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  • Kenya Tea Farmers Receive Reduced Bonus

    Kenya Tea Farmers Receive Reduced Bonus

    {{Tea farmers in the country will this year receive an average bonus payment of Sh31.65 for a kilogram of green leaf they took to the factory, less than Sh37.51 paid out last year.}}

    The Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) Managing Director Lerionka Tiampati attributed the drop in the second payment (bonus) to a two percent decrease in net auction price of a kilo tea to Sh272.08 from Sh278.08 in 2012.

    Tiampati said the price drop was largely contributed by a stronger Kenya Shilling in 2012/13 financial year compared to the same period in the previous year.

    However the initial payment to farmers, which paid to farmers every month, increased to an average price of Sh14 per kilo this of green leaf compared to Sh12.50 last year.

    In total, KTDA will pay Sh51.3 billion in 2013 from Sh45.3 billion in 2012, for the initial and the second payment.

    “We have continued to experience several challenges in the industry. You now see impact of the fluctuations in the foreign exchange rates. There has also been an up and down movement of tea prices,” Tiampati said on Wednesday while announcing KTDA performance.

    Total income increased from Sh61.4 billion in 2011/12 financial year to Sh69.2 billion in 2012/13.

    Crop production increased by 24percent to1.1billion kilograms (kg), the highest ever, from 906 million Kg, while made tea increased from 211million Kg to 258million Kg recorded in the previous year.

    High production was due to increased acreage and favorable weather conditions during the period.

    However, Tiampati expressed fears of drop in crop production by the end of this year by 10 percent due especially due to the current hailstorms being experienced in some key tea areas in Rift Valley.

  • ICC calls on US to Arrest Sudan President

    ICC calls on US to Arrest Sudan President

    {{The International Criminal Court on Wednesday urged US authorities to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, an indicted war crimes suspect, should he travel to New York for a UN summit.}}

    The court has asked “the competent US authorities to arrest Omar al-Bashir and surrender him to the court, in the event he enters their territory,” it said in a statement.

    Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide in Darfur, has embarrassed the US government and the United Nations by seeking a visa to enter the United States to attend the annual UN General Assembly next week.

    Washington opposes Bashir attending the annual meeting, but it has refused to say whether it can or will block the Sudanese leader.

    The US is not party to the ICC’s Rome Statute and therefore has no obligation to arrest Bashir, despite having itself accused him of genocide in the western Darfur region.

    The UN is letting the US authorities take the lead while indicating Bashir’s presence would be a problem.

    The court recalled that it had in 2010 asked all UN Security Council members that are not states parties to the Rome Statue, including the United States, to arrest Bashir.

    “Non-states parties may decide to cooperate with the court on an ad hoc basis,” The Hague-based court said.

    The ICC issued arrest warrants for the Sudanese leader in March 2009 and July 2010 and he now faces 10 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in the decade-old Darfur conflict.

    ICC signatories have a duty to arrest Bashir.

    But the president has since played cat-and-mouse with ICC investigators and supporters, frequently travelling to some African countries. However, Saudi Arabia in August refused to let Bashir use its airspace to reach Iran, forcing him to return to Khartoum.

    The UN headquarters in New York is extra-territorial but Sudanese citizens would need a visa to enter the United States to get there.

    AFP

  • Tsvangirai Scoffs Calls for Him to Step Down

    Tsvangirai Scoffs Calls for Him to Step Down

    {{Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai batted away calls for him to resign on Wednesday and announced a shadow cabinet, vowing to keep veteran President Robert Mugabe’s regime in check.}}

    Tsvangirai scoffed at “irresponsible” calls for him to step down after failing to beat Mugabe for the third time in July elections that were overshadowed by rigging allegations.

    “It’s a betrayal of the people’s aspirations. I was elected by the party congress and the next congress will be in 2016.”

    “I don’t intend to stay a day longer beyond my mandate but I am not going to step down because a newspaper is saying I should step down or because Zanu-PF is saying I should step down.”

