Headline News

4, May 2018

Italian stalemate into 3rd month after talks collapse ⁰

Italy is facing a third month of political paralysis after talks between the center-left and the Five Star Movement over a coalition government failed to get off the ground Thursday.

President Sergio Mattarella’s office announced in a statement that a fresh round of consultations would be held at the presidential palace on Monday “to see if the parties have other ideas for a government majority”.

On Sunday, just days after acting Democratic Party leader Maurizio Martina had said he was willing to talk to Five Star head Luigi Di Maio, former premier Matteo Renzi closed the door on any coalition deal with the anti-establishment upstarts.

Renzi stepped down as prime minister after his Democratic Party slumped to third place in the March 4 vote, behind the right-wing coalition led by the nationalist League that won the most seats, and Five Star, which became Italy’s largest single party.

Renzi still wields huge influence among his party’s MPs and senators however, many of whom are hostile to Five Star after it ferociously criticised them when they governed Italy.

At a conference on Thursday the Democratic Party’s national leadership voted unanimously not to engage in government talks with the Five Star Movement.

“With Five Star, the chapter is closed,” declared Martina.

(Source: AFP)

4, May 2018

‘Black Panther’ leads MTV Movie and TV Award nods ⁰

Black Panther, the breakthrough superhero film that has become one of the highest-grossing motion pictures of all time, on Thursday led nominations for the MTV Movie and TV Awards.

The action movie about the fictional African kingdom of Wakanda led with seven nominations including Best Movie for the June 18 awards, which will be decided by public voting.

Placing second with six nominations is “Stranger Things,” the Netflix series about supernatural occurrences in a small town in Indiana.

The MTV Movie and TV Awards, like the channel’s signature MTV Video Music Awards, celebrate pop culture moments and pride themselves on being less stuffy than the industry’s benchmark Oscars and Emmys.

Categories include “Best Kiss” and “Most Frightened Performance.” In another contrast with the industry-led awards, the MTV prizes for the second year will be gender neutral with no separate competitions for men and women.

“Black Panther,” a rare action film to celebrate black culture, has already become the third highest-grossing movie ever in North America since its release in January.

Comedian Tiffany Haddish will serve as the host of the MTV Movie and TV Awards, which hands out statuettes shaped like popcorn boxes.

Haddish stars in the comedy “Girls Trip” which is also up for Best Picture, along with the action flicks “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Wonder Woman” and horror adaptation “It.”

Culled from Africa News

4, May 2018

Cameroon, Somalia presidents speak on World Press Freedom Day ⁰

Presidents of Cameroon and Somalia have made official comments on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day. Both leaders used their social media handles to make their views known.

For his part, Cameroon’s Paul Biya spoke about the effect of fake news. “Disinformation, slander and lies for selfish gains, have eclipsed the dissemination of real news,” he said in a tweet.

On his part, Somalia’s Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo lauded the efforts of journalists across the country promising to protect the constitutional right of freedom of expression.

“Many praise to the Somali media as we mark the World Press Freedom Day. You’ve shown resilience and commitment to your work, even under tough circumstances.

“My administration is committed to protecting the freedom of expression, a right enshrined in our Provisional Constitution,” he said. Incidentally, the two countries are noted for gross rights abuse against journalists in the line of their work. Somali journalists have often been shot dead by militants operating in parts of the Horn of Africa nation. Arrest and detention of journalists also happens from time to time.

In Cameroon, international rights groups have reported that the government employs an atmosphere of fear and restrictions that force journalists to self-censor their work for fear of detention and high fines.

Some journalists in the country’s Anglophone regions have also been arrested in the line of their work. The country’s communications minister, however, pegs press freedom to the number of media houses operating in the Central African nation.

About World Press Freedom Day

World Press Freedom Day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in December 1993, following the recommendation of UNESCO’s General Conference. Since then, 3 May, the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek is celebrated worldwide as World Press Freedom Day.

It is an opportunity to: celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; assess the state of press freedom throughout the world; defend the media from attacks on their independence and pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

The 2018 Theme is: ‘Keeping Power in Check: Media, Justice and The Rule of Law.’ According to the U.N., the theme of the 2018 celebration highlights the importance of an enabling legal environment for press freedom, and gives special attention to the role of an independent judiciary in ensuring legal guarantees for press freedom and the prosecution of crimes against journalists.

