12/11/08

Photo: Joseph Kabila DRC

Source:RUBY MUNDIMBA, http://www.zimdaily.com

Zim soldiers flee DRC assignment

 

ZIMBABWE- HARARE - Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) officers forcibly assigned to

the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to prop up the government of

Joseph Kabila against the re-insurgence of rebels under the tutelage of General Nkunda

are reportedly sneaking out of the war zone and finding their way to South Africa and Botswana.

"The soldiers were dispatched to DRC under protest and most of them had

their travel papers fast-tracked against procedure to ensure that they are quickly

dispatched to the firing line," said the source on condition he is not named.

The source said that most of the army escapees are wriggling and buying their way back

through the Chirundu border post and have either gone into hiding in

Zimbabwe or fled to South Africa and Botswana.

The ZNA spokesman Tsatse could neither deny nor confirm that the army details are

fleeing the war zone in DRC saying that he still needs time to verify the allegations before commenting.

The recent riots aided by low ranking army officers resulted in the elimination of

eleven officers by the ruthless Zimbabwean government that no longer has

capacity to solve the country's economic problems believed to

have been the main reason behind the dissent.

Last month, ZNA scaled down its operations in Chiadzwa from six hundred to less than

one hundred officers in preparation for action in the DRC.

The scaling down in the Zimbabwe diamond rich Chiadzwa was also against the background

that they had the penchant for looting the precious stone and they themselves needed to be guarded.

The dispatch of Zimbabwe's legion of soldiers in the 1990s to prop up the illegal government

of the slain Laurent Kabila resulted in the massive loss of lives of many in the army

whose dead bodies were regularly off-loaded by army choppers at Manyame Airbase.

Manyame was later declared a cantonment area for those that do not stay there permanently

for the fear that they would externalise classified information of the uncalled-for death in the DRC.

Former Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasango, the UN mediator for the crisis in the Great Lakes

who was recently spotted on television gyrating to music with rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda

is pointing the guns of blame squarely at Joseph Kabila who is reportedly

negotiating in bad faith just like Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. 

Source:RUBY MUNDIMBA, http://www.zimdaily.com



--
Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm:   (250) 08470205
Home: (250) 55104140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali - RWANDA
East AFRICA
Blog: http://cepgl.blogspot.com
Skype ID: kayisa66

Source: Nathalie Paelinck, http://www.golias.fr

Le miel, un aliment-médicament

Le miel est un produit naturel très complexe contenant un grand nombre

d'éléments vitaux (environ 200 substances) qui agissent en parfaite harmonie et synergie.

Il serait impossible de le créer artificiellement.

C'est pourquoi il est si précieux et que sa place dans l'alimentation vaut infiniment

plus qu'un simple édulcorant.

Le miel es composé principalement de sucres simples directement assimilables (+/- 80%), d'eau (+/- 17%),

de lipides et protides en infime quantité, d'une trentaine d'éléments minéraux,

d'un grand nombre de vitamines, d'enzymes, de plusieurs facteurs antibiotiques, de flavonoïdes,

pigments, substances aromatiques et aussi de pollen qui signe l'origine végétale du produit.

Cette très grande variété d'éléments explique pourquoi il est impossible d'avoir deux miels parfaitement identiques.

Il contribue à l'amélioration du rendement physique et intellectuel.

Toute personne, bien portante ou non, profitera de ses bienfaits : sportifs, adolescents,

convalescents, asthéniques ou encore le jeune enfant ou la personne âgée qui n'a pas d'appétit

et/ou présente un état de maigreur.

Le choix du miel n'est pas qu'une affaire de goût si l'on désire agir sur des troubles spécifiques.

Quand c'est la sphère respiratoire qui est touchée,

on choisira du miel d'eucalyptus ou de lavande.

Un gargarisme à l'eau miellée soulage les maux de gorge et enrouements…

Pour les troubles cardio-vasculaires et de la circulation sanguine,

les miels plus foncés (bruyère, sapin…) sont recommandés car ils sont plus riches en antioxydants.

Le miel de romarin est utile en cas de troubles de l'assimilation digestive.

Si l'on souffre d'insomnies légères ou de nervosité,

on pensera aux miels d'aubépine, d'oranger ou de tilleul.

En application locale, les vertus antibactériennes du miel permettent d'accélérer le temps

de cicatrisation des brûlures superficielles et de guérison de plaies cutanées avec infection.

Il suffit de dissoudre 50 g de miel dans une tasse d'eau avec un peu de glycérine

que l'on enduit sur la lésion.

Il serait dommage de se priver de cet aliment savoureux et tellement riche

en éléments vitaux organiques sous prétexte qu'il fait grossir !

Le miel apporte moins de calories que le sucre raffiné, pas plus que le pain

et deux fois moins que des cacahuètes grillées !

A raison d'une bonne cuillère à soupe pour un adulte (une cuillère à café pour un jeune enfant)

répartie tout au long de la journée, il n'y a pas de risque de surpoids.

Source: Nathalie Paelinck, http://www.golias.fr






--
Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm:   (250) 08470205
Home: (250) 55104140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali - RWANDA
East AFRICA
Blog: http://cepgl.blogspot.com
Skype ID: kayisa66

12/10/08

Source: William Broad,  http://news.cnet.com

Hidden travels of the atomic bomb

In 1945, after the atomic destruction of two Japanese cities,

J. Robert Oppenheimer expressed foreboding about the spread of nuclear arms.

"They are not too hard to make," he told his colleagues on the Manhattan Project at

Los Alamos, N.M. "They will be universal if people wish to make them universal."

That sensibility, born where the atomic bomb itself was born, grew into a theory

of technological inevitability. Because the laws of physics are universal,

the theory went, it was just a matter of time before other bright minds

and determined states joined the club. A corollary was that trying to

stop proliferation was quite difficult if not futile.

But nothing, it seems, could be further from the truth. In the six decades

since Oppenheimer's warning, the nuclear club has grown to only nine members.

What accounts for the slow spread?

Can anything be done to reduce it further?

Is there a chance for an atomic future that is brighter than the one Oppenheimer foresaw?

Two new books by three atomic insiders hold out hope.

The authors shatter myths, throw light on the hidden dynamics

of nuclear proliferation and suggest new ways to reduce the threat.

Neither book endorses Oppenheimer's view that bombs

are relatively easy to make.

Both document national paths to acquiring nuclear weapons

that have been rocky and dependent on the willingness

of spies and politicians to divulge state secrets.

