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  • Rwanda to Launch 4G LTE Broadband Network during Transform Africa 2013 Summit

    Rwanda to Launch 4G LTE Broadband Network during Transform Africa 2013 Summit

    {Rwanda is set to launch a high-speed (4G LTE) broadband network. The network to be launched was established through an agreement between the Government of Rwanda and KT Corporation (NYSE: KT), South Korea’s largest telecommunications provider.}

    As reported by the Rwanda Eye, the launch will coincide with the Transform Africa 2013 Summit which Rwanda will host from October 28 – 31, 2013.

    According to a statement from government, the network to be launched will cover 95 per cent of the population within three years.

    This rapid deployment of high-speed broadband capability in Rwanda will accelerate development of the country’s ICT sector, create jobs, as well as help facilitate social and economic progress.

  • Rwanda hands over to EJVM, Congolese arrested in suspicious activity on Rwanda territory

    Rwanda hands over to EJVM, Congolese arrested in suspicious activity on Rwanda territory

    {Rwanda handed over to the Extended Joint Verification Mechanism (EJVM) three (03) Congolese arrested and detained in Rwanda by Security Forces. The function took place in Rubavu (Grande barrière) on 23 October 2013 around 15hrs. The released include FARDC Capt. Bareke Augustin, Pte Tshiteya Kasongo and Muzige Isac.}

    “In a period of two months, Rwanda has handed over to EJVM the six Congolese military personnel who entered illegally Rwanda Territory. This is a gesture of goodwill and promoting good relations with our neighbors,” Brig. Gen. Joseph Nzabamwita, the Defence and Military spokesperson said.

    The three Congolese citizens were handed over the EJVM team of six Military officers headed by Col Eric Mabalane from South Africa.

    The released Congolese were arrested by Rwandan Security Forces in different locations and time on Rwanda territory. Other Congolese released and handed over to the EJVM before are: Sergeant Major Kusakana Munanga Andre, Corporal Karama Maloba, Corporal Muya Wanumbi Jojo.

    RNP

  • Kagame welcomes Chinese investors to be part of Rwanda’s Transformation

    Kagame welcomes Chinese investors to be part of Rwanda’s Transformation

    {President Paul Kagame, yesterday, met with a delegation of both private sector and public sector leaders in China who were on a visit to Rwanda with the aim to invest in the manufacture industry.}

    President Kagame reassured them to find good partners in Rwanda.

    The delegation was led by Professor Justin Lin Yifu, former World Bank Chief Economist and Helen Huai, former General Manager of Huajian Shoes in Ethiopia

    Welcoming the guests, President Kagame thanked the delegation for their interest in investing in Rwanda: “This kind of private investment will contribute to the transformation of our country. We want to welcome you to be part of this important agenda of transformation, of economic growth and development of our people. In Rwanda, you will find that this is not just about business, it is also about improving the lives of every Rwandan.”

    Joining members of the delegation, Professor Justin Lin Yifu expressed admiration for the pace of Rwanda’s development: “We have seen high speed development, efficiency of government and a motivated people willing to change their future.”

    President Kagame added that Rwanda remained focus in fulfilling its vision: “We are serious about investing in our future. In us, you will find reliable partners. The meaning of these partnerships is beyond business, we are about transforming lives.”

  • Indian girl raped by three and set on fire before dying

    Indian girl raped by three and set on fire before dying

    {A girl believed to be 13 was gang raped by three men in her village in India and burned alive, according to various news reports.}

    She later died at a hospital after receiving burns over 80% of her body, the Times of India reports.

    The girl was from a village in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, the Daily Mail reports.

    The IB Times reports she was in the eighth grade.

    The girl had gone to a farm with her older sister and as they returned, three villagers dragged her away and gang raped her, the Times reports the girl’s family told police. One of the villagers was a local “goon” named Ram Bahadur, according to the Times.

    The girl told the alleged assailants she would tell other villagers, at which point, they set her on fire, the news organization reports.

    The girl’s older sister ran off to get help, but by the time the girl’s family and neighbors arrived at the spot, she had suffered massive burns.

    Police are now in search of the suspects, the Times reports.

    Last year, a 23-year-old woman was brutally gang raped in New Delhi and thrown from a moving bus, later dying from her injuries. Six others on the bus, including the driver, raped her. Five of the defendants were convicted and one died in custody.

    Similar cases are emerging around India and drawing attention to the issue of safety for women and girls there. In one case, the parents of a 4-year-old girl said a distant relative raped the child. Police said the girl had been tortured and assaulted.

    AP

  • Genocide survivors benefit free treatment

    Genocide survivors benefit free treatment

    {Rwanda Military Hospital has resumed its outreach activity known as “Army week” by offering special treatment to the Genocide survivors living with different cases of diseases.}

    The exercise is being undertaken at Rwamagana and Kayonza, from 21st to 26th October 2013.

    Different clinical specialties have been presented on the field such as ort opedics, plastic surgery, gynecology, urology,internal medicine, psychology, psychiatry ,ophthalmology ,Dermatology, dental ,ENT and General surgery.

