{jcomments on}OMAR, AGNEWS, BXL, le 27 avril 2010 – www1.voanews.com- April 27, 2010–Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s two-day visit to Zimbabwe last week has stirred up dissension within Zimbabwe’s unity government.

RWANDA

Rwanda president takes stage at Tribeca Film Fest
By JOHN HEILPRIN/The Associated Press /Tuesday, April 27, 2010

NEW YORK — The tall thin man strode to the stage at the Tribeca Film Festival and fielded a few questions about one of the main subjects of the documentary just screened – himself: Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

The president’s star turn Monday night before a chic crowd in lower Manhattan was less surprising considering it was the world premiere of a documentary that portrays Kagame, who is up for re-election in August, in a heroic light. After the 88-minute film, “Earth Made of Glass,” ended, filmgoers welcomed him with a standing ovation.

“When you want reconciliation and justice at the same time, they tend to conflict,” he replied to one question. “That’s what happens every day in our country.”

Kagame also pledged to continue cooperating with his nation’s former sworn enemy, Congo. The two nations teamed up for a joint operation last year against the extremist Rwandan Hutu rebels who fled to eastern Congo, after Kagame’s rebel army ended the 1994 genocide.

Rwanda has, together with neighbor Uganda, twice invaded Congo – in 1994 and 1998. During each invasion Rwanda said it was chasing down the Rwandan militias. The second invasion sparked a five-year, six-nation war in Congo that killed some 3 million people.

Recently, Congo President Joseph Kabila told the United Nations he wants the world body to start withdrawing all peacekeeping troops, ahead of Kabila’s re-election bid next year. Back-to-back wars shook Congo from 1996 to 2002, drawing in half a dozen African nations. Kabila’s government, however, has since struggled to assert its control in the east and has had difficulty building effective institutions and integrating former fighters into a national army.

“I wish the Congolese the best for their country,” Kagame said. “We are trying to work with the Congolese. … We are going to continue working together in our region to have peace, not only for Rwanda but for Congo as well, and for the rest of the region.”

Kagame’s Tutsi rebels defeated the Hutu extremists after the 1994 genocide in which half a million people, mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus, died. Critics of his government argue, however, that the ruling party has used the concept of genocide ideology to discredit detractors and defeat political opponents.

For years, Kagame has sparred with France over an alleged French role in the genocide, with Rwanda’s government and genocide survivor organizations often accusing France of training and arming the Hutu militias and former government troops who led the genocide.

In 1998, a French parliamentary panel absolved France of responsibility in the slaughter. But in February, Nicolas Sarkozy became the first French president to visit Rwanda since the genocide and said those responsible for the killings should be found and punished, including any who might be residing in France.

Filmmaker Deborah Scranton’s documentary prominently adopts the view of Kagame’s 2008 report into what she calls “the French government’s hidden complicity” in the genocide.

Also interwoven into the film is the gripping story of how 47-year-old Jean Pierre Sagahutu, a fixer for international news media organizations, tracked down the villagers who years earlier had permitted his father, a physician, to be killed and buried naked in a field beside a road block, simply for being an ethnic Tutsi.

Sagahutu, who takes his children along on parts of the journey, exposing them to the difficulties of balancing justice with peace and forgiveness, also was on hand for the film’s premiere.

The film grew out of a chance dinner conversation two years ago between Scranton and Kagame, who she said had “inspired within me and my whole crew an incredible vision of a path to peace that I think the world could take a lesson from.”

26.04.10 – RWANDA/CANADA – EX-UNAMIR CHIEF SIGHS RELIEF
www.hirondellenews.com/April 27, 2010

Arusha, April 26, 2010 (FH) – Former Commander of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR) Canadian Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire said he now feels sense of ‘’personal relief” after his country’s formal acknowledgment of its fair share of responsibility that could have prevented the magnitude of the horror of 1994 Rwandan genocide.

‘’It was done, from what I can see, with an enormous amount of humility…,” Rwandan pro-government New Times newspaper Monday quoted the retired General to have told the Canadian press.

General Dallaire’s comments came after an official statement by the visiting Canadian Governor General Michelle Jean to Rwanda last week.

‘’Canada as part of the international community, acknowledges its fair share of responsibility. I think we could have made a difference,” stated in part the Governor General’s statement. She regretted that Canada, and other countries, failed to respond adequately to the atrocities that were taking place in Rwanda, despite warnings from individuals like General Dallaire.

According to the UN estimates, the genocide left about 800,000 people dead, mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The April-July killings started immediately after the assassination of Rwanda’s then President Juvenal Habyarimana on April 6, 1994. His plane was shot-down by unknown assailants as it was approaching to land in the capital, Kigali.

Also killed in the same plane was Burundi’s President Cyprien Ntaryamira. Both were returning from a regional peace meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
NI/SC/GF

UGANDA

Ahmadinejad Trip Tempts African Trade Hopes, Splits Zimbabwe Leaders over Human Rights Concerns
Howard Lesser /www1.voanews.com/27 April 2010

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s two-day visit to Zimbabwe last week has stirred up dissension within Zimbabwe’s unity government. Members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), including Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, stayed away from official welcoming ceremonies, as they assailed the Iranian leader’s stand on human rights and other issues. The MDC argued that Mr. Ahmadinejad’s visit would send a wrong message about Zimbabwe, which is trying to restore democracy and revive a shattered economy with western aid.
Journalist Sanday Chongo Kabange covered the Ahmadinejad visit for the online media outlet Africa News. He says that in contrast, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has offered support for Iran’s nuclear program and generally has been trying to strengthen ties among countries at odds with the west.

“Mugabe has gone to his so-called ‘look East policy,’ where he’s seeking a lot of support from Asian countries after the United States and Great Britain, and especially the European Union, imposed travel restrictions on his government. So he’s looking out to Asia for support, especially when it comes to finance and technical support to develop his country,” he said.

Iran has been actively seeking suppliers for the development of its nuclear program. After refusing to share data with international inspectors of its uranium enrichment program and making threats against the state of Israel, Tehran has drawn several rounds of sanctions from the United Nations.

As a resource-rich southern African country, Zimbabwe is believed to have available uranium deposits to sell. On Monday, Zimbabwe Industry and Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube denied reports that Iran had won permission to extract uranium with Zimbabwe receiving oil from Iran in exchange. Journalist Kabange says that despite no mention of nuclear issues on the public agenda during last week’s talks, the subject may very likely have been raised, not only because of Iran’s needs, but also due to Harare’s interests.

“Africa is at the moment certainly experiencing a critical shortage of energy, and maybe nuclear energy will be one area that Robert Mugabe and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might have discussed,” said Kabange.

He said Zimbabwe’s motivation for selling may also stem from both dire economic need and eager advances from rapidly expanding countries in Asia.

“When somebody’s desperate and has a lot of resources, they can do anything. Uranium is actually being explored in most African countries, and Zimbabwe has quite sufficient deposits of uranium. Probably, that is one thing that might have triggered Ahmadinejad’s visit. While trading with countries like China, for example, that are heading towards Africa to get a lot of raw materials to use it in their industries, probably the visit by Mr. Ahmadinejad would be one that’s trying to look for resources and then penetrate Africa for more uranium,” he noted.

On Friday, Mr. Ahmadinejad headed from Zimbabwe to Uganda, where he signed several cooperation agreements and sought support against a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against his nuclear expansion. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni did not indicate whether Kampala will back new sanctions. But with leverage as a rotating member of the U.N. Security Council, Kabange says that Presidents Museveni and Ahmadinejad had a lot to talk about over the weekend.

“Iran has seen that there are a lot of raw materials in Africa. I’m sure it is trying to get as much as it can, win the support of African countries, get the raw materials, and take it back, probably to its nuclear program. It might have these enormous nuclear plans within its country and is trying to enrich itself with a lot of nuclear energy, so it wants to get as many resources from different sources in Africa,” he suggested.

President Museveni has not yet disclosed whether Uganda will back sanctions against Iran. Uganda is reportedly also interested in acquiring, perhaps from Iran, the capability to develop and refine its own oil resources in northwestern Uganda around Lake Albert, which is believed to hold approximately 2,000,000,000 barrels

VIDEO: National faith leaders to hold vigil in D.C. to stop the export of homophobia by U.S. evangelists
Esther Rubio-Sheffrey – SDGLN Staff Writer/ 04/27/2010

WASHINGTON — Religion offers hope and often inspires individuals to paths of righteousness, but historically, murders have also been justified, and in some cases, instigated by religious institutions and their leaders.