Thomas C. Reed, a veteran of the Livermore weapons laboratory

in California and a former secretary of the Air Force,

and Danny B. Stillman, former director of intelligence at Los Alamos,

have teamed up in The Nuclear Express: A Political History of the Bomb and its Proliferation

to show the importance of moles, scientists with divided loyalties and--most important--

the subtle and not so subtle interests of nuclear states.

"Since the birth of the nuclear age," they write, "no nation has developed a nuclear weapon on its own,

although many claim otherwise."

Among other things, the book details how secretive aid from France and China

helped spawn five more nuclear states.

It also names many conflicted scientists, including luminaries like Isidor I. Rabi.

The Nobel laureate worked on the Manhattan Project in World War II and later sat

on the board of governors of the Weizmann Institute of Science, a birthplace of Israel's nuclear arms.

Secret cooperation extended to the secluded sites where nations tested their handiwork

in thundering blasts. The book says, for instance, that China opened its sprawling desert test site

to Pakistan, letting its client test a first bomb there on May 26, 1990.

That alone rewrites atomic history. It casts new light on the reign of Benazir Bhutto as prime minister

of Pakistan and helps explain how the country was able to respond

so quickly in May 1998 when India conducted five nuclear tests.

"It took only two weeks and three days for the Pakistanis to field and fire

a nuclear device of their own," the book notes.

In another disclosure, the book says China "secretly extended the hospitality of

the Lop Nur nuclear test site to the French."

The authors build their narrative on deep knowledge of the arms and intelligence worlds,

including those abroad. Stillman has toured heavily guarded nuclear sites in China and Russia,

and both men have developed close ties with foreign peers.

In their acknowledgments, they thank American cold warriors like Edward Teller as well as two former CIA directors,

saying the intelligence experts "guided our searches."

Robert S. Norris, an atomic historian and author of Racing for the Bomb, an account of the Manhattan Project,

praised the book for "remarkable disclosures of how nuclear knowledge was shared

overtly and covertly with friends and foes."

The book is technical in places, as when detailing the exotica of nuclear arms.

But it reads like a labor of love built on two lifetimes of scientific adventure.

It is due out in January from Zenith Press.

Its wide perspective reveals how states quietly shared complex machinery and secrets with one another.

All paths stem from the United States, directly or indirectly. One began with Russian spies that deeply

penetrated the Manhattan Project. Stalin was so enamored of the intelligence haul, Reed and Stillman note,

that his first atom bomb was an exact replica of the weapon the United States had dropped on Nagasaki.

Aid from China, and others

Moscow freely shared its atomic thefts with Mao Zedong, China's leader.

The book says that Klaus Fuchs, a Soviet spy in the Manhattan Project who was eventually

caught and, in 1959, released from jail, did likewise.

Upon gaining his freedom, the authors say, Fuchs gave the mastermind of Mao's weapons program

a detailed tutorial on the Nagasaki bomb. A half-decade later, China surprised the world with its first blast.

The book, in a main disclosure, discusses how China in 1982 made a policy decision to flood the developing world

with atomic knowhow. Its identified clients include Algeria, Pakistan, and North Korea.

Alarmingly, the authors say one of China's bombs was created as an "export design"

that nearly "anybody could build."

The blueprint for the simple plan has traveled from Pakistan to Libya and, the authors say, Iran.

That path is widely assumed among intelligence officials, but Tehran has repeatedly denied the charge.

The book sees a quiet repercussion of China's proliferation policy in the Algerian desert.

Built in secrecy, the reactor there now makes enough plutonium each year to fuel one atom bomb and

is ringed by antiaircraft missiles, the book says.

China's deck also held a wild card: its aid to Pakistan helped A.Q. Khan,

a rogue Pakistani metallurgist who sold nuclear gear on the global black market.

The authors compare Khan to "a used-car dealer" happy to sell his complex machinery

to suckers who had no idea how hard it was to make fuel for a bomb.

Why did Beijing spread its atomic knowledge so freely?

The authors speculate that it either wanted to strengthen the enemies of China's enemies

(for instance, Pakistan as a counterweight to India) or, more chillingly,

to encourage nuclear wars or terror in foreign lands from which Beijing would emerge as the "last man standing."

A lesser pathway involves France.

The book says it drew on Manhattan Project veterans and shared intimate details of

its bomb program with Israel, with whom it had substantial commercial ties.

By 1959, the book says, dozens of Israeli scientists "were observing and participating in"

the French program of weapons design.

The book adds that in early 1960, when France detonated its first bomb,

doing so in the Algerian desert, "two nations went nuclear."

And it describes how the United States turned a blind eye to Israel's own atomic developments.

It adds that, in the autumn of 1966, Israel conducted a special, non-nuclear test

"2,600 feet under the Negev desert." The next year it built its first bomb.

Israel, in turn, shared its atomic secrets with South Africa.

The book discloses that the two states exchanged some key ingredients for the making of atom bombs:

tritium to South Africa, uranium to Israel. And the authors agree with military experts

who hold that Israel and South Africa in 1979 jointly detonated a nuclear device in the South Atlantic

near Prince Edward Island, more than one thousand miles south of Cape Town.

Israel needed the test, it says, to develop a neutron bomb.

The authors charge that South Africa at one point targeted Luanda,

the capital of neighboring Angola, "for a nuclear strike if peace talks failed."

South Africa dismantled six nuclear arms in 1990 but retains much expertise.

Today, the authors write, "South African technical mercenaries may be more dangerous

than the underemployed scientists of the former Soviet Union" because they have no real home in Africa.

The Bomb: A New History, due out in January from Ecco Books,

an imprint of HarperCollins, plows similar ground less deeply, but looks

more widely at proliferation curbs and diplomacy.

It is by Stephen M. Younger, the former head of nuclear arms at Los Alamos and

former director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency at the Pentagon.

Younger disparages what he calls myths suggesting that "all the secrets of nuclear weapons

design are available on the Internet."

He writes that France, despite secretive aid, struggled initially to make crude bombs--

a point he saw with his own eyes during a tour of a secretive French atomic museum that

is closed to the public. That trouble, he says, "suggests we should doubt assertions that

the information required to make a nuclear weapon is freely available."

The two books draw on atomic history to suggest a mix of old and new ways to defuse

the proliferation threat. Both see past restraints as fraying and the task as increasingly urgent.

Putting politics first

Reed and Stillman see politics--not spies or military ambitions--as the primary force in

the development and spread of nuclear arms.

States repeatedly stole and leaked secrets because they saw such action as in their geopolitical interest.

