Igihe

Author: Publisher

  • Private healthcare firms meet in Kigali

    Private regional healthcare providers will meet with policy makers in Kigali during the third edition of the East Africa healthcare conference next month.

    Spokesman Kizito Mokua said delegates will discuss private health matters including access to capital, regulatory frameworks and tax incentives. “Healthcare leadership and professionals will use this conference to engage with experts and create regional private sector driven partnerships that are expected to translate to high quality affordable healthcare for East Africa,” he said.

    Medics are also expected to discuss how they can acquire expensive medical devices jointly, which continues to be a major headache for healthcare providers.

    Mokua said private sector players will engage with experts and develop a regional strategy to overcome challenges affecting the growth of private healthcare in Africa.

    This is the third round of the conferences after the first two successfully took place in Uganda and Tanzania last year. Mokua revealed that investors from the US and Europe will use the session to identify private health opportunities in East Africa. “’We have delegations from America and Europe who will use the conference as a source of market intelligence” he said .

    The conference, slated for June 11, will also serve as a basis for the private sector in the five member states to establish mutually beneficial business relationships anchored on patients’ interest. “Delegates have expressed interest in developing efficient referral systems which can be used to exploit competencies and skills available in the region instead of having to travel outside the region for medical attention,” said Mokua. This is the third round of the conference delegates are drawn from from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania.

  • Number of AIDS patients on ARV treatment rises

    Additional 4,187 AIDs patients in Rwanda have registered for Anti-Retroviral treatment since 2009.

     This has increased the number of patients on ARVs by 5.8% to 76,726, this year, from 72,539 in 2009, according a recent report released by the National AIDS Commission (CNLS).

     CNLS officials attribute the increase to the nationwide sensitisation programs aimed at creating more awareness on HIV/AIDS.

    Rwandans living with HIV are estimated at 3 percent or 300,000 in a population of 10 million plus, the report says.

     Currently, the number of sites that offer ARVs is estimated at 517 countrywide.

     The report further shows that out of 1,393,081 people who took HIV test, 34,239 were positive.

     The report says that women aged between 30-44 years are increasingly taking the lead in accessing treatment.

     The report says that the ABC strategy, which means Abstinence, Faithfulness and Condom, is bearing fruits in educating Rwandans about the HIV spread.

  • No need for mistrust in legalising marijuana for medical purposes

    June last year laid the groundwork for The drafting of a law seeking to establish the rules and regulations in the use of narcotics in our healthcare system. This provoked a lot of controversy due to the implications behind using marijuana for medical purposes, a substance that is illegal in many countries around the world.

    The use of the drug in the medical sense proposed the possibility of it having inadvertent consequences in its regulation and control, perhaps promoting the use of recreational marijuana.

    This move undoubtedly raised a couple of eyebrows with claims of Rwanda being the only nation in Africa to do so. However, the draft law is nothing out of the ordinary. This would be because of the very well known and widespread use of narcotics in the medical world. Morphin and Opium, which are both illegal substances are drugs whose properties are used occasionally to relieve pain or anesthetise.

    Such drugs have resultantly made a substantial contribution to the pharmaceutical industry. Despite its negative reputation, marijuana has been proven to have medical properties that are used in the treatment of many diseases and conditions such as cancer or AIDS.

    “Marijuana is classified as a psyhoctropic drug and the healthcare system in Rwanda, which is under the convention with the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) in Vienna, simply drafted a law in the parliament that would help in the regulation and control in the use of this drug,” says Alex Ruzindana, the officer in charge of Pharmaceutical Information Pharmacy Task Force within the Ministry of Health.

    “It has completely nothing to do with the legalisation of marijuana. It is strictly for medicinal and research purposes. In fact, it is not even administered as a herbal drug , but rather its components are used and integrated into other substances making its administration come in other forms. ”

    According to Ruzindana, the law is in concord with the INCB, and its infringement would therefore go beyond the realm of the medicine thus leaving the issue to be dealt with by the authorities. He adds that medical Marijuana would only be prescribed by a specialised physician and its use would be significantly limited.

