LAGOS, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria and the European Union (EU) on Thursday sought urgent global agreement on Climate Change Summit scheduled for December in Copenhagen, Denmark.

This was contained in a communiqué by the two parties in Abuja at the end of a one-day Nigeria-EU joint way forward senior officials meeting.

The communiqué stated that there was the need to reach an effective, equitable and ambitious global agreement at the summit.

"The world must rally around the two degrees centigrade target, take bold steps and decidedly embark on a low carbon development path," the communiqué said.

It added that Nigeria is among the African countries most vulnerable to the adverse effects of the climate change.

"Reducing gas flaring, which contributes to greenhouse gas emissions is of common interest," it said.

On energy security, the two parties agreed that the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline Project was important to diversify routes, adding that the EU imported 20 and 80 percent of Nigeria's oil and gas respectively.

The communiqué said Nigeria's drive to explore renewable energy was encouraging, adding that it would herald the possibility of meeting the ever growing domestic demand through environmentally sustainable means.

The communiqué commended Nigeria for exerting its regional leadership in the promotion of peace and democracy, culminating in its election as non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

"The sanctions imposed by ECOWAS on Guinea and Niger Republics are timely and enacted under the understanding that they will reinforce and complement other actions aimed at restoring democracy in those countries," it stated.

The communiqué also said the success recorded by Nigeria through the amnesty offered to militants in the Niger Delta region.

"The offer is accompanied by a disposition of the Government of Nigeria to continue engaging in a process of Disarmament, Demobilization, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (DDR)," the communiqué said.

According to the communiqué, there is firm commitment by the EU to continue in regular and structured dialogue with Nigeria on Migration and Development.

It pointed out that the Nigerian side emphasized on the need to continue to ensure humane outlook to the issue of migration rather than criminalizing it.

The EU commended Nigeria on the efforts made to reform vital sectors of the polity, economy and the society including the ongoing implementation of President Umaru Yar'Adua's Seven Point Agenda.

Other efforts, the EU said, were the approval of the Vision 20:20:20 and the ongoing efforts at Electoral Reform.

Rwandan officials look at a Jetlink plane that crashed into the VIP lounge at the Kigali airport November 12, 2009. A Rwandair passenger plane bound for Uganda crashed into the airport VIP lounge in Rwanda's capital on Thursday and killed one passenger, officials said.

xinhuanet

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- This season Jacques Matombehad to burn 14,300 U.S. dollars worth of pumpkin that he spent months growing on his farm in Seychelles. There was no other way to stop the disease spreading to his crop.

"It was out of control," he said, standing in a field of crispy pumpkin plants. "You have to burn it."

Disease and pests have become a problem for Matombe and other locals who farm the Aseroyale Plateau on Mahe, Seychelles' main island. Once cool, trade winds are now warmer, fostering the right breeding grounds for disease.

The change in temperature and unusual, extreme seasons have made farming even more unforgiving, said Matombe, noting that his neighbor recently had to burn thousands of dollars worth of Chinese cabbage after they became infected.

"The disease attacks the heart," he said.

Matombe's five hectares of farmland must support his family of five children and keep 30 workers employed. But changing weather patterns have increased the costs of running his farm, raising the stakes in a precarious livelihood.

Climate change is making it more difficult to for Seychelles to achieve food security, said Antoine Marie Moustache, the co-chair of Seychelles' Agricultural Agency on Food and Security, and a member of the National Climate Change Committee.

"In the last 12, 13 years now, we've seen many cases where the weather has been totally against us," he told Xinhua. "We've experienced serious extreme events, heavy downpours, (and) a lot of droughts in between."

To make matters even more challenging, roughly 70 percent of Seychelles' agricultural land lies along the coast. Farmers are complaining that their land is being inundated by a number of tidal surges and their freshwater sources are mixing with saltwater.

"Farmers traditionally used to use (freshwater sources) on the coastal plateau to irrigate but they cannot do that to any major extent right now," he said. "They always have to take note that it can become contaminated with seawater."

The most Seychelles can do is adapt, to carry out projects that keep the seawater out of farmland or that prevent coastal erosion. But the tiny African nation, with a population of less than 85,000people, is one of the most indebted countries in the world.

