Category: Foreign

Three people arrested in connection with the deaths of 39 people found dead inside a lorry in Essex have been released on bail.

The suspects, two men and a woman had been held on suspicion of manslaughter and conspiracy to traffic people after the discovery in Grays last Wednesday.

Lorry driver Maurice Robinson, 25, is due to appear in court on Monday.

Meanwhile, families in Vietnam face an anxious wait to find out if their loved ones were among the dead.

Those bailed were a 46-year-old man from Northern Ireland, who was arrested at Stansted Airport on Friday, and Joanna and Thomas Maher, both 38, from Warrington, Cheshire.

Robinson, of Laurel Drive, Northern Ireland, has been charged with 39 counts of manslaughter as well as people trafficking, immigration and money laundering offences.

He is due before Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

In total, five people have been arrested in connection with the investigation into the deaths.

A man in his 20s, arrested by Irish police in Dublin, was said to be “of interest” to the Essex Police investigation.

In Vietnam, relatives of Bui Thi Nhung, 19, said they feared she may be among the dead.

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The teenager is thought to be the youngest of those who died.

Since the bodies were discovered on Wednesday, several families in Vietnam have expressed concerns over missing relatives.

Among them are Pham Thi Tra My, 26, who last messaged her family late on Tuesday, and two men – Nguyen Dinh Luong, 20, and Nguyen Dinh Tu.

A friend of Tran Thi Tho, 21, fears she may be among the victims. The friend, who lives in Glasgow, did not want to be identified but told the BBC he was due to meet up with her when she arrived in the UK.

Police in Vietnam are taking DNA samples from family members of those reported missing in a bid to identify the victims, Reuters has reported.

 

By Chikodi Okereocha

 

THE number of Japanese affiliated companies in Nigeria has doubled in the last four years, growing from 21 in 2014 to 42 last year. This shows Japan’s strong interests in the country’s market.

Trade Commissioner/Managing Director of Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), Mr. Shigeyo Nishizawa, attributed this to Nigeria’s economic recovery as well as increase in foreign investments.

He said Japanese firms have, therefore, taken a huge advantage of this economic recovery to invest by expanding their businesses in Africa’s biggest market.

Nishizawa spoke at a news conference in Lagos to announce Japan’s readiness to participate in the Lagos International Trade Fair.

He said 37 Japanese firms, their agents and local distributors would be exhibiting at the fair scheduled to hold from November 1 to 10.

JETRO is a Japanese governmental organisation that promotes mutual trade and investment between Japan and the rest of the world.

It started in Nigeria in 1955 and recently, it is focusing on promoting investment and facilitating trade from Japan to Nigeria.

Nishizawa said Japanese products that will feature at this year’s fair include brands of motorbikes from Honda, Yamaha and motor brands from Mitsubishi, Toyota, Isuzu and Suzuki.

Other products include cameras and multifunction printing machine from Canon, Sharp and Brother. There will also be construction materials such as Plascon Paint and Alteco Adhesive, which guarantees quality in housing construction.

The Trade Commissioner said to cater for Japan’s huge presence at the fair, JETRO was organising the Japan Pavilion at the Lagos International Trade Fair 2019, in collaboration with the Embassy of Japan.

He noted that this year marks the sixth year of JETRO’s participation at the fair since the organisation started in 2014 with the Japan pavilion, which is one of the biggest pavilions at the fair.

Nishizawa added that one of the captivating moments in Japan Pavilion this year will be the “Made-in-Japan, Made-for Women” Corner.

“JETRO is setting up a special zone at the Japan Pavilion featuring a collection of products for women in Nigeria. There is a common slogan in Nigeria that says: ‘Looking good is good business’.

“This zone will introduce Japanese products and services helping to enrich women’s lives with more fashionable and convenient items.

“Series of products like cosmetics, hair wigs, shampoo, sewing machines, headphones, foods and beverages, seasonings, etc., will be exhibiting, including live performance on stage,” he said.

Trade between Nigeria and Japan has been growing. For instance, export from Japan to Nigeria last year rose by 2.3 per cent, increasing to $328 million, from $321 million in 2017.

Similarly, export from Nigeria to Japan last year rose by 17.7 per cent to $922 million, compared to $783 million in 2017.

According to Nishizawa, some of the products that boosted the trade volume between both countries include vehicles, which total export share stood at 20.7 per cent last year; steel products, 16.7 per cent; chemical products, 11.3 per cent.

On the other hand, Nigeria exported oil and gas, which share stood at 77.6 per cent of total export last year, and non-ferrous metals, 15.4 per cent,

The JETRO boss said the increased volume of trade between both countries and the activities of Japanese companies in Nigeria are contributing to the country’s economic growth and development.

 

ZIMBABWE’S President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Friday described Western sanctions as a “cancer” sapping the economy, and his supporters denounced the measures during marches held around the country.

In Harare, many stayed away from the demonstrations, saying they were a distraction from the president’s mishandling of the economy, which is plagued by 18-hour daily power cuts and shortages of foreign exchange, fuel and medicines.

Mnangagwa has so far failed to unify the country since taking over from the late Robert Mugabe, who was ousted in a coup in 2017.

