South Sudan Acquires Anti-Aircraft Defense Systems

Posted by David Goldman | Intelligence News, Military Intelligence months of aerial battering by the Sudanese airforce, Southern Sudan has started the process of upping its air defenses by the acquisition of anti-aircraft missile systems. Strategic Intelligence confirms that South Sudan is acquiring anti-aircraft missiles to defend its territory from unspecified sellers probably the United States or Israel. These can be transported through Kenya and negotiated through Kenya, intelligence shows. The United States has been arming and financing the South Sudanese army. Since the independence of South Sudan, Khartoum has continued bombing oil facilities, infrastructure, and business resources in South Sudan, intelligence reports show. According to head of South Sudan’s army (SPLA) James Hoth Mai, the SPLA is poised to acquire anti-aircraft missiles after the dire need to protect the country from aerial bombardment increased. Former U.S. special envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios has been negotiating with United States government to provide arms, particularly the American anti-aircraft weapons to the South Sudan army. Acquiring anti-aircraft weapons will strengthen the South Sudanese army against the better armed Sudan military This comes even as reports emerge indicating that South Sudan 4th Infantry Division/Brigade fell Sudan Airforce MIG-29 jets used to bomb the border area besides baby-blue unmanned spy plane. The intelligence has been confirmed by SPLA commanders and intelligence advisers near the oil town of Heglig, Tachuien, and Bentiu where the SPLA forces moved through when attacking Sudan. The presence of Iranian spy planes could signal a proxy war between Iran and Israel which has advisers and military trainers in South Sudan besides American military experts. According to South Sudan army commanders, the war is just beginning, the rains have helped stymie the war with tanks and vehicles unable to move, but once the rains subside, they will make an advance. Foxholes and trenches have been dug signaling the determination to keep Southern Sudan off the grip of Sudan. South Sudan oil production has been shut besides Sudan saying none of the oil will be piped through its territory until all disputes are solved. Source: http://intelligencebriefs.com

Agency Microfinance agents set for June

Deposit taking microfinance institutions will from June have agencies after central bank published guidelines on the opening, relocation and closure of marketing agencies and agencies. Central bank says the guidelines will increase financial services outreach in a cost effective manner especially to the unbanked without risking the safety and soundness of the financial system. Last week central bank published the Guideline on the Opening, Relocation and Closure of Marketing Offices and Agencies of Deposit Taking Microfinance Institutions. This is the 1st indication that deposit taking microfinance institutions could soon open outlets in far flung areas through third party premises. The guidelines will affect the 6 deposit taking microfinance organizations namely Faulu Kenya, REMU, Rafiki, SMEP, Uwezo and the Kenya women finance trust. The guidelines charge the board of directors of the various DTM’s with the responsibility of formulating policies, procedures and guidelines. The guidelines according to central bank should ensure that suitable lease agreements are in place, ensure sufficient facilities are in place to enable efficient provision of DTM services, ensure risks associated with carrying out deposit taking business in marketing offices or agencies are properly identified, documented and mitigated and Business activities carried out in marketing offices or agencies are constantly monitored to ensure compliance with the Microfinance Act, Regulations, this Guideline and any agreement in place. The guidelines continue that all firms wishing to participate as agencies will have to apply with the regulator with CBK replying within 30 days where it declines to approve. Those granted the approval will be expected to open shop in 90 days. The agencies will further be expected to renew licenses annually. Key responsibilities will include of the agencies and marketing institutions include maintaining an effective system of internal control. The guidelines are expected to be effective starting June 2012 according to the director of bank supervision department.

