Cameroon rebels have released 10 hostages they were holding after they had been taken in a raid on an oil vessel in October. Most of the captive men are reported to be from France.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he was relived to hear that the captives were free and that he was very grateful to the Cameroonian government for its help.
Flag of CameroonRebels took prisoner the hostages off the Bakassi peninsula, and they said they would kill their captives if Cameroon did not agree to further talks.
All the hostages who have been released work for the French shipping group, Bourbon, and the company says the men are in good health and are now safe in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde.
Eight of the ten men – seven Frenchmen and a Tunisian – would be going back home very soon and the other two that had been held captive were from Cameroon.
AFP news agency reported that no ransom had been paid to secure the release of the men but that it took place after talks involving the Cameroonian authorities and the kidnappers.
A multi-million dollar Nigerian satellite launched in May 2007 has been shut down to prevent it spinning out of control and damaging others in orbit.
(BBC) Chinese-built NigComSat-1 cost the African oil producer $340m (£228m).
The Nigerian government said insurance would pay for a replacement and Nigerians should still be proud of the country’s satellite programme.
But telecoms experts told the BBC it was a “white elephant in space” and the whole operation was a “debacle”.
NigComSat-1 was launched 18 months ago to much fanfare from the government, but it has been mired in controversy ever since.
On Tuesday, controllers shut the satellite down because it was having problems with its power supply, the government announced.
The satellite was meant to provide communications for government agencies and broadband internet.
‘Worthy investment’
“This has been a real debacle from day one,” a telecoms engineer told the BBC.
Nigeria has exported its electricity generation problems to space
Joke doing the rounds in Nigeria
The engineer, who works as a consultant for a multinational communications company, did not want to be named.
The satellite was limited because the type of frequency it used was disturbed by clouds in the atmosphere, and did not work properly in Nigeria’s rainy season or during the Harmattan, when clouds of dust blow down from the Sahara, he said.
The satellite also operated on frequencies already allocated to other companies and interfered with other providers’ equipment.
But Information Minister John Odey denied the satellite was not worth investing in.
“No technology can be a waste of money,” he said.
“It is a worthy investment, and Nigerians should see it as desirable. It has served a purpose and will continue to do so.”
Power trouble
Local media initially reported that the satellite had “gone missing”.
But on Wednesday Minister of State for Science and Technology Alhassan Zaku told journalists it had lost power and had to be “parked, like you would park a car”.
“If it wasn’t parked and it lost all its power there would be no energy to even move it and it would be like a loose cannon and would keep rolling about and hit other satellites in the orbit,” he told reporters.
According to analysts, Nigeria has made nearly $2 trillion in oil revenues over the last 30 years, but its population are mostly poor.
Africa’s most populous nation lacks basic infrastructure like power and water, and many Nigerians thought the satellite showed the government did not have its priorities right.
The news that the satellite could not get enough power to run has led to jokes that, as one e-mail doing the rounds put it: Nigeria has “exported its electricity generation problems to space”.
Democracy in Ghana is young but successful. Ghana is one of the most stable democracies in Africa. On Sunday 7th December 2008, the people of Ghana will take their next step along this road and vote for a new president and parliament.
This important political event will be followed with great interest in the Netherlands. By the Ghanaian community in the Netherlands, by those interested in democracy developments in Africa and by those involved in development cooperation activities in Ghana, such as the Ghana Schoolfeeding Program (GSFP).
For that reason NCDO, SIGN (the Dutch foundation to support the GSFP) and Schuttelaar & Partners are hosting an event about the Ghana elections on Monday evening 8 December 2008. Location is the Augustinus College in the Bijlmer area of Amsterdam.
The program includes expert speeches, the election prognosis and a political debate (organized by the Evert Vermeer Foundation and Cordaid) but is also a great place to meet family and friends and enjoy a Ghanaian atmosphere. With Ghanaian music, food and drinks.
Amma Baddoo-Asante and Farid Tabarki will host the evening. Speakers include Eric Odoi-Anim (Embassy of Ghana), Hans Eenhoorn (member UN Taskforce Hunger and Board member SIGN), Kathleen Ferrier (member of parliament for CDA party) and Isaac Acheampong (chairman Interim Advisory Council of Ghanaian associations in the Netherlands).
This event will showcase Ghana as a leading country in Africa and will give the opportunity to discuss the process of democratization in the country. There is a direct TV-link with Kent Mensah, a Ghanaian journalist reporting live from Accra.
Entrance is free, doors open at 18:00 hours
For more information:
Visit: www.ghanaelections.nl
Caroline Peeck at Schuttelaar & Partners
070- 318 4444 – 06 388 28 177 [email protected]
DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA (Xinhua) — The authorities of the University of Dar es Salaam, the largest in Tanzania, have sent all undergraduate students from the main campus packing for home.
