(Voici 08/26/13)
The South African government says former President Nelson Mandela remains in critical but stable condition but his condition becomes "unstable" at times. The government said the ailing anti-apartheid icon who has been hospitalized since June has shown "great resilience" and that his condition "tends to stabilize as a result of medical interventions." In the Saturday statement, President Jacob Zuma urged South Africans to continue praying for the 95-year-old former leader. Mandela is hospitalized in Pretoria. He was admitted to a hospital on June 8 for a recurring lung infection. The former president's health has worsened in recent years. He had been in and out of the hospital for much of the past year. Mandela was elected to serve as South...
(Reuters 08/24/13)
Testimony in the trial of fallen Chinese politician Bo Xilai has produced salacious details about the opulent and supposedly corrupt lifestyle of the family of the once high-flying Communist Party aristocrat. But perhaps no tidbit has attracted as much attention as the piece of exotic meat Bo's son, Guagua, brought back from a visit to Africa in 2011. The trip was paid for by entrepreneur Xu Ming, once close to the Bo family and now detained, accused of paying bribes to Bo. The mystery meat was a given by Guagua to his father, according to written testimony at the trial from his wife, Gu Kailai, a transcript of which was published by the court. Gu said she did not remember...
(Xinhuanet 08/24/13)
The Japanese Defense Ministry is mulling to dispatch resident officials tasked with military information gathering to Africa countries in a move to strengthen its intelligence collecting capability in the countries, according to local media. The officials will be sent to seven African countries, namely Algeria, Morocco, Nigeria, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and South Africa, and Brazil in South America from fiscal 2014 to obtain information over terrorism and other security issues, Japan's Kyodo News quoted government officials as saying. The defense ministry will include the costs in its budget request for fiscal 2014, said the report, adding that the ministry also plans to increase the number of such staff in European countries that have influence on Africa countries, such as Britain,...
(Reuters (Eng) 08/21/13)
(Reuters) - Tanzania-focused miner African Barrick Gold pinned its turnaround hopes on a new chief executive on Wednesday, appointing industry veteran Bradley A Gordon to replace Greg Hawkins at the helm of the struggling group. The FTSE 250 company, whose poor performance meant it was under pressure even before a gold price rout began in April, said Gordon's appointment would be effective immediately. Gordon, who has worked in the gold mining industry for 30 years, was previously CEO of Intrepid Mines, the Canadian and Australian listed precious metals exploration and development company with primary operations in Indonesia. Analysts welcomed the change, and said Gordon's his lack of African experience was balanced by his ability to manage difficult operations. "The announcement...
(Reuters (Eng) 08/21/13)
LONDON | Wed Aug 21, 2013 (Reuters) - Tanzania-focused miner African Barrick Gold on Wednesday named industry veteran Bradley A Gordon as its new chief executive, succeeding Greg Hawkins who has resigned to pursue other opportunities. African Barrick was under pressure even before a gold price rout began in April, hit by illegal mining, power generation problems and strikes, issues which forced it to warn in February that output would shrink for a fifth straight year. Gordon, who has worked in the gold mining industry for 30 years, was previously CEO of Intrepid Mines, the Canadian and Australian listed precious metals exploration and development company with primary operations in Indonesia. African Barrick initiated a review of its operations earlier this...
(AFP (eng) 08/20/13)
African immigrants warned Monday of a rise in racist attacks in Morocco, as hundreds gathered outside a morgue holding the body of a Senegalese man who was murdered last week. Some 250 people, mostly Senegalese immigrants, gathered outside the morgue in Rabat, where the man's remains were taken after he was stabbed to death on a bus in the Moroccan capital last Monday. Anna Bynes, a Senegalese student at Rabat university, said the attack was the latest in a string of racist violence targeting sub-Saharan Africans. "It is the last straw... The other day it was a Congolese man killed on a bus in Tangiers. Then a Gabonese woman was raped. Today a Senegalese has been killed." The police on...
