UNIVERSITY OF DODOMA AND RUTGERS UNIVERSITY SIGN MOU ON ACADEMIC PARTNERSHIPS

The Dodoma University Vice Chancellor Professor Idris Kikula and Rutgers University Chancellor Richard Edwards.

The signing of Memorandum of Understanding between the two universities on academic partnership during a brief and colorful ceremony held at New Jersey Rutgers University campus yesterday.

 

The signing of M.O.U was after the speech, President Dr.Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete delivers his public lecture on “The role of Academic Partnerships in Finding Solutions to Global Challenges and Advancing Tanzania’s Priorities,” at Rutgers University in New Jersey United States yesterday. 
Kikwete opened up about the problems facing Tanzania, as well as the role of global partnerships in solving the challenges, at the event sponsored by the Center for Global Advancement and International Affairs and Center for African Studies.
“I am happy that the discussion is not whether international partnerships are important or not, but the discussion is how we can create this partnership in a manner that they are effective and efficient in addressing global challenges,” he said.
Kikwete has held his position since 2005, after serving as a Minister for Foreign Affairs for 10 years and as Finance Minister from 1994 to 1995.
One issue that Kikwete has strived to get the ball rolling on is the field of research and development in Tanzania.
“If we want to accelerate the pace of development, we have to do more in areas of science and tech, in areas of research,” he said. “[These are] areas where I found we were not doing well.”
After being elected president, Kikwete visited all the research institutions in the country and was shocked to discover that the institutions had hired no personnel in 10 years.

“This is really a momentous occasion for our University. … It reflects our slogan, ‘Jersey Roots, Global Reach,” Edwards said.

The battle for Africa People and Power investigates the effects of China's increasing influence in Africa.

The battle for Africa

People and Power investigates the effects of China's increasing influence in Africa. People and Power Last updated: 04 Sep 2014 07:57

Over the past decade, China's hunger for Africa's rich natural resources has seen it overtake Europe and America as the continent's largest trading partner. The West - for so long the dominant external force in Africa's affairs - has reacted to this rush of investment with more than a fair degree of unease. Commentators in Washington, London, Paris and elsewhere have openly expressed anxiety that the West's economic and political influence in Africa is waning and that 'unless something is done' this ' Battle for Africa ' as it has become known, will have damaging strategic consequences down the line. Yet they know too that China's often expressed reluctance to interfere in the local politics of other nations - or at least to attach any tiresome conditions about democracy or improving human rights to their investments and aid - is allowing some African politicians to thumb their noses at Western institutions and former colonial powers that have previously tried to make them toe the line. In other words, as seen from outside, it is a narrative about winners and losers, about the big beasts of the global world being rivals in a competition in which China currently has the upper hand. But what does this changing dynamic mean for Africans themselves? The continent is so full of promise and blessed in so many ways with things the world needs - from oil and minerals and land to vast amounts of people capital - yet it has struggled since colonial times to truly realise its potential. A few of its wealthier, better led and more stable nations are now beginning to taste some success, but elsewhere poor governance, ethnic division, corruption and strife - allied to the misbalancing effects of globalisation which have usually been to Africa's disadvantage - are keeping many hundreds of millions of people in poverty and denying them an opportunity to improve their lives. Will the fact that the continent now has an alternative source of external funding and investment and aid really change any of that? Or is the real 'Battle for Africa' about other more fundamental things - leadership, plurality, good government, law and order - which the continent has to achieve itself in order to make the most of the new opportunities that East- West competition for its resources is bringing? In this special two-part People & Power report, veteran African journalist, Sorious Samura, went to find out.

Botswana mounts crackdown on Sunday paper Editor arrested after publishing story saying President Khama was involved in an accident while driving alone at night.

Gaborone, Botswana - The arrest and brief detention of a top newspaper editor in Botswana is raising concern among journalists used to plying their trade without interference from the government. Outsa Mokone, who edits the Sunday Standard, was arrested on September 8 as part of what he calls a government campaign to intimidate the media into submission in the run-up to general elections scheduled for October 24. https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=49682732471880327#editor/target=post;postID=1551440270116920928 The warrant for Mokone's arrest, issued by the Chief Magistrate for Gaborone Administrative District on September 2, relates to a possible charge of "seditious intention", which contravenes the Penal Code in the southern African nation, which has hitherto enjoyed a reputation for being a functioning democracy with unfettered press freedom.

