IGIHE

Category: People

  • Australia Maintains Sanctions Against Mugabe

    Australia Maintains Sanctions Against Mugabe

    {{Australia is maintaining sanctions against President Mugabe, the First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe and five service chiefs, the latest amended list from Canberra reveals.}}

    One entity, the Zimbabwe Defence Industries (PVT) Ltd, is still on the sanctions list.
    The amended list released by Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop showed that service chiefs namely Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander General Constantine Chiwenga, Zimbabwe National Army Commander Phillip Valerio Sibanda, Air Force of Zimbabwe Commander Perrance Shiri, Central Intelligence Organisation Director General Rtd Major General Happyton Bonyongwe and police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri were still embargoed.

    Australia, in a move described by analysts as deceptive, has been partially and conditionally removing the sanctions it imposed on Zimbabwe in 2002.
    In February last year, the list had 153 individuals and four entities, and prohibition of defence links.

    The number was trimmed down after the country successfully held the Constitutional referendum and harmonised elections that were won resoundingly by President Mugabe.

    Since 2002, Australia has implemented sanctions against “persons or entities who engage in, or have engaged in, activities that seriously undermine democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law in Zimbabwe”.

    The new list by Australia comes after the European Union in February kept President Mugabe and Amai Mugabe on its embargoed list but removed service chiefs, politicians and war veterans.

    The sanctions were imposed on Zimbabwe in 2002 after Zimbabwe embarked on the fast-track land reform programme and in an attempt to influence that year’s Presidential elections, which President Mugabe won nonetheless.

    Relations have somewhat thawed in recent years despite the maintenance of sanctions, after President Mugabe dispatched a ministerial re-engagement committee to initiate dialogue with the EU.

    The 28-nation EU bloc is contemplating ways of directly working with Government, starting in 2015, rather than coming through NGOs.

    {herald}

  • Thieves Shoot Woman Over Plastic Container

    Thieves Shoot Woman Over Plastic Container

    {{ A 63-year-old woman was shot and killed on Friday evening in Lenasia, south west of Johannesburg, after robbers mistook a plastic bag, carrying a plastic container, as carrying money instead, Gauteng police said.}}

    “Around 19:00 on Friday evening, the 63-year-old woman was dropped off from work by her brother,” Warrant Officer Kay Makhubela said.

    “The brother had a shop in Lenasia.”

    While the brother was dropping his sister off, a red car stopped behind them, with three men believed to be in the car.

    “As she got out the car, one of the men got out and shot and killed her. [He] took the plastic bag she was carrying and [they] drove off and left her,” Makhubela said.

    The woman died on the scene shortly afterwards.

    Makhubela said the motive appeared to be robbery.

    “The men knew they were coming from the shop and believed that the plastic bag had money in it,” he said.

    “There was no money in the plastic bag. It was an empty plastic container.”

    No arrests have been made.

    Police were investigating.

    – SAPA

  • US Congress passes ban on Iran envoy

    US Congress passes ban on Iran envoy

    {{The US Congress has sent a bill to the president that would bar Iran’s pick for ambassador to the UN from entering the country.}}

    The House of Representatives passed the measure unanimously two days after the Senate approved it.

    Hamid Aboutalebi was a part of the Muslim student group that seized the US embassy in Tehran in 1979.

    The White House has told Iran Mr Aboutalebi was “not viable” but has not taken a position on the bill.

    Fifty-two Americans were held for 444 days at the height of Iran’s Islamic revolution, which saw pro-American Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi sent into exile and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini take power.

    Mr Aboutalebi, who previously served as Iran’s ambassador to Belgium, the European Union, Italy and Australia, told Iranian media his participation in the hostage crisis began only after the initial seizure of the embassy, and primarily involved translation.

    ‘Unequivocal message’
    On Thursday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said, “We’ve made clear and have communicated to the Iranians that the selection they’ve put forward is not viable.”

    But he declined to say whether President Barack Obama would sign the bill into law.

    The Iranian government, meanwhile, has called the US rejection of Mr Aboutalebi “not acceptable”.

    The bill passed on Thursday in the House denies entry into the US to individuals engaged in espionage or terrorism or who pose a threat to national security.

    Senator Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who introduced the legislation in the US Senate, urged Mr Obama to sign the bill.

    “We, as a country, can send an unequivocal message to rogue nations like Iran that the United States will not tolerate this kind of provocative and hostile behaviour,” Mr Cruz said.

    The bill’s sponsor in the House, Republican Doug Lamborn, said, “Terrorists, from Iran or elsewhere, should not be allowed to walk the streets of Manhattan with diplomatic immunity.”

    {{US options}}

    As the host country of the United Nations, the US has previously but rarely denied entry to an envoy or head of state. Those included a previous Iranian diplomat and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

    In those cases the applications were withdrawn after the US signalled opposition, or the state department simply declined to process the visas.

