Politics

4, March 2018

Turkey seeks close ties with Africa ⁰

Ankara has been seeking to expand its influence in Africa in the face of tensions with Egypt, where calls are growing for a public boycott of Turkish goods.

Ties between Ankara and Cairo strained in 2013, when then Egyptian army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi toppled the country’s first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood movement.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described Sisi’s rise to power as a “coup” an accused the UN of having done “nothing but watch the events such as overthrowing the elected president in Egypt.”

Recently, Erdogan wrapped up a five-day tour of the African countries of Algeria, Mauritania, Senegal and Mali with a large business delegation and a diplomatic entourage.

“We want to walk with Africa while a new world order is being established,” he tweeted at the end of his trip.

This is while a public boycott of Turkish goods has been launched in Egypt to protest what its leaders call Erdogan’s “anti-Egyptian policies.”

The boycott campaign has become the hottest trending topic on Egyptian social media, with 12,000 tweets including #boycott Turkish products, privately-owned Egyptian daily Youm7 reported on Sunday.

Social media users called on the Egyptian government to take action against businessmen importing products from Turkey, saying that purchase of Turkish goods would “contribute to the killing of Egyptians.”

“Turkey acts against Egypt’s political interests everywhere,” said Hisham Baker, a legal expert who initiated the boycott campaign with his friends. “This is why Egyptians have a national and moral obligation to stop buying its products.”

Turkey and Egypt have also been at odds over the latter’s maritime demarcation deal with Cyprus in a potential struggle over resources in the gas-rich eastern Mediterranean.

Additionally, Cairo is concerned about Turkey’s close economic and military ties with Sudan.

Relations between Egypt and Sudan have been soured in recent months by disputes over the ownership of the “Halayeb Triangle” border territory, and over the broader issue of use of water from the River Nile that passes through their territories.

The triangle lies between Egypt and its southern neighbor and the borders have been contested by Sudan since 1958. Cairo says it is Egyptian territory.

Source: Presstv

4, March 2018

Italians casting ballots in general elections ⁰

Italians are taking to the polls to cast their ballots in general elections that would determine the makeup of the country’s parliament and its next government.

Polling stations opened at 07:00 local time (0600 GMT) and will close at 23:00 (2200 GMT) on Sunday, with more than 30 million people eligible to vote.

The voters will choose members of both chambers of the parliament, including 630 members of the Chamber of Deputies and the 315 members of the Senate.

People prepare ballots and voting-related materials at a polling station in downtown Rome, Italy, March 3, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

The anti-establishment Five Star Movement, the ruling Democratic Party, and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing coalition Forza Italia (Go Italy) are the main rivals in the Sunday general elections.

The 81-year-old ex-PM cannot hold public office due to a tax fraud conviction but has allied himself with the anti-immigrant League Party to be able to compete in the race.

Under a new law passed last year, roughly a third of the seats are to be selected by the direct “first-past-the-post” system, with the remainder to be selected by proportional outcomes divided among allied parties and coalitions.

Each party would need at least 40 percent of the votes to command an overall majority of the seats in both chambers of the parliament.

Opinion polls have indicated that Berlusconi’s coalition is in the lead but will not win an outright majority, and Five Star has been widely projected by pollsters to emerge as the single biggest party. The ruling center-left Democratic Party, led by former prime minister Matteo Renzi, is predicted to finish in third place.

Head of the center-right party Forza Italia (Go Italy) Silvio Berlusconi (C) poses for pictures with supporters, outside the San Severo Chapel, during his tour in downtown Naples, on March 3, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

The general elections are held amid concerns over immigration and the economy.

The International Organization for Migration (IMO) says more than 600,000 refugees and asylum seekers have made perilous journeys from Libya across the Mediterranean to reach Italy since 2013. The huge influx of refugees has worried many Italians and politicians, triggering violent clashes between far-right supporters and anti-fascist protesters.

Italy’s economy index is almost six percent lower than a decade ago, and some 18 million people are at risk of poverty, with unemployment standing at 11 percent.

Experts and analysts have expressed optimism that the Sunday general elections under the new system will pave the way for reforms to create an economy boost and a hike in the employment rate in the European country.

