Aug 16, 2009
By Tarek Amara

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's Journalists' Union has elected a member of the ruling party as its new leader, prompting opposition claims its independence was being compromised two months before a presidential election.

The union has been an independent voice in the North African country of 10 million people where critics say the government exercises tight control over politics and the media.

President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, 72, who has been in power for more than two decades, is seeking re-election in October.

"What is happening today is a tragic chapter in the history of the country," said Neji Bghouri, the former president of the union who was forced to step down along with the rest of the union's executive after four board members resigned last month.

"The government is afraid of free journalists and for this reason it prepared a putsch ... The authorities no longer accept any dissenting voices," he told a news conference late on Saturday.

At a specially-convened congress on Saturday, the union elected a new executive and president. The new president denied there had been any government involvement.

"Journalists have the right to have a political colour ... but the government does not vote, journalists are voting," Jamel Karmaoui told Reuters. Karmaoui is a member of Ben Ali's RCD party, which controls the Tunisian parliament.

He said his priority was to ensure "the return of union prestige and improve the quality of journalism to strengthen press freedom in the country."
reuters

Aug 16, 2009
By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Frustrated by the world's failure to end the humanitarian crisis in Sudan's western Darfur region, some advocacy groups have turned on the new U.S. envoy, accusing him of helping Khartoum thwart peace.

The unusual public censure highlights a growing divide on Darfur. One side are those who feel more engagement with -- and less criticism of -- Khartoum is needed to end the suffering in Darfur. On the other are those who support more pressure, more sanctions and possibly military action if Sudan blocks efforts to secure peace in the region.

The Darfur conflict has been going on for more than six years. The United Nations says as many as 300,000 people have died since 2003, compared to Khartoum's official death toll of 10,000. The world body also says some 4.7 million people in Darfur rely on aid to survive.

In an open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama's special envoy to Sudan, retired Air Force General Scott Gration, actress Mia Farrow and other activists said that Gration's strategy with Sudan was prolonging the crisis.

"We believe that your conciliatory stance and reluctance to criticize (Khartoum) both excuses and emboldens (it), thereby facilitating its ongoing reign of terror and well-known strategy of 'divide and rule,'" the letter said.

Gration has advocated loosening some U.S. sanctions against Sudan to enable Washington to deliver development aid to southern Sudan ahead of a 2011 referendum, after which it is expected to split from the north. He also has said there was nothing to justify keeping Sudan on the U.S. terror blacklist.

Gration says he needs to engage the governments of north and south Sudan, rebel groups and other key parties to revive the stalled Darfur peace talks and to ensure the north-south civil war does not erupt again. But he also supports keeping up the pressure -- including most sanctions -- on Khartoum.

John Prendergast, co-founder of the Enough Project, an anti-genocide group, also was critical of Gration. He described his deep disappointment at what he felt has been the Obama adiministration's failure -- through Gration -- to take the tough line on Sudan that Obama supported as a U.S. senator.
reuters

Aug 16, 2009
BOSSASO, Somalia (Reuters) - Somali pirates found seven dead colleagues floating in the ocean on Saturday and vowed to take revenge against Egyptian fishermen they say killed them during an escape, an associate of the pirates said.

The 34 fishermen had been held hostage by the pirates since April, but they managed to overpower their guards on Thursday and fled in their two fishing vessels after a gun battle.

Two of their captors were killed during that shoot-out, and the pirates said the Egyptians took several others with them.

"We have found seven of our dead colleagues floating in the sea," said the associate, who gave his name as Farah, by telephone from one of the gangs' strongholds, Las Qoray.

"The Egyptian crew members killed them ... we used to welcome them and treat the Egyptians better than other hostages, but if we capture more of them we shall get our revenge."

Sea gangs from the failed Horn of Africa state have made tens of millions of dollars in ransoms targeting shipping using the strategic Gulf of Aden that links Europe to Asia.
reuters

Aug 16, 2009
ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua has nominated risk management expert Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu as the new deputy governor of the central bank (CBN), the presidency said on Sunday.

"Moghalu, 46, who holds a doctorate degree from the London School of Economics has many years of experience in corporate governance, risk management and strategy," the presidency said in a statement.

