Headline News

4, April 2018

Trump says he could have ‘a very good relationship’ with Putin ⁰

President Donald Trump says he could have “a very good relationship” with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, even as the United States and many European nations have expelled more than 150 Russian diplomats.

“Getting along with Russia is a good thing,” Trump said Tuesday during a joint press conference with leaders of three Baltic countries most concerned about the potential for “aggression” from Moscow.

“I think I could have a very good relationship with Russia and with President Putin, and if I did, that would be a great thing. And there’s also a great possibility that that won’t happen. Who knows?”

Trump made the comments as his administration raised the prospect of a White House meeting between the US and Russian presidents.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump and Putin had “discussed a bilateral meeting in the ‘not-too-distant future’” during their most recent phone conversation last month, and that the White House was among “a number of potential venues.”

Trump called Putin on March 20 to congratulate him on his reelection, stoking criticism he is overly warm with the Russian president even as the US intelligence has conduced Russia interfered in the 2016 US election.

During the White House summit on Tuesday, Trump said he was looking to expand business ties with Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as their leaders have called on the US to take a tougher stance against Russia.

US President Donald trump speaks during a joint press conference with President Raimonds Vejonis of Latvia, President Kersti Kaljulaid of Estonia and President Dalia Grybauskaite of Lithuania in the East Room of the White House on April 3, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP)

“The Baltic countries remain a key market for US aircraft, automobiles, machinery and medical equipment, and we welcome increased bilateral trade with all three nations based on the principle of fairness and reciprocity,” he said.

Trump told the foreign leaders that “nobody has been tougher on Russia” than he has been, noting he has pushed for increased military spending and energy production to beat Russia.

“We’re essentially now energy-independent. We’re an exporter of energy. That is not a positive for Russia,” he said.

“We are going to have a military stronger than we’ve ever had before by far,” he added. “That’s not exactly a great thing for Russia.”

The three states, along with the US, moved to impose new sanctions on Moscow in response to the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England last month, an attack that Western officials have blamed on the Kremlin.

The UK says the nerve agent Novichok had been used to poison the pair, claiming only Russia had the capability, motive and intent to be behind the attack.

Moscow has vehemently denied any involvement, saying the substance could have originated from the countries studying Novichok, including the UK itself, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Sweden.

The Trump administration announced plans to expel 60 Russian diplomatic officials it accused of being spies following the nerve agent attack against Skripal.

Despite diplomatic actions by his administration, Trump has not forcefully condemned Putin and Moscow for the incident.

Moscow has also expelled nearly 60 diplomats from different countries in retaliation.

Source: Presstv

4, April 2018

France: Teargas used against students backing three-month strike ⁰

Students in Nantes marched in a show of solidarity with public-sector workers, who began a three-month strike campaign against French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposed labor reforms on Tuesday.

More than 2,000 protesters amassed outside Nantes railway station, which has been badly affected by the strike at SNCF, France’s publicly-owned train operator. Police used tear gas in an effort to break up the protest.

Earlier, students voted for an unlimited blockade of Nantes’ university in support of the nationwide strike.

Around 33 percent of railway workers and more than three-quarters of train drivers were on strike, causing severe disruption across the network. The three-month strike will see walkouts two days in every five.

Source: Presstv

3, April 2018

Winnie Mandela Tribute: Julius Malema says Mother of the Nation should have been president ⁰

As tributes poured in for Winnie Madikizela-Mandela who died on Monday, the head of South Africa’s leftist opposition party said misogynists in the ruling ANC had prevented her taking her rightful place as president.

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema stood side by side with senior African National Congress (ANC) figures outside Madikizela-Mandela’s red-brick house in Soweto, chanting songs from the struggle against white minority rule as mourners gathered for a second day.

“Winnie Mandela was supposed to be president of South Africa,” EFF leader Julius Malema told the crowd.

The Mother of the Nation would have restored the dignity of black people.

“But the men in the ANC were threatened by a woman and the whites were threatened by an African woman. That’s why they did everything to destroy her.”

Former ANC youth leader Malema, a strident critic of ousted president Jacob Zuma, was close to Madikizela-Mandela and has the same straight-talking appeal.

