{jcomments on}OMAR, AGNEWS, BXL, le 20 mai 2010 – www1.voanews.com- May 20, 2010–The chief of the U.N. Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC), Alan Doss, will retire by the end of the month, said Madnoudje Mounoubai, spokesman for the world body.
RWANDA
UGANDA
States stockpile arms as row over Nile waters rages
www.observer.ug/Written by Edris Kiggundu / 20 May 2010
News
Egypt adopts tough stance as Uganda calls for dialogue
Two senior Egyptian government officials have said that Egypt would do anything –including going to war – to safeguard what they called their country’s historic right to the largest share of the Nile waters.
Briefing the Egyptian Parliament last week, Moufid Shehab, the Minister of Legal and Parliamentary Affairs is quoted by MENA, a state news agency, as having said that the four countries that signed the Nile River Co-operative Framework Agreement (CFA) last week took a “wrong step.” He added that this was not “the end of the game,” affirming that Cairo still believes in its “inalienable and historical rights” over Nile waters.
Another government official, Mohammed Allam, the minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, added: “Egypt reserves the right to take whatever course it sees suitable to safeguard its share.”
Their comments came shortly after four Nile basin countries; Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Ethiopia signed the Nile River Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA) last week, in Entebbe.
Other countries; Kenya, DR Congo and Burundi affirmed that they would also sign the agreement that will transform the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) into the Nile Basin Commission (NBC), which will coordinate the equitable usage of the water. Countries will have to submit their intended projects along the Nile to the Commission for endorsement.
On their part, Egypt and Sudan declined to sign the agreement, saying they want to maintain the status quo as stipulated in two colonial agreements they signed with the British colonialists in 1929 and 1959. These agreements stipulate that other riparian countries should first seek permission from them before embarking on any large scale development projects that would affect the level and flow of the waters.
But of the two, Egypt appears to be more aggrieved. While Egypt has not explicitly declared that it will take up arms to defend its rights, the stern statements from their ministers barely disguise the potential for conflict.
As early as April this year, when it became clear that Egypt would lose the battle over the agreement, some Egyptian legislators urged their government to take stronger action against other Nile basin countries – a veiled threat of war.
Other Nile basin countries, including Uganda, are already wary of this threat.
Okello Henry Oryem, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, told The Observer on Tuesday that the war threats, if Egypt was indeed invoking them, were unfortunate.
“The Government of Uganda was doing its job [by signing the agreement]. These [war] threats should not be there and I know the door is still open for dialogue with our brothers (Egypt) under the AU framework,” Oryem said.
Kenya’s Director of Water Resources, John Nyaro, told the BBC last week: “If we don’t have an agreed co-operative framework, there will be no peace.”
A book on the conflict published this year notes among other things that until the countries find a peaceful resolution, the fear of war will always loom large.
“The Nile waters might become a pathway to peace or a currency of war or both at different historical junctures,” notes the book titled: The River Nile in the Post Colonial Age; Conflict and cooperation among the Nile Basin Countries. The book was edited by Terje Tvedt, a professor of development studies at the University of Bergen in Norway.
No wonder some analysts have linked the disagreement over the Nile waters to increased military spending by some countries in the East African region in anticipation of war.
In a 2008 survey of weapons purchases carried out by the Swedish International Peace Research Institute, Kenya was ranked fourth out of 23 East and Southern African countries and, according to a news report in The East African of April 12, 2010, Kenya’s military expenditure rose from $222 million in 1999 to $260 million in 2008.
The survey notes that Kenya has recently purchased armoured personnel carriers and Y-12 military utility planes from China. For Uganda’s case, notes the study, military spending rose from $173 million to $237 million between 2003 and 2008.
Last month, while defending the army’s decision to buy six fighter jets from Russia for Shs 654 billion, Army Spokesperson, Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye, said Uganda needed the jets because it faced many threats among them the unresolved conflict over the Nile waters.
Reached this week, Kulayigye declined to expound on his earlier assertions.
Oweyegha Afunaduula, who chairs the Nile Basin Discourse, a civil society organisation that has been at the forefront of ensuring equitable sharing of the waters, told The Observer that Egypt’s war threats will not work.
“Whenever we talk about equity, Egypt talks about war in an attempt to harass other countries to submit to their terms. We are opposed to this arm-twisting,” Afunaduula said.
It is not the first time that threats of war have punctuated negotiations over the Nile. In 1985, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the former UN Secretary General who at that time was Egypt’s minister of Foreign Affairs, told the BBC Radio 4 in an interview that the next war in the region could be over the waters of the Nile, not politics.
“The security of Egypt is related to the relation between Egypt and Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya and other African countries. The real problem is that we need an additional quantity of water and we will not have an additional quantity of water unless we find an agreement with the upstream countries which also need water and have not used Nile water until now,” he said.
Maj. Gen. James Kazini, the late former army commander, said in 2002 while launching a new Defence Reform Programme, that Egypt and Sudan “wanted to control Uganda through River Nile”. He too cautioned that the next war in Africa could be over water.
Treacherous history
Egypt’s claim to the Nile waters is based on a 1929 agreement between it and Great Britain on behalf of Britain’s colonies which gave Cairo the right to most of the more than 100 billion cubic meters of Nile waters.
Egypt says this agreement with Britain is sufficient enough to address any outstanding issues regarding the sharing of the Nile waters, but other Nile basin countries, including Uganda, contend that this particular agreement favours the Egyptians and have been working on a new agreement.
The Nile River Basin is home to an estimated 160 million people, while almost 300 million live in the 10 countries that share its waters. The World Bank projected in a 2004 report that the population in the basin will double in the next 25 years, adding more pressure on arable land.
As the 10 riparian countries–Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Eritrea–seek to exploit the Nile waters to provide for their growing populations, the dispute simmers.
Egypt owes its entire existence to the Nile.
