BEIJING, — The union is the second crucial step taken by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, or COMESA, as the continent moves toward economic integration. The 19-member bloc was established in 2000 to become Africa’s first free-trade area.

As Africa’s largest trading group, the regional customs union aims to lift tariffs among member states and reduce trade barriers with third parties.

Sunday’s summit followed a Council of Ministers meeting from Tuesday to Thursday, and talks between COMESA foreign ministers on Friday and Saturday.

In other developments, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe replaced his Kenyan counterpart, Mwai Kibaki, as COMESA’s chairman.

The summit, which had originally been set for last year, was postponed twice, the first time to allow the host country Zimbabwe to complete its electoral process amd form an all-inclusive government.

The meeting was postponed again while organizers studied issues related to Free Trade Areas and common external tariffs.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Victoria Falls. (XHTV)
Editor: Chris

By MATT MARKOVICH
KOMO-TV STAFF

MANILA, May 1 — Rattled by last year’s food price crisis, governments and corporations have signed a slew of deals to lease or buy arable land in cash-strapped nations, mainly in Africa and Southeast Asia. The entire harvest is shipped to the buyer.

Water-scarce Gulf states, along with China and South Korea — both have rising populations and food security concerns — are leading the rush for fertile land. When Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete was in Riyadh last month for a state visit, he met a Saudi investor group eager to lease 500,000ha of his country’s farmland to grow wheat and rice for the desert kingdom.

“The food and financial crisis combined have turned agriculture land into a new strategic asset,” said the sustainable farming advocacy group Grain.

The Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) estimates the value of signed farmland deals in recent years, as well as those in the pipeline, at between US$20 billion (RM72 billion) and US$30 billion, covering an area of 20 million ha — 20 per cent of the entire amount of arable land in the European Union.

“We see opportunities and threats,” said IFPRI’s director-general Joachim von Braun in a conference call this week with reporters from around the world.

For IFPRI, which is funded by government and development banks, these agreements have the potential to inject much-needed investments into neglected farm sectors in developing countries.

But they also raise concerns over their impact on the rights of small farmers and on the environment.

A political worry is the spectre of a re-emergence of the “banana republic syndrome with foreign investors getting involved in national problems”, said von Braun, noting that this was exactly what happened in Latin America in the 1970s.

Wheat rather than rice seems to be the main crop in these ventures right now. “We are hearing that plenty of investments are planned by commercial interests for rice, although not much has happened on the ground yet,” said Dr Achim Doberman, deputy research director at the International Rice Research Institute based in the Philippines.

Spain-based Grain views the sharp escalation in deals since last year’s food price crisis as a sign that “food-insecure” governments have lost faith in the market and are trying to secure supplies through the direct control of farmland overseas.

Foreign governments and companies with deep pockets that are making large land investments in the developing world clearly have the potential to cause trouble, especially in these raw times of global recession.

There was widespread public anger in Madagascar when South Korean conglomerate Daewoo leased 1.3 million ha of farmland — a huge chunk of the impoverished island’s arable land — to grow corn for South Koreans. The backlash played a role in the coup overthrowing the country’s president in March. One of the first acts of Madagascar’s new leader was to scrap the agreement with Daewoo.

The Philippines suspended an agreement with China to lease 1.4 million ha to grow crops for Chinese consumption two years ago. The government said it needed to take a closer look at the social impact after protests from local farmers’ groups and the country’s politically active Catholic Church.

The deal would have brought in nearly US$4 billion over several years for the Philippines.

“The interest of foreign direct investors in agriculture is potentially very good because small farm holders in developing countries have been starved of capital because of the credit crunch from the financial crisis,” said von Braun.

Groups tracking these transnational land deals are noticing fewer government-to-government agreements and far more commercial ones.

IFPRI wants an international code of conduct set up for foreign investors — whether governments or corporations — and the host countries to protect the interests of small farmers, as well as address environmental concerns on biodiversity and water and land resources stemming from the impact of large-scale farmland investments.

And in times of national food security — in the case of a drought, for instance — domestic supplies should have priority, it said in a policy brief: “Foreign investors should not have the right to export during an acute national
(.themalaysianinsider.com)

BEIJING (Reuters Life!) - Dozens of Chinese students who saw little prospect of getting into a top medical school have secured admission by becoming nationals of the tiny west African country of Guinea-Bissau, a newspaper said on Thursday.

