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Ambazonia Vice President says Southern Cameroonians should prepare for Independence Vote

11, March 2020

Ambazonia Vice President says Southern Cameroonians should prepare for Independence Vote 0

The Vice President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Dabney Yerima has told the Cameroon Concord News Group that he plans to travel to the US to attend the critically important international conference on the escalating armed conflict in the Southern Cameroons scheduled for March 19-21, 2020 in Washington D.C

The exiled Southern Cameroons leader hinted that his trip to the United States will also include a meet-the-people tour to decide on the timing of an Ambazonia electoral process to split off from La Republique du Cameroun.

The Ambazonian Vice President is also expected to meet with US State Department officials to assure the White House that the Federal Republic of Ambazonia will not be another South Sudan but that a UN sponsored referendum vote for secession in Southern Cameroons would simply re-draw Africa’s map and guarantee security and prosperity in the Gulf of Guinea.

In a telephone conversation with our London Bureau Chief late on Tuesday, Vice President Dabney Yerima opined that he will do all within his powers to meet with US Assistant Secretary of State Hon. Tibor Peter Nagy Jr. to urge him to intensify his engagement to find a lasting solution to the ongoing conflict in Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia that will of course include a peaceful separation of the two countries.  

Dabney Yerima lashed out at some so-called front line Southern Cameroons leaders whose actions have been sending conflicting signals to the international community. “Instead of celebrating the declaration of our independence made possible by our great leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and working hard to multiply and consolidate our gains during this struggle, a handful are busy helping the French Cameroun invading army in creating the largest refugee crisis in the Sub Saharan African region”  Yerima said.  “An estimated 2.5 million Southern Cameroonians have been forcibly displaced.  An estimated 20,000 may have been killed since President Biya of La Republique du Cameroun declared war against us, but the death toll could be far, far greater” the Vice President added.

Comrade Dabney Yerima observed that the humanitarian situation in Southern Cameroons is dire with more than 89 percent of the Ambazonian population in Ground Zero requiring humanitarian assistance.  Yerima pointed out that insecurity created by the French Cameroun invading army and armed militias sponsored by barons of the ruling French Cameroun crime syndicate have disrupted farming cycles and trade routes in Southern Cameroons.

Vice President Yerima revealed that Southern Cameroons popular markets in Tiko, Kumba, Bamenda and Mamfe have all collapsed and food prices have skyrocketed.  He indicated that over 2000 Ambazonian children in Lebialem and Menchum County including Bui, Akwaya and Ndian are facing acute malnutrition and relief supplies from international donors have been repeatedly looted by soldiers loyal to the French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé.

The war in Southern Cameroons has been characterized by horrific human rights violations blamed on the Cameroon government army. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the International Crisis Group have all reported that civilians have not only been caught up in the violence but have directly been targeted by French speaking army soldiers.

The U.N. Representative in the North West region recently suggested that genocide was ongoing in Southern Cameroons. Both Cameroon government army soldiers and Ambazonia Restoration Forces have engaged in widespread violence with attacks on aid workers on a rise. Human Rights Watch officials assert that targeted attacks against civilians, humanitarians, and U.N. personnel in the two English speaking regions of Cameroon by government forces may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in Brussels, Asu Isong in London and Oke Akombi Ayukepi Akap in Glasgow

Race for the White House: Biden tightens grip on Democratic nomination with big wins

11, March 2020

Race for the White House: Biden tightens grip on Democratic nomination with big wins 0

Joe Biden took a vice-like grip on the Democratic nomination race Tuesday with big primary wins in Michigan and other states confirming his growing advantage over leftist Bernie Sanders in the contest to take on President Donald Trump.

First US networks projected a huge victory in Mississippi for Biden, reflecting his popularity among strategically vital African American voters. Then came Missouri and, biggest of all, Michigan — one of the industrial Midwestern giants due to be a key battleground in the general election.

“Thank you Michigan!” tweeted Biden, still waiting for results from three more states holding primaries before the night was over.

Barring major surprises, Biden now eyes a strong path to becoming the Democrats’ candidate in the bruising and deeply divisive November polls.

But if the veteran centrist and former vice president under Barack Obama might increasingly shift focus on trying to make Trump a one-term president, Sanders’ next step remains a big question.

Will he fight on to the bitter end, as he did four years ago against the eventual nominee Hillary Clinton? Or will he bow out early?