The largely arid country has no other source of fresh water and depends on the river for irrigation and industrialisation projects to sustain its 80 million people. However, the countries upstream, including Uganda, want to use the Nile to build dams and create hydroelectric power for industrialisation, to provide clean drinking water to their people, and to establish irrigation schemes to grow enough food to feed their growing populations.
During a water conference in March, President Museveni attacked the colonial agreements on the Nile waters. The agreements, he noted, had stipulated that 85 billion cubic meters of water per annum would be consumed by Egypt and 18 billion by Sudan.
“The rest of us are supposed to g
et nothing,” he said.
By signing the CFA last week, the riparian countries sought to correct this historical imbalance.
ekiggundu@observer.ug
TANZANIA:
CONGO RDC :
U.N. Congo Chief Set to Retire
Peter Clottey/www1.voanews.com/ 20 May 2010
The chief of the U.N. Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC), Alan Doss, will retire by the end of the month, said Madnoudje Mounoubai, spokesman for the world body.
He said the Doss retirement coincides with the expected decision by the U.N. Security Council to approve a new role for its peacekeeping mission.
“Mr. Doss has issued a letter to the staff. In that letter, he announced that he was going to retire after 44 years of service to the United Nations. Actually, there is no clear timeline because this will only take place only if the new mandate is put in place. Mr. Doss thinks this is the right time for him to go since the mission is going to get a new mandate,” he said.
Alan Doss reportedly said it was about the right time to go when the Security Council approves a new role for MONUC, whose mandate expires at month’s end.
Mounoubai said the U.N. Congo Mission chief’s scheduled retirement will coincide with MONUC’s new mandate.
“Exactly, I think this (is) also probably the timing of Mr. Doss to leave at this time when the current mandate is going to expire and a new mandate is going to be put in place probably with new mission for MONUC. So, he thinks it’s good for him to go now and give the chance to his successor to implement or carry out this new mandate,” Mounoubai said.
President Joseph Kabila’s government has called for MONUC’s withdrawal by August 2011. But, several right groups, as well as some armed groups, have voiced concerns about the withdrawal of the U.N. peacekeepers, a move they said could plunge the country into another round of chaos and instability. The government denies the charge.
Doss’ decision follows a recent visit by a delegation of Security Council officials to Congo who held talks with the government and several other stakeholders about the future of MONUC.
Mounoubai said the U.N. body will abide by the government’s draw-down decision.
“First of all, the decision to draw down, or withdraw, MONUC forces on the ground here in Congo, this decision comes from the government. So, this is not something we are going to argue with the government or negotiate with the government. We just have to make sure that this is going to be properly implemented and that, in the implementation of that decision, we can preserve the gains of the last 10 years as far as the peace process or stability in the DRC is concerned,” Mounoubai said.
With about 20,000 peacekeepers in the D.R.C., MONUC is the largest U.N. Mission to a single country with an estimated budget of more than $1 billion.
The U.N. Security Council mandated its peacekeepers to “use all necessary measures” to protect Congo’s unarmed civilian population against violence perpetrated by various armed groups.
KENYA :
Arms cache found by Kenyan fisherman
May 20 2010 /www.iol.co.za/Reuters
Mombasa, Kenya – Kenyan police have recovered a cache of firearms found in the sea by an octopus fisherman and suspect it could belong to a group of pirates arrested in the nearby coastal town of Malindi.
They recovered four rockets, one ceska pistol, a rocket launcher, 18 magazines, five AK-47 rifles, eight rounds of ammunition for ceska pistols and a total of 436 rounds of ammunition measuring 7.62mm.
Six men thought to be of Somali origin were arrested in a boat off Malindi, on May 10 and were charged with being in Kenya illegally. The captain of the boat was also charged with possessing a firearm illegally.
“We are investigating the origin of these weapons and although we cannot rule out any connection between the last batch of suspects or Somali aliens, we are investigating and will soon be able to give more details,” Malindi police chief Willy Simba said on Wednesday.
Security officers were alerted to the weapons by a fisherman who discovered them more than 2 km from the shoreline in Malindi, a popular tourist town north of the port city of Mombasa.
“I was in the deep sea as usual looking for octopus when I noticed a buoy floating. I got curious because that was a sign of something underneath. I dived into the water only to come face to face with all manner of weaponry,” fisherman Jackson Kahindi Karisa told reporters.
“I panicked because I did not understand why somebody had left them there and whether somebody was watching me. I sailed back to shore and notified the police.”
Mombasa has suffered two attacks: a hotel bombing and a botched missile attack on an Israeli airliner leaving Kenya’s Mombasa airport in 2002.
ANGOLA :
Agencies say assessment of Angola’s sovereign risk is positive
www.portalangop.co.ao/5/20/10
Luanda – The Angolan government has ordered the three major world risk assessment (‘rating’) agencies, Ficht, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s (S & P), to conduct the assessment of sovereign risk of Angola, as part of the progressive opening of the Angolan economy to the international markets, Angop has learned from a reliable source of the Ministry of Economic Coordination.
In the case of Angola, this first exercise of sovereign risk rating is an important milestone in deepening integration of the country’s economy in the international markets as it improves their status in global financial markets and the global economy.
The source noted that the assessments of the sovereign risk reflect the opinion on the ability of a country to honour its debts and release the reports of the rating agencies’.
However, this grants the international investors an independent assessment about the economic potential of Angola and thus enables access to the international loans by the Government, enterprises and national financial institutions and attracting investment to the country.
As a result of its assessment work, the Fitch agency has granted Angola the rating B+ and the Moody’s attributed B1 (which is equivalent to B+), both with positive outlook, and the agency S & P attributed the rating B+ with stable outlook.
In comparative terms, the S & P agency gives both Angola and Nigeria the same level B+, while Ghana, Cape Verde, Uganda, Mozambique and Kenya are classified, in the same level or in a lower level.
