AFRICAN NEWS-FLASH

AFRICAN NEWS-FLASH

One of the Kenya online journalists association -Koja blogs has been featured at antique-pocket-watches.com as the blog of Month. This makes it the most recognized blog site globally in January 2010.The antique-pocket-watches.com is the largest Antique Pocket Watches website featuring more than 30,000 blogs. The site Antique Pocket Watches
averages 200,000 uniques visitors per month


According to Sheila, one of the antique-pocket-watches.co.uk online managers, the Koja news site http://newsflash-charles.blogspot.com won their hearts while they were searching for Antique Pocket Watches related information.

Members of the Koja news blog www.kojanews.blogspot.com recieved the recognition with alot of appreciatons and wished our readers a Happy new year 2010.

By Charles Ogallo

Online marketing and promotions seems to have gone a notch higher in this era of ICT. With tough competitions emerging in the global market, companies and investment institutions seems to be going towards such an importance and efficiency in online promotion and marketing as they fight to grab the wider but tricky market.

GearZap stands out tall among many such companies as a specialist online retailer of Netbook and Laptop accessories globally. It is one such leading online retail companies with own peculiar style of promotion. It’s the only place where you can find everything for your Netbook and Laptop.

GearZap.com has proved its worthiness to the world market in terms of high technology and efficiency in service provisions. Like a shopping mall, the site has a variety of links that easily take potential customers and clients to all range of attractive and durable netbook accessories and device specific accessories compatible present Netbooks & Laptops.

It has links that lead you to bestsellers of Cool Bananas hard-cover Netbook case such as briefcases, and Netbook accessories such as screen protectors, memory card readers and mobile broadband that comes in all colours.

The http://www.gearzap.com/ site also takes you directly to world popular brands such as Belkin, and netbook manufacturers such as Toshiba, Samsung, Lenovo and Sony.

http://www.gearzap.com/netbook/acer.html" target="_blank" rel="dofollow">Acer Aspire One Accessories

http://www.gearzap.com/netbook/asus.html" target="_blank" rel="dofollow">Asus EEE Accessories

http://www.gearzap.com/netbook/sony/sony-vaio-p-accessories.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Sony VAIO P Accessories

http://www.gearzap.com/netbook/sony/sony-vaio-p-accessories/sony-vaio-p-cases.html" target="_blank" rel="dofollow">Sony VAIO P Cases

http://gearzap.com/">GearZap.com is everything for your netbook and laptops
Besides an outstanding style of online promotions, GearZap has set itself as brand that beats all competitions in terms of product lay-out and straight forward shopping options where any client is able to compare and make quick decision of the kind of products he / she wants to purchase.

Come to the design of the website, its simple, unique and eloquent in its own rights. It’s designed to give online shoppers easy and adequate time to make quick and satisfactory choices on products they want to buy.

GearZap.com is everything for your netbook and laptops http://www.gearzap.com/

Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)
African Information Society Initiative (AISI)


Announcement

2006 AISI Media Awards
Deadline for Applications: 15 August 2006

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and its partners are pleased to announce the 2006 AISI Media Awards.

The AISI Media Awards were introduced in 2003 to encourage more informed coverage of the information society and ICT for development issues in Africa as part of ECA’s Information Society Outreach and Communication Programme. The Awards are aimed at individual journalists and media institutions based in Africa that are “promoting journalism which contributes to a better understanding of the information society in Africa. Although the media in Africa are beginning to report on ICT issues, there is still a wide gap in their knowledge and comprehension of the subject in relation to development trends within their national context. The aims are to:

• Create greater awareness on the role of ICTs in the development process within the framework of the African Information Society Initiative (AISI);
• Support African media to specialize and master ICTs and development issues thereby sharpening their skills and knowledge base;
• Enhance access to information on this subject area by various African stakeholders, thereby raising greater awareness; and
• Stimulate national debates on key issues and emerging trends.

The AISI Media Awards is intended to be an annual event to honour media institutions and professionals. The winners of the 2005 Awards were announced in September 2005 at the Highway Africa Conference held in Grahmstown, South Africa. Details of the 2003, 2004, and 2005 AISI Media Awards can be found at: http://www.uneca.org/aisi/mediaaward.htm


AISI Media Awards 2006

The deadline for the 2006 AISI Media Awards programme is 15th August 2006. Entries can be made in the following categories:


1. The AISI/GTZ Media Awards 2006

This Award has four sub-categories:

• Radio: Programmes from commercial and national public radio stations, including news, discussion, documentaries and features.