    “Other countries across the world have taken a further step by establishing pharmacies that specialise only in the sale of medical marijuana that come in various forms. But we have not implemented that at all. The use of this drug is only exclusive to the prescription given out by the doctor according to the patients needs,” says Ruzindana.

     He advises that due to the strictness in the prescription of the medicine, misconceptions should not arise when it comes to the consummation of this drug. Marijuana remains highly illegal outside the medical world and its distribution in limited dosages will continue to remain exclusive to the medical domain.

  • Rwanda seeks second credit rating- Rwangombwa

    Rwanda will seek a second credit rating this year as it prepares to sell its first global bond, Finance Minister John Rwangombwa said.

    The government is in talks with Standard & Poors on a sovereign rating expected in 2011 and “we expect to be really ready for the market in the next two to three years,” Rwangombwa said in an interview in Cape Town yesterday.

    “We have investment banks that are willing to go to the market right now,” Rwangombwa said in the interview, conducted while he was attending the World Economic Forum on Africa. “But we are putting our house in order to ensure that we are getting the right cost of our financing. There is appetite outside there.”

    Rwanda joins African countries such as Nigeria and Zambia that are turning to global capital markets to fund infrastructure projects. Rwanda has a sovereign credit rating of B by Fitch Ratings, lower than Zambia’s B+ and in the same category as Uganda, Mozambique and Seychelles.

    The World Bank has praised economic progress in Rwanda, where it takes just three days to register a company, compared with an average of 45 days in sub-Saharan Africa and 13.8 days in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, according to the lender.

    Renaissance Capital said in a report on April 12 that Rwanda is succeeding in reaching its goal of becoming a “Singapore of Africa” due to political stability, low corruption and a shift to a service economy.

    Investor demand in the recent sale of the state’s 25 percent stake in beverages manufacturer Bralirwa, a unit of Heineken NV, indicates appetite for Rwandan assets, Rwangombwa said. The government plans to hold an initial public offering for Bank of Kigali this year and “already the indications are that appetite is very high in the market,” he said.

    Rwangombwa has lowered his target for economic growth this year to 7 percent from 8 percent as rising food and energy costs push up inflation and boost import costs. The government may consider lowering fuel taxes to ease costs if its outlook for inflation worsens, he said. Inflation reached 4.1 percent in March from 2.3 percent in the previous month, the statistics office said on April 15.

    The finance minister presented a budget of Rwf 1.12 trillion francs ($1.86 billion) to parliament on May 2 for the fiscal year ending June 2012, with revenue expected to jump 14 percent to Rwf 538 million francs. The budget deficit is forecast to narrow to 1.5 percent of gross domestic product next year from 4.1 percent in the year through June. International donors fund about 41 percent of state spending, Rwangombwa said.

    Stronger tax revenue is mainly due to increased spending as the economy expands, the minister said.

    “People have more money and there’ll be more revenues,” Rwangombwa said. “Also there’s an increase in the efficiency of revenue collection.”

  • Witness: Kobayaga threatened him if he did not kill Tutsis

    A Rwandan farmer showed jurors the scar left on his leg by a U.S. resident he alleges threatened to kill him if he did not kill ethnic Tutsis during the African nation’s 1994 genocide.

    Emmanuel Nzabandora testified Wednesday in the trial of 84-year-old Lazare Kobagaya, of Topeka, on charges of lying to U.S. immigration officials about his involvement in the ethnic slaughter.

    Nzabandora testified two other men had beaten him because he refused to kill. He said Kobagaya then stabbed him with a knife concealed in a cane. He says he later clubbed a Tutsi man to death while Kobagaya and others watched.

    He also alleged Kobagaya had earlier offered a man beer to kill a Hutu who refused to his Tutsi relatives’ homes. He said that man immediately killed the Hutu.

    Meanwhile, Kobayaga’s lawyers want to bar testimony by a Rwandan woman about the killings of her husband and children.

    Defense lawyers contend the testimony of Valerie Niyitegeka is irrelevant because she wasn’t present when her husband and children were killed. The defense argues the only purpose of her testimony would be to present her heartbreak so the jury will decide the case on emotion.