Without foreign assistance, adjust to climate change will be virtually impossible. Poorer nations will need 75 to 100 billion U.S. dollars per year through the year 2050 for adaptation projects, according to the World Bank.

A STONE'S THROW AWAY

Willis Agricole is Seychelles' director-general for Climate andEnvironmental Services in the Department of Environment and the focal point for the United Nations Framework Convention on ClimateChange. In October, he told Xinhua that negotiators from rich nations have been reluctant to ink any final numbers on adaptation finance and mid-term targets, something which is still true today.

Dismayed by the lack of progress made at the UN climate talks, Agricole noted the rift between developing and developed countries over whether to build on the Kyoto Protocol or start fresh. The international climate treaty, which the U.S. never ratified, commits a targeted number of industrialized nations to specific emission cuts.

Much to the chagrin of Agricole, the U.S., and "others hiding behind the U.S.," want to abandon the Kyoto Protocol. They argue that the world has changed dramatically since the treaty was drafted in 1997 and emerging economies should be included in a new, legally binding agreement.

"The argument is that the world has changed, and we know that,"Agricole said. "But then they have the historical responsibility for climate change. Climate change is an additional burden which was not created by developing countries or small island states."

"We, as vulnerable states are saying that we should be given finances for us to adapt and we want the finance now, not in 2020,not in 2030, but now because we are being faced daily by adverse effects of climate change, be it coastal erosion, extreme weather event, (and) tropical cyclones," he said.

Whether developed countries deliver aid dollars at the Copenhagen summit in December awaits to be seen. According to reports, Copenhagen will produce a political deal, not a legally binding agreement, which could delay a treaty for up to one year.

On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton echoed other key negotiators and called the UN climate talks in Copenhagen a "steppingstone," a far cry from UN Chief Ban Ki-moon's mantra of "Seal the Deal."

The Seychelles government released a statement on Thursday expressing its concern at attempts to steamroll the world's most vulnerable countries into accepting a watered down political agreement.

As a member of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), Seychelles reaffirmed its call for emission cuts in the short and medium-term that would limit temperatures to below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, minimizing the impacts of climate change to vulnerable island nations.

Industrial nations have been aiming for targets that limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius above those levels.

Holding up a badge and a pen brandishing the slogan, "1.5 to stay alive," Agricole said AOSIS had the support of 100 countries.However, he acknowledged that most were only small emitters of greenhouse gases.

"If we don't get this as small island developing states, then it's as if we are putting a death sentence on our country," he said. "We'll still fight very hard to get our position within the framework within the new agreement."

ON ROCKY GROUND

A row of houses line a meandering road along the northern coast of Mahe. On the other side of the road, small waves break onto a pebbled beach. The ocean is calm, for now. But sand fanned out along the road's black tarp is evidence of what the sea is capable of in the wee hours.

Alain de Comarmond, the director of Environmental Assessments and Permits at the Seychelles' Department of Environment, said residents are concerned about the tide's progression on to their property.

"Because they see it already," he told Xinhua. "Already, its coming onto the road. And during the worst times, or worst events, then it gets to the other side of the road. This is really happening. It stands to get worse in future, definitely."

All that stands in between the homes and the ocean is a small heap of rocks, the government's attempt at a seawall, built after a cyclone swept through the island in Dec. 2006.

"With an increase in sea levels in the future, in regards to climate change, then the risk stands to increase in future," said de Comarmond as he surveyed the area. "It's a real challenge to the government."

Nanette Laure, the acting director for the Environmental Engineering Section said the government can really only either plant vegetation or build walls to reduce coastal erosion. It's an ongoing battle against nature that takes constant attention and maintenance.

"What we are seeing is that most of the coastal areas have been degraded and erosion is happening at an alarming rate," said Laure. "So we trying our best to try and mitigate the erosion that is happening. Of course it's not easy because we need funding in terms of financial resources."

The UN says that six aid organisations have halted their work in Chad because of the risk of their staff being abducted or killed.

Elisabeth Byrs, a UN spokeswoman, said on Friday that the aid groups include the international Red Cross and French group Doctors Without Borders.

The announcement comes after Laurent Maurice, a Red Cross worker, was kidnapped on Monday and a Chadian aid worker was recently killed.