• Print: Articles from regional or national newspapers, including specialist magazines.

• Television/Video: Factual (documentary and features) and news.

• Community Media: This category will examine nominations from local community media (newspapers and community radio) that demonstrate innovative use and appropriation of ICT applications.

Prizes for the four categories will be as follows:

First Prize: US $3,000
Runner-up: US $1,500


2. AISI/IDRC Media Awards 2006

This Award has two sub-categories:

• IDRC/AISI Reporting ICT Research and Innovation. This award is geared towards encouraging Media practitioners’ focus on issues related to ICT research and innovations in Africa under the framework of the International Development Research Centre's (IDRC) Acacia Programme. Research into the impact of ICTs on African communities and information on ICT innovations, such as WAP applications, the Simputer, or open source applications are important areas that could have far reaching consequences for the development of marginalized people. This award will therefore seek to encourage the dissemination of this type of information through the media, by acknowledging the best media report on ICT Research and/or innovations and their relationship to the development of the African continent and its people.

• IDRC/AISI Reporting on ICT Policy. This award is to encourage increased reporting on ICT policies (process and implementation) in Africa under the frameworks of the International Development Research Centre’s Acacia Programme and ECA’s Africa Information Society Initiative (AISI). The objective is to stimulate interest in the formulation and implementation of national e-strategies in countries on the continent and to support informed reporting by the media.

Entries will be considered for print (articles), radio and television programmes

Prizes for the two sub-categories will be as follows:

First Prize: US $3,000
Runner-up: US $1,500


3. AISI/IICD Media Awards 2006

This Award has two sub-categories:

• IICD/AISI Award on Local Content Applications. This award aims to recognize users of innovative or pioneering applications of ICTs to local content defined as ''the expression of the locally owned and adapted knowledge of a community" in Africa. Applications can be from any sector and use of any medium with a demonstrated link with ICTs that provide opportunities for local people to interact and communicate with each other, expressing their own ideas, knowledge and culture in their own languages.

• IICD/AISI Media Award on Local Content. This second IICD award will recognize an outstanding story, campaign, or project in which the significance of local knowledge and content is raised in local, national, or regional fora.

Entries will be considered for magazines, websites, radio and television programmes

Prizes for the two sub-categories will be as follows:

First Prize: US $2,000
Runner-up: US $1,000


4. AISI/OSIWA Media Awards 2006

This Award has two sub-categories:

• OSIWA/AISI Best Female Reporter on ICT4D Issues. This category recognizes female journalists on the continent and their interest and reporting of ICT for development issues. The overall objective of this award is to encourage women journalists to enter into reporting on specialized fields such as information and communication technologies.

• OSIWA/AISI Reporting on ICTs and Rural Communities. This award is to support and stimulate interest in the media to report on how ICTs can be used in rural areas in Africa. OSIWA is assisting communities gain access to independent information and uncensored media, and promoting diversity in media ownership as a tool for increasing their participation in public life. Under the ECA AISI framework, this award is aimed at encouraging the media to report on strategies for democratizing access to the Information Society.

Entries will be considered for print (articles), radio and television programmes

Prizes for the two sub-categories will be as follows:

US $3,000 for First prize
US $1,500 for Runner-up



More on AISI Media Awards programme: http://www.uneca.org/aisi/mediaaward.htm



JUDGING

Judging will be based on the entries for the stated category, and winners will be those, who in the opinion of the Judges have made a significant contribution to promoting and raising awareness on the information society in Africa in all the areas mentioned.

CONDITIONS FOR ENTRY

1. Conditions governing the Awards:

ECA has the right to reproduce and transmit in any media, for non-commercial purposes, the work that has been selected.

ECA has the right to cancel the Awards at any time, when the selected entities and individuals are found ineligible or don’t fulfil the criteria laid down for the award.

The decision of the judges shall be final.

Members of the panel of judges for the Award and members of the sponsoring institutions shall not be eligible to submit an entry.