    U.S. District Judge Monti Belot planned to listen to her testimony today outside the jury’s presence before deciding if the jury will hear it.

  • FDLR rebels face charges over mass rapes

    The official spearheading United Nations efforts to combat the
    scourge of sexual violence committed during war yesterday welcomed the start of a
    trial in Germany of two Rwandans accused of ordering massacres and mass rape in
    the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

    Ignace
    Murwanashyaka and Straton Musoni each face 39 charges of war crimes and 26
    counts of crimes against humanity over their alleged actions in the eastern DRC
    in 2008-09.

    Prosecutors
    in the German city of Stuttgart say the two men served as leaders in the
    Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (known by its French acronym of
    FDLR), a notorious militia accused of numerous atrocities in the eastern DRC in
    recent years.

    Margot
    Wallström, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in
    Conflict, issued a statement in which she applauded German authorities for
    “having apprehended these alleged perpetrators and for bringing them to
    justice.”

    German
    law allows the prosecution of foreigners for crimes against humanity and war
    crimes committed elsewhere.

    Ms.
    Wallström said the trial is “a clear sign that there is no safe haven for
    suspected criminals and that impunity for conflict-related sexual violence is
    not an option.”

    She said
    her office would continue to monitor the trial and all incidents of
    conflict-related sexual violence closely.

    The envoy
    has spoken out repeatedly about the widespread sexual violence taking place in
    the DRC, particularly in the far east, where many militia groups still clash
    with Congolese armed forces and attack civilians.

  • Methane gas to boost economy and eliminate fear of explosion.

    Rwanda is targeting to reap US$ 25 billion in the next 50 years in the ongoing methane gas project in Lake Kivu if all the 60bn cubic metres of methane in the lake is extracted.

    Dr. Natacha Tofield Pasche, an expert in limnology said the extraction of methane is a double achievement for the government as it would reduce the methane threats and also provide energy for economic growth.

    Dr. Pasche who led a Franco-Swiss team of scientists studying the physicochemical characteristics of the lake observed that this would not only contribute to the development of the country but would also reduce the risk of cataclysmic explosion that would affect the people around the area.

    “The extraction will reduce methane gas threats and also contribute to the economy of the country,” Dr. Natasha Tofield Pasche, a Limnology Expert at Kivu Power Generation Pilot Project said during the press visit at the site recently.

    She illuminated that the main reasons for extracting methane gas in this lake are to ensure safety through removing methane and carbon dioxide, and protect the ecosystem by avoiding nutrient increase in the bio-zone as well as the economic gains of the country through generation of electricity among others.

    Pasche said that the accumulation of the methane gas in the lake has lasted over 800 years. “This proves that there is enough methane to be extracted because if not extracted, it would destroy the stability of the lake and also explode which will affect the surrounding areas,” he disclosed.

    At a moment ; Pasche, who also does the assessment of the methane project, said that the lake cannot explode since the gas pressure now stands at 55 percent of the saturation. She added that it would be dangerous if this was at the rate of 100 percent.

    The Engineer Operator at Kivu Pilot Plant Project 1, Hodari Muhire, said that the Kivu Power Generation Pilot Project, which is 100 percent owned by the government of Rwanda was estimated to produce 4.5megawatts per hour but since it is the first time the project has been undertaken in the whole world, there were miscalculations by experts. He noted that the project currently produces only 2megawatts per hour which contributes 2.6 percent to the national grid.

  • Rwanda targets projects worth $550m in 2011


    Rwanda is targeting investment projects worth $550-million and hopes tourism revenues will rise to $216-million in 2011, officials said on Wednesday.

    The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) said investments projects had increased by 150% in the first quarter of 2011 to $87-million, mainly boosted by the February registration of the Cadilla pharmaceutical company, worth $65-million.

    Rwanda was ranked by the World Bank as the country that introduced the most pro-business reforms in 2009, and it came second to Kazakhstan in 2010. The country is pushing hard to attract investment to become a middle-income nation by 2020.