Beijing continues to be a major threat, they argue.

While urging global responses like better intelligence,

better inspections and better safeguarding of nuclear materials,

they also see generational change in China as a great hope in plugging the atomic leaks.

"We must continue to support human rights within Chinese society, not just as an American export,

but because it is the dream of the Tiananmen Square generation," they write.

"In time those youngsters could well prevail, and the world will be a less contentious place."

Younger notes how political restraints and global treaties worked for decades

to curb atomic proliferation, as did American assurances to its allies.

"It is a tribute to American diplomacy," he writes,

"that so many countries that might otherwise have gone nuclear were convinced

to remain under the nuclear umbrella of the United States."

And he, too, emphasizes the importance of political sticks and carrots

to halting and perhaps reversing the spread of nuclear arms. Iran, he says, is not fated to go nuclear.

"Sweden, Switzerland, Argentina and Brazil all flirted with nuclear programs, and all decided

to abandon them," he notes. "Nuclear proliferation is not unidirectional--given the right conditions

and incentives, it is possible for a nation to give up its nuclear aspirations."

The take-home message of both books is quite the reverse of Oppenheimer's

grim forecast. But both caution that the situation has reached a delicate stage--

with a second age of nuclear proliferation close at hand--

and that missteps now could hurt terribly in the future.

Reed and Stillman take their title, The Nuclear Express, from a 1940 radio dispatch

by Edward R. Murrow, who spoke from London as the clouds of war gathered over Europe.

He told of people feeling like the express train of civilization was going out of control.

The authors warn of a similar danger today and suggest that only close attention to

the atomic past, as well as determined global action, can avoid "the greatest train wreck" in history.

Source: William Broad,  http://news.cnet.com

--
Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm:   (250) 08470205
Home: (250) 55104140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali - RWANDA
East AFRICA
Blog: http://cepgl.blogspot.com
Skype ID: kayisa66
Source: Anne Mugisa, http://www.newvision.co.ug

Britain returns bribe paid to Ugandan officials


The British Government has returned a bribe recovered from a presidential adviser

convicted in London for fraudulently soliciting the money from a security contractor

ahead of the Commonwealth Summit last year.

The British High Commissioner in Kampala, Martin Shearman,

yesterday handed over a sh116, 895,187 cheque to the Inspector General of Government (IGG),

Faith Mwondha, which Ananias Gweinho Tumukunde received from CBRN Team Ltd in May.

Tumukunde pleaded guilty to money-laundering charges.

He and a Ugandan army officer, Rusoke Tagaswire, received 83,000 pound sterling

from the government contractor, according to a statement from the British government.

Tumukunde and Rusoke opened bank accounts in the UK for the purpose.

Rusoke has not been prosecuted.

The British High Commission said Tumukunde signed a contract of 210,000 pound sterling

with CBRN for the supply of training equipment to the UPDF in preparation for CHOGM.

After the contract, Tumukunde asked CBRN's chief Niels Tobiasen from Denmark for

an additional 83,000 pound sterling for a purported local tax of 10%.

Tobiasen agreed and a total of five local tax payments worth 83,000 pound sterling were made

to both Tumukunde and Rusoke between June 1, 2007 and February 11, 2008,

the High Commission said.

The payments were purportedly made as part of an agency agreement.

In fact, they were inducements going directly into bank accounts

opened by Tumukunde and Tagaswire in the UK.

Tumukunde had also inflated the costs, making the Ugandan Government

pay 62,000 pound sterling more.

CBRN was also made to pay 21,000 Pound Sterling more, according to the High Commission.

The City of London Police arrested Tumukunde when he landed there on April 3,

this year and charged him.

The police had a day before searched the CBRN Ltd offices

and arrested two men including Tobiasen, who pleaded guilty.

Tumukunde was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment but was released

on October 7, 2008 on the basis of time spent on remand and good conduct.

He was deported to Uganda. Tobiasen was sentenced to five months imprisonment.

The High Commissioner, Martin Shearman,

underscored the need to fight corruption because of its high cost to society.

Corruption is an international, not just a developing country, problem.

The UK is committed to tackling foreign bribery. Investigating and prosecuting

those individuals or companies guilty of criminal behaviour sends

a clear message to UK companies not to engage in corruption.

IGG Mwondha commended the British Government for the return of the money.

The corrupt in Uganda, she said, use ill-gotten wealth to frustrate justice and to evade punishment.

Mwondha said after her investigation of the misuse of

the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunisation fund, some sh250m was recovered.

The money, which is on the Assets Recovery Account, will be used as exhibit to prosecute the suspects.

Three former health ministers Maj. Gen. Jim Muhwezi, Dr. Alex Kamugisha, Mike Mukula

and former State House employee Alice Kaboyo are on trial over the funds.

Source: Anne Mugisa, http://www.newvision.co.ug


--
Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm:   (250) 08470205
Home: (250) 55104140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali - RWANDA
East AFRICA
Blog: http://cepgl.blogspot.com
Skype ID: kayisa66

12/9/08

Source: : Lawrence Williams, http://www.mineweb.com

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

Finance will be available for sound mining projects – Newport

In a presentation in London, Don Newport of Standard Bank set out

the problems in raising finance in current markets, but did see improvement ahead.

 LONDON - 

Speaking at a Mining Finance Masterclass, organised by MinSouth,

the AMA and corporate lawyers Simmons & Simmons yesterday in London,

top mining banker Don Newport of Standard Bank gave a good sized audience the benefit of his views

on the current lending and debt situation facing the mining sector. 

While he pointed to difficult times ahead he did see some light at the end of the tunnel. 

Standard Bank is one of the few banks which specialises in the natural resources sector as one of

its key areas of interest so Newport's views carry particular weight.

"The reality is how banks see things." Said Newport in his introduction and then pointed to a number of reports

on projects being cut back and put on hold (using a series of quotes from recent Mineweb articles as examples),

which he reckoned were sowing the seeds for the next bull market.

He said that the following factors affected the availability of finance, but that it was still available for

those which met some increasingly

strict banking criteria:  Political Risk; Funding Mix; Resource and Reserve credibility;

Commodities prices; Cost criteria (capital and operating) and

perceived infrastructure needs affecting the ultimate viability of the project.

On political risk there was the prospect of adverse legislation changes in some countries

and government interference damaging cash flows and that uncertainty spooks investors -

presumably referring to banks too!

