{The speaker of parliament, Donatille Mukabarisa has commended parliamentarians for efforts made within the just-concluded session of parliament that involved scrutiny of the constitution and effecting some amendments.}
“The members of parliament have dully fulfilled their responsibilities in this trimester with utmost dedication,” she said.
Mukabarisa also noted that parliamentarians have been very considerate and accountable to the public, including gathering opinions from the public, debating and effect the necessary legal opinions.
“I would like to appreciate everyone that has played a role to respect the process of constitutional amendment,” she said.
Parliament in the last trimester, has passed 15 laws including constitutional amendments but of which implementation will approved after a nationwide referendum. This reform includes reducing presidential term limits from seven to five years renewable only once.
Some of the other laws passed are related to public procurement, Public private partnership, among others.
The Rwanda Senate also ended the normal trimester after voting for 11 laws and the reformed constitution. Parliamentarians will be back in the House on 5th February 2016.
{Prosecution yesterday requested for a life sentence for a female resident of Rwamagana district, Nyirantagorama Odette for alleged killing of her husband Kamonyo Jean Pierre with an ax during the night of 20th November, 2015.
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During a court hearing held at Musha, court read out the offense to Odette after which prosecution requested that a life sentence be handed to her basing on article 142 of the penal code.
Nyirantagorama pleaded guilty but denied reports that she hit him dead with an axe in his sleep, saying the horrendous act happened in the midst of a fiasco.
Nyirantagorama was also penitent, asked forgiveness from God, her children and her family.
During the trial, she accepted to have committed the crime and requested to serve two years in jail so she can take care of children she begot with the deceased after serveing the sentence.
{Rwandan teams have demonstrated good playing at the beginning of East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) games that commenced yesterday in Kigali.}
Only three EALA country members have participated at the beginning of the matches while Burundi and Tanzania teams had not shown up by yesterday.
The games were preceded by the meeting of organizers of the competition with representatives of EALA country members which participated. The meeting was meant to come up with common plans of making a good arrangement of games that put emphasis on unity and promoting awareness among peoples of the member states.
The competition began with a tug of war, won by Kenyan Female team, followed by Rwanda. In athletics, the 100 meter sprint was taken by a Kenyan, Isaac Melly emerged the first, a Rwandan, Gatabazi JMV emerged the 3rd.
Commenting on the absence of Burundi and Tanzania Daniel Fred Kidega, the EALA Speaker said that their absence is justified.
“The absence of Burundi can be understood, you know it is in political crisis. In Tanzania, the parliament has a new administration and has not yet normalized the situation. This is the reason behind their lateness as they are still organizing themselves,” her said.
Rwandan parliamentarian Mukazibera Agnes, said that the first day of the games has been successful adding that they will keep up efforts to show good performance.
{Bishop Rukamba Philippe of Butare Diocese has been elected to head the Episcopal Conference of Catholic Bishops of Rwanda, replacing bishop Smaragde Mbonyintege who has been leading the Conference for six years.}
Elections of the new leader were held during the 4th Episcopal trimester closing the year, held from Monday to Friday this week.
Thadée Ntihinyurwa, the archbishop of Kigali Diocese has been elected to be the vice chair of the Conference.
Harorimana Vincent, the bishop of Ruhengeri diocese and Antoine Kambanda ,the bishop of Kibungo diocese have been named advisors of the Conference.
On the previous Council, Bishop Thadée Ntihinyurwa was the vice president, while bishops Rukamba Philippe and Harorimana Vincent were advisors.
The conference has approved three-year dedications thus; 2016 will be dedicated to actions of benevolence, 2017 will be marked by celebrating 100 years since the first Rwandan became a priest while 2018 will be dedicated to actions of unity and reconciliation where it will be linked with the commemoration of the 24th Genocide perpetrated against Tutsi in 1994 .This will go hand in hand with the evaluation of the scale of unity and reconciliation among Rwandans.
The conference deliberated on issues related to the management of seminaries in Rwanda where priests acknowledged that the number of people willing to become priests surpass what the available facilities can accommodate.
Family disputes and Catholic Church contribution to the resolution of domestic violence also emerged on the agenda of discussion.
Bishop Philippe Rukamba also assumes duties of Catholic church spokesperson in Rwanda.
{MTN Rwanda yesterday handed over a cheque worth Rwf 3 million to support the families of vulnerable ex-combatants under the Rwanda Demobilization and Reintegration Commission.
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The cheque was received by the Minister of Local Government (MINALOC), Francis Kaboneka at the Ministry offices in Kacyiru.
“This gesture is part of the company’s long tradition of giving back to society because we at MTN Rwanda, realize and understand the importance of continued support towards the communities where we operate in a sustainable way,” said MTN’s Chief Executive Officer, Gunter Engling at the handover ceremony.
Honourable Kabonekat thanked MTN for its efforts and commitment in supporting vulnerable families.