2. Criteria for entries:

All entries must have been published and broadcasted by an African Media institution during the year 2005/2006. Entries can be submitted in more than one category but THREE COPIES OF ALL MATERIAL ARE NEEDED FOR EACH CATEGORY ENTERED. Also, SUBMISSIONS IN AFRICAN LANGUAGES SHOULD BE TRANSLATED (in the case of print) and/or TRANSCRIBED INTO ENGLISH OR FRENCH for RADIO AND TV PROGRAMMES.

Entries that cover only international issues are ineligible unless, they relate to, and develop an understanding of, current information society issues in Africa.

3. Submission of Entries:

A FULLY COMPLETED FORM MUST ACCOMPANY EACH SUBMISSION; OTHERWISE THE ENTRY WILL BE DISQUALIFIED.

Entries must be cassettes/CDs for radio and VHS/CD for TV and video entries and original materials for print entries.

All material in a language other than French and English must have translation and/or transcription included in the submission.

Submissions can be in English, French, or Arabic.

Closing date for the 2006 AISI Media Awards: 15 August 2006

Submit to:

Mr. Afework Temtime (atemtime@uneca.org)
ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR AFRICA, AISI MEDIA AWARD
DISD, 5th Floor, ECA Building, ECA, PO Box 3001, Menelik II Avenue
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Website: http://www.uneca.org/aisi/mediaaward.htm

4. Winners:

The winners will be selected from entries, which in the opinion of the Judges, make a significant contribution to public awareness and understanding of the information society, and which provide analysis on issues concerning access, policy/regulatory environment, the social and economic impacts of ICT for development. A public announcement will be made shortly after the selection for all the categories.

The selection will be followed by an official notification from the ECA and the respective partners for each category.

The winning entries will be disseminated internationally and honoured at the 2006 Highway Africa Conference, which will take place in September 2006 in Grahamstown, South Africa.

For further information, please contact Aida Opoku-Mensah (aopoku-mensah@uneca.org)

[END]





Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)

African Information Society Initiative (AISI)

AISI Media Awards
On Promotion of the Information Society in Africa
ENTRY SUBMISSION FORM
Deadline: 15 August 2006

Please include ALL the following and tick below:

Complete entry form

3 copies of all material per category entered

(Broadcast entries only) 3 x 150 word resume/statement of intent/transcription of material if not in French or English

(Individual applicants) letter of support on company letterhead with logo.


Please indicate the category:

AISI/IDRC Reporting ICT Research and Innovation

Reporting on ICT Policy

AISI/OSIWA Best Female Reporter on ICT4D Issues

Reporting on ICTs and Rural Communities

AISI/IICD Local Content Applications

Local Content

AISI/GTZ Radio Print TV/Video Community Media


Name of individual entrant or organization:



Address:



Fax:


Email:



Nominated by (where applicable):

Title of Work:


Full name and title of person (s) or organization (s) whom the Award should be made to:



Where published or broadcast/website address:


Date of publication/broadcast (include time) / first online:

Running time (broadcast only):

Credits: (broadcast material only):

Producer:

Director:


Editor:


Reporter:


Entry submitted by:

Name: Position:


Organisation:


Contact address:

Tel: Fax: Email:


Signature: Date :

China on Wednesday, April 26 secured four oil drilling licences from Nigeria as President Hu Jintao continues his week-long tour of Africa, his second in three years.

In exchange China will invest $4bn (£2.25bn) in oil and infrastructure projects in Nigeria.

China will buy a controlling stake in Nigeria's 110,000 barrel-a-day Kaduna oil refinery and build a railroad system and power stations.

Nigeria, Africa's top oil exporter, has long been viewed by China as a partner.

Exploration blocks

The African nation will offer first right of refusal to China National Petroleum for a quartet of exploration blocks during a licensing round due to be held in Nigeria on 19 May.

The blocks comprise two areas in the oil-producing Niger Delta - one onshore and one in shallow water - and two areas in the higher-risk inland Chad basin, where no oil is produced at present.

Last week Chinese state oil firm CNOOC said it had completed a £2.3bn deal to buy a stake in a Nigerian oil field.

