Hurricane Harvey has so far claimed the lives of at least 30 people in the United States with reports showing the storm will make another landfall in hours.

Local officials announced Tuesday that the death toll did not include the number of unconfirmed flood-related deaths as water was still rising in most of the affected areas.

Forecasters predicted that the tropical storm will make another landfall near the Texas-Louisiana state line sometime shortly after midnight central time.

Texas officials said an estimated 30,000 people could be evacuated due to flooding and over 725,000 people were already under a mandatory evacuation order.

Harvey has set a new rainfall record for the US, dumping 51.88 inches (132 centimeters) of rain in Cedar Bayou, which a salt water channel on the Texas coast, officials said.

“This reading is higher than the previous record of 48 inches set during tropical cyclone Amelia of 1978 at Medina, Texas,” the National Weather Service said.

Jeffrey Lindner, a meteorologist for the Harris County Flood Control District, said water flooded 25 to 30 percent of Harris County’s 1,800 square miles of land.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump visited the disaster zone in Texas, four days after Harvey slammed onshore as a Category Four hurricane, turning roads into rivers and neighborhoods into lakes.

Trump, who sought to project an image of leadership in America’s first big natural disaster since he took office in January, toured the coastal city of Corpus Christi, where he praised the work of state and federal officials.

“We want to be looked at in five years, in 10 years from now as, this is the way to do it,” he said.

“We love you, you are special, we are here to take care of you,” the president said. “It’s historic, its epic, but I tell you, it happened in Texas — and Texas can handle anything.”

In Houston, Mayor Sylvester Turner ordered a curfew late Tuesday from midnight to 5 am local time in to help prevent crime and keep the roads clear for first responders.

“We have thousands of people who are out of their homes, in shelters, waiting for water to subside,” Turner told a press conference earlier.

Culled from Presstv

Catastrophic flooding triggered by Tropical Storm Harvey inundated Houston on Sunday, forcing residents of the fourth most populous US city to flee their homes in boats or hunker down in anticipation of several more days of “unprecedented” rainfall.

Harvey came ashore late on Friday as the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years and has killed at least two people. The death toll is expected to rise as the storm triggers additional tidal surges and tornadoes, with parts of the region expected to see a year’s worth of rainfall in the span of a week.

The storm caused chest-deep flooding on some streets in Houston as rivers and channels overflowed their banks. More than 30 inches (76 cm) of rain had fallen in parts of Houston in the past 48 hours, the National Weather Service said on Sunday, with more on the way.

The storm struck at the heart of the country’s oil and gas industry, forcing operators to close several refineries and evacuate and close offshore platforms. The massive flooding knocked out 11 percent of US refining capacity and a quarter of oil production from the US Gulf of Mexico.

“What we’re seeing is the most devastating flood event in Houston’s recorded history. We’re seeing levels of rainfall that are unprecedented,” said Steve Bowen, chief meteorologist at reinsurance firm Aon Benfield.

Total precipitation could reach 50 inches (127 cm) in some coastal areas of Texas by the end of the week, or the average rainfall for an entire year. The center of Harvey was about 105 miles (170 km) from Houston and was forecast to arc slowly toward the city through Wednesday.

People in Houston and other areas of Texas were asked not to leave their homes, even if they flooded, as roads were impassable. President Donald Trump plans to go to Texas on Tuesday to survey damage from the storm, a White House spokeswoman said on Sunday.

The Gulf is home to about nearly half of the nation’s refining capacity, and the reduced supply could affect gasoline supplies across the US Southeast and other parts of the country. Shutdowns extended across the coast, including Exxon Mobil’s Baytown refinery, the second largest US refinery.

Gasoline futures rose as much as 7 percent in early trading on Sunday evening, and heating oil futures, a proxy for distillates like diesel fuel, were up as much as 3 percent, as supplies are expected to be curtailed.

The outages will limit the availability of US crude, gasoline and other refined products for global consumers and further push up prices, analysts said.

All Houston port facilities will be closed on Monday because of the weather threat, a port spokeswoman said on Sunday night.

