23 August 2009

Lagos — The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday arrested two more bank directors over the huge debt profile of the five banks whose managements were sacked two weeks ago by the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.

The bank chiefs arrested in Lagos are John Maha, Managing Director, Afribank Securities Limited, a subsidiary of Afribank, and Niyi Opeodu, Managing Director, Union Capital Market Limited, a subsidiary of Union Bank. Both men have since been detained at the anti-graft commission office in Ikoyi.

Union Bank and Afribank are two of the five banks affected by the post consolidation reforms introduced by new CBN governor Lamido to put the nation's 24 banks on a sound footing. The three others are Intercontinental Bank, Oceanic Bank and Finbank.

The arrest of Maha and Opeodu however makes it 15 bank chiefs that have been picked up by the EFCC since the CBN governor commenced the onslaught in the banking sector.

According to EFCC's spokesperson, Mr. Femi Babafemi who confirmed the development, while Maha was arrested at a location on Lagos Island yesterday evening, Opeodu was picked up at his Lekki residence, Lagos earlier in the day.

"The two of them were picked up today (yesterday) in Lagos. Maha was picked up at a location in Lagos while Opeodu was arrested at his residence in Lekki, Lagos. They are both in our custody as we speak now. That, I can confirm to you," he said.

Babafemi explained that the EFCC would take time this weekend to interrogate those newly arrested in order to ascertain their level of culpability in the predicament their banks have been put. He said for now, he could not say what their fate would be, but by Monday, the commission would decide what to do with them, based on the outcome of their interrogation with them.

"Of course, you should know that whoever is kept beyond 48 hours is kept on court order. But at least, we'll have them interrogated this weekend so as to ascertain their level of culpability and by Monday, we'll decide what to do with them," he said.

Meanwhile, EFCC has set up five different teams charged with the sole responsibility of pursuing all the identified bank debtors immediately after the expiration of the ultimatum handed them last Wednesday by the commission's chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri.

The EFCC had last week issued an ultimatum to all debtors of the five banks to tidy up their debts or face arrest, prosecution and seizure of their assets. Mrs. Waziri handed down the ultimatum while fielding questions from journalists at the annual conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) which held in Lagos.

"We already have the list of the debtors of the five banks with us in EFCC and they have just one week to bring in their cheques or drafts to us or we begin their arrest and prosecution, as well as confiscation of their assets because they are people of enormous means," Waziri said.

It is against the backdrop of this ultimatum that the EFCC has grouped some of its men into five teams which, according to Babafemi, have also been deployed to different parts of the state to move against the debtors once the one week ultimatum elapses.

He said each of the team comprises of 10 operatives and has been assigned to each of the five affected banks. He was, however certain that all is set for the EFCC to take control of the situation immediately the ultimatum expires, adding that no stone would be left unturned in recovering the huge debts.

allafrica

23 Aug 2009
At least six people have been killed and 15 others injured in the Somali capital city of Mogadishu as insurgents vow to step up attacks during the holy month of Ramadan.

Insurgents say they will continue attacks against the African Union forces and the Somali government, despite President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed call for ceasefire during the holy month.

The exchange of mortars and missiles between the government soldiers and the assailants happened on Sunday in southern Mogadishu.

Witnesses told Press TV correspondent in the region that missiles destroyed many houses in Bakara and Howlwadaag district of southern Mogadishu.

The clashes have continued in the past four days. Insurgents attacked a government-controlled Mogadishu checkpoint earlier on Saturday.


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22 Aug 2009
The convicted Lockerbie bomber, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, says that he will prove his innocence in the 1988 bombing of the Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland that killed 270 people.

Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence agent, said that he has sufficient evidence that would exonerate him from any involvement in the bombing.

"If there is justice in (Britain) I would be acquitted or the verdict would be quashed because it was unsafe. There was a miscarriage of justice," said Megrahi.

In an interview with Britain's Times newspaper, Megrahi dismissed the international furor over his release from a life sentence in Scotland on compassionate grounds due to his terminal prostate cancer.

Megrahi is the only person to have been convicted of the atrocity which killed all 259 people onboard a Pan Am Boeing 747 as well as 11 people on the ground when the plane exploded above the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988. Most of the victims were US citizens.

He said that he understood why many of the victims' relatives were angry at his release.

"They have hatred for me. It's natural to behave like this," he said, while adding that others had written to him in prison to say they forgave him whether he was guilty or innocent.
presstv

22 Aug 2009
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has met with Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi as the terminally ill 57-year-old vows to clear his name.

The televised meeting late on Friday was taken as defiant move by the Libyan leader, following strong criticism from the United States and the United Kingdom over the “hero's welcome” he received from hundreds of cheering Libyans upon his arrival at Tripoli.