The official results of the elections are expected to be released in the early hours of Monday.

Source: Presstv

3, March 2018

French Cameroun: Paul Atanga Nji to oversee the genocide in Southern Cameroons ⁰

Cameroon Concord News holds the considered opinion that the appointment of Paul Atanga Nji by the ailing and demented demonic dictator Paul Biya of neighbouring French Cameroun as his Minister of territorial administration is one step further in fine-tuning his genocidal war strategy against Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia. The appointment of Atanga Nji is aimed at maximizing the ongoing extermination of the Southern Cameroons ’civilian population. Cameroon Concord News can confidently state that Paul Biya by the appointment intended to send mixed signals and to confuse and confound.

He intended to deflate criticisms that he has never appointed Southern Cameroonians to a key ministry of state sovereignty. With that, he hoped to hoodwink slave status Southern Cameroonians at the marginal fringes of the CPDM crime syndicate to believe that at long last he has rehabilitated his colonized Southern Cameroons slaves who have been agitating and clamouring for rehabilitation, recognition and a place on the master’s table.

In the coming days, motions of support will be sent by paid agents and collaborators from supposed Fons, Chiefs and elites from the Northern Zone and South West Zones of Ambazonia. So-called elite associations will join in praising and calling on the 86 years old demented Paul Biya to decree unto himself eternal life and eternal presidency. Cameroon Concord News Group invites these categories of slave status worshippers to be extremely cautious of the harm their gullibility may bring to the endangered people of the Southern Cameroons and themselves. Atanga Nji’s mission is to oversee the genocide machinery of death that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Ambazonia civilians. Any one cheering his appointment and sending motions of support to the murderer Paul Biya is cheering the genocide which he is appointed to oversee its implementation.

Paul Biya removed Rene Sadi who has until now overseen the genocide of Ambazonia, the abduction of the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and members of the interim government in Abuja Nigeria and the terrorization of Southern Cameroon and replaced him with the traitor Atanga Nji his Secretary of his National Security Council. Paul Biya intended to distance one of his potential heirs apparent from these crimes from near Paul Biya and place the responsibility for the crimes on Atanga Nji. Paul Biya will command the execution of the crimes through the remote control of Rene Sadi who by him, will through Paul Atanga Nji coordinate the genocide and crimes against humanity. The criminal responsibility will fully fall on a ruthless, robot and nitwit Atanga Nji. Any Ambazonian celebrating this appointment and the appointment of other Southern Cameroonians into the government of an alien enemy and country that is slaughtering armless civilians, torching civilian settlements, raping students and women, looting our economy and terrorizing the citizenry, qualifies to be an enemy of the Ambazonia people.

Cameroon Concord News reminds Ambazonians that the network of terror which French Cameroun used to oversee the colonization of the Southern Cameroons/ Ambazonia over the past fifty-six years was placed under the superintendence of the Minister of territorial administration. The Minister of territorial administration oversees elections rigging, enforcement of curfews and states of emergency, abduction and disappearance of persons and enforces all repressive legislation. Paul Atanga Nji like Nalova Lyonga supervised or ordered the massacre of civilians and students. Their appointment is a reward for the murder of innocent persons which will haunt their consciences for ever if at all their consciences are alive. The appointments have a higher purpose of rewarding murder, treachery and criminality. In effect, it is a reward for impunity.

Paul Atanga Nji, has always occupied a place of honour in Paul Biya’s crime laboratory. He was always his cherished hitman. He is an old hand in the job which he is appointed to do in Paul Biya’s crime syndicate. He operated from the shadows and was a key player in the abduction of the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia in Nigeria, members of his interim government as well as the abduction of Captain Guerandi Mbaya a former French Cameroun army captain who along with Isa Tchiroma and others took part in a failed coup in French Cameroun.

Paul Atanga Nji also has a mandate of a political nature. He is to make sure that elections that have been banned in the territory of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia take place on the blood of hundreds of thousands. He has a mandate to make sure that divisional officers use every available force at their disposal to make sure the supposed opposition candidates are prevented from holding campaign meetings. They must make sure the elections are rigged in favour of Paul Biya and the CPDM crime syndicate. The appointment of a man from the crime underground to oversee a genocide and the rigging machinery makes the months ahead potentially dangerous. Cameroon Concord News calls on citizens of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia to reject these appointments and to concentrate on contributing to the interim government to to expel the enemy from our territory.

