Sudan elections

An historic presidential and parliamentary elections in Sudan must be conducted peacefully and credibly but for this great moment to run smoothly and successfuly, the country's Government, electoral authorities and political parties have to play their part to ensure the polls take place free of violence or intimidation.Sudanese go to the ballot box for the first time after 2 decades and  elect a national president and most emphasis going for a southern president, state governors and for members of national and local assemblies.

These elections are an important milestone in the implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the long-running north-south civil war in Sudan
For the international community, the holding of peaceful and credible elections is of paramount importance.

The lead-up to the election, which will take place over three days beginning tomorrow, has been marked by international concerns over the conduct of the vote. European Union (EU) observers had withdrawn from the war-scarred Darfur region because of security concerns and some opposition parties reportedly said they would boycott the poll.

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The girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes

Every minute more than 22 children die from the effects of poverty.
Every second more than an acre of rainforest is lost to deforestation.
But we have one solution.
Rescue a Million's innovative program
simultaneously saves two of the earth's most precious
resources - children and the environment.

Rescue a Million helps provide the hard-working parents of children all over the world with micro-loans to start small businesses. With their loans, in the form of cash, equipment, or animals, parents can begin to change the quality of life for themselves and their children. With their new business, or with much needed expansions to an already existing enterprise, parents can generate the income necessary to afford the food, clothing, shelter, medicine and education their
children need-often breaking the bonds of poverty forever. Lives are saved when children are rescued from poverty

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Kenya: Draft Law Setback as Politicians Squabble

How long will this take?

The major political parties dealt a blow to the draft constitution on Thursday, taking antagonistic positions in the review process. MPs rejected for a second time, an attempt to hold a meeting to seek unity in Naivasha, meaning that the squabbling could spill over to the floor of the House on Tuesday afternoon.

There were fears that the review had become a theatre for political wars and power struggles within the ruling coalition. "There is a lot of drama surrounding this (review) process that has nothing to do with the new constitution. I think we should not allow these differences to cloud the objective of getting a new constitution," said Parliamentary Select Committee on the constitution chairman, Mr Mohamed Abdikadir.
He asked MPs not to politicise the review when debate on the draft begins next week. Orange Democratic Party and Party of National Unity have taken opposing sides on whether there should be amendments to the draft presented to Parliament by the Committee of Experts.
PNU favours the revision of the draft done by the PSC while ODM supports the output of the CoE as the final document. On Thursday, PNU members of Parliament met and expressed fears that some of their ODM counterparts were hatching plans to derail the review.

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Kenya: Kenyan Music Online

Isn't this some good news?
Kenyan musicians can now sell their music online and receive their payments through mobile cash platforms.
A local online store has been opened to serve local artistes, who have been plagued by poor distribution channels in the country and abroad.
The artistes can now place their music in the online store, pewahewa.com, for their fans to select and complete purchase through M-pesa or Zap money transfer platforms.

"Pewahewa.com has opened musicians to a whole new world of music distribution," said David Kuria, the business development manager of Pewahewa Music Limited during the shop's launch on Thursday night at a Nairobi hotel."We seek to empower local musicians by making their music not only easily accessible to their fans but also as affordable as possible."

Each song will cost Sh30. Pewahewa has partnered with ipay, a real-time online transaction processing system, launched last month targeted at the region's online merchants offering an alternative payment channel to credit cards.
"Increasing number of internet users have spurred the need for e-commerce in the country and the mobile money platforms serve as an alternative to those with no credit cards," said Steve Ogolla of Intrepid Data Systems.
The innovators hope to tap into the fast growing market, where about 10 million Kenyans using the mobile cash services. The availability of more bandwidth in the country has also supported the development.
Mr Kuria said: "We are passionate and committed to using every resource available at our disposal to ensure musicians are compensated for their hard work." 

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Sara Nuru

African beauty is about being proudly African, whether you're dark or not. It's about celebrating your unique and distic features.There is no.one like us because you can tell an African a mile a way.