Nowhere is that more evident than in Uganda and the “Anti-Homosexuality Bill” government officials are considering.

In recent months there has been criticism of some U.S. evangelicals, such as anti-LGBT and anti-abortion extremist Lou Engle of The Call Ministries, who are accused of exporting homophobia to Uganda.

On Tuesday, April 27, the Bishops of Elders Council, convened by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), will hold a noontime vigil in D.C. to support Uganda’s LGBT people.

Despite political memorandum like the “Anti-Homosexuality Bill,” which would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment or even death, the NGLTF states that over the last 30 years, some mainstream denominations have made enormous strides in their attitudes, policies and practices concerning LGBT people.

“As our sisters and brothers are persecuted in Uganda, it is time to speak out. Lives are at stake. It is wrong to imprison or execute people because of who they love or who they are,” said the Rev. Dr. Jo Hudson, pastor and rector of the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, the largest predominantly LGBT church in the world.

In February, during the National Prayer Breakfast, President Barack Obama referred to the “Anti-Homosexual Bill” as unconscionable and many religious leaders are urging Americans to speak out and not remain silent.

“The human capacity for evil is vast, but I stand before you to witness to the human capacity for good. It will be average human beings with heart who speak out against the egregious human rights violations against gay people in Uganda. It will be good people here, in Uganda and throughout the world who finally realize that throwing us in prison or executing us is simply wrong. I call on all good-hearted people to break the silence that kills. Speak out! For goodness sake, speak out!” said Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah in New York City.

Bishop Yvette Flunder, pastor of City of Refuge United Church of Christ in San Francisco and a speaker at tomorrow’s event, encouraged action.

“We must lift up our voices when brothers and sisters in Uganda are beaten down because of fear of same-gender loving people. This world needs more love, not more violence. The destruction of human rights anywhere is a threat to human rights everywhere,” Flunder said.

Despite these religious leaders taking a stand, The Call Uganda organizers continue to refer to homosexuality as a social evil that threatens the values and lifestyles of righteous Ugandans.

They list homosexuality as a sin alongside witchcraft, human sacrifice, natural disasters and the decay of morals and infrastructure.

Engle, who resides in Kansas, was in San Diego in November 2008. Hundreds of his followers convened at Qualcomm Stadium to join him in prayer for the Supreme Court and for righteous leaders in America.

He takes his message to Uganda on May 2, where he will join other evangelical leaders for The Call Uganda event, a mass evangelical stadium rally.

Religious leaders in America have vowed to continue speaking out not only against the proposed bill but also against the message of hate.

“God loves LGBT people just like everyone else. Faith leaders know that, but they need to say it out loud,” said the Rev. Dr. Stephen V. Sprinkle, the first openly gay scholar at Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

“In Uganda, time is short and the stakes are high. Almost 75 percent of Ugandans are either Catholic or Anglican and neither the archbishop of Canterbury nor the Vatican has spoken out to condemn this proposed law. There is a time to speak and a time to keep silent. This, my friends, is the time to speak.”

TANZANIA:

CONGO RDC :

KENYA :

ANGOLA :

Angolan President receives Burundian counterpart Tuesday
www.portalangop.co.ao/4/27/10

Luanda – The Angolan Head of State, José Eduardo dos Santos, is receiving on Tuesday in Luanda’s Presidential Palace his Burundian counterpart, Pierre Nkurunzinza, who is paying a 24-hour official visit to the country.

After the military honours, the intonation of both countries’ national anthems and the parading of troops, the Angolan and Burundian delegations are expected to start official talks where both presidents will deliver speeches in the solemn opening session.

On Tuesday morning, the visiting Burundian President will receive official welcome greetings from his Angolan host, José Eduardo dos Santos, following the official talks between delegations of the two countries, while the two heads of State will meet in private.

Late in the morning, Pierre Nkurunzinza will visit the Angolan Parliament where he will also be saluted with military honours, followed by welcome greetings by the Parliament Speaker, António Paulo Kassoma.

On the premises of the National Assembly, the Burundian statesman will attend the extraordinary solemn parliamentary session where he will deliver a speech.

The Burundian President and his delegation will be offered a luncheon by his Angolan counterpart.

According to the programme, the Burundian Head of State is scheduled to return to his country this Tuesday.

The Burundian Head of State, who is in Angola since Monday afternoon, was welcomed by the Angolan Foreign Affairs minister, Assunção dos Anjos, and laid a wreath of flowers on the monument of the first late Angolan president Agostinho Neto, at the Independence Square.

SOUTH AFRICA:

AFRICA / AU :

Nigeria: Stanbic IBTC Partners Friends Africa to Fight Malaria
27 April 2010/allafrica.com/Vanguard

As part of activities commemorating the World Malaria Day, Stanbic IBTC Bank, a member of the Standard Bank Group, is collaborating with Friends of the Global Fund Africa to galvanize current and ex-Nigerian footballers, non-governmental organizations, the media, the public and private sectors to rally around efforts in kicking malaria out of Nigeria.

The effort comes under the umbrella of the United Against Malaria (UAM) Campaign, a partnership of influential leaders, organizations, businesses and sporting stars who have joined forces ahead of the historic hosting of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa in 2010 to work in ending the scourge of malaria in the African continent.

It is a FIFA endorsed campaign that is using the first FIFA World Cup in Africa to raise awareness and drive action to tackle malaria.

The main objectives of this year’s campaign include advocacy on increasing the use of preventive tools and malaria treatment in Nigeria, reaching out to communities through net distribution using Nigerian footballers and mobilizing communities to take charge in protecting themselves against malaria.

Malaria, which is a preventable and treatable disease, is the largest public health burden in Nigeria.

According to the World Health Organization, about 133 million Nigerians and inhabitants are estimated to be at risk of malaria.

Nigeria accounts for 50% of malaria burden worldwide with pregnant women and children under the age of 5 years being the most vulnerable groups.

According to Mrs. Sola David-Borha, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Stanbic IBTC, a concerted effort by all stakeholders in raising awareness about the mortal danger of malaria and being well informed on how to prevent the disease, should be further intensified if the goal of containment and actualization of the MDGs will be realized by 2015.

“For a disease that kills a child every thirty seconds, malaria must be classified as an enemy of Africa. Since it is treatable and completely preventable, enlightenment and education campaigns are required to help stem its spread,” stated David-Borha.

Dr. Akudo Ikemba CEO/Founder, Friends of the Global Fund Africa, said as part of UAM’s malaria eradication initiatives, the NGO has enlisted the help of several prominent soccer players from around the globe as spokespersons, including many Nigerian players plying their trade in the popular English Premier League.

She added that in Africa, the team is engaging governments to strengthen political commitment to prioritize malaria control, and to increase consistent, appropriate utilization of prevention tools like bed nets and malaria treatment.

“The campaign kicked off in Africa not too long ago. UAM was on ground for the first time on the continent to raise awareness about the effort with the crowd during the 2010 World Cup qualification match between Ghana and Mali in Bamako, Mali”, stated Anyanwu.

The world malaria day celebration kicked off on April 22nd with distribution of treated bed nets to the staff of the Lagos State Government Senior College, Victoria Island, and the Lagos State Motherless Babies Home, Lekki, which has about 50% of its population made up of children under five years of age.

A round table discussion on malaria and the journey so far in Nigeria held at the Stanbic IBTC office in Victoria Island, Lagos.

Violent extremists calling fighters to Somalia
By Jane Ferguson, for CNN/April 27, 2010

Mogadishu, Somalia (CNN) — In Somalia’s enduring chaos, militant groups have for years come and gone. Today’s most powerful — Al Shabaab — are much more menacing, say those in Mogadishu.

In Arabic, Al Shabaab means ‘the youth’, but it is too far-reaching to be just a rabble of youngsters. It controls much of central and southern Somalia and large parts of the capital Mogadishu.

And after years of pledging allegiance to al Qaeda, Al Shabaab formalized the relationship in February. Since then, the Somali government says there’s been an influx of foreign fighters.

“With regard to the fighting that’s going on in Afghanistan, in Pakistan and in Yemen, some people are looking for a place to hide and Somalia is a good candidate for that,” said Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who leads the weak, U.N.-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG).

Ahmed was once a senior, moderate figure in the Union of Islamic Courts — an alliance that included Al Shabaab and which held power in Somalia for six months in 2006 before being overthrown by Ethiopian forces.