The swift rise of floodwaters surprised authorities, and emergency services told the city’s 2.3 million inhabitants to climb onto the roofs of houses, if necessary.

“The water was right at our door,” said Jasmine Melendez, a 23-year-old Houston mother of three, including a week-old infant. “We were also worried about the kids, especially the baby.”

Melendez was sheltering at the downtown George Brown Convention Center, which was filled with hundreds of people who showed up for water, food and baby supplies. Some people were being brought to the center in city dump trucks.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office rescued more than 2,000 people in the greater Houston area using vehicles including motorboats, airboats and humvees on Sunday, a spokesman said.

Forecasters could only draw on a few analogues to the storm, recalling Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005 and killed 1,800 people, and Tropical Storm Allison.

The Harris County Flood Control District said Harvey’s impact would rival that of Allison, which dropped more than 40 inches (102 cm) of rain in Texas in June 2001, flooded 70,000 homes and caused $9 billion in damage.

“The breadth and intensity of this rainfall are beyond anything experienced before. Catastrophic flooding is now underway and expected to continue for days,” the National Weather Service said on Twitter.

Harvey hit Texas as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 130 miles per hour (210 kph), the strongest storm to hit the state since 1961. As of Sunday evening, about 240,000 people were without power, but Centerpoint Energy, which serves Houston, said it could not give an accurate estimate because flooding was preventing crews from reaching customers.

Two deaths were confirmed so far – one in Rockport, 30 miles (48 km) north of Corpus Christi, and in west Houston on Saturday. The Twitter account for Harris County 911 said people should not call if their lives were not threatened.

Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental and William P. Hobby airports canceled all commercial flights on Sunday. The Ben Taub Hospital in Houston’s Medical Center was evacuated on Sunday. An American Red Cross emergency shelter was forced to shut because of flooding and the group opened two more.

Houston’s schools were scheduled to close for the week, the school district said on Twitter. ConocoPhillips will close on Monday and Tuesday, the company said.

Trump, facing the first big US natural disaster since he took office in January, signed a disaster proclamation on Friday, triggering federal relief efforts. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Sunday that 50 counties had been declared state disaster areas.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it had more than 400 rescue personnel in South Texas, and 500 others were in the state and expected to be joining in rescue operations on Sunday evening.

Jose Rengel, a 47-year-old construction worker who lives in Galveston, was helping with rescue efforts in Dickinson, Texas, southeast of Houston, where he saw water cresting the tops of cars.

“I am blessed that not much has happened to me, but these people lost everything. And it keeps raining,” he said.

“The water has nowhere to go.”

(Source: Reuters)

Human rights activist are planning to take part in a 10-day march against white supremacy with a clear demand: Remove US President Donald Trump.

The march will start Monday from Charlottesville, Virginia, where national turmoil began following deadly violence at a white supremacist rally.

“The March to Confront White Supremacy,” is set to start on August 8 and end in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, September 6.

An occupation of Washington, DC, will follow with subsequent peaceful demonstrations set to be held on a daily basis there, according to the organizers.

“This is the time to confront white supremacy in our government and throughout our history. We demand that President Trump to be removed from office for allying himself with this ideology of hate and we demand an agenda that repairs the damage it’s done to our country and its people,” read the website for the march. “This will be a sustained civil disobedience campaign, so bring what you need to stay.”

The president has been under fire due to his failure to immediately condemn the recent tragedy in Charlotesville, in which a driver plowed into demonstrators protesting against white supremacists, killing a young woman and injuring nearly 20 others.

Instead, he has blamed both sides for the clashes that took place on August 13. Heather Heyer, 32, was killed and some 20 others were injured.

A 20-year-old Nazi sympathizer, identified as James Alex Fields Jr, was said to have been behind the wheel. Trump has also faced a raft of resignations from his advisory councils and talks about resignation of other White House officials.

The Charlottesville violence has triggered angry protests across the country against the so-called “alt-right” movement, which has become emboldened under Trump.

The march is being organized by several activist groups such as the Action Group Network, the Women’s March, Working Families Party, Color of Change, and United We Dream among others.