Meanwhile, unlike those countries, the positive outlook for Angola, both by Moody’s and Fitch, is an evidence of the existence of a high potential of Angola for a BB category (which is immediately above B+), a relatively short time frame, should the perspectives for economic and institutional progress of agencies were materialised.
Moreover, the first assessment of its kind, the sovereign risk rating of Angola is equal to the initial classification obtained by emerging countries like Russia and Brazil, the countries that, due to their economic and institutional achievements, saw their risk ratings improve quickly.
In fact, the first rating agency granted by S&P agency to Brazil in July 2002, was a B+ with stable outlook (like that granted to Angola by this agency). The following ratings were improving, and in April 2008, the “rating” of this country was BBB – with a stable outlook.
The first rating of Russia, in its turn, achieved in December 2001, by S & P was a B + with positive outlook (the same attributed to Angola by Moody’s and Fitch agencies). Subsequent ratings did evolve this ‘rating’ with stable outlook to BBB in December 2008.
According to the reports from the agencies, the classification granted to Angola reflects a balanced view of its endowment of natural resources and good prospects of macroeconomic stability, economic growth and development as well as the need to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Government, which, in fact shows a steady increase in this area.
The agencies also appreciated the steps being taken within the fiscal and monetary policies and reduce the economy’s vulnerability to volatile oil prices.
In this regard, the programme agreed between Angola and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in late 2009 is considered as a positive factor, which shows the government determination to move forward with policies aimed at standardization of markets, maintaining of macroeconomic stability and economic diversification.
Finally, the agencies considered that the strong resumption of economic growth in 2010 and in the coming years, will contribute to the success of the measures of the Executive and the achievement of higher levels of economic diversification.
The True Cost of Chevron
www.sfgate.com/Posted By: Rebecca Tarbotton /May 20 2010
In advance of Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting in Houston next week, a damning report of the oil giant’s global operations was just released. The True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report was written by contributors from 16 countries and 10 states where Chevron’s business is wreaking havoc on local communities, the environment, and our climate.
If you live in California like I do, you probably know that Chevron is the Golden State’s largest corporation, but did you know that Chevron is the 5th largest corporation on the planet? And, while they have spent millions on advertising campaigns to convince the public they are a different kind of “energy” company, the fact is Chevron’s investments in alternative energy are dropping (<1.8%) while their current business model is causing tremendous damage around the globe.
The report encompasses the full range of Chevron’s activities, from coal to chemicals, offshore to onshore production, pipelines to refineries, natural gas to toxic waste, and lobbying and campaign contributions to greenwashing.
From the coalfields of Alabama to the oil fields of Indonesia, the report reveals Chevron operations mired in accusation of extreme human rights abuse (Angola, Burma, Indonesia, Chad, and Nigeria); mass environmental and human health devastation (including Ecuador, Kazakhstan, and Canada); toxic abuse of its neighbors (including Alabama, California, Mississippi, Texas, Thailand, and the Philippines); abuse of its workers (including Utah); threats to endangered species (including Australia and the U.S. Gulf Coast); and, in Iraq, intensifying the violent insurgency and putting the lives of U.S. and Iraqi service members at greater risk.
All the while, Chevron continues to promote itself as a ‘green’ energy company while, the report reveals, expanding its coal operations (it was recently exposed as operating one of the most dangerous mines in the U.S., the Kemmerer, WY mine), offshore, and Canadian Tarsands operations; being named California’s single largest stationary Greenhouse Gas emitter; and being identified by Barrons as one of the ‘oiliest’ of the world’s major oil companies.
Next week, people from all over the world (whose stories are highlighted in the report) will be converging in Houston for Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting.
Chevron’s shareholders are showing increasing concern about the liabilities and risks associated with the company’s irresponsible and deadly global operations. A number of shareholder resolutions have been filed – and are gaining significant support – that are a response to the revelations in today’s report.
For example, Oxfam is sponsoring a shareholder resolution (and has been putting direct pressure on Chevron’s board members) “Regarding Disclosure of Payments to Host Governments.”
Chevron pays out billions of dollars in royalties, taxes, and other payments to host governments in its countries of operation. In many countries, these vast undisclosed sums of money have fueled corruption, repression and conflict. Chevron has refused to adopt a policy of disclosing payments in every country of operation. It has also not supported the U.S. Energy Security Through Transparency Act, a bipartisan bill that would require all SEC-registered companies to disclose payment information on a country-by-country basis.
As the report reveals, Chevron is the largest foreign producer of Angolan oil. Many Cabindans claim Angola illegally annexed the oil-rich territory and they blame Chevron for financing the Angolan government’s repressive hold on Cabinda ever since. Oil revenues largely financed Angola’s bloody internationalized civil war until 2002. Despite the ongoing war, Chevron steadily increased offshore production. The Angolan government uses military force in Cabinda to quash protest and secure resource-rich territory.
There are also shareholder resolutions urging the appointment of an independent Director with environmental expertise; regarding guidelines for country selection; on financial risks from climate change; and the development of a human rights committee.
Community leaders from Angola and Burma will join people from Nigeria, Ecuador, Australia, and the Gulf Coast inside Chevron’s shareholder meeting on Wednesday. They will share their stories and ask Chevron’s Board members and CEO John Watson to do the right thing and stop destroying their communities.
I will be doing a series of interviews with these courageous leaders next week. Tune in here at SFGate.com to learn and listen to the people who are bearing the real costs of Chevron’s global business.
Keep drilling in U.S. to reduce dependence on foreign oil
www.usatoday.com/2010-05-20
China is deep-water drilling for oil. Brazil, with our money, is drilling. Angola is drilling. All those countries will be finding and bringing up oil, but there are many who don’t want America to drill for oil (“Problems plagued emergency valves at head of spill,” News, Thursday).
Sure, not drilling would be a great way to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Let other countries bring up the oil so we can just pay them for it. Doing that would be crazy.
Until someone discovers an energy source to replace gasoline, we will always need oil. It would be utter nonsense to stop American companies that will hire American workers and pay American taxes from finding it.