Officials from Scotland, the UK and the United States slammed the reception that they respectively termed “inappropriate,” “deeply distressing” and “disgusting”.

Gaddafi hugged Megrahi and thanked British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Queen Elizabeth for “encouraging” Scotland to release the dying prisoner from a Scottish jail.

Scotland handles its judicial affairs separately from the UK.

Britain quickly denied that any clandestine business deals with the oil-rich Libya had affected Megrahi's release, following comments made by Gaddafi who stressed the release had been “in the interest of relations between the two countries.”

However, Gaddafi's son Seif al-Islam said in an interview broadcast by the Libyan channel al-Mutawassit that Megrahi's release was a 'victory,' as he had been a trump card in all of Britain's commercial contracts with Libya.

In an interview with Britain's Times newspaper published on Saturday, Megrahi said he understood why there was an international uproar over his release, but that he would endeavor to clear his name.

"If there is justice in (Britain) I would be acquitted or the verdict would be quashed because it was unsafe. There was a miscarriage of justice," the daily quoted Megrahi as saying.

Megrahi, who suffers from prostate cancer, is the only person to have been convicted of the atrocious bombing of Pan Am Boeing 747 that killed all 259 people onboard and 11 people on the ground when the plane exploded above the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988.

Most of the passengers were US nationals.
presstv

22 Aug 2009
Al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam fighters have recaptured the central Somali town of Wabho from Ahlu Sunna forces, say eyewitnesses.

During the recent offensive, they also captured various Ahlu Sunna military bases, killing several dozen Ahlu Sunna fighters, A Press TV correspondent reported.

Al-Shabaab has regained increasing numbers of districts and towns in Somalia's Hiiran region, including 70 percent of the town of Baletweyne.

The poverty-stricken Horn of Africa nation has been grappling with the ongoing civil war which has crippled the 'lawless' state for around two decades.

Over 17,000 people have been killed and an estimated 250,000 others have been internally displaced over the past few months alone.

presstv

22 Aug 2009
As the month of Ramadan begins, the Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed calls on all the country's clashing parties to lay down their arms and observe a ceasefire.

He told the BBC that dialogue was the only alternative to attaining sustainable peace in war-torn Somalia and added that he was ready for dialogue at anytime.

His appeal comes as rebel forces early on Saturday -- the first day of the Holy month of Ramadan -- carried out attacks at a checkpoint outside the Somali capital Mogadishu, predicting more violence to come in the holy month, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Witnesses said that heavily armed militant fighters carried out a pre-dawn attack on government-manned Ex-Control Afgoye, a key checkpoint that connects the capital to the southern Shabelle region, leading to heavy gunfire that killed more than five people and injured a few others.

Somalia's Defense Minister Sheikh Yusuf Mohamed Siad said that government forces repelled the militant's attack, killing 'many of them'. Clashes have also erupted in the northern districts of Hawlwadag and Hodon, where at least four civilians were killed and more than 10 others sustained injuries.

Somalia has been without an effective government for more than 18 years.

presstv

21 August 2009
Kingsley Kobo, AfricaNews reporter in Abidjan, Ivory Coast
The Libyan man jailed in Scotland for the bombing of a US plane over Lockerbie (Scotland) in 1988, has been set free and flown home. Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, 57, was released by the Scottish government on compassion grounds.
Libya_Egypt_Map
Doctors reports say he is terminally ill with prostate cancer and has only three months to live.

The Scottish government came under fierce criticism shortly after Magrahi’s released.

US President Barack Obama in a radio interview said: “We have been in contact with the Scottish government, indicating that we objected to this. We thought it was a mistake.”´according to AP

Obama also said he had told the Libyan government that Megrahi should not receive a hero’s welcome and should be placed under house arrest.

The families of the American victims of the Lockerbie bombing reacted bitterly to the decision to set “someone who never showed remorse” free.

Most of the 270 people who died in the bombing were Americans.

The Libyan government has been silent on the issue, but observes say it will be regarded as a diplomatic triumph by Tripoli.

The American airliner, Pan Am Flight 103, crashed over Lockerbie as a result of a terrorist bomb on 21 December 1988.

Some 270 were killed – 259 on the plane and 11 in Lockerbie. The victims were citizens from 21 nations.

Megrahi was jailed for life in January 2001 following an 84-day trial under Scottish law at Camp Zeist in Netherlands.

He was later transferred to Greenock jail near Glasgow.