    Tsvangirai said he and the newly named 21-member shadow cabinet was focused on “keeping the government of Mr Mugabe on its toes and ensuring that it meets its commitments to the people of Zimbabwe”.

    Most of the members of the shadow cabinet were ministers in a power-sharing government with Mugabe.

    They include former finance minister Tendai Biti, former information minister Nelson Chamisa and detained party deputy chairperson Morgan Komichi.

    “Our shadow cabinet is not an exact mirror of Mr Mugabe’s bloated structure, but it incorporates all government functions represented by his government,” Tsvangirai said.

    Mugabe appointed a new cabinet last week after winning another five-year term in general elections on 31 July.

    The cabinet retained members of the old guard of Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party including those who have served in government since independence in 1980.

    Tsvangirai rejected the elections as “a sham” and “a massive fraud”.

    Western powers said the elections were neither free nor fair while African countries said they were free but would not pass them as fair.

    – AFP

  • South Africans Switch to Smaller Cars

    South Africans Switch to Smaller Cars

    {{Car sales have been one of the few growth sectors this year as South Africa struggles to shake off the after-effects of a 2009 recession, but increasingly it is smaller, more efficient models that are finding their way onto the roads}}.

    A 16 percent fall in the rand against the dollar this year, including a four-year low of 10.51 last month, drove local petrol prices to a lifetime high of 13.55 rand a litre in August – more than double their levels in early 2009.

    As a result, South Africa’s total demand for petrol fell by a whopping 37 percent from April to July, according to import data, as people stayed at home, shared rides or traded down to cheaper vehicles.

    “Where people are more affluent, they are trading out of your luxury cars or big sedans into SUVs like the Fortuner, and again the trend is towards diesel,” said Toyota spokesperson Leo Kok.

    The local unit of Japanese auto giant Toyota Motor Corp , the biggest car manufacturer in South Africa, says 98 percent of sales of its popular Fortuner SUV are diesel. Diesel cars are normally more efficient than their petrol-driven counterparts.

    Industry data shows two-thirds of passenger sales are now small vehicles, compared with 61 percent four years ago. Over that time, the smallest models have increased their market share to 25 percent from 16 percent.

    As well as pushing buyers towards smaller, more efficient cars, the weak currency should help domestic manufacturers as cheap Asian imports become more expensive and locally made products start to look more reasonable.

    “The weaker rand helps to make it more difficult for unfairly incentivised products coming in cheaply from the east to compete in our domestic market,” said Coenraad Bezuidenhout of the Manufacturing Circle, a factory lobby group.

    {agencies}

  • Chadian Troops Abandon North Mali Posts in Protest

    Chadian Troops Abandon North Mali Posts in Protest

    {{A company of about 150 Chadian soldiers of the United Nations peacekeeping force in northern Mali abandoned their posts on Wednesday in protest at the length of time they have served, a spokeswoman for the U.N. mission said.}}

    The soldiers, who fought alongside French forces to oust Islamist militants who had occupied northern Mali, have been in the arid region for several months and are demanding that their rotation be speeded up, Samantha Buonvino said.

    “About 150 of them left Tessalit for Gao,” Buonvino said by telephone from Mali’s capital Bamako, referring to the town the troops had been stationed in.

    She said the U.N. mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and Chadian military authorities were in discussion with the troops to seek a solution to their grievances, adding some troops remained in Tessalit and the mission had taken measures to continue securing the northern town.

    About 2,000 troops from Chad took part in the ground offensive to defeat an Islamist rebellion in northern Mali and 38 were killed in combat. The United Nations took over command of the African peacekeeping force in Mali in July.

    {wirestory}

  • Egypt Forces Clash with Militants

    Egypt Forces Clash with Militants

    {{Egyptian security forces have clashed with militants after entering a town on the outskirts of Cairo, reports say.}}

    They went into Kerdasah shortly before 05:30 local time (03:30 GMT) to target “criminal and terrorist hotbeds”, officials told Mena news agency.