According to a source close to the international peacekeeping force in the reigion, Maurice's kidnappers have demanded $1.5 million for his release.

Several armed men on Monday seized the French worker who was in eastern Chad to assess recent harvests in the village of Kawa, about 10km from the border with Sudan.

General Oki Dagache, who heads co-ordination with the international force in eastern Chad, has blamed the kidnapping on "crooks from Sudan" and said the kidnappers had crossed back into Sudan's western Darfur region with their captive.

Byrs said the suspension leaves at least 37,000 people without aid and that attacks on aid workers in eastern Chad have doubled to about 190 compared with last year.

At least 70 United Nations and other aid organisations provide food, water, and medical help to more than 250,000 Sudanese refugees and uprooted Chadians in the east.
aljazeera

Mozambique's main opposition party has called for the results of the country's recent presidential election to be annulled, saying the vote was rigged.

Incumbent president, Armando Guebuza, who has been in power since 2005, won the October poll by a landslide securing 75 per cent of the vote, according to results announced earlier this week.

His Frelimo party, in power since it led the country to independence from Portugal in 1975, won 191 parliamentary seats out of 250.

But according to local media the main opposition Renamo party now claims it has evidence of widespread vote-rigging.

"We demand the cancellation of the results that were just announced and we insist on a new vote," Ussufo Momade, the Renamo secretary-general, was quoted as saying on Thursday.

Renamo has alleged ballot-stuffing in some districts and that its observers had been expelled from others.

The breakaway Democratic Movement of Mozambique, which came in third in the October 28 poll, also protested saying ballots had been tampered with at some polling stations.

Voter turnout nationwide was 45 per cent, but some stations reported a turnout of 95 per cent or more, raising suspicion of possible ballot stuffing.

The vote was Mozambique's fourth national election since a 16-year civil war between Renamo and the Frelimo government ended in the establishment of multi-party democracy in 1994.
Source: Agencies

November 12, 2009


Libya is to try two Swiss businessmen on charges of tax evasion and violating residency laws, after they were arrested amid a diplomatic row.

The pair, who were arrested in July 2008, are also accused of violating trade regulations, Khaled Kaim, Libya's deputy minister for foreign affairs, said on Thursday.

"The two Swiss citizens will be tried before the end of the year," Kaim said.

However, the businessmen - Max Goeldi and Rachid Hamdani - have been secluded in the Swiss embassy and must find a private address before they can be served notice and put on trial.

"In line with the law, they must have an address so that justice can be carried out," Kaim said.

"They can go back to their homes [in capital Tripoli] or to a hotel but they must leave the embassy."

Kaim said that his government had asked the Swiss embassy to make the men available to authorities for trial dates and other court procedures.

Geneva arrest

The pair were arrested two days after Hannibal Gadhafi, the son of Moammar Gadhafi, the Libyan leader, and his wife were detained for two days for allegedly physically abusing their servants in a Geneva hotel.

Goeldi, a senior manager at ABB, the engineering giant, and Hamdani, who works for a small construction firm, were originally refused exit visas from Libya and charged with immigration offences.

They were later released on bail and handed to the Swiss embassy, raising hopes that they would be freed.

Bern and Tripoli struck a deal in August that would have seen them return home.

But in mid-September the pair were invited for a medical check up outside the embassy and taken away by Libyan officials, before being returned to the embassy in early November.

Kaim said Bern must "stop politicising this case in order not to jeopardise the situation" of the Swiss businessmen.

"I don't understand why the Swiss government and press insist on linking a court case to the diplomatic row."

Gadhafi was released from Swiss custody when the complaints were dropped after the two servants received compensation from an undisclosed source.

The initial arrest also led to Libya recalling some of its diplomats from Switzerland and freezing some of its business ties with the country.
Source: Agencies

afrol News, 10 November - Algerian authorities are planning to introduce a draft resolution in the UN Security Council to ban the practice of paying ransoms to terrorist groups.

The Algerian terrorist groups have stepped up their kidnapping attempts in recent months, mainly in Kabylie and the Wilaya of Tizi Ouzou. Victims usually hail from wealthy families that can afford to pay steep ransoms, according to local reports.