Many Democrats blame the uncompromising, self-declared democratic socialist for subjecting Clinton to friendly fire just as she was struggling — ultimately unsuccessfully — against the Trump insurgency.

Adding to nerves in a country on edge after three tumultuous years under Trump, fears of the coronavirus epidemic prompted both campaigns to cancel election-night rallies.

Organizers of a live television debate scheduled Sunday, pitting the fiery Sanders and the moderate Biden, likewise said they would take the extraordinary step of not allowing the usual live audience.

‘Powerful’ coalition

For Biden, Tuesday’s six-state contest, coming a week after his surprise comeback in voting on Super Tuesday, demonstrated that his once shambolic campaign is in rude health and now ready to face Trump.

Michigan in particular — an industrial giant that Trump won in an upset in 2016 — was targeted by Biden as a place to put down a marker ahead of the November election.

Sanders accused Biden of selling out to corporate interests and ignoring a passionate leftist base.

US elections have been rigged for last 200 years: Writer

But the former vice president has insisted on steering a centrist line that he says can bring the divided country back together, and it appears to have paid off.

Banking on his credibility as Obama’s vice president, he has managed to get out an enthusiastic black vote.

But with stories of a hard-knock childhood in Pennsylvania and Delaware frequently featuring in his speeches, Biden also wants to recapture the blue collar white voters that Trump successfully poached from the Democrats in 2016.

“Biden is putting together the traditional Democratic coalition, and that’s still a very powerful one,” said Julian Zelizer, a professor of political history at Princeton University and media pundit.

Early Tuesday, Biden began his final push by meeting workers at an under-construction automobile plant in Detroit, where he received cheers but also was confronted by one worker.

In a startling exchange, the worker, wearing a construction helmet and reflective vest, accused Biden of seeking to take away Americans’ firearms.

“You’re full of shit,” an angry Biden shot back, insisting that he supports the constitutional right to bear arms.

“I’m not taking your gun away,” he said in the encounter, which Trump supporters quickly pointed to as evidence of Biden’s inability to stand pressure — but supporters saw as a show of mettle.

“Gimme a break, man,” Biden added.

Coronavirus fears

Voters came out under the growing shadow of the global coronavirus epidemic, which has infected over 900 people across the United States and killed 28.

Sanders and Biden called off customary election-night rallies — both planned in Cleveland, part of another Rust Belt state, Ohio, which votes next week — in line with public health warnings from state officials.

Their precaution is at odds with Trump, who has vowed to keep holding his campaign’s sometimes raucous rallies despite the concerns.

Washington state, which has borne the brunt of the crisis and also was going to the polls Tuesday, votes entirely by mail — an option some experts say should become more widespread as the epidemic grows.

Idaho and North Dakota were also voting.

‘Get 45 out’

Artist and designer Cecilia Covington, 61, was the first person to vote in Precinct 123 in downtown Detroit, braving the drizzle as she arrived at Chrysler Elementary School to vote for Biden.

“When he wasn’t doing well in the polls I was really concerned,” she said, adding that his stunning comeback on Super Tuesday “put my confidence back.”

“We’ve got to get ’45’ out of office,” she said, referring to the current president.

On Super Tuesday, Biden won 10 out of 14 states that voted, giving him a healthy lead even before the latest round of primaries.

(Source: AFP)

African Development Bank Executive Directors concludes fact-finding mission to Cameroon

10, March 2020

African Development Bank Executive Directors concludes fact-finding mission to Cameroon 0

A five-member delegation of African Development Bank Executive Directors has concluded a week-long fact-finding mission to Cameroon during which they met with the country’s Prime Minister and other senior officials.

During the mission which began on 2 March 2020 in the capital, Yaoundé, the Executive Directors also held consultations with stakeholders, including private sector operators and development partners. They also toured Bank-financed projects.

“We are glad to host you here to understand the reality on the ground,” said Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute, welcoming the delegation. “The government shall endeavor to address the concerns you may raise.”

The meetings with the government Ministers reviewed Cameroon’s economic and political situation and prospects, as well as cooperation with the African Development Bank, which the Premier Ngute described as productive, noting that the Bank was “one of the most prominent players” in the country’s economy.

The Bank’s investments are channeled through infrastructure, health, energy, education, sanitation and water sectors. “The projects have contributed tremendously to transforming the country and improving the living conditions of Cameroonians, both in rural and urban areas,” Ngute said.