The Ethiopians remained until early 2009 when the TFG took tentative control, clinging to a small part of Mogadishu, and protected by African Union (AU) peacekeepers mainly from Uganda and Burundi.
A quiet figure, President Ahmed sits in his office at the palace grounds while government troops outside fire warning shots to prevent people from venturing too close.
“We used to estimate the number of foreign fighters to be between 800 and 1,200 but that number seems to have been growing,” he said.

Al Shabaab has reached out to Somalis living in the West, radicalizing young Muslims via the Internet and encouraging them to move back to the country to join the Jihad.

In November 2009, eight Somali-American men from the U.S. state of Minnesota were charged with offenses including attending Al Shabaab terrorist training camps and fighting for the group. In August 2009 two Somalis were arrested in Melbourne, Australia, for allegedly planning a suicide attack on a military facility.

And a naturalized-American suicide bomber, who blew himself up killing 29 people in October 2008, was born in Somalia.

Although the suicide attack took place in Northern Somalia, there is a growing debate as to whether those Somalis living in the West who are recruited by Al Shabaab may return to the U.S., Canada or Europe to stage attacks.

“[Somalia is] a place to hide and a place to fight, not only with the West but with anybody who disagrees with them,” said the president. “They go from place to place but their objectives don’t change, they fight people of all persuasions.”

This is commonly noted by Somalis who talk about Al Shabaab — they not only violently oppose the West, but also other Somalis who don’t support their war.

“If you are not with them, you are against them,” said one official at Mogadishu Airport when asked to describe the group’s outlook.

Many Somalis live in fear of even appearing to dissent from the group’s orders.

At the African Union base they opened the military hospital to the public in response to the lack of medical facilities in the city. When they run out of drugs and instead issue prescriptions, even the desperately ill throw them away, knowing the risks of being caught with such evidence of “collusion.”

In February, the group banned the U.N. World Food Program, even though millions rely on food aid for survival.

Music and radio stations have been banned as well as school bells, which were recently declared too Christian by Al Shabaab and their allies.

Stories of the brutal nature of their control over the city’s streets make their way through the hospital staff and into the A.U. camp.

Tales of dismemberment, bodies being chopped up and sent back to families, routine executions, even people being skinned alive emanate from neighborhoods closed off to the international community or any form of governance.

Leaning over the wall of a lookout post at the notorious Kilometer Four junction, one soldier points to a minaret. “That’s the Red Mosque,” he says. “That’s where they chop people up.”

Such a fate is often promised to Major Ba-Ho Ku, the Ugandan spokesman for the peacekeepers.

Callers to his cell phone promise death and dismemberment. He dismisses the group as misguided and accuses them of making the lives of ordinary Somalis horrific.

“It’s so sad,” he says, hanging up on another sinister voice. “They don’t know what they are doing. They are just killing their own people.”

It is estimated that around half the population of Mogadishu have fled to refugee camps.

Those left behind are caught in an increasingly deadly form of urban warfare. Senior A.U. military figures say the signs of al Qaeda’s hand in the fighting are visible through the use of Improvised Explosive Devices, or IEDs, and suicide bombings.

Most of the fighting goes on between the local TFG forces, weak and underfunded, and Al Shabaab.

At the A.U.’s hospital the morning after a skirmish in town, TFG soldiers lie of stretchers, thin and bleeding. Colonel Dr James Kiyengo, a surgeon, leans over one soldier injured by an IED.

“This kind of injury has increased,” he says. “Earlier on the soldiers could move out of the camp and come back, and when the Ethiopians withdrew there was a vacuum that was filled.

“I think the insurgents came closer, and into the city, such that we found that these injuries increased. Earlier on there were no IEDs, not as common as it is now.”

A major offensive against Al Shabaab to retake large areas of the city has been rumored for months. Military leaders in Mogadishu play down the reports, saying the move against Al Shabaab will happen gradually.

Last month the New York Times reported that the U.S. had become so concerned with the group’s activities across Somalia and in Yemen, across the Gulf of Aden, that they were giving direct military support to the TFG. This was strongly denied in Washington.

“The United States does not plan, does not direct, and does not coordinate the military operations of the TFG, and we have not and will not be providing direct support for any potential military offensives,” Johnnie Carson, Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, told reporters. “Further, we are not providing nor paying for military advisors for the TFG. There is no desire to Americanize the conflict in Somalia.”

The dull whir of a nightly drone circling Mogadishu’s skies however only adds to speculation amongst locals.

“The American’s gather intelligence,” one official whispered. “But they don’t share it with the Somali government.”

Lend Lease appoints Rod Leaver Australia CEO
www.theaustralian.com.au/Neil Sands From: Dow Jones Newswires/ April 27, 2010

LEND Lease Group announced today it would adopt a new global business model, with four regional chief executives heading operations in Australia, Asia, the Americas and EMEA, or Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The company said in a statement that the four regional CEOs would report to Lend Lease managing director and chief executive Steve McCann.

McCann said the change, effective July 1 “will enable a more focused and co-ordinated approach to our growth strategy and the execution of major projects in each of our core regions”.

The four regional CEOs are Rod Leaver in Australia, Eng-Peng Ooi in Asia, Dan Labbad for EMEA, and Bob McNamara in the Americas.

UN /ONU :

Of UN Council, Rice on Sudan and Congo, S. Africa Running for Seat, UN Musical Chairs
www.innercitypress.com/By Matthew Russell Lee /April 27

UNITED NATIONS, April 26 — Promoting its candidacy for a Security Council seat in 2011-12, South Africa threw a reception at the UN Monday night. The news, however, came from current Council members. U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice was there, meeting and greeting including with the Press. One of her answers, about the Council’s Congo trip, she said was off the record. Other answers will be reported, diplomatically of course.

Since on the day Sudan’s Omar al Bashir declared electoral victory the UN had said nothing at its noon briefing, rebuffing a shouted question from Inner City Press on Sudan and from another journalist about the Balkans, Inner City Press asked Ambassador Rice if she thought the UN was being too quiet.

Amb. Rice replied, as she would on Northern Congo, that she had spent the day immersed in something else, presumably Iran. These proposed sanctions, it seems clear, are the US Mission’s and Administration’s focus. But what about the outbreak of fighting between the SPLM and northerners, either tribes or Bashir’s army?

The focus, Amb. Rice said, the “big enchilada,” is really on the referendum on South Sudan being independent. But if the process of these election was not credible, why and how would that one be?

Still on Sudan, when Inner City Press told Ambassador Rice about reports of UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari meeting earlier in the day with Omar al Bashir, she smiled thinly. On the other hand, Sudan’s Ambassador told Inner City Press he had called Gambari directly, and Gambari had gushed about the meeting, He said that in the pending UNMIS resolution, there is an attempt to give UNMIS chief Haile Menkerios a role up in Darfur.

A Moroccan political coordinator, on the other hand, said the mixing of UNMIS and UNAMID would give Gambari a role in the South, “even if it breaks away.” We’ll see.

Turning to the Congo, Inner City Press asked about the UN’s strange failure to commit to investigating the alleged 11 civilian deaths caused in the re-taking of the airport in Northern Congo. When told that the alleged perpetrators are the Congolese Army, with which the UN works, Ambassador Rice said “good question.” Inner City Press told her she is more likely to get an answer. “Thank you,” she said.
There was chit chat, too. A reporter recounted that St. Lucia’s Ambassador said Ms. Rice is part Caribbean. Ambassador Rice nodded. “All you need to know about me,” she said, is I am half Jamaican and was conceived in Nigeria. She laughed. “My grand mother’s maiden name was Daley [or Daly], as in Irish.”

Some reporters suggested she speak more with the press, contrasting her approach to that of the French. She shrugged. I can’t do it every week, she said, adding that Americans are “not peacocks.”

Menkerios, as it happens, will speak to the Security Council on Tuesday afternoon and then, it is promised, with the Press. An African Ambassador, requesting anonymity, told Inner City Press on Monday night that Menkerios’ old position with the Department of Political Affairs will be filled by current Cyprus representative Taye-Brook Zerihoun. Then who would take Cyprus — Atul Khare? Watch this site.

Footnote: as requested by the South African mission, Inner City Press would be remiss not to note that, with the African Union’s endorsesment, South Africa is virtually assured of re-gaining a Council seat in 2011-12. When Inner City Press quipped that this fast return made the country the “Japan of Africa,” a South African representative reminded that before what’s now called the Dumisani Kumalo term, South Africa had not been represented. So welcome back — the fix is in.

