AFRICA :NEWS,CULTURE, CHINA/AFRICA/WORLD

Photo Edwin received a first class degree in Mathematics and Computer Science

A Manchester student who created a re-useable water bottle to raise money for African countries has been named Britain’s top black graduate.

Edwin Broni-Mensah, who is studying for an Applied Maths PhD at the University of Manchester, was given the title by Future Leaders magazine.

He topped their list of 100 graduates, which profiles bright students of African and African Caribbean origin.

He said he was “overjoyed to be named number one on such a prestigious list”.

Twenty-five year old Edwin made the news in August 2010 when he launched GiveMeTap, which raises money for drought-stricken countries through the sales of a special aluminium bottle

Seventy percent of the company’s profits go towards providing clean water and irrigation in Africa.

It was his entrepreneurship in setting up the company, coupled with his
first class degree in Mathematics and Computer Science (which led him
directly into a scholarship for his PhD), that impressed the judges
enough to put him the top spot.

Edwin said that he was “extremely delighted and feel very honoured at being recognised as one of the Future Leaders.”

Adding:
“What gives me the most pleasure is being in a position where I can
meet and inspire young people to pursue their dreams as literally
anything is possible.”

‘Entrepreneurial spark’

The Future Leaders list profiles Britain’s brightest students of African
and African Caribbean origin and is collated to provide a link between
publishers Powerful Media’s Powerlist, an annual list of Britain’s 100
most influential black people, and the young people it was created to
inspire.

The judges of the student list - Harvard selector Nick
Basden, former NUS Black Students Officer Bellavia Ribeiro-Addy and
Yashica Olden, the European Head of Diversity at Barclays Capital -
selected Edwin after a rigorous process that included contacting every
university in the country and formal interviews with all those on the
shortlist.

The University of Manchester are understandably proud of their student’s achievement.

Dr
Martin Henery, entrepreneurship lecturer at the institution’s
Manchester Business School, said Edwin’s “entrepreneurial spark was
clear from the outset.”

He explained that it was “rare to work
with someone who combines the ability to make things happen with such
original thinking.”

“His is one of those concepts that nearly everyone can see the value of straight away, but it’s really tough to make happen.

“It needs true vision and tenacity to stick with it and see it through to the end goal.”

Edwin said he hopes to work full-time on his company, with the aim of offering his bottle’s services at the 2012 Olympics.

PHOTO | AFP The chief of the village of Luvungi, Livingstone Bubusa, explains how Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda and Congolese Mai Mai militia raided the village and raped some 284 women and minors in a night-long orgy of violence on July 30.
By the CNN Wire Staff
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* The figure is more than double the previous number
* All women in one village may have been raped, according to some reports
* A U.N. Daily Field Security Report cited July 30 rape
* “The women of eastern DRC deserve better,” says U.N. official

(CNN) — U.N. officials on Tuesday put the number of rapes and other sexual attacks in eastern Congo since late July at more than 500, more than double the previous estimate.

In remarks prepared for delivery to the Security Council after returning from a fact-finding trip to the region, U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Atul Khare cited 267 rapes or other sexual attacks in the town of Uvira — on the eastern edge of the country — and other nearby regions of North and South Kivu, in addition to the 242 rapes that had already been reported in and near the village of Luvungi.

Among the additional cases was a report of 10 women raped by members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo on August 17 and 18 in the community of Katalukulu, in Fizi territory, South Kivu, he said.

On August 17, at least 40 rapes were committed in the village of Mubi by an alleged coalition of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda and Mayi-Mayi, a militia group active in the region, he said.

Another 13 rapes occurred in Pinga area in Chuho market, he said.

On August 26, Khare received reports of 74 cases of sexual violence — including 21 directed at girls 7 to 15 years of age — and six men in the village of Miki in the territory of Mwenga, he said.

The incidents occurred in July and August, he said.

Five days later, he said, 130 cases of rape were recorded in several villages in the territory of Shabunda. There were reports that in one village, “all women might have been systematically raped,” he said.

Khare had gone to Congo to find out why peacekeepers said they hadn’t learned about the rapes near Luvungi sooner.

The United Nations reported last week that some 242 people were raped by armed Congolese and Rwandan rebels in villages in North Kivu province between July 30 and August 3.

Attackers blocked roads and prevented villagers from reaching outside communications. Many homes were also looted and burned. Many of the victims were gang-raped by as many as six men at a time, according to the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The rapes were first publicly reported on August 22.

The United Nations initially said it did not learn about the attacks until August 12, when it was alerted by International Medical Corps. That group said it first told the United Nations about the rapes on August 6.

But on Tuesday, the United Nations acknowledged that it first learned of a report of rape on July 30, nearly two weeks earlier than it had previously said.