Westgate: Kenyan guards on the frontline:: Men paid meagre salaries to secure malls and key installations sometimes pay the highest price when armed groups strike

Nairobi, Kenya - Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, stands empty and surrounded by a high steel fence. A few bullet holes dot the pale orange paintwork, but little else remains of the carnage of the second-worst attack in Kenyan history.    Al-Shabab, the armed group in neighbouring Somalia, quickly claimed responsibility for the attack, stating it was their response to the Kenyan military's intervention in their country. Stephen Juma Injusi, 32, formerly stationed at Westgate, survived the attack in 2013 [Juozas Cernius/Al Jazeera] Now through gaps in the fence, gardeners can be seen tending manicured flowerbeds. One year on, the atmosphere is that of quiet refurbishment rather than the horrors of a massacre that killed at least 67 people. Shops and bars in the vicinity of Westgate are full and thriving, and the mall is expected to reopen soon. A world away from the affluence of the Westland neighbourhood, where the shopping centre is located, is a small one-room home in the Kawangware slum in the west of Nairobi. Two children sit on a sofa - Michael, 11, is engrossed in a game on a mobile phone and his eight-year-old sister, Gloria, keeps smiling shyly and hiding behind the curtain that separates the sofa from the sleeping quarters.

Michelle Obama says the "blood of Africa" runs through her veins

WASHINGTON, July 30 (Reuters) - First lady Michelle Obama embraced her family's African roots in a speech on Wednesday, telling a group of young Africans that the "blood of Africa" runs through her veins as she urged changing traditional beliefs on the worth of educating women.
Her husband had shied away from discussing his African heritage in his own remarks to the 500 Africans finishing a six-week Washington leadership fellowship on Monday, referencing his Kenyan father only once and in the question-and-answer session. But Michelle Obama said as an African American woman, her discussion with the African youth was "deeply personal."
"The roots of my family tree are in Africa," the first lady told the cheering crowd. "My husband's father was born and raised in Kenya. Members of our extended family still live there. I have had the pleasure of traveling to Africa many times over the years, including four trips as first lady, and I have brought my mother and my daughters along whenever I can."
"The blood of Africa runs through my veins, and I care deeply," Obama said, addressing her listeners as her "brothers" and "sisters."
Three months before congressional elections that could determine the fate of much of President Obama's platform, Michelle Obama's popularity remains high while her husband's has sunk.
The White House is making women's empowerment a theme in a Washington African leaders summit next week. Michelle Obama said problems with girls' education often stemmed from traditional "attitudes and beliefs" that exist even in the United States and lead to issues such as the gender pay gap and an underrepresentation of women in leadership.
She said men worldwide needed to "look into their hearts and souls and ask if they truly view women as their equals."
"I am who I am today because of the people in my family, particularly the men in my family, who valued me and invested in me from the day I was born," Obama said.
"And as I grew up, the men who raised me set a high bar for the type of men I'd allow into my life - which is why I went on to marry a man who had the good sense to fall in love with a woman who was his equal, to treat me as such - a man who supports and reveres me, and who supports and reveres our daughters as well," Obama said. (Reporting by Annika McGinnis; editing by Andrew Hay)

Kenyans dominated Obama's young leaders summit

WASHINGTON DC

Kenyans account for almost 10 per cent of the 500 young Africans chosen to take part in a leadership summit in Washington to be hosted by President Barack Obama.

A group meeting on Monday with President Obama opens the three-day series of events that includes a discussion with First Lady Michelle Obama on girls' education in Africa.

U.S. President Barack Obama (L) speaks, while Vice President Joseph Biden listens, before signing the H.R. 803, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. during an event in the Eisonhower Executive Building, July 22, 2014 in Washington, DC. PHOTO | AFP 

Secretary of State John Kerry, members of the US Congress and other government officials are also making presentations at an event that caps the six-week-long Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) sponsored by the State Department.

President Obama launched the YALI programme in 2010 as a way of helping groom Africa's future leaders while seeking to ensure they propagate positive views of the United States.

The 500 participants in this year's initiative, including 46 Kenyans, were chosen from 50,000 applicants from all over Africa.

“That says to us that there is a huge, huge need” for the opportunities offered through the programme, observed Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the State Department's top Africa official.

Half of those in the initiative's current cohort are women and all participants are between the ages of 25 and 35. Each of sub-Saharan Africa's 49 countries is represented in the group.

Magdalene Kelel, a project leader in the Free Pentecostal Fellowship in Kenya, was chosen for her work on HIV/Aids, youth advocacy and women's self-reliance.

When she returns to Kenya, Ms Kelel plans to work on promoting young persons' involvement in democratic processes, according to the YALI website.

Like each of the other YALI participants, Ms Kelel was awarded a fellowship to study either business development, civic leadership or public management at one of 20 US universities during the past six weeks.

Some of the young Africans will be invited to remain in the US for an additional eight weeks to complete internships at businesses, government agencies or non-governmental organisations.

A total of $10 million will also be made available in the form of grants to help the initiative's alumni start their own businesses or social enterprises in Africa and to build a network of young African leaders.

