IGIHE

Category: Rubrique

  • Renzi to Be Picked as Italy’s Youngest Premier

    Renzi to Be Picked as Italy’s Youngest Premier

    {{Florence mayor Matteo Renzi is to be nominated Italy’s youngest-ever premier Monday after a daring power grab which has been welcomed by investors but left analysts quizzing whether he has the political maturity to succeed.}}

    As head of the leftist Democratic Party, Renzi engineered the ouster of his predecessor Enrico Letta — a member of his own party — accusing him of failing to live up to reform pledges in his stormy 10 months in government.

    The 39-year-old will have to move quickly to form a new government once he gets the mandate from President Giorgio Napolitano as expected at 0930 GMT, and then deliver his promise to lead Italy “out of the quagmire”.

    “He desperately needs figures of excellence (in the cabinet), new ones if possible,” editorialist Gian Antonio Stella wrote in the best-selling Corriere della Sera daily.

    The previous coalition of the Democratic Party, the centrists and the New Centre-Right party is expected to remain intact even though the leader of the latter, Angelino Alfano, has warned this is “not a given”.

    The New Centre-Right is a minor partner in the coalition but its votes would be critical for Renzi as he does not have a majority in parliament.

    “Speed is part of Renzi’s personality” but “the creation of such a team is no easy task”, political watcher Federico Geremicca said in La Stampa, while the Corriere said the future PM may have underestimated “the nature and complexity of the problems to be resolved.”

    If he succeeds in forming the government, Renzi would then have to return to Napolitano for his nomination to be confirmed and would then be sworn into office.

    Analysts say the whole process could take a few days.

    The energetic and web-savvy Renzi has no previous experience in national government or parliament and is seen by many as having the right kind of outsider credentials for the job.

    {agencies}

  • ANC blames Malema for crisis

    ANC blames Malema for crisis

    {{The ANC’s national executive committee member and Minister of Police Nathi Mthethwa has slammed Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema and labelled him the “boy” who plunged the Limpopo government into a financial crisis.}}

    According to the Sunday Independent, Mthethwa had been addressing an ANC electoral conference in Limpopo on Friday night when, without actually mentioning Malema’s name, he made it clear that it was the former ANC Youth League leader who was to blame for the wholesale corruption that plunged the province into financial crisis in 2011.

    Interim chairperson of the ANC provincial task team Falaza Mdaka also lashed out at Malema saying that they had seen ANC leaders being insulted by those whose blood was black, green and gold, but the skin was that of “the red ants full of corruption and desire to nationalise the mines and state assets in order to create a safe haven to steal government money and rob the poor”.

    Limpopo was put under administration in 2011 after the provincial government landed up with over R2bn debt.

    {news24}

  • Ethnic Power-Sharing Under Threat in Burundi, Says Party

    Ethnic Power-Sharing Under Threat in Burundi, Says Party

    {{Burundi’s junior coalition party has accused the president of undermining a delicate power-sharing deal, a constitutional requirement that has kept ethnic tensions in check since a 12-year civil war in the east African nation ended in 2005.}}

    The Tutsi-led Uprona party’s three ministers quit the coalition administration last week after President Pierre Nkurunziza, whose CNDD-FDD led by ethnic Hutus is the majority party, sacked his Tutsi vice president, also from Uprona.

    The row has centered on constitutional amendments proposed by the president that could allow him a third term and change power-sharing arrangements. Opponents say the steps threaten to marginalize minorities, such as the Tutsis.

    The turmoil has triggered the worst political crisis since rebels laid down their arms in Burundi – a landlocked country neighboring Rwanda where Hutu extremists targeted ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the 1994 genocide.

    Burundi’s political standoff has also raised the specter of more unrest in a region already grappling with violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic.

    Adding to tensions, the U.N. Security Council will decide on Thursday whether to renew the mandate of a U.N. mission tasked with supporting political reforms. That vote may test relations between the government, which wants the mission out, and donors, like the United States, that want it to stay.

