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[Nation] The Ethiopian government on Monday refuted claims of planned talks with the Tigray People's Liberation Front, mediated by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in Kampala.
He replaces Debretsion Gebremichael, whose immunity from prosecution was removed Thursday.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International said Thursday that scores of civilians were killed in a \"massacre\" in the Tigray region, that witnesses blamed on forces backing the local ruling party.
The \"massacre\" is the first reported incident of large-scale civilian fatalities in a week-old conflict between the regional ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), and the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize.
\"Amnesty International can today confirm... that scores, and likely hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death in Mai-Kadra (May Cadera) town in the southwest of Ethiopia's Tigray Region on the night of 9 November,\" the rights group said in a report.
Amnesty said it had \"digitally verified gruesome photographs and videos of bodies strewn across the town or being carried away on stretchers.\"
The dead \"had gaping wounds that appear to have been inflicted by sharp weapons such as knives and machetes,\" Amnesty said, citing witness accounts.
Witnesses said the attack was carried out by TPLF-aligned forces after a defeat at the hands of the Ethiopian military, though Amnesty said it \"has not been able to confirm who was responsible for the killings\".
It nonetheless called on TPLF commanders and officials to \"make clear to their forces and their supporters that deliberate attacks on civilians are absolutely prohibited and constitute war crimes\".
Abiy ordered military operations in Tigray on November 4, saying they were prompted by a TPLF attack on federal military camps -- a claim the party denies.
The region has been under a communications blackout ever since, making it difficult to verify competing claims on the ground.
Abiy said Thursday his army had made major gains in western Tigray.
Thousands of Ethiopians have fled across the border into neighboring Sudan, and the UN is sounding the alarm about a humanitarian crisis in Tigray.
The United States is on a chaotic path with no federal plan against the coronavirus pandemic as it reduces public health funding and ignores the advances of climate change, according to activist scholar Noam Chomsky, considered the founder of modern linguistics.
Europe in many ways is worse, because the austerity programmes just amplify the danger, because of the severe attack on democracy in Europe, the shifting decisions to Brussels.... So Europe has its own problems, but at least it has the residue of some kind of social democratic structure, which provides some support, which is what I think is lacking in the US.
There will be recovery from the pandemic at severe cost ... but there isn't going to be any recovery from the melting of the polar ice caps and the rising of sea levels and the other deleterious effects of global warming.
It means if you're driving home you can turn on the stove -- but it also means that that information is going to Google and Facebook, to the government, the American government, the French government, it's an enormous amount of potential control ,surveillance and invasion.
They'll turn it into something like China, where you have social credit systems and in some cities you get a certain amount of credits, there's face recognition technology all over the place and everything you do gets monitored.
Confirmed cases = 19,808
\t\tActive cases = 12,584
\t\tRecoveries =6,718
\t\tNumber of deaths = 509
\t
John Hopkins Uni stats valid as of June 20, 2020
June 20: 19,147 cases; July 3 for second US evacuation
\tNigeria’s case load passed the 19,000 mark as of close of day June 19 with over 660 new cases recorded across the country.
Confirmed cases = 19,147
\t\tActive cases = 12,079
\t\tRecoveries =6,581
\t\tNumber of deaths = 487
John Hopkins Uni stats valid as of June 19, 2020
June 19: 18,480 cases, flurry of evacuee arrivals
\tNigeria hit the 18,000 mark as of close of day June 18 as deaths reached 475 and recoveries hit 6,307 according to the NCDC.
Confirmed cases = 18,480
\t\tNumber of deaths = 475
\t\tRecoveries = 6,307
\t\tActive cases = 11,698
\tStats valid as of close of day June 18, 2020
June 18: tally nears 18,000; over 1,700 recoveries in a week
\tTallies show that 1,761 recoveries have been recorded in one week as COVID-19 toll nears 18,000.
Total confirmed cases = 17,735
Total recoveries = 5,967
Total deaths = 469
Active cases = 11,299
\tFigures valid as of close of day June 17, 2020
June 17: 17,148 cases; govt hails role of media
\tThe government has underlined the centrality of the media’s role in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.
Confirmed cases = 17,148
Active cases = 11,070
Recoveries = 5,623
Deaths = 455
\tJohn Hopkins Uni stats valid as of close of day June 16, 2020
June 16: 16,658 cases, 3-year govt response plan
\tThe government has developed a three-year Health Sector Response plan for the coronavirus pandemic, Health Minister Osagie Ehanire disclosed yesterday.
