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The anti-terrorism conference was attended by more than 250 participants including presidents of national assemblies, representatives of African parliaments, youth NGOs and representatives from UN agencies
The president also stressed the importance of keeping the economy open after months of stifling movement restrictions.
He urged citizens not to drop their guard and continue adhering to the health rules, such as wearing face masks and respecting curfew times.
South Africa has recorded just over 800,000 coronavirus infections - more than a third of the cases reported across the African continent - and over 20,000 deaths.
AFP
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) - Asking someone to put on a mask is a touchy subject, so one shop in Japan has enlisted a robot to make sure its customers wear them during the pandemic.'I'm sorry to bother you, but please wear a mask,' says the small humanoid machine after wheeling up to a bare-faced shopper, in a demonstration video released by its developers.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The UN chief warned yesterday that the social and economic impact of COVID-19 'is enormous and growing' and said it's foolish to believe a vaccine can undo damage from the global pandemic that will last for years or even decades.
By Associated Press Undefined BERLIN (AP) — Officials in Germany said Friday that they are taking the potential for attacks on mass vaccination centers into consideration as they set up sites to prepare for European Union regulators authorizing the first coronavirus vaccines. Britain gave the green light Wednesday for emergency use of a vaccine made by German firm BioNTech and U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. The European Medicines Agency has indicated it may not decide whether to grant its authorization until Dec. 29, about two weeks later than Germany had expected to launch a national immunization drive. The former head of […]
The post Germany readies vaccine centers amid security concerns appeared first on Black News Channel.
Historic Trial For War Crimes in Liberia
Accused of having committed barbaric acts between 1993 and 1995 during the civil war in Liberia, the doubly historic trial of the former Liberian rebel commander Alieu Kosiah began on Thursday in Switzerland where he had been in exile for twenty years.
Incarcerated since 14 November 2014, the 45-year-old Alieu Kosiah appeared before the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona accompanied by his court-appointed lawyer Dimitri Gianola.
Although the proceedings are not behind closed doors, the number of seats in the courtroom is extremely limited in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Questioned by the president of the court Jean-Luc Bacher, Kosiah — who is the first individual to be tried for war crimes by a civil court, stressed that he had been in prison \"for six years and a month\" and denied all the charges brought against him,
Justice for Liberia Overdue
Both former warlord and president Charles Taylor — who also played a significant role the aforementioned conflict, was convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Liberia's neighbour Sierra Leone in 2012.
However, no Liberian is yet to be convicted in Liberia or abroad for crimes committed during the West African country's civil war — which saw 250,000 people lose their lives between 1989 and 2003.
Most of the commanders of the various armed groups fled the country after the war.
Kosiah, who had been living in Switzerland since 1999 according to HRW, was arrested following criminal complaints by victims.
Child Soldiers in Civil War
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the victims, who reside in Africa, will not be heard before 2021. This is deplored by the organisation Civitas Maxima, which represents some of them.
\"This is a case where Kosiah claims that they are all lying and that he did not commit any crime. We want this contradictory debate to take place,\" Romain Wavre, a lawyer at Civitas Maxima, told AFP.
The Swiss federal prosecutor's office accuses Alieu Kosiah of having committed, between 1993 and 1995, as a member of the armed faction ULIMO (United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy), a faction of armed groups hostile to the movement of Charles Taylor (the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, NPFL), several offences constituting \"war crimes\". Namely: recruitment and use of child soldiers, forced transportation, looting, cruel treatment of civilians, attempted murder, murder (directly or by order), desecration of a corpse and rape.
War Crime \"Impunity\"
In France, the anti-terrorist prosecutor's office recently requested a trial by jury against another former Liberian rebel commander, Kunti K., accused of acts of torture.
\"Alieu Kosiah and Kunti K. were two of the commanders of the same armed group - ULIMO - and were fighting at the same time in Lofa County in northern Liberia,\" said Wavre of Civitas Maxima.
More than fifteen years after the end of the conflict, many of the personalities directly involved in the civil war still hold important positions in the spheres of
Mali's interim government on Thursday announced the composition of a new legislative body for the West African country's transition to civilian rule, with the military retaining a key role.