Analysts had said that the ransom payments to terrorist groups are becoming a very serious security issue, indicating that millions of dollars had been paid to al-Qaeda terrorist groups to secure release of hostages.

Local reports cited Salime Amine saying terrorists are using ransom demands because they are aware that some countries give in to this kind of pressure.

"Faced with measures introduced by the various governments, which make it very difficult and sometimes impossible to transfer money to the terrorists, they have resorted to hostage-taking," he said.

Algeria has also taken its anti-ransom campaign to its African neighbours. Algerian diplomats threw their full support behind a regional meeting in July, in the hopes of encouraging other African countries to adopt a similar position regarding terrorists' demands.

The Minister for Maghreb and African Affairs, Abdelkader Messahel, said that the financing for terrorist activities is largely provided by the money that is collected during ransom demands.

Algeria’s most recent hostage situation occurred on 30 October, when members of al-Qaeda's El Ansar brigade kidnapped a business owner from his workplace in Tigzirt, Tizi Ouzou province

afrol News, 10 November - Poor countries, already hit hard by the global financial and economic crisis in their efforts to fund social and health programmes, are facing a double blow this year with debt servicing increasing by over 17 percent as a proportion of government revenue, a top United Nations trade official has warned.

Moreover, the crisis has weakened the banking sectors of several low-income countries, UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi told a debt management conference in Geneva, yesterday.

“If the global crisis were to extend beyond 2010, the risk of bank failures would increase in some developing countries, adding further pressure on their already strained budgetary positions,” he said.

He stressed that developing countries faced a serious dilemma as they seek to emerge from poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) the world set itself in 2000 to slash a host of social ills, ranging from extreme poverty and hunger to maternal and infant mortality to lack of access to education and health care, all by 2015.

Borrowing heavily to achieve these targets, as well as to build roads, railways, ports and other infrastructure needed to allow long-term economic progress, saddles them with debt that leads to slow growth. But not making such investments also leads to slow growth and will lead to may countries not meeting the MDGs, he said.

UNCTAD has already begun a major project – called Promoting Sovereign Lending and Borrowing – which aims at helping creditor and debtor countries to establish standards that might avoid periodic repayment difficulties and more easily resolve disputes.

The three-day meeting, the seventh of UNCTAD’s debts management conferences, is being attended by over 300 participants from some 100 countries, including government finance, debt, and treasury officials, banking representatives and academics specialising in development finance, along with officials from multilateral organisations.

afrol News, 10 November - The United States African Development Foundation (USADF), in conjunction with the United States Embassy in Mauritania, hosted a ceremony to launch nearly $850,000 in development assistance to grassroots groups in Mauritania. Representatives from each group receiving USADF funds were in attendance.

The US Ambassador to Mauritania Mark M. Boulware focused his remarks around the Obama Administration’s dedication to the importance of economic development and went on to speak about the work of USADF in the West African country.

He stated, “USADF is unique because it seeks to use American grants to promote one of the most valuable resources in Mauritania - its people. The United States recognises the value of the dynamic ideas of Africans and by providing a combination of USADF grant money and business administration training to Mauritanian entrepreneurs, we are helping to create new businesses, new jobs, and new opportunities in Mauritania.”

The USADF Regional Programme Director, Rama Bah, also stated “USADF grantees in Mauritania are a great source of pride for the Agency, for they represent how ideas can come to life and how people can start to empower, and create better lives for, themselves and their communities.”

This year, the Foundation received over 150 applications from all thirteen regions. Requests came from refugees returning to Mauritania seeking to re-establish their lives in Gorgol, Brakna, and Trarza, and mining communities in the extremely remote area of Tiris Zemmour. The grants are designed to build upon existing systems, to improve productivity, and support capacity building.

During the ceremony, each grantee present received a certificate from USADF and the US Embassy recognized them as USADF grantees selected in 2009.

USADF began programming in Mauritania in 2008, with the first projects focusing on camel and cow herders gaining access to markets to sell their milk. Mauritania’s current portfolio stands at ten investment projects totalling $1.28 million dollars.

afrol News, 10 November - A Nigerian court has ruled out a bail application for the former Chairman of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Olabode George.

