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  • We don’t Target African States Only, Says International Criminal Court

    We don’t Target African States Only, Says International Criminal Court

    {{Maria Mabinty Kamara, the International Criminal Court outreach coordinator for Kenya, has defended the ICC as an imperial post-colonial tool against Africans.}}

    Kamara said Kenya believed in the ideals, missions and visions of the Rome Statue when it ratified it on June 1, 2005.

    She told The Standard on Sunday that three out of the seven African cases being heard at The Hague were initiated upon referrals by host countries. Kamara said the ICC does not have the mandate to initiate in a non-state parties, unless it is referred to it by the United Nations Security Council as was the case with Libya and Sudan.

    “But Ugandan authorities signed the declaration inviting ICC to initiate investigations into the Lord’s Resistance Army conflict in northern Uganda, the same to DR Congo and the Central African Republic governments in the context of armed conflict in 2004,” she explained.

    Kamara, however, noted that the Prosecutor was at liberty to initiate investigations within partner states on his own as was with Kenya.

    She said Ivory Coast’s government, once a non-state party to the Rome Statute, equally signed the treaty, willingly inviting investigations.

    “The ICC operates on the principle of complementarity and only steps if its statutes have been violated by party states,” she disclosed.

    {standard}

  • Anti-graft Protests Mark Brazil Independence Day

    Anti-graft Protests Mark Brazil Independence Day

    {{Police used teargas to contain street protests on Saturday in several Brazilian cities, stopping demonstrators from disrupting Independence Day military parades and an international soccer game between Brazil and Australia.}}

    The protests against corruption were much smaller than the massive demonstrations that shook Brazil in June, when hundreds of thousands took to the streets in a sudden outburst of anger against the country’s political class for mismanaging government money and failing to provide adequate public services.

    In downtown Rio de Janeiro, some 500 protesters invaded stands in the parade area, sending frightened families with children rushing for safety. Police used teargas and stun guns to disperse the demonstrators, who did not interrupt the parade.

    “It was frightening. There was a wave of masked demonstrators dressed in black,” said Rosangela Silva, who took a niece to watch the parade.

    In Brasilia, police used pepper spray to hold back a peaceful crowd of more than 1,000 demonstrators who marched to Brazil’s Congress to demand the ouster of corrupt politicians.

    Protesters were only allowed to march along the wide esplanade of Brazil’s capital after the annual Independence Day military parade led by President Dilma Rousseff had ended.

    Organizers said many people who had intended to join the demonstrations did not turn up due to the heavy police presence and the prospect of violence seen in recent clashes in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro where hooded youths have become protagonists.

    Police arrested groups of youths found with hoods, gas masks, stones and slingshots in their backpacks in Curitiba and Fortaleza, cities where parades went ahead without disruption.

    france24

  • Al Shabaab Claims Responsibility for Mogadishu Blasts

    Al Shabaab Claims Responsibility for Mogadishu Blasts

    {{A web site that supports Al-Shabaab, the radical Islamist group in Somalia, claimed twin blasts that devastated The Village, a restaurant-cum-cafeteria, in Mogadishu on Saturday morning.}}

    In a written statement by Al-Shabaab’s Information Directorate , the fanatical Islamists stated that suicide missions targeted The Village in Hamarweyne district in the city centre.

    “The jihadists (holy warriors) targeted a favourite place of the local and international spy elements,” stated the Al-Shabaab statement. It added, “The targeted cafeteria is owned by people with close relations with the western spy agencies who are causing hardship in Mogadishu.”

    The incident killed 15 and wounded scores of people, most of them being customers and youngsters in and near the popular eating place.

    Al-Shabaab had warned the public to stay away from the place, the statement said. It did not mention the method used in the attack, but people in the area believe that the assaults consisted of a suicide car and a person wearing a suicide belt.

    Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud condemned the blasts, blaming Al-Shabaab.

    “I call the Somali people to fight the group (Al-Shabaab) that has no other agenda except the annihilation of innocent civilians,” said President Mohamoud in a statement released later on Saturday.

