Nov 20, 2009
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Heads of state from the East African Community (EAC) trade bloc signed a common market protocol on Friday that they hope will boost commerce between their five countries when it comes into effect in July 2010.

Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi are confident that the deal allowing the free movement of goods, services, people and capital within the bloc will make their region easier to market to overseas investors.

"The protocol of the establishment of the East African Community Common Market is so approved," Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete told a ceremony in Arusha, northern Tanzania.

Foreign direct investment inflows to the region leapt to $1.73 billion in 2008 from $692 million in 2002, with Uganda and Tanzania receiving the largest proportion, according to data from the EAC and U.N. Conference on Trade and Development.

The bloc has an estimated population of 126.2 million and a gross domestic product of $60 billion in 2008.

The EAC launched a customs union in 2005 for its three largest economies, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, with the phased introduction of common tariffs for goods entering the region.

In July, Rwanda and Burundi joined the customs union, which is due to take full effect in January 2010.

Trade among EAC member states has jumped 49 percent since the union started being implemented, the EAC Secretariat says.

Nov 20, 2009
VICTORIA (Reuters) - The crew of a Spanish fishing boat freed by Somali pirates this week said they had been threatened with being shot during their near two month captivity.

"They had all kinds of guns, from pistols to Kalashnikovs. There were times when they would turn wild, firing volleys of bullets in the air," crew-member Wilson Pillate told reporters after arriving in the Seychelles.

"One day in particular they rounded all of us up. They said our days had ended and they would kill all of us."

The hijacking of the Alakrana and its 36 member crew by heavily-armed gunmen on October 2 was the latest disruption to the region's lucrative tuna industry.

European fishermen say catches in the northwestern Indian Ocean dwindled by as much as 30 percent last year and pirates continue to hinder access to some of the world's richest Yellowfin tuna waters, which lie off lawless Somalia.

Pirates say Spain paid a $3.5 million ransom. Previously, the gunmen had said the vessel would not be freed unless two suspected Somali gunmen captured by the Spanish navy near the tuna ship were released.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero says the government did "what it had to do" to get the Alakrana released.

Maritime attacks have surged in the area in recent months as the pirates extend their range, stretching the resources of foreign navies patrolling the waters off the Horn of Africa.

The tuna industry is worth up to $6 billion across the Indian Ocean region.

Nov 20, 2009
CAIRO (Reuters) - Demonstrators gathered for a second day near the Algerian embassy in Cairo on Friday to protest against what they said was violence against Egyptians during a play-off for the World Cup soccer finals.

Egypt recalled its ambassador to Algeria on Thursday, accusing Algerian fans of thuggery during the match in Khartoum on Wednesday, which Algeria won 1-0 to qualify for the World Cup in South Africa next year.

The Interior Ministry warned Egyptians against further protests after 11 police officers and 24 demonstrators were injured in riots near the embassy at dawn on Friday. Such demonstrations are almost unheard-of in Cairo.

"The police will be forced to take steps it sees necessary in the case of any other contraventions of the law," the ministry said in a statement.

About 150 demonstrators gathered on Friday in the Zamalek neighbourhood, where many embassies are located.

Police trucks and hundreds of officers in riot gear formed a cordon along the streets to block their way to the Algerian embassy, a Reuters witness said.

"One, two, where's the ambassador gone to?" they chanted in Arabic.

Passing cars hooted and some waved Egyptian flags in support of the demonstrators. Stones and broken glass from the previous night's violence littered the street.

Reuters witnesses said about 2,000 demonstrators gathered during the night and many began throwing bottles and stones after a police charge to break up the crowd. Two police vehicles were overturned.

The windows of four shops, a petrol station and 12 glass billboards were shattered and 15 private and police vehicles were damaged during the dawn riots, the Interior Ministry said.

Nov 20, 2009
SKHIRAT, Morocco (Reuters) - Morocco has the resources to press ahead with farm sector reform, even if many foreign investors are unwilling to commit for now, industry officials said.

Foreign investment in the north African country had fallen by a third in September compared to a year earlier, according to government figures, as the global banking crisis made investors loath to venture into new markets,

Morocco has said it needs to muster 150 billion dirhams to upgrade and diversify agriculture, which suffers from droughts and poor yields.

A 10-year farm reform drive seeks to replace cereals, which account for 75 percent of Morocco's arable land of 7.5 million hectares, with more lucrative crops such as olives and boost food exports as trade barriers fall.

