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There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast but militant group al-Shabab has struck civilian and military targets before in a similar fashion
South Africa is one of the hardest-hit countries in Africa with over 740,000 infections.
The country recorded 60 more virus-related deaths on Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 20,011.
A suicide bomb explosion in central Somalia has killed at least five people including a regional governor on Sunday, officials told VOA Somali.
The governor of Puntland administration's Mudug region, Ahmed Muse Nur, his brother, and two bodyguards, were killed after a suicide bomber driving a rickshaw rammed into his vehicle in the town of Galkayo, 600 kilometers north of Mogadishu.
“It was a suicide vehicle filled with explosives that hit the governor’s car,” Ali said.
Nur is the second governor from Puntland administration assassinated by suicide bombers within two months.
On March 29, the governor of Nugal region Abdisalam Hassan Hersi was killed after he was fatally injured in a suicide bombing in the town of Garowe.
On May 16, 2003, terrorists believed to be associated with al-Qaeda killed 33 people in several simultaneous attacks. Four bombs targeted Jewish, Spanish, and Belgian buildings in Casablanca. In the 2004 terrorist bombings in Madrid, Spain, numerous Moroccans were implicated.
A wave of suicide bombings struck Casablanca in March and April 2007. Authorities were not certain if the attacks were related
Early in 2011, tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters gathered in various cities, calling for a shift to a constitutional monarchy in what was termed the February 20th movement. King Mohammed VI answered with promises of reform, which took the shape of a constitutional referendum in July. February 20th supporters called for a boycott of the referendum, calling the included reforms inadequate and taking offense at its intent to bolster the kings position as supreme arbiter of political and institutional life.
See also Encyclopedia: Morocco .
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes: Morocco
The period between 1861-1865 was the most one of the most devastating in American history, both in terms of its death toll and its impact on the American psyche. Learn about the war and the events that precipitated it with these resources and study guides.
The United States on Wednesday recorded its single-worst daily death toll since the pandemic began, and on a day when Covid-19 hospitalizations also hit an all-time high, the pace of loss showed no signs of slowing any time soon. Not since spring, during the pandemic’s […]
The post C.D.C. Head Warns of ‘Most Difficult Time’ in U.S. Public Health History appeared first on The New York Beacon.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico City, one of the world's largest cities and the epicentre of the country's novel coronavirus epidemic, will begin a gradual reopening June 1, its mayor said yesterday, even as daily new infections continue to set records.
Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum called on the city's nine million residents to continue social distancing measures through June 15, but said some sectors of the economy would be allowed to resume operations at the start of June.
As of Tuesday night, Mexico City reported more than 15,000 confirmed coronavirus infections and nearly 1,500 deaths.
Sheinbaum has acknowledged that the real number of deaths in Mexico City is surely higher, but says an independent panel will have to review suspected cases and make a determination.
City death records reported by an anti-corruption watchdog group suggested the death toll could be three times as high in the capital.
[Tunis Afrique Presse] Tunis/Tunisia -- The governorate of Kef has reported one additional fatality due to COVID-19, bringing to 102 the death toll in the region since the outbreak of the pandemic, said head of health programmes in Kef Abdelbaki Jomni.
In Jan. 2013, Prime Minister Emmanuel Nadingar resigned. Djimrangar Dadnadji was named as new prime minister. In May, a long-planned coup against the government of President Idriss Deby was foiled by Chadian security forces.
Fallout from the coup resulted in a motion of censure against Prime Minister Dadnadji in Nov. 2013. Citing arbitrary arrests of deputies,” the censure was not executed because the prime minister resigned. President Idriss Déby Itno named Kalzeubé Pahimi Deubet as new prime minister on Nov. 21, 2013.
Chad sent troops to Nigeria in January 2015 to help fight Boko Haram, the fundamentalist Islamist sect that believes Western education is a sin. In June, suicide bombers believed to be linked to the group launched a series of attacks in the capital, NDjamena, killing more than 20 people.
Prime Minister Kalzeubé Pahimi Deubet resigned on Feb. 13, 2016. That same day, President Déby named Albert Pahimi Padacke as Deubets replacement. Pahimi Padacke previously served in many government positions, including Minister of Finance, Minister of Trade, Minister of Justice and Secretary of State for Finances.
See also Encyclopedia: Chad .
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes: Chad
Eskom reintroduced loadshedding to South Africa on Friday, which was the first time the country experienced loadshedding since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
An American pilot died when her plane malfunctioned while she was on her way to deliver Covid-19 rapid test kits to a remote Indonesian village, officials said.
