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21, July 2016

Plagiarism incident: Donald Trump aide dishes out apology ⁰

A Donald Trump campaign staffer has apologized after the US Republican presidential nominee’s wife was accused of using remarks by First Lady Michelle Obama in a speech broadcast live to millions of people.

Melania Trump’s Monday address to the Republican National Convention contained similarities to a 2008 convention speech by US President Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle. In a written statement on Wednesday evening, Meredith McIver admitted she made a mistake by not checking Michelle Obama’s former speeches.

The statement said McIver offered to resign but the Republican presidential nominee had rejected the offer. McIver explained that she included the parts from Michelle Obama’s speech after listening to Melania read passages from the First Lady’s 2008 speech.

“Over the phone, she read me some passages from Mrs. Obama’s speech as examples. I wrote them down and later included some of the phrasing in the draft that ultimately became the final speech,” she said.

“I did not check Mrs. Obama’s speeches. This was my mistake, and I feel terrible for the chaos I have caused Melania and the Trumps, as well as to Mrs. Obama. No harm was meant,” she stated.

Michelle Obama speaks on August 25, 2008 at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado. (Getty Images)

Donald Trump did not accept McIver’s resignation, calling her error “an innocent mistake.” “She made a mistake … we all make mistakes,” Trump told ABC News. In tweets, Trump said he was proud of the fact that his wife’s address “got more attention than any in the history of politics.” Melania Trump had claimed she wrote her speech “with as little help as possible.”

Presstv

20, July 2016

UK Labour Party: Jeremy Corbyn to face a weak Blairite ⁰

UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will only need to challenge former shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith to preserve his position as the opposition leader, following Angela Eagle’s decision to drop out of the race. Registrations for the leadership vote closed on Wednesday, and Smith was the only challenger left in the race. He now faces an uphill battle as the latest YouGov poll has put him 20 points behind Corbyn.

Eagle ended her bid on Tuesday because of a failure to attract enough endorsements from Labour lawmakers to continue. This means Corbyn and Smith have until December 21 to appeal to voters and party members. The results will be announced in a Liverpool conference three days later.

As a Welsh MP and a former BBC producer, Smith is barely known outside Westminster and Wales, but his supporters hope he can dethrone Corbyn. Smith, who pitches himself as the candidate who can “save” the party, also faces criticism for his past as a lobbyist for the pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer and his support for the Iraq war.

Corbyn’s opponents challenged his leadership for what they call inadequate efforts to keep the UK in the European Union (EU). Nearly 52 percent of British voters made it clear in a referendum on June 23 that they wanted their country out of the bloc. Corbyn was a fierce opponent of the decision and vouched for a stronger UK role in the EU instead. Smith himself is an admirer of Corbyn and has praised him for “helping Labour discover its radical roots.”

Former Labour leader Ed Miliband urged his supporters on Facebook to back Smith, saying, he “can build a Labour Party and a country of which we can be proud.” Eagle also announced that she will support Smith against Corbyn. Smith has offered her a senior job in his shadow cabinet if he wins.

By Tuesday, more than 55,000 people had paid £25 to vote in the race and the number was expected to rise before the Wednesday deadline. However, many people were left out as they could not pay the registration fee. A fund that had raised more than £14,000 in three days to help those voters was shut down after the party’s National Executive Committe said it was in violation of its rules.

“The figure of £25 is a discriminatory price that will clearly exclude a great many from being able to take part in this vote,” said Lauren Ashby, a party member who had set up the fundraiser.

Presstv

20, July 2016

French ambassador to Cameroon says her mission will end in September ⁰

Christine Robichon, first ever female French ambassador to Cameroon has announced that her mission to Cameroon will come to a close in September 2016. She made the announcement at her residence in Yaoundé on the 14^th of July during the celebration of the French National Day.

Said Madam Christine Robichon, “This is the third time I am celebrating July 14 with you. This is also the last because my mission has eventually come to an end. This mission was exciting. I had the chance to rely on a great team, to be supported by the French community in Cameroon and its associations”.

She was appointed to Cameroon in 2016 and experienced a stay described by many political commentators as both calm and turbulent. Christine Robichon was booed during a public demo in Yaoundé against the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

Ambassador Robichon further stated that ” I arrived when the crisis in neighboring Central African Republic and Boko Haram atrocities were along the Cameroon borders, when a false and negative campaign against France was developing in the country, I have had challenges. In the next two months, I will leave Cameroon with the satisfaction of a job well done, and I want to come back here as a traveler, friend, retired and free of any professional obligation.”

Chi Prudence Asong (Cameroon Concord News)

20, July 2016

UN: Security Council to vote to select new Secretary General ⁰

The 15 members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will vote behind closed doors on Thursday in order to select the next secretary-general to the world body out of a dozen officially proposed contenders.

