Breaking News

19, November 2016

US President-elect agrees to pay $25 million to settle lawsuit against Trump University ⁰

US President-elect Donald Trump has agreed to pay $25 million in order to settle the lawsuit against Trump University, according to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Schneiderman made the announcement Friday, saying that the settlement amounted to “a major victory for the over 6,000 victims of his fraudulent university.”

The settlement includes all the three lawsuits filed against the university. Trial for one of the cases was slated to begin on November 28. The money would be split among the suing students. According to Schneiderman, Trump would also pay an extra $1 million in penalties to the state of New York.

The university, which operated between 2004 and 2010, has been accused of being a sham aimed at ripping off students, who claim they were tricked into believing that the New York businessman would handpick the instructors. Apparently, the students were initially lured through free seminars, where the instructors steered them into higher cost ones.

Later on Friday, Trump’s office confirmed the announcement, saying that Trump agreed to settle the case in order to focus on his presidency. “We are pleased to announce the complete resolution of all litigation involving Trump University,” the Trump organization said. “While we have no doubt that Trump University would have prevailed at trial based on the merits of this case, resolution of these matters allows President-Elect Trump to devote his full attention to the important issues facing our great nation.”

During the presidential campaign, Trump had accused the federal judge overseeing the case of being hostile to him. “I believe he happens to be Spanish, which is fine. He is Hispanic, which is fine. And we haven’t asked for recusal, which we may do,” He said in May. “But we have a judge who is very hostile. Should’ve been thrown out. Wasn’t thrown out.”

Presstv

19, November 2016

Foreign journalists to boycott women’s AFCON ¹

Journalists from other African countries are threatening to boycott the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations beginning tomorrow in Yaoundé. While the Confederation of African Football has awarded accreditation to journalists for the media coverage of the female AFCON 2016, which will kick off tomorrow Saturday, the presidential security department is now forcing all CAF accredited journalists to present a special badge emanating from their service to gain access to the opening matches and the final.

Cameroon Concord News has learnt that the presidential security operates a different security system and their decision reigns supreme whenever President Paul Biya is expected to take part in an event. This is a security measure unprecedented in other countries in such circumstances. The measure taken by the security services of the 83-year-old leader is not shared by journalists some of whom are considering a boycott.

By Rita Akana

18, November 2016

Rigobert Song sends message to the Indomitable Lionesses ⁰

Canal 2 international has broadcasted a telephone conversation with the emblematic captain of the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon, Rigobert Song still interned at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in France. In the news bulletin today, Rigo said he was getting better and better and thanked the Cameroonian people especially President Biya and his wife for their support. “For the moment, I feel good, I’m in full rehabilitation. I am aware of some few things”.

The former international defender has kept his lion’s heart and he shocked the Canal 2 journalist when he reminded him in the conversation that Cameroon was just 24 hours to the kick-off of the 10th edition of the 2016 Women’s Africa Nation’s Cup. “To my sisters, the indomitable Lionesses I convey to them the determination … I wish that everything goes very well,’ Song added.

Rigobert Song suffered a stroke last October the 2nd at his home in Yaoundé. After an emergency treatment in a hospital in Yaoundé, he was evacuated three days later to France on high instruction from the presidency of the republic.

By Chi Prudence Asong with files from CIN

18, November 2016

Obama says Clinton lost because of Trump’s successful campaign on social media ⁰

US President Barack Obama believes Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton lost the November 8 presidential election to Donald Trump because of the Republican candidate’s successful campaign on social media. Obama had been worried about cropping up of multiple pro-Trump fake news websites in the run-up to Election Day and spoken about it with his advisory team before the presidential election, The Independentreported on Friday.

According to reports, hundreds of invented articles had surfaced which promoted Trump and slandered Clinton. According to David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, Obama’s team was concerned about the risks of these online fake news articles posed to Clinton’s chances of winning the White House.

Remnick said in the days before the election Obama held in-depth conversations with his aides, in which they discussed a new “media ecosystem” in which “facts and truth don’t matter”. Obama had reportedly talked “obsessively” with his senior advisor, David Simas, about reports of a “digital gold rush” on Facebook and Twitter in favor of Trump.