Cameroon Concord News recalls the crimes that French Cameroun has committed against us for the past fifty-six years supervised by its so-called Minister of territorial administration. It is the Minister of territorial administration of French Cameroun who directly administered the Southern Cameroons from when it was annexed and renamed West Cameroon through a Federal Inspector of Administration, criminally disregarding our Prime Minister and our state institutions. The so-called Federal Inspector of Administration oversaw the effective annexation and dismantling of the Southern Cameroons state institutions through a reign of terror, abductions, disappearances, corruption, and engineered treachery by some of our own leaders. French Cameroun relies on French Cameroun divisional officers under the control of the Minister of territorial administration to terrorize the colonized territory of the Southern Cameroons and supervise the looting and pillage of its natural resources for the benefit of French Cameroun France colonial master and the crime syndicate in power in the French vassal state.

Cameroon Concord News Group identifies the following among many instruments of state terror that Paul Atanga Nji like his French Cameroun’s counterparts will use to humiliate Southern Cameroonians: The institution of a permanent state of emergency in the territory of Ambazonia; press censorship, calle calle, rape, torture, cultural genocide, humiliation, land grab, murder, corruption, spying, assimilation, and destruction of all symbols of Southern Cameroons national and cultural identity.

Cameroon Concord News Group holds the opinion that at this moment when the Southern Cameroons revolution and resistance to the reign of terror has forced the colonial strangulation of the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia to be collapsing on its own weight, all citizens of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia must stand resolutely behind the interim government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia to free our land from external aggression and genocide, and our President, members of the interim government and all Ambazonians under colonial detention. Only fools cheer their own genocide. As our ongoing revolution signifies, Ambazonians are not fools and will not cheer the death machinery put in place by French Cameroun and its criminal appointees or even condone them. Cameroon Concord News therefore strongly holds that cheering the appointments of renegades, traitors and enemy collaborators to support the enemy genocide war effort against our own people and our territory must be considered an act of treachery and thus banned from the territory of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

To this I put my name

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

3, March 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Two Anglophones get top positions in Biya cabinet reshuffle ⁰

Two politicians from Anglophone Cameroon have been handed top cabinet positions in a government reshuffle on Friday evening.

Dr. Nalova Lyonga was named Minister of Secondary Education whiles Atanga Nji Paul was appointed Minister of Territorial Administration which translates to the Interior Ministry portfolio.

The Prime Minister Philemon Yang and Information Minister Issa Bakary Tchiroma were among those that maintained their positions. Local media portals reported about five big dismissals.

As per the cabinet reorganization orders, President Paul Biya also created a new ministry for Decentralization and Local Government. It is to be headed by one Elanga Obam George.

Source: African News

2, March 2018

France: Far-right leader Le Pen charged over Daesh tweets ⁰

French prosecutors have filed charges against far-right leader Marine le Pen over a series of tweets showing gruesome executions by the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

A judicial source said Thursday that Le Pen was being investigated over suspicions of disseminating violent images.

The embarrassing tweets were posted in December 2015 and contained three graphic images of Daesh beheading American journalist James Foley.

The investigation comes as Le Pen prepares to present her plans for a restructuring of her National Front party in its annual congress next week. Le Pen lost to Emmanuel Macron during last year’s presidential election despite huge anticipations for her victory.

The probe is not expected to cost Le Pen her popularity among National Front loyalists although it could further affect her approval rating among the public.

Le Pen, who had described the investigation in its earlier stages as a “political interference,” said Thursday the probe was a sign the political establishment was trying to silence her.

“If they are trying to silence me, they will not succeed,” she said.

Le Pen and her party face other investigations into their financial conduct. In one case, the National Front is accused of paying parliamentary assistants from the European Union funds. There is also a probe into how the party has financed the past election campaigns.

Under the French judicial law, if a person is placed under formal investigation, like the one Le Pen is involved in over Daesh tweets, the person could be sent to trial. If Le Pen is convicted of the charges, she could face a maximum sentence of several years in jail and a 75,000 euro fine.

