Category: Foreign

UKRAINE’S former President Petro Poroshenko landed in Kyiv yesterday to face treason charges in a case he said was trumped up by allies of his successor, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Poroshenko was being investigated for alleged treason linked to the financing of Russian-backed separatist fighters through illegal coal sales while in office in 2014-15.

His party accused Zelenskiy of a reckless attempt to silence political opposition.

Zelenskiy’s administration says the prosecutors and judiciary are independent and accuses Poroshenko of thinking he is above the law.

“We are not here to protect Poroshenko, but to unite and protect Ukraine,” Poroshenko said.

At a briefing, Tetiana Sapyan, a spokeswoman for the State Bureau of Investigations (DBR), said Poroshenko had been handed a summons to appear in court later yesterday.

“However, Petro Poroshenko refused to receive procedural documents, ignored the legal requirements of the investigator, and at the same time, the persons who were with him carried out physical resistance, which was recorded on video recordings.”

Ukraine and its allies have sounded the alarm about tens of thousands of Russian troops massed near its borders.

After days of diplomacy without any achievement, no breakthrough, the United States said on Friday Russia was preparing a pretext for an attack, something the Kremlin dismissed as “unfounded”.

North Korea has again fired projectiles towards the sea, the South Korean military said yesterday.

Two missiles were fired eastwards toward the sea from Sunan Airport in the capital Pyongyang, the South Korean Armed Forces General Staff said.

They were believed to be short-range ballistic missiles. It was not clear how far they flew.

UN resolutions prohibit North Korea from testing ballistic missiles, some types of which were capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

The latest launch would be the fourth North Korean missile test since the beginning of the year.

Experts in South Korea said that presumably, North Korea sought to demonstrate military strength and prove its ability to launch missiles from different locations and platforms.

North Korea said it fired two missiles from a train-mounted ballistic missile system on Friday.

That launch came after the United States Treasury Department imposed fresh sanctions against the regime in Pyongyang.

The sanctions specifically target five North Koreans accused of procuring goods for their country’s mass destruction and missile programmes.

North Korea was subject to tough international sanctions because it had continued for years to develop missiles, primarily those which can be fitted with nuclear warheads.

Negotiations between North Korea and the U.S. have not made any progress since a failed summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and then-U.S. president Donald Trump in Vietnam in February 2019.

CONFRONTATION in international politics will lead to catastrophe, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned in an address at the start of the World Economic Forum in Davos yesterday.

“We need to discard the Cold War mentality and seek peaceful coexistence,” Xi said at the start of the event, which is being held online for the second year in a row.

“History has proven time and again that confrontation does not solve problems but invites catastrophic consequences,” he added.

Xi cautioned against protectionism, unilateralism and power politics, a reference China usually aims at the United States.

And he also warned about “small exclusive circles” or policies based on blocs that polarise the world, in apparent reference to alliances to counter China being promoted in Europe and Asia by U.S. President Joe Biden.

Without mentioning the U.S.by name, Xi criticised expanding the concept of national security to hold back economic and technological progress made by other countries.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India used his address to call on countries to shift from a throwaway culture towards more sustainable lifestyles.

Modi emphasised that while India is home to 17% of the world’s population, it contributes only 5% of global emissions.

“It is very essential that we move away from today’s take-make-use-dispose economy and towards a circular economy,” he said.

India, which co-launched the International Solar Alliance at COP26 to ensure universal access to affordable solar energy, today generates 40% of its energy from non-fossil sources. Modi underlined that the next phase of India’s growth will be “green, clean, sustainable and reliable”.

The prime minister questioned the ability of the world’s multilateral organisations to meet challenges that did not exist when they were created.

He said that reforming these institutions is “the responsibility of every democratic country”. In a clear call for greater global cooperation, he said: “Today, more than ever before, countries need each other’s help – this is the only path to a better future.”

Three people died and six others were injured in a suspected drone attack of three oil tankers in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates and another fire at an extension of Abu Dhabi International Airport on Monday.

Abu Dhabi police identified the dead as two Indian nationals and one Pakistani.