Remnick said Obama spoke to him about the issue, and called Trump’s tactic of using the new media structure to “attract attention” and “rouse emotions”. “The lens through which people understand politics and politicians is extraordinarily powerful. And Trump understands the new ecosystem, in which facts and truth don’t matter,” Obama said. “You attract attention, rouse emotions, and then move on. You can surf those emotions. I’ve said it before, but if I watched Fox, I wouldn’t vote for me!” the president stated.

US President-elect Donald Trump (L) talks after a meeting with President Barack Obama (R) in the Oval Office on November 10, 2016 in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP)

Obama’s adviser talked about a “foundational change” that was changing the “parameters of acceptable discourse” following the emergence of social media. “The continuum has changed. Had Donald Trump said the things he said during the campaign eight years ago – about banning Muslims, about Mexicans, about the disabled, about women – his Republican opponents, faith leaders, academia would have denounced him and there would be no way around those voices,” Simas said.

“Now, through Facebook and Twitter, you can get around them. There is social permission for this kind of discourse. Plus, through the same social media, you can find people who agree with you, who validate these thoughts and opinions,” he added. “This creates a whole new permission structure, a sense of social affirmation for what was once thought unthinkable,” he stated.

Trump’s campaign had been hit with many controversies since its inception in early 2015. He made several controversial remarks, including a call to ban all Muslims from coming to America as well as forced deportation of Mexican migrants by building a long wall along the US-Mexico border.

He has also sought for a database to track Muslims across the United States and said that the US would have “absolutely no choice” but to close down mosques. According to observers, the propaganda put out by the Clinton campaign was also very strong yet it did not succeed, and Trump managed to stun the world by defeating the favorite candidate of American mainstream media.

Hillary Clinton (L) and Bernie Sanders (R) speak simultaneously at a debate in Charleston, South Carolina on January 17, 2016. (Photo by Reuters)

Numerous polls taken before the presidential election showed that Clinton and Trump were deeply unpopular politicians, while Clinton’s Democratic primary rival, Bernie Sanders, enjoyed very high popularity.

Clinton was viewed by many voters as a corrupt member of the elite Washington establishment. Sanders on Wednesday suggested that he could have defeated Trump in a general election. “I would have been elected president of the United States,” said Sanders, who had received 56 percent of the vote for the White House, according to the national survey conducted by Gravis Marketing two days before the presidential election.

Presstv

18, November 2016

Yaounde: CAF launches its first-ever campaign to end child marriage ⁰

The Confederation of African Football, (CAF) in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the African Union (AU), Powerplay and the Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT) recently launched the “Together against the marriage of young girls” campaign towards abandoning child marriages on the continent.

During the Yaoundé Hilton Hotel event that held on the 17^th of November 2016, the CAF Secretary General, Hicham El Amrani explained that the Africa Women Cup of nations is one of those rare platforms to highlight the problems confronting the African woman and to encourage their emancipation.

Cameroon government statistics indicates that one in five girls (20 per cent) aged 15 to 19 in Cameroon is married and about 15 million girls worldwide are forced into marriage before they turn 18. With these early marriages having adverse effects on health and social integration, CAF and its partners decided to host advocacy activities to end child marriages before, during and after matches during the Africa Women Cup of Nations in Cameroon.

CRTV

18, November 2016

Boko Haram claims responsibility for three bomb attacks in Nigeria ⁰

Six people have been killed in three bomb attacks in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno. The bombings were carried out in Maiduguri, Borno’s capital, on Friday. One of the explosions rocked Jiddari area near a mobile police post, Borno state police commissioner Damian Chukwu told reporters in Maiduguri.

The official added that two other bombings were carried out “along Maiduguri-Gamboru road.” The Boko Haram Takfiri terrorists have claimed responsibility for the bombings. Police said four assailants and two civilian defense fighters were killed in the bombings. One of the attackers was arrested.

Emergency personnel stand near the wrecked remains of a vehicle ripped apart following two bombings in Nigeria’s northeast city of Maiduguri on October 29, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Maiduguri has been the epicenter of Boko Haram’s seven-year insurgency. Borno has taken the brunt of Boko Haram’s acts of terror, which started in 2009. The group has recently regained momentum after it was nearly obliterated months ago by a joint military force made up of Nigerian government forces and troops from neighboring countries.

Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, which is mainly active in Syria and Iraq. The United Nations has warned that areas affected by Boko Haram face a humanitarian crisis. Boko Haram terrorists have so far killed more than 20,000 people and forced over 2.7 million others from their homes. The group started its campaign with the aim of toppling the central government in Nigeria.

Presstv

18, November 2016

US: Majority of Democrats in favour of putting an end to the Electoral College system ⁰

A new poll shows a majority of US Democrats are in favor of putting an end to the Electoral College system, after Hillary Clinton lost the November 8 presidential election to Donald Trump despite winning the popular vote by more than a million votes.

According to the Huffington Post/YouGov poll, released on Thursday, 66 percent of Democrats are in favor of discarding the Electoral College for a popular vote system to elect the US president, while 14 percent want to keep the current system in place.

However, 67 percent of Republicans are comfortable with the Electoral College, while only 13 percent want Congress to amend the Constitution so the candidate who receives the most number of total votes across the country wins the election. Overall, 41 percent of Americans are in favor of scrapping the Electoral College and rely on the popular vote to elect a president, while 34 percent prefer the current system and 25 percent are not sure.

In the United States, the Electoral College, a system established by Article Two of the Constitution, ultimately decides the presidential election, not the popular vote. Americans vote in each state at a general election to choose a slate of “electors” pledged to vote for a party’s candidate who is elected president should they receive an absolute majority of electoral votes among the states. However, the winner does not always correspond to the candidate who won the popular vote.

Democrats have denounced at the Electoral College system as an “outdated, undemocratic system” that does not reflect modern American society, after Democratic nominee Clinton won the popular vote last week but lost the Electoral College to the Republican rival, Trump.

In the popular vote, Clinton has won 62,829,832 votes compared to Trump’s 61,488,190, or 47.9 percent to 46.9 percent, respectively, according to an analysis from the independent Cook Political Report Thursday. However, Trump won 290 of the total 538 electoral votes, compared to Clinton’s 232. It takes 270 Electoral College votes to win the White House. Several Democrats, including 2016 presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, have called on Congress to review the Electoral College.

Trump had earlier complained about the Electoral College system, saying he had “respect” for the system but he preferred the popular vote method. But, in a tweet, he said, “the Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different!”

Trump’s campaign had been hit with many controversies since its inception in early 2015. But he still managed to stun the world by defeating the heavily-favored candidate, Clinton, in the election. The poll released on Thursday also suggests 78 percent of Americans consider Trump’s victory legitimate, while 40 percent of Democrats say they won’t accept the billionaire as the legitimate president, and 42 percent believe the presidential election was “rigged.”

Presstv

18, November 2016

Mozambique: Scores of people killed in an explosion ⁰

Scores of people have been killed and more than a hundred others injured in an explosion that happened as they tried to siphon oil from an overturned truck in western Mozambique. The incident occurred on Thursday in the village of Caphiridzange in Tete Province, killing 73 people and injuring over 110, some of them critically, the government said in a statement.

The truck had been carrying fuel to Malawi from the port city of Beira. The exact circumstances of the incident were not clear. An early government statement had said the blast occurred “because of the heat.” Information ministry director Joao Manasses, however, said people may have ambushed the truck.

Government officials said the local hospital was reinforcing its staff to help treat those injured, saying more bodies might be in surrounding woods because some badly burned people had tried to run into a nearby river. Three government ministers were due to arrive to the village on Friday to monitor the rescue work.

The government in Mozambique increased fuel prices at the beginning of October, causing a rise in the inflation rate. Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest countries, has been suffering the consequences of an economic crisis since its civil war ended in 1992, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Presstv

18, November 2016

The “Ahidjoness” in Prime Minister Philemon Yang is gone ¹

Prime Minister Philemon Yang and President Paul Biya are both militants of the ruling CPDM party. The similarities end there. Yang was appointed into the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo government after spending only six months in Buea as a Magistrate. The late Ahidjo saw in the young Yang a dynamic, hard working and patriotic lad whose mastery of the French language remains a mystery to many at the CNU leadership.

