20100412
ALLAFRICA

The Obama administration praised South Africa and Kazakhstan as examples of nations that have given up their nuclear weapon capabilities and achieved greater security and stability as a result.

President Obama met separately with South African President Jacob Zuma and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev on the eve of the April 12-13 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington.

In remarks with Zuma April 11, Obama said South Africa "has special standing in being a moral leader" on the nuclear issue.

"South Africa is singular in having had a nuclear weapon program; had moved forward on it, and then decided this was not the right path; dismantled it; and has been a strong, effective leader in the international community around nonproliferation issues," the president said.

South Africa can help "guide other countries down a similar direction of nonproliferation," Obama said.

In an April 11 press briefing with members of the National Security Council (NSC), Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser for strategic communication, described South Africa's 1989 decision to dismantle its nuclear weapons program as "one of the most important and dramatic nonproliferation developments that we've seen take place."

By choosing to meet its international nonproliferation obligations, the country "has found greater security and prosperity within the international community," Rhodes said.

Obama's meeting with Kazakh President Nazarbayev highlighted similar decisions by the Kazakh leader and his country to close its nuclear test site, remove all nuclear weapons and material from the country, and cooperate with the United States in destroying any remaining nuclear material.

Kazakhstan took the decision to close the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site in 1991, soon after it gained independence from the former Soviet Union.

NSC official Laura Holgate said U.S.-Kazakh cooperation has continued with joint efforts to decommission a nuclear reactor and to manage the safe destruction of its remaining nuclear fuel. Holgate is the NSC's senior director for weapons of mass destruction terrorism and threat reduction.

"We're also cooperating at a different, smaller research reactor near the former capital of Almaty that uses highly enriched uranium," she said. "We're working to convert that to use low-enriched uranium that is not weapons-useable, and to destroy the highly enriched uranium that remains."

The NSC's Mike McFaul, who is senior director for Russia and the Caucasus, said the president praised Nazarbayev as "one of the model leaders in the world" on nonproliferation and nuclear safety. Kazakhstan is "an excellent example" of how a country can forgo nuclear weapons and achieve greater security and economic prosperity, McFaul said.

By "giving up nuclear weapons, they received security assurances from all the countries in the region, and that has helped to make Kazakhstan one of the most stable countries in the region," he said.

And because it gave up nuclear weapons, Kazakhstan went from a country that might have been isolated to one that is open to the international economy and is attracting foreign investment, McFaul said.

Nazarbayev, Zuma and more than 40 other heads of state are participating in the two-day Nuclear Security Summit, which aims at securing all of the world's nuclear material to prevent it from being seized or stolen by terrorist groups or other non-state actors.

"If there was ever a detonation in New York City, or London, or Johannesburg, the ramifications economically, politically, and from a security perspective would be devastating," President Obama said in his meeting with Zuma. "And we know that organizations like al Qaida are in the process of trying to secure a nuclear weapon -- a weapon of mass destruction that they have no compunction at using."

Many participating countries have already embraced the goal of agreeing upon a specific work plan and a time frame to secure nuclear material, he said.

"They're coming to this summit, not just talking about general statements of support but rather very specific approaches to how we can solve this profound international problem," Obama said.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)

2010-04-12
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nigeria's Acting President Goodluck Jonathan assured the international community on Monday that Africa's most populous country would hold free and fair elections next year.

Jonathan has made overhauling the OPEC member's electoral system a top priority to avoid a repeat of the flawed 2007 polls, which brought President Umaru Yar'Adua to power.

"I promise Nigerians and the rest of the world that the 2011 elections in Nigeria will be credible," Jonathan said in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

The acting president, on his first foreign trip since assuming executive powers two months ago because Yar'Adua was too ill to govern, sought to put to rest any question over who was in control of sub-Saharan Africa's second biggest economy.

"This is our time. Either we continue with more of the same or our change begins," Jonathan said.

"From now, the focus must be on electoral reform, delivering peace dividends to the Niger Delta and the rest of the country."

An uneasy truce is in place in the Niger Delta, where militants have severely disrupted output in the country's main oil-producing region.

Reform legislation is currently before parliament. But time is quickly running out for changes to be implemented in time for next year's elections, which are due by April 2011.

Former military ruler Ibrahim Babangida on Monday became the first major politician to announce he would run for president next year, and campaign for a smaller federal government.

The United States, by far Nigeria's biggest trade partner, has been unusually outspoken about the West African country's chances for free elections.