    The field treatment is hosted by 4 sites Gahini Hospital, Rwinkwavu Hospital, Rwamagana Hospital and Muhure Health Center all located at Rwamagana and Kayonza District. This activity is conducted in partnership with Rwanda Military Hospital and Genocide survivors Fund (FARG). According to Maj.Dr King Kayondo, director of outreach activity and General surgeon at Rwanda Military Hospital, there is a lot of improvement since they begin offering field treatment” he said

    He added that many cases especially for surgery cases are now healthy.

  • Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda to launch single customs territory

    Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda to launch single customs territory

    {The Heads of State of Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya will meet in Kigali on Monday to launch the single customs territory, a move that will facilitate the movement of goods from the Mombasa port to East Africa’s interior.}

    This supply route is what is known as the Northern Corridor. The development is under a trilateral framework, which seeks to fast-track different initiatives agreed upon under the auspices of the East African Community.

    The third trilateral summit will be preceded by a ministerial meeting this weekend.

    The summit will also decide on the issue of South Sudan’s request to join the initiative which includes key cross-border infrastructural projects.

    It is expected that South Sudanese President Salva Kiir will also attend the Summit.

    The single customs territory is set to be the first project to be achieved since the three countries agreed to go trilateral in spearheading several projects initially conceptualised under the wider East African Community (EAC) Framework.

  • Pakistan prime minister urges Obama to end drone strikes

    Pakistan prime minister urges Obama to end drone strikes

    (Reuters) – {Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif urged U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday to end drone strikes in Pakistan, touching on a sore subject just as relations between the two countries improve after years of suspicion over Afghanistan and the U.S. counterterrorism fight.}

    “I … brought up the issue of drones in our meeting, emphasizing the need for an end to such strikes,” Sharif told reporters after meeting with Obama in the Oval Office.

    But the Washington Post reported on Wednesday that while top Pakistani officials denounce the U.S. drone program, they have secretly endorsed it for years and are routinely given classified briefings on targets and casualties.

    The Post, citing secret CIA documents and Pakistani diplomatic memos, said that markings on some documents indicated they were prepared by the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center so they could be shown to Pakistani officials. The documents discuss strikes that killed dozens of alleged al Qaeda operatives and in which they say no civilians were killed.

    The Post said a CIA spokesman it contacted did not dispute the authenticity of the documents.

    U.S.-Pakistani relations were badly strained following the 2011 Navy SEAL raid that killed al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden deep inside Pakistan where he was in hiding. But they appear to be on the mend as the United States prepares to pull forces out of Afghanistan in 2014.

    The United States has quietly restarted security assistance to Pakistan after freezing aid during the period of soured relations, when Washington frequently voiced complaints about the ties of the Pakistani intelligence service to militant groups active in Afghanistan.

    A series of major setbacks in recent years included a 2011 NATO air strike that mistakenly killed Pakistani border guards and another incident that year in which a CIA contractor killed two men on the streets of Lahore.

    Obama acknowledged tensions and “misunderstandings” between the two countries. He said he and Sharif had pledged to work together on security issues in ways that “respect Pakistan’s sovereignty.”

    “We committed to working together and making sure that rather than this being a source of tension between our two countries, this can be a source of strength for us working together,” Obama said.

    Sharif was elected prime minister in June in a historic election that marked Pakistan’s first civilian transfer of power after the completion of a full term by a democratically elected government. He is the first Pakistani leader to visit the White House in five years.

    “To see a peaceful transition of one democratically elected government to another was an enormous milestone for Pakistan,” Obama said.

    Much of U.S. security aid to Pakistan is intended to bolster the ability of its military to counter militants in semi-autonomous tribal areas.

    For fiscal year 2014, which began on October 1, Obama has requested $1.162 billion from Congress for Pakistan, including $857 million in civilian aid and $305 million in security assistance.

    The U.S. use of armed drones to attack suspected militants in Pakistan has long been controversial, although the number of incidents has dropped in recent months.

    The issue came up again this week when Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch accused the United States of breaking international law by killing civilians in missile and drone strikes intended for militants in Pakistan and Yemen.

    White House spokesman Jay Carney called it “a hard fact of war” that U.S. strikes sometimes result in civilian casualties, but said drone strikes did so far less than conventional attacks. The United States takes pains to make sure any such strikes conform to domestic and international law, he said.

  • TZ renounces trilateral talks

    TZ renounces trilateral talks

    {The government officially renounced the ‘coalition of the willing’ between Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, and now Burundi.}

    In a statement issued by the ministry of East African Cooperation, the government also said the ongoing trilateral talks between the countries were against the EAC protocol.

    According to the government, the projects under deliberation by the new coalition, and which have received the blessing of Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta, Yoweri Museveni and Paul Kagame, should have been endorsed first by all the EAC member countries.

    The statement was issued by head of communication department, Mr Vedastina Justinian. Mr Justinian said the communication was in response to growing concern among the public that the activities being advanced by the three EAC member countries would isolate Tanzania.

    He said Tanzania’s official stand regarding the willingness of other countries to enter bilateral or trilateral arrangements needed consensus before their implementation.

