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  • WHO Says 300,000 People Affected by Sudan Floods

    {{More than 300,000 people across Sudan have been affected by floods that have killed nearly 50 people in August, the World Health Organization has said.}}

    It said the region around the capital Khartoum had been particularly badly hit and was experiencing the worst floods in 25 years.

    One of the major risks to health was the collapse of more than 53,000 latrines, the WHO added.

    A UN official in Sudan described the situation as “a huge disaster”.

    In a report, the WHO said that 48 people had been killed and 70 injured in the floods. It warned of increasing trends of malaria cases in the past two weeks.

    Meanwhile, Sudan Interior Minister Mahmoud Hamed put the confirmed death toll at 53, according news agencies.

    The WHO also said property had been damaged in 14 of Sudan’s 18 states.

    Mark Cutts, the head of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan, told media last week the world body was ready to help those affected by the disaster.

    He added that this was despite the fact that UN humanitarian operations “have been severely underfunded” this year.

    AFP

  • Statoil to bet on Angola, Russian Shale in Exploration

    {{Statoil (STL.OL), one of the most successful oil explorers in recent years, sees offshore Angola and Russian shale as the industry’s next big plays and considers U.S. shale oil overhyped, its exploration chief Tim Dodson said.}}

    The firm, which has expanded from its traditional North Sea base to all continents over the past decade, also expects to spend heavily on exploring in Brazil, Tanzania and the Arctic Barents Sea, possibly maintaining its record-high exploration budget, Dodson told Reuters in an interview.

    Statoil, already a top offshore producer, needs new discoveries as it aims to lift production by a quarter to more than 2.5 million barrels a day this decade, and diversify its portfolio, still dominated by North Sea assets.

    “I am very excited about (the Russian) shale opportunity,” Dodson said. “There is a huge, huge upside if it works,” he said, referring to the firm’s preliminary deal with Russia’s Rosneft (ROSN.MM) in June to explore for shale in the Samara region in western Siberia’s Volga-Ural basin.

    Russia’s shale oil potential is still not fully mapped but the Bazhenov formation in Siberia is already considered one of the largest, and ExxonMobil (XOM.N) teamed up with Rosneft this year to begin drilling.

    Dodson said Norwegian state-controlled Statoil hoped to finalize its own deal with Rosneft this year and could drill one or two wells in Siberia as soon as 2014 to test the region’s potential.

    “It looks very, very much like the Bakken (in the United States) from a geological point of view in that you have limestone that can be fracked,” said Dodson, a Briton who joined Statoil in 1985 and rose through the ranks.

    “The geology is absolutely fantastic and the scale of it is just enormous … the Bakken looks minute compared to it.”

    {{Overhyped Shale Oil}}

    The Bakken formation in North Dakota and Montana has become in recent years the prime producer of shale oil in the world as its good geology, built-up infrastructure and supportive regulatory framework aided the ramp up.

    Statoil holds around 330,000 acres in the Bakken. Dodson said the firm already had the acreage to increase U.S. onshore production to 300,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day by 2020 from 167,000 barrels a day last year, and it was mostly looking to optimize its assets.

    But the Bakken is unique and other North American formations contain mostly gas, a much less valuable commodity, reducing the continent’s attractiveness.

    “As a company, we question a little bit all the hype around shale oil. How big can it really be? Of course, it is significant … But it is really only the Bakken (and) you don’t hear anything else than the Bakken from an oil perspective,” he said.

    Statoil revamped its exploration strategy at the start of 2011, boosting spending, taking more risk, and putting Dodson in charge of a division that was struggling, even on its home turf.

    The gamble paid off. The firm’s reserve replacement ratio, which indicates how much oil it finds in comparison with its production, jumped to 117 percent in 2011 and 110 percent in 2012 from 73 percent in 2009 and 87 percent in 2010.

    That puts it well ahead of Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDSa.L) 85 percent ratio and BP’s (BP.L) 77 percent last year, and on par with Chevron’s (CVX.N) 112 percent.

    “Where are our peers? They are in very different places,” Dodson said. “If you look at all the statistics, there are three companies that really stand out in the last two, three years: ourselves, ENI (ENI.MI) and Anadarko (APC.N),” he said, referring to their geographic expansion and exploration success.

    {{Next Gamble}}

    Its biggest constraint may be money as its exploration spending will hit a record $3.5 billion this year and its total capital expenditure has grown by 40 percent to $19 billion since 2010.

    It is spending so much on investments that its cash flow does not cover the outlays and needs to raise money, such as from asset sales, to cover dividends.

    “Next year we have a very attractive portfolio, so we may spend $3.5 billion again. But that number is not carved in stone.”

    Its next big gamble is likely to be Angola on Africa’s east coast, where it has secured several blocks and plans to start drilling next year.

