2010-04-06
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's antitrust watchdog said it raided the offices of South African Airways and another airline, as part of an ongoing probe into price fixing related to the soccer World Cup.

The Competition Commission said in a statement on Tuesday that it had searched the offices of South African Airways , budget airline Mango and an industry group last week, seizing documents and electronic data.

The investigation comes as demand for flights and accomodation during the FIFA 2010 World Cup has so far failed to meet expectations.

The probe -- which is also targeting airlines British Airways, Comair (COMJ.J) and 1Time (1TMJ.J) -- was first announced in January. At that time the commission said SAA had promised to cooperate with the investigation, provided it was excluded from prosecution.

The searches last week were prompted by suspicion that SAA and Mango may have withheld information from the investigation, the commission said.

2010-04-06
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Lack of microcredit laws in many African countries is denying millions of the continent's poor access to loans, a Nobel Prize winner Mohammad Yunus, said on Tuesday.

Yunus, who won a Nobel Prize in 2006 for championing Microcredit, tiny loans to the poor in Bangladesh, is now pioneering an idea he calls "social business" as a way to fight poverty around the world -- business not for profit but to solve social problems.

"To create a new kind of bank, which works with the poor people, we need new legislation but in most of the countries in Africa that legislation has not taken place, so we have left microcredit scenario to the NGOs," Yunus told Reuters in an interview.

Nicknamed the "banker to the poor," Yunus started his movement 30 years ago with a $27 loan to women in Chittagong, Bangladesh.

It has mushroomed and delivered millions of tiny loans to poor people who do not have access to mainstream banking.

"People are ready in Africa there is no problem with the people it's a question of institutional and conceptual arrangement and microcredit could be wonderful social business," he said.

Yunus is attending an annual microcredit summit in Kenya, where Africa's microfinance institutions hope to emulate the success and growth of the industry in Asia, which hosts more than 80 percent of the world's 150 million microfinance beneficiaries.

"African women are very active compared to any women anywhere in the world and micro credits have the best chance of succeeding in Africa particularly in women but the financing is never brought to them," he said.

Most African governments are still heavily dependent on donor aid from the west and some microfinance institutions are run by NGO's. Yunus warned against continued channelling of donor aid through governments.

"Since you focus aid through the government, it encourages bureaucracy, it encourages corruption it encourages inefficiency and we still have the African and Asian development banks doing the same repetitive thing," said Yunus.

Since winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 jointly with Grameen Bank, the microcredit organization he founded, he has committed his portion of the $1 million prize money to developing social businesses and is trying to change the way the world views helping the poor.

He said the global financial crisis that hit western economies hardest, showed that the world needed to embrace social business as well.

"Let's make it two models, profit maximising business and also social business, business to change the world. If we don't redesign the global economy, we risk to fall in that trap again," he said.

2010-04-06
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's central bank Governor Gill Marcus said it was not time to raise interest rates yet to deal with the impact of high power price increases on inflation.

Marcus told the Sunday Times newspaper "We're not there yet," when asked whether the central bank will be forced to raise interest rates after Eskom was given permission to raise its tariffs by a nominal 24.8 percent this year.

The central bank cut the repo rate by 50 basis points to 6.5 percent two weeks ago, adding to 500 basis points worth of cuts since December 2008.

Union and communist allies of the ruling ANC have been calling for deeper interest rate cuts.

Marcus told the Sunday Times the central bank was facing pressure to cut but she would not be influenced by it.

"Perhaps there should be a recognition that pressure is something I'm used to. I've been used to it all my life. So I'm not going to buckle. The heat is always there, it's the nature of the job," she said.

Marcus said the central bank's decision two weeks ago -- which surprised the market that expected rates to be left steady -- was not due to pressure.

"If the data had not enabled us to do it we would not have done it. There was certainly no pressure in the sense of, 'this is what is expected of you to do and therefore you must do it'."

The South African economy came out of its first recession in almost two decades in the third quarter and the pace of the recovery accelerated in the fourth quarter. Growth is expected at 2.3 percent this year, after a 1.8 percent decline in 2009.

But consumer demand, which drove growth to an average 5 percent between 2003 and 2007, was expected to be weak.

