Breaking News

3, October 2016

Hillary Clinton retains comfortable lead over Trump in the aftermath of first debate ⁰

US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has retained her comfortable lead over Republican nominee Donald Trump in the aftermath of the first presidential debate, a new national poll shows. The Politico/Morning Consult poll released Monday showed the former secretary of state leading Trump by a 6-point margin in terms of national support, 42 percent to 36 percent.

Coming in at the third was Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson with 9 percent support, followed by Green Party candidate Jill Stein at 2 percent. Another 10 percent said they were undecided. In a head-to-head matchup, Clinton’s lead over the New York businessman was expanded to 7 points, 46 percent to 39 percent. The poll comes a week after the first presidential debate between the two candidates last Monday, which became the most-watched presidential face-off in the history of US elections.

Politico’s pre-debate version of the poll had found Trump at the top with a one-point lead, 39 percent to 38 percent. During the fiery debate, Clinton accused Trump of racism, sexism and tax avoidance, putting the real estate tycoon on the defensive for much of the 90-minute face-off at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.

In the first Politico/Morning Consult poll after the debate, 49 percent of the respondents thought the former first lady had won. This time, nearly 44 percent of the participants said she was going to win the next debate, expected to be held on Sunday evening. Only 22 percent said the same about Trump.

According to the RealClearPolitics average of polls, as of Sunday, Clinton held a 2.5-point national edge, leading Trump 47.5 to 45 percent. Fox News’ latest survey also put Clinton in lead at 49 percent, with Trump trailing her at 44 percent. The only recent poll that put Trump on a stronger footing was conducted by LA Times/USC Tracking, according to which the New York businessman led Clinton 47 percent to 42 percent.

Presstv

3, October 2016

Rigobert Song Latest: Artificial respiration disconnected ⁰

The former captain of the Indomitable Lions will be evacuated in the coming hours to a hospital in France. Rigo, as he is often referred to was a victim of a cerebral vascular accident last Saturday at his home and was admitted at the Yaounde Emergency Centre.

We now understand from government media sources that a multidisciplinary team and emergency resuscitators headed by Dr. Louis Georges Bitan, the Director of the Yaounde Emergency Centre, were mobilized around the patient.

Rigobert Song was transferred to the intensive care unit and resuscitation was successful. State owned radio and television recently announced that artificial respiration has been disconnected and our Rigo breathed again spontaneously.

Song suffered from a cerebral subarachnoid haemorrhage by aneurysm rupture, a form of stroke that often kills 50% of patients and 20% come away with significant neurological damage. Rigobert Song will be evacuated in the coming hours.

By Sama Ernest with files from CIN

3, October 2016

At George Weah’s 50th Birthday Celebration: Samuel Eto’o ranked greatest African striker of all times ⁰

The TV channel Eurosport dedicated a documentary aired on Saturday the 1^st of October 2016 to George Weah who celebrated his 50^th birthday. The program also made public the top 10 best strikers ever from the African continent and the Cameroonian Samuel Eto’o Fils was ranked before the 1995 European Ballon d’Or winner, George Weah and the African footballer of the century, Roger Milla. Here is the list as recorded by Eurosport:

Hossam Hassan (Egypt, 10th)

Rashidi Yekini (Nigeria, 9th)

Nwankwo Kanu (Nigeria, 8th)

Larbi Ben Barek (Morocco, 7th)

Rabah Madjer (Algeria, 6th)

Salif Keita (Mali, 5th)

Roger Milla (Cameroon, 4th)

Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast, 3rd)

George Weah (Liberia, 2nd)

Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon, 1st)

By Chi Prudence Asong

3, October 2016

Wikileaks cancels major announcement about Hillary Clinton ⁰

Whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks has canceled a major announcement about US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, citing “security concerns.”

Julian Assange, the website’s founder who has long taken refuge at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, was supposed to make the announcement from the embassy’s balcony on Tuesday.

However, NBC News reporter James Rodriguez said in a tweet on Sunday night that the event has been called off. “Due to security concerns at the Ecuadorian Embassy, Julian Assange’s balcony announcement on Tuesday has been canceled, per @wikiLeaks,” he said.

