Some 50,000 people were ordered to flee their homes north of Los Angeles on Thursday as a fast-moving wildfire driven by high winds erupted and raged out of control in the US state of California.

The so-called Tick Fire near Santa Clarita, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) north of Los Angeles, broke out in the early afternoon and quickly consumed 5,000 acres (2,023 hectares), fire officials said.

The blaze burned several homes and structures and forced the closure of a major highway and a number of roads, as some 500 firefighters backed by air tankers and helicopters battled the flames.

There were no immediate reports of injury.

“We are urging everybody to evacuate at this time,” a spokesman for the fire department said.

The fire erupted as much of the state was under a red flag warning because of gusty winds, high temperatures and low humidity which make for perfect conditions for wildfires.

In northern California wine country, some 2,000 people were ordered to evacuate after a brush fire erupted late Wednesday, quickly growing from a blaze of a few hundred acres into a 16,000-acre inferno, California fire officials said.

About 500 responders battled the fire fed by wind gusts topping 70 miles per hour (113 kilometers per hour).

Mandatory evacuation orders were issued for the community of Geyserville and nearby vineyards after the fire started in a mountainous area and quickly spread, crossing a highway and moving toward homes, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said.

“If you’re in Geyserville, leave now,” the sheriff’s office advised, citing an extraordinary threat to life and property.

Winds out of the north were driving the fire as firefighters struggled to save homes.

By early evening, the fire was five percent contained and several structures had burned, fire officials said.

The blaze — 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of San Francisco — came amid official warnings that much of northern California and parts of the south were under imminent threat of fires into Friday because of blustery, dry weather and high temperatures.

Another brush fire in San Bernardino County, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, also prompted evacuation orders as it quickly burned 75 acres.

Hurried departures

Power was cut to some 180,000 customers in the northern part of the state Thursday and similar preemptive shutoffs affected thousands of customers further south due to conditions that are ripe for wildfires.

Power companies warned that additional power cuts could be ordered to reduce the risk of accidental fires.

The strong winds in the north were expected to subside Friday but are forecast to pick up again on Sunday, the National Weather Service warned.

Many residents of Geyserville said they barely had time to gather their belongings as the monster fire quickly approached the town, with embers igniting fires throughout the region.

“We thought we were a couple of miles from the fire,” Dwight Monson, 68, told the Los Angeles Times. “But guess what — the winds.”

He said by the time his family got in their cars and escaped to the valley below, the flames were on the edge of their ranch.

PG&E, the state’s biggest utility, said in a statement that it had informed regulators that a jumper on a transmission tower near where officials said the fire had started was broken.

The company — which has been held responsible for numerous wildfires in the state — said that even though power to nearly 28,000 customers in Sonoma County, including Geyserville, had been shut down on Wednesday, some of the high-voltage transmission lines were still operating when the fire broke out.

“We relied on the protocol and we still, at this point, do not know what exactly happened,” PG&E CEO and president Bill Johnson told a news conference.

This week’s fires have erupted as the state is still recovering from deadly wildfires in 2017 and 2018 that killed more than 100 people.

The fires have been fueled by years of drought and dry vegetation.

“This is an emotional time for many people,” Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick told a news conference Thursday. “It’s only been two years since the fires that devastated our community. For many this will be a very stressful and anxious time.”

(Source: AFP)

Close to 50 African leaders were expected to be in Russia’s Black Sea city of Sochi for the first ever Russia – Africa forum, the Kremlin announced weeks back.

The forum expected to run between October 23 – 24 event is part of Moscow’s ambitious push for influence and business in Africa.

The Russians have by this move joined a field that includes the United States, China, Japan and to a large extent the United Kingdom and France.

Here’s a rundown of the events happening at the historic summit.

• Russia writes off African debt
• Russia, Egypt economic cooperation
• Free trade deal is good for Africa
• Putin congratulates Ethiopia PM
• List of African leaders at summit

Russia writes off African debt

Russia’s president Vladimir Putin said up to twenty billion dollars of African debt has been written off, as part of an intiative to ease the debt burden of countries on the continent.