According to Engling, MTN has supported a number of initiatives in the areas of Education, Health, Economic empowerment, Environment and Community Development through its Corporate Social Responsibility platform, MTN Foundation. The Foundation was created to focus on giving back to society and “Impacting the quality of lives in our communities” in a meaningful way.
{Police and students currently in their holidays in Kayonza District held a half-day meeting on December 3 in Mukarange Sector to discuss ways to reinforce the partnership in community policing and to fight drug abuse.}
While speaking to the students, AIP Eraste Niyibizi, the District Community Liaison Officer of Kayonza told the holidaymakers that the Rwanda National Police proactive concepts of community policing binds everyone in fighting and preventing crimes, which they should actively be part of.
“Through this community-based policing, Rwanda has become one of the safest places, but we still encounter challenges related to illicit drugs, and most of the cases we find involve your generation including students,” Niyibizi said.
“It’s both my role and yours to fight crimes, report wrongdoers like drug traffickers and users, but first be free from drugs and any wrongdoings and set an example,” he added.
The meeting came days after some of the holidaymakers and other youth in the district were arrested in drug-related crimes
Niyibizi took them through types of drugs that are common in Rwanda like cannabis, illicit gins like Kanyanga, Chief Waragi and locally made illicit brew; their consequences on users; the role of the youth in fighting drug abuse and the mode of timely information sharing.
One of the students, Emmanuel Ntambara proposed that such a meeting should be held regularly either with police officers and local leaders or among the youth themselves.
“This is not the only number of students from Kayonza, meaning that the more we pass on this message to many of our colleagues to more results we will get in fighting drug abuse,” Ntambara said.
His colleague, Jean Claude Sindikubwabo echoed the same message urging all the participants to be agents of change in their respective communities.
The students agreed to rich out to other students in the district to have another meeting next week in big number, to share ideas on how to fight drug abuse and criminality in general.
SOURCE:POLICE:[Police, holidaymakers in Kayonza discuss on fighting drug abuse->http://www.police.gov.rw/news-detail/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=5735&cHash=b1652b37d90552bf1c45b308a27e7225]
{A two-week United Nations Police peacekeeping course ended on December 4 at the Police Training School (PTS) Gishari in Rwamagana District with a call for the officers to aim for perfection and peace building in conflict-ridden nations.}
While presiding over the official closing of the international peacekeeping course, the Rwanda National Police Deputy Inspector General in charge of Administration and Personnel, Juvenal Marizamunda thanked participants for their “dedication and enthusiasm to learn” which he said will help in shaping peacekeeping operations.
“What you learnt here is for your own benefit, the benefit of your respective institutions and people in missions where you will be deployed, so endeavor to put to use what you have learnt as we strive to make the world safer for all,” DIGP Marizamunda said.
He thanked the PTS leadership for conducting the course successfully and wished participants safe return back home.
The course organized in partnership with the Eastern African Standby Force (EASF) and the British Peace Support Team (BPST), brought together 60 Police officers from eight countries, seven from Africa and Denmark.
Participating countries were Comoros, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda Demark and Rwanda, the host.
The course was designed to offer participants with the overview of the UN and AU, the dynamics of peacekeeping operations, the expected challenges in the missions and techniques of overcoming them, the skills, knowledge and attitude mandatory for any police officer in a peacekeeping mission among other subjects.
It is intended to produce more skilled police officers to support the consolidation of the recently achieved full operational capability of EASF.
The EASF is one of the five regional multidimensional Forces of the African Standby Force (ASF) consisting of Military, Police and Civilian components with a mandate to enhance peace and security in the Eastern Africa region.
It was established as a regional mechanism to provide capability for rapid deployment of forces to carry out preventive deployment, rapid intervention, peace support operations and peace enforcement.
The New Horizons probe has at last returned some of the super-sharp pictures it took of Pluto during its historic flyby in July.
The images released by the US space agency on Friday show details on the surface of the dwarf planet at a resolution better than 80m per pixel.
On Earth at this scale, one could easily discern a city park.
With New Horizons, we see crystal clear views of mountains, craters and smooth ice fields.
“These close-up images, showing the diversity of terrain on Pluto, demonstrate the power of our robotic planetary explorers to return intriguing data to scientists back here on Planet Earth,” said John Grunsfeld, the head of Nasa’s science directorate.
“New Horizons thrilled us during the July flyby with the first close images of Pluto, and as the spacecraft transmits the treasure trove of images in its onboard memory back to us, we continue to be amazed by what we see.”
The probe got to about 12,500km from the surface of the dwarf and acquired a mass of pictures and other instrument data.
But because of the vast separation to Earth, and the modest transmitter on New Horizons, the flow of information back home has been extremely slow.
Indeed, it is expected to take until late 2016 to get everything in the probe’s memory back on the ground.