Hopes of a swift recovery have faded as the economy struggles to exit its deepest crisis in a decade.

Mnangagwa, like Mugabe, blames the sanctions imposed by the U.S. and EU since 2001 for the economic ills and says they are intended to remove his party from power.

“Every part and sector of our economy has been affected by these sanctions like a cancer,” Mnangagwa told a sparse crowd in Harare’s 60,000-seater national stadium.

“Enough is enough, remove them. Remove these sanctions now!”

The poor attendance showed the difficulties that Mnangagwa faces in mobilising party members still divided between Mugabe’s supporters and those who ousted him.

The rift was exposed by a bruising dispute over the former leader’s funeral.

Earlier, government supporters led by Mnangagwa’s wife Auxillia and bussed from across Zimbabwe marched for 5km to the stadium.

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Singing and dancing, they waved placards inscribed “No sanctions, no discrimination, sanctions new version of slavery,” and “Enough is enough, remove sanctions now” .

“We have no jobs because of the sanctions. America wants to remove ZANU-PF from power through sanctions but we will defend the party and our president,” said 32-year-old Martin Mafusire.

Similar marches were held throughout Zimbabwe after Mnangagwa declared Friday a public holiday.

But in downtown Harare, many people went about their daily business selling everything from fruit to cellphones.

“It is Mnangagwa, who has to go because he has failed.

“I can’t leave my station to go on a useless march,” said mother-of-three Catherine Chihota, selling fruit at a street corner.

The EU and U.S. imposed financial and travel bans on ZANU-PF and top military figures for alleged human rights abuses and electoral fraud.

The government says the measures are punishment for its seizures of white-owned farms.

ZANU-PF supporters condemn the sanctions while the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change says they are not the cause of the country’s economic crisis.

The regional Southern African Development Community has rallied behind Zimbabwe’s call for an end to sanctions.

While the government ran documentaries and articles in the official press criticising sanctions, the U.S. and EU embassies took to social media to rebut the official narrative.

 

THE United Kingdom (UK) government plans to ask lawmakers to vote on Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill on Friday, Downing Street has said.

The PM’s spokesman said the government planned to start the process in Parliament before Christmas in the “proper constitutional way”.

The Withdrawal Agreement Bill is the legislation that will enable Brexit to happen – the UK is due to leave the EU on January 31.

It comes as the PM prepares to address his new MPs in Westminster.

Many of the 109 new Conservative MPs won in areas traditionally held by Labour in Thursday’s election, which saw the party gain an 80-seat majority.

Johnson is also expected to carry out a mini cabinet reshuffle.

He needs to fill posts made vacant by those who stood down ahead of the general election, including the Culture and Welsh Secretary posts.

The prime minister has also cleared a parliamentary report into alleged Russian interference in UK democracy for publication.

The Queen will formally open Parliament on Thursday when she sets out the government’s legislative programme.

The prime minister’s official spokesman told a Westminster briefing: “We plan to start the process (of the withdrawal agreement bill) before Christmas and will do so in the proper constitutional way in discussion with the Speaker.”

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The Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, who was elected to the role last month, will be in charge of proceedings in the Commons.

Asked if the legislation would be identical to that introduced in the last Parliament, the spokesman said: “You will have to wait for it to be published but it will reflect the agreement that we made with the EU on our withdrawal.”

The bill is expected to pass through Parliament in time to meet Boris Johnson’s promise for the UK to leave the EU on January 31.

Johnson then has to negotiate a new trade agreement with the EU and have it ratified before the end of the post-Brexit transition period that ends on December 31, 2020. He has repeatedly said that the transition period will not be extended.

The Queen’s Speech is also expected to include legislation linked to pledges made during the election campaign – most notably a guarantee on NHS funding.

The prime minister’s spokesman also said Johnson had “carefully considered” the report from the Commons Intelligence and Security Committee into alleged Russian interference in UK democracy.

“He is content publication would not prejudice the functions of those bodies that safeguard our national security,” the spokesman said.

 

THE United States (U.S.) Senate’s top Democrat Chuck Schumer has called for current and former White House aides to testify at President Donald Trump’s expected impeachment trial.

Schumer said he wanted senior officials, including White House acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and ex-adviser John Bolton, to be summoned.

But Republicans, who control the Senate, have called for a short trial without witnesses.

A vote in the Democratic-run House to impeach Trump is set for Wednesday.

If a majority votes for impeachment, the case will then move to a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate.

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The president is accused of soliciting a foreign country to help him politically, by trying to pressure Ukraine to launch a corruption investigation into his Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Trump is also accused of obstructing Congress. The White House refused to allow staff to testify during hearings in the House of Representatives in recent weeks.

The Republican president denies wrongdoing. He has called the Democratic-led inquiry a “witch hunt” and predicted it will backfire by benefiting him in next year’s election.

Trump lashed out on Sunday at the Democratic leader of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, tweeting that “Nancy’s teeth were falling out of her mouth, and she didn’t have time to think!”

Yesterday morning, the House Judiciary Committee published its case for impeaching Trump in a 658-page report that charges him with having “betrayed the nation by abusing his high office”.

