THE INSTITUTE OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

INSTITUTE OF CONTRACT, PROJECT AND FACILITIES MANAGEMENT

CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

FEBRUARY 18 2013 PROGRAMME

NEWS

Mali sets 7 July election date

Mali will hold nationwide presidential elections on 7 July, the interim government's territorial administration minister has announced.

It would be a key step to stabilising Mali following the intervention of French troops to oust Islamist fighters from the north of the country, he said.

Legislative elections will follow on 21 July, along with a presidential run-off if required.

Thousands of troops from France and African nations are currently in Mali.

Elections were due in Mali in April 2012, but a coup the month before threw the country into disarray.

Foreign workers abducted in Bauchi state

Seven foreign workers have been seized and a security guard shot dead by gunmen who attacked a construction company site in northern Nigeria, officials say.

One of the workers seized was Italian, one was Greek and two others Lebanese.

But UK officials could not confirm a report that another was British.

No-one has admitted the abductions but the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, has staged a series of attacks in northern Nigeria.

A security guard was killed as the attackers targeted the workers' camp at Jama'are in Bauchi state.

Correspondents say it is the biggest kidnapping in northern Nigeria in recent times.

Foreigners held in Libya on suspicion of proselytizing

Four foreign nationals have been arrested in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on suspicion of being Christian missionaries, officials say.

A spokesman for Preventative Security said they were under investigation for printing and distributing tens of thousands of books about Christianity.

Proselytising was forbidden in the predominantly Muslim country, he added.

Those arrested were an Egyptian, a South African, a South Korean and a Swede with joint US citizenship.

Brahimi urges Syria peace talks at UN

Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN-Arab League joint envoy, has called for talks between the Syrian opposition and an "acceptable delegation" from the Damascus government on a political solution to the country's 23-month-old civil war.

In a joint press conference in Cairo with Nabil El-Araby, the Arab League secretary-general, Brahimi said on Sunday that negotiations could begin on UN premises. He gave no specific location.

The initiative of opposition leader Mouaz al-Khatib, which calls for talks with any Syrian representative not directly involved in repression, "has opened the door and challenged the Syrian government to live up to what it has been continuously saying, that it is ready for dialogue and a peaceful solution", Brahimi said.

Khatib, the head of the Syrian National Coalition, offered last week to hold talks with President Bashar al-Assad's ceremonial deputy, Farouq al-Sharaa, on a political transition in which Assad would be given safe passage to go into exile.


COMMENTARIES:

1) INSECURITY/ TERRORISM TODAY- CASE STUDY OF PAKISTAN, IRAQ AND NIGERIA.
2) THE BAUCHI KIDNAP
3) ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND JOB CREATION
4) LOCAL POLITICS- THE MERGER OF OPPOSITION PARTIES AND THE LIKELIHOOD OF SUCCESS

 

 

FEB 11th 2013 PROGRAMME

NEWS:

Heavy gunfire in northern Mali town of Gao

Malian troops and suspected Islamist militants are exchanging heavy gunfire on the streets of Gao in northern Mali.

it comes a day after a suicide bomber blew himself up near a checkpoint at a northern entrance to the town - the second such attack in two days.
Gao was retaken just over two weeks ago by French and Malian forces, who supposedly drove out the Islamists.
Security had been tightened in the wake of the suicide attacks, with military patrols stepped up and checkpoints put in place.
An armed rebel group, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, or MUJAO, has claimed responsibility for an attack on the city of Gao in northern Mali and a suicide bombing the day before.

Tunisia President Marzouki's CPR 'to withdraw ministers'

The secular party of Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki says its ministers will leave the Islamist-led government.

A CPR party leader said its demands that two Islamist ministers should be replaced had not been met, and that the pullout would be confirmed on Monday.
The move comes amid a crisis sparked by the killing last week of an opposition leader, which triggered mass protests.
Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said he wanted to form a government of technocrats, to ease tensions.
However, his own Islamist Ennahda party, which dominates the cabinet, has opposed the plan.

