World: September 2016

Friday 30 September 2016

Cyprus court orders Egyptian hijacker extradited

A Cyprus court on Friday approved a request from the Egyptian government to extradite a man who hijacked a domestic EgyptAir flight with a fake suicide belt and diverted it to Cyprus.
Judge Dona Constantinou ordered that Egyptian Seif Eddin Mustafa be extradited within 10 days and remain in police custody until then. Mustafa’s lawyer Robertos Brahimis told The Associated Press that he’s been instructed by his client to appeal the decision.
Mustafa claims he hijacked the EgyptAir jet in March to underscore the wrongs done by Egypt’s military-backed government and that he meant no harm to anyone. The hijack ended peacefully after all 72 passengers and crew were released and Mustafa was arrested.
Mustafa has fought his extradition, saying he fears that he could be tortured or even killed at the hands of Egyptian authorities if he’s sent back.
But Constantinou rejected Mustafa’s argument, saying the 59-year-old had opted to stay in Egypt

Police carrying out a crackdown on the Camorra mafia clan have recovered two Van Gogh painting stolen 14 years ago.
The masterpieces – Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuene and View of the Sea at Scheveningen – were painted by the Dutch artist early in his career.
“They’re safe,” said Van Gogh Museum director Axel Rueger.
“I no longer dared to hope that I could ever say that, after so many years.”
The Amsterdam museum said the canvasses had been removed from their frames, but appeared to have suffered only slight damage and be in “relatively good condition”.
The museum said a patch of paint in the lower left corner Scheveningen painting had been chipped off, while the other work appears undamaged.
However, further examination is needed, it said.

Angolan rebels of the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC) have claimed killing 18 government troops.
The separatist guerrillas fighting for the independence of the northern province of Cabinda said Thursday they had killed the 18 in the oil-rich enclave, rising the death toll to around 50 since August.
In a statement, FLEC said clashes with the Angolan army took place last week at Makumeni Village in Buco Zau municipality soon after the Portuguese ambassador to Angola visited the province.
A war territory
“We keep on alerting and informing the public and the international community that Cabinda is a

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres as a “great man of the world” on Friday and promised there would be peace as he eulogised him at his funeral.
“Shimon lived a life of purpose,” Netanyahu told world leaders and other mourners gathered at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl cemetery of the man who was once his political rival.
“He soared to incredible heights. He was a great man of Israel; he was a great man of the world. Israel grieves for him, the world grieves for him, but we find hope in his legacy, as does the world.”
He recalled a late-night discussion between them in which they debated Israel’s future.

Pope Francis set off Friday for Georgia and Azerbaijan on what Vatican officials billed as a mission to promote peace in a troubled part of the world, three months after he visited Armenia.
“The holy father will be bringing a message of peace and reconciliation for the whole Caucusus region,” his spokesman Greg Burke told reporters. The official theme of the trip is “Pax vobis” (peace for you).
After taking off from Rome just after 0700 GMT, Francis was due to touch down four hours later in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, a country with one of the oldest Christian traditions in the world.
He will be greeted there by President Giorgi Margvelashvili and the current leader of the Georgian

Zimbabwe’s opposition, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has reportedly accused President Robert Mugabe of owning more than 14 farms, in a development seen as contravening the country’s constitution on land.
According to New Zimbabwe, the PDP, which is led by former finance minister Tendai Biti, said that Mugabe owned vast tracks of land, which included his dairy farm Gushungo Dairies, Gushungo Estate as well as Mazowe Iron Mask estate.
PDP spokesperson, Jacob Mafume claimed that Mugabe had failed to reign in on corruption because he was also deeply involved in unfair distribution of resources.
He said that this was a direct contravention of Section 293 subsection 2 of the country’s constitution, which stated that: “the state may not alienate more than one piece of agricultural

An Egyptian court has blocked the cancellation of an Egyptian-Saudi pact under which Cairo will transfer control of two Red Sea islands to Riyadh.
Thursday’s ruling came in response to a June verdict by another court that annulled the agreement reached during a visit to Egypt in April by Saudi Arabia’s monarch, King Salman.

