20100413
africagoodnews

Nigeria's lower house of parliament could begin debate next month on controversial legislation that would transform Africa's biggest energy sector, a senior lawmaker said on Tuesday.
Oil tanker at dock

A joint committee in the House of Representatives is close to finalising the Petroleum Industry Bill that aims to rewrite Nigeria's decades-old relationship with Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil and other oil companies.

The oil reform bill has been delayed repeatedly because of constitutional concerns and disputes between government and foreign oil firms over the fiscal terms for their operations.

"There was a wide gap between what the government wanted and what the operators in the industry wanted. We have fairly sorted that out," said Bassey Otu, chairman of the joint committee working on the bill.

"As soon as we resume, the joint committee will meet ... come up with a clean copy and submit at the plenary. I am looking at one month from now," he added.

The Senate is also finalising its own bill, which would need to be harmonized with the lower house's version before being sent to the president so it can be signed into law.

The legislation aims to break state oil firm NNPC, long hampered by funding shortfalls, into profit-driven units able to tap international markets. The move could prompt some of the biggest financing deals of their kind ever done in Africa.

The government would also be allowed to renegotiate old contracts, impose higher costs on oil companies and retake acreage that firms have yet to explore.

But foreign oil companies operating in Nigeria have warned the plans contained in the bill could threaten billions of dollars of investment if they go ahead in their current form.

The main areas of dispute between government and oil firms include higher royalty payments, industry-wide taxes on profits and revenue sharing.

20100413
africagoodnews

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today that its credit-based farming project in Niger has been so successful that the agency plans to scale it up and expand into Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal, which are also suffering food shortages.

Niger farmers can use their crops to get credit

"It shows that growing more food is not the only way of increasing poor farmers' food security. Simple, storage-based credit systems can also play an important role in improving their livelihoods," said FAO rural finance expert Ake Olofsson in a statement released today.

The financing scheme is built around warrantage, or inventory credit system. Rather than selling their crops immediately after harvest - when everyone else is selling and prices are lowest - farmers can use it as collateral to obtain credit from a bank and sell at a later date when prices rise.

FAO started a version of the project in Niger in 1999. In exchange for a bank loan, farmers' groups left their millet, rice and peanuts in a locked warehouse with keys held by both the bank and the group.

The credit gives the smallholders the means to buy essential inputs, such as seeds and fertilizer, for the next planting and also allows them to hold on to the produce longer.

A study of the project in Niger carried out last December found that participating farmers had been able to increase their income by between 19 and 113 per cent in six months. Since they were able to buy better inputs, their yields went up by up to 120 per cent, according to FAO.

"If done properly, warrantage allows farmers to grow more food and increase their income. Everyone stands to gain, including the banks who are happy because they make money too," Mr. Olofsson said.

He warned, however, that this was not a one-size-fits-all solution. Warrantage necessitates a well-functioning farmer's association, an interested local bank or other financial institution, and a safe place where the crops can be stored and will not spoil.

In addition, the crop price must have a proven track record of rising in the months after the harvest, and the crop must be recognised by the banking legislation of the country concerned.

The West African region is facing a severe food crisis as a result of low rainfall last year. UNICEF announced last week that nearly 900,000 children in Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, northern Nigeria and Chad are at risk of malnutrition.

20100413
africagoodnews

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

KHARTOUM, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Sudan's National Elections Commission (NEC) has announced it would grant a two-day voting extension until Thursday due to administrative and technical mistakes in some polling stations.

"The NEC, following an emergency meeting, decided to extend the voting period for two days, to end on Thursday, April 15," NEC spokesman Salah Habib said.

The decision came after a lot of technical and administrative mistakes were found during the first two days of the general elections, the first multi-party election held in this African country in more than two decades.

Meanwhile, NEC press adviser Abu Bakr Waziri said the decision to extend the voting from three days to five was based on "objective justifications."

"The NEC has taken the decision on basis of objective justifications that appeared during the first day of the polling process," Waziri said.

"The decision was also meant to enable supporters of the political parties to easily access the polling stations," he said, adding that it was also intended to ensure a high polling percentage.
He stressed that the NEC has worked to correct the mistakes that occurred during the first day of the polling, adding that the process proceeded normally after correcting those errors.