The Ikeja High Court yesterday in Lagos dismissed an application for bail filed by Mr George and five others convicted on 26 October. They were jailed two years each without any option of fine for contract splitting, abuse of office and disobeying lawful authority while serving on the board of NPA.

The convicts presently serving their jail terms at Kirikiri Maximum Prisons had on 30 October filed an application for bail, pending appeal, on health grounds and congestion, at the Court of Appeal, which they argued could delay hearing of their appeal.

Justice Olubunmi Oyewole said there was no sufficient ground before the court to admit Mr George and others to bail on medical grounds. “There must be sufficient evidence from a specialist in that particular field of medicine to grant bail on medical grounds,’’ Mr Oyewole said.

Mr George and five other co-accused, who were members of the 2001/2003 Ports Authority Board, were found guilty and convicted on numerous charges including conspiracy, disobedience of lawful orders, inflation of contracts and abuse of office by splitting contracts.

Public officials are banned from awarding contracts of more than a 130,000 naira (US$853) without approval. Splitting the contract into parts, to award a far larger sum of money, is also breaking the law.

The trial, which initially involved five accused persons, started on 15 August, 2008, when Mr George and five others were arraigned before Justice Oyewole on a 163-count charge of conspiracy, disobedience to lawful order, inflation of contracts and contracts splitting. However the charges were later dropped to 63 by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) which is prosecuting the case.

The jailing of Mr George and five others was a major breakthrough in the trial, which lasted 15 months, and in the fight against graft but a major setback for the flamboyant PDP chieftain. Mr George and other accused persons were arraigned last year by EFCC on a 68-count charge bordering on N85 billion fraud at the NPA.

afrol News, 10 November - Algerian authorities are planning to introduce a draft resolution in the UN Security Council to ban the practice of paying ransoms to terrorist groups.

The Algerian terrorist groups have stepped up their kidnapping attempts in recent months, mainly in Kabylie and the Wilaya of Tizi Ouzou. Victims usually hail from wealthy families that can afford to pay steep ransoms, according to local reports.

Analysts had said that the ransom payments to terrorist groups are becoming a very serious security issue, indicating that millions of dollars had been paid to al-Qaeda terrorist groups to secure release of hostages.

Local reports cited Salime Amine saying terrorists are using ransom demands because they are aware that some countries give in to this kind of pressure.

"Faced with measures introduced by the various governments, which make it very difficult and sometimes impossible to transfer money to the terrorists, they have resorted to hostage-taking," he said.

Algeria has also taken its anti-ransom campaign to its African neighbours. Algerian diplomats threw their full support behind a regional meeting in July, in the hopes of encouraging other African countries to adopt a similar position regarding terrorists' demands.

The Minister for Maghreb and African Affairs, Abdelkader Messahel, said that the financing for terrorist activities is largely provided by the money that is collected during ransom demands.

Algeria’s most recent hostage situation occurred on 30 October, when members of al-Qaeda's El Ansar brigade kidnapped a business owner from his workplace in Tigzirt, Tizi Ouzou province.

By staff writer

afrol News, 10 November - The head of the UN food agency has welcomed the declaration by the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation underlining the critical role that investment in food security, agriculture and infrastructure plays in feeding people on the continent.

The World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director Josette Sheeran noted that for decades the agency has helped people in China and Africa access the food they need to live healthy, productive lives.

“We have helped farmers feed their families, while supporting them as they improve their land, dig wells, and build roads and clinics and schools,” Ms Sheeran said in her statement, applauding the pledges for further support made at the Forum, which wrapped up yesterday in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

“In the midst of humanitarian emergencies, WFP has also rebuilt roads, ports and airstrips to reduce the cost of delivering humanitarian aid,” she said. “By strengthening infrastructure, WFP has helped to cut the cost of transporting people and goods over the long term.”

Ms Sheeran also noted that China’s own success in addressing malnutrition and bolstering food security stands as an example to the world that hunger can be beaten in a generation, especially when small farmers are given access to credit and markets.

“WFP is looking to replicate this success by supporting small farmers in regions like sub-Saharan Africa, where – last year – it purchased $427 million worth of food from farmers in 15 countries across the continent,” said Ms Sheeran.