2010-04-06
CONAKRY (Reuters) - Workers at RUSAL's Friguia alumina refinery in Guinea blocked production for the sixth day in a row on Tuesday after initial negotiation efforts failed and the government threatened to send in security forces.

The plant, the largest industrial project in the fractious West African nation, has a capacity to produce around 640,000 tonnes of alumina per year, which the Russian firm then ships around the world to be refined further into aluminum.

"The entrance to the plant is still blocked by heavy machines. Production is still shut," said a RUSAL official on Tuesday on condition of anonymity.

Guinea sent two government ministers late on Monday to negotiate with members of the union, who are seeking a 50 percent pay hike to compensate for rising fuel prices, and Prime Minister Jean Marie Dore said he would call in security forces if the blockade did not end soon.

"It is imperative that those occupying the refinery leave without delay before I call on security forces to go in carefully and to liberate workers and ensure the security of the plant's equipment," he said late Monday on state television.

The RUSAL official said on Tuesday the workers' union had sent delegates to the capital Conakry to resume talks.

The Friguia refinery employs about 1,080 people.

2010-04-05
ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's respected former anti-corruption chief Nuhu Ribadu said he is ready to return home after over a year in voluntary exile, and would be willing to serve under Acting President Goodluck Jonathan if asked.

Nigerian authorities dropped a legal case against Ribadu last week, potentially paving the way for his return to help Jonathan fight graft in one of the world's most tainted countries.

"Of course I would like to come back, but it was difficult because my life was threatened," Ribadu told Reuters. "The threat is now gone. I believe it is time for me to come back," he in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C. on Monday.

Ribadu won international praise for his arrests of suspects and seizures of assets as the first chief of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

But he also made enemies for pursuing cases against powerful state governors and was fired in late 2007 soon after President Umaru Yar'Adua took power. He fled Nigeria for Britain and the United States in January 2009, saying his life was in danger.

Ribadu said he has not spoken directly with Jonathan, who assumed executive powers from ailing President Yar'Adua two months ago, and has not been offered a specific government position.

NO TO EFCC, POLICE

He said he would not return to the EFCC or the police as he believed he had been unfairly dismissed by both agencies. But he remained open to other job opportunities, especially those that would help to get Nigeria's anti-graft efforts back on track.

"Nothing took place in the last two years in the fight against corruption," Ribadu said. "The respect we gained with the rest of the world has been eroded. It will take time to rebuild it."

Local newspapers have reported that Jonathan was considering Ribadu as his special adviser on fighting corruption.

Ribadu said he could be back in Nigeria within weeks as his fellowship at the Centre for Global Development, a Washington-based think tank, was winding down.

Endemic corruption in Africa's most populous nation is a major disincentive to foreign investors, who view it as an indicator of inefficient public spending and therefore a major brake on economic growth.

Yar'Adua came to power in May 2007 promising zero tolerance for graft. But the removal of Ribadu and lack of progress in prosecuting politically sensitive cases have done little to boost confidence, not least among European donors who have poured $35 million into the EFCC.

2010-04-06
NEW YORK, April 5 (Reuters Life!) - Pop star Madonna has returned to Malawi where she adopted two children to see construction of a school for orphaned girls she funded and launch a new education campaign using mobile technology, her spokeswoman said on Monday.

The singer is on a trip with her Raising Malawi charity she began in 2006, and will watch the first bricks laid down at her school, The Raising Malawi Academy for Girls, located in Chinkhota village about 15 kilometers outside the capital, Lilongwe, according to the charity's website.

Madonna also will visit the Millennium Village -- a United Nations-backed project to fight poverty -- along with economist Jeffrey Sachs and CEO of consumer electronics firm Ericsson Hans Vestberg. She and Vestberg will formally announce an education campaign on Tuesday.

"I look forward to seeing the amazing progress being made in that community as well as several other projects that are currently underway including the creation of a Girl's Academy," Madonna said in a statement.

In 2006, Madonna adopted a son, David, from the nation, and faced an outcry of public opinion when she was accused of getting special treatment from the Malawi government for skirting laws that ban nonresidents from adopting children.

