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A United Nations-supported mass vaccination campaign is set to start tomorrow to protect more than 4.7 million children against a measles outbreak in conflict-affected states in north-eastern Nigeria.

A new partnership between the United Nations rural poverty agency and officials in Mauritania could boost finances and nutrition for nearly 300,000 farmers in the southern part of the country.

En rachetant Hygena en 2015, le groupe Fournier (1 700 salariés, 330 millions d'euros de CA) a ajouté 95 succursales au réseau commercial de sa marque SoCoo'c. Le spécialiste haut-savoyard de l'ameublement (cuisine, salle de bains, rangement) affiche désormais ses ambitions sur le segment des cuisines de moins de 7 000 euros. Entretien avec Bernard Fournier, président du groupe Fournier, une entreprise familiale fondée en 1907 par son grand-père, menuisier à Thônes (74), qui exploite les marques Perene (gamme premium), Mobalpa et SoCoo'c.

ARI 3/2017 - 12/1/2017
Gonzalo Escribano

El deterioro de la situación económica de Arabia Saudí, así como los ajustes y reformas propuestos para hacerle frente, constituyen un nuevo contexto para la relación económica bilateral.

Ha fázol, és szükséged van egy kabátra, vigyél el egyet! Ha van fölösleges kabátod, kiteheted ide! – olvasható a kolozsvári belvárosi unitárius templom melletti felhívásban. Az Ingyen Fogas akció nagy népszerűségnek örvend a kincses városban. Oborocea Mónika a helyszínen járt. Összeállításunk ...

(ST)

January 11, 2017 (JUBA) - South Sudanese government has regretted the hoisting upside down of her national flag during a visit of President Salva Kiir to Cairo, Egypt, attributing it to human error.

The national flag is usually hoisted in a way that places up the black side, which represents the people of South Sudan but this black colour was seen hoisted upside down during president Kiir's arrival at the Egyptian airport and in other main streets through which the president and his entourage passed.

The upside down display was also in the background of the handshake of president Kiir and his host and was hoisted on a stand next to Egyptian flag.

A South Sudanese diplomat at the ministry of foreign affairs told Sudan Tribune when reached on Wednesday to comment on the matter that the hoisting was “a human error”.

Sincerely speaking, this was not a deliberate act on our side. It was a human error and we regret that the incident has caused inconveniences to our people, which is their right, because the flag is the symbol of the nation”, a top diplomat told Sudan Tribune on Wednesday.

The official was reacting to protest by South Sudanese outraged by the incident in which some described it as disrespect of the country by displaying dozens of South Sudan flags upside down during the visit of president.

Eyewitness including South Sudanese in Egypt took to social media to express their anger; some described the incorrect display of the flag as a disgrace and demand the Egyptian authorities to issue an apology.

The Egyptians ambassador to South Sudan, Ayman El-Gammal is yet to comment.

(ST)

January 11, 2017 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP) of the late Hassan al-Turabi Wednesday disclosed it has agreed with the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) to deposit the constitutional amendments pertaining to public freedoms to the parliament for approval.

On October 25th, 2016, Sudanese presidency deposited new amendments to the 2005 transitional constitution with the parliament, which allow introducing a Prime Minister post, increasing the number of national MPs and adopting the name of the Government of National Concord.

However, amendments related to public freedoms weren't deposited with the parliament prompting the PCP to voice concern over the move and threatened to disavow the national dialogue process entirely.

PCP political secretary Kamal Omer told reporters that the public freedoms amendments are essential for the political reality in Sudan, saying they wouldn't compromise on issues of liberties and democratic transformation.

He said that a committee from the PCP headed by him has met with the NCP, pointing the latter agreed to the required constitutional amendments without any objection.

Omer pointed that the new amendments is on its way to the presidency, saying President Omer al-Bashir is expected to issue a decision to deposit it with the parliament.

“We have ongoing contacts with the NCP and they confirmed that the amendments might reach the parliament next week,” he said.

Since January 2014, Sudan's President Omer al-Bashir has been leading a national dialogue process whose stated aims are to resolve the armed conflicts, achieve political freedoms, alleviate poverty and the economic crisis, and address the national identity crisis.

Last October, the political forces participating at the national dialogue concluded the process by signing the National Document which includes the general features of a future constitution to be finalized by transitional institutions.

The opposition groups boycotted the process because the government didn't agree on humanitarian truce with the armed groups and due to its refusal to implement a number of confidence building measures.

The Islamist Popular Congress Party splinted from the NCP since 1999, and joined the opposition ranks since that time but it supported the dialogue process and participated in all its forums.

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January 11, 2017 (JUBA) - The weakening South Sudanese pound (SSP) means families in neighbouring East African countries are dwindling. Some families have not paid rent for months and children are out of schools.

"It is a tough situation that families face in Uganda and Kenya - some families don't afford food items, far from money for rent and school fees," said David, who family is Kampala, Uganda.

South Sudan Pound lost about 80% of it value since ministry of finance and central bank floated the exchange rate against United States dollars in December 2015. $1 sales for 110 SSP on Wednesday in Juba black market. The central bank has not auctioned the U.S. in recent weeks, leading to scarcity. For families in South Sudanese employees paid in local currency, black market is the source of their black market.