    It is the third time The Village; a business owned by a Diaspora Somali Ahmed Jama who returned from UK to invest in the country, is attacked by suicide bombers and claimed by Al-Shabaab.

    The first assault occurred in September last year.

    NMG

  • Nigeria’s Art Boom Feeds Revival of Ancient Rites

    Nigeria’s Art Boom Feeds Revival of Ancient Rites

    {{The haunting stone sculptures have stretched bodies with enlarged heads, mask-like faces and elongated chests – the kind of sharp, geometric qualities that inspired the works of Pablo Picasso and the Cubist movement in the 1920s.}}

    Displayed at a Lagos gallery alongside colorful paintings of domestic scenes, they represent a revival of ancient art forms in Nigeria, rooted in traditional spirituality, that Christian missionaries tried to banish a century ago.

    That revival coincides with a turn by the country’s super rich elite and small but growing middle class towards art as a store of wealth.

    An art investment boom is under way across emerging markets, but it has been seen as largely centered on China, India and Gulf Arab countries.

    The planet’s poorest continent is still widely viewed in art circles more as a source of fine art for auctions in the developed world rather than a market in itself.

    That may be slowly changing. Artist and designer Nike Davies-Okundaye sees growing interest by local as well as foreign collectors in the Nigerian art in her four-storey Lagos gallery, part of which is given over to traditional work: wood carvings of priests and stone statues of Yoruba deities.

    A growing number of wealthy Nigerians are adding such pieces to their collections. Yet for many Christian or Muslim Nigerians, traditional African art, because of its link with animist religion, is still viewed as taboo – an invitation to dangerous black magic or idolatry.

    That is a hurdle for artists trying resurrect their suppressed culture. But local interest in art is growing.

    Lagos-based accountant Jumoke Ogun used to think of art just as something nice to hang on the wall, but that changed when her sister bought a painting as an investment.

    “So now I no longer just dive in. I go away, try to find out more about the artist, how much their other works sold for,” she told Reuters, standing in a Lagos gallery near a canvas of a classic Nigerian scene: women cooking street food at dusk.

    Oscar Onyema, chief executive of Nigeria’s stock exchange, has a very small but growing portion of the exchange’s portfolio in Nigerian art, about 20 million naira ($122,400) so far.

    “People are now using art as an alternative to other asset classes. We think this is a wise thing to do,” he said. “We certainly expect that our own collection at the exchange will increase in value.”

    {reuters}

  • Egypt to annul Muslim Brotherhood’s NGO status

    Egypt to annul Muslim Brotherhood’s NGO status

    {{Egypt’s army-backed authorities have decided to annul the Muslim Brotherhood’s non-governmental organisation, an official said on Friday, widening a drive to neutralise the movement behind deposed Islamist president Mohamed Mursi.}}

    The move applies to the non-governmental organisation registered by the Brotherhood in March, and stems from accusations that it used its premises to store weapons and explosives. The decision has yet to be formally announced, the official said..

    The army-backed government is waging the toughest crackdown in decades on the Islamist group, which says it has a million members. Security forces have killed hundreds of its supporters and rounded up thousands more since Mursi was deposed by the army on July 3 after mass protests against him.

    Although short of a ban, dissolving the NGO will strip the Brotherhood of a defence against challenges to its legality. Egypt’s then army rulers formally dissolved the Brotherhood in 1954.

    Social Solidarity Minister Ahmed el-Boraie has now decided to dissolve the Brotherhood’s NGO, ministry spokesman Hany Mahana said. The move will be announced once the minister returned from an overseas trip.

    “Dr. el-Boraie has decided to dissolve the organisation. The decree has not been issued yet,” he said.

    The General Federation of NGOs wrote to the ministry on Thursday consenting to the dissolution of the Brotherhood NGO after its leaders missed a deadline to answer the accusations.

    These relate to violence that erupted after Mursi was deposed, when armed men were seen firing on protesters outside the Brotherhood’s headquarters in Cairo.

