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Nine people, including one police officer, have died in the West African state of Guinea, the security ministry said Wednesday, following days of unrest after a tense weekend presidential election.
In a statement, the ministry pointed to shootings and stabbings in the capital Conakry and elsewhere in the country since Sunday's presidential vote.
"This strategy of chaos (was) orchestrated to jeopardise the elections of October 18, " the ministry said, adding that many people had been injured and property was damaged.
Clashes were ongoing in Conakry on Wednesday, where a security officer, Mamadou Keganan Doumbouya, told the press that at least three people had died.
And a local doctor, who declined to be named, said he had received two dead bodies, and nine injured people, at his clinic.
The violence follows the high-stakes election in which President Alpha Conde ran for a third term in a controversial bid that had already sparked mass protests.
With tensions already running high, Guinea's main opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo on Monday declared victory in the election -- before the announcement of the official results, which are expected this week.
Opposition supporters are deeply suspicious about the fairness of the poll, although the government insists that it was fair.
Much of the tension in Guinea centres on Conde's candidacy.
In March, the 82-year-old president pushed through a new constitution which he argued would modernise the country. It also allowed him to bypass a two-term limit for presidents, however.
Security forces repressed mass protests against the move from October last year, killing dozens of people.
On Wednesday, plumes of black smoke rose over an opposition stronghold in the capital Conakry, where protesters erected barricades and lit fires, an AFP journalist saw.
Youths in alleyways also hurled stones at police officers stationed along a main artery who fired back tear gas canisters.
The security ministry stated that "a police officer was lynched to death" in a Conakry suburb, without specifying when the attack occurred.
In a social media post earlier on Wednesday, Conde appealed for "calm and serenity while awaiting the outcome of the electoral process".
- Clashes and barricades -
Ten candidates are in the race besides alongside frontrunners Conde and Diallo, old political rivals who traded barbs in a bitter campaign.
Despite fears of violence after the pre-vote clashes, polling day was mostly calm.
Then Diallo's self-proclaimed election victory ratcheted up tensions, and celebrations by his supporters descended into violent clashes with security forces on Monday.
The opposition politician said that security forces killed three youngsters that night, although AFP was unable to confirm the details.
Security forces also barricaded Diallo inside his house, the politician said on Tuesday.
Monitors from the African Union and the 15-nation West African bloc ECOWAS both said that Guinea's election was mostly fair, despite insistence from Diallo's camp tha
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.
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded on the south by 2,798 kilometres (1,739 mi) of coastline of Southern Africa stretching along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans;[9] [10] [11] on the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; and on the east and northeast by Mozambique and Swaziland; and surrounds the kingdom of Lesotho.[12] South Africa is the 25th-largest country in the world by land area, and with close to 56 million people, is the worlds 24th-most populous nation. It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere. About 80 percent of South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry,[5] divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different Bantu languages, nine of which have official status.[11] The remaining population consists of Africas largest communities of European (white), Asian (Indian), and multiracial (coloured) ancestry.
South Africa is a multiethnic society encompassing a wide variety of cultures, languages, and religions. Its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the constitutions recognition of 11 official languages, which is among the highest number of any country in the world.[11] Two of these languages are of European origin: Afrikaans developed from Dutch and serves as the first language of most white and coloured South Africans; English reflects the legacy of British colonialism, and is commonly used in public and commercial life, though it is fourth-ranked as a spoken first language.[11] The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a coup détat, and regular elections have been held for almost a century. However, the vast majority of black South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994. During the 20th century, the black majority sought to recover its rights from the dominant white minority, with this struggle playing a large
Gleaton, the youngest son of an elementary school teacher and police officer, was born into a black middle-class family on August 4, 1948 in Detroit, Michigan.
Tracy Marrow, better known as Ice T is mostly celebrated for his rap songs concerning street life & violence. He has been an influential figure for the gangster rap genre. Highly controversial songs such as Cop Killer brought much fame to Ice T. He also pursued a career in acting, his most noteworthy character being that of a police officer on the show, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Tracy Marrow was born on February 16, 1958 in Newark, New Jersey. He spent his early years in Summit, New Jersey living with his parents. His father was a quiet blue collar working man. Although Ice remembers his mother to be a strong & supportive woman in his autobiography, he does not have many memories of her because she passed away following a heart attack when Ice was in third grade. Four years later his father too died of a heart attack leaving Ice alone. He was an only child who lost both his parents very early on in life. Following the death of his father, Ice had to move in with his aunt in South Central Los Angeles. By this time, he was in sixth grade. It was in LA that Ice got his first taste of inner city life. These everyday experiences would later lead to his career as a rapper and give him the integrity and authority to speak up against gang violence. None of his friends took interest in studies, but Ice was different, he secretly ditched his friends to attend school and graduated from high school with good grades.
