Aug 19, 2009

* Qtel sees '09 profit, EBITDA, revs better than guidance

* Keen on controlling stake in Morocco's Meditel

* Says investing $800 mln in '09 on Indonesia network

By John Irish

DUBAI, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Mobile phone operator Qatar Telecommunications Co QTEL.QA expects full-year profits to exceed its expectations and will grow organically and through acquisitions in 2009, but ruled out moving into sub-Saharan Africa.

In an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, chief executive Nasser Marafih also said the group, which operates in 17 countries including Indonesia, Iraq and Algeria, was in the "middle of evaluating" a bid for a stake in Meditel, Morocco's second largest telecoms company.

"We don't revise our guidance ... yes I think we will do better than the guidance."

The former monopoly forecast in March that net income in 2009 would rise between 9 and 11 percent from 2.27 billion riyals ($623.4 million) last year, adding that earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBIDTA) could rise 18 to 20 percent and revenue in a range of 20 to 22 percent.

Qtel said on Aug 16 quarterly profits jumped 59 percent, buoyed by a one-time gain at its Kuwaiti unit National Mobile Telecommunications (NMTC.KW) (Wataniya).

Marafih said the group saw Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait and Indonesia as key markets to boost earnings in 2009 and was pressing ahead with broadband expansion into Pakistan and the Philippines, where it hoped to begin operations by year-end.

"We are revamping Indosat (ISAT.JK) and it will take some time for us and believe Indonesia will be one of the main contributors for us going forward."

Qtel owns a controlling stake in Indonesia's second largest mobile phone operator in terms of market share, which contributes about 26 percent to its revenues. It is investing $800 million to improve its network in the world's most populous Muslim nation, Marafih said.

"This is critical for our growth this year and next year," he said. "We know we will go through major dips, but believe it will improve in the coming quarters."

FOCUS ON MIDEAST, ASIA

Faced by intensifying competition in their home markets, Gulf Arab telecom firms have been expanding abroad, snapping up assets in Asia and Africa worth billions of dollars.

reuters

JOHANNESBURG, 19 August 2009 (IRIN) - For thousands of years, subsistence farmers in sub-Saharan Africa have been at the mercy of the voracious Red-billed Quelea bird; sky-blackening flocks of the tiny “feathered locust” still decimate fields across the continent.

"Its main characteristic is that it occurs in extremely big numbers," Clive Elliot told IRIN. This retired quelea expert spent the better part of his 31-year career at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) trying to help farmers and governments in Africa cope with the pest.

Nomadic super-colonies can grow to millions of birds, making quelea not only the most abundant bird in the world but also the most destructive.

Small bird, HUGE damage

Although they prefer the seeds of wild grasses to those of cultivated crops, their huge numbers make them a constant threat to fields of sorghum, wheat, barley, millet and rice.

The average quelea bird eats around 10 grams of grain per day - roughly half its body weight - so a flock of two million can devour as much as 20 tons of grain in a single day.

With an estimated adult breeding population of at least 1.5 billion, FAO estimates the agricultural losses attributable to the quelea in excess of US$50 million annually.

Irrepressible

Quelea populations are notoriously robust; millions of birds are killed every year, but "reducing their numbers is highly problematic - they are highly mobile, have few natural predators and breed extremely fast. Man has been unable to make a serious impact despite the arsenal of weapons available," Elliot said.

"A new population can swiftly move into an area you just killed out ... [and] because they breed three times per year, with an average of three eggs per clutch, one pair of quelea birds can produce up to nine offspring annually."


The birds are long-distance migrants with a range covering well over 10 million sq km of Africa's semi-arid, bush, grassland and savannah regions. "It's a pest in many different African countries, stretching from South Africa, north through countries like Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia, and all the way across the Sahel to Mauritania," said Elliot.

Intensive farming and an increase in cereal crop production throughout the continent resulted in an explosion in their numbers; according to some estimates quelea populations have increased anywhere from 10 to 100 times since the 1970s.

Since the beginning of 2009 relief agencies in Africa have reported quelea bird swarms with a direct impact on food security in Kenya in January, in Zimbabwe in April, in Malawi and Tanzania in May, in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe in June, and in Namibia and Tanzania in July.

It is difficult to invest in national eradication programmes because flocks have no respect for national boundaries, and "The destruction is patchy - at a national level a country loses only up to 5 percent [of crops], but for the individual farmer whose entire crop is wiped out that is little comfort," Elliot commented.

Beyond control

The most common way of controlling the pest is by large-scale spraying of infested areas, "usually with a chemical called Fenthion - also known as quelea-tox - where they breed or roost" said Elliot.

"Another way is blowing them up - finding places where they concentrate and using fire bombs or dynamite." In some areas the use of flamethrowers on roosts had also been tried, but with little success.

According to the Natural Resources Institute, a UK-based development group, some 170 control operations are executed in South Africa each year, killing 50 million birds on average.

But, according to the Encyclopaedia of Pest Management, "Despite the annual destruction of millions of quelea birds by use of pesticides, damage has continued to increase annually." Besides being only marginally effective, Elliot noted that modern control methods also often had serious negative environmental consequences.

Most small-scale farmers have no access to aircraft, fuel, chemicals, dynamite or flamethrowers, and have instead relied on age-old traditional methods that are more effective, and certainly more environmentally friendly, but hugely time-consuming.