Among the 112 international students that entered Peking University Health Science Center in 2007 and 2008 were 48 from Guinea-Bissau — all ethnic Chinese from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, the Shanghai Morning Post said.

“Only themselves know the reason,” a university official was quoted as saying when asked why they chose to change nationalities to Guinean and pay much more in tuition fees.

The center is one of the most competitive medical colleges in China, but the entrance examination for international students was easier than the one for Chinese students, the newspaper said.

Guinea-Bissau, a country of under two million people, was once the Portuguese colony of Portuguese Guinea.

Hong Kong, a former British colony, and Macau, a former Portuguese colony, are now “special administrative regions” of China with wide-ranging autonomy, while China has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.

(Reporting by Yu Le and Nick Macfie; Editing by David Fox)

(reuters.com)

Maputo, Mozambique,  – The chairman of the association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises of Macau, Stanley Au Chong Kit, Wednesday in Maputo called for reciprocity in business investments with Mozambique, noting that China also has business opportunities for Mozambican businesspeople.

Stanley Au, who is also the principal shareholder of Banco Delta Ásia of Macau, noted the “window of business opportunities” that the Special Administrative Region of Macau and China represented, when speaking at a meeting between a group of Chinese and Mozambican businesspeople, as part of a business mission by China to Mozambique, which has been running since Monday.

“Business exchange between China and Mozambique could and should be both ways: A flow of Chinese investment in Mozambique and another flow of investments by Mozambican businesspeople in China,” said Kit.

According to Kit, Mozambican businesspeople should take advantage of the economic and commercial relationship between Mozambique and China, based on the numerous economic cooperation deals signed between the two countries.

Opening up the Chinese market to Mozambican and African businesspeople, in general, will be a way of correcting the imbalance of the balance of trade between the two countries, which has been favourable to China, Kit noted.

Speaking at the meeting, Nuno Maposse, a project manager from teh Mozambican Centre for Investment Promotion (CPI), which is promoting the visit by the Chinese mission, prefferred to noted, “the enormous potential and incentives for investment that is as yet unexplored in Mozambique.”

“Mozambique has comparative advantages in attracting investments, such as security and protection of property rights, flexibility in repatriation of capital and dividends and a legal Framework for investment conflict arbitration,” said Maposse.

Mining resources, the hydroelectric sector and agriculture are areas that offer “great” business opportunities to Chinese businesspeople in Mozambique, said the CPI Project manager.

The Chinese delegation is due Thursday to travel to Luanda and also plans to travel to Portugal on Saturday.

On Friday in Luanda the mission is due to meet with the Intergovernmental China-Angola Bilateral Commission to analyse bilateral cooperation in various sectors and outline future activities for 2009-2010.

A statement from the Angolan Foreign Affairs Ministry also said that the 4th session of the Commission will be presided over by Angola Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, Exalgina Gamboa and the Chinese side will be led by Chinese Deputy Trade Minister, Juang Zengwei.

The statement added that during its brief stay in Luanda the Chinese delegation would visit some Chinese projects underway in Angola. (macauhub)

(BBC

This is a must read - and don’t stop until the end because that’s when it really hits you! Apparently a jilted Chinese girl sent this message to the Swedish Embassy to warn them of the disaster this man will inflict on Chinese women. I feel bad for the poor girl.

From: XXX
Date: XXX
To: XXX
Subject: Please Help Protect Chinese Women From This Man

I am writing you to inform you of the perverse and inexcusable behavior of Johan Otto Englund who is studying chinese at Shanghai Jiao Tong University now. In Early February of 2009, Johan visited me in my hometown of Changsha city in china. We met online several months earlier and established a cyber relationship ( He contacted me there firstly. ) Johan said to me he was studying International politics in sweden before, who is very interested in chinese politics . He need to see Chair Mao’s, Lei Feng ’s home town in Changsha.

He asked me if i will show him around and meet him in person in changsha. He said to me in letters and phone calls at MSN. I was friendly to see a western friend from overseas to china who is special to see Characteristics in Changsha. I was enjoyed and be proud to be his tour guider that’s all my feeling.

When i was leading Johan to Hunan Museum, Changsha Museum and Martyrs Park , Johan said he was thinking to being a nurse in Africa to help poor ppl and he was working in Nursing home in Sweden, taking care of old ,retired ppls. He traveled lot places in Europe, Africa,South Asia . He will work in European Unions or United Unions forhuman rights. He is also a Vegetarian who doest want to kill animals.

