The Nation Newspaper

Category: Foreign

  • Sri Lanka: Pope, Buhari kick over bomb attacks

    The Catholic pontiff, Pope Francis and President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday criticized the suicide attacks in Sri Lanka early in the day that killed no fewer than Over 200 people.

    Both described the attacks as dastardly and cowardly and pledged their solidarity with Sri Lanka people in the elimination of such heinous crimes.

    Reports indicated that no fewer than 450 others were injured in bomb blasts that ripped through churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, the first major attack on the Indian Ocean island since the end of a civil war 10 years ago.

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    Seven people were arrested and three police officers were killed during a security forces raid on a house in the Sri Lankan capital several hours after the rash of attacks, some of which officials said were suicide bombs.

    The government declared a curfew in Colombo and blocked access to social media and messaging sites, including Facebook and WhatsApp. It was unclear when the curfew would be lifted.

    “Altogether, we have information of 207 dead from all hospitals. According to the information as of now we have 450 injured people admitted to hospitals,” police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera told reporters.

    NAN

  • Comedian Zelenskiy keeps Ukraine presidential poll lead

    Comic actor Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a political novice who plays a fictional president in a popular TV series, has kept his lead in Ukraine’s presidential election race, opinion poll published on Thursday showed.

    The poll by research body Reiting showed Zelenskiy on 57.9 per cent of votes and incumbent Petro Poroshenko on 21.7 per cent.

    Reiting polled 3,000 voters in all regions, except annexed Crimea, from April 12 to April 16.

    READ ALSO: East Ukraine separatists seek union with Russia

    The previous poll made by Reiting in April 5 to April 10 gave Zelenskiy 61 per cent of votes while Poroshenko received 24 per cent.

    Poroshenko and Zelenskiy will meet in the second round of Ukraine’s presidential election, which will take place on April 21.

    Zelenskiy won almost twice as many votes as Poroshenko in the first round, on March 31.

  • Father, son charged for beheading of woman, granddaughter

    A Cambodian farmer and his son have been charged for beheading a woman and her 6-year-old granddaughter whose bodies were found in a forest, authorities said on Friday.

    The Kampong Cham Provincial Court charged the two men with murder with aggravating circumstances on Thursday, said James McCabe, operations director of the Child Protection Unit (CPU), a police division supported by the non-governmental Cambodian Children’s Fund.

    “The accused father, who is in his 60s, and the 35-year-old son were known to the victims and they lived in the same commune,” McCabe told dpa.

    Report says they face up to 30 years in prison if convicted.

    The headless bodies of the 65-year-old woman and her granddaughter were found in a forest about 350 metres from their home in the central province of Kampong Cham on April 3.

    McCabe said they had been reported missing about 24 hours prior.

    Recently, McCabe said four individuals were answering questions from a task force comprised of the CPU, national and local police officers and a visiting Australian forensic pathologist.

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    “The father and son, who farm cashews and bananas in the area, were two of the four people assisting the police with their inquiries,” McCabe added.

    He did not share a motive or if police were seeking additional suspects.

    McCabe was asked whether the victims’ heads had been found, said: “The investigation is ongoing in regards to evidence gathering.”

    The accused were being held in the provincial prison.

  • British police arrest Assange after 7 years in Ecuador embassy

    WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, on Thursday was arrested by British police and carried out of the Ecuadorean embassy after his South American hosts abruptly revoked his seven-year asylum.

    This had paved the way for his possible extradition to the U.S.

    An agitated, frail-looking Assange with white hair and a white beard was carried out of the embassy by at least seven men to a waiting police van.

    “Assange, 47, has today, Thursday 11 April, been arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) at the Embassy of Ecuador,” British police said.

    Police said they arrested Assange after being invited into the embassy following the Ecuadorean government’s withdrawal of asylum.

    Police later added that Assange had been arrested a second time after an extradition request from the U.S.

    The arrests, after nearly seven years holed up in a few cramped rooms at the embassy, mark one of the most peculiar turns in a tumultuous life that has transformed the Australian programmer into a rebel wanted by the U.S.

    Assange’s supporters said Ecuador had betrayed him at the behest of Washington, that the termination of his asylum was illegal and that they feared he would ultimately end up on trial in the U.S.