Gulf Arab investors should be ideal partners for the plan as their countries need to secure food supplies after prices rose sharply.

Yet big inward investment deals have been largely absent.

At a two-day conference near the Moroccan capital Rabat, local officials sought to convince Gulf investors that heavy bureaucracy and complex land ownership rules, long seen as decisive obstacles, are a thing of the past.

The charm offensive has worked in some cases -- Saudi Arabia's Tabuk Agriculture Development Co. said it planned to invest about $10 million in Moroccan olive farming early next year. It started looking at opportunities in Morocco in 2008.

Nov 20, 2009
GENEVA (Reuters) - Somalia has announced it plans to ratify a global treaty aimed at protecting children, leaving the United States as the only country outside the pact, UNICEF said on Friday.

Somalia and the United States have long been the last hold-outs to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly exactly 20 years ago.

The most widely ratified international human rights treaty, it declares that those under 18 years old must be protected from violence, exploitation, discrimination and neglect.

"Adherence to and application of the Convention will be of crucial importance for the children of Somalia, who are gravely affected by the ongoing conflict, recurrent natural disasters and chronic poverty," the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in a statement welcoming the move.

In 2002, Somalia's previous transitional government signed the Convention, which the United States also signed under President Bill Clinton in 1995, but neither has ratified it.

UNICEF said Somalia's transitional government had told it the "Somali cabinet of ministers has agreed in principle to ratify the Convention on the rights of the Child".

UNICEF spokeswoman Veronique Taveau told a news briefing in Geneva: "The United States has indicated that a very important review process is going on at the moment in order to arrive as quickly as possible at a ratification".

Mark Kornblau, a spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations in New York, said on Thursday the administration of President Barack Obama was "committed to undertaking a thorough and thoughtful review of the Convention of the Rights of the Child".

Nov 20, 2009
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's powerful COSATU trade union federation meets next week to take stock of its relations with the ruling ANC and progress made in economic restructuring to benefit the country's poor.

COSATU, which says it has over two million members across the country, aims to convince President Jacob Zuma to change economic policies to improve the lives of millions of workers.

The meeting of top leaders of South Africa's unions comes just over a week after COSATU, Zuma's African National Congress and the South African Communist Party met to solve their differences.

Analysts expect COSATU will look at its relations with the ANC and how to leverage that relationship to bring about the changes unions want.

"There is an effort from the ANC to restate its own position and not appear to be bowing to the will of the unions. The unions are going to have to assess their strategy," said Mike Davies, Middle East and Africa analyst at Eurasia Group.

"Are they (COSATU) going to approach and attack or try and put pressure on a range of issues in order to gain certain concessions in a number of areas," Davies added.

The federation's central executive committee will meet for three days from November 23 and about 100 members of 21 unions under COSATU's umbrella will discuss political and organisational challenges.

COSATU has been pushing the ANC government to increase spending, scrap the inflation targets that guide monetary policy, cut interest rates and intervene to weaken the rand, which has gained around 20 percent against the dollar this year.

Nov 20, 2009
KINSHASA (Reuters) - Two days of clashes between rival ethnic groups killed 11 people in isolated northern Democratic Republic of Congo this week, the country's United Nations peacekeeping mission said on Friday.

The fighting -- unrelated to simmering rebel violence in the mineral-rich east -- follows the killings of at least 100 people last month in the northern village of Dongo, including 47 policemen, in a feud over fishing rights.

The clashes between Lobala and Boba tribesmen have forced over 50,000 villagers to flee their homes in Equateur province. Most have sought refuge across the border in neighbouring Congo Republic, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

"On November 17, six members of the Lobala community were killed by the Bobas. Both groups were armed with machetes and locally made rifles," Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich, the U.N.'s military spokesman in Congo, told Reuters.

"On the 18th, the Lobalas went to where the Bobas lived and killed five people, including three women."

Earlier this month, security forces arrested around 100 armed Lobalas blamed for the October killings.

The violence is not linked to fighting in Congo's eastern borderlands, where the army, backed by thousands of U.N. peacekeepers, is attempting to stamp out local, Rwandan and Ugandan rebels who roam the mineral-rich regions.

Nov 20, 2009
CALABAR, Nigeria (Reuters) - Meat traders in the southern Nigerian city of Calabar are counting the cost after a truck carrying more than 100 dogs overturned, crushing scores of canines and triggering a scramble to snatch up survivors.

Dog meat is a delicacy in Calabar and the animals were destined for the popular Ika Ika Oqua market.

