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The East African Community (EAC) partner states must speed up monetary union talks and conclude the negotiations by the end of 2012.

The talks have dragged on since early last year, according to Dr Enos Bukuku, the deputy secretary-general in charge of planning and infrastructure, and the 2012 target for concluding the Monetary Union Protocol cannot be deferred.

“All the partner states delegates should do their utmost to build consensus quickly so that the negotiations are concluded in time,” he said in a speech read on his behalf by EAC’s Director for Planning, Tharcisse Kadede, on Monday as the eighth round of the talks kicked off in Arusha. The talks started in January 2011.

“Use the latest round of negotiations to resolve outstanding issues and to move with greater speed to ensure an agreement is reached before the end of this year.”

The deputy secretary general asserted that the benefits of the Customs Union and the Common Market were too great to be trifled with and they were “more than ready” to embark on reducing the cost of doing business by attaining a monetary union.

He added,“I am, therefore, obliged to remind you that many East Africans within and beyond the region anxiously await any insights from this meeting on what needs to be done right to make monetary integration work for the EAC.”

The six-day meeting has been convened to discuss outstanding matters from previous meetings of the High Level Task Force (HLTF) negotiating the draft protocol and also to deliberate on Articles 60 – 72, which touch broadly on financial arrangements, integrated financial management system and transitional arrangements.

The draft articles up for discussion this week are particularly critical because they underpin the integration of the financial sector, which will be a key enabler of the monetary union.

The HLTF comprises senior officials from the partner states’ ministries of finance, planning and economic development and EAC affairs, as well as central banks, capital markets authorities, insurance and pensions regulatory agencies and national statistics offices.

Previous rounds of negotiations deliberated on provisions touching on the scope of the monetary union, the macroeconomic policy framework, monetary policy framework, exchange rate policy and exchange rate mechanism and instruments of monetary control.

The negotiations started in January 2011.

The process for the establishment of the East African Monetary Union is underpinned by Articles 5 and 82 of the EAC Treaty which require the partner states to undertake to establish a monetary union and to co-operate in monetary and fiscal matters.

The primary rationale for a monetary union is to reduce the costs and risks of transacting business across the national boundaries of those countries which comprise the union.

By embracing a single currency, EAC partner states would remove the costs of having to transact in different currencies and the risk of adverse exchange rate movements for traders and travellers alike within the region.
It is envisaged that the monetary union will deepen the integration of East African economies and enhance the benefits to be derived from the EAC Common Market.

To enrich the negotiations, the EAC commissioned various studies, which included a study on the review of the EAC macroeconomic convergence criteria and one on a harmonised monetary policy framework for the region, both done jointly by the EAC and the International Monetary Fund.

The draft final reports of both studies are due for review by the Sectoral Council on Finance and Economic Affairs (SCFEA) in September 2012 before they are forwarded to the HLTF.

Another study on a common exchange rate mechanism undertaken jointly with the International Growth Centre (IGC) has since been considered and adopted by the Sectoral Council on Finance and Economic Affairs and was forwarded to the HLTF as one of the inputs for the negotiation process.

The negotiating team, known as the High Level Task Force will, over the six-day period, discuss outstanding matters in Articles 1-59 of the draft EAMU Protocol and negotiate draft Articles 60-72.

The draft Protocol contains 86 Articles in total.

Rwanda’s Foreign Minister and Government Spokesperson has (Wednesday) expressed outrage at continued targeting of Rwandans in the DRC following the detention and torture of four Rwandans at Camp Katindo, a Congolese army facility.

Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said, “This is an extremely serious incident – we have confirmation that one of the tortured Rwandans has died. We have asked the Government of the DRC to ensure that the mistreatment of Rwandan citizens stops immediately”

Minister Mushikiwabo said that Rwanda had brought this case to the urgent attention of the Joint Verification Team and warned against the resurgence of hate speech.

“We have learned before that hate speech has consequences; that reckless political rhetoric costs lives. It is something our region must not be forced to endure again”

The defence for ex-Rwandan Planning Minister Augustin Ngirabatware Tuesday requested the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to reject prosecution’s arguments, allegedly linking him with crimes committed during 1994 genocide.

“The prosecution mischaracterized its own evidence and made allegations in their briefs which were not supported,” Lead Defence Counsel, Mylene Dimitri told a Trial Chamber presided by Judge William Hussein Sekule.

She was presenting closing arguments for the defence via video-link from Canada. She claimed that some prosecution’s testimony came from accomplice witnesses, who had material motives and their evidence, therefore, should not be taken at first value.

