Hollywood celebrity couple Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard is currently in Rwanda where they have visited the National Museum of Rwanda in Huye district.
Actress Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard were named among the hottest couples in Hollywood.
Once again made the couple was listed among the 100 Hottest Couples of 2012. Each year there is a ranking in Hollywood’s powerful couples based on popularity, success, attractiveness among other qualities.
The Japan International cooperation Agency JICA has donated fertilisers to the ministry of agriculture aimed at boosting farm productivity in Rwanda.
The Ministry of Agriculture has in place a program that provides fertilizers to grassroots level for access to farmers.
The fertilizer donated is of the form of NPK valued at about US$ 2.3Million.
Kunio Hatanaka the Japanese Ambassador to Rwanda, noted that his country offered the fertilizers to Rwanda because the country has fertile soils yet Rwanda uses too much money to import food.
Rwandans should be able to sustain themselves in terms of food supplies.
The permanent secretary in the ministry of agriculture Ruzindaza Ernest said the fertilizer arrived in Rwanda in February, “it’s not the first time JICA has extended such help–It started in 2006 and 2008.”
The fertilizer will help us increase farm production and improved farming practices.
The High Court has ruled against requests submitted by controversial genocide suspect Dr. Léon Mugesera who had insisted his trial to be conducted in the French Language.
This follows an appeal by Mugesera against the ruling of the Nyarugenge court of higher instance which had also ruled that his trial be conducted in kinyarwanda language.
The High court president Athanase Bakuzakundi on 27th April submitted that Mugesera Dr. Mugesera will be tried in Kinyarwanda language, a native language he understands.
The court also ruled that Dr. Mugesera will remain in custody while on trial.
Dr. Mugesera argued that he had spent 20years in Canada where he only used French language and thus requested the Rwandan court to conduct his trial in the French language he understands.
The Rwandan constitution provided for a right to suspects to be tried in a language they understand.
His case will proceed on 9th May.
Kigali will host a six-day 10th Sectoral Council of Ministers for Lake Victoria Basin scheduled for 30th April to 5th May 2012 at Umubano Hotel organised by Lake Victoria Basin Commission.
The Ministerial session will take place on 4th May 2012, followed by a Ministerial Study Tour to selected activities of the Lake Victoria Basin Commission in Rwanda.
The session of Senior Officials will take place 30th April –1st May, followed by the session of the Coordination Committee (Permanent Secretaries) to be held on 2nd – 3rd May 2012.
It will be the first such meeting to take place outside Kisumu, Kenya, the seat of the Commission, following the decision of the 9th Meeting of the Sectoral Council to commence the rotation of such meetings in all the five Partner States.
The rotation will enhance the visibility of the Commission in the communities it serves and allow participants to visit its activities on the ground.
The 10th Meeting of the Sectoral Council of Ministers for Lake Victoria Basin will consider several reports on the status of implementation of decisions of the 9th Sectoral Council of Ministers; and the Annual Report 2010-2011 of the Lake Victoria Basin Commission.
The meeting shall also consider a report from the Office of the Executive Secretary and a report on the Commission’s seven key projects and programmes: the Partnership Consultative Committee; the Lake Victoria Environmental Management Project Phase II (LVEMP II); the Mount Elgon Regional Ecosystem Conservation Project (MERECP); the EAC/AMREF Lake Victoria Partnership on HIV/AIDS in Lake Victoria Basin; the Lake Victoria Water Supply and Sanitation Programme Phase II (LVWATSAN II); the Maritime Transport, Safety and Security on Lake Victoria (MCSLV); as well as the Transboundary Water for Biodiversity and Human Health in the Mara River Basin (TWBHH-MRB).
The Ministerial Study Tour shall include visits to selected activities of LVEMP II and LVWATSAN II.
President Kagame has arrived in Arusha, Tanzania today where he will attend the annual 10th Summit of the East African Community (EAC) Heads of State on Saturday.
Also in attendance will be the President of Kenya and Chairperson of the EAC Summit, Mwai Kibaki, President of Tanzania, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, President of Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza and President of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
The heads of state will consider among others; the appointment of a new Deputy Secretary General from Uganda, renewal of Mr. Jean Claude Nsengiyumva (Deputy Secretary General – Productive and Social Sectors) contract.
They will also consider a report of the Council of Ministers on the proposed attainment of a Single Customs Territory, signing the protocol on Co-operation in Defence and a report of the Council of Ministers on the application by the Republic of South Sudan to join the East African Community.
The 24th meeting of the EAC Council of Ministers followed by the Permanent Secretaries session will also be underway.
Rwanda has been a member of the EAC since 2007.
Set up in 1999 the EAC is the regional intergovernmental organisation for the five partner states with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania, and aims at deepening co-operation among others, political, economic and social fields for their mutual benefit.
As a result the EAC countries established a Customs Union in 2005 and a Common Market in 2010.
The next phase of the integration will see the bloc enter into a Monetary Union and ultimately become a Political Federation of the East African States.