The Executive Directors welcomed the government’s efforts to reduce debt and called for steadfast reforms to shore up economic growth. They emphasized the need for swift government action to accelerate the implementation of projects and programs approved by the Bank. They also discussed progress in the opening of the Bank’s Regional Office in Yaoundé, a key step in the implementation of its new business development model.

“This consultation mission is part of the Board’s efforts to enhance its members’ understanding of in-country developments,” said Mbuyamu Ilankir Matungulu, Executive Director for Cameroon, Central African Republic, Burundi, Congo, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo and spokesman for the delegation.

To conclude their mission in Yaoundé, the Executive Directors held discussions with the State Minister and Secretary-General of the Presidency of the Republic, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh.

They took note of security concerns in the northern-west and southern-west regions which have caused delays in the implementation of Bank-funded projects. The delegation encouraged the authorities to stay the course with reforms to ease political tensions and facilitate the return of peace and security, and ensure the resumption of orderly development work in the affected areas.

Bank-funded projects visited by the team included the Yaoundé sanitation project (PADY), which has helped to reduce the incidence of flooding in the capital; electricity transmission and distribution networks (PREREDT), which has provided power to nearly 12,000 households in southern Cameroon with plans to power additional 16,000 households; and the 200 MW Kribi Power Development Corporation (KPDC) power plant which is supporting social initiatives for local communities in the areas of education, health, and environment.

In Kribi, the delegation also visited Cameroon’s new deep-sea port and shared perspectives with its management.

Other members of the Bank delegation include Mmakgoshi Lekhethe, Executive Director for South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini; Cornelius Karlens Dekop for Botswana, Malawi, Mauritius, and Zambia; Takuji Yano, representing Japan, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Austria, and Brazil; Christopher Chalmers for the United Kingdom, Italy, and Netherlands. They were accompanied by senior advisers and acting Director-General for Central Africa, Solomane Koné.

The Bank’s portfolio in Cameroon, estimated at $3 billion, is the most prominent in Central Africa in terms of commitments.

Source: The Devdiscourse

Russia: Putin backs amendment allowing him to stay in power beyond 2024

10, March 2020

Russia: Putin backs amendment allowing him to stay in power beyond 2024 0

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday backed a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow him to seek re-election after his current term ends in 2024, ending uncertainty about his future.

Putin gave his support to the amendment put forward by lawmaker Valentina Tereshkova, who as a Soviet cosmonaut in 1963 became the first woman to fly to space. She proposed either scrapping Russian’s two-term limit for presidents or resetting the clock so Putin’s four terms wouldn’t count.

Lawmakers in the Kremlin-controlled State Duma quickly endorsed Tereshkova’s proposal, along with a sweeping set of constitutional changes proposed by Putin.

In a speech to lawmakers Tuesday, Putin spoke against scrapping presidential term limits altogether but backed the idea that if the constitution is revised, the two-term limit only would apply from 2024 on. The president’s current six-year term expires in 2024.

Putin, 67, has been in power for more than 20 years, becoming Russia’s longest-serving leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. After serving two presidential terms in 2000-2008, he shifted to the Russian prime minister’s office while protege Dmitry Medvedev served as a placeholder president.

Putin reclaimed the presidency in 2012 and won another term in 2018.

A series of constitutional amendments Putin proposed in January were widely seen by Kremlin foes as part of his efforts to stay in power. However, it wasn’t clear until Tuesday how Putin could achieve that goal.

Observers had speculated that Putin could use the changes to scrap term limits; move into the prime minister’s seat with strengthened powers; or continue calling the shots as the head of the State Council.

He rejected all those options and finally revealed his cards Tuesday after Tereshkova, a legendary figure widely revered for her pioneering space flight, offered her ideas.

“I propose to either lift the presidential term limit or add a clause that after the revised constitution enters force, the incumbent president, just like any other citizen, has the right to seek the presidency,” she said to a raucous applause.

After Tereshkova spoke, Putin quickly came to parliament to address lawmakers.

He said he was aware of public calls for him to stay on as preisdent and emphasized that Russia needs stability above all.

“The president is a guarantor of security of our state, its internal stability and evolutionary development,” Putin said. “We have had enough revolutions.”

However, he said that since the constitution is a long-term document, scrapping the term limit wasn’t a good idea.

Then he dropped the bombshell, saying he positively viewed Tereshkova’s alternate proposal to restart the term count when the revamped constitution enters force.

“As for the proposal to lift restrictions for any person, including the incumbent, to allow running in elections, this option is possible,” Putin said.

