Russia's Anti Missile (photo: Sputnik International)
Russia’s Anti Missile (photo: Sputnik International)
The Russian military has successfully test-fired a new interceptor missile at the Sary-Shagan test site in Kazakhstan, the Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
According to previous Russian Defence Ministry reports, the new missile was successfully tested at the Sary-Shagan test site in February, April and July this year.
The statement did not provide more details, but the ministry’s official newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) commenting on the July test, said that the new missile, which can reach a speed of four km per second, has no equal in the world.
“In a real environment, this will mean that the enemy’s warhead will be successfully destroyed at the maximum height and distance from the protected object,” Krasnaya Zvezda wrote.
The newspaper said that the missile will possibly start mass production in the near future and gradually replace the models in service since 1995.
British Prime Minister, Theresa May on Thursday pledges support for East Africa’s fight against Islamist militancy during the first trip by a British prime minister to Kenya in 30 years.
In Nairobi, the last stop on her three-country Africa trip, May was also at pains to assure the region’s biggest economy that Kenya would not experience any trade fallout from Brexit.
“The UK’s already the largest foreign investor in Kenya. … and I’ve set out this week our ambition to be the G7’s number one investor in Africa by 2022,’’ she said.
“As Britain prepares to leave the EU we’re committed to a smooth transition that ensures continuity in our trading relationship with Kenya,” the Prime Minister added at a joint news conference with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.
May will later Thursday watch the British and Kenyan militaries training together to identify and destroy improvised explosive devices.
“This afternoon we’ve signed a new compact that will see us expand our joint work on security even further.
“The UK is no longer just training our own military in Kenya but training with Kenyans to promote stability in east Africa,” May said.
“The UK continues to support the commitment of the brave Kenyan soldiers fighting in Somalia against al-Shabaab and I will announce a new package of funding to support the African Union mission in Somalia,” she said.
Al-Shabaab, which is linked to al-Qaeda, is a Somalia-based terror group which has launched regular attacks on neighbouring Kenya, such as the assault on Nairobi’s Westgate Mall that killed at least 67 people in 2013.
A pan-African investment platform, Africa50, says the Republic of Mauritius has joined Nigeria, Ghana and others as the 30th shareholder of the platform.
A statement on Thursday by Fleur Tchibota, the platform’s Head of Communications Dept., quoted the Chief Executive Officer, Alain Ebobissé as saying by Mauritius ratification 24 other countries left would subscribe to the agreement.
Africa50 is an infrastructure investment platform that contributes to Africa’s growth by developing and investing in bankable projects, catalysing public sector capital, and mobilising private sector funding, with differentiated financial returns and impact.
Ebobissé said Dharam Dev Manraj Gosh, Mauritian Minister of Finance and Economic Development, signed the share subscription agreement on behalf of the government.
According to him, “Mauritius is a leader in infrastructure development and one of the most investor-friendly countries in Africa.
“Africa50 looks forward to a very fruitful collaboration.
“Africa50 now has four SADC member states as shareholders and looks forward to welcoming all other African countries to our platform as we collectively contribute to accelerating infrastructure delivery on the African continent,” Ebobissé.
He said Mauritius’ subscription followed that of Rwanda, which joined on July 19 during the General Shareholders Meeting in Nairobi.
He added that this marked a new milestone, with half of the continent’s 54 countries becoming shareholders of Africa50.
The other member countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Togo, and Tunisia.
Other shareholders are the African Development Bank, the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), and the Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM). The platform’s total committed capital has risen to over 850 million dollars. (NAN)
South Africa’s Higher Education and Training Minister, Naledi Pandor says the National Student Financial Aid Scheme will, over the next few days, start disbursing outstanding funds that are due to students.
The Minister said this when she fielded questions from members of Parliament in the National Assembly on Wednesday.
Pandor said according to statistics that she received from newly appointed NSFAS administrator Randall Carolissen, around 63 000 students – “a majority coming from the TVET college sector”, were affected by this challenge.
“What is pleasing is that in the first seven days of the work of the administrator, we have received massive cooperation from institutions and I am really appreciative of that, as well as student organisations playing a role in ensuring that students do sign their statement of particulars because that then helps us to finalise the applications process and ensure that we have disbursements so within the next four days, we are going to see a significant disbursement of funding,” she said.
The Minister said this before her announcement on Thursday that the NSFAS funding applications for 2019 would be open on Monday, 3 September. She said this after a meeting with the administrator in Cape Town.