Syria opposition open to talks in rebel areas

Syrian opposition leader Mouaz al-Khatib has said he is willing to hold talks with President Bashar al-Assad's representatives in rebel-held areas of northern Syria to try to end a conflict that has killed more than 60,000 people.
The aim of the talks would be to find a way for Assad to leave power with the "minimum of bloodshed and destruction", al-Khatib said in a statement published on his Facebook page.
Meanwhile Battles continued between Syrian regime forces and rebels for the control of a key highway outside Damascus as rebels launched fierce assaults in several other parts of the country. Sunday’s fighting was the heaviest in the capital since the first rebel push into the city last July.
Checkpoints on the main artery into the city have changed hands several times since Wednesday, when opposition fighters started their campaign for the capital, the seat of President Bashar al-Assad's power.

Foreign doctors killed in north-eastern Nigeria

Three North Korean doctors have been killed in the north-eastern Nigerian state of Yobe, officials say.

Residents said they were killed during the night in the town of Potiskum. Two of them had their throats slit while the third was beheaded, they added.
Officials said the victims had been working at a government-run hospital.
No-one has said they were behind the attack, but it happened in an area where the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, has been active in recent years.
Meanwhile On Friday, nine polio vaccination workers - all said to have been women - were shot dead in northern Nigeria. Some were killed in Kano, others at a health centre in Hotoro, outside the city.
President Goodluck Jonathan condemned the killings, for which no group has claimed responsibility, and vowed that the campaign to eradicate polio would be carried through to a successful conclusion.

Shot schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai leaves hospital

A Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by the Taliban has been discharged from hospital after making a good recovery following surgery.

Malala Yousafzai, 15, was attacked in October after campaigning for girls' rights to education.
A bullet was removed from her head by surgeons in Pakistan, before she was flown to the UK for further treatment.
She had a titanium plate and cochlear implant fitted at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital


COMMENTARY

1) THE YOUNG LADY WHO DIED  BECAUSE SHE COULDNT AFFORD N3.5MILLION TO TREAT CANCER
2) THE 3 NORTH KOREAN DOCTORS KILLED IN YOBE STATE
3) THE 9 WOMEN HEALTH WORKERS WHO WERE KILLED IN KANO

FEBRUARY 4TH 2013 PROGRAMME

NEWS

President Assad accuses Israel of destabilising Syria

Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad has accused Israel of trying to "destabilise" his country.

It was his first remarks on last week's reported Israeli air strike in Syria.
Syrian TV has shown images of the raid Damascus says Israeli jets carried out on a military research centre in Jamraya last Wednesday.
US officials said the air strike targeted a weapons convoy bound for Lebanon. The Israeli defence minister has hinted his country was responsible.

French President Hollande pledges to help rebuild Mali

French President Francois Hollande has said his government will help rebuild Mali, three weeks after launching an offensive against Islamist rebels who had seized the north of the country.

Speaking in the capital, Bamako, he pledged more French aid to its former colony and vowed to restore cultural sites damaged by the rebels.
Mr Hollande said France would help Mali re-establish control in the north.

Yahya Jammeh gives Gambians an extra day off

Gambia has started a four-day week for public sector workers, with Fridays now an extra day off.

President Yahya Jammeh has said the shorter week will give The Gambia's mainly Muslim population more time to pray, socialise and tend to fields.
Mr Jammeh, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1994, is known for his eccentric behaviour.
Critics say his latest decision will promote laziness and disrupt the poor West African state's economy.
Agriculture, especially peanut exports, forms the backbone of The Gambia's economy.This new arrangement will allow Gambians to devote more time to prayers, social activities and agriculture”It is also a popular tourist destination, because of its beaches.

Malala Yousafzai recovering after operations

The Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by the Taliban has undergone surgery in Birmingham.

Malala Yousafzai, 15, was attacked in October after campaigning for girls' rights to education.
A bullet was removed from her head by surgeons in Pakistan, before she was flown to the UK for further treatment.
Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital said a titanium plate and cochlear implant were successfully attached in two operations on Saturday.

