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  • Angola’s President Dos Santos says Relations with Portugal ‘not well’

    Angola’s President Dos Santos says Relations with Portugal ‘not well’

    {{Angola’s President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos said on Tuesday his country’s relationship with Portugal, its former colonial ruler and one of its main trading partners, was “not well” and not conducive to the creation of a planned strategic partnership.}}

    Portugal is Angola’s main source of imports and Portuguese companies play a large role in banking and construction in the African country, while Angolan investors have snapped up large stakes in top Lisbon-listed companies.

    “Only with Portugal, regrettably, are things not well,” Dos Santos told parliament.

    “There have appeared contradictions at the level of the leadership and the current political climate in the relationship does not advise the construction of the strategic partnership,” Dos Santos said.

    Tensions became apparent last month after Portugal’s foreign minister apologized for legal probes by Lisbon into business deals involving senior Angolan officials. Portuguese opposition parties have called for the minister to resign.

    Dos Santos also said his government had cut its economic growth estimate for 2013 to 5.1 percent from 7.1 percent due to a long drought, lower-than-expected growth in the oil sector, “bad management” of public debt and a weak global economy.

    Angola is Africa’s second-largest oil producer after Nigeria. Its economy grew 7.4 percent in 2012.

    reuters

  • Israel warns against nuclear compromise with Iran

    Israel warns against nuclear compromise with Iran

    {Israel on Tuesday urged the world to avoid a partial deal with Iran which could see a relaxing of sanctions, just hours before a new round of nuclear talks.}

    Following a meeting late on Monday, the security cabinet warned the international community against any “partial agreement that would fail to bring about the full dismantling of the Iranian military nuclear programme…(which) could lead to the collapse of the sanctions regime.”

    Iran is due to begin two days of closed-door negotiations in Geneva on Tuesday with the so-called P5+1 countries — the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has launched a media blitz in recent days, warning against concessions to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

    Rouhani’s conciliatory tone has raised hopes of a breakthrough in the decade-long dispute over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

    The security cabinet statement called on world powers to be wary of Iran at negotiations.

    “Iran believes it can get by with cosmetic concessions that would not significantly impede its path to developing nuclear weapons, concessions that could be reversed in weeks,” the statement said.

    “In exchange, Iran demands an easing of the sanctions, which have taken years to put in place.”

    But the security cabinet said the P5+1 should “reject Iran’s attempts to reach a deal that would leave it with the capability to develop nuclear weapons.”

    An Israeli official told AFP that the seven-member ministerial committee had met on Monday night but released the statement the following morning to coincide with the talks.

    Israel, it said, did not oppose Iran having a peaceful nuclear energy programme — one which would not require uranium enrichment or plutonium production, it said.

    “Iran claims that it supposedly has the ‘right to enrich.’ But a country that regularly deceives the international community, that violates UN Security Council resolutions … has no such right,” it said.

    The Geneva talks are aimed at reaching accord over Iran’s nuclear programme, which Israel and the West say is aimed at developing an atomic bomb and Tehran says is for peaceful purposes only.

    The Islamic republic has been slapped with several rounds of sanctions because of its nuclear programme.

    Israel wants Iran to meet four conditions before the sanctions are eased: halting all uranium enrichment; removing all enriched uranium from its territory; closing its underground nuclear facility in Qom; and halting construction of a plutonium reactor.

    Israel has refused to rule out military strikes against Iran, with Netanyahu telling the UN General Assembly this month that the Jewish state would act unilaterally if necessary.

    AFP

  • Rwanda, Burundi, Among ‘Most Improved’ Since 2000

    Rwanda, Burundi, Among ‘Most Improved’ Since 2000

    {Five post-conflict countries – Liberia, Angola, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Burundi – top the league of the table for most improved performers since 2000 on the 2013 Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) released yesterday. Two countries, Angola and Rwanda, have, remarkably, shown year-on-year improvement in overall governance, coming from their lowest point in 2000 and reaching their highest peak yet in 2012.}

    However, both of these countries have room for continued improvement, with Rwanda ranking 15th in overall governance, and Angola ranking 39th (out of 52 countries). The top ten performers over the years have remained relatively stable, with eight countries managing to remain in this grouping since 2000 (Mauritius, Botswana, Cape Verde, South Africa, Seychelles, Namibia, Tunisia and Ghana).

    Meanwhile, the bottom ten displayed more fluctuation in and out of the grouping. Six countries (Zimbabwe, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Central African Republic, DRC and Somalia) have constantly remained in the bottom ten in all years between 2000 and 2012.