    The RDB also said tourism projects registered in the first quarter increased by 32% from the same period a year earlier. It said tourist arrivals jumped 32% to 201 088 while revenues climed to $56,6-million from $43-million.

    While its east African neighbours Tanzania and Kenya are more renowned tourist destinations, Rwanda is trying to attract more visitors to its mountainous national parks which are home to gorillas.

    Rwanda earned $200-million from tourism in 2010.

  • Who is now on the World’s Most Wanted list?

    Rwanda’s most high profile fugitive and genocide mastermind Felicien Kabuga may have probably be quivering as news began to filter in that Osama Bin Laden had been shot dead on Monday. Kabuga, who has a US$5 million bounty on his head, is said to be hiding somewhere in neighbouring Kenya, though his exact location remains a mystery to many. But what the world has exhibited is that one can run (for protracted periods) but cannot hide. Osama, despite his camouflage and immense financial prowess, could not survive the fury of the innocent blood he shed during the years that he has continued to terrorise the world. Would something similar happen to Kabuga, who has all along managed to mask his identity this long ? After the demise of Osama, Kabuga alongside Uganda’s Joseph Kony, the leader of the murderous Lords Resistance Movement, join FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives in the world.

    He wasn’t the World’s Most Wanted Man. Officially, at least, there’s no such thing. But when Osama bin Laden|More from guardian.co.uk on Osama bin Laden died from a shot to the head and another to the chest sometime between midnight and 1.30am local time on Monday, the man who, in the popular western imagination, held arguably the best – and certainly the best-publicised – claim to be regarded as such left behind him something of a conundrum for those who compile such lists : who could replace him ?

    It’s not such a straightforward question. Leaving aside such niceties as one man’s evil terrorist mastermind being another man’s blessed freedom fighter, attempting to place in order of importance crimes on the kind of scale that might warrant inclusion in a Top 10 of global iniquity is a task fraught with difficulties. How do you measure a Serbian ethnic cleanser against an American serial killer, dismemberer and necrophile ; a Mexican drugs baron against a Rwandan genocide-merchant ?

    Most lists, sensibly, do not try. The first and perhaps the most famous of all, the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives|FBIs 10 Most Wanted Fugitives – from which Bin Laden was summarily ejected on Monday, his photograph stamped with a blood-red banner and the single word “Deceased” – doesn’t rank its members, who are confined to criminals indicted by a US federal grand jury. Bin Laden, indicted in absentia in New York in 1999 for his alleged part in the US embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi the previous year, was a bit of a misfit on that list.

    His fellow fugitives were, for the most part, fraudsters, rapists, murderers and drug traffickers, with bounties on their heads ranging from $100,000 to $2m ; the reward offered for Bin Laden’s capture totalled $27m (£16m). Robert William Fisher, for example, is wanted for allegedly killing his wife and two young children and then blowing up the house in which they all lived in Scottsdale, Arizona in April 2001 ; Alexis Flores for his alleged involvement in the kidnapping and murder of a five-year-old girl in Philadelphia.

    Heinous crimes, but hardly the equivalent of masterminding 9/11. Or indeed, as assorted warrants put it, of “organising a global network committed to bringing down the United States|More from guardian.co.uk on United States“. That explains why the FBI created a separate list in 2001, in the wake of the September 11 attacks :Most Wanted Terrorists|Most Wanted Terrorists. The death of the al-Qaida|More from guardian.co.uk on al-Qaida figurehead leaves 29 people on that list, including his reported deputy, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and also indicted for the US embassy bombings ; Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso, wanted in connection with the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, which killed 17 US sailors ; Adam Yahihe Gadahn, sought for providing “material support, comfort and aid” to al-Qaida ; and Abdul Rahman Yasin, indicted in the 1993 bombing of the New York World Trade Centre.

    The FBI’s hope, it seems, was that the terrorist list would have the same mobilising effect on the US public as the original 10 Most Wanted, first launched on 14 March 1950 after the FBI director, J Edgar Hoover, spotted the potential of the publicity generated by a news agency story profiling the “toughest guys” the bureau would like to capture. The first person placed on the list was Thomas James Holden, wanted for the murder of his wife, her brother and her stepbrother. Down the years it has also featured the likes of James Earl Ray, the prime suspect in the assassination of Martin Luther King ; the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy ; and (briefly) civil rights activist Angela Davis.

