IGIHE

Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

  • Revenue Protection Unit seize 600 boxes of smuggled liquor

    A joint operation by the Revenue Protection Unit (RPU) and Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) has seized over 600 boxes of varied brands of wines and spirits that had been fraudulently taken out of the Customs stores.

    The goods in at least eleven different brands belonging to Godfrey Nkusi, a local businessman were seized on Tuesday in the City of Kigali.

    The assorted alcoholic drinks include Black and Red labels, Martin, Sheridan’s, Moet & Chandon, and Mouton Cadet.

    Others include KWV (Merlot), Courvoisie, Cinzano, B&G, Smirnoff and Dragon’s Back.

    According to Raphael Tugirumuremyi, commissioner for Customs, the smuggler had evaded taxes worth Rwf70 million.

    “The fraudulent acts were conducted as the owner was clearing the goods from our stores, where he under-declared the actual quantity. The goods were intercepted before being delivered to the stores of the owner, for physical evaluation, where we discovered the fraud,” Tugirumuremyi.

    “Some of the goods either had no tax stamps or were concealed inside other boxes. Investigations are still underway even on previous records to find out if there were no similar fraudulent means in his businesses before,” he added.

    “Together with Police, we have strengthened operations against smuggling and fraud, and we are seeing a tremendous reduction in these illegal businesses,” said Tugirumuremyi.

    According to the commanding officer of RPU, Chief Supt. Sam Bugingo, a Rwanda National Police (RNP) arm attached to the tax body to fight fraud and smuggling, Nkusi had initially declared 1245 boxes at Dar es Salaam port in Tanzania.

    “He, however, declared only 600 boxes at customs in Rwanda. This was realized few minutes later following credible information from an informant. We intercepted the two trucks that were taking the goods to their stores, and after thorough verification, we realized that 645 boxes had not been declared,” said Chief Supt. Bugingo.

    “We have impounded the car and the goods. In such a case, the East African Community Management Act, which we use, is very clear on penalties,” he added.

    In its article 199, the driver is slapped a fine of US$5000 while the vehicle and the goods are auctioned.

    Under article 369 of the Rwandan Penal Code, the offender faces a penalty equal to the evaded tax.

    “Through awareness and strong partnership with the general public, we receive credible information from the people on smugglers and routes used. We also conduct 24/7 patrols on highways, and snap-checks; all these informs our successful operations,” Bugingo said.

    Source:Police

  • Creative people have better-connected brains

    {Seemingly countless self-help books and seminars tell you to tap into the right side of your brain to stimulate creativity. But forget the “right-brain” myth — a new study suggests it’s how well the two brain hemispheres communicate that sets highly creative people apart.
    }

    For the study, statisticians David Dunson of Duke University and Daniele Durante of the University of Padova analyzed the network of white matter connections among 68 separate brain regions in healthy college-age volunteers.

    The brain’s white matter lies underneath the outer grey matter. It is composed of bundles of wires, or axons, which connect billions of neurons and carry electrical signals between them.

    A team led by neuroscientist Rex Jung of the University of New Mexico collected the data using an MRI technique called diffusion tensor imaging, which allows researchers to peer through the skull of a living person and trace the paths of all the axons by following the movement of water along them. Computers then comb through each of the 1-gigabyte scans and convert them to three-dimensional maps — wiring diagrams of the brain.

    Jung’s team used a combination of tests to assess creativity. Some were measures of a type of problem-solving called “divergent thinking,” or the ability to come up with many answers to a question. They asked people to draw as many geometric designs as they could in five minutes. They also asked people to list as many new uses as they could for everyday objects, such as a brick or a paper clip. The participants also filled out a questionnaire about their achievements in ten areas, including the visual arts, music, creative writing, dance, cooking and science.

    The responses were used to calculate a composite creativity score for each person.

    Dunson and Durante trained computers to sift through the data and identify differences in brain structure.

    They found no statistical differences in connectivity within hemispheres, or between men and women. But when they compared people who scored in the top 15 percent on the creativity tests with those in the bottom 15 percent, high-scoring people had significantly more connections between the right and left hemispheres.

    The differences were mainly in the brain’s frontal lobe.

    Dunson said their approach could also be used to predict the probability that a person will be highly creative simply based on his or her brain network structure. “Maybe by scanning a person’s brain we could tell what they’re likely to be good at,” Dunson said.