Newport did admit that with the state of current credit and equity markets the prospects of

raising debt or equity finance was not really an option for many,

or most, companies at the present and that there was both a disconnect

between the commodities outlook and equities.  Indeed a disconnect from reality with

share prices bearing little relationship to balance sheet assets in the ground

and that many banks, which were not specialists in the sector, turning away from mining credit altogether.

In the current markets, Newport felt, it was important resources and reserves were sufficient

to satisfy bankers' criteria for conventional project finance,

and with the cost of additional drilling expensive,

while most companies were strapped for cash and conserving what they had,

that mining companies should reassess their projects and perhaps look at slow start options.

On the state of commodities markets he noted that the debt carrying capacity for many projects

was seriously curtailed at current price levels and that with the current price volatility

for many commodities bankers were uncertain where prices were going. 

Forward market protection might be available with most metals in contango,

but this may not be a long term solution. 

He did point out though that companies with in-the-money hedges already

in place have been able to generate cash by unwinding these.

Capital and operating costs had been rising dramatically -

up as much as 50 percent over the past 18 months in some cases -

and while these may be coming down now, the decline is relatively slow in impacting on projects.

The other major problem which can cause banks to deny lending is

perceived infrastructure cost exposure, with large projects having to take on

increasing responsibility fo infrastructure which would previously have been the responsibility of government.

On the positive side though Newport reckoned there were plenty of projects out there

which remain fundamentally sound and that governments,

which had been using high commodity prices to increasingly put the squeeze on mining companies,

were now beginning to come to their senses and reduce some of these imposed burdens. 

Commodity prices would improve while it is no longer so hard to find skilled management and workforces. 

Capital expenditure pressures will reduce and lead times are reducing. 

There are already signs of improvement in the markets and although they may be bouncing

along the bottom there is an increasing feeling that now is the time to invest.

This improvement in perception will start filtering through to lending institutions,

but it is important to keep to basics and look for funding solutions which will work in the current market.

He ended with the message that finance will be available for sound projects.  "Hang in there."

Source: : Lawrence Williams, http://www.mineweb.com


--
Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm:   (250) 08470205
Home: (250) 55104140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali - RWANDA
East AFRICA
Blog: http://cepgl.blogspot.com
Skype ID: kayisa66

Photo: Vietnam flag

Source: Jaclyn Belczyk , http://jurist.law.pitt.edu

Vietnam court gives light sentences to Catholic protesters

The Dong Da district court in Vietnam on Monday convicted eight Catholics

of disturbing public order and destroying property during

protests over disputed land, but gave them light sentences, letting them all go free.

Seven defendants received suspended sentences of 12-15 months [AP report],

and the remaining defendant received a warning.

The defendants, who denied all government allegations [VietCatholic report],

were arrested last August during demonstrations at the Thai Ha church in Hanoi.

More than 1,000 Catholics who showed up to protest the trial [Reuters report]

Monday cheered [The Standard report] as the defendants were set free.

In August, hundreds of Catholics gathered at the Thai Ha church

to demand return of the land [BBC report].

Protesters broke down a wall and set up an altar.

Hanoi officials claim the land belongs to the city because it was lawfully

turned over to them in the early 1960s.

Church authorities claim the land is rightfully theirs.

Protests also took place this year at the former Vatican Embassy in Vietnam.

The embassy was closed after the Communists took power in 1954.

In January, the Vietnamese government said

it would resolve all land disputes according to Vietnamese property law [Thanhnien report].


Source: Jaclyn Belczyk , http://jurist.law.pitt.edu

--
Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm:   (250) 08470205
Home: (250) 55104140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali - RWANDA
East AFRICA
Blog: http://cepgl.blogspot.com
Skype ID: kayisa66

Photo: Hong Kong
Source:
Ximena Marinero, http://jurist.law.pitt.edu

Hong Kong court rules inmates have constitutional right to vote

A judge in the Court of First Instance of the High Court of Hong Kong [Judiciary website]

ruled on Monday that inmates have a constitutional right to vote while serving sentences.

The court's decision stipulates that the justice department and the electoral commission

must find a way to implement it within 14 days.

A spokesman from the Constitutional Affairs and Mainlaind Bureau [official website] said

that the government will study [The Standard report] the judgment and consider how to proceed.

The court ruling would enable inmates to vote in territory elections for the first time

in Hong Kong's history.

Inmates should have the right to vote according to Article 21 of

the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights [text] that states that the people's will

should be expressed in "periodic and genuine elections which shall be

by universal and equal suffrage."

The European Convention on Human Rights [text] protects the right to free elections,

and only nine states, including the UK [JURIST report], do not allow inmates the right to vote.

In the US, federal law allows states to determine their own voting rules [JURIST report],

resulting in a full range of restrictions and freedoms to inmate's right to vote across the states.


Source: Ximena Marinero, http://jurist.law.pitt.edu

--
Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm:   (250) 08470205
Home: (250) 55104140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali - RWANDA
East AFRICA
Blog: http://cepgl.blogspot.com
Skype ID: kayisa66

Photo: India flag

Source:
Jaclyn Belczyk, http://jurist.law.pitt.edu

Alleged conspirators of Mumbai attacks arrested in Pakistan
 
Pakistani police on Sunday night raided a militant camp and arrested the alleged plotters

of the Mumbai terror attacks [BBC backgrounder].

Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi [START profile], head of the Pakistani terrorist group

Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) [ADL backgrounder], was arrested, along with several other individuals

believed to be responsible for the November attacks that left more than 170 dead.

Lakhvi was allegedly in communication with the attackers via telephone [Telegraph report]

throughout the attacks.

Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence is alleged to have provided intelligence

and support [Hindustan Times report] to LeT, and India remains skeptical [Time report]

of Pakistan's efforts to bring the responsible parties to justice.

The attacks in Mumbai were carried out at ten locations across the city including

the landmark Taj Mahal Palace hotel [hotel website].

In a statement [press release] to the nation a day after the attacks started,

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [official website] said the country

"will take the strongest possible measures to ensure that there is no repetition

of such terrorist acts... [and will] take whatever measures are necessary to ensure

the safety and security of our citizens." In the wake of the attacks,

Singh pushed for tougher anti-terrorism measures [JURIST report].

The attack was the worst the city has seen since a group of

bombings killed more than 250 people in 1993.


Source: Jaclyn Belczyk, http://jurist.law.pitt.edu

--
Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm:   (250) 08470205
Home: (250) 55104140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali - RWANDA
East AFRICA
Blog: http://cepgl.blogspot.com
Skype ID: kayisa66

Photo: Irak flag

Source:
Jaclyn Belczyk, http://jurist.law.pitt.edu

Iraq commission planning autonomy
referendum for Basra province

 

The Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) on Sunday announced

plans to collect signatures to initiate a referendum to make

the province of Basra autonomous so that it can benefit from its oil wealth.