Tour on the road, Johan was sincerely talking about the price of Mineral water, food, travel fee was expensive, he is thrifty . I respected his honest, Sympathy with his student status. I paid myself, sometimes I also paid his travel fee and food.

He said to me many beautiful words all leading me to believe that he is a noble humanitarian wanted a chinese girlfriend as Capable as I. His words persuaded me that he was falling in love with me and I liked him in lot in his noble Integrity. It seems Johan and I were happily togather after this so, I relented to his demand.

I taken Johan to my home twice . My mom cooked dinners for himduring Spring festival to Lantern. My mom was very happy to see a western ppl can speak chinese to her and Johan said ,he ‘d love to have Table Tennis ‘ competitions with my mom . My mom laughed lot and gave him expensive gree tea and good fruits as gifts. Johan didnt give me or my mom anything. He was very enjoyed visited my home and praised house’s decoration deluxe and my mom’s wonderful cooking.

I sent Johan back to Shanghai from airport in changsha . Then i havnt hear any informations from him. I called his cell phone , firstly nobody answer. Later, Johan said, he is busy and has a new gf in Shanghai. It is too late for me but, I hope in all my heart that you will be able to do something about Johan Otto Englund so he will not be able to hurt other girls like he has hurt me. Please do not let him hurt more chinese girls ’s kind heart and friendly respect to ppl from other countries.

P.S. Johan gave me bad flu and asked too much sex.

Name: Johan Otto Englund Pass & Visa No. xxxxxxx xxxxxxx

Other posts you might be interested to check out:

(funtouristattractions.com)

Chinese President Hu Jintao ended his tour of four African nations this week, having promised to deepen ties with the continent. See where President Hu visited by scrolling down to our interactive map.

A lot of chatter has surrounded China’s interests in Africa. Media have branded China’s role in Africa as an invasion or an era of neo-colonialism with ulterior motives of pillaging Africa’s raw materials. Rhetoric from Chinese and African leaders includes words like “friendship,” “partnership” and “brotherhood,” stressing a shared history and common experience.

Worldfocus traveled to East Africa last summer to explore the strengthening trading ties among China and African countries — Sino-African trade amounted to almost $107 billion last year and has expanded tenfold since 2000. Chinese investment has encouraged new infrastructure projects and growth on the continent.

Some of this trade, however, involves countries like Sudan and Zimbabwe, where human rights abuses have been cited. Some also criticize the flood of cheap Chinese goods because it has eliminated Africans’ jobs.

Worldfocus.org’s weekly radio show examined the roots of the China-Africa relationship dating back 50 years, exploring what it means for Africa and China and whether the U.S. has become an uncomfortable third wheel.

Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge hosted the following guests:

Li Anshan is a professor at the School of International Studies, Peking University and the director of the Institute of Afro-Asian Studies. His publications include “A History of Chinese Overseas in Africa” and “Social History of Chinese Overseas in Africa: Selected Documents, 1800-2005,” among others. His interests include African history, China-African relations, colonialism, Chinese overseas, comparative nationalism and development studies.

David H. Shinn is a former Ambassador to Ethiopia and Burkina Faso. He is currently an adjunct professor at George Washington University. Amb. Shinn’s research interests include Africa, terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism and U.S. foreign policy in Africa. He also blogs regularly here.

Mariana van Zeller is is a correspondent for Vanguard, an original documentary series on Current TV. She’s a native of Portugal and has spent the last several years traveling the globe to cover the emerging trends that are reshaping our world. Mariana has reported on conflict, immigration and the environment. In 2008, she traveled to Angola to produce the documentary “Chinatown, Africa,” which examines China’s rapidly growing presence on the continent.

Each year since 1991, a Chinese foreign minister has selected Africa as the first overseas trip. China has diplomatic relations with 49 of Africa’s 53 countries and has ambassadors in all these countries, except for Somalia due to the security situation. Below is an interactive map detailing recent visits by President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to African nations. Click on the highlighted African countries below to see China’s recent high-level visits.

Maputo - China has injected a total of $60m to construct a stadium in Mozambique as a way of tapping into the 2010 World Cup tournament to be held in neighbouring South Africa.

