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  • Row Brews as Angela Merkel Backs Juncker as EU Chief

    Row Brews as Angela Merkel Backs Juncker as EU Chief

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she wants former Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker to become the next EU Commission president.

    But some European leaders have voiced opposition to the move.

    Correspondents say the UK government sees Mr Juncker as too much of an EU federalist. It pointed to the need for “a lengthy process to find consensus”.

    Mr Juncker belongs to the European People’s Party, which won the most seats in the European polls last week.

    The centre-right party, which also includes Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrat party, won 213 out of 751 seats in the European Parliament and chose Mr Juncker as its candidate for the presidency succeeding Portugal’s Jose Manuel Barroso.

    Mr Juncker’s main rival is the Socialist candidate Martin Schulz.

    EU leaders traditionally choose the Commission head on their own, but under new rules have to “take into account” the results of the European parliamentary elections.

    Chancellor Merkel said on Friday that the EPP “with its top candidate Jean-Claude Juncker has become the strongest political power which is why I am now conducting all talks exactly in this spirit, that Jean-Claude Juncker should become president of the European Commission”.

    It is seen as her clearest statement of support for the veteran politician, who once chaired the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers that had to make tough decisions about struggling debt-laden countries.

    wirestory

  • Chechen Leader Denies Sending Fighters to Ukraine

    Chechen Leader Denies Sending Fighters to Ukraine

    The Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya has denied sending fighters to support pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine, but said some could have gone of their own accord.

    U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry raised concerns with Moscow this week about reports of Chechens and other fighters crossing into Ukraine from Russia to join the rebellions against the leadership in Kiev.

    Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who fought Russian troops in the North Caucasus province in the 1990s, echoed Moscow’s denials of involvement but said he had recognized some of the fighters in pictures from Ukraine.

    “We did not send them. They are absolutely not our staff,” he said in an interview to be shown on Russian television on Saturday.

    “If a person voluntarily leaves (Russia), we have no right to stop him. This is his own decision.”

    He did not rule out sending Chechen fighters to Ukraine if ordered to do so by President Vladimir Putin, who reserves the right to use force in Ukraine if its Russian-speaking minority is in danger.

    “If there is an order, we will fulfill it with pleasure, because any warrior is a defender of his people, his Fatherland,” Kadyrov said.

    “If we imagine there’s about 14 Chechens in Donetsk (in eastern Ukraine) and they have already caused such a stir, what happens if a battalion is sent there?”

    Kadyrov’s security services have been accused of human rights abuses such as kidnappings and torture in mainly-Muslim Chechnya, but his aides deny it.

    wirestory

  • Scientists Use Lasers to Regrow Teeth

    Scientists Use Lasers to Regrow Teeth

    Scientists have come up with a bright idea – literally – to repair teeth.

    And they say their concept – using laser light to entice the body’s own stem cells into action – may offer enormous promise beyond just dentistry in the field of regenerative medicine.

    The researchers used a low-power laser to coax dental stem cells to form dentin, the hard tissue similar to bone that makes up most of a tooth, demonstrating the process in studies involving rats and mice and using human cells in a laboratory.

    They did not regenerate an entire tooth in part because the enamel part was too tricky. But merely getting dentin to grow could help alleviate the need for root canal treatment, the painful procedure to remove dead or dying nerve tissue and bacteria from inside a tooth, they said.

    “I’m a dentist by training. So I think it has potential for great impact in clinical dentistry,” researcher Praveen Arany of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, said on Friday.

    Arany expressed hope that human clinical trials could get approval in the near future.

    “Our treatment modality does not introduce anything new to the body, and lasers are routinely used in medicine and dentistry, so the barriers to clinical translation are low,” added Harvard University bioengineering professor David Mooney. “It would be a substantial advance in the field if we can regenerate teeth rather than replace them.”

    Using existing regeneration methods, scientists must take stem cells from the body, manipulate them in a lab and put them back into the body. This new technique more simply stimulates action in stem cells that are already in place.

  • Suicide Bomber in Syria was American

    Suicide Bomber in Syria was American

    {{A US citizen carried out a suicide bombing against Syrian troops on Sunday, the US state department says.

    The rebel al-Nusra Front said the man conducted the bombing on their behalf. It was one of four attacks carried out in the northern city of Idlib that day.

    It is thought to be the first suicide attack by a US citizen in the conflict.

    More than 100,000 people have been killed in the battle between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and those opposed to his rule.

    “I can confirm that this individual was a US citizen involved in a suicide bombing in Syria,” state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

    The man was believed to be Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, she said.

    The department was “concerned about the flow of foreign fighters in and out of Syria”, Ms Psaki added.}}

  • Brazil Economy Slows Before World Cup

    Brazil Economy Slows Before World Cup

    {{Brazil’s economy grew 0.2% in the first three months of 2014, official statistics show.