In her oral response to MPs on Wednesday, Pandor said the department and NSFAS were “working around the clock” to ensure that they reach as many of the students that are currently not funded as possible.
“You would have recognised that part of the difficulty here is as we process the applications…we are finding that there is going to be a number of students who are receiving quite a significant sum of money. So we are looking at how we will address that as well because they have not been funded for quite a significant period,” she said.
The Administrator’s priority areas
Pandor said, meanwhile, that the administrator would focus on several priority areas as a push is being made to fix current challenges on the system.
“The first is to pay very close attention to finalise the close out of the 2017 and 2018 funding cycles. A number of processes are involved with that particular area.
“For example, ensuring that students receive confirmation that they will be funded, if that has not been done already, that their details on particularly registration, is done, that they sign their bursary agreement forms and that their allowances are paid out. So that is the first priority.
“The second is steps must be taken, in line with preparations that are already underway, to launch the 2019 application cycle in early September.
“The third is supporting and developing an effective plan in consultation with colleges and universities to manage the funding of students in 2019 in order for students who apply when we open applications this year and those who are already beneficiaries know their funding status and response from NSFAS before their registration begins in 2019. So those are the three priorities that I have asked [the administrator] to focus on.” – SAnews.gov.za
British PM Theresa May and Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari
British PM Theresa May and Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari
President Muhammadu Buhari Wednesday in Abuja assured the UK Prime Minister, Theresa May of his commitment to conducting free, fair and credible elections in 2019, just as he also Lauds Britain for strengthening Democratic Institutions in the country.
In a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister, President Buhari said” I assure you that I’m all out for free, fair and credible elections. I’m very pleased that my party is doing very well. The High Commissioner will brief you more. The recent successes in polls in Katsina, Bauchi, and Kogi have boosted our morale greatly.
‘‘Nigeria has accepted multiparty democracy and that is putting politicians on their toes, forcing them to work harder,’’ he said.
On the anti-corruption campaign, the President applauded the British support to the country, noting that the success of the fight was very important to ordinary people in the country.
“We had great opportunities and resources between 1999 and 2014, due to high oil prices. But when we came in 2015, oil prices plunged to as low as 37 dollars per barrel.
‘‘What we have been doing since 2015 is to focus on infrastructure development, despite low earnings. Work is ongoing in roads, rail, power, and many others.”
On Brexit, President Buhari noted that it provides an opportunity to strengthen the historic ties between Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
‘‘We are nervously watching the development about Brexit because we know that the relationship had been on for a long time. I assure you that I am prepared to strengthen the relationship between our two countries.’’
The President also thanked the UK government for the support on security and the fight against insurgency in the North Eastern part of Nigeria, as well as the improved trade relations between both countries.
‘‘I am very grateful to the British government under you leadership for the help in security, particularly your training team that is in our institution in Kaduna,’’ he said.
Earlier before the bilateral meeting, the Nigerian leader underscored the need for UK support on reviving of Lake Chad, which is a means of livelihood for millions of people.
The President told the visiting Prime Minister that Europe and China were already conducting an in-depth study on recharging the Lake through inter-basin transfer from the Central African Republic.
In her remarks, Prime Minister May, who welcomed the assurance by the Nigerian government on credible elections in 2019, said she was pleased to be in Abuja to continue the ‘‘excellent discussions’’ she started with President Buhari in London in April, this year, particularly on security, trade, asset recovery and the fight against corruption.
‘‘Security and defence cooperation are very important steps to address Boko Haram and Islamic State in West Africa,’’ May said.
On asset recovery, the Prime Minister told President Buhari: ‘‘we do not want to hold anything that belongs to Nigeria people, but we follow the judicial process, which can be slow.’’
The Prime Minister appealed to President Buhari to use his position as ECOWAS Chair to keep the issue of human trafficking on the front burner in the sub-region.
President Buhari and Prime Minister May witnessed the signing of two agreement
Zimbabwean President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, on Thursday re-appointed his two vice, Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi.
Chiwenga was Zimbabwe’s defence forces chief who led the military intervention which toppled former President Robert Mugabe.
The two vice presidents were sworn into office by Chief Justice Luke Malaba at the State House in the presence of Mnangagwa and other senior government officials.
Mnangagwa had earlier been sworn-in on Sunday after the constitutional court dismissed opposition leader Nelson Chamisa’s petition challenging his election victory in the July 30 polls.
He first appointed the two vice presidents in November 2017 when he took over from former President Mugabe, who resigned after a military intervention that ended his 37 years rule.
