Breaking News

7, September 2016

German Chancellor Merkel defends her stance on allowing asylum seekers into Germany ⁰

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has once again defended her stance on allowing asylum seekers into Germany despite her party’s loss at local elections apparently over the government’s refugee policy. “I consider the fundamental decisions as right, but there is much to be done to win back trust and the topic of integration will play a huge role, as well as the repatriation of those who don’t gain residency rights,” Merkel said during a speech in the lower house of the German parliament in the capital Berlin on Wednesday.

The remarks came just three days after a stunning defeat suffered by her party, the Christian Democratic Party (CDU), from an anti-refugee party in regional elections. On Sunday, Merkel’s CDU party fell to third place after the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in her home state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. The center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) gained the first place in the contest, according to exit polls.

Merkel said her government has expedited integration measures for those refugees who are granted asylum, including by raising school funding to help their education and by trying to find solutions for local problems through working with cities and states. “The situation today is many times better than a year ago, but there remains a lot to do,” she said. Merkel has been under fire at home since last year, when she opened the country’s borders to the massive influx of asylum seekers, mostly fleeing violence in Middle Eastern and African states.

Presstv

7, September 2016

Collapse of the Oku mountain: Philemon Yang’s deliberate silence ⁰

Heavy rains have led to a mountain landslide in the historic Oku village in the North West region. The heavy downpour that rocked the entire North West region for weeks resulted in the collapse of a mountain some 2,000 meters high located in the Oku district in Bui division.

No casualties have been reported but Cameroon Concord News Bamenda city reporter hinted that vast stretches of crops were destroyed. Authorities in the North West region are continuing the evaluation to draw a full review of the situation. No word has come out of the star building from a Prime Minister who hails from Oku.

Charles Ngu

7, September 2016

Obama picks first-ever Muslim American to serve as a federal judge ⁰

President Barack Obama has nominated the first-ever Muslim American to serve as a federal judge in the US capital, according to a report. Abid Riaz Qureshi, a partner in a Washington law firm, was nominated to the US District Court for the District of Columbia, The Huffington Post reported on Tuesday.

“I am pleased to nominate Mr. Qureshi to serve on the United States District Court bench,” Obama said in a statement. “I am confident he will serve the American people with integrity and a steadfast commitment to justice.”

Muslim rights advocates hailed the historic nomination. “A judiciary that reflects the rich diversity of our nation helps ensure the fair and just administration of the law, and it is vital for American Muslims to be included,” Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates, a legal advocacy organization, told The Post.

However, it is unlikely that Qureshi’s nomination will be confirmed before Obama leaves office in January. Senate Republicans have promised not to hold any hearings on Obama’s nominees since he picked Judge Merrick Garland to serve in the US Supreme Court in March.

That nomination was intended to replace late Justice Antonin Scalia, who died earlier this year. Qureshi’s nomination comes amid a particularly tense presidential election campaign in which anti-Muslim rhetoric has been a dominating theme.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has made a series of controversial policy proposals on how the US should treat Muslims, including banning Muslims entering the country and establishing a database to register all Muslims. The New York businessman has also suggested that a Muslim judge could be unfit for the job.

Presstv

7, September 2016

Yaounde: Man who headed the smashing of hundred eggs demo given a suspended sentence ⁰

Bernard Njonga and five others were yesterday, September 5, 2016, slammed a two-month suspended sentence for smashing hundreds of eggs in front of the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries, MINEPIA on July 7, 2016. Njonga and his colleagues of the ACDIC association were protesting what they considered government’s mishandling of the Avian Influenza that broke out in the country, beginning at the Mvog-Betsi, Yaounde Poultry Farm.

Bernard Njonga, Franklin Mowha, Effila Nkou Ambroise, Mbekap Merimé Constant, Ngankeu Bertrand Collins and Tiofoue Hervé Joel, were afterwards arraigned before the Court of First Instance, Yaounde Administrative Centre, accused of organising illegal demonstrations. The judgment was passed by Mr Justice Bias Albert. After declaring the accused guilty, Mr Justice Bias suspended the court sitting before resuming several hours after to give the ruling.