    The Uprona party said it was committed to staying in government, a step that could temper the crisis. But it says it will not be bullied before presidential and parliamentary elections in 2015.

    “It is clear the party in power continues with its project to create tension and disorder within our own party,” Evariste Ngayimpenda, a senior Uprona official, told Reuters this week.

    The presidency gave no comment despite several requests. But CNDD-FDD officials have said the existing constitution was for the transition and needs to be updated to reflect the changes.

    Despite relative calm in recent years, rights groups have reported scores of political killings, intimidation of the opposition and a crackdown on media freedoms since Nkurunziza’s re-election in 2010.

    “The ruling party underestimates the degree of frustration and anger over its authoritarian leadership within opposition parties and the population,” said Julien Nimubona, an Uprona government minister until 2013. “This situation risks plunging the country into fresh unrest or even the return to civil war.”

    The president, an evangelical Christian popular among rural voters, has not publicly said he will run next year, although senior CNDD-FDD officials argue that he can stand again as his election by lawmakers in 2005 does not count as his first term.

    {Standard}

  • Zuma told Many Lies in SONA: EFF

    Zuma told Many Lies in SONA: EFF

    {{President Jacob Zuma told “many lies” and claimed easy victories in his State of the Nation address, the EFF said on Friday.}}

    “Importantly, there was no clarity… of whether Zuma was giving [an] account of the successes from 1994 or from 2009 when he assumed office as president of the republic,” said Economic Freedom Fighters spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi in a statement.

    “This is important to flag because there are so many contradictions and lies by omissions that were committed in the 2014 State of the Nation speech.”

    Ndlozi said the post-1994 government had failed dismally to bring unemployment below 20%.

    {{Corruption}}

    “There are no sustainable jobs that the ANC can claim to have created because the jobs that happened since 1994 happened both in the public and private sector because the population grew,” said Ndlozi.

    He said Zuma claimed the current government was fighting corruption, but failed to acknowledge corruption and incompetence that included the construction of Zuma’s Nkandla homestead.

    “Zuma is claiming to be condemning violence during protests when his own political party was throwing petrol bombs and bricks at Democratic Alliance protesters when they were fighting over who is the best neo-liberal and right-wing policy implementer,” he said.

    “Like all previous [opening speeches]… the 2014 one basically told many lies and claimed easy victories.”

    – SAPA

  • Lebanese Govt Formed After 10-Month Stalemate

    Lebanese Govt Formed After 10-Month Stalemate

    {{Lebanese officials announced the formation of a new government on Saturday, ending more than 10 months of impasse in a country grappling with violence spilling over from neighbouring Syria’s civil war.}}

    The 24 ministers making up this new government will be presided over by Tammam Salam (pictured, above). The government is expected to include members of both the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah and the Sunni-led bloc of ex-premier Saad Hariri.

    Multiple attempts to form a government over the past 10 months have failed, with Lebanon’s long-standing political divisions deepened by the divisive Syrian conflict.

    But Hariri announced on January 21 that his bloc was prepared to join a government of national unity with Hezbollah and its allies, despite its strong opposition to the group’s military intervention in Syria.

    Hezbollah has dispatched fighters to the conflict to bolster its ally, President Bashar al-Assad. Hariri and his bloc oppose the regime in Damascus and support the uprising against Assad.

    AFP

  • Juba Faction tells Uganda to Stop ‘Ethnic Cleansing’

    Juba Faction tells Uganda to Stop ‘Ethnic Cleansing’

    {{Seven South Sudan leaders released from prison recently have called on Uganda to stop ‘ethnic cleansing’ in their country.}}

    They accused the Yoweri Museveni administration of perpetrating the mass killing using helicopters.

    “Uganda’s involvement in South Sudan has a negative role and our people know that they are currently engaged in ethnic cleansing in South Sudan,” said Mr Deng Alor Kuol, one of the seven who arrived in Addis Ababa last night for the second round of peace talks with the government.