    Those options are available in Mr Aboutalebi’s case.

    On Monday, Iranian foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham told state-run media he had previously received a US visa as part of a visit to the UN in the 1990s.

    In an interview with an Iranian news site, Mr Aboutalebi said he was not part of the group that took over the US embassy and was only later asked to translate for the students.

    Others involved in the hostage-taking have corroborated that account.

    BBC

  • Tsvangirai Running Scared

    Tsvangirai Running Scared

    {{Embattled MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai and his allies will increasingly use “disciplinary” measures to silence officials who are calling for a change of the guard. Addressing a rally at Mkoba Stadium in Gweru on Sunday, MDC-T national chairman Mr Lovemore Moyo branded renewal proponents “betrayers of the highest order”.}}

    He ordered use of party structures to deal with those who want leadership renewal as Mr Tsvangirai’s camp muzzles freedom of expression and democracy in the opposition.

    This could put Mr Moyo and secretary-general Mr Tendai Biti on a collision course as the chair oversees disciplinary matters while the latter — who is pro-renewal — is in charge of party administration.

    “People that we picked when they were nobodies and were made who they are by this movement are today turning their backs on it.

    “If you want to deal with a person who has violated the party’s constitution, I am giving you, as your national chairman, that right to deal with those people who are misbehaving, using the structures,” Mr Moyo said on Sunday.

    Already, deputy treasurer Mr Elton Mangoma — the face of the renewal agenda — has been suspended as have many other officials across the country.
    However, treasurer-general Mr Roy Bennet has been allowed to “explain” to Mr Tsvangirai what he has meant by calling for leadership renewal without facing any reprisals. Sources said this was because Mr Tsvangirai was hesitant to take on Mr Bennet, who is a leading party fundraiser from his base in South Africa.

    Mr Tsvangirai’s supporters have been using violence to try and silence his critics, who point out the fact that the party leader has not won a single national election between 2000 and 2013.

    On Sunday, Mr Tsvangirai said no one had the right to tell him what to do and said those who wanted leadership renewal should leave the party.

    “Where you there when we formed the party? What values are you talking about — do you know where the party came from? Form your party if you want!

    “Do not listen to those people who say Tsvangirai wants to privatise the party. I am not going to privatise the party. I am merely a leader of the people. If you want to form a party that kills MDC, so you want to promote Zanu-PF. That is what it means.”

    His critics are uncomfortable that the “T” in the party name stands for “Tsvangirai”, thereby personalising the opposition. They have since dubbed themselves MDC Team.

    herald

  • Bob Geldof Daughter Found Dead

    Bob Geldof Daughter Found Dead

    {{British police are investigating the unexplained death of 25-year-old celebrity Peaches Geldof and say they will hand their findings to a coroner.}}

    Local authority Kent Council said her body had been taken to a hospital where a forensic pathologist will perform a post-mortem Wednesday in an attempt to determine the cause of death.

    Geldof was pronounced dead Monday by paramedics who were called to her home in Wrotham, southeast of London. Kent Police said officers were investigating the “unexplained sudden death,” but did not consider it suspicious.

    Peaches Geldof was the daughter of Irish musician and Band Aid founder Bob Geldof and TV presenter Paula Yates, who died of a drug overdose in 2000.

    She grew up in the glare of Britain’s press, which reveled in the late-night antics of her teenage years.

    More recently she had married for a second time, to musician Tom Cohen, had two young sons and worked as a broadcaster and fashion writer. She said in 2009 that her drug-taking years were behind her.

    Bob Geldof said the family was “beyond pain.”

    “What a beautiful child. How is this possible that we will not see her again? How is that bearable? We loved her and will cherish her forever,” he wrote in a statement.

    The death came as a shock to Britain’s entertainment and fashion circles. She was a frequent attendee at fashion shows in London and New York, and was photographed just last week at a London show for the Tesco brand F&F.

    Messages of condolence poured in from celebrities including music impresario Simon Cowell and singer Lily Allen. Irish President Michael D. Higgins, who had been due to meet Bob Geldof on a visit to Britain this week, also sent his condolences to the family on their “immense loss.”

    “This is such a difficult cross to bear for any family and all of our thoughts are with Peaches’ family and friends at this time,” Higgins said.

    Geldof’s death was the lead story in many British newspapers Tuesday, with several using the last photo she posted on Twitter — of her as a toddler with her mother.

    Commentators noted the tragic parallels to the life and death of Yates. In the Guardian, columnist Hadley Freeman said “the shock of Geldof’s death comes from the loss of a young woman — still only 25 — who many of us had followed since her birth, who seemed so close to finding the stability that had eluded her mother.”

