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Tag: U.S

  • John McCain diagnosed with brain cancer

    John McCain diagnosed with brain cancer

    U.S. Senator John McCain was found to have a brain tumor, according to a  statement released by his office.

    The tumor was discovered after the former Republican presidential nominee underwent a procedure last week to remove a blood clot, U.S. media reported.

    McCain has represented Arizona at the U.S. Senate since 1986.

    Of note, the senator’s doctors said in the statement that McCain’s “underlying health is excellent.”

    Here’s the statement:

    “Washington, D.C. ­– At the request of Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and his family, Mayo Clinic released the following statement today:

    “On Friday, July 14, Sen. John McCain underwent a procedure to remove a blood clot from above his left eye at Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix. Subsequent tissue pathology revealed that a primary brain tumor known as a glioblastoma was associated with the blood clot.

    “Scanning done since the procedure (a minimally invasive craniotomy with an eyebrow incision) shows that the tissue of concern was completely resected by imaging criteria.

    “The Senator and his family are reviewing further treatment options with his Mayo Clinic care team. Treatment options may include a combination of chemotherapy and radiation.

    “The Senator’s doctors say he is recovering from his surgery ‘amazingly well’ and his underlying health is excellent.”

    The office of Senator John McCain also released the following statement:

    “Senator McCain appreciates the outpouring of support he has received over the last few days. He is in good spirits as he continues to recover at home with his family in Arizona.

    “He is grateful to the doctors and staff at Mayo Clinic for their outstanding care, and is confident that any future treatment will be effective.

    “Further consultations with Senator McCain’s Mayo Clinic care team will indicate when he will return to the United States Senate.”

    The senator’s daughter, Meghan McCain, issued a statement on Twitter about the diagnosis:

    “The news of my father’s illness has affected every one of us in the McCain family. My grandmother, mother, brothers, sisters and I have all endured the shock of the news, and now we live with the anxiety about what comes next.

    “It is an experience familiar to us, given my father’s previous battle with cancer – and it is familiar to the countless American families whose loved ones are also stricken with the tragedy of disease and the inevitability of age.

    “If we could ask anything of anyone now, it would be the prayers of those of you who understand this all too well. We would be so grateful for them.

    “It won’t surprise you to learn that in all this, the one of us who is most confident and calm is my father. He is the toughest person I know. The cruelest enemy could not break him.

    “The aggression of political life could not bend him. So he is meeting this challenge as he has every other. Cancer may afflict him in many ways: but it will not make him surrender. Nothing ever has.

    “My love for my father is boundless, and like any daughter I cannot and do not wish to be in a world without him. I have faith that those days remain far away.

    “Yet even in this moment, my fears for him are overwhelmed by one thing above all: gratitude for our years together, and the years still to come.

    “He is a warrior at dusk, one of the greatest American of our age, and the worthy heir to his father’s and grandfather’s name. But to me, he is something more.

    “He is my strength, my example, my refuge, my confidante, my teacher, my rock, my hero – my dad.”

  • U.S to crackdown on Nigerians, Brazilians, others with overstayed visas

    U.S to crackdown on Nigerians, Brazilians, others with overstayed visas

    A crackdown on visitors with visa overstays is imminent in the United States of America with Nigeria, Brazil, Venezuela, China and  Colombia listed as countries with the most total overstays that do not participate in the visa waiver programme.

    The Trump Administration says it has a problem with visa overstays in the country and is now determined to step up enforcement to try to cut down on the violations.

    Consequently, the government is introducing a face scan for all US citizens travelling abroad.

    The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said this is aimed mainly at better tracking visa overstays and also at tightening security.

    The agency said it’s the only way to successfully expand a programme that tracks non immigrant foreigners.

    A report in May showed that more than 54 million visitors checked in last year – and nearly 630,000 of them didn’t go back home.

    John Wagner, the Customs deputy executive assistant commissioner in charge of the programme, confirmed in an interview that U.S. citizens departing on international flights will submit to face scans.

    The number of visa overstays was about 200,000 higher than the previous 12-month period.

    Libya, a country of special interest because of terrorism concerns, saw 43 percent of its students refuse to leave on time, while a staggering 75 percent of students from Eritrea broke the terms of their deal, the report said.

    Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Centre for Immigration Studies, said those kinds of rates should force a rethink at the State Department, which issues visas, and should spur immigration officials to put more effort into deterring and deporting overstays in the U.S.

    “The fact that more than 700,000 visits were overstayed last year shows just how much we need to step up interior enforcement to create more of a deterrent, not only by identifying and deporting overstays, but by weakening the job magnet by cracking down on employers who hire illegal workers,” she said.