Source: Presstv

1, March 2018

Bundes: CSU urges new election if SPD rejects coalition ⁰

Germany’s Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, has called for new election if the members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) say “No” to a new coalition with the conservative bloc.

The SPD’s 464,000 members are voting in a postal ballot on whether to approve a power-sharing deal with Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union of Germany party (CDU) and the CSU. The CDU/CSU bloc and the SPD have been coalition partners since 2013.

The result of the vote will be announced on Sunday.

Merkel was forced into coalition talks with the SPD after negotiations with two lesser-known parties failed last November following inconclusive general elections in September.

“If the second attempt at a government now fails, then we should have new elections,” the leader of the CSU, Horst Seehofer, told journalists in Munich on Wednesday, stressing that he was against a minority government.

Top officials from the CDU, CSU and SPD are scheduled to meet on Thursday, before the SPD vote ends, to settle outstanding issues on the formation of a coalition government, according to party sources.

The SPD members have until Friday to submit their votes.

The coalition deal between Merkel and the SPD came earlier in February, after weeks of tough negotiations, which saw Merkel relinquish the key ministry of finance to the coalition partners while offering other concessions over issues of immigration, health and tax.

Source: Presstv

28, February 2018

“Scottish Parliament will refuse to sign EU exit bill” ⁰

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says Edinburgh will refuse to agree to London’s planned Brexit deal with the European Union, arguing that the exit bill would undermine the whole foundation on which the UK devolution system was built.

Sturgeon made the announcement in an interview with BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday, a day after the British government said it expected to reach an agreement with the devolved nations – Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales – on how power would be shared after the Britain’s separation from the 28-member bloc.

“We are simply trying to protect the powers that the Scottish Parliament already has – things like agriculture, fishing, environmental policy, food standards, justice and health. These are all currently responsibilities of the Scottish Parliament,” Sturgeon said.

“At the moment we have to exercise those powers within the confines of European law, but after Brexit, in terms of the devolution settlement, those powers should return to the Scottish Parliament and it should be up to us how we exercise them,” she added.

The Scottish first minister criticized the settlement and said London was trying to use the issue of Brexit in order to take control of devolved powers with the consent of the parliament in Edinburgh.

“Westminster effectively wants to be able to impose uniformity in these areas and that’s not acceptable in terms of the broad sweep and fundamentals of the devolution settlement,” Sturgeon said. “What the Withdrawal Bill seeks to do is restrict and constrain the ability of the Scottish Parliament or the Welsh Assembly to legislate in these devolved areas.”

Sturgeon noted that it is “very likely” the Scottish Parliament will not give consent to the exit bill unless the UK government changes its mind.

London needs a deal before the summer in order to pass the EU exit bill in the national parliament.

Sturgeon also warned on Tuesday that she retains “a mandate” to hold a second independence referendum if London tries to impose its will on Scotland.

In the United Kingdom’s 2016 referendum, 52 percent, or 17.4 million people, voted to leave the EU while 48 percent, or 16 million, voted to stay.

The British government has faced fierce criticism both at home and by the EU for its lack of clarity on its Brexit strategy.

The uncertainty has raised fears that Britain could crash out of the bloc without a trade deal, incurring heavy costs on its domestic economy.

Last month, Sturgeon accused the British government of a “reckless and irresponsible approach” in the negotiations so far, arguing London had entered talks with unachievable aims.

London and Brussels are due to move on to the next stage of Brexit negotiations this year, after reaching agreement in December on exit terms.

Source: Presstv

26, February 2018

Yaounde: French Ambassador and Angolan Foreign Affairs Minister at Unity Palace ⁰

President Paul BIYA granted two audiences at the Unity Palace on Friday 23 February 2018. The French Cameroun dictator met with the French Ambassador to Cameroun, Gilles Thibault and Angola’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Manuel Domingos Augusto.

For over two hours, Biya and the French Diplomat discussed the socio-political situations in Cameroon. Ambassador Gilles Thibault revealed to reporters after the audience that they centred their discussion on issues such as economic development, security, the violence in the North West and South West Regions, 2018 elections, and the fight against terrorism.

