{Cairo – Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has dismissed as “propaganda” claims by a branch of the Islamic State group that they were responsible for downing a Russian plane, the BBC reported Tuesday.}
His remarks came as a top US intelligence official said it was “unlikely” ISIS had been involved in the Kogalymavia airline disaster over the Sinai peninsula that killed 224 people on Saturday.
“When there is propaganda that it crashed because of ISIS, this is one way to damage the stability and security of Egypt and the image of Egypt,” Sisi told the BBC.
“Believe me, the situation in Sinai – especially in this limited area – is under our full control,” he added. “All those interested in the matter are welcome to participate in the investigation.”
Experts say the fact that debris and bodies were strewn over such a wide area points to mid-air disintegration of the aircraft.
On Monday, US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said he could not rule out ISIS involvement in Saturday’s incident, but thought it “unlikely”.
Black boxes
“We don’t have any direct evidence of any terrorist involvement yet,” he said.
Earlier on Monday the airline said the plane had come down due to “external” factors and ruled out any technical failure or human error in the disaster.
“The only explanation is some kind of external action,” senior Kogalymavia executive Alexander Smirnov told a news conference in Moscow, without elaborating.
However, Alexander Neradko, head of Russia’s aviation authority, criticised the airline’s comments, saying they were “premature and not based on any real facts”.
Analysis of the plane’s “black boxes”, which could solve the mystery of what happened to the doomed jet, is expected to begin on Tuesday, according to Egyptian officials.
Analysts have dismissed claims the jet could have been shot down by ISIS-affiliated groups in the region if it was flying at its cruising height of 9 000m, but did not rule out that a bomb may have been planted on board.
{Nairobi-A Somali military official says at least 15 soldiers have been killed in an ambush by fighters from the Islamic extremist rebel group al-Shabaab.}
Colonel Ahmed Muse said late on Monday that the ambush took place near Walaweyn, a town in Lower Shabelle region, about 93km south of the capital, Mogadishu.
He said the rebels seized three military vehicles during the ambush.
Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack and said it had killed 30 soldiers, but it was impossible to independently verify the group’s claims.
The attack comes a day after extremists attacked a hotel in Mogadishu, killing at least 12 people and injuring many others before they were killed by security forces.
{Two youth fund officials have been asked to step aside.}
Youth Enterprise Development Fund’s board on Monday asked its acting CEO Catherine Namunye and financial manager Benedict Atavachi to step aside to pave the way for investigations following the alleged misappropriation of Sh200 million.
The board’s chairman, Mr Bruce Odhiambo, said investigations could not be done when the two were in office and asked them to voluntarily step aside as directed for investigations to be done.
The investigations are expected to be completed in a maximum 10 days.
Sources within the board revealed that Devolution Principal Secretary Peter Mangiti had advised the board to suspend Ms Namunye over the fraud allegations with the acting CEO being non-committal over the same, prompting the board to ask her to step aside.
Mr Odhiambo justified the call saying that it was only prudent that the senior managers took leave to allow for thorough investigations without interference.
He absolved the board of any involvement saying that the committee was the one that revealed some of the funds had been moved from one of their banks without the knowledge of directors of the board after being alerted by the Banking Fraud Unit.
Speaking during the press briefing in their offices at Nairobi’s Upper Hill, Mr Odhiambo however assured the youth that they would continue being served uninterrupted and that there was no cause for worry.
It was alleged that the fund’s documents had been forged and used to transfer between Sh180 million to Sh200 million to an account belonging to a top official in the organisation.
{The University of Rwanda’s College of Science and Technology (UR-CST) emerged top in the first ever edition of the National Inter-University Female Debate Championship.}
Nine institutions from around the country took part in the competition on Saturday at the Akilah Institute for Women in Kibagabaga, Kigali.
The three-person team from UR-CST beat off stiff competition from Kepler Kigali to claim a trophy and gold medals in a tense final in front of an audience including the British High Commissioner to Rwanda, William Gelling, Akilah Institute staff and students from the nine participating institutions.
Gelling described as “important” the theme of the day, ‘The Women’s Role in Public Speaking and the Development of the Nation’.
“Developing is not about electricity, constructing new roads and buildings, but being able to ask questions, expressing oneself and being held to account and holding others to account,” he explained.
The nine institutions were divided into two pools and the top two in the both pools made it to the semifinals. Kepler Kigali beat hosts Akilah Institute, while UR-CASS defeated Kigali Institute of Management en route to the finals. The top three institutions were handed cheques worth Rwf250, 000, Rwf150.000 and Rwf100, 000 respectively. Akilah Institute took the bronze. The best three speakers were awarded Rwf50, 000, Rwf30, 000 and Rwf20, 000 respectively.