"The NEC has received many reports from its committees in the states affirming that the polling was progressing acceptably after correcting the errors that occurred in the states," he said.

In response to the NEC's voting extension, a senior official of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) said the decision supports the SPLM's earlier demand to extend the polling days.

On Sunday, the SPLM demanded an extension of polling days due to mistakes which occurred during the first day of the process.

"If the NEC increased the number of the polling officials and their capabilities during the two days, the situation can improve," Susan Jambo, a senior election official in south Sudan, said.

"It is necessary for the NEC to conduct an investigation into the problems which occurred during the first and second days of the polling, particularly in Kaboita where the ballot box of the southern Sudan government and the legislative council was not brought," she told Xinhua in Juba, the capital of south Sudan.

She further demanded the NEC increase the voters' lists at the polling stations and direct the voters to the centers where they were registered, so that they could easily cast their votes.
The SPLM governs south Sudan in accordance of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), inked between north and south Sudan in January 2005.

Meanwhile, the ruling National Congress Party filed a complaint with the elections commission in south Sudan over violations in the elections there.

"From the first day of the polling there were grave violations, where the people responsible for committing those violations meant to cripple the electoral process," Agnes Lokudo, secretary of NCP south Sudan sector, said at a press conference in Juba.

"Since the first day we have been observing the electoral process. Grave violations occurred today and yesterday. We have filed a complaint to the elections commission in this respect, and we will wait for its response," she added.

She explained that the violations included the arrest of NCP representatives and five observers at Kuwaji district, the expulsion of observers from the polling stations at Yerkaka, and forcing the voters to vote for the SPLM at Yae river district.

She added that there were polling stations run by SPLM members in complete absence of voters' lists.

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

KHARTOUM, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Sudan's National Elections Commission (NEC) said on Monday its decision to extend the polling period in all the states of the country for two extra days was based on objective justifications.

"The NEC has taken the decision on basis of objective justifications that appeared during the first day of the polling process," said NEC Press Adviser Abu Bakr Waziri at a press conference.

"The decision was also meant to enable supporters of the political parties to easily access the polling stations," he said, adding that "the decision was also meant to ensure a high polling percentage."

He stressed that the NEC has worked to correct the technical and administrative mistakes that occurred during the first day of the polling, adding that the process proceeded normally after correcting those errors.

"The NEC has received many reports from its committees in the states affirming that the polling was progressing acceptably after correcting the errors that occurred in the states," he said.

On Sunday, the NEC acknowledged technical and administrative mistakes regarding voters' lists and names of some candidates in the first day of polling, but said those mistakes were tackled.

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

The general elections were the first multi-party elections in Sudan in 24 years.

JUBA, Sudan, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Sudan's ruling National Congress Party (NCP) on Monday filed a complaint to the National Elections Commission (NEC) in south Sudan over violations in the elections there.

"From the first day of the polling there were grave violations, where the people responsible of committing those violations meant to cripple the electoral process," said Agnes Lokudo, secretary of NCP south Sudan sector, at a press conference here.

"Since the first day we have been observing the electoral process. Grave violations occurred today and yesterday. We have filed a complaint to the elections commission in this respect and we will wait for its response," she added.

She explained that the violations included arrest of NCP representatives and five observers at Kuwaji district, expulsion of observers from the polling stations at Yerkaka, and forcing the voters to vote for the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) at Yae river district.
She added that there were polling stations which are run by SPLM members in complete absence of voters' lists.

The SPLM governs south Sudan in accordance of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), inked between north and south Sudan in January 2005.

More than 16 million Sudanese voters, including 4 million in the south, started casting their votes on Sunday to choose their representatives for the presidency, state governors, the president of southern Sudan and legislative councils.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday eight staff members, a Swiss citizen and seven Congolese, were kidnapped last week in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The eight have been held by Mai Mai armed militia since last Friday near the remote area of Fizi, in South Kivu province, it said in a statement.

"We demand that the group holding our personnel release them as quickly as possible," said Franz Rauchenstein, head of the ICRC delegation in the country.

