{{Songstress Chantelle of the Toklezea fame is now a born again Christian. The artiste who is said to have married her video director boo J Blessings sometime this year decided to choose the Christian path and leave the secular life behind. Her new husband must have had some positive influence on her.}}
Chantelle follows in the footsteps of artistes Size 8, Ray C and Lady Bee who have all chosen to fully accept Christ in their life.
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{{Former UN Secretary Generals Kofi Annan and Sir Richard Branson have been announced as Counsellors to 1,300 future leaders from over 185 countries attending the One Young World Summit 2013.}}
Other Counsellors for the One Young World Summit 2013 include, Sir Bob Geldof, activist and musician; Ahmed Kathrada, former political advisor to President Mandela; Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever; Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post, Muhammad Yunus, founder of The Grameen Bank and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Kathy Calvin, President and CEO, United Nations Foundation; Antony Jenkins, CEO of Barclays, Francois Pienaar, world-cup winning South Africa rugby union captain and Boris Becker, former tennis World No. 1.
These Counsellors will work with the exceptional young leaders to develop and drive tangible solutions to local, regional and global challenges across fields including political transparency, human rights, global business, health, sustainable development, education, leadership and governance.
Branson will attend the fourth annual summit, taking place in Johannesburg between October 2 – 5, where he will be joined by One Young World Counsellor and B Team co-founder, Jochen Zeitz, the former chief executive of Puma and current Director of Kering and chairman of the board’s Sustainable Development Committee – in an interactive Q&A session with One Young World leaders.
In the session, a group of One Young World Ambassadors will present a New Charter for Business Leadership.
The B Team, launched in June this year, is an independent not-for-profit initiative that has been formed by a group of global business leaders to create a future where the purpose of business is to be a driving force for social, environmental and economic benefit.
Richard Branson, said, “it will be a privilege to stand alongside these exceptional young leaders at the One Young World Summit 2013. “We created the B Team to develop and implement a Plan B for business that puts people and planet alongside profit. I am excited to listen to and learn from the young leaders at One Young World to ensure business becomes a force for good.”
David Jones, One Young World co-founder and Global CEO, Havas, said, “throughout his career Sir Richard Branson has been an amazing role model for responsible business, entrepreneurship and for mobilising business for social and environmental benefit. He started his foundation, Virgin Unite, on the belief the business can and must be a force for good in the world”.
One Young World is a charity that stages an annual Summit, gathering together the brightest young people from around the world.
Now in its fourth year, One Young World has become the premier global forum for young people of leadership calibre.
Described by some as the ‘junior Davos’, One Young World stages an annual summit to gather 1,300 future leaders under the age of 30 from over 185 countries, alongside a distinguished line-up of Counsellors.
These world leaders stand alongside the young delegates to address what they see as the most pressing global issues today, key areas will include:
– Global Business
– Youth Unemployment
– Health
– Human Rights
– Leadership & governance
– Sustainable Development
– Transparency & integrity
One Young World Summit gives delegates the kind of media platform afforded ordinarily only to those who lead countries and corporations.
{{UGANDA has been handed a tough group for the 3rd edition Orange Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) after the draw which was held on Wednesday at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.}}
The draw that was conducted by CAF Secretary General, Hicham El Amrani placed Uganda in Group B alongside Morocco, Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso.
In light of a poor record against North African teams, Cranes would have been forgiven for dreading the prospect of facing any of Libya or Morocco but fate placed them alongside the latter.
There is scant consolation for Uganda afterall the last time these two met back in 2011, Cranes defeated the North African giants 1-0 in the LG Cup. Morocco is currently ranked 74th in the world and 16th on the continent, 7 and 3 places ahead of Uganda respectively.
Rapidly improving Burkina Faso who will be making their first ever appearance at the biennial tournament for home-grown players will have to field a new look team compared to that which finished as runners-up at the 2013 African Cup of Nations.
All of the 23 players were picked from all over Europe and this will probably give Micho and his team a glimmer of hope against a team ranked 51st in the world and 9th on the continent.
Zimbabwe who are making their 3rd straight appearance at the tournament, a joint record held with neighbours DRC and Ghana, have failed to make it out of the group stages in previous editions. Uganda’s record isn’t any better having failed to avoid defeat in all its games. Uganda will open up its campaign against Burkina Faso.
