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  • US Charges al Qaeda Leader over Algeria Attack

    {{U.S. prosecutors on Friday charged a commander of al Qaeda’s North African operations with participating in an attack on an Algerian gas plant in January that killed dozens of workers, including three Americans.}}

    Mokhtar Belmokhtar was charged in an eight-count complaint with conspiracy to provide material support to al Qaeda, hostage-taking conspiracy, kidnapping of internationally protected persons and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction, among other charges.

    “Belmokhtar brought terror and blood to these innocent people and now we intend to bring Belmokhtar to justice,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

    Belmokhtar, an Algerian, remains at large, according to the statement. He faces a maximum penalty of death, according to the complaint.

    Some 40 Islamist fighters, armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, raided the Tiguentourine plant near the Libyan border, demanding that France halt its offensive against Islamist rebels in neighboring Mali.

    Algeria responded days later with a military operation to end the ensuing crisis, a harrowing affair in which the attackers attached explosives to hostages, according to the complaint and news reports.

    More than 60 people were killed, most of them foreign hostages. Workers from the United States, Britain, France, Japan, Romania, Norway and the Philippines were among the dead.

    Belmokhtar is associated with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, the Al-Mulathamin Brigade and “The Signers in Blood,” a battalion he helped create in late 2012 to fight Western influence in Algeria and elsewhere, according to the complaint.

    The U.S. Department of Treasury designated Belmokhtar as a foreign terrorist in 2003.

    He is also accused of kidnapping two Western diplomats working on a United Nations mission in Niger in late 2008, according to the complaint. He and his co-conspirators held them for four months in the desert and released them in Mali in April 2009.

    Belmokhtar, who prosecutors said also goes by Khalid Abu al Abbas and Khalid al Daas, claimed responsibility for the Algeria attack in an online video, referring to it as “this sacrificial blessed operation,” according to the complaint.

    The gas plant, operated by BP in partnership with Norway’s Statoil and Algeria’s Sonatrach, resumed some production in February. Algerian officials in March said the plant is expected to reach full output by the end of the year.

    {reuters}

  • African Market in Focus at World’s Leading T&D Expo

    {{ELECRAMA, which takes place in Bangalore in early 2014, is set to return with a renewed focus on the African market}}

    The theme for the 2014 edition of ELECRAMA will be ‘Go Global’, as the flagship event of the Indian Electrical and Electronics Manufacturers Association (IEEMA) looks to promote the ‘Made in India’ brand and enhance India’s exports of electrical equipment.

    Created by IEEMA in 1990, ELECRAMA has grown from strength to strength and has emerged as the world’s single largest Transmission & Distribution (T&D) exhibition.

    Sanjeev Sardana, Chairman of ELECRAMA 2014, says the upcoming 10th edition of the biennial show will attract manufacturers, traders, utilities, consultants and decision makers from more than 100 countries.

    “We are expecting ELECRAMA 2014 to showcase exhibitors’ products, technologies and manufacturing capabilities to a global audience,” says Sardana.

    “This year we are expecting a repeat of the last hugely successful event, with 450 overseas buyers from targeted regions invited to the REVERSE BUYER-SELLER MEET (RBSM).

    ELECRAMA 2014 is bound to raise the bar in terms of facilitation and added services so as to make the event a resounding success.”

    ELECRAMA 2014 will also be home to the invitation-only CEO SUMMIT, the INTERNATIONAL T&D CONCLAVE, technical conference TRAFOTECH 2014 and THE ENGINEER INFINITE 2014 competition, which has encouraged third- and fourth-year engineering students from across India to share and display their innovative projects on the event’s Student’s Pavilion.

    {{Attracting Africa}}

    Africa is India’s fourth largest trade partner and bilateral trade between the two has been estimated to reach US$100bn by 2015, after India’s investment in Africa exceeded $35bn in 2011.

    “The growing business traction between the two can be gauged from the fact that India has extended 150 lines of credit worth more than $5bn to African countries,” Sardana remarks.

    “Trade between India and African countries has been gaining momentum over the years, and we see a large untapped opportunity for our electrical equipment exports going ahead with the forthcoming ELECRAMA 2014 event carrying the message of ‘Go Global’.”

    India’s electrical equipment industry has been actively increasing its involvement in the development of Africa’s power sector over the past two decades and is today offering vibrant solutions for electrifying the continent.

    “India can provide facilities for rural electrification, robust solutions for remote electrification and monitoring of power distribution and modernisation of Africa’s existing power infrastructure,” says Sardana.

    “India can offer conventional technology to upgrade Africa’s thermal and hydro plants, as well as technology for renewable energy generation, including wind, solar and geothermal. It also offer smart metering solutions and systems, where distribution loads can be monitored through computers and data systems remotely.”