“We can confirm that the Daily Field Security Report from North Kivu on 30 July included the following: ‘Today 30 July 2010 during morning hours, the locality of Mpofi (52 Km E of Walikale) passed under control of FDLR [Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda] combatants. One woman was reportedly raped and locals fled towards Walikale and Kibua. More information to be ascertained.’

“We can also confirm that, on the basis of this information, an e-mail was sent by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs transmitting information of the FDLR movement,” it said.

The July 30 internal U.N. email was relayed to relief agencies working in the area and warned that the rebels had taken over the villages, and had already committed one instance of rape.

U.N. officials have said they will toughen efforts to stop rapes in the region.

“The women of eastern DRC deserve better,” said Margot Wallstrom, a U.N. special representative for sexual violence in conflict who sent a senior member of her staff with Khare on his fact-finding mission to the region. “For them, there is no safe place. They are raped when harvesting crops; when going to market; when fetching water and firewood; when carrying their babies; when in their homes at night, among their loved ones.”

She added that the rape is becoming a weapon of choice in eastern DRC. “The sad reality is that incidents of rape have become so commonplace that they do not trigger our most urgent interventions,” she said.

Noting that the information about the rapes “was slow to surface,” she called for the United Nations to focus on how to improve its response to such reports. “We should examine the U.N.’s response, including that of our peacekeepers on the ground, not in a spirit of self-recrimination but with a determination and resolve to do better to protect civilians in what is undoubtedly one of the most complex, vast and volatile conflict zones in the world.”

She noted that some rebel leaders have been identified as having been present during the attacks and called for them to be used “as a starting point” to bring the attackers to justice. “Our policies of ‘zero tolerance’ cannot be backed by a reality of ‘zero consequences,’” she said.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Nigeria’s Samuel Peter, who floored Vladimir Klitschko three times in a heavyweight title bout five years ago and still lost, said on Friday the bruising Ukrainian will not get up when they meet again in September.

The “Nigerian Nightmare” has another title shot against Klitschko on September 11 in Frankfurt, Germany, and despite the bout being in the world heavyweight champion’s former adopted country, Peter will be packing his own judge and referee.

“He will be down again but this time he will not be standing up,” Peter said on a conference call from his training base in Big Bear, California.

“I got my own referee and my judge … my referee is my right hand and my judge is my left hook, no question about this time around. This time he will not get up from my hook.”

Since the two men have combined for 75 knockouts in their combined 93 career fights, the bout is not expected to go the distance and Peter predicts Klitschko will not survive more than four rounds.

Klitschko (54-3, 48 KOs) will face a much different Peter (34-3, 27 KOs) than the boxer he confronted in 2005 in Atlantic City when he survived to earn a unanimous decision.

Peter has since slimmed down and, according to his trainer Abel Sanchez, the 29-year-old has re-dedicated himself to the sport and is more of boxer than a brawler.

“I’m going to prove to the world I am the best heavyweight champion,” said Peter. “This time I am coming to prove myself a champion again. I have improved, he hasn’t improved.”

A former Olympic boxer, Peter has matured and sharpened the skills he let rust while relying heavily on his devastating knockout power to win fights, according to Sanchez.

“He has put in the work this time,” said Sanchez. “In the past he’s allowed outside influences to contribute to his lack of dedication, lack of commitment.

“It’s important that you just don’t come in with an A plan against a Klitschko. You have to come in with an A, a B and C plan to be able to use them at different times and he’s been working on that.”

(Writing by Steve Keating in Toronto; editing by Frank Pingue)

BAUCHI, Nigeria, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) — The police in northeast Nigeria’s Bauchi State on Wednesday said 721 inmates of the prison that was attacked by suspected extremist Muslim group, Boko-Haram were set free by the attackers.

State Commissioner of police Danlami Yar’ Adua disclosed this to Xinhua in Bauchi, adding that four persons were confirmed dead in the prison break attack.

He said one soldier, a police man and two civilians were killed during the attack last night. He added that three prison warders including some civilians were seriously injured.

Meanwhile, the state governor Isa Yuguda has warned members of the Boko Haram sect to leave the state or be flushed out forcefully.

Yuguda gave the warning on Wednesday while inspecting the Bauchi Central Prison which was attacked by members of the group on Tuesday evening.

The attackers invaded the prison and set free all its inmates, some of whom were their colleagues. They also burnt some vehicles parked within the prison yard.

“Let me warn all Boko Haram members to steer clear of Bauchi and relocate outside this country or be prepared to face their waterloo,” the governor said.

Yuguda also visited the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi, where he sympathized with the injured victims receiving medical attention. He directed that they should be given free medical attention and sympathized with the relatives of those who lost their lives in the attack.

Before the attack, the prison had played host to more than 100 suspected members of the group who are opposed to Western education. The suspects were awaiting trial for their alleged role in the last Boko Haram violence in the state.
Editor: Wang Guanqun