Before becoming a rapping icon, Ice T was enrolled in the United States Army for four years. However, he later returned to Los Angeles where he lived as a self styled hustler. Crime kept his pockets warm for a while but then he got fed up and when a friend suggested he give rap a chance, Ice abandoned hustling completely. Tracy Marrow became Ice T with the help of Robert Maupin Beck III. Robert’s pen name Iceberg Slim became the inspiration for Marrow’s own name. In 1987, Ice signed with Sire Records and released his debut album, Rhyme Pays a year later. The album went gold. Ice gained more popularity
Science desk: The Docs Who Cried Wolf
While many “people across the political spectrum erred” in comparing the coronavirus to the flu, it isn’t their fault, Dennis Saffran argues at American Greatness.
Pandemic journal: Listen to Skeptics
Many media critics of President Trump are “dismayed” at his call to “get our country open” again, casting “the lockdown debate as a straightforward battle between a pro-human and a pro-economy camp.”
Indeed, many “prominent African-American entertainers” are happy to be pictured with him, and Farrakhan even “has his own place of honor in the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the Washington Mall.”
Media critic: A CNN Meltdown
“Call it a symptom of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” snarks Tristan Justice at The Federalist: “CNN’s Brian Stelter suffered an on-air meltdown Sunday over conservative media paying any attention to arguably the largest spy scandal in American history”: the Obama administration’s campaign against the incoming Team Trump.
Of course, those media do cover the pandemic, while Stelter ignores the fact that “CNN led the media’s infatuation with Russiagate conspiracy theories distracting the country from preparing for the kind of pandemic seen today.”
Ciara, the jewel of R&B is now the Fall/Winter 2015-16 face of Roberto Cavalli’s fashion line. Pictures of Ciara’s photo shoot hit social media earlier this week where she is captured as a goddess wearing garments that not only flatter her but also bring out her personality.
Ciara is sexy and classic in the ten photos that show her in outfits from a mustard yellow jumpsuit to a long black colored dress with a gold belt buckle. Her black hair sways in this mystical world that Cavalli created described as, “A surreal kingdom where the walls look like a magical sky and surfaces enchant with desert volumes and earthy hues.”
Ciara is not the first Black woman to grace the presence of Roberto Cavalli. Nicki Minaj was the Spring/Summer 2015 face for the fashion line with festive spring/summer dresses. Roberto Cavalli is known for choosing music artist that are trending to wear his new clothing lines.
In a press release about Ciara it states, “ The Maison’s tailoring workmanship enhances the printed silk, which evaporate from black into the colours of a dreamlike world, until they capture the warmth of a starry night with the brilliance of elegant solid colours.”
Ciara has just released her sixth album entitled “Jackie” where her single is featured entitled “I Bet”. This Atlanta native is a pro at juggle a singing career, modeling, and being a mom to her almost one-year –old son Future Zahir Wilburn.
Roberto Cavalli is an Italian fashion designer that is best known for his exotic prints and sandblasted look for jeans. Cavalli has featured artist such as Rita Ora, and models like Gisele Bundchen and Georgia May Jagger. His clothing can be found in higher end stores such as Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus.
Her article that addressed the fake story was published online Wednesday, May 13, and it revealed what Winfrey was doing when talk of the rumor seemed to be at its peak.
“Imagine sitting cozily in bed, propped up on your favorite pillows, 240 pages into a riveting family saga—when you get a phone call telling you you’re trending on Twitter, and you discover it’s a bogus and vile story that you were arrested and your home was raided for sex trafficking and child pornography,” she wrote.
Winfrey then made the connection between the false rumor and something that happened in 1998 on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” when she wheeled out 67 pounds of animal fat in front of the crowd to show her weight loss.
“And yet when a false rumor — or a vile, disgusting attack — is contrived and amplified through social media, I’m still hit with the same anxiety.”
One person praised Winfrey for being a “role model for humanity” and said she wouldn’t latch on to questionable news stories about her.
The slave narratives of Frederick Douglass, the “I Have a Dream” speech of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the “Black Lives Matter” meme of today’s protesters all testify to the power of words in the struggle for social justice in America.
