US, Africa in unprecedented race to head World Bank

WASHINGTON  The United States nominated a Korean-American Ivy League college head to lead the World Bank on Friday as African countries mounted an unprecedented challenge for the powerful job.
   President Barack Obama proposed Jim Yong Kim, the president of Dartmouth College and a physician who has worked for decades in global health issues, to lead the huge poverty-fighting institution.
   Hours earlier, Africa's leading economies South Africa, Angola and Nigeria announced their support for Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former high-level World Bank official, for the job.
   With both being called credible candidates to replace outgoing president Robert Zoellick, it promised to be the first-ever contested race for a job  traditionally decided by Washington, as the Bank's biggest shareholder.
   Thanks to a tacit agreement, the United States has always chosen the head of the World Bank, and has always named an American, while Europe has always named one of its own to head the International Monetary Fund.
   But that pact has triggered outrage from developing and emerging economies seeking greater representation to reflect their rising contributions to the global economy.
   The job is crucial, overseeing the 187-nation Bank's mission to provide financial and technical assistance to countries struggling to rise out of poverty.
   The Washington-based bank lent $57.3 billion last year and has more than 9,000 employees worldwide.
   The surprise choice of a physician little-known beyond academic and global health circles marked a break with Washington's usual candidates tapped from politics or Wall Street.
   A Harvard-trained doctor and anthropologist, Kim, 52, is the former director of the department of HIV/AIDS at the World Health Organization. He became the president of Dartmouth, in New Hampshire, in July 2009.
   "It's time for a development professional to lead the world's largest development agency," Obama said in a Rose Garden news conference with Kim at his side.
   "Jim has spent more than two decades working to improve conditions in developing countries around the world," the president said.
   Obama said the World Bank's mission of lifting nations from poverty to prosperity "makes the world stronger and more secure for everybody.
   "I believe that nobody is more qualified to carry out that mission than Doctor Jim Kim."
   The US nomination of Kim, who was born in Seoul and moved with his family to the United States at the age of five, makes him an instant favorite to get the bank's top job.
   France, another big Bank stakeholder, appeared supportive.
   "The principle is that there is this choice by the United States at the World Bank and the Europeans at the IMF. There is no reason at this point to change that," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told AFP.
   But Okonjo-Iweala could mount a stiff challenge. She is a respected former World Bank managing director who joined Nigeria's government as finance minister in August.
   She unveiled her candidacy earlier on Friday in Pretoria, flanked by counterparts from South Africa and Angola.   "I consider the World Bank a very important institution for the world and particularly for developing countries deserving of the best leadership," she said.    "So I look forward to a contest of very strong candidates, and am I confident? Absolutely."
   "I have long experience in the World Bank, in government and in diplomacy and I look forward to giving you my vision at the appropriate time," she said.
   Two others have also been in the race for the job, as self-declared candidates: former Colombian finance minister and central bank chief Jose Antonio Ocampo, and American development economist Jeffrey Sachs.
   But Sachs withdrew on Friday and endorsed Kim.
   "Jim Kim is a superb nominee for WB," Sachs tweeted.
 

Porsche unveils 21 million naira luxury 911 sports car

LAGOS German car-maker Porsche officially opened a new car dealership on Friday in the heart of Lagos' wealthiest district, Victoria Island, a place with one of the world's highest concentrations of millionaires. There are already dealerships specialising in Aston Martin and Lamborghini, but Porsche hopes to capitalise on a promise of providing sturdier vehicles that can cope with Nigeria's hard roads. Its presence is being seen as a vote of confidence in the West African nation's fast-growing economy. 