An ICRC spokeswoman in Geneva said she could not provide any further details about the staff or whether the agency was in contact with the Mai Mai.

The ICRC maintains a permanent presence in South Kivu province in Bukavu, Uvira, Marungu and Fizi. Access is difficult owing to the remoteness of the region, logistical challenges and security conditions, it said.

The area has been the scene of violent clashes which have resulted in the displacement of thousands of civilians in recent months, it said.

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's lower house of parliament could begin debate next month on controversial legislation that would transform Africa's biggest energy sector, a senior lawmaker said on Tuesday.

A joint committee in the House of Representatives is close to finalising the Petroleum Industry Bill that aims to rewrite Nigeria's decades-old relationship with Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil and other oil companies.

The oil reform bill has been delayed repeatedly because of constitutional concerns and disputes between government and foreign oil firms over the fiscal terms for their operations.

"There was a wide gap between what the government wanted and what the operators in the industry wanted. We have fairly sorted that out," said Bassey Otu, chairman of the joint committee working on the bill.

"As soon as we resume, the joint committee will meet ... come up with a clean copy and submit at the plenary. I am looking at one month from now," he added.

The Senate is also finalising its own bill, which would need to be harmonized with the lower house's version before being sent to the president so it can be signed into law.

The legislation aims to break state oil firm NNPC, long hampered by funding shortfalls, into profit-driven units able to tap international markets. The move could prompt some of the biggest financing deals of their kind ever done in Africa.

The government would also be allowed to renegotiate old contracts, impose higher costs on oil companies and retake acreage that firms have yet to explore.

But foreign oil companies operating in Nigeria have warned the plans contained in the bill could threaten billions of dollars of investment if they go ahead in their current form.

The main areas of dispute between government and oil firms include higher royalty payments, industry-wide taxes on profits and revenue sharing.

LUSAKA (Reuters) - China Nonferrous Metal Mining (CNMC) plans to invest $600 million in Zambia between 2010 and 2011, encouraged by the country's abundant mineral resources and political stability, company president Luo Tao said.

Luo said the money would be used to buy new mining equipment, develop a new copper mine, expand an existing copper mine and smelter facility, develop a tax-free economic zone and expand a copper processing plant.

"We will begin the investment of $600 million soon and hope to finish this investment by next year," Luo said late on Monday during the signing of an agreement with the government for the joint development of a planned project to recover residue copper in tailings dams.

Luo said $300 million would go to the Luanshya copper mine, which CNMC took over last year, and most of that money would be spent on developing the Mulyashi copper project.

According to official data, CNMC plans to start developing the Mulyashi copper mine this year after approving a feasibility study and production is expected to begin in 2012 with output projected at about 60,000 tonnes of copper a year.

"The other $300 million will be invested in projects such as the planned expansion of the Chambishi copper smelter in the Zambia-China economic zone," he said.

China is the world's largest consumer of copper and Zambia is Africa's biggest producer of the metal.

Luo said CNMC had over the last 12 years invested $1 billion in Zambia and would spend $5 million on feasibility studies to establish whether it was viable to recover the residue copper in the Mufulira tailings dams.

CNMC would invest more in Zambia because of its rich mineral resources and political stability, Luo said.

ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Madagascar's army has given President Andry Rajoelina until the end of April to offer an acceptable way out of the 13-month political crisis on the Indian Ocean island, a military source said on Monday.

"The army bosses asked Rajoelina to present a road map in 48 hours, and after discussions everyone agreed on waiting until the end of the month," said a senior military source present at a meeting between Rajoelina and the military leadership.

A source close to the presidency confirmed the timetable. No details were given of what the army would do if Rajoelina failed to meet the deadline.

Political analysts say there has been growing unease in some quarters of the government and military at Rajoelina's handling of the crisis, which has unnerved major foreign investors exploiting the island's oil and mineral resources.

"We have asked the government, the High Transitional Authority, to publish a clear road map," army chief General Andre Ndriarijoana told reporters at an earlier news conference.

Ndriarijoana, who backed Rajoelina's ouster of former President Marc Ravalomanana in March last year, also demanded proof of how Rajoelina's administration would pay public sector salaries and finance legislative and presidential elections due later this year.

