World

19, March 2018

Message to Ambazonians: New Caledonia to vote on independence from France in November ⁰

Lawmakers on the tiny French overseas territory of New Caledonia voted on Monday to hold an independence referendum on November 4, the culmination of decades of campaigning by separatists to break from their old colonial master.

Better known for its stunning lagoons, pristine Pacific beaches and diverse wildlife, New Caledonia has seen years of bitter political feuding between independence advocates and those who are determined to remain part of France.

Unrest shook the islands in the mid-1980s with as many as seventy people thought to have been killed.

An agreement was signed between France and New Caledonia in 1998 that promised greater autonomy for the archipelago and its indigenous Melanesian Kanak population.

Under the terms of that deal an independence referendum needed to be held by the end of 2018.

On Monday, the island’s legislature finally approved a referendum date — Sunday, November 4 — at a public meeting in the capital Noumea, according to an AFP journalist present, with 38 votes in favor and 14 opposed.

New Caledonia currently holds a unique position as an overseas possession that formulates its own tax, labor laws and trade policy but not defense or foreign policy.

But many of the archipelago’s inhabitants, particularly within the indigenous Kanak community, want full independence.

The territory boasts a quarter of the world’s known resources of nickel, a core component in the manufacture of stainless steel, rechargeable batteries and coins.

But wealth is not evenly spread and backers of independence want major economic reform.

(Source: AFP)

19, March 2018

US: Two injured in fourth explosion in Austin, Texas ⁰

Two people have been injured in another explosion in Texas, the latest in a string of unsolved bombings in the US state this month, police said.

Residents in southwest Austin were asked to stay in their homes overnight after the explosion rocked the area Sunday.

Two men, both in their 20s, were sent to hospital with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

Authorities worked to determine if the blast was caused by a package bomb similar to the three that detonated earlier this month in the Texas capital.

Police Chief Brian Manley warned residents not to touch any suspicious packages left at their homes. “What we have right now is a scene where it is obvious that an explosion has taken place.”

The latest explosion happened around 8:30 p.m. in Travis Country, a suburban neighborhood in southeast Austin, far from the previous bombings that targeted residential areas in the eastern part of the city.

It was the fourth explosion to hit Austin in less than three weeks.

The first blast was a package bomb that exploded at a northeast Austin home on March 2, killing Stephen House, 39. Two more package bombs detonated farther south on March 12, killing 17-year-old Draylen Mason and injuring two women, including his mother.

Authorities said all three of those explosions were likely related and involved packages left overnight on doorsteps.

Manley had previously suggested the blasts could have been hate crimes since all the victims were African American or Hispanic.

“We don’t have any evidence,” he said Sunday. “What we know for certain is: We have three victims that are victims of color, and we have three package bombs that have exploded on the east side of Austin,” where many of the city’s minority residents live.

The police chief said he believed the bombings were “meant to send a message,” though he did not say what that message was. Manley added authorities were hoping the bomber was watching and would “reach out to us before anyone else is injured or killed.”

Local and federal authorities have increased the reward for information leading to a conviction in the bombings to $100,000, Manley said.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has also offered $15,000.

Source: Presstv

18, March 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: 40 Biya regime agents held in protective custody ⁰

Armed separatists in Cameroon are holding 40 people, including a government official. The abductions occurred as President Paul Biya dispatched a minister to the troubled English speaking regions on a peace building mission.

Cameroon businessman Angelbert Etoga has returned to his home town, Yaounde, 24 hours after he was abducted and released by armed separatist groups.

He says he and about 36 others were on a bus traveling to Lebialem in southwestern Cameroon to attend a political rally when armed men attacked and seized the vehicle.

Etoga says they were detained for several hours and some were asked to leave after being told they had to respect the territorial integrity of the English speaking regions of Cameroon, which the kidnappers said was now a state called Ambazonia.

Etoga says it is very possible there is some cooperation among some of the population, traditional rulers, and separatist groups. He says he is very certain that many people are adhering to separatist ideologies.