A senior U.S. official said this month that Nigeria's election chief, Maurice Iwu, should be replaced if the country stands a chance for holding fair national polls.

Iwu oversaw the last presidential elections in 2007, which were so marred by ballot-stuffing and voter intimidation that local and international observers said they were not credible.

20100412
ALLAFRICA

Two years after its initial release, the documentary film Courting Justice continues to inspire audiences around the world with its story of South African women who fought against all odds to win judgeships in the country's highest courts.

The film looks at seven women -- but most especially the black women -- who never gave up hope during the terrible years of apartheid and now make up some 18 percent of South Africa's judiciary. Among the black African women justices highlighted in the film are Yvonne Mokgoro, Bess Nkabinde, Mandisa Maya and Pat Goliath. Most came from humble beginnings and had to overcome severe prejudice because of their gender as well as their race.

The documentary, by American filmmaker Ruth B. Cowan, has been shown worldwide and has won numerous accolades, including the Audience Award of the Durban International Film Festival in South Africa. It has been shown to South Africa's Parliament and to South African children in at least 60 schools, and has had three television airings by the South African Broadcasting Corporation. Teachers in New York City have urged that the film be shown in classrooms in all the districts in that school system, Cowan said. "The purpose is not to talk about South Africa," Cowan explained, "but to show them [the students] what they can do in their lives."

Audiences in Washington had an opportunity to view the documentary and meet Cowan, thanks to a special event hosted April 9 by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Introducing the film was Ambassador Melanne Verveer, U.S. ambassador-at-large for global women's issues. The stories of these women judges, Verveer said, make all who hear them realize "how one brings the human rights provisions of the [South African post-apartheid] constitution -- and everything the constitution represents -- to reality, and that is very powerful." This film's story, she said, "is about the great promise of human rights and judicial reform. And that can only take root and sprout and be nurtured where there are committed people in a democracy."

Cowan said she was awed by the strength of the women judges she got to know. "Those women were so strong," she said. She said some had trained and worked as magistrates during apartheid, while a few others made huge sacrifices to study law in the United States. Many black South Africans determined to advance their education were able to do so via a distance learning course offered by UNISA (University of South Africa), she said.

Cowan acknowledged that the path for women in South Africa, as in many other countries, is not easy. . "There are many women who go to law school and graduate; they work in law firms for a while. But there is a huge dropout rate from the profession -- there is only so much people [women] are willing to take," Cowan said. On-the-job discrimination -- both subtle and blatant -- is common, she said; this is mentioned in the film by the women judges themselves.

Cowan has had her own battles with sexism. In the 1970s, she was an assistant professor of political science at one of the community colleges of the City University of New York. Although she was the only tenured woman in the department, she was denied promotion even as her male peers were advanced. She, along with other women in similar situations, filed a grievance against the college and won. She called the experience "transformative." With a new appreciation for women's rights, Cowan went on to complete a distinguished 30-year academic career. In 1990, she became the founding president of the board of directors of Pro Mujer, an international women's development and microfinance organization that provides training and small startup loans to poor but aspiring women entrepreneurs.

Cowan also serves on the board for the Global Partnership for Afghanistan (GPFA), a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that provides guidance to rural Afghan men and women on how to develop sustainable farm enterprises. Her experience with Pro Mujer and GPFA convinced her of the overriding importance of good governance. South Africa's new post-apartheid constitution caught her attention, as did the women who were beginning to win appointments to the high courts in that country. After traveling to South Africa to study the courts, as well as the work of the South African Women's Legal Centre, Cowan was inspired to tell the story of South Africa's female judges in a documentary.

Courting Justice is available through Women Make Movies, a nonprofit media arts organization that facilitates media produced by and about women.

Film clips of the documentary can be seen on YouTube.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)

2012-04-12
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe prosecutors said on Monday they were withdrawing charges of illegally keeping grain against Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai ally Roy Bennett, a former white farmer who is already on trial for terrorism.

Bennett, treasurer-general in Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), will know on May 10 whether a High Court will drop the terrorism, banditry and sabotage charges that carry a possible death penalty.

The MDC said the grain charges were further proof that the former legislator was being politically persecuted by Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, which is opposed to him being sworn-in as deputy agriculture minister in the unity government.

In his most recent court appearance last month, police detectives served Bennett with a summons to appear in court in eastern Zimbabwe on new charges of unlawfully possessing 92 tonnes of maize at his farm in 2001 before it was seized by President Robert Mugabe's government.

"We are withdrawing those (grain) charges against Roy Bennett," Chris Mutangadura, a state prosecutor told Reuters. He declined to give a reason.

