IGIHE

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  • Sorry, I’m Engaged – EL turns Down Nikki

    Sorry, I’m Engaged – EL turns Down Nikki

    {{Prominent rapper, EL, has turned down an invitation to date pretty actress and television presenter, Nikki Samonas.}}

    “It is a compliment for a beautiful girl like Nikki to say such things about me. In fact, she is also my kind of girl but it is unfortunate I am engaged to someone else” the artiste, EL, told Sbowbiz last Monday.

    E.L said he had been I flattered by Nikki’s proposal and he is very grateful for the bold declaration of the Tema-based actress that among all the handsome guys around, it was he that Nikki chose.

    A few days ago, Nikki disclosed that she had a crush on EL. “I wish to date someone like E.L, he is cute and I go crazy anytime I see him. Although I haven’t got the I opportunity to tell him yet I hope a to meet him and pour my heart out to him” Nikki told Showbiz in an interview on Sunday.

    Asked how long she had been “eyeing” E.L, Nikki replied that it had not been that long a time but had strong feeling for him and could not tell if anyone admired E.L more than she did.

    Tema is the base for other top young musicians such as Sarkodie, D Cryme, Stay Jay, R2Bees and Kwaw Kese but Nikki said none of the Tema-based artistes attracted her.

    “There are good looking musicians in Tema but I don’t have a crush on any of them but E.L. For now, he is the only rapper who has won my attention”, she said.

    Nikki, a graduate of KNUST said she loves dating men because it gave her the opportunity to meet people who matter in society and also get connected.

    She was quoted to have said “Dating is ‘ not necessarily being intimate. It is more of spending fun time with another person to find out whether you two are compatible; and from there you can either decide to take it to the next level or quit”

    Nikki went on to say that most ladies in showbiz circles love dating too but they are generally too timid to come out to say it because of the stigma they may face.

    {wirestory}

  • Rawlings Attacks AU over ‘Silence & Voicelessness’

    Rawlings Attacks AU over ‘Silence & Voicelessness’

    {{Ghana’s former President, Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings has in a statement to mark the 57th anniversary of the country’s independence called on the African Union to be assertive on global issues. }}

    Mr Rawlings said: “The hypocrisy and inconsistency demonstrated by some of the superpowers in the Ukrainian affair is a serious insult to the intelligence of the world.

    “David Cameron advocated going slow on economic sanctions against Russia and using the channel of diplomacy. This suggestion is the very least that should have been heard from the African Union.

    “The silence and voicelessness of Africa and the Non-Aligned Movement is a serious indictment of the aspirations of the developing world to see a truly free and just world.

    “The arbitrary manner in which unipolar authority has been exercised by some of the superpowers cannot be allowed to continue because it is injurious to global stability.

    “What other evidence do we need to demonstrate that the world would be a better, just and stable place with the restoration of a more enlightened bipolar leadership?

    “I hope we can all see the consequences of allowing the near demise of the Non-Alignment Movement. Ukraine has become the pivot and test case of the transition the world is experiencing.

    “We’ll end up in a continuation of unipolar arbitrariness or with a more responsible bipolar leadership.

    “Russia can’t afford to fail in the world’s quest to attain the balanced leadership needed in an enlightened and responsible bipolar world.

    “I wish our 6th of March Independence Day, the spirit of June 4th and the spirit of December 31st.”

  • Rwanda to Host Global Conference on Biofortification

    Rwanda to Host Global Conference on Biofortification

    {{Rwanda is preparing to host the 2nd Global conference on Biofortification scheduled for March 31 to April 2, 2014 in Kigali, Rwanda.}}

    {{Understanding Biofortification}}

    Biofortification is the idea of breeding crops to increase their nutritional value. This can be done either through conventional selective breeding, or through genetic engineering.

    There are over two billion people who lack proper nutrients especially vital vitamins and minerals that they need for good health

    {{Application}}

    Through a new approach called biofortification, these micronutrients can be provided to millions of people through the staple foods that they eat every day, foods such as maize, sweet potato and wheat.

