US Senator John McCain, who died of brain cancer on Saturday, requested that former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush deliver eulogies at his funeral, and did not wish President Donald Trump to attend his services, according to reports.

McCain had long feuded with President Trump, and his family asked, before the senator’s death, that Trump not attend the funeral services, two White House officials familiar with the plans told The Associated Press.

Former Vice President Joe Biden will speak at a separate service in Arizona.

Obama, who defeated McCain in the 2008 presidential race, issued a statement shortly after the senator’s death, saying that “we shared, for all our differences, a fidelity to something higher — the ideals for which generations of Americans and immigrants alike have fought, marched, and sacrificed.”

“Few of us have been tested the way John once was, or required to show the kind of courage that he did,” Obama said. “But all of us can aspire to the courage to put the greater good above our own. At John’s best, he showed us what that means. And for that, we are all in his debt.”

Bush, who defeated McCain for the Republican nomination in 2000, issued a statement parsing McCain as “a man of deep conviction and a patriot of the highest order.”

The White House had prepared an official statement that hailed the life of McCain, but President Trump told senior advisers that he preferred to post a tweet instead.

Trump’s tweet did not include any kind words for the long-time senator and Vietnam War veteran.

“My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you!” Trump posted Saturday evening.

McCain, who served as a Republican senator from Arizona for more than three decades, wished to be buried at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, near the grave of a long-time friend.

Source: Presstv

The senior Republican Senator from Arizona and former Republican nominee for president in the 2008 election, John Sidney McCain III, died Sunday after battling brain cancer for more than a year.

McCain was surrounded by his wife Cindy and his family in Arizona during his final hours.

“He was a great fire who burned bright, and we lived in his light and warmth,” said Meghan McCain, one of the late senator’s seven children.

During the Vietnam War, McCain’s plane was shot down over Hanoi while on a bombing mission in 1967. Both his arms and a leg were broken in the incident. He was held by the North Vietnamese at the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” prisoner of war camp until 1973. More than two of those years were spent in solitary confinement.

When offered a chance at early release, McCain refused to be repatriated before other American detainees who had been held longer than he, out of respect for the POW code of conduct. His injuries sustained during the war left him with lifelong disabilities.

McCain returned from the Navy in 1981, moving to Arizona. Soon after entering politics in 1982, McCain was elected to the US House of Representatives, where he served two terms before setting his sights on the US Senate, which he joined in 1987 and to which he won easy re-election five times (most recently in 2016).

McCain ran for president for the first time in 2000 with an insurgent campaign against then Texas governor George W. Bush for the Republican nomination. He ended his candidacy, however, after suffering two major defeats in the primaries.

In 2008 he made a second attempt at the White House, this time as his party’s nominee. He ultimately lost to Barack Obama, then a junior Democratic senator from Illinois.

“We are all in his debt,” Obama said in tribute to McCain Sunday.

“We shared, for all our differences, a fidelity to something higher – the ideals for which generations of Americans and immigrants alike have fought, marched and sacrificed.”

‘Maverick’

Over the course of his career, McCain earned a reputation as a maverick who put his country before politics.

A powerful Republican voice, McCain was also known as a politician who was unafraid to vote on principle instead of along party lines. In 2017, shortly after his brain cancer diagnosis, McCain returned to Washington, DC, where he cast a crucial vote against a Republican-led effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act – one of Obama’s signature policy achievements.

The senior senator from Arizona was also a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, warning against the president’s apparent admiration for his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and other autocratic leaders in his recent book, “The Restless Wave”.

Following Trump’s meeting with Putin in July – during which he accepted the Russian president’s denial of interference in the 2016 US presidential election – McCain issued a searing statement in which he described the incident as “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory”.

Trump, who in the past has mocked McCain’s war record, said he sent his “deepest sympathies and respect”.

McCain is survived by his wife, Cindy, and his seven children: Doug, Andy and Sidney from his marriage to Carol McCain as well as Meghan, Jack, Jimmy and Bridget from his second marriage. McCain also leaves behind five grandchildren.

Culled from France 24

US President Donald Trump is feeling the political heat after two of his associates were indicted in federal criminal investigations, with a growing number of congressmen calling for his impeachment.

Pressure is mounting on Trump in the wake of his former attorney Michael Cohen’s plea deal and a guilty verdict for his former campaign manager Paul Manafort.