The state's terrorism case -- that Bennett planned to fund a 2006 plot to blow up a major communications link and assassinate key government officials -- hinges on e-mails prosecutors say link the former commercial farmer to the crime.

But the case was dealt a blow last month when its chief witness, 49-year-old former policeman and arms dealer Peter Hitschmann, disowned the e-mails and denied Bennett was involved.

2010-04-12BONN/LONDON (Reuters) - Delegates from 175-nations agreed on two extra sessions of U.N. climate control talks this year at the end of a tortuous meeting in Bonn that presaged big battles ahead over the non-binding Copenhagen Accord.

The Copenhagen Accord seeks to limit a rise in average world temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) over pre-industrial times but does not spell out how.

Reached at a fractious U.N. climate summit in December, the accord was strongly backed by Washington and bitterly opposed by some developing nations, though it also holds out the prospect of $100 billion climate aid a year from 2020.

"This process has big problems," said Annie Petsonk of the U.S.-based Environmental Defense Fund, at the end of the meeting in Bonn.

The session had been due to end on Sunday, but delegates wrangled deep into the night over a two-page plan to guide negotiations, with several hours spent on the wording of what appeared to be uncontroversial phrases.

The final text skirted one of the biggest problems -- the fate of the Copenhagen Accord. The December summit had disappointed many by failing to come up with a binding treaty.

"We have just about worked out the procedural kinks -- save the big one, which is what to do about the way in which we will respond to the Copenhagen Accord," Dessima Williams of Grenada, chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, told Reuters.

The accord was not mentioned by name in the Bonn workplan.

Margaret Mukahanana-Sangarwe of Zimbabwe, who chaired the U.N. talks and will draw up new draft texts by May 17, said the phrasing had a "constructive ambiguity...to me it seems to cover the work that was done to produce the Copenhagen Accord."

The Accord has backing from almost 120 of 194 member states, including top emitters China, the United States, the European Union, Russia and India.

It faces opposition led by countries such as Bolivia, Cuba, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

Some developing nations complained that rich countries pledged insufficient action under the Accord to stop disaster for millions of people from floods, droughts, heatwaves and rising seas.

By contrast, Saudi Arabia fears a shift from oil to renewable energies.

Bolivia said that the Bonn meeting had ruled the Accord out of negotiations that will culminate in a ministerial meeting in Mexico in November and December.

"Despite continual attempts by the U.S. to make the completely unacceptable Copenhagen Accord the basis for future negotiations, I am glad to say they failed," said Pablo Solon, Bolivia's chief delegate.

The U.N.'s top climate official, Yvo de Boer, said he did not expect a breakthrough to achieve a new treaty in Mexico.

For a $125 billion carbon market, failure to agree a global legally binding deal would be "regrettable" but tough national policies were more important, said one expert.

"It is cap and trade which is driving this market," said Andrei Marcu, head of regulatory and policy affairs at oil trading firm Mercuria.

Cap and trade schemes control industrial carbon emissions by forcing companies to buy from a fixed quota of emissions permits.

A European scheme is at the centre of a carbon market which could grow significantly if the United States passes a climate bill this year.

"I'm looking very much to what the U.S. will do," said Marcu, who was upbeat that the Bonn meeting had re-launched talks which "fell apart" in Copenhagen.

2010-04-12
MIDRAND, South Africa (Reuters) - Uncertainty over a global treaty to cut carbon emissions has slowed investment in clean energy in South Africa, where only a handful of such projects have started compared to other emerging markets.

A senior official from South Africa's agency for assessing domestic clean-energy projects told an African conference on biofuels on Monday the country, the continent's worst emitter, has lagged global trends in launching such projects.

Under the Kyoto protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), countries are required to cut carbon emissions by 5.2 percent by 2012.

"One of the barriers to CDM projects in South Africa is the uncertainty around the post-2012 regime, on whether the accord will continue or not," Ndiafhi Tuwani, the official at South Africa's Designated National Authority (DNA) said.

"Some of the potential project developers are reluctant because of that ...there is need for a new protocol or a new accord. The previous Copenhagen accord did not come up with a new protocol (beyond) 2012."

According to Tuwani, South Africa has 17 CDM projects registered to date, of which only 4 have been issued with CERs. The top two nations in the scheme, according to U.N. figures, are China with 787 projects and India with 498.

The CDM is part of the Kyoto protocol climate pact whose first phase ends in 2012 and there is no decision yet to extend it or agree on a separate climate treaty.