Suicide bomber strikes US embassy in Turkey

A security guard has been killed after a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the US embassy in the Turkish capital, Ankara.
The US ambassador to Turkey confirmed that one of the embassy's Turkish staff was killed.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, said the bomber was a member of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), a far-left group which is virulently anti-American and anti-NATO.
Turkish media identified the bomber as Ecevit Sanli, who was involved in attacks on a police station and a military staff college in Istanbul in 1997.
The US is calling the attack an "act of terror," but said the motivation was unclear. US officials said that the DHKP-C was the main suspect, but did not exclude other possibilities.

Iran open to 'fair' nuclear talks with US

Iran is ready for direct talks with the United States on its nuclear programme as long as Washington has "fair and real intentions," said Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.
His comment came on Sunday, a day after US Vice President Joe Biden made the same offer to Tehran, with similar caveats, raising a glimmer of hope of progress in resolving the long-running standoff.
The United States, other Western powers and Israel believe Iran is working on a nuclear weapons programme, a charge the Islamic republic denies, claiming its programme is for civilian use.
Iran, which has been punished for its nuclear programme with tough US and EU sanctions, in January told the UN nuclear watchdog it will expand its uranium enrichment capacity.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said his country and its allies were "determined to prevent Iran from turning nuclear" and all agreed that "no option should be removed off the table."


COMMENTARY 

1) ISRAEL
2) SYRIA
3) MALI
4) NIGERIA - 2015 ELECTION PROGNOSIS

SUDAN

Sudan is the largest and one of the most geographically diverse countries in Africa. Mountain ranges divide the deserts of the north from the swamps and rain forests of the south, and the River Nile splits the country from east to west.

The country has been beset by conflict. Two rounds of north-south civil war cost the lives of 1.5 million people, and a continuing conflict in the western region of Darfur has driven two million people from their homes and killed more than 200,000.

Sudan's centuries of association with Egypt formally ended in 1956, when joint British-Egyptian rule over the country ended. Independence was rapidly overshadowed by unresolved constitutional tensions with the south, which flared up into full-scale civil war that the coup-prone central government was ill-equipped to suppress.

The military-led government of President Jaafar Numeiri agreed to autonomy for the south in 1972, but fighting broke out again in 1983. After two years of bargaining, the rebels signed a comprehensive peace deal with the government to end the civil war in January 2005.

The accord provides for a high degree of autonomy for the south. The region will also share oil revenue equally with the north.

In Darfur, in western Sudan, the United Nations has accused pro-government Arab militias of a campaign of ethnic cleansing against non-Arab locals. The conflict has strained relations between Sudan and Chad, to the west. Both countries have accused each other of cross-border incursions. There have been fears that the Darfur conflict could lead to a regional war.

Decades of fighting have left Sudan's infrastructure in tatters. With the return of millions of displaced southerners, there is a pressing need for reconstruction. The economic dividends of peace could be great. Sudan has large areas of cultivatable land, as well as gold and cotton. Its oil reserves are ripe for further exploitation.

Arabic is the official language and Islam is the state religion, but the large non-Arab, non-Muslim minority has rejected attempts by the government in Khartoum to impose Islamic Sharia law on the country as a whole. President Omar Bashir has been locked in a power struggle with Hassan al-Turabi, his former mentor and the main ideologue of Sudan's Islamist government. Since 2001 Mr Turabi has spent periods in detention and has been accused, but not tried, over an alleged coup plot.

Mr Bashir faces two international arrest warrants - issued by the International Criminal Court in The Hague - on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The charges relate to the conflict in the western Darfur, where thousands of people died of violence, disease and displacement during the fighting between government and rebel forces.

He has dismissed the allegations and has continued to travel to countries which oppose the indictment.