    “This is notwithstanding the fact that the coalition of the three countries in exclusion of Tanzania and Burundi is being run under their respective foreign affairs dockets and not through the EAC secretariat,” the official said.

    Mr Justinian said the Kenyan, Rwandan and Ugandan leaders were in contravention of Article 7(1) (e) of the EAC protocol. “Even though this Article allows member countries to enter bilateral or trilateral agreements, it is a must that issues under consideration for implementation under this arrangement are fully discussed and agreed upon by all member countries,” read the statement.

    Heads of State from Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda met in Kampala in early July this year and agreed to roll-out several cross-country infrastructure projects in a move that has elicited heated debate on the future of regional integration.

    The Citizen

  • British links to al-Shabab revealed

    British links to al-Shabab revealed

    {The names of almost 50 people from Britain who have links to al-Shabab – and related organisations – have been established by the BBC.
    }

    Most of those on the list travelled to Somalia to fight or attempted to do so.

    Somali-based militants al-Shabab carried out the deadly attack on the Westgate mall in neighbouring Kenya.

    Lawyers for the family of one British recruit known to have died in Somalia are investigating whether he was killed in a raid involving western military.

    Al-Shabab is fighting to impose a brutal version of Islamic law on the country and the group is linked to al-Qaeda.
    Fate unknown

    The 47 names compiled by the BBC are based on a combination of sources, including public records from courts in the UK and abroad, and further first-hand research and accounts.

    It is not a complete list of people from the UK who are suspected of having gone to fight because it is impossible to establish or estimate with any certainty how many Westerners have taken up arms in Somalia.

    The research found that security chiefs believe at least 32 of the identifiable individuals went to fight.

    A further seven were named in British court cases as having attempted to enter Somalia, but their plans were discovered and disrupted.

    Others have been accused or convicted of raising money for al-Shabab, or facilitating the travel of others.

    Seven people on the list returned to the UK – but the fate of most of the others is completely unknown.
    ‘A disservice’

    Four of the men on the list are known to be dead, including men who featured on a video released by the group a week ago.

    The video included a message from a young man named as “Talha”, who asked Muslims in Tower Hamlets – a borough in east London – to join the jihad in Somalia.

    Talha, whose real name was Taufail Ahmed, died in Somalia in November 2012.

    The Foreign Office said it had confirmed the death to his family, who are of Bangladeshi origin.

    He grew up in Stepney Green in east London. The BBC has tracked down people who knew him at school.

    They say he fell into a life of gang crime before leaving that world behind in favour of an extreme interpretation of Islam, before disappearing from the UK.

    “For British Muslims he’s doing a disservice,” said one former schoolmate. “For Muslims around the world, he is doing a disservice.”

    In the al-Shabab video, the narrator says that “Talha” died after an attack involving American and British forces.

    The government has not commented on that claim but his family has asked the legal charity Reprieve to investigate.

    “The family were notified by British police officers. The FCO [Foreign Office] have knowledge of the incident and have told us that Taufail Ahmed received a Muslim burial,” said Kat Craig from Reprieve.

    “We have reason to believe that there are Somali eyewitnesses who identified those involved as British personnel and for those reasons we believe that further inquiries need to be made and that the family has quite legitimate questions that need to be answered.”

  • US reissued a warning to its citizens on travelling to S. Sudan

    US reissued a warning to its citizens on travelling to S. Sudan

    The United States of America has reissued a warning to its citizens on travelling to South Sudan, imposed a curfew on its staff working in Juba and has ordered them to travel in armored vehicles at night to ensure their safety.

    The United States Department of State on Tuesday said that the US Embassy in Juba has imposed a curfew on its staff between 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. and has banned its government personnel, their spouses and family members from living in South Sudan.

    “In addition to the curfew, the embassy has implemented other measures to protect US government personnel living and working in South Sudan. These include requiring personnel to travel in armored government vehicles at all times at night and to obtain advance permission for any travel outside of Juba,” said the US Department of State in a statement.

    The US Department of State said that its citizens should avoid South Sudanese states including the Upper Nile, Unity and Western Bahr el Ghazal states and Sudanense states Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states and the Abyei Special Administrative District.

    It said that although fighting between Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) has declined since spring 2012, the potential for troop build-ups along the border and renewed fighting remains.

    The US Department of State said that in addition to sporadic clashes in the border region, there are armed militia forces that engage in violent clashes with SPLA forces in various areas of South Sudan, particularly in Jonglei State.

    “The Government of South Sudan has limited capacity to deter crime or provide security to travelers throughout the country, including in the capital city of Juba,” said the US Department of State in the statement.

    The travel warning against South Sudan comes barely a week after another one was issued warning its citizens to avoid travelling to Sudan.

    At the end of the second week of October, the Department of State warned its citizens against travelling to Sudan, the Darfur region and the Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan states.

    It said that while the Government of Sudan has taken some steps to limit the activities of terrorist groups, elements of these groups remain in Sudan and have threatened to attack Western interests and that the terrorist threat level throughout Sudan and particularly in the Darfur region, remains critical.

    In Sudan, all US government personnel are required to travel in armored government vehicles at all times and to obtain advance permission for travel outside of Khartoum.

    The East African