China has reaffirmed its position to help Africa out as well as consolidated its committed as the continent’s trade and development partner.

During the Summit, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, pledged over $10bn in concessional loans over the next three years for the continent.

China has also pledged to look into supporting and financing more environmental projects in Africa, which will include the green and cleaner energy for the continent.

The two-day Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which began on Sunday in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, has since its modest start in year 2000 developed into one of the most important cooperation forums for African leaders, where rapid results and multi-billion deals can be reached.

China-African relations have boomed during this decade, with Beijing now being one of the lead players on the African continent. Direct Chinese investment in Africa leapt from US$ 491 million in 2003 to US$ 7.8 billion in 2008. Trade between the two parties has also increased tenfold since the start of the decade. Last year, China-Africa trade reached US$ 106.8 billion - a rise of 45 percent in one year and on par with the United States.

afrol News, 10 November - The Ugandan government has formed an alliance with the media to focus on prevention programmes, in re-shaping its strategy in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC) director general, Kihumuro Apuuli, said the recent surge in the HIV statistics has forced the government to focus on prevention rather than treatment because of the increasing number of new infections annually.

According to UAC, Uganda registered more than 110,000 new HIV infections and 63,000 HIV-related deaths in 2008, while over 2.6 million people have contracted the virus, out of which 1.1 million people are still struggling with it.

The Commission said out of the 320,000 people who are in dire need of antiretroviral treatment only 191,000 can access it with each individual costing government over US$11,500 over a lifetime.

Uganda has made great success in bringing down its prevalence rate from 18 percent in the 1990s to 6.2 percent in 2005.

Mr Apuul said government and media should work hand in hand to make sure that all the prevention messages are carried out on both print and electronic media countrywide. “If we partner properly we can reverse the trend of this virus," he said.

"We owe it to ourselves to change the destiny of this country, we want to see a reversal and an end of this virus," he added.

Jesse Kagimba, senior presidential advisor on HIV/AIDS, said there is need to refocus on the development agenda because HIV/AIDS was bleeding the country to death. "We might be training people, building roads but we are bleeding to death. All these being trained are dying of AIDS," he said.

He appealed to the media to resume using messages that instil responsibility among the public saying it is the only way of bringing down the prevalence rate like it was in the 1990s.

Uganda’s was once Africa’s success story in managing to bring down it prevalence to a single digit, however, analysts said with the recent escalation of infection rates, this could be a major set back to the country’s fight against HIV/AIDS.

The government will not abandon its aim of transferring 30% of land to black owners because failure to redistribute posed the risk of Zimbabwe-style polarisation, Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Gugile Nkwinti said on Tuesday.

"We remain obsessed with 30%. The issue has a great potential for polarisation," Nkwinti told a media briefing by Cabinet's economic and employment cluster.

He confirmed a statement by the Director General of the department, Thozi Gwanya, last week that the government realised it would not be able to achieve its target of transferring 30% of land to black owners by 2014.

So far only about 5% has been redistributed.

Gwanya told Business Day that the government was thinking of extending its deadline to 2025 due to a lack of funding made worse by the recession.

He said R71-billion would have been needed to buy outstanding land by 2014, but Treasury had asked the department to revise its request of an additional R18-billion over three years to a more realistic sum.

Nkwinti said his ministry had not yet made it formal policy to shift the deadline to 2025 but was looking into the matter.

He said the government was aware that it could never move swiftly enough to address expectations on land reform but believed that people wanted to know that the state was aware of their problems.

The minister reiterated that the state's "willing buyer, willing seller" model of land reform did not work.

Nov 10 2009
South Africa's death rate doubled over the last decade due to the spread of Aids, the health minister said on Tuesday, blaming the crisis on government policies under former president Thabo Mbeki.

"In 11 years -- from 1997 to 2008 -- the rate of death has doubled in South Africa. That is obviously something that cannot but worry a person," Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told reporters at Parliament in Cape Town.

He said that in 1997 the total number of deaths stood about 300 000. Last year the figure was 756 000.

Motsoaledi said the figures called for a "massive change in behaviour and attitude" toward Aids among South Africans.

"On the figures, it's shocking. As to whether it has been affected by what we did in the past 10 years, to me that's obvious," he said, according to the South African Press Association.