‘‘The total sum of debt written off currently amounts to 20 billion dollars. Along with several other countries, joint programmes to put debts towards financing national economic growth have been launched,’‘ Putin said.

Putin also sought to push back against the narrative that his country’s main export to Africa are arms, arguing instead that it is food.

‘‘Russia is one of the top ten largest suppliers of food to the African market. We export more agricultural products to the markets of third countries than weapons. Weapons amount to around 15 billion dollars while I think agricultural supplies make up about 25 billion dollars.’‘

Focus on Russia, Egypt economic cooperation

The Russian and Egyptian leaders reiterated their commitment to develop ongoing projects in the North African country.

The projects include the construction of the El Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant and Russian Industrial Zone in Egypt.

“I am talking about investments of 190 million dollars in the development of infrastructure and attracting up to 7 billion dollars,’‘ Putin said, emphasising his country’s commitment to investing in Africa.

“Regarding the Russian industrial zone, we are very interested in finding solutions to all the unresolved issues surrounding this project so that Russian companies and businesses can come, get registered and start operating in this zone,’‘ Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said.

In May last year, the two leaders signed a 50-year agreement to build a Russian industrial zone east of Port Said as part of the new Suez Canal Economic Zone.

Ramaphosa hails Africa Free Trade deal

South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa told Russia that the recently ratified continental free trade agreement ‘presents an opportunity for African countries to participate with Russia in a meaningful way’.

The president who was meeting Russia’s Putin on the sidelines of the summit said his country remained committed to the strategic relationship between the two countries.

‘‘Last year, our trade turnover increased by 28.5 percent, reaching 1 billion dollars, but, of course, this is not enough,’‘ Putin told Ramaphosa.

‘‘This is not only insufficient given the broad range of relations between Russia and the continent of Africa. The figures are too small. We can do much more and I hope our contacts today will give good momentum to this development.”

Putin congratulates Ethiopia PM

Russia’s president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday congratulated Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed upon the Nobel Peace Prize won earlier this month.

“First of all, I would like to congratulate you once again on winning the Nobel Peace Prize. It is a worthy tribute to your great achievements in regulating the Eritrean-Ethiopian conflict and the efforts of your country in normalising the overall situation in eastern Africa,’‘ Putin said in a meeting held by the two countries’ delegations.

‘‘Our trade turnover volume is too small and is not adequate for Russia or Ethiopia. It goes without saying that we should and I hope we will make it greater than it is today.’‘

Abiy thanked Russia for helping Ethiopia resist colonisation and said his country is keen on strengthening cooperation with Russia.

List of African leaders at Russia Africa Summit

Over a twenty African presidents, vice presidents, Prime Ministers, Ministers and other government representatives are currently in Sochi as the forum starts. Amongst them are:

• Alpha Conde, Guinea
• Filipe Nyusi, Mozambique
• Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria
• Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa
• Peter Mutharika, Malawi
• Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Mali
• Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Equatorial Guinea
• Roch Marc Kabore, Burkina Faso
• Yoweri Museveni, Uganda
• Paul Kagame, Rwanda
• Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Ghana
• Julius Maada Bio, Sierra Leone
• Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe
• Andry Rajoelina, Madagascar
• Adama Barrow, The Gambia
• Mohamed Cheik El Ghouzani, Mauritania
• Mohamed Abdulahi Farmaajo, Somalia
• Idris Deby Itno, Chad
• Abdul Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan
• Abdelkader Bensaleh, Algeria
• Denis Sassou Nguesso, Republic of Congo
• Hage Geingob, Namibia
• Fayez Serraj, Libya
• Ismail Omar Guelleh, Djibouti
• Joao Manuel Lourenco, Angola
• Faustin Archange Touadera, Central African Republic
• Felix Tshisekedi, Democratic Republic of Congo
• Faure Gnassingbe, Togo
• Jewel Howard Taylor, Liberia vice-president
• Julien Nkoghe, Gabon Prime Minister
• Kassim Majaliwa, Tanzania Prime Minister
• Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia Prime Minister
• Osman Saleh, Eritrea Foreign Affairs Minister

For Moscow, the prize is greater political influence on a continent with 54 United Nations member states, sprawling mineral wealth, and potentially lucrative markets for Russian-manufactured weapons.