Sara is a real eye-catcher and she has a beautiful unique look, based on the title to particularly good effect.
Germany's 'Next Top Model' Sara Nuru, whose parents are from Ethiopia, graces the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine. She has recently won the title, Germany's Next Topmodel.

Finally, she has her first cover! "Top Model" winner Sara Nuru (19) smiles from the cover of pink women's magazine "Cosmopolitan". The job title as a Girl is part of their profits in Heidi Klum talent show "Germany's Next Topmodel".

At the end of May the beautiful Munich native won the "Germany's Next Topmodel" Finals
under the supervision of Model Mom Heidi Klum (35). Since then Sara is charmingly by the press and TV dates.
Now there is finally the reward! "We are sure that the July issue is an absolute condition of success, because the fans burn out, Sara on the cover to see and everything about the new top model to learn.

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British believe Africans are barbaric, says Jacob Zuma

South Africa's president Jacob Zuma, has lashed out at British attitudes to "barbaric" Africans as he begins a state visit in London.

The remarks came after scathing British media coverage of the polygamous president and his chequered past, including the recent scandal of his 20th child, born out of wedlock.A Daily Mail article described him as a "sex-obsessed bogot" and "vile buffoon"

Zuma, due to meet the Queen and Gordon Brown today, countered with an attack on what he described as culturally superior views reminiscent of the British empire in South Africa.
"When the British came to our country, they said everything we are doing was barbaric, was wrong, inferior in whatever way," he told South Africa's Star newspaper.
"Bear in mind that I'm a freedom fighter and I fought to free myself, also for my culture to be respected. And I don't know why they are continuing thinking that their culture is more superior than others, those who might have said so.
"I am very clear on these issues, I've not looked down upon any culture of anyone, and no one has been given an authority to judge others.
"The British have done that before, as they colonised us, and they continue to do this, and it's an unfortunate thing. If people want an engagement, I'm sure we will engage on that issue."
Zuma's statement was condemned by South Africa's main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, as insulting to his hosts.
Kenneth Mubu, the party's shadow international relations minister, said: "The treatment of President Jacob Zuma at the hands of a certain portion of the British press – most notably the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror – does not excuse his quite extraordinary attack on Britain and the British people."
He added: "Instead of rising above predictable criticism from a particular quarter of the British press, he has allowed himself to be dragged down to the level of the tabloids.
"By accusing the British people of believing that Africans are barbaric and inferior, he has insulted his hosts, and no doubt undermined the entire purpose of the state visit – which is to strengthen relations between South Africa and the United Kingdom."
Zuma was backed, however, by the youth wing of his party, the African National Congress. It issued a statement saying it was disgusted by the British reports.
"British media seem to have developed a habit of rubbishing our president and constantly portray him as barbaric and of inferior belonging," the youth league said. "It is quite apparent that the British media is the one that is characterised and defined by the worst form of barbarism, backwardness and racism.

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Kenya:Turkana Wind Power Project U.S.$150 Million Funding

Nairobi — Lake Turkana Wind Power Ltd -- one of the largest wind power project in Africa and Kenya's most ambitious green energy venture yet -- has just achieved a major breakthrough with the Spanish government stepping in with a $150 million (€110 million) offer to finance construction of the transmission line.
The entry of the Spaniards has come at a time when anxiety was beginning to grow over whether the massive project would achieve financial closure.

African Development Bank, the financial arrangers of the project, had warned the government that reaching financial closure on the 300MW wind farm would be difficult without a firm commitment that financing of the transmission line was fully funded.

The project will involve the construction of a 427-kilometre double circuit transmission line between Loiyangalani in Marsabit, northern Kenya, and the nearest point to the national grid at Suswa, approximately 100 kilometres from Nairobi.
The Lake Turkana Wind Power Project is significant to Kenya's energy security because it will represent a fifth of Kenya's existing capacity for generating electricity.
At 300 MW, it eclipses the 290MW of expensive electricity Kenya is currently buying from diesel-fired power plants under an emergency programme to bridge the country's chronic power deficit.
Communication between Kenya's Ministries of Finance and Energy and the Spanish government over the past one month indicates that the major milestones have been met to close the financing for the project.