(Times of swaziland 08/14/13)
MBABANE – As talks regarding the extension of AGOA post 2015 kicked off on Monday in Ethiopia’s Capital City Addis Ababa, Swaziland and other 49 African countries will be very lucky to see the legislation extended with the same existing terms and conditions, International Business Times has reported. Swaziland is one of the 49 AGOA beneficiaries. AGOA stands for Africa Growth Opportunity Act. AGOA was signed into law in 2000; it offers incentives mostly in the form of duty-free trade access to 49 eligible sub-Saharan economies to liberalise their markets and build connections with American trade partners. The agreement expires in 2015, and US and African officials would be setting fresh terms for its renewal. According to International Business Times,...
(Reuters 08/14/13)
LONDON | Wed Aug 14, 2013 (Reuters) - Iron ore mining group African Minerals (AMIq.L) surprised the market on Wednesday with the abrupt departure of both chief executive and chief financial officer and said it was scrapping expansion plans to focus on existing operations. Its shares fell almost 15 percent despite what some analysts said could prove a positive as the company concentrates on its Sierra Leone mine, Tonkolili. "From the onset it was clear that (Chief Executive Keith)Calder's broader ambition was to grow African Minerals into a diversified miner across West Africa in the near term," Jefferies analysts said in a note. "Perhaps our greatest concern for African Minerals in recent months was that the company would move too...
(Voice of America 08/13/13)
YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — The first Pan African Conference on Interreligious Freedoms has ended in Cameroon with participants from 80 countries from Africa and beyond. Participants pledged to work together for the service of peace in the name of God. Conference participants say development across Africa has been greatly slowed by interreligious conflicts. The case of Nigeria was cited as one of the worst, with tens of thousands of lives lost in fighting between Muslim and Christian communities, and thousands more killed by the Islamist militant-sect Boko Haram. South African-based Malawian cleric Hopeson Bonye says nothing good has come out of Boko Haram, saying it is just fighting everyone, and is extending its tentacles to neighboring countries. "It is wrong, and...
(Voice of America 08/13/13)
NAIROBI — The United States is keeping a close watch on potential European trade deals with African nations as Washington reviews its own preferential trade initiative with the continent. African ministers and U.S. officials discussed trade relations at a forum Monday in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. The U.S. is considering an extension to the popular African Growth and Opportunity Act, known as AGOA, an American law that allows sub-Saharan African countries to export certain products to the United States duty free. First signed into law in 2000, the act has already been renewed once, and is set to expire in 2015. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman has been meeting with African ministers at an AGOA forum in Addis Ababa...
(CNN 08/12/13)
UN chief Ban Ki-moon says the Central African Republic (CAR) has suffered a "total breakdown of law and order" since rebels seized power in March. He urged the UN Security Council to consider sanctions or to set up a panel of experts to monitor the situation. Seleka rebel group leader Michel Djotodia ousted President Francois Bozize in March. Last month Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said the country's health care system had collapsed. In a report that the Security Council is due to discuss on Wednesday, Mr Ban said infighting among rebel groups had led to widespread abuses. "They included arbitrary arrests and detention, sexual violence against women and children, torture, rape, targeted killings, recruitment of child soldiers and attacks, committed...
(AFP 08/11/13)
JOHANNESBURG, August 11, 2013 (AFP) - Nelson Mandela is making "slow but steady" progress back to health, although he remains critically ill, the office of the South African president said Sunday. The 95-year-old former president and anti-apartheid icon has been in hospital for more than two months with a recurring lung infection. "Former President Nelson Mandela continues to receive treatment in hospital in Pretoria and doctors have indicated to President Jacob Zuma that the former president is making a slow but steady improvement," a statement from the presidency said. "The medical team also reiterated that although his health was improving steadily, Madiba still remained in a critical condition," it added, referring to Mandela by his clan name. Zuma asked South...
(Reuters 08/11/13)
(Reuters) - Six migrants drowned off the Italian island of Sicily on Saturday after attempting a dangerous passage from Africa in a fishing boat, according to the Italian coastguard. The 18-metre-long boat carrying some 120 migrants ran aground at dawn some 40 meters (132 feet) from a beach near the city of Catania, its coastguard captain Roberto D'Arrigo said. While most of the passengers reached the shore, the six who drowned were apparently unable to swim. The 120 migrants were mainly from Syria and Egypt, D'Arrigo told Sky Italia television, with an adolescent boy among the victims, who were all under age 30. Egypt has suffered prolonged political and economic turmoil. Syria is shattered by civil war. D'Arrigo said he...