Her 2009 adoption of a daughter also raised eyebrows, and last November the school became the subject of controversy in Malawi when villagers demanded more money for the land the government has leased to Madonna's charity.

2010-04-06
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California court on Monday assigned a judge to preside over the trial of Michael Jackson's doctor on an involuntary manslaughter charge relating to the pop singer's death last year.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor, named as the judge in the trial, set a June 14 date to determine when to hold a preliminary hearing in the case against Dr. Conrad Murray, who has pleaded not guilty.

At the June 14 hearing, Pastor also is expected to rule on a request by California's attorney general to suspend Murray's medical license. Murray, who resides in Las Vegas and Houston, is a cardiologist, and his lawyers have argued that if he were to lose his California license, Nevada and Texas may follow.

The preliminary hearing will determine if there is enough evidence against Murray to proceed to a criminal trial.

Fans of Jackson waved signs and chanted slogans outside the courthouse in Los Angeles. Several Jackson family members appeared in the courtroom, including his mother and father and his sister Janet Jackson.

Murray was charged on February 8 with involuntary manslaughter related to Jackson's death on June 25, 2009, from an overdose of prescription drugs, principally the anesthetic propofol. By charging him with involuntary manslaughter, prosecutors asserted that the doctor killed Jackson but without malice.

Murray, who faces up to four years in prison if convicted, was hired in May 2009 to care for Jackson as he prepared for a series of comeback concerts.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African state power firm Eskom and BHP Billiton have agreed to amend pricing agreements for power supplies to BHP aluminium smelters in South Africa and Mozambique, Eskom said.

Eskom seeks to raise more than $60 billion for investments to prevent a repeat of crippling blackouts in 2008. It is increasing power prices and renegotiating supply deals signed when it was able to charge much less for electricity.

Eskom said it would sign the final power agreements with BHP Billiton during the third quarter of 2010 and that they would require the approval of state power regulator, Nersa.

"This is a significant milestone that results in a new pricing path which will not be linked to commodity pricing and foreign currency," Eskom said on Monday, without giving precise details.

It said the agreements would affect the Mozal aluminium smelter in Mozambique and two others, the Hillside and Bayside smelters in South Africa, the continent's largest economy and a major mining hub.

Eskom, which has separate power supply agreements with other mining companies operating in South Africa, was granted an average of 25 percent in power tariff increases by Nersa for the next three years starting in 2010. .

South Africa's electricity is among the cheapest in the world, partly due to a government policy of underpricing power to attract industry.

JOHANNESBURG, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Twenty two people have been killed in road accidents in South Africa over the Easter holiday, the country's Ministry of Transport said on Sunday.

According to South African Press Association, the ministry's Spokesman Logan Maistry said six people were killed on the R63 between Pearston and Somerset East in the Eastern Cape, five people were killed between Warden and Roadside in the Free State and seven others were killed on Moloto Road in Pretoria in Gauteng. All of these accidents happened on Thursday.

Another four people were killed on the N1 near Colesburg in the Northern Cape on Friday.

"We want to convey our condolences to the families and relatives of all those killed in road crashes over the past few days. We wish those injured a speedy recovery," Minister Sibusiso Ndebele said in the statement.

He said hundreds of motorists have been arrested and more than a thousand unroadworthy vehicles have been removed from the countries roads over the weekend.

"214 drivers were arrested for drinking and driving and 29 drivers for other offences," said Maistry.

20100405
AFRICANEWS

The administration in Somalia's breakaway region of Somaliland is worried about increase in human trafficking in the region. Officials said children are mostly trafficking from south-central Somalia, because of the lack of effective government.
somalia refugees
Fadumo Sudi, the Minister for Family and Social Affairs said: “Before, no one believed that human/child trafficking existed in Somaliland but such kinds of crimes occur here.”

She was speaking at the reunification of a young girl with her family. She was trafficked from Qardho, northeast region in Putland to Hargeisa, Somaliland, in February.

“One day, my sister went to school as usual, but she disappeared. We searched for her everywhere but we didn’t find her,” her brother Najib Jama Abdi said in an IRIN report.

“By Allah’s mercy she was saved. We are happy to have her back,” Abdi added.