Etoga says he does not know how many people were freed or held back, but he found his way out of the bush and returned to Yaounde.

The most senior government official in Lebialem, Zachary Ugitoh, says Professor Ivo Leke Tambo, a former secretary general of Cameroon’s Secondary Education Ministry and now chair of the Cameroon General Certificate of Education Board, was also abducted.

“I call first and foremost the population of Lewo, the traditional rulers of Lewo to, in fact, put in place whatever means to ensure that Professor Leke Tambo is safe,” he said. “They should go out and look for him, he is a venerated elite of that village and if they open their hands together, I think we can be able to get those who have taken him hostage. In the meantime, security here is not going to sleep while waiting for reinforcement from hierarchy.”

Ugitoh called for the traditional rulers of Lewo to ensure Professor Tambo’s safety and work to ensure his release. He said security measures would be increased in the meantime.

In a video circulated by suspected armed separatists on social media Tambo is seen stripped almost naked in the presence of disguised gunmen.

Two other government officials were abducted last month and have not been found.

The abductions took place the day the first English speaking Cameroonian to be appointed minister of territorial administration, Paul Atanga Nji, was visiting English speaking towns in northwestern Cameroon in an effort to find solutions to the separatist crisis.

Nji says President Biya is committed to win the war he declared against armed anglophone separatists.

“The head-of-state his excellency Paul Biya, commander-in-chief of armed forces told me to tell all the forces of law and order that they can count on him. That he will give them all the resources which will permit them to accomplish their mission,” he said.

The crisis in the English speaking regions of Cameroon began in late 2016 with English teachers and lawyers protesting what they called the overbearing use of French in the English speaking zones of the bilingual country and degenerated with separatists calls for independence.

The government says hundreds of people including 30 policemen and soldiers have died in violence since January, when Nigeria detained and then extradited separatist leader Ayuk Tabe Julius and 46 other alleged separatists to Cameroon.

The separatist groups are demanding the 47 detainees, who have not been seen in public, be released.

Culled from the VOA

18, March 2018

Putin wins fourth term as Russia’s president with 73.9% of vote ⁰

Russian President Vladimir Putin has scored a landslide re-election victory for the fourth time with 73.9 percent of votes, according to an exit poll by state-owned pollster, VTsIOM.

According to the exit poll from 1,200 polling stations around Russia, Communist candidate Pavel Grudinin is runner-up with 11.2 percent of votes.

VTsIOM also said in a statement that over 37 percent of those polled refused to say who they voted for.

VTsIOM’s statement also gave the following exit poll results:

Putin’s new election win will extend his total time in office to nearly a quarter of a century, until 2024. He won election on the promise to use his new term to beef up Russia’s defense capability against the West and to raise living standards.

According to Reuters, Putin’s loyalists argued that the election result was a vindication of his tough stance towards the West.

“I think that in the United States and Britain they’ve understood they cannot influence our elections,” Igor Morozov, a member of the upper house of parliament, said on state television, adding, “Our citizens understand what sort of situation Russian finds itself in today.”

Casting his ballot in Moscow, Putin said he would be pleased with any result giving him the right to continue as president, AFP reported.
“I am sure the program I am offering is the right one,” he said.

Most people who spoke to AFP said they voted for Putin, praising him for restoring stability and national pride after the humiliating collapse of the USSR.

Local residents with flags depicting Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev celebrate on the day of Russia’s presidential election in central Simferopol, Crimea, on March 18, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

“Of course I’m for Putin, he’s a leader,” said Olga Matyunina, a 65-year-old retired economist, who added, “After he brought Crimea back, he became a hero to me.”

Sunday also marked four years since Putin signed a treaty declaring Crimea to be part of Russia.

Russia’s presidential polls opened at 8 a.m. local time (2000 GMT) in the country’s far eastern regions on Saturday and will close in the exclave of Kaliningrad at 2 p.m. (1800 GMT) on Sunday.

There were almost 109 million eligible voters inside Russia, with 94,500 polling stations across the country. An additional 1.8 million voters were abroad, and 369 polling stations were based overseas.

