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  • Finnish & African Journalists to investigate Sustainable Projects & Partnerships

    Finnish & African Journalists to investigate Sustainable Projects & Partnerships

    {{A group of journalists from Africa, the USA, the UK and Finland will travel to South Africa this week as part of a tour organised by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, which will see the journalists visit several cooperation projects between Finland and South Africa.}}

    All of the projects to be visited during the trip, which will last from 2-4 October 2013, have been financed by the Finnish government and focused on sustainable development.

    Seija Kinni-Huttunen, who will be hosting the visiting journalists through her role as director of development communications in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, described the trip as “media networking at its best”.

    “This unique network includes journalists from 15 different African countries across the continent. We will also have two journalists from New York and London who follow African issues, as well as several Finnish journalists with us,” Kinni-Huttunen remarked.

    According to the Embassy of Finland, Pretoria, one of the main goals of the trip will be to strengthen the journalists’ media skills through mutual learning. The group will have internal editorial meetings and discussions about media freedom and other issues of common interest with colleagues and stakeholders.

    The trip will take in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia, and a special focus will be placed on the WTO’s Aid for Trade initiative and private sector development.

    The programme will include a number of visits to companies, partner organisations and projects that promote poverty reduction through ‘green’ growth, job creation and opportunities for entrepreneurship.

    The network came into being in 2011, when a number of journalists were invited to Finland to share ideas for a sustainable future.

    Last year, the group held a media seminar and a workshop in Kenya together with a number of Finnish journalists ¬– a result of which was the network’s webpage: Suomi/Africa, Perspectives from Africa, Engagement from Finland.

    {africanreview}

  • Tanzanian Boy Resurrects After Burrial 2years Ago

    Tanzanian Boy Resurrects After Burrial 2years Ago

    {{In Tanzania, Geita area, a record number of residents has been turning up at Geita Hospital to witness the resurrection of a 16-year-old boy, believed to have died in 2011.}}

    It was widely rumoured here that Shaaban Maulid, who died, and was buried at Kambarage suburb in Geita Municipality in January 2011, was seen alive on Saturday before he was brought to Geita hospital.

    An eyewitness who is his relative claimed that Shaaban, then aged 14, left home on January 1, 2011 with livestock, but never returned home until four days later when he was found dead at Mbugani Street. His body was found in a deep well.

    The boy’s mother, Ms Aziza Ramadhan, 45, claimed that she came face to face with her son on Saturday at Mwembeni suburb where she frequently sells vegetables. She said she found him near the well where he died two years back.

    Astonished, Ms Aziza said she was puzzled and could not believe the boy was her son. “Doubting, I ordered him to stop and he obediently stopped walking, then looked at me. A few minutes later my neighbour joined us. I asked my neighbour if she could recognise the boy; and amazingly she said she recognised him as my son who had died two years back,” claimed Ms Aziza.

    The mother later called the boy’s father, Mr Maulid Shaaban, who also confessed that the boy was his dead son.

    The fourth witness, according to Ms Aziza, was Mr Joseph Nungula, the head teacher of Mwatulole Primary School where the boy was a Standard Five pupil prior to his death.

    “The head teacher, like other witnesses said the boy was the one who was one of his pupils,” she said, adding: “We informed the police who questioned us before taking my son to the hospital,” she added.

    The mother said she could easily identify her son due to a big scar on his forehead and on his private parts because he had gone through initiation. According to the mother of five, Shaaban was her second born.

    When interviewed the boy said he was living in an area with so many people; the day he met his mother he was with another boy called Bahati.

    The boy, despite looking healthy, couldn’t speak properly at the time he was admitted to Geita hospital on Saturday. However, he could recognise some few friends and classmates.

    “Now he can utter a few words and even recognise some of his friends and relatives,” said the doctor.

    He said the hospital administration planned to conduct a DNA test at Bugando Hospital to verify his parentage.

    The resurrection of the boy was also confirmed by Geita regional police commander Leonard Paulo.

    According to the RPC, the incident was the second to occur in the region. He said the first incident occurred in 2008 involving the re-appearance of a woman named Flora Onesmo, 45, who was pronounced dead at Geita Hospital and buried at Nakasenya Village. She was seen recently at Kasamwa area, just 15 kilometres from Geita Municipality.

    {thecitizen}

  • Kagame Speaks on Role of International Community During Genocide Against Tutsi

    Kagame Speaks on Role of International Community During Genocide Against Tutsi

    {{President Paul Kagame on September 29 joined eminent Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel for a conversation on genocide and the role of the strong in protecting the weak, at New York University, United States.}}

    The panel, moderated by Rabbi Schmuley, discussed both the Genocide against the Tutsi and the Holocaust.