A story was often told of how the late President Ahidjo summoned Philemon Yang to Yaoundé for a one-and-one. Yang arrived from Buea on that fateful day that Ahidjo had to meet with a visiting head of state. Yang did the unthinkable!! He drove to the Prime Minister’s office and informed Biya that he was given just a day by his boss in Buea to be out of station. Biya as prime minister laughed hard and asked Yang if his patron in Buea had legitimate authority more than Ahidjo. Yang insisted and traveled back to Buea. Ahidjo and Biya reportedly shared a conversation on the matter and history had it that the late president was so proud of the young Magistrate who had so much respect for constituted authority. Philemon Yang was appointed as the youngest minister ever in the Ahidjo government.

The office of the president of the republic changed hands on November 6^th 1982 and the moderate Ahidjo men were all sent abroad as ambassadors after the controversial April 6^th coup. Yang was appointed Cameroon ambassador to Canada where he spent more than two decades before he was moved back home as Assistant Secretary at the presidency of the republic. Prime Minister Philemon Yang is a celebrated CPDM militant and head of government but everywhere he has been, this native of Oku in the North West region has demonstrated so much love for fatherland which is the main brand of the Ahidjo men and women. His time as a politician and a statesman is drawing to a close and so too is the “Ahidjoness” in him.

He is heading a consortium of crime syndicates known as the CPDM led government metamorphosing from one scandal to another. Recently, his administration has issued a terse statement that it will not keep the promise made to the Cameroonian people to restore urban public transport by bus, before the African Cup of Nations women’s football, which begins in Yaoundé on November the 19th. On the 30^th of August 2016, a partnership agreement was signed in Yaoundé between the Minister of Transport and a Portuguese Group known as Eximtrans / Irmaos Mota to set up a mass urban transport system in Yaoundé and Limbé.

The agreement provided for 150 air-conditioned buses with a capacity of 91 seats including 39 seats and 52 standing for mass transport in Yaoundé and Limbé. 135 of the buses had to be reserved to serve 13 lines from Yaoundé. While 5 others were assigned to Limbé. 10 “VIP” buses were reserved for transportation during the female Africa Cup of Nations. One of Philemon Yang’s numerous cabinet ministers; Edgard Alain Mebo Ngo’o told the world that 40 of the new buses have been reserved exclusively for the participation teams for the AFCON which he revealed were to be delivered before October 31, 2016.

The Philemon Yang administration told the Cameroonian people that our nation had invested 17 billion FCFA for a 10-year operating period, of which 10% are held by the State represented by the urban community of Yaoundé. Faced with a hostile public opinion due to the absence of the buses, the Yang government has announced that the contract will not be executed before the tournament. The buses, they say will arrive after the competition. By not allowing Transport Minister Edgard Alain Mebo Ngo’o to face the media over this prominent and successful failure, Prime Minister Philemon Yang has acted like an ordinary politician from Oku. We can now tell the world that the “Ahidjoness” in him is gone and he has embrace Chantalistes Biyayistes.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai (Cameroon Concord News Group)

18, November 2016

Britain to construct 5,300 social housing units in French Cameroon ⁰

President Paul Biya has received a British business delegation led by the UK High Commissioner to Cameroon, Brian Olley. The audience that held today Thursday in the Unity Palace was reportedly intensive and productive.

At the end of the meeting, the British top diplomat revealed that more than 5,300 social housing units will soon be built in Cameroon. High Commissioner Brian Olley added that the projects, amounting to 140 billion CFA francs will be realized in Douala, Yaounde and Kribi.

On combating the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram, Brian Olley announced that Britain would intensify its support for the Cameroonian defense forces, particularly in the area of military training, revealing that a post of military attaché would be created in April next year in its representation in Cameroon.

Ambassador Brian Olley also stated that more than 15 billion CFA francs had already been mobilized by the United Kingdom for the assistance to refugees and displaced persons who are victims of terrorism.

The UK ranks second on the list of Cameroonian donors with (US $ 88.2 million) behind France (US $ 167 million) Germany (US $ 87.4 million), the United States (US $ 40.7 million) and Japan (US $ 25.1 million).

By Chi Prudence Asong