    According to the FBI, 494 fugitives have figured on its 10 Most Wanted list, and 464 have been captured or at least or located, 152 of them with the help of the public. Priorities have changed over time, the agency says. In the 50s, the list was “primarily comprised of bank robbers, burglars, and car thieves”. In the radical 60s, “the list reflected the revolutionaries of the times, with destruction of government property, sabotage, and kidnapping dominating”. The 70s were overwhelmingly about organised crime|More from guardian.co.uk on Organised crime, and in the 80s and 90s the 10 Most Wanted began to include suspected international terrorists as well. In more recent years, common crimes have included rape and other sexual abuse, crimes against children, white-collar crime, gang violence and drug trafficking.

    Maintaining such a list on a global scale has obvious pitfalls. Interpol, the international police organisation, makes no attempt to prioritise. The 321 criminals who currently feature on its website|321 criminals who currently feature on its website range from an Australian kidnapper to an Argentinian counterfeiter.

    (In Britain, rather more prosaically, Crimestoppers UK’s 10 Most Wanted includes one John Levy, wanted for “driving off from a petrol station without paying for £51 worth of diesel”.)

    Since 2008, the US business magazine Forbes has published a list of The World’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives, compiled in consultation with law enforcement agencies internationally (see below). Its criteria, the magazine says, are that fugitives have been criminally indicted or charged in national jurisdictions or by an international tribunal, stand accused of “a long history of committing serious crimes”, and are “still considered dangerous”. In addition, each is said to represent “a type of criminal problem with which legal institutions in diverse jurisdictions are grappling”. It also ranks its candidates from one to 10.

    Described as “armed, dangerous and very tough to catch – the world’s worst thieves and thugs who have eluded local police, armies and international organisations for years”, Forbes’s most recent list was topped by Bin Laden. It also includes Semion Mogilevich, “the face of Russian organised crime” ; Joaquin Guzman, “Mexico|More from guardian.co.uk on Mexico’s most notorious drug trafficker” ; Dawood Ibrahim, “India|More from guardian.co.uk on India’s most wanted man” ; Italian |More from guardian.co.uk on Mafiamafia|More from guardian.co.uk on Mafiaboss Matteo Messina Denaro ; Rwandan businessman (and alleged genocide financier) Felicien Kabuga ; Joseph Kony of the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army ; and James L Bulger, a Boston mobster wanted in connection with up to 19 murders.

    But the list is disputable. Britain, for example, would probably quite like to see Andrei Lugovoi, the former KGB operative wanted for the murder by plutonium poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006, somewhere on a list of this kind (although he hasn’t been charged). Augustin Bizimana, likewise, is the most senior of the 12 or so people wanted for genocide by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda|More from guardian.co.uk on Rwanda not to have been apprehended ; the former defence minister faces charges over the massacre of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994. Some might like to see the name of Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the Sudanese dictator seen as responsible for ethnic cleansing that has left 300,000 dead and 2.5 million homeless in Darfur and the first sitting head of state ever indicted by the International Criminal Court. And what of Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb army chief indicted for genocide in The Hague in 1995 ? He’s still out there, laughing.

    So who will replace Bin Laden for the list-makers ? It seems logical he could make way on Forbes’s list to last year’s runner-up, Guzman. The FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist list will simply shrink ; Bin Laden’s name will not be substituted. But on the Top 10 Most Wanted, the jury’s out. Some reckon Zawahiri is a shoo-in ; other favour the Libyan, Anas al-Liby, or the Egyptian Saif al-Adel, both allegedly implicated in the east African embassy bombings. Adan el Shukrijumah, a Saudi citizen suspected of planning to attack the New York subway in 2009, and Yasin, wanted in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing, are also mentioned. But, some observers say, Bin Laden’s replacement on America’s 10 Most Wanted could be an altogether less rarefied species of lowlife : a white-collar criminal, say, or a bank robber. Ultimately, such lists are always going to be subjective.