Why misspelled names are so common & what journalists are doing to prevent them

by Mallary Jean Tenore Published May 21, 2012 6:48 am Updated May 21, 2012 7:12 am Warren Buffett, Michele Bachmann and Elliott Gould all have something in common: they know what it’s like to have journalists repeatedly misspell their names. News organizations frequently run corrections for misspelled names, and some have misspelled the same name dozens of times. Last week, the Los Angeles Times ran a correction after misspelling Gould’s name in a caption. That was the 47th time since 1985 that the Times has referred to the actor as “Elliot” instead of “Elliott.” Henry Fuhrmann, assistant managing editor for the copy desks and standards at the Los Angeles Times, said that of 500 or so corrections published this year, about 14 percent have been for misspelled names. This is similar to other news organizations; in 2011, about 20 percent of the Toronto Star’s corrections were name-related, while about 16 percent of The New York Times’ were. It’s so easy to check the spelling of names — especially those of famous people — and yet we often fail to take this extra step as journalists. We forget to ask for the right spelling, we write the name from memory, we misread our handwritten notes, we’re misled by incorrect sources online, or we assume a name is spelled the “normal way.” Other times, we confuse people with similar-sounding names — like when journalists reporting on Osama bin Laden’s death last year referred to him as “Obama.” How the issue is playing out at news sites Jesse Lewis, multiplatform editing chief at The Washington Post, said misspellings at the Post typically occur when sources have common names with unusual spellings — Clark v. Clarke, for example, or Jimi v. Jimmy. “In these cases, the error tends to take place when reporters get names and spellings from other people,” Lewis said via email. He noted that in other instances, spelling issues occur with foreign names. This is especially true with names that are spelled differently by different publications, such as Moammar Gaddafi. Slate has also posted a lot of corrections for common names with unusual spellings. Home Page Editor Chad Lorenz said the site has fudged Michele Bachmann’s name numerous times — spelling it with two L’s instead of one and her last name with one N instead of two. The site has misspelled Sen. Jon Kyl’s name multiple times as well. Earlier this month, Slate misspelled three names in one week — Kanye West, H.L. Mencken and Edgar Allan Poe. (Poe’s middle name is commonly misspelled.) That same week, Slate referred to Sen. Ron Johnson as Tim Johnson and U.K. chancellor George Osborne as David Osborne. “Reporters here do understand the importance of proper spellings and work hard to avoid misspellings, so I don’t need to lecture them on it,” said Lorenz, who helps oversee Slate’s corrections. “They hate misspellings as much as or more than I do. Probably more.” He estimates that Slate has written five or six corrections for misspelled names each month this year. While he doesn’t excuse it, Lorenz understands why journalists get names wrong. “In general, journalists probably misspell names because they are focused on other, more mentally demanding facts: understanding the way a piece of legislation works or the legislative process behind it; checking the math behind a series of statistics; checking that quotes are right; researching the historical facts of a given topic,” Lorenz said via email. “Those demands are then compounded by the time pressures of reporting and writing very quickly.” It doesn’t help that newsrooms have let go of so many copy editors in recent years. How misspelled names damage our credibility When Starbucks employees misspell our names, it’s funny. When journalists do, it’s frustrating. Our name is tied to our identity, so we feel slighted when people don’t take the time to spell it right. This is especially true when people we know spell our name wrong. I cringed when The Wall Street Journal misspelled one of its own reporters’ names in a byline. Of course, I’ve been guilty of misspelling names, and so has Poynter.org. Of the 60 corrections we’ve run this year, about 16 percent have been for misspelled names. I’m especially sensitive to the issue because my name is commonly misspelled. My parents loved the show “Family Ties” and named me after one of the main characters, Mallory Keaton. Hoping to make my name sound more feminine, they spelled it with two A’s instead of the more common spelling (one A, one O.) Ever since, people have referred to me as “Mallory,” “Mallery,” “Malory” “Malary,” and yes, sometimes even “Melanie.” I let journalists know when they’ve gotten my name wrong in stories. More often than not, I’ve found that they fix the spelling but don’t write a correction. When we misspell names and don’t write corrections acknowledging our mistakes, we chip away at our credibility (which isn’t that high to begin with). Our audience may begin to wonder what other facts we’ve gotten wrong, or think we’re trying to hide our errors. Phil Corbett, assistant managing editor for standards at The New York Times, alluded to this in a blog post last November. “It’s embarrassing when we misspell well-known names. Even worse is misspelling the names of ordinary people who may appear in the Times only once,” he wrote. “Their moment in the spotlight is spoiled, and they’re likely to tell everyone they know that the Times can’t get its facts straight.” Corbett said that 460 of the estimated 2,800 errors the Times corrected in print from January to November 2011 involved people’s names. That’s about 42 misspellings per month. Corbett didn’t have more recent figures to share when I reached out to him, but said the number of misspellings has remained more or less consistent. What’s being done to avoid misspellings Some news organizations have taken new steps to safeguard against misspelled names. The New York Times recently started using a new spell-check system that is integrated into its content management system, in hopes it will make reporters more aware of misspellings. “It’s much better at reading context and entire phrases, so it knows that ‘buffet’ is a legitimate spelling, but that ‘Warren E. Buffet’ is almost certainly an error,” Corbett told me, noting that Warren Buffett is one of the names the Times regularly misspells. “[The system] takes into account The Times’ stylebook; it uses our newsroom dictionary, Webster’s New World College; and it makes it easy for editors in the newsroom to quickly add new terms to the spell-check dictionary, for example a new name that suddenly crops up in the news.” Additionally, Greg Brock — who oversees the Times’ corrections process — has started working more closely with editors who use a lot of freelancers. The goal, Corbett said, is to emphasize the need for freelancers to act as their own fact-checkers and double- and triple-check the spelling of names. Editors can play an important role in reminding journalists to be more careful when spelling names. Former Washington Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee had this to say to a young man who referred to him incorrectly when asking for a job in 1978: “Even though you are still young, very young, let me give you some advice. When you write the editor of a newspaper for a job, other things being equal, you stand a better shot if you spell his name right.” The Los Angeles Times’ Fuhrmann shares this advice with reporters: “Unless it’s the president or your mother, always look [names] up. And even then, always double-check your typing. With search engines at our fingertips, there really is little excuse for not taking that extra step.” Fuhrmann suggests copying and pasting names rather than typing them out, and has found it beneficial to add hyperlinks to names in stories. “Linking to the official bio or website of a newsmaker or organization — a useful but under-employed technique for informing readers — compels the reporter or editor to see and read the name as rendered by a reliable source,” he said. Using accuracy checklists can also help. As my colleague Craig Silverman once told me, “One of the key things about accuracy is that it’s a learned behavior. If you create habits that reinforce accuracy, then your chances of making an error are greatly reduced.” Some journalism schools are trying to reinforce the importance of accuracy by lowering students’ grades when they misspell names. I learned this after a University of Iowa student spelled my name incorrectly in a final project for her Gender and Mass Media class last winter. Her professor, Pam Creedon, lowered her grade from an A to a B as a result. When students misspell a name in classes that are open only to journalism majors, Creedon gives them a zero. Ultimately, she wants to stress the value of spelling names right and of showing your readers that you care. “[When] a family member, next door neighbor, friend, classmate or anyone sees a name misspelled in the media, everyone has a story to tell about when it happened to them,” Creedon said via email. “Sure, if the misspelling happens online these days, it can be corrected fairly easily. But, the memory of a misspelling never leaves.”