    Since 2000, seven countries have come out of the bottom ten, four of which are post-conflict countries Angola, Burundi, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The ten most deteriorated indicators are Human Rights, Freedom of Expression, Violent Crime, Social Unrest, Human Trafficking, Domestic Armed Conflict, Transfers of Power, Soundness of Banks, Safety of the Person and Workers’ Rights.

    Daily Trust

  • Western envoys set stage for UN talks on Uhuru

    Western envoys set stage for UN talks on Uhuru

    {Uncertainty remains on whether President Kenyatta will attend the opening of his trial amid British media reports that the UN might postpone his case for year.}

    The Daily Telegraph Monday reported from Nairobi that a number of Western diplomats were preparing a UN Security Council resolution asking for the President’s case to be put off for a year.

    A spokesman for the ICC said it had no scope to object if the Security Council invoked international security issues to suspend the case.

    “The Security Council can adopt a resolution to impose a suspension based on the protection of peace and security in the world,” said Fadi al-Abullah, the ICC spokesman.

    “In that case it would be out of the hands of the prosecutor.”

    But French President François Hollande, who is on a two-day tour of South Africa, said that if African states have a problem, they should look at ways of solving it within the ICC framework.

    “Abandoning the ICC will be against the principle that established it, which is to fight impunity and other international crimes,” he said.

    In Nairobi, Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed said that Kenya will implement the resolutions of a weekend African Union Summit which, among other things, asked Mr Kenyatta not to attend his trial at the ICC until the African Union is given a response to its request for a delay of the trial.

    But she said it would be “premature” to state categorically whether the President will or will attend his trial or not. Tellingly, Deputy President William Ruto, whose case is already under way, flew back to the Netherlands to attend court despite the AU resolution.

    Earlier in the morning, however, presidential spokesperson Manoah Esipisu had tweeted President Kenyatta saying “I am no longer a private citizen observing personal obligations.’’

    The British High Commission, while not denying the Telegraph report outright, was vague, restating the British position encouraging President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto to cooperate with the International Criminal Court.

    At the weekend, the AU criticised the ICC, which it sees as unfairly targeting Africans, and has contemplated a mass withdrawal from the court.

    On Monday, British High Commission spokesman John Bradshaw said: “The UK position has not changed”.

    He also said: “We are aware of the African Union decision taken at its Summit this weekend and are studying it in detail.

    We are keen to engage in further dialogue on issues of concern, including at the ICC Assembly of States Party in November.”

    Asked whether his country would support a UN Security Council resolution postponing the Kenya cases, Mr Bradshaw said: “It would be for the full Security Council to consider any formal request for deferral of the investigation or prosecution of cases before the ICC.”

    The Telegraph, quoting sources, said the UN resolution being allegedly prepared was intended to avoid a damaging stand-off between the court and African states over Mr Kenyatta’s case.

    Agencies

  • Belgium traps Somali pirate chief with lure of stardom

    Belgium traps Somali pirate chief with lure of stardom

    {Belgium has arrested a notorious Somali pirate chief after luring him to Brussels on promises of shooting a documentary movie about his life on the high seas, prosecutors said Monday.}

    Federal prosecutor Johan Delmulle said Mohamed Abdi Hassan, better known as “Afweyne” or “Big Mouth”, was being held in the Belgian city of Bruges after being detained at Brussels airport Saturday when he stepped off a flight from Nairobi.

    Afweyne and his powerful accomplice, Mohamed Aden “Tiiceey”, the former governor of Somalia’s self-proclaimed Himan and Heeb statelet, were facing charges of kidnapping, piracy and organised crime, the prosecutor said in a statement he read to the press in French and Dutch.

    The charges followed the 2009 capture of a Belgian ship, the Pompei, seized and held by pirates off the Somali coast for more than 70 days.

    Afweyne announced in Mogadishu in January that he was quitting piracy after a highly profitable eight-year career. He said he was working to persuade other pirates to do the same.

    A UN report has described him as one of the lynch-pins in the piracy business which made a fortune attacking dozens of merchant vessels between 2008 and 2013.

    The Pompei was captured by dozens of pirates 700 miles off Somalia in the Indian Ocean. The nine crew-members, including two Belgian officers and the Dutch captain, were held in gruelling conditions until a ransom was dropped by parachute.

    An inquiry led to the arrest and conviction of two of the pirates, one sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2011, the other to nine years in 2012.

    But the Belgian prosecutor’s office had not let up its determination to bring to book the people “behind this act of piracy, who ordered, financed and organised logistical backup,” Delmulle said.

    In the case of the Pompei, Belgian police suspected Afweyne of organising and financing the attack after questioning one of the officers and hearing evidence from some of the pirates.

