ABUJA, Nov 12 (Reuters) – Nigeria’s government said on Wednesday that its $340 million communications satellite was not lost in space, as reported by the local media, but that it was simply suffering from a flat battery.
The Nigerian Communication Satellite, or NIGCOMSAT-1, blasted off from a launch pad in China in May 2007 to great fanfare, with Nigeria hoping it would offer advanced telecoms, broadcasting and broadband multimedia services for 15 years.
Minister of state for Science and Technology Alhassan Zaku said engineers at ground stations in Abuja and China had noticed the satellite’s solar-powered battery was not recharging and feared it could smash into other satellites if left unrepaired.
“After looking at the options we decided that the best thing to do was to park it, like you park a car,” Zaku said.
“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.
Nigerian newspapers had reported NIGCOMSAT-1 was missing from orbit.
The satellite was supposed to make Africa’s most populous nation a technological hub, saving broadband users and phone users hundreds of millions of dollars a year and enabling Internet access to remote rural villages.
Critics say the project, estimated to have cost the government 40 billion naira ($340 million), has done little to improve communications, with Internet connections notoriously unreliable and among the most expensive in the region.
Zaku said the satellite was insured and that it would be replaced if it could not be repaired. He said customers had been assured that television, radio and Internet services affected by the problem would be re-routed.
Nigerian Internet users have already been battling with service problems after damage to the South Atlantic Terminal III (SAT-3) underwater cable, the main gateway to the country for international calls and Internet connections.
Nigeria’s formerly state-owned telecoms firm Nitel said last month it had invited foreign firms to help it fix the cable. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/ ) (Writing by Nick Tattersall)
Among several conversations he held with world leaders Tuesday, U.S. president-elect Barack Obama spoke with Mwai Kibaki, the president of his late father’s country, Kenya.
A statement issued by the Kenyan presidency Wednesday said Mr. Kibaki told his soon-to-be American counterpart that his election victory had been received with immense pride and gratification.
The Kenyan president is quoted as saying that even though Kenyans know Mr. Obama holds his allegiance to Americans, they are confident Kenya will always have a special place in his heart.
Mr. Kibaki also invited the president-elect to visit Kenya at his earliest convenience. Mr. Obama has made three previous visits to Kenya, most recently in 2006.
His election victory on November 4 sparked widespread celebrations in Kenya, where a national holiday was declared two days later.
The new U.S. president has many relatives in Kenya, but has had little contact with them.
Mr. Obama’s father went from herding goats in the Kenyan town of Kogelo to studying in Hawaii and at the prestigious Harvard university in the United States, but spent very little time with his son.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The world’s first permanent war crimes court needs more support as it monitors atrocities in Congo and struggles to have important suspects arrested, an international human rights group said Wednesday.
Human Rights Watch also said the International Criminal Court’s independence must be supported in the face of intense diplomatic pressure on it to freeze its genocide case against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
Sudan, supported by the African Union and the Arab League, has been pressing the United Nations to order the International Criminal Court to suspend the case.
Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has asked judges at the court to issue an arrest warrant for al-Bashir on charges of orchestrating genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region, where 300,000 people have died and more than 2.5 million have been forced from their homes in five years of fighting.
“With the court’s independence and integrity at risk, ICC member states should speak out forcefully to promote (its) mission,” Elizabeth Evenson, counsel in the International Justice Program of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “They should strongly defend the ICC’s independence from political interference.”
Representatives from the 108 nations that have ratified the court’s founding treaty will hold their annual meeting in The Hague starting Friday. The United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court, although it did agree to having the court hear cases related to Darfur.
Human Rights Watch also urged the nations to do more to arrest suspects already indicted by the court, including Bosco Ntaganda, a rebel commander linked to violence currently raging between rebels and government forces in Congo.
Ntaganda is chief of staff for Laurent Nkunda, whose rebel forces have been accused by rights groups of atrocities in eastern Congo in recent weeks. The U.N. says Congolese army troops also have committed war crimes, including rape and plunder.
Ntaganda is charged with recruiting child soldiers during an earlier conflict in eastern Uganda.
Also still at large despite international arrest warrants are the leaders of a Ugandan rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army.
Both Uganda and Congo have ratified the court’s founding treaty and will attend the Assembly of States Party. Sudan does not recognize the court and refuses to hand over suspects.
“LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) leaders and Ntaganda continue crimes against innocent civilians, and their arrests should top the agenda at this year’s assembly,” Evenson said.
Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA – The American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is to assist South Africa in fighting crime, the US Ambassador to South Africa, Eric Bost, has confirmed.
