IGIHE

Tag: GreatLakesNews

  • FIFA Could Ban Uganda

    {{FIFA has threatened to Ban Uganda warning that any interference in the country’s football governing body (FUFA) matters will result in Uganda’s suspension from international football.}}

    FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke in a communication dated July 19 to education and sports minister Hon. Jessica Alupo, reiterated the governing body’s requirement that all FIFA member associations manage their affairs independently and without influence of any third parties as stipulated in articles 13 and 17 of the FIFA Statutes.

    “Any actions/measures taken unilaterally against the structures and/or status of the Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) would be considered as interference in the FUFA affairs and the case would be brought to FIFA’s higher instances for appropriate sanctions, which could include suspension.” Read the letter.

    The letter is in response to Hon. Alupo’s letter dated July 16 following legal guidance from the Solicitor General for which government intended to “take appropriate measures in public interest with the objective of improving the management of soccer in Uganda”.

    In the letter, Valcke advised government to provide clear guidelines on how the federation should proceed should it decide that FUFA still needs to undergo legal changes or modifications.

    “Nevertheless, such changes or modifications should not affect the constitutional structure of the federation. FUFA went through deep changes with the adoption of a new constitution in August 2012 which is now in line with the FIFA standard statutes.”

  • Iranian ships still flying Tanzania flag

    {{Tanzania could find itself in an awkward diplomatic position again following revelations that Iran is now using the country’s national identity to evade sanctions imposed on its oil tankers.}}

    Shipping intelligence data indicate that Iranian vessels and other ships blacklisted by the US are using signals assigned to Tanzania. Under this cover, the tankers no longer fly the Tanzanian flag.

    But the ploy has been exposed by their continued use of the signal that identifies Tanzania in international shipping traffic.

    “They (Iranian ships) now appear as flag “unknown”, but they have continued to identify themselves in shipping traffic as flagged to Tanzania,” noted Ms Claudia Rosett of the US-based Foundation for Defence of Democracies in an article published in Forbes magazine last week.

    “The tell-tale sign is a nine-digit number known as a Maritime Mobile Service Identity number, or MMSI, part of the on-board signalling system that transmits the registered identity of a ship as well as its location.

    The MMSI number is unique for each vessel, but the initial three digits identify the ship’s flag state (677 for Tanzania),” explained the ship-tracking data analyst.

    {NMG}

  • Investment in Tanzania Mining Drops 20%

    {{Tanzania is worried of a double digit drop in mining sector fearing that it could hit the country’s goal of having the sector contributing at least 10% of GDP by 2025.

    New statistics indicate that Investiment in the mining sector has dropped by 20% .
    The mining industry in Tanzania contributes 3.7% to the national economy currently.}}

    PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) says in a new report that big mining companies worldwide have this year decreased their capital expenditure by 21%. This had led to projects being deferred or scaled back.

    The top 40 mining companies by market capitalisation last year spent $140 billion on capital projects, but the figure has dropped to $110 billion this year.

    Mr David Tarimo, PwC Partner, Tax Services, says, Tanzania was likely to see few or no new projects in 2013, and existing ones could be scaled back or scrapped altogether, adding that this could have a great impact on the economy.

    He said resource nationalism continues to pose a big threat to mining as governments seek greater shares of profits.

    “Governments are now looking at different strategies to extract a greater share from mining operations. These strategies range from increasing taxes and royalties to restricting foreign ownership,” Mr Tarimo said.

    This could increase the cost of minerals which could, in turn, reduce economic growth in the jurisdictions that are driving demand for minerals.

    The impact of reduced spending had in recent months been seen through the industry’s value chain after many suppliers announced lower than expected profits, Mr Tarimo said.

    The future is also not very rosy for smaller miners, who are struggling to raise capital. Even those who are prepared to pay high interest rates on loans cannot get credit.

    “If funding does not improve soon, this will have a dramatic impact on new reserves,” Mr Tarimo said.

    The PWC report titled Mine: A Confidence Crisis says being tough with mining companies might look good to stakeholders at home in the short run, but governments should consider a broader view of returns from natural resource development.