Official pollsters had predicted a turnout of around 65 percent in the ongoing presidential election.

A woman shows a passport cover with an image of Russian President Vladimir Putin as she visits a polling station during the presidential election in Moscow, Russia, March 18, 2018. (Photo by Reuters)

The main opposition leader and Putin’s most vocal opponent, Alexei Navalny, was disqualified from the race due to a fraud conviction that he has claimed was politically motivated.

Putin has seen his approval ratings skyrocket since the last election in 2012. Many say the surge in the incumbent’s popularity is mainly because of his successful policies toward regional issues, particularly the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.

The 65-year-old leader was first elected in 2000 following a handover of power by then-president Boris Yeltsin, who resigned six months before the end of his tenure.

Source: Presstv

18, March 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Top Civil Servant Abducted, Four Hurt ⁰

Suspected separatists abducted a top civil servant Saturday in the English-speaking region of Cameroon while security sources said four people were hurt in an attack on a ministerial convoy, adding to months of recent unrest.

Ivo Leke Tambo, recently-appointed chairman of Cameroon’s anglophone educational board, GCE, was abducted just outside the southwestern town of Lewo. A video was later circulated by sources close to the secessionists showing a partially clothed Leke Tambo sat on the ground in the bush.

Authorities did not immediately confirm the abduction of Leke Tambo, the latest in a slew of abductions in recent weeks. Last month saw an official from the ministry of social affairs likewise kidnapped in the northwestern city of Batibo.

Tension has soared in anglophone parts of Cameroon, accounting for about a fifth of the population, since separatists on October 1 declared the self-proclaimed republic of “Ambazonia”.

The government was also silent on an attack reported Saturday by security sources in the southwestern English-speaking village of Alou by unidentified assailants on a convoy accompanying Economy Minister Paul Tasong.

Elsewhere, social media footage showed an attack on a bus carrying some 30 people by armed members of the self-declared Ambazonia Defence Forces. The latest unrest came a day after newly-appointed Interior Minister Paul Atanga Nji embarked on a 48-hour “peace mission” to the anglophone northeast of the country.

Speaking in regional capital Bamenda on Friday he appealed for “violent separatists” to desist. Long-ruling President Paul Biya called a rare cabinet meeting on Thursday at which he vowed to push ahead with a military crackdown on the separatists.

The west African country has had a tortuous colonial history that saw it pass from German rule to French and British hands and the anglophone minority complain of having long been marginalised by the French-speaking elite.

The past year has seen regular unrest which was ramped up further in January when 47 separatists, including their leader Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, were extradited from Nigeria.

Source: Urdupoint.com

18, March 2018

White House staffer left encrypted email passwords at bus stop ⁰

Ryan McAvoy, a staffer working for the administration of US President Donald Trump, reportedly left the passwords to his encrypted email account at a bus stop in Washington, DC.

The aide left his ProtonMail passwords at a bus stop near the White House, according to a report by The Intercept, which obtained and verified them on a piece of White House stationery.

The Intercept‘s requests for comment is yet to be returned by the staffer.

On Wednesday, Democrats on the panel released a memo in regard to the so-called Russia probe, which investigates Moscow’s alleged intervention in the 2016 presidential election as well as possible collusion between Trump’s aides and the Kremlin.

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are seen during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on March 8, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP)

The Democrats, who may file a new subpoena, are specifically willing to know how senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, Trump’s son in law, used WhatsApp.

Peter Mirijanian, a spokesperson for Kushner’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, told The Intercept that Kushner had nothing left to add as “in two different appearances before congressional committees, Mr. Kushner answered all relevant questions involving these matters.”

Kushner is a person of interest in the ongoing probe into Russia’s alleged intervention in the 2016 presidential election that yielded President Trump.

The investigation 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.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump repeatedly attacked her Democratic contender Hillary Clinton over use of a private email server during her tenure as the secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.