•  Porsche also plans to set up an operation in the capital Abuja, where roads are newly built - a better market for the 911 sports model - and where politicians are amongst the world's most highly paid.        
•  "The African continent, and in particular Nigeria, is of growing importance to us at Porsche," the company's Middle East and Africa head George Wills said, unveiling the new 911 model.    High-end goods producers are increasingly targeting sub-Saharan Africa, as its economic growth starts to dwarf other continents and rich Western countries face a slowdown.
•  Nigeria, Africa's second biggest economy, grew 7.68 percent in the last quarter of 2011, one of the fastest in the world.
•  Two of Africa's top five richest men are Nigerian.       
• "We're quite confident the numbers will be strong," Wills said in front of the new 911 sports car, after a Porsche official revved its engine for flashing cameras.        
•  "It's difficult to put a finite number on it, but certainly enough to give a return on this investment," he added.
• Porsche Nigeria general manager Julian Hardy estimates 200 Nigerians own Porsches - the dealership had been running prior to the official launch since July and sold an undisclosed number, and rich Nigerians have been importing them for decades.         
• At a party to celebrate Porsche's launch, Nigerians in sharp suits and cocktail dresses drank martinis and danced around the 911 display model to live music.
• "You can drive around Lagos ... then take your car to the race track and become a beast and go wild," said Emmanuel Ngala, an IT consultant who owns a Cayenne 4x4 and is buying a 911.      The firm's sales target for 2012 is 100 cars, and it hopes to hit a stable sales rate of around 300 a year, compared with 800 in South Africa. Average prices currently range between 21 million naira ($133,000) to 30 million naira ($190,000).    
•  Lagos embraces some of Africa's most expensive real estate alongside some of its most crowded slums.
• The car park at the Porsche show rooms has several models.     
• "It's a nice car," said employee Mohammed Ibrahim, as he hosed down a chrome coloured Cayenne and shined it to a sparkle with a cloth. On his 20,000 naira, a month salary it would take him 125 years to afford one if he did not buy anything else.        
•  "God might give me a car like this one day. He can do that, if he wants to. He can do anything," he said, grinning.   
•  Sandwiched between the lagoon that led Porteguese sailors to name this city 'Lagos' and the Atlantic, Victoria Island is a place of fund managers in fine woollen suits and oil oligarchs.     
• The faces of glamorous women smile from billboards advertising mobile phones. Luxury 4x4s are everywhere.         
• Other luxury brands have however made it big in Nigeria. It is a significant African market for LVMH. Most bars can get you Moet & Chandon champagne or Hennessy brandy, which women sip next to their Louis Vuitton handbags.
•  The "Auto Lounge" in Victoria Island lets you enjoy an expensive drink overlooking a garage of Aston Martins.
•  Paris-based magazine Jeune Afrique last year placed Nigeria at the top of Africa's champagne consumers, guzzling 593,000 bottles in 2010, 50 percent more than richer rival South Africa. ($1 = 157.6000 naira)  

Fake bride and groom walk down aisle in handcuffs

LONDON A bogus Polish bride and her groom were led down the aisle in handcuffs after Border Agency officers swooped on their sham marriage.
Polish citizen Helena Puchalska, 20, was dramatically arrested by unexpected ‘guests’ in her wedding dress as she said her vows to Pakistani Asif Ali, 31.
This week Puchalska was jailed for 15 months while Ali was caged for two years after they admitted taking part in the sham wedding.
Sentencing the pair at Northampton Crown Court, Judge Richard Bray said: “You were caught undergoing a sham marriage for the purposes of immigration.
“This is a serious offence, not only because it breaches our immigration laws but because of the aggravating feature that it strikes at the sanctity of marriage.
“Such offences are still prevalent today as anyone who reads the newspapers knows.
“Sentences of some length are needed for such blatant and cynical offending.
“You, Ali, were the instigator and had most to gain. You are intelligent and knew perfectly well what you were doing. You, Puchalska, went along with this enterprise for money.”
The court heard Ali was facing deportation and paid Puchalska £2,500 to be his wife so he could remain in Britain by marrying an EU Citizen.
But officers from the UK Border Agency’s Criminal and Financial Investigations Team arrested the pair as they attempted to tie the knot at Northampton Guildhall on December 22 last year.
After they were arrested the couple protested their innocence claiming they fell in love after meeting in a nightclub in March last year.
Ali told officers he proposed at his home in October after cooking Puchalska a curry and serving her vodka in honour of her Polish heritage.
The court heard Ali did not know the name of Puchalska’s home town and said all she had told him about Poland was that it was cold, had forests and that Polish food consisted of soup and ham.
He even misspelt the name of his wife-to-be on the marriage forms.
Meanwhile all Puchalska could say about Ali was that his hobby was driving.
The couple admitted conspiring to facilitate a breach of the UK’s immigration laws when they appeared at Northampton Crown Court on Tuesday.
A registrar reported the wedding to the UK Border Agency after he became suspicious about the lack of interaction between the couple when they attended a meeting to plan the ceremony.
Police discovered a note in Ali’s car intended for his real girlfriend.
It read: “I married Hela Puchalska Bcoz (sic) of papers and I love Anna a lot. I make deal with her for £2,500.”
Joe Spicer, prosecuting, said: “There was a ceremony planning meeting on December 19 at which the registrar became concerned this wedding did not appear to be genuine.
“She noticed Ali was answering all the questions and the bride appeared to be entirely disinterested in what was to take place. There was also no intimacy or contact between them.”
After the hearing, a UK Border Agency spokesman said: “As they pleaded guilty, the notes were not subject to handwriting analysis so we cannot say they were definitively written by Ali but it’s true to say they were found in the boot of his car.”
Inspector Andy Radcliffe, of the UK Border Agency’s Criminal and Financial Investigations team, said: “This was a marriage of convenience – convenient for Puchalska because it would have lined her pockets and convenient for Ali because it was a means to UK residency.”

