Author: admin

  • 20 Arrested for Demonstrating Against Student Bursaries

    20 Arrested for Demonstrating Against Student Bursaries

    {{Rwanda National Police on Tuesday at 11.00 am at the new Kacyiru Taxi Park in Gasabo District arrested 20 people who were holding an illegal public demonstration in an attempt to protest a new policy on student bursary/loans.}}

    According to Police Spokesperson ACP Damas Gatare today’s illegal public demonstration contravenes Articles 685, Section 1 of the Penal Code stipulating that “Any person who holds a public meeting or demonstration on public ways without notifying the competent authority shall be liable to a term of imprisonment of eight (8) days but less than six (6) months and a fine of one hundred thousand (100,000) to one million (1,000,000) Rwandan francs or one of these penalties.”

    Among those arrested, four of the organizers are still under Police custody as investigations continue.

    ACP Gatare said, “The Rwanda National Police reminds the general public that there are procedures to be followed for anyone wishing to carry out demonstrations or gatherings legally. This is in order to ensure the safety and security of all Rwandans.”

  • M23 Denies Claims of Clandestine Forced recruitment

    M23 Denies Claims of Clandestine Forced recruitment

    {{The M23 rebel group in eastern D.R. Congo that has been waging a war against Kinshasa has refuted media reports that it is forcefully recruiting people into its ranks.}}

    “The M23 Movement categorically states that there is no and has never been any forced recruitment by M23,” Rene Abandi, the M23 spokesperson said in a statement, maintaining that membership into its ranks was on one’s free will.

    “M23 Movement reiterates that membership in M23 is voluntary and based on belief in and a strong commitment to the cause of the Movement which is a system of governance that serves the interests of all Congolese.”

    The rebel group also disowned Lt. Richard Bisangwa, who in an interview with a Ugandan media at the Amnesty Commission offices in Kampala, accused the M23 movement of running clandestine recruitment cells in Uganda, particularly in Kampala.

    He claimed to have forcefully been conscripted into the ranks of the outfit after being duped of a lucrative contract with the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).

    “Lt. Richard Bisangwa who claims to have served under the CNDP (National Congress for Defense of the People) in 2008 and later forcefully recruited into M23, is not known to M23 and did not at any one time serve under CNDP,” Abandi said.

    M23 accused MONUSCO of orchestrating the falsehoods against them.

    “MONUSCO, which Lt. Bisangwa claims facilitated his escape and journey from M23 territory to Kampala, is an active fighting force against M23 in North Kivu Province and have over the last two years been largely responsible for shaping a negative script about M23 as well as magnifying and distorting key M23-related issues in order to fit other narratives and agenda,” the statement reads.

    source: NV

  • Pope to Discuss Issue of divorced & Remarried Catholics

    Pope to Discuss Issue of divorced & Remarried Catholics

    {{Pope Francis has said that he will next month meet with a group of eight cardinals to discuss the issue of divorced and remarried Catholics. }}

    “The problem,” Pope Francis said, “cannot be reduced merely to a matter of who can receive communion or not, because to pose the question in these terms does not enable an understanding of the real problem.”

    “It is a serious problem regarding the Church’s responsibility towards families living in this situation. … The Church must now do something to solve the problem of marriage annulment,” the Pope said during a meeting with the clergy of the diocese of Rome, on Monday in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, in the Vatican.

    He said the issue will also be considered during the next Synod of Bishops which will focus on the anthropological relationship of the Gospel with the person and the family, according to the Vatican information service bulletin.

    During the meeting, Pope Francis who invited the priests to feel free to ask any question they chose, affirming that he considered himself above all to be a priest, said he was afraid of feeling otherwise.

    “I would be afraid of feeling a bit more important; I am afraid of that, because the devil is cunning … and makes you think you have power, that you can do this and that … But thanks to God, I haven’t yet lost that fear, and if once you see that I have lost it, please, tell me, and if you can’t tell me privately, say it publicly.”

    Pope Francis also referred to the scandals that have beset the Church, confirming that it is necessary to face the most serious problems with clarity, “but without pessimism”, since “holiness is greater than scandal”.

    “The Church will not collapse”, he said. “On the contrary, the Church has never been in better form and is experiencing a very positive moment; one need only read her history.

    “There are saints recognised even by non-Catholics, such as Mother Teresa of Calcutta, but there is also the everyday holiness of ordinary mothers and women, of men who work every day for their families, and this brings us hope,” he said.

    {agencies}

  • Nigerian MPs Fight in Parliament

    Nigerian MPs Fight in Parliament

    {{Nigerian politicians have exchanged punches after a splinter group from the governing People’s Democratic Party (PDP) tried to address parliament.}}

    The lower house had just reconvened after a seven-week break – during which the new PDP faction was formed.

    MPs loyal to President Goodluck Jonathan began shouting and jeering, which upset their rivals and scuffles broke out.