The world’s largest wheat exporter, Russia is also looking to ramp up its supplies of grain and fertilizer to meet demand that is rising in step with Africa’s booming population

Source: Africa News

A Russian official says the country will send more military policemen and equipment to Syria under a deal with Turkey that suspended the offensive against Kurdish militants along the border.

Russia’s RIA news agency quoted an unnamed Defense Ministry source as saying on Thursday that Moscow would dispatch a further 276 military policemen and 33 units of military hardware to Syria in a week.

Earlier this week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, unveiled a 10-point memorandum of understanding following lengthy talks in Sochi on the situation in northeastern Syria.

Under the deal, which put Turkey’s offensive on hold, Russian military police and Syrian border guards entered the northern border regions to facilitate the removal of YPG militants and their weapons to a depth of 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Syria’s frontier with Turkey.

Once the process is complete, within 150 hours, Turkish and Russian soldiers will begin joint patrols of the entire border area to a depth of 10 kilometers (six miles) with the exception of the border city of Qamishli in Hasakah Province.

In another development on Thursday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin said Kurdish militants have begun withdrawing from areas near the Turkish-Syrian border.

“We note with satisfaction that the agreements reached in (the southern Russian city of) Sochi are being implemented,” Russia’s Intrefax news agency quoted Vershinin as saying. “Everything is being implemented.”

Syrian and Russian media showed footage of Russian military police vehicles on the outskirts of the Syrian border cities of Manbij and Ayn al-Arab on Wednesday. Russian patrols were also reported to have begun inside Manbij.

On October 9, Turkey launched the military operation against Washington’s longtime Kurdish allies in northern Syria after the US announced a sudden withdrawal of its troops from the region.

On October 17, Turkey agreed to a US-brokered truce, under which it paused the offensive for five days to allow the withdrawal of Kurdish militants. The Ankara-Moscow deal was announced shortly before the expiry of that deadline.

Source: Presstv

France’s Interior Minister said on Thursday that intelligence services had arrested a man for planning an attack inspired by plane attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in September 2001.

France has for several years grappled with how to respond to both homegrown terrorists and foreign militants following a series of attacks across the country. French officials say the threat of attacks remains very high.

On October 3, an IT specialist with suspected Takfiri sympathies, who had high level security clearance, killed three officers and one civilian employee before he was shot dead by another police officer.

“Just before (that attack) there was a 60th attempted attack since 2013,” Christophe Castaner told France 2 television.

“An individual, who was inspired by the events of September 11 and the planes which destroyed the World Trade Center towers, was arrested by our intelligence services.”

France has seen more than 230 people killed in the last four years on its territory from terrorist attacks, notably in November 2015 after coordinated strikes across the capital.

The attacks were claimed by the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in Syria, and were carried out in part by French-born fighters.

Officials now fear dozens of their nationals held in Kurdish-controlled camps and prisons could escape and return home following a Turkish offensive in northern Syria that is targeting Kurdish militias guarding them.

(Source: Reuters)

Senior US Democratic congressman Elijah Cummings, who was at the center of the Trump impeachment inquiry, died Thursday at the age of 68, his office said.

The veteran Baltimore representative passed away at a hospital in his home city “due to complications concerning longstanding health challenges,” a statement from his office said without giving the cause of death.

As the highly respected chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Cummings — a big man with a booming voice and gift for oratory — was at the center of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump and had clashed with him repeatedly in recent months.

The House panel is one of three probing whether Trump pressured Ukraine to dig up dirt on Democratic White House hopeful Joe Biden and help the president win re-election next year.

Cummings had also supervised probes into issues including the Trump administration’s treatment of migrants at the border with Mexico and its effort to include a question about citizenship in next year’s census.

Trump set aside his feud with the Democrats to extend condolences to Cummings’ family and friends.

“I got to see first hand the strength, passion and wisdom of this highly respected political leader. His work and voice on so many fronts will be very hard, if not impossible, to replace!” he wrote on Twitter.

