African leaders seek 15-year extension for AGOA

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African leaders yesterday urged the United States  to renew the trade benefits programme giving duty-free access to billions of dollars of African exports for 15 years, saying it would help cement trade relations and boost development in the region.

South African President Jacob Zuma, one of nearly 50 African leaders in Washington to attend a three-day summit, said the renewal of the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) when it expires next year, is one of the key issues for this week’s talks.

“Almost 95 per cent of South African exports receive preferential treatment under AGOA,” Zuma said at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event, joining calls by the African Union for a 15-year extension.

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Video: Kenyan & Nigerian businessmen engage to address the unexploited potential of intra-African trade

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Tourism and import export trade formed the thrust of the discussions that Kenyan businessmen had with their Nigerian counterparts during the 3-day bilateral talks held from the beginning of the week. Equity Bank’s Chief Executive James Mwangi in an exclusive interview with NTV’s Business Reporter Alex Mwangi, said success in attracting just a small percentage of Nigerians as tourists would lead to huge revenues for the sector. Here is more of what transpired from that visit.

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VIDE0: Nelson Mandela, Ex-South African leader buried in Qunu

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Dignitaries from around the world have gathered in South Africa to bid a final farewell to Nelson Mandela at his state funeral. The Prince of Wales has joined some 4,000 people at the service for South Africa's first African president, along with Mr Mandela's family unit members, African leaders and several heads of state. It marks the finish of 1st week of memorial events for the anti-apartheid hero which may have attracted 1000s of South Africans and world leaders.

VIDE0 POST: Nelson Mandela, Ex-South African leader buried in Qunu

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President GEJ seeks immunity for African leaders from ICC prosecution for war crimes, genocide

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Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan, has called for an amendment of the laws governing the International Criminal Court, ICC, to allow serving African leaders to enjoy immunity from prosecution for war crimes, genocide, and war against humanity. Two serving African presidents, Sudan and Kenya, have been accused of war crimes by the ICC. Mr. Jonathan stated this on Saturday in an address at the Extraordinary Session of African Union Heads of State and Government, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 

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Graphic photos: African man dies after sitting down at the national mall and calmly sets himself ablaze.

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A man has died after setting himself on fire on the National Mall in Washington. Police responded to an emergency call about a fire shortly before 4.30pm on the Mall. The man was airlifted to hospital after bystanders used the shirts off their backs to tamp down the flames, police and witnesses said.

The man, who was not identified, was conscious when he was taken to Washington Hospital Centre but he later died from his injuries.

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Two African Cities Among 10 World’s Most Expensive Cities To Live In 2013

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A new study by the Mercer global consulting firm says the Angolan capital, Luanda, tops the list as the world’s most expensive city for expatriates.


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South African police fire stun grenades at anti-Obama protesters

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Police fired stun grenades on Saturday at hundreds of protesters rallying against President Barack Obama's visit to South Africa, an AFP correspondent said.

At least three bangs were heard as police tried to move the demonstrators away from a university campus where Obama is expected to hold a town hall event later in the day.

AFP
Read more: http://english.ruvr.ru/news/2013_06_29/S-African-police-fire-stun-grenades-at-anti-Obama-protesters-9514/

Congratulations: GT Bank Named 2013 African Bank Of The Year

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Guaranty Trust Bank PLC has been named the 2013 bank of the year by the African Banker magazine.

The award recognizes financial institutions that have emerged as industry leaders and continent trend setters, due to good corporate governance practices, exceptional service delivery within the financial services industry of their country and innovative products.  Chief Executive Officer of Guaranty Trust Bank PLC, Mr Segun Agbaje attributed the recognition to hard work, discipline and a well-defined operating strategy.

Last year, the bank was named the best bank in Nigeria by the Euro Money magazine for the fourth consecutive year while it earned the 2011 Best Bank in Nigeria award from EMEA finance.  Guaranty Trust Bank also emerged as the first Nigerian financial institution to cross the N100 billion profit before tax milestone from operations at both bank and group levels.

WEIRD NEWS: President Of Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan Got Completely Drunk….Could Not Address African Leaders

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Several diplomats at the 50th anniversary summit of the OAU in Addis Ababa have confirmed to SaharaReporters that the Nigerian president was too irate and inebriated to go and address the meeting yesterday.  Saharareporters had revealed yesterday the Mr. Jonathan failed to show up when it was his turn to address a summit of African heads of states who met in Addis Ababa starting midweek.
Several sources told SaharaReporters that Mr. Jonathan was so infuriated over the outcome of an election by the Nigerian Governors’ Forum that he drank himself to a stupor.

“Mr. President made several calls to Governor Godswill Akpabio rebuking him for allowing the elections to take place even when it was clear that the president’s candidate Governor Jonah Jang was likely to lose”, says one of our sources.

The account of what led Jonathan’s failure to deliver his speech contradicted an explanation offered by President Jonathan’s spokesman, Reuben Abati.

Achebe, no father of African literature — Soyinka

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As celebrated author, Chinua Achebe’s final burial rites hold this week, Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka in this exclusive interview with Sahara Reporters paid tribute to the famous author but says he(Achebe) is not the father of African literature. Soyinka, who won the 1986 Nobel Prize for literature, also spoke on his personal relationship with Achebe and other Nigerian writers; his regrets about Achebe’s last book, There Was A Country: A Personal History of Biafra; and his attempt to talk the late Biafran leader, Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, out of fighting a war

Do you recall where or how you first learned about the death of Professor Chinua Achebe? And what was your first reaction?

