Arik Air congratulates Super Falcons

Arik Air, has joined millions of Nigerians in congratulating the nation’s senior national women soccer team, the Super Falcons on their victory over Equatorial Guinea in last Sunday’s final of the Africa Women’s Championship in South Africa.

Arik Air’s Managing Director/Executive Vice President, Mr. Chris Ndulue echoed the sentiments of many in Nigeria saying “Congratulations to the Super Falcons from all of us at Arik Air, in reclaiming the African title they lost to Equatorial Guinea two years ago and on becoming six times champion of Africa.”

Ndulue stressed that Arik Air is happy to be identified with the Super Falcons having had the singular honour of flying the team to and from South Africa venue of the championship. “Arik Air has become the carrier of choice for Nigeria’s soccer teams and we are proud of this achievement. We feel highly honoured to have played a notable role in the team’s success at the African Womens’ Championship in South Africa”, Ndulue stated.

He noted that this is not the first time Arik Air will be flying the national team to or from a major championship after Arik stepped in to fly the Super Eagles from London to Durban, South Africa for the last World Cup. This was after the prearranged flight for the team could not operate.

“As the nation’s leading commercial airline, we see every opportunity of flying the national team as a call to duty and we will always be available to avail the nation our services. Once again, we congratulate the Super Falcons and wish the nation many more of such victories”, Ndulue said.

The Super Falcons left for Johannesburg, venue of the African Women Championship aboard Arik Air Airbus A330-200 aircraft on October 27 and the team returned with the same flight yesterday before being flown to Abuja in another Arik Air Boeing 737-700 aircraft for the Presidential reception.

 Arik Air is West Africa’s leading commercial airline. It now operates a fleet of 26 state-of-the art regional, medium haul and long haul aircraft. The airline currently serves 22 airports across Nigeria as well as Accra (Ghana), Banjul (Gambia), Cotonou (Benin), Dakar (Senegal), Freetown (Sierra Leone), Monrovia (Liberia), London Heathrow (UK), Johannesburg (South Africa) and New York JFK (USA).

The airline currently operates over 150 flights daily from its hubs in Lagos and Abuja.

GUINEA'S ELECTION

 Alpha Conde Declared Winner In 

    Race for Guinea Presidency

Guinea's veteran opposition politician Alpha Conde has won the country's long-delayed, first democratic presidential election with 52.52 percent of votes, according to official preliminary results released late on Monday.

Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) President Siaka Sangara announced Conde had received 1,474,666 votes in the country's 28 districts, against 1,333,666 votes, or 47.48 percent, for his opponent Cellou Dalein Diallo.

Conde’s victory was greeted with cries of “Long live democracy, long live change!”, according to Pauline Simonet, FRANCE 24’s correspondent in the Guinean capital, Conakry.

But there are widespread fears that despite the breakthrough that this election represents for Guinea, instability could continue. 

"If the two leaders don’t get along and if one of them does not recognise his defeat, there is a risk that the army could return to power,” Antoine Glaser, a French journalist specialised in Africa, told FRANCE 24.

Earlier in the day, Diallo supporters clashed with security forces as rival candidate Alpha Conde claimed victory in the run-off vote. One person was reported dead in the clashes.

On Sunday, former premier Diallo renewed his allegations of mass fraud, almost one week after the results were due to be released.In the Guinean capital soldiers were deployed on most street corners and in force at the electoral commission, where authorities feared that supporters of Diallo’s Union of Democratic Forces in Guinea (UDFG) may start rioting.

At a press conference on Sunday, Diallo said that delegates of his party had not been able to observe voting in certain regions, and urged the electoral commission to delay announcing results until fraud allegations were investigated. 

Diallo also said he wanted the electoral commission to cancel the votes in the disputed regions.Diallo picked up 43.69 percent of ballots cast in the first round of voting in June, while Conde, of the Rally for the People of Guinea (RPG), took 18.25 percent.

The election was intended to end 52 years of dictatorship and military rule in the mineral-rich west African country.“The results of the second round produced a very equal turnout – the most dangerous outcome,” explained Douglas Yates, a professor of political science at the American University of Paris.

Yates said the repeated delays that followed Diallo’s resounding first round victory had stoked animosity towards Diallo’s Peul ethnic group. 

Other candidates and ethnic groups formed an anti-Peul coalition around Conde.“Several thousand Peul people had to flee persecution in districts in the north, and it’s in these districts that Diallo claims he didn’t get a fair chance,” Yates said, warning that for the first time in its history Guinea "appears to be on the verge of inter-communal violence."

A peaceful first round was followed by weeks of rows over results and over the leadership of the election commission, with street clashes erupting between supporters of the rival candidates. 