Flooding in Kalay, Sagaing State in 2015 (photo: Myanmar Times)
Flooding in Kalay, Sagaing State in 2015 (photo: Myanmar Times)
As many as 85 villages were flooded in Myanmar after a dam failed, unleashing waters that blocked a major highway and forced more than 63,000 people from their homes, a state-run newspaper said on Thursday.
The disaster spotlights safety concerns about dams in Southeast Asia after July’s collapse of a hydroelectric dam in neighbouring Laos that displaced thousands of people and killed at least 27.
Firefighters, troops and officials launched a desperate rescue effort on Wednesday after the spillway of an irrigation dam burst at Swar creek in central Myanmar, sending a torrent of water through villages and the nearby towns of Swar and Yedashe.
By Thursday morning the water was receding, but two people remained missing and were feared to have been washed away, said Min Thu, Deputy Administrator of Yedashe.
“People whose villages are on higher ground are preparing to go back to their villages,” he said.
The ruptured spillway had flooded 85 villages, affecting more than 63,000 people and submerging a section of highway, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.
Traffic between Myanmar’s major cities of Yangon and Mandalay and the capital, Naypyitaw, was disrupted after the flooding damaged a bridge on the highway linking the cities.
Work was underway on Thursday to repair the dam, where the water level had dropped by several meters, exposing sandy banks.
“A priority was to get as much water into the reservoir as possible before the dry season when it is needed for irrigation,’’ said Kaung Thein, an irrigation official at the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation.
He said a probe would seek the cause of the dam breach.
“The retaining wall of the spillway sank into the foundation about 4-5 feet, causing the flooding, but the main dam is intact,” said Thein.
Days before the breach, authorities had given the all-clear to the dam, which can hold 216,350 acre-feet of water, in spite residents’ concerns about overspill, state-run media have said.
Thein said the dam was regularly inspected and a spillway collapse could not have been predicted. “We could not know one day before, one hour before,” he said.
As floodwaters receded, elders gathered at Oo Yin-Hmu, a village of about 1,000 people only a few miles downstream from the dam, to review the damage.
Paddy fields stretching from the edge of the village were inundated.
“It would be years before they could be planted with rice again,’’ said Zaw Zaw, a 45-year-old farmer.
Residents ran to higher ground to escape the floodwaters, he said, but many lost their homes and possessions and were expected to ask the regional government for compensation.
“My house was at the northern part of the village and all houses in the northern part didn’t survive,” said Pan Ei-Phyu, 24, a villager who escaped with her family, buffalos and cows.
“All of my farmland is turned into mud now. I don’t have land or anything else anymore. I don’t know what to do,” she said.
A Human Rights lawyer and political analyst, Wale Ogunade, says Nigeria’s population and its resilient economy have been attracting visits from world leaders.
Ogunade made the remark in an interview with the News Agency if Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos.
In July, Nigeria hosted French President Emmanuel Macron, while on Wednesday, British Prime Minister, Theresa May visited and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel is expected in the country on Friday.
“All these world leaders coming into Nigeria show that the world is interested in Nigeria and its economy.
“And you should be sure that 180 million people is not a joke. They are not a people that can be side-lined or ignored. It’s a big market and anybody, any wise entrepreneur, any government or investor will want to patronise such a market.
“Even with all the challenges we are facing as a nation, our people, our economy remains resilient.
“The economies of some other countries have collapsed. For instance, Venezuela, which was almost at the same level of development with Nigeria, and both of them are oil exporting nations, but while Venezuela is going down, Nigeria is moving up and forging on.
“Of course, any country will want to continue to collaborate and do business with Nigeria,’’ he said.
Ogunade said that world leaders were visiting to expand their business frontiers.
“For a country like the UK, the brexit issue is there; for Germany, they too are going through some challenges and of course France too needs to expand it’s frontier.
“So, the place to be will be Africa generally and Nigeria in particular,’’ he said.
Ogunade urged the Federal and State Governments to create the enabling environment by relaxing some laws, upgrade infrastructure and boost security in the country.
“As a country, we need to take advantage of this new found love to make business activities in Nigeria easy.
“Government should look into these three key areas: infrastructure, security and relax the laws so that investors can easily repatriate their funds.
“Our government should start creating the sites and services for factories, set up industrial zones, import and export processing zones. Definitely more investors will be encouraged to come to patronise Nigeria better,’’ Ogunade said.
