The Nation Newspaper

Category: Foreign

  • South Sudan President invites T.B. Joshua again

    South Sudan President invites T.B. Joshua again

    By Robert Egbe

     

    SOUTH Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit has re-invited the General Overseer of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) Prophet T.B Joshua to the East-Central African country.

    Mayardit said Joshua’s November 12, 2019 prophecy on the country’s unity had come to pass and RSS was now at peace under the terms of a revitalised peace agreement that came into effect on February 22, this year.

    During his first visit to the world’s newest sovereign state last year, Joshua was personally received by Mayardit and he led the president and government officials in a prayer for peace.

    “Time has come for us to put our differences behind us,” Joshua told the thousands of South Sudanese, who gathered to hear his message.

    “This is the voice of God. Our leaders should overcome their division and agree to work together for the good of the country,” he insisted in the address, which was televised live on South Sudan’s official broadcasting channel SSBC.

    In the invitation letter, the President noted that global organisation’s tried but failed to negotiate peace in Sudan, but God intervened.

    He explained that the invitation would enable Joshua “to harvest what you planted”, adding that the entire nation of South Sudan is ready to receive the Nigerian once again.

    Mayardit said: “With due respect and honour, I am privileged to write to your highly prophetic esteemed office in reference to the above mentioned subject.

    “First, I would like to thank you, humble servant of the most high God and the higher grace and anointing upon your life.

    “And for your love and humility by coming on your prophetic and historic visit on 12th November 2019, when the nation was in a desperate situation, whereby the country was experiencing civil war violence for many years.

    “The world organisation tried to negotiate peace but where human wisdom failed, God has the final answer.

    “As you have prophesied that, it shall be a new beginning for the nation and we the leaders should overcome our divisions and our differences and come back to develop our youngest nation in the world.

    “Hence we, the government and the opposition have come together to implement the revitalised Peace Agreement and now the nation is at peace followed by the formation of Revitalised Transitional Government of National Unity (RTGONU), which signifies a new beginning indeed.”

  • Second U.S. presidential debate cancelled

    Second U.S. presidential debate cancelled

    Agency Reporter

    The second presidential debate between President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden has been cancelled.

    The Commission on Presidential Debates (CDP) announced the cancellation in a statement on Friday.

    It said that the decision followed announcements of “alternate plans” for the Oct. 15 date by both candidates’ campaign organisations.

    This came a day after CDP said it had decided to hold the debate virtually “for the health and safety of all involved” following Trump’s diagnosis of COVID-19.

    The president had reacted immediately, telling Fox News that he would not waste his time with a virtual debate.

    His campaign organisation later said he would participate if the date was shifted by a week, a proposal opposed by Biden’s campaign.

    Reports quoted sources as saying Trump has scheduled his own town hall event for the night of Oct. 15.

    Biden, on his part, reportedly agreed to participate in an ABC News town hall in Philadelphia on the same date.

    READ ALSO: I don’t know what to do if Trump boycotts second debate — Biden

    CDP said: “It is now apparent there will be no debate on Oct. 15, and the CPD will turn its attention to preparations for the final presidential debate scheduled for Oct. 22.

    “Subject to health security considerations, and in accordance with all required testing, masking, social distancing, and other protocols, the debate will take place at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.

    “As announced on June 23, the debate will be divided into six 15-minute segments.

    “The topics for the six segments will be selected and announced by the moderator at least one week before the debate.

    “Kristen Welker of NBC News will serve as moderator for the debate. Both candidates have agreed to participate in the Oct. 22 debate.”

     

    (NAN)

  • Pakistan bans TikTok for failing to filter vulgarity

    Pakistan bans TikTok for failing to filter vulgarity

    Agency Reporter

    Tiktok’s failure to implement orders to filter immoral content prompted Pakistan’s telecommunications regulator to ban the video-sharing platform on Friday.

    The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority said in a statement that the Chinese app was being blocked after complaints of vulgarity from different segments of society.

    The authority said it had warned TikTok to filter immoral content, but the application had failed to abide by the instructions.

