Trump planned to fire Mueller but reversed course

26, January 2018

Trump planned to fire Mueller but reversed course 0

US President Donald Trump had ordered the firing of special prosecutor Robert Mueller investigating Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, but later reversed course, according to media reports.

Trump gave the order in June 2017, but White House counsel Don McGahn refused, saying it would have a “catastrophic effect” on Trump’s presidency, The New York Times reported Thursday.

After McGahn threatened to quit, Trump backed down, the newspaper reported, citing four anonymous sources. The White House declined to comment on the matter, the newspaper said.

Trump had accused Mueller of three conflicts of interest that he argued disqualified him from conducting the investigation, the report said.

The alleged conflicts of interest consisted of Mueller’s termination of his membership at a Trump golf course over a dispute about fees, his previous representation of the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and an interview for a possible return as director of the FBI before he was appointed as special counsel.

On Wednesday, Trump for the first time directly said that he would cooperate with Mueller, whose investigation he had previously dismissed as a “witch hunt.”

“I would love to do it,” Trump told reporters in the White House when asked about testifying. “I would do it under oath, absolutely,” he added.

Any interview of a US president in an investigation is fraught with issues of executive privilege — how much and in what context the US leader can be forced to disclose information.

Mueller, a former FBI director, has been running a high-profile investigation into allegations that Trump won the 2016 US presidential election against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton only because Moscow had rigged the election in his favor.

US intelligence agencies claim Russia-linked hackers provided WikiLeaks with damaging information — in the form of thousands of hacked emails — about Clinton to skew the 2016 presidential election in favor of Trump.

Trump has repeatedly denied allegations that his campaign colluded with Russians and has condemned the investigations. Russian President Vladimir Putin has also denied the allegations.

 

Source: Presstv


China unveils ‘Polar Silk Road’ project

26, January 2018

China unveils ‘Polar Silk Road’ project 0

China on Friday outlined its ambitions to extend President Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative to the Arctic by developing shipping lanes opened up by global warming.

Releasing its first official Arctic policy white paper, China said it would encourage enterprises to build infrastructure and conduct commercial trial voyages, paving the way for Arctic shipping routes that would form a “Polar Silk Road”.

The official paper revealed that Beijing would pursue its strategic regional objectives “jointly with Arctic States, while respecting traditions and cultures of the Arctic residents including the indigenous peoples and conserving natural environment”.

“China hopes to work with all parties to build a ‘Polar Silk Road’ through developing the Arctic shipping routes,” the paper, issued by the State Council Information Office, said.

The paper revealed that China also eyes development of oil, gas, mineral resources and other non-fossil energies, fishing and tourism in the region.

Despite being a non-Arctic state, China has gained interest and increased its activity in the polar region.

China, which became an observer member of the Arctic Council in 2013, owns a major stake in Russia’s Yamal liquefied natural gas project.

Yamal has planned to supply China with four million tonnes of LNG a year, according to the state-run China Daily.

Another advantage is that shipping through the Northern Sea Route would save almost 20 days off the regular time using the traditional route through the Suez Canal, the newspaper reported last month. COSCO Shipping has also previously sailed vessels through the Arctic’s northeast passage.

The file photo shows an Arctic LNG tanker in Saint Petersburg. (By AFP )

 

China’s increased activities in the region has prompted concerns from Arctic states over Beijing’s long-term strategic
objectives, including possible military deployment.

“Some people may have misgivings over our participation in the development of the Arctic, worried we may have other
intentions, or that we may plunder resources or damage the environment,” Vice-Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou said at a briefing.

“I believe these kinds of concerns are absolutely unnecessary.”

China’s Belt and Road initiative aims to connect China to Europe, the Middle East and beyond via massive infrastructure projects across dozens of countries, reflecting Xi’s desire for China to take on a more prominent global leadership role.

(Source: Reuters)


Brazil court orders seizure of ex-president Lula’s passport

26, January 2018

Brazil court orders seizure of ex-president Lula’s passport 0

A Brazilian court on Thursday approved the seizure of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s passport, the Justice Ministry said, after an appeals court upheld the corruption conviction of the left-wing hero.

The decision came on the eve of a planned trip by Lula to Africa. It also came a day after appellate court judges voted to uphold Lula’s convictions on taking a bribe and money laundering and extended his sentence, in a major blow to the popular politician’s plans to run again for the presidency this year.

