MOSCOW (AFP) — Russia has sold 12 MiG-29 fighter jets to Sudan, Sudanese Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Mohammed Hussein said during a visit to Moscow on Friday, Russian news agencies reported.
“Yes, it’s all done. The planes have been bought,” the defence minister was quoted as saying to reporters at a briefing in Moscow, in response to a question about a contract for the purchase of the 12 planes.
“We are very satisfied with our military relations with Russia,” he said.
Hussein also said he hoped Russia would take a more active role in Sudan’s oil industry, adding that this would be at the heart of discussions during an upcoming visit to Moscow by Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir.
He did not say when the visit could take place.
“Based on our successful experience of economic development cooperation with China, we want Russia to be another pillar in the economic development of Sudan,” Hussein said.
Russia was accused by human rights group Amnesty International last year of violating a UN resolution by supplying arms to Sudan that were then used in the war-torn Darfur region, a charge rejected by Russia’s foreign ministry.
The UN imposed an embargo on sales and deliveries of arms to Darfur in 2004.
Some 300,000 people have died in the civil war in Darfur since 2003 and two million more have fled their homes, according to UN figures, although some sources put the toll much higher while Sudan says 10,000 people have died.
Sudan’s Beshir earlier this month declared a ceasefire in Darfur, but the main rebel movement in the region, the Justice and Equality Movement, dismissed his call as a propaganda stunt for the West.
Two mothers in western Tanzania have been attacked by gangs who were after their children who have albinism.
The women were hacked with machetes when the attackers failed to find the two children.
Albinos have been targeted in a series of killings around the country due to a belief their body parts can make magic potions more effective.
At least 30 people with albinism have been killed since March, including a seven-month old baby.
On Wednesday, attackers forced a woman to take them to her home, looking for her nine-year-old daughter in Kibondo District, close to the Burundi border.
The girl was not in the house and so the men attacked the mother.
In the second attack, a gang of four men broke into a house at the Lugufu camp in Kigoma, which hosts refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, looking for a child with albinism.
The child, aged two, escaped kidnap after falling under the bed unnoticed.
The women are undergoing treatment for their injuries.
High prevalence
On Thursday, police in south-western Tanzania arrested a man who was attempting to sell his albino wife to Congolese traders.
The BBC’s Vicky Ntetema in Dar es Salaam says the attacks appear to have spread from north-western Tanzania, where they were first reported.
The attacks also suggest that there is interest in albino body parts from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi, our correspondent says.
The Kigoma regional police commander said the attackers had fled and a manhunt was underway.
The attacks on albinos have been linked to witchdoctors who are peddling the belief that potions made from an albino’s legs, hair, hands, and blood can make a person rich.
President Jakaya Kikwete ordered a police crackdown on those involved in the killings in March, and 170 witchdoctors have since been arrested.
But BBC investigations suggest that some police are being “bought off” in order to look away when such crimes are committed.
The prevalence of albinism in Tanzania appears to be high and the Albino Association of Tanzania says the actual number of albinos could be as high as 173,000.
CAIRO (AFP) — Egyptian first lady Suzanne Mubarak has played down allegations of rampant sexual harassment in her country, accusing the media, and implicitly Islamist militants, of exaggerating the reports.
“Egyptian men always respect Egyptian women,” the pro-government Al-Ahram newspaper on Friday quoted the wife of President Hosni Mubarak as saying in remarks aired on Thursday by Al-Arabiya television.
The Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights (ECWR) released a survey earlier this year showing that 83 percent of Egyptian women and 98 percent of foreign women in Egypt are sexually harassed.
“This gives the impression that the streets in Egypt are not safe. That is not true… The media have exaggerated,” Mubarak said.
“Maybe one, two or even 10 incidents occurred. Egypt is home to 80 million people. We can’t talk of a phenomenon. Maybe a few scatterbrained youths are behind this crime.
“And maybe some people wanted to make it seem as though the streets of Egypt are not safe so girls and women stay at home. This could be their agenda,” she said in a reference to Islamist militants.
Mubarak’s statements come less than a month after an Egyptian judge sentenced a man to three years in jail with hard labour for groping a woman on a Cairo street and ordered him to pay his victim 894 dollars in compensation.
The sentence was unusual for its severity and unprecedented in the male-dominated Middle East.
“This is the first case we know of, where someone was jailed for groping,” Engy Ghozlan, an activist with the ECWR, said after the October 21 judgment.
“We welcome the ruling. The judge was obviously setting an example.”
GOVERNOR Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State in a major move yesterday took a firm grip of the state finances, ordering commercial banks to suspend transactions on the accounts.
Comrade Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State
Also, he sacked all political appointees of the former Governor Oserheimen Osunbor.Meanwhile, former military president, Ibrahim Babangida, yesterday while congratulating Governor Oshiomhole tasked him to deliver on the promises made to the people of the state.