At the same time, the theme addresses the role of the media in sustainable development, especially during elections – as a watchdog fostering transparency, accountability and the rule of law.

The theme also aims to explore legislative gaps with regard to freedom of expression and information online, and the risks of regulating online speech.

Source: Africa News

3, May 2018

Labour, Tories lock horns in 2018 UK local elections ⁰

The UK’s two main parties, the ruling Conservatives and the main opposition Labour, are set to lock horns in this year’s local elections across England.

Polling stations across the country will open on Thursday between 7am and 10pm local time and voters will head to the ballots to choose candidates that will take more than 4,000 seats across 150 councils in England.

All the seats in capital London’s 32 boroughs and the metropolitan districts of Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Newcastle are also up for grab.

There are no polls in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

While Prime Minister Theresa May’s party is hoping to keep its grip over main positions, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is positive that his party is set to repeat another strong showing like the one they had in last year’s snap general election.

“The biggest elections are going to be in the main cities, particularly London, Birmingham, Newcastle – we’re going to be working very hard on them. In London particularly, they are going to focus on housing,” he said last December, before proceeding to criticize the Tory government’s treatment of local authorities.

“But it’s also emphasizing the way local authorities have been so underfunded by this government that they are all facing real difficulties … this is the product of seven years of austerity,” he argued. “I’m hoping we do very, very well, but I’m not putting a figure on it.”

May called the snap election thinking that it would easily hand her stronger support in parliament but ended up costing her party its decisive majority.

She further embarrassed the Tories and herself by appealing to Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to form a majority government.

A month before the snap election, however, the Conservatives won 1,900 seats in the local elections, up 558 from the year before, while Labour lost 320 to end up with 1,151.

Source: Presstv

3, May 2018

US: President Trump reportedly hiring Bill Clinton’s lawyer ⁰

US President Donald Trump is reportedly hiring Bill Clinton’s impeachment lawyer, Emmet Flood, as White House lawyer Ty Cobb quits.

“For several weeks Ty Cobb has been discussing his retirement and last week he let Chief of Staff [John] Kelly know he would retire at the end of this month,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. On Wednesday.

Cobb (pictured below) was the main figure in the Trump team to defend the administration against of allegations of collusion with Russia.

Flood, a veteran Washington lawyer, would be joining the team “to represent the president and the administration against the Russia witch hunt.”

In an interview with ABC News, Cobb said a presidential interview with special counsel Robert Mueller is still being considered.

“It’s certainly not off the table and people are working hard to make decisions and work towards an interview,” Cobb said.

Trump added attorneys Joseph DiGenova and Victoria Toensing to his team of outside lawyers in March.

The investigation, known as the Russia probe, seeks to find out whether the Russian government coordinated with Trump’s aides after the intelligence community’s conclusion that the Kremlin helped with the New York billionaire’s campaign effort ahead of winning the White House, an allegation dismissed both by Moscow and the president.

Source: Presstv

3, May 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Bamenda Arch Diocese confirms release of Father Niba ⁰

A priest in Cameroon’s Northwest region has been released by unknown gunmen after about two days in detention, Catholic Church leaders have disclosed. The Bamenda Archdiocese confirmed that Rev. Father William Niba had been abducted in the town of Belo. He was the principal of St. Bede’s College.

His arrest is said to be connected with the failure to observe a social boycott call by separatists. Local media sources reported that after the kidnapping of the principal panic gripped the school as parents rushed to withdraw their children.

Kidnapping is rampant among a section of the secessionists pushing for independence from French-majority Cameroon. The two Anglophone regions – Northwest and Southwest have long protested marginalization from the central government.

The main separatist group pushing for the so-called Ambazonia Republic command the Ambazonia Defence Forces (ADF) which says it targets members of the security forces but was not engaged in kidnap.

It suggests that other fringe groups are engaged in the kidnappings. The security situation in the region has meant curfews are in place supposedly to control the incidence of attacks.

The army has denied using reprisals against citizens after separatists attack them. That is contrary to reports by local media and rights groups that accuse them of human rights violations.

Source: Africa News

3, May 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Schools Under Attack ⁰

Fresh violence in northwestern Cameroon has forced hundreds of teachers and students from their classrooms. Separatist rebels are targeting schools for not observing calls to strike.