    {Additional reporting NMG}

  • UN voices Fears over Somalia Media Law

    {{The United Nations has raised concerns about a new media law in Somalia only days after UN experts sounded the alarm over corruption in the African country’s new government.}}

    The UN Human Rights Office has urged President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s government to review a new law that would require journalists to reveal sources and prevent them spreading information against Islam or Somali traditions, said a statement released on Sunday.

    Rupert Colville, spokesman for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the legislation was “vague” and “could easily be used to curtail freedom of expression”.

    The draft legislation, which could become law within two months, requires journalists to reveal their sources if published information stirs up public sentiment.

    It would suspend journalists accused of violating the media legislation.

    ‘Slush funds’

    A group of UN sanctions experts said in a report released last week that “irregularities” remain rife with the central bank acting as a “slush fund” to hand out the government’s meagre resources to individuals who do not have to justify use of the cash.

    “During the period of the current government, between September 2012 and April 2013, 72 percent of withdrawals were made for private individuals,” said the report.

    Because of the country’s strife and the limited scope of the government the 2013 budget was estimated at only $84m, but nearly a third of that comes from international donors.

    The UN report said Finance Minister Mohamud Hassan Suleiman “has made every good faith effort to reduce the scale” of the payments but they are “so pervasive as to be beyond his control without a fundamental restructuring of the system”.

    The report said Central Bank of Somalia governor Abdusalam Omer, who has a US passport, was “key to these irregularities.”

    The UN experts said production of the Somali port “continues to be fraught with fraud and corruption” and that fees from Mogadishu port, a key source for the government, were being diverted.

    It said a monthly average of “at least” 33 percent of the port fees cannot be accounted for.

    The experts also said that large amounts of humanitarian aid was diverted but that aid groups, including UN agencies, had developed “a culture of denial and secrecy” so the extent of the problem is not being made public.

    {Agencies}

  • South Africa Says its Troops not in Goma Battle

    {{The SA National Defence Force denied on Tuesday reports that its soldiers were engaged in combat with rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).}}

    “The SANDF wishes to categorically state that our members in DRC have not been engaged in any battle with the rebels’” spokesperson Siphiwe Dlamini said.

    “Over the past 36 hours there have been various reports coming through various sources and we would like to put it on record that there have been no SANDF engagements in the eastern DRC with rebels.”

    The Times Live website reported on Tuesday that soldiers of the Six SA Infantry Battalion had been deployed in the DRC in a United Nations “intervention brigade” and were in the middle of a “very intense firefight”.

    It reported that the brigade consisted of 2 069 soldiers, of whom 850 were South African, and fell under the authority of the UN’s broader 19 000-strong Monusco peacekeeping mission in the Congo.

    According to the report, Lieutenant Colonel Felix Prosper Basse, a spokesperson for the Monusco force, said on Monday that the South Africans were ”in the middle” of the fierce fighting around Goma, the provincial capital.

    “The [Monusco] operational base in Monigi has always been a South African base. It is on a hill dominating Goma,” said Basse.

    The South African troops were reportedly involved in two other clashes in the past week, sparked when another rebel group, the Mai Mai, attacked a nearby M23 base.

    However, on Tuesday news agency Agence France-Presse reported that the brigade, which comprised troops from Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania, were expected to be active within the next few weeks.

    Dlamini requested the media to stop “speculating” about what was happening in the eastern DRC and try and get factual information.

    “Reports on the ground indicate that Sunday/Monday’s attacks by the government troops on positions of the M23 at Mutaho near Goma were predetermined,” he said.

    “The FARDC [government troops] employed various capabilities and succeeded to dislocate the M23 from Mutaho. The SANDF was not in any way affected by the clash between government forces and M23.”

    He said the SANDF consistently indicated that it had not engaged any rebel forces in the DRC.