Hosts South Africa were drawn in Group A, arguably the ‘group of death’, alongside Mozambique, defending African champions Nigeria and giants Mali.
Group C has runners up of the inaugural edition in 2009, Ghana, Congo-Brazzaville, Ethiopia and Libya.
DR Congo, the first winners of the tournament are placed in Group D alongside Mauritania, Burundi and Gabon.
All the qualified teams with the exception of hosts South Africa, were ranked based on their performances during the last two editions of the CHAN competition in 2009 (Cote d’Ivoire) and 2011 (Sudan) and took into account zonal considerations.
The four seeded teams were South Africa, DR Congo, Ghana and Zimbabwe. Pot 2 was made up of Gabon, Mali, Libya and Uganda with Burkina Faso, Burundi, Ethiopia and Nigeria in Pot 3 whereas Congo, Mauritania, Morocco and Mozambique made up Pot 4.
The ceremony was graced by CAF President Issa Hayatou and members of the CAF Executive Committee and Chairman of the Organising Committee, Almamy Kabele. Also in attendance was Chief Mwelo Nonkonyana, Board Chairman of the Local Organising Committee and Board members, Mvuzo Mbebe, Chief Executive Officer of the LOC and Kirsten Nematandani, President of South Africa Football Association (SAFA).
The championship will kick off on 11th January when hosts South Africa take on Mozambique, and end on 1st February with Cape Town, Mangaung and Polokwane as the host cities.
GROUP A (Cape Town Stadium)
South Africa
Mozambique
Nigeria
Mali
GROUP B (Athlone Stadium)
Zimbabwe
Morocco
Burkina Faso
Uganda
GROUP C (Mangaung Stadium)
Ghana
Congo-Brazzaville
Ethiopia
Libya
GROUP D (Peter Mokaba Stadium)
DR Congo
Mauritania
Burundi
Gabon
{{Tea farmers in the country will this year receive an average bonus payment of Sh31.65 for a kilogram of green leaf they took to the factory, less than Sh37.51 paid out last year.}}
The Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) Managing Director Lerionka Tiampati attributed the drop in the second payment (bonus) to a two percent decrease in net auction price of a kilo tea to Sh272.08 from Sh278.08 in 2012.
Tiampati said the price drop was largely contributed by a stronger Kenya Shilling in 2012/13 financial year compared to the same period in the previous year.
However the initial payment to farmers, which paid to farmers every month, increased to an average price of Sh14 per kilo this of green leaf compared to Sh12.50 last year.
In total, KTDA will pay Sh51.3 billion in 2013 from Sh45.3 billion in 2012, for the initial and the second payment.
“We have continued to experience several challenges in the industry. You now see impact of the fluctuations in the foreign exchange rates. There has also been an up and down movement of tea prices,” Tiampati said on Wednesday while announcing KTDA performance.
Total income increased from Sh61.4 billion in 2011/12 financial year to Sh69.2 billion in 2012/13.
Crop production increased by 24percent to1.1billion kilograms (kg), the highest ever, from 906 million Kg, while made tea increased from 211million Kg to 258million Kg recorded in the previous year.
High production was due to increased acreage and favorable weather conditions during the period.
However, Tiampati expressed fears of drop in crop production by the end of this year by 10 percent due especially due to the current hailstorms being experienced in some key tea areas in Rift Valley.
{{The International Criminal Court on Wednesday urged US authorities to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, an indicted war crimes suspect, should he travel to New York for a UN summit.}}
The court has asked “the competent US authorities to arrest Omar al-Bashir and surrender him to the court, in the event he enters their territory,” it said in a statement.
Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide in Darfur, has embarrassed the US government and the United Nations by seeking a visa to enter the United States to attend the annual UN General Assembly next week.
Washington opposes Bashir attending the annual meeting, but it has refused to say whether it can or will block the Sudanese leader.
The US is not party to the ICC’s Rome Statute and therefore has no obligation to arrest Bashir, despite having itself accused him of genocide in the western Darfur region.
The UN is letting the US authorities take the lead while indicating Bashir’s presence would be a problem.