"I don't think we'd have been here if we'd approached the problem in a different way," he said. "It's a really obvious question. Yes, our attitude toward HIV/Aids put us here where we are."

Most Aids-related deaths were among young people, especially women, he said. About 57% of child deaths in 2007 were HIV-related, the minister added.

The frank remarks by Motsoaledi highlighted the sharp break that President Jacob Zuma has taken from Mbeki in the fight against Aids.

Mbeki questioned whether HIV causes Aids, in spite of scientific evidence. His health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, promoted the use of vegetables above antiretrovirals, which she said were toxic -- while hundreds of thousands died without access to treatment.

Nov 10 2009
Political meddling in resolving a power struggle at Eskom has raised questions about South Africa's ability to run state-owned firms and could backfire with investors hesitant to commit new funds.

Eskom chairperson Bobby Godsell resigned on Monday after he said the government failed to support the board's bid to oust the company's CEO, Jacob Maroga, after the two clashed over issues of how to run Eskom, the state-owned firm that is struggling to keep South Africa's lights on.

But rather than resolving the dispute within the board, Eskom and the government have left it to unions, the opposition and interest groups to dominate the debate in the public sphere.

Alistair Sparks, a political analyst at Standard Bank Securities, said the lack of government backing for the board will have serious implications for when Eskom needs to raise funds for its R385-billion expansion programme.

"Serious institutions will be much more reluctant to lend money to Eskom and if they do, it will be at a much higher interest rate because the risk seems to be higher," he said.

Eskom's leadership crisis is the latest in a series of disputes at South Africa's state-owned enterprises, raising doubts about the ability of President Jacob Zuma and Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan to provide leadership.

"Government intervention may be the prime cause of current chaos in the company," investment bank Fairfax said in a research note, adding that Eskom's ability to supply South Africa's key mining industry could be jeopardised as a result.

Key roles at logistics group Transnet and South African Airways (SAA), which along with Eskom fall under Hogan's jurisdiction, have been left unfilled as the companies struggle to resolve internal battles.

The crisis could further strain the patience of investors already worried that Zuma's allies may be pressuring him to change policies to the left.

mg.co.za

afrol News, 10 November - The UN envoy in Democratic Republic of Congo, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has pledged support to the Congolese government to root out armed militias in eastern part of the country.

Mr Obasanjo said an army offensive against Rwandan rebels had achieved reasonable success, however saying that the seriousness of the humanitarian situation could not be downplayed.

Last week, the UN mission withdrew its support for government army units implicated in killing civilians.

Mr Obasanjo told the UN Security Council that the mission has successfully averted tension which threatened to cause war in the region last year. But he also said that while the symptoms had been dealt with, there were underlying ailments in eastern DR Congo.

In June, The UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Congolese troops decided to strengthen the joint military operation in the eastern DRC to root out illegally-armed groups.

The peacekeeping mission and Congolese troops have also discussed improvements in the protection for civilians in the area, as well as the disarmament and repatriation of the armed militia.

Eastern DRC has been plagued by violence since 1994, after notorious ethnic Hutu militia known as the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR) fled prosecution in Rwanda after the genocide.

An estimated 6,000 FDRL fighters are reportedly settled in eastern DRC forests. The Hutu militia is put in connection with groups co-responsible for the Rwandan 1994 genocide and their activities in the DRC earlier has caused Rwanda to take military action across the border.

PRESIDENT Mugabe returned home yesterday from a successful conference of the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation, where Harare and Beijing agreed to establish a new developmental assistance package.

Speaking at Harare International Airport soon after arrival early yesterday morning, Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi — who accompanied President Mugabe to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for the meeting — said the Zimbabwean delegation was pleased with proceedings at the summit.

"It was a very successful meeting and we are pleased with the manner in which co-operation between Africa and China is developing.

"At the last summit in Beijing in 2006, China pledged to assist in a number of ways and so far 95 percent of those promises have been fulfilled.

"We are confident that by the end of the year all the targets will have been met," Minister Mumbengegwi said.

Among the developmental projects China is on the verge of completing in Zimbabwe are the construction of a rural school (one is already complete), a hospital and an agricultural demonstration centre at Gwebi College.