As well as meeting his Nigerian counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo, President Hu will also address a joint session of the Nigerian national assembly.

Factory construction

The visit indicates the importance China is attaching to securing energy and trade deals in the region.
Nigeria has the oil and gas that China wants, but also provides a potential market for Chinese goods.

Several Chinese companies have already constructed factories in Nigeria and more are planned for a free trade zone in the south-east of the country.

President Hu, who previously visited Nigeria in 2004, started his African trip in Morocco where he signed a number of trade deals with King Mohammed VI.

The visit comes in the wake of a series of others to Africa by Chinese ministers and officials.

China on Wednesday, April 26 secured four oil drilling licences from Nigeria as President Hu Jintao continues his week-long tour of Africa, his second in three years.

In exchange China will invest $4bn (£2.25bn) in oil and infrastructure projects in Nigeria.

China will buy a controlling stake in Nigeria's 110,000 barrel-a-day Kaduna oil refinery and build a railroad system and power stations.

Nigeria, Africa's top oil exporter, has long been viewed by China as a partner.

Exploration blocks

The African nation will offer first right of refusal to China National Petroleum for a quartet of exploration blocks during a licensing round due to be held in Nigeria on 19 May.

The blocks comprise two areas in the oil-producing Niger Delta - one onshore and one in shallow water - and two areas in the higher-risk inland Chad basin, where no oil is produced at present.

Last week Chinese state oil firm CNOOC said it had completed a £2.3bn deal to buy a stake in a Nigerian oil field.

As well as meeting his Nigerian counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo, President Hu will also address a joint session of the Nigerian national assembly.

Factory construction

The visit indicates the importance China is attaching to securing energy and trade deals in the region.
Nigeria has the oil and gas that China wants, but also provides a potential market for Chinese goods.

Several Chinese companies have already constructed factories in Nigeria and more are planned for a free trade zone in the south-east of the country.

President Hu, who previously visited Nigeria in 2004, started his African trip in Morocco where he signed a number of trade deals with King Mohammed VI.

The visit comes in the wake of a series of others to Africa by Chinese ministers and officials.

The livelihood of an estimated 5.4 million Kenya’s urban slum dwellers to be improved by between 2005-2020. By Charles.

The Kenya Government will spend Sh880 billion to upgrade slums in the country over the next 14 years.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Tuesday said the Government, in collaboration with the United Nations Habitat, had established the Kenya Slum Upgrading Programme (Kensup).

The program, initiated last year, is in line with the Millennium Development Goals and targets the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers worldwide by 2020.

"This programme seeks to improve the livelihood of an estimated 5.4 million urban slum dwellers between 2005-2020," President Kibaki announced in a statement read on his behalf by Vice President Moody Awori.

He was speaking at the Special Session of the Africa Ministerial Conference on Housing and Development held at Gigiri, Nairobi. The function was attended by the Executive Director UN-Habitat, Dr Anna Tibaijuka, Housing minister Soita Shitanda and Local Government minister Musikari Kombo.

Kensup, of which the President is patron, aims to upgrade the living environment of slum residents by improving accessibility to basic services such as shelter, water, education, health, security and income generating opportunities.

In his statement, the President said Kibera, the largest slum in Kenya, has an estimated 500,000 residents and covers 235 hectares comprising 12 villages.

"With upgrading of Kibera, the lives of over one-fifth or 20 per cent of Nairobi’s population will be improved," the statement read in part.

Works on the Kibera decanting site, which will cost an estimated Sh480 million have already commenced. The upgrading of the existing slums and informal settlements will address the backlog of urban neglect.

"Without significant improvement in the capacities of local Government and the private sector to provide services for the new residents, many of whom are poor, the problem of slum and squatter settlements will pale by comparison," Kibaki said.

The President said due to the high cost of building material and transport, the Government was promoting research on alternative locally available material and technologies.

The Government has already acquired equipment towards the establishment of appropriate building centres in every province, the Head of State said.

TEN KENYAN SCHOOL-GIRLS RAPED IN NIGHT PROTEST.

International NewsFlash-Kenya.

A student protest march turned tragic in Kenya when ten school girls were raped by a gang that accosted them as they stormed out of school on Sunday night 0f March 26.