The other institutions that took part were the Integrated Polytechnic Regional Centre, College of Agriculture, Animal Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, College of Education, Independent University of Kigali-Gisenyi, Catholic Institute of Kabgayiand UR-Busogo.
{An Italian runner with a mental disability disappeared moments after crossing the finish line at the New York City Marathon, police said Monday.}
Gianclaudio Marengo, 30, had come to the city with a group of runners and finished the grueling 26-mile race before collecting his belongings and vanishing from Central Park around 3 p.m. on Sunday.
The 5-foot-8, 150-pound Marengo, who only speaks Italian, was last seen wearing a turquoise shirt, black shorts, and a Marathon racing bib with the number 23781 on it, cops said. The bib has a GPS tracker on it, but it doesn’t work off the course.
Members of Marengo’s running team first reporting him missing to the Italian consulate, which alerted the NYPD.
The missing man had been staying at the Sleep Inn Hotel on 13th St. in Long Island City, Queens.
{The US has said it plans to return to contested areas of the South China Sea, with a top military commander saying it has conducted similar operations worldwide “for decades”.}
The sailing of a US warship within an area claimed by China last week angered Beijing, which issued a warning.
Adm Harry Harris, speaking in Beijing, said such moves should surprise no-one.
An unnamed US official earlier told Reuters similar patrols would take place at least “twice a quarter”.
The guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen breached the 12-nautical mile zone that China claims around the Subi and Mischief reefs in the Spratly archipelago.
Admiral Harris, of the US Pacific Command, said in a speech at Peking University: “We’ve been conducting freedom of navigation operations all over the world for decades, so no-one should be surprised by them.”
“Our military will continue to fly, sail, and operate whenever and wherever international law allows. The South China Sea is not – and will not – be an exception.”
But he also added that the operations, which he described as “routine”, should “never be construed as a threat to any nation”.
‘Expect more’
His remarks came a day after US deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said ensuring freedom of navigation in the South China Sea was in the US interest.
Defense One, which organised the event he was speaking at, quoted him telling the audience to “expect more demonstrations of that interest”.
“We have a responsibility to demonstrate that we’re going to be there but fostering peaceful resolutions,” he added.
Separately, an unnamed US official told Reuters that military visits to the region could take place as often as “twice a quarter or a little more than that”.
“That’s the right amount to make it regular but not a constant poke in the eye. It meets the intent to regularly exercise our rights under international law and remind the Chinese and others about our view,” the official said.
The US and China’s naval commanders spoke by video link last week after the USS Lassen’s trip. China told the US that a minor incident could spark conflict in South China Sea if the US did not stop its “provocative acts”.
Tensions have escalated in the resource-rich South China Sea in recent years, where several countries have overlapping maritime claims, as China has steadily expanded and consolidated its presence.
China, which claims a wide swathe of the sea, has been reclaiming land around reefs and constructing airstrips and buildings. The US and other countries have called for the halt of such activities, accusing it of militarisation, but China has insisted that the construction is for civilian purposes.
{Rwanda’s Minister of Justice Johnson Busingye and US attorney’s general, Lorohnson Busiongetta E. Lynch, held yesterday bilateral talks in various areas of justice to build a strong relationship between the two countries.}
Briefing the media after indoor discussion, Lorohnson appreciated Rwanda exciting achievement in the area of justice and promised sustainable partnership.
“I am delighted to hear exciting working achievements, in such important areas such as access to justice making the system accessible for all Rwandans. We have discussed on a number of different areas of mutual interest and I look forward continuing a strong working relationship with the government of Rwanda.”
According to the Minister Busingye, discussions revolved around access to justice, international prosecution, law making, taking forward judicial capacity, partnerships and building framework that will take forward Rwandan capacity to deliver justice.
“It is important for the world to bring genocide fugitives to account. It is important for the World to understand that it is an obligation of every state to the in world to do what they must do to have these people in courts.”Minister Busingye outlined indoor discussions on tracking perpetrators of 1994 genocide against Tutsi.
He argues that outcomes of discussions anticipate fruitful results since the partnership will also facilitate the track of roaming Genocide fugitives.
“We are very satisfied and confident that the future is bright.”
{LEGISLATORS have proposed that organic laws be translated into Swahili, the most widely spoken language in East African Community.}
Explaining the proposals, Speaker Donatile Mukabalisa said Article 8 of the revised Constitution provides that a law may add or remove an official language to suit a certain reason.