20100405
africanews

A combination of military forces from about eight African nations took part in celebrations marking Senegal's Golden Jubilee celebrations, on Sunday.
senegal at 50
The inter-African military parade served as a perfect physical demonstration by President Abdoulaye Wade of the endless call for continental unity, a domineering subject in the entire celebrations of his country’s 50th Independence anniversary. Other forces came from Cape Verde, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Morocco and Mauritania.

France, Senegal’s former colonial master; Italy and Spain were also represented at the parade ground in the capital Dakar.

Also present at the high profile ceremony were about 20 other African heads of states who, alongside their host, saw an impressive performance ranging from cultural, artistic to military exhibitions.

The theme of Senegal’s 50th anniversary has been all about a free and historically meaningful Africa. President Wade used his independence message to the nation to announce the completion of a “dream” by the country’s ‘elders’.

“By breaking away, fifty years ago, the dependencies imposed by the colonial power, our country accomplished the dream of our elders for the total liberation of our soil, a dream completed today by the resumption of our bases formerly granted to France,” the president said in a televised statement on the eve of the celebrations proper.

“Therefore, I solemnly declare that Senegal reassumed, from today, April 4, 2010, at midnight, all the bases on our soil previously held by France.”

He added: “The specificity of our historical relations, based on history, language and some basic common values, leads us to develop, with France, a new area of cooperation.”

20100405
AFRICANEWS

Mozambique immigration officials have arrested 29 Somali migrants who were heading to South Africa to escape the escalating violence in their homeland. Police officers said the fleeing party who claimed to be refugees was seized on Sunday in two minibuses.
south africa
Ernesto Serote, police spokesman in Zambezia province, said one of the vehicles was driven by an off-duty police officer.

Mozambique is increasingly becoming a transit point for illegal immigrants to gain entry into South Africa, said Serote.

At least 17,000 illegal migrants from the Horn of Africa flee to South Africa annually. Most of them transit through Kenya, according to the International Organization for Migration’s report in February.

The organization said crisis and poverty were forcing Somalis and Ethiopians to carry out dangerous journeys to better places. South Africa has deported a total of 678,697 illegal immigrants between 2002 and 2005.

20100405
africanews

Somali pirates have released two Indian boats with 26-crew seized last week but have hijacked a South Korea tanker.
Prisoners of Somalian pirates in Eyl. Photo by Sheekh Aduun
Pirates hijacked the two India boats which were leaving from a port in Kismayo, where Al-Qaeda linked group of Al-Shabaab controls, to Dubai.

"One vessel with 15 sailors on board was released by the pirates yesterday (Saturday), while another one was freed early this morning (Sunday) along with 11 sailors," AFP news agency quoted Kasam Ali, president of the Kutch Vahanvati Association in Gujarat.

The bandits group also seized a South Korean oil tanker with 24 sailors on Sunday off the coast of lawless and war-torn nation, Somalia.

Seoul’s foreign ministry has said that the Samho Dream tanker was carrying 300,000-ton of goods and heading to the US state of Louisiana from Iraq.

"The ship is presumed to have been hijacked by Somali pirates," a statement released by the foreign ministry said.

The government also said it will do its best for safety of the 24 crew, five South Koreans and 19 Filipinos.

Somali bandits have made tens of millions of dollars for ransom payment. Only last year, pirates made over $60 million for a ransom payment after they took nearly 47 vessels and 300 crews.

They currently have over 80 Indian crew with six ships hijacked near the Seychelles. Somalia has not had an effective government since warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

20100405
africanews

Pop Star Madonna arrived in Malawi aboard a private jet with registration number HB-IHQ which landed at Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe, Malawi at around 8:20am on Monday. She came off through the cargo outlet - a move calculated to swerve the lenses of prying paparazzi.

Wearing a dark blue jeans and T-Shirt, the pop star came with a crew of about 10 people including the Sony Ericsson boss.

AfricaNews reporter said Madonna came with all her children including David Banda and Mercy James whom she adopted in the country.

She is expected to go to Mchinji Millennium project - a United Nations initiative in the central border district west of Lilongwe - on Monday and then on Tuesday she will inspect the Raising Malawi Academy for Gils in Lilongwe.