He was ejected from the ANC after being convicted of hate speech and created the EFF in 2013 which grew to be strong enough to be a ‘kingmaker’ in local government elections in 2016.

An ANC spokesman did not answer his phone when Reuters called to request comment on Malema’s remarks.

Madikizela-Mandela campaigned tirelessly for her husband Nelson Mandela’s release from jail and emerged as a prominent liberation hero in her own right, but her legacy was later tarnished by allegations of violence.

She was among candidates for ANC deputy president in 1997, a position that would have teed her up for a top national leadership role, but withdrew her bid after failing to secure sufficient support.

“The Mother of the Nation would have restored the dignity of black people,” Malema said, adopting an epithet widely used in South African media to reflect respect for Madikizela-Mandela’s outspoken opposition to the apartheid regime.

Madikizela-Mandela will be given a state funeral at a stadium in Soweto on April 14, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office said in a statement declaring national days of mourning between April 3 and 14.

Source: Africa News

3, April 2018

Joel Matip to miss the rest of the season with thigh injury ⁰

Liverpool defender Joel Matip will miss the rest of the season with an injury, the club have announced.

The Cameroon international sustained a thigh injury during the win over Crystal Palace last weekend and despite being able to complete 90 minutes a subsequent assessment has uncovered a problem that will sideline him for the remainder of the campaign.

That will mean the 26-year-old misses the Champions League quarter-final with Manchester City as well as Saturday’s Merseyside derby with Everton. A short statement read: “Joel Matip is likely to require an operation on a thigh injury, Liverpool can confirm.

“The centre-back sustained the issue during Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.

“Matip was able to complete the full 90 minutes of the fixture, but afterwards medical assessment on the thigh revealed surgery is expected to be required to correct the problem.

“The operation is likely to end the 26-year-old’s involvement in the remainder of the 2017-18 season.”

Jurgen Klopp is set to address the severity of Matip’s injury at his press conference on Tuesday afternoon as well as providing an update on Adam Lallana’s condition after the England midfielder limped out of the game at Selhurst Park just minutes after coming off the bench.

Source:www.indpendent.co.uk

3, April 2018

8 dead in the Manyu County had been in French Cameroun military custody ⁰

Villagers in Kendem and Mbeme have told Cameroon Concord News that a retired gendarmerie officer including seven people found dead in the Awanchi-Betieku sub constituency in Upper Banyang had been arrested by the Francophone dominated army a week earlier and taken to Batibo.

Their remains currently littering on the main road from Kendem Mile 37 to Widikum is the latest in a spate of killings and kidnappings presently going on in Southern Cameroons that the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia say are being conducted by the French Cameroun army against innocent Southern Cameroons civilian population.

With huge support from the French and Nigerian governments, the Biya regime has blatantly refused to respond to repeated requests for comment from human rights groups. The ruling CPDM crime syndicate is yet to even acknowledged any abuses by its forces but has constantly through its so-called government spokesman and minister of communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary rejected many allegations made by Amnesty International.

Civilians in Southern Cameroons are living in fear as the UN acting under strong French government influence has turned a blind eye to the genocide in Southern Cameroons. There are hundreds of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of civilians ever since the Anglophone uprising started a year ago.

The Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Dr. Samuel Sako recently endorsed the policy of self-defense and his government has promised to start an armed struggle against the Biya regime in French Cameroun. A reporter with a sister publication, Cameroon Intelligence Report hinted that slowly but surely armed groups loyal to the Interim Government are taken control of the territory. The Southern Cameroons self-defense forces have since regrouped in Manyu, Lebialem, Akwaya, Tombel, Nguti, Mundemba and Jakiri and are carrying out attacks, winning recruits by playing on local grievances.

Hundreds of French Cameroun soldiers have abandoned the army and escaped from duty following deployment to Southern Cameroons since the start of the year, raising concerns about the Biya regime’s ability to conduct presidential elections planned for this October.