Dick Meyer; Charlotte
Will BP pay?
British oil company BP has been accused of drilling deeper than it should have, and President Obama has assured us that BP will pay for the cleanup. But BP’s spin masters and lobbyists are at work to reduce the company’s exposure.
With our federal government’s history of not holding large corporations responsible for the disasters they create, can we really expect BP to be forced to pay for the results of its mismanagement and greed? Is BP too big to prosecute?
As the Gulf coast struggles with the environmentally devastating and unending flow of oil from the damaged BP oil well, maybe the company should change the design of its corporate logo. Instead of the eco-friendly colors of yellow and green, BP’s logo should include pictures of birds and animals, painted black to simulate the egregious damage done by this oil well failure.
Karen Wagner; Rolling Meadows, Ill.
Don’t drill, baby
Oil addiction has been a problem for America since the 1973 Arab oil embargo. Not enough has been done in these ensuing years to end the nation’s reliance on Middle East oil imports.
And America is still waiting for a clean alternative to oil to fuel our transportation needs. Now, the United States is facing an environmental calamity that will surely go down in history as one of the worst that mankind has ever seen.
Reports say 210,000 gallons of oil have leaked daily into the Gulf of Mexico from this damaged wellhead.
During his campaign, Sen. John McCain, along with his sidekick Sarah Palin, popularized the slogan “drill baby drill.” Well, I hope all those “drill baby drill” types are happy.
The Gulf of Mexico will, for a long period of time, be a dead zone. Commercial fishing and shell harvesting industries will be devastated, and beaches will become oil tar pits.
Earl Beal; Terre Haute, Ind.
SOUTH AFRICA:
Terrorist threat for Dutch and Danish footbal teams South Africa
May 20, 2010/ by Anja Toetenel/findtut.com
Saudi Al Qaeda terrorist suspect Abdullah Azem Saleh al-Qahtani, who is arrested in Iraq has told an AP journalist, that he was planning a terrorist attack towards the Dutch and Danish football teams during the World football Championship in South Africa.
Abdullah came to the United States in 2004 to “fight against America”. He claims he was recruited by Al Qaeda. In the States, so the suspect says, he talked with “friends” about planning terrorist attacks against both football teams. The underlying motive is “revenge for insulting the prophet Mohamed”. He is now arrested in Iraq. An AP reporter could talk to him in a prison in Baghdad.
Dutch government department of foreign affairs has advised Dutch people traveling to South Africa to be “alert” and follow the advice from local authorities, but haven’t taken any other measures to prevent terrorist attacks.
According to South African minister, Fikile Mbalula, there is no need to worry, “The South African police guarantees the safety of both the players and the visitors”. He couldn’t say if South Africa Government knew about the terrorist threats.
AFRICA / AU :
Analysis: Being gay in Africa, a life-threatening situation
www.thedailymaverick.co.za/2010-05-20
In what may appear shocking to the progressive people of the world, a Malawian gay couple, Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, was found guilty on Tuesday of “unnatural acts” and “gross indecency,” following their engagement ceremony last year. Their ordeal is but a sign of worse to come.
The case has drawn worldwide attention as one emblematic of a widely held, deep antipathy towards gay rights throughout Africa. This decision comes as Uganda is considering a law that would have a provision for actually executing homosexuals in some circumstances. Magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa Usiwa described the couple’s crime as “buggery”, ironically using language from Malawi’s British colonial past when the current law was written, rather than traditional sociological or cultural explanations of the charge and conviction. Usiwa said both men were guilty of “carnal knowledge” “against the order of nature” and that this “transgresses the Malawian recognised standards of propriety”. They may now face 14 years in jail when sentenced on Thursday. Malawi custom traditionally views homosexuality as either non-existent or something that must be suppressed.
Priti Patel of the Southern African Litigation Centre, an independent civil rights NGO, said the couple could appeal on grounds that the laws under which they were prosecuted actually violate the country’s constitution. However, the court denied earlier attempts by their lawyer to have the case thrown out on such grounds.
In April, Malawi’s President Bingu wa Mutharika, called homosexuality “evil and bad before the eyes of God” and something “we Malawians just do not do”. Mutharika’s comments may just trigger the memories of The Daily Maverick readers of similar comments from other, local politicians.
The two men had worked at a Blantyre lodge together and have been in jail since late last year after they held an engagement party that drew dozens of uninvited guests, not all of whom wished the couple well.
While the majority of Malawian society seemed to support the conviction, there were demurs. Dunker Kamba, an Aids counselling centre administrator told the media, “As much as I expected a guilty verdict, I still hoped for a miracle”, while Undule Mwakasungula, a human rights activist, called the verdict a sign of the country’s rejection of “gayism”.
Mwakasungula added, “We can’t keep denying that we have gay people in Malawi and that they deserve to be treated with understanding and justice.” While Michaela Clayton, of the Namibia-based Aids & Rights Alliance for Southern Africa, said the verdict was “extremely disturbing”, and could both encourage anti-gay sentiment and set back the fight against Aids. The reason for the latter is that gay people, whose sexual preference and behaviour is forced underground in Africa, will be unlikely to seek counselling or treatment for Aids.
Meanwhile, the accused have taken note of the prejudice directed against their behaviour in very personal terms. Monjeza said his relatives had told him they were disgraced and would never welcome him back home, while Chimbalanga said his family thought he was “bewitched”, though he said they had still supported him during the trial.
The prosecution was obviously in a less loving frame of mind. Prosecutor Barbara Mchenga asked the court to “consider the scar this offense will leave on our morality. The two showed no remorse and were somehow proud of what they did.”
Notwithstanding the Malawian prosecutor’s view, this case is now a flashpoint for gay rights throughout Africa. Lest The Daily Maverick readers feel too smug too easily in considering contemporary South Africa in contrast to the Malawian court’s actions, readers should recall the ill-tempered response to evocative LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) art by the country’s minister of arts and culture last year, let alone the brutal, sexually demeaning treatment meted out to lesbian South Africans by some in their communities, even now. Moreover, undoubtedly many will still recall repressive law and police attention directed at LGBT individuals during the apartheid regime.