Violent confrontations in three separate districts of Conakry on Sep. 12 left one person dead and 50 injured, according to officials.

A close finish between two candidates who have been subjected to persecution and who rally support by appealing to traditional ethnic allegiances set up an explosive situation ahead of the final results.

Schools in the capital Conakry have been closed for the past 10 days, and national television has been broadcasting appeals to avoid election-related violence ahead of the Islamic feast of Eid al-Adha on Tuesday.
  

BEYOND OUR BOARDERS:

Internet Crime Complaint Center Reaches 2million Entries

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) of the United Sates of America(USA) has logged its 2 millionth consumer complaint alleging online criminal activity. The milestone entry was submitted on November 9, 2010.

The IC3, a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, became operational in May 2000 and received its 1 millionth complaint seven years later, on June 11, 2007. It took half that time to receive the 2 millionth complaint, which illustrates the IC3’s increased visibility and the continued growth of cyber crime.

The IC3 receives, develops, and refers cyber crime complaints to local, state, federal, and international law enforcement agencies. The IC3 gives cyber crime victims a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism that alerts authorities of suspected criminal or civil violations.

Since its inception, the IC3 has referred 757,016 criminal complaints to law enforcement around the globe. The majority of referrals involved fraud in which the complainant incurred a financial loss. The total reported loss from these referrals is approximately $1.7 billion, with a median reported loss of more than $500 per complaint.*

Many complaints involved identity theft, such as loss of personally identifying data, and the unauthorized use of credit cards or bank accounts. The IC3 uses information from the complaints to detect emerging trends and proactively fight consumer victimization through educational efforts with project partners, various publications and the consumer education website,www.lookstoogoodtobetrue.com.

Corporate India Finds Greener Pastures—in Africa

*To avoid stiff competition and red tape at home, companies are looking across the Indian Ocean

*Nigeria, Kenya and Mozambique on the Ticket

Indian billionaire Ravi Ruia has flown to Africa at least once a month for the past year and a half. He's invested in coal mines in Mozambique, an oil refinery in Kenya, and a call center in South Africa. Soon, he may also have a power plant in Nigeria. 

"Africa looks remarkably similar to what India was 15 years ago," says Firdhose Coovadia, director of African operations at Essar Group, the $15 billion conglomerate headed by Ruia and his brother, Shashi. "We can't lose this opportunity."

Faced with increasing competition and a welter of bureaucratic obstacles at home, Indian companies are looking to Africa for growth. 

Since 2005 they have spent some $16 billion on the continent, vs. at least $31 billion for the Chinese, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and the Heritage Foundation, respectively. 

Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile-phone provider, in June paid $9 billion for the African cellular operations of Kuwait's Zain. In 2008, India's Videocon Industries paid $330 million for two coal mines in Mozambique, and India's state-run fertilizer maker bought an idled Senegalase phosphorus producer for $721 million.

Beyond those big deals are dozens of smaller acquisitions and investments by Indian companies. "Compared to India, valuations [in Africa] are quite attractive," says Anuj Chande, who heads the South Asia Group at accounting firm Grant Thornton in London. "We're expecting to see a lot of midsize deals across a variety of sectors."

The Indians view Africa as a place where they can replicate the low-cost, high-efficiency business model they have honed at home. Like India, Africa has hundreds of millions of underserved consumers eager to buy products tailored to their needs. 

Consumer spending in Africa may double, to as much as $1.8 trillion, by 2020, McKinsey & Co. predicts, an increase that would be the equivalent of adding a consumer market the size of Brazil. As a pioneer in sales of single-use sachets of soap and shampoo (along with Unilever (UL) and Procter & Gamble) for lower-income Indians, Mumbai-based Godrej Consumer Products understands "low-cost, value-for-money products," Chairman Adi Godrej said in a May interview. 

In June his company acquired Nigerian cosmetics maker Tura, and in 2008 it bought South African hair-care company Kinky. "We want growth. Whether it's from inside or outside India, we are agnostic," Godrej said.

Indian companies also see Africa as a hedge against a possible slowdown at home. "If tomorrow the Indian economy was to take a U-turn, then at least you have other markets which are growing," says Neeraj Kanwar, managing director of Apollo Tyres, India's No. 2 tiremaker. 

His company bought South Africa's Dunlop Tyres for $62 million in 2006, giving Apollo two manufacturing plants on the continent and brand rights in 32 African countries. Apollo aims to triple sales, to $6 billion, by 2015, with 60 percent of revenue from abroad, vs. 38 percent today. "Africa is going to give me growth," says Kanwar.