    The study is part of a decade-old field, connectomics, which uses network science to understand the brain. Instead of focusing on specific brain regions in isolation, connectomics researchers use advanced brain imaging techniques to identify and map the rich, dense web of links between them.

    Dunson and colleagues are now developing statistical methods to find out whether brain connectivity varies with I.Q., whose relationship to creativity is a subject of ongoing debate.

    In collaboration with neurology professor Paul Thompson at the University of Southern California, they’re also using their methods for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease, to help distinguish it from normal aging.

    By studying the patterns of interconnections in healthy and diseased brains, they and other researchers also hope to better understand dementia, epilepsy, schizophrenia and other neurological conditions such as traumatic brain injury or coma.

    “Data sharing in neuroscience is increasingly more common as compared to only five years ago,” said Joshua Vogelstein of Johns Hopkins University, who founded the Open Connectome Project and processed the raw data for the study.

    Just making sense of the enormous datasets produced by brain imaging studies is a challenge, Dunson said.

    Most statistical methods for analyzing brain network data focus on estimating properties of single brains, such as which regions serve as highly connected hubs. But each person’s brain is wired differently, and techniques for identifying similarities and differences in connectivity across individuals and between groups have lagged behind.

    Highly creative people have significantly more white matter connections (shown in green) between the right and left hemispheres of the brain, according to a new analysis.

    Source:Science Daily

  • Fresh call against illegal mining

    {Rwanda National Police (RNP) reminds the public especially people residing near mining sites to desist and report illegal mining activities which at times result are cause disasters like landslides leading to loss of lives.}

    On March 1, a man only identified as Buturaga, 35, while mining illegally in Mubuga Cell, Miyove Sector of Gicumbi District died when he tilted a weak cliff, which buried him.

    According to Inspector of Police (IP), Innocent Gasasira, police spokesperson for the Northern Province, the deceased entered the concession at about 2 AM.

    “The cassiterite had been closed, but unfortunately, there are some people who enter such sites especially at night, which in some cases results into such disasters,” said Gasasira.

    The body of the deceased was retrieved on Wednesday after residents reported the incident to police.

    “There are reasons as to why such concessions are closed, most of which are security and environmental related. We appeal to the public to desist from entering in these sites because they are deadly, and report anyone they see,” said IP Gasasira.

    He also called upon owners and managers of active mining concessions to take precaution and secure their sites against illegal mining activities and preventive measures against disasters.

    “Professional miners have all required tools and are able to understand the topography. It is suicide to enter in these sites without the skills, more so at night.”

    He appealed to residents to provide timely information on people suspected to be involved in these unlawful activities to prevent likely loss of lives and to fight against illegal mining business, which also has an impact to both the country’s economy and families.

    Illegal mining is punishable under article 438 of the Rwandan Penal Code, which attracts a jail term of up to one year in prison and a fine between Rwf3million and Rwf10million or one of these penalties.

    Inspector of Police (IP), Innocent Gasasira, police spokesperson for the Northern Province

    Source:Police

  • Huye: Students of Regina Pacis sensitized on dangers of drug abuse

    {Over 500 students of Regina Pacis secondary school in Huye District were on Tuesday sensitized on dangers of abusing illicit drugs, and urged to shun immoral indulgences that may ruin their future.}

    The campaign was organized by the District Police Unit (DPU) of Huye and Members of Rwanda Youth Volunteers in Community Policing (RYVCP) in the district.

    Inspector of Police (IP) Mucyo Rukundo, the District Community Liaison Officer (DCLO) of Huye, appealed to the youth to value the efforts by their parents and guardians, who strive to give them a better future through education.

    “The government had prioritized education as one of the backbones of development, and your parents strive every to ensure that you get that as a door to your future and the future of this country. Don’t waste that chance by engaging in abusing drugs,” IP Rukundo said.

    He further informed them that fighting use and sale of narcotic drugs like cannabis and other psychotropic substances is their responsibility as well by reporting the dealers.

    During the same occasion, students were informed about issues related to human trafficking and urged them to report people that try to take them abroad with offers that turn out to be life-threatening.

    They were also explained on the activities of the youth volunteers’ organization, which they were called upon to be part of.

