He urged the Kampala administration to put pressure on Tullow to renegotiate the contract.

However, one London analyst pointed out that given the risks that Tullow and its partners face, some perspective was needed. “Tullow and any potential partners could have to spend billions of dollars on developing the oil fields in the Lake Albert area and transporting the produced oil to a refinery and/or through a pipeline to the coast on the Indian Ocean.”

He explained that the government does not have the money or or technical know-how to carry out this work, meaning it has to rely on companies such as Tullow.

TANZANIA:

BAE Systems Reports Full-Year Loss

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Published: February 18, 2010 

LONDON (AP) — Defense contractor BAE Systems on Thursday reported a loss of 67 million pounds ($105 million) in 2009 as operating costs rose sharply and the company took impairment charges of near 1 billion pounds, mostly related to losing a major contract in the United States. 

The loss compared to a profit of 1.77 billion pounds in 2008. 

Operating profit fell from 1.7 billion pounds to 982 million pounds. 

BAE, which recently agreed to pay large fines to settle long-running U.S. and British investigations of allegations of bribery involving contracts in Tanzania, the Czech Republic and Hungary, said income rose to 22.4 billion pounds from 18.5 billion pounds, but operating costs rose from 15.4 billion pounds to 20 billion pounds. 

The company did not break out quarterly or second-half results. 

BAE shares were up 4.6 percent to 365 pence in early trading on the London Stock Exchange. 

Impairment charges of 973 million pounds included 592 million pounds due to the company’s failure to win a follow-on contract in the United states for production of medium tactical vehicles, 264 million pounds reflecting a weaker outlook for BAE’s U.S.-based Products Group business and 34 million pounds on the discontinued financial services business of Detica, a U.K. security contractor acquired in 2008. 

BAE announced on Feb. 5 that it had agreed to pay a fine of $400 million to settle a U.S. Justice Department investigation and another fine of 30 million pounds to settle a parallel investigation in the United Kingdom. 

“The company very much regrets and accepts full responsibility for these past shortcomings,” it said.

CONGO RDC   :

Program sees stillbirths drop
February 18, 2010 /CBC News

The rate of stillbirths in developing countries fell more than 30 per cent after birth attendants received basic training in newborn care, researchers have found.

The randomized, controlled trial included 62,366 infants in six countries: Argentina, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Guatemala, India, Pakistan and Zambia. 

The World Health Organization estimates there are more than three million stillbirths worldwide each year, and nearly four million infants die in their first month of life.

Traditional birth attendants, who are typically lay midwives, attended 40 per cent of the deliveries and nearly 75 per cent in the DRC.

Participants were trained in routine newborn care, including:

•Resuscitation of babies who have stopped breathing.
•Keeping the baby warm.
•”Kangeroo care” of skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby.
•Common illnesses.
Researchers also provided local health-care workers with scales to accurately measure birth weight, hand-held pumps and masks to fill babies’ lungs with air and clean kits to prevent infection during delivery.

One health-care worker from each country travelled to the U.S. to learn the techniques and then returned home to train others until 3,600 rural health-care workers were reached.

After the trial, there was a 30 per cent reduction in stillbirths, from 23 stillbirths per 1,000 births before the intervention to 16 after the intervention, the study’s authors reported in Thursday’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

First breath
“This is a simple intervention and this study demonstrates that it can be effectively taught to traditional birth attendants, who deliver most of the babies born in developing countries such as the DRC,” said study co-author Dr. Carl Bose, a professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Given the way the study was designed, researchers can’t say for certain that it was the training that led to a reduction in stillbirths.

But the researchers believe the improvements occurred among infants who had not drawn a breath on their own and would have been misidentified as stillbirths before birth attendants received the training.

“The reduction in stillbirth is extremely encouraging,” said Dr. Waldemar Carlo of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who led the research team.

“Stillbirths among births attended by midwives and traditional birth attendants declined to nearly the same levels seen among births attended by physicians,” he added in a release.

Nurse and midwives were the largest group attending at deliveries (30 per cent) followed by family or unattended births (17 per cent) and physicians (13 per cent).

Canada’s stillbirth rate remained at 6.4 per 1,000 total births (live births and stillbirths) from 2005 to 2006, Statistics Canada reported in 2008. 

‘The Vagina Monologues’: Much More than it Appears
By Cheri Pearson /www.whatsuppub.com/ February 18, 2010

Dr. Mukwege was horrified.

The woman before him was on the brink of death. She had been raped by six men and shot in the vagina, and now she needed 10 blood transfusions at his Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). She would never be the same – would live the rest of her life with tubes running out of her for bodily functions.

He thought this was an isolated, barbaric action. But he was wrong. The numbers increased; he performed more than 24,000 genital reconstructions in 10 years. He went to the government for assistance but current leaders were once rebels responsible for atrocities and they didn’t want to listen. He went to Europe to plead for awareness, to beg for help, and people turned away. He did not have enough resources to see more than 10 women a day. 

It wasn’t until 2007, when he met Eve Ensler – founder of V-Day, the international movement raising awareness of violence against women and girls – that he felt he found someone who would listen.

***

The magnitude of the problem led Ensler to highlight the DRC two years in a row. Locally, it is the spotlight country for “The Vagina Monologues,” presented by the 2010 V-Day committee of UTEP and FMLA. Proceeds will benefit the Child Crisis Center in El Paso and the Congo’s City of Joy, a refuge for rape victims.

The local Congo monologue will be performed by Lexi Martinez, an Andress High School Student.

“When I first read it, I was really touched,” Martinez said. “It was a deep piece, but I did not know if I was going to be able to relate to it. I did a lot of research. It opened my mind to what is happening in the Congo and it makes me want to help them by sharing their story.” 

The local spotlight will join thousands of others, on a day mobilized by Ensler’s initiative and her fateful meeting with Dr. Mukwege.

By 2007, Ensler had long been committed to ending violence against women and girls. In 1996, she had performed “The Vagina Monologues” on stage in New York City, giving voice to the personal experiences of more than 200 women she had interviewed. The script eventually blossomed into a global movement and is now performed annually more than 5,200 times in 1,400 places, raising awareness and millions of dollars to provide resources and safe houses. It has shattered the shame, stigma and cultural taboos of women all over the world, from the Japanese comfort women of WWII to circumcised women in Africa.

Ensler visited Dr. Mukwege in the Congo and was so devastated by atrocities against women that she didn’t know how she was going to be able to report it so people could tolerate it. That country has been embroiled in an economic war claiming more than five million lives in the past 15 years. It is not about religion or ethnic differences, but greed for mineral resources like tin, tantalum, coltan, tungsten and gold. The Congo possesses 80 percent of the world’s supply of coltan, which is eventually turned into capacitors for electronics. 

Hailed the “Saudi Arabia of minerals,” the Congo has many of the resources that we need to power our electronics such as cell phones, video games, and laptops, and the region pays a heavy price as armed groups move in and use rape as a strategic weapon. The village is gripped by fear, and they flee while their resources and women are plundered.

A U.S. bipartisan bill has been introduced that requires an audit and tracing system of these “conflict minerals,” like the one imposed on “the blood diamonds” in order to curb the conflict. In the meantime, over a million people have been displaced and hundreds of thousands of women brutally and systematically raped.

Autumn Carter, a producer behind UTEP’s production of “The Vagina Monologues,” felt that working on this project and screening a documentary, “Turning Pain to Power,” about the conflict in the Congo was especially important because UTEP was known as a mining college at its inception.

“I want to educate geologists and others so that they go out as informed global citizens who can make a difference,” she said.

When her cell phone rings, it strikes home for Carter.

“I am obligated as a citizen of the United States and world to know where the tin or cobalt in my phone is coming from and if it is in an area where people are being exploited,” she said. 

According to Carter, although the Congo is the spotlight country, the monologues cover the gamut of life experience.

“It is cutting edge, raw, humorous, and sad. It will make you angry and take you through all the range of emotions. A lot of it is what women talk about and some of it is what we don’t talk about, but should,” Carter said.

V-Day is committed to ending rape, incest, battery, genital mutilation, and sexual slavery against women. Long directed toward female empowerment, V-Day is seeing the emergence of a new movement of responsibility called V-Men, which emphasizes how men can help stop violence. Carter would like to encourage local men to step forward.

“It is a huge opportunity for men to speak up and share their stories, she said. “Whatever information is collected will be reviewed by Eve Ensler for a V-Men play.”

UPDATE 1-ENRC expands more in Africa with Zambian takeover
Thu Feb 18, 2010/Reuters

* Buys Chambishi copper/cobalt processing plant in Zambia

* Paid $300 mln for takeover to 3 major ENRC shareholders

* To cuts cost by combining Chambishi with Congo operations

(Adds details, quotes)

LONDON, Feb 18 (Reuters) – Kazakh miner ENRC (ENRC.L: Quote, Profile, Research) agreed to buy a copper and cobalt processing plant in Zambia for $300 million, dovetailing with last year’s purchase of a miner in neighbouring Congo. ENRC said in a statement on Thursday it hoped to cut costs by using the Chambishi plant in Zambia to process copper and cobalt produced in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“The acquisition of Chambishi accelerates the group’s expansion in copper and cobalt and at a lower cost than would be required for new investment,” said Mehmet Dalman, independent non-executive director.

ENRC is buying Chambishi and a linked marketing operation based in Dubai from three of its main shareholders, but it got an independent opinion regarding the price, the London-listed group said.

The firm plans to invest $80 million in Chambishi by 2011 to upgrade its facilities, which will boost annual capacity to 55,000 tonnes of copper cathode, more than twice its current level of 25,000 tonnes.

“The integrated copper and cobalt mining and smelting businesses of Chambishi and those in the DRC, when combined, should have an improved cost position over time,” ENRC said.

The combined operation is expected to produce 130,000 tonnes of copper cathode a year and 12,000 tonnes of cobalt-contained metal salts and concentrates by 2012.

Last September, ENRC wrapped up a $955 million cash deal to buy junior firm Central African Mining and Exploration, which diversified the firm into metals such as copper and into high-risk areas of Africa. [ID:nL0211900] 

ENRC’s main products in Kazakhstan are ferrochrome and iron ore. (Reporting by Eric Onstad, editing by Will Waterman)

KENYA :

UN says US aid restrictions hurting hungry Somalis
By KATHARINE HOURELD (AP) /18022010

NAIROBI, Kenya — U.S. restrictions designed to stop terrorists in Somalia from diverting aid are hurting humanitarian operations in the lawless Horn of Africa country, U.N. officials said Wednesday.

U.N. agencies have not seen any evidence from the American government that food aid is being diverted to Islamists fighting the U.N.-backed Somali government, said the top U.N. humanitarian official for Somalia, Mark Bowden.

“What we are seeing is a politicization of humanitarian issues,” Bowden told journalists in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. “The options for a lot of Somalis look pretty bleak.”

The U.S. reduced its funding to Somalia last year after its Office of Foreign Assets Control expressed fear that the extended supply line and insurgent-heavy areas where aid agencies were operating meant aid could be diverted to a group with links to al-Qaida.

The reduction contributed to a shortfall in funding that meant only two-thirds of the $900 million needed in 2009 was raised, said Kiki Ghebo, the head of the office responsible for coordinating humanitarian affairs in Somalia. The U.S. is the biggest contributor of humanitarian aid in Somalia.

Bowden says agencies were being asked to comply with impractical requirements by the U.S., but he declined to give details. He said stateside employees of the U.S. government’s aid agency, USAID, were eager to resolve the impasse but said that they faced resistance from higher up in the administration.

“The whole issue seems to be dragging on for far too long,” he said.

In Washington, a White House spokesman placed blame for the situation on terror groups active in Somalia.

“The actions of al-Shabaab and other violent extremists are what are denying Somalis urgently needed humanitarian aid,” spokesman Tommy Vietor said. “The United States is committed to meeting humanitarian needs, including those in Somalia, and ensuring that our assistance does not fuel conflict.”

Al-Shabaab is the most active group targeting Somalia’s impotent transitional government, which is backed by the United States.

American reluctance to release funds is not the only problem agencies are facing. The World Food Program pulled out of much of southern and central Somalia after local Islamist commanders demanded $20,000 payments every six months to allow them to operate.

The Islamists also demanded that WFP fire all women working for them unless they were in clinics or health centers.

WFP will not restart its operations until the conditions are lifted and they are given assurances they will be allowed to operate safely, said spokesman Peter Smerdon.

The funding crisis and partial withdrawal of WFP comes as the government is preparing to launch an offensive against the Islamists. The U.N. refugee agency says 100,000 people have fled their homes throughout the country since January amid an upsurge in fighting.