     

  • U.S to crackdown on Nigerians, Brazilians, others with overstayed visas

    A crackdown on visitors with visa overstays is imminent in the United States of America with Nigeria, Brazil, Venezuela, China and  Colombia listed as countries with the most total overstays that do not participate in the visa waiver program.

    The Trump Administration says it has a problem with visa overstays in the country and is now determined to step up enforcement to try to cut down on the violations.

    Consequently, the government is introducing a face scan for all US citizens travelling abroad.

    The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said this is aimed mainly at better tracking visa overstays and also at tightening security.

    The agency said it’s the only way to successfully expand a programme that tracks non immigrant foreigners.

     

  • U.S pledges support for FG’s anti-graft campaign

    U.S pledges support for FG’s anti-graft campaign

    The United States on Wednesday reiterated its commitment to the Federal Government’s anti-corruption drive, saying it would continue to offer material and intelligence supports to ensure Nigeria is rid of graft.

    The U.S. Charge d’Affaires, Mr. David Young, said the cost of corruption to the economy should not be measured by figures of stolen assets, but its effects on hardworking citizens.

    The diplomat said America would continue to support open partnership with agencies of government and civil society organisations to end corruption in Nigeria, adding that all Nigeria’s stolen assets stashed in the U.S would be recovered and returned to the country.

    Young spoke at the launch of Report Yourself, a web-based anti-corruption platform to promote citizen engagement in the fight against corruption.

    The event was organised by BudgIT in collaboration with the U.S Mission to Nigeria and Religious Leader Anti-corruption Committee (RLAC), a non-governmental organisation (NGO).

    The web-based platform was developed by BudgIT and funded by the U.S Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement.

    Young said the platform was created with the aim to empower citizens to instantaneously report corruption and bribery in public and private sectors as it occurs.

    He said: “We hope Report Yourself platform starts a new movement in citizen engagement in Nigerian government’s efforts to end corruption. We do hope every Nigerian citizen who is affected by corruption would feel empowered to share their experiences. The tide will turn against the culture of corruption when Nigerians recognise that they must fight as one to stamp out this scourge that has hampered development and stifled prosperity.”

    “Through the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, we are working to increase the capacity of Nigerian law enforcement agencies and the justice sector.”

    The Head of Public Complaint Rapid Response Unit (PCRRU) of the Nigeria Police Force, Abayomi Shogunle, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, pledged the police’s support for the platform, saying it would complement the PCRRU’s effort to end indiscipline in the force.

    Sogunle urged members of the public to engage the platform and report corrupt cases around them.

  • Mixed reactions trail Nigeria’s yam exports

    Mixed reactions trail Nigeria’s yam exports

    Stakeholders in the agricultural sector have expressed mixed reactions on Nigeria’s new policy to export yams to UK and the U.S., saying Nigeria has yet to attain self-sufficiency in yam production.

    The stakeholders told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday that the hardship, which most citizens were facing in purchasing yams in the market, ought to be addressed first.

    They said that the export policy could be counter-productive if no tangible efforts were made to boost yam production across the country.

    Dr Tunde Arosanyin, National Coordinator for Zero Hunger Commodities, who commended the Federal Government for the new initiative, however, said that a lot needed to be done to increase food production in the country.

    “Ordinarily, the exportation of food items to Europe or America is a welcome development but there are mixed feelings on the policy in the sense that people are presently hungry in Nigeria.

    “We do not have enough food to eat; the government and citizens must look inwards to see how they can embark on more integrated farming to produce enough yam.

    “The focus should not only be on how to improve yam production alone but it should also be on other crops like cassava, rice, maize, millet and sorghum and so on.

    “When we are able to produce surplus food and feed ourselves; we can then think of selling these commodities to earn the much-needed foreign exchange.

    “Earlier in the year, neighbouring African countries came here and bought produce such as maize and sorghum. This resulted in the scarcity of these products and jacked up their prices beyond the reach of an average Nigerian.

    “Some people made money from selling these crops but the masses were worse off for it. So, we have to first improve on our food production, both in terms of quantity and quality.

    “To begin with, let us see how we can feed our citizens before exporting the surplus foods to earn foreign exchange,” he said.

    Arosanyin, however, noted that Nigeria was still the largest producer of yam in the world, accounting for over 70 per cent of the world production.

    “But the consumption level of the citizens is quite high and there are still some gaps that ought to be filled in yam production.