    The ban would be reviewed if the app’s administrator agrees not to let people upload objectionable content.
    The move comes months after live-streaming app Bigo Live was banned for the same reason and video-sharing platform YouTube was warned to block vulgarity and hate speech.

    READ ALSO: US outlaws WeChat, TikTok citing security risk

    Dating app Tinder has also been blocked in recent months by authorities in the conservative Islamic Republic.

    These moves were seen by activists as an attempt to muzzle online criticism of the country’s powerful military.

    YouTube introduced a localised version in Pakistan after a ban that lasted for several months in 2012 following protests against a movie deemed insulting to the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

    Censorship levels have increased since the government of Prime Minister, Imran Khan took office after elections in 2018 tainted by the allegations of army interference.

    (dpa/NAN)

  • I don’t know what to do if Trump boycotts second debate — Biden

    I don’t know what to do if Trump boycotts second debate — Biden

    Agency Reporter

    Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, says he does not know what to do after President Donald Trump announced his decision not to participate in the second debate.

    The Commission on Presidential Debates had earlier announced that the second debate between Trump and Biden scheduled for Oct. 15 would now hold virtually.

    In a statement, the commission said the decision was taken to “protect the health and safety of all involved with the second presidential debate.”

    The announcement followed Trump’s diagnosis with COVID-19 on Oct. 1.

    READ ALSO: Biden tests negative for COVID-19

    Reacting to the announcement, Trump said he would not participate in a virtual debate, saying the idea of sitting in front of a computer to the debate was ridiculous.

    Speaking to newsmen on Thursday morning before boarding a flight to Arizona for a campaign, Biden said he would follow the recommendations of the commission.

    “We don’t know what the president is going to do, he changes his mind every second, so for me to comment on that now would be irresponsible.

    “I’m going to follow the commission’s recommendations. If he goes off and he’s going to have a rally, I don’t know what I’ll do,” he said.(NAN)

  • Prominent Holocaust survivor and author Ruth Klueger dies aged 88

    Prominent Holocaust survivor and author Ruth Klueger dies aged 88

    Our Reporter

    Austria-born scholar Ruth Klueger, best known for a feminist memoir of her time in Nazi camps, passed away in California, her publisher Zsolnay said on Wednesday in Vienna.

    Klueger died on Tuesday at the age of 88, following a long illness.

    When she was in her 60s, Klueger published a best-selling autobiography that was translated into 10 languages, including two English versions titled `Still Alive and Landscapes of Memory’.

    The memoir provided a feminist perspective on the Holocaust and World War II, as Klueger highlighted how women were targets of Nazi atrocities.

    READ ALSO: World leaders at Holocaust forum condemn rising anti-Semitism

    The daughter of a Jewish doctor and a nurse, Klueger moved to the U.S. after the war and became a German literature scholar.

    In 2016, Klueger addressed the German parliament to commemorate the victims of Nazi crimes. In her speech, she said she had accepted the invitation because of Germany’s welcoming stance towards refugees from Syria and elsewhere.

    “As a Holocaust survivor, she was a convincing and influential woman who stood firmly against anti-Semitism, racism, and xenophobia,’’ Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen said in a statement.

    (dpa/NAN)

  • Kuwaiti emir names brother as crown prince

    Kuwaiti emir names brother as crown prince

    Agency Reporter

    Kuwaiti Emir Nawaf al-Ahmed Al Sabah on Wednesday named his 80-year-old half-brother and senior security official, Mishaal, as crown prince, according to the royal court.

    Nawaf, 83, became the oil-rich country’s ruler last week following the death of his predecessor and an older half-brother, Sabah.

    Mishaal al-Ahmed Al Sabah has been the deputy head of the National Guard since 2004.

    Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, the national guard personnel played an important role along with the military and police in enforcing the curfew and other measures the state-imposed to curb the spread of the virus.

    After finishing his studies at London’s Hendon Police College in 1960, he worked at Kuwait’s Ministry of Interior.

