Toyota’s former president Tatsuro Toyoda, who helped the Japanese auto giant establish a foothold in North America, has died at the age of 88, the company said Saturday.

Toyoda, an uncle of current Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda, died of pneumonia on December 30, the firm said in a statement.

His funeral has already been held and was attended by close relatives, but Toyota said it plans to hold a separate farewell ceremony.

Toyoda joined the company — founded by his father Kiichiro Toyoda — in 1953 and in 1984 became the first president of a new firm formed by Toyota and General Motors.

The California-based joint venture was part of Toyota’s push to expand production and increase its share in the North American market. The plant produced nearly 8 million vehicles until its closure in 2010, according to the company.

Toyoda served as Toyota president between 1992 and 1995.

(Source: AFP)

The authoritative British non-governmental organization, Intelligence Fusion has revealed that President Biya is not showing any sign of wanting to give up power. In a report published on January 4, Intelligence Fusion analysed the socio-political situation in Cameroon with focus on the next presidential election and traced the origin of the Ambazonia uprising and the response from Mr. Biya observing that it was inadequate to the demands of the people of Southern Cameroons.

“President Biya reacted to the crisis in the worst possible way, without reconciling himself or acting decisively. He did not reassure the English-speaking population, but rather sent the Cameroonian army to occupy the North West and South West regions, “says Intelligence Fusion.

The organization also indicated that Cameroon government forces have committed several acts of violence in Southern Cameroons, forcing people to desert their villages. Intelligence Fusion opined that the killing of some military officers by the Ambazonia Defense Force (ADF) is a consequence of these acts of violence against the civilian population.

Regarding the upcoming presidential election, Intelligence Fusion noted that Paul Biya, “the dictator for life” will be a candidate because “he is showing no sign of wanting to give up”. Intelligence Fusion is convinced that Paul Biya will win the 2018 election, but indicated that Cameroon as a nation will become ungovernable after Paul Biya’s victory.

Intelligence Fusion is based in London. It manages security risks and provides information on terrorist threats. It also monitors and controls the probability and / or impact of unplanned events. Intelligence Fusion was founded by Michael McCabe and Daniel Harrington, all British secret agents. They specialize in the protection of people and property in the UK and in high-risk countries.

By Rita Akana

Uganda’s government has rejected claims by the Israeli regime that it had agreed to take in nearly 40,000 African refugees after Tel Aviv initiated a plan to force them into leaving the occupied territories.

The denial on Thursday came only a day after Israel launched the program to coerce some 38,000 mostly Eritreans and Sudanese refugees to leave without even specifying where they would go.

Israeli activists claim that the Tel Aviv regime has signed agreements with Rwanda and Uganda under which the two impoverished African nations have agreed to accept the departing asylum seekers.

However, Uganda’s Foreign Minister Henry Okello Oryem insisted that his country never entered into such a deal and was disturbed by the reports.

There was no immediate reaction to the Israeli claim from officials in Rwanda.

Under the plan, the Africans have been given until March 31 to leave Israel, each getting a plane ticket as well as $3,500. Those who refuse to leave will face arrest.

“From what we know, Uganda is a party to the amended agreement, allowing that people can be coerced into leaving,” Adi Drori-Avraham from the Israel-based Aid Organization for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (ASSAF) said.

He said Uganda has “for years been denying that it has some kind of deal with Israel,” but such arrangements with African asylum seekers are nothing new.

Source: Presstv

Felix Agbor Nkongho looked over his shoulder at a secluded Yaoundé cafe. As a leader of Cameroon’s growing anglophone rights movement, he had reason to be on his guard. A month previously he had been in prison in the capital, waiting to be tried under the country’s new anti-terrorism laws.

A prominent lawyer and activist, if convicted Agbor Nkongho would have faced the death penalty for his part in organising peaceful protests. The arrest of anglophone activists was part of the Cameroonian government’s attempt to quash discontent emanating from its English-speaking regions.

