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At least two bodies were discovered in the south of Tunisia where many other are still stranded in the border area near Libya and Algeria. The spokesperson for a Tunisian court confirmed the news on Tuesday (Jul. 11)
He replaces Debretsion Gebremichael, whose immunity from prosecution was removed Thursday.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International said Thursday that scores of civilians were killed in a \"massacre\" in the Tigray region, that witnesses blamed on forces backing the local ruling party.
The \"massacre\" is the first reported incident of large-scale civilian fatalities in a week-old conflict between the regional ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), and the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize.
\"Amnesty International can today confirm... that scores, and likely hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death in Mai-Kadra (May Cadera) town in the southwest of Ethiopia's Tigray Region on the night of 9 November,\" the rights group said in a report.
Amnesty said it had \"digitally verified gruesome photographs and videos of bodies strewn across the town or being carried away on stretchers.\"
The dead \"had gaping wounds that appear to have been inflicted by sharp weapons such as knives and machetes,\" Amnesty said, citing witness accounts.
Witnesses said the attack was carried out by TPLF-aligned forces after a defeat at the hands of the Ethiopian military, though Amnesty said it \"has not been able to confirm who was responsible for the killings\".
It nonetheless called on TPLF commanders and officials to \"make clear to their forces and their supporters that deliberate attacks on civilians are absolutely prohibited and constitute war crimes\".
Abiy ordered military operations in Tigray on November 4, saying they were prompted by a TPLF attack on federal military camps -- a claim the party denies.
The region has been under a communications blackout ever since, making it difficult to verify competing claims on the ground.
Abiy said Thursday his army had made major gains in western Tigray.
Thousands of Ethiopians have fled across the border into neighboring Sudan, and the UN is sounding the alarm about a humanitarian crisis in Tigray.
As Black people disproportionately suffer from Covid-19, there are lingering questions about the distribution process that will determine who gets the coronavirus vaccine first.
GWERU residents yesterday urged the council to give incentives to people who pay their bills in United States dollars, saying such a move would enable the local authority to collect revenue in foreign currency. BY Stephen Chadenga The residents made the call at a consultative meeting for the 2021 budget. Gweru United Progressive Residents and Ratepayers Development Association Trust executive director David Chikore said council should charge less in US dollars to encourage ratepayers to settle their bills in hard currency. “Since council has adopted dual pricing we propose that instead of billing the US dollar component using the interbank rate, they can lower it a bit compared to the RTGS$ charge,” he said. “By introducing incentives council will be able to directly get revenue in US dollar and pay its suppliers without hassles. Without incentives people will continue opting to pay in Zimdollars.” Mayor Josiah Makombe said his council would consider the proposal. He said council was also working on ways to implement the payment of tariffs in the 2021 budget in a manner that would ease the burden on ratepayers. “That is a welcome move by residents to propose for incentives to those residents who settle their rates in US dollars and we are going to seriously consider it,” Makombe said. “We will do everything as a local authority to make sure that we implement payment methods that ease the burden on our residents.”
By RUSS BYNUM Associated Press BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — The man who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery had previously used racial slurs in a text message and on social media, a prosecutor said Thursday as a judge weighed whether to grant bond for the defendant and his father. Travis McMichael and his father, Gregory McMichael, have been jailed since their arrests in May, more than two months after Arbery was slain. The McMichaels, who are white, chased and fatally shot the 25-year-old Black man after they spotted him running in their neighborhood just outside the port city of Brunswick. Questions about […]
The post Prosecutors read racist messages by Ahmaud Arbery's killer appeared first on Black News Channel.
Although the majority of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in St.
The article Ministry considering COVID isolation facility in St Cuthbert’s appeared first on Stabroek News.
After months of closure, schools have reopened Thursday in Senegal.
Unicef had deplored in early October that only one country in three from West and Central Africa has managed to reopen its schools for the start of the school year 2020-2021 on schedule.
Most of the students sitting Thursday in groups under the courtyard of an elementary school in Mbao, a suburb of Dakar, were not wearing masks. On the contrary, in a high school in Yoff, a working class neighborhood of the capital, most were wearing masks.
But these same students passed through the doors of the school without any provision to keep them at a distance from each other.
Four million students, from primary to secondary school, were expected to return to classes, but a number of them delayed their return, a common practice even outside of a pandemic.