The stadium, financed by a Chinese loan, is the biggest sports construction since Mozambique’s independence from Portugal in 1975 and 16 years of ruinous civil war.

Authorities now hope to attract fellow Portuguese-speaking 2010 teams, including five-time champions Brazil, to use the stadium to train for the soccer festival.

But with kick-off in South Africa in June next year, it faces a race against the clock.

“That’s why we are working 24 hours a day,” the state’s project director Celso Mabjaia said as labourers prepared at sunset to hand over to the night shift.

The project has employed 273 Chinese and 331 Mozambicans so far, with the figures expected to reach 500 and 1 000 by the end of the project.

Maputo is expected to start paying back the loan in 2017.

The final result will be a multi-facility sports park anchored by the 42 000 capacity stadium.

It is one of several Chinese-backed projects worth millions of dollars in Mozambique.

Small village

On the site on the Maputo outskirts, the Chinese have set up a small village with a vegetable garden, communal dormitories, dining and bathroom areas, and a ping-pong table.

“They work very hard - 24 hours - and they look for daily results,” said Jose de Sousa Pereira, the Mozambican sports ministry spokesperson.

“They are high performance workers, so we are learning from them, this culture of working.”

Communication and cultural differences have been a challenge overcome through practicalities and many hand gestures.

“I know how to greet in Chinese now,” said Domingos Porfirio, 24, dubbed “amigo” by his welding team leader. “We speak about lots of things… women, sightseeing… They want to know about the country.”

“They received me very well and they treat me very well. I thought they were racist, now I found they are not racist. They are friendly,” he said.

Others said they were happy to have a job but that the work was hard.

World’s poorest nation

Mozambique is one of the world’s poorest nations - ranking 172 out of 177 countries in the latest UN human development index - with foreign aid making up 51% of the country’s $3.2bn budget last year.

Built on ties established during the Marxist-led fight for independence from Portugal in the 1960s, China is the country’s sixth largest foreign direct investor.

In 2007, China’s President Hu Jintao pledged further loan assistance of $170m for the strategically placed nation whose 2 000-kilometre coastline offers access to land-locked Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

Officials believe the football stadium will allow Mozambique to benefit from the World Cup as Maputo is just 450km from the main host city Johannesburg.

Regional countries completely support South Africa’s hosting of the Cup, said Pereira.

“It’s very important to give to the world the opportunity to see that in southern Africa development is going on and that we have ability and capacity to receive this kind of project,” he said.

- AFP

Note: Even though I have made a policy not to post no English content to this website,  I just got this message from a friend : Fabrice Barutwanayo and found it particulary Interesting. Sorry for Non my non-french speakers readers.

Savoureuse lettre d’une maman
sénégalaise

Cher fils,

No mbada ? —–

Je t’écris ces lignes pour que tu saches que je
t’écris. Alors, si tu reçois cette lettre, c’est qu’elle est bien
arrivée. Si tu ne la reçois pas, tu me préviens pour que je te la renvoie.

Je t’écris lentement parce que je sais que tu ne lis pas
très vite.

L’autre jour, ton père a lu que selon les enquêtes la
plupart des accidents arrivent à 1 km de la maison, ainsi nous nous
sommes décidés à déménager plus loin. La maison est superbe; elle a une
machine à laver, mais je ne suis pas sûre qu’elle fonctionne.

Hier, j’ai mis le linge dedans, j’ai tiré la
chasse et je n’ai plus vu le linge depuis, mais bon.

Le temps ici n’est pas trop mauvais. La semaine dernière il a plu
seulement deux fois. La première fois, la pluie a duré 3
jours, la deuxième 4.

A propos de la veste que tu voulais, ton oncle Ibrahima m’a dit que si
nous te l’envoyions avec les boutons, comme ils sont lourds,
ça coûterait plus cher; alors, nous avons enlevé les boutons et
les avons mis dans la poche.

Je te raconte que l’autre jour, il y a eu une explosion
à gaz dans la cuisine, et ton père et moi sommes sortis
propulsés dans l’air au dehors de la maison; quelle émotion ! c’est la
première fois que ton père et moi sortons ensemble depuis des années..
Le médecin est venu à la maison pour voir si nous étions bien et il
m’a mis un tube en verre dans la bouche. Il m’a dit de me taire pendant 10
minutes,ton père lui a proposé de lui racheter le tube.