Gabon’s opposition leader Jean Ping on Thursday called for national talks to form a “new republic” and urged foreign powers to impose sanctions on allies of President Ali Bongo, sworn in this week after a disputed election in the oil-producing nation.
Ping remained intransigent during his speech in the capital Libreville, saying he refused to recognise Bongo’s presidency.
But his appeal for dialogue — albeit on his own terms — could help usher in a return to normal

World leaders bid farewell to Israeli elder statesman and Nobel Peace laureate Shimon Peres at his funeral in Jerusalem Friday, with US President Barack Obama hailing him as a giant of the 20th century.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was among the mourners at the city’s Mount Herzl national cemetery and was seated in the front row, reportedly at the request of Peres’s family.
Abbas knew Peres well and negotiated with him. In an extremely rare move, he shook hands and spoke briefly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu upon arrival.
Security forces were on high alert, with roads closed and thousands of officers deployed.
Some 70 countries were represented, with the range of leaders illustrating the respect Peres gained over the years in his transformation from hawk to committed peace advocate.
“In many ways he reminded me of some other giants of the 20th century that I had the honour to meet: men like Nelson Mandela, women like Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth,” said Obama, who wore a black Jewish skullcap.
Peres’s death on Wednesday at the age of 93 drew tributes from around the world for Israel’s last

This file photo taken on July 14, 2016 in Washington, DC, shows International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde speaking at the Center for Global Development marking the 15th anniversary of the Center.(AFP)

The on-going drama in idea-generation for sourcing funds for fiscal stimulus is exciting! Act 1, Scene,1: Tony Blair persuaded President Muhammadu Buhari to use Eurobonds to avoid the inherited looming financial disaster before May 29, 2015. PMB was lukewarm. Act 1, Scene 2: Christine Lagarde presented IMF-template for Nigeria’s economic revival in Q4, 2015. PMB was taciturn.
Act 2, Scene 1, PMB started global campaign for recovering looted funds in Q1 with poor concrete response. Act 2, Scene 2: Works, Power and Housing minister proposed use of idle pension funds for infrastructural development in Q1. Act 2, Scene 3: Finance Minister told Washington journalist that Nigeria was not eager for IMF loan in Q1. Act 2, Scene 4: Femi Falana (SAN) petitioned Federal Government to recover $66.5 billion debts instead of external loans in Q1.
Act 3, Scene 1: orchestrated campaign against PMB’s “medieval economic policies” of pegging exchange rate by political economists/activists/monarch (sponsored canvassers of SAP Phase II?) in Q2. Act 3, Scene 2: PMB succumbed to pressure on removal of oil subsidies and devaluation in Q2 through which “about N920 billion has been “conservatively” lost with respect to the debt stock” (The Guardian 26/09/16) with devastating impact on exchange, inflation and interest rates with automatic upsurge in hunger and poverty among the citizenry. Act 3, Scene 3: Nigeria’s

Hillary Clinton says presidential rival Donald Trump appears to have violated US laws, after a report said he broke a trade embargo with Cuba.
‘Newsweek’ reports that Trump’s company secretly conducted business in Cuba, violating the US trade embargo against the country.
The company allegedly spent at least $68,000 (£52,300) in Cuba in 1998.
Trump’s spokesman Kellyanne Conway said the money was not paid, and that he was against deals with Cuba.
Trump has also repeatedly said he had rejected offers to invest in Cuba.
The ‘Newsweek’ report says Trump’s company funnelled the cash through a US consulting firm to make it appear legal.
Mrs Clinton said: “We have laws in our country, and the efforts that Trump was making to get into the Cuban market – putting his business interests ahead of the laws of the United States and the requirements that businesses were operating under with sanctions shows that he puts his

Saudi Arabia has condemned a recently-passed US law allowing the families of the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks to sue the Saudi government.
The US Congress voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to override President Barack Obama’s veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) on relations between states.
JASTA allows attack survivors and relatives of victims to pursue cases against foreign governments in US federal court and to demand compensation if such governments are proven to bear some responsibility for attacks on American soil.
In a statement on Thursday, the Saudi government said the enactment of the law was a matter “of great concern” and called on the US Congress “to avoid the serious unintended consequences that may ensue”, without elaborating on what the consequences might be.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has appeared to compare himself to Adolf Hitler, saying he would be “happy to slaughter” millions of drug addicts just like Nazi Germany killed three million Jews.
“Hitler massacred three million Jews … there’s three million drug addicts. There are. I’d be happy to slaughter them,” Duterte said early on Friday on his arrival in Davao City after a visit to Vietnam.
“If Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have…,” he said, pausing and pointing to himself, according to AFP news agency.
While Hitler’s victims were innocent people, Duterte said his targets were “all criminals” and that getting rid of them would “finish the (drug) problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition”.
Historians say that ix million Jews were killed by the Nazis under Hitler before and during World War II.