Somalia has not had a functioning government for a generation. Successive administrations supported by the international community have failed to deliver either security or services to the people. Nearly half the Somali population is dependent on external aid.

Kenya’s Equity annual pretax profit up 5 pct
Thu Feb 18, 2010/By George Obulutsa/Reuters

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s Equity Bank posted a 5 percent rise in 2009 pretax profit to 5.278 billion shillings on Thursday as it continued its expansion in the east African region.

The bank said earnings per share in 2009 rose to 1.14 shillings from 1.06 shillings a year earlier.

“As we can see, the bank has maintained momentum,” Equity Chief Executive Officer James Mwangi told a briefing on the results of Kenya’s fastest-growing bank, which has focused its energies on services for the poor in the east African economy.

Shares in Equity Bank traded at 15.70 shillings at 0700 GMT, up from Wednesday’s close of 15.45 shillings.

The bank said total operating income rose by 24 percent to 15.7 billion shillings from 12.6 billion shillings in 2008. But total operating expenses jumped 37 percent to 10.5 billion shillings, due to the bank’s expansion.

“The increase in costs is attributable to the enhancement of capacity by the bank and the scaling up of operations to support both the local and regional expansion programme, which saw the bank commence operations in Southern Sudan, and the opening of new branches in Kenya and Uganda,” the bank said in a statement.

The bank’s total assets grew to 100.8 billion shillings from 78.9 billion shillings in 2008, while customer numbers rose to 4.37 million from 3.29 million a year before.

Equity’s loan book rose to 63.4 billion shillings from 44.2 billion shillings in 2008 and overall deposits rose 39 percent to 69.8 billion shillings from 50.3 billion shillings. Net interest income leapt to 9.2 billion from 6.2 billion

In October, the bank said it expected to record a 20 percent growth in profit for the full year.

Equity has focused its attention on people with low incomes in the country and its profits doubled every year over the five years to 2008 as it expanded and targeted Kenyans who previously had no formal bank accounts.

The bank said its branch network stood at 155 branches, including its operations in Uganda and South Sudan.

Despite a challenging year in which Kenya had to contend with the global economic slowdown, severe drought, and the lingering effects of post-election violence in 2008, Kenyan banks were expected to register growth in industry profits.

U.S. calls on Kenya to resolve political crisis

February 18, 2010 /english.people.com.cn/Source: Xinhua

The United States on Wednesday called on the Kenyan coalition government to resolve a deepening political crisis surrounding a corruption scandal, saying now it’s not the time for “political posturing.”

“We are concerned about the serious differences regarding the handling of recent corruption scandals that have emerged between the coalition government partners in Kenya,” U.S. State Department Spokesman Philip Crowley said in a statement, urging leaders of the coalition to “work swiftly to resolve these differences,” which threaten to derail efforts to implement critical reforms and move Kenya forward.

Crowley said now is not the time for “political posturing or precipitous actions by either side,” noting the coalition leaders share responsibility to implement reform.

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Sunday suspended two ministers to allow for investigations after they had been mentioned adversely in the subsidized maize scheme and free primary education program.

But President Mwai Kibaki later said Odinga did not have powers to remove ministers from office and therefore, “constitutionally the two ministers remain in office.” The two ministers on the contested suspension reported to their respective offices on Monday and vowed to defy the directive issued by Odinga.

The maize scam was reported in 2008 when the government initiated the subsidized maize scheme to mitigate hunger that had ravaged over 10 million Kenyans. Both Britain and the United States have suspended their funding to the program after an audit revealed over a million U.S. dollars had been misappropriated. 

Ormat to double capacity of Kenyan geothermal plant

By Yoram Gabison /www.haaretz.com/ Thu., February 18, 2010

Geothermal power developer Ormat Technologies signed a letter of intent with Kenya Power & Lighting yesterday stating that Ormat will more than double the generating capacity of the Olkaria III geothermal power plant in the East African country. 

Ormat, which is controlled by Lucien and Dita Bronicki, will sell the additional electricity output, pursuant to a long-term contract with Kenya Power. 

The Olkaria plant, which began operating in 2000, currently supplies 48 megawatts of power, following an earlier expansion project completed a year ago. The agreement signed yesterday calls for the plant’s capacity to increase to 100 megawatts. 

The facility generates $36 million in annual revenues, which could rise to $40 million after the generating capacity is increased. 

The deal is subject to the approval of the Kenyan government and lenders that financed the existing plant. 

Yuval Ben Ze’ev, the head of research at the Clal Finance brokerage, said the project will affect Ormat’s revenues only in about five more years. He said the previous expansion was delayed by about four years due to financing problems.

ANGOLA :

SOUTH AFRICA:

Tutu’s daughter talks tough times

But she mixes humor into tales of South African troubles.

By NICK BONHAM/www.chieftain.com/THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN/February 18, 2010

The brutal and amazing stories of apartheid South Africa came to Pueblo on Wednesday night.

Nontombi Naomi Tutu’s tales of social and racial injustice in her homeland captivated the few hundred in attendance at the Hoag Recital Hall on the campus of Colorado State University-Pueblo.

A daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the human rights activist’s appearance was part of the university’s Distinguished Speakers Series.

She spoke about the role of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the monumental task of building a unified country on a foundation of conflict.

“What the Truth and Reconciliation Commission gave us in South Africa was to see the best and worst of all of us as human beings,” she said. “It gave us the opportunity to see the choices we’re all called to make. The choices we’re called to make for those who stand up for justice, those who stand up for human rights, and those who accepted the dehumanizing of others. “The powerful lesson of the TRC was that all of these stories were South African stories. These were the stories who brought us to our first democratic election.”

Tutu spoke of the confessions of people who killed and tortured based on racism. She spoke of the stories of the victims, lost loved ones, pain and disregard of human rights.

A heavy discussion topic and one that’s still playing out in South Africa, Tutu managed to blend humor into her hourlong speech.

There are no documents or lists mentioning her as a member of the TRC, but she played an important, behind-the-scenes role.

“I was charged with preparing teas and dinners. Had it not been for my wonderful tea and chocolate cake, this may have never gotten off the ground,” she said to a crowd of laughter. “I was key to the success with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.”

The speakers series continues tonight with women’s rights advocate and attorney Sarah Weddington. She’s scheduled to speak at 7 p.m. at Hoag Recital Hall.

Rand Snaps 2-Day Gain as Gordhan Says Inflation Target Flexible
February 18, 2010/By Garth Theunissen/Bloomberg

Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) — South Africa’s rand snapped a two- day advance after Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said the central bank is permitted to be more flexible in inflation targeting and as precious metals declined.

The rand lost as much as 0.9 percent to 7.6735 per dollar and traded 0.7 percent weaker at 7.6652 by 9:50 a.m. in Johannesburg, from a close of 7.6091 yesterday.

Gordhan, who in his annual budget yesterday ignored union demands to scrap the central bank’s 3 to 6 percent inflation target, said today policy makers would be “mindful” of growth and that a “temporary deviation” from the range was permitted. A drop in gold and platinum prices dimmed the outlook for earnings from the country’s biggest exports.

“The finance minister is just clarifying the situation for the benefit of the unions to emphasize that the central bank is already sensitive to growth and that it doesn’t target inflation at any cost,” said George Glynos, managing director of Econometrix Treasury Management, which advises clients on bond and foreign-exchange transactions in Johannesburg. “The current governor of the central bank is more sensitive to growth than her predecessor and that reinforces the possibility that we might see another rate cut because the economy is still soft.”

Africa’s largest economy will expand 2.3 percent in 2010 and 3.2 percent next year, the National Treasury forecast. Unemployment was more than 24 percent in the fourth quarter.

Rate Cut

Gordhan, whose ministry sets the central bank’s mandate, wrote to Reserve Bank Governor Gill Marcus that “while we need to peg expectations about inflation, the way in which the bank will approach inflation is totally different from the past,” he said in an interview with Johannesburg-based Radio 702 today. The Congress of South African Trade Unions said yesterday that it was “extremely disappointed” that the inflation target had been maintained and that the band had not been widened.

An increased focus on economic growth may prompt the central bank to lower its 7 percent benchmark rate by half a percentage point in “either March or May,” said Glynos. While Africa’s biggest economy returned to growth in the third quarter with a 0.9 percent expansion, ending its first recession in 17 years, consumer spending has remained weak.

Government bonds fell, pushing up the yield on South Africa’s benchmark 13.5 percent security due September 2015 by 3 basis points to 8.31 percent. The bond’s price fell 18 cents to 122.74 rand.

Gold fell as much as 1.8 percent to $1,099.10 an ounce. Platinum decreased as much as 1.8 percent to $1,507 an ounce.

–Editors: John Kohut, Stephen Kirkland.

AFRICA / AU :

Scientists find great genetic differences among southern Africans
The genomes of four Bushmen and one Bantu were sequenced or partially sequenced. ‘If we really want to understand human diversity, we need . . . to study those people,’ the study’s lead author says.

By Thomas H. Maugh II/www.latimes.com/February 18, 2010

Scientists have long known that natives of southern Africa are genetically quite distinct from people in the rest of the world, but a new study in which the genomes of four African Bushmen and one Bantu were sequenced or partially sequenced indicates that there is a much greater diversity among the populations there than had previously been suspected.

Two Bushmen from different tribes living within walking distance of each other can have greater genetic differences than a European and an Asian, according to the study published in Thursday’s edition of the journal Nature.

“If we really want to understand human diversity, we need to go to Africa and study those people,” geneticist and lead author Stephan Schuster of Pennsylvania State University said in a teleconference Wednesday. 

The study, which marked the first time that the DNA of a hunter-gatherer had been sequenced, found about 1.3 million novel variants in the genetic sequences, accounting for about 1% of the total human genome, the researchers said.

The greater genetic diversity there, researchers said, probably results from the fact that modern southern Africans originated there and have lived continuously in one region much longer than other peoples, thereby having more time to accumulate variations. Despite those differences, the Bushmen also had similarities that distinguish them from other population groups. They were missing a gene that allows them to metabolize lactose; were lacking a gene that promotes malaria resistance; had genes that gave them denser bones, greater strength and a greater ability to run short distances; and had another gene that promotes their ability to retain salt and water at high temperatures. 

Even so, the researchers said, it is important to remember that the overall genomes of all human beings are virtually identical and the small differences they observed represent adaptations to new or changing environments.

The research was conducted by a team headed by Schuster and geneticist Vanessa M. Hayes of Children’s Cancer Institute Australia in Sydney. They completely sequenced the genomes of one Bushman and one Bantu and sequenced the protein coding regions of three other Bushmen. 

The Bantu was Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who served as a surrogate for the agricultural peoples who account for about 80% of southern Africa’s population. The four Bushmen, also known as Khoisan or San, were the heads of their tribes living in the Kalahari Desert. Their names were !Gubi, G/aq’o, D#kgao and !Ai and they spoke Tuu, Ju/’hoansi and !Kung. (The unusual characters denote clicking sounds in the languages.) One immediate surprise to emerge from the research, at least for Tutu, was that one woman in his lineage was of Bushman origin. It is not clear, however, how many generations back that woman lived.

The greater strength and sprinting ability of the Bushmen would be a clear advantage for survival in the arid Kalahari, as would the ability to retain water and salt. The lactose intolerance and lack of resistance to malaria, however, could be significant problems as more of the Bushmen are forced into agrarian societies where milk is a staple and the density of malaria-bearing mosquitoes is much higher than in the desert.

All of the genomes are being placed in online databases, where they will be freely available to other researchers. The medical histories of the subjects, all of whom are in their 70s and 80s, will also be posted to help researchers link specific gene variations to diseases.

None of the Bushmen had any previously known genetic disorders. Tutu is a survivor of polio, tuberculosis and prostate cancer.

The southern Africans join a small select group of people who have had their entire genomes sequenced, including Nobel laureate James Watson, pioneering geneticist Craig Venter and anonymous Chinese and Korean men.

The fact that the team was able to sequence five separate genomes illustrates how far the technology has come in recent years. The original Human Genome Project took more than a decade, involved thousands of researchers and cost an estimated $3 billion. The Africa project took about a month to sequence each genome and the total cost was $2 million, Schuster said.

thomas.maugh @latimes.com

U.S. files new charges against arms dealer Viktor Bout

By Terry Frieden, CNN Justice Producer/February 18, 2010

Washington (CNN) — International arms dealer Viktor Bout has been indicted by federal authorities on a series of new charges, including counts of illegally purchasing U.S. cargo planes to ferry weapons to warring parties and regimes in Africa and the Middle East.

The new indictment, announced in New York and Washington Wednesday, comes as the United States steps up efforts to extradite Bout to New York from Thailand, where he has been jailed since 2008.