Schools were closed in March after the first case of Covid-19 in the country. Only 500,000 students in examination classes had returned to school by June.
Since then, the pandemic appears to have been contained at low levels. Senegal reported 15,744 cases and 326 deaths.
Economic activity, which has been severely affected, is slowly resuming its course. But there is also a slackening of daily vigilance.
\"We have defined a health protocol with the Ministry of Health for the compulsory wearing of masks - except in preschool - hand washing, physical distancing,\" Ministry of Education spokesman Mohamed Moustapha Diagne said.
The authorities also assured that masks and gel would be transported for schools to remote localities.
\"We have not yet received a supply of masks and hydro-alcoholic gel,\" an official of the school in Mbao said anonymously.
\"Until last night, some schools in inland localities had not received their equipment in masks and gel,\" said a teacher union official, Abdoulaye Ndoye.
The start of the school year is also undermined by a financial dispute between private schools, which accommodate nearly a third of students, and parents.
Private schools demanded that parents pay for two to three months of schooling between April and June. Some parents reported in the press that they did not owe anything because classes were closed.
\"We recommend discussion between the schools and the families,\" said the ministry spokesman, assuring that the ministry had \"no legal basis to intervene\".
\"Only the state can settle this issue. It must have the political courage to do so,\" replied trade unionist Ndoye.
In summary Gov. Newsom should recognize the importance of the Latino community and appoint the first Latino or Latina senator from California. By Claudia Medina, Special to CalMatters Claudia Medina is the founding member of the Latino Community Foundation’s East Bay Latina Giving Circle, claudia.medina4education@gmail.com. Come January, California’s own Kamala Harris will make history as […]
The post It’s time for the first Latino senator from California appeared first on Black Voice News.
A NEWLY-ESTABLISHED pharmaceutical company, Pendulum, has donated US$45 000 worth of surgical equipment to Mpilo Central Hospital. BY PATRICIA SIBANDA Pendulum Pharmaceuticals was launched at Ascot in Bulawayo yesterday after making the lifesaving donation at the hospital. Mpilo Hospital acting chief executive officer Solwayo Ngwenya told the media at the handover ceremony that the donation would go a long way in helping provide critical surgical services. “This donation is quite heavy, worth US$45 000 and the quantities are quite massive, they include guedel airways, these ones are used for anaesthetic operations to help patients breathe during anaesthesia, so they are lifesaving and also there are manual resuscitators for babies and these ones are used for emergency situations,” he said. “We also have large amounts of surgical bed sheets. These will help a lot in times of COVID-19. They will be used by patients to reduce infection rates and help fight COVID-19. We also received a vaginal speculum which we use to examine women and for cervical screening.” Ngwenya added: “It is indeed a wide variety of life-saving anaesthetic emergency room equipment, surgical beds cleanliness and infection control.” He said they were facing other challenges, but they were trying by all means to manage the situation. “The situation is always manageable, we buy and the government sends us regular supplies through NatPham. We also, as a hospital, use our own monies but this is going to be a big boost because it will allow us to divert some of the monies to buy other items that will be in short supply like N95 masks, things generally used in fighting COVID-19,” Ngwenya said. He said one of the major challenges was the malfunctioning of radiotherapy machines despite the promise made by government to have them fixed. Ngwenya said the hospital was experiencing an increase in the number of COVID-19 patients.
Hundreds of Ethiopians gathered Thursday to donate blood for troops fighting in the northern Tigray region, as officials tried to rally support for a week-old conflict Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said was going his way.
The government also announced that police had arrested 150 people in the capital suspected of trying to carry out \"terror attacks\" on the orders of Tigray's ruling party.
Prime Minister Abiy blames the Tigray ruling party for a conflict that analysts fear could spiral into a protracted civil war.
Hundreds have died and thousands have fled the country since Abiy, last year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, sent troops and warplanes into Tigray last week after a months-long feud with the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).
Abiy said the TPLF -- which dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades before he took office in 2018 -- had crossed a \"red line\" and attacked two federal military bases, which the party denies.
Thursday's blood drive was organised by the office of Addis Ababa Mayor Adanech Abebe, who claimed the population was unified against the TPLF while donating blood herself.
\"The aim of this blood donation is to express our respect for our army,\" she told journalists as a nurse drew blood from her left arm.