    The government has accused the Brotherhood of mounting a campaign of violence – a charge the group decries as an excuse for the crackdown.

    “They were notified three consecutive times and none of them attended and so, according to the law, the minister of social solidarity can dissolve the NGO,” Mahana said.

    “The decision is effective with the end of the legal time frame, so the decision is taken and what remains is writing the legal memorandum.”

    The Brotherhood won parliamentary and presidential elections after veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in 2011.

    There has so far been no attempt to ban its political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party.

    Though formally outlawed under Mubarak, the Brotherhood was grudgingly tolerated for much of his presidency, taking part in parliamentary elections and operating a charity network that helped to it to become Egypt’s biggest political party.

    {moscowtimes}

  • Kremlin foe Navalny challenges Putin ally in Moscow Mayor Vote

    Kremlin foe Navalny challenges Putin ally in Moscow Mayor Vote

    {{Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny faced off against a Kremlin ally on Sunday in a Moscow mayoral election with high stakes for both President Vladimir Putin and his foes.}}

    The contest to head Russia’s capital will help shape Putin’s six-year third term and the fortunes of two politicians who could play bigger roles in the future.

    For underdog Navalny, 37, an anti-corruption campaigner who emerged from a wave of street protests as the driving force of opposition to Putin’s 13-year rule, the vote is a chance to show many Russians want change and he is the man to make it happen.

    It pits him against Sergei Sobyanin, a former Putin administration chief who was appointed to a five-year term by the Kremlin in 2010 but called an early election to bolster his legitimacy and strengthen his position.

    Irina, a Muscovite in her 40s who works in manufacturing and on Sunday voted with her father, cast her ballot for Navalny in a sign of protest against the Kremlin.

    “We’ve both voted for Navalny, we like some things about him but first and foremost we really don’t like the authorities,” she said.

    {{Worker Yevgeni chose Sobyanin.}}

    “There is no need for any change, everything is fine here. He’s got serious experience now, he’s well into this job. I like the way he works and want to see more of the same,” he said, adding his main demand was for more jobs.

    But even among those who voted for Navalny, there was little hope he could win and a threat of jail hangs over him.

    {agencies}

  • Mali’s new PM forms Cabinet

    Mali’s new PM forms Cabinet

    {{Career technocrat Oumar Tatam Ly, made head of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita’s government on Thursday, took over from interim premier Diango Cissoko at a ceremony in the capital Bamako before turning to the job of picking his team of ministers.}}

    “I am ready to meet the challenges and tasks that have been assigned to me by the president,” he said in a brief statement.

    French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius described Ly’s appointment as “an important step in the establishment of democratic institutions of the new Mali”.

    “Alongside President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, the competence of Oumar Tatam Ly will be a valuable asset in confronting the challenges facing Mali and the Sahel. As Mali opens a new page it can count on France, which will be its partner, ally and friend,” he said in a statement.

    Ly has spent most of the last two decades as a central bank functionary and is expected to rely on advisers with more political know-how while he chooses colleagues in a cabinet charged with returning stability to a country upended by a military coup and Islamist insurgency last year.

    He began consultations with potential ministers immediately after being appointed on Thursday, his aides told media, although none would reveal who was in consideration for the big portfolios.

    One member of Ly’s inner circle who has known the new premier for 20 years described him as a “reserved” and “exacting” man who disliked “amateurism”.

    “I believe that the way the government operates could change. There will be accountability for results for all members of the government,” the aide told media.

    France24

  • Tunisia Opposition Rallies to Street, Pressures Govt Over Crisis

    Tunisia Opposition Rallies to Street, Pressures Govt Over Crisis

    {{Tens of thousands of Tunisians took to the streets on Saturday to renew their demands that the Islamist-led government step down and end a political deadlock threatening the North African country’s fledgling democracy.}}

    It was the largest protest since Tunisia’s crisis erupted over the killing of an opposition leader in July, increasing pressure on the ruling Ennahda party to make way for a caretaker government before proposed elections.