His co-accused, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, was acquitted and returned to Libya.[/font]

21 August 2009
Aremeyaw Debrah, AfricaNews reporter in Accra, Ghana
The BBC World News will be hosting a new series, Africa Business Report, to focus on business on the continent. The programme, sponsored by Skye Bank, plans to focus on business in Africa, examining the people, businesses and products as well as the issues, challenges and opportunities for companies trading there.
komla dumor
Africa Business Report will offer BBC World News viewers a revealing insight into the stories behind the continent's increasingly successful and diverse business culture, a statement from the BBC said. It said the first episode was produced in South Africa with a special report on uncovering the foundations of the country’s construction boom. The show looked at how a small business owner in the country was making money ahead of the arrival of the South African 2010 World Cup.

Interviews with Francois Diedrechsen, the Financial and Commercial Director of Raubex Construction (Pty), Ltd and Chris Hart, a leading South African economist, provided a unique insight into the complexities and opportunities being faced by companies trading in Africa.

The programme will be presented by Ghanaian Komla Dumor. He also presents The World Today - BBC World Service’s award-winning, daily news programme, covering news, current affairs, business and sport from around the world. BBC Africa’s Business Report will air on Saturdays at 01.30 and repeated 22.30 GMT. Also on Sundays at 13.30 and 20.30 GMT. It starts showing August 22.[/font]

21 August 2009
Walter Wilson Nana, AfricaNews reporter in Buea, Cameroon
A private radio station - Sky One - in Yaounde and Douala of Cameroon has been banned from operating by the Minister of Communication, Issa Bakary Tchiroma. The media house is alleged to have violated Cameroon's law on social communication in spite of numerous warning letters to its management.
cameroon map
AfricaNews reporter said officials of the Communication Ministry are not content with the content of a programme – “La Tribunal” - airing on the radio station. They said the general public is using the phone-in segment of the programme to settle personal scores with people in government.

The Communication boss took the final decision to close shop for Sky One radio when officials of the Congo-Brazzaville embassy in Yaounde, drew the attention of the Prime Minister of Cameroon, Philemon Yang and the Minister of Communication on what they describe as a mudslinging campaign carried out by the station on their President, Denis Sassou Nguesso and the government of Congo-Brazzaville.

Tchiroma said his decision was in the public interest and to ensure professionalism in the media industry. “They are not professional in their activities. Journalism should not be an all-comers business. You have to be trained to be a journalist. The radio is not a law court, where individuals and institutions are tried and the presenter of a radio programme passes judgement,” he stated.

Sky One radio operates in Cameroon’s political capital, Yaounde and the economic capital, Douala. It is the first Cameroonian radio station that operates on the internet.

In 2008, former Communication Minister, Jean Pierre Biyiti bi Essam, now Minister of Posts and Telecommunication, banned Magic FM radio in Yaounde and Equinoxe Radio and TV in Douala. After six months, these radio and TV stations were authorized to begin operating again.

However, some Cameroonians in the streets of Buea, have described the recent move by the Communication Ministry as the return of press censorship.

21 August 2009
Jack Shaka, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya
Six students have been infected with the swine flu in the Nyanza Province sections of Gusii in Kenya. A team of experts have been dispatched to the area to do thorough screening. The infected are now receiving treatment at the referral hospital in Nairobi-Kenyatta National Hospital.
classroom in Kenya
AfricaNews reporter said the infected students had just come back from Mombasa city after attending the Kenya Schools and Colleges National Music Festival. Thomas Nyang’au the District Public Health Officer has suspended all tuition in nearby schools and church gatherings for at least 10 days.

The Public Health Minister told parliament earlier that six out of nine samples taken from a school in Keiyo District had turned out positive. 250 students from Kapirsis Primary School in the area were reported to have developed the flu symptoms.

So far tension continues to rise among the over 1,000 students who participated in the festival and most have gone back home or to school for holiday tuition, our reporter said. “People should not panic because the disease has symptoms like those of the common flu. We appeal to those who might develop such symptoms to visit the nearest health centre for examination,” Abwaku said.

“We are urging local people to report any person who may present symptoms of swine flu so that necessary steps are taken,” said the District Commissioner for Borabu, Hassan Noor.

21 August 2009
Bowale Oluwole Arisekola, AfricaNews reporter in Ibadan, Nigeria
A Nigerian made armoured car was on Thursday launched by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua at the eagle square in Abuja. It is the first home made armoured car, with most of the materials used in its production sourced locally, while others were imported.
Nigeria armoured car
It was built by two Nigerian brothers who recently relocated from the United States of America. The brothers; Victor and Johnson Obasa, came back home to use their talent to boost security and also create employment in the country.

The brothers are based in Ekiti State and the duo own a company named Mobile Truck Technology where they nurtured and built the first Nigerian armoured car.

According to Johnson Obasa, the local production of the armoured car would help in upgrading the nation's security status. "It will promote up to 50 percent security in the country, it is something to protect the armoured personnel in their line of duty and it can work anywhere. It is designed to help the nation's security; we also did it to create employment," he said.

