INTRO: A U-S based company is scheduled to start 
beaming digital radio and multimedia programming by 
satellite to the whole of Africa and the Middle East.  
Officials at the Worldspace Foundation say they want 
to give the developing world the tool of information.  
But, at the cost of more than 200 dollars for the hi-
tech receivers, many wonder how many Africans will be 
able to afford to listen in. V-O-A's Jon Tkach (kotch) 
reports.

TEXT: Beginning October 19th, people across Africa and 
the Middle East will be the first to be able to tune 
in a portable satellite receiver and pick up crystal 
clear radio transmissions from across the world.

The Worldspace Afristar satellite - launched into 
space late last year - will provide the continent with 
dozens of digital audio channels ranging from music to 
news programming.  C-N-N and Bloomberg News have 
already signed on and an assortment of regional 
broadcasters is also promising to provide programming.

The head of Worldspace, Ethiopian-born Noah Samara, 
has nurtured the project for ten years.  He says it is 
the need for information in the developing world, and 
not the new technology, that has driven the project.

            /// SAMARA ACT ///

      We couldn't care less if we could use the horns 
      of an animal, all we want to do is broadcast 
      information to people that need it. That's our 
      dedication. That's our commitment. 

            /// END ACT ///

Worldspace has spent over a billion dollars worth of 
investors' money so far, and it expects listeners in 
Africa and the Middle East to pay the relatively high 
cost of the receivers.  At 200 to 400 dollars each, 
they will cost a year's salary for many Africans.

But Mr. Samara says the cost of the units will soon 
come down and that the sheer numbers of potential 
listeners makes him confident the project will turn a 
profit. 

And he says Africa is only the beginning.  The company 
plans to launch satellites to cover Latin America and 
Asia too, eventually reaching up to four-and-a-half 
billion people. 

NEB/JON/JP

07-Oct-1999 16:33 PM EDT (07-Oct-1999 2033 UTC)

Source: Voice of America

Kassala State Governor Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid said the two explosions on Monday struck in Kassala town, one of them targetting a Shell station, but security forces had gone to the scene and there was "little damage", Al-Rai al-Aam daily reported.

The governor added that an emblem of the opposition Umma Party was found at the scene of an explosion, obviously accusing former premier Sadek al-Mahdi's movement of perpetrating this "cowardly act".

The paper cited other "responsible" sources as saying the two attacks in Kassala were "part of a subversive operation being carried out by the irresponsible opposition".

The moderate Muslim Umma Party, which was part of a civilian coalition ousted in 1989 in a military coup which installed the current Islamic fundamentalist regime, now has an armed wing. It has joined forces with southern rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in a National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The Umma Party on Wednesday denied any involvement in the two blasts.

"The Umma party stresses that its forces did not take part in a single military operation in Kassala," the party said in a statement.

Hamid said "huge" concentrations of SPLA forces have been amassed in Eritrea, along the border with Sudan, after an SPLA brigade was recently moved there from Uganda.

The governor regarded this as "a clear hostile act" by the Eritrean government against Sudan and "a flagrant violation" of a peace agreement brokered by Qatar between Khartoum and Asmara.

He stated that the government "is prepared to drive back any offensive by the rebels anytime anywhere," adding that plans for securing oil sites "are progressing satisfactorily".

Hamid also warned against recruitment by opposition parties of "agents inside" the country.

Al-Rai al-Aam, reporting from Cairo, said Brigadier Abdel Aziz Khalid, head of the opposition Democratic Alliance Forces, and General Abdel Rahman Said, both accused of involvement in a Septeber 19 attack on an oil pipeline, left the Egyptian capital for Asmara late Monday night.

The paper, quoting unnamed sources in Cairo, said the Egyptian authorities had not received until Tuesday requests by the Sudanese government for the extradition of Said and Khalid.

In another development, a senior Sudanese official accused the Eritrean government of facilitating armed cross-border incursions by Sudanese opposition forces into Sudanese territories.

Ruling National Congress Political Secretary Mohamed al-Hassan al-Amin was Wednesday quoted by the Al-Bayan daily as refuting a statement attributed to Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki, denying military operations by the Sudanese opposition from Eritrea.

Amin said opposition forces he branded as "armed bandits" launch incursions from Eritrean territories, namely from Tasanay and Haikota towns, "with an Eritrean backing".

"Sudan will never reconcile with Eritrea so long as it continues amassing troops along the common border and allowing opposition forces to depart from its territories," Amin said, denying the occurrence of armed operations by the Eritrean opposition from Sudanese territories.

But the amount represents a decline of 14.8 percent in earnings as compared to the preceding financial year, according to reports in the government press Tuesday.

The export of various agricultural and other products Ethiopia sold on the world market during the year registered a decrease of 16.4 percent in volume that also reflected in the decline of the income generated, the report said, quoting figures issued by the ministry of trade and industry.

The country earned about 2.12 billion birr from the export of 101,000 tonnes of coffee, some 270 million birr from pulses, over 242.5 million birr from hides and skins, and about 102 million birr from cereals. Other export items during the year included minerals such as tantalum, floral products, spices, fruits and vegetables.

The report said the decline in Ethiopia's export earnings during the year, which in recent years averaged nearly 600 million dollars annually, was due to the slump in the price of coffee on the world market because Brazil, the world's major producer, flooded the market with surpluses of the green beans.