Et puisqu’on parle de ton père, je t’annonce qu’il a du travail, il en est
fier, il travaille au-dessus d’à peu près 500 personnes. Ils l’ont pris
pour couper le gazon dans le cimetière.

Ta soeur youmané, celle qui s’est mariée avec son
mari, elle a enfin mis au monde, mais on ne sait pas encore le sexe, je ne
saurais pas te dire si tu es oncle ou tante.

Ton père a demandé à ta soeur youmané si elle
est enceinte, elle lui a dit que oui, de 5 mois déjà; mais là, ton
père a demandé si elle était sûre qu’il était d’elle. youmané lui a
dit que oui. Quelle fille solide, quelle fierté, tel père telle fille.

Ton cousin Poulho s’est marié et il prie tous les
jours devant sa femme, parce qu’elle est vierge.

Par contre,on n’a plus revu l’oncle Amadou ,
celui qui est mort l’année dernière.

Ton chien gnouky nous inquiète, il
continue à poursuivre les charettes à l’arrêt.

Mais ton frère Diagara , c’est pire. Il a fermé la
voiture et il a laissé les clefs à l’intérieur. Il a dû aller
chez lui chercher le double pour pouvoir nous sortir tous de là.

Bon, mon fils, je ne t’écris pas l’adresse sur la lettre, je ne la connais
pas. En fait, la dernière famille qui a habité ici est
partie avec les numéros pour les remettre dans leur nouveau
domicile.

Si tu vois Fatimata , passe lui le bonjour. Si
tu ne la vois pas, ne lui dis rien.

Ta mère qui t’adore.

P.S. J’allais te mettre quelques sous, mais j’ai
déjà fermé l’enveloppe

From Fabrice Barutwanayo

Southern Times Writer

Despite its failure to host the 2011 All-Africa Games, Zambia has been assured by the Chinese government that its 50 000-seater Ndola Stadium will still be constructed.

Chinese President Hu Jintao last week said his country is committed to improving sports infrastructure in Africa and will soon commence construction of a modern stadium in Zambia.

Hu, who was speaking at the inauguration of the 65 000-seater National Stadium in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, said Beijing Construction and Engineering Group Company would soon start constructing the stadium in Ndola.

Hu said his country attaches great importance to relations with African countries in improving sports infrastructure.

The US$56 million stadium was largely funded with a grant from the Chinese government.

Beside President Jakaya Kikwete, former Tanzania presidents Benjamin Mkapa and Ali Hassan Mwinyi and ex-prime minister Rashid Kawawa attended the ceremony.

Late Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa negotiated for the construction of a 45 000 capacity modern stadium in Ndola when he visited China in 2007.

But after the death of Mwanawasa and Zambia’s backtracking on hosting the All-Africa Games 2011, the future of Ndola stadium’s revival had remained in doubt.

The stadium is still in its infant stages as it was meant to replace Ndola’s currently largest sports arena, Dag Hammerskjold Stadium.

Dag Hammerskjold Stadium was destroyed and razed to the ground in the late 80s when Zambia won the bid to host the 1988 African Nations Cup, before retracting at the last minute. It was never rebuild.

Works and Supply Permanent Secretary Colonel Bizwayo Nkunika told The Southern Times that plans for construction of a modern stadium were now back on schedule.

Col Nkunika said a team of officials from ministries of Sport, and Works and Supply had already been to China to finalise the construction contract.

“We hope to be completed with the stadium before the 2010 World Cup,” he said.

(southerntimesafrica.com)

There is a group of Chinese bloggers and journalists visiting South Africa in a group organized by the South African embassy in Beijing.

There are two financial journalists from Hong Kong, a sports journalist from China’s biggest football newspaper, three Chinese bloggers who write about youth culture, technology and travel, and a South African who has lived in China for 14 years and founded Danwei.org, China’s best known English language blog.

Alongside official dinners and meetings, they are hosting a meet-’n-greet braai on Camps Bay beach on Friday later afternoon / early evening, and are keen to meet people involved in the internet, Web2.0, blogging, technology, the advertising industry and arts & culture - especially the ways in which South Africans are modernising or keeping alive traditional art forms.

Anyone interested in attending should email jeremy@danwei.org or contact 072 3253071. You can also follow them on Twitter http://twitter.com/ChinaBloggersSA

(afrigator.com)

AP

Jennifer Figge is shown swimming on her journey that made her the first woman to swim across the Atlantic Ocean.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico  —  Jennifer Figge pressed her toes into the Caribbean sand, exhilarated and exhausted as she touched land this week for the first time in almost a month.