Source: Presstv

A majority of Americans think US President Donald Trump is doing more to divide the country and believe hate crimes and prejudice have dramatically increased since his election, a new poll has found.

A total of 62 percent of registered US voters say Trump is fueling divisions, while 31 percent say he is doing more to unite the country, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released Thursday. Sixty percent of American voters disapprove of Trump’s response to the recent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where one counter-protester was killed and 19 others were injured.

The survey also found that 59 percent of voters said Trump’s decisions and behavior have encouraged racist and white supremacist groups. Some 55 percent of American voters say there is too much prejudice in the nation today. Prejudice against minority groups is a “very serious” problem, 50 percent of voters say.

Since Trump’s election, “the level of hatred and prejudice in the US has increased,” 65 percent of voters say. Trump has been widely criticized for his response to the Charlottesville rally after he said “both sides” were to blame for the violence.

UN human rights experts have urged the US government to “unequivocally and unconditionally” condemn racist speech and hate crimes, warning that a failure to do so could fuel further violent clashes by white supremacist groups.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), issued an “early warning and urgent action” statement on Wednesday, which is reserved for serious situations, saying that “there should be no place in the world for racist white supremacist ideas or any similar ideologies that reject the core human rights principles of human dignity and equality.”

The warning specifically noted the August 12 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where deadly clashes broke out between white supremacists and counter-protesters. The UN experts asked US politicians and public officials to undertake concrete measures “to address the root causes of the proliferation of such racist manifestations.”

Source: Presstv

At least half a dozen schools in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions have been burned in the past week. It is the latest sign of deepening tensions as the ongoing strike in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions enters its tenth month.

The strike began in November 2016 with anglophone teachers and lawyers in the northwest and the southeast. They said English-speaking citizens are marginalized in the bilingual country and demanded reforms. But secessionist groups soon joined the movement, and their calls for full independence for the English-speaking zones derailed dialogue and helped spur a government crackdown.

Continued arson attacks in Cameroon’s English-speaking northwest have prompted calls for the creation of self-defense militia. Some parents in Bamenda said it is no longer safe after their children’s school, the Baptist Comprehensive High School, was set ablaze August 13.

Residents say schools are being targeted for failing to respect the call to strike until all anglophone activists are released from detention. Messages circulating on social media this month have called for businesses to close three out of every five working days.

Wilfred Ndong, the government official in charge of basic education for the northwest, said law enforcement agencies cannot be present in every school. “We have advised them to form vigilante groups in the schools so that they can help to secure the places for us,” he said. “And in places where they can afford, let them light up the places. Some of these things happen because of the dark nature of the environments concerned.”

Markets and government buildings have also been targeted this year in the northwest and southwest.No one has claimed responsibility. The government has condemned the vandalism and blamed it on militant separatist groups.

Cameroon government spokesperson Issa Tchiroma told VOA police discovered a cache of weapons and a bomb-making factory in the northwestern town of Mbengwi earlier this month. He said seven people were arrested, including a Cameroonian-born Belgian national who had smuggled his way into the country through Nigeria.

“He admitted being a member of the Ambazonia and the main leader of the armed wing of the Liberation Movement of Southern Cameroon,” he said. Ambazonia is a name proposed by separatist activists for the nation they would create.

At least 60 people arrested in connection with the strike have appeared before a military court in the capital to answer charges of attempting to destabilize the country and cause revolt. A black and white video released online in early August, which shows 12 purported strike detainees in what appears to be a dark, underground prison has further raised tensions.

The government has declined to comment on the video, but the footage has been shared widely on social media in Cameroon. In it, the speakers compare their conditions of detention to “concentration camps,” and say they will gladly die if need be for the cause of independence for the two anglophone regions.

Cameroon is officially a bilingual country, with anglophones comprising about 20 percent of the country’s 23 million inhabitants.

Violent strike-related unrest in December, coupled with emerging separatist rhetoric, prompted a government crackdown. Strike leaders then broke off dialogue with the government to resolve the crisis until all those arrested are released.