Although the governor did not give any idea on how long the accounts will be frozen, political watchers said the move was to stem possible unauthorised movement of funds.
According to sources, even commitments entered into before the change will be verified before payments are authorised.
The Action Congress (AC) in congratulating the new governor requested that he investigates whether his predecessor had paid the alleged N50 million levy by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) towards the building of its new National Secretariat. The N10 billion fund raising dinner for the secretariat is slated for Abuja on Saturday.
A statement signed by Mrs Betty Igbehi, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information and Orientation, directed all bank managers where all government monies were lodged, to keep a hold on all such accounts.
The statement also announced that all political appointees had been relieved of their posts and directed them to hand over all government property in their custody.
It specifically directed them to hand over to the permanent secretaries in their ministries and at the Government House, the Director of Central Administration in the Governor’s Office.
Oshiomhole swears-in SSG
The government’s first three key appointments, Mr Pally Iriase, Secretary to the State Government; Mr Ogie Osarodion, Chief of Staff and Mr Eric Osagie, Director of Public Affairs were sworn-in yesterday at Government House, Benin.
The Governor at the swearing-in ceremony, advised the new Secretary to the State Government to throw overboard the old method of doing things and fashion out a new system in the overall interest and development of Edo State .
“No one who will be appointed by this government will come in to perpetrate the old culture. I do not want to hear that this is how we do it,” Governor Oshiomhole warned, saying Mr. Iriase was appointed because of his track record and his contribution to the development of his people.
While observing that the state has lost 19 months, he said his administration was in a hurry to deliver and observed that Edo people had new hope for improved performances backed up by quality achievements.
He urged Mr. Iriase to guide against the use of government funds for congratulatory advertorial messages, even as he advised him not to allow himself to be used by professional praise-singers, who, he said, go on the pages of newspapers to send congratulatory messages.
IBB congratulates, tasks Oshiomhole
Former President Babangida lauded Comrade Oshiomhole’s victory at the Appeal Court in Benin, saying it was a reflection of his grassroots appeal and love for the ordinary folks out there.
Gen. Babangida in the congratulatory message entitled: “Comrade Governor Adams Oshiomhole, a Big Congratulations” and made available to Vanguard in Abuja yesterday, said: “Your declaration as the Governor of Edo State by the Court of Appeal on that super Tuesday, 11th November, 2008 after such a long almost unending legal battle has set a new precedence in our political economy as a developing nation.
“But for your resilience and strength of character, which have become part of your selling points, the people would have been weary. Typical of you and your struggles, you trudged on and proved bookmakers wrong that it was possible to dare and alter the status quo. You braced all odds and exhibited a deep passion for due process, rule of law and democracy.”
IBB, in the congratulatory message signed by his Media spokesman, Prince Kassim Afegbua, noted: “As a man who is driven by his convictions, you have remained with the people and now have opportunity to serve them in an executive capacity as a governor. This is your time.
“I have elected to call you Comrade Governor even before you invented that prefix. A Comrade is a Comrade whether as Governor, President or Councillor. What matters is how much you are able to impact on the lives of the people positively, and make life more meaningful to them than the ordinary mundane activities of mankind.
“I have no doubt in my mind that you can deliver on your promises to the good people of Edo State and fulfill the burning aspirations of the collective. This will be the stimulation and attraction of your government.
“When I reflect on the good old days when I was President and you were on the side of Labour, I could still recall your rare ability to present your demands to government without ambiguity. Your sense of mobilisation was also not in doubt. Your grassroots appeal and love for the ordinary folks out there seems to me your strongest asset.
“It is my patriotic belief that you will use your good offices to translate all these attractions into something more rewarding, meaningful and productive for the good people of Edo State who have shown you support, love and affection in the struggle thus far.
“On behalf of my wife and family, accept from me my most sincere wishes and a big congratulation on this achievement. It is my wish also that the Almighty God grants you the rare wisdom to pilot the affairs of the State in the next four years. You can always count on my support.”
…Ogbemudia too
A member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees and two-time Governor of defunct Bendel State , Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia, in a congratulatory message said: “I have known you as a dogged, committed and tenacious fighter. It is my hope that you will bring such doggedness, commitment and tenacity to bear on the huge task of governance ahead of you.
“True, we are in different parties, but above this, we are both sons of Edo State to which we owe irreducible loyalty. Therefore, service to our state comes over and above party affiliations”, he said.
… Orji also
Also, Gov Theodore Orji of Abia State in a congratulatory message said Oshiomhole’s victory is a development that is good for Nigeria’s fledgling democracy.
In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Sam Hart, Orji noted that the beauty of multi-party democracy the world over was the existence of a strong and virile opposition and noted that the emergence of an Action Congress (AC) Governor in Edo State would stimulate the opposition in Nigeria.
He noted that the judgment had also dispelled the notion of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as a domineering behemoth that will seek to hold unto power at all costs by manipulating the judicial process to suit their ends.