"His appointment is expected to complement the collective strength of the CBN board and management."
reuters

Aug 16, 2009
By Felix Onuah

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua has instructed the country's law enforcement agencies to help recover bad loans built up at five banks rescued in an unprecedented $2.6 billion bailout by the central bank.

The apex bank injected 400 billion naira into the five ailing institutions and sacked their chief executives and top management on Friday in an effort to prevent a systemic banking crisis in sub-Saharan Africa's second-biggest economy.

"The president has directed all law enforcement agencies to give their fullest support to efforts by the new management teams of the five banks ... to recover the huge loans, the non-servicing of which placed the banks at risk of distress," Yar'Adua's office said in a statement on Sunday.

The central bank has said Afribank, Finbank, Intercontinental Bank, Oceanic Bank and Union Bank will be run as going concerns until new investors can be found to recapitalise them.

The move by new Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi, who has been in the post only two months, sent shockwaves through the corporate establishment in Nigeria.

Between them the institutions account for 40 percent of banking sector credit in Africa's most populous nation and the executives removed included members of Nigeria's business aristocracy, long seen as almost untouchable.

"President Yar'Adua fully endorses the measures announced by the central bank ... to sanitise Nigeria's banking sector and prevent fresh bank failures with their attendant negative effects on the national economy," the presidency said.

"President Yar'Adua wishes to assure all Nigerians that their deposits in Nigerian banks are safe as the federal government will continue to act in concert with the CBN to ensure that no bank is allowed to fail or become distressed."
reuters

Aug 16, 2009
ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algeria held $144.3 billion in foreign exchange reserves at the end of June this year, largely unchanged from six months earlier, the official APS news agency cited the central bank governor as saying on Sunday.

The last time Algeria's central bank revealed the size of its foreign exchange reserves was in December 2008, when it said they stood at $143.1 billion.

Algerian officials have repeatedly said the oil and gas producer is shielded from the turmoil on global financial markets because it has sharply reduced national debt and relies increasingly on its own revenues to fund development.

However, the fall in world energy prices has cut receipts from oil and gas sales, which account for 97 percent of Algeria's total exports.

The government last month banned domestic banks from issuing consumer loans in a drive to cut imports and boost the country's shrinking trade surplus.
reuters

[img align=right width=200]http://af.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20090816&t=2&i=11249578&w=192&r=2009-08-16T105016Z_01_AJOE57F0U3V00_RTROPTP_0_OZATP-NIGERIA-SECT-20090816[/img]
Aug 16, 2009
By Joy Simon

MINNA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Police in the western Nigerian state of Niger have raided an Islamic community and detained hundreds of its members, weeks after an uprising by a radical sect killed almost 800 in the remote northeast.

Niger state police commissioner Mike Zuokumor said officers backed by reinforcements from the capital Abuja had surrounded the compound of the Darul Islam community on the edge of the town of Mokwa early on Saturday.

"We received a series of reports about the activities of the sect from neighbouring communities, the local government and the emirate (traditional leader)," Zuokumor said.

"Some of them were expressing apprehension concerning the activities of the group and it is our duty to ensure law and order among the citizens of the state," he said.

Police and immigration officers were screening about 600 members of the sect who had been detained and taken to a nearby school for questioning, police spokesman Richard Oguche said.

Some of them were believed to have crossed into Nigeria to join Darul Islam from Chad, Cameroon and the country of Niger.

Local journalists said as many as 3,000 people were believed to live in the community. Male members dress in white robes while its women are fully covered in black.

Zuokumor said police had received reports that Darul Islam was forcibly holding women to be the wives of sect members. The arrests were peaceful and no shots were fired.

reuters

16 August 2009
Nairobi — Kenya Airways (KQ) workers have called off their strike, after reaching an agreement of an interim 20 per cent salary increment with the airline's management.

This followed a series of meetings held on Saturday between the Aviation and Allied Workers Union, representing the workers, and KQ management.

Consequently, all staff will be required to return to work by Sunday 6 pm

The agreement also includes the withdrawal of all dismissal letters sent to the striking workers on Saturday. A pending court case on the dispute will be withdrawn during the appearance on Monday.