    “The big question mark and big hope is Angola,” Dodson said. “But it is high-risk, it is not a given that the presalt (formation) in the Kwanza Basin in Angola will work. I think it will.”

    Angola is attractive as its geology is similar to Brazil’s since they were part of the same basin before the two continents drifted apart.

    Statoil has parts of five blocks, plans to start drilling in the first quarter of 2014 and has committed to drilling eight wells over a two-year period.

    It has also teamed up with BP to explore for oil on Australia’s south coast but does not expect to drill there for several years.

    It will continue to drill heavily next year in the Arctic Barents Sea, not far from its Johan Castberg discovery, in Tanzania, where it plans a $10 billion LNG facility, and Brazil, where it is the second-biggest producer after Petrobras (PETR4.SA).

    {wirestory}

  • Nigeria’s Bonny Light Oil Exports to Fall in October

    {{Nigeria will export 95,000 barrels per day of the Bonny Light crude oil grade in October, a provisional shipping list showed on Friday, down from a planned 127,000 bpd in September.

    The Bonny Light grade, operated by Royal Dutch Shell , has been under force majeure since April.

    A force majeure relieves companies of their contractual obligations. A firm may opt to keep it in place if it can only partially meet commitments.}}

    agencies

  • French top cop’s Immigration Comments Spark Outrage

    {{France’s Interior Minister Manuel Valls has sowed discord at the heart of the Socialist-led French government after making controversial comments about the country’s immigration policy and its large Muslim population.}}

    During a closed-door ministerial meeting on Monday, Valls, who is in charge of French police, suggested that in ten years France’s immigration system would need fundamental reforms to tackle the influx of foreigners, especially from Africa.

    In particular, he questioned whether the country would be able to maintain its policy of regrouping family members of immigrants who obtain legal residency.

    Later in the meeting, he was quoted as saying it would be up to France to prove that Islam was compatible with democracy.

    The comments were leaked to dailies Libération and Le Parisien by other ministers who, while wishing to remain anonymous, admitted feeling “outraged” by what they had heard.

    Following the leaks, Valls and other members of the cabinet were forced to react publicly on Tuesday.

    Sounding annoyed that his comments had been leaked to the press, Valls told French RMC radio that it was necessary to “rebuild a relationship with Africa, in particular over the issue of immigration.”

    But Social Affairs Minister Marisol Touraine disagreed on France 2 television.

    “We must remember that we are working within a legal framework that must be upheld,” she said. “In my view, calling family reunification into question does not help that framework.”

    Separately, Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici defended Valls over his comments on Islam, saying they were misrepresented.

    “Some are saying that [Valls] was questioning if Islam was compatible with our democracy. The opposite is true. He was saying, ‘We will show the world that Islam is compatible with our democracy’.”

    Adding fuel to the fire

    Whether or not Valls’s words were taken out of context, they have reinforced his image as a Socialist with a right-wing bent.

    Some have even nicknamed him “the Nicolas Sarkozy of the left” in reference to the tough-on-immigration former president.

    Last weekend, hard left-wing leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon claimed Valls had been “contaminated” by far-right, anti-immigration leader Marine Le Pen, in reference to the minister’s pronouncement that the government should debate banning Muslim veils in universities.

    However, the recurring controversial statements appear to be working in Valls’s favour.

    “His popularity has grown over the summer because the subjects he has focused on are widely popular among French people,” Jérôme Fourquet, the director of public opinion studies at French pollster Ifop, told FRANCE 24.

    With an approval rating hovering over 60%, Valls, who was born in Spain and became a French citizen at age 20, is currently the most popular French minister, according to a recent Ifop study.

    The number of immigrants in France has remained relatively stable over the past ten years. Immigrants represented 5.6% of the population in 2003 and 5.8% in 2010, the last year for which figures are available, according to the Insee national demographics institution.

    France is also home to the largest Muslim population in Europe, estimated at close to five million people, or 8% of the total population.

    {france24}

  • Israel Bombs Lebanon in Retaliation for Rocket Attack

    {{Israel’s air force bombed a militant target south of Lebanon’s capital Beirut early on Friday in retaliation for a cross-border rocket attack the day before, a spokesman said.}}

    The air strike targeted a “terror site” near Na’ameh, between Beirut and Sidon, according to an Israeli military source quoted by the Reuters news agency.

    A Palestinian militant group based in Lebanon, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), confirmed that its base in Na’ameh had been hit by an Israeli rocket on Friday, but said it caused no injuries or significant damage, Lebanon’s Al-Manar Television reported.

    The move comes one day after four rockets were fired from Lebanese soil into northern Israel. The attack, which was later claimed by the al Qaeda-linked Sunni Muslim group Abdullah Azzam Brigade, caused damage but no casualties.

