IGIHE

Author: Publisher

  • Mexico Finds 370 Abandoned Immigrant Children

    Mexico Finds 370 Abandoned Immigrant Children

    {{In one week, 370 immigrant children, most of them from Central America, were found abandoned in Mexico, after traffickers promised to take them to the United States but left them to their own devices after being paid thousands of dollars, authorities said.}}

    Almost half of them, 163 children under the age of 18, were found traveling alone, Mexico’s National Migration Institute (INM) said in a statement.

    Each month, thousands of immigrants, mostly from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, attempt to emigrate to the United States, crossing several borders in the process, despite the threat from drug gangs that kidnap, murder and rape women.

    The children told federal migration agents that their ‘guides’ abandoned them after accepting $3,000 to $5,000 in payments, INM said.

    The children and young people, who came from three of the poorest countries in Central America, were found between March 17 and 24, in 14 different states in Mexico.

    “The majority of the children showed signs of extreme fatigue, foot injuries, dehydration and disorientation whereby they didn’t know where they had been abandoned,” INM said.

    Many immigrants are able to get to the U.S. and then entrust their children to the traffickers who pay large sums of money for them.

    In the week the children were found, a total of 1,895 immigrants from various countries were detected in Mexico from countries as far away as Somalia, Japan and Syria, among others.

    wirestory

  • US Churches to Honor Mudslide Victims

    US Churches to Honor Mudslide Victims

    {{Churches planned services on Sunday to offer prayers for the victims of last week’s devastating mudslide in Washington state as the death toll from the disaster kept rising but the number of missing fell sharply.}}

    The presumed body count rose to 28 on Saturday from the March 22 catastrophe northeast of Seattle, with the official tally of those killed now 18 based on bodies extricated and identified by medical examiners.

    But despite the grim toll, news also came that the number of missing fell to 30 from 90 as officials were able to account for dozens of people as “safe and well.”

    Rescue and recovery workers pushed through wind and rain on Saturday to comb through debris a week after a rain-soaked hillside above the north fork of the Stillaguamish River gave way without warning and sent a wall of mud cascading over dozens of homes near the rural Washington town of Oso.

    Churches will lead prayers on Sunday for victims and their families as well as rescue workers who have been searching through a debris field that covers a square mile (2.6 square km).

    Gordy Beil, a 63-year-old photographer and painter in Darrington, about 10 miles from Oso, said he anticipated a painful service at the Episcopal church he plans to attend on Sunday morning.

    “It will be good for people to go and get what they need to get out of it,” he said.

    Don Little, 66, a Redmond, Washington, resident in town to visit his son, said he would attend the Church of God of Prophecy in Darrington, where one of the congregants has a husband among the missing and is having a hard time grasping that he is gone.

    Those at the service will be praying both for the miracle of his safety and for the woman’s coming to accept her loss with a measure of peace, Little said.

    “She’s still hoping beyond hope that they find him alive, and everybody’s wishing for that,” he said. “Sometimes we don’t get what we really want but we’ve got to learn to accept things.”

    {wirestory}

  • Crimea Switches to Moscow Time

    Crimea Switches to Moscow Time

    {{The hands of a clock on the main railway station in Simferopol jumped from 10 P.M. to midnight on Saturday as Crimea switched to Moscow time, symbolicly finalizing the region’s incorporation into Russia.}}

    Several hundred people gathered on the railway square for the ceremonial change of time, waving Russian national flags and chanting “Crimea! Russia!” after Moscow formally annexed the Black Sea region from Ukraine on March 21.

    “I greet you with our return home,” Crimea’s new pro-Moscow Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov told the crowd.

    “I am confident that all that we have done is to the benefit of Crimea and Crimeans,” he exclaimed, extending his thanks to “our President Vladimir Putin” to noisy applause from the crowd.

    Wrapped in Russian flags and some with tears of joy in their eyes, the people gathered in the provincial capital of Simferopol on Saturday sang Russia’s national anthem when the clock moved to Moscow time.

    “This is my moment of happiness. We all dreamed of this but did not dare think it may come now,” said Tatiana, a 35-year-old waitress dancing to the music played on the square.

    Her colleague Inga said she was 11-years-old when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, giving Ukraine independence and splitting Crimea from Moscow.