The parties also agreed that there would be no victimisation of either groups.

The pay agreement will be staggered in two phases, 10 per cent of which will be paid this year and the remainder next year

On Saturday night, trade union officials and KQ management were locked in tense negotiations to resolve the deadlock that could have taken a huge toll on the reputation of the national carrier and cost the economy millions of shillings.

The two groups held a joint press conference on Sunday morning at a Nairobi hotel to announce the return to work formula following the negotiations that had been mediated by the Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU) and Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE)

The national flag carrier will now to grapple with the daunting task of reducing the backlog of passengers whose travel plans had been affected by the three-day workers' strike.

"There are no losers or winners, what we have given is the best solution to the crisis," Dr Naikuni said in a news conference at the Stanley hotel.

While announcing the decision to call off the strike, Aviation and Allied Workers union General secretary Mr Jimmy Masege accepted the interim package and called for the need for urgent job evaluations for union members."The dust has settled so be free to go to work," said Mr Masege, adding he would involve COTU and FKE in future negotiations with the airline.

However, Mr Masege defended the 130 per cent demand saying with the recent shift in the economy, the staff had reason to ask for the pay.

According to Mr Masege, the amount applies to basic salary and allowances of the 3,500 employees whose salary ranges fall in the Sh8,000 and Sh80,000 bracket.

The airline promised to carry out a six month job evaluation exercise on staff to determine the grading scheduled to start in October this year.

The two parties have been in negotiations over an increment of workersÂ' salaries since April this year, and Sunday's agreement marks the beginning of what the employees term as Â'a friendlier salary systemÂ'.

The return-to-work formula was agreed on after thirty consultative meetings between the airline and the union, the last of which was arbitrated by Central Organisation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Kenyan Employers on Saturday evening at the Company's headquarters.

AAWU headquarters in Embakasi flocked with employees as they lay in vigil awaiting a decision from their union leaders who had gone into consultation with the airline.

At Pride Centre, the Kenya Airways headquarters, the trade unionists and the COTU delegation lay in wait as Dr Naikuni and his team consulted in a separate newsroom.

Tension was high as Mr Jimmy Masege and AAWU treasurer Noah Sitienei paced at the airline headquarters consulting with other officials on phone at a separate room presenting package offers that the management was adamant to accept.

"We will spend the night here if need be," Mr Atwoli had said on Saturday evening.

Nine hours of intensive negotiations was the duration it took to arrive at a package which according Dr Naikuni was 'amicable to both parties' Mr Atwoli was accompanied by Mr George Muchai and Mr Isaiah Kumba, COTU secretary general and board member respectively.

Both teams are said to have stood firmly on their grounds, each threatening to walk out, but with the already accrued losses by Kenya's flag carrier they arrived at a mutual cause.

Having suffered at least nine flight cancellations per day during the strike called by the Aviation and Allied Workers union, Kenya airways promised to 'catch up' with the losses the incurred during the period.

"The huge numbers of the stranded passengers will be solved urgently," said Kenya Airways managing director Titus Naikuni adding it was too early to speculate the loss the company had incurred during the strike.

Mr Naikuni promised to cut down on the delay hours by using larger planes to accommodate the high number of passengers to the affected areas.

"We are working diligently to solve the crisis," said Dr Naikuni pointing out West Africa as having the highest number of cancellations.

Dismissal letters that had been issued to the staff were lifted with the airline promising not to victimise any staff for participating in the strike.

Trade unionist Mr Masege is set to appear before Mr Justice Paul Kosgei of the Industrial Court today after they were charged with inciting a work boycott and defying a High Court order blocking the strike that had began on Friday.

The two trade unionists, two Kenya Airways cabin staff, and two aviation students were accused of taking part in an illegal assembly.

They were also charged with Mr William Ong'ere, a Kenya Aviation and Allied Workers Union (KAAWU) official, alongside two Kenya Airways employees, Rosemary Tipis and Vivian Opiyo, and Ezra Oyaro Osoro and Walter Kenya Kabaja, students who were on attachment.

allafrica

16 August 2009
Herale — About 10 holy Quran school children have been injured in Herale district in Galgudud region after one of the children took a grenade around the area and then exploded near the school, witnesses told Shabelle radio on Sunday.