Joyce Lin, 40, had just taken off Tuesday morning, leaving the airport in Sentani, in Papua province, in a Kodiak aircraft.
She’d been with the MAF for about three years, according to the organization
Tuesday, Lin was attempting to fly to Mamit, in the Papua highlands, in an effort to bring test kits to the local clinic.
The aircraft fell into Lake Sentani, and divers confirmed she did not survive, according to the MAF .
Source: American woman dies in plane crash trying to deliver Covid-19 tests to Indonesian village
Nigerias election commission postponed for six weeks presidential elections scheduled for Feb. 14 after the military said it could not protect voters in the northeast from Boko Haram. Some questioned if the decision was influenced by President Jonathan, whose victory was by no means guaranteed. Indeed, he faced a strong challenge from Muhammadu Buhari, a former military dictator who was behind a 1983 coup. Buhari prevailed in the March 2015 election, which was largely peaceful. Jonathans defeat was attributed to his failure to defeat Boko Haram and his inability to crack down on endemic corruption. Jonathan accepted the loss, making for a smooth transfer of power—the first between civilians from different parties.
Buhari fired his top military leaders in July 2015, citing the militarys ineffective response to Boko Haram and alleged human rights violations—the use of torture, starvation, and ill treatment at detention facilities—during its campaign against Boko Haram.
In late Jan. 2016, Boko Haram raided the village of Dalori and killed at least 65 people. Dalori residents said that as many as 100 people were killed in the attack. During the raid, children were abducted and the entire village was burned.
The following month, at least 58 people were killed and another 78 wounded in a suicide bombing at a Nigerian refugee camp. The suicide bombers were three girls who had been welcomed into the camp. Two of the girls blew themselves up with bombs, while the third girl chose not detonate hers and gave herself up to authorities after seeing members of her immediate family in the camp. The refugee camp was for people fleeing Boko Haram. As of Feb. 2016, at least 2.5 million have fled from attacks and threats by the militant group.
U.S. Department of State Background Note
Algeria, the second-largest state in Africa, has a Mediterranean coastline of about 998 kilometers (620 mi.). The Tellian and Saharan Atlas mountain ranges cross the country from east to west, dividing it into three zones. Between the northern zone, Tellian Atlas, and the Mediterranean is a narrow, fertile coastal plain--the Tell (Arabic for hill)--with a moderate climate year round and rainfall adequate for agriculture. A high plateau region, averaging 914 meters (3,000 ft.) above sea level, with limited rainfall, great rocky plains, and desert, lies between the two mountain ranges. It is generally barren except for scattered clumps of trees and intermittent bush and pastureland. The third and largest zone, south of the Saharan Atlas mountain range, is mostly desert. About 80% of the country is desert, steppes, wasteland, and mountains. Algerias weather varies considerably from season to season and from one geographical location to another. In the north, the summers are usually hot with little rainfall. Winter rains begin in the north in October. Frost and snow are rare, except on the highest slopes of the Tellian Atlas Mountains. Dust and sandstorms occur most frequently between February and May.
Soil erosion--from overgrazing, other poor farming practices, and desertification--and the dumping of raw sewage, petroleum refining wastes, and other industrial effluents are leading to the pollution of rivers and coastal waters. The Mediterranean Sea, in particular, is becoming polluted from oil wastes, soil erosion, and fertilizer runoff. There are inadequate supplies of potable water.
Ninety-one percent of the Algerian population lives along the Mediterranean coast on 12% of the countrys total land mass. Forty-five percent of the population is urban, and urbanization continues, despite government efforts to discourage migration to the cities. About 1.5 million nomads and semi-settled Bedouin still live in the Saharan area.
Nearly all Algerians are Muslim, of Arab,
In the following article Dr. Clarence Spigner, Professor of Public Health at the University of Washington, Seattle, describes the life of the first patient to die of Ebola on U.S. soil and the larger crisis of Ebola in West Africa. He views it as a consequence of a long history of disease, poverty, and underfunded health care systems in the West African nations of Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia which are at the center of the 2014 epidemic.
On September 20, 2014, a forty-two year-old Liberian native, Thomas Eric Duncan, arrived in Dallas, Texas from a plane flight that originated in Monrovia, Liberia. Duncan came to the United States ostensibly to reunite with his estranged teenaged son and the boy’s mother, Louise Troh, who had at one time been his girlfriend in Liberia. Troh and her son lived in Dallas.
