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In a press conference on Monday, Cellou Diallo said he was willing to work with the junta, a major endorsement from the political class for coup leader Mamady Doumbouya
Many people have been killed since clashes began on Monday. Scores too had been killed in the run up to the vote as protestors marched against Conde's bid for a third term.
Armed criminals killed 60 people in a string of attacks on villages in the restive northwest of Nigeria, medics and residents said Thursday.
Dozens of gunmen — described locally as “bandits — riding motorcycles raided five villages in Sabon Birni district in Sokoto state late Wednesday, the sources told AFP.
“We received a total of 60 dead bodies and several people with gunshot injuries from the villages attacked by the bandits last night,” a nurse at the general hospital in Sabon Birni said.
On Monday 18 people were killed when gunmen raided five other villages in Sabon Birni district, local officials said.
Nigeria’s armed forces last week launched bombing raids against “bandit” camps in neighbouring areas of the northwest as part of the latest efforts to curb attacks.
The American Black Film Festival is returning to its former Miami Beach home in time for its 20th anniversary.
Festival founder Jeff Friday announced at a press conference on Aug. 11 that with the help of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, the event had secured dates on South Beach for the next three years, beginning with 2016.
The festival, which caters primarily to aspiring filmmakers and industry executives, offers a mix of screenings, workshops, master classes and award shows. Previous attendees include Spike Lee, Robert Townsend, Anthony Anderson, Lee Daniels and Rosario Dawson.
“I am so happy to celebrate the American Black Film Festival’s 20th anniverary in Miami next year,” Friday said. “Aside from being one of the most desirable destinations in the world and a big attraction for festival-goers, the community has always embraced ABFF and its mission to showcase and provide a platform for African Americans in film and television. …We look forward to the celebratory four-day weekend with tremendous enthusiasm. It’s great to be back.”
2016 will mark the eleventh time the ABFF has been held in Miami. From 1997-2001, it was known as the Acapulco Black Film Festival and took place in Mexico. In 2002, under the leadership of new director Jeff Friday, the event was rechristened the American Black Film Festival and relocated to South Beach, where it remained for the next four years.
In 2007, Friday moved the show to Los Angeles in hopes of attracting more big-name talent. In 2010, the event returned to Miami and stayed for the next four years. The 2014 and 2015 editions were held in New York City.
Despite supporting an embargo, Germany has exported €330 million in weapons to countries involved in the war in Libya.
Since hosting a Libya summit four months ago, the German government has approved arms exports worth €331 million ($358 million) to countries accused of supporting warring parties in the country, according a report from the German Economy Ministry seen by news agency DPA.
In January, Germany hosted a summit of world leaders whose countries have sent arms or soldiers to Libya.
In a closing declaration, 16 countries and international organisations agreed to a weapons embargo for Libya.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres later accused these four countries of breaching the embargo and continuing to provide arms for the conflict.
Minister of Housing and Water Collin Croal on Friday declared the two day “Dream Realised” title distribution exercise a success with 350 titles distributed and over 600 new applications processed.
The article Croal declares title distribution exercise a success appeared first on Stabroek News.
Namibia's president Hage Geingob on Thursday admitted to breaching coronavirus regulations last month by hosting a celebration to mark his party's 60th anniversary and subsequently fining all guests.
The South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) birthday party took place in parliament on April 19, when Namibia was under lockdown and group gatherings were banned to limit the spread of coronavirus.
\"We had a very important occasion of the 60th anniversary of SWAPO,\" Geingob confessed on Thursday during a press conference on the country's Covid-19 response.
Geingob raised controversy in March for inviting several African presidents to his swearing-in ceremony, prompting them to breach their own travel bans.
The 78-year old president defended his behaviour on Thursday, claiming masks were only required in the workplace or for travel, shopping and outdoor exercise.
Former Kenyan prime minister Raila Odinga’s influence in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration is expected to grow further, with reports suggesting that he is being considered for a key role on a team to steer the country’s post-pandemic economic recovery efforts.
Speculation about a role for the former prime minister on the economic recovery council will especially unsettle the faction of the ruling Jubilee Party loyal to the Deputy President William Ruto.
The pro-Ruto camp blames Mr Odinga for fuelling the falling out in the ruling party, and sees the BBI reforms campaigns as part of a grand scheme to block Mr Ruto from succeeding President Kenyatta in 2022.