Former Chief Justice elected new African Human Rights Court head

The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) has elected its new leadership body placing Tanzania’s Chief Justice Augustino Ramadhani as the new president of Africa’s continental court.

 

The new governing bureau was approved at the beginning of its 34th Ordinary Session here on Monday where Lady Justice Elsie N. Thompson was honoured the new court’s Vice President.

 

Chief Justice, Augustino Ramadhani

The current bureau replaces Hon. Lady Justice Sophia A. B. Akuffo and Hon. Justice Bernard M. Ngoepe, former President and Vice President, respectively, whose terms as Judges of the Court ended this week on September 8.

 

The former Chief Justice won seven votes of the court’s 11 serving judges.

Other judges who are to join the new bureau include Solomy  Balungi Bossa from Uganda, Rafaa Ben Achour from Tunisia and Angelo Vasco Matusse from Mozambique.

Each of the court’s judges, who hail from 11 different African countries are to serve a six year term and can only be re-elected once.

 

Russian strategic bombers near Canada practice cruise missile strikes on US

Two Russian strategic bombers conducted practice cruise missile attacks on the United States during a training mission last week that defense officials say appeared timed to the NATO summit in Wales.
The Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers were tracked flying a route across the northern Atlantic near Iceland, Greenland, and Canada’s northeast.


In this August 7, 2008 photo, a Russian TU-95 bomber, or Bear, lands at a military airbase in Engels, some 559 miles south of Moscow.Reuters
 
Analysis of the flight indicated the aircraft were conducting practice runs to a pre-determined “launch box”—an optimum point for firing nuclear-armed cruise missiles at U.S. targets, said defense officials familiar with intelligence reports.
Disclosure of the nuclear bombing practice comes as a Russian general last week called for Moscow to change its doctrine to include preemptive nuclear strikes on the United States and NATO.
Gen. Yuri Yakubov, a senior Defense Ministry official, was quoted by the state-run Interfax news agency as saying that Russia’s 2010 military doctrine should be revised to identify the United States and the NATO alliance as enemies, and clearly outline the conditions for a preemptive nuclear strike against them.
Yakubov said among other needed doctrinal changes, “it is necessary to hash out the conditions under which Russia could carry out a preemptive strike with the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces”—Moscow’s nuclear forces.
The practice bombing runs are the latest in a series of incidents involving threatening Russian bomber flights near the United States. Analysts say the bomber flights are nuclear saber-rattling by Moscow as a result of heightened tensions over the crisis in Ukraine.

Kenyan leader's carjacked motorcade vehicle found

A carjacked vehicle belonging to the Kenyan president's security convoy has been found in Uganda.

The BMW car was taken at gunpoint last Wednesday night in the capital Nairobi.
The director of Interpol in Uganda, Assan Kasingye, told the BBC that the vehicle would now be driven back to Nairobi.
Vehicles that belong to the Kenyan president's security detail are supposed to be highly guarded
The latest Kenyan police figures show that there are at least three carjackings reported in Kenya's capital every day.
The BBC's Paul Nabiswa in Nairobi says the theft received widespread media coverage in Kenya, despite a spokesman for President Uhuru Kenyatta trying to play down its significance.
The spokesman had said it was not part of any motorcade at the time and was only a police vehicle.
But Kenyan newspapers revealed it was being driven by a serving police inspector who is part of presidential security staff, our reporter says.
They add that at least three people have already been arrested in connection with the theft in Nairobi, Nakuru, north-west of the capital, and Bungoma, a town on the border with Uganda.

Ukraine war pulls in foreign fighters

French, Spanish, Swedish or Serb, the foreigners fighting for both sides in east Ukraine's bloody conflict hail from across Europe and come with a bewildering array of agendas. The non-mercenaries among them are motivated by causes which can stretch back to the wars in the former Yugoslavia - and even further still, to the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s.
Russia is the elephant in the room, dwarfing any other foreign nationality, although it is increasingly hard to disentangle Russians fighting as volunteers from regular soldiers allegedly deployed on covert missions.
Ukraine's pro-Russian rebels like to talk up their foreign volunteer fighters, presenting them as latter-day International Brigades fighting "fascism". Meanwhile there has been some debate in Kiev on the wisdom of creating a Ukrainian "Foreign Legion".
Here we look at some of the foreign fighters by country of origin, in a phenomenon which, in a small way, mirrors that of young Muslims from Britain and other parts of Europe travelling to the Middle East to fight in its wars.

Russia Threatening To Drop Nuclear Bomb In Ukraine, Defense Minister Claims

Russia is threatening to use nuclear weapons if Ukrainian forces continue to fight pro-Russia separatists, the Ukrainian Defense Minister is claiming.