The referendum was initiated by Wael Abdul Latif [AFP report],

an independent member of parliament and former magistrate.

Signatures will be collected [AFP report] from December 15 to January 14.

The referendum could be held within three months.

If passed, Basra would become an autonomous region with the same rights

as Kurdistan, an autonomous region in northern Iraq.

Abdul Latif maintains that relations with the central government would

differ from Kurdistan's relations in that oil contracts would

not become the responsibility of the Basra government.

Basra is an oil-rich province in southern Iraq that produces about 70 percent

of the country's oil.

Control of the province was handed over to the Iraqi government [DOD press release]

last December.

The semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government [official website]

adopted the "Kurdistan Oil and Gas Law" [JURIST report] in August 2007

after legislation was signed to allow the Kurdish government

to control its own oil resources and select its own foreign investors.


Source: Jaclyn Belczyk, http://jurist.law.pitt.edu

--
Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm:   (250) 08470205
Home: (250) 55104140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali - RWANDA
East AFRICA
Blog: http://cepgl.blogspot.com
Skype ID: kayisa66

Photo: Front Supreme Court

Source:
Jaclyn Belczyk, http://jurist.law.pitt.edu

Supreme Court hears veterans benefits, antitrust cases


The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] heard oral arguments

[day call, PDF; briefs] Monday in two cases.

In Peake v. Sanders [oral arguments transcript, PDF], the Court considered whether

the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) [official website] bears the burden of proof

that it adequately informed a veteran of the information needed to process

a benefits claim under the Veterans Claims Assistance Act (VCAA) [text, PDF].

The case involves two veterans whose benefits claims were denied.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit [official website] held [opinion, PDF] that

the burden was on the VA to prove that notice was not prejudicial.

Counsel for petitioner the VA argued that

"the uniform practice in the courts of appeals [at the time the VCAA was enacted] was

to place upon challengers to agency action the burden of showing prejudice from the error.

And the Congress was well aware of that."

Counsel for one of the respondents, Patricia Simmons,

argued that "it would be difficult for the veteran and comparatively

easy for the government to carry a burden."

In Pacific Bell v. Linkline Communications [oral arguments transcript, PDF],

the Court heard arguments on whether a company can be sued

for anti-competitive practices if it sets its wholesale prices

to block competitors from the retail market.

Linkline [corporate website] filed an antitrust complaint against Pacific Bell,

doing business as AT&T [corporate website] for cornering the DSL market and

then charging high wholesale and low retail prices to make it impossible

for smaller companies who buy DSL from AT&T wholesale to compete

in the retail market.

AT&T was required to sell its services to competitors under

the Telecommunications Act of 1996 [text].

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF]

that Linkline's case survived a motion for judgment on the pleadings.

Counsel for petitioner Pacific Bell argued that the decision does not comport

with the Supreme Court's 2004 decision in Verizon v. Trinko [opinion, PDF],

which held that there can be no claim unless the wholesaler has an antitrust duty

to sell its product to its retail competitors.

Respondents since agreed that the Ninth Circuit's decision was incorrect,

but did not "give up."

Counsel for respondent argued that although he did not believe

the decision of the Ninth Circuit was incorrect, per se,

it was incomplete and should be vacated and remanded.

Counsel for petitioner argued that "a decision on the merits here is important

because the Ninth Circuit's decision is harmful to consumers,

deterring beneficial price cuts and sufficient particle integration."


Source: Jaclyn Belczyk, http://jurist.law.pitt.edu

--
Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm:   (250) 08470205
Home: (250) 55104140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali - RWANDA
East AFRICA
Blog: http://cepgl.blogspot.com
Skype ID: kayisa66

12/8/08

Source: Geoff Ziezulewicz, Stars and Stripes,

Mideast edition, The Associated Press

contributed to this report, http://www.stripes.com

Fate of missile defense shield left to Obama

  Falling along partisan lines

Traditionally, missile defense advocacy has skewed along partisan lines,

long advocated by Republicans and questioned by Democrats.

About $115 billion has been doled out for various missile defense programs since 1985,

with the highest levels of funding coming when Republicans controlled both houses of Congress

and the presidency, according to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.

President-elect Barack Obama could continue the standard Democratic position of purposefully

slow and deliberate development, according to Charles Ferguson,

an analyst with the Council on Foreign Relations.

Former President Bill Clinton funded missile defense but was an advocate of

ensuring the technology was good to go before any deployment took place, he said.

"They're probably going to go back to the Clinton criteria without calling it the Clinton criteria,"

Ferguson said. "Each president likes to put their own stamp on defense policy."

Obama will likely be more cautious in deploying the system than Bush was, and the shield may stay at

the research and development level until the tech is totally proven, he said.

"[Obama] would favor a missile defense if it works," said Dana Allin of London's International

Institute of Strategic Studies. "[The Democrats] have been more suspicious of it,

because on the Republican side there's been such a long and strong commitment,

accelerated beyond the capabilities."

During the Clinton administration, missile defense focused on the North Korean threat,

and Bush established an interceptor site in Alaska in 2004 after

pulling out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002.

"The European site as we know it today was not something that was discussed

very much at all," said, David Mosher, an analyst at the RAND Corporation.

Traditional Democrat views on missile defense probably won't lead Obama

to scrap the European shield altogether, Ferguson said.

"It's a concept that's going to stay alive, at least at the (research and development) level,"

he said. "But I think he'll be cautious in deploying the system, especially considering what a sore point it is."


Adding to an already formidable to-do list, President-elect Barack Obama

will face a host of concerns as he plots the future of a European missile defense shield

touted by President Bush as a necessary measure against potential Iranian missile attacks.

Technically known as the Ballistic Missile Defense European Capability,

the shield involves radar stations in the United Kingdom and Czech Republic,

as well as missile interceptors in Poland.

Essentially, the system would use radar in the Czech Republic to detect and track

an Iranian missile, with interceptor missiles fired from batteries in Poland to stop such an attack.

Planning for the shield began in fiscal 2007,

and the system will receive $456 million in fiscal 2009.

Between 100 to 200 troops, contractors and Defense Department civilians

could be running each site with everything operational by 2013

if host-nation agreements are ratified, according to

Richard Lehner, a U.S. Missile Defense Agency spokesman.

