Somali pirates attack French military flagship

KASC invites you to the upcoming lecture: "The Politics of Piracy in Somalia" by Dr. Abdi Samatar of University of Minnesota. This lecture is a part of the African Studies Seminar Series

Date: October 22, 2009
Time: 03:30PM - 05:00PM
Location: Kansas Union, English Room
Department: Kansas African Studies Center
Contact: 785-864-3745, cpearman@ku.edu
Ticket Cost: Free

NAIROBI (AFP) – Somali pirates attempted to storm the French navy's 18,000 tonne flagship in the Indian Ocean after mistaking it for a cargo vessel, the French military said on Wednesday.

The crew of La Somme, a 160-metre (525-foot) command vessel and fuel tanker, easily saw off the brazen night-time assault by lightly armed fighters on two lightweight skiffs and captured five pirates, a spokesman said.

"The pirates, who because of the darkness took the French ship for a commercial vessel, were on board two vessels and opened fire with Kalashnikovs," Admiral Christophe Prazuck said in Paris.

La Somme is the French command vessel in the Indian Ocean, overseeing French air, sea and land forces fighting Somali pirates and hunting terrorists under the banner of the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom.

Officers on the ship have directed commando operations to free French hostages in the hands of Somali pirates.

The pirates tried to flee when they realised their mistake but were pursued by French forces who, after an hour-long chase, caught one of the skiffs, Prazuck said.

On it they found five men but no weapons, water or food as the pirates had apparently thrown all of the boat's contents overboard, the spokesman said.

A Western official at sea in the area, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said that there had been an exchange of fire between the warship and the pirate launches.

"One of the skiffs managed to get away in the night because La Somme was busy with the first pirate boat," he said.

"Despite the arrival of other vessels, they haven't yet managed to find the second boat," he said, adding that many warships in the area were busy hunting another group which attacked a cargo ship off the Seychelles on Sunday.

The world's naval powers have deployed dozens of warships to the lawless waters off Somalia over the past year to curb attacks by pirates in one of the world's busiest maritime trade routes.

La Somme was operating 250 nautical miles (460 kilometres) off the Somali coast, on its way to resupply fuel to frigates patrolling shipping lanes as part of the European Union's Operation Atalanta anti-piracy mission.

This was not the first time that Somali pirates have mistakenly attacked a French naval vessel. Several pirates were captured in May when they attempted to board a frigate in the area.

Somalia has had no proper government since it plunged into lawlessness after President Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991.

The country is riven by factional fighting and pirate gangs operate freely from several ports along its Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden coasts.

According to the environmental watchdog Ecoterra International, at least 163 attacks have been carried out by Somali pirates since the start of 2009 alone, 47 of them successful hijackings.

Last year, more than 130 merchant ships were attacked, an increase of more than 200 percent on 2007, according to the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Centre in Kuala Lumpur.

Pirates have in recent weeks resumed attacks with the end of the monsoon season. Last week Somali gunmen captured Spanish fishing boat The Alakrana with 36 crew members in the Indian Ocean.

The US Maritime Administration warned last month that the end of the monsoon season was likely to bring an increase in piracy off Somalia and urged shipping companies to be vigilant.

Calmer waters allow pirates, who often operate in small fibreglass skiffs towed out to sea by captured fishing vessels, to hijack freighters, trawlers and private yachts. Cruise vessels have also been attacked.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091007/wl_africa_afp/somaliapiracyshippingfrance_20091007151820

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Fall Welcoming Reception

Dear all,

We would be honored to have you join us for our Fall Welcoming Reception Monday 24^th , 3:30- 5:00 pm

Bailey Hall Room 10

Come visit with old friends and meet new ones. Refreshments will be provided.

See you then!

Jane Irungu
KASC
Associate Director

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Profile: Mamadou Tandja

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8181537.stm

Mamadou Tandja had his first taste of power after a 1974 coup

Niger's President Mamadou Tandja has divided the country with his attempt to stand for a third term in office. On the eve of a referendum on the issue, the BBC's Idy Baraou looks at the life and career of the controversial leader.

Under the existing law, Mamadou Tandja should step down in December when his second presidential mandate comes to an end.

But despite criticism from opposition parties, trade unions and human rights activists as well as the international community, President Tandja is adamant that the country should hold a referendum on scrapping such presidential term limits.

He says he needs more time to complete projects such as the country's first oil refinery, the construction of a dam on the River Niger and the mining of new uranium sites in the north of the country.

His supporters say these projects have already started to raise living standards in one of the world's poorest countries and would be jeopardised by any change of power.

President Tandja always says he will never let down his people, especially in hard moments when they need him.

And he tells foreign critics that he is "serving Niger and its people, not the international community".

But the opposition accuse him of trampling over Niger's new-found democracy.

They say his attempts to remain in power are little different from the military coups which people in Niger thought had been consigned to history.

'Grassroots man'

Mr Tandja was born in 1938 in Maine Soroa, 1,400km (870 miles) east of the capital, Niamey.

He was raised in a family of shepherds. His father was of Arab descent, his mother was ethnically Kanuri.

Mr Tandja's plans have caused huge protests

He has a reputation as a pragmatist and his motto is: "To reconcile Niger's people with work."

He is known for his sense of justice and care towards the poor, needy and particularly rural people.

His ties with farmers and herdsmen have given him a reputation as a popular grassroots politician.

He has two wives and is the father of many children.

Niger has experienced long periods of military rule since independence from France in 1960.

A retired army colonel, Mr Tandja first came to power in December 1999 following what the international community called "a fair and transparent democratic electoral process" just eight months after the country's most recent military takeover.