Lula’s lawyer Cristiano Zanin said the former president’s passport would be handed in on Friday, but called the decision “shocking” and an unnecessary restriction on his freedom of movement. In a statement, he said that the appellate court had been informed of Lula’s trip to Africa and his plans to return to Brazil on Jan 29.

“He won’t travel now,” Lula spokesman Jose Chrispiniano said, adding that the former leader had planned to attend an African Union conference in Ethiopia.

Justice Minister Torquoato Jardim, who was informed of the decision by the federal police chief, recommended that Lula be informed of the decision to avoid any problems, the ministry said.

Lula could be arrested as soon as judges make a decision on a final appeal in his case, which is expected to occur in at most two to three months.

(Source: Reuters)


Southern Cameroons Crisis: Cardinal Tumi criticizes military violence

25, January 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Cardinal Tumi criticizes military violence 0

Cardinal Tumi has spoken out against the recent use of military violence in the Southwest Region against Anglophone separatists, saying local forces need to respect human life.

“You don’t bring peace by violence and violence begets violence,” said Cardinal Christian Tumi, Archbishop Emeritus of Douala, in a recent video.

“I have heard about those destructions and killings…and I think that has to be condemned. So my opinion is simple, we as Cameroonians should respect lives and the life of everybody,” he continued.

Military forces have been burning down villages in Cameroon’s Southwest Region, seeking separatist forces. Most recently, the town of Kwa Kwa, Matoh and the surrounding area was set on fire, which destroyed homes and the rectory of the local Catholic church.

View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter
 Mass destruction in Kwakwa village Meme Division.Houses in ruins & the area deserted. Locals say the structures were set ablaze by soldiers.
 The attacks also claimed the life of a 96-year old woman who died in one of the buildings set on fire by military forces. In addition to causing deaths, the political crisis within Cameroon has also pushed thousands of refugees into neighboring Nigeria.

The crisis is rooted in conflict between the English- and French-speaking areas of Cameroon. The area was a German colony in the late 19th century, but the territory was divided into British and French mandates after the German Empire’s defeat in World War I. The mandates were united in an independent Cameroon in 1961.

There is now a separatist movement in the Southwest and Northwest Regions, which were formerly the British Southern Cameroons.

Unrest in Cameroon has been ongoing since 2016, when the country’s Anglophone community began protests to demand the return of federalism. These protests have gone so care as to call for secession from the current government, run by President Paul Biya.

Secessionist militants in the English-speaking region of Cameroon have also sought violence against government forces and began attacking military troops in November 2017.

Biya, who is likely to seek re-election after 35 years in office, is not expected to seek negotiations with the secessionists since 2018 is an election year, which could prolong the political tensions within the country.

“I am sure that if the President of the Republic knows what is happening, he will condemn it, but on the country, he congratulated the army to bring peace,” Tumi said.

The cardinal was born in what is now Northwest Cameroon, but has served as a bishop, since 1979, in Francophone regions of the country.

According to reports, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea told reporters that the Cameroon crisis could only be resolved through dialogue.

“Cameroon is a big nation whose crisis requires concern of all forces. There is no nation without its own crisis,” President Nguema said, according to Xinhua Net.

“What is required is to seek solution through dialogue and use it to find a common axis. Those seeking refuge in other lands need to sit down together and find solution through dialogue. It is only through that, they can find solution to the crisis.”

 

Source: Catholic News Agency


Schools Set Ablaze as Biya regime Vows Crackdown on Separatists

25, January 2018

Schools Set Ablaze as Biya regime Vows Crackdown on Separatists 0

Unrest in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions intensified with arson attacks on schools and a city market as the government vowed to quash a secessionist movement whose leaders are in detention in Nigeria, saying it won’t negotiate with terrorists.

 At least three schools were torched this week in the Northwest region, one of two Anglophone areas in the majority French-speaking Central African nation, after a market in the city of Bamenda was set ablaze in an attack the government blames on the separatists. Gunmen killed one soldier and seriously injured another on Thursday as they were on patrol in a town west of Bamenda, a commander of the paramilitary police, Ewane, said by phone.
 “The government cannot and will not engage any form of dialogue with terrorists bent on amputating part of the national territory in the name of secession,’’ Communication Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said in a phone interview late Wednesday. “You don’t negotiate anything with such people.”
Security forces have stepped up patrols in the areas, searching houses and arresting those who can’t produce identity papers as part of “a routine operation,’’ Simon Emile Mooh, prefect for the Bui Division in the Northwest region, said by phone. “The forces of law and order are merely making sure that no weapons have been sneaked in,” he said.