Where I heard the news? I was on the road between Abeokuta and Lagos. Who called first – BBC or a Nigerian journalist? Can’t recall now, since other calls followed fast and furious, while I was still trying to digest the news. My first reaction? Well, you know the boa constrictor – when it has just swallowed an abnormal morsel, it goes comatose, takes time off to digest. Today’s global media appears indifferent to such a natural entitlement. You are expected to supply that instant response. So, if – as was the case – my first response was to be stunned, that swiftly changed to anger.

World’s Largest Dam To Provide Electricity For 500 Million African Homes

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Work will start in October 2015, on the world’s biggest hydroelectric dam in the Democratic Republic of Congo after talks between DR Congo and international officials.

Sunday’s meeting on the proposed Inga dam on the Congo river also involved multilateral lending institutions.

According to a statement, the “foundation stone will be laid in October 2015.”
“With a production of 40,000 megawatts, the Grand Inga project will eventually provide electricity to half the African continent,” it said.

This is less than half of the DR Congo’s total hydropower resources, which the World Bank estimates at 100,000 megawatts.

World Bank estimates suggest that if completed and running at full capacity, the complex could provide energy to up to 500 million African households.

Press Freedom: Nigeria Is Ahead Of Some African Countries – NUJ President (Video)

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The president Nigerian Union of Journalist Mr. Garba Mohammed, speaking on the press freedom in Nigeria today said that what the government has accommodated in terms of analysis in most media houses cannot be accommodated in some countries in Africa, so Nigeria has gone far in achieving expression of speech.

While speaking on Channels Television’s Breakfast Show Sunrise Daily, he stated that Nigeria can’t be compared to Somalia because on a regular basis journalists are assaulted in Somalia, he said a committee will be set up to verify these claims.

 He added that being in a democratic system journalists have not been killed while performing their duties, except during insurgencies

WORRISOME !!! African lion kills female intern at private American big cat sanctuary

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A female intern-volunteer was killed Wednesday by a lion at a private wild animal park in Central California, and state and local authorities were trying to determine what might have caused the fatal attack.

Cat Haven founder and executive director Dale Anderson was crying as he read a one-sentence statement about the fatal mauling at the exotic animal zoo he has operated since 1993.

The 26-year-old intern was attacked and killed when she entered the lion’s enclosure, Anderson said, but he refused to answer questions or provide more details.

Two Nigerian journalist brutalised by South African police

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Two Nigerian journalists covering the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) were kicked, dragged on the ground, threatened with cocked guns and forcibly detained for two hours by officers of the South African police in Johannesburg on Tuesday afternoon.

 

Debo Oshudun, Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) for Central and Southern Africa and John Joshua Akanji, a Deputy Editor of The Sun Newspapers were onboard a taxi on their way to cover the departure of the AFCON winners Super Eagles when shortly after they both alighted, they were surrounded by no less than 20 fully armed South African police officers who threatened to shoot them after they insisted they were Journalists.

South African Billionaire Pledges Half His Wealth To The Poor

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Henry T. Heald once said; “When lack of funds prevents hospitals from functioning efficiently and fully, private philanthropy of all kinds must help. The difference it makes in terms of human betterment represents the kind of happiness that money really can buy.”

This is why Patrice Motsepe, South Africa’s first and only black billionaire has announced he is giving away half his wealth to improve the lives of the poor.

The mining magnate said the money would be handled by the Motsepe Foundation to address education and health issues.

Photo: Student Charged With plotting To Blow Up His African Classmates

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The entire country might be talking about Alabama because of their national championship football team, but there is another unfortunate incident that might also bring notoriety to the state.  An Alabama teenager has been charged with planning an explosives attack on his school, with the alleged intent to blow up his black classmates.

Nigerian man stabbed to death by his South African wife

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Nigerian man, Tony Rholand  (pictured above on the right) was stabbed to death by his South African wife, Lungi, at their home in Willims town, Cape Town, South Africa on Tuesday January 1st. The couple, who have a kid together, got into an argument in the early hours of January 1st and before anyone could stop it, Lungi stabbed Tony severally in the stomach. Tony died in the hospital a few hours later. Lungi has been arrested. 

D'banj signs exclusive Pan African deal with Sony Music

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Global recording company Sony Music Entertainment is proud to announce the signing of Nigerian megastar D’Banj to its RCA Africa label. The breakthrough deal also includes a multi-album, worldwide exclusive contract with emerging Nigerian singer-songwriter star Kayswitch and a strategic partnership with D’Banj’s Nigerian record label DB Records, who’s catalog includes artists and producers such as J.Sol, Jay Sleek and DeeVee.

Nelson Mandela Has Lung Infection- South African Govt

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South Africa's first black President Nelson Mandela has a lung infection but is responding to treatment, South African government said Tuesday, as the revered anti-apartheid icon spent his fourth day in hospital.
This is the first time officials have revealed why Mr Mandela, 94, was rushed to a military hospital in the capital, Pretoria, on Saturday.