Southern/ Cameroons Ambazonia is a victim of aggression and genocide by its neighbours. The crimes committed against the Federal Republic of Ambazonia for fifty-six years which intensified in the last two years are of an economic, cultural and human nature. The economic war has led to the looting and pillaging of Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia economy, natural resources, land grab, and destruction of the means of sustenance and starving our people to death. The cultural genocide targets the Southern Cameroons identity and its very existence. The human component targeted the Ambazonian sanity and lives.

Gendarmes, secret police and soldiers are deployed to Southern Cameroons to rape girls and women, humiliate traditional rulers, desecrate religious and core spiritual belief system, impose perpetual fear and render so-called Anglophone elites, Fons and Chiefs beggars and subservient collaborators in the annexation, systematic massacre, abduction and disappearance of their own people. Southern Cameroons traditional rulers have been turned into auxiliaries of an alien enemy administration and informants of the brutal colonial secret police in the land which their ancestors passed over to them and posterity. These are the crimes the Ambazonia self defense groups have taken up arms to free all Southern Cameroons from.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

3, April 2018

Yaounde: Philemon Yang worried by security leaks ⁰

The Philemon Yang administration has reportedly launched a crusade against the publication of administrative documents on social media. Cameroon Concord News gathered that the so-called head of government took offense at the publication of confidential documents and information from state institutions and public sector bodies.

Some of these documents, some of which are issued by the Francophone dominated security services, often bearing the words “CONFIDENTIAL”, “SECRET” or “VERY SECRET”, are “sensitive”. Philemon Yang was quoted as saying that these publications affect “the effectiveness of public action” and also constitute “serious” attacks on the security of the state, increasingly subject to security threats in many forms.

The Prime Minister gave standing instructions for cabinet ministers to systematically bring before the competent disciplinary bodies the public officials presumed guilty of violating the obligation of professional discretion. Philemon Yang has also ordered the National Agency for Information Technologies (ANTIC) and the National Center for Development of Informatics (CENADI), to be involved.

By Sama Ernest

3, April 2018

Egypt: Sisi re-elected in low-turnout election ⁰

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been re-elected with 97 percent of votes, the same proportion that the former military commander secured four years ago for his first term but with a lower turnout, official results showed on Monday.

Turnout was 41 percent, despite efforts to get as many Egyptians as possible to polling stations during last week’s vote. Sisi had been virtually guaranteed a landslide win, confirmed by early tallies as voting ended on Wednesday.

The election featured only one other candidate – himself an ardent Sisi supporter – after all serious opposition contenders halted their campaigns in January. The main challenger was arrested and his campaign manager beaten up, while other presidential hopefuls pulled out, citing intimidation.

“Every credible opponent was either threatened, harassed, prosecuted or detained,” said FRANCE 24 correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous.

Sisi said he had wanted more candidates to run and that he had nothing to do with the opposition withdrawals.

The election commission said the vote was free and fair as it gave the results in a televised announcement on Monday.

Sisi won a total of 21.8 million votes compared with 656,534 for his opponent, Moussa Mostafa Moussa, whose tally was less than the 1.8 million spoiled ballots.

The lower turnout is a potential setback for Sisi, who suggested before the vote that he saw it as a referendum on his presidency rather than a genuine contest. Turnout in the 2014 vote that won him his first term was 47 percent.

“This came despite a very fierce campaign by officials to boost turnout,” said Kouddous. “You had officials using a mixture of cajoling and threatening and bullying to get people to the polls. In some provinces, you had police officers going door to door, instructing people to go to the polls. You had boxes of subsidised food with things like cooking oil and sugar being offered in poor areas for people to vote.”

Some voters said they were offered incentives to cast their ballots including money and food, local and international media reported, but did not say who had made the offers.

Officials said that if any such incidents took place they were not state-sponsored and extremely limited.

State media had portrayed failure to vote as a betrayal of Egypt.

“This wasn’t about voter attitudes or voter choices,” Kouddous said. “This was about the optics of their participation. It was really about political domination and … a fierce repression of civilian politics.”

Criticism

Critics say former general Sisi’s popularity has been eroded amid tough economic reforms, which have left most Egyptians worse off, and also an unprecedented crackdown on dissent.

His supporters say those measures are needed to stabilise the country, which faces a stubborn Islamic State group insurgency in the northern Sinai Peninsula and which was rocked by unrest after a 2011 uprising that ousted veteran leader Hosni Mubarak.