Also, Victor Obasa in a conversation with the press stated that they were in a better position to create this kind of cars since they are in Nigeria and understand the Nigerian terrain. He added that they are willing to do it for the government at almost half the price of importing it.

The truck which was tested with different kinds of ammunitions, from a far range had little or no mark left on it, but from a close range left peripheral marks. On how they created such a truck with products from Nigeria, Johnson said: "It's been a little bit of up and downs. When we encountered some challenges, the Senate president encouraged us and at the end of the day we were able to put this together."

The other brother Victor pledged that they would produce a vehicle carrier that would meet international standard at a reasonable price.

Nation development

The Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Adamu Aliero who represented the president at the launch said it was commendable that Nigerians with talents will come home and contribute to the nation's development.

He disclosed that the President had directed the Inspector General of Police to meet the fabricators on what they required to produce the vehicle to specification. He also called on Nigerians within and outside the country with such talents to come out and contribute to the development of their country.

Present at the event to inspect the vehicle were top police officers and the Minister for science and Technology, Al-Hassan Zaku who said the ministry would send a team of engineers to the base where the truck was fabricated to further examine the product.

20 Aug 2009

Eighteen illegal miners have been killed after a diamond mine collapsed in the central parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, union officials said.

Jean-Marie Kabuya, head of the local Union of Artisanal Diamond Miners of Kasai, said on Thursday that a mine in the Mbuju-Mayi, the capital of Kasai-Oriental Province, had caved in overnight, a Press TV correspondent reported.

"Nine bodies have been recovered and nine more bodies remain inside the mine," Kabuya said, adding that a pit prop collapsed deep underground, presumably hit by the miners in an oversight.

The holding company of the outdate mine closed up in November 2008, when it suffered a hit by the fall in global diamond prices.

Illegal miners lack the most basic of equipment, often relying on shovels and their bare hands to scratch away at the mine wall.

DR Congo has a diverse range of natural wealth such as gold, diamonds, columbite-tantalite and cassiterite.


presstv

21 Aug 2009

The British government has voiced 'deep' concern over the warm reception for the repatriated Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, upon his arrival in Libya.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband branded the jubilation around Megrahi's homecoming as "deeply upsetting and deeply distressing" and went on to warn the North African country about similar treatment of the 57-year-old Libyan handed over on Thursday on "compassionate grounds".

"It's very important that Libya knows … that how the Libyan government handles itself in the next few days ... will be very significant in the way the world views Libya's reentry into the civilized community of nations," Miliband said on Friday.

The Scottish government returned the convict, who is in terminal stages of prostate cancer, to 'die' at home.

Hundreds of jubilant Libyans welcomed the only convict of the downed Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988.

People in the capital Tripoli disregarded US warning against a "hero's welcome" of the Libyan citizen and poured onto the street around the airport where Megrahi plane landed on Thursday.

The Lockerbie incident claimed the lives of 259 aboard the US airliner along with eleven on the ground in the small Scottish town.

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OUAGADOUGOU, 3 August 2009 (IRIN) - In the Sahelian desert country of Burkina Faso, water is often linked to life, but for newborns up to six months of age it can mean death when it dilutes the medicinal effects of their mother's breast milk, says the World Health Organization (WHO).

IRIN met with researchers in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, who are investigating why the country has one of the region's lowest exclusive breastfeeding rates – around six percent according to preliminary government data. This is the first article in a five-part series about breastfeeding in West Africa to mark World Breastfeeding Week.

WHO and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) recommend feeding newborns only breast milk for their first six months to reduce the chances of developing diarrhoea and pneumonia, among the biggest child killers.

Various studies have shown that the disease-fighting nutrients and antibodies in breast milk can be neutralized when water and other foods are also given to the baby during this period.

Marcel Daba Bengaly, a biochemist and nutritionist who is leading 20 researchers in a UNICEF-funded study on breastfeeding practices in Burkina Faso, told IRIN that interviews with more than 1,000 pregnant women, mothers, fathers, opinion leaders, community elders and birthing attendants nationwide have shown exclusive breastfeeding to be an "unwelcome, impossible and foreign" concept in Burkina Faso.

The group's final report will be submitted to UNICEF in mid-August.

Water

"A mother's milk is not enough to nourish a child [participants said]. Water is offered to visitors and because newborns are considered visitors from another world, water becomes the first liquid of life," Bengaly told IRIN. "The first instinct is to give the baby water, lest it depart from this world."

The caregivers simply did not realize the limits of babies' systems. During interviews among the country's nine largest ethnic groups, researchers learned that besides breast milk, babies were given water mixed with ash, shea butter, plants or sugar in the belief these mixtures can cure, cleanse, protect from spirits and ward off death, Bengaly said.