Three of the girls from Kangubiri High School in Nyeri a small rural town in the Central part of Kenya , have been admitted at the provincial general hospital while the other seven are yet to seek help. Of the three, two are in Form One and the third in Form Four.

The ordeal began at 1.30am when all the 700 students broke down the school gate and stormed out to protest against the administration. But they were attacked by the gang right outside the gate where some of them were raped as the others scattered in fright.

"Unfortunately their screams could have been confused with the excited shouts of the protestors," said a Form Three student.

The others fell prey to rapists when they stampeded to the nearby Muthinga Trading Centre and tried to hide, only to fall into the waiting hands of the attackers.

The three girls, who were seriously injured and traumatised, were first taken to a private hospital, but were turned away because they did not have P3 forms from the police.

On Monday March 27, the school’s principal, Mrs Monicah Kagume, refused to discuss both the rape and the protest march.

"I do not want to say anything about what happened, I cannot talk on the phone. Please do not ask me the plight of the girls who were attacked," Mrs Kagume said.

Pressed further, Kagume said she was aware of neither the rape nor the reasons for the walkout. Some students told International NewsFlash they were protesting against the management’s high-handedness and poor diet. They were also demanding that their wake-up time be changed from 4.30am to 5am.

Kagume said all the 700 girls stood suspended and that their parents must report to the school immediately.

Education officers, who visited the school, said investigations showed that "at least 10 girls were raped".

"Their colleagues talked to us freely, but only three have come forward. There is nothing we can do unless the rest come forward," said an officer.

The acting Central Provincial Director of Education, Mr Kennedy Sakwa, said: "The school has 700 students, who went out at night complaining about high handedness, inadequate food and detention of unruly students.

The girls also wanted the wake-up time pushed to 5am from 4.30 am." Another official said he was moved to tears when he talked to one of the girls in hospital.

"The girls are three. There is no denying what has been done to them. One of the girls’ clothes were torn, another’s soiled. We had to close down the school indefinitely," he said.

The hospital’s Medical Superintendent, Dr Victor Muyembe, said the girls were brought in on march 27, Monday morning.

"It is true they have been defiled. I cannot give you more information and neither can I allow you to talk to them. They are in great shock. They are traumatised," he said.

He added that all three had been given anti-retroviral drugs to prevent them from contracting HIV. By 3pm on Monday, several students were stranded in Nyeri Town.

Ends...

Improve water efficiency in farming, urges report

Hundreds of millions of people in developing countries will remain trapped in poverty unless major changes are made to the way water is managed for agriculture, say scientists.

In a report released at this week's World Water Forum in Mexico, they say that global demand for food will double by 2050 and — unless farming is made more efficient — so will the amount of water needed to produce this food.

The report, by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and nine partners, challenges researchers to find ways of making farming more water-efficient.

"It takes 70 times more water to grow the food we eat every day than we need for drinking, cooking, bathing and other domestic needs," says IWMI director general, Frank Rijsberman.
The report points out only 40 per cent of rainfall reaches rivers and groundwater.

By focusing on this 'blue water', it says, water managers are ignoring 'green water' — the remaining 60 per cent that is either evaporated directly from the soil or taken up by plants before it reaches rivers and groundwater.

The IWMI says that making better use of green water is essential to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals on poverty, hunger, sanitation and water.

Agriculture can be made more water efficient in developing countries if farmers harvest rainwater or use small scale, inexpensive irrigation technologies, says the report.

For example, perforated plastic tubes laid on the ground can deliver drips of water directly to where it is needed, at the base of planted crops.

The report points out that irrigation systems in Africa and Asia typically take 2,000 litres of water to produce on kilogramme of rice or wheat, whereas the most efficient systems require only 500 litres.

Making fields more efficient at using the irrigation and rainfall they already receive could eliminate the need to irrigate them more, says Rijsberman.

Another "major challenge and opportunity for research" is to find ways of safely using waste-water for farming, says the report.

"Technologies are available but remain largely untested," it adds.The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released a report on 22 March saying that agriculture is the biggest threat to freshwater resources.

"Irrigated agriculture accounts for 70 percent of freshwater used globally, with only 30 percent of this returned to the environment," said Nick Nuttall, a UNEP spokesperson.

Ends..