Heavy rains fall as we arrive at Saint Bedes school in the English-speaking town of Ashing.

Dozens of students are carrying boxes out of the school. 17-year-old student Ambe John is leaving.

“I am going home due to what happened in school and for the sake of my principal. I need to go home so he can be rescued,” said Ambe John.

Parents removing their students from Saint Bedes.

Armed men attacked the school on Monday, abducting the principal and the school chaplain. Government officials told VOA for the two men were targeted by anglophone separatists for violating instructions to remain closed in support of the Ambazonian independence movement.

The chaplain was later released but the principal has not been found.

Godlove Nformi left his home in the nearby French-speaking town of Bafoussam to pick up his son when he got news of the attack.

“The matron gave us the information that we should come and take our children home,” he said. “I am feeling too bad because I think that with everything children should have been going to school at least to see that their future is guaranteed.”

Schools in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions — the northwest and the southwest — were shuttered for nearly a year starting in November 2016. Teachers and lawyers were on strike demanding reforms to address what they say is the marginalization of Anglophones in mostly French-speaking country.

Some schools reopened last October, but the crisis has intensified. Late in November, President Paul Biya declared a state of war in the Anglophone regions.

Military on the streets of Kom, northwestern Cameroon.

The government says at least 30 schools have been attacked this year, with at least a dozen teachers either killed or wounded in the northwest and southwest regions. Hundreds more have fled.

Johnson Itoh, the most senior education official in the northwest region, says they have been pleading with the teachers to return since the government has deployed the military to protect them.

“We are having personnel of secondary education especially school heads shot at in the northwest here. The going is tough, the tough must get going. So what we are trying to do is to raise up the morale of those in the field,” said Itoh.

Adolph Deben Tchoffo, governor of the northwest region of Cameroon, has been visiting the villages to encourage parents to send children to school.

The governor says he has come on behalf of President Biya to call on the population to seal a pact of collaboration with the military and administrative authorities so that the rebels, which the government has deemed terrorists, can be defeated. He says all village heads and traditional rulers should create self-defense groups to ward off infiltration.

FILE - Cameroon police officials walk with riot shields on a street in the administrative quarter of Buea some 60kms west of Douala, Oct. 1, 2017. — FILE – Cameroon police officials walk with riot shields on a street in the administrative quarter of Buea some 60kms west of Douala, Oct. 1, 2017.

Since early 2017, the government has responded forcefully to the unrest in the Anglophone regions. Rights group say the crackdown, which has included the detention of hundreds of people and at one point a three-month internet blackout, inflamed tensions, making dialogue more difficult.

The conflict has killed dozens on both sides this year and displaced at least 20,000 people.

Source: VOA

2, May 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: French Cameroun spies operating in Calabar, Taraba ⁰

French Cameroun spies are operating a front organization in Calabar and Ikom to exert political pressure on the Buhari government to arrest other Southern Cameroons leaders, Cameroon Intelligence Report has learned. Details of the organization emerged as two alleged spies openly disagreed over the sharing of money in a hotel in Calabar and failing to disclose their affiliation with the Biya regime when questioned by Ambazonian intelligence officers operating in the Cross River State of Nigeria.

The spies who all hail from Manyu Division are accused of secretly promoting French Cameroun interests in the long-running conflict between the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and La Republique du Cameroun using millions of francs CFA of covert funding provided by Yaoundé.

The Southern Cameroons security services recently identified Minister Mengot and the Municipal Administrator for Mamfe, Ayuk John Takunchong as the principal architects of the French Cameroun spying scheme and CIR understands the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Dr. Samuel Ikome Sako is under pressure to order the arrest of these Manyu traitors as relations between the Southern Cameroons and French Cameroun under Biya continue to deteriorate in the wake of the killing of many Southern Cameroons civilians.

According to a document sent to the Acting President, Minister Mengot has reportedly sponsored many missions to Calabar, the latest being that of the Mayor of Mamfe to help the Nigeria security to identify and arrest innocent Southern Cameroonians who fled into the Cross River State of Nigeria. The Manyu CPDM spying network describes itself in educational materials as a “none profit organization dedicated to raising the level of knowledge in Nigeria about the Anglophone problem and to help the Southern Cameroons refugees return home.”