"We call on the politicians to end all street action and to take part in the building of a nation for all within a timeframe that we have given to the government," Ndriarijoana said.

Last month the African Union imposed targeted sanctions on Rajoelina and more than 100 of his key backers. The European Union is also mulling sanctions.

Rumours have swirled around Madagascar's capital in recent weeks of a planned coup to unseat Rajoelina.

The former disc jockey toppled former President Marc Ravalomanana with the help of renegade troops, among them Ndriarijoana, last March after weeks of violent street protests against Ravalomanana's increasingly authoritarian leadership.

A statement released by the presidency said it was paramount the armed forces were unified and underlined the need for the military "not to be manipulated for political means".

Late last week, Rajoelina's prime minister sacked Armed Forces Minister General Noel Rakotonandrasana in a show of no confidence. But Rakotonandrasana has refused to leave his post.

The army demanded Rajoelina offer a solution that would be acceptable to foreign donors who have suspended aid worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

"Above all, it is demanded the government work with all actors ... a necessary condition for a free and transparent election, accepted by the Malagasy people and the international community," said Ndriarijoana.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan on Monday extended voting in its first open elections in 24 years because of delays in delivering ballots, but opposition parties not already boycotting the polls said they should be scrapped.

Voting began on Sunday and had been due to last three days, but authorities announced a two-day extension until Thursday to allow more time for the complex presidential, legislative and gubernatorial polls in Africa's largest country.

"There is a two-day extension throughout the whole country," Sudan's National Elections Commission (NEC) Secretary-General Jalal Mohamed Ahmed told Reuters. "It is to give more time to the voters."

The vote seeks to transform the oil producer, emerging from decades of civil war into a democracy, but the main opposition announced a boycott on grounds of fraud. Opposition groups that did take part now say the process cannot be rescued.

The election looks likely to confirm the 21-year rule of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the only sitting head of state wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, which says he was behind mass murder in Darfur. Bashir rejects the ICC's jurisdiction.

Electoral observers and the main southern Sudan party had urged a voting extension, especially in the south where materials and ballots were delayed and people were searching for hours to find voting centres.

Sudanese observer al-Baqer Alafif said the NEC was "clearly not ready" to begin the vote on Sunday and should have heeded calls from opposition parties and observers for a short delay to resolve logistical problems.

Opposition parties said any extension was a waste of money.

"I call on President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and (south Sudan) President Salva Kiir to cancel these elections," opposition presidential candidate Abdelaziz Khaled told Reuters.

"There is no way to rescue this process."

Khaled's party is one of four opposition groups who did not join a wider boycott, saying they wanted to document the abuses.

Opposition parties called a joint news conference to urge Sudan to stop the elections.

"It's a very expensive problem now. We were better off without elections. It's nonsensical," said opposition Umma Party spokeswoman Mariam al-Mahdi.

"There is no need for any extension because the whole process has collapsed," Mahdi said.

The U.S. State Department said Washington believed that while irregularities were to be expected, the Sudanese poll itself was an important step forward.

"With voting under way in Sudan, I think we're satisfied with the start of the process," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told a news briefing, acknowledging there had been "challenges" in preparing for the election.

"There was certainly more that the government of Sudan could have done and should have done to create an appropriate environment for the election," Crowley added.

DARFUR PEACEKEEPERS MISSING

In Sudan's war-torn Darfur region, four peacekeepers from the U.N.-African Union mission there, known as UNAMID, had been missing for more than a day, a spokesman said on Monday.

Car jackings are rife in Darfur and last year abductions of foreigners for ransom began.

The seven-year conflict in Darfur, still under emergency law, was one of the reasons for the opposition boycott.

On Monday low voter turnout in many parts of the north showed the boycott was working, observers said. In some areas election officials were more numerous than voters.

Problems were to be expected in the complex polls, with more than 1,000 different ballots and 10,000 voting stations. But the extent of the errors, observers said, was very serious.

"These violations are being repeated systematically," said Shamseddin Dawalbeit, the deputy head of Tamam, an alliance of more than 100 civil society groups working on the polls.

"There is very low voter turnout today. The opposition boycott was very effective," he said.