    “Notwithstanding, it is a good thing as we are exploring the international market for yam but we should also give the enabling environment to the farmer, to first and foremost, improve production.

    “There is this good yam seedling known as mini-set. It is a technology produced by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), which was used in the 80s, and this was impressive.

    “I want the Federal Government to negotiate with relevant research institutes like the IITA to bring back the yam mini-set to farmers in states that produce yam in large quantities.

    “Besides, agricultural extension officers have to be brought back in order to encourage farmers to make use of this improved yam seedling to increase yield.

    “If we improve on the quality of our yam seeds, then we are good to go to the international market,’’ he added.

    Mr Yusuf Adams, National President, Sorghum and Millet Farmers Association of Nigeria, said that the new initiative, which would be a plus to the country’s economy, could be a minus to its food security.

    He, however, called for pragmatic strategies to scale up yam production so as to get a balanced result, which would be a plus to both the economy and food security.

    He noted that only Benue and Niger states were currently producing yam in large quantities, adding that this notwithstanding, the average price of a tuber of yam in the market was between N400 and N500.

    Adams particularly advised the Federal Government to involve yam farmers in the new initiative, adding that it should buy yams directly from farmers and process them for export in order to boost the farmers’ income and standard of living.

    He said that the Federal Government should also consider plans for the exportation of produce like sorghum and millet because of their abundance and export potential.

  • Xi says China-U.S. relations affected by ‘negative factors’

    Xi says China-U.S. relations affected by ‘negative factors’

    China-U.S. relations have been affected by some “negative factors,” Chinese President Xi Jinping told President Donald Trump during a phone call on Monday.

    The conversation came after a series of recent actions by the U.S. related to Taiwan, North Korea and the South China Sea that have been labeled by Beijing as “wrong decisions” or “provocations.”

    Xi told Trump he hoped the U.S. would handle Taiwan-related issues appropriately and that China places great importance on Trump’s reaffirmation of the “One China” policy, which prohibits countries that have diplomatic relations with Beijing from pursuing official ties with Taiwan, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

    On Thursday, the U.S. government angered Beijing when it approved a 1.4-billion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan, which Beijing sees as a breakaway province.

    China asked the U.S. to cancel the deal lest it would damage “China-US relations and cooperation in important fields,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Friday.

    A U.S. government official said US arms sales to Taiwan reflect no change in the “one China” policy and are based on an assessment of Taiwan’s defence needs.

    The U.S. government also announced on Thursday it had imposed sanctions against China’s Bank of Dandong over its alleged dealings with North Korea.

    China’s Foreign Ministry retorted that the sanctions were a “wrong decision” made arbitrarily by the US outside the framework of the UN Security Council.

    on Sunday, a U.S. warship sailed close to a disputed island in the South China Sea claimed by China, prompting an angry response from Beijing, which described the action as a “serious provocation.”

    The guided-missile destroyer USS Stethem came within 12 miles of an island in the Paracel Archipelago, which is claimed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam, CNN reported.

    The ship was part of a U.S. Navy “freedom of navigation exercise,” the news network added.

    The operation “infringed upon China’s sovereignty, disrupted peace, security and order of the relevant waters and put in jeopardy the facilities and personnel on the Chinese islands, and thus constitutes a serious political and military provocation,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang.

    China had dispatched military vessels and fighter planes to warn the U.S. vessel, said Wu Qian, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of National Defense.

    “The Chinese side will continue to take all necessary means to defend national sovereignty and security,” Lu added.

    China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a key shipping lane that is believed to be rich in resources. An international court in 2016 invalidated China’s claims to the region in a case filed by the Philippines, but Beijing does not recognise the ruling.

    This is the second “freedom of navigation operation” that has taken place during Donald Trump’s presidency.

    The exercises were done routinely under the Obama administration, however, Trump was at first mostly silent on the South China Sea issue while he turned to China for help in reining in the nuclear threat from North Korea.

    Trump and Xi also discussed the nuclear threat from North Korea during the phone call.

    Both leaders “reaffirmed their commitment to a denuclearised Korean Peninsula,” the White House said.

  • China asks U.S. to cancel weapons deal with Taiwan

    China asks U.S. to cancel weapons deal with Taiwan

    China on Friday strongly opposed a plan to sell weapons worth 1.4 billion dollars to Taiwan, and has asked the U.S. to cancel the deal.

    A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson,, said the sale of military equipment, which the U.S. State Department approved Thursday, threatens U.S.-China diplomatic relations.

    “The U.S. should revoke the weapons deal plan in order to avoid damaging China-US relations and cooperation in important fields,” Lu said.