He was re-elected in 2004 - a first in Niger.

At the time, observers called it proof of Niger's "democratic maturity".

But before this double victory, President Tandja had already a taste of power.

In 1974 he took part in Niger's first military coup, ousting President Hamani Diori.

He was named interior minister and also served as an ambassador for many years.

'Democratic maturity'

It was not until 2005 that President Tandja's government experienced its first serious social crisis. Locust attacks and poor rainfall led to large-scale protests organised by civil society groups and opposition parties.

President Tandja said the 2005 food crisis had been exaggerated

Civil society groups denounced hikes in the prices of basic commodities like sugar, milk and wheat flower. Opposition parties accused his government of "unprecedented and rampant corruption".

The government was heavily criticised for doing too little, too late to prevent the failed harvests turning into acute food shortages, affecting some 3.5 million people.

The government had rejected calls for the free distribution of food and instead subsidised the cost of staple foods.

But the very poorest said they still could not afford to buy enough to stave off hunger.

Journalists who reported on the scale of the problems were harassed.

And the president launched a scathing attack on UN aid agencies, accusing them of exaggerating the scale of the problems in order to get donor funds.

He also accused opposition parties of trying to gain political mileage out of the problems.

Analysts in Niger say Mr Tandja's handling of the 2005 crisis owes much to his experiences in 1974, when the government's failure to deal with the severe food shortages led directly to a coup.

However, he is now facing another major political crisis following his decision in May to hold a referendum to change Niger's constitution.

If passed, the move would grant him not only three extra years in power but also remove the limit on presidential terms of office, so he could seek re-election as many times as he wanted.

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AFRICA: Scientists call for brain drain help

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20090626122522939

Leading African scientists have urged rich nations to help fight the brain drain by investing in rebuilding Africa's higher education sector and supporting research efforts by young scientists. In a statement to heads of state and governments attending the G8+5 summit in Italy next month, the Network of African Science Academies said a third of all African scientists now lived and worked in developed countries.

"This outflow represents a significant loss of economic potential for the continent, especially in today's global society where scientific and technological knowledge drive development," the network said in the statement titled Brain Drain in Africa. According to some estimates, Africa needs one million more researchers to tackle its critical needs.

The scientists said the solution to the brain drain challenge lay primarily with Africa but that G8+5 nations could help by financing improvements in science and technology infrastructure.

The network groups scientific academics from numerous countries - Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe - a well as the African Academy of Sciences.

The scientists stressed their conviction that a sustainable economic future for Africa was in strengthening the continent's science and technology capacity: "This goal can only be met if Africa educates and retains a critical mass of world-class scientists and technologists with the knowledge and expertise to address the continent's key scientific, technological and economic problems."

In the 1960s and `70s, Africa boasted some of the developing world's finest universities. But a steep decline in funding, political indifference and widespread conflict created conditions in which the opportunity to pursue professional careers was stunted.

"Universities have been hollowed out by decades of brain drain and now find themselves severely handicapped by dilapidated facilities and inadequately trained staff," the scientists said in the June statement. Africa currently produces just 1.4% of all articles published in peer-reviewed international journals, according to the Science Citation Index.

The network said that while migration of African scientists represented a personal decision shaped largely by individual assessments of career opportunities, governments could influence those decisions by improving the living and working conditions and career prospects of scientists at home.

It emphasised that scientific progress depended on the free flow of information and people, and denying talented individuals opportunities elsewhere was not an option. Rather, the scientists called for "a more sophisticated approach" that recognised S&T capacity-building opportunities afforded by migration to developed countries, and that even the poorest nations needed a critical mass of scientists and technologists.

They said although some African governments and other continental bodies were taking steps to reduce the brain drain through initiatives such as increasing the percentage of gross domestic product devoted to S&T, their efforts continued to be insufficient.

"Africa remains the world's least scientifically proficient region and, not coincidentally, the world's poorest continent," the statement continued. "We acknowledge that primary responsibility to address such critical problems rests with the governments of Africa. But external assistance will remain instrumental for poor countries that do not have sufficient resources to adequately invest in systems of higher education and research."

It urged G8+5 countries to invest in rebuilding universities and research centres in Africa, extend financial support to young African scientists to pursue postgraduate and postdoctoral training in African and other developing countries, launch centres of excellence in Africa in areas of critical importance to development, broaden efforts to encourage Africa's diaspora to help address critical science-based issues and engage African scientists in joint projects, and honour commitments made at the 2005 G8 summit.

"The solution to the brain drain challenge lies primarily with Africa," the statement said. "But G8+5 countries can help by financing improvements in Africa's S&T infrastructure, and by creating pathways for interaction that turn today's largely one-way flow of African scientists into a two-way flow of interaction between Africa's diaspora and home-based scientific communities."

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New7Wonders of Nature

A total of 261 qualified national and multinational nominees from 222 countries are participating - more than participated in the Olympic games, more countries than are members of the United Nations! Your votes will decide which of these 261 nominees make it to the top 77 by group categories. Please browse through the list of the nominated nature sites by a click on the world map or see the Live Ranking with the top 77 Official New7Wonders of Nature nominees of the week, sorted by category groups.

Here are the African Nominees.

To find out more about their campaign, visit the New7Wonders Website.

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African Leader dies

Gabon president dies in Spanish hospital at 73

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The New Era in Student Advising

Stanford U. Experiments With Open Office Hours on Facebook
Some feel the Internet may be undermining office hours, as students opt to e-mail professors rather than visit them. Now one university is bringing office hours to the Internet.

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=3769&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

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