Category: APO-OPA

OTTAWA, Canada, May 20, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The Honourable Deepak Obhrai, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and for International Human Rights, on behalf of the Honourable Christian Paradis, Minister of I…

GENEVA, Switzerland, May 20, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Dassault Aviation (http://www.dassault-aviation.com) today launched the Falcon 8X, the newest addition to the Falcon family in the ultra long range category.

Logo: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/logos/dassault-aviation.png

Photo: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/photos/140520d.jpg (Dassault Announces Ultra Long Range Falcon 8X)

More photos: http://www.falconphotogallery.com

The Falcon 8X (http://www.dassaultfalcon.com/8x) will offer a range of 6,450 nm (11,945 km) and will feature the longest cabin of any Falcon. Moreover, it will offer the same low operating economics and the remarkable operating flexibility for which all Falcons are known.

“The Falcon 8X will be our new flagship and a great complement to our product line,” announced Dassault Aviation Chairman and CEO, Eric Trappier. “It builds on Dassault expertise in aerodynamics, in precision design and manufacturing, and in advanced digital flight controls. It embodies the best of Falcons that have come before with the most capability of any Falcon ever.”

“With two new aircraft in development, the 5X and 8X, Dassault will now be able to offer a family of six jets designed to meet the widest possible range of operator needs at the upper end of the business jet spectrum,” added Trappier.

With eight passengers and three crew, the Falcon 8X will be capable of flying 6,450 nm non-stop at M.80. It will be powered by an improved version of the Pratt and Whitney Canada PW307 engine that equips the Falcon 7X. Combined with improvements to wing design, the new power plant will make the 8X up to 35% more fuel efficient than any other aircraft in the ultra-long range segment, affording a corresponding savings in operating costs.

The Falcon 8X is expected to have a balanced field length of about 6,000 ft (1,829 m) and an approach speed of 106 kts (197 kph) at typical landing weight.

The Falcon 8X will be equipped with a totally redesigned cockpit modeled after the Falcon 5X. It will feature a new generation of the EASy flight deck equipped with a head-up display that combines synthetic and enhanced vision and offer a dual HUD capability.

First flight is expected in early 2015 with certification in the middle of 2016 and initial deliveries before the end of 2016.

New Cabin. New Experience.

The Falcon 8X cabin will be 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) high and 7 ft 8 in (2.34 m) wide and 42 ft 8 in (13 m) long, enabling it to offer customers the most diverse selection of cabin layouts on the market. More than 30 configurations will be available. Three galley sizes, two with a crew-rest option, are available. Operators will have an extensive selection of passenger seating areas of varying lengths that can support different lavatory layouts, including a lavatory with shower.

 

“The Falcon 8X will be the longest cabin of any Falcon. But, more importantly, it will feature the highest level of customization of any large cabin business jet on the market,” said Trappier.

As Always, Legendary Falcon Performance.

The Falcon 8X will be equipped with three PW307D engines delivering 6,722 lbs of thrust each – a 5% increase compared to the PW307A that powers the Falcon 7X. These engines will offer a significant reduction in fuel consumption, community noise and NOx emissions.

The Falcon 8X will also be fitted with a redesigned ultra-efficient wing derived from the Falcon 7X. The wing structure has been redesigned to minimize the overall aircraft drag during cruise while achieving a 600 lb weight saving. It will also feature optimized leading edge profile and winglets. These improvements are expected to increase significantly the lift to drag ratio.

Like the Falcon 7X, the Falcon 8X will be capable of approaches up to 6 degrees, allowing it to serve challenging airports such as London City Airport; Aspen, Colorado; La Mole (Saint-Tropez), France; and Saanen (Gstaad), Switzerland that are normally not accessible to most large cabin aircraft.

Falcon 8X Typical City Pairs (8 pax, 3 crew M.80, 85% Annual Winds, NBAA Reserves)

• Beijing – Los Angeles

• Shanghai– Seattle

• Hong Kong – London

• London – Cape Town

• Mumbai – Sydney

• Sao Paulo – Los Angeles

• London – Sao Paulo

• Moscow – Los Angeles

• New York – Tel Aviv

With its 6,450 nm range the Falcon 8X will be also able to perform an extensive list of one-leg missions such as Beijing to New York, Hong Kong to Seattle, Paris to Singapore and Sao Paulo to Moscow.