The two-day extension will exhaust Sudanese monitors who are sleeping outside voting booths to try to protect the ballot boxes.

LONDON (Reuters) - Detectives have travelled to Kenya as part of a new inquiry into the murder of photographer Julie Ward, whose burnt and mutilated body was found in a game park 22 years ago, police said on Tuesday.

Ward, 28, vanished during a photographic wildlife tour of the Masai Mara game reserve in southwest Kenya in 1988. Her dismembered and charred remains were discovered a week after she was reported missing.

Despite repeated investigations by British and Kenyan authorities, no one has been convicted of the murder.

London's Metropolitan Police (MPS) said a team of six detectives and a forensic officer had visited Kenya last month to follow up potential new leads.

"MPS officers continue to work closely with, and receive positive cooperation from Kenyan authorities in this investigation," a spokesman said.

He declined to comment on media reports that the inquiry would focus on possible new DNA evidence.

The murdered photographer's father John Ward, a millionaire retired hotelier, has long waged an expensive campaign to bring those responsible for his daughter's death to justice.

Two park rangers were cleared of the murder in 1992, and the reserve's head warden was acquitted of her killing in 1999.

Kenya reopened the case in 2005 and John Ward said there had been flaws in previous probes, accusing the government of Kenya's former president Daniel arap Moi and some British authorities of obstructing the initial investigation.

Kenyan authorities first said Julie had been attacked by wild animals but later accepted she had been murdered.

"It's always been agreed that this case is solvable, and what it's lacked is the will to solve it," Ward told BBC radio.

"We've got the right people in place in London and we've got the right people in place in Kenya, and the two of them working together provide a formidable force to go forward. If this thing can be solved, this is the time."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The International Finance Corp said on Monday it would partner with sovereign wealth funds and pension funds from Azerbaijan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and South Korea in an $800 million fund that will invest in companies in Africa and elsewhere.

IFC, the World Bank's private-sector lender, said it had invested $200 million in the fund and additional commitments were from Dutch pension fund manager PGGM, Korea Investment Corp, State Oil Fund of the Azerbaijan Republic and a fund investor from Saudi Arabia.

The fund will be managed by IFC Asset Management Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of IFC, which will buy equity stakes in companies in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick in 2008 called on state-owned wealth funds to invest some of their cash in potentially lucrative markets in developing countries to boost economic growth through investment in companies.

"Pension and sovereign funds represent a significant savings pool that is seeking commercial returns and portfolio diversification," Zoellick said in a statement.

"With this fund, we will demonstrate that developing countries have high-quality investment opportunities to attract commercial investors."

Sovereign wealth funds have existed since the 1950s but as large Asian exporting countries and oil producing nations have seen their currency reserves balloon, these funds have mushroomed in size and number. Today the funds are believed to control assets worth between $2 trillion to $3 trillion.

IFC has been successful in mobilizing capital and working with the private sectors in Africa and other regions of the developing world as part of a broader mission to spur economic growth and reduce poverty.

Lars Thunell, IFC chief executive officer and executive vice president, said the fund was part of IFC's strategy to tap the growing investment opportunities in frontier markets.

"With the launch of this fund we are providing equity co-investment opportunities to sovereign and pension fund investors for the first time," Thunell said.

POST ZAMBIA

PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda has misplaced agenda’s when it comes to good governance, Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union of Zambia (HCAWUZ) president Mubiana Sitwala has observed.

In an interview yesterday, Sitwala said revelations that the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) had spent K1.8 billion to procure microphones when the conference was almost winding up, was a scam.

“It is a scam being perpetrated by the MMD because it was better to cancel the procurement and pay penalty fees for the liabilities which definitely was not going to be over the purchase cost of the microphones. Our hospitals do not have drugs and the best the NCC could do is buy microphones which would not even be transferred to health institutions or prison after the conference ends.

This is a scam because President Rupiah Banda should have stopped the procurement. I don’t think that I will accept to hear that the President was not aware of the procurement of the microphones,” he said.

Sitwala said if it were a container of pens or not books, he would have supported the idea as any surplus could be given to schools and prisons.

“There is grave misplaced agenda in the MMD government. All one needs to do is look at the reaction to the flood issues in Lusaka, look at the drug issues in all our clinics including Livingstone, which has no TB drugs.