* * *

Amid Sudan Deaths, Bashir Victory Declaration, Silence at UN, Disdain for Rebels

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 26 — With Sudan’s Omar al Bashir declaring victory in Sudan amid deadly clashes and kidnapped UN peacekeepers, in New York the UN Security Council, which had been scheduled to meet about Sudan, was silent Monday morning.

The Council’s schedule provided for a meeting about UNMIS, the UN Mission in South Sudan. Inner City Press was told that UNMIS chief Haile Menkerios would be present and take questions. But at this key moment, in the UN’s basement, the Council sat empty.

Over in the UN’s three story North Lawn building, an Assistant Secretary General told Inner City Press that Bashir’s 68% of the vote made him look more legitimate than “those countries where the leader claims ninety-eight percent.”

Is this why the UN is implicitly blessing the election? “This way we avoid violence,” said the ASG. And the UN gets to stay in the country. But at what cost to its credibility?

Moments later, a South African diplomat told Inner City Press his country’s peacekeepers had been released. Just as Al Bashir said it would be: once the results — and his winning — were announced. As they say in legal Latin, res ipsa loquitur: the things speaks for itself.

On Friday, before al Bashir declared victory, Inner City Press asked the UN about violence:

Inner City Press: There are these reports of 50 civilians killed in South Darfur that I am sure, I believe, the UN has probably seen. There are also, it’s reported that Mr. [Djibril] Bassole was told by JEM [Justice and Equality Movement] that they believe the Government is about to begin another military assault in Darfur. What’s the UN doing, just as an update? Has it gone to Jebel Marra? Is it trying to investigate the death of civilians? And can you confirm JEM’s concerns?

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: Well, it’s not for us to confirm JEM’s concerns, of course. On the second part, UNAMID [African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur] has also received an unconfirmed report, but the mission has not received any reports that confirm signs of an imminent attack by the Government, or indeed the presence of the JEM in east and North Darfur. So, that’s the first bit, that we’ve heard these unconfirmed reports. We cannot, we have not received any reports that would confirm signs of an imminent attack.

And as for the violence in South Darfur that you are referring to, according to UNAMID, and you may wish to ask them for more details, but from what I understand, this was an incident on 20 April, and it involved inter-tribal violence, the details of which are a little sketchy, I would say. But its result, from what we know, according to UNAMID [is] 15 people killed, 24 injured. This also included Sudan border guard police, who were, according to UNAMID, ambushed in the course of this inter-tribal violence that I referred to. That’s pretty much what I have for you there. As I said, it may well be that UNAMID could provide you with more details.

UNAMID chief Ibrahim Gambari was meeting one on one with al Bashir, who telling promised to get the kidnapped UN peacekeepers from South Africa released. Reporting by Inner City Press indicates that the kidnappers are affiliated or aligned with Bashir’s government. The UN has said nothing.
Insiders tell Inner City Press that Gambari would like Bassole to step down, so he could take over the Doha portfolio as well. Gambari was pushed out of his role in Iraq by UNAMI chief Ad Melkert. On Sudan he wants to consolidate his position. In New York he had told Ban, I can help with with GA President Ali Treki. He told Treki the same. Thus are careers made and preserved in the UN. But what about Darfur? What to make of the UN’s and Council’s silence?

Footnote: In front of the empty Security Council Monday morning were ambassadors of severa
l developing countries, waiting for a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement next door. The NAM recently told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon he has no jurisdiction over war crimes, should not follow through on his promise to name a panel on Sri Lanka. And Ban has not moved forward, reverting to meeting with the Sri Lankan attorney general and hoping, like Sudan’s scam elections, that the issue fades away.

* * *

Amid Fraud in Sudan and Kidnapping by Bashir-Affiliated Militia, UN Cuts Off Questions

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 21 — With fraud exposed, on film, in the Sudanese election to which the UN provided technical assistance, and with four UN peacekeepers still missing in Darfur, apparently taken by a government affiliated militia, UN Spokesman Martin Nesirky on Tuesday cut off questions about Sudan and the election in favor of a press conference on Guatemala. Video here, from Minute 11:28.

On April 19, when Inner City Press asked for a response to the view that the kidnappers of the UN peacekeepers are from a government-aligned militia, Nesirky dodged the question. On April 20, he simply did not take the question.

Meanwhile, “UNAMID spokesperson Noureddine Mezni said, ‘The Sudanese authorities know the identity of the kidnappers.'”

Consider that on the UN’s own ReliefWeb site, it is reported that

“NYALA – A new group calling itself the Movement for the Struggle of the People in Darfur claims to have kidnapped four South African UNAMID peacekeepers in South Darfur. They want a ransom of an amount equivalent to half a million US dollars (a billion sudanese pounds) and the release of their ‘detained leaders’… the group is part of the Irada Hura (SLM Free Will), a mixed group that signed a Declaration of Commitment after the Darfur Peace Agreemnent in Abuja. Their leader prof. Abdelrahman Musa died. The new leader, Ali Majok, was apparently appointed with support of the government and became a minister. But a faction within the group disagreed with his leadership. Adam Salih, another member of the faction, called for a meeting to contest the leadership. He formed in the meantime a new Movement for the Struggle of the People in Darfur.”

Adam Salih, aka “Ahmad Salah Abubakr Abdallah” was previously associated with the “SLA Free Will” movement. The leader of the “Sudan Liberation Movement – Free Will faction had joined the national unity government” in 2008. “Aid agency sources say that SLA-Free Will is the creation of the GoS delegation in Abuja, whose goal is to split the rebels along tribal lines” [source]

“Ahmad Saleh, a Birgid, is a former SLA-Minni commander who joined SLA-Free Will in September 2006 and is believed to be close to the GoS” [source]

Amnesty International has implicated Adam Salih in “Janjaweed militia attacks”… [source]

So were the UN peacekeepers taken by a government-affiliated militia?

Is the UN not only “liaising” but negotiating with the government for their release?

Inner City Press, which has been asking the UN about its role in the re-election of indicted war criminal Omar al-Bashir, sought to proceed with the question, or to have Mr. Nesirky return to the rostrum after the Guatemala presentation. While Nesirky said, “Let’s do that,” he left the briefing and did not return. But the questions will continue. Watch this site.

From the UN’s April 21 transcript, Inner City Press’ questions and OSSG’s Nesirky’s responses:

Inner City Press: On Sudan, the missing or kidnapped peacekeepers in Darfur, it is now being reported that South African Government has been negotiating with the group and the group has said that they will release the peacekeepers once the election results are released in Darfur. There are also reports that this group, both by the name of its founder and otherwise, are a somewhat Government-supported militia. What I wanted to know is whether the UN has had any involvement in these discussions between the South African Government and the hostage takers or, and whether, what it would say to a trail of evidence that seems to indicate that the hostage takers are in fact in some way initially created by or affiliated with the Government of Sudan?

Spokesperson: I have mentioned here before that the UN is concerned for the well-being of the four people, the four South African peacekeepers who are missing. And I have also said that the UN has been liaising with the Government of Sudan and, as in other such cases, it’s the responsibility of the host Government to ensure the safe return of people in such circumstances. And beyond that, I don’t have any comment at the moment.

Question: Of the concern that this liaising, that in fact, I mean, there’s also been, a UNAMID Spokesman has said that the Government knows who the hostage takers are, so that’s why I am assuming that that’s a UN-wide position.

Spokesperson: At the moment…

Question: Is that a matter of concern to the UN; that the host Government is aware of and allegedly is connected to the hostage talkers, is that of some concern?

Spokesperson: At the moment, there are two things. One is that the overriding concern is, again, for our people on the ground. And for that reason, I don’t have anything further to say.

Question: But you will, I mean once they’re released maybe you will…?

Spokesperson: The whole aim of the game is for our colleagues to be returned safely.

UN: 4 abducted peacekeepers released in Darfur
Associated Press /2010-04-27

Four South African peacekeepers serving with a joint African Union-United Nations mission in Darfur were released Monday after two weeks in captivity, the U.N. said in a news release.
The unarmed South African police advisers _ two women and two men _ were abducted April 11 after departing from their team site in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, on a 4-mile (7 kilometer) journey back to their private quarters.

The four will undergo medical examinations and then be flown to their home country to be reunited with their families, the United Nations said in the release.

“We are grateful to have our colleagues back with us,” said Ibrahim Gambari, UNAMID Joint Special Representative.