    The new faction does not want President Jonathan to seek re-election in 2015.

    He has not yet said whether he will stand but some of his allies, including his wife, have started campaigning for him.

    The BBC’s Ibrahim Isa says he saw one politician tear the shirt of another in chaotic scenes at Nigeria’s House of Representatives in the capital, Abuja.

    The brawl lasted for about 10 minutes with legislators hitting each other.

    TV footage reportedly shows a female legislator poking her finger in the face of a colleague.

    Another politician was seen grabbing a chair in an attempt to hit a fellow lawmaker.

    The PDP has won every national election since the end of military rule in 1999, so the party’s presidential candidate would be in a strong position to become Nigeria’s next leader.

    Mr Jonathan has been president since 2010, when his predecessor died in office and he was promoted from vice-president.

    He beat off a challenge to become PDP candidate in the 2011 elections, which he won despite opposition claims of rigging.

    {wirestory}

  • Sudan Threatens to End Ties with US

    Sudan Threatens to End Ties with US

    {{Sudan has threatened to end ties with the United States as it robustly responded to American criticism of President Omar al-Bashir’s application for a visa to travel to New York for the UN General Assembly.}}

    Khartoum also said it would expel Washington’s envoy if the US continued its “hostile policy” against it, and also end the flow of South Sudanese oil through its territory.

    The US State Department on Monday advised President Bashir not to seek to travel to its territory and instead first answer to International Criminal Court charges. It did not however explicitly said that it would not grant him a visa. (Read: Washington asks Bashir not to travel to the US)

    Mr Bashir is indicted by the ICC for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide over the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region, with two warrants out for him.

    Sudan and the US are both not members of the ICC, while Mr Bashir has so far refused to co-operate with the court.

    The Sudanese Foreign Affairs ministry on Tuesday strongly condemned the US position, describing it as contempt for African leaders.

    “According to international law, the headquarters country, the United States, has no legal right for objection to the participation of any official from any full member state in the UN at activities of the United Nations,” ministry spokesman Abubakr Alsidiq said in an official statement.

    “[The] United States is not morally, politically and legally qualified to provide sermons and advices on respect to the International Humanitarian Law and the human rights under its own known record of war crimes and extermination against whole peoples, the last of which was the invasion of Iraq in the year 2003 and the killing of more than one million Iraqi persons after deceiving the world with false lies,” Mr Alsidiq added.

    “We expressed Sudan adherence to its full right to participate at the highest level in the meetings of the 68th session of the UN General Assembly,” he stressed.

    The UN is considered extra-national territory.

    NMG

  • Libya Plans to list Mobile Operator Libyana Next Year

    Libya Plans to list Mobile Operator Libyana Next Year

    {{Libya aims to list one of its two state-owned mobile phone operators next year, the head of the North African country’s telecoms operator said on Tuesday, as it seeks to open up a sector long isolated from foreign investment.}}

    Government-controlled Libyan Post, Telecommunication and Information Technology Co (LPTIC) owns the country’s two mobile operators Al Madar and Libyana as well as Libya’s main Internet provider, with the telecoms sector cut off from foreign competition during Muammar Gaddafi’s 42-year rule.

    Libyana, which has annual revenue in excess of $1 billion, could make its debut on the Tripoli stock exchange in the second quarter of 2014. It has about a 70 percent market share.

    “This is a company we want to do an IPO for hopefully next year,” Faisal Gergarb, LPTIC chairman, said on the sidelines of the FDI Libya conference in London.

    “The time frame is Q2 next year … that’s the plan. It all depends on the local stock exchange, whether they’re ready, it depends on Libyana as well but that’s the intention.”

    He did not give further details.

    Gergab also said LPTIC planned to use Al Madar as a platform to invest internationally. The two operators have some 10 million subscribers, he added.

    Libya’s telecoms ministry has already announced plans to launch a tender next year to award the country’s first private mobile phone licence.

    This comes amid government plans to decrease its hold over the sector and boost private involvement.

    “This put us under severe pressure to raise the bar,” Gergarb said of the plans for a third licence.

    The United Arab Emirates’ Etisalat as well as Kuwait’s Zain have previously expressed interest in entering Libya’s market.

    {reuters}

  • Muslim Brotherhood Spokesman Held

    Muslim Brotherhood Spokesman Held

    Egyptian police have arrested the Muslim Brotherhood’s main English-language spokesman, state media report.

    Gehad al-Haddad was reportedly found with at least one other Brotherhood official in a flat in Cairo.

    Mr Haddad had served as chief of staff of the Brotherhood’s deputy general guide, Khairat al-Shater, and often spoke to foreign media organisations.

    There has been a crackdown on Islamist groups since the military ousted President Mohammed Morsi in July.

    Earlier, the Cairo Criminal Court upheld an order to freeze the assets of senior figures in the Brotherhood and the former militant group Gamaa Islamiya, state media said.