Sisi led the 2013 military overthrow of Egypt’s first freely elected president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, after protests against Morsi. Sisi swept to victory in an election a year later with 97 percent of the vote.

The United Nations expressed concern over the crackdown on dissent, including media, which took place before last week’s vote.

Sisi’s main Western and regional allies have been mostly silent over alleged human rights abuses in Egypt.

During voting last week, the US embassy in Cairo said on Twitter it was “impressed by the enthusiasm and patriotism of Egyptian voters”.

Russia congratulated Sisi on his election win ahead of the official results, and regional ally King Salman of Saudi Arabia called Sisi on Monday to express support, saying his victory came as a result of strong efforts to combat terrorism.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)

3, April 2018

Israel: Prime Minister Netanyahu suspends deal with UN on African migrants ⁰

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspends a deal with the United Nations that would prevent the regime from deporting thousands of African migrants only hours after he announced the agreement.

Netanyahu had said on Monday that Israel and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had reached an agreement “for the departure of at least 16,250 migrants…to Western nations.”

The rest of the migrants would be resettled across Israel under the deal, which Netanyahu described as “the best possible.”

The UNHCR also confirmed the agreement in a statement, saying, “A joint working group will be set up with a series of objectives and a timetable to implement solutions for some 39,000 people over five years.”

However, under pressure from far-right politicians, Netanyahu took to Facebook later in the day and said he was putting the deal’s implementation on hold until further notice.

“For the time being, I am suspending the agreement,” Netanyahu said, noting that he would meet with Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and residents of south Tel Aviv before reconsidering it, The Times of Israel reported.

Prior to the deal with the UN, Israel had handed notices to nearly 39,000 asylum seekers, mainly Eritreans and Sudanese, notifying them that they would be deported to Uganda and Rwanda.

The migrants say the Israeli regime has already forced them in their thousands to southern Tel Aviv, intentionally making living conditions unbearable to put pressure on them.

The migrants have been staging regular thousands-strong rallies to condemn the prospect of deportation.

The latest protest took place on March 25 gathering around 25,000.

The participants carried signs and chanted slogans such as “There is no difference between our blood and their blood because we are all human beings.”

Source: Presstv

2, April 2018

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has died ⁰

Nomzamo Winifred Madikizela-Mandela‚ a stalwart in the fight against apartheid‚ has died at the age of 81.

Her PA‚ Zodwa Zwane‚ confirmed the struggle veteran’s death on Monday afternoon.

“It is with profound sadness that we inform the public that Mrs Winnie Madikizela-Mandela passed away at the Netcare Milpark Hospital‚ Johannesburg‚ South Africa on Monday April 2‚ 2018.

She died after a long illness‚ for which she had been in and out of hospital since the start of the year. She succumbed peacefully in the early hours of Monday afternoon surrounded by her family and loved ones,” the family said in a statement today.

The family will release details of the memorial and funeral services once these have been finalised.

Born in Bizana in the Eastern Cape in 1936‚ she moved to Johannesburg to study social work after matriculating.

She met lawyer and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela in 1957 and they were married a year later. They had two children together.

However‚ her marriage life with Mandela was short-lived‚ as he was arrested in 1963 and sentenced to life imprisonment for treason. Mandela was eventually released in 1990.

During Mandela’s time in prison‚ Madikizela-Mandela was not spared the reach of the apartheid forces. She was placed under house arrest and at one time banished to Brandfort‚ a town in the Free State.

In 1969‚ Madikizela-Mandela became one of the first detainees under Section 6 of the notorious Terrorism Act of 1967. She was detained for 18 months in solitary confinement in a condemned cell at Pretoria Central Prison before being charged under the Suppression of Communism Act of 1950.

Controversy

In 1991‚ she was convicted of kidnapping and being an accessory to assault of Stompie Seipei‚ a young activist who was killed by a member of her bodyguards‚ the Mandela United Football Club.

Madikizela-Mandela’s bodyguards had abducted Seipei‚ 14‚ in 1989‚ along with three other youths‚ from the home of Methodist minister Paul Verryn.