Mixtures

What goes into a concoction varies by region and ethnicity. "Near Niger [the neighbouring country to the west], where the climate is hot and dry, a mother's milk is seen as too hot for the child and must be followed by water so the baby can cool down," Bengaly told IRIN.

"In peri-urban areas the air quality is poor, so families seek concoctions that can flush out impurities or protect the baby from evil spirits, without realizing that an infant cannot support the plant extracts that adults can," said the biochemist, who added that these extracts could damage the newborn's kidneys, while poor water quality increased the risk of waterborne diseases.

None of this was apparent to the babies' families said sociologist graduate student, Fatimata Borro, who conducted interviews among the Samo ethnic population. "The child [is perceived as] coming from another world, and all must be done to ensure the child stays in this world, including using traditional medicine."

Exclusive breastfeeding was seen as a luxury for the rich, said Bengaly. Some survey participants said babies living in air-conditioned homes could afford to be fed milk all the time because of the lack of heat and dust, which would need to be counteracted with water.

Malnutrition

Sometimes a diet of only breast milk went against tradition. Ami Ouedraogo, 22, told IRIN she did not exclusively breastfeed her nine-month-old child because that is not how child-rearing was done in her village. "Everyone feeds their babies water as well as breast milk."

She was with her daughter, Sofieta, whose height, arm circumference and weight were being measured by health workers from the Red Cross-Belgium at a weekly nutrition clinic in Tanlili village in Ouahigouya district, about 200km northwest of Ouagadougou.

After nine weeks of surveillance, Ouedraogo's baby weighed 5.6kg, half a kilogram more than her first weigh-in on 5 June, but not enough to change her classification as malnourished.

Exclusive breastfeeding provides all the energy and nutrients the infant needs for the first months of life, it continues to provide up to half or more of a child's nutritional needs during the second half of the first year, and up to one-third during the second year of life, WHO has noted.

Lack of exclusive breastfeeding during the earliest months can contribute to malnutrition. More than one million children's lives could be saved every year through improved breastfeeding practices, according to WHO and UNICEF.

The main barrier to changing breastfeeding practices was a reluctance to let go of customs, Bengaly told IRIN. "Women value their own milk and the intimacy breastfeeding nurtures, but breastfeed exclusively? Impossible, in their eyes."

irinnews

ZIGA, 20 August 2009 (IRIN) - Two months into using malaria rapid tests, some health facilities in Burkina Faso continue treating for malaria despite negative test results, according to community health workers.

Since June 2009, the government has made available 240,000 rapid malaria tests in half of its 63 health districts, the national anti-malaria programme coordinator, Laurent Moyenga, told IRIN.

In northwestern Burkina Faso, at a district health centre in Ziga, which serves 13 villages with more than 10,000 people, centre director Soumaïla Salembere told IRIN that children who were at least six years of age and suspected of having malaria were given a rapid test.

He told IRIN that if the child had a fever, headache, loss of appetite, or was vomiting, his centre automatically administered malaria treatment even if the test result was negative. "The test result could be a false negative. If the malaria treatment does not work, then we search for another solution."

Moyenga said this treatment was incorrect. "How can health workers decide what is positive and negative? They cannot say a test result is a false negative without saying there are also false positive results."

In a recent World Health Organization (WHO) evaluation of rapid tests, two brands accurately detected malarial parasites 95 percent of the time, but researchers said quality varied depending on the test manufacturer, and storage and transport conditions.

Burkina Faso's malaria policy - in line with WHO recommendations for negative rapid test results - was to research other causes of febrile diseases (those characterized by fever), including meningitis, respiratory infections and typhoid fever, Moyenga told IRIN. But he also admitted that not all health facilities had the equipment to diagnose typhoid fever.

David Bell, a scientist at the Geneva-based non-profit Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, told IRIN that new approaches were needed to diagnose febrile diseases in addition to malaria.

"There needs to be a lot of investment in diagnostics appropriate for this [community] level to guide health workers to at least identify and treat, or refer, those patients who have a non-malarial infection that is likely to kill them. Most African children who die have diseases other than malaria."

According to WHO, the deadliest childhood illnesses worldwide are malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea.

In 2008 Burkina Faso had three million officially reported cases of malaria with a 2 percent mortality rate, but it was not clear how many of these were in fact malaria. "We will analyze rapid test results and the number of malaria treatments administered to learn the true disease burden," Moyenga said.

When asked whether his analysis might be skewed by health centres treating suspected but unconfirmed cases as malaria regardless of the rapid test results, Moyenga said the situation would change.