Young army officers in the conflict-ridden Sahel state toppled president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on August 18 after weeks of anti-government protests.
Under the threat of international sanctions, the officers between September and October handed power to an interim government, which is meant to rule for 18 months before staging elections.
Coup leader Colonel Assimi Goita, who was made vice president of the interim government, was given veto power last month over the appointments to the 121-seat legislative body.
The move was seen by critics of the military-dominated interim regime as strengthening army control.
The final list for the new National Transitional Council was published by a decree from the interim president, Bah Ndaw, himself a retired army colonel.
The list of appointments was read out late Thursday on national television. Members of the defense and security forces received 22 seats.
The body will meet for the first time on Saturday and will elect its president.
The opposition June 5 Movement, or M5, last month called for \"resistance\" after it was announced Goita would have the final say on the MPs.
As interim vice president, Goita is in charge of security issues in a country which has struggled to quell a brutal militant insurgency since 2012.
The transitional government's mandate is meant to last for 18 months with a return to democratic civilian rule.
The disagreements over the assembly's composition threaten to derail plans for elections, national reconciliation and the fight against militants in the north of the country.
Anger over the seemingly endless conflict, as well as over perceived corruption, contributed to the protests which culminated in Keita's ouster.
Recent shootings in Daytona Beach lead to increased law enforcement action. BY ANDREAS BUTLER DAYTONA TIMES Daytona Beach’s new police chief urged residents to help fight crime and laid out measures being taken to stop violence in the city during a meeting Monday night at the Midtown Cultural & Educational Center. Daytona Beach Police Chief […]
The post CHIEF: HELP STOP THE VIOLENCE appeared first on Daytona Times.
To some, they're a flying nuisance but pigeons are a big business in Senegal.
From his roof in a suburb of the capital Dakar, shopkeeper and pigeon racer Moustapha Gueye releases dozens of birds from the loft, who quickly fly out of sight.
\"Here it's a factory, I'm creating athletes,\" he says.
He takes care of his winged friends every morning by training them and developing crossbreeds suitable for flying in hot weather.
\"It is a sport created by Europeans, it was imported here. We discovered pigeon racing through the internet. But before we use to be pigeon breeders only,\" Gueye says.
Though more popular across the continent, it is a growing sport in the West African country.
Today, there are some 350 pigeon racing enthusiasts in Senegal, who spend a lot of money. A pigeon can cost over 800 US dollars in the country.
\"Currently I'm doing business with pigeons. I've earned several million CFA francs selling pigeons, I even bought a car through those pigeons,\" he says.
\"But the most important thing for me is the passion.
\"It's exciting to have pigeons, when you start participating in races, releasing a pigeon 400 km from its loft and it comes back, that's something you can't explain, it's great!\"
Taking flight
Pigeon racing has clearly taken flight in Senegal and continues to spread its wings.
Senegalese pigeon-racing enthusiasts are keen to turn others on to the sport, and some hope to ultimately turn professional.
But breeder and pigeon racer Oumar Johnson says some people take their dedication too far.
\"When you're too busy with pigeons, things risk going badly,\" he says, adding that the pigeon-fanciers' federation is considering less time-consuming races for youngsters.
Young people are nonetheless the future of the sport, Johnson says, adding that their devotion will make Senegal \"one of the greatest pigeon-racing nations\" one day.
\"In Europe, you have to motivate young people to get involved,\" he says.
\"Here, young people are rushing into it.\"
[FAO] Rome -- New FAO report examines the potential of soil organisms in ensuring sustainable agri-food systems and mitigating climate change
By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A mysterious object temporarily orbiting Earth is a 54-year-old rocket, not an asteroid after all, astronomers confirmed Wednesday. Observations by a telescope in Hawaii clinched its identity, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The object was classified as an asteroid after its discovery in September. But NASA's top asteroid expert, Paul Chodas, quickly suspected it was the Centaur upper rocket stage from Surveyor 2, a failed 1966 moon-landing mission. Size estimates had put it in the range of the old Centaur, which was about 32 feet […]
The post NASA: Mystery object is 54-year-old rocket, not asteroid appeared first on Black News Channel.