    SAPA

  • South Sudan to shut down oil production by end of July

    {{South Sudan plans to sell 6.4 million barrels of oil worth $300 million before shutting down its entire production by the end of July due to a row over its alleged support for rebels in neighboring Sudan, its oil minister said on Saturday.}}

    Sudan, the sole conduit for South Sudan’s oil exports, said a month ago it would close two cross-border oil pipelines within 60 days and insisted output be shut by August 7 unless South Sudan gave up support for the rebels. Juba denies backing insurgents.

    The shutdown is bad news for both countries, which fought one of Africa’s longest civil wars before separating in 2011.

    Diplomats worry South Sudan might collapse without oil, the main source for the budget apart from foreign grants. They point to recent looting of aid agencies by soldiers as a sign that Juba is struggling to pay salaries.

    Closing the wells is also grave news for Sudan, which has been struggling with turmoil since losing most oil reserves with South Sudan’s secession. Oil fees from Juba are essential to bringing down soaring inflation, which stokes dissent.

    South Sudan had only resumed oil production in April, after turning off wells pumping around 300,000 barrels per day in January 2012 when both sides failed to agree on pipeline fees.

    Oil industry insiders say once the pipelines are closed it will take several months to restart production as they would have to be flushed of water and cleaned first.

    South Sudan sold 1 million barrels of crude in June and had contracted further sales of 2.2 million for shipment in July and 3.2 million in August, Oil Minister Stephen Dhieu Dau told Reuters.

    “There is enough crude in the pipeline to meet this,” he said. Sudan has said it would allow the sale of oil which has already reached pipelines on its territory or the export terminal on the Red Sea.

    Dau repeated South Sudan was not backing any Sudanese rebels. “We are committed to the flow of the oil. It is in the interest of the two countries. We don’t see that this shutdown can bring any peace or stop internal rebellions in Sudan.”

    “It will have a negative impact on Sudan and South Sudan. Our economies will suffer,” he said. Sudan will get pipeline fees of around $100 million until the shutdown, he added.

    Khartoum accuses Juba of supporting the “Sudanese Revolutionary Front” (SRF), a rebel alliance, which complains of neglect at the hands of the wealthy Khartoum elites. The SRF in April staged an attack on central Sudan, embarrassing the army on whose support President Omar Hassan al-Bashir depends.

    South Sudan in turn accuses Sudan of backing rebels in its eastern Jonglei state, where fighting is making it impossible to realize government plans to search for oil with the help of France’s Total (TOTF.PA) and U.S. Exxon Mobil (XOM.N).

    Rahmatullah Osman, undersecretary in Sudan’s foreign ministry, told al-Akhbar newspaper Sudan would not allow any passage of South Sudanese oil unless Juba cut all ties with insurgents.

    “There won’t be any reversal,” he said, adding that Sudan hoped like South Sudan that China would mediate. China dominates the oil industries in both countries, and state firm China National Petroleum Corp is most affected as it runs the oilfields in the South with Malaysia’s Petronas (PETR.KL) and Indian firm ONGC Videsh ONGCVD.UL.

    {agencies}

  • Beef sold in Zambia Contained Harmful Chemical

    {{Beef products imported from Europe and distributed in Zambia by leading meat company Zambeef have tested positive for aromatic aldehyde, a chemical which can cause cancer, the health minister said Friday.}}

    Zambeef last month recalled from its retail outlets all imported products after concerns that they contained the chemical, which is also used to embalm dead bodies, prompting laboratory tests.

    “I can confirm that the presence of formaldehydes has been confirmed in the samples that were taken to South Africa for further investigations,” Health Minister Joseph Kasonde told media.

    He said the chemical was found in offals and hooves which Zambeef imports from Europe.

    It is prohibited for use as a food preservative in Zambia.

    “Formaldehyde is in a group of aldehydes and is a compound mainly used in embalming corpses for preservation,” he said.

    A medical doctor, Robert Mtonga, said prolonged exposure to the chemical could cause organ cancers.

    “Among the acute effects of formaldehyde exposure are irritations of the eyes, the nose, and the throat,” he told media.

    But “there is also some evidence that constant formaldehyde exposure increases the chances of developing certain forms of cancer,” he said.