Her six-year jail sentence was reduced to a fine and a two-year suspended sentence on appeal.

Her marriage to Mandela began to flounder a few years after his release.

A letter she purportedly wrote to her young lover found its way into the newspapers.

“You’re running around f…ing at the slightest emotional excuse‚” she wrote.

“The fact that I haven’t been speaking to Tata [Nelson Mandela] for five months now over you is no longer your concern. I keep telling you the situation is deteriorating at home. You are not bothered because you are satisfying yourself every night with a woman‚” Madikizela-Mandela reportedly wrote.

In his book Odyssey to Freedom‚ veteran advocate George Bizos described how Mandela would not attend legal consultations Bizos had with Madikizela-Mandela during the Seipei trial.

“He drew the line at attending our consultations‚ primarily because these meetings were also attended by the young lawyer … her lover during the latter part of Nelson’s imprisonment and after he was released‚” Bizos wrote in his book.

The couple divorced in 1996‚ 37 years after their marriage.

After the first democratic election in 1994‚ Madikizela-Mandela became an MP and was appointed deputy minister of arts and culture. She was fired by Mandela after an unauthorised trip to Ghana.

She had been an MP ever since‚ despite limited appearances in Parliament in the past few years.

In 2016‚ she was conferred an Order of Luthuli in Silver during the National Orders Awards ceremony for her excellent contribution to the fight for the liberation of the people of South Africa.

Source: Heraldlive

2, April 2018

Botswana inaugurates new president Masisi in smooth handover ⁰

Botswana’s new president, Mokgweetsi Masisi, used his inauguration speech on Sunday to vow to tackle youth unemployment in one of Africa’s most stable countries.

The swearing-in ceremony in parliament came after Ian Khama stepped down having completed the constitutional maximum of 10 years in office.

As the vice president, Masisi took over automatically, and he is likely to secure a further five-year term in elections in October 2019 when the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) is expected to hold on to power.

Botswana prides itself on good governance and rule of law, and the carefully managed handover of power comes a full 18 months ahead of parliamentary elections in 2019.

Masisi, the former vice president, takes over a country widely seen as an African success story that has made good use of its lucrative income from diamond, beef and tourism.

It is rated as the least corrupt country in Africa by Transparency International.

But it has also struggled with rising unemployment rate of about 18 percent and an HIV epidemic.

“It is because of the peace and tranquillity that our leaders have sustained for so long that Batswana (people) have continued to enjoy relative prosperity,” Masisi said after taking his oath.

“One of my top priorities as the president of this country will be to address the problem of unemployment especially amongst the young people.”

He also pledged to improve treatment and prevention of HIV in a country with a 22 percent infection rate among adults.

Continuity politics

President Masisi, 55, is a close ally of Khama and a BDP veteran.

He is a US-educated former teacher, UNICEF official and education minister, whose father was also a cabinet minister.

“Despite its small size, Botswana continues to play an important role in the promotion of global issues such as respect for human rights, democracy, good governance (and) the rule of law,” Masisi said.

Khama, 65, completed a months-long national farewell tour last week, bidding goodbye to the country’s population of 2.2 million.

He earned a record for straight talking, often criticising leaders including US President Donald Trump and unlike many in the region neighbouring Zimbabwe’s then-president Robert Mugabe as well as Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila.

Khama led the BDP to landslide victories in two elections, although the party won less than 50 percent of the vote for the first time in 2014.

“Internationally, Khama positioned himself as a moral leader,” Matteo Vidiri, a BMI Research analyst, told AFP.

“(But) a slowing economy and increasing public discontent has damaged the narrative of Botswana’s ‘special character’, of a country being able to escape the ‘resource curse’.”

Four opposition parties have said they could unite for the 2019 election to try to unseat the BDP, which has held power since independence from Britain in 1966.

At a farewell event in his home village, Khama was showered with gifts including a 4×4 truck, 143 cows, hundreds of chickens, more than 415,000 pula ($44,000, 35,000 euro) and a fully-equipped luxury caravan.

His father, Seretse Khama, served from 1966 to 1980 as Botswana’s first president.

(AFP)