    For these reasons, it is no surprise that the organisers of ELECRAMA have made African a focus region for the 2014 edition of the trade show.
    Moving to Bangalore

    ELECRAMA 2014 is being held for the first time in India’s IT hub of Bangalore, popularly known as the ‘Silicon Valley of India’, having previously taken place in Mumbai.

    The event will take place in Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC), India’s first LEED-certified exhibition and conference facility.

    The 34-acre complex includes covered air-conditioned exhibition halls, a multi-facility conference centre, a VIP lounge, and a large food court and outdoor area.

    Did you know?

    ■ India is Africa’s fourth largest trade partner and bilateral trade is expected to reach $100bn by 2015.
    ■ India has invested more than $35bn in Africa and the Government of India has extended lines of credit to the tune of about $5.2bn to African countries.

    ELECRAMA 2014 takes place in Bangalore, India, from 8-12 January 2014.

    {africanreview}

  • DR Congo Soldier Arrested for Desecrating Corpses

    {{A lieutenant in the Democratic Republic of Congo army has been arrested for desecrating corpses of rebel fighters, officials have said.}}

    His detention on Thursday evening in eastern DR Congo came a day after the UN chief said he was “deeply concerned” about allegations of such mistreatment.

    Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman said the UN mission was reviewing its support of those units suspected of involvement.

    The army and M23 rebels began fighting near the key city of Goma on Sunday.

  • Deadly Clashes Erupt in Northern Mali

    {{Four people have died with many others wounded and the market set ablaze in the northern Malian flashpoint town of Kidal, the government said Friday, a sign of growing tension with key polls nine days away.}}

    On Thursday night “armed individuals attacked people loyal to Mali in the town of Kidal, killing four, wounding many others and causing damages among the population whose houses and shops were targeted before they were looted and ransacked,” a defence ministry statement said.

    “On Friday the central market was set on fire.”

    Earlier Friday an official with the UN peacekeeping force in the troubled west African country had said clashes between minority Tuaregs and black Africans in Kidal had left at least one dead overnight.

    The official said the incident was apparently caused by rumours that the army was sending more troops to Kidal ahead of the July 28 presidential poll.

    “There were shots between a Tuareg group accused of being the MNLA (rebel National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad), or close to the MNLA, and the black population,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

    Kidal was one of the first major towns to fall when a short-lived March 2012 coup in Bamako created a power vacuum that allowed the MNLA, who had launched their rebellion two months earlier, to conquer most of northern Mali.

    The Tuareg rebel group was soon overpowered by Al Qaeda-linked Islamists. It was allowed to reoccupy Kidal when French-led foreign troops wrested the region back from the Islamist insurgents earlier this year.

    The MNLA, which wants independence for the vast desert region Tuaregs call Azawad, long refused to let government troops enter Kidal, but a deal was reached ahead of this month’s crucial election, which aims to restore democratic rule to the country.

    “Some said they heard civilians shouting ‘Long live the army, long live Mali,’ while others responded ‘Long live Azawad’,” the UN military source said. “There were shots and a civilian was killed.”

    Tensions were further inflamed when a group of armed Tuareg set fire to the town centre market while an unarmed Tuareg group looted shops and homes, the African military source said.

    “The streets are empty and at least 40 civilians have been wounded,” he said.

    A source close to Kidal governor Colonel Adama Kamissoko confirmed “the death of a civilian in the violence. Shots were indeed fired.”

    “Shops were destroyed, particularly of people who came from Gao,” another town in north Mali, the source said, adding that “dozens of civilians took refuge in the military camp.”

    He said the situation remained tense in Kidal on Friday.

    {wirestory}

  • Berlusconi Associates Guilty of Procuring Prostitutes

    {{Three associates of former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi have been found guilty of procuring prostitutes for his controversial “bunga bunga” parties.}}

    Emilio Fede, Lele Mora and Nicole Minetti were given jail sentences of between five and seven years.

    Last month Mr Berlusconi was given seven years in jail for paying for sex with 17-year-old Karima El Mahroug.

    Both Mr Berlusconi and Ms Mahroug deny having had sex, and she says she has never been a prostitute.

    Ms Mahroug is one of the women that the three associates in the current trial are alleged to have procured.

    Mr Berlusconi is appealing against the earlier ruling, which also banned him from public office. He remains a free man and a member of parliament while he does so.

    Mr Berlusconi insists the alleged sex parties were actually dinners where female guests performed “burlesque” dancing.

    BBC

  • Israel to Free Palestinian Prisoners

    {{Israel says it will release a number of Palestinian prisoners as part of an agreement made with US Secretary of State John Kerry to resume peace talks.}}

    Yuval Steinitz, minister responsible for international relations, said it would involve “heavyweight prisoners in jail for decades”.