    “My heart was crying back then. But now it is rejoicing, we have returned home. We were born on Moscow time and we are back to it again,” she said. “I love the Ukrainian people but I do not recognize Ukraine as a country.”

    Crimea has already introduced the Russian ruble as its official currency and started paying out pensions and state salaries in the unit since the region voted overwhelmingly in favor of joining Russia on March 16.

    {reuters}

  • Senegal Shuts Border with Guinea Over Ebola Spreading

    Senegal Shuts Border with Guinea Over Ebola Spreading

    {{Senegal closed its land border with Guinea on Saturday to try to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus, which Guinean authorities say is suspected of killing 70 people in what would be the deadliest outbreak in seven years.}}

    The discovery of 11 people suspected to have died of Ebola in Sierra Leone and Liberia in recent days has stirred concern that one of the most lethal infectious diseases known to man could spread in a poor corner of West Africa, where health systems are ill-equipped to cope.

    Senegal’s Interior Ministry said it had closed the land border with Guinea in the southern region of Kolda and the southeastern region of Kedougou.

    “The governors of these regions have taken all the necessary steps to implement this decision,” it said in a statement published by the official APS state news agency.

    A spokesman for Guinea’s government said it had not received any official notification of Senegal’s decision. The extent of the epidemic is being exaggerated and only 19 cases of Ebola have officially been confirmed by laboratory tests, he added.

    “We’ve taken strict measures to stop this epidemic and there is no reason to panic,” Damantang Albert Camara told Reuters.

    Senegal announced on Friday it would introduce sanitary checks on flights between Dakar and the Guinean capital Conakry, where eight cases of Ebola have been confirmed, including one death.

    West African foreign ministers said at a conference in Ivory Coast this week the Ebola outbreak posed a “threat to regional security”.

    If the 70 deaths to date are all confirmed as Ebola, it would be the most deadly epidemic since 187 people died in Luebo, in Congo’s Kasai Orientale province, in 2007.

    {reuters}

  • Swiss Watchmakers not Ready for Smartwatches

    Swiss Watchmakers not Ready for Smartwatches

    {{With their hundreds of years of watchmaking experience, Swiss watchmakers can afford to take a long view of technological fads and fashions. So-called smartwatches, packing computing power into a wrist-sized gadget, aren’t in their plans for now.}}

    Technology groups from Samsung Electronics Co Ltd to Sony Corp are counting on wearable electronic devices able to hook up to the Internet, melding fashion and technology in what could be the next mass consumer trend.

    Yet so far the Swiss see little appeal in such devices.

    “There’s a lot of noise about smartwatches, but you don’t see them on people’s wrists,” Francois Thiebaud, head of Swatch Group SA’s Tissot brand, told Reporters in an interview at a watch fair in Basel.

    “We don’t want to do anything that doesn’t add value for the customer, we’re not interested in launching a gadget watch,” Thiebaud said.

    Family-owned Patek Philippe and La Montre Hermes, the watch unit of luxury goods group Hermes International SA, don’t see smartwatches as a threat for their business, their heads said.

    Both Patek’s Thierry Stern and Hermes’ Luc Perramond said their target market was different from the young buyers who might be looking for something to wear on their wrists.

    “When they grow older,” Perramond said, “that may be a watch.”

    Yet no consumer goods maker can afford to turn a completely blind eye to global technological advances.

    Thiebaud said Tissot, together with parent Swatch Group, had set up a group to assess the potential of launching a watch connected to the Internet, but no final decision had been made.

    reuters

  • China Seizes $14.5 billion From ex-Security Chief

    China Seizes $14.5 billion From ex-Security Chief

    {{Chinese authorities have seized assets worth at least 90 billion yuan ($14.5 billion) from family members and associates of retired domestic security tsar Zhou Yongkang, who is at the centre of China’s biggest corruption scandal in more than six decades, two sources said.}}

    More than 300 of Zhou’s relatives, political allies, proteges and staff have also been taken into custody or questioned in the past four months, the sources, who have been briefed on the investigation, told media.

    The sheer size of the asset seizures and the scale of the investigations into the people around Zhou – both unreported until now – make the corruption probe unprecedented in modern China and would appear to show that President Xi Jinping is tackling graft at the highest levels.