    While these staples are often packed full of energy, they usually lack essential micronutrients such as vitamin A, iron and zinc.

    When people don’t get enough of these micronutrients, they suffer from a hidden hunger.

    This puts them at increased risk of stunting, anemia, blindness, infectious diseases and even death. Women and children are especially vulnerable.

    {{Links}}

    Biofortification links agriculture, nutrition and public health, thereby engaging a wide range of actors.

    Crop scientists, nutritionists, economists and behavioral-change experts all work together to ensure that nutrient-rich crops are effective and meet the demands of farmers and consumers.

    Biofortification targets the people most at risk of hidden hunger and the foods that they habitually eat. This makes it a sustainable and cost-effective approach.
    Focus is on seven staple food crops:

    -* Vitamin A sweet potato, maize and cassava,
    -* Iron beans and pearl millet,
    -* Zinc rice and wheat.

    Once these crops have been distributed, farmers can often save and share the seeds, roots or tubers, so that each harvest continues to deliver better nutrition year after year.

    To date, nearly half a million people in Africa and Asia are already planting or eating some of these nutrient-rich crops, all of which have been conventionally bred.

    As a bonus, these crops have other valuable traits, for example being high yielding and virus – or disease – resistant.

    kwezi@igihe.com

  • EAPCCO Chief Hails RNP on Regional Security

    EAPCCO Chief Hails RNP on Regional Security

    {{The Chairperson of the Eastern Africa Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (EAPPCO), Ernest Quatre has lauded the Rwanda National Police (RNP) for being at the forefront in implementing the body’s resolutions.}}

    Quatre, who is also the Local Commissioner of Seychelles Police Force said this on March 5 at the RNP headquarters in Kacyiru where he was received by the Inspector General of Police, Emmanuel K. Gasana and senior police officers.

    “IGP Gasana and his team have been on the forefront to implement the body’s resolutions, I congratulate and wish them to move on with the good work,” Quatre told reporters shortly after the meeting.

    Under his reign as the chair of the regional police body, between 2011 and 2012, IGP Gasana implemented 13 activities including operations to apprehend criminals in member countries.

    The activities include the first ever Police Command Post Exercise (PCPX) held in Rwanda in 2012 which covered specialized areas of terrorism, human and drug trafficking and Peace Support Operation (PSO). The joint-play benefited 60 police officers from the 12 member states.

    Rwanda also exclusively conducted the training of a number of officers from EAPCCO post conflict member countries namely; Burundi, South Sudan and Somalia in a variety of courses including Intermediate Command and Staff course, Strategic Command Course.

    The first phase of “Operation Hope” was also conducted in Burundi, Rwanda Tanzania and Uganda.

    The “Operation Hope” in which 80 people were arrested in Rwanda alone, targeted narcotic drugs, human trafficking and wildlife crimes.

    Quatre also said that the pact signed March 3 between EAPCCO and the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) with ensure cooperation, sharing of information and intelligence to fight cross-border crimes and apprehend criminals.

    “When you share information as a team, you become stronger to fight criminals or international organized crime,” he observed.

    “Law enforcers plan but criminals also want to destabilize your plan. Criminals always want to overcome us, but as law enforcers we have to always be prepared; we cannot pull back, we therefore have to move forward to fight and prevent criminal activities,” he added.

    IGP Gasana said RNP is committed to the success of EAPCCO and anything that will ensure sustainable peace and security on the African continent and beyond.

    RNP

  • Rwanda to host Higher Education Forum on Science, Tech & Innovation

    Rwanda to host Higher Education Forum on Science, Tech & Innovation

  • Understanding Plant Breeding

    Understanding Plant Breeding

    {{For thousands of years, farmers, herdsmen and poultry keepers have been selectively breeding their plants, animals and poultry to improve desirable traits, develop specific characteristics or maintain certain genes.}}

    It was somehow a trial and error process since the actual mechanisms governing inheritance were unknown and knowledge of these genetic mechanisms finally came as a result of careful laboratory breeding experiments carried out over the last two centuries.