A former lawmaker from the northwest region, Paulinus Jua, said dialogue is needed. “If government were doing a lot, things would have subsided,” he said. “But you see that this thing is instead especially in anglophone Cameroon getting more radicalized. Something can be done. Dialogue, genuine dialogue, comprehensive genuine dialogue. That is what we have been complaining about in this country for so long.”

President Paul Biya has announced some reforms in response to the strike, like a new common law section of the Supreme Court, but has said he will not engage in dialogue that threatens national unity.

Source: VOA

Cardinal Christian Tumi has revealed that the reunification of Cameroon was only a fake arrangement. In an interview the retired prelate granted recently to lavoixdukoat.com, Tumi said that “There was never a marriage between Anglophone and French Cameroon. They live in concubinage.”

The former archbishop of Douala opined that no act was formally taken in July 1961 in Foumban. “They signed nothing at Foumban. Prime Minister John Ngu Foncha (who was a former Catholic teacher) did not have the power to negotiate, because Cameroon was under the tutelage of France and England. As the French supported Ahidjo, they were at the conference. It was England and the United Nations that had to validate the act. But these two were not present. There has never been a document about what happened in Foumban. People went to drink wine. ”

The de facto federalism thus devoted left many fond memories to Cardinal Tumi. He recalled that the country enjoyed good governance. For him Cameroon was “well managed, development was the basis. There was a prime minister in every part of the country. Paul Biya had signed a text on federalism (Reference to the 1996 Constitution, Editor’s note) which specified that governors should be elected, it should have ten federated states. Paul Biya then promised decentralization. That must have been good. But I have the impression that he was asleep when he signed the document and that he woke up after doing so, since he did not implement anything. The problem is that you do not want to share power, “he said.

Christian Tumi believes that there is indeed an Southern Cameroons problem. He explained that even if the problems are the same everywhere in the country, West Cameroon has its specificities. According to him, Southern Cameroons was already considered a country and managed itself, with its administration, a prime minister before joining Cameroon. He believes that an effective implementation of decentralization would have eliminated any problem. Especially those he sees in other parts of the country.

Reacting to the acts of violence perpetrated here and there, the much respected Cardinal Tumi noted that “We can forgive the person, it’s passion, but it’s unacceptable. All violence is unacceptable. We cut the hand of a girl who was going to write her exams. No reason can support that. But We can forgive.”

Culled from Cameroon Info.Net

A van has crashed into dozens of people in the center of the Spanish city of Barcelona, killing over a dozen people, including foreign nationals, and injuring many others.

The city police described the incident on Twitter as a “massive crash,” in a statement released on Thursday, saying, “Huge collision on Las Ramblas in Barcelona by an individual driving a van, many injuries.”

Conflicting reports have been so far released on casualties following the attack. Cadena Ser radio, citing police sources, said at least 13 people had been killed in the attack, which has been called a terrorist attack by police in Barcelona.

Other media including El Pais said there were at least 10 dead. A police spokeswoman could not immediately confirm the number of casualties. Catalan police, however, says at least one person has been confirmed dead and 32 people injured following the attack, adding that 10 of those injured are in serious condition.

Hours after the attack, a Catalan government official said that there were 13 dead and around 100 injured in the attack. The Daesh Takfiri terrorist group claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on its Amaq propaganda website later on Thursday night.   The Spanish police noted that they were clearing the area after the incident, which has left a number of people injured.

The area around the incident was cordoned off, with several ambulances and police vehicles on the scene, an AFP correspondent said.  Barcelona’s emergency services asked people not go to the area around the city’s Placa Catalunya, requesting the closure of nearby train and metro stations.

A report by El Pais newspaper stated that the driver of the vehicle had fled on foot after mowing down dozens of people. A report by El Periodico newspaper indicated that two armed men had entrenched themselves at a bar in Barcelona’s city center after the van incident, noting that it was not immediately clear if the men were the drivers of the van.