While invoking mitigating substances, Defence Counsel Eveline Dounzou, pleaded with the judge to show mercy in his judgement, taking into consideration the circumstances that led the accused to commit the act. The court however sentenced Bernard Njong and co-accused to two-month imprisonment suspended sentence. Each of the accused is to pay 27,000 FCFA for court expenses.

Cameroon Tribune

6, September 2016

Stadium of Lights Limbe: Cameroon 2 Gabon 1 ⁰

The Indomitable Lions have beaten the Panthers of Gabon 2 goals to 1 in a friendly encounter hosted in the stadium of lights in Victoria-Limbe. The first Cameroonian goal came at the 64th minute from a 25 meters free kick by Moukandjo that was converted by Anatole Abang.

The Gabonese came back into the game at the 74th minute, following a challenge by a Cameroon defender Djetei and Kanga Kaku benefitted and equalized. Edgar Salli fired home the winner at the 92^nd minute. Final score of the game Cameroon 2 Gabon 1

List of Cameroon 11

Goalkeeper: Ako

Defenders: Ngwem, Djettei, Ngadeu, Oyongo

Midfielders: Tchani, Boya, Kom

Attackers: Abang, Salli, Moukandjo

By Ebong Kingsley

6, September 2016

President Obama cancels meeting with the Filipino thug Rodrigo Duterte ⁰

US President Barack Obama has canceled a planned meeting with his Filipino counterpart Rodrigo Duterte after the latter insulted him with vulgar and undiplomatic language. The two leaders were scheduled to meet on the sidelines of the 28th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit on Tuesdayafternoon in Vientiane, the capital of Laos.

White House officials previously said Obama would confront Duterte about his country’s handling of drug dealers, including alleged extrajudicial killings. Hours later, a US spokesman announced the cancellation of the meeting after Duterte lashed out at Obama for wading into his campaign against drugs.

“President Obama will not be holding a bilateral meeting with President Duterte of the Philippines this afternoon,” US National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in Washington, DC. Price said the US president, who is in Laos for meetings with South Asian leaders, instead will meet with South Korean President Park Geun-hye.

US President Barack Obama speaks during a press conference following the conclusion of the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China, on September 5, 2016. (AFP photo)

Hours earlier, the outspoken Filipino leader harshly criticized the US president and said, “I am no American puppet. I am the president of a sovereign country and I am not answerable to anyone except the Filipino people.”

“You must be respectful. Do not just throw away questions and statements. Son of a b***, I will curse you in that forum,” Duterte told reporters when asked about his message for Obama whose country is a former colonial ruler of the Philippines.

Duterte said that he would not be lectured by the US leader on human rights, and blamed Washington for causing unrest in the southern Philippines. Obama learned about the insult while emerging from the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China.

Duterte expresses regret

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte arrives at the Wattay International Airport in Vientiane on September 5, 2016 for the 28th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit to be held September 6-8. (AFP photo)

Later on Tuesday, Duterte issued a statement, expressing regret for his undiplomatic remarks. “While the immediate cause was my strong comments to certain press questions that elicited concern and distress we also regret it came across as a personal attack on the US president,” the statement said.

Duterte’s statement said Philippine and American officials would hold face-to-face talks “at a later date”. “Our primary intention to chart an independent foreign policy while promoting closer ties with all nations especially the US with which we have a long standing partnership,” the statement said.

“We look forward to ironing out differences arising out of national priority perceptions and working in mutually responsible ways for both countries,” it added.

Presstv

6, September 2016

President Salva Kiir of South Sudan agrees to the deployment of 4,000 additional UN troops ⁰

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has agreed to the deployment of 4,000 additional UN peacekeepers after initially rejecting the regional protection force as a breach of its sovereignty. Kiir made the announcement on Sunday following a meeting with the UN Security Council in the capital Juba.

“The transitional government of national unity gives its consent for the deployment of the regional force,” read a joint statement released by the UN and the government. Juba initially rejected the proposal, which was offered earlier in the month, stating that it lends the United Nations the ability to govern and “seriously undermines” South Sudan’s sovereignty.