    READ ALSO: How pilot, businessman ‘defrauded’ Kuwaiti of $5m

    Between 1967 and 1980, he was the head of the State Security Agency.

    Mishaal never took charge of a ministerial portfolio and has largely stayed away from political disputes other members of the royal family were involved in over the years.

    He was also close to the late emir Sabah and accompanied him on many of his medical trips, including the final one to the United States, where he died on Sept. 29.

    An official said that the Al Sabah family gave its blessing to the emir’s nomination of Mishaal, KUNA news agency reported.

    According to the constitution, parliament has to approve the appointment.

    (dpa/NAN)

  • Prominent Vietnamese journalist arrested for alleged propaganda

    Prominent Vietnamese journalist arrested for alleged propaganda

    Agency Reporter

    Pham Doan Trang, one of Vietnam’s most prominent activists and independent journalists, has been arrested for alleged propaganda against the state, according to a rights group.

    Trang was reportedly arrested at 11:30 pm (1630 GMT) in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday, the same day Vietnam and the U.S held the 24th Annual U.S Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue, which included wide-ranging discussions on human rights, including freedom of expression.

    In a statement issued on Wednesday morning, Phil Robertson, Deputy Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, strongly condemned Trang’s arrest, saying: “Even after suffering years of systemic government harassment, including severe physical attacks, she has remained faithful to her principles of peaceful advocacy for human rights and democracy.”

    “Her thoughtful approach to reforms, and demands for people’s real participation in their governance, are messages the Vietnam government should listen to and respect, not repress,’’ he added.

    READ ALSO: Vietnam records first COVID-19 death

    Vietnamese authorities charged Trang with making, storing, disseminating or propagandising information that aims to oppose the Vietnamese state, for which the harshest sentence is 20 years in prison.

    In 2018, Trang was given the Homo Homini Award by the Czech-based human rights organisation People In Need.

    In 2019 Reporters without Borders awarded her a Press Freedom Prize in recognition of the impact of her work.

    Trang is the author of numerous books and a frequently published journalist, activist, and blogger whose work has covered topics including LGBT rights, women’s rights, environmental issues, police brutality, the suppression of activists, and land rights.

    Her arrest comes amid a clampdown on journalists and activists ahead of Vietnam’s five-yearly National Congress in January.

     

    (dpa/NAN)

  • ECOWAS lifts sanctions imposed on Mali after military coup

    ECOWAS lifts sanctions imposed on Mali after military coup

    The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) yesterday lifted the sanctions imposed on Mali in the wake of an August 18, 2020, military coup, citing Mali’s “notable advances towards constitutional normalisation” as the reason for the relaxation of the sanctions.

    The regional bloc announced the lifting of the sanctions in a statement by Chairman of ECOWAS Authority and President of Ghana Nana Kuffo Addo.

    The lifting of the sanctions comes two days after the West African nation’s new government named veteran politician Moctar Ouane, a civilian and former foreign minister, as prime minister.

    ECOWAS had made it clear they would only consider lifting sanctions if a civilian was given the post of prime minister.

    The bloc also yesterday called on the interim government to release all military and civilian officials arrested during the August 18 coup to unseat former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and his government.

    Read Also: Ekweremadu condemns military coup in Mali

     

    ECOWAS further requested the dissolution of the military junta, the self-titled National Committee for the People’s Salvation (CNSP), which led the coup, according to the statement.

    Mali’s interim government is headed by transitional President, Bah N’Daw, who served as defence minister from 2014 to 2015 and held several other military positions, with the junta’s leader, Assimi Goita, as vice president.

    At least four central cabinet posts – defence, security, territorial administration and national reconciliation – went to colonels in the army, according to a decree read live on state television by the president’s secretary-general Sekou Traore.

    One of the junta’s leaders, Colonel Sadio Camara, becomes defence minister, while Colonel Modibo Kone gets the security and civil protection portfolio.

    The transitional government is expected to hold elections within 18 months.