On Friday, senators removed Deputy Speaker Kindiki Kithure, extending a crackdown that started with the ousting last Monday of Kipchumba Murkomen and Susan Kihika as Majority Leader and Majority Chief Whip, respectively, during a parliamentary group meeting,
Five nominated senators who skipped the meeting chaired by President Kenyatta at State House, Nairobi, have been threatened with sanctions, including withdrawal of their nominations.
The Jubilee Party secretariat has warned of a similar purge in the National Assembly, where the Majority Leader Aden Duale and chairpersons of key House committees are also loyal to Mr Ruto.
George Floyd is the name of the handcuffed man who was shown on viral video being pinned to the ground by a Minneapolis Police Department officer who appeared to be steadily applying pressure.
The Minneapolis Poice Department was quick to announce that no weapons were involved in the man’s death it downplayed as a “medical incident,” but the video prompted speculation on social media that he was killed as a result of police brutality.
The Minneapolis Police Department’s issued a press release about the incident that made no mention of the still-unidentified officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck.
However, Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo announced during a press conference Tuesday morning that both of the officers involved in Floyd’s death were on “relieved of duty status,” which reportedly differs from the standard protocol of placing cops on administrative leave following the death of a suspect.
A protest has been planned for Tuesday afternoon to be held at the same intersection Minneapolis location where police accosted Floyd.
According to multiple reports, the former police officer responsible for the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis has been taken into custody by Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
Hennepin County prosecutor Michael Freeman said during a press conference that the three additional officers involved in the case have not been taken into custody, but he “anticipates charges” for them as well.
Many were furious that nobody was arrested in connection to the death of George Floyd, while others were motivated by the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and others that have left much of Black America reeling from two pandemics.
Freeman says Chauvin’s arrest is the quickest the city of Minneapolis has acted in any officer-involved murder case.
TOPICS: News Derek Chauvin george floyd Minneapolis Police unarmed Black man
MINNEAPOLIS—Protests turned violent on Tuesday as anti-police activists smashed windows and vandalized police cars in response to the death of an African American man at the hands of four law enforcement officers.
During a protest over the police killing of George Floyd, protesters gather in the back of the precinct where some of the protesters picked up rocks and medal objects to smash the windows of a squad car in the back on May 26, 2020.
Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo fired Officer Derek Chauvin and three other officers who were present.
“Four responding MPD officers involved in the death of George Floyd have been terminated.
The post VIDEO: Tear gas flies as Minneapolis rioters protest death of George Floyd in police custody appeared first on Zenger News.
Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa told a press conference 810,665 people across the country were now affected by floods up from 808,000.
Wamalwa said that families in more than 33 counties affected will continue to receive relief food through the month of June amid projections of more rains in Western, Nyanza, Lake Basin and Coast as well as parts of Rift Valley region.
\"Relief food will continue being supplied to families into June until rains stop.
After June, there will be the critical part of supporting and rehabilitating families, most of these families don't have homes and are living in tents,\" he said.
\"We will be able to work with counties, identify families affected so that after rains stop, we will see how to restore normalcy,\" CS Wamalwa.
The National Identification Authority (NIA) has asked the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to report the state agency to the police if the party has any evidence to back its election rigging allegations made against the Authority on Thursday, 14 May 2020.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC), at a press conference, raised fears that the decision of the Electoral Commission to compile a new register of voters using passports and the NIA's Ghana card as proof of eligibility may give undue advantage to the governing New Patriotic Party and President Nana Akufo-Addo and also help the incumbent to rig the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in December 2020.
According to the biggest opposition party, over 10 million Ghanaians are unable to retrieve their Ghana cards from the NIA several months after they were registered, a situation which the Chairman of the party, Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, said will make it impossible for them to be captured on the new electoral roll.
At a counter-press conference on Friday, 15 May 2020, the Executive Director of the NIA, Prof Ken Attafuah, said it was a \"disturbing allegation that the NIA, in consent with the Electoral Commission, embarked on an election-rigging agenda in order to benefit the New Patriotic Party, and most disturbingly, to disenfranchise a significant portion of the Ghanaian populace from their rights to exercise their franchise\".
\"I want to assure the good people of this country that the NIA is not involved in any such criminal design or enterprise with the EC, with the government of Ghana or any with any person or entity whatsoever described.
