AFRICA :NEWS,CULTURE, CHINA/AFRICA/WORLD

JOHANNESBURG — South African President Jacob Zuma on Thursday called on his people to rally around the World Cup as a catalyst for unity in a New Year message

South Africa will stage the first ever World Cup to be held in Africa next June and Zuma says the event is the perfect opportunity to come together in a spirit of unity and project a positive image of their nation.

“New Years Day, the 1st of January 2010, marks the beginning of the most important year in our country since 1994,” said Zuma.

“It must be the year in which we work together to make the Soccer World Cup the biggest turning point in the marketing of our country.

“The year 2010 must be the year in which for the first time, we all communicate positive messages about our country to the world - the successes and possibilities. We have to put the culture of negativity behind us,” Zuma insisted.

“As hosts, we must be welcoming and hospitable to the thousands of international visitors and soccer teams. We must all be active ambassadors of our country!”

Zuma also urged citizens to get fully behind their own country.

“We must support our National team, Bafana Bafana. With the nation behind them, they will perform well and make us proud,” he said.

On Wednesday, the head of the local organising committee, Danny Jordaan had also urged the public to get right behind the team and the event as a whole as South Africa works against the clock to make the tournament a resounding success amid massive infrastructural investment.

“For five years, we have worked hard. The true image of the next few months before the kick off is rosy. What is needed is greater public enthusiasm for the event,” said Jordaan.

Sceptics have noted that the country has an above-average incidence of violence with some 50 murders per day and are also worried about the lack of public transport around venues which will stage matches.

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights

CONAKRY (Reuters) - Guinea will make no economic or social progress until uncertainty over the health of its wounded junta chief is resolved, potential investors and Conakry residents said on Thursday.

WORLD

Defense Minister Sekouba Konate assumed interim control over the mineral-exporting West African country after a failed assassination attempt on the military ruler on December 3.

Junta leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, known to most Guineans as “Dadis,” remains in a Moroccan hospital. Guinean officials say his health is improving, but Dadis, for most of 2009 a fixture on Guinean airwaves, has made no public appearance since then.

“It’s a matter of urgency to get out of this situation as quickly as possible, otherwise the coming months are going to be very tough,” said Boubacar Diallo, an executive with a Nigerian bank which is close to opening an operation in Guinea.

“As long as the situation is unclear, and until Guineans are properly informed about the health of their leader, the economy will continue to slow down,” he said.

A measure of economic regression in the world’s biggest exporter of aluminum ore bauxite — shipments of which have fallen this year — is the cost of foreign currency.

On the black market, U.S. dollars changed hands for 6,250 Guinean francs this week, up from around 5,000 francs before September 28, when security forces killed more than 150 pro-democracy marchers.

ELECTION

Earlier this month, the United Nations said Dadis bore direct responsibility for those deaths.

The sight of some Guineans recently damning France for the former colonial power’s criticism of Dadis perplexed shoeshine man Alpha Sow.

“I don’t understand how people can demonstrate for the return of someone who’s supposed to have recovered his health, but who hasn’t said anything in public for almost a month,” said Sow. “It’s time to move on.”

Opposition parties, trade unions and the international community have called for elections to be organized since Dadis and his National Council for Democracy and Development seized power in a bloodless coup last December.

On Thursday, the country’s prime minister, Kabine Komara, said a vote should be held as soon as possible.

“Everyone’s priority is to make real the hope expressed by Guineans, which is to move the country peacefully to free and democratic elections,” he told journalists in the capital.

Since Dadis was airlifted to Morocco, Guineans have received no reliable information about his condition, according to civil society coalition the Guinean Social Movement (MSG).

“This lack of respect shown to the people is an unacceptable situation which creates a malaise fed by the statements made without any medical basis by members of the government,” said the group, which threatened to stage peaceful protests in January.

“The MSG calls on you to take responsibility for a rapid exit from this crisis,” the group told Konate in a statement.

(Writing by Daniel Magnowski; Editing by Giles Elgood)

ABUJA — Nigeria’s government admitted Thursday it had failed to achieve an even unambitious increase the country’s electricity supply, and apologised to millions in the oil-rich west African nation still living in darkness.

“Our target, which was modest, was set at generating 6,000 megawatts of electricity by year end… I regret to mention that for a number of unforeseen and unavoidable reasons, this target could not be met,” Vice President Goodluck Jonathan said in his New Year message.

“For this, I render on behalf of government very sincere regrets,” he added.