Dog is usually cooked with local gin, leaves, pepper and spices before being served in special dog bars, or "joints", usually with palm wine. A dog's head drawn on a board or the sign "404 is ready" outside a shack indicates meat is available.

Ordering the "telephone" gets you the tail and large intestine, a particular favourite among connoisseurs, while the legs are referred to as "gear box".

Some dog traders said they had lost their entire capital in the accident, but others managed to salvage what they could from the road kill.

"I lost over 300,000 naira as my dogs were worst hit in the accident. Even the rush sales I made at the scene were at a give away price," said Bassey Etim, a dog trader for many years.

Nov 20, 2009
By Yasmine Saleh and Shaimaa Fayed

CAIRO (Reuters) - Cairo recalled its envoy to Algiers and Egyptians burned the Algerian flag on Thursday after Egypt's soccer team lost to Algeria in a play-off to reach the World Cup finals, accusing its fans of post-match thuggery.

The actions are the latest in a tit-for-tat spat between the North African countries about minor violence surrounding World Cup qualifying matches played on Saturday in Egypt, and on Wednesday in Sudan.

Egypt's state-run EGYNews website said Cairo was recalling its ambassador for consultations over violence against Egyptians after Wednesday's match that Egypt has blamed on Algerian fans.

About 2,000 protestors, some burning Algerian flags, gathered near Algeria's embassy in Cairo late on Thursday to protest what they said was attacks on their compatriots and called for the Algerian envoy to leave, witnesses said.

A Reuters witness said two police pick-up vans were damaged, one had been overturned with windows smashed. Witnesses said at least three other cars were overturned and protesters scuffled with police using teargas to stop them reaching the embassy.

Such protests are rare in Egypt where demonstrations are usually small and swiftly contained by police.

Egypt won Saturday's game 2-0 in Cairo, scoring their second goal deep into stoppage time, to leave the two teams level at the top of African qualifying Group C.

That set up Wednesday's playoff in Khartoum, selected by Egypt when they won a draw to choose the venue.

NAIROBI, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- The East African Community (EAC) will hold its 11th summit on Friday, at which heads of member states are expected to sign a protocol establishing the EAC Common Market.

The EAC is the regional intergovernmental organization consisting of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. The bloc covers a population of more than 120 million with a combined GDP of 60 billion U.S. dollars, and a development strategy of growing up from a Customs Union, a Common Market to a Monetary Union and eventually a Political Federation.

The EAC was first established by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in 1967, but was dissolved in 1977 due to political and economic disputes.

On November 30, 1993, the three countries signed the Agreement for the Establishment of the Permanent Tripartie Commission for East African Cooperation. On March 14, 1996, the Secretariat of the Permanent Tripartie Commission was launched and full cooperation between the three countries began.

The EAC was re-established on November 30, 1999 with the signing of the Treaty for Establishment of EAC, which entered into force on July 7, 2000.

The EAC launched the Customs Union on January 1, 2005. Rwanda and Burundi became full members of the bloc on July 1, 2007 and joined the Customs Union in July 2009

LAGOS, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has met with members of the Commission of Inquiry set up to probe the Sept. 28 crackdown on unarmed demonstrators in Guinea, a UN statement reaching here said on Thursday.

The statement said the meeting took place Wednesday ahead of the team's visit to the West African country next week.

“During the meeting, the secretary-general told the members of the commission to work independently in assessing the facts, and make recommendations on accountability measures,” it said.

“Mohamed Bedjaoui, Francoise Ngendahayo Kayiramirwa and Pramila Patten, who are the members of the commission, will be in Guinea from Nov. 25 to Dec. 4,” the statement added.

“They were appointed by the secretary-general last month to lead the investigation into human rights violations that occurred on Sept. 28 in the capital, Conakry, where at least 150 people were killed and many others raped,” it said.

The Secretariat of the Commission, which is supported by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), arrived in Conakry on Nov. 15 and had commenced work.

Ban had said at the inauguration of the commission that he expected it to complete its work within a month.

Guinean military junta leader Moussa Camara and Prime Minister Kabinet Komara have committed in writing to the secretary-general that the authorities of Guinea would cooperate with the commission and facilitate its work.

LAGOS, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua called on the G8 countries to act rather than make promises on hunger to save the worsening situation in less developed nations, local press reported on Thursday.

In his paper presented at the ongoing World Summit on Food Security held in Rome, Italy on Wednesday, Yar'Adua said the rich nations only released 1 billion U.S. dollars of the8 billion dollars pledged as aid to the less-endowed nations in 2008.