Israelis, along with dignitaries from around the world, were gathering in Jerusalem on Friday for the funeral of former President Shimon Peres.
US President Barack Obama, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, French President Francois

Brazil police arrest ex-minister Palocci for graft

Brazilian police on Monday arrested Antonio Palocci, a powerful former finance minister and presidential chief of staff in recent Workers Party (PT) governments, as a sweeping anti-corruption probe hit even harder at the left-leaning party.
Prosecutors said at a news conference that Palocci acted as a liaison between the PT and Brazil’s largest engineering and construction conglomerate, Odebrecht SA [ODBES.UL], from 2006 to 2013 in a kickback scheme centered on contracts at state-led oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras.
“Evidence has surfaced … that he was responsible for coordinating his political party’s receipt of surreptitious payments from the Odebrecht Group,” read Monday’s search and arrest warrant signed by anti-corruption judge Sergio Moro.

Former Israeli president Shimon Peres has died at the age of 93, according to reports.
His death comes two weeks after he suffered a stroke.
Doctors had said Mr Peres had made some progress but his condition deteriorated rapidly on

Donald Trump, U.S. Republican presidential candidate on Tuesday in Washington vowed to hit rival Democrat Hillary Clinton harder in next presidential debate.
This was coming after Clinton put him on the defensive by accusing him of being a racist, sexist and a tax dodger during their first matchup.
Trump, making his first run for public office, praised himself for not attacking Clinton about the

Hillary Clinton was calm, cool, well-prepared and — pundits say — victorious in the first presidential debate against Donald Trump, but her strong showing may have little impact on polls showing them in a dead heat.
Both campaigns cried victory Tuesday after the sometimes nasty showdown in which the White House hopefuls sparred on the economy, crime, foreign policy and more personal issues — like Clinton’s email controversy and Trump’s refusal to release his taxes.
“We had a great, great time last night,” a beaming Clinton told reporters on a plane taking her to North Carolina for a renewed bout of campaigning.
“And I think people saw last night some very clear differences between us,” the Democrat added.
The Republican Trump, who told AFP after the debate that it had gone very well for him, took to

Trump claims Clinton does not have ‘stamina’ to be president

Donald Trump claimed in Monday’s US presidential debate that his rival Hillary Clinton does not have the “stamina” to be president, hitting at the Democrat after a recent bout of pneumonia.

Venezuela’s embattled President Nicolas Maduro met Monday with top US diplomat John Kerry on the sidelines of a landmark peace deal signing between the Colombian government and FARC rebels.
“President @NicolasMaduro held respectful, top level meeting with @JohnKerry,” Venezuela’s foreign minister tweeted.
Venezuela is in a highly tense political crisis, with the South American oil-exporting nation slammed by low crude prices, inflation, food shortages and violence.

Hillary Clinton touted her foreign policy experience during Monday’s presidential debate as proof she’s fit to be the next commander in chief, but rival Donald Trump argued that the ex-secretary of state left the Middle East in flames.
As the two White House hopefuls sparred on several foreign policy fronts including Russia, Iran and fighting Islamic State jihadists, Clinton sought to allay the worries some global leaders have about the populist businessman making a run for the White House.
“I want to reassure our allies in Japan and South Korea and elsewhere, that we have mutual defense treaties and we will honor them,” the Democrat said as she put Trump on the defensive over nuclear proliferation, Iraq and the role of NATO.
“I want to — on behalf of myself, and I think on behalf of a majority of the American people — say that our word is good.”
Clinton has long pointed to her extensive experience on the world stage to proclaim herself the

Financial markets Tuesday cheered Hillary Clinton’s performance in the first US presidential debate, with stocks and high-risk currencies staging a “relief rally” as investors saw her as victor over Republican rival Donald Trump.
Key Asian bourses got a bounce as a confident Clinton bested her rival in the 90-minute showdown, some reversing earlier declines.
Tokyo ended 0.8 percent up, a dramatic volte-face from its 0.9 percent drop at the open, while Sydney also trimmed early losses.
Hong Kong opened 0.5 percent higher but jumped in the afternoon to close more than one percent higher. Shanghai was up 0.6 percent by the close after being flat most of the day.
Seoul, Bangkok and Singapore also gained.
“US futures have moved ahead as the debate unravelled, and I think that is one of the factors” for Asian markets erasing losses, Michael McCarthy, a chief market strategist at CMC Markets, told