    ABC

  • Brazilian Leader Popularity Drops

    Brazilian Leader Popularity Drops

    {{Support for President Dilma Rousseff is slipping among Brazilian voters who are increasingly pessimistic about their country’s economy and disappointed with her performance, according to a poll published on Saturday.}}

    While Rousseff is still on track to win re-election outright in elections on October 5, she has lost six points among potential voters since last month, a survey by local Datafolha polling firm said.

    The poll showed more Brazilians want a change of course in government policies, and twice as many Brazilians think Rousseff’s predecessor and mentor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is more qualified than her to carry out those changes.

    The number of Brazilian intending to vote for Rousseff dropped to 38% from 44 percent in February, though her two potential rivals gained little or no ground.

    The leader of the main opposition party Aécio Neves was unchanged at 16% of voter intentions and Eduardo Campos, governor of Pernambuco state, edged forward one point to 10%.

    The only candidate who could force a run-off vote against Rousseff is environmentalist and former presidential candidate Marina Silva, who is expected to run on Campos’ ticket for vice president.

    Latin America’s largest economy is entering its fourth year of slow growth under Rousseff, who has lost the confidence of investors by failing to revive the economy or curb rising inflation in a context of deteriorating fiscal accounts.

    reuters

  • Mexican State Official Held on Suspicion of Gang Links

    Mexican State Official Held on Suspicion of Gang Links

    {{One of the top ruling party officials in the troubled Mexican state of Michoacan has been held for 40 days while he is investigated for possible links to criminal organizations, the attorney general’s office said on Saturday.}}

    Jesus Reyna Garcia, a member of President Enrique Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), became the interim governor of Michoacan last year stepping in after Governor Fausto Vallejo fell ill.

    The western state of Michoacan has been the epicenter of fighting between the Knights Templar drug cartel and a complex, increasingly fractured, vigilante movement that sprang up last year against the gang, which it accuses of staging an endless series of kidnappings and extortion.

    The PRI government has had a number of recent successes against the Knights Templar cartel, killing or capturing many of its top bosses.

    The vigilante movement, which the government tolerated and later co-opted, has become more unstable in recent weeks, after one of its leaders was arrested on suspicion of murder.

    Garcia presented himself to authorities and is now being investigated for “possible contact with criminal groups,” the attorney general’s office said.

    At least 85,000 people have died in drug-related killings in Mexico since 2007, when former President Felipe Calderon sent in the army to bring the cartels to heel.

    Pena Nieto has had a number of high-profile successes such as the February capture of No. 1 drug lord Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman, but the murder rate remains stubbornly high, while extortion and kidnapping rates have risen sharply.

    {agencies}

  • Contact FM Journalist Passes on

    Contact FM Journalist Passes on

    {{Mutesa J M V a long serving journalist on Contact FM Radio has passed away at Kanombe Military hospital after succumbing to Heart and lung disease.}}

    The Media Fraternity in Rwanda have mourned their fallen colleague saying he was a dedicated Journalist.

    {more details to Follow}

  • Switzerland Grants Russia’s RusKhodorkovsky Residency Permit

    Switzerland Grants Russia’s RusKhodorkovsky Residency Permit

    {{Switzerland has granted former Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky a one-year residence permit, a government spokeswoman said on Monday, three months after he was released from a Russian jail.}}

    Once Russia’s richest man, the 50-year-old former oil tycoon has made Switzerland his base since he was freed by Russian President Vladimir Putin after serving 10 years in prison for fraud and tax evasion.

    Switzerland said it had decided to grant him residency after an application by the Swiss canton, or region, of St Gallen, where his wife lives and where his children go to school. It said there were no political circumstances justifying a refusal of a permit and that it would review his case after one year.

    The canton had based its request on important public interests and “significant fiscal interests for the canton”, the Swiss migration office said in a statement.

    Khodorkovsky has ruled out trying to recover the fortune that made him Russia’s richest man, but two multi-billion-dollar law suits involving his defunct oil giant Yukos could be decided this year.

    Khodorkovsky, whose oil company Yukos was broken up and sold off, mainly into state hands, has said he will not get involved in politics. He has spent much of the last few months travelling, appearing in the Ukrainian capital Kiev earlier this month with remarks fiercely critical of Putin.

    “Before prison and in prison I realised that business was very important. It is what gives us food, clothes, conditions to live in. But there is something even more important. I am trying to find this ‘something’ in me,” he told a gathering at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute this month, according to a transcript on his web site.

    “I think that people who went to the Maidan (protests in Kiev) and stood there under a rain of bullets had looked for it and found it.”

    Switzerland, a popular destination for Russia’s wealthy elite, has so far declined to follow the United States and European Union in imposing travel bans and asset freezes on a group of Russian officials over Moscow’s annexation of Crimea.

    reuters

  • 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