Ten leaders of the separatist movement, which calls the two Anglophone regions the Republic of Ambazonia, have been held in neighboring Nigeria since Jan. 6 at an undisclosed location, according to their Nigerian lawyer, Femi Falana. The crisis began more than a year ago with peaceful protests against the French language’s dominance in courtrooms and schools.

One of the movement’s interim leaders, Bobga Harmony, announced on Facebook “the multiplication of self-defense operations” because the government rejects talks. “We shall continue targeting anti-secessionists as well as burn down schools,” he said.

Source: Bloomberg


Ambazonia Crisis: Gunmen cross from Nigeria, attack Cameroon border post

25, January 2018

Ambazonia Crisis: Gunmen cross from Nigeria, attack Cameroon border post 0

Gunmen attacked a border crossing in Cameroon’s southwest on Thursday, launching their assault from Nigeria, security source witnesses said.

No one was killed, the officials said, but the incident is likely to further damage relations between the neighbors, strained over the rise of an Anglophone Cameroonian separatist movement.

Five security and administrative agents said the unidentified gunmen launched their attack on the Ekok border post along Cross River.

“They came around 3 a.m. (0200 GMT). They came from Nigeria and there were many of them. They had heavy weapons. They had grenades. They were shooting everywhere,” said one police source, who like the other witnesses asked not to be named.

“We don’t really know how it happened,” a second security source told Reuters. “Some of these guys came from the riverside (beneath the bridge). We don’t know exactly which path they took, but all of them came from Nigeria.”

Government officials in Cameroon would not immediately comment on the attack.

Nigeria’s defense ministry spokesman said he was not aware of the incident and referred queries to the military. A Nigerian military spokesman said he was not aware of the attack but would make checks.

Cameroonian military officials and pro-government media accuse Nigeria of sheltering the insurgents, who since last year have waged a guerrilla campaign to establish an independent homeland for Cameroon’s English-speaking minority.

Reuters reported last month that Cameroonian troops crossed into Nigeria in pursuit of the rebels without seeking authorization from Nigeria, provoking a behind-the-scenes rift between two nations with a history of fraught relations.

The militaries of Cameroon and Nigeria repeatedly clashed over the disputed Bakassi peninsula in the 1980s and 90s.

The status of the territory was settled in Cameroon’s favor by The Hague-based International Court of Justice in 2002 and in recent years the two countries have cooperated extensively to stamp out the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

More than 15,000 refugees have fled to Nigeria amid Cameroonian military operations against the Anglophone separatists, the United Nations refugee agency and Nigerian government officials said earlier this month.

REUTERS


How the Southern Cameroons crisis killed the English language

25, January 2018

How the Southern Cameroons crisis killed the English language 0

The Southern Cameroons crisis has taught every Cameroonian where the English language goes to die. Cameroon Concord News is citing the Ambazonian crisis to make it clear that Southern Cameroonians do not regard themselves as blameless in the use of the English language today in La Repubique du Cameroun.

But do you ever, like Cameroon Concord News, read the speeches or ministerial press releases of French Cameroun cabinet ministers and want to ask, “What has the English language ever done to you?” English language is in a bad way and the blame mainly goes to those who write or speak about politics in French Cameroun.

Among the ugly features presently witnessed in French Cameroun are dead or dying metaphors, redundant words and phrases, pretentious diction, and meaningless, abstract or vague words. President Biya and his gang and those who write speeches for them are the worst offenders.

While none of this is about political correctness, the Francophone political elites always take the adjective over the noun so that everything that comes out of their mouths is designed to sell their achievements and that of Mr. Biya.

In CPDM politics, any direct admission of weakness or failure is to be avoided. Unfortunately, this makes the consequences far more serious when failure is eventually uncovered like the case with this press release signed by  the Minister of Commucation, Issa Tchiroma Bakary. It would be unfair to blame only President Biya for these developments.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai


Ambazonia Refugee Crisis: Aid presented by Minister Mengot were foodstuffs seized from Nigerian and Anglophone businessmen

25, January 2018

Ambazonia Refugee Crisis: Aid presented by Minister Mengot were foodstuffs seized from Nigerian and Anglophone businessmen 0

The Manyu CPDM food aid meant to feed thousands of Ambazonian refugees and displaced persons was forcefully collected from Nigerian and Southern Cameroons businessmen trading on the Enugu-Bamenda Highway, Cameroon Concord News has learned.

