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  • Ibyiringiro Project Celebrates Success & Handover to Government of Rwanda

    {{The Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) for the U.S. Embassy, Jessye Lapenn, formally closed and handed over the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Ibyiringiro project to the Government of Rwanda. }}

    The handover ceremony was held today at Serena Hotel in Kigali.

    Ibyiringiro, which means “that which gives hope,” began in 2008 and worked in 24 of Rwanda’s 30 districts. The goal of the project was to help improve the quality of life for people living with HIV and orphaned and vulnerable populations.

    The project was implemented by a consortium of organizations and led by Catholic Relief Services. The project integrated a range of activities from agricultural training and community-based nutrition education, to economic strengthening.

    Throughout the five years of implementation, Ibyiringiro reached more than 26,000 people and showed remarkable success.

    During the event, DCM Lapenn said, “It is clear today and through the closing events held in districts throughout the country over the past few weeks, that the project has lived up to its name and given hope to many.”

    The Ibyiringiro project trained and worked with community groups, associations and cooperatives, several hundred community health volunteers, and staff from 44 health centers.

    Some of the key project accomplishments include:
    • Over 11,600 households adopted at least three of the learned bio-intensive agriculture techniques in their home gardens
    • 99% of participating households have a productive home garden during all seasons of the year
    • Nutritional status of nearly 11,000 people living with HIV successfully monitored
    • 93% of beneficiaries show no signs of malnutrition
    • More than12,300 individuals received health, nutrition, hygiene and sanitation counseling and education
    • 109 (out of 132) associations acquired registration as official cooperatives at the national level
    • 50% of beneficiary households paid their health insurance with funds from their income-generating activities
    • Good nutrition and agriculture practices have expanded throughout participating communities
    • Positive change in community perceptions of people living with HIV

    The knowledge and skills transferred to the volunteers and the beneficiaries have taken root in the communities where the project operates.

    Beneficiaries have adopted the Ibyiringiro techniques and practices and have given testimonies about the positive changes that have occurred in their lives.

    Tremendous improvements have been reported regarding their nutrition status, hygiene and sanitation, savings, income generation, and health in general.

    The handover of the project to district officials means that activities like nutrition, agriculture, and financial management training will be sustained, and the expansion of successful techniques can continue beyond project beneficiaries into the future.

  • Police college students visit ISANGE One Stop Center

    {{The twenty-eight police officers from the Rwanda National Police College visited the Isange One stop Center yesterday.}}

    The team, comprised of police officers from 12 African countries, learnt how the center operates, particularly how victims are received, treated, assisted to get legal representation and counseled before they are discharged.

    The team is pursuing a Senior Command and Staff Course at the National Police College. The visit is part of their study tours organized by Rwanda National Police.

    The Commandant of the National Police Academy, Commissioner of Police Felix Namuhoranye, said that the academy conducts training courses as joint conflict prevention mechanism in Africa.

    The team will visit different institutions including, RDB, RAB, NURC, FARG, RDRC and IRDP.

    RNP

  • Gicumbi Maize Farmers to Increase Production

    {{Through its different initiatives, the Internationa Fertlizer Development Centre (IFDC) Catalyst has trained chicken farmers in Gicumbi District, on how they can cultivate enough maize which may feed their chickens.}}

    Chicken farmers in Gicumbi have been complaining lack of food for their chickens as well as high cost per one kilogram of maize.

    Speaking to IGIHE, shortly after completion of trainings, farmers said they would comply with advices given and boost maize production at the same time reducing cost per kilogram of maize.

    Dr Ndungutse Francois Xavier, Gicumbi District Veterinary, told farmers that, Rwandans have opportunities to decrease cost of food by increasing production because the country possesses a fertile soil.

    By illustration, Dr. Ndungutse said “a farmer rearing 1000 layers that produce 800 eggs per day, gains Frw 48,000, after gaining such amount of money he will spend again Rwf 33,000 on feeding them, however, if we invest in cultivating our own maize we can have almost Rwf 48,000”.

    Kagenzi Stanislas Vice–mayor in charge of finance said that it’s vital to Gicumbi farmers because they are taking a process of development especially in Agriculture.
    “Our destiny is to work hard” He said.

    Speaking to media Udo Rudiger the councillor Agribusiness of IFDC Catalyst said that he prefers to help farmers of northern Districts particularly in Gicumbi District because they produce a lot of maize.

  • Carter Centre Barred from Monitoring Zimbabwe Election

    {{Zimbabwe has rejected an application by a centre founded by former United States President Jimmy Carter to observe the July 31 elections.}}

    The Carter Centre, which has observed 94 elections in 37 countries, was one of the many international observer missions that had applied to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) but were turned down.

    President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party has vowed that western countries that have imposed sanctions on its leadership will not be allowed to observe the crucial polls.

    “ZEC chairperson Rita Makarau on July 9 informed the Carter Centre that our application to observe the forthcoming national elections in Zimbabwe has been turned declined,” the centre said in a statement Thursday.

    “While the Centre regrets this news, it respects the commission’s decision. Without accreditation, the Carter Centre will not be able to conduct an international election observation mission.”