Gambari held talks Sunday with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who pledged to do everything possible to bring about safe return of the UNAMID personnel.

A group called the People’s Democratic Struggle Movement had claimed responsibility soon after the kidnapping and said it was ready to cooperate with the Sudanese government for the four advisers’ release.

The group’s leader, Jibrail Bukhari Abbas, said one of its members had independently carried out the abduction without instructions from the movement’s leadership. Abbas said his group had joined peace talks with the government and that the kidnapper was unaware of the development.

The Darfur conflict began in February 2003 when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government in Khartoum, claiming discrimination and neglect. Khartoum is accused of retaliating by arming local nomadic Arab tribes and unleashing militias on civilian populations _ a charge the government denies.

Man’s worst friend?
www.washingtonpost.com/By Dana Milbank/Tuesday, April 27, 2010

President Obama won the unstinting support Monday of one of the world’s most prominent leaders. And he is not going to be happy about it.

The dilemma becomes apparent upon revealing the name of this enthusiastic admirer: His Excellency Brother Leader Moammar Gaddafi, Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. His 40 years on the world stage have included such highlights as the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. More recently, the man Ronald Reagan dubbed the “mad dog of the Middle East” showed up in New York, where he attempted to live in a tent during the annual U.N. meeting, at which he spoke 85 minutes beyond his 15-minute allotment, ripped up a copy of the world body’s charter, mused about the assassination of John F. Kennedy and suggested that the U.S. military created the swine flu.

And now he is professing Obama love. “I really endorse and support the policies that he has adopted so far,” Brother Leader said Monday afternoon in a video teleconference arranged by the World Affairs Councils of America. Gaddafi referred affectionately to the president as “our son Barack Obama,” helpfully translating Obama’s name from the Arabic: “Barakah — blessing.”

“We would like to greet the American people who voted for their son, Mr. Barack Obama,” Gaddafi, resplendent in a burnt orange cape, informed the audience watching from the National Press Club. Speaking through an interpreter, the colonel continued: “He is from Africa, from an African descent.”

From Africa? Birther alert!

Gaddafi was not done stirring up conspiracy theorists. “The Muslim world welcomed very much the arrival of Obama to the presidency, because the ordinary citizen knows that President Obama is a youth of an African descent,” the Guide of the Revolution added. “He comes from, originally from a Muslim family, maybe even of an Arab origin. . . . And at least psychologically, it was very useful.”

So, on the same day Obama’s national security adviser apologizes for telling a Jewish joke, Gaddafi declares that Obama has a Muslim family and is “very useful” to Libya. Thanks for your support, Brother Leader.

Still, by Gaddafi standards, it could have been worse. Just two months ago, he declared a holy war against Switzerland, of all places. What would he do next — a fatwa against “South Park”? Instead, he answered some questions before ending abruptly. “I think we’ve taken up enough time, and besides, I waited half an hour before you started,” he protested. “Today I’m fasting, so I should break my fast.”

Still, he gave occasional glimpses of the wacky Gaddafi, calling the execution of Saddam Hussein “really sad” and defending his view that women should be “reproducers” and avoid “male vocations.”

Those arriving at the National Press Club on Monday were given copies of “The Green Book,” Gaddafi musings on democracy and socialism published by “the Public Establishment for Publishing” in Tripoli. Soon after the appointed time, televisions in the room showed a live image of Gaddafi, with thin chin beard and mustache, squinting so much that his eyes were slits.

“Relations are really excellent” with the United States, Brother Leader reported. This assessment may come as news to the State Department, where spokesman P.J. Crowley earlier this year characterized Gaddafi’s U.N. speech as “lots of papers flying all over the place, not necessarily a lot of sense.”

Gaddafi said he wants a permanent Arab seat, with veto power, on the U.N. Security Council. He likened the Palestinian plight to what the Jews “suffered under Hitler.” He offered a plan under which Israel, stripped of nuclear weapons, would become a majority-Arab state called Isratine. “I think this is a historical — a final solution,” the colonel declared. A few in the audience chuckled at Gaddafi’s use of the Nazi phrase for the Holocaust.

Still, he saw fit to add, “I am really very keen on the safety of the Jews.”

He was even more keen on the U.S. president. “I’m sure that he will work for the good of America as an American president, but at the same time, he’ll be gaining the friendship of the Arabs and the friendship of Libya for the common interests of those peoples and United States,” the Guide of the Great Revolution judged. Further, Gaddafi called Obama’s statements on the Muslim world “popular” and praised his Iraq policy. He also was pleased that Obama “condemned the war in Vietnam” — though that war ended when Obama was 13. “This is being applauded in the Arab and the Muslim world,” Gaddafi reported.

True, he isn’t happy that Libya wasn’t invited to attend the recent nuclear summit (“it was a political blunder”). And he thinks Iran doesn’t deserve sanctions over its nuclear program (“maybe they are using it for peaceful purposes”). But Gaddafi was even willing to defend his “son” Obama’s escalation of the Afghan war. “As a military person myself, I can understand the military aspect of this,” he said, calling the troop increase “irrelevant” because withdrawal will follow.

Just what Obama needed: The mad dog of the Middle East is his new best friend.

No Deal in Sight, Say Leading Economies of the South
By IPS Correspondents/ Apr 27, 2010

CAPE TOWN, Apr 26, 2010 (IPS) – Environment ministers from Brazil, South Africa, India and China are sceptical that a legally-binding agreement on climate change will be reached in Cancun, Mexico in December.

Jairam Ramesh, Indian Minister of State for Environment and Forests said, “There is no breakthrough in sight.”

South Africa’s Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs Buyelwa Sonjica described global talks as complex. She said honest negotiations – “based on equity” – would have to be established before a satisfactory deal could be concluded.

BASIC, alongside the U.S. and the EU, helped forge the compromise Copenhagen Accord, at the U.N. Conference on Climate Change held in Denmark in December 2009. The non-binding agreement was seen as a face saver for a conference that threatened to end with no agreement at all.

The third meeting since then of the BASIC group, as these four emerging economies are known, ended on Apr. 25 with a statement of their “determination to continue to show leadership in acting on climate change.” The countries also said they will stick to the “nationally appropriate mitigation actions” each put forward in December.

Not much change to report

The basic outlines of the barrier on which climate talks in December ran aground remain in place. Developed countries are not ready to put fresh commitments on the table if the fastest growing economies of the South do not also do so. The leading polluters in the developing world remain resistant to accepting binding reductions targets.
BASIC countries insist that it is the responsibility of the developed world, whose historical and present contributions to greenhouse gas emissions are undeniably the bulk of the problem, to both reduce emissions and to make large amounts of money and technology available so that the South can develop along a low- carbon path.

Mithika Mwenda, from the Pan-African Climate Justice Action network based in Nairobi, Kenya, said, “Pressure from industrialised countries is shifting the blame. The first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol has almost expired without industrialised countries meeting their targets under that agreement. The developed world should meet their initial commitments before turning to the developing world.”

The EU countries have collectively met their commitments to reduce emissions by four percent as compared to 1990 levels, but this was achieved in large measure due to the collapse of the heavily-polluting economies of Eastern European countries between 1990 and 1999.

Emissions from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland all grew by 25 percent since 1990; Japan’s by roughly nine percent. Emissions from the U.S. – and the world’s leading polluter is not a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol – rose by 16 percent.

In the South, emissions from BASIC’s members are growing very quickly.

“BASIC countries are being pushed to take commitments,” says Mwenda. “China is emitting a lot but the per capita emissions are very low compared to U.S. and other industrialised countries.”

The emerging economies, he says, have not refused to commit themselves, they are demanding support from the developed world if they’re to build greener economies.

Climate is not conditional

Greenpeace campaigner Melita Steele rejects this logic. “We are not sure if (BASIC members) are showing a commitment to green development in their own countries or recognising the urgency of the matter. Climate change is a crisis and should be treated as such.”

She says Greenpeace calculates that renewables could supply up to 70 percent of South Africa’s energy needs by 2050, if funding was committed to developing it instead of continuing with the familiar polluting options.

“The recent $3.75 billion World Bank loan for the coal project should instead have been channeled to renewable energy.”

Bobby Peek, director of environmental organisation groundWork, sees the self-interest of transnational corporations behind the delays .”The longer we don’t get the agreement, the better for governments like the U.S., South Africa and big corporations who want to continue the status quo.”