He added that the Constitutional Court would need to judge if the move would be legal, although the court’s assent is all but guaranteed.

Putin’s statement came as lawmakers were considering the amendments in a crucial second reading when changes in the document are made.

The Kremlin-controlled lower house, the State Duma, quickly endorsed the proposed amendments by a 382-0 vote with 44 abstentions. A vote on a third reading will be a quick formality. A nationwide vote on the proposed amendments is set for April 22.

Source: AP

Champions League: PSG’s Mbappe sick, doubtful for Dortmund crunch match

10, March 2020

Champions League: PSG’s Mbappe sick, doubtful for Dortmund crunch match 0

Paris Saint-Germain are sweating on the fitness of star striker Kylian Mbappe who has picked up a throat infection ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League last-16 return-leg against Dortmund.

The French World Cup star missed team training Monday and Tuesday and was reported to have a sore throat, with his club needing to overturn a 2-1 deficit from their first leg defeat in Germany two weeks ago.

Mbappe has scored six goals in his last three PSG matches.

At Monday’s training session Argentine forward Angel Di Maria was observed passing the ball around with Neymar. Spanish forward Pablo Sarabia is also a likely inclusion should Mbappe miss the game.

PSG lost 2-1 to an Erling Haaland-inspired Dortmund before a crowd of 80,000 in Germany last month, with the return-leg to be played in an empty Parc des Prices stadium due to the coronavirus.

Source:  AFP

2nd person officially cured of HIV, reveals identity

10, March 2020

2nd person officially cured of HIV, reveals identity 0

The second person to be declared fully cured of HIV and AIDS has revealed his identity, The New York Times reports.

Forty-year-old Adam “LP” Castillejo, so far known as the “London patient,” revealed himself in an interview published Monday, a year after being declared virus-free.

“This is a unique position to be in, a unique and very humbling position,” he said. “I want to be an ambassador of hope.”

Trump ‘no ally of people living with HIV’

The London patient received a bone marrow transplant from a donor with cells containing a mutation that inhibits HIV.

“It’s really important that it wasn’t a one-off, it wasn’t a fluke,” said Richard Jefferys, a director at Treatment Action Group, an advocacy organization. “That’s been an important step for the field.”

Castillejo was only 23, when he was diagnosed with HIV, viewed by some as a death sentence.“

Hong Kong scientists say new research points to universal antibody drug for HIV

I do recall when the person told me and the panic set in,” he said.“It was a very terrifying and traumatic experience to go through.”

During his State of the Union speech last year, US President Donald Trump voiced concern over the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United Sates.

“My budget will ask Democrats and Republicans to make the needed commitment to eliminate the HIV epidemic in the United States within 10 years,” Trump said at the time. “Together, we will defeat AIDS in America.”

Timothy Ray Brown, known as the “Berlin Patient,” was successfully cured in 2008.

“I don’t want people to think, ‘Oh, you’ve been chosen,’” Castillejo said. “No, it just happened. I was in the right place, probably at the right time, when it happened.”

Source: Presstv

Cameroon’s Pathetic and Chaotic Response to the Coronavirus

10, March 2020

Cameroon’s Pathetic and Chaotic Response to the Coronavirus 0

A day after the IMF/World Bank announced a $50 billion aid package to help poor countries contain the coronavirus outbreak; Cameroon confirmed its first two cases of the deadly virus; a 58-year-old French national and a Cameroonian who came in contact with him, after he arrived Yaoundé on Feb 24. The public health minister said in separate communiqués that both patients were isolated at the Yaoundé Central hospital where they are receiving “symptomatic treatment” (whatever that means). The Health minister also ask those who had contact with the index case to call a toll-free number to “receive appropriate care” while assuring public opinion that “everything is being done to contain this outbreak without undue delay, in conformity with the high instructions from the President of the Republic, HE Mr. Paul Biya.”The feudal deference to Mr. President aside, the health minister’s belated effort to calm frayed nerves cannot be taken to signify successful containment; rather, it is an expression of a luxurious desire which signposts the absence of an emergency healthcare plan that should have been activated to contain the virus. This unpreparedness is most pathetic and tragic and Cameroonians deserve better.