The G8 similarly had made a pledge to mobilize 20 billion dollars as aid to developing nations over a period of three years.

Represented by Shamsudeen Usman, the country's minister of National Planning, Yar'Adua said if the pledges were redeemed, they would bring about significant improvement in the level of achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

He stressed that poverty alleviation, reduction of hunger and realizing the goals of the MDGs were dependent on increased investment in agriculture and rural development.

The president said the worsening global food and economic situation coupled with the financial and economic crises had created a situation where more people were currently living within the poverty bracket.

According to him, if not urgently addressed, the projected growth in the number of hungry people could threaten the efforts to achieving the MDGs.

Yar'Adua said there was the likelihood of even reversing the development gains made over the last decade.

He added that his administration was not resting on its oars and added that Nigeria had made massive investment in agriculture such that 12 percent of the 2009 budget was allocated to the sector.

"This is over and above the Maputo declaration which recommends 10 percent of annual budget as allocation to agriculture," the News Agency of Nigeria quoted him as saying.

He stressed that Nigeria was not particular about aid but meaningful partnership and as such had left its doors open to foreign investors desirous of participating in new projects on agricultural development.

He listed the provision of market infrastructure, processing and storage facilities, provision of essential agricultural input and services as the cornerstone of the new trend.

"Our investment in agriculture and water resources development is already beginning to show results as Nigeria's GDP increased by 6.0 percent in the first half of 2009 with agriculture contributing almost half of the GDP growth rate," he said.

ABIDJAN, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Despite the postponement of the Nov. 29 presidential elections, Cote d'Ivoire's candidates have never stopped efforts to "fish for votes," local analysts say.

The pre-campaign mood has been building on across the war-divided West African country for some months and has been going on as a seduction operation to capture the youth since, in Cote d'Ivoire, they will constitute 30 percent of the electorate in the coming elections.

In the past, the minimum age for voting was 21, but the new electoral code allows citizens to vote as young as 18 years old. Because the youth constitutes a big number, each leader wants to benefit from them.

The head of state, Laurent Gbagbo, the candidate for the ruling Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), has never failed to take pride in the fact that he is ever close to them, reminding them of how they were mobilized to save his government which had been threatened in 2002.

Gbagbo, who met with the Ivorian youth on Nov. 1 in Yopougon, an Abidjan suburb known for being an FPI stronghold, made five commitments to them, including equality of opportunities for children in Cote d'Ivoire, profound reforms in the education sector and employment.

"I share with you the determination to build a prosperous and brotherly country where the youth are going to be actors in the new world," said the head of state whose national youth campaign was entrusted to Charles Ble Goude.

The candidate for the opposition Democratic Party of Cote d'lvoire (PDCI), Henri Konan Bedie, does not miss an opportunity to communicate with the youth. Bedie has met the youth several times in the Abidjan stadium. In each of these meetings, he adopted a linguistic style of the youth by sometimes speaking "nouchi," the popular street language in the country.

After having noted the difficulties that the youth are faced with especially unemployment, for which he blamed the party in power, Bedie indicated that he had the solutions, for example, the creation of the youth micro-projects, rehabilitation of libraries and the creation of a fund for the education of students from humble backgrounds.

Another opposition leader, the candidate for Republicans Assembly (RDR), Alassane Ouattara, also proposes solutions for the Ivorian youth.

Ouattara, who has also organized several tours across the country, said he worked for three years (1990 to 1993) for the youth when he was the prime minister under the late president Felix Houphouet Boigny. He promised to give hope to the youth through projects in various fields, among them education and integration of the youth into the world of work, making them to believe not only in themselves, but also in their country.

The former director general for Ivorian Customs, Gnamien Konan, a candidate for the Union of Cote d'Ivoire (UPCI), wished to woo the youth during a meeting he had with them at Yopougon (Abidjan) on Aug. 1.

According to him, his ascendancy to power will institutionalize meritocracy where there will be zero tolerance for corruption and favoritism, but everything will be done in consideration of merit. "Whatever their social class, the youths who will have studied well and passed in their exams and competitions will be absorbed in the administration or companies based on their merit," he claimed.

The Union for Democracy and Peace in Cote d'Ivoire (UDPCI) has also tried to win over the Ivorian youth. The president of this party, which was created by the ex-junta in power during the military transition, the late general Robert Guei who was killed in the early moments of the political conflict, said the Ivorian youth can save themselves and that they live in precariousness, they are attracted to luxury and easy gains and they have been exposed to a lot of cheating.