Congressman Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from California, said on Friday that the now-shuttered Russia investigation conducted by the House Intelligence Committee was a “sham” and needed to be reopened.

Asked whether he believed Cohen lied to his committee last year when the president’s former longtime attorney testified on allegations of Russian collusion during a six-hour session, Swalwell said only that Cohen had appeared to not have been “forthcoming.”

“[But] the only way to really test that is if he comes back [and testifies],” Swalwell added.

Swalwell’s remarks come days after the Senate Intelligence Committee stated that it wanted Cohen to reappear before the committee to testify.

Trump’s impeachment 

Political observers say the current political trend shows that after the “countdown” for impeachment began, matters are spiraling out of Trump’s control, forcing him to either face the impeachment or resign.

In his first public acknowledgment of a possible impeachment, Trump claimed he was doing a great job, so he would not be impeached.

Why would Congress impeach “somebody who has done a great job,” Trump told Fox News on Thursday commenting about his impeachment.

“If I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash. I think everybody would be very poor,” he warned the people of the US.

Trump claimed that if he were to be impeached, the US economy would crash and the stock market would plunge to “numbers that you wouldn’t believe, in reverse.”

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill efforts are underway to impeach Trump as soon as possible.

“The president has to realize that the countdown to impeachment has already started,” said congressman Al Green from Texas in a interview this week.

“He, at some point, will have to choose if he will face impeachment or if he will resign. It will be his choice. The congress will have no choice but to act,” the Democratic lawmaker pointed out.

Other congressmen made similar remarks.

“The president of the United States is now directly implicated in a criminal conspiracy, numerous members of both his campaign and administration have been convicted, pleaded guilty to felonies, or are ensnared in corruption investigations, and the Judiciary Committee has real work to do,” said New York congressman Jerry Nadler.

“If something comes out that is clear and convincing and impeachable, I think members will act,” said Tom Cole, a Republican member of the US House of Representatives.

Loyalty, not justice

In his Thursday interview with Fox News, Trump criticized his former lawyer Cohen for “flipping” amid pressure.

Trump suggested that anyone deciding to cooperate with the government by giving information about criminal cases to receive a reduced sentence from court is making up “stories” and “lies.”

The president said such practices should be banned. “It’s called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal,” he said.

Source: Presstv

Southern Cameroons Interim Government officials have condemned recent French Cameroun military attacks in the Menchum County precisely at Esu, Weh and Wum. Cameroon government forces killed at least 13 children in Esu and Weh prompting the Ambazonian Interim Government to renew calls for an impartial, independent and prompt investigation into attacks targeting Southern Cameroons civilians by the Francophone army.

Cameroon Concord News sources in Wum reported that elements of the Rapid Intervention Battalion killed 11 teenagers including the son of one Pa Souley resident in Holy Trinity Quarters as he was fleeing violence in the embattled Menchum County.  We gathered that an additional machine gun attack in the Menchum area killed four more children today in Weh.

This is the second time in three days that a French Cameroun military action has resulted in dozens of Southern Cameroons civilian casualties in the Northern Zone. According to Ambazonian Interim Government medical sources, over 89 people, including 66 children have been killed in Esu, Weh and Wum in the last 4 days.

Acting President Ikome Sako has been pushing the United States Congress to get the UN Security Council to take action and end this conflict once and for all. The Biya Francophone regime in Yaounde announced that it was opening an investigation into deadly attacks by its soldiers in Southern Cameroons, but rights groups and advocates say nothing has been done ever since the war started.

The Yaounde regime has prevented human rights groups including the UN from carrying out a proper investigation of war crimes emanating from Cameroon government troops against civilian targets. The 85 year old French Cameroun dictator launched a devastating military campaign against English speaking Southern Cameroonians with the aim of crushing the Anglophone uprising and quest for an independent state.

Some 2,000 Southern Cameroonians have been killed and thousands more injured since the onset of the French Cameroun aggression. More than 50,000 others have fled into neighboring Nigeria.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Former United Nations chief and Noble prize laureate Kofi Annan will be buried in his home country Ghana on Sept 13, the West African nation’s president said on Friday.

Nana Akufo-Addo told a delegation of Annan’s family that Annan would have a full state burial, “befitting his status as a global icon, diplomat and statesman”.

Annan died in a Swiss hospital in the early hours of Saturday at the age of 80. He was surrounded in his last days by his second wife Nane and children Kojo and Nina, his foundation and close associates said.