\"The attack done by TPLF to our army is shameful for Ethiopia. Never happened in our history. We want to condemn this.\"
Tigray has been under a communications blackout since the military operation was launched on November 4, making it difficult to verify the situation on the ground as both sides make conflicting claims.
In a Facebook post Thursday, Abiy said government forces had \"liberated\" the western zone of Tigray -- made up of six zones, plus the capital and surrounds.
Abiy also accused TPLF-aligned fighters of \"cruelty\", saying that when the army took control of the town of Sheraro they \"found bodies of executed defence force personnel whose hands and feet were tied\". There was no immediate reaction from the TPLF.
Under Abiy, Tigray's leaders have complained of being unfairly targeted in corruption prosecutions and removed from top positions.
Tensions soared as Tigray defiantly held its own elections in September, insisting Abiy was an illegitimate leader after national polls were postponed due to the coronavirus.
-'Rule of law'-
The conflict has seen multiple rounds of airstrikes targeting arms and fuel depots along with heavy fighting in western Tigray.
The UN said Wednesday some 11,000 Ethiopians had sought refuge in neighbouring Sudan, and Ethiopia has acknowledged some of its troops at one point retreated into neighbouring Eritrea, highlighting the conflict's potential to draw in the wider Horn of Africa region.
Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, quoted by state news agency SUNA as he hosted Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh, on Wednesday called for a \"stop to the fighting as soon as possible\" and a return to the negotiating table.
The African Union has also called for an immediate stop to fighting and for dialogue, as internationa
Australia and New Zealand will play a trans-Tasman Super Rugby competition next year with five teams from each country competiting.
ZIMBABWEANS mainly in urban areas are relying on second-hand undergarments smuggled into the country and sold at flea markets across the country as economic hardships continue to take a toll on the population. BY RICHARD MUPONDE This was revealed in an audit report by the Auditor-General Mildred Chiri which monitored the quality of goods imported in the country by the Industry and Commerce ministry between 2013 and 17. According to the report, hard-hit Zimbabweans have resorted to buying second-hand undergarments and clothes being smuggled into the country. Flea markets selling second-hand undergarments and clothes have sprouted in major towns and cities. In her report, Chiri said the Industry and Commerce ministry was not adequately monitoring the smuggling of substandard goods, leading to the proliferation of the second-hand undergarments and clothes which is having a negative bearing on the clothing industry in the country. “Audit also noted that second-hand clothes and undergarments were being smuggled into the country and sold at designated flea markets such as Mupedzanhamo in Mbare (Harare) and Chinotimba Flea Market in Victoria Falls. My visit to Mbare revealed that there were 10 warehouses which were packed to capacity with bales of second-hand clothing,” part of the report read. “In Mutare and Bulawayo, second-hand undergarments were being sold on the streets, despite the ban on the importation of second-hand undergarments through Statutory Instrument 150 of 2011.” She also said there was rampant smuggling of goods along the borderlines, entry points and through transit fraud due to lack of monitoring. “Smuggling syndicates have mushroomed at Zimbabwe’s busiest ports of entry and along the borderlines after government’s enactment of Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016 (repealed by SI 122 of 2017), Statutory Instrument 19 of 2016, Statutory 150 of 2011 which imposed restrictions on imports of basic commodities, second-hand clothes and banning of undergarments,” she said. Chiri, however, noted that in an effort to control the influx of cheaper products which was directly affecting local producers, the Industry and Commerce ministry introduced SI 64 (repealed by SI 122 of 2017). “According to the inspector responsible for anti-smuggling monitoring at Beitbridge Border Post, the introduction of SI 64 necessitated the establishment of an inter-ministerial committee on border management. The role of the inter-ministerial committee is to facilitate identification, prosecution of smuggling offenders and to enable intelligence and security surveillance. The committee is made up of Zimbabwe Republic Police, Zimbabwe National Army, Mineral Border Control Unit, President’s Office and Zimra [Zimbabwe Revenue Authority],” she said.