Nigeria currently generates less than 3,500 megawatts for its population of 150 million. By contrast South Africa, Africa’s largest economy, produces more than 43,000 megawatts for its population of 48 million.

Nigeria has long been groaning under an erratic power supply, a situation blamed on widespread corruption and mismanagement.

In his message, Jonathan promised this would change in 2010 — promising 10,000 megawatts by the end of the year

Senegal’s Muslim President Abdoulaye Wade has apologized for a controversial remark about Christianity that prompted street protests in Dakar.

The president’s son issued the statement of apology. Karim Wade, who is a government official, Minister of State for International Cooperation, Land Use, Air Transport and Infrastructure, said the president cares about all of Senegal’s religious communities, including Christians.

Mr. Wade’s offending comment earlier this week appeared to be an attempt to deflect criticism by Muslim religious leaders and others over a massive monument he commissioned. The president argued that no one calls out (disparages) Christians for, in his words, “praying to someone who is not God.”

Several hundred Senegalese Christians, a small but influential minority in the West African nation, took to the streets Wednesday and clashed with security forces in the capital.

The leader of Senegal’s Roman Catholic community, Cardinal Théodore-Adrien Sarr, told VOA French-to-Africa service the president’s conduct was “scandalous and intolerable,” and said he owes his nation a public apology.

The cleric said Mr. Wade had questioned the religious beliefs of his fellow Senegalese citizens and subjected them to ridicule.

The project that sparked the current dispute - Mr. Wade’s “Monument of the African Renaissance” - stands on a 100-meter-high hill in Dakar. It features a 50-meter-tall bronze statue (four meters taller than the well-known landmark in New York harbor, the Statue of Liberty) depicting a man, woman and child rising out of a volcano.

President Wade says it represents the cultural heritage of Africa. Some of Senegal’s Muslim clerics have criticized the design as un-Islamic, because it offers human forms as objects of worship. Others have challenged the president’s reported claim to 35 percent of any revenue from tourists visiting the monument, on the grounds that Mr. Wade owns “intellectual rights” to the monument.

Stylistically, some have suggested the monument resembles the larger-than-life works seen decades ago in the former Soviet Union and other communist-bloc countries. A team of bronze artists imported from North Korea worked on the Dakar monument.

Barcelona midfielder Seydou Keita is included in Mali’s 23-man squad for the Africa Cup of Nations as he

continues to recover from injury. )
Keita has missed Mali’s training camp in Qatar where they are taking part in a four-team tournament.
Mali’s Nigerian coach Stephen Keshi told BBC Sport that Keita is recovering well.
“The injury is a lot better, he’s going to start running and touching the ball today,” Keshi said.
“He will be joining us on Monday when we get back to Bamako and we are looking forward to getting him back in the team.”
Keita picked up the thigh injury playing for the Spanish and European champions Barcelona at the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi earlier this month.
Reports from Spain had suggested that Barcelona did not want Keita to play at the Nations Cup.
The only two locally-based players in the final squad are Soumaïla Diakite and Abdoulaye Maigare who both play for Confederation Cup winners Stade Malien.
Mali play hosts Qatar on Saturday in the final game of the four-team tournament - they lost to North Korea 1-0 and then beat Iran 2-1 in the first two matches at the event.
The Eagles play hosts Angola in the opening game of the Nations Cup on 10 January before matches with Algeria and Malawi in Group A.
Mali squad:
Mahamadou Sidiba (Omonia, Cyprus), Adama Tamboura (Helsingborg, Sweden), Samba Sow (Lens, France), Bakary Soumare (Boulogne-sur-Mer, France), Souleymane Diamoutene (Bari, Italy), Ousmane Berthe (Jomo Cosmos, South Africa), El Hadj Mahamane Traore (OGC Nice, France), Mahamadou, Diarra (Real Madrid, Spain), Seydou Keita (Barcelona, Spain), Frederic Kanoute (Sevilla, Spain), Momo Sissoko (Juventus, Italy), Mamadou Bagayoko (OGC Nice, France), Mamadou Samassa (Valenciennes, France), Abdou Traore (Bordeaux, France), Mamadou Diallo (Le Havre, France), Tenema N’Diaye (Nantes, France), Lassana Fane (El Merreikh, Sudan), Modibo Maigia (Le Mans, France), Bakaye Traore (Nancy, France), Moustapha Yattabare (Clermont, France), Soumaïla Diakite (Stade Malien), Abdoulaye Maiga (Stade Malien), Oumar Sissoko (Metz, France