IGIHE

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  • Nigeria is Now Africa’s Biggest Economy

    Nigeria is Now Africa’s Biggest Economy

    {{Nigeria has “rebased” its gross domestic product (GDP) data, which has pushed it above South Africa as the continent’s biggest economy.}}

    Nigerian GDP now includes previously uncounted industries like telecoms, information technology, music, online sales, airlines, and film production.

    GDP for 2013 totalled 80.3 trillion naira (£307.6bn: $509.9bn), the Nigerian statistics office said.

    That compares with South Africa’s GDP of $370.3bn at the end of 2013.

    And Nigerian financial analyst Bismarck Rewane called the revisions “a vanity”.

    He added: “The Nigerian population is not better off tomorrow because of that announcement. It doesn’t put more money in the bank, more food in their stomach. It changes nothing.”

    Rebasing is carried out so that a nation’s GDP statistics give the most up-to-date picture of an economy as possible.

    Most countries do it at least every three years or so, but Nigeria had not updated the components in its GDP base year since 1990.

    Then, the country had one telecoms operator with around 300,000 phone lines. Now it has a whole mobile phone industry with tens of millions of subscribers.

    Likewise, 24 years ago there was only one airline, and now there are many.

    International aid donors are keen for more African countries to undertake this process regularly because it enables them to make better decisions when it comes to aid.

    BBC

  • India Begins General Election

    India Begins General Election

    {{Indians are voting in the first phase of a general election which pits the governing Congress party against the Hindu nationalist BJP opposition.}}

    The nine-phase vote got under way in the north-eastern states of Assam and Tripura and will conclude on 12 May. Votes will be counted on 16 May.

    More than 814 million Indians are eligible to vote in a poll dominated by corruption and high inflation.

    An anti-corruption party the AAP offers another challenge to the main parties.

    The Aam Aadmi (Common Man’s) Party) secured a spectacular result in local polls in Delhi last autumn and is fielding candidates in all of parliament’s 543 elected seats.

    Several smaller regional parties are also in the fray and if no single party wins a clear majority, they could play a crucial role in government formation.

    India’s marathon vote is being staggered over more than a month for security and logistical reasons.

    On the first day of voting, polling is taking place in six constituencies in two states in the north-east – five in Assam and one in Tripura.

    Voters began queuing up outside the polling centres even before voting began in the morning, the BBC’s Sanjoy Majumder in Assam says.

  • U.S. Presses on With Mideast Talks Rescue Attempt

    U.S. Presses on With Mideast Talks Rescue Attempt

    {{U.S. efforts to save Middle East peace talks from collapse showed little sign of progress on Monday amid threats from Israel to retaliate for what it saw as unilateral Palestinian moves towards statehood.}}

    The U.S.-brokered negotiations plunged into crisis last week after Israel, demanding a Palestinian commitment to continue talking after the end of the month, failed to carry out a promised release of about two dozen Palestinian prisoners.

    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas responded by signing 15 global treaties, including the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war and occupations, on behalf of the State of Palestine, a defiant move that surprised Washington and angered Israel.

    Both sides met on Sunday night “to discuss ways to overcome the crisis in the talks,” a U.S. official told Reuters. Palestinian sources said they would meet again Monday evening.

    The wrangling attracted little interest on the streets, where both Israeli and Palestinians have become inured to decades of conflict and deadlock.

    With the approach of the Jewish holiday of Passover, Israel’s best-selling newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, focused its main headline on the plight of the poor – carrying a report on Sunday’s talks at the bottom of page six.

    Fewer than 20 Israeli lawmakers showed up for a special debate on the peace process on Monday in the 120-seat Knesset.

    “We’re all too busy worrying about how to pay bills. Prices have risen and there are very few jobs,” said Tareq Younes, a Palestinian barber from a village near the West Bank city Ramallah.

    wirestory

  • Russian Marine Kills Ukraine Navy officer

    Russian Marine Kills Ukraine Navy officer

    A Russian soldier shot dead a Ukrainian naval officer in eastern Crimea, Ukraine’s Defence Ministry said on Monday, the second Ukrainian death reported since Russia took control of the Black Sea peninsula.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised the military’s largely bloodless takeover of Crimea after it voted in a referendum last month to join Russia but the death may boost the already high tension between Russia and Ukraine.