Reports say that the child found the bomb in the area and took it into the holy Quran School. But some of the students shouted and ordered him to throw it in the outside of the school and then exploded it near where was not so far away from the school, wounding at least 9 of the children in there.

More residents in Hirale district had reached the holy Quran school where the bomb blast occurred and took all the injured children from the there to get medical treatment in a small pharmacies in the district.

Witnesses told Shabelle radio that the abdomens of three of the wounded children came out and are in a very critical condition at the moment while the other children are also suffering different injuries and cured there.

Herale is one of Galgudud region in central Somalia and has no big hospital and the latest reports say that most of the children were taken to Gureil town hospital in central Somalia.
allafrica

16 August 2009
Kampala — The former UN under secretary-general for children in armed conflict, Dr Olara Otunnu, has rattled authorities in Kampala, announcing he has gathered substantial evidence to incriminate President Yoweri Museveni's government on charges of attempting to wipe out the northerners.

Dr Otunnu, who is expected to return to Uganda on Saturday, told the BBC Network Africa programme in an interview on Wednesday that the national army, UPDF, during its military offensive against Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, committed "atrocities, other human rights abuses and genocide in northern Uganda."

"This is a matter of public record. I will produce all the evidence that testifies to those crimes and I will produce them in public," Dr Otunnu said, dismissing suggestions he was risking possible prosecution for maligning the ruling National Resistance Movement government.

This latest in a series of charges by Dr Otunnu is the most specific threat yet and will leave the government in a delicate position: either force the matter by going to court where the claims could be verified or otherwise, or challenge its accuser to provide evidence out of court.

What Dr Otunnu's persistence will no doubt do is resurrect long-held suspicions of a diabolical plot to annihilate the populations of northern and far eastern Uganda which views were touted as the reasons that provoked the various insurgencies that wracked those parts of the country.

In the east, the Mukura massacre, in which a government army Major ordered his troops to lock up and suffocate hundreds of Iteso men in a train wagon is just one of the more prominent pieces of evidence usually advanced to propagate this view. In the North, the late 80s brutal mopping up operations by the government army which saw ugly incidents like the Bur Coro killings always come to mind.

President Museveni has in recent months suggested that the former senior UN diplomat could be interrogated by authorities over what he said are seditious statements - that he is fond of repeating - as soon as he lands at Entebbe International airport.

But Dr Otunnu said: "I am not afraid of going back to Uganda; I have nothing to be afraid of, I have committed no crime. I have only been a critic of the [Museveni] regime."

"I will produce evidence, chapter by verse to back up what I am saying."

This latest twist to the running verbal war between Dr Otunnu and the government appeared to catch officials in Kampala unprepared and triggering mixed reactions. Although the army leadership expressed indignation over the "recycled and absurd" remarks, government ministers were more guarded.

"What he is saying is total rubbish," said Lt. Col. Kulayigye, the defence and military spokesman, adding: "If government forces were committing genocide, how then could civilians run away from rebels to them for sanctuary?" Lt. Col. Kulayigye said Dr Otunnu served in both the Obote II government and Gen. Tito Okello Lutwa junta "that massacred Ugandans", and he has "no moral right whatsoever to talk against human rights records of the UPDF."

The army spokesman, without giving specifics, however, acknowledged that some errant officers deployed to quell the northern uprising committed "isolated crimes" for which they were promptly prosecuted. Asked if the government was prepared to press charges of sedition against or challenge Dr Otunnu's alleged evidence on genocide in the North, deputy Attorney General Fred Ruhindi said "I don't know."

Government Spokesperson, Mr Kabakumba Masiko, however, said whereas she has never been involved in any meeting to discuss Dr Otunnu's expected homecoming or his allegations, "if there are issues that require action, action will be taken."

In the Wednesday interview, Dr Otunnu put the United Nations on the spot for obtaining information on systematic killing of civilians allegedly by the Ugandan military in the North of the country and choosing to sit on the damaging information.