UNITED States (U.S.) President Donald Trump has cast doubt on whether he will participate in the customary televised debates in 2020 ahead of the presidential election in November.

“I will make a decision at an appropriate time,” Trump said as part of a series of tweets in which he bashed the non-profit Commission on Presidential Debates that has sponsored and produced the debates for the past three-decades.

Trump has avoided taking part in debates so far this election cycle, as he is facing no serious contender within his own Republican Party.

The rival Democrats have held five primary debates so far, with another planned for this week.

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Seven Democrats have qualified for the upcoming televised forum, down from a peak of 20 at the onset.

“I look very much forward to debating whoever the lucky person is who stumbles across the finish line in the little watched Do Nothing Democrat Debates,” Trump said.

Trump’s anger at the commission stems in part from an incident in 2016, when his microphone volume was modulated during the first debate with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Polls done at the time showed Clinton performed better in all three debates.

Recently, the New York Times reported that Trump aides were on the fence about the president’s participation in debates in 2020, in part over his anger at the commission and in part because he wanted a say in who will moderate them.

When a man in North Carolina was pulled over on suspicion of driving drunk, police didn’t believe him when he said he hadn’t had any alcohol.

The man, in his late 40’s at the time, refused to take a breathalyzer test and was taken to a hospital, where his initial blood alcohol level was found to be 0.2% – about 2.5 times the legal limit and the equivalent of consuming 10 drinks an hour. Despite the man swearing up and down that he hadn’t had anything to drink, doctors didn’t believe him either.

But researchers at the Richmond University Medical Center in New York eventually discovered that the man was telling the truth. He wasn’t downing beers or cocktails – instead, there was yeast in his gut that was likely converting carbohydrates in the food he ate to alcohol.

In other words, his body was brewing beer.

The findings were reported in a study in BMJ Open Gastroenterology. The man, whose identity has not been revealed, had a rarely diagnosed medical condition called auto-brewery syndrome (ABS), also known as gut fermentation syndrome.

Gut fermentation syndrome occurs when yeast in the gastrointestinal tract causes the body to convert carbohydrates ingested through food into alcohol. The process typically takes place in the upper GI tract, which includes the stomach and the first part of the small intestine.

AUTHORITIES in Russia said guards at a prison intercepted a cat that was apparently being used in an attempt to smuggle drugs into the facility.

The Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia said guards at the IK-10 UFSIN prison in Tararstan spotted a cat on prison grounds and captured the feline.

The cat’s collar was found to have an attached package of suspected narcotics, believed to be hashish.

The drugs and the cat were turned over to local police.

Investigators said a similar attempt was foiled in 2010 when a cat was used in an attempt to smuggle heroin into the prison.

Guards intercepted the cat, which turned out to belong to one of the prisoners. The prisoner’s family was accused of releasing the cat with the drugs near the prison in an attempt to have the animal locate its owner and deliver the drugs.

EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states put off a decision on Friday on Britain’s request to delay its departure from the EU beyond Oct. 31, amid uncertainty on whether the British parliament would decide to hold a general election.

European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva made this known following a two-hour meeting of ambassadors from the 27 remaining member states.

She said: “The EU27 have agreed to the principle of an extension and work will now continue in the coming days.”

She added that there were currently no plans for an emergency leaders’ summit to resolve the issue.

EU ambassadors are expected to reconvene early next week.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that Brexit could still take place next week if the EU did not grant a delay – contradicting senior ministers who said that it was too late to ratify the Brexit divorce agreement by then.

“As things stand we can leave on Oct. 31.

“Parliament, as you know, has decided that they want to ask Brussels to keep us in the EU,” Johnson told reporters during a visit to a school.

He said that he was “totally against” any extension, saying: “We should be leaving on Oct. 31.”

Johnson was legally required to seek the extension but made it clear at the time that he opposed it.

Member states have been divided over whether to grant the three-month Brexit delay formally requested by Britain – possibly with an early opt-out – or whether to offer London a shorter window to ratify the Brexit deal agreed with Brussels.

The timetable was thrown into further disarray on Thursday when Johnson proposed early elections on Dec. 12, arguing that a new government should finalise Brexit if his deal is not ratified by then.

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The British parliament is supposed to decide on Monday whether to hold early elections.

The issue is “one parameter,” but not the only issue, an EU diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile however, Britain’s opposition Labour party is making its decision on an election contingent on what length of Brexit extension Brussels is willing to offer, for fear of sliding into a possible no-deal scenario.

The ratification of the Brexit deal ground to a halt this week, when parliament in London indicated its approval but scrapped a proposed three-day timetable to scrutinise it and turn it into law.

Johnson was compelled to lodge a request for a three-month extension, against his will, by an act of British parliament last weekend.

One possibility is a so-called “flextension,” whereby London would leave the EU before Jan. 31 in the event the exit deal is ratified by both British and EU lawmakers ahead of time.

The Brexit withdrawal agreement regulates the terms of Britain’s departure from the EU for an interim period while the two sides agree on their future relationship.

Without the deal, EU rules would stop applying to Britain overnight, likely leading to uncertainty and chaos for citizens and businesses on both sides.