Wednesday 30 December 2009

Mobile phone dealer to open six branches

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By Victor Karega

A dealer in mobile phones and accessories will open branches in Morogoro, Arusha, Mbeya, Mwanza, Iringa and Zanzibar.

Delta Communications hopes the expansion will enable it to serve more people, its communications and marketing manager Francisca Francis told The Citizen.

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Sunday 27 December 2009

Journalist Attacked

From The Botswana Gazette, Gaborone, Botswana
By The Editor

The Mwananchi Communications Journalist in Mwanza region, Fredrick Katulanda (32) has been attacked by unknown people who thought to be gangsters, on 22 December 2009.

According to The Citizen newspaper, also published by Mwananchi Communications, the incident occurred just after midnight when five un-identified people broke into his house at Buhongwa Nyamatala on the outskirts of Mwanza City, and demanded that he hands over his document he had received from a source on the evening of 21 December 2009.

According to the newspaper, Katulanda had been chasing a story on funds that had been stolen from a government institution’s account with one of commercial banks in the city. In his process he managed to get hold of the bank statement at around 7pm on 21 December 2009.

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A/H1N1 flue cases reach 737 in Tanzania

From China View, Beijing, China

Positive A/H1N1 flue cases in Tanzania have reached 737 since the first case was reported in early July this year, Tanzanian senior medical official said.

Out of the above cases, 45 are fresh and quarantined at a special camp in Mwanza Region in northwest Tanzania, the Tanzanian Sunday News quoted Chief Medical Officer Deogratius Mtasiwa as saying.

Mtasiwa said the fresh patients are all inmates at Butimba Prison, who are under close monitoring and medical care.

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Saturday 19 December 2009

Kikwete Hopeful for Action On Climate Change, Optimistic On Africa's Future

From All Africa, Dar es Salaam

INTERVIEW:
Tanzanian President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete recently sat down for an hour-long interview with AllAfrica's Reed Kramer and Tami Hultman at State House in Dar es Salaam. In the wide-ranging conversation, he addressed issues of health, education, corruption, food security, regional integration, civil society and economic growth. Here are President Kikwete's observations, beginning with climate change.

What are you doing along with other African leaders, to make a difference on climate change?

First, let me express my deepest appreciation that there is now a greater awareness of the whole issue of climate change than there was in the past.

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Thursday 17 December 2009

RC orders miners out of Mwanza site

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By Paulina David, Mwanza

Small-scale miners will be evicted from the Mwanangwa diamond mine to pave the way for a large-scale investor, the Mwanza regional commissioner, Mr Abbas Kandoro has said.

He told the Mwanza Regional Consultative Committee (RCC) meeting here that a fresh arrangement was being made for them to secure an alternative mine in which to operate.

They were evicted a fortnight ago as a precaution against the swine flu outbreak in the area. They, however refused to vacate the mine unless the large-scale investor and his workers were also evicted.

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Sunday 13 December 2009

Mystery over refinery construction deal

From The East African, Dar es Salaam
By JOINT REPORT

Mystery surrounds the status of a firm granted a contract to construct $3.5 billion refinery plant on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam in 2005.

At that time of signing the deal — described by then planning minister Dr Juma Ngasongwa as “the largest single investment to take place in our country since independence’’ — Noor Oil and Industrial Technology was reported to be registered in Qatar.

It has since emerged that it was registered in the United States in 2006.

Noor Oil is currently incorporated under the laws of the State of California.

According to the company’s website, it leads a consortium whose members are Noor Oil & Industrial Technology Inc, OAO Stroytransgaz, 000 Prometey/ Sakneftegazstroy, Roneg AG, and Russia Union of Oil.

This newspaper has also been informed that Noor Oil has been given two parcels of land at Kisiju in Mkuranga district of Coast Region to build a refinery plant with a capacity to process 10,000,000 tonnes of crude oil per annum.

The company also intends to build an oil pipeline from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza and Kigoma.

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Saturday 12 December 2009

Dar institute to produce GM cassava


From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By Al-amani Mutarubukwa

The Mikocheni Agriculture Research Institute will produce disease-resistant genetically modified cassava varieties.

Without specifically saying when they will be produced, researcher Joseph Ndunguru said the varieties would be resistant to cassava brown streak and mosaic diseases, which are reportedly threatening food security in Ukerewe, Mwanza.