    The youth organisation includes secondary and university students, and those who have so far graduated. It was created in 2013 by the youth themselves with an aim of contributing to the socio-transformation by fighting and preventing crimes in partnership with police and local authorities.

    Currently, it has over 102, 000 members countrywide.

    Source:Police

  • Dogs, toddlers show similarities in social intelligence

    {Most dog owners will tell you they consider their beloved pets to be members of their families. Now new research suggests that dogs may be even more like us than previously thought.}

    Evan MacLean, director of the Arizona Canine Cognition Center at the University of Arizona, found that dogs and 2-year-old children show similar patterns in social intelligence, much more so than human children and one of their closest relatives: chimpanzees. The findings, published in the journal Animal Behaviour, could help scientists better understand how humans evolved socially.

    MacLean and his colleagues looked at how 2-year-olds, dogs and chimpanzees performed on comparable batteries of tests designed to measure various types of cognition. While chimps performed well on tests involving their physical environment and spatial reasoning, they did not do as well when it came to tests of cooperative communication skills, such as the ability to follow a pointing finger or human gaze.

    Dogs and children similarly outperformed chimps on cooperative communication tasks, and researchers observed similar patterns of variation in performance between individual dogs and between individual children.

    A growing body of research in the last decade has looked at what makes human psychology special, and scientists have said that the basic social communication skills that begin to develop around 9 months are what first seem to set humans apart from other species, said MacLean, assistant professor in the School of Anthropology in the UA College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

    “There’s been a lot of research showing that you don’t really find those same social skills in chimpanzees, but you do find them in dogs, so that suggested something superficially similar between dogs and kids,” MacLean said. “The bigger, deeper question we wanted to explore is if that really is a superficial similarity or if there is a distinct kind of social intelligence that we see in both species.

    “What we found is that there’s this pattern, where dogs who are good at one of these social things tend to be good at lots of the related social things, and that’s the same thing you find in kids, but you don’t find it in chimpanzees,” he said.

    One explanation for the similarities between dogs and humans is that the two species may have evolved under similar pressures that favored “survival of the friendliest,” with benefits and rewards for more cooperative social behavior.

    “Our working hypothesis is that dogs and humans probably evolved some of these skills as a result of similar evolutionary processes, so probably some things that happened in human evolution were very similar to processes that happened in dog domestication,” MacLean said. “So, potentially, by studying dogs and domestication we can learn something about human evolution.”

    The research could even have the potential to help researchers better understand human disabilities, such as autism, that may involve deficits in social skills, MacLean said.

    Looking to dogs for help in understanding human evolution is a relatively new idea, since scientists most often turn to close human relatives such as chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas for answers to evolutionary questions. Yet, it seems man’s best friend may offer an important, if limited, piece of the puzzle.

    “There are different kinds of intelligence, and the kind of intelligence that we think is very important to humans is social in nature, and that’s the kind of intelligence that dogs have to an incredible extent,” MacLean said. “But there are other aspects of cognition, like the way we reason about physical problems, where dogs are totally dissimilar to us. So we would never make the argument that dogs in general are a better model for the human mind — it’s really just this special set of social skills.”

    MacLean and his collaborators studied 552 dogs, including pet dogs, assistance-dogs-in-training and military explosive detection dogs, representing a variety of different breeds. The researchers assessed social cognition through game-based tests, in which they hid treats and toys and then communicated the hiding places through nonverbal cues such as pointing or looking in a certain direction. They compared the dogs’ results to data on 105 2-year-old children who previously completed a similar cognitive test battery and 106 chimpanzees assessed at wildlife sanctuaries in Africa.

    Researchers hid treats and toys and communicated their location to dogs with cues such as pointing or looking in the direction of the concealed item.

    Science Daily

  • Humans sparked 84 percent of US wildfires, increased fire season over two decades

    {Humans have dramatically increased the spatial and seasonal extent of wildfires across the U.S. in recent decades and ignited more than 840,000 blazes in the spring, fall and winter seasons over a 21-year period, according to new research.}

    After analyzing two decades’ worth of U.S. government agency wildfire records spanning 1992-2012, the researchers found that human-ignited wildfires accounted for 84 percent of all wildfires, tripling the length of the average fire season and accounting for nearly half of the total acreage burned.