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Is Africa lagging behind?

Africa is lagging behind the rest of the world in developing renewable energy projects with initiatives aimed at producing clean and 'green' energy remaining largely under-exploited.New report released today by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

 
A UNEP assessment noted that the entire continent has just over 120 carbon market projects up and running or in the pipeline in areas ranging from wind power to forestry schemes, and harvesting methane gas from landfills to fuel electricity generation makes up 20 per cent of all such initiatives.

Larger economies in Africa such as Egypt and South Africa are home to the lion's share of the schemes, with 32 and 13 projects respectively, while Zambia, Madagascar, Cameroon and Mali only have one or two projects each and several countries have none, according to the report.
The study also reported patchy growth in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol allowing developed countries to reduce emissions and meet global warming commitments by investing in carbon reduction projects in developing countries.Why don't we take the initiative and make use of the plenty natural resources that we have.

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Trade

Africa is rich in natural resources such as minerals, timber and oil, but trade with the rest of the world is often difficult.
Factors include poor infrastructure, government instability, corruption and the impact of Aids on the population of working age.
Poorer countries and agencies such as Oxfam also argue that international trade rules are unfair and favour the developed world.
They say rich countries "dump" subsidised products on developing nations by undercutting local producers.
And they accuse the World Trade Organisation (WTO) of forcing developing nations to open their markets to the rest of the World but failing to lower rich countries' tariff barriers in return.
But the WTO says that low income countries receive special treatment, including exemption from some regulations that apply to richer nations.

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Poverty

Poverty is at the heart of Africa's problems. This is an overview of some of the economic challenges facing the continent.
Most of Sub-Saharan Africa is in the World Bank's lowest income category of less than $765 Gross National Income (GNI) per person per year. Ethiopia and Burundi are the worst off with just $90 GNI per person.
Even middle income countries like Gabon and Botswana have sizeable sections of the population living in poverty.

North Africa generally fares better than Sub-Saharan Africa. Here, the economies are more stable, trade and tourism are relatively high and Aids is less prevalent.
Development http://news.bbc.co.uk campaigners have argued that the rules on debt, aid and trade need reforming to help lift more African nations out of poverty. 

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Education

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Business

Shipping Firms Pass on Piracy Charges to Local Importers

Traders are rallying international support for the war against pirates off the coast of Somalia to stop the loss of billions of shillings through surging shipping costs.
Traders maintain that piracy is not a problem of Kenya's making, but international shipping lines are passing on the additional cost of sailing longer routes to avoid attacks and beefed up vessel security to consumers, drastically pushing up the cost of sea freight with negative impact on the region's economy.
Figures released on Tuesday by the Kenya Shippers Council (KSC) indicate that the region has been paying out Sh2billion every month to cover the cost of piracy over the last 18 months.
"The money is just the direct upward cost adjustment that international vessels have made to cover themselves from piracy but could be double if we include opportunity cost like lost market share as some orders may end up not reaching their destinations," said the KSC chief executive Gilbert Lang'at
He added: "A clear case in point is the recent hijacking of NV Delvina with 15,050 tonnes of wheat. The loss of production capacity and sale by millers who made the order, going by a conservative figure of $238 per tonne, gives a revenue loss $3,581,900."
Based on container throughput at Mombasa port, averaging 40,000 twenty foot equivalent units, KSC puts the increased monthly cost that directly results from piracy on imports (28,000 TEUs) at Sh1.8 billion ($23.8 million), while exports attract an additional Sh735 million ( $9.8 million) per month.
Among the new charges that shipping lines have introduced to ensure ransom activities do not drive them out of business include container handling charges which have risen by between 34 and 150 per cent compared to rates before October and bulk cargo freight rates, which have gone up between five and 150 per cent.

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Music

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