The Commissioner General of Rwanda Revenue Authority, Ben Kagarama said the tax body will establish a new tax assessment system in May.
The system includes electronic devices that will be freely distributed to the businessmen. 500 invoice devices will be freely distributed to the business premises effective May.
“The devices have already been used across the world including neighbours; Tanzania and Kenya have similar system in use,” Kagarama said.
Kagarama told press Friday that some business people are fond of tax evasion especially value added tax. The new system will facilitate both RRA and business people in accomplishing their duties.
RRA will be able to remote control daily activities of the businesses through the information delivered by the device.
Kagarama explained, “We have established special approaches of facilitations to the businesses in Rwanda; this is why in May we’re coming up with a new system that will enable us to evaluate the VAT payment.”
The device will be installed inside shops and other business consigns. Information recorded by the device will be directly transferred to the RRA receiver. “We will freely distribute the devices to businesses premises and train them how to use them,” Kagarama noted.
Kagarama said the first free 500 devices will be distributed in May.
He assured that there will be no concern with challenges RRA has already observed the practice and its impacts from other countries. RRA is ready for all sorts of inconveniences arising from the use of the devices.
He noted that some businessmen lose invoices after they pay-this is a problem to assessment of tax payment. Businessmen normally used to declare only the number of the invoices on which they pay the tax, which was very risky.
Businessmen will be able to distantly control their business and have the factual information. Those that will be given the device first are classified in high risky category of forgery.
The RRA has also established severe penalty to businessmen who will either try to operate outside the system or abuse the device to dodge the tax.
According to Kagarama, the new system is the complement to the previous one established in February where the payment and declaration is done online (internet).
IN Britain, one of the busiest shopping streets has been sealed off by police. A police negotiator has been sent in after reports a man, strapped up with petrol canisters, was threatening to blow himself up at an office block in London’s Tottenham Court Road.
Shoppers and nearby businesses had to be evacuated.
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said it was “too early to say if the suspect was armed or indeed had taken any hostages”.
Abby Baafi, who works for Advantage, a company which offers HGV courses, told the Huffington Post UK, whose staff were ordered out of their offices next door: “I recognised him because he was one of our previous customers but he is not quite stable – mentally stable.
“He turned up, strapped up with gasoline cylinders, and threatened to blow up the office.
“He said he doesn’t care about his life. He doesn’t care about anything, he is going to blow up everybody.”
She said the man had failed an HGV training course and wanted his money back.
The high court has sentenced Ntaganda Bernard to four years in jail and a fine of Frw 100,000. However, Ntaganda did not appear in court this Friday.
High court rejected an appeal by Politician Ntaganda Bernard the founder of a political party PS-Imberakuri.
Prosecution claimed in 2010 that the PS Imberakuri founder was controlling a dissident faction and was a threat to national security.
Ntaganda organised protests on June 24 2010. The state also charged him with forming a terrorist organisation.
He was later arrested and charged with four counts including terrorism and trying to cause instability in the country.
A book by a Rwandan Author, Scholastique Mukasonga has won the “Ahmadou Kourouma” Award at the Geneve Book Fair for her book titled ‘Notre-Dame du Nil’.
Mukasonga has authored four books including one titled ‘Inyenzi ou les Cafards’.
The theme for 2012 Africa Book Fair is ….‘Africa, where we’re going there?” It brings rising stars confirmed and literature and publishing in Africa.
The library of African Fair provides a unique opportunity for an audience more each year to discover books that are found nowhere else, including books irresistible for children.
Debates chic and shock on the current literature, but also political, political cartoonists and comics full creation, African cuisine, music … all of which are of African Book Fair, the press and culture one of the unmissable events of the 2012 edition.
Rwanda’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Ernest Rwamucyo, received the title “DIPLOMAT of the Year from Africa”, IGIHE has reliably learnt. This is the first time the title has been awarded to a Rwandan Diplomat.
The initiative to bestow annual awards for excellence in diplomacy, in recognition of exemplary contributions of diplomats acredited in the United Kingdom, belongs to the Diplomat magazine, a publication for the members of the diplomatic corps, British political and business communities, and think-tanks.
The ‘Diplomat of the Year’ is selected from 164 embassies and diplomatic missions represented in the United Kingdom.
The annual diplomat awards ceremony held at the Langham Hotel in London on Tuesday recognises the outstanding work and achievements of London’s diplomatic community trying to improve the well-being of their respective nations’.
In its fourth year, DIPLOMAT magazine identified 12 categories that recognise various levels of diplomacy.
The annual event is hosted by DIPLOMAT’s publisher, Hugo de Blocq van Kuffeler.
The title “Diplomat of the Year” is bestowed upon just one Ambassador, representing Europe, Middle East, Asia, Africa or Americas.
There are also awards offered for the outstanding contribution to the Women in Diplomacy, the Deputy Chief of Mission of the Year and the Young Diplomat of the Year.