By Gabriel Enogholase, Chris Ochayi, Tony Osauzo and Uduma Kalu | Vanguard
Asallah, Ethiopia — Until two years ago, Ato Abebe scratched out a meager subsistence raising wheat and other cereals on a hectare of land in central Ethiopia, where he and his family went to bed with hunger pangs several months a year.
Today, Abebe, who lives near Asallah, 180 kilometers south of Addis Ababa, consistently makes nearly $100 per month, lives in a new house and plans to expand his dairy business while teaching his neighbors about it.
Abebe’s turn of fortune came about in 2006, when he signed on as an apprentice dairy farmer under the tutelage of Land O’Lakes International Development, a division of the U.S. dairy company Land O’Lakes Inc. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funds the program with a $5 million grant that expires in 2010.
“Before, from June to August, we did not have food to eat or seeds to plant for the next season,” Abebe told America.gov.
The farmer stands outside his new one-room house with a rainproof metal roof, where he lives with his wife and three children. His former thatch-roof house now is inhabited by the source of his new wealth, a cow and a heifer. “Having a milk-producing cow is like having a steady salary,” he said.
Abebe plans to acquire four more cows, through direct purchase or artificial insemination with foreign bull semen brought to Ethiopia by Land O’Lakes and another development group, World Wide Science.
The dairy business holds glowing prospects for this family. In the two years that the Asallah dairy project has been under way, milk prices have risen from roughly 20 cents to 50 cents per liter. The best cows in the area produce as much as 13 liters a day, and overall output is rising as crossbreeding with highly productive foreign dairy cattle takes effect.
Two people unloading large containers from vehicle (Photo by Michael Tewelde)
In exchange for Land O’Lakes’ tutoring, Abebe teaches other farmers in the area who want to emulate his success.
“We want him to transfer our knowledge,” said Asfaw Tolessa, Land O’Lakes dairy extension manager for Ethiopia. Abebe is one of 130 farmers in Ethiopia who have been selected by Land O’Lakes for the program. He, in turn, teaches another 50 farmers, 10 of whom are implementing new methods, according to Tolessa, who expects the number of dairy farmers to surge as local living standards rise.
The program is more complex than encouraging farmers to buy a dairy cow, then extract and sell the milk. To enable the industry to thrive in drought-stricken, exhausted land, Land O’Lakes has taught Abebe and others to plant napier grass, also known as elephant grass. Napier contains high protein and resists drought with its deep roots.
“Getting dairy farmers to use napier grass is one of Land O’Lakes’ biggest successes,” said Tolessa. “It can be harvested every three weeks, stored in airtight plastic bags and kept for years as animal fodder.”
The Land O’Lakes manager is interested in extending the dairy production program to include farmers’ wives. “[Ethiopian] women tend to be more attentive to caring for animals than men,” Tolessa said. “They also tend to have better social skills than men and are more effective as members of dairy co-ops. They are less likely to engage in private deals that benefit some co-op members more than others.” He said that Land O’Lakes needs to proceed cautiously on this front because of rural traditions that define women’s roles narrowly.
Encouraging dairy farming would have no lasting effect without consistent markets for milk. In fact, a Swedish development group tried supporting Ethiopian dairy farmers in the 1970s, but milk prices crashed after several years. Farmers got rid of their cows and went back to cereal production, which in turn was devastated by drought.
The USAID–Land O’Lakes program has created a network of commercial sales outlets. In addition to milk, the co-op produces cream, butter and cottage cheese, which are processed to have longer shelf lives than milk. The co-op aspires to build a modern dairy-processing plant. USAID is working with Ethiopian banks to encourage them to finance it.
The Asallah Dairy Co-op, up the road from Abebe’s farm, has seen its membership rise from 37 at its founding in 2006 to 90 today. At the outset, the daily milk collection of the co-op averaged almost 70 liters per day. Now the figure is tenfold greater — 700 liters a day. The price of milk has more than doubled, while the cost of animal feed has fallen by half. Tolessa said given the government’s work to build a market economy and improve nutrition, the Ethiopian dairy industry has a bright future.
“We are making a lot of milk and a lot of money. We are very happy and grateful for what Land O’Lakes and USAID are doing for us,” said co-op member Almaz GebreSelassie.
AIR Uganda will celebrate its first anniversary today.
“Surviving in the aviation industry has been difficult, especially during these hard times of the financial crisis and fuel prices shooting up. We are happy to have reached this far,” Peter de Waal, the chief executive, told a press conference in Kololo, Kampala.
De Waal said changes they had made during the past year included suspending the morning flight to Nairobi, partnering with other airlines and upgrading of the business class.
“We suspended our morning flight to Nairobi because it was not cost-effective, but we increased our frequency to Juba since it was more popular,” he said.
“We are still investing in improving our in-flight and operational services, so we expect a breakthrough some time mid next year,” de Waal added.