If it was a big container of pens and notebooks I would have said please give the left overs to Katombora Reformatory Prisons in Kazungula and give some to a basic school in chief Mukuni’s area,” he said.

And Sitwala said that Livingstone was far behind neighbouring Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls town, which had suddenly become a preferred destination due to Livingstone’s lack of good service delivery.

“I appeal to local government minister to do what he has done in Milenge where he has uplifted the suspension of the council. We have a World Cup around the corner and our friends in Zimbabwe have already struck some deals to have a lot of tourists coming to the Victoria Falls in between breaks of games. Just two weeks ago Limpopo provincial government officials were in Vic Falls where they have struck a lot of deals to make usage of accommodation and health facilities in Zimbabwe for the Polokwane World Cup games,” said Sitwala.

20100412
AFRICA NEWS

Island hopping is no longer defined to the Caribbean or Aegean, but growing more popular in the Indian Ocean. Seychelles has found that tourism marketing on the close-by French island Réunion and a tighter cooperation is gaining quick results.

Last year, Seychelles tourism authorities and stakeholders for the first time went on a promotional tour to the sister Indian Ocean island of Réunion. It paid off. The trip resulted in Air Austral introducing a second flight from its Réunion base to Seychelles and a growth in island hopping tourists.

This year, therefore, Seychelles sends a strong delegation comprising of tourism and cultural officials to Réunion this weekend for yet another Seychelles promotional tour; two ministers are to join the trip.

20100412
AFRICA NEWS

France Telecom has announced plans to invest as much as 7 billion Euros ($9.3 billion) in deals across Africa and Middle East in the next five years.

According to Businessweek.com, France Telecom CEO, Stephane Richard, confirmed in an interview that the company was interested in doubling its revenue from emerging markets by investing in the MEA region. He said developing markets currently account for 3.3 billion euros of France Telecom's revenue, representing about 7% of total annual sales of around 46 billion euros.

France Telecom's interest in emerging markets follows some of the world's largest mobile operators who have invested in Africa, in search of growth opportunities. India's Bharti Airtel's acquisition of Kuwaiti operator Zain's assets in 15 African countries, for $9 billion, is an encouraging deal for foreign operators.

20100412
AFRICA NEWS

Bioethics and the ethics of science and technology are set to receive more prominence in the Arab world following the launch of a regional centre in Egypt to highlight activities in these fields.

The Regional Documentation and Information Centre for Bioethics and Ethics of Science and Technology (RDIC-BEST), the third of its kind in the world, was inaugurated last week at the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (ARST) in Cairo, where the centre will be based.

It has since held its first activity, a workshop on ethics in science and technology in the Arab region, at Cairo's National Research Center.

Tarek Hussein, president of ARST, told SciDev.Net that RDIC-BEST - set up with support from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) - would help raise awareness about bioethics and science ethics through education and information dissemination.

He added the centre would provide assistance with the developing of ethics databases and establishing ethics committees in the region. It would also promote setting ethics standards in the region.

"The centre is managed by regional and local committees of experts from UNESCO and Arab countries," Hussein said. "They will be in charge of organising seminars and workshops, and developing university curricula to include [teaching on] ethics."

"It includes a library of documents collected from UNESCO regional centres across the world. A computer lab with a digital library and databases has been set up and linked with regional nodes to exchange data and information for the benefit of all parties," Hussein added.

UNESCO has previously established two RDIC-BEST centres - one at Vilnius University, Lithuania, in 2004, and the other at Kenya's Egeron University in 2007.

The new Cairo centre is "an important further step in promoting and developing activities on bioethics and the ethics of science and technology in the Arab region," said Henry Silverman, programme director for Middle East Research Ethics Training Initiative, based at the University of Maryland in the United States.

Silverman also said that RDIC?BEST would enhance the efforts of UNESCO's existing Global Ethics Observatory (GEObs) in coordinating and sharing the relevant data on ethics from the Arab world.

GEObs collates and stores ethics information from all over the world and makes it publicly accessible through UNESCO's website. Its data includes information on ethics experts and institutions, teaching programmes, laws and guidelines, codes of conduct and teaching materials.