    China has filed “solemn representations” with the U.S. on the matter and “stresses that no one can shake the Chinese government’s determination to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he added.

    Beijing regards Taiwan as part of China’s territory and prohibits countries with which it has diplomatic relations from pursuing official ties with Taiwan.

    A U.S. government official said the arms sales to Taiwan reflect no change in the long-standing One China policy, which recognises the People’s Republic of China.

    He said that the sales comply with the Taiwan Relations Act and are based on an assessment of Taiwan’s defence needs.

    The equipment includes technical support for early warning radar surveillance, missiles and torpedoes.

    The official said the sales represent upgrades, including equipment needed to convert current defensive systems from analogue to digital.

    “There is continuity here, the United States has been doing defence sales with Taiwan for 50 years or so, so nothing has changed,” said State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert.

    Taiwan government spokesman Sidney Lin said the sale increases the country’s self-defence abilities and “confidence and ability to maintain the status quo of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”

    Lai I-chung, a senior political analyst of Taiwan Thinktank, said the approval of the arms sale showed that relations between Taiwan and the U.S. remained steady, according to the Central News Agency.

    Under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, the U.S. assures “Taiwan’s ability to maintain a sufficient self-defence capability.”

    The last U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, worth 1.83 billion US dollars, was authorised by the Obama administration in December 2015.

  • Fed Govt to inaugurate yam export to Europe, U.S., China

    The Federal Government will today inaugurate export of yams to Europe, United States of America and China, Minister of Agriculture Chef Audu Ogbeh said yesterday.

    He said the Federal Executive Council (FEC) gave its approval at yesterday’s meeting.

    The minister explained that yam exportation would not increase hunger in the land.

    Rather than seeing yam export as a problem, he said Nigerians should see it as an economic opportunity.

    The minister said: “We informed council that last week we completed arrangements for the first formal export of Nigerian yams to the United Kingdom. Some people have asked whether by exporting yams, we are not going to subject Nigerians to hunger and I had to inform Council today that will certainly not arise.

    “You will remember about February or March this year some of you asked the same question, is Nigeria going to face famine? And I said it cannot happen. Apart from the crisis in the Northeast, we definitely are not short of food, although prices are high in some areas.

    “Tomorrow, we shall flag off this export in three container loads

    containing 72tonnes of Nigerian yams. Two containers went out in

    February; one arrived in New York on the 16th of this month. This is

    important because for those of you, who travel and many Nigerians out there, you go to shops where they sell African foods and you never see anything from Nigeria, it is mostly called Ghana yams.

    “Now, we account for 61 per cent of the total output of yams in the world, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation. The rest is shared between some countries in the West Africa and the West Indies.”

    He added; “For us to go abroad and not find Nigerian yams in the market, it is an embarrassment. Because Ghana is targeting $4 billion of yams in the next three years and if they can do that, we who are the masters of yam production have no business lagging behind.

    “Essentially, we are making this point because we are diversifying the economy. We are talking about economic recovery and growth and we will have to export whatever is needed from Nigeria by other countries so that we can earn more foreign exchange rather than expend everything we have on importation.

    “If they want yams, we will sell yams. If they want pepper, we will sell pepper. If they want ginger, we will sell ginger. Just like we buy so much from them, it is time for them to buy from us. I assure you this is how the economy of Nigeria we are dreaming of is going to recover.”

    He noted that the only challenges that may be faced will be the question of labour as the young men, who make yam heaps are reducing in number because they are moving to the cities for greener pastures.

    He added:”To solve that problem, we are mechanising the production of yams. We have designed a new plough that will be attached to the tractor to make the yam heap. The current ploughs we have cannot make a heap.

    “In Ilorin the Nigerian Centre for Agric Mechanisation is producing a new plough that can make the yam heaps and once that is in operation, we will mechanise the production.”

    Stressing that food exports have gone up in Nigeria in the last one year by 82 per cent, he said the government will ensure it meets the finest standard in the market.

    On other crops, he said:”But the other good news is cashew nuts. These things look small. We are in conversations with Walmart, the biggest supermarket chain in the U.S. They came here and asked us to roast cashew nuts for them. Their demand is a 130,000tonnes of cashew nuts per annum.

    “The total value is $7 billion, but what we are doing now is shipping raw cashew to Vietnam. They are the ones roasting and selling to the U.S. This year, we are going to create six cashew processing factories in Nigeria. One to be sited in Enugu,Imo,Benue,Kogi, Kwara and Oyo states. These are the cashew belt for now.