    The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics also revised down economic growth in the last three months of 2013, to 0.4%.}}

    The sluggish growth figures come just before the start of the World Cup and presidential elections in October.

    President Dilma Rousseff, who is seeking re-election, has said the football event will spur growth.

    But high inflation and low business investment have put a damper on the expected lift from government investment in projects leading up to the sporting event.

    This has spurred protests from Brazilians angry over the expense of the World Cup and the lack of trickle-down growth.

    Business investment fell 2.1% in the first three months of 2014, the biggest decline in two years.

    “I couldn’t find anything positive at all in the [data],” said Bruno Rovai at Barclays.

    Brazil, which is Latin America’s biggest economy and the world’s seventh largest, has suffered from stubbornly high inflation, which remains at 6%, above the central bank’s target.

    On Wednesday, the central bank kept its key interest rate at 11% in an effort to combat rising prices.

  • ‘Five Held’ Over India Gang Rapes

    ‘Five Held’ Over India Gang Rapes

    {{Police in India say they have now arrested all suspects in connection with the gang rape and murder of two teenage cousins.}}

    Three suspected attackers have been detained, along with two policemen accused of dereliction of duty and criminal conspiracy.

    The girls, who belonged to a low caste, were found hanged from a tree in Uttar Pradesh state earlier in the week.

    Alleged police inaction has sparked outrage.

    The father of one victim told media he was ridiculed by police when he sought help in finding his missing daughter.

    He said that when policemen found out he was from a lower caste, they “refused to look for my girl”.

    The government has pledged to set up a fast-track court to deal with the case.

    Meanwhile, reports have emerged that two more gang rapes of minors occurred in Uttar Pradesh, in northern India, this week.

  • How ‘Peace & Security Pact’ Will Spur Northern Corridor Integration Projects

    How ‘Peace & Security Pact’ Will Spur Northern Corridor Integration Projects

    {{On February 20 this year, Presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda during a tripartite summit in Kampala, signed the ‘Mutual Peace and Security’ pact with the aim of strengthening the Northern Corridor Integration Projects.}}

    The Northern Corridor is an initiative aimed at fast tracking regional development through joint infrastructure, trade, political and economic for greater integration process.

    The Head of States then directed Chiefs of services from the three East African Community (EAC) bloc members to develop a framework that will fast-track the implementation of the pact.

    {{Rwanda is the lead country in this project.}}

    Since Monday, experts from Police, Intelligence, Immigration and Correctional services in the three countries have been meeting in Kigali to develop the pact implementation framework including policies, organs and structures that will strengthen security within the region.

    Burundi and South Sudan also attended as observers.

    The implementation framework was amended and approved by Chiefs of services on Thursday prior to subsequent approval by the committee of ministers on Friday, before transmission to the summit later next month.

    {{What the pact holds for EAC citizens}}

    For about a decade now, the EAC countries have been active trying to move from paper to action in various integration projects.

    In November last year, five Heads of State convened in Kampala during their 15th ordinary summit and appended their signatures on the Monetary Union Protocol and paved way for a process that would lead to the adoption of a single currency across the five partner states; Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda.

    The EAC Monetary Union became the third pillar to be signed by the bloc after the Customs Union signed in 2005 and the Common Market Protocol that was assented to in 2010.

    Coupled with the launch of the use of national IDs by citizens of Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda to travel anywhere among the three countries and the construction of the railway line connecting the Northern corridor to the port of Mombasa in the offing, security experts say it is likely to come with security challenges.

    According to article two of the pact, security services from partner states will therefore partner to combat crimes and ensure safety of people and safeguard development of member countries against instability that might come with the new development initiatives.

    Security services from the three countries have therefore established committees of intelligence, police, immigration and correctional services among others to spearhead the implementation of the agreed 14-key areas of cooperation to promote and maintain stability for the development of the Northern Corridor.

    Areas of cooperation include conflict prevention, management and resolution, prevention of genocide, combating terrorism and suppressing piracy.

    Others include Peace Support Operations, disaster risk reduction, management and response, management of refugees, control of proliferation of illicit arms and light weapons, combating financial, organized and cross-border crimes such as human and drug trafficking, money laundering and cyber crimes and correctional services including exchange of prisoners, detention, custody and rehabilitation of offenders.

    Rwanda’s minister of Internal Security, Sheikh Musa Fazil Harelimana, during the Council of Ministers on Friday, said this cooperation is inevitable if the integration projects are to be successful.

    “Today marks another step in promoting and maintaining safety of our people and their property and a signal to fast-track and safeguard the Northern Corridor integration projects,” Minister Harelimana said.

    The Minister of Defence, James Kabarebe, who officiated the closing ceremony urged member countries to “begin working immediately” adding that the “collective security and defence is in our hands.”