But Southern Cameroons sources have revealed that the Manyu CPDM initiative is actually one of the many French Cameroun killer networks that are run by elements of the Biya government, including French Cameroun’s military intelligence service. The other ones are in Lagos and Taraba.

The Cameroon embassy in Abuja and its Consulate in Calabar have been given an open cheque with one purpose – to hide Biya regime’s involvement in the killing of thousands of Southern Cameroonians and to influence the Nigerian government’s position on Ambazonia.

President Buhari’s handlers in Yaoundé have allegedly funneled millions of dollars through the Cameroon embassy to contribute to APC elected officials, fund high-profile conferences on the Cameroon Anglophone problem, and pay for other efforts that promotes Buhari’s continued stay in power in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Source: www.cameroonintelligencereport

2, May 2018

Who’s Killing Civilians in Southern Cameroons? The AGBAW-EBAI DEBATE ⁰

A look at the data behind the headlines amid the worsening crackdown by the army of 86-year-old Cameroon president Paul Biya in Southern Cameroons tells a pathetic story. The UN under very strong French influence has crafted a response and each time the Ambazonian issue is raised up with disturbing evidence, the Antonio Guterres’ gang are quick to say we haven’t seen this or that video. The UN has blatantly refused to call it “Africa’s largest humanitarian crisis” in modern times.

“It’s complicated”. This is often how the crisis in Southern Cameroons is described by the French government and the French surrogates in the African Union including the corrupt Buhari regime in the Federal Republic of Nigeria and these words paint a picture of mass killing on the side of the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime. If we look at the French Cameroun media headlines we assume that its entire ok and some so-called “separatists” are behind the unrest.

So two years into the Southern Cameroons crisis and 57 years into the killing of Anglophone leaders, we have looked at the data on who is killing who. The truth is shocking. The vast majority of Southern Cameroons civilians killed – 99% according to human rights groups and international media sources – have been killed by the government of President Paul Biya and its allies.

This matters as we enter a civil war scenario in Cameroon under the CPDM regime. All efforts at stopping the Southern Cameroons uprising will fail unless we understand where it is coming from. The story of the data is unarguable – if we want to stop the killing of civilians in Southern Cameroons we have to address the brutality of the government of Mr. Paul Biya and its allies.

In this edition of the AGBAW-EBAI DEBATE, we are asking our readers if the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia should embrace a military response to the killings of Southern Cameroons civilians?

2, May 2018

Australian cardinal could face two trials on sex abuse charges ⁰

Top Pope aide Cardinal George Pell could face two separate trials as he fights to clear his name over historic sexual offence allegations, an Australian court heard Wednesday.

A Melbourne judge on Tuesday ordered the Vatican finance chief, 76, to stand trial on multiple charges, making him the highest-ranked Catholic to face such allegations.

Pell pleaded not guilty, and half of the charges initially filed against him were thrown out.

The exact details and nature of the alleged offenses remain confidential, other than they involve “multiple charges and multiple complainants,” dating from the 1970s and 1990s.

Some of the alleged offences were at a swimming pool in the town of Ballarat in Victoria state where Pell was a priest in the 1970s, and a second set of alleged actions were at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral in the 1990s.

At Wednesday’s brief directions hearing in the Victoria County Court, Pell’s barrister Robert Richter argued that because the charges related to different locations and were 20 years apart, they should be split and heard in two trials.

Another court hearing was set for May 16 when final decisions and trial dates are expected to be set.

Pell, who entered the court surrounded by a police cordon, is on bail and has had his passport confiscated.

The former Sydney and Melbourne archbishop has been on leave from the Vatican, returning to Australia to fight the allegations, the most serious of which have been dismissed due to inconsistencies in the evidence.

Pell was one of the Pope Francis’ most trusted aides, handpicked by him in 2014 to make the Church’s finances more transparent.

It cemented a meteoric rise by the Australian, who was Archbishop of Melbourne and then Sydney before being named to the Vatican’s powerful College of Cardinals at the behest of Pope John Paul II in 2003.

In a brief statement Tuesday, the Vatican said it had “taken note of the decision issued by judicial authorities in Australia” and that Pell would remain on the leave of absence granted by the pope to defend himself.

(Source: AFP)