Since the U.S. abandoned the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002,

Bush has touted the shield as an essential counter to Iran's continued

missile testing and development in the post-9/11 world.

But analysts say everything could change once Obama is sworn in.

He will face technological uncertainties about the shield and strategic

realities among America's allies and adversaries.

Obama's transition Web site states the president-elect supports missile defense

but wants to make sure development is practical and cost-effective.

It should not be pursued at the expense of other national security priorities, the site says.

The European shield will require about $4.8 billion in funding between this year and

fiscal 2013, according to the agency.

It is but one piece of America's missile defense system, with batteries already stationed

in Alaska to counter North Korean missiles, among other initiatives.

The European shield should not be confused with former President Reagan's

"Star Wars" initiatives, according to David Mosher,

an analyst at the RAND Corporation, a policy think tank.

This isn't a system designed to fend off the missile threats of the Soviets.

"Reagan's plan was very grandiose," Mosher said. "What we see now,

I don't even know if it's 'Star Wars lite.' It's pretty limited."

Questions raised

Aside from global realities and politics back in the States, some experts question

whether the technology is even ready, and what the ultimate goals of the system should be.

Is the shield intended to stop Iranian missiles now or more advanced models later?

Can the shield adapt to an evolving threat?

Although Iran test-fired a missile last month, its program is still very basic and

the country's scientists are concerned with just launching a missile at this point,

according to Dr. Dean Wilkening, who directs the science program at

Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation.

Any Iranian missile threat —

its existence is a debatable point in and of itself — lies in the future.

The European shield system needs more development time,

Wilkening said, and he would recommend as much to Obama.

"The Bush administration pushed the deployment of missile defense much

more rapidly than an objective engineer might," he said.

"The politics pushed the deployment as opposed to the military requirements or the threat."

Due to technological limitations, the system as envisioned today would not

protect Turkey or southeastern Europe from attack.

And as the Iranian missile threat evolves,

today's Europe missile shield would become more marginal and less able to protect

most of the continent, he said.

Those developing the system should anticipate more complex systems

as Iran gets better at developing missiles.

Today's technology can lock on and destroy an enemy missile but it is

unable to distinguish the warhead from any variety

of decoys launched at the same time, Wilkening said.

Wilkening likened the missile shield's best path of development to

the strategic bomber competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union

during the Cold War, where there was no final, technical solution,

just a constant game of one-upmanship, Wilkening said.

"This is not like sending a man to the moon," he said of the shield's technical side.

"The moon doesn't care and the moon doesn't send countermeasures.

When you're involved in a strategic competition, one opponent against the other,

it's hard to come up with a definitive answer."

The Bush administration has followed a "spiral development" pattern when it comes to

the European missile shield technology and what it should ultimately be able to do, Mosher said.

"They've never really articulated what the end point is for them," he said.

"There's been very little transparency."

Such systems cost a lot and radars in particular are "notoriously expensive,"

Wilkening said. "Ultimately it's going to come down to cost,"

Wilkening said. "It's good stuff, the technology is good and missile defense

has a real role to play in U.S. defense strategy, and they can be very helpful in some situations."

In the end, Wilkening said, there's only so much defense dough to go around.

"F-22s are also helpful. C-17s are helpful," he said.

"There are all kinds of things that are helpful. These things all cost money."

Russia's response

U.S. allies and Russia all have stakes in the European missile shield,

another factor Obama will have to consider.

In response to European missile shield plans, Russia's leaders vowed earlier this year

to aim missiles at Poland and the Czech Republic if the shield goes ahead as planned.

But last month, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told reporters

he thought Obama would be open to more of a dialogue on the issue.

Russia knows the current U.S. system couldn't stop its missiles.

Analysts say Russia's response has to do with what could be built onto that system

and indignation at the perceived encroachment of the U.S. on its Eastern European stomping grounds.

Poland and the Czech Republic signed preliminary agreements for hosting missile shield sites

in the name of solidarity with the West and NATO this year,

aggravating Russia and making engagement with it that much more difficult,

according to Andrew Kuchins, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

These tensions with Moscow have led some Europeans leaders such as

French President Nicolas Sarkozy to question the plan altogether.

Last month, Poland's foreign minister Radek Sikorski said his country needs to know where

the Obama administration is going on this issue.

"We signed with the current administration an agreement on missile defense and obviously

we want to know where the wind is blowing on that," Sikorski said

in an interview with the Associated Press last month.

Regardless of the shield's future, a short-range Patriot anti-missile battery

will be stationed in Poland next year with a small garrison of U.S. troops.

"This is going to be an area the Obama administration is going to review,"

Kuchins said of the missile shield. "I doubt we'll see a U-turn, but we'll see

more efforts to engage the Russians and mollify their concerns."

Obama has vowed to consult more with European allies than his predecessor,

adding another voice to the missile shield debate, Mosher said.

"This is the complication the incoming administration has to deal with,

not only the politics of Poland and a resurgent Russia and the Czech Republic,

but also the European politics within NATO about what's appropriate and what's not

and how to deal with Russia," he said.

Obama will have to consider the consequences for Poland and the Czech Republic

if the U.S. slows down or aborts the European missile shield,

according to Charles Ferguson, an analyst with the Council on Foreign Relations.

"As new members of NATO, they are looking to the U.S. as a leader and protector,"

Ferguson said. "They don't want to be felt like they're caught out in the cold."

A missile defense shield with international consequences for the U.S.,

backed by pricey technology that some believe is not proven,

could lead Obama away from his predecessor's plan, Wilkening said.

"Given all the other things this country's got to wrestle with right now,

I just think Obama is going to have a very difficult time funding this stuff," he said.


Source: Geoff Ziezulewicz, Stars and Stripes, Mideast edition,

The Associated Press contributed to this report, http://www.stripes.com


--
Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm:   (250) 08470205
Home: (250) 55104140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali - RWANDA
East AFRICA
Blog: http://cepgl.blogspot.com
Skype ID: kayisa66
Source: Elias Biryabarema, http://www.monitor.co.ug

Uganda could reap $5billion annually from oil exploration
 

 Kampala


For a nation as depressingly poor as Uganda,

this should pass for extraordinary tidings: the country will rake in an estimated $5 billion annually

from her petroleum exports once pumping crude starts

in the Southwestern region, according to projections by Tullow Oil.

That income forecast, Tullow's Uganda Country Manager,

Mr Brian Glover told Rotarians in Kampala on Friday, is based on an assumption of

a daily crude output of about 200,000 barrels per day. 