"The traditional way of control is mainly through bird-scaring. People go into the fields when their grain crop is vulnerable, using anything from catapults to banging and noisemaking - quite effective in the majority of cases," Elliot noted.

"One person can protect a hectare but it's very hard work," because the crops are vulnerable from dawn until dusk and could need protection for a whole month, he said.

If you can't beat them, eat them

More recent discussions about quelea bird pest control have turned towards predicting breeding based on weather patterns, deterrence mechanisms like netting, boosting natural predators, and even the development of a quelea virus.

Harvesting the birds as a natural resource might mean "two birds with one stone", Elliot suggested. "We have been trying to develop systems to catch the birds and turn them into food for people - they would make a great source of protein."

irinnews

Aug 20, 2009

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 20 (Reuters) - The following company announcements, scheduled economic indicators, debt and currency market moves and political events may affect South African markets on Thursday.

- - - -

GLOBAL MARKETS

Chinese shares clawed back up on Thursday after a two-week sell-off, giving a boost to Asian stock indexes and commodities, but many investors were nervous that the Shanghai slide may have more room to run.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC was up 1.5 percent, helped by reports that the stock regulator had approved new mutual funds this week to help underpin the market that has slid nearly 20 percent since hitting a 14-month high earlier in the month. [.SS] Japan's Nikkei average .N225 was up 0.7 percent, while the MSCI benchmark of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS gained 1 percent. [ID:nLK336095]

SOUTH AFRICAN MARKET

South Africa's rand fell slightly against the dollar on Wednesday but was off its day's low as risk aversion waned, while local stocks edged higher after a positive open on U.S. equities.

The JSE Top-40 index of blue chips .JTOPI rose 0.11 percent to 21,872.92 points and the broader All-share index lost 0.02 percent to 24,259.54 points. [ID:nLJ255599]

CIPLA MEDPRO SA LTD (CMPJ.J)

Cipla Medpro SA said on Thursday first half headline earnings per share rose 8 percent to 15.3 cents. It added that revenue increased 19.8 percent to 555.4 million for the six months to end-June. [ID:nWEA7172]

EXXARO RESOURCES (EXXJ.J)

South African diversified miner Exxaro (EXXJ.J) on Thursday reported an 8 percent rise in first-half headline earnings per share, but said that lower prices and a stronger rand would weigh on second-half figures. Earnings at the company's coal business were boosted by higher sales to utility Eskom [ESCJ.UL] and international clients, but were hit by lower prices and weaker demand from local consumers other than Eskom. [nLK497236]

GRINDROD (GNDJ.J)

Africa's biggest shipping company Grindrod (GNDJ.J) posted a 56 percent fall in first-half headline earnings per share as the global economic slowdown hit cargo volumes and rates. Grindrod, which drives more than 80 percent of its profit from shipping resources such as iron ore, coal and fuel, said on Thursday headline EPS for the six months to end-June fell to 105.7 cents, in line with its own forecast for a 50-60 percent fall. [nLJ657822]

GOLD XAU=

Gold was steady above $940 an ounce on Thursday, underpinned by light physical buying as investors eyed the currency market for clues on the precious metal's direction.

Spot gold XAU= stood at $941.90 an ounce at 0400 GMT, almost flat from New York's notional close of $941.55. It hit a three-week low below $930 per ounce on Monday. [GOL/]

WALL STREET

U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday, shaking off a slide in China's equity market, as investors responded favorably to a surprising drop in crude oil stockpiles that might suggest an improving demand outlook.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI gained 61.22 points, or 0.66 percent, to end at 9,279.16. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX rose 6.79 points, or 0.69 percent, to 996.46. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC advanced 13.32 points, or 0.68 percent, to 1,969.24. [.N]

reuters

NAIROBI, 19 August 2009 (IRIN) - With about 4.5 million people in Kenya needing food assistance and neighbouring Somalia being described as "one of the most dangerous places for aid workers in the world", the humanitarian challenges facing the region remain formidable, say UN officials.

"The humanitarian needs are growing faster than the ability to deal with the drivers," said Jeanine Cooper, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Kenya.

The drivers include not only natural disasters, such as drought, but also global mega-trends, including the food and financial crisis, water scarcity, population pressure and migration, said Cooper during an event to mark the inaugural World Humanitarian Day in Nairobi.

In Kenya, she said, the poor performance of the rains had led to severe water shortages and contributed to the doubling of food prices. Malnutrition rates above emergency levels have also been recorded in the northern areas of Mandera, Marsabit and Turkana.

On 18 August, the Kenyan government launched a response programme with a set of interventions to deal with the effects of a fourth consecutive year of rainfall failure.

The interventions, which include buying up livestock and borehole drilling, will complement relief food distribution to some 2.6 million adults, 1.5 million children and 250,000 others in supplementary feeding.

Somali dangers

Since January 2008, 42 aid workers have been killed and 33 abducted in Somalia, according to Graham Farmer, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia.

"Somalia is one of the most dangerous places for aid workers in the world," Farmer said, paying tribute to the Somali staff of humanitarian organizations, who "continue to work tirelessly, endure the highest risks, and suffer the harshest consequences.

"In parts of Somalia, humanitarian space is shrinking at an alarming rate," he said. "In recent months, several humanitarian aid agencies’ offices and warehouses in Somalia have been entered, robbed and some occupied by armed groups.