    The findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

    “There cannot be a fire without a spark,” said Jennifer Balch, Director of CU Boulder’s Earth Lab and an assistant professor in the Department of Geography and lead author of the new study. “Our results highlight the importance of considering where the ignitions that start wildfires come from, instead of focusing only on the fuel that carries fire or the weather that helps it spread. Thanks to people, the wildfire season is almost year-round.”

    The U.S. has experienced some of its largest wildfires on record over the past decade, especially in the western half of the country. The duration and intensity of future wildfire seasons is a point of national concern given the potentially severe impact on agriculture, ecosystems, recreation and other economic sectors, as well as the high cost of extinguishing blazes.

    The annual cost of fighting wildfires in the U.S. has exceeded $2 billion in recent years.

    The CU Boulder researchers used the U.S. Forest Service Fire Program Analysis-Fire Occurrence Database to study records of all wildfires that required a response from a state or federal agency between 1992 and 2012, omitting intentionally set prescribed burns and managed agricultural fires. Human-ignited wildfires accounted for 84 percent of 1.5 million total wildfires studied, with lightning-ignited fires accounting for the rest.

    In Colorado, 30 percent of wildfires from 1992-2012 were started by people, burning over 1.2 million acres. The fire season length for human-started fires was 50 days longer than the lightning-started fire season (93 days compared to 43 days), a twofold increase.

    “These findings do not discount the ongoing role of climate change, but instead suggest we should be most concerned about where it overlaps with human impact,” said Balch. “Climate change is making our fields, forests and grasslands drier and hotter for longer periods, creating a greater window of opportunity for human-related ignitions to start wildfires.”

    While lightning-driven fires tend to be heavily concentrated in the summer months, human-ignited fires were found to be more evenly distributed across all seasons. Overall, humans added an average of 40,000 wildfires during the spring, fall and winter seasons annually — over 35 times the number of lightning-started fires in those seasons.

    “We saw significant increases in the numbers of large, human-started fires over time, especially in the spring,” said Bethany Bradley, an associate professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst and co-lead author of the research. “I think that’s interesting, and scary, because it suggests that as spring seasons get warmer and earlier due to climate change, human ignitions are putting us at increasing risk of some of the largest, most damaging wildfires.”

    “Not all fire is bad, but humans are intentionally and unintentionally adding ignitions to the landscape in areas and seasons when natural ignitions are sparse,” said John Abatzoglou, an associate professor of geography at the University of Idaho and a co-author of the paper. “We can’t easily control how dry fuels get, or lightning, but we do have some control over human started ignitions.”

    The most common day for human-started fire by far, however, was July 4, with 7,762 total wildfires started on that day over the course of the 21-year period.

    The new findings have wide-ranging implications for fire management policy and suggest that human behavior can have dramatic impact on wildfire totals, for good or for ill.

    “The hopeful news here is that we could, in theory, reduce human-started wildfires in the medium term,” said Balch. “But at the same time, we also need to focus on living more sustainably with fire by shifting the human contribution to ignitions to more controlled, well-managed burns.”

    The annual cost of fighting wildfires in the U.S. has exceeded $2 billion in recent years.

    Source:Science Daily

  • Rwanda peacekeepers Level 2 Hospital decorated in Central African Republic

    {Rwanda Level 2 Hospital peacekeepers (RWAMED II), deployed under the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), have been awarded with UN medals in recognition of their contribution to maintaining peace and stability in Central African Republic (CAR).}

    The medal award ceremony was held in Bria on 24 February 2017. The event was presided over by Brig Gen Mohamed Abdebasset Mohamed Aly, MINUSCA Sector East Commander on behalf of the Force Commander.

    Brig Gen Mohamed Abdebasset Mohamed Aly hailed Rwanda Peacekeepers for their valuable contribution to peace and security wherever deployed in the world, and urged the peacekeepers to maintain that posture and keep Rwanda’s flag high.

    RWAMED II Commanding Officer, Col Dr John Byimana revealed in his remarks that the Rwanda Medical Contingent, since its arrival in mission area 6 months ago, treated 1869 patients among whom 61 received successful surgeries. The contingent performed also 11 medical evacuations. He pledged continuous commitment of the Rwandan Peacekeepers to MINUSCA.

    During the colourful ceremony, present guests tested to the Rwandan culture through the Rwandan traditional dance show performed by the peacekeepers.