Des Moines, Iowa – Reports from Des Moines, Iowa claim police in the area are investigating a potential hate crime after a 22-year old man, DarQuan Jones, was found beaten on Saturday morning.
According to a report by the Des Moines Register, Jones police he was walking to his girlfriend’s house nearby around 3:25 am when he suddenly heard a group of men yelling racist insults before they began physically assaulting him.
The local NAACP chapter in the Iowa city held a press conference to address the alleged hate crime with Jones’ father in attendance where he told reporters that his son’s jaw was broken in five places.
“After speaking with Quan, his family and the witnesses that have come forward, if the story is as they state it is, then what occurred yesterday should be nothing less than a hate crime,” Kameron Middlebrooks, the president of the Des Moines NAACP said during an interview.
Despite the alleged racist comments reported by Jones, the Des Moines police stated that further investigation needs to be conducted before labeling it as a hate crime.
In the account below Edith Lee-Payne recalls the day she was photographed as a 12 year old participant in the March on Washington, and the curious history of that photograph through 2011.
My grandparents, Marie and John Spencer Lee, left Culpeper, Virginia for Washington, D.C. in the early 1900s, where my mother, Dorothy Lee, was born. My mother settled in Detroit, Michigan in 1940, married William Henderson Lee in 1947, and I was born four years later. Summer vacations were always spent in Washington. My 1963 summer vacation, however, is forever marked in history and my personal memory, because I was there when the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place on August 28, 1963. That March, which took place on my 12th birthday, changed me and transformed the nation.
Dr. Martin Luther KingsI Have a Dream speech is by far the best remembered moment at the March on Washington. King gave the speech before an audience of 250,000gathered at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. With the giant statue ofAbraham Lincoln in the shaded background, Dr. King described a world heenvisioned as dominated by love, freedom, and justice
I heard the speech that day but I also heard one similar two months before in Detroit. On June 23, 1963, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rev. C. L. Franklin (Aretha Franklin’s father) led a march of over 100,000 people down Woodward Avenue to Cobo Hall in downtown Detroit. Dr. King encouraged us to join him and others in Washington, D.C. on August 28 for a peaceful demonstration that he believed would help bring attentionto the injustices of segregation throughout the south. He reminded us “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Convinced by Dr.King’s rousing discourse and other reasons I later learned, my mother scheduled our annual summer vacation so we could attend the March on Washington while celebrating my 12th birthday.
Both in Detroit and Washington, Dr. King used the refrain “I have a Dream.” Detroiters still contend the “I Have a Dream” speech made
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee honored the nation’s veterans, service members and their families on Memorial Day during a ceremony at the Houston Heights World War II Memorial.
Jackson Lee: “It is our duty to mark this moment despite the uncertainty of our time.
As our nation continues to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, Memorial Day 2020 will look a little different—but it remains my solemn duty to honor our fallen heroes and mark this moment despite the uncertainty of our time.
We pay tribute to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice and remember those who have served our country around the world in the name of freedom and democracy and honor the families and communities they left behind.
Everyday our country is safe from foreign aggression and our children play and breathe freely, is a day that our servicemembers and veterans made possible.
With extended closures over the holiday, suggested alternatives for a fun and safe Memorial Day weekend
The Forest Preserves of Cook County is asking patrons and visitors to spend the upcoming Memorial Day at Home.
This year, with health and safety guidelines to limit the spread of COVID-19, the Forest Preserves urges people to make Memorial Day memorable at home.
We hope that with Memorial Day at Home, our patrons will find other creative ways to honor the fallen and to be with family,” said Arnold Randall, the General Superintendent of the Forest Preserves of Cook County.
For Memorial Day weekend, the Forest Preserves is adding two preserves to the list of six sites that have weekend parking closures to limit the size of crowds: Dan Ryan Woods and Schiller Woods.
The Forest Preserves is also extending the weekend parking closures to Memorial Day itself at Busse Woods, Maple Lake, Saganashkee Slough, Catherine Chevalier Woods, LaBagh Woods and Bunker Hill.
But while it is states’ governors and not President Donald Trump who have the final say in imposing and ending lockdowns and “shelter in place” orders in the U.S., in Indonesia, Widodo makes the call, which has the governors of the 34 provinces in the country up in arms.
Widodo’s administration later rescinded a partial lockdown order by Lukas Enembe, the governor of Indonesia’s easternmost province, Papua.