"The true victims of these actions are the poor and vulnerable populations that the humanitarian community is prevented from assisting," he said, urging “… all those who control territory in Somalia to recognize and respect humanitarian agencies and to support their unhindered access to populations in need.”

In 2008, the UN General Assembly decided World Humanitarian Day should be marked on 19 August every year to increase public awareness about humanitarian assistance activities and to honour humanitarian personnel, in particular those who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

Said Cooper: "There's always an element of risk in the work we carry out."

irinnews

Aug 19, 2009

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 19 (Reuters) - A South African miners' union said on Wednesday it would start an indefinite strike next week at Impala Platinum, the world's No.2 platinum producer, over a wage dispute.

Lesiba Seshoka, spokesman for South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), told Reuters the union had rejected the company's latest pay offer and would mobilise its members for the strike. "The strike could start either on Monday or Tuesday next week, and it will last until the issue is resolved," he said. (Reporting by James Macharia, editing by Tim Pearce)

reuters

19 August 2009

Washington — Fifty advocacy organisations are calling on the U.S. Congress to put a stop to investment funds which purchase heavily indebted countries' debt and jeopardise the impact of bilateral and multilateral debt cancellation to over 30 countries.

The groups - which include the NAACP, the Jubilee USA Network, TransAfrica Forum, the American Jewish World Service, the United Methodist Church and Africa Action -are seeking a stop to what they have dubbed "Very Unscrupulous Loan Transfers from Underprivileged countries to Rich, Exploitive Funds".

These so-called VULTURE funds purchase heavily indebted countries debt at pennies to the dollar and then "aggressively pursu(e) their claims through the seizure of assets, litigation and political pressure, seeking repayments that are far in excess of the amount that they paid for the debt," the groups say.

The strategies used by VULTURE funds act in direct contradiction to international efforts to cancel debt for the world's poorest countries - a movement which has already cancelled over 90 billion dollars in debt.

"Since 1996 donor countries - including the U.S. - have committed 90 billion dollars in bilateral and multilateral debt relief to over 30 countries. VULTURE funds profit from this debt relief," Michael Stulman, associate director of policy and communications at Africa Action, told IPS.

Such funds have used U.S. courts as a venue for suing poor countries for the debts they incurred in the past.

In one case cited in a letter cosigned by the members of the coalition, FG Hemisphere Fund successfully sued the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for 105 million dollars for a 30-million-dollar loan incurred in 1980 by the infamously corrupt Mobutu Sese Seko government. A judge in Washington ordered the DRC to pay up to 80,000 dollars a week as a result of the lawsuit.

"The DRC is being forced to siphon these desperately needed resources from initiatives like health care, education, combating HIV/AIDS, and access to clean water to its impoverished citizens to pay off wealthy corporations such as FG Hemisphere," said Melinda St. Louis, deputy director of the Jubilee USA Network.

Jubilee is an alliance of 80 religious denominations and faith communities, development agencies, and human rights groups working for debt relief.

"This runs totally counter to the progress made by the U.S. and the international community on debt cancellation, through the World Bank's Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) effort," St. Louis said.

In another judgment, Zambia was forced to pay Donegal International 15 million dollars on a debt that Donegal acquired for three million dollars. The judgment represented 60 percent of the debt relief Zambia received in 2007.

"When vulture funds sue for such exorbitant amounts it's clearly taking away money that should be invested in health, education, infrastructure and other social problems and goes to line the pockets of already wealthy investors," said Stulman.

In a statement on its website, Donegal International warns that legislation to block the ability of funds to sue indebted countries would do severe damage to the secondary debt markets as well as force lenders to raise their interest rates on unsecured loans.

"If a country were to change its laws to prevent an investor from purchasing the debt and either converting it or recovering on it, the floor price will go away and defaulted claims on severely indebted lower income countries would go to zero. Importantly, lenders will become more reluctant to lend to impoverished countries on an unsecured basis or will require extraordinarily high interest on their loans," the firm said.

The civil society groups urge Congress to pass House Resolution (HR) 2932 - introduced on Jun. 18 by Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters and Republican Rep. Spencer Bachus - which would limit the ability of VULTURE funds to use U.S. courts to garner exorbitant profits.

"We cannot allow vulture funds to erode the progress that has enabled many of the world's most impoverished nations to reduce poverty," Waters told IPS in an email message.

"Over the past year, we have seen how the actions of a small number of unscrupulous and exploitative investors can hurt innocent people and cause economic chaos. We cannot allow the world's poorest countries to be exploited by these bad actors," she said.

Of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) list of 41 countries eligible for debt relief, at least 20 have been threatened or subjected to legal action by commercial funds who make their profits from recovering loans given to HIPC.

The resolution would serve to both limit the profits which funds could make from trading in HIPC debt as well as require increased transparency from funds filing lawsuits in U.S. courts.

Funds would be required to disclose how much they paid for the debt on the secondary market.

allafrica

Aug 19, 2009
LAGOS, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Nigeria's central bank has published a list of the largest defaulting customers of five banks rescued in a $2.6 billion bailout and warned the debtors to pay up or face legal action.