    The new 10 Most Wanted List

    1 Joaquín ’El Chapo’ Guzmán Mexican drug lord

    “El Chapo” or “Shorty” (he stands 5ft 6in tall) heads an international drug trafficking organisation, the Sinaloa Cartel, and became Mexico’s top drug kingpin in 2003 after the arrest of his rival Osiel Cárdenas of the Gulf Cartel. Appears simultaneously on Forbes’s lists of the world’s most powerful, most wealthy and most wanted men. Ruthless and determined, Guzmán has succeeded in turning Ciudad Juárez, a strategic smuggling point that overlooks El Paso, Texas, into one of the murder capitals of the world through mind-numbingly brutal battles against both the Gulf and La Linea cartels, leaving thousands dead. A faction from La Linea has recently defected to Shorty’s side ; a local street gang, the Mexicles, has sub-contracted its services in killing, kidnapping, drug dealing and extorting ; and even elements of the police and army seem to have thrown their lot in with him. Sinaloa smuggles many tonnes of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico into the United States, and is also heavily involved in Mexican methamphetamine, marijuana and heroin.

    2 Dawood Ibrahim Head of Indian crime network 

    The most wanted man in India heads up a 5,000-strong organised crime network called the D-Company that is involved in everything from drugs trafficking to contract killing in Pakistan, India and the UAE. Currently on the Interpol wanted list for organised crime and counterfeiting, besides association with al-Qaida. According to Washington, Ibrahim uses the same smuggling routes as al-Qaida and has worked with both the mother organisation and its offshoot Lashkar-e-Taiba, responsible for the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. He is also suspected in the 1993 Mumbai bombings that killed 257 people and wounded 713. Like Bin Laden, Ibrahim may well be based in Pakistan.

     3 Semion Mogilevich Russian ’boss of bosses’

    Arrested in Russia|More from guardian.co.uk on Russia for tax evasion in 2008, Ukrainian-born Mogilevich was released in 2009. Wanted in the US in connection with a $150m share fraud ; believed by both European and US law enforcement agencies to be the “boss of bosses” of most Russian mafia syndicates in the world. Nicknames include “Don Semyon” and “The Brainy Don” ; often described as “the most dangerous mobster in the world”.

     4 Matteo Messina Denaro Cosa Nostra kingpin

    Sicilian mafioso who has effectively taken control of Italy’s Cosa Nostra following the arrest of Bernardo Provenzano and other leading mobsters. Nicknamed “Diabolik“, after an Italian comic-book character. Known for his fast lifestyle, Porsches and Rolex watches, he has been on the run since 1993.

     5 Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov Uzbek mobster

    Major Russian mobster originally from Uzbekistan and apparently known as “Taiwanchik” for his Asian appearance. Washington describes him as a “major figure in international Eurasian organised crime” engaged in “drug distribution, illegal arms sales and trafficking in stolen vehicles.” He is even alleged to have bribed the figure skating judges in the 2002 Winter Olympics.

    6 Felicien Kabuga Mastermind of genocide

    Accused of bankrolling the Rwandan genocide, inciting bloodshed through his radio station and even supplying the machetes and hoes used in the massacres, Kabuga is wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for “serious offences under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, crimes against humanity and genocide” in connection with the massacre of more than 800,000 Rwandan men, women and children in 100 days of terror in 1994. Allegedly hiding in Kenya.

     7 Joseph Kony Ugandan guerrilla leader

    Head of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a guerrilla group engaged in a violent campaign to establish theocratic government in Uganda|More from guardian.co.uk on Uganda. Has also operated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sudan, abducting an estimated 66,000 children and displacing more than two million people since 1986. The International Criminal Court has indicted him on 33 charges including crimes against humanity and war crimes.