It did not identify the wounded, who police said suffered minor or moderate wounds.

Police said an investigation was underway.

While Abu Dhabi police did not immediately offer any suspects for the possible assault, Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for an attack targeting the United Arab Emirates, without elaborating.

The Iranian-backed Houthis have claimed several attacks that Emirati officials later denied took place.

The incident comes while Yemen’s years-long war rages on and as an Emirati-flagged vessel found itself recently captured by the Houthis.

Abu Dhabi largely has withdrawn its national forces from the conflict tearing apart the Arab world’s poorest nation while still supporting local militias there.

READ ALSO: Drone attacks set two oil facilities ablaze

Abu Dhabi police said preliminary investigations indicated the detection of small flying objects, possibly belonging to drones that fell in the two areas and may have caused the explosion and fire.

They said there was no significant damage from the incidents, without offering further details.

Police described the airport fire as “minor” and said it took place at an extension of the international airport that is still under construction.

For years, the airport home to Etihad Airways has been building its new Midfield Terminal, but it wasn’t clear if that was where the fire took place.

The airport and Etihad did not immediately respond to requests for comment, however, there were a series of flights delayed Monday morning.

Police said the other blast struck three petroleum transport tankers near a storage facility for the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. in the Musaffah area.

The neighborhood, 22 kilometers (13 miles) from the center of Abu Dhabi city, also has an oil pipeline network and 36 storage tanks, from which transport trucks carry fuel nationwide.

Former Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita died on Sunday in Bamako, the capital of Mali, sources close to his family announced in the national capital.

He was 76 years old at the time of death.

The cause of death was not yet known.

Having come to power in September 2013 and being re-elected in 2018, Keita was overthrown on Aug. 18, 2020, by the National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP) after months of street protests to challenge his regime.

READ ALSO: Hard tackle on Mali

Shortly after the coup d’etat that overthrew him, the junta granted him all the benefits for a former president of the Republic of Mali.

And since his ouster, he had stayed several times in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, for health reasons.

(Xinhua/NAN)

Ukraine’s former President Petro Poroshenko landed in Kyiv on Monday to face treason charges in a case he says was trumped up by allies of his successor, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Poroshenko was being investigated for alleged treason linked to the financing of Russian-backed separatist fighters through illegal coal sales while in office in 2014-15.

His party accused Zelenskiy of a reckless attempt to silence political opposition.

Zelenskiy’s administration says the prosecutors and judiciary are independent and accuses Poroshenko of thinking he is above the law.

“We are not here to protect Poroshenko, but to unite and protect Ukraine,” Poroshenko said.

READ ALSO: U.S., Russia meet in Geneva to discuss Ukraine crisis

At a briefing, Tetiana Sapyan, a spokeswoman for the State Bureau of Investigations (DBR), said Poroshenko had been handed a summons to appear in court later on Monday.

“However, Petro Poroshenko refused to receive procedural documents, ignored the legal requirements of the investigator, and at the same time, the persons who were with him carried out physical resistance, which was recorded on video recordings.”

Ukraine and its allies have sounded the alarm about tens of thousands of Russian troops massed near its borders.

After days of diplomacy without any achievement, no breakthrough, the United States said on Friday Russia was preparing a pretext for an attack, something the Kremlin dismissed as “unfounded”. (Reuters/NAN)

61-year-old Duke of York, Prince Andrew has been stripped of his military titles and his royal patronage returned to the Queen.

This comes after sexual allegations were made about him, an act which he continued to deny.

The alleged victim Virginia Giuffre claimed that she had at 16 been a victim of sex trafficking carried out by Jeffery Epstein who lent her out to powerful men and the Prince happened to be one of the patronizers.

She claimed that he had slept with her more than three times before she turned 18.

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Following this, Prince Andrew will officially stop using “His Royal Highness”, just as it was in the case of Harry and Megan and his roles distributed among the royal members.

The duties of the former Duke were to support the queen at National and international events and attending his own engagements in the UK and Overseas.

The Buckingham palace, in a statement, said: “With the Queen’s approval and agreement, the Duke of York’s military affiliations and Royal patronages have been returned to the Queen.” “The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen.”