    To some, Assange is a hero for exposing what supporters cast as abuse of power by modern states and for championing free speech.

    But to others, he is a dangerous rebel, who has undermined U.S. security.

    WikiLeaks angered Washington by publishing hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables that laid bare often highly critical U.S. appraisals of world leaders from Russian President Vladimir Putin to members of the Saudi royal family.

    Assange made international headlines in early 2010 when WikiLeaks published a classified U.S. military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff.

    It was not immediately clear what specifically prompted Ecuador to end Assange’s stay in the embassy, or the extent of the diplomacy that led to the arrest. The Kremlin said it hoped his rights would not be violated.

    Assange in June 2012 took refuge in Ecuador’s London embassy, behind the luxury department store Harrods, to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation.

    Sweden dropped that investigation in 2017 but Assange was arrested on Thursday for breaking the rules of his original bail in London.

    Friends of Assange said the solitude he had experienced in the embassy had hurt him most.

    “It was a miserable existence and I could see it was a strain on him, but a strain he managed rather well,” said Vaughan Smith, a friend who visited Assange.

    “The thing that was most difficult for Julian was the solitude.

    “He was very tough, but in 2018 in particular was very difficult. He was constantly being surveilled and spied upon. There was no privacy for him.”

    WikiLeaks said Ecuador had illegally terminated his political asylum in violation of international law.

    Assange’s relationship with his hosts collapsed after Ecuador accused him of leaking information about President Lenin Moreno’s personal life.

    Moreno said Assange’s diplomatic asylum status had been canceled for repeated violation of conventions.

    He said he had asked Britain to guarantee that Assange would not be extradited to any country where he might face torture or the death penalty.

    “The British government has confirmed it in writing,” Moreno said.

    “The asylum of Mr Assange is unsustainable and no longer viable.”

    The United States has always been reticent about the legal case against Assange, and there were no immediate details on what charges the U.S. extradition request related to.

    Due to a clerical error, a document filed by federal prosecutors in Virginia in an unrelated 2018 investigation revealed that Assange had secretly been indicted by U.S. authorities.

    Prosecutors have acknowledged the authenticity of the document but have refused to confirm or deny that Assange has been criminally charged under U.S. federal law.

  • CAR, Russia solidify bilateral relations

    The Central African Republic (CAR) has cemented bilateral relations with Russia after the Eurasian country brokered a deal that brought reconciliation in the African nation.

    Russia brokered the signing of the Khartoum Peace Agreement between government and 14 groups in February.

    According to CAJ News, the arrangement involved the participation of the African Union (AU), Sudanese mediators and other international observers.

    Firmin Ngrébada was appointed Prime Minister, among the outcomes of the treaty.

    A new inclusive government was created resulting in stability in the Central African country.

    In March, the authorities of Bangui and the leaders of the former armed groups Seleka and Antibalaka noted Russia’s contribution to organizing a platform for negotiations and fostering a dialogue between the government and the armed groups.

    Sylvie Bypo-Temon, CAR Minister of Foreign Affairs, gave a positive assessment of the relationship between the country and Russia.

    She said the government of President Faustin-Archange Touadéra appreciated the cooperation with Russia and plans to further consolidate and strengthen it.

    Touadera held an official meeting with Russia Deputy Foreign Minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, in March.

    Prospects of further developing relations between the two countries were discussed.

    Earlier this month, the new Russian ambassador to the CAR, Vladimir Titorenko, undertook his first official visit to the African nation.

    He has invited Touadera to the Russia-Africa summit set for October.

    Cooperation between CAR and Russia at the official level began in October 2017when Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Touadera met in Sochi, where they laid the foundation for a promising and long-term partnership between the two countries.

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    In particular, agreements on the most important for the CAR process of normalising the political and humanitarian situation, as well as military-economic cooperation and humanitarian support were discussed at this meeting.

    Collaboration in the weapons sector and the development of the army began in January 2018.

    Then, Russian instructors arrived at the CAR territory to train local military units. The first group graduated in March.

    Russia sent its first batch of humanitarian aid to CAR in April last year. The meeting of presidents Vladimir Putin and Touadera took place in May, with Tuadera becoming a special guest at the International Economic Forum held in St. Petersburg.

    Also in May, with the support of Russia, a convoy of several vehicles with food, medicines and other essential items was organised.