TEACHERS have rejected the government’s 40% salary hike offer, describing it as a mockery, vowing not to return to work until their employer pays them meaningful salaries. BY HARRIET CHIKANDIWA/LORRAINE MUROMO Government on Tuesday proposed a 40% salary hike for all its workers and a 10% risk allowance to teachers as a way of enticing them to end the job boycott that started in September when schools reopened for examination classes, throwing schools into chaos. According to Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa during a post-Cabinet Press briefing, the 40% salary hike will be awarded to all grades below director level. The offer came after teachers rejected a 20% salary hike last week announced through the National Joint Negotiating Council. But teachers yesterday scoffed at the government offer that will leave them earning $18 237, which they said was grossly inadequate. “Incapacitated teachers have rejected the 40% salary increase offered by Cabinet on Tuesday, the increase is procedurally defective and grossly insufficient in quantum,” Progressive Teacher of Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president Takavafira Zhou said. “Salaries and conditions of service are subject to bargaining between the employer and workers and not a product of employer machinations. Government attempts to render unions useless must be rejected in toto.” He said the PTUZ was ready for meaningful dialogue with the government. Government has been resisting increasing salaries for reachers, with Labour minister Paul Mavima, saying such a move would trigger inflation. Schools opened on Monday for the final phase with pupils being turned away because teachers did not report for duty. The teachers are demanding US$520 per month. “We remain worried at government’s reluctance to pay its workers in forex at a time the economy has dollarised,” Zhou said, adding the 40% salary hike would not improve the standard of living for the struggling teachers. “The government is also silent on prioritisation of health and safety of teachers and pupils, more so given cases of COVID-19 in schools. In light of the foregoing, the best foot forward for incapacitated teachers remain the incapacitation modus operandi until we are capacitated.” Zhou urged parents to keep their kids in the safety of their homes. He reiterated that the educators would not be intimidated by the steps taken by government to record names of absent teachers in order to dock their incomes. “We urge school heads to resist submission of names of incapacitated teachers to any office. We urge all teachers to rise and be counted in our incapacitation struggle. The darkest hour is just before dawn,” he said. “We implore government to engage leaders of teacher unions in order to find a holistic solution to the current impasse in schools.” He added: “We reiterate that no amount of threats and brutality can force teachers back to their workplaces. Dialogue and capacitation are the only means available, and the sooner they are employed the better for the education system in Zimbabwe.” Zimbabwe Rural Teacher
Harare West legislator Joana Mamombe (MDC Alliance)’s trial for breaching the national lockdown regulations will commence on November 24 . HARRIET CHIKANDIWA Mamombe faces charges of contravening section 4(1)(a) of the Public Health (COVID-19 Prevention, Containment and Treatment) (National Lockdown) Order Statutory Instrument 83/2020 as read with section 3 of Statutory Instrument 110/20 for unnecessary movement during national lockdown. It is alleged that Mamombe violated COVID-19 lockdown regulations by leading a gathering of more than 10 people in May this year. Mamombe, together with fellow MDC Alliance activists Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova, are currently appearing in court to answer to a charge of participating in an anti-government protest against hunger during the national lockdown period. The trio is also answering to a charge of publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the State as defined in section 31(a)(ii) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act and publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the State as defined in section 31(a)(iii) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act as well as defeating or obstructing the course of justice as defined in section 184(1)(f) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act. It is alleged that Mamombe, Marova and Chimbiri, who are victims of torture and abduction, stage-managed their abduction in May this year and lied to their lawyers, relatives and friends that they had been abducted by State security agents.
County health workers will partner with certified worker organizations to support employees who want to form councils and train them on protocols so they can help monitor compliance.
The post L.A. County Moves to Set Up Worker-Driven COVID-19 Compliance Councils appeared first on Los Angeles Sentinel.
The Biden-Harris campaign announced that Yale School of Medicine professor Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith will be co-chair- their new COVID-19 task force.
Newly elected DA leader John Steenhuisen has come out guns blazing following President Cyril Ramaphosa's extension of the national state of disaster by another month.
Analysis - Disputed elections in the Ivory Coast and Guinea, violence in Nigeria: many West Africans hope for foreign support, but the European Union has kept itself at a distance. Publicly, at least.
[New Times] The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals on Wednesday, November 11 started the hearing of the case of Felicien Kabuga, a genocide mastermind who was arrested in France in May.
Marc Morial, National Urban League’s dynamic president and former New Orleans mayor. BY REV. WATSON HAYNES, President & CEO, PCUL ST. PETERSBURG - The unpredictable and unprecedented difficulties of this year have brought unsettling changes to our individual lives and to organizations like the Pinellas County Urban League (PCUL) This year will always be remembered as […]
