About soter

Posts by :

3, June 2016

Yaounde: Regional Miss Cameroon elected ⁰

Cameroon now has 3 new beauty pageants emerging from the Centre, South and East Regions. They were selected on May 29th 2016 during the last edition of the Regional Miss Cameroon Beauty Contest for 2016, organized at the Yaounde Hilton Hotel.

The three who were selected out of 15 contesters will join their counterparts on 30th July 2016 for the finals and the 12th edition of Miss Cameroon Beauty contest to be held at the Yaounde conference Centre.

They are: 22 year old Catherine Etoungoung Amougou as Miss Centre Region, Aquine Mpanjel, 22 – the Miss East Region and Rosy Kate Ebe – 26, Miss South Region, all students of the University of Yaounde one and two. Apart from physical beauty, they were also graded on eloquence, mastery of the two official languages, their culture tradition, academics and others.

The contest was graced with some thrilling artists under the supervision of the President and founder of the Miss Cameroon beauty contest Ingrid Solange Amougou with a host of dignitaries. Outgoing Miss Cameroon 2015, Jessica Ngoua Nseme extended her wishes to the incoming across the nation vying to be the next Miss Cameroon. The contest has been organized under the theme: “National Unity at the Service of Peace and Security.”

3, June 2016

5 US marines killed, 4 swept away by flood-swollen creek in Texas ⁰

At least five American soldiers have been killed and four other army troops swept away by a flood-swollen creek in the state of Texas. The Thursday accident happened at Fort Hood when an army troop carrier was washed away from a crossing at Owl Creek, the Texas Army post said. Three soldiers were found dead shortly after their truck was overturned by a swift current of the creek during a morning training exercise.

Two more bodies were found late Thursday night. Three other soldiers were rescued and taken to hospital. Local military spokesman Chris Haug said a search was on for the four soldiers who remain missing. The army did not release the names of the dead as it was still notifying relatives. Parts of Texas have been flooded with rain over the last week, where at least six deaths have been blamed on flooding.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a statement saying the state “stands ready to provide any assistance to Fort Hood as they deal with this tragedy.” The heaviest downpour Thursday night was reported in LaPorte, on the western shore of Galveston Bay, where several inches of rainfall was recorded between, according to ABC News. This week’s storms are the latest in a string of torrential rains since May 2015 that have put swaths of the state underwater.

Other areas of Texas dealing with heavy rainfall include Bexar County, where San Antonio is located. Meanwhile the rising Colorado River was expected to cause minor flooding in the coming days around Bastrop and La Grange, cities located southeast of Austin, according to the National Weather Service.

Presstv

3, June 2016

FIFA appoints UN official as SG ⁰

The World Football governing body,FIFA has appointed the Senegalese United Nations Official, Fatma Samoura as the new Secretary General. According to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, the first female FIFA Secretary General will bring a fresh wind to the council. Samoura will replace the fired Jerome Valcke if she passes an eligibility check.

Also on Friday, FIFA lifted Indonesia’s suspension from world soccer, Indonesian national and club teams, referees, and officials were banned over government interference in the running of the national federation. Indonesia was readmitted after the government agreed to end its suspension of the soccer federation, but the national team has missed out on qualifying for the 2018 World Cup and 2019 Asian Cup while banned. Benin and Kuwait are suspended due to government interference in their federations’ independence.

3, June 2016

International Friendlies: France 3, Cameroon 2 ⁰

The Indomitable Lions of Cameroon have suffered a three goals to two defeat inflicted on them by the French National team. This was during an international friendly match at Stade de la Beaujoire in Nantes in France in the build to Cameroon’s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier on June 3rd, against Mauritania.
The international friendly was also to prepare the French National team ahead of the 2016 UEFA European Championship starting June 10th. The 3 – 2 victory by France over Cameroon has given, manager Didier Deschamps’ side, hosts of the tournament, automatic qualification for UEFA 2016. Sports analysts, say France had a unique preparations for Euro 2016 compared to the other 23 nations participating in the competition. The French side is expected to play one more friendly against Scotland on Saturday, June 4, ahead of the start of Euro 2016.