Mr Glover cast this windfall as nothing less than miraculous for Uganda whose current

overall export earnings stand at a tiny $2 billion,

hardly able to generate enough revenue to cover basic state expenses on critical sectors

like education and health. "Right now tourism is the single biggest foreign exchange earner,

bringing in about $500 million and oil is going to (could)  bring in ten times that," Mr Glover said.

Although hydrocarbon deposits in the Albertine Graben were first detected in 1938 by Shell,

the presence of commercial petroleum reserves were discovered in the area in February 2006

by Tullow Oil at Waraga-I well. Since then several more exploratory and appraisal wells have been drilled

by Tullow and Heritage Oil Corp, and Uganda now has a confirmed production capacity of

about 40,000 barrels oil per day.

While the $5 billion annual bounty may sound enormous and potentially life-changing,

the story of this windfall and its impact on Uganda pretty much appears set to instead morph into

the story of lottery winner, complete with the consequent ecstasy,

the spending binge and crass brokenness that follows.
 
Spooked by the possibility of this latter scenario, Mr Glover said that he had in fact accepted to come

to Uganda to prevent the kind of fate that befell Nigeria (where he was)

and its oil: the country exports about 2.5 million barrels per day and has earned

hundreds of billions of dollars in oil revenues over the decades but it is also home

to some of the worst forms of poverty and social-economic unrests on earth.

"I spent three years in Nigeria and what I saw there I would never want it to happen to Uganda,"

said Mr Glover. 

Strangely though while Nigeria has long been cast as the quintessential postcard of

oil corruption in Africa,

Uganda has already turned to it for counsel on how best to extract and manage the resource.

On a visit to that country in November this year, President Yoweri Museveni who traveled

with a huge delegation of businesspeople was quoted as saying after talks with

the Nigerian leader, Mr Umaru Yar'Adua, "I would want Nigeria to impact its expertise in the field of oil exploration

to us so that our people can have the technical know-how rather than relying on people from outside the continent."

Mr Glover said once Uganda's petroleum extraction machinery starts to roll in earnest and at

full scale, the industry will be employing about 10,000 people.

Tullow Uganda chairman, Mr Elly Karuhanga said the government of Uganda in concert with

Tullow Oil and Heritage are working to establish a petroleum institute in Uganda,

expected to expand specialised expertise in the different fields of the

oil industry: exploration, contracting, production, marketing, revenue management and suchlike.

Proceeds from oil are ideally expected to be ploughed into

critical development sectors like education, health and infrastructure.

Source: Elias Biryabarema, http://www.monitor.co.ug


--
Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm:   (250) 08470205
Home: (250) 55104140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali - RWANDA
East AFRICA
Blog: http://cepgl.blogspot.com
Skype ID: kayisa66
Source: Albert tshiambi

Ce énième report prouve au-delà de tout discours que

la CPI est instrumentalisée et que JP BEMBA qu'on l'apprécie ou pas

est bel et bien un prisonnier politique ...
 
Ces remises d'audiences contrastent avec l'empressement de la Belgique a exécuter son arrestation

Affaire J.P. Bemba

La CPI reporte l'audience de confirmation des charges au 12 janvier 2009

 
L'audience de confirmation des charges retenues contre le sénateur Jean-Pierre Bemba

vient d'être reportée au 12 janvier 2009.

Motif : absence de l'un des juges jusqu'au mois de janvier, renseigne la CPI.

La Cour pénale internationale (CPI) vient, une fois de plus, reporter au 12 janvier prochain,

l'audience de confirmation des charges retenues contre le sénateur Jean-Pierre Bemba.

Le deuxième report est dû au fait que pendant ce temps,

la Cour va examiner la solidité des accusations portées contre l'accusé, renseigne la CPI.

Avant de faire remarquer que la date exacte sera déterminée le 29 décembre 2008,

au motif qu'un juge sera absent jusqu'en janvier 2009 pour des raisons familiales.

Pour rappel, Jean-Pierre Bemba a été arrêté en mai 2008 à Bruxelles

sur base d'un mandat du procureur de la CPI, Luis Moreno-Ocampo.

Il est accusé pour crimes de guerre et crimes contre l'humanité

commis par ses soldats en République Centrafricaine.

Pour ce qui est de ce deuxième report,

le conseiller du procureur en charge de la Coopération, Pascal Turlan,

affirme : « Une audience ne peut être décidée que par la chambre préliminaire réunie

dans sa formation complète, c'est-à-dire les 3 juges, donc elle ne peut pas être décidée par un seul juge,

elle doit être décidée à la majorité de 3 juges qui composent la chambre préliminaire.

C'est la raison pour laquelle est reportée cette audience.

Cela est dû aux circonstances indépendantes et extérieures de la volonté de la Cour».

Réactions

Pour les avocats de la défense, ce nouveau report de l'audience cause du retard

dans le procès et entraîne, par conséquent, un manque de célérité dans la procédure.

Me Aimé Kilolo, l'un des avocats du sénateur Bemba, estime que « l'empêchement d'un juge n'est pas un motif

pour reporter l'audience alors que la CPI a des moyens nécessaires pour remplacer un juge empêché ».

Et d'ajouter : « On ne peut pas prolonger la détention d'une personne au simple motif

qu'un juge ne serait pas disponible alors que l'on sait que la CPI dispose d'un gros budget

chiffré à plusieurs millions de dollars. Cela ne l'empêcherait pas de pouvoir

remplacer un juge qui serait indisponible ».

Pour le secrétaire général du MLC, François Muamba,

cité par radiookapi.net, la raison évoquée pour le report ne convainc pas son parti.

« Qu'est-ce qu'on fait de Jean-Pierre Bemba qui a 5 enfants et qui est privé de liberté

depuis le mois de mai. C'est une première raison pour nous d'être véritablement consterné »,

explique-t-il. La seconde raison, toujours selon François Muamba,

c'est qu'on évite d'aborder la question concernant l'arrestation de M. Bemba sur le fond du dossier.

Pour le sénateur Mulayila Tekis du PPRD, ce report est une remise liée à la procédure et non au fond.

« Il faut qu'on laisse la CPI travailler en toute indépendance et quiétude ».


Source: Albert tshiambi


--
Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm:   (250) 08470205
Home: (250) 55104140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali - RWANDA
East AFRICA
Blog: http://cepgl.blogspot.com
Skype ID: kayisa66

12/7/08


Bicyclists ride past the billboard featuring Presidential candidate of New Patriotic Party
Nana Akufo-Addo and his deputy Mahamudu Bawumia at Anaji in Sekondi district, western Ghana.