Unknown before that point, Duncan entered the international public consciousness because he had flown from the hot zone of the Ebola virus outbreak then occurring in West Africa. On March 30, 2014, Liberia reported two cases of people with the Ebola disease. Six months later on September 30, over 3,000 people had died from Ebola in West Africa including more than 1,000 in Liberia alone. Duncan, who would be the first reported case of Ebola in the United States and as of this writing, the only fatality, was symptom-free and not contagious when he left Liberia by way of Brussels, Belgium and Washington, D.C.
The deadly Ebola disease has symptoms similar to the mosquito-borne infectious malaria. Both malaria and Ebola are endemic to Africa, though malaria is now far more widespread and dangerous. So is West Nile Disease which like malaria is mosquito-borne and was first identified in 1937 in the East African nation of Uganda.
Unlike those diseases, Ebola is spread by physical contact with an infected person or animal. The virus is not airborne. The rapid spread of Ebola and the even more rapid spread of fear of a worldwide distribution of the Ebola virus comes from the knowledge that diseases like
At least two people died and a third was injured in a suspected suicide bombing outside a restaurant in the Somalian capital, Mogadishu.
The blast occurred at the entrance of the Lul Yemeny restaurant after a man was prevented from entering the building, according to police.
At the scene, police spokesman Sadiq Adan Ali said:
\"A vigilant security guard for the restaurant stopped the suicide bomber from getting inside the restaurant. The bomber (then) suddenly blew himself up outside of the bar as you can see.\"
An eye witness said there were two bodies after the attack and that a third person was taken to hospital.
The restaurant, close to Mogadishu port, is popular with security officers and government officials who work in the nearby area. They are regularly targeted by Islamist militants. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Earl Simmons better known as DMX or Dark Man X was born to the Simmons family on December 18, 1970. He lived in New York as a child but his childhood was far from secure. Much of his youth was spent in group homes because of an abusive relationship with his parents. He is now the father of twelve children. When he turned 18, he started out as a beat boxer. By 1991, he had caught the attention of an author named Gabriel Grevenstuk for The Source Magazine. This author covered him in his “Unsigned Hype” column. Earl’s stage name was also coined after he started playing the musical instrument which was often used in the 80s; the Oberheim DMX drum machine. The name was later expanded and re-construed as “Dark Man X”.
In 1992, DMX made his way to signing labels with Columbia Records’ Ruffhouse and released his first single “Born Loser”. Unfortunately, the single did not do as well as DMX had hoped which led to the end of the contract signed. About two years later, he came up with his second single “Make a Move” and appeared with iconic singers like Jay-Z and Mic Geronimo on tracks like “Time to Build”. He also made a walk-on appearance for music videos such as “Makes No Difference”. DMX finally made it to the top with his single “Get at Me Dog” in 1998. The RIAA rated it Gold and his first major album titled “It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot” sold over five million copies. In addition to this, it remained number one on the Billboard 200 chart in the U.S.
DMX’s next album followed the same year which was titled “Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood” . This album too, remained number one on the charts for three consecutive weeks. In consequence of this, DMX became the second rapper in history to be this successful and have two albums released in the same year to stay on the chart for so long. His third and fourth album “…and then there was X” and “The Great Depression” were released in 1999 and 2001 respectively. “Grand Champ” and “Year of The Dog… Again” followed soon afterwards. In 2011, DMX performed at the BET Hip Hop
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announced Wednesday that he has tested positive for the coronavirus and that... View Article
The post Oklahoma’s governor says he has tested positive for COVID-19 appeared first on TheGrio.
It has become a pattern every year for insurgents to step up attacks near Eid to sabotage the celebrations
\t“They arrived around 5:30pm and went on for more than four hours before the soldiers came to fight them,” said Bashir Manzo, a resident of Dapchi.
This attack is characteristic of the Boko Haram group, with which ISWAP split off in 2016, which regularly uses suicide bombers to target civilians.
Konduga is located in the Sambisa forest, a stronghold of Boko Haram from which suicide bombers have often launched their attacks in the past.
Earlier Monday, fighters from Boko Haram also attacked the village of Kautikeri in southern Borno State, beheading a resident and kidnapping a herder of 150 cattle, Ayuba Alamson, a Chibok community leader, told AFP.
“It has become a pattern every year for insurgents to step up attacks near Eid to sabotage the celebrations,” said the head of the anti-Jihadist militia in Borno, Babakura Kolo, saying this year “will be no different.
A landlocked country in north-central Africa, Chad is about 85% the size of Alaska. Its neighbors are Niger, Libya, the Sudan, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, and Nigeria. Lake Chad, from which the country gets its name, lies on the western border with Niger and Nigeria. In the north is a desert that runs into the Sahara.
Republic.