"Health workers are undergoing training about the tests. Rapid tests are still relatively new here ... health workers still automatically treat for malaria, and this will take time to change."

irinnews

DAKAR, 20 August 2009 (IRIN) - Health officials have launched a nationwide pneumococcal vaccine campaign in the Gambia, where one in six deaths is caused by pneumonia – the most common pneumococcal illness – according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Researchers from the US-based Johns Hopkins School of Public Health estimate at least 5,000 children fall ill to pneumococcal disease every year in the Gambia, leading to hundreds of deaths.

A director of the school’s PneumoADIP project, which researches pneumococcal disease and vaccines, told IRIN pneumococcal disease is deadly but preventable. “Every 15 minutes 23 children [worldwide] die of pneumococcal disease, but there is a solution,” said information director Lois Privor-Dumm.

Depending on where the bacteria attack in the body, the illness can show up as pneumonia (lungs), meningitis (brain), or bacteraemia (bloodstream). Together, these pneumococcal diseases are the leading preventable killers of under-five children worldwide, according to WHO.

The vaccine introduced in the Gambia – Prevenar, produced by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals – is expected to prevent half of the forms of pneumococcal diseases found in Gambia, Privor-Dumm told IRIN. “Given the high disease mortality in Gambia, even though we are not getting all the types of pneumococcal diseases, this is still significant.”

Wyeth donated 3.1 million vaccine doses for Rwanda and the Gambia, the first two developing countries selected to receive the vaccine. Almost half of the vaccines will be delivered to the countries this year with the remainder expected to be delivered in 2010, said Privor-Dumm.

Pneumococcal vaccine in Africa
BURKINA FASO: Meningitis – fewer cases, but more deadly
SOUTH AFRICA: New vaccine could save thousands of children
AFRICA: Deadliest disease goes untested
SOUTH AFRICA: Cost bars crucial vaccine from HIV-positive kids
Commitments

While vaccines exist for pneumococcal diseases, they are not widely available in poor countries where 95 percent of such diseases occur, according to WHO.

The Johns Hopkins public health school’s Privor-Dumm said new vaccines historically take up to two decades to reach the poorest countries, but that a continuous push from the research and donor community has halved the time for pneumococcal vaccines. “We are turning a tide against a major child killer. Countries, donors and suppliers are now recognizing we have an opportunity to save millions of lives by making this vaccine available at an affordable price through the AMC [advanced market commitment]”.

With the donor-backed commitments, drug manufacturers produce vaccines for poor countries at reduced prices in exchange for guaranteed donor-funded orders over the long-term.

While the price of US$7 per dose for vaccines used in developing countries is 10 times less than what manufactures would be paid in wealthier countries, this is still enough of an incentive to get drug manufacturers to invest in developing countries, according to the GAVI Alliance, formerly known as the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation.

With donor support, the final cost to developing country governments can be as low as 15 cents per dose, according to PneumoADIP.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is expected to issue a call for bids in September from drug manufacturers interested in producing some of the estimated 200 million pneumococcal vaccines to be funded in the pilot advanced market commitment.

Pneumococcal disease was one of six diseases considered for funding through advanced commitments, GAVI’s director of information, Jeffrey Rowland, told IRIN. “Pneumococcal vaccines were the best choice for a pilot AMC because of the potential to quickly demonstrate that the AMC concept works.”

If 60 countries that qualify for GAVI support introduced the pneumococcal vaccine, seven million children could be saved by 2030, according to GAVI.

John’s Hopkins’ Privor-Dumm told IRIN it will take more than vaccines to prevent pneumococcal deaths.

“As public health professionals we need to recognize that fighting pneumonia will take a multi-faceted approach. There is no silver bullet. We need breastfeeding, antibiotics and vaccines. It must be integrated, but the solution does exist.”

irinnews

JOHANNESBURG, 21 August 2009 (IRIN) - South African President Jacob Zuma's dilemma over what to do about land and agrarian reform is no different than it was for his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, but the approach of the country's fourth democratic president is.

Rectifying the racially skewed pattern of land ownership inherited from apartheid and the alleviation of rural poverty are among Zuma's main priorities, according to analysts, and his first 100 days in office have reflected this.

The administration of land and agriculture has been the remit of the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Affairs since 1996, but Zuma has divided these responsibilities between the Ministry of Rural Development and Land Reform, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

The jury is still out as to whether this approach will be more effective, but the track record of the past 15 years, when agriculture and land reform were the responsibility of a single ministry, is less than inspiring.

Since the first democratic elections in 1994, the aim of redistributing 30 percent of white-owned farmland to landless blacks by 2014 has failed on two levels.

Only five percent of commercial land had been redistributed, and there has been an "extremely poor level of support [by government] for new, small and cash-strapped farmers who have been settled on this land", Ruth Hall of the University of the Western Cape's Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) noted in a policy brief.