Falcon 8X Production Underway

The Falcon 8X is already at an advanced stage of production with the first airframe expected to be assembled at Dassault’s Bordeaux-Merignac, France facility in the coming months. An extensive expansion project at Dassault’s Little Rock, Arkansas facility will break ground shortly, enabling it to accommodate completion of the new Falcon 8X and Falcon 5X models.

Distributed by APO (African Press Organization) on behalf of Dassault Aviation.

Press Contacts

Dassault Aviation (Saint-Cloud, France)

Vadim Feldzer Tel. +33 1 47 11 44 13

vadim.feldzer@dassault-aviation.com

Marie-Alexandrine Fouillard Tel. +33 1 47 11 64 23

marie-alexandrine.fouillard@dassault-aviation.com

Notes for Editors

Dassault Falcon (http://www.dassaultfalcon.com) is the recognized global brand for Dassault business jets which are designed, manufactured and supported by Dassault Aviation and Dassault Falcon Jet Corp.

About Dassault Aviation

Dassault Aviation (http://www.dassault-aviation.com) is a leading aerospace company with a presence in over 80 countries across five continents. It produces the Rafale fighter jet as well as the complete line of Falcons. The company employs a workforce of over 11,000 and has assembly and production plants in both France and the United States and service facilities around the globe. Since the rollout of the first Falcon 20 in 1963, over 2,250 Falcon jets have been delivered. Dassault offers a range of six business jets from the twin-engine 3,350 nm large-cabin Falcon 2000S to its new flagship, the tri-engine 6,450 nm ultra-long-range Falcon 8X.

Photos

Copy and paste the link into your browser to access the high resolution photos: http://www.falconphotogallery.com

BERN, Switzerland, May 20, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Switzerland has allocated an additional CHF 4.5 million for the victims of the crisis in South Sudan. This was announced on Tuesday at a conference of donor countries held in Oslo. Switzerland’s overall financial commitment to humanitarian aid for this country in the Horn of Africa will amount to CHF 18 million in 2014.

The conference, held on Monday and Tuesday in the Norwegian capital under the auspices of the UN, has brought together a number of donor countries including Switzerland. The political crisis facing South Sudan in recent months has forced more than a million people to flee their homes, with 300,000 refugees currently registered in neighbouring countries. South Sudan is also facing a growing threat of food insecurity, which could lead to localised famine conditions in the most remote areas of the country. In total, more than 4.9 million people – nearly half the population of South Sudan – are currently dependent on humanitarian aid.

In view of the rapid deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the country, Switzerland has been working since the conflict began to help the people who have been displaced. To this end, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) committed more than CHF 13 million at the beginning of the year to help those in need. At the donor country conference in Oslo, Switzerland announced that it will provide an additional CHF 4.5 million, bringing its total financial commitment for humanitarian aid in South Sudan in 2014 to CHF 18 million. This sum will be used in particular to support the operations of multilateral organisations (ICRC, WFP, UNHCR) and NGOs (MSF, Medair) working in the field. Over the last six months, five technical experts have also been seconded by the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit (SHA) to UN agencies active in the region. The SDC is at the same time continuing the projects it launched in 2011-2012 in the areas of food security and access to water.

Switzerland’s general financial contributions to a number of international organisations are in addition to the support it provides specifically to South Sudan. The Human Security Division of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) complements Switzerland’s humanitarian commitment by actively supporting the peace negotiations being carried out under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in Addis Ababa. Lastly, the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) has seconded several staff officers as well as humanitarian demining specialists to the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS).

BERLIN, Germany, May 20, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Christoph Strässer, the Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid, issued the following statement today (19 May 2014) on the detention of journalists in Egypt:

I am deeply concerned about the health of detained Egyptian journalist Abdullah Elshamy, who has been on hunger strike for four months and who was placed in solitary confinement on 12 May 2014. Mr Elshamy has been in custody since August 2013 and to date no charges have been brought against him. At the same time numerous other journalists are being detained in Egypt or are being taken to court for their reporting activities.

I call on the Egyptian Government to respect the right to freedom of expression as guaranteed by the constitution. The Egyptian authorities must also ensure that imprisonment, prison conditions and trial procedure consistently adhere to the human rights standards which Egypt has pledged to the international community to uphold.

This also applies to the upcoming presidential elections on 26 and 27 May. Allowing the media to report freely before, during and after the elections as well as enabling civil society to engage with this process are vital elements of this.