So it’s no surprise that many past winners of the annual Freedom Award of the National Civil Rights Museum have been gifted speakers, orators, politicians, writers and even vocal performers: Bishop Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Bono of U2 and so on.
But images — Emmett Till’s mangled face, Rosa Parks under arrest, Memphis sanitation workers wearing “I Am a Man” signs — have had just as much impact as words in inspiring human rights recognition. So it’s appropriate that this year’s group of Freedom Award recipients includes a woman known as an image-maker: Ava DuVernay, director of “Selma,” the 2014 civil rights drama that was a nominee for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
“The images that we consume really nourish what we think about each other and feed what we feel about each other,” said DuVernay, 42, who is making her first visit to Memphis for Thursday’s Freedom Awards ceremony at Downtown’s Cannon Center for the Performing Arts. “So much of what we think about each other comes through the images we see in the stories that we are told.”
DuVernay is one of three honorees for this year’s Freedom Awards. The others include Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, who as a student activist participated in Freedom Rides, lunch-counter sit-ins and other key 1960s events, and Ruby Bridges-Hall, whose lifetime of activism began in 1960, when she was the 6-year-old student who integrated the New Orleans public school system.
“This year we have an all-women slate of award-winners, and I really think they epitomize the roles that women have played in civil rights, up to and including today,” said Terri Lee Freeman, president of the National Civil Rights Museum.
Freeman said honoring DuVernay was particularly timely because 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the famous voting rights marches
Lionel Bernstein, Denis Goldberg, Arthur Goldreich, Bob Hepple, Harold Wolpe and his brother-in-law James Kantor were white.
Hero of the anti-apartheid struggle Denis Goldberg, the only Rivonia defendant white man jailed for life, is the latest to die, at the age of 87.
Around the world, there is a history of white people who protested against racism in general and black oppression in particular.
Viola was a white housewife who worked with the American Civil Rights movement and Martin Luther King for the rights of black people.
Schwerner was also known for his door-to-door campaigns, seeking out white people to support the civil rights cause.
Whereas 10 years ago when the majority of the companies were still having doubts whether to actually have an advertizing budget on these platforms (some were saying social media is bad due to the addicting nature and how we constantly compare our lifes with eachother), nowadays we see that most of these same companies have their own social media department, fully focused on providing content.
Abdi's formal studies however was something very different then media or business.
This type of businessmodel allows the affiliate to sell other people's products on their own platform, while gaining a margin of the profit.Abdi would mainly use Instagram in order to promote such products.
He would use follow/unfollow method, buying/selling shoutouts and creating authentic unique viral content in order to grow his account exponentially.However due to affiliate vendors at the end of the actually being the product owner, Abdi felt more of a salesman that is selling products than an actual entrepreneur with his own business.
In 2020 he also started to create content for himself, which led to his notoriety and succesful rise as a Tik Tok star, gaining more then 1.2 million worldwide views in total.Currently, Abdi most well known work is being a social media influencer and consultant for high end influencers/brands/ambassadors and he also still provides physical therapy related courses at offices throughout the Netherlands for the prevention of physical neck/shoulder/back complaints.Hejar Abdi can be followed on:Tiktok: @imhejarInstagram: @hejarabdi
Little Richard, who passed away last weekend, will have a private funeral and burial at an Alabama historically black college next week.
Pastor Bill Minson, a friend of Little Richard, said the “Lucille” singer is actually an alumnus of the HBCU.
Little Richard died last Saturday, May 7th, after a battle with bone cancer.
He was battling for a good while, many years,” Alen told PEOPLE.
“With his exuberance, his creativity, and his refusal to be anything other than himself, Little Richard laid the foundation for generations of artists to follow, ” former FLOTUS Michelle Obama.
Abdul-Fattah Sisi, the influential general who led the ouster of Morsi, resigned as defense minister in March 2014 and announced his intention to run for president in the upcoming election.
Voter turnout in May 2014s presidential election was so low that officials added a third day of voting and declared the added day a state holiday. Sisi won the election in a landslide, taking 95% of the vote, but the turnout, about 47%, suggested that Sisi did not have the overwhelming support he had claimed and was widely reported. This may make it difficult for Sisi to implement economic reforms that are needed to boost the countrys dire financial situation. In the 2012 presidential election, 52% of voters cast ballots. Observers feared that under Sisi, a military strongman, Egypt would revert to an autocracy as seen in the Mubarak era.