Representatives of the 10 non-permanent member states along with those of powerful permanent five – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – will huddle together on Thursday to choose the ninth officeholder of the UN, a successor to the incumbent Ban Ki-moon.

Each member state will rate the 12 candidates with a ballot marked “encourage,” “discourage” or “no opinion,”, and the contender with the most secured “encourage” ballots will be nominated for the job and introduced to the General Assembly for the final vote.

The selection process, however, is not that straightforward and is hugely overshadowed by the unique and highly controversial privilege of the five permanent members to veto.

Not only can the five permanent members veto any resolution but can block any candidate as well. As a result, the selection is subject to the veto of any of the five permanent members of the Security Council.

Of the 12 candidates, six are women, from three different continents. If one of them is selected as the next leader of the UN, she will be the first ever officeholder of the world body, since there has never been a female secretary-general so far.

Moreover, the bulk of the candidates – eight – are from Eastern Europe, a region which has had no representatives in the top job since the creation of the UN in the final year of the Second World War.

Among the top contenders vying for the job are Argentina’s Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra, Slovenia’s former president Danilo Turk, New Zealand’s former premier Helen Clark, and Antonio Guterres, who served as Portugal’s prime minister.

Ban took office for his first five-year term on January 2007 and was re-elected to a second term on June 2011, after his first one expired on December 2011. He will leave office at the end of the year and will be replaced by the new leader on January 2017.

The UN is under fire for years by member states not only for the unrivaled ability of veto, enjoyed by the permanent five members, but also for its secretary-generals, who are chosen not for their abilities to run the world body and serve all member states, but to serve the permanent five members.

Presstv

20, July 2016

Three French soldiers killed in Libya ⁰

France’s defence ministry says three of its soldiers have died in Libya, reportedly after their helicopter was shot down. A short statement said the soldiers died “while on mission”.

Earlier on Wednesday, ministry spokesman Stephane Le Foll confirmed for the first time that French special forces were in Libya. On Tuesday, Associated Press quoted Libyan officials as saying an Islamist militia shot down a French helicopter. The attack on Sunday happened near the city of Benghazi, and left no survivors, AP reported.

BBC

20, July 2016

Tottenham ready to sell Clinton N’jie ⁰

Tottenham are considering allowing Clinton N’Jie to leave White Hart Lane on loan as they finalise a deal to sign Georges-Kevin N’Koudou from Marseille. Sources in France claim Marseille want to replace Spurs-bound N’Koudou with N’Jie, who only moved to the Premier League club for {8.3 milion from Lyon last summer although neither deal is thought to be dependent on the other one.

Tottenham are understood to have agreed a £10.8m deal for winger N’Koudou, with the 21-year-old scheduled to take a medical. The arrival of the France Under-21 international will further increase competition for places on the flanks, which means Spurs are open to the prospect of N’Jie heading out on loan for an initial 12 months.

Manager Mauricio Pochettino had been willing to listen to offers for Son Hueng-Min and Nacer Chadli this summer, but 22-year-old N’Jie may well head out before either man. The Cameroon international’s first season with Spurs was disrupted by a medial collateral ligament injury in December and he made just 12 appearances in all competitions. A loan back to Ligue 1, where he built his reputation with Lyon, could help N’Jie rediscover his best form – rather than spending an extended spell on the substitutes’ bench.

The fact Tottenham have also signed striker Vincent Jassen this summer will further limit N’Jie’s opportunities at White Hart Lane. N’Koudou scored 10 goals for Marseille last season and has also been watched by West Ham United, Manchester United and Liverpool, which may have influenced Tottenham’s decision to move now. The signing of N’Koudou will not necessarily mean Tottenham abandon their search for another attacking midfielder, despite the fact Liverpool are emerging as favourites to sign Newcastle United’s Georginio Wijnaldum. Spurs are unwilling to meet Newcastle’s £25m valuation of Wijnaldum and Liverpool are expected to make a bid for the 25-year-old this week.

The Telegraph

19, July 2016

Mali: 12 soldiers killed in militant attack on army base ⁰

At least a dozen Malian soldiers were killed Tuesday in an attack by militants on an army base in the city of Nampala in central Mali.

Ousmane Diallo, the deputy mayor of the nearby town of Diabaly, and a security source both confirmed that assailants also wounded at least 27 people as they took control of the military base, which is located close to Mauritania’s border.

“The army is regrouping in town (Diabaly) and is preparing a counter-attack to retake the base, which fell into the hands of the assailants,” Diallo said.

Presstv

19, July 2016

Race for the White House: Donald Trump’s wife speech included phrases and words from Michelle Obama ⁰

In her first major political speech, presumptive US Republican Party nominee Donald Trump’s wife, Melania, has apparently lifted a paragraph from Michelle Obama’s speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Melania addressed a cheering crowd at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday after a brief introduction from Trump where she portrayed her husband as a talented, compassionate and unrelenting leader who, if elected, would unify the country.