    But it may also be driven partly by political payback after Zhou angered leaders such as Xi by opposing the ouster of former high-flying politician Bo Xilai, who was jailed for life in September for corruption and abuse of power.

    Zhou, 71, has been under virtual house arrest since authorities began formally investigating him late last year. He is the most senior Chinese politician to be ensnared in a corruption investigation since the Communist Party swept to power in 1949.

    “It’s the ugliest in the history of the New China,” said one of the sources, who has ties to the leadership, requesting anonymity to avoid repercussions for speaking to the foreign media about elite politics.

    The government has yet to make any official statement about Zhou or the case against him and it has not been possible to contact Zhou, his family, associates or staff for comment. It is not clear if any of them have lawyers.

    The party’s anti-corruption watchdog and the prosecutor’s office did not respond to requests for comment. In the secretive world of China’s Communist Party, targets of its investigations usually disappear, often for months or even years, until an official announcement is made.

    Xi ordered a task force formed in late November or early December to look into accusations against Zhou, sources have previously told Reuters.

    They have not said what the allegations were except that they were related to violating party discipline, official jargon for corruption.

    A third source with ties to the leadership said Zhou had refused to cooperate with investigators, insisting he was the victim of a power struggle.

    “Zhou Yongkang is tough and claims its political persecution,” the source said.

    Zhou rose through the ranks of China’s oil and gas sector before joining the elite Politburo Standing Committee in 2007, where as domestic security chief his budget exceeded defense spending.

    He retired in 2012 and was last seen at an alumni event at the China University of Petroleum on October 1.

  • Western Diplomats Condemn South Sudan’s Attack Against UN Mission

    Western Diplomats Condemn South Sudan’s Attack Against UN Mission

    {{Diplomats from different western nations have reiterated their support for the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), condemning its government and opposition forces for threatening UN personnel in the country.}}

    “We strongly condemn the continued obstruction of UNMISS operations by Government and opposition forces and any threats to UNMISS personnel”, partly reads their 28 March statement.

    “We call on all parties to publicly denounce any actions against the mission, SRSG Johnson, and any UNMISS personnel”, the statement by envoys from the US, UK, Norway, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada missions, and European Union delegation in the country added.

    Last week, the head of UN peacekeeping department South Sudan government of engaging in “negative campaign” towards the world body and urged the UN Security Council (UNSC) to intervene to discipline those responsible in the new nation.

    Herve Ladsous, in a briefing to the Security Council in New York on 18 March, said South Sudan government had resorted to harassment against peacekeepers, UN personnel, restriction of activities by the World Food Programme (WFP) as well as organising demonstrations against the leadership of the UN mission in the country.

    “There has been a negative campaign against UNIMISS and its leadership in South Sudan which seems systematic and organized,” Ladsous told the Security Council.

    The envoys also condemned the ongoing violations of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) by the Government of South Sudan, including restriction of movement, harassment, detention of personnel and seizure of UN properties and supplies.

    The latest stern warning against the new state indicates how relations between the world body and its new member have turned sour.

    The western diplomats described as “unacceptable” all threats and attacks on UN personnel and facilities, saying it may constitute violations of international law.

    “We condemn the violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law that have resulted in the loss of lives, and internal displacements as well as refugees along the borders in neighbouring nations”, their statement noted.

    “We express concern at the dire humanitarian situation and urge all parties to expedite as a matter of urgency the free, safe and unhindered access of humanitarian organizations for the timely delivery of humanitarian assistance to populations in need”, it added.

    UNMISS troops are currently operating under a Chapter 7 mandate, which allows the use of force to protect civilians and ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and assets. Over 70,000 displaced people have taken refuge into the UN camps within the world’s newest nation.

    The world body estimates that some 3.7 million South Sudanese are now “severely food insecure,” while more than a million have been displaced by the violence. Estimates indicate that over 10,000 people have been killed in the country’s violence.

    Meanwhile, the various envoys urged all parties in the South Sudanese conflict to engage constructively in the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD)-led negotiations.

    “We are deeply concerned by ongoing violations by all parties of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement and urge all parties to the conflict to immediately comply with that Agreement, and cooperate with the IGAD monitoring and verification efforts.”