It is indeed embarrassing to note that this epidemic has taken Cameroon unawares. How can the government’s containment strategy be anchored on self-reporting using a toll-free number? What happens if someone calls and reports that he/she is witnessing symptoms of the coronavirus? Is there a team of trained health personnel with the appropriate test-kits, including an ambulance ready to take such a patient and all those who have been exposed to him to a quarantine facility, assuming such a facility even exists? Alternatively, will such a patient be ordered to self-quarantine at home; and how will the patient be monitored? Amid global warnings about the coronavirus that has claimed over 3,000 plus lives and infected no fewer than 100,000 people, the health minister’s verbal pugilism advertises in spectacular fashion, a certain poverty of ideas on the part of those who govern Cameroon even in matters that are supposedly routine; and is indicative of a failure of leadership in the country. This is a public shame to a nation that should have outgrown primary healthcare challenges.

As official rhetoric and public grandstanding drives fear into the complex matrix over the unfolding coronavirus crisis, the gravity of the epidemic demands an urgent, robust and holistic national response, beyond laconic press statements designed to aggrandize the president. Even more disheartening, there is still no concerted effort by competent health workers to screen passengers arriving at Cameroon airports to determine whether they are sick or exhibited any symptoms of the coronavirus. It is shocking that a country like Cameroon does not even have one facility that such patients can be isolated. The WHO representative in Cameroon told CRTV that the test of the infected French national was done at Centre Pasteur in Yaoundé. This begs the question: what is the capacity of Centre Pasteur to handle an epidemic in which thousands of people get infected through community transmission?

With a shambolic healthcare system, decrepit health infrastructure, acerbic poverty and political volatility, most hospitals lack isolation or quarantine units, personal protection equipment (PPE) and trained personnel to carry out the necessary care against the coronavirus. Does the Health Minister need any reminder that laboratory confirmation of coronavirus diagnosis requires equipment, test kits and trained personnel that most Cameroon hospitals don’t have? It is utterly ridiculous for the government to ask people who have had contact with the index case to self-report or self-isolate or self-quarantine. There is no beneficial value in government’s misplaced self-vindication, amid reports that the government was struggling to contact the passengers who were exposed to the Frenchman who brought the coronavirus to Cameroon. As an urgent public safety imperative, the government should publish the flight manifest to enable the public identify passengers on that plane who were exposed and might have been infected by the Frenchman.

The implications of the other passengers still roaming at large and interacting with the public is the potential infection of hundreds, if not thousands of other people, aggravating the risk of widespread infection given that every infected person is said to infect at least two other people. Because for each day a coronavirus patient stays at home, family and all contacts are endangered, it is, therefore, better left to the imagination, the terrible consequences, specifically on public health and on public psyche of what evidently is a disaster waiting to happen! Against the backdrop of this doomsday scenario coupled with the dire indicators on the state of official unpreparedness to handle the coronavirus crisis, the question must be asked: what is this nation ever prepared for? The world is on red alert over the deadly coronavirus, yet Cameroonians are left to the vagaries of life while their leaders do nothing. Not even an emergency budgetary allocation has been earmarked to contain the virus. This is unacceptable!

The coronavirus is sufficiently serious a disease as to warrant the declaration of a national emergency by the government, wherein all hospitals (public and private), and health personnel across the country are put on red alert. Unfortunately, corrupt Cameroonian government officials with their remarkable genius for travesty seem more interested in transforming the coronavirus epidemic into another cash cow to line their pockets; as some have done with the ongoing armed insurgency in the Anglophone regions. The rumor mill has also spun beyond reason, misinforming the public with all manner of unfounded cures and remedies with no scientific basis. It was claimed in some quarters that drinking beer and eating bitter kola was a potent remedy and Cameroonians promptly descended on beer and bitter kola, until the rumor was debunked; saving them from the tragedy of their ignorance. Some Cameroonians view the timing of the confirmed cases as inauspicious, believing it is just a ploy by the regime to attract a share of the promised $50 billion IMF/World Bank largesse to help poor countries contain the coronavirus outbreak. Be that as it may.

The coronavirus is a national crisis of monumental proportion as the World Health Organization (WHO) has all but declared it a global pandemic. The deadly virus can wipe out scores of people in a matter of days if unchecked. The disease is contracted by direct contact with an infected person and the virus can remain within an infected person for as long as three weeks after exposure before manifesting. The symptoms progress from fever to nausea, headache, sore throat, tiredness, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea, coughing and neck-stiffness. So far, there is no vaccine or known cure as scientists are still working on a number of trial drugs that are expected to be ready not earlier than 18 months. Therefore, the government must continue to take coronavirus seriously and sustain public enlightenment through traditional as well as the now very popular social media, on measures to prevent or contain it. Scrupulous personal hygiene, avoidance of contact with suspected victims, and immediate report of suspected cases to health authorities, are just some of the steps the public should take.   