Reaching a beach in Trinidad, she became the first woman on record to swim across the Atlantic Ocean — a dream she’d had since the early 1960s, when a stormy trans-Atlantic flight got her thinking she could don a life vest and swim the rest of the way if needed.

The 56-year-old left the Cape Verde Islands off Africa’s western coast on Jan. 12, battling waves of up to 30 feet and strong winds.

David Higdon, a friend of Figge who kept in touch with her via satellite phone, said she had originally planned to swim the Bahamas, but inclement weather forced her to veer 1,000 miles off course to Trinidad, where she arrived on Feb. 5.

Figge plans to continue her odyssey, swimming from Trinidad to the British Virgin Islands, where she expects to arrive in late February. The crew won’t compute the total distance Figge swam until after she completes the journey, Higdon said.

Then it’s home to Aspen, Colorado — where she trained for months in an outdoor pool amid snowy blizzards — to reunite with her Alaskan Malamute.

“My dog doesn’t know where I am,” she told The Associated Press on Saturday by phone. “It’s time for me to get back home to Hank.”

The dog swirled in her thoughts, as did family and friends, as Figge stroked through the chilly Atlantic waters escorted by a sailboat. She saw a pod of pilot whales, several turtles, dozens of dolphins, plenty of Portuguese man-of-war — but no sharks.

“I was never scared,” Figge said. “Looking back, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I can always swim in a pool.”

Her journey comes a decade after French swimmer Benoit Lecomte made the first known solo trans-Atlantic swim, covering nearly 4,000 miles from Massachusetts to France in 73 days. No woman on record has made the crossing.

Figge woke most days around 7 a.m., eating pasta and baked potatoes while she and the crew assessed the weather. Her longest stint in the water was about eight hours, and her shortest was 21 minutes. Crew members would throw bottles of energy drinks as she swam; if the seas were too rough, divers would deliver them in person. At night she ate meat, fish and peanut butter, replenishing the estimated 8,000 calories she burned a day.

Figge wore a red cap and wet suit, with her only good-luck charm underneath: an old, red shirt to guard against chafing, signed by friends, relatives and her father, who recently died.

The other cherished possession she kept onboard was a picture of Gertrude Ederle, an American who became the first woman to swim across the English Channel.

“We have a few things in common,” Figge said. “She wore a red hat and she was of German descent. We both talk to the sea, and neither one of us wanted to get out.”

Figge arrived on Trinidad’s Chacachacare Island, an abandoned leper colony, at 5:20 p.m. She plans to leave Trinidad on Monday night. During this brief respite, she has avoided the hotel pool and nearby ocean, opting instead for the treadmill.

(http://www.foxnews.com)

While I was surfing the internet searching articles about China Africa cooperation, trade and investment and the comments about the recent African Union summit, i ran across an article claiming that an other black guy, and this time a Nigerian doctor: Nelson, Louis Obyo Obyo have made history by inventing a cure for diabetes.  I didn’t believe it even though I posted it on www.AfricansInChina.com.

I wrote to him asking  him to confirm if it is really true and this is the answer I got .

Dear Daniel,
Thank you for your mail. It is not surprising that there are those would doubt my claims. History is full of them. Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), an Italian, one of the world’s greatest navigators, took glory to Spain and irreversibly changed the course of history. Europe at the time could not believe that the world was round as opposed to the then existing belief that it was flat. The King and Queen of Spain were ready to give history a chance in their support for Columbus to sail West in order to reach India in the East.
Galilei Galileo (1564-1642), an Italian mathematician, astronomer, and physicist, considered a founder of experimental methods was condemned by the Roman Inquisition for saying that the planets revolve around the sun. The belief then was that the earth is the center of the universe.
Albert Einstein (1878-1955), mathematician and physicist was born in Germany. He published his theories of relativity, equivalence of mass and energy, brownian motion and photon theory of light in 1905. Verification was only possible in 1919. He ran to the United Sated of America, where he developed the atomic bomb and saved the world.
With time we will know if my claim is correct. Let them doubt.
Obyo Nelson

For more information, you can view his patent at this page:

http://www.patentstorm.us/inventors-patents/Louis_Obyo_Obyo_Nelson/1549949/1.html
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6531461/fulltext.html

Note: It was a private email but I think it’s worth to share.
Hope Doctor will forgive me for that.