Assange’s group has leaked nearly 20,000 emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) over the last months, uncovering an insider effort within the Democratic Party to rig the primary campaign against Clinton’s rival, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Culled from Presstv

2, October 2016

Battle for Aleppo: Syrian government forces have advanced further ⁰

Syrian government forces, backed by Russian aerial cover, have advanced further in the northwestern city of Aleppo, tightening the noose around militants. Syrian army troops managed on Sunday to make fresh gains in the northern parts of the city and reached the outskirts of the militant-held district of Heluk after Russian warplanes pounded the militant positions overnight.

If the government troops manage to recapture Heluk and two other districts of Bustan al-Basha and Sakhur, which are militant-controlled districts in the city’s north, there will remain a small militant-held section located in the city’s southeast.

Army soldiers have already managed to fully clear Handarat refugee camp of militants and recapture nearby Kindi Hospital, which is located a few kilometers north of the city. By recapturing Handarat, Syrian troops pushed terrorists further away from Castello Road, a main artery leading to the militant-held parts of the city.

Aleppo has been divided between government forces in the west and the militants in the east since 2012. In an attempt to free the trapped people of the city, the Syrian army, backed by Russian fighter jets, began a major offensive on September 22 to end the militants’ reign of terror in the east.

Syrian government forces are seen on September 28, 2016, in Farafira district, northwest of Aleppo. (Photo by AFP)

According to a report by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), citing an unnamed military source, army troops on Sunday also managed to destroy a number of motorcycles and a car belonging to terrorists near Mahatta neighborhood in the provincial capital, Dara’a. Clashes were also reported in the town of Yadouda in the countryside of Dara’a.

Syria gives safe passage to militants in Aleppo

In another development, the Syrian army released a statement on Sunday through the country’s state media telling militants to leave the eastern parts of the city, adding that it would guarantee them safe passage and necessary aid.

“The army high command calls all armed fighters in the eastern neighborhood of Aleppo to leave these neighborhoods and let civilian residents live their normal lives,” the statement carried by state news agency SANA said.

The Syrian army added, “The Russian and Syrian military leaderships will guarantee safe passage for the fighters and will give them aid as necessary.” A ceasefire, brokered by the US and Russia in Syria, expired on September 19 after being in place for only a week.

Damascus, however, refused to extend it after US-led airstrikes killed over 80 of its soldiers and wounded some 100 others at a military base in the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr in violation of the truce.

Russia has criticized the US for not doing enough to rein in militants in Syria to protect the truce, saying continued violations of the ceasefire by militants have made it “senseless” for the Syrian government to stick to the agreement.

The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which started in March 2011, has claimed the lives of more than 400,000 people, according to a UN estimate.

Presstv

2, October 2016

Pope Francis holds mass in a largely empty stadium in Georgia ⁰

Pope Francis has held a mass in a largely empty stadium in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, as the majority of officials with the Orthodox Christian Church in the country had allegedly asked followers not to attend the event.

The pontiff visited Georgia on Saturday as part of a three-day tour in the Caucasus region. Only a few thousand people participated in the open-air mass at the Meshki stadium with a capacity of 25,000.

According to reports, the event hosted one of the smallest crowds ever seen at an outdoor papal mass during foreign visits.

Pope Francis celebrates a holy mass at the Meshki stadium in Georgia’s Tbilisi, October 1, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

“As long as there are dogmatic differences between our churches, Orthodox believers will not participate in their prayers,” the Orthodox patriarchate said on its website, referring to the Catholics.

A Georgian priest was quoted as saying that the low attendance at the event was as a protest against Catholic attempts to convert Orthodox Christians. Pope Francis, during the ceremony, also called for peaceful “coexistence” in the volatile region.

After Georgia, the Pope arrived in neighboring Azerbaijan, which has fewer than 300 Catholics in its overwhelmingly Muslim population.