In July, the president described Baltimore as a “rat and rodent infested mess” unfit for humans and blamed it on the Cummings, who has represented much of the majority-black city in Congress since 1996. Trump suggested the African-American Democrat spend more time there.

Cummings wrote in response, “Mr. President, I go home to my district daily. Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors. It is my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch. But, it is my moral duty to fight for my constituents.”

‘We lost a giant’

One of seven children, Cummings was the son of South Carolina sharecroppers who moved north to improve their lot in life.

He earned a degree in political science and later a law degree, and went on to become one of the most powerful Democrats in Congress and a key ally of House speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The Baltimore Sun said he was “known for his devotion to Baltimore and civil rights, and for blunt and passionate speechmaking.”

It said he had particularly resented Trump’s tweet that four congresswomen of color should “go back” to their countries.

Since winning his seat in 1996, Cummings never faced a serious challenge for it. He was also an early supporter of Barack Obama’s drive to become America’s first black president.

Tributes to Cummings quickly poured in from Congress.

“We lost a giant today. Congressman Elijah Cummings was a fearless leader, a protector of democracy, and a fighter for the people of Maryland. Our world is dimmer without him in it,” Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris wrote.

“He was an amazing man,” said Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer.

“He had a combination of being strong when he had to be, and had to be quite often, but also being kind and decent and caring and humble,” Schumer said.

(Source: AFP)

The United Nations may not have enough money for staff salaries next month if member states don’t pay what they owe, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Tuesday.

He told the 193-member U.N. General Assembly’s budget committee that if he had not worked since January to cut spending then “we would not have had the liquidity to support” the annual gathering of world leaders last month.

“This month, we will reach the deepest deficit of the decade. We risk … entering November without enough cash to cover payrolls,” said Guterres. “Our work and our reforms are at risk.”

The United States is the largest contributor – responsible for 22 percent of the more than $3.3 billion regular budget for 2019, which pays for work including political, humanitarian, disarmament, economic and social affairs and communications.

Washington owes some $381 million for prior regular budgets and $674 million for the 2019 regular budget. The U.S. mission to the United Nations confirmed the figures.

An official from the U.S. mission said the United States “will be providing the vast majority of what we owe to the regular budget this fall, as we have in past years.”

“Overall the United States, as the largest contributor to the U.N., contributes roughly $10 billion annually in assessed and voluntary contributions across the United Nations system,” the official said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said Washington is shouldering an unfair burden of the cost of the United Nations and has pushed for reforms of the world body. Guterres has been working to improve U.N. operations and cut costs.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said 129 countries had paid their dues for 2019 so far, which amounted to almost $2 billion.

Guterres said he introduced extraordinary measures last month to cope with the shortfall – vacant posts cannot be filled, only essential travel is allowed, and some meetings may have to be canceled or deferred. U.N. operations in New York, Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi and at regional commissions will be affected.

U.N. peacekeeping missions are funded by a separate budget, which was $6.7 billion for the year to June 30, 2019, and $6.51 billion for the year to June 30, 2020.

The United States is responsible for nearly 28 percent of the peacekeeping budget but has pledged to pay only 25 percent – as required by U.S. law. Washington currently owes some $2.4 billion for peacekeeping missions.

The top contributing countries are Ethiopia, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Rwanda. They pay their troops according to their national salary scales and are reimbursed by the United Nations. As of July 2019, the United Nations paid $1,428 a month per soldier.

The United Nations says its peacekeeping operations cost less than half of 1 percent of world military expenditures.

Source: Reuters

US President Donald Trump is warning that the Democrat-driven impeachment proceedings and any move to oust him from office amount to “treason” and would spark a civil war, prompting outrage from a Republican congressman.

Trump tweeted a conservative pastor’s comment that removing him would provoke a “civil war-like fracture” in America.

US Representative Adam Kinzinger, a former Air Force pilot who represents an Illinois district Trump won in 2016, tweeted on Sunday, “I have visited nations ravaged by civil war. … I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President. This is beyond repugnant.”

Trump on Monday was thundering through a new round of counter-punches against his opponents by hammering home the suggestion that they should be arrested and charged with treason and could launch a civil war — or a combination of those.