Minister Mumbengegwi said Beijing would augment this by training teachers and other personnel, especially in the agricultural sector.

President Mugabe was welcomed at the airport by Vice President Joice Mujuru; Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa; Media, Information and Publicity Minister Webster Shamu, service chiefs and senior Government officials.

His delegation included Industry and Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube and his International Co-operation counterpart Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga.

On Sunday, the Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces held bilateral talks with Egyptian leader and conference co-chair President Hosni Mubarak.

While full details of that meeting were not available at the time of writing, a well-placed source said the talks had "gone exceedingly well" and the two had discussed how they could further co-operation at a bilateral level and through the ambit of FOCAC.

President Mugabe and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao held bilateral talks on Saturday, during which the leaders agreed on establishing a new developmental package for Zimbabwe.

Government and Chinese Embassy officials said finer details of the proposed package would be thrashed out soon at a relevant forum.

In his address to the opening session of the meeting on Sunday morning, President Mugabe said China’s partnership with Africa provided the best example of how countries should relate globally at the economic, political and cultural levels.

President Mugabe hailed China-Africa ties, saying the emerging superpower had managed to build a robust economy without resorting to looting and plundering the developing world like the West had done.

He said China’s economic miracle was an inspiration to the rest of the world.

Prime Minister Wen said China would assist Africa with a US$10 billion loan facility among other initiatives over the next three years, with those countries with diplomatic ties with Beijing set to benefit.

MOGADISHU, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- Somali government security officials on Tuesday denied media reports that an abducted commercial ship off the coast of the war-torn country was carrying weapons for government forces.

Somali pirates this week hijacked a ship heading for the capital Mogadishu port and media reports said the ship was not carrying commercial civilian goods but weapons destined for the Somali government.

Abdulahi Hassan Barise, spokesman for Somali police force, said the reports were unfounded and baseless and accused what he described as "uninformed foreign elements" of propagating the information.

"The ship which is still in the pirate's hands is not carrying weapons for the government but common commercial goods such as food items, clothing and cars for local traders," Barise told reporters in Mogadishu.

The traders who own the goods aboard the hijacked ship Al-Mizan, also denied the reports, adding that negotiations were in progress for the release of the ship and that no demand for ransom was made.

Somali pirates have recently intensified their activities along the India Ocean and extended their reach far into the high seas between Somalia and as far as off the Indian sub-continent, the longest distance so far.

The pirate gangs are holding several ships with hundreds of crew on board for whom they demand ransom for their release. ?

GENEVA. Thousands more people than previously thought have fled an ethnic conflict in northwestern DRC, the UN refugee agency said yesterday, amid accounts of killings, rapes and pillaging.

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said thousands of mostly ethnic Munzayas fled early this month from DRC’s Equateur province to the neighbouring Republic of Congo after attacks by Enyele tribesmen over farming and fishing rights.

The Enyele tribe was "armed" and "appeared to have organised into a militia," UNHCR spokesman Andre Mahecic told journalists. The UNHCR last week estimated that more than 16 000 were displaced, but yesterday it raised the figure by over a third to 21 800.

Mahecic said the refugees told UNHCR staff in the region that they were fleeing Enyele tribesmen who "had gone from house to house, pillaging, raping and killing mostly Munzaya civilians in Dongo and surrounding villages, which are now virtually empty."

About 70 percent of the refugees were women and children, who are now staying in public buildings or with host communities in 11 villages on the Republic of Congo’s side of the Oubangui river.

More than 20 arrived in the Republic of Congo with gunshot wounds, added Mahecic. Among them was an 11-year-old girl who had to have her right leg amputated, he added.

Mahecic said the flow of refugees had stopped amid reports that the national army was intervening to stop Enyele attacks, although UNHCR staff reported seeing "smoke from burning houses across the river."

"While some of the new arrivals told us they would like to go back to their villages once the Enyele militia is crushed, others felt too traumatised and told UNHCR that they were not ready to go back," he added.

The first clashes between the two tribes broke out in March and prompted 1 200 people to seek shelter in the Republic of Congo.

This violence is unrelated to ongoing fighting in eastern DRC, which has displaced 1,7 million people there .— AFP.