    Incidences of lung and nose cancer appear to be “significantly” higher among people who are regularly exposed to the chemical, said the doctor.

    The health minister said cabinet will meet to decide on sanctions to be imposed on Zambeef, one of the country’s largest employers.

    Phone calls to Zambeef’s officials went unanswered on Friday.

    {AFP}

  • Intra-African Trade Declines

    {{ Intra-African trade fell from 22 per cent in 1997 to 11 per cent in 2011, according to the 2013 Economic Development in Africa Report.}}

    The decline is attributed to problems such as poor roads and energy deficit.

    Businesspeople who attended the launch of the report titled ‘Intra-African Trade: Unlocking Private Sector Dynamism’, were also of common view that potential of the private sector had not been sufficiently exploited to boost trade relations in the resource-rich continent.

    Speaking during the launch of the report, Confederation of Tanzania Industries chairman Felix Mosha, said infrastructural woes were hindering progress in the industrial sector.

    Mr Mosha also said the decline in trade was compounded by the fact that there was no actual connection between various researches done by universities or other institutions and their application in solving problems facing the society today. To him, agriculture is still unexploited to enhance trade on the continent.

    “If Africa wants to excel in agri-business it must invest in research and development to improve innovations and creativity in solving some problems facing the continent,” he said.

    NMG

  • DR Congo Soldier Arrested for Desecrating Corpses

    {{A lieutenant in the Democratic Republic of Congo army has been arrested for desecrating corpses of rebel fighters, officials have said.}}

    His detention on Thursday evening in eastern DR Congo came a day after the UN chief said he was “deeply concerned” about allegations of such mistreatment.

    Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman said the UN mission was reviewing its support of those units suspected of involvement.

    The army and M23 rebels began fighting near the key city of Goma on Sunday.

  • Boeing 787 probe looks at condensation, wiring

    {{Officials investigating the fire on an Ethiopian Airlines 787 in London last week are focused on how condensation in the plane and a possible pinched wire in an emergency beacon may have sparked the blaze, according to people familiar with the probe.}}

    The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday it will call for inspections of the beacons made by Honeywell on Boeing Co 787 jetliners, but stopped short of requiring airlines to disable or remove the devices, as British authorities investigating the fire had recommended.

    The FAA said inspections should ensure wires are properly routed, and should look for pinched wires or signs of unusual moisture or heat. It gave no further details on how those factors may have contributed to the fire.

    But one source close to the inquiry told Reuters that investigators had found a pinched wire in the casing of the emergency locator transmitter (ELT) aboard the aircraft.

    The news comes after the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) on Thursday said the Honeywell beacon was the likely source of the fire, but said it was still trying to understand what ignited the plane.

    The July 12 fire rekindled concern in the industry about Boeing’s advanced carbon-composite Dreamliner, which was grounded for more three months this year after two incidents involving overheated lithium-ion batteries. The AAIB said the London fire was not related to those batteries.

    The Honeywell ELT is delivered fully assembled and is installed by Boeing. The unit that was involved in the fire had not been opened, suggesting the pinched wire originated at the Honeywell plant, according to one person familiar with the investigation.

    Honeywell declined to comment. Boeing declined to comment on the investigation but said it is working with airlines to either inspect or remove the beacons to meet regulatory guidelines.

    Investigators also are trying to determine if condensation on the plane seeped into the ELT, triggering a short circuit in the unit’s lithium-manganese battery, which is made by Ultralife Corp, according to people familiar with the investigation. The sources were not authorized to speak publicly because the probe is still going on.

    Condensation is normal on all big airliners, but the 787 has a higher level of humidity for longer periods to make passengers more comfortable, about 15 percent for the 787 compared with 4-5 percent for conventional metal aircraft, Boeing said. The humidity can be much higher when any plane is on the ground with doors open, perhaps 95 percent, because it matches the ambient air. At cruising altitude, however the air is dry and moisture comes mostly from passengers.

    Water conducts electricity, and high moisture levels could raise the likelihood of short circuits. Long-term exposure to moisture can cause corrosion on electrical wires and batteries.

    {Agencies}