Amnesty International, a UK-based human rights group, in a report released last year said while fighting the Joseph Kony-led LRA insurgents and the Ugandan military terrorised and randomly eliminated civilians perceived to be rebel collaborators. The army has since denied those allegations but the latest claims could potentially resurrect debate on the need for a commission of inquiry to unmask what each side - the UPDF and rebels - did during the protracted insurgency.

The army in 2005 managed to dislodge the rebels from northern Uganda, forcing them to flee to Garamba national park in northeastern DRC from where they are reported to be carrying out their signature brutality on Congolese civilians and Sudanese, especially in the Western Equatoria province.

The LRA leadership has refused to sign onto a final peace agreement negotiated after two years of talks with the government of Uganda and mediated by the Government of South Sudan. The rebels, who are accused of conscripting thousands of children, murdering thousands more, raping, maiming and forcing the disruption of life in the north that at one time saw two million people herded into congested, unhygienic and disease-ridden camps, want the indictments dropped before they sign anything. The vicious LRA leader Kony, who together with four other senior rebel commanders was indicted by International Criminal Court (ICC) in July 2005 for war crimes and crimes against humanity, has among others insisted that the UPDF is responsible for the said crimes.

This claim has been repeated in different forms by other individuals who have urged ICC chief prosecutor, Moreno Ocampo, to investigate both sides to this two-decade long conflict. The UPDF, however, denies it killed civilians or committed any other crimes deliberately or as a weapon of war.

Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Sam Kutesa told the Daily Monitor early in the week that Dr Otunnu was free to return to Uganda using any travel document and that government would give him a visa - and later a passport upon arrival.

Dr Otunnu has hinted at contesting for the presidency of the Uganda Peoples Congress in that party's upcoming national delegates conference. This race has so far drawn in no less than four aspirants including Lira Municipality MP, Jimmy Akena, the son of the party's late leader and two-time president of Uganda, Dr Apollo Milton Obote. Dr Otunnu is also reportedly being courted by the main Opposition party, Forum for Democratic Change in what observers think is a bid for them to launch a joint, and more formidable, onslaught on President Museveni's grip on power in 2011.

allafrica

16 Aug 2009
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has arrived in Washington for talks with his US counterpart Barack Obama, to discuss the stalled Arab-Israeli peace deal.

In what is his first visit to the United States in five years, Mubarak is expected to focus on Middle East peace, the Iranian nuclear program, Sudan, combating “extremists and promoting reform across the Arab world,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit told Al-Ahram daily on Saturday.

"The visit now comes at a critical time... because the American side is coming closer to announcing its vision on how to achieve peace and end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Abul-Gheit said.

The country's top diplomat was referring to a recent report in the New York Times which said Obama is expected to launch a public relations campaign in the Middle East to explain his vision for a peace deal.

Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt since 1981, is also to meet other senior officials, including the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, National Security Advisor James Jones and Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair.

Egypt, one of the two Arab countries to have signed a peace treaty with Israel, is currently a key player in the Obama administration's diplomatic drive in the Middle East.

It is mediating reconciliation talks between the Western-backed Fatah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the democratically-elected government of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, as well as trying to reinvigorate the Israeli-Palestinian road map for peace.

The road map, a plan proposed by the quartet for the Middle East in 2003, calls for the creation of a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is faced with global criticism over its refusal to freeze Israeli settlements expansion in the West Bank, has used every possible means to stall the two-state solution.

The Netanyahu government has even snubbed calls by its number one sponsor - the United States - to halt its settlement constructions, creating a rare gap between Washington and Tel Aviv.
presstv

15 August 2009
The United Nations peacekeeping operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is providing medical assistance to the victims of a deadly attack by armed militiamen in a mine-rich area in the strife-torn east of the country.

Media reports say at least 16 people were killed during Wednesday's attack, which took place in the remote village of Mpama in North Kivu province, close to the mines at Biseye. Mining is a lucrative source of income in the impoverished region, which continues to be beset by outbreaks of fighting involving militia groups and the army.

Troops from the Congolese army (FARDC) stationed nearby were dispatched to find the militiamen, but they had already fled, according to a press statement issued today by the UN peacekeeping mission, known as MONUC.

Alan Doss, the head of MONUC and the Secretary-General's Special Representative to the DRC, denounced the attack.