Overview

Sudan has been at war with itself for almost its entire post-colonial history, starting in 1956. Nearly all of its major ethnic and religious groups have fought one another, and politics continues to be dominated by mistrust, outside interference and combustible animosities. There are dozens of armed groups across the country.

Now the country is partaking in what could be the continent's biggest divorce. A long-awaited referendum on southern Sudan’s independence, set in motion by a 2005 peace agreement to stop one of Africa’s worst civil wars, is scheduled for Jan. 9, 2011. The south is expected to vote by as much as 99 percent for secession, splitting the largest country in Africa in two and taking with it most of Sudan’s oil. Such a result could bring an end to the nearly one-million-square-mile experiment called Sudan, which for many troubled decades served as a bridge between the Arab and African world.

As the clock counts down toward voting day, despite earlier prognostications of a delay, there are more and more signs that things will go smoothly. The stakes are so high that neither side, the Islamist northern government or the former rebels who lead southern Sudan, seems to want to be sucked into a war again, or at least to start one.

Since the peace treaty was signed in 2005, the south has been semi-autonomous, running most of its own affairs. Southern Sudan is different culturally and religiously from the northern part of the country, a contrast between Arab and Muslim influences in the north and animist and Christian beliefs in the south.

The southern leaders have rebuilt towns and invested hundreds of millions, perhaps even billions, in roads, ministries, schools and factories, much of which could be bombed into oblivion in a few days by the north’s growing air force. To keep their dreams of independence alive, the southerners seem ready to make concessions. This includes sharing the oil.

Sudan's Explosive History 

In 2005, the country's opposing political parties signed a peace accord that ended Africa's longest-running civil war, which killed an estimated 2.2 million people - 10 times as many as in Darfur. The perennial question is whether the relatively small group of Arabs who live along the northern reaches of the Nile and have historically ruled Sudan will share power and wealth in one of the most diverse populations on the continent. It was political exclusion that drove rebels in the semi-autonomous south to fight, and the same issue inspired the rebellion to the west, in Darfur, which has claimed an estimated 300,000 lives and blown up into one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

The peace treaty between the north and the south, which American officials helped broker and the Bush administration considered a foreign policy triumph, was supposed to address these center-versus-periphery problems head-on. For the most part, the agreement has stopped the killing in the south, which during the 1980s and 1990s became a wasteland of burned villages, slave raiders and thousands of boys - the famous Lost Boys - trudging through the bush looking for a way out.

North-south tensions go back decades, to even before Sudan's independence in 1956. The north is mostly Muslim and historically has identified with the Arab world, while many southerners are Christian and more connected to Kenya, Uganda and other sub-Saharan nations. Beyond that, there is a huge divide when it comes to development, spawned by years of inequality.

While Khartoum has its luxury hotels and shopping malls, the south is where the roads stop. Flying over it, all you see is miles and miles of emerald green. The streets of the south's biggest cities are boulevards of mud. Children go to school under trees.

Two years after the peace treaty, much of the south was heavily militarized. The reason has been that the north has grown dependent on the oil from the south and if the south secedes, the north stands to lose billions of dollars yearly.

Both the north and south have said they want to avoid another costly war, and leaders from the two sides acknowledged that they need each other - the south has most of the country's oil and the north has most of the infrastructure. But the two sides were deadlocked over the toughest issues the treaty was supposed to solve: how to draw the north-south border, how to reform a very militarized government (the standard children's school uniform in Khartoum, the capital, is camouflage fatigues), and how to split Sudan's booming oil profits.

In July 2009, an international tribunal redefined the borders of the disputed oil region by splitting the contested zone between the two sides. In its ruling, the tribunal, seated at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, overruled a decision by an international commission that Sudan's government rejected four years earlier. The ruling gives the north uncontested rights to rich oil deposits like the Heglig oil field, which had previously been placed within the Abyei region, which sits on the border between north and south. But the decision leaves at least one oil field in Abyei and gives a symbolic victory to the Ngok Dinka, an ethnic group loyal to southern Sudan and likely to vote to join it in a referendum.