    Waving red and white national flags and pictures of slain opposition leader Mohamed Brahmi, protesters packed streets around a building where a national assembly had been drafting a new constitution until its work was suspended due to unrest.

    “It’s over for them, they should leave,” said sports teacher Houssem Ben Hassen at the rally, wrapped in a Tunisian flag. “We need a government for all Tunisians.”

    Divisions between Tunisia’s Islamists and their secular opponents have widened since the uprising that ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, a revolt that triggered unrest across the Arab world and toppled rulers in Egypt, Libya and Yemen.

    Tunisia’s transition since that revolt has been relatively peaceful, with the moderate Islamist Ennahda party sharing power with smaller secular parties.

    But tensions have increased in the nation of 11 million since Brahmi was killed in July, just months after another secular opposition figure was murdered by gunmen who authorities say were tied to radical Islamists.

    {agencies}

  • EU Blames Assad for Attack, Urges Wait for U.N. Report

    EU Blames Assad for Attack, Urges Wait for U.N. Report

    {{The European Union blamed the Syrian government on Saturday for an August 21 chemical weapons attack in Syria but urged waiting for a report from U.N. weapons inspectors before any U.S.-led military response.}}

    The carefully worded message from foreign ministers of 28 EU governments stopped short of endorsing possible U.S. and French military action against Syria ahead of the report, which France’s president said could come by the end of the week.

    While their statement allowed France to claim victory in its push to get the EU to hold Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government responsible for the attack in which more than 1,400 may have been killed, it also made clear the bloc wants the United Nations to play some role in deciding how to respond.

    Many EU governments have expressed reservations about using military force to punish Assad, now fighting a 2-1/2-year battle against rebels in which more than 100,000 people have died.

    Germany, where one opinion poll last Thursday showed 70 percent of people are against the United States bombing Syria, and other nations have opposed taking action before U.N. inspectors can present their findings.

    Public debate has intensified in the United States and in Europe during the week since U.S. President Barack Obama said he believed Washington should launch targeted air strikes on Syria to deter Assad, and others, from using chemical weapons but he would ask Congress for the authority to do so.

    Obama made that decision after the British parliament voted against Britain taking part in a strike and U.S. opinion polls showed significant opposition to one, suggesting that he would be somewhat isolated if he ordered military action on his own.

    {agencies}

  • Tokyo to host 2020 Olympic Games

    Tokyo to host 2020 Olympic Games

    {{Tokyo was awarded the 2020 Olympics on Saturday, capitalizing on its reputation as a “safe pair of hands” and defying concerns about the Fukushima nuclear crisis.}}

    Tokyo defeated Istanbul 60-36 in the final round of secret voting Saturday by the International Olympic Committee. Madrid was eliminated earlier after an initial tie with Istanbul.

    Tokyo, which hosted the 1964 Olympics, billed itself as the safe and reliable choice at a time of global political and economic uncertainty.

    “Tokyo can be trusted to be the safe pair of hands and much more,” bid leader and IOC member Tsunekazu Takeda said in the final presentation. “Our case today is simple. Vote for Tokyo and you vote for guaranteed delivery. … Tokyo is the right partner at the right time.”

    Tokyo had been on the defensive in the final days of the campaign because of mounting concerns over the leak of radioactive water from the tsunami-crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

    In the final presentation before the vote, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gave the IOC assurances that the Fukushima leak was not a threat to Tokyo and took personal responsibility for keeping the games safe.

    “Let me assure you the situation is under control,” Abe said. “It has never done and will never do any damage to Tokyo.”

    Abe gave further assurances when pressed on the issue by Norwegian IOC member Gerhard Heiberg.

    “It poses no problem whatsoever,” Abe said in Japanese, adding that the contamination was limited to a small area and had been “completely blocked.”

    “There are no health related problems until now, nor will there be in the future,” he said. “I make the statement to you in the most emphatic and unequivocal way.”

    Tokyo Electric Power Co., Fukushima’s operator, has acknowledged that tons of radioactive water has been seeping into the Pacific from the plant for more than two years after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami led to meltdowns at three of its reactors.

    {agencies}