Nine out of 10 people globally are breathing poor quality air, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, calling for dramatic action against pollution that is blamed for more than six million deaths a year.
New data in a report from the UN’s global health body “is enough to make all of us extremely concerned,” Maria Neira, the head of the WHO’s department of public health and environment, told reporters.
The problem is most acute in cities, but air in rural areas is worse than many think, WHO experts said.
Poorer countries have much dirtier air than the developed world, according to the report, but pollution “affects practically all countries in the world and all parts of society”, Neira said in a statement.
“It is a public health emergency,” she said.

President Rodrigo Duterte has made a case for the restoration of the death penalty in the Philippines, saying the law had previously lost its effectiveness because it was not fully implemented.
Duterte told reporters on Monday that past presidents had succumbed to the pressure of the Catholic church and other “bleeding hearts” who argued against capital punishment “because only God can kill”.
“The problem with that is, I ask you, ‘What if there is no God?’” Duterte said at the presidential palace in the capital, Manila.
“When a one-year-old, an 18-month-old baby is taken from the mother’s arms, brought under a jeep and raped, and killed, where is God,” he asked.
“People in the Philippines no longer believe in the laws, because the fear is not there,” Duterte said in a mix of Filipino and English.
“That is why I said, give me back the death penalty.”

Traces of smoke can be seen after a bomb attack at the entrance to the Fatih Camii Mosque in Dresden, eastern Germany.(AFP)

Bomb attacks hit a mosque and a congress centre in the eastern German city of Dresden, police said Tuesday, adding that they suspected a xenophobic and nationalist motive.
No-one was injured in the blasts late Monday in a city which has become a hotspot for far-right protests amid Germany’s huge migrant influx.
“Although no-one has claimed the attack, we assume a xenophobic motive,” said Dresden police chief Horst Kretzschmar.
“We also suspect a connection with celebrations next weekend for the Day of German Unity” on Monday, October 3.
The home-made bombs went off around 2000 GMT and damaged the door of the mosque while the imam and his family were inside, forcing the partial evacuation of the hotel at the city’s international congress centre.

The first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump may be one of the most hyped events in US politics, but the hosts managed overlook one small detail.
The name of the Democratic nominee, the first woman in American history to win a major party nomination for president, was misspelled on souvenir tickets handed out to students at Hofstra University.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton (R) speaks as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump (L) listens during the Presidential Debate at Hofstra University on September 26, 2016 in Hempstead, New York.(AFP)

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump bickered and traded insults in a fiery US presidential debate Monday, as they aggressively pitched their case to tens of millions of American voters.
With the White House rivals in a dead heat six weeks before election day, Clinton from the get-go painted her Republican rival as out of touch and having a tenuous relationship with the truth, willing to say “crazy things” to get elected.
“You live in your own reality” said the 68-year old Democrat, who accused Trump of launching his political career on a “racist lie” — the birther conspiracy theory that questioned President Barack Obama’s citizenship.
Trump, who faces tough questions about his suitability for the Oval Office, started out with a more restrained tone — he even ditched his red power tie for a more statesmanlike blue.
But he quickly went on the offensive, repeatedly interrupting Clinton with verbal jabs.
The celebrity businessman branded Clinton a “typical politician. All talk, no action. Sounds good, doesn’t work.”

France ‘abandoned’ Algerian fighters in independence war – Hollande

President Francois Hollande on Sunday said France “abandoned” Algerians who fought alongside French colonial forces in the Algerian war of independence, honouring a 2012 pledge.
Tens of thousands of the fighters, known as “harkis”, were recruited by French forces but only around 60,000 were allowed to settle in France after French forces withdrew in 1962.
The rest — between 55,000 and 75,000 according to historians — were left in Algeria where they were accused of being traitors and many massacred.
Those who were admitted to France were placed in squalid camps.
In a ceremony in the Invalides in Paris, where France honours its war dead, Hollande finally said what the harkis have waited more than half a century to hear.
“I recognise the responsibility of French governments in abandoning the harkis, the massacres of those who remained in Algeria and the inhuman conditions for those transferred to camps in France,” Hollande said.