Essar has endured endless squabbles with Indian landowners who refuse to make way for steel mills. Like other Indian companies tired of regulatory headaches at home, it moved into Africa and now has 2,000 employees there. 

Bangalore-based Karuturi Global, the world's largest rose producer, couldn't get enough land in India to compete with European and African rivals. Many times flowers wilted on the tarmac as cargo flights were delayed or canceled, including a big Valentine's Day shipment. 

So in 2004, Karuturi bought a small plot in Ethiopia, and sales have since grown elevenfold, to $113 million in the year ended Mar. 31. Karuturi now leases 1,200 square miles of land—larger than the state of Rhode Island—in Ethiopia and sells more than half a billion roses a year. 

"Africa offered us a scale we could never reach in India," says Managing Director Sai Ramakrishna Karuturi. "I'd love to do more in India, but getting even 1,000 acres near Bangalore took years."

BloombergBusiness

DEFENCE

Boeing GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs for Israel

The Israeli Air Force has received its first consignment of Boeing Small Diameter Bombs, thereby becoming the weapon’s first overseas customer.

The US and Israel signed a $77m contract for 1,000 GBU-39 SDBs just over two years ago and, in Israeli military service, the weapon will enhance the IAF’s ability to carry out precision strikes.

Boeing started work on the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb after being awarded a development contract in late 2001.

Operational testing and evaluation took place in September 2005 and, one year later, the initial examples entered USAF service. They are primarily carried by Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft and an upgraded version, the GBU-53, is now under development. Boeing, however, is not involved in the new Small Diameter Bomb, since in the end the USAF opted for Raytheon instead.

GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb

The GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb has seen operational use in several areas of conflict, including Iraq.

Like the USAF, the IAF will also use Strike Eagles as SDB launch platforms. Israel operates modified Strike Eagles known as F-15I Ra’ams (Thunders), while the official IAF designation for the SDB is the ‘Sharp Hail’.

For the future, the IAF may team the SDBs up with its F-16 Fighting Falcon combat jets, too.

The Israeli Air Force is a major Middle Eastern military power, with a fleet of 750 aircraft. Established in 1948, it has been involved in numerous combat engagements over the past six decades including Yom Kippur and the 1982 Lebanon War.

Boeing GBU-39 SDB

The Boeing GBU-39 SDB figures among the most precise and accurate weapons in current military service.

Although only weighing 250 pounds, its ability to strike is comparable to much heavier bombs, and its small size (180 centimetres long and 19 centimetres wide) means a large number can be deployed during a single sortie: Israeli Air Force F-15Is will typically carry up to 20 at a time.

GPS technologies direct the SDB to its target and it can cover a range exceeding 100 kilometres. This range is partly achieved through the use of small, retractable wings which extend while the weapon is in flight.

Armed Forces International

MILITANTS RAID OIL RIG, HOLDS 7 HOSTAGE

• Two crew members are in stable condition after being shot
• The rig is off the southern coast of Nigeria
• No one has claimed responsibility for the attack
• Nigerian officials offer no comment

 Seven people have been kidnapped by armed militants who raided an oil rig off the Niger-Delta coast in Nigeria. The hostages are from America, France, Candada and Indonesia.

According to the London-based Afren PLC today (Tuesday), two Indonesians, two Americans, two French and one Canadian were kidnapped. The Indonesians were not included in an earlier list released by the company.

Two crew members are in stable condition at a shore-based clinic, where they were airlifted after being wounded in the leg.

The rig, located off the southern coast of Nigeria at Okoro field, is run by Transocean.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the U.S. is in contact with Nigerian officials.

"We [are], of course, concerned about their safety and hope for their immediate release," he said. "We are working with Nigerian authorities ... to pursue their prompt release, and there's an investigation already under way."

Drilling operations in the Okoro field off Nigeria have been temporarily suspended, both companies involved said.

In a news release, Afren said a "security breach" occurred soon after its "High Island VII jackup rig" arrived, but before drilling had commenced.

"The situation has not been resolved. Afren is doing everything it can to resolve the situation as quickly as possible, and it is working with relevant agencies in the Nigerian government," Afren spokesman James Henderson told CNN.

Transocean operates six offshore rigs in Nigeria -- two deepwater rigs, two ultra-deepwater rigs and two shallow-water rigs, including the one involved in the incident -- according to Cantwell.

The company has "taken additional safety precautions" on its other assets in the west African nation, said Guy Cantwell, a spokesman for the Houston, Texas-based company.

There were no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, and Nigerian officials would not comment about the incident.

Several militant groups in the oil-rich Niger Delta have been battling the government for years over the distribution of the country's oil wealth. One of the largest such groups -- the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta -- is known for its kidnappings of oil workers.

CNN