The list of more than 200 companies and individuals includes scores of securities brokerages and local oil and gas companies as well as larger firms including conglomerates Transcorp (TCNP.LG) and Dangote Industries and fuel distributors African Petroleum (APET.LG) and Oando Plc (UNIP.LG). (For more Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: af.reuters.com/ ) (Reporting by Nick Tattersall, editing by Mike Peacock)
reuters

18 Aug 2009
Seven people have been killed and 17 are feared dead after an overcrowded ferry sank in the Lake Malawi off the coast of Mozambique.

Police said on Tuesday that the ferry with a capacity of 40 set off from Niassa province in the southeastern African nation with 50 people aboard.

Only 26 people were rescued from the sinking ferry, said government spokesman Abudo Momade.

Seven bodies have been recovered and the remaining 17 are feared drowned, the spokesman added.

Jose Mahunguele, the provincial police commander, said he did not know the ages of the victims, but initial reports showed many of those aboard were children.

Lake Malawi, Africa's third-largest, is situated between Mozambique, Tanzania, and Malawi.
presstv

18 Aug 2009
The United Nations' World Food Program (WFP) says drought in Kenya has left over one million people in dire need of food aid.

"What we have here is an extremely difficult situation and people are saying it is the worst drought since 2000," Gabrielle Menezes, a spokeswoman for WFP, said Tuesday.

The agency is already providing emergency food aid to 2.5 million people in the country, but another 1.3 million still need help, Menezes added.

She appealed to donors to come forth and help alleviate the situation.

The areas hardest hit by the drought are the semiarid southeastern regions and parts of central Kenya, the Associated Press reported.

Those areas generally have only one harvest a year of maize - Kenya's staple - usually after autumn rainfall called the short rains. But the rains have largely failed this year.

Esther Kiplimo says she has given up farming her 1-acre plot of land because of the failed rains. Now she breaks rocks in a quarry with her family, earning less than $1 a day.

"On some days we have to sleep hungry," she said.
presstv

NAIROBI, 18 August 2009 (IRIN) - The weekend attack on a UN World Food Programme (WFP) compound in central Somalia was the fourth "deliberately targeted" incident in two months, according to the agency.

The 16 August attack in Wajid came less than a month after militants raided two UN compounds in Baidoa and Wajid, stealing equipment and vehicles and forcing the closure of some operations.

"This direct, deliberate and sustained attack on aid organizations and aid workers is intolerable," acting UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Graham Farmer said.

Last week, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) issued a warning of increased suffering for malnourished Somali children if humanitarian supplies continue to be destroyed or looted.

"We are worried about the recent destruction and looting of humanitarian aid supplies in certain areas of central and south Somalia," Bastien Vigneau, UNICEF's chief of emergency in Somalia, told IRIN. "If the situation does not improve, we are looking at dramatic consequences for affected acute malnourished children in the next four to six weeks."

The disruption in delivery of aid would put at high risk at least 1.2 million children under-five and 1.4 million women in central-south Somalia.

On 13 August, UNICEF postponed the distribution of hundreds of tonnes of nutritional supplies for more than 85,000 children in central-southern Somalia because of what it termed "increased hostility towards aid organizations".

South-central Somalia has a nutritional demand "above emergency thresholds", Vigneau said. UNICEF and implementing partners were trying to reach at least 150,000 children countrywide suffering from acute malnutrition.

The violence has also disrupted the distribution of anti-malaria bed nets to more than 100,000 women and children.

"[The postponement of aid delivery] will have an adverse impact, especially in the Middle Shabelle region, where we were involved in campaigns against malaria, diarrhoea and other diseases," a local contractor in central-south Somalia for UNICEF, who requested anonymity, told IRIN.

Supplies looted

UNICEF said it was seeking concrete assurances from local authorities that it would be safe to continue delivering and storing supplies in-country.

"We hope these assurances will be forthcoming very soon so that we can continue our operations at a level that matches the needs of children and women and prevent the deaths that will otherwise certainly occur," Rozanne Chorlton, UNICEF's Representative to Somalia, said in a 13 August statement.

On 17 May, armed men took over UNICEF's compound in the central Somalia town of Jowhar, destroying or looting large volumes of humanitarian supplies and communications equipment. Emergency supplies stored in a partner's warehouse in Jamaame, Lower Juba region, were reportedly taken in early August.

On 20 July, members of the Islamist Al-Shabab militia group, which is fighting the Somali government and controls parts of the central and southern regions, looted equipment and vehicles from the UN compound in Baidoa.

They also raided the UN office in Wajid, 340km northwest of Mogadishu, and later broadcast a message on a local Somali radio station calling for the closure of several UN offices in the country.

IRIN

OUAGADOUGOU, 18 August 2009 (IRIN) - Health authorities estimate that less than 25 percent of HIV-infected children in Burkina Faso who require treatment are taking life-saving drugs while thousands of at-risk children are undiagnosed because their families refuse to have them tested.

The Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS estimated that as of 2006 10,000 children were infected with HIV in Burkina Faso, with 4,600 needing antiretroviral (ARV) treatment.

Only 46 percent of HIV patients in Burkina Faso who required treatment as of June 2009 – 23,000 people – are taking ARV drugs, according to the government’s national HIV and sexually transmitted diseases council.

“We know the numbers [requiring treatment] are higher because of children who are born to HIV-positive mothers,” said the council’s director of health services, Joseph André Bidiga. “We do not offer prevention of mother-to-child transmission [PMTCT] services in all our health centres.” He said more than 20 percent of the country’s health facilities do not offer this service.