During the Monday encounter, Blaise Matuidi gave the hosts the lead with a smart goal, but before the French public had time to celebrate, Cameroon’s Vincent Aboubakar equalized barely two minutes later. Olivier Giroud scored another goal for France just before half-time, the Indomitable Lions attempted to level score to no avail.

In the second half, Les Bleus dominated possession but created few chances, and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting surprised the home side with a late equalizer at the 88th minute. Cameroonians had not savoured the score when, Dimitri Payet found the net for a last minute goal; giving France a win over Cameroon. Indomitable Lions goal keeper, Fabrice Ondoua has been highly appreciated for the magnificent and timely saves the spared the Cameroonian national team from conceding several goals.

3, June 2016

Cameroon: Patrick Ekeng goes home to rest ⁰

The remains of the Cameroon international Patrick Ekeng has been laid to rest at their family compound in Ngousso,Yaounde. Patrick Ekeng died of a suspected heart attack after collapsing on the pitch playing for Dinamo Bucharest on 6th May 2016.

The Cameroon football family paid tribute to the player, led by the country’s Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Bidoung Kpwatt, who represented Cameroon’s president Paul Biya. Cameroon players past and present attended the service, and gave support to Ekeng’s wife and family.

His brother Jacques Ekeng said it is a great lost as “Patou” as he was fondly called was the breadwinner to the family. “He gave more love to his friends than to his family. That is Patrick, he was generous,” Jacques Ekeng said.

Patrick Ekeng’s club Dinamo Bucharest said they would honour the player’s memory by sending the Romanian Cup to his family in Cameroon if they win the trophy. Thirteen-time winners Dinamo face CFR Cluj in the postponed final on 17 May.

3, June 2016

UN voices concern over the recruitment and killing of children ⁰

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has expressed serious concern over a rise in recruitment and killing of children in conflict-hit countries in various parts of the world over the past year. In an annual report on children and armed conflict released Thursday, Ban expressed shock about the dire situation of children in war-torn countries especially in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Somalia and South Sudan.

The report names dozens of armed groups, some government security forces and military alliances that committed grave violations against children in 2015. The report also included armed groups such a-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militants in Somalia, Nigeria’s Daesh-affiliated Boko Haram, the Taliban in Afghanistan and South Sudan’s government forces in its list of the parties involved in abducting children.

Ban also said in the document that aerial attacks by international military alliances have killed many youngsters in past months. According to the report, Afghanistan recorded the highest number of child casualties in 2015, since the UN began documenting civilian deaths and injuries in 2009. The world body has verified 1,306 incidents resulting in 2,829 child casualties, comprising 733 deaths and 2,096 injured.

This comes as a large number of civilians, including children, have been killed in the US-led airstrikes across various parts of the Afghanistan over the past years. New additions to the list include Saudi Arabia, which has been engaged in a military aggression against its poor neighbor for more than a year.

The report takes a swipe at the Riyadh regime and holds it accountable for killing children and attacking schools and hospitals in the impoverished Arab country. Saudi Arabia and the countries supporting its campaign in Yemen were responsible for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries last year, killing 510 and wounding 667, according to Ban’s report.

Presstv

3, June 2016

France delivers Mistral warship to Egypt ⁰

Egypt has taken delivery of the first of two French Mistral warships as part of a military deal between Paris and Cairo in 2015. France agreed last year to sell two Mistral helicopter carriers to Egypt for $1 billion, which were originally intended for sale to Russia.

The first warship, named Gamal Abdel Nasser after Egypt’s late president, is reportedly headed toward Alexandria where it is expected to arrive within weeks. During a handover ceremony in the western French port of Saint-Nazaire on Thursday, Egyptian Defense Minister Sedky Sobhi said the second warship would arrive in September.

“It [the warship] increases our combat capabilities and our ability to carry out long-term missions at sea…and we are awaiting on the arrival of the second in September,” he said.