Under the agreement, rich nations that invest in clean-energy projects in developing countries earn certified emissions reductions (CERs) that can in return be sold for profit or used by polluting firms to meet their mandatory emissions targets.

A U.N meeting in Bonn, Germany on Sunday agreed to revive talks on a new deal to slow global warming after December's Copenhagen summit fell short of a binding deal.

CDM Africa Technical Manager Marco Lotz was optimistic projects aimed at cutting emissions would continue beyond 2012.

"Protocols come and go but it is not the end of the world if the Kyoto (protocol) expires. There is a whole industry that has evolved," said Lotz.

2010-04-12
DAKAR (Reuters) - Gabon's main oil industry trade union called on its members to go on strike from Tuesday after government talks on labour regulations collapsed.

"We have broken off discussions with the authorities," ONEP union spokesman Engadji Alandji Arnaud said by telephone from the capital Libreville. "The strike will be unlimited in time," he added, saying the exact starting time had not yet been decided.

Gabon is Africa's seventh largest producer, with output of some 250,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Foreign investors include France's Total and Canada's Canadian Natural Resources.

2010-04-12
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian archaeologists carrying out excavations at the site of a planned youth centre have found 14 tombs dating back to the third century BC, including one with a female mummy adorned with jewellery.

The Greco-Roman tombs, in Bahariya Oasis, 300 km (190 miles) southwest of Cairo, were discovered during probes that indicated they may be part of a much larger necropolis, Egypt's Culture Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

A 97-cm (38-inch) tall female mummy, found in the stair-lined interior of one of the rock-hewn tombs, was cast in coloured plaster inlaid with jewellery and eyes.

Archaeologists, who dug at the site ahead of the planned construction of a youth centre, found the tombs contained other treasures as well. The area has now been turned over to Egypt's antiquities authority.

"Early investigations uncovered four anthropoid masks made of plaster, a gold fragment decorated with engravings of the four sons of Horus, and a collection of coins, and clay and glass vessels," the ministry's statement quoted Egypt's chief archaeologist Zahi Hawass as saying.

The four sons of Horus -- Imsety, Duamutef, Hapi and Qebehsenuef -- were ancient Egyptian gods. The engravings show the influence of Egyptian religion well into the Greco-Roman period.

The gods were believed to protect the stomach, liver, intestines and lungs of mummified bodies.

Bahariya Oasis is home to Egypt's famed Valley of the Golden Mummies, where a collection of 17 tombs with about 254 mummies was discovered in 1996.

2010-04-12
LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambian 2010 wheat output rose 13.7 percent compared with the previous year to surpass domestic consumption, and the southern African country plans to export part of this surplus, a senior industry official said on Monday.

Ndambo Ndambo, the executive director of the Zambia National Farmers' Union (ZNFU) said wheat production in the 2009/2010 season rose to 216,000 tonnes from 190,000 tonnes in the 2008/2009 season thanks to favourable policies, making Zambia the only southern African nation to be self sufficient in wheat.

Zambia's annual wheat consumption is about 160,000 and farmers were currently in talks with the government over the planned export of excess wheat and wheat flour to countries within the region, he said.

Zambia's wheat production fell to as low as 30,000 tonnes a year in the 1990s, but in the last five years, annual average output has been about 130,000 tonnes.

Ndambo said production of wheat had expanded because of a well coordinated trade policy environment, plus huge private sector investment into irrigation systems.

"Given the export potential, the future looks bright except that government support will be critical in managing the transition successfully," Ndambo said.

"It will be important to ensure that a conducive trade policy environment is sustained for the private sector to continue producing."

"The private sector has provided the government with initial indicative figures for exports and we expect further discussions that should pave (the) way for the government to engage other governments in the region," Ndambo said.

Ndambo said the main constraint farmers faced was the high cost of production, which made Zambian wheat and wheat flour less competitive in other countries in the region.

"The other big problem is most countries in the region do not produce wheat, subsidised wheat imports are commonly sourced into the region and this creates unfair competition for Zambian wheat in the regional markets," he said.

Ndambo said the future of wheat farming would depend on how successfully Zambia managed the surplus production situation to move to a point where producer prices remained at a level where farmers could make a profit.

2010-04-12
KAMPALA (Reuters) - Ugandan troops killed 41 Karamojong warriors last week in a fierce gun battle after intercepting them stealing hundreds of cattle from a rival tribe, the local Daily Monitor newspaper said on Monday.

