Our weekly round-up of must-read stories you might have missed: Peacekeeping Helicopter attacked in Congo; United States denies supporting Abyei unilateral referendum; Indonesia seeks to get back its manufacturing mojo; Setting a solar sail by WWF.
Congo-Kinshasa: Attack On Peacekeeping Helicopter ‘Unacceptable,’ Says UN Envoy – AllAfrica
The United Nations Special Envoy for Africa’s Great Lakes region has condemned the armed rebel attack on a UN helicopter in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) calling the act “unacceptable.” “I learned with deep concern that a MONUSCO [United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC]] helicopter came under direct fire from positions held by the M23 rebel movement in the Rumangabo region,” Mary Robinson said in a statement. “I strongly condemn this serious incident that threatens the security of MONUSCO personnel.” In the past year, clashes have continued sporadically throughout the DRC’s eastern region, with rebels briefly occupying the main city, Goma, in November 2012. The fighting has displaced more than 100,000 people, exacerbating an ongoing humanitarian crisis in the region which includes 2.6 million internally displaced persons and 6.4 million in need of food and emergency aid.
US denies supporting Abyei unilateral referendum – Sudan Tribune
The United States of America did not provide any funds to support an unilateral vote that Ngok Dinka intend to organise this month to decide on the fate of the border disputed area, said the American embassy in Khartoum. The semi-official Sudanese Media Center said on Wednesday that the former co-chair of Abyei steering committee Luka Biong and his organisation Kosh was seeking to convince Washington to provide 100 million US dollars to support the unilateral referendum. “USAID is not providing any funds to support a unilateral Abyei referendum”, said a press statement released by the US embassy in Khartoum on Thursday. The embassy stressed that the U.S. Government during the past years “has provided assistance to the people of Abyei as part of its humanitarian and peace building efforts”…
Indonesia seeks to get back its manufacturing mojo – Reuters
In PT Trisula International’s hangar-sized factory outside the western Indonesian city of Bandung, hundreds of workers stitch together clothes for some of the world’s top brands. Amid the clatter and hum of their machines are hopes for a renaissance that can restore Indonesia’s place among Asia’s big manufacturing economies, a status it lost in the mid-1990s. As Southeast Asia’s biggest economy slows, its current-account deficit widens, and its rupiah currency tumbles, policymakers are hoping factories like this will emerge as a new export engine. But this year, Trisula, whose clients include German luxury-clothing maker Hugo Boss AG, shelved plans to buy machinery to lift production by 25 percent, fearing a margin squeeze from higher wages. “A lot of people aren’t expanding in a big way because they are concerned about the rising wages,” said Lalit Matai, director of marketing at Trisula…
Setting a solar sail – WWF
An Australian inventor uses not one but two natural energy sources in this seaworthy solution. For centuries ships were powered by the wind, then steam and diesel engines took over adding to the world’s carbon pollution. Now, thanks to Australian inventor Robert Dane, wind power is back in vogue but this time boosted by the power of the sun. His multi-award winning invention is a solar sail that can capture both wind and solar energy and it’s already used in ferries in Australia, China and Hong Kong. He first patented SolarSails in 1996 and the BBC referred to it as “possibly the greatest evolution in boats since the advent of steam”. It started when I was watching a solar boat race and the competing boats used energy from the sun but ignored the wind. I thought ‘how do you add the wind in a seaworthy way?’…
Tweet of the Week
Mohamed Elmustafa: in-front of NISS, KHT Families & Friends of detainees call for their release #Sudan pic.twitter.com/CtJy4GrLM3
— Namaa Al-Mahdi نعماء (@Namaa0009) October 14, 2013
