US President Donald Trump, during a White House Cabinet meeting Wednesday, said he wants to terminate the Diversity Visa Lottery, a program that distributes around 50,000 visas to countries where there is a low rate of immigration to the US.

“I am, today, starting the process of terminating the diversity lottery program,” Trump said. “I am going to ask Congress to immediately initiate work to get rid of this program, diversity lottery, diversity lottery. Sounds nice, it is not nice, it is not good. It hasn’t been good and we have been against it,” he added.

The Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Governing Council has announced a series of reforms and changes in the ruling body following the successful holding of the 4^th conclave in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The 27th to the 31st October 2017 forum unanimously agreed that the territory will henceforth be known as  “The Federal Republic of Ambazonia.”

The delegates confirmed His Excellency Sesekou Julius Tabe Ayuk as interim Head of State and also decided to set up a government with a Vice President and seven cabinet ministers.  In a powerful  press release issued on 1 November 2017, the leadership of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia  revealed that 34 resolutions were reached ( See http://www.cameroonconcordnews.com/resolution-of-the-4th-scacuf-conclave-held-from-the-27th-31st-of-october-2017/)

Among others, the executive council of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia called on the French Cameroun dictator, Paul Biya and his gang of Francophone political elites to stop interfering in the internal affairs of the good people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.  The Ambazonia administration also appealed to the government of La Republique du Cameroun to release Bibixy Mancho and all those who were arrested in connection with the Anglophone crisis. They reiterated the urgent need for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute President Paul Biya and some members of his regime for crimes against humanity and genocide.

The Acting President, Seseku Julius Ayuk Tabe was mandated to form his first cabinet composed of a vice-president and seven government departments, namely; defense ; Homeland and Security; Finance and Economy; Education; Health and Social Services, Foreign Affairs, Home Affairs, Communication and Technology “.

The Ambazonia governing council denounced the rapes of students, fires in schools and the destruction of property “perpetrated by the French Cameroun military and law enforcement officers deployed to Ambazonia from La Republique du Cameroun. The “Governing Council” was dissolved following the creation of an interim government which will now be responsible for managing the affairs of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

By Chi Prudence Asong, CCN

At least eight people have been killed and several others injured after a vehicle plowed into a pedestrian and cycle path in New York City, US police and local residents say, with reports of gunfire heard in the area.

The incident took place in downtown Manhattan on Tuesday, when a pick-up truck drove the wrong way down the bike path alongside the West Side Highway at full speed and struck several cyclists near the World Trade Center memorial.

Witnesses said bodies were lying motionless on the cycle path outside Stuyvesant High School, one of the city’s public schools, and that they had heard about nine or 10 shots.

Denouncing the deadly incident as a “cowardly act of terror,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the attack was “aimed at innocent civilians, aimed at people going about their lives, who had no idea what was about to hit them.”

Shortly after the incident, US President Donald Trump wrote on his twitter page that, “In NYC, looks like another attack by a very sick and deranged person,” adding that, “Law enforcement is following this closely. NOT IN THE USA!”Trump also stressed that America must not let Daesh (ISIL) terrorists return to or enter the US after they are beaten overseas.

“We must not allow ISIL to return, or enter, our country after defeating them in the Middle East and elsewhere. Enough!” he noted.

Later, the president posted another tweet, saying he had ordered the Department of Homeland Security to “step up” vetting measures for immigrants. At a news conference, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the suspect appeared to have acted alone, noting that, “There’s no evidence to suggest a wider plot or a wider scheme. These are the actions of one individual meant to cause pain and harm and probably death.”

Initial investigations by the police indicated that the suspect of the Tuesday attack was a 29-year-old Uzbek citizen, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, who came to the US in 2010 and lived in Florida.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) said the suspect was shot in the leg when officers arrived on the scene and was later arrested.

“The vehicle struck multiple people on the path. There are several fatalities and numerous people injured,” the NYPD said in a statement. “The vehicle continued south striking another vehicle. The suspect exited the vehicle displaying imitation firearms and was shot by officers. The suspect is in custody.”