    In the framework of cooperation between the two countries, several meetings were held to identify the causes of the conflict in the CAR and to find ways to resolve it.

    The first roundtable under the leadership of Russia was organised in July on the initiative of Valery Zakharov, security advisor to the CAR president.

    With the support of Zakharov, socially-oriented events were also held to help the needy children of the CAR, in particular the Mother and Child Centre in the capital Bangui and humanitarian aid to students of the Elim Bangui Mpoko school.

    In August, an interdepartmental agreement was signed to strengthen military ties between the two countries.

    During the same month, with the support of Russia and Sudan, negotiations were organized between the authorities of Bangui and the armed groups.

    An extraordinary roundtable was held in September, followed by discussions of a peace treaty and the necessary measures to maintain stability.

    Despite the fact that the terms of the peace treaty were violated by aggression by armed groups, Russia and the official authorities of CAR continued to work to resolve the conflict, involving international organizations in this process.

     

  • Britain’s May heading to Brussels in hope of Brexit extension

    British Prime Minister Theresa May will on Wednesday head to Brussels for an emergency meeting of the European Council at which other EU leaders are expected to extend the Brexit deadline.

    May has requested to delay Britain’s EU departure from Friday till June 30, while European Council President Donald Tusk has proposed a flexible one-year extension.

    Report says all EU leaders need to agree to a delay.

    London needs time to broker parliamentary approval on a Brexit divorce deal negotiated with Brussels.

    Britain’s EU departure has already been postponed from March 29.

    Read Also: Brexit: PM Theresa May survives vote of no-confidence

    “As a condition for any delay – either the shorter option sought by May or Tusk’s one-year `flextension’ – Britain will likely have to take part in EU elections in late May,’’ EU diplomats have said.

    On Tuesday, lawmakers backed May’s plan to request an extension until June 30, voting by 420 to 110 in favour of a government motion.

    The prime minister was forced to table the motion after parliament approved a cross-party bill the previous day that legally obliged her to avoid a no-deal Brexit and request a delay.

    Britain’s parliament has rejected May’s withdrawal agreement three times but also failed to come up with a majority position on any other option.

    Her government held more talks on Tuesday with the opposition Labour Party in a bid to break the impasse in parliament.

    Labour lawmaker, Rebecca Long Bailey, told newsmen that the talks were “really constructive” and would continue on Wednesday.

    Labour’s key demand is that Britain remains in a long-term customs union with the EU.

  • Burundi bans BBC after critical coverage

    Burundi has banned the BBC from the country and taken its radio off the airwaves, after what the government said was the broadcaster’s “false’’ reporting on secret torture centres.

    “The licence to operate the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Radio Station is withdrawn,’’ Nestor Bankumukunzi, the head of the National Communication Council, said in a statement on Friday.

    “It is strictly forbidden for any Burundian or foreign journalist located in the national territory of Burundi to directly or indirectly provide information that can be broadcasted by BBC Radio,’’ he added.

    The government said the decision was taken in light of an investigation published by the BBC in December, which alleged Burundi’s security services were running secret torture and detention sites to silence dissent.

    Bankumukunzi said the documentary had violated the law governing the press in the country.

    Voice of America is already temporarily banned in Burundi, which rights groups accused of having a repressive government under President Pierre Nkurunziza.

    Burundi has been seized by civil unrest since 2015, when Nkurunziza announced his decision to seek a third term in office despite a two-term limit.

    His subsequent election victory unleashed a crisis that led to hundreds of people being killed.

    In 2018 changes to the constitution were approved that allowed him to potentially remain in power until 2034; he has, however, said he’ll step down in 2020.

    In 2018, the government also ordered the UN human rights office to close its bureau in the country, after it published negative reports on the situation in the country.

  • Africa records decline in maternal deaths – UN

    The United Nations has disclosed that there is a decline in maternal deaths in Africa and The Gambia, lauding the efforts of governments of the continent in achieving this feat.

    The Gambia Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System, Ms. Seraphine Wekana made this disclosure during the Pan-African Youth Conference holding in Banjul, The Gambia.

    According to her, the decline has been reduced due to improved health services and an increase in childbearing.

    “Africa has recorded a significant decline in maternal death which can be contributed to improved health services in terms of access and quality. The age of childbearing has also increased significantly. ”

    Seraphine, however, said that Africa still experiences the highest number of child mortality deaths urging governments at all level to work towards reducing these indices.