The bags of rice, beans and salt were seized from traders by heavily armed Cameroon government troops and part of the items handed over to Minister Victor Mengot and his CPDM delegation from Yaoundé. We also gathered that the small quantity handed over to the pro Biya comedians is being diverted by corrupt contractors and there are already calls to open an independent investigation.

The bags of rice were taken from the businessmen and women through roadblocks manned by a bewildering array of the Francophone dominated army and bandits serving with councils controlled by the ruling CPDM crime syndicate.

Ever since the 84 year-old President Biya declared war on the Anglophone communities, not only are kidnappings and executions common, but Southern Cameroons’s insecurity also makes it difficult for senior Cameroon government officials to travel to the rural areas. Minister Victor Mengot could not go to places like Kembong, Dadi and Nsang as government agents who do go there run the risk of relying for protection on the same people they are fighting.

A prominent Manyu CPDM elite who travelled to Mamfe with Minister Mengot and who did not wish to be named, told Cameroon Concord News that a significant amount of food presented by the Minister Mengot delegation was being diverted to cartels who were selling it illegally.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

 


UN says number of extra-judicial killings in Congo-Kinshasa has tripled

25, January 2018

UN says number of extra-judicial killings in Congo-Kinshasa has tripled 0

The United Nations has slammed the Democratic Republic of Congo for its inability to contain a surge in the number of extra-judicial “executions” in the country, saying figures show a three-time increase in two years of such killings by “state agents”.

The United Nations Mission in Congo (MONUSCO) said Wednesday that a crisis in vast region of Kasai has driven up the number of summary “executions” in the DRC, saying state agents carried out 1,176 extra-judicial killings last year.

MONUSCO deplores “the exceptional increase” which showed that killings had tripled in number over the past two years.

It said at least 89 women and 213 children were killed as part of the extra-judicial killings in the DRC in 2017.

The findings, which were part of MONUSCO’s annual report on human rights violations in the DRC, said that 64 percent of all extra-judicial killings by state agents last year were carried out by armed forces.

The report also indicated that rights violations and abuses committed in 2017 across the central African country had risen by more than 25 percent compared to the previous year, adding that a total of 6,497 cases had been recorded last year.

MONUSCO said at least 752 people were executed in Kasai, a region that comprises three provinces plagued by violence since August 2016 when Kamwina Nsapu, a tribal chieftain known for his fierce opposition to regime of President Joseph Kabila, was killed. Around 3,000 people have been killed since then while some 1.4 million remain displaced.

The UN report described Kasai as a region plagued with “persistent crisis”, saying crimes by state agents were rampant there. The world body lost two of its experts in the region last March while investigating the violence.


Ex-US gymnast doctor sentenced up to 175 years in jail for sexual abuse

25, January 2018

Ex-US gymnast doctor sentenced up to 175 years in jail for sexual abuse 0

The disgraced long-time USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar has been sentenced to up to 175 years in prison for sexually abusing young female gymnasts.

Following days of testimony in a Michigan courtroom from about 160 of Nasser’s victims, including Olympic gold medalists, the Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina made the ruling on Wednesday.

“I just signed your death warrant,” Aquilina told Nassar in imposing the penalty, after delivering a searing rebuke of his years of abuse.

“It is my honor and privilege to sentence you because you do not deserve to walk outside of a prison ever again,” she added.

Nassar, 54, pleaded guilty in November to seven counts of first-degree sex assault in Ingham County, as well as three additional charges in Eaton County, where he will be sentenced next week. He is already serving a 60-year sentence in federal prison for child pornography convictions.

Before the sentence was announced, Nassar apologized to his victims, telling them, “I will carry your words with me for the rest of my days.”

Women in the US and the UK have recently been coming forward to share accounts of sexual harassment and assault in workplaces, including in the media, entertainment industry, and political environments.

An avalanche of sexual misconduct allegations were made last year in October against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. The scandal has rippled in a wide range of industries.

 

Source: Presstv


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