European Union (EU) Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell has said the European Union would impose sanctions on Mali in line with measures already taken by the ECOWAS grouping of West African states.

The ECOWAS had agreed a raft of restrictions against Mali on Sunday.

These include the suspension of financial transactions over the interim authorities’ failure to hold democratic elections next month as agreed following a 2020 military coup.

Borrell told reporters after a meeting of EU defence ministers in the western French city of Brest that “the risk that the situation in this country deteriorates is evident”.

He said the EU move was also a response to the arrival of private military contractors from the Russian Wagner Group, whose members are mostly ex-service personnel.

France has thousands of troops fighting Islamist militants in the Sahel region and in December joined 15 other countries, mostly European states operating in Mali, in condemning the possible arrival of mercenaries.

Read Also: ECOWAS hits Mali with economic sanctions

In December, the 27-nation EU imposed sanctions on Wagner and set up a new sanctions regime for Mali with a view to targeting the junta.

“The new sanctions regime was agreed and these discussions will now continue,” French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly, told a news conference alongside Borrell.

French officials have said consultations are underway between France and its European partners on how to respond and whom to sanction. Decisions are likely by the end of January.

Also yesterday, the Malian authorities said a French military aircraft violated the country’s airspace while flying from Cote d’Ivoire to Mali and back.

The government of Mali said the French military aircraft of “A400 type” on Tuesday flew en route from Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire to Gao, Mali and back.

The Malian government said in a statement posted on Facebook by the country’s Foreign Ministry that “the named aircraft, which committed a clear violation of Mali’s airspace, turned off the radio transponder in order not to be identified”.

“It also ceased contact with the flight control centres”.

The Malian authorities called the alleged actions of the French military a “fraudulent manoeuvre”.

Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed has called for the implementation of various Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Nigeria and Namibia, especially in the areas of culture and tourism.

Mohammed explained that it is only the implementation of the agreements that can translate into economic benefits for both countries.

He spoke yesterday when he received the Namibian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Humphrey Geiseb, who visited him in Abuja.

The minister, according to a statement by his media aide, Mr. Segun Adeyemi, observed that the bilateral cooperation between the two nations, which dates back to 1992 on the platform of the 1st Nigeria-Namibia Joint Commission, expired without implementation.

He, therefore, expressed the hope that the MoUs will be revived for implementation this time around.

“Because the agreement on tourism cooperation between both countries suffered from lack of follow-up, a separate MOU on tourism cooperation was decided upon during the 3rd session of the Joint Commission in 2008 and signed six years later in 2014.

“Unfortunately, the MOU, which had a lifespan of five years, has expired and, until then, nothing was done by our two countries. I am aware that efforts are on to renew the MoU for another five years. Hopefully, this time, we will act to implement the MoU,” Mohammed said.

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He promised to encourage a working relationship between Nollywood and the Namibian Film Industry, against the background of the interest expressed by a talented Namibian actress to feature in Nollywood movies as a way of further honing her professional skills.

The minister, who welcomed the support offered by Namibia to help improve Elephant conservation in Nigeria, stressed that with global warming and poaching, African wildlife is in danger of extinction.

He thanked the Namibian Government for supporting Nigeria with 279 wildlife animals in line with the MoU signed on cooperation in the area of wildlife with the Bauchi State Government.

“The animals, which comprised of 10 Giraffes, 53 Burchell’s Zebras, 14 Elands, 23 Blue Wildebeests, 21 Red Hartebeests, 24 Oryx, 26 Kudus, 52 Springboks and 56 Common Impalas, were placed at the Sumu Wildlife Sanctuary, which is located in Ganjuwa Local Government Area of Bauchi State. We remain grateful to the Government and people of Namibia for this,” Mohammed said.

In his remarks, the High Commissioner went down memory lane to recount the support, which Namibia received from Nigeria in its struggle for independence, and said the Namibia-Nigeria Joint Commission, which last met in 2010, will meet next month to consider all the various areas of cooperation between the two countries.

He listed additional areas of cooperation to include creative industries, beef infrastructure, animal conservation, tourism and oil and gas sector.