South Sudan has witnessed a new wave of conflict since July 8, when gunfire erupted near the state house in Juba as Kiir and then Vice President Riek Machar were holding a meeting. More than 300 people were killed in the clashes. The country gained independence from Sudan in 2011. It has gone through turmoil ever since.

The US envoy to the UNSC, Samantha Power, praised the additional deployment but noted that it was now time for action. “What we need to do now is move from those very important high-level commitments into working up the modalities in an operational way,” she said.

The conflict in South Sudan has exposed deep ethnic divisions. It erupted after a power struggle between President Kiir, a member of the Dinka ethnic group, and rebel leader Machar, a member of the Nuer ethnic group. “Fundamentally, it’s going to be the tribes themselves and the political leadership of this country that are going to have to come together,” added Power.

Presstv

6, September 2016

Victoria: Indomitable Lions to clash with the Panthers of Gabon today ⁰

The Gabonese football national team aka the Panthers of Gabon arrived Victoria-Limbe for a friendly encounter with the Lions of Cameroon today evening. The match organized by the Cameroon Football Federation is to prepare the Lions for the Africa Cup of Nations 2017. The game begins at 7 pm.

The Gabonese conducted the traditional tour of the stadium on Monday while their Cameroonian counterparts in turn held a training session within the same facility.

The Lions Indomitable will face the Panthers of Gabon without TOKO Karl, SIANI Sebastian, TEIKEU Adolphe and ONDOA Fabrice-the four players who were instrumental in the victory last Saturday against Gambia. Cameroon Concord News understands the four were authorized by coach Hugo Broos, to join their clubs.

By Sama Ernest

5, September 2016

USA: Majority of young white Americans support Black Lives Matter ⁰

A majority of young white Americans now say they support Black Lives Matter, a protest movement calling for police accountability in the deaths of African Americans. A new GenForward poll shows that 51 percent of white adults between the ages of 18 and 30 “strongly” or “somewhat” support the anti-racism movement, a 10-point increase since June.

Forty-two percent of the white youth said they do not support the protest movement, according to the survey conducted by the Black Youth Project at the University of Chicago with the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Black Lives Matter enjoys widespread backing among the African-American community, with 85 percent of young blacks expressing support for the protesters. Sixty-seven percent of Asian and 62 percent of Hispanic young adults agreed with that sentiment. Young African-American, Hispanic and Asian adults had already expressed majority support for the movement in the June version of the poll.

Photographs of African Americans killed by police line the sidewalk of an encampment of activists associated with the Black Lives Matter movement, August 12, 2016, outside of City Hall in Los Angeles, California. (AFP photo)

Some respondents interviewed by the AP said watching police brutality against African Americans online helped cement their support for Black Lives Matter. “The fact is that the police target blacks and they discriminate against blacks,” said Sean Bradley, 26, of Clearwater, Florida.

“Because of how they’ve treated blacks over the years, of course they (blacks) don’t trust them and I know for a fact that some of the things the police do are illegal. I would be upset as well,” he added.

The Black Lives Matter movement first emerged in 2012 after unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by Florida neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who was later acquitted by a grand jury.

The protest movement gathered strength in ensuing years following the high-profile deaths of a number of African Americans at the hands of white police officers in New York City, Baltimore, Ferguson and elsewhere.

Presstv

5, September 2016

Gabon: UN Secretary General recognizes Ali Bongo as President-elect ⁰

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has congratulated the Gabonese leader, Ali Bongo following his electoral victory in the recent presidential election. In a telephone conversation on Sunday with President Ali Bongo Ondimba, Ban noted that “After a series of false information disseminated on many networks, I and the UN recognize you as the elected president.”

Ban Ki Moon also urged the losing candidate Jean Ping to use exclusively peaceful and legal means to seek recourse in any dispute relating to the outcome of the presidential election. The UN diplomat told the Gabonese President to take steps to end the violence that followed the disputed presidential election.

The Secretary General welcomed the release of 27 pro-Ping Jean militants and regretted the loss of life that occurred. Ban Ki Moon has asked his Special Representative for Central Africa, Abdoulaye Bathily, “to continue to work with the parties to defuse the tensions.”

By Chi Prudence Asong