Africa news and blogwatch

Posted by Sappho on October 23rd, 2007 filed in Africa news and blogwatch, African Ingenuity Blogwatch, Darfur/Chad/Central African Republic, Vaccinations

One that I wish I could show Grandfather: Mubarak Abdullahi’s home-made helicopter takes Nigeria’s Kano Plains by storm.

Yahoo! News (among other sources) carries a story from October 21st about Mubarak Muhammad Abdullahi of the Kano Plains of Nigeria who has built a working helicopter over the last 8 months using scrap aluminum and parts from a Honda Civic, an old Toyota and from the remains of a crashed Boeing 747.

African Infrastructure Financing.

Africa: 25 Countries Record Impressive Growth, Says World Bank.

The first class of the UN’s Standing Police Capacity has completed two weeks of training in the UK, in preparation for their first operational deployment in Chad. Former rebels who were supposed to be integrated into the Chadian army have instead crossed the border into the Sudan.

The International Criminal Court is opening a field office in the Central African Republic.

Two Lord’s Resistance Army leaders are at odds with each other are at odds with each other over the peace process with the government of Uganda.

In the wake of Phase II trials in Mozambique that showed great promised for its new malaria vaccine, Glaxo is preparing for Phase III trials in ten African countries. “Four out of every five of the one million people who die of malaria each year are African children under the age of five,” but African countries are making significant progress in bed net coverage.

Malawi is attempting to encourage women to deliver their babies in the hospital, rather than using traditional birth attendants.

East Africa: Press Freedom And Its Sick Man.

Uganda’s ranking on the latest Global Press Freedom Index has improved. The country is now placed 96th out of 169 countries, a jump of 11 places from last year. That is good. But not good enough when you compare Uganda to regional peers Kenya and Tanzania.

Non-African blogwatch items:

g, a Statistical Myth.

I forget whether I’ve already linked Elliot’s Violence and anti-violence post, but I love the final paragraph:

One scripture that’s really stuck with me from my JW days was “Man’s wrath does not work out God’s righteousness.” I’ve often thought that it’s one of the most important and sadly ignored scriptures in the entire Bible.