The indictment charges Bout, a Russian native, and his alleged American co-conspirator, Richard Chichakli, with the illegal purchase of a Boeing 727 and a Boeing 737 and with money laundering and wire fraud. Chichakli remains at large, authorities said.

The Justice Department said Bout has been an international weapons trafficker since the 1990s, carrying out a massive weapons trafficking business by assembling a fleet of cargo planes to transport weapons to parts of Africa, the Middle East and South America.

“The arms that Bout has sold or brokered have fueled conflicts and supported regimes in Afghanistan, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Sudan,” the Justice Department said.

Bout “allegedly made a career of arming bloody conflicts and supporting rogue regimes across multiple continents, even using the U.S. banking system to secretly finance a private fleet of aircraft,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.

The superseding indictments were returned by a grand jury in the Southern District of New York. The previous indictment of Bout centered on his alleged efforts to send millions of dollars worth of weapons to arm guerrilla fighters in Colombia.

Thai courts to date have balked at extraditing Bout to the United States on the basis of the original charges.

“The United States has apprised Thai authorities of the new charges against Bout … and will continue to work closely with them on this matter,” the Justice Department statement said. “The United States is also coordinating with Interpol to locate and arrest Chichakli.”

Tuesday, a Thai court rejected a request by Bout to be released on bond.

Uganda cleric shows gay porn film
Thursday, 18 February 2010/news.bbc.co.uk

An anti-gay clergyman in Uganda has screened gay pornography in his church, in an attempt to gain support for proposed anti-homosexuality laws.

“We are in the process of legislation and we have to educate ourselves about what homosexuals do,” Pastor Martin Ssempa told the BBC. 

Gay rights activists suggested the pastor “needed medical help”. 

The anti-gay bill, which proposes the death penalty for some gay people, has caused outrage around the world. 

US President Barack Obama described the proposals as “odious”. 

Moral defender?

Homosexuality is already against the law in Uganda and punishable by lengthy jail terms.

But supporters of the bill, including the pastor, want the punishments ramped up. 

“In Africa, what you do in your bedroom affects our clan, it affects our tribe, it affects our nation,” he told the BBC’s Network Africa programme. 

He showed the pornography to about 300 people in his church. 

The pastor had planned to lead a march in the capital, Kampala, but was forced to abandon the plans because of “security concerns”. 

Monica Mbaru, from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, roundly condemned the pastor’s behaviour. 

“You cannot screen pornographic material to your followers and then want to argue that you are upholding society’s morals,” she told the BBC. 

“I think we are dealing with someone who needs medical help.” 

The anti-gay proposals garnered wide support among Ugandan MPs, but President Yoweri Museveni recently hinted that he was coming under international pressure to scrap the private member’s bill.

Tutu’s DNA could point to medical cures
By science reporter Sarah Clarke/www.abc.net.au/18022010

A research team led by an Australian scientist has uncovered the first indigenous DNA sequence, a discovery that has vast implications for medical research.

Not only does the find provide the tools to read the story of human evolution, but it also helps unlock the story of disease.

The discovery took two years, working with five African men all over the age of 80. Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu played a very important part.

Dr Vanessa Hayes is originally from South Africa, but seven years ago she moved to Australia. And it was her work on HIV in Africa that led her to her latest discovery.

While studying the virus, she found that the southern African population was not included in the genetic data base, and that proved to be a major hurdle for scientists attempting to understand HIV.

“It was a frustrating way to work as a scientist and we were keen to move the research forward to understand the disease globally,” Dr Hayes said.

“[It is impossible] if we don’t have the tools and for the tools, we need the DNA sequence.”

That frustration led Dr Hayes – who is now working at the University of New South Wales – to help sequence the first indigenous genome.

Along with a team of scientists from Penn State University in the United States, Dr Hayes spent two years working with four Kalahari Desert bushmen and a man from the ethnic Bantu group in Southern Africa.

That man just happened to be Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

“The men that participated in the study were all well into their 80s, with the Archbishop being the youngest,” Dr Hayes said.

“These are all healthy men – we know which diseases the Archbishop has, we have his full medical history – so we can start now by putting the pieces of the puzzle together.”

The scientists found that these indigenous people are amongst the most genetically diverse in the world, with 1.3 million new genetic variants.

They have now been added to the existing human genome database, which until now had been largely European.

Researchers believe many diseases may have originated in Africa, so this find will complete the picture and open the door for crucial medical breakthroughs.

“I like to use the analogy of a book,” Dr Hayes said. 

“Before we had a book, everything we were doing was very European-centric. It was great we were making new discoveries but it was still only the book.

“Now what we are doing by adding the indigenous genomes from southern Africa – that represents the ancient history of all mankind – we’re now starting to make the book into a real novel.

“We can correct the spelling mistakes, we were able to correct the sentences. We were not only able to do that, we were able to open the door of the library and read a whole shelf.

“[We were able to] add information that is now going to help us globally to understand disease and not restrict our research to just European populations.”

The paper is published in the journal Nature.

Symonds unconcerned by IPL terror threat

JIM MORTON /news.smh.com.au/AAP /February 18, 2010

Andrew Symonds is one Australian cricketer set to honour his IPL contract with little fear after revealing he felt far safer in India than South Africa.

On a day Symonds admitted he still regretted signing the strict behaviour agreement he broke in England last year, leading to his Cricket Australia dismissal, the former Test allrounder said he was keen to help Deccan defend their IPL title.

The Twenty20 tournament starts March 12 and the Australian Cricket Association and CA are waiting on a report tabled by security expert Reg Dickason next week before advising players of the current threats posed by al-Qaeda-linked militants.

Symonds told a Queensland Cricket luncheon on Thursday he expected to line up for his Hyderabad-based team and would feel more comfortable in India than in South Africa, where the Chargers triumphed last year.

“I haven’t heard a great deal as yet but India is one of those countries I’ve never felt intimidated, even when the crowd gets a bit uppity,” said Symonds, a victim of racial taunts while playing for Australia in India in 2007.

“I’ve always felt I was more likely to be shot or stabbed in South Africa.

“I’ve never felt like that in India. At this stage I’ll be going.”

Australian Test great and former India coach Greg Chappell hoped international players wouldn’t be scared off by the Kashmiri terrorist threats aimed at foreigners.

“You have to be concerned about it, I don’t think you can afford not to,” Chappell said

“But Indians in general are not confrontational people, I found them very open and friendly.

“It would be a shame if sport was cowered by these type of people.”

West Indies captain Chris Gayle on Thursday also said he was untroubled by the latest threats and was confident he’d play for the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Symonds, who has employed his junior batting mentor Ashleigh `Toot’ Byron as his personal coach to prepare for the IPL, was inducted in Queensland’s 100-game club in Brisbane.

The 34-year-old has only played T20 matches for Queensland since being sent home from England last June for breaking team rules.

Symonds felt he copped an overly harsh punishment for enjoying a few beers while watching a rugby league State of Origin match, contrary to an agreement he signed prohibiting him from drinking outside the team environment.

“I’m not bitter about it at all, it was just a tough environment to live in for myself,” he said.

“I did a few silly things to get in that position, (but) if I had my time again I never would have signed the agreement to get back into that (Australian one-day) side.

“It’s the one regret I do have, I never should have signed that agreement.

“Playing, I did enjoy but at some point it was going to boil over. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Remembering their contributions: February is Black History month
By Peter Hamer/ www.estacadanews.com/Feb 18, 2010

February is Black History Month. The United States of America would not be America without the vitality and creative spark of the descendants of Africa brought forcibly to these shores, to toil in fields and factories, to sing hallelujahs into our heritage. 

It is not well known, but slaves brought to the English plantations in the West Indies came not only from Africa, but also from Scotland. The musical traditions of both groups, both tribal cultures, came together in joyous conflagration and eventually gave birth to jazz, the blues, rock and roll, and hip hop. You can follow its flow up through the Gulf states into Texas and hiking along Appalachian valleys and hollers, lending the banjo to Irish jigs and reels on the way to becoming bluegrass.

From the toil of backs that refused to break, the greatness of America was built. Their cheap and under-appreciated labor made economic prosperity possible in the south. The emancipation of the slaves was made the excuse for America’s most excessive war; it is not well taught that the Civil War was really fought to exert the will of the federal government against state’s rights. In other words, the slaves were freed as an act of economic war policy and not, as mythically told, as an act of righteous conscience. 

Blacks migrating north filled factories and primed the pump of American prosperity in the aftermath of the war up through the 1950s and 60s. The blues flowed north against the current of the great Mississippi River, met up with the electric guitar and gave birth to the baby known as rock and roll.

It is easy in a small space to dwell only upon one thing, such as music, and to brush quickly past other arts, sciences, cuisines, and sports. We must also remember Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson, Wilma Rudolph, Phyllis Wheatley, Gwendolyn Brookes, Langston Hughes, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Luther Burbank, George Washington Carver, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Angela Davis, Paul Robeson, and the Tuskegee Airmen. For it has been the daughters and sons of slaves who have pushed the edges of the American envelope outward, who have propelled us past the paradigm of what might have been to the greatness that is America as it is, that cannot possibly be separated from the contributions of African-Americans. 

It is important to remember that, in the struggle for civil rights, the equal rights black Americans strove for — still strive for — are not just rights for black people. Those rights belong to all of us, and we should all be fully invested in the struggle and maintenance of those rights. Think of it as a teachable Benjamin Franklin moment: “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately”. 

It may be easy for some to forget that white people are privileged by skin tone, and that their high place at the table rests in large part upon the contributions and efforts of African-Americans. It is perhaps hard for some to grasp that we will all sit higher if we make room at the table for everyone.

Remember the contributions of our African-American countrymen, remember that America would be wholly different without their toil, their perseverance, their creativity, their intelligence and determination to take their rightful and equal place in the life of our country.

UN /ONU :

Sudan arrests two over Darfur peacekeeper shooting

Reuters /Thursday, February 18, 2010

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudanese authorities arrested two men in connection with the shooting of seven Pakistani peacekeepers in Darfur, officials said on Thursday. 

Gunmen armed with AK-47 rifles opened fire on a police patrol from the joint U.N./African Union UNAMID peacekeeping force near the South Darfur capital Nyala on Tuesday afternoon, the latest in a series of attacks on the mission. 

UNAMID initially said two of the police were in a critical condition but on Thursday said that had risen to four. 

“The Sudanese authorities have arrested two people in connection with the attack,” UNAMID spokesman Noureddine Mezni told Reuters. “This will serve as a lesson to anyone who even thinks of attacking us in the future.” 

A total of 22 UNAMID police and soldiers have been killed in carjackings, attacks and ambushes as law and order has collapsed in the remote western region, where mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the government in 2003. 

The gunmen escaped in two UNAMID vehicles, one of which was recovered by the Sudanese authorities who made Wednesday’s arrests, Mezni said. U.N. officials said it was unclear whether they had set out to shoot peacekeepers or to steal vehicles. 

“Any attack on peacekeepers is tantamount to a war crime,” said UNAMID mission head Ibrahim Gambari in a statement late on Wednesday after he visited the police in hospital. 

The attackers waited for the patrol close to El-Sherif refugee camp, 17km (10 miles) south of Nyala, and the peacekeepers were wounded as they returned fire, said UNAMID. 

Seven years of fighting in Darfur has forced an estimated 2.7 million to flee their homes and killed up to 300,000, according to the United Nations. Khartoum, which accuses Western media of exaggerating the conflict, puts the toll at 10,000. 

UNAMID says it is still short of vital equipment, including military helicopters, needed in its efforts to keep the peace in a region the size of Spain. 

More than two years after UNAMID arrived, the mostly African force only has about 80 percent of its full deployment of 26,000 police and soldiers on the ground. 

(Reporting by Andrew Heavens; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Iran rejection of rights calls contemptuous: Amnesty

Thu Feb 18, 2010/Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) – Iran’s rejection of human rights recommendations made by Western nations shows contempt for both international obligations and its own people, rights group Amnesty International said late on Wednesday.

World

An official U.N. report published on Wednesday said Iran had rejected calls to release all political prisoners and accept an international inquiry into violence after last June’s contested presidential elections.

The Islamic Republic also refused to end the death penalty and said it would not make torture an offence under its laws, according to the report.

“By rejecting specific recommendations made by dozens of countries, the Iranian authorities showed contempt for international obligations just as they have done in their treatment of their own people,” said Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.

“By promising to consider recommendations to eliminate the execution of juvenile offenders, the Iranian authorities are cynically camouflaging their existing obligation under the Convention on the Rights of the Child not to execute juvenile offenders.”

Despite agreeing to a Netherlands recommendation to “take measures to ensure that no torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment takes place”, Iran rejected another from Spain to sign the U.N. anti-torture pact.