    Mr Kerry announced on Friday that initial talks would be held in Washington “in the next week or so”.

    The Israeli minister’s remarks are the first details of the deal.

    Mr Kerry had declined to tell reporters in Amman what the two sides had agreed to, saying that the “best way to give these negotiations a chance is to keep them private”.

    The agreement came at the end of four days of frenetic shuttle diplomacy, on Mr Kerry’s sixth visit to the region in the past few months.

    Mr Steinitz told Israeli public radio that the agreement adhered to the principles set out by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for kick-starting the talks.

    The release of prisoners would take place in stages, he said.

    According to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, 4,817 Palestinians are held in Israeli jails. The release of prisoners held before the 1993 Oslo peace accords has been a long-held Palestinian demand.

    For their part, the Palestinians had committed themselves to “serious negotiations” for a minimum of nine months, said Mr Steinitz, who is a member of the prime minister’s Likud Beiteinu party.

    But he made clear that Israel had not accepted Palestinian pre-conditions, including a halt to settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

    “There is no chance that we will agree to enter any negotiations that begin with defining territorial borders or concessions by Israel, nor a construction freeze.”

    Israel and the Palestinians last held direct talks in 2010, which were halted over the issue of settlement-building.

    Settlements are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

    {wirestory}

  • French Police Attacked After Islamic veil Arrest

    {{A night of violence erupted in the Paris suburb of Trappes on Friday, apparently sparked by a row over France’s controversial ban on face coverings.}}

    Reports suggest upwards of 200 people clashed with security forces outside the town’s police station from around 9pm on Friday night, with the violence continuing into the early hours of Saturday morning.

    Demonstrators were seen throwing projectiles at police, while a number of bins were set on fire. Several pictures and videos purporting to show the violence have been posted on social media sites such as YouTube and Twitter.

    Around a dozen vans carrying riot police were deployed to the area, while a helicopter was dispatched to carry out surveillance of the town, located around 27km west of the centre of Paris.

    Order was restored at around 3am when the crowd began to disperse, a police source told Reuters.

    There were also reports that a young boy was rushed to hospital after being injured by a shot from a Flash-Ball – a hand-held device that fires non-lethal projectiles and is often carried by police in France.

    {france24}

  • China Frees up Lending Rates in Major Reform

    {{China’s central bank removed controls on bank lending rates, effective Saturday, in a long-awaited move that signals the new leadership’s determination to carry out market-oriented reforms.}}

    The move gives commercial banks the freedom to compete for borrowers, a reform the People’s Bank of China said on Friday will help lower financial costs for companies. Previously, the lending floor was 70 percent of the benchmark lending rate.

    However, the PBOC, in a statement, left a ceiling on deposit rates unchanged at 110 percent of benchmark rates, avoiding for now what many economists see as the most important step Beijing needs to take to free up interest rates.

    The latest step underscores Beijing’s resolve to start fixing distortions in its financial system and the economy more broadly as it tries to shift from export- and investment-led growth to more consumption-led activity.

    Some analysts said cheaper credit could help support the economy, which has seen year-on-year growth fall in nine of the last 10 quarters.

    “This is a big breakthrough in financial reforms,” said Wang Jun, senior economist at China Centre for International Economic Exchanges, a prominent government think-tank in Beijing.

    “Previously, people had thought the central bank would only gradually lower the floor on lending rates. Now they scrapped the floor once and for all.”

    The Australian dollar rose modestly on the news on hopes cheaper credit will lead to more demand from Australia’s biggest export market.

    The announcement provided some support to weak stock markets in Europe .FTEU3 and a timely reminder to the world’s top financial leaders meeting in Moscow of China’s intention to rebalance its economy.

    A Group of 20 draft communiqué will urge China to encourage more domestic demand-driven growth as part of wider efforts to rebalance the world economy, G20 sources said.

    The United States welcomed the move, saying China promised to let markets play a bigger role in allocating credit during the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington last week.

    “This is a welcome further step in the reform and liberalization of China’s financial system,” Holly Shulman, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury, said in an email.

    {agencies}

  • U.N. asks Rwanda for Proof of Links Between MONUSCO & FDLR Rebels

    {{U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has asked Rwanda’s government for evidence to support its allegation that U.N. peacekeepers in Congo discussed collaboration with Hutu rebels linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, a U.N. spokesman said on Friday.}}

    In a letter to U.S. Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo released early this week, Rwandan U.N. Ambassador Eugene-Richard Gasana said U.N. intervention brigade commanders in the Democratic Republic of Congo have met with rebels from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

    The FDLR is made up of the remnants of Hutu killers who carried out the 1994 genocide of Tutsis that claimed over a million lives.