Multiple studies have shown that ARV treatment combined with abstaining from breastfeeding can cut the risk of mother-to-child HIV transmission to less than 5 percent. But in 2007 only 33 percent of HIV-positive pregnant women worldwide took ARVs, according to World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO estimates that more than 400,000 children worldwide were newly infected in 2007, mostly through their mothers.

Fleeing HIV tests

The HIV council’s Bidiga told IRIN parental refusal to test children masks child HIV infections. By law children under 18 require parental permission for HIV tests in Burkina Faso.

Some parents cannot fathom their babies could be infected, said paediatrician Alice Zoungrana with Charles de Gaulle paediatrics hospital in the capital Ouagadougou. “We are in 2009 and it is sad, but many families…still think [HIV] is a purely sexual disease that does not affect children,” the doctor told IRIN.

She added that while 75 percent of families grant permission for their children to be tested at the hospital, authorization is given only reluctantly. “It takes time because [families] refuse and accept to test only when their children fall ill a second time. It is during the second hospitalization that they accept.”

''We are in 2009 and it is sad, but many families…still think [HIV] is a purely sexual disease that does not affect children''
It is not uncommon to see parents leaving the hospital with their children in the middle of the night to avoid the test, Zoungrana told IRIN. “These adults have not been tested themselves and do not want to know their children’s status.”

A nurse who works east of Ouagadougou and is infected with HIV told IRIN: “I had my suspicions when my son had swelling on his body and was constantly sick, but I never imagined he could have had AIDS.”

She said both she and her eight-year-old son now take ARVs.

National HIV council health director Bidiga told IRIN adults are the gatekeepers to HIV testing. “We target adults for [HIV] awareness and outreach, but we are not reaching the numbers we would like. For adults who are not tested, their children are worse off because it is the adults who bring the children in for testing.”

Message blocked

Paediatrician Zoungrana said messages about HIV are not getting through. “We have to revisit messages we are sending out to the population so they accept that HIV infections are possible in both adults and infants.”

Women are less resistant than men to having their children tested, said Jacques Sanogo, director of the NGO “Espoir” – hope in French – in Burkina Faso’s second-largest city Bobo-Dioulasso. “Often mothers test their children without letting their families know.”

A 45-year-old widow, infected with HIV by her late husband, told IRIN she was able to get tested only after his death in 2001. “Both he and his family refused that I and my children get tested after I accidentally discovered his ARVs in the house.” In 2002 she learned she was infected with HIV while her three children were not.

To overcome reticence about HIV tests, community health workers visit families to talk about preventing mother-to-child transmission and the importance of HIV testing, NGO director Sanogo told IRIN.

Paediatrician Zoungrana said the confidentiality of house visits by trusted community members boosts acceptance of the message. “These community approaches work best because they are closest to the population and messages get across better.”

An estimated 2.7 percent of Burkina Faso’s population – 150,000 people – were infected with HIV as of 2006, according to the government.

irinnews

NAIROBI, 17 August 2009 (IRIN) - Some rains have fallen in northern Somalia, but this has not stopped an exodus of drought-affected people from rural areas to urban centres in Somaliland, local officials said.

"We know that hundreds of thousands have [been] displaced to urban centres," said Abdihakim Garaad Mohamoud, Deputy Minister at the Somaliland Ministry of Resettlement, Reintegration and Rehabilitation.

"Every city in Somaliland has a huge number of displaced people because of the recent drought," he added. "It has affected 60 percent of the rural population, whether they are pastoralists or agro-pastoralists. From east to west, south to north, every place in Somaliland has been affected."

Across towns in the self-declared republic, such as Burao, Berbera, Erigavo, Las’anod and Badhan, temporary shelters have sprouted as rural dwellers arrive from the countryside.

"The government has planned to deal with the problem, but our capacity is limited," Mohamoud told IRIN in Hargeisa. "Sixty percent of animals have been lost. One [man] who had 200 sheep has lost 110-120, and one who had 20 camels lost half.”

The governor of Togdheer region, Jama Abdillahi Warsame, said his government, with local NGOS, was trucking water to 78 villages.

"We estimate [that] more than 8,000 people moved to Burao [the main livestock market town] from rural areas," he told IRIN.

He named the most vulnerable districts in Togdheer region as Hod, Ina Afmadobe, War-Imran, Ilka-Cadays, Bali-Hiile, Suryo, Lebi-Guun, Adow Yurura, Isku Dhoon, in Burou and Qoryale, as well as Qori Dheere in Ainabo districts of Sool region.

Late rains

The deputy minister said some rains had started in most of Somaliland, but the emergency was continuing. Prices of food, for example, had remained high.

"Some rain has started, but animals and people are so weak and [may not be] able to survive the wet situation," he added. "We are calling on the international community to help the drought-affected people."

Business people in the port city of Berbera said sugar prices had increased by about 70 percent in the past few weeks.

Mohamed Ahmed Imbir, owner of a food store in Berbera, told IRIN: "We were selling one sack of sugar at US$28, but now we are selling for $34." He did not know why prices had risen.

On 22 June, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) warned that the drought in Somalia's central region had extended northwards into the key pastoral areas of the Sool plateau, Nugaal valley, and Hawd livelihood zones.