    “The Russian marine killed the unarmed officer. He killed the major with two shots,” said Ukrainian navy spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov.

    Kiev has blamed Russia for stoking tensions in mostly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian protesters have seized state security offices in Donetsk and Luhansk, including facilities where weapons are stored.

    The defence ministry spokesman said the soldier had been preparing his belongings to leave for the Ukrainian region of Mykolaev on Wednesday when an argument broke out with Russian servicemen.

    The officer, Stanislav Karachevsky, who was married and had two children, was killed with an AK-74 on the fifth floor of the dormitory where he lived, he said.

    A defence ministry statement said another Ukrainian soldier had been beaten by Russian servicemen and detained, but gave few details.

    The first reported death occurred in Simferopol when an unknown gunman shot and killed a Ukrainian serviceman while he was manning a tower overlooking a vehicle pool at the base.

    A defence ministry statement said the attackers had been wearing Russian military uniforms and were holding the base commander in a nearby building.

    wirestory

  • Brazilian Leader Popularity Drops

    Brazilian Leader Popularity Drops

    {{Support for President Dilma Rousseff is slipping among Brazilian voters who are increasingly pessimistic about their country’s economy and disappointed with her performance, according to a poll published on Saturday.}}

    While Rousseff is still on track to win re-election outright in elections on October 5, she has lost six points among potential voters since last month, a survey by local Datafolha polling firm said.

    The poll showed more Brazilians want a change of course in government policies, and twice as many Brazilians think Rousseff’s predecessor and mentor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is more qualified than her to carry out those changes.

    The number of Brazilian intending to vote for Rousseff dropped to 38% from 44 percent in February, though her two potential rivals gained little or no ground.

    The leader of the main opposition party Aécio Neves was unchanged at 16% of voter intentions and Eduardo Campos, governor of Pernambuco state, edged forward one point to 10%.

    The only candidate who could force a run-off vote against Rousseff is environmentalist and former presidential candidate Marina Silva, who is expected to run on Campos’ ticket for vice president.

    Latin America’s largest economy is entering its fourth year of slow growth under Rousseff, who has lost the confidence of investors by failing to revive the economy or curb rising inflation in a context of deteriorating fiscal accounts.

    reuters

  • World Bank trims China, East Asia 2014 Growth Forecasts

    World Bank trims China, East Asia 2014 Growth Forecasts

    {{The World Bank trimmed its 2014 growth forecast for developing East Asia but said the region’s economies were likely to see steady growth in the next couple of years, helped by a pick-up in global growth and trade.}}

    The Washington-based development bank expects the developing East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region to grow 7.1% in 2014 and 2015, down from the 7.2% rate it had previously forecast for both years.

    Growth in 2016 is also seen at 7.1%, staying slightly below the 2013 growth rate of 7.2%, according to the World Bank’s latest East Asia and Pacific Economic Update report issued on Monday.

    “For East Asia, we believe that the drivers of growth are going to be increasingly from the external front, because of the recovery in advanced economies,” World Bank East Asia and Pacific chief economist Bert Hofman told reporters.

    In its report, the World Bank said improving global trade would offset headwinds from the tightening of global financial markets.

    Emerging markets, including those in Asia, had been roiled by capital outflows from around May to September last year as investors began positioning for the U.S. Federal Reserve to start tapering its monetary stimulus.

    While financial markets in the East Asia Pacific region have shown a muted reaction to the Fed’s actual decision in December to begin scaling back its quantitative easing, the possibility of capital flow reversals remains a concern for developing countries in the region, the World Bank said.

    The prospects for a normalization of U.S. policy rates will put upward pressure on interest rates and could trigger more sizeable capital outflows from weaker economies, as well as make debt management more difficult in countries where leverage has risen, the bank said.

