Zambian media practitioner.He loves eslectronic, print and online journalism. He also loves business, economics, politics, development and climate change.
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Zambia: BP to sell five African units
BP Plc's Zambia marketing wing is among the five African units lined up for sell by the London based global oil giant. BP Plc said it will sell its marketing operations in Namibia, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Botswana after a 'strategic review' into its African operations. - BP Plc said it will focus on South Africa and Mozambique while it will also continue to invest in its operations in Angola, Algeria, Egypt and Libya.
This contained in a statement issued by BP African Unit CEO Sipho Maseko.
The intentions by BP Plc to quench its marketing wing in Zambia will further suffocate the fuel-thirsty nation which has battled with fuel shortages for years due to lack of stable suppliers from…Three journalists kidnapped in Nigeria
Three employees of South African TV channel SuperSport have been kidnapped in south-east Nigeria. The three - one South African and two Nigerians - were reportedly attacked near the airport in Owerri, after covering a football match in Enugu. - South Africa's foreign ministry said it was in contact with Nigerian officials but gave no further details.
It is not clear who is responsible but foreigners are often kidnapped for ransom in the nearby Niger Delta.
According to SuperSport's general manager in Nigeria Felix Awogu, "The attackers ordered out more than 20 people inside the bus and took away the three and the bus”.
Militants in the Niger Delta have cost Nigeria's oil indus…Rwanda: Ex-first lady arrested for genocide
Former Rwanda first lady Agathe Habyarimana has been arrested in France for crimes related to the 1994 genocide. Her husband and former Rwanda president Juvenal Habyarimana's assassination triggered the genocide. - Habyarimana is accused by the current Rwandan government of helping to plan the 1994 genocide, and has long been sought by prosecutors there.
Habyarimana, who has been living in France for several years, denies the accusations.
More than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus died in the massacres of 1994.
French officials said Mrs Habyarimana was detained in the Paris region by police executing a Rwandan-issued international arrest warrant.
Diplomatic relations broken off 20…Uganda: Over 100 killed in landslide
More than 100 people have been killed in a landslide in the mountainous eastern region of Bududa in Uganda. Uganda's Minister for Disaster Preparedness, Musa Ecweru who confirmed the deaths, has since gone to the remote areas to assess what help is needed. Rescuers are digging through the mud with handheld tools, looking for survivors and bodies. - Up to 60 children are missing. They took shelter in a health centre which reports say was destroyed overnight.
Ecweru said he had counted 58 bodies himself but local officials had told him at least 106 people have died.
More than 300 people are reported to be missing after their homes were buried in the area on Monday night after recent heav…Zambia: More flood victims evacuated
The number of people being evacuated to safer and higher grounds in the Zambian capital, Lusaka following heavy flooding has continued to rise. - Several days of continuous rains and severe flooding in some parts of Zambia have forced the evacuation and relocation of hundreds of people while some parts of the country have been completely cut-off from the capital.
According to the Zambia Red Cross Society, the number of families being evacuated to a make-shift temporal shelter at Independence Stadium, north of Lusaka has continued to rise.
The Red Cross says more people that have failed to endure the effects of the floods have signed up for voluntary evacuation and relocation to safer g…Cholera cases increase in Zambia
The widespread cholera outbreak has continued to rise in Zambia, creating panic and fear that is if not contained urgently; the water-borne disease might lead to deaths of people living in flooded regions of the country. - Since the onset of the rainy season late 2009, many parts of Zambia have been shrouded in a mist of floods which have since forced some evacuations in certain areas while far flung places have been cut-off from the capital, Lusaka, causing a further drain to service supplies to rural areas.
Humanitarian agencies such as Red Cross, World Vision and Oxfam have been collaborating with the Lusaka government’s Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit to resettle some of…Rwanda: Genocide perpetrator gets 25yrs
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has sentenced the former head of legal affairs at the Ministry of Defence to 25 years in prison. Lieut-Col Eprem Setako was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. - He was convicted of ordering the killing of at least 30 people at a military camp in 1994.
Hutu extremists killed some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus during the 100-day genocide.
"The Chamber found that Setako ordered the killings on 25 April 1994 of 30 to 40 Tutsis at Mukamira military camp in Ruhengeri prefecture and around 10 other Tutsis there on 11 May 1994," said a statement posted on the ICTR's website.