"Nothing can justify these crimes committed by the armed groups that strike at civilians," Mr. Doss said.

MONUC established a medical assistance team in the nearby town of Ishenga to treat the injured, with some others evacuated to other centres. The blue helmets have also stepped up their patrols in the Walikale-Biseye area.
allafrica

16 Aug 2009
At least nine people have been killed and a projected 19 others injured in clashes between Somali rebels and government troops aided by international forces.

Heavy fighting has been reported in the Somali capital, Mogadishu where pro-government soldiers backed by African Union forces shelled each other's positions with artillery and mortar fire that left nine dead and many wounded, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Also on Saturday AU expanded their operations against the Al Shabaab insurgents in the districts populated by Somali citizens, where the government says Al Shabaab rebels used civilians as human shields in the campaign to obtain control over the 'lawless' state.

Gun battles wage in Wardhiigley, Hamar Jajab and Hamar Weyne districts around the capital in power struggles as conflicting figures of casualties surface from the bloody arena.

Meanwhile pro-government militias claim they have regained control of areas seized earlier by Al Shabaab guerillas and are pushing to drive the militants group out of the capital.

The latest development comes as Djibouti, Somalia's small northern neighbor, expresses readiness to send troops to the war-torn Horn of Africa nation in a bid to help staunch the decade-long unrest in the poverty-stricken Muslim nation.

Death toll from the civil war in Somalia has been on the rise in recent months amid mounting pressure by international troops against the Somali fighters who seek more leverage in the Somalia polity.
presstv

16 Aug 2009
Nigerian police have arrested over 600 unarmed men in a raid on an isolated Muslim community in the western state of Niger.

A 1,000-strong police force raided the Darul Islam (House of Islam) community on Saturday, weeks after a radical Nigerian sect clashed with police, leaving more than 800 people dead.

Police say they received reports of the sect's activities from neighboring communities and local officials.

Saturday's operations were met with no resistance, and no weapons were found after house searches, local media said.

Last month's violent clashes with Boko Haram sect, called 'the Nigerian Taliban' by police officials for their alleged spiritual following of the insurgents in Afghanistan, have raised concerns in the multi-ethnic West African nation.

Clerics in the country's Muslim-majority northwestern parts, where the conflict broke out, said that they had warned Abuja over Boko Haram, as the government launched an investigation to determine how a small household group could orchestrate an uprising of such scale.

presstv

Aug 16, 2009
LUSAKA, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Zambia's largest cobalt producer Chambishi Metals Plc will delay restarting production until September after suppliers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) failed to deliver cobalt concentrates, it said on Sunday.

Operations at Chambishi were suspended in December and were due to restart in August, but Chief Executive Officer Derek Webbstock said it would have to wait until mines in the DRC begin to deliver raw materials.

"We are still waiting for the cobalt concentrates. The suppliers we agreed with are having problems and we haven't had any deliveries yet," Webbstock told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Webbstock said Chambishi, which had forecast output of 3,400 tonnes of cobalt in 2009 from 2,500 before it suspended operations last December, would first have to stockpile the cobalt concentrates before starting operations.

The resumption of output had already been pushed back to August from July while Chambishi waited for supplies from the DRC.

"If the suppliers get their problems sorted out quickly we can resume production in two weeks time but it may take longer because we need to stockpile the concentrates first," Webbstock said.

Chambishi, which was previously owned by Luanshya Copper Mines (LCM), a joint venture of Bein Stein Group Resources (BSGR) and International Mineral Resources (IMR), is now owned by Enya Holdings of the United Kingdom. (Reporting by Chris Mfula; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)
reuters

15 Aug 2009
Sudan's main opposition parties say they will boycott next-year's election unless their demands for constitutional amendments are met; some immediately and some by mid-October.

"We have an ultimatum that all those laws should be amended before the elections ... (or) we will boycott the elections," Reuters quoted Saddiq Yousif, a leader of the Communist Party, as saying on Saturday.

"We should be able to have our meetings without permission," Yousif added.

The opposition believes that the current laws, including a clause that allows authorities to dissolve meetings, leave little room for free and fair campaigning in the twice delayed elections, part of a 2005 peace deal between the warring north and south Sudan.