    As he was a resident of Somalia and rarely travelled, police “elaborated an infiltration operation aimed at arresting Afweyne outside of Somalia,” the prosecutor said.

    “The plan was to approach Afweyne through the intermediary of his accomplice named Tiiceey,” his statement added.

    “Via Tiiceey, Afweyne was asked to collaborate as an advisor and expert on a film project on maritime piracy. The film was supposed to reflect his life as a pirate.”

    But when Afweyne and Tiiceey landed on Saturday morning to sign the movie contract, “they were awaited and taken into custody,” the prosecutor said.

    Daily Nation

  • Debt ceiling looming, U.S. Senate leaders eye agreement

    Debt ceiling looming, U.S. Senate leaders eye agreement

    {Washington seemed closer to resolving its bitter impasse over the government shutdown and the debt ceiling on Monday, as top Senators looked to broker a deal, while President Barack Obama scheduled and then postponed a meeting with Hill leaders to give them more time to talk.}

    Senate majority leader Harry Reid and minority leader Mitch McConnell both said things were looking brighter, and sources said Reid privately made an offer to McConnell that would raise the debt limit and reopen the government, though the details of that offer remain murky.

    “We have had an opportunity over the last couple of days to have some very constructive exchanges of views about how to move forward,” McConnell, the top Senate Republican, said on the House floor. “Those discussions continue, and I share [the] optimism that we’re going to get a result that will be acceptable to both sides.”

    Reid agreed that “constructive, good faith negotiations” are under way.

    “I’m very optimistic that we will reach an agreement that’s reasonable in nature this week to reopen the government, pay the nation’s bills and begin long-term negotiations to put our country on sound fiscal footing,” Reid said.

    Negotiations shifted to the Senate after talks between Obama and House Republicans failed to yield an agreement last week.

    The Time

  • Charles Taylor Prefers Rwandan Prison

    Charles Taylor Prefers Rwandan Prison

    {{Ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor has asked to serve his 50-year sentence for war crimes in Rwanda, rather than the UK.}}

    In a letter sent to the court that convicted him, he says it would be easier – and less expensive – for his family to visit him in Africa.

    He also said he feared being attacked in a British prison.

    Taylor was convicted of aiding rebels who committed atrocities in Sierra Leone during its civil war.

    Last week, a UK minister confirmed that Taylor would be transferred to a British prison.

    He was convicted by the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), but his trial was held in The Hague in case it sparked renewed unrest in West Africa.

    The Netherlands only agreed to host the trial if he was imprisoned elsewhere.

  • EAC agrees on terror plan

    EAC agrees on terror plan

    {{Police chiefs from the five East African Community (EAC) member states have agreed on several measures to combat terrorism in the face of increased threats in the region.}}

    The measures, which among others include the formation of focal points in the office of each police boss and the fast tracking of the excellence centre on Counter Terrorism in Nairobi Kenya, were agreed upon at a meeting of the police chiefs organized by the EAC.

    Speaking at the closure of the two day meeting, the EAC deputy Secretary General in charge political federation Charles Njoroge said the measures were necessary to the transnational nature of the vice which needs concerted efforts to tackle.

    “The ever changing form of terrorism calls for such measures,” Njoroge said at the Kampala Serena hotel on Saturday.

    The other measures include the establishment of the Counter Terrorism planning desk to be hosted and coordinated by Rwanda, establishment of the other centres of excellence in member states with comparative advantage in specific areas and holding regular bilateral and trilateral meetings.

    The focal points in the various offices of IGPs will be headed by a senior police officer whose task will among others include coordination and exchange on a day to day basis of intelligence on terrorism. Given the urgency of the matter, it was agreed that by Monday the focal points should have designated officers.

    Kayihura said member countries agreed to commit more resources so as to activate and fast track the CT excellence centre in Nairobi. “The purpose is to create mechanisms in coordination with the EAC to prevent these terror attacks from happening,” Kayihura said.

    The counter terrorism operation desk in Rwanda will be tasked to pick intelligence and evolve a concept plan for the region to tackle terrorism. “This will also involve other security agencies,” Kayihura said. The recommendations of the meeting are to be submitted to the council on inter state security for approval.

    It was also resolved at the meeting that member states commit technology, especially at the borders and key entry points as part of additional efforts to combat the vice.

    Njoroge pledged to brief the EAC secretariat on the recommendations reached at the meeting ahead of the EAC summit next month at which it is expected that the issue of terrorism will feature prominently.