The court recalled that it had in 2010 asked all UN Security Council members that are not states parties to the Rome Statue, including the United States, to arrest Bashir.
“Non-states parties may decide to cooperate with the court on an ad hoc basis,” The Hague-based court said.
The ICC issued arrest warrants for the Sudanese leader in March 2009 and July 2010 and he now faces 10 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in the decade-old Darfur conflict.
ICC signatories have a duty to arrest Bashir.
But the president has since played cat-and-mouse with ICC investigators and supporters, frequently travelling to some African countries. However, Saudi Arabia in August refused to let Bashir use its airspace to reach Iran, forcing him to return to Khartoum.
The UN headquarters in New York is extra-territorial but Sudanese citizens would need a visa to enter the United States to get there.
AFP
{{Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai batted away calls for him to resign on Wednesday and announced a shadow cabinet, vowing to keep veteran President Robert Mugabe’s regime in check.}}
Tsvangirai scoffed at “irresponsible” calls for him to step down after failing to beat Mugabe for the third time in July elections that were overshadowed by rigging allegations.
“It’s a betrayal of the people’s aspirations. I was elected by the party congress and the next congress will be in 2016.”
“I don’t intend to stay a day longer beyond my mandate but I am not going to step down because a newspaper is saying I should step down or because Zanu-PF is saying I should step down.”
Tsvangirai said he and the newly named 21-member shadow cabinet was focused on “keeping the government of Mr Mugabe on its toes and ensuring that it meets its commitments to the people of Zimbabwe”.
Most of the members of the shadow cabinet were ministers in a power-sharing government with Mugabe.
They include former finance minister Tendai Biti, former information minister Nelson Chamisa and detained party deputy chairperson Morgan Komichi.
“Our shadow cabinet is not an exact mirror of Mr Mugabe’s bloated structure, but it incorporates all government functions represented by his government,” Tsvangirai said.
Mugabe appointed a new cabinet last week after winning another five-year term in general elections on 31 July.
The cabinet retained members of the old guard of Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party including those who have served in government since independence in 1980.
Tsvangirai rejected the elections as “a sham” and “a massive fraud”.
Western powers said the elections were neither free nor fair while African countries said they were free but would not pass them as fair.
– AFP
{{Two building projects in Africa have emerged among five of the world’s most compelling in terms of their architecture’s ability to grow social bonds and protect heritage.}}
The winners were announced at Lisbon’s Castle of São Jorge on September 6, this year at a gala jointly presided over by President Aníbal Cavaco Silva of Portugal and the award scheme’s founder, the Aga Khan, who is the spiritual leader of the Ismailia Muslims.
The projects in Sudan and Morocco were picked from dozens across the globe by a team of nine eminent scholars and renowned architects together with three others in Iran, Palestine and Austria to be recipients of this year’s $1 million Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
The winners – found to most embody architectural excellence while ensuring a positive impact on quality of life – were selected from 20 finalists.
In Khartoum, the Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery impressed the judges for its welcoming architecture that “provides an exemplary prototype for the region as well as for the field”.
They found that the centre meets the high technical demands of a hospital with complex functions, including three operating theatres, while providing a number of eco-friendly solutions to common problems. Its mixed modes of ventilation and natural light enable all spaces to be homely and intimate.
In addition to solar panels and special insulation techniques, its architects reused 90 six-metre (20-foot) containers that had been discarded after being used to transport construction materials for the Centre.
In Rabat-Salé, Morocco, the Urban Infrastructure Project linking Rabat and Salé cities to form an urban hub was born out of a new vision of large-scale regeneration, one in which improved transportation and mobility were to be priority components of the larger urban plan.
The judges found that the project combines exemplary bridge design, infrastructure improvement and urban planning. As a result, the Hassan II Bridge has become a new icon for Rabat-Salé, reinforcing a modern, progressive, twin-city identity.
The judges remarked that the project was “a sophisticated and cohesive model for future infrastructure projects, especially in places of rapid urbanisation”.