    Introduced as “the only man on earth who can claim to have stopped a genocide”, President Kagame spoke on the role of the international community during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, according to a statement from the President’s office.

    “Genocide in Rwanda was seen as the usual, savage reaction by Africans. The message from the outside to those of us who were trying to stop the genocide was to try and restrain,” President Kagame said.

    He noted that the international community’s choice to turn its back on Rwanda was not the first time, and that Rwanda has since learned from that tragic experience 19 years ago.

    “What we learnt along the way was not to blame others for what happened. We learned to take responsibility for ourselves. If we wasted time thinking about what others are able to do for us, we would not have been able to bring Genocide to an end,” he said.

    The President pointed to Rwanda’s involvement in peacekeeping as a result of its history. “We try to do the best we can for ourselves and for others who find themselves in the same situation.”

    Rwandan peacekeepers are deployed in various parts of the world, including in the two Sudans, where the country maintains more than 4,300 peacekeepers.

    In addition to the responsibility to protect in times of genocide, the panelists discussed the aftermath of genocide including what is often referred to as the eighth stage of genocide: genocide denial.

    Responding to a question from Rabbi Schmuley referring to Paul Rusesabagina as one of the deniers of the Genocide against the Tutsi, Elie Wiesel said: “They are not worthy of a dialogue.”

    The panel discussion, held at the New York University Bronfman Center, was a prelude to the 20th Anniversary of the Genocide against the Tutsi.

    It was attended by over 800 members of the NYU Community and prominent Jewish philanthropists, including Adelson Sheldon and Michael Steinhardt.

    For the past one week, President Kagame has been in North America where he attended and addressed the 68th UN General Assembly and several related side events in New York, US, and presided over the fifth Rwanda Day edition in Toronto, Canada.

  • 125 Police officers Complete Peacekeeping Training in Nairobi

    125 Police officers Complete Peacekeeping Training in Nairobi

    {{A contingent of 125 police officers, on Monday, returned from a two-week peacekeeping pre-deployment course in Nairobi, Kenya.}}

    The officers, who include 73 females, are organised under the Formed Police Unit (FPU).

    The contingent was received by the Inspector General of Police, Emmanuel K. Gasana at the force’s headquarters in Kacyiru.

    The Police chief urged the officers to exploit the acquired skills and knowledge to accomplish their assignments efficiently and professionally to maintain the “pride” of the force.

    “Partnership is a major tool in policing, a reason why Rwanda National Police works with various organs to bring and maintain peace and security in the country and abroad,” he said.

    He urged them to uphold discipline, good morals and values, love their work, which will help them to accomplish their mission.

    Rwanda maintains about 600 police peacekeepers in eight missions including Haiti, Sudan, Liberia, Ivory Coast and South Sudan.

    source: RNP

  • Cradle of Priesthood in Rwanda Celebrate Jubilee of 100 Years

    Cradle of Priesthood in Rwanda Celebrate Jubilee of 100 Years

    {{Saint Leo Minor Seminary Kabgayi was founded in 1912; Rwanda then belonged to the Apostolic Vicariate of Kivu, administered by His Excellency Bishop Jean Joseph Hirth (1854-1931). }}

    For a better understanding of the origin of the Minor Seminary, we must go further back in history before the existence of the Vicariate of Kivu.

    In 1904, H.E. Mgr Hirth who was then visiting the missionaries who had been in Save for already four years, asked them to prepare Rwandan candidates who would join Kigoromola Seminary in the region of Ihingiro near Bukoba in Tanzania.

    The Bishop insisted on the importance of that plan for the future of the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Nyanza.

    In the circulations of the Prelate, it became clear that he gave much importance to that kind of formation; since he had already some minor details of his first seminary.

    In 1909, H.E. Bishop Hirth inaugurated Saint Léon Minor Seminary of Rubya located in the same region of Ihangiro. Of eighteen young people enrolled in that seminary, four were Rwandans. Of the first 15 seminarians sent to Rubya, six of them reached priesthood.

    Saint Leon Minor Seminary shifted from Tanzania and came to Kabgayi on 4th October 1913; after settling at Nyaruhengeri in the mission of Kansi for practically a year.

    Then it received the seminarians of both Rwanda and Burundi. At first, the Seminary of Kabgayi had both minor and major seminarians, because at that time the Bishop had repatriated his seminarians who had finished the Minor seminary in Tanzania.

    Later on the two institutions separated on 26th March 1917 under the direction of Father Léon Classe, when the Board decided to separate the Major from the Minor Seminaries into two entities.

    The Minor seminary passed under the direction of Father Briquet assisted by Father Laurent Déprimoz while the Major seminary went under the responsibility of Father Cornelle Smoor assisted by Father Giai Via.