A Spanish police source initially noted that a person suspected of driving the van into pedestrians was holed up at a bar. The unnamed source said, “One of the attackers is holed up in a bar,” adding that police were looking for a total of two suspects. Catalan police, however, later announced that there was nobody holed up in the bar, adding that they had arrested two men linked to Barcelona van attack.

Meanwhile, Catalan police said on Twitter that they shot dead a driver of a vehicle that ran over two police officers at a checkpoint in Barcelona following the van attack in the city center. Spanish media had earlier reported that at least one policeman was injured at the checkpoint. It was not immediately clear whether the incident was linked to the first attack in Las Ramblas avenue.

Within hours of the attack, Driss Oukabir, a 28-year-old man of Moroccan origin whom police said had rented the van used in the attack, reportedly turned himself in after seeing his photo being circulated online, claiming his documents had been stolen. But Lluis Trapero of the regional police of Catalonia said the driver of the van that mowed into the packed street was still on the run, adding that two other suspects – a Spaniard and a Moroccan – had been arrested.

Following the incident Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he was in contact with authorities, adding on Twitter that the priority was to attend to the injured. Police in Barcelona have announced that they are dealing with a “terrorist attack,” adding that they are searching for driver of the van.

Later reports indicated that a second van linked to Thursday attack in Barcelona had been found in the small town of Vic in Catalonia. The city council said that police had cordoned off the area and were inspecting the vehicle, .  In another attack just a few hours after the Barcelona rampage, six civilians and a policeman were injured after an assailant rammed his car into a crowd of people in the resort town of Cambrils, south of Barcelona.

Police initially said they had killed four “perpetrators” and injured another during an operation against the “terrorist attack” in Cambrils in the early hours of Friday morning. They later said the fifth suspect died of his wounds. Police officials also said a blast that killed a person and injured several others at a house in Alcanar Platja on Thursday morning was linked to the Barcelona attack.

Rajoy told reporters late on Thursday night that the country is “united in grief” after the terrorist attack in Barcelona. “Today the fight against terrorism is the principal priority for free and open societies like ours. It is a global threat and the response has to be global,” he told a news conference in Barcelona.

The prime minister added that he would ask Spain’s other political parties to reaffirm its anti-terrorism pact. Various European cities have already seen terrorist attacks on pedestrians mostly carried out by Daesh operatives using various kinds of vehicles as weapon.

On July 14, 2016, a 31-year-old Tunisian identified as Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel plowed a 19-tonne truck into a Bastille Day crowd in southern French city of Nice, killing 86 people. The attack was later claimed by Daesh, which said Bouhlel was one of its followers.

On June 19, 2017, a 31-year-old Adam Dzaziri, who had sworn allegiance to Daesh, was fatally shot by the police when he rammed a car loaded with guns and a gas canister into a police van on Paris’ Champs-Elysees.

On August 9, 2017, a 36-year-old Algerian man, named Hamou B., drove a BMW into soldiers outside a barracks in the western Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret, injuring six. The attacker was then chased by police, who shot and wounded him.

On March 22, 2017, a 52-year-old British national identified as Khalid Masood mowed down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge near parliament before stabbing a policeman, killing five people and injuring around 50. He was then shot dead by police. The attack was also claimed by Daesh. On June 3, London was once more shocked when three attackers stroke pedestrians with a van before going on a stabbing spree in the London Bridge area. Eight people were killed before the assailants are shot dead by police and the attack was claimed by Daesh.

Source: Presstv

The number of South Sudanese refugees sheltering in Uganda has reached one million, the United Nations says, marking a grim milestone for what has become the world’s fastest-growing refugee crisis. Ugandan officials say they are overwhelmed by the flow of people fleeing South Sudan’s civil war, and the UN refugee agency urges the international community to donate more for humanitarian assistance.

An average of 1,800 South Sudanese citizens have been arriving daily in Uganda over the past 12 months, the UNHCR said in a statement. Another one million or more South Sudanese are sheltering in Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Congo, and the Central African Republic.

The number of people fleeing jumped after deadly fighting again erupted in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, in July 2016. “Recent arrivals continue to speak of barbaric violence, with armed groups reportedly burning down houses with civilians inside, people being killed in front of family members, sexual assaults of women and girls, and kidnapping of boys for forced conscription,” the statement said.