The situation threatened more than 700,000 pastoralists and a significant number of urban households, whose income and food sources are strongly linked to livestock marketing and trade.

irinnews

NAIROBI, 18 August 2009 (IRIN) - The weekend attack on a UN World Food Programme (WFP) compound in central Somalia was the fourth "deliberately targeted" incident in two months, according to the agency.

The 16 August attack in Wajid came less than a month after militants raided two UN compounds in Baidoa and Wajid, stealing equipment and vehicles and forcing the closure of some operations.

"This direct, deliberate and sustained attack on aid organizations and aid workers is intolerable," acting UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Graham Farmer said.

Last week, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) issued a warning of increased suffering for malnourished Somali children if humanitarian supplies continue to be destroyed or looted.

"We are worried about the recent destruction and looting of humanitarian aid supplies in certain areas of central and south Somalia," Bastien Vigneau, UNICEF's chief of emergency in Somalia, told IRIN. "If the situation does not improve, we are looking at dramatic consequences for affected acute malnourished children in the next four to six weeks."

The disruption in delivery of aid would put at high risk at least 1.2 million children under-five and 1.4 million women in central-south Somalia.

On 13 August, UNICEF postponed the distribution of hundreds of tonnes of nutritional supplies for more than 85,000 children in central-southern Somalia because of what it termed "increased hostility towards aid organizations".

South-central Somalia has a nutritional demand "above emergency thresholds", Vigneau said. UNICEF and implementing partners were trying to reach at least 150,000 children countrywide suffering from acute malnutrition.

The violence has also disrupted the distribution of anti-malaria bed nets to more than 100,000 women and children.

"[The postponement of aid delivery] will have an adverse impact, especially in the Middle Shabelle region, where we were involved in campaigns against malaria, diarrhoea and other diseases," a local contractor in central-south Somalia for UNICEF, who requested anonymity, told IRIN.

Supplies looted

UNICEF said it was seeking concrete assurances from local authorities that it would beto continue delivering and storing supplies in-country.

"We hope these assurances will be forthcoming very soon so that we can continue our operations at a level that matches the needs of children and women and prevent the deaths that will otherwise certainly occur," Rozanne Chorlton, UNICEF's Representative to Somalia, said in a 13 August statement.

On 17 May, armed men took over UNICEF's compound in the central Somalia town of Jowhar, destroying or looting large volumes of humanitarian supplies and communications equipment. Emergency supplies stored in a partner's warehouse in Jamaame, Lower Juba region, were reportedly taken in early August.

On 20 July, members of the Islamist Al-Shabab militia group, which is fighting the Somali government and controls parts of the central and southern regions, looted equipment and vehicles from the UN compound in Baidoa.

They also raided the UN office in Wajid, 340km northwest of Mogadishu, and later broadcast a message on a local Somali radio station calling for the closure of several UN offices in the country.

irinnews

August 18th, 2009
Nigeria’s central bank sliced through the hubris of the business elite with its $2.6 billion bailout out of five banks and the sacking of their heads in what looks as though it could be a new era for corporate governance in Africa’s most populous country.

Recently appointed Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi said lax governance had allowed the banks to become so weakly capitalised that they posed a threat to the entire system, and described the move as the beginning of a “restoration of confidence” in sub-Saharan Africa’s second biggest economy.

The 1.14 trillion naira ($7.6 billion) in bad loans run up by the banks is roughly equivalent to the combined annual income of the poorest 20 million people in Africa’s most populous nation, each of whom live on around $1 a day.

Yet the “Friday massacre”, as one newspaper dubbed it, set Blackberries buzzing in Lagos champagne bars not because of the breathtaking scale of the money involved, but because of the might of the corporate aristocrats felled by Sanusi’s axe.

“Ordinarily in Nigeria there is a sacred cow culture,” said Reuben Abati, a respected leader writer and chairman of the editorial board of Nigeria’s Guardian newspapers.

“Once someone is prominent in a particular industry you assume those persons are untouchable. What Sanusi has done now is to say nobody is too big to be held accountable, whether they are an Ibru or an Akingbola.”

Cecilia Ibru and Erastus Akingbola — the former chief executives of Oceanic Bank and Intercontinental Bank — were arguably the highest-profile casualties of the cull, titans in a corporate elite dominated by egos and empire builders.

Ibru is from one of Nigeria’s most powerful business families, whose interests range from shipping and hotels to oil and media. Akingbola is president of Nigeria’s Chartered Institute of Bankers and brimming with honorary doctorates.

“Some are born great, others achieve greatness, while others still have greatness thrust upon them. But rarely do we have these three attributes combined so well in an individual as is the case in our Dr. Erastus Bankole Oladipo Akingbola,” blasts the biography on his website.

In his trademark bow-tie and frameless spectacles, Sanusi’s slight physique and measured rhetoric mark him out from some of the more flamboyant personalities it is his job to regulate.

Some Nigerian commentators have argued that the cull by Sanusi, a northerner, targeted southern bank executives and that it was a retaliation for consolidation four years ago which saw some northern banks absorbed by their southern peers.

But the forensic precision of Sanusi’s public statements left the numbers to speak for themselves.

The loans they racked up — including credit to speculators on a stock market which fell 60 percent over the past year and unsecured financing to fuel importers who have seen oil prices halve — meant the five were constant borrowers of public money.

