Saturday, November 23African Digital Business Magazine

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African News, South Africa News

New Fair Trade Shop Empowers South African Artisans

  COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Aug. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Paradigm Shift, a Colorado-based non-profit, recently launched an online shop. The Paradigm Shift Shop sells Fair Trade South African crafts handmade by microentrepreneurs who have participated in Paradigm Shift's holistic entrepreneurship training program. Around the globe millions work in sweatshop-like conditions, earning barely enough to feed their families. Unfortunately, many consumers are unaware of the exploitation that is often involved in the process of making their goods. Former U.S. president Benjamin Harrison once said, "I pity the man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth will starve in the process." To counter the exploitation of workers around the world, a social movement has e...
African News, South Africa News, Zambia News

Regionalism

  by Chikomborero Dengu (chikodengu @ gmail.com) Regionalism (Microsoft Word) Introduction There is an increasing recognition for the need to improve the political and economic environment of a country or region via collective action . This recognition is borne out of the realisation that countries or indeed regions are competing with themselves for scarce resources . This essay intends to dissect the concept of new regionalism and whilst briefly looking at how it has evolved .  With reference to the last point this paper will attempt to link the concept of new regionalism to the recent surge in Regional Trade Agreements (RTA).[1] The crux of this essay however lay in establishing the reasons for increases in RTA’s , that is to say both economic and political positives of jo...
Kenya News, Malawi News, Science, Tanzania News

New CDC studies point to better practices in timing, testing, and retention of patients in HIV anti-retroviral drug treatment (ART) in Africa

  ATLANTA, July 24, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- New collaborative studies being presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at the XIX International AIDS Conference confirm early treatment of HIV patients results in better outcomes, suggest use of viral load testing to detect treatment failure, and highlight factors associated with low rate of ART enrollment. CDC plays an essential role in implementing the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through its scientific and technical expertise, and long-standing partnerships with Ministries of Health and other key global partners such as the World Health Organization.  Presentations at the conference reflect CDC's commitment to fighting global HIV/AIDS and to achieving President Obama and Sec...
Science

Element Six Synthetic Diamond Protects CERN Particle Detectors in Recently Announced Higgs boson Experiment Results

  CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) particle detection systems use Element Six synthetic diamond in their first line of defence against beam-induced radiation damage in their recently announced Higgs boson experiment results.   LONDON, July 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Element Six, the world leader in synthetic diamond supermaterials, is proud to announce that its highest purity synthetic diamond is an integral part of the CERN LHC (Large Hadron Collider) CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) and ATLAS Beam Condition Monitoring Systems, used in the recent experiments which revealed the discovery of a new particle consistent with Higgs boson. This follows Element Six's announcement earlier this year regarding the construction of a $30M Global Innovation Centre in the UK, to...
African News

Confirmation.com Uncovers $200 Million Peregrine Financial Group Fraud

  Commodity Futures Regulator Moves to Mandate Use of Service for All Regulated Brokerages BRENTWOOD, Tenn., July 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Within 24 hours of a regulatory mandate to use electronic confirmation service Confirmation.com, here, PFGBest, a commodity brokerage unit of Peregrine Financial Group, Inc., was exposed as a multi-year $215 million fraud. "PFGBest is a sadly common example of how easily bank and account information can be falsified to evade detection of accounting frauds," said Brian Fox, founder and chief marketing officer of Confirmation.com. "CEO Russell Wasendorf resisted using our service for months, presumably because he knew that as soon as electronic confirmation went into effect, he would be exposed. We have seen this pattern several times since lau...
Science

New Study Finds Greatly Elevated HIV Infection Rates Among Young Black Gay and Bisexual Men in the U.S.

  RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., July 23, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Study results released today by the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) show disturbing  rates of new HIV infections occurring among black gay and bisexual men in the U.S. (also known as men who have sex with men, or MSM), particularly young black MSM. The HPTN 061 study showed that the overall rate of new HIV infection among black MSM in this study was 2.8% per year, a rate that is nearly 50% higher than in white MSM in the U.S. Even more alarming, HPTN 061 found that young black MSM—those 30 years of age and younger—acquired HIV infection at a rate of 5.9% per year, three times the rate among U.S. white MSM. The overall infection rate among black MSM in this U.S study is comparable to the rate seen in the gen...
African News, Nigeria News

Kola Aluko Hails $4.5 Billion Deal for New Refineries

  LONDON, July 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Nigerian government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with US firm Vulcan Petroleum Resources and Nigeria's Petroleum Refining and Strategic Reserve to build six new oil refineries in a deal worth $4.5 billion. Two of the plants, each of which will have a capacity of 30,000 barrels per day, are set to be operational within a year. Nigeria - Africa's top oil producer - has been held back by its lack of refining capacity, which has made it a net importer of processed crude and subject to global price fluctuations. Until recently, a generous fuel subsidy protected consumers from high import prices. Though not yet lifted entirely, six months ago President Goodluck Jonathan announced that this support was no longer affordable. Fund...
Science

75% of People Have Received an Email or Had Information Sent to Them by Mistake Says Independent Data and Information Security Survey

  SC Magazine’s latest survey produced in partnership with Egress Software Technologies raises major concerns about how organisations are sharing sensitive information. London, United Kingdom, July 19, 2012 --(PR.com)-- A recent survey carried out by SC Magazine and Egress Software Technologies designed to look at the challenges surrounding the security used by organisations to share sensitive information with third parties has uncovered some startling results. At a time when fines from the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) for data breaches are on the increase (http://www.ico.gov.uk/news/latest_news/2012.aspx), the correct systems simply aren't in place to ensure security standards are met. The survey showed that; 94.5% of those surveyed thought that data security system...
Republic of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)

World Cocoa Foundation and First Lady of Cote d’Ivoire Partner to Improve Cocoa Communities

  Agreement Provides for Social and Economic Support [19-July-2012] WASHINGTON, July 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — The World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) and the office of Dominique Ouattara, first lady of Cote d’Ivoire, announced today an agreement to develop and implement educational and vocational training programs to benefit cocoa farmers and their families in Cote d’Ivoire. The three-year agreement is valued at $3.6 million and will benefit more than 12,000 Ivorians through successful WCF educational programs that are active in the country and in other West African countries. The agreement was signed in a ceremony today in Washington by First Lady Dominique Ouattara and Bill Guyton, president of the World Cocoa Foundation. The collaboration expands access to quality universal basic e...
African News, Ethiopia News, Ghana News, Kenya News, Nigeria News, South Africa News

Ethiopian Airlines buys additional plane for US$276 million

By Sanday Chongo Kabange (ABN) HONG KONG - Ethiopian Airlines has ordered an additional 777-200LR aircraft valued at US$276 million from Boeing, bringing the number of similar planes to six. The Addis Abba-headquartered carrier is to add an additional aircraft to its fleet, less than two months after two plane crashes in Ghana and Nigeria notched up the question of aviation safety in Africa. The 777 is Boeing's second-biggest plane, with 321 seats as flown by Ethiopian Airlines, which already has five of them. "The 777-200LR has been a fantastic airplane for Ethiopian Airlines," Tewolde Gebremariam, Ethiopian Airlines chief executive said in a news release. “This additional airplane will let us take full advantage of the performance and economics of this great airplane." The 777-200...