    Speaking at a press conference Thursday afternoon at the Hilton Addis Hotel, he called on the government of Uganda to end its military involvement in South Sudan.

    “If you hear of any gunship helicopter killing in South Sudan, it is Ugandans. We in South Sudan do not have any gunship helicopter,” said Mr Kuol, a former minister in President Salva Kiir’s administration.

    The group members, who were arrested following the December 15, 2013 coup attempt, also said the South Sudan Government was wasting money in the Uganda military intervention.

    “In addition…it is a shame for South Sudan Government, as a sovereign country, to ask Uganda for help and allow interference in its internal affairs,” said Dr Cirino Hiteng, a group member.

    The seven leaders indicated that they would take part in the second round talks as an independent third party, calling themselves ‘former political detainees’, according to their spokesman Mr John Luk Jok.

    They also called on President Kiir to release their remaining four colleagues.

    “We…call upon President Salva Kiir Mayardit to set free the remaining four detainees so that they can participate and contribute to the efforts in finding a lasting solution to the crisis in our country during these peace talks,” Mr Jok said.

    NMG

  • Malawi’s Banda Spurns VP for Youthful Running Mate

    Malawi’s Banda Spurns VP for Youthful Running Mate

    {{Malawi President Joyce Banda has picked her 37-year-old minister of Trade and Industry Sosten Gwengwe as running mate in the upcoming elections, sidelining current deputy Khumbo Kachali.}}

    President Banda said her decision to put the youthful minister on her ticket was a way of showing commitment to empowering and promoting the youth to take over the country’s leadership.

    She said she had prayed over her choice of running mate and had not doubt the youthful minister would deliver.

    The country needed both youth and experience at the helm, she said.

    “We say the youth are the leaders of tomorrow but this statement denies the youth their rightful role in participating in the development of the country [today],” she said.

    Malawi holds a general election on May 20.

    Mr Gwengwe will accompany President Banda on Friday to present her nomination papers in Blantyre, among the last of the candidates to do so.

    Conspicuously missing at the Thursday press conference that was Mr Kachali, but President Banda said she informed him of her decision to opt for another running mate.

    “I did not expect any reaction from him. I informed him of my decision and we hugged before he left,” she said.

    Media in Malawi on Thursday quoted Mr Kachali saying that if Mrs Banda din not nominate him as her running mate it would be a vote of no confidence in him.

    President Banda said the agreement with Mr Kachali in 2012 when she had ascended to power following President Bingu wa Mutharika’ s death was that he would only be her deputy for two years.

    {{‘Ridiculed’}}

    President Banda also said she had opted to nominate a youthful man against a woman because she is aware of how female leaders are ridiculed by Malawians in general.

    “I could have nominated a youthful female running mate but I know how female leaders are ridiculed in a society. I am one of the most ridiculed persons,” she said.

    {wirestory}

  • Venezuela Seeks Protest Leader’s Arrest

    Venezuela Seeks Protest Leader’s Arrest

    {{Venezuelan authorities sought on Thursday to arrest an opposition leader who has been organizing street protests that led to three deaths in the worst unrest since President Nicolas Maduro’s disputed election victory last year.}}

    A judge’s arrest warrant, published in local media, said the 42-year-old hardline politician was wanted on charges ranging from instigating crime to murder and terrorism.

    Members of his Popular Will party acknowledged there was a warrant for Lopez’s arrest but would not say where he was.

    Lopez, who lives in the wealthy Chacao district of Caracas where he was once mayor, accuses Maduro’s government of making him a scapegoat for state-led violence against protesters.

    Almost a year after the death of socialist leader Hugo Chavez, the bloodshed on Wednesday in the capital Caracas was the latest demonstration of the OPEC nation’s deep polarization and the mutual mistrust between both political camps.

    Three people were shot dead after pro- and anti-government marches in Caracas. Maduro said another person was in critical condition, and he blamed “small fascist groups” that he said infiltrated the opposition protest.

