Category: Foreign

UGANDAN immigration and security authorities on Tuesday deported South African music icon Yvonne Chaka Chaka ahead of her end of year and New Year performance in Kampala, over visa irregularities, a police spokesperson said.

Fred Enanga, Uganda’s police spokesperson, said Chaka Chaka, who was supposed to perform at the Buganda Kingdom End of Year Show, dubbed Enkuuka Y’Omwaka at Mengo, was escorted to Entebbe International Airport, about 40km south of the capital to board a flight back to South Africa.

“The security task team in close coordination with immigration officials has this afternoon escorted Chaka Chaka to Entebbe International airport where she boarded her immediate flight to South Africa via Kigali [Rwanda],” said Enanga.

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“The foreign musician had initially been granted an ordinary visa which was cancelled by immigration officials after it was realised she had come as a performing artist in one of the New Year events,” he said.

The police spokesperson said Chaka Chaka together with her promoters were advised to apply for a working visa for her music performance and avoid the pretence of being an ordinary visitor.

“The ordinary visa can’t enable her to perform in any income generating activity within the country,” said Enanga.

“This has been done by the immigration officials with the security team to help maintain the integrity of our immigration rules to all visitors to our country including foreign musicians,” he said

Our Reporter

Protesters angered by United States (U.S.) air strikes targeting an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia have attacked the American embassy compound in Baghdad.

U.S. troops fired tear gas to disperse a crowd that breached the outer wall of the compound, which is in the capital’s heavily fortified Green Zone.

A guard post on the street nearby was also set alight.

U.S. President Donald Trump accused Iran of “orchestrating” the attack and said it would be “held fully responsible”.

At least 25 fighters died when the US bombed bases associated with the Kataib Hezbollah militia in western Iraq and eastern Syria on Sunday.

The US said it was retaliating for a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base in Kirkuk on Friday that killed an American civilian contractor.

Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said the strikes had violated his country’s sovereignty, while Kataib Hezbollah leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, warned that its response “would be very tough on the American forces in Iraq”.

Yesterday’s protest took place after funerals were held in Baghdad for the militia fighters who were killed in the US strikes.

Thousands of mourners – including Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and several other senior militia and paramilitary leaders – marched towards the Green Zone, where many Iraqi government offices and foreign embassies are located.

They were allowed by Iraqi security forces to enter the zone and gather on a street outside the US embassy compound.

“This embassy has been proved to be an embassy of plotting against Iraq, the embassy of spying on Iraq and the embassy of running schemes of sabotage in Iraq,” said Qais al-Khazali, head of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia.

Waving Kataib Hezbollah and other militia flags, and chanting anti-American slogans, the protesters threw stones at the compound’s main gate, pulled down security cameras, attacked empty guard posts, and started fires.

Kataib Hezbollah called for an open-ended protest in front of the embassy until it was closed

The situation later escalated when the compound’s wall was breached.

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The Associated Press reported that a gate was smashed open and that dozens of people pushed about 5m (16ft) into a corridor leading to the main embassy building, before being forced to retreat by tear gas fired by US troops. Reuters news agency said stun grenades were also fired.

Iraqi soldiers and riot police were reportedly later deployed in the area.

One entrance was pushed open, but the crowd was forced back by tear gas fired from inside

The Popular Mobilisation, a paramilitary force dominated by Iran-backed Shia militias, said 20 protesters were wounded by live rounds and tear-gas canisters.

It was not clear whether civilian staff were inside the embassy during the attack.

There were reports that the US ambassador, Matthew Tueller, had been evacuated. But a source close to the embassy told the BBC that Mr Tueller had left the country before Sunday’s strikes for a planned Christmas holiday.

THE top United Nations official in Libya Ghassan Salamé has condemned recent airstrikes targeting civilian installations that left at least three people dead and several others injured.

Salamé, head of the UN Support Mission in the country, UNSMIL, called for greater civilian protection following the incidents, which occurred in three locations in the west.

“We have said it loud and clear that indiscriminate attacks against civilians not only constitute a grave violation of international humanitarian law and human rights law, but also further escalate the conflict and incite future acts of revenge, which threaten the social unity in Libya,” he warned in a statement issued on Saturday, adding that “this is utterly unacceptable.”