The area around Lake Chad has been inhabited since at least 500 B.C. In the 8th century A.D., Berbers began migrating to the area. Islam arrived in 1085, and by the 16th century a trio of rival kingdoms flourished: the Kanem-Bornu, Baguirmi, and Ouaddaï. During the years 1883–1893, all three kingdoms came under the rule of the Sudanese conqueror Rabih al-Zubayr. In 1900, Rabih was overthrown by the French, who absorbed these kingdoms into the colony of French Equatorial Africa, as part of Ubangi-Shari (now the Central African Republic), in 1913. In 1946, the territory, now known as Chad, became an autonomous republic within the French Community. An independence movement led by the first premier and president, François (later Ngarta) Tombalbaye, achieved complete independence on Aug. 11, 1960. Tombalbaye was killed in the 1975 coup and succeeded by Gen. Félix Malloum, who faced a Libyan-financed civil war throughout his tenure in office. In 1977, Libya seized a strip of Chadian land and launched an invasion two years later.
Nine rival groups meeting in Lagos, Nigeria, in March 1979 agreed to form a provisional government headed by Goukouni Oueddei, a former rebel leader. Fighting broke out again in Chad in March 1980, when Defense Minister Hissen Habré challenged Goukouni and seized the capital. Libyan president Muammar al-Qaddafi, in Jan. 1981, proposed a merger of Chad with Libya. The Libyan proposal was rejected and Libyan troops withdrew from Chad that year, but in 1983 they poured back into the northern part of the country in support of Goukouni. France, in turn, sent troops into southern Chad in support of Habré. Government troops then launched an offensive in early 1987
The number of confirmed Covid-19 positive cases across Africa rose from 84,634 Monday afternoon to 88,172 by Tuesday afternoon, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said on Tuesday.
The continental disease control and prevention agency, which noted that the virus has so far spread into 54 African countries, also disclosed that some 33,863 people who have been infected with the Covid-19 across the continent had recovered as of Tuesday afternoon.
The death toll due to the Covid-19 pandemic across the African continent also surged from 2,766 on Monday afternoon to 2,835 by Tuesday afternoon according to Africa CDC.
Africa CDC currently estimates fatality rates of Covid-19 cases to be around 3.4 per cent of all cases in the continent.
It said that the northern African region is the most affected area both in terms of positive Covid-19 cases as well as the number of deaths.
After scandals and allegations of insider trading, Sen. Kelly Loeffler has lost her attempt at winning her appointed seat in the U.S. Senate. According to the Cook Political Report and NBC News called Rev. Raphael Warnock the projected winner, defeating Loeffler after midnight on Wednesday morning. ...
Nearly four times the size of Texas and the largest country on the continent, Algeria is bordered on the west by Morocco and Western Sahara and on the east by Tunisia and Libya. The Mediterranean Sea is to the north, and to the south are Mauritania, Mali, and Niger. The Saharan region, which is 85% of the country, is almost completely uninhabited. The highest point is Mount Tahat in the Sahara, which rises 9,850 ft (3,000 m).
Parliamentary republic.
Excavations in Algeria have indicated that Homo erectus resided there between 500,000 and 700,000 years ago. Phoenician traders settled on the Mediterranean coast in the 1st millennium B.C. As ancient Numidia, Algeria became a Roman colony, part of what was called Mauretania Caesariensis, at the close of the Punic Wars (145 B.C.). Conquered by the Vandals about A.D. 440, it fell from a high state of civilization to virtual barbarism, from which it partly recovered after an invasion by Arabs about 650. Christian during its Roman period, the indigenous Berbers were then converted to Islam. Falling under the control of the Ottoman Empire by 1536, Algiers served for three centuries as the headquarters of the Barbary pirates. Ostensibly to rid the region of the pirates, the French occupied Algeria in 1830 and made it a part of France in 1848.
Algerian independence movements led to the uprisings of 1954–1955, which developed into full-scale war. In 1962, French president Charles de Gaulle began the peace negotiations, and on July 5, 1962, Algeria was proclaimed independent. In Oct. 1963, Ahmed Ben Bella was elected president, and the country became Socialist. He began to nationalize foreign holdings and aroused opposition. He was overthrown in a military coup on June 19, 1965, by Col. Houari Boumédienne, who suspended the constitution and sought to restore economic stability. After his death, Boumédienne was succeeded by Col. Chadli Bendjedid in 1978. Berbers rioted in 1980 when Arabic was made the countrys only official language. Algeria entered a major recession after
South Africa recorded 106 more Covid-19-related deaths, bringing the death toll closer to 20 000.
