Category: Foreign

Turkey will follow the case of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s killing “regardless how it goes”, the country’s Communications Director, Fahrettin Altun, said on Tuesday.

Turkey slammed Riyadh’s verdict in the “sham trial” as an insult to the intelligence of observers.

Saudi Arabia on Monday sentenced five people to death and three to jail over Khashoggi’s murder, but a UN investigator accused it of making a “mockery” of justice by allowing the masterminds of last year’s killing to go free.

Read Also; Saudis sentence five to death for Jamal Khashoggi’s murder

“The verdict of the sham trial is an insult to the intelligence of any fair observer.

“Those responsible must face justice sooner or later,” Altun said. “We will follow this case to the end regardless of how high it goes,” he added on Twitter.

Agency Report

THE Authority of the ECOWAS Heads of State and Governments have adopted the 2020 to 2024 Action Plan to eradicate terrorism in the sub-region with a budget of $2.3 billion.

The Authority adopted the budget implementation during its 56th Ordinary Session held in Abuja following the call for the urgent need to address the recurring terrorist attacks in member-states.

This was made known in the final communiqué read by Mr. Jean-Claude Brou, President of the ECOWAS Commission yesterday in Abuja.

According to the communiqué, the Authority agreed that out of the $2.3 billion, $1 billion would be financed from internal funds.

It stated that the Authority expressed grave concern at the resurgence of terrorist attacks, targeted at the defence, security forces, civilians and the social and economic structures and places of worship.

The ECOWAS Presidents reaffirmed their determination to leave no stone unturned in eradicating terrorism in the region, expressing solidarity with the people and governments of affected Member States.

“The money is intended for the provision of equipment to support the defence forces of Member States, training of relevant bodies and effective intelligence sharing.

“The Authority instructs the President of the Commission to immediately set up an inclusive and transparent mechanism to manage funds mobilized for the implementation of the action plan.

“The Authority further instructs the President of the Commission to ensure the speedy disbursement of the resources mobilized in other to respond efficiently to the urgent situation.

“The Authority decides to focus efforts in 2020 and 2021, on the implementation of activities expected to quickly contribute in checking the increase and spread of terrorist attacks.

“The Authority urges international partners to provide substantial support for the implementation of the action plan.

“To this end, it instructs the President of the Commission to organise as soon as possible a donor conference to mobilise funds, in addition to the internal resources identified by the Authority.

“The Authority instructs the President to build strong partnerships with all stakeholders in counter terrorism in the region. The Partnership should be built on complimentary initiatives to avoid duplication of efforts,” the communiqué stated.

According to the Communique, on the creation of the monetary union, the Authority commended the Ministerial Committee for the progress made with the implementation of the ECOWAS Single Currency Programme.

The Authority while welcoming the improved macroeconomic convergence outlook in 2019 urged member sStates to continue efforts to comply with the convergence criteria.

The Heads of States and Government adopted “ECO” as symbol for the single currency, adopting the name ” Central Bank of West Africa (CBWA)” as the name of the ECOWAS Central Bank.

On the free movement of persons and goods, the Authority reinterates the need for all Member States to fully implement the Protocol on Free Movement as it relates to the rights of entry, residence and establishment.

The Authority also took note of the challenges of the implementation of the protocol of Free Movement of  Persons and Goods arising from the partial closure of the Nigerian land borders to goods.

They however urged the Tripitite Ministerial Committee comprising Benin, Niger and Nigeria to quickly conclude its work in other to resolve all existing border issues.

The Heads of States and Government also encouraged the ECOWAS Commission, in collaboration with member states to step up efforts for the implementation of regional infrastructure project.

The communiqué stated that the date of the 57th Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of States and Government would be communicated at a later date, after consultations with the Heads of states and Government.

NORTH Korea is planning to adopt a hardline policy toward the United States (U.S.) that involves taking denuclearisation off the table amid perceptions that President Donald Trump is vulnerable politically, a source familiar with the North Korean leadership’s current mindset told CNN.

The source said this new policy is likely the so-called “Christmas gift” floated by a top North Korean official earlier this month. It is expected to include abandoning negotiations with Washington and consolidating Pyongyang’s status as a nuclear weapons state.