Presstv

2, October 2016

Cameroon Anglophone Prisoners Like Jews in Hell ⁰

Remember how Nazi German troops tugged Jews into trains and shipped them off to death camps in Auschwitz? That is exactly how 19 young people from Wum in Menchum Division were snatched from prison cells in Bamenda and bused under military escort to Yaoundé under the cover of darkness, ordered by a military judge. They have since been languishing in the notorious Kondengui prison, which in reality is a death camp with killers TB, HIV AIDS, hunger, AIDS, homosexuality, and water borne diseases reigning supreme.

The Jews never knew why they were ever taken to Auschwitz, neither do the 18 Wum boys and one pregnant girl know why they were whisked away like war captives, from their home Northwest Region to far away Yaoundé. It is mind bugling to understand why the government would sanction such a transfer of suspects from the Bamenda highlands whereas there exist competent military courts with jurisdiction in Wum and Bamenda where they allegedly committed the crime – razing of a military barrack in Wum following riots triggered by the stabbing of a moto taxi driver by a soldier in a liquor bar. We ask, in whose interest has the military justice transferred the suspects from Bamenda to Yaoundé? Clearly it is not in the interest of justice. It is not even in the interest of the governing francophone elite of this country? The holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Ellie Wiesel asked this same rhetorical question – in whose interest was the holocaust? It was not even in the interest of the Germans.

The separatist SCNC (Southern Cameroons National Council) and SOCALIM (Southern Cameroons Liberation Movement) describe the move as an act by the occupation forces of La Republique du Cameroun on a captured territory of Southern Cameroons. Is this not the same heavy handed acts that fuels Anglophone Cameroonian anger and frustrations in this marriage of convenience between the two Cameroons? How can the regime explain the displacement of people from one part of the country to be tried for a crime they committed in another part of the country where the judicial institutions exist? What explains this insensitivity to the feelings and cries of the people west of the mungo? Haven’t their brothers east of the Mungo read Prof. John Nkengong Nkengason’s “Across The Mungolo?”

Well, to the former, the transfer of the Wum detainees to the Yaoundé Kondengui concentration camp remains to this day, a source of shock and astonishment. We salute the opposition SDF legislators for taking up this matter with the interior minister, Prof Rene Sadi. They confronted him with two crucial issues on their plate: The mystery of transferring suspects to Yaoundé and the land grabbing ventures of the rich and influential Francophone Africa’s billionaire, Baba Danpullo. The latter has been tussling with the people of Esu, a rural farming community in Menchum who would not surrender their land to the billionaire cattle and horse ranch owner who despite 31 years of business on Esu soil, they people say he boast of employing the sons and daughters of that peasant community.

The traditional ruler of Esu and several youths of his kingdom are now frequent guests to Bamenda where judicial officers are endlessly grilling them for a matter that could jolly well be handled by the ecurity department and courts in Wum. That again is another puzzle. Minister Rene Sadi has promised to delve into the matter. So too for the Wum detainees in Kondengui. Yet the interior minister claims he was not aware the Wum youths were transferred to Kondengui. Who can believe him?

The SDF parliamentary group leader, Joseph Banadzem told the BBC that the minister spoke candidly. But it remains to be seen how much action he would take to uphold social justice in the case. The detainees include a pregnant lady who now has no possibility to ensure the health of her unborn child by attending ante natal clinic. If Minister Sadi is unaware of her case, can his colleagues of justice and defense ministries feign the same ignorance? Are they blind to the banner headlines on newspapers on the matter? He must however be aware that this is not the first time Anglophones are being carted to Yaoundé for military court trials. It happened to former Supreme Court Judge, Justice Nyoh Wakai (late); SCNC chairman Nfor Ngala Nfor and several other champions of democracy and Anglophone nationalism. Many of them survived the harsh environment in Kondengui, but some died. Some came out of jail, eaten up by diseases and too weak to live.

Nazi holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel survived the death camp when the Russian Red Army liberated them in 1945. He lived on to write 50 books detailing the evil man did to man in the camps. He was just 15 years old – like many of the Wum detainees – when he and his father and other relatives were taken away in smoky trains. The Wum detainees are in great difficulty, their families unable to bring them food and comfort. At least one of them is now allowing interested male inmates to despoil his flesh as he put it, just to keep body and soul together. Their human rights to fair justice and feeding are being abused. They are being heard by a military investigating magistrate and affording a lawyer is too much a luxury. Yet many of them are in high spirit. Like Elie Wiesel they must keep the will to survive and wait in joyful hope for the day the prison gates will be flung open for them to walk through.