Homosexuality remains officially illegal in at least 37 African countries – including Malawi. On the broader scope of things, this Malawian case has now become the contemporary fault line – for Malawi, for Africa, for the world – between an open acceptance of the LGBT lifestyle and a sense that this is, somehow, antithetical to the canons of behaviour as divinely laid out as part of history.
Shocking and difficult to believe as it is, the Malawian anti-gay judgment is only part of a new movement happening throughout a world increasingly strained by crises of all kinds. It is a world that is seeing a return to extremes, where enlightenment is under attack and racism, nationalism, religious hatred, homophobia and xenophobia are clear and present dangers. Fasten your seat belts, progressive people of the world, this particular ride is gonna get much more bumpy.
By J Brooks Spector
SAfrica transport union says strike may end Thursday
May 20/ (Reuters)
JOHANNESBURG, – The biggest union at South Africa’s logistics group Transnet said most of its members favoured a new proposed deal, and an agreement could be signed on Thursday ending a strike that paralysed rail traffic.
Stocks
The strike, now in its second week, has affected the country’s ports and dented exports of metals, fruit and wine to Europe and Asia and hit imports of car parts and fuel supplies.
Chris de Vos, general secretary of the United Transport and Allied Trade Union, said a parallel strike affecting commuters could also be signed later on Thursday.
“It looks good. The feedback that we are getting is that the majority of our members are accepting the agreement,” he told Reuters.
“Both agreements could be signed later today (Thursday). If all goes well, all workers will be back at work tomorrow.” (Reporting by Agnieszka Flak; editing by James Macharia)
UN /ONU :
UN Issues Alert on Food Shortage In African Sahel Region
Steve Baragona/www1.voanews.com/ 20 May 2010
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) early warning system, on Wednesday has issued a special alert on the risk of hunger in West Africa’s Sahel region.
Last year’s poor rains and pest infestations pushed down crop production in the region. The Food and Agriculture Organization says declines in cereal output range from 10 percent in Chad to 30 percent in Niger.
In addition, substantial losses of livestock are occurring in the Sahel countries as pasturelands have dried up.
Jean Senahoun is an economist with the FAO:
“This drop in cereal and pasture production occur[s] against a backdrop of high food prices,” said Jean Senahoun.
The FAO officials say Food prices are 12 to 28 percent higher in the region than they were two years ago, before the food price crisis of 2008.
The combination of factors has left nearly 3 million people in Niger, 2 million in Chad, and 370,000 in Mauritania needing food assistance. An additional 6 million in the region are food-insecure.
Niger’s government has begun subsidizing food purchases, and U.N. agencies have been providing food as well as seed, feed, and fertilizer to help farmers.
But the U.N.’s effort is only 30 percent funded, Senahoun says, leaving a considerable shortfall.
“It’s enormous,” said Senahoun. “Thirty percent is just one-third of what is needed.”
Senahoun warns that the situation is critical in the Sahel as the region waits for rains expected to begin in some areas in June.
Darfur Group ‘Disappointed’ With Chad
Peter Clottey/www1.voanews.com/ 20 May 2010
The Darfur-based Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said its leader, Khalil Ibrahim, was prevented from entering Chad and kept on an airplane for at least 12 hours before Libya came to his rescue.
Ahmed Hussein Adam, JEM’s spokesman, told VOA the group is disappointed with the way their leader was treated.
The United Nations and African Union (UN/AU) chief mediator is mandated to facilitate the return of the JEM leader to Sudan as stipulated in a recent peace accord signed between the group and President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir’s government.
“Dr. Khalil consulted with the leadership of JEM and finally he accepted the offer of the Libyans on the condition that from there (Tripoli) he will go to Darfur and he will go to Sudan. That action did not remove the responsibility of Djibril Bassole, the chief mediator. Because, still now, we want Djibril Bassole to take that responsibility and to facilitate the arrival or the departure of Dr. Khalil from Tripoli to Darfur,” he said.
Officials in Chad stopped JEM’s leader in the capital, Ndjamena and prevented him from using the airport as a transit point on his return trip to Sudan.
The Darfur-based rebel group said Chadian authorities destroyed travel documents belonging to its leader, as well as that of his entourage, and ordered him to return to Libya’s capital, Tripoli.
Previously, Chad and Sudan accused each other of supporting the other side’s armed groups.
But, President Bashir’s government praised Chad’s refusal to allow JEM‘s leader of using its country as a transit point.
In a statement, Khartoum said President Idriss Deby demonstrated commitment towards a recently-signed agreement between Khartoum and Ndjamena after years of accusations and suspicions.
Earlier this year, both countries pledged to deny support for each other’s rebels and to monitor their borders – – a move hailed by many analysts as a boost for peace prospects in Darfur.
But, JEM spokesman Adam said Chadian officials acted reprehensibly to please Sudan’s government. He described the airport incident as a scheme.
“The whole thing is a conspiracy because actually the Qataris, Mr. Bassole the mediator, as well as the Chadians, they want to liquidate the cause of Darfur,” Adam said.
The Justice and Equality Movement recently abandoned further peace talks with President Bashir’s government after accusing Khartoum of attacking its positions.
New UN report calls for ‘green revolution’ by Africa’s small farmers
www.un.org/20 May 2010
– A “green revolution” led by Africa’s small farmers, and harnessing the latest technologies and innovations, is vital if the continent is to reduce extreme poverty and hunger by 2015, just two of the eight globally agreed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), according to a new United Nations report.
The 2010 Technology and Innovation Report, issued by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), warns that “ineffective farming techniques and wasteful post-harvest practices” have left sub-Saharan Africa as the region most likely to miss the MDGs on poverty and hunger.