The United States called Russia’s action in Syria “barbarism” while Moscow’s UN envoy said ending the war “is almost an impossible task now” as government forces relentlessly bombed the besieged city of Aleppo.
The United Nations Security Council met on Sunday at the request of the United States, Britain and France to discuss the escalation of fighting in Aleppo following the announcement on Thursday of an offensive by the Syrian army to retake the embattled northern city.
“What Russia is sponsoring and doing is not counter-terrorism, it is barbarism,” the US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, told the 15-member council.
“Instead of pursuing peace, Russia and Assad make war. Instead of helping get life-saving aid to civilians, Russia and Assad are bombing the humanitarian convoys, hospitals, and first responders who are trying desperately to keep people alive,” said Power.

Republican candidate Donald Trump pledged Sunday in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s “undivided” capital if he is elected president.
Netanyahu met privately with Trump at his residence in Trump Tower a day before the New York billionaire faces off against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for their first presidential debate.
“Trump acknowledged that Jerusalem has been the eternal capital of the Jewish people for over 3000 years, and that the United States, under a Trump administration, will finally accept the long-standing congressional mandate to recognise Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the state of Israel,” his campaign said in a statement.
Israel captured the Arab eastern half of Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and annexed it in 1980, declaring all of Jerusalem Israel’s unified capital.
The United States – and most other UN member countries – do not recognise the annexation and

Pakistan accuses India of arms build-up

The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, has accused India of an “unprecedented arms build-up”.
Addressing the UN General Assembly in New York, he said his country would “take whatever measures are necessary to maintain credible deterrence”.

Convicted felons in the Philippines have testified before a Congress hearing that they had bribed a former justice minister and fierce critic of President Rodrigo Duterte.
The group of imprisoned gang leaders claim they were asked to raise cash through drug sales to fund Senate campaign of Leila de Lima, justice secretary in Benigno Aquino’s government and currently a senator’s then senatorial campaign.
The testimonies dealt another blow to de Lima’s efforts to investigate the country’s extrajudicial killings.
She is now facing a hearing in Manila in response to the corruption accusations.
The hearing was held a day after de Lima, who is widely recognised as Duterte’s main political opponent, was removed from a senate commission looking into extrajudicial killings during Duterte’s war on drugs.
The controversial campaign has killed at least 3,000 people in the past three months.
The senate inquiry, led by de Lima, included an account by former death squad member Edgar

Turkey: Knife attacker shot in front of Israeli embassy

Police have shot and detained a knife-carrying Turkish man who tried to force his way into the Israeli embassy in Turkey’s capital Ankara.
The man, armed with a 30cm knife, ran towards the embassy shouting slogans and was shot in the leg, the governor’s office in Ankara said in a statement on Wednesday.
Officials said initial investigations showed that the man, identified as 41-year-old Osman Nuri Caliskan from the central Anatolian city of Konya, “appeared to be mentally disturbed” and had no record of links with any organised group.
“A man approached the embassy with a knife and was shot by a local guard. Everyone on our side is safe,” Emmanuel Nahshon, spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry, said in a statement.
“The assailant was wounded in the foot. We don’t know if he was attacking police officers or the embassy itself.”
He added that the assailant only managed to reach the “outer perimeter” of the building, but said the incident was still being investigated.
Israel’s embassy in Ankara said in a statement that the suspect “tried to stab a Turkish police officer” in front of the mission.
“The embassy trusts the Turkish forces to control and investigate the incident,” it added.
Turkey’s NTV television said employees of the embassy took refuge in a shelter during the incident.
Caliskan was taken to Ankara’s Numune Training and Research Hospital, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency.
Roads around the embassy were closed after the incident and specialist police officers were sent to the scene.
The Hurriyet daily reported that the attacker told police officers interrogating him at the hospital that he “did this to stop the bloodshed in the Middle East”.
Foreign missions in Turkey have been on a state of high alert following a spate of attacks across the country this year blamed on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Kurdish separatist groups.
The British embassy in Ankara was closed on Friday over security concerns.
Three months ago, Turkey and Israel signed a deal to restore their ties which hit an all-time low after the 2010 raid by Israeli commandos on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship that left 10 Turks dead.
Under the deal, the two countries are to begin the process of exchanging ambassadors to fully restore their diplomatic ties, although this has yet to formally take place.