    At least one police officer was injured in the clashes, state TV says.

    Eleven police officers were killed at a police station in Kerdasah last month, weeks after the overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Morsy in July.

    {Egyptian protesters run away from riot police charging during clashes on Omar Makram street off Tahrir Square }

  • Angolan Police Vow to Crash Planned Protest

    Angolan Police Vow to Crash Planned Protest

    {{Angolan police vowed on Wednesday to use force if necessary to crack down on an anti-government youth protest planned for Thursday in Luanda, at which they expect activists to distribute posters that incite violence and disturb public order.}}

    “We will repress, I repeat, vehemently repress, all acts that go against order and public security, and we will use force if it is necessary,” Aristofanes dos Santos, spokesman for Angolan police said on state television, TPA.

    The Angolan Revolutionary Movement, which has held several protests since 2011 urging President Jose Eduardo dos Santos to resign after 34 years in power in Africa’s No. 2 oil producer, said the march will be peaceful and is protected by Angolan law.

    Amnesty International called on Angolan authorities not to suppress the march, avoid making arbitrary arrests and to use force only if strictly necessary.

    Members of the protest movement said at a news conference on Monday that they believe the event is authorized under Angolan law because they have had no formal response from the local government to their earlier communication about the protest.

    Police spokesman Dos Santos said the ban was not about the right of assembly and protest, but was imposed due to fears that the demonstrators would use slogans that incite violence.

    “Note that in the planned demonstration they (the activists) will distribute posters that incite violence. They have been duly warned by the police chief – we are alert and any violation of the norm will be severely punished,” he added.

    The run-up to the protest was marked by the arrest on September 12 of Nito Alves, a 17-year-old activist, for allegedly printing protest slogans on T-shirts that police said defamed the president and incited violence to topple the government.

    Though small in number, the Angolan Revolutionary Movement has survived a police clampdown and attacks by pro-government groups. It accuses President Dos Santos of mismanaging Angola’s oil revenues, suppressing human rights and doing too little to end graft and poverty.

    Dos Santos, who won an election in 2012 to secure another five-year term, said in June that the protest group was not representative as most Angolans, who support the government.

    reuters

  • Raid kills 150 Boko Haram Islamists, Nigeria says

    Raid kills 150 Boko Haram Islamists, Nigeria says

    {{A military strike on a Boko Haram camp in Nigeria’s restive northeast last week left about 150 Islamists and 16 soldiers dead, the army said Wednesday, amid reports of dozens of troops killed.}}

    The army’s claim of a major offensive against the Islamist insurgents on September 12 came after local media reported that Boko Haram had ambushed a group of soldiers in the same area, killing 40 and leaving dozens of others missing.

    Military officials were not available to comment on the reported Boko Haram ambush, speaking only about the purported military strike.

    Details of last week’s military operation had not been previously made public.

    “It was a highly fortified insurgent camp with heavy weapons in (northeastern) Borno State,” army spokesman Ibrahim Attahiru said, adding that the camp was in the Kasiya forest.

    “The army raided the camp on September 12. Some 150 Boko Haram terrorists were killed, while the military lost 16 soldiers. Nine soldiers are still missing,” he told AFP.

    The forest where the alleged raid occurred is some 70 kilometres (43 miles) northeast of Borno’s capital Maiduguri, the city where Boko Haram was founded more than a decade ago.

    The area surrounding Kasiya had acquired a reputation for armed robbery.

    There has been speculation that Boko Haram had strengthened its presence in the remote area in recent months, several people familiar with the region told media.

    Borno was placed under a state of emergency in mid-May, when the military shut down the mobile phone network to block Islamists from coordinating attacks amid an operation aimed at crushing the insurgency.

