{{At least 49 men were beaten and detained for up to 17 hours allegedly by supporters of President Mohamed Morsy during deadly clashes near the presidential palace in Cairo on December 5, human rights activists say.}}
Despite allegations that these were paid thugs, the local prosecutor later released the 49 for lack of incriminating evidence.
While the men were still being questioned, President Morsy said in a televised speech that those arrested had confessed to being paid by “political powers” to instigate violence.
“The basic message that I wanted to hear from the president… is that torture, abuse, illegal detention is never justified,” said Heba Morayef, research and Egypt director at Human Rights Watch.
The organization said in a statement that the president spoke against the victims instead of condemning their unlawful detention.
Videos posted online showed men with bloodied and bruised faces held outside the gate of the presidential palace and told to confess to being paid.
Supporters of President Morsy that night said they were fighting paid thugs, citing “confessions” they had heard as evidence.
{{On a day when global doomsday predictions failed to pan out, NASA had more good news for the Earth: An asteroid feared to be on a collision course with our planet no longer poses a threat.}}
Uncertainties about the orbit of the asteroid, known as 2011 AG5, previously allowed for a less than a 1% chance it would hit the Earth in February 2040, NASA said.
To narrow down the asteroid’s future course, NASA put out a call for more observation.
Astronomers from the University of Hawaii at Manoa took up the task and managed to observe the asteroid over several days in October.
“An analysis of the new data conducted by NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, shows that the risk of collision in 2040 has been eliminated,” NASA declared Friday.
The new observations, made with the Gemini 8-meter telescope in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, reduce the orbit uncertainties by more than a factor of 60.
That means the Earth’s position in February 2040 is not in range of the asteroid’s possible future paths.
The asteroid, which is 140 meters (460 feet) in diameter, will get no closer to Earth than 890,000 kilometers (553,000 miles), or more than twice the distance to the moon, NASA said.
A collision with Earth would have released about 100 megatons of energy, several thousand times more powerful than the atomic bombs that ended World War II, according to the Gemini Observatory.
Observing the asteroid wasn’t easy, said David Tholen, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy.
The asteroid’s position was very close to the sun, so astronomers had to observe it when the sky was dark.
Tholen told CNN there was about a half-hour between when the asteroid got high enough in the sky for the telescope to point at it and before the sky became too light to observe it.
Because the astronomers were looking at the asteroid low in the sky, they were viewing it through a lot of atmosphere, which scattered some of the light and made the object fainter, he said.
“The second effect is the turbulence of the atmosphere makes things fainter,” Tholen said. “We had to keep trying over and over until we got one of those nights when the atmosphere was calm.”
Tholen and the team also discovered the asteroid is elongated, so that as it rotates, its brightness changes.
That was another challenge for the astronomers: Because they didn’t know the asteroid’s rotation period, they didn’t know when it would wax and wane, and when it would grow too faint to see.
“This object was changing its brightness by a factor of three or four — it was just enormously variable,” Tholen said.
“It was hit and miss depending on which night you observed it.”
Many predicted the end of the world would come Friday, the day on which a long phase in the ancient Mayan calendar came to an end. Some believe the day actually comes Sunday.
Modern-day Mayans say the end of the calendar phase doesn’t mean the end of the world — just the end of an era, and the start of a new one.
{{In Muhanga District, a night club known as Orion Club has been razed down by fire.The club completely burnt to ashes on friday.}}
Orion Club in Muhanga town was housed in EXOTICA complex belonging to Kabayiza Lambert.
Ukwigize Gildas the Orion Club owner told IGIHE that by the time the club caught fire he was also inside with the Dj.
“The cause of fire was not yet established . We tried to turn off the main switch but fire was quickly spreading to the spongy material used in the walls to soundproof the club,” Ukwigize noted.
Residents tried to extinguish the fire with sand and water but it was too late.
Its estimated that the destroyed property at the club is worth approximately between Frw150million and 180 Million.
{{At least five people were killed on Saturday morning in separate road accidents in Busia County.}}
Three people were killed after a speeding bus overturned in Mundika, Busia County injuring 39 people.