After rising through the ranks of the United Nations, Annan served two terms as U.N. Secretary-General in New York from 1997-2006 and retired to live in a Swiss village in the Geneva countryside. His 10-year-old foundation promotes good governance and the transformation of African agriculture.

Annan and the United Nations shared the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for efforts to reform the world body and give priority to human rights issues.

REUTERS

Veteran US senator and war hero John McCain — a towering figure in American politics for decades — has stopped treatment for brain cancer, his family announced Friday, one year after the Republican went public with his diagnosis.

The announcement signals the beginning of the end of a tough battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer — and of a storied life that took him from a Hanoi prison to the doorstep of the White House.

“The progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict,” the 81-year-old senator’s loved ones said in a statement.

“With his usual strength of will, he has now chosen to discontinue medical treatment.”

McCain has spent more than three decades in the upper chamber of Congress, looming large in debates over war and peace and the moral direction of the nation.

The Navy fighter pilot spent years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam after being shot down while on a bombing mission over Hanoi.

He lost the 2008 presidential election to Barack Obama, and was pilloried for selecting controversial Alaska politician Sarah Palin as his running mate.

With no more elections to run, since 2016, he has been a rare and outspoken Republican critic of President Donald Trump.

Known for his combustive temper, he has accused the 45th president of “naivete”, “egotism” and of sympathizing with autocrats.

Following Trump’s recent summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, McCain caustically described the US leader’s behavior as “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.”

‘Strength to carry on’

McCain has not been on the Senate floor in months, remaining at his Arizona home for treatment. Glioblastoma is the same form of brain cancer that took the life of another Senate giant, Democrat Ted Kennedy, in 2009.

“I love my husband with all of my heart. God bless everyone who has cared for my husband along this journey,” his wife Cindy said.

His daughter Meghan thanked the public for an outpouring of support.

“My family is deeply appreciative of all the love and generosity you have shown us during this past year,” she tweeted.

“Thank you for all your continued support and prayers. We could not have made it this far without you – you’ve given us strength to carry on.”

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he was “very sad to hear this morning’s update from the family of our dear friend.”

“We are so fortunate to call him our friend and colleague. John, Cindy, and the entire McCain family are in our prayers at this incredibly difficult hour.”

(AFP)

Long serving Arsenal manager, Frenchman Arsene Wenger, has finally been awarded the highest national honour of Liberia at a ceremony held in the capital, Monrovia, on Friday.

Wenger has thus been inducted into the country’s Order of Distinction and given the title of Knight Grand Commander of the Humane Order of African Redemption.

His former protégé and current Liberian president George Weah announced the move to honour him this month. The announcement drew criticism over Wenger’s direct impact on the country as a whole along side the nature of award conferred on him.

Wenger has a close connection with the continent having managed a number of African players during his time in charge at Arsenal. Incidentally he coached Weah three decades ago in 1988. He signed Weah whiles at French side FC Monaco.

Another former coach of the president who was awarded at the ceremony was current coach of the Togolese national team, Claude Le Roy.

He coached Cameroon in 1988 and recommended that Wenger should sign George Weah, who was playing for Cameroonian side Tonnerre Yaoundé at the time.

Weah went on to play for AC Milan, Paris St Germain and Chelsea. In 1995 he was named World Footballer of the Year and won the Ballon d’Or, still the only African to win either award. He is also the first international sportsman to be elected president of a country.

Liberia’s Information Minister Eugene Nagbe in response to criticisms of the award told the BBC the award was not only about Wenger’s impact on Weah alone but a way to recognize that the Frenchman had “contributed to sports in Africa and has given many Africans opportunities”.

Source: Africa News

The French government and diplomats from French speaking African countries have for more than two years been covering up war crimes committed by the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime in Southern Cameroons. The United Nations, Amnesty International and the International Crisis Group have all made public evidence of genocide in Southern Cameroons via investigative work carried out by their experts and representatives.

Yaoundé launched a war on Southern Cameroons in an attempt to crush the Anglophone uprising and quest for an independent state. The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia said recently that the African Union and the UN Office have failed to provide credible, impartial, and transparent report to the UN Security Council on the war violations and war crimes committed by French Cameroun soldiers in Southern Cameroons.

The France-Afrique diplomats represented by the current Chairperson of the African Union, Chad’s Moussa Faki have always concluded that the Southern Cameroons war is an internal affair and that the killings of more than 2000 Southern Camroons civilians were unintentional outcomes of legitimate military operations.  A senior aide to Acting President Ikome Sako was quoted as saying that the African Union and CEMAC countries were doing little more than covering up war crimes.