    President Mugabe’s opponents have claimed that Zanu PF is working with an Israeli company to manipulate the polls.

    The 89-year-old leader will face his long time rival, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai (62), and Industry and Commerce minister Professor Welshman Ncube (52), in the polls.

    African Union and Southern African Development Community (SADC) observers are already in the country for the elections.

    The Carter Centre called for a free and fair election, saying the presence of international observers would ensure that the outcome is legitimate.

    Zimbabwe’s last presidential election in 2008 was rejected as a fraud by the international community after President Mugabe ran alone in the runoff poll.

    This was after Mr Tsvangirai who had won the first round of the polls was forced to pull out of the race by widespread violence targeting his supporters.

    NMG

  • 12 Kenya Students Killed in Horror Bus Accident

    A deadly School Bus accident in Kenya has claimed 15 lives including Twelve students and two teachers and the driver.

    The grisly accident occured when the bus they were travelling in overturned at a sharp bend along the Itumbe-Nyamache road in Kisii County on Wednesday evening at 6.30pm.

    An unknown number of other students and teachers were also seriously injured.

    The 54-seater bus was reportedly carrying about 60 students. According to an eye witnesses, the bus lost control, and rolled several times.

    The students and teachers were on their way to Nyachogochogo Secondary, in Nyamache District for second term games, which are scheduled to start on Thursday.

    {Standard}

  • Iran Exile Group Claims Evidence of Hidden Nuclear Site

    {{An exiled Iranian opposition group claimed on Thursday to have evidence of a hidden nuclear site located in tunnels beneath a mountain near the town of Damavand, 70 kilometres (44 miles) northeast of Tehran.}}

    The Paris-based militant group the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), alleges the site has existed since 2006 with the first series of subterranean tunnels and four external depots recently completed.

    The group also claims the recently elected president Hassan Rohani, a former nuclear negotiator, had a “key role” in the programme.

    The Vienna based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) remained non committal about the MEK’s claims.

    “The Agency will assess the information that has been provided, as we do with any new information we receive,” spokeswoman Gill Tudor told media.

    Founded in the 1960s to oppose the rule of the Shah, the MEK was considered a terrorist organisation by the United States until last year, and has provided information about the Iranian nuclear programme on several occasions.

    “The organisation of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) has discovered credible evidence of a secret new nuclear site, gathered over a year by 50 sources in various parts of the regime,” said a statement from the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the umbrella group of which MEK is a part.

    “The codename of the project is ‘Ma’adane-e Charq’ (literally ‘the mine of the east’) or ‘Project Kossar’. This site is hidden in a series of tunnels under a mountain near the town of Damavand,” it said.

    The report added that Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a senior official in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, is also a managing director of a company the MEK claims is overseeing the project’s “nuclear, biological and chemical programmes.”

    The UN’s atomic watchdog IAEA has attempted to speak to Fakhrizadeh in the past without success.

    The “next phase” of the project will be the construction of up to 30 tunnels and 30 depots, the report added.

    The report concluded: “These revelations demonstrate once again that the Mullahs’ regime has no intention of stopping or even suspending the development of a nuclear weapon,” the MEK said, calling on the IAEA to visit the secret site.

    The West suspects Iran of seeking the atomic bomb, although Tehran has repeatedly insisted its nuclear programme was merely for peaceful purposes. The standoff has prompted a raft of sanctions from the UN, the United States and Europe.

    {agencies}

  • US to Deliver F-16 Fighter Jets to Egypt

    The US is going ahead with plans to deliver four F-16 fighter jets to Egypt despite the political unrest in the country, senior American officials say.

    It comes as Washington is continuing to evaluate last week’s overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi by the army.

    US massive military aid to Cairo would have to be cut by law if the removal of the Islamist leader is determined by Washington to have been a coup.

    The Muslim Brotherhood, which backs Mr Morsi, is demanding his reinstatement.

    Its supporters have been staging mass protests near Cairo’s barracks, where he is believed to be being held. On Monday, more than 50 Brotherhood loyalists were killed in clashes with the army.

    The new authorities have not said where Mr Morsi it, but a foreign ministry spokesman said he was in a “safe place” and being treated in a “very dignified manner”.

    ‘In US interests’
    The US officials say Washington will deliver four F-16 fighter jets in the next few weeks.

    They are part of an already agreed bigger order of 20 planes – eight of which were sent to Egypt in January. The final eight are expected to be shipped later this year.

    White House spokesman Jay Carney on Wednesday reiterated that it would not be “in the best interests of the United States to make immediate changes to our assistance programmes”.

    He added that the administration would take its time to consider the implications of removing Mr Morsi from power.

    US military aid to Egypt is estimated to be $1.3bn (£860m) each year.

    President Barack Obama has been careful not to use the word “coup” in relation to events in Egypt, the BBC’s Katy Watson in Washington reports, as doing so would trigger the legal requirement to cut off aid.

    BBC

  • UNAMID Chief calls to Address Aspects of Darfur Peace Doc.