Land reform failing

"The Department for Rural Development and Land Reform estimates that half of all existing [land redistribution] projects have 'failed'; most independent research suggests that this is an optimistic reading of its track record," Hall told IRIN.

''The Department for Rural Development and Land Reform estimates that half of all existing [land redistribution] projects have 'failed'; most independent research suggests that this is an optimistic reading of its track record''
Splitting land reform and agriculture into two portfolios appears at first glance illogical, as critics maintain they are implicitly linked, but Hall said in her brief that "land reform has been crippled" by combining them.

"The blame for the dismal track record of production on redistributed farms must fall largely on the national and provincial departments of agriculture, which have simply failed to come to the party," she said.

"Despite the introduction of some agricultural support and funds for land reform beneficiaries in recent years, the agriculture departments have remained biased in favour of commercial farming, and unsupportive of smallholder farming and the production systems of the poor."

Hall said the logic of separation acknowledged that there were two spheres of agriculture in South Africa - commercial and subsistence - and the agricultural department should "focus on commercial farming, rather than the new and poor farmers on redistributed land and in the former Bantustans, whose type and scale of farming and, therefore, needs might differ substantially."

The Bantustans were a creation of apartheid in which the black majority were to live in reserves comprising 13 percent of South Africa, with the white minority and the government owning the remaining 87 percent. In 1994 the Bantustans - only recognized by the apartheid government as independent states - were reabsorbed into South Africa, but the underdevelopment of these regions has remained a stark legacy.

The ANC's 2007 National Conference in Polokwane, capital of Limpopo Province - at which the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party unseated former President Mbeki as leader in favour of Zuma, putting him on the path to becoming the country's president - adopted a policy of moving away from large-scale land redistribution to the creation of black small-scale commercial farmers.

Hall told IRIN that although the strategic vision for the rural areas had yet to solidify, the thrust of rural poverty alleviation was expected to focus on the communal lands of the former Bantustans.

"If the new priority is to be placed on supporting agriculture and small farmers, then there will need to be substantial and sustained investment in the agricultural training colleges, as well as related professions," she commented.

Willing seller, willing buyer

The redistribution of commercial farmland has been premised on the "willing seller, willing buyer" model, which has led to claims by government that farmers were inflating land prices, and counter claims by farm organizations that market-driven forces had increased land values, as has been the global trend.

Zuma told local media this week that there must be an alternative to the willing seller, willing buyer model to speed up land redistribution, but in reality there is little room to move.

Hall told IRIN, "There is scope for engagement with large landowners to partner with government to support land reform, and to share the cost and institutional burden. Some headway has been made in this regard, but has tended to privilege large commercial projects for black shareholders, rather than making land available for small farmers."

''Government knows large-scale expropriation isn't feasible, even if they pass the Expropriation Bill later this year. They realize that if you expropriate you'll end up in the courts, so it won't be cheaper or faster anyway''
There is a delicate balance between the large-scale commercial farmers, who provide South Africa with food security and surpluses for food insecure neighbouring states, such as Zimbabwe, and managing the uneven land ownership that continues to instil resentment among poor and middle-class blacks.

PLAAS director Ben Cousins, a contributor to a green paper on land reform expected to be published later this year, told the South African daily newspaper, Business Day, on 21 August: "Government knows large-scale expropriation isn't feasible, even if they pass the Expropriation Bill later this year. They realize that if you expropriate you'll end up in the courts, so it won't be cheaper or faster anyway."

Annelize Crosby, the legal and policy advisor to AgriSA, an umbrella organization for commercial farmers and agricultural businesses, told IRIN that high land prices were often a consequence of the government's choice of land, which preferred citrus and wine farms with urban access and good road networks, rather than, say, farms in the karoo, South Africa's arid central plateau.

Also, government's purchase of going concerns, such as dairy farms, rather than vacant land came at a premium because of the existing infrastructure, she pointed out.

Crosby said AgriSA was "100 percent behind sustainable land reform", and noted that in the relatively short time of Zuma's presidency there had been some discernible differences in the approach of government departments towards commercial farmers.

"It's not a night-and-day difference, but a shift in attitude towards [commercial] farmers," Crosby said. The Zuma administration has extended "a hand of friendship and is serious about a partnership ... Mbeki was not all bad, but the partnership never really got going."

irinnews

20 Aug 2009
Restoration of Egypt's famous synagogue in no way serves as a means to reduce tension with Israel initiated by the country's cultural minister, an official says.

Egypt's 71-year-old Cultural Minister Hosni Farouk had outraged many Jews in April of last year when he had strongly announced that he would burn any Israeli books found in Egypt's famed Library of Alexandria. Now Farouk is campaigning to be the next head of the UNESCO, the UN office that promotes cultural diversity.