Amnesty said the large number of contradictions between the 123 recommendations accepted by the Iranians and the 45 they rejected cast doubt over their willingness to actually implement the measures they had agreed to.

“For human rights to really improve in Iran, the authorities must end the double-speak and take concrete measures,” Sahraoui said.

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; Editing by Louise Ireland)

World

Eritrea Official Denies Asmara’s Involvement In Organizing Protest Against UN- Sanctions
Eritrea’s information minister is denying Asmara’s involvement in a planned protest march next week at the White House against the recent United Nations-imposed sanctions. 
www1.voanews.com/Peter Clottey/ 18 February 2010 
| Washington, DC

Eritrea’s information minister is denying Asmara’s involvement in a planned protest march next week at the White House against the recent United Nations-imposed sanctions.

Ali Abdu said the organizers of the planned demonstration are ordinary Eritreans living in the United States who he said see the UN targeted sanctions as unfair and unjust.

“To the contrary, it is the people who arose spontaneously when they heard about this unjust sanction. Actually, young women, men, elders (and) even children were very angry because they’ve been victimized for the second time. So, it was absolutely popular appraisal against the unjust resolution…This resolution is not only targeting Eritreans, it’s targeting the Horn of Africa entirely,” he said.

Eritrea’s state-owned media recently accused Washington of being behind the United Nations sanctions, saying the United States wants to control the entire Horn of Africa region.

The United Nations Security Council recently imposed sanctions on Eritrea for supporting hard line Somali Islamic insurgents who have vowed to overthrow the government — a charge Asmara denies.

Asmara said in a statement that although the UN sanctions are not affecting Eritrea directly, they risk “engulfing the region into another cycle of conflict as it may encourage Ethiopia to contemplate reckless military adventures”. Ethiopia has denied Eritrea’s accusation.

Political observers say there is need for Asmara to “honestly” engage the United Nations and stop supporting Somali insurgents, including al-Shabab.

But information minister Abdu said the United Nations failed to prove Eritrea’s complicity in the ongoing security instability in Somalia.

“United Nations had nothing to do when member states were asking about the evidence. Some of them were blackmailed (and) some of them were silenced. Until today, (there has been) no proof that has come out from United Nations and people are asking where is the proof? Where is the beef? Because no proof was submitted against Eritrea,” Abdu asked.

Prior to the sanctions, the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development in East Africa (IGAD) had urged the United Nations to impose sanctions on Eritrea after accusing Asmara of providing funds and logistical support for Somali insurgents.

UN chief hails major moves on global disarmament

Pana 18/02/2010

Global disarmament – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the world body had received the 30th instrument of ratification of the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM).

Ban also hailed it as a “major advance on the global disarmament agenda”.

In a statement, made available to the Pan African News Agency (PANA) on Wednesday, Ban stated: “With this step, the Convention will enter into force on 1 August, 2010, in keeping with the Convention’s provisions.

“The secretary-general welcomes this major advance on the global disarmament agenda, and notes that the Convention’s entry into force just two years after its adoption demonstrates the world’s collective revulsion at the impact of these terrible weapons,” the statement said, adding that “cluster munitions are unreliable a nd inaccurate”.

It also said that, “during conflict and long after it has ended, they maim and kill scores of civilians, including many children. They impair post-conflict recovery by making roads and land inaccessible to farmers and aid workers.

“The United Nations is firmly committed to ending the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of cluster munitions and mitigating the suffering they cause,” the statement said.

“The secretary-general calls on all states to become a party to the convention without delay,” it added.

The CCM, negotiated and adopted at the Dublin Diplomatic Conference on 30 May, 2008, by 107 countries, is a legally-binding international treaty that prohibits the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions and is in accordance with international human rights and international humanitarian law.

Cluster munition are controversial weapons that have been blamed for needlessly killing and maiming civilians, often long after a battle has ended.

Cluster bombs have been used in countries like Cambodia, Afghanistan and Lebanon.

They are made up of a big container which opens in mid-air, dropping hundreds of smaller individual sub-munitions, or “bomblets”, across a wide area.

New York –

U.S. Indicts Bout, Chichakli for Supporting Taylor

By Jeff Miller/ www.diamonds.net/ Posted: 02/18/10

RAPAPORT… The United States issued a new indictment against Viktor — also known as Victor — Bout, who, according to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Sanctions Committee on Liberia, supported former President Charles Taylor’s regime in an effort to destabilize Sierra Leone and gain illicit access to its diamonds. 

Bout has been in custody in Thailand since March 2008. Since that time, the U.S. has actively pursued his extradition on a separate set of arms-related allegations. But today’s indictment also named Bout’s associate, Richard Ammar Chichakli, who is also known as Robert Cunning and Raman Cedorov, for allegedly conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), based on their combined efforts to purchase two aircrafts from companies located in the U.S. The indictment charged Bout and Chichakli with money laundering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy and six separate counts of wire fraud in connection with these financial transactions.

The United States has apprised authorities in Thailand of the new charges against Bout and will continue to work closely with them on this matter. The United States is also coordinating with INTERPOL to locate and arrest Chichakli.

Bout also faces charges that he conspired to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (the FARC) in Colombia to be used to kill U.S. citizens there. The arms that Bout allegedly sold or brokered fueled conflicts and supported regimes in Afghanistan, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Sudan, according to the U.S. government. 

Chichakli, who is a U.S. citizen, has been a close associate of Bout since at least the mid-1990s, assisting in the operation and financial management of Bout’s network of aircraft companies, the U.S. government said.

The UN and International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) sanctions encumbered Bout’s and Chichakli’s efforts to conduct business within their existing corporate structures. As a result, the defendants took steps to form new companies and register these companies in the names of other individuals in order to create the false appearance that they had no affiliation with them. 

“Viktor Bout allegedly made a career of arming bloody conflicts and supporting rogue regimes across multiple continents, even using the U.S. banking system to secretly finance a private fleet of aircraft,” said U.S. attorney Preet Bharara. “The United Nations and the United States have long-standing sanctions against Bout that stem from, among other things, his support of the most violent and destabilizing conflicts in recent African history. Until his arrest in March 2008, Bout had found a way to circumvent these sanctions, successfully evading the rule of law. This office is committed to working with our partners in the United States, at the United Nations and around the world to bring transnational criminals like Viktor Bout to justice.” 

Michele M. Leonhart, the acting administrator for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), said, “Viktor Bout was originally charged in March 2008 with conspiring to kill Americans by selling millions of dollars worth of weapons to Colombia-based narcotic-terrorists. Further investigation has revealed additional criminal activities by Bout, including money laundering and wire fraud conspiracy. The additional charges contained in the newly unsealed superseding indictment amply illustrate the extraordinary breadth of Bout’s deadly criminal enterprise.” 

US nominates Anthony Lake to be UNICEF chief
By EDITH M. LEDERER (AP) /18022010

UNITED NATIONS — The United States is nominating foreign policy expert Anthony Lake, who was an adviser to President Barack Obama, as its candidate to head UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency.

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice sent a letter to a number of U.N. ambassadors on Wednesday saying that Lake, who served as national security adviser to former President Bill Clinton, would bring “extraordinary experience, strategic vision and energy to UNICEF’s essential work.”

The head of UNICEF has always been an American, largely because the United States is the largest contributor to the agency, which is active in 190 countries.

Rice’s letter, obtained by The Associated Press, stressed Lake’s long-standing commitment to advancing the rights of children, noting his nine years on the board of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, including serving as chair from 2004-2007.

“As chairman, Tony oversaw a significant increase in private funding for the organization,” Rice said. “In addition to his ongoing involvement with the U.S. national committee, he has seen UNICEF in action in countries across Africa, in Haiti, and elsewhere.”

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced in late December that UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman, a former U.S. secretary of agriculture who was appointed by former President George W. Bush, would not seek a second five-year term.

Veneman’s term expires on April 30, and Ban will recommend a replacement to UNICEF’s board, which must approve the candidate.

Lake, 70, joined the Foreign Service in 1962, did two tours in Vietnam and in 1969 accompanied then-National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger on his first secret meeting with North Vietnamese negotiators in Paris. He worked on several Democratic presidential campaigns and was one of Clinton’s chief foreign policy advisers when he ran in 1992 and became his national security adviser when he won.

In the 2008 presidential campaign, Lake backed Obama rather than Bill Clinton’s wife Hillary Clinton and became a foreign policy adviser to the Illinois senator. He was considered a contender to be U.S. secretary of state when Obama won the presidency, but the job went to Hillary Clinton.

Currently, Lake is a professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

Rice, who was Obama’s chief foreign policy adviser during the campaign, said in the letter that in addition to his foreign policy and national security credentials, Lake has “a lifetime commitment in advancing children’s rights, protection, welfare, development, and education.”

She cited his experience as chair of the Marshall Legacy Institute, which works worldwide to eliminate land mines, on the U.N. Panel of High-Level Personalities on African Development in 1998, and as director of International Voluntary Services which has sent a large number of volunteers overseas. He has also served on the boards of Save the Children and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

USA :

Guest Essay: Black History Month calls us to search our hearts

www.pioneerlocal.com/By Pastor Debra E. Williams /February 18, 2010 

Have you ever heard of Otis Boykin, Marie Brown, James West, Mark Dean or Alice Parker? These are all persons who have invented items from which we now benefit. Their inventions range from a video home security system to electronic control devices for IBM computers and the control unit for a pacemaker. 

One could possibly postulate that they are not known or celebrated because they are black. African-Americans have made significant and are making significant contributions and ideations that continue to be discounted, dismissed, denied and co-opted. 

This is not a new revelation. In 1915 Carter G. Woodson and the Rev. Jesse E. Moorland founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. Their goal was to research and bring awareness to the largely ignored, yet crucial role black people played in American and world history.* 

Woodson is credited with what is now celebrated as Black History Month. In 1926, the celebration began as Negro History Week and 50 years later it became Black History Month. February was chosen because it is the birth month for two historical figures who impacted the future of back Americans, President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist Frederick Douglas. 

Bishop Richard Allen, born a slave, who is the founder of the African Methodist Church, is also one born in February. He too impacted the future of black Americans and white Americans. This year marks his 250th birthday. In recent months, in Philadelphia the pastors and members of the St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church and Mother Bethel, the first organized A.M.E. church, worshipped together. This is significant because it was St. George’s where Richard Allen and others left when they were pulled from their knees during prayer because they were in a gallery that they did not know was closed to black Christians, according to The Black Church in the African American Experience by C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya. Recognition and reconciliation are yet possible. 

It is clear that there are persons of other “people groups” who are also relegated to a list often found among the hidden and obscure, the invisible and the “takers” versus “givers.” However, those whose history is that of dogged determination and perseverance in the face of being valued and devalued based upon their skin color continues to be unique to those brought over the waters to America in chains. 

African-Americans are well able in so many areas and arenas. Yet and still we are more often noted when speaking of sports and entertainment. Yes we are gifted in sports and entertainment, but we are no less gifted intellectually and yet we still have to suffer the good intentioned comment when others refer to our being articulate. 

A gentleman by the name of Jesse Ernest Wilkins, Jr., a physicist, mathematician and an engineer, earned a Ph.D. in math at age 19 from the University of Chicago in 1942.* 

Nora Reed, a child born in Mississippi and who now resides in La Grange, graduated from DuSable High School in Chicago having completed credits for graduation in five majors, trigonometry, Spanish, physics, English and sociology. 

A young woman by the name of Debra Bailey, born and raised on the West Side of Chicago, graduated from Elmhurst College with high honors in 1979 and was the first African-American to receive a master of science degree in speech and language pathology from Rush University-Chicago in 1983. 

Being competitive intellectually is not foreign territory to black people. Yet the overwhelming belief is that black children are unable to excel educationally and specifically in math and science. The saddest part about this is that the young children are living out this belief which is perpetrated via the media and low expectations from the masses. 

As much as times have changed, too many hearts remain the same. However, as a Christian and a preacher in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, I believe that hearts can be made new. Right thinking and subsequent actions can be realized. 

During February we have a chance to search our hearts and determine if there is space for change especially as it relates to African-Americans and Black History Month. It would behoove and benefit humankind if we would be willing to open our eyes and admit what we see, who we are and are not, and then have the courage to say and do the right thing for the right reasons. Justice and righteousness should be for all. 

Debra E. Williams is pastor of Davis Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church in La Grange. 

* Historical data and quotes from Black History Month facts and figures — Google.

Bharti-Zain deal: Government ready to back Bharti’s African safari
economictimes.indiatimes.com/18 Feb 2010

NEW DELHI: The government on Wednesday promised to back Bharti Airtel in its attempt to acquire most of the African operations of Kuwait’s Zain Telecom,

providing cheerful tidings for a company that has been at the receiving end of grumpy investors worried it is overpaying to fulfil its overseas ambitions. 