The tragedy, Peek says, is that these corporations do not necessarily contribute significantly to the gross domestic product of developing countries like South Africa. “For instance mining giant BHP Billiton consumes 10 percent of South Africa’s power but only contributes 0.1 percent to the GDP. It’s a farce.”

Deadlock melting slower than icecap

BASIC member countries will continue to hold separate meetings to prepare the groundwork for Cancun and COP 16. The preparation will not be limited to Brazil, South Africa, India and China, it will include other, more vulnerable countries from the global South in a BASIC Plus grouping.

PACJA’s Mwenda says it is important to build regional blocs to negotiate.

“This is the way Africa gained influence at the G8,” he says. “(We are pushing to ensure that Mexico (the next U.N. climate change conference) delivers a two track outcome which is just, equitable, fair and legally binding.”

That’s one track to ensure continuation of the Kyoto Protocol and the commitments from the industrialised countries listed in its Annex I. The other track to ensure that countries such as the U.S. take on commitments under a new agreement.

The ministers meeting in Cape Town called on developed countries to make good on their Copenhagen Accord financial pledges. “The commitments to provide finance must be operationalised. Both the $30 billion (2010-2012) and the $100 billion annually (by 2020) should be provided by developed countries.”

BASIC’s leaders are already looking beyond the U.N. conference in Mexico at the end of 2010, to the 17th Conference of Parties to be held in Cape Town in 2011.

A long-term view may be reasonable in terms of negotiators working out a deal acceptable to all parties, but the possibility of avoiding the average 2 degree rise in temperatures that the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change projects is the threshold for catastrophic climate change is slipping away.

(END)

USA :

U.S. adult obesity stable, kids obesity up
Published: April 27, 2010/UPI

CHICAGO, April 26 (UPI) — U.S. white adults have stopped getting obese but African-American young adults and children have rising obesity levels, researchers said.

Anirban Basu of the University of Chicago School of Medicine and colleagues used a simulation model based on national data from 2000-2004 and validated against 2005-2006 data.

The researchers project obesity rates across all age categories for the U.S. adult will remain stable for the next 10 years. However, the researchers project young African-American adults ages 18-39, children — mainly boys ages 6-9 — and African-American children age 10 and older will have rising obesity levels.

“The unprecedented rise in obesity among U.S. adults over the past two decades appears to have stabilized and will continue to remain stable over the next 10 years,” Basu said in a statement. “Levels of obesity, however, remain very high and we’re particularly concerned with the increase in rates of overweight among 6-9 year-old children — especially boys.”

The findings are published in the journal Medical Decision Making.

CANADA :

BofA Appoints EM Ex-Asia President
04-27-2010/Source: emii.com

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has promoted Andrea Orcel to the position of president of emerging markets excluding Asia, Financial Times reports. Orcel, who will remain executive chairman of global banking and markets, will also oversee Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Jonathan Moulds will continue to be president of Europe and Canada. Orcel has appointed James Quigley, the company’s Latin American president, as executive vice chairman of international corporate and investment banking, adds Bloomberg.

AUSTRALIA :

Eradicating malaria no longer a distant dream: Australian campaign to get mosquito nets to every child in danger
au.christiantoday.com/Unicef Australia/Tuesday, 27 April 2010

SYDNEY, 23 April 2010 – On the eve of World Malaria Day, new figures have revealed major progress in eradicating the disease which is killing a child every 30 seconds in sub-Saharan Africa alone.

In the last two years nearly 200 million insecticide treated nets, which is the best defence against mosquitoes, have reached children in African countries plagued by malaria. Yet there is a critical funding shortfall that is threatening the goal of giving a mosquito net to every child that needs one by the end of this year – that is a further 150 million nets.

And now Australians can literally ‘play’ their part in rolling back malaria after UNICEF Australia released a new viral social media game (in which the player attempts to swat as many mosquitoes as possible in 30 seconds) in a bid to raise awareness and funds to kill off malaria which kills a million people in Sub-Saharan Africa every year.

“We want all Australians to join the Swat Team and kill as many ‘virtual’ mosquitoes as they can and then challenge their friends and family to beat their score,” UNICEF Australia spokesman, Martin Thomas, said.

“We trust this will also generate critical funds to buy mosquito nets for children who need them. For these children a mosquito net can literally be the difference between life and death.”

A report published in the lead up to World Malaria Day reveals that worst trouble spot for malaria, Africa, is making major progress in rolling back the disease.

It reveals a 10-fold increase in global malaria funding to nearly $1.8 billion in 2009, a five-fold increase in global production of insecticide-treated nets to 150 million and more than a 30-fold increase in the procurement of other anti-malaria therapies to 160 million.

This year marks the ten-year mark of the Roll Back Malaria campaign, which aims to achieve universal coverage by 2010, near-zero deaths by 2015 and the eventual gradual elimination of malaria.

UNICEF, which is a founding member of the Roll Back Malaria partnership, is the largest distributor of mosquito nets in the world.

EUROPE :

Will India-EU deal make drugs dearer?
27 Apr 2010/TNN/economictimes.indiatimes.com

Is the Indian government bargaining away the rights of millions across the world to essential drugs supplied by India, hailed as the pharmacy of the
developing world, in the name of free trade with the European Union (EU)? That’s a fear being expressed by civil society groups in the developing world.

Commerce minister Anand Sharma vehemently denies such a possibility, claiming that the free trade agreement (FTA) under negotiation with the EU will not harm India’s flourishing pharmaceuticals industry, but voices from within the European Parliament belie his assertions.

A letter, dated April 22, from the recently established working group in the European Parliament on Innovation, Access to Medicines and Poverty-Related Diseases to the European commissioner for international trade, expressed concern that the EU-India FTA may contain provisions – such as data exclusivity, patent term extensions and enforcement of IP rights and border measures – that reverse the advances made on access to medicines, which could have dire consequences for patients in India and in the rest of the developing world.

The group expressed regret at the way the FTA being negotiated was against the EU’s averred commitment to placing public health protection over commercial interests. The letter urged the commissioner to ensure that the negotiations on behalf of the EU did not contain clauses that went beyond the requirements of the trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPS) agreement under the WTO.

This letter has come close on the heel of representations from several civil society groups from developing countries across Africa, Asia and South America, including Brazil and Thailand, dependent on India for their supply of affordable high quality generic drugs, including crucial HIV/AIDS drugs.

These countries have expressed the fear that Europe is pushing India to impose greater intellectual property protection on medicines, measures which would delay the registration and marketing of generic medicines, and would extend the duration of a patent, blocking competition and keeping the price of medicines out of the reach of patients. None of this is required under WTO or the TRIPS agreement. India began granting patents on medicines from 2005 in keeping with the agreement, but the government was careful to include measures to limit abusive patenting and protect public health.

The working group on intellectual property of the Brazilian Network for the Integration of People further points out that Indian generic versions play an important role in price negotiations in the world and are also key to promoting price competition and broader access to treatment in developing countries.

Despite these negotiations having such far-reaching consequences, there have been no consultations with civil society and other stakeholders like farmers and patients. Trade negotiations between the EU and India have been going on since 2007 and both sides hope to conclude the agreement by October this year. A meeting for this purpose will be held in Brussels next week. For over two years, civil society groups have been protesting the hush-hush manner in which the rights of millions to essential drugs is being bargained away without even the draft document being available to the public.

The Delhi Network of Positive People, a support group of people living with HIV/AIDS, has accused the government of keeping even Parliament in the dark about the negotiations and its implications, which could undermine the public health safeguards Parliament built into the Indian patent law. Public health groups across the world have expressed the hope that India would demonstrate its commitment to patients over profit starting with opening up the negotiations to public scrutiny.

EU to push for piracy prosecutions in Africa
www.ngrguardiannews.com/By Francis Obinor (with agency report)/ 270410

THE European Union (EU)’s foreign affairs and security chief have planned to visit Africa next month to press for more help in prosecuting pirates arrested by European warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden.

EU chief Catherine Ashton wants to see the suspects on trial as close to home as possible instead of transported to Europe for prosecution.

An EU armada has detained scores of suspected pirates in recent months but only a handful will ever wind up in court. The vast majority were disarmed and put back on their boats with enough food and fuel to reach land.

EU nations are reluctant to pay the cost of transporting them back to Europe for trial and it is hard to successfully prosecute pirates unless they are caught red-handed hijacking or attacking a ship.

Compounding the problem, Kenya – one of only two African nations to sign an agreement with the EU to take on piracy cases – recently stopped accepting suspects, saying they put undue strain on the country’s congested justice system.