    “We need to demonstrate to our people they can move freely by eradicating terror organisations from our region and fight transnational crimes collectively,” Minister Kabarebe said.

    “The Northern Corridor initiatives by our respective Heads of State such as infrastructure development, free movement of people and goods and single customs are opening up unprecedented opportunities for the people of the three countries. We have, as a priority, to put in place measures to safeguard them,” he added.

    Minister Kabarebe noted that the security challenges in the region are there “for us to solve and we shouldn’t expect any external help. We can only take Rwanda’s example in 1994.”

  • U.N. Experts Wary of Somaliland Armed Oil Protection Unit

    U.N. Experts Wary of Somaliland Armed Oil Protection Unit

    {{U.N. experts warn that plans by Somalia’s breakaway enclave Somaliland to deploy special forces to protect foreign oil companies could worsen conflicts in the long unstable Horn of Africa.}}

    A confidential May 27 letter to the U.N. Security Council sanctions committee on Somalia and Eritrea, obtained by media on Friday, recommends the panel consider whether the planned armed unit could be viable or not.

    “The deployment of an Oil Protection Unit could play into internal and regional conflicts that appear to be brewing within Somaliland and between Somaliland and other regional authorities, if its deployment is not handled carefully or accompanied by mitigating measures,” the coordinator of the expert monitoring group, Jarat Chopra, wrote.

    The experts, who monitor sanctions violations, said in July that Western commercial oil exploration in disputed areas and discrepancies over which authorities can issue licenses to companies could cause more fighting in Somalia.

    Chopra’s letter repeated that “legal and constitutional discrepancies in respect of oil licensing throughout Somalia have opened the door for potential conflicts between the Federal Government of Somalia and regional authorities, and between regional authorities themselves.”

    The overthrow of a dictator in 1991 plunged Somalia into two decades of violence, first at the hands of clan warlords and then Islamist militants, while two semi-autonomous regions – Puntland and Somaliland – have cropped up in northern Somalia.

    About a dozen companies, including many multinational oil and gas majors, had licenses to explore Somalia before 1991, but since then Somaliland, Puntland and other authorities have granted their own licenses for the same blocks.

    A petroleum law that has not yet been adopted by Somalia’s parliament, but is being invoked by federal officials in the capital Mogadishu, says the central government can distribute natural resources.

    Chopra said the Somaliland government commissioned a study into the viability of an armed unit and told the experts “of its willingness to abide by U.N. Security Council resolutions governing the import of military equipment and training for any such Oil Protection Unit.”

    {{Somaliland troops march past during a parade to mark the 22nd anniversary of Somaliland’s self-declared independence from the larger Somalia, in Hargeisa May 18, 2013.}}

  • Operation Usalama 1 Conducted Successfully

    Operation Usalama 1 Conducted Successfully

    {{Rwanda National Police conducted a two days operation codenamed Usalama1 which means “safety” the operation started on Thursday and ended on Friday.}}

    Usalama literary meaning safety is an Interpol supported operation conducted in Eastern and Southern Africa targeting a range of cross border crimes such as human and drug trafficking, wild life crimes, copper cables, smuggling of precious minerals and trafficking of small arms and light weapons.

    During the two day operation, Police arrested a girl who was transporting two children aged between 8 and 10 without person travel documents from kampala to Kigali but later was released, two vehicles was also seized due to possession of fake documents where numbers on yellow card was not similar with those on chasis number .

    One named Joel Gasana 39 was also arrested while transporting 20 kilograms of smuggled tin from Gatsibo distrit.

    The Director of Interpol in Rwanda National Police Chief Superintendent Jean Nepo Mbonyemuvunyi said that the operation was successfully conducted by use of snap checks, canine brigade and other gathered information leading to the arrest of the criminals.

    The searched area on vehicles was registration plates, identification numbers, documents, goods and tools while canine brigade helped in searching of trafficked drugs such as cannabis, heroin and cocaine.

    Mbonyumuvunyi said that every crime is transnational and cross border in nature and this calls police force in the region to work together in order to deter and detect suspected criminals involved in transnational and cross border crimes.

    The countries that participated USalama 1 are Rwanda, Burundi, Eriteria,Ethiopia, Kenya, Seychelles, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda which are members of EAPCCO while SAPCCO countries that participated are Botwana, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Swaziland , Tanzania and Zambia.

  • Millions Lost in Fire Accident Near Hotel Okapi

    Millions Lost in Fire Accident Near Hotel Okapi

    {{This Afternoon, Fire has destroyed property worth millions of Rwandan Francs after a welding machine caught fire.}}

    Uwera Marie Chantal the owner of the shop that burnt down says, she had technician to weld bugler proof on the windows of her shop to prevent thieves that have been snatching her merchandise.

    During the welding process,splashes from the welding rod ignited the fire inside the shop which later destroyed the entire shop.