Two cyclist also died after a speeding pick-up rammed into them at Rakite near Bumala market along the Busia – Kisumu highway.
According to Busia OCPD Kenneth Kimani, a speeding bus attempted to overtake another bus but the driver lost control of the vehicle resulting into the accident.
“Among the dead include two women and a child. 10 people have been seriously injured and rushed to Tanaka Hospital and 39 more have slight injuries,” he said.
{{China has provided to Rwanda over US$35million in form of grants and interest free loan.}}
The agreement was signed on December 21 at the Rwanda Foreign Affairs Ministry offices.
Rwanda was represented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Louise Mushikiwabo and Ambassador Shu Zhan of China to Rwanda, on Chinese side.
The two countries have previously cooperated in areas of Health, Agriculture, Education and Infrastructure.
Ambassador Shu Zhan noted that these agreements of cooperation between the two countries reflect China’s continued strong relationship with Rwanda for technical cooperation.
“The signing of these agreements shows the level of cooperation we have with China, and is the sign that show that Rwanda depends not only on one country or continent but we are capable of looking everywhere and work with lots of cuntries.” Mushikiwabo says.
Photo: {L-R Tony NsanganiraActing COORDB (L) Clare Akamanzi Acting CEORDB (C) Vivian Kayitesi Head of Investment Promotion and Implementation}
{{In the context of global economic difficulty, Rwanda has managed to create its own opportunities in 2012 and attracted a significant amount of new investments.}}
The Rwanda Development Board has released year-ending results indicating that as of December 19th, 2012, Rwanda has registered US$1.10 billion.
During a press conference in which these statistics were revealed, the Rwanda Development Board Acting Chief Executive Officer, Clare Akamanzi stated that Investments registered in 2012 have so far reached a record $1.1 billion compared to this year’s annual target of $835m with Tourism, Energy and construction & Real Estate sectors attracting the largest level of investments.
“We expect 2012 to be the highest value of projects registered in a single year,’’ Akamanzi noted .
“These record investments have also created a total of over 20,578 jobs (11,522 more jobs than 2011) with the Mining, ICT and Services sectors contributing to the largest amount of job creation’’ added Akamanzi.
These results demonstrate that Rwanda’s ease of Doing Business is having a real impact. In 2012, RDB has pursued its journey toward rapid economic transformation by further implementing changes that brought about positive results.
Of great importance also to RDB is to ensure that the policies and reforms designed; provide the private sector with the best environment to grow, while catering for government’s interest.
Through the Rwanda Private Public Dialogue mechanism, efficient forums for discussion, resolving issues and policy advocacy representing the voice of all stakeholders concerned are provided.
As per EDPRS 2 strategy being developed, it is clear that all Ministries will be actively involved in promoting private sector investments in their respective area of interest, and therefore RDB will be working in even closer collaboration with all of them going forward.
RDB will also strengthen its core marketing function to increase investment proactive targeting in strategic sectors of interest (e.g. financial services, logistics, BPO and light weight manufacturing).
Looking ahead to 2013, RDB is aiming higher to a target of $1.3 billion.
Local and Foreign Investments: 2012 Local investments registered accounted for 49% of value, but 61% of number of projects, where foreign investments and JV also account for 51% of value, but only 39$% of number of projects.
Exports: By the end of October 2012, export receipts from different sectors stood at US$ 385 million compared to US $315 million from January to October in 2011 representing a 22% increase.
Tourism: Tourism is estimated to have generated US$210.5 million from January to September, 2012 compared to US$184.4 million generated in 2011 during the same period. This corresponds to an increase of 14%.
Small and Medium Enterprise Development: RDB has established over 30 Business Development Centers to offer Business Development services that improve performance of enterprises, their access to markets and ability to compete.
These offer services to SMEs such as training, coaching, consultancies, marketing, information, technology development and transfer and business linkages
Customer Care: A series of strategic activities were set in motion on customer care to ensure that the country addresses the challenges facing it as a result of poor customer care approaches.