Every Egyptian Government has a duty towards its citizens to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms and to guarantee the rule of law.

Background information:

Numerous journalists from the news agency Al Jazeera have been in detention since 2013. Peter Greste, Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy have been in custody since December 2013, accused of conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). Their trial has recently been rescheduled for the eighth time. Abdullah Elshamy was detained in August 2013. He was arrested reporting on the violent clearance of an MB protest camp. To date no charges have been brought against him. According to reports from his family he has been on hunger strike for four months, as a result of which he is now said to have been placed in solitary confinement.

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 20, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The wait is over in Africa for a homegrown platform that tells its many stories from a mature perspective, rather than from the tired metaphor of an emerging giant. It’s not only Africans who want better insight into their continent – the world also wants to understand Africa better.

Logo Mail and Guardian Africa: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/logos/mgafr.jpg

Photo 1: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/index.php?level=picture&id=1093 (Charles Onyango-Obbo – Editor, Mail & Guardian Africa)

Photo 2: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/index.php?level=picture&id=1092 (Anastacia Martin – Managing Director, Mail & Guardian Africa)

M&G Media Ltd is proud to announce the launch of Mail and Guardian Africa – http://www.mgafrica.com, a digital news platform for Africans to tell the African story.

“Mail & Guardian Africa has taken the bold step to report Africa by telling why things do or do not happen, using an evidence-based, non-dogmatic and analytical approach and exploring the new opportunities that technology, social media and crowd-sourcing tools offer to do that in new ways,” says Mail and Guardian Africa Editor Charles Onyango-Obbo, a leading pan-African journalist with an unparalleled grasp of the Africa narrative.

Mail and Guardian Africa aims to be the leading and most important commercially successful contemporary voice on African issues. News analysis, insight, commentary and investigative journalism will be the hallmark of this Pan African platform.

As part of the package, http://www.mgafrica.com, the digital news and information portal of Mail and Guardian Africa, was activated on Thursday 1 May 2014. This will be followed by the launch of the Mail and Guardian Africa head office in Nairobi, Kenya on Tuesday 20 May 2014. From this location, Charles will lead a carefully selected contingent of creative and African journalists and editors operating across the continent.

“The aim is to focus on delivering quality African news and information via mobile to, primarily, 30-40 year-old audiences with a college education in both Africa and outside the continent. Mail and Guardian Africa will offer a non-paternalistic, intelligent, and enlightened view of developments on the continent without feeling duty-bound to talk up the “Africa Rising” narrative, or to be stuck in cynicism and a refusal to see progress either. The objective is to make M&G Africa the most trusted and diverse source of news on Africa,” says Charles.

Chris Roper, editor-in-chief of M&G Media, describes M&G Africa as “a very necessary addition to the journalism landscape of the continent, and one that knits together the many voices of Africa into a coherent, thoughtful tapestry, rather than the more usual competing narratives imposed on the continent by interest groups.”

The M&G Media has appointed Anastacia Martin as Managing Director Mail and Guardian Africa to drive the strategic mandate and ensure commercial viability of the contemporary digital news portal.

“We are excited that finally, our dream and vision to provide Africa with a platform to access impeccable journalism delivered in a creative, engaging and trend-setting way has come to fruition,” says Martin.

“Bearing in mind the ever changing dynamics of the media landscape and matters of sustainable growth, we will complement our editorial vision with inter-active thought leadership events and conferences, and partnerships in advertising, sponsorships and multi-media offerings that will help us reach our goal for a world class pan-African news and information platform.”

Speaking during a pre-launch business conference in March 2014, M&G Media Ltd Executive Deputy Chairman Trevor Ncube described Mail and Guardian Africa as the culmination of a long held vision that as “Africans we have to tell our own story.”

Added Ncube; “I think nothing is more emblematic of how little influence Africa has wielded in world affairs than the fact that even Africans themselves rely on non-African media to know what is going on in their own backyard.”

Charles Onyango-Obbo, a Ugandan, was formerly the co-founder of Uganda’s leading independent title, The Monitor, which became part of the Nation Group in 2000. He was later appointed Executive Editor for Africa & the Digital Media Division of the Nation Media Group operating out of Nairobi and was also a columnist for Daily Nation, The East African, The Monitor (Uganda), and The Citizen (Tanzania), writing mostly on African political and democratic transition issues, the political economy of new technologies, and social trends. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Institute of Economic Affairs, Nairobi, Kenya.