Investors, too, appeared in better mood and sent the company’s stock higher by 2.7% after Bharti group CMD Sunil Bharti Mittal forcefully conveyed his conviction that acquiring Zain in Africa is a good deal for India’s largest telecom operator. 

Minister for corporate affairs Salman Khurshid said the government will be “very happy” to lend a helping hand if Bharti needs it, obviously pleased at the prospect of an Indian company transforming itself into an emerging-market multinational. “The Bharti management has not approached us yet. If they do, I will be very happy to help them because when they go out, it’s not the company alone but they are our flag-bearers,” he told reporters. 

“We have matured enough to see multinational companies emerge out of India and are very happy to see an Indian company expand its footprint overseas.” 

While the planned acquisition of Zain in Africa is a straightforward one, which does not involve regulatory hurdles, the Indian government will provide any clarification that is needed to facilitate a deal, Mr Khurshid said. “Nothing has been brought to our notice yet. But if anything comes to us, we will do whatever we can,” he said. Bharti Airtel is looking to buy all of Zain’s African assets excluding Morocco and Sudan for $10.7 billion. Both companies are in exclusive talks till March 25. 

The Bharti Airtel stock rose 2.7% to 279.05 on NSE on Wednesday, snapping two days of losses which saw the company’s share price decline by more than 11.2%. 

In an interview to ET on Tuesday, Mr Mittal vowed to prove those to doubted the wisdom of the planned acquisition wrong and said that with more information it will become clear to the sceptics that Zain in Africa is an asset worth having. 

Ajai Malhotra, the Indian ambassador to Kuwait, also pitched in with support, observing in a statement that “it is always most welcome when our companies pursue arrangements that both partners consider to be attractive and mutually beneficial, as is the case in the present instant.” On the Kuwait Stock Exchange, Zain’s continued to rally, rising by 6.7% to 1.26 dinar, adding to the over 9% gain on Tuesday.

CANADA :

Does Congo mean business with rush of reforms?
Feb 18, 2010/Reuters

KINSHASA (Reuters) – PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Congo office was winding down for the weekend one Friday when a call came through from an international mining firm hit with a $10 million tax bill.

World | Congo

“Get someone here for Monday — we have a meeting with the taxman,” pleaded the client before sending a private jet to the capital Kinshasa to rush an adviser to their outpost in the Kolwezi mining district, 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) south.

By the end of the meeting that Monday afternoon, the demand had shrunk to a more digestible $300,000.

“Tax law here leaves a lot of room for interpretation. It can be used to intimidate you,” said local PWC partner Benjamin Nzailu.

Such frights are familiar to investors in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the central African country of about 65 million people whose mineral wealth is matched by its reputation as one of the world’s toughest business venues.

Only the Central African Republic fared worse in this year’s World Bank ranking of the ease of doing business in 183 countries. But the stakes are so much higher in Congo than in its tiny northern neighbor.

Home to the world’s biggest reserves of cobalt — used in batteries, ceramics and dyes — Congo has gold, silver and diamond mines, and holds some of the world’s largest stores of copper, tin and metals such as tungsten, a component of many mobile phones.

Despite news headlines focused on the rebellions that simmer across Congo’s east, Europeans, Americans, Asians and others need no convincing of Congo’s potential. Their firms have sought to increase their foothold since 2003, the official end of a five-year civil war that sucked in neighboring countries and led to an estimated 5.4 million deaths.

2,000 TAXES

Last year’s surge in the price of copper — which at around $6,800 a ton is double its value a year ago — bodes well for recent deals such as a $3 billion copper and cobalt mine backed by China’s Sinohydro Corp and China Railway Construction Corp.

But widespread corruption — and business laws in some cases dating back to the 19th-century rule of Belgium’s King Leopold II — mean only a fraction of the peace dividend has been tapped. The social cost is such that 75 percent of Congo’s population live on less than a dollar a day.

Inflated tax demands are far from the worst risk. In a review of 61 mining projects, Congo last August stripped Canada’s First Quantum Minerals of its permit for a $550 million copper and cobalt project, accusing it of missing production deadlines.

That dispute is now before international arbitration. The fate of another copper and cobalt project, majority-owned by U.S. miner Freeport McMoRan, is still in the balance.

Red tape is a national disease. The World Bank calculates that starting a business in Congo takes about 150 days — three times the norm for the rest of sub-Saharan Africa and over 10 times the average of developed economies, which is 13 days.

here

The local business confederation (FEC) estimates that any company wanting to build a nationwide presence will face 300 basic taxes, a figure which can rise to a total of 2,000 including various local, provincial charges and other levies.

Land disputes are common. One developer’s pitch for a planned luxury development in Kinshasa boasts that it will be built on an artificial island in the River Congo — the location aimed at ensuring there are no historic claims to the land.

Keen to show a new face by June 30, when the country plans festivities to mark its 50th year of independence — and with one eye on persuading donors to grant debt relief — President Joseph Kabila has launched an unprecedented drive to revamp business, labor and fiscal law.

The unofficial target is to jump 20 places in the World Bank rankings, putting Congo in contention with frontier economies such as Gabon or Senegal which have enough credibility to have launched Eurobonds to international investors.

“No one can doubt the political will behind this effort. The entire government machine is involved,” said Congolese Planning Minister Olivier Kamitatu, the official in charge of the reforms, in an interview.

Congo is due soon to offer assurance to investors by adopting a set of harmonized business laws agreed by 16 Western and Central African states known by its French acronym OHADA.

GROWTH DASH

OHADA in itself is no guarantee of progress: as with European Union directives, many countries drag their heels about turning its initiatives into national law. But investors welcome it as a step toward a more a predictable environment.

“It’s a good sign,” said Regis de Oliveira of French logistics group Bollore SA. “Everything here is still to do — water, energy, transport. But the lack of commercial security is a brake. There is no judicial framework.”

For Minister Kamitatu, an ex-rebel leader who brought his Alliance for the Renewal of Congo (ARC) into Kabila’s coalition, private investment is key to a dash for growth that authorities hope to set in motion before a presidential election in 2011.

“The (2008/9 global economic) crisis sent our growth rate down to two percent. This year I am hoping it will come back to around seven percent and in 2012 I hope we reach double-digits,” he said.

But Kamitatu acknowledges Congo’s real challenge is to ensure the reforms are implemented on the ground by poorly trained and paid civil servants, local prosecutors and judges who make up the country’s one million public sector workers.

Matipa Mumba, coordinator of the committee charged with proposing reforms, said some sections of the civil service are resisting carrying out tax cuts as they see them as a threat to their office’s intake and, ultimately, to their own income.

“It scares them because they have budget targets to meet,” said Mumba of receipt targets that help shape their salaries.

KICKBACK TEMPTATION

For others, the reform effort is condemned to fail because it does not strike at a Congolese affliction which spread during the three-decade rule of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and remains rife 13 years after his death: graft.

“In this country you can become a minister with $100,000 worth of assets and leave with a $1 million. No one bats an eyelid,” fumed Jean-Lucien Mbusa, vice-president of the National Assembly’s economic and finance committee.

“As long as corruption and embezzlement of public funds is not fought tooth and claw, there is no point in having any of these laws,” said the opposition deputy, noting that ministers were not obliged to declare their assets when leaving office.

The complaint chimes with perceptions among both ordinary Congolese and business people, who in the latest ranking by Berlin-based graft watchdog Transparency International placed Congo as the 14th most corrupt country out of 180 surveyed.

“Article 15” — a Mobutu-era joke about a supposed article of the constitution urging Congolese to resort to theft to make ends meet — still gets a laugh on the streets today, emblazoned as an ironic motto on the hood of one Kinshasa taxi.

Often, the kickbacks needed to grease the wheels of business are temptingly small. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a manager of one import firm said the bribes needed to win import approvals for a $2.5 million equipment order placed by a leading aid agency came to just $60,000 — barely scratching his margin.

“At the port of Kinshasa, you can pay to have your shipments unloaded first,” said one business consultant in the capital, “Or you can wait.”

Most businesses profes
s to want the level playing-field that complying with predictable laws would bring. But for now, few believe the government drive will be enough in itself.

Poupak Bahamin of Canadian law firm Heenan Blaikie, representing the Canadian miner First Quantum, welcomed the reform effort. But she suggested Congo should go further and sign treaties with home countries of investors “to give them comfort that if they go to international arbitration, their rights will be respected.”

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Nzailu forecast real progress will be hard without a shake-up of the civil service, conceding: “That would take huge political courage.” For now, he said he could only urge entrants to tread carefully.

“Think hard before taking any shortcuts with regulations,” he advised. “Take your time tying up a contract — and make sure there are no holes in it.”

(Editing by Sara Ledwith)

Olympic games shine as beacon of hope
By Caitlin Olfano/www.campustimes.org/ Thursday, February 18, 2010

The Olympic Games have become synonymous with worldwide competition and camaraderie. It is a time when warring countries can be united through sports and pride for their athletes. Last Friday, the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics marked the start of a new season where ideals of peace and unity are emphasized. 

Even after looking at the official Olympic flag, five interlocking rings, the symbolism of community is overwhelming. The opening ceremony specifically showed this as various indigenous nations of Canada joined together in the beginning. All throughout there were symbols of peace: the doves projected on the walls of the stadium in which it was held or the rendition of the song “Hallelujah.” And it ended the same way it began, with a unifying feeling, as the Olympic cauldron was ignited from a series of torches that many people carried across the vast country of Canada.

As evidenced by natural disasters like those from Hurricane Katrina or the earthquake in Haiti, tragedy is also a powerful means for bringing people together. While simply having representatives from 82 countries competing in one city is a huge unity builder, there was a lot of power in the moment of silence that was held in memory of Nodar Kumaritashvili, a Georgian luger who died on the morning of the opening ceremony. It was no longer about competition in that moment, but the sharing of the athletic and Olympic experience. The athletes were once again partaking in the unifying spirit of the games.

Though Vancouver succeeded in alleviating reminders of world conflicts during the opening ceremony, underlying tensions could not be completely forgotten. NBC announcers duly noted that only Ireland separated Iran and Israel in the opening procession. This year North Korea and South Korea marched separately, as did Serbia and Montenegro — a subtle reminder of breaks between countries. The new rendition of the song “We are the World” highlighted the strife that continues in Haiti. Also, the fact that only five out of over 50 countries in Africa are participating in the games might indicate the problems that are still prevalent on that continent and in the rest of the world. Even the Olympic Games cannot fully eliminate the constant struggles that are felt worldwide.

While the International Olympic Committee and everyone watching hope the games will spread the ever elusive world peace, it is more likely that their end in Vancouver will leave the world as it was before the start of the Olympics. The problems that the world continually faces will come back into the forefront of the minds of leaders and citizens. Soon enough the spirit of unity will fade away as the results become replaced with stories of increasing economic troubles or casualties of war.

We saw this hope decrease after the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. When China agreed to host the event, many people hoped it would become more open to the rest of the world. At the time of the games, it seemed like China was making a real effort to welcome the nations participating and even the press into their country. However, two years later, it is seemingly unchanged. Countries, like China, seem set in their ways and are unlikely to revise them for the fleeting feeling of unity that takes over during the time of competition.

In a short amount of time the world will most likely go back to its preoccupation with its many problems. However, the Olympic Games show the realization of unity through something as simple as sports involving snow and ice. Not only are the athletes interacting with one another on the slopes or the rink, but the rest of the world is watching them and cheering them on. The athletes, as representatives of many different countries, can inspire and instill hope in those who believe that some countries will inevitably be locked in conflict.

While these Winter Olympics only last until Feb. 28, they are a refreshing change of pace from the everyday struggles that we are so used to hearing in the media. Instead of anticipating failures, we watch as athletes work together toward success.

And if we take a cue from our athletes, maybe peace and unity in the world are not so elusive after all. 

Olfano is a member of
the class of 2012.

AUSTRALIA :

UPDATE 1-S.Africa Woolworths lifts H1 profit, sales up 9.3 pct

Feb 18/Reuters
* Headline EPS up 40 pct 

Cyclical Consumer Goods

* Turnover up 9.3 pct

* Results boosted by FX gains (Adds details)

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 18 (Reuters) – South African retailer Woolworths (WHLJ.J) posted a 40 percent rise in first-half profit, bolstered partly by foreign exchange gains as consumers battling job losses and high debt levels rein in spending.

The food and clothing retailer said on Thursday headline earnings per share rose to 85.4 cents in the six months to end December, in line with its forecast range of 35-45 percent increase.