HUGE GAS POTENTIAL IN EAST AFRICA

The east African region is set to join the worlds gas giants with last week’s announcement of gas finds in Mozambique and Tanzania. These discoveries have pushed exploration to a new height with projections from the U.S. Geological Survey estimating 253 trillion cubic feet of gas may lie off Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique bigger than Africa's biggest energy producer Nigeria which has 186 trillion cubic feet. East Africa has turned to a hotspot for exploration of gas and oil with positive findings of gas in Tanzania, Mozambique and Rwanda while oil has been found in Uganda and Kenya. It is however the gas find that is hitting the scenes with the regions potential far above the oil finds. In Mozambique alone geologist from Anadarko petroleum estimate could have close to 1.4 trillion cubic meters or 50 trillion cubic feet of gas almost as much as Libya’s known reserves. Italian oil group Eni that is carrying out exploration in a neighbouring block estimates even higher reserves of about 52 cubic feet. In Tanzania British gas firm BG Group and explorer Ophir Energy last week said they had found more gas off the coast of Tanzania, raising hopes that the East African country will become a major new gas province. The estimated 3.5 trillion cubic feet is on top of the earlier find of 15 trillion cubic feet of reserves with a potential upside in total find. And although Kenya has not yet positively striked natural gas the positive find in the east African coast has driven up hopes that the entire region could have sufficient quantities. This is on top of the oil deposits find by British firm Tullow oil in Kenya and Uganda which although significant are far below reserves in West Africa. Oil finds in Somalia and Somaliland also project hopes for the region. Estimates of Somalia's reserves, onshore and offshore, go as high as 110 billion barrels of oil. According to analysts good use of the reserves could yield up to 10 billion dollars annually in taxes for the region.