According to her, such witnesses lied and fabricated evidence against her client so that they could secure lesser sentences or be released from prison.

The counsel also lashed out at the prosecution’s submissions trying to make Ngirabatware responsible of crimes committed by Interahamwe.

She explained that the ex-minister has not been charged with superior responsibility.

Ngirabatware is facing charges of conspiracy to commit genocide, genocide or in the alternative, complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide and extermination and rape as crimes against humanity.

The defence continues with its submissions on Wednesday.

Fighting has resumed with heavy weapons early Tuesday morning between the Armed Forces of DRC (FARDC) and rebels in the villages of M23 and kakomero Mwaro.

Sources on ground say the rebels have circumvented the positions of the regular army, passing through the towns of Ngugo, Bisoko Rwaza and a consortium of Rugari, more than 50 km from Goma, capital of the province.

The population sector Rugari who fled to the Rumangabo military camp, is currently blocked by road following the detonation of bombs heard between these two localities.

sources say , residents fled towards the direction of Goma.

This is since last April that the FARDC are facing rebellion of M23 that creates a climate of insecurity in the east.

With a political wing, the M23 rebels are seeking negotiations with the government in Kinshasa including the peace agreement signed with the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) in Goma, in the province of North Kivu.

Among other claims, the M23 request to the Kinshasa government to make efforts to eradicate negative forces in the east, including the Democratic Forces for the libértation of Rwanda (FDLR).

Ghana President John Mills is dead. He died on Tuesday the 24th of July 2012 at the 37 Military Hospital at 1630 GMT.
His death was confirmed by the Chief of Staff Martey Newman.

President John Evans Fifii Atta Mills (21 July 1944 – 24 July 2021) was the third President of the Fourth Republic of Ghana. He was inaugurated on 7 January 2009, having defeated the ruling party candidate Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2008 election.

He was Vice-President from 1997 to 2001 under President Jerry Rawlings, and stood unsuccessfully in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections as the candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

He was married to Ernestina Naadu Mills, an educator and had a son, Sam Kofi Atta Mills, with Ruby Addo.

He was a good friend to Prophet T.B. Joshua of The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations in Lagos, Nigeria and regularly visited his church. He said following his inauguration that T.B. Joshua had prophesied to him there would be three elections, the results would be released in January, and he would emerge victorious.

Mills was a Fanti from Ekumfi Otuam in the Central Region of Ghana. He was born in Tarkwa on 21 July 1944,located in the Western Region of Ghana.He was educated at Achimota School, where he completed the Advanced-Level Certificate in 1963, and the University of Ghana, Legon, where he received “Black man of the month” several times.

In 1968, Mills studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and received a PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.

Thus began the journey of the next twenty years of Mills’ life, which was largely spent with spells both in Ghana and internationally as an academic. Mills earned a Ph.D in Law from London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies(SOAS) after completing his doctoral thesis in the area of taxation and economic development.

Mills’ first formal teaching assignment was as a lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of Ghana Legon. He spent close to twenty five years teaching at Legon and other institutions of higher learning, and rose in position from lecturer to senior lecturer to associate professor, and served on numerous boards and committees.

Additionally, he traveled worldwide as a visiting lecturer and professor at educational institutions such as the LSE, and presented research papers at symposiums and conferences. In 1971, he was selected for the Fulbright Scholar program at Stanford Law School in the United States Of America.

At the age of 27, he was awarded his PhD after successfully defending his doctoral thesis in the area of taxation and economic development. He returned to Ghana that year, becoming a Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ghana.

He became a visiting professor of Temple Law School (Philadelphia, USA), with two stints from 1978 to 1979, and 1986 to 1987, and was a visiting professor at Leiden University (Holland) from 1985 to 1986. During this period, he authored several publications relating to taxation during the 1970s & 1980s.

Outside of his academic pursuits, Professor Mills was the Acting Commissioner of Ghana’s Internal Revenue Service from 1986 to 1993, and the substantive Commissioner from 1993 to 1996.By 1992, he had become an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Ghana. Mills was also a Fulbright scholar at Stanford Law School.

For the inaugural Presidential Elections in 1992, the National Convention Party (NCP) had formed an alliance with the National Democratic Congress (NDC). Former Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) Chairman, and leader of Ghana, Flight-Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings chose the NCP leader, Kow Nkensen Arkaah, as his running-mate for Vice-President. Having been elected in the 1992 elections, Arkaah served between 1992–1996.