By Randy Joe Sa’ah

2, October 2016

US: Donald Trump reportedly avoided federal income taxes for up to 18 years ⁰

US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump may have avoided federal income taxes for up to 18 years, according to a report. The business mogul declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 income tax returns and the tax deduction was so substantial that could have allowed him to legally avoid paying taxes for years to cancel out the loss, records obtained by The New York Times show.

The records are indicative of the extraordinary tax benefits that Trump derived from the financial wreckage he left behind in the early 1990s due to his mismanagement of three Atlantic City casinos, his wretched foray into the airline business and his ill-timed purchase of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.

Tax experts hired by The Times said that the loss was large enough that — according to tax rules especially advantageous to affluent filers – it would have made it possible for Trump to wipe out more than $50 million a year in taxable income over this period.

“He has a vast benefit from his destruction” in the early 1990s, said one of the experts, Joel Rosenfeld, an assistant professor at New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate. In a statement, the Trump campaign said that the tax document was obtained illegally and that the paper was operating on behalf of the presidential campaign of Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Donald Trump (L) looks on as Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton speaks during the first presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, September 26, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

“Mr. Trump is a highly-skilled businessman who has a fiduciary responsibility to his business, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required,” the statement said. “That being said, Mr. Trump has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes, sales and excise taxes, real estate taxes, city taxes, state taxes, employee taxes and federal taxes.”

In another anti-Trump move, The Times called on Latinos to vote for Clinton and help defeat the business mogul on November 8. The call came in an editorial Saturday which drew on Trump’s pledge to build a wall on the border with Mexico to prevent migrants from coming to the US and his insults against Mexicans and other minorities throughout the campaign.

“In addition to defeating a bully, Latinos have plenty of reasons to enthusiastically support Mr. Trump’s main rival,” said the editorial, which was also published in Spanish. Strong Latino turnout could help change how US political parties treat and perceive Hispanic voters in the future, the paper said.

“America’s 56 million Latinos – one third of whom are under 18 – are helping to shape America’s future in classrooms, workplaces and neighborhoods. It is only a matter of time before their mark on the nation’s politics matches their contributions in other spheres,” the editorial said.

A new poll showed that Clinton had reopened a comfortable lead over Trump, a likely consequence of the two candidates’ first debate on Monday. According to the Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday, the former secretary of state was enjoying a 4 percentage-point lead over Trump with 42 percent support.

Presstv

1, October 2016

Female Football World Cup U17: Canada defeats Cameroon ⁰

Indomitable Lionesses were beaten 3-2 yesterday by the Canucks of Canada. The Canadians opened the score sheet through Huitema in the 3rd minute. Cameroon equalized in the 17th minute with a free kick from Djoubi.

The Lionesses followed with a second goal at the 42^nd minute of the encounter through Dabda. The Canadians were awarded a penalty in the 75th minute rightly taken by Stratigakis.

Taylor scored the winning goal in the 83rd minute. Final score, 3-2 in favour of Canada.

By Chi Prudence Asong

1, October 2016

Yaounde: Chinese ambassador donates toiletries and foodstuff to the Chantal Biya Foundation ⁰

In what the Cameroon Radio and Television reported as a renewed commitment by the Chinese government to support Cameroon, Beijing has handed over a Greek gift of toiletries and foodstuff to the Chantal Biya Foundation in Yaounde. Cameroon Concord News understands the donations were received on behalf of the First Lady, Chantal Biya by the Secretary General of the foundation, Habissou Bidoung.

The 30^th of September 2016 ceremony also provided an opportunity for the Chinese ambassador to Cameroon, Wei Wenhua to make public his thank you message to the foundation for alleviating the plight of the underprivileged and vulnerable in the country. Some pro CPDM comedians noted that the donation, second of its kind, was a means of strengthening relations between Cameroon and China, while projecting future partnerships.

Eyong Paul