He has a BA degree from Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, and a master’s degree in journalism from the American University in Cairo, Egypt. He is also a Harvard Nieman Fellow.

Charles has published three books: Uganda’s Poorly Kept Secrets (Fountain Publishers, Third Edition 2003); Inside the Soul of a Nation and Its People (Fountain Publishers, 2007) and; It Never Happened: The Story of the Last Days of Idi Amin (Oxford University Press, 2008).

“There are negative stories about Africa, there are positive ones. Mail & Guardian Africa will tell the thoughtful and important stories, give new meaning to old facts, and look to how the future of the continent is shaping up.

“From our Nairobi headquarters, and with all the social tools we can muster, Mail & Guardian Africa will be home to every African voice imaginable, tackle the continent’s failures without fear, and shine the light on its great possibilities intelligently,” says Charles.

Distributed by APO (African Press Organization) on behalf of M&G Media Ltd.

Contact: Ms Charmaine Lodewyk,

Brand Leadership PR

T: +27 11 463 5091

M: +27 71 490 6559

E: charmaine@brandleadership.com

NEW YORK, May 20, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The Secretary-General takes note of Malawi’s first tripartite elections, to be held on 20 May 2014, and urges all candidates, political parties, and state institutions to ensure that the poll…

GENEVA, Switzerland, May 20, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — IOM Chad is urgently appealing for USD 500,000 to help some 5,000 Chadians who fled the crisis in the Central African Republic (CAR) and are now stranded in Garoua Boulai and Kentzou on the Cameroon side of the CAR-Cameroon border.

The Chadians, who are expected to join IOM road convoys to Chad between 24th May and 16th July 2014, have asked IOM to help them to escape desperate living conditions on the border and return home. IOM Cameroon is working with the Chadian embassy in Yaoundé to issue them with travel documents.

IOM Chad has received emergency funding to cover some of the basic needs of the new arrivals, but no additional resources are available to provide them with psychosocial assistance, fitness for travel medical checks or onward transportation to final destinations in Chad, according to IOM Chad Chief of Mission Dr. Qasim Sufi.

“We urgently need funding to expand the reception site in Moundou, to register the returnees, to provide emergency medical assistance and to facilitate their onward transport,” he notes.

The crisis in the CAR has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee inside the country and to neighbouring countries. Since December 2013, over 100,000 returnees, CAR nationals and third country nationals have arrived in Chad.

At the request of the Chad Government, IOM has provided emergency transport for many of the returnees. It has also provided post-arrival assistance including healthcare, psychosocial help, referrals and the provision of onward transport to various locations in Chad.

GENEVA, Switzerland, May 20, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Community leaders from Bangui’s 3rd arrondissement met this weekend to identify and prioritize infrastructure projects to revitalize their district. Much of the community’s public infrastructure was destroyed or abandoned when the civil war broke out in the Central African Republic (CAR) in December 2013.

This was the first of several community meetings that will take place as part of an 18-month project funded by the European Union: “Community Stabilization and Retention of Mixed Communities.” The initiative aims to support mixed communities in Bangui and increase social cohesion and dialogue by facilitating the rehabilitation of community infrastructure.

The mayor of the 3rd arrondissement chaired the meeting, which was facilitated by IOM staff. A total of 62 representatives took part, including representatives from women’s associations, youth organizations, displaced people, religious communities and local committees from the arrondissement’s 29 neighbourhoods. Participants discussed and identified 22 urgent socio-economic infrastructure needs and voted to select six priority projects that correspond to the needs of the entire community.

Work will soon begin on the following infrastructure priorities: rehabilitation of a maternity clinic and the mayor’s office conference hall; installation of street lights and public garbage bins on the main thoroughfares; and repair of bridges. IOM will look at the feasibility of the proposed projects in coordination with the humanitarian clusters, local authorities and relevant ministries.

The “Community Stabilization and Retention of Mixed Communities,” project will target the whole of Bangui, but is focused on the 3rd and 5th arrondissements, which are mixed communities in terms of ethnic, religious and economic diversity. The project will involve some 10,000 beneficiaries and aims to support the most vulnerable people in the community.

Civil society organizations and local leaders, in coordination with IOM, will provide lists of community members who would like to participate.

The project officially began in April and already has over 400 direct beneficiaries. These are locally hired community members who work in mixed Christian and Muslim teams of up to 50 people to improve their neighbourhoods and clean the streets.