However, on 29 January 1996, the NCP broke with the NDC, merging with the People’s Convention Party (PCP) to form a rebirth of the Convention People’s Party (the formerly outlawed political party of Ghana’s first President, Kwame Nkrumah). Thus, in a bitter split, Arkaah would stand as candidate for the reborn CPP in the 1996 Presidential Elections against Rawlings.

Rawlings selected Mills for the vacated Vice-Presidency in his bid for re-election to a second term in Ghana’s 1996 Presidential Election. Rawlings was re-elected to his second term in office, and Mills became Vice-President of Ghana between 1996 to 2000.

In 2000, Mills became the NDC’s candidate for the 2000 Presidential elections after Rawlings had served his constitutionally mandated terms as president. At the time, and after essentially two decades of PNDC/NDC rule, the NDC’s war chest for the upcoming elections was certainly much stronger than that of the NPP.

The result would clearly between the NDC’s popularity with the people, and Vice-President Mills’ track-record alongside President Rawlings, and the veteran political experience that the NPP candidate would bring to the campaign.

The main rival for Vice-President Mills’ own bid for the Presidency was a veteran politician, John Agyekum Kufuor, who was running as the candidate for the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Ghana’s presidential elections in the year 2000 went into two rounds: In the first round, held on 7 December 2000, Mills gained 44.8% of the vote, Kufuor won the first round with 48.4%.

This result forced the elections into a two-party run-off vote on 28 December 2000, where Kufuor defeated Vice-President Mills with a result of 56.9% of the vote. The NPP won the election, and Kufuor was sworn in as President of Ghana on 7 January 2001.

In December 2002, John Atta Mills was elected by his party to be its flag bearer and lead them into the 2004 elections.

In 2002, former Vice-President Mills was again selected as the candidate of the National Democratic Congress for the upcoming presidential elections in 2004. He was however defeated again by President Kufuor, who won by a margin of 52.45%.

On 21 December 2006, former Vice-President Mills became the NDC’s candidate for the 2008 presidential elections, winning his party’s ticket by an 81.4% result.

Early polls showed that Mills was the favourite, but in another poll taken just months before the first-round voting, Nana Akufo-Addo emerged as the favourite. Election campaigning was strong, particularly with advertising, which was clearly much heavier with the NPP candidate.

The first round of voting occurred on 7 December 2008. In a very close result amongst all parties, Nana Akufo-Addo’s NPP finished with 49.13% of the vote, close to the outright margin required to win in the first round, while Mills’ NDC finished with 47.92%. The other parties garnered 2.37% of the votes. The result forced a second-round of voting between NPP and NDC on 28 December 2008.

The result was a slim margin held by Mills, but due to problems with the distribution of ballots, the Tain constituency, located in the Brong-Ahafo Region, was forced to re-run its voting on 2 January 2009. The voting in the Tain constituency led to a landslide victory to the NDC.

For several days, the Electoral Commission of Ghana did not call the result to the NDC, and the NPP filed a lawsuit, claiming that “the atmosphere in the rural district was not conducive to a free and fair election”.

Eventually, the NPP bowed to the inevitable, and on the morning of 3 January 2009, the election result was finally announced. Former Vice-President John Atta-Mills, who had failed to win in two previous campaigns, made history by winning the 2008 presidential election, becoming the third President of the 4th Republic Of Ghana.

Mills produced several publications during his life, including:
Taxation of Periodical or Deferred Payments arising from the Sale of Fixed Capital (1974)

Exemption of Dividends from Income taxation: A critical Appraisal (1977) In: Review of Ghana Law, 1997, 9: 1, p. 38–47

Report of the Tax Review Commission, Ghana, parts 1–3 (1977)
Ghana’s Income Tax laws and the Investor. (An inter-faculty lecture published by the University of Ghana)

Ghana’s new investment code : an appraisal (1993) In: University of Ghana Law Journal, 1993, vol. 18, p. 1–29

He also held examiner positions with finance-related institutions in Ghana, including the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Institute of Bankers, and Ghana Tax Review Commission.

He contributed to the Ghana Hockey Association, National Sports Council of Ghana, and Accra Hearts of Oak Sporting Club. He enjoyed hockey and swimming, and once played for the national hockey team (he remained a member of the Veterans Hockey Team until his death).

Mills has been involved in various activities and projects such as:
Member of the Ghana Stock Exchange Council

Board of Trustees, Mines Trust

Management Committee Member of, Commonwealth Administration of Tax Experts, United Nations Ad Hoc Group of Experts in International Cooperation in Tax Matters, and United Nations Law and Population Project

A Study on Equipment Leasing in Ghana
Casebook preparation on Ghana’s Income Tax
Review of Ghana’s Double Tax Agreement with the UK

In 1988, John Evans Atta Mills became the acting Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service of Ghana and named Commissioner in September 1996.