    She lamented the high level of gender inequality in the continent saying women and girls continue to be disadvantaged in harnessing their potentials.

    Seraphine charged the youths to work at promoting gender equality and hold the leaders accountable for ending inequality.

    “We need to accelerate our efforts to work at safeguarding the future of women and girls by enabling them to fully harness their potentials.

    “It is the responsibility of youths to promote gender equality and hold leaders accountable for ending inequality, it is the youths that have the voice to end the inequality in the continent, it is your call and you can end this.”

    The Resident Coordinator reiterated the commitment of the United Nations towards ensuring that Africa achieves the SDG and contribute to the initiative in the position of education, health, skill empowerment, and youth employment by devising programme in agriculture, food security, entrepreneurship, migration, health as well as water and sanitation among others.”

    She declared that the united Nations System will work together with the youth to be able to change the indices if inequality in the continent.

    She then called on the youths to come up with recommendations during the conference that will move and develop the African continent.

  • Germany approves $450m Saudi arms sales despite ban

    German government has approved arms deliveries worth 450 million dollars to Saudi-led forces in Yemen during its first year in office in spite of a partial export ban, dpa reported.

    The government issued 208 permits to the eight participating countries during its first 12 months, it said.

    Germany’s coalition government agreed to ban arms sales to countries involved in the Yemen conflict in March 2018, but allowed existing orders to be fulfilled.

    READ ALSO: Germany seeks employment opportunities for Nigerians

    After the October 2018 killing of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Berlin also blocked sales that had been previously approved.

    The issue has generated a heated controversy; and which threatens to split the German government.

    Merkel’s Conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian allies in the Christian Social Union (CSU) however, wish to lift the restrictions.

  • Algeria awaits constitutional signal on Bouteflika’s fate

    Algerians waited on Wednesday for a decision by the constitutional council on whether ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is fit for office, after the top army officer called for his removal in a bid to defuse mass protests.

    Lt-Gen. Ahmed Gaed Salah, addressing officers in a speech broadcast on Tuesday, said the solution to the biggest political crisis since the army canceled elections in 1992 would be the exit of the president on health grounds.

    The position taken by the powerful army chief of staff was a clear signal that the president, who has rarely appeared in public since suffering a stroke in 2013, will not survive the protests which have threatened to topple the ruling elite.

    The political turmoil has highlighted growing public discontent with the allegations of corruption, nepotism and economic mismanagement that have tarnished Bouteflika’s 20-year rule.

    “This is a default solution following the failure of the negotiations on the departure of the President.

    “It moves away from the democratic transition and approaches a framed succession,” said Hasni Abidi, a Swiss-based Algerian who heads a think tank.

    That approach may break a deadlock for now.

    READ ALSO: Buhari condoles President Bouteflika, Algerians over military plane crash

    Protesters are pushing for an overhaul of the powerful establishment entrenched in power since independence from France in 1962, and the old guard hopes it can put forward a candidate approved by the army.

    For years, rumours have swirled about potential successors but no single credible candidate has emerged with the backing of the military, the political and security establishment who is not at least 70.

    The next formal step is for the constitutional council to formally rule on Bouteflika’s fitness for office. The body has not said when it might reach its decision.

    Any ruling that he is not fit to rule would have to be ratified by members of parliament’s lower and upper house by a two-thirds majority.

    Based on Article 102 of the constitution, the chairman of parliament’s upper house, Abdelkader Bensalah, would serve as caretaker president for at least 45 days in the nation of more than 40 million people.

    The last time the army stepped in during a crisis was in 1992, when the generals canceled an election that Islamists were poised to win.

    That move triggered a civil war that killed an estimated 200,000 people.

    The military remains highly sensitive to any signs of instability and Salah has warned he will not allow the demonstrations to lead to chaos.

    The stakes are high, for Algeria is a leading member of OPEC and a top gas supplier to Europe, although so far oil and gas output appears unaffected by the unrest, an International Energy Agency (IEA) official said on Tuesday.

    Algeria is also regarded by Western states as a partner in counter-terrorism, a significant military force in North Africa and a key diplomatic player in efforts to resolve crises in neighboring Mali and Libya.