Located in the isolated northeastern corner of east Africa's third largest economy, Karamoja is one of Uganda's poorest regions, plagued by frequent inter-tribal clashes.

The battle took place last Wednesday as warriors from the Jie tribe attacked the neighbouring Dodoth tribe, the Daily Monitor said, quoting a local elder. The region's desperately poor infrastructure means news often takes days to filter out.

"They (the army) have killed very many Jie warriors here. We have counted up to 41 and they are still pursuing others," local councillor Akol Nakwang told Uganda's leading independent daily.

Uganda's army, the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF), has been trying to disarm Karamoja's cattle-rustling tribes for several years after the warriors exchanged their traditional spears for automatic rifles.

Tribes from the region, and across the border in Kenya, have traditionally stolen cattle to use as dowry payments and bolster prestige, but the use of automatic weapons has upped the stakes.

The UPDF was not immediately available for comment. Earlier the commander of the 5th Division based in the region told the Daily Monitor his soldiers had killed 14 warriors and recovered more than 1,250 cattle.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation on Monday conceded shortcomings in its handling of the H1N1 swine flu pandemic, including a failure to communicate uncertainties about the new virus as it swept around the globe.

Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's top influenza expert, said the U.N. agency's six-phase system for declaring a pandemic had sown confusion about the flu bug which was ultimately not as deadly as the widely-feared avian influenza.

"The reality is there is a huge amount of uncertainty (in a pandemic). I think we did not convey the uncertainty. That was interpreted by many as a non-transparent process," Fukuda said.

He was addressing a three-day meeting of 29 external flu experts called to review WHO's handling of the first influenza pandemic in 40 years.

Critics have said the WHO created panic about the swine flu virus, which turned out to be moderate in its effect, and caused governments to stockpile vaccines which went unused.

Some questioned its links to the pharmaceutical industry after companies like GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi-Aventis made big profits from producing H1N1 vaccine.

H1N1, which emerged in Mexico and the United States almost exactly a year ago, has killed 17,770 people in 213 countries, according to the WHO, which declared a pandemic underway in June. Most victims were young, with an average age of 37, versus 75 for seasonal flu.

The WHO will need another year or two after the pandemic is declared over to determine a final death rate from the virus. The pandemic is still officially underway.

FEAR AND CONFUSION

The separate but highly lethal H5N1 bird flu virus -- which has killed 60 percent of those infected since 2003 -- "injected a high level of fear about the next pandemic", Fukuda said.

It had been difficult to meet public demands for advice as the H1N1 virus spread quickly across borders, and blogs and other new media generated speculation and criticism, according to the WHO official.

"Populations around the world have very high expectations for immediate information," Fukuda said. "In many ways it is unforgiving out there."

One big surprise had been that only one dose of vaccine was needed to provide immunity, whereas most planning had been built around two doses being required, he said.

This meant that some countries were left struggling with an oversupply of unused vaccines while poorer ones had little or no access to supplies.

"Confusion about phases and level of severity remains a very vexing issue," Fukuda said, referring to the WHO's six-level scale for pandemics which takes into account the geographic spread of a virus but not its severity.

The WHO tried to come up with quantitive basis for measuring the pandemic's severity using death rates, but this proved difficult as countries provided different levels of information. Many lack even basic birth and death registries.

"Many countries don't have the actual capacity to determine reliably the severity of the virus," said Dr. Martin Cetron of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of the experts taking part in the review.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said her agency welcomed a frank, critical review of its handling of the pandemic to help it prepare for future public health emergencies.

"We want to know what worked well. We want to know what went wrong and, ideally, why. We want to know what can be done better and, ideally, how," Chan told the session.

DAKAR (Reuters) - Growth rates that outstrip the developed world are drawing emerging markets asset manager Silk Invest to open a 100 million euro fund to invest in African food processing and sales, the company said.

The London-based firm, which takes its name from the 'Silk Route' historical trade paths linking Europe and Asia, plans to launch the Africa Food Fund in June, it said at the weekend.

Unlike many investments in Africa, it is not a bet on raw commodities, but instead on their local processing and distribution to African consumers.

"(The) focus of the fund is to invest in companies across the food value chain and we especially like the companies who are servicing the local African consumers," chief executive Zin Bekkali told Reuters.

"Examples of target companies that we are analysing are ...

(a) fast food chain which wants to accelerate the number of outlets that it has, a cocoa processing company which wants to sell more of its own branded products, a flavoured fizzy drinks producer which is building capacity in mineral water, and a biscuit maker which is importing currently 50 percent of the products it sells but wants to replace it by its own goods."