Madonna will be joined by economist Jeffrey Sachs, a development affairs expert and mentor of the initiative. She is expected to lay the first brick of her Raising Malawi Academy for Girls, signaling the official commencement of construction of the $15 million academy, set to open in 2011.

20100405
ALALAM

Sudan's Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) says the army bombed its positions in Darfur on Monday, but the army rejected the accusation.

Sudan's army denied launching any attacks on JEM and a senior government official accused the movement of seizing new territory in the remote western region, against the terms of the same agreement.

Sudan's president Omar Hassan al-Bashir declared the seven- year Darfur conflict over after his government signed a ceasefire and initial peace deal with JEM in the Qatari capital Doha in February.

But further talks quickly stalled after JEM objected to Khartoum starting parallel discussions with another group.

"The bombing started at midnight and continued this morning ... These people (the government) are not interested in finding a political solution to the problem," said JEM spokesman Ahmed Hussein Adam, speaking from Qatar by phone.

Adam said government planes bombed JEM positions around the North Darfur areas of Abu Hamra, Furawiya and Jabel Moun.

But Sudan government dismissed JEM's accusations. "The Sudanese Army is committed to the ceasefire it has signed with JEM. It has not bombed any JEM positions," an army spokesman said.

20100405
aljazeera

Sudan's controversial presidential election race has been shunned by most of the opposition parties, but one politician is determined to stay the course

Fatma Abdelmahmood is one of 11 candidates challenging Omar al-Bashir for the presidency, a job he has held for 20 years.

Al Jazeera's Mohammed Adow followed the 65-year-old doctor as she campaigned in Khartoum.

201004054
aljazeera

A UN peacekeeper has been killed in northwest Democratic Republic of Congo after suspected tribal fighters clashed with government forces, officials have said.

The fighting in Mbandaka, the main town in Equateur, started after dozens of fighters crossed the Congo River from Kinshasa, the capital, on Sunday and attacked the residence of a local governor before seizing the city's airport.

"A UN peacekeeper has been killed while he was travelling towards the airport," Madnodje Mounoubai, a spokesman for Monuc, the UN mission in DR Congo, said.

He said that the Ghanaian peacekeeper "was in a vehicle and was hit by shrapnel", while a civilian contractor had also died of a heart attack during the fighting.

"We confirm that the airport in Mbandaka has been attacked by insurgents who arrived by boat," Mounoubai said.

"We think [the fighters] are the Enyele, a group that started fighting six months ago claiming fishing rights, but now they are far from their land and we don't know what they want," Mounoubai said.

Fishing dispute

The Enyele are embroiled in a dispute with the Monzaya over fishing rights in nearby lakes.

The fighters, that UN sources said numbered at least 30, were forced out of the town and towards the airport by more than 100 DR Congo soldiers.

"There are many of them and they took us by surprise but we chased them and they fled to the airport," General Janvier Mayanga, operational commander of the Congolese army, told the Reuters news agency by telephone from Mbandaka.

"We've already started the counter-attack to take back the airport," he said.

UN peacekeepers and contractors at the airport and at a fire station beside it - both about 7km from the riverside governor's residence - retreated into the surrounding bush.

UN and army sources could not confirm whether there were any civilians killed in the fighting, but sources in the area said hundreds were sheltering in churches after Easter Sunday services.

A resident of Mbandaka contacted by telephone by the AFP news agency said there was still sporadic gunfire in several neighbourhoods and claimed that soldiers had looted property in the town.

More than 200,000 Congolese have fled their homes in Equateur in the past six months due to the violence between the Lobala and Boba tribesmen, Refugees International, an aid agency, said.

Officials said the latest assault in Mbandaka was thought to be separate from an ongoing conflict between UN-backed forces and rebels in Congo's east.

Monuc is the largest peace keeping operation in the world with 22,000 soldiers, but it has been criticised for failing to prevent frequent attacks on civilians.

20100405
aljazeera

Senegal is to has taken control of all French military bases in the country, Abdoulaye Wade, the president, has said.

In a televised address on Sunday, Wade said that Senegal would begin talks with French authorities to discuss the logistics of the handover.