    The letter, which was sent to DiCarlo in her role as this month’s president of the U.N. Security Council, said Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo also wrote to Ban about the same matter.

    In a letter to Mushikiwabo, Ban “notes with deep concern the allegations that meetings have taken place between senior commanders of the MONUSCO and the Intervention Brigade and the (FDLR),” Ban’s spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters.

    The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) is a 17,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force that has been in the mineral-rich eastern DRC for more than a decade.

    It is the largest U.N. peacekeeping force in the world.

    The complex conflict has dragged on, with millions of people dying from the violence, famine and disease since the 1990s.

    That has led the United Nations to create a new “intervention brigade” – part of the MONUSCO force but assigned the additional task of taking active steps to neutralize armed groups, above all M23 rebels in eastern Congo.

    Ban said there was nothing so far to back up the allegations of Rwanda, which also accused MONUSCO and Congo’s army of deliberately bombing Rwandan territory on Monday.

    “Following initial inquiries within MONUSCO, (Ban) has no reason to believe that senior commanders of the Force Intervention Brigade would meet with the FDLR to discuss matters related to their ‘tactical and strategic collaboration’,” Ban said in his letter, according to Nesirky.

    Nesirky added that it was “important to ensure that these allegations are properly addressed … (and) has thus requested that the Rwandan Government share as soon as possible any concrete evidence it may have to substantiate these claims.”

    A Rwandan diplomat said Ban’s letter was received on Wednesday and that Kigali has not yet responded.

    Ban and MONUSCO have also denied U.N. involvement in any bombing of Rwandan territory.

    In its complaints to the United Nations, Rwanda also supported an allegation in the latest report by the U.N. Group of Experts that units of the Congolese army have been cooperating with the FDLR.

    Heavy fighting erupted between the army and the M23 rebels on Sunday some 12 km (7.5 miles) northeast of Goma, ending several weeks of relative calm and reviving memories of an attack in November when the Tutsi-led insurgents briefly seized the city of 1 million people.

    Hundreds of people protested in Goma on Thursday against Kabila, accusing him of incompetence in efforts to neutralize rebels who have long plagued the region.

    Nesirky said MONUSCO reported on Friday that “the situation remains calm but tense around the city of Goma, in North Kivu province. It (MONUSCO) says that fighting between the Congolese armed forces and the M23 armed group has stopped.”

    {reuters}

  • Boeing 787 probe looks at condensation, wiring

    {{Officials investigating the fire on an Ethiopian Airlines 787 in London last week are focused on how condensation in the plane and a possible pinched wire in an emergency beacon may have sparked the blaze, according to people familiar with the probe.}}

    The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday it will call for inspections of the beacons made by Honeywell on Boeing Co 787 jetliners, but stopped short of requiring airlines to disable or remove the devices, as British authorities investigating the fire had recommended.

    The FAA said inspections should ensure wires are properly routed, and should look for pinched wires or signs of unusual moisture or heat. It gave no further details on how those factors may have contributed to the fire.

    But one source close to the inquiry told Reuters that investigators had found a pinched wire in the casing of the emergency locator transmitter (ELT) aboard the aircraft.

    The news comes after the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) on Thursday said the Honeywell beacon was the likely source of the fire, but said it was still trying to understand what ignited the plane.

    The July 12 fire rekindled concern in the industry about Boeing’s advanced carbon-composite Dreamliner, which was grounded for more three months this year after two incidents involving overheated lithium-ion batteries. The AAIB said the London fire was not related to those batteries.

    The Honeywell ELT is delivered fully assembled and is installed by Boeing. The unit that was involved in the fire had not been opened, suggesting the pinched wire originated at the Honeywell plant, according to one person familiar with the investigation.

    Honeywell declined to comment. Boeing declined to comment on the investigation but said it is working with airlines to either inspect or remove the beacons to meet regulatory guidelines.

    Investigators also are trying to determine if condensation on the plane seeped into the ELT, triggering a short circuit in the unit’s lithium-manganese battery, which is made by Ultralife Corp, according to people familiar with the investigation. The sources were not authorized to speak publicly because the probe is still going on.

    Condensation is normal on all big airliners, but the 787 has a higher level of humidity for longer periods to make passengers more comfortable, about 15 percent for the 787 compared with 4-5 percent for conventional metal aircraft, Boeing said. The humidity can be much higher when any plane is on the ground with doors open, perhaps 95 percent, because it matches the ambient air. At cruising altitude, however the air is dry and moisture comes mostly from passengers.

    Water conducts electricity, and high moisture levels could raise the likelihood of short circuits. Long-term exposure to moisture can cause corrosion on electrical wires and batteries.

    {Agencies}