"We must give our youths a complete change of mindset and resources that can support not only their future, but also the future of the country. Job creation and the promotion of youth entrepreneurial spirit will be our priority strategies," said UDPCI President Albert Mabri Toikeusse.

Like everybody else, the candidate for the Movement of Future Forces (MFA), Innocent Anaky Kobenan, offers to invest a substantial amount of resources in the promotion of the youth who are the future of the country.

As the elections approach, each Ivorian youth is finding himself bombarded with promises for his well being.

Each political leader is hoping to win over the heart of this section of the population whose vote is going to tilt the electoral scale.

Voters in Cote d'Ivoire are impatiently waiting for the presidential election being anticipated an opportunity to end seven years of the political crisis in the country.

LAGOS, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria's Joy Obasi has emerged the winner of the 2009 Miss Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Peace Pageant, a statement reaching here said on Thursday.

Ngozika beat 22 other contestants to emerge winner of the pageant held on Saturday in southeast Nigeria's Rivers State, the statement said.

The 20-year old beat contestants from 13 other ECOWAS member-states in a keenly-contested pageant to clinch the coveted crown.

She went home with a star prize of a 2009 model of Toyota Corolla car, 5,000 U. S. dollars in cash, an ECOWAS Mantle and other gifts, including a laptop.

The new queen, who is the second of five children and a fourth-year student of Biology at the University of Port Harcourt, said she believed in change.

The first runner-up was Sherilyn Partey of Ghana, who received a cash prize of 3,000 dollars, while Marceline Diop of Senegal got a cash prize of 2,000 dollars for emerging as the second runner-up.

Joy was crowned by the winner of the 2008 Miss ECOWAS Peace Pageant, Miss Fatoumata Diallo, of Senegal.

Mohamed Ibn Chambas, president of the ECOWAS commission, said the role of such pageants as a mechanism for transmitting culture and cementing relations among the people of the region could not be underestimated.

"Culture is undeniably a unifying factor among peoples like us in West Africa with identical cultural values and traits," the statement quoted Chambas as saying.

According to him, culture created bonds, affinity and unity that enabled the people to overcome obstacles that could ordinarily frustrate integration efforts.

Chambas said the choice of River State as the venue for the competition for the second consecutive edition was predicated on the need to showcase the peace in Rivers.

The Miss ECOWAS Peace Pageant is an initiative of 702 Productions Ltd, an Accra-based events management company, as a platform for promoting peace and the youth agenda of the ECOWAS Commission to the global community.

LAGOS, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Head of the Nigerian government medical team to the 2009 pilgrimage, Ibrahim Kana, has confirmed that 11 Nigerian pilgrims have died in Saudi Arabia, the News Agency of Nigeria reported on Thursday.

He said two of the deceased were knocked down by vehicles in Mecca and Medina, while two died of diarrhea and vomiting, one of epilepsy, another of pneumonia and the rest of natural causes.

Kana said northern Nigeria's Nasarawa, Sokoto, Kebbi and Bauchi states lost two pilgrims each, while Zamfara, Plateau and Niger states lost one each.

According to him, the record was an improvement compared with 2008, when 45 Nigerians died before Arafat.

He called on the pilgrims to improve on their personal hygiene, rest properly and take plenty of water and fruits to avoid exhaustion from the heat.

He said the federal medical team was working with the state medical teams to ensure the good health of pilgrims.

The federal medical team has 60 doctors, 120 nurses, 20 pharmacists and 16 environmental health officers, who offer free medical services to pilgrims in their clinics in Mecca, Medina and Jeddah.

Some 95, 000 Nigerians are performing the pilgrimage.

BRAZZAVILLE, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Republic of Congo and the UN aid agencies say they have begun distributing foodstuffs and other relief to some 25,000 nationals of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), who are taking refuge in the extreme north Likouala district.

The aid comprises food, canvas covers, cans and blankets which were thought to be insufficient considering the number of the refugees camping in about 20 towns and villages along the river Oubangui within a radius of 160 km.

"We cannot keep this aid as we wait for it to be sufficient. We have begun to give aid to you progressively as we receive it," a UNHCR official said on Thursday.

The DRC refugees fled from the inter-ethnic violence which broke out towards the end of October in Dongo village in Equateur province in northwest of the central African country.

According to humanitarian NGOs, the situation remains catastrophic on the ground and help is only dripping in.

The conditions of these refugees are very tragic and many of them are living in tents to shelter from the bad weather.