Dutch Defense Minister Eimert van Middelkoop told The Associated Press (AP) yesterday that Kenya’s decision made Ashton’s trip “highly relevant.”

Van Middelkoop welcomed Ashton’s planned tour of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and the Seychelles as a possible way of putting more piracy suspects behind bars.

“It is very unsatisfactory that we can’t prosecute the pirates,” he said on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign and defense ministers.

He said the Dutch frigate HMS Tromp that recently served with the EU mission detained 83 pirates in two months and turned 73 loose.

The remaining 10 were arrested April 5 in a daring high-seas rescue mission after they hijacked a German container ship.

The pirates were flown back to the Netherlands where they are in jail awaiting transfer to Germany where they will be put on trial.

Six pirates who mistakenly tried to attack a French warship last week are still in custody aboard the French boat BCR Somme, military spokesman Adm. Christophe Prazuck said.

They will be handed over to judicial authorities, but the French have not yet determined where they will be prosecuted.

While getting piracy suspects into court remains a problem, the increasing international focus on protecting shipping off the coast of lawless Somalia is paying dividends.

The International Maritime Bureau says piracy attacks worldwide fell by more than a third in the first quarter this year thanks to a decline in raids in the Gulf of Aden.

The IMB credited tougher anti-piracy action by international navies with reducing the number of attacks in the Gulf of Aden from 41 a year ago to 17. The east and south coasts of Somalia recorded 18 incidents, down from 21 a year ago.

The United States says the destabilizing effects of piracy, drug smuggling, and illegal fishing in the area are also costing West and Central African coastal economies billions of dollars each year in lost revenues.

“You have an area that is traditionally a landward-focused region which is awakening to the impact of the maritime domain,” said Captain Cindy Thebaud, commander of the U.S. Navy’s Destroyer Squadron Six Zero and head of the project.

After two weeks of training in Senegal, the African officers and deckhands will spend a week at sea on the USS Gunstall Hall alongside their U.S. counterparts learning skills ranging from basic navigation to anti-piracy techniques.

The training is part of U.S. efforts to make Gulf of Guinea maritime security more robust but, with navies often coming low in the pecking order in African militaries, there is a need for increased investment in boats and other equipment.

“There are challenges with resource allocations everywhere in the region,” Thebaud said. “But the education and the visibility is continuing to increase and, bit by bit, we are seeing increases in allocations in resources.”

The Gulf of Guinea, which runs down from West Africa through Nigeria and Angola, is becoming increasingly important due to its vast potential energy reserves.

Ghana will soon join traditional Gulf of Guinea oil producers Nigeria, Angola, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon, while Liberia and Sierra Leone have also made offshore energy finds.

Critics say U.S. policy is purely in self-interest, as the world’s top consumer will rely on the region for a quarter of its oil supplies within the next five years.

But sailors said countries in the region were keen on the project as they understood the threat insecurity posed to governance and economic growth.

“(Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea) is not the same level as Somalia but it could have the same consequences,” said Lt Commander Emmanuel Bell Bell, a Camerounian officer onboard.

Earlier this month Cameroon partly blamed piracy for a 13 percent fall in oil production last year.

“In Cameroun we have shipping and oil. The slightest act of piracy creates an atmosphere of fear. It could lead to things shutting down,” Bell Bell added.

The training is part of Africom, the U.S. command center for Africa, but European nations have begun to take part in an effort to broaden the programme and cooperation.

Commander David Salisbury, a British naval officer, said a thwarted hijacking of a ship off Benin and a Ghanaian raid on a fishing vessel in December were evidence of improvements. But he warned that threats were “huge and had been largely ignored” and “we should talk about progress in decades.”

The size and power of the USS Gunston Hall — a heavily armed ship that can deploy smaller landing vessels, machine gun-mounted speedboats and hundreds of soldiers – is far cry from the kit most of the sailors onboard are used to.

“We are working with grandpa zodiacs with 42 horse power motors,” said Blawah Charles of Liberia’s newly established Coast Guard.

Some navies in the region are so limited in boats and fuel that their patrols cannot venture far out to sea and pose little threat to illegal fishing vessels or smugglers.

Instability in the Gulf of Guinea has also attracted the interests of private military contractors.

U.S. private security company MPRI, a division of L-3, earlier this year announced it had won a multi-year contract worth $250 million improve maritime security for Equatorial Guinea.

Some fear this pointed to increased competition and the potential for military confrontation. But Thebaud said private military companies’ involvement would be “complementary.”

CHINA :

Calls mount to include South Africa
27 April 2010/By Stefanie Eschenbacher /www.fundstrategy.co.uk

Commercial and strategic opportunities in South Africa are leading some economists to question whether it should become the fifth country in the Bric (Brazil, Russia, India and China) grouping.

While no African nations were represented at the second Bric summit, held in April in Brasilia, South Africa is linked to the countries through a trilateral arrangement with India and Brazil.

This year, the Bric event was held in conjunction with the fourth India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) summit.

Leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China have institutionalised the Bric term, an acronym first created by Goldman Sachs.

Simon Freemantle and Jeremy Stevens, economists at Standard Bank, say the second Bric summit was marked by rhetoric about the creation of a more inclusive multi-polar global commercial system.

In Economics – Bric and Africa published last week, they say these four fast-growing countries with giant populations have recognised commercial and strategic opportunities in Africa.

African countries with natural resources and large domestic consumer markets have dominated flows so far
Many economies on the continent have favourable demographics and are growing from a low base, but none has made it into the mega-state Bric league so far.

“The Bric nations are altering the point of departure in economic debate, forcefully arguing for a wider arc of representation in global economic and political affairs,” Freemantle says.

“There is a need for adjustment and the Brics are creating the space for a more inclusive collective emerging market voice.”

Michael Konstantinov, the manager of the Allianz RCM Bric Stars fund, can invest up to one-third of the assets of his portfolio outside of the Bric countries.

Over the year, he has raised the weighting to South Africa to 2.1%, making it the sixth biggest country allocation in his fund.
Konstantinov has added 2.8% to India over the year and 2.1% to Brazil. Meanwhile, he cut exposure to Russia by 7% and to China by 7.8%.

Mark Mobius, the manager of the Templeton Bric fund, has also significantly reduced the portfolio’s exposure to China.

Over the past year, he cut his allocations in China by 15.1%. While the exposure to Brazil remains roughly the same, Mobius has allocated 9.8% to India and 4.6% to Russia.

“At the moment, no single country stands out as attractive or unattractive,” Konstantinov says. Overall, the fund is now neutrally weighted in every country.

Bric stocks have rallied and Konstantinov says the market has seen a big correction in valuation outlooks.

Since January 2009 the managers of the DWS Bric Invest Plus have reduced the portfolio’s overweights in Russia and underweights in Brazil. In turn, they have increased overweights in India and China.

INDIA :

Taxmen on IPL trail in Africa
Ashish Sinha , Rajat Guha /www.indianexpress.com/Tuesday , Apr 27

Tags : BCCI, IPL
The Board of Control for Cricket in India may be trying to clean the Augean stables at the Indian Premier League, but the government is expanding its area of investigations, starting with South Africa . It is set to send a team of officials from the Enforcement Directorate, Department of Revenue and the financial intelligence unit to South Africa to investigate allegations of enormous gains made by the eight IPL franchises last year, whose tax incidence is not reflected in India.

According to sources, a team of around seven-eight officials will soon be despatched to South Africa to meet regulators and other authorities there.

The team would focus on the revenues of IPL-2 and of the eight franchises. The South African authorities have pledged full support to Indian tax sleuths on information-sharing, sources said. The second edition of IPL was held in South Africa , since the Indian government was unable to guarantee security for the matches which were scheduled at the same time as last year’s Lok Sabha elections.

As reported by FE earlier, the earnings of IPL-II in 2009 stood at around Rs 775 core, which was a 17% jump over 2008 (IPL-I). Also, the earnings of the eight franchises in 2009 stood at around Rs 300 crore, 37% more than in IPL-I. However, these figures do not tally with the taxes paid by IPL, said sources.

According to sources, the government is keen to know if BCCI or IPL paid any taxes in South Africa . It also wants details on the actual quantum of earnings under various heads in IPL when it was held South Africa . As per internal calculations made by the tax department, BCCI should have paid taxes to the tune of over Rs 120 crore for 2008-09, which it did not. Also, since India and South Africa have a double taxation avoidance treaty since 1998, the investigating team will check the financial details of BCCI and IPL with officials from that country.