    By the 1890s, the invention of better microscopes allowed biologists to discover the basic facts of cell division and sexual reproduction.

    The focus of genetics research then shifted to understanding what really happens in the transmission of hereditary traits from parents to their offspring.

    {{Particular patterns}}

    A number of hypotheses were suggested to explain heredity, but Fr Gregor Johann Mendel, a monk, who was an Austrian by nationality but born in Germany, was the only one who got it more or less right.

    He became known as the founder of the new science of genetics, where he demonstrated that the inheritance of certain traits in cowpeas follow particular patterns. This is now referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance.

    He discovered that certain properties, which he called particles, existed in the cowpea. His ideas had been published in 1866 but largely went unrecognised until the 1900s, which was long after his death.

    Fr Mendel spent his life doing basic genetics research and teaching mathematics, physics and Greek in Brno, now in what is known as Czech Republic.

    The profound significance of Mendel’s work where he carried out some cross-pollination was not recognised until the 20th century, when the independent rediscovery of these laws initiated the modern science of genetics.

    {first published in Newvision}

  • Kenya Considering Deploying Soldiers to South Sudan

    Kenya Considering Deploying Soldiers to South Sudan

    {{East African states are considering sending troops into South Sudan to help enforce a ceasefire deal between government forces and rebels, a regional bloc said, amid persistent accusations by both sides that the other is breaking the truce. }}

    The IGAD grouping, which is mediating peace talks between the two sides, said in a statement it was discussing a “protection and stabilization force” with the African Union and United Nations.

    The statement gave no details on the size or mandate of any force but said it would be part of a mechanism to monitor a cessation of hostilities the warring factions agreed on January 23.

    South Sudan’s neighbours are wary of getting sucked into the violence but are frustrated by the continued fighting, and worry the unrest may escalate into a broader regional conflict.

    Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi have shown a willingness to contribute soldiers to the force, South Sudanese officials in Ethiopia told Reuters.

    All except Rwanda already provide forces to the 22,000-strong African peacekeeping force in Somalia battling al Qaeda-linked militants.

    Rwanda has sent peacekeepers to the Sudanese region of Darfur and Central African Republic.

    {standard}

  • Nigerian Army Losing Grip on Northeast

    Nigerian Army Losing Grip on Northeast

    {{Nigeria’s military is losing control of swathes of the largely Muslim northeast to radical Islamist insurgents who are killing civilians almost daily, and the run-up to elections next year risks aggravating the violence further. }}

    Islamist sect Boko Haram has killed thousands since it launched an uprising in 2009 in a bid to carve out an Islamic state in the West African country of 170 million people, divided roughly equally between Christians and Muslims.

    More than 150 civilians have died in Boko Haram attacks in the last four days, adding to the 300 killed last month, according to Reuters figures and security sources, one of the worst periods in the northeast since the sect intensified its insurgency three years ago.

    A security source, who asked not to be named, said 2,100 people were killed in Boko Haram violence in the last six months.

    Nigeria – Africa’s biggest oil producer and second largest economy – is a year away from a presidential election and already the two main political parties are trading blame over the escalating Boko Haram conflict.

    President Goodluck Jonathan, who is expected to run for re-election in next February’s vote, declared a state of emergency in three northeastern states last May and launched a military surge into the zone. It has failed to stem the bloodshed.

  • Sudan Denies kKnowledge of Arms Shipment Seized by Israel

    Sudan Denies kKnowledge of Arms Shipment Seized by Israel

    {{A senior official at Sudan’s ministry of foreign affairs said his country has nothing to do with the arms shipment that Israel claimed it seized in the Red Sea off the Sudanese coast.}}

    The senior official, who preferred to stay anonymous, told media that Sudan has absolutely nothing to do with this debate, accusing Israel of spreading “lies” in order to preempt unknown action it secretly plans to carry out.