His top foes were the whistleblower whose complaint launched the House’s impeachment investigation and the congressman leading it, Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.

“Arrest for Treason?” Trump tweeted of Schiff on Monday in one of many presidential suggestions that his opponents should be investigated for operating under their constitutional duties and within the law.

Treason is extremely narrowly defined, both in the nation’s founding document and in federal law.

The Constitution states: “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”

Note the word “only.” Treason occurs when a US citizen, or a non-citizen on US territory, wages war against the country or provides material support, not just sympathy, to a declared enemy of the United States.

That came after Trump tweeted a comment from the Rev. Robert Jeffress, pastor of the Southern Baptist megachurch First Baptist Dallas.

“If the Democrats are successful in removing the president from office, it will cause a civil war-like fracture in this nation from which our country will never heal,” Jeffress said on Sunday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend,” which Trump posted a few hours later.

(Source: AP)

China is reportedly expected to unveil a nuclear-armed missile that could reach the United States in just 30 minutes during a parade celebrating the 70th anniversary of Communist rule in the country, amid heightened political, military and economic tensions with Washington.

According to Chinese media, the military may unveil the missile, dubbed the Dongfeng 41, during the ceremony on Tuesday.

The parade will included 15,000 troops, more than 160 aircraft and 580 pieces of military equipment, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, Cai Zhijun.

He said last week that many new weapons “will be shown for the first time,” but declined to clarify whether they would include the Dongfeng 41.

No details of the missile have been released, but according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, it may have the world’s longest range at 15,000 kilometers.

The missile with a technology known as multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles, (MIRV), is capable of flying at 25 times the speed of sound, according to analysts.

 It also could reach the United States in 30 minutes with up to 10 warheads for separate targets, they said.

The current mainstay missile of China is known as the Dongfeng 31, which has a range of more than 11,200 kilometers. The missile puts most of the continental United States within reach.

Satellite images have shown China increasing the number of launchers for DF-41 and DF-31 missiles from 18 to as many as 36.

Other weapons include a supersonic drone and a robot submarine.

Pictures circulated on social media showing blurry images of a possible attack drone dubbed “Sharp Sword” and another drone, the DR-8 or Wuzhen 8, during preparation for a parade.

The Chinese military — with the second-highest annual spending after the United States — is working on fighter planes, the first Chinese-built aircraft carrier and nuclear-powered submarines.

The military’s last year spending rose 5 percent to $250 billion, according to Siemon Wezeman of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri).

According to Sipri, China has about 280 nuclear warheads, compared with 6,450 for the United States and 6,850 for Russia.

Beijing, however, has assured that it wants a “minimum credible nuclear deterrent” but will not be the first to use atomic weapons in a conflict.

This has prompted concern in the United States, with the US Defense Intelligence Agency saying in a report earlier this year that the world’s second largest economy “has developed nuclear, space, cyberspace and other capabilities that can reach potential adversaries across the globe.”

Beijing and Washington have been locked in a dispute over the South China Sea, which has been at the center of a long-running territorial row between China and several of its neighbors.

The US has been taking sides with China’s rivals in their territorial disputes in the busy sea, stepping up military presence in the region under the pretext of freedom of navigation operations in international waters.

China has constantly warned Washington that close military encounters by air and naval forces of the two countries in the region could easily trigger miscalculation or even accidents at sea or in air.

Washington-Beijing ties have further soured over the past months over a number of other issues, including a trade war as well as what China views as US meddling in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Source: Presstv

Former French president Jacques Chirac, who led France from 1995 to 2007, died on Thursday morning at the age of 86, his son-in-law told Reuters.

“He passed away peacefully this morning surrounded by his loved ones,” his son-in-law Frederic Salat-Baroux said.

The head of the lower house of the French parliament interrupted a sitting of the chamber to hold a minute’s silence.

Chirac, France’s second-longest serving president, dominated French politics for decades.

Following in the footsteps of previous French leader Charles de Gaulle, Chirac tried to elevate France’s status as a player on the world stage.

He stirred national pride with his opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

After leaving public office, he suffered from neurological problems, and was rarely seen in public at the end of his life.

(Source: Reuters)