“While working on the law, and in an effort to make it flexible, we realised that it might be in our interest to add a Swahili translation to our organic laws for integration purposes now that we are in the EAC,” she said.
Kiswahili will be a subject in the new skills-centred education curricula due for rollout in January.
However, according to Blaise Rwigamba, a practicing lawyer, translating the law into Swahili might be a bit tricky if the language is not one of the official languages of the country.
“There will be a need to have the language (Swahili) first recognised as one of the official medium of communication in the country’s supreme law before such a drastic change can be effected,” he said.
Of late, MPs had made their concerns known about delays in the drafting of legislation due to issues of language that they believe sometimes fail to contextualise realities on the ground.
MPs have suggested that they need to liaise with experts in linguistic in order to make the laws they enact easily understandable, a move that, according to lawyers, will help them in supporting their clients.
{{General changes}}
Meanwhile, lawyers have hailed the proposed constitutional amendments that were passed by the Lower Chamber of Parliament, saying the timely changes will make the Constitution more accommodative and compatible with other laws.
Other than the proposed changes in the presidential term limit, the other amendments, if passed by referendum, will see members of the Senate, the Chief Justice and Deputy Chief Justice serve a five-year term, renewable only once.
The change would come into effect after they serve their current terms that end in 2018.
However, according to the proposed amendments, senators who are former heads of state will not be subject to term limits.
Cecile Karakure, a lawyer, said the proposed changes are timely and encouraged reform in the way the Supreme Court handled cases, saying that the court is inundated with cases.
“There is also a need to reduce the amount of work done by the Supreme Court. We would have to decide which competent institution would handle the authentic interpretation of the supreme law,” Karakure said.
The East African Community (EAC) has registered a general improvement in maternal, newborn and child health, but there are areas in each member state that require sustained action for improvement, according to a recent report.
The Countdown to 2015 Report, A Decade of Tracking Progress for Maternal, Newborn and Child Survival, launched last month at the first Global Maternal and Newborn Health Conference held in Mexico, includes an updated country profile for each of the 75 countries, which jointly account for more than 95 per cent of the world’s maternal, newborn and child deaths.
The seventh in a series released over 10 years, it examines trends in mortality and nutrition; intervention coverage (including inequality); financial flows to reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health; and supportive policy and systems measures in 75 countries.
The report is intended to help policymakers and their partners assess progress, prioritise actions and ensure accountability for commitments to reduce maternal, newborn, and child mortality.
{{Shared problems }}
As is the case in nearly all other countries, all EAC countries have not ratified the Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183), a modern international labour standard on maternity protection, which came into force in 2002.
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), expectant and nursing mothers require special protection to prevent harm to their infants’ health, and they need adequate time to give birth, recover and nurse their children.
Mothers also require protection to ensure that they will not lose their job simply because of pregnancy or maternity leave.
All the five EAC countries also suffer inequalities as regards skilled attendants at delivery between poor and rich households. Furthermore, in the entire EAC region and beyond, under-nutrition is mainly attributed to half of child deaths even though pneumonia is blamed for most under-five deaths.
Zulfiqar Bhutta, the co-chair of Countdown to 2015 Initiative, said worldwide maternal and child survival had improved by 50 per cent since 1990, but newborn survival and child nutrition remain the two major challenges that must be addressed.
{{Rwanda}}
Only four of the 75 Countdown countries — Cambodia, Eritrea, Nepal and Rwanda — will achieve both Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5, the report noted.
Regarding socio-economic equities, the report paints a positive picture for Rwanda when it comes to oral rehydration therapy (ORT) and continued feeding; measles; diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP3) immunisation coverage; early initiation of breast feeding; and antenatal care.
Rwanda has good policies, including community treatment of pneumonia, and postnatal home visits in the first week after birth, but still lacks an international code of marketing of breast milk substitutes, according to the report.
The Code is an international health policy framework for breastfeeding promotion adopted by the World Health Organisation in 1981 as a global public health strategy.
It recommends restrictions on the marketing of breast milk substitutes, such as infant formula, to ensure that mothers are not discouraged from breastfeeding and that substitutes are used safely if needed.
{{Rwanda registered 1, 300 maternal deaths in 2013.}}
The report shows that in 2013, general government expenditure on health as a percentage of total government expenditure was 22 per cent, while out of pocket expenditure as percentage of total expenditure on health was 18 per cent.