Agriculture forms the basis of many African economies and provides the largest source of employment and livelihood for Africans. However, per capita food production in the least developed countries (LDCs) has declined continuously over the past 40 years – dropping by one-fifth between the early 1970s and the mid-2000s.
The report argues that innovations and major improvements in the technologies employed by African smallholder farmers are needed to restore food security.
It urges a “green revolution” for Africa built on technology and innovation aimed at the needs and capabilities of millions of smallholder farmers and at coping with the continent’s varying climate conditions.
The report notes that Africa’s smallholder farmers can benefit from new technologies such as low-cost drip irrigation and plastic water tanks to store runoff, as opposed to modern irrigation systems which can increase crop yields but are designed more for larger farms.
Innovative policies are also covered, including a successful policy of “smart subsidies” to ease access to fertilizers which has led to “staggering” increases in maize production in Malawi, as well as alternative technologies in the areas of pesticides, tilling and post-harvest technologies.
The core challenge, according to the report, is to support the smallholders who make up the bulk of Africa’s farmers, many of whom live at or below the poverty line.
While acknowledging that there are no quick fixes, the report identifies several steps that could help improve agricultural productivity and food security. These include strengthening human and institutional capacities, empowering farmers by including them in the design of policies and programmes, and improving farmer support systems and markets.
With the appropriate international support and the necessary political will, African agriculture can be transformed through science, technology, and innovation and contribute to broader economic growth and development on the continent, the report stresses.
USA :
Somali Pirate Pleads Guilty To Hijacking U.S. Ship
5/20/2010 /RTTNews
– A Somali pirate Tuesday pleaded guilty to charges of hijacking an American cargo ship off the coast of Africa and kidnapping its captain last year, but may escape life sentence after prosecutors dropped a formal piracy charge.
Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse, captured by the U.S. Navy following a bloody operation last year to free U.S. merchant captain Richard Phillips, pleaded guilty in a federal court in Manhattan to charges of taking hostages, kidnapping and conspiracy. He faces a minimum 27 years in prison. Sentencing was set for October 19.
“As part of that plan, in April 2009, I boarded the Maersk Alabama with three other men on April 8 last year when the US-flagged ship carrying humanitarian supplies was about 280 miles (450 kms) off the coast of Somalia. With the use of AK-47 assault rifles, we took control of the ship and seized the captain and the men on the boat,” Muse was quoted as saying by the “New York Post.”
Muse’s mother appealed Wednesday to U.S. President Barack Obama to forgive her son and grant him citizenship, saying he was lured into piracy by older friends.
by RTT Staff Writer
Scientists Fault U.S. Response in Assessing Gulf Oil Spill
By JUSTIN GILLIS/www.nytimes.com/May 20, 2010
Tensions between the Obama administration and the scientific community over the gulf oil spill are escalating, with prominent oceanographers accusing the government of failing to conduct an adequate scientific analysis of the damage and of allowing BP to obscure the spill’s true scope.
The scientists assert that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies have been slow to investigate the magnitude of the spill and the damage it is causing in the deep ocean. They are especially concerned about getting a better handle on problems that may be occurring from large plumes of oil droplets that appear to be spreading beneath the ocean surface.
The scientists point out that in the month since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, the government has failed to make public a single test result on water from the deep ocean. And the scientists say the administration has been too reluctant to demand an accurate analysis of how many gallons of oil are flowing into the sea from the gushing oil well.
“It seems baffling that we don’t know how much oil is being spilled,” Sylvia Earle, a famed oceanographer, said Wednesday on Capitol Hill. “It seems baffling that we don’t know where the oil is in the water column.”
The administration acknowledges that its scientific resources are stretched by the disaster, but contends that it is moving to get better information, including a more complete picture of the underwater plumes.
“We’re in the early stages of doing that, and we do not have a comprehensive understanding as of yet of where that oil is,” Jane Lubchenco, the NOAA administrator, told Congress on Wednesday. “But we are devoting all possible resources to understanding where the oil is and what its impact might be.”
The administration has mounted a huge response to the spill, deploying 1,105 vessels to try to skim oil, burn it and block it from shorelines. As part of the effort, the federal government and the Gulf Coast states have begun an extensive effort to catalog any environmental damage to the coast. The Environmental Protection Agency is releasing results from water sampling near shore. In most places, save for parts of Louisiana, the contamination appears modest so far.
The big scientific question now is what is happening in deeper water. While it is clear that water samples have been taken, the results have not been made public.
Lisa P. Jackson, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, told Congress on Wednesday that she was pressing for the release of additional test results, including some samples taken by boats under contract to BP.
While the total number of boats involved in the response is high, relatively few are involved in scientific assessment of the deep ocean.
Of the 19 research vessels owned by NOAA, 5 are in the Gulf of Mexico and available for work on the spill, Dr. Lubchenco said, counting a newly commissioned boat. The flagship of the NOAA fleet, the research vessel Ronald H. Brown, was off the coast of Africa when the spill occurred on April 20, and according to NOAA tracking logs, it was not redirected until about May 11, three weeks after the disaster began. It is sailing toward the gulf.
At least one vessel under contract to BP has collected samples from deep water, and so have a handful of university ships. NOAA is dropping instruments into the sea that should help give a better picture of conditions.
On May 6, NOAA called attention to its role in financing the work of a small research ship called the Pelican, owned by a university consortium in Louisiana. But when scientists aboard that vessel reported over the weekend that they had discovered large plumes undersea that appeared to be made of oil droplets, NOAA criticized the results as premature and requiring further analysis.
Rick Steiner, a marine biologist and a veteran of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, assailed NOAA in an interview, declaring that it had been derelict in analyzing conditions beneath the sea.
Mr. Steiner said the likelihood of extensive undersea plumes of oil droplets should have been anticipated from the moment the spill began, given that such an effect from deepwater blowouts had been predicted in the scientific literature for more than a decade, and confirmed in a test off the coast of Norway. An extensive sampling program to map and characterize those plumes should have been put in place from the first days of the spill, he said.