Photo: Pius Utomi / AFP / Getty, http://www.time.com

Source: Alex Perry

Ghana Goes to the Polls: Showing Africa How Democracy Works

  

Ghana's presidential candidates have wrapped up their campaigns ahead of a general election Sunday —

but in a sense the most important result is already in. President John Kufuor, 69,

is stepping down after two terms, peacefully and voluntarily.

That in itself sets Ghana's election apart from recent polls in Zimbabwe, Kenya and Nigeria,

which were plagued by corruption, violence, despotism and the steadfast refusal by the ruling party to let go.

It is also a reminder that governance in sub-Saharan Africa, a region of 48 nations,

cannot be characterized simply by the brutal repression doled out by Robert Mugabe and his ilk.

That Ghana represents the more optimistic side of Africa carries great symbolism.

During the continent's post-independence history, Ghana has often been a crucible of all Africa's hope.

It was the first sub-Saharan African nation to gain independence from its colonial ruler, Britain, in 1957.

Its first president, Kwame Nkrumah, was also a lead figure in the pan-African nationalist movement.

That didn't stop Ghana from falling victim to the same demons that have plagued much of

the continent since independence: Nkrumah was ousted in a military takeover in 1966 and

the country has had four more coups since then, two of which installed Jerry Rawlings as president.

Multi-party democracy returned in 1992 and Rawlings departed in 2001 after losing to Kufuor.

Since then, the economy has boomed, by 6.7% last year as opposed to 3.7% in 2002, and inflation has fallen

from 32.9% to 10.7% in the same period. A consensus has developed on the big questions

such as liberal economics, and efforts to alleviate poverty.

Regardless of who replaces Kufuor out of the two leading candidates —

Nana Akufo-Addo, 62, from Kufuor's ruling New Patriotic Party, and John Atta Mills, 62,

of the National Democratic Congress are neck and neck in the race,

according to opinion polls — neither is expected to initiate radical change.

Perhaps most importantly, both candidates have put forward plans to safeguard

the expected billions of dollars in oil revenues which should start to flow into the country's coffers after 2010.

In October, Akufo-Addo said he planned to set up an "oil fund" to invest revenues

in developing the country's education, health-care and basic infrastructure.

Mills went further, calling for the formation of an "independent authority which will account for the oil resource.

" "We don't want it to be a curse," he said. That curse, or resource curse, as economists call it,

describes a tendency for countries with abundant natural resources to be more corrupt,

more prone to violence and unrest, and more iniquitous and impoverished than those without,

something evident across the oil-rich states of West Africa.

While corruption thrives in Ghana, it is encouraging that both candidates recognize the potential pitfalls of oil.

Ghana has some experience in natural resources: it is the world's second-biggest cocoa producer,

after neighboring Cote d"Ivoire, and Africa's second biggest gold producer, after South Africa.

Not everyone is reassured. The benefits of growth have not trickled down far enough,

and most of Ghana is still poor. There are few roads in the north of the country.

Few homes in the capital Accra have working sewers.

Frustration over all this, say some, is made only deeper by the oil discovery.

At a presentation on the election at the independent think-tank,

the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development, earlier this year,

the political analyst and former director of the country's Narcotic Control Board, K. B. Quantson,

warned: "Ghana should not delude itself that it is living well above mayhem and

the deadly clashes that have unfortunately plagued Liberia,

Cote d'Ivoire and Kenya." The assumption that Ghana's stability will continue

is "dangerous," he added, arguing that the country's relative calm is threatened

by bad governance, opportunism, intolerance, impunity and corruption.

Source: Alex Perry

--
Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm:   (250) 08470205
Home: (250) 55104140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali - RWANDA
East AFRICA
Blog: http://cepgl.blogspot.com
Skype ID: kayisa66

Photo: Reuters / French President Nicolas Sarkozy and

Tibet exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama meet in Gdansk

Source: Reuters, http://www.timesofmalta.com/

Sarkozy defies China with Dalai Lama talks

French President Nicolas Sarkozy defied China yesterday by meeting

Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama but said

there was no reason to "dramatise" the encounter.

China called off a summit with the EU last Monday in protest against Sarkozy's decision

to meet the Dalai Lama, branded by Beijing as a "splittist" for advocating

self-determination for his remote mountainous homeland.

"There is no need to dramatise things. I have always considered Tibet as part of China -

the Dalai Lama himself does not call for Tibet's independence,"

Sarkozy told reporters just before his talks with the Buddhist leader.

"We must see things calmly, serenely," he said, adding that the president of France had

the right to set his own agenda.

No news conference was planned after the meeting in the Baltic port of Gdansk where both men attended

celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of Polish pro-democracy leader Lech Walesa winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

Sarkozy stressed that China and Europe needed each other.

"The world needs an open China which participates in world governance.

China needs a powerful Europe which gives work to companies in China.

We have the duty to work together," he said.

French officials say Beijing's unusually vocal criticism of Sarkozy's plans to meet the Dalai Lama is

linked to the fact that Paris holds the EU's rotating presidency.

Many Chinese nationalists have urged a boycott of French products.

"The Chinese believe that we have the power to enforce discipline among the (27) countries of the European Union...

(But) we are not the teachers of the European classroom,"

a French official told reporters in Paris.

The official also said there had been no sign yet of any Chinese boycott of French products,

noting that the EU is China's biggest trade partner and that supermarket chain Carrefour employs

tens of thousands of people in China and is the biggest purchaser of Chinese goods in France.

French companies were subjected to Chinese boycotts and demonstrations earlier this year after

the Paris leg of the Olympic torch relay was disrupted by anti-China protesters.

Earlier yesterday, the Dalai Lama called for dialogue and compassion

to solve the world's problems, but he steered clear of politics.

"Warfare failed to solve our problems in the last century, so this century should be a century of dialogue.

Every problem must be solved through talks, understanding of others' interests, others' rights," he said.

"War means dividing, compassion brings us together. As social animals, the key factor for our life is compassion,"

he told hundreds of delegates, including Walesa, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso,

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and other Nobel laureates. The Dalai, who met Tusk privately yesterday,

praised Polish courage in resisting past oppression.

 

Source: Reuters, http://www.timesofmalta.com/



--
Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm:   (250) 08470205
Home: (250) 55104140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali - RWANDA
East AFRICA
Blog: http://cepgl.blogspot.com
Skype ID: kayisa66