    Israel said on Wednesday it seized a vessel carrying advanced Iranian weapons made in Syria that was heading towards Gaza.

    The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the Panamanian-flagged vessel was boarded by Israeli naval commandos in the Red Sea off the coast of Sudan.

    The spokesperson of the IDF, Afikhai Adrei, said they had tracked the weapons for several months as they were flown from Damascus to Tehran and then taken to a port in southern Iran.

    He said they found M-302 surface-to-surface missiles that were flown to Iran before being loaded onto the ship, pointing the vessel sailed out of Iran’s Bandar Abas sea port through Iraq and was heading to Sudan’s sea port of Port Sudan before being intercepted by an Israeli special unit of navy commandos in the regional waters between Sudan and Eritrea.

    Aderi added the vessel was being towed to the Israeli port of Eilat, a journey which would take several more days, where the 17-member crew will be questioned and the weapons unloaded, pointing the IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz personally oversaw the operation.

    The United States also announced that the interception of this ship was a product of joint cooperation between Washington and Tel Aviv.

    “Throughout this time our intelligence and military activities were closely coordinated with our Israeli counterparts who ultimately chose to take the lead in interdicting this shipment of illicit arms,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said today.

    “We will continue to stand up to Iran’s support for destabilizing activities in the region in coordination with our partners and allies,” he added.

    It is widely believed that Israel carried out at least two airstrikes in eastern Sudan in 2009 and 2011 against targets involved in arms smuggling.

    In October 2012 Sudan accused Israel of being behind air strikes that targeted Al-Yarmouk arms factory in Khartoum.

    {sudantribune}

  • Venezuela Cuts Ties with Panama over ‘US Conspiracy’

    Venezuela Cuts Ties with Panama over ‘US Conspiracy’

    {{Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Wednesday he was breaking diplomatic and commercial relations with Panama due to a “conspiracy” to topple his government through daily protests that have left at least 18 dead since mid-February.}}

    Maduro used the anniversary of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez’s death to sever ties with Panama, whose conservative government he accused of joining the United States in “open conspiracy” against him.

    Maduro said he made the move because Panama asked the Organization of American States (OAS) to study the ongoing situation in Venezuela. Maduro considers the OAS to be dominated by Washington.

    Standing next to the Chavez tomb, Maduro called Panama’s President Ricardo Martinelli a “lackey” of the United States and railed against the OAS.

    “Nobody will conspire with impunity to ask for an intervention against our fatherland. Enough!” Maduro thundered as leftist presidents Raul Castro of Cuba, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and Evo Morales of Bolivia looked on.

    “We don’t accept the interventionism of anyone, because our international policy is a policy of peace, of cooperation, of respect, of the anti-imperialist Latin American union,” he added.

    The government of Panama responded later on Wednesday by saying that it rejected Maduro’s “unacceptable offenses” against it.

    {{‘Method of distraction’}}

    A journalist said from Caracas on Wednesday that in cutting ties with Panama, Maduro was using a “method of distraction” amid the ongoing protests that have plagued the country for weeks.

    “It’s a very common tactic from this government that plays well for their domestic audience – they used a similar method a few weeks ago when they expelled three US consular officials. Protests here don’t usually last as long as these and Maduro is struggling to deal with them. One of the ways he’s trying to do so is by distraction.”

    Despite Maduro’s efforts to focus attention on Chavez on Wednesday, protests erupted in at least six cities.

    “The National Guard attacked with a lot of fury against the guys and used tractors to violently take down the barricades,” Mari Marcano, a protester on the tourist island of Margarita, told media. “They launched a lot of tear gas, shot rubber bullets.”

    In restive central Lara state, the leader of a small center-left opposition party, Hector Alzaul Planchart, was shot dead by unknown assailants as he left his party offices in Barquisimeto, according to media reports.

    Despite the protests, for many Wednesday’s pomp-soaked anniversary of Chavez’s passing was a time for sadness and nostalgia.

    Thousands gathered at the capital’s parade grounds to honour the socialist leader who died of cancer on March 5 last year.