Woolworths, which has been losing market share as its upmarket shoppers switched to cheaper rivals, said the results were boosted by favourable swings in the exchange rate.

Adjusted headline EPS — which excludes a post-tax foreign exchange gain of 41.6 million rand ($5.45 million) and a 75 million rand secondary tax on companies (STC) charge on 2008’s special dividend, increased 13.8 percent to 80.1 cents.

The company booked 9.3 percent rise in sales to 11.5 billion rand. The South African group has no connection to the British retailer of the same name that closed its doors last year.

South African retailers have been struggling as consumers reduced spending to cope with high debt levels and job losses but shoppers are gradually opening their purses again thanks to lower interest rates and a recovering economy.

Retail sales fell by a less-than-expected 3.7 percent year-on-year in December, data showed on Wednesday, showing still weak consumer demand but signs the sector may be on the mend. [ID:nLDE61G0QO] (Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by Marius Bosch)

EUROPE :

Chad seeking to keep UN civilians, release troops

By JOHN HEILPRIN/Associated Press /2010-02-18

Chad pressed on Wednesday for more than 2,700 U.N. peacekeeping troops to be withdrawn and replaced with the country’s own military along the border with Sudan _ a position at odds with senior U.N. officials and diplomats.
The aim of the struggling U.N. mission is to help about a half-million refugees and to promote law and order efforts in Chad and the Central African Republic, two impoverished nations grappling with the spillover from violence in Sudan’s Darfur province.

“We are open to any credible proposal which will allow this withdrawal to take place in proper conditions,” said Chad’s U.N. ambassador, Ahmad Allam-mi, who was the nation’s foreign minister from 2005 to 2008.

The dispute over the future of the 2 1/2-year-old U.N. mission arose a month before the U.N. Security Council must decide whether to renew its mandate for another year.

Allam-mi called a news conference Wednesday just as the council was privately deliberating over the future of the mission it first created in 2007 as a U.N. civilian and police operation with an accompanying European Union force. Last year, the council approved a U.N. force to replace the EU troops.

Chad has been negotiating with representatives of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Allam-mi said. The U.N. chief’s recommendations on such matters are usually followed by the council that is the U.N.’s most powerful body.

Some 40 countries led by Togo, Ireland, France, Ghana, Nepal, Poland and Norway contributed personnel to the $690 million-a-year mission, but it still lacks about half the 5,200 military personnel authorized.

“The military component which is in the field and is causing us difficulties can be withdrawn in smooth conditions,” Allam-mi, told reporters. “Given that it is understaffed, it has been unable to provide for security within the area as it should have.”

Chad’s president Idriss Deby said last week his country does not wish to renew the mandate of a U.N. peacekeeping force operating in his country along the border with Sudan because it has failed to improve conditions.

The force was also responsible for training Chadian police. It was Chad that initially asked for a European Union force to come in to help with the humanitarian situation.

Allam-mi, however, said Chad hopes to retain the nearly 1,000 U.N. civilians and volunteers with the mission, which was created to assist some 240,000 Sudanese refugees who fled Darfur, 180,000 Chadians displaced by civil war and 70,000 refugees from Central African Republic.

Allam-mi said too many U.N. vehicles and planes are tearing apart the nation’s roads and impeding Chad’s air traffic, and the influx of foreign money to the area is causing severe inflation, a tripling of the cost of living for impoverished refugees.

French Ambassador Gerard Araud, who is president of the U.N.’s most powerful body this month, read aloud a statement after the council’s closed-door discussions saying its members expressed “full support” for retaining the U.N. mission known as MINURCAT.

Alain Le Roy, the U.N. peacekeeping chief, plans a visit to the mission later this month. After briefing the council Wednesday, he described Chad’s bid to retain U.N. civilians while replacing military personnel as unrealistic because the two operate hand-in-hand.

“This is not an option, because we cannot keep the civilians without the military to protect them,” said Le Roy.

John Holmes, the U.N. humanitarian chief, told reporters after briefing the council that it would be best to retain both the U.N. troops and civilians.

“We think they’re important for the safety and security of the people in the camps, the civilians in general and for the humanitarian operations,” he said. “So we’re very concerned by the prospect of withdrawal, and I made that very clear to the council.”

$21bn shortfall means pledge to make poverty history is history

Charles Bremner, Paris /The Times /February 18, 2010
Rich nations including Japan, France and Germany will fail to honour promises made five years ago on raising aid to poor countries and Africa will suffer most, according to a report yesterday from the OECD. 

Britain is one of the few large donors which has met its part of the pledge made at a summit in Gleneagles, Scotland to devote 0.51% of national income to foreign aid by 2010, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said. 

Although aid is at record levels in dollar terms, under-performance by Germany, France, Italy and Japan means that it will fall $21 billion short of the $50 billion increase pledged at the Gleneagles G8 meeting, chaired by Tony Blair. 

Africa will receive only half its promised increase to $50 billion in 2010, said the OECD. Britain was one of nine EU nations which are on track to meet or exceed the target. Gordon Brown called on Britain’s partners to abide by their commitment. “I do not believe there can be any excuse for denying money promised to the poorest people on our planet,” he said yesterday. “The world came together in 2005 to make poverty history. In 2010 I call on the international community and campaigners to reinvigorate this mission; to renew their commitment — not to turn away from it.” The nine EU states which will meet their 0.51 percent Gleneagles pledge are Sweden (1.03%), Luxembourg (1%), Denmark (0.83%), the Netherlands (0.8%), Belgium (0.7%), the UK (0.56%), Finland (0.55%), Ireland (0.52%) and Spain (0.51%). The United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland are also on track. 

Oxfam called the broken promises a scandal. “The missing $21 billion could pay for every child to go to school, and could save the lives of two million of the poorest mothers and children,” it said. 

CCFD, a French Catholic international charity deplored France’s failure. “For us, the OECD figures are very bad news which confirms the weak performance and the paucity of efforts by France in this field,” it said. 

Summit was not a talkshop
February 18, 2010/ GNA
Abuja, Feb 17, GNA-President John Evans Atta Mills on Wednesday gave thumbs-up for the success of the 37th Ordinary Summit of the Authority of Heads of State and Governments of the Economic Community of West African States, saying it was no talk-shop.

He said the discusion on the resolution of renewed conflicts and the search for peace for development in the West African sub-region was in the interest of the peoples of the region, since development could never take place when peace was threatened.

In a post-Summit chat with journalists, the Ghanaian leader reminded leaders of their duty to use the available resources to improve the lives of the people.

Aside the discussion on issues of political stability and resolution of renewed conflict which took centre stage, the Summit underlined the need to reduce poverty and for the leaders to commit themselves to environmental preservation and climate change and increase food production.

President Mills said the meeting was well organised and commended Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, Acting President of Nigeria, for the manner in which he deputised for President Umaru Yar’ Adua of Nigeria who was receiving medical treatment abroad.

Wishing the President Yar’Adua a speedy recovery, the President said the acting President was up to the task and was a very good substitute.

He also commended Mr. James Victor Gbeho, the Presidential Advisor on Foreign Policy, who was elected at the Summit to continue the term until next December of Dr. Mohmamed Ibn Chambas out-going President of the Ecowas Commission.

President Mills said Mr Gbeho was a worthy replacement. 

Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas takes up a new appointment as Secretary of the Africa Carribean Pacific Group in Brussels, Belgium. 

On the suspension of Togo by the African Football Confederation (CAF), President Mills, a former Sports Administrator, said Ghana supports the Ecowas stand that decision was rather too harsh.

He said case of Togo rather deserved sympathy.

Togo lost two of its technical team members to rebel forces during the recent Angola 2010 tournament and subsequently pulled out of the competition after which the CAF slapped a ban for two consecutive times not to take part in the continental football competition.

Mr. Gbeho promised to work with dispatch on the Togolese issue with CAF, promising wide consultations among members of the Commission.

He said he had no magic wand to the problems facing the Commission, naming some of the problems as poverty, renewed conflicts in Niger, and problems of transition in Togo and La Cote d’Ivoire, as well as peace and security, integration and governance.

Acting President of Nigeria Dr. Jonathan who was elected chairman of the regional body said any act taking over government through unconstitutional means would no longer be tolerated.

He said: “The march towards democracy and good governance is ineluctable and will no more be allowed to suffer. Nigeria stands ready to work with all our sister countries within the sub-region to ensure that the gains which we have made become the norm for us in West Africa. 

“Let it be stated again that no place exists in this sub-region for such rape on the rights and indeed dignity of our people. No more will there be comfort zone for such political misadventurers”, Dr. Jonathan in his acceptance speech. 

He said that the region was confronted with a number of undemocratic forces, noting that the will of the people and their genuine aspirations for democracy were trampled upon with impunity in some countries in the region. 

He said: “That is why on January 9, 2009, we were compelled to convene an extra-ordinary summit to deal with the crisis in the Republic of Guinea. In order to uphold the principles enshrined in the 2001 ECOWAS Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, which all our member-states freely acceded to, we were left with no choice but to suspend Guinea from our organisation until the restoration of constitutional order in that country. 

“Another member-state, Niger Republic, was suspended from our organisation on October 20, 2009 due to acts we perceived as contrary to the ECOWAS Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance. 

“Let me restate our firm commitment to assisting both Guinea and Niger in restoring constitutional order in their respective countries in the not-too-distant future.” 

Jonathan, however, noted that there had been some credible and acceptable elections at different levels in a few countries in the region. 

He said: “This process underscores the inalienable right of our people to choose their leaders. At the same time, the fight against corruption and the institution of transparency and best practices in governance are becoming our normal way of doing things. 

“This wind of consolidation of democracy is quite pleasing and we must redouble efforts to ensure that greater substance and value are placed on them. 

“After all, it is in our best interest to ensure that the institutions of governance are functional in our countries and thereby pave the way for us as governments to deliver to our people the gains, dividends and benefits of responsive and responsible leadership.” 

The Acting President also lauded the election in Guinea Bissau, describing it as a resounding success. Dr. Jonathan was optimistic that the Joint Border Post, which would also facilitate the free movement of persons, would commence this year, just as he called on the summit to address the issue of the roadmap for the realization of the second regional currency, the Eco.

He noted that the Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations with the European Union offered an important platform to restate the need for a firm financial commitment from the EU on funding the EPA development programme. 

The outgoing President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Chambas in a valedictory speech, predicted recovery from the decline of ECOWAS development which he said, with the continued prudent macro-economic management of national economies up to 4.7 per cent growth in 2010 could be achieved. 

He said: “The prospects for growth in the region remain bright. This is the reason for our resolution not to relent in our collective effort to face the challenges of the times but to deepen integration, which will afford us the advantages of economies of scale and increased competitiveness.” 

Dr. Chambas said since the presidency of the commission was on a rotational basis, a schedule of the rotation would be required to determine which country would produce the next President.

Those who attended yesterday’s summit included Dr. Thomas Boni Yayi of the Republic of Benin, Blaise Compare of Burkina Faso, Pedro Pres of Cape Verde, Professor John Evans Atta Mills of Ghana and Malam Bacai Sanha of Guinea Republic. 

Others were Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria, Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, Ernest Koroma of Sierra Leone and Faure Gnassingbe of Togo.

Three countries namely the Republic of Gambia, Cote d’Ivoire and Mali were represented.

From: Benjamin Mensah, GNA Special Correspondent, Abuja, Nigeria

CHINA :

China Unicom, Telecom N.Z., Deny Involvement in Nigeria Bids
February 18, 2010/By Mark Lee/Bloomberg

Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) — China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. and Telecom Corp. of New Zealand said they didn’t participate in a government auction to buy Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd., contradicting a public announcement by the West African state.

Neither Unicom nor its unlisted parent joined the bidding for Nitel, as Nigerian Telecommunications is known, Sophia Tso, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for the Beijing-based company, said by phone today. Telecom Corp.’s Telecom New Zealand isn’t part of a group bidding for Nitel, said Mark Watts, spokesman for the Auckland-based company said by phone.

Nigeria’s privatization agency shortlisted five investor groups in the auction for state-owned Nitel, which has lost market share to private operators entering Africa’s fastest- growing phone market. The government this week said a group comprising Unicom, China’s No. 2 mobile carrier, submitted a $2.5 billion offer, and was chosen as preferred bidder.

The purported offer for a 75 percent stake in Nitel was “relatively high” compared with the valuation in Bharti Airtel Ltd.’s proposed $9 billion purchase of the African wireless assets of Kuwait’s Zain, Nomura Holdings Inc. analyst Danny Chu wrote in a report yesterday. Nitel’s annual ebitda, or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization was estimated at about $13 million, according to Chu.

Bharti Airtel’s bid for the Zain assets was valued at about 7.4 times ebitda, while paying $2.5 billion for the Nitel stake would be equivalent to more than 100 times ebitda, according to Nomura’s Chu.