The street cleaning program was expanded on Monday to employ a total of 300 youths in the 3rd and 5th arrondissements. They carry out rehabilitation of markets, gutters and drains, and provide waste management support to sites for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the 3rd arrondissement. Community members and local merchants are appreciative of the clean streets and frequently cheer on the youths while they work.

Many participants in the street cleaning program were themselves displaced from their homes in December when conflict intensified in Bangui and continue to live in IDP sites. More than 135,000 people are displaced in Bangui, and over 560,000 nationwide.

GENEVA, Switzerland, May 20, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — IOM has begun an operation to allow 220 Ethiopian irregular migrants held in six Tanzanian prisons to return home.

The project, carried out in close cooperation with the Tanzanian Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is funded by the United States and Japan and will be completed by the end of May.

It follows a one-week joint verification mission by IOM, Ethiopian and Tanzanian officials to prisons holding Ethiopian irregular migrants in Tanzania’s Coastal, Iringa, Mbeya, Morogoro, Moshi and Tanga regions.

“I left my country one year and a half ago. I was told by a friend that Kenya offers many well-paid jobs, so I went there and stayed for some months. But I had troubles with papers and permits, so I moved to Uganda and then tried to go back to Kenya for another job,” says Daniel, 30, a voluntary returnee.

“Finally I decided to go down to South Africa through Tanzania, but in Tanzania I was caught and sent to prison. I have been here for more than five months and haven’t spoken to my wife and children since then. Maybe they think I am dead,” he adds.

Hundreds of irregular migrants from the Horn of Africa trying to reach South Africa end up in overcrowded prisons in Tanzania, according to IOM project manager Charles Mkude.

“Tanzania has become a transit corridor to Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia en route to South Africa. As the country lacks specialized facilities to host irregular migrants, those who are caught are detained in prisons. Mixing these migrants with criminals in facilities with limited reception capacity has created a humanitarian crisis. Many migrants, whose families have no information about their location and cannot support them, are at risk,” he notes.

“Saudi Arabia’s 2013 decision to seal its borders and deport over 160,000 irregular Ethiopian migrants has compounded the problem, making it harder for Ethiopians to get jobs in the Gulf and persuading more of them to try to get to South Africa via Tanzania,” he adds.

“These migrants are in a dire situation. They have no papers, they do not speak Swahili and are far away from their family and relatives. Tanzania cannot afford to keep them and cannot afford to send them back home,” says a Tanzanian immigration official.

IOM’s voluntary return operation includes medical screening, flights to Ethiopia, reception in Addis Ababa, onward transport to their places of origin and reintegration assistance.

KAMPALA, Uganda, May 20, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Africell Holding (http://www.africell.com) signe un accord avec le Groupe Orange visant l’acquisition de sa participation majoritaire dans Orange Ouganda.

Logo: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/logos/africell.png

Cette transaction, une fois achevée et après approbation réglementaire, porterait le portefeuille d’Africell à 4 opérations avec un potentiel de marché total de plus de 120 millions d’habitants.

«Avec plus de 37 millions d’habitants et un taux de pénétration de 50 %, l’Ouganda correspond aux critères que nous avions définis pour l’expansion d’Africell en Afrique, soit des marchés à haut potentiel et à croissance rapide», a déclaré Ziad Dalloul, PDG du Groupe Africell.

Africell cherche à s’étendre à un nouveau marché avant la fin de 2015 afin de diversifier davantage sa présence géographique couvrant ainsi l’Afrique de l’Ouest, l’Afrique Centrale et l’Afrique de l’Est.

Africell détient une part de marché dominante en Gambie et en Sierra Leone et est parvenu à obtenir une part de marché de 20 % en République Démocratique du Congo en moins de deux ans d’exploitation face à des opérateurs bien établis. Le groupe compte actuellement plus de 9 millions d’abonnés actifs et a prévu d’atteindre les 11 millions avant la fin de l’année.

«Nous sommes convaincus de notre capacité à redresser l’opération en Ouganda ; notre modèle d’exploitation a prouvé que nous serions en mesure d’offrir une proposition attrayante aux consommateurs ougandais, nous permettant d’accroitre rapidement notre part de marché et de rendre l’opération profitable», a ajouté Elias Arwadi, directeur des opérations du Groupe Africell.

Distribué par APO (African Press Organization) pour Africell Holding.