They accounted for almost 90 percent of exposure to the central bank’s discount window, a facility which allows banks to meet short-term obligations by borrowing central bank funds.

The results of Sanusi’s audit have left many wondering how the five banks managed to survive for so long.

Intercontinental and Oceanic had both won national and international banking awards. Analysts from brokerage Renaissance Capital were shown Intercontinental Bank’s balance sheet in April and published a report saying it had enough capital to absorb its asset risks and there was no threat to its solvency.

Ibru was quoted in this month’s edition of McKinsey & Company’s business journal McKinsey Quarterly as saying: “In five to 10 years, we expect to be a well-known, established bank beyond this sub-region of Africa.”

One Nigerian analyst commented “When the dust settles, one of the most shocking aspects of this crisis is going to be the magnitude of the gap between the rot in the system and what its leaders wanted us to believe.”

Will this be a new era for Nigeria’s companies? For Nigeria itself?

reuters

Aug 18, 2009

By Ed Cropley

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Niger delta gunmen who hand in their weapons under a Nigerian government amnesty will undergo three months of reorientation and then education or skills training, a state governor said on Tuesday.

A 2004 amnesty failed to make a lasting impression on the militancy that has severely disrupted oil output since those who laid down their weapons quickly reverted to violence in the absence of long-term job prospects.

However, Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi said the central and state authorities in Nigeria -- now challenged by Angola as Africa's leading oil producer -- would not make that mistake again.

"The amnesty comes with training. When you drop your arms, you don't just go home. You go into the camp, and at the camp arrangements are made for reorientation," he told Reuters on the sidelines of a delta investment conference in Johannesburg.

"Reorientation takes three months. You are then taken into the training centre depending on what field you choose. If you want to go into education, you are sent into secondary school or university, depending on your age or qualification."

Amaechi said he had no figures for the central government's retraining budget, or any information about the take-up of the amnesty in the delta, a network of creeks, marshland and swamps stretching over nine states.

Rivers State includes Port Harcourt, the hub of the delta's oil and gas industry.

The 60-day amnesty started on Aug. 6 and is due to end on Oct. 4. Amaechi did not say what would happen after its expiry, other than that he would "enforce the law and order".

Thirty-two members of Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, the main militant group, met President Umaru Yar'Adua on Aug. 7 after laying down their arms, but said unrest would resume if the grievances of the poverty-stricken region were not addressed.

The violence has prevented Nigeria from producing much above two-thirds of its potential capacity in the past few years, costing the world's eighth biggest oil exporter billions of dollars in lost revenues each year.

Militant attacks on pipelines and infrastructure of international oil companies has added to the volatility of world energy prices. (Editing by Andrew Dobbie)

reuters

Aug 18, 2009
DAR ES SALAAM, Aug 18 (Reuters) - The Global Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria will give Tanzania $111 million for treated bed nets to fight malaria, a senior U.N. envoy said.

The Tanzanian government says the disease, which kills nearly 1 million people worldwide annually, claims between 60,000 and 80,000 lives every year in the east African country. Worst affected are pregnant women and children.

The Global Fund is helping the nation of 40 million people through the distribution of treated nets, among other things. To date, it has given Tanzania at least $128 million for malaria.

"Global Fund representatives ... have committed to sign the Round 8 Grant agreement next week and they are ready to disburse the money," Ray Chambers, U.N. special envoy for malaria, told experts meeting in Dar es Salaam late on Monday.

"The money is going to go to 14 million bed nets for universal coverage."

Tanzania's government says malaria takes away about 3.4 percent of the country's economic output.

Chambers, who is accompanying World Health Organisation (WHO) Director General Margaret Chan on a visit to highlight Tanzania's success in fighting malaria, said the challenge in Africa was convincing people to use nets once they got them.

"The average, it appears, in Africa, (is that) one out of two people will not sleep under a net unless they are reminded, encouraged, there are inspirational messages on the radio," Chambers said.

"So everyone is really going to cooperate ... to make sure people are sleeping under a net and nobody is using them to catch fish." (Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

reuters

18 Aug 2009
Egyptian demonstrators have gathered in front of the German Embassy in Cairo to protest what they say are intentions to acquit Sherbini's murderer.

In a silent protest, the crowd condemned "the media silence in Germany over the killing of Marwa el-Sherbini," who was stabbed 18 times by a German man of Russian decent in a Dresden courtroom back in July.

The demonstrators demanded justice and punishment for the man responsible for the young woman's death, amid speculations that his lawyers may try to portray him as mentally impaired.

Sherbini's lawyer Khaled Abubakr, however, has vowed to take all possible measures to prevent such a scenario from unfolding.

Protesters believe that the German media's reluctance to dedicate adequate coverage to Sherbini's death point to efforts within the German government to free him.

"This rally, which is being held in protest against the German media's silence 40 days after Sherbini's death, shows that national concern over this issue will not fade away with time," said Nadiya Ata, head of the human rights group organizing the event.

She also called on Egyptian officials to make sure that justice is served and that people are informed about future legal proceedings of the case.

The three-month pregnant Marwa el-Sherbini was killed in early July while giving testimony against Axel W. in an appeal court, when the assailant attacked her in front of German police who failed to protect her against the assailant.

El-Sherbini's husband, Elvi Ali Okaz, tried to save his wife but was stopped short by the police who shot him the leg after apparently mistaking him for the attacker.