    “Israel will not tolerate terrorist aggression originating from Lebanese territory,” Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said in a statement announcing Friday’s retaliation.

    Israel and Lebanon are technically at war. Israel briefly invaded Lebanon during an inconclusive 2006 conflict with Hezbollah. The Israelis now are reluctant to open a new Lebanese front, however, given spiraling regional instability.

    france24

  • Photo Journalist Gang Raped in India

    {{A photo journalist was gang-raped in the Indian city of Mumbai, police said on Friday, evoking comparisons with a similar incident in Delhi in December that led to nationwide protests and a revision of the country’s rape laws.}}

    The attack on Thursday evening triggered protests and an outcry on social media, with many users shocked that it took place in Mumbai, widely considered to be India’s safest city for women.

    “An FIR has been registered … nobody has been arrested so far,” a head constable at the police station dealing with the case told Reuters. An FIR is a preliminary police report. Several people were detained for questioning, another policeman said. Some media reports said one man had been arrested.

    In rowdy scenes in the upper house of parliament, the opposition accused the government of not doing enough to protect women, despite tougher sex crime laws brought in this year.

    The victim, who is in her early twenties, was admitted on Thursday night to a hospital in south Mumbai, where she is in a stable condition, a hospital official told Reuters by e-mail.

    The attack took place in an abandoned textile mill in Lower Parel, a gritty former industrial district that is now one of the city’s fastest-growing neighborhoods of luxury apartments, malls and bars, media reports said. The woman was working on an assignment with a male colleague.

    “In the evening, the girl and her colleague were clicking pictures. Two men approached her asking her if she had permission to shoot. Another man then joined in and the photographer was gang-raped,” Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh told an Indian television station. Other reports said more men were involved in the attack.

    “We’ve brought in 10 people for questioning. A case of gang rape has been filed,” Singh said.

    Several dozen mainly male supporters of the right-wing Shiv Sena political party gathered with flags and banners outside the police station where the case was filed. A further protest was called later in the afternoon.

    Women’s safety in India has been in the spotlight this year following the brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in December, which led thousands of Indians to take to the streets in protest. The woman died of her injuries two weeks later in a Singapore hospital.

    The trials of the four men and one juvenile accused of the December attack are expected to conclude within the next three weeks. The verdict on the juvenile suspect is set for Aug 31. Closing arguments in the trial of the four adult suspects started on Thursday.

    Following public outcry over the Delhi attack, India introduced tougher rape laws in March, which include the death penalty for repeat offenders and for those whose victims were left in a “vegetative state”.

    In contrast to Delhi, Mumbai has long been considered a safer place for women to travel alone, even at night.

    “(Mumbai) has this sense of security … but these things make us feel that maybe we are not really that safe,” said A. L. Sharada, director of Population First, an NGO that works on women’s rights issues.

    “Women should be able to move freely and take up work. Why should we be worrying about something bad happening to us all the time?” Sharada added.

    {reuters}

  • Minister Calls for Increased Quality ICT Services

    The Minister of Youth and ICT, Jean Philbert Nsengimana has said that ICT will contribute in making services available in Rwanda where everyone will access them while using technology.

    Nsengimana made the remarks Thursday, during an ICT Literacy and Awareness Campaign held at Rusizi District .

    The two-day campaign has been organized by the Ministry of Youth and ICT (MYICT) in collaboration with other partners.

    During this campaign Government institutions and private companies demonstrated their online and SMS-based services they offer through a two day expo.

    Alexia Musanganire, 48, a mother of three said that she learnt how to manipulate the computer during the campaign in Rusizi; she commends the Government of Rwanda for initiating such a program; “I’m able to access different services online and I am able to communicate with friends and family members using technology,” said Musanganire.

    The Minister of Youth and ICT, Jean Philbert Nsengimana speaking to the press noted that using ICT will help Rwandans access different services.

    “We need to increase the amount and quality of services that are available on technology because they will work as pull factors, they will attract more people; if you know that by just having a phone you can get your civil registration completed without travelling to the sector ‘s office then you realize that a phone is an investment.”

    He added, “ICT will facilitate Rwandans in accessing opportunities like jobs and markets. Three measures taken will open a new era of ICT development in Rwanda: it’s all about awareness and education; affordability and making services available.”

    During the campaign One Public Access Point of TV set, Computer and internet was opened at Bugarama Sector in Rusizi District.

    The purpose of this campaign was to drive the awareness and usage of ICT services, content and applications, to increase the ICT Literacy, educate and train Rwandans and business people on the potential of ICT to drive competitiveness, efficiency, transparency and civic participation.

    The government has invested in information and communications technology (ICT). Since the inception of the first national ICT strategy and plan in 2000, Rwanda has significantly transformed the way business and society uses technology.