    Saint Leon Minor Seminary of Kabgayi housed seminarians from Burundi until 1926, when their first Seminary was set up at Mugera in Burundi; in our neighbouring country. From December 1912 until 3rd October 1931, 639 seminarians were recruited at Kabgayi Seminary.

  • Kenya’s Inflation Shoots to 8.29%

    Kenya’s Inflation Shoots to 8.29%

    {{Kenya’s overall inflation has gone up once again in the month of September to stand at 8.29 percent from Augusts’ figure of 6.67 percent.}}

    Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) attributes the increase to the rise in indexes among them the food and non alcoholic drinks that increased by 2.87 percent due to the implementation of the VAT Act and seasonal factors affecting supply of common food crops.

    Housing, water, gas and electricity index also rose by 0.87 percent while transport index increased by 0.77 percent mainly due to increases in public transport fares that were attributed to various prices of petrol and diesel.

    “The recreation index went up by 6.62 percent over the same period mainly due to the increase in costs of newspapers, books and magazines among others,” KNBS said in a statement.

    The price of a 500ml packet of milk went up by 22.1 percent from Sh47.02 in August to Sh57.43 in September while a 1000ml of fresh unpackaged milk rose to Sh52.68 to Sh56.43., representing a 7.0 percent.

    A two kilogram of maize flour rose from Sh106.33 in August to Sh110.12 in September as a kilogram of cabbages rose by 10.6 percent, from Sh46.21 to Sh51.13 at the same period.

    A piece of newspaper rose from Sh50 in August to Sh60 representing a 20 percent increase while 50 units of electricity rose by 6.6 percent from Sh566.5 to Sh603.7.

    Kerosene rose from Sh84.79 in August to 86.39 represent a 1.9 percent increase while a litre of petrol rose by 2.0 percent from Sh112.00 to Sh114.27.

    capitalFm

  • White Widow ‘was Married to Kenyan Soldier’

    White Widow ‘was Married to Kenyan Soldier’

    {{Samantha Lewthwaite, the ‘White Widow’ being hunted on suspicion of leading the Nairobi mall massacre, is or was secretly married to a former officer in the Kenya Navy, a British newspaper said on Monday, quoting a confidential Scotland Yard file.}}

    Her new husband is Mr Abdi Wahid, whom the paper said is currently in Europe and freely moves around.

    According to the Daily Mail, the dossier throws new light on the life of the mother of four who converted to Islam as a schoolgirl and is now the world’s most wanted woman.

    However, Inspector General David Kimaiyo said they were not aware that the “White Widow” was married to a former Navy soldier.

    “I’m hearing about it for the first time. All we know is that she was living with someone in Mombasa who was charged in court and therefore we are not aware of any other person of interest,” Mr Kimaiyo said.

    Her first husband, Jermaine Lindsay, blew himself up in a suicide bombing in Britain in July 2005.

    She came to Africa in 2009 and had been on the run for nearly two years.

    The latest developments emerged as MPs promised to use their powers to overhaul the security system, including closure of refugee camps and removal of non-performing security chiefs.

    As the two National Assembly committees on Defence and Security start to grill security chiefs beginning today, they promised to get to the bottom of the terrorist attack at Westgate, including performance of security teams investigating the incident amid claims of laxity and looting.

    “We want to know the truth about what happened at the Westgate, including the history, the actors and the failures,” said Defence and Foreign Relations Committee chairman Ndung’u Gethenji.

    Wahid was arrested in 2011 when police discovered that his house in Mombasa had been turned into a potential bomb factory by Lewthwaite and her associates. He was never charged.

    He was previously identified as her landlord, the paper reported, noting that it was not clear how much he knew about his wife’s terrorist activities.

    But yesterday, Al-Shabaab insisted yesterday that no woman joined them in an attack on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall, dismissing speculation that the ‘White Widow’ took part in the massacre.

    “We once again openly declare that no woman was involved at Westgate,” Al-Shabaab said on Twitter, reiterating it had a policy of “not employing sisters for such missions”.

    Meanwhile, reports from Somalia said a controversial Muslim cleric was arrested yesterday in connection with the Westgate attack in Hargeisa, the capital of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland.

    Mohamoud Abdullahi Ghelle was arrested for supporting the attack in which 67 people were killed and more than 175 others were injured.

    The Daily Mail says that Wahid’s relationship with Lewthwaite “has baffled detectives, given his military background and because he once worked as a private security officer in Afghanistan, guarding westerners against attack from the Taliban”.

    Lewthwaite’s two elder children, nine-year-old Abdullah and Ruqayyah, eight, both by Lindsay, have the middle names Shaheed and Shahidah, respectively, which means “martyr” in the male and female form, according to the police data, the Daily Mail reported.