Libya has been facing ongoing instability since the fall of President Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

But, France and Egypt yesterday called for the “greatest restraint” by Libyan and international authorities to avoid escalating the conflict in Libya, a statement from President Emmanuel Macron’s office said.

Macron held talks late Sunday with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah El-Sisi when both agreed that warring Libyan powers need to negotiate a political solution under UN auspices.

The statement comes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed readiness this month to send troops to Libya if requested by the country’s Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA).

The GNA is backed by the UN, but the addition of Turkish troops could further inflame tensions in a country torn by the devastating campaign of strongman Khalifa Haftar and his self-styled Libyan National Army.

More than 140,000 Libyans have fled their homes since April when Haftar’s forces launched an assault on Tripoli.

 Vincent Ikuomola, Abuja

 

THE Polish government has condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin for his statement concerning Poland’s role in World War II.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki noted that rather than point fingers at Poland, the former Soviet Union Communist leaders should be blamed for the war crimes committed.

The world was engulfed in a war that spanned six years (1939-1945), which claimed an estimated total of between 70 and 85 million lives.

Putin had blamed the Western powers and Poland for the World War II, pointing at various treaties signed with Nazi Germany before the conflict began in 1939.

He also accused Poland of anti-Semitism, claiming a pre-war Polish ambassador promised to put up a statue of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in Warsaw for his pledge to send Jews to Africa.

But the Polish government said there was no truth in the claims of the Russian leader, describing it as another lie to cover up Russian crimes as well as a deliberate attempt to shift attention from the biting sanctions imposed on his country.

The statement reads in part: “Communist leaders, Joseph Stalin in the first place, are responsible for all these crimes. Eighty years after World War II started, attempts are made to rehabilitate Stalin for political goals of today’s President of Russia. These attempts must be met with strong opposition from every person who has at least basic knowledge about the history of the 20th century.

“President Putin has lied about Poland on numerous occasions, and he has always done it deliberately. This usually happens when Russian authorities feel international pressure related to their activities – and the pressure is exerted not on historical but contemporary geopolitical scene. In recent weeks, Russia has suffered several significant defeats – it failed in its attempt to take complete control over Belarus, the EU once again prolonged sanctions imposed on it for illegal annexation of Crimea, the so-called “Normandy Format” talks did not result in lifting these sanctions and simultaneously further restrictions were introduced – this time by the U.S., significantly hindering the implementation of the Nord Stream 2 project. At the same time Russian athletes have just been suspended for four years for using doping.

“We consider President Putin’s words as an attempt to cover up these problems.”

By Bola Olajuwon, Assistant Editor

 

UNITED Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres has in his New Year’s message warned that the world “cannot afford to be the generation that fiddled while the planet burned”.

He highlighted part of issues facing the globe as including persistent inequality, rising hatred, “a world at war and a warming planet”; with climate change as “a long-term problem” and “a clear and present danger”.

But “there is also hope”, he added, paying tribute to the power of youth around the planet.

“The United Nations stands with you, and belongs to you,” the UN Secretary-General was quoted as saying by UN National Information Officer Seyi Soremekun.

“From climate action to gender equality to social justice and human rights, your generation is on the frontlines and in the headlines”, Guterres said. “I am inspired by your passion and determination”.

Noting that young people are “rightly demanding a role in shaping the future”, he said: “I am with you”.

“The United Nations stands with you – and belongs to you” the Secretary-General said.

He noted that 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the organisation and said that “we are launching a Decade of Action for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), our blueprint for a fair globalisation”.

“This year, the world needs young people” to keep speaking out, thinking big, pushing boundaries and keeping up the pressure, he said.

The UN Secretary-General prayed for “peace and happiness” for  humanity in 2020.

NO fewer than 22 people were killed when a bus carrying factory labourers overturned at the weekend in Port Said, Egypt, according to the state-run newspaper Al-Ahram.

Eight people were injured when the bus collided with a truck and overturned on Port Said-Damietta highway.

“Deadly road accidents take place on a daily basis in Egypt due to poor road safety, badly maintained infrastructure, and loosely enforced traffic regulations,” Al-Ahram reported.