    “Vigilance on capital flows remains warranted,” Hofman said, although he added that most of the capital flows in East Asia were now from foreign direct investment rather than portfolio flows, making them less volatile than in the past.

    {reuters}

  • Five Arrested Over Illegal Felling of Trees

    Five Arrested Over Illegal Felling of Trees

    {{Police in Kamonyi district has arrested five people in connection with illegal cutting and trafficking of a local tree plant called kabaruka}}.

    The suspects were apprehended on April 5 in Jenda cell, Mugina sector with about one tone of the local plant.

    The suspects, all residents of Ntarama sector in Bugesera district are identified as Bosco Bizimana ,60, Alexandre Havugumuremyi, 53 and Joseph Tuyishimire, 43.

    Others are identified as Alphonse Hakizimana ,38 and Callixte Habinshuti ,36.

    They are held at Mugina Police Post as investigations continue.

    The plant is said to be trafficked through the neighbouring countries to Asian countries where it is used as a raw material in the production of perfumes and lotions.

    Chief Supt. Hubert Gashagaza, the Southern region Police Spokesperson said the suspects were apprehended following information provided by the public of their illegal act.

    He warned of the “severe consequences” to whoever will be caught in these acts of environmental degradation.

    Last week, Police also discovered a residential house in Rulindo district filled with stumps of the local plant.

    RNP

  • France’s Envoy in Kigali Blocked from 20th Commemoration Event

    France’s Envoy in Kigali Blocked from 20th Commemoration Event

    {{The French Ambassador to Rwanda Michel Flesch has been denied a chance to attend official 20th Commemoration of Genocide against Tutsi’s.

    The Blocking of the French Envoy resident in Kigali follows France’s last minute cancellation of its attendance of the 20th commemoration events.

    France is accused of having a principle role in the preparation and execution of Genocide against ethnic Tutsi’s which claimed over a million lives.

    The French government has persistently denied any role in the execution of a genocide against Tutsi’s in 1994 in Rwanda.}}

  • President Kagame & Ban Ki Moon Officially Light Flame of Rememberance

    President Kagame & Ban Ki Moon Officially Light Flame of Rememberance

    {{President Paul Kagame and The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon have today lit the flame of remembrance to officially start the 20th commemoration of the genocide against ethnic Tutsi’s in Rwanda.

    The event attended by Several heads of state and governments included heads of international organisations and distinguished personalities, Rwandans and friends of Rwanda that gathered at the Kigali Genocide Memorial where the flame of remembrance that will light for 100 days.

    While lighting the flame of remembrance, President Paul Kagame was helped by First Lady Jeannete Kagame, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and the African Union Chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.}}

  • President Kagame Receives UN Secretary General

    President Kagame Receives UN Secretary General

    {{President Paul Kagame today received the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon who arrived in the country to join Rwandans during the 20th commemoration of the genocide.}}

    Talking to the press after the meeting with President Kagame, the UN Secretary General said he was in the country to join Rwandans in general and families and relatives of genocide victims in commemorating the genocide:

    “I am going to re-affirm the international community’s commitment to Never Again… and this should never happen again in human history. We learnt the hard lessons from the Rwanda genocide but another genocide happened one year later in Srebrenica in 1995 and there are still symptoms elsewhere. We have to stop this.

    Last Monday there was an important international conference on prevention of genocide where Rwanda was represented by the Foreign Minister where we affirmed the determined will of the international community there should not be genocide in the name of humanity.

    I highly commend the leadership of Paul Kagame who led this country and in just 20 years, made a shining example of social economic development, democracy, protecting and preserving human rights of all the people and I hope that this example will be emulated by many other countries.

    We have to learn the lessons, and translate them into action and that’s my commitment as the UN Secretary General”.

    President Kagame said; “It is of great significance to have the Secretary General, Ban Ki moon here on this occasion and it underscores the global partnership that we can forge to deal with tragedies like we witnessed here.

    The Secretary General has been here on several occasions but this is different because he is here to be with Rwandans, with a nation that has suffered in this way, to render his support and that of the institution he heads in the name of the global world we live in. I want to express the gratitude of the entire nation for this gesture.”