Pyongyang will also no longer pursue sanctions relief as a means of achieving economic development either in the short-term or long-term, but will instead increase its commitment to the state’s ideology of self-reliance, known as Juche.

READ ALSO: Banks face U.S. sanctions over North Korea, Iran deals

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced in 2018 that North Korea had “completed” its quest to develop nuclear weapons and vowed to fully focus the country’s efforts on economic development and improving the livelihood of his people.

It’s unclear how Trump and his administration would respond to such a decision. After Trump took office in 2017, he and Kim sparred verbally as North Korea test-fired a bevy of increasingly advanced ballistic missiles, the type designed to deliver nuclear warheads.
A flurry of diplomacy that included three in-person meetings between Trump and Kim followed, but working-level negotiations have not made much progress. As the clock ticked closer to an end-of-year deadline for talks imposed by the North Koreans, the rhetoric on each side has taken on some of the vitriol of 2017.

ALGERIA’S powerful Army chief General Ahmed Gaid Salah is died, state television has reported.

Algerian government radio said he died on Monday morning in an Algiers military hospital after a heart attack.
Gaid Salah, 79, was seen as Algeria’s de facto leader since the country’s longtime President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was removed from office in April amid widespread anti-government demonstrations.

He played a key role pushing through the December 12 presidential elections in the face of stiff opposition on the streets.

Gaid Salah was present at the inauguration of the gas-rich country’s new president last week.

The new president, Abdelmajid Tabboune, has announced a three-day mourning period.

Tebboune announced that the head of land forces, General Said Chengriha, would take over as acting chief of staff of the armed forces.

The army’s prominent role was underlined last week at Tebboune’s inauguration, during which he embraced Gaid Salah and presented him with an order of merit immediately after his own swearing-in.

“The army hierarchy is unified and it will move on after Gaed Salah as it did before him,” said a retired general who asked not to be named. “Algeria’s army is a single block, not under the influence of one general but with consensus as its engine.”

Born on January 13, 1940 in the eastern Batna province, Gaid Saleh participated in the Algerian struggle against the French colonial rule between November 1, 1954 and March 19, 1962.

After Algeria’s independence, he pursued his career in the Algerian army, moving up to the rank of major general in 1993.

In 1994, he was appointed as commander of the army’s ground forces during Algeria’s civil war.

After the 2004 presidential election, Gaid Saleh was appointed as Algerian army’s chief of staff.

Soon after mass protests erupted earlier this year, Gaid Salah’s televised speech urging President Bouteflika to quit led to the veteran leader’s swift resignation.

Agency Report

REPUBLICAN Senator Mitch McConnell has explained that he has not ruled out allowing witnesses to testify in the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.

Congressional lawmakers are wrangling over Senate trial rules, with Democrats demanding witnesses to be called so that a fair trial can take place.

Trump was formally impeached by the House last week for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

The Senate trial is expected to begin next month, after the holiday break.

The president is accused of pressuring the Ukrainian president to start an investigation into his political rival and Democratic presidential front runner, Joe Biden.

Trump is accused of doing this by withholding military aid and making a White House visit contingent on co-operation.

Democrats have so far refused to hand over the articles of impeachment voted through in the House – the charges – to the Senate.

They want assurances from McConnell that their chosen witnesses – at least four current and former White House aides with knowledge of the Ukraine affair – will be allowed to testify.

“We haven’t ruled out witnesses,” McConnell told Fox News on Monday.

He accused Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of holding “an absurd position” and said she is “apparently trying to tell us how to run the trial”.

“You know, I’m not anxious to have this trial, so if she wants to hold onto the papers, go right ahead.”

“Look, we’re at an impasse. We can’t do anything until the speaker sends the papers over, so everyone enjoy the holidays,” the Kentucky Republican added.

Trump is the third president in U.S. history to be impeached. But he is unlikely to be removed from office, as his Republican party has a majority in the Senate, where a trial will be held as stipulated in the US Constitution.

Democrats renewed their demand for witnesses over the weekend after an email emerged suggesting the White House sought to freeze aid to Ukraine just 91 minutes after Trump spoke to President Volodymyr Zelensky by phone in July. That call is at the centre of the allegations against Trump – charges he denies.