Two US government sources said the Tuesday incident was being treated as a “terrorist attack,” and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had joined the NYPD in investigating the deadly incident.

Reacting to the deadly incident on Tuesday, British Prime Minister Theresa May said she was appalled by the attack and that London stood with New York. “Together we will defeat the evil of terrorism,” she said.

French President Emmanuel Macron also expressed solidarity with victims of the attack, saying, “Our fight for freedom unites us more than ever.”

Police called on the public to avoid the area as a major emergency services operation got under way.

The latest incident came five months after a speeding vehicle hit pedestrians on a sidewalk in New York City’s Times Square on May 18, killing at least one person and injuring 22 others.

Culled from Presstv

Thousands of people have fled Cameroon’s violence-hit anglophone regions into neighbouring Nigeria in recent weeks, the UN said Tuesday, adding it was preparing to help 40,000 refugees from the unrest.

The UN refugee agency and Nigerian authorities have so far registered some 2,000 Cameroonians who have fled into southeastern Nigeria since October 1, while another 3,000 were awaiting registration.

The head of the UN environment program said Tuesday the United States is likely to live up to the Paris climate deal despite President Donald Trump’s planned pullout, because “all the big American companies” are working toward greener operations.

UN officials are increasingly citing the role of companies in the fight against climate change.

“There is one question that I get more often than any other question wherever I go on the planet and it is a very simple one. It is: ‘What about Donald Trump?'” Solheim told a panel in Geneva by videoconference from Nairobi.

“In all likelihood, the United States of America will live up to its Paris commitment, not because of the White House, but because of the private sector,” he said. “All the big American companies are dedicated to go in the green direction.”

But UNEP said countries and industries still need to do more to meet targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions that experts say contribute to global warming. The report criticizes coal-fired electricity plants being built in emerging economies, and insists that investment in renewable energies will pay for itself — and even make money — over the long term.

The Paris accord aims to cap global temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius (35.6 Fahrenheit) by the year 2100 compared to average world temperatures at the start of the industrial era — and even hopes to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees C.

UNEP says trends suggest that even if current national commitments are met, a temperature increase of 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century is “very likely — meaning that governments need to deliver much stronger pledges when they are revised in 2020.”

“Should the United States follow through with its stated intention to leave the Paris agreement in 2020, the picture could become even bleaker,” UNEP said.

Lead author John Christensen of UN Environment noted some US states like California were “acting independently of what the White House decides.” He said Trump’s bid to peel back constraints on the coal industry won’t mark a major shift because “it simply doesn’t pay off.”

He also said the US targets in the Paris accord, as agreed by the Obama administration, were “not that ambitious in the first place.”

But Christensen told the Geneva panel that the Trump administration’s impact on efforts could affect “negotiation dynamics” with other countries and embolden “what I call ‘noise-makers:’ they are the ones that are opposed to the basic idea” of fighting climate change.

Bob Ward, an expert on climate change policy at the London School of Economics, agreed that the coal industry is “unlikely to be revived in the United States because it is being displaced by cleaner and cheaper sources of energy.”

“Many countries now recognize that the transition to a low-carbon economy will generate sustainable growth and development, with lower poverty and higher living standards,” he said. “High-carbon economies look increasingly uncompetitive.”

A new round of UN climate talks known as COP 23 starts in Bonn, Germany, on Monday, when countries will take stock of their achievements and prepare more ambitious national goals.

On the positive, UNEP highlighted “rapidly expanding mitigation action” and says carbon-dioxide emissions have remained stable since 2014, thanks partly to renewable energy use in China and India. It cautioned that other greenhouse gases like methane continue to rise, however.

UNEP has trumpeted solar and wind energy, efficient appliances and cars, and efforts to preserve forests. Solheim cited tests this week on the world’s first solar-powered railroad in Australia and the launch of a hydrogen-run subway system in northern China.

“We are at the watershed moment: We have stopped the rise in CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions — there is every reason to believe we can bring them down,” Solheim said. “The train is on the right track, but our duty is to speed it up.”

(Source: AP)