"I solemnly declare that Senegal is taking back, starting April 4, all the bases on our soil previously held by France," he said.

The largely symbolic move by the former French colony comes as Senegal celebrates 50 years since independence.

The idea has proved popular with Senegalese.

"I want the French soldiers to leave. Otherwise it is as if Senegal doesn't have its own army to insure its security," said Ousmane Fall, a thirty year builder taking part in independence festivities.

But it is unclear what the next steps will be.

"Discussions are continuing," Laurent Teisseire, a French defence ministry spokesman, was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.

Military presence

Wade's announcement comes weeks after Senegal and France agreed to a draw down of 1,200 French troops currently stationed on an airbase in the capital, Dakar.

France has had troops in the country for the full 50 years since it became independent in 1960.

France is the only European country which still has a military presence in Africa, maintaining three major bases in Senegal, Djibouti and Gabon.

Paris says it intends to preserve a "centre of military cooperation with a regional purpose" on the continent.

President criticised

In a letter to Wade on Friday, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, said that his country remained "disposed to continue a policy of military, bilateral and regional co-operation in Senegal, in support of regional stability".

Ahead of his announcement on the French bases, Wade inaugurated a controversial monument to the "African Renaissance"featuring a giant man, woman and child that towers over the capital.

Critics argue that the $28m statue was a waste of money in a country where many live in abject poverty.

Wade has also come in for criticism after he suggested he should pocket a portion of the tourist revenue generated by the monument because it was his idea.

20100405
PRESS TV

The European Union Naval Force says one of its frigates freed a German cargo ship that had been hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia, arresting 10 attackers.

The Dutch frigate, Tromp, rescued the 12,612-ton MV Taipan, which was en route to Mombasa, Kenya from Djibouti, when pirates attacked it on Monday morning and took it over, a Press TV correspondent reported, quoting the Dutch defense ministry.

The Dutch vessel rescued the ship and its 13 crew members at around 1140 GMT about 900 kilometers (560 miles) east of the Somali coast, it said.

A Dutch soldier was slightly wounded in an exchange of gunfire with the pirates.

The Dutch navy launched the operation as part of an EU naval mission called Operation Atalanta, which protects shipping along the key route off Somalia.

Foreign fleets are patrolling the waters off the Horn of Africa as part of a UN-led anti-piracy mission to deter Somali pirates, who have become more sophisticated and broadened their range of operations in seizing vulnerable vessels transiting the waters.

There are still eight vessels and 157 hostages in the hands of Somali pirates, an official said on March 31.

20100405
PRESS TV

Heavy clashes have broken out between two rival militant groups in central Somalia, leaving at least 21 people dead and over 30 others injured.

The fierce fighting between loyalists of Somalia's most prominent anti-government group, al-Shabab, and their archrivals Ahlu Sunnah began in the Rage Ele area in Middle Shabelle on Saturday night and continued Sunday, a Press TV correspondent reported.

The clashes, described as extreme, reportedly left at least 21 fighters dead and around 33 others injured.

No civilian casualties have been reported, but eyewitnesses say with the scale of fighting, casualties are expected to rise on both sides.

So far, both warring sides have claimed victory. Locals, however, say al-Shabab fighters have managed to capture the town.

Meanwhile, clashes also broke out in the Gal-qoryale area that connects Elbur, al-Shabab's largest military base, and Guriel town, Ahlu Sunnah's stronghold in the central Galgadud region.

Residents say al-Shabab attacked the area, driving the local fighters away.

The government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed has recently brought Ahlu Sunnah on board ahead of an expected military push against the fighters.

Reports say that hundreds of al-Shabab fighters have meanwhile massed in anticipation of another planned offensive against Ahlu Sunnah strongholds in central Somalia.

Al-Shabab is fighting against the Somali government and African Union troops.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since warlords toppled Siad Barre in 1991.

The vacuum of power opened a Pandora's Box of chaos and violence as warlords and their militias have fought for power ever since.

The Union of Islamic Courts created a semblance of peace and order in southern Somalia for about six months in 2006, but the Ethiopian invasion of December 2006 ended the brief lull in the storm.