Many Middle Eastern investment agencies are spending money to grow crops in Africa for shipment to their domestic markets to alleviate food insecurity in the Arab world, but Silk Invest is looking for companies that sell to African consumers.

"Moving to packaged sugar, milk or flour is a big driver of growth. In most African countries, food is still pre-dominantly sold through non-branded items," Bekkali said.

"(In) the last years we are seeing a dramatic change and African food companies are servicing the local need without increasing the cost of the product. Consumers are able to buy a higher quality branded food item for the same price."

POLITICAL STABILITY SOUGHT

The International Monetary Fund will forecast euro zone growth of 0.8 percent in 2010, according to a report this month, far below the fund manager's expectations for Africa.

"African growth on average is de-coupled from the Western world ...We think that Africa will move back to its pre-crisis annual growth level of 5 percent," Bekkali said.

The firm said it is looking for countries institutionally strong and politically stable enough to sustain high economic growth, and its investor presentation names Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Morocco and Nigeria as initial targets.

"Within this list we have excluded countries like Somalia. Many investors in Africa do not fully understand that Africa is moving on and that countries like Somalia are as much an exception in Africa as Afghanistan is in Asia."

As Ivory Coast, formerly one of Africa's economic powerhouses with world-leading cocoa exports, slips further away from elections that were slated for 2005, many commentators suggest foreign investors are staying away from the country until its political crisis is resolved.

"Ivory Coast is not in the focus list but is not in our exclusion list," Bekkali said. "It is definitely one of the countries which has a higher risk profile than let's say South Africa. On the other hand it remains one of the African countries with a reasonably well developed infrastructure."

Silk Invest is marketing the fund to development finance agencies, family offices, and private equity firms, but has found the latter the most resistant to the idea.

"The private equity industry is still focusing mostly on management buy-out deals or trying to find the next Google," Bekkali said. "When they look at Africa (it) is almost entirely focused on commodity type of investments which we see as the least attractive sector in Africa."

Nigeria’s immediate former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has returned back to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a party he left due to political disagreement between him and the former president Olusegun Obasanjo.
Atiku’s media aide, Garba Shehu, said the former vice president and his supporters decided to rejoin the PDP following disagreements within Mega Summit Movement (MSM), a movement initiated by the opposition political figures to dislodge the PDP from power come 2011.
Beside Atiku’s involvement in the MSM, he is equally involved in another political alliance, the National Democratic Movement (NDM) which is mainly a northern political movement in the country where Atiku hails from.
His return to the PDP, however, was described by the head of secretariat of the National Democratic Movement (NDM) Alhaji Sule Hamma as the reunion of politicians with similar thinking and ideological inclination.
He said, “It is a normal realignment of political forces” signifying that people of similar mind set “will always flock together.”
Before his return, Atiku has been involved with General Muhammadu Buhari, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, ex-Senator Bola Tinubu in the NDM to form a broad based political party to remove the PDP from power in 2011. Alhaji Sule said the move is good for Nigeria to move forward stressing that there is no ideological compatibility between Atiku and most of the political actors in the NDM.
Alhaji Sule insisted that the current political struggles eventually create groups that share the same thinking and allow each group to identify its opponent, adding that he was not surprised over Atiku’s decision to abandon the group.
However, the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), an umbrella body of opposition political parties in the country said the return of former vice president Atiku Abubakar to the Peoples Democratic Party is a blow to opposition which poses a threat to their plans to wrestle power from the ruling party.
CNPP’s National Chairman Alhaji Balarabe Musa said dethroning PDP would now be a very herculean task, adding that Atiku’s return to PDP is a “great loss” to politicians who want to bring meaningful democratic change in the country in 2011.
The CNPP chairman however said Atiku’s reunion with the PDP did not take them by surprise, because the former VP and his supporters only left the PDP in 2007 due to disagreement with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