  • Over 4500 Burera children drop out of school in two months

    {A total of 4688 children of who the majority are in primary school-going age bracket from 17 sectors of Burera district have abandoned school for various reasons in the first two months of 2017. }

    The major reasons cited for dropping out are seeking for work where they do provide labor and domestic conflicts.

    Talking to IGIHE, one of the children said; “My parents divorced. Our mother left six of us with our father. My dad suspended my studies so I could take care of my younger siblings, ” she said.

    Burera vice mayor for economic affairs, Habumuremyi Evariste has told IGIHE that the matter is well known and set to be addressed soon.

    “We had 4233 children drop outs in primary schools and 455 from secondary schools. We have taken measures and some of them have returned to school. ” he said.

    “It is hard for children to go to school in the morning when parents are involved in fist-fights all the time or when parents are divorced. Domestic conflicts top the major causes of school drop outs in most cases,” he added.

    Habumuremyi explained that they have taken measures of talking to parents of school-abandoning children, making a list of families in conflicts to be tipped on improving relationships and punish those that engage child-labour.

    According to Habumuremyi, parents forcing children to leave schools are ashamed in public gatherings, warned at sector level or pay a fine of Rwf 5,000.

    Statistics from Burera district indicate that 3,357 primary school children and 253 secondary school students returned to school in 2017.

    When he visited Gakenke district on 24th March 2016, President Paul Kagame said that parents overworking children and failing to send them to school would be punished. He instructed education officials and local leaders to follow up the matter.

    Burera vice mayor for economic affairs, Habumuremyi Evariste.Photo Théophile Niyitegeka.

  • Man’s body found in Rwezamenyo waterway

    {A body of an unidentified man has this morning been found in Rwezamenyo sector, Nyarugenge district in a water trench by the side of the road. }

    The trench is near the bus stop near Saint Joseph school in Kabuguru II cell.

    The body had injuries on the head creating suspicions that the deceased might have been murdered.

    Police has taken the body to Kacyiru Hospital for postmortem.

    Police spokesperson in Kigali city, SP Hitayezu Emmanuel has told IGIHE that police has not yet identified particulars of the deceased.

    “We have not yet known his age and names but police has started investigation to establish his identification and the cause of his death,”he said.

    The location where the body has been found.

  • Tanzania left out as Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda launch joint tourism portal

    {Tanzania appears to have been isolated further in efforts to market East Africa a single tourism destination, after Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda launched a portal to jointly market their tourism products online.}

    At the same time, Kenya is looking to Uganda to boost intra-regional travel for pleasure, building on statistics that an expanding middle class is becoming more amenable to travel.

    “The fact that Tanzania has made it clear that regional tourism is not a priority for them is affecting efforts to sell East Africa as a whole. If we are to compete with other regions and destinations, we need unity of purpose,” said Carmen Nibigira, the co-ordinator of the East Africa Tourism Platform.

    She added that the region must break down the barriers to the growth of the tourism sector in order to compete in the continental and global arena.

    The portal will be a shared platform for tourist trade operators to place their multi-country packages targeting regional and international tourists. It follows the launch of the East African multi-entry Single Tourists Visa, which has largely failed to take off as member states have failed to streamline their national visa policies. Since its launch in February 2014, the visa has attracted only 4,000 tourists.

    “With the year 2017 being the year of sustainable tourism, it is important for East Africa to implement sustainable tourism practices to ensure that countries remain choice destinations in Africa,” said Kenya Tourism Board CEO, Betty Radier at the launch of the portal.

    {{No significant success yet}}

    An analysis of tourist arrivals shows that despite countries on the Northern Transport Corridor isolating Tanzania, their efforts to attract more tourists have not translated into significant success, with preferences still being driven by individual country attractions.

    The number of visitors to Kenya was 1.8 million in 2011, and dropped to 1.2 million in 2015, according to the Kenya National Bureau of statistics. In Tanzania, the Tourism Sector Survey puts the figures at 1.1 million visitors in 2015, up from 867,994 tourists in 2011.

    Total tourist arrivals to Uganda have grown from 1.15 million in 2011 to 1.7 million in 2015 according to Uganda Tourism Board.

    In Rwanda tourists numbers rose from 900,000 visitors in 2011 to 1.3 million in 2015, according to the Rwanda Development Board.

    Tourists visiting Volcanoes National Park.

    Source:The East African