During the Mexico conference, Catherine Mugeni, the director of the Community Programmes Unit at the Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC), shed light on how 45,000 community health workers (CHWs) champion post-natal health in Rwanda by identifying all women in child bearing age, those who are pregnant and visiting pregnant ones three times during pregnancy.
She, however, cited insufficient supervision and mentorship by health care providers and a high turnover among the challenges to maternal and child health.
The way forward, according to Mugeni, includes “strengthening community-based maternal and newborn health service delivery through supportive supervision and mentoring.”
Reinforcing physician nursing home visit documentation and linkage with heath facilities, she said, is another good idea.
{{Kenya}}
In Kenya, under-nutrition is mainly attributed to half of child deaths, while haemorrhage (25%) and hypertension (16%) are the biggest causes of maternal deaths. Post-natal visits for mothers – within two days – were at 51 per cent in 2014.
Government expenditure on health as percentage of total government expenditure in 2013 was six per cent, while out of pocket expenditure as a percentage of total expenditure on health was 45 per cent.
Dr Irene Mbugua, World Vision’s regional maternal, newborn and child health project coordinator, observed that equity gaps are wider for interventions that require access to health facilities or repeat contacts with a health provider than for interventions that can be delivered through outreach services at the community level.
“The community needs more empowerment which can only come about when citizens understand their rights and entitlements in the health delivery system. They need to monitor the standards at the health facilities and ultimately the two parties (citizens and duty bearers) need to get together and dialogue to look for sustainable solutions,” she said.
{{ Tanzania}}
On equity, Tanzania only does well in closing the gap in use of insecticide-treated nets among under-five children between rich and poor households. But there are inequalities regarding even early initiation of breast feeding.
The country of 53.5 million people also lacks community treatment of pneumonia with antibiotics, according to the report.
Another policy deficiency is the lack of antenatal corticosteroids, medication given to pregnant women expecting preterm delivery, as part of management of preterm labour, a situation which often results in greater health risks for babies.
Most (39 per cent) of its maternal and newborn health expenditure is covered by external sources, while general government expenditure accounts for 33 per cent and private sources 27 per cent, according to 2012 statistics.
In 2013, out of pocket expenditure as percentage of total expenditure on health was 33 per cent and the country registered 7,900 maternal deaths that year.
{{Uganda}}
Most (53 per cent) of Uganda’s maternal and newborn health expenditure is covered by private sources while government expenditure accounts for 24 per cent and external sources 23 per cent, according to 2012 data.
Out of pocket expenditure as percentage of total expenditure on health was 38 per cent in 2013.
The country recorded 5, 900 maternal deaths in 2013.
{{ Burundi}}
Regarding matters of equity, Burundi is an outstanding example as it registered a thin gap between rich and poor households as regards antenatal and DTP3 immunisation coverage.
At policy level, Burundi lacks in many respects. For instance, it has no maternity protection; no maternal deaths notification; no kangaroo mother care in facilities for low birth weight or preterm newborns; and no antenatal corticosteroids as part of management of preterm labour.
{President Kagame has appreciated Interpol’s efforts to pursue Genocide perpetrators, render justice to Genocide victims and calls for more great achievements.}
This message was conveyed during the introduction of 84th Interpol summit presided by president Kagame .The meeting is held in Kigali on this 2nd November 2015.
President Kagame noted that security is the foundation of everything based on results of Rwanda’s partnership with Interpol.
“When security breaks, losses are likely to increase. These involve loss of lives, loss of trust among people, states and economic deterioration. It has been remarked in our country when security organs supported perpetrators.”He said.
“Allow me to express my gratefulness to Interpol’s efforts to pursue genocide convicts as well as helping survivors to access justice even though more efforts need to be put in place.” President Kagame added recalling Interpol to increase collaboration to sue exiled genocide perpetrators.
He said that the country strived to restore security achieved by establishment of Rwanda National Police which completes 15 years of existence and commended collaboration among countries to counteract emerging challenges facing the World.
President Kagame promised that Rwanda will ensure sustainable partnership to preserve security and justice.
IGP Gasana Emmanuel also shared that Interpol helped Rwanda to detect criminals during 41 years of membership.
Interpol’s current President, Mrs Mireille Ballestrazzi recognized the contribution of Rwanda National Police and noted that a long milestone needs to be completed to resist technology related crimes, terrorism, human trafficking among other cross border crimes.
This annual meeting has gathered approximatively 700 delegates from 154 countries including Chiefs of Police, prosecutors, heads of regional and international police organisations, partners in policing and senior government officials among others.