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On Monday, Defense Minister Valeriy Heltey wrote on his Facebook page that Russia is making threats of a nuclear attack against the country if the war continues.

“The Russian side has threatened on several occasions across unofficial channels that, in the case of continued resistance they are ready to use a tactical nuclear weapon against us,” Heletey wrote.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has escalated rapidly after more than 1,000 Russian troops poured across the border last week. Fighting has picked up between both sides, and there are reports that Russian troops massacred hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers who were trying to retreat.
The alleged mass killing took place outside a besieged city about 22 miles east of Donetsk. Reports say that Russian troops initially agreed to let the Ukrainian troops retreat, but then reneged and opened fire, leaving hundreds of bodies littered along an agreed retreat route.

China Prepares Navy Warships to Fight US Submarines

China has a glaring hole in its military strategy against the United States. Military analysts have pointed out that while China is investing in ballistic and cruise missiles to keep foreign ships away, it has little to counter U.S. submarines which would play a pivotal role in a conflict with China.The Los Angeles-class, fast attack submarine USS Hampton (C) sits moored alongside the submarine tender USS Frank Cable (L) during a visit to Hong Kong on May 17, 2011. China is researching and deploying systems to fight U.S. submarines

The Chinese regime seems to have become privy to this gap. It has been building and deploying systems designed to detect and attack U.S. submarines. Recent photos show China has also begun fitting warships with sonar systems designed for anti-submarine warfare.
Two types of ships in China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) are being fitted with what appear to be variable depth sonars (VDSs). Images of the additional systems were posted on cjdby.net (which appears to be offline at the time of writing), and were picked up by IHS Janes, a leading security intelligence company.

Israel seizes most West Bank land in 30 years

Palestinians and US officials condemn move that will connect West Bank settlements to those in south Jerusalem. Dali

Putting Israel's most recent land seizure in perspective Wadi Fukin, occupied West Bank - Residents of Wadi Fukin have grown accustomed to the sounds of construction. This lush village, which sits just west of Bethlehem along the Green Line, is surrounded on three sides by Israeli settlements that are constantly growing. Dotted with olive trees and natural springs, the village of 1,200 people is known for its harvest of organic turnips, cabbage and chili peppers. But this small community has borne the brunt of heavy settlement activity for many years. One of the Jewish settlements surrounding the village, Beitar Illit, is so large that it is one of only four settlements in the West Bank classified by Israel as a "city". Israel seizes most West Bank land in 30 years Sunday brought even more bad news for Palestinians here: Israeli authorities announced that nearly 400 hectares of land nearby - in what they refer to as the Etzion settlement bloc - are now "state land". This means they are no longer privately owned by Palestinians, and therefore can be used for possible settlement construction.

US forces target al-Shabab in Somalia

US military forces conduct operation against armed group that is seeking to topple Somali government. Last updated: 02 Sep 2014 05:31

US military forces have carried out an operation against al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab fighters in Somalia, Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby has said. "We are assessing the results of the operation and will provide additional information as and when appropriate," he added in a statement on Monday. There were no further details immediately available. It come a day after al-Shabab fighters carried out a car bomb and gun attack against an intelligence headquarters in central Mogadishu, leaving at least seven fighters and five others dead. Al-Shabab fighters have targeted key areas of the Somali government or the security forces in an apparent bid to discredit claims by the authorities - who are backed by the African Union's 22,000-strong AMISOM force - that they are winning the war against the armed group. Al-Shabab is fighting to topple Somalia's internationally-backed government, and regularly launch attacks against state targets, as well as in neighbouring countries that contribute to the AU force.

Ukraine crisis: 'Russia has launched a great war'

Ukraine's defence minister has accused Russia of launching a "great war" that could claim tens of thousands of lives.

Russia dismissed the comments, saying they only pulled the Ukrainian people further into a bloody civil conflict.
The pro-Russian rebels have been making gains in recent days
The comments came after Ukrainian troops were forced to flee Luhansk airport in the east of the country amid an offensive by pro-Russian rebels.
Meanwhile, crisis talks between Ukraine officials, rebels and Russian envoys have broken up without agreement.
"A great war has arrived at our doorstep - the likes of which Europe has not seen since World War Two," Ukrainian Defence Minister Valeriy Heletey wrote on Facebook on Monday.
"Unfortunately, the losses in such a war will be measured not in the hundreds but thousands and tens of thousands," he added.

Iraq crisis: Shia and Kurdish forces move against IS

BBC team entered the town on Monday, finding residents who had endured more than two months under siege.
The joint forces have also seized the militant stronghold of Suleiman Beg.
Meanwhile Amnesty International says that it has uncovered new evidence that Islamic State has launched a campaign of ethnic cleansing in the north.

Violence in Iraq has escalated dramatically in recent months