Some 2000 Southern Cameroons civilians, mostly women and children have been killed ever since the 85 year old French Cameroun dictator declared war on Southern Cameroons. The Ambazonian Interim Government has warned countries selling arms to French Cameroun, including the French government of President Macron that they are being complicit in serious violations in Southern Cameroons.

The President Macron administration faces increasing pressure even at home for its support for the French Cameroun dictator, President Paul Biya. France with the support of the President Buhari administration in Abuja has been supplying the Biya Francophone regime with advanced arms and intelligence sharing.

More than half a million Southern Cameroonians have been displaced by the conflict and thousands more injured since the onset of the French Cameroun invasion.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

US President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton says Washington will cut funding for the United Nations human rights agency in Geneva, Switzerland, the latest blow against the UN by the Trump administration.

Bolton announced the move against the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights during an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday.

The office is headed by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, who co-ordinates human rights activities throughout the UN system and supervises the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva.

Bolton said US officials would calculate how much of the US annual budget goes to the human rights ffice and the Human Rights Council, and reduce its outlay by that amount.

The measure would make the UN agency lose one of its largest donors. The United States is the UN’s largest single funder, providing about 22 percent of its budget.

Ex-Chilean President Michelle Bachelet is set to replace Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein as the High Commissioner for Human Rights next month.

The US withdrew from 47-nation UNHRC in June over what it called the council’s entrenched bias against Israel.

Since Trump took office in January 2017, his administration has been pushing the UNHRC to end its scrutiny of Israel’s widespread human rights abuses against Palestinians.

Human Rights Watch called the withdrawal “a sad reflection of the US administration’s one-dimensional rights policy,” adding that Washington’s defense of Israeli rights abuses takes precedence above everything else.

Source: Presstv

An open letter was delivered this morning to representatives of President Paul Biya, requesting the immediate start of dialogue to resolve the Cameroon crisis. The letter, in English and French, was authored by five Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who previously served in Cameroon, echoing the feelings of numerous other RPCVs.

Open Letter to Cameroon President Paul Biya

August 22, 2018.

To His Excellency, President Paul Biya:

Since the creation of the United States Peace Corps in 1962, more than 3,600 Americans have served as Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV) in all ten regions of Cameroon.  PCVs have proudly worked alongside their Cameroonian counterparts in a wide range of service sectors. The warmth and welcome of Cameroonians towards volunteers and their generosity of spirit and hospitality profoundly changed and enriched our lives.

Cameroon has been respected throughout Africa for its history of stability and its protection of religious, cultural, and language diversity. That stability and diversity has contributed to Cameroon’s continued prosperity.

As Americans who were very fortunate to have lived and served in Cameroon as PCVs, we are concerned about the current situation. It is from our personal experience of living and working in Cameroon that we express our shock and distress over the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the North West and South West Regions..

We have seen the recent reports on the crisis from international groups such as Amnesty International, the International Crisis Group, and Human Rights Watch. Additionally, the news reports from international and Cameroonian media on the increasing violence and killings in the Anglophone regions are troubling.

We do not attempt to analyze or judge the many factors contributing to the current situation, but we call for the earliest cessation of all violence, killings, destruction, and suffering affecting the Cameroonian people. We strongly reiterate the recommendations of other groups that you invite an independent international third-party to help mediate an end to the conflict.

We have been in contact with experienced conflict mediation teams at the Kofi Annan Foundation, and at the Carter Center, led by former United States President Jimmy Carter. Both groups have indicated a strong interest in assisting Cameroon in mediation efforts if invited.

As you know, the world celebrated Nelson Mandela Day on July 18, which highlighted Mandela’s leadership and practice of national dialogue, forgiveness, reconciliation, and unity. We propose that Mandela’s legacy could also serve as a model for Cameroon during this difficult time.

We wish you well and respectfully urge you to announce the earliest convening of all relevant parties for mediation efforts, led by a third party.

Sincerely,

Dennis King, New York – 1971-1974 (Bambili)

Craig Kinzelman, Ohio – 1967-1972 (Buea, Bamenda)

Haley McLeod, Washington – 2013-2016 (Bapi)

Evan Schneider, Oregon – 1973-1975 (Banso)

Bill Strassberger, Florida – 1982-1986 (Njinikom, Bamenda)