Source: Presstv

17, March 2018

Southern Cameroons Self-Defense Unity: Cho Ayaba and the Akwanga gang reject collaboration ⁰

A very important history making event took place last weekend, Saturday March 10. A group of Ambazonian self-defense leaders for the first time under the auspices of the Interim Government came together and agreed to work collaboratively under the direction of the IG.

The meeting took place in the USA, and witnessed in attendance, leaders of all the self-defense groups in ground zero except those of Cho Ayaba and Ebenezar Akwanga who deliberately rejected invitation to be part of the come together. The self-defense groups left the three day conclave agreeing to work as a team to combat what they all agreed is the invasion of Ambazonia by La Republique du Cameroun’s army.

“Today, I can report to the people of British Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) and to the world the creation of Ambazonia Self-Defense Council (ASC).” Read a statement that was issued only today, March 17, by Acting IG President, Dr. Samuel Sako.

The President noted that “The Ambazonia Self-Defense Council is the legitimate defense wing of the aspirations of the people of Ambazonia.” Adding that the initiative is a milestone achievement following months of consultations and a defense-focused meeting involving over a dozen top brass of the different Self-Defense groups within the territory of Southern Cameroons.

The establishment of the ASC Dr. Sako said, is a response to the call from Ambazonians for all defense bodies to collaborate and provide Self-Defense for our people, property and territory in a manner that is professional and consistent with international law.

In the two-day meeting of the Council, defense leaders discussed the state of play concerning the common security policy, defense initiatives, and political vision. They adopted conclusions on the council structure, its goals and follow-up actions. The Council brings together leaders of defense bodies under an independent defense platform and the Council collaborates with the Interim Government in a tight-knit model to implement one vision – complete independence of the Southern Cameroons.

The Ambazonia Self-Defense Council is made up of different branches: Executive Committee, Council Members, and Defense Bodies. The Council Executive Committee is responsible for top level leadership and management of our self-defense by owning the operating model of defense and managing risks, agreeing on plans for delivery of defense objectives, ensuring coherence, and leading transformation. The Executive Committee is composed of a chair, liaison officer and spokespersons who are all accountable to council members. The Chairman of the Defense Council is the principal defense adviser to the Interim President; however, all Council members are legitimate advisers, and they may respond to a request or voluntarily submit, through the Chairman, advice or opinions to the President. The spokesperson is the public relations face of the defense council. The liaison officer is responsible for coordinating multi-agency responses and resources.

Conspicuously absent from the two-day come together, where the leaders of ADF and SOCADEF led by Cho Ayaba and Dr. Ebenezer Akwanga respectively. Information from the IG says Dr. Samuel Sako prior to the meeting, held a closed door meeting with Dr. Akwanga for over two hours in which he tried persuading Akwanga to join the initiative but he turned it down. Dr. Sako held a similar meeting with Cho Ayaba by phone, but Ayaba too would not agree on joining the collaborative platform.

As things stand, it appears like Ayaba and Akwanga are out setting the stage for a Southern Sudan in the struggle for Ambazonia. Dr. Akwanga is quoted as telling Dr. Sako that, for him to join the collaborative platform for self-defense, they would have to return to the 4^th Conclave for a start. Cho Ayaba is on record on several occasions as saying that he doesn’t recognize the IG nor Sako, the Acting President.

Ever since, Ayaba has personally engaged in a sabotage crusade against the IG using the social media, particularly Facebook where he disguises with fake names like Nyamfuka Kulubang, Ashu Tambe among others to spill insults and attacks against anything Interim Government. In most of the posts in which Ayaba posts using the Nyamfuka ghost name, he promises killing top members of the IG before they get to Buea. It is left to be seen, what a coalition of Ayaba and Ebenezer’s forces will achieve Vis a Vis the larger platform of the IG.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with intelligence files from Camcordnews

16, March 2018

Amnesty says Shell, Eni negligent on Nigeria oil spills ⁰

Amnesty International on Friday accused international oil majors Shell and Eni of negligence when addressing spills in Nigeria.