The move came after a three-day boycott against classes on the campus to protest the authorities’ loan funds allocations or cost-sharing policy.
The suspension has affected all government-sponsored undergraduate students and the number was given at over 10,000.
The university authorities have explained that the boycott had contravened the university’s regulation which stipulates that campuses be closed down after a third day of continuous student protests.
The students have boycotted classes in demand for the government to give them 100-percent loans instead of basing the amount of loans they would get on the financial status of their families or guardians.
University Deputy Vice-Chancellor Yunus Mgaya said that the suspension would not affect foreign or short-term or part-time students enrolled in the undergraduate programs.
A senior official from the Tanzanian ministry of education had given an instruction for the students to resume studies by Wednesday morning.
Tanzania’s Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda has earlier made it clear during a parliamentary session in Dodoma that the cost-sharing policy would be there to stay.
In April last year, a similar closure occurred at the University of Dar es Salaam after students had boycotted classes to demand higher field attachment allowances.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – Nokia said Ethiopian market is strategic and promising to the company. “As Ethiopia is one of the strategies and promising market of Nokia, we will continue to enhance our customer service and a 12 month warranty that is all part of Nokia’s strategy,” said Gerard Brandjes, Nokia’s General Manager for East Africa.
Brandjes indicated that his company is planning to negotiate with Ethiopian authorities on tax issues in order to connect as many people as possible with affordable prices. He was speaking to journalists Thursday at the Sheraton Addis in Ethiopia during the launching of three new products of Nokia, which are especially designed to meet the needs of African market.
Nokia 5000 with 1.3 mega pixel camera, Nokia 1680 Classic and Nokia 7070 Prism are the three products that the company introduced to Ethiopian market with e-mail, video and radio service features. Before subsidies and taxes currently the company is selling Nokia 5000 model for $95, Nokia 1680 Classic for $65 and Nokia 7070 Prism for $60.
Mentioning the zero tax rate of Ghana on mobile phones as a good indicator of the correlation between mobile connectivity level and business growth, Brandjes hopes that the fact that the more people connected through mobile phones, the more people get the opportunity to do business or enhance and grow their existing business will also applies in the case of Ethiopia.
Nokia, which recently increased the number of its products distribution agent in Ethiopia from one to two, is the only company to introduce mobile phone with national language of Ethiopia- Amharic, a year ago. Currently, the company is selling nine Amharic Nokia mobile phone models.
With the industry’s largest portfolio of mobile phones and support for more than 80 languages, more than one billion people worldwide currently use a Nokia device. Brandjes declined to reveal the exact share of Nokia mobile apparatus users in Ethiopia. He indicated that the majority of Ethiopians prefer Nokia mobiles over other brands because Nokia is the pioneer to introduce apparatuses with Amharic language, integrated video camera and flash light features.
Currently there are a total of around two million people in Ethiopia connected through mobile phones. But, the Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation, which is the government monopoly telecommunication, is working on its plan of adding six million new mobile users within one year.
CAIRO, EGYPT (AFP) – Egypt on Thursday barred doctors from taking up jobs in Saudi Arabia after an Egyptian medic was sentenced to 1,500 lashes and 15 years in jail for allegedly turning a Saudi princess into a drug addict.
Manpower and Immigration Minister Aisha Abdel Hadi has “stopped issuing work permits to Egyptian doctors in Saudi Arabia until the end of the crisis,” the independent Al-Masry al-Youm newspaper reported.
The decision came after talks between the Egyptian consulate and the Saudi Arabian authorities reached a dead-end, the newspaper quoted an unnamed official as saying.
No permits will be issued until further notice, it said, but added that Egyptian doctors already in Saudi Arabia can continue working because they have contractual obligations.
Doctor Rauf Amin, 53, was sentenced for giving the unidentified princess morphine to ease her pain following a riding accident, which allegedly turned her into an addict.
The penalty against Amin, who is being whipped at the rate of 10-15 lashes a week during his prison term, has sparked protests in Egypt.
Hamdi al-Sayyad, director of Egypt’s Doctors Syndicate, last week described Amin’s trial as unfair and his sentence — which was doubled on appeal in March from 750 lashes and seven years prison — as torture.
“He did not have a fair trial; there was not even any adequate medical expert opinion,” he said.
“This judgment is more about torture than justice and does not correspond with any kind of law, human rights or even sharia (Islamic law).”
Flogging is a standard punishment in the ultra-conservative Gulf kingdom, which enforces a strict Islamic doctrine known as Wahhabism.
Nigeria has exported its electricity generation problems to space 