By 1947 the question of black civil rights in the South had become a national issue when a committee President Harry S. Truman appointed to study the issue called for legislation which among other things would to protect voting rights for Southern blacks and provide federal protection against lynching. In response to the report President Truman sent a special message to Congress on the issue on February 2, 1948. That message, the first by a sitting president to address the question of black civil rights, appears below.
To the Congress of the United States:
In the State of the Union Message on January 7, 1948, I spoke of five great goals toward which we should strive in our constant effort to strengthen our democracy and improve the welfare of our people. The first of these is to secure fully our essential human rights. I am now presenting to the Congress my recommendations for legislation to carry us forward toward that goal.
This Nation was founded by men and women who sought these shores that they might enjoy greater freedom and greater opportunity than they had known before. The founders of the United States proclaimed to the world the American belief that all men are created equal, and that governments are instituted to secure the inalienable rights with which all men are endowed. In the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, they eloquently expressed the aspirations of all mankind for equality and freedom.
These ideals inspired the peoples of other lands, and their practical fulfillment made the United States the hope of the oppressed everywhere. Throughout our history men and women of all colors and creeds, of all races and religions, have come to this country to escape tyranny and discrimination. Millions strong, they have helped build this democratic Nation and have constantly reinforced our devotion to the great ideals of liberty and equality. With those who preceded them, they have helped to fashion and strengthen our American faith—a faith that can be simply stated:
The bodies of seven health workers and a civilian were found Thursday in a village north of Mogadishu, shocking residents, local authorities and elders said Friday.
\"We found the dead bodies of the seven young health workers and a shop owner outside Golaley village near Balad district, 30 kilometers north of Mogadishu, a day after they were abducted by men in Somali military fatigues,\" Ahmed Mohamed Muse, a local elder, told VOA Somali.
It was not clear who was responsible for the killing, but local elders, including Muse, accused Somali government soldiers of being behind the attack.
He said the seven slain health workers were with the Zamzam foundation, a local aid group that focuses on health care, education, orphan care and peace building.
U.N. Resident Humanitarian Coordinator Adam Abdelmoula said in a statement Thursday that he was shocked by the killings of the health workers.
In the article below Jill L. Newmark, exhibition specialist in the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, describes thefirst hospital sponsored by the United States government specifically to meet the health care needs of the ex-slaves during the Civil War. The Contraband Hospital as it was called, eventually became the Howard University Hospital in 1975.
On a parcel of swampy land in northwest Washington, D.C. bounded by 12th, 13th, R and S Streets N.W., a tented camp and hospital once stood that served thousands of escaped slaves and black soldiers during the American Civil War. Known as Contraband Camp, it contained one of the few hospitals that treated blacks in Washington, D.C. during the war and whose staff, including nurses and surgeons, were largely African American.
Over 40,000 escaped slaves sought refuge and freedom in Washington, D.C. after the passage of the D.C. Emancipation Act of 1862 freeing all enslaved persons in the District of Columbia. As the Union Army advanced on southern strongholds, thousands of African Americans made their way across Union lines, becoming what was known as contraband.” The increasing numbers of contraband coming into Washington created a dilemma for the Federal Government and the Union Army responsible for both the protection of the capital and the pursuit of victory over the Confederates. How would these African American men, women, and children find food, shelter, and medical care? In an effort to meet this challenge, the Union Army established a camp and hospital to serve them. It became a safe haven for these former slaves and a center of government sponsored contraband relief efforts in Washington, D.C.
Contraband Camp and Hospital were constructed as one-story frame buildings and tented structures built by the Union Army to serve as temporary housing and hospital wards for black civilians and soldiers. Separate wards for men and women were established as well as
Togo, Niger, and Benin Republic did not pay their N32.04 billion bills for the electricity Nigeria supplied to them in 2019, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) said.
Through its electricity transmission company, Nigeria supplies power to these countries, which are classified as international customers in the Nigerian power sector.
Niger's power firm, Societe Nigerienne electricity, failed to pay a total invoice of N3.01 billion it received in the first quarter of 2019; N3.69 billion in the second quarter, N4.1 billion in the third quarter and N2.07 in the fourth quarter.
NERC said in its latest quarterly report that during the quarter under review, the special and international class of customers made no payment to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc and the Market Operator.