In June 2014, an Egyptian court convicted three Al Jazeera English journalists of aiding the Muslim Brotherhood and spreading false news during their coverage of the protests that followed the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013. Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy, and Baher Mohamed were arrested in December 2013. Greste and Fahmy were sentenced to seven years in prison, and Baher Mohamed received a 10-year sentence. The extra years were for possessing ammunition, which amounted to one bullet from the protests he kept as a keepsake. The prosecution did not present any evidence against the journalists, and the verdict prompted international condemnation. The White House issued a statement saying the ruling flouts the most basic standards of media freedom and represents a blow to democratic progress in Egypt. The ruling sent a clear message to journalists and the public that the Sisi government would likely continue to crack down on freedom of the press and would not tolerate dissent.
Opposition leader Mwai Kibaki won the Dec. 2002 presidential election, defeating Mois protégé, Uhuru Kenyatta (term limits prevented Moi, in power for 24 years, from running again). Kibaki promised to put an end to the countrys rampant corruption. In his first few months, Kibaki did initiate a number of reforms—ordering a crackdown on corrupt judges and police and instituting free primary school education—and international donors opened their coffers again.
But by 2004, disappointment in Kibaki set in with the lack of further progress, and a long-awaited new constitution, meant to limit the presidents power, still had not been delivered. Kibakis anticorruption minister, John Githongo, resigned in Feb. 2005, frustrated that he was prevented from investigating a number of scandals. In July 2005, Parliament finally approved a draft of a constitution, but in Dec. 2005 voters rejected it because it expanded the presidents powers.
A drought ravaged Kenya, and by Jan. 2006, 2.5 million Kenyans faced starvation.
Despite the political turmoil and uncertainty, millions of Egyptians voted in the first round of parliamentary elections on Nov. 28, 2011. The Muslim Brotherhood fared better than expected, winning about 40% of the vote. Even more of a shock was the second place finish of the ultraconservative Islamist Salafists, who took about 25%. The Muslim Brotherhood, however, said it did not plan to form a coalition with the Salafis—an apparent attempt to calm fears that it would assemble an Islamist government. In fact, it said that it planned to form a unity government with secularists and would respect the rights of women and religious minorities.
The second round of parliamentary elections in mid-December were marred by violence. Protesters demonstrating against military rule were beat up and troops assaulted civilians who assembled outside parliament and judges who were enlisted to supervise the vote counting. In response, the civilian advisory council, formed to help the military council gain acceptance with the populace, ceased operations. The move was an embarrassment to the military council. The reputation of the military was further tarnished in late December, when it beat, kicked, and stripped several women who were participating in a womens demonstration against military rule.
After the third and final round of voting, the Muslim Brotherhood emerged as the clear winner, taking 47% of the seats in parliament. The Salafis won 25%, giving Islamists more than 70% of the seats. The first democratically elected parliament in more than 60 years convened in January 2012. Parliament, however, will remain secondary to the military council until the military hands power to a civilian government, which is expected after Mays presidential election. The legislative body was charged with forming a committee to write a new constitution. The Muslim Brotherhood named as many as 70 Islamists, including 50 members of parliament, to the 100-person committee. Given its dominance in parliament and control over the new
-Rep. Gray
A member of the governing Coalition for Democratic Change -Montserrado County Electoral District #8 Representative Acarous Moses Gray claims here that despite the 12 years leadership of the Unity Party, the former ruling party has placed its financial burden squarely on the shoulders of opposition Alternative National Congress political leader, Mr. Alexander Cummings.
Addressing a news conference in Monrovia on Thursday, May 14, Rep. Gray notes that it is shame for the former ruling establishment to hang on the pocket of Mr. Cummings, who according to him, has lost his way to the presidency.
He says Cummings' close relationship with the former ruling establishment would pave the way for the ruling CDC to win a second term landslides on grounds that Liberians will not give the country back to the Unity Party that allegedly squandered huge opportunities intended for the Liberian people over its 12 years reign.
Gray notes that stalwarts of the former ruling establishment are bitter with the Coalition for Democratic Change-led administration because they believe political leadership for the country is their exclusive right.
Some leaders from the opposition community, including Montserrado County Senator Darious Dillon have defended the statement, saying, Dumoe lacks the ability to breach the peace or place guns in the hands of Liberians.But Gray counters that during the days of former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, such statement was considered deadly and counterproductive to the peace process.