     8 James ’Whitey’ Bulger Old-school US mobster

    The ever-so-slightly embarrassing older brother of William Michael Bulger, a former president of the Massachusetts state senate and the University of Massachusetts, Bulger was part of the Winter Hill Gang, a Boston-based Irish-American crime network that for many years ran illicit drugs and extortion rackets. Pursued by the FBI for more than a decade for racketeering, murder (his name has been linked to 19 killings from the early 70s up to the mid-80s), conspiracy to commit murder, extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion, money laundering and narcotics distribution. Bulger’s wealth is estimated at between $30m and $50m (£18m-£30m), cash he is said to be using to evade arrest with his longtime girlfriend. Last confirmed sighting was in London in 2002. There is a reward of $2m for information leading to his arrest.

    9 Omid ’Nino’ Tahvili Head of Canadian crime group

    Head of a Persian organised crime network in Canada linked to assorted Triads and other global criminal groups. Arrested on charges of torturing a relative of a man he suspected had stolen a chunk of his organisation’s illicit drugs money, he walked out of a Canadian maximum security prison in a janitor’s uniform in November 2007 after promising to pay a guard to let him out (he never forked up). US law enforcement wants to talk to him about a fraudulent telemarketing business that targeted people in the US, stealing some $3m from hundreds of victims, most of them elderly.

    10 ? Ayman al-Zawahiri Al-Qaida number two

    Born in June 1951 into a prominent upper-middle class family in Cairo, Zawahiri was the final “emir” of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which he merged into al-Qaida in 1998. Reportedly a qualified surgeon, he speaks Arabic, English and French. According to former al-Qaida members, Zawahiri has worked with al-Qaida since the organisation’s earliest beginnings. He is often described as Bin Laden’s right-hand man, and by some as the “real brains” of al-Qaida. The friendship between the two men supposedly began in the 80s when Zawahiri is said to have given medical treatment to Bin Laden in Afghanistan in the teeth of a Soviet attack. According to terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman, Bin Laden considered Zawahiri his mentor. Most experts believe 9/11 could not have happened without Zawahiri’s controlling influence.

  • Troubled Rwandatel seeks foreign investors

    Rwandatel may turn to a foreign investor if a local court does not liquidate the debt-laden telecoms firm, its interim management said on Wednesday.

    Rwanda’s telecoms regulator stripped Rwandatel of its mobile licence for failing to meet key performance targets in terms of investment, network roll-out, coverage and quality of service.

    The company, 80 percent owned by the Libyan African Investment Portfolio (LAP), acquired its operating licence in 2007 but only started mobile operations in December 2008.

    The Rwandan government has taken custody of some Libyan-owned assets in line with an international freeze, but has not explicitly stated that the Libyan investment in Rwandatel has been frozen, given the pending court ruling.

    The telecoms regulator said on Wednesday it would await the court ruling to see what options there would be to protect the interests of Rwandatel creditors.

    Last month, a Rwandan court appointed an interim manager to oversee the company’s affairs for the next two months, including paying debts of 54.3 billion Rwandan francs.

    However, the company maintained its fixed line and data license, which accounted for 60 percent of its revenues.

    Richard Mugisha, the company’s interim manager, dispelled media reports that foreign telecom companies, particularly Vodacom of South Africa, were already in talks with the company and the regulator about a possible take over. 

    “I have not been approached by any telecom investor. However, if the court rules that the company shouldn’t be liquidated our plan of action would definitely require the involvement of a strategic investor,” Mugisha said.

    “The kind of assets the company has can only be used by someone who is established in this business and understands it. Keeping, or changing the brand identity of the company, would depend on the business decision of that investor. When that time comes we will definitely interest some people,” he said.

    According to figures presented on Wednesday, the debt includes 1.7 billion francs in interconnection fees owed to MTN Rwanda and Millicom’s Tigo Rwanda. It also owes the government 3.6 billion and 400 million francs in regulatory fees.

    The company will remain 80 percent owned by the Libyan fund with the other 20 percent in the hands of Rwanda’s social security fund until the court makes its ruling, the country’s telecoms regulator said.

    Before revocation of its licence, Rwandatel had over 500,000 subscribers, MTN Rwanda 2.3 million and Tigo Rwanda 700,000 clients. MTN Rwanda was once forced to payoff Rwf 70 million ($145,000) for failure to meet contractual obligations.