In June, Sudan said its first free nationwide elections in more than two decades would be delayed for two months to April 2010, the second time the date, originally stipulated for 2008, has been changed.

Electors will vote for their president as well as members of parliament and other government bodies.

Head of UN peacekeeping forces in Sudan's vast conflict-ridden Darfur region warned last month that Darfuris would be left out of the poll.

The ruling coalition, headed by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's National Congress Party and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), from Sudan's north and south respectively, dominate the assembly.

Recently tension between the two main parties has raised concerns that it would challenge efforts for democracy and upholding a peaceful election.

The 2005 North-South Peace Agreement ended a long-running civil war which had claimed above 2 million lives, while a fresh conflict continues to claim lives in Darfur since 2003.

Violence has intensified in the desert region with increasing attacks against aid workers following the ICC warrant against Bashir over alleged war crimes in Darfur.
presstv

15 Aug 2009
A South African rail workers' union has warned that its members are ready to go on a strike next week if pay raise talks are not resumed.

The United Transport and Allied Union (UTATU) said on Saturday that the planned strike was in response to operator Metrorail's walking out of the wage negotiation and signing on with another union, South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU).

Since taking office in May, President Jacob Zuma has faced several strikes, proving a tough challenge to his authority. However, in the past few weeks several major unions have increased pressure on Zuma, threatening planned strikes and securing settlements that have raised concerns.

State power firm Eskom said on Thursday the agreement's concession over pay and a housing policy had helped avert a strike by the country's largest union that threatened last week to cut power - an economically crippling venture that could bring work to a halt in the country's gold mines.

The Communication Workers' Union ended a 9-day strike attended by some 4,500 workers at phone firm Telkom after securing a 7.5 % pay rise, according to union.

UTATU said it would review its 9% pay rise demand after higher settlements in other sectors.

The government gave council workers, a 13% rise on July 31. The deal, nearly double the inflation rate of 6.9 percent for June, was to end the strike of some 150,000 workers- including city police.
presstv

14 August 2009

World Bank President Robert Zoellick concluded a visit to Africa on Thursday, saying he was still convinced this century belonged to Africa's development despite damage to their economies caused by the global financial crisis.
robertzoellic
Head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, has concluded his visit to Africa

He said Africa's needs deserved more attention and should be made a priority at a meeting of the Group of 20 developed and developing countries in the United States next month.

The World Bank chief said his travels to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda had reinforced his belief that the immediate challenge to keep Africa growing required more resources to bolster regional integration as well as investments in energy, infrastructure and agriculture.

He said it was clear from his visit that the financial crisis has affected African countries differently and that those with sound economic policies had fared better than others, while countries emerging from conflict, such as the DR Congo, required special attention.

If a decade of strong economic growth in Africa was to be sustained, Zoellick said it deserved additional support from donors at the G20 meeting of member countries in Pittsburgh on September 24-25, as well as increased efforts by international institutions like the World Bank, which recently reported record levels of lending to developing countries hit by the crisis.

"As we look toward the G20 meeting in September and others, we need to put developing countries higher on the priority list, particularly those in Africa," Zoellick told a news conference in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, at the end of the five-day tour.

But to make the case for more resources from donors, whose budgets are being strained by the financial crisis, Zoellick said Africans need to demonstrate that they can use aid effectively and improve governance.

"I still believe this can and should be the century of Africa," Zoellick said, noting that a more balanced global economy will require Americans to consume less and save more, which will shift global growth more toward emerging economies.

"We need multiple poles of growth and that will make for a more solid and balanced international economy, and there is absolutely no reason that Africa can't be one of those multiple poles of growth," he added.

Over the past decade, Africa's economies have grown on average 5 percent to 6 percent a year.

Meanwhile, its wealth in natural resources and need for infrastructure investment has attracted increased investment from China, whose economy is starting to resume strong growth while industrialized economies are expected to emerge slowly from a deep recession.

With some international investors uneasy about the ability of the United States and Europe to recover quickly from the global crisis, Zoellick said government-controlled sovereign wealth funds and pension funds are now looking more closely at high-growth regions like Africa.