Hany Sleem, one of the coordinators of the Egyptian Network of Research Ethics Committees said: "I think it is a great idea to document ethics-related activities in the Arab region."

2010-04-12
KHARTOUM, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) on Monday welcomed the decision of the National Elections Commission (NEC) to extend the polling period of the general elections for two extra days.

"The decision supports the SPLM's earlier demand to extend the polling days," Susan Jambo, a senior official responsible for the SPLM election campaigns, told Xinhua in Juba, the capital of southern Sudan.

On Sunday, the SPLM demanded extension of the polling days due to mistakes which accompanied the first day of the process.

On whether the two days are enough to tackle the problems which accompanied the electoral process, Jambo said that "if the NEC increased the number of the polling officials and their capabilities during the two days, the situation can improve."

"It is necessary for the NEC to conduct an investigation into the problems which occurred during the first and second days of the polling, particularly in Kaboita where the ballot box of southern Sudan government and the legislative council was not brought," she added.

She further demanded the NEC to increase the voters' lists at the polling stations and direct the voters to the centers where their names are, so that they could easily cast their votes.

The NEC made the extension decision on Monday, saying its decision was based on objective justifications and meant to enable the voters to cast their votes easily and to compensate for the time loss caused by the delay due to technical and administrative errors that accompanied the process.

20100412
SAPA

US President Barack Obama Sunday heaped praise on South Africa for taking the decision to become the first country to abandon a nuclear weapons program, as he met President Jacob Zuma.
President Obama Meets With President Zuma of South Africa in Washington

Obama met Zuma amid a string of bilateral meetings with world leaders on the eve of a 47-nation nuclear security summit, designed to draw commitments from key powers to keep loose nuclear material out of the hands of extremist groups.

"South Africa is singular in having had a nuclear weapon program, had moved forward on it, and then decided this was not the right path," Obama said, noting how South African had since been a leader on non-proliferation.

"South Africa has special standing in being a moral leader on this issue. And I wanted to publicly compliment President Zuma and his administration for the leadership they've shown," Obama said.

"And we are looking forward toward the possibility of them helping to guide other countries down a similar direction of non-proliferation."

South Africa abandoned its nuclear weapons program in the 1990s and the International Atomic Energy Agency certified in 1994 that the program had been fully dismantled.

20100412
AFRICA NEWS

Sudan's first ever multi-party elections in 24 years have started for a second day. The process is said to be going well in the capital Khartoum but voters face obstacles in several states of the country from the Red Sea in the north to the south. There are also reports of confusion and disarray in the country.

The dominant party in the south is calling for a four-day extension.

The presidential, parliamentary and state polls are part of the deal that ended Sudan's north-south civil war.
It is widely expected that the country's two most influential men, President Omar al-Bashir, and Salva Kiir, who leads largely autonomous Southern Sudan, will retain their positions.

Bashir is seeking a democratic mandate since being indicted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Darfur but a boycott of the poll by his two main challengers means his mandate is likely to be reduced.

Kiir, who is standing unopposed, was forced to wait for his polling station to open in the southern capital Juba but he said afterwards that he had a "good feeling" about the country's political future.

"I have never voted in my life," he said. "This is my first time to vote and it is a good feeling that Sudan is going back to democracy."

Voting in parts of Khartoum was held up by delays in getting ballots to polling stations, ballot mix-ups and names missing from the electoral roll, Reuters news agency reports.

In the south, many polling stations opened late and many voters, including senior officials, could not find their names on voter rolls

Reports from the southern capital, Juba, says polling hadn't started in one centre seven hours after voting was due to start, according to the BBC.

The elections are also complicated by the ongoing low-level civil war in Darfur, where some three million people are living in refugee camps.

The north-south civil war ended in 2005, with a deal for the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) to share power with Bashir's National Congress Party nationally, while running affairs in the south on its own.

For many in Southern Sudan, these elections are a prelude to a referendum next January on possible independence.

President Bashir has said he will accept the referendum result, even if it favours independence for the south.

However, the country's oil fields lie along the north-south border and some fear that an independence bid could lead to renewed conflict.