Hundreds of Nigerian people have been reported to have died of food borne disease according to the country’s Consumer Protection Council (CPC) report.
Director General of the Council Mrs. Ify Umenyi has said that already a total of 559 people died of food borne diseases out of the 2.5 million recorded cases in 2006 and 2007 in the country.
Mrs Umenyi who spoke in Abuja at the pre-workshop press conference on quality and safety of street vended food in Nigeria, jointly organized by CPC and the National Orientation Agency (NOA) said, “some of the cases could be directly linked to consumption of contaminated street vended food.”
She said in 2008, the council survey on street vended foods within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was depressing in terms of quality and safety which presupposed that the situation could be worse in the hinterland where most facilities like potable water, electricity are in shorter supply.
In his remarks the Director General of National Orientation Agency, Alhaji Idi Faruk said the upcoming workshop which would be in collaboration with the wife of the Benue State government Mrs. Yamisi Dooshima Suswam.
He said it will feature training for food vendors, exhibition of foods and beverages and agricultural produce as well as cooking competition, adding that the objectives of the workshop include educating of food vendors on the best practices in ensuring quality of street food and safety of consumers.
The workshop will also set model in areas of food presentation, preparation and preservation, to mobilize consumers to support the campaign to regulate street vended food in Nigeria among other things.
Participants for the three-day workshop would be drawn from the 36 states of the federation including Abuja and starts April 13, 2010 in Markudi, Benue State.

The newly sworn-in Minister of State for Finance Mr. Remi Babalola has placed a ban on government officials and other public servants especially working in the various agencies under the ministry to stop using public funds to pay for first class tickets during official trips.
Also, he warned heads of parastatals under his supervision to desist from travelling with public funds using first class ticket which he said was only a sign of misappropriating public funds and attesting to lack of priority by such officials.
Babalola reminded the heads of parastatals to adhere to existing public service rules and code of conduct that bar ministers, members of boards of parastatals and other public officers from travelling by first class with public funds.
He gave the directives in Abuja at a meeting with the heads of the five parastatals and officials of the ministry to review the operations and performance of the agencies. He chairs the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).
The parastatals include: the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, National Insurance Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigerian Export Import Bank, and the Investments and Securities Tribunal.
He said, “As much as possible, foreign trips should be pruned to only very essential ones that can add value to your mandates. He also added that, “Non-performance and abuse of office would not be tolerated.”
Babalola solicited the cooperation of all the heads of parastatals and reminded them that time was of essence and should therefore “hit the ground running”.
On their part, the heads of parastatals assured the minister of their support and promised to work assiduously to achieve the mandates of their respective agencies and the government in general.

The head of Nigeria’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof. Maurice Iwu insisted that he would continue with his assignment given to him by the federal government until the end of his tenure expected to round up in June this year.
Recently, there were serious agitations from various quotas especially the opposition political groups as well as civil society groups demanding for his sack. The groups also are warning federal government against any attempt to renew his tenure. But Iwu’s spokesman, Mr. Andy Ezeni said his boss would not quit his position until the end of his tenure if he was not reappointed.
Mr. Ezeani added that Prof Iwu has a constitutional mandate which ends in June and that all the excitement being generated is unnecessary, adding that, “Those calling for his head are only wasting their time because he has a tenure and once it is over he would take his leave unless he is ask to say.”
Earlier, this week, a government official working at the presidency revealed that Prof. Iwu’s five-year tenure as INEC boss will come to an end when he leaves office this weekend, but the report could not be ascertained as Iwu is still incharge.
In the words of his spokesman, “Iwu has always said that he is serving the country and going against such mandate will not be in the best interest of democracy and national development.”
Of recent, there have been various rallies for and against Iwu. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) together with several human rights and civil society groups staged a protest urging the government to quickly sack Iwu.
Also penultimate week, some youths staged a demonstration in Abuja urging the government to reappoint Iwu, who they said is the best person to deliver credible polls in Nigeria come 2011 general elections.
The United States of America has through its Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson demanded for Iwu’s sack saying that the electoral body under him has not served the interest of Nigerians.
However, the federal government has not said anything or taken any position on the matter.

YAOUNDE, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Already postponed from April 25 to May 16, the presidential and legislative elections in the Central African Republic could be postponed again, according to an official source.

The source close to the presidency told Xinhua on Sunday on telephone from Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, the new postponement had been justified by the authorities as a necessary guarantee for the success of elections.

Outgoing President Francois Bozize and ex-president Ange Felix Patasse, who came back from exile in Togo, had previously agreed on the polls will other politicians in an inclusive political dialogue held in Dec. 2008.

The election process has since met with disturbances from issues like persistent rebel movements, which still occupy parts of the territory, especially the north.

In addition, a boycott has been announced by opposition parties, which are calling for the return of peace before any voting operation is launched.

Bozize came to power on March 15, 2003 in a military coup to topple Patasse, who is today considered as a formidable opponent. Bozize was elected in May 2005 and is to run for his second term.

KHARTOUM, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Sudanese voters began to cast their votes on the second day of polling on Monday in the first multi-party elections in the country in more than 24 years.