Ibori pleads guilty to stealing

A former governor of Nigeria's oil-rich Delta state, accused of stealing $250 million from the public purse, pleaded guilty in a London court Monday to fraud and money-laundering.
James Ibori, 49, entered his plea at Southwark Crown Court . He is to be sentenced on April 16.
Ibori's guilty pleas capped an inquiry which began in association with Nigerian anti-corruption investigators in 2005. Ibori was immune from prosecution in Nigeria between 1999 and 2007 when he was serving as governor of Delta state, police said.
Paul Whatmore of the Metropolitan Police Proceeds of Corruption Unit said it is estimated that Ibori stole around $250 million from Delta state. British authorities claim Ibori funneled much of the stolen funds to banks in England.
"The scale can only be described as huge," Whatmore said. "Vast sums of money which were used to fund his lavish lifestyle."
Ibori used the money to buy houses in London and Johannesburg, a fleet of armored Land Rovers, and a $20 million private jet. He racked up credit card bills of $200,000 a month, police said.
Nigeria's anti-graft investigators, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, had arrested Ibori in 2007, and police in London got a court order to freeze U.K. assets of 35 million pounds ($55 million) which allegedly belonged to him.
In 2009, a court in Ibori's home town of Asaba dismissed 170 charges of corruption against him.
The case was reopened in 2010 by Nigerian investigators, but Ibori evaded arrested and fled to Dubai. He was detained there at the request of British police and extradited to London in 2011.
Ibori was charged in Britain with a string of offenses, including siphoning money from the Delta state government to line his own pockets.
Britain's Crown Prosecution Service said Ibori pleaded guilty to 10 charges, including one count of conspiracy to defraud and seven counts of money laundering.
"In pleading guilty, Ibori has admitted that he defrauded the Nigerian states of Delta and Akwa Ibom during his time as governor of Delta state and laundered the proceeds," said Sue Patten, head of the prosecution service's Central Fraud Group. "This is a significant prosecution of very serious charges for which Ibori will be sentenced in due course."
British prosecutors previously won convictions against Ibori's wife, Theresa; his sister, Christine Ibori-Ibie; his mistress, Udoamaka Oniugbo; his lawyer, Bhadresh Gohil; a financial agent, Daniel Benedict McCann; and corporate financier Lambertus De Boer.
Police said two computer hard drives seized from the lawyer's London office proved to be a major break in the case.
Ibori had previous convictions in London, police said.
He and his wife were charged in 1990 with stealing goods from a hardware store where Ibori worked as a low-paid cashier; he was fined 300 pounds. In 1991, he was fined 100 pounds after being convicted of handling a stolen credit card, police said.
Whatmore said police "will now be actively seeking the confiscation of all of his stolen assets so they can be repatriated for the benefit of the people of Delta state."
"It is always rewarding for anyone working on a proceeds of corruption case to know that the stolen funds they identify will eventually be returned to some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world."

Abdulmutallab's parents call for review of sentence

The parents of the Nigerian "underwear bomber" who tried to blow up an airliner on Christmas Day 2009 have urged the US to review the life sentences given to their son, said a statement on Friday.
   A judge in the US state of Michigan on Thursday condemned Al-Qaeda-linked Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to four consecutive life sentences for his botched attempt to blow up the airliner as it approached Detroit.
   "We strongly appeal to the American Justice Department to review the life sentence," Abdulmutallab's family said in the statement sent to the media in Nigeria.
   "We also appeal to the Federal Republic of Nigeria to... engage with the American government to ensure that a review is made to show justice in accordance with the circumstances of Umar Farouk's case," the statement continued.
   In court, Abdulmutallab declared he was "proud to kill in the name of God" as he defended his botched attempt to kill the 289 people on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253 that originated in Amsterdam.
   The family said they learned of the "unfortunate news" of the foiled attack on December 26, 2009.
   "It was with tremendous shock that we discovered our son, Umar Farouk, was allegedly involved," the statement said.
   "This was so because even though he had gone missing by that time and there were concerns about his situation, he was nevertheless the last person anyone who knew him would link to such actions.
   "We are grateful to God that the unfortunate incident of that date did not result in any injury or death. We pray for a more peaceful world," the statement also said.
   In October or November of 2009, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab -- the bomber's father -- approached US embassy officials in the Nigerian capital and said he was worried his son had become radicalized by extremists in Yemen.
   Mutallab, a British-educated prominent banker who serves on the board of several Nigerian companies, however gave no indication that his son planned an attack.
   US authorities therefore did not add Abdulmutallab's name to a "No Fly" list and the failure to act on the father's warning struck a blow to the reputation of the US intelligence services.
   Days after the thwarted bombing, the bomber's family offered full cooperation to US authorities. Mutallab was then interrogated by the CIA and FBI in Abuja about his son's actions.
   In the statement, the family thanked "the American Government for facilitating visits to check on (Abdulmutallab's) welfare and show love and support."
   The would-be suicide bomber showed no remorse during sentencing in the Detroit court on Thursday, saying he was carrying out the work of God against the "oppressors" of Muslims.
   Despite stringent security measures at airports in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Abdulmutallab managed to smuggle more than 76 grams of the explosive Pentaerythritol tetranitrate on board the flight from Amsterdam.
   But the bomb hidden in his underwear failed to properly detonate and instead simply caused a fire as the plane began its descent to Detroit.
   Passengers and crew members were able to restrain Abdulmutallab and extinguish the blaze, allowing pilots to safely land the plane.