    “These things are coming because at last, Nigeria is beginning to focus on non-oil export. Once you can diversify your economy,if something goes wrong in one sector, you can hang on to the other.”

    “The Indians are asking us for beans; all categories of it in the market in India is worth $100 billion dollars. When the Indian Vice President came here, he asked me to visit so we could talk. So, the market in agric is huge, the prospects are large. It’s about improving on our strategies at home and getting all our states to get involved. Not all of them are doing what they ought to be doing now,” he said.

  • Nigerian community in U.S. mourns Osotimehin

    Nigerian community in U.S. mourns Osotimehin

    The Nigerian community in the U.S., Organisation for the Advancement of Nigerians (OAN), has expressed sadness over the death of  Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, the Executive Director of UN Population Fund (UNFPA).

    Osotimehin, a former Nigerian Minister of Health, died on Sunday night in New York at the age of 68.

    OAN dedicates efforts toward enhancing the image of Nigerians in the U.S. and addressing the negative stereotypes of Nigerians in the American media.

    It has been highlighting the positive contributions of the vast majority of Nigerians to the American society since 1989.

    In a statement in New York on Wednesday, OAN President Solomon Bakare said the late UNFPA chief spent his life fighting for access to public health for women and girls across the world.

    “The president and members of Organisation for the Advancement of Nigerians (OAN) were saddened by the sudden death of Dr Babatunde Osotimehin, the UNFPA Head and former Minister of Health.

    “He was a selfless and fearless leader who spent his life fighting for access to public health for women, girls and children across the globe.

    “His contribution to global public health is forever engraved in the hearts of many lives he helped to save.

    “We thank his family for sharing Dr Osotimehin with the world; and we pray that God will comfort you during this difficult time.

    “May the patriotic and humane soul of Dr Babatunde Osotimehin rest in perfect peace,” Bakare said.

    Osetimehin was also  a Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) in Nigeria.

  • U.S. threatens to withdraw from UN Human Rights Council

    U.S. threatens to withdraw from UN Human Rights Council

    The U.S. threatened to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council unless reforms are ushered in including the removal of what it sees as an “anti-Israel bias”, diplomats and activists said.

    U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, who holds cabinet rank in President Donald Trump’s administration, said on Friday that Washington would decide on whether to withdraw from the Council after its three-week session in Geneva ends this month.

    Under Trump, Washington has broken with decades of U.S. foreign policy by turning away from multilateralism.

    His decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement last week drew criticism from governments around the world.

    The Council’s critical stance of Israel has been a major sticking point for its ally the U.S.
    Washington boycotted the body for three years under President George W. Bush before rejoining under Barack Obama in 2009.

    Haley, writing in the Washington Post at the weekend, called for the Council to “end its practice of wrongly singling out Israel for criticism.”

    The possibility of a U.S. withdrawal has raised alarm bells among Western allies and activists.
    Eight groups, including Freedom House and the Jacob Blaustein Institute, wrote to Haley in

    May saying a withdrawal would be counterproductive since it could lead to the Council “unfairly targeting Israel to an even greater degree.”

    The groups also said that during the period of the U.S. boycott, the Council’s performance suffered “both with respect to addressing the world’s worst violators and with respect to its anti-Israel bias.”

    The council has no powers other than to rebuke governments it deems as violating human rights and to order investigations but plays an important role in international diplomacy.
    Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory are a fixed item on the agenda of the 47-member body set up in 2006.

    Washington, Israel’s main ally, often casts the only vote against the Arab-led resolutions.

    “When the council passes more than 70 resolutions against Israel, a country with a strong human rights record, and just seven resolutions against Iran, a country with an abysmal human rights record, you know something is seriously wrong,” wrote Haley.

    John Fisher, Geneva Director of the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, did not appear to fear an immediate withdrawal.

    “Our understanding is that it is going to be a message of engagement and reform,” Fisher said.

    However, Fisher said Israel’s human rights record did warrant Council scrutiny, but the special focus was “a reasonable concern”.

    “It is an anomaly that there is a dedicated agenda item in a way that there isn’t for North Korea or Syria or anything else,” he said.

    Haley also challenged the membership of Communist Cuba and Venezuela citing rights violations, proposing “competitive voting to keep the worst human rights abusers from obtaining seats”.

    She made no mention of Egypt or Saudi Arabia, two U.S. allies elected in spite quashing dissent.

    The U.S. envoy will host a panel on “Human Rights and Democracy in Venezuela” and address the Graduate Institute in Geneva before heading to Israel.