     

    Junta spokesman Colonel Ismael Wague, who broke the news of the coup in a dramatic night-time television broadcast, will become national reconciliation minister.

    But civilians were also appointed, including former prosecutor Mohamed Sidda Dicko as justice minister and former ambassador Zeini Moulaye as foreign affairs minister.

     

    The coup came after months of protests over the country’s bloody jihadist insurgency, economic struggles and chronic inter-ethnic violence.

     

     

     

  • Japan, U.S., others discuss cooperation amid China’s growing assertiveness

    Japan, U.S., others discuss cooperation amid China’s growing assertiveness

    Top diplomats from Japan, India, Australia and the U.S. have agreed to enhance their cooperation, with an eye on the COVID-19 pandemic and China’s growing assertiveness.

    U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a meeting in Tokyo that “it is more critical now than ever that we collaborate to protect our people and partnerships from the Chinese Communist Party’s exploitation and corruption and coercion.

    “We see it in the South and East China seas, in Mekong, the Himalayas, Taiwan Strait these are just a few examples.’’

    Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne, and Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar also participated in the talks.

    Motegi said, “the four nations share fundamental values of democracy, rule of law and free economy.”

    Jaishankar also tweeted that remaining “committed to upholding the rules-based international order, underpinned by the rule of law, transparency, freedom of navigation, respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty and peaceful resolution of disputed.’’

    The four countries’ top diplomats, a group they call the Quad, held the second ministerial-level multi-party conference as China has stepped up its territorial claims in the South and East China seas.

    Read Also: More concerns trail Trump’s return to White House

     

    Earlier, Payne and Pompeo had their third meeting, she wrote on twitter that “we spoke about our ongoing cooperation to promote peace, stability and prosperity in our region.

    “Great to meet again with Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne today in Tokyo to discuss Quad cooperation.

    Pompeo also tweeted that the U.S.-Australia-India-Japan relationship is integral to ensuring an open and transparent Indo-Pacific.

    Japan’s Foreign Ministry said Pompeo held talks with Motegi, exchanging views concerning the situations in North Korea and the South and East China seas.

    According to the ministry, the two agreed that the U.S. and Japan would coordinate closely to deal with North Korean missile and nuclear weapons development.

    In his first visit to Japan since Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga took office in mid-September, Pompeo met with the new Japanese leader.

     

     

     

  • Three scientists win Nobel for black hole research

    Three scientists win Nobel for black hole research

    Three scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics yesterday for their discoveries on black holes, the regions of space that have for generations been surrounded by mystery.

    According to Reuters, British scientist Roger Penrose, Germany’s Reinhard Genzel and American Andrea Ghez will share the prize.

    The Associated Press reported that the Nobel Committee gave Penrose half of the roughly $1.1 million prize, “for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of” Albert Einstein’s “general theory of relativity”.

    Ganzel and Ghez won the second half for “the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy.”

    The committee described yesterday’s prize as a celebration of research on “one of the most exotic objects in the universe.”

    Black holes have captivated both scientists and the general public for decades.

    The compact centres of mass are believed to be at the centre of each galaxy, with smaller ones scattered throughout the universe. The AP noted that nothing, including light, can escape a black hole’s gravity.

    Read Also:Scientists who discovered hepatitis C virus win Nobel Prize for Medicine

     

    Scientists captured the first optical image of a black hole in 2019.

    “Black holes, because they are so hard to understand, is what makes them so appealing,” Ghez told the AP. “I really think of science as a big, giant puzzle.”

    She told an audience at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences following the announcement yesterday that black holes are “critical to the building blocks of the universe.”

    Ghez is the fourth woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for physics, after Marie Curie in 1903, Maria Goeppert-Mayer in 1963 and Donna Strickland in 2018.

    “I hope I can inspire other young women into the field. It’s a field that has so many pleasures. And if you’re passionate about the science, there’s so much that can be done,” Ghez said.

    The Nobel for Chemistry is scheduled to be awarded today, followed by the award for literature tomorrow, the Peace Prize on Friday and the economics award next Monday.