“A vast ecosystem is being exposed to contaminants right now, and nobody’s watching it,” Mr. Steiner said. “That seems to me like a catastrophic failure on the part of NOAA.”
Mr. Steiner, long critical of offshore drilling, has fought past battles involving NOAA, including one in which he was stripped of a small university grant financed by the agency. He later resigned from the University of Alaska at Anchorage and now consults worldwide on oil-spill prevention and response.
Oceanographers have also criticized the Obama administration over its reluctance to force BP, the oil company responsible for the spill, to permit an accurate calculation of the flow rate from the undersea well. The company has refused to permit scientists to send equipment to the ocean floor that would establish the rate with high accuracy.
Ian MacDonald of Florida State University, an oceanographer who was among the first to question the official estimate of 210,000 gallons a day, said he had come to the conclusion that the oil company was bent on obstructing any accurate calculation. “They want to hide the body,” he said.
Andrew Gowers, a spokesman for BP, said this was not correct. Given the complex operations going on at the sea floor to try to stop the flow, “introducing more equipment into the immediate vicinity would represent an unacceptable risk,” he said. Thad W. Allen, the Coast Guard admiral in charge of the response to the spill, said Wednesday evening that the government had decided to try to put equipment on the ocean floor to take accurate measurements. A technical team is at work devising a method, he said. “We are shoving pizzas under the door, and they are not coming out until they give us the answer,” he said.
Scientists have long theorized that a shallow spill and a spill in the deep ocean — this one is a mile down — would behave quite differently. A 2003 report by the National Research Council predicted that the oil could break into fine droplets, forming plumes of oil mixed with water that would not quickly rise to the surface.
That prediction appeared to be confirmed Saturday when the researchers aboard the Pelican reported that they had detected immense plumes that they believed were made of oil particles. The results were not final, and came as a surprise to the government. They raise a major concern, that sea life in concentrated areas could be exposed to a heavy load of toxic materials as the plumes drift through the sea.
Under scrutiny from NOAA, the researchers have retreated to their laboratories to finish their analysis.
In an interview, Dr. Lubchenco said she was mobilizing every possible NOAA asset to get a more accurate picture of the environmental damage, and was even in the process of hiring fishing vessels to do some scientific work.
“Our intention is to deploy every single thing we’ve got,” Dr. Lubchenco said. “If it’s not in the region, we’re bringing it there.”
Robert Gebeloff, Andrew W. Lehren, Campbell Robertson and Matthew L. Wald contributed reporting.
CANADA :
Africa’s the future: Iggy
www.metronews.ca/KATIE TURNER /METRO CALGARY /May 20, 2010
After exceptionally low ratings in popularity, Liberal party Leader Michael Ignatieff is taking a community approach to his current national tour.
He met yesterday with leaders of Calgary’s African community to discuss issues such the economic potential of that continent.
“Canadians have to think of Africa as the future, not some kind of continent that is always having trouble,” said Ignatieff.
“It has the potential to be an economic powerhouse and Canada should be there and our best bridges to Africa are the African-Canadians that we have among us.”
Ignatieff accused the Harper government of walking away from Africa and ignoring opportunities.
After attending the roundtable discussion, Yinka Gbalajobi, a Nigerian-Canadian, said he felt as though the opposition leader had heard his concerns.
“Mr. Ignatieff has done way more than the Conservative party could ever dream in terms of trying to communicate with the Africans,” said Gbalajobi.
“People need to be aware that Africa is not a charity case, that there is lots of business, that there is lots of opportunities for you, for me, for Canadians and individuals,” he said.
AUSTRALIA :
EUROPE :
CHINA :
Clinton: Tehran sanctions dissociate
May 20, 2010 by ralph/www.breakingupdates.com
So, just when it seemed cornered by Western efforts for tougher sanctions, Iran has moved. And that move.
Thanks to the agreement with Brazil and Turkey for the exchange of low-enriched uranium nucSlear fuel, in one fell swoop managed to bring back the high seas any prospect of agreement reached at the expense of its nuclear ambitions and further disrupt the very notion of community International, whose will, especially since the end of the Cold War, was too often equated with the Western or American.
To achieve leaned two countries until recently confined to a regional role more effective dreamed (as Brazil) or not at all inclined to hinder the overall policy of the United States, even when severely destabilized the balance of its region (like Turkey). Especially with President Lula, Brazil has stopped toying with the idea that being the giant of South America could supply its aspirations to regional leadership, rather than make it virtually impossible. Also due to a series of setbacks suffered, Brazil for some years felt that their gigantism that prevented him to act as a primus inter pares in South America instead legitimized the ambition to play a global policy, pursued first by seeking agreements with South Africa, India, China, Russia itself. At the same time, and in no way paradoxical, Brazil Lula has gradually slipped from the positions sterile “antiyanqui ‘classical rhetoric of Latin American politics. A little ‘as it was for England, that the final defeat in the Hundred Years War could no longer play the game and Continental was’ forced’ to play a game world. Similarly, the failure on a regional scale has forced Brazil to think much more great, encouraging the growth in the role of these years.
Turkey Erdogan, meanwhile, has gradually had to find its own independent strategic positioning, enabling it to escape from close in which they had driven the substantial rejection of the European awaited membership and the increasingly direct and aggressive in the U.S. Middle East. Abandoned the ambitions of the Pan-Turkism (unification or the leadership of the Turkish-speaking peoples from Anatolia to the Caucasus to Central Asia), Ankara has begun to think of the Middle East and also helped by the ideological inclinations of the AKP, has pulled implications: it has cooled relations with Israel (which risked ballast action), it was reapplied to Syria and, especially, has decided to open a “regional strategic dialogue” with Iran, the real power in emerging .
