Crisis
U.S. pledges sustained help for India in tackling coronavirus crisis
Senior U.S. officials on Tuesday pledged sustained support for India in helping it deal with the world’s worst current surge of COVID-19 infections, warning the country is still at the “front end” of the crisis and overcoming it will take some time. The White House’s National Security Council coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, Kurt Campbell, told a virtual event on the U.S. assistance that President Joe Biden had told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a phone call on Monday: “You let me know what you need and we will do it.” Campbell said at the event, organized by the U.S.-India Business Council and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, that Washington was committed to helping the world’s second most populous country get to grips with the crisis. “We all have to realize that this is no...
Senator Saraki urges Nigerian government to seek help over escalating insecurity
Former President of the Senate, Sen. Bukola Saraki, has advised the Federal Government to seek help wherever it could to address the escalating insecurity in the country. Saraki, in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday, said that calling for help in the present situation of the country was not a sign of weakness. He said he was worried over cases of violence, kidnapping and terrorism recorded on Monday in Anambra, Kaduna, Yobe, Niger, Lagos states and many parts of the country. The ex-senate president reiterated the need for President Muhammadu Buhari to convene meeting of all those who could help in finding solutions to the problem at hand. ”The people include former presidents and heads of state, serving and former chief justices, serving and former presiding officers of the National Assembly...
NAAT: EKSU authorities lack powers to proscribe union activities
File Photo The National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT, described as illegal the recent proscription of union activities by the management of the Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti. National President of NAAT, Comrade Ibeji Nwokoma, who stated this in a chat with journalists in Abuja, said that the action of the University management was capable of causing industrial crisis across the tertiary institutions in the country. Recall that the Governing Council of the university had last week directed the immediate closure of the school and also proscribed all the staff unions in the institution that make up the Joint Action Committee. The proscribed unions apart from the Students Union Government, SUG, are the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, the Non-Academic Staff Union ...
Rebels attack Myanmar army near border, junta knocks back ASEAN plan
Ethnic minority Karen insurgents attacked a Myanmar army outpost near the Thai border on Tuesday in some of the most intense clashes since a military coup nearly three months ago threw the country into crisis. The Karen National Union (KNU), Myanmar’s oldest rebel force, said it had captured the army camp on the west bank of the Salween river, which forms the border with Thailand. The Myanmar military later hit back against the insurgents with air strikes, an aid worker in the area said. The fighting took place as the junta, in a setback for diplomatic efforts by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), said it would “positively” consider the bloc’s suggestions to end the turmoil in Mynamar but only when stability was restored. The ASEAN leaders said after meeting at the weekend...
British premier denies saying ‘let the bodies pile high’
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday denied a newspaper report that he had said he would rather bodies piled “high in their thousands” than order a third COVID-19 lockdown. Johnson is facing a stream of allegations in newspapers – all of them denied – about everything from his muddled initial handling of the COVID-19 crisis to questions over who financed the redecoration of his official apartment. The Daily Mail newspaper cited unidentified sources as saying that, in October, shortly after agreeing to a second lockdown, Johnson told a meeting in Downing Street: “No more fucking lockdowns – let the bodies pile high in their thousands.” Asked whether he had made the remark, Johnson told broadcasters: “No, but again, I think the important thing, I think, that people want us to get o...
Zimbabwe street vendors reel under virus curbs
For years, Zimbabwean single mother Spiwe Tembo would sell buns on the streets of central Harare, earning enough to feed her three children. But her fortunes have dived. Since authorities banned street hawkers a year ago as part of a raft of measures to limit the spread of Covid-19, she plays cat-and-mouse with the police who comb the streets to rid them of vendors. “Things are tough,” the 34-year-old said, waving a packet of large buns to potential customers on a busy street in a part of Harare that locals call “Third World” because it is always teeming. She said: “We get arrested by municipal and national police. Almost daily I pay bribes to police officers to avoid getting arrested.” On the days she doesn’t have any cash, the inevitable happens and she is arrested and her wares seized. ...