Read Also: US Senate won’t uphold Trump impeachment – Putin

Top Senator Democrat Chuck Schumer said the email was an “explosive” reminder of the need for Senate witnesses to testify.

Schumer said he and his Republican counterpart remain at an impasse after holding a “cordial” meeting on Thursday to discuss trial rules.

During a news conference in his home state of New York on Sunday, Schumer said Republicans “have come up with no good reason why there shouldn’t be witnesses, why there shouldn’t be documents”.

He added: “We don’t know what the witnesses will say. We don’t know how the documents will read. They might exonerate President Trump or they might further incriminate him. But the truth should come out on something as important as an impeachment.”

Democrats argue that Republicans will not act as impartial jurors during the impeachment trial, after McConnell pledged last week to work with “total co-ordination” with the White House.

Agency Report

A COURT in Saudi Arabia has sentenced five people to death and jailed three others over the murder of a journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, last year.

Khashoggi, a prominent critic of the Saudi government, was killed inside the kingdom’s consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul by a team of Saudi agents.

The Saudi authorities said it was the result of a “rogue operation” and put 11 unnamed individuals on trial.

A United Nations (UN) expert said the trial represented “the antithesis of justice”.

“Bottom line: the hit-men are guilty, sentenced to death. The masterminds not only walk free. They have barely been touched by the investigation and the trial,” Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard wrote on Twitter.

A report released by Ms Callamard concluded in June that Khashoggi’s death was an “extrajudicial execution” for which the Saudi state was responsible, and that there was credible evidence warranting further investigation that high-level officials, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, were individually liable.

The prince denied any involvement, but in October he said he took “full responsibility as a leader in Saudi Arabia, especially since it was committed by individuals working for the Saudi government”.

READ ALSO: Jamal Khashoggi: Murder so horrible

A senior aide, Saud al-Qahtani, was sacked and investigated over the killing but not charged “due to insufficient evidence”, the public prosecution said. Former Deputy Intelligence Chief Ahmad Asiri was put on trial but acquitted on the same grounds.

The Turkish foreign ministry said the decision of the Saudi court “falls short of the expectations of Turkey and the international community for the clarification of all aspects of this murder and the serving of justice”.

Khashoggi’s fiancée Hatice Cengiz called the Saudi announcement “not acceptable”.

The publisher of the Washington Post, for whom Khashoggi wrote columns, said: “The complete lack of transparency and the Saudi government’s refusal to co-operate with independent investigators suggests that this was merely a sham trial.”

But Khashoggi’s son Salah, who lives in Saudi Arabia, tweeted: “We affirm our confidence in the Saudi judiciary at all levels, that it has been fair to us and that justice has been achieved.”

Algeria’s powerful army chief, Lt.-Gen. Ahmed Salah, who was instrumental in bringing down long-time President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, has died of a heart attack, state media reported on Monday.

The 79-year-old’s death comes at a time of mass protests across Africa’s largest country, with many Algerians demanding that the ruling elite relinquish power and the influential military step back from politics.

Salah’s departure may not signify major changes to Algeria’s economic and political policies, however, with the country’s senior generals united over the handling of the protests.

“The army hierarchy is unified and it will move on after Salah as it did before him.

“Algeria’s army is a single block, not under the influence of one general but with consensus as its engine,’’ said a retired general, who asked not to be named.

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced a three-day mourning period and said the head of land forces, Gen. Said Chengriha, would take over as acting Chief of Staff of the military.

Salah’s death comes less than a week after Tebboune was inaugurated, following an election that the army had pushed for as the only way to resolve the crisis over the mass protests.

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Demonstrators opposed the vote and official figures showed only 40 per cent of the electorate cast ballots.

The authorities have so far rejected any systematic attempt to crush the protests with violence, allowing them to continue each week but stepping up the police presence in recent months and detaining many demonstrators.

“He kept his promise to save the blood of Algerians during a tough period,’’ Islam Benatia, a prominent figure in the protest movement, said on Facebook.

Salah received military training in the Soviet Union and became head of Algeria’s land forces in 1994, early in the civil war between the state and insurgents that killed 200,000 people.

Bouteflika appointed him army chief a decade later.

In the past 15 years, he consolidated the military’s power in the ruling elite, helping Bouteflika face down the once-dominant intelligence service.