He was speaking during a forum for agricultural science and technologies in Dar es Salaam. He said previous traditional ways to fight the diseases had little success.

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Read about GM Food (copy and paste URL): http://www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/biotech/20questions/en/

Thursday 10 December 2009

Security guards go five years without job contract

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By The Citizen Reporter, Mwanza

Over 50 employees of Bulwark Security Guard have been working without any formal employment contracts with their employer for five years, it has been learnt.

The security guards have been serving as labourers for all the five years without being provided with identity cards.

They have sometimes been assigned to do other activities out of their employment scope like cleaning over 200 residential houses at Kiseke area in Mwanza.

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Monday 7 December 2009

Business rivalry turns nasty as supplier receives threats

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By Patty Magubira in Mwanza

Some suppliers of goods and services to a gold mining company operating in the country (name withheld), have complained over alleged threats from a competitor, who accuse them of allegedly leaking key business information to the media.

The suppliers claim that information on cut-throat completition for contracts from the mine and dirty tactics including bribery used to win tenders, could cost their business millions of shillings in losess.

Some of the reports on foul play which last month dominated local press headlines, are said to be sources of the threats to the complaining suppliers. Some of them claimed to have received telephone calls telling them to keep away from the media.

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Mwanza students get rare music treat

From Daily News, Dar es Salaam
By Daily News Correspondent in Mwanza

HUNDREDS of students from various higher learning institutions here showed up at Bahigi Beach Resort on the shores of Lake Victoria over the weekend for the annual Str8Muzik Festival Inter-college Special.

A number of high-riding performers from Tanzania and Kenya were in attendance to colour the night.

Kenyans Nonini and Redsun with their hit songs , 'Kadhaa', 'Furahiday', 'Keroro', 'Nani Mwenza' and 'Wanipa Raha', 'Yule Pale', 'Leo ni Leo' and 'Nakutaka' stole the show.

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Charity holds Tanzanian Bongo Bash promoting doctors

From The State News, Michigan State University. Michigan, USA
By Marissa Cumbers

Mussa Maingu moved to East Lansing in 2000 with the goal of becoming a dentist. From Mwanza, Tanzania, he said the shortage of health care professionals in his home country was a primary influence on his career path.

“The health care system, the whole system in Tanzania, is a mess. And the government is not spending a lot of money to help,” Maingu said. “They are trying, but the income is not enough. They are poor.”

There are fewer than 1,000 doctors for 42 million people in the entire country of Tanzania, and Maingu and others came together Saturday at Lansing’s X-Cel Lounge-Dance Bar, 224 S. Washington Square, for Bongo Bash, a benefit for the Touch Foundation, a national charity that works to improve medical infrastructure in Tanzania.

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Watch related video: http://www.statenews.com/index.php/multimedia/36554 (Copy and paste URL)

Wednesday 2 December 2009

Act to tame epidemic

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam

The grim news coming out of the Lake Zone on the swine flu epidemic is that what the local health officials are confronted with is an enormous challenge that calls for a serious national response.

According to the Mwanza regional medical officer, Dr Meshack Massi, of the 221 swine flu patients, 30 have signs indicating that they may have contracted the new strain of the influenza 'A' virus, subtyped H1N1.

The epidemic has continued to spread around the world, with devastating consequences since it was first detected in March in Mexico, where it has claimed hundreds of lives.

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Tanzania swine flu crackdown at diamond mine

From BBC News, London, UK

The authorities in Tanzania have told about 3,000 workers at a diamond mine to stay at home because of swine flu - but the miners have refused.

Few workers have contracted the illness at the mine in Mwanza region but Tanzania is trying to contain the spread from elsewhere in the region.

Dozens of schools and businesses have already been closed down.

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Tuesday 1 December 2009

District closes all schools as swine flu spread

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By Frederick Katulanda, Mwanza

The Government has closed down all 150 primary schools and 27 secondary schools in Kwimba district, Mwanza region, to prevent a further spread of swine flu. This was after 221 residents tested positive for the scourge.

Kwimba District Commissioner Ryoba Kangoye, told the visiting Mwanza Regional Commissioner Abbas Kandoro, who was on a tour of the most affected Ilula Primary School yesterday, that the closure of schools follows tests indicating that some 120 pupils have been infected with the H1N1, the virus that causes swine flu.

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