"In Elegu (Uganda border town with South Sudan near Nimule), 1,000 SSP is exchanged for only 25,00 Ugandan shillings," said David, preferring to use his first name only.

"Unless you exchange 20,000 SSP per month, you will not be able to sustain your family abroad," he said, adding that he is struggling to pay rent and move his family back to South Sudan despite insecurity fears that forced him to send his wife and three children to Uganda.

1,000 Kenyan shillings now exchange for 900 SSP, a substantial increase from 1,000 Kenyans shillings to 300 SSP early last year.

Some families are shifting to refugees' camps.

"It is expensive to transport the family from Nairobi to Juba and the nearest cheapest location becomes Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya," said Johnson Oldi, a South Sudanese whose family had lived in a Kenyan town for three years.

"Unless you are working for an international organization that pays in U.S dollars, there is no way one can continue to pay rent and school fees for money that finish in few weeks," added Johnson.

The number of South Sudanese families in Uganda and Kenya has dwindled, he added.

"The situation is even worse for junior (government) employees. Whether you bring your family to South Sudan or remain in Uganda or Kenya, the situation is the same - worse," said David Deng, a grade 7 government employee. Deng receive close to 2,000 SSP monthly, just about 20 dollars if exchanged at the current black market exchange rate.

Most South Sudan send families to neighboring countries of Kenya and Uganda for medical, education and security reasons. However, South Sudanese currency has been in free fall for the last 12 months and painted a bleak future for the work youngest nation.

(ST)

January 11, 2017 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) Wednesday has released four leaders from the opposition umbrella National Consensus Forces (NCF).

Following calls by activists for a general strike to protest the austerity measures last November, the NISS arrested four NCF leading figures Siddig Youssef, Tarig Abdel-Mageed, Munzir Abu al-Ma'ali and Mohamed Diaa al-Din.

In its weekly bulletin on Wednesday, the opposition Arab Ba'ath Party (ABP) said the NISS released the four leaders, pointing they spent about two months in detention and were prevented from family visits.

It added that the NISS continues to detain a number of opposition figures including ABP member Abdel-Rahim Fath al-Rahman al-Sanjak who was arrested on December 20th.

On Tuesday, opposition activists published a list including 34 political detainees and their arrest dates, saying there are others who they were unable to confirm their detention dates.

Meanwhile, social media activists have celebrated the release of the sports journalist Ahmed al-Dai Bishara and posted photos of him after he was released.

It is noteworthy that Bishara was arrested on November 26 after he appeared in a video tape urging the Sudanese to engage in the civil disobedience.

On December 19, activists urged Sudanese to stay at home as part of a civil disobedience action, the second such initiative after a similar strike from 27 to 29 November which had a larger response.

Following the government decision to raise fuel and electricity price on November 3rd, the NISS launched a large arrest campaign and detained more than 40 opposition figures.

(ST)

Airbus has reached an agreement to sell its stake in Atlas Elektronik to joint venture partner Thysenkrupp; a deal that comes more than two years after Airbus first announced its intention to sell its holding in the naval and marine systems group. Terms of the transaction - under which Thyssenkrupp

Beijing has warned the international community that any attempts to "internationalise and judicialise" the South China Sea territorial disputes will only make it harder for the issues to be resolved, but the likely next US secretary of state suggested Washington would soon take a tougher

The relationship between US president-elect Donald Trump and the US intelligence community (IC) will be further strained after his inauguration on 20 January, following the leak of an incendiary 'dossier' on 10 January. That dossier - released on website BuzzFeed News - purported to reveal evidence

India's Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) launched the second Kalvari (Scorpene)-class diesel-electric submarine on order for the Indian Navy (IN) on 12 January in Mumbai. Named Khanderi, the boat is the second of six of the class being licence-built by the company, and is expected to be

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme passed a milestone in early 2017 with the delivery of the 200th aircraft, it was announced on 12 January. The milestone saw the second F-35A for Japan (AX-2) delivered to the international training fleet at Luke Air Force

The United Kingdom has returned to service its Boeing E-3D Sentry Airborne Warning And Control System (AWACS) aircraft following a grounding order that was issued late last year, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) told IHS Jane's on 12 January. The MoD confirmed that "the Sentry force has returned

The US Navy is still eyeing a future fighter aircraft programme, tentatively called the F/A-XX, that is likely to be unmanned or optionally manned and emerge as soon as the late-2020s, according to outgoing Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus. "The F/A-XX is pretty early in the process now ... you

The US-led coalition has helped to reduce the effectiveness of the suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (SVBIEDs) that the Islamic State fighters defending Mosul are using against Iraqi forces, Colonel Brett Sylvia, the commander of the Task Force Strike advise-and-assist mission, told

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded Sikorsky the contract to develop Phase 3 of its Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) programme, it was announced on 11 January. The announcement, which was made by Sikorsky's parent company Lockheed Martin, will see

Key Points ECOWAS negotiators are likely to be forced into offering immunity to Jammeh but will insist that he makes way for rival Adama Barrow to be inaugurated. Any refusal by Jammeh to depart increases the likelihood of swift military intervention, most probably led by neighbour Senegal.