    He also pledged continued support from the secretariat and urged the police in the region to continue networking. Initially though not on the agenda, terrorism took the centre stage following the recent terror attack at the Westgate mall in Nairobi Kenya.

    Newvision

  • Father of Chief Justice Rugege Dies at 98

    Father of Chief Justice Rugege Dies at 98

    {{President Paul Kagame and his family have sent a message of condolence to the family of Chief Justice Sam Rugege following the death of his father, Canon Mutware William Iyakaremye Rugege.}}

    Canon Rugege died last week at Nakasero Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, aged 98 and was laid to rest at his adopted home in Omungyenyi, Ntungamo District, in Western Uganda on Saturday.

    He succumbed to cardiac arrest after suffering from deep vein thrombosis on both of his legs, doctors said.

    Thrombosis is the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system.

    “To everyone who knew this parent, he was a humble man of outstanding integrity throughout his life; he was a God fearing person. He loved people and his work,” the condolence message reads.

    On behalf of the Government of Rwanda and his family, the Head of State expressed deepest condolences to the family of Prof. Rugege and wishes the entire family of late Mzee Rugege strength during the difficult moments.

    François Ngarambe, the Secretary General of Rwanda Patriotic Front also sent a message of Condolence to Prof. Rugege and his family.

    “On behalf of the RPF-Inkotanyi and on my own behalf, I send condolences to the Rugege family. We are deeply saddened by the passing of your parent. We pray that the almighty God gives you courage, strength and support to come to terms with this loss,” he said.

    “Although this is an enormous loss, be comforted by the gift of life you received from your parent. Please accept our heartfelt condolences for the loss of your parent.”

    source: Newtimes

  • World Cup 2014: Ethiopia 1-2 Nigeria

    World Cup 2014: Ethiopia 1-2 Nigeria

    {{Nigeria survived a scare in Addis Ababa as the African champions rallied to beat Ethiopia 2-1 in the opening leg of their World Cup play-off.}}

    The hosts were the superior team for the first hour and led after 56 minutes as Nigerian goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama misjudged a cross from Behailu Assefa.

    Nigeria, who were not at their best, equalised through Emmanuel Emenike’s ferocious drive after 67 minutes.

    Emenike then won and scored a penalty late on to secure the win.

    The match was in the 90th minute when Aynalem Hailu needlessly brought the Nigerian down, allowing the Turkey-based striker to coolly slot home a decisive goal.

    “Ethiopia’s play scared us in the first half but we showed why we are the African champions in the second half – that’s what makes the difference,” assistant coach Daniel Amokachi told media.
    African play-offs, first legs

    Saturday
    Burkina Faso 3-2 Algeria
    Ivory Coast 3-1 Senegal

    Sunday
    Ethiopia 1-2 Nigeria
    Tunisia 0-0 Cameroon

    Tuesday
    Ghana v Egypt

    Bidding to qualify for their fifth World Cup in six attempts, Stephen Keshi’s side grew stronger as the game wore on and could have led after 77 minutes as Ahmed Musa thumped a close-range strike against the inside of the post.

    Defeat was cruel on Ethiopia coach Sewnet Bishaw, who impressed with their technical play but lacked a cutting edge in the final third.

    Trying to become the first East African nation to appear at a World Cup, the Walya Antelopes thought they had opened the scoring after 24 minutes through Saladin Said.

    The forward controlled a long diagonal ball well and managed to beat Enyeama only to see Gofrey Oboabona clear off the line, with many inside a packed Addis Ababa Stadium – Said included – believing a goal had been scored.

    When Ethiopia did make the breakthrough it came in similar style as Enyeama was slow to react to a left-wing cross from Assefa, leaving himself badly positioned as he caught the ball behind the line.

    The visitors, for whom Nnamdi Oduamadi had missed a good chance in the first half, had an early opportunity to draw level only for some smart goalkeeping from Jemal Tassew to deny Victor Moses.

    The Super Eagles did not have to wait long for their equaliser, however, as Emenike took possession 30 yards out before drifting forward and rifling home a blistering strike.
    The goal took the wind out of the hosts’s sails and they were fortunate to survive when Musa got behind the defence and hit the post with Tassew beaten.

    Ethiopia substitute Addis Hintsa missed two presentable chances in the dying minutes, as the match looked set to end in a draw.

    While that may have been a fairer reflection on the game, Emenike had other ideas, piling into the box and forcing a rash challenge from Hailu, who clearly tugged the Nigerian’s arm.

    Emenike’s second goal of the game completed a smash-and-grab win and ensured that Nigeria are favourites to progress to their second straight World Cup when the two sides meet again in Calabar on 16 November.