(AFP (eng) 08/10/13)
Nelson Mandela, who has been lying critically ill in hospital for just over two months, is becoming more alert and more responsive by the day, his youngest daughter said Friday, adding that the anti-apartheid hero is "not going anywhere anytime soon". "Tata (father) now manages to sit up, like now he is able to sit up in a chair for a few minutes in a day. Everyday you know, he becomes more alert, more responsive, and so on," Zindzi Mandela told South Africa public television SABC. "Tata is determined not to go anywhere anytime soon, I cannot stress this enough. "People must stop saying to the family let go, let go, we are just looking at this man who is...
(Reuters 08/09/13)
LONDON | Fri Aug 9, 2013 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs (GS.N) has appointed Alasdair Warren as head of its financial sponsors group for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), according to a memo seen by Reuters. Financial sponsors, the term investment banks use to describe private equity firms, are regular users of equity capital markets for selling shares in their portfolio companies. London-based Warren, who joined Goldman in 2005 and was named a partner in 2008, was previously head of equity capital markets (ECM), convertibles and equity derivatives for EMEA. Richard Cormack and Christoph Stanger will jointly take on that role, becoming co-heads of ECM and convertibles in EMEA, the memo said. A spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs confirmed the contents...
(AFP 08/08/13)
CAPE TOWN, August 8, 2013 (AFP) - Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu had his Twitter account briefly suspended Thursday for "aggressively following" other users, just hours after it was launched. The ex-archbishop's @TutuLegacy account racked up hundreds of followers in its first hours of use, before being black listed. "Twitter says it's 'sorry for the inconvenience' over our suspension. We got caught up in a spam clean up. Glad it wasn't something we said," Tutu tweeted soon after he was unblocked. His foundation had earlier expressed dismay at the decision. "Twitter has not explained how following 30 people could be construed as 'aggressive following'," his foundation said in a statement. The foundation suggested "the number of people who followed...
(AFP 08/07/13)
PRETORIA, August 7, 2013 (AFP) - South African church leaders on Wednesday led prayers in front of the hospital where critically ill former South African president Nelson Mandela is soon to mark two months in care. Archbishop Joe Seoka used the eve of the sorrow-tinged anniversary to urge South Africans to rally together. "God is using Madiba, and his extended illness, to present to us a great challenge to unite behind the values that he represents," the Pretoria archbishop said, using Mandela's clan name. Mandela was rushed to the Pretoria Mediclinic Heart Hospital on June 8 with a recurring lung infection. On Wednesday the South African presidency reported his condition was still "critical but stable". The last two months have...
( FOROYAA Newspaper 08/07/13)
With its abundance of natural resources and large and growing population , Africa is the next frontier for many global companies. However, while investors are keen to get, there's often a wariness on the part of Africans. The BBC's Vineet Khare travelled to Ethiopia to find out about what can be a tricky relationship and how things are not always so rosy. Watch the video...
(Business Daily 08/06/13)
The top-ranking US trade official Michael Froman said on Monday that issues of "reciprocity" will be raised at a US-Africa conference next week in Ethiopia that will consider renewal of the Agoa trade initiative. The African Growth and Opportunity Act, which is due to expire in 2015, gives duty-free treatment to Kenyan textiles and many other African exports to the United States. Agoa is said to be responsible for creating thousands of jobs in the Kenyan textile industry. But as a condition to Agoa's extension beyond 2015, American negotiators may press African countries to give the same preferential treatment to US exports to Africa. Ambassador Froman made clear in a talk at the Brookings Institution in Washington that the US...
(Reuters 08/06/13)
LAGOS/SYDNEY, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Nigeria is gradually opening up to Islamic finance, a move that could bring non-interest banking to over 80 million Muslims and develop one of Africa's fastest-growing consumer and corporate banking sectors. Home to the largest Muslim population in sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria is trying to establish itself as the African hub for Islamic finance, which follows religious principles such as bans on interest and gambling. In recent months, a string of regulatory initiatives have set the groundwork for products such as Islamic bonds (sukuk), insurance (takaful) and interbank lending products, although there is still only a small number of local market participants. "The potential is there but the market is negligible in Nigeria because we have...