Even the service tax paid by IPL for 2008-09 is less than half of the payment made in 2007-08. According to finance ministry sources, IPL paid Rs 29 crore service tax for IPL-2, as opposed to Rs 64 crore for IPL-I. The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) wants to know why service tax paid for IPL-II was less than half the payment made for IPL-I.

Sources told FE that CBEC is not convinced that the service tax collections from IPL-II were lower just because the tournament was played abroad. “Since most of the tax-paying parties – the franchisor, the franchisee and various service providers – were the same for both IPL-1 and IPL-2, there should not be such a drastic drop in the tax payments,” a source in finance ministry said.

The services sector accounts for three classes of tax payers – the franchisor (BCCI/IPL), the franchisees (team owners) and the service providers. Services range from management business, business auxilliary services, sponsorship, and sale of space and event management to outdoor catering and security services. On some services, the tax has to be paid both by the franchisees and the franchisor, while on others, a single party alone has to pay the tax.

Competitive pressures hurting India telecoms companies
Tue, Apr 27, 2010 /Source : Reuters

Bharti Airtel and its smaller Indian telecoms rivals are set to report that quarterly earnings were hit by a vicious price war that has sent call tariffs tumbling in the world’s fastest-growing mobile services market.
The outlook remains bleak with more competition expected to keep pressure on wafer-thin call charges, while heavy bidding for 3G radio waves are set to balloon their costs in the near term.
Analysts expect each winner to spend up to USD 3 billion for acquiring the 3G and wireless broadband spectrum, and building next-generation networks would cost billions of dollars more.

“The entire sector is under pressure after the price war and things will remain so for the rest of 2010,” said R.K. Gupta, managing director at Taurus Mutual Fund, which manages about USD 520 million in assets.
For Bharti, which dominates India’s mobile market with about 128 million subscribers, the integration of its USD 9 billion acquisition of Kuwaiti Zain’s African assets will be crucial for its earnings in the coming quarters.
Bharti sees itself becoming the world’s No. 5 wireless firm after closing the deal, which comes after two failed attempts to finalise tie-ups with South Africa’s MTN.
The acquisition, signed in March, must be approved by regulators, and governments in at least two of the African markets have weighed in against the deal.
India, the second-largest wireless market in terms of subscribers, has signed up 16 million connections a month on average in the past one year, but call charges have fallen to as low as 1/100th of a US cent amid stiff competition among firms to add users faster than rivals.
A majority of the new users come from rural areas, who spend less than their urban counterparts, and people use more than one connection to benefit from freebies offered by newer mobile firms.
Second-ranked Reliance Communications, which was more aggressive in cutting call prices, is expected to see its quarterly profit plunge more than 40 %.
After years of strong profit growth, Bharti and Reliance are facing the heat from Indian ventures of international players such as Vodafone, NTT DoCoMo and the newest foreign entrant Telenor, with incumbents being forced to match low call charges offered by a smaller rival.
“While I don’t see much downside for call prices from these levels, one has to wait for the response to value-added services after 3G comes,” Gupta said, referring to premium data services, which offer better margin than voice.
Stock market laggards
In the March quarter, Bharti added 8.8 million mobile users, but lagged Vodafone’s 9.5 million. Reliance and fifth-ranked Tata Teleservices, which had started the price war last year, signed up 8.6 million each.

Reliance Communications and Bharti were the two worst-performing stocks in the main Bombay index in 2009. This year, Bharti shares are down 9.5% and Reliance Communications has fallen 2.4%, while the broader market is up 1.7%.
“I would avoid the sector for at least one year,” Sandip Sabharwal, CEO of portfolio management services at Prabhudas Lilladher, said from Mumbai. “Things are not looking good in the near term with the rising competition and the tariff wars.”

Investors will watch for any announcement on a possible initial public offer of Bharti’s telecoms tower unit, or in a tower joint-venture firm it owns along with Vodafone and Idea Cellular. Bharti has said it will look into these possibilities after the March quarter results.
Reliance has got the regulator’s clearance for an IPO of its telecoms tower unit, which banking sources say could raise as much as USD 1 billion. The company is yet to set a date for the IPO.

BRASIL:

The spill in the Gulf of Mexico won’t stop the deepwater scramble for oil
In recent years BP has cast itself as the daredevil pioneer of deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil and off the coast of Africa.
By Rowena Mason and Garry White/www.telegraph.co.uk/Published: 27 Apr 2010

But the oil major has now discovered that possessing frontier spirit can also put you in the firing line for unprecedented accidents, following an explosion at a rig operated by its contractor off the coast of Louisiana.

Deepwater Horizon, the Transocean rig that last week caught fire causing the death of 11 workers and a growing environmental disaster, was not BP’s deepest drilling prospect at 1,525 metres under the sea.

But as it continues to spew 42,000 gallons of oil into the ocean per day, BP’s extreme measures to stem the spillage show just what kind of high risk and difficult conditions oil companies are working under to tap the world’s remaining reserves.

The oil spillage on the surface of the sea is currently just a tenth of a millimetre thick, but the slick has the potential to worsen beyond the current 400 square kilometres. This forced BP on Monday to step up its use of robots and a giant dome-shaped cap in an effort to stop the gushing – but the emergency technologies have never been used at such a depth and their success is far from certain.

The deepwater nature of the well means the clean-up operation is more complex, but as oil majors continue to push the boundaries of exploration, how far might pioneering techniques be to blame for this type of accident?

Although investigations are still ongoing, it looks likely that the rig’s failure was due to problems with its “blow-out preventer” – a giant system of pipes and valves that helps withstand pressure surges. Although all rigs are fitted with the 450-ton safety device, the depth and harshness of deepwater conditions can make a build-up of pressure more severe.

BP and Transocean are quick to point out that deepwater drilling has been going on for decades, with Horizon’s failure the worst in 23 years. But observers still note that a disaster could not come at a worse time for President Barack Obama’s administration, as he pushes for more deepwater exploration licences near the East Coast and Alaska.

“The timing was impeccably bad with Obama contemplating expanding offshore drilling,” according to US investment bank Tudor Pickering Holt. “The longer it takes to control the well the louder the environmental argument will be for less access.”

For BP, the pain is almost purely reputational, after a decade of engineering problems delayed its giant, deepwater Thunderhorse platform. Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive, has also battled to turn around the company’s safety record in the wake of its Texas City refinery blast, while at the same time expanding into ever-more challenging exploration conditions.

Investors are likely to be more forgiving in this instance, since BP’s involvement in Horizon is only arm’s length. The oil company has also mounted an enormous clear-up and mitigation effort, with 500 people, 32 boats and a third of the world’s oil dispersant to minimise the damage.

“As much as some people would like to put this down to BP’s safety record, it can’t really be seen as their fault,” says one investment bank analyst. “It’s like they’ve rented a car and been blamed for a technical fault when it crashes. You can’t really say it’s their process control. But because it’s a big company, anyone who wants to sue will go for BP.”

City analysts believe the direct financial damage to BP and Transocean will not be too worrying, apart from the potential for regulatory fines if any negligence were to be established and possible legal action – with two cases filed already against both parties. For the industry in general, any increased safety requirements are likely to push up compliance costs for operators and insurance premiums are set to rise – with JP Morgan estimating the price of the incident at $1.6bn (£1.03bn).

“Yes, there’ll probably be more jobsworthiness, and there might be tighter rules around blow-out preventers making sure they’re bigger and stronger,” says Malcolm Graham-Wood, director of Westhouse Securities. “But it shouldn’t make too much of a difference to BP’s financial position and in terms of their reaction, there’s really not much more they could have done.”

Christyan Malek, an oil service analyst at Deutsche Bank, believes increased safety rules are likely to hit rig operators harder than oil majors. “There will be an increased focus on safety. Regulations are currently robust, but rigs are only checked periodically,” he says. “Standards need to be maintained between the times when rigs are tested. There will not be a big effect on oil companies, but there will be a large impact on rig owners as oil companies switch to those with better safety records.”

However long it takes to contain the spill and its consequences, the incident is unlikely to discourage companies from scrabbling around the deepest, darkest corners of the earth for difficult oil. “It won’t stop deepwater drilling. It’s obvious that the world needs this stuff from these places and there are very few companies qualified to extract it,” one BP insider says confidently.

EN BREF, CE 27 avril 2010 … AGNEWS / OMAR, BXL,27/04/2010