    Prosecutors imposed the restrictions on the Brotherhood’s general guide, Mohammed Badie, Mr Shater and about a dozen others in July. Most have been detained over allegations of inciting violence and murder.

    Hundreds of people demanding Mr Morsi’s reinstatement, most of them Brotherhood members, were also killed in clashes when security forces stormed two protest camps in Cairo last month.

    agencies

  • US to Seize ‘Iran-owned’ Skyscraper in New York

    US to Seize ‘Iran-owned’ Skyscraper in New York

    {{The United States is set seize control of a midtown Manhattan skyscraper prosecutors claim is secretly owned by Iran, the US justice department said, though the ruling is to be appealed.}}

    The seizure and sale of the 36-storey building, in the heart of New York City on Fifth Avenue, would be “the largest-ever terrorism-related forfeiture,” the statement added.

    A federal judge ruled in favour of the government’s suit this week, saying The Piaget Building’s owners had violated Iran sanctions and money laundering laws.

    Manhattan Federal Prosecutor Preet Bharara said the decision upholds the justice department claims the owner of the building “was (and is) a front for Bank Melli, and thus a front for the Government of Iran”.

    Bharara said the funds from selling the building would provide “a means of compensating victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism”.

    Prosecutors allege the building’s owners, the Alavi Foundation and Assa Corporation, transferred rental income and other funds to Iran’s state-owned Bank Melli.

    Alavi also ran a charitable organisation for Iran and managed the building for the Iranian government, the statement said.

    Built in the 1970s by a non-profit organisation operated by the Shah of Iran – and financed with a Bank Melli loan – the building was expropriated by the new Iranian government after the 1979 revolution, prosecutors allege.

    aljazeera

  • Syrian ‘Proof’ of Rebel Chemical Use

    Syrian ‘Proof’ of Rebel Chemical Use

    {{Syria has given Russia new “material evidence” that opposition fighters in the Syrian conflict have used chemical weapons, a Russian minister has said.}}

    Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also said a report by UN inspectors on the alleged use of chemical weapons was “politicised, biased and one-sided”.

    He said the inspectors had only looked at evidence of an alleged attack on 21 August, not three previous incidents.

    The UN team found that the nerve agent Sarin was used in the 21 August attack.

    The report, however, did not apportion blame for the attack but Western nations blame the government forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

    Damascus – backed by Russia – says opposition forces are to blame.

    Meanwhile the chief UN weapons inspector, Ake Sellstrom, has told the BBC it will be difficult to find and destroy all of Syria’s chemical weapons, but he believes it is “doable”.

    Mr Sellstrom said much depended on whether the Syrian government and the opposition were willing to negotiate.

    “Of course, it will be a stressful work,” he added.

    Mr Sellstrom also said his team’s report may have contributed to Syria saying it was prepared to give up its chemical weapons.

  • Liberian President’s Son Quits as Head of State Oil Firm

    Liberian President’s Son Quits as Head of State Oil Firm

    {{The son of Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has resigned as chairman of the West African nation’s state oil company, NOCAL, a statement from the president’s office said on Tuesday.}}

    Robert Sirleaf also stepped down from his role as a senior adviser to his mother.

    President Sirleaf has come under pressure from opponents who accuse her of corruption, nepotism and mismanagement of Liberia’s resources sectors, allegations she has denied.

    In a press conference on Tuesday, President Sirleaf said Robert Sirleaf’s resignation had nothing to do with accusations of favoritism. She said he had simply completed his assignment to restructure NOCAL and draft a petroleum law.

    “We made a promise that he was there for something specific, and when that assignment was done, we would leave. This was the promise we made. Perhaps people did not believe us. They have criticized. But we have kept that promise,” she said.

    Fred Bass, vice-chairman of NOCAL’s board of directors, will take over as acting chairman.

    Elected in 2006, President Sirleaf – a Nobel Peace Prize winner and Africa’s first freely elected female president – has won international acclaim for turning around a country devastated by 14 years of sporadic civil war that ended in 2003.

    Since then, Liberia’s enormous resource wealth has attracted a flood of interest from foreign investors. The government, which is in the process of overhauling its petroleum and mining laws, has signed offshore deals with Chevron Petroleum and Exxon Mobil.

    However, corruption is seen as a big obstacle to development in Liberia, which remains one of the world’s poorest countries a decade after the war’s end.

    Almost all of the $8 billion worth of resource contracts signed by Liberia since 2009 have violated its laws, according to a draft audit report commissioned by the government and seen by Reuters earlier this year.

    Despite declaring a zero tolerance policy for corruption, President Sirleaf has been criticized for appointing three of her sons to government posts.

    Her son Fumba Sirleaf is head of the National Security Agency.

    In October, the president suspended her son Charles from his position as deputy governor of the central bank and 45 other government officials for failing to declare their assets to anti-corruption authorities.

    {agencies}