Alex W. had been found guilty and ordered to pay a fine at an earlier hearing for insulting and abusing Sherbini in November after calling her a “terrorist."

He was at court on that day because the prosecutors had appealed against the earlier punishment believing it to be insufficient in view of his verbal insults against the Egyptian.

El-Sherbini's death created outrage in Egypt and other parts of the Muslim world where protests have been held in condemnation of the hate crime.
presstv

18 August 2009
Egypt is not due for a presidential election until 2011, but supporters of Gamal Mubarak, the son and likely heir of President Hosni Mubarak, have already rallied online to press his case. Also in this edition: the plight of Iraq's homosexuals.

Gamal Mubarak

The Egyptian singer Mohsen El Sayad has uploaded this song praising the president’s son. In the song, the artist claims that Gamal Mubarak is an ideal candidate because he benefits from his father’s experience.


Several groups who support him have also emerged on share sites, especially Facebook. Groups whose members hope that Gamal Mubarak will be the next president of Egypt. And photomontages like this are circulating online in support of the head of state’s son.


Although he is not yet the official candidate for the ruling NDP party, Gamal Mubarak is preparing the ground. He recently set up this discussion forum to communicate with young voters and he posts many videos on it to present his ideas.

But the man is not unanimously supported on the Web. This blogger believes that the president’s son is privileged and has no idea of the difficulties faced by Egyptians in their daily lives and can never be a good leader. And this Net user says that if Gamal is also popular today, it’s because a large proportion of the population is, in his view, poorly informed and, unfortunately, he’s the only candidate they know.


Homophobia in Iraq

Tortured and even murdered without punishment. Gay Iraqis are the victims of a murderous homophobic campaign according to a recent report by Human Rights Watch. The Web witnesses the fate of members of this persecuted community.


This documentary broadcast on share sites points out that many homosexuals have been killed in the country in recent years. And a gay rights activist, speaking anonymously, said that life was better for them under Saddam Hussein.


The authors of this photomontage denounce "sexual cleansing" perpetrated by Shiite militia. Extremists who are determined to punish behaviours they deem to be against Islam.


And lots of videos like this one circulate on the Web. Filmed with a mobile phone by the crimes’ perpetrators, they show the humiliation that homosexuals and hermaphrodites in the country must suffer, forced to strip or shave their hair.


A situation that is pushing the gay community in Iraq to seek help. So on this blog, Net users are invited to send donations, especially to support those who have received death threats.


This appeal has been heeded by Net users around the world. These video bloggers hope that the Iraqi government will soon take action against this violent homophobic campaign.


Hello from earth

An Australian site is inviting Net users to send short messages for extra-terrestrials into space. Users have until August 24 to write messages of no more than 160 characters on the site hellofromearth.net. The messages will be forwarded to Gliese 581d, a planet capable of harbouring life. But beware: the time taken to send them is almost 20 years, says the site. And a reply is not guaranteed!


Win my life

A young Belgian caterer has had the amazing idea to organise an online competition allowing Net users to win his life; or more specifically his house, his car and his pizzeria. To do this, simply register on the specially-created site and pay 4 euros 99 cents to participate in this extraordinary raffle. The only requirement is that at least 100,000 players take part.

Video of the day

Here’s the video currently creating a buzz on the web. Three-dimensional images taken in space by the giant telescope Hubble. Researchers pointed Hubble’s lens toward a part of space that seemed empty, but as illustrated by these photos, it actually contains several thousand galaxies. Simply breathtaking images.

france24

18 August 2009
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has claimed responsibility for the August 8 suicide bombing near the French embassy in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott in which three people were injured, including two French gendarmes.
AFP - Al-Qaeda's North African wing claimed on Tuesday responsibility for an August 8 suicide bombing near the French embassy in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott, a US-based monitoring group said.

Three people, including two French gendarmes, were lightly wounded by the blast, which occurred when the bomber set off an explosives belt near the outside wall of the mission.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb named the bomber as Abu Obeida Musa al-Basri and said he had failed to detonate his device inside the embassy because of a barrier that prevented him entering, SITE Intelligence said.

The group said the attack was in response to the "aggression of the Crusaders, particularly France, and Mauritanian leaders against Islam and Muslims," according to an online statement quoted by SITE.

It provided images of the bomber dressed in traditional Mauritanian attire while training on machine guns in a desert area.
france24

19 August 2009
AFP - Niger President Mamadou Tandja on Tuesday promulgated a new constitution which will allow him to stand for re-election and then seek unlimited mandates.

"The president of the republic, head of state, signed a degree bearing the promulgation of the constitution adopted by the referendum of August 4," said an official communique read out on state radio.



Prime Minister Seini Oumarou also presented his government's resignation, the statement added, without giving a time frame.

Niger's constitutional court validated the result of the referendum to amend the constitution of the uranium-rich west African nation.

The opposition, however, denounced what it said was a "coup d'etat" by Tandja, and the referendum also came under attack from the international community.

Tandja, 71, has consistently claimed that his bid to cling to power was to fulfil "the will of the people."

The referendum will allow the president, in power since 1999, to stand for re-election after the December 22 end of his second tenure and thereafter seek repeated mandates.

It also beefs up the president's powers by making him the "sole holder of executive power." The president will head the army, name the prime minister and have complete control over the cabinet.
france24