The second day of polling is seen as a real challenge for the National Elections Commission (NEC) to prove its ability to overcome what it calls the "technical and administrative mistakes" in the first day of polling

On Sunday, the NEC acknowledged mistakes in voters' lists and some candidates' names, but said these mistakes were corrected.

In the meantime, many parties are demanding an extension of polling.

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) on Sunday asked for an extension of voting in the southern part of the country due to mistakes in the polling process.

Susan Jambo, a senior official responsible for the SPLM's election campaign, told Xinhua in Juba, the regional capital of southern Sudan, that they had found a lot of mistakes since the polling process started.

The chairman of Khartoum State's National Congress Party (NCP), Abdul-Rahman al-Khader, also demanded an extension of polling, local newspapers reported Monday.

More than 16 million Sudanese voters started casting their votes on Sunday to choose their representatives for the presidency, state governors, the president of southern Sudan and legislative councils.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, April 12 (Xinhua) -- The 3rd Common Market of East and South Africa (COMESA) Investment Forum kicked off here with an aim to lure investment to the countries of the regional bloc.

The two-day forum is expected to address key investment opportunities on the sectors relevant to the region and Africa as a whole.

The discussions will cover investment in infrastructure, agro- processing, renewable energy, financial services and tourism.

The forum, organized by COMESA Regional Investment Agency (RIA), in collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Investment and Egyptian General Authority for Investment (GAFI), will also take up mechanisms to finance investment projects and means to improve the climate of investment in COMESA's 19 member states.

COMESA was established in 1994 as an organization of free independent sovereign states which have agreed to cooperate in developing their natural and human resources with wide-ranging series of objectives including in its priorities the promotion of peace and security in the region.

DAKAR (Reuters) - Growth rates that outstrip the developed world are drawing emerging markets asset manager Silk Invest to open a 100 million euro fund to invest in African food processing and sales, the company said.

The London-based firm, which takes its name from the 'Silk Route' historical trade paths linking Europe and Asia, plans to launch the Africa Food Fund in June, it said at the weekend.

Unlike many investments in Africa, it is not a bet on raw commodities, but instead on their local processing and distribution to African consumers.

"(The) focus of the fund is to invest in companies across the food value chain and we especially like the companies who are servicing the local African consumers," chief executive Zin Bekkali told Reuters.

"Examples of target companies that we are analysing are ...

(a) fast food chain which wants to accelerate the number of outlets that it has, a cocoa processing company which wants to sell more of its own branded products, a flavoured fizzy drinks producer which is building capacity in mineral water, and a biscuit maker which is importing currently 50 percent of the products it sells but wants to replace it by its own goods."

Many Middle Eastern investment agencies are spending money to grow crops in Africa for shipment to their domestic markets to alleviate food insecurity in the Arab world, but Silk Invest is looking for companies that sell to African consumers.

"Moving to packaged sugar, milk or flour is a big driver of growth. In most African countries, food is still pre-dominantly sold through non-branded items," Bekkali said.

"(In) the last years we are seeing a dramatic change and African food companies are servicing the local need without increasing the cost of the product. Consumers are able to buy a higher quality branded food item for the same price."

POLITICAL STABILITY SOUGHT

The International Monetary Fund will forecast euro zone growth of 0.8 percent in 2010, according to a report this month, far below the fund manager's expectations for Africa.

"African growth on average is de-coupled from the Western world ...We think that Africa will move back to its pre-crisis annual growth level of 5 percent," Bekkali said.

The firm said it is looking for countries institutionally strong and politically stable enough to sustain high economic growth, and its investor presentation names Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Morocco and Nigeria as initial targets.

"Within this list we have excluded countries like Somalia. Many investors in Africa do not fully understand that Africa is moving on and that countries like Somalia are as much an exception in Africa as Afghanistan is in Asia."

As Ivory Coast, formerly one of Africa's economic powerhouses with world-leading cocoa exports, slips further away from elections that were slated for 2005, many commentators suggest foreign investors are staying away from the country until its political crisis is resolved.

"Ivory Coast is not in the focus list but is not in our exclusion list," Bekkali said. "It is definitely one of the countries which has a higher risk profile than let's say South Africa. On the other hand it remains one of the African countries with a reasonably well developed infrastructure."

Silk Invest is marketing the fund to development finance agencies, family offices, and private equity firms, but has found the latter the most resistant to the idea.

"The private equity industry is still focusing mostly on management buy-out deals or trying to find the next Google," Bekkali said. "When they look at Africa (it) is almost entirely focused on commodity type of investments which we see as the least attractive sector in Africa."