“With refugees still arriving in their thousands, the amount of aid we are able to deliver is increasingly falling short.” A fundraising summit hosted by Uganda in June raised only a fraction of the $2 billion that Ugandan officials have said is needed to sufficiently look after the refugees and the communities hosting them.

Most of the refugees are women and children fleeing violence, often along ethnic lines, since the world’s newest country erupted into violence in December 2013. Ugandan refugee officials have repeatedly warned the influx is straining the country’s ability to be generous to the refugees, who often are given small plots of land for building temporary shelters and planting crops when they arrive. The largest of the settlements hosting refugees from South Sudan, Bidi Bidi, is roughly 230 square kilometers.

The World Food Program cut food rations for some refugees amid funding shortages in June. The UN says at least $674 million is needed to support South Sudanese refugees in Uganda this year, although only a fifth of that amount has been received.

The money is needed to provide basic services, including stocking clinics with medicines and putting up schools. Aid agencies say classroom sizes in the few available schools often exceed 200 pupils, and other children have dropped out because the nearest schools are located miles away.

“The funding shortfall in Uganda is now significantly impacting the abilities to deliver life-saving aid and key basic services,” the UNHCR statement said. Fighting persists in parts of South Sudan despite multiple ceasefire agreements. Rebel forces said Tuesday they had reclaimed their stronghold of Pagak in the northeast, less than a week after being pushed out by government forces.

Both sides have committed serious rights violations, including murder and rape, against civilians, according to UN investigators.

(Source: AP)

Two more senior executives quit US President Donald Trump’s business advisory panel, after Trump failed to immediately denounce white supremacists over a violent rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. In a strong rebuke to Trump, first the leader of one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies and then the CEO of an athletic gear company and finally the chief executive of a $170 billion tech giant resigned from a business panel led by the president.

“America’s leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which runs counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal,” tweeted Merck & Co Inc CEO Kenneth Frazier on Monday. Trump in response swiftly tweeted that at least Frazier will now “have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!”

According to the Executive Leadership Council, Frazier is a highly respected executive and one of only four African Americans to head a Fortune 500 company. Within hours, Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank resigned from the same panel, saying his company “engages in innovation and sports, not politics.” Although Plank did not specifically mention Trump or Charlottesville, he said his company will focus on promoting “unity, diversity and inclusion” through sports.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich however urged leaders to condemn “white supremacists and their ilk,” saying many in Washington “seem more concerned with attacking anyone who disagrees with them.” Under heavy bipartisan pressure, Trump finally declared that “racism is evil” and singled out white supremacists and Ku Klux Klan for a violent rally in Charlottesville.

“Racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans,” Trump said Monday from the White House. The three CEOs are not the first executives to resign from advisory councils serving Trump.

In June, Tesla CEO Elon Musk resigned from the manufacturing council and after US withdrew from the Paris climate agreement, Walt Disney Co. Chairman and CEO Bob Iger resigned for the same reason from the president’s Strategic and Policy Forum. William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said he could not “think of a parallel example” of any president responding as viciously as Trump to a CEO departing an advisory council.

“Usually, certain niceties are observed to smooth over a rupture,” said Galston, who served as a domestic policy aide in the Clinton administration. “We’ve learned that as president, Mr. Trump is behaving exactly as he did as a candidate,” Galston said. “He knows only one mode: When attacked, hit back harder.”

On Saturday, thousands of white supremacists, KKK members and neo-Nazis descended on Charlottesville for a “Unite the Right” rally. The march soon turned violent when a 20-year-old man plowed a vehicle into a group of anti-hate demonstrators protesting against the white supremacist rally, killing a woman and injuring 19 others.

Trump came under fire for initially blaming the violence on “many sides.” Democrats and Republicans alike called on the president to “call the evil by its name.” In his remarks on Saturday, Trump had failed to mention white nationalists, neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan or any other groups that participated in the rally.

Source; Presstv