The outbreak of the coronavirus in Cameroon, once again, presents a challenge to the authorities to address basic social amenities that make for improved living conditions for the average Cameroonian. While the world struggles to develop a potent cure, the best way out now is good hygiene. Keeping the living environment clean is essential. All must be careful, people should as much as possible avoid crowded areas, while churches, mosques and other religious houses should control meetings that bring too many people into contact with one another. The same goes for CPDM rallies. Commercial cyclists (Bendskin) could also be at risk of spreading the virus through body contacts. The times call for a rapid holistic response, targeting short-term measures and long-term improvement in human development indices, not slogans and empty bureaucratic noises and public grandstanding because one thing is clear – the coronavirus puts everybody at risk.

By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai

Tokyo tourist sites ‘nearly empty’ as coronavirus bites

10, March 2020

Tokyo tourist sites ‘nearly empty’ as coronavirus bites 0

In Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market, restaurants normally thronged with tourists hoping to sample some of its renowned sushi stand empty, victim of the coronavirus that is battering Japan’s tourism sector.

Cook Hiroshi Ota, 61, said nearly three-quarters of his customers in normal times are Chinese tourists, but they are kept away by new Japanese measures requesting everyone from China and South Korea self-quarantine for two weeks.

“It was normal until around December but after that, people stopped coming from China during the Lunar New Year. The streets and shops here are nearly empty,” he told AFP.

The tuna shop next to his restaurant has closed down temporarily as customers have dried up and operating costs remain high, he said. All around, shops normally packed for lunchtime service have lowered their corrugated iron shutters.

Noriko Suzuki, a 63-year-old selling sea urchins and oysters at the market, said: “I haven’t seen a single person on the street this morning,” complaining of a “sharp drop” in customers, especially from China, since the outbreak of the virus.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has set a target of 40 million tourists to visit Japan in 2020, as the country gears up to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

But the coronavirus that has infected more than 110,000 people worldwide, including more than 500 in Japan, has dampened tourism around the world and even cast a question mark over the Games themselves.

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, visitors from South Korea and China made up about half of all inbound tourists in 2018, the latest available figures.

Tourism had already dropped significantly from South Korea — down 64 percent in November 2019 compared to the same period the year before — as Tokyo and Seoul became embroiled in a spat over trade and Japan’s war-time history.

– ‘Huge impact’ –

Chinese and Korean tourists “have disappeared” from the street, said one woman selling food at Senso-ji, a temple in Tokyo that is one of the capital’s biggest tourism draws.

The usually packed streets are much quieter than usual with “less than half” the usual number of tourists, said a vendor at a travel bag shop on the street leading up to the temple.

“We have to live with this for the time being but the media should not get too excited about the virus. It generates a negative feeling and also affects businesses that are doing fine,” said the woman, who declined to give her name.

On the northern island of Hokkaido, tourism has “dropped significantly” because of the coronavirus outbreak, said Masahi Isobe, from the local tourism office.

“Chinese tourists account for more than one quarter of foreign travellers to Hokkaido. With the government measures, there will be no Chinese or Korean visitors here and this will make a huge impact,” she told AFP.

Source:  AFP

US: Biden and Sanders face off as six states, including key battleground Michigan, hold primary contests

10, March 2020

US: Biden and Sanders face off as six states, including key battleground Michigan, hold primary contests 0

US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, surging in the polls and with several weighty endorsements in his pocket, and rival Bernie Sanders hit the campaign trail in Michigan on Monday on the eve of a primary vote in the key battleground state.

Biden, 77, was joined at an event in Flint, Michigan, by Cory Booker just hours after the New Jersey senator and one-time presidential hopeful announced he was throwing his support behind the former vice president.

“This could be the turning point not just of a primary campaign,” Booker said. “This could be the day we turned a whole nation around.”

Michigan is the biggest prize of six states that hold primaries on Tuesday to decide on a Democratic candidate to face Republican incumbent Donald Trump in November.

Speaking at the event with Booker in Flint, Biden said Michigan “is an important contest not just for the Democratic primary.

“The outcome of Michigan in November may determine who the next president of the United States is going to be,” he said.

