Drug Trafficking and Border Control

12 April 2010

Botswana Press Agency (GABORON, Botswana) - Botswana, like other African countries, has seen an increase in habit forming illegal drug use and the government and police forces are working hard to reduce the number of these cases. In a recent interview, the assistant police commissioner, Christopher Mbulawa, said “in the previous years, Botswana was a transit area for drugs… nowadays Batswana are a highly mobile society; they interact and end up travelling to other countries and when they come back some come with habit forming drugs and end up getting arrested.”


One way the government is working toward curbing these increased drug related crimes is with strong border security. Recently a joint seminar was held with members of the Botswana Defense Force and USAFRICOM. Their goal was to discuss and analyze security risks and ways to improve border security.















(Reliability 44.1, High)

Source:
http://www.gov.bw/cgi-bin/news.cgi?d=20100412&i=Drug_trafficking_rife_in_Africa_report
http://www.africom.mil/getArticle.asp?art=4139

Biodiesel Plant Set for Construction

March 29
Biofuels International (GABORON, Botswana)A combined effort between the public and private sectors to construct a biodiesel plant in Botswana is now in the advanced planning phase. In the aftermath of the recent Pan African Conference on Climate Change these plans for an alternate fuel production capability in southern Africa may prove to be an important step in the right direction.

The National Petroleum Fund will finance the construction and land purchase that will be required for the plant. 170,000 hectares of land will be purchased for the plant and for growing of the jatropha, a drought resistant plant that will be used to create to biodiesel. Once the plants are developed and running properly they will be leased to private sector businesses and independent farmers.

A vast majority of Botswana now uses coal power for electricity and heating needs, switching some of the energy resources to biodiesel will reduce their overall carbon output.
(Reliability 6.8)

Source:
Biofuels International
http://www.biofuels-news.com/industry_news.php?item_id=1921

Botswana Strengthens International Relations with Brazil

March 28, 2010

Sunday Standard (GABORON, Botswana) - Botswana-Brazil relations have been further strengthened as the two countries met last week at the first session of the joint permanent commission for cooperation. The leading players in the joint commission, Newman Kahiya, Botswana's Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and Piragibe Tarrago, Brazilian Vice Minister of Political Affairs for Africa and the Middle East, met it discuss progress and development in bilateral cooperation in the area of health, sport, agriculture, and education.

Brazil has been an active member in the world scene when it has come to international development efforts. Through their large international development efforts they have seen many successes, these development efforts are expected to continue to grow in strength and size as Brazil is expected to be one of the top 5 world economies by 2030.

It is expected that Brazil and Botswana will work together in the future in expanded cooperation in the field of bio-fuels, an area where Brazil may become a leading player in the near future.
(Reliability 7.1)

Source:
Sunday Standard
http://sundaystandard.info/news/news_item.php?NewsID=7366&GroupID=1