What began as a simple request for English to be used in the courtrooms and public schools of the country’s two anglophone regions has escalated into a crisis in which dozens of people have died, hundreds have been imprisoned and thousands have escaped across the border to Nigeria.

If the situation is not defused through dialogue, the entire country could be destabilised ahead of elections in the autumn, according to the International Crisis Group.

A number of anglophone activists are calling for secession and the creation of a new country, which they want to call Ambazonia.

“The anglophone crisis is the biggest timebomb in Cameroon,” said Agbor Nkongho, who was released by presidential decree seven months after his arrest. “If it’s not addressed, it could break the country.”

A year ago, after French-speaking staff were appointed to anglophone courts, lawyers in Bamenda, the capital of one of the anglophone regions, took to the streets in protest. They were soon joined by teachers, who said francophones with little English were being hired in their public schools.

“As usual our government, which has no idea how to resolve conflict, turned to repression,” said Ngo Mbe.

After months of bellicose rhetoric, Cameroon’s long-time president, Paul Biya, appeared to hold out something of an olive branch to the anglophone regions in his new year’s address, saying dialogue was the best way of resolving the crisis and promising to decentralise power so that people could manage their own affairs.

However, he added: “All those who have taken up arms, who perpetrate or encourage violence should be fought relentlessly and held accountable for their crimes,” before congratulating the security forces for their “bravery, determination, restraint and professionalism.”

He made no mention of the 40 people killed and 100 injured surrounding the peaceful protests of 1 October, when activists from the Southern Cameroonian United Front symbolically declared the two anglophone regions the independent republic of Ambazonia. The government closed borders to the anglophone regions before deploying the army’s Rapid Intervention Brigade, a unit that is normally found fighting Boko Haram in another of the country’s crises, that of the northern Lake Chad region.

The October crackdown in towns and villages along Cameroon’s border with Nigeria caused at least 7,000 people and possibly as many as 20,000 to flee into Nigeria’s Cross Rivers state, where the UN refugee agency is bracing itself for the arrival of 40,000 more.

“Our fear, however, is that 40,000 people might actually be a conservative figure in a situation where the conflict might continue,” said the agency’s Babar Baloch in a recent briefing.

The latest high-profile figure to be detained, the writer, poet and professor Patrice Nganang, was released last week and repatriated to the US after three weeks behind bars. Police had arrested him at Douala airport shortly after he published an article criticising the government’s handling of the crisis.

Accused of posting a death threat against Biya, Nganang was told he would not get another visa for Cameroon, in effect meaning he would not be allowed to return.

Cameroonian authorities said 10 security officials were killed in November, and announced that four more were killed last week by separatists “using perfidy”.

The UN’s secretary general has called for a halt to the violence and for dialogue, but the opposition accuses 83-year-old Biya, who has been in power since 1982, of not being interested.

In some ways, however, international pressure seems to have had an effect. Two weeks ago Ahmed Abba, a journalist who had been jailed for 10 years for terrorism, had part of his sentence quashed, just as the Commonwealth’s secretary-general, Patricia Scotland, met opposition politicians and representatives of civil society to discuss “moving forward”.

Cameroon has a long history of conquest and subjugation. When the colonial scramble for Africa began, Germany managed to grab what it named Kamerun, but after the first world war the territory was confiscated and the French and British carved it up between them, the French taking the larger part.

At independence in 1961, the UN held a referendum giving anglophone Cameroonians the choice of joining either Nigeria or francophone Cameroon. With no option to become an independent state, they chose their francophone neighbours and together became a federal republic. But the anglophones soon found it was not a marriage of equals.

Talk of an independent Ambazonia has been around since the 1980s but has gained traction in the past few months.

When Agbor Nkongho was released, he found that while he had been in jail the “murderous repression” had led to some anglophone activists on the outside becoming more radical.

Demands for decentralisation of power have been quickly followed by demands for a return to a federal republic, and calls to split from Cameroon. Agbor Nkongho does not think this is a good idea. “We can still live as one; unity in diversity,” he said.

Culled from The Guradian