Presstv

3, June 2016

US says Boko Haram-Daesh collaboration on a rise ⁰

The rising collaboration between the Daesh and Boko Haram terrorist groups has raised alarms that the two are working together to wreak more havoc in northern and central Africa. US Brigadier General Donald Bolduc, the commander of the US military’s Special Operations in Africa, said Wednesday that a Daesh weapons convoy departing from Libya was intercepted on its way to the Lake Chad region, an area devastated by Boko Haram.

The shipment was seized near the Chadian border with Libya on April 7 and included small-caliber weapons, machine guns and rifles, officials said. US military officials said the convoy hints at a direct link between the two terror groups. Last year, Boko Haram pledged allegiance to Daesh.

Bolduc added that the two groups were also sharing “tactics, techniques and procedures.” Nigerian General Lamidi Oyebayo Adeosun, the commander of the regional group of African countries fighting Boko Haram in the Lake Chad area, echoed Bolduc, adding military officials were still trying to learn more about relations between the two groups.

The disclosure came during a tense series of meetings between Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the United Nations, and top Chadian officials, including President Idriss Deby. US President Barack Obama has been increasingly asked by some of his top military and intelligence advisers to authorize a broader US military presence in Libya and Nigeria.

Earlier this month, Obama admitted that his “worst mistake” in his presidency has been the mishandling of the crisis in Libya after the US-backed ouster of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The Pentagon has proposed a $200 million budget for this year to train and equip security forces in north, central and west African countries. The US is also constructing a $50 million drone base in Agadez, Niger, that would allow aerial surveillance of the region.

An estimated 20,000 people have been killed and more than 2.6 million others made homeless since the beginning of the Boko Haram bloody militancy in Nigeria in 2009. Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden,” has spread its attacks from northeastern Nigeria, its traditional stronghold, to the neighboring countries of Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

Presstv

3, June 2016

Nigeria: Deadly explosion kills 5 ⁰

A deadly explosion has claimed the lives of five people in northeast Nigeria, where the Takfiri Boko Haram militant group has been operating for years.According to Nigerian military officials, the incident occurred on Sunday morning when a rickshaw driving close to a military checkpoint on the outskirts of the town of Biu in the country’s northeastern Borno State ran over an improvised explosive device (IED).

“The preliminary investigation shows that the IED was buried a long time ago without being detected. It exploded when the tricycle erroneously stepped on it,” said Sani Usman, the Nigerian military spokesman. “The IED exploded instantly killing four persons, comprising of a woman with her baby and two other male adults,” Usman said, adding that a soldier injured by the blast died later in hospital.

While he did not explain whether the IED had in fact been planted by Boko Haram, the spokesman did say that the military would continue to counter Boko Haram undeterred.

Culled from Presstv

3, June 2016

Nigeria: Shell and Agip pipelines blown up in Niger Delta ⁰

Militants have blown up strategic gas and crude pipelines belonging to Shell and Agip as part of a campaign that has cut Nigeria’s oil production in half. A hitherto unknown militant group, calling itself the Niger Delta Avengers, said it had dynamited the trunkline linking the Dutch-British Shell company’s Bonny terminal and the Brass export terminal of the Italian company Agip.

Earlier, the group had blown up gas and crude oil pipelines belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in Delta State near the city of Warri. Nigeria’s oil production had already fallen from a projected 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) to 1.4 million bpd before the latest string of attacks on the oil industry in southern Nigeria, including three within the past week on facilities of the US oil company Chevron.

The militants have given oil companies a May 31 deadline to leave Nigeria’s southern, oil-producing Niger Delta. “Watch out something big is about to happen and it will shock the whole world,” the the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) warned Saturday, addressing international and indigenous oil companies and Nigeria’s military. The NDA has intensified attacks in recent months, pushing oil output to its lowest in more than 20 years and compounding the problems faced by Africa’s largest economy.

The group claims it is fighting to win a greater share of oil profits for the nation and protect the environment from pollution caused by these oil companies. Local community leaders and non-violent environment activists have reportedly sided with the militants. They say residents of Niger Delta support their demands for a greater share of the country’s oil wealth.

Oil pollution has destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of farmers and fishermen in the region. Several companies have evacuated some of their workers while the government has deployed thousands of troops to guard oil installations.

Culled from Presstv