IGIHE

Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

  • Brazil’s President Picked by Party for Tough October Election

    Brazil’s President Picked by Party for Tough October Election

    Brazil’s ruling Workers’ Party formally nominated President Dilma Rousseff on Saturday to run for re-election in October in what is shaping up to be its toughest race since winning power in 2002.

    Rousseff’s popularity is falling because of Brazil’s high cost of living and slowing economy, and she was jeered at the opening game of the soccer World Cup last week.

    Rousseff survived massive protests last year by Brazilians demanding better health, education and public transport services instead of the costly stadiums built for the World Cup.

    She is still favored to win re-election in a second-round runoff, though her lead has narrowed in recent months, according to opinion polls.

    “We face a challenge because the quality of life has improved in Brazil and when that happens in a country, its people demand more and improved quality,” Rousseff said in a speech to a cheering party convention.

    The Workers’ Party plans to campaign on the gains in social welfare and income distribution made by Brazil in the last decade. Under its rule, 35 million people have climbed out of poverty.

    Rousseff’s main challenger, Aecio Neves of the centrist Brazilian Social Democracy (PSDB) party and a former governor of Brazil’s second-richest state, is running on a more business-friendly platform aimed at restoring investment and growth to Brazil’s once-booming economy.

    Brazil’s stock market has risen in recent months on investor hopes that Neves could defeat Rousseff.

    “It will be a very difficult election, but, wait, the game has not even kicked off yet,” said party founder and former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

    Lula lambasted affluent Brazilians for wanting to cut back social programs and run Brazil for the benefit of the richest one-third.

    He also blamed them for the obscene chants directed at Rousseff at the World Cup stadium in Sao Paulo.

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    wirestory

  • Sudan Death Sentence Woman ‘Freed’

    Sudan Death Sentence Woman ‘Freed’

    A Sudanese woman sentenced to death for abandoning her Islamic faith has been freed from jail, her lawyer has told media.

    Meriam Ibrahim’s death penalty was overturned by an appeal court, the official Suna news agency reported.

    She is married to a Christian man and was sentenced under Sharia law to hang for apostasy in May after refusing to renounce Christianity.

    Her husband, Daniel Wani, said he was looking forward to seeing her.

    He wanted his family to leave Sudan as soon possible, Mr Wani told media.
    The death sentence for Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, who gave birth to a daughter in prison not long after she was convicted, sparked international outrage.

    “We are very very happy about this – and we’re going to her now,” Mrs Ibrahim’s lawyer Elshareef Ali told media.
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  • HRW Accuses Syrian Rebels of Sending Children Into War

    HRW Accuses Syrian Rebels of Sending Children Into War

    Militant Islamist groups in Syria are recruiting children as young as 15 and sending them into battle after promising them a free education, a Human Rights Watch report said on Monday.

    The report said the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which has made rapid territorial gains across the border in Iraq, had given children weapons training in Syria and told them to carry out suicide bombings.

    Citing personal accounts, the rights group also found evidence of children being mobilized by the more moderate Western-backed Free Syrian Army, the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, the Islamic Front coalition and security forces in Kurdish-controlled areas.

    “The horrors of Syria’s armed conflict are only made worse by throwing children into the front lines,” said Priyanka Motaparthy, the author of the report which drew on the accounts of 25 children. It said 14-year-old youths had been used in support roles for the fighting.

    Reuters could not independently confirm the accounts. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-Assad monitoring group, said on Sunday that relatives of kidnapped students in Syria fear that ISIL will use the children to carry out car bombs or suicide attacks.

    Syria’s conflict started with peaceful demonstrations for political change in 2011 but has descended into a civil war, pitting forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad against a myriad of opposition groups.

    Infighting among opposition combatants has complicated the conflict, which has stirred sectarian tensions across the Middle East and spilled over into neighboring countries.

    HRW said the number of children fighting in Syria was not known.

    The Violations Documenting Center, a Syrian monitoring group, had documented 194 deaths of “non-civilian” male children in the country since September 2011, the report said.
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    agencies

  • Japanese Automakers Recall 2.9 Million Vehicles

    Japanese Automakers Recall 2.9 Million Vehicles

    Honda Motor Co and other Japanese automakers on Monday recalled more cars with potentially explosive air bags supplied by Takata Corp, bringing the total recall so far to around 10.5 million vehicles over the past five years.

    The series of recalls cover both passenger-side and driver-side air bags, which the world’s second-biggest automotive safety parts maker manufactured in 2000-02.

    The total ranks it among the five biggest recalls in the industry’s history.

    And the total is likely to grow further after Takata said it was willing to support car makers including Honda, Toyota Motor Corp, Chrysler and Ford Motor Co in replacing certain air bag inflators it made in 2000-07 for vehicles in some high humidity regions in the United States.

    Honda said it was recalling about 2.03 million vehicles globally over potentially flawed Takata air bag inflators made in 2000-02 with a risk of exploding and shooting out shrapnel at drivers and passengers, expanding a recall from April 2013.

    It cited how explosive material used to inflate Takata passenger-side air bags had been handled and processed in 2000-02 at plants in the United States and Mexico.

    Nissan Motor Co said it would recall 755,000 vehicles worldwide, while Mazda Motor Corp said it would call back 159,807 vehicles.

    Takata CEO Shigehisa Takada and Chief Operating Officer Stefan Stocker said the company was working with safety regulators and car makers.

    “We will aim to further strengthen our quality control system and work united as a company to prevent problems from happening again,” they said in a statement.

    A Takata spokeswoman said it was unclear what the financial impact of the recalls would be.

    Separately, Takata has asked multiple car makers to cooperate on investigations related to vehicles sold in the United States that carry inflators, some of them made after 2002.

    Those companies could soon make follow-up announcements, said a person knowledgeable about the matter who declined to be named.

    reuters

  • Egypt Court Sentences Al Jazeera Reporters to 7 years in Jail

    Egypt Court Sentences Al Jazeera Reporters to 7 years in Jail

    Three Al Jazeera journalists were sentenced to seven years in jail by an Egyptian judge on Monday for aiding a “terrorist organization”, drawing criticism from Western governments who said the verdict undermined freedom of expression.

    The three, who all denied the charge of working with the now banned Muslim Brotherhood, included Australian Peter Greste and Canadian-Egyptian national Mohamed Fahmy, Cairo bureau chief of Al Jazeera English.

    The third defendant, Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed, was given an extra three years for possessing a single bullet at the hearing attended by Western diplomats, some of whose governments summoned Egypt’s ambassadors over the case.

    The men have been held at Egypt’s notorious Tora Prison for six months, with the case becoming a rallying point for rights groups and news organsiations around the world.

    They were detained in late December and charged with helping “a terrorist group” – a reference to the Muslim brotherhood – by broadcasting lies that harmed national security and supplying money, equipment and information to a group of Egyptians.

    The Brotherhood was banned and declared a terrorist group after the army deposed elected Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in July following mass protests against his rule. The Brotherhood says it is a peaceful organisation.

    wirestory