Preferred Bidder

China Unicom fell 1.3 percent to HK$8.87 in Hong Kong trading compared with a 0.5 percent decline in the benchmark Hang Seng Index. Telecom Corp. was unchanged at NZ$2.34 on the New Zealand Stock Exchange.

New Generation Telecom Ltd., a group made up of Unicom, Dubai’s Minerva Group and Nigeria’s GiCell Wireless Ltd., was selected as the preferred bidder for Nitel, Nigeria’s National Council on Privatization said at a press briefing in the capital Abuja on Feb. 16. The statement said Telecom New Zealand International was the “technical partner” of a separate bidding group led by a special-purpose vehicle called Brymedia West Africa Ltd.

Telecom New Zealand International is part of Telecom Corp. and isn’t involved in the Nigeria bid, Watts said.

Nitel has lost market share to rivals including MTN Nigeria Ltd., and its employees are currently owed 17 months of wages, according to the Bureau of Public Enterprises. A previous attempt to sell the company was annulled after Transnational Corp., a Lagos-based investment company, failed to comply with sale conditions.

Joseph Anichebe, spokesman for Nigeria’s Bureau of Public Enterprises, wasn’t immediately available to comment when called on his mobile phone. Calls to Christopher Anyanwu, the director- general of the BPE, were unsuccessful because his mobile phone was switched off.

–With assistance from Paul Okolo in Abuja. Editors: Mark McCord, Jonathan Annells.

PPR full year net profit increases 7 percent
By EMMA VANDORE (AP)/18022010

PARIS — Retail-to-luxury group PPR SA reported a 7 percent increase in 2009 profits Thursday and said it is launching a sales offensive to boost revenues in fast-growing markets such as China.

PPR, owner of the Yves Saint Laurent and Gucci brands, said net profit rose to euro984.6 million ($1.35 billion) after it sold its African distribution business CFAO.

The sale in December raised euro806 million and is part of PPR’s strategy to “refocus” on its luxury and lifestyle businesses.

The group did not break out quarterly profit figures.

CEO Francois-Henri Pinault said he is starting the year “with determination and confidence.”

“We are launching an energetic sales offensive aimed at further strengthening our leadership on the highest-growth markets, such as e-commerce and emerging countries, and at raising our business and financial performances in 2010,” he said in a statement.

CFO Jean-Francois Palus told journalists in a conference call that PPR is switching from a priority of cost reduction to trying to boost sales through product launches and catalogs.

PPR wants to expand its network of stores in growing markets, he said.

Revenue fell 4 percent to euro16.52 billion in 2009 and 3.2 percent in the October to December quarter.

Revenue at PPR’s Gucci Group subsidiary, which comprises luxury fashion and leather brands such as Yves Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta as well as its namesake Gucci brand, was down 0.3 percent at euro929.2 million in the fourth quarter.

PPR’s FNAC books and electronics chain reported a 0.8 percent increase in quarterly revenue to euro1.56 billion, and its Conforama furniture stores saw 0.1 percent sales growth to euro848.8 million in the period.

The Redcats catalog unit reported a 9.9 percent fall in revenue to euro904 million.

PPR’s German sportswear company Puma AG on Wednesday reported a doubling of net income for the fourth quarter to euro16.2 million as the company lowered expenses and saw higher operating profits.

US-China ties in focus as Nimitz docks in Hong Kong
By Damian Grammaticas /BBC News, Hong Kong /Thursday, 18 February 2010

Looming out of the mist in Hong Kong’s harbour was the hulking, grey outline of the USS Nimitz.

The aircraft carrier is an unmistakeable symbol of American might. 

Behind the US ships, shrouded in cloud were the towers of Hong Kong’s skyscrapers, symbols of another rising power, an increasingly wealthy and ambitious China. 

The Nimitz and its battle group sailed in to Chinese waters this week and dropped anchor not far from Hong Kong Island. 

China had given the go ahead for the visit despite its recent threat to suspend all military exchanges. 

Emerging China

On the flight deck of the Nimitz fighter jets were parked in neat lines. 

Armed guards patrolled the deck keeping watch. In recent weeks tensions between America and China have been growing.

But the commander of the carrier-battle group, Rear Admiral John Miller, did not want to discuss the tensions with China, preferring to focus instead on ways the US and its rising rival might be able to co-operate. 

“Our leadership speaks routinely about the benefits of a stable emerging China that’s able to co-operate and operate in a maritime environment,” said Rear Adm Miller. 

“A great example of where that’s happening is off the Horn of Africa where a number of nations are involved in counter-piracy operations and that includes China and many other nations including the US.” 

But in reality co-operation between America and a rising China is in short supply; instead disputes between the two sides seem to be multiplying. 

Assertive fronts

Back on Hong Kong island, shoppers throng the streets.

The crowds – many of them visitors from other parts of China, here for the New Year holidays – are a testament to China’s soaring economy. 

Growing with it is a sense the balance of power is shifting in China’s direction. 

So Beijing is becoming more assertive on many fronts. 

There is the internet. Beijing says accusations that it censors the web and that Google’s e-mail service was hacked from China have harmed ties. 

There is Taiwan. China has threatened sanctions on American firms that sell weapons to Taiwan and said it may not co-operate with America on major international issues. 

And there’s President Barack Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama. Beijing says ties with America will be strained further. 

‘Hit America’

Lew Mon Hung is a wealthy Hong Kong-based businessman who sits on the foreign affairs committee of Beijing’s Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference – effectively an upper chamber with an advisory role.

He says if the US damages China’s core interests then Beijing should retaliate. 

“If America isn’t friendly we can make life difficult – for instance if Iran asks to buy missiles or missile defence systems, China could sell them,” he says. 

“Let it shock America. Hit America in the ribs. It would hurt America’s core interests and teach it a lesson. ” 

And the Pentagon is now concerned about the build-up of China’s military power. 

Looming conflicts?

During 60th Anniversary celebrations last November China’s communist rulers displayed some of their new weapons. 

But the US says Beijing is being secretive, its military intentions are not clear.

Yan Xuetong, the Director of the Institute of International Studies at Tsinghua University, sees conflicts looming. 

“There will be more conflicts between China and the US, the narrower the gap between China and the US, the more conflict there will be, and on many issues,” he says. 

“But I think it will be on the economy first as that is where the gap between China and America is narrowest.” 

Back on board the USS Nimitz the Stars and Stripes flags are fluttering in the breeze. 

The implications of all this are serious. If the US and China are heading for more confrontation then the world is likely to be a more unpredictable and unstable place. 

If the world’s two biggest powers cannot co-operate there might be far-reaching implications, which could affect us all. 

FACTBOX-Sources of tension between China and U.S.

Feb 18 /Reuters

BEIJING, Feb 18 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama
meets Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Thursday, a
move that has been denounced by China. The Obama administration delayed meeting the Dalai Lama,
who has lived in exile since a failed Tibetan uprising in 1959,
until after Obama’s November visit to Beijing so as not to
inflame tensions with China, which accuses the monk of
separatism. With the two giant nations joined at the hip economically,
Sino-U.S. tensions are unlikely to escalate into outright
confrontation, but could make cooperating on global economic
and security issues all the more difficult. Here are the main sources of tension: CURRENCY AND DEBT The United States complains that China keeps its currency
artificially undervalued, thus unfairly helping exporters. China has unofficially pegged the yuan to the dollar since
mid-2008, meaning its currency has weakened against other trade
partners as the value of the dollar has slid. Beijing is
concerned the value of its dollar holdings could be eroded by
massive debt issuances to fund the U.S. stimulus. China overtook Japan as the largest foreign holder of U.S.
Treasuries in September 2008. But according to U.S. Treasury
data, by the end of 2009 China had reduced its directly-held
stake to $755.4 billion from $789.6 billion in November, making
Japan again the top foreign holder. U.S. lawmakers want to take action on the yuan, but U.S.
law makes it difficult to investigate alleged subsidies. Rash U.S. moves that threaten China’s massive purchases of
U.S. debt, and its funding of the U.S. deficit, are unlikely. TRADE AND INVESTMENT A World Trade Organization panel is judging U.S. duties on
Chinese tyres, after the United States for the first time
imposed safeguard duties agreed to when China joined the WTO. Other trade disputes centre around steel products, poultry,
Chinese tariffs on raw materials exports, and quality and
safety concerns over Chinese-made food, toys and other goods
that Chinese manufacturers view as a type of protectionism. U.S. firms investing in China complain about intellectual
property theft, murky regulations, corruption and unfair
advantages enjoyed by domestic rivals. China complains about investment barriers on the U.S. side,
citing resource investments blocked on national security
grounds. In 2009, U.S. exports to China totaled $77.4 billion, but
were dwarfed by $220.8 billion in exports from China to the
United States, Beijing’s second biggest trade partner. Falling
demand thanks to the financial crisis narrowed the trade gap. DIPLOMATIC AND MILITARY INFLUENCE China fears that ethnically distinct Tibetan areas will
strive for independence, taking with them one-sixth of China’s
current territory — an area rich in minerals and water
resources. Taiwan remains a sore point. China has threatened sanctions
against companies making weapons or planes involved in the U.S.
plan to sell $6.4 billion of arms to Taiwan. Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring
self-ruled and democratic Taiwan, which it considers its
sovereign territory, under its rule. The United States is
legally obliged to help the island defend itself. As China has grown to the world’s third-largest economy, it
is gaining greater clout, especially in Asia and Africa. It is also upgrading its military and space capability, and
Washington has said Beijing should be more open about its
defense spending and strategic intentions. China is wary of the United States’ global military
strength. U.S. patrols in waters China considers its exclusive
zone led to minor incidents last year. In 2001 a U.S. spy plane
was forced to land in China after colliding with a Chinese
fighter. China and the United States work together in talks over
North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme. China worries that if
its neighbour collapses refugees could destabilise northeast
China. Washington also wants China to put stronger pressure on
North Korea, as well as Iran, over their nuclear activities. INTERNET FREEDOMS U.S. Internet firms have fared poorly in China, which
censors content and blocks many foreign websites, including
popular social media such as Twitter and Facebook, and YouTube. On Jan. 12, Google Inc (GOOG.O) said it might pull out of
the country after a sophisticated cyber-attack, adding that it
would seek talks about offering a legal, uncensored search
engine in China. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on China to
openly and thoroughly investigate the attacks and made a broad
case for global Internet freedom on Jan. 21. (For main story click on [ID:nN17134794])
(Writing by Ben Blanchard and Lucy Hornby; Editing by Cynthia
Osterman and Sugita Katyal

China’s iron-ore imports from S Africa, Ukraine, Canada up in 2009

Source: Xinhua/February 18 2010

Australia, Brazil and India remained the largest iron ore suppliers to China in 2009, but China’s imports from South Africa, Ukraine and Canada more than doubled last year from a year earlier, according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC).
China imported 34.13 million tonnes of iron ores from South Africa in 2009, a rise of 140 percent year on year, said a document posted at the GAC’s website.
Last year, China’s imports of iron ores from Ukraine and Canada stood at 11.58 millions tonnes and 8.65 million tonnes, up 150 percent and 130 percent, respectively.
Australia, Brazil and India remained the three largest iron ores suppliers to China last year.
Imports from Australia rose 42.9 percent to 260 million tonnes. Brazil exported 140 million tonnes to China, up 41.5 percent. Imports from the two nations accounted for 64.4 percent of China’s total iron ore imports in 2009, said the GAC document.
China’s imports from India rose 18 percent to 110 million tonnes last year, accounting for 17.1 percent of China’s total iron ore imports.
China’s imports of iron ores in 2009 rose 41.6 percent year on year to hit 630 million tonnes, a record high. The average price was 79.9 U.S. dollars per tonne, down 41.7 percent from the previous year.
The iron ore imports cost the world’s third largest economy 50.14 billion U.S. dollars last year, down 17.4 percent.
The document attributed rising ore imports in 2009 to quick recovery of China’s steel production, insufficient domestic supply and increasing iron ore stockpiles by importers.
In 2009, China’s iron and steel output rose 18.5 percent to 692.4 million tonnes. Crude steel output increased 13.5 percent to 567.8 million tonnes.
A total of 235 China-based companies imported iron ores in 2009, a drop of 28 in comparison with that of 2008.
State-owned enterprises imported about 400 million tonnes of iron ores in 2009, an increase of 14.3 percent from year on year, which accounted for 64.4 percent of the nation’s total iron ore imports.
Privately-owned and foreign-funded enterprises imported 87.44 million tonnes and 70.61 million tonnes, soaring 99.7 percent and 95.8 percent from the previous year, respectively.

eSolar, Ferrostaal set renewable energy partnership

Feb 18 /Reuters

* Companies to create ‘turn-key’ solar plants

Stocks

* Will target Spanish, South African, UAE markets

NEW YORK,  – Thermal solar power company eSolar and power plant developer Ferrostaal AG said on Thursday they had set a partnership to build renewable power stations in markets such as Spain, South Africa and United Arab Emirates.