    She has two younger children, according to the paper — four-year-old Abdur-Rahman and Surajah, three, whose father could be another British Al-Shabaab recruit, Hounslow-born Habib Saleh Ghani, 28, killed in Somalia last month.

    On Monday, the Kenya Red Cross reported that the number of people missing after the Westgate attack had dropped to 39, from last week’s 60.

    Secretary-general Abbas Gullet said 14 among those reported missing had been found alive and discharged from various hospitals, while seven were confirmed dead.

    Metropolitan Development Secretary John Maina said yesterday closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras have been mounted in a number of public places in efforts to beef up security in the country.

    “Some 42 cameras have been mounted at roundabouts, bus stations, market areas and major crime spots in Nairobi,” Mr Maina said.

    {standard}

  • Sudan Defends Crackdown Amid More Protests

    Sudan Defends Crackdown Amid More Protests

    {{Sudanese government has pointed to “fake” victim photos and foreign interference in defence of a deadly crackdown on protesters, which drew fresh criticism from inside the ruling party as rallies continued.}}

    With reporters complaining of stepped-up censorship, numerous videos and photographs purporting to show bloodied victims have circulated on YouTube, Facebook and other social media since the demonstrations began eight days ago, sparked by a rise in fuel prices.

    “Most of the pictures on social media websites are from Egypt,” Sudan’s Interior Minister Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamed told a news conference on Monday, where he and other officials were confronted by a Sudanese reporter.

    “Why are you always telling lies? The people are killed by NCP militia,” said journalist Bahram Abdelmoneim when he got up to ask a question.

    Abdelmoneim, of Al Youm Al Taly newspaper, was referring to the ruling National Congress Party.

    He was unreachable by telephone later after colleagues said he had gone to a meeting with state security agents.

    {{‘Criminal’ attacks}}

    Authorities say 34 people have died since petrol and diesel prices jumped more than 60 percent on September 23, sending thousands into the streets in the worst urban unrest in the history of Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir’s 24-year reign.

    Activists and international human rights groups said at least 50 people were shot dead, most of them in the greater Khartoum area.

    The real toll was difficult to determine, but “could be as much as 200”, a foreign diplomat told media.

    Khartoum governor Abdel Rahman Al-Khidir told the news conference that police only opened fire to defend their stations.

    The interior minister said “criminal” attacks, separate from the peaceful protests, had been launched on police facilities and petrol stations.

    “We know that overseas foundations are supporting these criminal activities,” Hamed said, adding that about 700 people have now been arrested.

    {agencies}

  • Second Round Likely in Madagascar Election

    Second Round Likely in Madagascar Election

    {{Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina, barred from running in upcoming elections, on Monday said the presidential race was likely to be decided by a second round of voting.}}

    “Experience has shown… there will be a second round” after the October 25 vote, meant to end a four-year political crisis, he said in an interview with foreign media.

    He ruled out a return of his rival, ex-president Marc Ravalomanana whom he overthrew in 2009, but he did not dismiss a possible future turn as prime minister for himself.

    “It is not yet on the agenda, we will try to see the election outcome, how the situation evolves,” he said before adding: “I do not exclude it either”.

    After the October presidential poll, a parliamentary vote will follow on December 20, along with a second presidential round if there is no outright winner.

    The former mayor of Antananarivo declined to say which of the 33 candidates he supported.

    He assured he had “no regrets” after having been forced under international pressure to pull out of the polls, along with former head of state Didier Ratsiraka and former first lady Lalao Ravalomanana.

    Exiled in South Africa since the coup in 2009, Mr Ravalomanana has tried several times to return to the island.

    Mr Rajoelina said it would be wise to “let the people choose and then we’ll see how things will develop”.

    An electoral court last month disqualified the three controversial candidates from the election race after the trio refused to withdraw.

    Their candidacies, which did not meet electoral rules, had been widely condemned.

    NMG

  • Injured Mbia to miss Cameroon play-off against Tunisia

    Injured Mbia to miss Cameroon play-off against Tunisia

    {{Cameroon midfielder Stephane Mbia has suffered an injury that will keep him out of this month’s 2014 World Cup play-off first leg away to Tunisia.}}

    The 27-old hurt his foot while playing for his club Sevilla, who said on their website the player would be out for “approximately one month”.

    It means he will miss the 13 October match and is also a doubt for the return in Cameroon in mid-November.

    The winners of the tie go through to next year’s tournament in Brazil.

    “Stephane Mbia had tests on Monday to determine the extent of the injury he sustained against Rayo Vallecano last Wednesday,” Sevilla said in a statement.

    The La Liga club have taken Mbia on loan from English Championship side Queens Park Rangers until the end of the season.

    BBC