Daniel Hakizimana, Shanghai China

Twelve years ago, Irving Weissman discovered a treatment that might have saved the lives of thousands of women with advanced breast cancer, but pharmaceutical companies weren’t interested in developing the therapy. Though that interest is finally being reignited, Weissman doesn’t pull any punches. “I hate to say I told you so,” he said.

Weissman, a professor of pathology and developmental biology at Stanford University, spoke Wednesday and Thursday as part of the Columbia University Department of Religion’s Bampton Lecture series. The lecture series is modeled after a centuries-old Oxford series of the same name, and invites famous authorities in their respective fields to give talks on various issues of interest to the religious community.

In Wednesday’s lecture, Weissman laid out the conceptual foundation of his work—that stem cells are rare, self-renewing, and can regenerate body tissues. Weissman repeatedly expressed frustration that while many of his discoveries seemed to hold remarkable potential for life-saving treatments, commercial or regulatory hurdles have prevented his scientific research from benefiting human beings.

One example is Weissman’s mid-’90s research on type I diabetes, in which he demonstrated the ability to fully cure type I diabetes in mice using stem cells. But even though the experiments avoided political controversy by using so-called adult stem cells, which do not come from embryos, Weissman ran into a road block when pharmaceutical companies refused to sponsor clinical trials. The therapy went nowhere. Weissman implied that the pharmaceutical companies had put profit over principle, preferring to keep diabetes sufferers dependent on costly insulin than to cure them once and for all.

“He [Weissman] has a long history of being at the forefront of his field,” Arthur Palmer, professor of structural biology at Columbia said, remarking that Weissman has never been afraid to challenge scientific orthodoxy.

One example of this iconoclastic streak is Weissman’s outspoken disagreement with recent reports that adult stem cells can be “reprogrammed,” obliviating the need for the more powerful embryonic stem cells.

Weissman geared his presentation to a lay audience, only occasionally drifting into jargon. Jaffer Kolb, who was visiting his sister at Columbia, enjoyed Weissman’s talk. “I have no science background,” he said, “so I was afraid I would have a hard time. But it was really easy to follow.”

The presentation left some audience members with questions. Susan Doubileg, a Columbia alumna, wondered if Weissman’s results were as conclusive as presented. “If they were so useful, why weren’t they picked up in other countries?” she asked, referring to Europe’s less restrictive stem cell regulations. Nonetheless, Palmer cautioned against dismissing Weissman’s research. “He’s been right a lot in the past,” he said.
(http://www.columbiaspectator.com)

Chinese state-run oil majors CNOOC and Sinopec are learnt to have emerged frontrunners for the acquisition of 30% stake in an oil block
in Angola from the US-based Marathon Oil. ONGC Videsh (OVL), the overseas arm of Oil & Natural Gas Corp, is also a contender for the stake. The successful bidder will have to pay about $1.8 billion for the stake.

The move comes days after OVL announced acquisition of UK-based Imperial Energy for $2.1 billion, outbidding the Chinese firms.

A senior ONGC official confirmed the company’s interest in the oil block. “We have bid for Angola block number 32 to acquire 30% equity from Marathon Oil. We are yet to know the formal results of the bid,” he said.

Industry sources said there is strong possibility of a Chinese company sealing the deal. ONGC has many times in the past lost out to the aggressive Chinese firms when it comes to acquisition of equity in overseas oil blocks. ONGC’s acquisition of Imperial was an exception, they added.

Recently, Sinopec acquired Canadian firm Tanganyika Oil for $1.8 billion, outbidding OVL. Tanganyika has two oil fields in Syria with proven reserves of 184 million barrels till end-2007.

The sources also said that the valuation of the Angolan block was not justified in the wake of a massive fall in crude oil prices in recent times. Oil prices have declined to $40 a barrel from the peak of $147 in July 2008.

On Angola’s block 32, Marathon Oil has announced 11 successful exploration wells. These are Gindungo, Canela, Gengibre, Mostarda, Salsa, Manjericao, Caril, Louro, Cominhos, Colorau and Alho. Marathon has a 30% working interest in this block.

Total of France, which holds a 30% stake, is the operator of the block. The remaining stake is held by Sonangol (20%), Esso Exploration and Production Angola (15%) and Petrogal (5%).