DRC warlord ‘Terminator’ breaks hunger strike at ICC

Congolese former rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda has started eating again after an unprecedented nearly two-week hunger strike in his detention cell in The Netherlands, refusing to attend his war crimes trial.
The once-feared rebel leader from the Democratic Republic of Congo has not appeared in the courtroom at the International Criminal Court in The Hague since September 7.
“Mr Ntaganda started eating tonight,” his lawyer, Stephane Bourgon, said in an email sent late on Tuesday.
Ntaganda launched his hunger strike to protest against the conditions of his detention, including over family visits and his accusations that the court is not giving him a fair trial.
“If everything goes well, his wife will be in The Hague from Thursday and will be able to see Mr Ntaganda in an almost private setting, which meet (his) minimum expectations,” Bourgon said.

Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva must stand trial for corruption, a judge ruled Tuesday, after prosecutors accused the popular leftist of masterminding the large-scale plundering of state oil company Petrobras.
The crusading judge behind the Petrobras investigation, Sergio Moro, accepted charges filed last week by prosecutors investigating Lula — making him the highest-profile figure to face trial in a case that has taken down some of the country’s most powerful business executives and politicians.
“Given that there is sufficient evidence of (Lula’s) responsibility… I accept the charges,” Moro said in his decision.
The charges allege that Lula, 70, received the equivalent of 3.7 million reais ($1.1 million) in bribes.
Among the accusations are charges that the former union leader and his wife received a beachside apartment and upgrades to the property from a major construction company, OAS, which was one of the players in the Petrobras scheme.
More broadly, prosecutors last week singled out Lula — who was president during much of the

Men’s sex drive could be boosted with light therapy

The results of a small study bring some positive news for men with low sexual desire; they suggest exposure to bright artificial light, often used to treat seasonal affective disorder – could also boost libido.
Researchers suggest men with low sexual desire may benefit from light therapy.It is estimated that up to one quarter of men have a low sex drive – defined as lack of interest in sex. Anxiety, stress, depression, and other psychological factors can be causes of low sexual desire in men, as well as a reduction in the male sex hormone testosterone. The new study – recently presented at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) Congress in Vienna, Austria – found early morning exposure to bright light for two weeks increased men’s testosterone levels, enhancing their sexual satisfaction. Study leader Prof. Andrea Fagiolini, of the Department of Mental Health at the University of Siena in Italy, told Medical News Today that the findings came as no surprise.
“As a matter of fact, we already knew that sexual function increases during spring and summer

Twelve officers were injured during violent protests in a North Carolina city sparked by the fatal police shooting of an African-American, officials said.
Demonstrators gathered late Tuesday near an apartment complex in Charlotte where the shooting occurred, carrying signs that read “Black Lives Matter” and chanting “No justice, no peace!” local television reported.
News reports said the man shot by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer, identified as Keith Lamont Scott, was African-American, as was the officer who killed him.
“Approximately 12 officers injured. One officer hit in face with a rock,” read a tweet posted by the Charlotte-Mecklenberg Police Department.
A separate police department tweet said the officers were “injured tonight working to protect our community during demonstration.”
News reports said an unspecified number of civilians were also hurt.

Syria ‘ceasefire is not dead’ – Kerry

US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) and Staffan de Mistura, UN special envoy for Syria, attend the International Syria Support Group meeting September 20, 2016 in New York.(AFP)

US Secretary of State John Kerry insisted Tuesday that hopes for a ceasefire in Syria remain alive after meeting with Russia and key powers with a stake in the civil war.
In brief remarks to reporters as he left a New York hotel after a meeting of the International Syria Support Group, Kerry said talks would reconvene later this week.
“The ceasefire is not dead,” Kerry insisted, one day after the Syrian military declared a week-old truce over and launched new bombardments on rebel held cities.
The United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura confirmed that there was still hope of reviving the ceasefire, but admitted that delegates agreed it was in danger.
The 23-nation ISSG, chaired by Kerry and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov,

Police at Los Angeles airport turned to their smart phones to stop a Korean-speaking man from committing suicide last week, using translation apps to coax the “jumper” dangling over a ledge.
According to a police statement released on Monday, two officers responding to a call about a man hanging from the ledge of a four-story parking structure at the airport were initially stumped