    {{The head if the United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) reiterated its commitment to implement its mandate and to support he Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD), he however underlined that some aspects require to be handled.}}

    Mohamed Ibn Chambas who will fly to brief the UN security Council about the mission’s mandate by the end of the month, met Wednesday with the Sudanese vice-president Al-Haj Adam and the foreign ministry undersecretary Rahmatallah Mohamed Osman. His new deputy, Joseph Mutaboba of Rwanda, participated also in the two meetings.

    In press statements after his meeting with Al-Haj at the Sudanese presidency Chambas reaffirmed that UNAMID will continue to fulfill its mandate to protect civilians and provide humanitarian assistance to the needy, as well as supporting the ongoing efforts to bring peace in Darfur.

    “We confirmed the Vice-President of the Republic that the joint mission, is working side by side with the Darfur Regional Authority ( DRA) and the governors of the different states there to implement Doha Document for Peace in Darfur”, he said.

    He further added that the implementation of the signed agreement is moving forward “except for some aspects that need to be addressed”, he said according to the official news agency SUNA.

    In its report of April 2013 to the Security Council, UNAMID disclosed that the 800 million Sudanese pounds ($ 165 million) representing the first tranche of funds for reconstruction and development and announced last December, is actually a loan from the Omdurman National Bank.

    It further said that the bank and ministry and the DRA agreed in March that the interests of this loan will be jointly paid by the central government and the regional authority. Also It is reported that the funds became available for disbursement on project-by-project basis.

    The government and its peace partner, Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM), still disagree on the number of the fighters belonging to the former rebel group who can take part in the DDR process. The parties last November reached a compromise providing to review the whole verification exercise.

    Chambas is expected to brief the UN Security Council on the UNAMID activities – for the past period- on 24 July, as the extension of mission’s mandate would be approved on 31 July.

    {{BASHIR DETERMINED TO IMPROVE SECURITY IN DARFUR}}

    President Omer Al-Bashir who chaired a meeting of the higher committee to follow-up the DDPD implementation, on Wednesday reaffirmed the determination of his government to take a number of measures in order to reestablish security and the authority of the state in Darfur.

    He further directed the Ministry of Finance to disburse its commitments for the implementation of the security arrangements in the DDPD.

    {Sudantribune}

  • Europe Tempers Power of Agency to Shut Troubled Banks

    {{The European Commission proposed on Wednesday creating an agency to salvage or shut failed banks, but the absence of an immediate backstop fund to pay for a clean-up means it may struggle to do its job.}}

    Working in tandem with the European Central Bank as supervisor, the new authority is supposed to wind down or revamp banks in trouble. It constitutes the second pillar of a ‘banking union’ meant to galvanize the euro zone’s response to the crisis.

    If agreed by European Union states, the agency will be set up in 2015 and will eventually have the means to impose losses on creditors of a stricken bank, according to the blueprint.

    But the new authority will be handicapped by the fact that it will have to wait years before it has a fund to pay for the costs of any bank wind-up it orders. In practice, this means it could be very difficult to demand any such closure.

    Officials say the plan foresees tapping banks to build a war chest of 55 billion to 70 billion euros ($70 billion to $90 billion) but that is expected to take a decade, leaving the agency largely dependent on national schemes in the meantime.

    “We have also seen how the collapse of a major cross-border bank can lead to a complex and confusing situation,” said Michel Barnier, the commissioner in charge of regulation.

    “We need a system which can deliver decisions quickly and efficiently, avoiding doubts on the impact on public finances, and with rules that create certainty in the market.”

    The EU’s executive will also not, however, call for giving a backstop role to the euro zone’s rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism.

    The lack of initial funds or recourse to the ESM undermines a central goal of banking union – to sever the ‘doom loop’ that forms as banks buy ever more government bonds from their home states.

    {reuters}

  • South Sudan Fails to Protect Civilians in East, U.S. says

    {{The United States issued a rare criticism of South Sudan on Wednesday, saying the African state was failing to protect civilians in the east where the army is fighting an insurgency.}}

    Western powers have long urged Juba to find a peaceful solution to fighting involving the army, a rebel group and rival tribes in the vast Jonglei state but have so far mostly refrained from criticizing the government.

    A United Nations source said new fighting erupted a week ago between the rival Lou Nuer and Murle tribes in the Pibor area in Jonglei, killing an unknown number of people.

    More violence was expected as armed youths from both sides were amassing forces in the area, the source said. A U.N. team visiting the town said that most civilians had left Pibor, contrary to government figures, the United Nations said in a report.

    The United States, South Sudan’s biggest ally, said it was “deeply disappointed” that the army, or SPLA, had failed to protect civilians in vulnerable areas in Jonglei.

    “The lack of action to protect civilians constitutes an egregious abdication of responsibility by the SPLA and the civilian government,” the U.S. embassy in Juba said in a statement.

    Washington urged the government to prevent “SPLA attacks on U.N. staff and humanitarian assets”. It gave no details but soldiers had looted compounds of U.N. agencies and aid agencies in Pibor in May, according to aid sources.

    Agencies