    With the communication network switched off, details of attacks have been slow to emerge and difficult to verify.

    agencies

  • French Bill Would Criminalise Paying for Sex

    French Bill Would Criminalise Paying for Sex

    {{Paying for sex in France may soon become a criminal offence, according to a forthcoming bill whose details were made public this week.}}

    The proposed legislation would also overturn a 2003 law that penalises prostitutes overtly offering their services, rules that were intended to reduce the presence of sex workers in the streets but instead led prostitutes to “dress down” while plying their trade.

    “We are going to turn the law on its head,” said Socialist Member of Parliament Maud Olivier, who authored a report that will be the basis of the bill. “Prostitutes are victims and should not be treated like criminals.”

    “The law is intended to reduce violence towards prostitutes and to get it into the general mindset that paying for sexual services is not acceptable. We need to destroy the idea that prostitution is a happy trade,” she said, adding that of the estimated 40,000 sex workers in France, 80 percent are women and 90 percent are immigrants.

    The bill, which is due to be debated by the National Assembly (lower house) and the Senate starting in November, sets out progressive fines of up to 1,500 euros for a first offence, to 7,500 euros and six months’ imprisonment for repeat offenders.

    It would also give prostitutes who are victims of sexual violence easier access to legal residency in France, while opening the doors to suing pimps who force them to sell their bodies.

    The move was welcomed by campaign group “Mouvement du Nid”, an association that helps prostitutes find justice in the case of sexual violence and exploitation by criminal networks.

    “Women who sell their bodies for sex are not harming anyone and they shouldn’t be seen as criminals,” said the Mouvement du Nid’s General Secretary Gregoire Thery.

    “All the harm to the individuals involved and to society in general is committed by clients who are sexually violent towards prostitutes.

    “This law will protect women. For the first time in French history it gives them the opportunity to tell clients who are violent or make unwelcome demands that they can be arrested and punished for committing an illegal act.”

    france24

  • Starbucks asks U.S. customers to leave guns at home

    Starbucks asks U.S. customers to leave guns at home

    {{Coffee chain Starbucks Corp has asked U.S. customers to leave their guns at home after being dragged into an increasingly fractious debate over U.S. gun rights in the wake of multiple mass shootings.}}

    While many U.S. restaurant chains and retailers do not allow firearms on their properties, Starbucks’ policy had been to default to local gun laws, including “open carry” regulations in many U.S. states that allow people to bring guns into stores.

    In August, this led gun-rights advocates to hold a national “Starbucks Appreciation Day” to thank the firm for its stance, pulling the company deeper into the fierce political fight.

    Locations for Starbucks Appreciation Day events included Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were shot dead in an elementary school in December. Starbucks closed that shop before the event was scheduled to begin.

    Chief Executive Howard Schultz said in an open letter to customers late Tuesday that Starbucks Appreciation Day events “disingenuously portray Starbucks as a champion of ‘open carry.’ To be clear: we do not want these events in our stores.”

    The letter will appear in major U.S. newspapers on Thursday, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.

    The coffee chain did not, however, issue an outright ban on guns in its nearly 7,000 company-owned cafes, saying this would potentially require staff to confront armed customers.

    The Seattle-based company hoped to give “responsible gun owners a chance to respect its request,” Schultz said.

    The National Rifle Association, a powerful pro-gun lobbying group, did not have an immediate comment on the Starbucks letter and made no mention of it on its Twitter or Facebook pages.

    But one gun rights advocate said he would stop getting coffee at Starbucks.

    “It’s their choice and we support their right as a private business to make that choice. Gun owners will choose on their own if they want to patronize them or not,” said Rob Harris, media director for Michigan Open Carry, a group that took part in Starbucks Appreciation Day events this summer.

    A gun control advocacy group formed days after Newtown, killings, “Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America”, predicted other large companies would follow Starbucks’ lead.

    “This policy change represents a sea change in American culture, which is finally shifting away from allowing guns in public places,” Shannon Watts, the group’s founder, said in a statement.

    agencies