The mission team prioritised what it wanted to see first, which included some general impressions of Pluto – the broad context. Now, nearly five months on from the flyby, we are being treated to some spectacularly detailed offerings.
Friday’s pictures come from a photographic strip that incorporates a segment of its icy flat terrain informally known Sputnik Planum, and the adjacent rugged al-Idrisi mountains.
“These new images give us a breathtaking, super-high resolution window into Pluto’s geology,” said New Horizons’ chief scientist, Alan Stern, of Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado.
“Nothing of this quality was available for Venus or Mars until decades after their first flybys; yet at Pluto we’re there already – down among the craters, ice fields and mountains – less than five months after flyby! The science we can do with these images is simply unbelievable.”
All the pictures were acquired by New Horizons’ telescopic Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (Lorri).
The probe continues to move deeper into space. It is now about 167 million km beyond the dwarf planet and some 5.2 billion km from Earth.
The spacecraft has been put on a course to fly by another object known simply as 2014 MU69. This will occur in just over three years’ time.
However, the team does not yet have a budget from the US space agency to operate the probe at the roughly 45km-wide body. The scientists plan to submit a formal request for funding in the next few months.
SOURCE:BBC:[New Horizons: Sharpest images of Pluto’s surface->http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35013190]
{Texas sued the federal government over plans to resettle 21 Syrians, mostly children, over safety concerns.}
The US state of Texas has stopped trying to block Syrian refugees from resettling there after suing the US government over fears new arrivals could pose a security risk.
A total of 21 Syrian refugees, most of whom are 13 years old or younger, are scheduled to resettle next week in the cities of Dallas and Houston.
“All they’re asking for is safety,” said Lucy Carrigan, spokeswoman for the nonprofit International Rescue Committee (IRC), which is coordinating the Dallas resettlements.
Since the Paris attacks on November 13, at least 29 US governors have vowed to keep new Syrian refugees outside their state borders.
Texas on Wednesday became the first to take the federal government to court, but legal experts called the lawsuit futile, saying states have no authority over resettlements. The lawsuit was dropped on Friday.
“I think that it’s the first sign that Texas is beginning to see the light,” said Cecillia Wang of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Details about the refugees were closely guarded by resettlement organisers over safety concerns. Last month, armed protesters with long guns staged a small demonstration outside a suburban Dallas mosque.
The Obama administration has announced plans to accept about 10,000 Syrian refugees nationwide and defends the screening process as rigorous.
SOURCE:AL JAZEERA:[US state backs down from blocking Syrian refugees->http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/12/state-backs-blocking-syrian-refugees-151205055854547.html]
{FBI announces massacre was an act of terrorism, but analysts say ties to Islam shouldn’t be driving the media narrative.}
The religion of the attackers who went on a shooting rampage in California should not be become the main focus of the investigation, critics say, after the FBI announced the deadly assault was an “act of terrorism”.
Fourteen people were shot dead and 21 wounded after Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik allegedly stormed a party in San Bernardino attended by his co-workers and opened fire on Tuesday. The couple were later killed in a shoot-out with police.
Lawyers for Farook’s family noted media coverage has quickly moved to portray the attackers as Muslims, while past shootings by those of other religions never brought their faith to the forefront.
“He [Farook] was an isolated individual without any friends,” lawyer David Chesley told reporters on Friday.
“When a Christian goes to shoot up an abortion clinic, the headlines don’t say ‘extremist Christian Catholic’ just like every headline is saying ‘Muslim massacre’ or ‘Muslim shooters’.”
Chesley noted while the FBI announced on Friday that the massacre was an act of terrorism, it did not say it had direct evidence of links to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
US-based law professor Khalid Beydoun told Al Jazeera there are violent “fringe elements” within the Muslim-American community, but he noted the same goes for other ethnic or religious groups in the United States.
Beydoun said more than 350 gun crimes this year in the US were carried out by white men, while 63 percent of mass shootings have been committed by white males since 1982.
“This conversation needs to happen across racial lines, across religious lines… One religious community should not be indicted, and that’s the narrative being shaped right now within the popular media space,” Beydoun told Al Jazeera.
Meanwhile, in the first poll on views of Muslim Americans taken after the mass shootings in Paris and San Bernardino, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed 51 percent of Americans view Muslims living in the US the same as any other community.
Only 14.6 percent said they were generally fearful.
Amaney Jamal, a politics professor at Princeton University, said it’s “healthy” to see the majority positively viewing Muslims, but cautioned about growing fears.
“If terrorism is designed to create a larger gap between Muslims and Westerners, unfortunately they’re succeeding,” Jamal said. “The threat of terror is going to be fought by Muslims and non-Muslims together. You would like to see those gaps close so people are working together and not being fearful.”
SOURCE:AL JAZEERA:[Critics denounce ‘Muslim’ label on California shooters ->http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/12/critics-denounce-muslim-label-california-shooters-151205042350632.html]