This comes after an ANC delegation – including ANC president Jacob Zuma, who is widely expected to be South Africa’s next president – visited the US at the invitation of the American government at the end of October.
During the week-long trip, Zuma met with US government officials and other organisations. The purpose of the visit was to strengthen ties and discuss areas of further co-operation. Zuma also spoke at the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington DC.
One of those meetings was with the FBI, to discuss what assistance it can give to support South Africa’s efforts to address crime.
“I’m very optimistic. We had a wonderful conversation with the FBI that lasted an hour,” Bost said.
Crime ‘a threat’ to SA
Bost outlined how crime is a threat to the country. Not only is it unpleasant, but it also compromises investment and tourism, especially ahead of 2010, he said.
Bost also recounted how he had met with former safety and security minister Charles Nqakula over two years ago, and had offered the US government’s support in fighting crime. “I told him crime was a real challenge for South Africa, why don’t you tell me what you need, it won’t cost you anything.”
Bost said he had offered training and other assistance, but had never received an answer.
“But our meeting with the FBI went very well, and we are now well on our way to provide support. We’ve wasted two-and-a-half years, so we want to work on this.”
The FBI has already assisted in training South African police on how to handle terrorism financing and money laundering ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
Bost also said that the US sees South Africa as an important strategic partner, and it is important to strengthen the relationship with South Africa, adding that Zuma also sees this as an important strategic relationship.
UGANDA’S population increased last year by more than a million, according to a report.
The population, the report added, will reach 29.6 million, up from last year’s 28.4 million. At 3.2%, Uganda’s is the seventh fastest growing population in the world.
The fertility rate has only decreased slightly over the past five years from 6.7% to 6.9%.
On average, a Ugandan woman gives birth to 6.7 children. As a result, the population is expected to hit 38 million by 2015.
The number of people living in urban areas has also increased from 3.7 million to 3.9 million.
The report called for deliberate effort to ensure a sustainable population growth rate.
The annual document, entitled The State of Uganda Population Report 2008, was launched in Kampala yesterday. It was compiled by the Population Secretariat.
It is intended to draw attention towards building a quality population. “We must ensure that we achieve a quality population,” said Charles Zirarema, the secretariat’s acting director.
Commenting on the report, Janet Jackson, the UN Population Fund representative to Uganda, said Uganda’s cultural heritage was diverse.
“So too must be the views, practices and beliefs about sexual and reproductive health,” he said. “More needs to be understood about what different groups of people think, act and believe.”
Zirarema noted the report explores the interplay between culture, gender and human rights and how they interface with population growth, HIV/AIDS, armed conflict, low access to reproductive health information and water.
The unmet need for family planning has increased drastically over the past five years from 35% to 41%. The number of married people using contraceptives has only slightly increased from 22.8 in 2002 to 23.7.
The number of pregnant women having supervised deliveries has increased from 38% in 2002 to the current 41%.
Zirarema said 12% of women in the productive age group are undernourished, while 38% of children below five years are stunted. “We should reverse the trend,” he said.
In order to attain equitable development, notes the report, individuals must exercise control over their sexual lives. Traditionally, a woman’s status is largely measured by her capacity to reproduce, hence the pressure to have more children.
“Most families in Uganda still highly value producing several sons, who would continue the lineage of the family,” the report observes.
Generally, the health indicators have remained the same over the last two years. The changes, however, over the past five years are noticeable.
The infant mortality rate decreased from 88 in 2002 to the current 76 per 1,000 live births. Maternal mortality stands at 435 per 100,000 births, down from 505 in 2002. The prevalence rate remains at 6.4%. The main limitation to the fight against AIDS is cultural behaviour. Early forced marriages and men’s extra-marital sexual relations are key in spreading the virus. The national response, according to the report, should involve reshaping societal and cultural norms and resources to contribute to HIV prevention.
The HIV prevalence is highest among females in the 30-34 age group. Among men, the prevalence is highest among 40-44 year-olds.
The major noticeable sex discrepancy is the HIV prevalence among children (15-19 years).
Software giant Microsoft has denied paying a Nigerian contractor $400,000 to stop Linux’s getting into the government sector.
The denial follows media reports alleging that Microsoft had proposed paying the sum to a government contractor under a joint marketing agreement. The money was available if the contractor replaced Linux OS with Windows OS on thousands of school laptops.
Thomas Hansen, regional manager for Microsoft West, East and Central Africa said that while a joint marketing agreement was drafted with the contractor, it was never executed. He said it was clear that one customer wanted a Linux OS and so the joint marketing agreement became irrelevant. Since no marketing agreement was ever agreed, no money changed hands and therefore noone was bribed.