Melania’s speech included phrases and even precise words from Michelle Obama’s 2008 address. Following is the paragraph in question from Melania’s speech: “From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life: that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise; that you treat people with respect. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily life,” said the Slovenian-born jewelry designer and former model.

Presstv

19, July 2016

Inside Cameroon: Is the SDF Diaspora revolution over? ¹

The Social Democratic Front (SDF) and the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM) are both major political parties in the Republic of Cameroon. The similarities end there! The SDF as Cameroon’s main opposition party is in a state of brooding, and its diaspora outlets in Europe and the United States of America are facing an energy-draining soul-searching brooding.Yet, every SDF militant you meet in the streets of London, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin and Oslo is not even worried.Is their silence deliberate or accidental? What is really the matter? Is it that the SDF revolution is actually over? Or is it in the words of Dr.Boniface Forbin “going, going, gone”.

The SDF tormented by fear graciously accepted the 43 seats awarded the party by a CPDM government-rigged parliamentary election in 1997. The understanding then from every SDF militant particularly those in the diaspora was that: well, we know the party will do nothing in parliament, but what will it achieve by staying out? It would have continued as a front as some Semi Bantus and Sawas recommended. But the Bafourchu mafia that hijacked the SDF were tired of staying on the sidelines of power and those luxurious hotels in Yaounde, the nation’s capital. From 43 seats gotten through a counterfeit parliamentary elections in 1997, the SDF has slowly but surely been reduced to a North West Region political party in 2014.

Correspondingly, it is evidently clear that the silence maintain by SDF militants in the diaspora is deliberate and betrays frustration arising from the fear that the SDF as a political entity in Cameroon has outlived its usefulness and the revolution that came along with it is over. When this reporter speaking to SDF militants in Paderborn,Germany in 2000 did observe that the SDF going to parliament in 1997 under those CPDM conditions was in effect surrendering and beginning a new form of cooperation with the President Biya regime, he was given matching orders to leave the venue. The 1997 SDF decision demonstrated a frightful and unloving attitude by the party towards the Cameroonian people. It was indeed a decision that was contrary to the SDF’s fundamental objective which was to overthrow the crime syndicate headed by President Paul Biya and bring about democracy, economic prosperity, law and order and above all good governance in the Republic of Cameroon.

As a big political party with a very small brain, the SDF did not know that its Chairman Ni John Fru Ndi’s greatest distinction and strength laid in his consistency and unswerving faithfulness to the party’s objective over the years. A pro-National Assembly policy destroyed this overnight. To be sure, the 1997 pro-Assembly decision weakened the SDF and its leadership forever!! The SDF diaspora in Europe and the USA cannot wash their hands off this failure like the biblical Pontus Pilate! The argument that came from New York, Berlin and London that there is no future prospect for free and fair election under President Biya greatly contributed to ending the SDF revolution. What the SDF diaspora was actually saying to their leadership back home was that “if you can beat them, join them”.Which they did!!

The SDF it can now be said was never ready for a long term campaign. What we know as Africans is that similar liberation struggles have lasted for decades and even more. The revolution that finally brought Meles Zenawi to power in Ethiopia in 1991 lasted 17 years. Though a very bad example in modern day Africa, but it is on record that Yoweri Kaguta Museveni challenged the electoral fraud of Milton Obote and that led to a long campaign based on a 10-point programme. He finally beat Obote and all the others in 1986, after 16 difficult years. In Namibia, Sam Nujoma and Toivoja Toivo founded SWAPO in 1959 to fight abusive colonialism. Nujoma went on exile in 1966 but kept up his fight for liberation. He won and became President of Namibia in April 1990-after 31 years. In South Africa the ANC campaign began in 1910. Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years. That did not daunt the spirit of the struggle. The campaign for African majority rule in Northern Rhodesia now Zimbabwe lasted for more than 20 years. So where does our Cameroon SDF stand in history? Maybe the SDF diaspora needs to come up with a new idea!!!!

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai (Cameroon Concord News Group)

NB: This article was first published in 2014

19, July 2016

50 billion FCFA stolen from BICEC Cameroon ⁰

An audit conducted in March 2016 by the Banking Commission of Central Africa (COBAC) has revealed that 50 billion francs CFA was stolen from the International Bank of Cameroon for Savings and Credit (BICEC). The findings also noted that the money was taken from the bank through “implied external providers with internal complicity.”

Media reports have suggested that the arrival of Alain Ripert, the new CEO of BICEC brought about the opening of the investigations. The COBAC revelations highlighted the participation of two senior executives of the bank in these criminal practices namely, Innocent Ondoa Nkou who resigned a few weeks after the discovery and Samuel Ngando Mbongue, the Director of Accounting and Treasury who was fired with four other employees.

Rita Akana (Cameroon Concord News Group)