Swiss Clariant Oil services seeks Kenyan Partner

Swiss owned multinational oil services company Clariant is seeking to enter the Kenyan market through a local partner. Head of oil services in Africa Nick Kenlay has told media 1st that talks are in the early stages with a local subsidiary of KEMIA international a pharmaceutical and chemistry company, with hopes to forge a partnership and establish contact years before oil production starts. This follows continued success in the exploration of oil in Turkana by British firm Tullow and now this optimism has attracted renewed interest in the country with the newest entrant being the Swiss Multinational Clariant Oil and mining services. According to the company’s head of Africa the multinational is in the process of getting a local partner that will enable it gain entrance into the market and that will further enable the company to start production of the necessary chemicals needed for oil production should the exploration bear fruit. Among benefits that the partnership could bring include much needed training in the sector with Clariant saying the country lacks the needed chemist, chemical and petroleum engineers. The company that specializes in maximizing and reducing cost in production says its presence will also result to research into the needed chemicals as an outcome of tests on quality of oil, water salt and gas levels in the oil currently ongoing. KEMIA is in the short term expected to act as the legal operating entity. Clariant also says it will be entering into partnerships with other local entities especially in logistics to ensure constant uninterrupted flow of inputs and needed chemicals once a local subsidiary is created. It is however unclear the kind of partnership Clariant is seeking from kenya's KEMIA. Should the talks succeed Kenya will join the likes of Angola, Nigeria, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, Libya, Ethiopia and Namibia where the firm has a presence.

SUBMARINE CABLE CUTS FORCES TEAMS TO LAY NEW RESTORATION CABLE

The east African marine cable TEAMS, has announced that it will be lay a cable to connect Mombasa to Djibouti as a restoration cable. According to TEAMS cable general manager Joel Tanui the cable will result to better restoration with little latency while at the same time offer cheaper rates. This follows a series of submarine cable cuts mostly as a result of shipping activities “The restoration cable will be connecting Mombasa via land through Ethiopia to Djibouti to minimize cases of outages while providing the best quality service.” Joel Tanui, General Manager TEAMS. Tanui says the route has been chosen after deliberations on which route would provide the lowest delays while at the same time giving the best onward connectivity. TEAMS has said that the cost of rerouting through Mombasa has proved expensive while Djibouti offers less latency and a better onward connectivity as most cables rerouting to Europe pass by the Horn of Africa state. The cable to be laid by the Kenyan transmission cable laying company KENTRACO will involve using electric infrastructure to lay the cable instead of laying underground cables.The work is expected to begin once funds are sourced either from the universal service fund through the Communication Commission of Kenya or through other shareholders. This announcement comes even as the cable continues to experience outage forcing it re reroute following a cable cut on the 26 of April just after suffering another in March where a ship carrying out dredging works at the Mombasa port. The new line will also locally connect Nanyuki to Moyale.. In the meantime the company says it has interim plans that will see partners provide stable links between the two towns before a line is complete in 6 months. Tanui says the new line is also part of the company’s strategy as it targets Somalia in the near future and expects the line to Djibouti be complete in between 24 to 36 months.

GIBE III DAM CONSTRUCTION SEES INCREASED RESISTANCE

Environmentalists and stakeholders in the tourism sector have continued to sound alarm over the controversial Ethiopian dam under construction on the lower part of river Omo. According to the stakeholders the damming will cost the Kenyan economy billions as the lake recedes over 50 kilometers affecting breeding sites for fish and crocodiles as well as Flora and Fauna at the Sibiloi national park. Several world heritage sites are also threatened. It is a project that will benefit both Kenya and Ethiopia supplying much needed energy for the industrialization of the 2 countries. The Gibe 3 hydroelectricity dam that is 243m high will be the largest hydroelectric plant in Africa with a power output of about 1870 MW of which 500MW will benefit Kenya under a power purchase agreement. However this dam poses far reaching dangers to the population as well as the flora and fauna dependent on Lake Turkana. With environmentalist projecting that the lake could recede by up to 50 kilometers. “We foresee a lot of conflicts in future as the neighbouring communities fight for water” Abdulkarim Mohammed, Curator at the Koobi Fora Museum. The area around Lake Turkana is known as the cradle of mankind following the numerous discoveries of the ancient man. Apart from the danger on the sites Sibiloi national park which is largely dependent on the lake for watering of the wild animals could also lose its capability to support its diverse wildlife. “This is also the breeding site for crocodiles and fish and supports the Gravy zebra, Oryx, Leopards and many birds,” Abdulkarim Mohammed, Curator at the Koobi Fora Museum. And with the Kenyan government having maintained its silence over the matter with reports that the national environment management agency might have never carried out an analysis the stakeholders have turned to the United Nations educational, scientific and cultural organization’s for intervention. But with the project just months away from commissioning, the sun might soon be setting on man’s original home, Lake Turkana taking with it many species as collateral damage as the region industrializes.