The World Bank has warned that if the drug-resistant infections in people and animals are allowed to spread unchecked, some 28 million people would fall into poverty by 2050.
The Bank said in a report released on Tuesday ahead of a high-level meeting on the issue at the UN in New York that a century of progress in health would be reversed.
It said that by 2050, annual global GDP would fall by at least 1.1 per cent, although the loss could be as much as 3.8 per cent.
The report noted that the fall could be an equivalent of the 2008 financial crisis.
Tim Evans, World Bank Senior Director for Health, Nutrition and Population, said that the rise of “superbugs” resistant to drugs has been caused partly by the increased use and misuse of antibiotics and other antimicrobial drugs in the treatment of people and in farming.
“We cannot afford to lose the gains in the last century brought about by the antibiotic era

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton met Egypt’s president in New York on Monday as the two US presidential candidates tried to bolster their diplomatic credentials at the United Nations.
Democratic standard-bearer Clinton said last week that she would meet Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, along with leaders from Japan and Ukraine on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
She spent more than an hour locked in private discussions with the Egyptian leader, with aides later saying they had discussed issues ranging from counter-terrorism to human rights.
Trump’s meeting with Sisi — the first time the Republican presidential candidate has met a leader from the Muslim world — appeared to be a response to his opponent’s program.
The former reality TV star, who has previously called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, spoke with Sisi at New York’s La Guardia airport, after flying in from Florida.

Pope Francis met for peace talks in Assisi Tuesday with faith leaders and victims of war, broaching the issues of growing religious fanaticism and escalating violence around the world.
“Today more than ever, we need peace in the face of this war that is everywhere in the world,” the Argentine said ahead of his trip, which came as fighting resumed in Syria and the US investigated an attack possibly linked to the Islamic State group.
“Following the example of St. Francis (of Assisi), a man of brotherhood and kindness, we are all called to offer the world a strong testimony of our common commitment to peace and reconciliation among peoples,” the pontiff said.
The annual World Day of Prayer event, established by John Paul II 30 years ago and held in the medieval town in central Italy, aims to combat the persecution of peoples for their faiths and acts of violence in the name of God.
The 79-year old pope arrived by helicopter and was set to lunch with war victims before sitting

Donald Trump Jr

Donald Trump’s eldest son triggered an online storm with a tweet comparing Syrian refugees to a bowl containing an assortment of tainted and untainted candies.
“This image says it all,” Donald Trump Jr, 38, wrote Monday, in a tweet showing a picture of a white bowl filled with the popular, rainbow-colored Skittles candies.
Written above the image is: “If I had a bowl of skittles and I told you just three would kill you. Would you take a handful? That’s our Syria refugee problem.”
The Twitter post — showing the familiar “Trump-Pence 2016” logo with the presidential campaign slogan “Make America Great Again!” — was met with immediate scorn from users of the popular micro-blogging site.
“I’m not even big on Skittles but now I will buy up every single packet,” wrote @SarahSahim.
“Is Donald Trump’s new campaign slogan “Fear The Rainbow”? wrote Twitter user @AngrySalmond.

The United Nations has suspended all aid convoys to Syria in the wake of an attack on aid trucks that could amount to a “war crime”, according to a top UN official.
Air raids rocked northern Syria’s Aleppo province on Tuesday, hours after 18 trucks in a UN humanitarian aid convoy were hit in an area west of Aleppo city, killing at least 12 people.
“As an immediate security measure, other convoy movements in Syria have been suspended for the time being pending further assessment of the security situation,” UN humanitarian aid spokesman Jens Laerke told a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday, adding the UN had recently received permission from the Syrian government to deliver aid to all besieged areas in the country.
The United States said it was unclear if it was a Russian or Syrian plane that hit the 31-truck UN aid convoy late on Monday, but officials placed the blame on Moscow, a key ally of embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Donald Trump has angered Mexicans with his anti-immigrant rhetoric and caused political headaches for their president. Now the White House hopeful is partly blamed for the national currency’s free fall.
The currency dropped to a record 20 pesos to the dollar on Monday, a 2.15 percent fall from last week when it closed at 19.57, according to banking firm Banamex.
Fears over a possible interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve are cited as a key factor for the peso’s drop, although analysts now believe the Fed will keep it unchanged when it meets on Tuesday and Wednesday.
But analysts also point to concerns over Trump’s chances in the US election against Democratic