    The Ministry of Youth and ICT in collaboration with other Ministries and various stakeholders in ICT promotion adopted the five-year ICT literacy awareness campaign.

    The campaign was officially launched in January in Rulindo District.So far one District per province across Rwanda hosted this campaign.

  • 1Million Children Fled Syria Conflict

    The number of Syrian child refugees that have fled the country has now reached one million, according to a joint report published by the UN’s refugee and children’s agencies.

    In their statement on Friday, the UNHCR and UNICEF said that children make up half of all refugees from the Syrian conflict and that most have arrived in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt.

    “This one millionth child refugee is not just another number,” Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director, said in the report. “This is a real child ripped from home, maybe even from a family, facing horrors we can only begin to comprehend.”

    The report’s figures show that about 740,000 Syrian child refugees are under the age of 11 and that more than 3,500 children in Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq have crossed Syria’s borders either alone or separated from their families.

    “The youth of Syria are losing their homes, their family members and their futures. Even after they have crossed a border to safety, they are traumatised, depressed and in need of a reason for hope,” UNHCR High Commissioner António Guterres said.

    The UNHCR and UNICEF also estimated that about 7,000 children have been killed during the conflict and more than two million children have been internally displaced within Syria.

    Some of the humanitarian efforts carried out by the agencies include providing vaccinations against measles, psychosocial assistance, education and water supplies.

    Additionally, the UNHCR said it has managed to register all one million children and has helped Syrian babies born in exile to get birth certificates.

    The report stated that despite the operations, more than $5bn in funding is still required to address the Syria crisis and to meet health and educational needs of these child refugees.

    “While intensified efforts are needed to find a political solution to the crisis in Syria, parties to the conflict must stop targeting civilians and cease recruitment of children,” the statement concluded.

    Aljazeera

  • Fukushima Inspectors ‘Careless’, Japan agency says

    {{The operator of Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant was careless in monitoring tanks storing dangerously radioactive water, the nuclear regulator said on Friday, the latest development in a crisis no one seems to know how to contain.}}

    Tokyo Electric Power Co. also failed to keep records of inspections of the tanks, Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) Commissioner Toyoshi Fuketa told reporters after a visit to the nearby Fukushima Daiichi plant.

    Fuketa visited the plant on Friday after NRA chairman Shunichi Tanaka said this week he was concerned more of the hastily built giant containers would fail.

    “Fundamentally, for a facility holding that kind of radioactive water, they did not take action that foresaw the risks of possible leaks,” Fuketa said.

    “On top of that, and this is an impression I had before my visit, I can’t help but say that the inspections were careless.”

    Japan’s nuclear crisis this week escalated to its worst level since a massive earthquake and tsunami crippled the plant more than two years ago, with Tokyo Electric saying a tank holding highly contaminated water leaked 300 tons of radioactive fluid.

    It was the fifth and most serious breach of the same type of tank, as the crisis goes from bad to worse, prompting neighboring China to express shock at the continuing leaks.

    A tsunami crashed into the plant, north of Tokyo, on March 11, 2011, causing fuel-rod meltdowns at three reactors, radioactive contamination of air, sea and food and triggering the evacuation of 160,000 people.

    It was the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986. There are 350 tanks in place at Fukushima holding radioactive water used to cool the fuel rods. The plant is fast running out of space.

    Tokyo Electric said on Thursday new spots of high radiation had been found near the storage tanks, raising fear of fresh leaks.

    Tokyo Electric, which has long had problems with documentation, did not keep proper records of its tank inspections and therefore missed problems, Fuketa said.

    {reuters}

  • DRC Forces Fire Rocket in Western Rwanda

    {{DRC forces (FARDC) Wednesday deliberately fired a rocket across the border onto Rwandan territory. }}

    The rocket fired using 107mm Rocket Launcher landed in Bugu village, Busigari Cell in Cyanzarwe Sector, Rubavu District at around one o’clock on Thursday afternoon.

    The bomb landed in a built up urban area and caused damage to property.

    This provocative act follows a similar incident on 15 July 2013 when FARDC deliberately fired two bombs in Kageshi and Gasiza Cells of Busasamana Sector in Rubavu District.

    Brig. Gen. Joseph Nzabamwita, Rwanda’s military spokesman said: “Today’s bombing was completely unprovoked and senseless.

    The Government of Rwanda has requested the Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism (EJVM) to visit the area to verify today’s bombing.” ‎

    EJVM findings in their 22 July report following their investigation of the July bombing confirmed the deliberate shooting by FARDC onto Rwanda Territory.‎

    The EVJM was set up in 2012 by the ICGLR and consists of 23 senior military officers from all 11 ICGLR member states including two each from DRC and Rwanda.

    source: MOD