In 1997, Prof. Mills received another important appointment when on 7 January 1997 he was sworn-in as Vice-President of the Republic of Ghana.

In 2002, Prof. Mills was a visiting scholar at the Liu Centre for the Study of Global Affairs, University of British Columbia, Canada.

In December 2002, John Evans Atta Mills was elected by his party to be its flagbearer and led them into the 2004 elections.

Over the next 60 days MTN Rwanda customers have the chance of winning fantastic prizes worth Rwf90 million including daily airtime vouchers, weekly low-end and high-end phones, laptops and data modems.

The new promotion has been dubbed ‘Sharama’ with daily and winnings including three cars.

According to Yvonne Manzi Makolo, MTN Rwanda’s Chief Marketing Officer the promotion is designed to give back to loyal MTN clients and also stimulate excitement in the market, as the company subscriber base grows.

“At MTN Rwanda we continuously place customer experience as a top priority, and we will continue providing exciting promotions that empower the lives of our customers.

Through the daily and weekly prizes, we believe that MTN Rwanda will make a difference by positively impacting the lives of the winners,” she added.

Last week Rwanda Utilities and Regulatory Agency (RURA) released monthly subscriber figures that indicated MTN Rwanda had grown to 3.03 million subscribers by the end of June 2012.

Sakyi Opoku the Snr Manager Brand and Sponsorship said MTN is delighted to offer such an exciting mega promotion to valued customers in Rwanda because it is also in line with the new brand campaign ‘Better Together’.

“While ‘Sharama’ means ‘shine’ it also rhymes with one of our brand values, which is ‘the ability to do’. This is meant to create an excitement among our subscribers. Subscribers are better striving with us.

Our brand gives hope and gives the winners the belief to achieve. Because we value our clients its in the same spirit that we give back to them in an exciting manner,” Opoku said.

The MTN brand this year received a number of brand accolades. In May Millward Brown, one of the world’s leading research agencies and expert in effective advertising announced that the MTN brand was the first African brand to be listed on the ‘BrandZ Top 100 Global Brand’ listing.

According to a study by U.S. scientists, sitting in front of a computer or TV screen late into the night or leaving it on when you fall asleep could increase your chances of becoming depressed.

The study, by a team of neuroscientists at Ohio State University Medical Center partly funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, will give screen-addicted night owls pause for thought.

The researchers – who exposed hamsters to dim light at night and picked up changes in behavior and the brain that bore striking similarities to symptoms in depressed people – said a surge in exposure to artificial light at night in the last 50 years had coincided with rising rates of depression, particularly among women, who are twice as prone as men.

“The results we found in hamsters are consistent with what we know about depression in humans,” said Tracy Bedrosian, who led the study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Although exposure to night-time light has been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer and obesity, the relationship with mood disorders is poorly understood.

The hamsters involved in the experiment were exposed for four weeks to dim light at night – equivalent to a television screen in a darkened room – and the results compared to a control group exposed to a normal light-dark cycle.

The experimental group was then moved back onto a normal cycle for one, two or four weeks before they were tested.

The results showed they were less active and had a lower than usual interest in drinking sugar water – both symptoms are comparable to signs of depression in people.

The similarity extended to their biological make-up. The researchers found changes in the hippocampus – a part of the brain – that were consistent with people suffering depression.

The hamsters exposed to dim light at night were also shown to produce more of a protein called tumor necrosis factor (TNF), a chemical messenger that is mobilized when the body is injured or infected and causes inflammation in its efforts to repair the damage.

“Researchers have found a strong association in people between chronic inflammation and depression,” said Randy Nelson, who also worked on the study. “That’s why it is very significant that we found this relationship between dim light at night and increased expression of TNF.”

The scientists found that blocking the effects of TNF with a drug prevented signs of depression in the hamsters, though some other indicators in the structure of the brain were unaffected.

For instance, hamsters that were exposed to dim light at night still showed a much reduced density of dendritic spines – hairlike growths on brain cells that are used to send chemical messages from one cell to another.

The overall symptoms of depression were reversible, the researchers said. Those hamsters returned to a normal light-dark cycle saw both their TNF levels and the density of their dendritic spines return to normal after about two weeks.

“The good news is that people who stay up late in front of the television and computer may be able to undo some of the harmful effects just by going back to a regular light-dark cycle and minimizing their exposure to artificial light at night,” Bedrosian said.