A campaign, entitled Na Yombi, was initiated and over 2,029,000 adult Rwandans have been exposed to best practices on service delivery through communication activities, several trainings of trainers in private sector companies.
Investment registered: is the commitment of an investor who acquired an investment certificate at RDB in 2012.
It is therefore the value committed to be invested as well as the number of jobs to be created, over the period of the submitted business plan, which can be up to 5 years.
Out of a total of 181 projects registered in 2012, the top 10 investors account for 63% of total investments value of $1,100m.
Company Registration has also reached a record level in 2012 with 9031 companies registered as of December 19th, an increase of 42% from 2011.
This represents about 35 companies registered each working day, compared to 24 in 2011, and only 2 companies per day 10 years ago.
{{The Rwanda Utility Regulatory Agency (RURA) in conjuction with the National ID project have announced that all SIM Cards will be registered and details of their bearers synchronized.}}
Maj. Francois Regis Gatarayiha of RURA noted that all phone holders will have to register their SIM card numbers and provide their personal identification details.
All those sim cards unregistered will be blocked off air or will not function.
There are about 5million phone users in Rwanda all subscribed to three major telecommunication companies MTN, TIGO and Airtel.
The Free registration process will be conducted between February 4, 2013 upto July 31, 2013.
RURA notes that this will help the the fight against rising crime especially kidnapping, theft through mobile money transfer.
{{The UN says a helicopter from its peacekeeping mission in South Sudan has been shot down by the army, killing all four crew, believed to be Russians.}}
A spokesman said the aircraft was shot down while on a reconnaissance mission in eastern Jonglei state.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the attack on the “clearly marked” helicopter.
However, South Sudan’s minister of information told the BBC that the cause of the incident was not clear.
The UN has been helping those caught up in deadly clashes between rival communities in Jonglei state.
Deputy UN spokesman Eduardo del Buey said South Sudan’s military had admitted it had hit the helicopter.
{{Police in Gasabo District, Gisozi Sector, Ruhango cell has arrested two men for allegedly assaulting a man whom they suspected to have broke into a shop and stole goods.}}
Abdallah Ntiyamira, 27 and one Damascene 33, were arrested for taking justice in their hands and assaulted John Barigira, 20 who has since been admitted at Kagugu health centre.
They are currently held at Gisozi Police station.
They are now facing charges of assault and battery as stipulated under article 148 of the penal code.
{{President Paul Kagame received 22 business students, Professor of Economics and one staff member from Stanford Graduate School of Management.}}
The students were recieved on December 21.
President Kagame thanked the students for their work to improve entrepreneurship in Rwanda and expressed his hope that this trip will benefit both Rwanda and the student.
The students, who are in Rwanda as part of the Stanford Social Innovation Study Trip, were given the opportunity to interact with the President on subjects ranging from Rwanda’s development, infrastructure and the President’s leadership legacy and Rwanda’s vision.
To explain the origins of Rwanda’s vision, President Kagame told the students:
“Africa has close to 1 billion people and enormous resources. The only thing missing is Africa substantially benefitting from this and owning it. The origins of our vision are about asking ourselves why are others developed and we are like this? Do we deserve it?
What can we do to change it and create a pathway for transformation? Our vision is about redefining ourselves and becoming who we should be.”
President Kagame concluded the interactive session with these words of advice to the students:
“Choose the life you want to lead, believe in yourself and remember that nothing will happen until you do it. Never be put off by challenges, always move up because that is where you belong.”
The “Social Innovation Study Trip” is supported by Stanford’s Center for Social Innovation and is one means by which business students can satisfy Stanford’s “Global Experience Requirement.”
The theme of the trip is “Rwanda: Paths to Prosperity”, and the focus is on better understanding the challenges and opportunities for economic development in low income countries.
The interest to Rwanda came from the fact that despite the 1994 Genocide, and other obstacles, Rwanda has transformed itself from a failed state into one of Africa’s fastest growing, most stable, and least corrupt countries in only two decades.