The NERC quarterly report analyses the state of the Nigerian electricity industry (covering both the operational and commercial performance), regulatory functions, consumer affairs as well as the commission's finances and staff development.
Nigerians were in shock on Wednesday after a deadly shooting of peaceful protesters in the biggest city Lagos that Amnesty International blamed on security forces.
Rwanda will receive a further $111.06m from the International Monetary Fund as part of the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) to support recovery amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.
The IMF Board on Thursday, June 11 approved the disbursement of the funds bringing the total to IMF COVID-19 support to Rwanda to $220.46 million.
In its decision to disburse the funds the Executive Board of the IMF noted that Rwanda's economic outlook had been affected by the pandemic since the previous disbursement on April 2nd this year.
The additional disbursement under the RCF will provide much-needed support for critical COVID-related spending under the government's Economic Recovery Plan, but further support will be needed from the international community,\" the IMF said.
Tao Zhang, the Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair of the board said that due to the pandemic, there had been more revenue losses and increased spending needs than was estimated at the time of the first disbursement of funds.
When Kelly Loeffler, a co-owner of the WNBA's Atlanta Dream, was tapped to replace Republican Johnny Isakson in the U.S. Senate at the end of 2019, she said in her introductory press conference that she would defend the second amendment -- \"the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed\" -- amid all other Republican talking points.
In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Loeffler said Black Americans in Atlanta who are openly carrying guns while protesting the death of Rayshard Brooks at the hands of police were an example of \"mob rule.\"
On her own website, Loeffler boasts about being a champion of the Second Amendment.
In a post that makes sure to note that she's \"pro-gun,\" her campaign boasts of her co-sponsoring three congressional bills that would make it easier for Americans to carry concealed handguns across state lines for self-defense, purchase noise suppressors and avoid \"having their Second Amendment rights unfairly infringed by the federal government without due process.\"
Outside of the timing of this statement, what makes Loeffler's comments particularly unfortunate is how they compare to what one of her team's players on the Dream is doing.
Continuing the county’s triple-digit case streak Wednesday, the Allegheny County Health Department [ACHD] announced 158 new COVID-19 infections and 12 new hospitalizations. No new deaths were announced. Thursday’s announcement brings the total case count to 4,367 infections, 196 deaths and 443 past and present hospitalizations. As statewide cases rise to 92,867, Gov. Tom Wolf on Continued
The post Statewide eviction moratorium extended through August; Pittsburgh’s revenue takes hit from pandemic appeared first on New Pittsburgh Courier.
On Nov. 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill making Martin Luther King Day a federal holiday, effective Jan. 20, 1986. As a result of this bill, Americans commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr.s birthday on the third Monday in January. Few Americans are aware of the history of Martin Luther King Day and the long battle to convince Congress to establish this holiday in recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Congressman John Conyers, an African-American Democrat from Michigan, spearheaded the movement to establish MLK Day. Rep. Conyers worked in the civil rights movement in the 1960s and was elected to Congress in 1964, where he championed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Four days after Kings assassination in 1968, Conyers introduced a bill that would make Jan. 15 a federal holiday in Kings honor. But Congress was unmoved by Conyers entreaties and though he kept reviving the bill, it kept failing in Congress.
In 1970, Conyers convinced New Yorks governor and New York Citys mayor to commemorate Kings birthday, a move that the city of St. Louis emulated in 1971. Other localities followed, but it was not until the 1980s that Congress acted on Conyers bill. By this time, the congressman had enlisted the help of popular singer Stevie Wonder, who released the song Happy Birthday for King in 1981.
Conyers also organized marches in support of the holiday in 1982 and 1983.
Conyers was finally successful when he reintroduced the bill in 1983. But even in 1983 support was not unanimous. In the House of Representatives, William Dannemeyer, a Republican from California, led the opposition to the bill, arguing that it was too expensive to create a federal holiday and estimating that it would cost the federal government $225 million annually in lost productivity.
Reagans administration concurred with Dannemeyers arguments, but the House passed the bill with a vote of 338 for and 90 against.
When the bill reached the Senate, the arguments opposing the bill were less grounded in economics and more reliant
(Trinidad Guardian) Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley says “under no circumstances” will Trinidad and Tobago implement an open-door policy to migrants.
The article Trinidad will not have open-door policy for migrants - PM appeared first on Stabroek News.