The World Bank would create a new asset management unit by the end of the year through the International Finance Corp, the bank's private-sector lender, to work with these funds to invest in developing countries where rates of return on investments are high and there are opportunities waiting to be tapped, Zoellick said.

"Our IFC colleagues are finding interest in investors from sovereign funds and pension funds to invest through us into African economies," he said.

"The idea we had is to create a separate asset management corporation so these investors who might be interested in long-term investments in countries like Uganda but don't have the information, can leverage off our platform," he said earlier.
africagoodnews

14 August 2009

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's government is making significant progress in the fight against corruption. Clinton addressed Liberia's national assembly in Monrovia.
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US Secretary oif State, Hillary Clinton, has praised Liberia's fight against corruption

Clinton says President Sirleaf's administration is taking action to increase transparency with a strong Anti-Corruption Commission at the centre of efforts to rebuild from years of civil war.

"Today, Liberia is a model of successful transition from conflict to post-conflict, from lawlessness to democracy, from despair to hope," said Hillary Clinton. "In the last three years, the people of this country have been working to promote reform, reconstruction, and reconciliation. Liberia has adopted sound fiscal policies and seen strong economic growth."

Liberia ranks 138 on the 180-nation corruption index established by the good-governance group Transparency International. Reigning-in corruption is crucial to attracting foreign investment to a nation where 80 percent of people are unemployed.

President Sirleaf says strengthening Liberia's General Auditing Commission and complying with the Norwegian-based Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has reduced corruption.

"I am pleased that corruption, long entrenched, long covered, is now being exposed," said Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. "We have to expose it so that we can deal with it."

With those legal and regulatory frameworks in place, President Sirleaf says the challenge now is making sure that they continue to be implemented properly. She says a new team at the Justice Ministry is committed to punishing those responsible for corruption both inside and outside of government.

"We have also reduced people's vulnerabilities by increasing civil service pay, by settling arrears, all of which have contributed to corruption," she said. "We now need for the public and the media to recognize the progress and to join us in this fight which is not limited to government but has taken root in all of the society."

At Liberia's national assembly, Secretary Clinton spoke of the need to create institutions that are strong enough to engender the faith and confidence of the people and will survive both good leaders and what she called not-so-good leaders.

"Ending corruption is necessary to growing and sustaining such institutions and restoring the public's trust," she said.

She suggested that Liberian lawmakers establish a code of conduct to hold each other accountable.

"You have to have codes of conduct, regulatory frameworks, ethical standards that guide the pursuit of the common good," said Hillary Clinton.

Former rebel leader and Liberian President Charles Taylor used embezzled timber revenues to fund conflict in both his own country and neighboring Sierra Leone. He is now in The Hague facing war crimes charges for his involvement in Sierra Leone's civil war.
africagoodnews

14 August 2009

Maker Faire Africa, an event focused on bringing together acts of ingenuity and inventions from across the Africa continent, has kicked off in Accra, Ghana. The 3-day event hopes to welcome about 900 participants.
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Iron workers in the Gikomba Region, Kenya, have used old bicycles as repurposed as bellows

The workshops, seminars and lectures will be focused on four key innovation areas: arts and crafts; robotics; agriculture and environment; and science and engineering.

"The event is designed to create a space on the continent where Afrigadget-type innovations, inventions and initiatives can be sought, identified, brought to life, supported, amplified, and propagated," said the organisers of the event in a statement.

Speaking at a press conference ahead of the event, Emeka Okafor, co-founder of Maker Faire Africa (MFA), said the event is a chance to change the conversation about Africa from development to innovation. "We hope to tell the inventor on the street or the student that what he or she has invented is worth it. It will re-enforce people's passion to do more. We want to create a sense of community empowerment," he said.

"So often the world hears the bad news coming from the African continent. Maker Faire is a chance to highlight the innovation, entrepreneurship and opportunity that abounds in Africa," said Nii Simmonds, another co-founder of MFA, in a statement.

"With MFA we can create a space where the best and brightest can come together to support each other, exchange intellectual capital and find the resources they need to deliver products that fulfil the most basic to the most complex needs on the continent. And this is just the beginning."

The MFA is taking place at the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT and will end on Sunday, 16 August 2009.
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