The Iranians, once identified the gap in the international deployment, we are stuck in a gallop, aware that, once given, would be immediately enlarged. And so it happened: the return of Russia and China to a very lukewarm about the prospect of further sanctions, despite the announcement by Hillary Clinton to agree on a new text. Now even France is hesitating, worried that at this point and for a while ‘, any attempt to show determination towards Tehran could make it even clearer that the issue of non-proliferation the West is increasingly lonely position. Proliferation, in reality, the interests of actors are willing to concentric circles. At the core, most Americans remain concerned that (the Russians) are one of two major nuclear powers, but that (unlike the Russians) are also major shareholders, beneficiaries and guarantors of an international system that is still designed by Washington . A little ‘more external Europeans, in that you recognize, but which are available or a resigned his part-fact and still appear far less determined to defend it “at any cost.” Much more than the other major external actors, emerging or re-emerging: from China to Russia (just) to India to Brazil to Turkey, whose policies are actually announcing that the centrality of Western international order is being rapidly overcome.
INDIA :
India pushes to turn miners into global players
May 20, 2010 /by James Lamont /blogs.ft.com
“Go forth and acquire” is the message India’s government is spreading among the country’s steelmakers and mining companies. It seeks a rapid internationalisation of India’s mining companies in the interests of supply security to protect its fast growing economy.
What lies behind the latest clarion call is coking coal. Sourced from Australia and a key element of steel production, its price has risen steeply in recent months. India’s Ministry of Steel now believes the supply constraints surrounding this raw material are symptomatic of what might happen to other commodities. The immediate answer is a new Mining Policy Bill to address the risks of a shortage of coking coal.
Virbhadra Singh, the steel minister, worries that India’s mining industry is asleep at the wheel when it comes to the global commodities market.
“[Indian companies] woke up later to the harsh reality that supply of coking coal could take such a dimension. It is time for the Indian steel and mining companies, whether in the public or private sector, to look for opportunities overseas more seriously,” he told an industry forum this week.
India hasn’t been a slouch in commodity acquisitions. Most have been in oil or soft commodities like tea, sugar and agricultural land rather than minerals.
Indian companies are, however, never short of ambition. The Steel Authority of India, the country’s largest steel producer, has declared it is looking for coking coal assets in Australia and the US. It was also considering opportunities in Mozambique, South Africa and Indonesia.
In the short term, the government has pulled a protectionist lever. Alongside the appeal to global expansion, the government is tightening its hold on domestic sources of iron ore to feed local mills. It has already increased export duty on lump ore by 15 per cent and is now considering “definitive deterrence” measures to prevent export from the world’s fourth largest producer of iron ore.
The fears may prove overblown. Iron ore futures suggest a weakening of prices over the next two years over worries about Chinese demand.
There is also a strong sense of déjà vu. Only two years ago, the government created a special purpose vehicle, International Coal Ventures (ICVL) precisely to procure coal assets abroad.
That ambition has yet to turn to acquisition.
BRASIL:
UPDATE 2-SABMiller sees H2 recovery after narrow EPS miss
By David Jones/Reuters/May 20
* Year adjusted earnings 161.1 cents vs forecast 163.3 cents
Stocks | Non-Cyclical Consumer Goods
* Sees recovery in spending in its second half
* Raw material costs for year to be level or marginally down
* Shares down 4.4 pct in early trade (Adds detail, background and analyst, shares)
LONDON, May 20 (Reuters) – Brewer SABMiller (SAB.L) said it expected consumer spending to recover only towards the end of 2010, as it reported a 17 percent rise in annual earnings on Thursday broadly in line with forecasts.
The world’s number two brewer and maker of Miller Lite, Peroni and Grolsch said raw material input prices such as barley would only be level or marginally down in the current year after analysts had expected a fall reflecting lower commodity prices.
SABMiller shares slipped 4.4 percent to 19.45 pounds in early trade, in a rising London market.
Chief executive Graham Mackay said the economic environment was beginning to improve in some emerging markets in Africa, Latin America and China, where it makes over 85 percent of group profit, but a full recovery would take longer.
“A broader recovery in consumer spending is not expected before the second half of the current financial year,” Mackay said in an annual results statement referring to its current year to March 2011.
The brewer saw profits growth in most of the world including Latin and North America and Africa, but profits fell in Europe due to difficult conditions in the east of the continent and in Asia, reflecting volume declines in India after tax rises.
“We interpret the outlook statement as slightly cautious…. We infer from this that current trading, whilst through the worst, continues to vary by region,” said analyst Matthew Webb at broker JP Morgan Cazenove.
The London-based group reported adjusted earnings per share of 161.1 U.S. cents for the year to end-March, compared with consensus of 163.3 cents from a Reuters survey of 10 analysts and 161.6 cents from a company compiled consensus.
The full-year dividend rose 17 percent to 68 cents a share.
Overall beer volumes for the 12 months to end-March were flat on an underlying basis after stripping out the effect of acquisitions, but in the first three month of 2010 they had picked up 2 percent fuelling optimism over the recovery.
SABMiller’s beer volumes have been hit by the global downturn while its move to raise prices to cover commodity cost hikes also crimped growth, but falling barley costs and a slow recovery is expected to help the group in 2010.
Brewers are looking to emerging markets for growth, with the world’s biggest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI.BR), getting a big boost from Brazil in the first quarter, while Heineken (HEIN.AS) and Carlsberg (CARLb.CO), which have more operations in developed markets, have struggled for growth. [ID:nLDE6421LX] SABMiller shares have risen nearly 14 percent this year on hope of emerging markets recovery, outperforming the FTSE 100 .FTSE by 16 percent.
Its large exposure to rebounding emerging markets has pushed its shares to trade at 16.4 times forecast March 2011 earnings, ahead of AB-InBev on 15.7, Carlsberg’s 15.1 and Heineken’s 14.1. (Reporting by David Jones, editing by Will Waterman)
EN BREF, CE 20 mai 2010 … AGNEWS / OMAR, BXL,20/05/2010