The Angolan Foreign Affairs Minister was bearer of a special message from President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço. Manuel Domingos Augusto explained to news men and women that it was imperative to reinforce bilateral relations between Cameroon and Angola, since the latter is undergoing political transition.

He also highlighted the necessity to consult BIYA on the March 2018 summit of the Council for Peace and Security in Central Africa (COPAX), which will be held in Libreville – Gabon.

Source: The Presidency La Republique du Cameroun

26, February 2018

German chancellor appoints outspoken critic as minister ⁰

German chancellor Angela Merkel has named a key opponent of her centrist ideas as a minister in her cabinet for a fourth term in office.

Merkel said she would appoint Jens Spahn as health minister in her new government if a coalition deal with center-left Social Democrats (SPD) is finalized.

The 37-year-old Spahn, a leading advocate of sharper conservative profile, is known for his fierce criticism of Merkel’s moderate centrist approach, especially the one Merkel applied in talks with the SPD to reach a coalition deal.

Merkel hopes a congress of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) would on Monday sign off on the deal with the SPD which should also pass the major hurdle of gaining the approval of the congress of SPD members on March 4 before it goes into action.

Senior figures from Merkel’s CDU hailed the chancellor’s decision to include people like Spahn in a future cabinet, saying it was a sign Merkel had a desire to tolerate critics in her fourth term in office.

“It’s a good sign because he is a dedicated politician who has shown for years that he is acting in the interests of this country … He will certainly be a good health minister,” said Michael Kretschmer, a member of the CDU’s right wing and leader of Germany’s state of Saxony.

In a bid to quell surging discontent in the right wing of the CDU ahead of the Monday congress, Merkel also appointed newcomers like 45-year-old Julia Kloeckner as agriculture minister; 46-year-old Anja Karliczek as education minister and 45-year-old Helge Braun as her new chief of staff.

However, Merkel stood firm with loyalists like Ursula von der Leyen, the mother of seven who would be reappointed as defense minister and also close ally Peter Altmaier who would serve as minister of economy.

Based on the coalition deal reached this month, Merkel and the CDU would have six positions to fill in the future cabinet as she should relinquish the influential portfolio of finance ministry to the SPD.

Source: Presstv

26, February 2018

Ohio governor John Kasich says US witnessing ‘the end of a two-party system’ ⁰

The Governor of the US state of Ohio John Kasich says the two-party system that has dominated US politics for over a century might be nearing its end.

“We may be beginning to see the end of a two-party system,” Kasich, a Republican, told ABC News on Sunday. “I’m starting to really wonder if we are going to see a multiparty system at some point in the future in this country because I don’t think either party is answering people’s deepest concerns and needs.”

The governor, who ran a failed bid Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential primaries, said the Republican Party was his “vehicle” and not his “master.”

However, asked would he run as an independent if he was to mount another White House bid, the 65-year-old said he would not because he was still a Republican.

He is rumored to be preparing for a possible 2020 bipartisan bid with Colorado’s Democratic governor, John Hickenlooper, as his running mate.

Kasich has been a firm critic of Trump ever since he launched his presidential campaign and defeated all Republican and Democratic candidates to become president.

An elephant, the Republican Party’s symbol, and a donkey, the which represents the Democratic Party.

He did not have high hopes for his own party in 2018, the year both Republicans and Democrats face the fateful mid-term congressional elections.

The governor predicted that Democrats were going to have a better year overall despite lacking a clear agenda.

It was this lack of agenda on both sides that could ultimately lead to a collapse of the two-party system, he further argued.

“That’s exactly why I’m saying that our young people are fed up and why I’m saying that the prospect of a multiparty system in this country is a real possibility,” Kasich said.

The Republican and Democratic Parties are able to take turns electing US presidents and controlling Congress because the American political system discourages people from supporting third parties, such as the Greens and Libertarians.

Third party candidates face major challenges in the United States, such as the failure to meet the criteria for ballot access. Due to debate access rules, they are even often excluded from participating in presidential debates.

According to political observers, the two major US political parties are heavily influenced by corporate money and the financial markets and lack the power to implement meaningful reforms in the country.

Source: Presstv