    {sudantribune}

  • Youths Urged to Embrace Unity & Build Rwanda

    Youths Urged to Embrace Unity & Build Rwanda

    {{Rwandan youth from across the country from 27-29 March 2014 had a two day retreat organised by Imbuto Foundation in partnership with the Ministry of Youth and ICT, the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide, and the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission.}}

    The retreat termed as “Kwibuka Conversation” is organised ahead of 20th commemoration of genocide against Tutsi.

    It was held in Musanze town, where 360 youths assembled in Fatima Hotel and were engaged in discussions enriching them on the history of Rwanda, background of 1994 genocide against Tutsi and consequences, Role of RDF and specifically the youth in liberation struggle and in the unity of Rwandans, Unity and Reconciliation among Rwandans, among other topics.

    While discussing with the youths on 28 March 2014, Brig Gen Joseph Nzabamwita, RDF spokesperson emphasized the role of Unity in countering the negative consequences of discrimination and persecution practiced by post-independence politicians, leading up to 1994 Genocide against Tutsi.

    He told them that the visionary and good leadership of His Excellency Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda, is behind the success of Rwanda Patriotic Army during liberation war and nowadays success story of Rwanda Defence Forces.

    Brig Gen Nzabamwita told the Youths that the Ndi Umunyarwanda program was practised since the liberation struggle by RPA, as Rwandans of all life participated in the Liberation struggle, and integration of ex-FAR in RPA was the foundation of Unity and Reconciliation in the post-genocide Rwanda.

    On the other hand, Brig Gen Nzabamwita condemned the bad leadership that engulfed thousands of youth in killing innocent people in 1994 genocide against Tutsi.

    He urged the youths to take good leaders as role models and take the lead in making Rwanda a shining country in unity and development.

    The youths were given topics on History of Rwanda, role of bad politics in destruction of Rwandan society, role of youths in development and rebuilding a united country.

    Speakers who delivered the topics and interacted with the youths included the Deputy Speaker of Parliament Uwimanimpaye J. D’Arc, Governor of Southern Province, Munyentwari Alponse, Mayor of Nyarugenge, Mukasonga Solange and Researcher Tom Ndahiro.

    The 360 Youths concluded the two day retreat by participation in Global Umuganda in Busogo, where they were joined by HE Jeanette Kagame.

    While addressing participants of Umuganda, The First Lady delivered The President of The Republic message to the Youths that “he always has them in whatever he does and in all national programs”.

    The First lady urged the youths to be the pillar of national development, guard the achievements made, and ensure that what happened.

    MOD

  • Rwanda National Police in ‘Umuganda’

    Rwanda National Police in ‘Umuganda’

    {{The Rwanda National Police (RNP) joined the rest of Rwandans on Saturday in a monthly community exercise locally known as umuganda}}.

    In different parts of the country, Police officers joined communities to clean roads and clear shrubs.

    In Kigali, Police officers cleared roads and shrubs in Kacyiru and inside the General Headquarters.

    The Inspector General of Police, Emmanuel K. Gasana urged the officers, shortly after the community exercise, to always value this home-grown initiative as a pillar to national development.

    He also urged them to always be time conscious and fight corruption, which also portrays a disciplined and professional officer.

    Indulging in malpractice tendencies damages the image of the force and the country in general, he observed.

    This Saturday’s Umuganda was also joined by the rest of the world in showing solidarity to Rwandans in this home-grown initiative and was dedicated to the upcoming 20th Genocide commemoration.

  • 90% Rwandans to Have Bank Accounts in 2020

    90% Rwandans to Have Bank Accounts in 2020

    {Prime Minister Dr. Habumuremyi }

    {{About 90% of Rwandans will have bank accounts in 2020 and by 2017 its estimated that at least 80% Rwandans will have opened up a bank account. }}

    There are currently only 15 banks in Rwanda of which nine are commercial banks.

    The statistics were provided by the Prime Minister Dr. Pierre Damien Habumuremyi while presenting a financial inclusion report to members of parliament on March 27.

    In response to how the financial institutions have impacted on the country’s Economy, the prime minister noted that the financial institutions have contributed up to 46% of the country’s economy since 2006 (baseline year).

    According to the Premiers presentation, Agriculture contributes 33% to the country’s economic growth in the last six years while Industries contributed up to 20%.

    Dr. Habumuremyi told legislators that government will continue supporting Investment in the country and sensitise citizens to work with banks in order to spur development.