Unlike photovoltaic panels that turn sunlight directly into electricity, concentrated solar thermal power technology uses mirrors to reflect sunlight onto a receiver mounted atop a tower. The heat from the concentrated light boils water to produce steam to power a turbine and produce electricity.

The growth of thermal solar power has been slow, although a major renewable energy push by China as well as a major plant planned for the Sahara Desert and rapid developments in Spain could give the technology a boost in the coming years.

Under the new partnership, eSolar will supply the solar field and receiver technology, while Ferrostaal, which is owned by MAN (MANG.DE) and Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Co, will provide power turbines and act as general contractor. It will also manage financing activities of projects.

“What Ferrostaal is really doing here is creating a turn-key solar power plant,” Rob Rogan, senior vice president at eSolar, told Reuters.

“They’re going to be providing all the development and construction and financing knowledge necessary to get these built.”

ESolar, headquartered in Pasadena, California, currently has a 5 megawatt plant in operation in California, although its base unit is for plants that cover about 200 acres and have a capacity of 46 megawatts.

Last month, the company announced it reached a deal with a Chinese power equipment maker to build a 2,000 MW project in China over the next decade.

Rogan declined to comment on the cost of developing the company’s plants, but said that it is forecast to be below that of photovoltaic solar, which typically runs more more than $4 per watt.

In the United States, one megawatt is enough to power about 800 homes.

In August, Essen, Germany-headquartered Ferrostaal and Germany’s Solar Millennium AG (S2MG.DE) announced a partnership called Solar Trust of America LLC to tap into the U.S. thermal solar market. (Reporting by Matt Daily; Editing by Gary Hill)

INDIA :

Bharti-Zain deal ‘attractive and mutually beneficial’
18th February 2010/www.businessghana.com

India has welcomed telecom giant Bharti Airtel’s plan to acquire Kuwait-based Zain’s African operations, saying it was a deal that would be “attractive and mutually beneficial” for both the partners.

Issuing a statement on Bharti’s USD 10.7 billion offer to buy Zain’s African assets, other than those in Sudan and Morocco, India’s Ambassador to Kuwait Ajai Malhotra said: “It

is always most welcome when our companies pursue arrangements that both partners consider to be attractive and mutually beneficial, as is the case in the present instant.”

“I am pleased that a leading Indian company, Bharti Airtel and Zain are engeged in exclusive discussions for the acquisition by Bharti of Zain’s African operations, excluding those in Morocco and Sudan,” the Indian envoy said while

replying to media queries.

With the acquisition of Zain’s African operations, Bharti would get access to nearly 42 million subscribers over and above the 125 million user base in the Indian market.

This is Bharti’s third attempt to enter the fast growing African market with potential for higher growth in the coming years.

The Indian telecom sector has been one of the major success stories in the post-liberalisation era in India,Malhotra said.

Bharti has offered an enterprise value of USD 10.7 billion to acquire Zain’s operations, of which USD 1.7 billion would be debt. The company has said that actual outgo would be only USD 9 billion for the deal. 

India’s policies in the telecom sector have led to mobile telephony availability at low or vastly reduced charges, resulting in the speedy 

expansion of the Indian telephone network to include over 562 million subscribers, the Indian envoy had said in a statement yesterday.

“It is good that Bharti Airtel, one of the leading telecom companies to have emerged in the context of implementing those policies, is now on the verge of acquiring a global profile by

venturing deep into international markets and bringing its strengths to the telecom sector of a large number of African countries,” Malhotra added.

Although the deal has run into a dispute over Zain’s Nigerian operations, where one of the minority shareholders has moved for arbitration, Bharti’s Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Mittal had expressed the confidence that it

would not come in the way of completing the deal.

Econet, a minority shareholder in Zain’s Nigeria operations, had yesterday issued a statement confirming the arbitration going on between the two parties over the issue of right of first refusal. 

Source: GNA

Vodafone launches cheapest phones for India, Turkey and Africa

www.infocera.com/Posted by: vings network /18/02/2010 
Vodafone is all set to revolutionize the mobile industry yet again by introducing the planets cheapest mobile. Not just one but two Mobiles, the Vodafone 150 and Vodafone 250. Only recently Nokia announced a new cheap phone for just $10 to be introduced soon. Looks like the mobile companies are into high competition in the cheapest and smartest mobile segment.

Vodafone 150 mobile will cost just $15 (Rs. 700 in India) and the targeted countries will India, Eight African countries and Turkey. The demand for mobiles is estimated to reach 5 Billion this year according the UN and this growth is mainly credited to the increase of users in mobile banking and other value added

mobile banking services and hence the firm designed the Vodafone 150 to reach out to more people.

The specifications of Vodafone 150 and 250 includes, mini USB, alarm clock, 100 phone book memory, 500 mAh battery, standby time 400 hrs, talk time 5 hours, 2 games embedded, torch, currency converter, calculator, voice and messaging and most of all it can support mobile payment service. Quite overloaded for the price isn’t it? This cheapest Vodafone mobile is unveiled at the MWC 2010 for the developing nations.

Vodafone 250 offers features which will definitely be worth the money and spent and much more. Apart from voice and SMS, Vodafone 250 has all the features on Vodafone 150 plus 1.45 inch CSTN display, FM Radio for music, polyphonic ring tones, 2 games embedded for mobile game lovers, alarm clock, currency converter well suitable for mobile banking, calculator, wallpapers and mini USB port. Vodafone 250 is priced $20 (Rs.900 in India) net. Forget the competition it is definitely good news for the masses and very soon we can expect a mobile in the hands of even a new born.

India’s Stocks Fall, Snapping Two-Day Advance; Sterlite Drops
February 18, 2010/By Rajhkumar K Shaaw/Bloomberg

Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) — India’s benchmark stock index fell, snapping a two-day advance, led by metal producers as prices declined on speculation demand may falter as governments end measures to boost their economies.

Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd., the largest copper producer, lost 2.3 percent. Tata Steel Ltd. slid 1.2 percent. Signs the U.S. economy is accelerating has fueled speculation the Federal Reserve may soon withdraw stimulus. India’s government, which last year boosted spending to spur growth, presents its annual spending plan on Feb. 26.

“We don’t see any substantial upside in the markets till the budget,” said Alex Mathews, head of research at Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services Ltd. in Kochi. “We are advising investors to be selective in their stock picking.”

The Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index, or Sensex, dropped 101.07, or 0.6 percent, to 16,327.84. The S&P CNX Nifty Index on the National Stock Exchange lost 0.5 percent to 4,887.75. The BSE 200 Index slid 0.6 percent to 2,068.01.

Sterlite fell 2.3 percent to 770.6 rupees. Copper retreated for a second day in London, where a broader measure of six metals also declined. Tata Steel, the nation’s largest producer of the alloy, lost 1.2 percent to 577.15 rupees.

GDP Expanding

Minutes of the Fed’s Jan. 26-27 meeting posted yesterday showed some policy makers pushed to start selling assets in the “near future” as a way to shrink the central bank’s balance sheet. Futures on the CME Group exchange show a 47 percent chance the Fed will raise its target rate for overnight bank lending by at least a quarter-percentage point by its September meeting, up from 46 percent odds on Feb. 16.

India’s gross domestic product will probably increase 7.5 percent in the year ending March 31, its first annual expansion since 2007, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said yesterday. Mukherjee has cut taxes and stepped up government spending to provide stimulus worth more than 3.5 percent of GDP amid a global recession. The nation must wind down stimulus measures Chakravarthy Rangarajan, the Prime Minister’s chief economic adviser, said Feb. 10.

India’s food-price inflation climbed to 17.97 percent in the week ended Feb. 6 from a year earlier, a Commerce Ministry report showed today. That’s the highest level in six weeks, underscoring the challenges Mukherjee faces in balancing growth and price increases before next week’s budget.

Reliance

Reliance Industries Ltd., the operator of the world’s largest oil processing complex, lost 3.4 percent to 997.8 rupees. The Economic Times said Reliance may have to increase its offer to buy bankrupt chemicals and fuels-maker LyondellBasell Industries AF, citing comments by David Harpole, a Lyondell spokesman.

Manoj Warrier, a spokesman for Reliance Industries, declined to comment on the report. Netherlands-based LyondellBasell may be valued at as much as $14.5 billion, according to filings in the U.S. bankruptcy court.

Overseas investors bought a net 2.57 billion rupees ($55.6 million) of Indian stocks on Feb. 16, according to the nation’s stock market regulator.

Foreign fund inflows into India’s stock market rose to a record 834.2 billion rupees in 2009, beating the previous high set two years earlier in local currency terms, as the biggest rally in 18 years lured foreign investors. They sold a record 529.9 billion rupees of shares in 2008, triggering the biggest- ever annual decline.

The following were among the most active on the exchange:

Bajaj Hindusthan Ltd. (BJH IN), India’s biggest sugar producer, sank 5.3 percent to 172.25 rupees, leading a slide among rivals after prices of the commodity in New York, a global benchmark, plunged to an eight-week low. Balrampur Chini Mills Ltd. (BRCM IN), the No. 2, lost 4.2 percent to 111.35 rupees. Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd. (SHRS IN) slid 4.5 percent to 184.3 rupees.

Raw-sugar for May delivery declined 4.5 percent yesterday.

Bharti Airtel Ltd. (BHARTI IN) rose 1 percent to 281.9 rupees. Sunil Mittal, the billionaire chairman of South Asia’s biggest mobile phone company, said yesterday the price the Indian company is offering for most of the African assets of Kuwait’s Zain is “not over the top.”

Bombay Dyeing and Manufacturing Co. (BD IN) surged 4.9 percent to 556.45 rupees. The textile company plans to sell its 400,000 square feet (37,161 square meter) commercial property in Mumbai to Axis Bank Ltd. “We are in active discussions with only Axis Bank at the moment and we hope it will be finalized soon,” Bombay Dyeing’s Chief Financial Officer Durgesh Mehta said in a telephone interview today. He didn’t provide more information.

Havells India Ltd. (HAVL IN) gained 4.3 percent to 561.8 rupees. The maker of power-distribution equipment rose on expectations its new energy-saving lamps will boost sales.

Havells may get 1 billion rupees a year from ceramic metal halide lamp sales, joint Managing Director Anil Gupta told CNBC- TV18 in an interview televised today.

Indian Oil Corp. (IOCL IN) advanced 1.7 percent to 317.3 rupees. The largest state-run refiner may open as many as 700 retail outlets in the year starting April 1, after adding about 300 this year, G.C. Daga, marketing director, said yesterday.

Infrastructure Development Finance Co. (IDFC IN) climbed 3.8 percent to 154.85 rupees. India’s biggest lender for ports and roads, surged the most in more than four months after Anand Rathi Financial Services Ltd. said it will benefit from new central bank lending rules.

Rural Electrification Corp. (RECL IN) sank 2.8 percent to 214.1 rupees. The government set the floor price of shares to be sold in the state-owned lender for power projects at 203 rupees apiece, according to an advertisement in the Economic Times.

Jet Airways to operate direct flights to South Africa
www.thehindubusinessline.com/18022010
JOHANNESBURG: Jet Airways is to introduce daily flights to South Africa from April 15, expanding its overseas network from Europe, US and the Gulf to the African continent. 

India’s growing economy and its large market present a huge opportunity for South Africa, said Mr Nikos Kardassis, CEO of Jet Airways. 

“We are confident Jet Airways will soon emerge as the preferred airline on this route, given our unparallelled domestic network in India and ever-expanding international footprint. South Africa, as indeed the African region, is an important market for us and we are confident of capturing and growing the market,” Mr Kardassis said in a statement.— PTI

Terrorist threat made against cricket match in India

Michael Edwards, New Delhi/www.radioaustralianews.net.au/18022010

Indian police have confirmed there’s been a terrorist threat issued against a one day international cricket match between South Africa and India scheduled for this Sunday in Jaipur.

Security has been tightened at Sawai Mansingh stadium in Jaipur after police established that the threat to the one day match between India and South Africa was credible. 

Earlier this week a threat was issued by a terrorist group warning international athletes not to attend the hockey world cup, the Indian Premier or the Commonwealth Games, all of which are being hosted in India. 

Indian authorities have given their full assurances that security measures will be up to the job of keeping athletes safe.

BRASIL:

EN BREF, CE 18 février 2010 … AGNEWS / OMAR, BXL,18/02/2010