Chad rebels ready for ceasefire; opposition presses for civilian rule
Rebels in northern Chad are ready to observe a ceasefire and to discuss a political settlement after the battlefield death of President Idriss Deby last week, a rebel spokesman said on Sunday. The rebels, known as the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), came over the northern border from Libya on April 11 calling for an end to Deby’s 30-year rule. They came as close as 200-300 km (125-185 miles) from the capital N’Djamena before being pushed back by the army. Deby was killed on Monday while visiting troops at the front, just after he won an election. His death shocked the Central African country, which has long been a Western ally against Islamist militants. The air force has since bombarded rebel positions, the military and rebels said. The military said on Saturday it had “annih...
Somali president’s backers in gun clash with opponents – residents
Supporters of Somalia’s President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed and those opposed to the extension of his four-year term clashed on Sunday on the streets of the capital, residents said. The president signed a law in mid-April extending his mandate for two years, stoking opposition inside Somalia and putting him on a collision course with Western and other donors opposed to the move. Somalia, which plunged into war and chaos in 1991, has been struggling to re-establish the authority of central government and rebuild the nation, with international help. The failure to hold elections that were due in February sparked a new crisis. “There is gunfire between pro-opposition military and government forces at Fagah Junction,” Halima Osman, a resident of Fagah in Mogadishu, said after Reuters witnesses...
Southeast Asian leaders discuss Myanmar crisis with junta chief
Southeast Asian leaders began a crisis meeting on Myanmar on Saturday aiming to persuade Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who led the military takeover that sparked turmoil in his country, to forge a path to end the violence. The gathering of leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta is the first coordinated international effort to ease the crisis in Myanmar, an impoverished country that neighbours China, India and Thailand. Myanmar is part of the 10-nation ASEAN. With participants attending in person despite the pandemic, Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said on Friday that the summit reflected the “deep concern about the situation in Myanmar and ASEAN’s determination to help Myanmar get out of this delicate situation”. It’s unusual for the leader o...
Super League: Everton blast Premier League ‘Big Six’
Everton have launched a furious attack on the six Premier League clubs forming the Super League. The Blues launched an official statement: Issuing a statement on Tuesday morning, the Merseyside club said: “Everton is saddened and disappointed to see proposals of a breakaway league pushed forward by six clubs. “Six clubs acting entirely in their own interests. Six clubs tarnishing the reputation of our league and the game. Six clubs choosing to disrespect every other club with whom they sit around the Premier League table. Six clubs taking for granted and even betraying the majority of football supporters across our country and beyond. “At this time of national and international crisis – and a defining period for our game – clubs should be working together collaboratively with the ideals of...
Strike: Minister to hold fresh meeting with governors, NBA, JUSUN, others
Labour minister, Chris Ngige, has rescheduled a fresh meeting with the leaderships of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), over the lingering strike that has crippled court activities across the country for two weeks. Representatives of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) are also expected to be at the meeting scheduled to hold in Abuja on Tuesday. Members of JUSUN had on April 6 embarked on the indefinite nationwide strike to press home their demand for judiciary’s financial autonomy. The labour minister had on Thursday announced a last-minute postponement of the meeting he was scheduled to hold with the NBA, JUSUN and other stakeholders over the lingering crisis. The abrupt postponement of the meeting infuriated the leaderships of the body ...
ASEAN changed Myanmar statement on release of political detainees – sources
A draft statement circulating the day before a Southeast Asian leaders’ summit on the Myanmar crisis included the release of political prisoners as one of its “consensus” points, said three sources familiar with the document. But in the final statement at the end of Saturday’s meeting, the language on freeing political prisoners had been unexpectedly watered down and did not contain a firm call for their release, two of the sources said. The absence of a strong position on this issue caused dismay among human rights activists and opponents of the coup, fuelling criticism by them that the meeting had achieved little in the way of reining in the country’s military leaders. read more Activist monitors say 3,389 people have been detained in a crackdown on dissent by the military since the Feb....