The Head of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, on Thursday, unveiling restoration work at the Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue in Cairo, said that the reconstruction, which began in mid-June, had nothing to do with Hosni's UNESCO's candidacy.

The decision to restore the synagogue is because they are first of all Egyptian monuments. "They are part of us and part of our culture", he stressed.

The synagogues have sustained serious damage over time from earthquakes and ground water. The restoration is part of a national project to refurbish ten Jewish synagogues across Egypt, he said.

The synagogue where restoration work is in progress was named after Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon, a famous physician, philosopher and Torah scholar who was born in Cordoba, Spain, in 1135 A.D. He eventually moved to Cairo, where he died in 1204 and was buried inside the synagogue.

presstv

20 August 2009

MONUC, the United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is to get another 3,000 soldiers by the end of October. They will be deployed in the volatile east and north-east of the country.

AFP - MONUC, the United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is to get another 3,000 soldiers by the end of October, the force announced Wednesday.

The reinforcement, which will come nearly a year after a resolution was approved by the UN Security Council, will comprise another 2,785 soldiers and 300 police officers.

The new arrivals will include an infantry battalion and a company of special forces from Egypt; an infantry battalion and a company of engineers from Bangladesh; and a special forces company from Jordan.

Most of them will be deployed in the volatile east and northeast of the country, where an estimated 500 members of the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) still terrorise the population.

Also present in the zone, despite efforts by Congolese and Rwandan troops to flush them out, are up to 6,000 Rwandan Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

The first troops would arrive by the end of August, with the rest deployed by the end of October, MONUC spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich told AFP.

The newcomers will be boosting an existing force of 17,000 peacekeepers, 700 military observers and more than a thousand police officers, who work closely with the Congolese army in operations against the two rebel groups.

MONUC, on the ground since 2001, is the largest single peacekeeping force deployed by the UN, with an annual budget of 1.35 billion dollars (950 million euros).

france24

20 August 2009
Pro-government militiamen and al Shabaab insurgents have launched separate offensives in southern and central Somalia, witnesses say, as the bloodshed intensifies across the war-ridden country.

AFP - A fresh offensive by pro-government forces against extremist Shebab fighters killed at least 21 people, mainly combatants, on Thursday in central Somalia, officials and witnesses said.

Pro-government forces launched an attack on the town of Bulobarde, which is located some 200 kilometres (120 miles) north of Mogadishu and was previously controlled by the Shebab, an Al Qaeda-inspired organisation.

Several local residents and officials told AFP they had counted at least 21 bodies and said that the fighting was ongoing.

"They attacked us this morning with a large army but they sheepishly retreated and many of their fighters are strewn in the street now," Sheikh Mohamed Ibrahim, a local Shebab commander, told AFP by phone from the town.

"There is still some sporadic fighting in some parts of the town and we have counted at least 21 dead. The terrorists have suffered great losses in the battle today," said Colonel Adan Yusuf Mohamed, a Somali government military leader in the region.

According to residents, the government troops were assisted in their latest offensive by Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa, an influential Sufi religious organisation which recently took up arms against the Shebab.

The latest clashes come amid a vast counter-offensive against Shebab strongholds in the centre and south of the Horn of Africa country.

An alliance of clan militias, government forces and Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa fighters earlier this week recaptured two strategic towns from the Shebab without any fighting.

According to residents, the Islamist insurgents however on Wednesday wrested back control of the town of Bulohawo, which sits just across the border from the Kenyan town of Mandera.

Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa and allied groups have recently inflicted serious losses on the Shebab, who had controlled much of central and southern Somalia in recent months.

Bulobarde is the main town on the road linking the capital Mogadishu to Beledweyn, a key city on the border with Ethiopia.

Residents said the fighting was the heaviest the town had seen in a long time and that both sides used heavy machine-guns and anti-aircraft weapons.

"The fighting has stopped for now but the warring sides are still facing off in one neighbourhood... I personally saw the bodies of 18 fighters and the death toll could be much higher," local resident Abdurahman Ali said.

Abdikarim Muktar, a grocer in the town, said the heaviest fighting occurred near a bridge over a river that divides the town.

"Most of the people died near the bridge where the fighting was fierce. The government forces were pushed back from that area," he said.

Earlier this week, the prime minister of Somalia's embattled transitional federal government (TFG) reshuffled the cabinet in an attempt to offer a tougher response to a bruising insurgency.

The Shebab and the more political Hezb al-Islam on May 7 launched a broad military offensive against the TFG in Mogadishu and other regions, leaving President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed's power hanging by thread.

Tuesday's reshuffle saw a new defence minister brought in and a powerful deputy appointed to bolster the government's war effort.

france24