Describing their actions as “serious negligence,” Amnesty said the companies were “taking weeks to respond to reports of spills and publishing misleading information about the cause and severity of spills, which may result in communities not receiving compensation.”

A Shell spokesman said Amnesty’s allegations “are false, without merit and fail to recognize the complex environment in which the company operates.”

An ENI spokeswoman said the rights group’s statements “are not correct and, in some cases, not acceptable,” adding it had provided a detailed response to Amnesty’s allegations.

Shell and Eni have for decades been two of the most active oil majors operating in the Niger Delta region.

Nigeria’s crude-producing heartland is an ecological disaster zone, scarred by decades of spills that have tainted the water and killed swathes of trees and other plants.

Yet clean-ups, and the associated compensation, are highly contentious, with some local communities even blocking teams’ access to spill sites, allowing the damage to worsen, in the hope of extracting a bigger pay-out.

This file photo taken on June 13, 2017 shows a fisherman holding a plastic bottle with water coming from the polluted Bodo River in Bodo, in the Gokana district of Ogoniland, southeast Nigeria. (By AFP)

Under Nigerian law, companies must visit sites within 24 hours of reporting a spill. Amnesty said that in one case Italy’s Eni took more than a year to respond to a spill in Bayelsa state.

While oil companies frequently attribute spills to sabotage and theft, locals say they are often due to other issues such as corrosion.

Shell has reported 1,010 spills since 2011, and Eni 820 since 2014, according to Amnesty, which said among those 1,830 reports it found 89 “about which there are reasonable doubts surrounding the cause provided by the oil companies”.

In 2015, the Bodo community and a British law firm negotiated a 55 million pound pollution settlement with Shell.

The Natural Resource Governance Institute, a non-profit group that advises countries on how to manage oil, gas and mineral resources, acknowledged there were sometimes difficulties on both sides.

“There’s no good guy here, everybody’s kind of bad. I’m sure the companies don’t do all that they can to get to these places. But then they also have genuine grievances and genuine difficulties dealing with these communities,” said Aaron Sayne, from the institute. “When spills become an opportunity to make money, your clean-up becomes really tough.”

(Source: Reuters)

16, March 2018

French Cameroun holds first cabinet meeting since 2015 ⁰

Cameroon’s ageing president has called his first cabinet meeting since 2015.

Paul Biya, who has ruled the country since 1982, has called his council of ministers to Unity Palace, news agency Reuters said.

However, it is not known what they will be talking about at the closed door meetings.

Reuters suggests little discussion is expected, as Mr Biya, 85, has ruled the central African country with zero tolerance for dissent and has ruled virtually by decree since taking power.

It seems relatively likely the cabinet meeting will at least touch on the Anglophone separatist movement in the west, which has left many dead.

However, the last meeting reportedly focused on “accelerat[ing] preparations for the important sports celebrations”, which were football compettitions the country was due to host in 2016 and 2019.

Mr Biya has met ministers in the intervening years, Reuters said, although these get-togethers often happened at the airport before he went on holiday.

In February, the Organised Crime and Corruption Project released a report which calculated that he had spent some four-and-a-half years outside Cameroon during his tenure as leader.

Culled from the BBC

16, March 2018

Several killed when bridge collapses at Florida university ⁰

Several people were killed and cars crushed when a newly installed pedestrian bridge spanning several lanes of traffic collapsed at Florida International University on Thursday in Miami-Dade County, officials said.

“Several people were killed. I just don’t know how many,” Alejandro Camacho, a spokesman for the Florida Highway Patrol said in a telephone interview.

There were at least five to six vehicles crushed underneath the pedestrian crosswalk, he added.

The bridge connects the university with the city of Sweetwater and was installed on Saturday in six hours over the eight-lane highway, according to a story that was posted on the university’s website. It was 174 feet (53 m) long and weighed 950 tons.

Television footage showed firefighters were walking across the flattened wreckage and medics were treating injured people. Emergency personnel appeared to be trying to work their way through a hole in the top of the bridge.

(Source : Reuters)