9, March 2018
Kenya: President Uhuru Kenyatta calls opposition leader Raila Odinga “his brother” 0
Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta called opposition leader Raila Odinga “his brother” on Friday and promised “we will begin a process of bringing our people together” after last year’s contentious elections.
Odinga told national television “it is time to resolve our differences,” as the two politicians made their first public appearance together since the Oct. 26 repeat presidential election last year.
Kenyatta was sworn in for a second term in November after an extended election season which saw the Supreme Court nullify an August presidential poll, ordering a re-run in October, which Odinga boycotted.
Months of campaigning and sporadic clashes between government and opposition supporters affected growth in Kenya, one of East Africa’s biggest economies.
In January, Odinga took a symbolic presidential oath in a Nairobi park in a direct challenge to Kenyatta.
The two men have defied calls from Kenyan civil society, religious leaders and Western diplomats to hold talks to overcome deep divisions opened up by the disputed elections.
Culled from Africa News
9, March 2018
Russia slams ex-spy poisoning claims as ‘propaganda’ 0
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismisses as “propaganda” accusations that Moscow was behind a nerve agent attack on a former double agent residing in Britain.
British media and politicians have said the attack on Sergei Skripal, who came to Britain in a spy swap in 2010, bears the hallmarks of a Russian operation.
While Britain has not formally blamed Russia for the attack, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said it “echoes” the 2006 poisoning in London of former Russian spy and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko.
London blamed Moscow for that attack. Some 21 people were injured in the incident, which took place in the sleepy southwestern English city of Salisbury where Skripal was found on Sunday, slumped on a bench with his daughter Yulia.
“If action needs to be taken, then the government will do that,” British Prime Minister Theresa May has pledged.
National counter-terrorism police have taken over the investigation, which they are treating as attempted murder.
Skripal was a former colonel in Russian military intelligence who was jailed for betraying agents to Britain’s MI6 secret service.
In 2010, he was pardoned and then flown to Britain as part of a high-profile spy swap involving Russia and the United States.
(Source: AFP)