    {reuters}

  • Kenya Refuses 7 SPLM Leaders From Heading for Addis Ababa Talks

    Kenya Refuses 7 SPLM Leaders From Heading for Addis Ababa Talks

    {{The government of Kenya refused to allow the seven freed Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition (SPLM/A-In-Opposition) leaders leave Kenya to Ethiopia to attend the second round peace talks with the South Sudanese government, a rebel official said on Sunday.}}

    Nonetheless, rebel sources from Nairobi say the freed political leaders would eventually fly to Addis Ababa on Monday to join the talks after clearing a misunderstanding with Ugandan authorities.

    A member of the rebel negotiating team in Addis Ababa, who preferred anonymity, late on Sunday told reporters that Kenya declined to allow them leave for Ethiopia claiming their bail terms demanded that they stay within Kenyan territory.

    The official opening of the next round of talks is slated to resume on Monday, February 10, 2014 despite the decision taken by the Kenyan government.

    The rebel official said his negotiating team is demanding that they come to Addis Ababa and attend the peace talks.

    He further warned the SPLM-In-Opposition negotiating team would not engage in the talks opening Monday unless the seven political figures arrive in Addis Ababa at least Monday morning.

    “This is because that they [the seven leaders] are the only delegation we have so far,” he added.

    The seven political figures were freed on 29 January and arrived in the Kenyan capital the same day following a ceasefire agreement signed in Addis Ababa on January 23.

    Following their release, South Sudan’s minister of Justice, Paulino Wanawilla Unago, told reporters that the seven leader were moved to Kenya for safety reasons.

    He however added, “presidents from our neighbouring countries had promised (…)” to bring them back to Juba “when there is a need for further investigation, especially if they are found later to have participated in the failed coup attempt”, he said.

    {Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, center, receives seven of the 11 leaders accused of plotting a failed military coup in South Sudan in December on 29 January 2014}

    {sudantribune}

  • Malawi’s Banda Launches Election Manifesto

    Malawi’s Banda Launches Election Manifesto

    {{Malawi President Joyce Banda launched her party’s manifesto on Sunday ahead of May 20 tripartite elections appealing for full term.}}

    Mrs Banda will be contesting for presidency for the first time since her ascension to power following the death of the then president Bingu wa Mutharika in April 2012.

    Addressing her party supporters, Mrs Banda presented steps that she dubbed as ‘the beginning of a transformation agenda’ that her People’s Party will implement once elected.

    “A Transformation Agenda that places Integrated Rural Development as a centre-piece of our development agenda. A transformation that seeks to transform our country’s rural and urban areas into vibrant hub’s of agri-business and industrial activity.

    A transformation that expands access to social services that meet minimum standards of quality of life regardless of location; that reduces inequality: spatial or gender; and that accelerates progress towards an inclusive community and national development,” she said.

    President Banda said the transformation agenda would get rid of a hoe as a tool of choice in agriculture, remove grass-thatched house from rural and urban areas and improve quality of drinking water.

    “Through this transformation I see the establishment of the Malawi Agricultural Transformation Agency to catalyse structural reforms and sustainable change in the agriculture sector. I see the establishment of an Agricultural Bank. I see our farming families being mobilized into farm clubs and cooperatives. I see our agriculture practices move from subsistence to commercial and mechanized farming,” she said.

    Mrs Banda said her party once voted into government would prioritise animal and fish farming through innovative programmes and decentralise tobacco marketing and licensing systems to ensure broad-based participation by rural farmers.

    She added that her government would also improve education facilities and infrastructure, teacher’s development, provision of adequate teaching and learning materials and better conditions of services for teachers.

    “This manifesto is offering new hope to our youth; to our women; to our people with disabilities and to our elderly. This manifesto is saying that you are the people and therefore the owners of the People’s Party. You are the reason for the People’s Party’s existence.

    We want a Government that is motivated, efficient and able to deliver on its mandate. We want an open, transparent and accountable government. This lies at the heart of the agenda we set forth in this manifesto,” she stated.

    NMG