Mandela bank notes launched in South Africa

PRETORIA South Africa launched a new line of bank notes on Saturday bearing the image of its first democratically elected president Nelson Mandela on the 22nd anniversary of his release from prison.
The announcement pays tribute to the legacy of a Nobel Peace Prize-winner known as one of the world's greatest statesmen.

"It is my honour and pleasure to announce that new South African bank notes will bear the image of president Mandela, the first president of a free, democratic South Africa," President Jacob Zuma told a press conference in Pretoria.
The notes bear the 93-year-old former president's image circa 1990, the year he was freed from prison in a moment that came to symbolise the fall of apartheid and the rise of a new, democratic South Africa.
 They replace a design featuring the "big five" safari animals -- Cape buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion and rhino -- introduced in 1992, two years before Mandela was elected the country's first black president.
   All five notes -- 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 rand ($1.29 - $25.80, 0.98 - 19.60 euros) -- will now bear Mandela's face on the front. Officials would not say what design would be on the back.
Zuma praised the former president's legacy, calling him "Madiba," the clan name by which he is affectionately known.
"It needed a president like Madiba to lead a bruised nation like ours on a journey of forgiveness and reconciliation, and he acquitted himself exceptionally well, as he has always done in every aspect of his life."
Mandela, whose public appearances have grown rare as he has become increasingly frail, was not present at the unveiling.
He also missed the funeral Saturday of his last surviving sibling, Makhulu Nothusile Bhulehluthi (born Nokuthamba Mandela), who died January 28.
Central bank governor Gill Marcus said Mandela had seen the notes and was "delighted".
That sentiment will not likely be shared by investors who sold off rand and equity in a frenzy of speculation Friday after the president's office announced a secretive press conference of "national importance" to be addressed by Zuma, Marcus and Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.
 The rand fell 2.2 percent Friday afternoon to 7.75 to the dollar, and stocks ended down 1.1 percent.
"I'm not sure why you would assume -- that the rumours and the assumptions were such that there would be a terrible announcement today. It just shows you how little we look forward to good news," Marcus said Saturday.
"I regret that there was confusion, but I'm not sure that it was driven by us."
She said the new design had cost 2.5 million rand.
 Marcus said it is standard international practice for countries to upgrade their bank notes' security and design every six to eight years, and that South Africa had last enhanced security measures on its notes in 2005

Nigerian panel throws out fines against BA, Virgin Atlantic

LAGOS A Nigerian judicial panel has thrown out fines totaling $235 million imposed on British Airways and Virgin Atlantic by the country's civil aviation authorities, officials said on Friday.
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority had argued that BA and Virgin Atlantic charged more for routes to Nigeria than to nearby Ghana and alleged that they colluded over fares.
In November, it fined British Airways $135 million (100 million euros) and Virgin Atlantic $100 million, while a judicial panel was assigned to look into the case.
Harold Demuren, head of the civil aviation authority, told AFP the panel "cancelled the fines because at the time of the offence between 2004 and 2006, there was no law to make them culpable."
"As far as we are concerned, the two airlines are guilty," he said.
Both airlines have denied the allegations. Demuren said the authority intended to pursue the matter further, but was still studying which steps to take.
The fines came as Nigeria's government engaged in negotiations with British officials over allegations that British Airways had been overcharging on its routes between Nigeria and Britain.
It also held talks with British officials over slots at London's Heathrow airport. Demuren denied at the time that the fines were linked to the negotiations over the Heathrow slots.