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Road accidents in Egypt have been on an increase in the past year, according to a recent report by the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics.

“Road accidents in the first half of 2019 left 1,567 dead and 6,046 injured, and damaged 8,335 vehicle,” the report said.

 

SIXTEEN of the most severely wounded people from Saturday’s truck bomb attack that killed about 90 people in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, have been airlifted to Turkey for treatment, Somali government officials said.

“Turkish military cargo airplane has taken 16 injured people to Ankara for treatment,” Somalia’s Minister of Internal Security Mohamed Abukar Islow Duale told VOA.

Two Turkish nationals were among those killed in the truck bombing that also left 125 other people were wounded.

Pope Francis, after reciting the Angelus prayer Sunday,  prayed for the victims of the car bomb.

“Let us pray to the Lord for the victims of Sunday’s horrible terrorist attack in Mogadishu in Somalia, where the explosion of a car bomb killed more than 70 people,” he said.

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The Pope also promised his closeness to “all of their family members and those who mourn their deaths”.

Before taking the wounded, the Turkish cargo plane off-loaded large supplies of medicine and medical equipment to help overwhelmed Mogadishu hospitals in order to handle the large number of the wounded.

“Turkey has also sent doctors and medical supplies to Mogadishu to treat the large number of the wounded people in Mogadishu hospitals” said a statement from Somalia’s presidential office.

 

WHITE House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said has emphasised that the United States (U.S.) would be very disappointed, if North Korea tested a long-range or nuclear missile and would take appropriate action as a leading military and economic power.

Washington has many “tools in its tool kit” to respond to any such test, O’Brien said in an interview with ABC’s “This Week.”

He said: “We’ll reserve judgment but the United States will take action as we do in these situations. If Kim Jong Un takes that approach, we’ll be extraordinarily disappointed and we’ll demonstrate that disappointment.”

North Korea has asked Washington to offer a new initiative to iron out differences over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme. It warned Washington this month that failure to meet its expectations could result in an unwanted “Christmas gift”.

U.S. military commanders have said the North Korean move could involve the testing of a long-range missile – something North Korea has suspended, along with nuclear bomb tests, since 2017.

O’Brien said the United States and North Korea had open channels of communication but did not elaborate. He said Washington hoped North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would live up to his commitments to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

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The United States was still the leading military power in the world and had tremendous economic power, said O’Brien. “There’s a lot of pressure that we can bring to bear,” he said.

North Korea threatened a Christmas surprise, despite the fact that Trump and Kim have engaged in personal diplomacy over the years and have a good personal relationship, O’Brien said.

“So perhaps he’s reconsidered that,” O’Brien added. “But we will have to wait and see. We’re going to monitor it closely. It’s a situation that concerns us, of course.”

Kim convened a meeting of top ruling party officials on Saturday to discuss important policy matters ahead of the year-end deadline set by Kim for the United States, the state news agency said yesterday.

Senator Ben Cardin, a Democrat on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said meetings between the two leaders have produced “very little” on denuclearisation.

“So what I want to see, I want to see is the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, make a full declaration of his nuclear weapons programme and make a real commitment to start to dismantle that,” he said.

“We haven’t seen any of that during the Trump administration.”

 

 

Agency Report

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a phone call on Sunday, thanked his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump for passing on information which helped prevent “acts of terrorism” in Russia, the Kremlin said.

It said the information was passed on via special services. No other details were provided.

Kremlin said both leaders agreed to continue bilateral cooperation in order to tackle terrorism.

Putin, about two weeks ago, also called Trump to thank him for the work of the Central Intelligence Agency in helping prevent an Islamic State attack in the northern Russian city of St. Petersburg.

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In rare words of praise for the CIA, Putin said the agency had provided information that “helped detain terrorists planning explosions,” the Kremlin said in a statement posted on its website. The attackers planned to strike crowded sites, including Kazan Cathedral, a landmark Orthodox Christian church, the statement said.

“The information received from the CIA was sufficient to search for and detain criminals,” the statement said. “The head of the Russian state asked the American president to convey words of thanks to the director of the CIA and the American intelligence officers, who received this information.”