“We’re not looking for a revolution,” Biden said in a jab at Sanders, the 78-year-old senator from Vermont who is a self-described democratic socialist.

“What we ought to be able to do is trust the water that comes out of the pipes,” Biden said in a reference to a drinking water pollution crisis gripping Flint for the past six years.

Sanders was campaigning in Detroit, Michigan, on Monday and held a roundtable with experts on the coronavirus, which has left at least 26 people dead in the United States and sent stock markets plunging.

Sanders criticized Trump’s handling of the crisis.

“Donald Trump does not have a natural ability to understand the coronavirus and his reckless statements are confusing people in this country and all over the world,” Sanders said.

Booker, the charismatic former mayor of Newark who dropped out of the race in January, is the latest prominent African-American politician to back Biden’s bid for the White House, his third following unsuccessful runs in 1988 and 2008.

California Senator Kamala Harris, who ended her campaign for the nomination in December, also endorsed Biden, who served for eight years as vice president to Barack Obama, America’s first black president, as did another also-ran, former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick.

Booker and Harris, both touted as possible vice presidential picks for Biden, were to join him for a “Get Out the Vote” rally in Detroit on Monday evening.

Biden leads in polls 

Biden has surged since scoring a decisive victory in the South Carolina primary on February 29, with endorsements from key African-American leaders helping him claim the frontrunner mantle in the race.

Former Democratic candidates Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Michael Bloomberg and Beto O’Rourke have also swung behind Biden, seeing a moderate as having the best chance of defeating Trump.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who dropped out of the race last week and has a sizeable following on the left, has yet to decide whether to endorse Biden or Sanders.

Tuesday’s primaries will be the first one-on-one duel between Biden and Sanders since all the other major candidates dropped out of the grueling nomination battle that began more than a year ago.

Besides Michigan, Democrats will also be voting in Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington.

Michigan is shaping up as a must win for Sanders, who narrowly won the state over Hillary Clinton during his failed 2016 bid for the Democratic nomination.

The latest polls for Michigan, however, have Biden with a lead of between 15 and 20 points.

The latest Missouri poll has Biden up there by nearly 19 points while he leads Sanders by a narrow two-point margin in Washington.

Sanders, desperate to reboot his campaign after losing 10 of the 14 states which voted on Super Tuesday last week, cancelled plans to speak in Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois in order to focus on Michigan.

Sanders gained the endorsement of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson on Sunday.

Jackson endorsed Sanders at a rally on Sunday in Grand Rapids, Michigan, repaying the Vermont senator for having supported his 1988 bid for the White House.

“I stand with Bernie Sanders today because he stood with me,” Jackson said. “I stand with him because he stands with you.”

Biden’s Super Tuesday surge brought an influx of donations — $22 million in the past few days, his campaign said in a statement Sunday.

It said $12 million would be spent on hiring new staff and launching a major media campaign in battleground states.

(AFP)

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Queen’s Commonwealth service chaos as Ambazonia protesters storm security moments before arrival

9, March 2020

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Queen’s Commonwealth service chaos as Ambazonia protesters storm security moments before arrival 0

Southern Cameroons protesters could be seen charging police officers in Westminster in an attempt to break fences built to protect the Royal Family ahead of the Commonwealth Service procession. Queen Elizabeth II was moments away from arriving to celebrate the annual event at Westminster Abbey with the rest of the Royal Family.

City of Westminster Police released the following statement: “As part of the policing operation for Commonwealth Day celebrations, officers arrested 2 men at approx 2.20pm in Victoria St, SW1 for breach of Anti-Terrorism Road Traffic Regs (ATTRO). Both are in police custody. An operation remains in place whilst the celebrations are ongoing.”

The Commonwealth Service at London’s Westminster Abbey is an annual event that this year brings together Harry and Meghan with Queen Elizabeth, his elder brother William and wife Kate, and father Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, for the first time in public since the couple thrashed out an exit deal from their royal roles in January.

“It will be fascinating to see how it plays out,” said royal biographer Penny Junor. “I imagine everybody will be on absolutely best behaviour. But goodness knows what they will all be thinking privately.”

The January agreement, which comes into action at the end of the month, will see the couple – the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – seek to carve out “a progressive new role”, mainly based in North America, that they aim to finance themselves.

Harry, 35, and Meghan, 38, will stop using their HRH titles – His or Her Royal Highness, will not use “royal” in their branding and Harry, who will remain a prince, will relinquish his military titles.

Source: express.co.uk

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