On April 13, Widodo declared the pandemic a national public health emergency and a national disaster, and later signed a presidential regulation allowing provinces to impose large-scale social restrictions including mandatory social distancing and the use of face masks, the closure of office buildings, shopping centers, schools, and public areas, shuttering houses of worship and banning large gatherings.
Widodo, Indonesia’s first president from outside the country’s traditional political elite, has also taken other steps to fight the coronavirus’ spread, including banning all foreign arrivals by air and sea, as well as domestic flights around the country.
“Since the government has made it clear that this is all about a health issue, and as the Widodo administration itself gives the initiative to impose restrictions to local governments, it sidesteps the ‘national lockdown’ issue,” said Yohanes Sulaiman, a political and military analyst.
By Barnett Wright The Birmingham Times The decision whether to open the Birmingham and Bessemer Courthouses for in-person absentee voting on Saturdays is now in the hands of the Jefferson County Commission. The five-member body will meet today at noon to consider opening the courthouses Saturdays, Oct. 17 and 24 to accommodate “in-person” absentee voting […]
The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus has sent a letter to Gov. Ralph Northam saying the move to reopen Virginia would be treating black and brown people like “guinea pigs for our economy.”
However, the black caucus believes the state doesn’t have the necessary testing capacity and infrastructure to safely reopen without putting minorities at an unfair risk.
Northam said his decision to open the state is based on positive trends in key metrics related to the virus’ spread, like testing capacity and hospital readiness.
After two weeks of debate by state lawmakers, Northam’s plan will reopen retail businesses with limited capacity.
However, Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax has asked Northam to create a task force to track racial disparities in coronavirus pandemic in the state.
The arrest of the most wanted genocide suspect of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Félicien Kabuga, 84, in a Paris apartment last week, highlights renewed French commitment to improve relations with Rwanda, long injured by allegations against each other on the genocide.
In an e-mail interview with The EastAfrican, Phil Clark, a professor of International Politics and scholar of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi at the London-based School of Oriental and African Studies said;
\"The discovery of Kabuga in Paris raises major questions about how long he has lived in France and about how much the French authorities knew.
His decision was unpopular in French political circles but applauded by Rwandan authorities, who had for long called on France to come clean over its role in the genocide.
In January 2016, Gen Jean-Claude Lafourcade, who led France's UN-mandated unit in Rwanda in 1994, angered Rwandan officials when he said during an inquiry that \"no ammunition, not even a bullet\" was provided by the French government to the interahamwe militia that carried out the genocide.
There should be no impediment to this trial taking place in Rwanda - and it would bolster the ICTR's legacy to have assisted the Rwandan judicial system to the extent that it can try such a high profile genocide suspect as Kabuga,\" Prof Clark said.
Senegal, one of West Africa’s largest economies, has torn up its tax treaty with Mauritius as debate rages over the island tax haven’s impact on developing economies.
Senegal unilaterally ended its double non-taxation treaty, or DTA, with Mauritius without fanfare earlier this year – and it is only now coming to the attention of tax officials in the region.
In the 2018 West Africa Leaks investigation, ICIJ revealed that a Canadian engineering giant avoided paying up to $8.9 million in taxes to Senegal with the help of a shell company in Mauritius.
ICIJ spoke to officials from Zambia, Lesotho, Uganda and the Republic of Congo who are seeking to modify treaties with Mauritius because the current deals are costing poorer countries millions of dollars in lost tax revenue each year.
One Senegalese official who wished to remain anonymous told ICIJ that it was important to cancel the treaty with Mauritius as soon as possible because recent oil and gas discoveries will bring an influx of investment to the West African nation.
Six people were injured Saturday night in a shooting near Daytona Beach’s boardwalk.
For the second weekend in a row, Volusia County authorities found themselves dealing with a massive crowd of young adults seeking a good time.
On Saturday night, hundreds gathered on Daytona’s beachside for an event titled “Orlando Invades Daytona,’’ officers said.
A video released by the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office showed a throng of people around a car stopped right on State Road Highway A1A.
Authorities say the crowd gathered Saturday evening included people from as far as Miami.
[Radio Dabanga] Khartoum / Port Sudan -- Sovereign Council member Lt Gen Ibrahim Jabir announced that the Sudan Shipping Line will be restored as \"a national carrier and pillar of development\".