KINSHASA, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- More than 43,000 children work in mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), UNICEF reported here Thursday on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the convention on the children's rights.

The child laborers include 20,000 in the southeastern province of Katanga, 12,000 in the central province of Kasa-Occidental and more than 11,000 in the central-south province of Kasa-Oriental.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of children are living and working in the DRC towns. Among them, more than 8,000 have been identified in Kinshasa alone since the beginning of 2009, and more than 1,400 have been integrated either in families or in communities with the help of partners.

UNICEF disclosed that out of the 2 million displaced people in the country, more than 100,000 are children, whose childhood, education and other rights are threatened.

The United Nations welcomed the national strategy put in place by the DRC government to tackle the violence faced by girls and women, demanding similar measures be taken against the recruit of children in the armed groups.

UNICEF said it remains convinced that the respect of children's rights will make everybody to start paying attention to the fundamental needs of children, including education, the prevention of HIV/AIDS and the reduction of infant mortality.

(Xinhua) -- Chairman of the African Union Commission Jean Ping said here Wednesday the civil society in Sudan's Darfur region should play an active role in the regional peace process.

Addressing a meeting of representatives of civil society from Darfur, Ping said the civil society should confront the challenges through a unified position to help move forward the reconciliation process.

He urged the civil society to send a message to Darfur's armed groups that peace is the real victory and they should come back to negotiations.

Around 170 civil groups from Darfur started on Tuesday a consultative forum to discuss the ongoing efforts to halt the armed conflict in the Sudanese region.

Fightings that erupted in 2003 between ethnic rebels and the Sudanese forces have left around 300,000 people dead and 2.7 million others displaced, the United Nations estimated.

The UN Security Council last year dispatched a hybrid force, the UNAMID (African Union/United Nations Hybrid operation in Darfur), to the volatile region in efforts to protect local residents.

As a the prime mediator between the Sudanese government and rebel groups, Doha has hosted several rounds of negotiations, but little progress has been achieved as various parties were entrenched in their positions on key issues.

Nov 18, 2009

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's parliament on Wednesday unanimously approved a bill to reform the central bank, including reducing the powers of the bank governor accused by critics of policies that ruined the economy.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti said last week the government had failed to attract funding from foreign donors for next year's budget because they feared the money could be misused by the Reserve Bank.

The bill is the first major law to be passed by parliament since the formation of a unity government between Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and rival President Robert Mugabe in February.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Bill will reduce the powers of the governor by appointing an independent chairperson and board, and restrict the bank to dealing with interest rates, currency management and regulating banks.

The governor's core function would be to chair a planned monetary policy committee.

"There have been extreme discussions with the Minister (Biti) that there be amendments ... and we have agreed on these amendments," Paul Mangwana, a member of parliament's legal committee and from Mugabe's ZANU-PF party told parliament.

The bill will now be debated in the upper Senate, and if approved would be signed by Mugabe.

ZANU-PF legislators had last week threatened to block the bill, arguing that it targeted central bank governor Gideon Gono, a Mugabe ally with whom Biti has had an uneasy relationship.

Nov 18, 2009

LONDON (Reuters) - Women bear the brunt of drought, rising seas, melting glaciers and other effects of climate change but are mostly ignored in the debate over how to halt it, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said on Wednesday.

In its 2009 state of the world population report, the agency said the world's poor are the most vulnerable to climate change and the majority of the 1.5 billion people living on $1.0 a day or less are women.

"Poor women in poor countries are among the hardest hit by climate change, even though they contributed the least to it," said UNFPA executive director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid.

World leaders are due to meet at a U.N. global warming summit in Copenhagen in December and the U.N. agency urged them to think about how much women are harmed by climate change and how much they could be engaged in the fight against it.

"With the possibility of a climate catastrophe on the horizon, we cannot afford to relegate the world's 3.4 billion women and girls to the role of victim," Obaid said in a commentary on the report. "Wouldn't it make more sense to have 3.4 billion agents for change?"

Obaid said that because the poor are more likely to depend on agriculture for a living, they risk going hungry or losing their livelihood when droughts, floods or hurricanes strike. They also tend to live in marginal areas, more vulnerable to floods, rising seas and storms.

Because women are often the poorest in society and have less power over their lives, less recognition of economic worth and bear the brunt of raising children, they suffer more, she said.

The UNFPA report cited research which showed that women are more likely than men to die in natural disasters and that the gap is widest in poorer societies where women have low status.