{Above: Tanzania’s Parliament building. The piece of architecture is considered as being one of the best in East Africa. Two buildings in Africa have emerged among five of the world’s most compelling in terms of their architecture’s ability to grow social bonds and protect heritage.}
{{The deadline by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for five eastern Africa countries to file their submissions on why Deputy President William Ruto should be allowed to attend partial sessions during his trial is Wednesday.}}
The court has allowed Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Eritrea and Uganda to make arguments why Ruto should be excused from continuous presence by 4pm.
On June 18, Trial Chamber V (a) issued a decision excusing Ruto from being continuously physically present at trial, except for specified hearings.
But ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda appealed the decision and the judges directed Ruto to attend all his trial sessions as the appeal awaits determination.
“A chamber may, if it considers it desirable for the proper determination of the case, invite or grant leave to a State, organisation or person to submit, in writing or orally, any observation on any issue that the Chamber deems appropriate,” read a statement sent from the ICC on Friday 13.
The African Union (AU) however wrote to the court complaining about the judges’ decision.
The union noted that the judges suspended Ruto’s request because Bensouda’s appeal was yet to be determined, yet they had refused to suspend the trials even though there was a pending request by the AU to have the Kenyan cases referred back home.
Ruto is charged alongside former radio presenter Joshua arap Sang while President Uhuru Kenyatta is being tried separately.
“The Trial Chamber in its earlier decision had taken cognisance of the Deputy President’s constitutional responsibilities on which basis the Court permitted him to attend only some sessions. On these grounds the Court should have upheld its decision pending the determination of the Prosecutor’s appeal,” argued the AU in a letter dated September 10.
In the letter co-signed by AU Chairperson Hailemariam Desalegn and AU Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the union asked for a stop to the trials until the judges determine its request.
The AU has also been accusing the court of being unfair and prejudicial in the manner in which it has been handling the Kenya cases.
The Appeals Chamber will issue its decision on the Prosecutor’s appeal in due course.
“While Kenya has always cooperated and reiterated its commitment to continue cooperating with the Court, it must do so in the context of its own constitutional requirements,” argued the AU.
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{{Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) in conjunction with Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) have impounded 25 young parrots that were being smuggled out of Uganda.}}
According to the UWA, the birds, that include 21 grey parrots and four brown-necked ones, were being smuggled to the DR Congo.
The parrots were reportedly captured from Queen Elizabeth National Park. They were impounded last week at Mpondwe border post on the Uganda-DR Congo border.
“Immigrations and security people suspected a box to be contraband. They opened it and found smuggled parrots but the owner had since fled and abandoned his/her loot,” Mr John Makombo, the UWA conservation director told local media.
Trade in African grey parrots is a lucrative business as it fetches between $1500 to $4000 on the international market.
A total of 150 African grey parrots were recently impounded in Kasese District on the Uganda-Congo border.
NMG
{{The M23 rebel group in eastern D.R. Congo that has been waging a war against Kinshasa has refuted media reports that it is forcefully recruiting people into its ranks.}}
“The M23 Movement categorically states that there is no and has never been any forced recruitment by M23,” Rene Abandi, the M23 spokesperson said in a statement, maintaining that membership into its ranks was on one’s free will.
“M23 Movement reiterates that membership in M23 is voluntary and based on belief in and a strong commitment to the cause of the Movement which is a system of governance that serves the interests of all Congolese.”
The rebel group also disowned Lt. Richard Bisangwa, who in an interview with a Ugandan media at the Amnesty Commission offices in Kampala, accused the M23 movement of running clandestine recruitment cells in Uganda, particularly in Kampala.
He claimed to have forcefully been conscripted into the ranks of the outfit after being duped of a lucrative contract with the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).
“Lt. Richard Bisangwa who claims to have served under the CNDP (National Congress for Defense of the People) in 2008 and later forcefully recruited into M23, is not known to M23 and did not at any one time serve under CNDP,” Abandi said.
M23 accused MONUSCO of orchestrating the falsehoods against them.
“MONUSCO, which Lt. Bisangwa claims facilitated his escape and journey from M23 territory to Kampala, is an active fighting force against M23 in North Kivu Province and have over the last two years been largely responsible for shaping a negative script about M23 as well as magnifying and distorting key M23-related issues in order to fit other narratives and agenda,” the statement reads.
source: NV