Setako, 60, was acquitted of other charg…Libya, Swiss diplomatic row deepens
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has called for a jihad, or holy war, against Switzerland, as an ongoing diplomatic row between the two nations heats up. He criticised a recent Swiss vote against the building of minarets and said Muslims must boycott the country. A Swiss foreign ministry spokesman declined to comment on the jihad call. - There have been tensions between the nations since 2008, when one of Gaddafi's sons was arrested in Geneva, accused of assaulting two servants.
The Libyan leader made his comments while speaking at a meeting to mark the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad.
"Let us wage jihad against Switzerland, Zionism and foreign aggression," he said.
"Any Muslim in any p…Togolese goalie recovers from attack
Togo goalkeeper Kodjovi Obilale is set to return to his amateur club Pontivy in the next few days after the French Football Federation stepped in to pay for his flight home. - Obilale is in South Africa where he was treated for injuries suffered in the gun attack on the Togo team at the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola.
Despite being given the all clear to return to France he has been stuck in South Africa because Nations Cup hosts Angola have failed to clear unpaid bills.
Pontivy president Philippe Le Mestre said, “As the host nation, Angola promised to pick up the bills but nothing has been done. The player has been given the medical all clear and was supposed to leave on Wednes…Zambia: Inflation rises to 9.8%
Zambia's Central Statistical Office has announced a marginal increase in inflation from 9.6% last month to 9.8% this month. - According to CSO acting director Peter Mukuka, the slight increase in the year-on-year inflation is as a result of an increase in petroleum products and food stuffs.
In a monthly bulletin issued in Lusaka, Mukuka said, “The increase of 0.2 of a percentage point in the annual inflation rate in February 2010 was attributed to the increase in the prices of fuel and some food products.”
The recent 15% increase in the price of fuel was beginning to filter through into inflation and the trade account showed a surplus of 316.3 billion kwacha in January comp…DRC: Regional hydro project collapses
A multibillion dollar hydropower project between five African countries in the DR Congo has collapsed as the country weighs another offer from BHP Billiton Ltd. The Western Power Corridor venture was to deliver 5,000 megawatts of power to Congo, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Angola. - Reports out of Kinshasa say the venture will instead be dissolved.
Congo’s National Electricity Society (SNEL) chief executive officer, Yengo Massampu said, “It was a big decision. It would be good for Congo to retain more of the project’s electricity for its own use.”
Western Power, known as Westcor, planned to develop the Inga 3 project on the Congo river, the world’s…SA: Workers strike over 24% power hike
South African trade unions are threatening strikes after the country's government allowed state-owned power firm Eskom to raise prices by 24.8%. Both consumers and businesses will struggle with significantly higher electricity bills, the unions argue. They said the cost were a "double whammy". - The Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry said firms were already struggling to cope with the fallout of recession and slow economic recovery.
Chamber president, Mark Nowitz, said, "In this climate, with the economy where it is, obviously it has a huge impact, it is not good for recovery".
Patrick Craven from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) said he was worried that e…Zambia: flooding ignite mass evacuations
Several days of continuous heavy rains and severe flooding in Lusaka have forced the evacuation and relocation of over 100 families to higher grounds. Meanwhile, cholera cases have continued to rise in the Zambian capital since the water-borne disease broke out at the onset of the rainy season. - Over the past months, Lusaka city has been experiencing extensive rainfall which has flooded many highly populated suburbs around Lusaka.
According to the international humanitarian agency, Red Cross, 112 families have accepted to be relocated to temporal shelters erected near the Independence Stadium, from their highly flooded slums of Chibolya, Msisi, Chawama and Mandevu.
Zambia Red Cross So…Zambia: MPs roar at botched microbicide trials
Tempers flared in the Zambian Parliament Wednesday afternoon when legislators quizzed the country's health minister to issue a statement regarding the failed microbicide clinical trials in which some volunteers contracted HIV. - 46 women volunteers contracted HIV out of over 1000 that took part in a microbicide trail in Zambia’s southern town of Mazabuka.
Angered with the silent stance taken by the Zambian government since the results of the botched trials were announced last December, some legislators who included Mumbi Phiri , MP for Munali and Chifumu Banda who represents Chisefu, tasked Health Minister Kapembwa Simbao to issue a ministerial statement over the microbicide trials …