Kim Jong Un

North Korea has said it has successfully tested a new rocket engine which could be used to launch satellites.
The country’s leader Kim Jong-Un has asked scientists and engineers to make preparations for a satellite launch as soon as possible.
The United Nations and others view the North’s space launch development project as a way of

World leaders at UN approve plan for refugee crisis

With more people forced to flee their homes than at any time since World War II, global leaders on Monday approved a declaration aimed at providing a more coordinated and humane response to the refugee crisis that has strained resources and stoked divisions from Africa to Europe.
The issue of what to do about the world’s 65.3 million displaced people will take center stage at the General Assembly with leaders from the United Nations’ 193-member states converging on New York for the first-ever summit on Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants.
“Today’s summit represents a breakthrough in our collective efforts to address the challenges of human mobility,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, calling on leaders to commit to “upholding the rights and dignity of everyone force by circumstance to flee their homes in search of a better life.”
The New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants contains no concrete commitments and is not legally binding but rather calls on countries to protect refugees’ human rights, boost

Congolese former rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda was Monday on the 12th day of an unprecedented hunger strike in his detention cell in The Netherlands, refusing to attend his war crimes trial.
The once feared rebel leader from the Democratic Republic of Congo has not appeared in the courtroom at the International Criminal Court in The Hague since September 7.
He is the first defendant before the tribunal — set up in 2002 to try the world’s worst crimes — to ever go on hunger strike and his protest is vexing judges who have ordered his trial must go on in his absence.
“How long can this situation last? Is it the kind of justice we want before the International Criminal Court?” said his lawyer, Stephane Bourgon, in a statement sent early Monday.
“We can’t ignore the absence of the accused whose current state of health is rapidly deteriorating.”
Ntaganda, who has been held in the ICC’s detention unit in the seaside suburb of Scheveningen since he surrendered in 2013, has also told his lawyers to stop acting for him.

A security guard stands beside a logo of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank of the Philippines) posted at the main gate in Manila, Philippines April 28, 2016(Reuters)

A Philippine regional trial court has ordered the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to return to the Bangladesh central bank a recovered portion of the $81 million that was stolen from the bank earlier this year, a government lawyer said on Monday.
The court has declared Bangladesh as the rightful owner of the funds, totaling $15 million, Ricardo Paras III, chief state counsel of the Philippines’ Department of Justice, said while reading a copy of the court’s ruling to a Reuters reporter.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has asked for a six-month extension for his war on drugs, saying there are too many people involved in the narcotics trade and he “cannot kill them all”.
Some 3,000 people have been killed since Duterte won May elections in a landslide on a vow to kill tens of thousands of criminals in an unprecedented blitz to rid the country of illegal drugs in six months.
“I did not realise how severe and how serious the drug menace was in this republic until I became president,” Duterte, 71, told reporters late Sunday in his southern home city of Davao.
Launching his crackdown was like letting “a worm out of the can” he said, adding that he wanted “a little extension of maybe another six months” to try and finish the job.
“Even if I wanted to I cannot kill them all because the last report would be this thick,” he said, referring to a new police list of people including top officials suspected of being involved in the drugs trade.
Police say they have killed 1,105 drug suspects in the slightly more than two months since Duterte took office.

More than 40 percent of young Japanese single adults are virgins, a government survey has shown, and almost three-quarters of men are not in any kind of relationship.
The poll reveals the extent of sexlessness in a country where policymakers worry about low birthrates and the knock-on effect of an ageing society.
The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research quizzed more than 5,000 singletons aged 18 to 34 about their lives between the sheets.
It found that 42 percent of men and 44 percent of women had never had sex.
The survey, carried out in June 2015, showed the number of people who remained chaste in Japan was increasing over time.
A similar poll conducted in 2005 found only a third of young singletons had always been celibate — out of preference or otherwise.
The 2015 survey also found that seven-in-10 men were not in a relationship, while nearly six-in-ten women were going to bed alone.

Back To Home Page

Friday 30 September 2016

Wednesday 28 September 2016

Tuesday 27 September 2016

Monday 26 September 2016

Thursday 22 September 2016

Wednesday 21 September 2016

Tuesday 20 September 2016

Monday 19 September 2016