As Bouteflika and his allies were ousted this year, the army’s central role became more pronounced and Salah emerged as the most powerful figure in the country.

He pushed hard for this month’s election to replace Bouteflika, a vote that the protesters rejected as a charade designed to keep the ruling elite in place, but was seen by the army as necessary to restore constitutional rule.

Salah’s funeral will take place on Tuesday, a day on which students have been staging weekly protests for much of the year.

INDIA’S controversial Citizenship Act has triggered widespread protests across the country, with thousands of people including students and Bollywood personalities taking to the streets.

Not only are ordinary people taking to the streets to voice their disagreement over the amended citizenship law, they are also taking to Twitter.

The Citizenship Law grants citizenship to illegal immigrants from six religious minorities – Hindus, Parsis, Jains, Christians, Buddhists, and Sikhs, from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, if they arrived in India prior to Dec. 31, 2014.

 

READ ALSO: 23 dead as protests grow against India citizenship law

It, however, does not extend to Muslims – something which many claim violates the Indian constitution.

Netizens have blamed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for what they believe to be an attempt to divide the country on the basis of religion, with the hashtag #IndiaHatesModi trending on Twitter in the country.

They also suggested that the politician “sell tea, not (his) country”, and alleged that if people supported the Modi government and the ruling Bharatuya Janata Party (BNP), it meant they “hate Muslims”.

THE leader of New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian, has said “catastrophic” fire conditions have almost completely razed one Australian community to the ground.

She said there was “not much left” of the town of Balmoral, south-west of Sydney, where about 400 people live.
Firefighters are struggling to contain wildfires burning across three states amid dry and hot conditions.
One Balmoral resident, Steve Harrison, shared his dramatic story of surviving the destructive blaze.

“I ran to my vehicle but my garden was already on fire here, and the driveway was on fire and the road was on fire, so I realised I couldn’t evacuate,” the 67-year-old artist told ABC.

“So the day before I had actually built myself a small kiln down the back. A coffin-sized kiln, just big enough for me to crawl inside. I hid in there for half an hour while the fire storm went over.”
Since September, Australia’s bushfire emergency has killed at least nine people, destroyed hundreds of homes and scorched millions of hectares of land.

On Saturday Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison apologised for causing “great anxiety” by going on holiday during the mounting crisis.

A number of small towns have reportedly sustained significant damage this weekend.
Balmoral was hit, for the second time in days, as wind conditions changed around the Green Wattle Creek fire on Saturday.

Residents are currently not allowed to return to the town, amid safety concerns, and an unknown number of homes have been destroyed.

“We want people to have access to their land, to their property, as soon as they can. But it has to be safe,” Ms Berejiklian said. “Even if people have lost their properties, they still want to go back to see what’s left and if there is anything they can salvage.”

No fatalities were reported in the town, but several firefighters were reportedly injured when fighting the blaze.
Elsewhere, at least 72 homes have now been destroyed in the Adelaide Hills area of South Australia – where a 69-year-old man was found dead at his property on Saturday.

READ ALSO: Macron, Sahel leaders shift summit on terrorism

As of Sunday night there were still 98 fires burning in New South Wales, including 50 yet to be contained.
Officials said they were hoping to exploit cooler conditions over the coming days to try to contain the fires.
Morrison has apologised for taking a holiday to Hawaii during the crisis.

“I get it that people would have been upset to know that I was holidaying with my family while their families were under great stress,” he said on Sunday.

Speaking after a briefing with fire officials, he said he knew Australians were anxious about the fires but insisted that the emergency response was “the best in the world”.

Many Australians have accused Scott Morrison’s government of inaction on global warming, with criticism growing as a heatwave broke records across the country and worsened the fires.

Although climate change is not the direct cause of bushfires, scientists have long warned that a hotter, drier climate would contribute to Australia’s fires becoming more frequent and intense.

Protesters gathered outside his home, before he cut his holiday short, to show their opposition to his policies.
Morrison returned to Australia following the deaths of two volunteer firefighters – Geoffrey Keaton, 32, and Andrew O’Dwyer, 36 – on Thursday.

The two men died when their truck was hit by a falling tree near a fire front, causing it to roll off the road.